Author Spotlight no.238 – Leon Puissegur

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and thirty-eighth, is of novelist and short story author and interviewee Leon Puissegur.

Leon Puissegur is a disabled Vietnam Veteran with three children and nine grandchildren. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for 43 years. He has been writing opinion pieces over the years and in just the last few years has written 4 books and a large amount of articles on many sites.

‘The Oil Man’ won an Honorable Mention “Award” at the Great Southeast Book Festival on February 28th 2013, placed 16th out of hundreds that were entered.

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And now from the author himself:

I had the opportunity to enter one contest that I could afford, it was the “Great Southeastern Book Festival held in Louisiana. I entered my recent book, “THE OIL MAN” an Action/Adventure about oil workers and a small piece of crystal that changed their lives. The characters had to fight to keep from being shot; they even had a gunfight in the Empire State building in New York City! I did not expect anything with the book but out of over 1,000 entries, I obtained an “Honorable Mention” AWARD!  I actually ranked 16th out of that number and was very surprised and happy because now I can call myself an “Award Winning Author” even if it was an Honorable Mention, it won an Award and that is a step in the right direction for “THE OIL MAN”!  I will be entering other contests when I can afford them. Got to the Facebook page of “THE OIL MAN” and leave a comment, you can also go to www.leonsbooks.com to see excerpts of the book.

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You can purchase his books, including his latest, “Award Winning” book, “The Oil Man”, at LeonsBooks.com. and Leon is a Contributing Writer to www.freedomoutpost.com  www.louisianaconservative.com  www.westernjournalism.com

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If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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 The Serial Dater’s Shopping List) 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Guest post: Location, Location, Location by Morgan St James

Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by humorous mystery / romantic suspense novelist and ‘how to’ writer Morgan St James.

Location, Location, Location

When writing fiction, locations are important whether the book or story is light and funny or technically detailed. It is one of the areas dotted with landmines if descriptions or references aren’t right. The reader might not know an ion from an atom or a tort from a tart but the possibility exists they know the Empire State Building isn’t in Brooklyn. Okay, that’s carrying it a little far, but the point is, depicting a location correctly requires research. A character should never take a freeway where one doesn’t exist. An author unfamiliar with the good and bad parts of town, could place a corporate executive’s sumptuous home in the middle of the worst crime section of the city.

It is always best if the writer either lives in the area they are writing about or at least has visited it and has a clear mental picture of the state, city, town, street or neighborhood. Find out about quirks in the area, perhaps something it’s known for that isn’t common knowledge. The desirable and undesirable aspects. Make it as real as possible.

When I placed a scene in the town of Cotati, California (U.S. A.) I’d never been there but researched its history, read everything I could find, looked at photos from different eras and tried to get it all right. In the process I discovered it was known for the annual accordion festival and that a hippie fashion statement known as the Cotati look had been very popular at one point in its history. After the book was published, as fate would have it, I met a woman who was actually from Cotati, and had read my book. She said she was sure I’d been there and wanted to know when. That told me I’d gotten it right. Even if your book is fantasy or sci-fi, all of its characteristics are what you see in your mind, but create a location the reader can feel.

Back on earth, take the time to research. Use the internet, find photos, speak to people who have been there. If it is a different country, find out about customs. For example, the first time I went to England a nice man helped my friend and me when we got lost. We inadvertently insulted him by asking if we could buy him a drink. He said in England offering to buy one a drink as we had meant giving him the price of a drink as a tip. When we explained we were suggesting that he join us for a drink everything changed. See what I mean?

Movies, TV dramas and comedies are often shot in places totally different than where the story is set so they are not necessarily reliable for reference.  Travel shows like Rick Steve’s series are much better for reference. Locations are the inspiration for one of my writer friends. She sees places that “call” to her and beg to be written. From that point, the bones of the story evolve. You can feel a first hand experience in what she writes because her locations are as much a part of the story as the plot and characters.

By all means, don’t make the mistake of choosing a place, only doing some cursory research and then writing it wrong. I once read a book that opened in Maastricht, Belgium, a city many are unfamiliar with. The author portrayed it as dark and dank—a depressing place the protagonist felt he had been exiled to. The location helped to set the scene for the character’s state of mind, right? Wrong. I happened to have spent three days in this medieval city and it was fascinating with amazing architecture. Not even close to the picture the author drew.  I asked why he used Maastricht when I’d assumed he’d never been there. He asked how I knew he hadn’t been there, and I had to say, “Because I have been there and you got it wrong.”

On the other hand, crime author Robert Crais had scenes in Marina Del Rey, California in one of his books and to my delight the protagonist happened to be driving down a street where I’d lived. The street has some unique features that are not apparent on a map. Only one who had been there would know what they are. I loved that story because not only was it extremely well-written, but every detail of the city was perfect from the beach to the nearby Hollywood hills. It made me feel like I was walking the streets with the characters.

Sure, not everyone would have recognized the locations. For example, most had probably never been on my street, but because the author obviously had been he was able to make it completely three dimensional. Keeping that in mind, creating fictional towns, streets, neighborhoods and points of interest is always a good option in fiction. You can parallel many of the characteristics the location in the story must have by creating something similar but nonexistent. The author is the only one who has really been there so any description is the right one. However, if you have set it down in the middle of a real place, make sure that all of the details for the surrounding area are correct. For example, don’t have someone winding through a mountainous two lane road, when in reality there is a multi-lane highway in that location.

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Thank you, Morgan. That was great.

Award-winning Author / Speaker / Columnist Morgan St. James’ short stories appear in Chicken Soup for the Soul books and other anthologies.

She writes the comical Silver Sisters Mysteries series with her real sister, Phyllice Bradner, has written several novels on her own, and over 500 published articles relative to the craft of writing and people in the industry, as well as the book Writers’ Tricks of the Trade: 39 Things You Need to Know About the ABCs of Writing Fiction.

Her most recent books are Who’s Got the Money,  a Finalist in the USA Best Books Awards, co-authored with Meredith Holland. It a funny crime caper about embezzling from the Federal prison system and the upcoming La Bella Mafia, a true crime book co-authored with Dennis Griffin as told to them by an amazing woman, Bella Capo.

St. James is an entertaining speaker, presents workshops and frequently appears on author’s panels. She edits and publishes of the online bi-monthly eZine Writers Tricks of the Trade and writes columns for the Los Angeles and Las Vegas editions of Examiner.com.

All of her books are available at Amazon worldwide and many other online bookstores.

Visit her websites:

• www.morganstjames-author.com
• http://morgan-james.blogspot.com
• http://silversistersmysteries.wordpress.com
• http://funnycrimecapers.blogspot.com
• http://writerstricksofthetrade.blogspot.com

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If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. There are other options listed on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.267 – Laurie Boris

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-seventh, is of contemporary fiction writer Laurie Boris. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

Laurie Boris has been writing fiction for almost thirty years, inspired by the work of Joyce Carol Oates, TC Boyle, John Irving, Vladimir Nabokov, Gail Parent, Nora Ephron, and many other brilliant, prolific, and funny writers.

With a degree in advertising and psychology from Syracuse University’s SI Newhouse School of Public Communications, she started writing articles for her local newspaper and promotional copy for freelance clients. Between projects, she tried a few short stories, some which were published in small literary magazines and later, on the Web. Two won honorable mention in a Writer’s Digest annual competition. One took first place in a contest sponsored by a women’s website, judged by author Katherine Center.

In her early thirties, Boris began writing a novel, mainly on a dare from her husband. Enlisting the support of her critique group and the International Women’s Writing Guild (IWWG), of which she’s been a member for almost two decades, she completed the novel and wrote eight more. Over the years she’s attended countless workshops on writing and been mentored by some generous and spectacular authors.

Writing novels while working at a succession of demanding full-time jobs in graphic design, advertising, and marketing was a challenge, in energy and time management, but it taught Boris an important lesson in priorities. She missed a lot of movies and can’t tell you what happened on the last episode of Lost, but she pounded out a lot of words.

While she has attempted several genres, Boris feels most comfortable with contemporary fiction, literary fiction, and humorous women’s fiction. She is the author of three novels, The Joke’s on Me, Drawing Breath, Don’t Tell Anyone, and the upcoming Sliding Past Vertical (due out in August 2013). The Joke’s on Me was a finalist in General Fiction in the 2012 Beach Book Festival.

The critically acclaimed Drawing Breath, chosen as a “Grub Street Great” by Grub Street Reads (now Compulsion Reads), was inspired by the improvised life of a friend who survived into his thirties with cystic fibrosis, at a time when doctors didn’t expect CF patients to live beyond their teens. Drawing Breath also placed as a finalist in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

In between and during all these novels, Boris has been a columnist for PNN.com, posting daily blogs on health and well being, a judge for a local school district’s yearly literary contest, and an occasional contributor of impassioned pleas for a variety of political, social, and environmental causes that impact New York’s Hudson Valley, where she now lives. She is also a five-time participant in National Novel Writing Month’s (NaNoWriMo) November challenge.

Currently, she is a contributing author and associate editor for Indies Unlimited. Also, she offers writing services (http://laurieboris.com), including ghostwriting, copyediting, and proofreading. She’s written over a hundred web articles, copyedited technical manuscripts, and “ghost edited” a well-reviewed children’s chess book, but she especially loves to help her fellow indies get their novels ready for publication.

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And now from the author herself:

When I write the first draft of a novel, I normally don’t think much about marketing. I tell the story that falls into my head, the one that has the most energy and won’t leave me alone until I finish writing. And then I think about how to sell it.

Even while I was writing Don’t Tell Anyone, I knew I’d face some serious challenges once I published it. But I still felt compelled to complete the novel and release it, hoping it would find an audience, secretly terrified that even if it came out well-written, thought-provoking, insightful or whatever good adjective you want to plunk on it, people would hear the word “cancer” and run.

I wrote it and published it because of my mother-in-law, Madeleine. She died from breast cancer, the progress of which might have been slowed or even arrested if she’d done something about it earlier. In fact, if she’d done anything about it earlier. Panicked out of her mind because (as our theory went) the cancer treatment she was familiar with—her mother’s, a horrific experience—was so traumatic, she kept her own lumps a secret for years. I found out later that she’d sought therapy in order to gather the courage to tell her family. Which became a moot point when a health emergency outed her to my husband, his sister, and me.

That it was a shock to all of us would be a gross understatement. I’d liken it more to having our guts wrenched out. We pushed our feelings of shock, grief, pain, resentment, and anger to the side, however, as we helped get her through the now-aggressive treatment her oncologist recommended: a radical double mastectomy, chemo, and radiation. The usual things happened, some they show on TV, some they don’t. She lost her hair. She lost her sense of taste and smell. She made a few dark jokes. She fell into a deep depression. The long-awaited remission brought her little joy; much as we tried to bolster her spirits, nearly all she could think about was when it would come back. Five years later, it did, and killed her.

Now we were left to face our emotions alone. My husband’s and his sister’s are private things and I’ll leave them to talk about them publicly or not. But my mother-in-law and I had a special relationship. Sure, we had our bumpy parts. My husband and I lived in her house for a few years out of economic necessity; I was not as tidy as she would have liked me to be, and we became much better friends after my husband and I moved out. But she called me her “favorite daughter-in-law” (yeah, big joke, only daughter-in-law, yet she said it with such joy) and she was one of my biggest fans. She nagged me to finish my novels because she said she needed something good to read.

I, however, needed to reconcile my own feelings. Especially the big question: why? Why stick your head in the sand? Why do that to your children? She had no quarrel with doctors. She had decent health insurance. She lived a scant few miles from a compound of medical services. Why not get that lump checked out, particularly because of her genetic predisposition?

The questions dogged me, long after her diagnosis, long after her death. So I wrote about it. That’s my way of exploration. I gave the situation to Estelle Trager, the matriarch of the novel. Then I let it play out with her fictional family, who already had a boatload of problems of their own. I wanted to know why she’d made the choice (and not making a choice is still a choice) to ignore her condition. I wanted to explore the effect that choice had on family dynamics between and among her children, which lead to some difficult, sometimes painful, sometimes sweet, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes funny moments.

So let me leave you with one funny story from my mother-in-law’s treatment, which I would have put in the book if the situation arose, but it didn’t.

After my mother-in-law’s double mastectomy, she was kept in the hospital a few days. But given the bottom-dollar-focus of HMOs, we were warned that once released, her aftercare would include our tending to a series of drains that filled with fluid and needed to measured, monitored against signs of infection, and emptied regularly. When we arrived at the hospital to pick her up, she was already dressed and sitting up in a chair. Four plastic drains, about the size of hand grenades, were pinned to the outside of her blouse. She gave us a devilish grin and said, “How do you like my new jugs?”

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You can find more about Laurie and her writing via…

Social Media Links

• Laurie’s Website/Blog: http://laurieboris.com
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/laurie.boris.author
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LaurieBoris
• Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4824645.Laurie_Boris

Sales Links

• Amazon author’s page: http://www.amazon.com/author/laurieboris
• Don’t Tell Anyone (US): http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Tell-Anyone-ebook/dp/B00AGPB3KA
• Don’t Tell Anyone (UK): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Tell-Anyone-ebook/dp/B00AGPB3KA
• Drawing Breath (US): http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Breath-ebook/dp/B007XYOKV6
• Drawing Breath (UK): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drawing-Breath-ebook/dp/B007XYOKV6
• The Joke’s on Me (US) http://www.amazon.com/The-Jokes-on-Me-ebook/dp/B007GQ0L46
• The Joke’s on Me (UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Jokes-on-Me-ebook/dp/B007GQ0L46

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Post-weekend Poetry 081: ‘Splinters in My Head’ by Linda Hays-Gibbs

Welcome to Post-weekend Poetry and the eighty-first poem in this series. This week’s piece is by romance, paranormal, Gothic and comedy author, and poet Linda Hays Gibbs.

Splinters in My Head

Like splinters in my head
I grieve for the dead,
What a waste, what a waste
Cursed they faced in horrible haste
Men’s hearts cry for a better dream
Even if it be a nasty lie
Give them a better scheme
A much higher thought to know to fly
To lift them up not bring them low
A brighter cause a noble thought
Let them be caught in prayer to
A God of love with work to do
One who would not kill you
But born again to help their fellow man
To give a helping hand
To kiss their beaten brow
Enfold in love and show them how
To fulfill God’s plan With love and harmony
Sweet good  perfumed charity
Turn before too late from murderous hate
Think of Golgotha’s hill
A sacrifice for peace and goodwill
A God of love and mercy too
Even for you, even for you
For If you give torment and pain
What do you forever gain
No rich paradise of which to tell
But eternity to burn in tortuous hell
The splinters in my head
Cry for your dead and you
Will you not listen to
A still small voice and do
Work to enrich your soul
With a higher goal
God is love not hate
Turn before tis too late
For the killing you do only assured you pain
For murdering is not a noble gain
If your heart is set to do God’s will
I tell you. It is NOT to kill!
But love, peace, and goodwill

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I then asked Linda for the inspiration behind the poem…

Splinters in My Head was inspired by the horrible Boston Bombings. I was so upset by the senseless slaughter and ruined lives of so many innocent people. It was like a continual aggravation of pain like splinters in my brain. It’s a constant reminder of how helpless I feel and how I wish I could help. These people think they will go to paradise and I don’t believe in a God that rewards murder.

Tuscaloosa was devastated by a tornado but that was nature not people bent on causing pain to children or anyone. Crazy people are pitiful but people with political or religious fever that propels them to murder are just as insane.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to get on a soapbox but I can’t seem to express how I wish they would take a look at the other side. The side of peace, love and hope and where you are not owed anything. That your life is what you make it. Those boys (that did those horrible bombings) had a bright future but someone poured poison into them. My God is not poison. My God is Love!

They will not go to paradise! They will go to hell when they murder in whatever name or reason or political stand.

**

Another powerful piece. Thank you, Linda.

Linda D. Hays-Gibbs was born in Mississippi and married at a young age. She went back to school late in life, graduated with a BA in Anthropology from University of Alabama.  She always loved Indiana Jones.   Anthropology was so exciting to her until she could not use her imagination to write her papers.  Her instructor insisted she stick with the facts not fantasy.

She loved to write poetry and jot it down all the time.  Her fourth book, “My Angel, My Light As Darkness Falls” really meant more to her because she worked on it for such a long time and because she was determined to make her writing much better than it had been.  Kim Richards and Sally Odgers from Eternal Press were inspirations for her. Barbara Metzger, one of her favourite authors gave her encouragement too.  She loves writing and hopes to continue to do it for the rest of her life along with anything she can do for her God and children. You can also find out more about her from:

• http://www.eternalpress.biz/people.php?author=493
• http://www.lybrary.com/linda-haysgibbs-m-102548.html
• http://1placeforromance.com/index.php?column=author&searchMe=Linda%20Hays-Gibbs&_a=viewCat
• http://spinningpearls.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/interview-with-linda-hays-gibbs.htm
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDjuhb5n9L4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
• http://suzanne-brandyn.blogspot.com/2012/02/four-corners-friday-linda-gibbs.html?spref=fb
• http://thepenmuse.net/?p=4382
• http://suzanne-brandyn.blogspot.com/?spref=fb

***

If you’d like to submit your poem (40 lines max) for consideration for Post-weekend Poetry take a look here or a poem for critique on the Online Poetry Writing Group (link below).

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.266 – Sarahjane Funnell

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-sixth, is of children’s writer Sarahjane Funnell. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

Sarahjane Funnell is a children’s picture book author and also full time PR Officer for Lush Cosmetics.

She currently writes the Phillipa series of picture books and has previously had stories Princess Rose and the Royal Tea Castle, published in the children’s magical anthology A Pocketful of Moon Dust by Rebel Books, along with an independent YA fantasy ebook, Blake.

Phillipa is a Trademarked series of picture books by Sarahjane Funnell published by Gibson Publishing.

The first title in the series is Phillipa Knickerbocker Glory and the Ice Cream Castle, along with her new book Phillipa Fairy Cake and the Secret Pets’ Tea Party.

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And now from the author herself:

So it’s been about 18 months since my last post on Morgen Bailey’s Writing Blog and it’s been a busy year and a half at that. My last post coincided with the launch of my debut picture book Phillipa Knickerbocker Glory and the Ice Cream Castle, independently published with Gibson Publishing (March 2012).

Now, after running over 30 children’s book events with my first book, alongside working full-time as a beauty press officer for ethical cosmetics brand Lush, I am now launching my second book in the Trademarked Phillipa series, Phillipa Fairy Cake and the Secret Pets’ Tea Party.

Producing two picture books in less than two years is no mean feat. It takes an unbelievable amount of energy, passion, will power and determination. From writing the initial story, through to copy editing, getting the ball rolling again with the chosen publisher and sourcing and commissioning an available illustrator, the process has taken almost 9 months from start to finish (which is an incredibly fast turn around compared with traditional publishing).

Though things may be stressful at times juggling dual careers, directing all 32 pages of the book as well as organising design and print schedules, the overall outcome of having a second book to call your own, far outweighs any sleepless nights suffered.

The decision to publish a second book within 18 months of the first was always in my publishing plan. The first title even makes reference to the second book on the last page where it mentions ‘…Look out for Phillipa Fairy Cake.’ My reasoning for this quick turn around being with picture books, particularly if you are planning a series, it’s important to capture your audience while they are still within the relevant age range for your books. This really helps to establish a loyal following of readers by maintaining their interests with new material. It also shows you are serious about your career as a professional writer.

My first book Phillipa Knickerbocker Glory, launched at Waterstones Hastings during March 2013. This was the nearest bookshop to where the title was published in East Sussex. With the launch of my second title with the same publisher, I wanted to run the second book’s launch again with the same shop. The Phillipa Fairy Cake and the Secret Pets’ Tea Party launch took place on Saturday 15th June and the very talented Hastings team put together a wonderful event with a beautiful display of both book titles side by side. I then added some personal touches including character cut outs from the book and some imitation grass to emphasise the garden tea party theme.

During the event, many customers who had come along to the launch of my first book also came along to this new launch. These repeat customers were delighted to find there was another Phillipa book, some of which had bought the first book as a Christmas present and others mentioned they had loved the first book so much they were incredibly delighted to see a second title to add to their collection.

As an author, being told by readers that your book is ‘their child’s favourite story’ and ‘how much they love reading it’ makes writing all the more special knowing your work makes someone happy and captures their imagination.

The team at Hastings Waterstones including Lizzie, Laura and Linda, are absolutely lovely and so supportive – especially with the book being a local title, and that really matters to an author too – knowing you have the support of book experts behind you too.

So, my advice to anyone wondering whether to take that first or second step into the independent publishing market would be, as long as you have the determination, a clear vision of your goal, you’ve sufficiently tested your readership and have a plan in terms of both time and finance to take you there, then go for it. Not only is it a huge achievement having your first or second book in print or ebook format, you are very likely to have some very happy, new and loyal readers to share it with too!

**

If you would like to find out more information on the Phillipa Series please visit @PhillipaBooks and www.phillipaknickerbockerglory.co.uk and find Sarahjane @Sarahjanestyle

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast – short stories episode no.27

Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number 27 went live today and contained four flash fiction pieces that have appeared on my blog as Flash Fiction Fridays. Do email me (morgen@morgenbailey.com) should you like to submit your own.

This episode contained:

• 1966 And All That (993 words) by me, Morgen Bailey
• The Little Guy Smiled (668 words) and This Is The Way It Was Done (518 words) both by poet, critic, short story author, novelist and interviewee John Brantingham
• The Little Black Dress (498 words) by short story author and novelist, tutor and interviewee Della Galton.

*

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).

*

BIOS

Based in Northamptonshire, England, Morgen Bailey (“Morgen with an E”) is a prolific blogger, podcaster, editor / critiquer, Chair of NWG (which runs the annual H.E. Bates Short Story Competition), Head Judge for the NLG Flash Fiction Competition.

She is also a freelance author of numerous ‘dark and light’ short stories, novels, articles, and very occasional dabbler of poetry. Like her, her blog, http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com, is consumed by all things literary. She also recently created five online writing groups and an interview-only blog.

Her debut novel is the chick lit eBook The Serial Dater’s Shopping List.

**

John Brantingham is the author of East of Los Angeles, and his work has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s daily show Writer’s Almanac. He has had hundreds of stories and poems published in the United States and England in magazines such as The Journal, Confrontation, Mobius, and Tears in the Fence. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for a poem in his chapbook Putting in a Window, which was published by Finishing Line Press, and his second chapbook, Heroes for Today, was published by Pudding House Press. He is a full-time professor at Mt. San Antonio College in Southern California and one of two fiction editors of The Chiron Review, a nationally distributed literary magazine.

His latest suspense novel is Mann of War, available at Oak Tree Press. You can check out the trailer for his book and many more of his humorous vlogs at johnbrantingham.blogspot.com.

John lives happily in the city of Walnut (what a great name) with his beautiful wife, Annie and their canine companion, Archie.

**

Della Galton is a novelist, short story writer, and journalist; she is also the agony aunt for Writers’ Forum and has been writing and getting published for over twenty-five years. When she is not writing she enjoys walking her dogs in the beautiful Dorset countryside where she lives. Her hobby is repairing old cottages, which is lucky as hers is falling down.

You can find out more about Della via:

• Her website: www.dellagalton.co.uk
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/della.galton
• Twitter: @DellaGalton

***

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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.265 – TJ Perkins

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-fifth, is of YA / fantasy / mystery T J Perkins. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights. I’m short of them so yours could go live in the next few days!

TJ Perkins is a gifted and well-respected award-winning author in the mystery / suspense and fantasy genre.  Her short stories for young readers have appeared in the Ohio State 6th Grade Proficiency Test Preparation Book, Kid’s Highway Magazine, and Webzine ‘New Works Review,’ just to name a few. She’s placed four times in the CNW / FFWA chapter book competition.  Her short story of light horror for tweens, The Midnight Watch, was publication Oct 2007 by Demon Minds Magazine.  Her self-publishing achievements are being greatly recognized and TJ is also conducting speaking engagements at colleges and libraries, offering advice to others.

Finished works of her young reader’s chapter books are entitled:  The Fire and the Falcon (which won two chapter book awards), Wound Too Tight, Mystery of the Attic, and On Forbidden Ground.  Published books in the Kim & Kelly Mystery Series include: Fantasies Are Murder, The Secret in Phantom Forest, Trade Secret, Image in the Tapestry (which won a chapter book award) and In the Grand Scheme of Things (all with GumShoe Press 2006).

Mystery of the Attic was made into a play by the Café Theater in NJ, Oct. 2005.  The storyline of this book will be the basis for a new and exciting interactive family amusement park ride currently in the hands of dark ride manufacturer Alterface.

*

And now from the author herself:

As I’ve gotten older I’ve noticed that my writing has matured, as well.  Those of you who have written for years and years may have noticed the same with your stories.  The concepts and ideas you started off with may have been good back then, but as our reader’s thoughts and views evolve so does their demand for the next big story idea that’ll move them.

With my new five book series Shadow Legacy, the concept and style has a flow and direction all its own, blooming with thoughts and beliefs I never before would’ve used.  What started off as a story for young adults, has become a series for teens and older people – chock full of battles, death, reawakening, villains welding unusual dark magic, demons, trolls and a host of other magical / spiritual beings.

Art of the Ninja: Earth and Power of the Ninja: Fire is available and soon to join them in June 2013 will be book 3 Heart of the Ninja: Water.  Each book assigned an element based on the hero’s journey, his trials, battles, failures and accomplishments.  Each cover based on the chosen character and their animal fighting style and spirit energy.

Modern day teen assassins trained in the way of the ninja, Shadow Legacy is pulsing with Zen, Tao, Hindu and new age powers and beliefs.  Dive in, take a chance on an all new cross-genre of fantasy that reads like a good manga and follow the legacy…

**

You can find more about TJ and her writing via…

• www.authorsden.com/tjperkins
• www.silverleafbooks.com
• B&N.com http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Art-of-the-Ninja/TJ-Perkins/e/9781609750398/?itm=2&USRI=tj+perkins
• http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=t.j.+perkins
• https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/TJ-Perkins/141926262645942?fref=ts
• on Twitter: tjmysteryauthor
• Radio Interview, please scroll to time slot 57:32 http://www.geekradiodaily.com/podpress_trac/web/5665/0/grdsweekly167.mp3
• Book Trailer for Art of the Ninja: Earth http://www.silverleafbooks.com/Authors_Perkins_Trailers.htm

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.264 – L Filloon

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-fourth, is of YA / fantasy / paranormal novelist and interviewee L Filloon. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

L. Filloon was born in Leone, American Samoa. At a young age her family relocated to Hawaii and settled on Oahu. In 1977, her father once again relocated the family, this time to San Diego, eventually making National City, California their home. Although she started writing during her junior high school years, it wasn’t until late 2011 that she self-published her first book, The Binding; the first in The Velesi Trilogy. She followed with Book 2, The Drifting, and completing out the trilogy with The Whispering which will be available on Amazon.com for Kindle on July 27, 2013.

Now living in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her significant other for the past eighteen years, they live a quiet life away from the Strip with two felines named Ralph the Mouth and Princess Coby (who family and close friends are certain Cessa was based on).  Ms. Filloon has a daughter also living in Sin City who recently got married.  Despite her daughter and new husband’s plans to wait on staring a family, Ms. Filloon is excited about the prospect of having grandchildren – which she has already warned the young couple she will spoil until the cows come home.  Currently, Ms. Filloon owns no cows and has no plans to own any in the near future.

*

And now from the author herself:

There have been times when I would start on a story, get really into it and then become distracted by my everyday life; I would put it away and forget about it.  There have been many times I have sat in front of this very screen, staring at it for hours before a single sentence is created.  It’s a tough gig, I tell you.

Several times I wanted to quit on The Binding (Book 1 of The Velesi Trilogy), but continue to find myself sticking with it.  It was my first completed novel that I self-published in December 2011.  I was so happy and ecstatic, that I couldn’t feel my feet for about an hour.  Unfortunately, once the euphoria passed, I was thrown back to the old familiar world of self-doubt and worry.  I was worried that no one would even care to read what took me months to put into words.

It was tough in the beginning because I was clueless of what I needed to do to market my first novel.  I did learn a valuable lesson and if I ever give one advice to new authors, it is this:  Get an editor.  Seriously, it will save you such headaches, heartache and keep you from going ninja on every reviewer who gave you a not so nice review.  By the way, good or bad, reviews are only an opinion – don’t let it keep you from writing.  You can only improve and become a better writer, but ONLY if you stick with it and don’t let opinions not worthy of you to get under your skin.  Toughen up…life is too short not to live it your way and be happy doing it.

But, yes, it was all trial and error with the first book, and yes, people did pick it up and read The Binding (after a good thrashing from my editor – love her).  And I have just completed book 3 and looking forward to a few new projects.

And with that said, I am eager to start on my new book, The 7th Relic, after the release of Book 3 of The Velesi Trilogy: The Whispering.  It’s an adventure that has been playing in my head for the past year.  Here is the blurb for The 7th Relic:

The fires of Earth are dying. The ancient Keeper of the Flame is blind and weary.  She waits for the Light to reignite the Flame of Life and heal her energy to remain as Keeper. But the Light was kidnapped at birth and marked by the ancient Skytes. Her memories of who she truly is are lost to her through their cruel methods.

Grace is seventeen and on the brink of graduating from high school, not that anyone would notice. Her mother, an abusive alcoholic, who, for reasons Grace could never understand and had given up trying, hates her. The kids from her school seem to ignore her, giving her a wide berth when she passes by. Her teachers are either bothered by her looks and withdrawn attitude, or love her for her artistic and brilliant artwork. But even the ones who are impressed keep their distance. All Grace dreams of is to win the San Diego Museum Art contest and receive a full scholarship for one of the most prestigious art programs in France. It is through this drive to win that brings her face to face with an ancient Skytes prince and the Protector standing between them, Andrew Teo.

Andrew must get Grace to the Keeper before time runs out. But in order for her to reignite the Flame, she needs seven relics that will create the means to do it. She and Andrew must depend on their small group of friends, allies and each other if they intend to keep Earth’s fires burning.

The 7th Relic – Coming Fall 2014

**

You can find more about Ms Filloon and her writing via…

• www.lfilloon.blogspot.com
• www.facebook.com/LFilloon

and more about her latest book, The Whispering…

Tharin and Lily find themselves back in Pathen in search of Julia and the key to Eirrell, but old foes and new ones are in close pursuit.  Adding to their plight, all doorways to Velesi have been closed.

Forced to discover a way back to their realm, the group finds help from new friends and those who once stood against them are now allies.  To make matters worse, a betrayal causes the door to the UnderRealm to open, allowing demons and monsters once imprisoned to roam the realm freely.

Time is of the essence as there are only two Ancients left while Ka grows weaker, struggling to hold the realm together.  It is up to Tharin and Lily to find the doorway to Eirrell, call the Unnamed Sidhe and save Velesi.

Journey back to Velesi and join Tharin, Lily, Tolan, Julia, Alorn, Mellis, Ziri and Cessa to save the realm and maybe have a wedding… or two, but then again, it is Velesi… so maybe not.

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author interview no.683 with short story writer Joanna Sterling

Welcome to the six hundred and eighty-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with short story writer and The Casket host Joanna Sterling. 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, Joanna. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Joanna: I was born in London and have lived here most of my life.  I would consider myself a Londoner. I took up writing after early retirement.  But I have always told stories and as a child had a fertile imagination.

Morgen: I went the other way; I early retired last March (a few months before my 45th birthday) to write full-time and can’t see me ever having a proper job, although I’ll be teaching creative writing for my local council’s adult learning from January so that still isn’t ‘work’ to me. You predominantly write short stories (my first love), did you pick them or did they pick you?

Joanna: I think they picked me.  I’m comfortable writing short stories and I enjoy the discipline they impose. There is a craft involved in their construction no matter how concise the story.

Morgen: Absolutely. I started off writing short stories having ‘discovered’ creative writing on an evening course eight years ago and despite having written seven novels, they will always be my first love and would ‘win’ if I had to choose between the two formats. Is there a particular market you aim for when writing stories for publication?

Joanna: Generally I would say my stories are aimed at a female market, but not exclusively.

Morgen: Are there any publications you can recommend for short stories (submissions and reading)?

Joanna: I regularly read Mslexia and the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthologies.  Also One Story which comes from America and arrives once a month.  A single story in a slim booklet that can be slipped into a bag or pocket.

Morgen: I subscribe to all the writing magazines, including Mslexia, and recommend writers get at least one of them as it does bring the writing community into your home. I’m intrigued by ‘One Story’. I was going to add it to http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/submissions-flash-fiction-short-stories but then found out it’s already there. Your The Casket site is listed under both categories too. Why do you think short stories are so hard done by (with most readers going for novels)?

 

5a.m. Flash 150613 – Six free eBooks by Linda Hays-Gibbs: 15 June

Six of Linda Hays-Gibbs’ eBooks will be free on Kindle today, 15th June

(NB. Amazon usually works US time so you may have to check back if you’re in the UK / Europe).

Book one: Song of the Easter Bunny 

A simple story for children about the Easter Bunny. It is very short but gives a message about what Easter is really about. This Easter bunny had no choice but to give voice to his joy on that wonderful day. His song can’t be stopped.

Book two: Married by Morning

A Regency romance with vampires and werewolves. The hero has a large family and obligations. His mother and sisters rule him. Suddenly his life isn’t so horrible anymore because a beautiful lady enters his home and his life.

He finds he can’t keep his hands off her and they need to marry with all haste. The problem is his family doesn’t want him happy. It’s funny and steamy with twists and turns but hopefully by morning things will be better.

Book three: Lord, I Need a Miracle!

Genre: Christian science-fiction / fantasy

This is a tale about needing miracles and family. It is about reaching for the help we need from God and his answer to prayer. It is a special story for Linda.

Book four: Two Christmas Miracles

Romantic tale about Christmas miracles for a family. A man and his son are grieving the loss of the wife and mother they adored and a small girl comes into their lives. The impact of helping others and giving from the heart helps them to have a happy Christmas.

Book five: A Regency Christmas My Love

A Regency Romance in England. It is about a young lady that finds herself in a terrible situation and needs a champion to help her. She is innocent and alone and it is Christmas. Can true love find a way in the most horrible of circumstances? Can a man fall in love after just one kiss? Will he find her?

Book six: I Know Heaven is For Real Too

A book written from Linda’s personal experience

*

Linda was born and bred in the south, USA. She graduated from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. AL, home of the Crimson Tide. Linda is a big fan of football too. She has also traveled overseas.

Her great great great great grandfather was Daniel Boone. Linda knows this because she researched it herself. She was looking for her Cherokee and Chickasaw blood and found some Shawnee too. She said, Life is a treasure hunt and you always find gold when you dig.” Her favorite thing is writing. She loves poetry as well as fiction. Linda now has 12 books to her credit.

**

Six of Linda’s books are free today June 15, 2013 via the following links (for the UK, swap .com for .co.uk):

• http://www.amazon.com/Easter-Bunny-Holiday-Serie-ebook/dp/B00C3NC370
• http://www.amazon.com/Married-by-Morning-ebook/dp/B00AV41GBC
• http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Miracle-MIracle-Series-ebook/dp/B00BKRRCTE
• http://www.amazon.com/Know-Heaven-Real-Too-ebook/dp/B00A0P2P3U
• http://www.amazon.com/Regency-Christmas-Love-Holiday-ebook/dp/B00AG9GR0M
• http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Miracles-Holiday-Series-ebook/dp/B00AOGVJ14

You can find out more about Linda via…

• Website:  http://www.lindahaysgibbs.blogspot.com
• http://www.lindahaysgibbs.pbworks.com
• http://www.lindahaysgibbsreviews.blogspot.com
• http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B007JK4SLQ
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_pg_1_2?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ALinda+Hays-Gibbs&keywords=Linda+Hays-Gibbs&ie=UTF8&qid=1371081154

Thank you, Linda.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Flash Fiction Friday 091: The Scarf by Kristina England

Welcome to Flash Fiction Friday and the ninety-first piece in this series. This week’s is a 399-worder by Kristina England. This story will be podcasted in episode 30 (with three other stories) on Sunday 11th August.

The Scarf

Wilson found it tied to a pole on his morning run.  It was kelly green and soft to the touch.

He didn’t know much about fashion, but something told him the scarf was not an item a woman just threw away.

He stood at the street corner and untied it slowly.  An unexpected wind caught hold of the scarf.  It waved up and down, then straightened, pulling him forward.

Wilson followed its command, walking down Lansing, turning left at Kantell, then veering right at a small bend in the road that reminded him of the back curve of a woman’s knee.

The wind came to a stop at a bookstore.

The scarf dropped.

He looked at the stairs leading down to the entrance, then let his body descend with each step.

A bell rang as he opened the door.  A young woman smiled from behind the counter.

“I see Elsie found you,” she said, her eyes skirting along the book shelves.

“Elsie?”

“Yeah.  Elsie.  She pulls people in with her charm.  She takes on different shapes depending on the person.  My worst experience was the lingerie stint.  That totally changed how I looked at Pastor Phil…”

Wilson blinked.

The girl smiled again.  ”Okay, Elsie, what do you have for this fella?”

“I don’t…”

“Understand?  You don’t have to.  You just have to take Elsie’s advice.”

“O… kay,” Wilson said, looking at the door.  It seemed farther away than he remembered, but he made for the exit anyway.

A wind picked up in the store.

Wilson jumped back as a book fell at his feet.

He stared at the cover, then turned to the girl.

“How much?”

“Two dollars.”

He handed her twenty and walked out the door.

The girl got up and walked around the counter.

“They always forget to take the book,” she said, bending over.

She picked up the book, closed it, and looked at the title.

“Get over her,” she mumbled and shook her head.  ”Why is it that you always have to tell them the obvious?”

The wind picked up again and another book dropped.

She picked it up and nodded.

“Of course… What a simple concept… Why didn’t I… Oh fiddlesticks…  Point taken.”

The young woman quietly got onto a foot stool and returned the books to their proper homes.

Then she returned to her seat and waited for the bell to ring again.

*

I asked Kristina what prompted this piece and she said…

I was inspired to write “The Scarf” after reading “The Book”, a short story by Sylvia Van Peebles published at The Story Shack.  I liked the idea of objects enticing people away from the “everyday” life but I wanted the object to move the person forward.

Thank you, Kristina.

Kristina England resides in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her writing is published or forthcoming at Decades Review, Extract(s), Gargoyle, Hobo Pancakes, The Story Shack, and other magazines. For more on her writing, visit http://kristinaengland.blogspot.com.

If you’d like to submit your 1,000-word max. stories for consideration for Flash Fiction Friday take a look here, or up to 5,000 words for critique on my Online Short Story Writing Group (links below).

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.263 – Stefan Bolz

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-third, is of children’s and self-help author Stefan Bolz. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

Stefan wanted to write since he was the tender age of seventeen, but his wild youth and turbulent teens pulled him away from writing even though the wish to write never completely left him.

Almost three decades later, his secret passion has finally caught up with him when he accidentally wrote a novel.

“Accidentally?” you might ask, and rightfully so. Yes. Accidentally.

*

And now from the author himself:

It all started out in a sandbox. This may or may not be a good place to start a novel but in my case it really worked out. You should try it sometime. I have been going to my therapist Julie for a few years now. She has been very helpful through some rough patches here and there. Part of her work includes a sandbox in the corner of her practice. Here’s how this works: Behind the sandbox there is a wall filled with shelves on which you can find pretty much anything, from small figurines to action figures to items like little palm trees, dragons, motor cycles, cowboys, dogs, helicopters, stones, rocks, pieces of wood, train cars, etc. I’d usually pick out some of the items at random, the task being not to think too much about which ones to take and then place them into the sand box. So, I took some of the objects from the shelf and placed them in the sand box. Here and there I pushed the sand to one side, again without thinking much about it. Once I was done, we looked at it together and as we always do, Julie asked me what I saw. It usually makes sense while I look at the landscape as to which of the figurines I am, what’s going on in the box and therefore in my life at that moment, etc.

Not this time. I had no clue what I was looking at. There was a rooster, red and orange colored; there was a wolf, a horse, a Pegasus, a frog, a dragon and, stuck into the sand on the left side of the box, three feathers. That was all. I told Julie that I had no idea what it meant, what it was or what to make of it. All I said was that it sure looks like it would make a nice little fable: The rooster sets out on a journey. On his way, he picks up friends like the wolf and the horse. Then they encounter a Pegasus and a dragon. There is a frog in there somewhere. And in the end they find the three feathers. Nothing to write home about. Or so I thought.

I left Julie, not disappointed but feeling kind of neutral with the sense that nothing had really happened in there. Sometimes a session stays with me for days. Again, not this one. I forgot all about it for a while. Then one morning I thought I’d better write it down before I forget. That was more out of habit as I usually write down what happens during the sessions. So I began with, “Once upon a time there was a rooster who lived on a farm on the Eastern shore…” I stopped at the end of chapter one, I think. I couldn’t believe the force with which the story made itself known to me. I truly felt like a scribe more than an author. Close to none of it came from my conscious  mind. It was as if I discovered for myself, and for the first time, what had happened.

Like an archaeologist finding an ancient city under the dessert sand. The Three Feathers was there. Complete and pretty much ready to come through. My duty was only in faithfully writing it all down. There was only a minuscule and insignificant amount of thinking about plot, characters and the story itself on my part. Besides The Three Feathers, there is one other book out already – a spiritual companion to The Three Feathers, called The Dawning of the True Self. Three more books are in the works: A prequel named The Second Searcher, a sequel, The Fourth Sage and the continuation of that one, The Forgotten Future. I have had a couple of author days and one coming up at a local school with 308 kids. Never underestimate the power of playing in the sand.

**

You can find more about Stefan and his writing via…

• www.thethreefeathers.com (for a signed copy of his book, to find out more about it and the other books)
• or you can order them from Amazon for kindle: http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Feathers-Magnificent-ebook/dp/B008OYSTK2 or http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Three-Feathers-Magnificent-ebook/dp/B008OYSTK2
• http://www.amazon.com/The-Dawning-True-Self-ebook/dp/B00BXQESLM or http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Dawning-True-Self-ebook/dp/B00BXQESLM
• and visit Stefan’s Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Stefan%20Bolz&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Guest post: Word Art: Those Pesky Throwaway Lines by Jackie Weger

Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of fact accuracy, is brought to you by romance novelist Jackie Weger.

Word Art: Those Pesky Throwaway Lines

One of my most embarrassing moments as a writer happened when I was standing before two hundred or so writers, editors and publishers critiquing manuscripts as a subtext in a talk on Write What You Know. There I was standing on the podium, ego rattling away on the topic when a little old lady in the second row hollered out: You didn’t!

She stood and told the entire audience that I had a character in a book set in Louisiana perking coffee. Not in Houma, Louisiana folks.  Cajuns drip their chicory-laden coffee. Not only that—they don’t use Half ‘n Half. Coffee is lightened with evaporated Carnation or Pet milk—right out of the can.  Coffee is sweetened to the consistency of pudding with good old pure white cane sugar—not brown, not Splenda, not Sweet ‘n Low. No ma’am.

The awful thing was that I did know folks in Louisiana dripped their coffee. But when writing the scene, I typed in a throwaway line—the heroine ‘perked’ coffee. What was I thinking? Quick—somebody get a shovel and bury me alive–right here, right now.

What happened when that darling old lady reader got to the word ‘perk’ in my book? She stopped reading. I lost my credibility. She was so annoyed there was no way she was going to enter into a fantasy of romantic fiction. It was just one awful four-letter word and it ruined the book for her—and probably every other Louisiana native.  My fault.

I’m not the only author who made an error that ruined a book for a reader. I have a favorite thriller writer. I downloaded his new book the minute it hit Amazon. After chasing the bad guy through a number of countries, the hero catches and disposes of the villain in Panama, killing him and dumping the body over the balustrade of a fancy hotel onto the deck of a ship exiting the Panama Canal.  Oops. There isn’t a hotel in Panama that overlooks any one of the three locks. Every lock is fenced and there’s about a half-acre of ground between the mechanical mules that guide the ships and that fence. I was really happy that this error occurred in the denouement of the book because it didn’t ruin the book for me.  Perhaps I’m the only reader that noticed the error. And therein lies the rub—it only takes one person to know what you don’t know, didn’t learn, or let slide—to undo all the pride and creativity we put in our books.

I began my writing career back in the dark ages.  We didn’t have internet, Google Earth, search engines, Walmart, or reality shows. Back in the day, if you didn’t know, you had to get out in the world and find it. When I was writing No Perfect Secret I needed to place two scenes in a restaurant. I spent a week in Washington, D.C.  Had my little checklist—Library of Congress. Tick.  State Department. Tick. Nice condo for the hero. Tick.

I had dinner in a fabulous French restaurant, but no way was hero Frank Caburn, man to the bone and reared on a Midwestern farm–going to eat escargot or those tiny portions the upmarket French are famous for.  Men bred in Middle America eat beef, bread and potatoes.  I had to put him in a restaurant with real beef on the menu.

In an intrigue I bought last month the author introduces her characters by telling the reader the characters stole the Mona Lisa in the past and now the thieves are looking for something else to steal. Talk about a throwaway line. What was it for? To give the thieves credibility? Hello. The Mona Lisa is a very small portrait behind specialty glass, rife with sensors, and barriers to keep a viewer five feet away. Guards move the viewers along. The author did not give the reader any plausible scenario how that piece of art could have been stolen.  As a reader I am very forgiving of the improbable. The writer must convince the reader she knows about museums and security systems, about old masters, how they are stored and how they are displayed; and especially how to market stolen art work, the value of it and the people who would buy it. Stolen art never stays with the thief. Old masters are not something auctioned on e-Bay. It was one throwaway sentence.  Did the author mean to insult a reader’s intelligence? Nope. She wanted to suggest her ‘thieves’ were skilled at their craft.

Recently I read a book in which a man broke a leg and was left propped against a tree while the hero ‘ran a hundred miles’ through a jungle to get help. It was a throwaway line to hint at the hero’s sensitivity and loyalty.  I’ve lived in jungles and I can tell you one does not run a hundred miles through a jungle.  Moreover, if you leave someone propped against a tree over night or several overnights—something is gonna eat him.

What we do as writers is take ordinary people and places and raise them to the level of word art.  Word art is how you weave story action making a fictional character or a place believable for a reader.  When you place a story in someone else’s backyard, you need to know the fence lines, the culture of the community, its likes and dislikes and what binds it together.

I still cringe when I recall that little grey-haired lady calling me on how I had a character brew a pot coffee. It was a throwaway line, not word art. It did not have to be in the scene. Recalling my mortification has kept me humble and not quite so careless.

In our new electronic world if we write a throwaway sentence that bumps a reader out of the story or annoys because we got it wrong—it could be on the Web within hours—with an audience of thousands—not a mere two hundred. Embarrassing? Yes. Worse—a review could short sales.  Do you have any throwaway lines in your manuscript?

*

Thank you, Jackie.

Writing for Harlequin Books Jackie Weger published sixteen romance novels. Weger wrote the first African-American romance published by Harlequin, A Strong and Tender Thread, soon to be rereleased in digital format by Liquid Silver Books. Weger lived in St. Augustine, Florida for twelve years renovating a hundred-year-old house in historic Lincolnville, a community established by freed slaves in 1866. In 1995 she put her career on hold to care for elderly and handicapped members of her family. In 1999 she moved to Central America with her companion dog, a Shar-pei named Simon. She and Simon lived in a small Dry Pacific Rainforest village in a thatched-roof bohio while making intrepid excursions into the Darien, the San Blas Islands, and outer islands in the Pacific. Weger also volunteered at a Sister’s of Mercy mission where she taught women in poverty. Returning stateside in 2002, Weger enrolled in university, earning an AA, a BA in History, and in December 2006 graduated summa cum laude from the University of Houston-Victoria. In 2006 Weger attended a semester at Queens College, University of London, spending free time traipsing around the U.K. and Paris. “You don’t need a hotel room in Paris—just live at the Louvre.” Weger returns to Panama often, dividing her time between now established homes on Isla Taboga and the pueblo el Cacao. She has recently revived her writing career producing novels for Liquid Silver Books. Her first e-book, No Perfect Secret was released July 2012. Beyond Fate was released December 2012. In the spirit of Retro romances, Liquid Silver Books under their Liquid Gold imprint contracted with Weger to bring to the e-book market five of Weger’s back list. In addition Weger is self-publishing several others. Eye of the Beholder will go live on Amazon on June 06, 2013. Weger is two-hundred pages into a new novel with a target completion date in early 2014.

Weger lives in Hockley, Texas, a small community Northwest of Houston with a man, a dog and seven feral cats.

You can find out more about Jackie and her writing via…

• http://www.jackieweger.com
• https://twitter.com/JackieWeger
• https://www.facebook.com/jackie.weger.7?
• http://www.amazon.com/Eye-of-the-Beholder-ebook/dp/B00D7WKQRA
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eye-of-the-Beholder-ebook/dp/B00D7WKQRA
• Amazon ebook collections: http://amazonebookscollection.blogspot.com/2013/06/eye-of-beholder-by-jackie-weger.html
• Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/535635.Jackie_Weger

And more about Jackie’s books…

Eye of the Beholder

Twenty-four year old Phoebe Hawley is on a quest to find a place for her homeless family. Phoebe is Alabama tough, country smart and sapling thin. On the road with two siblings, twelve year-old Maydean and five year-old Willie-Boy, Phoebe is out of money, out of gas and out of patience. Now the only things she owns in abundance are Hawley backbone and Hawley pride–neither of which she can trade for food or gas.

A collision with Gage Morgan puts Phoebe’s mission in even worse jeopardy–until Phoebe discovers Gage Morgan owns the perfect place for the Hawley clan.

But Gage Morgan has a bruised ego, a tight fist on his wallet and an iron fist on his heart. Once Phoebe discovers Gage is too wily to succumb to her schemes to pilfer his wallet and claim his home, she has to try something different to win his heart.

But will Hawley backbone and Hawley pride step aside to let her do it?

*

No Perfect Secret

What does a woman of integrity do when her husband doesn’t come home, her dream job is put on hold, and her mother-in-law becomes unhinged?

Buy a dog? Bury her misery in chocolate? Or consider an affair? Anna Nesmith feels like some mad god is urging her to go to bed with Frank Caburn, enjoy it, and then get on with her life. But that isn’t what the mad god has in mind…

***

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. Guidelines on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/guest-blogs. There are other options listed on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.262 – Tony Schumacher

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-second, is of Tony Schmacher. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

Tony Schumacher is a writer, author, broadcaster, and stand-up comedian. His regular column for the Liverpool and Manchester Confidential magazines “Rear View Mirror” has recently been compiled into a book (link below).

Tony has written for The Guardian newspaper and recently worked on their Reading the Riots project to investigate the causes of the 2011 disturbances in the UK. As a former Police officer, Tony can often be found wandering the lanes near his home, with his dog Boo, pretending to give out parking tickets and direct traffic. And at other times, he spends his time as a regular guest on Liverpool’s City Talk FM radio station, and has also presented several pieces on the BBC TV’s Politics Show.

*

And now from the author himself:

About six years ago my life was going swimmingly. I had the lot. I had the wife, the son, the house, the career, the car and even the trendy dog.

Today? Well I haven’t got the house, the car, the job, the son, or the career, even my poor old dog died last year, I’m slowly turning into a real life country and western song.

Let me explain; I was a Policeman. I wasn’t an ordinary policeman, I was the type who did a bit of stand up comedy on the side. My life was filled basically with moments of fear, fighting, arguing and adrenaline, and that was just the comedy.

In the police I was a response officer, I basically used to drive around Liverpool with blue lights flashing answering 999 calls. I’ve kicked in more doors than Jack Regan and turned over more bodies than Quincy. It was messy, bloody, dangerous and at times, desperate. And I loved it.

I loved my colleagues, I loved the charging around shouting, I loved the challenge and I loved the thrills. I loved my life.

I honestly used to pull up at my house of a night, in my quiet cul-de-sac, and sit for moment and think about how lucky I was. I know that sounds crazy when you say it out loud, but I did. I was that happy.

Or at least I thought I was.

Six years later, sitting here writing this, it seems like someone else’s life I’m writing about, I’m not sure of I’d recognise the bloke who used sit smugly in his car looking at his house with his gorgeous wife waving through the window. To be honest, if I met him, I’d probably think he was a bit of a kn*b.

That bloke’s life finally fell apart when he found out his son wasn’t his. In fairness, although he’d not noticed it, his life had been in trouble for a while but, like a carrier bag that splits at the bottom and drops your spuds on the floor all at once, I/he just hadn’t noticed it going.

I’ll not bore you with the details, that’s another story for another day but, six months after my carrier bag split, I found myself without a job (never write a resignation letter when you are crying) and sitting in a rented house I couldn’t afford with a designer dog that was, quite frankly, disappointed in me.

I had to do something, so when a mate suggested getting a cab drivers licence to “tide you over till you get your head straight” I decided to do that, if only to get out of the house that had become a prison, and to start talking to people again.

It was the best thing I’ve ever done. Because amongst the drunks, the drug addicts, the lager, the lovers, the lost and the lonely… I found myself.

It happened at about four am, sitting in a park, eating a lonely service station sandwich and staring at a cat getting beat up by a bird, that I decided to write.

And that cat, and that bird, led to my book Rear View Mirror being released about two weeks ago for the Amazon Kindle and if I ever meet them again I’ll shake them by the paw/claw.

I’d never written anything before, so I was surprised at how good I felt when I wrote that first story. I didn’t just feel happy, I felt different, like something had happened in my head and my heart, like a place had been found and that I’d come home. I remember reading it a few times and smiling to myself. I even printed it off and stuck it by my bed to read when I woke up, just in case in the morning, after the shine had worn off, I found it was rubbish. I’ve still got that original story upstairs, and I still don’t think it’s rubbish. I created a blog, and posted the story up there, and told what remained of my friends on Facebook. Some of them read it, a few of them commented, and I felt good for the first time in years, so I wrote another one, and another one, and another one.

And I felt better; little by little, I felt better.

A few months later a lady got in the cab and we chatted and she told me she edited a local magazine. I told her I wrote a blog about the cab and she promised to read it. I didn’t believe her. A few weeks later I got an email, and she said some nice things and offered me a column in the magazine and said she would pay me for the stories.

I still didn’t believe her, but it turned out she was telling the truth. I’d become a writer, and I was happier than I’d been in years, and it wasn’t money, it wasn’t a house and it wasn’t a car that was making me happy… it was my heart.

Which was finally fixed.

**

What a great story. Thank you, Tony.

You can find more about Tony and his writing via…

• https://www.facebook.com/tonyshoey
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rear-View-Mirror-Stories-streets/dp/1484159624 (paperback)

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Book review 003: Jenny Worstall reviews The Back Road by Rachel Abbott

Tonight’s book review is brought to you by novelist and short story author Jenny Worstall.

The Back Road by Rachel Abbott

Synopsis:

A girl lies close to death in a dark, deserted lane.

A driver drags her body to the side of the road.

A shadowy figure hides in the trees, watching and waiting.

The small community of Little Melham is in shock.

For Ellie Saunders, last night’s hit and run on the back road could destroy everything she has. She was out that night, but if she reveals where she was and why, her family will be torn apart. She is living on a knife-edge, knowing that her every move is being observed.

Ellie’s new neighbour, former Detective Chief Inspector Tom Douglas has moved to the village for some well-deserved peace and quiet, but as he is drawn into the web of deceit his every instinct tells him that what happened that night was more than a tragic accident.

As past and present collide, best-kept secrets are revealed and lives are devastated. Only one person knows the whole story. And that person will protect the truth no matter what the cost.

Available via http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Back-Road-ebook/dp/B00BP8JQ9M and http://www.amazon.com/The-Back-Road-ebook/dp/B00BP8JQ9M and Rachel’s website is http://www.rachel-abbott.com.

Review

Rachel Abbott’s new thriller, ‘The Back Road’, is set in the village of Little Melham, a village that is home to a surprising number of unpleasant secrets and damaged characters.

The author cleverly presents intriguing details and scenes from the past, teasing us with snippets of information that sometimes send us off in the wrong direction.

The intricate dance is played out against a setting of beautiful countryside and seemingly idyllic lifestyles (fabulous food!), a contrast that serves to highlight the terrifying twists and turns of past events that have such a devastating impact on the present day lives of the villagers.

Tom Douglas, everyone’s favourite policeman from ‘Only the Innocent’, helps to investigate the sordid and shocking events, while a gentle love story begins to unfold and give hope for the future.

‘The Back Road’ is pure magic from beginning to end – a spellbinding and thoroughly recommended read.

Rating: 5 out of 5

*

Thank you, Jenny.

Jenny is a musician, teacher and writer, and lives in South London with her husband and two teenage children.

As a child she moved between Portsmouth, Dartmouth, Bath, Naples and Shaftesbury. She went to London as a student to study music and has lived there ever since, teaching in an East End comprehensive, a grammar school and a convent school. Choral singing has always been a passion and it was during a rehearsal with the BBC Symphony Chorus that she looked across the choir and saw the man she was to marry. After starting a family, she gave up full time class teaching, increased her piano teaching and at last found time to write.

She has written many short stories (including one that made it to The People’s Friend!). Make a Joyful Noise is her first novel.

You can find out more about Jenny and her writing via:

• http://www.jennyworstall.webspace.virginmedia.com
• Make a Joyful Noise: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-a-Joyful-Noise-ebook/dp/B007AZ2CNQ
• Infant Barbarian: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Infant-Barbarian-ebook/dp/B0086HZPD6 (ebook)
• Jubilee Violin: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jubilee-Violin-ebook/dp/B0088VHLPK (ebook)
• Lemon and Lace https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/284244

   

***

If you would like to send me a book review, see http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/reviews/book-reviews for the guidelines.

Other options listed on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.261 – Richard Brawer

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixty-first, is of mystery novelist and guest blogger Richard Brawer. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

After graduating the University of Florida and a six-month basic training tour in the National Guard, Richard started his working life as a salesman for a New York City textile printer catering to the linen and curtain trade. Becoming an author was something that never crossed his mind. However he liked to read.  He commuted by train an hour and thirty minutes and read newspapers in the morning and books during the evening commute. His favorite genres were mysteries and historical fiction.

The company he worked for went out of business in 1973. Despite having two daughters aged three and six, he and his wife made a decision to take a gamble and opened a linen and curtain store. With reading ingrained in his daily life, Richard managed to find time to continue.

Always having a vivid imagination Richard would occasionally come across a newspaper article that would cause him to wonder, what would happen if―?  Working 60 to 70 hours a week at his new business, he didn’t do anything with his inquisitiveness until he read a horrendous article about a child that was born with a brain impairment and the father refused to take him home from the hospital.

The father thought he could return the child like a “spoiled jar of mayonnaise” he bought in a store. The nurses were outraged and their disgust was quoted in the article. That’s when Richard’s imagination took over and he asked himself, “What if the child was misdiagnosed?”

He took that thought and began making notes. The notes turned into paragraphs and the paragraphs into chapters. Thus his first mystery, The Nurse Wore Black was born.

*

And now from the author himself…

So now I had a book, but what to do with it? Being a complete novice, I did the usual things most new authors do, I sent out query letters to agents and received a stack of rejection letters.

Lamenting my woes to a friend, I learned of a local micro publisher that specialized in publishing books about nurses. Excited, instead of writing a query letter I dropped into their office. They agreed to look at my manuscript.  Two weeks later they said they would publish my book. Wow!

I went on to write two more books with the same detective, Diamonds are for Stealing and Murder on the Links. My first publisher was highly specialized and did not want those books, but I found another micro publisher that specialized in mysteries that did. Those three early books in my career ran their course and I reacquired the rights, put them together in one volume I titled, Murder at the Jersey Shore and posted the three book series on Amazon’s Kindle. (I re-titled The Nurse Wore Black to Secrets can be Deadly. The other two tiles in the three-book volume remain the same.)

As I said, I also liked to read historical fiction. My grandparents had immigrated to Paterson, New Jersey in the 1890s. I was born there, but my family moved to the Jersey Shore when I was twelve. I knew little about Paterson except it was America’s first industrial city and the home of the silk industry in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. When I read an article in the newspaper that The Passaic County Historical Society was giving a lecture on Paterson and tour of the historical district I decided to attend.

As I listened to the lectures I started thinking about a story line, but the lectures only gave me an overall picture of the era. Luckily I had a partner in my store, my understanding wife, and she didn’t mind my sneaking out a day here and there to go to the Paterson library to do research. In 2006 I finished Silk Legacy. Unfortunately I could not find a publisher but I was convinced I had written a great book so I published it myself. You may call it ego, but based on the hugely positive reviews and the continuing sales, I guess I was right to take the gamble and self publish.

In December 2012 L & L Dreamspell also published my latest novel, Keiretsu, another suspense novel.In 2010 I had written my first suspense novel, Beyond Guilty, and found a wonderful mid-sized publisher, L & L Dreamspell that agreed to publish it. The story is about a woman whom is falsely convicted of murder and sentenced to death.  She escapes from death row and battles the forces chasing her to find the evidence to prove her innocence.

Toshio Nagoya, the ultra-nationalist CEO of Japan’s largest Keiretsu plots to build nuclear weapons to protect his country from a menacing China. Using his cousin, John Nagoya, a lawyer and second generation Japanese-American, they build a large political action committee to thwart the expected United Sates’ cease-and-desist demands.

That’s the catalyst that draws three families, Toshio’s, John’s and Senator Morrison’s, intertwined by blood and marriage into conflict with each other, and how conspiracy, lust, infidelity, revenge, betrayal and murder destroy those families.

I wasn’t planning to write a political dissertation, rather a conspiracy novel with dynamic characters, but as it turned out, Keiretsu is now not only a novel with great characters, but is, as the cliché says―ripped from the headlines.

A headline in May 2, 2013 “The Wall Street Journal” read

“Japan Nuclear Plan Draws U.S. Ire.”

Quoting from the article: “Japan is preparing to start up a massive nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant over the objections of the administration…The Rokkasho reprocessing facility is capable of producing nine tons of weapons-usable plutonium annually, enough to build 2000 bombs.”

The article goes on to say how the administration objects to this reprocessing.  “Allowing Japan to acquire large amounts of plutonium without clear prospects for a plutonium-use plan is a bad example for the rest of the world.”

If you are thinking about becoming an author, I suggest that although books on writing and writing courses are helpful, the most important writing lessons come from reading. If you read books with the idea of becoming a writer, then you will consciously start analyzing why you like or dislike a book.

For me, the biggest reason I like a book is because it has characters in conflict. That is the one thread that runs through all my books. It is the suspense as to how conflicted characters will solve their problems that keeps me turning the pages.

**

You can find more about Richard and his writing at:

• www.silklegacy.com
• Amazon link for Keiretsu http://www.amazon.com/Keiretsu-Richard-Brawer/dp/1603184805

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Guest post – Book Birth: What To Do Before The Release Date by non-fiction author Kim Dalferes

Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by non-fiction author Kim Dalferes.

Book Birth: What To Do Before The Release Date

On November 24th 2011, I proudly gave birth to a 216-page bundle of joy.

As a newly published writer, like many new moms, I get some interesting questions asked of me. Most often asked: what advice would you give to other new or aspiring writers? Answer: there’s quite a bit to do before the due / publication date.

I’m not big on offering unsolicited advice – being overly opinionated has gotten me into more than a few rocky situations. However, today I’ll break my no advice mantra to offer a few insights into my rookie writer world.

1. When you believe you have a great book ready to go, find a publisher that will be your ideal book birthing coach. Find a publishing team that you can lean on and who will provide thoughtful and honest feedback and advice. After narrowing down my search to three firms, I went with a wonderful company: Friesen Press. They were a perfect fit for me. Take your time and find your perfect fit.
2. Engage in social media six months before your due date. In the same way that you have nine months to prepare for the birth of a child, use the time before your book is published to learn and understand the social media world. There is a rich array of resources available to you on the Internet: Facebook, Twitter, and blogging are my big three at the moment.

• Facebook. I’m working now to move beyond my book fan page and have joined several Facebook groups that support and engage new writers. I wish I had done this earlier. Examples of great places to start include The Kindle Hub, Go Indie, and Celebrating Authors. If you’re currently writing a book, consider joining a few of these groups so you can begin to interact with other writers and learn about marketing tools such as blog tours and giveaways. You will gain valuable insight regarding how to reach your fan base – and you will meet some very interesting people too.
• Twitter. I joined Twitter after my book was published and I truly wish I had started much sooner. One of the smartest things I ever did was sit down over coffee with one of my twenty-something gal pals and have her give me a crash course in “Twitterworld” navigation. She was spot-on when she noted that there is about a six month learning curve when it comes to Twitter. You have to learn the Twitter language to become truly comfortable: direct messages (DM); re-tweets (RT); modified tweets (MT); hash tags (#); and twitter events such as “Follow Fridays” are all part of the Twitter culture. Learning to be succinct in 140 characters or less is an art form that takes practice.

Once you do get up to speed, Twitter becomes one of your greatest new author allies. A few hash tags I use often include #amwriting, #writing, #blogging, #blog, #amblogging, #writers, and #memoir. There are some great tweeters out there that provide terrific advice for writers – two that I follow are Duolit and Elizabethscraig.

**Important tip: if all you do is tweet about your book, people will probably stop following you. Your tweets need to be a mix of book promoting and other tidbits and updates.

• Blogging. I must admit that this one worried me a bit. How on Earth would I find the time to develop blog posts and who the heck would read my blog anyway? Before you start a blog, follow a few author bloggers: Rachel Abbott, Bob Mayer, and Morgen Bailey are three of my favorites. To find a blogger that might interest you, use Google Blog Search. Also, you might want to join Book Blogs, which currently boasts 418 different groups you can join.

My “aha” moment came when I figured out that you don’t blog about your book. I bet you’re thinking “huh?” The best bloggers write about issues, ideas, or news items that relate to their book. For example, let’s say you are writing a book about honey bees. You could develop a blog that focuses on: nature; insects; endangered species; honey recipes; household uses for honey; pollen and allergies; etc. On most days my own blog focuses on topics that are of interest to baby boomer age women. I’ve written about things as diverse as my dog Taz, southern gal sensibilities, and my son’s college philanthropic work. I post my blog on my website, but there are other platforms you can also use including http://www.blogspot.net and http://www.blogger.com.

1. Have your author’s website ready to go live the day your book is born. I strongly recommend creating an author’s website. I am sure that many of you, like me, have little or no budget for marketing your book. Trust me, any funds expended on creating an author’s website will be money well spent. I made the rookie mistake of not launching my website until nearly two months after my book was published. I missed out on some valuable holiday marketing opportunities. Assess several author websites and develop a feel for what you like. I hired my web designer after reviewing her work for several other clients.
2. Develop a marketing plan before your little bundle of joy arrives. This doesn’t have to be fancy, but you are going to need a vision for how you want to market your book. Sandra Beckwith is a book marketing genius; she offers quite a bit of free advice at http://buildbookbuzz.com. You should sign up for her monthly newsletter (also free). I’ve learned from Sandra that marketing isn’t just about selling books. A good marketing plan includes book review requests, local press contacts for press releases and story ideas, local bookstores to target, and interview requests. Make sure to review Blog Talk Radio for interview opportunities such as The Writers Lounge. It’s also a good idea to make friends with your local librarian and donate copies of your book to the library.

I still have much to learn about writing and publishing – six months in I remain very much a newbie. I would love to hear suggestions from other newly published writers. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

*

Yay! I spotted my name in there. Thank you, Kim.

Kimberly “Kimba” J. Dalferes is a native Floridian, but has spent the past sixteen years pretending to be a Virginian. She is a bit worried that much of her current writing focuses on public transportation and she has no rational explanation as to why this is true. Her accomplishments have included successfully threading a sewing bobbin, landing a 35-pound Alaskan King salmon, and scoring a Chinese vase at an estate sale for $1. She recently discovered that she might be related to Princess Margaret Tudor, the sister of King Henry the VIII (on her mother’s side). A proud Florida State University graduate, she often sings the Seminole fight song out loud for no reason other than she still remembers all the words. She currently lives, works, and writes in Fairfax, Virginia with her husband Greg, dog Taz, and occasionally her son Jimmy, when he is home from college.

Kimba’s website is http://www.kimdalferes.com.

*

This post originally appeared on author Kimba Dalferes’ blog – The Middle-Aged Cheap Seats (http://kimdalferes.com/category/kim-dalferes-blog) – in May 2012. Permissions were granted for this reprint, but all original rights remain with her. Please visit her website http://kimdalferes.com for further information about her book and blog.

***

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. Guidelines on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/guest-blogs. There are other options listed on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

 

5PM Fiction 220: They try to with the food

Welcome to the two hundred and twentieth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a story including the following keywords: cherry, patient, turbulence, doctor, business. Here is my 670-worder, inspired by Roald Dahl’s Fat Chance (and I’ve given my characters the actors’ names).

They try to with the food

“Cherry Pie, John?”

“Yes, Miriam.”

“No stones?”

“No, Miriam.”

“Thank you, John.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Oh yes… it’s still warm. Well done you.”

“Shall I put the kettle on?”

“That would be lovely.”

“Right you are.”

Miriam knew the pie would taste even better with the tea but didn’t want it to get cold so took a bite and savoured it until she heard the kettle boil.

“Are you not having any tea, John?”

“I have to go back to work.”

“This late?”

“We’re a doctor down so I’ve been seeing more patients, more paperwork. Don’t wait up.”

*

Had Miriam looked out the window or waved her husband goodbye from the front door, she would have seen him turn left instead of right as he should have done to go to the surgery. Of course John knew she’d still be sitting on the sofa as she did every Monday and Thursday evening when he brought her cherry pie.

*

“Oh, John!”

“Oh, Sheila!”

“That was wonderful.”

“It was.”

“When are you going to leave Miriam?”

“Soon.”

“How soon?”

“Soon, my darling.

“You know I have a business trip next week.”

“I do and I shall miss you dreadfully.”

“You will?”

“Of course. You know I only want to be with you.”

“Then leave her.”
“I shall.”

“While I’m away. If you’ve not left her when I come back then we’re over.”

“Sheila!”

“I mean it.”

“OK.”

“OK?”

“Yes, my darling.”

“You will?”

“I will.”

“While I’m away.”

“Yes.”

“Oh, John!”

“Oh, Sheila!”

*

“Hello, McNeill.”

“Hello, Doctor Castle.”

“Do you have…”

“I do, sir. You did want this strength, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“They’re quite lethal in the wrong hands.”

“Just as well they’re in mine.”

“Fair point. There we are then.”

“Thank you, McNeill.”

“Good day, sir.”

*

“I’m home!”

“Goodie. Do you have it?”

“I have, Miriam, still warm.”

“Thank you, dear.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Work again, tonight?”

“Not tonight, no. I thought I might go to the club though.”

“You do work so hard.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Not at all. There’s a really good program about dung beetles just about to start.”

“That’s nice dear. I’ll make you a cup of tea first though, yes?”

“Not tonight, John, not thirsty.”

“Alright then.”

“…Not hungry either,” she said when she heard the front door slam.

*

The program it turns out was less interesting than Miriam had hoped and she’d swiftly fallen asleep only to be disturbed by a visitor who hadn’t stayed long.

*

“It’s last orders, Doctor Castle, would you like another?”

“Better not, Derek.”

“Will we be seeing you tomorrow for the bridge match?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll know better when I get home.”

“Not a problem, Doctor Castle. Have a good night, sir.”

“Thank you, Derek.”

*

John Castle quietly let himself into his house and crept into the lounge. He smiled when he saw his wife sprawled across the sofa, eyes firmly shut. He looked at the coffee table and saw no pie.

He was leaning over her when her eyes sprang open and she screamed. He backed away just as violently.

“John! What were you doing?”

“Oh God! Er… sorry Miriam. I thought I saw…”

“What?”

“I don’t know, something moving, I’m not sure.”

“Where?”

“I think it’s gone.”

“Thank goodness.”

“Was your pie, nice?”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh? You’ve not eaten it yet?”

“I wasn’t hungry.”

“Never mind. You could have it now. I’ll put the kettle on.”

“No need.”

“For lunch tomorrow then.”

“If you buy me another.”

“Sorry?”

“I wasn’t hungry so I gave it away.”

“Gave it away? There was someone here?”

“Only for a few minutes. Was in a hurry. Had to catch a plane.”

“Really?”

“A business trip, she said.”

John swallowed hard. “She?”

“Oh, yes. Sheila, one of your receptionists. Said she wanted an update on something…”

“And you gave her the pie?”

“I didn’t think you’d mind. I wasn’t hungry and you know what aeroplane food is like. If they don’t kill you with the turbulence, they try to with the food.”

***

Photography courtesy of morguefile.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, 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.260 – Carol A Butler

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and sixtieth, is of non-fiction author Carol A Butler. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

Carol A Butler leads an interesting life. Her day job is as a psychoanalyst and mediator in private practice in Manhattan, providing therapy for adults and couples and mediating divorces as well as family and business disputes. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Clinical Supervisor at NYU in the Department of Applied Psychology, and a docent at the American Museum of Natural History.

After she completed her training as a mediator, she teamed up with a fellow trainee to try to generate some business. They offered a one-day course at NYU’s School of Continuing Education, but not enough people signed up for the course and it was cancelled– but a literary agent saw the course blurb and persuaded them to write a book.

The Divorce Mediation Answer Book was published by Kodansha America in 1999.

On a sunny summer Sunday afternoon in 2004, she was volunteering at an event in Central Park, and she found herself in a tent full of butterflies…and she was hooked.  She volunteered that evening to work in the American Museum of Natural History’s butterfly vivarium, and she can be found there on Friday afternoons.

Her interest grew as she learned more in order to answer the questions posed by visitors, and she began photographing butterflies in the vivarium and in the field.  She asked a colleague to join her in writing a book about butterflies and moths, and she found a new agent by searching online (the first one had quit the business).

Do Butterflies Bite? was published by Rutgers University Press in 2008, followed by Do Bats Drink Blood?, Why Do Bees Buzz?, Do Hummingbirds Hum?, and How Fast Can a Falcon Dive? For each book she located an expert on that animal to serve as her co-author so she would have guidance and credibility for the text.

She also co-authored a book on salt marshes, Salt Marshes: A Natural and Unnatural History, and her most recent book, Knowing Horses, was published in 2012 by Storey Press.  Except for the salt marsh book, her books are written in question and answer format, first giving a direct answer to a wide range of questions and then following most answers with a sophisticated discussion of the topic and the latest relevant research.

*

And now from the author herself…

I am always curious about new challenges, and I find that things develop when I am active and enthusiastic.  My life, as is true for many people, is a story of one thing leading to another and another, some interesting and some not. I grew up in the Bronx, and I was coerced to attend the Bronx High School of Science.  I discovered that I enjoyed it, and I later married my high school sweetheart and had two children.  I majored in music as an undergraduate because I liked it and had no other clear direction.  After college, inspired by a terrific philosophy professor, I began a Master’s degree in philosophy but realized quickly that it was a wrong turn.  After another detour of six-months at an actuarial firm, I started working at the New York State Employment Service as an interviewer.  I said yes to every special project, ended up working with men coming out of jail, which led to a job at a residential treatment center that sent me back to school for my MA.  I was supervised there by a psychoanalyst, and I continued on for my Ph.D. while completing psychoanalytic training.

Working at AMNH, I made contacts that were invaluable in writing the natural science books, and it also led to being asked to co-host an internet radio program– The Naturalist on the Heritage Radio Network– that has been great fun. Archived programs can be found here: http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/programs/25-The-Naturalist. A few years ago, I responded to an inquiry and was hired to teach at the Harlem Family Institute, a psychoanalytic training facility.  Along the way, I have edited and written for psychology and mediation publications, in print and online, and I have served (present and past) in various capacities on several boards.

Now I’m developing a proposal for my next book and looking forward to the next interesting opportunity.

You can learn more about Carol and her books at:

• www.seetheotherside.com
• www.members.authorsguild.net/cabutler.

She is also on Facebook under her own name and as The Naturalist, and is working on connecting with Twitter.

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Post-weekend Poetry 080: Epiphany by Sandy Hartman

Welcome to Post-weekend Poetry and the eightieth poem in this series. This week’s piece welcomes back Sandy Hartman.

Epiphany

There are times when sunrise dawns
Or sunset falls
Or late in fading afternoon
That no bird calls
And nothing speaks
And whispering leaves are still
When in that silent sanctuary the pulsing shatter of creation
Scatters all the vision that we see
And through that rent in time
The beating heart of God fills the heaven’s vault
Its touch, alive, sublime, Divine

When all creation knows that it is one

So said John Muir and John James Audubon
So say Jane Goodall and Margaret Mee
So says the eternal wellspring of my soul

*

(c) Sandy Hartman 11/12/12

I asked Sandy what prompted this piece and she said…

I am recounting here an occasion that seems to happen to us all at one time or another.   These extraordinary moments are wonderfully mystifying and seem to tell us that there is far more to reality than what we see.

~ John Muir (1838-1914) – Scottish-born American naturalist. Early advocate for the preservation of the American wilderness. One of the fathers of our national parks.

~ John James Audubon (1785-1851) – French-American ornithologist, naturalist and painter, known for his many Incredibly beautiful paintings of birds in their natural habitats.

~ Margaret Mee (1909-1988) – British artist and naturalist who dedicated her life to preserving the wilderness and wildlife of the Amazon Basin.

~ Jane Goodall (1934-) – British primatologist, ethnologist, and anthropologist.  Known for her work regarding conservation, animal welfare and most especially a life long study of chimpanzees.

**

A total silence is really eerie, perfect for writing though. It was lovely. Thank you, Sandy.

Sandy is a retired public school teacher at the high school and junior high levels, a member of Pen Women of America, Moxy Laureate for www.Moxywomen.com and the creator of the site www.eonwriter.com.

Her poetry is published in several journals and three poems placed first in various contests.

She does not self-publish, her hubris in creating www.eonwriter.com, she says, is quite enough.

She’s had the good fortune to travel to several countries in Asia and lived for a time in Saigon, Vietnam and Vientiane, Laos during the war.

She is most of all, a visionary poet, as you can well see by her site.

***

If you’d like to submit your poem (40 lines max) for consideration for Post-weekend Poetry take a look here or a poem for critique on the Online Poetry Writing Group (link below).

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

5PM Fiction 219: Hold On

Welcome to the two hundred and nineteenth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a story starting ‘No-one’s told him’. Here is my 725-worder.

Hold On

No-one’s told him how he should be feeling but it’s nice… a kind of tingling.

He stares at his new neighbour. He wants to curl his mouth, if he had one, like he’s seen those pink stick things do. He thinks they’re called ‘peeple’. He’s heard one of them say “sum peeple!” but he can’t be sure. He has to call them something and they’re small, like beetles, so they’re the beetle peeple.

He doesn’t understand their language, still feels like he doesn’t belong, even after all these years.

He did once, he thought, hear familiar words, his mother tongue, but it came from a little black box. He was listening hard until one of the peeple prodded the box and it crackled, like it was in pain, then the voice was replaced by music… loud, unpleasant, not like the birds. He knows music from the birds but that doesn’t help because he can’t speak their language either.

The new neighbour’s really quiet. He’s sure he should be picking up something… maybe she’s still too young. He can’t remember how old he was when he first started sensing things… not feeling, he doesn’t feel as such, but he’s old, wise and knows how life goes – in his part of it anyway.

He’s seen thousands of peeple coming and going, using him as shade, shelter, protection… a climbing frame, until one got very high then screamed as it… ‘he’ went down very quickly. A moving white box with coloured lights came and put him, and a screaming bigger ‘she’, inside and went away making lots of noise.

He prefers it when it’s quiet, and dark, it’s cooler when it’s dark. Sometimes it gets too hot. He thinks where he’s from, originally, is colder, except he can’t really remember. He remembers a journey, going over some water but most of it was land, green like here. He thinks he was young, like his neighbour, when he arrived. It was a long time ago. When she’s old enough he’ll ask her if she remembers. There won’t be so far back for her to think.

After the white box went, some more peeple came and put a barrier around him, and big yellow squares with black squiggles he couldn’t understand but he knew what it meant; that no-one could touch him anymore, couldn’t climb, couldn’t hug.

He liked it when peeple touched him, even when they cut squiggles into him. It didn’t hurt, just tickled a little, felt nice, like they were making him their own, like he belonged.

But now he has a different kind of company, his own kind and he can’t wait for her to grow, to have someone to ‘feel’ with.

There’s that tingling again. It’s like… no, it can’t be. He tells himself not to be so silly. He knows ‘silly’ from the little peeple. They’d do funny things with their faces then tell each other not to be silly, but silly looks like a lot of fun.

It is! It… no, it can’t be… It is! A new bud!

He’d felt sick for ages, not like the little ‘he’ who’d fallen from him because ‘he’ hadn’t moved… but tired, old. It’s not like that now. It feels like when little ‘he’ started climbing, to explore, reach out… grow.

They’re taking the barrier away! He must be better. He can have peeple touch him again. He feels like being very silly today!

There’s a big ‘he’ with a large shiny stick. What’s he doing? He’s pulling a bit of… something out of it and it’s making a roaring noise, like he’d seen one of the little ‘he’s do which made a little ‘she’ scream. All the other peeple laughed but he didn’t find it funny. The little ‘she’ had looked scared. He remembered scared from when the sky grew dark, and the rain came, and there were loud noises way above them and the peeple screamed and ran to him, and he made them feel safe.

Hey! He’s cutting squiggles into him, making him his own. It’s not unpleasant but it’s not stopping, he must really like him.

He feels all wobbly, wants to put his branches out to balance himself. He felt like this when he got sick, but he doesn’t feel sick now, he feels… free. He feels… aliv…

“Timber!”

“Hold on!”

***

Photography courtesy of morguefile.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, 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.259 – Darcia Helle

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-ninth, is of thriller / suspense novelist Darcia Helle. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

Darcia Helle lives in a fictional world with a husband who is sometimes real. Their house is ruled by spoiled dogs and cats and the occasional dust bunny.

Suspense, random blood spatter and mismatched socks consume Darcia’s days. She writes because the characters trespassing through her mind leave her no alternative. Only then are the voices free to haunt someone else’s mind.

Join Darcia in her fictional world. The characters await you.

*

And now from the author herself:

What would it take to push you over the edge?

This is the question I ask of all my characters when I begin writing a new book, most specifically with my Michael Sykora Novels. In fact, the series began with and is based on this premise.

Michael was an average guy, living a happy but uneventful life. Then his fiancé was raped and murdered by a repeat offender. In life, we all have a defining moment and this was his. Someone else’s act of rage pushed Michael over the edge.

The need for revenge sets Michael on a lifetime path of vengeance. While the words revenge and vengeance are often used interchangeably, there is a subtle but marked difference.

Revenge is a deeply personal act of retaliation through physical and / or psychological trauma or murder. Revenge is less about justice and much more about getting even, inflicting pain, and lashing out against the person or people that hurt you.

Vengeance is an act of retribution in which a person is attempting to achieve his / her idea of justice. The goal here is not so much to lessen your own pain by hurting the other person, but to achieve some sort of balance in a chaotic world.

One act of extreme violence forever changes the person Michael was. He was pushed over the edge of that figurative cliff, and there is no going back. His life becomes about the pursuit for vengeance. In his mind, he is balancing the scales of justice.

Many people won’t agree with Michael’s methods, believing our criminal justice system, while flawed, remains our best option. Others might wish they could do the things Michael does.

Wherever you think you stand, none of us can ever truly know until our own lives have been touched by this kind of violence. Hopefully, none of us will ever have to answer the question that now defines Michael Sykora’s life.

**

You can find more about Darcia via…

• Website: http://www.QuietFuryBooks.com
• Blog: http://www.QuietFuryBooks.com/blog
• Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/quietfurybooks
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/darciahelle or @DarciaHelle
• Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Darcia-Helle/e/B002LTMF7O

and her Michael Sykora novels:

• No Justice (Book #1): http://www.amazon.com/Justice-Michael-Sykora-Novel-ebook/dp/B002E9HMKQ
• Beyond Salvation (Book #2): http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Salvation-Michael-Sykora-ebook/dp/B002PDOQVY
• Killing Instinct (Book #3): http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Instinct-Michael-Sykora-ebook/dp/B00D477B7Q

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

5PM Fiction 218: Lock jaw

Welcome to the two hundred and eighteenth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a story using the following mixed bag: student, tree, gate, bubble gum, moon. Here is my 29-worder.

Lock-jaw

As he swung the gate until it hit the tree, Johnny chewed his bubble gum and stared at the mooning student, finger in the air, until his jaw locked.

***

Photography courtesy of morguefile.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, 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.258 – Hayley Coates

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-eighth, is of multi-genre author Hayley M Coates. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

Hayley Merelle Coates was born in Belmont, Australia in 1982. She grew up in the town of Port Macquarie, N.S.W with her half-brother, Guy and mother, Coleen.

An eighties child at heart, Hayley reminisces about Rainbow Bright, The Care Bears and Pippy Longstockings. An eccentric and dramatic child, Hayley remembers putting on dance and acting performances, as well as selling found items at her brick fence to passersby; such as shells, potpourri and mud pie.

In grade two, Hayley received her first writing award. It was for an entirely plagiarised story called, ‘Cowboy Jack and the Hoopsnake.’ From then on she started writing short stories, songs and poetry. At age nine she attempted to perform one of her songs, and was laughed at, causing her to put her pencil away for a while. Hayley focused on another love: dance. Ballet, Jazz and Modern, to name a few. Hayley performed many times over the years and still has a love of being on stage.

At the tender age of eleven, Hayley found Stephen King. At bedtime, she would creep out into the hallway where there was just enough light to read on. When the couch squeak signalled her mother’s movement, she would rush back to bed and hide under the covers. Tommyknockers, It and The Stand became some of her favourites. Hayley went on to fall obsessively in love with reading and spent hour upon hour in the clasps of an eclectic bunch of authors from R.L Stein and Paul Jennings to J.R.R. Tolkien. Hayley found her love of writing again, and began to imitate the greats. She soon found her own style. The many stories in her head were finally being put onto paper.

Hayley began drawing around the age of twelve and would look through tattoo books at her mother’s friend’s garage. She would copy the images until she began to form a style of her own; witches and warlocks, dragons and naked women were the tattoo trends of the nineties. Hayley was exposed to the biker scene having ties with the Port Macquarie Bandidos. It was a feast for the eyes, for a young girl obsessed with art.

At fourteen, Hayley found herself yearning for more. She was skipping school, and going down a most undesirable track. Rather than continue, Hayley decided to move away from her family and friends and come to the Gold Coast, in Queensland to stay with a friend of her mother’s. She attended Miami High School and never looked back (her family later followed her to the sunny Gold Coast – a wonderful change for them all).

Hayley was ‘unable’ to attend a tattoo parlour for her work experience placement in year eleven. It was a good thing, too, apparently, because her second choice was a primary school classroom. She fell in love with the students and realised her calling in life was to teach. Dabbling in all subjects from English and math, to dance, drama, art, science and history, she realised that she would be able to share her passions with primary school students.

It was her dream to attend university. She graduated high school in the year 2000 and was accepted into Griffith University. While completing her double degree in psychology and education, Hayley started writing her first novel, White Walls.

It was then, too, she found the drums! As if there wasn’t already enough going on, Hayley just couldn’t get enough out of life – always happy and enthusiastic, but eager and excited to learn more, and to do more. She bought a $100 third-hand drum kit and never looked back. She now drums with an African group called Imamba. They gig all over the Gold Coast.

Hayley’s first teaching job was at Biggera Waters Primary School. In her three years there, she worked with an amazing teaching partner, Brooke Curly, became a God-mother, and met and fell in love with her fiancé, Keith.

Standing on the oval, at Biggera Waters School, Hayley saw another of the many ‘signs’ that curbed her life. It was the fifth visit she’d had from a dragonfly in two days and as one swirled above her head, her teaching partner told her to Google them to find their meaning. It lead her to a site called dragonfly toys, which happened to be Waldorf / Steiner made. Having recalled the word ‘Steiner’ from University, she then found the site for the Silkwood Steiner School, who were looking for new teachers the following year.

‘You have to work there. You know that, don’t you?’ Her teaching partner saw that Hayley had found her calling. Perusing their philosophies, she found she was a Steiner teacher, without previously knowing what a Steiner teacher was.

She wandered up the golden path for a visit to the school, to find a place that held the arts in high regard, taught curricula through stories from around the world, studied all religions, was positioned in nature, used natural materials, and was immersed in spirituality. She started work there in 2009 and has been there ever since. Although the school is no longer Steiner, it holds the initial beauty and ideals that lead her there to begin with.

Her pseudo father (her half-brother’s dad), Eddie, fell ill. It came as a sad shock and she travelled with her brother to Newcastle to be with him. When Eddie passed, Hayley realised how very short life was. At his wake, several of his pub mates asked her if she’d published her novel yet. It was that day she knew she had to. Hayley had no idea Eddie had been so proud of her.

Hayley fell pregnant and while on maternity leave in 2012, was finally able to sit down and complete the novel that she’d been working on since attending university. The last few chapters of White Walls were finally complete and the editing process began – as she sat with her newborn daughter, Charlotte, strapped to her chest. Now, after many years, White Walls is complete and will launch June 20, 2013.

*

And now from the author herself:

The Journey of White Walls

I was actually sitting in an Abnormal Psychology lecture nine years ago (yes … nine years) when the idea for White Walls emerged. It’s been a long process! White Walls was a hobby, whereby I wrote between work, university, art and drumming.

Keeping in mind, I’d had no ‘official’ writing training – only school, a teaching and psychology degree – I then sent the manuscript to my amazing American friend, Carson Buckingham. She is a horror writer, editor, ex-journalist AND comedian (that woman is crazy talented) and she tore White Wall to shreds. It was the BEST learning experience of my life.

I was picked up by a small publisher here on the Gold Coast. After learning so much about the industry, I realised that I wasn’t happy with them. I was doing most of the work myself and that’s when I decided, I needed to do this on my own. White Walls is now being self-published. It’s definitely the right choice for me. 

Behind the Book

I began to question the whole idea of ‘sanity’. Some people are free from social restraint – thinking and acting in ways completely unbound by what is expected of them. Often, they are misfits or outcast, and in extreme cases, ‘insane.’

Then, we – the ‘sane’ ones, eat harmful chemicals, let corporations and money rule, sit in front of television sets, take a panadol instead of looking at why we’re actually getting headaches, starve ourselves thin … and that’s just the beginning. Don’t even get me started about Government. We have our clear lines of right and wrong and everyone’s right and wrong are just so different.

That’s the intended, underlying meaning.

The characters and the storyline were fun to create, as you can imagine.

Family and Writing

I’ve been asked so many times; ‘how do you find the time to write?’

It’s not easy! I write at night, or whenever my ten-month-old, Charlotte takes a nap (like right now). It can be done, though! In fact, I appreciate my writing time even more. I try to write a few hundred words a day. I’ve written more since Charlotte was born, than ever before.

Future Projects

My next manuscript is called Robert Mumpkin Myer and the Wish Makers. It’s a rite of passage adventure novel about a young boy’s journey in a magical realm. I’m having even more fun with this one. Especially considering, as a teacher, I have many children that want to read one of my books … they most certainly won’t EVER be allowed to get their hands on White Walls. I just tell them that it’s for very ‘old’ adults – like drinking coffee or driving cars.

Robert Mumpkin Myer is for my daughter.

I have three anthologies on the go, too.

The first is a post-apocalyptic horror/sci fi, called Arid Lands – part of the Writers’ anarchy Anthology: www.lulu.com/shop/multiple-authors/writers-anarchy/paperback/product-21025783.html

The next is an Australian drama called, Bobby, Be Good.

Lastly, I am hoping to get into The Horror Society anthology this year with a short called, Hilary’s Shadow. Fingers crossed!

It’s important to always be sharpening your teeth, or pencil, so to speak.

I probably have my fingers in too many pies, but that’s normal for me.

Advice for Writers

Stop writing for peanuts, unless you think that’s all your worth. I know that sounds harsh, but I mean it. Here in Australia, $30 is enough for milk, bread and a packet of cigarettes, OR two large bags of cashews. I think a paperback copy of a good book is easily worth that.

The second piece of advice I’d like to give is: write your first draft as if no one will read it and then edit like everyone will. The reason my first novel took far too long, was because I obsessed over every paragraph. Allow the writing to flow in your first draft. You can obsess later. Get that story out!

Thanks for hosting me, Morgen.

To all the readers out there, please visit some of my site below!

H.M.C

Links

• Official Site: www.hmcwriter.com
• White Walls Online Launch and Charity Event for Lyme: www.facebook.com/events/140297089490554
• Blogs: www.soulstories.wordpress.com
• www.out0fprint.wordpress.com
• www.globalindieauthors.wordpress.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/hmcwrite
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/hmcwrite

H.M.C, White Walls.

BLURB

Psychiatrist Jade Thatcher thinks that returning to her small, Australian hometown to start again, will be a healing experience – until her new job proves to be just the opposite. Her patients are linked in ways that she can’t explain, and the hospital has seen too many doctors come and go. It’s not long before she is lured by a well-guarded secret; one that sends her to a dark and dangerous place, with little hope of returning.

EXCERPT

Sunlight peeked through the gaps in the canopy. The Australian bushland spread over either side of the road, and above them, like a welcoming arch. The quiet shade and cool air made Jade feel secure. Lawyer vines and creepers twirled around the old Gums and Paperbarks. The ground was covered in native grasses and layer upon layer of leaf litter.

It was breathtaking and it reminded Jade of her childhood. She remembered the smell of rain as she ventured through the undergrowth with nowhere in particular to be. There was no set time to be home, as long as it was before the sun went down. She would watch, delighted, as Angus would throw rocks into the creek, catch tadpoles and jump from rock to rock. A much simpler time – just like her mother and grandmother would profess about their very own childhoods. Were we all doomed to become more and more complex?

This was why she returned to Fairholmes. To try to regain some of that happiness that had been here … just where she had left it.  Angus spoke, and he had to repeat himself before getting her attention.

‘I think they’ve given up,’ he said.

**

You’re very welcome, Hayley. Great to have you join me today. I blame Stephen King for me wearing glasses (reading his books under the duvet with a torch as a teenager).

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

5PM Fiction 217: Elimination

Welcome to the two hundred and seventeenth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born.

Today’s prompt was to write a story with the single word of ‘finger’. Below is my 294-worder.

*

Elimination

Using the height of the moon as a guide, Tom headed in its direction, the only other company the bare trees of the Australian outback.

Blowing out his last stick of bubble gum he let it pop and cover his nose and for a moment he felt like a child again. A safe child whose mother would smother him in a warm blanket and tell him everything was going to be all right.

His eyes locked onto a light on the horizon, a gated track leading to it. As Tom walked nearer he saw movement behind the light, one corner of a small single-storey house.

He reached the gate and read the sign. ‘Private Property – Trespassers will be eliminated’.

“Eliminated?” Tom said out loud. “That’s ridiculous. It should be prosecuted. Who eliminates people? He looked around him, turning in a slow meticulous circle. Having spent the last three hours trying to find signs of life, someone to take him to the nearest town, someone to return to fix his rental car, he decided he’d risk being ‘eliminated’.

Signs didn’t mean what they said. They were just there to scare. It would work with most people but when faced with no other option, it didn’t scare Tom. So he opened the gate then closed it behind him, reverently as if it would help his case. He started walking the two or three hundred yards to the house, slowly in case of confrontation at any moment. He was about halfway when he heard a click, his right foot hitting something hard. He froze to the spot and looked down, but saw nothing but earth. Heart thumping, he crouched down, careful not to move his feet then screamed as he brushed away the dirt with his fingers.

***

Picture above courtesy of morguefile.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, 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.257 – Rayne E. Golay

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-seventh, is of literary and contemporary novelist Rayne E. Golay. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

Whenever she pauses to think about her past, Rayne E. Golay realizes she’s lived three lives in one. Some people are lucky to spend their whole lives in the village or town or country where they were born. They’re surrounded by relatives and friends they’ve known since childhood, have deep roots. Rayne is convinced they are very rich. Her life has been made of a different cloth with hues of the rainbow. It’s been about change and adaptation.

Born in Helsinki, Finland, on the eve of the Finno-Russian Winter War, Rayne together with her family survived the heavy bombardments, food shortage, exceptionally cold winters with her mother, grandparents and aunt. Her father, like all able-bodied Finnish men, was on the front fighting to maintain freedom from Russian dominance, their country independent only since 1917. Despite the hardship of those years, Rayne considers herself fortunate; she wasn’t among the war children, uprooted from their homes and sent to Sweden to live with total strangers; she was spared the horrors of a concentration camp and extermination.

When Rayne was a very young child, her mother used to read to her. When she was done reading  “A Thousand and One Nights” Rayne’s passion for books and writing was born. From then on, Rayne read everything with the printed word: matchboxes, newspapers, pamphlet and books when they were available. She was no older than six when her father obtained a library card for her, the happiest day of her childhood. To this day, she reads at least three books a week. In school, Rayne always had high grades in composition, and wanted to be a journalist, but her parents had other plans. Complying, she obtained a Masters degree in psychology and certification as drug and alcohol counselor in England after studies in the United States.

Skilled in languages, at the age of fifteen Rayne translated dialogues of Hollywood movies from English into Finnish and Swedish. This, her first paying job, came through her father, who was the Nordic managing director of a prominent American film company.

After graduation, she married and had two children in rapid succession. Her then husband was transferred to Geneva, Switzerland, so that’s where she moved with their children. The marriage didn’t last; four years after the transfer, she divorced her husband, but stayed on in Geneva with her daughter and son.

In Geneva, Rayne worked in a multinational company as a drug and alcohol counselor with responsibilities for all of the company’s European subsidiaries. During this time, she wrote two non-fiction books: one about alcoholism, another about dysfunction in the workplace. She also wrote the script to “Something of The Danger That Exists,” a 50-minute video, used within the company as part of an educational program, which she facilitated.

When corporate politics changed in the early 1990s, the result was massive layoffs of employees. The multinational company that had employed Rayne for more than twenty-five years, offered her early retirement. Glad to accept, she finally had the time to pursue her dream to write.

After a life long dream of writing, you’d assume that Rayne threw herself into the craft with enthusiasm and heartiness, but not so. Two years into retirement, she celebrated her birthday with her family in a Chinese restaurant. Along with the bill, came the inevitable fortune cookies. The slip of paper in Rayne’s said: “You’re a lover of words. One day you will write a book.” Her son wanted to know why she wasn’t writing, she who’d so often  talked about it before she retired. Rayne explained that she didn’t quite know how to go about it because at work she’d used a word processors until they were replaced with the PC. It was all mechanics to her, she explained. Her daughter reached under the table, grinned and handed her a fairly big gift wrapped packet, saying, “Here’s how. Now you have no more excuses.” Her family’s gift was her first laptop computer.

*

And now from the author herself:

Watching a handyman paint my pool deck, my vision for my first book took form. I couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was about this man that intrigued me, but he became Michael in this story. Over one summer, alone with my computer, either in my office or on the lanai, I wrote this book with the working title Falling Into Michael. Once I was done editing, before I offered it to agents and editors, the title Life Is A Foreign Language occurred to me, which synthesizes my protagonist’s outlook on life.

Not to lose my mind while I waited for the phone call or the letter as Life Is A Foreign Language made the rounds, I started working on my very first effort in fiction writing; a formless mass of words that I wrote when my family gave me a PC. My professional experiences counseling alcoholics, addicts and dysfunctional individuals gave me the framework of what is now The Wooden Chair.

A believer in writing about what I know, about locales familiar to me and themes drawn from life experiences, enriched by working as a psychotherapist and addictions counselor, I made The Wooden Chair follow the geographic trajectory of my own life. I strove to give as intimate a portrayal of my protagonist’s experiences as I could. Some readers may imagine the story is autobiographical, but that is not so. Though wonderfully realistic, the characters and their actions are fictitious.

None of the characters in The Wooden Chair exist as such. From the female protagonist, Leini, to the rescue dog, Nutella, every person is a composite of various persons I have known combined with my own imagination. I did move from Helsinki to Geneva, but in reality the move happened about ten years later than described in the book, and for different reasons. The landscape I paint of places and situations is real, as true as my faulty memory allows.

The Wooden Chair went through ten rewrites, first with a writing mentor, later with my critique group. I submitted it to a huge number of agents. Most rejections I received were very complimentary to both the story and my writing. But there was always a “but”. The story didn’t fall into any particular genre, so agents were not sure where to pitch it. The Wooden Chair was a runner up in a couple of contests in which I entered it and won the Royal Palm with Florida Writers.

Somebody with less perseverance than I would give up, but I kept offering it to editors and small publishers. I believed in this story, believed it had a readership, believed it was good enough to be published. I do believe it will do well now that it’s published. Through rejection after rejection, Richard Bach’s words kept echoing in my mind: “An author is a writer who didn’t give up.”

**

Absolutely. If a writer loves writing enough they won’t (myself included). Thank you, Rayne.

You can find more about Rayne and her writing via…

• Website: www.raynegolay.com
• Blog: www.raynegolay.com/blog.html
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Rayne.Golay
• Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2521025.Rayne_E_Golay

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Flash Fiction Friday 090: Green by JD Mader

Welcome to Flash Fiction Friday and the ninetieth piece in this series. This week’s is a 325-worder by novelist and short story author JD Mader, which was the first FFF story I posted on the blog – I’m replaying it because I’ve run out of submissions!

 

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.

*

I asked JD what prompted this piece and he said…

I teach writing workshops.  We do all kinds of writing prompts and write for five minutes or so.  I always write with the students, and then we share what we wrote.  Pretty standard stuff.  The prompt for this piece was, get ready for it, “Green”.  We all wrote about the color green.  A lot of times I use my portion of the writing time to try and show how you can subvert conventions and make any idea your own.  Green conjures peaceful images for me, so I tried to go as far away from that as possible.  Or to combine the tranquility of green with a backdrop of terror.  The piece came out pretty well.  I wish I could say that it happened like that every time. Green is a very short piece.  My stories are usually longer, but the impact of the stark contrast is so immediate that I think it works.  I never contemplated expanding this piece.  I think it would detract from the overall effect.

**

I think so too… thank you JD.

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 novel Joe Café is available here.

If you’d like to submit your 1,000-word max. stories for consideration for Flash Fiction Friday take a look here, or up to 5,000 words for critique on my Online Short Story Writing Group (links below).

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

5PM Fiction 216: Incessant Vera

Welcome to the two hundred and sixteenth in this daily series that is ‘5pm Fiction’.

Late April 2011 I discovered http://StoryADay.org and the project that is to write 31 stories in 31 days. Anyone who knows me or follows this blog, knows how passionate I am about short stories so my clichéd eyes lit up at this new marvel. And just a few days later there I was, breathing life into new characters. This went on to become (with some editing of course) my 31-story collection eBook Story A Day May 2011.

I was nearing completion of the 2012 project when I decided that I didn’t want to stop at the end of May so 5PM Fiction was born. I put a load of prompts on the 5PM Fiction page and today’s was to write a second person-viewpoint story including the keywords: threw, cut, road, cobbled, candle. Below is my 194-worder.

*

Incessant Vera

It’s the roadworks that drives you nuts, not helped by Vera’s incessant whistling. You want to turn off the radio but then she’ll only start talking; snippets of conversation cobbled together from the week’s W.I. meetings or yoga sessions that she’s convinced you’d be interested in, except you lost interest 30 years ago.

She’s still not forgiven you for cutting down her favourite rose bush. She’d stood there waiting for an explanation but you knew there wasn’t going to be one. You’d bought her a rose-scented candle then wondered why she’d burst into tears, threw you a look that reminded you of her mother – the mother languishing in her home now far enough away to visit once a month instead of the weekly trips that you’d made before you’d moved.

You’d made Vera think that her been her idea too. Reluctant at first, given the distance, the loss of friends but she’d made new ones, quicker than you, and everything else had slotted into place; warmer summers on the patio of a grander horse, the patio that could do with taking up and relaying – with that in mind you turn to Vera and smile.

***

Picture above courtesy of morguefile.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, 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Author Spotlight no.256 – Patrick C Notchtree

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the two hundred and fifty-sixth, is of biographical trilogy writer Patrick C Notchtree. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/author-spotlights.

Patrick C Notchtree has been a teacher and a police officer. He has always been ‘good with words’ and used to get good marks for writing stories at primary school. Although the demands of later education meant much of his later writing was more factual, this never left him. Indeed one police inspector remarked that his statements were the most readable he had to deal with, “It reads like an adventure story, I can see it happening”.

He has travelled widely in Europe, North America and has set foot in Africa.  Indeed while there he was offered a hundred sheep or five camels for his fiancée who was with him. Happily he declined the offer and married her instead. They have two children and now three grandchildren.

His life has had its troubled, darker side which led to a major crisis in his sixties and then to the writing of his biographical memoir in which he seeks to explore those influences that made him the troubled and conflicted person he readily admits he is.

Patrick now lives in the north of England with his wife and has his son and two granddaughters nearby. Much of his life is reflected in the biographical trilogy “The Clouds Still Hang”, so to repeat too many biographical details here would be something of a ‘spoiler’!

*

And now from the author himself:

I started writing things down many years ago, thinking about my childhood, my first love and how much he meant to me. Making notes, gradually building memories.  The idea of a published book came much more recently. After the trauma of my early sixties, I had to seek help. For my own PTSD, which remained undiagnosed for decades, I found talking was very hard. To speak about the ‘principal event’ was impossible for a long time and in the end it was my wise counsellor who suggested writing rather than talking. This painful process eventually managed to break the logjam in my head and of course eventually led to my book. The whole thrust of the book is the damage that early sexualisation can do, even when not coercive, and this is developed at length in the chapter in the last book where ‘Simon’ goes over the past with a psychiatrist.

The result is my autobiographical novel, “The Clouds Still Hang”. Rather than write in the first person I chose to tell the story mainly through the eyes of ‘Simon’. This gives the writer flexibility to step outside the main character from time to time. By fictionalising the account I was also able to shield the true identity of many characters to protect the innocent – and the guilty!

I am one of many – I now realise – of my generation who grew up denying and hiding their gay sexuality. Struggling to live a ‘normal’ life, the protagonist of the book, Simon, does what is expected and remains firmly in the closet.  Structured in three sub-books, the first tells of Simon’s childhood, his friendship, love and eventual sexual relationship with an older boy, the second the trauma of the 1960s including the ‘principal event’ referred to above, the third his continuing struggle to comply with social expectations, unsuccessfully, leading to his eventual downfall and re-emergence as a man at last true to himself.

The book was written as a way of expressing much of what has happened in my own life and was written over two decades, but the bulk of it in the last few years.

The title is a line from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and as readers will find, Simon identifies with the troubled prince as he struggles to come to terms with the cards life has dealt him. In some respects there are clouds that will always hang over him.

The cover was produced by myself. Is the young man looking along the road to his past or his future? At the clouds of the troubles he has experienced? Or is the rainbow the symbol of his innate optimism and emerging true identity?

There are some parts of the book I found very hard to write. Two sections in particular led to tears being shed anew and much emotion relived.  To say which sections would be a spoiler but readers will no doubt reach their own decisions.  But the memories evoked in the writing also brought relived joy and happiness as well. Like life, the book is a roller coaster ride.

It is a fictional biography, written because it tells a strong story which raises many issues over six decades, the post war baby boomer generation who in many ways never had it so good.

My own experience is probably unique, yet will strike a chord with many others who have been through similar things, as well as those with an interest in such matters, either personal or professional, such as police and probation officers, criminologists with an interest in this field or those investigating the developing ‘queer theory’. It’s a varied, exciting, demanding, sometimes terrifying life story.

In its small way it has been controversial. This is because the first part contains descriptions of sex between teenage boys. These are a part of the story but it is not an erotic book, in fact I was as careful as I could be to avoid pornographic narrative and most reviewers have been positive about a sensitive and caring portrayal of adolescent love. The book would make no sense without these scenes and neither would the rest of the trilogy which describe Simon’s later life.  It was important to be honest.

There are three main love stories and some explicit sexual scenes, both gay and straight, so it is recommended for over 18s and those not easily offended by such narrative, including one scene of sexual violence.

The first part was originally published in March 2012 under the title “The Secret Catamite Book 1 – The Book of Daniel” which is still available separately in downloadable formats only but is available free!

**

You can find more about Patrick and his writing via his website: http://www.thecloudsstillhang.com.

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog (the spotlights are option (a)) or email me for details.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.

 

Guest post: Do you really want to be a writer? by Jane Wenham-Jones

Tonight’s guest blog post is brought to you by novelist, how-to / short story author, journalist, speaker (and much more) Jane Wenham-Jones.

Do you really want to be a writer?

If so, watch your backside, says Jane Wenham-Jones, author of Wannabe a Writer?

“It seems,” publisher Alan Samson told me a few years ago, “as though in every street in Britain, someone is writing a book…” (“And I do wish they’d stop,” he added, but I didn’t quote that bit.)

He was, and is, right. Becoming an author has never been sexier. Thousands of new, self-published books appear on Kindle, over a quarter of a million hopefuls sign up for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, each November, critiquing and Hope-to-be-spotted websites abound. And there are more manuals on the subject than you can shake a stick at. (I wrote two of them).

Why?

Because being an author sounds terrific!

Imagine. Nothing to do but sit around all day twirling your typing fingers, going to glamorous literary parties and counting your cash. After all, bestsellers fly off the shelves in their millions, become block-busting movies and bring fairy tale endings for single mothers who write in cafes one minute and top the Rich List the next. Or, most recently, sweet-looking TV executives who smash every sales record since the beginning of time by making it almost de rigour to be reading about spanking on the tube.

As a writer, you can get away with spending hours staring out of the window with a strange expression on your face, and call it “working” and then, since it’s well-known that most authors are bonkers, collect the children in your pyjamas. (Smiling mysteriously as other parents in the playground whisper “she’s a novelist, you know,” instead of thinking you’re being taken care of in the community.)

And there is no doubt that one’s name appearing in print is very exciting and a massive ego boost – the first time I had a short story published, I bought 14 copies of the magazine and invited all the neighbours round – and seeing your own books on the shop shelves (should you be so lucky!), an utter joy.

So why do so many start to write and so few, despite the sea of self-published books out there, make it? Leaving aside the small matter of whether one has the talent – it’s an odd thing that nobody expects to become a professional singer because they have a croon in the bath, but anyone who’s ever penned a note to the milkman thinks they could knock out a best-seller – it comes down to staying power.

Writing may sound easy but it’s hard labour and even boring tasks can become attractive in comparison. In her early days as a novelist, Carole Matthews told me, she used to tie her leg to the desk to stop her wandering off to do the ironing.

Producing a 100,000 word manuscript takes many hours, weeks and months of staring at a computer screen or hunching over a notepad, waving the family away with a vague hand, or shrieking at them when they’ve only come to tell you you’ve burnt the oven chips – again. You may talk to yourself, have strange dreams and need to sacrifice your social life.

Although the latter may be a blessing because from now on, your bum will always look big in this. (Writer’s Bottom is a little-mentioned hazard of being a scribe, previously passed over by many a fine how-to book until I lifted the lid on mine.) Still, never mind, writers come in all shapes and sizes and while it never hurts to be thin, gorgeous and sexy, the good news is that when it comes to books sales, the short, fat and ugly have reached the top too.

Could you? Only if you really, really want to.

For quite frankly it’s hard enough to keep going when you’re totally driven. It’s going to be a non-starter if you’d just as soon paint the spare room.

You’re going to lose heart, lack confidence and think everything you write looks like drivel. But remember this: It’s meant to. Every successful writer I’ve ever met, thinks their first drafts are rubbish. That’s what editing is for.

It was one of the most important things I learned when I was collecting wit and wisdom from other authors for Wannabe a Writer? And here’s another one: it really doesn’t matter where you write, or how you write – as long as you do. Frederick Forsyth spends a year researching and thinking about his books and then writes them in 45 days. Freya North doesn’t plan a thing; Katie Fforde makes strange-looking charts. The important thing is that you keep at it and write every day – even if it’s only a sentence.

Even if you have an overwhelming urge to make a Mars Bar Gateau or tidy the airing cupboard instead.

Yes, you’ll get tired and dispirited and fed-up with friends chortling “Ha Ha Ha have you been published yet?” (When you have, they’ll change it to: “Ho ho, have you sold as many as EL James yet?”) (It used to be JK Rowling). You might have a fat butt and a disgruntled family and spend a lot of time muttering and wondering why you do it. (Your partner may demand to know this too.) Especially when you DON”T make a fortune.

You could drink too much, eat too much, forget the shopping and get hooted for at idling at green traffic lights while you day-dream plots. You’ll almost certainly stay up late, have to get up early and never see your friends. But when you do finally see your name in print, it will all – despite poverty and exhaustion – be worth it.

Which is why so many of us HAVE kept going – all the successful authors I’ve ever met also have their rejection tales – and why, if you really want to be published, you should too…

*

Thank you, Jane. I’m a terrible procrastinator… up to now.

Jane Wenham-Jones is a novelist and freelance journalist and the author of Wannabe a Writer? and Wannabe a Writer We’ve Heard Of? (Accent Press Ltd).

You can find out more about Jane and her writing via:

• her blog at http://janewenhamjones.wordpress.com
• her tips on trimming the aforementioned writer’s bottom at http://100waystofighttheflab.wordpress.com
• and Jane’s Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jane-Wenham-Jones/e/B001JOYLOM

***

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. Guidelines on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/guest-blogs. There are other options listed on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/submission-information/opportunities-on-this-blog.

** 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

• http://nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• http://novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• http://poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• http://scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• http://shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• http://www.facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.