Tag: drama

Missing! and Feared Dead…a Review

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing  5 out of 5 quills    The COUNTERFEIT HEIRESS
by Tasha Alexander

A fourth of the way through this intricately crafted story I wondered to myself if it was based on a true story.   And whad’ya know? Truth is stranger than fiction. It’s based very loosely on an American Heiress who recreated the physical environment of her own captivity after she was rescued.  And that’s all I’m going to say about the that!  It’s a treat!Count.Heiress.Scan

It’s early 19th century, England, and our two favorite sleuths, Emily and Colin are called upon to find a missing heiress….missing for over twenty years; most likely dead.  Tasha Alexander takes us (chapter by chapter) from their clever detective work to  the room where the heiress is being kept.  At no point in the story is the reader certain whether she is alive or dead. How can a woman survive in a coffin-like room? Continue reading “Missing! and Feared Dead…a Review”

Interview with successful self-published Author, Mike Wells

Mike. HeadshotAn Interview with Mike Wells *** ‘Unputdownable Thrillers’

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

A. I like to write outside if the weather is warm enough, which is one reason I live most of the year in Cyprus. I usually write on our veranda, or at an outdoor cafe by the beach. I like to move around to different places, keeps things stirred 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.)

A. No. Those kinds of things (IMO) can turn into excuses not to write, I broke myself of anything like that a long time ago. I’m generally a very flexible and adaptable person, don’t get dependent much on physical elements like that.

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

A. I can’t throw up. Continue reading “Interview with successful self-published Author, Mike Wells”

Where will your writing take you?

Billie Holiday, jazz, stage play, one act play,              I was going through some old photos to update my gallery here on my site and I came across this wonderful production shot of Latrelle Bright, as Billie Holiday.  The Renaissance Guild in San Antonio, Texas featured “Scent of Magnolia” in their OneAct Series back in…..gosh, I want to say 2003.  Originally I was the playwright, Latrelle was directing it and we had an actress who could sing.  We lost our actress so Latrelle (an accomplished actor) stepped in as Billie Holiday and I stepped up as director.  Happy Accident time!  She was fabulous!  Sang all of Billie’s songs acappella. Who knew she had such a lovely voice?  Standing “O’s” every performance with lots of tears from the audience. (A writer’s dream)

Latrelle is now a happy resident of Chicago (where it all started for me with this script; funny how that worked out) and is pursuing her teaching career in the performing arts.

What a journey Billie and I have had.  Originally I wrote this stage play for a friend Continue reading “Where will your writing take you?”

Skip to the Head of the Line

bookstoreMy book store is just a click away!  USE THIS CODE 336699 AND GET 10% OFF of any BOOK purchase UNTIL November 31st.   The Web Site has a new feature: you can now buy an autographed copy of any book directly from the author using your Visa, MasterCard through PayPal. And you don’t need a PayPal account to use it. It’s so easy!

Scripts about bullying and other teen issues.  Great for the

Ten Minutes to Curtain, Vol. I, II, & III
Ten Minutes to Curtain, Vol. I, II, & III

classroom!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fiction.  The new mystery series, ‘The World of Murder’ with Detectives O’Roarke and Garcia.artofmurder_cover (2)

 

 

WOW.BanW._wow (3)Don’t miss “Women Outside the Walls” 

 

 

 

 

and”Wild Violets“fiction, women, flappers, prohibition, San Francisco, roaring twenties

Continue reading “Skip to the Head of the Line”

FREE BOOK GIVE-A-WAY! The World of Murder

Frnt.COVER.tasteofmurder_11OCT‘The Taste of Murder‘ has just been released and ‘The Art of Murder‘ (revised) has a new cover and two new chapters.

YOU CAN WIN A FREE BOOK!  Just like my page on Facebook www.facebook.com/writeratplay
and follow me on Twitter  @writeratplay4.  Write a comment about this post letting me know which book you would like to receive and your USA mailing address. artofmurder_cover (2)A contact email would be good.

In Book 5 in the series The World of Murder, Detectives O’Roarke and Garcia have a cold case dumped on their desk. Despite their objections that they ‘don’t do cold cases’ their Commander tells them that they do now since the new Mayor has asked for them…. Continue reading “FREE BOOK GIVE-A-WAY! The World of Murder”

REVIEW~~With Mother’s Approval by Mike Wells

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing

Three out of five quills  A REVIEW  With Mother’s Approval Mothers.510-HJSgo5L._AA160_
by Mike Wells

When the Seattle Police Department bumbles the investigation of a serial killer who has brutally taken the lives of five women, Detectives Allie and Jeremy Branson take over the case. The husband and wife team work out of the King County Sheriff Department’s Violent Crime Unit and have one of the best track records in the country. But this time around, the Bransons are tested to their limits. Will they catch “The Call Girl Killer,” or will the sadistic murderer continue his spree of horrific crimes unchecked?

If you like extremely incestuous, murderous, cra-cra.…you will love Mike Wells’ latest offering.  I know his fans will be ecstatic that he has written another one.   Stephen King is all this reviewer’s stomach can handle and With Mother’s Approval goes way, way beyond King’s warped world.  I found it a little ingenuous that the Seattle PD was painted with such a broad brush as ‘bumbling’ and totally incompetent.  And I couldn’t get my head around Jeremy giggling, given his physical description and demeanor.

It’s well written but not to my taste.  I know his fans, old and new, will love it!   Going on sale as an e-book TODAY!!!

  Don’t miss my Interview with Mike Wells coming in December!
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!

In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!    Barbara Delinsky and Elizabeth Hoyt will be my October authors.

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!

Getting Ready to Audition?

Are you gearing up for that special audition at the high school, university, or community theatre?  Or maybe you are a seasoned actor who needs something NEW and FRESH to show them!!

Cover.Frnt .Mono. Final Monologues 4 Women is just that.  Original, never before seen monologues mixed in with the classics.

 

 

Tear away all the profound, pompous opinions about a successful audition.
Here’s the nitty, gritty facts of going through the audition process by an actor/director/author with thirty years experience in the theatre.

This collection of contemporary, original monologues also includes several pieces for the African-American woman.  Mixed with classic.

 

Available at https://www.writeratplay.com/monologues-for-women/   Add one more book of your choice and get FREE Shipping!!
OR

http://www.amazon.com/Monologues-Women-Original-monologues-character/dp/1480150711/ref=sr_1_128?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411910013&sr=1-128&keywords=monologues+for+women
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!

In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!    Barbara Delinsky and Elizabeth Hoyt will be my October authors.

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!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink~~(new series) Diary of a Mad Writer!

So many of you have asked how I can be so prolific in my fiction, how I maintain a blog twice a week and interview otwriting, process, writers, styleher authors too.   So maybe it would be fun for you if I wrote once in awhile about what I’m doing…..I’m calling it Everything but the KITCHEN SINK because I’m throwing everything into the pot ……..no rhyme or reason.

This week I have the great pleasure to review Peter May’s latest book “The Lewis Man” during his book tour in the US.Saturday my blog will begin my interview with him and he has been so generous with his time and writing processes.

One of my favorite posts coming is how the (; ) smiley face was created back in 1982.  After some research I found the original email that first featured these emoticons.

Don’t know if you remember or not, but a few years ago I spent 10 days in Argentina at the invitation of two young professors and their university, National University of Villa María .  They teach English (through action) there. The families of Mariana, Marta, and Fiorella hosted me in their homes with dinners, lunches, and Continue reading “Everything but the Kitchen Sink~~(new series) Diary of a Mad Writer!”

‘The Lewis Man’ by Peter May…a Review

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing   reviews, authors, writing reviews, authors, writingFive out of five quills    
A REVIEW   The Lewis Man by international best selling author, Peter May

 

Peter May writes in black and white.  I rarely see ‘color’ in his books….and that’s high praise. 

He plunks me down inLEWISScan the stark, forbidding Outer Hebrides, a group of islands northwest of Scotland and bared to the North Atlantic Sea.
“A sky torn and shredded by the wind.  A sky that leaks sunlight in momentary flashes to spill across dead grasses where the white tips of bog cotton dip and dive in frantic eddies of turbulent air….” ( prose at its best!)

After reading about the people settled there one wonders why they stay.  And that is at the core of why his characters are so intriguing and entertaining.  There is little soil on these rocks jutting out of the sea.  And trees for shelter and fuel?  Forget that.   But peat bogs flourish and provide fuel for heat in the oldest tradition of the Gaelic world.  When a body turns up in a bog the remains could be a month old, several decades old, and in some instances, centuries old.

As I’ve mentioned before I’m not a reviewer who fills the page with a synopsis of the story.  For me, the reader, it spoils it to be given the plot on a plate.  Continue reading “‘The Lewis Man’ by Peter May…a Review”

Charlie and I are back…with our Poetry (Charles Bukowski)

It’s Charles Bukowski month!!! No secret.  I am in love with the guy’s raw, tell it like it is, writing.  So here’s a work of his and a work of mine.  I’m fully aware that my scribbles should not be on the same page or in the same room as this great writer…….(so please don’t write me) I am just sharing a frame of mind.  I believe that if you lay down with dogs you get fleas.  If you read great writers, just maybe some of their brilliance will rub off or teach you something.

Try your hand;  there are no fast and hard rules to poetry anymore…at least none that I pay attention to.  (and I’m in good company with this sentiment)  It’s far more important that you write your thoughts down.  Bukowski believed that too.  He couldn’t have cared less what his critics thought….no pentameter?  no rhyme?    So What!!??

Mine:

Apocalypse ©Apacolypse

The whale sings
and I weep,

The world groans
and I ache,

The wind gusts
and I bend,

The surf sighs
and I rage,

The babe cries
and I mourn,

The mountains shift
and I flinch,

The ebony sun melts
and I rail,

The earth dies
and I wear black.  T.Sugarek

Continue reading “Charlie and I are back…with our Poetry (Charles Bukowski)”