Tag: family histories

Attention! All Writers Out There!

There’s a BLOG out there that is dedicated to the art of writing and honing your craft. Yep!  I’m talking about mine and this is a shameless promo.  You won’t be disappointed.

For three years now I have published my posts twice a week and it’s always something about being a better writer.  Once a month I interview best selling authors such as Dean Koontz, Sue Grafton, Jeffery Deaver, Sherryl Woods, Anne Gracie, CW.CoverRaymond Benson, Lee Goldberg, Charles Bukowski and dozens more.   My goal is to inspire other writers to write more, tell their stories, try writing a play, or maybe some poetry.

Sign up on my home page  and receive an email with each day’s post.  Delete it if it doesn’t interest you.  It’s that simple.  Recently I have developed a series of ‘creative writing’ journals with ‘How To’ tips and famous quotes to inspire my fellow writers.  https://www.writeratplay.com/category/a-writers-take/ Continue reading “Attention! All Writers Out There!”

Interview with NY Times Best Seller Author, Ace Atkins

Ace.stepsAs a fan I first discovered Ace when I saw that Robert Parker’s stories were being continued after his death.  Ace was selected by the Robert B. Parker estate to continue the bestselling adventures of Boston’s iconic private eye, Spenser.  That led to my wanting to read more of this brilliant author’s work.  And that ultimately led to my wanting to interview him.

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

A. I have an office on the square in Oxford, Mississippi. It’s a good place in a historic building with creaky heart pine floors and tall ceilings, filled with lawyers hard at work. I don’t think I could stand to have complete seclusion. I used to work in a big city newsroom – at The Tampa Tribune – and I like all the energy around me as I write.

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. A decent computer, preferably using an old-fashioned IBM clicky keyboard, and a strong cup of coffee. On some projects, I might have a bit of whiskey in the mug. But that’s usually later in the day.

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

A. I have an extensive collection of rare movie posters and stills, a collection that I started in high school. I also own every original paperback produced by the great John D. MacDonald. <(So do I, Ace!!!)

Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative? Continue reading “Interview with NY Times Best Seller Author, Ace Atkins”

Now Available! The Empowered Woman’s Journal

Boost.Cover  JUST RELEASED!!  A Journal for ALL Women

Available at:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=empowered%2C%20sugarek  and www.writeratplay.com/shop

This spirited journal is designed to help women open their hearts and minds to
their own creative possibilities, while honing their writing craft. Whether you are a
beginner or a more experienced writer, the shelter within these pages will empower you to
write more. You will find this journal will quickly become your constant companion.

Much more than a journal for writing down your secrets, your thoughts and dreams, this handbook provides the writer with the ‘how to’s’. Over 275 of blank lined pages for your creative writing that includes tips and insightful quotes from famous authors, playwrights, poets and celebrities.

 

Fiction mimics real life…doesn’t it?

I have realized over the years that I am attracted to writing stories based on real life experiences, whether they are mine or someone else’s.

WhileWOW.BanW._wow (2) visiting a convicted murderer (Cook County Justice) at a state prison for men I observed women waiting with me to see their men. Some of them had been coming for years.  What was that like I asked myself.  How do they survive on the outside?  What are the stories that brought them to this place?  Were they married to monsters, gang members, killers?  Or just regular guys who had made some very stupid choices?  (Women Outside the Walls)

The most rewarding effort has been writing about what I know of life.  Confronting the challenges that life throws at all of us and then  goJohn.Songof YUkon 001 on to deal with it with some sort of grace under fire.  That’s how “The Ash Can” was born.  An experience very close to me where a person threw away everything  in a blink of an eye.  Deciding to take irrevocable actions and leaving heart-break and tragedy in their path.

 

Continue reading “Fiction mimics real life…doesn’t it?”

Now Available! A Journal for Women, Kids, Men

Boost.Cover   NOW AVAILABLE!   A complete journal for the woman writer.  Each page has a famous quote nestled in the margins to inspire your thoughts, dreams, and writing.  Over 275 blank, lined pages await your journal entries.

You will find helpful instructions and tips, should you want to try your hand at writing fiction, story telling, writing a play or maybe some poetry.  Come on, you know you’ve always wanted to try…..

  You can order your copy by clicking here:     http://www.amazon.com/Empowered-Womans-Journal-Handbook/dp/1500497967/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405452160&sr=1-1&keywords=empowered+woman%2C+sugarek

 

Book Design and Cover by David White

How to Not Survive, but Thrive, Living with a Writer!

How.to.Live.w.aWriter_nThis was just toooo good not to share! As a writer, I will tell you that it’s good, no, great advice if you are involved with a writer.

 

Okay, all laughs aside….seriously….if you are the significant other to a writer you are one of my HEROES!!   Continue reading “How to Not Survive, but Thrive, Living with a Writer!”

This Author featured on Poetrysoup.com

Dear Trisha,

Congratulations, this is to let you know that your poem The Ash Can is one of the poems being featured on the PoetrySoup home page this week. Poems are rotated each day in groups of 14-16 to give each poem an equal opportunity to be displayed.

Thanks again and congratulations.

Sincerely,

PoetrySoup.com

The Ash Can ©  Trisha Sugarek

I got the call on Sunday night. I was traveling on business. When I looked at the caller ID
I wondered why my husband’s boss would be calling me. I was unprepared for what
he told me and my legs turned to water when he said that my husband was dead.
‘A heart attack? An accident?’ I asked. ‘No’, he said, ‘John committed suicide.
They found him in your garage this morning.’ I heard someone screaming and
wished that they would stop so I could hear the rest. His voice was very far away
and the woman just kept screaming. ‘Shut up! Shut up!’ I need to hear. I clapped myJohn.Songof YUkon 001
hand over my mouth when I suddenly realized it was me who was screaming.
I don’t remember hanging up or getting on the plane.  Yes, John and I were having
problems and we had been separated for about three months but nothing was official.

After thirty years of marriage I never believed that we couldn’t weather this and share
the rest of our lives together. Continue reading “This Author featured on Poetrysoup.com”

Winners Announced in the FREE book Give-away!

Cover.Susan.new.book4-7We are so pleased to announce the winners of a signed, copy of Susan Elia Macneal’s new book, ‘The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent’.

CONGRATULATIONS!!   The winners are:  Sara Hyman and Micheal Nelson

Fans of Susan’s should check out my interview with her done last year.  This author brings back the WWII experience and Winston Churchill’s glory days  so vividly that readers will feel that they are there during the London Blitz, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the hot political climate of the day.

Susan.MacN

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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!  

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!

CREATIVE WRITER’S Journal and Handbook Now Available!

1.Creative.Write.BookCoverImage  Actor, director, playwright, author, Trisha Sugarek has created 305 pages of ‘How To’, Tips, Quotes, and  275 blank, lined pages for your writing.  ‘I have created this journal for writers of all genres.  Taken from my personal experience in the writing process, I hope it kick starts new writers to begin and more experience writers to continue.’

~~This spirited journal is designed to help writers open their hearts and minds. Much more than a journal for your creative writing, this handbook provides the writer with the ‘how to’s’ of writing. Tips, instructions and prompts to help you to hone your writing skill. Each blank, lined page has writing tips and quotes from other famous authors.~~

Available at www.amazon.com    

A writer is only a writer when he or she is writing. Thinking isn’t writing, research isn’t writing, doing anything other than writing isn’t writing. 

Neon.RMWO_cover_spine_REV84_copy

MacNeal’s release of new book Sparks Give-away!

Never one to break with tradition…..there’s a side story with regard to my enthusiasm for Susan Macneal’s writing. 

The first of the Maggie Hope spy mysteries, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, (which I highly recommend) is fiction but based in fact.  The author was fortunate enough to have had several interviews with Churchill’s private secretary before her death.  The book is about a ‘typist’ who was relegated to a menial job because of her gender.  She was actually educated in mathematics and cryptology and could easily have fitted in with MI-Five (British CIA) but for her being a woman.

I was so taken by Winston Churchill’s pets having the run of the war offices….and how Susan wove this little fact (with many others) into her story so deftly.  At the time I was looking for lighter material to round out my collectionchurchill.CATBookCover.do of short plays for the classroom.  An idea came to me  of Mr. Churchill noodling away in front of his easel and Nelson, his cat talking to the audience; telling them something about the times that they lived in, an anecdote or two about the Prime Minister and of course, listening patiently to Mr. Churchill’s comments about the world at large.

July 1st,  the fourth and newest book in the Maggie Hope series will go on sale.
Continue reading “MacNeal’s release of new book Sparks Give-away!”