Dear Trisha,
Congratulations, this is just a quick notice to let you know that your poem
The Blues 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
5 out of 5 stars ~~ Book Review
From the first page, the reader is captivated by the sultry afternoon in the deep South, the cotton fields, the red earth, and the narrative from one small girl.
Be prepared to be unable to put this magnificent story down. Sonny Creech and her family draw you in; sweating as they hoe the fields, worrying about where the next dollar is coming from, putting up with two crass brothers’ antics, and a sudden tragedy that rocks their family.
The characters are so beautifully drawn by this author; the reader feels they have known them their whole lives. Mr. Fowler was a superb villain. I loved to hate him and I was rooting for his downfall, which by the way, wasn’t assured at all.
I highly recommend this book to my readers.
Did you miss my interview with Donna Everhart?
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D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review~~
(Warning! Spoiler alert)
Hannah Mae stepped past the gunny sack that acted as a door to their shack
and walked into the yard. A heavy-set woman in a hideous polyester suit struggled up the dirt path. “Can I hep’ y’all? Ya lost?”
“I’m looking for the guardian for the children of Daisy McAllister. Name’s Betty Jones. I’m from the St. Charles Home’s Ladies Auxiliary, St. Vincent De Paul Society.”
When almost adult Hannah Mae and her younger brother are left orphaned upon their mother’s death, they find themselves at the mercy of the St. Vincent De Paul Society. With her brother young enough to be considered for adoption, Hannah Mae faces the reality that, at sixteen-nearing-seventeen, she is likely to remain under the care of the Catholic Children’s Home until she comes of age to make her own way in the world.
Hannah Mae clings to one mandate—remain at her brother’s side against all odds. And so Ain’t Nuthin’ Gonna Separate Us traverses the rocky world of older siblings raising younger ones sans any family support system, fueled by Hannah Mae’s determination to not let outsiders tear them apart.
Readers who anticipate that the story will revolve around this struggle alone will be pleasantly surprised to find more depth in these still waters, because Jerry is actually a musical prodigy. Hannah Mae finds herself fostering his talent as much as she reinforces his connections to her.
Despite the focus on Hannah Mae in the beginning, the limelight edges over to Jerry’s talents, achievements, and the many changes they portend as the two stand against a world that would divide, repress, or misunderstand them.
Trisha Sugarek cultivates the environment, feel, and culture of the South, setting her story in the small Mississippi town of Laurel in the 1950s. She reviews a lifestyle that opens with siblings threatened by separation, then grows the story to fully embrace the Southern milieu.
Early descriptions cement the story with a sense of place and purpose. This creates a compelling, thought-provoking examination of influences, both personal and cultural, that drive Hannah Mae’s determination to search for remaining family roots despite the risks she takes by evading the foster care system:
Hannah Mae’s reluctance to give anyone their last name and her fear of the foster care system was outweighed by her deep desire to have access to all these lovely books. She whispered, “Hannah Mae and Gerald McAllister.”Jerry, too, grows in unexpected directions as he receives musical instruction on the harmonica that allows his innate genius to blossom. As the tale evolves, its focus shifts between Hannah Mae and Jerry’s growth as each field both new opportunities and adversity.
Whether she’s navigating the foster care system or responding to racial inequalities, Hannah Mae keeps her eyes on the ultimate goal of not just survival, but family connections and growth.
Sugarek’s outstanding, realistic portrait of the 1950s South and the forces that buffet two children reaching for more than rote safety creates a memorable tale. It will reach a wide audience, from those interested in Southern settings and portraits to readers of coming-of-age stories and sagas of survival, musical growth, and foster care struggles.
Sugarek’s attention to probing the underlying responsibilities, choices, and consequences of not just individual action, but systems geared to provide support, is especially notable:
Now a white man, unknown to all of them, was threatening to take her baby brother away from this safe home they’d made for Jerry. Hannah Mae wasn’t certain she could make the right decision for anyone.
Sugarek’s research into blues music (Muddy Waters, in particular) lends realistic background and observation into this world as she spices her own memories of the times with intensive research. This reinforces both the atmosphere and facts about the entertainment industry which dovetail over the social issues of a changing South.
All these facets are why Ain’t Nuthin’ Gonna Separate Us is a thoroughly compelling read that’s highly recommended not just for library collections interested in powerful portraits of young lives under siege, but book clubs. These audiences will find plenty of fodder for discussion in the many ways Hannah Mae and Jerry cement their relationships, values, and life connections.
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GO WITH IT!!
I write this post at the risk of my readers rubbing their temples and saying to themselves, ‘Trish has completely gone off the rails. Now she’s got voices talking to her, reaching out their hands and leading her down another story pathway? Has she gone completely nuts?’
I’m not a very organized writer…well, that is to say, I just let ‘er rip! I’m what’s known as a ‘pantser‘. A writer who dives into their work without a detailed plan or outline is often called a “pantser”. Yes, you read that right—it’s not a typo! The term ‘pantser’ comes from the phrase “flying by the seat of your pants.” These writers rely on their intuition and creativity to guide them as they write, allowing the story to unfold naturally without the constraints of pre-planning. Famous authors who embrace this approach include Margaret Atwood, George R.R. Martin, and Stephen King. So I’m in good company.
So here how it works:
I have an idea of a story plot but only in my head. When my brain is so full of the new story I must empty it out, I sit at my keyboard and began typing. It’s going very well, the words are flowing and the story is going in the direction I had loosely planned.
Then one night, (120 pages in) about 3am (my best thinking time) I thought to myself, ‘this isn’t about Hannah Mae at all. It’s about her brother, Jerry and his music.’ I lay there and started dictating into my phone the salient points I wanted to tell. How young Jerry is a prodigy. He can play a song after he hears it just once. He can write the music down on paper. He composes effortlessly.
It was like Jerry reached out his hand and led me to his story path. And now with a bit of editing I am exploring his story and the musicians and mentors he meets as a young musician. It has been fascinating, for me, to research and learn about the ‘bluesmen’ of the 1950’s.
I mentioned it’s happened before: I had occasion to visit a state prison for men and as I sat waiting with the other visitors (mostly other women) their energy reached out to me and whispered, “you must write about us. The women who wait, the women who hold the family together until the day our man is released.’
I began writing their stories the next day.
Half way through writing this warm and fuzzy tale, I was interrupted when one of my characters took a hostage, at knife point, in the visiting room. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I remember yelling at the computer screen, “NO!!” I considered ignoring what the character, Charlie, had done. Back space the words, delete them, forget it had happened. But I couldn’t. It was already there on the screen and besides…it was a good twist and made perfect sense within the plot. It was meant to be.
I knew nothing about hostage negotiating. It was a delay of about two months while I researched and wove a new negotiator into my story, how the other visitors relate to her (yes, she’s a female negotiator .) and remembering that the entire visitors’ area has been taken hostage too.
Learn how to do the rest: story plot, character development, structure, arc, themes, rising action, inciting incident/s, and setting.
But, TRUST YOUR GUT! Your creativity, intuition, and (if you’re very lucky) your story characters should lead you through the story that must be told!
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Q. What first inspired you to write?
SM. I always loved writing, even when I was a child. Then by chance I read a medical romance when I was working as a nurse and I was sure I could write one! I did, and I had a great deal of fun doing it. My whole career started from there.
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?
SM. Sometimes I do, depending on where I am in the book. But I’m careful not to romanticize writing. There are days when the words flow easily and those days are to be treasured of course, but there are also days where I’m examining each sentence and editing closely, making sure that everything I write is as good as it can be and that is important too. Writing is wonderful, but also hard work and I think it’s important to acknowledge that. If it feels hard it’s not because you’re not doing it right!
Q. What compelled you to choose and settle on the genre you now write in?
SM. I mostly write women’s fiction now, but there is almost always some romance in my books (and I wrote romance for years before I moved on to broader stories). I’m interested in relationships, and that includes family and friends as well as romantic relationships. I’m interested in what happens when friendships are challenged, when family relationships are in conflict and when romance isn’t straightforward. I enjoy exploring many of the issues that affect women today, but most of all I love to entertain and romance and women’s fiction are both entertaining genres.
Q. Are you working on something now or have a new release coming up? If so tell us about it.
SM. I’ve just finished a book that will be out in time for the festive season.
It’s called The Holiday Cottage (in the UK the title is The Christmas Cottage) and it explores themes of loneliness, friendship and family. It was so much fun to write and I hope it will make readers laugh aloud (although they may well shed a tear too!).
Q. When did you begin to write seriously?
SM. I’ve scribbled stories and experimented for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t finish a book until I was at home with young children. After that there was no stopping me.
Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper books?
SM. No I don’t. I think readers are individuals and we all seek different ways to read. I know people who walk for miles listening to an audiobook, who use an ebook to soften the boredom of a long commute, but will still lounge in a bubble bath with a paperback at the end of the day. And let’s not underestimate the appeal of a beautiful hardcover book with sprayed edges!
Q. What makes a writer great?
SM. As a reader I want to be immersed in the story and engaged with the characters. I want to be transported from my world to the world the writer has created, and I want to care enough about what happens in the book to want to read the book in one sitting. A great writer will make me feel everything the characters are feeling.
Did you miss Part 1 of this wonderful Interview?
The conclusion upcoming next week!
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JW. I’m the second of four daughters born to Lois and Walt. My father’s family were (are) enrolled members of the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa Indians. My mother’s family was in the logging business and lived close to Gifford Pinchot State Park. I grew up in Tacoma, Washington.
In 1988, I met and married a Kiwi polo player, and we moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, where I have worked in the arts and events industry, creating and producing events and festivals ever since. For my services to the arts, the King appointed me an Officer of the N Z Merit of Honor.
I discovered the soothing effects of writing in 1985, the same year I got sober, after someone suggested I write my thoughts in a journal. I journaled for a couple of years before deciding to write a novel. How to Grow an Addict, was published in 2015. My second novel, Eat and Get Gas, was released on June 6, 2023, and has been optioned for TV/Film by Producer Leanne Moore (GLOW and The Lincoln Lawyer for Netflix).
Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, or special space for your writing? (please provide a photo of you at work in your shed, room,
closet, barn, or houseboat….) Or tell us about your ‘dream’ workspace.
JW. I taught myself to tune out the world and focus on writing, and for years I was happy to write almost anywhere. Lately though, in this covid era, I write at home, where it’s quiet. I use my laptop and often move from desk to couch to chair.
Q. Do you have any special rituals or quirks when you sit down to write? (a neat workspace, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, a glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)
JW. I eat a lot of toast when I’m in a writing groove (avocado, strawberry jam with too much butter, and occasionally a smashed banana), and I often turn off my phone and lock the front door. I have a pen collection and many notebooks filled with ideas and comments.
Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?
JW. I cringe when I read or hear the word ‘moist.’
Q. What tools do you begin with? Legal pad, spiral notebook, pencils, fountain pen, or do you go right to your keyboard?
JW. I write on Post-it notes, in a notebook, on my phone, and my laptop.
Q. Do you have pets? Tell us about them and their names. 
JW. We have four polo ponies (Roxy, Rudy, Allie, and Pearl), two cats (Max and Gracie), and nine chickens (Lucy, Gothe, Little Lavie, Big Lavie, Grey Stumpy, Black Stumpy, White Stumpy, Hooty one and
Hooty two).
Q. Do you enjoy writing in other forms (playwriting, poetry, short stories, etc.)?
If yes, tell us about it.
JTW. I’ve been trying to write a decent short story for months. It’s harder than I thought it would be.
Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?
JW. I don’t have advice because it’s an issue for me, too, but I’ve learned that suffering is optional, and it’s best if I give into the thing that yells at me to be written.
Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?
Join us for part 2 of our Interview next week.
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK
USA Today Bestselling author Tracy Sumner’s storytelling career began when she picked up a historical romance on a college beach trip, and she fondly blames LaVyrle Spencer for her obsession with the genre. When she’s not writing sizzling love stories about feisty heroines and their temperamental-but-entirely-lovable heroes, Tracy enjoys reading, snowboarding, college football (Go Tigers!), yoga, and travel.
Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, or special space for your writing? (please provide a photo of you at work in your shed, room, closet, barn, or houseboat….) Or tell us about your ‘dream’ workspace.
TS. I write wherever I can. In Stephen King’s book On Writing, he has thoughts about not setting yourself into a habit where you can only write in one, perfect place. Or when you feel like the muse is sitting on your 
shoulder. 🙂 That said, I have a writing area in my bedroom. LOL, I live in NYC and we don’t have extra space to give for offices typically. It’s cute, though, and has my writing awards and personal thing, books and swag! My dream would, of course, be to have a room that looked like a Regency library! With shelves and shelves of books!
Q. Do you have any special rituals or quirks when you sit down to write? (a neat workspace, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, a glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)
TS. I like to write with gentle music on, no lyrics. I can’t have television or anything distracting on. I usually read the first two pages (or so) of the previous day’s work to get into the rhythm. I also edit these pages at this time, so in the end, working this way, my manuscripts are fairly clean.
Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?
TS. I’ve lived in Europe and Asia – and my son is adopted from Vietnam! I live in NYC, but I’m a native South Carolinian and still have a place in Beaufort, SC, too that I’ll retire to.
Q. What tools do you begin with? Legal pad, spiral notebook, pencils, fountain pen, or do you go right to your keyboard?
TS. I’m a right to keyboard writer! 😉
Q. Do you have pets? Tell us about them and their names.
TS. Before Covid, I fostered kittens a lot (harder to do in NYC due to space
limitations) and I adopted one of my fosters, Banksy. He’s about 8 now and is a love bug! You’ll see he has one eye. He was spray-painted as a kitten by a homeless man and rescued by the police. It damaged his eye, which was removed, and I named him Banksy, after the graffiti artist!
Q. Do you enjoy writing in other forms (playwriting, poetry, short stories, etc.)?
If yes, tell us about it.
Join us next Friday for part 2 of this Interview
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK
Eyes on the Road, Girlie is my latest offering. Just written a few days ago and now, of course, in rewrites.
Truth is funnier (and stranger) than fiction.
My housekeeper relayed this story in passing the other day. Her client is a 90-year-old woman who no longer drives but still loves her outings. So she has hired a caregiver, not to help with her meds, clean her house, help her shower, or fix her meals. No. She has hired Diana to drive her around three days a week. Sometimes they are random drives, sometimes to the nearby ocean beach, or a historic site, or to beautiful downtown Savannah with all of her charming squares. Her choices are never premeditated; always picked spontaneously on the morning of the outing. But! two things are absolute: Breakfast biscuits at McDonald’s and luncheon at Chik-Fil-A.
When I heard this story told in real time, my imagination sprung to life: this would make a charming, perhaps funny, (I never know when my writing will turn up funny) short play. And so, as often is the case, dialogue began running in my head until I was forced to write it down.
Fellow writers: Life and the people around you will supply you with all you need if you but look and listen.
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK
Recently a fellow writer and friend asked me this question: “What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like? I asked other authors to answer that question in my monthly author interviews. Having also completed 16 novels I’d like to add my two cents:
I sometimes used my play script (by the same name) as my book outline/treatment. As the scenario was so current (because it was a play), I found that flashbacks were a great way to flesh out each woman’s story and it served me well. It took me a year and four months to write and edit it. That equals 72,000 words.
I did not have a deadline and it probably would have really helped. I was my own deadline setter and that didn’t work out so well. On the other hand, I think having a publisher breathing down my neck would have stifled my creative flow. When life got in the way I wouldn’t work on it for weeks but then I would get inspired and work on it for days, weeks, non-stop, sometimes 10-14 hours a day. So I guess it all evened out. Whatever you do,
don’t beat yourself up if you don’t write for a few days… although I preach that you should write something every day. But if you hit a dry spell, you’ll make up for it with better, more relaxed creative writing.
Because I inherently ‘rush’, I found that I had to watch-dog myself and be careful not to leave out important roads of the story. I was in early proofing of the final product of my novel and realized (in a countless re-read) that I had never described my female negotiator’s physical appearance. (Yikes!). Again, (if the writer tends to rush) go back and re-read your work to see where you need to flesh out a chapter or a character.
I am not structured at all. I write a new project in my head for days, weeks and then when my brain is about to burst I begin putting it down on paper (computer). I also write out of sequence and I think that’s okay. My novel’s last chapter was completed months before the middle was written.
Some writers have actually written whole books while blogging; they found it less daunting by writing in segments. At the end they had a book and then they published. If you need a deadline the days that you commit to writing a blog would serve. For me this wouldn’t work; I would feel too exposed having my rough draft out there for the world to see as I am a writer who slams it down the first time around and then edit, edit, delete, edit. Did I mention that the lettering is worn off my ‘delete’ key?
Frequently I will begin a story that has inspired me, not knowing much about the subject. It has sometimes stopped me dead in my tracks while I researched (example: hostage negotiations or building a cabin in the
1920’s). I had 8 pages of a new play about Winston Churchill written and had to stop to do research. I find that it can be done while I am writing and that is what I prefer. It’s more fun and keeps me interested. I don’t think I would do well having my research all done before I put my story down. I find that the research itself inspires my story line.
And then there is that unseen, unheard phenomenon where, with any luck, the characters take over and you become the typist. . This has happened to me time and again, and while I resisted at first (being a control-freak) I now embrace and welcome it. In Women Outside the Walls my character Alma, at sixteen, is abandoned by her promiscuous mother. Alma is befriended by the ex-girl friend of the man Alma had a teen crush on. They end up being room mates. I could never have dreamed that one up; but my characters got together and decided that this was what they would to do.
I don’t think that there is a right or wrong way to go through the process. Each writer should be unique in how they work. Instead of thinking of it as a project/deadline ‘thing’; think of it as a work of art, created just for you and by you. Where possible, let the characters lead you. They will never steer you wrong!
well, there you have it…the process such as it is for me and how it works.
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK
Dear Trisha,
Congratulations, this is just a quick notice to let you know that your poem Twenty-Five is one of the poems being featured on the PoetrySoup home page this week.
Thanks again and congratulations.
Sincerely,
PoetrySoup
Twenty-five by poet, Trisha Sugarek
25 seconds: the time it
takes to fall in love….
25 minutes: into rehearsal
we have our first kiss….
25 hours: I am dreaming of
you….
25 days: I know it is just the
beginning….
25 weeks: we are having
“make up” sex….
25 months: stranded in
Tucson, I’m sling’in hash
and you’re ropin’ steers….
25 years: Best friends, still in
love, comfortable in our
own skins, at ease and
amused by each other’s
quirks.…
….shoring up each other’s
desires, choices, and
judgments, good or bad….
sustaining each other no
matter what…
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK
