Three Times A Charm with Nancy Stewart

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry.

This week we are joined by my fellow GAP author, Nancy Stewart. Nancy, tell us about yourself.

I am the author of the four Bella and Britt Series books for children:  One Pelican at a Time (eighteen weeks on Amazon Bestselling List), Sea Turtle Summer, (Amazon Bestseller for Children and on Amazon Hot New Releases), Bella Saves the Beach and Mystery at Manatee Key. All are/will be published by Guardian Angel Publishing.

I was featured in the PBS Tampa (WEDU) series, Gulfwatch.  It concerned the writing of One Pelican at a Time:  A Story of the Gulf Oil Spill. Pelican won a Literary Classics Seal of Approval was nominated for a Global eBook Award.

My travels take me extensively throughout the world, most particularly Africa. I am the US chair of a charity in Lamu, Kenya, that places girls in intermediate schools to allow them to further their education. 

My husband and I live in Tampa and St. Louis.

Tell us more about your most recent release.

Sea Turtle Summer, the second book in the Bella and Britt Series was published in November, 2011.  It has been on Amazon’s Hot New Releases and Amazon’s Bestselling Books for Children’s lists. In this book, the girls find a Loggerhead sea turtle and her nest on the beach.  After seeing the female safely back into the water, the girls are faced with an unprotected nest.  What to do?  This book is about empowering kids to make good decisions while navigating through an adult world, facing adult rules and staying true to themselves.

Sounds great! I loved One Pelican at a Time. Bella and Brit are such great characters.

Now for the three’s. Share with us your top 3’s so we can get to know you better.

• Top 3 tools of the trade you couldn’t live without.

For any author these days, a computer (preferably reliable) has to be number 1. I feel my computer is joined at my hip these days, as it is used about eight hours a day.  When I stop to think about it, frightening is the word I’d use to describe my dependence on it!

If I must choose, then number two would be my blog.  Although I did not want to begin one, I couldn’t function as an author today without it.  People the world over get to know you and your work.  It also functions as a vehicle for adult writing—a skill a children’s author can begin to lose.

My third tool has to be (and I hate to admit this) the social network.  For marketing, it is invaluable, and marketing’s the name of the game these days.  So, yes, I tweet and facebook religiously. It’s simply essential in modern life as fire was for pre-historic people.

• Top 3 skills to hone for people just starting in your business.

Number one for me is to read and research the genre of your interest.  Then read some more. There is a formula of sorts with each genre, and one must follow it to a point—never forgetting to add your own stamp of creativity and voice!  Learn from successful authors.

Number two is to write every day.  Even though we may have a natural proclivity toward this art form, practicing it is essential.  Thinking about it, getting the words on “paper,” rewriting and revising are all pivotal to the process.  And it’s amazing what one learns about the art of writing and about oneself as well.

Number three is:  Don’t write in a vacuum! Get out there and join a writer’s group. They are everywhere.  It will change one’s professional life and only for the better.  A good critique group provides camaraderie, and it is great enriching fodder for your books. 

• Top 3 leisure activities.

My top leisure activity is going to lunch with friends.  (I know I should say exercise, but you want honesty here, right?)  Writing by definition is a solitary profession, and I am a social person.  So…taking a break mid-day with a friend or two is a perfect combination for me.

My second is—exercise.  I’m so lucky to have a full gym and two pools in our Tampa condo, and I take advantage of them!  Again, when one sits at a computer for close to eight hours a day as I do, exercise is crucial.

The third activity is travel.  I’ve been so fortunate to have traveled much of this amazing world.  I particularly enjoy sub-continent Africa and help with a charity in Kenya whenever I can.

Nancy, where can our readers learn more about you and your work?

My website is:  http://www.nancystewartbooks.com

Blog site:  http://www.nancystewartbooks.blogspot.com/

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/stewartnancy

Facebook:  Nancy Rosenthal Stewart

Buy her books here:
  

Thank you for joining us this week on Three Times A Charm! It has been a pleasure visiting with you and learning more about Sea Turtle Summer. Best of luck to your books. May they be held by many small hands!

THANKS!