Author Spotlight, Dr. Bon Blossman on her Award-Winning Boook

HOW DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK?

I saw a viral video of a hospital in South America where a balloon was floating around the children's ward - with purpose. The medical staff appeared to be frightened of this balloon. It might have been a hoax video, but it's where I drew inspiration for some of the creepy aspects of the story. 

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WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LINE FROM YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK AND WHY?

This might seem odd or peculiar, but here it goes: I dropped to my knees next to my pit bull; blood seeped from a gaping wound in his abdomen as he labored for his next breath.

This is the opening line of the book. My daughter (28 at the time) didn't answer my text messages for a period of three days. I had already planned to have my protagonist find her murdered dog as the opening scene of my new book. After my daughter avoided me for that period of time, I chose the breed and name of the dog - which was maybe not coincidentally the same as her beloved Hugo. We laugh about it now. My word of warning to those with an author in the family - stay on their good side at all times. 

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WHICH OF YOUR CHARACTERS FROM YOUR AWARD WINNING TITLE DO YOU BELIEVE IS MOST LIKE YOU AND WHY?

I would say the mother of the protagonist. In the story, the family is taken from their lives of wealth, prosperity, and familiarity to a gloomy town, living in a haunted house. I had to move during my 9th grade year to an unforgiving location because my father was in the military. For the inspiration, I coupled my experience as a mother of a teenager with what I had endured as a teen having to uproot my life into a less fortunate situation.  

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WHAT MESSAGE DO YOU HOPE READERS WILL GLEAN FROM YOUR AWARD- WINNING BOOK?

No matter what challenges you will face in life, you can overcome anything. Never give up, conquer all. 

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WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME A WRITER?

My father was a surgeon. As a hobby, he wrote poetry and dabbled in novel writing, as well. In my early days of writing ('90s), he gave me strong inspiration and guidance. Now, I am currently working on my eleventh novel. I am a physiologist as a first career and used to engage in scientific research while teaching biochemistry and other science courses at The University of North Texas. However, my hobby took over my life, and I am blessed. 

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WHO HAS HAD THE GREATEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR WRITING STYLE? - PLEASE ELABORATE:

I am a huge fan of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling. I not only read all of the Harry Potter series, but when I wrote my first books, I can remember studying how she wrote, her style, and format. 

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TELL US SOMETHING FUN ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A WRITER:

I am also a murder mystery game writer. If you cross me in any way - you'll be a suspect in one of my games. A writer must write what they know, right? I need to get out there and make some new enemies, though. I'm running out of material!  

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TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR WRITING PROCESS:

I start with a spiral where I have a page for each chapter. I carry the book around, and as I think of things, I add them to my growing plot lines. When I'm ready, I switch to note cards for each chapter, since I can easily add a card in if I decide to split a chapter. Then, I move to the electronic outline with bullet points. This process can take up to six months, but it works for me.  

Using the Word document, I start to write the chapters based on the bullet points, ensuring I get all points made. This part only takes me 30 days from start to finish - as I work many hours a day, seven days per week. Once I start this, I have to work on it every day to keep the flow going. When I hate the story (meaning I'm done), I leave it for at least a week. Vacation time! Then, it's back to the grind where the real writing begins. I painstakingly re-write, edit, and slash extra verbiage for about three months. I'm wordy, as you can see. I try to ensure every sentence moves the plot forward. After at least five revisions from start to finish - it's off to the editor. Two months later, I get their notes. I edit from start to finish at least twice. At this point, if I have a willing beta reader, I'll ask them to read. Then, it goes for a line-by-line, and then a proofread. *Sigh* 

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WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE AS A WRITER?

Finding the time to write. My murder mystery game company (MyMysteryParty.com) is doing great, which means there is less time for me to write novels. My mentor as a PhD student once told me that life is about many plates spinning on poles. The plates are family, career, hobbies, and so forth. You must not let any of the plates stop spinning, so it is a balance to jump from pole to pole and spin those plates. 

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IF YOU COULD BE COMPARED TO A WELL-KNOWN AUTHOR WHO WOULD YOU MOST WANT THIS TO BE AND WHY?

I don't deserve this in the least, but I aspire to be the YA version of Stephen King. We all need goals. 

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CAN YOU OFFER ANY ADVICE FOR WRITERS ON HOW BEST TO PROMOTE THEIR BOOK?

Social media is your best bet. Grow an audience, engage with them, and do free giveaways and promotions on occasion to keep them on their toes. 

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WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST LITERARY ACCOMPLISHMENT?

Being recognized by organizations such as Literary Classics for my work is my greatest literary accomplishment. I feel honored and proud each time I win an award, as it gives me the confidence to press on with my next book.

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WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST LITERARY ASPIRATIONS?

I aspire to have my books on shelves at the airport and grocery store lines. It's nearly impossible to get to that level, but you must have goals. 

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TELL US SOMETHING PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT THEY MIGHT FIND INTERESTING:

I was once on four seasons of a reality television show (2011-2013), but I don't like to talk about it ;-) 

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WHAT (IF ANY) OTHER BOOKS HAVE YOU PUBLISHED? 

Dregs Island, which I wrote with my son, Zakk Myer (a student at UT) Dregs Island

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Dregs Island

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The Fiona Frost series: 

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Blood Dolls (Volume 5)

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Shillingstone Witch (Volume 4)

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Fatal Souvenirs (Volume 3)

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Order of the Black Moon (Volume 2)

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Foster Manor (Volume 1)

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DO YOU HAVE ANY NEW BOOKS IN THE WORKS?

I have a new YA series in the works. It was inspired by my mystery party game, Murder Behind the Mirror. I am beyond excited about this, as it is a bit out of the box for me with other worlds and magical powers - all explained by science, of course. I am targeting summer of 2019 as the release date of volume 1. 

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LITERARY CLASSICS Book Awards & Reviews International Book Awards • Top Honors Youth Book Awards • Seal of Approval http://www.clcawards.org

Author, Jonathan Schork, on his Award-Winning Book

HOW DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK? More Tales evolved out of my 2016 book, The Love of Simon Fox, in which a little girl wanders into an enchanted wood and befriends an unpopular fox, and the rest of his animal friends become her family. It seemed to me there were a few characters with whom we hadn’t spent enough time in “Simon Fox”, and I really didn’t want to be finished yet with the enchanted wood, so I wandered back in and wrote an eclectic series of stories.

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WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LINE FROM YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK AND WHY? I’m not really a “superlative” kind of guy—how does one pick a favorite anything?—but at this moment the first line that came to my mind was from the opening of chapter XI, Evan Herdman Comes Calling: “Time passes fast and slow in the enchanted wood, & answers seldom the same demands placed on it in the wide world beyond. Seasons come and seasons go, but the strange magic that ordained Penelope forever a child ordained also that the wide world should hurry by while the forest lagged. ” The other end of the same chapter offers an equally compelling sentence: “He stood there between loneliness and a gypsy band, leaning on a stick given him by a friendly hedgehog, making some internal calculus about magic and roads not taken.”

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WHICH OF YOUR CHARACTERS FROM YOUR AWARD WINNING TITLE DO YOU BELIEVE IS MOST LIKE YOU AND WHY? I used to say that Martin Badger was my avatar from “Simon Fox”—he’s a little bit rough around the edges, and not necessarily given to company, but he is courageous, loyal, and generous. In “More Tales”, though, I would have to say probably Cedric Marmot (that’s mar-MOH—he prefers the French pronunciation): he’s a bit fussy and fusty, loves cooking and dining, prefers his own company, and often acts the role of the voyeur: watching others and writing down their stories in his copious collection of books.

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WHAT MESSAGE DO YOU HOPE READERS WILL GLEAN FROM YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK? I’m not a lector, but I would be quite happy if my readers discerned in my characters courage, loyalty, kindness, & generosity. I suppose I’d also be quite pleased if my U.S. readers could tidy up their language a little: I’m so tired of hearing loud, profanity-laced screeds everywhere I go. Surely we can do better…

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WHAT/WHO INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME A WRITER? I was a precocious reader—my first book was an abridged edition of Melville’s Moby Dick, and I was six—so I’ve understood that words have meaning and gravity for as long as I can remember. There’s just never been a time when I haven’t scribbled in notebooks.

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WHO HAS HAD THE GREATEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR WRITING STYLE? There are several authors who’ve had an influence on my writing—Dickens, Carroll, Kipling, Dinesen, Fitzgerald, & Tolkien—who gave me deep insights into the world-building of a good story and an elegant turn of phrase. Of course, these are all authors with a terribly old-fashioned style, which might also be used to describe my own, but I am a classicist, and I am entirely unapologetic. The author who has had the single biggest impact on my writing (and my cognition, I should admit), however, is the late paleontologist Steven Jay Gould. What I find so compelling, even today, in his body of work, is not only his eloquence, but his capacity to blend a number of seemingly disparate threads or themes into an harmonious sum, with truly life-enlarging results. In my house, Gould is just about required reading.

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TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A WRITER: I’m really at sixes and sevens here: there just doesn’t seem to be anything particularly funny or interesting about my writing experience. I suppose I could say that I’ve never been drunk or used drugs, and I find the propensity of writers to claim some special gift from the bottom of a bottle or a needle or a pipe to be almost as preposterous as it is pretentious. I prefer to keep my faculties about me, in spite of how tedious a habit that might seem.

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TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR WRITING PROCESS: My writing process starts in my sleep: I’m a prolific and lucid dreamer and derive most of my inspiration from my dreams. Where my stories are concerned, I may spend quite a bit of time in a dream—several weeks or even months— experiencing it over and over again before I start writing it down. By then it has resolved itself into a narrative of extraordinary detail, and my relationship to the story is more scribe than story teller: I have only to copy down the words as they seem best to me (I’m a synesthete, so in addition to the meter and tone of my prose the shapes of the words and the eddies of sentences are immensely important to me). I hand-write everything in notebooks (which are piled up all over the studio) and type them when I’m satisfied with the hand-written text (I’m not a gifted typist, but my hand writing is atrocious, and it would be a fool’s errand to expect anyone else to be able to decipher it). When a rough draft is done, I print it and turn it over to my beta readers, maybe make a few adjustments, then hand it off to the editor.

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WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE AS A WRITER? Once again, I’m at a bit of a loss: I don’t really feel like I have challenges, per se. I suppose I could say that my stubborn adherence to unpopular, old-fashioned styles might be an impediment to my developing a larger audience, but I’m really just not as concerned about that as I am that I should give such audience as I have my best efforts. I’ll never be a rich author, but at least I won’t be an embarrassed one…

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IF YOU COULD BE COMPARED TO A WELL-KNOWN AUTHOR WHO WOULD YOU MOST WANT THIS TO BE AND WHY? I suppose I’ll be content if someday I might be compared favourably to Isaac Asimov: he published prodigiously across an impossibly wide spectrum of magisteria, and left an indelible mark on the literary world. I’d be a fool to aim that high, but I’ve at least got a start: I’ve published plays, screenplays, short story collections, YA feminist fantasy, children’s literature, philosophy, & art, and I’m presently working on more of the above, as well as science fiction, history, political science, and opera.

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HOW DID YOU FIND AN AGENT / GET PUBLISHED? I wrote my first novel—an unpublished fantasy closer to George R.R. Martin than Tolkien (it merged better with my ancient and medieval history studies) when I was sixteen. My high school English teacher, whom I later married, tried unsuccessfully to shop it around. As a child of an alcoholic, I was accustomed to rejection and disappointment: undeterred, I kept writing, and finally found a micro-publisher in 2004 for my short story collection. I hit a drought for another decade, but finally got noticed after my 2015 self-published Fearless Inanna (my publisher subsequently reprinted a 2nd addition with editorial improvements). It’s a hard business, and the two gifts that made it possible for me are a thick skin and a certain relentlessness.

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CAN YOU OFFER ANY ADVICE FOR WRITERS ON HOW BEST TO PROMOTE THEIR BOOK? I can make a suggestion on what not to do: however attractive it might seem to try book fairs, unless you’re affiliated with a publisher or a writing cooperative of some kind, it’s going to be an expensive and largely unproductive exercise. A writer would be better off investing that money in some postage and entry fees in book award competitions, and maybe in some advance copies to local media: that kind of attention is much more productive in getting eyes on one’s book.

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WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST LITERARY ACCOMPLISHMENT? I think my greatest literary accomplishments are ahead of me: my nine volume ancient history book will probably be my most prominent achievement. That notwithstanding, I feel a sense of satisfaction with each new title: however humble the project, there’s something immensely satisfying about being able to deliver a new book to my mum, or my girlfriend, or my brother. I’m not a prideful man, but I love being able to do what I do, and I love that it pleases them.

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WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST LITERARY ASPIRATIONS? Well, I think I just answered this one: that nine volume ancient history text will likely be the work that distinguishes me as an author, if anything does. Beyond that, I just want to be able to keep writing, and I see no reason that I won’t be able to do that until I’m a little old author.

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TELL US SOMETHING PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT THEY MIGHT FIND INTERESTING: I’m not just an author, I’m one of those annoying polymaths: I’ve also won awards for sculpture, photography, painting, & volunteering with people with HIV; distinguished myself in couture, cuisine, and cinema; held patents on several electronic devices for alternative energy systems; formerly played in the Giri Mekar Balinese Gamelan Orchestra and presently compose a neo-classical opera; am building a proposal for an ISS experiment for NASA; work on my own vehicles; & renovated a condemned house into my current studios, which I share with a stray cat, a stray girl, and my mum. My optometrist likes to say I’m larger than life; I prefer to say I’m just large enough…

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IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE WITH OUR READERS? I have a small, devoted fan base with whom I correspond (I subscribe very strongly to the notion that, if a person has taken the time to write me, the very least I can do is pen a short note of thanks). If you should find it desirable to write me, whether you’re a writer or a reader, you should please feel welcome.

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WHAT OTHER BOOKS HAVE YOU PUBLISHED?  The board of directors at my publisher have taken an eccentric position on whence to purchase my books, and because I concur, I’ll share it here: it’s easy and cheap to buy from Amazon, but easy and cheap are not necessarily what’s best for our community or our world. We encourage our readers to buy from their local, indie book sellers, and, in the absence of that option, at least from something like Barnes & Noble. 

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You may also contact my publisher, SM~ARC, inc., at artrencollab@gmail.com to request a copy (an author inscription—if this is important to you—is available via this avenue of purchase). We’re also big advocates of public libraries: if a book costs too much, don’t buy it: borrow it. 

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Following is a list of my other titles: 

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Fearless Inann

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The Love of Simon Fox, SM~ARC, inc., 2016

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A View from the Tendo, SM~ARC, inc., 2016

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The Bathroom Rule: ten short plays, SM~ARC, inc., 2017

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DO YOU HAVE ANY NEW BOOKS IN THE WORKS? An illustrated sequel to 2015’s Fearless Inanna, tentatively titled The Way to Atlantis. A political science book tentatively titled Hamilton’s Electors is due out later in 2019, though we expect a possible delay. A children’s picture book called The Birds in My Back Yard, with amusing verse about the birds and eccentric, original water colours, is expected sometime in the summer of 2019. A science fiction book set in the 42nd century is progressing slowly. The opera and the ancient history book are too far away yet to warrant adding to this list.

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Advance copies for The Way to Atlantis should be available soon, with a general release soon after. Set in the ancient Mediterranean ca 2800bce, it will follow our young heroine Inanna on a quest across the ancient Mediterranean (including a renewed acquaintance with her friend Shiduri the witch, and a stop on ancient Crete under the guidance of three old-world goddesses to rescue the city of Atlantis from a sea dragon (with quite unexpected results—or maybe not…). As above, it will be available through local indie book sellers, Barnes & Noble, public libraries, and the publisher, SM~ARC, inc..

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LITERARY CLASSICS Book Awards & Reviews International Book Awards • Top Honors Youth Book Awards • Seal of Approval http://www.clcawards.org

8th Annual Literary Classics Book Awards Another Successful Event in the "Books"

Authors, publishers and other key literary figures from around the world were in attendance at the 8th Annual Literary Classics Book Awards and Events. The awards ceremony was held May 12, 2019, in Rapid City, South Dakota to honor excellence in literature for a youth audience.

To learn more about literary classics International and Literary Classics Top Honors Book Awards visit CLCawards.org


LITERARY CLASSICS Book Awards & Reviews International Book Awards • Top Honors Youth Book Awards • Seal of Approval http://www.clcawards.org

Author Spotlight, Anne Sweazy-Kulju on her Award-Winning Book

HOW DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK? Clearly I love beer (wink). This book is second in the Grog Wars series and I chose the setting because I am familiar with Mexico and love her twisted history. 

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WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LINE FROM YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK AND WHY? I love this line from Senta to my story’s hero, August, because it’s such a brave decision for the young woman: 

“Instead of a man I think I could live with, I am going to marry the man I know I cannot live without.“

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WHICH OF YOUR CHARACTERS FROM YOUR AWARD WINNING TITLE DO YOU BELIEVE IS MOST LIKE YOU AND WHY? I relate to Charlotte the most. She is capable and determined, but finds running a country a bit sad and lonely. 

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WHAT MESSAGE DO YOU HOPE READERS WILL GLEAN FROM YOUR AWARD WINNING BOOK? 1. Vengeance is a luxury few can afford. 2. It’s crucial to learn both sides of a story before acting. 3. A hopeful future is worth dwelling on; a sad and discouraging past is not.

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WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME A WRITER? My dad. He was a history teacher for 40+ years, and had an engaging delivery that always held his students rapt.

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WHO HAS HAD THE GREATEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR WRITING STYLE?

Oddly, I think its my parents. During my high school years, both took to drinking and fighting quite a lot and quite often. It was a situation I wanted out of. I arranged to take just one class to keep me in high school (so I could graduate with my class) and before age seventeen, I moved out of my parents house and went to college—it was weeks before they noticed. I knew I wanted to write, and I penned a few articles and stories for magazines (nothing big). But I have managed to hang on to that YA writing voice, and I think it’s the voice that wins awards.

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TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A WRITER:

People would be surprised to know, I think, that the gist of most of my stories are given to me by ghosts.

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WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE AS A WRITER? Being the poor, starving variety.

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IF YOU COULD BE COMPARED TO A WELL-KNOWN AUTHOR WHO WOULD YOU MOST WANT THIS TO BE AND WHY? Mark Twain, hands down. No writer I know can surpass his provincial, armchair-easy manner of storytelling. 

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HOW DID YOU GET PUBLISHED?

I submitted my first novel directly to a mid-sized publisher and they sent me an overnighted contract. They published my next two novels as well, but went out of business two years ago. I self-published both “Grog Wars, Dos” and “Bayless”, a fun little pocket western-style novella. *I would love an agent’s representation, but apparently I write a sucky query letter. 

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CAN YOU OFFER ANY ADVICE FOR WRITERS ON HOW BEST TO PROMOTE THEIR BOOK?

There is no substitute for you—people want to meet you, so get out there at every opportunity: farmers markets, blog tours, book clubs, bazaars, brick and mortar book stores, etc.

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WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST LITERARY ACCOMPLISHMENT?

A fan letter from a sixth grade boy in Portland. It was the greatest fan letter of all time!

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WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST LITERARY ASPIRATIONS? To win CLC gold! I also aspire to become more well-known so more book lovers will read my stories.

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TELL US SOMETHING PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT THEY MIGHT FIND INTERESTING:

I am a Chi Delphia Little Sister to the Delta Chi Fraternity at CSUF, and actor Kevin Costner is my Big Brother’s Big Brother. 

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WHAT OTHER BOOKS HAVE YOU PUBLISHED? 

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“the thing with feathers”

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“BODIE”

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“Grog Wars”

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“Bayless”

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DO YOU HAVE ANY NEW BOOKS IN THE WORKS? I am co-writing a screenplay with my daughter. We are converting a creative short story that was a quarterfinalist in an international competition.

LITERARY CLASSICS Book Awards & Reviews International Book Awards • Top Honors Youth Book Awards • Seal of Approval http://www.clcawards.org