inspiration Archives - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Poetry.com Honors My Poetry

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

I am the daughter, sister, wife and mother of a Veteran!

Members of the military impacted my life in many ways. My life was certainly changed by members of my family serving in the armed forces. So what better time than on this Veteran’s Day to honor them….those who keep us SAFE and FREE! And to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us and their country.

****

Gerald Guyer (cousin) US Marines**WWI – gave his life in Normandy, France ** Son of Gladys; nephew of Violet, my mother.

William Jay Woods (father) US Navy ** WWII – South Pacific – PTSD. He met my mother in San Francisco, where she owned a bar and grill. He returned from war an alcoholic, experienced rages and had a parrot named Butch.

Johnny Cable (step-father) US Army/Infantry ** WWII Southern Pacific. Lost an eye, suffered from jungle rot and PTSD. At five years of age I remember not being able to run in and jump on the bed in the mornings to ‘wake up Daddy’. He would awaken ready to fight the ‘Japs’ and in those first few seconds he was back in the jungle. He was a wonderful father but the horrors of the South Pacific battles were never far from the surface. He later served on a ship in the Korean War as a meat cutter. He was instrumental in serving the troops a HOT Thanksgiving dinner on the beach that year.

family histories, family secrets, story telling, writers — my mother, Violet

Violet Guyer (mother) US Armed Forces ** Wife, sister, and mother of members in the military. My mother, who I write about, was auntie to Gerald. She married Jay (active Navy) and Johnny (active Army) and was a military wife for two decades. She was mother to Jack (US Air Force) and Doris, (US Marines).

Jack Borden (brother) US Air Force ** Loaded B52 bombers – hot spots around the world – 20+ years of service. My brother would come home from far away places like Germany, Iceland, Africa, Panama and because he didn’t have a hometown girl, he would take me, his teenage sister, ballroom dancing.

Doris Borden (sister) Joined the US Marines, Reserve and was upgraded to active duty when the Korean War broke out.

Jack Henderson. (first husband) US Air Force * While in the military, he was on a ship in the Pacific
and witnessed one of the first A-Bomb test explosions off Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Robert Berry (second husband) US Navy Seals, US Coast Guard ** 20+ years of service. Robert was a Navy Seal, underwater demolition during the Viet Nam years. He later served as a warrant officer aboard an icebreaker and was certified to scuba dive under the Arctic ice.

John Sugarek (husband) US Marines ** Viet Nam – John was my husband for 30 years. He was kind-hearted and funny and everyone loved him. I witnessed two of his flashbacks from battle in Viet Nam (twenty years later) and he suffered, untreated, from PTSD. Partially due to the PTSD (I believe) he died at his own hand in 2006. His fellow wounded warriors celebrate him at the Whiskey Battery Reunion, once a year.

We are all grateful to our military for their unswerving bravery, service, and loyalty and we honor those who have come home, battered but alive.

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Monday Motivation for the Writer! #26

Writers, we are all guilty of using particular words or phrases far too frequently!!

I was recently reading a delightful series by an author but it was very distracting when she used the same phrase over and over.
“Custom glass workroom”. The shop where the story takes place is just four rooms so it is my opinion that:

1] the author needed to change it up; There is an office, a retail room, a classroom and a custom workshop. Just a little chance would make all the difference. For example: ‘the workroom’ and ‘the workshop’ and ‘the specialty glass room’.

2]readers are smart and we should never underestimate their ability to follow along. If they can’t then we, as the writers, have failed at our job.
3] If we miss our idiosyncrasies, and we all have them, then the editor, beta reader, proofreader, etc., should catch it.

My most common ones are the words, ‘just’ and ‘that’. My watchdog, first defense, is to use Word’s ‘find’. Then I review the manuscript looking for when I overuse the words and why.

“There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.” Anthony Trollope

“All fiction is largely autobiographical and much autobiography is, of course, fiction.” P.D. James

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To receive my weekly posts, sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Watch for more interviews with authors. March-Apr: Joshua Hood, author of ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE TREADSTONE RENDITION April: Author, H.W. ‘Buzz’ Bernard. May: Victoria Costello. June: Laila Ibrahim

A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Monday Motivation for Writers! #25

One of the main problems you may face as a writer is standing up to your inner critic. Being overly self-critical can be very dangerous; stopping you dead in your tracks. It is all too easy to tell yourself to give up, that there is no point, that you will never get anywhere.

But saying things like this to yourself is untrue and the kiss of death to your creative spirit!

So how do you control your inner critic and learn how to shut it down when it is threatening to ruin your writing career? Here are some examples of what it might say, and exactly how to respond.

‘You’ll never be as good as [insert name of your favorite author)’. We can’t help but compare ourselves to authors who have been and gone, ones who’ve had successful and seemingly effortless writing careers, whose fans adore them, who are praised by the media and their peers, who win awards and make millions. Of course, there are going to be writers out there who are more successful than you, but this shouldn’t stop you from writing. Nor should it give you any reason to think that you can’t be that successful too.

There is no one right way to write, many different authors have become successful for various reasons. Write for your audience and yourself and know that you are unique, your stories are written just the way they should be and comparing yourself to others will get you exactly nowhere.

‘Your book will be a flop.’ Your self-critic will always try to make you feel like a failure and will fill your head with thoughts of giving up.

Don’t let it win.

Your inner critic has many tricks up its sleeve. They’ll range from petty insults to targeting your biggest fears and insecurities. However, knowing how to respond, to shut it down and feel positive about your writing will only help spur you on to become a better more productive and more exciting writer.

So whatever you do stand up to your inner critic, and never let it stop you from writing!

“A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking.” Unknown

“It’s okay that I am a little strange, I’m a writer.” Satine
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To receive my weekly posts, sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Watch for more interviews with authors. March-Apr: Joshua Hood, author of ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE TREADSTONE RENDITION April: Author, H.W. ‘Buzz’ Bernard, May: Victoria Costello.
June: Laila Ibrahim

A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Monday Motivation for the Writer! #24

HATS! This morning was typical…as an indie author. Wearing many, many hats! There’s a hat for writer, blogger; one for editor, proofreader, and publisher.

Check emails for that BIG break! A Hollywood film Co. wants to make my book into a movie, a ‘big-name’ Publisher stumbled across my novels and wants to publish me.
Nope! Not yet!

Next, Edit and proof the short play I’m working on….rewrites, rewrites, rewrites, rewrites,….did I say rewrites? Submit edited play to my publishing platform and wait for the proof to be approved or for more changes.

Work on my book of poetry and get it launched onto Amazon.com

Work on postings for my Blog. This is a job that doesn’t go away if you want to be considered someone with ‘viable content‘ by search engines.

and after all those chores are complete…..Do some creative writing….never neglect this! Write Every Day!! Also found time to write 10,000+ words of book #12 in a true crime series.

“I’m not saying all publishers have to be literary, but some interest in books would help.”~~ A.N. Wilson

“Contrary to what many of you may imagine, a career in letters is not without its drawbacks – chief among them the unpleasant fact that one is
frequently called upon to sit down and write.”~~Fran Lebowitz

“Writing is Not a Calling. It’s a Doing!” Trisha Sugarek
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To receive my weekly posts, sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Watch for more interviews with authors. March-Apr: Joshua Hood, author of ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE TREADSTONE RENDITION April: Author, H.W. ‘Buzz’ Bernard, May: Victoria Costello.
June: Laila Ibrahim

A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Monday Motivation for the Writer! #20

R U Passive? waiting for your muse to strike and help you write your novel or story? Back in the day, a muse was thought to be a creative spirit that unleashed your creativity. If you weren’t creative, it was the muse’s fault.

R U External? Setting an external reward for completing your daily writing task. Usually food, drink or an activity such as watching your favorite TV show.

R U INTERNAL? Ah, now we’re talking! Writers need to examine their own brains to get that motivation working. Your pain/pleasure receptors, in your brain, need adjusting if writing is painful. If your writing causes you more pain than pleasure, waiting for a muse or an external reward is all you have.

You need to write for the sheer joy of writing. Writing becomes the motivation for writing. Writing becomes your addiction. Turn off the negative voice in your head that tells you you’re a crappy writer, have no talent…you know the voice I’m talking about. Reinforce yourself by making positive statements, to yourself, about your writing. Take the time to admire that well-turned sentence, page, or chapter that you just wrote!

“Writing is a journey of discovery because until you start, you never know what will happen, and you be surprised by what you do~~expect the unexpected!” Mini Grey

“Writing is not a calling…it’s a doing!” Trisha Sugarek

Monday Motivations for the Writer! #19

I love this wonderful graphic (by Sudio Sudarsan) of a ‘writer’s ice berg’. Not many people, aside from we who write, know this world. It’s lonely, scary, humiliating, and painful. It’s also uplifting, soul filling, mind-stretching and wonderful.

I count myself the luckiest of women that I developed my craft and didn’t give up when people said ‘no’. I am the most fortunate of writers to have realized that the process has to be planted in good soil, watered, and given lots of sunshine. Even when I am writing from a dark place.

We writers should never sit back and say, ‘I have arrived. I don’t need to grow anymore. I am at the top of my game.’ If you’ve read any of my interviews with really famous authors, they aren’t smug….far from it…they are striving to be better just like you and I are. I’ve found in my interaction with these authors that the more successful they are…the humbler they are.

“I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” Shannon Hale

“As a writer, I marinate, speculate, and hibernate!’‘ Trisha Sugarek
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Monday Motivations for the Writer! #18

TS: A fellow writer that I have interviewed was kind enough to contribute to my Motivational Moments… Thanks, Mike!

‘One of the most common questions that novice writers ask me is “How do you overcome writer’s block?” I would define
writer’s block as a heavy psychological state in which you’re completely out of ideas about what to write. Usually, writers seem to experience it somewhere in the middle of a story rather than near the beginning or end. It can last for days or even weeks, getting you down and undermining your confidence.

My solution is simple, and many writers report that it also works for them. When you experience writer’s block, jump to some other point in the story, some other scene or episode that you already know will be there, and start working on that. This can include jumping all the way to the very end and working backward. Writers who prefer to write their stories sequentially, from start to finish, may feel uncomfortable with leaping over to some faraway section of the story, but believe me, if you force yourself to do this, there’s a strong chance that you’ll break through the barrier.

I don’t know how this solution works–maybe subconscious plot connections take place or it’s simply getting your creative energy flowing again, but it usually does. Give it a try next time you’re stuck and see if it works for you.’ ~ Mike Wells

“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

“A straight line is not the shortest distance between two points.”― Madeleine L’Engle

Did you see my interview with Mike Wells? Click here
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A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Monday Motivations for the Writer! #17

TS. My friend and best-selling author, Jodi Thomas, did me the honor of contributing to Monday Motivations.

‘The hardest thing a writer does each day is sitting down to work. In 28 years as a working writer, I’ve published 45 books and 13 novellas. The hardest thing wasn’t learning to write but learning to manage time. I picked up a few tricks but it is still the dragon I fight every day.

Build your nest. I find this makes it easy for me to step into fiction. It doesn’t matter if your nest is in a secret room in the attic or a small desk in a hotel room. It needs to be your nest. I usually start with a notebook.

My facts book, my bible for the series. It includes all characters’ names and basic facts. Maps of the area—if you’re making up a town, make up the map.’ ~~Jodi Thomas

‘Peace and rest at length have come, All the day’s long toil is past; And each heart is whispering “Home, Home at last!‘- Thomas Hood

‘Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.’- Robert Frost
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To receive my weekly posts, sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Watch for more interviews with authors. March-Apr: Joshua Hood, author of ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE TREADSTONE RENDITION April: Author, H.W. ‘Buzz’ Bernard May: Victoria

A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

Monday Motivations for the Writer! #16

Why momentum is more important than quality. Blasphemy, right? Wrong. Momentum is more important, in this writer’s opinion, than quality.

The writer with momentum is an author who is MOVING FORWARD. Writing every day, six or seven days a week, if only a page or two a day.

The writer who is so stuck on ‘quality’ that they have only written one book in their life time, and they are still writing it, is the writer who is not moving forward or growing. If you only write one or two words a day, your manuscript is moving forward.

Many writers, who believe a,s I do, say that if you leave a project for a month, six months, a year, it is likely that you will never go back to it. And during that time the doubt creeps in: “who do I think I am?” “I’ll never be a great writer.” “I’m no good at this.” “My mother was right, I’ll never amount to anything….” “how good could I possibly be?” “I should go get a day job.” “How dare I?”

Remember, Quality gets layered in, draft by draft. Some newbie writers think that the first draft should be perfect. Sorry, that’s simply not the case. You’ve heard me say over and over: ‘that’s what rewrites are for.’
Quality is a multi-draft proposition. Momentum is the only thing that will get you a FIRST DRAFT!

“Write until it becomes as natural as breathing. Write until NOT writing makes you anxious.” Unknown

“The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.” Anais Nin

“When we deny our stories, they define us. When we own our stories, we get to write a brave new ending.” Brene Brown
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Watch for more interviews with authors. December: Marc Cameron, writing for TOM CLANCY
March-Apr: Joshua Hood, author of ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE TREADSTONE RENDITION, April: H.W. ‘Buzz’ Bernard, WWII historian

A few BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

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