Author Interview and Spotlight Sally G Cronin

                       I am honored to host today a special lady. She  is not only a great supporter of fellow authors from all over the world but she has numerous books on health and nutrition. Her blog is an exquisite source of information be it for women who want to keep a diet and look slimmer and also for people who have all kind of health problems.
                       She kindly agreed to answer a couple of questions for the followers of this blog, despite her busy schedule. so let's give a warm welcome to
                                             Sally G. Cronin

1 . What 3 words best describe you?

Inquisitive, Supportive, Joker

2. I’m sure we all have writing rituals, even if we’re not conscious of them! Do you have one, I mean do you need music playing in the background, have a certain snack at arm's length, write with a certain type of pen/keyboard, drink coffee/tea/milk/juice while writing?

I am pretty easy going with my writing process, but once I get started I like to work through without interruption until I have finished a chapter, short story or post. I may come back to edit later, but I like to know that it is all there.

3. What is your favorite positive saying?

There are quite a few that I have gathered over the years. One I do like in particular is this one.

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle

4. You have a complex blog. Promoting other fellow authors, articles on health and nutrition, etc.All of them extremely useful. How do you find time for all this?

Even when I began working for myself twenty years ago, I always put in the hours. I was used to 12 to 14 hour days and I consider what I do now as my job. As an author I needed to build a platform to promote my own books which cover health, nutrition and fiction. I have a diverse audience around the world, with varied interests. I wanted a blog that embraced that, and also provided me with a stimulating, if virtual work environment. For me promoting others is a natural extension of that, since they too write books across all the genres, which again brings a wide cross section of readers to the blog. And, I love what I do which is always a key element.

5. What question do you wish that someone would ask about your books, but nobody has? Write it out here, then answer it.

Why do you write so many short stories?

My favourite time of day when I was a child was being read a bed-time story. But I would not go to sleep until I had listened to the whole story. I am like that now. Although I read novels and enjoy them, I much prefer a really good short story with a beginning, middle and end that I can read before I switch out the light. That is why I love blogging because each post is a story with the same elements. And with short stories it is so much easier to end on a twist...

6. Which of your books was the most difficult/complex to write?

The most difficult to write was my first book Size Matters. Not because it was the first, but because it was the most personal. I shared the physical, emotional and mental elements that had led me to being morbidly obese and suffering from various lifestyle induced diseases. Being honest with myself was the first step and putting it down on paper for others to read was the next. It is there now permanently as a reminder to me of how much work I did to get back my health and that the effort should not be squandered.

 

About Sally Cronin

My name is Sally Cronin and after working in a number of industries for over 25 years, I decided that I wanted to pursue a completely different career, one that I had always been fascinated with. I began studying Nutrition and the human body twenty years ago and I opened my first diet advisory centre in Ireland in 1998. Over the last 18 years I have practiced in Ireland and the UK as well as written columns, articles and radio programmes on health and nutrition.

I published my first book with a Canadian self-publisher in the late 90s and since then have republished that book and released ten others as part of our own self-publishing company. Apart from health I also enjoy writing fiction in the form of novels and short stories.

My latest book – What’s in a Name? - Volume Two.

Buy link: Amazon

Our legacy is not always about money or fame, but rather in the way that people remember our name after we have gone. In these sixteen short stories we discover the reasons why special men and women will stay in the hearts and minds of those who have met them. Romance, revenge and sacrifice all play their part in the lives of these characters.

Kenneth watches the love of his life dance on New Year's Eve while Lily plants very special flowers every spring for her father. Martha helps out a work colleague as Norman steps back out into the world to make a difference. Owen brings light into a house and Patrick risks his life in the skies over Britain and holds back from telling a beautiful redhead that he loves her.

My other books

You can find more about Sally here:
Smorgasbordinvitation

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All books available in print and E-versions

Amazon 

Book Promo - Dorothy Bell and her Dance Hall Road

 It's my great pleasure to bring you today an old friend and fellow author Dorothy Bell. We were both authors at Wild Child Publishing that, as you know, closed its doors at the beginning of 2017, and were tutored by the same editor. Dorothy presents her soon to be released book.
                                 Dance Hall Road
 Release day - July 11th.

 Author bio:
 
I grew up in southern Iowa, moved to Oregon’s Willamette Valley at the age of eleven. I was in the sixth grade when I started school in Oregon. On my first day of school, I encountered the boy I would eventually marry. He kept pestering me, trying to kiss me. I held out until I turned sixteen, then I kind’a got the hang of the kissing thing. We’ve been married for forty-eight years, he’s still a pest, bless him.
I started out writing Regency Romances to entertain myself. I took writing courses, but I think I learned the most by submitting my work to publishers, editors and agents, and getting feedback. Laid low for nearly twenty-five years with arthritis, forced to use a battery-powered cart, I took up aquatic exercise and became an instructor. After two surgeries to replace my knees, I went to work on myself and lost eighty-five pounds, which I have kept off.
My husband and I live in Central Oregon with two West Highland White terriers, an energetic, longhaired Dachshund and one big, angora tuxedo cat. When I need a break from writing Oregon historical western romances, I work in the yard or my garden.

Bizarre facts about Vlad III Basarab, nicknamed, Vlad Tepes (the Impaler), or Dracula.

1. Bram Stoker didn’t make up the word Dracula for his book. DRACULA in Walachian language means DEVIL.  His father, Vlad II Basarab, was a member of a secret society known as the Order of the Dragon, which fought the Ottoman Empire. He was so proud to be a member that he had his name changed to “Dracul,” Romanian for “Dragon.”  Vlad III also got involved in the Order, which prompted him to change his own name to Dracula.

2. The name Tepes is the Romanian for “the Impaler.” It was a title given to him posthumously. Vlad III earned his “Impaler” nickname by killing thousands of Turks and others by the grisly method that he learned during his teens, when he was a political hostage of the Ottoman Empire in Egrigoz.

3. When Vlad’s father was called to a diplomatic meeting in 1442 with Sultan Murad II, he brought his young sons Vlad III and Radu along, having no idea that they fell in a trap. All three were arrested and held hostage. The elder Vlad was released but he had to leave his sons behind.

4.  It was during his hostage years that Vlad witnessed the impalement of his Ottomans' enemies. According to historical accounts, Vlad suffered much at the hands of the Ottomans. He was tortured for part of that time, and was locked up in an underground prison.  However, his younger brother, Radu, caught the eye of the sultan's son. Radu was released and converted to Islam, and he was allowed into the Ottoman royal court.

5.  In the 1400s, the region of Wallachia was under constant threat from its neighbors, the Turks. Vlad III sent an army to push the Turks out of his land. Eventually, though the Turks forced Vlad into a retreat—he was not done. As he retreated, he burned down his own villages along the way so that the Turkish army would have nowhere to rest. He even went so far as poisoning his own wells just so that the incoming Turkish army wouldn’t have the satisfaction.

6. When Ottoman diplomatic envoys had an audience with Vlad in 1459, the diplomats declined to remove their hats, citing a religious custom. Commending them on their religious devotion, Vlad ensured that their hats would forever remain on their heads by having the hats nailed to the diplomats' skulls.

7. Vlad tested whether his technique for dissuading theft or dishonesty worked.  He had a valuable gold bowl placed near a river crossing. The rule was that anybody could drink out of it, but it could not leave the square under any circumstances.  The bowl stayed put! It’s believed that during this time about 60,000 people lived in the town—yet during his entire reign, the priceless cup was never touched.  

8. Reports state that Dracula’s body was buried at a cemetery in the Snagov Monastery, outside Bucharest, where one of his brothers was a monk. But there are conflicting reports - some that his body was never actually found there, while others say that his possible remains were indeed found, but then disappeared. It is believed that the archaeologists searching in Snagov, (a commune outside Bucharest), in 1931, found Dracula’s remains. The contents were transferred to the History Museum in Bucharest, but they later disappeared without a trace, leaving the mysteries of the real Prince Dracula unanswered.

 It’s pretty likely that his body was just robbed at some point; as royalty, he would likely have been buried with treasure, making his grave a good target for grave robbers. And then there’s the other theory about why his body was never found: because he’s Dracula.

                            Dracula’s Mistress

                    

Publisher – City Lights Press

Genre – Paranormal historical/light romance

Blurb

From the day that the powerful, brave and merciless Vlad III Basarab, a descendant of the Draculesti family—better known to most people as the infamous vampire Dracula—ascends the throne, he knows only battles, betrayal and intrigue.

Evil grips the town of Targoviste, capital residence of Walachia. The secrets behind the stone walls of the palace are as dark and violent as a winter’s night, as terrifying as the prince’s deeds. Dead bodies, drained of blood and missing their little finger keep appearing in the streets at night.

Lovely, smart, determined, Angela Oltenescu ignores all the aggressive rumors and her mother’s warning regarding Vlad. Will she suffer the consequences of falling in love with a man nicknamed Dracula by his enemies—an infamous creature of the night?

Rich, sly, treacherous,  Marin Craioveanu, a powerful landlord, craves the same woman loved by Vlad. Marin's hatred toward the prince will make him an ally to Handsome Radu, Vlad’s brother and Sultan’s friend, ready to sell the country to the Ottomans to get rid of his rival.

Dracula’s Mistress will awe legions of fans of Gothic literature, paranormal and historical fiction

Buy link   Only 0.99$  Amazon.com

 

Other books by Carmen: Till-Life-Do-Us-Part
                                        Dracula's Prodigy