Today Pretty in Pink is bringing you two lovely ladies Amy Miles and Danielle Bannister on their Meet the Indies Blog Tour. These gals are also part of the group that will be at the
Stamford Author Event, coming up in August. Without further ado, I bring you Amy and Danielle!
AMY MILES:
Amy Miles has been a
carbaholic since birth and is hopelessly addicted to Dr. Pepper. When she's not
chatting with fans on Facebook she can be found goofing off with family,
traveling or stomping her husband at Scrabble. She is an obsessive writer and
an avid reader and loves to chat about all things books.Her teen paranormal romance
books, Forbidden and Reckoning, have been on several of Amazon's Top 100 lists
as well as best seller lists in both America and the UK. Her highly anticipated final book in the Arotas
Trilogy, Redemption, is due out 2013.She is currently hard at work
on a two new series, The Rising Trilogy and The Remnant Trilogy.
DANIELLE BANNISTER:
Danielle lives in Mid-Coast
Maine with her two children and husband. She holds a BA in Theatre and a
Masters in Writing and the Teaching of Writing. She has two novels currently
out, Pulled and Pulled Back and is working on several others, including Pulled
Back Again, releasing soon, and Netherworld which she is co-writing with author
Amy Miles, which is due out in December, 2014.
She also has a collection of short stories, brilliantly entitled, Short
Shorts, and her work is also featured in several anthologies: GooseRiver Press
2012 Anthology and the Maine Writing Project’s anthology, Writious. Both titles
are available on Amazon. When not
writing, she can be found pouring her heart out on the stage.
Amy, you’ve always wanted to be a writer, while
Danielle came into the writing world a bit *cough* later in life. Do you recall the first thing you wrote?
Amy: I sure
do. I began writing in grade school and had dragons attacking a fair
maiden, who of course was later swept off her feet by a dashing knight.
Kissing always ensued.
Even at a young age, I was
obsessed with danger, adventure and torturing my main characters. My
writing did eventually progress into writing my own version Nancy Drew
Mysteries and then into the fantasy realms when I was in high school, but my
passion for make-believe began long ago.
Danielle:
The first real thing I wrote, honestly, was the first chapter of Pulled. I went
to school to act, not write. Once I caught the writing bug though, I was
hooked. It does mean, however, that I’m behind the curve in terms of learning
about the craft so I’m trying to play catch up!
Can you bring us back to the first book you published
on Amazon. What was it and what was that experience like?
Amy:
Oh my, it was a nightmare!
Probably not what you expected to hear, huh? Seriously though, it was
pure torture to figure out how to properly format a book, upload a book cover
and do everything in-between.
People sometimes get the idea that being
an author is glamorous, and trust me it has it’s great moments, but learning
how to publish a book for the first time is not one of them. I distinctly
remember wanting to bash my head against a brick wall for days on end as I
tried to wade through the complicated jargon. I’m not exactly your most
computer savvy person!
My first book I released was Defiance
Rising. It had a different cover and a completely different
storyline. It didn’t take long for me to realize that what I thought was
a good book was far from marketable, so I pulled it off, did some more research
and began writing FORBIDDEN.
It was a great lesson to learn and I’m
thankful I learned early on.
Danielle: Mine was Pulled. I didn’t know Amy at the time. I
actually met her by asking her to review my book on her blog page. We became
friends on fb after that and started chatting everyday. But I digress; publishing for the first time
on my own was terrifying! I really had NO clue what I was doing, to be honest
and it took several months of tweaking Pulled before I was happy with the final
product. I have learned a ton since that first publishing and will continue to
learn with every book I write! There is a great support among Indie Authors who
are, for the most part, eager to help new comer so that they don’t need to feel
as lost as they did. At least, that’s how I’m seeing things.
With several novels between the two of you, what is
some advice you might give those just starting out as an Indie Author?
Amy: The best advice I can give is to write what you
love. Yes, it’s important to know your market, but you don’t have to
follow the money train to stand out. Be yourself. Do your thing and
people will notice.
I learned a hard lesson with FORBIDDEN on
the importance of hiring an editor. In the beginning, I didn’t have the
money to pay for an editor so I figured I’d do it on my own. Big
mistake! Editors don’t just look for typos, they look for character
development, holes in your plot and inconsistencies that you are too close to
see for yourself. Find an editor that gets you and gets what you’re
trying to accomplish and you will be thankful you did.
Another crucial point is your book cover.
Pick something that captures the feeling of your book’s theme or
character. I have met my fair share of “book whores” and they will be the
first to tell you they only buy a book if the cover appeals to them.
Danielle:
The best advice I ever got was summed up by writer Ron Carlson, who said that
want-to-be-writers are often ‘distracted by things they put in their own way,
all day, all the time: leaving the room to get coffee, checking the mail, get
coffee, walk the dogs, go to the bathroom, get coffee, look something up, get
coffee. The writer is the one who stays in the room.’ I never knew how hard just being at the
computer and actively writing actually was until I had to do it!
Okay, now to the good stuff. You are currently working on a couple of
projects. Can you tell us a little bit about them—spoiler free of course.
Amy: Oh my, I am always working on something.
Usually more than one thing at a time.
I’m currently diving into the final draft
of a new novella, FACELESS, that will jump start readers into
my Cherished Hearts inspirational romance books. I’ve
always had a passion for inspirational romance, but up until this point have
always remained in the fantasy realm. It’s great to break out of that
every once in a while.
I’m also obsessing over the completion of
my Arotas Trilogy. REDEMPTION has a lot
going on, with several POV shifts and tons of action so it’s kicking my butt
right now! As soon as I finish with REDEMPTION, I will
be jumping straight into the prequel, IMMORTAL ROSE. I
hadn’t actually planned on writing this book but so many of my fans wanted to
know Fane and Roseline’s tale, so I caved.
I’m also currently working
with Danielle on NETHERWORLD. This joint venture has been a
lot of fun, melding romance with fantasy and of course banshees ROCK!
I’ve having a blast designing the underworld and playing around with some
mythology. It’s a good thing Danielle loves writing about human’s cause
there is no way I would give up working on the hot and steamy, Aed, god of the
Netherworld!
Danielle: Amy
and I came up with the idea to co-write Netherworld almost as a joke. A sort of
‘We should totally write a book together!’ But the more we chatted about it,
the more it makes sense. We write in completely different genres, I do romance
she does fantasy. So we thought what if we had a fantasy sort of character fall
in love with a human character? We
tossed out some ideas and soon the Netherworld was born. We’ve just started
drafting the early scenes and I’m really excited about what we’re coming up
with! The Netherworld puts us into the world of the Banshees, the mythical
creatures sent to carry the dead to the other side. The Banshee’s are supposed
to be unseen by the living, but one mortal sees a banshee. What happens when
they fall in love? It’s soooooo
cool! She writes the fantasy parts, I
write the human parts! It’s perfect!
Okay, time for some quirky questions, just for fun!
What is one thing you wish fans would ask you more
about?
Amy: What my favorite food is. Seriously? I’m
willing to take bribes for sneak peeks into my upcoming books. Haha.
Um…this is a hard one to answer because
I’m pretty open about things happening in my life. If you follow me on
Facebook, you know I’m rather vocal about my obsession with Game of Thrones, my
love of movies/books and I’m always bragging on my guys. I’m an open
book!
Danielle: I
guess what I’m working on? This is a
hard one.
Who do YOU like to read?
Amy: I write
what I love to read. I can usually be found browsing through the YA
section of my library and have been known to give out recommendations to random
strangers. And no, I don’t shove my own book in their hands!
Danielle:
I’m game to a lot of different genres, but I have a soft spot for books that
hold some sort of love story in there. It doesn’t have to be Harlequin type
stuff, but some yearning is good!
Amy and Danielle have also offered 10 signed bookmarks to giveaway to 20 lucky fans, make sure to enter and spread the word!
Stay tuned for more from these lovely ladies on upcoming SAE posts and Featured Friday Events!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Sarah Ashley Jones was raised in San Diego, California, but currently wrangles her husband and four dogs in Clarksville, Tennessee. When she's not writing she works in a pottery studio and comes home covered in paint on a daily basis. She has a slightly unhealthy obsession with cupcakes and chapstick. She is an eternal optimist and can often be found dancing and singing to music at any given time. It's rare to see her not smiling or laughing, but if you do, just bring her a cupcake and it will cheer her up.
