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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/
Amazon Page: http://www.amazon.com/
Bio questions-
Age: 29
Birthdate: 2/9/85
Birth Place: Schenectady NY
Current Home Location: Mineville NY
Favorite Color: Hot Pink
Favorite Book: The Mighty Storm by Samantha Towle
Favorite Author: Samantha Towle & Sylvia Day are tied ;)
Favorite Quote: Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.
Favorite Song: Anything Goes, Florida Georgia Line and Fifty Shades of Crazy, Chase Rice.
Likes: Love music, writing, reading, traveling, the beach, shopping, warm summer days, lounging pool side or ocean side, painting my girls nails, walking to the park and getting ice cream highlight of a summer night.
Dislikes: COLD WEATHER, snow, cold rain, annoying noises repeated continuously. ( I have kids haa they do this A LOT) rude people, touching raw meat, watching people bite ice cream makes me cringe, and 1980s music and 80s/90s clothes coming back into style. No. Just NO.
Hobbies: Writing, Reading, running, going for walks with my kids, hiking.
Birthdate: 2/9/85
Birth Place: Schenectady NY
Current Home Location: Mineville NY
Favorite Color: Hot Pink
Favorite Book: The Mighty Storm by Samantha Towle
Favorite Author: Samantha Towle & Sylvia Day are tied ;)
Favorite Quote: Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.
Favorite Song: Anything Goes, Florida Georgia Line and Fifty Shades of Crazy, Chase Rice.
Likes: Love music, writing, reading, traveling, the beach, shopping, warm summer days, lounging pool side or ocean side, painting my girls nails, walking to the park and getting ice cream highlight of a summer night.
Dislikes: COLD WEATHER, snow, cold rain, annoying noises repeated continuously. ( I have kids haa they do this A LOT) rude people, touching raw meat, watching people bite ice cream makes me cringe, and 1980s music and 80s/90s clothes coming back into style. No. Just NO.
Hobbies: Writing, Reading, running, going for walks with my kids, hiking.
Hi Danielle, thank you so much for doing this with me. I know how busy days can be and want you to know that I greatly appreciate this opportunity.
RB: How are you
feeling? You have had a busy last couple of weeks in book world.
DJ: Tired
haa but it’s a good tired! I’ve been super busy with my two week blog tour for
Wasted Love. It went amazingly well and just wrapped up yesterday! I was pretty
exhausted from writing 4 books in a matter of a few months but took a few weeks
off and ready to dive back in and start writing some new fantastic things for
you all!
RB: How did Wasted Love come about?
DJ: Brooklyn
is the feisty BFF to Savannah Livingston in my Bestselling Savannah Series.
When I wrote the series I showed Brooklyn as a full time side character where
fans got to follow her story while reading Savannah’s. It’s a pretty crazy
story haaa. Every once and a while at first a fan or two would tell me they
loved Brooklyn and would love for her to get a book. As the series grew in
popularity and I really began to develop Brooklyn’s story the idea of giving
her a book started to become a real possibility. After a lot of thinking I
decided a series is best bc its such a complex story that is not able to be
told in just one book as we saw it develop in three of Savannah’s books. I was
scared to death to publish bc Brooklyn is not your average book heroine I was
terrified everyone would hate her as a leading lady BUT surprisingly readers
and bloggers are raving about Wasted Love and Brooklyn!
No longer on sale.
RB: As an author how does
one land on an Anthology?
DJ: You
need to be invited into one. I dropped out of one over the summer due to
personal issues within the anthology and was sad thinking I’d never get that
chance again bc they are so hard to get into but surprisingly I was approached
to be in a Christmas one which just released Mistletoe & Kisses. Then not
long after I was approached again by a difference person to be in a
contemporary romance anthology that’ll be out in December! Then two weeks ago I
was again haa and was asked to write a 12,000 word erotic Christmas story and I
immediately knew I had to write A Tempting Christmas, Jordon Valentine and
Brittan McKenna’s steamy first Christmas together!
RB: What or who inspired you to write?
DJ: My grandmother. She’s a huge reader and she
always dreamt of being an author one day. She always supported my desire to
read buying me books whenever I wanted them ha. She would go to Walmart every
Tuesday that a new V.C. Andrews book would release and buy it for me. I fell in
love with storytelling of romance, suspense and thrilling twists in a story. I
would always read a book and say I really wish they would’ve done this or that.
I was always writing short stories and making up plays but at 17 I finally said
I keep saying I’d love to write so why not? I did it for fun. I wrote in a
notebook every day during studyhall working on my first book. I got pregnant my
junior yr and sadly never finished the book but years later I read fifty shades
of grey and it re sparked that desire to write and its history from there!
RB: If you could collaborate with any author who would it be
and why?
DJ: Samantha
Towle HANDS DOWN. I love her as an author and as a person. She is an amazing
author, friend and mentor. We write similar and bounce ideas off each other
well that I think a collaborated book would be fun to write together one day
down the road!
RB: Do you have a favorite character in any of your books,
or is it like children, you love them all equally?
DJ: Haaa! My characters are so important to me
it’s so hard to pick favorites but I have always said Savannah and Kayden will
have a spot in my heart always. I wrote a lot of myself in Savannah even giving
her the same birthday as me lol, and then Kayden is the perfect man. Plus they
were my first book couple to ever right forever making them special in my eyes.
RB: When did you finally decide “it is time to write and
publish MY book”?
DJ: I
stopped reading for a while because I was so busy being a mom, working full
time at a preschool, my boutique, and college then once I finished college and
stopped working outside the home I found I had more free time on my hands. I
had no idea about book groups, book blogs..ect I always just got whatever was
on the bookshelf at Wal-mart. I kept hearing all this fuss about Fifty Shades.
For Months I ignore it finally when the third book released I gave in an bought
the series. I was glued from the first page and it re opened that part of my
brain that starved to read. I decided to type in Fifty Shades one day on
Facebook and found two fanpages. I followed them for a while and began doing
fifty inspired jewelry and t-shirts. Some bloggers friended me because they
wanted some and some fans of fifty. I then started to check out blogs to find
other books to read. I loved it I never knew about indie writing and publishing
until that moment. I thought if I can figure it out why not just go for it? I
took a chance and wrote Irresistible Desire letting friends read and I made it
free on Smashwords as I wrote getting feedback and people really loved it. It
needed work like editing..ect but story wise people really loved it which was
shocking!
RB: How do you pick the titles and story lines of your
books?
DJ: I try
to think of words or phrases that would go great with my storyline. I loved the
quote Love is an Irresistible Desire to be desired. I knew I wanted to use it
for Savannah’s first book. I then said all books would end in Desire but had to
come up with first word in the title. So then came up with Inescapable,
Indestructible & Infinite each title goes with what is in the story at that
time. It’s fun but challenging!!
RB: Have any of your books included personal experiences?
DJ: I use a lot of things I’ve experienced in my
books to help make them realistic and help my readers connect with the
characters.
RB: Character names, where do you come up with such unique
names, they are memorable?
DJ: A lot of the names are names I had picked
out during my pregnancies and never got to use. I always love looking at pretty
unique names because I went to school with like eight other Danielle’s and
always wanted to make sure my kids went to school and didn’t have to deal with
that too haa. Just so happened a lot of names worked out great for books. For
last names I try to use names that are memorable when combined with first
names. Brittan McKenna was actually going to be Finn’s first and middle name if
he would’ve been a girl and I lucked out with McKenna that it was great for a
last name.
RB: Covers. How do you choose the images to grace your
covers?
DJ: It’s hard I try to think of images and designs
that will catch readers’ eye and be memorable. If they saw my cover even a yr
later they’d remember the book. It is so hard when I have so many great options
to choose from trying to pick just ONE cover!
RB: What have you learned about yourself in the writing
process?
DJ: That I am actually good at creating unique
stories lol. I was so nervous at first when I took a chance and published my
first book that people wouldn’t like them. But I have seriously the BEST fans
ever. They constantly push me to grow as a writer and develop even more amazing
and captivating stories that they can get lost in.
RB: What is the most difficult part about writing and
publishing a book?
DJ: The stress of wondering if people will enjoy
the story. Every book I release I freak out as I click publish or my publisher
does. The waiting after a book goes live for the first reviews to come in is
hard. I am always nervous when I do blog tours every blog will say OMG this
book sucks haa but I’ve been extremely lucky that so many people have read,
loved and supported my novels. The other part of publishing is sales. It is
always so stressful when you publishing worrying if people will even buy your
book. It’s discouraging when you release and your book doesn’t do as well as
you hoped it would while your peers new releases sell better but I’ve tried to
focus on the positives of it all. At least people are buy and reading my book
and thankfully people reading LOVE IT. That’s what truly matters.
RB: What is the most rewarding part of being a writer?
DJ: My friends I’ve made through writing and my
fans I have who support anything I write and publish. It is the most amazing
feeling knowing you have readers who love your work and will support every
novel or novella you release. I love traveling so being able to travel for work
is so fun. I love going to signing events and meeting fans face to face. It’s
one thing to talk over social media but to see them face to face and listen to
them tell you why they love your books is just amazing.
RB: How do you decide what author events to attend and how
do you prepare for them?
DJ: I try
to pick ones where I know they are places I want to visit and explore and are
also affordable if I have to fly or if we have to drive. My goal is by 2016 to
travel all over the US and internationally to a few countries to give all my
fans a chance to meet me.
RD: Support system. How does your family feel about your
career choice?
DJ: At first my husband looked at it as a hobby
because I was running my boutique full time
making about 30 bows a month and 10
tutus a month. I only wrote at night when I had free time. Once my books grew
in popularity and he saw we were actually making enough for me to cut back on
my store and focus entirely on my writing did he fully support me and my desire
to travel. Sure it is costly but; it’s worth it, to travel meet my fans and
future readers. I’m lucky he loves to cook and is okay with housework because
it gives me the time I need to write throughout the day.
RB: How do you balance mommy world and book world?
DJ: It’s hard especially with Finn home full
time. It’ll be easier once he starts Pre-K next yr. Right now I work off and on
all day in between playing and feeding Finn. We always set Saturdays as family
days to go out to lunch..ect do something fun together. Now that winter is
coming we won’t do it as much because we hate traveling in snowy weather since
everything is 30-60 min drive away. But it’s important to work hard but take
time to also relax and enjoy your children and spouse. Especially, since I work
so much during the week.
RB: What advice do you have for new authors?
DJ: Most importantly is to make friends in the
author and blogger world. They’ll be the ones to help support you and give you
advice. Secondly is work hard on creating unique and well written books. Spend
the extra money on editing, cover..ect to really make a bang with your first
release. Your first book will be what makes you or breaks you to help you break
out into such a highly popular genre. Every day there are new books releasing
you need to try to find a way to stand out. Thirdly, is build a relationship
with readers. Take their feedback good and bad use it to grow. They’re the ones
buying your books you want to listen to what it is they are saying they want to
buy and read. Also get at least 3 really well trusted beta readers you know
will be 100% honest with you about your story and tell you when something isn’t
working and when something is. To help you write the best book possible.
RB: Have you mentored any up and coming authors, if so who?
I helped Brandace Morrow. I Love her. I gave her any advice I could and
answered any questions she had. I also have been helping a new author Seth
King. He’s got it a little harder in our genre because a few male authors have
given male authors in our genre of writing bad names by their behavior so he
has struggled to get bloggers to even accept to read his books. I know how hard
it is starting out and feeling how no one was willing to take me under their
wing and help me learn the ropes so I try to whenever I can.
RB: Do you have anything you would like to tell your fans?
DJ: I
would love to tell all my amazing fans THANK YOU for all your support. For
pimping everywhere and helping get the word out. Especially for buying
everything I release it is so amazing to have you all as my friend-fans. Also
look out for many new releases over the next few months so be sure to follow my
Facebook and add my author page on amazon to your
favorite so you don’t miss a new release.
PUBLISHED WORK:
COMING SOON
Thank you so much Danielle for hanging out with us all week. I especially want to thank you so much for the time you gave us, not only for this interview, but for the week.
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