"Earth is just the beginning ..."
Hello Everyone!
I hope you are having a great week. Today, I would love to introduce you to Nancy Loyan, author of Afterlife.
I asked Nancy to sit down with me in order to get to know her better and maybe hear a little gossip about her new release. Afterlife sounds fascinating, and as a reader, I had to know more about this story as well as the woman behind it.
Special Note: I don't want to confuse anyone-- Nancy (me) interviewing Nancy (Nancy Loyan). My questions and comments will be italic. Now take a look at Afterlife's amazing cover and short blurb.
Kalden Nicholas, a man of science, has lost all he loved on Earth, but the pull of space and new discoveries drives him on a one-way mission to the far reaches of the universe.
Landing on a mysterious planet, his perceptions of life, death and beyond are challenged and tested in ways he could never have imagined. Finding renewed purpose, he returns to Earth where he learns that faith cannot be proven, and one person can make a difference.
After all, Earth is just a training ground for the Afterlife.
Nancy, I can't thank you enough for dropping by today. Can you start interview off by telling us a little about yourself.
Mine is a life
gone full circle. Writing has always been like breathing for me. However, I’m
far too practical. I first attended Cuyahoga Community College, and after,
graduating with a BSBA in Marketing from John Carroll University. I worked in
retail management, outside sales and marketing. I left corporate America to
embark on a freelance writing career. I wrote for numerous local and national
publications, specializing in architecture, construction and antique safes. I
continued to write fiction and pursue publication. After twenty years, I landed
a contract with a small publisher, Inner Vision Books. My first published novel
was Paradise Found, a multicultural romance set in the exotic Seychelles
Islands.
The next six novels were contracted major publisher, F & W
Media who was starting the Crimson Romance line. As luck would have it,
Inner Vision closed its doors. Regaining
the rights to my novel, I embarked on self-publishing. Shortly after, an editorial changes at
Crimson had me regaining the rights to five of my novels. I subsequently
self-published them as well. I just had the rights reverted for my last Crimson
novel, Special Angel, as Simon and Schuster, new owners of Crimson, closed the
line. I am enjoying the control and freedom that self-publishing allows.
I obtained my BS before my Mrs. My husband
Bill and I have been married thirty years and have “fur children,” Amber and
Topaz, English Pointers. My husband is a retired architectural photographer. Being married to a self-employed creative person made the transition to author easier because he understood me and my need to create.
We have traveled the world, and many locations have provided inspiration and
research for my novels. Going to Egypt was special because I have an alter ego,
Nailah, Middle Eastern belly dancer, and studying in the country of the dance’s
origin was special. I instruct Middle Eastern dance.
My favorite venue is
teaching at the Chautauqua Institution in New York State. This will be my 11
Season. I have also taught writing and had a book signing at the Institution.
One of my romantic suspense novels, A Kiss in the Rain, takes place on the
grounds.
I have to break in here and say---OH MY...you are awesome! Hello alter ego, Nailah! And...I love that you teach Middle Eastern dance. Sorry to interrupt. Please continue.
My forte is
romance and women’s fiction, as my other eight novels can attest. Afterlife is quite a departure.
It can be classified as Speculative Christian
Fiction. Though it has a little romance, this futuristic novel is about an
astronaut who finds faith and himself after volunteering for a one-way mission
into the universe. This novel came about
in an unusual way. I was seated in church listening to a sermon about Heaven.
The “what if” in the writer in me came out. I sat pondering about Heaven being
an actual place, a planet. I rummaged through my purse for a small note pad
(writers must always carry paper and a pen for when inspiration strikes) and
began jotting down ideas. When I got home, I continued writing. This novel
literally took over my life. I felt possessed. Putting aside my WIP, a romance,
I set out to complete this project. Six months later, it’s a published novel.
Oh, Nancy, that 'what if' question plagues me in Mass too. Good for you for taking the time to jot down your thoughts before they evaporated into thin air. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
I can’t remember when I wasn’t writing. I composed picture books
for fellow students in elementary school. In junior high, I wrote romantic
novellas for friends. The final for my creative writing class in high school
was to complete a short story. I surprised the teacher by handing in a
four-hundred page historical manuscript!
You have to add in comments below your teacher's reaction? I bet it was priceless. And don't forget to let us all know your grade. So my next question is a favorite of mine. I think I know the answer but ... do you believe writers are born or made?
I think that it’s a little of both. I do think that writers,
particularly fiction writers, have some innate ability. Most people, unless
they have a diagnosed mental illness, do not hear voices in their heads that
propel them to put pen to paper/fingers to keyboard.
Ha Ha! I think you just labeled us a little crazy. I can't argue with you. Again, sorry for the interruption, but you are so fun.
