Author Introductions 2019

This is the author introduction thread for 2019.

There are also author introduction threads for 2017, 2016, 2015, and earlier.

Clicking on the user name takes you to the introduction post, and clicking on the name in brackets takes you to their author page.

Authors who introduced themselves previous to this year will be added to the index on this thread if they drop me a note saying they are still around. (These authors will be marked with an *)

Authors please remember that you are introducing yourself, not your book. Tell us about who you are, where you are from, what genres you write in, and why you write about what you write. If you just copy and paste a book blurb you will not be added to the index.

There is also a reader introduction thread.

Index of Hobnob Author Introductions - Alphabetical

ACWard (A. C. Ward) - YA Fantasy and Science Fiction
AWA1* (Allan Walsh) - Fantasy and Horror
BettyBolte* (Betty Bolté) - historical and supernatural fiction/romance
BryanJ62 - Comedy Romance
DavidWineberg (David Wineberg) - Essays and Reviews
DominiqueLuchart - science fiction/fantasy
DonnaPerpetua (Donna Perpetua) - Orthodox Christian Non-fiction
filocof33 (Christina Kondratyeva) - Non-fiction: health, sports and children
Frank_Prem (Frank Prem) - Poetry
K.D._McQuain (K. D. McQuain) - Urban Fantasy
ElisaDiNapoli (Elisa Di Napoli) - Self-help
ljkendall (L. J. Kendall) - hard science fiction with fantasy
LShelby* (L. Shelby) - Fantasy and Science Fiction
MelinaDruga (Melina Druga) - Busness, History
MoniqueSnyman (Monique Snyman -horror/dark fantasy for adults and young adults
NaliniWarriar (Nalini Warriar) - Literary Fiction and Contemporary Romance
ScottLaPierre (Scott LaPierre - Christian Non-fiction
Shoebears (Dawn Doig) - children's picture books
Thomas_Emson (Tomas Emson) - Horror
TraceyLaviolette (Tracey Laviolette) -
YA Urban Fantasy and YA Paranormal Romances
victoriadanes* (Victoria Danes) - Paranormal and Historical Romance
VStKarl (Violet St. Karl) - Science Fictional

Index of Hobnob Author Introductions - By Genre

CONTEMPORARY/MODERN FICTION

HISTORICAL FICTION
BettyBolte* (Betty Bolté) - historical and supernatural fiction/romance
victoriadanes* (Victoria Danes) - Paranormal and Historical Romance

LITERARY FICTION
NaliniWarriar (Nalini Warriar) - Literary Fiction and Contemporary Romance

FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION
ACWard (A. C. Ward) - YA Fantasy and Science Fiction
BettyBolte* (Betty Bolté) - historical and supernatural fiction/romance
victoriadanes* (Victoria Danes) - Paranormal and Historical Romance
Thomas_Emson (Tomas Emson) - Horror
ljkendall (L. J. Kendall) - hard science fiction with fantasy
DominiqueLuchart - science fiction/fantasy
K.D._McQuain (K. D. McQuain) - Urban Fantasy
LShelby* (L. Shelby) - Fantasy and Science Fiction
MoniqueSnyman (Monique Snyman -horror/dark fantasy for adults and young adults
VStKarl (Violet St. Karl) - Science Fiction

TraceyLaviolette (Tracey Laviolette) -
YA Urban Fantasy and YA Paranormal Romances

AWA1 (Allan Walsh) - Fantasy and Horror

ROMANCE
BettyBolte* (Betty Bolté) - historical and supernatural fiction/romance
NaliniWarriar (Nalini Warriar) - Literary Fiction and Contemporary Romance
victoriadanes* (Victoria Danes) - Paranormal and Historical Romance

TraceyLaviolette (Tracey Laviolette) -
YA Urban Fantasy and YA Paranormal Romances

BryanJ62 - Comedy Romance

MYSTERY/THRILLER/SUSPENSE
rchapman1* (Rita Lee Chapman) - travel mysteries, horses and crime

HUMOR
BryanJ62 - Comedy Romance

PLAYS AND POETRY
Frank_Prem (Frank Prem) - Poetry

YA and CHILDREN'S
Shoebears (Dawn Doig) - children's picture books
MoniqueSnyman (Monique Snyman -horror/dark fantasy for adults and young adults

TraceyLaviolette (Tracey Laviolette) -
YA Urban Fantasy and YA Paranormal Romances

ACWard (A. C. Ward) - YA Fantasy and Science Fiction

NON-FICTION
ElisaDiNapoli (Elisa Di Napoli) - Self-help
MelinaDruga (Melina Druga) - Busness, History
filocof33 (Christina Kondratyeva) - Non-fiction: health, sports and children
ScottLaPierre (Scott LaPierre - Christian Non-fiction

DonnaPerpetua (Donna Perpetua) - Orthodox Christian Non-fiction

DavidWineberg (David Wineberg) - Essays and Reviews

Hello!

My name is Violet St. Karl and I write science fiction and fantasy for adults. After nearly eleven years in New York along with a couple stints abroad, I returned to the Detroit area where I am a proud Ambassador for the Authors Guild.

The publishing of my first novel, Collection of The Negatives, made me the first Albanian-American science fiction author - at least the six years it took from start to finish was not in vain. When not writing, reading, or chasing my imagination, I enjoy traveling and hope to visit every country in the world before I depart.

Looking forward to connecting with other authors and readers.

Cheers!

>4 VStKarl:
Hello Violet, welcome to the Hobnob with Authors group!

Do you think being Albanian-American influences your work at all? If so, in what way?

I hope in the midst of all your travelling, you've also started on your next book. If so, it would be lovely if you dropped by the Authors what are you working on? thread, and told us a bit about it.

I would like to strongly recommend that you add some tags to your copy of your book. Without them people will have a hard time even knowing what genre it is in.

I would also like to encourage you to add some more books to your library. LT is primarily a book cataloguing site, and people here tend to pay attention to thinks like, for instance "shared books". You and I write in the same genre, but we don't have a single shared book... because the only book you have listed is your own. If you add fifty of your favorite science fiction and fantasy books, and I discovered that I like reading a lot of the same books you do, then I would be more likely to think I might like to read the one you wrote, also. You see?

It generally works best if you don't just add the best selling and most popular books in your genre, because everyone owns those and so the impact of discovering you share them with someone is not as high as the impact of discovering that my someone else likes one of lesser my lesser known favorites. Your library should be a reflection of your uniqueness as a reader and as a writer.

Nice to meet you!

I have added victoriadanes, and AWA1, who introduced themselves last year when I wasn't around, to the index.

Hello,
My name is Dominique Luchart and I write science fiction/fantasy novels. I love looking over the horizon to see the shape of things to come, and as I drift on the imaginary planes, creating new worlds, the things that keep me grounded are my partner and my two cats, Nieve and Oliver.

I love the ocean and watching a sunset over the water is truly inspiring me. It makes me remember how beautiful our planet is, and how truly fragile we all are... Nature in balance keeps everything alive.

After a year spent in Paris for the launch of my book and some work, I have returned to California where home is on the coast. I love it here, not that I do not enjoy traveling, and since I grew up in Paris, it is home too...

I am glad to be back and working on the next novel.

Cheers!

>7 DominiqueLuchart:
Bonjour, Dominique!

I added you to the index, but I couldn't include an author page because you don't appear to have one yet. You should add the book you've just launched (and any previous publications) to your library. This can be done even if they don't appear in an "add books" search, by using the manual entry option further down the add books page.

Once you've added a book by you to LibraryThing, an author page for you will be created, and you can click on the link on the right side of that page that says "Is this you?" to let people know that yes, that author is you. :)

...And then you should go and add a bunch more books by other people to your library so that people can see if they have any "shared books" with you, as I have explained to other people above.

Do you write in French? (I'm guessing yes, if your book launch was in Paris -- but sometimes the world fools me.)

Hello,

Thank you for adding me to the group.

My name is Dawn Doig. I am Canadian, but am currently living in Yaounde, Cameroon, Africa, where I am the English Language Learners coordinator at an IB world school. My husband I just moved here last August after living and working in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for five years. I have only been teaching for five years. Prior to that, I was a clinical audiologist and my husband followed me around the globe for 23 years with my career. It took us to different parts of Canada (I flew to small Inuit villages in the far north), Kuwait, England, and Saudi Arabia. I now follow him.

What brought me to this forum? I love writing children's picture books. I now have six published and the seventh should be coming out soon. I found a small publisher in the US who loved my books and now my dream has become a reality. My books are inspired by the special little people I work with, family, friends, our furbabies, and general life experiences. I started drawing a cartoon character when I was 12 years old and am now considering writing and illustrating a series featuring it. I would love advice on that front! I just recently made my very first website and all my books are listed there. https://doigda.wixsite.com/mysite-1

I have just now been actively trying to promote my books. There is a sad part to my story. My brother was in a car accident six years ago. He suffered a terrible head injury with severe brain damage that has left him unable to speak or eat on his own. He watches us. His eyes follow us. He has written simple sentences like "Hello, Dawn". My elderly mother spends hours every day with him. She is convinced he is in there and wants to try the Eyegaze eye tracking communication device with him. I am hoping that by selling my books I can help raise enough money to purchase the device for him. if it doesn't work, I am sure there is someone else in the facility where he lives who could benefit from it. That's my dream.

My husband and I love to live overseas, to live in different cultures, and to truly experience the world around us. it is an amazing place. My father was an orphan and a sailor. I think I inherited the travelling DNA from him. I also think his story would make a fascinating biography.

I look forward to meeting others in hear and chatting :-)

Dawn

Welcome Shoebears - what an interesting life you have led! I do hope you are able to help your brother - have you thought about trying GoFundMe? Have you started gathering information about your father's life for a biography?

Hi There,
Thank you for the tip. I am new to LibraryThings and so not quite sure how to navigate the site and get to know readers.
I have added the book. Will work on the author page next.
It is a pleasure to be here, in good company of readers. I actually write in English, but in view of the fact that I am originally from France, I had the opportunity to do a launch in Paris. I know it can seem confusing, but home is now here and I work here so... English it is!
What is your preferred genre?
Cheers.

Hello! I am an aspiring writer, a young mother and a professional athlete. I am interested in such areas as sports and children. I want to hear objective criticism of my books.

LibraryThing is very information dense, and has many features that are not clearly described, so it can be intimidating to newcomers.

If you really want to connect with LibraryThing's astonishingly dedicated community of readers, you need to go to the Groups tab and find a few groups where your ideal readers might be lurking, and then participate in them AS A FELLOW READER. Directly promoting your book is against the TOS that you agreed to when you signed up here. This group is set up as a special exemption from that general rule, so that authors can feel comfortable talking about their own books without having to worry if they are getting too enthusiastic or whatever. But most of the readers on library thing are found elsewhere.

Once you have joined a few groups, your Talk tab can be filtered to only show you posts from the groups you have joined. That makes it easier to find the posts and people you are interested in.

Groups listed in the "Active this week" listings on the groups tab are generally good ones to try. But a word to the wise: the "75 Books Challenge for 2019" group (that's the group where people challenge themselves to read at least 75 books this year) is so busy that it can be overwhelming. (3000+ posts a week. If I tried to keep up with that, I'd never find time to write!)

>9 DawnDoig: "Thank you for adding me to the group."

Shoebears, nice to see your introduction.

I'm afraid that even as group "creator" I don't have the power to add you or anyone to this group. This is one of LibraryThing's Official groups, and as an ordinary LT user, my powers don't extend beyond editing the group description. If you go to the group page (there is a link at the top of this thread) you can do the joining yourself.

What I did do is add you to my indexes... because I enjoy indexing, and I like to think that other people might find them helpful as they try to connect with authors, either as readers or as fellow authors. That is after all, what this group is supposed to be about. :)

Now that you've posted to the introduction thread, I would like to officially welcome you to the Hobnob Group.

Guess what, I'm a Canadian not living in Canada too! But I only moved as far as Ohio. Cameroon sounds way more exciting. I clicked over to your web site, and your books look very charming. And one of them was translated into Mongolian! Why Mongolian? I'm curious.

Do you read Fantasy at all? I have some books set in a Africa-like environment, and I'd love to get feedback from someone who has lived somewhere similar. (I remember asking myself when I wrote the first one -- "Shel, what on earth do you think you're doing? You think Florida is too hot to be habitable. Also, shouldn't this setting have more bugs in it?")

Hope you stick around and chat with us!

>11 DominiqueLuchart:
So the world did fool me, and you launched an English book in France. I knew it could happen! :)
As a Canadian know a little bit of French the same way most USians know a little bit of Spanish. But I never have any opportunities to practice anymore, so I'm pretty sure I'm losing what little I learned. ::sigh::

As a reader it is hard for me to pick one genre. As a writer, I like fantasy and science fiction best, because I love worldbuilding. I think I'm more about asking myself "if x was different, what else would change" than I am about wondering what comes next, though. I tend to be very system focussed. When I was in college, I was studying ecology.

If you haven't already please drop by some of the other active threads in the group, so we can learn more about you, and what you write.

If you need any help with the site feel free to ask me here, or in post on my profile. (I like giving advice in this thread, because I assume it will be seen by a lot of people as they arrive.) Another good place to try find help is the "Welcome to LibraryThing!" group.

>12 filocof33:
Hi Christina, welcome to the Hobnob Group!
I have added you to the Author index under Non-fiction and Children.

I'm a mother too (although not that young anymore -- the youngest of my six children is in her senior year of high school.)

What's your sport? Are you working on any new projects? What are they about?

In my experience the best way to get objective criticism of your books is to find other authors willing to swap manuscripts with you. Personally I'm totally okay with reading non-fiction (do it all the time!) and would be willing to swap with you, if you are willing to read and comment on fantasy or science fiction books.

I highly recommend that you add other books to your library besides ones that you wrote. This will create connections between those books and your books. That's a good thing. :)

And I saw your name on some other threads when I arrived, so I guess I'll head off now and see what else you had to say.

Thanks for introducing yourselves everyone. I hope you will all enjoy LibraryThing

I do powerlifting!) Now I want to continue writing about sports and children, but I don’t know if it’s good or bad for me.

Hi, everyone,

My name is Melina Druga and I am an author of historical fiction and nonfiction, a history enthusiast, a freelance writer and a blogger.

My novel, Angel of Mercy, made its debut in June 2019. It’s about a nurse and how WW1 changes and shapes her life.

Two of my nonfiction books focus on history. A Tale of Two Nations, which was published in five parts and as a complete edition, focuses on how WW1 was reported on in the media while Heinous: Forgotten Murders From the 1910s, is about true crime cases.

My era of expertise and obsession is 1890-1920. I blog about that era on my website along with other topics like historical fiction and author interviews.

Two other nonfiction books focus on small business.

You can learn more about me on my website www.melinadruga.com and on Amazon at amazon.com/author/melinadruga.

I look forward to getting to know you.

Hi everyone. I am new to this site. I hope I'm entering in the right place.

My name is Bryan Fagan. I'm from rainy Western Oregon. We seem to be the only ones not knee deep in snow. But we are drowning.

I am a writer of comedy/romance fiction. It's a lot of fun and I hope to meet some talented writers over here. That's all for now. Hope to talk to you soon.

>15 MelinaDruga:
Howdy, Melina, welcome to the Hobnob Group!

I'm always happy to greet a history buff. :) Do you have any particular periods that you specialize in?

I'm also noticing that one of your WIPs is fiction, and everything else on your list is non-fiction, so I'm wondering if anything specific inspired you to try your hand at a novel?

BTW, you may want to consider going to your author page, and "claiming" it by clicking on the "Is this you?" link. This doesn't give you any more control over what ends up on that page that you already have, but it does create this handy link on your profile page. (I find them handy, anyway.)

I would also like to recommend that you add some books by other people to "Your books". LibraryThing is a social cataloging site... it creates connections based on shared books. Since so far you are the only person on LT with your books, you need to get some other books in your Library so that connections can start being made. Grab a score of your favorite books of your selves, and put them in.

(I don't recommend you choose only best-sellers, though. It sounds like a great idea on the surface, but LT downgrades the strength of the connection based on how many copies it has of that book. You're actually better off adding lesser known works.)

PS: Your author page touchstone is not working as of my posting of this message. This is probably just temporary glitch, but please do post again reminding me to check it again, just in case it doesn't fix itself.

>16 BryanJ62:
Hello there, Bryan, congratulations on your upcoming release!

Just in case you aren't aware of this, it is possible to add books to LibraryThing before they have been published. Go to the add books tab, and all the way down at the bottom on the left is an option to "Add Manually". If you decide to manually enter you book, please post here letting me know, so that I can add your author page link to your index entries.

Even if you don't want to add your own book yet, it's probably a good idea to add some other books. That's sort of what LibraryThing is about, and without it your profile looks a bit bare and uninviting. (Nobody will ever have any shared books with you. :( )

Comedy Romance sounds like a fun genre to write in. (And makes you my first "Humor" entry for this year. Yay!) :)

Thanks for joining us, both of you! I hope you will answer a few questions in the Getting to Know You thread, and join in some of the discussion threads. If you need any help, feel free to ask here in this thread, or pm me!

Hello Everyone,
Glad to be part of the community.

I'm a senior pastor and conference speaker. I write Christian non-fiction, typically drawn from material in my sermons.

My wife and I grew up together in northern CA, and now we live in southwest Washington where we homeschool our seven children.

God bless,
Scott LaPierre

>18 ScottLaPierre:
Hi there, Scott, nice to meet you!

Nice looking family. :)
(I've got six kids myself, but they're almost all grown up now.)

I'd like to recommend that you add some books. Having both your own and other people's books listed on your LT account is both useful to you, and makes your profile look more welcoming to other members. Right now it looks like we share absolutely no books in common—not even the Bible.

If you find some time after adding a dozen or two of your favorite books, I hope you will also post in some of our threads: help us get to know you, keep us up to date on how your projects are going, and so on.

Welcome to the Hobnob group!

Greetings!

My pen name is Andrew Orange. I'm an author from outside the US.
I was born in Moscow, Russia. My native language is Russian.
I’m a college graduate and I hold a Ph.D.
I studied the history of the United States and other countries.

Before starting to write, I read a lot. "The Game of VORs" is my first novel. This book is difficult to assign to a specific genre. Si-Fi-parody? Adventure? Thriller? Satire? Dystopia? Coming-of-age story?

I write fantastic books about real life.

You can find some additional info about me here:
https://www.smashwords.com/interview/andreworange

or here:
https://www.facebook.com/AndrewOrange2017

Sincerely, Andrew

Hello?

I'm Kit. Independent Author. Father.

I'm trying to expand my online community presence. Bit of a social butterfly here, but I will try my best to answer questions and well be around when I can.

I write SF, Fantasy, my latest and only novel is a YA GameLit book that I put out in the last week. (The Crafting of Chess)

I've read a lot, kind of a requirement for good writing.

Thanks for having me.

Hi Kit,

It seems, this thread isn't popular on LibraryThing?

You're right, it's not really been used for an exchange of greetings. But anyone is welcome to take the thread in new directions, or begin a new thread in the group specifically for that purpose.

It's probably read more than re-acted to. The purpose is several fold. It's a good place for >1 LShelby: to gather data on LT Authors and enhance the indexing that she does. For me, a reader, I may go and speak directly to a poster who interests me. There is plenty of greeting talk in other groups.

I see.

Hello,

I am an author/singer-songwriter living in Japan. I've recently published my second book 'Surviving in Japan'.
It'memoirs of a point of my life that how my ordinary yet awkward daily life in Japan was led and changed when the massive earthquake hit the northern Japan in 2011.

It's a before-and-after of my daily life with the earthquake and although the event was catastrophic, the memoirs turned out to be somehow funny.

I think it will be a good read if you are interested in a Japanese way of life.

I hope you give it a try! Thank you.

Hi guys,

I am an actor, and when I'm not doing a play or am in a movie I write. As an actor you get to say someone else's words and a lot of times they may mean nothing to you or don't ring true. By true I mean, they are not accurate representation of human behavior and, for this reason, I decided to write my own material. It first started with one-man pieces, then plays, then feature-length screenplays and now a book. I also love science and I believe a lot of clues of why we behave the way we do and our role in the grand scheme of things can be explained through science, as it's also true that a lot of scientific concepts can be better explained through arts.

As an artist, I get often asked why I am interested in science. But I think the answer is quite obvious. Both physics and art are direct pathways to investigating phenomena, whether it's the natural world or human behavior. Science asks the biggest questions: ¨who are we?¨, ¨where do we come from?¨ ¨what's the final goal?¨ Anyone who has worked in arts, know that artists are preoccupied by the exact same questions. I believe anyone who will delve a little bit deeper into both worlds may come to a comforting answer sooner than those who like to keep the two separated at arm's length.

Would love to read some of your work if you need a critique and if you have a bit of time, you will hopefully return the favor.

Hi,

My name is Zoe Tasia. My fantasy book, Kilts and Catnip (The Shrouded Isle Book 1) was published in late February. I also co-write under the name Zari Reede. I currently live in Texas, but spent over seven years living in Scotland, which is the setting for my book. I'm hoping to connect with fellow authors and readers.

Hello Group. I'm new to the Library Thing, so I'm still getting a feel for it. I heard about this place on Goodreads. I write horror books. The series I am working on right now is about a reality game show that pays contestants to hurt themselves. I am very interested in meeting horror readers and writers. I also like beta readers. If interested, let me know. I have free copies

Hello y'all,

I am an Indy book editor, a reviewer, and a book blogger, but before I was any of that I was a writer. Like most stories written before the age of seven, mine were rather lacking in several departments, but creativity and want of material were not among them. I recall one particularly poignant work I wrote about the nonlife of a piece of road-kill...

While over time my stories have changed somewhat and (I certainly hope!) improved, I am still as passionate about them today as I was then. I have three long-time works in progress that I hope to have finished and published by the time that I die. One actually is finished... at least, the written portion of it is. I wrote an educational children's picture book teaching them about herbs and animals from the point of view of a curious little mouse. I am looking for an illustrator who is talented at drawing detailed yet playful illustrations of these subjects. If any see this and would like to try their hand at it, please contact me.

The second book-in-progress is a novel I have been working on for many years now. It is an action/adventure story involving not one, but TWO multi-million dollar heists hundreds of years apart from each other. It is also a wilderness survival story and in a small way a romance, but these are only subgenres to a greater story of the insatiable greed of mankind. Taking place in multiple states and countries including the fascinating and beautiful Azores, my goal is to flay open the heart and soul of man, so that the good and evil inside everybody is laid bare before the world.

My third work is a collection of short stories of mixed genres, with only three commonalities between them: the author, the irony, and the twist. It will contain Westerns, romances, action/adventure stories, historical fiction, science fiction, and satires. I hope to write my way through most genres before I pronounce the collection complete.

Any thoughts on these books, information about the Azores by somebody who has been there, or interest in being an illustrator for my children's book is welcomed with open arms. Please feel free to drop me a message, I love to chat with folks. :-)

I wish you all the best in your literary endeavors!

- Daisy

Hi Everyone!

I'm Sid, and I'm launching a suspense/mystery series this year. It's about a Russian professor who keeps getting mixed up in things that are a little more gritty than academic :).

Hello everyone!

I'm Rama, from Indonesia.

I was an IT-guy before I choose to be a writer. I wrote since 2012, and I love to write a fantasy novels. My stories was inspired by the real events that happening around the world. It's about a boy who want to be a thief for joy. He can breathe underwater and see through the dark. The themes is about dream, loses and friendship.

Well? See you around, guys! :)

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

I'm a long-time LT user for my personal library, and I've been active in various groups for many years. I hadn't ventured into this Hobnob zone, though. Today I decided I might as well, since I've published three books in the last six months. These are Mysteries of the Great Beast, Thelema for the People, and Raise the Spell--all three are concerned with magick and esoteric religion.

All of these books are the result of writing and editing efforts stretching back into the twentieth century, and I have two more manuscripts approaching completion. The next book will be Fire in the Reed, probably available in the late summer or early fall.

Love is the law, love under will.

Hey,
I am Brittany Gunderson. I am an author. I have published books on Amazon. My genres include Self-Help, Domestic Violence Awareness, Young Adult Fiction, Poetry, and Suicide/Depression Awareness. I am a survivor of domestic violence so I believe awareness is important. I love writing, reading, listening to music, hiking, and playing video games.

I am a mother to two sweet boys and I have a very loving boyfriend, now. I spend my time helping people with mental illness as well as suicidal thoughts and dealing with domestic violence. I am known worldwide from collecting contributors for my awareness books.

I have a blog, youtube videos, and websites. I am excited to be living my dream of being an author.
-Brittany Gunderson

I write a contemporary British detective series, as well as some stand-alone Regency era books. Hello to all!

Hello verbgoblins and wordsmiths,

My name is Tex DeJésus - the son of chicken farmer and a schoolteacher from the tiny East Texas town of Marietta. We didn't have a TV until I was halfway through elementary school, so I credit my love for words and good stories to the many hours my mom spent reading to me. It took two library cards to keep our family fed.

From Dr. Seuss to Shel Silverstein, to the lunchbox notes she wrote herself, poetry rocked my sox from an early age. I found crafting my own to be therapeutic. Over the 20 years since I left home to pursue a degree in mathematics, I've called Tyler, Brenham, & Dallas, TX, Arkansas, Upstate New York, and Seattle home, but put roots down on The Rock (Vashon Island) with my wife and border collies, Daisy and Moby, as soon as I found a way.

When not selling my heartbeats to a corporate entity, reading, or wordsmithing, I'm usually neck-deep in other creative, culinary, or meditative exploits like digital art, sausage making, home brewing, coffee roasting, gardening, or husbanding. I love thoughtful insight, amicable conversation, engaging stories, good company, smart dogs, and craft beer. I'm peeved by talkers who never listen and folks who confuse belief with knowledge.

About 10 years ago I was processing my inheritance of small-town southern predispositions when I set out to write a novel. I wasn't out to subversively change any minds—just to write an entertaining story and probe my own soul. Putting myself in the shoes of fictional characters with very different backgrounds and outlooks turned out to be a valuable exercise in empathy.

I was happy with the story, but it marinated for years. I would revisit and refine it with fresh eyes now and then, even changing the tense of the entire ballad at one point. I just couldn't turn it loose. Marketing has never been my brand of whiskey. Releasing my story into the wild felt too much like setting the house sparrow that I rescued and raised as a kid free. Only God knew if Spike would fly or die.

Toward the end of 2017, during the annual manifestation of grandiose resolves, the logjam of stories I hadn't written down were jostling for position. I’ve never been keen on starting one thing before finishing another, so I thought of a way to force my own hand. Project Gratitude 2018. For every week of 2018 I would write an open letter, hand-written in most cases, to someone for whom I’m grateful. I would tell the world what they meant to me, posting the transcript on my blog, and promise them a copy of In Verse. Between letters I would give that novel its last coat of paint.

Project Gratitude was well-worth the hand cramps and postage stamps. The project lead to a reunion with my best friend from high school after a 20-year absence. Songwriter Buddy Kalb passed on a compliment on my writing from none other than Ray Stevens. My novel is on the shelves at Amazon, and most of my promised paperbacks are in transit. Mission accomplished . . . Now I'm in the early stages of bringing my first novel to the attention of a wider audience.

Set in Dallas, In Verse revolves around conflicted vanity press editor, Vernon, his best friend, Archie (African American) and Maria, the Latina he comes to love. Vern rebels against his money-grubbing employer in an attempt to redeem a poem he can't stomach smothering in volumes of trumped-up milk toast they sell back to authors. As a result, the diverse backgrounds and outlooks of Vern and company are set on a collision course.

I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about me or my work. Thank you for reading!

-Tex

Hello! I have a debut novel coming out from Crooked Lane Books in December 2019. It's a literary mystery called ALL THAT'S BRIGHT AND GONE. The narrator is a six year old girl who is trying to solve a family mystery (compare to THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME) I will be doing a lot of listening here at Librarything while I figure out how this community works!

Hello! My debut novel came out earlier this month. UNSCRIPTED is a smart beach read about an aspiring writer with a celebrity crush and a determined plan -- perfect for fans of One Day, Juliet, Naked, and a more summery One Day in December!

Hello all. I write fantasy and science fiction for children: MONSTER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES (Pelican, 2015; Best Picture Book at SoCal SCBWI Editor’s Day), WHEN YOU GIVE AN IMP A PENNY (Pelican, 2016), MABEL AND THE QUEEN OF DREAMS (Schiffer, 2016; Finalist, Foreword Indies Best Picture Book), LITTLE RED CUTTLEFISH (Pelican, 2016), CAP’N REX & HIS CLEVER CREW (Sterling, 2017), GOOD EGG AND BAD APPLE (Schiffer, 2018), HOW THE SQUID GOT TWO LONG ARMS (Pelican, 2018), ALICE’S MAGIC GARDEN (Familius, 2018), TWO PIRATES + ONE ROBOT (Kane Miller, 2019), THE MAGIC SPATULA (Month9 Books, 2020), and I AM SMOKE (Tilbury House, 2021).

My nonfiction short story “Born to Dance” will appear in Highlights for Children magazine. My horror/humor short story “Gluttony” will appear in the Classics Remixed anthology (Left Hand Publishing). I edited the dark fantasy anthology, BEYOND THE PALE, featuring short stories by award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors Saladin Ahmed, Peter S. Beagle, Heather Brewer, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Kami Garcia, Nancy Holder, Gillian Philip, and Jane Yolen.

I joined LibraryThing about a week ago, and it looks like a great resource - but please forgive me if I fall over while stumbling around the site!

My name's Caroline, and I write light steampunk/mannerpunk SF adventure under this pen name so as not to confuse readers looking for my academic publications. I work as a pathologist in London, England, and writing is my hobby (some might say obsession).

Hi Caroline.

I've created a series page for your Numoeath series. You can add a series description in the box at the top right of the page.

Glad you found us. See you around.

Thank you! Looking forward to finding my way around :)

My names Jose R. Coronado. This is my first self-published book I created. It's based on a part of my life where I came spiraling out of control and landed somewhere I never thought I would. I was alone, completely alone and could feel in my spirit God yearning to have companionship and so I allowed. I allowed God to guide me to wisdom, knowledge & understanding. This book is about trials and tribulations. It includes poetry, philosophy, philanthropy, Deity, love, prayers, subliminal messages, riddles, government and is packed with insight & precious jewels. This book isn't something to be read in haste but to be taken slowly and read thoroughly. Think about what you're reading. Enjoy this book because it took me 4 long years to complete and I'm still in the process of learning. Any feedback, comments, and reviews would be appreciated. I'm also willing to learn if anyone's willing to guide. Please feel free to contact me and my website as well. I currently reside in the city of Tampa, Fl ad Im looking to get to know other writers in the area and also out of the area. Enjoy my work. Reviews are appreciated.
If anyone is interested in a free copy of my book in exchange for reviews, I would be more than glad. Thank you again.

Hi! I'm Sid Stark, indie author, and I've just released "Campus Confidential," the first book in a suspense series about a professor who finds herself getting into bigger problems than a little late homework...I'll be putting up the book for review if anyone's interested.

Hello I am Blanche, from a small town in Scotland surrounded by beautiful countryside. I really love going for walks and taking photographs and have a website showing these.

I have written one book, so far, which is a true life and thought processes exploration. I wrote about it to help sort my own thoughts out about how people process things and interact or not with society.

Having a picture head myself, I am really interested in finding out about how everyone else thinks about and processes things and words that they hear.

Plans for other books include the next one about female adults with Aspergers. Then another 2 more fiction based which I have been planning for a number of years now. I have also created a picture book about the life and Art work of my mother.

It is my goal to be what I call an “APA” an Artist, Photographer and Author. Indeed I already do this as a large part of my life and thoughts.

Hello,

Glad to have found this place! I just published my YA fiction 'Something More' yesterday and I'm trying to find some like-minded people to connect with.

Thanks!

Hello,

I'm Charlene Johnson from Sacramento, CA. I write Adult paranormal romance and romantic suspense. I've published four books in my paranormal romance series, Circle of the Red Scorpion and will be releasing the first book in my romantic suspense series, Sterling Wood on May 30.

I love writing a book series because I can create my world and stay for as long as I like. Some of my biggest author influences are J.R. Ward, Christine Feehan, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Laurell K. Hamilton, but there are so many more.

I'm more of an outliner/plotter than a pantser. I love to do research and incorporate it into my writing in unique ways.

I'm glad to be here and look forward to interacting with other authors and readers.

Dear all,

I am an Author and Actor living in San Diego. I have written a book about Overcoming negativity which is on Amazon. I want to reach as many individuals as possible so I can touch their hearts and help them with my words. I would like to ask your help to spread the word.

Best regards,

Mehmet Kaynar

Hi,

I'm Sarah Wilding. I've just released my first book "The Love Thief" as an indie author. Exciting!

I'd like to connect with other authors and find out more about getting your work 'out there'.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm Diana, 32, Romanian currently living in Canada. I'm probably the most extroverted and social person I know and simply love to be surrounded by people. It's all about giving and receiving: support & help, learnings & knowledge, and ultimately love & good vibes. I teach yoga, speak 5 languages and... have a cat which is famous on Instagram :).

I moved to Canada from Romania in 2013 and this was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I struggled a lot through this experience (day & night for years) and ended up created a program for people who want to move away from their home country and live somewhere else, to guide them through the process from all points of view: logistically, administratively, financially, socially... but also mentally and emotionally, where most of us immigrants struggle the most.

Happy to be here, among ambitious and creative people, who want to make a difference in the world. Let's do this :). Good luck to us all and I am looking forward to connecting with you.

Much love,
Diana

I'm a writer and an author based in Los Angeles. I attended the University of Iowa, got a degree from the Writers Workshop, and worked as a newspaper reporter and freelance writer. I was president of the Independent Writers of Southern California for two years, and I enjoy visiting with other writers although they can be difficult. I garden, play duplicate bridge, ride my bicycle a lot, do volunteer work, read all the time.

I've written a lot of magazine and newspaper articles, and I write both fiction and non-fiction. My non fiction books are mostly in the health and wellness area. My fiction includes a comic novel I wrote a few years ago, and a spin-off to Wuthering Heights I am working on right now.
Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre
Moby Dick
Robinson Crusoe

Hi,
I am an Electrical Engineer by profession. I am working in Visakhapatnam, India.

My mother is a poetess and writer. She writes in Hindi. She has written many books and poems. It was her dream to get them published. I started self-publishing them for her. After publishing four of her books, on Kindle, I decided to publish some of my unpublished works.

“LzeroVE STORY” is my first novel. It is a sweet romantic story. I and my friends, feel it is well written, but I leave it to you to give me impartial feedback.

I am really sorry, I have exhausted all my free Kindle Promotion days before I decided to generate more interest in my novel. I would give away free copies as soon as I am eligible again. The book is free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. I hope that can give me some reviews.

Thank you for reading this.

Sumant

Hi all!,

I am an author, humor writer and social worker living in Chatham, New Jersey, where I spend long winters taking pruney-toed baths in a sunken tub and trying not to drop my Kindle into hot water. My debut novel, coming out this fall, is about a woman obsessed with perfection and how far she'll go to get what she wants, no matter the cost to herself and her family. My book is women's fiction and is inspired by true events. (My husband and I knocked down a house and built a new one during the 2007 financial crisis. I know, I can't seem to keep myself out of hot water!). I'm thrilled to be part of LibraryThing and can't wait to connect with other authors and readers.

Hello everyone! My name is Joe Griffiths and I am from the most beautiful city in the world... Derby, England. I have always loved to write, even as a child trying to write fantasy and teenage horror stories. It’s always been a great away to express myself as just keep myself entertained and happy. I turned my hand a little more seriously towards it around three years ago, finally finishing my first novel in 2017. I have begun writing crime/thriller stuff, with both of my currently self-published books (and the next one being worked on currently) being a series fitting into said genre. But I have tonnes of ideas and would love to expand into different genres too!

As for my inspiration/favourite authors, I draw from all sorts of different styles. Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and Darren Shan are all personal favourites of mine for various different reasons. I love everything from horror to crime, from Sci-fi to fantasy!

As for my personal life, I am a 22 year old with a degree in Forensic Science. Sounds fun, I know! That is, until you’re hungover in your first year and they start introducing some of the more discussing practical elements...

Also, for those of you who are also music lovers, a fun fact, I used to be in a hard rock/metal band. We did alright in our local area but split a couple of years ago as the frontman moved away to join a bigger band.

Thank you to anyone who has read this far,
Joe.

Hello,

My name is Dr. April Martin and I am a new author! I am very excited to be a part of this platform and I look forward to reading some new exciting books!

My whole father’s side of the family grew up in and around Derby and Littleover. You’re right: It’s a beautiful city!

Hello Amazing Readers!

Just wanted to stop in and say hi and introduce myself.

I am a new author and I have always been in love with reading and writing. Fairy tales and retellings have always been my absolute favorite but I love Young Adult, Fantasy, Mystery, and Thrillers too! I currently live in New York and enjoy blogging, writing, reading, and watching movies with my dog, Honey.

So nice to meet all of you!

Best,
Amy Koto

Hello readers and writers,

My new literary historical romance, Heathcliff: The Lost Years, is coming out September 30 and the e-book is available for pre-order now.

If anyone would like an advance copy, in exchange for a review in a couple of months, I'd be happy to provide a nice one.

The book tracks what happened to the character of Heathcliff during the three years he was absent from Wuthering Heights. This is not explained in Emily Bronte's original.

You may recall Heathcliff fled Wuthering Heights as a beaten-down penniless stable boy with a broken heart. Three years later, he returned to Catherine as a rich and ruthless gentleman.

Haunted by love, Heathcliff begins an astounding adventure that takes him to the seaport of Liverpool, on a slave ship to Africa, and across the treacherous Middle Passage to battle a mutiny, ferocious storms, and disease. In Kingston, he visits the slave auctions, fleshpots, and plantations of Jamaica. Still dreaming of Catherine Earnshaw, he goes to London where he meets his destiny in a surprising and unusual ending.

Website of the book is www.heathcliffthelostyears.com

Wuthering Heights

Hi, I'm Gary L. Pullman, a Western novels author. Three of them (Good with a Gun, The Valley of the Shadow, and Blood Mountain) are books in my series An Adventure of the Old West. In the first, Bane Messenger earns a small fortune as a bounty hunter and meets the woman of any man's dreams. In the second, he becomes the sheriff of his adopted hometown, confronting political corruption and hired guns. In the third, he strikes it rich, is jailed, tried, exonerated, and fights an "army" of mercenaries intent upon killing him and his family. All are available on Amazon, as e-books and paperbacks

My wife, Paula Darnell, is also an author. She writes the DIY Diva Mysteries series, which features Laurel McMillan, a resident of Hawkeye Haven, a guard-gated community in central Iowa. She's finishing her third book; the first two, Death by Association and Death by Design, are available on Amazon as e-books and paperbacks.

Hi, I'm Edward "Blackie" Williamson, from Peoria, Illinois. I'm into beautiful women, weightlifting, mixed martial arts (including boxing and wrestling), and I'm a St. Louis Cardinals fan. I write paranormal romance because I like challenges, and I thought, as a guy, this would be a HUGE challenge. Pleased to meet you all.

Peace.

My name is Charles Brandon Hayes, and I write screenplays. I mostly write dramas - sometimes with comedic elements and sometimes with fantastical elements.

I currently reside in Oregon, where I was born, but have spent my life living back and forth between the Pacific Northwest and American Southwest.

In 2012 I was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder, and I suppose I write about mental illness quite a bit. I don't really have an overall mission with my work. I just enjoy telling stores of significance to myself and folks like me.

I look forward to getting to know you folks on here!
Peace!

My name is Karen Cogan. I write clean historical and contemporary romance, psychological suspense and children's books. I live in the southwest and enjoy the rugged scenery. Several of my novels are based on this setting. I am a retired kindergarten teacher and a lifelong reader and writer. I am traditionally and self-published and several of my novels are available as free downloads at online retailers.

My name is Marylee MacDonald. I write short stories and novels, and I love to read. When I'm not writing or reading, I'm often out hiking in the hills of Sonoma County, CA.

Sounds great. Please send me and ARC and I'll review it. I write historical fiction, too, and am glad to meet another writer in that genre.

>64 maryleemac: Although there is a Reply button at the bottom of each thread entry, it's not clear who you are responding to unless you add the greater than sign and number as I have here.

I'm Ken Goudsward. I write sci-fi and dark comedy, and poetry (so far) and am planning projects in the thriller and fantasy genres for later. (too many ideas!). Oh yeah, I also have written an RPG game, and many many songs.

I grew up in the Vancouver area, now live in Prince George, BC, Canada, and prefer to vacation in California or the Okanagan. I recently entered grandparent stage, and hope to retire early to make more time for writing.

I am interested in giving away ARCs for my books and the books of a couple other authors whom I publish. See http://dimensionfold.com/downloads/ARC/

Hello to everyone

my name is Erasmo Cahay, I am from Peru, Living in Germany. I am author and start my carreer in 2014.
Until I publish 3 books different topics. For the moment I am publishing in spanish, but i am sure there are a lot of you who will like to read and comment also books in spanish. My genre are very variable, from horror, to fantasy and also social critic.

More details about me in www.erasmocachaymateos.de

Will really appreciate to hear from you.

Best Regards

Erasmo

Hello,

My name is Elise Whyles and I write several genres, including Paranormal romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary Suspense, Contemporary, and M/M novels. I'm also a screenwriter with one book adaptation already optioned.
You can find me at my website www.elise-whyles.com.

Hi everyone,
Miss Swift here. I write Fantasy. My work tends to blend the fantastic or supernatural with contemporary or equivalent settings.

You can find out more about me at my website: https://swiftnesse.com/about/

My name is Elizabeth Randall, and I am the author of five books about true crime, ghostlore, education, and natural history. My recent book, published in August, is titled An Ocklawaha River Odyssey. Please review. My website: www.hauntedfloridahistory.com

Hello, this is author A.C. Ward. It feels so strange to introduce myself as an author. Writing novels has always been a dream of mine, ever since I was ten years old and creating stories. I finally learned how to reach "the end" when I turned 30, and I have many finished works waiting in the wings. I write young adult coming of age story lines, with sci-fi and fantasy worlds. A steady theme runs through my novels, that family is not always based on blood but based on choice and finding your people. I'm releasing my first trilogy in November. So happy to meet all of you!

Hello, I'm Thomas Emson, a horror writer from the UK.

I've had eight novels published - starting with werewolf thriller "Maneater" in 2008, and including Jack-the-Ripper reboot "Pariah", and a vampire trilogy ("Skarlet", "Krimson", and "Kardinal").

I've also self-published a collection of horror tales called "The Trees and other Stories", and a non-fiction book, "How To Write A Novel in 6 Months", which outlines the process I use to author my novels.

I recently dipped my toe into the world of YA fiction with volume 1 of "The Prophet Wars", a dystopian novel about young people who can predict the future - and how sinister powers seek to exploit the kids. I'm publishing it in instalments on various platforms, including Amazon, Smashwords, and Draft2Digital.

Nice to be here; to be part of a community. Writing can be isolating - and even writers are a social species.

Nalini Warriar-Literary Fiction and Contemporary Romance

>73 NaliniWarriar:
Hi, Nalini, could you please say a bit more about yourself. Why do you like to work in those genres, and what do you do besides writing, perhaps?

>72 Thomas_Emson:
Hi Thomas!
Welcome to the Hobnob with Authors group. I've added you to the Fantasy/SF section with a horror label, but do you want me to add you as a Non-fiction and YA author as well

Also, you've only got one author besides yourself listed in your library right now. You might want to add a few more books by other authors to expand your chances of showing up in connections. :)

I notice that you have singer-songwriter listed as one of your other occupations. Do you find there to be much of a crossover between the books you write and the songs you write?

I'm interested in hearing how the publishing in installments thing goes with your new YA book. I hope you continue to drop by and keep us updated.

If you do drop by again, please remind me to check your author touchstone. When I first put it in, it wasn't working properly. This frequently happens, especially to authors that are new to the site. I like to double-check on them again later to make sure they fixed themselves.

>71 ACWard:
ACWard, Nice to meet you!

We write in roughly the same genre, and you've got 80+ books listed in your library, but somehow the only ones we have in common are the Manga. (Skip Beat Rules!). Maybe we prefer different flavors? I quick scan of the books you listed made me think that you lean toward the darker side of literature?

BTW, I would like to recommend to you that you put some tags your book. Tags are a great way to help LTers see what your book is about, and what you are about as an Author. Also, if you have a trilogy coming out in November. (Almost there, congratulations!) You don't have to wait to add them to LT. You can add the entire trilogy now, without waiting, by using the "Manual Add" option on the add books page. That way when the books come out, lots of information about them will already be available.

>70 Elizabeth_Randall:
Hello Elizabeth,
This thread is for posting an introduction to yourself, but I don't feel that you said much about you, the person. You mentioned that you've written five books and then listed four topics: I'm curious, is that one topic per book, in which case, which topic did you double up on, or does each book sort of combine two or more of those topics? Why did you chose those topics to write on?

Congrats on your recent book. Where is Ocklawaha River? Is it local to where you live?

Hi everyone!

My name is Monique Snyman and I'm an author of horror and dark fantasy for adults and young adults ... Muti Nation and The Night Weaver are my novels, but I'm a contributor or editor in plenty of other books.

I live in Pretoria, South Africa with my Lily-Dog (Lilith is her real name) and my husband (he's not imaginary, I just like calling him Husband)—both should be awarded lifetime prizes for putting up with me, just FYI. When I'm not writing, I'm an editor at Crystal Lake Publishing or freelancing for literary agencies and other small publishers.

I like coffee (a LOT) and crocheting/knitting (just to mix things up). Ooh, and I'm a member of the Horror Writers' Association.

Hopefully that about covers it. :)

It's nice to be here!

>75 MoniqueSnyman:
Hello Monique! Nice to meet you, welcome to the Hobnob Group.

I notice that none of your additional titles as a contributor or editor are showing up on your author page. If you aren't listed as an editor or a contributor to a work, you can fix that. Hunt down those books you worked on, and add yourself as an additional author. (Editors are also "additional authors" here, when they aren't the principal author, as they would be for, say, a anthology. The additional author addition form lets you specify what kind of contribution you made to the work.)

South Africa is certainly one of our less common locations... can you describe it a bit for us? What do you like the most and/or hate the most about living there?

Coffee and Crocheting/knitting sounds like a pleasant but potentially hazardous mix. (I'm a tatter myself.). What kind of projects do you most like to do? (I tend to tatting bookmarks, go figure.)

... I call my husband, "Person". Really truly. Comparitively "Husband" is amazingly more specific. :D

>73 NaliniWarriar:
Oops, I found your intro sitting alone in its own thread instead of here. So I have added you to the index with a link to that intro rather than the post here.

Bonjour et bienvenue, Nalini! (I'm a Canadian myself, and I actually know a little more French than that, but not a lot.). Being raised in India and then moving to Canada seems like a good way to build up some impressively varied experiences to draw upon in your writing.

From the size of the "India" tag on your author page, I'm guessing at least some of your books are set there. Which ones? :)

Cancer research and writing both seem to me to be worthy callings.

>69 MissSwift:
Hi there! Rather than send us to a website where we can get to know you better, could you please introduce yourself here, where we are already reading?

Where do you live, what do you like to do besides writing, and what draws you to the fantasy genre?

I would like to recommend that you add tags to your book. It's a good way to let LTers know something about that book.

>68 EliseWhyles:
Your post kind of fell into the category of "Introducing my books rather than introducing me."

I did notice that none of your works show up on your author page. It is totally okay to add your own books to your library (as long as you add other people's books as well.)

I'd love to here more about your being a screenwriter. Did you starting writing books first, and come to screenwriting after, or screenwriting first, or what?

>67 Erasmo_Cachay:
Hi there Erasmo, I think you are the first person from Peru to introduce yourself.
I would love to hear more about how you ended up going from Peru to Germany.

Hi! :D

Honestly, I'm good as they are now. But I will tinker as time goes on (I'm still pretty new here and learning all of LibraryThing's cool features). :)

Right now, the weather isn't sure what it wants to be. Usually it's a mild temperature in October, leaning towards warm, but our August Winds (yup, the winds that come in August) now blow in October, so everyone's sick. It doesn't help that the sun is beating down everything in its path. LOL Other than the weather, though, the country is changing a lot ... But then the world is getting meaner, so that's not really news, right? It is beautiful here, though. I love the Karoo Desert (that's more in the Northern Cape, leading toward Namibia). I always think God lives there, because it is so quiet and beautiful.

I'm more of a large project kinda gal. I love making blankets and sweaters/cardigans, because it's more difficult to see mistakes. ROFLAO! But I've been known to dabble in smaller projects (hats, scarves, and sometimes coasters). Don't ask me to make a sock, though. I can't make socks, no matter how hard I try.

*snickers* It's funny how we all have odd names for our better halves (well, in my case, he's the better half). P.S. "Husband" just barks better. "Husband! Why are your shoes lying around?" and then he'll be like, "Wife! Because I forgot to put them away."

Thank you for adding me! I appreciate it immensely. And I'm super excited to be part of the LibraryThing community.

Hi Everyone!

My name is Tracey Laviolette and I write YA Urban Fantasy and YA Paranormal Romances. My debut YA UF is Bloodborne Awakened which will release November 2019.

Aside from writing, and reading books, I enjoy the quiet country life in Wisconsin with my husband. We both enjoy creative cooking, outdoor sports, canning, movies and Xbox gaming. Yes, we're gamers. lol

My favorite author is Kathryn Smith. She is such a wonderful author. The woman has a relentless talent for writing a great story that makes you fall in love with the characters. I love it!

I excited to be here at Library Thing!

My name is David Wineberg. I like long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners on the terrace, and puppy dogs with floppy ears and big feet.
No wait. That was for Tindr and Match. Sorry.

I have been reviewing nonfiction here since LT first opened. In order not to lose sight of everything that was/is dramatic, I have woven it into 16 essays and published it as The Straight Dope, or what I learned from my first thousand nonfiction reviews.

Essays(chapters) include internet, democracy, economics, environment, philosophy and humor. which I seem to have reviewed more than my fair share of.

It is available at amazon at a rather substantial discount - 100% - for Prime members. Would love your feedback, either public or direct.

http://www.thestraightdope.net

https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Dope-learned-thousand-nonfiction/dp/1699190739

Hi, my name is Elisa Di Napoli and I am a holistic clinical hypnotherapist, performance coach, singer-songwriter (under the name Elyssa Vulpes) and drummer.

I am from Italy but I live in Scotland, UK. My latest book is non-fiction self-help, but I do write fiction as well (short stories, poetry, and songs). My short stories are literary fiction and horror. My songs are more cabaret-style story telling.

I am interested in personal development and psychology so everything I write comes from that angle.

My self-help book is about helping people with performance anxiety become more confident on stage and I have written this book because I used to suffer from this myself and have overcome this challenge with hypnotherapy.

Here's a link to my website: https://hypnotichealing.co.uk/dare-to-be-seen-book/

>79 TraceyLaviolette:
Hi Tracy! Welcome to Hobnob!
I’m a gamer too, only for me it’s boardgames. :)
So... inquiring minds want to know... do the games you play influence the stories you write?

Normally at this point I hand out some good advice to the new person, but you seem to have everything pretty well in hand. So I will get into more esoteric stuff. To create a link to the page of your favorite author put two sets of square brackets around her name. The result will look like so: Kathryn Smith

I have added you to my list, and I hope you’ll drop by again and chat.

>80 DavidWineberg:
I guess I don't need to teach you how to get around LT. A thousand reviews is a very impressive accomplishment. I'm wishing you all the best with this release of your reviews, and I hope you stop by again and tell us all how things are going for you!

But... Are you saying up there that you DON'T like Candlelit dinners, walks on the beach, and puppydogs? How could you not like puppydogs?

>81 ElisaDiNapoli:
Hey there, Elisa! Nice to meet you. Welcome to the Group.

A singer-songwriter, hunh? Awesome. That's cool that your book has some personal experience behind it, as well as professional expertise.

I'm not sure I understand what "Cabaret style storytelling" is, though. How does it differ from, say, ballad style story-telling?
(I do a little amateur songwriting myself, so get as technical as you want in your answer) :)

I was wondering how you could have catalogued a hundred books without us having anything in common, and apparently it's not true, a quick scan shows that we should have at least a few things in common, except that as big as my own catalog is, it is still incomplete. I have read, for example, the Princess Bride, and The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy. :)

Hello, everyone. I am Donna Perpetua. I am an Orthodox Christian writer from Michigan in the US. I write nonfiction, but have a fiction story brewing in the back of my mind at the moment. So, we will see where that goes.

I enjoy reading and writing about saints and everyday miracles. They happen all the time, all around us, but we don't often realize it. I also find iconography very powerful. And, I enjoy making pilgrimages to Orthodox monasteries. If you are near St. Tikhon's in Pennsylvania, I highly recommend a pilgrimage there. The chapel is stunning. St. Alexis reposes there. The entire grounds exude holiness. They have a very nice museum of American Orthodoxy there, as well as a great bookshop and gift store, and they sell Burning Bush coffee that, as I recall, they roast themselves. I had the opportunity to stay there briefly once and was able to use the library at the seminary. What a blessing that was. Our priest arranged that for a small group of pilgrims from our church, so I'm not sure how one goes about making arrangements to stay there.

You can also find me on Goodreads, where I have a blog.

Wow. I just spent an hour writing a long and I thought nice intro message, and the browser spontaneously reloaded the page and wiped it all out.

Ah well, totally disheartened by that, instead I'll just say I'm writing a long cross-genre series blending hard science-fiction with fantasy, and driven by a most unusual young girl. The story is set in our world a couple of decades after magic mysteriously started working. (Again?)
I describe it as:
“An abusive childhood creates a disturbingly innocent killer, who through a few precious friendships and her own strength and courage, slowly changes to something far more.”

My web site is here: https://atoeintheoceanofbooks.com/

>83 DonnaPerpetua:
Hi, Donna, welcome to Hobnob!

When I went to your author pages, it looked to me that all three books that you had listed, might actually all be the same work, so I'm wondering if some combining might be in order. Could you tell me what the difference between the three books listed on your Author page are?

Is the fiction book you have brewing going to be about saints and/or everyday miracles also?

>84 ljkendall:
Hello L.J.
I'm sorry to hear you lost your long post. How very frustrating! :(
(This happens to me on a fairly regular basis, actually -- writing really long posts seems to be asking for trouble, in webdom.)

Welcome to LibraryThing. May I recommend adding some tags to your books. It helps gives LTers who happen on your Author or Book pages a quick idea of what your books are about. "hard science fiction with fantasy" makes a great tag, for example. :)

Speaking of which, I've seen plenty of sf-fantasy crossovers, but doing it with hard sf seems unusual. I would love to hear more about how that combination came into being.

I haven't had a chance to check out your website yet, but I would like to say that I love the url. How did you come up with "A Toe in the Ocean of Books" ?

Hi LShelby,

Thank you for the warm welcome! Glad to be here.

My husband and I like board games as well, mostly like Chinese Checkers, Yahtzee and of course Monopoly. :) Your question is definitely a good one! Do the games I play influence the stories I write? The answer is: no, not at all. Most of the games we play are survival games, like ARK Survival, which is a Dino survival game, and 7 Days 2 Die, which is a Zombie survival game, then there are the others which alternate between Laura Croft and this cooking game my husband bought me for my birthday.

But in short, the stories I come up with are primarily my imagination running wild. :)

Hi LShelby

I am so confused!

This reply is kind of a stream-of-consciousness recording of my attempt to follow your advice.

After reading your reply, I wondered what you meant by a tag. I've used many systems where tags were quite important, and adding a new tag should be done judiciously, to avoid the problem of (in the worst case) every person's tags being unique and different.

As a simple example, people might tag a science fiction book as "SF", "sf" (does case matter?), scifi, sci fi (do spaces matter?), sci-fi (how about hyphens?), "science fict." (abbreviations?), science fiction.

So what happens when a user searches for science fiction tagged books - how are all the alternate forms tied together? Or do they just have to search for every alternate they can think of?

So I looked at:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/192687
https://www.librarything.com/groups/tags
https://www.librarything.com/concepts
https://blog.librarything.com/main/category/tags/
and from that first link:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/HelpThing:Tag
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/HelpThing:Your_books/Tags

and learned a bit but got confused in other ways.

Is there a global pool of tags, or are the tags I apply to the books in my collection peculiar to my collection? I'm guessing the former, since I scanned a lot of the books I own but none of them have any tags. Now I'm surprised, since I would have thought the tags are associated with a Author+title combination.
That makes me think the tags are attached to a person's collection.

Then I started wondering whether when you said "your books" you meant the "Your Books" in the LT sense of "your library", or the books I've written?

So I'm wondering whether tags I add to books I've written will be attached to the work, or just to the book inside my collection?

After reading all the links above, I found the text input box where I could add tags to a work. But it wasn't obvious whether I could add a list of separate tags (maybe separated by commas), or whether I needed to do them one by one, to make a collection of separate tags for the single work. (I was worried about this because when I entered some Common Knowledge for myself, I had added a comma separated list of Occupations and for Education, and then had to change them to add each one by one.

So then I picked a random work (https://www.librarything.com/work/16742356) and looked at its tags.

I looked at the tags and then made the mistake of clicking Show All. That was very informative (based on that, I suspect LT associates all the tags anyone has assigned to a work together). But
it was a mistake because there was no way to stop showing all the tags, except by reloading the page.

Anyway, just the short list answered lots of my above questions - the problem of varying names for 'a' tag is solved when enough people have tagged a book, since the book should get all variants of any appropriate tags.

15th century
2016
alternate history
ARC
currently-reading
Dracula
ebook
fantasy
fiction
historical
historical fantasy
historical fiction
Kindle
LGBTQ
Ottoman Empire
own
paranormal
politics
read
read in 2017
retelling
romance
Romania
series
signed
teen
to-read
YA
young adult
young adult fiction

So, very slightly wiser, I decided I'd try a little experiment, and added the tag "science fiction". That seemed to work. Then I tried editing the tags and added, on separate lines:

science fiction
scifi
SF
fantasy

That didn't work, the book then showed up in my collection with the tag:
science fictionscifiSFfantasy.
So I went back and inserted commas, and that seemed to do the right thing.

That leads me to ask about the policy on editing the HelpThing wiki? I feel I could add some extra paragraphs there that could have saved me a lot of reading and experimentation. Is that something I could do, or is there some other process for improving the help topics? (My wife was a historian/English PhD who worked many years as a Tech Writer, and I received many lectures from her at the end of some trying days about writing good help manuals, so I have an appreciation of how hard it is.)

Whew! Sorry for the long-winded reply. (Typed up outside LT!)

luke

Sorry, I got so tied up in the tags business I overlooked your other questions!

The idea of crossing hard sf with fantasy came about thanks to the ShadowRun role-playing game of the mid 80s. That melded cyberpunk with magic, and the combination worked really well. It offers rich possibilities, because each 'force' causes problems for people who are powerful or expert with the other.

So I took the idea of magic suddenly starting to work again (with the idea that some of the magic of myth and legend was actually real), just when we really don't need it anymore, and created a world around that. I like realism in my sci-fi. My background is in science and especially IT (I worked in Information Technology R&D organisations for 30 years). I can't bear the 'magic spell disguised as pseudo-scientific gobbledegook', and part of the fun for me is trying to realistically extrapolate likely and plausible future technologies from what's around us now. The future technologies are not the main focus, though.

The real driving force is my MC, Leeth. I try to give my books strong plots, but really it's the characters who drive the plots, not the other way round. (I didn't realise that maybe isn't the usual way until reading a review recently!)

Regarding my website, "A Toe in the Ocean of Books", I'd heard it was important for authors to blog. But since I'm nobody, there wasn't much point in starting a blog and calling it the "L J Kendall author site"! At the time, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the task I'd set myself (I think the series will need about ten books to wrap up all the major plots), and I'd learned that a million new books are published each year. That made me very conscious I was dipping my toe into a vast and growing ocean of books. So in that sense, the name kind of hit me over the head!

Thanks for the nice questions, LShelby. Best regards!

Hello. It nice to be here. I am Yasmin Esack and an author.

Hello, I egourm, am an unusual life form living on an unusual planet with plenty of O². I know what you think, there is no way anything would survive in such a place as oxygen is well known to be the most toxic thing in the universe, right after the internet.
More seriously, I am french and write fantasy. I wrote a few web-novels before and decided to rewrite one of them into an actual book.
The place where I live is well known for its rainy climate, so I also share that with the people on the other side of the channel.

Hey, I'm Borut and I'm a healer author. It means I'm leading breathwork meditations and writing non-fiction self-help inspirational books, but also children and MG loony fantasy. I started only recently, as an indie author, following the "teachings of Mark Dawson". I'd love to connect more and learn the ropes. I do believe I have something good to offer and that my books can inspire readers and make them laugh.

Thank you. Have a grand day.

p.s. More about me: http://www.borutlesjak.com

Hello;

my name is Denis and I have written three shortish light hearted (well I think they are) fantasy books in a series, the first of which I published in July under the name of E. D. Robson. Most of my reading/writing is in the science fiction/fantasy genre, including graphic novels (usually DC) although I don’t exclude anything. I hope in the future to extend my work to other genres including non-fiction. I have a great interest in history and the social sciences and will possibly include some of my own life experiences if I can make them interesting enough.

I come from a family where no two members of the immediate family were born in the same country and ended up as a child in the English East Midlands where I still live. I have worked at a number of jobs through life and pride myself on being able to take on new roles (not necessarily competently). One of my mantras through life has been ‘is anyone going to die because of this? If not is it really that disastrous?’

My main interests are reading (obviously), current affairs, watching (far too much) T.V. and swimming. I also hope to travel more (finances allowing) in the future and in recent years, have suddenly discovered art galleries and concerts.
I have recently started a blog ‘What’s the weather doing on your planet today?' https://denisscottauthor.com/

Hello,
My name is Dilip D James, I live in the Western ghats (hills) of India. Great to be a member of this group. I am proud to be able to take part in this group and to contribute. I write mainly non-fiction and am the author of three books on physics, all of which are available on Amazon. My mentor is Dr. M. R Srinivasan Former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and Senior Advisor at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (1990-92). He is also a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board. Dr. M R Srinivasan had written the foreword of my book; “a Gestalt Aether Theory on the Nature of Light and related Phenomena”.
I live in the Nilgiri Hills one of the most ecologically diverse areas in India and in the world. I have a great love of physics and have just completed my third book “The Electromagnetic Universe: A New Physics”. I also love music and play classical and regular guitar. I am a great lover of wildlife and am a keen environmentalist and ecologist. I am here to promote my new book, I hope some of the members of this group will take the time to read it.

https://www.amazon.in/Electromagnetic-Universe-New-Physics-ebook/dp/B07YB3L6J2/r...

My other books:
Quantum mechanics or Neo-classical Physics
A Gestalt Aether Theory on the Nature of Light and Related Phenomena

Afeez Tope, RAJI was born on October 13, 1989, in Osogbo, but originates from Iwo, Osun State. He holds an M.A. in Cultural History -2019 and a B.A. (Hons.) - History and International Studies – 2014 from Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria. He has several works to his credit.
His research interest is in the areas of Cultural Studies and Aesthetic History. He has participated in several International Academic Conferences and a number of Seminars. He is the author of the award-winning TECHNIQUES OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH AND WRITING among other titles.
His research interest currently covers freelancing, cultural studies, History and literary appreciation.
He is a member of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD)

More on me can be found on https://www.amazon.com/author/afeezraji

or

https://www.grin.com/user/1300326

Hello Hobnob members!

My name is Raimo Strangis from Toronto, Canada. I write Young Adult fiction books. My inspiration for writing in this genre came after reading, The Princess Bride by William Goldman. I remember getting lost in the book and being taken on an amazing journey. Hopefully one day I can write a novel as inspiring to others as I was by that book.

Be good,
Raimo

Howdy all,
I'm Jeff Schanz from the Austin, Texas area. I'm the author of 1 published book, "A Vampyre's Daughter," and have a another 3 book series coming soon. I have also written a YA portal fantasy novel which I'm currently querying with agents.
I'm a nerd, sports nut, and visual artist. I've been animator for 16 years, and recently an author. Divorced father of 2, live with my supportive girlfriend and 2 unsupportive dogs who think that writing is boring.
I write stories that just come to me and feel appealing. I'm not stuck in one genre, but there's definitely plenty of genre's I couldn't write. Writing stories saved my sanity in tough times and has become to thing I want to do most. I hope folks find them worthwhile to read.
I'm happy to talk shop, chat about nerdy stuff or sports, or just answer questions from curious folks.

This short subtitled video of Kurosawa's advice to starting screenwriters contains gems for authors too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-McmgQbee0

I think the "finish it" advice is excellent; and also his point about creating things based on things in your memory sounds like yet another example of a highly regarded creator providing more supporting evidence for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_thought_theory, which I've been using very fruitfully for my own writing, after I learned about it in an other context.

Hi, LShelby. Just saw your note. I don't seem to get emails that anyone has replied to me here. So I didn't know if there is some setting to change in my account.

I think the three volumes are as follows: softcover and hardcover under the imprint Saint Justin and Perpetua Orthodox Christian Books. The other (which should show both a hardcover and softcover, but doesn't) is the first third of the book in large print under the imprint Font 18 Large Print Books. Both imprints are from DMS Onge Publishing, LLC.

The last two thirds in large print will be out in early spring, I think, also under the imprint Font 18 Large Print Books. They will be in both hardcover and softcover. To have converted the entire book into one large print book would have created a doorstop no one would buy--and no one would read because it would weigh a ton and cost as much!

So, I don't know exactly how you do things here in terms of titles and keeping them separate. But I think the publisher added them. My book was reviewed by Midwest Book Review recently, which is very nice because it was not a paid for review. They added it to their Small Press Bookwatch on The Christian Studies Shelf. I think the publisher ws able to add that here.

As for the fiction, mmmm maybe :) :) Can't be telling secrets yet. Besides, I have a couple more nonfiction works to finish before I indulge.

Thanks for the query. God bless you!
Donna Perpetua

>98 DonnaPerpetua:

Alas, there is no function on LT to let you know if a post has been posted to talk. You just have to keep coming back. But if you set up your talk tab correctly, it's pretty easy to quickly see if anything interesting has happened since the last time you were here.

From what you have said. As I suspected, the books would be considered the same "work". They contain the same text, and the differences are just formatting.

On LibraryThing a "book" is what you put in your catalog. I have a paperback copy of the Lord of the Rings, with penciled performance guidelines marking up all the poetry. That's a book. You might have a hardcover leather-bound edition with color plates by insert famous LotR artist here. That's a obviously different book, or I wouldn't have book envy. (Color plates... oohh, I want that!) Someone else has an unabridged audiobook version narrated by a British actor with a gorgeous voice. That's a different book.

But if we met at a cocktail party, we could all discuss whether or not the Tom Bombadil sequence really should have been included in the story, because all three of us have read the same "work".

If the audiobook had been abridged and the Tom Bombadil sequence wasn't in it, then that would be a slightly different work, because then at the cocktail party the guy with the audiobook version would be saying "Tom who?" Likewise, all the people who hadn't read the book at all, and had only seen the movies.

I hope your non-fiction is going well.

Please do check out the other posts in the group. If nobody is talking about anything that interests you, you can always start a new topic. Variety is good. :)