writers Archives - Page 45 of 46 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Don’t Miss an Interview with best selling author, Caroline Leavitt

My next Interview is with Caroline Leavitt, Tuesday, June 4th, 6th and the final segment on June 11th.

“While I was at Brandeis University, I took a writing course with a famous writer who told me flat out that I would never make it. He used to attack me in class, and though tears would stream down my face….”

To read the entire interview, join us on June 4th.

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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.

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 was 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!

Don’t Throw That Away!!

I know! I’m nagging my fellow writers about this. But, I need to convince you that no matter how much you hate what you’ve written (on any given day), and how much crap you might think it is (on any given day) and how much you might despise and doubt yourself (on any given day). DON’T THROW ANYTHING that you’ve written AWAY!

Put it out of sight so it won’t haunt you. Throw it in a drawer that you never open. I promise you, in a month, a year or even in several years you will bring it out, dust it off, edit and add to it and wonder why you ever hated it. It could be a short story that blossoms into a novel. It could be a few lines that turns into poetry.

I love what Charles Bukowski said on this subject; about pulling the ‘crap’ writing out of a box, filling it’s cavities, giving eye and ear examinations and………

my atomic stockpile by Charles Bukowski

I cleaned my place the other day
first time in ten years
and found 100 rejected poems:
I fastened them all to a clipboard
(much bad reading).

now I will clean their teeth
fill their cavities
give them eye and ear examinations
weigh them
offer blood transfusions
then send them out again into the
sick world of posey.
either that
or I must burn down your cities,
rape your women,
murder your men,
enslave your children.

every time I clean my room
the world trembles in the balance.
that’s why I only do it once every
ten years.

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This is a very funny (ironic) man and that’s why I am so drawn to him, in spite of his drunken, sexist, bigoted, misogynistic ways. Would I want him living in my house? God, NO! But would I like to go away with him for awhile to an island or a cabin in the mountains where we could drink, write, talk, yell, swear, debate, philosophize, and BE HONEST!! HELL, YES!!
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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! Mark Childress was 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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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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘Her Majesty’s Hope’ a Review of Susan E.MacNeal’s new book

Review of Her Majesty’s Hope Rating: (5 out of 5 quills)

Yesterday Susan Elia MacNeal’s latest Maggie Hope mystery was released. It’s no surprise that I have been eagerly awaiting the release of His Majesty’s Hope by this accomplished writer.

Each of MacNeal’s books are ‘stand alone’ stories but to get the most pleasure from them, I highly recommend you read them in order. Starting with Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, we follow Maggie as she works as a lowly typist in a typing pool at #10 Downing Street in spite of her knowledge and natural ability with languages. She is a master of cryptology and codes but in the 1930’s it was unheard of for a woman to be used in that capacity.

She quickly rises in Mr. Churchill’s government and trains with the British CIA. I have to give a nod to Princess Elizabeth’s Spy because if you love the ‘royals’ (as I do) this is an amazing look into Windsor Castle when the now Queen was just a young girl. It’s a surprising and fascinating mystery.

The most current in this series takes a harsh, horrifying look at Hitler’s ethnic cleansing. Maggie is dropped into Germany as a spy and also to confront the mother she never knew and thought had died in a car crash years ago.

Seventy-five years later, the systematic destruction of the Jewish population is chilling and this gifted writer puts it in a context that is both horrifying and heart-breaking. MacNeal’s characters are full and rich with several story lines weaving through this period in our history. And then she neatly ties all the ends together, leaving you wanting more….which her fans will get with a little patience.

I was so pleased to have interviewed Susan a couple of months ago and if you missed it, click here.

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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, 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.

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!

The Writer’s Corner…An Interview with Amber Winckler (part 1)

Author and Embalmer, Amber Winckler, is interviewed

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

A. My writing takes place all over. I am a memo book writer from way back and I have them everywhere: my purse, my locker at work, beneath the seat of my car… I often text or email ideas and thoughts to myself via my phone, so I don’t forget them. As any writer knows, good ideas tend to float away if you don’t quickly trap them in real time, dragging them from the abyss and converting them into words.

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. No consistent rituals. I do need to be alone. Sometimes I listen to music if I am writing a piece that needs to be colored by a particular emotion. Some entire scenes from my books have been written to a single song looped over and over for hours. Having my cat around is always nice.

Q. What is your mode of writing?

A. Long hand is still my first choice, but I am slowly converting my brain (and hand) over to the keyboard. Still, writing with a good, heavy pen that rolls smooth and easy is the way my thoughts flow best. After the accumulation of memo books and notes becomes too overwhelming, I begin converting them over to my computer.

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

A. I am not a disciplined writer. I find that a set time brings out my innate need to rebel. I choose not to make my living through writing. In my mind, I earn my daily bread as a mortician. I write for me. That is how I try to protect my writing from becoming spoiled or tedious. When I have been on a schedule, my writing stalls. I also need lots of time in between writing to read. Reading classics inspire me, and I need to be exposed to men and women who string together words like music. Reading helps me remember why people write. It is glorious.
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A note from a fan, Lori S: An impressive creativity is found throughout the writings of Winckler. Plots are fascinating although disturbing and show an underlying wash of disgust. This is something one cannot just “put down” and read later. Those with an iron stomach and vivid imaginations will benefit most from the outrageous and bold detail the writer supplies. Witnessing a train wreck could compare. You want know about it, you don’t want to look — but you do anyway.

The writer offers a compelling combination of life experience to her writing with her background in embalming and working for a coroner, it lends her the ability to recognize every gory detail that would usually go unnoticed by a layman. One of her stories must be finished in its entirety, while you are sitting on the edge trying to determine how the tale will unfold. It is hard to distinguish a genre for these writings and in conclusion, it is believed that the reader determines that. For now it’s fiction for definition, but is it really?
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Don’t miss Part 2 on Wednesday, April 24th!
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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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‘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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What does it Look like? From No book to Finished book…55 days

This past Sunday I finished the first draft of my second novel. 74,000+ words and 365 pages. This was possibly the purest writing I have ever done and almost an out-of-body experience. WHY? You ask?

I let go!

As most of my friends will tell you, I am a double ‘A’ personality with control issues. Okay! Call it what it is; I’m a control freak!
But this time, I started with only a loose outline in order to keep my historical facts straight and to track where I thought I was going with the story. I had written the prologue months ago. On February 19th I marked my calendar that this was the day that I would begin writing it in earnest.

By the second chapter the characters took the story away from me and told me to hang on and start typing.
They told me who they were, where they were going, who they loved, why they had failed and all about their flaws.

Now! Other than the fact that I am in excellent company, I would agree with you when you mutter, “She’s just plain nuts!” But according to the authors that I am now interviewing on a monthly basis, this is not bat-poop crazy but rather a condition that most writers dream about and when it does happen they don’t question it….they just let it happen and they give thanks!

During long, long days of writing (sometimes until my fingers refused to work any longer) I spent my non-writing, quiet time surrounded with great authors. Either posting their interviews, reading their poetry, or curled up with a good book. I believe that reading makes us better at our writing.

I am so inspired by other good writers.

So let go! Open your hearts and minds and let it flow. Don’t force the direction of your story…it will never be exactly like you planned and that’s a GOOD thing!
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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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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 Mark Childress (part 2)

Part II ….Mark Childress

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

A. All the time, when it’s going well. I actually get kind of impatient with the demands of real life when the imagined life really gets up and cranking.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. In high school, after I won an “honorable mention” in a short story contest and Miss Eudora Welty herself put the plaque in my hand.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. I was published as a journalist starting just two years later but it was nine years before I got my first novel published.

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

A. Assuming you have found an agent who has found an interested publisher, most of the process is directed by the writer. Despite what people think, publishers don’t generally force novelists to stick to strict deadlines or to stop editing the book before they’re finished. They want you to write the best book you can. First you write the book. Then you rewrite it a few times or a few dozen times for yourself.

Then a few more times for the editor. Then another time for the copy desk. After that, it is waiting, longing, hoping, and having Oprah dreams. Then publication happens and is both much better and much worse than you ever expected. Then you face the blank page and start the next one. Rewriting is the core of what writers do – so if you can’t stand rewriting and being edited, choose another profession.

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

A. It is different for each book. Sometimes it is an idea, or a place, sometimes it is a character. It’s important to keep listening for that little bell when it rings.

Q. What inspired your story/stories ?

A. Life, pain, a happy childhood that was also miserable. A weird family. Being from Alabama.

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

A. The one problem my agent has always had is that I like to write a completely different novel each time. I don’t stick to one theme or one type of book. I love writers like Graham Greene who can do a little bit of everything, and I’ve always wanted to be like that.

Q. Please feel free to share more with us.
A. “I love my readers. They have made it possible for me to have the life I dreamed of back when I started out. If you are one of them – my thanks.”

http://www.crazyinalabama.com/
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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, 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! 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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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!

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