Interview with author, Penny Estelle
It's my pleasure to host author, Penny Estelle on my blog today. Penny, take it away!My name is Penny Estelle and I am a retired school secretary. During school and high school I never read. I thought it was a bore and I had better things to do. After I was married and had children – crawling, crying, children – I discovered escaping to other times/places was not a bore at all. As a matter of fact, it helped to keep my sanity in tact! The more I read, the more I thought, “I would not have ended that story that way! I would have...”
And so I started writing on a regular electric typewriter. It was a historical/western/romance. It took five years to finish. That was approximately twenty-five years ago. I put the finished book in a box, put it in my closet, and it is still there to this day!
My genre, at this point, is MG/YA. After working with kids for twenty-one years, I have a fondness for their sense of humor, actions, excuses, etc. They make me laugh.
A year ago I wrote Hike Up Devil’s Mountain. At the time my daughter was teaching fifth grade. I had done the first three chapters and asked her to read a chapter to her class and see if they showed any interest or fell asleep. Much to my surprise, she ended up using my story as incentive for good behavior because they wanted to hear more.
My novella, Hike Up Devil’s Mountain, is about a ten-year-old boy, Andy Thompson, who disobeys his mother and breaks into the basement of an old house that is about to be demolished. He stumbles across a box that contains a brown, wooden stick. To his amazement the stick glows a burning red, but only sometimes. Unfortunately for Andy, the school bully and his ten-year-old brother find the old basement, and Andy, and the stick. A fight ensues and the bully is now a toad. The two ten year olds must hike up Devil’s Mountain to find the only person who can help them. The question is, will they survive the climb! This story is an ebook and can be purchased at:
I have a short story, Billy Cooper’s Awesome Nightmare, scheduled to be out in May of 2012. It was picked up by Museitup Publishing. I am excited about this one and I think it could possibly be a series.
Both of my books are ebooks. I really don’t have much experience on the ins and outs of ebooks. I am learning as I go. I know marketing, blogging, etc. is something that is important and a must if you want your stories to sell.
As a relatively new writer myself, the only advice I can give is write, write, write…send stories to publishers and write some more! You never know when another Nora Roberts or James Patterson is waiting to be discovered.
I can be found at http://www.pennystales.com, http://pennyestelle.blogspot.com
Thank you, Penny and best of luck with all your endeavours.
Oooh, I like the sound of Hike Up Devil's Mountain. Great premise, believable characters (from the short description), and journey! I would so read this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Marlena! :)
ReplyDeleteHow fun! I'll have to look into that!
ReplyDeleteWonderful advice, Penny. The plot sounds like something my son would enjoy.
ReplyDeletePenny, I really enjoyed reading about your path of becoming a writer, as mine has a similar quirk--I was a reader and editor who didn't think she was also a writer. It just goes to show that the passion to create feelings with words can hit us at any time, and when it does, watch out. Your books sound very intriguing.
ReplyDeleteJeanne - Thank you so much for having me as a guest. As I am pretty new to this, it's exciting to be asked. I really appreciate it. Also, thanks for all the nice comments!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, Penny! It was my pleasure to have you :)
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