EP 251 - The Author Journey with C. J. Anaya

Mark interviews C.J. Anaya, a USA Today bestselling and multi-award-winning author who enjoys assisting authors in writing, publishing, and marketing books with her YouTube channel Author Journey.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, an ad he recorded with Julie Strauss for the release of their new novel Lover's Moon, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

During their chat, Mark and CJ talk about:

• How by the time she was eight months old CJ was singing
• Writing short stories for her friends at the age of 10 because she wanted to give them all Christmas presents
• The singing and performing she did, including starting to writing songs at the age of 18
• Going through three incidents of cancer. First at the age of 18, then at 26, and more recently in the past year
• How her writing journey began shortly after running into Jennifer Griffith when CJ was in a bookstore signing copies of her CD
• Writing short stories for her friends at the age of 10 because she wanted to give them all Christmas presents
• Dreaming about a spirit trapped in a Japanese statue which lead to writing THE HEALER which ended up being the first book in a series
• How the Paranormal Misfit series started off as a 10,000 word short story
• The specific themes and issues that this YA series deals with
• The book and course CJ created about writer's block
• Specific genres that CJ works on as a developmental editor
• CJ's experience attending Superstars Writing Seminars alone (as opposed to always previously going to conferences with a friend)
• Advice she would give to her youngest self
• Something that she hadn't expected when taking Kevin J. Anderson's Western Colorado University's Masters in Publishing program
• Writing songs for characters in her books
• And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on when CJ spoke about learning to deal with constructive criticism and appreciating that it's not that there's anything wrong with the work, but about what can we improve upon and how can we make this even better.

Links of Interest:

• CJ Anaya's Website
• CJ's YouTube Channel
• Cindy Savage Music on Reverbnation
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• TikTok Video - Mark's Skeleton Author Prop
• French River Trading Post
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon

C.J. Anaya is a USA Today bestselling and multi-award-winning author. She also enjoys assisting authors in writing, publishing, and marketing books with her YouTube channel Author Journey.

She's a huge fan of The Mindy Project, Hugh Jackman, and binge eating any and all things chocolate.

As a mother of four awesome kiddos, C.J. is usually helping out with endless amounts of homework, attempting difficult and harrowing crochet projects with her daughters, and getting schooled in basketball by her teenage son.

She loves writing entertaining reads for everyone to enjoy and dabbles in singing and songwriting for kicks and giggles.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0