Tag: freedom

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!”

Nostalgia….Spanish Camp (Part 1)

We left the $11. a night motel just outside of Winthrop, a sleepy little town in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains. winthrop We had to be at the corral by 6AM sharp.  The pavement became dirt four miles out of town and we drove the last few miles dodging pot holes and rocks.  It was September 10, 1962. Nestled amongst quaking aspen trees just off the road was a large fenced corral.  Pick up trucks were parked haphazardly about and men were off loading horse-pack gear and tack.  As we parked, our guide walked over and introduced himself.  He reiterated that we could take as much as we liked to insure our comfort at the camp site.  We had taken him at his word.  We had packed a camp stove that was made from a half 25 gallon barrel, stove pipe and all.  Our large canvas tent slept four even though there was only the two of us. Camp chairs and a folding table.  Sleeping bags, extra pillows, Army folding cots so we could sleep off the ground and gun cases.  We were traveling in style. Continue reading “Nostalgia….Spanish Camp (Part 1)”

Do You have Strange Rituals when Writing?

Strange habits of very successful writers.  Courtesy:  Kelton Reid, Copyblogger Media writer.

1.Try writing horizontally.

George Orwell, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, famous quotes, famous writers, history, poetry, Bukowski, ChurchillWinston Churchill, and Marcel Proustproust were all famous for churning out pages while lying in bed. Novelist Truman Capote also wrote everything in longhand in the horizontal position. Don’t forget, proper rest is crucial to creativity, so if you’re already there, why not grab the laptop and give it a try?

2.Take a walk or bike ride without a destination in mind.

Charles Dickens and Henry Miller both used to wander around Europe trying to get lost, a technique that psychologists say can foster creativity. Continue reading “Do You have Strange Rituals when Writing?”

New Year’s Resolution for Writers!

authors, writing, writers, interviewsOkay…here’s some tough love!   Get your butt in that chair and write something………..or finish something !!!      You’ve read my interviews with famous, best selling authors for about a year now.  And the recurring theme is DISCIPLINE!!

Forget what others might think of your scribbles…they’re yours and they’re PERFECT!  And what if they aren’t perfect?  So What!!??  If I thought I was going to get perfection when I first began writing, I would never have written a word.  All I hoped for was to grow as a writer and keep growing with every new project.  Still not perfect………….

Write a short story.  Write a poem in prose. Write a play.  Finish your novel.  WRITE SOMETHING!!

Now, here’s the tough part.  You have to be selfish to be a writer.  You have to tell your spouse, or kids or friends that you aren’t going to be available for a couple of hours.  And mean it!!   Then go lock yourself in a room and WRITE!!   Then tomorrow (or this weekend) do it again. Continue reading “New Year’s Resolution for Writers!”

‘Brave’…Brilliantly Written…an Overdue, Alternate Ending to Prince Charming

braveI don’t really know why I’m writing about this topic…could it be because the writing for “Brave” was so exceptional?...filled with double entendre like the Mama Bear fighting to protect her ‘cubs‘.  Once in awhile I enjoy a good Disney animated film. And I hadn’t seen the advances of animation in a long time, so I rented ‘Brave’.

We all know the timeless, underlying theme, the girl is looking for her Prince Charming.  Her Prince finds her, usually rescues her and they live happily ever after. Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Robin Hood, The Little Mermaid, the list goes on and on.

God knows that’s how I was raised; that my Prince Charming would come someday and I too would live happily ever after.  After all, when all was said and done, every movie (in my days of growing up)  had an underlying story with this result and girls of my decade pretty much sat back and waited for HIM.  Now, fifty  years later and three husbands ago, I finally achieved some wisdom and the fact is there are NO Prince Charmings  and all three men that I married were just as human as I was. What a huge expectation I put on them! Continue reading “‘Brave’…Brilliantly Written…an Overdue, Alternate Ending to Prince Charming”

My Interview with Best Selling author Heidi Jon Schmidt (part 3)

Heidi.Style

The final segment of my Interview with this fascinating author!

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

A. I guess references to the Jonestown Massacre would be inappropriate? For some people it’s a pretty orderly process. I envy them and I try to be more orderly with every book. But I also think it’s important for the writer to be on a quest of his own, to be trying to understand the story in a million ways, and learning new things through the whole process of writing. When the writer figures something out, about the characters or the story– that generates real excitement for the reader. I’ve generally needed an editor at the end, the way one needs an obstetrician at the end of a pregnancy. And sometimes the editor has needed forceps.

Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters ? Continue reading “My Interview with Best Selling author Heidi Jon Schmidt (part 3)”

How Do those oysters get to your Dinner Table? Interview with Heidi Jon Schmidt (1of3)

best selling author, interview, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Cape Cod     My Interview with best selling author,  Heidi Jon Schmidt

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

A. I write in bed. It started during a chaotic childhood when my bed was pushed into the quietest corner of the house, a safe place to withdraw to and think, imagine, write. And now that I have my own house, family, garden, life….it’s still the place where I feel most connected to my imagination.

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. The minute my daughter walks out the door for school, I take a cup of coffee up the stairs. And I don’t do anything else until I’ve gotten a day’s work done.

Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer? Etc.) Continue reading “How Do those oysters get to your Dinner Table? Interview with Heidi Jon Schmidt (1of3)”

Do YOU Learn Anything from History or Make the same Mistakes…Again?

famous quotes, famous writers, history, poetry, Bukowski, Churchill          I looked up this quote to be certain I quoted it with accuracy and low and behold!  Today is the day that Winston Churchill  (you all know how much I love him)   and Charles Bukowski (you know I am obsessed with him) meet. Considering it’s my blog I guess it was inevitable.  

Winston Churchill was one of the greatest ‘coiner of phrases’ that the world has ever seen.  He said, ‘those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it’ back in the early 1900’s.  Not much has changed and it seems that we are, indeed, doomed to repeat and repeat.

Ironically, Bukowski wrote this prose back in the early 1950’s.  It could have been written yesterday;  we’re still at war, the politicians still suffer from the malady of greed and power. Government still disregards the weak, the old, the impoverished, the helpless……..famous quotes, famous writers, Bukowski, Churchill, famous men

putrefaction ©  (Bukowski)

of late
I’ve had this thought
that this country
has gone backwards
4 or 5 decades
and that all the
social advancement
the good feeling of
person toward
person
has been washed
away
and replaced by the same
old
bigotries.

we have
more than ever
the selfish wants of power
the disregard for the
weak
the old
the impoverished
the
helpless.

we are replacing want with
war
salvation with
slavery.

we have wasted the
gains

we have become
rapidly
less.

we have our Bomb
it is our fear
our damnation
and our
shame.

now
something so sad
has hold of us
that
the breath
leaves
and we can’t even
cry.

‘Oh no!’ you cry, ‘Trish is going all political on us’.  Not at all.  It’s still about the writing and the wordsmiths of our time.
I just found it so poignant that these two great men,  so very different in their calling and their craft would come to the same philosophical place decades apart.  One man was a great statesman, a world leader and a wordmaster at the highest level. The other man, a dissolute, drunken, promiscuous, wild genius of a writer.  One pronounced wisdom in a pedantic, clear statement, leaving nothing to interpretation or misunderstanding. The other’s rantings makes you see it, breath it, taste it, feel it.

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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!    “The Writer’s Corner”

In addition to my twice weekly blog I will also feature an interview with another author once a month. These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal,  Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Tasha Alexander, Patrick Taylor, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Andrew Grant, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, 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!   Jeffrey Deaver was October’s author and Patrick Taylor will join us in November.  Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author.

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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!

‘Slainte, Prost, Cheers!’ Whatever the toast…..Part 2 An Interview with author, Patrick Taylor

Irish stories, best sellers, Patrick TaylorPatrick Taylor’s characters, Fingal O’Reilly, M.D. and his young protege, Dr. Barry Laverty play word games over a pint.  Trying to out do each other with trivia.  And my readers all know, by now, how much I love words.

Over a couple of whiskeys, at the end of a long day, Barry toasts Dr. O’Reilly, “Slainte”.
O’Reilly responds, “Prost!” and then continues, “Did you know ‘prosit‘ is the third-person singular present active subjunctive of the Latin verb Prosum or the Maltese prosit, meaning ‘bravo'”
“I did not know that.” Barry replied.  “How do you?”  O’Reilly chuckled, “I learnt the Latin grammar in school, and a good thing too, because when I was a student at Trinity some lectures were delivered in Latin.”

My Interview with Patrick Taylor

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

A. You start with a blank screen. I have been writing a series for what seems like forever so I know my characters and the setting. Then I ask myself a question. What if characters A and B were faced with ??? and that is the beginning of the plot. Then I let the characters loose and see what happens Continue reading “‘Slainte, Prost, Cheers!’ Whatever the toast…..Part 2 An Interview with author, Patrick Taylor”

Sure’n It’s Off to an Irish Village, You’ll be goin’…an Interview with author, Patrick Taylor (1 of 2)

P    This blogger was in her home place of Ireland for a month….and each time I read  another ‘Country Doctor’ book by this author, I revisit the home of my heart.  Patrick has given me this opportunity to interview one of my top favorite authors!

AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR, PATRICK TAYLOR

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

A. In my study when at home. In rented accommodation when we winter in California.

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. I usually sort out the admin stuff like e-mail then edit what I wrote yesterday and then get on with the new stuff.

Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer? Etc.)

A. Computer. I used to be a doctor. Nobody can read my handwriting—including me.

Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative? Continue reading “Sure’n It’s Off to an Irish Village, You’ll be goin’…an Interview with author, Patrick Taylor (1 of 2)”