Category: Interviews

Epic fantasy author Terry Simpson came to the U.S. in 1986 from the Caribbean island of Barbados.  In his youth, he enjoyed reading the works of authors like Louis L’amour’s and Don Pendleton. He later came to love books by fantasy authors such as Robert Jordan, Jim Butcher, Terry Goodkind , Brandon Sanderson, George RR Martin, Brian Lumley, Laura K Hamilton and others. He has also read indie authors David Dalglish, Daniel Arenson, Sean Sweeney just to name a few.

Terry describes his writing as action oriented, descriptive, and at times dark. “I think what sets my writing apart is my ability to weave my setting within my scenes and dialogue and create a certain tension for my readers. I’ve also been told that my strength is in my action scenes, which many call vivid and movie like,” he says. Continue reading “Meet the Author: Terry Simpson”

Reese Ring was the very first author to reach out to me when I first dared proclaim myself an author. She was my introduction to the indie author community, and she made an excellent ambassador. If you don’t know her, you should.

Reese’s current title is, ” On the Arm of a Player.” This is a story about a highly-paid escort in a quiet New England town who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation gone awry.

Though she’s always enjoyed writing, Reese said she really felt driven to write this novel. Her characters began “talking” to her one day and they were quite a strong and persistent group of individuals. Continue reading “Meet the Author: Reese Ring”

This may alarm the stodgy crowd at the writer’s workshop, but poet and author Kristina Jackson is about to shake things up. Her soulful poetry and her avante-garde writing offer readers something fresh and different. “I try and tell the story rather than write the words,” says Kristina.

Kristina believes a book should sing, not merely speak, and that it is a mistake to pursue technical perfection at the expense of good story-craft.  “Too many writers are getting caught up in believing a well edited book is the same as a well written book. Sometimes editing takes over the storyline. As such we need to be aware of both,” she says.

“I want people to be transported to where the story is, see, smell, touch, experience,” she says. Her writing achieves that effect in an unusual way. Speaking from my own experience in reading her work, I felt very much as if I were sitting around a campfire and hearing her tell the stories. This is an effect I think many writers would find difficult to pull off, but Kristina does it well. Continue reading “Meet the Author: Kristina Jackson”

Meet author Michael Edward “Ed” McNally. Ed is the author of what he describes as an epic “Musket and Magic” fantasy series, collectively called the Norothian Cycle. Though the novels may be classified as fantasy, genre labels don’t mean much to Ed. He considers himself a fiction-writer whose work contains characters like dragons, samurai, knights and devils. You want to slap a label on that? Knock yourself out.

Ed grew up reading fantasy classics, but says, “. . . to me a lot of the fantasy books coming out now seem to revel in darkness to an extent that makes them as tedious and painful as the national news.” Continue reading “Meet the Author: Michael Edward McNally”