Category: A Writer’s Take……

An Interview with Jeffery Deaver…Best selling author of murder mysteries

mystery writer, Jeffrey Deaver, best selling authors,     Multi-talented, murder mystery best selling author,  JEFFERY DEAVER shares his writing life with us………

“I never took classes. There aren’t any books that I would recommend. The best way to learn about writing is to study the work of other writers you admire.”

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? 

A. Usually I write in an office in my house. But, I write pretty much anywhere — on planes, in hotel rooms, anywhere in my house. (My office sometimes gets so cluttered I end up working in the kitchen. When the kitchen goes, it’s up to my bedroom. And so on and so on. I wish I had a bigger house.) I like the writing area to be silent (or with jazz or classical accompaniment occasionally) and either windowless or shaded. When it comes time to write the book itself I’ll shut the lights out, picture the scene I’m about to write then close my eyes and go at it. Continue reading “An Interview with Jeffery Deaver…Best selling author of murder mysteries”

Don’t Miss It! My Interview with murder mystery writer, Jeffery Deaver

October 7th we begin my Interview with world acclaimed, best selling mystery writer, Jeffery Deaver

murder mystery, best sellers, authors, Jeffery DeaverThis author has written dozens of spine-chilling, goose bumpy, edge of your seat, murder mysteries over a three decade writing career.Jeffery Deaver, murder mysteries, best selling authors   His mega success, “The Bone Collector” was made into a movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview with one once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal,  Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Tasha Alexander, Patrick Taylor, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Andrew Grant, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!  September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is October’s author and Patrick Taylor will join us in November.  Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author.
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Inspiration…Take It Wherever, whenever You Can (part 7)

lying.trees      I find inspiration for my writing, be it stories, plays, or poetry in sometimes the most unlikely places.  But, I never say ‘no’.  Free your brain and spirit and let it GOOOO!

While driving today, out of the corner of my eye I saw a yellow blur on the other side of the freeway. It was just an instant impression and then I was on down the road.   A big Caterpillar loader lying peacefully under some trees, and if I squinted my eyes almost closed, it might have been a large animal lying there asleep in the shade.  With its legs tucked under its body, its neck stretched out long, its head resting in the loam below.  It looked so alive, there by itself, content to rest in the shade of the trees until someone came.  And this is what popped into my head.  It’s called ‘free association’…..what can I say?!

a well deserved rest  ©

driving down the road
i spied a huge loader, sleeping
tucked under several  trees Continue reading “Inspiration…Take It Wherever, whenever You Can (part 7)”

‘Okay!’ Another word from my Box of Chocolates…Okay, tell me!

words, okay, writers, writing wordsIf you are one of my readers you know by now how much I love words.  New words, obscure words, the origin of words.  Ever wonder about the word, ‘okay’ ‘OK’ ??  I think you’ll be surprised!  How many times do we use it in a day?  How many times do we hear it in a day?
Not to mention how many times a day we click on “OK”!

Here’s some facts about the early history of the abbreviation O.K.

The historical record shows that ‘OK’ appeared as an abbreviation for “oll korrect” (a conscious misspelling of “all correct”) in Boston newspapers in 1839.   It was reinterpreted in the 1840 United States presidential election as an affectionate reference to Presidential  candidate, Martin “OK” Van Buren. (shortened from ‘Old Kinderhook’ as Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, NY.)  Insinuating that he was an ‘okay’ guy.

Continue reading “‘Okay!’ Another word from my Box of Chocolates…Okay, tell me!”

An Ode to Our Cats…Hank and me (Part 2)

In his later years when he ran out of things to say about drinking, the sad state of the world, women, and brawling,  Charles (Hank) Bukowski wrote some really good stuff about his cats.  He always had one or two or five hanging around and his love and admiration for them shines through his words.
He inspired me to write an ‘ode’ to my most recent cats.  We have a lot in common, Hank and I.  Nowadays, I try to have only one cat at a time but in the past I’ve had up to five.  My downfall was that I decided to breed Persian cats….but, damn!  When the kittens were born, I couldn’t bear to give them up.  That ended my breeding days.

Here is an ode to Hank’s mean, old, junk-yard dog of a Cat.cat lovers, cats, Charles Bukowski

bad fix   by Charles Bukowski

old Butch, they fixed him
the girls don’t look like much
anymore.

when Big Sam moved out
of the back
I inherited big Butch,
70 as cats go, old, fixed,
but still as big and
mean a cat as anybody
ever remembered
seeing. Continue reading “An Ode to Our Cats…Hank and me (Part 2)”

An Ode to Our Cats….Hank and me

In this two part post, I write about the love of cats.  I know, I know!  You either hate ’em or love ’em. Both camps are die-hards.  You can’t live with one or you can’t live without one, or two, or three!  For all of Charles Bukowski’s hard living, boozing, philandering, drunken brawls and genius writing, he was a complete softie when it came to cats….even cats that weren’t his own.  He inspired me to write this ode to my dear old Shadow who died and to my new cat, ‘Wild Thang’.  In part two I feature his poetry about his cats.

An Ode to our Cats….Hank and me

she was a feral kitten in the back alleycat lovers, cats, Charles Bukowski

hiding under the deck

she crept out one day while I sat in the

sun, reading and

the first time I picked Shadow up

she shit all over me, so afraid

she was of any human

Next time, she didn’t shit on me and

slowly we became friends

for the next sixteen years

she was one hundred and twelve

when she died Continue reading “An Ode to Our Cats….Hank and me”

An Interview with Tasha Alexander (part 3)

The conclusion to my Interview with mystery writer, Tasha Alexander

Tasha Alexander, best sellers, mysteries,
Tasha and husband, author, Andrew Grant

Q. and the all important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like?

A. The first part of “no book” land is a barren, hideous wasteland. You’re sure you’ll never have a book-worthy idea again. You’re sure you should have gone to law school. You wonder if it’s too late. Then, as you’re reading, doing research, a little idea comes to you and you start developing it, researching it, playing with it. Pretty soon it coalesces and then you enter into the everything-is-possible-and-beautiful stage. A stage that never lasts long enough. In this stage, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the book. It can be the best thing you’ve ever written. It has no flaws. It will change your life.

All this is possible, of course, because you have not yet written a single word. Once you start writing, the book immediately loses all its shiny goodness. Continue reading “An Interview with Tasha Alexander (part 3)”

Grand Country Houses, Victorian England, Murder! Delicious! an Inteview with Tasha Alexander (part 2)

Tasha Alexander, best sellers, fiction, interviews
Burton Agnes Hall

Part 2…my Interview with Tasha Alexander

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long?

A. Writing a first draft is the most intense part of the process for me. When I’m doing research, kicking around or fleshing out plot ideas, or revising, I can interact with other people, run my household, etc. etc. But drafting is another story altogether. I have a daily word count goal when I’m drafting and will not stop until I have reached it. I get very focused on what I’m doing and am barely functional in other capacities. When I was in this mode last year, my son asked me to make him pancakes for lunch. I did. Unfortunately, however, instead of using the recipe I have made thousands of times, I randomly followed one on the opposite page of the cookbook, not realizing what I had done until I noticed the batter seemed weird. My head was completely in the book. We ordered pizza. Which just goes to prove that sometimes it’s better to let pizza boxes pile up than to try to cook.

Funnily enough, cooking is a huge part of my writing process—just earlier and later in the life of the book. It’s my favorite thing to do when I’ve got ideas percolating in the back of my brain. You think you’re browning meat for Julia Child’s boeuf bourguignon, but all of a sudden you realize Continue reading “Grand Country Houses, Victorian England, Murder! Delicious! an Inteview with Tasha Alexander (part 2)”

“Bertie the Bookworm and the Bully Boys” now an Audio Book!

fairies, books for children, literacy, reading, bullying, bullies, elves,
A story book with full color illustrations

The third in the Fabled Forest Series, “Bertie, the Bookworm and the Bully Boys” is now available as an AUDIO BOOK  at www.audible.com and www.amazon.com as well as www.iTunes. com

Bertie, the bookworm is the fabled forest’s elder and teacher. Every week he has a spelling and reading circle where everyone is welcomed. Slam and his gang of bully boys are forever teasing, disrupting, and bullying Bertie and the group of faeries and woodland creatures. Pansy, the pixie is a new character in this third of the Fabled Forest series. She is a defender of reading, truth, and Bertie. Cheets, our beloved elf from past books gets in with the wrong crowd and his friends are worried that he will become the newest member of the Bully Boys. Best friends with Cheets, Pansy is determined to save her friend.  The story teaches gentle lessons about literacy, bullying and ageism.

In an October post I’ll tell you more about the adventures of producing AUDIO books…..meeting new people, choosing a narrator, (a young opera singer from Switzerland)….the character voices she was able to create.  Listen to Sample

Continue reading ““Bertie the Bookworm and the Bully Boys” now an Audio Book!”

Lady Emily sails into the Salon to Find a Dead Body! Interview with Author, Tasha Alexander (1 of 3)

 

writers, best selling authors, Tasha Alexander                   Let’s peek into Tasha’s writing world….    “any delay opens the door to the possibility of not writing at all.”

 INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR, TASHA ALEXANDER

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? 

A. Before I started to write, I had this idea—an idea many of us have at the beginning—that I would need the right sort of space in which to work. I had visions of lovely bookshelf-lined rooms with big windows and a large antique table. Reality was that I lived in an attic apartment in New Haven, where the only think that might be construed as an office or study was an unfinished section of the attic (no windows) where we had draped canvas to form a ceiling that would keep the bats from dive-bombing whoever was sitting at the computer. Not being a fan of bats, I learned quickly to be adaptable. It turns out where you write isn’t so important as it might seem. I can write in an airport lounge, a coffee shop, on a bench waiting for my son to come out of his drawing class. My preferred spot at home is my bedroom. For some reason, sitting in bed is the one place I can work without ever getting wrist or shoulder pain (you’d think it would be an ergonomic nightmare, but it’s not). Continue reading “Lady Emily sails into the Salon to Find a Dead Body! Interview with Author, Tasha Alexander (1 of 3)”