Feature Friday with author of Halo of the Damned, Dina Rae Tosto

Feature Friday with author of Halo of the Damned, Dina Rae.

Interviewed by Xavier Zyta
This is our third feature Friday and we are honored to have Dina Rae, she is being interviewed by 
co-founder of Hotlit Books, Xavier and we think it's pretty darn interesting. Check out what this former teacher has to say to Hotlit Books and what has motivated her to write about the Freemason's and much more.

Dina Rae Tosto - Author of Halo of the Damned, The Last Degree and the short story Be Paranoid and Be Prepared.

   I (Xavier) like conspiracy novels, so what is it that pushes you to write them? 

  

  Big, big fan of conspiracy.  Love Dan Brown, Jesse Ventura, Alex Jones, Jack VanImpe, Brad Meltzer, and the True Channel.  Took decades of interesting ideas and turned them into a plot for The Last Degree.

     What is the trickiest thing about coming up with a storyline for you?  I tend to get more involved in the plot and forget about the characters-then I go back and realize how few details were written about them.  Time to edit.

  Do you write an outline? 

Towards the end I do, but not the beginning or middle.

    Do you know how the book will end when you start or how do you come up with when to end it? No, I wasn’t sure for any of my books how they would end and I like writing that way.  The endings aren’t part of a formula.

Dina Rae

   Do you find writing yourself in any of your characters or who you would like to be?  

  I write in 3rd person, lmtd. POV, past tense verbs.  Not ready for 2nd person or 1st person yet, but hope to try it one day.  Both seem so hard to write in because there are so many things each character cannot know but the reader has to know to keep the novel going.

    

 In Halo of the Damned you write of nephilim, of which, I find of an interesting discussion.  How did that inspiration come to you? 

  I am a Christian and always found the story about Lucifer and a 1/3 of all angels waging war on God a fascinating story.  Satan is the star and no one even thinks about all of the others who went with him.  In Enoch another fall is mentioned in which angels voluntarily descended from Heaven and mated with women, producing nephilim.  The Flood destroyed them, but both falls and the Yezidi angel cult inspired me for my novel.

     

     How much research did you do for The Last Degree with the Masonics? 

I watched many TV specials and read several articles on the Internet and libraries.  I even read part of Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma, an enormous book that sort of act like their handbook.  I also researched the Illuminati and other secret societies.  Many of the articles kept crossing over, further adding to my inner circle theory.

   

 Which do you prefer writing novels or short stories and why? 

Novels.  Short stories have to be short and there is no room to expand on your story.

  

 How long have you been writing?  

Two years.

      What advice would you like to offer authors? 

Certainly not in a position to give advice, but found Stephen King’s On Writing and Writer’s Digest very helpful.

      

What genre do you like to read?  

   Thriller, horror, biography, historical fiction, and mystery are my favorite.  Every once in a while a romance will catch my eye. 

Thanks so much for having me!

Find out more about Dina @

http://www.dinarae.co  https://www.facebook.com/dina.rae.50
www.dinaraeswritestuff.blogspot.com

If you would like to be featured like Dina please contact us at www.hotlitbooks.org/contact.

Who am I Wednesday with Hotlit Books

Who am I Wednesday with Hotlit Books

Post by  Co- Founder of Hotlit Books Xavier Zyta

In addition to Hotlit Books promoting authors, I (Xavier) have created the project of Who Am I Wednesday.  I thought it would be great to offer the ability for services or anyone that can offer something for authors.  I thought it would be great to start with Hotlit Books.  Gabriella Deveraux, founder of Hotlit Books (her baby) sat down with me to go over these questions.   

So with my first question is Who Am I – Hotlit Books?  Well Hotlit Books is a non-profit organization that started almost eight months ago. It’s a fantastic site for authors and ran by authors.

What made you want to start HotlitBooks? I started Hotlit Books because I really felt there was not another site out there that was featuring authors as the main focus, which I felt should be done. I wanted to focus on the author as this is truly what makes the book special.

Even though Hotlit Books is still in its infancy, is it where you thought it would be now?  Actually no, it has grown into something completely different but I am so overwhelmed everyday with joy of how it has turned out.

Everybody knows the 5 year question so where would you like Hotlit books to be in 5 years? I really would like to see Hotlit Books helping even more authors by having workshops online and on location. I would love to have writer conferences with big-time authors. I would absolutely love to be able to pass on our successes to the younger generation.

As many people, are not aware but you spend hours a day working on Hotlit Books, what is your average time spent to promote Hotlit Books? I do spend quite a few hours some days I lose track but yesterday I spent sixteen hours working. On average I would have to say I spend at least 15+hours a day promoting and networking for Hotlit Books. Wow did I just admit to that? So yeh 15+hours at least and that’s 7 days a week. I don’t ever take a day off either.

Do you find it hard to balance everything?  Extremely! As I stated in my own personal blog this week I write a lot of lists and one of those lists is for my personal life as well. I have to include this or I will just focus on Hotlit and that’s it. Which is not very balanced at all. I also have to be reminded by loving partner to take time to relax.

You have two books out right now, when will we see the third installment in the Erotic Hotel Series? I don’t really know. It’s summertime here in the Pacific Northwest so it’s hard for me to write when the weather is so beautiful. So maybe by December, but it will be the last and final installment.

With accepting different types of genres, have you experienced any that you feel is hard to promote? Yes, but I will not say what that is. It’s not that it is hard to promote as far as the site is concerned, but as far as my own personal beliefs. But we do not discriminate on our site we will promote any genre.

What genre do you prefer to read? Hmm. That’s a good question. I love reading about faeries. I love reading light hearted stories. I also like reading self- motivating and or inspiring stories.  I can read some historical books and I like a good romance every so often.

Can you spill the beans on anything new or ideas you may be thinking of doing for Hotlit Books? Nope my lips are sealed but I am currently working on something pretty darn big-so stay tuned!

What do you feel is the hardest thing to do for running Hotlit Books? Promotions, I feel that getting the word out and gaining trust of the people out there is the hardest thing, yet it is also the most rewarding. When you read that people love the site and or that we are doing a great job it makes you feel wonderful and warm inside.

What would you like people to know about Hotlit Books and you? Hotlit Books and myself truly represent the author and their best intentions. We believe in the stories that they have to tell. We feel that a story is the key to our past, it leads down a path, a journey that someday when we are all gone, our grandkids and our great grandkids will be able to read these stories and know who we were as people , as writer’s and about the world we once lived in. This is why we love books and this is why it is so important to believe in the literary arts.

I want to thank Gabriella for taking time out of her busy day to answer these questions.  Hopefully, this lets you know who Hotlit Books and Gabriella Deveraux.  If you would like to do Who Am I Wednesday, please contact us. 

Xavier Zyta

You can find Hotlit Books at www.hotlitbooks.org and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HotlitBooks

We have moved! Find us at www.hotlitbooks.org

Post #006-We have MOVED!

You can find us at www.hotlitbooks.org

Our new LOGO!

As you can tell by the title we have moved. We are now at www.hotlitbooks.org. As most of you who follow us on Twitter or Facebook know that our site through our host at webs.com has had more problems that we care to list. So we made an organizational decision to move our site to a more reliable host.


We are now through Moonfruit, which is affordable and most of all reliable. As I am sure you are aware by now we have changed everything. From logo design to the lay of the "land" so to speak. We know this will better serve all of you, the reader, and the author.


We are really excited about our future here in our new digs and we think you will be too. There are great things ahead for us as an organization and for our authors. As always we are still needing your help.


Through our site you can find multiple ways to get involved with our wonderful organization. From memberships to ad space. Your donations and dollars go to our operating costs and our FEATURED AUTHOR program, which will help us continue the program in the future. Literary arts keep the history of our ancestors alive by telling a story. Keep this art going by contributing today by visiting www.hotlitbooks.org .


Thanks for visiting our new site and believing in us as organization. Special thanks to our friends, followers, current members, and our sponsors.


Thanks again,


Gabriella Deveraux-Founder

#004 The Grammar Police are Coming!

Written by Xavier Zyta

www.hotlitbooks.com

First let me state, that I am not the Spelling and Grammar Police, nor am I the Punctuation Pope.  I am writing this so that it may give other independent or dependent authors the idea to be on the lookout.  

See example below. 

Betty was having a rotting morning. As her coffee pot had died and she needed her fix.  She was having a bad hair day.  It didn’t cooperate either.So it was ponytail day.  The day of catastrophy continued, she couldn’t find a pair of pantyhose, that didn’t have a big ruin in it.  The chase had caused her to be late.  She didn’t really have time to stop for coffee, but she needed it and it was her morning richual.  She felt frazzled, and didn’t have that normal perky feeling.  Her name called for her cup of heaven.  She moved quickly to pick it up, and snatched it off the counter.  As she turned in such a hurry, she didn’t notice Owen awaiting his jafa.  All she noticed was her cup of heaven slip out of her hand.  And turn to a liquid hell on the floor and on Owen’s pants.  The expleteves flew from her mouth, like she was spewing a bad taste in her mouf. 

She then realized where she was and her fast like a thermometer drop in boiling water flew to full red.  “I am so sorry”, was out of her mouth without her even known it could propell so fast.   Owen was trying to pull the legs of his pants away from scalding his legs.  He exclaimed, “It is okay, accidents happen”.    

Can you spot the all the errors in the above?

Amazingly, I read a lot and have been mainly focusing on independent authors works.  Unfortunately, with this I have been noticing a lot of errors.  Let us go over some of the errors that I have read in recent months. 

First of all, there have been the dreaded spelling errors that seemingly pop up.  Words are overlooked for correct spelling and with the simple use of spellchecker in your software this can easily be fixed.  Take your time and do the extra step to use spellchecker, as it is so annoying to read a word and know that it was incorrectly spelled.  Personally, I can overlook one or two but when you have a book that on almost every page there is an error it takes away from the story.  I love a good story and I will finish it even though there are these errors, I know some people will not. 

Secondly, there have been many instances with the issue of grammar.  Grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language.  When you are doing a story that helps you jump out of the normal grammar rules, then that is easy.  These cases are when you are doing a fairy tale, alien story, cultural story etc.  Even though you will have to follow some of the grammar rules, it is best to also use the grammar checking in your software. 

The third issue in this blog is punctuation.    A run on sentence is the killer of telling your story.  Commas are a great thing and sometimes do get used too much.  I think if you are telling the story, the best thing to do is say it aloud and listen to how you are telling it and it will help you to know when to use punctuation. 

Below you will find a website that may help in this but the best thing, I think, is just pay attention to what you are writing.  It will help if you get an unbiased person to look over your work and offer suggestions.  This does not mean you need an English teacher to do this but to have a friend, colleague or someone you trust to go over your work.  This will happen after you run it through your spell and grammar checker.  Also be aware of the correct word to use as there and their have different meanings.

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

As always keep writing, so we can read your great stories.

X

Making your mark!

Post #003
Make your mark!

Well we lost another author Ray Bradbury, the infamous author known for such great as The Illustrated Man and Fahrenheit 451 and well it got us to thinking how do you want to make your MARK?


Writer's have something to say! What is it that you want to say to the world? Are you saying it clearly and precisely? What are you conveying? Is your personality coming through your writing? 


What great writers do you read that you feel have made their mark? On the world? In your life?


These are the questions you need to ask yourself this week as you continue to write your bestseller.


Start a journal and or if you already have one for your writing specifically ask yourself what do you want to say to the reader? What message are you trying to convey about your story? 


As Ernest Hemingway used to say "sit down at a typewriter and bleed".  This week pour yourself out into those pages. This is how the great writers of yesterday became classics of today. They gave us their heart and soul.






What mark do you want to leave? 

Post #02
Guest Blogger-Xavier Zyta
New reviews with Hotlit Books

Hello my name is Xavier Zyta, and I am lucky to be collaborating with Gabriella Deveraux on her baby at HotLit Books.  If you are not familiar with HotLit Books, then I will give you a short description.  HotLit Books is for independent authors to showcase their latest works.  For 2 week s Hotlit Books will feature an author and a book that they have recently released.  This is great exposure for the author, and to you the readers it gives you a place to look for new released books.  The key thing to this is as a reader it is free to find out what is out there and being that we will be putting these in genres to make it easier for locating what you the reader may want to digest next.  Gabriella started this site just for the purpose of helping other independent authors and it has been doing great for the past 3 months and we have had 5 authors and the list has grown exponentially.  The increasing traffic, just like yourself has made it a success for independent authors and increased sales for the authors.  Why not? It is a win-win situation,a free spot for both the writer and the reader for Ebooks. 

Gabriella is a published author of erotica and I am published in Mystery/Erotica.  We have been friends for almost 7 years now and have different styles to our books and what we look for in a story.  I was lucky enough to be her first featured author and have been promoting HotLit Books, so it is easy to understand how I would join her and collaborate with her at HotLit Books. 

We will be adding Ebook reviews to HotLit books and offer to review books on HotLit Books.  This will be a no nonsense style.  If you want a review of your book, please check out the Review tab on our main site.  I will put it to you in the simplest form.  This will be an honest review and not like some of the sites, where it is a fluff review, just so you get a 5 star rating (rating scheme to be determined).  If you want your book reviewed honestly, then you will know that it will be reviewed honestly and fairly. We both love to read and to have someone tell us a story.  If you wrote it, then you are telling a story and we love to read different stories and be introduced to new characters and situations.  We have a variety of genres that we read and there is no story that we will not look at and review.  Sorry, you won’t be able to shock us with your story and we will not turn a book down just because of content.  Again though, be understanding that we will review it fairly.  We will not be grammar the police though, but more of the story police.

If you are an independent author and have a book that has been recently released, you should view our Author Inquiries page.  What does it hurt?  We will start asking for a donation, which could be anywhere from $2 to what you would like to donate.  There is a lot of time that Gabriella puts into this, and I don’t think that a lot of authors understand how much time she actually puts into getting their books out.  We will begin in July doing local to the Portland, Or area promoting HotLit Books with different area activities. 

This blog has been started to offer authors a resource for writing, promoting and the development of their books.  Thank you for taking the time to read Hotlit's Blog and we look forward to hearing and working with you and if you have any questions and or suggestions please contact us at www.hotlitbooks.com. 

Xavier Zyta

All Inclusive, Hotlit Books new blog

Post #01


We are now including REVIEWS to the featured author program.  We have not only started a brand new blog which will be featuring new stories about authors, resources, and other great information that our team has found just for the INDIE AUTHOR, but now we are going to be offering a review for the self published author.  Just one more step in the right direction of creating a great service, an ALL INCLUSIVE service for the writer!

We hope that you will join us today and celebrate with us in our success and check out our PAST AUTHORS page or check out how you can help us continue our journey by donating to our cause.  We do not take a profit we are really doing this just to help the author, like us have a place to call home!  Visit us today at www.hotlitbooks.com  or LIKE our page at https://www.facebook.com/HotlitBooks

Please see us at our new address at www.hotlitbooks.org