Tag: female writers

Trisha Sugarek, Guest Blogger on FreshFiction.com TODAY!

This author is a guest blogger on FreshFiction.com TODAY! Telling the story behind “The Art of Murder” and how it went from an idea to a book to a series.  Trish is currently working on book 2, “The Dance of Murder”  in the series The World of Murder.

Click here:   http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=5447

Murder mysteries, gift ideas, New York, crime
Book 1 of The World of Murder series

Win a chance to receive, FREE, one of Trisha’s latest novels.

In a special ‘give away’ 10 visitors to FreshFiction.com  will win a book, “Wild Violets” or “The Art of Murder”.

 

fiction, women, flappers, prohibition, San Francisco, roaring twenties“Wild Violets” is also available in Audio Books!

 

The Grande Dame of Historic Fiction was so much More!

romance, historic, fiction, Barbara CartlandYes, the snobs of the literary world might have scoffed at her pink signature Chanel suits, her poofy hats, her Pekinese dogs, and her silly romantic stories.   But, they can’t quite get around her fifty plus years of writing, resulting in over 1,000 million books sold, or the fact that she spent her life  making the world a better place.

Her name was Barbara Cartland.  I know I must have started buying her books somewhere around 1972 because one of her letters to me was dated 1975.  So I have been reading her historic, romantic fiction up until about ten years ago.  Collecting hard covers when I could find them!  I would send them to her and she would autograph them and always, always send a nice note and a little gift back to me.  Most treasured gift was a gold-gilded oak leaf from an oak tree on Barbara’s property.   The “Deer Oak”, which is said to have been planted by Queen Elizabeth the First in 1550, at the spot where she killed her first deer, is on the estate.

Continue reading “The Grande Dame of Historic Fiction was so much More!”

You needn’t Suffer Waiting for the New Season of Downton Abbey — a Review

book reviews, best sellers, best selling authors    REVIEW  reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing (5 out of 5 quills)

HEIRS and GRACES    Newest book in the Royal Spyness series
by Rhys Bowen

Impoverished, royal Georgiana Rannoch is set another task by HRM, the Queen.  ‘Get thee gone….’to a grand country house and help an uncooperative Heir adjust to his new station in life and  a mammoth fortune.   Said heir, Jack, has been snatched from a sheep station in Australia, brought to England, and is the most reluctant of future Dukes.

‘Jack jumped to his feet. “How can you talk calmly of eating when your son is dead and everyone thinks I stabbed him?” he shouted.
 “Such an outburst, the dowager Duchess said. “Hardly seemly for a duke, John.  Really you will have to learn to control your emotions. Of course I’m upset at the loss of my son.  I am outraged that somebody chose to murder him. But I am also aware that it is up to us to set a good example, chin up, best foot forward and all that.  This household will continue as usual, except for the fact that we be in mourning for the requisite amount of time….’  Continue reading “You needn’t Suffer Waiting for the New Season of Downton Abbey — a Review”

“Emma and the Lost Unicorn” an Audio Book is now Available!!

faeries, elves, warlocks, fables, riddles, fairy tales, theatre   GREAT NEWS!  “Emma and the Lost Unicorn” is now AVAILABLE as an AUDIO BOOK
at www.audible.com and www.amazon.com and iTunes.com

 

In addition to a paperback with wonderful illustrations it is AVAILABLE in AUDIO

Emma Retail Sample Listen

 

Rainey, the unicorn, is a prince who has been banished, for centuries, by the warlock, Hazard. He can never return home unless Emma solves more riddles than Kodak. The fable ends with a surprise twist, when Hazard’s Lieutenant reveals his secret weakness. It will delight readers young and old. While written for children, this fairy tale is sophisticated enough to appeal to adults as well.

Queens, warlocks, faeries, elves, unicorns, handmaidens, scary henchmen and one small mortal girl child, in an enchanted forest. The rhetorical owl and naughty elf provide much laughter.
This parable offers many subtle lessons. Continue reading ““Emma and the Lost Unicorn” an Audio Book is now Available!!”

Behind the Shattered Glass by Tasha Alexander…a review

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing reviews, authors, writing    5 out of 5 quills     A Review of Tasha Alexander‘s latest Release

I don’t know about you but I love the characters in a story ‘below the stairs’ as much as the main characters in stories such as Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs and of course in all of Alexander’s  ‘Lady Emily Mysteries’.  This author has always given her best sellers, writers, best selling authors, Victorian, mysteryreaders a little taste of the servants’ lives surrounding her main characters: investigators, Emily and Colin Hargreave.
But in Behind the Shattered Glass we get to walk behind the ‘green baize door’ and join the servants in the kitchen.  And what wonderful characters they are!

This is a tangled murder mystery and I think, one of Alexander’s best.  A beautiful country home, love is in the air, and the rich aristocrats are doing what rich aristocrats do; shooting, drinking, dancing seducing, riding, and sleuthing.

Continue reading “Behind the Shattered Glass by Tasha Alexander…a review”

An Ode to Our Cats….Hank and me

In this two part post, I write about the love of cats.  I know, I know!  You either hate ’em or love ’em. Both camps are die-hards.  You can’t live with one or you can’t live without one, or two, or three!  For all of Charles Bukowski’s hard living, boozing, philandering, drunken brawls and genius writing, he was a complete softie when it came to cats….even cats that weren’t his own.  He inspired me to write this ode to my dear old Shadow who died and to my new cat, ‘Wild Thang’.  In part two I feature his poetry about his cats.

An Ode to our Cats….Hank and me

she was a feral kitten in the back alleycat lovers, cats, Charles Bukowski

hiding under the deck

she crept out one day while I sat in the

sun, reading and

the first time I picked Shadow up

she shit all over me, so afraid

she was of any human

Next time, she didn’t shit on me and

slowly we became friends

for the next sixteen years

she was one hundred and twelve

when she died Continue reading “An Ode to Our Cats….Hank and me”

An Interview with Tasha Alexander (part 3)

The conclusion to my Interview with mystery writer, Tasha Alexander

Tasha Alexander, best sellers, mysteries,
Tasha and husband, author, Andrew Grant

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

A. The first part of “no book” land is a barren, hideous wasteland. You’re sure you’ll never have a book-worthy idea again. You’re sure you should have gone to law school. You wonder if it’s too late. Then, as you’re reading, doing research, a little idea comes to you and you start developing it, researching it, playing with it. Pretty soon it coalesces and then you enter into the everything-is-possible-and-beautiful stage. A stage that never lasts long enough. In this stage, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the book. It can be the best thing you’ve ever written. It has no flaws. It will change your life.

All this is possible, of course, because you have not yet written a single word. Once you start writing, the book immediately loses all its shiny goodness. Continue reading “An Interview with Tasha Alexander (part 3)”

Grand Country Houses, Victorian England, Murder! Delicious! an Inteview with Tasha Alexander (part 2)

Tasha Alexander, best sellers, fiction, interviews
Burton Agnes Hall

Part 2…my Interview with Tasha Alexander

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

A. Writing a first draft is the most intense part of the process for me. When I’m doing research, kicking around or fleshing out plot ideas, or revising, I can interact with other people, run my household, etc. etc. But drafting is another story altogether. I have a daily word count goal when I’m drafting and will not stop until I have reached it. I get very focused on what I’m doing and am barely functional in other capacities. When I was in this mode last year, my son asked me to make him pancakes for lunch. I did. Unfortunately, however, instead of using the recipe I have made thousands of times, I randomly followed one on the opposite page of the cookbook, not realizing what I had done until I noticed the batter seemed weird. My head was completely in the book. We ordered pizza. Which just goes to prove that sometimes it’s better to let pizza boxes pile up than to try to cook.

Funnily enough, cooking is a huge part of my writing process—just earlier and later in the life of the book. It’s my favorite thing to do when I’ve got ideas percolating in the back of my brain. You think you’re browning meat for Julia Child’s boeuf bourguignon, but all of a sudden you realize Continue reading “Grand Country Houses, Victorian England, Murder! Delicious! an Inteview with Tasha Alexander (part 2)”

“Bertie the Bookworm and the Bully Boys” now an Audio Book!

fairies, books for children, literacy, reading, bullying, bullies, elves,
A story book with full color illustrations

The third in the Fabled Forest Series, “Bertie, the Bookworm and the Bully Boys” is now available as an AUDIO BOOK  at www.audible.com and www.amazon.com as well as www.iTunes. com

Bertie, the bookworm is the fabled forest’s elder and teacher. Every week he has a spelling and reading circle where everyone is welcomed. Slam and his gang of bully boys are forever teasing, disrupting, and bullying Bertie and the group of faeries and woodland creatures. Pansy, the pixie is a new character in this third of the Fabled Forest series. She is a defender of reading, truth, and Bertie. Cheets, our beloved elf from past books gets in with the wrong crowd and his friends are worried that he will become the newest member of the Bully Boys. Best friends with Cheets, Pansy is determined to save her friend.  The story teaches gentle lessons about literacy, bullying and ageism.

In an October post I’ll tell you more about the adventures of producing AUDIO books…..meeting new people, choosing a narrator, (a young opera singer from Switzerland)….the character voices she was able to create.  Listen to Sample

Continue reading ““Bertie the Bookworm and the Bully Boys” now an Audio Book!”

Lady Emily sails into the Salon to Find a Dead Body! Interview with Author, Tasha Alexander (1 of 3)

 

writers, best selling authors, Tasha Alexander                   Let’s peek into Tasha’s writing world….    “any delay opens the door to the possibility of not writing at all.”

 INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR, TASHA ALEXANDER

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

A. Before I started to write, I had this idea—an idea many of us have at the beginning—that I would need the right sort of space in which to work. I had visions of lovely bookshelf-lined rooms with big windows and a large antique table. Reality was that I lived in an attic apartment in New Haven, where the only think that might be construed as an office or study was an unfinished section of the attic (no windows) where we had draped canvas to form a ceiling that would keep the bats from dive-bombing whoever was sitting at the computer. Not being a fan of bats, I learned quickly to be adaptable. It turns out where you write isn’t so important as it might seem. I can write in an airport lounge, a coffee shop, on a bench waiting for my son to come out of his drawing class. My preferred spot at home is my bedroom. For some reason, sitting in bed is the one place I can work without ever getting wrist or shoulder pain (you’d think it would be an ergonomic nightmare, but it’s not). Continue reading “Lady Emily sails into the Salon to Find a Dead Body! Interview with Author, Tasha Alexander (1 of 3)”