Guest Interview With Miracle Austin!

Today is Valentine’s Day.  It’s a day for love, for flowers, for chocolate, and… for revenge.

Okay, probably not so much that last one, but isn’t revenge so much more fun than the mushy stuff?  At least in the fictional world?

On this day, Valentine’s Day, it is my sincerest pleasure to welcome my friend and fellow author, Miracle Austin, to my blog!  After being featured in several horror anthologies, Miracle is celebrating the release of her first full-length novel, DOLL.

I read this book in one sitting, and you can find my reviews on GoodReads.com AND Amazon.com.  For now, however, please enjoy my interview with

Jacqueline Smith: First of all, tell me a little bit about yourself:

Miracle Austin: I work in the social work world by day and the writer’s world at night and weekends. I’m a YA/NA Cross-Genre author; adults also enjoy my works.

I’ve been writing ever since first hearing Drive by The Cars in junior high, which has been one of her biggest inspirations. I rediscovered my writing passion, recently. My first mini-story, PENS, appeared in http://www.leaves-of-ink.com.

Horror/suspense are my favorite genres, but not limited to. I enjoy writing diverse flashes, short stories, and longer works, while threading various social awareness themes into my stories, at times.

Doll will be my first debut YA/NA Paranormal novel, which will be released on CreateSpace and Amazon on 2-14-16—available both in paperback and ebook.

Boundless will be my second debut work, which will be a YA/NA eclectic short story collection; it will release in the summer.

I’m currently working on future works and reside in Texas with my family.

JS: How did you get into writing?

MA: I started writing in the sixth grade, mostly free-verse poems, and writing out lyrics of my favorite songs, usually love songs, in a notebook.

I did write my first short story about a 13-year-old boy. His name was Jobie. Jobie was spending his last summer with his best friend, kissing a girl for the first time, and coping with his untimely death.

I hand wrote that story and don’t recall the title. I thought I kept it, but I must have thrown it away years ago, accidentally. I still think of the character, Jobie, time from time.

As high school approached, my writing was stop and go. An English teacher shared a writing assignment, and I really enjoyed that assignment. However, distractions popped up, as usual.

I wrote off and on in college. I really enjoyed my English, sociology, and children’s literature classes because I always had writing assignments in.

Later on in my adult life, I experienced a very dark time and found myself almost lost there.

I stumbled upon a private writing group with diverse writing prompts.

I started submitting and discovered something—how much I really loved writing.  In fact, writing, this time around, actually saved me… I found a ladder and began to climb out of my darkness.

A reviewer on the writing group commented me on my writing and suggested I should start to submit to magazines, ezines, anthologies, and etc.

I was hesitant, but I decided to give it a try, after a few months. I submitted and received so many rejections. I almost gave up, until that one day, I had a message waiting in my email box, where my first mini-story was accepted.

My confidence began to blossom. I continued to submit and receive more rejections than acceptances. The rejections made me stronger and the rest is herstory.

JS: What is your favorite book? Or if you can’t pick just one (I know I can’t), top three?

MA: I’m going to list more than three.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Carrie  by Stephen King

To Kill a Mocking Bird  by Harper Lee

“The Man Who Loved Flowers” Short Story by  Stephen King

“The Last Rung”  Short Story by Stephen King

JS: Tell me about your new book, Doll.

MA: Doll is a YA/NA paranormal novel. Doll was never suppose to be a novel, only a short story for adults. I started writing it to distract me from the postponed publishing of my first collection, Boundless.

Doll transformed. It started out as 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, 12,000, 15,000, 18,000, 20,000, 25,000, 30,000, 45,000, and then over 52,000 words.

The characters took over and Doll was created.

Doll is a story about a mean girl who torments three outcasts, one in particular.

The three outcasts decide to band together in an untraditional way to give the mean girl a taste of her own medicine.  However, things don’t always turn out the way wish, so be careful what you wish for…

JS: How did you come up with the idea?

MA: My mom, who has shared other ideas with me for other stories and future ones, told me a story about something that happened years ago with a friend. I absorbed all the information and created my characters.

I recall a publisher, several months ago, sharing how Boundless was geared more towards YA/NA crowd, plus I love the YA/NA world, so I changed my main adult characters to teens.

JS: What was the writing process like?

MA: This is interesting one.

I procrastinated with this one. Believe it or not, I had about one paragraph for the concept, which changed a lot. I even had the cover made before I had one full page written. The cover did inspire me.

I knew that I needed to complete it after I avoided writing for several weeks because I didn’t know where I was going with this story, even though I had the concept down and cover. I just was  so unmotivated.

Therefore, I decided to do something that I never had before—outline.  I’ve read about others completing outlines, but I’ve always been a free bird and didn’t want to restrict myself.

I came to realize that was the best thing I could have ever done without restrictions. The outline ushered me through my writing and kept me focused.

So, I’m now an outline advocate, never would have imagined.

JS: You are also featured in horror anthologies such as Luna’s Children and A Shadow of Autumn.  What inspires you?

MA: Again, I must give my mom credit for many of my current and future stories. She’s my inspiration. She’s always sharing stories about her youth from the 50s and her adulthood. I usually take something from her stories and twist it up to make it my own.

Furthermore, my other inspirations come from conversations (protected of course),  people watching, songs, movies, or something that I’ve read in a book, magazine, Facebook, newspaper, and so on.

JS: What draws you to this genre?

MA: My exposure to horror/suspense arenas occurred prior my middle school years. My mom used to listen to an AM radio station on Friday nights, cannot recall the station, but it would have pre-recorded creepy stories.

I was sold instantly and couldn’t wait until the next airing. Horror/suspense just meshed with me from my first dance with it. I craved it, minus the horror that deals with possession.

JS: Are you working on any other projects at the moment?

MA: I sure am. I am cleaning up Boundless, an eclectic collection of shorts, which was supposed to be published by now. However, I’m a big believer in how certain things must occur before something else, which is why Boundless was postponed.

I still don’t understand it completely, but I accept Doll being released first.

I’m enhancing Boundless and then all the edit rounds.

I’m waiting to see how Doll is received from readers.

I do have a sequel mini outline for Doll 2 already, not sure if it will evolve yet.

I have another story  (20,000 words so far) that’s been on back burner for almost two years called, LoneStar Unordinary Girl. It’s a mash-up of comedy/supernatural elements. A reviewer challenged me to add comedy to a piece and I came up with that one.

Finally, I love writing shorts all the time. I have one that I have been wanting to write called Nightrunners. I plan to soon.

I am currently working on a monster piece for consideration in Sirens Call, a fabulous ezine.

Sine I mentioned Sirens Call, I wanted to share that I’ll be featured with many other amazing women authors in their Women in Horror Month 2016 upcoming issue. My piece is called “The Lock.”

JS: What are your favorite pastimes, other than writing?

MA: I love attending  all types of movies (Marvel/DC Fangirl, by the way) and watching  Netflix.

I enjoy creating playlists that inspire some of my stories and enjoy attending diverse book festivals and comic cons, where I’ve been so honored to be one of the panelists on some.

I’ll be a featured author and a panelist at the upcoming Teen Book Fest by the Bay in Corpus Christie, Texas on 2-20-16. I’m so honored and excited to be part of. This will be my first teen book festival.

The highlights of attending the above functions include opportunities to hang out with great author friends and meet new authors/readers.

I also enjoy collaborating with my amazing colleagues on YAAR (Young Adult Author Rendezvous) , an author group, on Facebook. I’ve learned a lot from some amazing authors and the founder, Patrick Hodges. They have all been so helpful in various ways.

JS: Finally, where can read readers connect with you?

MA: Feel free to contact me anytime and follow me on all the social media outlets.

I enjoy communicating with her readers.

http://www.miracleaustin.com

Email: shadesoffiction@miracleaustin.com

FaceBook: Miracle Austin Author

Twitter: @MiracleAustin7

InstaGram: MiracleAustin7

*BONUS SOUNDTRACK*

Songs that inspired DOLL

#1 You look beautiful tonight-Frank Sinatra

#2 One way or another-Blondie

# 3 Rock with you-Michael Jackson

#4 Every Breath You Take-Chase Holfelder

#5 One Way or Another—Until the ribbon breaks

# 6 Ready to love you forever-Tevin Campbell

#7 I want you to want me-Cheap Trick

#8 Leave-Jo Jo

#9 Count me Out-New Edition

#10 You Belong to me-Taylor Swift

#11 Rich Girl-Hall and Oates

#12 Make me wanna-Thomas Rhett

#13 Going to love you like I’m going to loose you–John Legend and Megan Trainor

#14 Jack and Diane-John Cougar

#15 Kissing Game- Hi-5

#16 Naughty Girl-Beyoncé

#17-All of me-Luciana Zogbi—(cover)

#18-You can do Magic-America

#19-Oh no-Lionel Richie

#21-Bad blood-Taylor Swift

#22-Tender Roni-Bobby Brown

#23-If it isn’t Love-New Edition

#24-Walking after Midnight-Patsy Cline

#25-Blue-Leanne Rimes

#26-Alone-Heart

#27-My baby doll-Toni, Toni, Tone

#28-She’s like the wind-Patrick Swayze

#29My Girl-Temptations

#30-Creep-Radiohead

#31-Everybody Hurts Sometimes-REM

#32-People are People-Depeche Mode

#33-Shake it off-Taylor Swift

#34-Wanna be starting something-Michael Jackson

#35-Walking in my shoes-Depeche Mode

#36-Treasure-Bruno Mars

#37-When I’m with you-Tony Terry

#38-Give Love a bad name-Bon Jovi

#39-We’re not going to take it-Twisted Sister

#40-Waiting for a girl like you-Foreigner

#41-Girl Crush-Little Big Town

#42-I need to know-Marc Anthony

#43-How do you mend a broken heart-Al Green

#44-Unpretty-TLC

#45-Try a little Tenderness-Otis Redding

#46-what about your friends-TLC

#47-All of me-Damien Escobar

#48-With You-Chris Brown

 

You can find DOLL by Miracle Austin here!

In the City

Hello, friends!  Just a quick update!  I may not have any more deadlines for a while (Yay!) but life is still as busy as ever!

I’ve been enjoying a wonderful few days, celebrating the impending Christmas season with friends and family.

A few of my girlfriends and I had a Christmas crafts night.

Then my mom and my sister and I took a trip downtown to see the world premiere of the opera Becoming Santa Claus.

And life is only going to get busier!  Tonight, my friend and I are taking my sister out to celebrate her birthday.  Tomorrow night, a group of my friends from high school and I are going with our English teacher (our Mr. Feeny, if you will) to see MacBeth.  Thursday night, I’m going to a bachelorette party and Saturday is the wedding!  So much fun and merriment and all the while I keep thinking, “Oh my goodness!  I have to get the new book out!”  Then I remember it’s already out and I think to myself, “Oh, yay!  I love it when that happens!”

The new book is doing great.  And Boy Band is getting some new love because of it!

I’ve had two reviews in the past week that I particularly love.  One is from a new friend down in Mexico named Bryan.  You can check out his review here!

He also took this fabulous picture and I’ve got to be honest, it’s one of my favorite book portraits ever.

The other is a review I believe I already shared, but I love it so much, I’m just going to share it again.

I love all my readers and reviewers and friends so, so much!  I don’t know if you realize it, but you make so many dreams come true just by doing what you love!  Thank you, thank you!

I hope you all are enjoying this most wonderful time of the year.

21

Today, my little sister turns 21.  I could very well make this a sentimental post about how she’s my best friend in the world and how she’s crossing a major milestone and how I’m so thankful to have her in my life, and all of that would be very, very true.  I don’t know where I’d be without her.

In honor of her birthday, I decided to release my new book, Backstage, the sequel to Boy Band, a day early on Kindle.  I did this, in part, because she loves the first book so much.  We’re both big boy band fans in real life, and she was the one who really pushed me to finish the first book and to publish it.  She enjoyed Cemetery Tours also, but not like Boy Band.

That being said, I hope you all enjoy the second book!  I did my best not to end it on as BIG a cliffhanger as the first one, but rest assured there is a third one in the works!  Sam and Mel’s story isn’t quite finished yet!

Love you all!

Backstage on Kindle

 

Happy Bookday!

It’s here!  After more than a year, After Death is finally available in Paperback AND Kindle!

Paperback

Kindle

I’m so excited for the ghostly misadventures of Michael, Luke, and Kate to continue.  I hope you all enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them!

I want to take a little bit of time, however, to celebrate a few OTHER books being released today: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer, and of course, the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

The fact that my book came out on the same day as all of these ladies is, quite frankly, a huge fangirl honor for me.  JK Rowling is Queen, as everyone knows, and I don’t know a single person whose lives she hasn’t touched with her magical world.  Stephenie Meyer, yeah, okay, it’s kind of fun to make fun of Twilight.  But I’ve got to be honest.  I still love it.  I love the story.  It’s just pure fun and fantasy, you know?  Very escapist, and I do love to escape.

Then, finally, there’s Rainbow Rowell.  I fell in love with her writing after reading the story of my life, Fangirl.  I’m serious.  I’ve never read a book that so keenly described what it feels like to love a book and, frankly, to be apprehensive of the world outside.  Oh my Heavens, do I love Fangirl.

As if I didn’t already love Rainbow Rowell enough for  bringing that story to life, I then got to meet her last May.  She is incredible, basically everything I want to be as an author and as a person.  When I found out that her new book, Carry On, inspired by the book series in Fangirl, was being released the same day as mine, I was thrilled.  And yes, I’ve already run out and bought my own copy.

Yes, I bought Life and Death too.  I wanted to buy the new Harry Potter, but let’s face it, as an Indie Author, I barely have two dimes to rub together.  I really shouldn’t have bought these two books, but I can’t help it.  I have to support the authors and stories that I love.  And, yeah, okay, I really need to feed my addiction to YA literature.  Most importantly, though, these books serve as a reminder of why I do what I do and why I put so much time and effort into my books.  I want this world of words to be my world, too.

Happy Bookday, everyone!  Go read your favorite book!  Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, go pick up something new!

May I recommend a ghost story?

Boy Band

Well, it’s here!  April 21 and Boy Band is officially available on Kindle, Nook, and on Amazon.com!  It will be available on BarnesAndNoble.com and probably iBooks shortly.  I say “probably” with the iBooks because I swear, I have never gone through more aggravation trying to get something done than uploading Cemetery Tours to iBooks.  It is a pain in the butt.

But I didn’t come here to gripe about my lack of iBooks skillz.  I’m here to celebrate!

It’s pretty cool.  This is a book I never planned to write.  It wasn’t even in my head when I began writing it.  It all began with my friend, Savannah (http://savannahrohleder.blogspot.com) telling me that she was participating in National Novel Writing Month and that I should sign up also.  At first I thought, “No way. I hate being timed. Besides, I should write because I want to write, not because I feel pressured.”  But the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize I was looking at it all wrong.  NaNoWriMo wasn’t just a stupid trend.  It was an actual opportunity that encouraged people all over the world to write.  How could I possibly think that was a bad thing in any way?  Besides, it might be nice to take a break and write something new, something that I probably wouldn’t have written otherwise.

May I just tell you I am so glad she talked me into signing up?

I’ve had more fun with this book than I could possibly have imagined when I first signed up for NaNoWriMo.  I went in thinking, “I probably won’t publish this… I might not even finish it…” which might sound bad, but really, it freed me up to write the story the way I wanted to write it, as though I was the only one who was going to read it.  And I ended up loving it.  There was no pressure, no expectations.  Just freedom, and as you know, freedom is the one thing I covet most (Except for maybe a date with Richard Armitage).

Now, here it is, April 21, and the NaNoWriMo project that never should have been is a book.  The third book on my resume.  And I couldn’t be prouder of it.

Thank you to all who encouraged me, Savannah, Hannah, Kit Kat, and especially my sister, KJ!  I couldn’t have done it without you!

The Kind of September is here to stay, y’all!

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Band-Jacqueline-E-Smith/dp/0989673448/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1429591957&sr=8-3&keywords=boy+band

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Band-Jacqueline-Smith-ebook/dp/B00WFSE0Z6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1429645222&sr=8-2&keywords=boy+band

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/boy-band-jacqueline-e-smith/1121640705?ean=2940151556132&itm=1&usri=jacqueline+e.+smith

About Time

Okay, so there’s this new movie out.  It’s called About Time.  It stars Rachel McAdams (one of my favorite actresses ever… I’ve never not liked anything that she’s been in) and Domhnall Gleeson AKA Bill Weasley from the last two Harry Potter films.

In case you are not aware, Domhnall Gleeson (son of actor Brendan Gleeson AKA Mad-Eye Moody) is one of the cutest people alive.  But that’s totally not the point of this post.

The point is I had seen trailers for this movie and thought, “Aw… that looks cute.  And Rachel McAdams and Bill Weasley are in it!  I kind of want to see that.”

I had completely forgotten about it, however, until tonight.  My friend and I decided to have a somewhat impromptu girls’ night and she mentioned going to the movies.  Being the little hermit that I am, I had no idea what was playing.  This movie came up.  I remembered that I wanted to see it.  Okay, let’s go!

I thought it was going to be one of those cute chick flicks that you see once, think, “Aw, that was cute,” and then never think about it again.  Not even close.  I’m not sure I’d even call it a “chick flick.”  Yeah, it’s a romantic comedy, but it’s one that I really like that guys would enjoy too.

Domhnall Gleeson is perfect as Tim, the gawky, slightly awkward, too-tall, too-skinny, and too-ginger protagonist, who turns out to be a time-traveler, as are all the men in his family.  Thanks to this ability, he is able to go back and relive all the moments and save himself from totally embarrassing situations (several of which are laugh-out-loud hilarious and adorable).  He also ends up using this little talent to meet the love of his life, but I don’t want to go into too much detail.  I’d hate to give away the entire movie!  All I can say is, as part of a generation who really loves the tall, dark, and broody bad boys, it’s so refreshing to see a leading man who is awkward, fair, and real.  He’s cheerful, sweet, by no means a lady’s man, and just simply the cutest guy ever.  I’ve heard that guys hate it when girls call them “cute,” but seriously, it is a huge compliment.  You should take it and run with it.  Rachel McAdams is delightful as ever.  I don’t even feel like I have to tell you she was wonderful, because she always is.  I loved Tim’s kooky family members as well, particularly his sister, Kit-Kat, a pure-hearted free spirit who is the very heart and soul of the film, and their slightly crazy but ultimately sweet and lovable Uncle D.

Aside from amazing casting and characters, About Time had one of the single best messages of any film that I’ve seen in recent times: Live each day like it was so wonderful that you meant to go back and relive it.  I have nothing to add to that, because I think it’s pretty perfect on its own.