Bonnie S. Calhoun: Interview With A Lovable Snark And Suspense Author

Everyone's Story welcomes back multi-published and multi-sensational Bonnie S. Calhoun, a woman of many talents. It's been a pleasure watching Bonnie's writing career grow and change, seeing her accomplish what she loves to do! Please take the time to watch her awesome and intriguing book trailer of her newest release, THUNDER, check out her BookGiveaway offer for 2 lucky winners, and enjoy the interview. Both Bonnie and I look forward to hearing from you.



For fun: please take this month's poll on the right-hand sidebar. Thanks.

BookGiveaway:

Bonnie is offering 1 hard copy edition of THUNDER (continental US only) and 1 e-book for Kindle of THUNDER. The winners will be announced here on Friday, February 20th between 5-6 PM EST. To be entered in the Giveaway, please leave your contact information within your comment. 

Questions for Bonnie Calhoun:

As an introduction to viewers, your logo reads “Snark, Suspense, Self-Discovery.” Interesting combo. Please elaborate, snarkism allowed if you’d like.

Hmmm...Let’s see...snark because words roll around in my head and shoot out my mouth without passing go. “I sorta’ got no filter.”

:-), suspense because I love the 3 B’s...blood, body count, and blowing things up, and lastly self-discovery because my characters never get away without learning something new about themselves and becoming stronger.

You’re an amazing woman with talents ranging from singing (extraordinary voice!!), writing, publisher, webmaster, seamstress, and live chicken lover. Tell us how you got your beginning, how did you begin your professional career(s). Is it talent, hard work, perseverance, luck, blessings, or a magic elf?

Thank you. I am humbled by your praise. Well to start with, I don’t believe in luck...I believe in God and his providence on our lives. And to answer the whole rest of the question, He made me an inquisitive extrovert who’s good with her hands and is gifted by the Spirit for entertaining!

The “live chicken lover” is a misnomer though, I much prefer them fried than alive!

After penning suspense and historical novels you’re now writing dystopian fiction. Are dystopian stories your true fiction love, and if so, why? What’s next?

I have always been a fan of dystopian fiction from my teenage introduction to Lord of the Flies and Fahrenheit 451 all the way through to the latest machinations of dystopia like the Divergent series, the Hunger Games, the Wool series, and The Maze Runner.

I love “what if.” What if we continue to pollute the environment? What if we lose our freedoms? What if we figure out how to control the human genome? The possibility for stories are as vast as the imagination that comes from reading the news.

Yes, I’m beginning to think dystopian is my true fiction love because I am having a ball writing this series! I have turned so many “given and conventional premises on their heads. This next book Lightning will answer some old questions, but creates a whole new set of questions that will be revealed in the super finale of book 3.

I will confess there is at least a half dozen other little voices in my head that have great suggestions for new series! But at the moment, the “next” thing will be book 2 of my present Stone Braide Chronicles series that publishes in October 2015, titled Lightning.

About a month before Lightning publishes, there will be a new short story. This one will be titled Shocks and will reveal much new information that happens before Lightning starts!

Dystopian fiction opens so many possibilities that I have been truly amazed at where people think this series is going and *snort-giggle* Newsflash! I haven’t found anyone yet that is even close in guessing how this ends.

Okay...one tidbit I will reveal only to your audience...there are no angels or demons in this series!

Through the varying genres you’ve written, have you seen an author theme develop?

That goes back to my logo tagline. My characters are women and young women who aren’t consciously aware of the strength within them until their feet are to the fire. I love to think that within each and every woman there is a Laura Croft, TombRaider type personality yearning to be free! My characters think fast and always have a lot to learn.

For the non-writing viewers of this blog, please share what aspect of storytelling you most enjoy.

That one’s easy! It’s a very short and concise answer...Creating word pictures in the readers minds that both entertain and make them think.

In my eyes—and many other writers—you’re a social media pro. Which venue has worked the best for you on an author basis and why? Which have you enjoyed the most on a social basis?

Hmmm...Thank you again for the compliment but I only seem to be a pro because I really love social media. When you love something you naturally gravitate to ways of getting the most from the experience with the tools they give you.

Which ones do I really like? Well I think if you ask me in another 5 years my preferences may have changed, because they have in the past. For example, seven years ago we were in the middle of the blogging revolution. It was the hot new medium and everyone was doing it. I enjoyed learning the internet and how to write HTML code by creating custom templates and blogging. I wound up working for Google for several years on the Blogger Help Forums helping people with Blogger problems.

But as we’ve come forward and I write more, I have less time for other things. More truncated forms of communication like Twitter and Facebook have reduced the time people are willing to commit for interaction, and sometimes interaction comes in 10 or 15 minute spurts spread throughout the day.

My comfort level with any medium is also what works best for me as an author. My suggestions would be that everyone needs a website and a blog for longer stable interaction and entertaining. But my favorite mediums are Facebook and Twitter. I use them regularly and prolifically!

What advice does the present Bonnie have for the Bonnie of years ago?

Runnnnnnnnn! (If I explained that I’d have to hunt you all down....sure it always starts with laughing and joking and ends with running and screaming! *snort-giggle*

No...seriously...I’d let it all play out like it did because if I didn’t I might not be the person I am today...now that could make a great dystopian!

For fun (or possibly on a serious note): if you had the opportunity to teach one class to a massive amount of people, what subject would you lecture on?

The power of prayer, the most under-utilized weapon Jesus gave us!


You can see Bonnie's first Everyone's Story interview here.


Bonnie's Ah-hahs To Tweet:

Everyone’s Story: Meet “Snark, Suspense, Self-Discovery” author @BonnieCalhoun #DystopianFiction (Tweet This)

Advice from social media pro, publisher, author, webmaster, seamstress @BonnieCalhoun #BookGiveaway (Tweet This)

Author @BonnieCalhoun: Why #dystopian fiction? #BookGiveaway (Tweet This)

Author's Bio:

Bonnie S. Calhoun is Owner/Director of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, owner/publisher of Christian Fiction Online Magazine, Northeast Zone Director for American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), and the ACFW ‘2011 Mentor of the Year.” 

She love to write, but it doesn't make her happy unless there are the three B's...body count, blood, or blowing things up. She also has mad skills at coding HTML, and website design. And she lives in a log cabin in the woods with fifteen acres and a pond full of bass, though she'd rather buy fish at the grocery store. Bonnie shares her domain with a husband, a dog, and two cats, all of whom think she’s waitstaff!

Places to connect with Bonnie:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Goodreads

Pinterest

Youtube