Reader’s Life Magazine
Contents 3-6: John Cosper 8-12: V.A. Jeffery 14-19: J.L McCann
John Cosper John Cosper is an award-winning writer from Southern Indiana and the founder of Righteous Insanity. He has written more than 2000 sketches and produced over 100 short films. He is the author of several science fiction novels, short story collections, and even kids stories. John’s film credits include the Fluffy trilogy, the Clive the Zombie puppet films, The Hauss Show, and award-winning short films The Telemarketer, Tolerance, and Bots. He’s dabbled in noir, horror, and other dark realms,
but for the most part he prefers humor and space opera to dystopian societies filled with moody teenagers.Never one to stay stuck in one genre for long, John also writes about professional wrestling. He is the author of several wrestling histories and writes about independent wrestling regularly on his blog Eat Sleep Wrestle.
John Cosper is a writer of many trades, his work spans from non-fiction to science fiction. With a career spanning 23 years he has owned and toured with a christian theater troupe as well as published novels. All though he has always written, his career did not officially start until he was a sophomore in College. Cospers dream was to write movies, as he was a Star wars and movie buff. Cosper has written in many genres but he favors Science fiction with a humorous twist. He also has an obsession with the noir. He has even written a trio of noir stories entitled “The Big Bad Goodnight”
It is currently on Kindle. One of Cospers Newer novels “Robot/Girlfriend” is a collection of short stories that he has written over the span of 10 years. It features works like “THe Telemarketer” and “Tolerance” Both of which have been made into short films and have won awards. His story “Drip, Drop” has been the inspiration for Cindy Maples’ new short “Out of My Mind” Which is currently gaining multiple awards. “Robot/Girlfriend has many stories and each one has something at inspired it.
“Every story had its own unique inspiration. "Tolerance" was a backlash against political correctness. I’m a big Florida State fan, so the inspiration for that story goes back to when people wanted them to change their mascot from the Seminoles. (The Seminole nation stood up for them, so they remain the Seminoles.) "A Conscientious Objector of Mars" came about when I wondered if alien invaders in sci-fi movies had any dissenters in their ranks. I’d tell you the inspiration for "The Telemarketer," but that would give away the punchline. It’s another "What would happen if…" type of idea.”
Cosper uses Createspace and Kindle as is primary publishing tools but he has used Nook and Smashwords also. He says that the challenge is editing and proofreading the stories as well as marketing. Cosper has three fiction novels he is publishing as well as one non fiction wrestling book. “I have three fiction books I hope to release in 2017. Demonica: Confessions of a Small Town Super-Villain; Return to Cave World, a sequel to my book Cave World; and Die Max Die, a "multi-dimensional tale of love and revenge." The latter was my late NaNoWriMo project, a total lark that features dragons, Bigfoot
hunters, and hyper-intelligent beavers with a special guest appearance by Thelma Todd. Most of my writing these days is either Sunday School Curriculum for Children’s Ministry Deals or non-fiction about professional wrestling. The kids stuff was an opportunity that came out of my writing drama ministry for so many years. I started writing about wrestling when my wife told me to "go for it" and write a book about the history of pro wrestling in Louisville. My fifth wrestling book is due out in March.”
Cosper also has advice for young writers. “You’re not a writer if all you do is tell people about your writing. Finish something and release it. Put it on a blog, or on Kindle. Submit it to traditional publishers and keep submitting until you get a yes. Don’t just talk about writing. Finish something and release it so others can enjoy it! Also, be sure to find and read a copy of Michael O’Donoghue’s brilliant essay, "How to Write Good."
Victoria A. VictoriaJeffrey A. Jeffrey grew up in Portland, Oregon, attended Portland Community College and studied graphic design. She is an author and an avid reader of science fiction, fantasy. She also enjoys reading historical fiction and non-fiction. She has written four collections of poetry and some short stories. She is the author of the Red World myth-fantasy trilogy. She has two upcoming series for this year and next year, the Mission space opera series and a steampunk science fiction series.
Victoria A. Jeffery writes under the penname V.A. Jeffery. Her novels range from Fantasy to Scifi, Jeffery was introduced to books at a young age by her mother. Her mother would read to her and take her to the library. Jeffery is a self published author but prior to self publishing had sent various manuscripts to different publishers on and off for around 15 years. “I happened to be looking for some information about the updated Writer’s Market guide and by accident I came upon information about self-publishing on Amazon through an author named Michael Stackpole.”
After a week of researching self publishing and how Amazon had changed the face of publishing she made the decesion to leave behind the tradtion of sending in submissions and started her career as a self published author. One of miss Jeffery’s novels is “Mission: Flight to Mars” It is a space opera that was inspired parcailly by her love of “Flash Gordon” And “Star Wars” “ I wanted to write a story with big expansive themes, something fun to read and also fastpaced and so the Mission series was born.” The series has taken 2 years to write so far and the final 2 novels should
Be published by later this year. “The series is about a humble quality assurance employee working for a huge aerospace corporation who discovers an alien conspiracy to take over the planet Earth and push humans out. In each book he finds that the conspiracy is growing and that it is far more complex than he’d first thought and he begins the work of cobbling together his own organization along the way through his adventures and the solving of mysteries to help fight the coming threat. He also finds that not all of the aliens are enemies. Some are allies in the fight and he gets a lot of unexpected help along the way as he uncovers
more and more about the conspiracy as he goes further down the rabbit hole.” Jeffery is working hard to finish her Mission series and after that is finished she is going to be working on a Science Fiction detective story. Apart from that she also has a Podcast. “I have a podcast called The Other Words podcast where I put my short fiction to audio readings and music. You can find that at http://theotherworldsp odcast.blogspot.com/” She also has some advice for young writers. “Don’t rush or jump to self-publish. I think it’s a good idea to put yourself through the traditional submission process for
at least a few years because most likely your first two or three books won’t be very good. Publishing them on the open market and getting nasty reviews for submitting a book that isn’t ready can be ego crushing and devastating. I would also say to rid yourself of the myth of the muse. What I mean by that is this: to be a professional writer you have to write no matter whether it shows up or not. Don’t get carried away by that writer’s life myth. You must write regularly without distractions no matter whether the muse visits you or not. Writing is work and has to be take seriously like anything else if you expect to earn any money from it. Write every day or every week, whether you want to or not.
After your story is edited you won’t be able to tell the difference as to when the muse was upon you and when it was not, at any point in the story. It takes both creativity and discipline. So you must write regularly. If your muse shows up, wonderful, if not, forget her. She ain’t reliable.” You can find her work at: www.epistlepublishing. com
J. L. McCann J. L. McCann was born and raised in Lexington to Sandra Jackson. Currently holding a degree in business management at Sullivan University, he works in the Fayette County Public School system. He has studied the numerous aspects of mythology, wizardry and witchcraft folklore as well as medieval folklore. At an early age, he assisted and taught several different art subject classes at a local community based center in Lexington including but not limited to
creative drawing, wood sculpting, music and creative writing. He takes great pride and enjoyment in all aspects relating to the creative arts. “This book will appeal to readers because it crosses into different genres,” McCann says. “This book has action, suspense, romance, fantasy and with all of that bundled up in one book it can catch the eyes and minds of all readers.” Through the publication of “The Twins of Aerobith Past, Present, Future, and Prophecy,” McCann hopes to help readers reach You can purchase "The Twins of
into their imaginations and be able to see what is actually happening in this book. After they are done reading, he hopes they will be amazed that they let their own imaginations drift.
You can purchase "The Twins of Aerobith- Past, Present, Future & Prophecy" on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and Xlibrus.com and various other online book and ebook retailers.
(How long have you been writing?) Writing has always been one of my passions. I started writing at an early age but never took the initiative to publish any of my work. "The Twins of Aerobith Past, Present, Future and Prophecy" is the first if my wok that has been published. (What got you interested in writing?) My love for writing comes from my love of being creative. I write fiction novels and with fiction novels the mind can let it's creative juices flow. (Can you tell us about your novel?)
In "The Twins of Aerobith Past, Present, Future, and Prophecy," Dalton and Dameter Dramer, 14 year old twin siblings, didn’t have the slightest clue that they were born wizards. Join with them as they discover their prophecy, and delve into their past, present and future. Will they succeed in preventing the downfall of their home wizard city of Aerobith? Journey with the Dramer twins as they leave their only know home of Gravity Park and venture back to their new found home city, Aerobith. Dalton and Dameter Dramer will make new allies along their way such as; wizards, wizard nymphs, Prime Wizards and discover long lost relatives. They also will need to conquer dark
They also will need to conquer dark creatures, dark forces, dark wizards, witches and much more! The Twins of Aerobith (TTOA), will take the young adult/adult readers on an eventful and magical roller coaster ride of emotions. TTOA is full with a great deal of high fantasy and high magic that will leave the reader wanting more. Get ready to partake in the awesome adventures, magical quests, tests, and trials that Dalton and Dameter Dramer experience as they learn of their magical wizardry heritage. This book will appeal to readers because it crosses into different genres. This book has action, suspense, romance, fantasy and with all of
that bundled up in one book it can catch the eyes and minds of all readers. Through the publication of “The Twins of Aerobith Past, Present, Future, and Prophecy,� I hope to help readers reach into their imaginations and be able to see what is actually happening in this book. After they are done reading, he hopes they will be amazed that they let their own imaginations drift. You can purchase "The Twins of Aerobith- Past, Present, Future & Propgecy" on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and Xlibrus.com.
(What inspired you to write this story?) My love for magical fiction is mainly what
My love for magical fiction is mainly what inspired me to write "The,Twins of Aerobith Past, Present, Future, and Prophecy." I also can say that my love for books of this genre also played a contributing factor. Book such as the "Harry Potter," "Twilight," "Percy Jackson," and others of this genre series give me life. (How many novels are you planning?) I am planning for "The Twins of Aeribith" to be a four book series. Sometines the writer has to allow the fans to help decide the actual book volume. If the need for the series stretches beyond four books then I will continue to give the readers more.
(What other projects are you working on?) Currently I just finished my latest work which is entitled "Real Magic." "Real Magic" is also in the fantasy genre. Althouh "The Twins of Aerobith" is considered a high fantasy fiction novel for middle grade readers up to adults, "Real Magic" is more of a urban fiction novel for middle grade readers. I have just started working on the second book in the Twins of Aerobith series. The second book will be an extention of the first. It will take a deeper look at each of the main characters, introduce new characters, and bring back some characters
that the readers wouldn't expect. Just as the first book was filled with magic, drama, suspense, action, and romance, the second book too will encompass all of that.
(Do you have any words of wisdom for up and coming writers?) The most important words of wisdom that I could pass on to up and coming writers would be to follow your dreams and to stick with your goals. Although it's easier to give up, it feels better to be accomplished.