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February's Featured Author: 
Alisha Cole

1) Your Journey as an Author…..My journey as an author has had its highs and its lows. I have questioned my sanity, my ability, and the career as an author a few times. I have met some amazingly talented authors who show you support, ones who build you up and tear you down, and the ones you show support and to them you are a ghost. Like I said the book world for me has been a roller coaster. I was thrown into a depression after finding out who my real friends were, I’ve cried and almost given up. Things started looking up again when I stopped caring. I started writing more, keeping to myself and keeping my circle tight. I found or should I say she found me, an astounding and loyal PA who argued with me daily about believing in myself. When she finally pushed it on me enough, I believed her, and started to believe in myself again. Here I am now, working on four different books, back to supporting the authors I love that inspired me, and I’m following my dreams. But there will always be that saying in the back of mind whispering, “They wanna see you do good, but never better than them.” So my journey has been crazy, emotional, and depressing. But it’s getting better, and I will continue to follow my dreams, because I’m not dead yet. 

2) What reading means to you.....Reading is and always has been my greatest escape. Being able to connect to these characters that come from a person’s imagination, is an unbelievable feeling. I’ve cried tears of loss, pain, and regret. That’s what books do, they make you feel. Every book I’ve ever read, has been relatable to my life, or experiences. Even them being fictional, they’re real to us as readers. They’re real to the authors who tell their story, who portray the emotion in them. I love reading books that authors bleed themselves into as write, and you know when you’re reading it, that they’ve been in pain. Reading lets you live many different lives, it’s one thing I cherish in life, and can’t live without. 

3) Whats next for you.....I am writing four different romances as we speak. The last book in my Beautiful Nothing Series, My Beautiful Freedom in March 2016. I also have three different stand-alone contemporary romance novels, coming out this year. The Idea of Me, Sh#t Happens, and Unforeseen Love. I will be reaching out to my community, to sign up for local book signings. I plan to have my books on the local bookstore’s shelves by the end of the year, and hope to get noticed more as an author. I would like to switch out of romance, maybe try horror, and paranormal in the near future too. I guess one could say, I have plans and dreams, and I’m not afraid to go after them anymore. 

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