Welcome to WOLF NOTES, where interview questions stray from the rest of the pack. It’s nice to know the usual stuff like where an author gets their inspiration and why they write, but sometimes we need a little fun in our lives.
Heather Cumiskey is a freelance writer and editor. She studied English at the State University of New York at Albany. I Like You Like This is her debut novel and the first book in a young adult duology about addiction, sexuality, peer pressure, and first love. It is a bronze recipient of the 2017 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards and a USA Best Book Awards Finalist. Heather resides in Maryland with her husband and three sons. You can visit her at http://www.HeatherCumiskey.com.
Wolf: If you had to pick a weapon, what would it be and why?
Heather: I wish I was trained in the martial arts or Krav Maga and my body was a lethal weapon. That would be totally badass. Like Black Widow or Wonder Woman, I’d fight to protect the ones I love and the innocent.
Wolf: Those are two of my favorite super heroes. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?
Heather: Show their inner character. In the scene where Hannah in I Like You Like This sees a girl being bullied by a pair of classmates, her response reveals her empathy of having been in that position herself. Sometimes it takes one random act of kindness to change everything and inspire hope.
Wolf: True. What is the meanest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?
Heather: Set up a character to do something utterly and horribly unforgiveable as I did in the sequel to I Like You Like This. I don’t want to spoil it, but the scene still takes my breath away.
Wolf: You’ve just been turned into a plant. Describe yourself.
Heather: Well naturally I would be heather. It would be cool to be a flowering plant that feeds others and blooms year-round. Definitely evergreen, hearty, and happy-looking, maybe with eggplant or spearmint colored leaves.
Wolf: That sounds wonderful. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?
Heather: Dog, all the way. I love to see them smile and their soulful eyes. Dogs are so intuitive and know just what you need. One time a friend’s cat attacked my ponytail. Never. Again.
Wolf: While walking in the woods you come across…
Heather: A beautiful wrought iron gate to possibility. I hope I run through it.
Wolf: Make sure you open it first. If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Heather: Snap my fingers and my legs and armpits would already be shaven. That would be amazing.
Wolf: That would be nice. Which of your characters is your favorite?
Heather: Hannah and Deacon, equally. Their stories break my heart and I just want them to come out the other side and be ok.
Wolf: What story are you working on now?
Heather: The second book in the duology of I Like You Like This. I’m so excited about it.
Wolf: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Heather: I train with special needs athletes and help them compete in mainstream races through a Maryland organization called Athletes Serving Athletes. It’s been a life changer.
Wolf: That’s wonderful. What can you do for free and its effect on people and the world could forever be changed for the better?
Heather: Strive for love and understanding of others
Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ILikeYouLikeThisNovel
Twitter: @HeatherCumiskey
Instagram: @HeatherCumiskey
Pinterest: @HeatherCumiskey
STAR TOUCHED
Eighteen-year-old Tatiana is running from her past and her star-touched powers eight years after a meteor devastates earth’s population. Her power to heal may be overshadowed by more destructive abilities. Fleeing the persecution of those like her, Tatiana seeks refuge in a small town she once visited. But this civil haven, in a world where society has broken down, is beginning to crumble. Will Tatiana flee or stay and fight for the new life she has built? Only by harnessing the very forces that haunt her can Tatiana save her friends…and herself.
“A unique and finely crafted debut novel, the characters touched my heart as I was drawn into their plight and compelled to finish!”
— New York Times bestselling Author Maria V. Snyder
After 35 years peering into the future in his many Star Trek stories, New York Times bestselling author Howard Weinstein turns to historical fiction in Galloway’s Gamble, his new novel from Five Star Publishing.
So, I decided to write about the past, hoping to find some useful perspective on today’s world, and tomorrow’s. The first of what I hope will be several historical novels is GALLOWAY’S GAMBLE, an epic tale of two young brothers (Jamey and Jake Galloway) who grow up in 1850s Texas to become gamblers. After a variety of adventures, with fortunes won and lost, they come home to find their hometown threatened by wealthy cattle baron Wilhelm Krieg and shady banker Silas Atwood – forcing Jamey and Jake to cook up with a scheme to outfox the bad guys, without getting themselves killed. It’s a timeless David vs. Goliath tale about battling greed and corruption, as relevant today as in 1873. With high stakes and serious themes, GALLOWAY’S GAMBLE is also lots of fun.
Donna Milward lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with two cats and a troll. She’s dabbled in writing since grade two, but it wasn’t until an RWA conference in 2009 that she found the knowledge and tools she needed to tell the world about her dreams. Donna considers herself a feminist, a spiritual person, an insomniac, and an unabashed crazy cat lady. Despite her canning, gardening, and fishing hobbies, she much prefers city life.
Stephanie: WITH ANGEL’S WINGS, along with the epilogue and blog included on the book’s website, pretty much sum up who I am. I am a mother of four. Catherine (“Emily” in the book), 25, has high-functioning autism with mild to moderate cognitive delay. Sarah (“Hannah” in the book), 22, has a rare genetic disorder, Wolf-Hirschorn Syndrome (history of 7 heart defects, non-verbal, non-ambulatory, incontinent, exclusively G-tube fed, seizure disorder, cognitively approximately 6-9 months old). Will, 15, has severe ADHD and dyslexia, and Ellie, 11, – who I described for years as my [finally!] “typical” child [albeit with something of a princess complex] – was diagnosed in third grade with ADHD/dyslexia (although, a significantly milder case than Will’s). I have a 4-year degree in psychology and a 2-year degree in nursing. I worked for approximately ten years as a registered nurse on the medical unit at Seattle Children’s Hospital, but gave up my career to focus on the growing needs of my family. When I was 40 I set out to get rid of the 10 souvenir pounds I had collected from each of my four pregnancies. In the process, I found my inner jock, and I now love to run and I’m addicted to Zumba. Other than that, I read every minute I can.
Stephanie: In what felt like the blink of an eye, I went from being a young woman wrestling with a temperamental marriage to a single mother of an asthmatic, autistic toddler and an epileptic infant in heart failure. There were suddenly an overabundance of WTF moments, OMG moments, and “I can’t even remotely believe this is happening” moments. I began writing therapeutically, and I found my recollections came in layers. I would first write what happened (like, the baby stopped breathing in my arms, but I didn’t start CPR right away as I should have), and I would think, “Oh, I handled that horribly; I’m such a rotten mother!” Then I’d remember, “Oh yeah; this was going on, too,” (like, the fact that I was a young, sleep-deprived, postpartum mother who had just bore witness to hours of failed IV attempts, was reeling over a rare, potentially fatal diagnosis, holding onto hope for survival, but not having any idea what that survival would actually mean for me or my baby, while simultaneously preparing myself for the very real possibility of her passing…oh, and also “mourning the death of the healthy child I thought I had” before receiving her diagnosis just weeks earlier). Then it would hit me that 3 other things were happening at the same time (for instance, a failing marriage, pathetic financial woes, and my other daughter’s increasingly bizarre behaviors), and so…if that portion of my parenting career didn’t exactly resemble June Cleaver, well…no wonder! Those were some pretty extreme circumstances!
Matt Fuchs writes speculative fiction. In his novella Rise of Hypnodrome, published with CCLaP in 2015, a political faction called the Lifestyle Party rises to power under the presidency of Deepak Chopra and rolls out a policy agenda to maximize personal happiness. Matt tells stories about enlightened AI and fringe political ideas taking over. Links to his work appearing in Compelling Science Fiction, Centropic Oracle, Allegory, Every Day Fiction, and more can be found at 
Welcome to WOLF NOTES, where interview questions stray from the rest of the pack. It’s nice to know the usual stuff like where an author gets their inspiration and why they write, but sometimes we need a little fun in our lives. 
Cindy Young-Turner has been writing for most of her life. At age twelve, she won her first writing contest, a local contest in her small hometown in Massachusetts calling for stories written in the style of Edgar Allan Poe. Thus began her love of stories that are dark and fantastical. She believes genre fiction can be just as well written and valuable as literature. The universal themes of love, hate, revenge, and redemption are present regardless of whether characters live in the distant future, on other planets, or in fantastical realms. By day she is an editor for international development projects. In her free time, she works on inspiring her characters to fight for change and justice in their imaginary worlds. Her published works include the fantasy novel Thief of Hope and a short prequel, Journey to Hope.
Steven Brust was born late in the Cenozoic Era at a place a mere 238,900 miles from the lonely, harsh desolation of the moon. From the moment of his birth, he launched a study of language, facial recognition, and tool using, while simultaneously beginning an intense regime of physical fitness. He fell into a life of crime under the influence of Tuli, the Evil Dog of Evilness, a life which continued for many years. At one point, aided by Captain Blondbeard the Space Pirate Kitty, he nearly succeeded in either taking over the world or destroying the universe, the record is unclear. The plot, which featured a machine (built by a mysterious parrot known only as “Doc”) that could predict the future, failed when the machine turned out to be only able to predict the plot of action movies. This led Brust to abandon his criminal activities and begin writing science fiction and fantasy novels. Only time will tell how much lower he’ll sink.
Born in Moldova in the former Soviet Union, Izolda Trakhtenberg grew up steeped in the rich heritage of Eastern Europe. After her family immigrated to the USA, she graduated from the University of Michigan with an English degree. Izolda followed her love of travel and education and worked for the National Geographic Society’s Educational Media division. She then worked as an environmental educator for NASA. While at NASA she traveled all over the world to conduct environmental education workshops.
Jennifer Della’Zanna is a freelance writer in Woodbine, MD. She has published more than 40 feature articles for magazines and websites on topics as diverse as firearms, movies, and healthcare. She wrote and teaches several online courses in the allied healthcare fields and is the associate editor for Plexus, a trade magazine for the medical transcription industry. She contributed six articles to the Encyclopedia of Sex, Love and Courtship in the Medieval World (Greenwood Publishing Group, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007). Jennifer completed a Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. Her agent is currently shopping around her first novel, and she has had her short fiction published at