R.A. Odum's Blog: Fantasy that Inspires , page 2

Short Story Blast: Of Secrets Letters and Lions by Anna Moseley

“Father has started keeping secrets so deep and so large that he has locked himself in his study…” so starts the series of letters that Hannah Hunt sends to her best friend in America. With her friend’s encouragement, Hannah teams up with her younger sister in hopes of solving the mystery surrounding their father. But what the girls are unaware of is just how dark and deadly his secrets are.

Download the story free here:

Interview with Anna:

1. Why don’t we start this interview with the standard question: tell us a little about yourself.

Oh gosh, haha! I have no idea what you guys want to hear. So I guess I’ll go with the stuff that’s not in my bio. I have a yellow lab and two ferrets. I’m in college and loving it, and I have a beat up black old car that I named after one of my characters from a book I’m working on.

2. When you’re not writing what do you like to do for fun?

I love baking. I love making cookies. So that’s fun and relaxing for me (just need to start feeling the same way about cleaning up!), but I love reading and swinging the most. There’s something so relaxing about both. Books are portable entertainment. I don’t know what’s not to love about them! I’m really into photography as well. Talk about portable entertainment! Oh, I also like dancing and singing when no one is around (I’m quite shy in that respect). Mainly in my car, the singing! Not the dancing. Not going try dancing in the car. That would be hazardous.

3. What or who inspired you to be an author?

I guess this question is kind of two-fold because I had a what and a who, at the same time. When I was in middle school I met a girl who remains one of my best friends and she introduced me to the Redwall series by Brian Jaques. I devoured those books and am only missing two from my collection. I eventually would have the pleasure of meeting him and getting him to sign my Redwall book but I digress.

I was kind of fiddling around with the idea of writing and Brian Jaques was completely breathtaking. His characters, even the most minor of them have such a life to them, and the villains are really deplorable, and the heroes are so flawed and so wonderfully relatable. I kid you not, I would run around the front yard pretending like I was a part of Redwall and fighting off the Marlefoxes or Cluny the Scourge.

It was his descriptions and his passion that seeped through the page that showed me how to write. It was J.K. Rowling who showed me why.

The “what” part of the question would be The Harry Potter series. At the time they came out and made such an impact, especially in America, I was hooked on the Redwall series. Well everyone else was talking about Harry Potter and of course the movies came out and everyone started talking about it even more. At the time my parents (like many others) were worried about the witchcraft element of the books, so I wasn’t allowed to read the books or watch the movies.

As a person who had always read and read just about everything this not only infuriated me on some level, it completely baffled me. A book that people couldn’t read? A book that parents said their kids couldn’t read? It blew my mind. And that’s when I knew that there should be a book out there for everyone. Every. Single. Person. So I started writing and I was determined to write a book that everyone could read.

I’ve grown up a good bit but my love of writing has grown. I know that some people just won’t let others read certain books. That’s a sad fact, but that doesn’t mean that my books can’t change lives the way that the Redwall and Harry Potter books changed mine. I can now read Harry Potter (got my parents into them too)

4. Who is your favorite character in any book/short story you have ever written?

NO! That is a terrible question!! Character?! Not plural? The shock! Actually that’s a fantastic question, it just is a hard one for me to answer! Oh man I have to narrow it down now. Haha.

Honestly I would have to say it’s Uncle Jack from my House of Moons book series I’m currently working on. He’s so zany and out there and perhaps down right crazy on some level, yet he has so much depth to him that surprised even me! So I love writing him and I can’t wait until I’m finished with the series and it’s out there so people can love on him too. He’s the character I named my car after.

5. Are your characters inspired by anyone you know?

Anyone I know? No. Haven’t gotten that far yet! I take bits and pieces from all over and it kind of becomes a puzzle for me. “Ok, well person A has this trait, person B and C have these and hmm, person D has this. What if they were all in one person? How would that work?”

6. Where do you find inspiration for your stories/novels?

Oh gosh! Everywhere! Sometimes I’ll get it from books. I’ll think “well what if it was told from so-and-so’s perspective” and then just write something to see what it’s like. Books, movies, even songs really inspire me. I’m also into photography, so I’ll be meandering around on tumblr or Deviant Art or even outside and see something and think “there’s a story there” and I have to write it. A lot of my short stories (that are still in the editing phase) have come from things like that.

For my Sam and Cornith book, it came from watching BBC’s Sherlock, my love of Nancy Drew books as a kid and my passion for Redwall.

Other times, like with Of Secrets, Letters, and Lions, I find a prompt and just go with it. Sometimes, real life events affect things. Sometimes, especially in this case While writing OSLL my grandmother, who was my best friend died. I had to get that pain and that hurt out. And I was able to through the short story. It’s a story with a dark edge and it gave me that freedom I mightn’t have given myself otherwise.

So for me inspiration literally comes from all over. Usually it’s a big splattering of different sources but I like to think that it all comes out beautifully.

Follow Anna:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaMWrites

Website: http://ambooks.webs.com/

Blog: http://annamwrites.blogspot.com/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ambooksandstories

About the Author:

A.E. Moseley is a native of North Carolina, and still resides there. She started off detesting writing, spending her days playing in the woods, swinging or reading. Her love of reading never faded and is completely to blame for changing her life. After reading the first Harry Potter book and seeing the movie, Anna decided to try her hand at writing and fell in love with it. Ever since then she has been reading and writing almost non-stop.

The ABCs of Self-Publishing: A Guest Post by Mark Evans

Reblogged from Catherine, Caffeinated:

Today we have a guest post from self-publisher Mark Evans, who has just released his first novel, Mrs God. Welcome to Catherine, Caffeinated, Mark! 

"You remember the scene in Glengarry Glen Ross, don’t you? The one where Alec Baldwin gives a lecture on the art of selling real estate, by swearing a lot and insulting Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin and Ed Harris?

Read more… 1,102 more words

This is great advice for all authors!

Book Launch: Indie Author Survial Guide by Susan Kaye Quinn

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Goodreads TBR

Note: gazillion is a technical term, which in this case means something less than a million and more than the average income in my state.