Kelsey K. Sather Interview - Birth of the Anima

Photo Credit: Blair Speed

KELSEY K. SATHER lives in Montana. Her stories explore the complexities of human-nature interconnections. While an author of nonfiction essays for over a decade, fantasy remains her first and true love.

She received an MA in Environmental Humanities from the University of Utah, where she attended on fellowship. The resulting collection of essays from her studies, Pulling Up Beets, examines sustainable and equitable food systems at high elevations.

At the University of Montana, she received High Honors in Creative Writing and Environmental Studies. Her thesis assessing the impacts of the U.S.-Peruvian Free Trade Agreement on Amazonian tribes earned a Davidson Honors College scholar distinction.

After teaching at the university level, Kelsey co-managed a writers’ collective for four years, where she facilitated creative writing workshops for all ages. She’s also worked as a skiing and climbing instructor, as well as a baker. When she’s not writing, she enjoys mountain sports and spending time with friends and family.

        

  

When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill?
I don’t know if there was ever a time I didn’t have a creative itch to scratch. As a little girl I loved to make things—books, forts, jewelry, paintings, cookies, you name it. If it could be made, I wanted to try. I even attempted to make an entire house one time out of cardboard and a leftover can of paint from the garage.

As for my book, I’ve wanted to write a fantasy novel since middle school. It took over a decade to start, with plenty of nonfiction writing in-between, but I eventually pursued that dream with the creation of Birth of the Anima.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Connectivity is one of the main reasons I write—connection with Creativity, with self, and with others. Since being published, every note of gratitude or emotional resonance I receive is the most rewarding experience. It’s like a flower that keeps blooming.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received from another author?
Melanie Rae Thon was one of the best writing teachers I’ve ever had. She encouraged us to be curious. We would often do exercises that were ends in themselves. Her instruction to take risks and play on the page was the best guidance I remember receiving in my formal studies as a writer.

In your newest book, BIRTH OF THE ANIMA, can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about it.
Birth of the Anima follows an ancient lineage of women who develop powers akin to apex predators. Along with their bestial strength and speed, they inherit the Task to restore ecological Order to the world.

While their histories interconnect, the Animas hail from vastly dissimilar eras and cultures, ranging from an equatorial savanna village to Viking-inspired arctic dwellers to a colonial whorehouse. Immortal, cunning Shapeshifters and Mages trained in the martial arts of plant magic offer their support as each Anima seeks to fulfill the intense and sometimes violent demands of her Task.

As the first book in a fantasy trilogy for adult readers, Birth of the Anima sets the stage of a seemingly impossible undertaking, and yet the hope preserved among the final Anima’s surviving allies.

TEN QUOTES FROM BIRTH OF THE ANIMA

• “Oh child, it takes more than blood to make a girl a woman.”
• What story did she now hold in her possession—and how did this story possess her?
• “Magic…is the belief that there is a true yet nameless, formidable yet loving energy within everything, and that we, as humans, can enter into this supernatural life force. One needs to believe in this energy first before she may wield it.”
• She ran so fast it felt reckless. It was reckless, and yet she didn’t stop herself. Some part of her long leashed came unfettered. The way she ran felt as wildly intuitive as childbirth.
• “There’s a light in you.” He tapped a finger on her chest. “Right there. A beautiful, brilliant light. Art had it. Your mom has it. We all have it. And real bad stuff happens in life. Things you can’t change. We don’t know why, and we don’t have control over most of it. But we do have control, or at least some control, anyways, over how it changes us.”
• If that older woman could hike by herself, with weight, Elle figured she could, too.
• “Though are experiences may be as vastly different as our appearances, our reasons share the same blood. We fight for the earth sustaining us all. We fight for the freedom to eat and drink the gifts of the land—gifts given by no man. We fight for our birthright to these gifts. We fight for our animal kin’s right to these gifts. And if we die fighting, we die knowing the earth will take us back in. No man truly owns anyone. We belong only to the earth.”
• Her body remained curvy, though more muscles had formed within the flesh. She felt honored to live in the strengths of both fat and brawn.
• “Where there is uncertainty there can be hope.”
• She could hear the mysterious humming of a life force, pulsating in the tress, rippling within the frozen and flowing waters, ever changing as light and wind around her. This beauty, created by its own will, spoke of something much greater than any singular existence, human or other.

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?
My main goal for the Ancient Language of the Earth trilogy is for readers to feel and appreciate their innate interconnection with one another and the natural world. I want them to discover, or rather rediscover, their kinship with “other,” (both human and non), and feel more deeply compelled to help create a just and ecologically sound world.

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating Freda?
Freda and Elle were the first characters I met when creating Birth of the Anima. It was my first time writing fiction, and I was surprised to learn that fictional characters are just like real people: they have their own wants and needs, and sometimes these are not aligned with my own wants and ideas for the story. It was a constant surprise to see what my characters would end up doing that day when I sat down to write. This is the magic, and mystery, of fiction writing.

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your readers. What would it be?
Ask questions about character motives and reasoning—morality within a story is rarely black and white, good versus bad.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?
I love this question! I would have Elle meet Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Gollum is such a potent character and metaphor; he is the hyperbole of qualities we all have within us. We loathe and pity him.

I think Gollum teaches us a lot about the complex reality within ourselves, and Elle’s journey in the book is an exploration of her shadow self and the doubt and fear she needs to overcome in order to rise to her life’s calling.

What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
Most forms of procrastination are doubt and fear manifesting as self-sabotage. With this in mind, I do my best to maintain a healthy inner world through journaling, meditation, and talking with friends and family.

TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT BIRTH OF THE ANIMA

• 1. Anima is the Latin root for spirit. In Jungian psychology, it’s the name for the feminine aspect of the psyche. In my book, it’s the name for a lineage of women tasked to bring humans back into ecological Order.
• 2. The first draft of the manuscript was 120K words. Only 20K words of that draft made it into the published manuscript. The second draft of the manuscript was over 200K words long. The published manuscript is 155K words in length. Meaning, in eight years of writing, nearly 150K words ended up being “cut” from the published book. (Hence, the iceberg metaphor: what we see in a published book is just the tip of the work that went into it.)
• 3. I write in the mornings: 99% of the book was written before noon.
• 4. It was a finalist in the 2021 National Indie Excellence Award for fantasy.
• 5. The plant magic system was largely drawn from real-life witchcraft, shamanism, and other forms of nature-based spiritual practices.
• 6. Freda’s cabin was inspired by a real-life place in the mountains of Montana. I read a lot of books about the lifestyles of Rocky Mountain Native Americans and homesteaders to better understand how someone can live solely off the land in a harsh and sometimes hostile mountainous environment.
• 7. Elle is pronounced like “L.” Freda is Fray-Da.
• 8. The world the book takes place in is called Aligaea, which roughly translates as “other earth.” I think of Aligaea as an “earth species” in planets. Just like you and I have commonalities and differences as members of the human species, Aligaea and Earth are both alike and dissimilar. I also think of Aligaea as fun-house mirror, reflecting our reality back to us in accurate, diminished, hyperbolized, and otherwise altered ways.
• 9. Geometric shapes and patterns held as sacred in a variety of real-life cultures across space and time play fundamental roles in the book’s plot: primarily, the Golden Ratio and the Flower of Life/Metatron’s Cube pattern.
• 10. The concept of the “Order” is based off the scientific theory of ecological balance: a state of equilibrium can be achieved in a biotic community when a natural system of checks and balances allows for species diversity and population stability. Its counterargument is chaos theory. Both theories play a role in the book’s plot and themes.

Best date you've ever had?
I love climbing with my husband. Any time we get out on rock together is the best date. J

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?
I would go back to my high school self, when I was struggling with body image, belonging, and confidence. I would tell her to stand tall, feed her body well, stretch, get outside more often, and read more books. I’d also take her rock climbing. Then I’d give her a big hug and tell her that she’s amazing.

I think that age—from middle through high school—is when many of us learn to self-abandon: meaning, we act and think in ways that are born out of fear and a desire to “fit in,” rather than true to who we are. It has taken years to trust my intuition again and love myself for who I am, rather than who I think I need to be. It remains an ongoing process, but I’m doing my best to heal and grow.

If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. with whom would it be?
I’d love to be Jane Goodall in the 1960s, when she was conducting her radical, perception-changing chimpanzee research.

What is one unique thing are you afraid of?
I have a medical phobia of shots.

First Heartbreak?
When my high school crush started dating one of my best friends.

What is your most memorable travel experience?
Riding a moped around the entire Greek island of Kalymnos in the Mediterranean comes to mind, but I also had a lovely time living with a family in Trujillo, Peru for six weeks. Traveling is one of my favorite things to do; learning more about cultures and different ways of living, on the ground and in books, informed a lot of the writing that went into Birth of the Anima.

Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a heart break or have never loved before?
True love. Always.

Where can readers find you?
In my monthly newsletter, I write a “love letter” and also send out writing tips, reading lists, upcoming events, and exclusive sneak peeks: https://kelseyksather.com/newsletter
I’m also on Instagram: @kelseyksather

Over millennia, across the seven seterras of Aligaea, twelve women—the Anima—develop powers akin to apex predators. Along with their bestial strength and speed, they inherit the Task to restore ecological Order to the world. Yet fulfilling the Task seems improbable as the Imperium spreads a plague of ecocide and despotism across the land, ushering in the apocalypse with its infectious Disorder.

Stout and smart Freda Johansson leaves behind a promising career, love, and community to seek the red-capped mushroom capable of turning her into the final Anima. Whether it's plant magic or free will guiding her from emerald forests to austere peaks, she doesn't care. She only needs to find the mushroom before the Imperial Forces can seal the catastrophic fate of the planet.

The sacred balance of Life depends on the birth of the Anima—but even then, she must choose to own her powers as both woman and wild beast.

You can purchase Birth of the Anima at the following Retailers:

        

And now, The Giveaways.

Thank you KELSEY K. SATHER for making this giveaway possible.

1 Winner will receive a Copy of Birth of the Anima by Kelsey K. Sather.

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L.K. Hingey Interview - Kimber

Photo Content from L.K. Hingey

L.K. Hingey was born, raised, and enlisted into the U.S. Army out of Detroit Michigan. She graduated from the University of North Dakota in 2012 as a private and commercial helicopter pilot with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics, before commissioning as a U.S. Army officer. She has since medically retired from the military and continues the Army lifestyle as an Active Duty spouse. She resides with her husband, Jonathon, who is a U.S. Army Blackhawk pilot. L.K.'s many interests include her dogs, fitness, backpacking, traveling, and writing. Upcoming works include Books Two and Three of The Chronicles of Elyria, and Books One and Two of The Elyrian Prequels.

      

  

Tell us your latest news. 

The better half and I are getting ready to start the adoption process in the fall! This news is the biggest, brightest, and most exciting news of our lives and I cannot wait for this next adventure to begin!

Who or what has influenced your writing, and in what way? 

As cheesy as it sounds, nothing doesn’t influence my writing. I am very intrigued by science, religion, governance, social patterns, movements for humanity, art, movies, good books, family, friends, and the crazy ride that has been my life so far. It bleeds into my work... all of it. Family and friends were surprised when they completed KIMBER by the level at which my personality, experiences, and perceptions have seeped so deeply and (I can only hope) so seamlessly into my writing. 

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published. 

Holding my completed, printed book in my hands.

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel? 

1) I would love to take readers on a full emotional journey when they read KIMBER. I’d love for them to start by thinking... “Wow, this story is visually stunning, has intriguing science, and in set in such a well-crafted world.” 

2) Next, I hope that the reader develops a relationship with the characters/ the character’s struggle against their corrupt government. I’d love for a reader to think that they can truly feel the pain, confusion, and segregation of Kimber’s dystopian world.

3) Finally, I’d like to readers to think “Holy crap!” when the adventure comes to a head. I’d like readers to feel panic, concern, suspense, horror, and then partake in the tenderness that unites, and ultimately is the only thing that can save, us all. I’d love for readers to think about the parallels of the past, the present, and the potential-future as they walk away with a bit of wonderment and a lot of excitement for the next two book in the series! 

TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT KIMBER

• 1) The name of the underground city in KIMBER’s world is Inanna. I choose the name Inanna after much thought and research. Inanna is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess associated with love, beauty, sex, war, justice, and political power. She was the perfect symbol for the last refugee city of mankind.
• 2) The six-pointed star of Inanna is real. The “council” (the corrupt Inannian government) are the bearers of Inanna’s symbol of sanctity; a metallic six-pointed star with a single jewel inset.
• 3) Tardigrades are REAL. They are Earth organisms that have, incredibly, survived the vacuum of space. They are fondly called “water bears” in the scientific community.
• 4) The tardigrade genome has been spliced/ tested with the genomes of other organisms in attempts to make the bonded, new DNA stronger. This application may soon spread to the agricultural sector and tardigrade DNA may be used to enhance the drought-resistance of crops!
• 5) CMEs, coronal mass ejections, are clouds of charged particles that are ejected from explosions on the Sun’s surface. CMEs occasionally impact the Earth’s atmosphere displaying in what we know as our brilliant polar borealis. Solar flares are nothing but explosions on the Sun’s surface and occur quite often. It is true that a solar flare would never be large enough to incinerate the Earth, but the possibility of a CME so powerful that it could damage, and perhaps destroy, the Earth’s ozone is the science behind KIMBER’s dystopian world.
• 6) In chapter V of KIMBER, Kimber shows her friend Caleb something called bioluminescence. Agriculture is a coveted thing in a world with no remaining vegetation, and in a very tender scene in a waterfall cavern, Kimber shows Caleb a secret space that is thriving with not only greenery... but bioluminescent greenery. Bioluminescence is a real phenomenon when certain varieties of plant life, fish, and insects (like fireflies!) naturally produce and emit light!
• 7) The African bush viper is the second pairing of DNA genome with the human’s genomes when the experimental group of Auroreans were created. The bush viper is colloquially known as “the dragon snake” because its scale are dramatically leaf-shaped. I choose to pair human DNA with that of a snake for many reasons... one of which is the unique fact that African bush vipers give birth to live young!
• 8) Geographically, the layout of KIMBER’s world in post-apocalyptic America is as accurate as possible. The cave system is real; Inanna is set in the Mammoth caves and the underground city is peppered with accuracy in its geology and nomenclature. Next, the over-land travel is as accurate as possible. I’ve never visited the small towns between the Mammoth caves and Fort Knox, Kentucky but I hope the residents in those areas get a kick out of having their small towns put on a map! The grounds on Fort Knox is also real, as is the Ireland clinic. Many hours were spent pouring over google maps to recreate middle America in the year 2209! Lastly, the Cheyenne Mountain complex is also very real. No spoilers, but in Book Two of The Elyrian Chronicles: CHEYENNE, our grafted heroes set off on a dangerous journey west to the Rocky Mountains.
• 9) I have always been intrigued by how religion affects us as individuals and as a society. Similar to the movie The Matrix, KIMBER has an undercurrent of religious prods and parallels. The snake was chosen as the vehicle of Man’s salvation in order to pose deeper questions. Inanna itself is as representation of the Ark, but an Ark that has become corrupt and twisted by mal intent. Christianity is not the only religion explored in KIMBER; Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam are also looked at. The religious undertones are just that, they serve the storyline in a deeper and quieter sense, and the light-reader may not pick up on the use of many of the biblical references in KIMBER’s atheistic world of 2209.
• 10) Most random and fun fact of all... Most of the characters in KIMBER are based off of my family members. I used middle names in most cases to represent the characters and it was a ton of fun working my loved ones into the story. Not only are their personalities larger than life, but in KIMBER, the characters are brilliantly colored and have enhanced DNA, so the latitude and room for creativity with the characters was limitless!

What part of Kimber you enjoy writing the most? 

The thing I enjoyed the most when creating KIMBER’s world, was writing in dozens of Easter eggs into the story. It was challenging but also very fun to weave in as many scientific, religious, governmental, and personal factoids as possible. Everything in KIMBER is either derived from fact or has some underlying meaning. For the light reader, the story is comedic, suspenseful, and romantic at times... but for the avid reader/ fact-checker, every reference and every symbol means something beyond face value.

Can you tell us when you started KIMBER, how that came about? 

I was a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army until I fractured my spine while flying and was forced to medically retire. I was obviously quite torn up, as I had plans to stay in the military until retirement. I had loved it, lived it, and breathed it. So, I took a five-month trip backpacking the Appalachian Trail, with my dog, Colefax. Along the 1800+ miles of the trail, I had the freedom to sort out my thoughts and perceptions of the world around me. I also had a rather complex childhood, which plays into my many interpretations about who we are and our place in this great big, beautiful world. The storyline for KIMBER was born in the mountains during my hike, and in January of 2020, I began writing it down. It spilled out within three months and it quickly moved into editing and publishing. Works in progress include Books Two and Three of The Elyrian Chronicles, and I am excited to announce, I also have two Elyrian Prequels outlined.

What chapter was the most memorable to write and why? 

Chapter IV was the most memorable chapter to write, which is the chapter that describes and explains the greenhouses in Kimber’s underground world. The Earth’s surface in the year 2209 has been decimated for the past two decades (due to a solar event that wiped out the ozone) so agriculture was an important piece of the narrative puzzle to develop. I created the space for the gardens and as wrote the entire scene built itself into a beautiful and scientifically-sound architectural feature. When readers step into chapter IV, I hope they can smell the wet dirt, feel the dewy air, and see the dazzle of cascading light as if they were really there.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why? 

I’m going to break the fifth wall here and introduce my character Tristan to beloved movie character Luke Skywalker. I based my character, Tristan off of my better half, Jonathon, whose hero growing up was Luke Skywalker. I owe a million thanks to my better half for being the biggest inspiration in my life, and so if I could, I’d introduce his character to the character that helped shape who he has become as a man. 

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating your characters? 

I was surprised to learn how difficult it was to give my characters mal intent. My apprehension to make my characters evil was my biggest struggle in creating characters. But! I did the deed and (no spoilers!) picked out a true antagonist that I am building towards for my third book.

TEN FAVORITE GUY/GIRL CHARACTERS FROM YOUR BOOKS, INCLUDING RANDOM FACTS ABOUT THEM.

• Kimber: Kimber is the heroine of The Elyrian Chronicles. She is smart, strong, independent, and beautifully stunning with thousands of leaf-shaped scales and bright blue eyes. Her color is fiery orange.
• Tristan: Tristan is the main male lead in The Elyrian Chronicles. Tristan doesn’t get introduced until halfway through KIMBER and his character causes some mixed feelings when he does come into the picture. Tristan is strong, calculating, loyal, and is also covered in thousands of brilliant leaf-shaped scales. His color is hazel.
• Eve: Eve’s character represents a religious undercurrent that is laced into KIMBER’s story. Eve is sweet, outspoken, and sometimes rash. Her color is lime green.
• Caleb: Caleb is one of the few non-grafted main characters in KIMBER. He is 100% human... no scales and no radiation-resistant DNA, just a strong and steadfast young man with a long history of loyal friendship. 
• Naomi: Naomi is a riot. She is a curvy, sarcastic, and lovable character who, like Kimber and Tristan, has the grafted DNA of human/ African Bush Viper. Her color is bright teal.
• Raquel: Raquel is the bossy eldest of the Aurorean sisters. She is also one of the grafted. She is athletic, smart, and a natural born leader. Her color is greenish purple.
• Renee: Renee is a speculative character. She is sweet and witty and is close with Kimber and Kat. Her color is dark green.
• Kat: Kat is a shy, tall, sweet grafted girl. Her character is silly, and she is one of Kimber’s sisters. Her color is royal blue.
• Aeneas: Aeneas is Tristan’s brother. He is a strong character who cares deeply for Eve. He is one of the grafted males, wears his hair in long, dark dreads, and speaks in a melodic South African accent. 
• Kimberly: Kimberly is Kimber’s mother. She gave birth to Kimber but is not one of the grafted. She is a small framed, intelligent human with a very dark and controversial past. She holds the secrets of the underground city and is the key to freeing the Auroreans.

What’s the most ridiculous fact you know? 

Tardigrades (one of the spliced genomes in KIMBER) are incredible microorganisms that have not only survived the vacuum of space and have regained viability after being frozen for thirty years but can also survive complete dehydration by turning INTO GLASS!

Best date? 

“I’d have to say April 25th, because it’s not too hot and not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.” - Heather Burns, Miss Congeniality 

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go? 

I’d go back to working as a personal trainer/ gym manager on Panama City Beach. I followed my now-hubby to Florida in a spontaneous and kind of crazy cross country move to see if we would work out. The military had stationed him down by the coast and I moved my life to an apartment on the beach to be near him. That summer was very interesting to say the least!

What event in your life would make a good movie? 

I think my house-flipping escapade (which has an entire Facebook page dedicated to it) would be the most interesting movie if one were to be made out of a life event! I did some crazy things during the renovation of my 130-year old farmhouse, to include roofing, siding, and installing 22 windows off of a hydraulic 40-foot man-lift. Apart from that, I also went through some intense “behind enemy lines” training when I was a military pilot and backpacked across the country with my dog.

Which incident in your life that totally changed the way you think today? 

I fractured my spine when I was piloting the Blackhawk Army helicopter. I was forced to retire and then to make matters worse, I was over-medicated/ sedated which caused several grand-mal seizures and incorrect behavioral diagnoses. My degree in aeronautics and my aviation licenses meant nothing after being injured, and I battled for years to overcome my preconceived notion that hard work always equals success. Life is not that black and white and sometimes bad things happen to good people. If we are blessed though, we can come out of tough situations stronger, humbler, and as better humans in the long run.

What is one unique thing are you afraid of? 

DEEP WATER. I am terrified of deep water. I have competed in Ironman Triathlon events to help me overcome this fear and IT DOES NOT HELP!

What was the best memory you ever had as a writer? 

I only started writing in January of this year, so I hope I have many memories to make and to cherish in the years ahead!

Twenty years ago, a solar storm ravaged the Earth's ozone layer. Of the 11 billion people on the planet, only 200 managed to seek refuge from the radiation by disappearing underground. With the bonds of oxygen obliterated, the damage to the ozone is irreversible. Every living thing exposed wilts and dies, leading to global extinction.

The year is now 2209, and what's left of humanity is trying to rebuild in Inanna, a cave city that is harboring Mankind's last hope. The designers of Inanna knew that human body would be too fragile to ever compete with the piercing gamma rays on the surface and secretly fused human DNA with the genomes of two highly radiation resistant animal species.

Kimber is one of 23. She, her brothers, and her sisters are the first of their kind, a brand new subspecies of humans called Auroras. Named for the colorful magnetic phenomenon of the heavens, the Auroreans come of age in a city where they are forced to answer a life-changing question: Are they Inannian citizens or are they slaves?

You can purchase Kimber at the following Retailer:

And now, The Giveaways.

Thank you L.K. HINGEY for making this giveaway possible.

1 Winner will receive a Copy of Kimber (The Elyrian Chronicles, #1) by L.K. Hingey.

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Elise Schiller Interview - Watermark

Photo Credit: Jermaine Parker

Elise Schiller has been writing fiction and actively participating in writing groups since adolescence. After a thirty-year career in education and family services in Philadelphia, she retired to write full time. She is currently working on a fiction series about Philadelphia; SparkPress will be publishing the first book in the series.

Schiller sits on the advisory board of the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS), and she has served on the Philadelphia Mayor’s Task Force on the Opioid Epidemic. When not writing, reading, or volunteering, she enjoys visiting museums and historical sites, often with one of her seven grandchildren or various nieces and nephews in tow.

        

  

What inspired you to pen your first novel?
This novel’s been floating around with me for years. I retired in 2015 from a career in children and youth services in order to write. After I wrote a memoir, it was Watermark’s time. I’m a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, and I love my city. I spent 30 years working in Philly’s most distressed neighborhoods as an educator. I’m also an avid reader, and over time I’ve realized that there are certain people and types of neighborhoods that aren’t often featured in literary fiction, YA or adult. Thus I decided to write a series of books set in Philadelphia, The Broken Bell Series, telling stories that usually have some basis in truth, about people who are often overlooked.

Tell us your latest news.
The pandemic is everyone’s latest news, right? I’ve been blogging about it on my website in a series of posts called The Corona Diaries. While this is not the easiest environment in which to market a book, I am so fortunate. I get to sit at my computer and do what I like to do every day and everyone in my family is well. So many people are suffering.

Who or what has influenced your writing, and in what way?
I would say my writing group. Watermark is dedicated to them. We’ve been working together and critiquing each other’s work for about 25 years. In addition to their spectacular insight, I’ve learned how to give and take constructive criticism. We actually have a ZOOM meeting tomorrow. The new normal.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
The first book reading I did for my memoir was a fundraiser for an organization in Philly that is on the front lines of homelessness and addiction services. We charged $60. I thought no one would come, but eighty people arrived. I was so grateful.

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?
I want them to think about how vulnerable some of our kids are, and about how it takes a village. I want them to think about women’s fiction, and the wide range of themes it can include.

In your new book; WATERMARK: A NOVEL, can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about it
Watermark is the first book in the Broken Bell Series, all books set in Philly. The story centers on three girls; Angel, a high school senior from a troubled family who is a star competitive swimmer; Angel’s younger sister Jeannine, a socially awkward, intellectually precocious girl who is one of the narrators; and Alex, Angel’s teammate, who is the other narrator. The book is set in Philly’s poorest neighborhoods. The girls swim in an old rec center for a wonderful coach. Early in the book Angel disappears; the rest of the book is about figuring out what happened.

What part of Angel did you enjoy writing the most?
I love my character, Angel, the emotional center of the novel. She’s tough, assertive, sometimes difficult, but loving and compassionate. A giver. As a writer, Angel was certainly a challenge because the book is told by two first person narrators, and Angel is not one of them, so we only know about Angel through their narrative and through dialogue. I loved writing her dialogue—she’s so sassy.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?
I’d like to introduce Jeannine to Brianna from the Outlander series. They’re both smart and creative. Both are dealing with fractured families, sexual violence, and a lot of secrets. I think they could learn a lot from each other.

What’s the most ridiculous fact you know?
Oh my goodness, I’m such a nerd it’s hard to choose. Last night I couldn’t sleep so at 1 AM I was sitting in bed looking at a war atlas about the Napoleonic Wars.

What did you do for your last birthday?
I was in Rocky Mountain National Park with one of my daughters and her family. We hiked as much as you can with a two and four year old, skipped stones in ponds and steams, and watched elk herds. It was a great way to spend a birthday.

Best date you've ever had?
Ooh, punting on the Thames, mild English summer afternoon, champagne afterwards.

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?
I would love to time travel back to when my children were small, and do all that over again.

If you wrote a journal entry today, what would it say?
It would say that I sat at my desk almost all day, writing, except for when I put on my corona mask and went across the street to gather up some lilacs that my neighbor pruned and left outside for me. I’d say that I spent an hour on the phone coaching a single grandfather friend on how to understand the “new math” so he could help the child he’s raising with the pandemic home schooling. I’d say people are getting really tired of this s***!

What event in your life would make a good movie?
How about the several years I spent in Haight Ashbury after I left home at 15? Or maybe the several years after that when I worked against the war in Vietnam full time?

What was the best memory you ever had as a writer?
That would be the day I envisioned Watermark as the first book in a series. I didn’t want to leave all those characters behind and now I don’t have to.

FAVORITE QUOTES/SCENES FROM WATERMARK: A NOVEL
Angel talking to her uncle, overheard by her sister, Jeannine:
“Uncle Jimmy sighed. ‘No, they’d never accept it.’ ”

“Angel’s voice grew calmer. ‘Yes they would, Jim. People can get used to anything, until it seems normal.’ ”

This is from the first scene at the recreation center where the characters swim, narrated by Alex:
“ The windows in the building were high above, where the walls met the ceiling, and covered with rusted grating to protect against stray basketballs from the inside and stray projectiles from the outside.”

Alex, talking about the coach:
“CJ talked about his mother all the time, especially when he was mad at us. ‘My mother could swim that set faster than you,’ he’d say if we disappointed him.”

Alex, on her way to school early on a winter morning:
“I huddled up under the blanket my mom always kept in the car and watched the icy patterns on the window melt away.”

In Jeannine and Angel’s bedroom:
“She got up and lowered our window halfway. The night was loud with summer sounds, kids still out playing, the bass boom of car stereos, sirens.”

A flashback to when Jeannine and Angel were younger, waiting overnight for their mother, who hadn’t come home.
“While Angel slept, I lay on the couch studying the headlights from passing cars that skimmed the ceiling, made a right angle at one corner, and disappeared.”

Alex, after Angel went missing, trying to find her way to the laundromat where Angel worked part-time:
I drove the way I thought I should go to get to the laundromat, and sure enough, there it was on the corner. It looked like about the friendliest place in the neighborhood: brightly lit, no graffiti, big soda and junk-food vending machines visible through the door.

Jeannine, talking about school.
“In eighth grade I was absent over seventy days, almost half the year. It really wasn’t such a big deal; in my school, a third of the kids were out every day.”

Jeannine watching a fight between Angel and their stepfather:
“For a split second I saw her smile and I saw his eyes widen in disbelief. Then he let go with the back of his hand across her face, knocking her down.”

Jeannine cuddled up with her sister during a blizzard.
“Kathleen was asleep again. Snow was falling, thick and heavy, white against grey.”

The oldest child in a troubled Philadelphia family, Angel Ferente struggles to care for her three sisters while pursuing her goal of attending college on a swimming scholarship. She has a problematic relationship with her mother, Pic, who uses alcohol and drugs to self-medicate and at one point lost custody for a year, and an outright hostile relationship with her stepfather, the only father figure in her life. Angel is the center of stability in the household―making sure the younger girls get to school, ensuring that holidays are observed, doing the family’s laundry at her part-time job at a Laundromat, and even taking care of Pic when she is sick or depressed. It’s 1993, the midst of the crack epidemic, and Angel and her sisters are witness to the everyday events of life in a community beset by poverty and drugs: dealers on the corner, shoot-outs that kill bystanders, prostitutes on the job, and more.

Then Angel goes to a team party on New Year’s Eve―and doesn’t come home afterward. In the wake of her disappearance, her teammates, her coach’s church, and her family search the city for her. The result changes their lives forever.

Praise for WATERMARK

“A measured, affecting look at a struggling and burdened teenager . . . tight, unembellished prose makes for an easy read and even adds a hint of mystery.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Watermark is a shrewd and unflinching mystery set in some of the less charming parts of Philadelphia. Great characters, broken hearts, and lots of twists make this compelling reading. Elise Schiller makes her mark with this book.” ―Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author of V-Wars and Rage

“I found this book to be fascinating and insightful . . . incredibly compelling and a wonderful read. I can highly recommend this story and look forward to the next iteration of the Broken Bell series.” ―Reader’s Favorite (5-star review)

You can purchase Watermark (The Broken Bell Series, #1) at the following Retailers:

        

And now, The Giveaways.

Thank you ELISE SCHILLER for making this giveaway possible.

1 Winner will receive a Copy of Watermark (The Broken Bell Series, #1) by Elise Schiller.

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Mark Zaslove Author Interview

Photo Content from Mark Zaslove

Mark Zaslove – in case you were wondering

Who is this Mark Zaslove fellow and why did he write this book?

Seriously, one can’t be too careful in researching authors in this age of false pretenses and fake appellations. So here goes…a long-standing writer/director/producer, Mark is a live-action and animation entertainment industry veteran, working in both movies and television. He’s done time – scratch that – created content for all the major studios, including Disney, Universal, Paramount and Warner Bros. A two-time Emmy Award winner for writing/producing, Mark also won the Humanitas Prize (for writing uplifting human values in television and movies – go figure). He also writes short fiction and right after college (where he studied astrophysics), he served as senior editor on various magazines including a couple for the notorious LFP, Inc.—google it—but from there he went to “Winnie the Pooh,” so his karma is still cool.

Finally, one day, he got fed up with the rigorous structure of scriptwriting and everyone giving him notes and decided: “WTH! Time to stretch my legs, step on the gas and write a novel for the sheer fun of it!” And voila, almost before you could say “Death and Taxes,” the book was done. What’s more, it’s just the first in a series of fast-paced thrillers following the escapades of IRS agent Mark Douglas and his band of merry revenuers as they bring justice to those in great need of same, while collecting your Federal dollars along the way. Hey, for both Marks, it’s a living.

        

  

Tell us your latest news.
After years and years of writing scripts for TV and movies, I finally broke out of the prison-structure that is Hollywood to do this novel DEATH AND TAXES! (SFX of CHEERS and APPLAUSE – oops, maybe I haven’t gotten Hollywood completely out of my system.)

Who or what has influenced your writing, and in what way?
I was always a prose writer before a script writer, but then, well, fell into scripts, so J.D. Salinger (for narrative form), James Joyce’s short stories (for perfect structure), F. Scott Fitzgerald (for enthusiasm) – those are three of my biggest influences; otherwise, it’s just me and my keyboard. And, I read EVERYTHING.

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?
I’m hoping they’re thinking: This is fun! I really like these characters (especially the mangy dog), and I hope I can spend more time with all of them.

Did you learn anything from writing DEATH AND TAXES and what was it?
I learned that I LOVE prose and the freedom that comes with novel-writing. Doing this book (and starting two other novels, a sequel to DEATH AND TAXES called DECLARE THE PENNIES and a serious book) was pure unadulterated Braveheart freeeeeeedom for me.

For those who are unfamiliar with Mark, how would you introduce him?
He’s a bonified hero because he’s loyal, capable, funny and, most importantly, not an idiot. He reacts like a competent, intelligent person would in a given situation, and not a pawn in a writer’s sweaty claw (er, hoof, no, hand…I get my appendages mixed up sometime when I’ve just awoken and haven’t had my coffee yet).

What part of Lila did you enjoy writing the most?
Lila’s based on quite a number of women I’ve known: super-smart, talented and aware of their good looks, but immune to their importance – they think it’s rather funny they have them, but will use them, like any tool, when necessary. Lila came out of all that plus I added this laser-focus and a habit of collecting billionaires for short periods of time because it was just plain easier than dealing with broke actors/musicians. So, she was easy to relate to as I already sorta knew her.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?
I’d introduce Mark Douglas’ adopted-against-his-will old, mangy, blueberry-vodka swilling ex-Mexican drug-sniffing dog El Repollo (The Cabbage…don’t ask) to Old Yeller. Reppy would teach that “dingy yellow” dog how not to roll over and just let them shoot him. He’d radicalize Old Yeller and take over that ranch at the end instead of getting shot: “No Dogs, No Masters!”

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Originally Fitzgerald and Salinger more than any (not “Catcher in the Rye” but the short stories and Glass novels) and then a bit later Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” had a great influence in setting the bar to shoot for with my serious work.

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your readers. What would it be?
In writing: throw out all the “rules” and try to learn how to write truth instead of what you think you should write.

What book/s would you recommend for others to read?
Of recent books I’ve read, Amor Towles’ “A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel” surprised me with some very lovely writing, though the book lacked a strong overall statement or motivating through-line, kind of a lightweight Collette meets Wodehouse. Haven’t seen competent wordsmithing in a while and it was a pleasure to read.

If you could be born into history as any famous person who would it be and why?
I’ve absolutely NEVER wanted to be anyone but myself, but I did have a very, very brief fascination with Bob Fosse – the sheer creativity and talent (and, like, I can’t dance, though I’ve taken lessons) and his destructive but interesting life-style and the women. So, maybe him, just for the fun of it. Of course, it was probably awful being around the guy as he sounded like a pain-in-the-backside, but he would be a nice vacation for me to take.

What is your favorite holiday and why?
Thanksgiving! I love cooking the full spread and going face-first into it when it’s done. And I’ve had very funny times (often drunkenly) cooking the meal for and with friends – “A little sherry for the bird, a little sherry for me, a little more sherry for the bird…heck, why’s that bird getting so much sherry? Give me that sherry!” – and every year I can’t wait for it to come around. And it’s a four-day holiday, so I can almost take it off (as a writer I work seven days a week, usually).

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?
Boy, I have almost no regrets, so going back isn’t something I contemplate. For personal reasons, I might go back to my 30’s (which were dang fun and involved Ferraris, 101 different single-malt scotches and some great island vacations), but also there are some hardships my son had to go through that I might go back and rectify, which the knowledge I’ve learned in hindsight could have accomplished. Still, my son’s the best thing ever in my life, so maybe tampering with the space-time paradox wouldn’t be for the best. I kinda like where I am now!

What were you doing at midnight last night?
Sleeping: I like getting up early and getting to work; by noon I’ve either written an 11-minutes cartoon script, ten pages of a live-action movie script or five pages of a novel (or a few of the above), and then I can do busywork and train and stuff for the rest of the day. Though on New Moon Saturday nights I go up to the mountains and do astrophotography, which, at midnight, I’m just getting some good shots and am up till dawn.

What decade during the last century would you have chosen to be a teenager?
There were some dang great concerts in the 60’s that I wish I could have seen, so probably then. I would have liked to have caught the Velvets, and the Stones, Peter Green’s version of Fleetwood Mac, Love Sculpture, Taste, Janis, really early Zep (before they got too bombastic), Otis Redding, Otis Rush, and the list goes on….

Where can readers find you?
MarkZaslove.com is my hang-out-able site, on FaceBook (I can even chat on FB): https://business.facebook.com/MarkZasloveAuthor, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mark_zaslove, Instagram: http://instagram.com/markzasloveauthor, and non-Starbucks coffee shops (though I like to roast my own) all over West Los Angeles (and will go out for a drink if you’re paying).

TEN QUOTES FROM DEATH AND TAXES
1. A dog’s head on a stick. A collie, I think—the cloud of iridescent blowflies made it difficult to tell. Fido was impaled in the front yard like a decomposing totem pole, right next to the burnt-out shell of a Cadillac-green 1978 Camaro GTO, about five yards upwind of the rusted kissing gate.

2. Wooly Bob is anything but wooly. He’s egg-bald on top and shaves his eyebrows for effect. He’s like a plastic man, all smooth and otherworldly. He says he does it for the “chicks,” who he claims “like ’em shaved.” I think he’s just weird, but he’s one of my boys, so what can I say?

3. Rising to his feet like some aging mammoth, Harry pulled up his two companions as he stood. One, an extremely cute brunette with a silly, apologetic smile, dressed in a silver-spangled short skirt that barely came down far enough down to keep her warm, a black leotard with a revealing scoop in front, and a black matador’s jacket. The other, dressed in white tie and tails, complete with top hat. Christ, the circus had come to town.

And that’s how I met Devon Pontac. She was born-and-bred Boise, with the Great Zibaldo being her ticket out of the desolation that was Idaho. The name came from a mother with a yearning for fine butter and no other vision in life than to have her daughter grow up and be...special. But in a good way. Devon was...in a good way. But that came later; at the moment, I held the wrist of a magician in one hand and wasn’t completely sure of what to do.

4. Lila was a helluva looker and even more a helluvan auditor. I’m talking one of those librarian-with-the-glint-in-her-eyes kinda sexy, all gray business suits, with a hint of lace, thick hair pulled back, perfectly polished nails trimmed short, and a man’s wristwatch that looked like it cost more than my car. Thousand-watt smile. Short in that fun-at-the-beach, yellow-polka-dot bikini way. And nuclear-physicist smart.

Lila had every tax-code, federal and state, brailed in her brain and could calculate faster freehand than I could on my laptop. I once saw her, called as an expert witness, tear a shyster CEO into itty-bitty corporate pieces, knowing more about the inner workings of his multibillion dollar company than his own accountants. When the poor moron’s lawyer tried to lay a little pressure on her, she cited chapter, verse, and line of the lawyer’s past six years’ income taxes—including his so-called deductibles for his “secretary,” the tax shelter he’d sheltered from everyone, his wife included—and promptly booked him for an audit and payback schedule. The judge would have said something but was too smart—everyone refuses to declare this or that, even judges. No, Lila could look like a sex kitten, and she went through men like a chipmunk through pistachios, but deep in her dollar-green soul, she was God’s own bookkeeper and the backbone of our department. 

5. Devon found a bigger cage off in the corner with a bigger dog in it. Or what was left of a bigger dog. Old, with bronchitis—the pile of fur and bones gave a death rattle cough—only six teeth, crazy jibbity-jibbity eyes, mange over the back half of its skeletal body, and a yellow-brown crust on its muzzle that looked like regurgitated liver. Its own liver. Devon fell in love immediately.

“That’s the one! Isn’t he a lover?” The dilapidated canine began a long, drawn-out series of coughs punctuated with a sneeze that rocked the room. “Aw, he likes me!”

6. Rodney T. Gloucester dearly loved a clean collar and a sharp crease in his pants. I knew this because the Fed wonk, Daniel “Tightass” Juarez, had shown me surveillance photos of Rodney from all times of day and night ad nauseam. Clean collar. Creased pants. Period. Even shorts, bathing suits, and from one fuzzy telephoto-lensed pic, underwear.

7. “Juju Klondike? What the hell kind of a name is Juju Klondike?”

“He’s a killer eunuch,” Juarez explained, tight-lipped and nervy.

I squeegeed my ear with a forefinger. “Come again?”

“No cash and prizes. Without the family jewels. Joey and the twins are missing. The wedding tackle has gone the way of the buffalo. He’s crotchless in the crotch; nuthin’ from nuthin’ leaves nuthin’.”

Juarez looked unstoppable at that moment, rolling freely with the verbal dice.

“Really?”

“Captain Winkey and his two first mates have gone AWOL.”

I held my hands up. “Okay, okay—enough with the euphemisms. I get the picture.”

8. The funeral looked like a Forbes Who’s Who of billionaires. Lila never slummed when she could go first class. Acres and acres of black Armani, Missoni, and Zenga dotted the immaculately kept lawn like a Milan fashion show for the dead. The kind of limos that weren’t rented following the hearse in Blue Angel formation perfection. Dialects from around the world all murmuring to each other in ritual and sadness. Lila shining-starred even in death.

9. Winky’s Snack’n’Dine smelled like the 1950s on a crew-cut summer day, complete with Studebaker leather interiors, liquid-blue barbershop combs, and tighty-whitey, nut-hugger Fruit-of-the-Looms. Juarez sat at the booth like a bear shitting in the woods, sucking a malted through a straw with the vigor of a middle-aged hooker at a Shriners after-convention party. There was a banana royale in mid-consume and an order of steak fries submerged in Heinz strategically resting on the table. He motioned to me with a spoon, still doing the bottom-of-the-glass on the malted.

10. Aroon Kumaar Vijah Smith—fingers steepled before his horse-long, reenactment-of- the-Battle-of-Plassey face, eyes peering over the top like hyenas on a sweltering Serengeti day—sat in sway in his chair, waiting for me to contend with his query. His tie fiercely glowed Orange Crush, which distracted me from the question: “How will you contrive a union between the Mongolian syndicate and your two criminal siblings without losing the reins of control? You have forewarned the Gloucesters. Will they not go to ground?”

Death and Taxes follows Mark Douglas, an ex-Marine turned IRS agent, who, along with auditing the weird and the profane, also spearheads weekend raids with his locked-and-loaded gang of government-sanctioned revenuers, merrily gathering back taxes in the form of cash, money order, or more often than not, the debtor’s most prized possessions.

Things turn ugly when Mark’s much-loved boss and dear friend Lila is tortured and killed over what she finds in a routine set of 1040 forms. Mark follows a trail dotted with plutonium-enriched cows, a Saudi sheik with jewel-encrusted body parts, a doddering, drug sniffing, gun-swallowing dog named The Cabbage, a self-righteous magician with a flair for safecracking, a billionaire Texan with a fetish for spicy barbecue sauce and even spicier women, and an FBI field agent whose nickname is “Tightass.” All of which lead to more and bloodier murders – and more danger for Mark.

Enlisting his IRS pals – Harry Salt, a 30-year vet with a quantum physical ability to drink more than humanly possible; Wooly Bob, who’s egg-bald on top with shaved eyebrows to match; Miguel, an inexperienced newbie with a company-issued bullhorn and a penchant for getting kicked in the jumblies – Mark hunts down the eunuch hit man Juju Klondike and the deadly Mongolian mob that hired him as only an angry IRS agent can. There will be no refunds for any of them when April 15th comes around. There will only be Death and Taxes.

You can purchase Death and Taxes at the following Retailers:

        

And now, The Giveaways.

Thank you MARK ZASLOVE for making this giveaway possible.

2 Winners will receive a Copy of Death and Taxes (Tales of a Badass IRS Agent, #1) by Mark David Zaslove. 

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