Author Interview--Riley J. Ford

I was introduced to Riley J. Ford by Rebecca Hamilton.  Riley is an amazing woman as you will soon descover below.  She is a little shy, though, so I don't have a pic for you.  LOL.  I've started reading Into You and I am HOOKED!  It's promising to be a stellar read.  If you can't tell by the cover Image of her just released novel, Into You, Riley is a hoot, and her book is the same.  If you like humor, you will love this book!

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I used to teach court-ordered convicts, often gang-members, in the inner city. It was a very fulfilling (if sometimes scary) job, but emotionally draining. I then taught ESL to adult students from all over the world, which was great fun! During my years teaching, I was always writing, but I became a full-time writer after I had my two children. I wrote a lot of non-fiction that was published, but recently turned to fiction, which I love. My novel, INTO YOU, is my first published work of fiction, soon to be followed by my humor novel, CARPE DiEMILY.

What do you do when you are not writing? I homeschool my two children, try to keep an organized house (yeah, right) and drive the kids to all their activities.

How did you choose the genre you write in? I've always enjoyed writing about teens, and YA fiction is hot right now, so I thought, "Why not?"

Where do you get your ideas? I keep a "creative brainstorming" notebook, so when an interesting idea crops up, I jot it down.

Do you work with an outline, or just write? A little of both. I write a general outline and then let the story and characters take over from there.

Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult? Who doesn't love JK Rowling and her imagination? She's inspiring to both children and adults. I sure wish she'd been around when I was a kid! But she's certainly inspiring to me as an adult writer.
Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published? Doing it all myself: hiring cover artist, editor, the works.

If you had to go back and do it all over, is there any aspect of your novel or getting it published that you would change? I would've gotten it out sooner and stopped doubting myself.

Can you tell us about your book? INTO YOU is a YA paranormal romance murder mystery. It's about a teen girl who can read people's minds when she kisses them... and all of the complications that ensue. It's also up to her to find the killer of a girl on her track team, and she does this by kissing all suspects. Unfortunately, her boyfriend gets wind of this and... well, you'll just have to read the book to find out the rest!  :)

Into you is only $2.99 on Amazon

Imagine a beauty beyond your wildest dreams HERE

Riley's Bio:

Riley J. Ford has always been a writer, but she'd read somewhere that you should never write for publication until you've gained a lot of life experience first. She took this advice seriously, especially during her time at UCLA when she attended as many social gatherings as possible while still maintaining an honorable grade point average. She took great pride in her degree until the graduation commencement speaker joked, "I hope all you English majors consider the extremely low-paid but rewarding profession of teaching, as that is all your degree is good for." He was met with an abundance of eye rolling and nervous laughter, most of it from Riley J. Ford who was thinking, "No way in hell."

To her, teaching seemed as boring as listening to Muzak in an orthodontist's office while making bucked-tooth molds. To prove she could do anything with an English degree, she rebelliously went into banking instead. She soon learned the error of her ways, as banking is not the giggle-fest it's portrayed to be, and she ultimately turned to teaching after all. Fortunately, offering instruction to court-ordered convicts during the Los Angeles riots gave Riley J. Ford the excitement and personal adventures she craved. She also learned how important it is to live . . . literally. She was surprised to find she loved teaching, and eventually went on to become an ESL instructor and high school teacher with her very own parking space. A marriage and two kids later, she realized she'd gained more than enough life experience to become an author and dived headfirst into writing INTO YOU, her first work of fiction. She is also the author of the upcoming novel, CARPE DiEMILY, which she guarantees will make you piss your pants laughing, so be sure to wear a diaper. She currently lives in California with her family.  Visit http://www.rileyjford.com/ for more information about the author and her books.

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