Meet the Author: Steven Montano

Author Steven Montano

Meet Steven Montano. He is the author of the military sci-fi/fantasy series “BLOOD SKIES.” Steven describes his writing style as prosaic and lyrical. He says this helps make the very visceral setting and often horrific events all the more jarring and real.

“I’ve received LOTS of kudos for my stylistic imagery and poetic metaphors…which I guess is pretty impressive for a book about magic, vampires with guns, and evil unicorns,” he says.

He finds inspiration in other fiction and from films. “What I’m in to at the time strongly influences my writing. I’m a huge fan of China Mieville, J.V. Jones and John Meaney, as well as the films of Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan. I also steal a lot of ideas from my dreams – BLOOD SKIES, in fact, was based in part from a particularly disturbing dream I had a few years ago about maidens trapped in a glade, where they were hunted by black unicorns,” Steven says. Continue reading “Meet the Author: Steven Montano”

Modern Romance – by Stephen Hise

He awaited her in the sleep chamber. She was in the hygiene station, completing her nightly external maintenance rituals. His auditory senses told him that she had completed the cleaning phase, and was now applying oils to her body. His neural network was in a state of pre-excitement because it was Thursday – his favorite day of the week. It was the designated time for recreational coupling. Continue reading “Modern Romance – by Stephen Hise”

Meet the Author: Salvatore Buttaci

Author Salvatore Buttaci

Salvatore Buttaci is  a retired English teacher and college writing instructor. He has been writing since 1957 and says his objective as a writer has been to provide readers with stories and poems they will not regret investing the time to read.

“I have made it my business to constantly improve my command of language and my understanding of the writing craft. I am never satisfied with first drafts,” Sal says.

Sal  always reminds himself that if readers are not hooked into a story, they will not stay for the long haul, or in his case, the short-short haul.  Sal is a flash-fiction author. Each of his stories is less than 1000 words in length. Continue reading “Meet the Author: Salvatore Buttaci”

Taking on the Establishment: by Special Guest, Author Renee Pawlish

Author Renee Pawlish

The Establishment

Has anyone heard of Cesar Chavez? And what does he have to do with writing and publishing? Tell you what, I’ll get back to that in a minute.

There has been discussion of late about the major writing organizations and whether or not they accept independent (indie) authors. I decided to investigate this a bit, and here’s what I found out.

The following organizations do not accept self-published authors: Continue reading “Taking on the Establishment: by Special Guest, Author Renee Pawlish”