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An Interview With Barbara Howell

Tell us a bit about yourself. What would you like us to know about you?

I guess the most distinguished thing about me, is that I’m a transplanted Southerner living in Tulsa, Oklahoma and it is easily definable when I open my mouth.

What are you doing now? (Career? Married? Single? Children? Pets?)

I’m still working in my woodshop and marketing my first book, that came out in March of 2009.

What is your favourite food?

Chicken

What is your favourite colour?

Black

What is your favourite sound?

Guitar playing

Who is your favourite person?

Johnny Cash

What is your favourite place?

My Tennessee Home

What is your favourite memory?

Our Community Sunday evening gatherings to play softball, followed by a chicken stew and guitar playing and singing after the ball games.

What is your favourite article of clothing?

Joggers.

What is your favourite word?

A southern slang, “Cotton-pickin’

What is your favourite writers' quote and why?

Well, my ALL time favorite quote is “It ain’t over till it’s over.” As to your question, why? Because I believe this. There is always a way, either over, under, or through the problem.

What is your most favourite quality about yourself?

That's always a hard question to answer about one's self! I'd have to say though I am glad to be a go-getter.

What is the least favourite quality about yourself?

A hot temper!

If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?

I’d go back in time. The sixties and seventies. Why? Because of the pressure of these days and times with all its hurrying and scurrying of trying to crammed two days work into one.

What inspires you to write and why?

My experiences. Why? Because I feel that my mistakes and successes has a message for someone. You could probably sum the answer to “why” up in one sentence. My love for people. All people.

What is your favourite book and why?

The Bible. Because it gives me peace of mind and direction for my life.

What is your favourite genre and why?

Biographies and memoirs. Why? Because I always get something to help me in my walk of life either from their mistakes or I’m spurred on from their success.

List your three favourite authors (any genre) and why?

John Grisham, Robert Schuller. Mike Murdock.

Why? Author John Grisham has the talent to capture and embroil your thinking into the contention and strife of his book plots to the point you soon accept the character’s point of view despite the fact you’d emphatically say, I would never embrace this or that point of view. My example is his book “A time to kill?” Never. But before you are half way through the book, he has captured your emotions to the point you are in total agreement with the character’s point of view. This is talent in any author’s writing.

What do you think makes a writer successful?

My explanation of JOHN GRISHAM’S talent that is so skillfully potent.

Whta is it that makes you successful as a writer?

I think the success of “Splinters” has been because I have demonstrated the talent to capture my reader’s curiosity to the point that they are rooting for me and hang in there to see how I work my way out of seemingly impossible situations.

What are your goals as a writer?

I want to be an encourager. An encourager to the point of getting it across to people to not quit, get a bulldog toughness of not letting it go until you get the answer or the way to walk out of your problem with some degree of success.

What is the best tip you can give to fellow writers?

Rightly divide your rejections. Get it nailed down in your mind, rejection is just simple an opinion.

What do you hope to provide your readers with through your writing?

There is always, always hope!

List your three favourite online writer-resource sites and why (include URLS).

www.publishingbasics.com (GREAT information available for self-publishing!)

www.writersgazette.com (The newsletters alone are SO informative)

www.polkadotbanner.com (Great place to list your books and drive traffic back to your own site!)

If you have published a book, tell us about your publishing success (title, publishing date and company, where it is available to purcahse).

Splinters: The Point, The Pain, The Passion, is the title of my book. It was published by Paige l Publishing and went on sale in March of 2009. It can be purchased online on my Web site at www.SplintersBook.com, and also at Steve’s Sundry Books in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

How long did it take you to write your book(s)?

It took me four years.

What would you do differently if you could repeat the same publishing experience?

I would start my marketing a year before publishing.

What have you learned about the publishing world?

I thought getting it published was the big hurdle. But I have found the marketing is just as hard as writing.

This is your chance to 'Talk Back' to your readers. What would you like to say to them?

It Ain’t Over 'Til It’s Over! There is a way out of your problem. It might not necessarily be the easy way, but there is a way out.

What's the one thing that you want them to know about your writing?

The things I’ve said in my books have come from the heart. And I’m honest as I know how to be.

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