Sunday 5 November 2017

Ask Me Anything Event - Questions and Answers


SYED ALI RAIHAN
Where can I get your new book?


BRENDA MOHAMMED
Hi Syed, You can get my new book, 'How to Write For Success' at any Amazon store.
Here is the Amazon Universal Link.
It is on pre-order at a reduced price of 0.99 cents until 1st December 2017. Pre-order a copy and save $2.00.
I hope that my book will be of great help to all of you who attended this AMA Event.

FLOU RAH MEI DEE
Does your family support your career as a writer?
BRENDA MOHAMMED
Yes, Flou. My family supports my career as a writer. They have always supported me in whatever I do. They supported my banking career and my insurance career. They know that I excel in everything I do.

POORVI TIWARI
What genres have you written?

BRENDA MOHAMMED
Poorvi, I have written fiction, non-fiction, a children's book, and my latest book is on writing and marketing.
Here is a list of my eighteen books:
I am Cancer Free: A Memoir was the Winner in the Category Non-Fiction in the McGrath House Indie Book Awards 2016. The book also earned a five-star review and five-star seal in February 2017 from Readers Favorite.
My Life as a Banker: A Life Worth Living placed second in the Category Bio/Memoirs in Metamorph's Publishing Summer Indie Book Awards 2016.
Revenge of Zeeka: Horror Trilogy received a five-star review and five-star seal from Readers Favorite on 14th September 2016.
Retirement is Fun: A new Chapter was a nominee in Metamorph's Publishing Summer Indie Book Awards 2016.
Zeeka Chronicles: Revenge of Zeeka - Five spine-chilling stories – Book won third place Best Science Fiction in SIBA Awards 2017.
Memoirs of Dr. A. M. Khan - [2014] – Journey of an Educator.
Stories People Love (2014) - Four exciting short stories of crime, adventure, and love.
Adventures of Squeaky Doo (2014) – Travel Memoirs of a Teddy Bear.
Your Time Is Now: A Time to be Born and a Time to Die (2014) – Powerful words of wisdom connect to events in the author’s life. The book includes Inspirational poems.
Heart-Warming Tales (2014) – Five Tales of Crime, Love, and Unhappy Marriages.
Travel Memoirs with Pictures: Exploring the world. [2014]- a Pictorial memoir of the author’s travels.
Revenge of Zeeka: Zeeka and the Zombies [Book 1] [2016] – First book in a spine-chilling series.
Zeeka’s Child [Revenge of Zeeka Book 2] [2016] – Mystery surrounds Zeeka’s Child.
Zeeka Returns [Revenge of Zeeka Book 3] [2016] – Zeeka decides his fate.
Zeeka’s Ghost [Revenge of Zeeka Book 4] [2016] – Zeeka’s Ghost haunts Steven.
Resurrection: [Revenge of Zeeka Book 5] [2017] – Sudden appearance of a stranger, bothers Steven.
She Cried for Me: Autobiography of a stray dog [2017] who found a loving home.
How to Write for Success: Best Writing Advice I Received [2017] – A Handbook for new and aspiring authors.
You can find all my eighteen books at Amazon Universal Link.


CHRISTA
What's your favourite style of writing?
BRENDA MOHAMMED
Christa, I write both narrative and dialogue. Read my book, 'How to write for success: Best Writing Advice I received.'
It is on pre-order at Amazon for only 0.99 cents until publication date of 1st December 2017. Incidentally, 1st December is my birthday.
Here is my Amazon Universal Link or get it at Amazon US - https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Success-Writing-Received-ebook/dp/B076Z3882D

NICZ
What was one of your favorite books when you were a young adult?
BRENDA MOHAMMED
Nic Z, I had many favorite books when growing up. We all liked Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Grimms Fairy Tales, etc.
Then as I grew older Nancy Drew books appealed to me. In High School, a friend gave me "The Power of Positive Thinking," by Norman Vincent Peale. That book influenced my life in a great way.
I was successful in my Banking Career; I retired as a Commercial Area Credit Manager at an early age. After my Retirement, I took an Insurance job and was also successful. I qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table six years in a row. The Association granted me Life Membership. I started my writing career in 2013 and so far I can say I have been achieving my goals.

FAYE
How do you know if your writing is good enough or appealing enough to outside audiences?

BRENDA MOHAMMED
Faye, that is easy to determine.
The honest reviews tell a lot.
I learn from reviews if I omitted something or if I should improve my writing.
I have also revised each book a few times using new software.

TAS_R@AMA
What inspired you to write?

BRENDA MOHAMMED
Tas_R@Ama I was inspired to write for many reasons. I wrote about this in the introduction to my latest book - my eighteenth, How to Write for Success. I wrote my first book, I am Cancer Free in 2013. At that time, I was just writing for pleasure. In fact, it was not for pleasure because the book was about my bout with cancer. I wanted to relate my experience with that dreaded disease so that others in similar circumstances could learn from it. After that, I wrote five more memoirs.
They are 'My Life as a Banker: A Life worth Living, Retirement is Fun: When one door closes another opens, Travel Memoirs: Exploring the World, Your Time is Now, and Journey of an Educator [which was my father's memoirs.] Those were all non-fiction.
I tried my hand at Fiction because of something that my brother said to me in one of his letters prior to his death.
He wrote in reference to my book, ‘My Life as a Banker: A Life worth Living,”
“Your book makes very pleasant reading, and your literary expression is superb and easy to follow. You have an excellent talent, and I think you should follow up on a leisurely basis with perhaps publishing a book of short stories. With fiction, you will have greater opportunity to use your imagination and your undoubted descriptive ability. You used the word “fantasize” to create a situation. This is an outstanding quality, which you should continue to use because it is imagination, which disposes of everything, coming from within. It creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which are everything in this world.”

I took my brother’s advice and wrote a science fiction series - Revenge of Zeeka.

The series scored a double with Readers Favorite. I had compiled the first three books into a trilogy called Revenge of Zeeka: Horror Trilogy. I submitted the trilogy to Readers Favorite for a free review. The book received a five-star review and five-star seal in September 2016. The following year I added two more books to the series and compiled the five books into one book called Zeeka Chronicles. I sent it to Readers Favorite and it received a five-star review and five-star seal. A fan nominated the book for the Metamorph Publishing Summer Indies Book Awards. It won Best Science Fiction third place in September 2017.

FRANCIE MCWILLIAMS- JEFFERS
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
BRENDA MOHAMMED

Francie McWilliams-Jeffers, not all of my books required research. My memoirs were my life experiences and I wrote those from memory. My siblings say that I have an excellent memory. I compiled my father's memoirs from his diaries, notes, and scrap documents. That one took me more than a year to do because his handwriting was terrible. There were no computers in his day. With the science fiction series, I did research for futuristic weapons, robots, zombies, and medical technology. It took me 15 months to write the series. When you read my book, "How to write for success,' you will see how I plot my books before writing.

AYUSHI BHASIN
How many hours a day do you write?
BRENDA MOHAMMED
Ayushi Bhasin that is a good question. I write anytime that my husband is not around, I get up at 6.00 am and do my writing. He gets up at 8.00 am so I have two full hours alone. When he leaves to go on errands, I have more free time so I write. At night while he is watching TV, I write. I like to be alone and free from distractions when writing.

JOHNATHAN BARKER
If you left on vacation tonight and could only take one book, what book would you choose?
BRENDA MOHAMMED
Jonathan, I was asked that question in one of my author interviews some time ago. I said that if I could only take one book with me it would be my Bible. I would still do that

SHILPA AMLADI
What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
BRENDA MOHAMMED
Shilpa Amladi, by literary pilgrimage you mean reading a book and imagining its setting. For bookworms, the only way to bring our experiences with a text into the real world is through a literary pilgrimage. I have had many of those. When I attended the conferences of the Million Dollar Round Table, of which I am a Lifetime Member, every speaker wrote a best-seller. I bought all and read them. Maybe that is why I became a writer after leaving the corporate world.

PENELOPA
What are the most important magazines for writers to subscribe to?
BRENDA MOHAMMED
Penelopa, I have read there are 10 Magazines every writer should read. You can get full details at this link. https://contently.com/strategist/2015/07/23/10-magazines-every-writer-should-read/
I like the Freelancer.


VERA ZELKINA-JOHNSON
Hi Brenda! Do you have social media we can follow, like Facebook, LinkedIn, or twitter?

Regards,
Vera

AMAfeed
Chief Operating Officer

BRENDA MOHAMMED
Hi Vera,
Yes. I have social media links. Here they are:
I have five Facebook pages because I am a multi-genre writer.
How to Write for Success.
Brenda's Video Book Trailers
ZeekaStories
Banker turns Writer
Fascinating Memoirs
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
Google Plus
Amazon Universal Link
My Website
My Blog

JOHN BAYRON CALIAO
Where are you from?
BRENDA MOHAMMED
Hi John, I am an award-winning multi-genre writer and former Bank Manager who has written eighteen books to date.
I live in the beautiful Caribbean Island of Trinidad with my husband and am a fan of photography and art.
I donate books to children's hospitals, national libraries, and school libraries.
I am an accomplished traveller.
My travel experiences have translated into a captivating memoir of a travel-inspired non-fiction book, Travel Memoirs with Pictures: Exploring the World.
I won awards for three of my books and another was a nominee for an award.
My Life as a Banker: A Life worth Living won second Best Bio/memoirs in the SIBA Awards by Metamorph's Publishing in 2016.
Retirement is Fun, the sequel to My Life as a Banker was a nominee in the SIBA Awards by Metamorph Publishing in 2016.
I am Cancer Free won the award for Best Non-fiction from Mc Grath House in 2016.

Zeeka Chronicles: Revenge of Zeeka won third Best Science Fiction in SIBA Awards 2017.
I love to interact with my readers and other authors.
Feel free to connect with me through Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Google Plus, and Instagram.



REBEKAH YURONG
What is your writing Kryptonite?

The usual obvious procrastination culprits: the Internet, online shopping, social media. But, I do get down to writing after all of that is taken care of.

HANAHB
Who is a trending author to watch out for nowadays in your eyes?

BRENDA MOHAMMED
My pick is Hannah Howe. Hannah Howe is the author of the Amazon #1 Sam Smith Mystery Series and the Ann's War Mystery Series. Hannah's books are available in print, audiobooks, and eBooks from all major Internet outlets. Please visit https://hannah-howe.com for more details.


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