Lizzy Ford's Blog, page 72

    My first interview in my FB group's Never-Ending Indie Author Blog Tour is with Dave Cleinman, whose novels caught my attention due to his masterful ability to show strong women overcoming horrible obstacles.  (Having been through more than one terrible experience, I was curious!)  His heroines emerge like flowers in the dead of winter, in harsh realities that would render most hopeless at best and dead at worst.  Unlike real flowers, his heroines withstand the trials of winter through personal courage, perseverance, and sheer mettle.  They bloom when their springs come, and watching them do so is nothing short of inspiring.

Below is Dave's interrogation with this guerrilla writer.  You'll find personalized discussions on Dave, tough questions about his novels, his sources of inspiration, and where to find him.

Dave's books that we'll be discussing:  Toys In The Attic and Principle Destiny

About Dave 

Tell me what readers should know about Dave Cleinman, the man behind the books.

My readers should know it's very likely they will see people very much like individuals they have known within my books and will be able to strongly identify with them.  They will also enjoy my stories a great deal as down to earth slices of real people and true life.

What inspires you to write? 

Writing is my singular best outlet for my thoughts and especially my emotions and, since I can do essentially anything I want to do in my stories, it is also my greatest source of personal freedom.

If you had a perfect writing outfit, what would it be? 

Comfortable shorts and a loose t-shirt, with no socks or shoes.

How do you define success as a writer?

For me, success is actually completing the story I set out to write and having my readers tell me they loved it. 

Does your family read your books?

Oh yes, my family reads my books and are, in fact, my best beta readers (Nobody critiques like family!)

What's the #1 piece of advice you'd like to give other indie authors?

Join a good writers community and participate wholeheartedly, read regularly and write every day.

What's the hardest part of writing a novel, in your opinion?

For me it is invariably putting my characters in harms way or having to hurt them, often essential in a conflict, and I get through it by understanding that it enhances their story and makes them better people for having suffered.

Dave's Novels

In your two novels, Toys in the Attic, and Principle Destiny, you highlight the strength, resiliency, and resourcefulness of women.  As a male writer, who or what was your inspiration for choosing strong female characters as leads?

I have found that male hero characters are becoming almost stereotypical in that they are everywhere, and women have had a real backseat role as leads in traditional novels.  As such, I wanted to highlight the strengths of women.  Their tenacity, their willingness to fight when needed to protect those they love, their willingness to solve problems through love and patience BEFORE shooting a crossbow or a gun, and finally, perhaps most importantly, their ability to bend someone to their will simply because they are women, rather than force someone to agree with them as a man would do.  A subtle but significant difference.

Both your novels discuss people who basically inherited crummy family situations but who are ultimately able to overcome their meager beginnings.  What inspires you to write about people who are dealt an awful hand of cards but who are able to overcome?

Essentially having helped so many children and young adults do just that.  In the case of Princess Alyssa [Principle Destiny], she requires very little emotional support because the situation she was thrust into was probably better for her, in the end, than what she would have had to endure as the single female inside a male dominated monarchy and palace.  Her support came from her loved ones in Alders.  Her willingness to be one of them, instead of just a royal heir, made her loved.

In the case of Sara Stewart [Toys In The Attic], she is a sweet girl who is left alone to fend for herself when her mother dies, and has to rely on massive internal strength to keep going through horrible times.  Her support network is nearly eradicated by her extremely unstable and abusive father and her only two choices are to fight back, or die.  She chooses to fight for the life she wants.

 In both cases the women rely on inner strength and strong personal convictions.  How they go about getting what they want, however is quite different.

Principle Destiny is a fantasy novel while Toys in the Attic is more of a contemporary story based on true events.  Do you choose what genre to write or does your writer's Muse tell you what to write?

My characters speak to me.  Some of my stories develop from things people have said to me that have strongly impacted me and I feel need to be explored.  In other cases songs that emotionally impact me strongly influence the direction a story will go.  I think the muse speaks first, and the genre follows!

What's your next project? 

I am prepping my Sci fi novel, Snow Dragons to be Indie published this summer.  At the same time I am working on two fantasy series and a novelette.

Toys in the Attic

What's the story's main message?

Toys In The Attic challenges the mind to fight for hope when despair is all that is available.  Be open to possibilities and know when not to blame yourself for what has happened to you.

Who is/are the main characters?

Sara Stewart:  Protagonist  (15 at the beginning of the novel, 28 at the denouement) Suffers severe emotional and physical abuse by her father and destroys him in self defense.

Conner Stewart:  Protagonist (son of Sara and her own father who rapes her).  Born when Sara is 17, and grows into an awesome little boy. 

Shepherd Tate:  Sara's love interest who becomes mentally ill and turns very unstable.

Liz:  Sara's Best Friend

Mitch:  Sara's first boyfriend.  She is unable to continue her relationship with him after her father's attack, because her self esteem is destroyed and she feels he deserves better.

Which character do you admire from this book?

Sara.  Her strength and unwillingness to give up and endure are supreme.  She literally forces herself to beat back the shrouds of horror that engulfed her at such a young age.

Which character would creep you out if you met him/her in person?

Sara's father:  A real creep, based strongly on two men I have known personally.  One for looks, the other for behavior, the two melded into a real monster.

What regret – if any – do you have about writing this story?

I never regret writing anything.  I will say that it was extremely difficult to write the story.  To hurt a young girl so deeply was extremely challenging, and yet it had to be done.  The story had to be told, at the very least because the girls I have worked with deserved to have their stories told.

Principle Destiny 

What's the story's main message?

Fight for your rights, because no one else will, and don't be afraid to help others do the same.  Alyssa fights for these rights by choosing to race in the competition to win the kingship, a device King Jessett creates to stem political upheaval in his lands, by making it seem possible to win the kingship by defeating Prince Tobias in a footrace over 8 months long and going nearly a thousand miles.

Who is/are the main characters? 

Princess Alyssa:  Heroine who races her brother.  Although she is in imminent danger most of the way, she sacrifices her personal safety to gain back her rightful place as firstborn heir to her father's throne.  A right of ascension which he stole from her and gave to her younger brother. 

Prince Tobias:  Alyssa's beloved younger brother who is forced into an uncomfortable position of enemy to his sister when their father makes it clear that he is not to lose the race to her.

King Jessett:  King of Landing and a fairly sexist and tyrannical ruler. 

Skye:  Alyssa's betrothed, and Prince of Sepia

Elios:  Race competitor who befriends Alyssa and gives his life to protect her 

Leopold Skenter:  Antagonist who has made it clear to no one but Alyssa that he would kill her if he could.

Which character surprised you when you wrote him/her? 

Two:  Alyssa, who at times proved to be so headstrong and defiant that she took unnecessary risks.  And Jessett who, for all of his big talk and bullying, was bent to Alyssa's will fairly easily and who suffered a coming of age at 55 because of that.

If you could be stranded on a desert island with one of your characters from this novel, which one and why?

Alyssa'a mother, Marissa:  She is a HOTTIE!

Which one would you definitely NOT want to be stranded with and why? 

Tobias.  While Skenter is nastier, at least he could be dealt with.  Tobias is just too whiny and wishy-washy to be of much use in any high stress situation, but too nice to hurt.

Where can we find your books?

Amazon: Toys In The Attic [ebook format only], Principle Destiny [ebook and paperback]

Barnes and Noble: Toys In The Attic [ebook only format], Principle Destiny [paperback]

Principle Destiny Website

Where can we find you?

Dave's Website

Amazon author's page

Goodreads

Facebook

Twitter

Facebook group: Editing For Writers

Click cover to download Katie's Hellion for free

Full Length Paranormal Romance (suitable for young adults) Katie's Hellion is available for free download for your Kindle, Ipad, Nook, Kobo or eReader.

Katie's having the worst day ever: she's been dragged down to the police station for abandoning her son, a cute kid with big brown eyes. Only Katie doesn't have a son. She's never seen the five year old boy in her life, despite the insistence of the police, her doctor, even her own sister. She thinks she's gone completely crazy until the five year old living in her house tells her his secret: he's a baby immortal, and his guardians were supposed to wipe her mind so she'd forget he didn't belong to her and raise him as hers. But Katie is immune to the power of immortals, and they don't react well to this discovery. Katie winds up in Hell, where she meets Rhyn, who recognizes her as an immortal's mate – and his key out of Hell.

Rhyn is a misunderstood immortal, the youngest of the seven Ancients, sentenced to Hell after accidentally almost destroying the world. Katie's immunity to immortals creates an opportunity for them to escape Hell, so he snatches her and flees. At first, Katie despises the man who treats her like a portable food source, until she finds out he's the only one willing and able to protect her from the dangers of the immortal world. Rhyn discovers that his little human has heart. With horror, he discovers she's not destined to be any immortal's mate- she's destined to be his mate. He has no idea how to care for someone else let alone control his power, but he must learn, as his little human is endangered by both good and bad immortals determined to use her to their advantage.

Guess the subject says it all!  Ha!  Mind Cafe is one of my earlier short stories.  Amazon dropped it to free yesterday, and today, it's at #33 overall and #1 in literary fiction.  Check it out while it's free! 

Click here to be taken to Amazon!

Click here to enter to win an autographed copy of "The Warlord's Secret!"  Hurry!  Contest ends 31 May!

From the Guerrilla Writer Series: Part 1

Every author needs an online presence to establish him/herself as a brand and promote books.  I've outlined the bare bone basics for setting up your online presence.  I've included some tips and will emphasize this one point: you can do everything below for FREE.  It just takes time.  This should not be considered a comprehensive list, but a starting point and/or review for those who have started but may have missed one of these.

I've placed these in a particular order, so you can build the network among all the different tools as you go.  That's not to say you can't do things differently, and this can be used as a guide in any case.

 Maintaining an active online presence can be an enormous undertaking.  Where possible, take advantage of Twitter and RSS feed functions on sites like Facebook, Smashwords, Amazon author's page, and Goodreads to auto-populate content on these sites as well as push out your tweets and blog articles for others to read.

 The basic online places where you need to be:

 Your own blog/website
Twitter (http://twitter.com/)
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/)
Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/)
Amazon KDP (https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishin...)
Amazon's Author Central (https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/l...)
Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/)
Shelfari (http://www.shelfari.com/)
Kindleboards (http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php#1)
Nookboards (http://www.nookboards.com/forum/index...)

The cover for May's book, Katie's Hellion, was designed by the brilliant Dafeenah!  "Katie's Hellion" will be released the weekend of 27 May – just in time to take with you for the long weekend!  Thank you, Dafeenah, for all your wonderful work!!

Synopsis of "Katie's Hellion": Katie thinks she's going crazy when a baby immortal and death's personal assistant appear at her doorstep.  She's drawn into a world of intrigue and danger, filled with immortals like Rhyn, an outcast half-breed who claims her as his mate in a show of defiance.  Rhyn rescues her from a trip to Hell and discovers his little human has a gift that'll help the immortals uncover a plot threatening immortals and mortals alike.

Wow – I saw this and my jaw dropped!  As you know, "Damian's Oracle" has been free at Amazon for about 3 days now.  (Click here to download!)  I guess folks who liked the first book are buying the second: "Damian's Assassin" ($.99), which has placed Damian's Assassin in the top 100 for the following categories.  (Click here to download!)

Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Fantasy, Futuristic & Ghost

Books > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic

This is nothing short of a dream come true for me!! 

Thanks to everyone who's buying "Damian's Assassin", and let's keep the momentum going!  I'm competing with books from the major 6 publishers – a feat I never expected!

"Damian's Oracle" is FREE for download to your Kindle on Amazon, for a very limited time (I think.)  Please click here to be taken to the Damian's Oracle page at Amazon US and here for Amazon UK!

Most of you are probably thinking, aren't your books free everywhere but Amazon, Lizzy? And the answer is yes.  Yes, they are.  Hahaha … Amazon won't let indie authors set their prices to free and randomly will select indie books to discount to free.

The enigma that is Amazon … ha!  I've yet to figure out how they pick which books to feature for free.  Don't get me wrong – this is GOOD on a level that you'd only reach if you had a huge marketing budget (which I don't!)  Their discounting a book to $0 has put some unknown authors on the map – and I'm hoping it'll help do the same for me! 

Spread the word! 

I had my first interview ever!  Dafeenah, my wonderful cover artist, has started a new feature on her blog called Saturday Spotlight where she features a new indie author every week.  Click here to check it out!

Thank you Dafeenah!!

Wow!  I never would've guessed I'd have this many, but I hit around 700 reviews yesterday from across all three novels on all the different sites they're posted to!   Damian's Oracle (released 01.01.10), Damian's Assassin (released 02.18.11), and The Warlord's Secret (released 4.18.11) have all been smash hits, with an average of a  combined 10,000+ downloads a month for the past four months. 

I'd like to thank all my readers and reviewers again.    You're support is what keeps me writing and just as  importantly, keeps my writing improving!!  Book four in my 12-12 challenge will be out by the end of May!

THANK YOU!