The Writer’s Journey, A Search for Friendship

In many ways, a writer’s journey becomes the reader’s journey. Writing is more than just putting words on a page. It’s an opportunity to find the story within a story, digging to find the nugget that makes the story come alive for the reader. If done well, it creates a connection between the author and the reader—that “Aha!” moment where there is a magical unity of the human spirit.

Some writers are drawn more to the art of writing, and many of those become authors of literary fiction. They love words juxtaposed on the page, the poetry of the sounds read aloud, the evocative images, appearing like a Monet painting, swirling in the air and provoking conversation around the meaning of things. Many of us enjoy reading literary fiction for how it stimulates the intellect and challenges us to think about ideas from a different perspective. Every now and then we hit on the place where the author intended for us to land, and it’s another one of those moments in which we find ourselves a little changed from where we began when we opened the first page. And we hear ourselves sigh, “Ah, me too!”

Other writers seem to have a multitude of stories in genre fiction that continually bubble to the surface and must be written down to make room for more. They’ve homed their craft and write wonderfully well at a prolific pace. They seem to have a certain mental acuity for getting the word down on the page. We admire them for their quick wit and keen mental capacity to create story. And then we see it! It may be just one word or one phrase—the insight, the take away—and a secretive smile lights our faces.

I cannot speak for all authors, but I know many authors aspire on some level to connect with their readers—at least to know that you have taken something away from the story.  If you are an avid reader, and even if you’re not, I encourage you to let your favorite authors know—whoever they are—what grabbed your attention or made you smile.

I love to hear from my readers—to know what, if anything, inspired you or made you stop to ponder something one of the characters did. Perhaps you were uneasy about some aspect of the way the story unfolded or how a character responded to a particular situation. Maybe you enjoyed the historical suspense or the way the setting triggered your imagination. Maybe some phrase humorously hit you just right and you repeated it on Facebook (To my absolute delight, one good friend did exactly that!).  Perhaps you have a question or some point of clarification. I’d love to hear from you.

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You, too? Thought I was the only one.’  —C. S. Lewis

For more information about Donna Wichelman and her suspense novel Light Out of Darkness, you can find her at www.donnawichelman.com. Books available at

www.Amazon.com.   

Meet Best-Selling Romantic Suspense Author Leslie Ann Sartor

Welcome to the inaugural Author Edition of Discover the Adventure. As promised, twice monthly, I will have the pleasure of spotlighting various authors who have carved out a place for themselves in their various genres in a question answer format. 

Today I have the extreme pleasure of introducing you to Leslie Ann Sartor, a fellow member of a writers' group that we both attend. 

Leslie Ann Sartor (aka L.A. Sartor) began telling stories about age four when her mother, at Leslie’s insistence, wrote them down and Leslie illustrated them. As an adult, she writes suspense and action adventure novels with a dash of romance, and screenplays screenplays—one that had a contracted adaptation. She lives in Colorado with her husband whom she met on a blind date. Leslie loves to travel and thinks life is an adventure and we should embrace the journey. She has a blog and a mailing list.

1. L.A., you recently made #1 on Amazon's best-seller's list for two of your novels, Be Mine This Christmas Night and Forever Yours This New Year's Night.  Last November, Be Mine was also given the International Diagital Award for Contemporary Short Noel. How did these two honors make you feel, and how has it changed your life?

Thank you, Donna, for having me as your inaugural guest. What an honor!

Making bestseller on Amazon, truly being #1 the first time with Be Mine This Christmas Night, stunned me. I couldn’t believe this was truly my book that had reached this pinnacle. I didn’t realize it until Audra Harders, a wonderful Inspy writer, texted me early in the morning to tell me. Naturally I got onto the site to check it out for myself.

Then when I published Forever Yours This New Year’s Night, I had hopes, but I didn’t want to vocalize them.  You know, jinx them. I watched the sales on Amazon creep up slowly and figured it wouldn’t happen. Then, in an explosion, they topped 10,000 and then more.  Again, #1, but it was the sales numbers that really blew me away.

Frankly it’s a humbling experience. Giddy, but humbling. I don’t expect this for every book, it’s a gift when it happens.

As was the International Digital Award for Be Mine This Christmas Night. Incredible!  And the cool thing is that these milestones are ones I get to keep forever. If anything about this has changed my life, it’s that no-one can take these honors away. I earned them. Wow. Maybe I really can write.

Hopefully there will be more, but with each one, I feel profoundly lucky and grateful. 

2. In the USA Today digital newspaper for July 2, 2015 (which is today), an excerpt of your latest book Viking Gold appears in the Thursday column of Happily Ever After. Tell us about that.  

I’m so excited about this. Who knows where that massive exposure will take me. Maybe nowhere, but I’m hoping upward.  Wouldn’t it be cool to be a USA Today Bestselling Author? Let me answer that…YES!

As you mentioned, it’s an excerpt, the lead-in to the scene and a blurb.  Do you have any idea how much I angsted over which excerpt to post? Then I had to create a hopefully compelling lead-in and blurb.  I lost sleep and really made myself ill over this. 

I hope your readers will go visit the link, which I’ll post in the comments. Viking Gold is a fast-paced book.  Some people think of my Carswell Adventure Series, of which this is book #2, as the best of Romancing the Stone and Indiana Jones. Stone of Heaven is book #1. 

3. If you were to give a New Year's Eve Party this next December, is there one character in Forever Your's This New Year's Night that you would not invite and why?

Well I like my characters, and in this book there really isn't a villain, though Todd might be a bit awkward at a party. But since you asked me to choose, I'd really rather not invite the jeweler Dom Pauly. He thinks he’s funny and has a big mouth. Not mean, just not socially adept.  And he is one of those people who thinks he knows it all. If you read Forever Yours This New Year’s Night, let me know what you think of my choice in the comments.

4. Tell us something about yourself we might not expect. 

Hmmmm, well most people think I’m pretty self confident and fit easily in social situations. But really, I’m terribly shy about meeting people for the first time or walking into a room filled with people I don’t know. I just suck it up and start talking, but I do get queasy just before I open the door and enter.

5. What advice would you like to give aspiring writers?

Keep writing. Yes, it’s trite but true. And if you indie publish, don’t despair if sales are slow, just keep writing and get your next book out there. Each book should be its best at that point in your career. And the next one better! If they are, sales will pick up.

Learn which promotions feel good to you. Try them all, Twitter, FB, Pinterest, etc., and then find those which are the most comfortable to you.  I recommend a website. A blog takes a lot of dedication.  I have one www.anindieadventure.blogspot.com and there are days when I get to the point where I want to throw up my hands. But I don’t. It’s working, bringing me a greater audience.

Blurb:

Viking Gold: Book Two of the Carswell Adventure Series

Norway is the land of Vikings and myths, and deep in a fjord, a sunken Nazi plane is filled with gold--which is exactly the kind of adventure Abby Carswell and Hermann Weiss relish. Enough so to make them push aside their misgivings over their enigmatic new business partner.

Abby, an adrenaline junkie, barely avoids death’s scythe on every quest she undertakes. Hermann knows he can’t continue to watch the woman he loves put herself deliberately in harm’s way. He wants her to choose the power of their love over her need to beat the odds.

But first they have to survive this hunt for Viking gold, which has  turned deadly after they discover the treasure has mythic qualities and is coveted for its power. Their quest becomes a battle against an evil whose tentacles may run deeper than this single expedition. 

Other Titles Published:

Dare to Believe (2012)

Stone of Heaven (May 2013) Carswell Adventure Series Book One

Be Mine This Christmas Night (Holiday 2013) Star light -Star Bright Series Book One

Forever Yours This New Year's Night (Holiday 2014) Star light - Star Bright Series Book Two

Viking Gold 

Buy Links: 

Kindle | iBookstore | Nook

Social Links: 

Website | Facebook  | Facebook Author Page | Twitter  | Goodreads | Pinterest