Sunday, August 30, 2009

Armchair Interviews


Connecting Authors to Their Readers...

If You Love to Read ... How do you learn about new authors and great books?

Armchair Interviews is the answer. We introduce you to new authors, "old friends" who've written a new book, or even a new genre.

Our Great Reviews are divided by genre and give you lots of choices about what to read/buy next. We pride ourselves on introducing emerging authors -- and if we love them, we want you to, also.

Connie Anderson and Andrea Sisco, Minnesota residents, Armchair Interviews hosts and interviewers, have a long-time love of books, reading, talking about books, recommending good reads to book clubs, and hand-selling their newest favorite read.

Armchair Interviews came to life in fall of 2004. Connie Anderson had attended a seminar on Internet marketing and was telling Andrea about an idea she had for a business. "May I join you?" Andrea asks--and as they say, the rest is history. Andrea suggested this perfect name for our company, and her graphic artist son-in-law Alan Pranke (see our guys for contact info) designed our awesome and so-perfect logo. Then Connie met this "nice young man" at a networking event--and Paul Larsen of CreativeArc (see our guys for contact info) became our webmaster, designing our perfect web site and helping us launch it January 25, 2005. Notice overuse (no, not really) of word PERFECT?


Four Times in a Row 2006, 2007, 2008 and now 2009 -- and We're Thrilled!

In April 2006, we were thrilled beyond words when Writers Digest honored our site as one of 101 Best Websites for Writers. Then we were so pleased to receive the same honor in 2007, again in 2008 and 2009! Wow, did we feel proud to be recognized for our efforts in "Connecting Authors to their Readers."

Because both Connie and Andrea have done a lot of interviewing when they were hosts of their own TV author interview shows (Connie's was "Author/Author" and Andrea's was "Book Talk"), they obviously love to ask authors questions.

Connie interviewed Jacquelyn Mitchard the day before she was Oprah's Book Club selection for "Deep End of the Ocean"--certainly changing her writing life as that book was on the bestseller list for several months and then made into a movie.

Now for Armchair Interviews, Andrea and Connie pride themselves on being very prepared so that the author feels they know their book and their writing. Such wonderful guests that we've conducted audio interviews with and posted on our site over the years. Hopefully their interview guests feel that the time was well spent and it was an enjoyable experience.

Perhaps the best part of Armchair Interviews is all the wonderful people we "have met" that are our dependable and much-appreciated reviewers. Their commitment to writing quality reviews and meeting our deadlines is much appreciated. We know about their lives and have laughed and cried along with them as life has sent many challenges their way. THANK YOU ALL!

Both Andrea and Connie have been guest bloggers as well as guests on teleseminars on various subjects like: getting reviews for your book, being interviewed, and more. Andrea has been interviewed several times by author Mayra Calvini and those interviews have "gone around the Internet world."

Our "backstory": Connie and Andrea met in 1976 when they were building their families through adoption. Friends since then, they have been involved in various events related to adoption, including working with Amerasians (American fathers/Asian mothers), running a national adoptive parent organization and publishing OURS, the organization's bi-monthly magazine.