Author Spotlight on Danny Wynn #Literary #GoodReads #Adventure

What makes you happiest?
The most satisfying intellectual experience I’ve ever had was recently working closely with my brilliant editor on the book I’m promoting now. It was just two brains working together over the internet, focused intensely in every respect on my creation and how to make it the best that it could be.

What’s your greatest character strength?
Discipline and analytical skills.

What’s your weakest character trait?
There are so many bad ones. Let’s just say I’m a bad person trying to do better.

Why do you write?
The magic of books has worked for me from a very early age, and it was only natural that I would want to try to create some of that magic, myself.

Have you always enjoyed writing?
Nobody always enjoys writing.

What motivates you to write?
To write something good that people read and truly moves them, makes them feel the tragicomedy that is human life, even if only for a few moments in the course of the book.

What writing are you most proud of?
The novella I’m promoting now, Man from the Sky.

What are you most proud of in your personal life?
That I built a satisfactory functional life out of the mess that was my upbringing. And of course, my wife and kids.

What books did you love growing up?
Winnie the Pooh, A Pass and a Prayer, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Flies. 13. Who is your favorite author? Robert stone, graham greene, William boyd, john fowles, martin amis.

What book genre of books do you adore?
Thinking men’s adventure stories.

How far would you go to add excitement to a life you felt was boring and meaningless?

For seventy-three-year-old Jaime, the answer takes him by surprise. Accustomed to a lonely life high up in the mountains on the western coast of Mallorca, his dull routine is suddenly shattered when a man parachutes from a plane and lands nearby. The plane crashes; the man lives.

It’s a drug smuggling operation gone bad. But Stefan, the man from the sky, has escaped with eight kilos of cocaine in a gym bag. Jaime brings Stefan home and is soon entangled in Stefan’s attempts to sell the cocaine and start a new life.

As they dodge Parisian drug dealers and corrupt Mallorcan police, Jaime’s search for excitement and Stefan’s resolve to find stability lead them both down dangerous paths.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Literary Fiction, Adventure

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://www.dannywynn.net/

Anna Klay on Symbolism, Motifs & Book Covers @AnnaKlayBooks #AmReading #Fiction

I created this cover in a rough form on a white board before I had it professionally drawn with the intention of conveying the emotion of the work.

Book cover designs should not only have enough creativity and originality to attract the eyes of a potential reader, which a cover must do with a slight glance, but the design also offers a hint to potential readers the genre, the style, the tone and content.  With Broken Wing, the cover was designed with the intention of portraying a dark story, edgy and somewhat turbulent.  And the symbolism within the story is introduced through aspects of the cover.

Every aspect of the cover from the colors to the fonts to the central image should be there for a reason.   And the cover should also be aesthetically pleasing to the eye.  After all, the cover is a representation of your work, and represents the writer to the reader.

Is the story a turbulent one with twists and turns?  Broken Wing is, and that is also represented through the shattered font style.  And this story takes place in a small town named Pettington located in the middle of nowhere which is illustrated in the landscape, but the theme of the story, abuse and how it affects us all, is not isolated to the small town in this novel, but instead it is a story we all know too well, and that is communicated by the barbwire fence that runs off the cover page.

There is much more to Broken Wing including the symbolism and the motif that the readers will discover and form their personal ideas upon, and I do not want to spoil that here.  But I will say that a writer owes it to their readers to present an image that can offer a realistic glimpse of the contents and leave an impression that will allow the reader to make a good decision about the material. And if the writer has spent the time to polish his or her work, he or she owes it to themselves as well as the reader to show that through the cover.

The Tarot predicts the journey as Ray Long comes to the town of Pettington hoping to leave his rage behind and begin a new life. And when he meets Skye Roosevelt, he begins to believe he can recreate himself and find his future in Pettington. But Pettington is no ordinary town with a metaphysical store that tells its future, a whore house that keeps it financially secure, and secrets long buried just beneath its surface. And soon Ray Long begins to spiral down into the pit of violence he has always known. 

He begins to hear the Devil whisper in his ear, and he soon discovers his old self is more soothing to him than the new life he’s created. And when he tries to murder two of Pettington’s own, Skye Roosevelt must search deep within herself for her own self identity in order to protect her son as Ray Long battles the past in order to separate the passion from the pain. Broken Wing is a story about an abuser who was a victim of abuse as a child. 

This is a story about his family relations, the need for love, the devastation of rejection, and the merry-go-round that keeps turning. And this story is about self-identity, a self-identity the character believes defines him, dark and rigid, until he is pushed to the extreme, only then can he step out and stand naked with this identity at his feet as he lays claim to the past that molded him and the passion that fills his heart.

Buy Now @ Amazon & Smashwords

Genre - Literary

Rating – PG-13

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Olga Soaje on Motivation, #Writing & Favourite Books (#AmReading #Women)

Have you always enjoyed writing?
I have always expressed myself better in writing than verbally and when a serious topic was on the table, it was easier for me to do it with pen and paper. I was from an early age an avid reader but somehow I saw writing as something foreign. Little did I know it would be something that would bring me so much joy.

What motivates you to write?
I wish I could explain something that seems so intangible, but the best I can do is describing it as a need to do it. To express myself and get rewarded every time a reader sends me a message of how my book touched their life or inspired them.

What books did you love growing up?
I loved and still do Dr.Seuss books; I also loved “Little Women” and Jane Austen lather on. In high school I started a routine of mix-reading self-help books with novels (a thing I still do).

What book genre of books do you adore?
Women’s Fiction.
Self-Help
Literary Fiction.

What book should everybody read at least once?
I would say there so many great books but one I always come back to for some reason is “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.

Is there any books you really don’t enjoy?
I would say I don’t enjoy horror or terror in movies or books.

Where do you get inspiration from?
From seeing life situations and thinking “What if?” there are so many stories to waiting to be told.

Is your family supportive? Do your friends support you?
I have been blessed with family and friends that have supported this passion since I’ve told them, with many expressions from reading the book in process, discussing stories, proofreading, to helping me thinks of ways to market.

Do you plan to publish more books?
Yes, I have more ideas that still need to come to life.

How do you write – laptop, pen, paper, in bed, at a desk?
I write mostly in my laptop either on a small desk I have at home or at a coffee shop in between errands.

Can you give us a short synopsis of Twelve Houses?
Dying often has its own decorum. The family gathers, the doctors explain, and kind nurses murmur advice and consolation in sterilized corridors. Nathan’s death was not like that. He went abruptly, without a hint of warning. Amelia woke up to find her husband dead of a heart attack, beside her in their marriage bed. Only then does the family gather, the circle of friends console, and the rabbi arrive. As the rabbi tears Amelia’s garments in the ancient ritual of mourning, her world is turned upside down. She feels like a shadow in her own life, almost like she is watching someone else act her part. She has become a stranger to herself in her shock and disorientation.

Her son offers consolation. As a doctor, he also offers her medication to take the edge off her sharp suffering, which she will not allow herself to accept. Instead, she lets him give her something of more lasting value: his spiritual support and his certain, understanding love. Yet she knows she cannot intrude on his life, cannot lean on him. He is soon to be married, to start a new life, and his own family.

Amelia’s daughter, her first-born child, is more of a problem. Amelia knows they were never as close as they should have been. As a mother, she feels she was too interested in her own life and her own career to give her daughter the warmth and nurturing she deserved.

As Amelia wanders through her artist’s studio, she comes upon her old wishing jar, the handmade prayer jar in which each family member placed their secret longings. Opening it, written on an old scrap of paper, Amelia finds her daughter’s dearest wish: “Help mom understand me.”

Work has become impossible, though her agent nags. For decades, sculpting has been her livelihood and much more. The feel of the soft clay in her hands has satisfied her in a way nothing else could and allowed her to express herself when she had no other way. Her talent has brought her money and fame, but now it is useless to her.

The work that had been a source of goodness and wholeness now seems to be betraying her. In her studio, she now finds hopeless grief instead of peace. She cries and does nothing, speaking silently with her absent husband and endlessly reworking the past.

It is her daughter who rescues her. Chloe needs help with her pregnancy and her marriage. It is the kind of help her mother is glad to give. Yet the two women still struggle to build a relationship, neither quite able to accept the other’s choices. Nevertheless, their attempts at understanding help to draw Amelia out of her consuming grief.

Amelia does find new work. With it she finds a new way to look at the world, one that that does not ignore her ideals. In the city in which she first fell in love with the man who would become her husband, she begins to learn to live again.

Can anything good follow the best thing that ever happened to you?

Amelia Weiss loved her husband of thirty-five years very much, but now he’s left her a widow. Without him, she is unable to work in her sculpture studio without crying. She no longer has a bridge to her estranged daughter. And she can’t seem to keep her mind in the present.

But when her daughter reaches out asking for her help and her agent threatens a lawsuit if Amelia doesn’t deliver for an upcoming exhibit, she’s forced to make a choice. Will she reengage with her life and the people in it—allowing room for things to be different than they were before? Or, will she remain stuck in the past, choosing her memories over real-life relationships?

Thrust fully into the present, Amelia stumbles into a surprising journey of self-discovery.

Buy @ Amazon

Genre – Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction, Women’s Fiction

Rating – PG-13

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