Author Spotlight w/Giveaway: CJ Loomis

Author Spotlight on CJ Loomis,

author of Love in the Time of Corona

Q&A with CJ Loomis and an eBook Giveaway

In Love in the Time of Corona, CJ Loomis tells an epic love story during the Coronavirus pandemic. He chronicles the story of Sloane Knox and Hayden Foster and their cosmic connection. Through pure coincidence they spend a single night together in Minneapolis, MN before their worlds are upended. He perfectly sets the stage for the most incredible and timely love story ever told. Through a twist of monumental proportions, this boundary defying romantic adventure challenges at every turn. What will happen to the world? Will these two star-crossed lovers survive seemingly insurmountable odds?
Critics are raving about this first novel author and his ability to pull you in from the very first chapter! Get ready to laugh and cry, this saga is truly one of a kind. If you’re a hopeless romantic that believes in the phenomena of love at first sight, Love in the Time of Corona is for you!

Buy on AMAZON

Find on Goodreads

Q&A with CJ Loomis

You’re a brand new published author, Congratulations! Tell us a bit about yourself.

Thank you! I still can’t come to terms with the author label yet. However, I think that’s common from what I’ve heard from other authors. Though I’m definitely not Hayden, one of the lead characters of the book, we do share the exact background. I wrote about what I knew. I was born and raised in North Dakota in a small town about an hour southwest of Fargo. Worked for a family owned and operated radio station. In high school I started dating my now wife. We got married there and inevitably moved to Minneapolis where I worked in large market radio for radio groups of both ABC and CBS and then a media agency that specialized in print. In Minneapolis I was connected with this amazing group of people that instantly became lifelong friends. Many of which were also from North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. We had that initial midwestern transplant thread of commonality. The friendships we have with those people are more unique than once in a lifetime. These people are family to us. I still message many of them on a daily basis. About 4 years ago I had a job opportunity in the agency world in Alpharetta, GA. We agreed to a five-year stint and we’ll see what the future holds, but my wife and kids love it down south. Especially the weather.

What inspired Love in the Time of Corona?

A burning desire to write. I’ve always had it. I am a hopeless romantic and an old soul. I had a couple of teachers that saw something in my writing in school and commented positively on it and I realized how much I loved doing it. About five years ago, I had an idea for the framework of a story. Interesting fact, originally the title was going to be Pieces. I wrote about ten chapters and then came down with a terrible case of writer’s block. I decided that if I was going to write a book and it only ended up being one, I wanted to hold nothing back and give it everything I had. I couldn’t force it. I wanted this to be something that would stand the test of time long after I’m gone. Something my boys could remember me by and be proud of their father.

Coronavirus hit and a good friend passed. The combination of those two emotional events jarred something loose. Suddenly the block was gone. I knew exactly the story I wanted to tell and how to do it. About four months ago I had a conversation with my wife in the kitchen where I admitted everything. See, I hadn’t told anyone about this desire to write and actually publish a book. My wife being the most amazing human being I’ve ever met of course encouraged me and has helped and supported me every single step of the way. All I can say regarding Rochelle is that I have extremely good taste. At best, hers is questionable, haha! I rewrote the first ten chapters and then researched everything there was to know about how to publish a book and just took it step-by-step. Here we are today.

Tell us about your writing habits/routine: do you prefer computer or pen, do you aim for a set amount of words per day, set aside a day or time of day to write, do you write up an outline, do you have a special writing place?

All very good questions. My entire life I’ve been attached to music. It’s played a huge role. For me, I love to throw on a Spotify playlist and that starts the creative juices flowing. Typically, emotional songs. If you pay close attention, there is absolutely a soundtrack to this book. I’m a fan of Cameron Crowe films and his musical taste. I tried to channel that for Love in the Time of Corona.

Most of the time I write after work hours at night. I don’t have a set goal in regards to number of hours or words in a day. I have a lot of respect for authors that can write that way. Mine is more of writing a scene. This story and this book, wrote itself honestly. I felt like I was just in the way and needed to filter it through my words. It started at over 93,000 of them. Eventually it got whittled down to about 75k. There’s a meme showing what a book looks and feels like to the author once they’ve completed it. I believe it’s Tolstoy and then once you get it back it’s Seuss. That’s pretty true, but my editor Tiffany, in the UK, is truly the reason I was able to finish this and make it professionally presentable. She was unbelievable. I can’t give her enough praise and I’ll forever be a testimonial spokesperson on her behalf. She spun my run-ons, head-hopping (which I didn’t know was a thing), and incorrect grammar into what the book is today. I’d probably lose all respect if people saw the pre-Tiffany version. I know my strengths and editing is definitely not amongst them. Yes, I did write up what I guess you could call an outline. My special writing place would be in my basement in front of a dual screen computer in the dark with the music cranked up. Only the glow of my monitors illuminates the space. Whatever works is my philosophy. I should also mention that I love the aesthetic of using a USB keyboard that has harder to push keys. The first keyboards before laptop style or in-screen took over. It has to do with the feeling of pounding away at the keys like how I used to write radio ad copy at the beginning of my career on an original typewriter.

What can we expect from you in the future?

I am hoping that this book can be enough of a success, financially speaking, to deliver at least two more books in this series. I don’t think it would be fair to just have a hobby that cost my family money. The second book would take place in North Dakota and the third here in Georgia. It would pay homage, in a sense, to the places that have shaped me and our family. The very next thing is that we’ll be releasing the audiobook version in the next couple of weeks! That was another amazing collaboration with a woman that I now consider a friend named Donna Frank. She’s an extremely talented woman from New York that specializes in radio station imaging, including for the Howard Stern Show. You see, I personally have done a lot of voice-over work myself in my 15+ years of radio broadcast experience. I’m confident in my abilities, but I checked my ego at every turn regarding this project. I’m a stubborn man at times, but I knew this story needed to be delivered by a woman and after you hear it, I’m pretty sure you’ll agree. She was amazing and did a much better job than I ever could have.

I may have written a first chapter of book two and a little bit of an outline. I am refusing to go any further though until I know that my work is good enough to make this a real career until I have no stories left to tell. Just know that I do have a lot of story two in my head and outlined on a word doc. I have no bigger dream in life than to become a professional author that can support his family on his work. I can honestly say I have more pride in this book than anything else I’ve ever done professionally speaking. This is truly an emulation of myself and a tribute to my friend family in Minneapolis. I used a lot of their names, in a sense, throughout the book.

For more please visit the Story of the Story page on my website. The URL is https://www.cjloomis.com/the-review

Thank you for this opportunity and I really hope you enjoy my book! Please leave reviews on Amazon if you do read it.

*CJ, thank you for stopping by and letting us get to know you a little better. We can say that at least one good thing came out of COVID19 is that you overcame your writers block! Congratulations on the success of your first novel.

——————————————————————————————-

✶´`´*★ ☆ Enter To Win ☆ ★.¸¸,.✶

To celebrate CJ Lomis recent release, I’m gifting one of you an eBook copy of Love in the Time of Corona directly from Amazon.

Giveaway runs from Monday, July 20^th thru Sunday, July 26^th. Winner will be announced here and on social media. Winner must claim prize by Wednesday, July 29^th.

(note: winner must be able to receive an ebook gift from Amazon.com)

RAFFLECOPTER

CLICK HERE ENTER

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CJ Loomis was born in 1980 in the middle of a snowstorm in Dickinson, ND. He grew up in southeast North Dakota in the early 80’s. There he learned marketing, advertising, and broadcast. He and his wife moved to Minneapolis in 2006 and finally his occupation working for a media agency took them to the suburbs of Atlanta, GA in 2016. CJ is a new author with one book under his belt entitled “Love in the Time of Corona.” He hopes to make it a trilogy if the sales and success support such an endeavor.

https://www.instagram.com/authorcjloomis/

https://www.facebook.com/authorcjloomis

https://twitter.com/AuthorCJLoomis

www.cjloomis.com

COMFY CHAIR BOOKS REVIEW

“It’s not being in love that makes me happy. It’s the person that I’m in love with that does.”

When I first received this story, I thought it would be a quick, so-so read that an author wrote about a couple finding romance while quarantined during COVID-19. I mean, I figured a few authors would put out romances along that line during this current crisis. Boy was I WRONG. It’s not a COVID-19 romance, the virus/pandemic is mentioned and is a part of the story, but it’s not the main story. This is an all-consuming love story. You can feel it. It’s has love, friendship, heartbreak, successes, misunderstandings. It kept me interested. I couldn’t put it down because I NEEDED to know that these two were going to be okay. The characters are relatable, funny, compassionate; I was vested in them and their story. Hayden is the perfect hero; he’s a regular guy, a great friend, a person with morals, values, integrity – I want him as my boyfriend and I’m married! Sloane is a hoot and I want to go clubbing with her! The banter is outrageous, it’s dry and witty and fun. They have an undeniable connection and there’s no mistaking it. There’s a twist or two that you don’t see coming. Their love is fast, but we get the full journey – a complete story, not a find love, breakup, reunite story. You feel you know these characters. This is CJ Loomis first book and he delivered big time. My advice to him, keep writing!