WHISPERS ON A STRING: AUTHOR Q&A with Kathleen Stone @kstonewriter #interview

Today's guest is author Kathleen Stone! Her book is titled WHISPERS ON A STRING and she is here today to talk about her new book and what surprised her about the whole process of getting published.

Can we begin by having you take us to the beginning? When did you come up with the idea to write your book?

In August 2018 I woke up with a sentence in my head, and it intrigued me so much I wrote it down. I had no idea what it meant or what I would use it for, but it ended up being the first line of my latest book, Whispers On A String, the basis of which came to me in a dream.

Who is the publisher and how did you find them or did you self-publish?

I self-published through Amazon’s publishing program.

Do you believe a book cover plays an important role in the selling process?

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but seeing that a book’s cover is usually a reader’s first glimpse, I think they are very important in the selling process. If a book’s cover is unappealing to the eye, it could be the loss of a sale to a prospective reader.

How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?

I’d never written in first person before, which was a bit of a challenge for me in the beginning. I also took a big chance with my chapter set up, going back and forth in time as opposed to a linear story. In the end it turned out to be the only way this story could’ve been written, and it worked beautifully. In all honesty it wasn’t a hard book to write, but all writers face challenges either when they get stuck, or the words don’t seem to flow as easily one day, or they become plagued with self-doubt. The best advice I can give is to just keep writing and never give up. Don’t worry about the first draft — that’s exactly what it is, the first draft. Write first and edit later, because it’s all about getting the story written; everything else comes later. Enjoy the writing process for what it is — creating a work of art that is unique and has never been seen before.

What other books are you working on and when will they be published?

I am currently writing the companion book to Whispers On A String. I say companion as opposed to sequel because while Whispers was written from the point of view of the female protagonist, the new book is being written from the point of view of the male protagonist. His book, however, is being written linearly, so there’s no going back and forth from the present to the past. I’m hoping to have it published later this year, but I also have three other novels in progress that need to be completed.

Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?

I think the main message of Whispers On A String is that you should never hesitate to tell someone you love them. So many things get in the way — fear, anxiety, insecurities, self-doubt — and as real as those things are, we should never let them keep us from telling people how we feel about them because it can only lead to misunderstandings, assumptions, and missing out on what could be the greatest love of our lives.

Kathleen Stone has been a freelance writer since 1999 and now writes full time. Her work has appeared in Doll World Magazine, Apolloslyre.com, The Lake County Journals, Trails.com; USA Today (travel), Livestrong.com (lifestyle), Essortment, eHow, Answerbag, Examiner.com, Suite101 and YahooVoices. She is the author of Whispers On A String and the Head Case Rock Novel Series, which includes Head Case and its sequels, Whiplash and Haven. She also has short stories published in the Secrets: Fact or Fiction I & II anthologies.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

Website: http://www.kathleenstone.org
Twitter: www.twitter.com/kstonewriter
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kathleenstonewriter

What happens when your soul is bound to another before you were ever born? Lonny and Roo have been best friends since they met in high school in 1975 at the age of fourteen. Same last name, same birthdate, they were attached at the hip; rarely was one seen without the other. Together they navigate through their emotional high school years, but nothing prepares the naive teenagers for the real world ahead of them. Now on the cusp of their fiftieth birthday, Lonny finds Roo broke and alone and convinces her to leave with him on a cross country road trip from New York to Las Vegas, hoping to set her on a new path in life. Told exclusively by Roo, follow the friends back and forth through their unique relationship — experience the loss of innocence, career and life choices that separate and unite them, and unspeakable events that nearly destroy them. It’s a love only they understand, as well as the unbreakable bond that forever ties them together. Is it possible they are only capable of loving each other?