Let Me Go Tour & Author Interview

Let Me Go by L.L. Akers

(Let Me Go #1)

Publication date: July 5th 2013

Genres: Contemporary, New Adult

AUTHOR BIO

L.L. Akers is originally from the Midwest where she grew up climbing trees, haystacks, and haylofts—escaping into other worlds with a good book. She enjoyed playing cow-pattie hopscotch and outrun-the-bull with her siblings.

 

She now lives in the South, the silly wife of a serious man, and mother of: one very gifted and fetching male-tween, a chubby beagle that looks astonishingly like a mini-cow, a deranged terrier as well as five Koi fish, a herd of tiny but boastful lizards, and dozens of obnoxiously loud serenading frogs.

 

After a career in human resources, she now pursues life as a recluse writer; hanging out at home in her PJ’s with her iPad, Burt’s Bees lip balm and her posse of creatures. Regardless of her self-isolation, she can still be lured outside for brief moments by the scent of freshly mowed grass and a bowl full of cherries.

 

Let Me Go is her first novel, and book 1 of the Let Me Go Series – each book is a stand-alone, with no cliffhangers.

Links:

Interview

What’s your story? How did you get into writing?

I ended up being at home, bored, after I had left a career in human resources to take care of my dying mother-
in-law. I took care of her fulltime for eighteen months, but after that, I was at a loss for what to do. I started editing, and while doing that from home, I realized there was a story in me bubbling to get out.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

Keep writing, even if it doesn’t look like much of a story. Just get the first draft out! Then you can edit, edit, edit.

What are you working on now?

The next book in the Let Me Go Series. All the Let Me Go novels are stand-alone with no cliffhangers, but they do follow the same characters as their lives continue.

What has been the most challenging part of publishing or marketing your book?

Marketing in general. If you don’t constantly market, you take a downward dive in ranking. It’s amazing how fast it can fall. I didn’t focus on marketing for Let Me Go much. I was told by those that went before me that it’s a useless exercise of futility to try to keep it up in the rankings without any follow-up books. I’ll be marketing the second and third book much harder, though.

What has been your favorite part?

Just writing… it’s an amazing feeling to see the story in your head and feel it come out through your fingers.

Who are your favorite authors?

Vanessa Diffenbaugh is a debut author who wrote an incredible first book that really impressed me. I love Diana Galbadon and Stephen King, Sandra Brown and Nora Roberts… I have many favorite authors.

What gave you the idea for your current work?

I really don’t know, it seemed it was all there in my head, ready to roll out. They—whomever the heck they is—say all fiction is loosely based on someone’s life. I guess my book is based on several nameless strangers whom I must have come in contact with.

If you could be any character in the book, which one would you be?

Gabby, because she has Jake.

What other books have you written and/or are working on for the future?

I’m continuing the Let Me Go series, which are all stand-alone novels with no cliff-hangers, but chronologically based on the same characters. I will also be crossing genre’s into post-apocalyptic, end-of-the-world type books soon, written for women by a woman (Me).

What’s your favorite quote?

I know its cliché, but it really does apply bazillions of times in all types of conversations and situations:

“It is what it is.”

What’s your favorite supernatural creature?

If I could choose my favorite supernatural creature to be real, I’d choose the fairy—oh wait… fairies are real. Okay, well, my favorite to read about is werewolves.