storytelling Archives - Page 79 of 83 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

If You’re Younger than Sixty, Read This!

Mortality, death was a vague concept when I was young…..now it is a harsh truth…my days are numbered so every day has such importance. When I was young I could piss away days, weeks, months, in toxic jobs, toxic relationships, and never regretted that lost time. Never gave time a thought. After all I had plenty more where that came from. Now at seventy-one, I feel an anxiousness that I won’t get everything done….won’t get everything written….won’t finish the writing I want to do.

They say, ‘Youth is wasted on the young’….. so true because the young waste time and energy and life, just as I did, on the trivial, the mundane, the unimportant. I wish I could reach out and shake them and tell them, “Wake up! Fulfill your dreams and goals today! Before you know whats happened, you’ll be in your seventies and desperate for more time.”

You might be saying about now, “Hey, Trish. What brought on this rant? Are you sick?
Are you dying? Are you crazy? No? Then you must be reading more of Charles Bukowski. ” GUILTY as charged!!

My message is this: Begin writing, jump out of a plane, float the Amazon, climb a mountain, go fishing in Montana, buy that motorcycle or boat you always wanted, write a poem, have a child, hug your parents, start writing, go to Argentina without knowing another soul, walk the Appalachian Trail, sit in a park and watch the world go by…in Lisbon, rescue a dog or cat, say a prayer that you live long enough to fulfill your dreams!
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Small Talk (with Death) © Charles Bukowski

all right, while we are gently celebrating tonight
and while crazy classical music leaps at me from
my small radio, I light a fresh cigar
and realize that I am still very much alive and that
the 21st century is almost upon me!

I walk softly now toward 5 a.m. this dark night
my 5 cats have been in and out, looking after me,
I have petted them, spoken to them, they
are full of their own private fears wrought by previous
centuries of cruelty and abuse
but I think that they love me as much as they can,
anyhow, what I am trying to say here
is that writing is just as exciting and mad and
just as big a gamble for me as it ever was, because Death
after all these years
walks around in the room with me now and speaks softly,
asking, do you still think that you are a genuine writer?
are you pleased with what you’ve done?
listen, let me have one of those cigars.

help yourself, motherf—-, I say.

Death lights up and we sit quietly for a time.
I can feel him here with me.

don’t you long for the ferocity
of youth? He finally asks.

not so much, I say.
but don’t you regret those things
that have been lost?

not at all, I say.

don’t you miss, He asks slyly, the young girls
climbing through your window?

all they brought was bad news, I tell him.
but the illusion, He says, don’t you miss the illusion?

hell, yes, don’t you? I ask.

I have no illusions, He says sadly.

sorry, I forgot about that, I say, then walk
to the window
unafraid and strangely satisfied
to watch the warm dawn unfold.

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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 with one of them 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, Sue Grafton, 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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

Do You Care about your Family history??

A recent review I offered on Maya Angelou’s book, “Mom & Me & Mom” reminded me, once again, of the importance of recording family histories and story telling.

Since man formed his first vocabulary, family and tribal news was carried from tribe to tribe, village to village by a storyteller. They would be welcomed in each cave, hut, and council house as an honored guest and nights would be spent around the fire listening to the latest news from family members living afar. Famine, a good harvest, movement of wild herds, warring tribes, births, deaths, alliances, all were carried by the professional storyteller. After a few days passed the news had been told and the storyteller, rested and refreshed, would move on to the next tribe or settlement.

While growing up in the mid-fifties my mother (certainly a modern day storyteller) would tell me the stories of her and eleven siblings growing up in the forests of Tumwater, Washington (state). The story of my mother’s sister, Ivah, cutting off her eyebrows in retaliation. When all the kids were down with seafood poisoning and a dairy cow wandered into the yard crying to be milked (milk being the remedy for stomach disorders). Another of my mother’s sisters’ panties falling down around her ankles while dancing at her first dress-up dance.

I believe that these oral histories, as told by the elders of our families will soon (if not already) be a thing of the past. Whenever I have the opportunity, whether it’s teaching a class on writing and storytelling or giving a lecture on same, I relate how important it is for each of us to record our own family’s rich history. When grandparents are gone, the stories are gone with them. My family story, whose origin began in Ireland and France, was great material for my writing. I have just published my second novel, “Wild Violets“. It is loosely based on my mother, as a young entrepreneur, flapper and owner of a speakeasy, in San Francisco in the 1920’s.

In this day of television, dvd’s, and computers with games, these stories handed down from elder to child, will be lost forever. Do YOU know some great stories that you were told as a child?

It’s a great place to begin your writing career!

(Photo of five sisters above from left to right: LaVerne, Violet, , Gladys, Ivah, & Lillas)

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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! Join us at 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, Caroline Leavitt, Sue Grafton, 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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Are you a fan of International Intrigue? A Review

I first met author, Andrew Grant, through his lovely wife, author Tasha Alexander. (Interviews with both coming later in the year) Andrew consented to an interview this winter in anticipation of his new book which will be released in 2014.

I had never read anything by Andrew but I do try to do my homework because I promised my readers that I was interviewing my favorite authors. So I ordered Grant’s book , “EVEN”.

And I am so happy that I did.

Ranking: 5 out of 5 quills A REVIEW “EVEN”

Andrew turns out to be a slick, savvy, clever, and ‘surprise you at every turn’ kind of writer. And his humor is dry as your morning toast. Which, if you know me, you know that I love me some DRY humor!

British Intelligence operative, David Trevellyan is a take action sort’a guy. At one point in the story he is forced to sit in on one of the FBI’s endless meetings and ruminates to himself: “Staying on to help Tanya fight her demons was one thing. I was thinking about time spent in restaurants, and bars, and other, more secluded places. Not in offices. Not sitting through endless meetings. Talk of corporations was a bad sign. Any mention of conspiracies and government contractors was worse. Interagency cooperation was only a sentence away. Task forces would be proposed. I knew how it would end up. If I let the FBI go down that road I’d never get away. I’d be stuck here for months.” See? Very funny man!

I will be buying more of the Trevellyan series as they are great stories. I always felt like James Bond was a bit of a spoof….entertaining especially with Sean Connery’s tongue in cheek delivery. But Andrew’s characters are very real and believable. In “EVEN” (as in getting…) Trevellyan, a seasoned operative for the British government finds himself in the crosshairs of the NYPD and the Feebs. He is their prime suspect in a murder. There is a sadistic, female villain that will give me nightmares for weeks.

This story is brilliantly plotted with lots of twists and turns and I look forward to reading more of Grant’s work. I highly recommend it.

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Don’t Miss It!! MONTHLY INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!

I have had a wonderful response from 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, Tasha Alexander, Andrew Grant, and many others.

Beware! Parents! 1.8 million teens run away every year!

It’s really been an eye opener since I began this series of short plays for today’s teenager and the classroom.
The research and the things I have learned about a teen’s world today have astounded and saddened me. Life was so much simpler when I was a teen.

But then I remembered that I ran away from home…..on my horse! ….for about four hours. I rode twenty miles into town and went to my boyfriend’s mother’s house. She was so much cooler than my mom! After discussing the whole problem with her (it must have been earth-shattering but I cannot, for the life of me, remember what it was about. I am certain that it had to do with my breaking the rules and my Dad grounding me.) I called my Mom and she told me if I could get back home, again on horseback, before my Dad woke up she wouldn’t tell him.

We galloped all the way back home!

But, I digress. It astonished me; the number of teens who run away. This from www.troubled-teen.com: ‘Some troubled teens are high risk for becoming teen runaways when they feel like they can’t handle problems at home. This is a frightening experience for parents and for teens. According to the National Runaway Switchboard, 1.6 to 2.8 million young people run away every year. Many teen runaways quickly find that running away is worse than the problems they have at home, but they may be afraid to go home.’

So I thought I’d write another play #27, for the classroom on this subject. One where teens could ‘role play’ running away (’cause we know that it has crossed most teenager’s minds to do that very thing.) in a safe environment and perhaps get a feeling for just how dangerous it is.

Synopsis: Molly is fifteen and defiant when it comes to the rules her single parent Mom has set down. When she is forbidden to see the older boy she is dating and then grounded for a month, Molly runs away. Only to find that the streets are no place to run to. This short play for the classroom or drama department offers a safe environment for teenagers to explore the risks of running away from home. 3f. 1m. Cast can be expanded.
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS!

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.

Crawl Inside the World of Vampires…Interview with author, Robert McCammon (part 1)

Robert McCammon has a huge fan base and even though he is trying to meet a deadline, he was kind enough to contribute to The Writer’s Corner by sitting down and letting me interview him.
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Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?

A. I have a regular office, my books and research materials all set up neatly…yeah, I wish! They start out neatly and somehow get all over the floor. Otherwise, it’s a pretty ordinary space. A poster of the “Night Scotsman” train on the wall, a black-and-white Escher print…that’s about it. Oh, and I keep my joystick plugged in so I can play airplane and racing games when I need a break.

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. Hmmmm…I guess I do have my cup of coffee at hand. Sometimes it’s a glass of wine, just depends on the mood. Sometimes depending upon what I’m writing, it’s a glass of whiskey, too!

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

A. Computer.

His newest book to be released in May, ’13.

Don’t miss Part II of my interview with Robert McCammon May 7th

This is a wonderful video from Robert and he goes on to tell what writing means to him.

http://www.robertmccammon.com/

A fan (Ben R.) writes: ‘Many people mark significant events in their lives based on where they were when they heard “the news.” Where were you when Kennedy was shot? Where were you when the Twin Towers fell? Where were you when you read the latest Robert McCammon book? Yes, that fits in my timeline perfectly. I can still remember where I was the first time I read “Blue World,” or “Mine,” or even “Swan Song.” I can even tell you exactly where I was both times I sobbed during “Boys Life,” and where I was sitting the day I played hookie from school so I could read “Speaks The Night Bird.” I can even tell you what I drank the night before when I stayed home sick and read “Night Boat.” Robert McCammon has been my favorite author since I was in high school reading “Mine” while I hid behind my tuba during band practice. I never hesitate a second to recommend any of his works. His writings are so diverse there’s always something for everyone. Whether it’s aliens, vampires, parasitic twins, or LSD crazed baby snatchers, no one will be disappointed by this fine author.’

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

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, Robert McCammon, Rhys Bowen, Sue Grafton, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Elizabeth Gilbert, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, Amber Winckler,Jeffrey Deaver 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 this month. 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!

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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Interview Thursday with author, Robert McCammon

Don’t Miss It! Thursday, May 2nd we begin an interview with
spine-chilling author, Robert McCammon.

If you love vampires and particularly a hero-vampire you’ll love this visit with Robert. And later in the month I was invited to write a review of McCammon’s new release, “I Travel By Night” .

A fan commented: ‘Whether it’s aliens, vampires, parasitic twins, or LSD crazed baby snatchers, no one will be disappointed by this fine author.’

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

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! 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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Read my new blog on InspireMeToday.com

“UNDER CONSTRUCTION” A sign I have worn for a few years!

As a contributing writer/blogger to this inspirational site it is my pleasure to share my wisdom. Lessons that life has taught me as I traveled the sometimes bumpy road of life. You can survive the bumps; the real trick is to avoid falling into the ten foot holes. Frequently there is no one there with an eleven foot ladder to help you out.

Excerpt: ‘A famous psychologist (his first name is Phil) talks about the fact that we all have pivotal points in our lives; Crossroads if you will where we can turn down a path of self-pity, victimism, feeling angry at the world and an urge to ‘give up’. Or turning the other way and seeking empowerment, happiness, and a full life.

In August of 2006 I experienced a harsh, heartbreaking pivotal point in my life when my husband of thirty years died suddenly.’

Yesterday InspireMe posted another of my blogs. Enjoy!!

http://www.inspiremetoday.com/blog/

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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”

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Cruisin’ the Boulevard…the Fifties Nostalgia (part 4)

I woke up this morning thinking about the fifties. “The Great Pretender” by The Platters weaving its magic through my brain. My poodle skirt was one of five full circle skirts in my closet. And the number of crinolines you wore under your poodle skirt dictated how popular you were at school. Crazy, huh?

And that made me think of the other things that the really popular girls had that I wanted. I had one crinoline, they had at least three. Oh! and Jansen sweater sets. My parents could only afford one; the really cool girls had a set for every day of the week. Jansen sweaters had a lot of cashmere in them and they were expensive from my side of the tracks. (Stay at home Mom and a meat cutter Dad.) And I can still remember my first pair of white buck shoes. Every night I had to ‘paint’ white polish on them. They couldn’t be scuffed or dirty, EVER!

‘Bad’ Girls were identified by four things: they drank beer, they dated servicemen (sailors in my town), they had their ears pierced and they would go out on dates to the drive-in movies. We all knew what happened there! You wouldn’t want to be caught dead talking to any of them if you valued your reputation!

And I was there at the birth of Rock n’ Roll. Bill Hailey and the Comets had just released their movie “Rock Around the Clock”. Elvis had stormed the world stage with “Heartbreak Hotel” and “I Forgot to Remember to Forget”. We loved him on the radio and on our 45’s, but parents were up in arms and would not let us ‘see‘ him. Those hips were scandalous!

So the movie “Rock Around the Clock” finally comes to our little burg. It was a Saturday matinee and the house was packed with teenagers. Somewhere in the movie Bill Hailey sings his signature song. We couldn’t stay in our seats! “One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock, five, six, seven o’clock, eight o’clock ROCK! nine, ten, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock ROCK!……..We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight!” The aisles filled with teens dancing, doing the jitterbug. Laughing and singing along with the Comets. It was amazing!

The theatre manager thought he had a riot on his hands and called the police. We got a stern lecture and were told if we would stay in our seats they would turn the movie back on.

Do you remember cruising and the Drive-In?? After the football game, or dance, or a date for the movies everyone would pile into whoever had a car and cruise down the length of Lincoln St. through downtown and out First Street to Bernie’s Drive-Inn and drive slowly around and around the restaurant, checking everyone out while they checked you out. We’d either stop for a ‘malt’ or a ‘Coke’ or we’d reverse our cruising and drive back down First Street and up Lincoln…..we’d do that until someone had to get home before curfew. My last boyfriend in high school was older and had already graduated. He had a custom 1957 Chevy coupe. Very little chrome; everything was ‘leaded in’. It was the most gorgeous dusky pink.

Our ‘song’ was Party Doll by Buddy Knox. I was his party Doll and how I kept my virginity that year, I’ll never know!!

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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, , 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.

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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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”

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