literacy Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

More Insights from Great Writers…and me

“The difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug.” ~~ Mark Twain

“Planning to write is not writing. Outlining a book is not writing. Researching is not writing. Talking to people about what you’re doing is not writing. None of that is writing.
Writing is writing.” ~~ E.L. Doctorow

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” ~~ Jack London

“Every novel is an attempt to capture time, to weave something solid out of air. The author knows it is an impossible task. That is why he/she keeps on trying.” ~~ David Beaty

“Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.” ~~ Salman Rushdie

“invent yourself and then reinvent yourself, don’t swim in the same slough.
invent yourself and then reinvent yourself and stay out of the clutches of mediocrity.
invent yourself and then reinvent yourself, change your tone and shape so often that they can never categorize you. Reinvigorate yourself and accept what is, but only on the terms that you have invented and reinvented.

be self-taught.

and reinvent your life because you must; it is your life and its history and
the present belong only to you.” ~~ Charles Bukowski

*My club is all polished up and is hanging just inside the door of my studio.
** ‘the right word’….it’s a recurring theme with authors and I seek it as if it were Midas’ gold.
*** I reinvented myself exactly four times, during my seventy years of life; far too few, but four times more than some.
**** my creation is neither rational nor conscious most times–my latest novel was written by the characters early on and I was happy to let it happen!! ~~ Trisha Sugarek
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Maya Angelou, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, 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! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter.
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To receive my posts sign up for my 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!

The Writer’s Corner…an Interview with Amber Winckler (part 2)

Part two….an interview with author, Amber Winckler

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

A. When I am left alone and have an adequate food source, I can write for a few hours at a time. I play word games between thoughts, so my daughter often wonders how I am a writer when most of the time she comes into the computer room I am deeply involved in a game of Fowl Words on her kid profile. To her, I am just a fraud.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. I was fifteen. My mom gave me an orange journal bound in suede, with gold gilding on the edge of the pages. In fifth grade, a teacher sparked my interest by having us write to music in his class, but receiving the journal in my fifteenth year was where it truly began.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. 22 years and a couple hundred rejections later.

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

A. I write in pieces, with no effort towards chronology until the bitter end, when I must sit and piece together my many memo books and computer sections into one readable storyline. This is the part I most dread, but it is amazing when you finally have a copy of the first finished manuscript in your hands.

The second part is editing, which I never attempt to do myself. My first editor is my mom, who edits for content and not grammar/structure. She is honest about where I have gone wrong, and in pointing out places that I need to expand further. I trust her guidance. After I have patched up any loose story bits and rewritten/added her suggestions, I turn it over to the official editor, and I sit back and turn off my ego. I write it, and then I give it over to the universe and the people I most trust to make sure it is readable. Artistic people can tend to be myopic, and we need guidance.

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

A. All of my characters are pieces of people I have known. People have fascinated me since I can remember, and despite the ghoulish reality of my work world, I have always found that reality is stranger than fiction, and that living people are infinity more frightening than dead ones. ‘my mom, Miki, (photo-left) who has developed her own fan base after appearing as ‘Mimi’ in THE FINAL BATH and INTO THE HANDS OF STRANGERS.

I used my own voice as the narrator of my first two books, because I felt more authentic being me. There are dualities in all people that I try to portray as honestly as possible, so my first character study was myself, in as honest and imperfect a form as I could spit out.

Q. What inspired your story/stories?

A. I was reading through the entries in my journal of the first years of my Embalming Apprenticeship, and noticed a story emerging in the pages that hadn’t occurred to me during the living of these years. But condensed down, in more rapid fire, I saw my first full length novel appear.

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

A. I have written two novels, a book of short stories, and a novella with prose insertions. I don’t feel like I have been pigeon-holed into a particular format yet, and that is a good thing. I have a bit of a hard time with the phrase ‘want to write.’ Many people ‘want to write.’ Writers just do. On memo books, on McDonald’s bags, on receipts, in journals, by hand, by keyboard, by God we just write. There is room in the world for writers of varying styles. Harvard may have missed me, and I am certainly not known for fluffy words and verbose displays of word craft, but I have a story to tell. As writers, what more do we have to give the world?

Q. And before we leave, is there anything you’d like to add?

A. Trish, I really appreciate this opportunity. I looked at your website and I am interested in your work.

http://amberwinckler.sharepoint.com click here to read Part I
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Biography: Amber Lenore Winckler has worked in the funeral profession for 18+ years and is a California licensed Embalmer, Funeral Director, and Crematory Manager. She also worked at the San Diego Medical Examiner as a Forensic Autopsy Assistant. Author of four books of fiction, largely set in the mortuary or medical examiner setting, she make her living caring for the dead, but she says, “I have always been a writer.”
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

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‘My momma always said, Life is Like a Box of Chocolates’….or words (part 4)

Once again time has gotten away from me and I need to revisit my love of new and old words. (Blog Jan. 8th) In this series I talk about my ‘box of chocolates’ being filled with words.

Texting has created a whole new language of abbreviations, misspells and down right goofyness and that’s a good thing in this century of technology. But can’t we do both? Be articulate? Literate? and be able to string a decent sentence (or paragraph) together? Is that asking too much?

I love the sound of these, the way they feel in my mouth.

Ebullient: overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement, high spirited. (much the way I feel about my blogging)

raconteur: a person who is skilled in relating anecdotes interestingly. (what I try to achieve while blogging) I had not heard this word used before until last Sunday, on Masterpiece Classics on the PBS when Mr. Selfridge’s line was, ‘I am a raconteur.’ when referring to his story telling.

avidity: greediness, keenly eager. (much the way I feel about my blogging)

insouciance: indifferent, lack of care or concern. (the antithesis of how I feel about my blogging)

extant: still in existence, standing out, not destroyed. (my blog still exists and I hope ‘stands out’)

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I’ll be ‘positing’ more to this series of favorite words. Feel free to send me some of yours!!
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Caroline Leavitt, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Raymond Benson, Nora Roberts, 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! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. September will feature Tasha Alexander. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter.

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The Writer’s Corner…Interview with author, Mark Childress (part 1)

This blogger is so pleased to have this interview with Mark Childress. Author and screen writer of the movie, “Crazy in Alabama” starring Melanie Griffith, David Morse, Rod Steiger, Robert Wagner. Mark has kindly shared his writing world with us and his tongue-in-cheek wit.

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

A. I cannot upload a picture of my desk because my Mom would be ashamed of me.
It’s really messy. Like the inside of my brain. For only the second time in my life, I live in a house which has an actual
separate office in my house where I work. Usually I’ve worked at a desk in my bedroom because I’ve lived in tiny apartments. Having a separate space is such a luxury and it means I get to leave it as messy as I want and NOT publish photos of it! However, I wrote most of my first two novels on a typewriter in various motel rooms while traveling for a magazine, so I know you can do it anywhere if you apply yourself.

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

A. Water. Chair. Butt in chair. Turn off the internet. Do not move until you can’t do any more.

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

A. Computer. I remember typing 11 complete drafts of my first novel on an old IBM Selectric and boy oh boy was
I glad when they invented cut-and-paste. In college, I made beer money as a typesetter for our college paper
on an ancient “computerized” machine that had a tiny led screen with a three-word display. So these machines do
not intimidate me.

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

A. I sit down every day about 9 or 10 and write until I can’t any more.

Biography: I was born in Monroeville, Alabama. Shortly thereafter Miss Nelle Harper Lee made
our town famous with “To Kill a Mockingbird.” So, for me, being a novelist was always a dimly
achievable goal. Everybody admired Miss Lee and I wanted to be like her. When I read her book,
I really wanted to be like her. I wrote my first novel when I was 15. It was awful but I finished it,
and thus learned the most important thing: if you keep going, you can finish. Also,
did you hear about the writer with severe attention deficit disorder? He……
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Don’t miss part II of this interview on Thursday, April 4th.
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, 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! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander.
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Do You Doubt Yourself?….Your Writing?

I ran across a description of one of my enemies….DOUBT! Author, Jacqueline Winspear wrote: “Doubt. Was it an emotion? A sense? Or was it just a short stubby word to describe a response that could diminish a person in a finger snap?”

I wrote earlier about my being in good company. Regardless if we writers are obscure or famous, we all doubt ourselves and our work. What if Henry Charles Bukowski, or Ernest Hemingway, or John Steinbeck had let DOUBT win? Put away their pen, dumped their scribbles into a shoe box and made a trip to the attic, got a day job and never wrote another word? It doesn’t bear thinking about.

J. Michael Straczynski: “When in ‘doubt’, blow something up.”

F.Scott Fitzgerald: “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.”

E.M. Forster: “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”

Tapani Bagge: “Everything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And later on you can use it in some story.”

Maya Angelou: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

Elinor Lipman: “Critics have been described as people who go into the street after battle and shoot the wounded.”

Leo Rosten: “The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can’t help it.”

Let’s see …..when were my worst moments? DOUBT clawing at me, whispering in my ear, crawling up my spine. Telling me that I’ll never make it, I’ll never finish a whole novel, that I don’t know the first thing about writing poetry. Writing play scripts was relatively easy for me. After all I had been in theatre reading scripts for over thirty years. And the stories simply fell out of the sky and into my brain when writing a script.

When I could no longer resist the urgency of writing about the women who wait outside prison walls, I researched the length of the average novel; number of pages and words. Yikes! Over 300 pages and 70,000 words. DOUBT was screaming in my ear: ‘you’ll never be able to write that many pages.’ ‘you’re a playwright; not a novelist’, ‘who do you think you’re kidding?’ But I had a true story (several of them, in fact) and all I needed to do was flesh those stories out. Write one page at a time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Maya Angelou, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Sue Grafton, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, 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! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June’s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander.
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‘My momma always said, “Life was like a box of chocolates….’ (part 3)

I can’t believe all this time has whizzed by without my revisiting my love of new and old words. (Blog Oct. 18th) In this series I was telling you that my ‘box of chocolates’ contains words. I love the sound of these, the way they feel in my mouth, the images they evoke…….oooh, that’s a good one:

‘evoke‘: to call up, to summon, call to mind, conjure up.

‘milquetoast‘: now this is a word you don’t see every day. It might even be obsolete. When it was used (18th-19th century) it was referring to somebody regarded as timid or submissive, especially a man.

‘trenchant‘: forceful, direct, caustic or scathing way of speaking.

‘mews‘: a residential street; This is a British word for a small street lined with former stables that have been converted into housing. While still used in England, the closest word we have in the US is an ‘alley-way’ or down south we call them ‘lanes’.

‘sagacity‘: reasonableness, wisdom, prudence, shrewdness.

I own a carriage house in what could legitimately be called the ‘mews’. The carriage house was used at the turn of the 20th century to house the town carriage and horses. It is now a two bedroom apartment. Somehow mews is a much more romantic, prettier word than the ‘alley‘. Don’t you think?

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I’ll be ‘positing’ more to this series of favorite words. Feel free to send me some of yours!!
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DON’T MISS NEXT WEEK’S BLOGS WHEN I START A NEW SERIES, “Behind the Scenes” INTERVIEWS with other AUTHORS!

To receive my posts sign up for my blog. 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!

Rain essays and more from this writer…

 An excerpt from the "Rain Essays" and

part of my book of poetry.

Rain on the Face of Africa

The great Serengeti’s broad face lies in the African sun,

dry, weathered, cracked, thirsty for the season’s tears

Storm clouds gather on her brow like an old lady’s curls

Promises, promising, an empty promise

The rains are too late. The children of the Serengeti

lie down on her dusty bosom, never to rise again

A desperate waiting fills the air Continue reading “Rain essays and more from this writer…”

What’s your favorite word? Nostalgia is one of mine!

Were you there when the movie “Little Women” came out? Not the new (1994) version…the old version (1949, it’s on DVD) with June Allyson who played Jo, Peter Lawford as Laurie, Margaret O’Brien as Beth, Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, and Janet Leigh (yes! from Psycho fame) as Meg. Do you go all nostalgic when you think about those simpler times with Jo, Beth, Amy, and Meg? I do. Have you read the book by Louisa May Alcott? She was writing about her family.

Part of me wishes I had a bunch of sisters, (be careful what you wish for, right?) part of me wishes that I had lived in a simpler time. I am a part of a family like the Marches. My mother had five sisters and six brothers. I grew up with twelve aunties and uncles. And so many cousins I still don’t know the number.

So I write about them. I am much like Jo; writer, tomboy (in my younger days) outspoken and trying to be the very best at what I do…….writing.

My suggestion to other writers is to write about your grandmother, great-aunt, second cousin, twice removed. Write about what you know. Write about the past. I am so very lucky to have the ‘Guyer girls’ to draw from …..I couldn’t make up the stories that they have given me out of their real lives.

My Web Site has an Exciting new Look!

Recently I took a long hard look at my own web site and realized that it was static, lifeless and tired. And I had loved it for so long! So began my journey for a web consultant that could bring me into real time with shopping cart, shipping, animation, and far better communication with my readers!

I began by asking an old friend in the computer software industry for a referral….and found Leon. What a treasure. He’s clever, funny and patient! As an added bonus he has a degree in theatre from NYU, so he really gets me. While my site isn’t completely finished, while Leon continues to build and polish it I am able to come on line and ‘play in my cyber sand box’!

The new software is friendly and easy to learn. I think it really shows off my books and scripts with beautiful illustrations (a nod to my wonderful team of illustrators) and is easy to navigate. I hope my readers and theatre family enjoy it as much as I do!

Now Available: “Bertie, the Bookworm and the Bully Boys”

The third in the Fabled Forest Series, these children’s chapter books delight kids from ages 2–11. Read on…….

Bertie, the bookworm is the fabled forest’s elder and teacher. Every week he has a spelling and reading circle where everyone is welcomed. Slam, the badger and his gang of bully boys are forever teasing, disrupting, and bullying Bertie and the group of faeries and woodland creatures. Pansy, the pixie is a new character in this third of the Fabled Forest series. She is a defender of reading, truth, and Bertie. Cheets, our beloved elf from past books joins the wrong crowd and his friends are worried that he will become the newest member of the Bully Boys.

The story teaches gentle lessons about literacy, bullying and ageism.

The book pays special homage to the classical fairy tales with appearances by little red riding hood, the wicked stepsister, the three little piggies and many more as they wander through the Fabled Forest. Variations of these classic stories, such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and many others, have been recorded throughout the world since the first century. The French tale of Cendrillon [Cinderella] was written in France in 1697 by Charles Perrault. Later in the eighteenth century the Brothers Grimm in Germany adapted the tale again. During his life time the master animator, Walt Disney [1901–1966] adapted the ancient fables to film.

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