Please welcome Natasha, a brand new author from Rebel Ink! You’re welcome to ask her questions and connect through the comments!

• You are going to be new to many of my readers. Tell us about yourself.

When I’m not writing, I love sharing in experiences with my family and friends, hosting get-togethers or traveling with them, and going to events. In my quiet time, I always love reading a good book, conducting genealogy research, trying new recipes, playing guitar, gaming, browsing Pinterest, and listening to music. I love singing in the car, and you’ll find me listening to my favorite artist – Sir Paul McCartney!

• Tell us about the book that’s just come out. 

Elaina Ellis would do anything to protect her family – even if it means keeping secrets from them.

Elaina has always been a dutiful daughter. When her father suddenly dies in the summer of 1905, she begrudgingly leaves the safety of her life in Philadelphia to return to her hometown. Once there, Elaina encounters the very man responsible for her leaving her home to begin with, as well as a newcomer she distrusts—a man who seems determined to stand in the way of her future.

When the newcomer turns out to be yet another man in town Elaina feels she must answer to, she’s all too glad to leave him, and everyone else in her small, narrow-minded town, and return to Philadelphia, where she feels she belongs. Convinced that no man should dictate the course of her life, she expects to find solace from her grief and pain in the big city, but is sorely disappointed when everything starts to fall apart.

Will the secrets she harbors be her undoing? Will she ever truly find a place she can call home?

• What started your love of writing?

Honestly, fiction writing started as a means of entertaining myself during an extended trip overseas with my family when I was 8 years old. With nothing else to do, I would dream up alternate endings to my favorite television shows. So many times, I would think about what the characters were up against, and how they could have done things differently, and create new storylines accordingly. I did love books at an early age, and if anything, I’d considered myself a poet or a lyricist back then. I was 12 when I began aspiring to become a writer by profession, which was also actually when I first got the inspiration for The Ellises!

• Do you write in more than one genre – tell us a little about each one and the book you’re working on in each.

Fiction as a whole of interest to me; however, the older I get the more important I find inspirational fiction to be, which is why A Place to Call Home is just that, and I could think of no better way than to have it be my debut novel. Writing historical fiction is also a first for me, but it is something I enjoy as a reader and as a genealogy fanatic. I do have other storylines from contemporary inspirational fiction, and Christian Chick Lit in mind as well.

• Have you attended any writing conference or classes. Tell us about some that and some that have been especially helpful.

I haven’t, but plan to in the future! When I was a senior in high school, I enrolled in a freelance writing certification program on the side, which is how I got my career off the ground and landed two completely different writing gigs that have helped shape what I do most – I wrote (non-fiction) website content and had my first article published in a Christian magazine.

• Are you a member of any writing groups?

No, but I plan to be!

• How attached do you get to your characters? Do you know what happens after the book ends?

I see elements of my characters in myself or others in my life, so I frequently am thinking of how my characters would think or act to a given situation I experience, which leads to thinking up new ideas. I have to get into “character mode” and when I do, I envision myself as each of the characters in some way. Usually I know what happens after the book ends, but it sometimes can take a little while for me to envision it. When I do, it’s the lead-in for the next storyline.

• Describe your perfect writing day.

The perfect writing day to me is when I can be in a scenic setting overlooking woods or water, where I have uninterrupted time to write as soon as I wake up and have the most energy to be creative. Having free access to food and drink as the mood strikes is essential, because writing sure makes me hungry and thirsty!

• Could you tell us the one question you wish people would ask about your writing and don’t forget the answer.

Where do your inspirations come from?

NATASHA L. POLAK (nee Kohlhoff) writes and copy-edits non-fiction articles as well as Inspirational fiction, Inspirational Historical fiction and Christian Chick Lit novels, and is the founder of The Barbie Girls Project.

Her earliest writings were poems that appeared in school publications and local newspapers. Since then, she has successfully written and edited for a variety of websites, newsletters, and in-print magazines for over 20 years.

In addition to her debut fiction novel, The Ellises Book 1:A Place to Call Home, she has also authored the e-book “10 Toxic Ingredients That Should Never Touch Your Face” for Trevida.com in 2016, self-published a devotional “Love, God” in 2009, and was a contributing writer with “The Wise Guides: The Fan Navigator to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway” in 2008.

Originally from Boston, MA, Natasha spent her childhood in Manchester, NH, but has resided in Indianapolis, IN since her teens. She is married to her high school sweetheart and they have one daughter and a cat whom they refer to as their second child.

Contact her at Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, and Instagram

I know you’ve seen these ladies before – it was Roommate week for catching up. These are the strong women that helped raise me and have been there for me for more than forty years. College roommates, we’ve stayed together, raised our families together and still love each other. It’s kinda nice. 

The week was low key, just visiting and reconnecting in person rather than electronically. Since I’m now settled in my new place most of the activities were here and surrounding eating, but it’s a treat. We did go see Wonder Woman and we all loved it – strong women are what we’re about and a woman director finally got a super hero movie right! There was some shopping but not as much as you’d think. We’d planned to sit by the pool one day but it turned cold, so we stayed in and watched other movies, like Wild Oats and shared grandkid pictures. As college kids that activity never occurred to us.

We toasted our daughters at dinner last night – all have turned into strong women as well, with different adventures than ours, but strengthening as well and all have turned into lovely young women we can admire and learn from ourselves. The good thing is, they also know each other and are in touch – maybe not as much as we are, but they know they’re out there if needed and are family as well.

Okay, back to editing and writing, but with renewed strength and grounding and maybe even a little inspiration. Thanks, girls . . .

Talk about a great weekend. I held my first write-in here at the new condo. Hubby was out of town so it was just us writers, writing. Had some super writers here, you probably heard of some of them – Nancy Lee Badger, Laura Browning, Leslie Ray, and me. Others you will hear of soon.  (Don’t ask what we were laughing about in this pic – it’s rated higher than this blog)

Having never done this before, it was loose but fun. I think next time I’ll plan sprints for the writing. We did get into discussions several times, which might have kept the word count down, but were definitely educational. Some of us are hybrid writers (traditionally published as well as self-published), others were traditionally published only. That led to more than one conversation about the merits of each.

Some of us are planning to go to Nationals this year in Orlando, and discussed previous conferences. Leslie had been to RT and we queried her about that – when it gets close again, I’d like to try it. All of us are in HCRW (Heart of Carolina Romance Writers) so we talked about the chapter and possible future programs as well.

That’s not to say we didn’t write (or edit) all day. I personally wrote 800+ words and I saw a lot of finger movements over the keyboards in the other seats as well.

I am going to do this again – it was inspiring, helpful and just plain fun having such creativity going on in my home. Not to mention I cleaned house for it, so Hubby is going to be all for it as often as possible.

Nancy spent the night to have time to tutor me in some marketing (and we watched a couple of movies I’d never have watched without her – going to call it research – Fifty Shades and Fifty Shades Darker). Hey, like I said, Hubby was out of town! So sue me….

My good friend Cyn Hadyn has not one but TWO books coming out in May – Null Sanction and Off Track  – be sure to check them out and learn a little more about Cyn herself!  

What made you want to start writing? I’ve always written, but not in the romance genre. I wrote history which, as you know, doesn’t permit fudging the facts to fit your story line.

When did you start writing? I started writing in 2011, a year before I retired as the Command Historian for Marine Special Operations Command. I’d work at night and over my lunch hour and, honestly, my stories had better endings than the history I was dealing with.

Who inspires you? People who are willing to put their life on the line to keep little ol’ me safe. Servicemen and women, police, firefighters, etc. I especially am inspired by the way they continue to do so without expecting a pat or the back or a kind word from the ungrateful people they rescue.

        I have my favorite Paranormal authors and Historical Romance authors, but I am truly inspired by anyone who has the gumption to start with a blank computer screen and keep at it until they can type “The End” several thousand words later, and then stick with it to pick it all apart in the editing process so it becomes the best book they’ve written.

I’m also inspired by authors who take the time to drop their own works in progress to help a struggling writer. My Romance Writers of America Chapter, TARA, or Tampa Area Romance Writers, abounds with senior, published authors who will gladly help out a writer who can’t seem to figure out what the problem is with her current work.

What do you do when you have writer’s block? I step away from the computer. I may spend a day, a week, or several weeks just mulling things over and letting my mind go in free association. My dreams also seem to suggest solutions. I just know that, suddenly, I have exactly the right word, phrase, or direction to take things.

Who knows you best? Does anyone really know anyone? For writing I’d have to say you, Donna Steele, because you let me whine over the phone, and you know you can do the same with me.

There is also our mutual friend, Bette Franken, who lets us both whine a little and then tells us how it’s going to be.  (So true, that! DS)

What do you do when you’re not writing? Read, read, read, and read. I love reading, and the more diverse the subject the better. I want to be the sole survivor trapped in the New York Public Library during the apocalypse.

Where is a place that makes you feel “at home”? Thanks to my Hungarian ancestry, I have a gypsy’s short roots. I’ve lived in PA, NC, NJ, FL, CA, MD, CO, GA, and NY and still haven’t found the one place that says home to me, but I am a nester. Wherever I happen to be living, I take great care to make that place as comfortably soothing as I can.

When has there been a time where you were put to your limits? Yes, twice. Not pleasant, and not something I will take a chance on having a repeat of by talking about it.

How do you wind down? A glass of wine or scotch and a good conversation with a friend.

If you could meet anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and where would you meet? My true soulmate. Since that hasn’t happened, I’d have to go with Winston Churchill. As to meeting place, in his underground bunker during WW II. I’ve always admired Winston’s vocal penchant for not suffering fools overlong in his presence.

Buylinks – Amazon

Bio – I’m a transplanted Yankee of Hun-Viking ancestry now residing in Florida. I write paranormal and historical with a paranormal twist. You can visit my author page on Facebook  or Amazon to learn more about me.

A few more titles to check out (click on the cover for more info) –