New Month, New Year, New Featured Author

Here we are again: the beginning of another month. Fresh faced, excited, and so looking forward to everything that the month may bring. This time around we’re not only at the start of a month but also the beginning of a brand-new year. 2017 saw a couple changes to the blog – some things faded out, new things were begun. 2018 will be no different. I have a couple new things I’m planning to begin during the next couple weeks and months and will share those with you as they become ready for launch. I’m excited for them and think they’ll be an interesting addition and enhancement to the blog. In the mean time…

Since it is the beginning of a new month it is the time to introduce to you all the January Featured Author of the Month!

Kelly Lyman debuted her first novel in November 2017 – she’s nearly as freshly minted an author as 2018 is a year! This month we’ll have the opportunity to learn more about her book, about her and her process, and oh, so much more. She’ll even be helping me launch one of my new ‘things’ on the blog a little later this month so make sure you keep an eye out for that! So let’s get this going; allow me to introduce to you more completely, Kelly Lyman.

Kelly is a dreamer, a planner and a doer. Her favorite mantra is: “Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention.” She has a degree in education from West Chester University and taught 5th grade before deciding to stay home full time.

She writes adult historical romance and YA paranormal/fantasy. So of course she loves, loves, loves history and can usually be found daydreaming about people who lived centuries ago...that is, when she’s not taking care of her four kids. Traveling to Scotland, England, and Ireland are on her bucket list. Skydiving is not. LOL.

She’s mildly obsessed with mint chocolate chip ice cream (so am I!!), peanut butter M&MS, drinking coffee with cream only, and thinks chips and salsa is a perfectly acceptable dinner option. Her favorite color is green and if she could, she would sit on the beach and read all day long.

I can tell you right now that I am truly looking forward to every moment of getting to know Kelly better and working with her as I spotlight her as my January Featured Author of the Month.

You can follow Kelly on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.

And you can follow her as the January Featured Author of the Month on the blog and social media by searching and following the hashtags: #FAOM #AuthorOfTheMonth and #UDIOFeaturedAuthors.

Until next time… Happy Reading!

FAOM: Diving in to More About A.M. Johnson... aka THE INTERVIEW

You know that feeling you get sometimes when as the more you learn about a person the more you like them? That’s the feeling I got over and over as I went through this interview with Amanda, known generally in the book world as A.M. Johnson. As you know, I hadn’t read any of Johnson’s work prior to the beginning of this month. She, and her work, were a completely unknown entity to me. Now, we’re mid-way through the month and as I read, or chat with her, or see her posts on Facebook or other social media, I keep finding myself wondering “How did I not know this marvellous lady and writer sooner???”

I’m sure you’re saying to your screen – “you love books and writing and people who write LD, of course you like her!” but I promise, it’s not just that. As I’ve gotten to know her bit by bit these past few weeks, I’ve been happily impressed and surprised by all the facets that I’ve discovered. We are, all of us, ever evolving individuals and I’d like to think that the person – writer, reader, proud mom, etc – that I’ve been finding Amanda to be, is someone that I want to keep within my circle of peers as we go forward.

So now, without waxing on (any more) and boring you to tears, allow me to share the this and that facts about the Ups, Downs, Ins & Outs’ December FAOM: Amanda, A.M. Johnson.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - Meet Rebekah Raymond

Earlier this month on Ups, Downs, Ins and Outs I posted a long feature that spotlighted a number of authors – who had even earlier been featured on my Facebook page as “Author’s of the Day”. Rebekah Raymond was one of them.

She is a new author that comes from my area of this wide world. I was very excited to connect with her online and I’m really looking forward to meeting her in person next week at the book launch party for her very first published novel Life’s Defeat (all details for the launch party will be posted at the end of the interview). Having Rebekah so close to home presented a unique opportunity for me to get to know her just a little bit better and to help her promote and celebrate her first book release in person.

So here we are and I hope you’re ready to get to know the author Rebekah Raymond.

[LDF] Did you always want to be an author?

[RR] No, for as long as I remember, I have been a writer though. I was always writing—in diaries, in journals, poems, stories. I am an avid Trekkie and have played for years on email Star Trek role playing games. Of course there was always that pull when I held a really great great book, that maybe, one day...but no, I expected it.

I suppose as I started to pursue more serious projects I had the thought that it would be nice to become officially an author, which is what I had felt like for a long time.

[LDF] What was your main inspiration or reason for becoming an author?

[RR] My first inspiration came when a friend of ours passed away, actually. Our girls had been in the same class the year before and she had been incredibly helpful during my pregnancy near the end. Her death came as a shock to us and it was so hard making that connection of similarities and thinking of the possibility that my children could grow up without me at any time. It made me wonder if I was gone, what I would have to leave behind for my kids to look up to? So, I revisited my bucket list I had made years before and publishing a book was on it.

[LDF] When writing, where does the inspiration for your stories come from?

[RR] I have a scary vivid imagination. When I am alone, I often find myself, thinking up stories, or scenarios, replaying how things could have gone differently or how a storyline should go. It doesn't hurt that I am a fan of generally all music and art and writing. So I have a lot of experience in a lot of different areas: I have worked security at concerts, read about murder and thrills, been an artist and musician, experienced my own high-school sweetheart romance and wedding, had children, known loss of friends and family. For my genre it helps too that I have branched out over the years, occasionally delving into the worlds of vampires and murder. I even took a course while I was in college that allowed me to go to the gross anatomy lab, seeing bodies in all sorts of different states up close. Ultimately though, I do automatic writing, so what comes out is often unknown to me until it is down on the paper and I go back to read it. Anything can trigger it though – a song, a great piece of art, an antique or piece of furniture I see while out.