Category: Interviews

Interview with High Country Horsewoman/author, Susie Drougas

Drouglas.4.Me at White PassTS. This new author does her research ‘in the saddle’.  An experienced high country rider this horsewoman knows the trails her protagonists ride.

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? (please provide  photos of your shed, room, closet, barn….)  Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.

SD. We have a great room that I love to sit in. It’s decorated like a hunting lodge with deer mounts, a wood stove and huge windows. We live in a canyon with rugged hills surrounding it. Sitting in my chair in the early morning, the sun hits the tops of the peaks and lights them up in beautiful golds. The high desert sky is blue around it. That’s usually where I write.

My favorite place to write, however, is in our living quarters horse trailer aftertrailer.Susie a day’s ride in the high country. We take care of the horses, eat and sit by the campfire. Then I go into the trailer and write. Since my books take place on the trails, all the sights, sounds and smells are fresh in my mind. It flows out of my fingers. Continue reading “Interview with High Country Horsewoman/author, Susie Drougas”

Runaway by Peter May * A Review

writing, creating, reviews,fiction, children's books, fiction for adults, women's fictionwriting, creating, reviews,fiction, children's books, fiction for adults, women's fiction  writing, creating, reviews,fiction, children's books, fiction for adults, women's fiction writing, creating, reviews,fiction, children's books, fiction for adults, women's fiction  writing, creating, reviews,fiction, children's books, fiction for adults, women's fiction5 out of 5 quills      Runaway by Peter May ** A Reviewrunaway

I loved this new offering by Peter May.  It’s the story of young boys’ dreams and old men’s memories.  Set in 1965 and 2015 the story is unique as four old men retrace their boyhood travels, to London, seeking fame and fortune.

Jack, Maurie, Dave and Jeff have been friends for over fifty years.  As youths they were an obscure boy band from Glasgow, Scotland. They run away from home, certain that they are the next rock and roll phenomenon.  Maybe not the Beatles but certainly as good as The Replacements.  And from that moment on there is never a dull moment….that’s too bland a description…events on this journey change their lives forever. Muggings, free wheeling mental institutions, LSD, and Rock and Roll.

Old, sick, defeated the human spirit carries on. Now fifty years later the same quartet, now men in their seventies and eighties, repeat their harrowing adventure.

PeterMaySpainPort1Peter May never disappoints with his slightly off center view of the world.  I am a huge fan!!!  This is a ‘must read’ book.

Available now! Did you miss my Interview with this internationally acclaimed author? Click here.
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DON’T MISS BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!       Julia London, MJ Moores,  and actor/narrator Tavia Gilbert.  March’s featured author is Susie Drougas and a long awaited interview with Kathleen Grissom (The Kitchen House) in April.

To receive  my  blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  sign up on the home page and enter your email address.  I love comments!  Take the time to write one at the bottom of the post.

A Chat With Tavia Gilbert, Professional Voice (conclusion)

tavia.headshot.-400x266continued…… Can you tell us about your process when you begin to narrate a book?.
A. …….voicing the foreign language phrases the writer included in the book, listened to several bird calls to include in the book (a young boy is an expert at bird calls, so I have to approximate a cardinal, a blue jay, and more), learned the Welsh national anthem — in Welsh, reacquainted myself with several old hymns…I’m recording very slowly and carefully, while preserving a fresh sense of discovery and using the technology to make my many, many stops and starts sound seamless. That’s more than most books require, but it does offer a glimpse into the challenges of an audio book narration. I want my work to be excellent every time. Each project is different, but it’s great to really commit and make sure I’m doing everything I possibly can to make the most complete audio world I can. Once the recording of each chapter is complete, I upload it to my publisher. They edit and proof the recording, ensuring that my narration is word perfect to the script. They send a list of corrections, which I record and send, and then the book is ready to go out into the world!

Q. Do you have rituals before you begin?

A. I do. Donna Eden’s five-minute energy technique and a few other of her energy practices, which ground and settle me and get me in a good space to focus. I put some lavender on my fifth chakra (throat chakra). I make a quick shot of ginger, turmeric, coconut water, salt, lemon, and honey, and then I settle in with water with lemon and a kombucha. Continue reading “A Chat With Tavia Gilbert, Professional Voice (conclusion)”

Interview With Tavia Gilbert, Voice for Audio Books

Tavia.headshot.x600

TS.  I have used a narrator for many of my own books and know what an integral part they play in the success of an audio book.  Tavia is one of the best out there!

Q. Tell us about your acting/voice career.

A. I work as a full-time audio book narrator, recording primarily in my home studio in Brooklyn, New York. I’ve been passionate about sound, voice, and story all my life, and it’s been exciting to see where my career takes me. I graduated from Cornish College in Seattle with a BFA in Acting, with a concentration in Original Works. Soon after graduation I moved to Portland, Maine to study documentary audio storytelling at the Salt Institute. I worked in Portland as a commercial and theater actor, before focusing on audio book narration. I began working full-time as an audio book narrator in 2007, and in these eight years I’ve recorded more than 400 books for virtually every publisher, in virtually every genre. When I completed my MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from Vermont College a few years ago I moved from Maine to Brooklyn, to further develop my work as a performer, producer, and publisher.

Q. What led you to start a narration career?

A. I was born with deformed feet and have had more than a dozen corrective foot surgeries since I was seven months old. I remember an intense yearning to be an actress as early as about four years old, and I did theater in my hometown when I was growing up with dreams of working as a performing artist and living in a New York City apartment with a fire escape (and now I have my very own fire escape!). But I struggled somewhat in college, with another surgery that required time away from school, and later with the physical demands of the actor conditioning program at Cornish. I’m so grateful that Cornish pushed me as hard as it did physically, because I came to understand that I was stronger and more capable than I thought, though I was dealing with — and still do — some quite serious physical challenges. Once I decided to stay permanently in Maine (I lived there for 12 years), I realized that there would not be enough professional commercial or theater work to sustain a career from Maine. Just at that time the voice-over and narration industries were beginning to transition to home studios, so I set my sights on narration. I was an avid listener, Continue reading “Interview With Tavia Gilbert, Voice for Audio Books”

What’s in your St. Valentine’s Day Box?

writers, interviews, valentine day, authors,                  My St. Valentine’s Day box is full of authors willing to take time out and be interviewed!    This month, we digress a little with a charming interview with a book narrator.   Audio-books are all the rage now, what with our busy lives,  and professional actor/voice over artist, Tavia Gilbert will let us into her world.  March’s guest author will be Susie Drougas whose modern day mysteries takes us into the wilds of Washington, atop a horse.

Three years ago I began interviewing best selling authors and to my ever-lasting gratitude, they accepted!   Dean Koontz, Sue Grafton, Patrick Taylor, Sheryl Woods, Mark Childress have all graced the pages of my blog!

It doesn’t really surprise me that the authors are relating similar experiences that I have had in my writing life. Characters taking the story in a whole different and unexpected direction.

Dean Koontz: “…if I give characters free will, if I don’t plot out the story and instead present them with a problem and watch them deal with it, they begin to take on a life of their own, frequently surprising me with the choices they make. This is mysterious and exciting.” Continue reading “What’s in your St. Valentine’s Day Box?”

Interview with Two Murder Cops


TS. We are sitting in an interview room. It is windowless, small and claustrophobic. Some kind of foam soundproofing covers the walls and there are bare spots where nervous suspects have picked at it. In the far corner, at the ceiling, there is a camera. Why do I feel guilty of something?
Sargent Detective O’Roarke is well…no other word for it…big! He seems to take up most of the room’s space and more than his fair share of air. Handsome, tough and his Irish heritage is mapped on his features. Detective Stella Garcia, sitting next to him, is a lily amidst the stones. Refined features, with cheekbones that could cut steak. Clear, sharp hazel eyes and streaky light brown hair cut in an effortless pageboy.
I begin.

TS. Tell me, have you always wanted to be in law enforcement?

O’R. I was raised in Hell’s Kitchen before it was gentrified. I had my share of brushes with the law and I saw some of my friends go to jail or get dead. The writing was on the wall. Did I want to end up in prison or worse? As a juvie; I think I was fifteen, a cop picked me up for shoplifting. It was my sister’s birthday and I didn’t have any money for a present for her. First he put the fear of hell in me.
Kept me handcuffed and stuffed me in a room just like this one. Left me alone there for two hours. When he came back he had a sandwich and a soda for me. He moved the cuffs to the front and I had to eat like that. He told me I was damn close to the age where he could charge me as an adult. What was I going to do with my life? He confirmed what I already knew, prison or dead.
Then he asked me if I’d like to ride along with him some night? I remember feeling like an anvil had fallen on me. Be a cop? Really? Was this guy joking? I rode with him and his partner a couple of nights later and that was all it took. The old cop started mentoring me and helped me get a partial scholarship to NYU.

TS. And you, Detective Garcia? (O’Roarke snorted and barked out a laugh)

SG. Cut it out O’Roarke. (She turned back to me) I grew up on a horse farm, upper Connecticut. Lived atop a horse or in the barn until I was eighteen, when I went to UC. The first year I had no idea what I wanted to do, didn’t declare a major until the middle of my sophomore year. Some sonority sisters and I went to Manhattan to see a show one weekend. When we left the theatre, a half a block down, three cop cars suddenly converged on the street, lights and sirens. Six cops jumped out of their cars and grabbed what we heard later were three armed perps.
One broke away and ran up the street toward us waving a gun. People scattered but my friends and I were frozen to the pavement. A female cop chased after him and, as luck would have it, tackled him right in front of us. It was a flying tackle; she landed on his back and they both went down. She disarmed him and had him in cuffs by the time her partner got to them. The cop stood up; she’d lost her hat and she had a split lip but she was grinning like crazy at her partner. From that moment on I was toast. Monday morning I went in to school and declared my major in criminal justice. I made Detective two years ago.

TS. And you’re in NYPD’s Homicide Unit.

O’R. Yeah, I was in Vice for a few years and then moved to Homicide.

SG. Domestic Violence and Kids at Risk Unit and then I went over to Homicide. So many deaths result from domestic violence but once the Homicide detectives arrived we’re done. I wanted to be able to follow my cases to the end. O’Roarke and I have been partners since my transfer.

O’R. (Grinning at his partner) Yeah, I had to train the rookie, here. A dirty job but somebody’s got to do it.

TS. You get some pretty high profile cases assigned to you. That famous Broadway director, the celebrity chef on the Food Network Do those kinds of cases require anything different?

O’R. No. Because under all that wealth and glitter they’re just people like you and me.

TS. Wasn’t Chef Jeff Kirikos the mayor’s brother-in-law? That had to add some pressure on the NYPD. (O’Roarke snorted again, this time in disgust.
I had the distinct impression he didn’t suffer fools or politicians, in this case.)

SG. That was a cold case. The mayor requested that we take another look at it. We were happy to get it solved.

TS. Are either of you married? Have children?

SG: I am, with two boys. R.J.’s eleven and Robbie is seven.

TS. ‘R.J’?

SG. Nickname. He’s Raul Garcia, Jr., for his father.

TS. And you, Detective O’Roarke? (Now it was Garcia’s turn to snort.)

O’R. Single.  No further comment.

SG. I have high hopes for O’Roarke here. (She poked him in the ribs.) Someday some woman will gob-smack him into marriage.

O’R. Cut it out, Garcia! Right now! (The rough detective was blushing.)

TS. Must be tough on home life.

SG. Yes. At times very much so. But I have an amazing husband. He teaches high school and coaches the swim team. He can be home when my boys get there and they’re amazing too. They always tell me how proud they are their mom’s a cop.

TS. What are the toughest cases on you personally?

O’R. SG. (They answer simultaneously.) Domestic.

TS. Why so?

SG. The children. (Her eyes were suddenly bright with tears.)

O’R. We just closed a case where two little kids, toddlers, were hiding behind a chair while their father beat their mother to death.

SG. Those cases stay with you for the rest of your life.

TS. What do you do for fun? Do you have time for a personal life?

O’R. I work out, watch soccer on the tube. Meet with friends for dinner occasionally. But we’re on call 24/7 so when the mobile lights up we go.

TS. And you Detective Garcia?

SG. Still riding horses. Our family tries to get up to my parents’ farm at least once a month. We ride, help around the barn and visit with my folks. (She beams with pride.) My boys are naturals.

O’Roarke’s mobile lights up and the theme from ‘Dragnet’ comes from his jacket pocket. Garcia’s starts playing the theme from Star Wars and vibrates across the table. O’Roarke opens his text.

O’R. Speak of the devil. We got a body.
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Sample of the audio-book: TasteOfMurder.Audio.Sample.
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!      
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A Chat with Author, MJ Moores (conclusion)

Q. How long after that were you published?MJ.Drama Queen

MJ. Nine years. I spent a lot of time working on my career and improving my craft. By 2009 I was a part of a great writers’ critique group and I started reworking my novel with them. Over the course of two years I remained with that group until it disbanded and then started my own group with a few of the interested members of the original group. That lasted another year and then I joined two larger regional writers’ groups and began attending not only workshops but writing conferences. Come 2012 I was trying to get a fledgling freelance writing and editing business started (that was a year after my son was born and I was in desperate need of some “me” time). Continue reading “A Chat with Author, MJ Moores (conclusion)”

More with Author, MJ Moores (part 2)

MJ.Melissa5 portraitQ. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

MJ. Know your tendencies, identify why you gravitate toward those things, be fully aware of what you are doing and when you are doing it, let yourself do these things for a set amount of time, and then push all that crap aside and simply let yourself write.
Personally, I need to procrastinate. It’s during those times when I’m scrubbing the toilet or baking a bunch of muffins that my mind does its best work regarding plotting and discovering things about my characters, their problems and the world they live in. If I don’t let myself get distracted by the mundane, I’m not productive 😉

Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?

MJ. My characters are born from plot ideas. I say to myself, “Who might this happen to?” or “Who does the conflict revolve around?” and then my imagination takes flight. Unintentionally, each of my main characters is a reflection of some aspect of my life. It might be something I always wished I could be/do or it might be some unresolved aspect of my past (or present!) that seeps its way into the story to inform the core nature of these characters. Continue reading “More with Author, MJ Moores (part 2)”

Interview with Author, MJ Moores

MJ Moore@ Work 1 - 180dpi (Medium)TS. This is one of more in depth interviews that I have had the pleasure to do. MJ. delves into the writing process. Why we do it, what we are feeling, what we experience when we write. I hope my readers enjoy this one as much as I did.

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? (please provide a photo/s of your shed, room, closet, barn….) Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.

MJ. My ‘dream’ work space would be in the midst of nature somewhere where the bugs didn’t bite and the weather was extremely temperate – lol! However, my actual work space happens to be one of two places in my home: my office or my craft room. It all depends on how much juice my computer has at the time and how severely external forces work to distract me 😉

Q. Do you have any special rituals Continue reading “Interview with Author, MJ Moores”

Interview with Author, Matt Jorgenson (conclusion)

Q. Matt, what do you think makes a writer great?

MJ. I’m not sure I can answer this question. Great at what? Pulp, drama, sci-fi, literature, westerns, journaling, ad copy? What age group? For what audience… to what end? I think writing can be a marketable skill that an individual sells in many different types of marketplaces or it can be an intensely personal undertaking. A passionate act that doesn’t need a reader, aside from the originator, to have value. I think, maybe, if someone has a desire to write, and they do, that’s great.

Matt and his sons wrestling a mean ole' gator
Matt and his sons wrestling a mean ole’ gator

Q. What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like for you?



MJ. First, an intense flurry of writing. Immersion in the developing story. Long daily sessions of virtually unedited writing. Until I hit a wall. Not a barrier or an obstacle. A wall. There’s this sense that the ending is near. Then I mothball it for a while. Do other stuff.
A week or six months later I will print it out, do a full read, and edit what I have. This reacquaints me with the story. Ideas about how to finish start to percolate and I begin looking for a cover artist. I look for someone whose creative strength is visual art. Someone willing to read the manuscript and go with it. I love the collaboration, the surprise, seeing what they pick out from the story for cover art.
I typically hand off a revised draft to my wife at this point for additional editing and then hunker down, finishing it up and polishing the final draft. It helps if I’ve booked a show or festival or other event and have time pressure at this point. Continue reading “Interview with Author, Matt Jorgenson (conclusion)”