I recently began a blog series that I call ‘Meet the Author’. I thought of it as a way to introduce fellow authors to the reading public. I began with some of the same questions that a friend of mine, Author Mary Fan, asked me when she interviewed me for her blog.

After five interviews, and another five that are almost ready, I’ve discovered that the interviews are as much for me as they are for the public. Before I can ask the right questions, I need to know something about these authors. Some of them I know personally, but some are acquaintances from Facebook or Authonomy or Goodreads. So how do I figure out what to ask them?

It starts with emails and questions about the authors’ websites or blog sites or other links. I study their websites, look up their books on Amazon.com or Goodreads, and sometimes ask some questions that will help me better understand their books. Then, I can tailor my questions to bring out their personalities and showcase their books.

I’m currently working on interview questionnaires for seven more authors, and I have four more that I’ll work on in the next few weeks. The next interview I’ll post is with a very good friend of mine who lives only three miles from my house. Her literary novel will be published on her birthday, the eighth of April. Because of our friendship, her interview questions were the easiest for me, but having to research has some rewards. I’m excited to get to know these other authors and form some new friendships. I hope the readers will enjoy getting to know them, too.

In the process, I’m finding tons of interesting books that I look forward to reading and reviewing. Perhaps I’ll start a ‘Review the Book’ series.