Here is my interview with Val Tobin

Thank you for interviewing me, Fiona. 🙂

authorsinterviews

Hello and welcome to my blog, Author Interviews. My name is Fiona Mcvie.

 

Let’s get you introduced to everyone, shall we? Tell us your name. What is your age?

Val Tobin, age fifty-five.

Fiona: Where are you from?

Newmarket, Ontario, Canada

Fiona: A little about your self (ie,  your education, family life, etc.).

I have an eclectic education. I started with literature, psychology, and philosophy at the University of Waterloo and then went to DeVry Toronto for a diploma in Computer Information Systems.

After working in the computer industry as a software/web developer for ten years, during which time I also wrote for an on-line tech magazine, I became a Reiki Master/Teacher.

From there, I received my Angel Therapy Practitioner® certifications from Doreen Virtue in Kona, Hawaii. I also studied for and received a B. Sc. In Parapsychic Science from the Institute of Holistic Theology. Then I completed a…

View original post 1,276 more words

Introduce Yourself: Introducing Guest Author Frank Parker

An interesting interview with Frank Parker.

Pearls Before Swine

Welcome to Introduce Yourself, a new and exciting blog segment of The PBS Blog dedicated to introducing to you new and established authors and their books.

Today I’d like to extend a warm welcome to Frank Parker. Welcome to The PBS Blog! Let’s get started.

What is your name and where are you from?

My name is Frank Parker. I was born and grew up in Herefordshire, a small rural county next to the border between England and Wales. I lived for the first decade of my life in a small stone cottage beside a stream with a couple of waterfalls. We were surrounded by traditional hay meadows and grew all our own vegetables in a medium sized garden. My parents were from London originally. They were married shortly after the commencement of World War II. Dad was an airman. Two years after I was born he was killed in…

View original post 1,373 more words

Ghosts, God and wait for it…

Interesting post from Max Power.

Maxpower's Blog

The thing that breathes on your neck in the dark, the voice that whispers in the dark and the hand that softly brushes the foot you’ve foolishly left outside the duvet at night, all present intriguing psychological dilemmas for us not dissimilar to some people’s relationship with God.

As a dedicated sceptic, despite my recent encounters with my own night-time visitor, I have always been fascinated by the dark, frightening, creeping thing in the night, the fear that stalks just out of sight, the haunting and the shiver down your spine. I am no psychologist but like most people, I have an understanding that these things are really our own inner fears and insecurities coming to the surface as we fade in and out of sleep…or are they?

Look, I’m a writer and one who particularly enjoys delving into the darker matter of the soul, so perhaps I spend more time considering such…

View original post 1,484 more words

My Series of Author and Poet Interviews #authors #poets Narberth Book Fair #FridayReads with Rebecca Bryn,

Great interview with Rebecca Bryn.

Judith Barrow

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting interviews with the authors and poets who will be taking part in our Book Fair:  http://www.narberthbookfair.co.uk/.

There are forty of us so, obviously, there are many genres for both adults and children. There will be talks an writing and books, creative writing workshops for adults and fun workshops for children, activities for the children and a fun book trail through Narberth, the gorgeous little market town in Pembrokeshire.   

All free!!

And, of course, there will be the chance to chat with all the authors and to pick their brains on all aspects of writing. Even to buy their books and have them personally signed.

And, as usual, there will also be the writing competition: this year is a poetry competition: Submit a poem, in any form, of 20 lines or less, on the subject of : –

Books and Reading.

Having…

View original post 1,151 more words

If Writing is not Political, What’s the Point?

Should writers hide their political leanings? In my opinion, no. Frank Parker makes some excellent points here.

Frank Parker's author site

A recent blog post from Allison Maruska highlighted the dilemma that some writers face when exposing themselves via their blogs and social media. If potential readers get wind of my political beliefs will they decline to purchase my books?

Do the people I hope will buy my books need to know my thoughts on Donald Trump or just how many cups of coffee I drink whilst working on the next novel in the series? My views on creationism or climate change, or only how my latest research trip is going?

My question to people who struggle with these dilemmas is: “why do you write?” Because the truth is that all writing, if it is to mean anything, is of necessity political.

Is anyone in any doubt about Dickens’s politics? Or Orwell’s? Did Wells’s well known Socialism put people off his writing?

Of all genres, Science Fiction is, perhaps, the most…

View original post 343 more words

Injury by Val Tobin Reader’s Choice Finalist

Injury Reader’s Choice Award Finalist

A quick favour:

 

My novel Injury was nominated for a Reader’s Choice award. Can you please vote for it? You can log a vote each day until August, so please, when you think of it, go and vote.

 

Also, if you would like to read it, it’s available for #FREE download as an e-book at various retailers. 

 

Thank you for helping me out.

Cheers,

Val Tobin

Amazon Has A Fake Book Problem

Amazon continues to have a problem with fake books. Great post on the issue.

David Gaughran

Fake books – powered by clickfarms – are gatecrashing Amazon’s charts. And despite being aware of the issue for well over a year, Amazon has failed to resolve it.

If you look at the Kindle Store Best Seller charts right now, and click over to Free Books, you will see that the Top 20 currently has five suspicious-looking titles.

None of them have reviews. All were published in the last week. They have no Also Boughts – meaning they have had very few sales. Each of these titles are around 2,500 pages long, seem to have duplicated content, and are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

What is going on here?

For over fifteen months now, scammers have been raiding the Kindle Unlimited pot using a well-worn trick. They usually pilfer the content first of all – often by stealing an author’s original work and running it through a synonymizer – and…

View original post 1,475 more words