Author Interview: Self-Published Author Deb Rhodes

Deb Rhodes is a good soul with the spirit of a lion. She is the kindest, most receptive person you ever want to meet. A great friend, mom and grandmother. And against all odds she is a survivor.

Deb is an author, an excellent, reliable, very honest and professional beta reader. She has a great eye and is knowledgeable about what works and what doesn't work for the reader when developing characters, pace, story, conflict, etc. because she approaches it as a reader.

Hi, Deb!

Tell us a little about yourself and your latest book.


I began working on my poetry book, Brightwood Street Chronicles, nearly ten years ago. This might qualify me as the world’s slowest writer, but I realize now that I was slowly becoming the person I needed to be in order to write what I needed to write, in the way that it needed to be expressed.

I’ve known for decades that one day I’d write my story. This little book is the story of my traumatic childhood in poetry form.

What inspired you to be a writer and get into Indie publishing? How long have you been writing? How long have you been published as an Indie author?

My writing life began at the age of seven. My parents’ recent divorce opened a door to my creativity that I hadn’t known existed and which led me to write a story about loss.

I’ve gone the Indie publishing route because this collection of poetry is so personal I knew I would need to have control over every aspect of its debut into the world.


Who are your writing mentors/authors? What genres do you enjoy writing and what genres do you like to read? Are you an avid/reviewer of other authors?

There are so many writers I’ve loved and learned from over the years. I’ve been a bookworm from the moment I began reading. Beverly Cleary was one of my first favorites, and I’ve found that her books held up well. I still read some of them a few times a year. Laura Ignalls Wilder was another early favorite and then I discovered Dickens and Vonnegut, and Barbra Pym. I went through a phase of being hooked on Agatha Christie’s novels.

I enjoy writing mainstream fiction, and am halfway through my first novel. Mysteries in the fashion of Ruth Rendell and Peter Robinson have long been favorites of mine. Biographies and memoirs intrigue me too. Lately I’m getting back into the novels of Elizabeth Taylor, my all-time favorite British author. There isn’t much I don’t read!

I do a lot of beta reading so, yes, I review other authors. It’s always thrilling to come across one whose writing style and story resonates with me.

Have you ever co-wrote or considered collaborating or co-writing with anyone on a writing project?

I haven’t no, and I don’t think it would appeal to me.

What are your dreams and aspirations that could drive you forward on this writing and publication journey?

I’ve told the story of my childhood abuse in poetic form, now I am planning the memoir which will expand on that and cover more ground. I’ve longed dreamed of using my writing voice to bring light into the darkness which depends and thrives on the shame and secrecy of its victims.

Do you prefer to do marketing and promotion yourself for your works or would you rather have someone else control that spectrum? What are some of the things you have done to promote and market yourself?

I do prefer to handle the marketing and promotion of my work, though whether or not I’m any good at it remains to be seen.

I’ve promoted my book on Goodreads and with this interview, as well as on my own writing site. Facebook will most likely be my next attempt at spreading the word.

What is your greatest accomplishment as an author?

I want to say that the publication of my book is my greatest accomplishment but something tells me that the story I wrote at the age of seven was really of greater merit, for it set something into motion (the habit and passion for writing) that has seen me through every decade of life. That moment in time when I finished my first story and read it back to myself stands out as something wondrous, for it told me without a doubt that I was a writer.

What’s the next writing project(s) you’re working on?

I’m in the planning stages of my memoir. I’ve got about half of the first draft of one novel finished, and 2/3 of another.

How would you balance creativity with the business side of writing such as coming up with particular concepts and solutions to stand out amongst the crowd in the writing/publishing industry where ‘popularity’ is key, if your idea wasn’t exactly popular/or was unknown to the readers/publishing?

That’s a good question and, quite honestly, I haven’t a clue. I’ve a writer’s mindset, not a businesswoman’s. I think all any writer can do is put their best work out there and trust that it will go as far or high as it’s meant to. If I thought too much about popularity I would never be able to write another sentence.

Have you ever been traditionally published? Would you consider it? Or feel like a sell out if you took a traditional deal and abandoned Indie publishing? Have you ever thought about being a hybrid, part Indie, part traditionally published? How would you feel about such an opportunity, if both or either of these things happened?

I’ve had some poetry published in magazines and was fine with that. I’m not sure how I’d feel about publishing a novel traditionally. I don’t think I have black and white ideas about the mechanics of my published work. Writers want to be read, that’s why we write—or mostly why. I don’t think it would be selling out to go with a traditional publisher if one were to come my way, but at the same time I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to look for one.

What other creative talents do you have? Do you draw, sketch, paint, etc?

I do a lot of knitting, I find it relaxing. Sometimes I create collages or altered art, it just depends on my mood. I can’t draw or paint worth beans which has always been a disappointment to me because my father was such a talented artist.

What advice would you give other aspiring authors?

Enjoy your writing. I wish I’d always been able to do so. My inner critic makes Scrooge look benevolent. I wish I’d spent less time critiquing myself and more time allowing my creativity free reign.

Describe yourself in a one-sentence epithet.

“She’s always writing….”

Paying it forward. What things do you do in your community/and other communities to help others?

I find a little encouragement goes a long way and is something I can do whether or not I can afford to do anything more substantial. With my beta reading business I will give a discount to someone who otherwise would not be able to receive a detailed critique of their work.

Deb Rhodes book:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Buy Links to Deb Rhodes' book:
https://www.amazon.com/Brightwood-Str...

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brig...

http://www.blurb.com/b?ebook=660739

Deb Rhodes Beta Reading Website:
http://debdobalina.wixsite.com/better...

Deb Rhodes Author Website:

https://www.debrhodes.com/

Deb Rhodes Website:

https://debdobalina.wixsite.com/mysite


Deb Rhodes Author Bio:

From the moment I wrote the last word of my first short story, I was hooked. I was seven years old when I wrote that first story, and though I've forgotten many of its details, I've never lost the delicious sense of being a writer that washed over me as I sat hunched on my bunk bed that hot summer's day, oblivious to the world around me, absorbed in reading what I'd just written.
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I was that one kid in the family who always read the back of the cereal box. On tedious car trips my eyes desperately sought something to read: billboards, gas station signs, and the words on hand lettered signs taped to grocery store windows, just like the ones my father, an artist, got paid to create. It hardly mattered if the signs were as mundane as "Oranges, 89 cents per 2 dozen." That was fine with me, they were still words written down and that was how I best processed life. (For those of you familiar with the sitcom The Middle, I was a female version of Brick, the family bookworm.)

​It seems I've always been a writer, though I hadn't much time to pursue my literary dreams during the years of being single mom to five boys. My writing may have become intermittent during those years, but I still scribbled down what few words I could during the odd moment here and there. Whether anyone else ever read them, I felt compelled to write them.

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I now have 7 beautiful grand kids. My life has always centered on my growing family, but now that the grand kids are older and I'm not as active in their daily lives, I have what I've most coveted: uninterrupted time to write. And I do write, most days. But I've discovered that I also derive a different sort of satisfaction from beta reading the work of others. The creative writing process has always fascinated me, even (and maybe especially) when it's not my own.

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Encouraging fellow writers as they mold their stories to fit their unique vision is what I love to do best when not writing my own stories. As a fellow writer, I can empathize with the need to hear honest--but kind--criticism from a beta reader. And as a lifetime voracious reader, I have the fictional experience it takes to see into the heart of a novel and assess its story arc, and characterization--and all the various components that go into the making of a compelling tale.

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I've been doing this unaware for decades every time I've delved into a new book, and took that first step of a brand new journey into the magical world of fiction.