The Study of Silence | Blog Blitz Guest Post by Malia Zaidi | @MaliaZaidi @NeverlandBT

 

|   About the Book   |

 

Lady Evelyn Carlisle has returned home to England, where she is completing her degree at St. Hugh’s, a women’s college in Oxford. Her days are spent poring over ancient texts and rushing to tutorials. All is well until a fateful morning, when her peaceful student life is turned on its head. Stumbling upon the gruesome killing of someone she thought she knew, Evelyn is plunged into a murder investigation once more, much to the chagrin of her friends and family, as well as the intriguing Detective Lucas Stanton. The dreaming spires of Oxford begin to appear decidedly less romantic as she gathers clues, and learns far more than she ever wished to know about the darkness lurking beyond the polished veneer. Can she solve the crime before the killer strikes once more, this time to Evelyn’s own detriment?

Welcome to my stop on the blog blitz weekend for The Study of Silence. My thanks to Jenny for the invite and to Malia for providing the guest post.

 

What Not to Ask Authors

by

Generally speaking, I think we authors are quite happy to speak about our books or writing, and it is always exciting to be asked. The other day, however, I was mindlessly scrolling through Twitter (don’t judge!) and came across a thread from a few authors talking about interactions or questions that drove them a bit mad. One spoke of being tagged in bad reviews, something most authors with a healthy sense of self-preservation prefer to avoid! It made me think of questions that writers would probably prefer not to be asked and I came up with the following:

How many books have you sold and how much money do you make from it?

For obvious reasons, this question feels intrusive and inappropriate. Nonetheless, people seem willing to ask it. I won’t ask about anyone’s salary, I think it’s fair to ask for the same courtesy.

Is your book any good?

Well, I think it is . . . Questions such as this one are difficult for an author to answer, because we obviously think our book(baby) is delightful At the same time, no one’s book is for everyone. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest The Study of Silence or the other books in the series to readers who love science fiction or nonfiction. I very much believe in my books, but like with many things in life, some are simply a better fit than others depending on the person.

Have you tried writing something like Gone Girl (or other massively successful popular fiction)?

Another difficult question to answer. Every author would love for their book to be a major success, but there is a lot more involved in that than writing and publishing a book. Fingers crossed, but no writer should go into the field expecting to become a literary or commercial sensation. You write because you love to write, because the stories need to escape, and if the book is a success all the better, but something like that can’t be planned except maybe for authors like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling.

That all being said, it is one of the greatest pleasures of an author to interact with readers. We write and publish because we want to entertain, make people wonder, offer an escape from the day-to-day and hopefully make people happy.

 

 

|   Author Bio  |

Malia Zaidi is a writer and painter, who grew up in Germany and lives in the US. An avid reader and traveler, she decided to combine these passions, and turn her long-time ambition of writing into a reality. The Study of Silence is the third book in The Lady Evelyn Mysteries.

 

Author Links:    Website   |   Blog   |   Twitter   |   Facebook   |   Amazon UK   |   Amazon US   |   Barnes & Noble   |    Goodreads

 

 

SHARE:


I do love to read any comments 😊

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.