Author Interview: S.D. Grimm

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Pen Friends, we are so excited to introduce you to debut YA author, S.D. Grimm! She’s someone you should definitely get to know (and her novel launches next week)! Plus, there’s a GIVEAWAY — check it out below.

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SP: Welcome, S.D.! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and when you started writing?

I write young adult sci-fi and fantasy because I love it. I started writing when I was in elementary school–second grade. It was a story about a lost sock. Only my lost sock was a living being who had been separated from his mother and siblings. Seven years ago I started writing with the hope of being published. And that book? Scarlet Moon.

SP: I know you were a Pitch Wars mentee (like our own Nova McBee is this year). What was the contest experience like? Would you recommend it for up and coming writers?

Pitch Wars was an awesome experience. I highly recommend it. Not only did I have a fabulous mentor, who taught me a lot, but I got my novel ready for pitching, and the edits my mentor suggested led to a polished novel that eventually helped me land my amazing agent. In addition to that, I have a community of friends who went through the same process, and they are so amazing. I would say that community of writers alone is invaluable.  Continue reading →

How to Select the Best Marketing Platforms for Your Book

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Have you ever read the children’s book “If You Give a Moose a Muffin?” It’s a hilarious tale of how one distraction can lead to another and another until you end up doing something entirely different than what you first started out to do.

Ever been there? I have.

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Prompt: Alaska

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I no longer feel my fingers, but the worry I have over deadly frostbite fades as I stare up at the lights in the sky…

What’s your idea?

Give us your best Alaskan escape Prompt in 500 words or less. We will share our favorite story with our readers.

Email your prompt to: thespinningpen@gmail.com

Author Interview: Rebecca Sky

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Pen Friends ~ Come meet author and wattpad sensation Rebecca Sky as she shares about her writing and some of her own life stories, (which are just as gripping as her fiction!)

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SP: Welcome Rebecca! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and when you started writing?

I’m the oldest of 5 kids, a wifey to a hot Canadian rock star, dog lover (I know writers are supposed to like cats, *whispers* cats scare me), I’m a red head (sadly this does define me), and I live on an island just off the coast of Seattle, Washington—because of this I tell people I’m a Pacific Islander.

My journey to writing is a long one, so I’ll give you the quickest version I can. When I was little I was fascinated with stories, my family was poor and we didn’t have TV or money to buy books so I’d hunt around the neighborhood and in parks and collect pop and beer cans to return to the grocery store for the $0.05 reward. I used that treasure at garage sales, buying every book I could find. My collection varied from manuals, to historical recounts of China, to Nancy Drew mysteries. When I wasn’t flipping through their pages, I was adorned in wild costumes and acting out scenes from plays I’d make up for my siblings. It was all a very “Little Women” lifestyle.

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Book Review: Sunset Rising

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Title: Sunset Rising Series

Author(s): S.M McEachern

Publisher: Clownfish Publishing

Genre: Dystopian, Fantasy

Rating: 4 out of 5

 

There are four main words I use for the Sunset Rising series by S.M. McEachern: I love these books.

These books will have your heart pounding on two levels. The obvious is the rich, action-packed scenes that flow seamlessly one to the other. The other is how Sunny and Jack demonstrate a heart-deep courage to be vulnerable and to change. Continue reading →

Author Interview: Pintip Dunn

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Pen Friends ~ We are so pleased to introduce you to NYT bestselling Young Adult Author, Pintip Dunn! This lady is unstoppable. Read below and find out why…and don’t forget the giveaway! Details below interview.

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SP: Welcome Pintip!

Thank you for having me! I’m so thrilled to be here!

SP: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and when you started writing?

Sure! I’m a lawyer-turned-mother-turned-writer. I graduated from Harvard, with an A.B. in English, and then received my J.D. from Yale Law School. I have three kids and live in Maryland right outside of D.C.

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How to Develop Personas for Your Marketing Strategy

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Unless you plan on selling your book to your writing group and college buddies alone, figuring out who to market to and how is a must.

In the last post, we talked a little about determining who your audience is. Now, it’s time to take a more critical look at that. How do you actually go about finding potential readers/followers/customers? Let’s start simple.

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Journey to the Stars: Discoveries Shaping Sci-fi

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One of the joys of writing Science Fiction is how quickly tomorrow’s technology can surpass a writer’s imagination. Computers the size of your palm? Done. Glasses that help you see 3-D worlds? Done. Real Pokémon lurking in your backyard? Well, sort of. And 30 years ago, no one really expected those inventions to become reality in their lifetime.

So what does that mean for a science fiction writer? Should we all retreat to fantasy? No!

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Between the Covers: A Look at Librarians, Part 1

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As writers, our thoughts are usually consumed with fantasy worlds, complex story lines and large casts of characters – and occasional daydreams about when we’ve made the New York Time’s Best-Seller List so we can quit our day jobs and write full time. Ahem. Back to reality.

But what happens when creation and editing and revising (and more revising) and publishing and printing are done? When THE BOOK is on shelves in bookstores across the world?

Obviously, you want to appeal to your readers so that they will A) buy your book, and B) want to read more! But what about those people who *gasp* help make your book accessible to an even wider crowd for free ? That’s right – we’re talking about LIBRARIANS!

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