writers Archives - Page 43 of 46 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

An Ode to Our Cats….Hank and me

In this two part post, I write about the love of cats. I know, I know! You either hate ’em or love ’em. Both camps are die-hards. You can’t live with one or you can’t live without one, or two, or three! For all of Charles Bukowski’s hard living, boozing, philandering, drunken brawls and genius writing, he was a complete softie when it came to cats….even cats that weren’t his own. He inspired me to write this ode to my dear old Shadow who died and to my new cat, ‘Wild Thang’. In part two I feature his poetry about his cats.

An Ode to our Cats….Hank and me

she was a feral kitten in the back alley

hiding under the deck

she crept out one day while I sat in the

sun, reading and

the first time I picked Shadow up

she shit all over me, so afraid

she was of any human

Next time, she didn’t shit on me and

slowly we became friends

for the next sixteen years

she was one hundred and twelve

when she died Continue reading “An Ode to Our Cats….Hank and me”

An Interview with Tasha Alexander (part 3)

The conclusion to my Interview with mystery writer, Tasha Alexander

Tasha Alexander, best sellers, mysteries, — Tasha and husband, author, Andrew Grant

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

A. The first part of “no book” land is a barren, hideous wasteland. You’re sure you’ll never have a book-worthy idea again. You’re sure you should have gone to law school. You wonder if it’s too late. Then, as you’re reading, doing research, a little idea comes to you and you start developing it, researching it, playing with it. Pretty soon it coalesces and then you enter into the everything-is-possible-and-beautiful stage. A stage that never lasts long enough. In this stage, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the book. It can be the best thing you’ve ever written. It has no flaws. It will change your life.

All this is possible, of course, because you have not yet written a single word. Once you start writing, the book immediately loses all its shiny goodness. Continue reading “An Interview with Tasha Alexander (part 3)”

Grand Country Houses, Victorian England, Murder! Delicious! an Inteview with Tasha Alexander (part 2)

Tasha Alexander, best sellers, fiction, interviews — Burton Agnes Hall

Part 2…my Interview with Tasha Alexander

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

A. Writing a first draft is the most intense part of the process for me. When I’m doing research, kicking around or fleshing out plot ideas, or revising, I can interact with other people, run my household, etc. etc. But drafting is another story altogether. I have a daily word count goal when I’m drafting and will not stop until I have reached it. I get very focused on what I’m doing and am barely functional in other capacities. When I was in this mode last year, my son asked me to make him pancakes for lunch. I did. Unfortunately, however, instead of using the recipe I have made thousands of times, I randomly followed one on the opposite page of the cookbook, not realizing what I had done until I noticed the batter seemed weird. My head was completely in the book. We ordered pizza. Which just goes to prove that sometimes it’s better to let pizza boxes pile up than to try to cook.

Funnily enough, cooking is a huge part of my writing process—just earlier and later in the life of the book. It’s my favorite thing to do when I’ve got ideas percolating in the back of my brain. You think you’re browning meat for Julia Child’s boeuf bourguignon, but all of a sudden you realize Continue reading “Grand Country Houses, Victorian England, Murder! Delicious! an Inteview with Tasha Alexander (part 2)”

“Bertie the Bookworm and the Bully Boys” now an Audio Book!

fairies, books for children, literacy, reading, bullying, bullies, elves, — A story book with full color illustrations

The third in the Fabled Forest Series, “Bertie, the Bookworm and the Bully Boys” is now available as an AUDIO BOOK at www.audible.com and www.amazon.com as well as www.iTunes. com

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 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 gets in with the wrong crowd and his friends are worried that he will become the newest member of the Bully Boys. Best friends with Cheets, Pansy is determined to save her friend. The story teaches gentle lessons about literacy, bullying and ageism.

In an October post I’ll tell you more about the adventures of producing AUDIO books…..meeting new people, choosing a narrator, (a young opera singer from Switzerland)….the character voices she was able to create. Listen to Sample

Continue reading ““Bertie the Bookworm and the Bully Boys” now an Audio Book!”

Lady Emily sails into the Salon to Find a Dead Body! Interview with Author, Tasha Alexander (1 of 3)

Let’s peek into Tasha’s writing world…. “any delay opens the door to the possibility of not writing at all.”

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR, TASHA ALEXANDER

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

A. Before I started to write, I had this idea—an idea many of us have at the beginning—that I would need the right sort of space in which to work. I had visions of lovely bookshelf-lined rooms with big windows and a large antique table. Reality was that I lived in an attic apartment in New Haven, where the only think that might be construed as an office or study was an unfinished section of the attic (no windows) where we had draped canvas to form a ceiling that would keep the bats from dive-bombing whoever was sitting at the computer. Not being a fan of bats, I learned quickly to be adaptable. It turns out where you write isn’t so important as it might seem. I can write in an airport lounge, a coffee shop, on a bench waiting for my son to come out of his drawing class. My preferred spot at home is my bedroom. For some reason, sitting in bed is the one place I can work without ever getting wrist or shoulder pain (you’d think it would be an ergonomic nightmare, but it’s not). Continue reading “Lady Emily sails into the Salon to Find a Dead Body! Interview with Author, Tasha Alexander (1 of 3)”

An Idea..A Gift…A new Play and now a Novel! (part two)

This past Tuesday I started the story about where the idea came, from to write this play. Here is the rest of the excerpt…..if you like it, write to me and I’ll send you the script, FREE! (offer expires 12/1/13)
And Next TUESDAY, I offer twelve TIPS on how to write a stage play!
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(MONTY resumes to paint for a few beats. A door slams down on the street and a woman’s voice is heard.)

VOICE (Off.) Hello, Samantha. Where’re you off to in such a rush?

(MONTY rushes to the window and looks down.)

SAMANTHA. (Voice Off.) Hi, Mrs. Jessup. Just got a call. They want me to audition. Do I look all right?

VOICE (Off.) You’re a blonde now, dear. And so quick!

SAMANTHA. (Voice Off.) It’s a..um…a wig..for the audition.

VOICE (Off.) Well, brunette or blonde, you look lovely, as always.

SAMANTHA. (Voice Off.) Do you need anything from the market? I’m stopping by on my way home.

VOICE (Off.) A quart of milk, if you can, dear. And a half pound of locks if it’s fresh.

SAMANTHA. (Voice Off.) You got it, Mrs. J.

VOICE (Off.) Wait just a moment, I’ll get my pocket book.

SAMANTHA. (Voice Off.) No, it’s okay. You can pay me when I get home. Gotta go…..see you later.

VOICE (Off.) You’re such a good girl. Bye. Continue reading “An Idea..A Gift…A new Play and now a Novel! (part two)”

‘Give them a rocky past, harsh problems,debilitating grief and sunny joy’. Part 3 of our chat with author Cathy Lamb

Part 3 of my Interview with author, Cathy Lamb

I first discovered this author when I was looking for something new to read; Henry’s Sisters is still a favorite of mine. Cathy quickly became one of my top ten authors. TS
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Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?

A. I start sketching them out in my journal. I first figure out what they do professionally. I then put family and friends around them. The family and friends are not the easiest people, although some are there for humorous purposes only.

I give them a rocky past, harsh problems and difficult challenges, debilitating grief and sunny joy. They get quirks, talents, and a lot of flaws, too. All this can be discovered as the draft is written and each edit is applied. I don’t know everything about my characters when I start writing that first draft. I let them live and breathe. I watch them. I write down what they’re saying, how they’re saying it. What makes them cry or throw things. What makes them fall in love. What has hurt them the most and how they’ve contributed to their own issues. It’s like watching a movie in my own head.

Q. What inspires your story/stories ?

A. Everything. Julia’s Chocolates came to life when I had an image in my head of a woman throwing her wedding dress up into a dead, gnarled tree on a deserted, dusty street. The Last Time I Was Me was inspired when I imagined a woman using an Exacto knife to open up her cheating boyfriend’s condom and slipping peanut oil into the condom using an eye dropper. She sealed it back up with a hot glue gun. The boyfriend is allergic to nuts. So is my husband. I was mad at him that night and a whole story came to me, laying in bed, two in the morning, and I thought of that condom and his allergies.

Such A Pretty Face was inspired when I wrote an article for Oregon Health Sciences University about bariatric surgery for obese people. What a journey that was for them. A Different Kind of Normal was inspired by my interest in people’s ancestral lines. If You Could See What I See was inspired by colorful lingerie, tree houses, blood, and a family owned business.

When I’m writing books, something I see during the day, part of a conversation, a person…all of those things can end up in my book that night, although I’ll twist and curl and turn them inside out to suit the story.

Q. When is your next book coming out? (or) What are you working on?

A. If You Could See What I See is out August 1, 2013. Here’s the first chapter:

Black.
That’s what he was wearing when it happened. I never wear black anymore. He ended up wearing red, too.
That’s what killed my soul. The red.
He haunts me. He stalks me.
For over a year, I have tried to outrun him.
It hasn’t worked.
My name is Meggie.

I live in a tree house.

I am working on my next book, which is untitled for the moment, but due in December. Argh. December? Really?

Q. Do you want to write in another genre?

A. I would love to write screenplays. I would love to learn how to write a play. When I have time, I’ll learn how to do that. I think people should always try new things and meet new people, so it’s on the list! I do write short stories for anthologies and I love the short story format. Short. Sweet. Tight storyline. Easy to edit. Done.

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

A. I go to book groups all the time. Sometimes I visit in person, often we visit using Skype. Email me at CathyLamb@frontier.com if you’d like me to join your group for the evening. I’m happy to come.

Thank you for having me on your blog!

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Click here to read Part I and Part II

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview with one once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Patrick Taylor, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Andrew Grant, Heidi Jon Schmidt, 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! Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is November’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Raymond Benson is January’s author. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To receive my posts sign up for my On the Home page, you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

A Weirdly Wonderful Storyteller….(Part 2) an Interview with Cathy Lamb

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

This is a job. People imagine writers are off on palm tree studded islands writing, or in tree houses, or at their darling cottage at the beach, no distractions except their pinging imagination. This is a false image. Almost all the writers I know have children, responsibilities, people who need them. Some have day jobs. You simply must get your work done as others do in every other profession on the planet.

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

A. Don’t procrastinate. Sit your butt down and write and quit dallying around. Do you want to publish or not? Seriously. Ask yourself that question. It’s a good one.

I can procrastinate, too. I’m quite talented at it. But for me, if I don’t meet my goals, I don’t let myself go to bed at night. I have very, very late nights sometimes. Getting books written is about dedication, focus and hard work. Not romantic. Not always fun. You may be in pajamas most of the day. You may not wash your hair when you should. But you do buck up and write. It is what it is.

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

A. I can get lost in my story, my characters, for hours. I’ll sit down upstairs, lean against the wall, my computer propped on my lap, and the next thing I know it’s three in the morning and the characters have taken me places I didn’t know we were going and done things that would get a normal person arrested.

Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment (i.e. specific creative inspirations)?

A. I don’t have a muse. Can I get one somewhere? Are they on sale?

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. When I was sixteen. Truly. That was when I decided I had to be a writer. There was no other goal, professionally, for me. I couldn’t be anything else. I wrote for the school newspaper, I wrote my first romance at age nineteen at the University of Oregon as a freshman. (It was rejected.) I taught fourth grade from the time I was twenty – two to twenty nine. I became a teacher specifically so I would have time at night and during summers to write.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. I sold my first book in 2005. My road to publishing took a while. I went to college, then grad school, taught school, got married, had three kids, was a freelance writer for years for The Oregonian writing about homes, décor, people, events, fashion…the usual curvy road. When my kids were little I wrote late at night, too. It was the only time I had. I lived off about five to six hours of sleep a night for sixteen years.

Q. What makes a writer great?

A. A writer is great when they’re able to reach the reader through characters and wrench deep emotions out of them.

If you missed Part I, click here. Return to read Part 3 of this interview August 29th

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”

To receive my posts sign up for my On the right side you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

If You are Very Lucky…Your Education Never Ends!

‘Education’ is rooted in the word educare–or ex ducare— and the most important aspect of the definition is that it has two meanings. One being to acquire knowledge, from books and study.

The second is to explore and understand that which is within us all. A search, a journey leading to the places where wisdom lies and is crucial to who we might become.

I am a mishmash of both…formal education mixed in with a continuing search for myself, my goals and the wisdom that life wants to give me, if only I’d listen. In the past decade I have pursued the second part: to explore and understand what I’m all about. It is indeed a journey and has led finally to some wisdom, which IS ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL TO WHO WE MIGHT BECOME.

So why am I even talking about this? Well, let’s see….knowledge leads to awareness and awareness leads to being a better writer. Wisdom, if you are so lucky to find some, leads to you writing richer characters because you now have the empathy that comes with wisdom. The ‘journey’ in the second part of your education makes YOU a richer character and that leads to your story being fully developed, abounding with interesting characters, fascinating places and good plots.

And if you try hard enough and have a little luck you never stop learning. Even if the only thing that happens in your education today is that you read a new, sometimes obscure, word and have to go and look it up…you are continuing to learn. My favorite thing!!

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name:: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Caroline Leavitt, Sue Grafton, Karen Robards, Walter Mosley, Loretta Chase, Nora Roberts, Raymond Benson 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! Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is October’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author.

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To receive my posts sign up for my

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on the home page; On the right side enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

Lean Back Into It!

If you were here with me, seeing me devour Bukowski’s observations, wisdom, sarcasm, and cutting wit, you would know what a great effort I am making not to write too much about him too often. You would witness my restraint when what I really want to do is climb up on the tallest building and shout to the world: ‘YOU’VE GOT TO READ THIS GUY. YOUR LIVES WON’T BE WORTH DIDDLY-SQUAT WITHOUT HIS WISDOM, HIS TRUTHS, HIS TAKE ON THIS HARSH, WONDERFUL, UNFORGIVING, PASSIONATE LIFE!!!!

Why can’t we learn this stuff when we’re in our thirties? Hell! I’d have settled for having some damn wisdom at forty. Not until seven years ago did it all come clear….did I SEE! But, I’m a stubborn, old gal and evidently a slow learner. Life knocked me around again and again, with a grand slam TKO, until I GOT IT!

So here’s the latest in my series from Charles Bukowski.
Read it slow.
Stop and think about it.
Then read it again.

like in a chair the color of the sun
as you listen to lazy piano music
and the aircraft overheard are not
at war.
where the last drink is as good as
the first
and you realized that the promises
you made yourself were
kept.
that’s plenty.
that last; about the promises.
what’s not so good is that the few
friends you had are
dead and they seem
irreplaceable.
as for women, you didn’t know enough
early enough
and you knew enough
too late.
and if more self-analysis is allowed: it’s
nice that you turned out well-
honed.
that you arrived late
and remained generally
capable.
outside of that, not much to say
except you can leave without
regret.
until then, a bit more amusement,
a bit more endurance,
leaning back
into it.

like the dog who got across
the busy street;
not all of it was good
luck.

I really don’t have anything more to say…..he says it all….doesn’t he??

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Interview with Charles Bukowski with yours truly. Click here
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”

I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name:: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Karen Robards, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Caroline Leavitt, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Walter Mosley, Loretta Chase, Nora Roberts, Raymond Benson 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! July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is October’s author and slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author.
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Receive my posts in an email. Sign up for my on the home page, enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!

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