Wonderings About Writing With Woods: A January Author Spotlight
I’m excited to bring you our first-ever author spotlight. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while and I thought it would be a neat monthly item to add to the blog. The lovely Lavendar Woods agreed to be our first author. She and I have been corresponding over this interview for the past week, but we’ve known each other for over a year. She’s one of the authors I consider part of my tribe. I cannot wait for you all to get to know her.
Lavender Woods is a Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Romance author. She has one Contemporary Romance under her belt, as well. She lives in the central plains of Manitoba, Canada, with her terrier mix, Lily.
“I am a dog mom of a beautiful little terrier mix named Lily,” stated Woods. “Originally I had named her Solstice but my dad had a hard time pronouncing her name, so I changed it to Lily.”
Writing is something that comes naturally to Woods. She discovered at a young age that she loved the adventures books could give her.
“I’ve always been an avid reader since I was a toddler. I started writing while in middle school,” remarked Woods. “I decided I wanted to try writing my own books. I used to write by hand every day when I was bored in school and at home. This was before we were even able to get a computer. So paper and pen were the best way. I found I really enjoyed it. I would start but never finish my stories, or would re-read them and find things I missed as my brain worked faster than my hands.”
Woods published her first book, Secrets Never Die, on August 19, 2019. The book is the first installment in her Blade Family Quadriogy. It focuses on a young woman named Angelina and the twist of fate that leads her to meet Aries, a vampire with secrets. I’ve recently read this book and found it to be a marvelous work of Urban Fantasy Romance. Honestly, I wish more fantasy authors would write as Woods did in Secrets Never Die.
I gave the book a 5-star rating on Goodreads and a 5-heart on Instagram and Facebook. In Secrets Never Die, Angelina is a private investigator who knows about the supernatural world but doesn’t mess with it. When she’s targeted by demons, she is forced to go into hiding at Aries’ home.
Aries is a jaded vampire who immediately only has eyes for Angelina, but he’s afraid of frightening her. On top of that, he also has his own form of demons following him.
Secrets Never Die was a nice, drawn-out story. There was no rush with the romance, but it wasn’t a slow burn either. Woods had the perfect pace. I’m in love with the series and will be picking up the second book soon.
Lavender Woods currently has six books listed on Amazon. When I asked her which of her books is her favorite, she responded with:
“Oooo…now we have come to a question that is loaded. Characters will be jealous,” she laughed. “Okay, as much as I love my Blade Family, my favorite book to write so far was Phoenix’s Assassin. My inspiration behind that series came when I was watching crime shows and hearing how women and men would mail or fail in love with inmates. So, it stuck in my head that even villains need love too. The basic idea was having men who kill, and enjoy killing, fall in love. That is what started my Ebrilyn Assasin series.”
“I based the series off a few things,” explained Woods, “killers, and the Greek myth for Tartarus. Hence, I built a full underworld. It’s fun and interesting because I am not just focusing on modern-day worlds, but also other worlds as well, as depicted in my book Celestial Guardian. Since there are many assassins and they can go wherever their next prey lives.”
“My favorite part [of my author journey] so far has been meeting new authors who are all struggling to get their books out there, or new authors I haven’t read yet. It helps when you are struggling with the emotional turmoil of, “Are my books good enough?” and “I am a complete failure,” as other authors can help and support you. They also can give you tips and tricks to help with your books or with marketing strategies.”
Marketing is one thing all independent authors struggle with. It’s not easy having to make your own connections, track down places that will let you advertise your books, and worry about promotion budgets. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the complexity of marketing. Woods said navigating the waters of marketing has been her least favorite part of her author journey.
“Every author’s worst nightmare is the marketing of the book. I am no different,” remarked Woods. “It is a tricky, merciless process that has to be constantly done when the author has spare time so that they don’t get lost in the trenches of the online world. I find it a constant struggle to find places to post and advertise my work without spending much. Being a new author, when your budget is low and you need to worry about spending it on advertising, can be so frustrating and can make your life a living hell.”
As tempting as spending money is for marketing, new authors need to keep their budget in perspective. You need to monitor expectations. As a new author, you don’t want to go throwing all your hard-earned cash into promotions that may not bring results. A good place to start promoting is on social media.
By setting up Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tik Tok accounts, you can do your own promoting for free. Places like Canva.com offer tools that allow authors to make their own graphics and Wix.com has an easy website setup program. Blogging is also a good tool to use.
Woods has an author page on Facebook, a reader group, and her own website. Plus, you can find her on Amazon and Goodreads. I’ve included here a few of her social links for your convenience:
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