VODKA O’CLOCK 1515
ANGELA HENRY

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For the first time, I have the pleasure of talking to mystery, thriller, and fantasy writer ANGELA HENRY.

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Angela Henry is a library staffer for 20 years in Ohio. She’s been writing since high school. She has read from Trixie Beldon to Hercule Poirot stories. And in an absolute coincidence, she blogged about BLANCHE ON THE LAM a mere 10 days before I posted my critical analysis of it. You can read her post under the “Happenings” tab on her site.

She’s a member of Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and International Thriller Writers.

“Now being a librarian is cool!” ~AH

She’s a hybrid author having books in the traditional publishing market and the self-publishing market. There is a ton of great detail about her querying process which resulted in her getting a third literary agent and a lot of rejection. One book took four years but she’s in a pattern of about one book per year now.

Angela hasn’t done NaNoWriMo but has done Fast Draft Class. It’s half the time of NaNoWriMo – only two weeks to get to 50,000 words. She admits she produced a mess that she’ll get back to editing someday.

Of her series, the Kendra Clayton mysteries has some publishing issues. The first three books were out of print for a while until she got the rights back. The Xavier Knight series, she just had to walk away from a contract to get it published. From the sound of it, Angela loves the control of the self-publishing world. She gets to make decisions on her covers and even the narrator of her audio book versions.

The audio book process sounds like Angela had a good experience in getting her book out there. She said no one was auditioning until she was picked for a program that would pay narrators well; then got a lot of auditions. And as author, she was given them and got to pick who would be the voice of her work.

Kendra Clayton is her protagonist of a real world mystery series set in a small town. Xavier Knight however is a supernatural mystery series where he’s a fallen angel and detective.

In her structure, Angela puts her crime right up in the beginning of the book. I shared about my process and structure and the comparison to other favorite authors.

“I try to have it (the murder) happen no later than the second chapter.” ~AH

Angela is experienced in using Wattpad as a platform to get her work visible. They approached her about participating in their author program where a book is available for free for six months.

“Wattpad has been great for me as an author because I’ve found I’ve tapped into a whole new source of readers through that.” ~AH

It’s around the 45:00 minute mark when my side of conversation began to echo.

LINKS:

http://www.angelahenry.com/
https://twitter.com/MystNoir
http://www.wattpad.com/user/Angela_Henry

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.