A Multi-genre Author With a Book for (Almost) Every Reader

[Heidi]

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the convention! I am a multi-genre author. I write whatever tickles my fancy, and hopefully you will find something you like.
#Fantasy
#Horror
#Mystery
#Poetry
#Romance
#Suspense
#Thriller
#WomensFiction
#YA




I am passionate about reading and writing. I share poetry, book reviews and writerly musings on my blog http://www.heidiangell.com/#!blog/cten

I look forward to getting to know you. Ask me anything.

[Heidi]

I am the author of The Hunters series, for those who believe that vampires should be killed, not kissed. The first book is the second book, The Hunted, comes out this summer.

The Hunters series follows Fury and Havoc, two hunters of the paranormal that endangers humanity. The Hunters introduces us to Chris and and his crew who are fighting against a vampire infestation in their town and they aren't winning. Fury and Havoc show up and help the group to rid their town of the unwanted undead.



The Hunted, the second book in the series which will be out this summer, will follow Screvin, one of Chris's crew who has been bitten by a werewolf. Fury, Havoc and Screvin track down the werewolf who bit Screvin. They learn that the hunters have now become the hunted, being tracked by several mysterious entities to pay for crimes against a secret council.

For those who would like to get a FREE e-copy of The Hunters, head on over to my website and enter your details to have it sent right on over! http://www.heidiangell.com/

[Heidi]

I also write the Clear Angel Chronicles, a psychic detective series with the first book, , and the second book , the third book will be coming out the end of the year.

In Elements of a Broken Mind hardened detective, Grant Anderson meets the reluctant psychic Clear Angel, who is having visions of the serial killer plaguing their town. Grant doesn't believe in psychics, but Clear has insights into the case that he needs. The two broken people work together to save the town, but can they save each other?



In Angel's Dance, Clear is trying to suppress her psychic abilities and is making good progress, when Grant Anderson shows up on her doorstep begging for her help. His daughter in Chicago is missing and the Chicago police have no leads. Can Clear overcome the pain of such a large populace and help Grant find his daughter?



The third book in the series will be out the end of this year and will take Clear and Grant on another adventure of the mind and the heart.

[Heidi]

I released Hell School: Fresh Meat, in March the first in a four part YA stalker series.

In Fresh Meat we meet Sam Havre, a freshman in a new school in a new town. As if all that wasn't hard enough, she has developed a secret admirer with bad poetry skills.




The second book will be out the beginning of 2017.

[Heidi]

I have dabbled in books for children with and

Royal Prince Vince demonstrates the extent of my artistic skills. It is a great moral tale teaching the value of hard work.

Creative Exercises to Inspire is an activity book geared around releasing your creative writing skills.

I have a great series called 'Fraidy Pirate Captain Roberts which longs to be released as soon as I can find a decent artist to aid in the visuals.

I am dabbling with a few other crafting book ideas because my boys love crafting and we have done a lot of crafting in scouts. At the same time, so many of the crafts we did were things that I found online. Would you find a book with a bunch of crafts geared toward the less girly helpful? Let me know and maybe this project will get more focus!

[Heidi]

Here are some typical questions being asked of authors, and my responses, to get you started!

Last year's Brain to Books questions:

1. Describe your favorite scene in your your book and tell us why its your favorite.

Oh goodness, there are so many great scenes in all of my stories... but the one that sticks with me the most is from Elements of a Broken Mind. There is a scene in the book that is a major emotional and psychological twist with Clear and well, I don't want to give the scene away because if you have not read the book then the foreknowledge is kind of a bummer. But At the beginning of the scene, Clear wakes up to Grant standing over her naked body.
It isn't what it sounds like, I promise. Go read the book! But this scene is so full of emotional tension and shock. It was incredibly intense to write, and I cried and cried while writing it. Every time I read the scene, it brings me to tears. My mother bawled when reading it. It is the first scene readers want to talk to me about. It is impactful.

2. Which of your characters, do you relate to the most (or) who is your favorite character and why?

I love all my characters! (The correct answer when a mother is asked who her is favorite child applies here!) If there is a particular character who you connect with, feel free to ask me what I love about that character!

3. “Story” has always been the center of all human cultures. We need it. We seek it out. When we lack it, we invent it. What does “story” mean to you?
Stories are a way for us to share feelings in a safe manner. We can show how we hope the world will be, how we fear the world will be, the attributes we desire, and the attributes we abhore. We use story to understand and shape the world around us.

This year's questions:

1 - What story has recently inspired/moved you?

I love reading, and I am always looking for the deeper story between the pages. I loved Strings by David Estez which is a beautiful modern re-telling of the Pinocchio story and has a great commentary of how we all have strings that we make or that are made by others. We also have the ability to free ourselves from those strings.


2 - Characters begin with their strengths and weaknesses. Many authors reflect their own strengths and weaknesses in their characters. What are some strengths and weaknesses that you relate to, and how have these traits influenced your characters?

I am a strong woman. I explore female strengths in my books. In The Hunters, Fury is literally a physically powerful woman who is a leader. She is direct and logical, but lacks a lot of the "female strength" that has become popular to explore. Seeing how that shapes who she is, has been very interesting, especially as I am working on the sequel to the series.

Clear Angel is more of a "mentally strong" woman who is actually very fragile but puts on a front of emotional strength to protect herself. Exploring the chinks in her defenses and showing her as ver insecure to the readers, while then seeing how others see her is an interesting look into how many women (myself included) play up our strengths and minimize our weaknesses.

Sam from Hell School is at the beginning of her development. Through the series we will see he develop from a scared and lost child into a strong and independent woman. It is a fun adventure!

3 - What did story mean to you as a child?

Even as a child, I understood that story was a way to shape the world and interpret it the way I wanted it to be. I remember when I was probably five or six, He-man was the big thing. One of the boys down the street got the action toys for Christmas and we all gathered around to play. Everyone, of course, wanted to be He-man. As He-man was the strongest, the boys decided to wrestle for it. When the "winner" was chosen, I challenged it. The boys thought because I was a girl that I should be She-ra, but I knew that I could beat him, and we all knew that He-man could beat She-ra, so it only made sense that I should be He-man. Needless to say, I beat him and I got to play He-man.

I still have a thing about strong females being represented in the story of our lives.

[Heidi]

Here is an interview I did with Soulsciences podcasting for B2BCyberCon

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/1o...

[Heidi]

I am participating in some great events this weekend, and I hope you check them out!

The awesome Car Johnson did an interview with Fury's Bandoliers (Seriously, the funniest thing in the world!) https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I am participating in the Facebook Takeover https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The horrifyingly entertaining A.F. Stewart did an interview, which you can see here: http://afstewartblog.blogspot.com/201...

I am doing a live interview with Kori Friday at 7 pm

I will be on the following panels:
Creating Story From Life Friday April 8th at 1 pm MST. https://plus.google.com/events/cp5o78...

Multicultural Trends in Story friday April 8th at 5 pm
https://plus.google.com/events/c3uuku...

Heroine's Journey Saturday April 9th at 1 pm https://plus.google.com/events/cd6n5m...

DVA: Becoming Aware and Changing Society: Saturday April 9th at 3 pm MST.
https://plus.google.com/events/c14m80...

Paranormal Panel Saturday April 9th at 5 pm https://plus.google.com/events/cohal6...

Detective and Mystery Panel Sunday April 10th
https://plus.google.com/events/cs1ncc...

I am also participating in Cover Wars: Go here to vote for Angel's Dance https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1664T...

And here to vote for Hell School: Fresh Meat https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1664T...

Fury is battling out in the Protagonist/Antagonist Competition: Be sure to vote for her! http://brackify.com/b/190/b2b-tourney

The lovely Angela B Chrysler will be doing a reading of Hell School: Fresh Meat for the Story Time Tour http://www.angelabchrysler.com/b2bcyc...

I am participating in the Story Hop, where a bunch of us lovely authors are giving short samples of our work for your to read. I am giving a sample from The Hunted
Go find something good!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

And I have also thrown my hat into the exciting Lip Sync Battle! https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Sage]

Hi Heidi! I'm so glad to see you here. I loved reviewing "Hell School: Fresh Meat" for my blog. Everyone, read her books! She is such a gifted author.

[Heidi]

Thank you Ashley! Glad to see you at the con!

[Lorraine]

Hi Heidi...
Your books sound great. I think I'm going to be adding some to my ever-growing to-read list. :)

[Heidi]

Rainne, I know the feeling of the ever-growing TBR pile! Don't forget that you can get an e-copy of The Hunters absolutely free! My gift to you for coming by! The link is in The Hunters tab.

[Mary]

Just dropped by. Nice seeing you on the panel. Nice booth.

[Ash]

Hi, Heidi, nice to "meet" you!

I like coming across multi-genre authors. Many people tend to write one style and stick with it so it's rare to find someone who writes various genres and pulls it off well! So, definitely nice to find your books!

Have a question... do you find it challenging to promote each of your books/styles?

[Heidi]

Thanks for stopping by Mary! Was great to meet you too! Hope to see you at other events this weekend?

[Heidi]

Hello Ash, a pleasure to meet you as well! I do find that cross promotion of books is difficult. The methods of promotion are often different for different genres as well. But I love marketing, so it doesn't bother me too much!

[Mary]

I would love marketing if I found something Re: ANYTHING that worked without becoming a money pit... :-) I do love to meet & greet & chat about my work...Getting it to translate into sales, however...

[Heidi]

Mary, marketing and advertising are not the same. Marketing is a long-haul game. it takes time to proliferate the market enough with your information before you will see a difference. If you gauge marketing in ways other than sales, perhaps that would help? For example, I have not seen a single sale from this conference (that I know of.) But I have met sone great people, found some great stories to share with my readership, increased my newsletter significantly, and I have a ton of great new media to share around.

[Mary]

Heidi wrote: "Mary, marketing and advertising are not the same. Marketing is a long-haul game. it takes time to proliferate the market enough with your information before you will see a difference. If you gauge ..." Thanks for that. I need to budget my time, too. I write and revise a lot, but don't have a working website or newsletter... I have tons of fans and followers on my Facebook Author page (which serves as a blog) but hardly any who want to buy my books. Most are content reading excerpts and looking at the pictures. :-)

[Alex]

Hi Heidi,

I finally got the chance to stroll over. Thanks for coming by my booth. Looks like you're staying busy with lots of readers to talk to, so I brought you a refreshing drink and a plate of cookies. Your vampire series and psychic detective series sound fascinating and I've put them on wishlist. I'm still checking out all your books. :) Have a great day at the CyberCon!