Happy New Year! I can still say that. According to what Mom used to tell me, I have two weeks into the New Year before wishing happiness becomes passé. I don’t know where she learned her rule but I’ve always lived by it. So, Happy New Year! And in keeping with the traditions of a new year, I’m going to look back at 2016 and remind us both what a great year it was for me as an author.

Last year marked the first year that I could say I was more visible online than ever before. Here is a brief review of the year’s premium events:

Jan – Guest panelist on an Author/Publisher panel sponsored by local library

Feb – Attended Book ‘Em NC Conference as signing author and guest panelist

Mar – Interviewed twice with blog talk radio’s La Femme de Prose, part of Focus on Women Magazine

Apr – Guest author for Poetry and Pastry at the local library// Guest speaker and presenter at Robeson Community College’s Annual Poetry and Prose Awards

May – Featured author in the May/Jun issue of Focus on Women Magazine

**Decided to hire a Personal Author Assistant, Terri Wilson. Best decision ever. ***

Jul – Guest blogger on KerryAdrienne.com // guest at #carolinareads // on blog talk radio with La Femme de Prose

            Published new book, The Book of Now (nonfiction poetry)

Aug – Guest on Yvonne Mason’s Off The Chain podcast/radio show

            Held a Book Launch for The Book of Now in a local wine bar – sold lots of books

Sep – sponsored a hole during a local golf tournament (sold two books online from it)

interview appeared in Don Massenzio’s blog

Oct – Panelist at local library for National Indie Author Day

Nov – article published in Southern Writers Magazine on NaNoWriMo

            Published new book, Breaking the Glass Slipper (fictional memoir)

Dec – on the air with Off The Chain

Awards won in 2016

Global Ebook Bronze Award in Fiction for Midnight Assassin
Global Ebook Honorable Mention Award in Cover Design for Midnight Assassin

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Whew. That was a monumental year! Published two books, received awards, appeared in print magazines, online blogs, and on the radio several times! Something happened every month. I’m very proud of the year.

A quick reality check. Most successful authors would tell you that my year was just okay. Yup, successful authors find much more massive sales due to much more massive amounts of publicity. Makes you sigh, doesn’t it? It does for me.

In an effort to improve publicity and visibility online and in local areas, I started my own street team in May – Sherry’s Team Phoenix. Membership is small right now but I fully expect that to improve this year. (You can read about it via a link under Press, News and Events tab. We’d love to have you join us)

So let’s just take a moment to reflect. You should look back over your year too, and take note of the GOOD things you accomplished. This isn’t the moment to see failure or polish regret. This is the moment to say, “Good job, you made progress and worked hard.” Go ahead pat yourself on the back. Even if you only did one new thing, do it. It is one more thing than you had before and that’s progress!

All right, now I challenge us to do more this year. I have to confess I don’t have a major plan yet. I have two conferences upcoming and I hope to have two books this year (working on it).  I’m entering my two newest books in some awards. But I don’t have a publicity plan yet but I will. Time enough to say what I didn’t do or did incorrectly. For now, what a year 2016 was. And thank YOU for being such a huge part of it. My success is largely due to the support I get from you, the readers. I am grateful.

 

Good job on last year and Happy 2017! Let’s make this one our best yet, together. I’ll have links to the radio shows coming on the Press/Media page. Look there soon.

I’ll be back later this week to discuss jealousy. Did you know it could be good for you while being bad TO you? Get your green eyes ready for an eye opening revelation.

Until then, I remain Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry

I met Theresa Snyder on Twitter many years ago. Or rather I met her friend and co-author, Farloft the dragon. Yes, you got that right. Dragon. Farloft was an early friend and he introduced me to his author Theresa. How could I not be instantly and forever intrigued? In time I came to see Theresa as a propular and prolific author who was both clever and fun. I knew I had to have her dragon in my life and library and now I want you to meet this fabulous author, too.

Theresa is a multi-genre author. She grew up on a diet of black and white sci-fi films like Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still (a fav of mine, too). She is a voracious reader and her character-driven writing is influenced by the early works of Anne McCaffrey, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard. She loves to travel, but makes her home in Oregon where her elder father and she share a home and the maintenance of the resident cat, wild birds, squirrels, garden, and occasional dragon house guest. (yes, she knows dragons!)

I asked Theresa a few questions and here she is, for you.

Everyone is asked “how did you get started writing.” Instead, how did you decide that you were going to write a book? And how long did it take you to finish your first novel?

I broke my foot back in 1990. I was told by the doctor that there was a direct ratio of the time to heal based on how much I could stay off of it and keep it elevated. I had been writing in a journal, short stories and some magazine articles prior to the accident that broke my foot. I also had an ongoing story percolating in my brain for years. I bought myself a dedicated word processor, set down as instructed by the doctor and started to write “The Helavite War.” It took me about three months to write and over 23 years before I finally got it indie published.

How did you choose your publishing path (traditional vs Indie)?

When I first finished “The Helavite War,” and later after completing the next three in the Star Traveler Series, I tried to find an agent and get the books traditionally published. This was long before “Harry Potter” arrived on the shelves of bookstore everywhere. I was told over and over again by agents and publishers that my work was good, great, exceptional, but that they could not easily classify it as young adult or adult. They felt they would have trouble marketing the books. There were no heavily advertised ‘cross-over’ books back then like “Harry Potter” to compare it to – books that both a young adult and adult could enjoy reading. I gave up the idea of being published sometime in the mid-90s. 

In 2013, I told my writing group I was going to format and print a copy of my books for my own bookshelf. By then I had six scifi in the Star Traveler Series and one Fantasy in the Farloft Chronicles. I was managing the print shop at our local Community College and I thought, ‘what the heck, I’ll do it.’ I will have copies of my books in print. My writing buddies said if I was going to go to that trouble I should just indie publish them. I laughed at them and said I didn’t know how to go about doing that and I probably couldn’t afford it. They told me it cost nothing to do it but time, and they would help. 

Later in 2013, “The Helavite War” was published closely followed by the rest of my backlog and new books too.

What kinds of books do you write and what is the message you have to inspire in others?

I write scifi, fantasy, paranormal and memoirs at the moment. Who knows what might catch my fancy in the future.  

As far as inspiration, I would say to anyone who asks, ‘don’t give up.’ Even though you might be rejected by others at first there might still be a market out there for your books. C.S. Lewis wasn’t published until he was in his 70s. L. Frank Baum was told by publishers that no one would read an American Fairytale, but who hasn’t heard of “The Wizard of Oz?” 

Tell us about Farloft and his series…

Farloft is my dragon friend and muse. His series is called The Farloft Chronicles. Currently they consist of six books in trade paperback (formatted for middle-schoolers), two collections of the same six books, in a smaller traditional size paperback (formatted for adults), and a storybook/coloring book for 2-1/2 to 6 year old children.

How did you meet Farloft and how long have you two been friends? Does he have family?

Farloft and I have known each other through many lifetimes. We originally met in his kingdom when my older brother introduced him to me. You can read about our early life together in the sixth book of his series, “Dragon Memories, Dreams & Reflection.”  

Farloft can bend time and space, so when I left him in his time, he tracked my soul to this time and place. He comes to visit me often and has told me his stories in order for me to pass them on to my readers. Farloft has a mate, Clearair and two children, his adopted son, James, and Anna.

Do you tend to write geared more to children, women or men? Or are your books for all readers? Any particular age group that you lean toward?

The Farloft Chronicles are for anyone, any age, who has ever loved, or loves a dragon. Like “How to Train Your Dragon,” readers of different ages will find the books’ messages on different levels. 

The Star Traveler Series, The Twin Cities Series, The In2Minds Series and my Memoirs were all written with young adult to adults in mind.

Tell us something about your other works:

The Star Traveler Series is character driven space opera much like the Firefly series and I have been told it is reminiscent of the early scifi masters like Heinlein, Asimov and Bradbury.  

The Twin Cities Series is paranormal, but unlike any other paranormal you have ever read. Lots of adventure, some romance and humor, told from a shape-shifting wolf’s point of view. 

In2Minds is a collaborative work between David Stevens in the UK and me. It is the story of an astronaut sent on a one-way mission to terra-form a planet for the inhabitants of his current home. He has an accident and is buried alive, it not only threatens his life, but the future of his whole race if he cannot find a way out. 

And last, but not least, my memoirs are a compilation of articles I wrote as a human interest column in our local newspaper detailing my journey when I moved my elderly parents in with me. They are humorous stories and full of love and reflection.

What is the one thing that you find the most daunting about being an author?

I find the lack of time in one day frustrating. I need a 36 hour day, but like needing more money, I think once I had 36 hours I would want 48 and so on, and so on.

What do you wish you’d been advised before you started your writing journey?

I just wish I had been advised earlier to self publish. I honestly did not think of it, being from an older generation. I thought the traditional was the only way to go. I had never read an ebook until 2013 after I was published myself. I had no idea of the wealth of writers available in the indie field. If I had published in 2006 when folks first started getting into self-publishing I would probably be a full-time author by now. As it is, I still am holding down an 8-5 job and writing in every free moment I have.

Social media is so important to getting the word out about your work? How have you maximized it to meet the needs of your particular publicity? (Like Farloft having his own voice, etc)

I was introduced to social media by my student workers in the print shop at school. When they found out I was self-publishing they immediately set me up on Twitter. They said I would be great at it, because I love to chat. They were right.

Then Farloft found me and he wanted to tweet too. He loves being on Twitter the last Friday of every month and because he is old and wise, he can say just about anything he wants to. He is a great mouthpiece. He can push is books or my other books and no one gets tired of listening to him.  

I learned early that tweets, and posts on other social media, receive a lot more attention if they are visual, so I commissioned art for my works. This led to fan art coming in and it has snowballed over the last 12-18 months. I have a wall full of art in my office.

Give a new writer some advice that you wish someone had given you.

Best advice I could give is make your work shine. Have beta readers read and correct it. Join a writing group and have your peers review it, line edit and check for flow. You can’t have enough eyes on your work.

Now give some advice to the new author that you wish someone would have given you.

After making your book as clean as possible, have a professional cover designed. This is the first thing your prospective reader looks at. When I first posted The Farloft Chronicles I made the cover and I thought it looked very Celtic and dragonly. The books did nothing. I had a professional design the covers and the books started to move off the ebook sites. It is imperative your covers stand up, and out, in their particular genre.

On a more personal note, what are your hobbies? (painting? Quilting? Crafts?)

I love to garden and read. The gardening is relaxing and I can write in my head. I work out many of my plots while digging and puttering in my garden. It also produces lovely flowers to brighten the indoors and gives me material for my YouTube site.  

Reading is a must for all authors. It helps you hone your skills and it is a great escape from your own work or just the day-to-day grind of the 8-5 job. 

What else do you like to do in your personal spare non-writing time? (go to movies? Read? Antiquing?)

I am an avid movie watcher. My dad and I see at least a movie a week at the theaters and then add at least 4-5 other movies for home watching either from my extensive personal collection of VHS and DVD or from my accounts on Fandango, Amazon Prime, or Netflix.

I also take my own advice and I read at least a book a week. I love seeing how other author phrase dialogue and describe scenes or places. 

What is your favorite flower? And what is your favorite dessert?

Naming my favorite flower is a hard call to make. I have so many in the garden I love. Peonies would be high up on the list because of their beauty and fragrance. But the delicate columbines are a thrill to see. 

Favorite dessert is easier…Anything chocolate and if you throw in caramel too, I am in heaven. This is something Farloft and I both have in common. 

What inspiring words motivate you? Give us your favorite quote and name of who said it.

If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door. Quote – Milton Berle

Finally, tell us about the future and what we can look forward to from you (and Farloft?)

Farloft will continue to tweet and inspire me to write more chronicles. We are currently working on a chronicles based on shorter adventures he had during his youth when he traveled trying to find his way in the world as a youngling. 

The Star Travelers will have another adventure coming out this fall. We will be learning more about Coal and his planet. As we did with Targus in Vol. 4, we will follow Coal home to Realda and see what his society is like where everyone looks the same and one can only recognize another by their tattoos. But, it is what is under the tats that holds the secret of life and death on his planet. 

And there will be another ‘Shifting’ book in the Twin Cities series. I love crawling into Scar’s wolfy self and seeing the world through his eyes.

***

Thank you very much, Theresa, for letting us into your world as an author, a daughter, and a friend.

Folks, you can follow Theresa Snyder via her website,  Twitter, Facebook and her books are available from her website. Make time to explore this prolific and exciting author!

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****The following items will always appear to keep you posted on activities.*****

WIP (Works in Progress): – NEW BOOK OF POETRY! – expected release July 2016
– first novel in the Evening Bower series, about vampires and other supernatural creatures
– fictional memoir – November 2016!
– four-part fairy story (part one complete)

On the Desk: (next reading): League of Dragons – Naomi Novik

Off the Desk (book just finished): A Potion to Die For – Heather Blake

Coming Soon:  Are you writing every day? Why you should and how I can help!
                           Novel sneak peeks and interview with my assistant.

I’m delighted to usher in National Princess Week (always the last full week of April) by first embracing my inner princess, and also welcoming my guest blogger, the beautiful author of some fierce princesses, PJ LaRue.  I “met” PJ online thanks to Twitter and we quickly discovered we shared many mutual likes from Indie authorship, photography, our stand against domestic violence, to our love of girl power. PJ writes about female empowerment in her Mystic Princess series for young girls and I’m delighted to have PJ here during Princess Week to tell you more about her work and her choices as an author. Welcome PJ!

I’d like to thank you, Sherry, for inviting me to guest post on your blog. I appreciate the opportunity to share the Mystic Princesses with your readers.

I began the Mystic Princess series specifically to teach confidence to girls. I love to travel and want to inspire young girls with a love of adventure, as well as cultural and environmental awareness. I don’t have a certain number of books outlined, but I do have several locales and storylines charted. The first book, The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool, is set underwater near Kauai, and the second is in New Orleans and Alaska. The third book will feature the four primary Hawaiian Islands. Future books could include Yellowstone, Florida and Japan.

My writing style for the princesses is a little out of the norm. The girls like to talk, so there is a lot of conversation amongst them. The pace is fast for adults, who are accustomed to background-setting filler scenes showing the story partly through narration. However, those types of slower paced scenes bog down reluctant readers. Several parents have told me that their kids liked the fast pace and that it encouraged their children to continue reading. I called the girls “princesses” because they are daughters of gods and goddesses, and children may not have been exposed to mythology yet. But they certainly have the princess concept down.

That brings up another reason I started the Mystic Princess series. I want to teach girls that they can rely on themselves to solve their problems. I’m not a fan of princess stories where the prince rescues the princess then they get married and live happily ever after. Their life is just beginning at that point. My husband and I are happily married, and have been since 1982. But, as noted in my book, After “I Do!” A Marriage Map, approximately 50% of marriages in the United States end in divorce. And even if couples don’t split, it doesn’t mean that they are happy. I can’t help but wonder if fairy tales unfairly lead girls into relationships believing that life will be perfect once they marry their handsome prince. Girls who grow up with a more realistic view of marriage will be better equipped to handle relationships.

At this time, I do not have handsome princes scripted for the Mystic Princess series. And if I were to allow the girls to grow into a dating age, the prince will not rescue the princesses. They are too young to be concerned with boys at this time. The Mystic Princesses are designed to be fun, adventurous and to teach a few life lessons. You might have noticed I didn’t say anything about their looks. One can see from their pictures that they are diverse. But the Mystic Princesses will always rely on their wit, not their looks, to get them through situations.

Now that I’ve discussed my reasons for writing, I’ll move on to my background. Hmm. I didn’t have any formal experience with publishing, although I’ve written off and on throughout my life. That meant I had my work cut out for me. I researched traditional and indie publishing before putting The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool up for sale, choosing the indie route. I’ve gone back and forth between all available e-publishing platforms and an Amazon only platform. The book is currently available on several websites. I had to learn as much as I could about publishing. I may be one of those people who decided to write a book with no training, but the quality of my books needs to be professional for me to feel a sense of accomplishment. As such, I’ve built a team of professionals to help me and continue to seek advice from those more knowledgeable than me.

There is one area where I didn’t start with a professional, though. My sister-in-law, who is a talented but untrained artist, offered to draw the artwork and only take a fee if I ever became profitable with the book sales. Another author, who fell in love with the Mystic Princesses, advised me that she’d held a focus group because she thought she could help me when the book didn’t sell. The participants told her that I would sell more if the artwork were more professional. That led to an intensely painful and costly lesson when I changed from my sister-in-law to a professional illustrator. I hurt my sister-in-law to the core and have to live with that forever. While I’ve done my best to make amends, I doubt our relationship will ever be what it once was. So, please take this advice: never mix business with family.

The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool introduces Coral, Janna, Catie, Breanna and Harmonie. Princess Coral, daughter of Neptune, can change from mermaid to person and can help the girls breathe underwater without scuba tanks. She will grow to control all sea creatures. Janna, daughter of Mother Nature, can turn the other girls into flowers to blend into the landscape if they need to hide. She also controls lady bugs and butterflies and will grow to control all land animals. Catie, daughter of Iris, can make rainbows and turn the other girls into birds. Breanna, Pele’s daughter, can throw fireballs. Harmonie, who is the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, makes people feel peaceful, but her brothers and sisters want to fight and cause wars. The Children of Ares know that if they capture Harmonie, it will be easier to carry out their warfare. The princesses learn their powers are to be used to protect Harmonie from her warrior siblings, known as the Children of Ares.

There are many lessons in the book that parents can use as opportunities to talk to their children, the first being that it is better to try and solve problems through communication rather than fighting. A second lesson involves the girls learning that it is okay to reveal certain secrets. This concept could open the door for parents to talk about child abuse because abusers instruct their targets not to tell. It also applies to bullying or if a child learns that another child has weapons at school.

The book shows the girls practicing their elemental powers to become proficient. My parents used to tell me that practicing would make me better. And that is the concept I tried to convey by having the girls’ skills improve as The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool unfolds.

Additionally, the Mystic Princess series carries a theme of environmental consciousness. In the first book, the girls learn to keep the oceans clean while living with Princess Coral at her underwater castle near Kauai. In the second book, The Mystic Princesses and the Magic Show, the girls live with Princess Catie in New Orleans, explore the city, receive self-defense lessons from the Goddess Athena and learn about an oil spill in Alaska. They raise money using their powers to perform a magic show to help with the clean-up efforts. In Alaska, the girls help clean the oil-soaked birds and learn about the Inuit culture, the polar bears’ plight due to the melting ice caps and what causes the Northern Lights to dance across the sky.

I’ve started and stopped the third book several times. I recently changed the direction of the book but have been quite busy with my job and personal life. I will have to set aside time each week to finish writing the book, but am excited to get back to it. The book is on the Big Island of Hawaii, at Pele’s home in Volcano National Park and is tentatively called The Mystic Princesses and the Volcano. I can’t share what happens near the volcano without spoiling the ending. But I can tell you that the girls participate in a scavenger hunt throughout the primary Hawaiian Islands. Through the hunt, the girls learn about Hawaiian culture, including the practice of leaving traditional offerings to the gods. My husband and I were fortunate to come across an offering such as this while in Waimea Canyon on Kauai.

At this time, I’m not sure where the fourth book will take place. It will become clearer to me while I’m writing the third book. I don’t need to know the location to hope that readers will discover the series, learn that they can solve problems and learn that each person can do his or her part to better the world. It’s a lofty goal, but as my Mom always told me, “A job worth doing, is a job worth doing well.” So, I’m swinging for the stars with my marriage, my job and my budding career as a writer, and I know that she’d be proud of my princesses and me.

*****

Thank you, PJ, for sharing your princesses with us and I look forward to reading the next books in the series. Hey, you are never too old to exercise your princess powers, right?

More about PJ:

PJ wrote poetry in high school, but she discovered writing children’s books and short stories later in life. Her writing inspirations are hiking, photography and environmental consciousness, but she links these interests to much larger social issues. A person very close to PJ was molested as a child, making PJ passionate about providing child safety tips. And, PJ was bullied in the third grade by girls much larger than she, who demanded that PJ give them her lunch money. As a result, PJ is committed to spreading the word that bullying must be stopped.

One of PJ’s goals is to help educate children, parents and caregivers, in a fun way, using her children’s book series, The Mystic Princesses. Because PJ loves to travel, the princesses will visit many locales, learning about environmental concerns along the way.

PJ has been happily married over 30 years although there are many reasons why her marriage should have failed. Some of those factors are that her parents divorced after a long and sometimes abusive relationship, that her father is an alcoholic (now sober for many years), and that she married at a very young age. She broke the domestic abuse cycle by marrying a kind and supportive man. During 2013, PJ wrote a blog post called “How I Escaped the Domestic Violence Cycle.” That blog post can be read here. After the website designer and other friends who read the blog post encouraged PJ to write more, she wrote After “I Do!” A Marriage Map a short advice book filled with anecdotes from her own marriage. 

Find PJ on Twitter, Facebook, and CreateSpace.