Interview and Giveaway with Nancy Jill Thames

CONGRATULATIONS

VERONICA!

Please welcome my friend Nancy Jill Thames author of the Jillian Bradley Mystery Series. She has graciously offered one of her ebooks as a giveaway along with her interview. Without further ado lets get to the interview.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.       Tell us a little about yourself. My dad was in the Air Force so we traveled and moved around a lot. I lived in places like Casablanca, Morocco, Valdosta, Georgia and Las Vegas, Nevada, which gave me a sense of adventure. I’m just an average housewife who loves to entertain, or used to. Now that the kids have flown the nest, I decided to finish a book I’d started writing years ago, “Murder in Half Moon Bay” and do a series – just for kicks. I needed a needed a creative outlet. I have a degree in music and love playing classical piano but one can’t play the piano all day! My faith in God has led me all my life and He’s been so faithful. Traveling with my husband on his business trips gives me the ideas to base my books on.

2.       Tell us about your most recent book/or the book we are focusing on. Book 6, “Waiting for Santa” was written to preserve our Christmas family traditions. I also wanted Jillian to fall in love and remarry. Although she does fall in love, it’s with two suitors – one from Book 2 “The Ghost Orchid Murder” and the other from her home town in Clover Hills. The ending is a cliff hanger. And again, Teddy helps find a clue that leads to the murderer.

3.       Why did you choose this particular genre? Actually, truth be told, I got bored with reading the same author over and over. Ten years ago, I wasn’t aware of any other cozy authors except for Agatha Christie. I’d read all 80 of her books, two or three times each and believed I could come up with a sleuth, settings and plots. And I did.

4.       What was your journey to publication like?

I tell people if you want to publish a book, go to CreateSpace on Amazon.com and follow the yellow brick road. Because I didn’t know anything about publishing, I simply learned by doing. It started with doing a blog posting a chapter a week for “Murder in Half Moon Bay” until a local paper got wind of it and did an interview about me. After that, I raced to get it finished and published it 7 months later. I laid out a plan to publish a book every 6 months for 4 years until the series was complete.

5.       What are a couple of your favorite books and what are you reading now? Loved “Snow Falling on Cedars,” “The Poisonwood Bible” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy. Just finished “The Hunger Games” and I’m currently reading “The Princelings of the East” by Jemima Pett.

6.       What are you working on now and can you give us a little peek inside it? “The Ruby of Siam” is a mystery taking place in London. Jillian’s art dealer fiancé has planned a lovely destination wedding, but when she winds up with a stolen necklace and a promise to keep from a dying man, things get interesting!

 7.       What advice would you give authors who are on their own journey to publication? Get some seed money for a great editor and formatter – I use Rik Hall who is fabulous. CreateSpace is a great self-publisher to use or start your own llc. Write the book using critique partners, send it to beta readers for input, rewrite the book, pay a content editor to give you feedback, rewrite the book again, pay a proofreader to edit for typos, and pay someone to do a dynamite cover. When it’s PERFECT, get about five great reviews from other authors and work up a launch promotion. After you’ve done all that, upload your file to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, Nook, Kobo and Smashwords. CreateSpace puts it for sale on Amazon.com. Then the real work begins. Posting, tweeting, blogging and emailing the fire about your book while appearing to be casually making comments mentioning your masterpiece. You also want a great bio and book blurb to generate interest in what you’ve written.

8.        Do you have any books or websites that have helped you with your writing that you could share with us? I think the best ones are “Dollars & Sense” by McCray, Scott, and Thompson and The Writers Guide 2 E-Publishing Blog are the best two sources I know. The last one’s blogger has sold over 100,000 books so far.

9.       Is there anything you’d like to tell us we haven’t covered? As my husband keeps telling me, just write good books. Books that you would like to read. Easy to say – difficult (but not impossible) to do.

10.   Please let us know where we can find you on the web. My web site is my blog. http://www.nancy-jill.blogspot.com.

Thanks for having me over Deborah!

 

 

 

 

 

TO BE ENTERED FOR A COPY OF "WAITING FOR SANTA" PLEASE"

 

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 HAPPY READING!