Author Showcase William Andrews

Well its Friday so you know what that means! For todays author showcase Wolf Majick Reviews would like to welcome fiction writer William Andrews. William is the author of Multiple novels including his latest Daughters of the Dragon, which can be found on Amazon. Now I haven't gotten a chance to read this one yet but it is on my TBR so hopefully I will have a review for all of you soon.

Author Bio:
For over 30 years, Bill Andrews was a copywriter and a marketing/brand executive and with several Fortune 500 companies. For fifteen of the more painful years, he ran his own advertising agency. At night and on weekends (and sometimes during the workday!) Bill wrote fiction. Bill’s first novel titled THE ESSENTIAL TRUTH won first place in the 2008 Mayhaven Contest for fiction.
Bill's third novel, DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON, was published in 2014 by MADhouse Press. The reviews have been outstanding. The MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW called it a "masterpiece of fiction." In May, it won an IPPY for historical fiction. The IPPYs is the world's largest writing contest, attracting thousands of entries worldwide.

Today, Bill is retired and focused on his writing. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, an inner-city public school teacher for 32 years. And his Korean-born daughter, the inspiration for DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON, is now an MD living in Houston, Texas. 

We at Wolf Majick Reviews were lucky enough to get Bill Andrews to take a moment to talk about some of the challenges he has faced as a writer: 

There were periods when I was discouraged. In fact, it was quite often. When I was hunting for agents and publishers, it was a weekly punch in the stomach. I think in writing, you have to have a combination of dogged determination, naiveté, confidence and humility. If I'd known how difficult it was when I first started, I probably wouldn't have done it. But once I was into it, I couldn't quit. It's a marathon. But I believed I could do it. After all, I wrote 2 novels prior to this one just to learn the craft. I think the biggest problem I had is not knowing if I was good enough. Then, I'd read some dreck best seller and get angry. But it isn't about other authors. It's about your own writing. I was getting better so I kept going. And now I can say thank goodness, I didn't get published before the book was ready. "Thank you agents and publishers who did your job and turned me down."

Snippet from DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON – 

A Comfort Woman’s Story

By William Andrews

Darkness. The rain had stopped and the air was still. I lay on my side, my knees to my chest, shivering in the cold, sticky mud. Inky clouds slid away revealing bright stars in a moonless sky. The only sound I heard was a dog barking from somewhere in the village.

I pushed myself to my knees, and then unsteadily to my feet. There was no movement in the village and no lights. I held the comb with the two-headed dragon tight in my fist.
I walked barefoot through the wheat field, across the grass to the village. The pain in my thighs from Lieutenant Tanaka’s beating had come back making it difficult to walk. The bruises on my face from Colonel Matsumoto’s blows had turned into a sharp ache. I stumbled down an abandoned street to the infirmary. I pulled myself up the dark stairs to the ward and went to where Soo-hee had been. I pulled aside the white sheet. My onni wasn’t there.
I left the infirmary and went to the comfort station. They had burned the barracks to the ground. A few lonely flames danced among the smoldering remains. And there I saw the bodies of the eleven girls lying in a jagged line, lifeless, like mounds of dirt.
I stood in the courtyard and all the cries I had pushed down for so long roiled and raged inside me. I felt the stone in my stomach crack. I closed my eyes, fell to my knees, threw back my head, and opened my throat. And all my cries burst out.
I kneeled on the muddy ground with my face to the sky and a thousand cries met a thousand stars in the moonless Manchurian night. I cried for my innocence and for each time they called me a whore. I cried for the dead girls who had been my sisters. I cried for my mother and father. And I cried for Soo-hee. The cries ripped out my stomach, my lungs, and my heart until there was nothing left inside and I collapsed, empty, to the mud.