Featured Author - Carol Ann Kauffman

I am so glad to feature Carol Ann Kauffman on my blog today. Carol is from the Midwest; a retired teacher from a local school district where she taught for thirty-five years. Carol is quite diverse having worked as a printer, managed a department store office, and worked for an insurance agency. She loves to travel; her favorite places being Italy, and Aruba, which show up in her novels quite a bit. She loves to play Bridge and to garden. She grows African violets and orchids.

Carol is the author of the Time After Time series, which follows a pair of lovers through their many lifetimes together. Her novels, classified as romantic action adventures with a sci-fi/ fantasy twist, are about life, love, loss, and lunacy.  Sounds just like my kind of thing :-) Carol was nice enough to answer a few questions. Enjoy! 

Why do you write?

I never make the conscious decision to write.  I’ve been writing down my thoughts, journaling ever since I can remember, and when I was teaching I encouraged my students to do the same.  It helps me focus better.  It helps me organize my thoughts.  I’ve heard it even lowers one’s blood pressure. I wrote wildly when I was young.  Then… career, family, life got in the way and the only writing I did was journaling.  After I retired, I picked it up again and now I must write every day.

Which writers inspire you?

My favorite authors are M.C. Beaton (Hamish MacBeth and Agatha Raisin series), Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum), Sue Grafton (A is for Abili, B is for…), Dan Brown, to name a few.  I like an author who drags me into the book no matter how I am feeling when I sit down to read, one who can make me put everything else aside and just read.

What is the easiest thing about writing?

I would say the easiest part for me is coming up with the cast of characters and then making a detailed character profile for each of them with everything I would need to know about them and then some.

What is the most difficult part?

I tend to suffer from too many subplots.  One publisher wanted to divide my novel into three separate books.  I wasn’t thrilled with the idea, so I declined.  Though a few subplots are good, too many can certainly strangle a good story. Simplifying my story line is the hardest part for me.

What is your favorite book and why?

Oh, this changes weekly!  The more I read, the more often it changes.  It also depends on my mood.  My favorite romance, my favorite sci-fi book, my favorite fantasy.  I like Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, partially because I’ve been to many of the locations in Italy he depicted.  I also like Passers by Loretta Laird, an Indie author from Australia.  She created a Tolkien-type world involving a princess and a passer that explored the love vs. duty concept.  And it was beautiful.

From books that have already been published by other authors, which book do you wish you had written?

Easy! Diana Galbadon’s Outlander.

How do you market your books?

I just like to write them, that’s all.  I wrote four novels the first year, and four the second.  Then I took a year off to attempt to market them.  Writing is fun.  Marketing is hard work and I am not one to push myself on people.  So I listened to what others said.  Then I reformatted, re-edited, hired an editor and a cover artist, and re-launched my novels, one by one. I use social media.  I do book signings.  I do giveaways.  Some months I do well.  December was horrible.  I try to get my book into the hands of a person I think will enjoy it.  It’s more one book at a time than one day at a time.  I will accept any help I can get.

Any new releases?

LORD OF BLAKELEY has just been re-released.  It has been completely reformatted.  It has a beautiful new cover and is now also available in paperback.

Book Description:

The series, TIME AFTER TIME, follows a pair of quintessential lovers, Richard and Nicole, through their lives together, in different places, in different times, with different names and faces and sometimes even on other planets. This follows the alternative theory that the relationships we forge in this lifetime, both the good and the bad, are continued into the future, and are rooted deeply in our past. Whatever we do, whomever we love, and the good and evil deeds we do today follow us into the future. Unsettled issues will present themselves again and again, until they are ultimately resolved. Those people who have had a profound effect on us in this lifetime will find us again in the future. And although everything changes, love remains.

Books in the TIME AFTER TIME series are: BLUE LAKE, BELTERRA,

The BASLICATO, BENTLEY SQUARE, WAITING FOR RICHARD, and LORD OF BLAKELEY. They do not need to be read in order.

Lord of Blakeley is the story of Andrew of Blakeley, a simple farm boy who lives on a primitive future planet. He is chosen by the lovely Lady Aleese to be her mate and rises to become the most powerful man on the planet. But a jealous man with access to mobile transport devices wreaks havoc on the young couple’s happiness, separating them, her on an alien rock planet and he, aboard a slave ship, and then dumping them in present-day Chicago. One day Aleese vanishes into thin air and Andrew is arrested for her murder and must stand trial. It is a story of devotion and jealousy, of loss and lunacy. And, in true Time After Time fashion, a story of love.

Book Link:

http://www.amazon.com/LORD-BLAKELEY-Time-After-ebook/dp/B00DXF1710/ref=la_B0076OMJY8_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422160747&sr=1-7

Book Excerpt:

Stolen in the Night
Location: Blakeley Province, Planet of Nord, Year 2075

“I’m going in to get her,” he said calmly and quietly.

“No, Lord Andrew, it’s too dangerous. They’ll kill you, and not right away. If that bastard Samuel Bishop and his men find you before you find her and get back here, you know what they will do to you. You need to re-think this course of action. At least let’s wait until morning. Then Carmine will take a team and go in and get her. You need to stay here. We need you. You shouldn’t go. And you definitely shouldn’t go alone,” Jared warned.

“No. I’m going in after her. Now. Her safety always comes first with me. You know that. I’ll be able to find her, Jared. I know I will. And rescuing my woman is my job. Unlock the transport dock and have a security team stand ready. What were the last signals?”

“Three in, four out.”

“Damn it!” he said holding his head. “How did they manage to get in here with the aperture closed? And nobody saw or heard anything?”

“Well, Ruth said Lady Aleese was called out to help a baby burning up with fever. You were asleep. She didn’t want to wake you.” He shook his head in dismay. Yes, Aleese would go running out to help. And no, she wouldn’t want to wake him.

“Once this link is opened, who knows what evil may come rushing through that eye. Security team in place. Now. I’ll be leaving as soon as possible.”

Jared left to ready the transport dock and alert a security team. He was pushing buttons and flipping switches.

“Carmine, we need a security team to the transport room right now. He’s going in after her. I couldn’t talk him out of it.”

“We’re on our way, Jared. We knew he’d go.”

Within minutes, Andrew, Lord of Blakely strode calmly and confidently into the transport room, followed by

1

security team taking aim at the aperture. Andrew stood inside the transport dock.

“I’ll be back within the hour with Aleese. Stun anyone or anything else comes through this aperture, full stun, and lock them up until I return. I will deal with them personally. Tell no one I have gone,” said Andrew.

“Weapons on maximum stun,” Carmine ordered his team.

“I understand,” said Jared. “When the Lord of Blakeley goes tearing off alone in the middle of the night on a doomed, dangerous, foolhardy mission to rescue his Lady who has been stolen in the night, it promotes fear and panic among their loyal subjects who love both dearly. This is a sad day for Blakeley, Lord Andrew. We could lose the both of you tonight.”

“Enough. Bishop is an animal. She’s terrified of him. I have to go right now.”

“It’s a trap. You know it’s a trap. Bishop is using her as bait. They came sneaking in here and stole her away in the middle of the night just to piss you off.”

“Oh, it worked! And I’m going in. But it’s not me he wants, Jared. He wants her. And now... he’s got her. But not for long.”

“Okay,” sighed Jared. “Good luck. Be careful. Go get her and bring her home. Godspeed.”

“Thank you. Open.”

You can also connect with Carol:

Twitter at @Cay47. 

carolannkauffman.weebly.com 

visionandverse.blogspot.com.