Tag: writing

A Story Set To Silent Music

Congratulations, this is just a quick note to let you know that your poem, Remembered Love is one of the poems being featured on the PoetrySoup.com home page this week. Thanks again and congratulations.

Sincerely, PoetrySoup.com

Montana.high.3
Montana High Country

Remembered Love ©

Ashes waft over the meadow
a jet stream of sorrow,
beckoning the widow to the
edge, down to the river.

Contented epoch, at the
creek where the wolves run,
he lived and laughed.

We watched the bright blue
stars foxtrot across the milky
way, a midnight indigo quilt
shivering with light.

Mountain men whose Continue reading “A Story Set To Silent Music”

Looking for a Good Mystery?

Do you read mysteries? Then you’ll love this mystery series set in the tough streets of New York City. 1.worldofmurderBW..NEW.USE._820 - Copy (2)Detective Jack O’Roarke, a big rough Irish cop, and his gentle, lady-like partner, Stella Garcia (make no mistake; she can take down a perp twice her size) enter the mysterious world of stripper clubs, art museums, Broadway theatre, the priesthood, and cooking shows to catch their killer.

The series begins with The Art of Murder and currently ends with the most recent, The Taste of Murder, which takes you behind the scenes of reality cooking shows. Please enjoy the following excerpt.

Patrick Shelley, dressed in his signature pink dress shirt and matching paisley tie, walked up to O’Roarke and dropped a case file box on his desk, barely missing the detective’s nose. Another detective, right behind Pat, set two more boxes on a chair and, snorting in disgust, walked away. Pat scowled down at O’Roarke as he flipped open the lid.
“What’s this?” Homicide Detective O’Roarke asked.
“A cold case of mine.” The cop barked. “Boss said to give it to you.” Continue reading “Looking for a Good Mystery?”

Wind Horse…A Little Haiku for your Monday morning

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!       Julia London in October and Matt Jorgenson later this winter. Coming in December!  My review of a new release by Dean Koontz, Ashley Bell.

To receive  my  blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  sign up on the home page and enter your email address.  I love comments!  Take the time to write one at the bottom of the post.

{Charcoal rendering and poetry by T.Sugarek}

 

 

Inspiration…Wherever You Can Get It!

poetry, writing, inspiration, writer, native american, superstition, talisman, totems,                   I was sitting, in my car, on a freeway, (some might say a parking lot), stuck in traffic, not moving.  To while away the time I was reading the bumper stickers and signs in the back windows of other automobiles.  Wondering if I’d ever get home, it suddenly struck me; the parallel between totems, talismans, and these stickers, magnets, paste-ons that modern man posts on his steel steed to declare his beliefs.

Here is an excerpt of the poetry that was born while impatiently sitting in traffic.  Grabbing scraps of paper from the floorboards, writing on a restaurant napkin, old receipt, the back of a grocery list… lest I forget my words~~~~

Totem and Talisman  ©

Totem. Storyteller of the tribe’s history and lore,
felled and carved in reverence, from the tree centuries old  sculpted in living wood;
a face, a fish, a spirit, a bear, the sun, the moon

Totems live on as statuary in the garden;  a wooden rooster tops the mail box.
A mural brushed upon a barn wall; the flag of a beloved country, the star of a lone state.

The Nations painted their sturdy, brave little horses before battle…
a circle of paint about the eye for truer vision, hand prints on shoulder
and flank to ward off the spear

Today’s tribes paint their vehicles with bumper stickers, magnetic ribbons,
and window decals. All proclaiming some truth, totems to tell other tribes what they believe.

Support this, hate that, down with this, up with that.  Proud to be a redneck,
a woman, a boater, a christian, a Viet Nam vet, proud to be a farmer,
a republican, a parent, a fisherman.  Prouder still to be a soldier,
a grandpa, a boy scout, a sailor, a golfer, an Irishman, a lover of guns.’ ©

Keep yourself open to inspiration…eyes, ears, brain and heart.  You will be inspired by strange and wonderful things and you will write strange and wonderful things. You will leave totems for following generations to read.

To read more of my poetry……..click here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!       Julia London in October and Matt Jorgenson later this winter. Coming in December!  My review of a new release by Dean Koontz, Ashley Bell.

To receive  my  blog, blogs, blogger, writer, author, playwright, books, plays,fiction  sign up on the home page and enter your email address.  I love comments!  Take the time to write one at the bottom of the post.

A Chat with Author, Julia London (part 2)

working on the train
working on the train

TS.  My kind of interview…one sprinkled with terrific tongue-in-cheek humor.

Q. Who is your muse at the moment?

JL. My muse is a sloven blob, and she wants to eat chocolate and float in the pool and watch Real Housewives of Name Your City. She’s not much help, to be honest. I kick her out, and then she lurks around the windows, peering in, shouting things I can’t really hear. But every once in awhile, she comes up with a gem. Just every once in awhile. For the most part, she does not earn her keep around here.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

JL. I have always written. I have had many jobs that required good, technical writing skills. But somewhere along the way I was bored with my jobs in public administration. I had never aspired to be a fiction writer, but one day I picked up an Iris Johansen book at a garage sale. I really love historical fiction at the time. I didn’t recognize the book as a romance because I never read with any eye toward genre. I just read books that appealed to me and never thought about their category. The Johansen book really appealed to me because of the guy on the back cover, LOL. It was a great read, and an easy read after a stressful day at work. I read more books like the Iris Johansen book, and I began to think I could actually do this. Turns out, I could.

Q. How long after that were you published?

JL. Very quickly. I wrote a book and learned how to construct a novel, how to build an arc of a story into it. So then I wrote a shorter, better one, which became my first book, The Devil’s Love. I was extremely lucky that the first book I wrote and sent to an agent caught her eye. Continue reading “A Chat with Author, Julia London (part 2)”

The Trans-G Kid, a New Short Play

NEW in my collection of ten minute plays for the classroom or drama department.

Trans.G.BookCoverPreview.doThe Trans-G Kid

I was inspired recently, watching celebrity transgender headlines, to add to my collection of ten minute plays for the classroom. The media has put a ‘better late than never’ and much needed spotlight on the teenagers who are seeking their ‘true selves’. In the process, these teens have been living in fear, confusion and depression, having to hide their feelings. Alone, with a huge secret, many of them look to suicide as a permanent solution to end their pain and uncertainty. The suicide statistics in the teen transgender community is staggering.

The Trans-G Kid was born. My short plays for the classroom cover teen issues in real time. Bullying, cutting, running away, teen dating violence, suicide, drugs, and broken families. If my play opens a single dialogue between student and teacher or child and parent I will consider myself a success! Continue reading “The Trans-G Kid, a New Short Play”

Chuck Dixon Interview (part 3)

a.comicbookstore.BBTWhen I achieved doing this interview, I won’t lie.  I wanted to run into Stuart’s comic book store and yell, ‘I’m interviewing Chuck Dixon!’ For those of you who have no idea who Stuart is…well you are not living to your full capacity if you’re not watching, The Big Bang Theory’.
Chuck was so generous with his answers so let’s sit back and enjoy the final part.
Q. What makes a writer great?

CD. If a writer’s work can survive a few generations past his initial readership. History is filled with writers who were considered white hot in their era and forgotten only a few years past their death and never re-discovered.

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

CD. Everyone works differently. No writer’s approach is the same as another….. Continue reading “Chuck Dixon Interview (part 3)”

More With Chuck Dixon, Comic Book Icon (part 2)

a.Dixon.comic.book-dixonDixon:  ‘I’m strictly a writer. I write the scripts that the artist works from. It’s a format much like a screenplay, broken down panel-by-panel with descriptions of what should appear in each panel. And all the dialogue and captions in place. I wrote quite a few Simpsons comic book stories over a ten year period.’

Q. Was that a challenge to switch to a novel format and ‘point-of-view’?

CD. Mostly it was the intimidation factor. In comics, my chosen medium, the bench for writing talent is pretty thin. But in prose fiction I’m up against thousands of years of awesome writing. I mean, who the hell do I think I am going to work in the same shop as Alexander Dumas or Jane Austen?

And now I have to actually write descriptive text that evokes images in the minds of casual readers. In comics my descriptions are utilitarian. I simply tell the artist what needs to be in the panel. It’s not artful in any way. In prose fiction I need to be more subtle; more circumspect. More of a wordsmith which is something I have never considered myself to be. But pacing, plotting, characterization and all the rest are the same for comics as they are for prose. Continue reading “More With Chuck Dixon, Comic Book Icon (part 2)”

A Day In The Life Of A Writer

anxnst.mouseIt’s time once again to share with other writers, my hopes, my fears, my successes, my setbacks. My days as a writer look very much like a pizza loaded with toppings.

My time at my keyboard, has been filled feverishly working with an editor on The Art of Murder because a publisher is sniffing around my campfire.  That is to say, the senior editor for a publishing co. said my mystery series had ‘tremendous potential‘ but wasn’t quite there yet.  Now we wait and see if my editor and I were able to do what they needed in order to offer me a contract.

Yes, even though I am moderately successful as an indie author, I am still chasing a traditional publisher when I stumble across one.  Continue reading “A Day In The Life Of A Writer”

Successor to Tom Clancy, an Interview with Grant Blackwood (part 2)

Part Two of my Interview with best selling author, Grant Blackwood, successor to Tom Clancy

blackwood-portrait-253x300Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment ?

A. I don’t have a muse, per se. If anything, my muse is the drive to write stories that entertain readers. That’s the little voice that sits on my shoulder. Too often writers fall into the muse trap — believing that they’re creativity and productivity is at the whim of something “out there”, something fleeting. Start writing. The muse will be there.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

A. July of 1987, two months after I got out of the Navy. I’d been thinking about writing a book since I was eight or nine. That morning in July I caught myself on a good day. Instead of saying, “maybe tomorrow”, Continue reading “Successor to Tom Clancy, an Interview with Grant Blackwood (part 2)”