Creativity is brewing. Kevin Barrick and I met on Twitter and then I learned he was also under contract with my publisher. He has a second book being released in October.

Please, introduce yourself. Tell us about your personal life, family, education. I am an American expat living in Ethiopia. There is so much culture, history, and traditions that have bled over into my writing from this experience. While living here, I’ve completed my bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies which has been a valuable asset in the marketing of my self-published books.

How do you decide on the title of a book? Usually, I structure my story around a central idea, which often can be constructed as a title. For example, my collection of flash fiction started, more or less, on the concept of “creativity brewing” with a theme of coffee-table type of stories. After I settled in the title, I wrote stories that reflected that theme.

Similarly, my novella series started with the story itself then the title emerged eventually for the first book, “The Vial of Deziar.” The central of this story is desire, so I refashioned the spelling of that to create my title. The second book is entitled, “The Chains of Ph’aet” where the central theme is being chained to fate.

Do you remember the first book you read? I can’t remember my very first book, but I do remember my top 2 favorite series in my early childhood. The first was Scooby-Doo. This actually was one of my first writing endeavors as I tried to write fanfiction based on the series when I was eight.

The second was the Magic Tree House series which was fascinating to me because an ordinary thing like a tree house brought them to adventurous parts of history.

If you could not write, how would you express what you wish to convey through any stories? I have an artistic mind, so I would venture into painting or charcoal sketching. The only problem being my fingers are much less artistic. One of my dreams is to take my writing and transform them into film, so if I couldn’t write, I would work on a creative team to create a TV series or movie.

When you see new authors struggling, what single piece of advice could you give them on a moment’s notice? It’s your story: write what your heart dictates. If you struggle with the words, spend some time filling your mind with the certain emotions your heart is trying to express. Once you’ve had your fill, you will begin to overflow and put those emotions and thoughts into written word.

The Vial of Deziar is currently available at Mybook.to/Deziar.

How do you want others to see you or remember you? Is it important to you? I want people to view me and my work as thought provoking. While I’m all for entertainment, I want me readers to walk away thinking. I want to leave them with an impression that stays with them for days. I want them to come to expect that in my work and take another analytical look at anything they’ve read for entertainment to get new ideas and impressions.

Do you have a blog or website viewers can visit for updates, events and special offers? Include links to any and all of your sites.

I can also be found on Twitter (@KevinBarrick) and

Facebook – www.facebook.com/Authorkevinbarrick

My Amazon Author page: https://tinyurl.com/y5dyb4x6