Tag: interviews

Review~~’The City’ by Dean Koontz

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing reviews, authors, writing reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing REVIEW ~~ ‘The City’ by Dean Koontz  (5 out of 5 quills)

True to Dean Koontz’s style he starts the reader off with a great tale of a musical family….Grandfather is a ‘piano man’ , mother is a jazz singer and eight year old Jonah is a wanna be piano man without a piano.  You see, Mom is a single parent, married to an absent, then back again, no good, shiftless man.  Theirs is a tight-knit lower middle class family squeaking by.The.City.Koontzindex

Then on about page 100, the weird stuff starts to happen and you know you are back in another of Koontz’s scary plots.  ‘The City’ does not disappoint;  you’ll love the characters in the story, good and bad.  The story is written in first person from Jonah’s point of view and it certainly took me back to being just a kid with very real monsters under the bed and in the bedroom closet.  And Jonah Kirk is a great kid; not too good, he’s still a kid and isn’t above lying to get out of potential trouble. He has a mentor who becomes an unlikely but loveable friend when he needs a friend the most.
As always, it’s a chilling, terrifying tale where you hope that good triumphs over evil but, not until the last few pages, will you know if Koontz sees it your way.

 

Continue reading “Review~~’The City’ by Dean Koontz”

My Interview with Dean Koontz! (part 2)

dean2photo_9Q: When did you begin to write seriously?

A: While I was in college. I sold my first short story when I was a senior, and the same piece won a prize in the college-writing contest Atlantic Monthly conducted at that time. I wasn’t very good for a number of years, but I kept selling. Later, I recovered the rights to all that early stuff and deep-sixed it, mostly science fiction and Gothic novels.

Q: What makes a writer great?

A: Writing truth, I think. By which I don’t necessarily mean entirely realistic settings and story lines. Any genre allows for the writing of truth. To do it means to write stories that are more than plot, to write characters that feel like real people, and to avoid writing ideologically. These days, a great deal of fiction is ideological, and that approach virtually ensures a limited lifespan for the work. Resist the temptation to be swept away by current
“issues” in your work and write instead about timeless human values and hopes. Ideologies sooner or later collapse due to the tendency of ideologues to ignore all manner of realities in the fashioning of their ideologies.

Q: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book,” look like? Continue reading “My Interview with Dean Koontz! (part 2)”

Interview with the Master of Suspense, Dean Koontz (part 1)

Dean.Koontz.TrixieScanMy love of Golden Retrievers and Dean Koontz’s brilliant writing began decades ago when I read Koontz’s book, ‘Watchers‘.  One of the heroes of the story was Einstein, a super smart golden retriever.  I promised myself that when I retired and could dedicate time to a larger dog,  I would own my first Golden.   I remember back to getting my first; Sadie.  I was so excited that  I sent Dean photos of her, (nine weeks old) romping in gold and red fall leaves.  I enclosed a note from Sadie to Trixie and  darned if she didn’t write back.

Dean and Trixie, circa 2000

 

THE INTERVIEW!

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

A: I have a home office. I work at a horseshoe-shaped desk, the long arms of which are fifteen feet. The desk is made of (and the office is paneled with) honey-toned quarter-cut anigre, and the desk top is of black marble with gold veining. There are bookshelves with books but also a collection of Bakelite radios from the Art Deco period. Most of the radios still work, though you have  to wait for the vacuum tubes to heat up.

Continue reading “Interview with the Master of Suspense, Dean Koontz (part 1)”

“The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent” Book Giveaway, July 1st

Susan.MacNeal.(c)_Andrea_VaszkoHistoric fiction writer, Susan Elia MacNeal has written another fab book!

About a year ago I was looking around amazon for a new author as all my favorite ones (I have dozens as I am certain you do) were writing their new books and my shelf was getting depleted.  I stumbled upon Susan Elia MacNeal and her WWII historic mysteries.   Her heroine, Maggie, works in London’s war office as a decryption specialist. Her craft at story telling is such that I could smell the cigarette smoke, hear the clack of the typewriters, and found myself checking to see if the seams in my nylons were straight.  I’ve been a fan ever since.

Random House has asked me to promote the release of her new book by giving away two books and that contest will appear at the end of this month.  The entry rules will be announced this Sunday.   Only paperback and mailing address must be in USA.

If you missed my interview with Susan, please click here.
 Continue reading ““The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent” Book Giveaway, July 1st”

Blog Hop! The Writer’s Process

bloggersHi Everyone!  This is a wonderful traveling Blog every Monday where authors answer four questions and thenbunny pass it off to other authors to share their views on the writing process.

I want to thank Katie Beitz, a teacher from Australia and author of ‘The Shadow Miner’ http://katiebeitz.weebly.com/  for inviting me to participate!

Q. What am I working on?

I have several projects going at the time of this writing.  I’m finishing up with the graphic designer on my newest effort: “The Creative Writer’s Journal and Handbook” and it will be released soon.   With all my work, I revise, rewrite, edit and then rewrite more.

I’m also about half finished with Book 5 in The World of Murder series.  “The Taste of Murder” takes place in the Food Network world of television and cooking shows. Detectives O’Roarke and Garcia have a cold case dumped on their desk. Despite their objections that they ‘don’t do cold cases’ their Commander tells them that they do now since the new Mayor has specifically asked for them. Three years earlier a relative of the mayor’s was murdered and the case was never solved.

On the back burner is my historic novel, “Song of the Yukon” which has been side-tracked by the murder mystery series. Continue reading “Blog Hop! The Writer’s Process”

Interview with Lee Goldberg, best selling author (Part two)

Lee with Janet Evanovich
Lee with Janet Evanovich

Lee Goldberg: ‘ I am an ex-Navy SEAL, freelance Sexual Surrogate and a professional Pierce Brosnan impersonator.  Okay, that’s not true. But I want this biography to be really exciting, so pay attention. If things bog down, I’ve been instructed to add a car chase or some explicit sex.Here’s the real story. I writes books and television shows. My mother wanted me to be a doctor, and my grandfather wanted me to go into the family furniture business. Instead, I put himself through UCLA as a freelance journalist.’

The Interview with Lee  (part 2)

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

A. That’s such a broad question, it would take a book to answer it. But in simple terms for me, it looks like a 400 page manuscript printed out on my desk…and lots of empty diet coke cans in my recycle bin. Continue reading “Interview with Lee Goldberg, best selling author (Part two)”

Part 2 of Interview with author, Sherryl Woods

Part 2 of my time with Sherryl Woods.  COMING SOON!!  August, 2014  Swan Point, A Sweet Magnolia Novel

Q. What makes a writer great?

A. For me what makes any writer great is the ability to tell a story that resonates with readers and touches them in some way. A book that can make a reader laugh or cry or even close the book with a deep sigh of satisfaction is the absolute best. I always aim for that. If I hit the mark even sometimes, it’s a wonderful feeling.

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

View out my window of the Bay and Miami
View out my window of the Bay and Miami

A. Once I know which series a book will be in and which character will “star”, I always start out mulling for a few days, jotting down a few notes about key plot points, motivations, conflicts and so on. I am mostly a right-brain writer, so I don’t make a list of details about character descriptions or history. Once I understand the basics of the story I want to tell, I start writing scenes for a synopsis.
Continue reading “Part 2 of Interview with author, Sherryl Woods”

Part 2 …My Interview with Andrew Grant

#2Adrew.writing.AGDon’t Miss part 2 when I sit down again with best selling author, Andrew Grant this Tuesday, February 11th.

Excerpt:

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

A. For me, it breaks down into three phases: Percolating, where all the thoughts and ideas and “what ifs” that have built up in my head since finishing the last book coalesce and grow until they’re strong enough to carry a whole story; Writing, where I get the first draft of the book down on paper; and revising……. tune in this coming TUESDAY!

 

An Interview with Author, Andrew Grant

andrew_09newAndrew is a slick, clever mystery writer with tight interesting plots.  I ‘met’ him through his writer/wife, Tasha Alexander.  Can’t wait for his newest release coming out in the fall of 2014.

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

A. Whenever possible I write in what was originally the maid’s room in our apartment in Chicago (there was no sign of the maid when we moved in, so I figured someone may as well use it…) but due to the amount of traveling I have to do, I often find myself working on planes or in airport lounges, or any other place where I won’t get either wet or arrested!

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)

A. I’m an obsessively tidy person, so I guess that tendency extends itself to my work space. Other than tidiness, all I need to get started in the morning is a giant pot of coffee. Followed by several more giant pots of coffee as the day (and sometimes, the night) progresses.
Continue reading “An Interview with Author, Andrew Grant”

Where to Find a Narrator for my Audio book? (Part 2)

Part II An Interview with VO professional and actor, Daniel Dorse       (Part I, click here)

It’s Easy!  I use www.acx.com.  The platform is simple to use and they have a terrific ‘stable’ of professional narrators.  Your book is published in audio form at amazon.com/audio, audible.com and iTunes.com.  You can pay your narrator/producer a percentage of sales or a one time fee.  The one time fees are on a sliding scale depending on what the narrator requires ‘per finished hour’.  With acx.com you will know what you will be paying (it’s based on the number of words in your manuscript.) before you commit. Tip. Eliminate all extra words like copyright page, acknowledgements, title, etc. and count only the words of the manuscript.

My one and only complaint about acx.com is the length of time they take to do the final quality control bit.  Two weeks.  Now sit back and enjoy the second part of my chat with Daniel.

Daniel working in his studio
Daniel working in his studio

Q. Can you tell us about your process when you get a job to narrate a book?

A. When I’m hired to produce an audio book, I should read the entire book, making character notes, notes on pronunciation, mood, transitions, accents, etc. In fact, I like to live dangerously, reading only a few chapters ahead (to avoid too many unwelcome surprises, like , “Uh-oh! This character I’ve been voicing for 15 pages is supposed to be Irish. Now I have to re-record.”). I do this, I tell myself, because I like to retain an element of spontaneity in my read, but it’s probably also because I’m both lazy & overly cocky about my sight-reading abilities.
Continue reading “Where to Find a Narrator for my Audio book? (Part 2)”