Welcome to Mike Dolan

Good morning, Mike it's lovely to have you here. Before we start lets tell your readers a bit about you.




Hello Margaret and thanks for having me today. I was born in Denver CO and moved around a lot as a child due to catastrophic events in our families lives. I joined the military right out of high school, traveled some and enjoyed it. Both my parents succumbed to cancer and my little brother is battling it now.

Oh Mike, how sad. I’m sending lots of healing your way and your brothers. I hope he makes a speedy recovery. So now you are settled with a nice cup of good old British tea, tell me what drew you to write in your current genre?

The self-help genre is my favorite, because it allows me to tap into something more than myself and through that instigate change in those around me.

How spiritual. Do you class yourself as a spiritual person?

I consider myself to be very spiritual, but not classified. Every journey in life is forged by the steps we take. I prefer not to walk down a worn path, nor to box myself in. I like to keep open to all possibilities and to all experiences.

Wow, that defines you in a rather large nutshell! I write romance, paranormal, fiction and academic modules. How many books have you written to date and are they all in the same genre?

This is the first book I have written, but my writing kick started when I took a creative writing class over twenty years ago. I just put it on hold for years while I “made a living”. A couple of years ago things started to change, loved ones were passing on, my brother also developed cancer, and I was not chasing the dreams I once had.
I decided that I had to follow those dreams or I would be wasting the precious time that I had been given here in this life... So this is my first, but I am about to publish a new book shortly


I’d love to hear about your new book, so do pop back and let us know about it when it’s out. I write by the sea in the summer and in a warm office at home in the winter. Where do you do most of your writing?

For me writing early in the morning in a sun drenched window is the best place to be. The house is quiet and most of the time my mind is still empty of “other “distracting thoughts which allows me to let the writing flow. I get my pot of coffee going, gather my pad of paper and half dozen different colored pens and I just start with what comes to mind and go from there

So you write with pens? Wow. Do you then write it all out again via the computer?

Yes I do, for some reason my ideas flow easier when I write longhand..., and yes I do then transcribe it to computer myself, which allows some of the ideas to expand. Sometimes new ideas come to light as I go through this process.

I commend you. I’m not sure that I can remember how to write longhand nowadays lol Now for the interesting stuff. Tell me about your latest release.

A Pecunious Life is a book that helps people have a wealthy life. My main goal in writing this book is to just help as many people as I can to have a better life, a more full filling life, and to follow their dreams. I share what I have learned through my experiences and travels and then help the reader make a plan for a better life.

What a wonderful goal to have. I have done a review for this book and it can be found at the end of this interview. So how can your readers keep up with your news?

My website .com It has a blog. I update it a couple of times a week and share any news at that time. Also I have put my Virtual Book Tour Schedule on the site with links to the host sites so people can follow me on the tour. I twitter almost every day so people can follow me on Twitter and on Facebook.


Do you have to deal with rejection letters yet?

Since this is my first book and I self-published it I didn’t have to worry about any rejection letters. A big challenge for me is to overcome writer’s block. Most of the time I walk away from what it is I am doing for a minute or two and then start off with a completely new angle. Another trick I will use is to change the color of the pen I am writing with.


Are you always going to self publish or are you going to look for a publisher eventually. What can you say to others thinking of self publishing?

I’m not sure if I will always self publish. I think I will continue down that path until something else comes to light. I like the fact that I can self publish and with the internet marketing becomes much easier to find people interested in what you do, so for now I will stay with it.


Do you have any advice about getting an agent?

I have not got an agent. I have a virtual assistant, Janis Friesler from Your Virtual Assistants Plus. She that helps me promote my book in many different ways. She is going to format it so the book becomes electronically suitable for IPad and Sony, etc. She is in the process of making my website optimized for search engines. She found the virtual tour for me and is helping me with it. I live on the other side of the world so I need someone to oversee what is happening in the states. This works for me better than an agent. She has a reasonable flat rate so I don't have to worry about giving away a percentage of my book.

Wow, she sounds great. Most authors rely on critique partners for an extra eye on when they are writing. Who rely on and why?

As I said, I live and work in Asia so there are not too many people to help me here. I have a wonderful wife who has been my right arm. She has helped me a great deal.

Have you not considered on line groups? I work with a few and they are spread all over the world.

I haven’t really considered online groups just because I really don’t want to dilute what it is I am writing. I want to stay inspired and have that show in the writing. My wife is enough to make me look from another prospective from time to time.

The best part of writing for me is when it all comes together. What’s your favorite part?

I like being alone with my thoughts and planning what I want to say. It is important to me to make my writing mean something to people. I want to be inspirational, and when I can put words on paper that will inspire others, that is my favorite part of writing.


How do you get past all the frustrations that come with trying to be a successful writer?

I use just about everything I can to help me stay on task, but even with all my tricks I still get side track on occasion. The key is not to beat myself up about it. I set goals as mile markers on the path. As I travel down that path I will encounter challenges along the way. These are things I won’t always be able to identify when setting my goals, so I will just have to work through them. This more often than not will delay reaching the goal. It’s all just a part of the experience as I move forward. Some of the things I use are emails and voice messages to myself, note cards taped to the bathroom mirror, anything that will just put the hint to what I want to accomplish, is enough to move me in the direction. The idea is to be creative with it and have fun.


So Mike, what do you like to read?

I've always been an avid reader, but I've always preferred reading to learn something as opposed to just reading for entertainment. In this pursuit I started to read about Leonardo DaVinci, Nikola Tesla, Steven Hawking, and others. I was reading Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, Wayne Dryer, Deepak Copra. Right now I am reading: David Hawkins Power Vs. Force



Thank you for being here today, Mike and I wish you lost of success with your new release.

My Review

Mike Dolans book opens into a heart wrenching autobiography about his life. Some say to heal the demons you hold within, you need to bring them into the open. I hope that Mike Dolan has achieved that for himself when writing this book. Life does map out who you are as a person and throughout this book it’s obvious Mikes brutal past changes him, but in a good way. The book reaches into the soul and brings forward all the things that try to hold us back in life. It also tells you how to overcome them. In the beginning, some pages are slightly repetitive, but once you get past this, you will read a truly inspiring book.