interviews Archives - Page 5 of 11 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Conclusion…an Interview with author, Michael Saad

Part III My interview with Canadian author, Michael Saad

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?

MS. Yes, absolutely. I know exactly what that means. A few of my fictional stories have literally ‘written themselves.’ It’s hard to explain, but I think many experienced fiction writers can identify with that. I can think of two stories in particular that I’ve published where I’ve looked back and asked ‘did I really write that?’ and ‘where the heck did that come from?’

Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment?

MS. I have many. Right now I am totally into musical artists like Hozier, Rachel Platten, and Virgina to Vegas. Their lyrics and sounds speak to me in their various messages of hope and optimism or, in Hozier’s case, the exact opposite. In the past year these artists have been an inspiration not only to my writing but also for my teaching, as I see how many of our young people today have had to be resilient in the face of adversity. Exploring the natural world is certainly another muse. Many stories and ideas have come to me just standing in the outdoors, on a mountaintop, in a stream, or watching a bull moose feed in a pond.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

MS. Probably 18 years ago (in 1998), when I first started my teaching career. I knew I needed a bonafide hobby. I had been playing a lot of sports and going to the gym, but I felt I needed a constructive interest that exercise couldn’t quite fulfill. I need to create, and I had always had in the back of my head that I wanted to write stories and articles, so that was the direction I decided to go.

Q. How long after that were you published?

MS. I was published two years after that. I have had many short stories, novellas, and historical articles published since then. Incidentally, I’ve also had hundreds of rejection letters in that time. Only a fellow writer would appreciate that last statistic!

Q. What makes a writer great?

MS. I may have a different answer for you 20 years from now, but today I would say having the ability to display resonance with your reader. Only the very best writers can do this with as many readers as possible. Notice I state ‘with as many readers as possible’ and not ‘every, single reader who’s ever read their work.’ There’s a reason for that, and it’s the very reason why you’ll hear many people praise the Stephen Kings and Shakespeares of the world as literary geniuses, while others condemn them as laughable and boring. Some writers connect with certain people and others don’t. It’s that way with all art, not just literature. It’s all about resonance for me, and for every reader that’s different.

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

MS. Well, for All the Devils Are Here it was a step-by-step journey in the truest sense. It started off as a short story assignment I did 25 years ago in a class called Writing 11. My English teacher at the time, whom I dedicated the novel to, gave me good feedback on it, but told me it was incomplete, and challenged me to delve more into the main characters’ story lines. This soon became one of my ‘back-burner’ projects while I ventured into other pursuits like university, history, teaching, and sport. About 10 years ago, I encountered my English teacher again in a chance meeting, and we conversed and he asked me about my story. I decided to turn it into a novella, taking his advice from 25 years ago to heart. From there, I still found myself with unanswered questions about the main characters, and so then turned it into a full-fledged novel, which I now realize was what my teacher was steering me towards all along.

Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?

MS. I have encountered drugs and drug use in my time, and have seen and experienced the cycle, agony, and destruction that addiction can bring. That subject has been a big part of my fiction writing now and in the past. Life experiences are very much an influence for my writing – I would best describe them as the thread that weaves in-and-out of the fabric of my work. All of my characters and plots are imaginary, but there are elements of them that are reflective of various experiences I’ve encountered in my trials and tribulations of life. Like everyone, I am not perfect and have my fair-share of demons in the closet. Every now and then I turn some of them loose in my writing.

Q. Have you? Or do you want to write in another genre`?

MS. Yes, I have written science fiction and horror stories. My science fiction carries explicit warnings and themes, whereas my horror stories are more subtle in their message. I have always been drawn to the serious stuff, and that includes all other types of media – video games, movies, television, theatre.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

MS. Yes. [Haley Joel Osment] I see dead people. Kidding… 😉 See, I can be funny−or maybe not.

Did you miss any of this in-depth interview? Click here

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! A long awaited interview with Kathleen Grissom (The Kitchen House) May’s author was Jordan Rosenfeld. Best selling author, Robyn Carr is July’s author.

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My Interview with Charles Bukowski, Poet, Drunk, Reprobate, Genius

I would pay a lot of money to interview the great authors of our time. Steinbeck, Bronte, Hemingway, Austen, Twain, London, Service, John McDonald, Robert Parker. But at the top of my bucket list would be Henry Charles Bukowski {1920-1994}. So I asked myself would it be so very strange or inappropriate to pretend what it might have been like? Post an interview with ‘Hank’ Bukowski even though he’s been dead almost twenty years? The answer was no!

I imagined I was sitting with him, in a corner booth, in some neighborhood watering hole. Old die-hard drunks sit up at the bar minding their own business. I can see tree roots growing from the seat of their pants into the seat of the bar stools. Wet, green tendrils curl around the stool legs. They don’t speak. They stare into their empty glass or into their own smoky reflection in the mirror on the back wall. What do they see? A long-lost heaven? A nearby hell?

Bukowski has already finished his first drink and signals the bartender for another. I am paying of course. (viewer discretion advised ~ language)
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The Interview:

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

CB. Anywhere they’ll leave me the hell alone. I’m not particular.

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

CB. A fifth of bourbon, a couple packs of cigarettes. Quiet. Enough paper, which can be a problem when I’m between jobs.

Q. What is your mode of writing?

CB. A pencil or pen, I don’t care. Paper. My Remington typewriter if it’s not in pawn. Sometimes the bartender will let me have the left over stubs of pencils from around the bar. Many years ago, this drunk in a suit was sitting next to me, over there at the bar. He was complaining that his company had bought something called a ‘computer’ and they were making him learn how to do his sales reports on it. He hated it but he said, ‘I fear that it is the face of the future, Hank.’ Goddamn machines, taking over the world and us bit by bit. I’ll stick to my pencil and paper.

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

CB. Listen, girl, I wish there were more times when I didn’t ‘feel creative’; didn’t need to write. Occasionally when I’m f—ing or I’m blind drunk, or both, I can take a break and forget.

Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

CB. Legitimate writers don’t procrastinate.

Q. How does a writer begin? How do you write, create?

CB. You don’t try. That’s very important: not to try, when it comes to Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It’s like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it.

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

CB. I’m lost right now. Wait fifteen minutes…..(he stared into space) nope, still lost. Does that answer your question?

Q. Who or what is your ‘muse’ at the moment?

A. Ha! You’re funny. Let’s see, junkies, slant-eyed women, barkeeps, dogs, cats, mocking birds, my landlady, bums, women….oh yeah, women most definitely. War, rain, politicians, pigs, beautiful young girls as they walk by, Jane, the shoeshine man, booze, my father, gravediggers, whores in Mexico.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

CB. I don’t remember…a long, long time ago.

Q. How long after that were you published?

CB. Decades. I sent my stuff to every sex rag, publisher, and agent I could find. It was always rejected until one day It wasn’t. I’d sell my blood so I could buy stamps.

Q. What makes a writer great?

CB. You can’t have rules. No woman who is so important that she gets in your way. No job that can keep you from what you have to do. Knowing that sometimes when you’re drunk you are a better writer.

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

CB. There’s never ‘no book’ for me. It might not be down on paper yet, but it’s always there. When my head gets so full it might explode then I find a pencil and write it down. I don’t give a shit if a book is ‘finished’. That’s what publishers are for. I just send them my stuff and if they print all of it or some of it, I’m happy. The thing that I won’t let them do is change anything. Not a word. It drives ’em crazy.

Q. What inspired your stories and your poetry?

CB. Mostly the streets of L.A. And don’t call my shit ‘poetry’. That’s what the suits call it so people will buy it. “…my poems are only bits of scratchings on the floor of a cage…” Mostly I just write what I see and how I feel about it. And I see a lot of sick shit. And I don’t feel so good about it.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like my readers to know?

CB. Yeah, a few things: ‘We have wasted History like a bunch of drunks shooting dice back in the men’s crapper of the local bar.’ and……

‘There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.’ and….

‘The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting’……. and finally,

‘I don’t like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.’

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MY features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? March: Mystery (and Western) writer, Larry D. Sweazy. April: World Traveler, Tal Gur. June: mystery author, Manning Wolfe.

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Interview With Author, Jordan Rosenfeld

TS. I met this writer on Facebook and was instantly intrigued by her wacky photos and obvious joie de vie. She writes fiction and also non-fiction on the subject of writing.

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.

JR. I do have a wonderful office in my home that I painted in bright bold colors that reflect me. I write there most often, though I’ll write wherever if need be.

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.)

JR. No, for me personally, rituals often detract from just getting down to business. Unless you count eating corn chips by the handful?

Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?

JR. I dropped out of Acting school but made it all the way through beauty school, go figure.

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

JR. I write whenever I have time. Waiting for the muse leads to a lot of waiting for me. Perhaps in the luxurious leisure time of my twenties I “waited” for inspiration, but I had no real distractions other than books at the time so the wait was short.

Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?

JR. Write one sentence. Continue reading “Interview With Author, Jordan Rosenfeld”

Interview with Susie Drougas, Author (part 2)

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

SD. I began my Dusty Rose series and published my first novel in 2014, Pack Saddles & Gunpowder. Over the years I have published several articles for the Back Country Horsemen state magazine, The Trailhead News. I worked on newsletters for our local chapter and I was told by a number of people that the only reason they joined our chapter was to get the newsletter and read my stories. That really made me start thinking about my book, and just maybe I could do it.

Q. How long after that were you published?

SD. I’m a pretty methodical person. When I make up my mind to do something, I put out maximum effort to see it through. I began writing in 2013 and finished and published my first novel in 2014. As I mentioned, I am a freelance court reporter. I take depositions and have often found myself in a room with several accomplished, high-powered Seattle attorneys with several million dollars at stake—shouting and arguing over each other. I have to keep them in line to maintain the record. It is not for the faint of heart. But I will say, going the first time to my writer’s group and reading my work to other people was the scariest thing I have ever done. Beats anything else in the terror factor. Continue reading “Interview with Susie Drougas, Author (part 2)”

A Chat With Tavia Gilbert, Professional Voice (conclusion)

continued…… Can you tell us about your process when you begin to narrate a book?.
A. …….voicing the foreign language phrases the writer included in the book, listened to several bird calls to include in the book (a young boy is an expert at bird calls, so I have to approximate a cardinal, a blue jay, and more), learned the Welsh national anthem — in Welsh, reacquainted myself with several old hymns…I’m recording very slowly and carefully, while preserving a fresh sense of discovery and using the technology to make my many, many stops and starts sound seamless. That’s more than most books require, but it does offer a glimpse into the challenges of an audio book narration. I want my work to be excellent every time. Each project is different, but it’s great to really commit and make sure I’m doing everything I possibly can to make the most complete audio world I can. Once the recording of each chapter is complete, I upload it to my publisher. They edit and proof the recording, ensuring that my narration is word perfect to the script. They send a list of corrections, which I record and send, and then the book is ready to go out into the world!

Q. Do you have rituals before you begin?

A. I do. Donna Eden’s five-minute energy technique and a few other of her energy practices, which ground and settle me and get me in a good space to focus. I put some lavender on my fifth chakra (throat chakra). I make a quick shot of ginger, turmeric, coconut water, salt, lemon, and honey, and then I settle in with water with lemon and a kombucha. Continue reading “A Chat With Tavia Gilbert, Professional Voice (conclusion)”

Interview With Tavia Gilbert, Voice for Audio Books

TS. I have used a narrator for many of my own books and know what an integral part they play in the success of an audio book. Tavia is one of the best out there!

Q. Tell us about your acting/voice career.

A. I work as a full-time audio book narrator, recording primarily in my home studio in Brooklyn, New York. I’ve been passionate about sound, voice, and story all my life, and it’s been exciting to see where my career takes me. I graduated from Cornish College in Seattle with a BFA in Acting, with a concentration in Original Works. Soon after graduation I moved to Portland, Maine to study documentary audio storytelling at the Salt Institute. I worked in Portland as a commercial and theater actor, before focusing on audio book narration. I began working full-time as an audio book narrator in 2007, and in these eight years I’ve recorded more than 400 books for virtually every publisher, in virtually every genre. When I completed my MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from Vermont College a few years ago I moved from Maine to Brooklyn, to further develop my work as a performer, producer, and publisher.

Q. What led you to start a narration career?

A. I was born with deformed feet and have had more than a dozen corrective foot surgeries since I was seven months old. I remember an intense yearning to be an actress as early as about four years old, and I did theater in my hometown when I was growing up with dreams of working as a performing artist and living in a New York City apartment with a fire escape (and now I have my very own fire escape!). But I struggled somewhat in college, with another surgery that required time away from school, and later with the physical demands of the actor conditioning program at Cornish. I’m so grateful that Cornish pushed me as hard as it did physically, because I came to understand that I was stronger and more capable than I thought, though I was dealing with — and still do — some quite serious physical challenges. Once I decided to stay permanently in Maine (I lived there for 12 years), I realized that there would not be enough professional commercial or theater work to sustain a career from Maine. Just at that time the voice-over and narration industries were beginning to transition to home studios, so I set my sights on narration. I was an avid listener, Continue reading “Interview With Tavia Gilbert, Voice for Audio Books”

A Chat with Author, MJ Moores (conclusion)

Q. How long after that were you published?

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)”

More with Author, MJ Moores (part 2)

Q. 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)”

Dean Koontz’s newest novel, Ashley Bell * A Review

‘Ashley Bell‘ by Dean Koontz ** A Review

Every time I begin a new Dean Koontz novel (and I’ve read them all!) a few chapters in I say to myself, ‘this is the best one ever’. And it is. Just a few pages into this story, imagine my delight when a golden retriever, Olaf, appears in Bibi’s life. Why? you might ask?

Dean Koontz and I have had a ‘doggy’ friendship for close to 20 years. Over those years, he and I have coincidentally adopted rescue/service Golden Retrievers.

Dean Koontz and Trixie — Dean and his beloved Trixie

I’m on my fourth. Dean’s latest is lovely Anna. (for more about this read my interview with Dean).

I challenge any reader to not be totally enchanted by the third…no…the first chapter of Ashley Bell. Dean writes what I call poetry-fiction…prose. Writing about a foggy coastal night: “…those fumes were only slithers of mist seeping through the screen that covered the attic vents. As though the ocean of fog outside possessed curiosity about the contents of the houses currently submerged in it…” The imagery he creates makes me weep, as a writer. The characters draw you in and leave you rooting for them, hoping nothing bad happens, wanting a happy ending for someone besides yourself. Continue reading “Dean Koontz’s newest novel, Ashley Bell * A Review”

Authors, Where Do You Find Your Characters?

Over and over again, I preach the concept: ‘let it flow’, ‘let your characters take you on a journey’, ‘If it’s going well, I will happily be just the typist’.

I recently interviewed Dean Koontz and here’s what he said on the subject:

“And then I start. In the first few chapters, the lead characters are forming, and I am learning who they are. I’ve often said that if I give characters free will, if I don’t plot out the story and instead present them with a problem and watch them deal with it, they begin to take on a life of their own, frequently surprising me with the choices they make. This is mysterious and exciting. When it’s going well, it’s simultaneously an intense intellectual endeavor and an almost dream-state journey of wonder and emotion.”

Author, Matt Jorgenson recently said when asked: Where 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.”
Continue reading “Authors, Where Do You Find Your Characters?”

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