I’m Victor Greywolf: writer, low budget filmmaker and actor. One thing that I have noticed, especially with artists who have struggled with their works, is there are many myths about making it. Here’s how I’ve learned to cope with the situations, as I lived through them: Myth: If you are older than 40 and haven’t made it, you will never reach your goal Fact: This is a self-imposed limitation. You believe that filmmakers are only looking for the young (pre-teen to 25) crowd, and because you are in your 40’s, it is the end. That is nothing but a bunch of crap, and that is being polite. A lot of filmmakers cannot fill their demand for adults, especially in the older roles. Older roles are out there, and they are looking for you. You just have to know where to look. Look for roles in independent films or theater or even videos. People get things done when they get things done. You don’t know if the story is even true, depending on the source. What do you do? Learn how to question those stories. You are on your own journey. You are doing what you do. Eddie Murphy made it at 19, but Rodney Dangerfield didn’t make it until he was almost fifty. Fifty! You aren’t in competition with anyone. You will make it when you make it. Enjoy the ride and go with the flow. Myth: People say that I am a legend in my own mind, so I am not worth following. Fact: There will always be those who get you and those who won’t. Don’t let the fact that detractors are out there get you down. Sometimes, they are your biggest publicists, because they’re talking about you, right? People talk. Let...

If you are one of those artists who believe they never should pay for interviews, you should reconsider. When a publication interviews you for free, you answer questions that serve the interests of their target market. You do not control the content. I agree that free publicity and fresh internet real estate are all good things. However, there are many advantages to paying a professional to produce a featured interview or post, because you can control the questions, answers and many aspects of promotion. Get Asked the Right Interview Questions First, decide why you want to be interviewed. There are many reasons why artists want to be interviewed and tell their stories. Do you want to be interviewed because you just released a new song or film or book? Are you going on tour? Are you launching a crowdsourcing campaign? Are you looking for management or to beef up your electronic press kit (EPK)? Answering the why not only influences what questions you want to be asked, but also what order you want the interviewer to ask them. People have short attention spans, so make sure the interviewer asks you the most important questions first. Next, decide who you want to target. How you choose to answer your interview questions can vary widely, depending on your target audience. For example, you may want to provide short answers if you are talking to new fans, but go more in-depth if you are talking to die-hard fans. You may want to use different language and behave more professionally if you are answering questions to for potential managers. Because you know the questions you’ll be asked in advance, you can prepare your answers, rehearse for your interview and give your audience a fabulous performance. Take Charge of Interview Promotion...

We love interviewing J Alexander Greenwood because he has so much great insight about indie publishing. We also love his John Pilate Mystery Series. So, you can imagine how excited we are to have the opportunity to interview him again, now that he is planning to release his new book Pilate’s 7. For those who aren’t familiar with the wonderful John Pilate Mystery Series, I asked J Alexander Greenwood to tell us about John Pilate, beginning with the first book: “Pilate’s Cross is based on a true story of a real-life murder that happened in 1950’s Nebraska. I took the true story, updated it and added a back story. I thought the book would be a one and done deal. I had a nice response, and I thought about what could happen next if I continued with the characters and took it to the next level. That’s where Pilate’s Key came from.” J Alexander Greenwood took John Pilate to the beach: “He went to Key West to write a book about what happened during Pilate’s Cross.” Alex smiled and added: “A little bit of meta stuff going on. I don’t believe in just doing two things. I’m a Gemini and a second son and I like threes. Shortly thereafter, I came up with Pilate’s Ghost, which I thought would be the end of the series. Pilate’s Ghost wrapped up everything that happened in the first and second books.” But John Pilate’s story did not end with Pilate’s Ghost. J Alexander Greenwood waited about two years and came out with Pilate’s Blood late 2014. Now, Alex is releasing a new book to the John Pilate universe called Pilate’s 7, and it’s not a novel. Pilate’s 7 is a collection of short stories centered on the...

Memoirs of a Girl Who Loves God… This book, my debut novel and my first of many, is a symbol of so many things. It represents a dream come true, hard work, answered prayers, acknowledgment and change. My book is a Young Adult Fiction in the Faith & Spirituality genre. It’s about a struggling fourteen-year-old named Krystal, who is cutting in order to cope with changes in her life. While the story is fiction, the main character is based on a real girl, someone I’ve known forever and love dearly. She is my muse. A plethora of research, interviews and heart went into creating the vivid characters that cross Krystal’s path in Memoirs of a Girl Who Loves God. How did this all come to be? I don’t really know. Something about growing up as an only child gives the imagination an extra spark! Extra sparks do wonders for reading. I’ve been a reader my entire life. In junior high and high school, there would often be a novel on top of my stack of schoolbooks. It was always smaller than everything else in my arms and constantly slid around while I was walking through the halls. Most of the time, the book would have a Stephen King or Dean Koontz title. Because I was painfully shy, I kept just a few close friends and busied myself with reading in my spare time throughout the day. Reading is a lifesaver during moments of awkward silence. My first real memory of enjoying the writing process was in grade school. We’d been learning about the science of weather, and our assignment was to write a weather report. My teacher said we could pick any location, so I chose Mars. My meteorologist was abducted by aliens midway...

I’ve been writing poetry since the 8th grade, but I started honing my love for it in my senior year of high school (1993).  I always wanted to be published and even submitted requests to some of the larger publishing companies.  After either not hearing back from them or getting turned down, I became discouraged, but I kept writing. In October 2006, a friend of mine introduced me to a friend of hers who had just published his book of poetry.  He gave me the roadmap and the information to the company he used, and the rest is history. I had a really good friend edit my fist book of poetry More than Poetry, 1993 until Infinity and contacted Author House to get the process started.  My first book was released in March of 2007, and my second book, A Journey through Infinity, was just published in February of this year. With both books, because I had a very good friend do all the editing, it cut down the cost of publishing and I copyrighted the books myself at www.copyright.gov. Writing is my first love, I may not do it all the time but I always come back to it. I also have two singles on iTunes and Amazon Music, Forever and Echoes of Love. Enjoy my poem written exclusively for Amused Now, She. She She is a woman Who knows where Her beauty lies   She She is defined By more than How she looks By more than How thick she is By more than How full her lips are By more than The color of her eyes By more than The curvature of her body   Her measurements Are not always 36-24-36 But she has beautiful curves Nonetheless   She She refuses to be labeled She...

I often thought about writing letters to my younger self and calling them valuable lessons. Poetry is the best gift I have been given, to keep me positive in this world, where I grew up feeling alone. I have always felt that as long as I have a pen and a pad, all was well. Starting to write at twelve and not knowing that it was poetry until two years later, I began to add my poetic flavor to life experiences. I also had my voice muffled by battling self-esteem issues and depression. Walking into my future, I gain so much introspective about my valuable lessons of my experiences. Poetry can be said to be my inspiration and my push forward. With the flip of my pen and my spiritual connection, I use my words to heal, to bring awareness and to start communication See, poetry to me is like the victory dance in the end zone after a touch down. It’s like the last basket you get in the game when the buzzer is going off  and you made the three-point shot. Poetry to me is that good feeling; writing does wonders for my mental escape.  Being able to be positive as I go through life and to expect good, to smile and to feel good, is new.  For so long, I lived in a life of confusion. From within, I always had a desire to do better than where I stood.   Traveling my own journey consumed my heart, so that now I’m reaching my hand back and bringing others up with me. My goals are to encourage and motivate and share some of my knowledge that I gained over the years.  I am no longer operating out of old hindering patterns. I find that loving people where they...

A couple nights ago, a friend asked me if I’d always known I wanted to be a writer. Well, I haven’t always wanted to. I mean, I’ve always written things. There was college, then graduate school, both with their requisite exercises in premature grandiose genius term papers. Plus, every job I’ve ever had involved writing in some way, whether it was treatment plans (social worker), issue reports (policy analyst), or star charts (mom). Okay, I guess not waitressing, unless you count dinner tickets. I penned a powerful loaded baked potato. But to actually be a writer? As a job? I’d never thought of that. In fact, I still hadn’t thought of it when my friend asked me that question. Writing isn’t my job. It’s what I have to do. I need to write. I have thoughts and ideas swarming through my brain that must be shared! When I share them out loud, I forget things. I jumble my points and omit important facts. (Though I’m sure my family will tell you this hasn’t stopped me from trying.) When I write it down, it makes sense. I sound smarter. Don’t believe me? Try arguing on the Internet. That can make anyone feel like an expert. But expert or not, I have some strange affliction that causes my fingers to twitch until they clack across a keyboard. (Come on! I know you know what I’m talking about!) And about four years ago, I decided to relieve my itch with novel writing. I’m supposed to say something about my process here. Well, I’m writing my third book now, and so far my process seems to involve several torturous but necessary steps: Come up with a fantastic premise that I’m sure will make a brilliant novel. Do months of research on my premise, develop characters, and...

I never thought that one day I’d be writing books. My friends pushed me into writing, literally. And even when I started, I was so afraid that nobody would care for any of my stories that I almost quit altogether several times. If you are in the same place, please, don’t. Don’t quit. Writing is such a beast that it gets better the more you do it. And, funny enough, the more you do it, even if you are not consciously trying, the better you get. To all those people wondering why in the world you would want to write yet another book to add to millions and billions and gazillions of others, I say this: write for therapy. In the end, it doesn’t matter if anyone will read your work or not. What matters is that you’re shedding your pain, opening up your imagination and becoming a happier person. We need more people like this in this world, we need more writers, more artists. What matters is that while you’re writing, you’re happy. You don’t believe me? Well, it’s not me who said it. I went to one of Chuck Palahniuk’s readings one day, because he is one of my favorite authors, and there he told us a story. It was a story about him writing a short story Romance. I won’t spoil it for you, you can read it here. He said that at some point someone in some big newspaper, or maybe small newspaper, wrote a comment or a review on it said, “Chuck Palahniuk fucked a retard.” He asked the audience, how do you continue writing after reading something like this? And he said, you write for therapy. That’s all there is to it. I took his advice to heart. I...

First things first. What is art? The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture. Works produced by skill and imagination. What does it mean to me? I’m a mature writer with a passion to express good triumphing over evil, and the concept that thoughts are real things, in the form of a novel. When I was younger, science fiction inspired me. Each novel I read told a story using one precept which changed reality from the present day. For instance, the writer Ayn Rand showed how the world would be if Atlas (representing the brilliance of inventors) Shrugged. In her novel, when the world lacked thinkers to hold civilization together, it quickly descended into a primitive state. With the medium of words expressed through a plot, I weave believable stories. The reader can vicariously live another life through the characters, cheer for the hero or heroine, understand the unscrupulous cad, and boo for the scoundrel. As each character grows during the story, the reader will advance with them. Each of my stories contains a character with an extraordinary feature. One sees auras, and another experiences visions in which she is transported into another body and whispers advice.  No life goes smoothly—and there’s the delightful quandary for any story. Through the ages, the battle has raged between: men/women, good/evil, abundance/scarcity, friendship/loneliness. Beneath the surface, we are all the same despite nationality, tradition, and status. We share humanity with all its associated pitfalls and triumphs and the constant need to achieve balance. I write novels in an effort to bring my skill and imagination together. The Moonstone series focuses on Liliha, a modern woman, who wears an ancient ring which gives her visions. The newly released Tidal Surge follows the first...

When I first met Russell Brooks in 2010, he was writing his first thriller, Pandora’s Succession. The book has suspense, drama, and the mind-bending twists and turns that make up a great thriller. In 2011, he released the short story trilogy Unsavory Delicacies and the novel Chill Run. He is now working on his fourth novel, the sequel to Pandora’s Succession: The Demeter Code. Russell has a lot of tremendous advice for new writers, and he’s a great source of information on the thriller genre. When he wrote Pandora’s Succession, he did a lot of research, because he was writing outside his area of expertise. Research, he says, is crucial for any writer. He instructs anyone writing in a genre outside of their daily sphere to research, research, research! When I asked Russell the number one thing he’d recommend to new writers embarking on their first book, he stated with a smile: “Write about something that you love!”  Write about something that you can relate to. Russell’s advises new authors not get your expectations too high on your first novel. He supplements his book income by managing a thriving insurance business.   He also recommends: Fact-checking. Hire a content editor. Hire a copy editor for professional proofreading. Enlist a professional book jacket designer, so your book is not discernible as a self-published book from a book published by a major publishing house. Keep on writing and write a bang up story! This is the best advice I’ve heard. Writing what you love in Russell’s case produces novels that are: well researched, passionately written, authentic pieces of literature that draw you in and thrill you with suspense! To find out more about Russell Brooks, visit his website:  www.russellparkway.com Click on the book covers to buy...

Why? I seriously have to ask myself that question. Why bother writing a book? There’s enough lining the book stores. Why add one more to the pile? If I don’t ask myself this question now, I know that when I’m in the middle of writing a book, when I feel discouraged and feel like I’m drifting farther and farther away from my deadline, I won’t stand a chance of finishing it. I have to ask this now or else be crippled into lack of action later. My initial response is “because I like writing.” While that may be true, writing a book can be a daunting task. It is not for the undisciplined. When there is no “inspiration,” can I keep going based on sheer will and determination until the next wave of inspiration hits me? What if I only have that one initial wave of inspiration to tide me over throughout the whole journey? Is that enough? And so, I realize, that I have to dig deeper. I needed a better reason. I needed one that can sustain me throughout the writing process: from the initial brainstorming, to the first chapter, and the never ending edits that will come along with a “finished” product. There’s a scene in the movie The King’s Speech when the king’s speech therapist asks him why people should listen to him? To which the king replies: “Because I have a right to be heard. I have a voice!” I was moved beyond comprehension by this brief exchange on the screen by two amazing actors. I wanted to get up from my seat and yell “Yes, I do have a voice!” However, I was able to restrain myself and I am sure that those in the theater are happy that...

“Baby you’re the best.” These lyrics play at the end of my recent interview with Sam Wesst. I know I’ll be singing those words to his song “Six O’Clock in the Morning” when the world discovers, as I already have, that he is a substantial new musical and writing talent. This song could receive a Grammy. That’s all I could think of as I finished watching the edited version of my interview with Sam. Sam is a humble, powerful, talented soul who reminded me of John Denver when he sang “Cotton Jenny” and made me tear up when he told her story on our video interview. This is the type of man the world does not have enough of. Men like my husband, solid, caring and true. If I know anything — and I believe in my instincts — Sam Wesst will soon be very well known. He wants be a part of the Amused Now e-commerce website when it launches and we’re delighted! His album of 9 songs, picked first by him and then approved by Tate Publishing, is being cut in June for a fall release. Members from Reba McIntyre’s band will be accompanying. He’s staying humble about it, but I doubt Tate pulls out the stops for every artist they work with. Sam’s book, Wounded Warriors is in Barnes and Noble, on Amazon.com, on www.tatepublishing.com and is soon to be on www.samwesst.com. It is about a group of covert soldiers in Vietnam, not owned by the army or the country they serve. When they return, one of them comes back with evidence of their secret mission in Nam. They gather in a pack on motorcycles and ride to a remote location called Desert Rose. There they must fight to protect the...