Special Guest: Bakari, Egyptian God of Death

This is such a hot treat to have as my special guest today, Bakari, the Egyptian God of Death. My kind of guy 🙂 He comes courtesy of Jean Murray and her Key to the Cursed Series. Bakari’s story is featured in Book II: Soul Awakened. Bakari, Soul Awakened

Please tell us a little bit about yourself?

I am Bakari, a four thousand year old Egyptian god. The son of Asar, the Lord of the Underworld. I am reponsible for guarding the gates of Aaru, the Paradise Isle of the Underworld. My father bestowed upon me the power to kill gods. Five years ago, I was kidnapped by our enemies and entombed in a sarcophagus. I am only here today because of Kendra. She unlocked my tomb and saved my soul.

A terrible thing your enemies did. What other person in your book do you dislike? Why?

Hate would be a more accurate term for how I feel about Kepi, the malevolent goddess who put me in that gods forsaken box. She is the epitome of evil and so kindly locked me in with poisonous black scorpions. Continue reading

Special Feature with Mary Buckham, Author of Invisible Recruits Series

I’m excited to have as my guest today Mary Buckham, who has released a Novella and Book One of an exciting new Urban Fantasy series, called the Invisible Recruits. I’ve had the pleasure of taking Mary’s Active Setting class via WriterUniv and learned some great methods of writing strong settings. Now a little about Mary:

Mary was born into a family of artists so as a natural story teller didn’t realize she wasMary Buckham creative until an adult. After working in the financial and media industries, as well as raising five children, Mary turned to writing and now loves creating thrills, spills and spells as she follows the ups and downs of fascinating characters starting with Alex Noziak, the heroine of INVISIBLE MAGIC, INVISIBLE FATE and INVISIBLE POWER.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Your interests? When did you start writing?

I wish I had a wonderful, marvelous tale of sitting down one day and deciding to be a writer but my journey didn’t start there. It started with the death of my two-month old son from SIDS or Crib Death one dark December day, a few days before Christmas. He was my fourth child and after his death I had to find a reason to get up every day and put one foot in front of another in order to take care of my other three children. When you experience such a loss you have to dig deep, really deep to discover your own core, your reason for being. For me that was writing. I felt I was meant to share stories with others and that’s what I decided to do, one page at a time, one book at a time.

Thanks for sharing that. I’m sorry for your loss. I have a four year old son and just couldn’t imagine. It’s great that writing gave you something to work through the tragedy.  

What has been one of your biggest challenges so far in your writing career?

Never learning how to type. <sigh> When I was in high school and college women were pressured into learning how to type so they could be efficient secretaries and assistants. Since I didn’t want to be either I figured if I didn’t learn typing I would be forced to explore other avenues more in line with my Type A personality. So I still hen peck my way through manuscripts. In my next life I’ll learn how to type so I could finish twice as many books!

LOL. I’m not a good typist. One thing I know for sure is you can teach 🙂 How does teaching help you with the writing craft?

We’ve all heard the old adage, those who can’t teach. That’s a bunch of bull-larkey! I think those that teach have the ability to learn and keep on learning and that’s the most amazing gift! I was not trained to be a teacher but found that in sharing what I’ve learned, usually through trial and error, and helping others I have connected with the most amazing writers worldwide. And these are writers of all genres and at different stages in their careers so the give and take of the learning/teaching process is amazing! If I could live two lives simultaneously and had an extra 24-hours a day I’d write full time and continue to teach full time and love both equally.

What type of scenes do you enjoy writing the most?

Action scenes. Maybe it comes from raising five kids. Give me a good skirmish that’s fast-paced and creates winners and losers and I’m in heaven. But I love dialogue scenes too, and scenes rife with sexual tension. Wow, this was a harder question than I realized 🙂

Yes, with kids, you’re constantly on the move :). Let’s talk about your Invisible Recruits series. When I read about it on your website, I had so many interesting questions pop in my head. Let’s start with what made you decide to expand the concept for Invisible Recruits from an original story of everyday women brought together to fight international threats, to one where they have extra abilities?

I love the theme of self-discovery for women. Many of us are so defined by our roles in life—daughter, sister, friend, wife, mother, volunteer, employee, etc.—that we can easily forget or never realize our own potential.  That’s where the core of the stories started. Everyday women who have a little extra something-something but have hidden or ignored their abilities until tapped to be part of this secret organization. So these women start from a certain self-identity; hairdresser, debutante, temp worker, con artist and kindergarten teacher and expand that into a secret agent status and then have to embrace their otherness until the women they are becoming are nothing like the women they were. Continue reading

Interview with V.S. Nelson, Author of Eternal Lovers

I am pleased to have Virginia Nelson, who writes as V.S. Nelson, with me today. Virginia is the author of Eternal Lovers – Sekhmet’s Guardians – Book One.

I might mention that I personally know Virginia, as we are sisters in two RWA chapters. Like me, Virginia lives in the Valley of the Sun, near Phoenix, Arizona. She’s a likable, outgoing individual and a passionate writer, who has a tendency to “mother” or watch out for her friends, fortunate for us.

V.S. Nelson

After spending sixteen years living on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico, and another twelve battling the heat while teaching in the Middle East, Virginia S. Nelson, moved to Mesa, Arizona where she resides with the love of her life and her four pound Miniature Pincher, Anubis.

She joined three chapters of RWA sometime after she completed Eternal Lovers, convinced by others she should seek publication for a story which was originally written to make the voices in her head shut up. Guess what, it didn’t work.

What she thought, in the beginning, was a story about a young Native American woman mixed up with the Mafia turned out to be a story of Aliens, as old as the pyramids, living around the world, just like you and me. Of course, that little detail wasn’t revealed to Virginia until after the first draft of the manuscript was almost finished and her hero from book one, of what is now a series, smiled up at her in a dream. Following the directions she received from her hero in her dreams, a totally new version of Eternal Lovers was born. Her heroine, Jennifer, and the dynamics of her love story remained the same. Continue reading