Coffee Time with Author, Michael Sanchez

A Dress the Color of the Sky

Jennifer Irwin’s debut novel, A Dress the Color of the Sky, was published in 2017 and has received rave reviews, won seven book awards, and was optioned for a feature film. Jennifer’s short stories have appeared in numerous literary publications including California’s Emerging Writers: An Anthology of Fiction. Jennifer is represented by Prentis Literary and currently resides in Los Angeles.

Q & A

Talk about topics from previous shows such as anthologies, writing styles, inspirations, book to audio etc. 

Ghost of the Rio Grande

Today Holbrook has concentrated the majority of his efforts on writing historically based fiction novels that take place in modern times. He loves connected his readers to the past but giving them a good old fashioned mystery and conspiracy thriller to keep them on the edge of their seats and turning those pages. He and his family love to travel and their travel has deeply influenced his writing. Holbrook is a regular keynote motivational speaker on transforming local economies, communities, companies, and individuals into effective agents of progress and healthy lifestyle and workforce choices. He works on the design, negotiation and attraction of business cases that will attract capital to projects and locales to create jobs and stimulate growth in local economies through economic development policies. He is a Fellow Member of the International Economic Development Council. Holbrook lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Anthologies

Lorraine Carey is a retired children's reading specialist, teacher and an International Award-Winning Author. She has taught in many states in the US and provided reading services for students at a private school on Grand Cayman, where she lived with her husband for nine years. She was a city gal, living in Orange County, California until fate whisked her away to the Caribbean where life was very different from the one she was accustomed to. Trading in her fashionable heels for flip-flops was quite a change, but led to a lifestyle that allowed for a writing career to begin.

The Wind From new Jersey

Framed against the Allied occupation of postwar Germany, the emerging Cold War and a classic English poem, The Wind From New Jersey is a story set in an era when mental illness was considered a sign of weakness. It traces the lives of two young Englishmen, the emotionally disturbed spy Daniel Lincoln and the narcissistic criminal Ronald Hunt.
The Berlin Wall of 1961 has curtailed Western espionage in East Germany. In 1964 Britain’s MI6 and the American CIA plot to rectify this. But MI6 has a secret agenda.
Daniel and Ronald become embroiled in separate but interdependent games of no-win Cold War cat and mouse. While all the while, as Daniel’s untreated illness rages, friend battles friend as much as foe.
A taut, stealthily seductive psychological tale of intrigue and human frailty, The Wind From New Jersey is a book perfect for lovers of gritty, edge of your seat espionage thrillers.

Anthologies

Lorraine Carey is a retired children's reading specialist, teacher and, an International Award-Winning Author. 
Her love for paranormal stories and urban legends began at a young age, when staying up all night to watch spooky movies or reading a scary book started a lifelong passion. Lorraine is no stranger to the paranormal, as she has encountered many unexplainable events during her lifetime. Many of those events have been woven into her fiction tales.
Published novels include: Losing Ground, a short memoir, followed by Mysteries of the Red Coyote Inn, Out of the Ashes, Jonathan's Locket, The Last Vestal Virgin and Beloved Sacrifice. These novels are paranormal with a mix of historical fiction, woven with urban legends and suitable for young adults to adults. A Rock Star Reader by Kindergarten is a self-help guide for parents on creating a successful reader and lifelong lover of literacy. The Good Teacher and On Borrowed Time are her latest works in the Women of the Willow Wood Series. This Award-Winning series is based on legends of an underground secret society of women who use ancient magic.
Supernatural thriller, Jonathan’s Locket was a 2014 winner in the Readers’ Favorite contest, earning a Silver Award and a finalist in the Wind Dancer Film Contest. This Young Adult novel featured some of the island legends out of Grand Cayman surrounding the shipwreck of The Ten Sails.
 

Do you have your book in audio, and how well do they sell?

Too much competition in printing hard and soft-cover books and the market is oversaturated. It is a growing market for those individuals, who plan to publish a book for the first time, and for those writers who've written and published multiple books, but are struggling in sales.  

Should authors narrate their work and why?

Audiobooks is great source of business for authors. However, some authors prefer to hire someone else to do their work for them such as a voice actor. Should writers take advantage of narrating their work or let someone else take the credit?

What do you prefer. A fairytale or cliffhanger?

Some audiences or groups enjoy a fairytale (happily ever after) story. Compared to others who enjoy a cliffhanger (open-ended) story where it leaves the audience or group with more questions than answers and look forward to a sequel. Which one do you prefer?

What’s your number one goal with your work?

For some time now I have been asked if what I do is just a hobby and if it's my goal? Yes, many writers out there just do it for fun or to write for themselves like a memoir where the writer can look back at their notes to recount a memory, but that is not my goal. My goal is to inspire others while at the same time enjoying the work that I do as an author and maybe become a full-time author.