3xA MA: Liz Czukas

I feel like authors deserve so much from the readers. I believe that authors are people who really connect with us. It was actually an author who I "sorta" owe my life to. Authors and their words make us feel and they can help us.
In this event, I want to get to know the authors. I’d like to get interviews or blog posts about THEM in connection to their book. Who is the mind behind each author?

For each post, I leave links to connect with the author. Please take the time to use one of those links and leave a message for each author, if you can. It can be towards the book or it can be something as easy as “I love the post you wrote on Out of Time! <33”

I was on the blog tour for Ask Again Later! I remember the story pretty well because it was really cool how it was 2 alternate realities! Those kinds of books are pretty newish and I was blown away by how pro (debut author), Liz Czukas is!

The Author Journey

I wrote my first story when I was nine. I thought that was something everyone did. Like everyone had spiral notebooks piled next to their beds full of handwritten stories. Even as a freshman in high school, I used to write little stories for my friends. One of my favorites was a spaghetti western where all the characters were people my best friend and I knew in real life. It was intentionally over the top and we still laugh about it to this day. It honestly wasn't until later in high school that I realized that no one else was really doing this sort of thing. And being high school, I figured that meant I was weird. So I stopped talking about writing. But I kept doing it in secret. There were still piles of spiral notebooks, but now they were hidden behind the headboard, or locked in my bottom desk drawer.

How secretive was I about it? Let me put it this way. I started dating my husband when I was a sophomore in high school, and he never knew I wrote stories until I was in graduate school. Yeah. You'd think I was actually hiding a tendency to murder people now and again instead of writing a few stories.

So what brought me from closeted hobby writer to professional? Ah, the Internet. I found a website where I could put up some of my early writing under an pen name and get feedback on it. It doesn't exist anymore, and no, I won't tell you my handle. There are some things that are best left in the past. But at the site, I was lucky enough to get thoughtful, intelligent, helpful feedback from some people who went on to become good friends. Friends who encouraged me to go the distance. To actually dip my toes into the terrifying world of querying literary agents. Friends who are still in my life, supporting me with unshakable enthusiasm.

To be honest, I still stumble all over myself when I have to talk about my writing with people in person. I can hardly believe anyone would be interested, much less impressed. It's only recently that I'm relaxing into a bit and I don't turn the color of a tomato when someone says, "So what do you do?"

I'm a writer. And I might even be ready to own it!

So I tried to be an author. I did it twice. And then I realized that I hated it. It's really not my thing. I like writing, but I don't like writing fiction. And even though I've realized that, I've come to appreciate authors like thirty billion times more because it's not an easy job. It's easy to write, but it isn't easy to write well.

Enter the giveaway below! Thanks for checking out my blog and remember:  
Be kind to one another. - Ellen

Liz's Facebook | Goodreads | Goodreads for her Book | Twitter | Website |

Liz Czukas is a freelance writer who lives outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ask Again Later is her first novel. She collects college degrees she doesn't use, types too loud, and always has a song stuck in her head. In high school, Liz did go to two proms but not at the same time.

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