Karen Carew Oakes, has been writing for many years and her articles have been included in the Lutheran Advent, as well as an article in several magazines. She is a mother and grandmother. She lives in Helotes, Texas with her two schnauzers Ella and Mackenzie. Her stories are based on true experiences her children encountered growing up.

Visit her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/karencarewoakes.  

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Actually, I have been writing all of my life. As a kid I would write alternate story lines for books and comics I read.

Drewsilla the Shelter Puppy was inspired by Drewsillas adoption by my daughter and son inlaw.

Everyone likes a story with a happy ending. Drewsilla was a very shy withdrawn puppy because of the way she was found. She was very tramatized and the shelter was not sure if she would find a home. She chose my daughter and son inlaw.

Children love stories about animals and Drewsillas story also teaches the importance of adopting. There are so many animals in need of home

As a kid I loved a good mystery. Robin Kane mysteries and Nancy Drew were two of my favorites series.

I would say make sure you know your audience. I actually read my stories at local schools in the library and to friends childrens. 

I am in the process of putting illustrations together for my series of books The Misadventures of Kelly and Radar. These are fun and informative books children can relate to.

Lee: The sinister organization has a motto, Any wish fulfilled for the right price. The book came about when I thought of a character so desperate to attain his wish that he would do anything for it. And of course, some evil company would come up with idea to make money off of desperation.  

Lee: The main character is Harrison Stockton, who works on Wall Street in Mergers & Acquisitions. He has a wife Helene and two kids who he never sees. His goal in glife has been the sole pursuit of money along with drinking and pills. When he finds out his has liver cirrhosis, he assums he can just pay to get to get a new one. But after being placed far down on the donor list, he resorts to more unsavory measures to get a new liver.  

Lee: There are a few big twists in the book that the readers will not see coming. One takes place about halfway through. The other about 2/3rds into it and then a final big twist at the end. I like twists so if someone reads a book a second time they can see all the clues that foreshadow the twists. And thrillers must keep readers turning the pages.

Lee: I would say entertainment first, message second. I want readers to be transported into another world but also to think. I would say this book is a literary thriller. It is certainly a page-turner, but also about morality. We might think we know our own morals, but in times of desperation, we might not be as ethically sound as we think.

Lee: I just saw it! I absolutely love it. It is ominous and eye-catching. The design team at Fahrenheit Press did a fantastic job getting the feel for the book. 

Lee: I have always wanted to be a writer. Since I was about six, I was writing stories. I remember one about my dog and a cat staying at a spooky hotel.

Lee: My happy place is definitely writing in Central Park, which I call my outdoor office. From about April through November, I have a few spots in the park where I bring my laptop and write under a tree. The Desire Card was written during a mild winter where I bundled up and wrote it wearing gloves.

Lee: I love the beach and to travel. Traveling is really the only time I take a break from writing. I love Santa Monica beach. I go there a lot.

Lee: If you are looking for a fast-paced, high-stakes thriller that will also make you think, The Desire Card is for you. It will also be the first book in a series. The second book Prey No More will be coming out soon. I have finished a draft of the third book and I am working on the fourth book right now, which is an origin story of the sinister organization set in 1978.

“Meridian couldn’t help but keep looking at the ghost.  John took her by the hand and helped her walk to the back where the bathrooms were.  John was kissing Meridian all over, and it was obvious that he wanted more.  Relic and the rest of the guides, along with Luna, walked to the bathrooms and watched.  Meridian and John had gone into a bathroom stall, and he began to pull her underwear down from underneath her skirt. As the pair continued to get to know each other in the stall, the ghosts hovered above and watched with a look of concern.”

--From Meridian Chronicles: Black Widow Curse & The Coven by M.D. Fryson

M.D. Fryson is a wife and mom to three boys as well as an animal lover especially horses she used to ride, train and show. Her favorite books are anything astrology, self help, motivation, romance and humor. She loves chocolate, coffee and her family (not in that order), and the beach. She likes to garden, hike, jog, swim and travel. Her most recent release is the paranormal romance, Meridian Chronicles: Black Widow Curse & The Coven. The third installment to this series comes out September 2019 and she is nearly finished with the last book to the series that comes out in 2020.
 MERIDIAN’S curse has left her in a state all her own of amnesia. She is on Earth lost and afraid with only fragments to piece together her mysterious circumstance. The curse has taken the unimaginable from her, but that is just scratching the surface. The Black Widow curse will reveal itself through the demon’s riddle, the Coven and the Fairy Nymphs.

A trip back to Salem is just what the psychic ordered, but treachery lurks with an ex coven member who calls on demons. The demon realm offers more riddles than answers, but a stroke of luck from the high demon court, brings in a sophisticated demon, Lahash who has grown tired of the games.
The curse hides Meridian's identity and her memory will unlock the Universal secret of her twin soul to find her way home. As Meridian finds Aiden so do the impacts of her curse and what it could do to their budding relationship.

Meridian’s soul and fate are in the cross hairs, while the odds rise between the demons, witches and the fairies.

Finally having found Aiden, the Fairy Queen comes through to send aid to Meridian, but she still doubts herself and contemplates running away from it all. Who is Meridian's twin soul? Will she go back to Etheria or will the curse reign down on Meridian?

Find out in this dark and twisted paranormal romance.

Interview:

Welcome, M.D.!  Your new paranormal romance series sounds thrilling! Can you tell us how you came up with the idea?

M.D.:  Hello and thank you Richard for the invitation for the interview!  The core of the story is around the protagonist, Meridian who is a realm born spirit guide, in that she was born of her realm of Etheria, versus how the majority of the spirit guides came to be, through the process of living several lives, learning their lessons the universe has sent for them, so that they can at some point, transcend to becoming a guide, to watch over human kind.

Meridian is young in terms of the time in a realm born guides existence that they are released to watch over humans.  She doesn’t get that chance because in the first book Hall of Souls & The Book of the Fairies, she is cast out by the realms leader who has his own secrets and covert agenda.  As she arrives on Earth, she doesn’t recall much of her previous life and she is very much like a child in that, she doesn’t understand what being a human is like and the situations that present their selves.
The idea came to me, from my own life experiences in that the curse is a bit figurative for how I felt about myself in a dark time in my life. Many people that I have had an experience with, gave rise to the traits in many characters, good and bad.  Which brings me to my next point. 

Life is full of good and bad and I think for me, being able to write a genre I love, fantasy, wrapping up elements of my own views, feelings and experiences into fictional characters while weaving a couple of messages in the story was how I came up with the idea.

The ideas and concepts of a past life, reincarnation and karma is something that a lot of people believe in.  Many believe that there are other beings at work such as guardian angels, spirits etc., so I wrapped them into the story as well.  Having been exposed to a plethora of beliefs, there are some I find easier to write about.  It isn’t necessarily that I believe in all of them, but I appreciate the different view points and they make up the world we live in.  I wanted the story to be fantasy/paranormal but in a way that hopefully some readers could relate too.

Can you tell us a little about the main characters?

M.D.:I mentioned Meridian.  She goes through quite some prolific changes through the series. There are two more books to this series (and I am thrilled that I am finished writing them already, now just editing) Anyway, another character is Aiden, he is inspired by my husband from his physical features all the way to his music taste and a little of his background.  His wonderful personality is in there, right along with a bit of his sarcastic side. 

Relic, a spirit guide who in his previous life, was a rock star.  If someone were to ask me how to describe him, my husband shouted out, that Relic reminded him of a guitar player from Motley Crue, Nikki Sixx.  I decided that was pretty close.  His personality is very sarcastic, witty and he is very full of himself, but he is tolerated by his group because deep down he is a good spirit, he just doesn’t like to be vulnerable. In a way, a lot of his banter is inspired by my husband who is very witty.

Selena is the Fairy Queen and what can I say, she is very cold and calculating in the first book, but some events that take place between her daughter and her, humble her a bit and in the second book readers will get to see her go through the realizations that despite she may feel strongly about certain things, she needs to help the spirit guides and win her daughter’s approval.  She has the power to turn spirit guides back from fallen, that the leader of Etheria has cast to Earth as a form of a demon.

Warrick is the main antagonist, but in this book I introduce another one, a witch named Raina.  Now she is certainly a dark witch with an agenda and she finds out Meridian’s secret and wants to capitalize on that for her own reasons.

Warrick is the leader of Etheria who is threated by Meridian and the gifts she has yet to realize about herself.  He carries a big secret in the first book, that in this book, gets exposed. I can’t tell you or it would spoil the story!

They say all books of fiction have at least one pivotal point where the reader just can’t put the book down. What is one of the pivotal points in your book?

I would say when Warrick’s identity and the way to break Meridian’s curse is exposed through a ritual conducted by the Queen and other fairy nymphs along with a witch coven in Salem.  They help Meridian unlock the mystery.

Do you proofread and edit your work on your own or pay someone to do it for you?

M.D.: Yes.  After I get the first draft, I reread and rewrite for the second draft.  My last book I wrote, I sent to beta readers and then had a small rewrite and proof read before it went to the editor.  After that comes back, I rewrite again for another draft, it goes to the editor.  Then I reread, then to a proofreader then I reread again before I am finished.  Whew!

Do you believe a book cover plays an important role in the selling process?

M.D.:  Very much so.  I believe when a readers sees the cover, it generates a feeling and an idea.  I think that it is important to convey the tone of the story through the cover, so that a reader can feel for their selves and carry with them through the pages as they read.

What did you want to become when you were a kid?

M.D.:  Well, an astronaut!  To this day I binge watch the space channel because to me the Universe is fascinating to me in that there is so much out there that we have yet to discover.  If I had it to do over again, I would have studied to become an astrophysicist.   But I settled for a Business Degree in Marketing, because math was too scary for me! That degree has allowed me to have experiences in the investments/management and advertising worlds.  

Do your novels carry a message?

M.D.:  Absolutely!  Now I will say that aside from the message, my books all end in cliffhangers, (you have been warned)  My life at one point felt like a never-ending precession of cliffhangers, so I have to be true to myself when I write.

 However, in the books and through out the series, the message I convey is that no matter how far you fall off track, that there is always hope no matter how dark it gets and there is always a light at the end of the tunnel if you simply look and push through the hard times.  Life is a gift and we can either allow our mistakes to define and rule us, or we can choose to be an inspiration to someone who may have went through something similar.  Taking the high road isn’t the hard part.  Finding the high road to me is the toughest and once you are there, keep going. The energy we put out into the world always finds its way back, just may take some time.

Is there anything you’d like to tell your readers and fans?

M.D.: If you get the chance to read the book, I hope you enjoy it!

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