Today I’m happy to host Andrew H. Kuharevicz, author, poet, editor, blogger, and book-buyer and manager for the indie bookstores The Book Nook & Java Shop in Montague, Michigan, and The Book Nook Too in downtown Muskegon. Andrew is also the editor-in-chief of West Vine Press. He is the author of many volumes of poetry and prose, including most recently Okay Birds Quiet Please, a book of poems; Pickpocket of Reality, his fourth poetry and prose collection; and the novel, The Future Book of War, the final volume of the Adventures of a Dying Young Man series.
Recently I posed some questions to Andrew. Here’s what he told me.
DL: Could you tell us a little about yourself?
AHK:A little about myself? What … self? Ok, where to start. Right off the bat a very loaded question but here I go:
I’m an American citizen, a human and all around pretty normal sorta guy who lives in a sleepy sorta town in Michigan named Montague. I run a bookstore called, The Book Nook & Java Shop. In my opinion, one of the best indie bookshops in the world. I’m biased but yeah, we’re on the smaller side but we do move a lot of books. There’s a full bar and a stage, which in non-pandemic years features author readings and music three or five days a week. Basically, my life feels like a dream. I mean I get to sell books for a living, something numerous people said wasn’t possible in the modern United States economy.
Today, I live a much different life than I did when I was younger. Instead of a wandering writer where I prepared for chaos each day I woke up, I now live a somewhat reasonable stable existence, I’m a father to two great kids, Sawyer (2) and Lucy (6 weeks), so they keep my wife and me pretty darn busy. Often it feels like real life is the novel, and that somehow, I just ended up here.
Prior to the Book Nook, I worked in a crazy pharmacy for a couple years in Downtown Muskegon, but before that I traveled the country as an idealistic young writer for about ten years. That happened after I moved to Ann Arbor and was fired from a job at a wine store. Back then I wanted to write and not sell wine, drink wine, not sell wine. I wasn’t ready to settle down yet so getting the boot I got on the road. I graduated from Western Michigan University, majoring in Sociology and Criminal Justice, with a minor in philosophy. Furthering my education, because I didn’t want to get stuck in my hometown, I started grad school studying Philosophy of the Mind. I dropped out, though, by the second semester because get this, I just wanted to write.
I grew up in Roosevelt Park in Muskegon, going to Catholic School from grades 1-12. Other than my parents, my grandmother was the most important person in my life. She was one of the only people who would sit and listen to me read my material. But writing isn’t something I developed when I was young. My first love was baseball, and during the summer I’d ride my bike every day with the other kids in the neighborhood to the little league field and we’d play until sunset. I continued playing baseball in high school and my first year of college.
During my last semester in university, The Stranger by Albert Camus was assigned by a criminology professor. I stayed up all night devouring the book, and when I got to the end, I decided that I was going to be a writer. After that I lived in many states, and worked many strange jobs. As they say, it’s a long and winding road, but I’ll stop there.
DL: Tell us about your latest books and works in progress.
AHK: Most recently, the end of 2019, I published a big novel that I worked on for about six years, The Future Book of War. It’s a stand-alone novel that takes place in the world of the main protagonist named Henry Oldfield. You can call it a series because he is featured in more than one book I’ve written, but you don’t have to read any others to enjoy the others. Each of the five novels that make up The Adventures of a Dying Young Man Saga is a complete story with a beginning and an end. But if you want to know more, you can read another one, which layers the story with a fuller picture. The overall story is about a boy born dumb who wanders the last years of what we know as the United States before it becomes something different and new. The Future Book of War is a book I’m very proud of and was influenced by Kurt Vonnegut and also, e.e. Cummings’s The Enormous Room.
Other than my novel-length books, I also work on poetry, mostly spontaneous and in the vein of the Beat Generation. My most recent book-bound publication was a book titled Pickpocket of Reality, words about Manhattan, where I go just about every year for the Book Expo. Inside of Pickpocket of Reality you’ll read words about cats and there’s also poems about water, writing, and running a bookshop during the technological age. Basically, just life ya dig.
Also, my best-selling collection is a book that I got to read in the Village in Manhattan at this Lit-Pub named The KGB. It was the highlight of my writing career reading with other poets and friends at a place that is rich with so much history of great writers. The book I was reading from is called Okay Birds Quiet Please, and is more of the same. Just a book about writing, the love of life and the world at large, as well as the society we live in. It’s full of contradictions, just as we as a people are. It’s about silence and the moment before you start the tap… tap … tap, which is what I call typing on a typewriter.
Lastly, and briefly, I’ll be having a new book coming out in the next couple months. It’s a mix of creative nonfiction, poetry and journalism, typed up on a typewriter and titled, In Madness We Spring: Novel Words During A Pandemic. It tells the story of the first days of the Covid-19 outbreak up until the Michigan Stay at Home Order ended. It’s from the perspective of a small business owner and the pandemic, really uncharted and crazy times; In Madness We Spring will be out the end of September/Early October, published by West Vine Press, an indie from Michigan, for which I also act as an editor.
DL: Why do you write? What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?
AHK: The question why I write is a good question. Also, a question I’ve forgotten about as my writing life has aged. So, I’ve written or edited in ninety-five percent of the days that make up the last ten years or so of my life. Hemingway said (and I paraphrase) that a writer is only a writer if they write, also, that when you are a writer you should restrain from talking so much. So maybe that’s why I write. To communicate with both myself and my expanded human family.
Writing is of course artistic, but art is still created for some kind of cause. A reason, if you will, and as you get older you often forget about the why; simply, art becomes part of you, a routine, something you do, like breathing, there’s always a reason but when it becomes habit, the reason disappears. Like brushing your teeth. Not sure if that’s a good answer, but I write to see what’s going on. I write to dig into my mind. I write to have fun. I write to talk and I write to predict the future. Ha.
Honestly, I write because I love to write, and as far as what I want to accomplish with my writing, well, back when I was just starting out I did it because I wanted to be the best writer to ever live. How outrageous is that? I was young and words were magic back then. I wanted to write the Great American Novel, living a life like Hunter S. Thompson and Henry Miller had done. Of course, that was naïve, but I had one hell of a time believing that was possible. But these days I just want to release books and try and get better with every new project I start. Being a specific type of writer, a so-called big-time successful author, isn’t Important to me, I just want to write and the only way to accomplish that is by, well, writing.
DL: Please talk about your writing process. Where do your ideas come from? What is your favorite part of the process? Least favorite?
AHK: I have two ways I write. One for long-form (fiction, novel, short stories, and creative nonfiction) and another process for poetry.
For long-form writing projects, first, I mentally prepare for the writing process weeks and sometimes months before I even start the first draft. In the morning on some random day, I come up with a story in my head, I think it over, and play it out in my mind. I let it simmer if you will. Then when I’m ready to write, I pick a typewriter, each new book I write needs a new typewriter, one just right, fitting of the vibe if that’s possible, one to match the feeling of the story I’m going to tell.
Then, I place the typewriter somewhere in an isolated room, with no internet, no distractions, nature can be there but that’s it. Next, I place a blank piece of paper in, and just start typing. No breaks, little care for spelling and punctuation; I type for one straight hour every day until the story is done. I end each session during the first draft when I know what will happen next, so tomorrow I can pick up where I last ended and have no road blocks following the story.
It takes a good year for the first draft. Often more than one, and when I’m done there’s a stack of paper that I take and copy-write/edit into the second draft into the computer. After that’s done I edit it again multiple times and pick out a good font and change the size of the paper. Writing a long-form book is like sculpting, or building a good house, it takes time.
When I was in college, my friend who taught at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, said he liked my writing, but I needed to learn to edit more. So, I took that to heart and now my favorite part of the writing process is editing, I don’t know why, most writers say they dislike that aspect but to me that’s when what you’ve written really becomes something real, a world in-itself, self-sustaining with ozone and all.
As far as my poetry, I use whatever I have. I sketch ideas and pseudo-haikus down in notepads, type some disorganized poetics on a typewriter, write on my hand if I have an aha moment.
Writing poetry is like journalism to me, most of the truest pieces I’ve written have happened during the waiting moments of life, such as in airports, on flights, waiting for the bus, or just sitting by Lake Michigan for fifteen minutes during the middle of the afternoon. I can write a poem anywhere, it’s much freer than the long-form writing process.
DL: Could you reflect a bit on what writing or being a writer has meant for you and your life?
AHK: The label of being a writer means nothing to me. I write because I like to do it. I have things to say, stories to tell, so I say and write them. But if I try to give you a better answer…
Writing has made me who I am, opened my mind, refined my critical thinking skills, opened up the world, like a Copernican Revolution, and it’s humbled me, connected me to other writers and poets all around the world. Writing has created a path for me, and writing, it’s how I ended up here, today, now.
DL: What are links to your books, website, and blog so readers can learn more about you and your work?
AHK: Below are links to my blog, and my publisher, West Vine Press; a Facebook page of the creative process of my current project; and direct links where you can purchase some books if you’d like to.
Andrew H. Kuharevicz blog: adventuresinamericanwriting.com
The Future Book of War: https://www.buybooknookbooks.com/product/the-future-book-of-war-by-andrew-h-k-/4662?cs=true
Pickpocket of Reality: https://www.buybooknookbooks.com/product/pickpocket-of-reality-by-andrew-k-/4794?cs=true
Okay Birds Quiet Please: https://www.buybooknookbooks.com/product/okay-birds-quiet-please-by-andrew-k/4795?cs=true
More can be found here . . . go to Buy Books Here and scroll to bottom of page: westvinepress.com
The Novel streaming first draft From Author Andrew H. K.: https://www.facebook.com/thenovelahk/
Today’s guest: Jeffrey Schoenherr
With so many cancellations of in-person author events due to World War C, I’m devoting my blog to Indie Monday interviews for the coming months to help my fellow authors with promotion. I’ll be featuring indie and small-press authors who produce quality work outside the boundaries and strictures of the traditional mass-produced, mass-marketed commercial publishing world and traditional bookstore shelves.
Today I’m happy to host prolific children’s book author Jeffrey Schoenherr. A native of Michigan, Jeffrey is the author of five well-received illustrated books: Lillie Saves the Day (2013), Lillie and Hamlet Meet Their Special Friends (2016), Hamlet Goes to School (2019), Lillie and Hamlet and the Baby in the Tree (2019), and his newest, Lillie’s Big Parade (2020).
Recently I posed some questions to Jeffrey. Here’s what he told me.
DL: Could you tell us a little about yourself?
JS: I was raised on a farm in White Cloud, Michigan. I came from a family of eight, so you know the fun never stops. We are close and I always use them to throw around my ideas for books. It helps to keep me on track. I now live in Mt Clemens, Michigan. I have two children. My daughter is in college, and my son just finished his degree. I have five Lillie book’s out now: Lillie Saves the Day, Lillie’s Big Parade, Lillie and Hamlet Meet Their Special Friends, Lillie and Hamlet and the Baby in the Tree, and Hamlet Goes to School. There is also a new series on the way.
DL: Tell us about your latest book and works in progress.
JS: My latest children’s book should be out by early August. It’s called Smitty’s Great Escape.
It’s a true story about my grandfather and his dog. This was something that happened when I was a young kid. I almost always use real-life events for my books. The story is about a boxer dog who knows how to escape from his dog pen.
I am working on a story about a Scottish lad as well. I hope to have it out this year as well. I have several more Lillie books in the works and I am working on a story of a Gulf War veteran. This book is a little more challenging.
DL: Why do you write? What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?
JS: I had these memories in my mind about things that happened when I was growing up, and I always thought they would make great stories. When something stands out so much in your mind, I knew I had to get the stories out there. My mother won the Detroit News spelling bee long ago and was an avid reader. She really was and is the inspiration for all of my Lillie books. Her name was Lillian, a very kind woman who shared the value of treating people and animals with love and care.
One time we had a baby piglet that wasn’t going to make it. My mom brought the piglet in the house and started feeding it with an eyedropper. Pretty soon we had an eight-pound piglet in the kitchen! The piglet thought that my mom was his mom as well.
My hope is that these books will help children learn to read and be better people. When you hear numbers like 50% of children can’t read, it’s time to help change the trend.
DL: Please talk about your writing process. Where do your ideas come from? What is your favorite part of the process? Least favorite?
JS: My writing process is more or less using memories I have and composing the thoughts to paper. It’s usually writing the outline of the story, then rereading it. I usually write the stories out freehand and then I can move the pieces around until I’m happy with the results. Then I type it out. With children’s books, the slow process is the illustrations. So it’s a bit of hurry up and wait. I also have stories that have just popped into my mind and I again put the ideas on paper. The average children’s book takes about a year to complete, start to finish.
My favorite part of the process is seeing the story come to life and my least favorite is waiting to complete it.
DL: Could you reflect a bit on what writing or being a writer has meant for you and your life?
JS: As I reflect on writing, I never really thought that I would be a writer. I sort of think that the stories chose me. I was compelled to write the first book, Lillie Saves the Day. To be honest, when I saw the book finally completed, I cried. I never felt so accomplished. That lead me to write the next book, and then it made me push to get more books out.
What helped was when I had a Name the Pig Contest. I asked the kids from my old elementary school, White Cloud Elementary, to come up with several names. The teachers loved the idea. The kids came up with fifteen names. I chose the name that I thought fit the story. (I actually asked my oldest sister what name she liked out of the fifteen names the kids gave me. She chose the same one that I did.) The kids had all voted on the names.
I went to the school and announced the winning name. There was a whole gym filled with kids and teachers. When I announced “Hamlet” was the name, they all cheered. It was amazing. I never felt that way. It was overwhelming. As all the kids left the gym, the kids hugged me, they thanked me, they high-fived me. I knew then that I would continue to put out good feel-good stories for these little people. I’m proud to be a writer.
DL: What are links to your books, website, and blog so readers can learn more about you and your work?
JS: As of now I have my books on Amazon and am working on a new website. My Amazon Author’s Page is:
https://www.amazon.com/Jeffrey-Schoenherr/e/B00GHZ3FZY/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Today’s guest: Linda Jarkey
With so many cancellations of in-person author events due to World War C, I’m devoting my blog to Indie Monday interviews for the coming months to help my fellow authors with promotion. I’ll be featuring indie and small-press authors who produce quality work outside the boundaries and strictures of the traditional mass-produced, mass-marketed commercial publishing world and traditional bookstore shelves.
Today I’m delighted to host multi-talented children’s author, educator, travel writer, photographer, and world traveler Linda Jarkey. A resident of metropolitan Detroit, Linda has served as a secondary language arts teacher, public school administrator, and assistant professor at the university level. She earned her Master of Arts in Teaching from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and her doctorate in leadership in administration from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She is the author of the first book in a projected series, Sadie Sees Trouble (Front Edge Publishing, 2019; illustrated by Julie Jarkey-Kozlowski).
Recently I posed some questions to Linda. Here’s what she told me.
DL: Could you tell us a little about yourself?
LJ: I was born and raised in Michigan, and my sister, Julie and I grew up on the east side in what is now called Eastpointe. My childhood was a bit unorthodox, as I didn’t live in a house until I started school. Our dad was an entertainer, a stand-up comedian and Master of Ceremonies, and we traveled across the U.S. living in hotels. The love of travel and learning about people whose ways were different from ours undoubtedly sprang from these early experiences.
My career was spent mostly in education as a teacher, administrator and assistant college professor. I’ve also worked in retail, sales and marketing, and as a travel company spokesperson at trade shows. Travel writing and photography are also great enthusiasms of mine, and through the travel company advertising, my photographs have appeared in magazines such as The Smithsonian and National Geographic.
DL: Tell us about your latest book and works in progress.
LJ: My book, Sadie Sees Trouble, is a story in verse about a little dog, Sadie, whose life is turned upside down when her little girl Penny gets a tablet for her birthday and stops paying attention to Sadie. It’s an invitation to parents to engage children with the tale of Sadie as she tries to lure Penny back into active play around their home. Responding to nationwide calls by educators to reduce screen time
among young children, my sister, illustrator Julie Jarkey-Kozlowski, and I developed this first book in a projected series of Sadie stories so that it literally opens doors in family literacy.
What doors? Well, first, the doors to your kitchen cabinets! My sister Julie did the illustrations using food items, such as mustard for Sadie, and strawberries, blueberries, coffee, and beet juice. The components are listed at the back of the book. Young readers, using Q-Tips, can color the pages this way, too. After reading the story, readers can also visit this website to download free black-and-white illustrations of Sadie and Penny to become a lively part of their story.
I currently have three works in progress. The first is a photo essay about The Hill of Crosses in Lithuania. What started in the late 1800’s as a small memorial to local men lost in the fight for freedom, has turned into an international monument to all those lost in the fight for liberation. It is quite an experience to walk among the hundreds of thousands of crosses of all sizes placed there by folks from all over the world.
The second project is the second “Sadie” story, and the third is a book about my journey through Iran.
DL: Why do you write? What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?
LJ: I don’t know why I write. It’s just something I’ve always done, even as a child. Early on, I wrote mostly for fun and friends in the form of comic poems, song parodies and mental musings. Sadie Sees Trouble was the first serious piece of writing I had the confidence to share. I felt the messages in the story were timely and relevant; parents and educators around the world were waking up to the need to limit children’s screen time. I also felt the story could provide parents a fun and interactive way to approach a difficult topic such as reduced screen time and making healthy choices.
What I hope to accomplish with the travel writing is to open windows on the world for readers. I especially want to share how people across the globe are really more alike than we are different. Governments and politics aside, people share many of the same hopes and dreams for a better life for their children. From Azerbaijan to Uzbekistan, I have been impressed with the kindness and hospitality of the people, the richness of the unique cultures and the amazing food. Ah, the food!
DL: Please talk about your writing process. Where do your ideas come from? What is your favorite part of the process? Least favorite?
LJ: This may sound silly, but most of my ideas come to me in dreams, or in that half- awake state just this side of dreamland. A person or incident may be the catalyst for an idea. For example, I observed a family in a restaurant. Both the mom and dad were focused on their phones. Their little boy, about 4 years of age, kept trying to get his mom’s attention. Finally, he squirmed out of his seat, crawled under the table, and tried to climb into his father’s lap. That scene made my heart hurt. It bounced around in my head for a while and one day, the story of Sadie and Little Penny came to me in a dream, complete with illustrations.
I keep a notebook by my bed to catch ideas. The hardest part is forcing myself to get up and write them down immediately. Then comes the fleshing out of the details, and the rewriting, rewriting, rewriting. My least favorite part of the writing process is just getting started. Putting those first words and ideas down can be so difficult at times. The best part is when the project starts to come together.
DL: Could you reflect a bit on what writing or being a writer has meant for you and your life?
LJ: Although I’ve had articles published in educational journals and magazines, I never really thought of myself as a writer. It wasn’t until the publication of Sadie Sees Trouble, and being introduced as an author that it became real to me. I had wanted to be a writer/journalist in high school, and it’s taken decades for that dream to come true. Being a published author has been one of the great joys of my life.
Doing school readings and coloring crafts and seeing how the children respond to the story of Sadie has been very rewarding and encouraging. The positive feedback on the travel writing validates that I have something share that is informative and entertaining. It is a heady feeling that brings not only joy, but the responsibility to keep going.
DL: What are links to your books, website, and blog so readers can learn more about you and your work?
LJ: The website for the book is: www.sadieseestrouble.com.
My Amazon page is: https://www.amazon.com/Linda-Jarkey/e/B07H24PYYT?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1593201609&sr=1-1
My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/LindaJarkeyAuthor/.
Today’s guest: A. Kidd
With so many cancellations of in-person author events due to World War C, I’m devoting my blog to Indie Monday interviews for the coming months to help my fellow authors with promotion. I’ll be featuring indie and small-press authors who produce quality work outside the boundaries and strictures of the traditional mass-produced, mass-marketed commercial publishing world and traditional bookstore shelves.
Today I’m delighted to host children’s author A. Kidd. A resident of the Detroit metropolitan area, she has a B.S. in Written Communication with a minor in Language, Literature, and Writing from Eastern Michigan University, and an MLIS with a specialization in children’s librarianship from Wayne State University. Her poetry has been published in literary magazines. She is also an artist and a performance poet. She is the author of her debut novel, The Healing Star (Quiet Storm Publishing, 2019).
Recently I posed some questions to A. Kidd. Here’s what she told me.
DL: Could you tell us a little about yourself?
AK: I’m a dreamer and a kid at heart, thus my name suits me. I’ve been going on adventures, some planned and some unplanned, since I was little. I’m the middle child of three girls, so I’ve always struggled to have a voice. But once I found it, specifically through writing, there was no stopping it. I made up stories before I could write and even drew the pictures. I created my first picture book in high school Spanish class. Imagine trying to write a story in a language you barely understand!
I’m also a published poet. I learned how to tell an engaging story through performance poetry. I studied journalism, which helped me see the value in research. I loved talking to people to discover their stories, until one day I realized I wanted to tell my own stories. I’m also a children’s librarian. As you can imagine, being around all those books was very inspiring!
DL: Tell us about your latest book and works in progress.
AK: My debut novel is The Healing Star, a light middle-grade fantasy for grades 3-6. In it, stars with healing powers are falling from the sky. Feisty 4thgrader Julia is trying to catch one to save her grandma’s life. Grammu has the invisibility illness and will eventually completely disappear. But if Julia catches a falling star, then her wish will be granted, and her grandma will become well again.
The book is a timeless tale that can be read together as a family.
I don’t like to reveal too much about my works in progress, but I’m currently revising a YA environmental dystopian with dual perspectives. I also have another middle-grade fantasy percolating about a girl born during a hurricane who is trying to save her family, and possibly the entire world, from falling apart.
DL: Why do you write? What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?
AK: I write because I can’t NOT write. It pours out of me, sometimes in drips and drabs, other times in gushes. Especially right now, when the world seems a little bit off its axis, so to speak.
I write the way I see the world and hope to share my insights with others: to make people laugh until they cry, or cry until they laugh.
I especially want to encourage children and adults to write their own stories and to find the courage to share them.
DL: Please talk about your writing process. Where do your ideas come from? What is your favorite part of the process? Least favorite?
AK: Is it annoying if I say my ideas come from the ether and that I pluck them from the sky like wishes? But truly, I often come up with ideas while jogging or doing dishes or daydreaming. Anytime I quiet my mind and give it a chance to speak.
I love the idea stage and letting my hand run across the page while I try to keep up with it. I’m less fond of revising, but I’m starting to get the courage to do it. When I’m able to carve away at those initial ideas and refine my work into something even deeper and more satisfying than my initial vision, I know the extra effort was worth it.
My advice to children and anyone is to write the most exciting part first. Then fill in the rest. The connections and details will follow.
DL: Could you reflect a bit on what writing or being a writer has meant for you and your life?
AK: Writing has saved my life over and over. One time I quite literally fell on my face while jogging, and it was only through writing that I had the courage to get back up. I was terrified of the sidewalk for a while. I had to learn to trust my own two feet again. The blank page can be just as scary. Sometimes we have to learn to embrace the unknown. And to find our voice in the chaos swirling around us. It starts with just one step or one word.
DL: What are links to your books, website, and blog so readers can learn more about you and your work?
My FaceBook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/A.Kiddwrites/
Twitter: @AKiddwrites
Instagram: a.kiddwrites
Email: a.kiddwrites@gmail.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50161788-the-healing-star
Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733899200
Universal Book Link for eBook: https://books2read.com/TheHealingStar
Today’s guest: J. Q. Rose
With so many cancellations of in-person author events due to World War C, I’m devoting my blog to Indie Monday interviews for the coming months to help my fellow authors with promotion. I’ll be featuring indie and small-press authors who produce quality work outside the boundaries and strictures of the traditional mass-produced, mass-marketed commercial publishing world and traditional bookstore shelves.
Today I’m happy to host prolific author J. Q. Rose. A resident of Western Michigan, she has written both fiction and nonfiction. Her nonfiction books include Girls Succeed!: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women (2014), Romance and Mystery Authors on Writing: Tips on the Writing Process, Publishing and Marketing (2015), Your Words, Your Life Stories: A Guide for Sharing Memories (2019), and Quick Tips on Vegetable Gardening: Starting Your Garden (2015). Her mysteries published by Books We Love Publishing are Terror on Sunshine Boulevard (2nd ed., 2019), Deadly Undertaking (2nd ed., 2019), and Dangerous Sanctuary (2nd ed., 2019).
Recently I posed some questions to J.Q. Here’s what she told me.
DL: Could you tell us a little about yourself?
JQR: Hello Readers! Thank you, Don, for hosting me on your blog today! The trip from beautiful West Michigan to your place in cyberspace was lovely. I look forward to interacting with your readers.
Whether the story is fiction or non-fiction, I am “focused on story.” I offer readers chills, giggles, and quirky characters woven within the pages of my mystery books. Using my storytelling skills, I provide entertainment and information in articles featured in books, magazines, newspapers, and online magazines. With my non-fiction book for girls, Girls Succeed! Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women, I returned to my first love, writing about real people.
I taught elementary school for several years and never lost the love for teaching passed down from my teacher grandmother and mother. I satisfies the teaching aspect of my character by presenting workshops on Creative Writing and Writing Your Life Story.
When I’m not writing, I enjoy photography, playing Pegs and Jokers board games, and traveling with my husband. We spend winters in Florida and summers up north with our four grandsons and granddaughter.
DL: Tell us about your latest book and works in progress.
I am a life storytelling evangelist! I believe every person’s story is important and should be shared as a gift to family and friends and/or published to get their message out into the hands of readers.
In November I self-published a journal, Your Words, Your Life Story: A Journal for Sharing Memories.The low content paperback book offers folks who are interested in telling their life story ways to begin what seems like an overwhelming project. I break it down into small bites. For folks who are not writers, I encourage them to use audio or video to tell their stories and suggest programs (apps) to do so.
For those who prefer to read eBooks, Your Words, Your Life Story: A Guide for Sharing Memories is also available with all the information, inspiring quotes and exercises as in the journal. You will have to provide your own journal or notebook. This is available at Amazon and major online booksellers.
At the moment I am writing a memoir, which is just one slice of a person’s entire life story. My husband and I pursued our dream of being entrepreneurs in the floral industry. So the story of the first year is about our move to a small town in Michigan to start our business. We did not have friends or family there, nor did we have any experience in selling flowers or operating a business. The only way to explain our bold move is that we were young. The book, Arranging a Dream: A Memoir,will be released January 2021 by BWL Publishing.
DL: Why do you write? What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?
JQR: Because I am a wordsmith and love putting words together to make a story. What do you hope to accomplish with your writing? My purpose in writing fiction and non-fiction is to entertain and enlighten readers.
DL: Please talk about your writing process. Where do your ideas come from? What is your favorite part of the process? Least favorite?
JQR: My mysteries are sparked by news stories. Real life can be as unbelievable as fiction, so I tweak and twist the true life story to a fictional story filled with quirky characters and humor. My non-fiction books are about what interests me such as gardening, inspiring young girls to follow their dream and encouraging folks to write life stories.
My favorite part of the process is beginning the story where so many possibilities for characters, settings and twists in the story are available. My least favorite is culling out all the words, paragraphs or chapters that do not add anything to the premise of the book.
DL: Could you reflect a bit on what writing or being a writer has meant for you and your life?
JQR: Connections. Writing is a solitary job. I am so glad my crit group talked me into trying to publish my first novel. I almost felt guilty if I didn’t try after all the meetings we’d had together and the suggestions and thoughts they had on that story. If I hadn’t continued to write and publish, I would have missed so much. I made friends through writing that I could never have made. My horizon has widened by meeting folks from all over the world! I have plugged into thoughts from very smart people who share their world view so different from mine. I have connected with readers.
But the best part . . . my granddaughter thinks I’m famous! I took her with me to visit a talented children’s author in our town. My granddaughter chose a picture book and Jane autographed it for her. When we returned to the car, Aubrey said, “Now I know two famous people.”
“Two famous people? Who are they?”
She replied, “Jane and You!”
DL: What are links to your books, website, and blog so readers can learn more about you and your work?
JQR: An up-to-date list of my books with blurbs and buy links is available on the page on my blog: https://www.jqrose.com/p/fiction-sunshine-boulevard-available.html.
Readers can connect online with me at my JQ Rose Blog—Focused on Story https://www.jqrose.com/.
Readers can click here to sign up for the J.Q. Rose Courier, delivered once a month to your inbox to keep up-to-date on news, sneak peaks, giveaways and fun from JQ: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/m7v2z3
Your Words, Your Life Stories: A Journal for Sharing Memories is available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1702360571. The e-book version is available at Amazon and major online booksellers: https://books2read.com/u/4ExnDY.
My Facebook group to support those who are telling their stories, “Telling Your Life Story and Memoirs Circle” group, is accessible at https://www.facebook.com/groups/telllifestories/.
