create Archives - Page 72 of 77 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Cruisin’ the Boulevard…the Fifties Nostalgia (part 4)

I woke up this morning thinking about the fifties. “The Great Pretender” by The Platters weaving its magic through my brain. My poodle skirt was one of five full circle skirts in my closet. And the number of crinolines you wore under your poodle skirt dictated how popular you were at school. Crazy, huh?

And that made me think of the other things that the really popular girls had that I wanted. I had one crinoline, they had at least three. Oh! and Jansen sweater sets. My parents could only afford one; the really cool girls had a set for every day of the week. Jansen sweaters had a lot of cashmere in them and they were expensive from my side of the tracks. (Stay at home Mom and a meat cutter Dad.) And I can still remember my first pair of white buck shoes. Every night I had to ‘paint’ white polish on them. They couldn’t be scuffed or dirty, EVER!

‘Bad’ Girls were identified by four things: they drank beer, they dated servicemen (sailors in my town), they had their ears pierced and they would go out on dates to the drive-in movies. We all knew what happened there! You wouldn’t want to be caught dead talking to any of them if you valued your reputation!

And I was there at the birth of Rock n’ Roll. Bill Hailey and the Comets had just released their movie “Rock Around the Clock”. Elvis had stormed the world stage with “Heartbreak Hotel” and “I Forgot to Remember to Forget”. We loved him on the radio and on our 45’s, but parents were up in arms and would not let us ‘see‘ him. Those hips were scandalous!

So the movie “Rock Around the Clock” finally comes to our little burg. It was a Saturday matinee and the house was packed with teenagers. Somewhere in the movie Bill Hailey sings his signature song. We couldn’t stay in our seats! “One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock, five, six, seven o’clock, eight o’clock ROCK! nine, ten, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock ROCK!……..We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight!” The aisles filled with teens dancing, doing the jitterbug. Laughing and singing along with the Comets. It was amazing!

The theatre manager thought he had a riot on his hands and called the police. We got a stern lecture and were told if we would stay in our seats they would turn the movie back on.

Do you remember cruising and the Drive-In?? After the football game, or dance, or a date for the movies everyone would pile into whoever had a car and cruise down the length of Lincoln St. through downtown and out First Street to Bernie’s Drive-Inn and drive slowly around and around the restaurant, checking everyone out while they checked you out. We’d either stop for a ‘malt’ or a ‘Coke’ or we’d reverse our cruising and drive back down First Street and up Lincoln…..we’d do that until someone had to get home before curfew. My last boyfriend in high school was older and had already graduated. He had a custom 1957 Chevy coupe. Very little chrome; everything was ‘leaded in’. It was the most gorgeous dusky pink.

Our ‘song’ was Party Doll by Buddy Knox. I was his party Doll and how I kept my virginity that year, I’ll never know!!

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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, , Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, 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! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter.
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To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

The Writer’s Corner…an Interview with Amber Winckler (part 2)

Part two….an interview with author, Amber Winckler

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

A. When I am left alone and have an adequate food source, I can write for a few hours at a time. I play word games between thoughts, so my daughter often wonders how I am a writer when most of the time she comes into the computer room I am deeply involved in a game of Fowl Words on her kid profile. To her, I am just a fraud.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. I was fifteen. My mom gave me an orange journal bound in suede, with gold gilding on the edge of the pages. In fifth grade, a teacher sparked my interest by having us write to music in his class, but receiving the journal in my fifteenth year was where it truly began.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. 22 years and a couple hundred rejections later.

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

A. I write in pieces, with no effort towards chronology until the bitter end, when I must sit and piece together my many memo books and computer sections into one readable storyline. This is the part I most dread, but it is amazing when you finally have a copy of the first finished manuscript in your hands.

The second part is editing, which I never attempt to do myself. My first editor is my mom, who edits for content and not grammar/structure. She is honest about where I have gone wrong, and in pointing out places that I need to expand further. I trust her guidance. After I have patched up any loose story bits and rewritten/added her suggestions, I turn it over to the official editor, and I sit back and turn off my ego. I write it, and then I give it over to the universe and the people I most trust to make sure it is readable. Artistic people can tend to be myopic, and we need guidance.

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

A. All of my characters are pieces of people I have known. People have fascinated me since I can remember, and despite the ghoulish reality of my work world, I have always found that reality is stranger than fiction, and that living people are infinity more frightening than dead ones. ‘my mom, Miki, (photo-left) who has developed her own fan base after appearing as ‘Mimi’ in THE FINAL BATH and INTO THE HANDS OF STRANGERS.

I used my own voice as the narrator of my first two books, because I felt more authentic being me. There are dualities in all people that I try to portray as honestly as possible, so my first character study was myself, in as honest and imperfect a form as I could spit out.

Q. What inspired your story/stories?

A. I was reading through the entries in my journal of the first years of my Embalming Apprenticeship, and noticed a story emerging in the pages that hadn’t occurred to me during the living of these years. But condensed down, in more rapid fire, I saw my first full length novel appear.

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

A. I have written two novels, a book of short stories, and a novella with prose insertions. I don’t feel like I have been pigeon-holed into a particular format yet, and that is a good thing. I have a bit of a hard time with the phrase ‘want to write.’ Many people ‘want to write.’ Writers just do. On memo books, on McDonald’s bags, on receipts, in journals, by hand, by keyboard, by God we just write. There is room in the world for writers of varying styles. Harvard may have missed me, and I am certainly not known for fluffy words and verbose displays of word craft, but I have a story to tell. As writers, what more do we have to give the world?

Q. And before we leave, is there anything you’d like to add?

A. Trish, I really appreciate this opportunity. I looked at your website and I am interested in your work.

http://amberwinckler.sharepoint.com click here to read Part I
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Biography: Amber Lenore Winckler has worked in the funeral profession for 18+ years and is a California licensed Embalmer, Funeral Director, and Crematory Manager. She also worked at the San Diego Medical Examiner as a Forensic Autopsy Assistant. Author of four books of fiction, largely set in the mortuary or medical examiner setting, she make her living caring for the dead, but she says, “I have always been a writer.”
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

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You live to write, You stop! You Die!

I have been obsessed with Charles Bukowski for weeks now. I sort of randomly discovered him, fell in love, ordered his book of poems, ‘The Pleasures of the Damned’ and now I’m his forever! (March 14th)

One day, much to my amazement, I found tucked away in my very messy bookcase, a movie based on Bukowski’s life starring Matt Dillon. I’m ashamed to say that a friend had given me the DVD as a gift and I never bothered to watch it. (in my pre-Bukowski days) “Factotum” is a disturbing and fascinating look into Bukowski’s early years as an alcoholic, unknown writer who was frequently homeless as he went from job to job, from bar to bar, from woman to woman, from job to job, from bar to……

Bukowski writes about the raw, and sometimes ugly, world in which he lived. A world that you and I may never experience, a world of the downtrodden, poor, weak, drunk, and doped up, (and what polite society would call) losers.
The saving grace of this man was the PURE TRUTH in which he wrote!

This book reads like an autobiography of his life…all in prose. I was struck by this piece in particular . Bukowski knew exactly who and what he was.

a clean, well-lighted place ©

the old fart, he used his literary reputation
to reel them in one at a time,
each younger than the last.
he liked to meet them for luncheon and wine
and he’d talk and listen to them talk.
whatever wife or girlfriend he had at the moment
was made to understand that this sort of thing made him
feel ‘young again’.
and when the luncheons become more than luncheons
the young ladies vied to bed down with
this
literary
genius.
in between he continued to write,
and late at night in his favorite bar
he liked to talk about writing and his amorous adventures.
actually, he was just a drunk who liked young ladies,
writing itself and talking about writing.
it wasn’t a bad life.
it was certainly more interesting than what most men were doing.
at one time he was probably the most famous writer in the world.
many tried to write like he did
drink like he did
act like he did
but he was the original.
then life began to catch up with him.
he began to age quickly
his large bulk began to wither.
he was growing old before his time.
finally it got to where he couldn’t write anymore.
“it just wouldn’t come” and the psychiatrists couldn’t do anything
for him but only made it worse.
then he took his own cure, early one morning,
alone
just as his father had done
many years before.

a writer who can’t write any
more is dead
anyhow.
he knew that.
he knew that what he was killing
was already dead.

and then the critics
and the hangers-on
and the publicists
and his heirs
moved in like vultures.
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‘Everything you need to know about life are in these pages by Bukowski. He knew when it was all over. He was used up; he had given all that he could, he had nothing more to say. So he left……the screen door slapping softly shut behind him.’ ~~T.Sugarek
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

This Monday…an Interview with Amber Winckler, author and Embalmer

Don’t miss the fascinating look in to this writer’s world. She still writes in long hand!!!

“Reading classics inspires me, and I need to be exposed to men and women who string together words like music. Reading helps me remember why people write.
It is glorious.” (from the interview)

Me and my mom, Miki, who has developed her own fan base after appearing as ‘Mimi’ in THE FINAL BATH and
INTO THE HANDS OF STRANGERS.

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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘My momma always said, Life is Like a Box of Chocolates’….or words (part 4)

Once again time has gotten away from me and I need to revisit my love of new and old words. (Blog Jan. 8th) In this series I talk about my ‘box of chocolates’ being filled with words.

Texting has created a whole new language of abbreviations, misspells and down right goofyness and that’s a good thing in this century of technology. But can’t we do both? Be articulate? Literate? and be able to string a decent sentence (or paragraph) together? Is that asking too much?

I love the sound of these, the way they feel in my mouth.

Ebullient: overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement, high spirited. (much the way I feel about my blogging)

raconteur: a person who is skilled in relating anecdotes interestingly. (what I try to achieve while blogging) I had not heard this word used before until last Sunday, on Masterpiece Classics on the PBS when Mr. Selfridge’s line was, ‘I am a raconteur.’ when referring to his story telling.

avidity: greediness, keenly eager. (much the way I feel about my blogging)

insouciance: indifferent, lack of care or concern. (the antithesis of how I feel about my blogging)

extant: still in existence, standing out, not destroyed. (my blog still exists and I hope ‘stands out’)

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I’ll be ‘positing’ more to this series of favorite words. Feel free to send me some of yours!!
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Caroline Leavitt, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Raymond Benson, 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! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. September will feature Tasha Alexander. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter.

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What does it Look like? From No book to Finished book…55 days

This past Sunday I finished the first draft of my second novel. 74,000+ words and 365 pages. This was possibly the purest writing I have ever done and almost an out-of-body experience. WHY? You ask?

I let go!

As most of my friends will tell you, I am a double ‘A’ personality with control issues. Okay! Call it what it is; I’m a control freak!
But this time, I started with only a loose outline in order to keep my historical facts straight and to track where I thought I was going with the story. I had written the prologue months ago. On February 19th I marked my calendar that this was the day that I would begin writing it in earnest.

By the second chapter the characters took the story away from me and told me to hang on and start typing.
They told me who they were, where they were going, who they loved, why they had failed and all about their flaws.

Now! Other than the fact that I am in excellent company, I would agree with you when you mutter, “She’s just plain nuts!” But according to the authors that I am now interviewing on a monthly basis, this is not bat-poop crazy but rather a condition that most writers dream about and when it does happen they don’t question it….they just let it happen and they give thanks!

During long, long days of writing (sometimes until my fingers refused to work any longer) I spent my non-writing, quiet time surrounded with great authors. Either posting their interviews, reading their poetry, or curled up with a good book. I believe that reading makes us better at our writing.

I am so inspired by other good writers.

So let go! Open your hearts and minds and let it flow. Don’t force the direction of your story…it will never be exactly like you planned and that’s a GOOD thing!
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Mark Childress was our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter.

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To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

Anyone ever Heard of Robert Service?

Another ‘word master’ that I am very fond of is Robert Service. You might ask, ‘Wasn’t he the guy that wrote some poem we heard in high school about ‘The Shooting of Dan McGrew?’ Oh, grasshopper, that’s just the tip of his brilliant iceberg.

Here’s a tidbit to refresh your memory of those days long past (for some of us)

‘A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew, And watching his luck was his light-o’-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.
When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,

Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house. There was none could place the stranger’s face, though we search ourselves for a clue; But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew.’……
(The Best of Robert Service**Dodd, Mead & Co. Publishers)
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you don’t ever read poetry but if you have a spark of ‘the Wild’ in you, (and I know that you do) read this! You will not be sorry. It is food for the wildness in your soul.

‘Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear’…. ..And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear; With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold, A half-dead thing in the stark, dead world, clean mad for the muck called gold; While high overhead, green, yellow, and red, the North Lights swept in bars?- Then you’ve a hunch what the music meant…hunger and night and the stars.

‘Can you remember your huskies all going, barking with joy and their brushes in air; ‘You in your parka, glad-eyed and glowing, Monarch, your subjects the wolf and the bear. Monarch, your kingdom unravished and gleaming; Mountains your throne, and a river your car; Crash of a bull moose to rouse you from dreaming; Forest your couch, and your candle a star. You who this faint day the High North is luring unto her vastness, taintlessly sweet; You who are steel-braced, straight-lipped, enduring, Dreadless in danger and dire in defeat; Honor the High North ever and ever, Whether she crown you, or whether she slay; Suffer her fury, cherish and love her– He who would rule he must learn to obey.’ (Robert Service)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In my short play, “The Bard of the Yukon” I have attempted to introduce Robert Service to young people. A play perfect for middle-school and high-school class rooms it is set in the bedroom of three teenage sisters as one prepares to run away to Alaska and follow in Robert Service’s footsteps. I’ll leave you with this:

THE CALL OF THE WILD (excerpt) by Robert Service

‘Have you broken trail on snowshoes? Mushed your huskies up the river, Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize? Have you marked the map’s void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races, Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew? And though grim as hell the worst is, can you round it off with curses? Then hearken to the Wild—it’s wanting you.

Have you suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down, yet grasped at glory, Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole? “Done things” just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story, Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul? Have you seen God in His splendors, heard the text that nature renders? The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things— Then listen to the Wild—it’s calling you.’
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Service was born, raised and educated on Scotland. At age 21, dreaming about a cowboy life, Service left Scotland and moved to Canada traveling by rail from Montreal to British Columbia. He lived in Victoria, BC, and spent his first few years traveling up and down the west coast. He was a banker by trade and went to work in Victoria and later (around 1904) was stationed in White Horse, Yukon.

Service understood the difficulties of living in the north and he very much appreciated the beauty of the land. Soon Robert Service was writing poetry about the north and sent a package of his poems to a publisher. One of the poems Service included was to become one of his most famous, The Cremation of Sam McGee. His book of poetry was enormously successful and he became wealthy almost overnight. He kept his bank job and a year later was transferred to Dawson City making the trip by dog sleigh. (photo of him outside his cabin in White Horse.)

During World War I, Robert Service was a war correspondent for the Toronto Star. In 1913, Service arrived in Paris, where he would live for the next 15 years. He settled in the Latin Quarter, posing as a painter. He continued to write poetry and novels and amassed wealth. He often pretended to be poor. Robert Service was considered the most read poet of the 20th century.
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Maya Angelou, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, 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! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander.
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The Writer’s Corner.. an Interview with Mark Childress (part 2)

Part II ….Mark Childress

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

A. All the time, when it’s going well. I actually get kind of impatient with the demands of real life when the imagined life really gets up and cranking.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. In high school, after I won an “honorable mention” in a short story contest and Miss Eudora Welty herself put the plaque in my hand.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. I was published as a journalist starting just two years later but it was nine years before I got my first novel published.

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

A. Assuming you have found an agent who has found an interested publisher, most of the process is directed by the writer. Despite what people think, publishers don’t generally force novelists to stick to strict deadlines or to stop editing the book before they’re finished. They want you to write the best book you can. First you write the book. Then you rewrite it a few times or a few dozen times for yourself.

Then a few more times for the editor. Then another time for the copy desk. After that, it is waiting, longing, hoping, and having Oprah dreams. Then publication happens and is both much better and much worse than you ever expected. Then you face the blank page and start the next one. Rewriting is the core of what writers do – so if you can’t stand rewriting and being edited, choose another profession.

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

A. It is different for each book. Sometimes it is an idea, or a place, sometimes it is a character. It’s important to keep listening for that little bell when it rings.

Q. What inspired your story/stories ?

A. Life, pain, a happy childhood that was also miserable. A weird family. Being from Alabama.

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

A. The one problem my agent has always had is that I like to write a completely different novel each time. I don’t stick to one theme or one type of book. I love writers like Graham Greene who can do a little bit of everything, and I’ve always wanted to be like that.

Q. Please feel free to share more with us.
A. “I love my readers. They have made it possible for me to have the life I dreamed of back when I started out. If you are one of them – my thanks.”

http://www.crazyinalabama.com/
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, 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! Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen.
Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander.
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To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

Don’t Miss the Conclusion of my Interview with Mark Childress

TOMORROW is the conclusion of my interview with author, Mark Childress. Thursday, April 4th

Witty, straight forward, Childress shares his writing world with us.

(photo from movie: “Billy” Billy Carter’s Service Station 1979)

Childress has also written three picture books for children, “Joshua and Bigtooth,” in 1992, “Joshua and the Big Bad Blue Crabs,” 1996 (both from Little, Brown), and “Henry Bobbity Is Missing And It Is All Billy Bobbity’s Fault,” (Crane Hill Publishers, 1996).
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander.
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The Writer’s Corner…Interview with author, Mark Childress (part 1)

This blogger is so pleased to have this interview with Mark Childress. Author and screen writer of the movie, “Crazy in Alabama” starring Melanie Griffith, David Morse, Rod Steiger, Robert Wagner. Mark has kindly shared his writing world with us and his tongue-in-cheek wit.

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

A. I cannot upload a picture of my desk because my Mom would be ashamed of me.
It’s really messy. Like the inside of my brain. For only the second time in my life, I live in a house which has an actual
separate office in my house where I work. Usually I’ve worked at a desk in my bedroom because I’ve lived in tiny apartments. Having a separate space is such a luxury and it means I get to leave it as messy as I want and NOT publish photos of it! However, I wrote most of my first two novels on a typewriter in various motel rooms while traveling for a magazine, so I know you can do it anywhere if you apply yourself.

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

A. Water. Chair. Butt in chair. Turn off the internet. Do not move until you can’t do any more.

Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer?)

A. Computer. I remember typing 11 complete drafts of my first novel on an old IBM Selectric and boy oh boy was
I glad when they invented cut-and-paste. In college, I made beer money as a typesetter for our college paper
on an ancient “computerized” machine that had a tiny led screen with a three-word display. So these machines do
not intimidate me.

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

A. I sit down every day about 9 or 10 and write until I can’t any more.

Biography: I was born in Monroeville, Alabama. Shortly thereafter Miss Nelle Harper Lee made
our town famous with “To Kill a Mockingbird.” So, for me, being a novelist was always a dimly
achievable goal. Everybody admired Miss Lee and I wanted to be like her. When I read her book,
I really wanted to be like her. I wrote my first novel when I was 15. It was awful but I finished it,
and thus learned the most important thing: if you keep going, you can finish. Also,
did you hear about the writer with severe attention deficit disorder? He……
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Don’t miss part II of this interview on Thursday, April 4th.
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander.
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