Interview with Annamarie Gardner | Poet and Author

Amanda: Give us a quick introduction to you. Published books, what you write, etc. 

Annamarie: Young Fae published Nov 2018 and Mysterious Fae will be published July 2019. I write PNR, poems, horror, erotica, and various types of anthology. 

Amanda: Favorite book you’ve published so far?

Annamarie: Young Fae was such a learning experience for me. I learned a lot about making my characters real and how to tell a story with more detail.

Amanda: Most fun character to write? Favorite character to write? (Because they can definitely be different. ;) ) Hardest to write? 

Annamarie: Asha had so much happen to her that I loved writing her story. Solesis was hard for me as I never really wrote a bad guy before.

Amanda: Did you like to read as a child? Favorite book? Do you still have that book or reread it now?

Annamarie: I have loved to read since age five. My favorite book was Little Women and I still have a copy of it. That is my comfort read. I am reading it this summer with my daughter. 

Amanda: Have you always been a writer/storyteller? How did you start?

Annamarie: Yes I always would tell stories to my friends and this led to me writing out my stories I would tell.

Amanda: Do you write to music? If so, what kind? I love to hear about new music!

Annamarie: Sometimes I listen to music or will have the tv on for background noise. With music its usually country or its whatever links my friends send me.

Amanda: I know for me, there have been some funny stories since I’ve been deep in the trenches of writing. Like a realization about a work in progress or characters (the funniest has to do with the song Mirrors by JT.) Do you have any funny stories that you’d like to share?

Annamarie: I was writing a sex scene and listening to the song " Knockin Boots" and ended up having to rewrite the scene because the song bled into the scene and it didn't flow right.

Amanda: Do you have a typical process or any writing rituals? Anything you have to have with you while writing? (Besides computer, paper, typewriter, whichever…) 

Annamarie: I have to have soda and snacks, usually chocolate or chips. 

Amanda: Who is a character that has influenced you (not from your books)?

Annamarie: So many characters, but right now it would be Gaston from Ja LaFrances Gaston's Confession. He took a big risk and faced and owned up to who he really is. 

Amanda: Which of your characters would you least want to go on a road trip with? Why? Most want to? 

Annamarie: Solesis because he is greedy, selfish, and not a nice guy. Draven would be fun to travel with as he has a great sense of humor and is so informative.

Amanda: Top three favorite books and authors right now. 

Annamarie: Sweet Treats Cafe: Blood Orange Sunday by Leah Negron

From the Darkness by Ja LaFrance

Cocksman by AR Vidal

Amanda: Favorite writing craft book or resource?

Annamarie: I love using the forums at Camp Nano they are great resource and if you are on Facebook another amazing resource is Alessandra Torres Inkers. Also feel free to reach out to other indie authors, most like to help out.

This or that:

Strawberry vs. Chocolate 

Poetry vs. Fiction

First draft vs. Editing

T. V. Show vs. Movie

Book vs. Movie

Hero vs. Villain 

Villiain vs. Anti-Hero

Witch vs. Vampire

E-book vs. Physical Book 

Tea vs. Coffee

Amanda: Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on now?

Annamarie: Mysterious Fae has just finished edits and will release this month. I am currently writing my first horror story and loving it.

Amanda: Any last comments to share? :) 

Annamarie:
Please come check me out, I love to talk to readers. I will be at Authors in Steel City Sept 6 and 7th in Pittsburg. Right now General admission and VIP tickets are on sale half price.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-annual-authors-in-the-steel-city-tickets-50843630668 

AnnaMarie Gardner is a wife of 19 years with two incredible children. When she was younger, she found a love of the written word through poetry. While raising her family, she sadly stopped writing. Now that her children are in school she has found her way back to the written word. She not only writes poetry but has also started her sojourn into short stories. You can also see her writing many original stories during live writes. AnnaMarie beta read for several years before she decided to stretch her wings and rejoin the incredible world of writers.

You can find her work in :

The Psych Ward:: Poetry Of Nightmares & Horrorscapes

Coming soon : Strangers : A Steamy Anthology

Owning Emotions
 

Can find her poems published in:

The Triplet's Curse - Hope's Story: Book One

The Triplet's Curse - Destiny's Story: Book Two

Coming soon.Faith's Story

Aries Jones (Never Forget Book 3) 

Cursed By The Crown: Kumari's Kitsune

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Journal July Challenge!! #JournalJulyChallenge!!

I posted a little something about this to Instagram almost a week ago. (Yes, I'm on Instagram now. Have been for a little over a year. Here's my profile.) I'd been watching the YouTube channel Inky Leaves for a bit and was very into their journaling videos. In one video, Becky mentioned that she had been journaling for....I believe it was 180 consecutive days or something of the like. I thought that was am amazing idea but, even as an avid journaler, I was rather intimidated. So I decided that for June I would challenge myself to write every single day of the month. That was 30 days. Surely, I could do that. Well, turns out I did!! And I actually had journaled every day for the last week of May so I ended up with 36 days by the end of this challenge. And by then, it was really becoming ingrained into me as a habit. So after that, I decided I wanted to carry on this challenge into July. I kept this challenge to myself in June but I wanted to extend it to all of you in July!!

So here is my Journal July Challenge!!

It's quite simple. I challenge you all to journal 3 times a week for the rest of the month of July. That's 12 times for the rest of the month. Now, here's something important: do NOT stress about this challenge. I'm sharing it with you all because I love to journal and thought it would be cool to have a little challenge all together. If you don't journal three times a week, honestly, who cares?? What is the worse that can happen if you don't? The point is to TRY.

You can share posts on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc.) with the hashtag #JournalJulyChallenge . If you want to share it in your Instagram stories each day you do journal, that's great, too. You can just share posts or you can share pictures, posts and pictures etc. Your choice!! If you want to do short blog posts about it if you find benefits from it, that would be awesome. However you want to share, just tag the post #JournalJulyChallenge . And you can tag me in your posts if you like. I'll link my social media below. Before those, here are 23 prompts to help get you started if you need a little help getting started. Remember, no one else has to see it. It's your journal. It doesn't have to be "good". The handwriting can suck. You can write in sentences or bullet points or rhyme. Whatever. It can be ten pages or three or one or two lines!! Washi tape? Go for it! Not your thing. Leave it out! It's about trying and about how you want to try to journal. Play around and have fun!!

  23 Journal Prompts:

1. Introduce yourself to your journal.
2. Favorite hobbies and why.
3. Favorite books and why. (Top five if you can't narrow it down.)
4. Favorite song/music and why.
5. Favorite memory.
6. Tell your journal about your family.
7. Tell your journal about your best friends.
8. What did you want to be when you were a child?
9. Favorite film and why.
10. Favorite television show and why.
11. Your goals for the rest of the year.
12. Write a poem. (It doesn't have to be good!!)
13. Intentions for the day.
14. Write your dream day.
15. Ten biggest goals for your life.
16. Where do you most want to travel?
17. Write out one of your dreams.
18. List ten things you're grateful for. 
19. Copy down the lyrics to a favorite song.
20. Copy down a favorite poem.
21. List five favorite quotes.
22. Make a list of things you want to do this summer.
23. Write out some positive affirmations. 

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My Top Ten Favorite YouTubers

Hello, loves!! I'm going to be honest with you, I'm just starting out on this blogging once a week thing. Cross your fingers for me. For the first one I did pick a topic which would be a little bit easier to put together. I really like YouTube and there are some favorite YouTubers of mine that I thought I'd share in a quick blog post today. I'm going to list them out and tell a little tidbit about what they do. Each channel will also be linked if you click on their name. I hope you enjoy. And let me know some of your favorite YouTubers below. :)

1. Kalyn Nicholson

Lifestyle, organization, wellness, travel.

2. Koze

Daily coffee talks every other month.

3. Heart Breathings

Self-Publishing advice, writing advice, planners, advice on making and sticking to goals.

4. Lavendaire

Lifestyle, wellness, creativity.

5. Katytastic

BookTuber and AuthorTuber. Reading and writing vlogs, book hauls, etc.

6. Kate Cavanaugh

AuthorTuber. Lots of writing vlogs. Does writing experiments where she writes like a famous author for a day.

7. Erin May Henry

Mindset, business, social media, manifestation.

8. Rachelleea

Lifestyle, organization, motivation, routines.

9. Lindsay Cummings

AuthorTuber. Writing vlogs, writing and publishing tips.

10. Haley Cairo

Health, lifestyle, DIY, organization, motivation.

Summing up, four are AuthorTubers and/or BookTubers (not surprising, since I am an author). Five are mostly to do with lifestyle, organization, and the like. And one is a combination of lifestyle. manifestation, and business. And there are other YouTubers I really like but I was trying to make this my top ten. It wasn't super hard but it wasn't super easy. I pretty much went by who I've been watching most often this year. I also watch a lot of Marvel related videos. And a lot of interviews with Tom Hiddleston, Chris Evans, Robert Downey Junior, and David Tennant. As well as random writing, and planning videos. So do you follow anyone listed above? Any other YouTubers you love that you want to share? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!! <3

Interview with Alyson Hale | Author of the Rock Her Series

Amanda: Give us a quick introduction to you. Published books, what you write, etc.

Alyson: Hi everybody, I’m Alyson Hale and I write contemporary, erotic & rock star romance. So far I have published a short story anthology, the first three books of the Rock Her Series and Ready for Him, a standalone single dad/nanny romance.

Amanda: Favorite book you’ve published so far?

Alyson: Eddie and Elyza from Rock Her Long have really resonated, not only with me but also with readers. It was the first book where I said “screw it, I’m writing what I want to write” and it ended up being better than my other ones, so that’s my new author motto.

 

 

Amanda: Most fun character to write? Favorite character to write? (Because they can definitely be different. ;) ) Hardest to write?

Alyson: Writing Damien and Alex was fun because they’re so naughty and adventurous. I was able to bend the rules of the genre a little bit with them, which I liked. My favorite character will always be Madison Landers (Daley), the heroine of my current WIP (details coming soon!). Madison is also the hardest to write because her story is so complex.

 

 

Amanda: Did you like to read as a child? Favorite book? Do you still have that book or reread it now?

Alyson: I’ve been obsessed with books ever since I started reading at age four. My favorite book was Little Women. I read it so many times my copy fell apart, but I do have another version of it. Sadly, it’s not quite the same. I would love to reread it when I have time to sit down and do so.

Amanda: Little Women is also one of my favorites. 

 

 

Amanda: Have you always been a writer/storyteller? How did you start?

Alyson: I started writing when I was 14. My English teacher noticed I had a knack for storytelling and encouraged me to write a memoir. I couldn’t get through the memoir due to some events in my childhood being too fresh, but I do intend to write that someday. Before that, most of my storytelling was done in my private diary.

Amanda: Writing my memoir is on my list, too, but it's quite daunting.

Amanda: Do you write to music? If so, what kind? I love to hear about new music!

Alyson: I write to rock music (old and new, usually a specific playlist I’ve made for that book), 2000’s pop (especially P!nk and Kelly Clarkson), and Lindsey Stirling if I’m feeling whimsical.

Amanda: I love P!nk, Kelly Clarkson AND Lindsey Stirling!!

Amanda: I know for me, there have been some funny stories since I’ve been deep in the trenches of writing. Like a realization about a work in progress or characters (the funniest has to do with the song Mirrors by JT.) Do you have any funny stories that you’d like to share?

Alyson: Honestly, when I get done with a book it all feels like a fog. I couldn’t tell you even if there were. The act of writing a book is so exhausting!

But my husband does have a lovely quirk of looking right over my shoulder when I’m trying to write a sex scene. He always manages to pop up right at the wrong moment. So...that’s fun.

Amanda: Do you have a typical process or any writing rituals? Anything you have to have with you while writing? (Besides computer, paper, typewriter, whichever…)

Alyson: I usually have a billion Google Docs open with an outline, character sketches, the previous draft...I am a textbook plotter and it shows in the disorganized chaos that is my Google Drive.

Amanda: Who is a character that has influenced you (not from your books)?

Alyson: Jo March from Little Women. She is the first character that made me believe I could be a writer.

Amanda: I love Jo March.

Amanda: Which of your characters would you least want to go on a road trip with? Why? Most want to?

Alyson: Celeste Norman from my current WIP. She is a nightmare. I would totally rock the open road with Madison.

Amanda: Top three favorite books and authors right now.

Alyson: Most recently, I really enjoyed Hard Lesson by Savannah Skye, Pretty Reckless by Jane Anthony, and The Roommate Agreement by Emma Hart.

 

 

 

Amanda: Favorite writing craft book?

Alyson: Story Genius by Lisa Cron

 

 

This or that:

Strawberry vs. Chocolate - Chocolate

Poetry vs. Fiction - Fiction

First draft vs. Editing - First draft

T. V. Show vs. Movie - TV Show

Book vs. Movie - Book

Hero vs. Villain - Depends! But usually hero

Villiain vs. Anti-Hero - Anti-hero all the way

Witch vs. Vampire - Witch

E-book vs. Physical Book - Physical book

Tea vs. Coffee - Coffee

Amanda: Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on now?

Alyson: My current WIP is a rewrite of my first published work as a YA author under a different pseudonym. This time it’s 18+ and the storyline has more depth and romance and less of what I like to call “fluff drama.”

Amanda: Any last comments to share? :)

Alyson: You are the best, Amanda!! Thanks so much for having me.

Amanda: So glad to have you!! Thank you so much for being on the blog!! :)

 

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