Interview with debut novelist Caroline Flarity

Debut author Caroline Flarity joins me today and we’re chatting about her YA paranormal (for older teens), The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter.

During her virtual book tour, Caroline will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!.

Bio:

Caroline Flarity is a web content producer living in NYC. Her fascination with fringe topics and love of scary movies led her to begin her writing journey penning creepy screenplays. Her debut novel The Ghost Hunter's Daughter started life as a feature script, placing in the finals of the StoryPros Awards and as a semifinalist in Slamdance Film Festival's writing competition. She enjoys pitting her characters against both supernatural and cultural evils.

Welcome, Caroline. Please share a little bit about your current release.

“Supernatural meets Mean Girls” in this dark, YA paranormal mystery for older teens.

Sixteen-year-old Anna is the grieving daughter of a paranormal investigator. Anna is bullied at school because of her father’s profession. She wants nothing to do with his job, but it turns out that she has a knack for the family business.

When a parasitic entity invades her town (and mind), she must harness its evil power before it destroys the only family she has left. To do so, she’ll have to keep her increasingly dark urges at bay.

What inspired you to write this book?

To me, spirituality and the paranormal are closely connected. They both revolve around the idea that consciousness extends past the body, which I believe. The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter is a creepy paranormal tale, but it’s also the metaphysical coming-of-age story of a teenage girl. I’ve always been fascinated with the paranormal and have long researched hauntings, near-death experiences, reincarnation and reports of entities with non-human origins. This book encapsulates a lot of what I’m passionate about as far as the supernatural and spiritual. It also tackles socials issues like the bullying, abuse and harassment that sadly many kids have to deal with.

Excerpt from The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter:

“Want a new nick name?” Sydney asked. “How ‘bout Frankenskank?”

            Damn. Anna had spent so much time on her eye makeup that morning that she forgot to cover her scar. Her fists clenched. She was microseconds away from smacking Sydney right in her perfect face. Her palm actually tingled in anticipation of the after-slap burn.  

“All dressed up and no place to go,” Lyric sneered, indicating the cleavage exposed by Anna’s scoop neck.

“Except maybe a whorehouse!” Sydney yelled, attracting the attention of everyone in the commons who wasn’t already watching.

            One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi. Breathe. Anna restrained herself, knowing that in her current state of mind one slap wouldn’t be enough. In fact, while the river raged, she might also decide to go ahead and slam Sydney’s head into one of the metal lockers, perhaps several times. Nausea rolled in Anna’s gut. She was disgusted by the burst of pleasure the violent fantasy brought her. She took her eyes off of Sydney’s smug face and scanned the commons. Was there a portal here, too? There must be, but Bloomtown High wasn’t on Saul’s list.

Anna forced herself to walk away from Sydney and Lyric, ignoring their parting sneers. Was she being paranoid or was everyone in the hallway gawking at her? Anna picked up her pace, her heart dropping into her churning stomach as she passed a blur of scornful faces. Everyone was looking at her, and the worst part—she thought about Craig’s snub that morning—was that she might know why.

What exciting story are you working on next?
My next book is a psychological thriller with a sci-fi element about a woman who discovers the terrifying secret behind her family’s generations of criminal behavior.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Strangely, I’ve always considered myself a writer even when I didn’t write for long stretches.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I’m a freelance writer of event-related and entertainment web content. I try to work on my new book in spurts of three to four hours at least a few times a week. I tend to write at night and always produce more when I have a deadline. That’s why I’m in a writing group. Deadlines are a must for me.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

My handwriting is atrocious. But I still do the majority of my edits by hand and then enter them into my master word doc on a PC. I often have trouble reading my own writing, and this is quite frustrating. But there’s something about printing out my work and writing edits by hand that sparks my creativity. I’m forever scribbling new ideas into the margins of my printed pages and then struggling to decipher them the next day.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I’ve always wanted to be a writer!

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter is on Kindle Unlimited until July 11. I’m also running a promotion on amazon: the ebook will be 99 cents from June 28 through July 4.

Links:

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Amazon

Thank you for being a guest on my blog!

Thank you for hosting, Lisa, and great questions!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview with novelist Eric Trant

Welcome, readers. My special guest to wrap up the week is Eric Trant. We’re talking about his new historical supernatural thriller, Risen.

Eric visited in July 2015 for his sci-fi novel Steps and talked about how much time you should really spend writing to be a writer.

Bio:

Eric W. Trant is a published author of several short stories and the novels WINK, STEPS, and RISEN, from WiDo Publishing, out now! See more of Eric's work here: Publications, or order directly from Amazon (print), Amazon (e-book), Barnes and Noble, or wherever books are sold.

** BE A SUPER-HERO! BE AN ORGAN DONOR! **

Eric, welcome back to Reviews and Interviews. Please tell us about your newest release.

Well, it's my third book with WiDo Publishing, and we worked at least three times as hard on this one as the other two. I hope it shows!

I'll share the blurb for Risen:

Haunted by visions of a demonic angel and sold into servitude by his father, young Alberto battles to survive the horrors of a nineteenth century Sicilian sulfur mine.

Suffering merciless brutality, Alberto must save not only himself but his deformed older brother, both pawns in their father's mad plan to overthrow a group of wealthy landowners.

Bound by a death-debt to his hunchback master, Alberto discovers a door the miners call Porta dell'Inferno, the Door to Hell, deep within the sulfur mines. When he learns the demon-angel of his dreams stalks the caverns beyond the door, Alberto realizes a strange fate has lured him and his brother to the gates leading to the underworld.

Now Alberto must face the creature from his visions and rise to become the man his father demands him to be, or remain forever trapped in a hellish world where none escape.

What inspired you to write this book?

Risen was inspired by Booker T. Washington's Man Farthest Down. I discovered this work as I was researching sulfur mines, and stumbled onto Booker's tour through Europe searching for what he called "The Man Farthest Down," or what would be the European equivalent of the American slave. He found in Europe that women were the lowest on the social ladder, but when he reached Sicily, he discovered they used child labor to haul rocks up from the sulfur mines.

Boys as young as eight or ten years old, with a lifespan hardly reaching sixteen, were sold into bondage and spent their few short years trudging naked and barefoot, up and down the mineshafts with rocks on their shoulders. The conditions were so horrifying that Booker thought they might not allow him to leave. It terrified him, and the opening quote of my book Risen borrows on his shock, quoting Mr. Washington as stating that a Sicilian sulfur mine is quite literally Hell on Earth. He stated quite clearly that American slavery paled in comparison, and that says a lot about what he witnessed.

And with that image in my mind, having stumbled on this amazing work by accident, I decided I had to write Risen. The book practically wrote itself, because I could not stop wondering about these boys they coined carusi who dedicated their lives to mining the rock that even today powders our rifles.

It is equally horrifying to know that this sort of labor continues today in sulfur mines throughout the third world.

What’s the next writing project?

I am currently drafting a working title of Wish. It is in the very early stages, and I write in a linear fashion, which means I don't always know what will happen until it happens. But it is a book delving into the heartbreak surrounding the loss of a child, the anger it involves, and the lack of understanding those around you seem to have. I am drawing on our own experience of loss in 2012, and hope to do justice to the topic.

It will involve a wishing well, though, a young girl and her older sister, a fae and a bunch of spiders and spooks, and of course, some Southern Gothicism, set in the present-day Texas Hill Country. Oh, and an Elsa doll.

What is your biggest challenge when writing a new book? (or the biggest challenge with this book)

Probably my biggest challenge is coming up with a story I truly believe in. The writing itself is easy. I mean, it's hard work, but it is work I enjoy, like going to the gym or programming. It is a pleasant sort of pain to write, and I feel stronger afterward, so drafting and editing are not issues.

But coming up with a story I hook into, that's the ruse. I have to ~love~ the story and the characters. I am not a formula writer, is what I mean to say, so I need more than just a plot with the an/pro-taginists and that arc and whatnot going on. I want that story you relate to your kids or hear from your uncle around the pit, or your aunt when she has too much wine.

So I guess the hardest part is finding a story I love enough to spend a year or two pecking away on.

If your novels require research – please talk about the process. Do you do the research first and then write, while you’re writing, after the novel is complete and you need to fill in the gaps?

Perfect question for Risen. This book is set in a 19th century Sicilian sulfur mine, so I had to research Sicily, the Italian language, sulfur mines, vineyards, seasons and landscape and so on. I also did quite a bit of research for Out of the Great Black Nothing (which is no longer in print but will be re-written someday), which involved quite a bit of modern-day space tech research.

My process is simple. I start with a topic that sounds interesting. I hit the internet. I cross-reference ~everything~ with multiple sources. I step outside of the box and check foreign sources as well, which was especially true for Risen, since it was set in Sicily.

Then I watch for anything that relates to it in documentaries and other ad hoc resources. I had amazing luck in that my wife found an Italian documentary on some historical channel, where in the middle of the 20th century, around the 1950s, they interviewed men who had worked as carusi in the sulfur mines in the 1890s. The men cried as they told the stories, and all of them were visibly traumatized. They reacted like veterans retelling the horrors of war, and told of the boys beside them who had not survived the labor, and the abuse they suffered under their masters (I toned this down in my book, but these mines were every bit a living Hell for these boys, and were literally full of demonic men who tortured and abused them).

I was also fortunate to find a native Italian speaker in one of my writing groups, who was currently translating an Italian piece into English and needed an English proof-read. So I read her work, and she verified the Italian in mine.

So when it comes to research, as I'm writing it is a full-time endeavor. I am always, always on the prowl for anything related to the topic I am penning.

What’s your writing space like? Do you have a particular spot to write where the muse is more active? Please tell us about it.

Anyplace quiet, with my Bose headphones -- not earbuds, ~headphones~ -- for total immersion and a crisp, wonderful, perfect sound quality.

Perhaps the only unique thing about my writing space is that I select a single song and listen to it over and over as I write my work. It slips me into the mood. For Wink, I listened to Foster the People's Pumped Up Kicks. For Steps, I listened to Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. You'll see those songs in the work if you pay attention.

For Risen, I listened to Seether's Rise Above This, and for my WiP, working title Wish, I am listening to Pearl Jam's Wishlist.

And if I ever get stuck, I drink a dark beer to flow the juices.

What authors do you enjoy reading within or outside of your genre?

I love reading authentic books by any author. I mean something written from the heart, even if it is poorly penned or goofball. I have been on a kick reading memoirs, but need to find some good fiction to read next.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers today?

Just a hearty ~THANK YOU~ for taking the time to read the interview and maybe picking up one of my books. I always say we as authors should write first for ourselves, and then for others. So, the first draft is always ~mine~, just the way I like it.

After that, all those revisions and cuts and back-and-forths with the editors, all the labor for release and marketing and blogs and updates and so on forever, that is for Dear Reader. That is for others.

Write first for yourself, then for others. That's what I mean to say.

Links:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Amazon

Thank you for coming back to Reviews and Interviews!

Readers, if you’d like to learn more about Eric, here are his other tour dates and stops:

Monday September 4th (today) @ WOW! Women on Writing

Interview & Giveaway

http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/

Tuesday, September 5th @ Choices with Madeline Sharples

Eric Trant writes today's guest post at Choices "Is a Career in the Arts (writing) Realistic?". Readers can find out more about Trant and his latest book Risen.

http://madelinesharples.com/

Wednesday, September 6th @ Mari McCarthy’s Create Write Now

"Say YES: Why Taking Chances is Imperative" is today's topic at Mari McCarthy's Create Write Now. Hear from author Eric Trant as he examines this important topic and shares more about his latest novel Risen.

http://www.createwritenow.com/journal-writing-blog

Thursday, September 7th @ Writer’s Pay it Forward

Eric Trant pens today's guest post at Writer's Pay It Forward. Today's post is titled: "Breaking In vs. Breaking Out: The Writer's Career Arc". Readers and Writers alike won't want to miss this opportunity to hear from Trant as well as finding out more about his latest novel Risen.

https://writerspayitforward.com/the-team/mc-simon/

Friday, September 8th @ BookWorm

Hear from Anjanette Potter of BookWorm as she reviews Eric Trant's latest novel Risen - this historical supernatural work of fiction is sure to please readers!

http://bookworm66.wordpress.com/

Friday, September 8th @ Lisa Haselton

Lisa Haselton interviews Eric Trant about his latest novel Risen. You'll want to learn more about this supernatural tale of fiction as well as the mastermind behind the dynamic writing.

http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com/

Friday, September 8th @ Hott Books

"Life Gets Better: An Angel Dad Reports Five Years Later" is today's post title at Hott Books. This touching true life tale is told by guest blogger Eric Trant as part of his WOW! Women on Writing book blog tour of his latest thriller "Risen".

http://www.hottbooks.com/

Monday, September 11th @ Tara Forst at Digging with the Worms

Crunchy Wisconsin Mama and Entrepreneur Tara Forst reviews "Risen" by Eric Trant. Don't miss this review and giveaway of Trant's latest thriller!

http://diggingwiththeworms.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, September 12th @ Bring on Lemons with Tess Fallier

Tess Fallier is today's guest blogger with a review and her thoughts on Eric Trant's Risen. Don't miss this blog stop!

http://bringonlemons.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, September 13th @ Book Santa Fe with Crystal Otto

Reader and book blogger Crystal Otto reviews Eric Trant's Risen and shares her thoughts with readers at Book Santa Fe.

http://www.booksantafe.info/

Thursday, September 14th @ Memoir Writer’s Journey

Eric Trant visits Memoir Writer's Journey and shares his thoughts with readers of Kathleen Pooler's engaging blog. Today's post title is: "Setting: Its Role in Storytelling". Don't miss this chance to hear from the talented Eric Trant and find out more about his latest book Risen.

https://krpooler.com/

Friday, September 15th @ Building Bookshelves

Jodi Webb of Building Bookshelves interviews Eric Trant about his writing, his life, and his latest thriller! Don't miss this blog stop!

http://blogs.republicanherald.com/bookshelves/

Friday, September 29th @ Coming Down the Mountain

Eric Trant is today's guest author at Karen Jones Gowen's blog Coming Down the Mountain. Read Eric's guest post titled "Luck: Its Role in Success" and find out more about his latest thriller Risen.

http://karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com/

-->

-->

Interview with dark fantasy author Mandy Jackson-Beverly

Novelist Mandy Jackson-Beverly is here today and we’re chatting about her new dark fantasy, supernatural suspense thriller with a touch of the paranormal and occult, The Devil And The Muse.

Bio:

Mandy Jackson-Beverly was born in the bustling town of Pyramid Hill, Victoria, Australia ... Population: 419. This remote childhood kick-started Mandy’s imagination, as did the rugged coastline and rolling hills of Tasmania, where her family relocated when she was four years old.

In 1982, Mandy moved to London, where she discovered the importance of the creative collective: The 1980’s fashion scene. A year later, in Los Angeles, she found her own creative freedom among the thriving, no-holds-barred visionaries of the music video world. As a costume designer and stylist Mandy worked for photographer Herb Ritts, and directors Joel and Ethan Coen, David Fincher, and Julien Temple, and music icons David Bowie, Madonna, and Tina Turner, to name a few.

Mandy has taught Advanced Placement Art, written and directed high school theater productions, is a contributor to The Huffington Post and a book reviewer for The New York Journal of Books. She resides in Ojai, California, with her husband, Brian Beverly, a crossed-eyed cat, Luna, a dog named Cash and, sometimes, her sons, Angus and Jack.

Welcome, Mandy. Please tell us about your current release.

Hi Lisa, thank you for inviting me here to chat with you!

The Devil And The Muse is the second installment of The Creatives Series. This is a fast-paced, cross-genre series, about an ancient organization called The Allegiance. This group protects art and Creatives (mystic artists), and gives sanctuary to those threatened by religious zealots. Book two ventures into dark themes, and as one reviewer pointed out: “Be advised that there is some disturbing dark material.”

The story opens with my lead protagonist - newest member of The Allegiance and Creative - Coco Rhodes, viewing a horrific vision beneath her most recent painting: the violent attack upon a fragile young girl. This leads to the discovery of a link between an education-finance fraud, girls disappearing from Washington D.C. schools, and a corrupt congressman. Concurrently, the dark and twisted past of Kenan, the Allegiance's sworn enemy, is revealed. With Kenan's whereabouts unknown, members of the Allegiance begin to unravel his sadistic plan.

From New York and D.C., to Tuscany and the Dolomite Mountains of Northern Italy, the supernatural guardians of the Allegiance are guided by both the lessons of history and the shocks of present-day life. Through magical twists and otherworldly subplots, this supernatural thriller weaves a web of intrigue, love, and conflict.

What inspired you to write this book?

There are definite themes covered in The Devil And The Muse that I felt compelled to write about, specifically women’s rights. My research of the Inquisition and witch-hunts during the Middle Ages, and the horrific treatment of thousands of innocent victims who were tortured and often burned at the stake, seemed at such odds with the way women were treated in similar geographical areas centuries earlier. A good example is perhaps, Trotula of Salerno, a recognized female physician at the Scuola Medica Salernitana around the eleventh century. Trotula taught at the school and cared for female patients. She also wrote works on the diseases of women, conception and childbirth. And yet here we are centuries later, fighting against men for our rights as women to make decisions about our own health care.

This concept of the decline of respect that so many women faced in Europe during the Middle Ages, is the subject I consider to be the backbone of The Creatives Series. I can’t help but wonder if the suppressing of women during that time was the catalyst for the decline of growth in so many areas. While many men wanted to dominate and repress women, often through the strict confines of the Catholic Church, there were also men who honored the feminine – strong men who understood the need for equality among the sexes, and put their love for others before the words of fear spewed out by religious extremists. Sadly, these men with balanced egos seemed to be less of the populace.         

What exciting story are you working on next?

Currently, my main body of work comprises of researching material and writing book three of The Creatives Series. I also continue to write essays and short blog posts for various platforms including the Huffington Post, and book reviews for the New York Journal of Books. There’s a play I’m putting the finishing touches to and another waiting to be written. I’m also dusting off my costume designer hat to work on my youngest son, Jack Beverly’s film, Far West And Fried.   

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

When my third-grade teacher told me I was an awful writer.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

At the end of the 2014 school year I stopped teaching full-time high school art and theater to focus on writing The Creatives Series. When I’m in the early phase of research and jotting down notes on legal pads, I take the time to write everyday, if not on my current book then an essay, blog post, or a piece of poetry. Writing is no different from exercise; if I go a day without using my creative muscles then it hurts like hell when I get back to it! I think my creative essence goes into mourning when I don’t reach out to her and put her to good use. Sometimes I paint instead of writing, but in reality, for me, this is an essential part of my creative process. I paint my nightly dreams, and have found this action pushes ideas past the clutter in my brain and storylines become clearer.

When I’m in full-blown hurricane-force writing mode, I find it difficult to stop writing. I think eighteen hours straight, stopping only to feed my much-loved dog, Cash, and cat, Luna, is my record for a full day of writing. That same evening I fell into bed, slept for four hours, and then repeated the same pattern for five consecutive days. From other creative people I’ve spoken with, this kind of schedule is fairly normal. When I’m on a roll and the characters are talking to me, time flies by without me knowing and I’m like a mad woman possessed! Those days are magical. 

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

My desk and office are kind of out-of-bounds to anyone; this isn’t much of a problem due to the utter chaos of the entire area! Luna sits in a basket on my desk, like a kind of writing guardian – she is my Thalia (read A Secret Muse and you’ll understand what I mean). I need absolute quiet to write, and with a husband who writes and records music at the other end of the house, I’ve found that earplugs are essential. Because writing means I sit on my backside for hours on end, I tend to walk Cash early in the morning and either swim, or attend dance classes five times a week. Obviously when I’m in the middle of a full-on writing binge my exercise schedule suffers – and so do I. When I hit a brick wall it’s normally an indicator that I need to step away from my desk and exercise. Some of the most important plots of my stories have come to me while either swimming or hiking.  

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Robin Hood. (See photo on my website)

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Read whatever you can get your hands on – fiction and non-fiction, and read out of your literary comfort zone. Reading makes you smarter, and a more interesting person. Being unable to attend a community college or a four-year university doesn’t mean you need be any less educated than someone who has had that opportunity. The secret is that you have to want and love to learn. Go to your local library, find a subject that interests you, and read all you can about it. Read a varied assortment of newspapers and magazines – also available at your local library. Go online (hopefully available at your library) and listen to free classes and lectures given by professors and specialists in areas that interest you. And for those of us lucky enough to have a home library, please share and give books to others less fortunate, especially to under-funded public schools; trust me, they need and want them. Buy books whenever you’re able to support authors, and spread the word when you find a book and author you love.  

Links:

Website | Amazon | Huffington Post | New York Journal of Books | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | LinkedIn

Thanks for being here, Mandy!