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A few moments with R.L. Seago

3/23/2014

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R.L. (Robert) Seago is a Redding, Ca. native and has been employed as a Critical Care Coordinator II for Mercy Medical Center in Redding, CA since 1999.
His early education was received in Mannheim, Germany, where his father, an Army Helicopter Mechanic, was stationed. He and his family returned to the United States in 1973 where he then continued his education at Bass Elementary School, Nova High School and Central Valley High School. His interest in writing began at Nova, where he enrolled in a journalism course thinking it would be an easy A. He was to learn otherwise, and in his sophomore year at Central Valley High he earned the privilege of becoming the first underclassman to ever have his own column in the Falcons Cry  newspaper, entitled “For Sophomores Only.” At the age of 18 Robert enlisted in the United States Navy where he received extensive medical training and served proudly as a Hospital Corpsman for almost five years, much of that time being served with the U.S. Marine Corps 1st Marine Air Wing in Okinawa as their “Doc”, in various capacities. He also served his final tour aboard the USS  Peleliu LHA-5 out of Long Beach, where he received an honorable discharge from the Navy in 1985 and returned to his hometown of Redding. During his time in the military he traveled extensively, taking in the sights and sounds of different people, their customs and cultures in Japan, Okinawa, South Korea, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Peleliu Island, Pearl Harbor, as well as San Diego, Camp Pendleton, Long Beach and Great Lakes, Ill.  These are some of the multitude of experiences he incorporates into his writing. In his off time Robert enjoys spending time with his wife Anna, their two Pembroke Welsh Corgis Bella Rose and Sophie Marie, reading, watching his beloved SF 49er's play, TV sitcoms and movies both at home and in the theatre. 
Robert recently compiled his first two works, The Chains that Bind  and the exciting prequel The Link that Shines  into a combined effort titled Locked in Time, upon the advice of a literary agent. It will soon be available on KindleDirect and in paperback. His latest project is titled Voices of the Passed, and he hopes to have this novel finished for publication in the summer of 2014.

 Julie: Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat with me. How long have you been writing and what inspired you to do it seriously ?

R.L. : I have been writing shorts and such since high school, started in journalism class in 9th grade for what I thought was an easy grade..haha. Found out otherwise but also found out I really liked writing. About 4 years ago I started writing about a part of my life I had obviously buried and when I did it got me going again, as well as my wife reading my first novella The Chains That Bind and encouraging me with how good it really was.

Julie: Well, thanks to your wife! Is she who inspired you to continue and actually publish?

R.L. : Absolutely. She is my inspiration, my muse, my sounding board for ideas. After we self published The Chains, one of it's readers told me that while they really enjoyed the book, they were pissed because I left no room for a sequel, something we had never thought of. We began talking that same night, and with some research and legwork on her part and my mind set, The Link That Shines was born.

Julie:How many books do you have published as of right now?

R.L. : Two..both self published and have done fairly well locally and through people I have met online.

Julie: So, if a reader asked you which of your books he or she should pick up, which would you recommend?

R.L. : Well if I had to choose one probably Link, because it lays the ground work for Chains. I have had a number of people tell me that the first chapter of Link really made them angry, and my question to them is simple...did you keep reading?...I have even had two of my co-workers punch me in the arm because of the first chapter..lol

Julie: Of all your characters in LINK,, which is your favorite and why?

R.L. : Wow..I guess my obvious answer would be Grant, because he always stays true to himself regardless of what happens or what life throws at him. He is grateful for the gifts he is given and ensures that each day he remembers how precious they are to him.

Julie: I believe you are a veteran and I expect that your coming release, Voices Of The Passed.. touches on fallen soldiers. Could you tell me a little more about it and how much of it pertains to you and your experiences in the military?

R.L. : Well your instincts are true. I am a Navy vet, 5 years and spent a fair amount of time with the Marine Corps as their corpsman, something I treasure to this day. Voices does have a military base to it of course, and does have to do with two men Caleb Armstrong and Ricky Martinez Caleb is injured and Rick is killed in an IED attack in Afghanistan and when Caleb returns to the states, he begins hearing voices, mainly Ricks. He also hears the voices of some of his ER patients who have passed asking him to help them move on. Meanwhile he is being watched by someone from his past who knows his darkest secrets. I spent a fair amount of time with patients who passed away, and lost a number of friends in conflicts over the years, and it always made me wonder if they had any unfinished business when it happened, so I thought Caleb was the right guy to tell this story.

Julie: How do you rate your experience in the indie publishing world? Have you found it difficult to promote and spread the word or has it been easy for you?

R.L. : Well it is always difficult because of the vast numbers of extremely talented writers out there, but then again competition makes us better. If it was easy then everyone could do it.


Julie: Do you agree that writers have to be salesmen in the Indie world?

R.L. : I agree definitely. We have to sell something that we believe in with all of our heart and souls, and trying to convince other people it is as good as we say is very difficult.

Julie: What type of advice do you have for new indie authors?

R.L. : Write, write and write. If you want 26 inch biceps, spend 8 hours a day in the gym. If you want to be a writer, write. One of my co-workers talked to me this past week about her 15 year old daughter who wants to be a writer and is working on a short story, and asked me for advice..me...I was flattered, and I simply told her to write, read it, and rewrite it until it is golden.


Julie: Sounds like your wife is an awesome support system! I may want to interview her at some point, lol.

R.L. : lol...She is an amazing woman and I am blessed to have her in my life.

Julie: Is there anything you would like to add or something you would like to touch on so I don't miss anything from you?

 R.L. : Just that people need to follow their dreams and their hearts. I honestly wish I had sated back on my journey years ago, but hindsight is 20/20. Life will give you all of the material you need to be an amazing writer, you just have to figure out which piece goes where and into which story. All of my writings are based to a degree on life experiences, and I don't think that any imagination can match what life throws at us on a regular basis. Embrace it, because as I have told my wife many times the story will tell it self, I am simply the teller of the tale.




Thank you so much for your time! R.L.  I look forward to the release of Voices of the Passed!





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Hanging with fellow zombie author Ian McClellan

3/19/2014

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Ian McClellan was born in a small harbor town in southwest Ireland. In an effort to be cliché his parents moved the family to New York when he was thirteen. Once a promising up-and-comer in the world of competitive eating, his career was cut short by an ACL injury. He now resides in Florida with his dogs and drives a truck for a living, but is hoping his writing career will earn him enough money to tell his boss where to stick it.




Julie: How long have you been writing and have you always focused on zombies or have you written other non zombie horrors in the past? If so what are the titles?

Ian: I liked to write horror and satire, but only started writing about zombies with my first book. I wrote a lot when I was young. I used to make up stories about my siblings that made them look really dumb. My mother always admonished me around them, but gave me a pat on the back in private. I continued writing through high school and wrote for my the high school paper for a little while, but didn't like how heavily they edited me. I got away from it for a little while after I dropped out, but started again a few years back when I was driving over the road. It was kind of therapeutic for me. Being alone with my thoughts for long periods isn't good for me.

Julie: Since were gonna talk zombies here,.. If a Zombie Apocalypse were to occur right now, name three readily available household items surrounding you that you could use as a weapon.

Ian: There's a snub-nosed .38 on the coffee table. That would be the most effective. Also, I have a mini fridge here in my office, so there are plenty of beer bottles. I have some weights in the other room that would be helpful. Might as well do something with them.



Julie: Can you give me a short description of your first zombie novel?

 Ian: Zombie/Apocalypse 2012: A Political Horror Story tells the tale of a very average guy in the first week or so of the zombie apocalypse. His wife is a religious nut and conspiracy theorist, so she's getting all of this warped information from these crazy websites and radio shows and pretty much just driving him nuts. Besides his story, there are all of these cutaways to news stories and press conferences that are taking place showing America's press and political elite doing a good job of screwing up any potential chance of salvation that we have. Throughout the book, the main character is constantly running into all sorts of extremists from all walks of life and political affiliations. Eventually, he winds up in Atlanta at the C.D.C. which turns out to be a complete bureaucratic mess. It's a good read for anyone who just doesn't understand how the whole process got to be so screwed up.


Julie: Do you personally believe that a zombie apocalypse is possible?

Ian: Oh, yeah. They're doing some pretty crazy shit these days with pharmaceuticals and pollution. We're messing up the whole thing. Some kind of apocalypse is coming, might as well be zombies. 
Mad scientists playing with shit they shouldn't.

Julie: Are your zombie different than the typical zombie? And if so, what makes them different?

Ian: They are reborn a little differently. They come back to life and are a little awkward at first, as if they need to adjust to using their bodies. I also touch on a couple of things that I think are just part of the eventual reality of zombies. There is a little bit of a fly epidemic, and a scientist discusses the zombie metabolism.

Julie: Sounds interesting and I don't think I have read that particular content in other zombie stories.


Ian:Thanks. I'm sure it's out there somewhere else, though. There are a hell of a lot of zombie books.


Julie: Are you working on any other books at the moment? If so do you mind giving us a little glimpse?


Ian: Actually, I'm not. I've been ridiculously busy at work, and there has been a lot of preparation and promotion for One Undead Step in the last few weeks. Hopefully, people will start heading back up to Michigan soon and my hours will settle down a little. It's been 60+ a week for a couple of months. Also, I try to get in the occasional article over at Zombie Guide Magazine.


Julie: Tell me a little about the magazine. 

Ian: Zombie Guide Magazine is your source for all thing zombie. We cover everything. There are weapon and survival tips, book and movie reviews, interviews, and even a science section. Frank Diepmaat, who started and runs the magazine, gave me a great compliment, calling my Destroying the Brain(stem) article in the science section his favorite piece on the site.

Julie: Where can we find this magazine?


Ian:  http://www.zombie-guide.com/


Julie: Let's talk about your most recent novel. How long did it take for you to write One Undead Step and what sort of preparation did you do for the manuscript?

Ian: I'll tell you what kind of preparation I did for One Undead Step. One day I was on Facebook and someone had posted this crazy article from one of those looney sites about the moon landing being faked. The TV was on and there was a story about Sally Ride being laid to rest. For some reason, this idea just exploded in my head- What if the moon landing was faked to avert the zombie apocalypse? I just started writing. I didn't have any characters or plot and I didn't actually know what the correlation between faking the moon landing and averting the zombie apocalypse would be, but the whole thing came together pretty well, or I like to think it did.

Since the story takes place in 1969, there was a lot of research to do. I looked into guns, cars, military vehicles, footwear, neon signs, mafia hierarchy, and probably a few other things that I can't recall right now. I even had to find the Thursday night television listings for July of 1969.

Julie: Sounds like you've done plenty of research for this, it must have taken up of lot of your time. How does your family feel about your work ? Do they provide a great support system?

Ian: I do have a great, but small, support system, but no one there shares my last name. 

Julie: If you write a book about your self, what would the title be and how would it end?

Ian: Man, I'm not that exciting. I would make a boring character in a very dull book. I don't know if anyone wants to read about an overworked and underpaid truck driver who comes home every day, feeds and walks his dogs, and then gets on the computer and writes zombie books and zombie articles. The start of my life was pretty interesting. Moving to America from Ireland, growing up surrounded by alcoholism and drug abuse, being kind of a nut when I was younger, stuff like that. Recent years have been a lot slower. I don't even go out to eat much.

Julie: Well Ian, I beg to differ! I have enjoyed this conversation and getting to know a little more about you. Thank you so much for joining me. :)
 







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Chatting with Joe Evener

3/9/2014

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I live in Delaware, Ohio with my wife of 31 years, Bronwen. We have two children, Joey and Jacob, and two grandchildren, Jacob and Jamison. I have been a track and field coach for 23 years, the last 20 as a head coach. I also spent 20 season as high school/middle school wrestling coach. This is my first year as a 5th grade Language Arts and Social Studies teacher. I earned my BA in education from The Ohio State University in 2009. I earned my MA from Mt. Vernon Nazarene in 2011.




Julie: How long have you been writing and what inspired you to begin?

Joe: I started writing when I was in 4th grade. My teacher, Mrs. Blair, gave the class a writing prompt. I wrote a story called "Super Joe" (I wasn't very creative). I then wrote a short story, a western, when I was in 10th grade. I wrote a screen play, a romantic comedy, about 20 years ago - a company just started to get interested before it went out of business. I started writing this novel in 2005. I was a freshman in college at Ohio State (a 41 year old freshman). And I got inspired by my freshman writing class, in which the textbooks were the 1st three Harry Potter books; and Classical Mythology. Those two classes combined with my love of movies like Lord of the Rings and Gladiator, and tv shows like Buffy, Angel and Highlander inspired me.


 Julie:What is the title of your most recent release and how did you come up with the main characters?


Joe: The Heart of Seras: Journey to Seras it is book one of a 5 part fantasy series. It was released in November. I am working on book two, now. The main character, Julie Ayers, is a combination of Buffy Summers, Cordelia Chase, Valerie Bertinelli, things I didn't like about Harry Potter, and 20 years of coaching a high school girls' track and field team. My second main character, Marcus Campbell, is Angel, Duncan MacLeod, Giles, Aragorn, and Maximus (from Gladiator). I loved the idea of having a peaceful teacher who is hiding the fact that he is a demonic warrior from a student that he must convince to go to a different dimension with him, and begin training for battle. I also love the dynamic that Marcus's best fiend when growing up is his major enemy.

Julie: I look forward to reading this book, then! Do you do other things besides write, like editing or proof reading, those sort of services?

Joe: Thank you! After I write my rough draft, I do a major edit, then I rewrite, before doing a last edit and send it to my publisher. I have proof read for friends, but nothing professional. My "day time" job is being a 5th grade Social Studies/Language Arts teacher, and high school track and field coach.


Julie: Do your students know you write? Is so, What do they think about it?

Joe: They do! They love the idea. I have discussed some things with them, and a few have had their parents buy my book so they can read it. I told them I can't sell it to them without parent approval since there are a few bad words and medieval violence. It has helped me in a few lessons when we talk about author intent and such. The reviews have all been positive. I even wrote a short story for them with them as the main characters. I just wanted them to see the process. They got a kick out of that.

Julie: It's awesome that your students are so supportive, now I am sure you're an inspiration!
How do you manage to find the time to write and promote?


Joe:That is the trickiest part. Between making lesson plans, grading papers, doing track line ups, creating newspaper articles from meet results, and being a husband, father, and grandfather, I don't have a lot of time. I steal a few hours a night between 8-10, to do some writing on nights I don't have other things to do, normally 3-4 times a week. But I have found that I need to let life happen first, and then write. I have learned not to panic or get frustrated when I can't. It even helps my writing - like this weekend, I am on vacation in Tennessee, and I thought I would get a lot of free time to write, as it turns out, I have had 1 hour in three days, but the ideas I have flowing in my head are going to help in this story and possibly other ideas I have in mind. Promoting is even more time consuming. Trying to get my name out there is hard work.

Julie: Do you have any advice for indie authors, or something that you'd like to share?

Joe: Oh gosh, I am still learning the ropes, but I know you can't give up. I think it was Victor Kiam who said, "Even if you fall on your face, you are still moving forward." Even if you write a sentence, a paragraph, or just do some research, you are writing and you have to keep going. Another thing I have learned that helps me is to write the whole story first, then edit. I wasted so much time on my first book writing and rewriting each chapter. My second book is going so much better by just writing, and now I can edit the whole thing as it is written.


Those are certainly encouraging words, Joe and I wish you the best of luck! Thanks for chatting!








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Chatting with Tri Amutia

3/2/2014

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Tri first learned English when she was eight and already fell in love with writing since she was seven. She was born in Jakarta in the year of 1980 and spent her childhood there until the age of 12 before moved to Indramayu. After graduated from High School, she continued her education in Bandung and took Tourism Management majority at Bandung Tourism of Institute (Enhaii). Between her college schedules, she kept writing, mostly with her experience spent in Solo and Yogyakarta. And after graduated from Enhaii, she worked at a bookstore and that made her more familiar with books and publishing. After got married and had kids, she returned to Indramayu and started to do online jobs for freelance translating and made her own blog.
The year 2009 was the first time she published her work on the internet before finally getting published. Some of her friends encouraged her to publish her first romance novel and this novel is her first published work. She has some other manuscripts and getting work to publish it.


Julie: How are you today?

Tri: Feeling good. Just woke up. It's 5 am here. lol

Julie:I am sooo sorry! lol Do you need a bit to wake up?

Tri: Nah, I'm fine. I usually wake up in this hour. 

Julie: Where exactly are you ?


Tri: Well, actually I'm in Indonesia

Julie : I would like to ask.. how old were you when you began writing seriously and what inspired you to do it?

Tri: I began writing when I was seven, but in my native language. It was because I have a lot of imagination and the best thing to pour it out is with writing. My genre is mostly fantasy and romance. I have a soft spot for both genres. 

Julie: How many novels have you written since you began?

Tri: To Love Again is my first novel although I had written a lot of stories. Just got the courage to make it public in 2009 before getting one of it published.

Julie: I love the cover!and you picked the perfect release date! What inspired you to write to love again and how did you come up with your main characters? Are they modeled after yourself or someone you know?

Tri: Thank you. Well, the inspiration is from one of my aunts. She is a divorcee and there was one day when I walked past a flower shop near my home and the idea came up and the plot just flowed. Lily is the heroine, she's a strong woman and Aidan is the prince charming. Lily is the character who I pictured my aunt to be (and all the strong single parents out there) while Aidan is the knight in shining armor.

Julie: Were you excited when you finally finished the story and was able to publish or were you nervous?

Tri : Well, both..lol. I'm excited because being published is what every writer or author dreams about and nervous because I know I can't please everyone. There will be a bunch of people who hate or dislike my work. But, again I wrote all my stories with all my heart and I hope that will touch my readers' heart as well.

Julie:Yes, being an author requires a certain bit of passivity. There will  be those who don't favor your work, but many more that do! As long as you are pleased with your work,  you have accomplished something big! In saying that, know you have joined several author groups on Facebook, have you found them to be a great help, as I have?


Tri: I can say, yes. I've met a lot of writer/author peers and learn a lot from them, also gained information in self-publishing that I haven't known before. Hopefully, it will affect on my book sales too...lol *kidding*

Julie:  Lol, no your not! I hope it helps too, but one of the things that I found that helps is constant promotion! Some of us don't have time for that! I saw that when I eased up on the promos, the sales slowed. Some books take off on their own after a bit, I wish that for your book.
Now, how did you discover that you could self publish?


Tri: Thank you, I hope so too. Well, at first I published To Love Again in printed version, but it is by local publisher. It's hard to sell for my international readers because of the shipping fee and one of them asked if I made an ebook version. That was when I realized I can publish an e book on my own.

Julie:  I'll bet that was like a light bulb coming on over your head, lol.  Its much easier to control your work and sales as well through indie publishing. So its safe to say that you've had a great experience so far?


Tri: Yup, definitely. 


Julie: Is there any advice that you would like to give to others about your experience with Indy publishing?


Tri: Well, my advice is indie publishing is a hard work, but in the end you'll learn a lot in return. I already fell in love with indie publishing and will publish another e book next year, still in romance genre.


Julie: Be sure to notify me, I want to follow your progress if you don't mind. Thank you so much for chatting with me today. Especially so early in the morning for you! 

Tri: Thank you for the interview as well. It's very nice to chat with you Lol...like I said, 5 am is already a clockwork for me haha...and have a great weekend!






This interview was conducted through FB chat. 







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