Nice of you to join us here today for yet another author presentation. An interesting thing about being able to host authors, is that each one is different. Yes, yes, they are all authors...but they are moms, and doctors, teachers and carpenters...they have different backgrounds, and different life paths, filled with unique experiences that come together in the person that they are. This uniqueness brilliantly shines through their writing, to us. How awesome is that?
Today, we are fortunate enough to have author Carol Ann Kauffman join us.
Carol
Ann Kauffman is an author from Ohio. She is a retired teacher from a local
school district, where she taught first grade for most of her thirty-five year
career, but also second and third grade and was a reading specialist for her
last three years. She has worked at a print shop as a printer, managed a
department store office, and worked for an insurance agency. She loves to
travel; her favorite places being Italy, and Aruba, which show up in her novels
quite a bit. She loves to play Bridge and to garden. She grows African violets
and orchids. She is the author of the Time After Time series, which follows a
pair of lovers through their many lifetimes together. Her novels, classified as
romantic action adventures with a sci-fi/ fantasy twist, are about life, love,
loss, and lunacy.
Could you share a
little about yourself and what led you to become a writer?
I am a retired schoolteacher. I
taught first through third grades, was the reading teacher, and taught composition
and creative writing. My first
award-winning essay was in sixth grade. But
life and career and family interrupted the creative flow, so I didn’t get back
to writing as an obsession until I retired.
Do you write full
time? How much of your life is set aside for writing?
Yes, I write eight hours a day.
If I am not writing, I’m thinking about writing. There is always a notebook in my pocket. I use a travel journal when I travel, much of
which finds its way into my work. I
wrote the first chapter of my WIP Charming Deception while on vacation in
Florida.
Could you tell us
a little about your novel?
Quintessential lovers find each other, time and time again, at different
times, in different places, at different ages, and sometimes, on different
planets. I based these two people on a
couple from literature and our culture. I won’t reveal their identity until the final
Time After Time book, but I DO leave clues.
Would you take us
on a brief tour of your novel and the world you’ve created?
LORD OF BLAKELEY begins on a primitive future planet, where a very
important young lady needs to wed because she has turned 20, or her guardian
will chose for her. She sees her future husband in her mind, and travels to
farm country to find him. She finds him,
and they wed, but a very jealous man plots to separate them. They find themselves years and planets away
from each other. In one section, they
are thrown into present-day Chicago and work in a restaurant. One day she disappears into thin air and he
is charged with her murder and must stand trial.
Where does the
inspiration for you main character and story come from?
I write about what affects our lives: life, love, loss, and lunacy. I
used to say what affects women’s lives, but these same things affect men,
too. They just don’t want to admit it.
What is the
message behind the story?
If at first you don’t succeed …
Do you work from
an outline or just go with the flow? If you use an outline, how detailed is it?
I figure out who the characters are in the story and I make a detailed
character analysis, what she looks like, personality traits, place in the
family, place in the community, age, education, likes, dislikes, food
preferences, etc. Then I wind them up and let then go. It’s fun to see what they do.
I began outlining, when I wrote a few children’s books. There was no spark, too predictable. Writer Emilia Julian, of God’s Prey fame,
told me outlines are for wimps. LOL, I will keep that in mind.
What is the time
span in your novel, weeks, months, years? How much research went into it?
Well, it’s a time travel story, so the span is roughly a thousand years,
but the story emcompasses about five years of their lives.
Could you tell us
how you go about your research, how you ‘catalogue’ information to make it all
work?
Normally I do not write about places I haven’t visited. (Off-worlds not
included.) But Aruba, Italy, New Mexico,
Utah, Ohio, each of these places has their own special flavor. I need to touch the walls and smell the air
in order to write about it adequately. I like that, and I agree. There is something unique in each place that cannot be adequately described if you haven't been there to experience it.
How does this
book differ from what you have written in the past?
It is a continuation of the thread that everything we do, everyone who
is important to us in this life, will find its way into the next life. The good or evil that you do will revisit
you. A lost love will find you.
How have the
changes in present day publishing impacted your schedule as a writer?
When I first started writing, the drill was: Send your manuscript to the
first big publishing house on the list.
Wait 6 weeks to two months. Get a
rejection letter. Cross that publisher off the list. Go down to the next one. Start over. Some letters were very nice; some
were insulting, like spice it up, throw some f-words in, make it rough. I
refused.
Then one day, the sumpump broke, and all of the children’s books I wrote
got ruined. (There weren’t that good. No tears.) It was then I researched Kindle Direct
Publishing and all of my Time After Time novels are exclusively on the
kindle. They are great to work with.
They do not care how many times you want to re-edit, re-format, get a new
cover. I think they are ideal for
someone starting out in the business.
I also have books published through Books To Go Now from Poulsbo,
Washington. They are lovely people to
work with and are a creative storehouse.
How do you handle
marketing? Do you have a plan, a publicist or just take one day at a time?
I just like to write them, that’s all.
I wrote four novels the first year, and four the second. Then I took a year off to attempt to market
them. Writing is fun. Marketing is hard work and I am not one to
push myself on people. So I listened to
what others said. Then I reformatted,
re-edited, hired an editor, a cover artist, and re-launched my novels, one by
one.
I use social media. I do book
signings. I do giveaways. Some months I do well. December was horrible. I try to get my book into the hands of a
person I think will enjoy it. It’s more
one book at a time than one day at a time. In the courses I have taken on marketing, I have met people who do a minimum of 20 hours per week marketing. It can be quite overwhelming.
Do you have any
advice for aspiring authors?
Write. Write and write. You can write one truly terrible book. But if you keep writing, and write ten books,
one of them HAS to be pretty good. No
seriously, do not let others discourage you. If you have the urge, the desire,
the fire to write, then write. Don’t give up. I firmly believe everyone has a
novel inside them. Now, whether you can get someone to BUY it, that’s another
ball of aggravation.
Could you tell us
what you’re working on now?
I always have four or five works in progress. I am writing the sequel to
my bestselling Christmas story, Madison’s Christmas. It’s called Silver Maple
Heartbreak. I have another Time After
Time novel coming out later this year called MacKalvey House. And I have the first of a new series
involving portals to another dimension, Charming Deception. That’s the one I started on vacation last
year. And there are a few short stories
that I have started.
You certainly have a lot going on at one time.
Book Description:
The
series, TIME AFTER TIME, follows a pair of quintessential lovers, Richard and
Nicole, through their lives together, in different places, in different times,
with
different names and faces and sometimes even on other planets. This
follows the alternative theory that the relationships we forge in this
lifetime, both the good and the bad, are continued into the future, and are
rooted deeply in our past. Whatever we do, whomever we love, and the good and
evil deeds we do today follow us into the future. Unsettled issues will present
themselves again and again, until they are ultimately resolved. Those people
who have had a profound effect on us in this lifetime will find us again in the
future. And although everything changes, love remains.
Books
in the TIME AFTER TIME series are: BLUE LAKE, BELTERRA,
The
BASLICATO, BENTLEY SQUARE, WAITING FOR RICHARD, and LORD OF BLAKELEY. They do
not need to be read in order.
Lord of
Blakeley is the story of Andrew of Blakeley, a simple farm boy who lives on a
primitive future planet. He is chosen by the lovely Lady Aleese to be her mate
and rises to become the most powerful man on the planet. But a jealous man with
access to mobile transport devices wreaks havoc on the young couple’s
happiness, separating them, her on an alien rock planet and he, aboard a slave
ship, and then dumping them in present-day Chicago. One day Aleese vanishes
into thin air and Andrew is arrested for her murder and must stand trial. It is
a story of devotion and jealousy, of loss and lunacy. And, in true Time After
Time fashion, a story of love.
Excerpt:
“Lord Andrew! Come quick!
We’re being attacked! There is a
regiment of Bishopites on Blakeley soil.
Up on the hill! They’re burning
our crops. They’re chopping down our
fruit trees,” Jacob cried out at the bedroom door.
“Aleese, listen to me very
carefully. Go to the wine cellar and
lock yourself in. You’ll be safe
there. I’ll be back as soon as possible. Stay in there and do not come out until I personally
come down and get you. This is very
important. Do you understand me?”
Aleese nodded and Andrew ran
out and mounted the waiting horse, riding out in front of his army to find and
do battle with the Bishopites.
“Carmine!” called Andrew, “Are
you sure they are the
Bishopites? How the hell did they get
here? We dismantled and buried the
transport dock. They have no way to get
back here! They cannot possibly be the
Bishopites.”
“One in uniform came down and
announced to us that he was a Bishopite and they were here to steal our food,
chop down our trees, and burn the rest of our farmlands. That’s all we know.”
“Men, fall back. Something’s not right here.” The men stopped and Andrew rode ahead to the
hilltop facing the Bishopite army alone, behind them the fruit trees and the
farmlands of Blakeley safe and unharmed.
“Bishopites,” he shouted, “we
are not your enemy. We will not take
part in this war of brother against brother.
Take your fight elsewhere and leave the peaceful province of Blakeley at
once!”
Just then a man jumped on
Andrew out of nowhere and they both were blown up in a cloud of dust and flame
with a thunderous crash. Debris flew in
the air. Immediately all of the
Bishopite army at the top of the hill disappeared.
The stunned Blakeley army was
in shock over the loss of their beloved leader.
They searched the area for any sign of Lord Andrew, but found
nothing. Sad and dejected, they returned
to the village center in silence.
“He blew them all up! Our Andrew, our Lord of Blakeley, managed to
somehow blow up all the Bishopites. To
save our land. To save our food, our
crops, our trees. To save us. He is a hero.
The bravest man in all of Blakeley, the bravest man I have ever known,”
said Carmine crying. “And who among us
had more to lose than Andrew? No one.”
“Jared, somebody has to tell
her. I don’t want to do it.”
“Carmine, you have to do
it. She likes you. You’re closer to her than any of the rest of
us.”
“Yes, I am. And that’s why I don’t want to be the one to
tell her. She’ll hate me for the rest of
my life if I bring her the news of his death.”
“No. She won’t.
She’ll be broken-hearted because she truly loves him. She’ll sob and cry. And then, she’ll probably go back to
Havenhill. She only stayed here with us
because of Andrew, to be with him.”
Carmine dismounted and walked
into the Manor House.
“Lord Andrew has been killed in
battle,” he announced to the staff waiting at the door. “He died saving the rest of us. He… He was the bravest man we have ever seen
in all our lives. Where is Lady Aleese?”
“She has locked herself in the
wine cellar, as Lord Andrew instructed her to do,” said Ruth.
Carmine turned and went down to
the cellar. He knocked on the door.
“Lady Aleese, it’s
Carmine. Come out.”
“Where is Drew?”
“Lady Aleese? Please, come out,” he begged. “I need to talk to you. It’s about Andrew. He… he’s been…”
She unlocked the door and
looked at him. She saw the look on his
sad tear-stained face. He didn’t have to
say another word. She knew.
“NO! NO!” she cried, falling on the floor. “NO!
Do not tell me he is dead! NO!”
“I’m so sorry, Lady
Aleese. He died saving all of us, our
land, our crops, and our food. Oh, he
was so incredibly brave, My Lady! He was
majestic, even. He managed to blow them
all up. Unfortunately he was in the
middle of that explosion.”
“NO!” She pulled herself up. “I feel in my heart that my beloved Drew is
not dead.”
“I saw it with my own
eyes. I saw him… get blown up.”
“No. It cannot be.
Go away, Carmine. I wish to be
alone.”
“I understand you want to be
alone. But, please, let me help you up
to your room. Your ladies can take care
of you upstairs. You don’t want to stay
down here in this cold, dark cellar by yourself.”
“Drew told me to stay here and
wait for him to come and get me. And I’m
staying right here. I’m waiting for him
to come and get me. Go away.”
“But Lady Aleese…”
“GO THE HELL AWAY!!!” She threw a wine bottle at him. It crashed to the floor and broke into
pieces.
Carmine nodded and backed away
from her. She slumped back against the
wall, slowly sinking to the floor, screaming and sobbing.
“Come for me, Drew! Please, My Love, come for me. I don’t want to go on without you. You told me to stay here and wait until you
came for me. I’ll wait for you, Drew. I’ll wait right here. Come for me, My Love. Please, come for me.” She cried some more and soon cried herself to
asleep on the cold, damp cellar floor.
She heard something, someone
walking on the broken glass from the wine bottle on the floor. A shadowy figure approached her.
“Drew? Drew, My Darling, I knew you would come for
me. I knew you wouldn’t desert me.
Drew!” She reached for him. The shadowy figure reached out and grabbed
her tightly. The light caught a silvery
glint from his wristband. They both
disappeared.
Location: The
Dungeon in Havenhill Prison
“Well, look who’s awake? Hello, Andrew,” said Grant Havenhill,
smirking at Andrew, who was securely tied to a chair.
“Where am I?” demanded a dazed
and stunned Andrew.
“Dead. You’re dead.
At least, to the rest of the world, you are. Aleese has been informed that her beloved
Andrew has died a noble and heroic death in battle. She is now free of you.”
“What happened?”
“I will let you figure that out
for yourself. All you need to know is
you will never see Aleese again. You
will never hold her in your arms, never kiss her, or make love to her ever
again because you are going on a very long and painful sea cruise, one from
which you will never return. By the way,
your new name is Ando and your life expectance is less than a year. But do not worry about your… widow. I shall take excellent care of her.”
Andrew felt a blast of searing
pain to his chest. He passed out.
Location: Aboard the Bedelia, A Clotus Cargo Freighter in a Faraway
Galaxy
Andrew woke up in a dark, dank
room with incredible pain in the center of his chest. He gathered he was at sea from the pitch and
toss around him. As his eyes became
accustomed to the darkened space, he realized he was not alone. Filthy, unkempt men lined the walls of the
cargo hold.
“Where are we?” he whispered to
no one in particular.
“At sea. Aboard the Bedelia, with Captain Pslotneck at
the helm,” answered someone he did not know.
Andrew nodded, remembering the conversation with Grant Havenhill.
A sailor opened the door and
pointed to Andrew.
“You! Ando!
Come!” he growled. Andrew
struggled to get up. He was sore and
aching, and in pain. He hit his head on
the low ceiling as he followed the sailor out the door.
“The captain wants to see
you. And you watch your mouth,” he
threatened. Andrew nodded and the sailor
opened the cabin door. Andrew stepped
inside to face the captain seated at his desk.
“Well, Ando,” the captain said,
shuffling through the papers in his hand,
“you certainly managed to piss off a man of great wealth and
importance. What in the hell did you do,
diddle his wife?” laughed Captain Pslotneck.
“No, Sir,” said Andrew
seriously. “That wealthy man is Grant
Havenhill. His father is Lord Havenhill
of Nord. They are not all that great, nor
that important. And it is he who has
committed the transgression, not I. He
faked my death, flung me far out into space, and has stolen my wife, my Aleese,
the love of my life. And he knows I will
cross hell on my hands and knees to get back to her.”
“Well, he went out of his way
to make sure you are as far away from civilization as possible. And this contract? It’s criminal! And he had you surgically fitted with a
control device, claiming you’re a violent psychopath.”
“This?” Andrew pointed to
device attached to his chest.
“Yes, and he also paid
handsomely to have you mistreated.
Luckily for you, I plan on simply pocketing that sum. I can’t afford to have you lying around,
whimpering, licking your wounds, not working.
I don’t have time to beat the shit out of you on a daily basis. I’m a busy man! As far as the control device, I have no means
to remove it aboard ship, so you’re stuck with it until we get to a port that
has a qualified surgeon. But then, you
have to worry about infection until it heals.
The hull is a filthy, stinking hole.
My advice? Ignore it. I won’t use.
Keep a shirt on so nobody sees it.
Do your year. Get it removed when
you’re free and in a clean environment.
Work hard, do as you are told, and you will be treated just like the
rest of the crew. The Havenhill name
carries no weight aboard my ship. And
Ando, I hope you find her.”
“Thank you, Captain. I will.”
Media Links:
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CAKauff
Reviews from Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Lord of Blakeley is Carol ann Kauffman's latest book in the Time
after Time series, and it's just as wonderful as all the rest! This series keeps
getting better and better!
No, these books are not "romance novels" There's no
naked men, with nice abs, or page after page of sex scenes, these books weave
tales of true romance, of love that is stronger then time. They embrace that
love really means and don't cheapen it!
This story has all the wonderful elements of fantasy and sci-fi
that Carol weaves into her classic love story. The character meet on their
futuristic planet and fall in love dispite their classes, and then are horrible
seperated by a jealous man. They each go through their own struggles, and fight
for their love. It's heartbreaking and wonderful, and draws you in and keeps
you reading. You need to know what happens in this cycle of the Time After Time
series because you won't regret it!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Format:Kindle Edition
I imagine it's not too easy to write a book heavy on intensity
and dramatics that doesn't sound over the top but this author manages it very
well. This book has romance and action and time travel and doesn't get boring
at any point. The lost star was because there are a few typos (not too many but
they are there) and because sometimes the book gets a bit confusing but I would
still recommend it for anyone looking for romance without smut.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Lord of Blakeley is a passionate love story that takes the
reader on a journey to several dimensions, planets, and styles of behavior...
Lord Andrew and Lady Aleese share an unbreakable bond of love that
is tested repeatedly. This couple will face anything to be together, including
surviving difficult circumstances on other planets.
Andrew is a humble and honest man. His gentle nature is put to
the test after his wife is kidnapped repeatedly by an enemy from another land.
Enduring and surviving intense suffering during their separations, Andrew and
Aleese both realize that they need to change the way they play this dreadful
game. With the help of family and friends, Andrew and Aleese defeat the people and
issues that threaten to ruin their marriage.
I especially enjoyed the sassy and slightly stubborn personality
of Lady Aleese. Lord Andrew was a perfect mate for her. I am looking forward to
reading another book by Carol Ann Kauffman. Her writing style was very
enjoyable.
Danice Akiyoshi
Author of Connected Hearts
5.0 out of 5 stars
Format:Kindle Edition
"Everything Changes but Love Remains the same."
And so begins the romance of Andrew and Aleese, Lord and Lady of
Blakely. What I enjoyed most about the story was the fantasy of love at first
sight. Andrew sees and worships her from afar, never knowing that although he
cannot speak to her, Aleese's soul has responded to his from a distance. Aleese
has a dream vision that she'll love a man from the backward province of
Blakelely and will know him by his voice. She meets him and realizes this is
the man she dreamt of.
Even with such a smooth beginning, we are reminded of an evil
person who seeks to break up their union. They go through many trials over the
course of the book, but through it all, their love is strong. Although this is
science fiction, in many ways it reads like an historical as far as dialogue
and societal norms.
If you love a good romance, this is a book for you!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Format:Kindle Edition
Carol Ann Kauffman captures a character and draws you in to her
story with every word. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Its articulate
matter and humor, with the ability to make me want to join in the fun. I would
recommend this clean book to anyone.
I do a little bit at a
time. Daily posts to my FB page, blogging when I can, and networking are my
main promotional efforts. I also spend a bit on ads and other opportunities as
I can. I focus on connecting with readers more than massive exposure, though
that is important too. The idea of paying someone to do the marketing is an
attractive idea, but I can’t afford the cost, yet.
