Always Hope - April Marquette

Today, I'm happy to host the first person to ask to be on my blog! I've tweeted often that I'm looking for bloggers to interview, but April was the first to take me up on it. (If you were wondering, I found the other blogs through twitter and invited the bloggers through the same medium.) April has released a trilogy of erotic novels as well as a few others, but what I really want to know about is her blog.Do you have a schedule for your blog posts? Do you ever write them in advance?

I do have a schedule for my blog posts. I try to get them up each Friday before noon. I actually write most of them in advance, on Thursday. To get motivated, I tell myself that's the day they must go up. Then on Friday before I publish, I check for mistakes or necessary revision.

That last minute check can be so important. What do you do to prompt yourself to post in quiet times, between big news events?

I like to write about the books that I have written. I tell readers about the things other readers have written to me. I really want my readers to know that whenever I write an article, a blog post or a book, I have them in mind. I know they want good, juicy, informative stuff! So I try to give it to them. So far, they haven't complained.

Writing to your reader. I think that's Blog Tip #1 for writers. Too many of us (myself included) write for other writers/bloggers. That's not going to stop me!! blush How did you build your audience? Do you feel they are mostly fellow writers, readers, others?


I've been writing for many years, and everyone I've met knows it, so those people are a portion of my audience. I am also an editor who writes a weekly online column, so I get tons of new readers from that all the time--what a blessing! Also, since I am involved in several writers groups and do book giveaways and bloghops, I have quite a few authors as well as bloggers who follow me. That means a lot to me because they know how tedious the writing process can be.

Tedious? Never. snort Did you have a blog tour for your books? Did you use a service? Was there one blog that stood out from the other on the tour as generating a lot of interest?

I have done several blog tours. I was asked to do so recently by Beck Valley Books in the UK for my non-fiction. Others have also suggested it, and I hopped on board. The blog tours generated a great deal of interest and enabled me to meet bloggers and interviewers that I would otherwise have never known about — even people in India and Greece.

We really are an international community. Have you ever invited someone else to post on your blog, either in an interview like this, or about a release, or a post written by them for your blog?

I have not done that on my blog site, but on my Ethnic Beauty site at BellaOnline.com I feature someone new each month. That area is called Ethnic Contributions. I do it because I believe in aiding others to display their talents and showcase their contributions to the world.

An excellent endeavor. Would you consider hosting someone in future?

Now that you've mentioned it, I am seriously considering it.

Tries to slip her name and email to April Is there a blog you would recommend to me and my readers?

I sure can! My most favorite of all time is At Your Fingertips by paranormal romance author par excellent, Tamela Quijas who, by the way has even written a cookbook. Her blog is dynamite. I don't know where she finds the time. She interviews others, reviews their books, gives recipes and cooking tips, and keeps churning out deliciously romantic and eerie new novels. Go lady!

Thank you for answering my questions, April.

Angelica, I thank you so much for this opportunity, and want people to know that my latest novel about a preacher and his family will be available in paperback and ebook at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It's called Rebuke, and it is sweet & scorching adult fiction depicting love, lies, betrayal and redemption. I wrote it as an ode to my father who was a preacher!