‘No Means No!’ New short play for the Classroom by Trisha Sugarek

  Available now!   The latest short play in the playwright’s  ShortN’Small series.
“G” rated for teens and the classroom.

Those who follow me and all my friends in theatre know that I have added to the
ShortN’Small short play series for years now. ‘G’ rated 10 minute plays that focus on issues impacting the teens of today. 
Ranging from divorce to cutting, from running away to drug use, from date violence to bullying. 

 Synopsis:  Emilee has reached the age where boys are pressuring her into sexual activities that she is not ready for.
In this ‘G’ rated, short play for the classroom we explore the peer pressure that comes to bear as young girls
try to navigate their teen years.

Emilee is torn between what her friends are doing and what she instinctively knows is not right for
her at this stage in her life.   1m. 5f.

No props, no sets, no costumes, just open dialogue!

To purchase click here

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?    September: Dylan Callens.  October’s author is Donna Kauffman. In November we say hello to Rita Avaud a Najm. 
                                                                                   
                                         Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  On the home page, enter your email address.  Thanks! 
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 To Purchase

Interview with author, Donna Kauffman (part 2)

Q. Do you get lost in your writing? (con’t.)

DK. Always. It might take some time to sink into fiction world, but when I do, I’m gone until I surface again. Could be an hour, could be all day. One of the things I do to help “sink in” is re-read what I wrote the day before. It’s an easy way to start, as you’re not asking yourself to come up with anything new quite yet, but simply to review the work from the day before, get back into the scene you were working on, edit now that you’ve had the chance to get some distance from it and can be more objective, and by the time I get to the end of that I find the writing is flowing and I’m in without even realizing it.

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

DK. No muses for me. Other than the story and my characters and being compelled to find out what happens next.

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

DK. I launched a new series this summer with the release of Blue Hollow Falls. It’s set here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and is very special to me, finally getting to write about this place I love so much. The second in the series is a holiday e-novella, The Inn at Blue Hollow Falls, which will be out on October 31st.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

DK. I started when I was pregnant with my first son. I was twenty-eight at the time, and in my fourth trimester (do that math) so I was just desperate enough at that point to try anything as a distraction. Writing a book seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do. Then I (finally!) had my son, and the writing got put aside. I picked it up again when pregnant with my second son. I was twenty-nine at the time (do that math, too) and just desperate enough at the time to try anything as a means to get a little me time. I put that aside when son number two arrived, but along with him came the decision to stay home and raise my kids, and I decided to give writing more seriously a try. I did join that writer’s group then and I finished that first book.

Q. How long after that were you published?

DK. My youngest was two when I sold that first book and I’ve been continually published ever since. (My sons are 29 and 27 now and have been my biggest champions all along the way.)

Q. What makes a writer great? 

DK. Gosh, I don’t know if I can sum that up. It’s such a personal relationship between reader and writer, each one unique. I guess, if I had to summarize, I’d say it’s a writer who tells the story he or she most wants to read, stays true to that ideal, and puts absolutely everything into each moment. If you’ve done the very best you can do, told the story to the best of your ability, it might not make you “great” in the eyes of others, but it does make you the best you can be, and I’ll take that.

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

DK. Anguish, self loathing, and doubt? Kidding. Kinda. It’s having all the optimism in the world that your new book idea is just the best idea ever, then finding a way to maintain that enthusiasm though all the ups and downs (and downs, and downs) of pulling that story out of yourself, one word, sentence, and paragraph at a time. Then editing all those words and sentences and paragraphs, tossing out chunks, rewriting chunks, tossing more, and writing some more, and then finally accepting that this is the very best you can tell that wonderful story you had in your head, and even though you’re relieved, proud, thankful, you still promise yourself that next time you’ll find even better words to tell that next fantastic story idea. But, for this time at least, you’ve done it, and it’s the very best you could do, and it’s time to put it out there.

Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?

more from the Wild LIfe Sanctuary

DK. I don’t write about, or include, specific life events or experiences into my fiction. However, life experiences, world views, the personal circle of life that swirls around you at all times, all inform who you are, and how you think, and what you know about life, and therefore how you imbue your characters with their world views and how they think, etc. I’m not sure how you would ever write a story that wasn’t influenced in some way by what you see, know, learn, explore, absorb, even though it’s mostly in the abstract. I don’t create characters to give voice to my opinions, but since I am creating my characters, I am the one giving them their opinions. So, even if they aren’t me, or aren’t anything like me, they still come from me, so it’s my ideas/thoughts/opinions on what a person like them would be like, that creates them. If that makes sense.

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

DK. The great thing about writing romance is that it lends itself to combining with pretty much any other genre. I’ve written suspense, mystery, paranormal, time travel, etcetera, but always with the relationship at the core of the story. That’s what drives my storytelling, so I don’t know that I’d want to explore a genre that didn’t have that at the center of it.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?
 
DK. I love hearing from readers and hanging out with them. You can find me online at www.donnakauffman.com and on social media at:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/donna.kauffman1/
Twitter: @DonnaKauffman
Instagram: @donnakauffman

  Drop by, drop in, hang out, and laugh along!

Did you miss Part I of this Interview?       To Purchase Donna’s books
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?    September: Dylan Callens.  October’s author is Donna Kauffman. In November we say hello to Rita Avaud a Najm. 
                                                                                   
                                         Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  On the home page, enter your email address.  Thanks!   
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Purchase here

 

 

 

 

Interview with author, Donna Kauffman

TS. Fairly recently I discovered Donna.  I ordered one book (Blue Hollow Falls) and quickly ordered the rest of her books. That’s always a good sign from this Blogger!  Beautifully crafted stories!

 

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.

DK. I work any and everywhere. Have laptop, will travel! And I often do. I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains in southern Virginia, and though I do have dedicated office space in my house, I don’t think I’ve ever actually gone in there to write. Working where you live can, at times, provide a wealth of distractions to help procrastinate getting any writing done. At least a few times a week, I hop in my car and head up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is minutes from where I live, and find a quiet overlook, trail, picnic area, and work there. It’s inspiring and has the added benefit of no internet/cell/email/other distractions. I’ve written large portions of many books up there.

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.)

DK.  No rituals for me. I prefer it quiet (no tv, music, chatter) but I’ve written sitting in busy airport terminals and during my kids sports practices. I think sometimes you can get bogged down by placing too many “I have to have this in order to write” requirements. I’ve always been a “plant your backside somewhere and fall into the story already” type, mostly because I know if I started down the “I must have” path, I’d never get another book written.

Fox kits at Rescue Center

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

DK. I volunteer for a local wildlife center and a local wildlife sanctuary. I’m a dedicated hiker/outdoors person and photographer who loves animals, so it’s been a fascinating adjunct to that and I’ve learned so much about all the critters I’ve lived amongst for years. If I had the time, I’d love to get my wildlife rehabilitators’ license. Someday!

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

DK. No set time. My schedule and other obligations often create the blocks of time I write. Given a whole day with nothing else on the docket, I tend to get up and dive in before the world wakes up and gets in the way, and often times write all day until dinner. Then I’d likely sink back in again after the world goes to sleep. I’m both morning person and night owl, so that comes in handy!

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

DK. That’s the single biggest obstacle to all writers. I think I can safely say we all do it. (And if you don’t, please share your trick with me!) I guess I’ve learned how to remove temptation from my immediate surroundings (hence the my mobile office pod, as I call it, aka my car.) If I can’t stop myself from getting up and doing laundry instead of tackling the next scene, or from scrolling through social media, then I take myself off somewhere where I can’t do either of those things. It’s an ongoing battle. Deadlines and knowing you’ve got bills to pay also help immensely.

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

DK. I don’t know if I can pinpoint that. Story evolution is such an ephemeral thing for me. It comes at me from all sides, in all manners of unfolding. Some characters are part of the initial, ooh, this is a story I want to tell! And some come along as the story develops.

Q. What first inspired you to write your stories?

DK. Wanting there to be more books in the world that I wanted to read. I have broad interests in fiction and I’m very picky all at the same time. I like what I like. I have my favorite authors and am always on the prowl for new ones. (The library is a wonderful treasure trove for finding new authors. No investment risk other than a little time to see if they can pull you into their worlds…) I was having a hard time finding more of what I loved and kept imagining what story I would want to read, and one thing led to another, and I started putting thoughts to paper. I’d always been a writer of some kind or other, so it was a natural combination of putting my thoughts down in writing, then steering those thoughts into the fictional realm. When I got serious about it, I joined a local writer’s organization and immersed myself in learning more about the craft of writing as well as the business of writing. I knew immediately I’d found my people. (Fictional and non.)

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

DK. Could be either one. It really depends on the story. The trigger could be location, occupation, setting, conflict, or any combination of those. I’ve been writing small town fiction for a while now and so location is often the first thing that intrigues me. I want to set my fictional world in this place or that, and then occupations, conflicts, plot ideas start to percolate, and along with them the perfect people to tell that story, both main characters and secondary. Research begins, story begins, and folks just up and introduce themselves in the process.

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?

Join us for Part II, October 27th of this fascinating Interview                  

To purchase Donna Kauffman’s books ~ Click here 
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?    September: Dylan Callens.  October’s author is Donna Kauffman. In November we say hello to Rita Avaud a Najm. 
                                                                                   
                                         Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  On the home page, enter your email address.  Thanks!   
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Purchase here

 

Cast Iron by Peter May ~~ A Review

 

reviews, authors, writing

reviews, authors, writing

reviews, authors, writing

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing

5 out of 5 quills  A Review 

Flawless writing!  Some writers have simply got IT!  Peter May is one of those. 

Cast Iron is proclaimed to be the final episode in the Enzo Files. Years ago Enzo Macleod was challenged/dared to solve seven cold case murders. This one was the toughest of them all because the original evidence (which there was damn little to begin with) was flawed. Macleod must unravel what happened years before in the long dead dynamic of the victim’s family and friends.  Powerful people want to thwart this detective’s efforts at all costs and it gets very personal.

Peter in Spain

Another aspect that this reader really enjoyed was getting to know Macleod’s personal life without it intruding into the murder plot.  The subplot is masterfully accomplished.  

Let’s hope it isn’t the acclaimed finale to the Enzo Files! 
 

Did you miss my Interview with Peter May?
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?    September: Dylan Callens.  October’s author is Donna Kauffman. In November we say hello to Rita Avaud a Najm. 
                                                                                   
                                         Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  On the home page, enter your email address.  Thanks!   
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Purchase here

Review ~~ La Petite Rita by Rita Avaud a Najm

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing 3 out of 5 quills   A REVIEW  La Petite Rita

Part of my job and responsibility is to give ‘new’ authors a chance at exposure, through my reviews and interviews. It is part of my mission to support other authors and offer advice. 

Vol. I & II of La Petite Rita are a good start to a charming series.  Based upon the author’s childhood memories, it revolves around a little French girl (Rita) immigrating to the United States with her parents.  Seen through Rita’s eyes, we observe Thanksgiving, first day at school, shopping, weddings, bicycles in the rain. 

The unique feature in the author’s books is the use of the French language. Simple phrases that any child could learn.  BUT, the footnote translation should be in phonetic (fa-net-ic) form as the actual phrase is already in the text of the story. This would teach the child ‘how’ to say the phrase in French. 

The covers of the books have no title, so the reader isn’t told immediately what the book is about. By the title, La Petite Rita, my first impression was that it was a children’s book written in French.  And the illustration on volume 2 really doesn’t tell the reader what it’s about. Only when they begin to read the book do they realize that it is a collection of very short stories. Missing inside is a content page with the title of each story. 

New authors should value the cover artwork and ‘title’ beyond all else. These are the first things that might inspire the reader to carry your book to the check-out counter! 

The books are charming little vignettes with a cute introduction to French.   To purchase
Don’t miss my Interview with the author in November!

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?    September: Dylan Callens.  October’s author is Donna Kauffman. In NOvember we say hello to ‘Rita’ the author of the above books. 
                                                                                   
                                         Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  On the home page, enter your email address.  Thanks!
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Argentina Students Gift Me with an Original Poem

    

Argentina Adult English Class

Periodically I have talked about my friends in Argentina.  In 2009 I traveled there and was hosted by the most beautiful people whom I’d only met via email. So warm and generous with their time and attention. Highlights were: getting stuck (for a short time) in a nation-wide airline strike and being on the only plane to leave Bueno Aries for Villa Maria. A sister of one of my hosts, who had never met me in her life, vacating her apartment and handing it over to me for my stay. A beautiful university campus where I was honored to be a guest speaker for 10 days. A music department whose ‘final’ exam was to compose and perform their own music. (Amazing!) A high school putting on a play which I was able to attend and teach an impromptu, master-class in acting. And visiting a dairy farm where ‘frozen’ sperm was the subject of the day (lol) and how it was purchased, stored and implemented.  

Since that time I have been in close contact with one of the professors, Mariana Falco, and I consider her the dearest of friends. 

Mariana in center. Fulbrigh teaching assistant at St. Mary´s College

She also teaches English as a second language to adult students. She is a lovely, giving person and a wonderful teacher.

  Mariana and her class Skype with me and we have a hilarious time!  There is no language barrier when there is love! 

So, yesterday, the class surprised me by sending me a poem that they had written….(I blush)…about me! 

 

  TRISHA SUGAREK     (by O.Lopez  and Classmates)

Cierro mis ojos, en letargo                                     Close my eyes, lethargy overtakes me

Creo ver en mi sueño                                               I think I see in my dream

Su diminuta pero firme mano                               her tiny, but, firm hand

Un mágico movimiento                                         a magical movement

Esta se deslizaba sobre el papel                           this slides on the paper

Sosteniendo el lápiz entre sus dedos                    holding the pencil between her fingers

Las palabras que habitan en su mente                the words that inhabit in her mind,

Sabias ellas……….van cayendo                              wise them, begin to drop

Toda la sabiduría en la hoja                                  all the wisdom on the paper

Testigo fiel de lo que ella quiere decir                 the faithful witness of what she wants

                                                                                    to say

                 _____________                                                 __________________

De repente se detiene                                             Suddenly, she stops

Lee atentamente …… y vueve a leer                    reads attentively and reads again

Entrecierra sus ojos                                                squints her eyes

Y una bonachona sonrisa                                      and a good-nature smile

Ilumina su rostro                                                    lights up her face

Sus pupilas se agrandan e iluminan                   her pupils get enlarged and illuminate

Detrás de los lentes se ilumina y…piensa        Behind her glasses, she lights up and

                                                                             Thinks,

Y se dice a si misma                                              and she says to herself

Si es un buen trabajo,sencillo y correcto          it is a good work, simple, and precise  

Su nombre es Trisha, una gran escritora          her name is Trisha, a great writer

Y es…………¡nuestra amiga!!                              And she’s ………our friend!!!

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?     In August we say ‘hello’ to Cheryl Hollon.   September: Dylan Callens and October’s author is Donna Kauffman.
                                                                                   
                                         Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  On the home page, enter your email address.  Thanks!

                   

 

 

 

 

Motivational Moments…for Writers! #33

Lillian Hellman

 Lillian Hellman said, ‘If you hope to be any good, nothing you write will ever come out as you first hoped.’     It is true and if you are truly lucky it will happen to you.

For example: In the play script version of Women Outside the Walls, the story ends with Joe dying on a cold prison floor.  And later,  this was where I had planned for the  novel to end too. IF I had not been working closely with a woman who had ‘stood by her man’ for 15 years while he was in prison. Shortly after he was paroled, 

Women Outside the Wallsher son received 13 years for manslaughter.  She had been there, done that… times two!  After SK (the woman outside the real prison walls) read the last pages, she looked up and asked: “What happened to Charlie?  To Alma?”

‘Huh?’ I replied. Did someone actually care about these two antagonists? As it turns out, yes they did. Charlie and Alma, in spite of their wrong doings, their narrow beliefs, and their ignorance were endearing and readers really cared. 

I’ve said it before, be open as a writer. 

 


“Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn’t try to write fiction.

It’s not a grand enough job for you.” ~~ Flannery O’Connor 

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” ~~ Pablo Picasso

“Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little.” ~~ Holley Gerth
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?    In August we said ‘hello’ to Cheryl Hollon.   September: Dylan Callens and October’s author will be Donna Kauffman. 
                                                                                   
                                         Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  On the home page, enter your email address.  Thanks!

Available at: www.amazon.com

 

Interview with author, Dylan Callens (conclusion)

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

DC. In Interpretation, the situation came first. That wasn’t the case in previous stories, but for this novel it was. I was on a bus listening to students talk about science fiction movies and I began to word-doodle a dystopian world. After that, I started reading about weird psychological experiments and came across the work of Dr. Jose Delgado. He did a great deal of research on mind control devices. From there, I started to wonder about the extreme ends of such an experiment. And that is the central situation in the novel.

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?

DC. Oh yes, absolutely. I get so lost, in fact, that if I read my work a day later, it’s like reading someone else’s work. I can only recall the ideas that I put on the page and to see what I’ve written, the specific words that I’ve strung together, it’s like I was never there. Sometimes that’s a good thing but sometimes I’m mystified at what I was trying to get at. That’s why I have a great editor.

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

DC. Right now, you’re my muse, Trish. These are great questions.

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

DC. Yes, my new novel, Interpretation, was just released on August 1st. It’s about hope in the most desperate of times. It’s my ode to dystopian classics like Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World with a very modern take. I’ve used Ray Kurzweil’s predictions about our technological progress, as well as Dr. Jose Delgado’s psychological experiments to create a world that I think forces us to consider our own humanity.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

DC. I think I started to take it seriously three years ago. After making slow progress on my first novel, I started to see that it could be finished. I only had a few chapters left so I pushed forward to finish it. After another year of editing, it was released.

Q. How long after that were you published?

DC. I self-published that novel in December 2015. Since then, I’ve written a collection of Fairy Tales, been in two anthologies, and I’m releasing my second novel. I’ve also started a small publishing company in that time as well. So, the last two years have been very busy.

Q. What makes a writer great?

DC. That’s difficult to answer. I think there are so many ways for a writer to be great. It could be something like the imagery Joseph Ferguson uses to tell his stories. Or the beautiful complexity found in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. There are so many things that can make a writer great.

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

DC. Wow – to answer that question fully would require several pages of explanation. And I don’t think there’s a normal process for me. While I have certain rituals in terms of when and where I write, I don’t really have a straight forward process. I might research some stuff then outline. And then write a chapter, then outline some more. And do more research in the middle of writing a chapter. Then I might toy with a cover idea for a little while. I really wish I had a better answer but I’m not organized enough to have a definite process.

Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?

DC. I’m heavily influenced by my education in philosophy more than anything. My life experiences work their way into my writing in various ways but my imagination plays a bigger role. I’ve always been someone that sits around and thinks so I think that drives my storytelling more than any real experiences.

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

DC. I have written satire and parody in the past. Interpretation is dystopian science fiction, which isn’t something that I thought that I would do. If I continue the current project that I have in mind for my next novel, I will get into literary fiction. I know that career-wise, it would be smart to stay within one genre but I don’t have the focus to do that. My stories aren’t genre specific.

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

DC. In Interpretation, there are inkblots at the top of each chapter. My kids made those inkblots specifically for the novel. We had a blast making them and I’d just like readers to know that. So, if you something strange in the blot, just remember: my kids did that to you.

Did you miss Part I?

Available www.amazon.com and other fine book stores
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?     In August we say ‘hello’ to Cheryl Hollon.   September: Dylan Callens and October’s author is Donna Kauffman.
                                                                                   
                                         Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  On the home page, enter your email address.  Thanks!
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Interview with author, Dylan Callens

TS.  A quirky, relatively new author who takes us into a sci-fi, dystopian world, with his new book, Interpretation

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.

DC. I have a spot in basement. There is this lumpy old couch where I need to sit. It wrecks my back but I can’t help it – the words just flow there. It’s the center of calm for me, even if there is chaos all around. I’ve used the same space for so long that I’ve ruined the cushion but I just can’t give it up.

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.)

DC  I typically need half an hour to look at dumb things on the internet. I might play a Twitter hashtag game or stare at Goodreads for a while. It doesn’t really matter what but I have to have that time to settle into the words.

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

DC. I am really good with a yo-yo. There was a time when I considered focusing on that instead of writing. I thought about entering the world of competitive yo-yoing. I know that sounds like a joke, but there is such a thing. Ultimately, I think I made the right choice to continue writing.

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

DC. Most of my new ideas are generated in the morning. When I’m working on a new project, I tend to get up between 4 and 4:30 AM to write. However, I can’t edit in the morning so that usually happens either sporadically throughout the day or in the evening, after about 7:30.

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

DC. When I first started writing I procrastinated a lot. When I reflect on why, I don’t think it was because I was lazy but because I was afraid that in the end, what I wrote wouldn’t be good enough. So, I put it off. When I finally finished my first project, Operation Cosmic Teapot, I discovered a few things. First, I spent about six years on a project that should have been done in less than one because I procrastinated. Second, I had a lot to learn about writing and marketing a book. Third, that despite the mistakes in the book, I’m pretty good at it. And fourth – most importantly – the only way I could have failed was not to finish it. I think that’s what important to overcome procrastination. To realize that the only way to fail on a project is to not do it. Even if the book only sells a copy of copies, you can learn from that experience and apply it to the next project.

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

DC. I wish I could say that they came to me in a dream, or something profound like that, but they don’t. Sources of inspiration for characters come from all over the place. In earlier writing, I was inspired by philosophers and gods. In my new novel, Interpretation, the main character was sort of assembled together after I completed a Myers-Briggs personality test. That was a really fun exercise. I answered profile questions in a way that I wanted the character to respond to those situations. Once I understood his personality, I could understand his motivation throughout the novel. My next novel might be based on me – but that’s kind of a frightening thought.

Q. What first inspired you to write your stories?

DC. I’m greatly inspired by philosophy and psychology. While in university, I wrote a novel that underlined the principles of phenomenology. It was as good as it sounds. I completely trashed the manuscript. It is rotting away in a dump somewhere. (You’re welcome, humanity.)

The first novel that I completed arose from the same place, though. I was teaching Nietzsche’s madman parable in a philosophy course. That is the story where Nietzsche says, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” In the middle of that lesson, I kind of chuckled at an idea – what if Nietzsche was God’s boss and tried to fire him? I began outlining the story from there. It was an ‘ah-ha’ moment for me.

 

Don’t miss the conclusion to this Interview. Click here
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?       June: Mehreen Ahmed.  July: Janet Macleod Trotter, author of Tea Planter’s Daughter and in August we say ‘hello’ to Cheryl Hollon.   September: Dylan Callens
                                                                                   
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The Hangman’s Sonnet by Reed Farrel Coleman ~ A Review

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing reviews, authors, writingA Review     4 out of 5 quills

Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone is back!  Beleaguered and grief riddled but still standing….except, that is,  when he’s falling down drunk.  

This is a very layered plot. It’s a murder mystery for certain but layered with  the disappearance of a master reel of an album. The artist, Jester, was right up there will the Bee Jees, the Beatles and the Beach Boys. The team had just finished his best album, in the studio, when the master went missing. For forty years.  

Readers continue to fall more in love with the tiny police force of Paradise. Molly Crane, Luther ‘Suitcase’ Simpson and some new additions like Alisha. But, this time around, I found myself being a little annoyed by Jesse Stone’s eternal angst. Okay, I get it. He’s had some tough breaks, brought on mostly by himself and….Johnny Walker.  Stop repeating your mistakes and suck it up, Jesse!

In spite of my irritation, the story is good and entertaining. You won’t be disappointed!  It still astounds me, as a writer, how these wonderful authors can so successfully speak in Robert Parker’s voice.

 

On Sale: September 12th  To purchase
Did you miss my Interview with Reed Farrel Coleman?    

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 MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!   Did you miss the past few months?    In August we say ‘hello’ to Cheryl Hollon. September we host Dylan Callens and Oct.’s author is Donna Kauffman. 
                                                                                   
                                         Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

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