We are moving, packing are bags, we are breaking up with BLOGGER!

Well we are saying goodbye it is time for a change...

Change is good. Change means that there are bigger things ahead. Change to us means that there will be no more frustration. I guess that Blogger really just wasn't for us. We tried it and it really just didn't fit. It's almost like a pair of jeans that you tried on at the store and you bought them and then you got them home and they didn't look or feel as good. Ladies you know exactly what I am talking about-well Blogger was just that. We had heard such great things about it so we tried them on for size and then we took them home and well guess what? We are needing to take them back to the store and metaphorically get a new pair so now we are going to be at Wordpress.

So here is our new address. You can still find all the old reviews and "Feature Friday" authors on here but we are going to be starting fresh with the new blog. We will not be moving again that is for sure. I don't know about anyone else but moving is the worst....Transferring over and creating new content is fun but also somewhat difficult. So our new home over at Wordpress will be our permanent BLOG! So please follow us over there.

So we are moving, packing our bag, and breaking up with BLOGGER! So we must say goodbye now. Put our new pair of jeans on and move on. So goodbye Blogger and hello Wordpress. We hope to see you there.

Our new address is www.hotlitbooks.wordpress.com

Thanks,

Gabriella D.

Feature Friday with Author Michelle Hughes.

Feature Friday with Author of Tears of Crimson Vampire Series.

Michelle Hughes

Give us a little bit about you and how you started writing Vampire Erotica?

All of my vampire books are based off of dreams I've had.  I'm not sure I ever intended to write erotica it just happened that those dreams were the ones that fueled my imagination.  Rafe (one of the characters in my book) has been with me in dreams from my early teenage years and he's pretty persistent about having his stories told.  In these dreams he would take me to other worlds and we would explore many things together, passion being one of them.

You also have Erotic Novella and a BDSM book, so how do you choose which genre you will write your next book in?

I would have to say that the book chooses me.  I know this sounds strange but my dreams have always prompted me to write.  If I dream about a certain situation I have to write about it.  Most of them I would never tell the people I'm closest to about. I don't know how this works for other authors, but my muse will continue filling my head with dreams until I write them down.

Does the story come first or the character?

Always the character for me.  Being introduced to someone new in my dreamland is always a shock and I vividly feel those emotions of first meeting in those dreams.  Depending on the temperament of the character, I can go through a whole gamut of fear, desire, or pleasure.  With the story it's like being led through a moving picture and experiencing each situation.  Thankfully I haven't had nightmares in years, which is why I don't write horror.

Do you find yourself fighting with what would you do if you were the character or do you more find yourself if you were someone else what would you want to do?

I don't know if it's fortunate or not, but since I live out my stories in dreams first I write exactly what I see happening in them.  In essence, I become the character until the book is finished no matter what age they are.  I never fight against myself internally about what my characters do, it's hard to fight with yourself.

With all that you are involved in what is your writing routine like and how often do you write?

With the latest book 10 Nights, it was absolute insanity.  84,000 words in 14 days and I paid a price for that one.  As many people know I'm a mom of five so any writing that I do has to be done after my crew here has gone to bed.  For me that means no sleep if I get hit by the muse which was continuous for two weeks on this project. I managed 3 hours a day and ended up at the doc with a nice little fever and cold.   I don't have a schedule, when I'm inspired I write.

As you know, Hotlit Books’ goal is to help authors, so what advice do you offer?

I like to tell my writing friends that I have no idea what works to push a book, so I try everything.  It's insanity some days, but I will try and push out blog posts for the five blogs I maintain, talk to friends and fans on twitter and facebook, answer the emails, post on Triberr, update my feed140 tweets, stop in at goodreads, and make sure I share all posts with stumbled upon and pinterest.  I also try and share my friends work on facebook and twitter daily. 

What past or present author would you like to collaborate on a book and why?

Charlaine Harris is still my favorite author and I would love to collaborate with her.  As another Southern writer I think we have many of the same little quirks in our writing and while Charlaine keeps her work pg -13 (shocking if you've watched True Blood) I would love to add a little more steaminess into her scenes.  She write in a way that always keeps me entertained and I just think it would be fun to see how a book would turn out if we collaborated.  Of course, I would be just as happy to take over writing the True Blood scripts. 

When you write does it have to be quiet, or do you have music playing, TV on etc…?

It depends on the mood I'm in.  There are nights when a little music will help get my creative juices flowing and others when it just annoys and distracts me.  The television on would drive me crazy and I'd probably be ready to throw it through a window if I had to write with it on.  There are enough people talking in my head when I write, I really don't need anything else going on around me.

Okay I am going to ask a few hard ones now.  So if you had to choose one of your books as your best one, which would it be and why?

After all the edits and rewrites, I would have to say my first Tears of Crimson Book.  I'm not so sure it's better than the rest, but there is more of me invested if that makes sense?  My soul went into that book and it took me two years to complete it.  That book lifted me out of a great depression and changed my outlook on life, so it will always be my favorite.

In your opinion, do you think that vampires written today are any different than ones written in the days of Bram Stoker?

I think today's vampires are substantially different, and I see no problem with that.  I loved Dracula, still do, he was such an influence on my writing.  I love all vampires, and will read or watch anything with that theme.  I have no idea what it is that draws me to this beautiful creature but I do know that it pulls me in and makes me wish that they were real.

Today we cannot seem to get away from someone having a criticism. How do you handle criticism for your work?

My first bad review nearly broke me.  When you spend two years writing out a story that engulfs your entire life and have someone stomp on it, it's heartbreaking.  I cried for hours and then I put on my big girl panties and lifted my chin.  There are going to be people who hate what you do, there is no way around it.  I remember going through my favorite authors and reading every bad review they had and that was what saved my sanity.  In my opinion, if all those wonderful authors I love to read had such terrible reviews, then I had to look at it from the standpoint that maybe I didn't suck as bad as the reviewer said.  As my granny use to say, there's an arse for every seat, so I look at it this way, there are readers for every book.

Do you prefer Twilight, Vampire Diaries or True Blood style of Vampire?

I prefer them all.  My favorite from all those shows is Eric.  He is the yummiest thing since sliced bread and while I will watch or read anything vampire related, he is my heartthrob. From the Twilight series, I was actually a Jacob fan. 

If given the choice would you let a vamp turn you?

I would say you're a little late buddy, and yes.  Without any second doubts at all, if vampires were real I would definitely be standing in line to be turned.  Eternal life, are you kidding me?  Of course it would be nice to go back about twenty years first.  If you run across any sexy vampires, please send them my way!

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Interviewed by: Xavier Zyta

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.

Feature Friday-Michelle Hankes, Author of Divine by Nature

Feature Friday with author Michelle L.Hankes

We are really honored to have Michelle on our blog-thanks Michelle! Read more about this interesting and intriguing author and her interview with Hotlit Books co-founder Xavier.

I have been reading your work I kept going back to the same thing should I say that you are an author or a messenger of spiritual information or would it be easier to say both?

I would say I am both. My intention as an author, particularly when writing Divine by Nature, has been to express the spiritual message that we are all connected to everything on this planet, as well as in our Universe. There is nothing we are not, so why not connect to all things in your own unique way? And the more we connect, the more we see ourselves in everything else. That sort of connection allows us to become more divine in our own nature because we connect more deeply to ourselves through the understanding that there is nothing we are not. If I can express this understanding and experience it more myself and give others the opportunity to choose to experience it for themselves too by way of my experience, then we’re all better off. 

The book you have out now is “Divine byNature: Spiritual Messages from the Planet's Natural Elements”, where did the inspiration come from?  

What inspired me and still inspires me is the essence of nature and the beauty of everything all around us. I love being outside and when I walk amongst the trees or down a sandy beach, I just find myself transfixed in the present. It’s the best place to be and the fact that just being amongst beings who are so present themselves can bring me into a state of ultimate presence – that just illuminates me.

In 10 words or less tell what you want a reader to experience from reading “Divine by Nature?

Align with your true self and choose your experience.  

I have read “Being Divine” within it you have that Angels really do not care if we learn to communicate with them, but would it not be a more harmonious world if there were better communication with not only Angels but with everything in the universe?

I wrote Being Divine (a free downloadable e-book on my website) to help people become connected to how they communicate with the non-physical aspect of our world. In essence, the Angels and other non-physicals really don’t care, as per se, whether we learn to communicate with them or not. They communicate with us all the time in all sorts of ways and they will continue regardless of whether we are aware of it consciously. The benefit to accessing them and other non-physicals is that we learn two-way communication. We get to access a level of dialogue - which will be different for every person – and ultimately, this would create more harmony in our world and in our Universe. When we access the non-physical aspects of creation, we are accessing the other parts of ourselves; and in the case of Angels and our higher Selves, we are accessing higher vibrational aspects of who we really are. And that will allow us to become more harmonious. The journey is not about what the Angels want for us – it’s about what we want for ourselves and what will make the journey more fun.



Author Michelle Hankes

  I enjoyed this in the Epilogue: “We spend so much of our youth learning how to use our brains, but little to no time is spent learning how to be the soul that we are.”, and how tell the readers how do you think we should teach our children to better understand their souls.

Our school systems, as divine as they are in their intention to educate our children, really have a lot lacking in the department of spiritual attunement. Our schools weren’t really designed that way. I’m not talking about religious doctrine, so much as the desire for spiritual awareness and attuning to oneself as an individual soul. Every child is taught the same things, for good reason, but they aren’t taught how to stay in tune with who and what you are. Children come forward knowing full well what they are at a soul level, even if they can’t express that in words. This is where soul attention would be helpful. Many of us as adults spend a great deal of time learning how to not think as much, how to regain our sense of self, how to reconnect with our own divinity, and how to figure out what it is we really want inside of ourselves. But if this was taught and held at a younger age, it wouldn’t be so challenging for so many. It’s not just up to our school systems to do this – teachers, parents, adults of any kind could help our young people stay on their divine path long before they find themselves careening off. And in a beautiful way, it would help all of the adults involved too.

What age do you feel that we should begin teaching them?

From day one, allow them to be who they are and encourage them to find their own sense of purpose.

What do you feel is the opposite of Angels, as we are taught the opposite of light is dark?

The opposite of Angel is just another Angelic type being. Light or dark, energy is just energy; it’s just a matter of what and how you want to experience yourself. They choose their existence just as we choose ours, but from a higher, wider perspective of the Universe and how to create within it. Angels come in all shapes and sizes, etherically; it’s all about creation. Many people call dark Angels negative or evil – I don’t see them as such. They are just another form of energy – another type of perspective in this dual Universe we’ve created. There is light and dark in everyone – each of us possesses these divine dueling energies. It really comes down to how we want to express ourselves and what we want to express ourselves as. It’s the same for the Angels.

What genre do you like to read?

I like most genres, except horror. I have a hard time reading graphically violent books because I get so involved in whatever I’m reading. I enjoy novels, children’s books, non-fiction, literature – pretty much all types of books because each one offers a different perspective on life. The writer who is writing the book gives me and all the readers a different idea about how life could be and that’s just fun for me. It’s all about the different perspectives on reality. That’s the fun of being the beings that we are. We are all collective souls in the soup of the Universe, but it is our unique perspective on something that allows us to be the identity that we are and create from that space. I love that.

Besides your books, what book do you think everyone in the universe should read and why?

There’s not one single book that will work for everyone. There are too many great books out there! And every book written by whatever author from their unique perspective will help someone find what they are looking for, hopefully within themselves. The author’s job is just to inspire that through their own experiences and their own voice. When I was little, I was deeply connected to the book, A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleline L’Engle. I can still see the imagery in my head. As an adult, I find other books that inspire me and particular authors whom I resonate with, but I cannot say there is any book that fits all, nor even a whole book that will make all the difference. Oftentimes, I find myself flipping through a book and pulling out what I need in the moment. I have lots of books like this from fiction and non-fiction authors all around the globe. I say, don’t discount any book – every book has something to offer someone, somewhere.

   If you could only choose one of the Angels of Pleiades to have a human form and accompany you daily which would you choose and why?

Plei, the Angel of Pleiades. For those who don’t know, Plei is the Angelic being who oversees all of the Pleiadian existence and she was the first one I channeled actively. Her energy resonates so closely to mine, it makes me flood with love when I think of her. We often joke when people ask why she’s called Plei and I tell them that her first name is Plei and her last name is Ades. When I first began communicating with her, it was what she told us we could call her to simplify the longevity of the Angel of Pleiades. Plei is a loving, kind, generous being who exudes love and wisdom with everything she does. She has an amazing spirit and if I couldn’t have them all in physical form, I would choose her to walk this journey with me. She is amazing in her connection to everyone, how gentle and wise she is and what she wants for all of us: to be our own truth. Her expansion is our expansion and the love she has for us is infinite.

You can find more about Michelle at the following links:

http://www.michellehankes.com http://www.angelenergyalignment.com/ http://www.angelsofpleiades.blogspot.com/  http://www.divine-by-nature.blogspot.com/

If you would like to be one of our Feature Friday guests please visit us at:
www.hotlitbooks.org