Authors in the Spotlight 8/8

In today's Authors in the Spotlight, we have authors Ashley Barge and Tamala Lynn Cornish!

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Name: Ashley Barge aka Armani Chanell

How long have you been published? Since January

What's the worst part about being published? Having rude people attack your work. There's a difference between constructive criticism and being straight nasty!

What's the best part about being published? Sharing my imagination with others.

Are you self published or did you go through a publishing company? Publishing Company

*What are the highs, if any? Meeting other authors that have your back.

*What are the lows, if any? Sharing my damn coins!!!

What is the name of your book(s)? Creole Mafia: A Fanmi Affair, Creole Mafia 2: Hurricane Season, Love on the 14th (A Valentine to Remember), Becky With the Good Hair ( ShyAnn With the Good Twat)

Was it/were they an easy write for you? No!

What's the hardest part about writing a book? Details to describe your feelings and objects how you feel and see them. Also walking a thin line between realism and fantasy.

What's the easiest part about writing a book? Writing "the end".

Where can interested readers purchase their copy of your book(s)? Amazon or Barnes And Noble

Do you have any future projects in the works? *Is there a tentative release date? Yes I have 8. No dates as of yet.

Do you have any social media sites that you would like to share with my readers? Facebook, Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Name: Tamala Lynn Cornish

How long have you been published? I have been published for four years.

What's the worst part about being published? Well, I have to say this with a conscious mind. Every business has it’s done falls. I would have to say not being in control.

What's the best part about being published? Hmm, I would say the exposure. The ability to learn the business from another perspective.

Are you self published or did you go through a publishing company? I started out self-publishing, but to do that you need to have a lot of patience and just like any other business venture, start-up money. I took a step back and felt the smarter option would be for me to join a publishing company until I gained more exposure and created my own contacts.

*What are the highs, if any? *What are the lows, if any? The highs, umm I would have to say, being under someone who is well known. This helps increase your audience tremendously, I get to reach people who may not of heard of me otherwise. The lows, as I stated before, not being in control of your work. Not getting to choose your release date or being able to write what’s dear to your heart when you’re signed to a genre specific publishing company.

What is the name of your book(s)? I have several in the works. Here are my titles that are available for purchase now: Fumble, Secret Touches, Neva’ Seen A Thug Cry Pt. 1&2, Biggs and Madison Pt. 1&2, Gutta and India, What she do, to make you love her? ( A collaboration with Author Cedric Lewis), Give Up (Motivational, Daily Affirmations)

Was it/were they an easy write for you? I find it easier to write, hopeless romantic novels or motivational pieces, but just like any skill, it becomes easier the more you do it.

What's the hardest part about writing a book? Hmm everything! No I would have to say, the hardest part about writing a book for me is making it sound believable. The audience who I am targeting really looks past the “Frictional” part, they want something that they can relate to or something that will help them escape their own reality. Dropping books back to back is a talent.

What's the easiest part about writing a book? Being creative, I love being creative. Putting words together to make the reader, feel as though they are in the book. I love it!

Where can interested readers purchase their copy of your book(s)? My books are available through my website and Amazon.

Do you have any future projects in the works? *Is there a tentative release date?I do, I have a new release coming soon. The book is called Feenin’ for a Dope boy. There is no release date at this time, but everyone who is waiting or looking forward to it can add my author page on Facebook and read the synopsis.

 

Do you have any social media sites that you would like to share with my readers? Yes. My website, Facebook, and Snapchat: AuthorTam8

 

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Join me on Thursday as I bring you author Jaz' Akins!

 

Flow Friday

Welcome to Flow Friday! Poetry lovers, kick back and enjoy the read!

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“Excavations” by Michael D. Jones i.m. Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

Typically it is infrastructure

Being built

New foundations being dug

Trenching to lay pipe or cable

Or piers and footings for skyscrapers

The Shard, Khalifa, One World Trade

Some massive undertaking

Where entire cities are re-engineered

And disrupted

By unearthed discoveries

Ruins, time capsules, bones

And we reflect as time wavers

In layers of sediment

Our lives spent, our sentiment

And history revisions us.

Then again occasionally

In remote desert areas

A hidden chamber is revealed

By archeologists dressed in linen

Beneath a temple or tomb

Fragments with chiseled figures emerge

Under the oppressive

Heat and ancient sands are brushed aside

From mysterious granite slabs

By clean fingers

Delighted and awed, and self-effacing

At their newfound smallness.

Or more recently, local seekers

In the Channel Islands

Following lore sung in public houses

Or rhymes taught in schools

And using detectors

Exposed a long lost trove

Of Roman or Celtic coins

Obscured by hedge rows

Their silver glint diminished

By the darkness

Sealed inside of earthen jars.

In any case, I am reminded that

Even if largely buried

Or reclaimed by the elements

Our history is a history

Of cuneiforms and hieroglyphs

Animal heads on human bodies

Or rough hewn animal bodies

Silently standing sentinel

And crudely stamped human heads

Issued by governments on silver

Another reminder

Like hedge rows on trenches

Of men that claimed supremacy

In the name of civilization

Over other men

Whose names are reduced by the sands

Or worn away by rain and wind

And forgotten

Or erased from ledgers, or changed

Like so many rebel patriots, emigrants

Into a new world of strange landscapes

That were and now are

Gone astray-

Their names no longer referenced

Their sound lost in our lost sound

And it becomes personal, here

The tongue has been granted the right

To reclaim the past unspoken

Our long silence broken

Around the dinner table at holiday

Between family-

Who we are no longer

Where we came from no more

Any last treasures worth exposing

Monuments to the present sharing

Lines cut in granite. So

Walk on air… it is

Against your better judgement- Spirited.

Under the Christmas lights- with Larkin

Unfazed- in Tollund

Animated- your stick in the air.

Like… Moths then on evening water

Incorruptible by darkness

It would have to be, not butterflies in sunlight-

Against the rain and whispering sands

Expressing all

We lived and loved, our lost and found.

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Every Friday, I will showcase one or two other poet's work. If this is something that you are interested in participating in, please click on this link and fill out the form. Poems will be posted in no particular order so be sure to keep an eye out for yours!😉

Authors in the Spotlight 8/3

In today's Authors in the Spotlight, we have authors A.J. Write and Debra Gaskill!

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Name: A.J. Write

How long have you been published? I've been published for just a little over a year and a half.

What's the worst part about being published? I couldn't say what the worst part is about being published. There's plenty of low points but you learn from them. So I couldn't say what the worst is.

What's the best part about being published? Everything that comes with being published is the best part. Even the craziness within the industry.

Are you self published or did you go through a publishing company? I go through a publishing company called Lucinda John Presents. 

*What are the highs, if any? The highs for me personally is that I have absolutely 100% control over my art. I come up with my covers and I write what I want, however I want. 

 
*What are the lows, if any? No lows because I can do what I want.

What is the name of your book(s)?A B-More Love 1-3, Me and A Boss 1-2, Three Kings Cartel 1-3, Three Kings Cartel: A Royale Family Affair, My East Coast Hustla, He Don't Deserve You 1-2, Looking for a Ridah, I Refuse to Lose Your Love, Broken 1-2, Love From A Thug, Captured by His Love

Was it/were they an easy write for you? None of my books are easy to write. They get harder to write actually. The more you grow with your writing the harder it gets because you try to do more or something different with each New book.

What's the hardest part about writing a book? The hardest part about writing a book is writing it. Making sure it flows, remembering the characters and keeping up with everything you want to have going on.

What's the easiest part about writing a book? The easiest part about writing a book is finishing it. When you get to the end is the most accomplishing thing that can happen to an author.

Where can interested readers purchase their copy of your book(s)? For kindle readers, my books can be found on Amazon. Paperbacks can be found on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Also, readers can go to my website to order paperbacks.

Do you have any future projects in the works? I'm always working on something but I just finished a book that will be releasing August 16th called "A Gangsta Love".

Do you have any social media sites that you would like to share with my readers?Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

 

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Name: Debra Gaskill (pen names Debra Gaskill and Anne Hunter Nash)

How long have you been published? My first novel, BARN BURNER, was originally published in 2009. Over the last several years, I’ve had about a book a year published, sometimes two a year.

What's the worst part about being published? There’s a bad part?

What's the best part about being published? Meeting my fans is wonderful, and going to events.

Are you self published or did you go through a publishing company? I’m self-published, but I own my own publishing business, D’Llama Publishing, which offers book formatting, covers, and editing services for indie authors.
 

*What are the highs, if any? The highs are the ease with which author’s can make their visions a reality for a relatively low cost, if any at all.
 

*What are the lows, if any? The lows are the effort it takes to make the world aware of your work. That can be daunting.

What is the name of your book(s)? My original series is the JUBILANT FALLS series, which involves the staff of a small southwestern Ohio newspaper, their relationships and the crimes the solve. Those titles are BARN BURNER, THE MAJOR’S WIFE, LETHAL LITTLE LIES, MURDER ON THE LUNATIC FRINGE and DEATH OF A HIGH MAINTENANCE BLONDE. My second series is a private detective series, centered around a fictional fracking down in northeast Ohio. The main character is a retired cop named Niccolo Fitzhugh. Those titles are CALL FITZ, HOLY FITZ and LOVE, FITZ.

My newest novel is general women’s fiction and written under a pen name, Anne Hunter Nash. It’s the story of a woman coming to terms with the legacy of lies in her life.

Was it/were they an easy write for you? I was a crime reporter and newspaper editor for about 20 years, so writing comes easily to me.

What's the hardest part about writing a book? My tendency is to write my characters into a corner and then say “OK, you guys, what happens now?” Sometimes they take longer to figure it out than I’d like.

What's the easiest part about writing a book? I have a wealth of crimes and evidence of man’s inhumanity to man to draw from for my stories.

Where can interested readers purchase their copy of your book(s)? All of my books are available on Amazon. All the Jubilant Falls novels and all the Fitz novels are also available on Nook, Apple, and other subscriber services, but the Anne Hunter Nash is only available at this time on Amazon. Find them all on my website. 

Do you have any future projects in the works? *Is there a tentative release date? A fourth book in the Niccolo Fitzhugh series, KISSING FITZ, is coming in late August.

Do you have any social media sites that you would like to share with my readers? You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Join me next week as I bring you more authors!

Authors in the Spotlight 8/1

In today's Authors in the Spotlight, we have authors Arebia and Tamara Ellis!

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Name: Arebia also known as Author Caramel Brown

How long have you been published? A little under a year.

What's the worst part about being published? I don't think there is a worst part of being published. I guess most people would say criticism, but that doesn't bother me.

What's the best part about being published? Being able to share my work with the world. It's always been a dream of mine to become a publisher author or a screenwriter.

Are you self published or did you go through a publishing company? I started out signed to a publisher but things changed so I decided to self publish.
 
*What are the highs, if any? When I was signed to a publisher I had a lot of support. My book was in the top 100 for a few months. 
 
*What are the lows, if any? Being self published I notice that I don't have the same support system that I had before. It seems like all the people who were backing me before just disappeared.

What is the name of your book(s)? Books under Caramel Brown: Her Husband (sex, lies, and betrayal) and Her Husband 2 (Unbreak My Heart). 

Books under Arebia: Baby Are You Still Down and Those Who Trespass Against Me
 
Was it/were they an easy write for you? Not all of them, as a matter of fact, none of them were easy. It took at least 6 months before I finished Her Husband. Her Husband 2 came a little easier, but Baby Are You Still Down, took me on an emotional roller coaster. It shared way too many similarities to my life and sometimes I wondered why I even chose to write it! I shed a lot of tears while writing that book and my attitude was on 1000 most days! My fourth book was harder to write for a different reason. I wrote it in 1st person, so I had to become that character. He and I shared some similarities but I would never take things to the level he did. I had to check myself a lot while writing Those Who Trespass Against Me.

What's the hardest part about writing a book? I think it's shutting out the rest of the world and becoming someone that you're not.

What's the easiest part about writing a book? I don't think there is anything easy about writing a book, but coming up with a plot seems to be the easiest part for me.

Where can interested readers purchase their copy of your book(s)? All of my books are available on Amazon and are free with KU.

Do you have any future projects in the works? I am working on something new, it's called "Pressure." It's different than the rest of my books, but I want to evolve as an author.
 
*Is there a tentative release date? I'm thinking of releasing it on my author anniversary September 27, 2017.

Do you have any social media sites that you would like to share with my readers? You can find me on Instagram and Facebook. I also have a reader's group where I drop sneak peeks and just chat with readers!

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Name: Tamara Ellis

 
How long have you been published? I have been published since June 16th of this year.

 
What's the worst part about being published? The worst part I would have to say is the fact that your work is under scrutiny and that can be overwhelming sometimes. 

 
What's the best part about being published? The best part to me is seeing the work that I’ve loved and cherished being put out there for people to read and enjoy.

 
Are you self published or did you go through a publishing company? Self Published

 
*What are the highs, if any? Having complete control over all the decisions that are made about your book.

 
*What are the lows, if any? Wearing so many hats.

 
What is the name of your book(s)? My one and only novel so far is titled "Love Gone Broke".

 
Was it/were they an easy write for you? It was to a certain extent I mean I knew the characters but it took a long time to get the motivation to finish.

 
What's the hardest part about writing a book? Making time when you have a full time job and other responsibilities. 

  What's the easiest part about writing a book? Getting lost in your characters or world you have created.

 
Where can interested readers purchase their copy of your book(s)? Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and The Book Depository.

 
Do you have any future projects in the works? Yes

 
*Is there a tentative release date? No not yet

 
Do you have any social media sites that you would like to share with my readers? Yes. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and My Website.

 

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Join me on Thursday as I bring you authors A.J. Write and Debra Gaskill!