Meet M.J.Allaire

Meet M.J. Allaire, the wonderful author of the fantasy novel Dragon's Blood, also the author of quite a few other novels featured in the picture to the left. I got the wonderful chance of interviewing this author, and here's what transpired -

To start off, tell us a little bit about your background:

Heather: How long have you been writing?

M.J.: Since 2005

Heather: What started you writing for publication?

M.J.: My friend Kate and I were swapping emails back and forth one day, and after one particular email she wrote back, “I love your writing - you should think about writing a book.” I’ve always loved English and reading, but never thought about being an author until I received that email from Kate…

Heather: Do you have a set time when you write, or just whenever you get the urge?

M.J.: I work a fulltime job, have spent the past few years raising three teenagers on my own, and write whenever I can. I don’t have a set time to write because if I put myself on a schedule, I’m bound to be disappointed when I don’t stick to it. So I write whenever I can – in the mornings before work (rarely), or after I get home in the evenings. Or on the weekends of course, if and when I can find the time…

Heather: Who is your favorite author?

M.J.: Stephen King is a biggie – I love the Dark Tower series. I’ve recently started reading Dean Koontz again though, with an author’s eye and not just a reader, and I’ve found that I really like his writing style.

Heather: Have you ever had writer's block, and if so how do you get rid of it?

M.J.: Sometimes I do – like the past few months when trying to start book four in my YA fantasy series, the Denicalis Dragon Chronicles. I knew what I wanted the story to be about, but was having a hard time starting it. It finally took a weekend away to a remote cabin in New Hampshire where I was really away from the hubbub of life to get the story started – and away it goes J

Heather: What do you recommend to aspiring authors?

M.J.: 1) If you really want to be an author, know from the get-go that it will NOT be easy. If you’re serious about taking the plunge, you’ll likely have to work harder at being an author than you’ve ever worked at anything else before. But also know that anything worth having doesn’t come easy, and just keep putting one foot forward as you head down that path; 2) Figure out who your market will be for your book, and market to them in any way you can think of; and 3) Don’t let anyone say you can’t do it – believe in yourself and never give up!

Heather: How do you invent your characters?

M.J.: In my YA series, I decided to use my three children and my daughter’s best friend as the main characters, which is really interesting. Just imagine being in the middle of a series where you literally know all the characters, and deciding you want to kill one of them off to make the story better. Which character would YOU choose? (Note, in book four, one of my main characters dies …)

Heather: I know a few authors who keep records (almost like police records) of height, weight, background, etc. of their characters. Do you keep tabs on your characters, and if so, what do you usually make note of?

M.J: I do keep notes on all sorts of things pertaining to my series, not just about the characters. I love that I’m writing a series, but it makes it more challenging four years after the fact to remember if I said Tonia had blue eyes or brown, etc...

Heather: Some authors say that they feel as though his or her characters are real. Do you feel this way, and what do you think about this?

M.J.: I absolutely feel that my characters are real, but this is because the four main characters are based on my three children and my daughter’s best friend. Many of the characters in the series are from someone or something in my life. Take Ragoo for instance, the yarnie cat in The Prisoner (book two in the series). He is based on my cat in real life, whose name happens to be Ragu. He was found in a dumpster with spaghetti sauce on his head and was turned into the Humane Society when he was found (true story) – which is where we adopted him from.

Heather: Do you have anything in the works?

M.J.: I’m currently working on book four in my series, to be titled Dragon’s Breath, and hope to have it live sometime in April, 2010! And for the record, my literary wheels are already spinning with ideas for book five …

Heather: What would you say is the neatest thing you know?

M.J.: The absolute neatest thing that I know is that I finally know what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’m in my early 40’s and it took me this long to figure it out – and I’m not stopping until I’m doing book tours and going to schools full time!

Heather: What was your favorite part about writing your book?

M.J.: Getting lost in the story, even though I know it’s not real, and having an elementary or middle school student come up to me and say, “Your books are awesome!”

Heather: Has music ever inspired your writing?

M.J.: I wouldn’t say it inspires my writing, but when I was writing my latest book, a memoir about my life as a military dependent, I got into listening to Ludovico Einaudi, which totally caught me off guard because I would have bet my life’s savings less than a year ago (and all the years prior) that you wouldn’t ever catch me listening to classical music, but Ludovico’s piano playing is mesmerizing!!

Heather: Do you like to write in complete silence or does it have to be noisy?

M.J.: I like listening to either nature sounds (frogs, owls, birds, running water) or Ludovico – if there’s a TV, radio, or any kind of conversation in the room I have a hard time concentrating.

Heather: What made you put your characters in the setting that you did?

M.J.: I wanted my characters to be in a place where I would love to find myself, which ended up putting them with nature (in the woods) and then exploring a cave. Eventually they wound up in an entirely different world with dragons and magic, which I think would be kind of cool if it was possible to see something like that in real life.

Heather: Keyboard or pen?

M.J.: Definitely keyboard (I can type almost 95 words per minute on a good day) – I do tend to use a pen to scribble notes on napkins (which I’m lucky if I can find later on when I need them) at least a few times a week though.

Heather: What do you think is the hardest part about being an author?

M.J.: The marketing aspect of it – hands down. If you want to write a book, say, for your mother – you write it and give it to her, that’s fine, you’re done. But writing for a wider audience (in my case young adults), you have to think of ways to get your work out there. I visit schools and libraries and sell books at local fairs or craft fairs every chance I get. Little by little my name and the books are getting “out there”, and if I have my way, they’ll continue to do so. A lot of my friends and family can’t understand why or how I do what I do, but I do it because I’m determined (and maybe a little bit crazy) to make a difference. JK Rowling did a wonderful thing with Harry Potter, getting both young and not-so-young people to read (and keep reading), and I want nothing more than to have that same effect on readers.

Heather: What do you usually do while writing?

M.J.: Listen to Ludovico, with my laptop on my lap, and occasionally find myself interrupted when Ragu wants to curl up on my lap, too.

Heather: What were the circumstances surrounding your decisions to become an author?

M.J.: When Kate suggested I write a book I was about to go through a divorce and decided sure, why not? My oldest son likes dragons and was my reader, so I decided to write “a book” for him. I got a little sidetracked along the way and now am on book four (of at least five in the series). I had no idea I would find my own destiny when I started writing, and I’ve thanked Kate many times for believing in me before I believed in myself.

Heather: Some people say that you need to live life before you write a book. Do you think that it’s experience that writes a book or imagination?

M.J.: I don’t necessarily think that experience writes a book, but I do believe it makes it easier to write once you’ve got some life experiences under your belt. For those who may be young and lacking in some of life’s experiences, they have the benefit of a much fresher (and younger) imagination.


1. I like the color: purple.
2. The sky is most beautiful when it’s: waking.
3. My favorite feature of a computer is: convenience.
4. I think inventors should invent a/an: mind-recorder.
5. Thing I love most in the world is: wildlife.
6. Things I hate most in the world is: death.
7. My favorite type of electronic device is: i-pod.
8. My favorite thing that has been available before the year 1900: nature.
9. My favorite thing that has been available since the year 1960: electricity.
10. The oddest thing you have ever written on (hand, wall, etc.) is: tree.

Character Wednesday10

Does anyone have a family tree? Of course you most likely do, but the question is how many people do you have on there? How far have you gone back into your history? The reality of this all is that there are records for every person who ever lived on this earth (well just about every one, back to a certain era anyways) so if you search enough - on the internet - everywhere - you'll find the person that you are looking for... eventually. Starting out I only knew all the way up to my grandparents, but with a little help from the grandparents and internet resources, I have over 600 people on my family tree... and counting. That's when you start finding out that your grandfather married his sister - no! Just kidding! Anyways, on to the character!


Calvin Barker is our character for today. Celia's "real life angel" in the flesh. The litting boy who turned her world around. Anyways, here's the story:

Calvin Theodore Barker was born in Monroe, Utah his parents (Justin and Claire) were young (23 & 22) so his grandparents (Sally and George) were always a big part of his life. He had an older sister, the more louder and spoiled-er of the two. Calvin was always a part of one group or another, at the age of 5 he joined a little baseball team. At the age of 6 he joined a joined a kids football team. At the age of 7 he joined a soccar team, he actually stuck with that for a few years. When he turned 8 his mom was taking him and his sister to school, when they started fighting they got into a car accident. He recovered within a few weeks and was able to go home. His sister's leg was broken, and her arm sprained. His mom had some head trauma, and a few broken ribs, but they all recovered just fine.

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And basically, that's all. Hope you enjoyed this week's character wednesday.

Be sure to visit me on September 1st, I will be featured on http://educationtipster.blogspot.com/ so be sure to stop by to see what I have to say. It's going to be a good one! See you all soon!

Character Wednesday9

Yesterday I had to jot down a list of all of my characters the ones that I have done a profile on, and the ones that I haven't. I've done most of the important characters, and I was just starting to think that I was running out of characters to do Character Wednesday with, but then I realized, there are so many characters that I've mentioned and created just for the characters' bios, so I took some characters from there. And wha-la we get this weeks Character Wednesday - Brandon Hanson (Tommy's father).

Brandon Jonah Hanson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio with four sisters, himself being the only son - and the youngest of Fred Hanson and Georgia Thompson. With his dad being a farmer, Brandon spent many of his days as a youngster helping out on the farm, tending to the cows, horses, and the crops. At the age of 18 Brandon took a vacation to Hawaii and met Gloria Trent, the following years they grew closer and eventually married and moved out to Monroe, Utah.

At the age of 32 his father died and Brandon inherited the farm. But, not wanting to move back out to Ohio he declined it and his oldest sister, Hannah, recieved the farm.

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And that's basically it. Thanks for reading, don't forget to come back next week - mark your calendars!

~If ever you are encountered with Writer's Block, go to Google, type in "Writer's Block" and you'll be instantly cured.~

Character Wednesday8

After a hectic week with a number of surprises in it, I thought this would be the perfect week to take a more in depth look at Aden Meyers. For those of you who have read the book, you know who he is and I’m sure you’re laughing at the ironic-ness of it by now. For those of you who haven’t read it, Aden is Celia’s little brother, a trouble maker. Though quite a bit of Aden’s life is in the book, you’d be surprised at how much wasn’t mentioned. Due to him only being alive 8 years (so far, he’s not dead, so don’t gasp), it’s a short story, but still, it’s interesting. It’s probably better to show you rather than tell you. So, here goes –

Aden Trevor Meyers was born in Monroe, Utah with one sister (Cecelia Meyers). At the age of 2 his mother took him to a play group every Friday at noon, until he turned 5 and started school instead. At the age of 7 Aden joined the Cub Scouts, and came out of it with 15 badges. At the age of 8 Aden became a “teacher’s pet” and also got in the local paper because he climbed a 14 foot tree to get to a friend’s cat, which was stuck between a couple of tree branches.

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As you can see, I have added a new feature to my blog, "Shelfari" it's basically a shelf filled with books that I'm promoting, and also books that I have read. I thought it was a cool new feature, you can get your own shelf too, just make sure you add "A Gift From Above" to your list of books. ;) If you go to twitter you'll see that I'm running a contest type of thing, where I'm trying to get 1,000 views of the excerpt of my book, you can go here -

Character Wednesday4

Well, after a very long, two weeks without Character Wednesday, it's back again! And today I have a real treat for you. Drum roll please... We are going to be taking a look at Tommy Hanson today! Tommy was a very hard character to write about, there is so much about him that I wanted to write, but couldn't find the space. I mean, he could have very well been the main character in the book. But, anyways, let's move right along now -

Thomas Witton Hanson was born in Molen, Utah. His family was never so rich, his father (Jacob Lawerence Hanson) worked as a plumber, and his mother (Virgina Delia Standfored) waitress at a local restaurant just to keep up with the bills. Tommy had an older sibling, Marc Brian Hanson, he was 12 years old when Tommy was born. When Tommy turned 2 Lily Ann Hanson was born. At the age of 5 Tommy attended a public preschool, Marc drove Tommy to school most of the time on his way to work. Christopher David Hanson, Tommy's new little brother was born.

At the age of 6, Tommy's father managed to get a good job as a Neclear Physist, and as a result they moved to Monroe, Utah. Tommy's mother quit her waitressing job and they sent Tommy to an all boys school. When Tommy turned 7 another sibling was added to the shuffle: Sofia Lee Hanson. By this time Tommy was nearly a pro at caring for his silbings. Most of the time Marc was gone at college, so Tommy was dubbed THE "big brother" and head honcho of the young siblings, he broke up the fights, just as he as seen his mother do, and helped his mother in anyway he could. That year he also became friends with Celia Meyers and they found the tree house in the woods.

Things were on a steady path from there, and continued in routine, Tommy went to school, helped with his siblings, etc. But when Tommy turned 16 his parents began fighting much more than they ever had. By the age of 17 Tommy's parents planned to seperate. Tommy went off to college and that is that.

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That is what has happened so far. See you next Wednesday!

~Life is like a breeze, some blow harder than others, but all of them eventually fade out.~

Character Wednesday3

This week, I had a last minute vote on which character I would be taking an indeph look at today. To be honest, I completely forgot about Character Wednesday! Good thing I remembered before it was too late. Anyways, the results just came in, and today I will be taking a look at Thomas Meyers; Celia's father! This is bound to be quite interesting since it will bring together a lot of the characters and it will let loose a lot of information not only about Thomas but about many other characters as well, especially Celia. So, grab a cup of coffee and some munchies, this is going to be a long story!

Thomas Ned Meyers grew up just like every other kid in Cabot, Arkansas in the 1960s, his father (Richard Meyers) insisted that he take up a paper route and deliver newspapers to "build character". So he did, but not without complaints. When he turned 12 his father won the lottery changing their life around forever. Thomas was promised 1/4th of that money after his father sees him as a responsible man. As a result of the lottery, the family, (Richard Meyers, Thomas Meyers, and Julia Wetherson-Meyers) moved to Silver Spring, Maryland.

After Thomas turned 20, he went to Harvard where he met Cynthia Howard. His was attempting to become a laywer at his father's request; however, he dropped out early, moved to Monroe, Utah, and started his own Bank and Loan company with Cynthia. By the time is was 23 he was engaged to Cynthia and lost total, and complete communication with either of his parents. December 27, 1982 Cynthia and Thomas married. A year later, Cynthia fell ill with cancer. She did not recover and three years later, she died.

By the time Thomas was 30 his bank and loan company was failing and he was forced to downgrade to a small studio apartment. Thomas met Sarah Lauric when he was 32 and she became a part of his loan company. After that the loan company began stedily becoming more successful. By the age of 35 Thomas and Sarah married with a child yet to come. They moved to a nice house on a nice secluded little street, still located in Monroe, Utah. On Thomas's birthday (April 21st), their child was born, Cecelia Meyers. Thomas called his parents after Celia was born and Tom learned that his parents could not come and see Celia, for his mom (Julia) was in the hospital, she suffered from a stroke. A year later his mother died.

When Thomas turned 38 his father flew from Maryland to Utah, to see Thomas, get caught up with their lives, and upon leaving, Richard gave Thomas his 1/4 of the lottery winnings. Which amounted to 1 billion dollars. They hired a nanny for Celia along with a chef and a gardener. Thomas became infactuated with the nanny (Millicent Potter) and within a year of hiring her, had an affair with her. Sarah never found out, Thomas fired Millicent and that was that, they continued to live their lives.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, it's a sad story. But, that's what happened! I swear. Scouts honor! LOL Just incase anyone was wondering, and if you guys weren't keeping up, Sarah Lauric IS Celia Meyer's mother. In the book. That acutally didn't take as long as I thought it would.

Well, the launch to my blog tour is almost here, just another week! I will be featured here: http://harrygillelandwrites.blogspot.com so be sure to drop by and leave a comment or two. Until next week...

~If you think you have everything look over the top of your computer monitor (or laptop screen)~

Character Wednesday2

This week we will be taking a look at Mari Sasgovidge. After you read this post you won't be refuring to her as "Celia's friend" anymore.

Maria Dolores Sasgovidge was born in Potosi, Mexico; where she lived until she was 2 years old. Her father died in a drug war and after they tried to come back and kill Maria and her mother (Rene Lopez) they fled to the United States, and landed in Arizona. Maria's mother worked two jobs to stay on track and Maria went to school whever she wasn't at a day care. When Maria was 5 years old they were able to stand on their own two feet and moved to Monroe, Utah, where Maria current resides. Later, that same year, Maria's mother married again, to Benjamin Turner, Maria's new step-father. Maria, her mother, and her step-father currently lives in Monroe, Utah.

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And that is that. Maria Sasgovidge went to school with Celia until Celia went off to college and they both parted their ways. Maria did not go to college. She ended up starting a job at a car dealership when she was 16.

Be sure that you stop by again next week. And just as a reminder I will have a new section in my blog called "Reccommended Reads" where I feature a fellow author every month on the 1st and 3rd of each month. July 1st and 3rd I will be featuring V.S.Grenier on my blog, so be sure to drop by then!

~Another day, another hour, another minute, and we'll be good to go for the weekend~

A Gift From Above

Is my book. I am the author. Right now a special edition of the book is being prepared to be released. A Gift From Above just turned into a Kindle Book yesterday and will continue to grow and expand into bigger things. Many, many things are in the works. So, if you have any requests on what you want for the book just mention it in the comments. ;)

Hmmm... let's see... I have a fact for everyone... all of my characters (minus one family) changed his/her last name! Yes, the Meyers are the only characters in my book whos' name didn't get changed half way through. Tommy's original last name was Thompson... but Tommy Thompson sounded kind of strange so I (with my sister's help) decided to change it to Hanson. :-O

I'll be here every week giving you the inside scoop on the characters, things that aren't revealed in the book!