10 QUESTIONS FOR…Maggie Barbieri, author of the Mystery 101 series

Author interview with Maggie Barbieri

My name is Maggie Barbieri and I am the author of the Murder 101 series, which is comprised of Murder 101 (2006); Extracurricular Activities (2007), and Quick Study (2008).  I live in the New York metro area/Hudson Valley with my husband, two children, and a very affectionate—yet very emotionally needy—West Highland Terrier named Bonnie.  By day I’m a writer and editor of college textbooks; also by day, and sometimes by night, I am at work at the fifth book in the series, still untitled.

1. Tell us about your latest book. 

Quick Study is the third installment in the Murder 101 series, with college professor Alison Bergeron at the helm once again.  In this latest caper, Alison is weeks into her court-appointed community service hours (necessitated by a run-in with the law [all a giant misunderstanding, obviously!] in book 2—Extracurricular Activities) and is serving meals to the hungry at a soup kitchen near her home in Westchester County, New York.  She befriends an extended family of illegal immigrants and becomes embroiled in their lives when one of them goes missing, and is eventually, found murdered.  With the help of her NYPD detective boyfriend, Bobby Crawford, Alison sets about to find the murderer.

2. How did you get started as a writer? 

I’ve been writing since I was a child.  And as clichéd as it sounds, I was a huge Nancy Drew fan and decided early on that writing mysteries was going to be part of my life.  With a father on the New York City Police Department, I heard many stories that fascinated me about crime, punishment, and the City and many of those stories inform how I go about crafting plot and dialogue for the series.

3. What does a typical day look like for you? 

A typical day starts with me rustling two sleeping children out of bed, to the kitchen for breakfast, and out the door before the school day starts.  (Sometimes there is yelling; I won’t lie.)  I then trek three stories up to my attic office, where I spend seven uninterrupted hours of doing my “day job” (writing and editing college textbooks) while crafting the next installment in the Alison mysteries.

4. Describe your desk/workspace. 

My desk is our former kitchen table, a lovely pine number with green legs from the LL Bean home store.  It’s wide, a little pockmarked and festooned with my action figures (Wonder Woman being in the center), pictures of my kids, husband, and the dog, various representations of gods and goddesses from the world’s religions, and lots of tape dispensers.  Because I cannot truly call this space my own, I’m often missing many things—pens, pencils, scissors—and I am thwarted in my efforts of having a “real” office.

5. Favorite books (especially for writers) 

On Writing, by Stephen King (my absolute favorite).  Bird by Bird by Anne LaMott.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you: 

I work in an attic; crazy enough?  I’m a two-time cancer survivor.  I hate onions and will go to all lengths to avoid them.

7. Favorite quote 

The only way out is through.

8. Best and worst part of being a writer 

Best part:  I can say, “I’m a writer!” when people ask me what I do for  a living.  When you say “I write and edit textbooks,” their eyes usually glaze over.  Worst part:  I can say, “I’m a writer!” because it makes me people think I’m much more interesting than I am.

9. Advice for other writers 

WRITE.  WRITE.  WRITE MORE.

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.

  I got the contract to write the first two Alison Bergeron mysteries on the same day I was diagnosed with stage III malignant melanoma.  I thought either the universe had a sick sense of humor or it was its way of telling me that everything was going to turn out alright.  (I decided on the latter.)

Where can people buy your books?

My web site, http://www.maggiebarbieri.com is a work in progress but will be live soon.

My books are available in store at Borders, Barnes and Noble, and many independent bookstores.

Of course, there’s always Amazon, where you’ll also find a Kindle edition of Quick Study.

 

 

10 QUESTIONS FOR…’Our Lady of Weight Loss’ humor author, Janice Taylor

Author interview with Janice Taylor

1. Tell us about your latest book.

My latest book – All is forgiven, move on: Our Lady of Weight Loss’s 101 Fat Burning Steps On Your Journey to Sveltesville is, by far, the best permanent fat removal book ever written.  That’s right … permanent fat removal … not weight loss!  If you lose it, you will find it. 

Anyway, All Is Forgiven, Move On is funny as well as smart and – in fact – profound. 

1. How did you get started as a writer?

Hmmmmmm … After I permanently removed over 50 pounds, I figured that if I could manage that after a lifetime of being fat, I could pretty much do anything.  At the same time, I felt that I had out-grown my office position and wondered what I could do instead. I figured, ‘hey I’ll write a book.’ So I did … and lo n’ behold, my plan worked.  I quit my job and wrote my first book, Our Lady of Weight Loss: Miraculous and Motivational Musings from the Patron Saint of Permanent Fat Removal.

1. What does a typical day look like for you?

I’m a morning person, an early riser.  I’m up about 5 or 5:30 a.m. … shuffle into the kitchen and make coffee.  And then … I chant, breathe and write … for a couple of hours.  I start talking to my coaching clients at 7:30 a.m. – work till 1 p.m.  STOP Everything to watch Tavis Smiley Show on PBS … have lunch … nap … write more, talk more and then stop everything at 5 p.m. to watch Gilmore Girls reruns.  I am a Gilmore girls freak.  I think the show is visually stunning and the banter, the writing, is fabulously entertaining. Then, I either work more … a mix of writing and clients or go out …  and on really nice afternoons, I take long walks.  I love to walk.  In fact, today I walked to the northern part of Central Park and sat on a bench … ahhhh soaking up the winter rays.

1. Describe your desk/workspace.

My desk is white and curvy!  I designed it and had it built and put in my office/art studio.  Did I tell you that I am a visual artist as well.  My books are filled with my art. 

I have a room in my apartment.  My desk is in front of a window that looks out onto Madison Avenue, in NYC.  Sometimes it is quiet, sometimes fire engines go by.  Sometimes there is music.  Sometimes people yelling or laughing.  There’s a lot of life out my window.  I watch as I work. 

1. Favorite books (especially for writers)

Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain!  Power of Now by Eckart Tolle.  Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg.

1. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

I gave birth to my son in the car.  I didn’t realize I was in labor … talk about clueless!

When I was losing weight, I went through my leopard ‘ho’ period.  I was feeling relatively sexy and bought lots of tight clothing, leopard prints … big fun!

I adore silly and am always looking for someone to be silly with.  Come play with me!!!

1. Favorite quote

“Be Yourself.  Everyone else is already taken.” Oscar Wilde

1. Best and worst part of being a writer
   

Writing!  It makes my brain bleed, I swear.  But then, miraculously, it works, and it’s just lovely.  Big sighs and wows. 

1. Advice for other writers

Write on paper sometimes (vs. the computer) and listen to the scratch of the pen on the paper. It’s very zen.

1. Tell us a story about your writing experience. 

One day, I created a beautiful piece of Our Lady of Weight Loss art and added words to it – three succinct sentences to be exact.  I took the art and those three succinct sentences and created a postcard.  I had the postcard printed.  I mailed 48 postcards to some local women, one of whom was a publisher.  She liked my postcard and contacted me and said, “Have you ever thought about writing a book.”  And the rest is history … so being a writer kind of just happened. 

 Where can people buy your books?

My books are available through my website, www.ourladyofweightloss.com, at bookstores everywhere,  I write for The Huffington Post, Beliefnet.com, empowher.com, Today’s Health & Wellness magazine …

I am a Life & Wellness Coach.  I’ve helped thousands of people transform their lives and manifest their dreams.  

Q&A w/ Sage Cohen, “Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry”

**Note from Wendy: This is a bit different than my usual “10 Questions for…” Q & A, but Sage is a good friend of mine and she has a new book out that I want to promote!

Q&A with Sage Cohen, Author of

Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry

a new book from Writer’s Digest Books

 

 

How does poetry make the world a better place to live?

I think poetry fills the gap left by the so-called objective truth that dominates our media, science and legislation. Many of us want to comprehend and communicate the complexity of human experience on a deeper, more soulful level. Poetry gives us a shared language that is more subtle, more human, and—at its best—more universally “true” than we are capable of achieving with just the facts.

How has integrating the reading and writing of poetry into your life impacted you?

I will risk sounding melodramatic in saying that poetry saved my life. I stumbled into a writing practice at an extremely vulnerable time in my early teenage years. Poetry gave me then, as it does today, a way of giving voice to feelings and ideas that felt too risky and complicated to speak out loud. There was a kind of alchemy in writing through such vulnerabilities…by welcoming them in language, I was able to transform the energies of fear, pain and loneliness into a kind of friendly camaraderie with myself. In a way, I wrote myself into a trust that I belonged in this world. 

 

Do people need an advanced degree in creative writing in order to write poetry?

Absolutely not! Sure, poetry has its place in the classroom; but no one needs an advanced degree in creative writing to reap its rewards. What most people need is simply a proper initiation. I wrote Writing the Life Poetic to offer such an initiation. My goal was that everyone who reads it come away with a sense of how to tune into the world around them through a poetic lens. Once this way of perceiving is awakened, anything is possible!

 

Why did you write Writing the Life Poetic?

While working with writers for the past fifteen years, I have observed that even the most creative people fear that they don’t have what it takes to write and read poetry. I wrote Writing the Life Poetic to put poetry back into the hands of the people––not because they are aspiring to become the poet laureate of the United States––but because poetry is one of the great pleasures in life.”

 

Who is Writing the Life Poetic written for?

Practicing poets, aspiring poets, and teachers of writing in a variety of settings can use Writing the Life Poetic to write, read, and enjoy poems; it works equally well as a self-study companion or as a classroom guide. Both practical and inspirational, it will leave readers with a greater appreciation for the poetry they read and a greater sense of possibility for the poetry they write.

 

What sets Writing the Life Poetic apart from other poetry how-to books?

The craft of poetry has been well documented in a variety of books that offer a valuable service to serious writers striving to become competent poets. Now it’s time for a poetry book that does more than lecture from the front of the classroom. Writing the Life Poetic was written to be a contagiously fun adventure in writing. Through an entertaining mix of insights, exercises, expert guidance and encouragement, I hope to get readers excited about the possibilities of poetry––and engaged in a creative practice. Leonard Cohen says: “Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.” My goal is that Writing the Life Poetic be the flame fueling the life well lived.

 

What makes a poem a poem?

This is one of my favorite questions! I’ve answered it in my book, but it’s a question that I’m answering anew every day. And that’s what I love about poetry. It’s a realm where invention is not limited entirely by definition; there is room enough for the endless possibilities of the human. Every time we try to draw a line around what a poem is, something spills over into the next frame, shifting the point of view and demanding new names: olive, token, flax, daffodil. A poem is all of these, or none of them, depending on the quality of light and how the blade in the next room stirs the night.

 

What do you think people’s greatest misperceptions are about poetry?

I think the three greatest stereotypes about the writing of poetry are:

 

1.     That one has to be a starving artist or deeply miserable to write great poetry.

2.     That reading and writing poetry are available only to an elite inner circle that shares secret, insider knowledge about the making of poems.

3.     That poetry does not fund prosperity.

 

I hope very much that Writing the Life Poetic helps offer alternatives to some of these attitudes and perceptions.

 

I’d love to conclude with a poem of yours. Would you be willing to share one?

Of course! Happy to!

 

Leaving Buckhorn Springs

By Sage Cohen

 

The farmland was an orchestra,

its ochres holding a baritone below

the soft bells of farmhouses,

altos of shadowed hills,

violins grieving the late

afternoon light. When I saw

the horses, glazed over with rain,

the battered old motorcycle parked

beside them, I pulled my car over

and silenced it on the gravel.

The rain and I were diamonds

displacing appetite with mystery.

As the horses turned toward me,

the centuries poured through

their powerful necks and my body

was the drum receiving the pulse

of history. The skin between me

and the world became the rhythm

of the rain keeping time with the sky

and into the music walked

the smallest of the horses. We stood

for many measures considering

each other, his eyes the quarter notes

of my heart’s staccato.  This symphony

of privacy and silence: this wildness

that the fence between us could not divide.

 

 

 

 

About Sage Cohen

 

Sage Cohen is the author of Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (Writers Digest Books, 2009) and the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World. An award-winning poet, she writes four monthly columns about the craft and business of writing and serves as Poetry Editor for VoiceCatcher 4. Sage co-curates a monthly reading series at Barnes & Noble and teaches the online class Poetry for the People. To learn more, visit www.writingthelifepoetic.com. Drop by and join in the conversation about living and writing a poetic life at www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com! 

Short fiction contest

Short fiction 1,000-1,500 words; cash prizes; April 7 deadline; $10 fee

http://thewriterscollective.wordpress.com/

                                                                                                BUY WENDY’S NEW BOOK HERE!

10 QUESTIONS FOR…”Off Kilter” memoirist Linda Wisniewski

Author interview with Linda C. Wisniewski

Linda C. Wisniewski shares an empty nest in Bucks County, PA, with her husband, the sculptor and potter Steve Wisniewski.  She teaches memoir workshops at retirement centers, and writes features for a weekly newspaper. The Wisniewskis have two grown sons.

1. Tell us about your latest book.

Off Kilter is a memoir using scoliosis as a metaphor for my life. Many of my struggles and challenges required adjusting my attitude, just like I adjust my body to the pain of a curved spine by practicing yoga stretches.

2. How did you get started as a writer?

The editor of an information trade newsletter asked me to write articles when I was a self-employed information researcher, before the Internet. Getting paid for my words inspired me to do more creative writing, and that became my new career.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

Morning yoga practice and journaling. Then I turn on the spiritual/Native American music station on  iTunes and work on a story for the paper, or my novel. I try not to check email or Facebook til after lunch but don’t always succeed! A walk outdoors at lunch time, then it’s back to the computer for a bit. Often I read in the afternoon as well, and edit book reviews for Story Circle Book Reviews, www.storycirclebookreviews.org.

4. Describe your desk/workspace.

An old, battered teacher’s desk I bought at a used furniture store 25 years ago and won’t part with. I love its gouged wood surface and deep drawers.  It faces my wooded back yard, and sits in my study at the back of my house. Nearby are my sewing machine and quilting projects.

 

5. Favorite books (especially for writers)

Unreliable Truth by Maureen Murdock.

Writing From Life by Susan Wittig Albert.

One Year to a Writing Life by Susan Tiberghien.

 

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

I’m a bleeding heart liberal Unitarian Universalist.

I love to knit scarves and afghans but gave up learning to make socks.

My husband does most of the cooking because he likes it more than I do.

7. Favorite quote

“Writing is one of the ways I participate in transformation.”

– Toni Cade Bambera

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

Best – Crafting words into just the right form to express what’s in my heart is one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done.

Worst – It’s hard to make a living doing what I love, and it can be lonely as well.

9. Advice for other writers

Write the story that wants to be told. Don’t even think about what’s popular or marketable now until you’ve made your work the best it can be. That’s all that really matters.

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience. 

While covering a story about a gas line proposal for the local paper, I attended a presentation and interviewed state officials. The outfit of one of the female dignitaries intrigued me, and before I could stop myself, I had reached out to touch the lapel of her jacket. “Chico’s?” I asked. She stepped back quickly but must have decided I was harmless.

“No, QVC,” she replied. I’ve forgotten my follow-up questions, but I’ll never forget my embarrassment at being the reporter who was so inappropriate she touched the speaker’s clothing!

 Where can people buy your book? 

Off Kilter is available on order from any bookstore, and online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and from my publisher, http://www.pearlsong.com/offkilter.htm.

My website is http://www.lindawis.com.

 

10 QUESTIONS FOR…”Beatles” expert Sharon Richards

Author interview with Sharon Richards

Sharon L. Richards lives in Orlando, FL and has been a Beatles fan since she first heard All You Need Is Love back in 1968.  She’s authored a series of books and an audio CD (Drop Forged Lennon) inspired by John.  In 2002 she was hired by the Hard Rock in Orlando, FL to be the Beatles Expert at their museum experience, the Vault. When it closed in September of 2004 that didn’t stop her from continuing to reach out educating fans and appraising their Beatles treasures. Her memories of working at the Hard Rock Vault are contained in her first non-fiction release Nights Inside The Vault.  She’s also published a full-length fiction story titled Until It’s Time.  Her second non-fiction book about collecting the Beatles is due out this April.  Sharon also has a three-hour adult Beatles class and a one-hour Beatles for teens class. All a part of her on-going efforts to spread the word that the Beatles’ music, memorabilia and mania, though over 40 years old, is very alive and still kicking!

Sharon is also available to teach her class about writing from head to heart to spirit.  She also does poetry readings covering inspirational, thoughtful, funny and of course the Beatley sort.  Have her perform a few or a mix of all.  

1. Tell us about your latest book.

It’s called Nights Inside the Vault.  This book is a personal memoir and tribute for a place that never got one and deserved it. The Hard Rock Vault existed for a mere blip in the history of the corporation. I was hired as one of the tour guides of the Vault.  Admittedly there is a very Beatles bent within these pages. I was hired for my knowledge of the Beatles and my Drop Forged Lennon books inspired by the Chief Beatle (John Lennon). This book is about what I found out regarding the Beatles memorabilia on display at the Vault. It is also about the visits of famous guests and the remarkable guests I toured, their stories of the Beatles and the lessons I inadvertently learned from these people. How did I get the job? What were the serendipitous circumstances that surrounded my hiring and my departure? I threw in some poetry too inspired by working there. Don’t worry it’s the last chapter. You can skip it entirely I won’t mind!

In sharing my memories of this incredible concept the Vault, I hope to impart the dream, the laughter, the disillusionment, the frustration, the higher meaning and some secrets. Getting paid for what you love can be an awesome experience but “caveat emptor” or in this case, employee beware! It’s a 132-page trade paperback with b/w photos and illustrations.

2. How did you get started as a writer?

Since I was a kid I’ve written short stories, poems, commercials, news copy much during school and specific to my degree in Broadcasting.  Unfortunately, writing and broadcasting took a back seat from 1990 until 2000.  What happened in 2000?  My husband transferred to south Florida and I didn’t need to work.  My writer (as poet) came busting out along with a novel I had playfully started in 1997 about the Beatles in Hamburg.  I can’t deny that band- and the fella who started it: John Lennon- played a major role in much of my desire to express myself in writing.  After a while I felt I had enough for a book.  So encouraged by my friends, in 2001 I self-published Drop Forged Lennon.  The following year we moved back to Orlando and I released a second book of poems and short stories inspired by John.  These two books were very much in tribute and honorarium to his two books he wrote when he was a Beatle, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works.  As I appeared at Beatle conventions and in local schools I realized I could make a career of this writing thing and what’s more I loved it!  Dabbling in writing as a hobby for a long time, it turned out I had about 40 book ideas (not all Beatles- truly) all in various stages of development.  I turned a few of them into talks about the Beatles, writing and my times with the Hard Rock Vault.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

I try to get up between 5:00 and 6:00am.  I brew up a pot of coffee, serve myself a cup and go into my home office to journal the previous days, events, my thoughts and meanderings and sometimes a poem or three.  Then I meditate to give myself a calm center to prepare for whatever the day may hold.  Then, I drive my son to school.  This is the part of the day where I will do errands.

Unfortunately, I am not yet a full-time writer so I run a small company with my husband called Liquid Bread to pay the bills.  We manufacture two exclusive parts for home brewers.  So on any given day I could be on the phone, doing accounting, filling orders and other tasks associated with that business.  However, in the afternoons, in the early morning, most weekends and any time I can squeeze it in I write.  I sit in my office or at the dining room table and write.  Sometimes I’ve got really big issues to get out of my head and other times it’s pure nonsense.  Then there are the hours I spend working on my upcoming books.  I find from the non-writing business I run that I tend to look at my writing as manufacturing an item for market, especially the non-fiction.

When my son comes home on the bus about 5:00pm I try to be done with my writing but if I am involved, I wave hello and he knows to leave me alone until I am done.  My guys tend to eat lots of slow cooker foods and throw it in the oven type stuff for dinner.  I’ve never been inclined to creating in the kitchen.  My day usually ends about 9:00 or 10:00pm.  Then my imagination takes over and I could wake up with some brilliant ideas the next day or just a weird jumble of images- any of it can be fodder for writing.

4. Describe your desk/workspace.

I write at a functional, plain computer desk that I keep free of any sort of paper especially while I work.  All hail the computer for giving us writer’s paperless workspaces!  All my messy piles of paper are electronic files on memory sticks.  However, the walls of my office are quite another story.  Picture if you will a room with one door and one window.  Now imagine all the blank space on three walls covered with closely hung framed pictures and memorabilia of the Beatles.  Imagine a fourth in the same style totally devoted to pictures of John Lennon.  My bookcases are busting with over 100 Beatles books and magazines.  I’ve been told it is overwhelming.     

5. Favorite books (especially for writers)

Julia Cameron’s Your Right to Write and The Artist’s Way, Ernest Holmes’ Creative Mind and Success, Dan Poynter’s Writing Non-Fiction and Robert N. Peck’s Secrets of Successful Fiction.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

1)      I’m a bon-a-fide Beatlemaniac who’s crazy about John Lennon.

2)      I have been a collector and crafter of 1/12th scale miniatures since I was 11.

3)      I can tell you who’s on the front and what’s on the back of all denominations of US paper currency.  I have no idea why I retain this information in my “accessible memory”.    

7. Favorite quote

“Everything you could ever want or be, you already have and are. ” – from the movie I Heart Huckabee’s

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

I absolutely love researching through a period of history for a fiction I am writing to weave a believable story through the facts.

I must admit like many other writers I find marketing tedious and boring.  As much as I love writing I hate most writing my marketing plan.  It is the “necessary evil” for success in the field.

9. Advice for other writers

Keep on dreaming and keep on doing.  Believe in yourself and your talent.  Write everyday, even if it’s all coming out lemons and oranges.  Learn from all your experiences (good and bad).  Don’t think about failure but feel your success.

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience. 

In 2002 I was promoting my first two books, Drop Forged Lennon and Drop Forged Lennon-The Other Side, both collections of poems and short stories.  I accepted an invitation from a Beatles tribute band to read some of my poems between their sets.  The venue was a bistro/bookstore that had a small stage upstairs.  This was in a very highbrow part of Orlando too.  I figured the typical customer probably had an appreciation for poetry, right?  Wrong- dead wrong and dead silence was all I heard after I read my first poem when the band went into their first break.  As I started another I heard the sounds of quiet “boos” from the back of the room.  Some people did decide to politely clap after that to cover up the detractors.  After my third poem I feigned completion and walked off the small stage.  None of the band members said anything to me and simply started up a CD of music to finish the break.

I was very uncomfortable and pretended as though my phone was vibrating indicating a phone call.  I left the immediate offsides stage area and to my surprise there actually was a phone message from my husband.  I dialed into my messages to hear that he had taken our son to the hospital emergency room with a temperature of 103!!  I quietly and calmly told the wife of the band’s leader about the message from my husband.  She expressed her sympathy.  I said I’d be in touch.  I don’t need to tell you how grateful I was to be able to walk away from that horribly embarrassing experience.  However, the reason I was leaving was also a parent’s worst nightmare.  Thankfully, my son got treatment in time and his fever went down after the doctor prescribed the right medication.  

Never since have I had such a strange reaction to my poetry nor as frightening a reason to exit a performance.  Oh, by the way, the bistro/bookstore shut down about five years ago and the Beatles tribute band has long since stopped performing.  Me?  Of course I’m still kicking around doing poetry readings!

Where can people buy your books?

You can buy my first two books from www.buybooksonthewb.com and my second two from www.lulu.com But you’ll want to buy them from my website www.sharonlrichards.com as they come signed by me!  You can email me at sharonlrichards@yahoo.com for quantity purchases and if you have questions.  The site is newly redesigned to make purchases and contacting me very easy.  I hope to start a newsletter or blog by summer and a separate page with links to all sorts of places.  My web developer spouse is a busy guy and apparently I have to wait in line too!

 

 

2 fiction writing contests, 1 poetry contest

• May 15 deadline; $10 entry; cash prizes; 3,000-7,500 words

http://christianwritingcontest.com/entry/

• April 30 deadline; $20 entry includes subscription; cash prizes; 3-10 pages of poetry; 7,500 max fiction

http://writingcontests.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/the-31st-nimrod-awards/

10 QUESTIONS FOR…Jersey Barnes mystery series author T. Lynn Ocean

Author interview with T. Lynn Ocean

1. Tell us about your latest book.

Latest book is SOUTHERN POISON, second in the Jersey Barnes mystery series.  She’s a most unconventional security specialist with a dry wit, a steamy love interest, and a trouble-making poker-playing elderly father.  Next comes SOUTHERN PERIL, which will be released July of this year.

2. How did you get started as a writer?

I’ve always loved to write and began my career by writing articles for a local weekly rag.  I started a freelance writing business about 10 years ago and have written for numerous magazines, newspapers, and private businesses.  But my passion is fiction and my first novel, FOOL ME ONCE, was published summer of 2005 by St. Martin’s Press.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

Yeah, right!  In my case, I may write for six or eight hours one day, and do nothing on the computer the next day.   I do some volunteer work, have a part time job, and continue to write an occassional feature piece for my local newspaper, THE SUN NEWS.  For me, one of the biggest challenges is finding time to get outside (for enjoyment) and get to the gym (for health).

4. Describe your desk/workspace.

CRAZY MESS!  Laptop, separate large screen monitor, Kinesis ergonimic keyboard, two printers, piles of stuff everywhere, and most importantly–coaster for my tea or coffee.

5. Favorite books (especially for writers)

I love to read books by authors I’ve met at conferences and book festivals.  I also read just about anything that’s currently on the NYT bestseller list because that’s where I aspire to be.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

I often work in my jammies.  I’m an outdoor enthusiast and enjoy shooting sporting clays.  My favorite type of massage is a good foot rub.

7. Favorite quote

“Happiness is not a station to arrive at, but a manner of travelling” –Margaret Lee Runbeck

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

Best is getting feedback from readers.   I honestly can’t think of anything to list as a ‘worst’.  I love it all, even the frustrating parts.

9. Advice for other writers

Write because you love it.  Surround yourself with positive, supportive, and creative people.

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.

I once changed clothes sitting in my car at a interstate rest stop on my way to a book signing.  I was running late, it was raining sideways, and I didn’t have time to change at my friend’s house as planned.  I didn’t even have a chance to eat lunch.  Turns out that I forgot my umbrella and got soaked anyway, getting inside the bookstore.  One person showed up, and they’d come to pick up a special order–not to see me!

Where can people buy your books?

Any bookseller can order my books, if they don’t already have them on the shelves.  Also, readers can visit my website at www.tlynnocean.com and click on the ‘Buy Books’ tab to see direct links for the online retailers.

10 QUESTIONS FOR…Pulitzer-nominated author Ric Morgan

Author interview with Ric Morgan

As an award-winning and -nominated writer, I have been living amongst the bears on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for the last eight years. Indiana University Press published my first book, The Train Of Tomorrow, in 2007.

1. Tell us about your latest book.

The Keys: The Textbook to a Successful Life is an easy-to-read and understand 80-page power-packed, life changer. It is about the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple and Smart) philosophy and talks about three major keys…thought, choice and action…plus a smaller secret key, and a set of lessons that will help you learn how to live a smarter, simpler and saner life. The book is under consideration for a 2009 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction and is up for two 2009 Nautilus Book Awards. There are several editions available including one in large-print, an e-Book and one called The Keys for Teens. Radio talk-show host, John Fleming called the book a condensation of the “Wisdom of the Ages in an easy to read book with a lot of clarity. The amount of wisdom is astonishing.” Don McCauley, Business Executive and Radio Host, says, “Whatever that elusive ‘it’ might be we collectively seek, Ric Morgan has found ‘it’. I am amazed at his ability to take complex roadblocks to success and offer simple, easy to understand solutions that can be implemented easily and immediately. Ric offers an easy, step-by-step approach. He is a consummate public speaker, motivator and teacher whose ability is to communicate to his listeners the simple keys of life. Pay attention to this man…” The book is published by SimpleWords Press.

2. How did you get started as a writer?

By accident years ago. It was never something I set out to do, but got caught up in it. As a matter of fact I hate to write, but for many, many years people have told me I was a good writer.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

I have so many things I do besides write I don’t write everyday…only when I feel like it, even if facing a deadline for a magazine or newspaper article.

I have decided that I am going to change that. Monday and Tuesday, do the research, Wednesday and Thursday, write, and Friday, proof-read, edit and submit.

4. Describe your desk/workspace.

BIG desk, with an All-In-One (AIO) printer, talking book machine, 17” large screen laptop and a little space for the thing that wind up on my desk and need attention. I sit looking out a window at the surrounding mountains, noting the ever-changing weather and seasons.

5. Favorite books (especially for writers)

Anything by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and O. Henry.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

I see the humor in EVERYTHING. I have a very odd sense of humor, and people laugh a lot of times at what I say when I don’t think it’s so funny.

I am held up, by many people, as someone very special, full of courage and wisdom, and yet, I see my self as a low-maintenance average guy.

I love to go naked. (Others don’t think so because I’m fat.)

7. Favorite quote

You are what you think about all day long. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s true….

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

WORST – I hate writing.

BEST – I like the fame that has come to me as the result of it.

9. Advice for other writers

Write…write…write, and read, read, read writers you think do it well.

I don’t understand why people think it is so hard to figure out what to write about when there is so much going on in this world. Take a photo you like and write about what you see. Look at a house, or building, and write about what you think is going on inside. I have more ideas than I’ll ever be able to write about, and it should be that way with every writer.

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.

There is nothing better than to get feedback from a reader of your book that says that what you wrote saved or changed their life…literally. To be able to reach out to someone who is in pain, or going through a difficult period in their life through your words on the written page, makes all the effort in writing and everything else associated with a book worth it.

Where can people buy your book?

The Keys: The Textbook to a Successful Life – http://thegreatkisser.com

Buy the book on the website ($10, autographed and shipped free) instead of Amazon ($15, plus shipping).

Blog – Just Some Thoughts (http://ric-morgan.blogspot.com) is going to gear up again on March 1, 2009.

 

10 QUESTIONS FOR…”Sexless in the City” author Anna Broadway

Author interview with Anna Broadway

1. Tell us about your latest book.

Sexless in the City is a memoir of reluctant chastity that looks at the questions of identity raised for post-sexual revolution women — supposedly free to have sex however we please but at the same time, still often defined and valued by our sexuality. The book began as a tongue-in-cheek blog about my love life, but the longer format also gave me a chance to wrestle with the deeper theological issues. When obeying the God of the Bible in one’s sexuality means forestalling sex for a marriage that has no guarantee of happening, you pretty quickly start to either a) cheat a bit in your adherence or b) wrestle with questions like, “Is this God real? Is he good? What if marriage is not in the cards for me?” Etc.

2. How did you get started as a writer?

As a little girl, I used to whisper stories to myself in bed every night, usually about how I hoped to meet and be courted by my future husband. I never seemed to get very far with writing down that nightly saga, but around junior high, I did begin to produce a few-page monthly newsletter for my grandparents and a penpal, which I dubbed The Tardy Tribune. This led to journalism classes in high school and a two-year stint at a college daily. Under the advisement of a writing mentor, however, I chose to major in something other than writing, so drifted a bit until I moved to New York in 2002, fresh out of grad school. The city was such an overwhelming experience – and my loved ones were so concerned about my fate there, as I’d moved with no job and scant savings – so I started writing these little “update emails” with observations on my life. These little essays acquired more of structure as time went on, and set up the launch of my pseudonymous love-life blog in 2004. In 2005, I landed the book deal with Doubleday by an extraordinary stroke of providence.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?

Since I work full-time at an editing job in San Francisco (I live north of Berkeley), I usually wake up at 7:25, turn on the coffee maker, do a quick toilet, grab my coffee, a green smoothie, lunch containers, my purse and a bag for knitting and catch the 8:04 BART into the city to catch my bus up to the office. Typically I leave work between 5 and 5:30, walk to BART (sometimes stopping to grab a latte at the North Beach institution, Caffe Trieste) and get home between 6:30 and 7, later if I lingered on my walk.

On more successful days, I’ve managed to get some cooking/email/writing/editing in before going to bed around midnight, but my goal is to start going to bed closer to 10 and getting up sometime between 5 and 6 a.m. to do a little writing while I’m at my freshest. I’m the farthest thing from a morning person, but putting writing at the end of my day rather than the start just hasn’t worked well. A compromise has been to write during my commute, which has worked well, but for longer, more-intense sessions, I need to be able to concentrate longer than those little bursts allow.

4. Describe your desk/workspace.

Golly, which one? At work, I have a big U-shaped desk strewn with papers, plastic bags from snacks, old bus transfers and other such odds-n-ends. The walls of my cubes are dotted with postcards from friends, art my cousin’s kids and other children have sent me, all but two of the Starbucks “song of the day” series when they were doing that promotion, and a couple posters from shows at a local gallery. Oh, and a picture of Mr. Rogers from a sweater party on his birthday last year, a calendar, and a little wall hanging from India with painted birds on it.

At home, there’s little usable work space, but the piles are more organized than at work. I also have more upright organizers for stationery, pens, sewing supplies and the like. That desk also has various pieces of half-eaten chocolate sitting on wrappers, since my taste for chocolate seems to go in and out like a radio signal during a storm.

5. Favorite books (especially for writers)

I haven’t been as good as I ought to be about reading seriously, but I’ve been enjoying the short stories of John Cheever lately and very slowly reading through Flannery O’Connor’s Mystery and Manners. One of the most thought-provoking books I’ve read about the life of the writer is Cyril Connolly’s Enemies of Promise, which a friend sent me. A really fascinating read, even 80 years later.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you.

I was homeschooled through eighth grade, I once temped at a truck-driver training school (the only office I’ve been in that didn’t have a computer!) and I did most of the work to change my own brake pads on my first car, which was a red Geo Metro I called the Eunuch.

7. Favorite quote

The only one I can ever remember is Mark Twain: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.”

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

The worst part, I think, is how easily you can succumb to laziness if you’re not careful. Deadlines provide some accountability, of course, but I think the harder thing is when you’re between projects. If the writing isn’t your income, it becomes easy to keep on living out of your last project too long, rather than continuing to grow and try things. The best part of being a writer is when those rare and wonderful sentences come to you that make music each time you say them. That and when some other wonderfully serendipitous thing happens in the process, like a description that works on both a literal and figurative level. Those are moments of real joy.

9. Advice for other writers

Find other people who will give you painful feedback when you need it, help you get unstuck when you can’t seem to find your way out of a scene, and generally help you be the writer you want to be but aren’t yet and maybe even lack the courage to become. Community is huge. At the same time, though, pick your influences carefully. Try to find people who will help you become strong where you’re weak, rather than encouraging or enabling you to continue in mediocrity.

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.

Recently I was going through some old papers and came across copies of the newsletter I’d created in junior high – The Tardy Tribune. I was writing it at the same time as a massive immersion in romance novels – Silhouette, Harlequin, that sort of thing. Because of that habit, the novels made occasional appearances in my newsletter – sometimes in book reviews and, in the particular issue I found, a sample vignette I’d penned myself. It was just one scene, but to read it now, I was surprised how well I’d captured the genre. Maybe I could pitch it to Stephen Colbert, for next time he wants to do a romance novel read-off …

Where can people buy your book?

Sexless in the City is available at all major bookstores, online and offline, but it’s probably more likely to be in stock online. If you buy it through my website, www.sexlessinthecity.net, you can also hear samples of all the songs I quote in the book, and buy part or all of the soundtrack through iTunes. The artists who let me quote them were really amazing about the terms of the use, so I really want to encourage people to explore their music. So much great stuff!