Category: Creative Writing

Two Authors, One Book…(part 2) My Interview with Thorne and Cross

Thorne.pic.2 TS: This is one of the most entertaining and humorous interviews that’s been my pleasure to do.  Enjoy!

Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?

A. We work 8-to-10 hours per day six days a week. We start in the morning even though we both hate mornings, and work until we’re called for dinner. Writing is a full-time job. If we only worked when the mood struck, we’d never get anything done. Discipline is everything for a serious writer. No excuses.

Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

A. Give it up or just buckle down and do it. You wouldn’t procrastinate going to a job where you worked for someone else – when you are your own boss, you must be even more disciplined.

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

A. It’s a bad day if we don’t get lost in our work. Getting lost means it’s going great. It can last for a couple hours to all day. We never know.

Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment ? Continue reading “Two Authors, One Book…(part 2) My Interview with Thorne and Cross”

Interview with a Writing Duo…Authors:Tamara Thorne & Allistair Cross

31l6DU3VVVL 61ZHnam-LQL._SX150_TS: What a compliment!  This dynamic duo’s publicist requested an interview!  ‘How fascinating, to interview co-authors’, I said to myself,  ‘how does it all work? Two people writing the same story.‘

Q. Where/when did you two meet?

A. Alistair had just been published when he started doing author interviews on his personal blog. As a fan of Tamara Thorne’s since the 1990s, he was eager to have her on. He contacted her through Facebook, she agreed to the interview and they instantly hit it off.

Q. How did you start to write together?

A.Accidentally. Normally we both hate telephones, but this was the exception and our daily conversations and texts would end up turning into brainstorming sessions. In the following months, we naturally transitioned into an official collaboration, Continue reading “Interview with a Writing Duo…Authors:Tamara Thorne & Allistair Cross”

My New Best Friend….my Editor!

Like most writers I thought I could write fairly well, trying to improve with every new book.  UNTIL I met my editor, Cindy Professional Editors Davis.  She is not only my watch-dog for grammar, punctuation and such, she urges me forward by asking key questions about my characters and story line.

She keeps me in my character’s head and always, always seeking their point of view.

It took me a couple of tries to find the exact perfect editor for me.  A professional who does editing as a full time job and not some hobbyist that call themselves an editor.  Meanwhile, always making excuses about not responding to me, the client.  ‘I have to run into town’, ‘I have to go and get my truck serviced’, ‘my truck was stolen’ …..every day a new excuse. Meanwhile I was five chapters ahead of her trying to get work done. Continue reading “My New Best Friend….my Editor!”

Time to Take a Breath…Time For a Little Poetry

crazy ladyWhat a week!  Wrangling with a small so-called, publisher and their poorly written contract, (which I turned down). Writers! Beware of scam artists that call themselves publishers!  A week of being in the clutches of an editor (just kidding…it’s a wonderful experience, writers, you should try it) and trying to survive record-breaking summer temps in Savannah.

I said to a friend, just today, (when she said she was taking a few days off but would continue to work from her mobile.)  ‘BALANCE’,  turn your phone off. Continue reading “Time to Take a Breath…Time For a Little Poetry”

Shakespeare…The Gift that Keeps on Giving

William ShakespeareThe ‘naked truth‘ is, I’ll bet you can’t count the number of times you use one or more of these euphemisms in your every day conversation.  I doubt old Will realized where his words would travel to and for how long.  We writers just hope someone will read what we write. But, to have one’s words live on, after we’re ‘dead as a doornail‘ and not ‘vanish into thin air’ decades or centuries later, well, the possibility makes my ‘hair stand on end‘.

Yeah, I’m playing with you.

William Shakespeare wasn’t born (1564) famous… Continue reading “Shakespeare…The Gift that Keeps on Giving”

Interview with Author, Dorothea Benton Frank (part 2)

Dotty.head.shot

Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

A. Procrastination is unprofessional and a heinous habit…. A good strong reliable work ethic is what will make your publisher think of you as a worthy partner. If you are not a self starter or you cannot find it in yourself to show up for work on your own and deliver on time you should not pursue a writing career.

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

A. Yes. Unfortunately it never lasts long enough.

Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment ?

A. Always the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. When my mother died. I was forty-three.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. Six years later in 2000.

Q. What makes a writer great? Continue reading “Interview with Author, Dorothea Benton Frank (part 2)”

Interview with Dorothea Benton Frank * Blockbuster best Selling author

Long before I moved to Savannah which is just a hop and skip down the road from Dorothea’s ‘low country’ I was reading her extraordinary stories of women in the south.   This author draws you in, seduces you with her heroines’ triumphs and challenges that any woman can relate to.  That’s why I was particularly pleased and honored when she granted me this interview. 

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?  Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.

A. I write in my office in my home in NJ or in my office in my home in SC. My dream work space would be to occupy my little office in SC full time. This cruelty of this past winter’s plummeting temps, deep snow and black ice has cured me of any desire I may have had to remain in NJ. It’s not that I have anything against NJ. I have had many wonderful years here. It’s that I’m trapped indoors for months. But check back with me in a few years when I finally do reside in SC and hurricanes have me Continue reading “Interview with Dorothea Benton Frank * Blockbuster best Selling author”

“The Taste of Murder” is Now Available in Audio-Books

Frnt.COVER.tasteofmurder_11OCT  Now Available!  in audio-books at www.audible.com, www.amazon.com and iTunes.com

In Book 5 in the series The World of Murder, Detectives O’Roarke and Garcia have a cold case dumped on their desk. Despite their objections that they ‘don’t work cold cases’ their Commander tells them that they do now since the new Mayor has asked for them. Three years earlier a relative of the mayor’s was murdered and the case was never solved. The cold case plunged the murder cops into the world of television and competition cooking shows.

Audio.Sample  Hear a taste of murder!

All five books are available in paperback and e-books here or on amazon.com

 

murder mysteries

 

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!    Barbara Taylor Bradford was my May author.  Coming Soon! Dorothea Benton Frank and the writing duo, Tamara Thorne and Allistair Cross.
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When Characters Come A’Knockin’…Are You Home?

writing, process, writers, styleI’m certain that there are writers out there that do a thorough story plot, get all their characters in a neat little row, know how their story is going to end.  And that’s all before they write a word of their tale.

I, as a writer, would probably frighten some.  I just sit down and start  typing.  Yes, the story has been bubbling, in my head, for days.  There comes a point where I have to empty it before smoke seeps out of my ears.  Many of my chapters are not numbered because I don’t know yet exactly where they will fit.
And much to my eternal delight (and gratitude) characters just keep showing up.  Many of them I never planned.  When they made their appearance, I had to shape the story around them….because once they show up, they are NOT leaving!  Let me give you some examples. Continue reading “When Characters Come A’Knockin’…Are You Home?”

Nostalgia…and Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski, drunk, reprobate, genius
‘Hank’ with his beloved Remington typewriter

It’s a well known fact that I have an on-going love affair with Charles Bukowski, poet, drunk, homeless bum, reprobate, genius.  We haven’t been back to visit with him lately and it’s way past time.  If you search my posts you can enjoy my other thoughts about his writings and poetry.  My favorite is an interview I conducted with him…posthumously.  Yes, nineteen years after his death.  If that seems crazy to you…then let me be insane.  But, read it before you judge.

 

magic machine ©  by Charles Bukowski

I liked the old records that
scratched
as the needle slid across
grooves well
worn
you heard the voice
coming through
the speaker Continue reading “Nostalgia…and Charles Bukowski”