Listen to live interviews with authors
Reader Views has partnered with Inside Scoop Live. This fantastic website brings live interviews to you so you may hear the personal thoughts of authors regarding their books and issues.

Irene Woodbury has lived in two of the locations featured in her novel: Los Angeles, where she worked at the Los Angeles Times, IBM, and Time Magazine, and Houston, where she graduated from the University of Houston in 1993. She also got married in Houston. Since 1994, the couple have called Denver home. As for midlife crises -- his, hers, yours, mine -- Irene believes it’s a time for asking questions. “Where am I? Where have I been? Where am I going? That’s it in a nutshell,” she says. “Writing this novel has been my midlife crisis. And it’s not over yet!”

Synopsis: A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis is a dark, funny novel that describes Wendy Sinclair's spin-crazy life in Las Vegas after she impulsively decides to not return to Houston following a bizarre girls' weekend in 2005. The confused, unhappy 45-year-old newlywed soon rents a ramshackle apartment in a building filled with misfits; wallows in a blur of spas, malls, and buffets; and ultimately, becomes a designer of cocktail waitress uniforms and an Ann-Margret impersonator in a casino show with Elvis. 

She also hangs with some pretty colorful characters. Paula is her bold, brassy glamazon BFF who's looser than a Casino Royale slot. Maxine is her saucy former-Tropicana-showgirl boss. Paige and Serena are two twenty-something blackjack dealers she shops, gambles, and clubs up a storm with. Major crushes on a hunky pilot and sexy former rock star are also part of the mix. And then there are the phone fights with Roger, Wendy's workaholic husband waiting impatiently in Houston. Their clashes are louder and more raucous than a hot craps table at Caesar's! Does she go back to him, or does her midlife crisis become a midlife makeover?

Topics of conversation:

• What is midlife crisis and how many people have it?
  
• Advantages of being in midlife
  
• Re-evaluation of friendships and marriage
  
• Women in midlife
  
• Menopause experiences
  

Listen to interview with Irene Woodbury

Experts share their secrets
Authors Access is a joint project of Loving Healing Press and Reader Views. Each week we bring insightful interviews from people around the world who can help you get your work published, and if already published, noticed! The forum is geared for writers, both published and unpublished. Your hosts are Victor R. Volkman, owner/publisher of Loving Healing Press and Irene Watson, Managing Editor of Reader Views. See the lineup for future presentations and listen to previous podcasts.

On January 19th, 2012 Susan Violante and Victor R. Volkman spoke with award-winning children’s author, marketing expert, and entrepreneur Ellen Feld about how to target-market your children”s books. Her first book, Blackjack: Dreaming of a Morgan Horse, went on to win a coveted “Children’s Choices” award, co-sponsored by The International Reading Association and The Children’s Book Council.  The book was then picked up by an international toy company and packaged with a toy horse made to resemble Blackjack, the star of the series.  Blackjack continues to sell well and to date has sold over 30,000 copies.  Ellen shared her lessons learned and hard won experience with us on a variety of topics including:

• on-line advertising: where/when it works/doesn’t work
• Selling at regional events, shows, and other public venues outside the bookstore
• Why you need to think in terms of a series
• Importance of author selling/marketing, the personal touch
• Book signings – what works, what to have at your booth
• Finding and keeping an illustrator
• Cultivating your reputation as an expert
• The importance of professional help with your project.

Award-winning author Ellen Feld began writing about horses more than twenty years ago. Her first writing jobs were for horse magazines.  At first, she wrote for small, regional publications, but within a few short years her work began to appear regularly in large, national publications. Her articles have appeared in publications such as The Morgan Horse, Stable Management, Equestrian, Young Rider, Just About Horses, Horsemen’s Yankee Pedlar, Tri-State Horse, and The Appaloosa Journal.One day, back in 2001, while waiting for her next assignment to come in, Ellen wrote a short story about a Morgan Horse.  Several of her friends encouraged her to expand on the story and try writing a book.  That short story became the first chapter of “Blackjack: Dreaming of a Morgan Horse.”

Ellen Feld – Niche Marketing Your Children’s Book