Ali Week: Dishing on the Dojo

Do you have a favorite phonetically pleasing word or onomatopoeia? (I just wanted to use onomatopoeia in a sentence.)

AC: Dang. You're making me work for this interview Nisa! And of course, I'm totally drawing a blank! I love the word HAPPINESS. I love that it sounds bouncy and joyful and since JOY is my favorite word of all time, I like happiness because it SOUNDS like joy.

Beach or mountains? 

AC: Can't I have both? I love them both, I truly do. But I suppose if I really, truly (really? truly?) have to choose, I'd choose mountains.

You've done so much for the writer community. Can you tell us about your dojo (blog)? 

AC: I love writing with friends! NaNo is a fabulous time for writers--we can encourage and support and cheer cheer cheer one another on to story satisfaction. But it's beyond sad that NaNo is only once a year. (Well, I just heard about Camp NaNoWriMo this summer--too late to join--so I'll definitely be doing that next year!). So I wanted to create something that would provide a way for us to continue to write and cheer each other along--and that's where Ninja Novel Writing Month came from. Except EVERY month is a good month for NiNoWriMo. ;)

The other part of the dojo is, of course, the whole martial arts thing. My family loves the martial arts. We are all martial art students and it's a big part of our life. I have seen so many similarities between writing a novel and working toward your black belt. I use the dojo as a way to teach some of these skills and mindsets so that every writer can obtain that coveted writer's black belt--a published novel!

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Ali is generously giving one copy of her e-book away from now until Thursday. What do you have to do to win one for yourself? Follow my blog, follow Ali's blog, spread the word on your favorite social media site (or all of them!) and leave a comment on each post on the days you'd like to enter. The more days you enter, the more chances you have to win. I will be randomly picking five different winners total. Come back on Friday to enter for the grand prize, which I'll reveal then. You won't want to miss it!

*All contest winners will be announced on Monday, November 14th. International contestants are eligible for e-book prizes only.