Tag: female writers

Do You Care about your Family history??

A recent review I offered on Maya Angelou’s book, “Mom & Me & Mom” reminded me, once again, of the importance of recording family histories and story telling. 

shaman, story telling, cave dwellers, family, tribe, historySince man formed his first vocabulary, family and tribal news was carried from tribe to tribe, village to village by a storyteller. They would be welcomed in each cave, hut, and council house as an honored guest and nights would be spent around the fire listening to the latest news from family members living afar. Famine, a good harvest, movement of wild herds, warring tribes, births, deaths, alliances, all were carried by the professional storyteller.  After a few days passed the news had been told and the storyteller, rested and refreshed, would move on to the next tribe or settlement.

While growing up in the mid-fifties my mother (certainly a modern day storyteller) would tell me the stories of her and eleven siblings growing up in the forests of Tumwater, Washington (state).  The story of my mother’s sister, Ivahfamily stories, writing, journaling, story telling, cutting off her eyebrows in retaliation.  When all the kids were down with seafood poisoning and a dairy cow wandered into the yard crying to be milked (milk being the remedy for stomach disorders).  Another of my mother’s sisters’ panties falling down around her ankles while dancing at her first dress-up dance.

family stories, writers, family history, story telling

  I believe that these oral histories, as told by the elders of our families will soon (if not already) be a thing of the past.  Whenever I have the opportunity, whether it’s teaching a class on writing and storytelling or giving a lecture on same, I relate how important it is for each of us to record our own family’s rich history.  When grandparents are gone, the stories are gone with them.  My family story, whose origin began in Ireland and France,  was great material for my writing.   I have just published my second novel, “Wild Violets“.  It is loosely based on my mother, as a young entrepreneur, flapper and owner of a speakeasy, in San Francisco roaring 20's, flappers, new fiction, Wild Violetsin the 1920’s.

 In this day of television, dvd’s, and computers with games, these stories handed down from elder to child, will be lost forever.   Do YOU know some great stories that you were told as a child?

 It’s a great place to begin your writing career!

(Photo of five sisters above from left to right: LaVerne, Violet, , Gladys, Ivah, & Lillas)

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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!    Join us at 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, Caroline Leavitt, 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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To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  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!

Beware! Parents! 1.8 million teens run away every year!

It’s really been an eye opener since I began this series of short plays for today’s teenager and the classroom.
The research and the things I have learned about a teen’s world today have astounded and saddened me. Life was so much simpler when I was a teen.

running away, teenagers, run-aways, missing childrenBut then I remembered that I ran away from home…..on my horse! ….for about four hours. I rode twenty miles into town and went to my boyfriend’s mother’s house. She was so much cooler than my mom! After discussing the whole problem with her (it must have been earth-shattering but I cannot, for the life of me, remember what it was about.  I am certain that it had to do with my breaking the rules and my Dad grounding me.)  I called my Mom and  she told me if I could get back home, again on horseback, before my Dad woke up she wouldn’t tell him.

We galloped all the way back home!

But, I digress.  It astonished me; the number of teens who run away. This from www.troubled-teen.com:  ‘Some troubled teens are high risk for becoming teen runaways when they feel like they can’t handle problems at home. This is a frightening experience for parents and for teens. According to the National Runaway Switchboard, 1.6 to 2.8 million young people run away every year. Many teen runaways quickly find that running away is worse than the problems they have at home, but they may be afraid to go home.’

So I thought  I’d write another play  #27, for the classroom on this subject.  One where teens could ‘role play’ running awayteen run aways, running away, teenagers, classroom, short plays (’cause we know that it has crossed most teenager’s minds to do that very thing.) in a safe environment and perhaps get a feeling for just how dangerous it is.

Synopsis: Molly is fifteen and defiant when it comes to the rules her single parent Mom has set down. When she is forbidden to see the older boy she is dating and then grounded for a month, Molly runs away. Only to find that the streets are no place to run to. This short play for the classroom or drama department offers a safe environment for teenagers to explore the risks of running away from home. 3f. 1m. Cast can be expanded.
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! 

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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  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!

Rescue Yourself! My latest posting on InspireMeToday.com

rescue, empowerment,               As a contributing writer for InspireMeToday.com my latest posting appeared yesterday.

‘Life’s a bumpy road; we can all agree on that. You’re not going to avoid it. Stuff just happens. The trick is to avoid falling into the ten foot holes. Chances are, no one will be there with an eleven foot ladder to help you out…..’ 

 

Click here to read the entire article.

 

Read my new blog on InspireMeToday.com

self-help, inspiration, wisdom, happiness  “UNDER CONSTRUCTION”  A sign I have worn for a few years!

As a contributing writer/blogger to this inspirational site it is my pleasure to share my wisdom.  Lessons that life has taught me as I traveled the sometimes bumpy road of life.  You can survive the bumps; the real trick is to avoid falling into the ten foot holes.  Frequently there is no one there with an eleven foot ladder to help you out.

Excerpt: ‘A famous psychologist (his first name is Phil) talks about the fact that we all have pivotal points in our lives; Crossroads if you will where we can turn down a path of self-pity, victimism, feeling angry at the world and an urge to ‘give up’. Or turning the other way and seeking empowerment, happiness, and a full life.

In August of 2006 I experienced a harsh, heartbreaking pivotal point in my life when my husband of thirty years died suddenly.’

Yesterday InspireMe posted another of my blogs.  Enjoy!!

http://www.inspiremetoday.com/blog/

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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.

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 blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  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)

 ambercasket2011-150x112[1]             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.
authors, writers, interviews

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.

interviews, best sellers, authors    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?amber.book.cover.Amber

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.

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 blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  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 1)

      amber Author and Embalmer, Amber Winckler, is interviewed

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

A. My writing takes place all over. I am a memo book writer from way back and I have them everywhere: my purse, my locker at work, beneath the seat of my car… I often text or email ideas and thoughts to myself via my phone, so I don’t forget them. As any writer knows, good ideas tend to float away if you don’t quickly trap them in real time, dragging them from the abyss and converting them into words.

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. No consistent rituals. I do need to be alone. Sometimes I listen to music if I am writing a piece that needs to be colored by a particular emotion. Some entire scenes from my books have been written to a single song looped over and over for hours. Having my cat around is always nice.interviews, amber winckler, authors, writers

Q. What is your mode of writing? 

A. Long hand is still my first choice, but I am slowly converting my brain (and hand) over to the keyboard. Still, writing with a good, heavy pen that rolls smooth and easy is the way my thoughts flow best. After the accumulation of memo books and notes becomes too overwhelming, I begin converting them over to my computer.

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

A. I am not a disciplined writer. I find that a set time brings out my innate need to rebel. I choose not to make my living through writing. In my mind, I earn my daily bread as a mortician. I write for me. That is how I try to protect my writing from becoming spoiled or tedious. When I have been on a schedule, my writing stalls. I also need lots of time in between writing to read. Reading Amber._frontcoverclassics inspire 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.
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A note from a fan, Lori S: An impressive creativity is found throughout the writings of Winckler. Plots are fascinating although disturbing and show an underlying wash of disgust. This is something one cannot just “put down” and read later. Those with an iron stomach and vivid imaginations will benefit most from the outrageous and bold detail the writer supplies. Witnessing a train wreck could compare. You want know about it, you don’t want to look — but you do anyway.

The writer offers a compelling combination of life experience to her writing with her background in embalming and working for a amber eyescoroner, it lends her the ability to recognize every gory detail that would usually go unnoticed by a layman. One of her stories must be finished in its entirety, while you are sitting on the edge trying to determine how the tale will unfold. It is hard to distinguish a genre for these writings and in conclusion, it is believed that the reader determines that. For now it’s fiction for definition, but is it really?
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Don’t miss Part 2 on Wednesday, April 24th!
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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.

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 blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  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!

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

amber winckler, writers, authors, 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 interviews, best sellers, authors
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”

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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  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!

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

 

literacy, words, writing, 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 texting, words, misspelled, abbreviationsand 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)

literacy, words, writing, 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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To receive my posts sign up for my blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  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!

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

        writing, blog, authors, create         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. women's fiction, roaring twenties, flappers, prohibition

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”

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 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 blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  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…Interview with author, Mark Childress (part 1)

interviews, author quotesThis 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 interviews, authors, writershouse 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.

interviews, authors, writers, movies, Crazy in AlabamaBiography: 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”  

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, 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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