I've been extremely busy adjusting to my new day job, so this is the first I've been able to sit down and write about a fabulous weekend I just spent with a group of awesome ladies at the Spirit of Sisterhood retreat at the beautiful and peaceful Camp Chesterfield!  
I finished up my previous job on May 10th at around 5 pm...went and fed my best friend's dogs...and headed south for the meet and greet where we were given our fascinators to wear for the weekend like crowns!

The first night I had dinner with a new friend and found out she is a seamstress...oh my goodness what a talented lady she is! Ate pizza at Pizza King and chatted like we knew each other. A fine older gentleman came in for his pizza pick-up and after he left, the waitress told us that lovely man bought our dinner because we reminded him of his deceased wife who used to buy dinners for people all the time. God bless his soul! 

Saturday we got up and had breakfast in the cafeteria and moved on to another dear friend who taught us about essential oils. We got several samples and gathered some nature items outside as an activity to see if which of the four elements we were drawn to the most. I gathered some bark, a pine cone, a lilac bloom and a wish maker (dandelion)! Then we made bath salts!  I can't wait to try mine! If I ever get some breathing time! That workshop was followed up with a lovely lady who I respect very much talking about how to live our best life. How to take control of our lives. She's a fantastic teacher! Then I was off to feed the dogs and my own livestock and dogs to return to play with mandalas. Since I was late getting to that workshop, I didn't get to hear the history of them but will certainly take some time to learn in the near future. And I have two that I need to finish coloring! Finally, we got up and moved around and learned to belly dance. Just the basic stuff...and me being the uncoordinated klutz I can tend to be was rather pleased as I moved around the circle with the other ladies brandishing my tablecloth "scarf". Church services that night was lovely and following that, we had a tea party where our hostesses read our tea leaves.

Sunday morning after breakfast we did a drumming circle and gathered as a group while our hostesses did tag team mediumship readings. Alas, it was then lunch and time to say goodbye until next year's retreat...even though a lot of the ladies I'll see many times before then!
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I have to tell you, this was a first for me! I've never gone to a retreat for a whole weekend with ladies outside my own writing circle but I will certainly do it again!

​Tell me what makes Alexis “tick” as an author or a person or both:
As a person, I think my beautiful family makes me “tick.” I have two beautiful children, and they give me joy every day. As an author, I think I’m inspired by the natural world. I like to take long walks, and I start thinking about nature and the cosmos, and that’s where I get many of my ideas!


If you could go anywhere in the world to live, where would you go and why? Describe your residence once you get there:
Hmmm, that’s a tough question! I think I’d live in the Pacific Northwest, maybe somewhere near Olympic National Park. I actually went backpacking through Olympic years ago, and I think it’s stuck in my mind as a fairytale wonderland. I’d love to have a house nearby, something comfortable and homey with a nice fireplace and a beautiful view.

Do you have a muse or a person who inspires you to write? Tell us about them:
I think I have a lot of muses! In particular, I think my writing group, especially my friends and fellow writers Sarah Mensinga and Gerardo Delgadillo, have really inspired me and helped me out along the way. Even having a regular writing meetup has definitely made a difference in terms of keeping me writing and working, even when I’m frustrated.


What book are you working on right now? Do you have a release date you can share with us?
I do have a second (and a third!) book I’m working on! My next book is a collection of fantasy short stories, and it should be out by early summer. My WIP is a MG/YA fantasy, and I’m hoping to finish a rough draft by the end of the summer.

Other than writing, what else are you passionate about?
I love classical music. I was a musician for many years, and I still love playing in the symphony. I also love the outdoors.

What have you found to be the most difficult part of being an author?
I was surprised how much time and effort went into marketing! It’s difficult, and can definitely cut into writing time.

We want to come visit your library. What books might we find on your shelves that we wouldn’t expect to find?
I have a rather large amount of classic poetry and other writing from Ancient Greece and Rome. I actually love reading ancient writers like Homer, Ovid, or Virgil.

If money were no object, what philanthropic contributions would you make and why?
I would donate to two things: promoting the health and safety of women and girls worldwide, and protecting the environment. I’m passionate about women’s health because there are still so many horrifying human rights abuses perpetrated against women and girls, and many horrible medical conditions they suffer as a result. For example, obstetric fistula or female genital mutilation. As for the environment, I deeply love and value the natural world, and I think we have a moral imperative to protect and preserve it.


Do you consider yourself an extrovert or an introvert? Why?
I’m definitely an introvert. I’m not shy or afraid of people, but I need time to recharge if I have to spend time in a crowd, or with people I don’t know that well.

You’ve got a whole weekend to do whatever you want to do, how are you going to spend it?
I think I’d go an a walking tour of the Rhine with my family. We’d stop at lovely castles, quaint little inns, and beautiful scenes along the river. At night, we’d stay in lovely inns that serve authentic German food.

Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give a younger version of yourself?
Don’t date that guy!


Where can readers find you? Please list your social media, website, and other links you’d like to share below:
Amazon Link for Sapience: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N74LCGH
Website: https://www.lunarianpress.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Alexis-Lantgen/e/B07PBTPD97/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/alexislantgen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexislantgenauthor
​ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LunarianPress

Tell me what makes Mark J. Engels “tick” as an author or a person or both:
Telling stories by which I can share my own experiences, interests and passions--those parts of my past I myself don’t want to ever forget. Like growing up amongst Polish-Americans near Detroit. My love of Great Lakes lore and legend. Ice hockey. Staring out through a tractor-trailer's windshield at the passing countryside. Practice in and appreciation for traditional Korean fighting arts.  Combining my interested in trains and electronics into a career as an electrical engineer. And, of course, my several decades now in various anime, manga and anthropomorphic fandoms.

If you could go anywhere in the world to live, where would you go and why? Describe your residence once you get there:
Białowieża Forest and Belovezhskaya Pushcha, straddling the border between Poland and Belarus.  I'd take up housekeeping in a one-room stone cottage near the end of an abandoned railroad line last used by the Nazis to ship out rough-sawn timber westward toward the Reich's factories.  Maybe, just maybe I'd be lucky enough to spot a werecat from the Forest Clan out on a hunt.  Luckier still if they allowed me to live to tell about it.

Do you have a muse or a person who inspires you to write? Tell us about them:
Late one night while working on a job site on a rail transit system startup my muse accosted me, slashing away at my subconscious without even having the decency to tell me her name.  Jerk. I tossed and turned on my rack back at the hotel all the following day trying to ignore her.  ‎My muse she be a werecat, you see, and she demanded I write.  Employed fangs and claws to make her argument without a moment's hesitation.  Demanded I recount her struggles, her family's struggles, as if her very life depended on it.  Which, of course, it did.  Without me...there would be no her.
Before long Pawly told me she and her clansmen lived under their Affliction's constant berserker threat, hostages within their own bodies.  Forced to live as societal outcasts while hiding in plain sight.  Not quite fitting in anywhere in society, yet dependent upon it for their survival.  Not so different than my own lifelong struggle with mental illness.  Like them, I move through my days passing myself off as "normal", anxious and fearful of what might happen if people really knew me. 
She persisted.  Pawly wasn't about to let me give up on her, give up on my ability to tell her story.  She was much more certain than I was, excising my every doubt:
"I don't know how!"
"You can learn."
"But what if I fail?"
"You'll learn what not to do, then. "
"I don't have time!"
"You have twenty-four hours in a day, just like everyone else.  Spend your time doing fewer things, and you'll have all the time you need."
"But what if no one wants to read it?"
"Write the books you have in your heart to write.  Even though they might well not be the books any one person has in their heart to read.  You’re not writing for them anyway."
Pawly was right on all accounts.  A year writing the story, a year revising and editing the story following reader feedback, a year to pitch the story to agents and editors, nearly another year waiting for the book to release following a contract signing.  Even in my darkest moments, facing dozens of rejections, she was with me.  Goading me on.  Ensuring I wouldn't quit.  Even despairing after agent/editor submission guidelines stating "no vampires, no werewolves!" in this post-Twilight world meant "no shifter characters of any kind" (well, except for paranormal romance--but I hadn't written a paranormal romance.)  “The right people will get it,” Pawly reminded me, quoting Joel Hodgson of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame. 

Of all the books you have written, tell us about your favorite one and why it was your favorite:
ALWAYS GRAY IN WINTER, my debut novel and first paranormal sci-fi thriller in my werecat family saga series.  Because holding the book in my hands made me realizes--my dream of giving Pawly and her family tangible form had finally become reality.  I've got books left to write, but they would not have reason to be had not ALWAYS GRAY been written and published first.

What book are you working on right now? Do you have a release date you can share with us?
The next paranormal sci-fi thriller in my werecat family saga series is named FOR WHILE THE TREE IS GREEN.  It's a prequel, taking place while a teenaged Pawly and her twin brother Tommy are Growing Up Werecat.  She learns of her secret werecat heritage after she unexpectedly morphs for the first time one fateful Halloween night. Together with their blended human-werecat family, she and Tommy struggle come to terms with their "Affliction".  Their uncle Ritzi, a scientist and a werecat both, must take up his deported father’s research to help contain the twins' ascendant bloodlust.  An investor approaches offering to fund Ritzi's endeavors after the Affliction turns on Pawly's werecat mother and begins to ravage her body.  A man whom Pawly and Ritzi will come to learn the hard way is no angel. 
No release date as of this writing to share, but the manuscript is currently under publisher consideration.

Other than writing, what else are you passionate about?
I've been a train buff since boyhood and an electronics geek since Dad convinced Mom I could be trusted to wield a soldering iron and not burn the house down.  Today I make my living as an electrical engineer designing, constructing, testing, and commissioning railroad and rail transit signal & communications systems across the United States.  I love the work I do and am grateful I can provide a decent living for me and my family doing it.  I'm not much of a "camera-totin' railfan" anymore, but I have been known to work on the track gang at a nearby 15"-gauge "live steam" tourist railroad... http://dellstrain.com/

What have you found to be the most difficult part of being an author?
Knowing what advice to take give serious consideration to and, more importantly, what advice not to.  Everybody's path, everybody's success metrics are different--what worked for them/there/then might well not work for me/here/now.  I've come to understand that advice and feedback are important, and I'm grateful to receive it.  And that I'm under no compunction whatsoever to do any of it.  Because, like it or not, I am the final arbiter of what advice is actionable and what advice isn't.  What will help me tell the stories I have in my heart to tell and get them to my readers, and what won't.  Like martial arts legend Bruce Lee counsels "Adapt what's useful, reject what's useless, and add what is truly your own."

We want to come visit your library. What books might we find on your shelves that we wouldn’t expect to find?
A lot of shoujo manga!  Though I suppose that might not be completely unexpected, given my werecat family saga's de facto protagonist is herself a young woman.  And a fighter to boot.  Reference my collected Sailor Moon and Fushigi Yuugi graphic novels.
If money were no object, what philanthropic contributions would you make and why?
 
 
Tell us about your most memorable moment as an author:
The first time I signed a copy of my first book.  Though, looking back on it now, the experience was more than a little anticlimactic.  Kinda like when I reached "THE END" in my manuscript, when I finished those many rounds of edits, when I first received a publisher offer, when I opened the box containing my author copies.  Those were all treasured moments, sure, but they don't seem nearly as momentous now as they did then.  More like "okay, achievement unlocked, now on to the Next Thing."  Because there will always be a Next Thing until the last book of the story I have to tell has been published.
Do you consider yourself an extrovert or an introvert? Why?
At one time in my life I was quite the extrovert.  But now, not so much.  I've discovered that my work, my interests, my ambitions, my writing make me boring company around many people.  It's far to exhausting for me and them both with all the explanation I have to undertake just so they have a frame of reference to understand just what I'm on about.  I live in a place where nearly everyone likes football, hunting, and/or fishing, and I'm passionate about none of those things.  When I'm around my kindred spirits, however, I'm very outgoing.  But when I'm not around them, I'm not.  "Cast ye not thy pearls before swine," and all that.  It's challenging for me to expend energy around people I don't know well enough to know whether they indeed march to the beat of the same drummer I do.
You’ve got a whole weekend to do whatever you want to do, how are you going to spend it?
The shore of Bois Blanc Island's "West End", gazing out over the Straits of Mackinac and the Mackinac Bridge.  While seagulls cry, the lake breeze blows, and lake boats pass by close enough to skip a rock off their hulls.  I'll sleep in late, walk in the sand all day, roast weenies and marshmallows by the fire every night.  And do little else.
Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give a younger version of yourself?
Yes, you should enlist in the Navy.  Or the Coast Guard.  Don't let people in your life talk you out of doing something simply because they're close to you.
The sky is the limit…tell us anything else you would like to tell us…
Buy my book.  Buy other "indie" authors' books.  Review them on Amazon and Goodreads.  Talk them up with your friends, especially those on blogs and social media (and make sure you tag the author so they know!)  Our books need to reach their audiences--copies need to get into the hands of the people who will most appreciate them.  And when our readers buy our books, review our books, and blog/tweet/post/talk about our books to others, they're helping us do just that.
Where can readers find you? Please list your social media, website, and other links you’d like to share below:
https://www.mark-engels.com/
https://twitter.com/mj_engels
https://www.facebook.com/mark.engels.39
http://mjengels.deviantart.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjengels

We finally got some much needed sunshine here at the farm today but with it is a lot of water just sitting on the ground because there is nowhere for it to go. I've mopped floors and washed dog feet like a boss and my Justins are water logged and caked with mud to the ankles. I don't know when we will be able to get the garden tilled...the lawn mowed...or my herb bed expanded for my adventure into making my own essential oils. And you would think with all the rain there would be an abundance of morel mushrooms in my woods but after traipsing through there this afternoon, I didn't find a singe mushroom!
Other than the rain, my rooster suffered a loss this week. As I was getting ready for work on Tuesday I heard him making a racket out in the lawn outside my window, but when I looked out I didn't see anything unusual so I went back to getting ready for work. Then...out the corner of my eye I saw movement along the fence and there was a grey fox slinking toward the barn. I threw on my robe and boots and grabbed the Remington from beside the dresser and went out on the front porch. By this time, he had my black hen at the far end of the pasture so I looked through the scope and got him in my sight as he stared up at me with a mouthful of bloody chicken feathers. I pulled the trigger and...NOTHING...in my haste, I forgot I had unloaded the rifle when my granddaughter was here visiting. So, I get the pistol and managed to scare him off but he will live to see another day. Poor Moe the Rooster was so upset he could barely crow and he would walk around the barn like a desolate old soul. Until Thursday. Thursday, I went and picked him up 10 hens. I pulled in the driveway with my secret cache of girlfriends and got the first one out of the crate and stepped around the side of the Jeep and called him. When he realized what I had, he puffed his feathers up and jumped up on the fence and crowed like I had never heard him crow before. He ran to meet us and when I sat her down inside the fence he did his little dance moves and jumped on her back to introduce himself then back up on the fence to crow again. And he did this little ritual with each and every one of the 10 new girls who have now been dubbed "Moe's Hoes". I think I'll even make a sign for the coop that says that!
Other than farm stuff, there's a couple of other things going on and coming up. I will be starting my new day job on May 13th and I'm really excited about that. My oldest grandson graduates the 2nd of June and I'm really proud of him...he's made the sports section of our newspaper twice in the last week with a game where he struck out 16 players! Then it will be time to go on my annual trip to Wild Deadwood Reads! If anyone out there is in the area or within driving distance...you should come see me! I'll have some nice giveaways as well as my last 7 published books and I'll also be giving away 10 signed post cards of the cover of my upcoming reincarnation romance Third Time Lucky which will also come with the ebook on release date!
Don't forget to watch my blog this week on Wednesday when I will be spotlighting Mark Engels author of paranormal and sci-fi thrillers!
​Have a great week everyone!!