Tellest:<\/strong> Hello Bettina!\u00a0 Just looking at your catalog, I can see that an absolute ton of your time goes into writing and publishing your many books.\u00a0 I appreciate you sneaking some of that time away to talk to me about just what kind of things are important in your day-to-day life, and what it means to you to get your stories out into the world.\u00a0 I\u2019m excited to help more people learn more about you and find their new favorite author!<\/p>\n Bettina M. Johnson:<\/strong> Thank you, Mike. Yes…I write full time and do so quickly. It\u2019s not unheard of for me to write 10K in two days.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> Whoa!\u00a0 Speaking as someone who is knee-deep in NaNoWriMo this year, I can say that I sometimes have difficulty breaking sixteen hundred words in a day, and there\u2019s at least one day I slipped up this month already.\u00a0 What kind of magic coffee do you end up drinking to give you that kind of mental energy?\u00a0 I jest, but maybe there are some sorts of tips you could send my way that I could apply to reaching a decent word count each day.<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 I treat it as my full-time job and discipline myself to start early and keep writing until I\u2019m done for the day.\u00a0 One of my novellas…. A Djinn and Tonic, I wrote in three days.\u00a0 30K.\u00a0 I don\u2019t suggest it be done all the time, but as a mental task and training to see if it can be done? Yeah.\u00a0 Then I give myself plenty of time to recuperate from such a grueling schedule. When you break it down, I make those days my 8 hour days.\u00a0 If I shoot for 2000 an hour I\u2019m ahead of the game. But if I plan on writing for 8 hours, I find it easy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> I know that you\u2019ve enjoyed storytelling since you were quite young, creating tales in your mind to pass the time and stave off boredom whenever it came creeping in.\u00a0 What do you think inspired those moments of inspiration?\u00a0 Were there any storytellers in your family that you believe you may have inherited the skill from?\u00a0 Did you have any favorite authors who were setting off sparks in your mind?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong> \u00a0My mom was a voracious reader, and she would often read to us and leave off at the \u201cgood part.\u201d I am rather impatient, so I learned to read by four just to be able to finish the story. By the time I was six, I pretty much read all the classics, Black Beauty, Little Women, A Christmas Carol, Charlotte\u2019s Web…I was up to four books a month before I hit my teen years! Sometimes I didn\u2019t like the way a story ended, so my mind would create alternative endings…I didn\u2019t realize I was \u201cwriting\u201d back then, but that\u2019s exactly what my mind was doing. I would have to say, as a child, the authors who sparked my creativity had to be Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe. Seriously. I read all their works while in middle school.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> You\u2019ve got children of your own.\u00a0 Has the process kind of come full circle?\u00a0 Did you end up reading to your kids as they were growing up, and are they as insatiable as you and your mother were with stories?\u00a0 Are you bringing up new scribes in your family?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 My husband did the reading duties. It was something he was passionate about because he was out at work all day and wanted that ritual at night for our children. But I did from time to time since I homeschooled all three.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> With such a huge catalog of books you\u2019ve written, there are plenty of things we could talk about.\u00a0 Your newest book is Siren Rise<\/em>, the first book in your Secret Sirens series.\u00a0 You\u2019ve already written witchy mysteries about many other magical beings.\u00a0 How did sirens become your newest fascination?\u00a0 Were these stories always in your head and you just needed the opportunity to bring them to life around all your other releases?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s a light departure for me, Siren Rise. I went from paranormal mystery to paranormal romance…a bit steamy…but still would consider the tale a mystery, as the plot is unfolding with answers that won\u2019t come out until books two, three and beyond.<\/p>\n This tale has been ruminating around my mind for years. I didn\u2019t want to tackle it or let the characters come out to play until I had a few cozy mysteries under my belt. I felt it was time when I couldn\u2019t sleep well due to the storyline writing itself while I was drifting off to sleep\u2014it\u2019s very difficult to enter the Land of Nod when you have to get up to pen those few lines before they are lost forever!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Click to see all the books Johnson has written, or is working on.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> With Siren Rise, you\u2019ve moved on from witches to sirens, as the name suggests.\u00a0 Are there any other obscure paranormal or mythological creatures that you\u2019re toying with in the future?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 Crossroad demons… I have a character named Pandora who is one. My Fortune-Telling Twins series has a bunch of different paranormal beings in it: vampires, demons, shifters, etc.\u00a0 I\u2019m dabbling with the idea of a revenant for the series I have in development.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> Your catalog is huge.\u00a0 But even more impressive than that, you\u2019ve written all of them within only the last eighteen months or so.\u00a0 You\u2019re a quick writer, your books are not slim, and they\u2019re all very well-received.\u00a0 What do you think are the secrets to your success?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 I came late to this career. I do many things in life this way. It took me thirty years to get my BA in History! Life experience. I chalk off my success to life experience. Every one of my books has a grain of truth or a bit of me and things I\u2019ve seen, done or heard about with people I\u2019ve bumped into or decided to turn into fictional characters.\u00a0 My husband\u2019s cousin is convinced she\u2019s one of my characters…but I\u2019ll never tell!<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always written ridiculously fast and now it\u2019s nothing for me to write a novel in a week. That is not to say it is an easy process, because sometimes my characters refuse to speak to me, and I flounder. I never promise a book early, even though I can write them so rapidly, just in case the \u201cvoices\u201d stop, and I need to wait for inspiration to hit.<\/p>\n My books ARE well received, and for that I am grateful! I think my readers can relate to my characters, even though I write the paranormal, because they ARE based on that grain of truth…so they become authentic. Plus, I love what I do. I love my tales and the characters. I anticipate each and every new book and have to remind myself to come out of my cave once and a while and give the writing a break! Perhaps it shows in my work.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> When you began work on your earlier series, were they always intended to be the longer sets that they are?\u00a0 Or did you write, say, a trilogy, and then determine there was more to tell, and keep things going.\u00a0 To put it another way, you\u2019ve got three books currently planned in the Secret Sirens series, but is there a possibility of getting more out of the stories?\u00a0 Is it in the nature of mystery books that there\u2019s always room to find more to explore?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 I know my endings before I start writing. I know where I want them to go and how I want them to conclude. The Lily Sweet Mysteries and Fortune-Telling Twins series will go on until my fans shout, \u201cenough!\u201d Secret Sirens is slated for three for Tarni\u2019s story. If they are well received, I may do stories based on the other sisters, specifically Kimberly…or do more on Tarni…but away from this timeline or story set. Siren Rise, Siren Star and Siren Fall are definitely a trilogy.\u00a0 That\u2019s the only one I planned this way. The rest I always intended to be series.\u00a0 I have two more series in the works…one about a ghost-hunter names Samantha Geist, another paranormal mystery…and one that might fall into fantasy romance. It certainly has all the elements of high fantasy but remains firmly in the romance category.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> This is just a curiosity from me, but have you ever had even more obscure characters who you\u2019ve considered promoting into more of a starring role?\u00a0 The guy at the coffee shop humming to himself while he reads the paper, or the girl going for a job in the morning while the main character exits their house?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 As mentioned above…Pandora. She is a riot. A crossroads demon with a heart but gets into all manner of situations and usually drags my poor, long-suffering MC along for the ride. She will become a permanent fixture in the Fortune-Telling Twins series crossing over from the Lily Sweet series.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> You\u2019ve currently got eight books in the Lily Sweet Mysteries series, with the ninth on the way.\u00a0 How does it feel going from someone who once had difficulties getting their first book finished to having this empire of fantasy that has found a huge following of dedicated fans?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 I pinch myself constantly! There are mornings I get up and all I do is stare at my website…look at my Amazon Author Page…stare at my computer screen whose background is all my books lined up in rows…and just gawk!\u00a0 That\u2019s me! Those are my babies! It\u2019s surreal. What is even more rewarding is getting emails from my readers and hearing about how much they enjoy my tales. That has to be akin to what rock stars and actors feel when fans are screaming at them up on stage…at least it is to ME! I just had a reader reach out to me with a few vegetable-based recipes because I mentioned in my newsletter I wanted to switch it up a bit and make meat the side dish…eat healthier. She sent me an email with recipes. How awesome is she? And how neat is that? I spent the rest of the day acting like a celebrity with peeps! Imagine me…with readers who would take the time out of their day to thank me, send me recipes, send words of encouragement, etc. Seriously heady stuff there!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> Do your stories all exist within the same world?\u00a0 Could the Fortune sisters in theory run into Lily Sweet out in the wild?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 Indeed. It all started with Lily Sweet. Her cousins Maggie and Ellie Fortune came to visit…and bam! Fortune-Telling Twins. Tarni Vanderzee is the siren who showed up in Lily\u2019s tale but now has her own series. Samantha Geist just made an appearance in both the Lily Sweet Mysteries and the Fortune-Telling Twins Mysteries. I have a character called Pandora. She is a wacky and wonderful crossroads demon and is in Lily Sweet…but crossed to Fortune-Telling Twins and I think will become a permanent character there (unless I give her a series of her own!) So yes. They are all connected. I don\u2019t know if this will continue in the future…but it just might.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> You mentioned Pandora, and that gives us the opportunity to talk about another new series of sorts for you.\u00a0 Recently, Amazon started allowing authors to use the Kindle Vella platform, and essentially write serialized short-form content that readers would be able to digest in episodic bites.\u00a0 Pandora is one of those stories.\u00a0 Now, you\u2019re already writing so incredibly fast that it may not feel as though much has changed.\u00a0 But what kinds of things have you noticed that are different on that platform?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 I\u2019m actually not very impressed with KindleVella. It appears to me to be major authors pushing ahead of the little guys, as usual, and Amazon\u2019s algorithm rewards them…and the rest of us go unnoticed. Maybe it\u2019s because I haven\u2019t pushed it per se.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> What are some tips you could offer for storytellers who want to try to follow in your footsteps?\u00a0 What made writing more accessible for you, or gave you the kick that you needed to really put yourself in gear to write to the great lengths that you have?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 That one is going to be difficult. You see, the catalyst for me entering the world of writing happened because I lost my mother. She died in 2019 after a nasty bought of pneumonia. She was my muse as a child, the one\u2014as mentioned\u2014who sparked my love of reading. We often shared cozy mysteries and would lament over story plots or characters we loved. I always told her I\u2019d write someday, and she responded with, \u201ceven if no one reads them, I will. But I think you will have no end of readership!\u201d Yet, still, I put it off. Then she died. I picked my pen up (actually dusted off my computer keys) eight months after she died when it dawned on me she wouldn\u2019t be here to read them now…and what the heck was I waiting for? I hope she is cheering me on, however, and write each book FOR her.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> That is a lovely sentiment, and I\u2019m sure she is ecstatic about what you\u2019ve written not only for her, but for other people as well.\u00a0 Your stories are probably changing hundreds, if not thousands, of lives at this point.\u00a0 And as you mentioned earlier, in some ways, it\u2019s coming back around\u2014you\u2019re learning new recipes, after all!<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 I certainly try to write something I know she\u2019d enjoy reading…but also update them for today\u2019s market. One of my inspirations is the late author Joan Hess. That woman could write humorous cozy mysteries like nobody\u2019s business. If I can be half as good as her, I am ahead of the game. Mom hooked me onto her books.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> Marketing is its own special challenge among writers.\u00a0 What successes have you found along the way.\u00a0 Were there any promoters or websites that seemed to help more than others?\u00a0 Did you find that \u201cboxed sets\u201d helped to drive sales or brought in a new audience?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 Marketing is a weird animal. Certainly, doing interviews, such as yours, does wonders for getting the word out. The BEST marketing, however, has to be word of mouth from readers. They make or break an author and that is why I am so very grateful to mine and celebrate with every new positive review or 5-stars I see. I\u2019m finding social media to be less so. They are flooded with authors all trying to do the same thing. I am hoping something is coming up the pike that will put authors in front of insatiable readers, almost like what Goodreads tried (and failed) to be, but more interactive. I know there are readers out there that want interaction with authors, because I am one of them! I would love a platform to discover books, authors and other readers and it be a thriving place where people go to \u201chang\u201d out and discuss and discover together!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> What kinds of things do you find inspiration in these days?\u00a0 With as much story content as you\u2019ve put out into the world, are you inspiring yourself more than outside events could?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 With outside events the way they are at the moment, I have become a happy little hermit crab and remain on my farm, writing. That said, I get my inspiration from the weirdest sources. Relatives, friends, and acquaintances…things that happened to me or people I knew in the past, etc. But mostly my mind just starts weaving these tales and I\u2019m not quite sure where it\u2019s all coming from! (Other than I have quite a lot of weird things running amok in my head!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> If a reader wanted to learn more about you, where could they find you on the internet?<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 My website:\u00a0 www.bettinamjohnson.net<\/a> and I\u2019m on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. I\u2019d have to say, out of all of them, I really enjoy TikTok because I can see and hear from people who reach out. Although Facebook has that ability. I have a Team Wicked group on Facebook where some of my readers hang out and get exclusive content form me:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/616854662258298<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> Bettina, I wanted to thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me while I know you could be cranking out another book in the time that we\u2019ve been chatting.\u00a0 I\u2019m hopeful that more people can learn more about you from this interview and see the passion that you have for your stories.<\/p>\n BMJ:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thanks Mike. I come up for air every once in a while, and enjoyed taking the time to answer your questions!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n T:<\/strong> For good measure, I\u2019d like to thank Bettina M. Johnson for the opportunity to conduct this interview with her.\u00a0 She was as enthusiastic throughout the process as she is in her writing.\u00a0 I\u2019m excited to see where her devotion to her stories take her, and I\u2019m we\u2019re barely scratching the surface of what she\u2019s capable of.\u00a0 We here at Tellest will keep an eye on Johnson\u2019s stories and announce whenever new projects are released.\u00a0 In the meantime, be sure to check out Siren Rise: A Secret Sirens Paranormal Romance – Book 1<\/em> on Amazon<\/a> today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, we here at Tellest had the good fortune of promoting a new series debut from the very talented Bettina M. Johnson.\u00a0 Well, consider us very wealthy indeed, because on top of the feature, we also had the opportunity to speak with Johnson about everything from her inspirations to the secrets of her success.\u00a0 Read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[463,145,350,462],"tags":[2686,2091,2689,303,2687,2688,379,2684,2683,531],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Featured-Bettina-Interview.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1UVey-6On","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26187"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26199,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26187\/revisions\/26199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tellest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Bettina-M.-Johnson-Author-Photo.jpg\")
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