On July 21, 2018 I am scheduled to appear at the Middle Georgia Indie Book Festival and I am excited for the opportunity to participate. For this to be a successful event I am respectfully requesting support by conducting a fund-raising campaign, and your support would be greatly appreciated. As a special thank you gift, I am giving copies of “Stories outside the Box” to anyone making donations toward the project. If you would like to support this campaign, you may do so in two ways. You can either visit http://www.ko-fi.com/annbarnes to “buy a coffee” for $3 or you can make a donation of any amount directly to my paypal account by visiting paypal.me/annHarrisonBarnes. Your support is much appreciated.
Character Interview with Genevieve Nichols
Hello everyone, my character Genevieve Nichols is dying to talk to you today, so we have another character conversation.
Ann: What do you want to tell us all today Ms. Nichols?
Genevieve: First of all, I want to set the record straight. I love both of my daughters unconditionally. I cannot help that Jennifer was abused, but Lydia needed some extra special attention.
Ann: Don’t you think you were the one craving attention? Weren’t you the one giving Lydia all the attention you couldn’t get from your husband?
Genevieve: Well, maybe, but you know, he was mean and hateful toward my girls and me. What was I supposed to do? And besides, I needed support and encouragement. I was always the one giving encouragement to my girls and my louse of a husband, never asking for anything until he cheated on me with another woman.
Ann; Wait a minute, that didn’t come out in the story. Why didn’t you tell me that before?
Genevieve: I didn’t want it to be part of my story, you’re out finding my girl, so your detectives don’t need to be distracted. But, yeah, he was a lying, cheating, abusive, conniving devil of a man. I’ll have to tell you about him some other time, but for now, I need to gloat about my youngest daughter.
Jennifer: Mom! What are you doing out here chatting up the readers? You’re supposed to be resting. I leave for a few moments and here you are, telling all kinds of lies to Ann and her visitors. They don’t want to hear about that, they want to read the book, don’t you? Let me know what you think of my mother’s tirade in the comments below.
Ann: Jennifer, I thought you were helping Becca, Jason and Joseph solve the case. When did you get back home?
Jennifer: I just walked in the door. Now, let me take my mother up to bed, before she causes any more problems or gives our story away. (She leads Genevieve out of our view, the elder woman still trying to state her case.)
Well folks, as we can see, there is a lot of bitterness and hatred between Jennifer and her mother, but you’ll have to read Journey to the Mountaintop when it is released in the next few months, to see how the story unfolds. However, let me reiterate my bit of encouragement from the last two interviews. I can’t stress enough how important it is to read A Journey of Faith, because if you don’t, you will be completely lost. Let me give you the links again, in case you haven’t read the first three interviews I’ve done in the past couple of weeks.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H7SCQNM
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1720213240
Until next time, let me know what you think about these little interviews. Thanks for reading, sharing and commenting on my site. To all you fine folks in the blogosphere, have a blessed day, and try your best to stay warm and dry.
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Character Interview with Jennifer McCarthy and her Mother
Hello everybody,
Yesterday we had a conversation with a confused, scared Lydia McCarthy. She was holding back a bit of information, because she was afraid that her captors were standing away from the truck, listening to her conversation. However, today, I am having a conversation with Jennifer, her adopted sister. Don’t be surprised if their mother, Genevieve pops in to clear up a few minute details.
Ann: Welcome to my blog, Jennifer. What can you tell me about your sister? Was she abused by your father?
Jennifer: Wait a minute, you’re asking too many questions, too fast. First of all, Lydia isn’t my biological sister. She was adopted when she was four. I was eight years old at the time, but I remember sitting at the adoption agency, trying to read a story book, while Mom and Dad went into some office to see about adopting a little girl. My parents changed her last name to McCarthy, so she wouldn’t be recognized by who knows what kind of maniac, at least that’s what I was told. The thing is, I really don’t believe it myself.
Ann: Was Lydia abused after she came to live with you and your parents?
Jennifer: No, but she was a very skittish little girl. Mom protected her quite a lot, because she thought she had some type of disability. She wouldn’t talk until a couple of years after she became part of our family.
Ann: Does she have a disability?
Jennifer: No, she’s smart as a whip, but she wants to believe the best in everybody. I understand that and so do I, but I know when someone isn’t who he appears to be and when things aren’t on the up and up. Lydia was kidnapped after her accident, because she stood there and searched for her car, instead of going home with me and trying to find the car later. Sometimes she doesn’t use her head.
Ann: Do you think Wildebeest could have kidnapped her, no matter whether she’d searched for the vehicle or not? The reason I ask is because he’s the type who strives to get what he wants, no matter what you say.
Jennifer: Yeah, he is, but I really can’t answer that. I think her taking time to search for her car was the opening he needed to take her right then and there. I tried to tell her to come and go home with me, but you see where that led. This is not to say that there isn’t more mystery to be solved, because we don’t know who Wildebeest truly is, even though Lydia believes he’s our father. He could be her biological father for all we know, your readers will have to wait for the book to come out to learn all about him.
Ann: I did an interview with him and he was very snarky. What he doesn’t realize is that I can take the snarkiness right out of him.
Genevieve: Who’s this Wildebeest fellow you’re talking about?
Jennifer: You know, Mom! The big burley guy who drives that Chevy pickup truck.
Genevieve: Oh yeah, the one always hounding me for money, although I haven’t seen him in a while. I wonder where he’s gotten himself off too.
Ann: Well hello there, Genevieve, I didn’t expect you to come walking right into our little chat. What do you have to say to our readers?
Genevieve: I just want to say that Lydia did have some sort of disability, because she didn’t talk for the first two years, she was with us.
Jennifer: You wouldn’t talk if you’d been abused at an early age either, Mom. You know Lydia is smarter than you give her credit for. Why did you baby her like she was a china doll? You never protected me like that.
Genevieve: I had to protect her! She was so fragile as a child. We taught you to be strong, yet Lydia, on the other hand was …
Jennifer; She was what? Weak? Stupid? Come on, Mom, out with it!
Genevieve: Now, Darling, you know she was none of those things. She was just … fragile, that’s all.
Jennifer: Yeah, right! How did you teach me to be strong, by spanking me every time you thought I did something wrong? Dad humiliated me, and you stood there and let him get away with it. I saw plenty of things happen to my sister that he got away with. I won’t explain them here, because that is yet another story and people will have to read the new book coming out to find out.
Ann: Ladies, ladies! No need to argue here. All we want to do is give the readers a little outside knowledge about you, before the book comes out. You know, a teaser.
Jennifer: I know, but Mother needed to know the truth. You are so lost in your own Little World, Mom that you don’t even know that Lydia has been kidnapped.
Genevieve: She’s been what? When?
Jennifer: Yesterday after the accident. Wildebeest side swiped her rear passenger door. It’s a wonder her car wasn’t totaled.
Genevieve: Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I need to go lie down. (Leaves the room on shaky legs)
Jennifer: Well, now you have it. Mom isn’t all she’s cracked up to be. Let me go talk to Becca and Jason for a bit about what’s happened. I’ll see you all later in a book somewhere. (She steps out of the room, closing the door behind her.)
I hope you have enjoyed my chat with Jennifer and the character conversation between Genevieve and her. Keep an eye out for Journey to the Mountaintop, the second Stepping Stones mystery to be released in Early 2019. While you wait, I’d encourage you to pick up a copy of A Journey of Faith, if you haven’t already. If you don’t, you’re sure to be lost by picking up the new book, when it comes out and reading it first. If you need the links again, here they are:
Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H7SCQNM
paperback:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1720213240
Here’s a question for you, dear readers. Do you want to see more of these character interviews? If you’ve read any of the four books I’ve published on Amazon, tell me which characters you’d like to learn a little more about. Please leave your answers in the comments below.
Until next time, have a blessed day.
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Don’t Throw Away Your Old Journals
I’m glad you said that. Although I threw away an old journal, I’ll keep the painful thoughts in the one I am writing, because it is the story of who I used to be. You’ve inspired me today.
Every once in a while I dig up some of my old journals.
This hasn’t happened since I moved. In fact, when I went looking for them to make my 2018 Project for Awesome video last week, I found them at the bottom of a stack of very heavy boxes. Because I apparently finally convinced myself I didn’t need to look back at them anymore. At least, not for a long time.
I was, of course, wrong.
Because as I was filming that video (and making a heart out of journals), I decided to flip through a few of them to see what I could find. And I am so, so glad I did.
My journals don’t contain pictures or poems or really anything all that artsy. They do, however, contain my thoughts. I have collected thoughts for two decades now, I guess, storing them in all these journals…
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YES BLIND PEOPLE READ BOOKS, WE WRITE THEM TOO
via YES BLIND PEOPLE READ BOOKS, WE WRITE THEM TOO
Personally, I have four books published, all of which I eventually published on Amazon myself, so it just goes to show you that with a little help from writer friends and a publisher who knows how to format books, we too can publish our own books independently if we are unable to work with agents and editors.
Character Interview with Lydia McCarthy
Hello everyone,
Today I am coming to you with another character interview. This time, I am speaking with Lydia McCarthy, from Journey to the Mountaintop, the second in my Stepping Stones Mystery series.
Before I have a little chat with Lydia, I have a personal update to share with you. As of the date this post is published on my blog, I am in the middle of writing a book to help new writers publish their books on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). This book is designed with the blind in mind. Although I will have screenshots and photos for visual readers, I will share my story and give directions in a way that is also friendly for people who use screen reading software on their Pc’s. Keep an eye out for this new little book coming out in the next month or so.
In other news, I am working in earnest on revisions for the book in which my character is featured. Since I have added a scene, which onioned into another chapter, I am having to go and take out some scenes that don’t fit the narrative and do a bit of onioning within the remaining chapters. Onioning is basically going back through what I’ve already written and adding more content. I had planned to do that anyway, but this gives me more creative direction in the book’s story line and character development. Keep an eye out for the closing book to the story I started in Journey of Faith. Keep reading, to see where you can purchase this first book so you won’t miss a thing when the new one is released. in the next few months.
Without further ado, let’s meet Lydia.
Ann: Hi Lydia! It’s good to finally get to talk to you. I’ve heard you’ve had a trying experience; can you tell us a little about that?”
Lydia: I am stuck in this God-awful truck, with a man who I thought was a kind and loving father. I know, I know, Jennifer told me that he was a bad man, but I just couldn’t believe the worst of him.
Ann: Why is that?
Lydia: Because he always brought us presents and pretended to love our mother, though she never complained about him. Now that I think about it, she always avoided him, so she wouldn’t get abused along with my sister and me. Oh, he spanked us, but I didn’t think it was abuse, but at that age, I didn’t know any better.
Ann: How old were you at the time?
Lydia: Jennifer says I was four, but I don’t remember much about what happened, so I can’t tell you for sure.
Ann: What do you think of him now that you’ve been kidnapped? Is he really your father, or do you think that you were carried off by some other man?
Lydia: I’m not so sure, but I know that I am beginning to hate him for sticking me in this stupid truck.
Ann: How did you feel when you woke up in the truck bed, with your wrists and ankles bound with rope?
Lydia: Wait just a minute! I’ll tell you about the kidnapping, but I need to backtrack a little bit. First, let me tell you about the car. I bought that car with hard earned money, from a job I landed while I was in college. Now, it isn’t any good for anything. It’s off in the side of the road somewhere, and my mother will have to pay to repair the damages, because I can’t afford it!
Ann: Okay, I know that you’re mad about the car, but I thought he ran off with it. What happened after he kidnapped you?
Lydia: I don’t know what happened to that blasted car, all I know is that I found myself in the bed of a truck, rolling down some ungodly road at who knows what speed and I was scared out of my mind. I couldn’t move, because there were boxes of some sort squishing the daylights out of me. I couldn’t scream because of a stinky rag tied around my face and I wanted to get out of there PDQ, if you know what I mean. Wait a minute, though! Before you ask me any more questions, I want you to know that he’s not alone. There’s someone in the front seat with him.
Ann: What makes you so sure?
Lydia: I hear them talking about me every time we stop. I’m not going to tell you what they say, because you’ll have to read the book to find out. I also want to be sure I heard them right before I tell anybody what I overheard. I think I heard them talking about someone being adopted, but I’m not quite sure that’s right. If it is, I certainly don’t believe it. However, they talk, and it isn’t very nice. Listen, they’re coming back, so I’ve got to go!
Ann: Who do you think was adopted?
Lydia: I don’t know! No! No! Let me go! Muffled cries are heard before a truck door slams and she disappears from view.
Ah well, we didn’t get to learn much about the conversations she’s overheard, but I guess you’ll have to read the book to find out. This gives me a bit of inspiration. Let me jump off here and go do a little onioning and scene dumping, because I’m out of excuses, so I need to go write.
Until then, check out A Journey of Faith: A Stepping Stones Mystery in Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H7SCQNM
and paperback:
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Interview with Wildebeest
Hello everyone,
Today I want to conduct a character interview with one of my villains in the Stepping Stones mystery series. Before I get started, let me give you a NaNoWriMo update. I didn’t reach my goal of 50K words at the end of last month, but you know what? That’s find by me. I don’t like rushing through a story and making my first draft messy. I did, however, get the main story written. Now when I edit, I’ll have to go back to see what can be added and what needs to be taken out or dumped.
One quick question: How did you do during Nano?
Now, on with the interview.
Today I’d like to introduce Willie Kilgore (AKA) Wildebeest.
Ann, why do they call you Wildebeest?
Willie: Why does anyone get a nickname? I am a wildebeest; didn’t you see that in the first book? Well, if you didn’t, then you have something to look forward too, don’t you, punk?
Ann: Now What makes you think you’re in control of your story? I mean, what makes you so mean?
Willie: Well, I have two little girls that think they know everything. I want to show them that they ain’t as smart as they think they are. I love them, but I have to keep them in line, if you know what I mean.
Ann: Now wait a minute! Jennifer and Lydia are not bad girls. I didn’t write them that way, so why do you call them so?
Willie: Apparently you don’t know Lydia that well, do you. Instead of jawing with me, you need to sit down and have a powwow with her. Listen, I don’t have time to waste. I need to get on with my life and you need to write my story.
Ann: Now wait just one minute, Wildebeest! First of all, you don’t tell me what to do. You are my character and I make you behave in a way that fits my story. (I point a finger at him). I can change the story so that you aren’t in as much control as you think you are. But for now, I’ll let you think you’re in total control. (If you want to find out how Willie’s acts get him into trouble, stay tuned for Journey to the Mountaintop, the second book in the Stepping Stones mystery series, coming in 2019. For now, let’s get back to the interview).
Willie: What interview? I’m outa here!
Ann: Where do you think you’re going, I ain’t done with you yet, buddy boy! We’ve got some things to talk about.
Willie: I told you, I’m through talking! Now let me get back to my gallivanting. (He slams the door as he makes a run for it).
To learn about some of this character’s quirks, please check out A Journey of Faith, a Stepping Stones Mystery. You can purchase Kindle and paperback versions of this book at the following links:
Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H7SCQNM
Paperback:
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