Category: Interviews

Meet the Author: Ressa Empbra

Author Ressa Empbra

Ressa Empbra says of her writing, “I have to have coffee, peace, quiet, and my MacBook. It sounds weird but I lay my head back in my leather-chair, close my eyes and let the words flow from my mind, down my arms, out of my fingertips, and onto my keyboard. It’s like having a movie playing inside my head and I don’t know what will happen until it does. Some writers make a story-board, outlines, stuff like that, and I’m sure it works well for them. But, I can’t work that way, not when I haven’t ‘seen’ what will happen next.”

She says her characters feel like they truly are a part of her from the beginning, so she gives them free reign to do as they please. “They do get into trouble from time to time,” she adds.

Ressa has some health issues which, along with medications, scramble and wipe out her memory, so her biggest writing challenge is in remembering small details.  She deals with this by making lots of notes. I do that as well, but then I forget where I put the notes. Continue reading “Meet the Author: Ressa Empbra”

Meet the Author: T.J. Perkins

Author T.J. Perkins

T.J. says her writing style is fun and imaginative. She says, “I write with such vivid imagery that the reader can’t help but to see the scenes unfold in their minds. You can’t help but put yourself in the main character’s shoes.”

She finds her inspiration in bits and pieces from every day happenings in her life or from others. She then twists them, shapes them and bends them into something so unreal that she says it could be real. That sounds like a typical Saturday night for me.

T.J. says the hardest part of writing is starting a story and ending a story. She says she will go walk and exercise to work out a situation and find a resolution. Continue reading “Meet the Author: T.J. Perkins”

Meet the Author: Jasha M. Levi

Author Jasha M. Levi

[Note: I often bring a pocketful of snark to these interviews and sprinkle some around. I won’t be doing that in this interview because Jasha M. Levi is a man who has met and conquered greater challenges than most of us, and he is deserving of our full respect, admiration, and gratitude. ]

Author Jasha Levi says he wanted to be a novelist but as his background is journalism he feels he is better at non-fiction. Still, where there is a story to be written, there must be inspiration. Jasha says he used to find his in some hot political controversy, such as the rift between Yugoslavia and Stalin way back in 1948, or the Rajk pretend-trial in Hungary in 1950.

“My last two books are memoirs — The Last Exile was a kind of reportage about so many things that happened to me during the rise of Hitler in Europe, confinement as civilian internee of war in Italy 1941-43, a Jewish fugitive with false papers in Rome for nine months until the Allies liberated it, my career starting at age 24, as foreign editor, radio commentator and international correspondent until in 1956 I took asylum in the US in protest over Tito’s refusal to condemn the invasion of Hungary,” he says. Continue reading “Meet the Author: Jasha M. Levi”

Meet the Author: Jacqueline Hopkins-Walton

Author Jacqueline Hopkins-Walton

Author Jacqueline Hopkins-Walton lives in Sitka, Alaska. She started writing when she got out of the US Navy in 1988. As is so very often the case, life got in the way for a while in the 1990’s and she shelved her writing  until she got involved in editing her niece’s novel.

Jac writes mainstream fiction, murder mystery and romance. She gets her inspiration from everyday life experiences, the places she’s been, the things she’s done and even things she sees on the news.  One of her books is a murder mystery set in Alaska. Her idea came from a report about some herring fishermen who  pulled up a skiff in the net instead of herring. She says, “Now I have all the pictures and videos of it so I can write about it and use it to my advantage in my murder mystery. I’m the type of person who has to get first hand experience in my research to make it real for the reader, even though what I write is fiction.” Continue reading “Meet the Author: Jacqueline Hopkins-Walton”