Elizabeth N. Harris's Blog

Jules Ford

We're back with an amazing new Author, Jules Ford who is taking the MC world by storm. Her books Bowie, Cash and now Atlas have been received to great reviews :-)

Welcome to this fortnights, Author of the Week, Jules Ford. Jules is an author with several books under her belt and I'm proud to call her a friend! Taking time from her busy schedule, Jules was kind enough to take time out to answer these questions! And we got nosey!

A little taste...​

Hi Jules, can you give us a brief intro to yourself!

Hi Elizabeth, as you well know, I'm Jules Ford, I'm the proud writer of three books, one a co-authored book and two of my own, forming the Speed Demons series.

Can you tell us what books you have released, Jules?

Sure Elizabeth...

Tyrants Redemption, co-author with Raven Dark

Speed Demons MC.
Bowie - book one
Cash - Book two.


Please tell us some more about yourself, as we're all nosey!

I live just outside London. I have a daughter who is 14 going 25. My free time is spent reading and watching movies, but I’m also often out and about with the kiddo. We love wandering around London, theme parks and pub lunches.


Jules, what got you into writing and do you hold another job as well?

Writing is my only job. I got into it by accident, really. I was helping a lot of authors with alpha/ beta reading. Then I got into editing from there. I was then asked to co-write with another author. While writing that book, the idea for the Speed Demons came to me. It went from there.

To Read more and discover Jules links, go to, https://www.elizabethnharris.net/auth...

Sierra Glass

Let's welcome this weeks Author of the Week, Sierra Glass. Sierra is is an author with several books under her belt. Taking time from her busy schedule Sierra was kind enough to take time out to answer these questions!

Hey Sierra welcome! Can we start with a list of books?


Hey Elizabeth, this is what I've published so far,
​

Concierge, Inc

1. Reprobate

2. Austere

3. Ill Repute (Oct 3)


Short Story via Bookfunnel (not sign up required) https://dl.bookfunnel.com/5dcsbv3h66


Thanks Sierra, so lets start with the basics, can you tell me a little about yourself?


I love in Eastern Washington State, U.S. I’m 46, married 27 years to the boy I ran off with when I was 16. I grew up in Alaska and was raised by my grandparents, who spoiled me. We drove down the Al-Can every other summer and drove all over the U.S. I got kicked out of high school and didn’t finish, but I have a MA in Criminal Justice. I have a big dog and two cats. One grown son and his girlfriend who has become part of our family.
​

Sounds like an exciting life! What got you into writing and do you hold another job as well?
​

I am a freelance editor of indie books, all genres. A year ago I had no intention of ever writing. No frustrated muse. I was glad not to be a writer because it looked like hard work. Then last August I woke up with a character in my head, and she was followed by an entire concept and friends. So I started to write. The first couple of friends I sent samples to said, “I need more!” and I kept going. My day job is half-time as a university ombudsman.

To read more about Sierra, please go to,

https://www.elizabethnharris.net/auth...

Edward Swing

Welcome! This weeks Author of the Week is Edward Swing. Edward is a fantasy author with several books under his belt. Taking time from his busy schedule Edward was kind enough to take time out to answer these questions!
​
Hi Edward! Welcome to the Author of the Week interview! I hope you're prepared to get down and dirty as we have some nosey readers! Lets start with a list of your books.
​
Hi Elizabeth, Thanks. I've published,
​
New Pantheon series (YA modern fantasy, five books planned)
1. Awakenings
2. Conundrums

Gozen Saga (Sci-Fi Military mecha, 3-4 books planned)
1. Dance of the Gozen
2. Pride of the Gozen (currently writing this one! Look for it in late 2021)

Adventures of Gavin Greene (MG Fantasy with Sci-Fi elements, 5 books planned)
1. The Wondrous Wayfarer

Thanks Edward, so tell me and our readers a little about yourself!
​
I live in Laurel, Maryland, which is halfway between Washington DC and Baltimore, with my wife and three teenage children (oh, the drama...). We also have an entire menagerie of pets: four cats, two guinea pigs, two rabbits, and a ball python. So our home is quite lively at times. Originally a software developer, I retired a few years ago and turned to writing. I've always had a strong creative urge, but I have little artistic talent. But I've always enjoyed creating adventures and characters for Dungeons & Dragons. And the transition to writing novels came naturally from that.
When I was younger, I participated in the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is an international medieval recreation organization. I learned to fight with sword and shield and with polearms (don't worry - the weapons are wooden). I also learned medieval dances and games and wore medieval garb. Since I'd adopted a Scottish persona, I even wore a kilt sometimes (and yes, I wore it properly).
Aside from gaming, I also am an otaku - a fan of anime and manga. I collect some of the figures, and even do some amateur figure photography. You can see some of my photos at https://myfigurecollection.net/profil...

To read more of Edwards interview please go to,

https://www.elizabethnharris.net/post...

Penny Anglene

Welcome! This weeks Author of the Week is Penny Anglene. Penny is an MC author with several books under her belt. Taking time from her busy schedule Penny was ​kind enough to take time out to answer these questions!


Welcome Penny, let's start with an easy question, tell us a little about yourself!

​

I am 55 and drove a school bus for 17 years before an accident that left me disabled. I have been married almost 25 years to a man that is my best friend. We have 2 male adult kids. One is married. We have several that we claim as ours. And we've 2 grandbabies that are my world. I love to read, shop, and travel. Family is my top priority, and it’s not always by blood. I live in the Great commonwealth of Kentucky, with my fur babies. German Shepard and a Yorkie that runs the house.

Thanks Penny, so what got you into writing?

I had always wanted to. Just never had the time. I was sitting at the house one day feeling sorry for myself because I miss working. With my limitations, a life I once knew, was no longer there. With nothing to do, I decided it was time to make a dream a reality. I had only planned to publish one book. Oh well.

I'm glad you didn't let your disabilities stop you! What’s the main thing you love and hate about writing?

I love the different voices that pop in my mind. I dislike when they won't let me have my way and go off script. I hate it when my mind is quiet and the voices don't talk to me. That is usually when I don't want to let them have their way. They always get their wish. Lol

You know years ago we'd have been locked up for hearing voices and yet our characters do speak to us! Who is the worst villain you’ve ever written, and why?

I don't really think there has been a worst one yet. I try to write about things that happen in the real world but in a gentle way. Some of my stories may be triggers for others. It is real life.

What is next on your list to write/publish?

I am working on 2 stories at the moment, one is Spider with the Bitter Roots MC. I hope to have that published in the next 6 weeks. The 2nd is a ROMCOM featuring Cassie who is Jax's widowed sister.


To read more of Penny's interview go to

https://www.elizabethnharris.net/auth...

Manda Mellet

Welcome! This weeks Author of the Week is Manda Mellett. Manda has many books under her belt and was kind enough to take time out to answer these questions! And we got nosey!

So Manda, can you tell us a little about yourself?

I live in Essex in the UK with my husband – we’ve been married 32 years—and two crazy Irish Setters. I’ve a 27 year old son who lives away, but we are very close. My hobbies are reading, cooking, and keeping fit. I like walking and riding my bicycle, and, recently I’ve just bought myself a motorbike – I used to ride back in the day, (memorably riding out with the local Harley Owners’ Group) but am sorely out of practice, so getting back in the saddle is still a work in progress.
What got you into writing?

I think it’s more that writing got into me! I wrote songs from the age of eight, and used to sing at clubs in my teens. One day in my early twenties an idea came into my head. I put pen to paper and two weeks’ later I had a 120 thousand word book – unpublishable off course. I wrote several other ‘never to see the light of day’ novels over the years. In 2015 I was commissioned by a publisher to write a non-fiction book. Once that was published, I turned my hand to fiction in earnest, and published Stolen Lives in 2016.

Sounds like it's a major part of you. What’s the main thing you love and hate about writing?

I love being able to give voice to the characters in my head. I hate it when they stop talking to me, and the words don’t flow.

That can be very frustrating. Who is the worst villain you’ve ever written, and why?

Now that’s a hard one. I like to have a protagonist people can hate in most of my books. I can’t really say one’s been worse than another. If I was to name one, it would be the person who led the conversion therapy described in Joker’s Fool – the chilling thing about this is that it’s real and it happens.

to read more to go https://www.elizabethnharris.net/post...

Kathleen Kelly

Welcome to the Author of the Week, this weeks author is Kathleen Kelly. To read her full interview please check out the link at the bottom.

Hello Kathleen, let's get started by learning a little about you!

I married my childhood sweetheart, SL, who I’ve known him since I was 16. I live is a country town called Toowoomba, it’s Australia’s largest inland town, but it’s still a big country town.

​So, Kathleen, what’s the main thing you love and hate about writing?

I love the lifestyle it gives me. The opportunity to work from home. I’ve travelled all over the world since becoming an Author and I love it.

I always get stuck in the middle of my books, and this is frustrating. I know how they begin and end but the middle is fuzzy. And the longer I do this the writing keeps me stable. If I don’t write everyday I feel off kilter.

Who is your favourite author, and why?

LORD! So many but the first one to spring to mind is MariaLisa DeMora. She’s a wordsmith and she’s a great friend to me. I always go to her for advice. I freaking LOVE her Alace Sweets Series.

Thanks, I'm, always looking for new books, I'll look her up! Who encouraged you the most to write?

My husband, SL. He is and always will be my greatest cheerleader. Mind you he looks at me with rose-coloured glasses that I completely take advantage of. He’s my best friend, greatest lover and the only one I want to travel the world with. SL is a nice guy, and the world needs more of them <3

You sound so much in love and he sounds a wonderful guy! Are you as avid a reader as a writer?

I got through fazes. At the beginning of the year I was reading five books at once. Right now, I’m only reading one.

What’s your favourite genre?

Paranormal – have you read TS Joyce – OMG SOOOO GOOD. And she’s lovely. Tierra is this tiny feisty woman who can tell a story that has you hooked. She also told me once at an Author Signing that she loved my makeup so BEST FRIENDS!

https://www.elizabethnharris.net/post...

Jeanne A. Moore

Welcome! This weeks Author of the Week is Jeanne A. Moore. Jeanne discovered her love of writing later on in life but she goes to prove you're never too old to follow your dreams!

Hello Jeanne, welcome to the author of the week interview, it's wonderful to meet you. Let's start with learning a little about you.

First of all, before I answer this question, I’d like to thank you for interviewing me. It’s a pleasure. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles and moved to Honolulu in 1979. For most of the time I’ve been here, I’ve lived by myself and now my sister and I live together. In addition to writing, my hobbies are reading, crocheting, and when the COVID restrictions are gone, socializing with my retired friends at the food court at the Ala Moana Center, the big shopping mall in Honolulu.

How wonderful to live in Honolulu, I think I should be jealous! Can you tell me about your books Jeanne?​

My books are all collections of short stores, with the exception if Aunt Zelda and the Real Santa, which is a single short story. Those books are:

Romance in a Flash (eBook only)

Romance on the Run (eBook and paperback)

Aunt Zelda and the Real Santa (e-book only; short story)

Stories of Hope (eBook and paperback)

Love Speaks Softly to the Heart (eBook and paperback)

​

What encouraged you to write and do you hold another job as well?

I’ve always enjoyed writing, but never pursued in until after I retired. I retired at the beginning of 2015. After a couple of years of hanging out with my retired friends at the food court, I felt like I was at loose ends and wasn’t doing anything that was mine. So, I began pursuing my gift for writing – which I always said I didn’t have time for when I was working an 8:00 – to – 5:00 office job. Having writing to focus on balanced the time I spent socializing and gave a balance to my life.

At least you're now sharing your works with the world! What’s the main thing you love and hate about writing?

I love creating characters and a world that becomes almost real to me. And I love doing historical research, which is something I learned to do and love when I was researching my family’s genealogy. Although I generally don’t mind editing, at times it does get tedious. And I really don’t like being between writing projects. I love the creative process that writing involves.

I hate editing lol. You're more patient than me! Who is the best character you’ve ever written, and why?

I love all my characters, my favorite one is Lucy Mae Logan in Left Holding the Bag in my short story collection Stories of Hope. She’s independent and overcomes a major setback with determination and style.


I wonder how much of Lucy Mae is based on you? Who’s the character who gave you nightmares?

That would be Owen Holt in The Limelight, one of my works in progress. He’s very strange and he’s also an arsonist.

https://www.elizabethnharris.net/post...

John Espie

Author of the Week John Espie speaks candidly in an interview, come and discover this exciting new writer.

Oh, you're that kid! There's lots of us about! What’s the main thing you love and hate about writing?

I love the fact that when I write, I’m in total control of my world… even if “total control” mainly involves me torturing my protagonists. Plus, it is beyond cool to pick up something after a long while, read it, and think, “Wow! Who wrote that???” and then realize that it was me. As far as what I hate about it… there’s just not enough hours in the day to write and do everything else necessary for living. I squeeze it in when I can, and it’s often accompanied with a fair amount of guilt that I’m not spending the time with my wife or kids instead.

Speaking of torture, who is the worst villain you’ve ever written, and why?

I’m writing him now! I have a fascination with sociopaths and love reading psychological case studies to learn what makes them tick. In my novel The String Rider, I have a villainess who I wanted to fully develop as a sociopathic personality, but by the time it was all said and done, the machinations of the plot didn’t allow her enough “screen time” to really get her fleshed out the way I intended. I’m now writing a much larger novel with the purpose of fully developing a straight-up psychopath. It’s great to be pulling off what I’d been hoping to do for a while… but it’s also deeply disturbing. Climb into the skull of a sociopathic personality, and it is really, really dark in there. If not for all the case studies I’ve read, I wouldn’t be able to simply make this character up on my own because my mind just doesn’t operate on that plane, thank God. The end result is that while my book is about a sociopath, it focuses on the victims who I’m far better able to relate with in terms of personality and character.

You're writing my autobiography, JOKE! No, John please don't leave lol. Moving quickly on...what is next on your list to write/publish?

While I’m currently writing the suspense novel that I mentioned above, I’m going to publish a Christmas novella at the end of this year. It’s sort of A Christmas Carol meets The Shining with a healthy dose of Dante’s Inferno mixed into the plot… and it can be enjoyed by both kids and adults, alike. Now, admittedly, The Shining and Inferno don’t sound very Christmas-ish… but, hey, summarize A Christmas Carol and then explain to me how that one ended up being considered a bedtime story!

https://www.elizabethnharris.net/post...

Trana Mathews

Author of the Week Trana Mathews! Come and find out more about Trana and her family in her interview with me!

I think everything villain has something good about them, there has to be a redeeming quality somewhere! What is next on your list to write/publish?​

My family saga continues as I revise the third novel. I originally thought it would be a trilogy, but now it may end up as a 4-book series. I want to travel 1800 plus miles to Ohio to review an archive of Increase’s documents. These papers were found between the walls of an old house then donated to the historic society. My third great-grandfather was involved in a land dispute. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision mentioned a swindle and an alleged contract. I want to know more details and hope there may be something in those archives!​

Who is your favourite author, and why?

I can’t name one specific author because I’ve read and enjoyed too many! To name just a few: John Jakes, James Clavell, Taylor Caldwell, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Richard Adams, Robert Jordan, Stephen King, L.E. Modesitt Jr., Arthur C. Clarke, and Susan Howatch.

I think I've only heard of a few of them, shame on me lol. Who encouraged you the most to write?

My dear friend Patricia Woodruff. She pesters me to continue and always provides great feedback. I can call her at any time to discuss my ideas. I am blessed to know her!

How wonderful to have a friend like that. Are you as avid a reader as a writer?

Yes. I admit that I’m a “bookaholic”. I prefer big, thick books or series that I can sink my teeth into! I consider smaller ones as an unsatisfying snack. I love it when I don’t want to put a book down!

To read the rest of the interview go to, https://www.elizabethnharris.net/post...

Bill Mesce

This weeks Author of the Week is Bill Mesce.

So is there a main thing you love and hate about writing?

I can’t remember who said it, but one of my favorite quotes about writing is, “I hate writing, but I love having written.” There is a sense of accomplishment afterward, but the actual process – for me, anyway – can be tedious. Somewhere about halfway into a manuscript I can’t wait for it to be done because it increasingly feels like a chore.

The sense of accomplishment is something special when you finish a book. Who is the worst villain you’ve ever written, and why?

I don’t write villains. I have written characters who do bad things, but it’s usually rationalized in their own minds. I find it more interesting – and more realistic – to write people whose judgment has been corrupted by circumstance. I know that there are truly evil people in the world, but I find that most bad things are done by people who don’t think they’re doing bad. I like writing in that grey area where someone does good for a bad reason, and/or does something bad for a good reason.

The grey area interests me too, a man who kills is a murderer, but if he's killing to save a victim, is he really that evil? So many grey areas out there. What is next on your list to write/publish?

I’ve been very fortunate that almost everything I’ve completed to date has been published. I don’t have much left on the shelf. I tried giving romance/mystery a whirl, and I have a manuscript under consideration at a house so I’m waiting to see what happens to that. I also have a noirish manuscript that I’ve been working on off-and-on for quite some time and would love to finally get that done and off my back; it’s sort of a companion piece to Median Gray – same era, same general location, but the other side of the law. Other than that… I often find myself feeling I’ve come to the end, but then some projects I never anticipated come up. That’s happened frequently with my nonfiction work, and I’ve had a few ghost writing gigs; in fact I’m on one now. I’ve never really worked with a plan.

To read Bills full interview please go to https://www.elizabethnharris.net/post...