An Interview with Eirik M. Dahll-Larssøn: Author of Rented Souls

Eirik Moe Dahll-Larssøn lives in Bergen, Norway, with his girlfriend and their imaginary dog, Waffle, and imaginary hairless cat, Palpatine. They also have a real dog now, named Luna. She’s cute and all, but really needs to stop eating cigarette butts off the ground. Eirik also has a degree in Literature from the University of Bergen, and through Patreon and self-publishing, hopes to make a living off his writing.

Why did you want to write a book?

I’ve always loved fiction, and I’ve always loved being creative – I’ve always had more ideas than I know what to do with, […]

SPR2017-10-02T09:29:06+02:00October 2nd, 2017|Categories: Interviews|Tags: Eirik M. Dahll-Larssøn|

How to Write a Book Blurb

By far, the weakest part of many self-published books is the synopsis found on Amazon and elsewhere. Worse than the cover, worse than the writing in the book itself, there are a lot of blurbs on Amazon that are pretty near atrocious. I include my own books in this category. Writing a decent blurb is an artform totally separate from writing a book.

Authors are also on record saying this is their least favorite part of the process. It can make you feel icky writing superlatives about your own book. At the same time, too many superlatives can literally be […]

Henry Baum2015-04-13T13:05:43+02:00April 13th, 2015|Categories: Features, Resources|

An Interview With Author Anthony Eglin

Anthony Eglin was a much-loved traditionally published author in the ‘cozy mystery’ genre, before venturing into self-publishing with The Alcatraz Rose. Here, he talks about his self-publishing experience.

Tell us something about your book.

The Alcatraz Rose is composed of three disparate mysteries that, in the beginning, appear to Lawrence Kingston, retired professor of botany and sometime sleuth, to be completely unrelated.

To begin, a thirteen-year-old child begs him to re-investigate the disappearance of her mother, a cold case closed eight years prior. A second mystery presents itself in the form of a rare and extinct rose that shows […]

Cate Baum2018-10-29T12:02:25+02:00January 29th, 2015|Categories: Interviews|

Interview with SPR Awards Non-Fiction Winner Christine Osborne

SPR talks to author Christine Osborne, SPR Awards Winner for Non-Fiction about her book, Travels With My Hat.

Tell us about your winning entry to the SPR Awards.
Travels with My Hat is about my adventures and misadventures as a solo woman writer and photographer working in the Arab world.

How did you come to self-publish? Did you try to get published traditionally?
I am a published author of fifteen non-fiction books and travel guides. I have always used my photos to illustrate my work, so having text without images in this new book was unthinkable. I tried a few […]

Cate Baum2014-05-06T11:14:03+02:00April 17th, 2014|Categories: Interviews|Tags: Non-Fiction|

The Dilemma of Dumbing It Down for e-Book Sales

Self-publishing a book can be a labor of love and for some of us, it’s what we live for. But why is it so many people now fancy themselves an author? And why is it that so many simple and frankly unreadable works are hitting the Amazon e-book charts? Should we all join in and get stupid?

Many books are intelligently written and beautifully constructed, but it is the pulp romance thriller that used to be a throwaway holiday read that catches the “public”‘s attention. Young Adult fiction, mostly about reckless sixteen year-olds fancying each other are leaving the digital […]

Cate Baum2014-01-07T22:54:25+02:00August 1st, 2013|Categories: Features, Lead Story|

Excerpt: The American Book of the Dead

Here’s what I hope to be a new feature on SPR: book excerpts. If you’re interested, follow these instructions to post an excerpt. The novel can be purchased here.

This is the introduction to the novel. People either love this book, or they’re mystified – which is to be expected, as I was going for some level of mystification. Some have criticized that I should get to the action sooner. Some haven’t. The point for me is to get inside the narrator’s head and to set up the scope of the story.

Eugene Myers is working on a novel

[…]

Henry Baum2013-06-18T16:54:51+02:00June 15th, 2013|Categories: Book Excerpt, Lead Story|

An Interview with Bestselling Author Tara Sivec

Today I have a recent interview with Bestselling Author Tara Sivec. She is the author of the Chocolate Lovers series and the top ranking novel, A Beautiful Lie, the first book in the Playing with Fire series.

Author Genre: Romance/Suspense, Humor, Chick Lit

About the Author:

Tara Sivec is a wife, mom, chauffeur, soccer coach, babysitter, short-order cook, genius and the funniest person she’s ever met. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two kids. In her spare time she likes to write and make people spit Diet Coke out of their nose. Most of her material comes […]

James Moushon2019-02-19T06:21:46+02:00February 25th, 2013|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

Review: Cuquita: The Alien Miracle Girl by Thomas Matthew

Wilson Weatherford turned down a college football scholarship to marry his high-school sweetheart, Doris, and settle down to a quiet life of farming. However, by the time the Weatherford’s children are grown, the tranquility of the countryside that so appealed to the young Weatherford has been challenged by a local crime syndicate and celebrity-obsessed, materialistic townsfolk.

One morning Wilson finds a strange young woman in his barn. She looks weak and frail and seems to have lost her memory. Wilson and his family (a wife and two children home from college for the summer) take the stranger into their home […]

Avery Hurt2014-05-06T22:42:52+02:00January 24th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy|

Review: The Wonder of Ordinary Magic by Lilli Jolgren Day

I look for clues within the first paragraphs of a novel as to what particular kind of story the author wants to tell me and how she intends to go about it. The first two sentences of this novel irritated me: “I don’t want to be a writer. I want to be a painter.” That doesn’t sound logical, I said to myself. Why fight reality? The Prologue soon continues with “as it turns out, being a writer in a coma leaves me with many more options than being a painter in a coma would.” Lilli Jolgren Day balances existential questioning […]

Lela Michael2014-05-19T21:57:25+02:00March 8th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Literary Fiction|

Review: The River Secrets by Diane Dunning

According to The American Heritage Dictionary, hypocrisy is defined as “the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold up or possess; insincerity.” Most people abhor hypocrisy, and yet many are guilty of it as well. After all, we are human and intrinsically flawed. Diane Dunning’s ebook, The River Secrets, delves into this issue. Are there levels to hypocrisy? And better yet are there levels to sin? Does your notion of sin depend on the identity of the sinner?