Toby Neal's title "Wired Hard" came in at number 2 in the Best Indie Books Title of 2017.
Website: http://tobyneal.net
Bio: Social worker turned author Toby Neal grew up on the island of Kaua`i in Hawaii. Neal is the author of more than thirty novels in the mystery, romance, and young adult genres, including the twelve-book USA Today bestselling, award-winning Lei Crime Series. This police procedural mystery series centers on Leilani “Lei” Matsumoto Texeira, a multicultural detective with issues, her dog Keiki, and her love interest, Stevens, as they solve a range of complicated crimes in the Hawaiian Islands.
The Lei Crime Series has sold over a million books since its debut in December of 2011, and in 2015, Amazon launched the Lei Crime Kindle World, which allows authors to build licensed fan fiction upon Neal’s characters. Currently, there are more than fifty fan fiction spinoff works in the World.
Neal is a 2016 Independent Publisher Book (“IPPY”) winner for Best Mystery/Thriller for Rip Tides and in 2015 for Twisted Vine. She’s a Notable Indie 2016 Winner, 2015 National Indie Excellence® awards winner, Best Multicultural Novel winner for Torch Ginger, and many more. Outside of counseling work and writing, Toby volunteers in a nonprofit for children and enjoys life in Hawaii through beach walking, swimming, gardening, photography, and hiking.
Book series:
ei Crime Series
Paradise Crime Series
Romances
Scorch Series (co-author Emily Kimelman)
"The Interview"
What is the one thing you want to tell your readers? As I wrote in a recent blog, "love is all around you." I truly believe that with gratitude, love, giving to others, and happiness you will find what you want and need in life! These themes run through my stories and I hope they resonate with my readers.
What advice can you give to other authors? Many authors struggle with keeping a series fresh and interesting for readers. I absolutely believe that an author has to be engaged with the subplot of the main series, which for me, is my character's development. It's important for characters to evolve and grow. As we write stories, we need to make sure that readers don't get bored with recurring characters.
Final thoughts about anything. I am really grateful that Wired Hard is being recognized! Telling the story of the scarred and beautiful warrior Sophie Ang has been such a pleasure for me. On December 8, the fifth book in the series, Wired Dawn, is being released and in early Spring, book six, Wired Justice. Sophie's a fascinating character that readers (and I!) really enjoy getting to know.
Social media sites: Toby Neal Books: https://www.facebook.com/LeiCrimeSeries/ BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/toby-neal Twitter: https://twitter.com/tobywneal