Today I’m giving a shoutout to one of my favorite publishers, Bookouture. They consistently put forth some of my favorite books and have become one of my most trusted and valued publishers out there. They release a wide variety of books from several different genres, so no matter what types of books you read they are bound to have something you will like. Their list of authors is huge and full of some of the most talented writers around, I can’t even begin to name them all but their full list can be found here. 

I’ve reviewed several of their books and in case you missed my reviews check them out here:

My Sisters Secret 
The Sister
The Stepmother
Lovers and Liars
Last to Die
A Summer at Sea
The Forgotten Woman
All Fall Down
The Killer Inside
Take a Chance On Me
The Lost Mother
Christmas Under a Cranberry Sky
The Taken
Special shoutout goes to Kim the publicity and social media manager for Bookouture. She is such a doll and a pleasure to interact with! You can find her on Twitter. 

For more information about Bookouture check them out here. Follow them on social media on Twitter and Facebook. 

 Who are your most trusted publishers? 

I’m honored and delighted to have Tiffany McDaniel, the author of The Summer That Melted Everything here for a Q & A today. In case you missed it, here is my review. 

Q & A

1. What’s a typical writing day for you look like? Describe your perfect writing environment.

 

My typical writing day is pretty simple. I never outline or plan ahead. For me, making notes or directing the story beforehand can domesticate it in a way that gives the story permission to lose its natural essence. My stories evolve with each new word and page that I write. I never know who the characters will ultimately become, what decisions they will make, or how the final page will come to a close, but I like that element of surprise. Sometimes I write during the day, others times during the night. It’s all about fitting it in with the rest of life around it. My writing environment now is I just write at the desk in the corner of my bedroom. For many years I didn’t have a desk or a chair, so I wrote on my bed with the laptop on my lap. I suppose my perfect writing environment is somewhere peaceful and quite. Perhaps a place of the same Gothic landscape and Gothic comforts that are in my mind.

 

2. How did you get started writing? Is it something you’ve always loved?

Writing is something I have always loved. I remember as a child having that desire to pick up the crayon and write what was in my head. I would make homemade books out of notebook paper and my mother’s crochet yarn if I wanted to be fancy. It was notebook paper and the stapler if I didn’t have anything else. I started out writing poems, plays, and short stories. It wouldn’t be until I was eighteen that I wrote my first novel. I wouldn’t get a contract until I was twenty-nine for The Summer that Melted Everything, which is my fifth or sixth novel written. Getting published wasn’t an easy feat, at least not for me. It was eleven years of rejection and perseverance. But through all the frustration and heartbreak, I never lost my love of writing.   

3. Who are your favorite writers/inspirations?

I grew up reading R.L. Stine. His Goosebumps and Fear Street series were the perfect partner to my coming of age. I still love his books to this day. I didn’t read the literary heavyweights until I was much older. I was in my late twenties before I read Shirley Jackson, who is one of my favorite authors. As is Ray Bradbury, Donna Tartt, and the poet James Wright, who was from my land of Ohio.    

4. Anything you can tell us about upcoming projects? 

I have eight completed novels. Marketing The Summer that Melted Everything has meant I haven’t had much time to write, but my favorite of the novels I have written is When Lions Stood as Men. It’s about a Jewish brother and sister who escape Nazi Germany, flee across the Atlantic Ocean, and end up in Breathed, Ohio. While there they build their own camp of judgment up in the hills where they must try to survive not only their guilt but also survive each other. 

 

5. Normally how do you develop plots/characters? Brief us on your process.

I try to keep the process really simple. I don’t draft the characters out beforehand or outline them. Really their development comes with each new word I type. The Summer that Melted Everything deals with some heavy issues like racism and homophobia, but these were things that rose naturally as the characters developed. With issues like these it’s important to not force them into the story, but rather allow the issues to naturally exist, if they are to exist at all. Starting out I see the characters in my mind pretty clearly, but aside from their physical appearance, who they are is something I have yet to find out. The plot develops the same way the characters do. One word and one page at a time.    

6. Favorite character from one of your own novels? 

That’s difficult to say a favorite because I love them all, but one of my favorite characters to write was Grand. He’s Fielding’s older brother and he’s one of those characters that I instantly fell for. Grand’s struggle as a character is universal. I think many of us, if not all of us, at some point in our lives struggle with knowing who we are. These sorts of characters that deal with things we can all relate to are characters we can all recognize, and in that recognition, it’s easy to understand and love them.   

7. Preferred method for readers to contact you? 

I don’t have social media, but readers can visit my author website at:

http://www.tiffanymcdaniel.com

I do personally respond to the emails I receive through my website. Having that connection to readers is important. We’re not authors on our own, nor do we have careers by ourselves. We are authors because readers buy and read our books and the least an author can do is to give the reader some of your time when the reader has given you their time reading your book. 

8. On average, how long does it take you to write a book? 

For the eight novels I have written thus far they took a month to write. I wrote one of those in eight days. I doubt that will happen again. I spent a lot of years trying to get the first book published and when I realized that first book wasn’t going to be my first published novel, I got to work writing all the novels I should have been writing during the course of those years devoted to the first novel. So within two years I wrote the eight novels and it was out of that batch that The Summer that Melted Everything came.     

10. Which one of your characters do you relate to the most? 

I think a little bit of the author is in each of the characters. Hopefully there’s more of me in the heroes than there is in the villains. 

 

11. If writing wasn’t your career what would you be doing?

I’ve always been interested in archaeology and wanted to run around the world with Indiana Jones. It would have been great to have been there with Howard Carter, curse or not, when he opened King Tutankhamen’s tomb. I also love the workings of the universe of the stars. If I weren’t afraid of the rocket ship ride into space I think being an astronaut wouldn’t be a bad life. If I were better with numbers and figures perhaps a cosmologist or astrophysicist. There’s also marine biology and studying the ocean depths. What I love about writing is that I can be all these things within a story.   

12. What’s the best compliment that you’ve received about your work? 

I’ve been fortunate to receive so many undeserving compliments for sure, but it’s always a compliment when a reader says they love the book. It’s a simple phrase but really that’s all you need to hear right there.    

About the author:

(Photo credit JENNIFER MCDANIEL 2016)

An Ohio native, Tiffany McDaniel’s writing is inspired by the rolling hills and buckeye woods of the land she knows. She is also a poet, playwright, screenwriter, and artist. The Summer that Melted Everything is her debut novel. 

Huge thanks to Tiffany for joining me today! 

I’ve been thinking about starting a new feature for awhile now and I’m so excited to start today! I was inspired in part by Aimee at Hello Chick Lit and her post about book bloggers supporting other book bloggers. I thought it was a fantastic idea, and I’ll be incorporating my support for other bloggers in the coming weeks. Every Saturday I’ll be doing some sort of shoutout post highlighting something or someone book related. It may be one of my favorite bloggers, a specific book, a publisher, etc. If anyone else wants to participate feel free, I think this will be fun!

For my very first week I’m delighted to bring you a Q & A from Claire Seeber the amazing author of The Stepmother. I read  her book a couple months ago and really liked it, especially the unique take on the tale of Snow White.

Q & A

1. What’s a typical writing day for you look like? Describe your perfect writing environment.

I write when the kids are at school; I like the early mornings in theory, my brain seems to work better – but I have to wait ‘til I’ve got everyone out from under my feet! My perfect environment would be a lovely garden with coffee on tap, not too hot but sunny! I’m very lucky that I have a fantastic view onto our garden & a little park behind with a duck pond, swans and herons flying around.

 

2. How did you get started writing? Was it something that you’ve always loved?

I worked in TV as a director for years and whilst doing that, started writing features for the broadsheets. I also started a screenplay & a novel that didn’t get much past a chapter but turned out to be my 2nd thriller, BAD FRIENDS. It’s about a TV producer being stalked.

 

3. Who are your favorite writers/inspirations?

 I guess for the kind of thriller I’ve been writing since around 2004 when I started LULLABY, my first book just after having my first baby, it would be Daphne du Maurier & then Nicci French seemed to be doing a new kind of thriller. My guilty pleasure was always Jilly Cooper so maybe I mixed a bit of that kind of comic romance thing in too!

 

4. Anything you can tell us about upcoming projects? 

Oooh….it’s all a bit up in the air at the moment: I’ve written something quite different which might come out under a different name. That’s a secret though!

 

5. Normally how do you develop plots/characters?

 Brief us on your process. I usually have a germ of an idea that’s been hanging around for a while. I write everything down in a notebook because otherwise I forget, and then when it comes to writing a new book, I discuss it briefly with my agent or editor.

 

6. Favorite character from one of your own novels? 

 I do like DI Joe Silver who is in LULLABY & FRAGILE MINDS. He’s no nonsense, straight talking & slightly tormented – but the ladies love him! Rose Miller was probably my favourite ‘heroine’ from NEVER TELL, and I like her son Freddie too who was definitely modelled on my boys!

 

7. Preferred method for readers to contact you? 

 Twitter/ Facebook/ through my website – though not sure my email on that works very well! I’m useless with technology.

 

8. On average, how long does it take you to write a book? 

 I wrote THE STEPMOTHER quite quickly as I was under real time constraints: it was 6 months from start to finish probably. It meant I could focus my mind.

 

10. Which one of your characters do you relate to the most?

 Good question! Rose Miller, probably, or parts of Laurie in 24 HOURS, who was tormented by loving the wrong person, which is something so many of us do. It’s not based on my first marriage though, as many people assumed! My ex was nothing like Sid.  

 

11. If writing wasn’t your career what would you be doing?

I’m training in psychology/ to be a counselor, so that’s something I’m really interested in. If I went back to school and started again, I’d prob do a job like Rose Miller did, e.g. be a foreign news correspondent trying to bring vital news to the world. Or something useful. I’d like to say a doctor, but just didn’t have the right logical mind for that.

 

12. What’s the best compliment that you’ve received about your work? 

 Any time someone contacts me and says they really enjoyed something I’ve written, that’s enough for me! Or if the subject moves them because it’s something they’ve been through, I am really pleased. A really top agent said something I’d written (not a thriller) reminded her of some truly classic books and that brought tears to my eyes.

 

13. I adore the cover for The Stepmother did you have in part in the design? 

Thank you! I can’t take credit: I talked it through with my editor Keshini; she always wanted a mirror as the working title was ‘Mirror Mirror’, but the first image didn’t work apparently, and then they came up with the idea of the rose. It’s very striking isn’t it?

 

14. Was there any specific topics or issues you researched for The Stepmother? 

 I know a lot about stepfamilies as I grew up in one, and now am a stepmother (sort of, we’re not actually married). I read a lot of versions of Snow White too. I also looked at current affairs for the Marlena side of the book; I knew quite a lot about the Leveson enquiry because of my journalistic roots, and I was interested in the idea of regrets over phone hacking. I would like to explore that more actually.  

You can find Claire on social media here:

Website|Facebook|Twitter
You can purchase The Stepmother here. 

Thanks so much to Claire for taking the time to join me! Also to Kim at Bookouture who is just a star.