Author Interview & Giveaway – Michelle Sodaro

Posted January 17, 2025 by Lisa Mandina in giveaway, promo post / 5 Comments

If you read my weekly updates, you’ve probably read about me helping out my author friend with her events over the past year. Several years ago, 5 or 6 I think, I had a promo post for her. But I wanted to do something again this year. So asked her to re-do my standard author interview for me, and that’s below. I’ve also got information on all her books for you to look at too!

Fiction Titles

The first book she published was called Whatever You Make of It.

Click HERE to add to Goodreads.

Blurb:

“Well, that’s what I wanted to know, so I thought I would humor the old girl and read it. So I did. I got completely caught up in the characters.” Johnathon touched the book’s dark emerald green cover. “Well that’s easy enough to do when the characters hear you talking to yourself,” Rebecca said. “It’s more than that. You can talk with them too,” Johnathon exclaimed.

Next was her Arianna series.

Click HERE to add the first one to Goodreads.

Blurb:

Arianna Collins was quite busy managing her household and taking care of her three younger brothers when she heard the scream in the forest one day. When she finds that it is Prince Nicholas her life is turned upside down protecting him from a discovered assassination plot. She gives the King her word that his only heir will be kept safe, even if it means hiding him in a Gypsy camp to do so. And true to her honor, she does keep him safe, even when his words or actions seem bound and determined to get him killed, by her own hand. Through the course of her keeping safe, she teaches him a thing or two about the people of the land he will one day rule. He also learns how to be a better man and stronger person in general. From Arianna and her brothers he finds his true strength and a courage that will help him greatly when it becomes his turn to rule the land.

After that came the Broken and Redeeming Trust duet. This was a romance series, set in Kansas City, where the author lives now, and my hometown!

Click HERE to add the first one to Goodreads.

Here is the blurb for the first one:

What would you do if you had to choose between your lifelong goal and true love? Benjamin Westcott has worked hard to establish himself as an architect. He is working toward his goal of opening a home for runaways. The one thing standing in his way is money and his grandfather’s trust fund would solve that problem immediately. Sam Turner is an artist who has sacrificed her whole life for her art. She knows the importance of love and loss and the beauty of living a life filled with passion and purpose. She values the friendship she has found with Ali, Ben’s sister, and she wants to believe in the love she has found with Ben. Will Ben take the trust fund for his home for runaways, or will true love be the path he chooses?

Next is a sports romance series, set in Kansas City with the sports teams, Chiefs, Royals, Mavericks, and women’s soccer team (which changed their name after the book was written). The characters are fictional, you won’t find Travis Kelce or Taylor Swift, lol. Now, while each book follows a different couple, they’re not complete standalones, as there are bits from each prior book’s couple that you’ll want to have read about before you go on.

Click HERE to add the first one to your Goodreads.

Here is the blurb for the first book:

Dillon Winters knows all too well the dangers of being star struck by someone in the spotlight. Her ex-husband taught her that lesson quite well. All she wants to do is take care of her daughter, Lilly, and keep her bar going strong. Josh Matthews only wants to be quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs and hang out with his friends. He laughs at his teammates superstitions and wants no part of it. When he kisses Dillon for the first time and wins the game, he wonders if there is something to this Lucky Charm idea. With Dillon and Lilly, he finds things missing in his life that he never knew he needed.

This next one I remember her working on the year she and I really got together and did NaNoWriMo together. The year I actually finished a story, lol.

Click HERE to add this one to your Goodreads.

Blurb:

Go West. Madison Sawyer gets a strange email with a simple message and she finds herself wanting to escape her life and do just what the email says. She finds herself heading west and being guided along by a Navajo Indian and his wife, both of whom have been dead for 15 years. They are asking for her help to solve the mystery of their deaths and pushing her toward the town of their deaths. When she gets there, she realizes some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth from being discovered. She also finds a man she didn’t even know she was missing in her life. With the help of this man, Drew Taylor, she finds a life she can’t imagine running away from, if she can find the secrets of the town before the town’s secret keepers succeed in getting Madison killed.

We also kind of did NaNo together the next year, but I don’t remember what book I worked on, while this was hers.

Click HERE to add this one to Goodreads.

Blurb:

Carrie and Anna have been friends since childhood and have seen each other through family difficulties and relationships and through everything have continued to help and care for each other. When one of Anna’s relationships gets Carrie kidnapped, Anna has to ask Carrie’s ex-husband for help to save her.

Some shorter writings from her are below. First is a collection of her short stories, second is the first chapter of each of her first ten novels for people to get an idea for them.

Add to Goodreads: Sodaro’s Starters and Sodaro’s Shorts.

And in 2025 she’s got plans for a series that will be one book per month, the Romancing the Stones series. And at some point she has a Reunion based series probably in 2025 as well! I’ve been helping a bit with creating covers for those, we’ll see which she likes and uses!

Nonfiction

Michelle also has several nonfiction books.

Add to Goodreads HERE.

Years of poetry that I am finally ready to share with the world. The categories Inspiration Prevails, Love Prevails, Darkness Prevails, and Hope Prevails. I think of them like the seasons, and the book ends with Hope…to remind us that after the winter, there is always the beauty of Spring.

Add to Goodreads HERE.

One person’s look at a 20-year relationship with the teaching career and all of its ups and downs. Through all of the highs and lows, what always made it worth it, was the “kids,” regardless of their age, who shared the classroom and the heart of the teacher. The challenges and obstacles disappeared when it was just her and her kids. The conversations shared, the dreams supported, the lives connected, all pushed her to keep fighting the good fight and give everything she had to give. And she did this all for twenty years, but it came at a price that eventually became too high to pay and she had to walk away from the only life she had ever known and start over.

Add to Goodreads: Words to Write to and Finding Ideas (not on Goodreads – but can purchase on Amazon)

Michelle is all about supporting other authors, and helping those who want to write but maybe just need a push or two, and she wants to share all her own experiences. At the moment she has two books out, one of them will be a series though, the Wanna Write series, only volume 1 is out so far.

Add to Goodreads HERE.

Positive Outlooks, Following Dreams, True Self, and Let Go are the four ways that the author wants people to look at their lives. Using quotes and reflections, she challenges people to look at their lives in different ways to live the best, most positive life. She challenges people to look deeply into their joys and their struggles and asks them to reflect on what is missing and what is blessed in their lives.

Add the first one to your Goodreads HERE.

She also had a few little children’s picture books in a series for a short time.

  1. Tommy the tomato bat faces the challenges of moving, and along the way makes a new friend.
  2. Tommy the Tomato Bat and Danny Long Legs have a new quest and must face the journey ahead to save the day.
  3. Tommy and Violette work together to come up with the best Halloween costume for Danny.
  4. Create your own colorful adventure with Tommy, Danny, and Violette in their first coloring book!

Author Interview

1.  What does your writing process look like? Do you know the whole story when you start?  Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)?  If you plan it out, how do you do that?  Outline, notecards, post-it-notes, etc.?  

I admire those people who can just jump in and start writing. Pantsers are a bit of a fascination of mine…but I need a game plan. I “outline” because I have to have a general idea on where my story is going to go. I put outline in quotes because it is not anything the ex-English teacher in me would recognize as an outline. (I don’t have a B for an A or a 2 for every one). I use a line draw vertically down the length of a paper and it’s a “this goes here” and “this goes here” and “this has to happen before that” kind of outline…post-its are wonderful with this because they can be easily moved as the story progresses

2. Do you edit as you go, or wait till you’re finished before you edit?  How many times would you say you go over it yourself before having another set of eyes look at it. 

I get all the way through a draft before I go back and read. If I start/stop, it is like driving in rush hour, and I can’t get any traction or momentum. I want to know where the story is going to end up before I start to edit how it gets there.  I write first draft by hand. I edit the 2nd draft. I order it as a proof to see it in book form. I read through it one more time for plot holes and grammar. Then one final read through out loud so my ears can catch any final errors my eyes glazed over. 

3.  Are you part of a writers group that gets together and helps each other with their writing?

I have not had success with a writer’s group because of people’s schedules and then people’s need to chitter chatter. I have also struggled with author’s egos where it becomes more of a “this is how I would do it” rather than a more objective listen/read.

4.  How do you come up with your ideas for your stories? 

I exist. LOL. Every day I am bombarded with things that could become a story. Arianna came from a dream. My Lucky Charms series came from an obnoxious fan at a hockey game. Don’t Let Go came from watching two girls holding hands and jumping into the deep end of the pool. 

5.  How long have you been writing? 

Since I could hold a writing instrument. It was a hobby until 2011 when a treasured friend passed away after having challenged me with “you have said you want to be an author since I have known you, so do it. Be an author.”

6.  What tips do you have for aspiring writers? 

Write. Do some writing. Write some more. Never stop writing. Read. See what other authors do that works/doesn’t work. and then Write some more. Finish things. Then write some more.

7.  How important are names in your books?  Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds, or the meaning?  Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend? 

I believe, like Shakespeare did, that names have power. I like to have names that have meaning or “sound” the way I need them to sound. I also am cognizant of how people’s names sound with each other. Having taught in public schools, I also tend to think in terms of how a name could be turned into a nickname. 

8.   What are your favorite:

Books/authors/genres hmm…I will try any kind of book, because I don’t know what I like until I find out what I don’t like. Authors…I like authors who support other authors. I have stopped reading certain authors when I find out they don’t support their own. Genres…again, I haven’t found a genre I don’t like

Movies/TV Shows I like things that challenge/mess with my mind (for movies) and shows where people are pursuing what they are passionate about

Music I like everything except what I don’t like. 

Food/Writing snack chips/popcorn…anything left hand can handle while right hand is busy putting words on paper

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