Friday, June 7, 2013

#Indie Spotlight of Vaughan Humphries @onelostkiwi Author of Like a Shag on a Rock

The Author:


Vaughan Humphries

The title of your book:
Like a Shag on a Rock

Where are you from?
Thame, Oxfordshire, UK

The genre that you write in:
Contemporary Romance / Urban Life / Modern Living

In your own words, what is your book about? If you were not the author and trying to explain this awesome book you just read to a friend, what would you say about it?
It's a book about how life is lived in our world and pulls no
punches but to describe relationships as they really are.

What is your writing style? Do you follow all guides and rules? Synopsis, outline etc. or do you just sit down at the computer and type to see what happens.
Suffer from verbal diarrhoea and much the same when writing - had
to employ use of an editor!

Have you ever written anything and thought; " The world has got to see this!" ?
Once before - wrote a memoir called 'Grumpy Young Man' and actually
learnt many lessons from producing this one and tried to improve with
next one.

Do you have an editor and Cover Designer or do you do this yourself?
My fiancée did the sketch of the Shag (Comorant) and one of my
colleagues spent many an hour after work perfecting colours. Used an
ex-pat editor I found using twitter.

Who is your favorite author. Not just someone that you read allot. I wanna know whose book you read that made you suddenly know that if you didn't do this for the rest of your life then you would never be happy.
Favourite fiction is Clive Cussler and favourite non-fiction would
be Michael Palin - he's such a nice and sincere man!

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Often had plot gaps or struggled to bulk out some sections, other
parts just flowed naturally.

Do you write your characters or do they write themselves through you?
Saw one or two as portmanteaus of people I know, but as the story
developed, so did they.

Do you ever write yourself into the characters?
I think all authors have a little piece of them inside the
characters and I put a sprinkling of myself in a few characters to
spicen them up.

Is writing your full time job or are you "Keeping your day job"? So to speak.
Sadly need my day job to keep bread on the table. If the book
takes off, who knows!

If you could go back in time and meet one famous person or legend in history, who would it be?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - a true polymath and Renaissance Man.
Such a talented person.

There are millions of new books released every year. What in your mind makes yours stand out from all those millions in your genre?
The title - Shag has always meant a bird, type of tobacco or
carpet i.e. a noun, but thanks to Austin Powers, it is now a
transitive verb! The colour is reminiscent of Penguin Classics, so
stands out.

In the world of Indie, marketing is very difficult, especially if you don't have the funds to pay for it. Have you found a great free way to market your work that you think other Indies will benefit from?
Have tried a book tweeting service, which is inexpensive, but have
written to a number of free newspapers/magazines, who have run a
feature/competition to win a signed copy to fill space. The editor of
one free magazine was very supportive and had loads of advice.

Links to find and follow Vaughan's work: 

Twitter: @onelostkiwi

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