Listen to live interviews with authors
Reader Views has partnered with Inside Scoop Live. This fantastic website brings live interviews to you so you may hear the personal thoughts of authors regarding their books and issues.

Internationally published in five languages, award-winning syndicated cartoonist Marie Davis has broken free of the comic strip and is now writing novels. Her first novel, an audio book entitled Hey Diddle Diddle--A Naughty Delight for Lesbians and Other Grownups,  is a fanciful, over-the-top tale of sex and obsession.

Synopsis: Meet Elsa.  She's a lactose-intolerant cow.  Really.  Elsa's a good friend to Lil, her handywoman neighbor.  Plus, Elsa's got a secret unrequited crush...a big one.  Lil, meanwhile, has a curiously fascinating love life of her own.  Their world is populated with a mean little dog, a virtuoso cat, a yummy dish (of course), a chorus of lusty kitchen implements, a grumpy wishing star, and an aging silver spoon with a consuming desire of its own.  Therein lies the funniest, most fanciful, over-the-top tale of sex and obsession you will ever have the pleasure of hearing. 

Topics of conversation:

• Life of a comic strip writer, the transition to novel writing, Marie's own life experience that prompted Hey Diddle Diddle.
• How cartoonists are just writers disguised behind a drawing table.
• The healing power of humor, the need for comedy in life.
• Marie reads passages from her book, talks about a few of the whimsical characters, humorous excerpts and tender moments.
• The importance of supporting women, locally and internationally to Marie's life and work, advocacy for GBLT community.

Listen to interview with Marie Davis

Experts share their secrets
Authors Access is a joint project of Loving Healing Press and Reader Views. Each week we bring insightful interviews from people around the world who can help you get your work published, and if already published, noticed! The forum is geared for writers, both published and unpublished. Your hosts are Victor R. Volkman, owner/publisher of Loving Healing Press and Irene Watson, Managing Editor of Reader Views. See the lineup for future presentations and listen to previous podcasts.

On November 5th, 2009 Tyler R. Tichelaar and Victor R. Volkman spoke with Toronto-based educator and print, radio, and TV journalist Donna Kakonge about how any writer can successfully refocus their work into the freelance journalism marketplace. She believes that you CAN break into the journalism business without having to have a specialist bachelor’s degree in the subject. Donna has been involved in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Radio Canada International (RCI) on and off for 15 years at the local, national and international levels of both television and radio. She has also worked for the Discovery Channel and Discovery Channel International, Vision TV, the BBC and various publications around the world. Key talking points of tonight’s talk were:

• How can I educate myself to start a career in journalism?
• What important trade associations can help me on my journey?
• Besides book writing, what other kinds of journalism are out there now today?
• Should I establish some sort of business identity?
• Can I make money just form my blogs?
• What about rejection, how do you deal with it?

Donna Kakonge started writing seriously at the age of seven. Her grade two teacher, Mrs. Chen, had the whole class keep a journal. She wrote a story about dinosaurs that Mrs. Chen deemed “outstanding.” Ever since then, she has been hooked.She went to journalism school at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada where she graduated with the Marjorie Nichols Award for being the student with the most promise of becoming an exceptional journalist. She has also been nominated for a Gemini Award (the Canadian version of the Emmy) for work done with the Discovery Channel and has been part of a W Network project “Tell it Like it Is” that won a Hugo Award.Her education continued with a master of arts in media studies and communications from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Her thesis was on the politics of black hair. She has written 31 books, one of them called What Happened to the Afro? that gives a different side to Chris Rock’s documentary Good Hair. She has also edited Being Healthy: Selected Works from the Internet and has a book called How to Write Creative Non-fiction is published by Lulu. You can find her books on Amazon.com and other fin e-tailers.She can speak both French and English, a bit of Italian and Spanish. She has received a Quebecor Documentary Fellowship from DOC Toronto. She currently teaches at Seneca College and Centennial College in Toronto. Her subject areas are writing and broadcast.

Listen to Donna Kakonge: How to Turn Your Writing Career Into Journalism

Next show: Authors Access will interview Paul Krupin - Are Press Releases an Effective Way to Market?