A brand new online magazine featuring authors!

Come and see: Mobius Author Online Magazine

The first edition in publishing.........

My interview with First Edition Design Publishing!
Indie authors take note.  First Edition Design Publishing has a distribution that's gone viral, and then some.

If you like Harry Potter, you'll love Jack Hunter

Meet Martin Hunter, bard, treasure hunter and provider of Monday Mystery Muddles: Jack Hunter: Secret of the King author interview.

Read it and go crazy in Paradise!

My latest author interview in the Nashville Books Examiner: Crazy in Paradise interview

Indie writers: let me be your press agent.

I am starting my own business interviewing indie authors, then Facebook sharing and Tweeting like crazy. The interview in the Examiner, an online newspaper with strong presence on Google, Bing and MSN.com, is free. However, if you want me to submit the article to your hometown paper and online journal, for example, http://surfky.com/index.php/muhlenberg, I do charge for this. If you live in a big city, we might have more luck with a newspaper in a nearby suburb. I will also upload a photo of you and your book cover. Contact me for details.

What's the big Diehl about harvesting water?

Eric Diehl's book, Water Harvest, starts out with the Council voting on whether to attack the two rag tag Lunar colonies, full of water harvesting pirates. Until another unexpected strike occurs which changes the collective fate. 1,000 years later, yet another Council meets and high tech mingles with feudalism.

Eric has lead a scenic and colorful life settling in upstate South Carolina with his wife, Susan. Although I read about the characters, most of the questions are about the author.

Question: You feature a view of a bleak, dreary landscape in the Prologue.Is this a metaphor for the destruction of the environment?

Answer: Yes, I had actually intended the novel to be a hard science fiction piece with an environmental theme, but some of the improbable characters that showed up, surprised and delighted me. In the end, I allowed the story to take a tilt toward fantasy.

Question: I am a fan of Babylon 5, the interplanetary community in space, are you? If so, who is your favorite character and what is your favorite episode and why?

Answer: Wow, you're taxing my memory now. I don't believe that series has played in the U.S. for more than a decade now. I was a fan, but don't remember enough except to say that I liked the concept of life on a huge space station, and the intermingling of various species from throughout the galaxy.

Question: What are your favorite Science Fiction authors and why?

Answer: I suppose that I tend to favor fantasy over hard science fiction, but I also like to see them blended together (as I did in Water Harvest). I'd have to say that the author that really hooked me on science fiction would be Frank Herbert, with his Dune series (great movie also, later on). It would probably be fair to say that Dune influenced my own novel, since the scarcity of  water is a major point of contention in both, though it was more extreme in Dune. One of the things that I liked about Dune was the full development of characters that I could bond with, which can sometimes be a little lacking in some 'hard' science fiction. The argument could also be made that there was an element of fantasy in Dune, since it included fantastic creatures like the huge worms, which are nothing like the world we know.

Question: Do you go to a lot of Renaissance Faires? If so, which ones? Do you dress Medieval or Renaissance? Do you dress as a character such as a wizard?

Answer: I've been to a few, more in south Florida than in South Carolina, but I'm just a spectator. I enjoy watching the staged sword fights and jousting.

Question: What sort of an animal is a Kii? It is a conglomeration of species, but which ones?

Answer: Kii could be characterized as a form of dragon, though on a small scale. I do call her a 'Dwarf Drakka', with some relation to the massive Great Drakka that inhabit the mountainous highlands.

Question: Is the apprenticeship more like Druidry or the ancient Mystery Schools?

Answer: There's an interesting question! I had to do a little investigation to get a better understanding of Druidry and the Mystery Schools, and I would say that an Apprentice is closer to the latter than the former, but not exactly like either. The Guild is comprised of practitioners known as Viizar, who learn to bend reality to their will by envisioning the changes they seek while in a drug-induced state. An apprentice is simply a young man who is training to become a Viizar. The transition from Apprentice to the lowest order of the Viizar (the Greenes) is described in one of the earlier chapters (though the transition did not go as was planned ;-).

Question: Tell me about some of the Science Fiction short stories you've published.

Answer: Most of them are a blend of SciFi and Fantasy. As an aside, I have published that collection and made it available as a free download from smashwords.com (the link is at my website). The anthology begins with an experiment in nano-biotechnology gone very wrong. There is a tongue-in-cheek space-opera style story with a female protagonist and her comedic cohort. There's a story about an evil character who is banished to 'live' in a bodiless realm in a distant past and who conspires to return for vengeance. There's also a story about a dystopian future Earth where humans are kept by a 'benevolent' alien species, somewhat in the manner of a herd of cattle. Other stories in the anthology are pure fantasy, with some horror mixed in for good measure.

For details on Water Harvest, click on the following link: http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.php?ISBN=1-55404-867-2

Author website: http://www.ericdiehl.com/

Henrietta Sharp crosses dimensions with her magic lunch box, can you?

Henrietta Sharp crosses dimensions with her magic lunch box, can you?

Vampire Author Elizabeth Loraine Interviewed

Check out my latest Vampire author interview: http://www.examiner.com/books-in-nashville/i-interview-elizabeth-loraine-author-of-lillian

Review of The Lure of the Vampire and interview with Bertena Varney.

The Lure of the Vampire takes the reader on a comprehensive tour of all things vampire. Varney starts with the origins of the vampire including Judas Iscariot and Cain, son of Adam and Eve. Early Vampire Lit includes LeFanu's Carmilla and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Some of the current vampire that piqued my interest are: Cirque du Freak about a young boy who visits a freak show and becomes a vampire's assistant; Vampire Shrink which equates the events of 911 to the rise in popularity of vampire heroes; and even Nancy Drew getting into the vampire slayer act.

I love the titles Bite Me, Life Sucks and It Sucks to be Me. Varney also has a section on kid friendly vampire books and television shows. Speaking of youths interested in vampire books, I wish I'd been there when Bertena was interviewing customers who were shopping in the Young Adult section and looking at the vampire books in that aisle. Varney's book is like an advent calendar; each chapter opens up an interesting aspect of the Undead. Come along for a colorful ride.

Bertena Varney Interviewed

 Question:  1. Melissa de la Cruz portrays vampires as fallen angels who must reincarnate as a human until redeemed. What's your take on this?

Answer: I absolutely love it. I love the idea that some of them are the ones that chose to follow Lucifer and others like Michael and Gabriel that fell to earth to try and help them redeem themselves and they fact that they live life over and over is so interesting. I love how she has used historical events to tell the story. Being a former history teacher I love the idea of Roanoke's colony being overran by the bad vampires,  also the fact that Nero was a vampire, etc. This series is one of the few that I rush out and buy the minute it hits the store.

Question: 2. Do you believe in past lives?  If so, have you looked into any of yours?

Answer: I am still on the fence about this. I have a religious belief that most wouldn't understand but in a short version. We had a life in Paradise with God, one here and one in the end after salvation. I do feel that souls from these places have met and interacted and known each other. I have had past life sessions done and I have been everything from an evil tyrant, an accountant, an historical archaeologist, and more. But, I keep my mind open.

Question:3. Some metaphysical writers say that life on the Physical Plane is a giant school in which people come to their lives with an assignment or a series of assignments. What are some of your assignments in life?

Answer: Well are you speaking like the Akashic Records or the Book of Life? Hum... my assignment.. well I never thought of this before. I just try to make it day by day without stressing out or quitting. I just really haven't thought about it but I may do so now.

Question: 4. A friend told me about a vampire novel in which the main character is a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. Unfortunately, the title and author escape me. Have you heard of it?

Answer: Would it be- Stargazer by Miguel Conner or The Midnight Guardian A millennial Novel by Sarah Jane Stratford.

Question: 4a. What do you think of this concept for a novel?

Answer: I think that it would be an interesting read for those who love history or what I call lovers of traditional vampires. I think that many males are looking forward to type of vampire story- intertwined with history and blood. I think that it would be a great it for many. There are so many vampire fans out there that it would be perfect for them.

Question: 5. Tell me more about Lillian, your vampire role playing character.

 

Answer: Lillian the character that I created for role playing but Elizabeth Loraine took the character and made it her own in the story. She is different but with some of the same characteristics. My character is very strong, vengeful, and blood thirsty. She is royalty and not afraid to use it. She had one weakness- this one love but found strength in a second soul mate. She travels from Britain to America and has been everything from a photographer to a bar owner. I envision her as a Betty Page looking vampire- very sexy but very much a kick ass character. Elizabeth has taken her and made her her own. I told her the story and she wrote a wonderful novella with a character that so many readers love.

 

Question: 6. Will YOU be writing any vampire fiction (or any more books on the subject)?

Answer: I don't write fiction. I just shared my character with my dear friend who has the talent to turn a wonderful story. I and Stavros another author friend of mine will have  a Free novella out titled Vampire News. It will be a compilation of reviews, interviews, news clippings, etc of vampire related news from 2011. It will be coming out within the next few weeks!

Thank you, Bertena. I'm looking forward to the release of the free novella. Once it is released, I will spread the word.

For more information or to contact the author, visit the following website:

Check out my website here - www.bertenavarney.com

Buy Lure of the Vampire here - http://amzn.to/jj1iPr

Buy Lillian: A Vampire's Story here - http://amzn.to/tAotpF