Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 25 went live today and contained three flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as Flash Fiction Fridays. Do email me should you like to submit your own.
This episode contained:
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
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BIOS
JD Mader has been fortunate enough to encounter many giving and inspiring people in his life.
He hopes to repay the debt.
And to make enough money with his writing to buy a house.
His first novel Joe Café, second, The Biker, and collaboration ‘Bad Book’ (with Hise and Brooks) are available from Amazon.
JD’s website is http://www.jdmader.com where you can read his stories and much more, and if you’d like to you can email him there too.
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Dorit Kedar travels around the world, looking for inspirational places to write her books. She was a special education art teacher in the morning and a Religious Studies student in the afternoon – completing her MA degree and researching societies and their beliefs in the 1st millennium in the ancient east, for her thesis. She then wrote her book “Lilith, the Jewish demoness – 1000 years of borderline personality disorder.”
This was followed by articles and lectures about ancient life, recruiting angels, demons and spirits and about amulets and incantation bowls. Dorit carried on studying Journalism and Museum studies. All this while raising two wonderful daughters and one dog…
Her website is http://www.lilith.co.uk and her books can be found on http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0072KO88Q and http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0072KO88Q.
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Salvatore Buttaci is an obsessive-compulsive writer whose work has appeared widely. He was the 2007 recipient of the $500 Cyber-wit Poetry Award. His poems, stories, articles, and letters have appeared widely in publications that include New York Times,
U. S. A. Today, The Writer, Writer’s Digest, Cats Magazine, The National Enquirer, Christian Science Monitor, Poetic Bloomings, and A Word with You Press. He was an English instructor at a local community college and middle-school teacher in New Jersey before he retired in 2007 to commit himself to full-time writing.
Flashing My Shorts and 200 Shorts, published by All Things That Matter Press, are available in book and Kindle editions at http://www.kindlegraph.com/authors/sambpoet
His two chapbooks: Boy on a Swing… http://tinyurl.com/6qmkdy4
And What I Learned from the Spaniard… http://tinyurl.com/7apsk6s
His new book, If Roosters Don’t Crow, It Is Still Morning: Haiku and Other Poems (Cyber-Wit Publications) is available at http://tinyurl.com/7ssnzg4
A great seller since 1998, his book A Family of Sicilians is available at
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/ButtaciPublishing2008
He lives with his wife Sharon in West Virginia, USA.
***
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be another short stories episode in a fortnight’s time.
All the details of these episodes are listed on this blog’s Podcast Short Stories page and my email address to submit your stories is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, Dorit Kedar, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, graphic novels, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Wenham Jones, JD Mader, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, romantic suspense, Salvatore Buttaci, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 23 went live today and features three flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as Flash Fiction Fridays. Do email me should you like to submit your own. This episode contained:
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast.
The podcast is available via iTunes (top item), Google’s Feedburner (final item), Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
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Dr. Margaret Aranda and her daughter were in a car accident in 2006. Margaret was unable to walk or talk for several years, was bedridden for six years, and lived on an iv for three years. She is a Stanford-trained doctor in Anesthesiology, Critical Care, and is American Board Certified in both. She is trained in Age Management Medicine by Cenegenics Medical Institute, and spends her time keeping patients well in Preventive Medicine, writing, blogging, touching bases with 7,000 FB Friends, and petting her two dogs. Her first book, No More Tears: A Physician Turned Patient Inspires Recovery, is by Tate Publishing and came out in December, 2012. Additional works include Stepping from the Edge, Little Missy Two-Shoes Likes a Ladybug, and her WIP is From Menarche through Menopause: A Journey through Time. She is tucked away in a horse community in Los Angeles, CA.
You can find out more about Margaret and her writing via…
- http://www.drmargaretaranda.blogspot.com
- http://www.facebook.com/NoMoreTearsAPhysicianTurnedPatientInspiresRecovery
- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stepping-from-the-Edge/370110906353041?ref=hl
- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Margaret-Ferrante-MD/198253210250379?ref=hl
- http://word-dysautonomiamd.blogspot.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/user/DysautonomiaMD
- https://www.youtube.com/user/VirtualMedSchool1?feature=watch
***
Ron Chávez was the owner of the famous Route 66 Club Café in Santa Rosa, NM during that epic Route 66 nostalgic times after it officially closed.
Ron and his café enjoyed fame in world wide major media where he spun stories about how he shined shoes in front of the Club Café as a little boy and about the intriguing brilliance of people he met over the years in his cafe.
In time he was known as the Route 66 storyteller. Ron was born in the village of Puerto de Luna on the banks of the Pecos River in New Mexico USA. Ron’s website is http://www.timeoftriumph.net.
***
Jessica Grace Coleman was born in Stafford, England and raised in the nearby village of Little Haywood, a quaint English location that would later be remodelled into Beth Powers’ home village in the Little Forest novels.
She studied Film Studies and American Studies at the University of Sussex in Brighton, and attended the University of Colorado at Boulder for a year as part of her course. A big fan of travelling, she has road tripped around North America and backpacked across China, South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Jessica also runs a monthly short-story competition, Darker Times Fiction, which focuses on finding new and exciting horror writers. Compilations of these works are available as Darker Times Horror Anthology ebooks and paperbacks.
When not writing about ghouls and ghosts, Jessica edits Rock Pulse, an online UK music zine, and has had the pleasure of interviewing many bands and artists in the past including The Darkness, InMe, Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup, HIM, Sugarcult, Less Than Jake, Yellowcard, Taking Back Sunday and Funeral for a Friend.
You can find her blog at http://www.jessicagracecoleman.com which has links to all her writing. You can also contact her via email at jessica.grace.coleman@gmail.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/JessicaGraceColeman or on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessformerworld. You can type ‘Jessica Grace Coleman’ into Amazon to find her books and author page, and you can also find out more about her at http://www.darkertimes.co.uk.
**
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be a hints & tips episode in a fortnight, then short stories return a fortnight thereafter.
All the details of these episodes are listed on this blog’s Podcast Short Stories page and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or review for the Short Story Saturdays) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, Dr Margaret Aranda, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jessica Grace Coleman, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, Ron Chavez, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
2103 is the centenary of a moment that changed history
A national writing competition has just been launched by audio entertainment website listenupnorth.com to mark 100 years since the death of Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison & to commemorate her Northumberland roots.
Emily Davison was repeatedly arrested, imprisoned and force fed for her part in demonstrations and activities in support of the Women’s Social and Political Union. In June 1913, Emily’s name became known around the world when she stepped onto the track at The Epsom Derby and was struck by the thundering hooves of the King George V’s racehorse Anmer whilst, it is thought, trying to pin the suffragette colours on the animal. Emily never recovered from her injuries and died four days later in hospital. Emily was buried in St Mary’s Chuchyard, Morpeth on June 15th 1913, after a funeral procession through the town.
Entrants to the writing competition are being asked to imagine taking themselves back in time to just after Emily’s final departure from her mother’s home in Longhorsley to travel down to Epsom for the Derby. They are asked to write their thoughts or feelings through the eyes of either Emily, her mother Margaret or her neighbour Bob who drove her to Morpeth Railway Station to catch the train to London.
Entries can either be in the form of prose, a blog, a letter (up to 300 words long) or a poem of up to 50 lines. One entry per person. There is no entry fee.
The competition is open to anyone aged 18 years old and over on the closing day of May 10th 2013 and must resident in the UK. Prizes include an iPad and the winning entries will be read out during the ‘Emily Inspires!’ Centennial Weekend in June and recorded for audio entertainment site listenupnorth.com.
For further details & an audio workshop to help prepare your entries please visit listenupnorth.com or CLICK HERE and full terms are listed here.
***
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blog, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, competitions, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, exercises, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, free verse, future tense, Goodreads, grammar skills, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku, haiku poem, hendecasyllabic, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, humorous, humour, iambic pentameter, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Kobo, LinkedIn, Listen up north, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, pantoum, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, past tense, pinterest, poem, poet, poetry, poetry collection, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry magazine, poetry slams, present tense, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, Rachel Cochrane, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person point of view, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, sonnet, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, tanka, terza rima, travel memoir, travel writer, triolet, Twitter, vampire, villanelle, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, writing workshop, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 22 went live today and contained three flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as Flash Fiction Fridays. Do email me should you like to submit your own.
This episode contained: The Confidant (995 words) by memoirist Rodica Mihalis, a 986-worder entitled The Honey Trap by Jane Risdon then Between Floors (803 words) by Rowena Simpkiss.
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast.
The podcast is available via Google’s Feedburner (now), iTunes (now), Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
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Rodica is the single mother of two adult daughters, and currently lives in Central Pennsylvania with her three rescued dogs and an African Grey parrot. She holds a B.A. in English and Romanian from the University of Bucharest. She has worked as a translator and executive assistant at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest before defecting from Romania in 1981. In the U.S. she showed her entrepreneurial spirit by owning several businesses, including Rodica’s Natural Therapies in Wyncote, PA. As challenges continue in her personal life, she is currently finishing her Master’s in Counselling and Clinical Psychology, and hopes to graduate by the end of 2012. Her work focus is on Grief and Loss. Her website is http://www.thegypsysawtwolives.com.
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For the last thirty years Jane Risdon has worked in the International Music Industry as an Artiste Manager, Producer and Music Publisher with her husband who was a professional musician when they met in their teens.
Together they have discovered, mentored and guided the careers of Singers, Bands, Songwriters and Producers all over Europe, the USA and SE Asia as well as the UK, resulting in Chart hits, TV and Movie Soundtracks and numerous other successes, including launching the very first Industry Showcases at the London Hippodrome in the mid 1980’s.
She has lived and worked in Singapore, Taiwan, Germany, USA, as well as Europe and England – working with English, American, European and Chinese artists in all genres of music and in various languages including Mandarin and Cantonese.
Jane has been writing since childhood and has had articles published in the Music Press. Her main genre is Crime writing; mysteries and thrillers – usually with a twist in the tale. At the moment she is writing a crime story, ‘Ms Birdsong Investigates’, which features an ex-MI5 Officer and her new life in a rural Oxfordshire Village. This novel should be completed sometime in 2013.
In addition to this novel she has a series of stories which she describes as Character Based Gentle Humour, called ‘God’s Waiting Room,’ which she hopes will be completed by 2014.
Jane is also co-writing a novel with an award winning author of over 28 books. It is a change of direction for Jane and as of February 2013 she has completed her parts of the book. Her co-author is completing her parts and then it is off to the agent, possibly mid 2013.
With numerous Short Stories and several Flash Fiction pieces under her belt she is a prolific writer who is yet to publish a book in her own right. However, she has had several short stories published for Charity during the last year including her story, ‘The Look,’ in ‘I am Woman Anthology Volume 1,’ in aid of Breakthrough, Women for Women and Women’s Aid and two stories, ‘The Debt Collector’ and ‘The Ghost in the Privy,’ published in the anthology, ‘Telling Tales,’ in aid of The Norfolk Hospice.
Jane also has written a chapter for a new book project, which features several authors all writing a chapter each, without any idea of what the other has written. She found this great fun and looks forward to reading the finished book. This project is on-going and until all writers have contributed it is unsure when it will be ready for release.
In addition to everything else going on in 2013, she is also writing a Short Story for inclusion in yet another anthology later in 2013. This will be a crime/mystery anthology in aid of a Charity, yet to be disclosed.
Jane has a Blog which is gaining a large following and she writes about things that interest her, her love of photography – always photos to look at – and also anything else which takes her fancy. Many of these articles have humorous content. She is often invited by other authors to be the Guest Blogger on their Blogs.
Jane blogs at http://janerisdon.wordpress.com and she can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/JaneRisdon2.
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Rowena Simpkiss enjoys writing short stories and during her teenage years wrote stories for the children’s sections of a New Zealand newspaper and magazine.
She is also a regular contributor to letters to the editor in her local community newspaper The Leader, and currently works for The Inland Revenue Department in New Zealand.
**
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be a hints & tips episode in a fortnight, then short stories return a fortnight thereafter.
All the details of these episodes are listed on this blog’s Podcast Short Stories page and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or review for the Short Story Saturdays) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. If there’s anything you’d like to take part in, take a look at Opportunities on this blog.
I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, Goodreads, grammar skills, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku poem, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Jane Risdon, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry slams, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming poetry, Rodica Mihalis, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, Rowena Simpkiss, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, suspense thriller, travel memoir, travel writer, Twitter, vampire, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Welcome to the six hundred and seventy-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with autobiographer Robert Lewis. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Robert. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Robert: I’m based just outside of Los Angeles in Southern California, USA. Upon assignment to my first Special Forces team, I was told by a teammate to “start a journal, as my life was about to get very interesting.” I heeded his advice, and after I left the Army and married my wife I had so many people telling me that I had to get my story out there that I finally decided to put pen to paper.
Morgen: I think the same thing happens with policemen (I met two former detectives at a crime writing weekend who are now crime novelists). Presumably you have so much content to choose from, how do you decide what to write about?
Robert: This first book, “Love Me When I’m Gone” is the story of my time in Special Forces, fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa, all the while trying to keep my love alive with my then girlfriend, now wife and mother of our children, actress Cindy Chiu. I have a dozen fiction books outlined to follow this one, but had to get our true story out there first!
Morgen: You’ll have to come back for an author spotlight when your fiction comes out. 
You’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 5pm fiction, agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, five senses, flash fiction, Goodreads, grammar skills, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, haiku poem, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, memoirist, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, poetry exercises, poetry slams, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming poetry, Robert Lewis, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, travel memoir, travel writer, Twitter, vampire, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing exercises, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, writing prompts, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number twenty-one went live today and contained three flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as Flash Fiction Fridays. Do email me should you like to submit your own.
This episode contained:
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
*
Donald E. Schwarz was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and lived his entire adult life In New York City with a brief hiatus working in Israel developing an irrigation project for Mexico. He studied mathematics at CUNY before going to Israel. Upon returning to Manhattan he worked for an ad agency designing computer models until changes in the industry made his position obsolete. After that he drove a cab to support his writing habit, spending most of his time ‘holed up’ in the New York Public library. Interrogation Tango was his first literary effort to be published, but his real passion was writing screenplays. You can find out more about him and his debut novel (co-written with Victoria King-Voreadi) at http://donschwarz.iguanabooks.com. I interviewed Victoria, who talked about her work with Don, on Saturday 5th January, interview no.603.
**
Simon is a semi-retired part-time lecturer in English in a college in Cornwall. He’s been writing for as long as he can remember, and had his first publication in his school magazine when he was about 16. He’s just turned 60, but remembers that story vividly. He’s enjoying the luxury of having two days off work each week, and has been able to become much more creative and productive over the past year or so as a consequence.
After graduating in English from the University of Bristol, Simon then completed a PhD at Cambridge (on medieval English hagiography; not many career options there, he says…) and returned to teaching English for the remainder of his career.
He and his wife recently bought bikes, and have been enjoying cycling round the lanes of their beautiful county (though it’s a bit hilly, he tells me!)
He doesn’t yet have a website or blog, but is aiming to start one, now he has some time to devote to it. He adds that it seems difficult these days to reach a reading audience without some kind of web presence.
**
Marion Grace Woolley studied at the British Record Industry Trust (BRIT) School of Performing Arts, Croydon. After obtaining an MA in Language & Communication Research from the University of Cardiff, she declared that she’d had enough of academia and decided to run away to Africa.
Balancing her creative impulses with a career in International Development, she worked and travelled across Africa, Australia, Armenia, and a few other places beginning with ‘A’. In 2009, Marion helped to oversee the publication of the first Dictionary of Amarenga y’Ikinyarwanda (Rwandan Sign Language), a project of which she was immensely proud to have been a part.
The same year, Marion was shortlisted for the Luke Bitmead Bursary for New Writers. She is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories, and an associate member of the Society of Authors.
She now lives in Gloucester, although the travelling bug hasn’t gone away.
You can find out more about Marion and her writing from her website and see her book trailer on YouTube.
***
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be three more short stories in four weeks’ time.
All the details of these episodes are listed on this blog’s Podcast Short Stories page and my email address to submit flash fiction for Flash Fiction Fridays a short stories for critique on http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome items for critique for the online writing groups listed below:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author interview, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, Barnes and Noble, biographers, biography, blogger, blogging, books, characters, children’s, copyediting, copyeditor, copywriter, copywriting, cozy mysteries, creative writing, crime, crime series, crime thriller, crime thrillers, critique, critique groups, debut novel, Donald E Schwarz, editing, editor, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fantasy horror, fantasy writer, feedback, fellow authors, fiction, fiction author, flash fiction, Goodreads, grammar skills, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, historical author, historical writer, horror novel, indie, interview, interview with writer, interviewees, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Marion Grace Woolley, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mysteries, murder mystery, mystery author, mystery series, mystery suspense, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novelists, novels, open mic nights, paranormal, paranormal romance, paranormal romances, part time lecturer, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, poetry slams, pseudonyms, publisher, publishing, query letters, reading books, red pen, rejection letter, rejection letters, rejections, rhyming poetry, romance, romance fantasy, romance writer, science fiction, scriptwriters, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Simon Lavery, Smashwords, story a day, Story A Day May, story author, story authors, story collections, story writer, submissions, suspense novelist, Twitter, vampire, Waterstones, western, western author, Wordpress, writer, writer interview, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing fiction, writing group, writing magazines, writing novels, writing poetry, YA, young adult novels, youtube
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number twenty went live today and contained three flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as Flash Fiction Fridays (do email me should you like to submit your own), plus a bonus fourth story, the last to appear on this blog’s Short Story Saturday slot (which has been taken over by the Short Story Writing Group).
This podcast episode contained my readings of:
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
*
Now a little about the authors…
Christopher Farley. He lived a sheltered life in the wilds of Kent from where he was saved by the written word. So much so that he still corresponds with certain people with A PEN AND PAPER!! Upon moving to London, a bit like Dick Whittington, searching for streets of gold, he happened upon a beautiful Italian lady who later decided to take him to the sunny realm of southern Switzerland, where he can still be found, smiling inanely, continuously in search of Weissbier. When he is not working or drinking he sits in front of the computer, searching for fictional inspiration. You can find Chris via his blog http://talkingtosh.wordpress.com.
**
Dr. Margaret Aranda is American Board Certified Anesthesiology, Critical Care, and Forensic Medicine. A graduate of the Keck USC School of Medicine, she completed her studies at Stanford University School of Medicine, both as an Anesthesiology Resident and a Critical Care Fellow. She spends her time writing, seeing patients, and caring for her daughter. She loves to enter forums with her 7,700 FaceBook and You Tube friends, and can be caught riding a stationary bike every so often. Her first book, ‘No More Tears: A Physician Turned Patient Inspires Recovery’, is scheduled for production by Tate Publishing in December 2012. Additional works include ‘Stepping from the Edge’ and her Children’s Book, ‘Little Missy Two-Shoes Likes a Ladybug’; both of these are scheduled for 2013 production. Tucked away on horse property in Los Angeles, California, Dr. Aranda’s lifetime motto is: ”Live to Serve”. Her website is http://www.drmargaretaranda.blogspot.com.
**
J.D. Means works as an Aviation Logistics Supervisor in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., and lives in Dubai. His first Children’s Book: Millie and Honey – The Incredible Instantaneous Interplanetary Adventure – Volume I – CATATONIA is in bookstores and available on Amazon now. His next book in the series: APPLEOPOLIS will be available soon. This story is from his third book; The Blue Angel Planet. JD’s website is http://www.millieandhoney.com.
**
Dan Purdue lives and writes near Birmingham in the UK. His short fiction has been published in many places online and in print, including Writers’ Forum magazine, MicroHorror.com, Defenestration, Every Day Fiction, The View From Here, and The Waterhouse Review. His stories have won prizes in the 2010 Chapter One International Short Story Competition, Flash500.com, the Seán Ó Faoláin Prize and most recently the 2012 H.E. Bates Short Story Competition. He was also shortlisted for the 2010 James White Award and The Guardian’s 2009 Summer Short Story competition. “Somewhere to Start From”, an anthology featuring many of his published and prizewinning stories, is available in print and as an ebook. He blogs at http://Lies-ink.blogspot.com and tweets as @DanPurdue. You can find his book at: Amazon (print) and Smashwords (eBook) plus the iTunes Bookstore and other retailers.
***
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be another short stories in four weeks’ time.
All the details of these episodes are listed on this blog’s Podcast Short Stories page and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or review for the Short Story Saturdays) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, characters, children’s, Chris Farley, Christopher Farley, creative writing, crime, critique, Dan Purdue, Dr Margaret Aranda, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, JD Means, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Hello everyone. This is me… on the right – a water baby – except of course I’m a bit older and wiser (and almost as far away from the sea as one can get in Britain).
A couple of weeks ago, I created http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/me/morgens-saturday-shoutouts to inspire me to put a weekly post up about what I’ve been doing, see as the other posts are either about or by my guests.
I’d love to tell you that since that page went up that I’ve been working hard at my own writing, but sadly (and as per usual) this blog’s taken over and I’ve done nothing to my second novel, a mystery entitled ‘After Jessica’. What’s more annoying is that I have six wonderful first readers (hi Jenny, Graham, Tony, Robin, Catherine and Jessica) all waiting for me to get it done and send it over. Of course I don’t expect them all to come back to me (and certainly no quicker than I’ve been) but just knowing that one or more of them might should be pushing me to get it done… I know, it’s down to me to find the time and had it been November, I’d be doing just that for NaNoWriMo. I shouldn’t be hard on myself because I did / won my fifth NaNo in November and then had a backlog of emails etc then there was Christmas. Yeah, I know… it’s only three days.
So, in the meantime of me doing anything productive of my own, in case you’ve not stopped by my Morgen With An ‘E’ page, I’ve replicated it below to prove that actually I can sit my bum in my chair and do some work. I hope you’re sitting comfortably…
Hello. I’m Morgen With An E, a writer of over 7 years (although I do remember writing a story about an ampersand when young and dabbling with limericks in my 20s, and I’ve always had my head in a book; formerly Stephen King but my tastes have softened somewhat… to crime and humour). I’m passionate about the craft, and wanted to share with you my knowledge and experience gleaned to-date, having studied under the tutorledge of Sally Spedding, Judith Allnatt, Sue Moorcroft, Joanna Barnden, Jane Adams, and Myra Schneider, and most recently Helen M Hunt. My contact details are here.
I write fiction, mainly short stories and novels with some poetry, and have been published in the UK, the latest being two flash fiction pieces in Cake issue no.3. I also submit to magazines and competitions in the UK and overseas and won Ripping Pages competition January 2008 with a poem ‘Fight for life’, was shortlisted in the Verulam Writers’ Circle ‘Get Writing’ Competition 2010 with Feeding the Father, a based-on-a-true-story monologue, which was also shortlisted in the Writers’ News Short Story Competition October 2010 (so near and yet so far). I won the Northampton Writers’ Group Members Only Short Story Comp July 2010 and was also shortlisted at Verulam Writers’ Circle ‘Get Writing’ 2011 Competition. ‘Feeding the Father’ is available as a free eShort here (there are three other freebies) and will feature in an upcoming anthology ‘It’s all about me’.
I’ve written four and a bit novels (three for NaNoWriMo – www.nanowrimo.org: 53,000 in November 2008, (novel no 2 Jan-Oct 2009), 117,540 words in Nov 2009 (in 29 days!), 51,300 words November 2010 and scraped through the 50,000 barrier (with less than an hour to spare) in 2011. The ‘bit’ is a conversion of my Script Frenzy 2010 script which I’ll continue at some stage.
I wrote my first-ever script for NaNo’s sister site Script Frenzy – www.scriptfrenzy.org – which was a challenge to say the least. The target was 100 pages rather than 50,000 words but the layout so different that it was a much slower process. Although I’m glad I did it (102 pages), it didn’t make me want to be a script writer (although I wrote a 5-minute play for Northampton Literature Group’s July 2010 task which was fun) so am sticking with the novels, short stories and occasional poetry. I have also had one of my monologues displayed alongside one of Jaroslaw Ancuta’s drawings – see www.jaroslaw-ancuta.com.
I’ve also had writing-related articles published in the NAWG April 2011 ’Link’ magazine (Chorleywood Literature Festival Review), August 2011 (Blog interviews & Bailey’s Writing Tips) and October 2011 (The Benefits of Attending Writing Events) and a twisted fairy tale in April 2012 editions. I’ve been mentioned on Rosanne Dingli’s website as well as a short story (‘The Threadbare Girl’) published on Nathan Weaver’s site. This blog’s My Collaborations page lists everything to-date. ‘The Threadbare Girl’ is available as a free short story and part of my ‘Story A Day 2011′* anthology on Smashwords ($0.99 (£0.77 / AS$1.50)) *which has just received its first review on Amazon, a glowing 5*.
In July 2011 I guested on Tia Silver Bach’s blog on the subject of NaNoWriMo. In September, Jodine Turner invited me to talk about writing essentials. Later that month I said what it was (is) like to be a writer in the U.K. entitled The view from across the pond on JD Mader’s non-fiction blog.
In December 2011 I was nominated (by K.S. Brooks), and awarded (by JD Mader), a Versatile Blogger Award. Coming a few hours after the first (a 5*) review for my The 365-Day Writer’s Block Workbook they certainly made my day. Then Chaz Wood’s wonderfully dark blog I talked again about writing essentials (yes, it’s deja vu ).
In January I guested on Fiona Veich Smith site to talk about overcoming writer’s block.
Then late February 2012 Cindy Vaskova bestowed a ‘Liebster Blog Award’ on myself and four other bloggers: Nerine Dorman, Icy Sedgwick, Sonya Clark and Emma Newman. One of my duties is to 1. Link back to Cindy (easy). 2. Nominate five others (not quite so easy but doable). 3. Post the award on my blog (done). 4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people in the blogosphere (easy, I do that already ). 5. Have fun and spread the karma! (peasy). Thank you, Cindy.
In April I was one of Catherine Noble‘s ‘crafty fella‘s… that’s certainly a first. Thank you, Catherine, and later that month I was added to the Towcester Writers Group website, was awarded a ‘Lucky Seven’ by Kasia James, and listed as a top blogger by Finish Your Book (another WordPress site). I also met up with JD Mader again on the topic of the art of interviews.
Late May I was presented (online) with a ‘Beautiful Blogger Award’ by Sean Durity followed by another Versatile Blogger Award from Darlene Jones, and then another ‘Beautiful Blogger Award’ by Dicy McCullough. And I revisited the topic of writing essentials for Nancy Dodd and then on Siggy Buckley’s site with a piece entitled Do as I do, not and as I say.
In June I was no.7 of 21 on a list of other bloggers who interview authors, won another Versatile Blogger Award from DK Thomas and a WGT Kreative Blogger Award from Siggy Buckley. I was also Jadis Shaw’s ‘featured book’ with a Story a Day May 2011 giveaway. Also that month I became an Associate of the Society of Authors.
Then in July I was listed 12th in Best Colleges Online’s Top 100 creative writing blogs, on the Fantastic Books Publishing blog as a ‘Useful Resource for Writers’ and a ‘helpful people & sites’ on Burrst.com.
In August I was awarded a Sunshine Blogger Award by Sophie E Tallis then I spotted my blog as one of Sheila Pearson’s favourites and Sophie E Tallis awarded me a Very Inspiring Blogger Award (I never knew there were so many). Tony Riches asked me for 10 writing tips for new writers then a few days later I wrote a guest post for Tom Rizzo on crime writing. Later that day, Sheron McCartha listed this blog’s Books: Other’s Peoples / Novels & Novellas page on her sci-fi book review blog. The next day Gail M Baugniet listed this blog as an awesome blog to visit and a few days later I was mentioned on Helen Yendall’s blog. On the 22nd Christopher Farley awarded me a One Lovely Blog Award. It was a busy month!
Then in September Agnes Meadow invited me to be a (paid!) speaker (as “Queen Blogger”) at her Loose Muse event in Covent Garden, London, mid-March 2013 (I accepted, of course), Jaidis Shaw named me as one of her Author Resources on her new blog. and the same day Dorit Kedar told me via Facebook that thanks to some advice I’d given her she had a short story placed in an anthology. Mid-month novelist and writing guru Jane Wenham-Jones mentioned me in one of her Woman’s Weekly ‘Just Jane‘ columns. Then on the 24th September I was announced as one of Tribal Messenger Daily’s Top 50 blog for authors.
October 2012 started with me being nominated by Anne O’Connell for a Super Sweet award, then on the 2nd I was interviewed by Tom Blubaugh. On the 6th I signed up to (using my Twitter account, it was that easy) with RebelMouse which picks up my content from Twitter and Facebook as I produce it so I never have to do a thing. Then mid-October I I’ve joined Wattpad. Are you on there? Do let me know. A couple of days later I was notified that a free eBook entitled ‘Ditch the Publisher’ I’d contributed to (my section’s no.7, entitled ‘The eBook revolution’) was released. Then William R Bell ‘This is Your Life’d me. And late October I received an email inviting me to join storylane where I was asked to lay myself bare (not literally, you’ll be pleased to know) but perhaps sharing a little too much information about my private life… including my most embarrassing moment!
A great start to November with the kick-off of my latest crime novel ‘Once Perfect’ (and this is going to be very grim) for NaNoWriMo 2012 and I uploaded my first (third-written) novel, my one-and-only-chick-lit-to-date, The Serial Dater’s Shopping List on to Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Smashwords (and will be on iTunes, B&N etc. shortly). On the morning of Wednesday 7th November, I woke up to find I’d received a Written Acts of Kindness Award. The next day, Yasmin Selena Butt mentioned me on her blog. Then on the 11th I was interviewed by Richard Godwin at his Slaughterhouse! 
On the 21st I woke up to a comment on my blog from Sophie E Tallis and a p.s. that she’d nominated me for a One Lovely Blog Award. Then I submitted a 55-word story to Austin Briggs monthly competition.
I finished NaNoWriMo, with a few minutes to spare, ‘winning’ with 51,555 words then on the morning of 1st December, I was shortlisted on Austin’s competition. One of my interviewees epic fantasy novelist Yvonne Herzberger won. I received an email late on 4th December telling me I had won a professional video trailer from Writania for The Serial Dater’s Shopping List (TSDSL) with my pitch of ’31 dates in 31 days – what could possibly go wrong?’. Then on the 5th I woke up to find I’d been nominated for a Blog of the Year 2012 award. On 9th December TSDSL was featured on online magazine Female First! On the 18th December, Tracy Kauffman added me to http://literary.yolasite.com/bloggers.php. and later that evening I posted a part 3 of 3 guest post by crime novelist Neil Yuzuk who announced that he’s named one of his characters (a secretary, and I was a secretary!) after Rosanne Dingli and me!
January 2013 got off to a flying start with Cheryl Carpinello interviewing me on the 1st.
There is more on the Morgen With An ‘E’ page but I think that’s more than enough. So, hopefully another thrilling instalment next Saturday with some news that I’ve actually accomplished something this week…
***
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biography, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, Smashwords, story author, story authors, submissions, Twitter, vampire, western, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 19 went live today and contained three flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as Flash Fiction Fridays. Do email me should you like to submit your own. This episode contained:
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast which is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
Will is a fifty-something lover of blues, rock and jazz. He presently lives in South Wales, and has just fulfilled a lifetime ambition by extending his bookcases to fill one entire wall of his home office. Working as a professional tax consultant, he writes to escape the stultifying boredom of his job. He has an irregular blog, www.willmacmillanjones.wordpress.com where he “rambles incoherently about writing”. His publisher’s website is www.safkhetpublishing.com.
***
Dr. Marlene Caroselli (www.saatchionline.com/LainaCelano), is an author, keynoter, and corporate trainer.
She has published over 60 books, including Jesus, Jonas, and Janus: The Leadership Triumvirate, and Principled Persuasion, named a Director’s Choice by Doubleday Book Club.
***
Angela is the author of the zombie blog, After Old Joe, and is hard at work on her latest novel.
She has penned dozens of erotica stories for sites such as For The Girls, Oysters & Chocolate, and Every Night Erotica, and has recently served as guest-editor for a month-long issue of Leo DeGraunce.
Her main focus is on erotica, but she also admits to a fondness for horror—especially the zombie genre, as evidenced by her recent story, “Man Meat”, which was featured on Thrillers, Killers and Chillers.
Her story “My Special Day” appears in the recently-published anthology, My First Threesome.
Her two sexy e-books, Working Out the Kinks and Start Me Up: A Collection of Erotic Love Stories are now available at Amazon.
Be sure to check out her zombie blog After Old Joe and her erotica blog Friday I’m In Love.
You can find out more about Angela and her writing at http://www.angiesargenti.blogspot.com, http://www.amazon.com/author/angelasargenti, http://pinterest.com/angiesargenti, and @angiesargenti on Twitter.
***
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be a hints & tips episode in a fortnight, then short stories return a fortnight thereafter.
All the details of these episodes are listed on this blog’s Podcast Short Stories page and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or review for the Short Story Saturdays) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: agent, Amazon, Angela Sargenti, Angie Sargenti, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biography, books, characters, children’s, corporate trainer, creative writing, cryonics, Doubleday Book Club, Dr. Marlene Caroselli, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, horror, interview, keynoter, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Marlene Caroselli, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, novelist, paranormal, pinterest, poetry, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, Safkhet Publishing, science fiction, self-publishing, short stories, Smashwords, story author, story authors, Twitter, western, Will Macmillan-Jones, writing, YA, youtube
I originally recorded red pen critique as part of a series of podcast episodes dedicated to reading a short story or self-contained novel extract (with synopsis) and then talking about it afterwards. I am now running these on this blog.
I run a fortnightly critique group as well as critiquing other authors writing which I really enjoy so I thought I’d create podcast episodes doing this, and will now be running future ones on the blog, initially with the already-recorded episodes at 5pm daily (or thereabouts, am late today), then every Sunday evening (UK times).
Please remember that it’s only one person’s (my) opinion and you, and the author concerned, are welcome to disagree with my interpretation – I will never be mean for the sake of it, but hope you find that I’m firm but fair. I type my comments for the recording as I read through the story as a reader would think as they read the story, although they would most likely be reading, not analysing, unless they’re writers too!
Regardless of what genre you write I hope that this helps you think about the way fiction is constructed and that you have enjoyed reading another author’s work, the copyright of which remains with them, then my suggestions for any improvement.
***
The story in this post was kindly emailed to me by Kathryn Wild, a teacher who has spent the last three years in Thailand and Switzerland, working in their education systems, after four years in England. She is currently in the process of relocating again, most likely to Spain, having left the English Education system to allow herself time to travel and more importantly to write. In the space of the last two years, she has written two young adult novels (book one is almost ready to go out, book two needs editing but it is sitting in the ‘bottom draw’ so, she says, she can see it fresh when she come back to it). She is currently 20,000 words into the first draft of book three.
The novel I shall be talking about today is an urban fantasy called ‘Firebound’. Kathryn describes it as the Vampire Diaries books meets the TV show ‘Avatar – The Last Airbender’ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417299), with the problems that underpinned the problems of the French Revolution. To give you a flavour her synopsis begins: The underground elemental world of the Guardians is facing a rebellion and both sides are pinning their hopes on sixteen-year-old Abigail Cooper who is still grieving from her mother’s strange death and much more interested in regaining her popularity and boys than in her ability to control fire.
I create my comments as I read the story for the first time, as a reader would, so you will have had the advantage of hearing the excerpt in its entirety but hopefully what I have to say will still make sense to you. Unlike critiquing a short story where all I have to go on is a title, I do have an idea of what the extract is about having read the synopsis which does make it a little easier although I admit that I’m no fantasy expert but will do my best.
If you have any feedback on this or aspects of my website or blog, I’m always delighted to hear from you – my email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
And if you’re feeling brave enough to send me a short story or novel extract (with a brief synopsis please) – 3,000-words maximum – for these red pen blog sessions then feel free.
So without further ado, the story / synopsis and extract, then my feedback…
Firebound extract
Chapter One: Tattoo
Her dad still had some part of him that was a human being and he didn’t ground her for her birthday, not that it mattered. She knew what non-events birthdays had become, they didn’t celebrate them anymore and hers was so close to the day they were all dreading.
She had ran up the stairs as soon as she had got home from school. She hated being in this house. It was a family house and since the car crash that had claimed her mum’s life last year she didn’t have one of them. It was best just to stay outside and occupy her mind with other things. Things that didn’t hurt as much to think about. She threw her uniform onto the floor, kicking it out of the way and empting half the contents of her drawers, hiding the last inches of red carpet. She could almost hear her mum’s voice as she threw her blazer on the ‘to be worn again pile’.
Her mum would be having a fit if she saw the mess. ‘Abigail, this room looks like a bomb has hit it.’ She ignored the voice and the familiar shiver that ran down her back as she threw her white school shirt on the pile that screamed, ‘please put me in the washing machine’. Her mum didn’t get a say about that anymore. The fire that had engulfed her car put an end to that. She gulped letting those feelings sink in further to her stomach. She had promised herself, she wasn’t going to go there. Not today.
She reached up to touch her mum’s old necklace and felt it heat up in hands, burning them and forcing her to pull away, before she shook her head. She was just being stupid and way over sensitive. Gold didn’t just randomly heat up. At least not without something causing it to. It was just her mind playing tricks on her, it couldn’t be anything else.
Abigail took the necklace off and carefully placed it on her desk next to her History coursework that was due three days ago. She didn’t (need) any reminders tonight if she wanted to have a good time. Her brown eyes drifting back to it as she threw more clothes out of her wardrobe. She never took her necklace off, but she couldn’t wear it and put her act of being normal tonight. Her hands traced opal marks on her neck, retracing the mark and her mum’s presence and glancing back at the necklace as the sun from the window caught the opals on the golden necklace making it look like flickering flames. She shook her head turning away, her mind and the light were playing some serious tricks on her today.
She kept her outfit simple: trainers, jeans and a hoodie and headed downstairs while letting her red hair fall out of its school day messy plait half way down her back. She never wore her hair down for school, it just got in her way but Jordan liked it down. He loved to run his hands through it, almost as much as he loved to touch her skin. Making him happy would end up making her happy. Focusing on nothing but the blissful dissolution that he could offer, she paused her hand on the kitchen door.
That was her dad’s voice in there, her dad who hadn’t been home before her self imposed bedtime in months was in there, arguing with her grandmother. Her grandmother that bad been banned from the house. It didn’t make sense. But she didn’t let herself think or examine why the two of them were there, in the kitchen and fighting. They always fought and this time it seemed to be about her, or at least her name had been screamed several times but the words didn’t matter. Her dad was actually home. A relief rushed through her, lighting her up and filling her lungs with air. He did still care about her. He must. Maybe all the rejection was gone and he had stopped burying himself in his work. A faint smile formed on her lips as she pushed open the kitchen door.
She rushed in and hugged him, dropping all the guards that she used to protect herself. “Dad.”
“Happy birthday,” her dad, Thomas, pulled his stiff arms away, “shouldn’t you get going? You did make plans with your friends for tonight. You wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.”
“Guess,” she looked down, she didn’t want him to see her face. She needed time to recompose it and put back up her ‘I’m fine act.’ His early appearance obviously had nothing to do with her. She smiled towards her grandmother, Sylvia, rather than dwell on this. Dwelling on this wouldn’t help, it would only add to her problems. Her dad didn’t do family, anymore and her grandmother had braved his wrath to come and see her from the looks of it. “Hi, Gran.”
“Happy sixteenth,” her grandmother, Sylvia, crossed the room. She held her granddaughter’s face softly for a moment then letting her hand linger on her right shoulder as brushed away her hair out her face. She pulled Abigail into a hug and whispered, “Permissum incendia suscipio.”
“What?” Abigail said.
“Don’t worry about it; you have nothing to worry about now.” Sylvia said.
After several more unanswered questions and another round of verbal sparring between her dad and grandmother, Abigail headed outside. She hugged the black biker jacket to her out of habit rather than from the cold December air. She wasn’t feeling cold, she didn’t tend to get cold, she had some screwed up kind of wiring that kept her warm at all times but she did need the support it offered before she could go back to pretending that everything was still fine. She was determined to enjoy a little of her birthday.
Jordan was waiting for her at the end of her driveway. He never came up to the door if he knew that her family was going to be in and she couldn’t blame him. She didn’t like getting the third degree for being a bad influence from his parents. She hated hearing things like “That Cooper girl.” So she couldn’t blame Jordan for not wanting to get the same treatment.
“You ready?” He took her right hand and gave it a small pull, a pull that shot pain up to her right shoulder.
***
My comments:
I like the title of Chapter 1 as it implies it’s about an actual tattoo so it gives us a picture even before we start reading. Hooks are usually shorter than this first sentence is but it has power and in just 25 words tells us a lot. We already know that it’s third person, past tense and that the main two characters are a father and daughter, we’re assuming the daughter being the protagonist and father antagonist because he’s causing some conflict, albeit not as much as she had expected. It also hints at an element of fantasy by him being part-human and that something had changed over time by using the word ‘still’, although the part-human could be metaphorical. We also immediately sympathise with her because although he’s taken pity on her because it’s her birthday they’re not celebrated especially given that they something bigger to think about.
On first reading the story I stumbled over the ‘She had run (ran) up the stairs as soon as she had got home from school.’ – this could be changed to ‘she’d’ in the second or both cases. Also by saying ‘last year’ it feels present tense so perhaps better saying ‘the previous year’.
‘She hated being in this house.’ is a clear tell. What we could have her doing is something like her growling at it, something which shows us of her feelings, although we then learn why and the reasons for her behaviour.
With the next couple of sentences we have a repetition of ‘things’ and I’m not normally a fan of repetition but this is used correctly there the second instance is an emphasis of the first.
What the girl does next is great! She clearly has no respect for her possessions, and possibly her school, by throwing down the uniform which we then learn is nothing new as her floor is now covered. Whilst this could be clichéd I’d say it’s more stereotypical so nothing wrong at all with that, especially given her motivation for rebellion.
By having ‘She could almost hear her mum’s voice as she threw her blazer on the ‘to be worn again pile.’ I’d say we don’t need the next sentence (Her mum would be having a fit if she saw the mess.) because it’s implied to us how her mother would react and then we’re told how she would and then of course we have what she would have said which I especially like as we’re now told our characters name by another person, albeit it Abigail’s head.
I’m a big fan of inanimate objects having life so loved a pile of clothes screaming to be washed.
And then, wow… we find out how her mother died.
Now, because Kathryn’s just mentioned Abigail’s mother where she goes onto write ‘She gulped letting those feelings sink’, it can be read as her mother gulping so she should change ‘she’ to Abigail to avoid any confusion. Anything that can jump a reader out of a story, or make them pause, should be avoided. Having lost a parent myself, albeit 10 years ago, I found Abigail’s emotions very realistic, very strong writing.
With ‘She reached up to touch her mum’s old necklace’ I assume Kathryn means that the necklace is around Abigail’s neck but it could have been lying on a shelf… I did want to know where she was reaching up to.
I wasn’t sure from this paragraph whether the heating up had happened before. By Abigail just shaking her head it could be that she’d forgotten, but then her being curious about it implies it hasn’t so, perhaps we could have a stronger reaction like her yanking her hand back and blowing on it to cool it? Or something like that.
I’ve described my critique as firm but fair but the firm side of me can be picky… and this includes split infinitives so where we have ‘Abigail took the necklace off’ should read ‘Abigail took off the necklace’ as the verb is to ‘take off’ rather than just ‘take’ and we have that a couple of times, the second time actually I’d say should read ‘She’d never normally…’ and I may be mistaken but I think ‘put her act of being normal’ should be to put on an act. I’m sorry, I did say I was picky.
There was a sentence beginning that I read automatically adding in a word without realising it ‘She didn’t need any reminders tonight’. The original text is actually missing the word ‘need’ but my mind clearly put it in, which is odd how our brains work and presumably Kathryn missed it too.
I did say earlier that I wasn’t a fan of repetition and in that paragraph there are four instances of the word ‘necklace’ so perhaps describe it as golden earlier (especially useful so the ‘opal’ then makes sense (although I wonder if the marks would be opal in colour, perhaps this is one of the fantasy elements of the story).
Then we get a description of her, and it’s a very vivid one at that and we get to know a little about her boyfriend, Jordan, through her eyes and their loving relationship although it’s sad that she feels that has to make him happy in order to be happy herself.
We have a repetition, this time of grandmother, but again it’s emphasis so it’s fine. And I’m intrigued as to why she would be banned. We don’t learn why in this extract although I sense, from the Latin quote, that she too has a supernatural gift which Abigail’s father doesn’t approve of. Hopefully we’ll learn this later in the book.
We don’t know whether the grandmother is maternal or paternal which doesn’t really matter but may give us an idea as to whether he’s arguing with his mother or mother-in-law which would usually make a difference.
Again we sympathise with Abigail, firstly because her relatives are arguing, then we find out about her, but mainly because of how she feels about her father being home – and this is shown to us rather than told, which is good, and I liked her lungs filling with air as it’s a contrast with her gulping earlier.
When her father wishes her happy birthday we then get his name which I would have preferred to come out in speech because otherwise we could have been told it earlier.
I felt that “You did make plans with your friends for tonight.” was a little clunky and expected a “didn’t you?” at the end or perhaps just change it to a simple “You’ve made plans with your friends for tonight.”
Her then just saying “Guess” confused me a little. I read it as that he had to guess something but then reread it that she mean “I guess so”.
Again I would have liked Sylvia’s name to be in speech rather than being ‘told’ what it is. If the two adults are arguing they could easily shout each others’ names as well as Abigail’s.
With the sentence ‘Dwelling on this wouldn’t help, it would only add to her problems.’ I’m inclined to cut the ‘it would only add to her problems’ as they’re really saying the same thing and the latter is more of a ‘tell’ than the ‘dwelling’. If we didn’t know she had any problems then it would have been useful but I’d say it could go.
After Sylvia wishes Abigail a happy sixteenth (which is a good way of letting us know how old she is), we have Sylvia’s name again which we don’t need because we’ve already been told it so just her name or ‘grandmother’ would be fine.
I think ‘a moment then letting her hand linger’ should read ‘let her hand linger’ otherwise the sentence ends too early, and also ‘her right shoulder’ immediately follows the grandmother’s hand so it should read ‘Abigail’s’ right shoulder otherwise the Sylvia could be touching her own shoulder. I know we know, but again it’s the opportunity to confuse the reader that we don’t need. It’s more obvious if one character is male and one female but something to think about with two characters of the same sex.
On first reading I noticed I’d automatically added another couple of words ‘as she brushed away her hair out of her face’ which originally didn’t have the words ‘she’ or ‘of’, which again I hadn’t spotted the first time round. I stumbled a bit over that section anyway so I’d be inclined to lose the word ‘away’ but again it’s something for Kathryn to look at.
Although I don’t understand Latin I really like having it there because it firstly makes the grandmother feel ‘old and wise’ to me but also like it’s a secret code between the two of them.
I was a little confused though by ‘several more unanswered questions’ as I’d thought that the ‘don’t worry about it’ was an explanation of the Latin so perhaps this can be made a little clearer. Also would Abigail waited while they argued. Would she have said something or escaped earlier? I think she would have wanted to see more of her father and grandmother – perhaps to find a way to stop them arguing. This is something that Kathryn could expand on depending on her word count although this could of course be a section she deliberately didn’t want to elaborate on.
I liked Abigail hugging her jacket to her and then getting a hint of her ability with the fact that she never feels cold and we already have the earlier instance of the necklace burning her hand, although it’s implied that it’s the necklace doing the burning, so perhaps a link of ability passed down from her mother to her.
Where Kathryn says about Jordan, ‘He never came up to the door if he knew that her family was going to be in’ – presumably in this instance it was because of a car or two being outside the house, because if it was a surprise to Abigail that they were there, he wouldn’t have known unless she’d rung him to tell him and we’re not told that she has. I felt the rest of that paragraph, where she’s analysing why he keeps his distance could be trimmed and would she hear “that Cooper girl” unless they’re talking about her while she’s there and assumed that it would be spoken to Jordan instead so this could be tweaked. I like that way of getting her surname in though.
I love the final line because although they’re obviously close just him touching her causes her pain which I suspect has a deeper meaning to it, and therefore a great place to end.
Conclusion:
Kathryn has achieved what should be done in a novel’s first chapter; she’s introduced us to our protagonist, given a little description of her so we can form a picture, mentioned a small number of other characters, and given us their conflicts or dilemmas without giving too much away. It’s always very tempting to give as much information about the characters and setting at the beginning – known as an ‘info dump’ but we don’t have that here, and it makes us want to read on. Also as a non-reader of fantasy I don’t feel overwhelmed by the information we’ve been given. It’s a very relatable story and I suspect from Kathryn’s clear writing style it’ll continue like that.
***
Since this red pen session aired Kathryn has received other feedback and has changed the beginning of her novel to…
Chapter One: Fire
The old necklace burnt in Abigail’s hand as she touched it. The burning feeling licked over her fingers as she held it tighter. Necklaces shouldn’t burn. But there it was lighting up in her hand the same way that a struck match would have done. Abigail let her mother’s old necklace slip back through her fingers and settle back into place. It sat in its normal position round her neck, just as it should be and not burning anymore. She ran her thumb along her fingertips. Apart from the paper cut on her ring finger, they felt the same, not burning, or even burnt, not hot or even that warm. Just normal. She reached up to touch the necklace again. Her hands heated up again. She pulled them away and kicked out at a pile of dirty school shirts scattering them across the red carpet.
This was stupid. She was just being stupid and way over sensitive. Gold didn’t just randomly heat up, at least not without something causing it to. Fire may have engulfed her mother’s car last year, but flames didn’t just spring up out of nothing. It was just the anniversary coming up. It was just her mind playing tricks on her, it couldn’t be anything else.
Abigail took off the necklace and carefully placed it on her desk next to her history coursework that was due in three days ago. She didn’t need any reminders of her mum tonight if she wanted to have a good time. She was determined to have a good time. Tears over last year’s car crash could wait at least for another day. Her gaze drifted back to the necklace as she threw more clothes out of her wardrobe. She felt naked without the necklace on, unprotected, unprepared, but she couldn’t wear it and put on her act of being normal tonight. Her hands traced marks on her neck as she felt her mum’s presence join her in the room. At least she could still find a few ways that she could remember her mum even if she wasn’t here. And one of those ways was wearing, her necklace and her symbol. The sun from the window caught the opals on the golden necklace making them look like flickering flames. She shook her head; her mind and the light were playing some serious tricks on her today.
She kept her outfit simple: trainers, jeans and a hoodie. She turned to the mirror, giving her appearance a final once over. She looked okay. Her trainers didn’t have their usual crust of mud at the toe, nor were there any tears in her jeans. Her red hair flickered, like a fire sputtering into life as she let it fall out of its school day messy plait and half way down her back.
She was royally losing it today. Fan-bloody-tastic. That nonsense with the necklace was just another thing that would cut her off from the crowd if she lost it. Damn it, she was normal, better than normal. She was popular. Or at least she had been. The necklace hadn’t heated up, the symbol hadn’t flickered in the light and her hair, despite its colour, was not on fire. No flames, just a stupid overactive imagination. An imagination that could easily be put to bed when she got out of this damn house.
Abigail paused as she reached the bottom of the stairs. The noise that had been masked by Holly’s television commentary on some storms in the north of Scotland was clear down on the lower level of the house. Her feet followed the voices before she paused again, her hand on the kitchen door. Her teeth dug down on her bottom lip. By the sound of it, she should be listening to this, despite not being invited to join in the conversation. Yet Jordan was waiting for her and he hated to be kept waiting. Her hand moved off away from the door. She should head out to him. But… But… Her hand found its way back to its paused position on the door. That was her dad’s voice in there.
A relief rushed through her, lighting her up and filling her lungs with air. Her dad was home, actually home. Maybe all the fights, detentions and letters home from school had finally worked. He did still care about her. He must. Maybe the days of conversations with his answering machine were over and he had stopped burying himself in his work. Her dad who had not been home before her self-imposed bedtime in months was in there. He was in there arguing with her grandmother. Her grandmother had been banned from the house since Beth’s eighteenth birthday, over six years ago. Her dad had even kicked her grandmother out the house for a second time, the day following her mum’s funeral. Sparks had flown that day, along with the raised voices.
“Abigail is my daughter, damn it!”
“She’s my Heir and as of today, she is of age.”
“She’s is not your Heir.” Her dad sounded out every word. “She is my girl. Abi is my girl.”
“Just look at her, Thomas,” Her grandmother’s voice was the opposite to her dad’s, calm and controlled, but she too sounded out each word. “Stop and look at her, her brown eyes, her red hair, just like all her true ancestors. You can claim Holly and Bethany all you like but Abigail is my Heir, she is part of my world, not yours.”
A thud sounded against wood and the noise ricocheted through the air and pushed Abigail’s breath back down her throat. Her hand stayed frozen on the door, not wanting to push or pull away. That wasn’t her passionless dad in there. Not the man that responded to his daughter being involved in a fight by placing a note on the fridge with dates that she was grounded. It was the man who had screamed on the touchlines as she had flung herself into a tackle on the football pitch. It was the dad she had given up on still being around months ago.
“We rejected that world when you killed off your last Heir. You will not get your hands on my girl. Damn it, Sylvia. You will not get my girl. You will not treat her the same way that you did her mother.”
***
Kathryn’s website is http://www.kathrynwild.com and you can follow her on Twitter (where there’s currently this photograph of Kathryn and a beautiful tiger!).
***
If you have any feedback on this or aspects of my website or blog, I’m always delighted to hear from you – my email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
And if you’re feeling brave enough to send me a short story or novel extract (with a brief synopsis please) – 3,000-words maximum – for these red pen blog sessions then feel free.
Next is Flash Fiction Friday: ‘Between Floors’ (803 words) by Rowena Simpkiss
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: creative writing, critique, feedback, Firebound, Kathryn Wild, literature, novel extract, red pen, session, urban fantasy, writing, writing tips
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 18 went live today and contained three flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as Flash Fiction Fridays. Do email me should you like to submit your own.
This episode contained: are Family History (996 words) by octogenarian memoirist, non-fiction, fiction author and interviewee Johnnie Johnson, which he read himself for an authentic Geordie (north of England) accent. Then we had The Masterpiece (487 words) by suspense / romance, historical and speculative fiction author Linda Rondeau and The McKenna Chronicles – Home Warranty Companies (991 words) by short story author, novelist and blogger Terry Ambrose.
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast, which is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
***
Johnnie Johnson has been retired since 1988 since which time he has written 25 books including two novels. Most were traditionally published, others, such as the recently published e-travelogue, A VIRGIN IN THE PHILIPPINES, have been self-published. His website is www.johnniejohnson.co.uk.
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Winner of the 2012 Selah Award for best first novel (The Other Side of Darkness / Harbourlight), Linda Rondeau, writes for the reader who enjoys a little bit of everything. Her stories of redemption and God’s mercies include romance, suspense, the ethereal, and a little bit of history into the mix, always served with a slice of humor. Walk with her unforgettable characters as they journey paths not unlike our own.
After a long career in human services, mother of three and wife of one very patient man, Linda now resides in Florida where she is active in her church and community. Readers may visit her website at www.lindarondeau.com.
Her second book, written under L.W. Rondeau, America II: The Reformation, is a futuristic political thriller available in ebook on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble and her third is ‘It Really is a Wonderful Life’ available from Amazon.com and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Really-Wonderful-Life-Contemporary-ebook/dp/B00A1AOUZA and latest, due out next week, is I Prayed for Patience/God Gave Me Children.
***
Terry Ambrose started out skip tracing and collecting money from deadbeats and quickly learned that liars come from all walks of life. He never actually stole a car, but sometimes hired big guys with tow trucks and a penchant for working in the dark when “negotiations” failed.
A resident of Southern California, he loves spending time in Hawaii, especially on the Garden Island of Kauai, where he invents lies for others to read. His years of chasing deadbeats taught him many valuable life lessons including—always keep your car in the garage.
Terry’s website: http://terryambrose.com, his blog, The McKenna Chronicles, is at http://terryambrose.com/mckennas-blog and his books are available on Amazon and Smashwords.
***
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoy it. The next episode will return in four weeks. The red pen sessions which usually alternated with the short story episodes are now being run on the blog as http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/red-pen-critique.
All the details of these episodes are listed on this blog’s Podcast Short Stories page and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or review for the Short Story Saturdays) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
***
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: author, fiction, historical, interview, Johnnie Johnson, Linda Rondeau, memoirist, non-fiction, novelist, octogenarian, podcast, romance, short stories, speculative fiction, suspense, Terry Ambrose
The first red pen podcast was released on Monday 8th August 2011 and was the start of a series of episodes dedicated to reading a short story or self-contained novel extract (with synopsis) and then talking about it afterwards.
I run a fortnightly critique group as well as critiquing other authors writing which I really enjoy so I thought I’d create podcast episodes doing this, and will now be running future ones on the blog, initially with the already-recorded episodes at 5pm daily then every Sunday evening (UK times) from Sunday 16th December. I also have a new Feedback page for those seeking and offering feedback on works-in-progress or finished stories / poems / books.
Please remember that it’s only one person’s (my) opinion and you, and the author concerned, are welcome to disagree with my interpretation – I will never be mean for the sake of it, but hope you find that I’m firm but fair. I type my comments for the recording as I read through the story as a reader would think as they read the story, although they would most likely be reading, not analysing, unless they’re writers too!
Regardless of what genre you write I hope that this helps you think about the way fiction is constructed and that you have enjoyed reading another author’s work, the copyright of which remains with them, then my suggestions for any improvement.
***
The story featured in this episode was kindly emailed to me by short story author and novelist JD Mader who lives in San Francisco, USA and the story was entitled ‘Green’ which can be found at http://www.jdmader.com/2011/03/green.html.
JD’s website is http://www.jdmader.com where you can read his stories and much more, and if you’d like to you can email him there too. He told me in his email to me that this story came from one of his writing workshops with his students where they decided to write about ‘Green’ – and he was trying to show them what could be accomplished in such a short story. I’d say it worked. He also added that rhythm is very important to him which I can understand as this piece has a really poetic feel.
He has been fortunate enough to encounter many giving and inspiring people in his life.
He hopes to repay the debt.
And to make enough money with his writing to buy a house.
His first novel Joe Café, second, The Biker, and collaboration ‘Bad Book’ (with Hise and Brooks) are available from Amazon.
***
If you have any feedback on this or aspects of my website or blog, I’m always delighted to hear from you – my email address is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
And if you’re feeling brave enough to send me a short story or novel extract (with a brief synopsis please) – 3,000-words maximum – for these red pen blog sessions then feel free.
So without further ado, the story then my feedback…
Green
She felt the warmth of the rising sun crawl up her legs, but beneath her the grass was cool with dew. The contrast was pleasant, like jumping into a hot bath after playing in the snow. Her mind was calm, and she could see each blade of grass distinctly, green towers reaching toward the reddening sky. Each blade was the same height, the tops torn off by angry mower blades. Every so often a stalk stood proudly, knowing that it had escaped the fate of its comrades.
She could hear the distant call of birds. Their songs were lost in the thick air and became blips and screeches as they clawed their way through the morning haze. Her mind was simultaneously lost in the present and the past. She was lying in the grass. She was also standing on a stage. Her dance had just finished. The adults were clapping. She did not want to be a dancer. That did not seem to matter.
There were many things that did not matter. It hadn’t mattered when she told her mother that she wanted to be an astronaut. It hadn’t mattered when she then decided to forego college and travel the world. It hadn’t mattered when she was fifteen and she told Billy Abrams that she wanted him to stop. Funny how it all worked. Not funny funny, though.
There was a line of ants marching through the grass. She blew on them and they scattered, reforming their ranks like soldiers once the wind had passed.
The reflection of the sun expanded as it rose. It cast a pale green glow that seemed to coat her in peace and tranquility. Behind her, she could hear the moaning of the other passengers. An occasional scream. It was all very far away. She could smell the burning airplane, but somehow none of it was as important as the soft green grass and the tender warmth of the sun.
***
My comments:
OK, so going from the beginning, JD is immediately setting the scene. In the first line we know the protagonist is female, we don’t know her name yet but it doesn’t matter. If we didn’t know that the sun was warm it could almost be sinister by the fact that it’s crawling up her leg which also implies its slowness.
It’s great having the contrast between the warmth of the sun and the cool dew as the second sentence then goes on to talk about and is almost childlike with its ‘jumping’ in the hot bath and ‘playing’ in the snow, although again we don’t know her age.
The next contrast is the timing – the grass being cool with dew implies it’s the morning although I first thought that the reddening sky was late evening (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_sky_at_morning) which then we learn from ‘morning haze’ of the time of day.
I love the image of ‘angry mower blades’ and each blade of grass being the same height, an almost military picture until we read that some have escaped almost mockingly. I love it when inanimate objects have life breathed into them.
Then we have sound: the calling of the birds, and the ono/mato/poe/ic ‘blip’ and ‘screech’ and again the imagery of the invisible song clawing through the thick haze.
Normally I’d advise losing lines that ‘tell’ rather than ‘show’: ‘She was lying in the grass’ is a classic tell but here there’s another contrast. In the real world she’s lying in the grass but in her imagination she’s 180o – standing on a stage. Again that’s a contrast as I’ve already pictured her alone and yet, unless she’s rehearsing, she’d be surrounded by people, and noise on the stage.
I also like the mixture of the sentences as the earlier ones are longer, slowing the pace, whereas now that something is happening (albeit in her head), they’re shorter, quickening the pace.
And negatives. I love negatives. It’s very easy to get carried away with what is there without including what isn’t there, although in a piece this short that may well not happen. And colours – the green grass and reddening sky. Again I’ve often read pieces of flash fiction with no colour in them and whilst we all know that grass is green mentioning it here, alongside the fact that it had recently been cut enhanced its richness, perhaps without the author being aware that it does (unless it’s just my interpretation).
It’s not until half-way through the story that we find out her age and she’s older than I pictured. But I love the fact that she’s not a girly girl. We don’t know what she’s wearing. Because the sun is crawling up her ‘legs’ it could be her skin as she’s wearing a dress or skirt or on top of her clothes if she’s wearing trousers but the fact that she didn’t want to be a dancer but an astronaut gives her an inner strength, as does her refusal to Billy Abrams. This is the only point in the story where I feel a geographical location comes in. To me it’s more of an American surname than English but then having a boy called John Smith would probably have the opposite effect. Again this is an observation rather than a criticism.
Talking of criticism, I’m not normally a fan of repetition but the middle ‘hadn’t mattered’ section really works because each one is an emphasis, one building on the other. The same goes for the use of ‘funny’ which I really liked.
I’m not sure whether JD realised this or not but he has a set of three ‘It hadn’t mattered’ (which are actually layered on the printed page like a poem). Sets of three work really well in fiction as it provides a natural rhythm, like a shopping list such as:
‘Staring at the table, Pete sighed at the items in front of him: pen, paper and old-fashioned ink.’
Whilst ‘pen and paper’ would have worked, adding in another item would have seemed… well, like a shopping list.
‘Staring at the table, Pete sighed at the items in front of him: pen, paper, old-fashioned ink and dictionary.’
The only movement in the story are animals; the birds and the ants and I love the way the ants and the blades of grass as soldier-like.
In the end we don’t know what the girl’s name is and it doesn’t matter (pardon the pun). Giving a character a name allows us to categorise her, sometimes even picture someone we know with that name and in this instance I’m glad we weren’t given it.
If there had to be a criticism, and only because I feel I have to find one, the sentence structure is very simple. Whilst this suits a piece like this, sometimes it’s nice to have less ‘She…’ and ‘The…’ or ‘There…’ sentence beginnings giving it an almost fairy tale quality which actually this piece could be, so I feel harsh suggesting this. A change could be… instead of: ‘The reflection of the sun expanded as it rose. It cast a pale green glow that seemed to coat her in peace and tranquility.’
JD could try: ‘As the sun rose, its reflection expanded casting a pale green glow that seemed to coat her in peace and tranquility.’
I wondered about the order of the ‘It hadn’t mattered…’ sentences. To me they would normally be chronological and whilst it doesn’t matter to the reader how old she would have been when she’d told her mother than she wanted to be an astronaut, she would have foregone college later than fifteen, but again this is just me wearing an editor’s head. And a picky one at that, as she could have been thinking backwards in which case it would all fit.
All that said, the impact of the ending is just so powerful that it obliterates her calmness and the beautiful nature going on around her. I certainly hadn’t expected it and I’m a huge fan of Roald Dahl so I should have guessed it would have been too good to be true!
This story contains so many key elements that a good story should include: the mix of sentence lengths, most of the five senses (we don’t have taste here), the colours and the contrasts between the sereneness of her immediate surroundings and those of the airplane.
There’s so much said in such a small word count (just 325 words) whilst leaving plenty to the reader’s imagination and it leaves us wondering what will happen next and whether she will go on to become an astronaut. Like all great stories we’ve met someone, albeit so briefly, that we’ve had empathy with the way it’s been told and for me certainly, she and her situation are as realistic as a newspaper article and again, this is a sign of a true storyteller.
Whilst I may not always be this positive about a story, it’s been great starting on a high. Thank you, JD.
***
If you’d like your work (novel extracts or short stories up to c.3,000 words) considered for appraisal here on the blog, do email me. I will also critique longer pieces for a fee, see here. I also review short stories (<3,000 words) on this blog’s Short Story Saturdays page and if you would like feedback on your full works-in-progress or finished books (for free) from a fellow writer and / or reader, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
Note: I am English so will edit based on UK English rather than US English although correct US spellings / wordings will remain unaltered. You can email me at morgen@morgenbailey.com.
***
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: creative writing, critique, feedback, J D Mader, JD Mader, red pen, writing
My red pen podcast comes to the blog!
Up to now I’ve been doing red pen critique for my podcast (of novel extracts and short stories <3,000 words, see Podcast ‘Red Pen’ Episodes) and only putting a summary on the blog but I always find that having something written down is easier to follow than listening, especially if you want to make notes, so the red pen podcast is no more but will live on in this format… on the Red Pen Critique page.
So I’m going to be replaying the red pen critique sessions (the full script, not just the summary) on the blog at 5pm daily until I’ve caught up, dates below, then put up new ones out every Sunday night whenever I get them in (details at the end of how to apply). Sunday nights will also be Novel Nights In from 2013.
Critique: I’m firm but fair and of course you don’t have to agree with me, but I hope the feedback will help you, especially if you’re the author of that work.
Red Pen Critique to-date…
- The first ‘red pen’ session episode was released on Monday 8th August 2011 featuring a 325-word flash fiction entitled ‘Green’ by San Francisco-based writer and musician J D Mader and the podcast is available via the links at the top of this page (and in the ‘Where to find me’ side menu) with a summary here and you can listen to the episode here. Full feedback was blogged here.
- The second ‘red pen’ session episode was released on Monday 22nd August featuring a 1,591-word short story from Aneesa – the summary was posted here and you can listen to the episode here. Full feedback to be blogged 5pm Monday 3rd December 2012.
- The third ‘red pen’ session episode was released on Monday 5th September and featured a novel extract from crime writer Lae Monie. A summary of the podcast episode was posted here and you can listen to the episode here. Full feedback to be blogged 5pm Tuesday 4th December 2012.
- The fourth ‘red pen’ session episode was released on Saturday 17th September (two days early due to my mother’s 80th birthday being on the Monday!) and featured a 883-word short story entitled The Sow’s Ear by J D Mader. A summary of the podcast was posted here and you can listen to the episode here. Full feedback to be blogged 5pm Wednesday 5th December 2012.
- Aneesa returned for episode no.5 which was released on Monday 10th October and featured a story called ‘You are my reasons’ -– the summary was posted here and you can listen to the episode here. Full feedback to be blogged 5pm Thursday 6th December 2012.
- Episode no.6, released on Monday 24th October, was an extract from forthcoming novel ‘Firebound’ provided by teacher and writer Kathryn Wild – the summary of which was posted here and you can listen to the episode here. Full feedback to be blogged 5pm Friday 7th December 2012.
- Episode no.7, released on Sunday 6th November, featured a short story by Aaron entitled ‘On the edge’ – the summary was posted here and you can listen to the episode here. Full feedback to be blogged 5pm Saturday 8th December 2012.
- Episode no.8, released Sunday 27th November, was another novel extract by crime writer Lae Monie – the summary was posted here and you can listen to the episode here. Full feedback to be blogged 5pm Sunday 9th December 2012.
- Episode no.9, released Wednesday 28th December – was my critique of a short extract from The Desolate Garden by Danny Kemp – the summary was posted here and you can listen to the episode here. Full feedback to be blogged 5pm Monday 10th December 2012.
Forthcoming
- Red Pen no.10 will be my critique of a short story from Aaron (see episode no.7) entitled ‘Circles’ – Sunday 16th December 2012.
- Red Pen no.11 will be my critique of a synopsis & extract from Lianne Simon’s novel Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite – Sunday 23rd December 2012.
If you’d like your work (novel extracts or short stories up to c.3,000 words) considered for appraisal here on the blog, do email me. I will also critique longer pieces for a fee, see here. I also review short stories (<3,000 words) on this blog’s Short Story Saturdays page and if you would like feedback on your full works-in-progress or finished books (for free) from a fellow writer and / or reader, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
Note: I am English so will edit based on UK English rather than US English although correct US spellings / wordings will remain unaltered. You can email me at morgen@morgenbailey.com.
***
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: creative writing, critique, Danny Kemp, feedback, J D Mader, JD Mader, Kathryn Wild, Lae Monie, Lianne Simon, red pen, writing
Just a little note to say a big “thank you” to everyone who’s taken part in, and visited, this blog over the past 20 months (well, almost 20 months… will be on the 1st December (seeing as we don’t have a 31st November)) because one of you was my 100,000th visitor last night.
A lot has happened…
So plenty to read, and you do, so thank you again for your support and here’s to another 100,000 of you finding me!
Tags: 5pm fiction, ask me, author interviews, blog design, blog interviews, blog maintenance, book reviews, books by indie authors, competitions, critique, events, feedback, fiction fridays, flash fiction, guest blog, guest post, how to create ebooks, NaNoWriMo, podcast, poetry, second person viewpoint, short stories, submission information, useful writing sites, writing exercises, writing tips
** LIST UPDATED 15 DEC 2012 – CLICK HERE FOR LATEST LIST **
Can you offer an author FREE feedback? Would you like to receive that feedback?
I came up with the idea for this page during a mini-break at a ‘pitch to the panel’ event at the Festival of Romance, Bedford, mid-November 2012. I know there are many writers out there who, for one reason or another, don’t have enough (or any!) readers / writers willing to give them FREE feedback on their works-in-progress so they can make it as good as it can be before they submit it. Could you give that feedback? Would you like that feedback?
NB. You can be on both lists – it doesn’t have to be one or the other. :)
** Because almost everyone has contact details against their name, I shall leave it that you contact each other. Obviously any enquiries I receive will be passed on but I would ask that you visit this page from time-to-time to check whether I have added anyone who is willing to read your genre or that an author is looking for feedback that you offer. Thank you again everyone for taking part. I hope to build this page into a really valuable (if not monetary!) resource for all concerned. **
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READERS (see below for readers offering feedback)
- Do you like reading novels, short stories, non-fiction or poetry (anything else?) and are willing to give free, honest feedback?
- Can you read them quickly (within a month)?
I’m looking to list first readers on this page (below) so please either email me or leave a comment below (and I’ll paste it into this page) with the following information…
- Your name:
- Your email address: (via me if preferred)
- Your website (if you have one, if not I can design you one!):
- Genre preferred:
- Format (novel, short stories, poetry, non-fiction):
- Maximum length of work to be read (___,000 words / ___ lines for poetry):
- Lead time preferred (ideally no more than a month please):
- Do you write? (yes/no):
- Any other relevant information:
Thank you so much in advance. Writers can never have too many first readers and feedback more than “that’s good” (or otherwise) is invaluable to us and you get a free read!
NB. Don’t be under pressure to give a lengthy, detailed feedback (but it would be great if you could). You’re doing this for free so just what you can would be so gratefully appreciated. You can discuss this directly with the other author.
Readers listed here (alphabetically for now)…(note the ‘at’ in the email address should read @, with no spaces, but formatted like that to try and avoid them getting spammed! If you click on the links they should work OK)
- Aaron Fuller (email c/o Morgen): Genre preferred: anything except romance! Novel synopsis and individual chapters only, not whole ones! Otherwise any. Max count: 10,000 words. Lead time: 2 weeks. Do you write? Yes. Thank you, Aaron!
- Aaron Roark (aaronroark9 at gmail.com): Aaron is a writer (listed below) who would also like to give feedback, preferably fantasy or horror (no non-fiction or romance). He needs at least two weeks lead time depending on the length of the work. (50,000 words max). Thank you, Aaron!
- Claire Maycock (formerly Marriott) (claire at nibenon.com, new blog coming soon at www.clairemaycock.com) Genres: non-fiction (home, garden, crafts, personal development), fiction (historical). No maximum length. Lead time to be agreed on receipt of file but will typically be three to four weeks. Do you write? Yes. Thank you, Claire!
- David Ferretti (edf at wildblue.net): I write crossover fantasy (no cursing/sex). I have two finished manuscripts of my trilogy; the first is edited and has been read by several beta readers that caused me to make changes. I am the only person to read the second. I will be glad to exchange finished manuscripts with anyone who writes in the same genre. My manuscript is 119,000 words long and readers have told me that it is a fast read. If your manuscript runs <120,000 words then give me two weeks to review it. Greater length manuscripts will take a little bit longer. I prefer Microsoft Word docx or doc files. Thank you, David!
- Elaine Spires (hello at elainespires.co.uk / www.ElaineSpires.co.uk): Genre preferred: all except sci-fi, horror and poetry. Do you write? Yes (several plays, a TV series, three books, presently working on fourth). Thank you, Elaine!
- Hersilia Press publisher Ilaria (ilaria) Meliconi (info at hersilia-press.co.uk / http://www.hersilia-press.co.uk) is willing to offer feedback on crime novels but timescale dependent on existing workload. Grazie Ilaria!
- James Munroe (MunroJim at twitter.example.com): I will read any novel set in the medieval period, and if it is good, post a review on MedievalMysteries.com, or otherwise send a brief critique direct to the author by email. Thank you, James!
- Jeanne E. Rogers (echidna at gmail.com / http://warriorechidna.blogspot.co.uk/p/contact-me.html): I really like this idea, Morgen, with an ‘e.’ I would like to participate on both sides of this coin. I am a writer of middle grade fantasy, focusing on highlighting endangered animals in my stories. I would like to read fantasy, not necessarily for young people (timescale dependent upon workload – please enquire first), and I would like to have my new book, which is not complete at this point, read for some thoughts / opinions. Thanks so much! Thank you, Jean!
- Kay Millward (kay.millward at yahoo.co.uk / http://www.kay-millward.com/contact-us.php): Any genre. Feedback usually within the month. Do you write? Yes.
- Laurence French (laurencefrench92 at yahoo.co.uk): Hi, I’d be happy to read other authors’ works and give them feedback. I’m a published author in the UK (fiction and non-fiction), as well as having a number of articles published. I like all genres and, if the author wishes, I can do a complete proofread of their work as well. I would have to charge for that though as I work freelance. Otherwise I’m willing to read and give a critique, with suggestions and constructive comments. Thank you, Laurence!
- Morgen Bailey (morgen@morgenbailey.com / http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/red-pen-critique): short stories (any family-friendly fiction genre) up to 3,000 words or novel extracts of a similar length (with synopsis) for this blog’s Red Pen Critique slot, although the story / extract are posted on the blog so only be happy with that before offering me your writing.
- Nikki Dudley (nikkisdudley at hotmail.co.uk / http://ellipsisandnovels.blogspot.com / https://twitter.com/nikkidudley20): I would like to go on both lists please! As a reader, I am interested in mystery, thrillers, crime, young adult and general fiction. I am happy to read most lengths but lets say not over 100k. I can get back in a month, maybe less. I write fiction and poetry myself. I also co-edit an online magazine. As a writer, I am writing a young adult dystopian novel set in the future. It centres around natural energy. It is around 90k words. Just looking for general f/b. Can give more info on contact. Thanks! Thank you, Nikki!
- Ralph Scott (info at credittheedit.com / http://www.credittheedit.com) If it might accent the above, the staff at Credit The Edit, LLC provides detailed, complementary Test Edits on up to five pages of almost any fiction or nonfiction manuscript. Though five pages does not allow for the examination of everything that is solid or is in need of an overhaul in an author’s manuscript, it’s quite impressive just how much those five pages reveal about the merits and hurdles of the project. So feel free to tap us at least for that. That’s very kind of you, thank you, Ralph.
- Rebeccah Giltrow (rgiltrow at gmail.com / http://rebeccahgiltrow.blogspot.co.uk): Any sort of fiction (novel, short story, poetry, script/play, lyric). Max. length: 50,000 words for prose, any number of lines for poetry. Lead time: 3-4 weeks. Do you write? Yes. Thank you, Rebeccah!
- Robin Greene (bodicea77 at yahoo.com). Genre preferred: Fiction, anything except romance. Format: Novels or short stories. Max length: 80,000 words. Lead time preferred: about a month, probably less. Do you write? (yes/no): some have said that, yes. Thank you, Robin!
Websites where authors can put their work online for feedback include Authonomy (known as HarperCollins’ unofficial slush pile), YouWriteOn – with these two you have to critique to be critiqued, ABC Tales, Absolute Write, Chapteread, Critiquecircle, Fiction Press, Figment (aimed at teens), Scribd, Webook, Worthy of Publishing, Writers, Writers’ Cafe, StoryLane (more about you than your fiction) and Wattpad (I’m on the latter two). Ken Weene recommends http://authorsinfo.com and http://cowbird.com.
I also have a list of reviewers on this blog’s Reviews page. I offer feedback on short stories or novel chapters on my blog’s Red Pen Critique page going live (the story / extract then my feedback) every Sunday evening.
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WRITERS (see below for writers wanting feedback)
Are you looking for free feedback? If so, please either email me or leave a comment below (and I’ll paste it into this page) with the following information…
- Your name:
- Your email address:
- Your website (if you have one, if not I can design you one!):
- Title of your item:
- Genre of your item:
- Format (novel, short stories, poetry, non-fiction):
- Word count (___,000 words / ___ lines for poetry):
- Brief synopsis of item (50 words max!):
- NB. Please list items separately if wanting feedback on more than one.
- When you need the feedback by:
- Any other relevant information:
Thank you and good luck with your works-in-progress! Please remember that the readers will be offering to do this for free so feedback will be as detailed (or otherwise) as their time allows.
Writers listed here… (note the ‘at’ in the email address should read @, with no spaces, but formatted like that to try and avoid them getting spammed! If you click on the links they should work OK)
- Aaron Roark (aaronroark9 at gmail.com): My book is called The High Grass. It’s a horror story. Only the first chapter is complete, but it will be a novel. About 1100 words. Synopsis: It’s the story of a fifteen year old boy named Jimmy. He lives on a farm in north Texas with his mother and father. The farm is adjacent to a large field that no one owns where the grass is about five feet high (hence the title). There is something evil in the field that is after Jimmy. I would also like to give feedback. Need at least two weeks lead time depending on the length of the work. (50,000 words max). Thank you, Aaron.
- David Ferretti (edf at wildblue.net): I write crossover fantasy (no cursing/sex). I have two finished manuscripts of my trilogy; the first is edited and has been read by several beta readers that caused me to make changes. I am the only person to read the second. I will be glad to exchange finished manuscripts with anyone who writes in the same genre. My manuscript is 119,000 words long and readers have told me that it is a fast read. If your manuscript runs <120,000 words then give me two weeks to review it. Greater length manuscripts will take a little bit longer. I prefer Microsoft Word docx or doc files. Thank you, David.
- Ethan Holmes (ethanholmes-at-ethanholmes.com / http://www.ethanholmes.com): I certainly wouldn’t mind some feedback or reviews. I have five titles ranging from short story collections to science fiction to my latest title which turned out to be a self-help book I didn’t know was going to be one. You can visit my site and tell me which one(s) you would like to read. Thank you, Ethan.
- Gary Showalter (gary at garyshowalter.com / http://www.garyshowalter.com): A Primer on Roses (gardening, rose care). Non-fiction. 53 pages. Rose care – from choosing a location to plant, how they grow, how to prune, how to select tools, etc. Feedback wanted: as soon as possible. Additional information: “The pamphlet is available on Amazon now, but feedback is always welcome and changes will be made where necessary, based on feedback, with credit provided for valuable feedback. I will send a PDF file with the text to first readers.” Thank you, Gary.
- Gina Charles (ginacharles at earthlink.net / http://ginacharles.com). Title of item: Shift Happens, A Laypersons Guide To Awakening. Genre of item: Self-help. Format: non-fiction. Word Count: 31,289. Brief Synopsis: Know that you already have all the tools you need to experience that shift into a more peaceful, abundant, and enjoyable life. Shift Happens lights the way on the journey back to Self. Feedback: At earliest convenience.
- Jason Fink (jasonfink88 at yahoo.com): Jasmine Cowl and the Salagi Talking Stick (contemporary fantasy novel, first of a potential seven-book series). 78,000 words. Jasmine Cowl is p*ssed. Fifteen years ago, the African American woman and her friends saved the world. Stuck in a boring life, even though she works for the CIA… the other one. Saddled with family, a job, and the PTA, she’s found something new. Disgruntled gnomes & talking islands force themselves into Jasmine’s life while she hunts for a powerful wand. She’s fighting for more than the world. This time she’s fighting for her kids. Feedback wanted: no real timeframe, finished it up about 3 months back. Any other relevant information: Thanks for taking a look – I’d like to know if it’s an ok read, or if it’s… not. Honesty is always appreciated! Thank you, Jason.
- Jeanne E. Rogers (http://warriorechidna.blogspot.co.uk/p/contact-me.html): I really like this idea, Morgen, with an ‘e.’ I would like to participate on both sides of this coin. I am a writer of middle grade fantasy, focusing on highlighting endangered animals in my stories. I would like to read fantasy, not necessarily for young people, and I would like to have my new book, which is not complete at this point, read for some thoughts / opinions. Thanks so much! Thank you, Jean!
- Kenny Johnston (alwayssmilingthroughthetears at gmail.com): Always Smiling Through the Tears (biography / memoir) 111,000 words. Synopsis: In October, 2010, Kenny put 2 nooses round his neck in the garden shed. Twice. This is his story, a story of a broken home, mixed race children, racism, adversity and heartbreak. Suicide is all too common in our broken society, and here you see it revealed from the inside, to find what actually drives somebody to the point where the pain of death is seen as preferable to the pain in life. Kenny says, ”For those, who provide feedback/reviews, I will post a free copy of the book, signed by me, if they like!” Thank you, Kenny.
- Lae Monier (laemonie at aim.com / http://laemonie.wordpress.com): Wanted (psychological crime). Novel (67,147 words). Feedback wanted: two weeks from the time they get the WIP. Thank you, Lae.
- Laurence French (laurencefrench92 at yahoo.co.uk): ‘Waiting for Dark’ (war / personal relationships). Novel. 80,000 words. Synopsis: A severely injured soldier from WW1 is looked after by a French nurse who takes him back to the battlefield at Ypres to lay the ghosts of his past and to rid him of the guilt he feels about the loss of his pals. No specific timeframe. Thank you, Laurence!
- Nikki Dudley (nikkisdudley at hotmail.co.uk / http://ellipsisandnovels.blogspot.com / https://twitter.com/nikkidudley20): I would like to go on both lists please! As a reader, I am interested in mystery, thrillers, crime, young adult and general fiction. I am happy to read most lengths but lets say not over 100k. I can get back in a month, maybe less. I write fiction and poetry myself. I also co-edit an online magazine. As a writer, I am writing a young adult dystopian novel set in the future. It centres around natural energy. It is around 90k words. Just looking for general f/b. Can give more info on contact. Thanks! Thank you, Nikki!
- Robin Greene (bodicea77 at yahoo.com): Nothing Good From Secrets (“women’s fiction, I guess”). Novel (c. 79,000 words). Synopsis: Carys’ best friend PamLynn is keeping something from her. She goes through finding out PamLynn’s father has Alzheimers, that her mother has been having her followed, and that the man she thought was her father isn’t her biological father. PamLynn is more than a friend, she’s actually her sister. Blurb: (I think) Not everyone who loves you tells you the truth. Carys’ best friend has a secret. Her mother has a huge secret. Carys even has one of her own. How does a near 40 year old woman, who wants a successful career, to live a few of her dreams, oh yes and someone to share all that with, help her friends, understand her mother, and most of all help herself? When you need the feedback by: Not in a huge rush, but as soon as possible. Thank you, Robin.
Websites where authors can put their work online for feedback include Authonomy (known as HarperCollins’ unofficial slush pile), YouWriteOn – with these two you have to critique to be critiqued, ABC Tales, Absolute Write, Chapteread, Critiquecircle, Fiction Press, Figment (aimed at teens), Scribd, Webook, Worthy of Publishing, Writers, Writers’ Cafe, StoryLane (more about you than your fiction) and Wattpad (I’m on both). Ken Weene recommends http://authorsinfo.com and http://cowbird.com.
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Tags: autobiography, biography, chick-lit, crime, critique, fantasy, feedback, fiction, first reader, historical, literature, mystery, non-fiction, novel chapters, novel synopsis, poetry, reading novels, red pen, romance, sci-fi, suspense, writing
Welcome to the five hundred and fifty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with mystery and non-fiction author Linda Mickey. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Linda. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Linda: And hello to you. Writers are readers and that is certainly true of me. Thanks to my parents, reading is almost as much a part of me as breathing so storytelling became part of my nature. One day I had a run-in with my boss over something I felt was terribly unethical and something he had claimed, just weeks before, he would never do. I was furious. I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry. I came home and killed him – on paper.
Morgen: I love that. I say I usually have a body in most of my stories and I killing someone (legally) is fun.
Linda: When my blood pressure returned to normal, I had about 10 pages. A year later, I decided I should try to do something with them. I am based in the Chicago area, which is great because there is an active writing community here.
Morgen: A chap who used to come to our writing group is from Chicago (he married a Brit). It does sound like a great place. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Linda: I write mystery because that is what I read for years. I have toyed with sci-fi / fantasy but my heart is that of a problem-solver. I just love writing puzzles.
Morgen: What have you had published to-date?
Linda: There are four books in the Kyle Shannon mystery series and I am working on the plot for the fifth. Plus, at the behest of two local librarians, I wrote Dollars and Sense for Writers as a guide to the business side of our venture.
Morgen: The business side is probably the most tricky, certainly for many. You’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way?
Linda: The paradigm was shifting when I came into the arena in 2002. No one foresaw the approaching ebook phenomenon but supported self-pub print companies were popping up everywhere. Years ago I got some advice from a banker – be very careful before you sell the rights to your work to anyone. He was talking about something totally unrelated to writing but I never forgot it. Not selling my rights meant I had to self-publish.
Morgen: Ah yes, there are companies out there that will take advantage of those who don’t know what they’re doing (and those who do), so associations like The Society of Authors (and the likes) are invaluable. Are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Linda: All my books are available as ebooks. But I don’t “read” much at all; I listen. I love audio books. They accompany me in the car during a commute or they entertain me while I clean the house.
Morgen: Audiobooks are my favourite format because I can multi-task. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?
Linda: No favourites. I enjoy exploring all my characters because I want to understand their motivation. As for casting, I’d leave that to the professionals. After all, Tom Selleck was originally offered Indiana Jones but can anyone picture someone other than Harrison Ford in the role?
Morgen: Was he? I’d not heard that. I can’t say I’d have picked Tom, although I think he’s a great actor (perfect for Magnum PI). Did you choose the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?
Linda: A newly-published writer once confessed to me that she was heart-broken over the cover on her first book. The cover was designed to attract readers but it had little to do with the content. Control is just one advantage of being self-published. The talented artists with whom I work are another happy part of self-publishing. Watching the covers come to life thanks to my photographer and my graphic artist is a delight.
Morgen: A cover has to do both (represent and inspire), doesn’t it, or the reader will invariably feel cheated. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Linda: Two projects currently have my attention – writing the 5th Kyle Shannon mystery and making time to do more social networking. I love hearing from my fans and I want to explore new ways to do that.
Morgen: Social networking, although great I think, eats time so finding a balance is important (pot, kettle, black). Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Linda: Writing something every day is a must however it isn’t always for the next novel. I have two blogs plus there are wonderful marketing opportunities like this one. As for writer’s block, I think we all get stuck now and then. It comes with the territory.
Morgen: There are points where we wonder what happens next and coming back to it later certainly helps. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Linda: I plot. Mysteries are word puzzles so one must have an idea of how the pieces will fit together. That said, I may make changes along the way.
Morgen: I find my characters often develop the story. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Linda: Character names are fun. I usually turn to the obituaries to find them: a first name here, a surname there. In my first novel, most of the surnames came from a travel brochure.
Morgen: What a good idea. I’d not thought of those for inspiration. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Linda: Editing is a must for any writer. Even JK Rowling admits she should have done more of it. Frankly, I love the editing and rewrite process. That’s when the story comes alive.
Morgen: Do you? I’m more a fan of the first draft, the something out of nothing, although having edited The Serial Dater’s Shopping List seven times (and whittled it down from 117K to 101K) and had two others look at it, it may have tired me of the editing process, although I’m very proud of the end result. Do you have to do much research?
Linda: Kyle is an office temporary worker. She finds herself assigned to a different place in each book so I research the industry in which I am about to place her. In Defective Goods, she works for a paint manufacturer, for Horse Power, she is at a stable, and in Help Wanted, she works inside the temp agency. Luckily I have plenty of friends who are dying to tell me the secrets of their workplace. I include a hint at the end of each book for where Kyle will be assigned in the next one.
Morgen: I was a temp most of my working life (says she at 45 as if I don’t work any more but I’m immersed in writing at home so it doesn’t feel like work) and there’s plenty of inspiration there. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person?
Linda: Kyle tells her story in first person. My first novel (which was dreadful) was written in omniscient third. I found that too difficult to control. Some genres lend themselves to a specific point of view better than others.
Morgen: That’s really interesting. Most writers, readers (and therefore agents / publishers) prefer third person although first person from one character’s point of view is more intimate. Please tell us more about your non-fiction.
Linda: Two local librarians suggested I wrote a non-fiction book Dollars and Sense for Writers: A Guide to Managing Your Writing Business. It is nearly time for a second edition. Plus I occasionally contribute articles to magazines.
Morgen: Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Linda: That first novel I mentioned truly was awful. There is a collection of short stories sitting on my computer. They need polishing and that I may publish some of them one day.
Morgen: I have hundreds of shorts (three collections of flash fiction planned for before Christmas) and think that when I have a minute I’ll go through them and whip them into shape. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Linda: Every rejection I received was deserved. As a novice, I sent out my work before it was ready. I would have rejected me, too. Part of being a mature writer is looking at one’s work and knowing whether or not it is ready for market.
Morgen: It is indeed. Do you enter competitions? Are there any you could recommend?
Linda: No and no. I encouraged my graphic artist to enter the D&S cover in a contest but she didn’t do it. I love that cover and I think it might have won something.
Morgen: What a shame. Maybe it’s not too late. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Linda: One cannot enter certain segments of the marketplace without an agent. It is up to the writer to decide whether or not that area (commercial publishing, film, etc) is the right place for the writer at that time. Agents are like realtors. It is possible to sell a house without one but is being independent appropriate for a specific market and time?
Morgen: How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Linda: One of the toughest challenges a writer faces is balancing their writing time against their marketing time. If a writer is marketing, he isn’t writing. If she is writing, she isn’t selling. We all do our best to find the best mix. That’s why things like this blog are so helpful and so important.
Morgen: That’s really hard, finding the balance and ‘marketing’ is usually the answer to the ‘least favourite’ part of my next question for that very reason… What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Linda: I had no idea I would love it so much. The least favourite thing about writing is that I don’t have enough time to devote to it. I still have an outside job, which, luckily, I also love. The best part is learning. Thanks to my writing, I now have two DNA scientists and several law enforcement officers I count as friends. They’ve all been very helpful with the accuracy of the procedures and science in my books plus they’re great fun.
Morgen: Time is a killer. I struggle with it every day. How wonderful having those contacts. Some of the writers that contact me for interviews are in (or have been in) perfect jobs that I should pick their brains. A forthcoming author (687. Horror-turned-crime writer Andrew Barrett) has given me some great advice (for my current NaNoWriMo project) on undertakers and mortician workers. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Linda: Writers write. So write because you have to, because you can’t imagine a day without putting things into words. If you love it, you’ll write no matter what. And if you are doing something you love, eventually you’ll find a way to generate income from it.
Morgen: I’m still working on the latter (having two lodgers helps buffer that). I need something like NaNoWriMo to make me write chunks (although I’m way behind at the moment) but I’ve been writing a daily short story for my 5pm fiction slot since June and I love it. That’s on hold until the end of the year (because of NaNo and getting various eBooks online) but I’m looking forward (though not wishing my time away, it’ll be here soon enough) to writing every day again. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Linda: Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, and Arthur Conan Doyle, or Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, and Catherine the Great, or Thomas Jefferson, Harry Truman, and JFK. The lists could go on. There are so many fascinating people in history. As for the food, I have no idea. I’d leave that to the caterer.
Morgen: Good plan. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Linda: Many. Different people inspire me at different times. My current favourite is Happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think. – Dale Carnegie
Morgen: I like that. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?
Linda: Teaching and speaking. I facilitate a number of workshops that are writing-related. In addition to sharing what I’ve learned, it’s great fun meeting new people.
Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?
Linda: Between working, writing, and family, there isn’t much time for anything else. That’s why I love audio books. When weather permits, we head outside for walking or grilling.
Morgen: I have a dog so he gets me outside although if he can hear the rain he won’t go over the threshold! Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?
Linda: I keep track of industry news at www.publishersweekly.com. From there, I often follow links to articles on other sites (like The Guardian or The New York Times) that relate to the business of writing. I am intrigued, for example, that Amazon gets itself into as much trouble in the EU as in the US. I also like http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com. It’s a great place to go for instant help on how to handle one of our goofy language rules.
Morgen: It is and she does a great podcast. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?
Linda: LinkedIn, AuthorDen, Facebook, crimespace, etc. They are all valuable and I wish I had more time for them. In addition to marketing myself, I find fascinating new “friends”. Imagine my delight when I discovered an Italian reader had reviewed Horse Power on Smashwords. The Web joins us together – as demonstrated by this blog.
Morgen: It’s wonderful, isn’t it. Although I’d undoubtedly have more written if I hadn’t started this blog (or put a shout-out on LinkedIn for interviewees) I wouldn’t have met so many great writers and for me, the best thing after actually writing is talking about it. What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Linda: A crystal ball would be helpful here. We once shared information and stories orally around camp fires. Now we use the Internet and digital devices. Writing will always exist in one form or another because we will always want to share our thoughts and our knowledge.
Morgen: It’s an exciting time, certainly. Where can we find out about you and your writing?
Linda: www.lindamickey.com, www.dollarsandsense4writers.com, Smashwords.com, http://lindamickey.blogspot.com, any of the author sites at Internet retailers’ sites and fan sites. And many others.
Morgen: Is there anything you’d like to ask me?
Linda: Not ask, but say. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you and your readers.
Morgen: Oh you’re so welcome, great to have you here. Thank you, Linda.
I then invited Linda to include an extract of her writing…
Bam-whack.
Sunny’s hindquarters seemed spring-loaded his hooves hit the wall so fast. Driven by twelve hundred pounds of raging equine, the kick connected with such force the vibration traveled through the cement and tingled in my legs. The gelding tossed his head, his nostrils flaring with each exhale of hot breath.
Thump-thwack.
I stood frozen.
His hooves battered the stall wall again. Ears pinned, his eyes rolled back until the whites showed. When the volley ended, Sunny’s chest heaved like he’d won the Preakness.
“What’s going on? What the hell did you do to him?”
Isabella Villano, second in command at Bright Hope Equestrian Center, charged around the corner and came to an abrupt halt in front of me. She wasn’t tall enough to look me in the eye but her anger propelled her to nearly my height. I backed up a step.
“I didn’t do anything. I swear.”
“Look at him! He’s freakin’ goin’ nuts. Did you go in the stall? What’s that you’re holding?” She grabbed the rectangle of paper from me, nearly cutting my palm as the edge pulled across my hand. “You waved it at him, didn’t you?”
She glanced at the black text surrounded by a border of purple and gray. It read Sunny Disposition, Owner: Sal Fabrini.
“Very nice.” Izzy glared as she crunched the paper and dropped it to her feet.
“I was about to slide that into the frame on his stall door.”
Izzy rubbed her cheek while she looked at Sunny. “This makes no sense. He doesn’t go goofy just because a person is nearby. For all he knows, you’re bringin’ him sugar.”
Sunny circled away and stopped in the back corner of the stall, lather glistening on his chest. Speaking in a low monotone, Izzy stepped gradually into the stall, her right hand extended. She kept up the soothing babble as she approached and touched Sunny’s neck. He dropped his head and let her rub his muzzle. As suddenly as it began, his raging ceased; here and gone in minutes like the passing of a midday summer storm.
*
I then invited Linda to include a synopsis of her latest book…
The holidays have arrived but Kyle Shannon isn’t feeling festive. Her lover may be leaving, and her friend Tiffany is in the financial pits. Things aren’t right at Office Right, either. On assignment within the company, she finds bottoming sales, temps with attitude, and a boss as frosty as a snowman.
Then somebody murders a manager and all the ho-ho-ho goes up the chimney.
Forced to add “find the killer” to their holiday wish list, Kyle and Detective Ian Page face a jumble of confusing facts until a tragic accident forces them to look at the case from a new perspective.
This Christmas will be a slay-ride for sure.
**
Linda Mickey worked her way up from bank teller to Chicago region project manager for a Fortune 500 staffing company. Like her protagonist, Kyle Shannon, she was employed by a staffing agency. After a career in which she saw everything from knife-toting secretaries to drunken vice presidents, Mickey had plenty of motive to write a mystery series featuring a temporary office worker.
During her more than fifteen years in the corporate business environment Linda Mickey augmented her formal education with plenty of practical experience. Now working for a small accounting firm, she regularly sees the importance of companies following sound business practices.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
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Welcome to the five hundred and fifty-three of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with romantic comedy author Samantha Stroh Bailey. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Samantha. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Samantha: Hi, Morgen. I was born in Toronto, Canada, and after living in Montreal, Quebec for many years, I came back to be closer to my family.
I have been writing since I could first pick up a pen. I even submitted my first manuscript, Freddy the Flame, to publishers when I was ten years old. Though it was rejected, I knew I had found something that I was absolutely passionate about. I continued to write during high school and university, but it wasn’t until I did my Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics that I started writing novels.
I wrote four novels while teaching ESL to adults and having my two kids. After the birth of my daughter, my second child, I decided to stop teaching and opened my own freelance writing / editing business: Perfect Pen Communications (http://www.perfectpencommunications.com). Now, I get to be with my kids and write and edit—all a dream come true.
After seeing how traditional publishing had changed, I turned to magazine and blog writing, and then, I finally got the courage to self-publish Finding Lucas.
Morgen: Being a full-time writer is a dream for many. I bit the proverbial bullet, quit my job, left in March and got two lodgers to pay the bills. I do feel like the pauper writer but I couldn’t imagine going back to a day job even if it means ‘working’ pretty much all day every day, it doesn’t feel like work. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Samantha: I normally write romantic comedies because I love to write about quirky and funny characters who are struggling with their relationships. But, I have been toying with the idea of writing a mystery.
Morgen: Ooh do, they’re great fun, or better still write a quirky, funny, romantic mystery. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?
Samantha: I have had numerous articles and blog posts published both in print and online. I write for magazines, websites, newspapers, blogs – basically anywhere I can. I don’t use a pseudonym, but I have used variations of my name: Samantha Stroh, Samantha Bailey and now, Samantha Stroh Bailey.
Morgen: A great name. You’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way?
Samantha: After I wrote my first novel, which wasn’t Finding Lucas, I managed to land a prestigious New York City agent quite quickly. Knowing that this was a pretty hard feat to accomplish, I immediately dreamt of that call from publishers and movie producers saying they all wanted my novel. Well, a few years and many rejections later, I was still waiting. And though the rejections always mentioned my writing ability and how much they liked the story, I knew that traditional publishing had changed. Publishers were wary to take on new voices. So, I wrote three more novels. Finding Lucas was my favorite because I loved the characters so I decided to publish it first.
Morgen: Is Finding Lucas available as an eBook? How involved were you in that process?
Samantha: My book is an ebook, but the paperback version will be available soon, and I’m so excited to hold my book in my hands. I might lovingly caress it for a few hours! I’ve been involved in the process every step of the way, but I outsourced a lot of things I knew I needed to, like cover design, formatting and editing. Even though I’m a professional editor, I couldn’t edit my own book as well as it needed to be done.
Morgen: None of us can, we’re too close to it. Apart from anything else, a second opinion will often come up with some great suggestions. Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Samantha: Once I’d made the decision to put Finding Lucas on Kindle, I ordered one and started using it. I’ll be honest, I never thought it would happen, but I read ebooks much more than paperbacks now. I love the ease and portability of the Kindle, and it’s amazing to order a book and have it immediately.
Morgen: Isn’t that great. I love having the choice. Do you have a favourite of your stories, books or characters?
Samantha: Finding Lucas is my favorite book because I love the character of Jamie. I think she has so much strength to change her life and finally leave such an unhappy relationship. She is insecure and reserved but works very hard to overcome her challenges and discover her self-worth. I think she is relatable to so many women because we have all felt less than at some point in our lives, and we all struggle to find our place. I also love Andrew because he is loosely based on my husband.
Morgen: Wednesday night’s author spotlight was from a lady (Michelle Taylor) who’s written about getting out of tough relationships. It makes very thought-provoking reading. If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?
Samantha: I love this question!
Morgen: Thank you.
Samantha: I think Finding Lucas would make a great movie! I can see Emma Stone or Ginnifer Goodwin as Jamie and John Krasinski is a shoe in for Andrew. For Hanna, I can totally see Megan Fox in the role. Derek is a cad, and the role would have to go to Bradley Cooper. I’ve thought a lot about this!
Morgen: Great choices. I’d go and see it. Did you have any say in the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?
Samantha: I had complete creative control, which is both wonderful and stressful. I think the title and cover are extremely important. The title came to me very quickly, but the cover took a while to create. In fact, I have changed the cover for paperback because I wanted to try something different, and I’m so happy with the result. Carlo Carosi, my paperback designer, is a genius and very patient.
Morgen: What are you working on at the moment / next?
Samantha: Running a writing / editing business means I’m always writing something—magazine articles, blogs, web content, etc. But when I’m not working, I’m rewriting Everything But, a women’s fiction genre about Maddy Taylor, a woman who never wanted kids… until she does. Her husband isn’t quite on the same page, and the novel is about her struggle to save her marriage and have a child. Is it possible to have everything you want without losing it all?
Morgen: We’ll have to read the book to find out. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Samantha: I write every day. I am so passionate about writing and would feel lost without it. I can’t say that I’ve suffered from writer’s block, but I certainly struggle with sections of the books I write, especially sad ones or parts that affect me personally.
Morgen: I say I don’t suffer from writer’s block (I have more ideas than I can cope with) but I’m sure every writer out there has hit a wall on some of their pieces. I take a break, do something else, and invariably I can see what’s missing when I come back to it. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Samantha: I get an idea and run with it. I do make a general outline of the plot and the characters, but then I just let myself write. I stop myself from editing or changing anything until I feel I have some story to work with. And I find that my characters tend to take over the story!
Morgen: Don’t they just, I love that. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Samantha: I generally name my characters what I would name my children if I were to have more. I scour baby name websites, and I also try to match the physical and personality traits of my characters to the names I think suit them.
Morgen: Baby name sites and books are the most popular source by far. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Samantha: I do a ton of editing. A writer friend once gave me great advice. He told me that the sentences I thought were the most brilliant and hilarious probably weren’t and to cut them. I have found that helps a lot. I have cut out scenes and chapters, and as a professional editor, I edit on the sentence level a lot, too.
Morgen: Ouch, that sounds painful, but if the story is better for it… What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?
Samantha: I like first person because I think it helps the reader relate to the character. But, I might try third person for my third book. Tom Robbins’s novel, Half Asleep in Frog’s Pajamas, is the only book I’ve ever read in the second person. It was disconcerting at first, but I quite enjoyed the style by the end. But, I don’t think I would attempt it. Also, my genre is romantic comedy and women’s fiction, and I’m not sure that second person suits the snappy, fast-paced writing I like to do.
Morgen: I think you’re right. I write a lot of it and they tend to be dark… but that could just be me. ‘Half Asleep in Frog’s Pajamas’ sounds hilarious (I love quirky titles). I’ll have to look out for it. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Samantha: I have had many rejections. My very first rejection from a publisher broke my heart a little. Mind you, I was ten years old. Since then, I’ve realized that not everyone is going to like what I write and everyone is looking for something different. I have never and will never let rejection stop me. I really think success comes from doing what you love, persevering and trying again and again.
Morgen: Absolutely. If you love what you’re doing, you keep going. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Samantha: I do almost all of the marketing myself, and it’s so hard. Putting myself out there was a bit scary at first, but if I’m really going to be a successful author, I know I have to do things that might make me uncomfortable. I lucked out and found an incredible group of authors, bloggers, reviewers and readers whose warmth and support have helped so much. And indie authors promote and celebrate each other’s successes, and I’m so grateful to my group of indie author friends.
Morgen: Me too, as I’m sure without them (I’m one too), I’d be scrabbling around for guests. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Samantha: My favorite aspect of my writing life is getting completely drawn into my stories and characters. I love creating people who become real, and I love seeing how their stories unfold. My other favorite is the amount of people who have said they love Finding Lucas. That means the world to me.
What has surprised me is how much work it is to promote a novel. Amazon is the biggest bookshelf in the world and getting noticed requires me to constantly promote the book. But, I am also surprised by the resources out there.
Morgen: Sweet and sour, but then the harder it is to succeed the better it feels when you do. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Samantha: It might sound trite, but my advice would be—don’t give up. If you love to write, do it. Most people think they could never write a novel, but if you have a great idea and you love how words flow together, it’s a fantastic start.
My other piece of advice is to network. I met most of the reviewers, bloggers and authors I know on Twitter and Goodreads, and for a former technophobe, it was very daunting, at first, to connect with people and not feel like an idiot. But, finding them has made my career as a writer so rich, and even though I have yet to meet them, they have become very important to me.
Morgen: Not giving up is key. They say a successful author is one who didn’t give up and if you did, you’d never know if your lucky break was just round the corner. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Samantha: I love the word discombobulated. I’m not sure if it’s an official onomatopoeia, but it feels like one. I think it perfectly describes a mix of confusion, stress and bewilderment.
Morgen: I’d say bewilderment would certainly be onomatopoeic. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?
Samantha: As a freelance writer / editor, I publish articles and blog posts on relationships, parenting, family, finance, food-you name it and I write it. I create web content and dating profiles, edit academic papers and business communication. I am so lucky to be able to write fulltime.
Morgen: Maybe you could do me a writing-related guest blog? What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?
Samantha: I run after my amazing kids.
Morgen: I’d say that probably counts as a party trick. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?
Samantha: I am on quite a few forums and networking sites, and they are immensely helpful. Writing can be a lonely endeavor so connecting with other writers who are as passionate as I am about what we do is great. I actually found you on a networking site!
Morgen: Ah, probably LinkedIn. Where can we find out about you and your writing?
Samantha: You can check out my blog http://samanthastrohbailey.blogspot.ca and my business http://www.perfectpencommunications.com. You can also visit my Facebook author page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samantha-Stroh-Bailey/420736011289684. I am also on twitter: @perfectpen and on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5832614.Samantha_Stroh_Bailey.
You can find Finding Lucas at: http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Lucas-ebook/dp/B007VIIU6A.
Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Samantha: I’d like to say thank you for this great opportunity. It is very difficult for indie authors to make a name for themselves and every bit of exposure helps.
Morgen: You’re very welcome. I hope it does. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?
Samantha: I’m sure you get asked this all of the time, but why did you decide to help other authors?
Morgen: Occasionally, yes. I’d heard a blog was a good thing to do and at the time (March 2011) I was doing in person / Skype audio interviews for my podcast which took ages to record and edit. Not long after I set up the blog I was invited for an email interview and I quickly realised it was a much better tool than the audio interview, plus I was able to do one a day rather than one a fortnight. I’m currently booked up to next July at one a day so imagine that at one a fortnight. Thank you, Samantha.
I then invited Samantha to include an extract of her writing…
I look at her shiny face flushed with excitement. And for a second, I get a taste of that excitement. And I like it. Time and time again, I somehow find myself jumping on the Zany Lucy Bandwagon, and every time, it’s a disaster. Once she thought it’d be great if she, Hanna and I went to Las Vegas on a whim. I ended up with food poisoning, heatstroke and minus the $500.00 that was given to the blackjack dealer.
I try arguing with her. “But on their dollar. They’d kill me.”
“Who’d know? You’ll be using the phone and fax anyway. It’s not really using their money. It could be an adventure.” Lucy’s eyes flutter up and down, creating spidery shadows on her cheekbones.
And now, thanks to Lucy, the idea sets in my head like a bad song, and I know full well that it’s never going to leave. But this Lucas idea is just too ridiculous. Chasing down my high school f**k buddy. Please.
But instead of just changing the subject, I hear myself ask, “What would happen if I found him?”
“You don’t know. That’s the whole point. What if he’s the One? Not that you believe in the One, but what if you’re wrong? What if this is your chance to find true happiness?”
“The ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ is a defunct Canadian band. But it might be fun to see him again, talk to him again. Just to find out what he’s been up to, who he’s become. Would he even want to hear from me?”
“You won’t know until you try.”
No, I can’t do this. How would I feel if Derek went to find his ex-girlfriend? Although they all sound like frigid ice queens from what he’s told me about them. The type of girls who “debut” and wouldn’t stoop to sullying themselves in the backseats of rusted cars. But maybe it’ll make me realize why I love Derek. Like comparison shopping.
“Okay.”
“Okay what?” she asks.
I take a deep breath and smile at her. “Okay, I’m going to find Lucas.”
And a synopsis of her book…
Can you ever really go back to the past?
On her fifth anniversary with boyfriend Derek, Jamie Ross finds herself in a Montreal hotel room wondering how the carefree guy she met in a Chicago bar has turned into “the quintessential metrosexual.” Weighed down by Derek’s disdain for her second hand wardrobe, unusual family and low-paying job as an associate producer of a daytime talk show, Jamie reaches a breaking point. And when her new boss plans to reunite lost loves on the show, she remembers Lucas— the boy she’d loved and lost ten years earlier. What follows is a quest that is at times hilarious and at others disastrous as Jamie’s life transforms from run of the mill to absolutely crazy. But will finding Lucas give Jamie everything she’s looking for?
*
Samantha Stroh Bailey has been a writer ever since she could first pick up a pen. In fact, she even sent her first manuscript, Freddy the Flame, to publishers when she was ten years old and received her first of many rejections.
After 15 years of teaching ESL to adults, including at the University of Toronto, she decided to live her dreams of being a fulltime writer and editor. Now the owner of Perfect Pen Communications, she not only gets to write novels, but also writes and edits for magazines, websites, businesses, students and other writers.
Her work has appeared in Now Magazine, The Village Post, Oxford University Press, Abilities Magazine, on mommyish.com and many other publications. Samantha also has a Master of Education in Applied Linguistics.
She lives in Toronto with her husband and two children. Finding Lucas is her first novel.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
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As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
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We look forward to reading your comments.
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Welcome to the five hundred and forty-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with non-fiction and historical author Thomas Blubaugh. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. You can also read Tom’s interview with me here.
Morgen: Hello, Thomas. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Thomas: Be glad to, Morgen. I am husband to Barbara, father of 3 boys and 3 girls, and grandfather of 14. I live in southwest Missouri in the USA. I started writing poetry at age 14. I was too shy to tell a girl how I felt about her face to face so I would say it in poetry. Also, I wrote lyrics that I hoped would be recorded by Elvis Presley and other rock and roll singers, but this didn’t work out.
Morgen: That’s really sweet, and then sad. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Thomas: I have written nonfiction most of my adult life, but my last work was a historical fiction. I have looked at several genres, but I like where I am.
Morgen: That’s the important thing. What have you had published to-date?
Thomas: I self-published a book in 1974, which was for seminars in churches that I was doing. I’ve written several articles for magazines. I co wrote a daily devotional journal, The Great Adventure, for Barbour publishing in 2009. My novel Night of the Cossack was published by Bound by Faith Publishers in 2011. Earlier this year I contributed to Unshackled and Free: True Stories of Forgiveness with C. J. and Shelley Hitz. I am currently working on a sequel to my novel.
Morgen: As you just mentioned, you’ve self-published, what lead to you going your own way in that instance?
Thomas: The only self-published book was for a specific purpose and would not be marketed other than by me in seminars. I’m not opposed to self-publishing since I do most of the marketing when traditionally published. Today I think it comes down to who pays for the publishing, but the marketing is done by the author.
Morgen: It is, and usually the answer to my question “What’s your least favourite aspect of your writing life?”, mainly because it’s so overwhelming (daunting and time-wise). Are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Thomas: Night of the Cossack and Unshackled are ebooks. I do read a lot of ebooks, but I also read paper. I’m not particular.
Morgen: And isn’t it great having the choice. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?
Thomas: I really like Night of the Cossack. I can see it as a film. There is a young man who played in Winters Bone by the name of Cody Brown. He lives in my city.
Morgen: With your traditionally published books, did you have any say in the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?
Thomas: I named the book. I think it’s very important that the author name his / her own work. My publisher found the artist and graphic artist for the book cover. The artist read the first three chapters before he started painting. He did an excellent job. I have no talent in that area.
Morgen: My mum and aunt are brilliant painters (my aunt’s a professional) yet I draw stick men from imagination. I can cartoon and enjoy that but I agree with your about your artist, it’s a great cover. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Thomas: A sequel to Night of the Cossack.
Morgen: Do you manage to write every day? Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Thomas: I am a seat of the pants writer. I do write something every day, but not necessarily my novel. Scenes build up in my mind until it begs to be written. At that time I can write for hours. I’m trying something new. I have a program named Snowflake that helps plot stories.
Morgen: Most authors I’ve spoken to are ‘pantsers’ and it’s how I work too. Interviewee Darren Kirby mentioned a Snowflake method in his interview back in July 2011 but I’ve not heard of the programme. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Thomas: I’ve only written one novel and it was about my grandfather who died before I was born. I have pictures of him to go by, but I created all of the other characters. I research for names once I have determined the gender and geography. I’m not sure what makes them believable. I just weave them into the story to move it along and deepen the narrative.
Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Thomas: I was a rebellious English student and regret this now. My wife is my first editor and she tells me there is less and less to edit so I guess my writing is becoming more fully formed. I also belong to a very good critique group. They have taught me a lot.
Morgen: Everything’s about practice, isn’t it. In theory not only do we get better but we (hopefully) enjoy it more. Do you have to do much research?
Thomas: Yes. Night of the Cossack takes place in Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Italy and France. I had to do a lot of research. It took five years to write it. The sequel is requiring just as much research. I don’t want to give anything away here.
Morgen: No problem. They both sound great books. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?
Thomas: Night of the Cossack is third person. I’ve recently read some first person novels and I like them. I think there is much more character insight with this method. I haven’t tried second person—yet.
Morgen: I like that, “yet”. I write a lot of it for my 5pm Fiction slot, but haven’t tried a novel in it yet and am not sure I would, but never say never. Do you write any poetry, non-fiction or short stories?
Thomas: Yes to all three.
Morgen: Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Thomas: Only if I don’t live long enough to publish them. I don’t discard anything. If I thought it worthy of writing then I believe there is a place for it—if not now—later.
Morgen: Let’s hope so. I have loads that I keep meaning to go back through, and I will when I have time because I think I’m now experienced enough (I’ve certainly written over 1,000,000 words) to see where they need improving (and they will do I’m sure). Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Thomas: At one point I thought my self-published book was worth seeking a publisher. The first one I sent it to, lost it for over a year. This was pre-computer and copy machines so I didn’t have a back up. I was mortified. It finally showed up in the mail with no explanation. Ironically, the publisher of Night of the Cossack read the first chapter I had posted on my website and approached me. I know this isn’t the usual story.
Morgen: People are getting picked up online, which I think is why a lot of authors are going self-published (and like me have tried the agent route to no avail). Do you enter competitions?
Thomas: I have never entered any competitions. Not yet.
Morgen: Again there’s a “yet”. I like your optimism. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Thomas: I don’t have an agent. I tried to get one for a children’s book I wrote. I selected only those who would accept an inquiry via email. I had forgotten this. There was lots of rejection there so it’s still waiting for another time. I’ve heard it’s as hard to find an agent as it is to find a publisher.
Morgen: It is, harder in many cases. You mentioned marketing earlier, how much do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Thomas: This has been tough. I really didn’t write my novel to be published, at least not in the beginning. I was writing for myself and my heirs. When it was published, I thought I had a good platform since I had been doing business on the Internet for 13 years. When I really thought about it, I realized I had used a fictitious name, Grampa Tom, and no one knew my real name. I’ve been working very hard for over a year to develop a brand.
Morgen: I’ve been doing this blog since late March 2011 and am still working on it. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Thomas: Tough question. My favourite part is speaking to groups and encouraging those who have a writing interest to develop their talent. I’m surprised at how difficult it is to establish a brand. I read that there were over a million books published this past year in the USA. That surprised me.
Morgen: It’s staggering. I’ve interviewed / booked in over 700 authors and have another 900 questionnaires still out in the ether and am sure that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. Whilst there are more authors (I think) than ever before, readers have more options on which to read and (I’ve heard) more people are reading. We just have to shout a little louder these days. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Thomas: Start writing now. Don’t think about grammar or mistakes. Get your thoughts down on paper. Don’t wait to start building your platform. Do it as you’re writing. Get your name out there so when your work is published, people will want to purchase your work.
Morgen: Absolutely. If the story is good a publisher will forgive mistakes, readers are forgiving like that too (in most cases). I’ve heard other writers criticise Dan Brown’s and JK Rowling’s writing but look how popular they are, their stories have to be responsible for that. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Thomas: Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. I would cook spaghetti, garlic bread, corn, asparagus and lemon pie.
Morgen: Yum. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Thomas: This may be paraphrased: Some people believe they can, some believe they can’t and they’re both right. Henry Ford
Morgen: <laughs> Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?
Thomas: I’m developing an online workshop on building an author platform.
Morgen: Oh great, perhaps you’d like to do a guest blog for me on it when it’s ready? What do you do when you’re not writing?
Thomas: I love macro photography, Bocce ball and horseshoes.
Morgen: Bocce ball’s a new on me, but then I know there are many sports out there that are incredibly popular but are unheard of (my brother plays ‘Octopush’, underwater hockey, worldwide but from memory I’ve only ever met one person (a relative, as it turns out) who’s heard of it). Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?
Thomas: I read a lot of author blogs—too many to list. I look for one thing I can use in everything I read. I usually find it. Steve Miller’s Sell More Books is a good one. This isn’t an ebook, but The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron has been very helpful.
Morgen: Julia’s book has been mentioned here a few times. Are you on any forums or networking sites?
Thomas: I belong to the John 3:16 Marketing Network. I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Linkedin and Pinterest. These are the main ones.
Morgen: LinkedIn is how we met, I think. It’s a great resource. What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Thomas: I think it’s very good. The Tale of Two Cities has a line (paraphrased) “it is the best of times, it is the worst of times.” The publishing industry is changing fast. The world market is growing rapidly. The Internet and social network programs allow the author to reach the whole world from a computer in their home. The potential is phenomenal.
Morgen: It is, and I think it’s never been such a good time to be a writer. We have research tools on tap (thank you Messrs Google, Wikipedia etc al) and can ‘meet’ our readers without leaving our chairs, who can access our work in an instant. I love technology. Where can we find out about you and your writing?
Thomas: These are a few places: Night of the Cossack available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, 10 Day Lesson Plan for homeschool, Facebook, My Blog, Twitter @tomblubaugh, Missouri Writers Guild, Tom Blubaugh, Christian Author and Genesis Project.
Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Thomas: I want to say thank you for interviewing me. I am very grateful.
Morgen: You’re so welcome, Tom, thank you for interviewing me last month. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?
Thomas: How did you get involved in what you’re doing with authors? What is your motivation / purpose? How many subscribers / followers do you have?
Morgen: I started this blog (31st March 2011) because I’d heard it was a good thing to do and put things that interested me. Then I was interviewed via email and really enjoyed it. I was doing audio interviews podcast at the time, which were so time-consuming so phased those out and started these in the June. Then I added the spotlights, guest blogs, flash fiction and finally poetry (and lots of useful information) and it’s gathered momentum from there. I do it because I love it (some would say “obsessed”) and whilst I’m keen to help other authors (especially independents like myself) I do of course hope that it will glean exposure for myself and my books (my debut novel The Serial Dater’s Shopping List went live yesterday!). I have just under 500 subscribers to the blog and 200+ visitors a day (my best day to-date was July 25th this year with 495… I’d love to break the 500 barrier – maybe if I can interview JK Rowling ). Thank you, Tom.
I then invited Tom to include an extract of his writing…
Nathan’s eyes flew open. Sounds, screams and gunshots penetrated the cold air of his upstairs bedroom. The pungent smell of smoke invaded his nose. He coughed. Am I having a nightmare?
Shadows danced wildly across the ceiling and down the walls.
Heart pounding, he threw off his covers, jumped out of bed, and rushed to the window. His little brother, Israel, followed. Its real!
“What is it, Nathan?” Israel whispered.
Nathan pulled his brother against the wall behind him.
“Hey! I want to see!”
“Shush, Israel.” Nathan looked through the window at the valley below, his heart racing. Men in long coats and fur hats were running through the village brandishing swords and raising rifles. Cossacks! Nathan turned from the window.
Momma pulled Israel’s clothes from the hook behind the door, hurried him into them, and down the stairs.
Nathan shoved his trembling hands into his shirt, the horrible scenes replaying in his mind—houses ablaze, soldiers on horseback, dead bodies, his friends in terror. Why are the Cossacks here? What do they want?
He pushed his feet into his boots, jumped up, and hurried to the chest at the foot of the bed. Lifting the lid, he pulled out a knife in its sheath and shoved it into his right boot. He reached back for a leather bag containing lead balls and patches, and a powder horn. He fastened the pouch and powder horn to his belt. The firelight danced across his father’s pistol. He picked up the gun and balanced it in his right hand. Momma said I can’t use it until I’m older. She doesn’t know I’ve taken it out when I’ve gone hunting and practiced shooting it. I’m sixteen. I’m a man. Why should I have to wait? The thought calmed him.
Nathan shoved the unloaded gun into his belt, went back to the window, and stared at the nightmare below. He turned away and tried to close his mind against the violence. His rifle, loaded and ready to fire leaned against the wall in the corner. He slipped his arm through the sling, hefted the rifle on his shoulder, and grabbed his coat.
*
a synopsis of his book…
Night of the Cossack is a compelling adventure by Tom Blubaugh about a teenager who is forced to grow up quickly. The main character, Nathan Hertzfield, faces many life or death situations during his saga.
Join Nathan on his exhilarating journey through parts of Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Italy and France during the early 1900s. Live with him through the terror, changes, romance, sorry and betrayal as he runs for his life.
**
Tom Blubaugh was raised in a small town in southeast KS. He began writing poetry at age fourteen. Tom has written nonfiction most of his adult life. He self-published his first book Behind the Scenes of the Bus Ministry in 1974. Tom wrote articles for denominational and business magazines from 1975 through 1995. He co-wrote The Great Adventure for Barbour Publishing Co. in 2009. Bound by Faith Publishers published his first fiction Night of the Cossack in April, 2011. Tom is married to Barbara. They have six children and fourteen grandchildren. Both are retired. Tom has been public speaker for 40 years. He was a self-employed entrepreneur from1973 to 1995. Tom retired in 2004 and has devoted most of his time to writing and volunteer work.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on the main blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have this blog, http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com, on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to the main blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barbour Publishing Co., Barbour Publishing Company, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, Bound by Faith Publishers, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotic romance, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, mystery series, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Thomas Blubaugh, Tom Blubaugh, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 17 went live today and contained three flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as Flash Fiction Fridays. Do email me should you like to submit your own.
This episode contained: Three pieces by non-fiction author, autobiographer and interviewee Abbie Lipschutz, Cafe Mort (716 words) by prose author, poet, lyricist and interviewee Nathan Weaver (you may need to forgive my French accent in that one) and Autumn preserves (122 words) by short story author and poet Susan Moffat.
See the green links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast, which is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
***
For nine decades, Abbie Lipschutz has been a fighter, lover, writer, dilettante musician and classical music commentator. He is a clinically happy soul who possesses Offensive Charm and Unjustified Arrogance, qualities that have served him well over the years. He was a kibbutznik in Palestine in the early 40s, a veteran of the Dutch Prinses Irene Brigade in World War II, and a volunteer in Israel’s War of Independence, 1948-1949. By then he had long lost his beliefs in the Zionist-Socialist dreams. Nonetheless, he joined, feeling that 2000 years of persecution had been enough.
Having made a living for 50 years as a wholesale diamond peddler throughout the American South, he discovered the vastness of our land, its Big Sky and its multi-colored characters. He ended his diamond career in 1999 after being held up at gunpoint. Seeing van Gogh’s painting, “The Potato Eaters,” at age 14 changed his life by turning him into a political radical, which he has still remained. Thoreau’s phrase, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them,” confirmed what van Gogh’s painting had conveyed to him years before. Husband, father, and grandfather, he has written a memoir filled with the sights, sounds, scents, songs and surprises of a soulful, vigorous life well-lived. His book connects the generations in one grand sweep of hope, love, and peace. Abbie’s website is http://www.abbielipschutz.com and you can watch his video at http://youtu.be/C-xpHaz2P3s.
***
Nathan Weaver has been writing for roughly 15 years, though badly in the beginning, and focusing on short stories, novellas and screenplays. He has recently been honing his craft towards writing novels, completing a draft of his first novel in summer 2011, which is the beginning of a series of crime novels set in a high school setting and titled Hardboil High.
Aside from storytelling, he is an independent filmmaker and lyricist for Blue Solace. You can read a lot of his shorter works and excerpts from longer ones, for free, at his blog Tales from Babylon, and you can find this event on his http://talesfrombabylon.fanbridge.com/tourdates page.
***
Born in 1969, Susan Moffat grew up in County Durham, in the North East of England, during the period of the Miner’s Strike, mass unemployment and the very beginning of the technological boom.
She studied Computer Studies in the late 80′s, and worked in IT for a book distribution company for almost 10 years, before taking time out to become a mother. She now works part time as a librarian in a Special Needs Secondary School.
In 2010 she started a degree course in creative writing and film and TV sceenwriting.
***
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be a hints & tips episode in a fortnight, then short stories return a fortnight thereafter.
All the details of these episodes are listed on this blog’s Podcast Short Stories page and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or review for the Short Story Saturdays) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books and I also have a blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: Abbie Lipschutz, audio, author, autobiographer, Bailey's writing tips, literature, lyricist, Nathan Weaver, non-fiction, podcast, poet, poetry, prose, short stories, Susan Moffat
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 16 went live today and contained three flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as Flash Fiction Fridays. Do email me should you like to submit your own. This episode contained:
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be a hints & tips episode in a fortnight, then short stories return a fortnight thereafter.
All the details of these episodes are listed on this blog’s Podcast Short Stories and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or review for the Short Story Saturdays) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
***
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: Bailey's writing tips, flash fiction, Marjorie Doering, Marlene Caroselli, memoir, podcast, short stories, Will Macmillan-Jones, writing
Welcome to the four hundred and ninety-fifth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with crime and short story author, and Flash Fiction Fridayer Travis J Eaton. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And you can read Travis’ short story ‘Sacrament’ here and listen to my reading of it here.
Morgen: Hello, Travis. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Travis: Hello Morgen! I have been experimenting with short stories and poetry since I was a young adolescent in the suburbs of Chelsea, Victoria in Australia. While trying to find out what I was good at in the real world, I had always favoured writing and never thought I would finally make the logical steps to study it full time as I did at the start of this year. So a lot of the writing I’m doing now feels constricted as I’m learning what the pro’s have to say and applying that to my limited knowledge of the structuring, editing and formation of ideas and stories.
Morgen: Do take some notice but we all have different things to say so, if I may be so bold, if you’re feeling constricted, it’s not actually a good thing. The most recommended book here is Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ so I’d add that to your list. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Travis: Being an avid reader of Crime Fiction throughout my twenties, the influence is in my writing when I look back at some of the stories I’ve written thus far. Although my reading habits have changed within the past few years, I’m finding my writing is continually expanding into different areas.
Morgen: Ah, excellent… not so constricted. What have you had published to-date?
Travis: Nothing as yet.
Morgen: “Yet”, although your short story ‘Sacrament’ has appeared on my blog which does count. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Travis: A lot of homework!
Morgen: And hopefully a lot of writing (300 words a day is 100,000 a year). Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Travis: Not lately. Being on holidays has been an interruption on my writing I’m finding.
Morgen: Isn’t it just. I’ve been at three writer’s conferences / literary festivals over the past five weeks and am way behind with everything. Someone needs to invent a machine that winds time back… ah yes, HG Wells did, didn’t he. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Travis: I tend to sit and write. Ideas may come through the process and I work with that.
Morgen: Most authors I’ve spoken to have said that they’re ‘pantsers’, and I’m the same. I plotted my first novel and it went off on its own so I learned to do very little sketching (almost none for the third one and it ended up being 117,540 words!). Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Travis: I really enjoy coming up with character names and then the rest comes when I give them a scenario or a companion to share their space with. The identity of the character doesn’t form until I take time away from them. I don’t really ask myself if the character is believable or not when I’m writing, even after, but that’s what I’m learning through study.
Morgen: I’m sure if it didn’t feel real to you you’d struggle with the writing process, they do tend to take on a ‘life’. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Travis: At this stage of my writing, the editing is a time thing. I will sit back after I’ve written a short and leave it for a while, go back to it, and then see what can be done to improve it.
Morgen: That’s the best way; if you ever get stuck with something leaving it and returning later will usually mean you see it with ‘fresh eyes’ because you’re brain has moved on to something else in the mean time. Do you have to do much research?
Travis: If I get stuck, yes. I am in the process of organising a research department for myself.
Morgen: Wow. What point of view do you find most to your liking?
Travis: I’ve being trying my hand at third person lately to break up my habit of first person. There’s only so many I’s I’m willing to write in a story.
Morgen: Perhaps look at the way the sentence is structured; you may find you can lose many of the ‘I’s because the reader knows the story is about you, or turn the sentence round. It’s always tempting to start the sentence with the character, perhaps have something like ‘As the car came towards me’ … and / or have a crack at second person ‘you’. Do you write any poetry or non-fiction?
Travis: I do write poetry on the odd occasion. I still enjoy that side of writing to break apart from short stories. My descriptive methods need more work!
Morgen: I write very little poetry so I’m right there with you. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Travis: There are a few ideas that have lasted in the memory bank that I think will see the time of day. I like to think that if an idea stays in my mind over a period of time, it may have a use after all.
Morgen: Hopefully you’ll have a use for everything, especially as you write more. I have 100+ old (5-6 years) stories that I’m hoping I’m now wiser to see where I went ‘wrong’ and do something with. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Travis: I haven’t put anything out to be rejected yet but I’m sure it will be a welcome addition to my study walls. How I deal with it will depend on how strongly I feel for the story.
Morgen: But do remember it’s only one person’s opinion and is usually just the right thing for the wrong person. I do like to think they make a writer stronger. Do you enter competitions? Are there any you could recommend?
Travis: At this stage in my writing I am yet to find a story or idea I’m willing to sacrifice to enter into competitions.
Morgen: I used to enter more than I do now (not difficult, I haven’t entered any for a while) but I found with themed competitions get me writing something new and if it doesn’t get anywhere I still have that new story. My writing group’s competition (the H.E. Bates) has a theme for the first time; ‘A walk at midnight’. Do you have an agent?
Travis: No. I will know when I’m ready!
Morgen: What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Travis: My favourite aspect is the initial excitement I get from creating, the self-satisfaction I obtain through self development and dedication to an idea. My least favourite aspect is when that excitement withers and leaves me feeling empty and useless, making me question my abilities.
Morgen: That’s really sad, although most writers have self-doubt. Hopefully when you start having some successes (I’ve published your short story). What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Travis: Study the art. Even if you think you know all there is to know, there will always be something inspiring that you can take on board to further develop your storytelling.
Morgen: I’ve been studying for seven years and I’m still learning. When I go to live events the established (some of many years) still they’re still learning – surgeons do so why can’t we? If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Travis: James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and Michael Connelly. I would cook a steak dinner with mash and vegetables. Plenty of wine and beer also.
Morgen: Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Travis: ‘I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.’ James Joyce
Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?
Travis: Homework, Australian Rules football, drinking with friends, thinking about writing.
Morgen: In reverse order? I’m always thinking about writing. Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?
Travis: Stephen King on Writing.
Morgen: Ah yes, the most recommended book here and I recommended it to you earlier so you were one step ahead. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?
Travis: Twitter and Facebook. I think they are valuable when you use them correctly.
Morgen: If you don’t let them take over too much time. What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Travis: A positive, creative and successful future.
Morgen: I agree. Where can we find out about you and your writing?
Travis: http://eatonjtravis.wordpress.com
Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Travis: I’d like to thank you for supporting me and giving me a chance to make a contribution to your segment.
Morgen: You’re so welcome. I’m grateful to everyone who takes part, my blog wouldn’t be as stuffed as it is without you all. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?
Travis: How do you maintain order as you would receive so many emails and stories? Where do you find the time to go through it all?
Morgen: By giving up my day job and not doing much else. I don’t charge for anything so I have to find ways of making money, that’s the tricky bit, although I have two lodgers which helps. As for maintaining order, I have a wonderful Word table matrix with everyone listed (dates, names, genres, blog slots – in differing colours), I’d be lost without it although keeping the timetables on each blog page helps enormously then I know we’re singing off the same clichéd hymn sheet. Thank you, Travis.
Apart from Travis’ blog listed above, you can read Travis’ short story ‘Sacrament’ here and listen to my reading of it here.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, blogging, books, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, Ernest Hemingway, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, interview, James Joyce, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Michael Connelly, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, On Writing, paranormal, paranormal romances, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, rejection letters, rejections, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, Stephen King, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Travis Eaton, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 15 went live today and contained three flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as ‘Flash Fiction Fridays’. Do email me should you like to submit your own.
This episode contained: Sleep well (727 words) by Christopher Farley, a 626 word story entitled Portraits of a young artist in Istanbul by Gene Parola and Fourth of July (871 words) by DJ Paterson.
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
***
Christopher Farley. He lived a sheltered life in the wilds of Kent from where he was saved by the written word. So much so that he still corresponds with certain people with A PEN AND PAPER!! Upon moving to London, a bit like Dick Whittington, searching for streets of gold, he happened upon a beautiful Italian lady who later decided to take him to the sunny realm of southern Switzerland, where he can still be found, smiling inanely, continuously in search of Weissbier. When he is not working or drinking he sits in front of the computer, searching for fictional inspiration. You can find Chris via his blog http://talkingtosh.wordpress.com.
Mr Gene Parola is a retired Professor of cultural history at Indiana University and University of Michigan-Flint; the Ministry of Defense, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Koç University in Istanbul Turkey. As a former Naval Air Intelligence officer and a career researcher, he has trained himself to be a keen observer of his surroundings and has acquired a large cultural and social context into which those observations fit. He is a freelance writer of Business (See Honolulu Star Bulletin, July 28, 2002) and Technical (Hurricane Handbook, Sail Net News, Spring, 2003) articles. His short stories have been published in Voices from the Universe and in Bamboo Ridge Press, 25th Anniversary Edition. And the Spring 2006 edition. Mr. Parola speaks frequently to lodges, clubs and service organizations on a variety of topics.
DJ approached his writing with a 20-year run up, which ended on a moment of inspiration and produced a short story called Vampire. This was published on his local BBC website, and in the nine or so years that followed, he has tackled his writing with sporadic enthusiasm.
He has written a number of short stories, flash fiction pieces and completed a YA novel which was ranked in the A&C Black Writers’and Artists’ Yearbook 100th Edition Novel Writing competition to find the best 100 unpublished novels. He has recently started a crime fiction novel, and is a month into his first ever writing group.
He moved from England to New Zealand at the end of 2011, and is pretty sure that one day, he may start thinking about approaching literary agents. DJ is a little guarded about his day job, and says that whilst his hobby is all about being creative, his is paid to ensure that clients are not.
He can be found on Twitter @djpaterson and maintains a random blog at www.djpaterson.com. Oh, and if you’re wondering about the profile photo, he won a writing competition and appeared as a character in Meg Gardiner’s The Memory Collector. The photo shows his pleasant surprise when realising his character perhaps had something that DJ could never possess in real life – an Afro!
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be a hints & tips episode then short stories return a fortnight thereafter.
All the details of these episodes are listed on this blog’s podcast page and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or review for the Short Story Saturdays) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: Bailey's writing tips, Christopher Farley, DJ Paterson, flash fiction, Gene Parola, Google’s Feedburner, iTunes, Podbean, podcast, Podcast Alley, podcasters, short stories, writing
Welcome to the four hundred and eighty-eighth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with children’s author Carrie King. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Carrie. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Carrie : Hello, Morgen, I am a widow and I live alone; well, I live with my yummy cat, Brewster. I live 5 months a year in the City, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and I live the other 7 months in My Sanctuary, which is a lovely mobile home by the river in Bedfordshire. I have three gorgeous daughters, none of them are married but they have all fled the Nest and live their own, independent, successful lives.
Here is a picture of me with my youngest daughter, Hannah and Brewster.
I have been writing ever since I can remember, although my first ‘Big Production’ was when I was eight. I wrote a Play and commandeered my hapless brother and sister to act it out with me in front of our parent’s House Guests… oh well.
Morgen: What fun. You’re a children’s author, please tell us more about that, and have you considered other genres?
Carrie: I have written and illustrated a Picture Book and a full-blown Time Travel Adventure. When I have completed The Circles Trilogy (I am half-way through BOOK TWO), I am going to write ‘It shouldn’t happen to a Widow’… based on my hilarious experiences as a widow.
Morgen: A very tough topic to write about. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?
Carrie: 1: The Circles Trilogy BOOK ONE The Life in the Wood with Joni-Pip.
2: The Life in the Wood with Joni-Pip Picture Book.
I was always called Carrie at school (although I was Christened Carol), and I use King for a very special reason. My father married a young woman called Violet King and she died after giving birth to my half-brother, John. My father then married my mother, eighteen months later. So, if it hadn’t have been for Violet’s sad demise, I would never have been born. I call myself ‘King’ in remembrance of Violet King, my half-brother’s mother.
Morgen: How sad. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Carrie: Of course I have had rejections, Morgen, aren’t they supposed to be ‘good’ for us… keep us humble and all that? I also hope that one day, if the American Chronicle’s predictions come true that I make it as a well-known writer (they have put ‘Joni-Pip’ alongside Alice in Wonderland), so that I can grin at those who rejected ‘Joni-Pip’.
I love Frank Sinatra’s quote, ‘The best revenge is massive success.’
Morgen: And many have done just that. Apart from Harry Potter being rejected 14-16 times (depending upon where you read the statistic), Dean Koontz was apparently rejected over 500 times. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Carrie: No, and many successful writers never have. I have been rejected by several agents…. so I just got on and approached publishers myself. I never understand how anyone can judge a book’s potential on reading simply three chapters! However, I do have a Manager and a P.A. (two actually).
Morgen: Could I borrow one of them while I catch up with my emails? Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all?
Carrie: Yes the Joni-Pip Adventure Story is. I am afraid I had nothing to do with it. Apple asked if they could make Joni-Pip into an e-pub, so they did it all and Joni-Pip was made into a Kindle by the tech guys at my publishers. It is also available on Barnes and Noble as a Nook (I think that is what they are called)!
Morgen: They are. Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Carrie: Hmmmmm… I am not into e-books. Like so many, I love the smell of a book and the feel of the paper as you turn the pages, I find it very comforting, possibly because it reminds me of being a child again.
Morgen: You’re right, most people read both formats (myself included) and only a handful (possibly less) have favoured eBooks over pBooks completely. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Carrie: So much! The ‘author game’, as I call it, has really changed, hasn’t it, Morgen (I am sure you know all about that)?
Morgen: I’ve only been writing for seven years and obsessed for a couple so I’m fairly green.
Carrie: I was brought up on Enid Blyton Books and yet, to this day, I still don’t know what she looked like. Today, that would never happen. Martyn, my Marketing Manager, always says to me, ‘Carrie, you are our best Marketing Tool.’ I expect that is the same for most authors. He says I have to be seen, so I do countless Author Days at Schools and Colleges: I give talks for Book Groups, Writer’s Groups, in Libraries (I am giving a Talk and doing a Book Signing at a Ladies Luncheon at Luton Hoo later this year; it is a very grand place and I was pleasantly surprised when they wrote and asked my Manager if I would agree to come), and we have had many Joni-Pip Events. They are brilliant as Joni-Pip has such a fan base. I cannot remember how many times I have been on BBC Radio. Sometimes, I wish I didn’t have to do so much promoting so I could spend more time writing. Oh and I have been on BBC Television, too.
Here is a short clip of me on BBC Television with some Circleites (Joni-Pip fans).
Morgen: You’ll have to give me some tips as I’ve been booked for a couple of events next year. Do you have a favourite character? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?
Carrie: Asking me if I have a favourite character, Morgen, is like asking me who is my favourite child: although, I do have a special place for Poppy in my heart.
I have often thought about Joni-Pip being made into a film and I have told Sir Ian McKellen, I would love him to play the Inventor, Archimedes Spindlethrop and I have also told Patrick Stewart that I would love him to play Grandfather. My great niece, Joni-Philipa (whom I wrote the book for in the first place), wants to play Flip and my incredibly beautiful granddaughter, Paige, wants to play Joni-Pip. Liam Ashmead, who goes to Stage School and whose Dad, Luke, works for BBC 3 Counties Radio wants to play Craig, he is a huge Joni-Pip fan. I would like a real American to play Father but two actors, one when Father was 20 and another when he is 38. Brad Pitt would be nice… oh sorry… my mind wandered a bit there…
Morgen: I’d have him in some capacity too. Did you have any say in the title / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?
Carrie: No, that is (I am told), nothing to do with me! I suppose they are very important, although aren’t we cautioned, ‘you can’t tell a book by looking at its cover’. My Tech Team wanted something completely different from all the modern covers, you know the Harry Potter covers were more like cartoony-thingies. They wanted something ‘timeless’. So South African Illustrator, Mark Taute, was commissioned to paint a watercolour and the Design Team worked from there. Here is a picture of me with Joni-Pip, herself, holding up that brilliant painting.
Morgen: You don’t often get to see the original artwork, it’s lovely. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Carrie: BOOK TWO, The Life by the Sea with Joni-Pip… I have had to make loads of changes already because The Managing Director of Bletchley Park, Simon Greenish, read Joni-Pip and said he loved it and asked me to include this Home of the Code Breakers in my second plot. When the book is finally finished, they are going to have a permanent Joni-Pip Trail there. How cool is that?
Morgen: Wow. There’ll be a theme park next. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Carrie: Sadly, no. Yes, occasionally.
Morgen: 
Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Carrie: I think all of us writers spend a lot of time thinking about plots; my favourite place to do that is while I am swimming in the river. However, I always tell the students I talk to that I look upon writing a book, as a Football (Soccer) Match. Everyone on a team knows the aim of the game is to get goals and they know which direction they are heading in. However, no-one can predict anything other than the aim, as all through the game come shots and tackles and different players undertaking unexpected moves. Just like writing a book, for me it’s full of action and unexpected twists and turns, although I know where I am heading and where I want to get to and the goal I want to achieve but I have no idea when I start out, how I am going to finally get there. It’s such a wonderful process.
Morgen: I’d not thought of it like that. Do you have a method for creating your characters, and what do you think makes them believable?
Carrie: Another good question, Morgen.
Morgen: Thank you.
Carrie: Again, like most authors, I base my characters on real people I know, or mixtures of real people or people I meet briefly. To be an interesting writer, I think it is important to be observant. I am a total ‘people watcher and listener’ (which makes me very boring to go out to dinner with as I am constantly listening in to other people’s conversations and watching other people’s actions and reactions), and I jot down anything remotely funny or unusual or noteworthy on anything I can get my hands on. Many a time I have written down conversations on a paper napkin with lipstick: I must remember to carry a notebook and pen at all times (Sheena, my Exec. P.A. is always trying to drum that into me). I try to base my characters on reality, to make them believable: although in saying that there are some very strange people around that perhaps a Reader might not believe could possibly be real! (How’s that for a CK sentence)!
Morgen: I have a notebook and two pens (in case one stops working) in every bag and every jacket as I’ve had (what I thought were) brilliant ideas and then lost them because I had no way of noting them. A dictaphone also lives in my main bag. Apart from Joni-Pip, how do you come up with your characters’ names?
Carrie: I spoke to a group of 150, 14year-olds last week and we spent quite a bit of time discussing names. I think a memorable name is very important, which means thinking long and hard before deciding on what you are going to use. We discussed ‘Fagin’, isn’t that simply a perfect example? Dickens chose a name that sums up this character so accurately. I bet there are very few people who have never heard of him!
I spent two weeks in West France thinking up the name for my Eccentric Inventor… I finally came up with the name, Archimedes Spindlethrop… I hope one day, he will be remembered. His long-suffering cat is called, ‘Eureka’, of course!
Here are James Boddy’s and Paul Moon’s wonderful drawings of Archimedes Spindlethrop and his cat Eureka.
Morgen: They’re (the names and pictures) are great. Do you write any non-fiction or short stories?
Carrie: Non-fiction? No, although today, my daughter, Zoe, said, ‘Mummy, you should write your Memoirs, you have had such a fun and interesting life!’ Hmmmm. Yes, I wrote The Ticket, a short story, which you posted on your blog.
Morgen: I did – it’s here. And poetry?
Carrie: I have written 39 poems but I am rubbish at it… let me show you. I can only write as I see the thoughts… I can’t write in all this symbolic stuff, it’s too airy fairy for me.
When my husband was killed I always kept smiling and trying to encourage others who missed him, too, so I wrote this:
The Face
The face she’s wearing on my face,
Is not my face at all.
The girl that’s breathing in this girl,
Is really just a wall.
The girl that’s ‘me’, the face you see,
Is just a happy mask.
The breath you hear, the smile I wear,
‘Is whose then?’ Do you ask?
The one you see, the girl that’s ‘me’
Is always full of fun.
She laughs a lot, has always got
A smile for everyone.
Within the smile, once in a while,
You’ll catch a sudden stare.
As from the ‘fun’, she longs to run
To someone who could care.
Beneath the face, there lurks a place
Of shadows, pain and sadness.
Under the laugh, there runs a path
Of shudders, blame and badness.
It’s not her fault, she’d like to halt
The life she’s forced to lead.
Who could she tell about her ‘Hell’?
There’s no one there who’d heed.
She hoped one day, t’would go away
And leave her safe and free.
Then in its place, would be my face,
Myself I’d truly be.
The face I’d wear upon my face,
Would be my face, you see.
The girl that breathed within this girl,
Would really just be me.
Morgen: The pictures I’ve seen of you have always been uplifting. It’s so hard to remain positive after a loss but I know most people wouldn’t want us to be sad. It was a beautiful poem, thank you. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Carrie: Difficult question, Morgen.
Morgen: Oh dear, sorry.
Carrie: In all honesty, I think about every sentence I write. I think about structure, alliteration, meter and flow. I suppose that is why my work takes so long! I get a bit sad, though, when I read typos in my printed work. Oh well, despite having editors, this digital age, although instant in its results, means more overlooked errors!
Morgen: But with eBooks they can be instantly corrected. I had a typo pointed out in my Story a Day May 2011 (a ‘smelly’ instead of ‘smell’ – big difference! – thank you, Jenny) and I just went in and changed it. I’m sure every reader has found something in some of the works they’ve read over the years. We just have to do the best we can. Do you have to do much research?
Carrie: Yes, of course, don’t all authors?
Morgen: I would hope so, even if they’re sure of something. My bookmarks to Google, Wikipedia and YouTube are constantly in use.
Carrie: I love History and my family seems to have so much, which I like to use, so that takes a lot of digging and searching but I so enjoy it all. I also spent ages in Bath, researching the Air raids of 1942. Joni-Pip opens with this horrific bombardment. Also, my fifth cousin, Colonel Anthony Durnford, was in charge of a small battalion of Royal Engineers in the Zulu Wars. All but two of them died but in Joni-Pip I change history but it took quite a bit of research to get all the facts.
Here is a painting of that fateful Battle of Isandlwana, you can see my cousin… and if you knew him, you would see my brother, David, looks so much like him!
Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?
Carrie: Hmmmm… once again a good question (I must get some ready for you to answer).
Morgen:
Carrie: I love writing in the third person because that is the easiest and, so lazy am I but I mix it up with a bit of ‘illegal’ first person in Joni-Pip. The American Chronicle loved that part of Joni-Pip; referring to it as ‘asides’ to the Reader. I have never tried second person that sounds a tad too difficult for me.
Morgen: It’s weird but just takes a bit of practice. You just have to think that you’re talking to the reader / character rather than about them (the latter). Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Carrie: Of course and I have this romantic notion that when I am dead these pieces of work will be discovered in my attic, although I don’t have one but I do have a heavily overloaded loft, with suitcases of my old work.
Morgen: Wow. I have a few display books but hope that once I go through them I can see where I went ‘wrong’ and pull them apart and sew them neatly back together again. What’s your favourite aspect of your writing life?
Carrie: Oh, I love writing by the river on my decking in Felmersham, Bedfordshire, England, (not far from you, Morgen, although I didn’t discovered that until recently).
Morgen: 19.6 miles according to Google.
Carrie: I have a beautiful mobile home that I escape to for seven months a year. It is my little Paradise, which I share with the birds, cows, sheep, geese, swans, bunnies and a beautiful and majestic Barn Owl, who comes and flies a few times around the field every evening. Also because I am far away from any light pollution, I see so many shooting stars on clear evenings. Am I not blessed?
Morgen: I would say so. I always think of the sea (a 3-hour drive in pretty much every direction) as being the only water but forget the beautiful rivers and lakes we have, although there’s nothing quite like the thrill of a splashing surf. And your least favourite?
Carrie: I love people and because I live in such an Idyllic part of Britain, many of my friends like to come and visit… However, I am sometimes bursting with words, which I am unable to deliver to my screen as I am having to entertain my guests! This is a few yards from my home in Bedfordshire where I do most of my writing.
Also, I sometimes find reviews a tad difficult to understand. One writer commented that I shouldn’t explain so much about Joni-Pip’s thoughts. For example she said I shouldn’t say, ‘This comment puzzled Joni-Pip’ but I should just write, ‘Joni-Pip pursed her lips’… hmmmm… if I were writing for adults only that would seem fine to me but my target age was 9-12… would a 9-year-old really understand what ‘pursed her lips’ meant? I think not. I didn’t make a comment to the reviewer. I hope I did the professional thing and remained silent but I felt she didn’t understand children’s books or children at all.
Morgen: I had the same sort of thing about my free eStory April’s Fool, one chap said “bit skimpy on the details but we get the idea” and another said that there was too much detail we just want to know what happens. Whatever you do, you can’t win. Has anything surprised you?
Carrie: Many things have surprised me… particularly being referred to as, ‘The British Mark Twain’ (how amazing is that and I am most unworthy)……as well as putting Joni-Pip alongside Treasure Island. Sometimes when I read reviews in newspapers I think that they can’t be talking about me and my work! I am so honoured.
Morgen: Newspapers don’t lie. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Carrie: The 3 ‘K’s: Keep writing, keep fighting and keep going.
Morgen: I love that. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Carrie: Moses, Jesus and William Tindale. I think I would make a thick, creamy mushroom soup for starters and then I would grill some salmon fillets, accompanied by jacket potatoes and an enormous green salad with plenty of wild rocket, followed by fresh fruit salad and crème fraiche. I am not a drinker but I suppose a Vintage Sancerre would go down really well with that meal. I personally would have a mixture of freshly squeezed orange and cranberry juice. Coming, Morgen?
Morgen: Ooh, yes please. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Carrie: ‘Love betters what is best’, by Wordsworth, is my favourite quote. I love the words ‘apple pie’; they sound so lovely on the mouth (great pun even though I say so myself)! Just say them and you will know what I mean.
Morgen: Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?
Carrie: And when, pray, do I have time to do this, Young Lady???
Morgen: Um… same as me. What do you do when you’re not writing?
Carrie: I read, dance (that is so yummy), and try to swim in the river every day I am in Felmersham. The local fishermen call me, ‘The Mermaid’…
Morgen: Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful?
Carrie: www.goodreads.com. Stephen King wrote a brilliant book, ‘On Writing’. It is a real bible for writers, I savoured each sentence and I recommend that every aspiring and even established writer should read it. My friend, the Geo-Physicist, who created the Formula Board for me in Joni-Pip, bought it for me in Paris and I treasure it. Have you read it, Morgen?
Morgen: I haven’t but I do own it. I’d rather read it from cover to cover than dip into it and every time an interviewee mentions it (which is often) I stare at it on the shelf and so far, that’s where it’s stayed. I must read it. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?
Carrie: Erm…I am truly so busy, I rarely have time to be sociable online. I sometimes tweet (CarrieKing1), and I have a small number of friends on Facebook.
Morgen: Quanlity not quantity. What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Carrie: I think we live in an amazing literary age. Anyone can become an Author and get their work out on the Net, all it takes is hard work and persistence.
Morgen: It does. Where can we find out about you and your work?
Carrie: www.joni-pip.com
Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Carrie: I would just like to say a massive thank you, Morgen, for working so hard for so many writers and poets, that’s all!
Morgen: You’re very welcome. I’m just so glad they want to be here, and they keep coming. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?
Carrie: Lots and soon you will be interviewed on your own website: by me!
Morgen: That would make a lovely change. I was interviewed by myself here (no.100) but different questions would be fun. Thank you, Carrie.
I then invited Carrie to include an extract of her writing…
‘The cosiness of the cottage hugged them, as it always did, when they walked in; only this time, the fragrance from the freshly thatched roof still lingered in Knotty Knook, making their arrival even more welcoming than usual. Father had telephoned through to the village Post Office, notifying Mr. Broft of their arrival and Mrs. Broft had gone in and aired the beds, lit some fires and left a cold supper for them in the kitchen.
They all felt very tired after eating, so Joni-Philipa and Becky-Paige went off to bed not much before Alex, Mother and Father.
The next morning Joni-Philipa was slightly bewildered when she woke up in her bedroom in Berry Bush. After a few minutes she realised where she was, leapt out of bed and ran to look out of the window. She pulled back the red check curtains and there they were: her very own Windy Woods. She so wanted to run up the hill and into her beloved trees.
As she started to get dressed she looked up and saw her face in her dressing table mirror. Her eyes were still swollen and puffy from her crying almost the entire day before and she couldn’t help but laugh at herself.
The stubborn twelve-year-old then heard the sound of aircraft above her and shuddered, remembering the horror of the night in the cellar in Bath.
“This silly War!” she said out loud. “This silly, stupid War!”
She promptly put her pyjamas back on and climbed into bed.’
***
You can read Carrie’s story ‘The Ticket’ here, listen to me reading it here and read Carrie’s author spotlight.
Update December 2012: Since you interviewed me in September, Morgen, a few exciting things have happened:
- After a meeting with the ‘Powers That Be’ at Bletchley Park, I am now writing BOOK TWO of The Circles Trilogy as ‘Joni-Pip and The Bletchley Park Project’, which hopefully will be finished by Easter 2013, when their PR Manger is going to do three months promotions of ‘JP & The BP Project’. I Look forward to that. I sent in the first 5 chapters and Simon Greenish, who, although retired from BP (he is the previous MD), is still very active in the goings on at Bletchley Park, and he said, ‘This is going to be superb’….only time will tell, Morgen! That means I have also written 140 pages of BOOK THREE of The Circles Trilogy!
- Also, a Film Producer has copies of Joni-Pip and says he is looking forward to working with me! So a movie seems forthcoming!
- Actor, Peter Egan, seen in Downton Abbey on the 25th December, followed me on Twitter (I hadn’t followed him): I was thrilled as he has always been one of my favourite actors since I was a teenager. I followed him back and now he is reading Joni-Pip and instead of Patrick Stewart (he would make a great Old Farmer Finn), I would love Peter Egan to play Grandfather.
- I started using Twitter properly two weeks ago and I now have 1,390 Followers… and they are growing daily!
- I have been invited on The Pat Marsh Show for BBC Radio Kent on Thursday, 3rd January at 11 am and on The Nick Coffer Show for BBC Three Counties Radio on Tuesday, 8th January at 2:15pm. I look forward to speaking with both guys.
Wow, congratulations, Carrie.
***
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Welcome to the four hundred and seventieth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with poet and article writer Kimberly Gray. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Kimberly.
Kimberly: Hello. Morgen, first let me thank you again so much, what a tremendous service you offer authors and I for one really appreciate it.
Morgen: :*) Oh you’re very welcome. Thank you for being here. I’ve said this before but this blog wouldn’t be what it is without my guests. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Kimberly: My name is Kimberly Gray and I find the fun in everything I do, suppose like a child. Life can be too serious at times and sometimes I need to just let loose. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada as a Navy Baby, it was there I would start my multitude of moves landing me where I am living now in Toronto, back in Canada. I am 45 years old and have not stepped into a classroom since the age of 14. I am learning how to write like me everyday with a clearer message. I also seem everyday that I have just begun. I have been writing on my own, since the age of 14 as well.
I started to write because of a wonderful man who told me it could help me cope and heal, where doctors could not. PTSD and severe ADD certainly gave me some interesting challenges. That man, Earl, didn’t let me down, and writing does heal. This over time, is how I grew to start and love writing, and since then have done so everyday.
Morgen: Writing is incredibly therapeutic. Sometimes we just want to get something out of our head and seeing something written down is like sharing with someone, even if it doesn’t go anywhere. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Kimberly: I have written poetry since the age of fourteen, and 2 years ago decided to write about my struggles in hopes to help others. My current book is a new pool of water for me, being a thriller. My other current book is educational, about drugs and drug dealing. Currently I am also entertaining the prospect of Journalism in the print medium.
Morgen: So plenty of variety. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?
Kimberly: I write under the name Kimberly and have just published two e-books and was featured in five poetry books as the Editors Choice. I have published over 230 articles on HubPages, some under different names, including preY a vampire.
Morgen: HubPages has been mentioned a few times. I’ve looked at the site occasionally but never contributed, maybe I should. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Kimberly: No rejections to date, I am blessed with the feedback I have received.
Morgen: That’s great. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?
Kimberly: I just won a “Hubbie” for best poet from 430,000 other writers, and again Editors choice awards as featured poetry. http://blog.hubpages.com/2011/08/fifth-birthday At this site I have also been awarded with one of the years top 200 writers, and gifted with a few dozen articles written about myself as a person and a writer. Lastly, been rewarded with inspiring over 500 articles as a direct result of my input. http://sunnieday50.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/introducing-kimberlyslyrics-otherwise-known-as-kimberly-gray
Morgen: Having written so many articles (not wishing to belittle your abilities for a second) it must help that you’ve written so many. Life is practice, isn’t it (or is it 42 like Douglas Adams said). Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Kimberly: No agent as of yet but will be searching soon, as I would like my two novels in hardcover upon completion. Without the experience of an Agent, it is hard for me to tell how integral a part of the process they would be. I find my Editor helps so immensely above and beyond his responsibilities, it is just as though I have one already. More research to be done here!
Morgen: We have the Writers & Artists Yearbook and Writers Handbook in the UK which are the usual places to go to. http://pred-ed.com/pubagent.htm is also a great guide. I read only this morning (in the October edition of Writers’ Forum magazine) that Amazon are now selling more eBooks than hardbacks and paperbacks combined, are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all?
Kimberly: Yes, both books are eBooks. Unnecessarypoetry and moreunnecessarypoetry. I worked with smashwords, myself. One of the largest learning curves I could not have predicted but persevered and am in the Premium catalogue.
Morgen: I found the most daunting prospect with Smashwords was going through the 70+-page style guide but it turns out that it’s so user-friendly that I flew through it and once you have the template you can just work from that. Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way? And do you have a favourite?
Kimberly: I have never read eBooks until now. I do love the comfort from a hardcover book and enjoy the format much better. Now in the medium of eBooks, I am constantly scouting for new ones and am quickly enjoying reading them on my Mac Kindle. My favourite book is Jonathon Living Seagull. My stepfather, recently deceased, gave it to me as a teenager and would remind me to read it again, from time to time. It’s message of hope and the fact we can accomplish anything gave me tools he had understood were critical to lead a life of your own desires. He taught me nothing was impossible. That book means more to me now than I could have ever imagined.
Morgen: I was given it as a leaving present from a temp job years ago and have only read it once (some months later) but can see why it’s so popular. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Kimberly: This is where I find I am ‘stuck on stupid’ LOL. Funny thing is I have worked globally for the past 25 years in Advertising / Communications as a print and broadcast producer as well as an Account Manager. Primarily thinking of creative and new ideas to execute my Client’s message.
Possibly because this is my work or not, I am indeed finding it hard to find free creative outlets to market me as a brand, pen name Kimberly, and my books for sales. I still however am joined to all the social sites and use their leverage the best I can.
Morgen: Marketing is usually the answer to ‘least favourite aspect of writing’ and I’m sure 99% of those reading this will feel the same as you but persevere. It’s time-consuming and takes us away from writing but the upside is that we get to meet our readers. If any of your books were made into films, whom would you have as the leading actor/s?
Kimberly: May he RIP, I believe 2pac was one of the greatest poets of our time, and shot dead at 26, while helping Inner City kids. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do5MMmEygsY&feature=player_detailpage
In particular, the soon to be released novel ‘my life as a white, female, drug dealer’ I would definitely see made into a film. It is growing into something that could become that. I would cast Denzel Washington, 50 cent and for the female role, Natalie Portman.
Morgen: Tell us about the titles / covers of your books… How important do you think they are?
Kimberly: I believe to the core, if the name of your book is intriguing and the cover is attractive to the eye, you have already got half a sale. I used graphics in the creative means by having the design be within its title.
I feel these two elements combined work well. The titles are one words and lower case. They are designed to read at once with my author name as just Kimberly, no last name. Utilizing appropriate colour brings the type to life. The names in sarcasm have fun with the content. Both books in their entirety are presented in lower case.
Morgen: What are you working on at the moment / next?
Kimberly: I am currently juggling three novels, a line of Greeting Cards for prisoners and families, a column celebrating women and a fun eBook. I am also working on a soon to be published ‘inventors humour book’ for which has not been created. My imagination might have gone into over drive on this one. LOL
Morgen: Oh but if it’s fun to do it won’t seem like ‘work’. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Kimberly: I do write everyday. I write my novels and blogs, commenting on author’s work, greeting cards, and articles for HubPages and poetry, along with journaling for myself privately. I get frustrated from the opposite of writers block. I have yet to experience it yet. However, I am cycling ideas to write but when I begin writing a concept I have thought of my ADD kicks in, with a new idea resulting in many unfinished pieces to which I so badly hope I am able to finish one day.
Morgen: I’m the same, so many ideas swarming around… which is another great reason for writing a story a day. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Kimberly: I just get an idea and run with it. My imagination gifts me with ideas, and off I go. Sadly too slow, much more so than the speed would like to work at. I can be very impatient.
Morgen: Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Kimberly: My method is simple; I pull from my own experiences and write very simply, in the most complicated of ways. Character names I pull from people I have known. First name one person, then last name from someone else. The majority of time I just create my own. If ever stuck with character names, I heard the phone book is a great reference. LOL
In order for a character to be believable, it must have a vulnerable characteristic. Or vice versa. Pulling from real emotions and thoughts. It’s believable when it comes in a form from within
Morgen: The phone book and baby books, yes, although a recent interviewee John Wills uses the Random Name Generator http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm. You write poetry, why do you think it’s such a difficult market to break into? Are there any tips you could give to someone wishing to write poetry?
Kimberly: I write poetry everyday. It just flows from me and I have no idea why. I find it elementary in content, yet I have a large following and have won awards for it.
The market for poetry is so oversaturated, unless your content is original and well written, it’s doubtful it will get read. Having said that, my two books of poetry that I just published, are getting some sales, but I have no expectations of being read by many people. Despite it’s solid content, people just don’t seem to buy poetry books, especially in the eBook medium.
Advice I would give someone wanted to break into poetry is to first, write everyday, don’t fear it and aggressively continue to push the envelope. Write from that spot within that is the scariest. No one has to know where your inspiration comes from; they just need to be emotionally pulled in by as many words you wish to convey your song [I prefer to call it]. Lastly, don’t revise and revise, don’t doubt your words. They came to paper the first time the way they did, for a reason.
Morgen: I love that. Do you write any non-fiction or short stories?
Kimberly: Yes, many. Primarily of my own struggles and pain. Always remaining positive and pray it will reach someone else who needs it to.
Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully formed?
Kimberly: I have an editor. He is my savoir, and worth his weight in gold. Given I am 45 years old and have no education at all since the age of 14, I do struggle at times. He is patient and smart. I wouldn’t know how to edit. However writing everyday has continued to help my grammar and am amazed how much I do learn just from this.
Morgen: I’m sure you read as well which must help. Do you have to do much research?
Kimberly: Depending on the project and what information I need to deliver, it is important it is accurate.
Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?
Kimberly: I write 90% of the time in first person. Could be an ego disease LOL. Yes I have tried writing in the second person but do find it most difficult.
Morgen: It’s not easy. I love it but I’ve written a fair amount, and it can be quite dark which suits me. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Kimberly: Truthfully, many. I struggle with completing projects. My finished work will always see the light of day, I will insist on it.
Morgen: What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Kimberly: I am not bulletproof. Like most creative people, insecurities and doubt are consistently taunting me. My favourite aspect of my writing life is typing away and then a great idea is triggered. That trigger ignites me and I love the chase to type it out before the passion and thought vanish from a bad short-term memory.
My least favourite aspect of writing is it is very lonely. It is an art form, like others where it must be done alone. I am not alone when my writing is pouring out of me, rather all the other moments.
Morgen: Absolutely. We have characters to keep us company. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Kimberly: To aspiring writers I would ask if this is without doubt something they wanted to do. If so know there are no limitations to where your words can take you. Embrace your dreams and write as though the world will love it. Worry about getting read later. If you write it, they will come.
Morgen: If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, whom would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?
Kimberly: LOL, I would invite, Audrey Hepburn, Kid Rock and my Sister. Sadly I am sure they would have to leave from food poisoning after cooking them Kraft Dinner.
Morgen: Oh dear. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Kimberly: Let’s switch our focus from world peace to helping the war for our kids on the streets.
Morgen: That’s true. I find here in the UK that we have enough going on at home that we should be focusing our attention yet we spend millions sorting out other countries… OK enough politics. What do you do when you’re not writing?
Kimberly: photography, pillow fights, now reading eBooks, brushing my hair, bareback riding, collecting B/W photographs, acting, dancing, sifting through endless Victoria Secrets catalogues, taking naps, eating, and long bubble baths. Also, standing in the middle of the train station, closing my eyes, and just listening to the chaos.
Morgen: I’ve not tried that but I love the thought of it. Are there any writing-related websites that you find useful?
Kimberly: Writing related websites I enjoy are Hubpages, Squido, Experience project, The rooms, Elite group workshop on Facebook, Blogs, Ning, Yahoo Associated content, Infobarrell, Rubecom, Ehow, Eye on Life Magazine and Redgage.
Morgen: Wow. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?
Kimberly: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Stumbleupon, Vimeo, Digg, Reddit, Google, Hubpages forums, Smashwords and Linkedin. With respect to finding these social networks useful, I really don’t find they are. Of course, obviously some more than others. With the ongoing, never-ending flow of traffic to these sites, only few posts are seen. It does bring me traffic but not near the amount it should, given the large target audience they carry.
Morgen: I soon realised with Twitter that you have to post the same thing semi-regularly to get noticed (although some authors bombard with “buy my book” and wonder why they get de-followed). Fortunately I’m in a couple of Triberr groups who retweet my blog posts (and I theirs) so that helps. What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Kimberly: I wish I knew. Regardless I will continue to write. Write by pen. Technology is scary for a writer; everyone is publishing any content on the net. There are no editors on writing sites that monitor the quality of content. Mine included. We cannot judge the quality of our work ourselves, as we get lost in a school of fish, never to be seen again. I make my income writing online. Google and others while they control my income also control how well I do. Let’s hope it even stays as it now. Better would be great but how? Sigh.
Morgen: The $64,000 question. Where can we find out about you and your work?
Kimberly: Sunnie Day’s feature, Smashwords, Prey, Dear addict, lyricsingray, Hubbie, Top 200, 800 days 1st feature, 2nd feature, one of four blogs, SligoBay and bbnix.
I have been very fortunate to have many blogs and articles written so kindly about me, those are a few.
I can also be reached via email: lyrics@rogers.com.
Morgen: Me too. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Kimberly: In my struggles to come up with ideas to help spread the word about my work, I stumbled upon you. This is very important to me and you are doing such a tremendous service to writers and authors. I’m signed up and looking forward to following. Thank You.
I would also like to add to new writers, if I can do this with no education, you could soar with education. Writing is another language I find. I quite frankly, love it. Money or not it is the real chicken soup for the soul.
Morgen: I’ve heard many people say that Dan Brown and EL James (to name just two) aren’t great writers but tell a great story. We started as storytellers and that’s what it boils down to. If we have something to say we just have to say it the best way we can. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?
Kimberly: What inspired you to do these interviews and blogs? It must take tremendous effort and a great deal of time. Oh, and do you have a pet?
Morgen: Short answer is that I started the blog late March 2011 and shortly after was asked to do an interview and enjoyed it so much that I started doing them here. It kind of bloomed from there. And yes, it’s almost a full-time job… actually more than that; much more than a 40-hours-a-week job but I enjoy it. I have a dog, an 11-year-old Jack Russell / Cairn Cross who thinks he’s a child but then I treat him like one so he got that idea from somewhere. His picture’s on my blog’s podcast page. Thank you, Kimberly.
I then invited Kimberly to include an extract of her writing…
Writing terrifies me. Writing drives me. Writing excites me. Writing intimidates me. Writing exposes me. Writing fulfils me. Writing defines me. Writing laughs with me. Writing pushes me. Writing succumbs me. Writing teaches me. Writing surprises me. Writing flows from me. Writing engrosses me. Writing doubts me. Writing possesses me. Writing competes with me. Writing comforts me. Writing never ends. Writing lets me keep a secret or expose anything.
Writing gives me ink hands. Writing strengthens me. Writing takes the loneliness away. Writing allows me to communicate. Writing allows me to hide. Writing lets me whomever I want. Writing is Showtime. Writing is home. Writing is my voice.
Above all else, writing heals me and I have much writing to do.
I then invited Kimberly to include more details of her books…
2 eBooks just published namely unnecessarypoetry and moreunnecessarypoetry each contain 30 poems. Various formats and topics, and pulled from some form, of truth from within. With such a variety, giving them tags was difficult and summed it up with; inspirational, imagination, female writers, Canadian writer, erotic, truth, poetry, series, and various. I have sold 126 books as of today and that’s not bad given its poetry. I have had 60 sample downloads, which could also be looked at as a bad sign. With so many samples, downloaded after calculating sales, people are not buying them. However I will stay optimistic and listen to people when they say wait and be patient and continue to write your novels. The cover design is from Chris Harrison and my genie of an editor is Mike Friedman.
Kimberly possesses such a strong desire to reach people. To reach them in a capacity people will trust she is sincere. That brought on the donation of time she spends donating much of her writing to charity and the time consuming column of dear addict. Quite insecure about the quality of her work, she finds it is improving so much over the years the awards were well deserved.
It is not easy for her and at times, mental illness can take over and not allow her to write. She always says it is the mental illness that gifts her with the imagination to be able to write. She certainly is determined and has much fun working hard, regardless of the task. Still loving being the best pillow fighter, holding the best title for champion, 3 years running now.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
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Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 14 was released today. This is a monthly series tucked in between hints & tips or red pen critique sessions.
With the occasional exception, these are the flash fictions that have appeared on my blog as ‘Flash Fiction Fridays’, reading out three per fortnight. Today’s are Her reflection calls her Tess (925 words) by Kimberly Gray, The Picture (418 words) by Will Macmillan-Jones and Sacrament (831 words) by Travis Eaton.
I don’t critique them but simply reading them out and I hope you enjoy this format.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
***
Kimberly possesses such a strong desire to reach people. To reach them in a capacity people will trust she is sincere. That brought on the donation of time she spends donating much of her writing to charity and the time consuming column of dear addict. Quite insecure about the quality of her work, she finds it is improving so much over the years the awards were well-deserved. It is not easy for her and at times, mental illness can take over and not allow her to write. She always says it is the mental illness that gifts her with the imagination to be able to write. She certainly is determined and has much fun working hard, regardless of the task. Still loving being the best pillow fighter, holding the best title for champion, 3 years running now.
She can be found at (are you sitting comfortably?)… Sunnie Day’s feature, Kimberlyslyrics, Smashwords, Prey, Dear addict, lyricsingray, Hubbie, Top 200, 800 days 1st feature, 2nd feature, one of four blogs, SligoBay and bbnix. She can also be reached via email: lyrics@rogers.com and I’ll put all the links on this episode’s page on my blog (I’ll give the details for that after these biographies).
***
Will is a fifty-something lover of blues, rock and jazz.
He presently lives in South Wales, and has just fulfilled a lifetime ambition by extending his bookcases to fill one entire wall of his home office.
Working as a professional tax consultant, he writes to escape the stultifying boredom of his job.
He has an irregular blog, www.willmacmillanjones.wordpress.com where he “rambles incoherently about writing” and he can also be found at www.thebannedunderground.weebly.com and his publisher’s website is www.safkhetpublishing.com.
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Travis is a 33 year old living in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is currently studying Professional Writing & Editing at TAFE which he says is “the poorer equivalent to University”. Sounds good to me. His blog is http://traviseaton.wordpress.com.
***
That’s it for this week. Thank you for listening to this new short story episode. I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to bringing you another in a month. In the meantime, the next episode will be either a red pen critique or hints and tips. All the links mentioned in these shows are listed on the podcast short stories page of this blog.
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on this podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: Bailey's writing tips, flash fiction, Kimberly Gray, podcast, short stories, Travis Eaton, Will Macmillan-Jones, writing
Welcome to the four hundred and forty-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with novelist and non-fiction author, and radio host Jim Strait. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.
Morgen: Hello, Jim. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.
Jim: My professional career began as a Special Forces soldier where my only claim to military fame was that of being the youngest recruit to successfully complete Special Forces Training Group. (Not quite certain what that says about me, or the military!)
After the military I enjoyed a thirty-year career as a professional pilot flying over one hundred different types, categories, and models of airplanes. In parallel, I operated a small business providing a variety of services to civilian companies and the military.
After retirement from professional aviation, I transitioned into broadcast radio where I’ve hosted “Strait Talks” radio since 2006 in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania market. My professional writing career began in 2008, and came to be as a function of my having interviewed fortuitous “on air” guests, ultimately leading to their hiring me to write “Weird Missouri”. Since Weird Missouri, and after a couple of false starts, I released my most recent book, “Déjà vu All Over Again”, which is an action adventure novel taking place in the final 57 hours prior to the calendar turning 12-21-2012.
My future projects involve the release of a third book, “Thomas Jefferson is Missing”.
I’m also on the cusp of debuting a new radio format, Book Talk Radio, which will exclusively host authors, publishers, agents, marketers, and others associated with the publishing industry.
Morgen: Wow, you sound busier after your retirement (my mum and I both say there aren’t enough hours in our days but I think most people feel the same whether retired or not). What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?
Jim: To this point, I’ve written one book that is a hybrid collection of truths and fictions, and two fiction novels. I like fiction because there aren’t any limits to the direction or content of a story line. However, I want my next book to be nonfiction, and am waiting permission to begin a biography about America’s most dynamic cyclist, and it’s not Lance Armstrong!
Morgen: Ah, you’ve got me there then as he’s the only one I can name… but then I only know our Bradley Wiggins because he’s just won the Tour de France (the first Brit to do so apparently). Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?
Jim: I’ve been fortunate. My first book was published traditionally, however, I was hired to write the book as an independent contractor. All I had to do was submit writing samples to the publisher, and then once given the go ahead, I merely submitted content under the terms of the contract.
My novels on the other hand, are self-published. I like the sense of accomplishment that being an independent affords! Adding to that process is that I understand the marketing end of it, and given that I never sleep, time to market my work is always available.
Morgen: Either way, very rewarding. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?
Jim: I do not have an agent, however, I would not entirely rule out such a relationship. I’m a notorious control freak, so, working independently may be a happier path for me. It would have to be a remarkable agent, encountering me on an unusual day… in essence; it would have to be a providential meeting.
But I do believe that in some instances, agency can accelerate the journey, however, there are multitudes of ways to succeed. Humans are born engineers, and I like to engineer my way to succeeding in the face of those suggesting that such isn’t possible. I’ll admit that, at times, being a strong willed independent is not the most practical path to follow, but, for me it’s less stressful, thus, more enjoyable.
Morgen: I’m the same (a control freak – just ask my brother!) and love doing every aspect of an eBook myself (although I do have an editor and first readers for the crucial content analysis). Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?
Jim: Yes, “Déjà vu All Over Again” is an e-Book. “Weird Missouri” is not, which is a function of it containing over 250 photographs and illustrations. “Thomas Jefferson is Missing” will come in all formats, just as “Déjà vu All Over Again” is available in hardback, soft back, and e-Book.
Morgen: It’s very wise. Many authors I’ve spoken to have been selling more in eBook format than paper although only a couple of said they only read eBooks themselves. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?
Jim: I do 99% of the marketing, and what little I do not do is a function of me not having the technological savvy to make something work within the framework of online systems configurations. Not much of a computer guy, thus, on occasion I hire things done… websites, etc.
Morgen: I’m fortunate in that I grew up with an older brother who’s very tech savy (I design inexpensive blogs for writers – I’ve done everything on this WordPress blog without it costing a penny)). I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this but did you have any say in the titles / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?
Jim: I control all of it. Title and cover are vital. Humans are visual critters, and the cover needs to convey visually the implied content within the pages. A visual tease is how I think of book covers.
Morgen: We are. We think in pictures. If I said to someone “Brad Pitt” or “Audrey Hepburn”, 99.9% (possibly 100%) of people would picture their faces rather than their names written down. What are you working on at the moment / next?
Jim: Marketing is taking up most of my time at the moment. However, as soon as I get the go ahead on the biography, I’ll begin that process immediately.
Morgen: How exciting. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
Jim: I do write every day, however, some days are more productive than others. Creating volume is vital from my frame of reference. Keeping forward motion happening, even if it’s content that is later removed, or that I wordsmith heavily…momentum in all things is critical.
I do not suffer writers block in the conventional sense, but I do lose interest frequently. Thus, the need to write constantly, knowing that exercising the writing machine is just as important as exercising the body. When not writing, I’m riding my bike, and when riding my bike, I’m almost always composing a draft in my head. It’s an insidious loop of writing and riding… not that I’m addicted, but yes, I’m addicted to both.
Morgen: When I drove my lodger to work (which I do 5.30am five days a week, 3.30am on Saturdays!) yesterday morning she said I was addicted to this blog… I think she’s right. The trouble (not really the right word) is that I get over 100 blog-related emails a day and if I don’t keep on top of them (to within a week or two) people start chasing me and I only get more frustrated as my inbox fills. Like anything, dealing with something on a regular basis (like housework – my back garden currently resembles a jungle – or a 100,000 word novel at 300 words a day for a year) makes it more manageable. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Jim: I like to think on my feet, I run with it. Writing myself into a plot line corner and having to engineer my way out is half the fun. Not sure what the other half consists of!
Morgen: Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?
Jim: Characters are easy for me, having been surrounded by so many for over six decades. Naming them is tougher, but I eventually settle on names that allow me to find comfort with them. Believability is that intangible that is also a make or break issue with any story. Writing from the heart seems to work best for me. Not holding back, letting them be darkly evil, or impossibly angelic, allows me to share with the world my multiplicities.
Morgen: I love the sound of ‘darkly evil’. Do you write any poetry? If so, why do you think it’s such a difficult market to break into? Are there any tips you could give to someone wishing to write poetry?
Jim: Many say that my ultimate demise will be poetic, but beyond that unkind event, I’m not a poetic person. Poetry is rare air, and not many people, in the grand scheme of things, think in poetic terms. It’s a tough niche that I’d never consider entering.
Morgen: Me neither. I’ve written some but it’s certainly not a comfort zone. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?
Jim: I try to not look back when writing. It’s all about forward motion… momentum. Ultimately, I copy edit the hell out of the story, many times over. And yes, the more I write, the more fully formed I find the story. I’m less frequently going back to add elements that should have been there in the first draft. Writing, like all human endeavours, is a process… I’m still processing!
Morgen: and practicing. Do you have to do much research?
Jim: With “Weird Missouri” I spent eight weeks in state, drove 8,500 miles, visited hundreds of venues, interviewed hundreds of people, took 2700 photographs, and then sat down and wrote the book in three months. So yes, in that instance research was required.
However, with “Déjà vu All Over Again”, the only research I had to do was discover the weight of the International Space Station (one million pounds for the curious) and over what part of our tortured planet the Space Shuttle had to initiate a de-orbit burn in order to land at Roberts Dry Lakebed in California (over the Indian Ocean, for the curious).
I can’t imagine writing an involved story that did not require some modest element of research. We never know as much as we think… even the events of our own lives.
Morgen: Absolutely, and there will always be someone who knows more about a topic than we do… and be happy to put us right. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?
Jim: I have a couple of false starts that I think will ultimately become whole. I’m still sorting out what it is about the work that I find lacking. I like a fast-paced story, and I think I just need to compress the time lines… we’ll see!
Morgen: A book has to be a page-turner, regardless of genre, really doesn’t it. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?
Jim: I like it all. As an artist, you get to be the boss. I get to make all of the rules, change them at my whim, or delete them if feeling self indulgent, or if I discover that it was just a dumb rule in the first place. No rules is my favorite part!
If there has been a surprise it’s how prolific I think I can be. It seems to come easy and natural…we’ll see if it lasts.
Morgen: I’m not a red tape fan either. I used to temp, staying no longer than one month at any one place, then I was offered a job at one of them and was there for a couple of years before they moved and I decided to quit and stay at home full-time… I love it. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Jim: Never second guess yourself, always keep the forward motion happening, and realize that marketing is far more laborious than writing.
Morgen: Isn’t it. It’s usually the answer to “what’s your least favourite aspect of writing”. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?
Jim: I like the word; “vacuous”… it’s so often applicable!
My favorite quote today is, “The stupid never forgive, nor forget” …Decartes
Yesterday, it was “The only statistics you can trust are those you create yourself”…Churchill
Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?
Jim: I race bicycles on the track (velodromes), and play with my grandkids (5), they can be pretty tricky!
Morgen: Ah, so children’s stories perhaps? What do you think the future holds for a writer?
Jim: For this writer, my hope is a long and prolific career. For others, we’re all authors during an incredible moment of change within the industry. Man communicating with man is always going to happen, thus, writing will be with us always… or, at least some form of communicative interaction. I think in the near term, twenty-five years, writers will still enjoy the conventional process of creating books. Beyond that, books may disappear and be replaced by thought pills, or story injections. Hey, it’s possible!
Morgen: Anything is… I often wonder where technology will go next and it’s usually an unexpected improvement. Where can we find out about you and your work?
Jim: www.straittalks.com, www.weirdmissouri.com, www.dejavualloveragainbook.com, https://www.facebook.com/JamesStraitAuthor
Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Jim: I’d like to thank you for this very helpful and generous service!
Morgen: You’re very welcome. Thank you for spending time with me today.
***
If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the information. They do now (January 2013) carry a fee (£10 / €12.50 / $15) for the new interviews on this blog but everything else (see Opportunities on this blog) is free.
If you go for the interview, it’s very simple; I send you a questionnaire (I have them for novelists, short story authors, children’s authors, non-fiction authors, and poets). You complete the questions, and I let you know when it’s going to go live. Before it does so, I add in comments as if we’re chatting, and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.
Alternatively, if you’d like a free Q&A-only interview, I now have http://morgensauthorinterviews.wordpress.com on which I’ve rerun the original interviews posted here then posted new interviews which I then reblog here. These interviews are Q&A only, so I don’t add in my comments but they do get exposure on both sites.
** NEW!! You can now subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app!
See http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008E88JN0
or http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008E88JN0 for outside the UK **
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel, which is being serialised on Novel Nights In!) and I also have a blog creation / maintenance service especially for, but not limited to, writers. If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating and choose an optional free eBook.
For writers / readers willing to give feedback and / or writers wanting feedback, take a look at this blog’s Feedback page.
As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do. I welcome critique for the four new writing groups listed below and / or flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays. For other opportunities see (see Opportunities on this blog).
The full details of the new online writing groups, and their associated Facebook groups, are:
Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group
Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group
We look forward to reading your comments.
Tags: agent, Amazon, author, author spotlight, Barnes & Noble, biographers, biography, books, California, characters, children’s, creative writing, crime, critique, erotica, Facebook, fantasy, feedback, fiction, flash fiction, Goodreads, guest blog, guest blog post, guest post, historical, Indian Ocean, interview, James Strait, Jim Strait, Kobo, LinkedIn, literature, Morgan Bailey, morgen bailey, Morgen with an e, multi-genre, murder mystery, non-fiction, Northampton, novelist, novels, paranormal, paranormal romances, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, pinterest, poetry, poetry collections, publisher, radio, radio host, rejection letters, rejections, Roberts Dry Lakebed, romance, science fiction, second person viewpoint, self-publishing, short stories, short story group, Smashwords, Space Shuttle, Special Forces, story author, story authors, story writer, submissions, Thomas Jefferson, Twitter, vampire, western, Wordpress, writer, writing, writing competitions, writing events, writing group, writing magazines, YA, youtube
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 13 went live today.
I’ve been starting off the first few weeks with the flash fiction that have appeared on my blog as ‘Flash Fiction Fridays’, reading out three per fortnight. Do email me should you like to submit your own.
This episode contained three stories: Revenge is a dish best served… alive (701 words) by Christopher Farley, AJ Kirby’s I dream of violence (500 words) and Dreams (210 words) by JD Mader.
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast by clicking on any of the following… iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
The authors…
Christopher Farley. He lived a sheltered life in the wilds of Kent from where he was saved by the written word. So much so that he still corresponds with certain people with A PEN AND PAPER!!
Upon moving to London, a bit like Dick Whittington, searching for streets of gold, he happened upon a beautiful Italian lady who later decided to take him to the sunny realm of southern Switzerland, where he can still be found, smiling inanely, continuously in search of Weissbier.
When he is not working or drinking he sits in front of the computer, searching for fictional inspiration. You can find Chris via his blog http://talkingtosh.wordpress.com where he says he longs to make a living writing but…
AJ Kirby is the award-winning author of five novels (Paint this town Red, 2012; Perfect World, 2011; Bully, 2009; The Magpie Trap, 2008; When Elephants Walk through the Gorbals, 2007), two novellas (The Black Book, 2011; and Call of the Sea, 2010), one novelette (Bed Peace, 2011) and over forty published short stories.
He is also a sportswriter for the Professional Footballers’ Association and a reviewer for The Short Review and The New York Journal of Books.
You can reach him via his: Author website, Goodreads Author Page, Amazon Author Page, New York Journal of Books and Facebook Novel Home Page.
JD Mader is a teacher and writer / musician based in San Francisco. He has been fortunate enough to encounter many giving and inspiring people in his life. He hopes to repay the debt. And to make enough money with his writing to buy a house.
His website is http://www.jdmader.com where you can read more of JD’s writing and if you’d like more (and why wouldn’t you?) his first novel Joe Café, second, The Biker, and collaboration ‘Bad Book’ (with Hise and Brooks) are available from Amazon. He’s also just released a collection of short stories Please, no eyes which I have purchased (at the grand sum of £0.77!) and shall be reviewing for my Short Story Saturdays slot.
***
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be a hints & tips episode then short stories return a fortnight thereafter.
All the details of these episodes are listed on the podcast page of this blog and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or review for the Short Story Saturdays) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: AJ Kirby, Andrew Kirby, audio, Chris Farley, Christopher Farley, Dan Mader, dick whittington, five novels, flash fiction, JD Mader, literature, podcast, Professional Footballers’ Association, short stories, southern switzerland, words and dreams, writing
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number twelve went live today, Monday 18th June.
I’ve been starting off the first few weeks with the flash fiction that have appeared on my blog as ‘Flash Fiction Fridays’, reading out three per fortnight. Do email me (morgen@morgenbailey.com) should you like to submit your own. The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
This episode’s were Bowed out (742 words) by novelist and short story author Marc Nash, Hachette (582 words) by comic fantasy (“and a little horror”) author Will Macmillan-Jones and Over by me, Morgen Bailey.
See the links above to read the stories… or hear my dulcet tones on the podcast.
Marc Nash is London born, bred and resident. He says he’s always resorted to the written word, thinking himself an observer by temperament. After a brief adolescent delusion that he could write lyrics, he passed over into writing stage plays for 10 years from University onwards and then when his twin boys arrived in the world meaning he couldn’t really hang around theatre bars at night, he tried his hand at prose fiction. His blog is www.sulcicollective.blogspot.com, he’s @21stCscribe on Twitter and is very active there. He has a couple of websites on the novels, http://marcnash.weebly.com and http://marcnashNIMN.weebly.com as well as a YouTube channel with 17 literature related videos (just type in sulci collective into the search function).
Will is a fifty-something lover of blues, rock and jazz. He presently lives in South Wales, and has just fulfilled a lifetime ambition by extending his bookcases to fill one entire wall of his home office. Working as a professional tax consultant, he writes to escape the stultifying boredom of his job. He has an irregular blog, www.willmacmillanjones.wordpress.com where he “rambles incoherently about writing” and he can also be found at www.thebannedunderground.weebly.com.
I’m Morgen With An E, a writer of over 7 years (although I do remember writing a story about an ampersand when young and dabbling with limericks in my 20s, although I’ve always had my head in a book; formerly Stephen King but my tastes have softened somewhat… to crime and humour). I’m passionate about the craft, and wanted to share with you my knowledge and experience gleaned to-date, having studied under the tutorledge of Sally Spedding, Judith Allnatt, Sue Moorcroft, Joanna Barnden, Jane Adams, and Myra Schneider, amongst many others (I love going to workshops and conferences) and most recently Helen M Hunt. I write fiction, mainly short stories and novels with some poetry, and have been published in the UK, and rejected in the UK and overseas. I’ve written four and a bit novels (three for NaNoWriMo) and the ‘bit’ is a conversion of my Script Frenzy 2010 script which I’ll continue at some stage. I post three to four items a day here (including interviews, guest blogs, author spotlights, flash fiction and poetry), have eBooks on Amazon and Smashwords including free eShort stories, the $0.99 Story a Day May 2011 collection I mentioned earlier and a 1,000 sentence start writer’s block workbook (which also includes over 50 weekly tips), again on Smashwords for $0.99.
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode will be a hints & tips episode in a fortnight (when I’ll be talking about eBooks) then the short stories return a fortnight thereafter.
All the details of these episodes are listed on the podcast page of this blog and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or reviews for the Short Story Saturdays, mentioned below) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast itself is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are fortnightly episodes, usually released on Sundays, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: audio, flash fiction, Marc Nash, morgen bailey, podcast, short stories, Will Macmillan-Jones, writing
Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 11 went live today.
I’ve been starting off the first few weeks with the flash fiction that have appeared on my blog as ‘Flash Fiction Fridays’, reading out three per fortnight. Do email me (morgen@morgenbailey.com) should you like to submit your own.
This episode contained four stories: ‘The Jazz and the Blues’ a 713-worder by Mia Johansson, two 99-worders entitled ‘Taken’ and ‘Mother of the Bride’ by AJ Kirby and a 614-worder called ‘The Ticket’ by Carrie King.
Mia Johansson is a civil engineer living in Sweden, author of the fiction novel “Unfinished discussion about God – The diary of a time traveller” expected to be published 2012, and other short stories.
She is an occasional photographer interested in the architecture of old and modern cities, street life, a good cup of coffee and jazz.
You can view her stunningly attractive albums here.
AJ Kirby is the award-winning author of five novels (Paint this town Red, 2012; Perfect World, 2011; Bully, 2009; The Magpie Trap, 2008; When Elephants Walk through the Gorbals, 2007), two novellas (The Black Book, 2011; and Call of the Sea, 2010), one novelette (Bed Peace, 2011) and over forty published short stories.
He is also a sportswriter for the Professional Footballers’ Association and a reviewer for The Short Review and The New York Journal of Books. He will return with more flash fiction on 25th May. You can reach him via: Author website, Goodreads Author Page, Amazon Author Page, New York Journal of Books and Facebook Novel Home Page.
Carrie King was born in the tiny hamlet of Sharpenhoe in Bedfordshire, England, which sits beneath a small hill, smothered in trees, known as The Clappers, nestled on the edge of the Chilterns. To any Reader of The Life in the Wood with Joni-Pip, that might sound a tad familiar!
She was the seventh of eight children, placed between her youngest brother, David and older sister, Sylvia. When she was eight, her family moved to another tiny hamlet in Bedfordshire called Bidwell. She so missed the woods and the hills.
Carrie was educated in Dunstable, Bedfordshire and loved school. English, Art and French were her favourite subjects but she decided to become a doctor! However, this didn’t happen, as she fell in love and was married at nineteen. Being a wife and the mother of three daughters, became her full-time career.
She began to write for television, encouraged by Christopher Walker, Head of Drama for Central Television and Pam Francis, Journalist for the Independent, and you can find Carrie’s website at http://joni-pip.com.
Thank you for downloading / listening to this short story episode – I hope you enjoyed it. The next episode (in a fortnight) will be a hints & tips episode (unless anyone’s brave enough to email me their short story for critique) then short stories return a fortnight thereafter.
All the details of these episodes are listed on the podcast page of this blog and my email address to submit a short story for critique (or review for the Short Story Saturdays) is morgen@morgenbailey.com.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 2,000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: AJ Kirby, Andrew Kirby, Carrie King, flash fiction, Mia Johansson, podcast, short stories, writing
Episode 51 of the Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast was released today and featured a forthcoming guest post on writer’s block by Nicky Wells. This piece will go live on as a guest blog on Tuesday 26th June (7pm UK time) but today was a pre-blog airing and even if you don’t suffer from writer’s block I hope you will find it useful.
The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).
Nicky Wells writes fun and glamorous contemporary romance featuring a rock star and the girl next door. She recently signed her debut novel, Sophie’s Turn, with U.S. publisher, Sapphire Star Publishing, and the book is due for release on 6 September 2012. Nicky loves rock music, dancing, and eating lobsters. When she’s not writing, Nicky is a wife, mother, and teaching assistant. Nicky is also a featured author on the innovative reader / author project, loveahappyending.com.
Originally born in Germany, Nicky moved to the United Kingdom in 1993, and currently lives in Bristol with her husband and two boys. In a previous professional life, Nicky worked as a researcher and project manager for an international Human Resources research firm based in London and Washington, D.C.
Visit Nicky on her blog where you can find articles, interviews, radio interviews and, of course, an ongoing update on her work in progress, the second and third parts of the Rock Star Romance Trilogy. You can also follow Nicky on Twitter and find her on Facebook.
About Sophie’s Turn…
One fine day in Paris, Sophie Penhalligan suddenly finds herself engaged to her teenage crush and love-of-her-life-from-a-distance, rock singer and star extraordinaire Dan Hunter. But there is the small matter of her very recent, but very prior, engagement to Tim. Reliable, honest, trusting Tim, her boyfriend of two years stashed away safely in his mews house in South Kensington while Sophie is drinking rather too much champagne with Dan in Paris. This contemporary romantic fairy tale describes how Sophie gets into her impossible situation and how she turns it around.
The podcast also featured some of my news…
Visitors to my blog will know how much I love blogging about writing. So much so that I have posted over 900 items (either guest’s or mine) about the topic. I do an author interview a day, two spotlights and guest posts a week and weekly flash fiction and poetry. I’m currently booked up to November for the interviews and July for pretty much everything else but if you’d like to take part do take a look. I’ve also just created http://icanbuildyourwritingblog.wordpress.com and, for £50, €60 or $75, I can create a blog for you or anyone you know. Although it’s geared towards writers I can create them for any business or hobby. I already have an animal healer and editor to create blogs for.
…and feedback
I’ve received some wonderful feedback (and some less so, which is to be expected) for my eBooks. I have individual short stories, some free, some not free, a 31-story collection and a writer’s block workbook and it’s the latter that I received a wonderful review on today. Regardless of whether you get stuck with writer’s block this eBook has over 1,000 sentence starts and over 50 writing-related hints and tips. It’s just $1.49 on Smashwords and $1.62 including tax from Amazon.
and feedback from Nicky on this episode: “wow wow wow! this is amazing. It’s fantastic to hear ‘me’ through someone else. Thank you! The whole family listened to it over dinner (captive audience!) and we enjoyed it. Thanks so much, you are superstar!!” pleased then
Thank you for downloading or clicking on this podcast. If you have any feedback or areas you’d like covered in the hints & tips podcasts, do email me at morgen@morgenbailey.com and I look forward to bringing you the next episode in a fortnight which will be three more short stories.
You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me. I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.
Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.
Tags: Bailey's writing tips, debut novel, hints, Nicky Wells, podcast, Sapphire Star Publishing, star romance, tips, writer's block, writing
JD Mader has been fortunate enough to encounter many giving and inspiring people in his life.
Dorit Kedar travels around the world, looking for inspirational places to write her books. She was a special education art teacher in the morning and a Religious Studies student in the afternoon – completing her MA degree and researching societies and their beliefs in the 1st millennium in the ancient east, for her thesis. She then wrote her book “Lilith, the Jewish demoness – 1000 years of borderline personality disorder.”
Salvatore Buttaci is an obsessive-compulsive writer whose work has appeared widely. He was the 2007 recipient of the $500 Cyber-wit Poetry Award. His poems, stories, articles, and letters have appeared widely in publications that include New York Times, 
