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What’s your story? How did you get into writing?
I started keeping a diary when I was eight. Unfortunately, I lost it often. My only surviving diaries are from high school, and they are very embarrassing, LOL! But I wrote in them every day, for pages and pages.
What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
I still feel pretty aspiring, myself, so I can’t tell you how to ‘make it’, but I do want you to know that it is completely free to self-publish these days. Oh, you might pay a freelancer like me for editing or cover design or formatting, but every online book vendor who is worthwhile lets you upload your book for free and they pay you. You don’t pay them. Many scammers out there will take your money and say they are selling your book, but they are just that, scammers. Come hang out with me, Stacy, and a bunch of other indie authors at the 20BooksTo50K® Facebook group and get educated before you get scammed. Please.
What are you working on now?
I am 4,000 words into the third book in my Dog Aliens series, She Wolf Neya.
What has been the most challenging part of publishing or marketing your book?
Finding places to advertise that aren’t a waste of money! Bookbub has not yet accepted me, and now I am waiting until the third book in my series is complete before I apply to them again. I’ve had pretty good results from Ereader News Today, Booksends, and Free Books Daily for a reasonable price, but that’s it!
What has been your favorite part?
Hearing directly from fans is, hands down, the absolute best part about writing books! Most of my communication with fans has been in Goodreads messages, but I have also had comments on my blog posts and Facebook posts. I do a little happy dance every time I get one of those messages, they tickle me so much!
Who are your favorite authors?
Diana Gabaldon is an automatic buy for me, whenever she comes out with a new Outlander book. The next one is due out March 25! I’ve read all of Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, and Jane Austen, so I guess that makes them favorites, too.
What gave you the idea for your current work?
The Men in Black movies gave me the idea, but those movies didn’t originate the concept. The men in black are an urban legend that goes back at least to 1837. The movies just popularized the idea.
If you could be any character in the book, which one would you be?
Well, as my dog’s owner, I am a character in my book, LOL!
What other books have you written and/or are working on for the future?
I wrote a guide to being a high school substitute teacher, and I’ve edited two anthologies of true stories. One is called How I Got Him to Marry Me, and the other is titled My Dog Understands English!
What’s your favorite quote?
“Don’t dream it; be it.”
Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975
What’s your favorite supernatural creature?
Whichever one the character in the novel I am reading is becoming! I absolutely love watching characters discover supernatural abilities.
Bio
Cherise Kelley makes most of her living as a freelance editor, but she is having some luck selling her fiction. She is a credentialed English teacher with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley. She turned fifty this year!
Links
Blog
http://size12bystpatricksday.blogspot.com/
Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/CheriseKelleyWriter
Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6550175.Cherise_Kelley