Character Interview with Pierce Landcross from "Legacy: The Reunion" by Michelle E. Lowe

Our latest with Pierce Landcross from Michelle E. Lowe's work "Legacy: The Reunion"

• Tell us a little about yourself? Where do you come from? 
• S’pose I ought to start with my name, eh? My name is Pierce Landcross. I’m twenty-seven and a bit mischievous. I’ve been told I’m a tad too inquisitive, which simply makes me the curious sort, I reckon. I am highly fascinated by all the gadgets and inventions coming about in this Industrial Age we live in. There seems to be something new every day. Where am I from? I know I was born in England, but not sure where exactly my birthplace is. You see, my folks were gypsies who wandered through country after country. As youngsters, my older brother, Joaquin, and I got separated from our folks when the troupe was run out of London while we were off exploring Abney Park Cemetery.

• Tell us a little about your home, what are your feelings towards home?
• Dunno what I can tell you about home, love, other than I’ve seen a lot of it. S’pose home is wherever I am at the moment, which depending on where THAT is does determine my thoughts on the place.

• What motivates you along your journey? 
• *Snorts* Staying alive, mostly. Being an outlaw thief with a high bounty on my head, I have little time to linger about in one place. If I’m idle for too long, I’m just asking for the noose! Aside from that, I’ve had many reasons to keep me going. A lost Toymaker needing to be found, searching for fortune, running from bloody authorities and all of that. There is always something waiting just around each corner I come to. It’s definitely kept me on my toes through and through. 

• How do you see yourself/ how do you see yourself in relation to the rest of the world? 
• How do I see myself? Huh. Reckon I see myself as an outcast. In regards to how I fit in with the rest of the world, s’pose I don’t, really. I’m simply a wanderer, breezing through life until an updraft hurls me up into some shite I have to deal with.

• What is most important to you in this world? 
• Aye, well, to be honest, love, it’s the people I care for. Not to sound like a bleedin’ sap, but it’s true. My brother and I spent years searching for our folks after we were separated from them, and ended up becoming common criminals along the way. I hold out hope I’ll come across the family someday, but only time will tell, eh?

• What characteristics do you consider important in a person? What kind of people do you try to surround yourself with? 
• After fleeing Germany for falling into a spot of trouble, I made my way to Paris where I met artists and writers. It was interesting enough, for I do enjoy a creative mind. Mainly, when I do join up with a group of people, they’re from all walks of life. I was arrested once and sentenced to penal colony on Norfolk Island and on the voyage there, the transporting ship I was held on was attacked by Sea Warriors. Do you know who they are? No? They’re Indian tribes who sail the Middle Passage of the Pacific, attacking slave ships and freeing people who’d been kidnapped from their homeland.  They’ve been doing so for many years. Anyhow, these particular Sea Warriors, Captained by an Apache named Sea Wind, had mistaken the prison hulk for a slave ship and advanced on it. They were able to take over the vessel and ol’ Chief Sea Wind allowed me passage onboard his ship, Ekta. Aye, the Sea Warriors are a fine lot, they are. The chief and I became friends, but his wife, Waves of Strength, would slit my throat if given the chance. Why, you ask? I, erm . . . shoot her in the arse. By accident, mind you! But that’s a story for another day. At one time, I was smuggling goods for a cross-dresser thief named Juan Fáng, who eventually opened her own opium den in London. She’s a smart lass that one, and if you ever call her a man, no one would ever find your body. *Winks* Then there’s my best mate, Robert Blackbird, who was a thieving partner of mine. I don’t have much say in the people I come in contact with, I’ve been around all sorts, and most are people I could do without seeing again. However, there are those like the Sea Warriors, Fáng, and Robert who are loyal and trustworthily mates—for the most part—and for someone like me, living the dangerous lifestyle I do, a bit of loyalty goes a bloody long way. 

• What do you see for yourself in the future? Where will you be? What kind of person do you want to become? 
• My grandmother used to be a fortuneteller of sorts. She once told me each life has many paths that lead in different directions. No one can truly see into the future because the future is always changing. I dunno my whole story yet, but I can tell you it involves me traveling through the Netherlands and following clues to a family inheritance, dealing with the Hellfire Club in Scotland, sailing to Sonora, Mexico with the Sea Warriors where I’ll be hunting for fugitives, breaking Chief Sea Wind and his crew out of jail in New Orleans before returning to England to face my most feared enemy. What sort of person I do I want to be? Erm, a living one! I’d also like to escape to a tropical island somewhere. In short, I want to become free.

To Learn more about author Michelle E. Lowe click here.

To purchase "Legacy: The Reunion" click here.

Interview with authors of "Mind Me, Milady" Ann Rothman-Hicks and Ken Hicks

On Writing had fun interviewing Jane Larson form the novel "Mind Me, Milday"

Tell us a little about yourself? Where do you come from?

 I was born and raised on the Upper East Side, before it became gentrified. In those days, it was a far more gritty place to live. There were Irish bars on every other corner of Third and Second Avenue. Small businesses lined the streets. I remember we had a store where the guys fixed TVs and would lend you one until yours was done (before cable of course). And there was a lawyer who sat in a flannel shirt in his storefront office on Third Avenue, selling insurance and doing notarial work to make a buck. No nail salons. God, I wish it were like that today.

Tell us a little about your home, what are your feelings towards home?

I’m a bit conflicted on the subject. My mother, Martha, was a lawyer with a storefront office on 92^nd Street in the same building where we lived on the third floor in a rent-controlled apartment. She was a crusader for women’s rights, and she represented women who needed support for themselves or their children, or were battered by men, or otherwise victimized by the system. Growing up, I was always the daughter of Crazy Martha, when I just wanted to be a kid and fit in. Plus, these types of people can pay almost nothing, but she took their cases on anyway and worked all kinds of hours. I often felt I had to make an appointment to see her. Sometimes women slept on our floor because they could not go home. I swore I would never be like her, but then life happens. I quit my job in a major law firm where I was doing very well (check out Weave A Murderous Web). Now I am working out of Martha’s old office and representing some of the same people she once did.

What motivates you along your journey?

Wow. Paying the rent. Buying food. I’m not the crusader Martha was, but when I see someone down on their luck or who just had been dealt a bad hand by life, I feel the urge to help them. There is a lot of injustice in the world. Martha used to say that she could not fix the world, but that she would not tolerate bad things happening to good people within her reach. It’s sort of like Voltaire telling us to mind our own garden.

How do you see yourself/ how do you see yourself in relation to the rest of the world?

One thing I learned from Martha was that I should not worry about what other people thought. She taught me to think for myself, examine a problem thoroughly, and if I felt I wanted to fix the problem, to let nothing and nobody stand in my way. She was a bull in a china shop. One day, I hope to write about some of her cases.

What is most important to you in this world?

Being able to sleep at night without the ghost of Martha perched on my bed in the middle of the night, waiting for me to wake up and realize that I’ve done something that is not right. It used to happen a lot when I worked for a big firm and made lots of money. Not so much anymore. It seems she might like the way things have turned out.

What characteristics do you consider important in a person? What kind of people do you try to surround yourself with?

Loyalty, honesty, and the capacity to love. I’ve found that a few times, but again, life intervened. I will keep looking.

What do you see for yourself in the future? Where will you be? What kind of person do you want to become?

It’s getting a little late for me, but I think I would like to have a kid. If a man came with the package, that would be okay, as long as he was loyal, honest and loving. If I just had the kid, that would be okay too. Martha raised me as a single parent. In fact, she never told me who my father was. It used to bother me. It still does.

To learn more about the writing duo of Ann Rothman-Hicks and Ken Hicks, click here.

To purchase their book "Mind Me, Milady" click here.

Character interview with Christine de Pisan Daniel of "Spellcaster"

On Writing had the pleasure of interviewing Christine de Pisan 

Daniel from "Spellcaster"

In a turn-of-the century England steeped in steampunk and magic, Christine learns her life-threatening illness stems from her paranormal visions. During the London Season, Allie, her beloved sister and the family heir, seeks a noble match while she searches the occult underground for answers. But the only witch who can help will not do so unless Allie marries her beau, an impoverished aristocrat, so that the illicit pair can share Allie's wealth.

Tell us a little about yourself? Where do you come from?

·         I am Christine de Pisan Daniel. I consider myself as much an American girl as a citizen of Provence, where I was born to professional parents who left me in this world all too soon. Fortunately their good friends, the Kotts, took me in and have been as much of a family to me as they.

Tell us a little about your home, what are your feelings towards home?

·         Home is wherever my sisters Natalie, Alison, our other adopted sister Marie, and their parents Mr. And Mrs. Kott are. In America we spent far too much time trying to infiltrate the upper echelons of society so resistant to the noveau riche. In England we've been made to feel more welcomed by the impoverished lords who want to marry into our money.

What motivates you along your journey?

·         My family's happiness is everything to me, even if the somewhat wild Marie and the somewhat incautious Allie tend to see me as overprotective of their virtue, a real killjoy.

How do you see yourself/ how do you see yourself in relation to the rest of the world?

·         I believe the measure of a person is how much she is loved by her friends and how much she gives to them. I am a scholar who has a few waves among my set with my translations. I hope to be an example to my sisters in this new, English world of temptation and I watch out for them even when this exasperates all of us.

What characteristics do you consider important in a person? What kind of people do you try to surround yourself with?

·         Kindness, intelligence, compassion, resillience, courage. The people I surround myself with teach me these virtues every day.

What do you see for yourself in the future? Where will you be? What kind of person do you want to become?

·         want to see my sisters happily married and my adoptive parents ecstatic about it.                   Curiously I haven't envisioned my own future, perhaps because if I don't find a way to         end these visions causing my illness, I won't have one

To learn more about the author, George Bachman, click here.

To purchase the book "Spellcaster" to learn more about Christine, click here.

Character interview with J.D. from "Drip"

On Writing were able to interview J.D. from the novel 'Drip'

"A hand wearing a fancy watch parted the office blinds, and J.D. felt nauseous with despair: suddenly he knew—even though he could not explain how—that all of his mojo had been permanently taken away."

J.D. and George: thick as thieves since the fourth grade. J.D., the troublemaker, the stud: the alpha. George, the sidekick, the misfit: the loser. Upon graduating college, J.D. has convinced the only job creator in rusty Middlestop to hire them. BrewCorp, the hot new coffee and retail chain, is offering a vice presidency to the employee with the boldest plan for growth, and J.D. is determined to be the guy. When not sleeping with co-workers, he hatches his pitch for a one-of-a kind data pipeline. He is unbeatable--until George grabs the promotion. Now J.D. wants answers. His quest to find them—and to deal with the monstrous truth—is the subject of indie filmmaker Andrew Montlack's wry debut novel, which features the same biting satire that made his mockumentary, The Devil's Filmmaker, a cult classic.

Tell us a little about yourself? Where do you come from?

I come from the planet Krypton; I was sent here to rock your world (laughs).  Ok, ok.  I’m from Middlestop—born and raised.  I’ll be with BrewCorp for a year, year-and-a-half, get my promotion, then I’m gone.  I’m already having drinks with headhunters.  Figure one to two years in a Boston or New York financial house, then off to Dubai.  And I will rock your world.

Tell us a little about your home, what are your feelings towards home?

Boring.  Next.

What motivates you along your journey?

Ascension.  Next.

How do you see yourself/ how do you see yourself in relation to the rest of the world?

You sound like a guidance counselor.  You know what?  I don’t feel I have to do good works and starve; the world was in trouble before I got here and it will still be in trouble when I leave.  Maybe if people focused on where they wanted to get to instead of whining about where they were stuck, the world would improve.  Ever think about that?  Carry on.

What is most important to you in this world?

I believe I’ve answered that question already.

What characteristics do you consider important in a person? What kind of people do you try to surround yourself with?

Are you asking me if I have friends?  Yes, I have friends.  You’ve met George, right?  Well he’s my right-hand man—ever since the fourth grade.  There’s nothing George wouldn’t do for me.  I can’t tell you how many times I lit off a pipe bomb in the bike rack in front of the school and George took the heat.  He’s never turned me in.  Not once.  Now, you’re talking buddies?  Or you’re talking girlfriends?  ‘Cause I am currently sleeping with three—count them—three hotties from the same department.  The temptation is to keep each one secret, right?  Wrong.  You play them off one another, then you don’t need to keep track of what you said to whom and they try extra hard to hold your interest.  You know the thing about a slap?  It doesn’t scar.

What do you see for yourself in the future? Where will you be? What kind of person do you want to become?

So here’s the thing: I actually have a geek side.  That’s why I’m not going to let my engineering degree go to waste for more than a couple of years.  I think the world seriously can be made better; there are incredible technologies just over the horizon—faster-than-light travel, next-generation robotics, global smart grids, terraforming.  But it means focus; it means letting nothing get in your way—not your boss, not your pets, not your…not your mom…and not your friends.

To learn more about Andrew Montlack, click here. 

To purchase 'Drip' click here. 

Character interview with Zoe from "Grains of Truth"

On Writing interviews Zoe from "Grains of Truth" to gain a little truth ourselves. 

What are the lies we tell ourselves to stay sane?

In the world of a Texas feed store, the line between reality and truth blurs when love and friendship are at stake. Meet Sarah and Zoe, two best friends who work in a family-owned feed store. Their lives begin to unravel when love sparks between Sarah and the feed store owner’s only heir, Tom. Patriarch Otis quickly makes it known that his only son’s future won’t include the feed store “girl”. The clash over Tom’s love life erupts in a family feud where business is expected to trump love. In the meantime, a romance also ignites between Zoe and the local town physician whom she nicknames “Dr. Sex on Two Legs”. The women are quickly caught up in a family feud that leads to unexpected consequences, loss and tragedy.

Grains of Truth is an intense, emotional and passion-filled story about two best friends looking for that one thing everyone wants — love. It’s a story about friendship and accepting what you can’t change. Grains of Truth will move you to tears and leave you astonished. It’s a must-read story with an unexpected twist.

Tell us a little about yourself? Where do you come from?

My name is Zoe. I am a single mother of an active son named Derek. We live in a small, 2 bedroom home, where we enjoy eating pizza, watching movies and spending time in the yard. Derek is my little man. I work as a bookkeeper for Otis’s feed store. I enjoy my job because of my friendships with that I have established with Tom and Sarah.

Tell us a little about your home, what are your feelings towards home?

As I stated earlier, my home is small but very comfortable. My son and I have taken pride in the yards and enjoy spending time outside as well. We love watching nature. One thing that we love to do is laugh. Laugh at each other, but also with each other. Family is one of my firm values.

What motivates you along your journey?

My son Derek is what motivates me along my journey. My son gives me so much joy. I enjoy watching him play sports, but also seeing him interact with his friends. I strive to make sure that he and I are taken care of and we have a place to call home. It is not uncommon for our home to be extended to our friends especially to my best friend Sarah. After work, we will drink wine and eat pizza, while watching Derek build Legos or run around outside.

How do you see yourself/ how do you see yourself in relation to the rest of the world?

I see myself as someone that loves her family, and is driven and very focused.

What is most important to you in this world?

My son Derek is the most important thing to me. But, also my friendships with Sarah and Tom. We have really been through a lot of we have learned to share with each other o ur struggles. To me this has helped me be a stronger person both as a friend and a mother.

What characteristics do you consider important in a person? What kind of people do you try to surround yourself with?

For me loyalty is what is very important characteristic. I think that when we make friends we really put ourselves out there and yes we can get hurt, but we need to learn that we can trust others to support us when we need them the most.

What do you see for yourself in the future? Where will you be? What kind of person do you want to become?

I want to be a person that is loved by my friends and to be remembered both as a excellent mother, but also as a great friend. I am hoping to see where my personal relationships go, especially with Luke and we shall we what happens…

To learn more about the author Elizabeth Ferry-Perata, click here. 

To purchase her book "Grains of Truth" click here. 

Character Interview with Jonathan from "Enden" by David Kummer

Hi, Jonathan. Tell us a little about yourself? Where do you come from?

I grew up in a small village, with my dad and brother. We were just a couple of miles away from the nearest town, but when the barbarians came and attacked we had to fight. I ended up on my own after that, and if not for the kind knight who discovered me I would probably have died.

Tell us a little about your home, what are your feelings towards home?

My home wasn't always a happy place, because there was lots of arguing between the three of us. My brother, Emmett, was always getting on my nerves, and I disagreed with my father about many things. But even still, I miss it, and I know how good I had everything before.

What motivates you along your journey?

Lots of people have asked me what motivates me to fight, and to go on these war conquests. Ultimately, it comes down to fighting for others. The only way to protect them is to fight for them, so that's what I do to the best of my ability.

How do you see yourself in relation to the rest of the world?

The world is a terrible and cold place, and it seems like all of us are just trying to survive. It's always battles or wars or famine, and so many people have died. But we fight on, and we survive under all of the tyranny and nature that tries to kill us.

What is most important to you in this world?

My friends are the most important, since I no longer have family. There are a few people in particular, but I fight for those poor and dying people who can't defend themselves.

What characteristics do you consider important in a person? What kind of people do you try to

surround yourself with?

I surround myself with people similar to me, but also some that are more even-tempered. They help me to stay level and not get out of control, which can happen.

What do you see for yourself in the future? Where will you be? What kind of person do you

want to become?

I want to make the world a more fair and safe place, and to live out the end of my life in peace and comfort. I don't have any desire to be a king or nobility, as some have asked me. I want more to end quietly and with the people I care about.

Is there a love interest for you back home?

No, not right now. I don't care much about that, and love is only likely to hurt because one of us may die.

How many near-death experiences have you had so far?

Um... a lot. I'm gonna say about 10. It's kind of a weekly thing.

What do you think about war?

It's necessary at times, but only to disperse with evil. I hate war, and those who dream about it don't understand it.

What's your biggest regret?

My brother dying. I don't know if I could have helped him or not, but I just regret losing him.

At the end of the day, who are you really?

I'm one of the people. I'm a normal solider. But I'm also a leader in the Wars of Enden.