Tag: inspiration

A Chat with Author, MJ Moores (conclusion)

Q. How long after that were you published?MJ.Drama Queen

MJ. Nine years. I spent a lot of time working on my career and improving my craft. By 2009 I was a part of a great writers’ critique group and I started reworking my novel with them. Over the course of two years I remained with that group until it disbanded and then started my own group with a few of the interested members of the original group. That lasted another year and then I joined two larger regional writers’ groups and began attending not only workshops but writing conferences. Come 2012 I was trying to get a fledgling freelance writing and editing business started (that was a year after my son was born and I was in desperate need of some “me” time). Continue reading “A Chat with Author, MJ Moores (conclusion)”

A Dog’s Life…..(short story)

Rocky, Fiona, Gus (left to right)
Rocky, Fiona, Gus (left to right)

How did God know that we would need a companion who would unfailingly soften the hard edges of life that is a human’s path? Unlike any other animal, or for that matter, person, a dog just knows…and comforts its humans when sad, in poor health or just needing a good laugh.  We talk about their devotion and unconditional love because that’s what we experience when we have a dog as a friend.  We reach out and there’s always a silky head to stroke.  We come home and they act like we’ve been gone for years.  In the lonely night they snuggle against us because that’s what we need in the dark hours.

Rocky…..A golden retriever picked up wandering the mean streets of Aransas Pass, Texas. Estimated age, 18 months…a pup really.  A rescue volunteer group called me to see if I could adopt him.  Of course I could; at the time I had 5 acres, stock fenced.  He was a hellion with little manners but house broken and so willing to please me.
At the time, my property had a barn and out under a shade tree, an oval shaped, tin, watering trough about 3 feet deep.  One of Rocky’s favorite pass times was to crawl over the lip of the trough Continue reading “A Dog’s Life…..(short story)”

More with Author, MJ Moores (part 2)

MJ.Melissa5 portraitQ. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

MJ. Know your tendencies, identify why you gravitate toward those things, be fully aware of what you are doing and when you are doing it, let yourself do these things for a set amount of time, and then push all that crap aside and simply let yourself write.
Personally, I need to procrastinate. It’s during those times when I’m scrubbing the toilet or baking a bunch of muffins that my mind does its best work regarding plotting and discovering things about my characters, their problems and the world they live in. If I don’t let myself get distracted by the mundane, I’m not productive 😉

Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?

MJ. My characters are born from plot ideas. I say to myself, “Who might this happen to?” or “Who does the conflict revolve around?” and then my imagination takes flight. Unintentionally, each of my main characters is a reflection of some aspect of my life. It might be something I always wished I could be/do or it might be some unresolved aspect of my past (or present!) that seeps its way into the story to inform the core nature of these characters. Continue reading “More with Author, MJ Moores (part 2)”

Sheldon & Amy Rock the Planet, much like the Big Bang!

Coitus.2.BobNewhardBob Newhart, dressed as Obi Kenobi, acting as a sex therapist to Sheldon in a dream sequence? Sheldon has decided to give Amy his genitals for her birthday. It tickles this writer’s desert-dry funny bone to the core.

Sheldon doesn’t know the first thing about ‘coitus’ other than the definition he’s read in a dictionary: ‘physical union of male and female genitalia accompanied by rhythmic movements’. That in itself is too funny for words, especially when delivered by Sheldon.

Chuck Lorre and his writing team have brilliantly joined the much awaited Star Wars movie with Sheldon and Amy’s very first romp in the bedroom and they rock the planet, much like the big bang.
The episode starts with the  beginning crawl of a Star Wars movie, credits.star.warsa spoof about Sheldon ‘going where no man has gone before…’ Continue reading “Sheldon & Amy Rock the Planet, much like the Big Bang!”

Interview with Author, MJ Moores

MJ Moore@ Work 1 - 180dpi (Medium)TS. This is one of more in depth interviews that I have had the pleasure to do. MJ. delves into the writing process. Why we do it, what we are feeling, what we experience when we write. I hope my readers enjoy this one as much as I did.

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? (please provide a photo/s of your shed, room, closet, barn….) Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.

MJ. My ‘dream’ work space would be in the midst of nature somewhere where the bugs didn’t bite and the weather was extremely temperate – lol! However, my actual work space happens to be one of two places in my home: my office or my craft room. It all depends on how much juice my computer has at the time and how severely external forces work to distract me 😉

Q. Do you have any special rituals Continue reading “Interview with Author, MJ Moores”

Happy Holidays!!

Dog.Cat2Wishing all my family, friends and fans the merriest and happiest of holiday seasons!  Hold your family close and your nog closer.  May you have a New Year filled with good health, prosperity and laughter.

Sadie, 2012

Thank you all for your support of my work this past year!

Dog4Dog1

More with Matt Jorgenson, Writer (part three)

matt with motorcyleQ. Where/when do you first discover your characters?

Initially I don’t think of them as characters. It’s kind of like arranging furniture. I need something tall here, wide there, elegant there. I often just plop them in for the energy they lend to the development of the story. When I’m unable to sit at my laptop and write I will often sketch out backstories for some of the characters with pen and paper based on what seems reasonable according to how they act/function in the story and then weave those details back in later.

Q. What inspired your story/stories?

I suppose most of my stories are inspired by a frustration with the status quo and comfort zones. Particularly when there is needless pain or discomfort. A little orderliness and predictability can be nice, sure. What breaks my heart is watching and listening to people take a rote approach to life that’s making them miserable. Whether it’s their job, their relationship, their sexuality, drug of choice, inherited system of morality, or favorite hockey team… hanging on to some inherited or cultural obligation that blocks a person off from experiencing all that’s great with the world as they tick closer to death is truly tragic. Continue reading “More with Matt Jorgenson, Writer (part three)”

An Interview with Author, Matt Jorgenson

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMatt Jorgenson – the author of Extraordinary Ostriches, Possible Particles and the Bifurcated Homunculus, The Hermaphroditic Shaman and the Missing Bottle of Ketchup, and Coagulation – A Clot of Stories.  The titles alone should intrigue any reader but what really fascinated this blogger  was that Matt has hung canvas on his wall, at home, so visitors can express their artistic bent while there.

Q.  Matt, where do you write?

MJ. I do the bulk of my writing at home with my laptop. There’s a chair in the den/dining room I use when settling in for a long session. There’s a pub table in the kitchen I switch to when I’m on a roll and family obligations need to be juggled. It’s good to switch back and forth between the two as it’s easy to stand up and work at the pub table. I do little isometric exercises to stave off the aches and pains of prolonged sitting and get my blood pumping. When traveling or trying to break through a tough plot point I will break out a legal pad and a pen and write long hand. Cars, hotels, the basements of extended family members, and bars are some of my favorite places for this approach.

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write?

MJ. Big glass of ice water. Hot coffee. Wordless music, typically EDM or House. Since I tend to write fast-paced, intense stories I find that a high level of beats-per-minute in the ambient music Continue reading “An Interview with Author, Matt Jorgenson”

A Story Set To Silent Music

Congratulations, this is just a quick note to let you know that your poem, Remembered Love is one of the poems being featured on the PoetrySoup.com home page this week. Thanks again and congratulations.

Sincerely, PoetrySoup.com

Montana.high.3
Montana High Country

Remembered Love ©

Ashes waft over the meadow
a jet stream of sorrow,
beckoning the widow to the
edge, down to the river.

Contented epoch, at the
creek where the wolves run,
he lived and laughed.

We watched the bright blue
stars foxtrot across the milky
way, a midnight indigo quilt
shivering with light.

Mountain men whose Continue reading “A Story Set To Silent Music”

More with best selling author, Julia London (part 3)

Julia in Ireland
Julia in Ireland

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

(con’t. from Part 2)  JL.  From there, the manuscript is improved over and over again with subsequent rounds of editing by me, by an editor’s notes, by copy editors who catch inconsistencies that, unbelievably, neither me or a developmental editor caught. So the finished book has been massaged and manipulated many times over. At least in my experience.

Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing/stories?

JL. Just living life informs the writing. I meant what I said about having to be in the world to understand it. It would be very easy to never leave my house, to sit in front of a computer all day. But I won’t allow myself to do that. I have an active lifestyle, I travel, I have an extended family I love and that has been dysfunctional from time to time. Continue reading “More with best selling author, Julia London (part 3)”