Samna Ghani

Today, I am honored to interview one of my mentors and an author I greatly admire. I have been very lucky to know him personally and to be coached by him. He is the first one I send a draft to if I am unsure about something. He is the one I share writing tips with (he shares most of them of course) and he is the one I talk to about books that frustrate the hell out of me (Gone Girl for example!). In short, Nicholas Boving is one of my favorite authors and more than that, he is my writing guide and teacher.  Nicholas has worked as a mining engineer, as a docker, fruit inspector and forester. His diversity is evident in his books and screenplays. Nicholas is the author and publisher of the Maxim Gunn series of action/adventure books. He has written fifteen other novels: drama, thriller and action/adventure and several screenplays.  Nicholas was kind enough to humor me and shared his thoughts about writing and the writing process. I am sure authors out there will be...

Julie Kavanagh lives in London with her husband, her grown up daughters and six rescue cats. She works in an Inner city school and has been writing for as long as she can remember and, despite modest success, a few years ago she gave it all up to concentrate on her family but now she's back with a vengeance and lots of wonderful tales to share. Julie is a believer in the stranger things of life and can often be found sitting in the dark in a haunted house. Many of her weird experiences can be found within her stories, bringing a touch of fact to fiction. She loves to both hear and write ghost stories. Julie was kind enough to share her thoughts with me and this is what she had to say.  Why do you write? That’s an easy question to answer. If I didn’t write, I'm sure I’d go mad. I have voices whispering their stories in my head and if I don’t get them out on to paper or the computer screen, I think they will drive me crazy. What is your favorite book and why...

Things are not always as bad as they seem. Elizabeth Jennings and Neil Baldwin. Two different personalities. An accidental meeting. One strange day. A string of events that bring in a ray of hope and love. Both don’t know what hit them. The result: a beautiful and unexpected Valentine miracle. Coming soon! 

Chris Karlsen is a history buff with a passion for traveling. She has traveled extensively across Europe, the Near East and Africa. A retired police detective (wow :-), Chris has spent 25 years in law enforcement. I had a quick chat with Chris and this is what she had to say. Enjoy!  What do you write? I write historical/paranormal romances, romantic thrillers and my latest is book one of a historical mystery/thriller series. Which writers inspire you? I'm inspired by Bernard Cornwell, John Sandford, J.R.R. Tolkien, Julie Anne Long, Julia Quinn, and Guy Gavriel Kay. What is your favorite book and why? My favorite book is: The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's a medieval fantasy that is clearly meant to be medieval Spain. The story is brilliant characterization of the two powerful male leads. The reader is as fascinated and empathetic to the antagonist as the protagonist. It's a most remarkable, moving, and exciting story. What do you thi...

Today, I had the opportunity to chat with Alison Jean-Ash, a soccer hooligan and an avid writer of poems, articles, essays, reviews and what do you know... books! I have one thing in common with Alison - we both love Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer! Alison shared some of her thoughts with me. Hope you enjoy.  Why do you write? I don’t know, really.   I just always have, since I was little.   I solve most of my attitude problems by journaling, and I write fiction as much to entertain myself as to please anyone else. Which writers inspire you? Jane Austen, of course, and Georgette Heyer for her humor, and earlier generations of romantic suspense writers: Mary Stewart, Joan Aiken and her sister Jane Aiken Hodge.   I read their books over and over.   I also reread Elizabeth Goudge, an English writer of the 1940s and 1950s: terribly sentimental by today’s standards, but a lot of psychological insight and a lot of magic, old legends influencing the p...