Interview with author, Becky Muth

Appalachia is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the region was home to approximately 25 million people, containing the major cities of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Knoxville, Tennessee, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Asheville, North Carolina. 

When most people think about Appalachia, they think about moonshining, NASCAR and clan-feuding. Poverty, lack of health care and poor education seem to be the traits most commonly associated with this part of the country. Coal mining, steel work and logging brought work to Appalachia, but not wealth for most of its residents.

Author Becky Muth found other elements common to the region: myths of struggle and survival, suffering and loss, especially in the oral tradition of local women. I’ve had the honor of interviewing Becky about her recent novella release on Amazon.com, SCREAMING JENNY, and about the collection of ghost stories she plans to release this fall, HAUNTED WOMEN OF THE APPALACHIANS.

Becky, give us a short pitch for your upcoming book, HAUNTED WOMEN OF THE APPALACHIANS.
Travel through the Appalachian Region of the United States to meet thirteen unlucky women who become victims of dire circumstances. Death however is only the beginning of their stories.

Inspired by actual folklore, each adapted tale presents a case of past and present colliding in 13 states in the Appalachian Region of the United States: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.


Besides Screaming Jenny, a few of the other characters from the past include a woman who strayed too far on the wrong side of politics during the Revolutionary War, a housewife who lost her heart to an alcoholic husband, an unwed mother who reaches beyond the grave to beg a favor, and a young girl who only wishes for someone to be her friend.

What was your inspiration for writing the book?
In the fall of 2013, I spent several weeks driving my husband back and forth to a work hardening program as part of his recovery from a shoulder injury he sustained while working as a career firefighter. One day while waiting for him, I received an e-newsletter from The Moonlit Road (http://themoonlitroad.com), a website that offers "Strange Tales of the American South".

The feature article covered the topic of the Ghost Lights of Brown Mountain, North Carolina. My paternal grandmother's maiden name is Brown. They're from North Carolina, so I was immediately curious. The article gave several theories for the cause of the lights, but nothing concrete.

When I got home, I did some more research from my laptop with similar results. It turned out that people as far away as Blowing Rock, NC reported seeing the lights. My family visited Blowing Rock while on vacation in Boone, NC in 2012. The more I thought about it, the wilder my imagination ran until I had the basic story outlined in my head.

Then I got the idea to do one story for every state in the Appalachians.

How much of the book comes from oral tradition and how much is your original fiction?

While every story is based on some type of oral tradition, handed down from past generations, each one offers my own, heavily embellished version of the events. For example, in Harpers Ferry folks will tell you that Screaming Jenny died when a train ran over her flaming body. Did she live next door to a family? Did she trade vegetables for fish with the town hobo? Those parts are all me.

In essence, Jenny met her demise because she lived alone.  Your main character, Vanessa, thinks about leaving her husband at the beginning of the story, but after hearing the tragic story of Screaming Jenny, they find a way to compromise and rekindle their relationship.

Do all of the stories in The Haunted Women of the Appalachians provide a parallel between the modern characters and the tragic ghosts of the past?
Yes, I've certainly tried to draw a parallel between the past and the present. Some stories proved a bit more of a challenge.


The first draft of Screaming Jenny had a weaker parallel with an entirely different ending. After deleting a couple of unnecessary scenes and completely rewriting the end, both my editor and I were a lot happier with the connection between the present-day characters and those from the town's past.

You and I are both members of the Eastern Panhandle Wrimos group as well as part of the larger, Shenandoah Valley Writers group on Facebook. How have participating in events like Nanowrimo helped you grow as a novelist?
When the email announcing NaNoWriMo arrived, I decided to give it a shot. Without the support and encouragement from my husband and our sons, as well as other writers in our local NaNoWriMo group, this would all still be an idea in my head.


NaNoWriMo was a great way to launch myself into the project, though, and I highly recommend all writers try it at least once. The connections I made to other writers alone was worth it. I re-used this project in the July Camp NaNo event, which helped get me back into "the zone".

SCREAMING JENNY is available now as an e-book novella on Amazon. What are your future writing plans?

My immediate writing plans include finishing HAUNTED WOMEN OF THE APPALACHIANS first. I plan to self-publish, but would not turn down talks with a publishing house if the book caught their eye. Aside from hiring an editor (Sheila Haab from http://www.SageEditing.com) everything else is all me -- the cover, the marketing, etc.

Shelia is a true blessing. Without her advice, HAUNTED WOMEN OF THE APPALACHIANS would just be something I plan to finish in the future. I definitely hope to use her for my next book as well. And of course I'll continue freelance writing through Elance for my current clients.

Beyond that, I'm waffling between ideas for different books I could someday write. There are certainly more ideas than enough time to ever see them all through, but for NaNoWriMo 2014 I'll be delving into the genre of "chick lit" with a book currently titled LOVE THY NEIGHBOR and set in Northern Virginia. If all goes according to plan, then I'd like to keep Shelia as an editor for that book also.

Tell us more about Becky Muth, the author.

I grew up in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, about seven miles from where I live right now. My dream, however, is to move to the Carolinas. Specifically, I'd love to live within an hour of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. A fishing village just south of Myrtle Beach, it offers a more relaxed pace. The story from the South Carolina chapter of HAUNTED WOMEN OF THE APPALACHIANS takes place there, and in February 2014 I had the good fortune of visiting the actual grave site of the story's main character.

Writing a book was an unexpected (although exciting) side effect of freelance writing. I started out writing for several internet game companies. Now I have clients on four continents who hire me for both writing and graphic design work. I love working from home, and joke that my dress code is Doctor Who tee-shirts and yoga pants.

When I'm not writing, I enjoy spending time with my family which includes my husband, a retired career firefighter and our two teenage sons. I'm a sucker for a good book and enjoy meeting friends for lunch when our busy schedules allow. My guilty pleasures include reality TV binges and listening to my bluegrass-themed Pandora station, which I created after learning about a local band, The Polka Dots (http://www.thepolkadots.org).

I'm also quite passionate about animal adoption and often use my Facebook page to promote animal shelter awareness. Currently my family and I share our home with three mixed breed rescue dogs: Amazing Gracie (Yellow Lab / Plott Hound), Sookie Doghouse (Catahoula Leopard), and Gibson Girl (Corgi / Rottweiler).

Thank you, Becky, for sharing your work and insights with us. To find out more about Becky Muth and her books, SCREAMING JENNY and HAUNTED WOMEN OF THE APPALACHIANS, follow this list of links.

Email: beckythemom@hotmail.com

Website: www.beckymuth.com

Facebook: Becky Muth Author Page

Twitter: @beckythemom

deviantART: http://beckymuth.deviantart.com

Haunted Women on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hauntedwomenoftheappalachians

Screaming Jenny video trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8WOKkP1bgM

Interview with author, Evangeline Jennings

In July 2013, 278 square miles of ice, an area larger than the city of Chicago, broke off Pine Island Glacier, which is part of the Western Antarctic ice sheet, and floated away. Scientists now claim there is no way to stop the melting. Rising water temperatures are also causing the oceans to expand. Predictions differ radically between scientific organizations, but we can expect global sea levels to rise between 25 and 60 feet over the next 85 years.

Delving into the important anthropological question of how society will survive the next Great Flood is the Pankhearst Group, and its senior editor, founder and major contributor, Evangeline Jennings. On August 1st they released MERMAIDS, a collection of short stories about survival after the deluge.

I've had the privilege of reading MERMAIDS, and I am moved by how each author envisions the best and worst of humanity under apocalyptic circumstances. Each story builds on the last to create an impression of doom, not because of the Flood, but because of mankind's unwavering ability to create even more pain and suffering in the wake of nature's wrath. At first, in Our Russian Soldiers, people steal from each other without remorse. In Sea Monsters, they kill to survive. In Deepwater, the powerful enslave the weak. In Land and Redeemer, the enslaved start to fight back. In Beyond the Water, a teenager overcomes hopelessness and finds a reason to continue, and in EPWA, they begin to grow a new, more equitable, society.

Evangeline took the time to answer some questions about her imprint's latest release.

Evie, describe MERMAIDS for us.
Last year, we published a book called HEATHERS that we described as a collection of true fiction for Young Adults of all ages. MERMAIDS is exactly the same, but totally different. Whereas HEATHERS offered twenty-four bittersweet slices of contemporary teenage life – the real deal, perhaps, about growing up in this world – MERMAIDS is set on a dystopic fantasy world in the years that follow a flood, which is, to all intents and purposes, an extinction event. In MERMAIDS, the bitchy cheerleader clique might try to kill and eat you.

Although MERMAIDS is exactly the same size as HEATHERS, there are far fewer stories – which means they're longer.

The first is OUR RUSSIAN SOLDIERS by the very lovely and wonderfully talented Lucy Middlemass. It's the story of two young sisters from England and their struggle to survive in the Flood.

The events in SEA MONSTERS by Simon Paul Wilson take place a year later. Two Thai sisters are waiting for their father to return from a salvage mission.

My own story is DEEPWATER and I like it so much I'm turning it into a novel. Seventy years after the flood, a teenage girl discovers the truth about the empire her father rules – a purpose-built haven created by Big Oil.

LAND by Fiona Haven focuses on one boy's struggle to rediscover the knowledge of the old world at a time when staying alive has become a full-time job.

Pippa Whitethorn's REDEEMER is, at heart, a tale of sexuality and becoming who you are.

In BEYOND THE WATER, CJ O'Shea explores the lure of suicide in a world where you don't fit and there's no other means of escape.

The last story is EPWA by TSW Sharman. Countless generations after the Flood, there are new religions, orthodoxies, and dangers. And, apparently, a new world record for the non-gratuitous use of the word "fuck".

Why do you think people are so fascinated by flood stories right now?
Maybe it's because of real world events like Katrina, Ike and Sandy? Maybe it's global warming. Or the need to explore America's fin de siècle angst.

Do you think we still have fin de siècle (end-of-century) angst? That was fourteen years ago, unless you're referring to the 60 additional feet of water we'll have to deal with in 2100?
More the end or closing of an era. I believe we may be living through the end of the great American era. 

Other nations are rising. Multinational corporations are bleeding citizens dry and selling their futures overseas while government smiles. The political system here has failed, leading to a descent into ignorance, fundamentalism, and a war on women. Why wouldn't people write about the end of their world?

Excellent point. No wonder people are thinking about drowning.
In our case, the flood theme is mostly happenstance.  HEATHERS was named for the Winona Ryder movie of the same name – which gave us the idea of including a character named Heather in every story – and so when we decided to do a follow-up we were torn between doing BEETLEJUICE or MERMAIDS. We toyed with a collection of modern-day horror stories called BEETLEJUICE but then I got the idea for MERMAIDS and everyone said YEAH!!! In fact, the idea was so popular that there will be a second volume of MERMAIDS published later in the year.

Tell us about Pankhearst.
Pankhearst is not a company as such. We're not doing this to make money. We exist to help writers develop and grow. And hopefully make good art. Every penny we make – not that it's a lot – is ploughed straight back in.

So far, we published three full-length collections – MERMAIDS, HEATHERS, and CARS & GIRLS – and we've also released a "single" every month during 2014. Typically, the singles have been stand-alone short stories or novellas, Tee Tyson's recent MINI combines two short stories that could have been published in CARS & GIRLS and our September single, CONVERTIBLE, also a candidate for CARS & GIRLS, is split between Jane Bradley and Lucy Middlemass.

I've worked hard on Pankhearst for more than two years and I'm now beginning to pull back from collections to focus on longer fiction products – both my own and other writers'. For example, we will be publishing our first novel, the marvelous YUKO ZEN IS SOMEWHERE ELSE by Simon Paul Wilson later this year and we're aiming to get Lucy's enchanting JINGER BARLEY AND THE MURKLE MOON into an Amazon near you in time for Xmas. But that doesn't mean we're winding down on our projects, only that other people have to drive. For example, EllieMcG is taking over the Singles Club at the end of the year, and Kate Garrett who produced our least orthodox and most successful single so far is currently collecting submissions for something called SLIM VOLUME which may become a quarterly journal of poetry and flash fiction.

Just as Kate has become our poetry editor, if other writers have ideas they want to run with, out of the box or hiding in the corner, then we'll support them and provide the technical expertise, editorial help, and production platform they need to follow through.

So, basically, Pankhearst will become whatever its members want it to be.

Want to know more about Evangeline Jennings, the author? Here is her standard bio.
Evangeline Jennings is an unreliable narrator. She tells lies for fun and profit. Mostly fun.

If Evangeline was a song, she'd really like to be, she'd be "Public Image" by PiL or possibly "You Don't Own Me" by Lesley Gore.

Born and raised in Liverpool, where they invented football and popular music, she now lives in Austin, Texas. The black sheep of her family, she comes from a long line of Californian beauty queens on her mother's side. As she so often says, Northern Scum, Southern Belle.

Evangeline watches an awful lot of movies and TV. During the break she cooks popcorn and writes stories about revenge.

Follow Evangeline on her Author page at http://author.to/Evangeline/.
Follow the Pankhearst Group at http://pankhearst.com/.
Get your own copy of Mermaids at http://getbook.at/Mermaids/.

Interview with author, Adam Oster – Part Two

Adam's new book is THE RISE OF THE FAT MOGUL.  It's the sequel to THE LEGEND OF BUDDY HERO and the second book in THE DEFENDER'S SAGA.

Saving the world doesn't mean squat if no one knows it was ever in trouble. Buddy Hero and the New Defenders may have defeated the villainous Dominion and saved the world from ultimate destruction, but thanks to another worldwide redaction, no one knows. So when a familiar face appears and claims to be the head of the Meta Human Defense Team, the heroic team finds themselves facing the ultimate decision.

The New Defenders find danger coming at them from all sides as they face off against yet another world-threatening calamity, all in full view of the Sun City Comic Convention and the Real Life Superheroes.

Now if only they could come up with a way to pay the rent.

Here is how Adam describes himself on his Amazon author page:
Father, Husband, and Office Drone by day, author Adam Oster spends his nights crafting worlds that abound with action and adventure, and fills them with stories of excitement and wonder. He lives in Eau Claire, WI with his wife and two kids. Together they explore the planet, giving him a plethora of new ideas.

Adam, there are a number of companies out now to aid in self-publication. CreateSpace is the largest, which stands to reason, because they are a subsidiary of Amazon.  There is also Bookbaby, Smashwords and Lulu. Which company or companies have you used and how would you describe your experience with them?
I'll be honest. I hated reviewing which self-publishing companies were out there in order to determine which one to use. There are just so darned many of them and ultimately the differences between them are rather small. I currently only use CreateSpace and Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (for ebooks) because Amazon does a really great job of helping out with (a minimal amount of) marketing. And, let's face it, they're really all about the self-pubbers right now...probably due to their battles with the big 6. I have used Smashwords in the past and found it to be a situation where it was too easy to get lost in the crowd. It does get you into a whole bunch of different sales platforms, but I really had no way of increasing my visibility on those platforms. Staying with Kindle Select might mean I don't get on those additional platforms, but more people actually see my covers, and that's what I'm looking for right now.

What promotional or craft building efforts have you done that have grown your following/fan base the most?
If there's one thing my fans know about me, it's that I'm a terrible marketer. That's not to say I haven't tried a multitude of things. Book reviewers, book promo sites, Facebook fan pages, Twitter accounts, my blog, message boards and whatever else, I try pretty much anything that comes across my plate. I've even tried some Google and Facebook ads. What I've found is that although they may give an increase in visibility, generally the crowd that it's being brought to is the wrong one. A lot of the followers of these different things are other authors hoping to find readers, who are generally disinterested in finding new things to read. So, in the end, they do nothing for the sales, but take a great deal of effort, and a hefty dose of stress. I'm always researching new methods for promoting my books, but I've yet to find anything that markedly increases exposure.

I will say, however, that between the two promotional opportunities available for Kindle Select authors, there seems to be a great opportunity to get your work in the hands of readers. On the free days on Kindle Select, you can see your book fly off the virtual shelves to 100x your normal sales. Many of them probably won't read the book because they are just clicking due to the word free being there, but it's safe to say you'll get some exposure that way. I've found that the new countdown deals they have actually work out better. Something about a discount seems to work for consumers better than just handing things out for free. I mean, how good could it be if it's free, right? I was amazed at how many sales I made with the countdown deals over a short period of time compared to normal numbers.

Thank you for taking time to share your new book with me and my readers.  I'll speak for all of us in wishing you much success on your launch of THE RISE OF THE FAT MOGUL.
Thanks for this series of insightful questions. I actually really enjoyed answering them.

THE RISE OF THE FAT MOGUL will be available on Amazon.com starting August 1, 2014 at http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Mogul-Defenders-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B00M9LFJBI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406823195&sr=1-1/.

Find out more about Adam and his books for both young and old at http://fatmogul.com/, Twitter at @fatmogul and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/fatmogul/.

Sign up to receive e-mail notifications about new book releases by Adam Oster at http://fatmogul.com/email/. Feel free to e-mail him at adam@fatmogul.com.

Check out his Amazon author page at http://www.Amazon.com/Adam-Oster/e/B00C5RBJR4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1/.

And obtain your own copy of THE LEGEND OF BUDDY HERO at http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Buddy-Hero-Defenders-Saga-ebook/dp/B00C4VHP4W/ref=la_B00C5RBJR4_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406263445&sr=1-2/.