Mr. Chuckles bumped into UK crime author Heather Burnside while stirring the Wizard's Cauldron.

The Wizard speaks:

Heather Burnside is a UK based crime author who writes hard-core crime fiction based in the north of the country. 

Violent local bosses and their scheming, trashy molls, nihilistic urban tearaways, shadowy fixers, psychopathic hitmen, and a small army of hooded robbers, muggers and dealers populate the pages of her novels, and because of the immediacy and realism, the impression arises that the cast list of her novels can be found on a high street near you, wasting valuable mugjob time in the Billy Hills, or selling prescription jellies round the pool table in the Dog and Duck. 

I like that realism in writing and when the opportunity arose to interview Heather I took it with both hands. She  is just about to release her next book. I picked up the Wizphone and called her as she researched her newest endeavour.  Here's what she had to say.

Mr. Chuckles conjures up Poet, Performer and Humourist, Lynn Gerrard while stirring the Wizard's Cauldron

The Wizard says:

I had a fiver for every person I've spoken to in the past year who has said "Marky, you ought to have that Lynn Gerrard around the Cauldron," I would now have a tidy sum in my wallet instead of holes and fresh air, so, as the second part of my poetry special, I girded my loins and got in touch with her and was delighted when she agreed to come round. 

As we discussed last week during Sue Lobo's fantastic interview, after years on the fringes of the fringes (of even those fringes), poetry is making a big comeback on the scene. 

Lynn writes - her new book has been well received - blogs extensively, and most excitingly, performs live poetry, which takes some proper bottle. 

An extremely funny woman and a talented wordsmith, it has been a pleasure to meet her this week. I caught up with Lynn  on the Wizphone backstage as she prepared for her most recent recital somewhere in the rainswept north of England - here's what she had to say.

 

Click on this link to read the entire interview

Mr. Chuckles caught up with Author and blogger Carol Hedges while stirring the Wizard's Cauldron

The Wizard speaks:

Inhabitants of the Twitterverse, at least this little segment of it, will have noticed the effervescent wit of Carol Hedges - author and keen, active blogger - around the place. 

Rumoured to be extremely helpful and supportive of other Indies and active in her local community, I had always wanted to invite her around the Cauldron and was introduced to her quite recently. 

Her books are popular and, as you will see, she enjoys a good laugh and a joke. I caught up with her as she bedded in the roses somewhere in the south of England and we spoke via the Wizphone. 

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Mr. Chuckles runs into Bodicia, a top notch and prolific reviewer, while stirring the Wizard's Cauldron

The Wizard Speaks:

Bodicia runs the extremely popular A Woman's Wisdom website, where, like your second favourite Wizard, she interviews authors and people connected with Independent Publishing.

Bodicia is a top notch and prolific reviewer. Don't take my word for it - have a look at her fast developing website.

 

https://awomanswisdom.wordpress.com/book-of-the-month-sari-caste-by-catherine-kirby/

One thing is for sure - she's funny, witty, surreal and a pleasure to get to know. Full of integrity too - I asked for my book Carla to appear on her legendary Indie Hall Of Fame, as loads of my mates are on there, and she said she would only put it on if she liked the book. Surreptitious offers of blocks and blocks of her beloved choc choc wouldn't change her mind. I love integrity like that! I caught up with Bodicia on the Wizphone as she studied in her sanctum scriptorum somewhere nameless in freezing November UK. 

 

Here's what she had to say.

Mr. Chuckles stirs the Wizard's Cauldon and Conjures up Phil Conquest

The Wizard speaks:

This is a long interview.
Pour yourself a cuppa, unwrap a bar of chocolate and take fifteen minutes to read it. It covers a lot of angles you don't often get in Indie author interviews. Many of my regular readers may raise their eyebrows. Many will be glad to have met him. There's not much promo here - except of brilliant writing, something that has probably been neglected by Indie writers who seem obsessed with story, with sales as the only barometer of success or failure.

Phil is an English expat, whose debut novel, Rum Hijack, has been praised by readers, rejected by book bloggers, misunderstood, lauded, cast aside, raved about, shunned by Indies and embraced by an audience starved of original writing.

The dark tale of an angry, tortured, would-be writer with the unlikely name of Inkker Hauser, living in a shambolic, surreal, isolated world, imprisoned by his flat and tortured by writer's block, is eloquently written - majestic in parts - with shades of an Alan Bennett monologue mixed with the madness of Burroughs, the cynicism of Thompson and sprinkled with Kafkaesque nihilism. It's well worth the ridiculously low price he charges on Kindle.

I contacted him on the Wizphone as he shivered in his freezing basement flat somewhere in the snowy North Eastern US. This is the world of the writer, well away from the poodles, chaise longues and dictaphones of the perfumed market chasers, the smug edifices, restored cathedrals and pate de fois gras of the blockbuster merchants. Here's what he had to say.

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Mr. Chuckles catches up with "Mistress of Moonlight" herself, Lelani Black around the Wizard's Cauldron!



 

The Wizard says:

Erotic romance with the "Mistress of Moonlight" herself, Lelani Black...around the Cauldron!

Lelani Black, extremely popular Colorado-based erotic romancier has just released her new novel. I'm a massive fan of Lelani - as are a growing number of e-book readers around the world - and she is a terrific friend of the Cauldron.

Lelani's first interview with Wiz

Picking up the Wizphone, I caught up with her in her smallholding as she struggled to catch and restrain her flying chickens. Yes, chickens DO fly, Lelani assures me. I'll believe it when I see it ha ha.

 

Here's what Lelani had to say