June issue

Reader’s Life Magazine Eliot Parker, Tina DC Hayes, G.L Skye, Marian Allen

Editor’s Note Reader’s Life Magazine would like to present our 8th issue. The theme for our issue is Adventure.

Contents 5-6: G.L. Skye 7-12: Tina D.C Hayes 14-16:Eliot Parker 18-24:Marian Allen 25: Short story

G.L. Skye G.L. Skye is a retired Geo Specialist with the US Army. He has always loved books and would often read while deployed, but while he was deployed in Afcanistan he began to have ideas for novels.

He didn’t have any idea where he was going but has he wrote he began to develope “Return to Life” A story about a former soldier who retired and bought a ranch when there is a total collapse of the government.

After writing “Return to life” he began to write “Texas Border trouble” and most recently has penned “World Reset” Which is set to be a trilogy.

Skye orginially selfpublished but has since joined Tate publishing, He says that is can take him anywhere from 3 to 4 months to finish one of his novels and that he does currently have a day job but he would love to be a writer and speaker full time

Tina DC Hayes Tina DC Hayes writes romantic suspense and cozy mysteries with a paranormal twist. She lives down a little country road in western Kentucky with her husband and four children. A few pampered pooches and two parrots keep her company while they stand guard against writer's block.

In her spare time she reads, hangs out with friends and family, watches movies, plays guitar, and indulges her inner Foodie in the kitchen and by chowing down at cool restaurants. Currently up to her elbows in diapers, she's an expert at 4 a.m. bottle feedings and Patty Cake.

http://tinadchayes. wordpress/com

1. How long have you been writing?

I’ve been making up stories and playing with poetry ever since I was a little kid. About ten years ago I decided to make a career of it, and it’s going pretty well.

1. How long have you been writing?

I’ve been making up stories and playing with poetry ever since I was a little kid. About ten years ago I decided to make a career of it, and it’s going pretty well.

2. What got you started writing?

Listening to my parents and grandparents read stories to me when I was a child really sparked my imagination. I think that’s why I constantly have plots

and characters dancing around in my head.

Always. What-if scenarios turn into stories I can’t let go of, and that’s what happened the day I sat down to write my first full-length romantic suspense novel, Nefarious. The characters were so real to me, I had to bring them to life on paper.

3. What inspired you to write the Petal Pushers series?

I got to thinking about how a florist impacts people in the community since they deliver flowers for every occasion from birth to funerals and everything in between.

As the story took shape in my head, I decided to put the flower shop in a fictionalized version of my hometown and shake things up with a ghost who has no idea she’s deceased.

4. What is a Cozy Mystery?

Cozies are fun mysteries with a main character who, though usually not a policeman or detective, has a knack for getting involved in unsolved criminal cases and refuses to give up until she gets to the bottom of things. Even when the crime is murder, nothing gory happens on the page. They’re usually set in small, close-knit towns and most include humor as the case unfolds.

5. How did you come up with your character Darci Shelton?

After I had an idea about the story, I started fleshing out the main character. I had to get inside her head and see what made her tick, find out her strengths and weaknesses. Darci Shelton was so easy to visualize and get to know as I wrote the first book in the series, it would have been impossible not to write the other books about her and the ghost, Miss Addie.

6. Can you explain the series to me?

When Darci Shelton opens the flower shop she’s always dreamed of owning, she must come to terms with Miss Addie, the store’s resident ghost, while struggling to put Petal Pushers in the black. She manages to get herself into plenty of sticky situations when she stumbles across unsolved mysteries in her small Kentucky town and tries to help the sheriff, whether he wants her to or not. Miss Addie left behind a few secrets before she died, plus a few things she still needs to attend to, and she pitches in around the shop by healing puny plants and looking after Darci when she gets in trouble. Murder,

cover-ups, buried secrets, and scandal are things Darci never expected to come across arranging flowers and landscaping, but she never backs down from a challenge.

7. How have readers reacted to the books?

Readers really like the Petal Pushers series. Fans were eager for the second book to come out, then wouldn’t stop asking about a third in the series until it got published. Darci is easy to relate to, Miss Addie adds a paranormal twist, and my readers who garden have told

me how much they like the extra information about plants.

heart desires. It’s a mix of suspense and dark humor.

8. Are you planning any more books in your Petal Pusher series?

Not right now, but that’s always a possibility. I absolutely love Darci and Miss Addie, and there’s still plenty of mischief for those two to get into.

I’m currently working on a manuscript for my Rock Candy Romantic Suspense series, and I’m playing with a few ideas that might just turn into a new set of cozy mysteries.

9. Do you have any advice for young writers?

Yes, write from your heart and never give up.

And read as much as you can.

10. What projects have you been working on?

My latest release is Queen of Schnapps, a quirky tale about an alcoholic serial killer hell-bent on getting everything her crazy

Follow Tina @ Twitter https://twitter. com/Tina_DC_Hayes Facebook https://www.facebook. com/TinaDCHayesAuth or

AMANDA EYRE WARD "Breakdown at Clear River is a book with great heart and forward momentum."

Eliot Parker Eliot Parker has always loved to read something he inherited from his mother. Parker began writing in college but truly got into it in 2008. While in college at Marshall University in West Virginia he studied journalism and played football both of these would assist in the inspiration for one of his novels.

After collage Parker worked for a radio staion and reported on college sports.

After working there for a few years he then began working at Mountwest community and technial college in Huntington West Virginia

Parker’s past in football and Journalism as well as his job in teacher helped inspire his novel “Breakdown as Clear River” A novel about a football player teaming up with a college reporter to solve a case.

Parker said he asked teachers what would be the worst this to happen at work and they all answered the death of a student. So he placed all of these factors together to publish his novel “Breakdown at Clear river.”He says that some of his students even read his book and then come to class and discuss it with him.

Parker is currently working on two books. One being the sequel to “Fragile Brilliance� and the other is a new series featuring a female detective as the protagonist. A first for Parker since up until now since all of his other novels feature male protagonists.

Marian Allen Marian Allen was born in Louisville, Kentucky and now lives in rural Indiana. For as long as she can remember, she has loved telling and being told stories. She writes science fiction, fantasy, mystery, humor, horror, mainstream, and anything else she can wrestle into fixed form.

Allens latest books are the SAGE fantasy trilogy, her science fiction novel SIDESHOW IN THE CENTER RING, her YA paranormal suspense A DEAD GUY AT THE SUMMERHOUSE, and her science fiction story collection OTHER EARTH, OTHER STARS.

Her latest short story sale was to Marion Zimmer Bradleys SWORD AND SORCERESS anthology.

She is a founding member of the Southern Indiana Writers Group and Editorial Director of Per Bastet Publications. Allen blogs daily at Marian Allen, Author Lady, at Fatal Foodies on Tuesdays and at The Write Type on the 21 st of each month.

I love Marian Allens books, and this one is no exception.- Anonymous

Marian Allen is the author of many novels and poems she has been writing for as long as she can remember.

“I can't remember a time when I wasn't thinking about stories I'd heard or seen, putting myself into them and imagining what it would feel like, and wondering what I might have done differently. I can remember sitting on the kitchen floor, covering a sheet of paper with random letters, and taking it to my mom and asking, "Are there any words there?"

“Interaction with stories was always part of my inner life. Most kids create stories when they play with their toys and dolls, sending them on adventures or into battle.

They create stories when they play with their friends, mimicking or improvising around

their favorite cartoons or movies or television shows. I did those things, too. What got me started WRITING was seeing Bambi.

Thumper, the rabbit, added a line to a poem.

When I questioned his right to do that, my mother revealed the wonderful secret that SOMEBODY WROTE THAT WHOLE MOVIE. For some reason, I had thought that stories just WERE, or that they were provided by specially licensed professionals.

When I found out that stories came from people like me, my fate was sealed.”

The Inspiration for her sage trilogy novels is based on Allen’s love for fairy tales. “I've always loved fairy tales, especially the long, involved, complicated ones with hidden identities and women who take charge of their own destinies. That was really the seed that started it.”

When asked if she plans to write more for the series she replied. “I don't PLAN more, but who knows? I have an online friend who is lobbying for one particular character to have her own book, so that might happen. I'm writing a collection of short stories based in that world, which will probably be published this year or in 2017.”

During May, Allen does a story a day. “This is the fourth year I've done Story A Day in May. The first year, I pulled scraps out of my Story Idea file and used those. The second year, I took photographs of random things around the house and used those as prompts. Last year, I started with the number of the day (One is Enough, Two of a Kind, etc.); if I got stuck, I grabbed a spam comment from my blog and used that as a prompt. This year, I'm cleaning my office, sorting through papers, and using a handful of random findings.”

While interviewing her I asked Miss Allen to describe her journey to publishing and this is what she said “In high school and college, I wrote Star Trek: TOS fan fiction and science fiction song parodies, and was published in fanzines -magazines published by fans and subscribed to by fans. Eventually, I felt confident enough to write original fiction and submit it. The first book I sold was to a now-defunct electronic publisher, back in the days when you bought an ebook by ordering it through the mail, and received it by mail on 5 1/4 floppy disks! My first short story sale was to a now-defunct online magazine called Bovine Free Wyoming. I think my pay was $5. I would still write a story for $5.

I got into selling books and stories just when the publishing industry started going through the gyrations and transformations that still make it such an uncertain enterprise.

It's scary and intimidating, but exciting, too.

The writing group I belong to, the Southern Indiana Writers Group, which has been together for over 20 years, now, has put out annual anthologies of our work almost since we began. Using our experience in that, T. Lee Harris and I and a friend from another group formed Per Bastet Publications.

That third partner,

Katina French, resigned from the partnership to have more time to write.

Our new partner is Sara Marian Deurell, my youngest daughter and a writer/editor/archeolo gist. Meanwhile, I'm still marketing short stories to other anthologies; my latest sale was to Marion Zimmer Bradley's SWORD AND SORCERESS 31.�

She has three peices of advice for young writers “Never give up!

Never surrender!

Seriously, the first piece of advice I have is: Learn and practice the basics of your language's grammar, punctuation, spelling, and syntax.

You may have a character or a narrator who using the language poorly, but YOU have to know how to use it.

Part of the submission process is to write a cover letter, and that will need to be correct.

Even if you selfpublish, people will buy, in part, because of the blurb that goes with your book's cover image; if that's poorly written, most people will pass it by.The second piece of advice is: Read. A lot. Read books that you love, and read books that a lot of people love. own.

Try to figure out where that love comes from, and try to figure out how those writers do what they do.Third: Once you figure out how those writers do what they do, don't do exactly the same thing.

You write from your own heart, your own mind, your own experience. Nobody else has your voice.

You might end up writing LIKE another writer, but your work will be distinctly your own. Cherish that.�

Blog: http://MarianAllen.com Facebook page: https.www. facebook. com/MarianAllenAuthorLady Twitter: http://twitter. com/MarianAllen Google+ page: https://plus.google. com/+Marianallen/ LinkedIN: http://www.linkedin. com/in/marianallen/ Pinterest: http://pinterest. com/marianallena\ Goodreads: https://www. goodreads. com/author/show/2915726.

Marian_Allen Amazon author page: http://www. amazon.com/-/e/B003KW0PJG

Adventure to Find Mittens Hello! My name is Shelly. Shh, my mom is asleep. I have a cat named Mittens, I’ve got to find her before mom gets up! If I do not find her I will be in trouble.

First I look under my bed, not there.

Next I look under the couch, not there. Then I look under the table, not htere. Last I look outside. “I’m never going to find her” I said.

“Mittens!! I found you!” I yelled.

“She has kittens mom!” I yelled.

They are cute.

Story written and submitted by Savannah S. 8 years old.