So you will probably be surprised that Dr. Wundah’s first book published through AuthorHouse is a romance novel entitled Virgin Island.

We welcome Dr. Wundah in this, the first of a two-part AuthorHouse Author’s Digest series, as he explains how his choices of literary genres were influenced by his real life experiences.   

Author’s/Writer’s Choice of Genre: Impact of Life Experiences
By Dr Michael N. Wundah   

In the literary/creative world, the choice of genres is in my personal opinion, predicated on the writer’s or authors real life experiences.

Growing Up in Sierra Leone
These experiences could range from faith/religion to politics and societal imposed or self-induced happenings. I was in Sierra Leone, West Africa, a developing country with a chequered history. I was also brought up in Sierra Leone but have spent close to three decades now in the west – in Great Britain. I gained my preliminary education throughout my formative, teenage years in Sierra Leone.

Reflecting on the historicity of Sierra Leone, its audit analysis, like in most developing or Third World countries is bloated with the insidious viruses of corruption, greed, tribalism, nepotism and avalanche – the typical characteristics of patrimonial states.

These vices were ripe in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, especially during what most political analysts have dubbed the most devastating civil war in in modern African History.

I grew up with people around me who were immersed or what became a benign cultural practice made to believe that these vices were prudent and that one manhood or integrity is judged by how smart you were at being corrupt.

How These Experiences Influenced My Writing
If writing was ever going to fall within my grasp, which I have always worked hard to achieve, undoubtedly by virtue of my upbringing, the genre was going to play a major role in my adventure.

My genre is political satire with a twist – which exposes the filth and injustice in society built around the patrimonial culture in my country.

Although, I was out of the country, having migrated to the UK via The Gambia, another Western African sister state; the impact of the civil war affected me and my family, like anyone else in Sierra Leone during the conflict. To this day, when I reflect on the impacts the civil war brought to bear on my family and I, I can say we suffered in equal measures as those who were close to the actions in Sierra Leone.

My First Books
I started actively writing for publication in 2004, and since then I have not looked back. In addition to three texts in the English Language, I have written two books, which are political satires, carved around the vices mentioned inter alia. The political satires are Sunset in Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Corridors of Power, and recently – Landscaping Sierra Leone’s Third Way Politics in The Mould of Attitudinal and Behavioural Change. I launched the latter in Freetown, Sierra Leone last Easter break.

Satire can be a Dangerous Exercise
Satire, especially around the theme of politics is not in my view a popular undertaking or genre especially if one concentrates on a Third World state as your case study. Reflecting on the debilitating consequences, the statistics spell danger, extreme danger. At the launch of Sunset in Sierra Leone, one of the guest speakers, a senior Sierra Leonean academic summed up his analysis nicely,

“Political satire of the nature you have imbued in, Michael Wundah, is not for the faint hearted.”

He was right, bravely I went to Sierra Leone prior to the 2007 elections and gave an interview on the only national TV channel. By the time I returned home I met more than a dozen emails threatening me for exposing filth that obtained in the periods I covered in the book and the ‘‘Big Fishes’’ I analysed in the context of my satire. A handful of brave political satirists that have bravely launched into this genre have paid with their own lives and those of their loved ones.

Read on for part two of this fascinating story in Dr. Wundah’s next AuthorHouse Author’s digest guest article.

Dr. Michael N. Wundah’s AuthorHouse Bibliography:

• Virgin Island

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Kent, what was your favorite part of the self-publishing experience?

My favorite part of self-publishing has to be seeing the final product–the actual book. To think that all of this wisdom in my book started out as a few lines of ideas on sticky notes and notebook paper.

What advice would you like to give to the other aspiring authors out there?

Never give up on your dreams. I know everyone says that, but I truly believe it. If you believe in yourself strong enough, others who doubted will become convinced.

What are you working on next?

I’m currently planning my third book (titled either Life without Limits  or God’s Final Warning).

Are there any events or promotions planned for 23 Heartbeats?

Yes! I’m excited, this is the other best part [of self-publishing]. I’ve already been featured in my hometown newspapers, with more to come. Also, television stations are going to feature me as a special guest. Social media (blogs, Facebook, Instagram), along with the help of family and friends, are the ways I’m planning on marketing. I also bought marketing services with AuthorHouse, and there has been talk about being featured in the New York Times. We’ll see about all that.

Author Kent R. Gant Jr.

Is there anything you’d like to add before we wrap things up?

I’m giving back by creating my own workshop, which will be focused on helping people realize their dreams of writing, publishing, and marketing their first books. The request for it has been coming from readers all over my city.

I would like to say thank you so much to my friends Dave and Ashley Willis, William Sirls, Adam Kirk Smith, BigSam, and Chris Crenshaw. Also to my family, Kent Gant Sr., Mary Gant, and Demetrice Gant.

Anyone reading this keep going, and never give up on your dream. Always remember, “Don’t take anything for granted. Everything happens for a reason, and everything only lasts for a season.”

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Thank you for your time, Kent, and best of luck with your next book! Readers, 23 Heartbeakts is available at Amazon or the AuthorHouse Bookstore. For more information about Kent or his books, follow him on Facebook or Instagram:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/produceprosperity/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kentgantjr/

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You can read the first part of our discussion here.

David, what inspired you to write The Far-Away Dream? How long did it take you to finish it?

In 1982, I became a Navy chaplain. My first assignment was to the Infantry Training School of the U. S. Marines at Camp Pendleton, California. Once again, I was with the Marine infantry. Knowing I had been a combat Marine, the executive officer of ITS encouraged me to speak of my experiences to the young Marines. Until then, I had not spoken much about what I had experienced, but I began to tell my “combat stories” and I’ve been speaking about them ever since.

In recent years, I would hear my children repeat my stories, only they never seemed to get “the facts” straight. I decided to write them down. My son Benjamin thought my account should be published, and he gave me a contract with AuthorHouse as a gift. Once I had the contract, I wrote the book in less than a year.

What’s the main message you’d like to convey to readers through your book?

My personal experience in Vietnam is really a story of how my faith in Jesus Christ deepened, and how the Lord fashioned me into the man I am today–a man who is responsible for all the wrong I have done, while God is to be praised for all the good that has come to me. That includes survival through the deadly horror of Hue (Vietnam) and having a mine explode below me a couple of months later. For many, Vietnam memories are more like nightmares. For me, they are more like a far-away dream.

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We’ll be back next week with the conclusion of our interview with David A. Crum. His book, The Far-Away Dream, is available at Amazon and the AuthorHouse Bookstore. For more information about David and his book, check out his Facebook page.

Thanks for visiting Author’s Digest! Follow AuthorHouse on Facebook and Twitter. For more information about how you can become a published author, click here for our FREE Publishing Guide.

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You can read the first part of the interview here.

Dr. Hendricks, what inspired you to write your book?

A Guide for Writing Teachers  was inspired by an in-depth research study while I was pursuing a doctor of Education degree at Valdosta State University. Moustakas (1994) said before a researcher can investigate a phenomenon, the researcher would need an autobiographical connection. If not, the researcher’s experience would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

As a matter of expediency, I began with my own autobiographical connection in an attempt to understand and recognize the phenomenon by exploring my journey with writing: as a first-year college student and as an English instructor at a technical college.

My journey with writing was an anticlimactic experience. I would equate it with taking a long journey on a rocky road with many precipitous hills and low valleys. I always had a deep desire and affinity for learning. For years, I had longed for an opportunity to enroll at a university, but fear kept me away–fear that felt like sharp knives piercing inside my belly. On one particular day in 1990, however, I found the courage to walk up the steps to the door of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia.

For my first writing assignment, I had to write a three-page reflection paper on Ordinary People  by Judith Guest (1976). I connected with Judith’s story immediately because of a similar tragedy that had occurred in my family; however, this novel brought insights and meaning to my college writing, more than one could ever imagine. As I wrote about Ordinary People, something magical happened! I wrote so much that I forgot about the grammar rules and all those “disgramming grammar sentences” (The Education Week, 2016).

(Response to be continued in next week’s post.)

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We’ll present the third part of our interview with Dr. LaRonce Marie Hendricks next week. Her book, A Guide for Writing Teachers: How to Build Effective Writing Communities in College, is available at Amazon and the AuthorHouse Bookstore.

Thanks for visiting Author’s Digest! Follow AuthorHouse on Facebook and Twitter. For more information about how you can become a published author, click here for our FREE Publishing Guide.

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Dr. Hendricks, let’s start by telling us a bit about yourself.

I’m an educator at heart. I believe that education is the beginning process of change, which means becoming intellectual challenged, and is a process of developing the cognition to stir one’s thinking to propel further and soar higher. I believe a safe learning environment cultivates and produces knowledge. Lastly, I’m a facilitator, an instructor, motivational speaker, and writer.

Were there any literary influences that influenced your style or choice of genre?

Two qualitative approaches: a phenomenological approach was triagulated with a narrative approach, both of which were used to shape elements for specific qualitative protocols for this genre. Patton (2002) explained that triangulation was a qualitative procedure useful for mutiple methods to shape elements of a qualitative study, and Vagle (2014) explained that a phenomenological approach would allow the researcher to focus on the [meaning] of the phenomena; for example, defining the meaning of negative predispositions toward writing.

Please describe your book for our readers.

A Guide for Writing Teachers  presents three immutable things: (1) it identifies problems, herein called negative predispositions, often experienced by first-year college students; (2) it describes and identifies the 11 negative predispositions; and (3) it suggests 11 alternative approaches to building effective writing communities at colleges.

Quigley (1997) said that most students “do not make it past [the first] three weeks” of college before they slowly fade away. Data findings can aid in improving low achievement scores in composition courses; it can also help administrators to “allocate additional support and programs that [can] better address young adult Millennial students’ unique [learning] needs” (Guyton, 2011).

What was your favorite part of the self-publishing experience?

My favorite part of the self-publishing experience was seeing the final product.

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We’ll present the second part of our interview with Dr. LaRonce Marie Hendricks next week. Her book, A Guide for Writing Teachers: How to Build Effective Writing Communities in College, is available at Amazon and the AuthorHouse Bookstore.

Thanks for visiting Author’s Digest! Follow AuthorHouse on Facebook and Twitter. For more information about how you can become a published author, click here for our FREE Publishing Guide.

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Today, AuthorHouse is pleased to welcome self-published writer Myra F. Levick, PhD, ATR-BC, to The Author’s Digest. That second set of credentials stands for “Art Therapist, Board Certified;” in addition, Myra is the director of the South Florida Art Psychotherapy Institute, and the author of Levick Emotional and Cognitive Art Therapy Assessment.

In the first of a three-part blog post, Myra discusses her education and how she entered the fascinating field of art therapy.

When A Picture Really Means More Than A Thousand Words (Part One)

This old, well-known clichérings very true in the field of art therapy. I am an art psychotherapist and suspect that many readers have never heard of art therapy and if per chance they have, know very little about it. So I take this opportunity to share information about this unique therapeutic process and the book that culminated years of practice and research.

In 1963, I had never heard of art therapy either. After a 17 year hiatus from school to marry and have 3 daughters, I was finally graduating from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. I had been accepted in the graduate art history program at Bryn Mawr College and considered my future as an educator all set.

Then, serendipitously, fate intervened. I saw a note on the senior bulletin board from a psychiatrist inviting graduating artists to apply for a position as an “art therapist,” working with mentally ill patients in an open unit. I was intrigued, applied and got the job.

The director of the 29-bed unit, the late Morris Goldman, was a young, creative, ambitious psychoanalyst. He shared with me his knowledge of the importance of art-making with the mentally ill; he had read of how successful this therapeutic intervention had been in European institutions for many years and how there were approximately 100 artists working in hospitals with the mentally ill in the United States. They were known as art therapists. That is what he wanted on his unit.

(To be continued)

Thank you very much, Myra!

AuthorHouse Author’s Digest hopes this has been informative to our readers. Click here to read the second part of Myra’s guest blog. Also, check out Levick Emotional and Cognitive Art Therapy Assessment at the AuthorHouse Bookstore!

Read more about AuthorHouse author Dr. Myra F. Levick and her research at the links below:

Children at Risk – the homepage of Myra F. Levick, Phd, ATR-BC

The Boca Raton branch of the National League of American Pen Women

Myra’s Facebook page

Myra on LinkedIn

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Susie, what advice would you give to other aspiring authors?

Be receptive to feedback, it will redirect your path to a direction that empowers your thinking, your writing, and (most importantly) your passion to deliver a humbling message that’s easier to share.

Once the book was completed and I was notified that it was ready for print, the feeling of accomplishment was so surreal. Everyone has a story to tell, and whether it’s a fun story or a raw story it has relevance. Even though we share commonalities and similar experiences, as a diverse people no one’s story has the same beginning or end. So pen yours–it’s about you, not them!

What is your next writing project?

I’m contemplating a children’s book in honor of my daughter, Landowyn Clarke. She’s my biggest inspiration and motivation to be a role model to little girls and young women. Also, I may try a book that cultivates family rooting. Either way, I want to continue sharing my passion to write about truths that encourage and lift the human spirit. Writing is a free hobby that enlightens my imagination with thought-provoking realities.

Are there any events or promotions planned for your book?

I hope to connect with various local networks and radio broadcasts that will further promote the book. Also, I’m planning a book launch event this upcoming Spring 2018.

In additional to focusing on the book, my purpose is much broader in bringing light to this dark illness. I am currently collaborating with a group of people in my community to start a non-profit organization called IGEMS, which stands for “I Galvanize to Eradicate Mental-Health Silence.” The goal is to expand awareness, as well increase resource availabilities to veterans and young, school-aged children and teens.

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Thank you very much for your time, Susie, and best of luck with your upcoming projects! Readers, you can find  Mental Illness: MI Doesn’t Look Like Me at Amazon and the AuthorHouse Bookstore.

Thanks for visiting Author’s Digest! Follow AuthorHouse on Facebook and Twitter. For more information about how you can become a published author, click here for our FREE Publishing Guide.

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You can read the first three parts–in which Edwin discusses his background, his self-publishing experience, his advice for other writers, and the possible film adaptation of  True Haunting–in our Author Blogs section.

Edwin, what is your next writing project?

I have three novels in the works and will finish them in good time. At age 73, I’m no longer in any great hurry!

Are there any events or promotions planned for your True Haunting?

None scheduled. This is one of the reasons I never enlisted an agent or PR person–because I’m lazy! I don’t do book signings, nor accept offers for public appearances. I am, however, committed to the film company to do any appearances they schedule to promote the movie.

Speaking of the movie, what’s the latest on the True Haunting  film adaptation?

Sworn to a confidentially agreement, I can only share little, but I’m getting an education. It’s at the screenwriting stage and filming locations are being searched for. Since it takes place in 1970, it’s considered a “period” film and I’m learning what it takes to gather all the elements to recapture 1970!

Is there anything you’d like to add before we wrap things up?

I can’t say enough about self-publishing. Some new writers are attracted by the traditional publishers, but that can be a huge mistake. Traditional publishers can alter your work, they maintain some book rights, they set the prices, and their modest advances are actually loans. You get no royalties until you’ve earned back your advance, and they may even reserve the right to ask for it back if your book does not sell as expected.

As the number of brick-and-mortar bookstores decreases, their strength in distribution has diminished. Unless you are an A-list celebrity author, self-publishing is the only way to go!

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Thank you for your time, Edwin, and best of luck with your future projects. Please keep us up-to-date on the  True Haunting film adaptation as details become available!

Readers, all of Edwin’s books (including  True Haunting) are available at Amazon and the AuthorHouse Bookstore. For more information about Edwin F. Becker and his books, check out his website at www.edwinbecker.com.

Thanks for visiting Author’s Digest! Follow AuthorHouse on Facebook and Twitter. For more information about how you can become a published author, click here for our FREE Publishing Guide.

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Congratulations on your Eric Hoffer Award, Harold! Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi, my name is Harold Martin Howington, but everyone calls me Marty. I was born on March 24, 1944, in Abbs Valley, Virginia. My family moved to Ohio, and we stayed there for several years. My first wife was killed in an auto accident in 1969. I served in the US Army from October, 1966 until October 1968. From March 1967 to March 1968, I served in Vietnam, where I was decorated for valor (which I won’t go into now).

Through the years, I worked as a musician, playing guitar and piano in a road band. I’ve done studio recording and played for other artists in these sessions. I drove a big truck and have been in all fifty states. (Alaska and Hawaii was by Uncle Sam during the Vietnam War; we stopped in Alaska going over and stopped in Hawaii coming home.) I finally wound up in Florida, where I still live with my wife of 34 years.

I’ve also performed in our local theater as a number of different characters, and I did sound and lighting for some plays.

Were there any literary influences that helped you develop your style or choice of genre?

I’ve been writing since grade school. I’d read historic novels, along with fiction, to get a good balance between “true” and “not true.” I read a lot of Writer’s Digest magazines, as well as some authors on writing techniques.

I love the old noir movies, so that kind of influenced me a lot. I also have a screenplay I wrote in a totally different genre (comedy). I’ve written poetry, songs, and a few advertisements.

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We’ll present the second part of our interview with H. M. Howington next week. His award-winning novel  The Redhead is available at Amazon and the AuthorHouse Bookstore!

Thanks for visiting Author’s Digest! Follow AuthorHouse on Facebook and Twitter. For more information about how you can become a published author, click here for our FREE Publishing Guide.

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You can read the previous parts of our chat with Susanne in our Author Blogs section.

Susanne, what are you working on next?

Another Wycliff novel, of course! My little fictitious town is home to a lot of people and businesses – it holds a lot of opportunity for new stories.

Are there any events or promotions planned for Clean Cuts?

I have a public Facebook page on which I post daily and conduct raffles. I also write press releases about Clean Cuts  and distribute them to various papers and online media. I write a Friday column that, in its last paragraph, always mentions my Wycliff novels and my Facebook address.

There will be book signings in my local area (the South Puget Sound region of Washington State), and I’ll also have a table at a local film, art and book festival in September. Sometimes I’m simply lucky to have friends who think outside the box with me: last winter I read two of my novels to a small, but incredibly avid, audience at a knitting store. I’ve been requested for another reading this autumn.

Another marketing secret? Putting real people and businesses into your book may create a nice additional sales ripple!

Before we wrap things up, do you have any advice for the aspiring authors out there?

Write. Whether you publish or not, in writing you leave a footprint, a message. If you publish, try to make it worthwhile. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Have somebody else test-read and edit. Rewrite again. And again. And again. Your writing is another person’s reading experience – do your best to make it a good one.

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Thank you very much for your time, Susanne, and best of luck with your next Wycliff novel—we look forward to seeing how your little town surprises us!

Readers, Clean Cuts—as well as the rest of the Wycliff series—is available at Amazon and the AuthorHouse Bookstore!

Thanks for visiting Author’s Digest! Follow AuthorHouse on Facebook and Twitter. For more information about how you can become a published author, click here for our FREE Publishing Guide.

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