Shawna Williams Interview Coming February 7

Shawna's writing journey started with a dream --- an actual, nighttime dream. The story within her dream captivated her to the point that she became obsessive, and in order to put together all the little details and fill in the gaps, she had to write it down. Now she has two books based upon it.

Shawna is an Inspirational Romance writer, who loves creating complex, flawed characters, believing that's the secret to making them real. And as an inspirational author, she is able to write about God's Grace through her characters' humanity. She also loves including a good dose of nostalgia in her work, which is why her stories tend to take place in small towns during the first half of the 20th century.

When she's not writing, she's spends her time with her husband and three children, reads, makes jewelry, and enjoys life on her family's ranch.

Available and Coming Soon Books by Shawna K. Williams at Desert Breeze Publishing 

Find Shawna K. Williams on the Web:
http://shawnawilliams-oldsmobile.blogspot.com/
Shawna's Facebook
Shawna's Twitter
Email Shawna

Welcome Mary Louise Marion and Her New Book When I Died

Lynette: Your book, When I Died What I Learned in Heaven was just released. Tell us a little about it.

Mary Lou: The story is about what happened when my heart stopped on the operating table over 44 years ago. The lessons I learned and my personal experience in Heaven and meeting Jesus

Lynette:Wow, that definately sounds like a story that needs to be told. How long have you been writing? What is your first writing/Composing memory?

Mary Lou:I started writing in 10th grade high school. I had a great creative English teacher who put up a picture of a pair of hands and had us write about those hands. They were the hands of Albert Einstein. Just looking at those hands and coming up with a description was a great process at least I thought it was. I was the only one in the class that said they looked like the hands of a very smart person even though they also looked like the hands of someone who had done physical work all their life. (That answers both parts of the question)

Lynette: Where do you find inspiration for your stories?

Mary Lou:I find inspiration all around me. For my poetry mostly outside or through my emotions. For this particular story it is a true to life so it was just getting it on paper. Some of my other short stories that were published years ago the inspiration came from children and nature.

Lynette: Who had the most positive influence on your life and how?

Mary Lou: My most wonderful husband has been the inspiration and positive help in my life. He is the first one to recognize that I am intelligent and the first one to help me become who I really was meant to be. He is patient, kind, loving and understanding with me always.
Lynette: What is your favorite movie and why?
Mary Lou: I personally don’t have a FAVORITE movie. I like a lot of movies. The ones gravitate towards are ones about real people their lives and how they lived them. I love movies about horses and dogs as well. I am a BIG Disney movie fan and have most of those movies.

Lynette:   If you had a time machine and could take one trip to any time in history, where would we find you?

Mary Lou: That is a difficult question because I love history and would want to be anywhere in time when history was being made! I am happy being in this time right now because of all the discoveries that have been and are being made. I remember my childhood without TV only the radio, no X-Box, no video games, no computers. Going to the movies every Saturday with my friends. Reading always reading. I don't think I would have survived if I had been born in the 1800’sbecause of some medical problems I have. I would not want to have been in any other country than the Wonderful United States of America and would not have wanted to be born in any other country. Also just being aware of what is going on around us makes the time we are in that more interesting and important.

Lynette: What are your hobbies?

Mary Lou: Reading first. Sewing and making quilts, knitting, walking, staying active. Photography and listening to what is going on around me to gather information for a story. Music classical and country. I do like some Rock and Roll but not screaming music and I do not like Rap even though some of it is good poetry.

Lynette: Tell us about your other occupations/jobs, besides writing.

Mary Lou: I have my college degree in Education so I taught for several years. I transferred into nursing in the 1980’s and got my degree in Nursing. I specialized in Midwifery and had the privilege of being present for over 100 births. I have my Associates degree in Secretarial Science, Business Management and Personnel Management. I worked in a midsize physicians office as the HR Person and really enjoyed doing that and helping new employees get intergraded to the work place. I have several Certificates of accomplishments one in Photography another in Ceramics and one in Creative Writing. So looking back I have done many things in my life, always looking to see how I could be a better person. I do believe that Education is the most important thing in this world. No one knows enough and no one will ever know all the answers. I believe in constant and continued education and I take at least one college class a year to learn something new.

Check out Mary Lou's blog at http://boomar357.wordpress.com/

Coming Feb 4 - Author of "When I Died What I Learned in Heaven"

http://www.boomar357.wordpress.com

Story is about what happened when my heart stopped on the operating table over 44 years ago. The lessons I learned and my personal experience in Heaven and meeting Jesus.

40 Days until the Virtual Release Party for More than a Job

In just 40 days I will be hosting a Release Party right here in the blogisphere. Along with several other authors from Desert Breeze Publishing, there will be fireworks, conversation about HOW TO get your book read by an editor, revisions, edits, cover art, where ideas come from and more. Maybe even a few virtual champagne corks.  A door prize for one of our party visitors will be fun, too. Be sure to join us!

Coming Events

Interviews for the month of February with these fun and exciting authors:

February 7 - Shawna Williams, Author of The Good Night
February 8 - June Foster, Author of  Give Us This Day
February 11 - K.T. Hall, Author of The Night Life
February 15 - Debra Parmley, Author of Dangerous Ties
February 17 - The Cuffe Sisters, Sadie and Sophie, Authors of Faith in the Shadows
February 27 - Stephanie Burkhart, Author of Twilight Over Moldavia

Then March 15 I start a round of blog visits AND a virtual Book Release Party with my fellow authors whose books are released that same day. Join us!

Tune in for Author Interviews

A number fellow authors will be visitng for interviews, sometimes several a week. Learn more about your favorites, and about some that are new to you. Find out how they get their writing ideas and some fun facts as well.

As we gear up for the release of More than a Job I will be blogging almost every day, so be sure to check in for interesting links, ideas, and a chance to meet with others.

Check out this link and join me every day! http://blog.vistage.com/marketing/five-reasons-why-you-have-to-blog-everyday/

Writing Characters with Disabilities

Historically, characters with disabilities have been presented in the context of society's misperceptions. I will talk more about this over the next few weeks, but you will commonly see either amazing heroes (even if sometimes they are just living life) or terrible villains.

News Flash: People with disabilities are people first. We live our lives, whether or not our disability is apparent. Most people, if we live long enough, will experience some disability in our life.

A disability is a characteristic or attribute that sets the character apart in the same way hair color, eye color, height, and build do. As we write more realistic characters in our books, some of these characteristics will shine through.

Some of my friends have written such characters. Dave Bond's release, The Attache', features a hero who is losing his sight.  Kris Tualla's hero in A Discreet Gentleman of Discovery (March 15 release) is deaf , Tami Dee's hero Royal in Innocent Deception stutters.  Some of the people in my March 15 relase of More than a Job have developmental disabilities.

Check out these and more from my publisher at http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/StoreFront.bok