About Ciana Stone:
When asked to talk about herself the first thing Ciana always says is that she is a very lucky and blessed woman. She dreamed of being a writer and now that’s what she gets to do – well, that along with her normal chores and family stuff.
Yes, writers do clean toilets and mow yards. And that’s okay with Ci. She loves taking care of her house and family and finds that sometimes the best ideas happen when she’s on that final ten minutes of mowing or when sanding on a piece of custom furniture her honey man has created.
Ciana adores animals – but only those with feathers or fur. Reptiles and amphibians still give her a case of the creeping willies and whenever a lizard (or Godzilla, as she affectionally refers to them) gets in the house, it’s up to the man of the cave to capture the beast. Yep, a frog turns her into a real girl.
She is something of a geek and loves to get online and game with her ‘crew’. Killing zombies isn’t really killing, after all – and it allows her to live up to her motto with her friends: “if the zombies are after us, you can bet I’m tripping you.”
Happily-ever-after is something Ciana believes in with her whole heart. Love may be a bumpy road and there’s bound to be some perils along the way but in the end love should win. She tries to take that attitude into her writing and thinks that love, hope and laughter are some of the best medicine there is. Along with books.
She loves to hear from readers and the most important thing she thinks she can ever say is – “thank you. To every reader who has spent his or her hard-earned reading dollars on a Ciana Stone book, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
What inspires you to write?
Life! The funniest, saddest, most ridiculous or mundane thing can inspire an idea, so when it happens I run with it. I never sit down and think, “hmmm, let’s write a book about …” Like life, it just happens.
Tell us about your writing process.
Ohhh, pantser all the way. I never know what I’m going to write or what will happen when I begin. Having been an artist my entire life, I tend to “see” stories, like little movies that play in my head. I watch and listen and try to type real fast to get it all.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Well, I don’t talk to them, but all too often their “movie” is playing in my head – spurring me to get to a computer or at least a pad of paper!
What advice would you give other writers?
If you love it, then do it. The writing is for you — that creative spark inside you begging to get out and be expressed. So go with it. Once the writing is done, then get practical. Hire an editor to make sure your book is as good as it can be. Hire a cover artist to make sure you have a good “face” for your book and then put on your “business” hat and set about selling your book and developing a readership.
When it’s time to write again, you can go back and live in your imagination for a while 🙂
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I was with several publishers before I decided to self publish and was not ever really pleased with the relationship. I don’t like someone imposing “story changes” on me that I feel take away from my tale. That being said, I learned a lot working with the editors, and I can’t stress enough how appreciative I am for all they taught me.
Self-publishing made sense for me. I’m very independent. I’m self-employed and have a strong work ethic and I felt I could research and learn what I needed to do to effectively promote my books. I have a great editor, I’m a professional cover designer so I have that aspect covered, and I like being in control of my own writing career. Sink or swim, it’s all on me and I’m fine with that responsibility.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think Amazon is going to control the market for a long time. KDP will continue to grow and there will be authors who earn an enormous amount of money from their books. Kindle Unlimited will continue to exert more influence. Authors in the program will find they are developing followings and KU will become a bigger player in the game.
I believe e-pubs will start to fold, as their pricing structure is too high for the market. Why pay 6.00 for a novella when you can read them on KU, download them for free on Kindle (and there are a lot of free books), or pay 0.99-2.99?
What do you use?: Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: romance (paranormal, western and contemporary) romantic suspense, and recently in romantic horror
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Website(s)
Ciana Stone Home Page Link
Link To Ciana Stone Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Facebook
Twitter
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
