New Releases Archives - Page 21 of 29 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Video of Murder, New Release by this Writer

REVIEW~~Recommended Reading – Donovan’s Bookshelf ‘By now it should be evident, with Volume 7’s addition to the ‘World of Murder’ series, that Trisha Sugarek has a real winner on her hands in terms of an ongoing theme able to sustain itself through book after book. This latest focuses on the Chinese mafia in New York City, and presents a riveting story line that takes two different cultural milieus and ties them neatly together. Replete with satisfying turns, this story not only fits nicely into the prior series but stands well on its own…. ‘ More

TS. I wouldn’t ever have imagined that a short little play, written on a whim, would become a best selling true crime series. Here’s how it all began,

Years ago one of my crew, in a stage production I was directing, said, “Trish for years now I’ve had this great idea for a play script but I know I’ll never write it….hell, I wouldn’t know where to begin…. and you’re the writer so I want to give you my idea.” His name escapes me but it must have been Billy Bob or Bubba or junior seeing as we were in Texas at the time. This idea of Bubba’s blossomed first, into a one act play, and later into this series of true crime mysteries. All because we had a few beers one night and he thought I could write it better than he could. Thank you, Bubba, wherever you are!

I feel like I need to explain the ‘writing a play on a whim‘ remark. I was deep into writing my series of 10 minute plays for the classroom, many of them addressing the serious challenges of teens today. Why not throw in a “G” rated murder mystery, for the kids, just for the fun of it? So I did.
Many of my fans and friends read my play scripts even though they aren’t involved with theatre.
So the feedback that kept coming back was, “We want more of Detectives O’Roarke and Garcia. Can’t you adapt this play into fiction?”
Never dreaming, at the time, that there were seven books (and counting) in me! I have to pinch myself.

Midwest Book Review ~ Angel of Murder ‘It takes a tightrope artist of a writer to create chapters that successfully delve into a killer’s thoughts without revealing his identity in the process, but Sugarek achieves this with a dance of introspection.’

At all fine book stores in paperback & e-books Click here to see them all

Any Day Now by Robyn Carr ~~ A Review

5 out of 5 quills A Review

Robyn Carr has continued the story at ‘Sullivan’s Crossing’ with a sequel and we fans can only hope that she is planning a trilogy.

In ‘What We Find‘ we fall in love with Cal and Maggie and their story. Set in the mountains at a campground and off the Colorado and Continental Divide Trails (that start at the Mexican border and end in Canada), Cal and Maggie serendipitous meet and try NOT to fall in love. They both have emotional baggage and are determined not visit it on anyone else. But Cupid has other ideas.

In ‘Any Day Now‘ (the sequel) Cal’s sister, Sierra, comes to visit her brother, seeking a fresh start of her own. Maybe Sullivan’s Crossing is only going to be a brief stopover, but it’s a good place to find some peace and get her head on straight. She’s put her troubled past behind her but the path forward isn’t easy or clear to her. A visit with her big brother, who she hasn’t seen in years, seems to be a good option.

Not wanting to burden or depend on anyone, Sierra is surprised to find the Crossing offers so much more than a place to hide in. Cal and Maggie welcome her into their busy lives and she quickly finds herself bonding with Sully, the funny and quirky campground owner. But then her past catches up to her.

The bonus with the second book is we get to see how Cal and Maggie are faring. It’s Sierra’s story but the other characters from book #1 are a strong presence which is a delight. Robyn’s writing never disappoints. She has a strong voice and writes beautiful stories.
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? Johan Thompson (South African author) joined us in April. June: Mehreen Ahmed. July: Janet Macleod Trotter, author of Tea Planter’s Daughter and in August we say ‘hello’ to Cheryl Hollon.

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How To Write Creatively~~ Writing Tips

For several years I’ve been writing posts for my Blog entitled, ‘Motivational Moments ...for Writers!’ I got to thinking that I should compile all 41 posts into one place. This new, exciting, instructional book is my sharing of over twenty+ years of my experience honing my craft of creative writing.

That first, all important, sentence.
How to develop rich characters.
Writer’s Block.
Procrastination and how to get out of it.
What does it Mean to be an ‘Indie‘ author?
How to handle constructive criticism
…and many more words of encouragement and tips
…including quotes from successful writers such as yourself
AVAILABLE : amazon.com

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!

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“Writing isn’t a calling; it’s a doing.” T.Sugarek

A Review ~~ “Little White Lies” by Ace Adkins (Robert B. Parker)

(5 out of 5 quills) A Review

Ace Adkins is a brilliant, best-selling author in his own right.

I love his murder mysteries set in the deep south. A South that few people are exposed to unless you and your family have been around for decades.

What truly amazes me is how Ace can write in Robert B. Parker’s voice.

In Little White Lies, Spenser is hired to try and recover a vulnerable woman’s money from a master-con man. Connie Kelly thought she’d found her perfect man on an online dating site. He was silver-haired and handsome, with a mysterious background working for the C.I.A. She fell so hard for M. Brooks Welles that she wrote him a check for almost three hundred thousand dollars, hoping for a big return on her investment. What she got back was zippo, nada, goose egg and her ideal man disappears. He’s slippery and a consummate liar. Qualities that Spenser truly hates.

Characters that we fans truly love are back. Hawk, Susan Silverman, Pearl (the Dog) and Henry Cimoli at the Harbor Health Club. Robert Parker lives on through his stories and the wonderful writers who
keeps them alive.

Did you miss my Interview with Ace Adkins?

Little White Lies Released May 2nd. Order now!
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? February’s author was Sheryl Steines.
Johan Thompson (South African author) will join us in April. May’s author will be Cheryl Hollon and in June: Mehreen Ahmed
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Interview with South African author, Johan Thompson (part 3)

Q. What makes a writer great?

JT. O boy… I’ll ask one when I see one, but will try and answer the question. It must be your passion in life as it will reflect in your writing.

Persistent writing, in order to create your unique writing style. The talent to envision and write that special story. When other writers read it and say, “Why the hell didn’t I think of that?” My exact words when reading George R. R. Martin’s work. Like Gary Player once said, “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

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

JT. In the beginning I feel like a sculptor, standing in front of a big rock, visualizing an image. I don’t know exactly how the sculpture will look but I have a rough idea. Then, I start chipping away, starting at the feet, laying the foundation. The most exciting time for me is that first few pages, the opening scene. I set the bar as high as possible in order for the momentum/story to carry me to the end. The moment I get bored writing, I know the reader will also get bored. So I write what I love, and I think with any writer it reflects in his work. It keeps the story alive, and it also helps with your rhythm and routine. It’s not that hard then to get your ass in the chair and start with the next chapter. I’m not one of those writers that pushes themselves to write a certain number of words each day. I work on a scene, maybe for two or three days until I’m satisfied.

It could be 500 words or 2000 words a day. For me creativity can’t be rushed. As my story unfolds, I make notes on discrepancies, plot twists I need to change in the beginning of the story etc. After I’m done with the first draft, I start from scratch, applying my notes and fix grammar mistakes. ONLY THEN do I give it to an editor friend to read and give feedback on. I never let anyone see it until I’m done with the story. Another rewrite follows. After that the sculpture is still far from done though. Next it’s the publishers turn: Usually three edits – continuity, content and grammar. Douglas Owen from DA Owen Publications is a brilliant editor and picks up on things that I’ve never thought about. So taking a book from “no book” to “finished book” takes bloody hard work, but when you hold that “finished book” in your hands… it’s all worth it.

Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?

JT. When writing an emotional scene, I draw from my own experiences. You have to in order to create an authentic character. With regards to storyline and plot twists, not much… my life, luckily, is not that chaotic.

Q. Have you or do you want to write in another genre`?

JT. I will definitely give it a go, but as soon as I get bored writing it, I will drop it. The reader will realize, because it will reflect in my writing.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

JT. I’m not going to go away, so they might as well start reading my books. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Did you miss Part I of this Interview?
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Book #6 True Crime Series…Available Now!

Just released. Beneath the Bridge of Murder.

In Book #6 of this true crime series, someone is knocking off the homeless of NYC. There don’t appear to be any motives; what could a bum have that anyone would want? Their life style affords the killer plenty of opportunity and who cared what happens to these shadow people? Detectives O’Roarke and Garcia quickly realize that they have another serial killer on their hands as more bodies are found at an alarming rate.

Midwest Book Review said, “Beneath the Bridge of Murder (Book 6 in the ‘World of Murder’ series) just goes to show several things: that a series of murder mysteries can each successfully hone very different settings, characters, and circumstances that tie together under a universal theme; and that an ability to build tight, unpredictable characters is possible across a number of series titles if the author is truly skilled.”

Available at: Amazon.com or your favorite book store. Also available in e-books.

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? December: Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series. January was Dinah Jefferies and February’s author is Sheryl Steines. Johan Thompson (South African author) will join us in March.

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Halo-Halo Book Review Praises Song of the Yukon

A REVIEW

‘I read Trisha Sugarek’s novel Song of the Yukon, as I’m generally interested in homesteading and off-grid stories. Trisha’s novel, set in Alaska, more than satisfied my curiosity. It’s about LaVerne, a teen and budding song writer who followed the poet Robert Service’s trip into the wilds of Alaska. The inclusion of Service’s life offers a welcome layer to the story, and the references are inserted harmoniously so that they seem a natural instead of forced companion to the primary plot of LaVerne’s life: she impersonated a boy to be hired aboard a freighter who took her from Seattle to Alaska; along the way, she experiences boat rides on the Yukon, meets members of native tribes, files homestead papers and works the land.

Song of the Yukon also delights due to its structure of seamlessly weaving poetry, song lyrics and correspondence within the novel’s narrative. There was a scene around a camp fire where LaVerne gets to know the indigenous guide, Black Eyed Joe and his mother, Edna that I particularly liked. Sugarek weaves Service’s poem into the dialogue where Edna makes an observation about Mother Earth.

Sugarek’s use of correspondence also doesn’t grate in the narrative flow. My personal experience is I’ve found the insertion of correspondence to be an interruption or a cheat in writing a story, but such isn’t the case here. Here, the correspondence makes the story more personal as well as is effective in bringing onto the page the rest of the world beyond LaVerne’s particular environment.

Last but not least, the story weaves in a love triangle, (perhaps not the first time but) a rare point of view within the genre of homesteading, off-grid Alaska and Wild West stories. All in all, Sugarek’s multi-layered approach uplifts SONG OF THE YUKON from the crowded field of such stories.’ ~~EILEEN TABIOS, Senior Editor The Halo-Halo Book Review
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? November was best selling author, Grace Burrowes and in December, Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series. January is Dinah Jefferies and February’s author is Sheryl Steines.
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Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham, A Review

5 out of 5 quills A Review ~~ Rogue Lawyer

By now all John Grisham has to do is show up with another great story. Rogue Lawyer is a whole new direction for Grisham. And I like it….a lot! This isn’t a collection of short stories, as I first thought, and really don’t care for. No, Rogue Lawyer is a day, week and month in the life of street lawyer, Sebastian Rudd. Little vignettes but it doesn’t feel like it….the reader just follows this defense attorney around in a customized bulletproof van (that is his office), complete with Wi-Fi, a bar, a small fridge, and fine leather chairs. He has no firm, no partners, and only one employee: his heavily armed driver, who also so happens to be his bodyguard, law clerk, confidant, and golf caddie.

He defends people other lawyers won’t go near: a drug-addled, tattooed kid rumored to be in a satanic cult; a vicious crime lord on death row; a homeowner arrested for shooting at a SWAT team. Why these clients? Because Sebastian believes everyone is entitled to a fair trial—even if he has to bend the law to secure one.

He reminds me a great deal of one of Robert B. Parker’s characters. I hope very much that Sebastian Rudd drives back into town (one day soon) and continues his dangerous but valiant work defending the indefensible!

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? October Author, Lisa Jackson. November was best selling author, Grace Burrowes and in December, Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series

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Interview with Dinah Jefferies, Part II

TS. Dinah sits in one of the far-flung places that inspires her storytelling.

Q. Please tell about your fascinating life and the countries that you have lived in.

DJ. As I said I was born in Malaysia and have lived in England, Italy, Spain and, briefly, France. For my books I have travelled to Sri Lanka, Vietnam and India on research trips. I have another research trip coming up soon. Before I was a writer I was a painter which is why my novels are so visual.

Q. Do you have a new book coming out soon? If so tell us about it.

DJ. Before The Rains (1930) is set in a Princely state in Rajasthan, India. So it’s an epic love story between my main character, Eliza, a 29 year old widow and photo-journalist, and an Indian prince called Jay. She has been sent to Rajasthan to produce a visual record of life there over the course of a year. They come together when they attempt to do something to alleviate poverty, but the book also explores the differing attitude to women, especially widows. Not everyone approves of them being together and eventually they have to make a choice between following their hearts and doing what’s expected.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

DJ. I began to write eight years ago and have written seriously ever since.

Q. How long after that were you published?

DJ. Four or five years.

Q. What makes a writer great?

DJ. If I knew that I’d be able to make a lot of money teaching people. There are a lot of reasons and it really depends on what you’re looking for. I like an original setting, a fascinating story and characters I can care about.

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

DJ. It looks like a lot of work: writing the first draft, followed by a great deal of editing and then a wait as you head towards publication. There’s nothing like holding the finished book in your hands and at that moment all the struggle feels worthwhile.

Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?

DJ. My life experiences have provided the themes of my novels. Loss, identity and so on. Is there any way your life experiences don’t influence your writing?

Q. Have you or do you want to write in another genre`?

DJ. Not at the moment, but you never know.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

DJ. By the time Before The Rains comes out in the UK it will be my fourth published book and I am currently writing the fifth. My second, The Tea Planter’s Wife, now out in the US, was a Sunday Times number 1 bestseller in the UK and has been published in 24 territories.
Click here to read Part I of this Interview
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Interview with Best Selling author, Dinah Jefferies

TS: I discovered Dinah recently in my routine search for authors I might enjoy reading. What a treasure! My favorite genre’ , a good story based in historic fact. She is currently research and writing her next book so, understandably, her answers are short and sweet!

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.

DJ. I have recently had a garden room built and that’s where I do my reading, writing and where I have an exercise bike. I have no photos of the room yet but it’s very peaceful and I have music at hand whenever I feel like it. It feels like a little oasis that’s just for me.

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (a neat work space, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

DJ. A cup of coffee and my latest notes on the left of my keyboard and if the room is warm enough, then I’m ready. I don’t do any social media when I’m writing. If the room is cold I get on my exercise bike to warm up.

Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?

DJ. When I first came to live in England it didn’t feel like home. I was born and brought up for the first nine years of my life in British Malaya and saw that as my home, so I was what they call a Third Culture Kid. Not quite one, not quite the other and it left me with a feeling of not properly fitting in.

Q. Do you have a set time each day (or night) to write?

DJ. I write in the mornings and use the afternoons for editing, reading, taking the dog for a walk and any household chores that need doing.

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

DJ. You overcome procrastination by sitting down and getting on with it. You make a choice. You work or you don’t.

Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters? Before or after the idea of a story?

DJ. They begin to pop into my head at the research stage. As I read about a place and a time I begin to think about the type of people who might have been there at the time and the kind of story I want to write.

Q. What first inspired you to write your stories?

DJ. Having time on my hands. We were living in a tiny medieval village in Andalusia, Spain and once the restoration of our house was complete I began. Writing a novel is very labour intensive.

Q. What comes first to you? The Characters or the Situation?

DJ. The place comes first and then the characters and the situation arise simultaneously.

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?

DJ. Absolutely, especially when it’s going well and I’m in the ‘zone’. When I’m struggling it’s much harder, but I try to keep going anyway. You can’t edit a blank page.

Part two will appear January 28th. Don’t Miss it!
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Just released. Beneath the Bridge of Murder.

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