Tell us a bit about your family. My husband and I met in college. We have been married many years! Our son is married to a lovely girl, and they have a 4 1/2 year old boy. Our daughter and her fabulous husband have a 4 month old boy. Both of our kids got engaged the same summer and then both married the following summer. It was a busy two years! Colorado has always been our home. Although we have traveled quite a bit, we have found nowhere else where the four seasons are so evident.
What book should everybody read at least once? Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology” is my choice. So much of the modern world has its roots in ancient Greece: Democracy, Music, Philosophy, Architecture, Medicine, Scientific, Humanities, etc. Pretty amazing that a culture over 2500 years old still influences the world. The stories of the gods and goddesses, while entertaining, demonstrates that human nature hasn’t changed much over the centuries.
What is hardest – getting published, writing, or marketing? Today, with the ability of writers to self-publish their work, I think that marketing has taken on a bigger portion of a writer’s time. Self-publishing opened up the somewhat hidden publishing arena. Writers are finding out that promotion is not simple; books do not sell themselves; and most writers are not publicists. I’ve found marketing to be a larger learning curve, in part, because I’ve had to learn so much in such a short time.
What other jobs have you had in your life? I’m a retired high school English teacher. Teaching is a wonderful profession, and I probably wouldn’t have retired after 24 years, if I could have figured out how to teach writing and literature without having to read and grade between 900 and 1000 essays and research papers each year! I love working with young adults.
My love of traveling fueled my part time job with a major airline. After working nights and weekends for 12 years, I retired and now enjoy life-time flights benefits. I also volunteer at our airport and enjoy helping travelers find their way.
How do you write – laptop, pen & paper, in bed, at a desk? I always handwrite all my first drafts. Throughout my 24 years of teaching writing, I have found that students who write on a computer rarely go back and edit. They regard the computer page as the finished product. I’m always amazed at the amount of editing I do when I transfer my written pages to my laptop. Along that same line, I’ve found that printing out the subsequent drafts facilitates my editing. Once again, the computer page is too often considered the final draft.
I don’t follow a set writing schedule. Life interferes too much. I find myself writing (with pen & paper) on the front porch, the back patio, or my living room couch whenever I can spare some time. One constant element of my writing routine is that I either have music on, or one of my favorite movies.
It is vital to get exposure and target the right readers for your writing, tell us about your marketing campaign. Since my books are for ages 8-13, I focus my promotions on that group as well as parents. I use FB and Twitter to reach my potential readers and buyers. Also, a big part of my marketing has been through Blog Tours. These tours help me reach mainly the buyers (parents) of my genre. This is my second promotion through Orangeberry. My first promotion was for my book Young Knights of the Round Table: The King’s Ransom.
Another big part of my marketing has been my medieval writing workshops for elementary schools and for the Colorado Girl Scouts. Here I reach my readers. I spend anywhere from 2 hours to all day at elementary schools, and conduct four-hour workshops for the Girl Scouts.
Author Links:
Author Web Site: http://www.beyondtodayeducator.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/cheryl.carpinello1
Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/cherylcarpinello
Twitter Home Page: https://twitter.com/ccarpinello
Purchase Links
Young Knights:
MuseItUp Publishing Bookstore: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=322&category_id=191&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/148252709X
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/148252709X
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/young-knights-of-the-round-table-cheryl-carpinello/1115164900?ean=9781482527094&isbn=9781482527094
Guinevere:
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/143273704X
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/143273704X
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/guinevere-cheryl-carpinello/1100076414
Author Bio
In addition to be a writer, Cheryl is a retired high school English teacher. Still passionate about working with kids, she conducts writing workshops for kids in the elementary and middle schools. The kids outline their own medieval stories complete with knights, dragons, magicians, and usually princesses.
Cheryl loves to travel to college football games, to Las Vegas, to visit family, and to see new places. She and her husband recently spent two weeks visiting Egypt where they traveled by local train from one end of Egypt to the other.
Buy Now @ Amazon @ Smashwords
Genre - Arthurian Legend
Rating – G
More details about the author and the book
1 comment:
Thanks for interviewing me and hosting me on my 2013 Orangeberry Tour.
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