Welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews Sally! Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us today.

I’d like to start off by asking you about Midnight Hour, the radio talk show you host. Can you tell us more about it and how it came about?

Sure. Thank you for asking. I started an online paranormal workshop about two years ago, featuring paranormal professionals and sometimes authors. But the focus is on paranormal and sharing information with the members. Dr. Raymond Moody was one of my first guests in the workshop, who coined the term, Near Death Experience, NDE.

In June, I was interviewed on Jewel's Way talk radio and in conversation with Jewel, I asked if she'd thought of doing a paranormal show. She suggested I try doing one, and before I knew what my mouth was saying, I had a show.

It airs live every Wednesday night at 12 Midnight EDT

On your website www.sallypainter.com you state that you “embraced the gifts I've grown to believe are part of my 'Celtic' heritage“. Could you tell us more about your gifts?

It took me a long time to call them 'gifts', prior to making peace with them I called them curses, the plague, and various unflattering names.
What I've discovered as part of my abilities are psychometry, precognitive, telepathy, empath, clairvoyant, clairaudient, and well, the whole array of abilities that encompass those and others. The Celtic aspect is the lone practitioner path which means learning and owning the gifts through personal experiences and discovery. No handbook or teacher. Now, I do have guides who have worked with me, so that was a big plus, but basically in Celtic tradition the intitate's path is traveled alone. Hope that makes sense. I have, in the process, connected with my ancestors and have learned through some process, I'm not sure what or how, about their ancient ways.

My grandmother was very gifted, but very quiet about her abilities as was my mother, but I recognized them as did most of my family. I believe the tradition and knowledge in my family was not passed down to my grandmother (since it is an oral tradition) as it should have been since she was only nine when her mother died. I have spent the past years re-establishing a lot of the traditions in my own family and raised my daughter by sharing my knowledge and the truths I learned along my path whenever she began hers or would have questions. I could answer her and give her tools to make her path a lot easier. As a result, she did not suffer to understand what was going on as I did. She is very natural and comfortable with her abilities and embraced them at a very early age.

You have 4 books out this year (Correct me if I’m wrong) what is your writing schedule like?

What's a schedule? I have two books so far coming out next year with EC, almost finished with two more to submit to my editor. I have a couple of novellas with Midnight Showcase next year and I have about ten other books in various stages I'm writing. I wish I was the type of person who worked with outlines and routines. I'd probably get a lot more done.

You sold your first book Shadows of Love in 2000, how did you celebrate?

A romantic weekend with my husband.

Of all things you have accomplished, is there one accomplishment you are most proud of?

Being published with EC ranks right up there. I stopped pursuing being published after my first publisher went out of business. My elderly mom became ill and life's priorities shifted. So in 2004 I decided to try publishing again and wrote a book for EC, All I Need, my first romance erotica and my first vampire. When it sold, I was literally jumping up and down in my wheelchair (I had broken my leg in several places). It was the first major positive thing to happen to me in a 2-year period of personal loss. And, it renewed my dream to be published. When a reader emails me to say she enjoys my books - well, there is no greater humbling and gratifying feeling to compare.

What is the best advice that anyone ever gave you?

Write your story not someone else's version of what your story should be. That is difficult to learn. Being able to ignore well-meaning critique partners or agents or even editors takes a strong belief in your work. I learned a long time ago I have to be true to myself in everything I do. I think this is doubly true for a writer.

Most people only dream of becoming a successful writer. Now that you have accomplished that, is there anything else you dream of doing?

Like most people, I have more dreams than I probably have time in this life to make happen. When I die, I want to still be reaching for those dreams. Without dreams, I have no future. And, the news is, whatever I don't accomplish this lifetime, I'll be back to complete in the next life.

Of all your books which one would you say holds the most meaning for you and why?

All I Want is the closest to my heart. I felt as though I had one foot in 1250 AD Scotland and one in the present. Writing it was intense. All my senses were alive with that period. I could smell the peat fields, feel the highland winds on my face and hear the pipes. It was just very vibrant and I felt like I had returned 'home' the entire time I was writing it.

Do you have anything in the works that you could share with us today?

I sold a novella for the EC's annual Things that go Bump in the Dark 2006 anthology earlier this year, titled, Dream Lovers of Gargoyle Castle. While I know writing about gargoyles is nothing new, the spin I put on mine hopefully makes them different. I have a quickie featuring a gargoyle which is a spin-off of a short I published in 2003 with a now defunct press, which is a sleeping beauty in reverse roles titled. I also have Gargoyle Legend that I started in 2001 before my mom became ill but put aside and have almost completed it and will be turning it in to my editor in a couple of weeks. I hope it will be the first in my first EC series. *g*

I'm also writing another vampire book, which is a lot of fun and something I started about a year ago-just now getting back to it. Hopefully it will be out in 2006. As you can see, like all writers, it's never a lack of ideas, only a lack of time to get to them.

How do you keep your ideas fresh and imaginative?

I think all writers try to approach things in a new way. The what if game is a great way to push myself outside the norm and stretch for a different way to write the same story everyone has written - the HEA. My novella featured in Midnight Showcase's Erotic-ahh Digest is an example of doing that - Vampire Beach Resort. I just tried to think of the most unlikely place to find a vampire and expanded it to be an exclusive resort for vampires. Free flow thinking is my best tool and not judging an idea but letting it evolve and stand on its own. If it isn't strong enough, it will collapse and another will take its place.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

Don't let anyone derail you or steal your dream. It is so easy prior to publishing to doubt everything we do as writers. (still do it once published, but in different ways) Well-meaning people can waste our time as writers, give us wrong advice and generally do more damage to a fragile writer's ego than anything else.

So, the first thing I discovered I had to do was think for myself and go by what I feel was right for my story. This is tough. I once had an agent I was interviewing, (not the one I eventually went with --I've been agent less for a couple of years now), tell me I had to change my first book prior to its publication. She wanted me to make the heroine's personality different, change the hero, change the plot, change the inner motivations, change the goals, the outer conflicts, well, by the time she was finished, it was no longer my story, but her version of my story.

I think we sometimes deem people like this as authorities, and they are to a point. It is very difficult to say no to this type of person, especially when trying to land an agent. Somehow, I found the courage to say no and never regretted it. I could never have written the book she wanted me to write. It wasn't my book. Had the request for changes been within the scope of my characters, their personalities, goals, motives and conflicts, sure, I would change it, I did change my second book at the advice of my then agent. But we have to know when that advice is true to our work.

Fortunately, EC encourages their authors to be creative and allow us to write our stories our way. It is a very freeing existence. Now, I do rewrite or make changes suggested to me, but my editor is wise and gets my style so we are on the same wave length.

I hope that isn't too long a response or confusing, but the individuality and voice of the writer is the one thing that makes books stand out. The same premise given to 5 writers will have 5 different stories. That is the magic of writing.

Can you tell us a little about “Dream Lovers of Gargoyle Castle” that is coming out in October 2006 from Ellora’s Cave?

As I mentioned earlier, it will be featured in the EC's annual Halloween Anthology, Things that go Bump in the Night. It takes place in present-day England when a young woman unknowing inherits a castle, Gargoyle Castle. Her friend goes along with her to claim the inheritance and before they know it, they are in the midst of repairing this huge castle to open as a lovers' resort.

Something strange begins to happen as both women dream of erotic encounters with this gorgeous male lover. Things soon get out of control, gargoyle myths begin to resurface, and there's a media frenzy complete with ghost stories that bring everything to a crisis peak. It was a fun story to write. I hope my readers will enjoy it.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us today?

Of course, I have a newsletter where I give away prizes every two months, and I'm launching a newsletter for the show with over 15 contributors.

Currently, I am giving away three dream interpretations, which I was recently encouraged to start offering to the public by a very good friend who is also an international psychic. The response has been overwhelming! I charge nominal fees, but it was a form of interpretation that was given to me in of course, a dream. Can't ignore that. I hope visitors will check out all the things I offer on my sites and sign my guest book or just drop me an email and say hi! I love to hear from readers.

Thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us today Sally. I have really enjoyed hearing more about your work. Readers can learn more about Sally’s books at her website www.sallypainter.com and her radio show Midnight Hour.

Thank you, Tammy. I am honored to be here.

Interviewed by: Tammy