Author Devon Henry – The Interview

I am very exited to present to you today an interview with a dear and wonderful fellow Author, Devon Henry. I recently read her book “Kaijin”, – about which I will post an review later this week  – as well as her work on Medium, so I really wanted to share this interesting writer with you. You should really check out her work, but I am going to let her tell you more about herself and her creative endevours.

Devon Henry

 

Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little bit about yourself, and your current project:

Well thank you very much for this opportunity! I’m from Los Angeles, I have three dogs. I love avocado and Jurassic Park and I hate kale. I have watched all seven seasons of 30 Rock more than anyone probably should.

Currently I am working on my first full-length novel which I hope to have out later this year. It’s science fiction geared towards younger readers and I’ve been working on it since late 2011. I’m very, very excited for people to finally read it.

I am looking forward to it (and I hear you about kale). What brought you to writing? Did you always wanted to be a writer?

I’ve wanted to be a lot of things in my life. As a child I wanted to be a paleontologist and make movies and study different cultures and religions, but there’s always been this caveat that I would write about it too. My profession has always been up in the air but there was never a question about writing.

I really have my parents to thank for that as well. They never questioned it or pushed me into anything else and dutifully marched me to the dollar store two blocks from our house to stock up on Lisa Frank notebooks every Saturday. I’m very grateful for that.

Sounds like a wonderful way to grow up. What are your greatest obstacles to creating your art/finishing a project?

I’m sure most writers will know what I mean when I say there’s that hypercritical part of your brain that gets louder and louder the longer you stare at your work. Then suddenly it’s 3 AM and you’ve spent the better part of the night revising one sentence and you’re over-caffeinated and just thinking, “This is it. This is insanity. Someone take my laptop away.”

How did you or do you overcome these challenges?

I know that a lot of writers work better in seclusion, but I have to say that having a good support system of nosy friends keeps me motivated. It’s very easy, for me at least, to procrastinate and leave a project for ages if I don’t have anyone checking in on me. So to have friends constantly texting and asking to see revisions or making sure I’m sticking to my deadlines really helps.

You are blessed to have such a support system, good for you! What are your future aspirations?

Ultimately I’d really like to carve out a role for myself as a successful comedy writer. It’s my one true passion in life- avocado-based recipes notwithstanding. To be at a point where I could focus solely on that as a career would be amazing.

I think you are on the right track to accomplish this goal. In Kaijin, you chose to use a first person, present tense narrative to express the stories, which I think worked out very well. What made you choose to express the stories in such way?

First of all, thank you! Writing it that way was definitely a risk in terms of storytelling and I’m glad it came across that way.

When I began writing Kaijin, I had a vision of this private slice of Los Angeles full of monsters and demons and banshees and it was important to me to present that vision in a way that would be believable and not read immediately as a run-of-the-mill horror story. So I wrote it all- with the exception of “The Siren and the Immigrant”, in present tense and made a point of never naming the women in my stories. I wanted to make it seem as though the subjects of these stories could be literally anyone.

And you succeeded in that as well. What do you want your readers to know about you, that they might not be aware off?

Let’s see, I am also a trained Improv Performer, Sketch Comedy Writer, Set Designer and I can pick stuff up with my toes. I’m afraid of spiders and elevators. My resume is very impressive, clearly.

That is quite a resume! How can a reader find out more about you? 

Well my first book, “Kaijin”, is available in paperback or for Kindle on Amazon as well as the Createspace Marketplace. I also have a Medium profile that I try to update with new short comedic fiction every week for practice (This is also where you can find my ongoing Jurassic Park/Parks and Rec crossover series “Burt Macklin: Raptor Wrangler”). And, of course, readers can get in touch with me via my twitter- which I also keep updated with any new projects or multi-media works that I do. Come say hi, I’d love to hear from you!

Thank you so much, for spending time with us Devon! I am looking forward to hearing more from you!

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I will post a review of Devon Henry’s book “Kaijin” later during the week, so please stop by again, and most importantly check out Devon’s work via the links below!

Devon’s Amazon Page

Devon’s Twitter

Devon’s Medium Profile

 

 

Book Review: The Hero by Robyn Carr

 

 

 

Title: “The Hero” – A Thunder Point Novel

Author: Robyn Carr

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Publisher:  Harlequin  Mira

ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-1459-2

My first impression of this book was that it had charm, a young woman who is in need, finds help from total strangers, who embrace her and her child with open arms. Kindness, caring, empathy, small town values move from page to page, without making the story boring, introducing many characters, all who are absolutely lovely, and I would be happy to call my friend and neighbor.

The second part of the book feels as if it has been written by a different person, or at least Robyn after a few cups of coffee, a much more straightforward approach to the same subject matter, with an increased tempo. Not that I mind that, after all the first half was charming, but rather not very demanding in the romance department. In the second part all hell breaks loose – well not actually hell, but we are moving  from a gentle discovery of some of the characters toward love-making, physical danger, the introduction of more characters (more to that in a minute), and emotional tension. The title is slightly misleading, there is no real “Hero” in the story, just a few characters who take it upon themselves to be kind to a woman in need. They all step up for her, but there is no single heroic act, not in the sense of most novels and stories. If the author referred to a smaller aspect of heroism, then the book should have been named more apt “The Heroes”

The largest downfall of the book was not the switch of the tempo, but the fact that the book introduced too many characters, and therefore leaves someone new to the series – like I am – scrambling to keep up with the individual story lines. Also that leads to some of these story lines to feel rushed – there is only so much individual attention one character can receive in a single novel.

For me, this book is a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon romance novel, one that uplifts, that is charismatic and has potential. It is cute and charming.

 

Book Review – The Broken by Shelley Coriell

 

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book by the publisher. This post contains affiliate links, see Disclosure page for details

The Broken Available on Amazon Now

 

Title: The Broken

Author: Shelley Coriell

Genre: Romance, Suspense

Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)

Release Date: April 29th 2014

Rating: 5/5 stars

As a fan of romantic suspense the likes of Kay Hooper, I was looking forward to reading this  book “The Broken” by award winning Author Shelley Coriell. After researching her background, I discovered that this is her first novel outside of the young adult world and only her third novel. What I found left me pleasantly surprised.

“The Broken” has an emotional rawness that does not hide behind pretty words when some horrors or disturbed actions call for blunt harshness. I really appreciated that, because it allowed a deeper connection to the feeling of the character, rather than trying to find a round-about way of describing loss and despair. While that bluntness made me at times flinch, it was perfectly placed and appropriate.
Vivid, lively and multi-layered characters, combined with a fast-paced story that pulls the reader into its web, without letting go, “The Broken” is an intense read. The connection between the two main characters does not come across as forced, but rather than logical, danger seems to bond – this aspect making this book particularly a great one for me, as the physical relationship in many romance genre novels are without any real depth or reason. You can believe and root for this relationship, and ache with them. There are no moments that drag, the action feels neither rushed nor slow. A suspense romance, just the way I prefer it.

This is the first book in a series called “The Apostles”, second book to be released in October and the third in the series in January 2015. You can find out more about the upcoming books, which I will absolutely purchase, at her website, here.

Now also available:

 

 

The Buried – Available on Amazon now!

 

 

 

The Blind – Available on Amazon Now!