Today an author of a different kind of book features on my blog. You’ll find out later what I mean with different, but first we’ll get to know Alana a bit better.
Alana Munro lives in Australia with her husband, 3 kids and their puppy. Born in Scotland, she acquired a Bachelor of Arts degree from an Edinburgh university before jumping head first into motherhood. Alana spends much of her days trying to ignore the ever expanding pile of dirty washing, trying to write, counting down the hours till it is ‘wine o’clock’ (5pm is a respectable hour for a shiraz?) and sipping on camomile tea that’s went cold – again.
Hi! Glad you could make it. Let’s not waste any time, because I know with all those wonderful things happening you have a full schedule.
Like that Google+ community for all writers, bloggers and poets she runs. Support-a-Writer offers support and encouragement to all new writers. The members share marketing tips, discuss their writing ideas and cheer each other on. It is a very active and friendly community, do consider joining if you hope to discover new talent or you are a writer looking to connect. You will be sure to receive a warm welcome!
Alana also writes articles for STEEL Magazine. It’s an American multi-cultural life style publication ran by ZAE Publishing. Alana is open to new writing jobs. If you have a blog or magazine and you need a writer to contribute – contact Alana Munro today.
And Alana was recently interviewed by ABC Radio. You can listen to Alana’s full studio interview here.
(I will send you the live studio recording)
Can you tell me how you celebrate finally getting that tricky chapter (or para) right?
I pour myself a glass of red wine. Cheers!
Okay, sounds like you know how to party. But how do you work around those moments when the muse has gone and done a runner on you?
I usually have a warm shower. For some reason letting the water wash over me helps to clear my mind. I come up with lots of new ideas when washing my hair or shaving my legs! It really works for me. Or do you know what else works – sleep. Just closing my eyes and taking time out. Giving my brain a chance to catch up and figure out a new way forward.
Right, you might just have a winning formula there. Now, let’s first do a few of the yada yada questions before we move on to the fun. And by yada yada I do not mean boring, or in any other way stupid questions, but just the traditional ones. You know? The ones we secretly all want to know the answer to.
First, what is the title of the book you would like to talk about?
Women Behaving Badly – Exposing the Truth about Female Friendship.
Did you have difficulty coming up with the title?
Not too difficult thankfully. I did consider ‘Wifie Wars’, my husband’s creative input. He’s funny! But I smiled and stayed with Women Behaving Badly.
If you would have to change the genre in order to be able to publish it, what would it be then? i.e. would you conform to the market?
No, I don’t think I am someone who conforms with much ease. If anything I fight against conformity. For example, I decided I wanted to self-publish. I wanted to have full freedom with my words. I don’t believe there is any shame in self-publishing. It shows enormous motivation and self-reliance!
Right, with that out of the way and to confuse you we’ll take the alternative route now.
What don’t you like about writing?
I don’t enjoy how square and red my eyes get after eight hours of trying to edit a chapter. After a while I just have to give it a rest or I end up going a little bit stir crazy!
What do you do marketing wise and what do you think generates the most attention to your books?
I spend a lot of time reading and commenting on other blogs. Getting my voice out there and really trying my hardest to connect with people. It’s not easy. I also spend a lot of my time building relationships online with readers and writers. How do I do this? I offer interviews to creative people (writers, poets, bloggers, and artists) – I find this works very well as I get to interesting people, lots of new people visit my website and we share each other’s work.
I think it is vital for writers to support other writers. I also run an online support community on Google+, I do get a lot of traffic from google+ but social media only works if you really connect with people. Just dropping links to your book and dashing off is not going to do much. There is too much competition. We need to become a person, not just a link. I think we need to treat it as real life. Networking is not enough these days. We need to focus on connecting with people online. So yeah I guess you could say my marketing campaign is mostly focused on making positive connections.
I think you’re right when making positive connections and show you are a person and not just another virtual entity trying to plug a book.
Tell me, when you’re on a roll, the muse is in the house and happily guiding your pen, what would seriously drive her/him away?
Tiredness dries up my inspiration. I am someone who must rest.
What does your muse look like and does he/she ever play tricks on you?
She’s very sweet and attentive. I’ve got a good one on my side. She whispers ideas to me. She’s an older lady, with more life experience than me. She’s patient and understands I am still trying to figure it all out.
Do you ever speak to your characters and do you get along all the time?
n/a as I mostly write non-fiction.
Is there any food or beverage that is a constant factor in either your books or life?
Endless cups of sweet tea, chocolate… I need the sugar high. Well, that’s my excuse!
Would you be able to come up with a credible excuse why you haven’t written a whole day? Remember, I have to believe it!
All three of my kids were at home with flu, even the puppy was sick!
That sounds like it could be true!
And finally why would you ever want to live life behind a keyboard slaving over a manuscript?
I have no idea. I must be insane! (ha ha) I guess it is deeply rewarding to pull words together. To be able to communicate, move a person to tears, make a person really consider something or make them laugh with just the words I have wrote down. It is rather powerful don’t you think?
Alana, like they say, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Words will always win over anything else.
Okay now that we have the mandatory questions out of the way, shoot your mouth off. Tell me whatever you want the blab about. But please no cat’s, dogs, or children. Make me laugh, or cry, or even envious. Tell me something none has ever heard before from you. hehehe, love those little dirty secrets, real or make believe. 🙂
I can sing my butt off. I’ve won many dodgy free t-shirts from karaoke competitions. I still wear some to bed! I love learning lyrics. It’s magical to be able to entertain and connect with an audience. Even if I did need a few red wines to get up on the stage!
I usually have a warm shower. For some reason letting the water wash over me helps to clear my mind. I come up with lots of new ideas when washing my hair or shaving my legs! It really works for me. Or do you know what else works – sleep. Just closing my eyes and taking time out. Giving my brain a chance to catch up and figure out a new way forward.
I’d like to give some more background info about you Alana and the book, if that’s okay? You like the idea? Cool!
Initially Alana started writing articles and blogging. Through her early work she reconnected with her love of words. After two L-O-N-G years, two house moves and new baby added to the mix – Alana’s debut book, Women Behaving Badly was finally published.
In the first week alone, 500 books were downloaded from Amazon and with lots of pleasant reviews doing the rounds, Alana has been encouraged to write her second book. Here is a recent newspaper article about Alana’s debut book. Watch this space for more media coverage and new book releases.
Online links where to find the author
http://alanamunroauthor.com/ – Alana’s official website/blog
https://plus.google.com/communities/104309611203675402853 – the active support group she runs.
Synopsis:
Have you ever been hurt by a woman? Are you fed up with the constant bitching, gossiping and manipulation between the females in your life? Do you want happier and healthier relationships with females? Do you wish to weed out the toxic women and seek out only positive women?
If you have ever wondered why some women are complicated creatures this book will offer you straight talking answers. This book will highlight all the strange, controlling and spiteful behaviours that some females specialise in. This book attempts to understand what actually drives women to be cruel or bitchy to each other. It attempts to make sense of the huge expectations women place on each other. How can we avoid toxic women? What bad behaviours should we be looking out for? This book explores every cruel behaviour possible and attempts to understand what is really going on between the females in our life.
More about ‘Women Behaving Badly’,
Alana Munro takes us deep into the unnerving yet compelling reality of being a woman, revealing a world where females don’t nurture other females. Sharing many deeply personal and shocking tales about bullying, bitching, gossiping, power games, jealousy and much more – Alana explains what each hurtful episode taught her about females.
Women Behaving Badly shatters our assumption that all women are loving. It ruptures the delusion of sisterhood. It heightens our awareness of what goes on behind the sweet smiles. It liberates women from the emotional and often difficult prison that is womanhood. It exposes the harsh and fickle reality of friendship between women.
This book offers us nothing but the truth. Alana argues that the bonds between women are most often too fragile. She also argues that the ideology of sisterhood is optimistic but unrealistic. Women are human beings with profound emotional short comings.
Alana also looks at how we can weed out the negative women, pin point suspect behaviours and most importantly how to protect yourself from future hurt.
“The easiest thing to do is for me to feel upset and retreat to my bed, never trying to make another friend. Or I can dust myself off and learn from my stupid mistakes. I can even try to make sense of the ridiculous injustices thrown in my direction. My goal for this book? Simply to allow other women a chance to become more aware of the cruel games played by some females, allow women the opportunity to pin point hurtful (and often invisible) behaviours and find healthy friendships again”. Alana Munro.
Buy links
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