Saturday 26 November 2016

It's Time Live On The Dark Side with PT Macias at Rukia Publishing #RPBP



Ooh it's a little dark in my author interview hot seat today as I welcome the fabulous PT Macias to chat with me about writing and her new book Lucifer which is on preorder now!



Read some tantilising excerpts here



On preorder now for Christmas Day delivery to your ereader!!

https://books2read.com/Lucifer
Follow Patricia on Goodreads click here

Hello Patricia and thank you for stepping into the author interview hot seat today.

​How long have you been a writer and how did you come to writing? How did you come up with your stories?

I’ve been writing since 2011 and it’s my passion. I always wanted to write but life happened. I regret that I set my dream aside for far too long. I started writing after dreaming my first series for a few months. Then I realized that I was dreaming about my characters and their stories. I ordered a laptop and started to write.

What are the best and the worst aspects of writing?
The best aspect of writing are the different realms and characters that talk to me. I hear their story and I absolutely love it! The worst aspect about writing is that I don’t have enough time to write.

What inspires you to write?
Everything inspires me to write. I get the majority of my stories in dreams. The landscape that I pass, the phrase in a song, and the word that I hear. The image takes place in my mind, the story, and the character takes over.

How do you conduct your research?
I researched about everything that I could locate about the Watchers, the fallen angels. I read about them in different scriptures from different books. I read everything I could find about demons.

What would your friends say is your best quality?
My friends would say that I’m very supportive and listen to their issues.
If you could share one thing about yourself that you would like readers
to know what would it be?

I would love to share that writing is my passion. I wanted to write since I was in middle school, but life happened. I’m thrilled that so many readers enjoy my stories.

Are reader reviews important to you?
The reader reviews are important to me because I value their opinion. I love to learn that I did achieve to take them to another world and for a moment they live there. I also use it as constructive criticism.

Do you have any blogs/websites?
Yes, I do. Here are my links.

http://www.myptmaciasbook.club/
http://ptmacias.com/
http://ptmacias.blogspot.com/

What do you do when you don’t write?

I love to spend time with my family, and I especially love my grandchildren.

Tell us about your other books?
Oh yeah, I have several series.

The De La Cruz Saga
The hot-blooded De La Cruz Saga familia battles the deadly Mexican cartel to protect their fortune, amor (love) and familia (family). They encounter romance, tantalizing ecstasy, and danger. Dare to read the awesome De La Cruz Saga!

Razer 8

Razer 8 takes you into the world of organized crime, kidnapping, politics, military romance and suspense thriller. Delta Force Elite Ops are full of passion. Enjoy these amazing passionate men, a thrilling ride of suspense, and a dash of love. Razor 8 team operatives are an offensive team working against the drug cartel, drug dealers, and all types of terrorist groups. The U.S. Delta Force Special Operatives Unit, organized for the conduct of missions, requires that the Delta Force team be highly adaptable and completely self-sufficient. These men know that they can rely on one another when they have no one else. This is their new family!

When one mission ends another begins.
When you think you are safe you realize there is more danger ahead…

Tequila 10
Tequila 10 is a new series, full of paranormal entities.
Werewolves, vampiers, dragons, a weretiger, and a sorcerer are the supernatural personalities and realm's enforcers. The special operatives work with the government, using their special abilities but they also have their own agenda. Special operatives monitor the supernatural community, even as they are swept into a whirlwind of love, secrets, truths, and untold passions. The supernatural realms are threatened and endangered. Time is running out! The enforcers are desperate to stop the menace.

Secret Sexy Passions

This series is hot and sexy. An incredible journey of love, surrender, and passion.

Alpha Shifters Love
Alpha Shifters Love series is about sexy alpha shifters love big beautiful women.

Romancing Shifters Paranormal Fantasy Series
This series includes all of these realms since all of my series connect.
Dragon Blood Legacy, Wolff Dynasty, Vhampiers Realm. and Archaica Empire!

What can you tell us about Lucifer, your new book, due for release on Christmas Day?

Well if I share the synopsis with you I think you will have a pretty goo idea of what's in store!
Lucifer, the first fallen angel, is the banished to Hell. Lucifer, the angel of light, the morning star fights for his soul, and sanity deep in the fiery pits of hell. 

Angel Sofiel is an angel in training and waiting for her assignment. She misses Lucifer in the lecture halls and decides to pay him a visit. 

He's naughty, oh so naughty! Lucifer is up to no good! He's sinfully hot, brutally honest, and utterly lonely! 

Angel Sofiel, is desperate to provide solace, her soul, and companionship. She's anxious to set free his tormented soul, and she holds the key.

Sparks, love, and passion explode. Lucifer has met his soul mate! He fears his soul, fights his heart, and scorns her. 

Angel Sofiel assignment forces her to descend into Hell. She pushes his buttons and tortures his soul!

After thousands of years watching her, longing for one more taste, he gives in. Angel Sofiel descends to do her job and learns that love and passion is why Lucifer shuns her.

Thousands of years later he's given one chance to redeem. The sheer exhaustion of segregation, scorn, and the eternal punishment as a fallen has left our sexy but naughty angel, Lucifer, desperate. 

What would you give for one night of unbridled passion? Will his soul ever be saved? 
Now evil threatens the world and the Watchers are our only hope. Falling from grace was easy; eternal suffering has become commonplace, wishing for death an everyday occurrence but when faced with a chance for redemption Lucifer fears he could fail. 
Time is running out. Evil forces threaten the very survival of the human race. Our only hope. . . . . The Watchers. 

The fate of humanity lies in the hands of these twelve stunningly sexy, sinful fallen angels. Only destiny knows if they will save us or doom to hell.

The Watchers are waiting, wanting . . . . . . needing you. It's time to live life on the dark side.

I can't wait to read it!
Thank you again Patricia for talking to me today, you are fabulous as always.

Thank you Sarah, it has been my pleasure!


Feel free to connect with Patricia and her books on these links:
http://www.rukiapublishing.com/meet-the-author-pt-macias.html
http://www.rukiapublishing.com/book-showcase-pt-macias.html

Subscribe to P.T. Macias’s newsletter for the latest new releases. Enjoy exclusive flash fiction. Stay informed. Win great prizes. Enjoy special excerpts.
Newsletter – http://www.myptmaciasbook.club/ Or http://ymlp.com/xghwbwqygmgj

Love me, Stalk me and Pimp me!

https://www.facebook.com/P.T.MaciasAuthorPage/
http://www.tsu.co/ptmacias
https://twitter.com/pt_macias
http://ptmacias.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6035548.P_T_Macias
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008B0EYWQ


If you have a question for Patricia please post it in the comments below and be sure to share this post on social media.
Thanks for reading,
Sarah Jane

Wednesday 23 November 2016

Let's take a look at When Angels Fly by S. Jackson #RPBP



Hello and welcome to an in depth look behind the scenes of When Angels Fly by S Jackson.


http://www.rukiapublishing.com/meet-the-author-s-jackson.html

S. Jackson is a retired registered nurse; a member of the Catholic Church, and has taught kindergarten Catechism; she has worked in various capacities for The American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, Cub and Boy Scouts, (son, Noah, is an Eagle Scout), and sponsored trips for high school children music. She loves all forms of art but mostly focuses on the visual arts; such as amateur photography, traditional, and graphic art as her health allows.


"When Angels Fly"
http://smarturl.it/AngelsFly99

We often find ourselves daydreaming about what our futures will be like. This may be especially true if one lives in an environment most would consider less than desirable. Some are lucky to find their futures much like their childhood dreams. Others find the paths to their dreams strewn with hurdles.

Growing up, Sarah dodged her mother's blows. She often hid in her room crying about her life. Still, she believes in her future and the happiness it can bring. In their book, When Angels Fly, authors S. Jackson and A. Raymond tell Sarah's story - their stories. The authors use their journals to describe Sarah's experiences of family dys-function, strength, courage, faith, abuse, grief, and so much more. You'll read how, like many, she attempts to escape from her mother's abuse through marriage. And like many, she learns it is not a viable alternative. Then Sarah experiences a parent's ultimate tragedy twice, the deaths of her sons, Joshua and Eli.

When Angels Fly is about much more than the telling of a family's tragedy. It is also the story of finding faith after it has wavered. Most of all, it's a story of love lost and found.


Before we get into some Q&A let's take a look at the book trailer.


Thank you for joining us today.
What was your childhood like?
I vividly remember my childhood. As a little girl, my mother would force feed me foods I hated, such as peas, until I threw up. She did this to me often and she seemed to enjoy the abuse she inflicted upon me. I had six siblings and none of them remember my mother doing the force feedings except for my older brother who was eight years older than me. Abuse affected him, too, and to this day he stays away from any kind of contention. I wish I could say that the abuse abated as I got older, but it didn’t. I was always a kicking and punching bag and she would drag me around by my hair. No one could please her and my father never saw the treatment she doled out to me as he was always working. I had absolutely no self-esteem and I would retreat into a fantasy world where I was a princess and loved by all. I would curl up in my bed and thrust that fantasy into my child’s brain as a form of escape. I liked reading and as soon as I could read well enough, I started reading the Nancy Drew series, Hardy Boys, Cherry Ames, and Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I would escape into a world of my own through books. I could stay in my little room, in my bed, and read. Sometimes I would make paper dolls and dress them up with paper dresses. I remember how I would oftentimes try to draw younger siblings into a hug as none of us received hugs from her and I tried to show them how to love each other.“ (I have pictures)

"Starting around age eight, I tried to please her in other ways by doing work around the house. I would vacuum without being told to do so, and I washed dishes. I started doing the entire households laundry from washing to hanging on the line, and then take down and fold. I delivered the clean wash to the respective recipient’s bedroom and it didn’t make my mother proud. In fact, she simply expected me to continue with these chores. She left my father after 21 years if marriage and I chose to live with my father as I was 14 at the time and could choose. Then she forced him to sell the house and he was forced into a tiny apartment, after which I had to move in with her again. In high school, she was relentless in her treatment of me, and she never bothered to show her anger to the world. To this very day, I don’t understand why this was allowed to go on. The only thing I can think of is the fact that our neighbors were just as scared of her and she kept her punches to areas that were covered by clothing. In looking back post high school, I could see that some teachers knew that my home life was rough but that was as far as it went. My only escapes were school and work. I was so tired of her beatings, and the emotional and mental abuse she inflicted.

Almost anyone would be excited to leave all that behind and strike out on her own. Is that what you did?

"Before I was age 18, I was looking for an escape ~ ANY escape. Working as a waitress left me with little money. I dated a few guys, and then my mother said to me one time, with a sneer, that I was only a “sperm receptacle” and that no one would want me. I wasn’t having sex. Eventually I found a guy I liked, and we dated for a few months and then we simply started living together. I had thought this was my escape into happiness and that he was my prince. He drank alcohol almost daily, and he invited me to move in with him. I thought that this was my chance! My chance to get away from my mother and the abuse she inflicted. I thought I could change this man into drinking less alcohol, I was in love and we married."

Did you love him? So many women go down this path, and they always think they love him. Is it because you've never known true love?

Read the answer to this question and many more here


Tuesday 22 November 2016

The next stop for The Nomadic Nurse Series #RPBP


books2read.com/Bedpanstoboardrooms

As the pre-order launch of Bedpans to Boardrooms gets underway I must first apologise for the delay in bringing the second book in this series to my loyal followers. Those of you who also read my travel memoirs or are followers on my personal mailing list will know that my 4 children and 3 step-children are rapidly adding to the population as a further 3 grandchildren are expected over the coming months to add to our existing one! My family are the centre of my world and finding the work life balance can be tricky so I had added in a pre-order cushion period in case my time frames get pushed back, but I actually hope to be bringing the launch date forward!

In book one the scene was set when, as a sixteen year old slightly old-fashioned country girl, I found myself on a pre-nursing course at Ipswich College. This book has been my most successful today wining book industry awards for comedy, writing and excellence in story-telling.
books2read.com/OohMatron

*****Award Winning Nurse Memoir***** 

I am not sure what Florence Nightingale would have made of Sarah Jane! The story starts with a sixteen-year-old country girl who, for no apparent reason at the time, suddenly decided that she wanted to be a nurse. Sarah Jane was entering adulthood with no obvious career path in sight. She had planned a traditional, some would say old fashioned, future. Her vision was to leave school, find a job in a local store, get married and eventually have children. Then everything changed, as she embarked on a journey which would help to map out her future by offering opportunities in a variety of places and health care settings. Find out how Sarah Jane deals with births, deaths and everything in between with laughter, tears and humility in this touching, sometimes heartrending, superbly written memoir. ‘Ooh Matron!’ is the first book in The Nomadic Nurse Series. Each book in the series takes you on a journey through medical specialisms and environments that formed part of Sarah Jane’s nursing career. Throughout the series Sarah Jane uses her trademark honest and entertaining writing style to share insights into her thoughts, reflections and the changes in her personal life and circumstances as she moves forward in her career.

Available at all good bookstores books2read.com/OohMatron

books2read.com/Bedpanstoboardrooms

Bedpans To Boardrooms follows Sarah Jane's story as she endeavours to juggle being a Registered General Nurse, wife and new mum to two babies in quick succession. Her nursing career deviates off course into the aged care sector to accommodate her personal life and this tests her in a variety of ways. As Sarah Jane struggles to accept her new reality, career and personal sacrifices have to be made. It's a journey that sees Sarah Jane dealing with childbirth, bereavement, divorce and miscarriage in her personal life, whilst managing to use her new nursing qualification to take her from washing bedpans as a care assistant to sitting in the boardroom of a national nursing home group. As usual it's a roller-coaster ride that you do not want to miss as we find out more about aged care working practises, occupational therapy, community support and how aged care staff have to be highly skilled professionals to deal with the many and varied situations they find themselves in.
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Saturday 19 November 2016

Meet super sleuth author Randy Williams as he talks to Sarah Jane today #RPBP

Super sleuth Randy Williams

NEW RELEASE GET YOUR COPY HERE

Welcome to my Saturday author interview. This week I have a real treat for you. Please welcome Randy Williams, the author of Sherlock Holmes and the Autumn of Terror, who is about to reveal some interesting facts about his work, his Jack the Ripper theory and himself. So grab a coffee and enjoy!

Author bio:

Randy Williams is a Pennsylvania-based private investigator and describes himself as follows.  “I’m a fighter... AND a lover.  Lover of martial arts, lover of true crime novels, lover of word puzzles, lover of things Italian, lover of wine, lover of horses, travel and foreign languages, lover of women, lover of Chinese culture and above all, lover of a mystery.”

He is the owner of Black Stallion Security and Investigations and the founder of the Close Range Combat Academy, a worldwide martial arts organization with branches in the US, UK, Europe and Asia.  He has written nine books on the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun Gung Fu, and Sherlock Holmes and the Autumn of Terror is his second venture into fictional writing.
Through his association with Doctors Baden, Lee and Wecht, he has been able to apply all of the analytical skills instilled in him by his lifelong martial arts and criminology training into solving the age-old Ripper enigma.




Hello Randy and thank you for joining us today.
Let's start at the beginning, what were you like at school?
Probably not the teacher’s favourite.

Were you good at English?
Yes, that was my strongest subject.  I remember being marched into the Principal’s office when I was in Kindergarten because my teacher could not believe the level of reading I was demonstrating at that age.  That was thanks to my mother having taught me how to read well before I began school.  I only wish I could read that well now.

What are your ambitions for your writing career?
To be honest, I’d love to go down in history as the man who solved the Ripper case, or at least whose solution was the most widely accepted as being the correct one, since it would be impossible to get everyone to agree, even with a DNA match or its equivalent.
Which writers inspire you?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of course, George MacDonald Fraser and his Flashman works, and Anthony Horowitz; particularly his Holmes books.  I also enjoy true-crime books, particularly those written by the late, great Ann Rule.

What are you working on at the minute?
The Theotokos Murders; Jack the Ripper Unveiled

What’s it about? 
The process and results of my actual investigation into the Jack the Ripper murders without Sherlock; just the facts, ma’am.

What genre are your books?
They are sort of all over the map; martial arts instructional, crime fiction/mystery and true crime so far.

What draws you to these genres?
Lifelong dedication to the martial arts as well as a lifelong interest in true-crime, mysteries and puzzle-solving.

How much research do you do to add depth to your books?
Well, I did 40+ years of martial arts before writing my last series of 3 books on Wing Chun Gung Fu and about the same before writing about my real-life solution to the Ripper murders.

Have you written any other books in collaboration with other writers?
No, Sherlock Holmes and the Autumn of Terror is my first collaborative work.  But I must say, I really hit it out of the park scoring a dream team like I did (Dr. Michael M. Baden, Dr. Henry C. Lee and Dr. Cyril H. Wecht).

Why did you decide to collaborate and did that affect your sales?
Because they are the world’s top forensic pathologists and criminologists with three lifetimes of experience that helped me solve a case that has puzzled investigators and amateur sleuths alike for over 125 years.  As for the sales, I can’t help but think that having them involved would add a lot of credibility to my solution and therefore boost sales accordingly.  Only time will tell, but I’m very optimistic.

When did you decide to become a writer?
My first venture into writing for an international magazine was way back in 1982, and those instructional articles continue to this very day.  I decided to write my first book in 1987, when I was living in Singapore.  That turned out to be a series of 6 volumes on the martial arts.

Why do you write?
Mainly to leave some sort of mark on this Earth and make some sort of contribution to the fields I find most fascinating.

What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
In the martial arts, the realisation that I had access to information that very few non-Chinese in the world had, and wanting to share it.  In the case of my latest book, the fact that I knew that after 40+ years of investigation I had actually solved the world’s greatest unsolved murder mystery with evidence no one else had managed to uncover in over 125 years.

Do you write full-time or part-time?
What for me would equate to part-time might be considered full-time by some people.  But I also have a full-time career as a private investigator and another as a martial arts instructor ha ha.

Do you have a special time to write or how is your day structured?
I do my best work very late at night, and that is when most of my UK colleagues are up and about and free to have online discussions with me about various items they might be researching or assisting me with.  But I’m also at work most of the day doing the mundane revisions and corrections that don’t require quite as much creativity.

Do you write every day, 5 days a week or as and when?
Over the weeks and months I’ve been working on Sherlock, it’s been 7 days a week, all day and most of the night.

Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day?
When the book was not yet completed, I would refine one chapter per night and create one new one per night as well.

Do you write on a typewriter, computer, dictate or longhand?
All on the computer with a notepad beside me to jot down random thoughts or phrases that occur to me for use in other areas of the book than where I happen to be working at that time.  I also awake often with a thought that I then email to myself using my mobile before going back to sleep.

Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just to see where an idea takes you?
So far, all my books began with chapter headings over blank pages that I then went back and filled in.  They would then sometimes be re-ordered and supplemented with new chapters inserted in between as needed.

How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
Slowly enough that Darwin might have used me as an example.

What is the hardest thing about writing?
I hate to admit it, but I think it’s doing what you believe to be the absolute best work you could possibly put forward in a field of expertise and then having people who haven’t made a single contribution to that field rip it to shreds, usually also involving the need to personally insult you in the process.

What was the hardest thing about writing your latest book?
Finally accepting that the work was done and no longer trying to improve it.

What is the easiest thing about writing it?
Making it interesting; there are so many fascinating aspects of the Ripper case and of the Sherlock Holmes character that the only difficult part is deciding which items and details to leave out.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?
A lifetime of research, a year to complete it and another three to perfect it.

Do you ever get writer’s Block?
Only from potential publishers and agents.

Any tips on how to get through the dreaded writer’s block?
It’s a bit hard to advise on this point as I have never myself experienced it.  But I will say, I got myself into the mood for writing each night by making sure my office was neat and tidy, particularly my desk, setting myself up with two monitors so that I didn’t have to leave my page when I needed to do any internet research and having the music of the Victorian period playing softly in the background while I worked.

If this book is part of a series, tell us a little about it?
Well, as of now, it’s a stand-alone work.  But I have already had requests to write a sequel, a prequel and even to pick up and write another of the “unfinished” Sherlock stories alluded to by Doyle, just as I did with The Bogus Laundry Affair, a story-within-a-story featured in my current book.

What are your thoughts on writing a book series?
In a sense, I’ve already done that twice, but not in the fiction genre.  I’m sure that I’d love to do that someday, if I were ever to develop the right character and storyline to support a series without becoming repetitive.

Do you read much and if so who are your favourite authors.
As above MacDonald Fraser and Horowitz.  And in the last 4 years, I’ve read everything written by Doyle I could get my hands on, particularly his work on life-after-death and the paranormal.  My favourite besides his Holmes stories was Round the Red Lamp – an 1894 collection of short horror stories set in and around the medical profession.

For your own reading, do you prefer ebooks or traditional paper/hard back books?
I’ve only just begun reading eBooks, and thus far, I still prefer the old-fashioned method.  Particularly when on a plane, where you might run out of battery and be unable to read your book the entire flight.

What book/s are you reading at present?
Baa Baa Black Sheep (1958) by Gregory “Pappy Boyington.  My father was part of his squadron in WWII and I am enjoying reading about their exploits in an old, yellowed paperback I found in my dad’s footlocker recently, a few years after he passed away.  There was a TV series that ran here in the USA briefly about the squadron starring Robert Conrad from the original 1960’s Wild Wild West program.

Do you proofread/edit all your own books or do you get someone to do that for you?
Due to the peculiar nature of my book being written partially in modern-day US English and part of it in 1880’s British English as used by Doyle, I ended up doing my own proofreading.  But I must recommend the “Speak” feature in Microsoft Word which allows you to choose from a variety of accented voices that read back your text to you.  In this way, errors that even spell check won’t find are noticeable.  For example, if you have typed “that’ for “than” or “the,” spell check won’t always spot it.  But you do notice everything when you listen to your work being read back to you.

Do you let the book rest – leave it for a month and then come back to it to edit?
No, neither my deadline nor my conscience would ever let me leave off my work for any great length of time.

Did you format your own book?
Yes, but not because I wanted to, ha ha.

In what formats is your book available?
As of now only in eBook format.  But audiobook, soft and hard cover versions are coming soon.

If formatted by someone else, how did you select them and what was your experience?
I initially solicited the help of a friend from Australia named Steven Seeley.  But he was far too busy to continue, so he taught me all I needed to know to do my own formatting for the rest of the book.

Tell us about the cover/s and how it/they came about.
The cover is an actual London Illustrated News drawing showing two men that look (to me) remarkably like Holmes and Watson pursuing a cloaked figure purported to be Jack the Ripper.  The twist - I had a professional artist brush out the figure’s face and replace it with the face of the man I now know to be the head of the group that came to be known as Jack.   The font used for the title is called “Baskerville Old Face” ha ha.

Who designed your book cover/s?
Three people – Pablo Benavides and Asgard Paniagua in Mexico, and Vincenzo DeVirgilio in Italy.

Do you think that the cover plays an important part in the buying process?
It must, although we’ve all been told not to judge a book by its cover.  I’ve been told that most do, however.

How are you publishing this book and why? e.g. Indie, traditional or both?
My eBook was published through Rukia Publishing.

What would you say are the main advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing against being published or the other way around?
With self-publishing, you have to become an expert in all aspects of producing a book.  When my previous works were published, all I was responsible for was the content and to ensure they had laid out all the photographs and captions correctly.  With self-publishing, there is no one there to do any of that, nor to market the book.

How do you market your books?
In the martial arts, I have written for so many international publications and produced so many instructional videos that there isn’t much marketing necessary, outside my publisher advertising them in said magazines and on the internet via their own website as well as Amazon.  As for this book, interviews I’ve done and will continue to do for entities such as the AP, Reuters via The Lineup, radio shows like George Noory’s Coast-to-Coast and Podcasts such as Mike Huberty’s Paranormal podcast @othersidetalk should help with that.  I’ve also created a Facebook page for the book and continue to contribute to Ripper- and Sherlock-themed pages as well as mystery and true-crime pages.  I suppose it helps to have lots of friends on Social Media to help spread the word as well.

Why did you choose this route?
It sort of chose me.  In the past, I was approached by publishers in the martial arts after some little success in the magazines.  As for my current book, it was remarkably more difficult than I expected to obtain a publisher.  But now that I have, and with the publicity my theory is now receiving around the world, there seems to be no shortage of publishers interested in my Ripper work.  Ironic that some are the same ones that turned me down initially.

Would you or do you use a PR agency?
Most definitely.  I haven’t yet, but would certainly consider it, as they are specialists in a field very important to an author trying to get his work out through as many outlets as possible.


Did you do a press release, Goodreads book launch or anything else to promote your work and did it work?
None of those, but I did have the book featured one chapter per week on the website of the English Informer in the UK, and the English Informer in France, an online magazine for English expatriates living in France or other places abroad.  That, I believe, helped stir up interest in the book.  The website interviewed me as well.



Do you have any advice for other authors on how to market their books?
Approach every possible site with even the vaguest connection to the subject matter of your book via Facebook, Twitter, etc.  That seems to have helped me a great deal.

What part of your writing time do you devote to marketing your book?
Almost none until I had finished the main part of the work.  That may or may not have been a mistake.  Time will tell.  But now all day every day.

Any amusing story about marketing books that happened to you?
I approached a site that markets new Sherlock Books and asked if they’d like to see and review mine.  It turned out that the site was run by the author of most of the books they featured and his brother.  He returned a horrible review to me which I was surprised to read, not only because of its vehement negativity, but because he had managed to read my book in just a few hours.  But after I found out who exactly had reviewed me, I googled his own work and lo and behold!  I found a very negative review of his latest Sherlock book.  And it was (drum roll) word-for-word the negative review he had sent me about my own work ha ha.

What do you do to get book reviews?
The book has only been out for 5 days, so I’ve only had one review so far.  But I have asked a number of people I know to be reading the book to do a review of it for me when they’ve finished.

How successful has your quest for reviews been so far?
Those that I have asked to do so have tentatively agreed, but there is only one that was done so far (a very good one, I might add, but it was done in German on the German Amazon page) and only one other that is actually in progress that I know of at the moment.

Do you have a strategy for finding reviewers?
Yes, as a private investigator and martial artist, I have special strategies for finding those that write bad reviews, running them to earth and then using ancient combat techniques for exacting my revenge upon them.  That was what you meant by the question, wasn’t it?

What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews?
Well, to paraphrase the great Oscar Wilde, “Any publicity is good publicity.”

Which social network worked best for you?
So far, it’s been Facebook.  But Twitter seems to be the biggest trend in book publicity now that I’m really looking into it.

Any tips on what to do and what not to do?
Write the book in the way you believe is best.  Do not let others convince you that you should change from the concept you envision and believe is best in the long run.

Did you get interviewed by local press/radio for your book launch? 
Yes, quite a number, too many to list here, but here are a few of my favourites:





Links to all of the various interviews I did can be found on my Facebook page:


Is there any marketing technique you used that had an immediate impact on your sales figures?

I think being fortunate enough to have had my theory featured on the cover of Ripperologist Magazine’s October 2016 issue, which was released on the same day as the Kindle version of my book (31 October, 2016).

Did you make any marketing mistakes or is there anything you would avoid in future?
Not so far – that I know of, at least.

Why do you think that other well written books just don’t sell?
There could be many reasons.  Lack of public interest in the subject matter would likely be the first; if one wrote The A-Z of Rubber Band and Tinfoil Collecting, I doubt it would matter how well it was written.

What do you think of “trailers” for books?
I think that would be the best way to transport large quantities of them.

Do you have a trailer or do you intend to create one for your own book/s?


Do you think that giving books away free works and why?
Yes, but only to a certain extent to get the ball rolling and to get people talking.  For an example, back in the 80’s, I gave a set of my 6-book series on the martial arts to one of Bruce Lee’s top students.  As it turned out, he was reading them on the set between takes of a movie he was doing stunts for that featured a new, up-and-coming action star.  That star happened to see my friend reading the books, and asked him about where he could get a set.  My friend contacted me immediately and told me he thought this guy was going to make it big, and advised me to send him a set of my books, which I immediately did.  That, in turn, led to my meeting, and then working for Steven Seagal in the years that followed.



How do you relax?
I love nothing better than a pipe and a good glass of dry red wine in my armchair with my Saint Bernard Brewster asleep at my foot next to a roaring fire with a good book.

What is your favourite motivational phrase?
“There are more old drunkards than old doctors.”
As for motivational music, it’s usually classical or operas such as Tales of Hoffman, Carmen or Aida for writing and for martial arts practise, the music of a band I train and am friends with called Five Finger Death Punch.

What is your favourite positive saying?
“Learn to do the things you hate.  That is the sign of a strong person.  Weak people only do the things they like to do.”
Dante Benedetti – beloved USF coach and famed San Francisco restaurateur

What is your favourite book and why?
Probably The Pyrates by George MacDonald Fraser.  Fraser called it “a burlesque fantasy on every swashbuckler I ever read or saw.”  It is a hilarious farce that intermingles action and comedy with real-life historical figures and events that teach the reader a little bit of history along the way while entertaining them immensely.  I tried to capture a little of that spirit in my newest book, and even included a couple of tips of the hat to my favourite author.

What is your favourite quote?
“God is dead” – Nietzsche, 1882
“Nietzsche is dead” – God, 1900

What is your favourite film and why?
It’s hard to name any single film, but I love all the old 1940’s detective film noir movies such as the Boston Blackie, Charlie Chan, Thin Man and Crime Doctor series’ as well as the Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe movies that capture the intrigue and glamour of a by-gone era.

Where can you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
Oddly, I don’t really aspire to having any more in life than I already have.  So in five years, I’d like to have had enough success with my books to be able to remain here on my ranch in the mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania, writing away happily, surrounded by my three dogs, six horses and my donkey, Deuce, otherwise known as “The Zonk.”

What advice would you give to your younger self?
“You’re going to live to be at least 60.  Take better care of yourself.  Only drink on days that end with a Y.”

Which famous person, living or dead would you like to meet and why?
Bruce Lee.  He was the single greatest martial arts innovator of all time.  Everything I have and everything I have accomplished is in some way related directly to him and to the martial arts he inspired me to pursue.

If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it have been and why?
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
It is said that journalism (specifically sub-editing on a journal) is the best training for an author.  In my case, writing countless instructional pieces for magazines and then nine books on the martial arts are what I believe prepared me for the momentous task of writing Sherlock Holmes and the Autumn of Terror – certainly the Magnum Opus of my own literary career.

Where do you see publishing going in the future?
Although so many people in the industry keep telling me that eBooks are the wave of the future, my own experience tells me different.  About 9 out of 10 friends tell me they aren’t interested in reading an eBook and that most people (including myself) prefer the feel and weight of an actual physical book in their hand.  In fact, most of my friends are waiting for hard cover copies of Sherlock for me to sign that they can add to their libraries.  And so I predict a great decline in eBooks in the years to come.

Is there anything else you would like to add that I haven’t included?
I think by now, any reader that hasn’t fallen asleep by this point knows more about me than my mother does.

How can readers discover more about you and your work?  
Here are my Social Media & Website Links:
Twitter: @CRCAWC

Book Links: 
Sherlock Holmes and the Autumn of Terror
:

So, what other books have you written?

Close Range Combat Wing Chun – Volumes I-III

Where can we buy or see them? 

Martial Arts books:
http://www.wing-chun-shop.de/

Wow, thank you Randy that was a great interview I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to join me today.

Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper fans be sure to check out Sherlock Holmes and the Autumn of Terror and don't forget to leave a review.
If you have a question for Randy please post it in the comments below.
Have a great weekend,
Sarah Jane