Literature & Fiction
Interviews
By Shelagh Watkins
MP
Mandinam Press
~~~~
Copyright Shelagh Watkins 2010
License Notes:
This free ebook may be copied, distributed, reposted, reprinted and shared, provided it appears in its entirety, without alteration, and the reader is not charged to access it.
Cover design by Shelagh Watkins of Mandinam Press
Literature & Fiction Interviews Volume II
Also by Shelagh Watkins, Published at Smashwords:
Literature & Fiction Interviews Volume I
Mr. Planemaker’s Flying Machine
EDITORIAL FOREWORD
In the first six months of 2010, I interviewed a group of authors who had recently released a new book. The authors, some new and some established, write in a variety of genres, including mystery, romance, satire, crime thriller, humour, memoir, historical fiction and children’s fiction. The varied backgrounds of the authors show a tremendous wealth of experience. All the featured authors have drawn on this knowledge to write novels, short stories and works of non-fiction to entertain, help and inform readers.
This volume of interviews provides an insight into a group of authors from the United States, Canada and Europe, and gives a glimpse of their past and present books. The unique collection of interviews will entertain and inspire readers to find out more about the authors and their books.
06.30.2010 Shelagh Watkins
Alex Austin
Interviewed by
Shelagh Watkins
Alex Austin’s fiction has been published in numerous literary magazines, including Caffeine, Bachy, Beyond Baroque, UCLA’s Westwinds and Cal Arts Black Clock. He is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Perfume Factory, a coming-of-age novel set on the Jersey Shore, which was published in 2006.
Please tell everyone a little about yourself, Alex.
Alex: I was born in New Jersey and grew up on the Jersey Shore. I moved to California in the 1970s, graduated from UCLA, and settled permanently in the Los Angeles area. I’ve been a writer and editor for numerous magazines. Most of my time and energy over the last 20 years has gone into novels and plays. In 2000, my play, The Amazing Brenda Strider, won a Backstage West Critic’s Pick and The Maddy Award for Playwriting.
In 2002, my play, Mimosa, was the featured play in Wordsmiths Playwrights Festival, presented by the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. Mimosa is published by Playscripts Inc. My newest play, Dupe, has had several productions, including one starring Ray Wise (currently the Devil on Reaper) and is currently in the running for a spot in Playfest at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater. The Perfume Factory, a coming-of-age novel set on the Jersey Shore, was published in early 2006. It was a Kirkus Recommended and received a 2008 Writer’s Digest’s Honorable Mention in Mainstream Fiction. The Red Album of Asbury Park Remixed, sequel to The Perfume Factory, was published by Virtual Bookworm in November 2009, and has received numerous excellent reviews.
Briefly tell us about your latest book. Is it part of a series or stand-alone?
A
lex:
The
Red Album of Asbury Park Remixed
is the Sequel to The
Perfume Factory
in which Sam Nesbitt, 17, tries to escape a dead-end town and a
sadistic father. The
Red Album
jumps forward to the late Sixties and Asbury Park, a once high-flying
resort that is now rent with drugs, crime and racial tension. Against
that backdrop (from which Springsteen emerged) Sam returns from war
and its horrors. He’s a guitarist with plenty of talent and he
wants to make something of himself. In his review of the book, Ken
Wohlrob wrote, “He [Sam] has the goods as a guitarist and harbors
dreams of that hit album that will get him the hell out of New
Jersey. Except the music is too much of an escape. It’s a pipe
dream that bursts whenever confronted by all the obstacles
surrounding Sam. Instead of bringing glory, Sam’s efforts become an
endless series of letdowns – bad gigs, continuous debt, medical
mishaps, band breakups, missed opportunities – that far outweigh
those nights where everything goes right. If he’s not a hero, he’s
the only guy in town who hasn’t given up even if he’s the only
one who knows it’s worthless to even try.” That’s a great
synopsis of the book. I couldn’t write a better one.
When did you begin writing and in what genre?
Alex: In my twenties, I read Vonnegut’s Mother’s Night and was hooked. I read everything Vonnegut wrote. I’d scribbled a few things before that, but now I saw a form of writing that I wanted to emulate: black, ironic and satirical, but still humane. So I started writing satire and parody, skewering what I thought needed to be skewered.
When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?
Alex: When I started writing, my goals were to satirize the military-industrial complex, corporate values, politics and organized religion, the usual suspects. Other targets were the inanities of human behavior, particularly self-righteousness. The biggest goal was to get published. The message was go left.
How do you develop characters and setting?
Alex: With all major characters, I fill out a form that takes them from the cradle to the grave. So I know them quite well as they enter the story. As the story unfolds, they will no doubt change in response to other characters and events, but at least I know who is changing. With some minor characters, I’m content with two-dimensions. Setting is extremely important to me. In The Perfume Factory, I wanted the main character and setting to be inextricable. Sam was his town. Port Beach was the fictional counterpart of Union Beach, the town I grew up in and which I knew to the degree that Sam had to know. The memories of youth are indelible and I drew from those memories to create the setting. The Red Album was different. I had spent a couple of years in Asbury, but I did not know the place intimately. A big part of the story was this once fabled resort coming apart as a new brand of rock music was rising. So I wanted the reader to see Asbury and to know its history. I wanted the Giant Swan boat in there, the dark rides, Tillie, the Palace Amusements, the Casino. There was something of myth in all that stuff. I had toyed with the idea of creating a fictional counterpart to Asbury so that I could have some leeway with the descriptions, but once I settled on it really being Asbury Park, I had to get it right. Living in California that meant endless research, talking to people Back East, and eventually going back to Asbury to walk the boardwalk, look for old haunts, record what was left and imagine what was gone.
Who is the most unusual/most likeable character?
Alex: In The Red Album, the most unusual is Tillie, a face on a wall. In the novel I describe him as, “The painted man with the doffed bowler had a queer haircut, something like Alfalfa of the Little Rascals, or as if he’d cut his hair to make it look like a mustache. His eyes were bright, his nose was broad and his smile went from ear to ear, filled to capacity with one set of long fat teeth. His lips were fiery red and delicate. He wore a high collar, the kind men had worn a half-century ago.” In the book, Tillie springs to life. Likeable would be Sam’s ex-girlfriend Julie, who loves Sam and understands where he wants to be, but ultimately cannot go along for the ride.
Do you have a specific writing style or preferred POV?
Alex: I wrote the two novels in the first person and did not allow the narrator to distance himself chronologically from the time or circumstances of his character. In The Perfume Factory, Sam thinks as a seventeen year old. In The Red Album, Sam thinks as a 22-24 year old. There are first person novels in which the narrator will view his younger self through an older self. That technique is a common convention of first person stories, but it’s not my style.
How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?
Alex: Someone said that all fiction is autobiographical to a greater or lesser degree. I concur.…
Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve ever had.
Alex: “I have just finished reading a great little novel, The Perfume Factory by Alex Austin. It is a dark and gritty coming-of-age story set in the 60′s.… His young characters are fascinating. Their naïve invincibility, their teenage wants and fears bring them to life.”
—Laura Rae Amos, Blogcritics
“It is simply an amazing work of fiction … a smart look inside the topsy-turvy world of the rock and roll lifestyle and the futility, hope, danger, love and mystery of survival in general. The Red Album Of Asbury Park Remixed sis a book you won’t be able to put down.”
—John Pfeiffer, Aquarian Magazine
What are your current projects?
Alex: I’m currently working a contemporary novel set in Los Angeles. I’m switching to the third person for this one. The main character is a middle-aged writer/teacher trying futilely to bring closure to a tragedy for which he was responsible, and suddenly confronted with events that force him to see the tragedy in a totally different light.
The first chapter of the new novel (in progress), Mother's Beach, will be published in the July issue of The Rose & Thorn Journal: www.roseandthornjournal.com.
Where can folks learn more about your books and events?
Alex: The books are available everywhere online. The Red Album of Asbury Park Remixed is the only version of the book that I want read. If it doesn’t say “Remixed” on the cover, don’t get it.
Thanks for joining us today, Alex.
Alex: Thank you.
Snippet from The Red Album of Asbury Park Remixed
My father and Larry had been drinking companions for a while, probably because no one else would have much to do with them. A brawl at Maloney’s tavern over the Pope’s infallibility – or maybe relativity theory – had ended their relationship. It was shortly before that incident, my mother said, that Larry had sold my father the gun.
I was taking a chance making inquiries but I knew that neither Glen nor Larry would offer up anything to the cops. I needed to know if the gun was traceable. Over the phone, I hadn’t said anything specific about the .38 revolver to Glen, only that I might need his help.
Now as my Pontiac Safari climbed Hattey’s Creek Bridge, the RPMs sank and the car bucked, slowing to a crawl. I shifted into neutral and turned down the radio. Although Port Beach was only 20 miles north of Asbury, I hadn’t been back to my hometown in seven years. The marsh spread uniformly pale green, except where patches of snow packed tightly against the reeds, fixed there by the bay wind that now whistled through the cracks in the wraparound rear windshield. Along the creek banks, thin sheets of ice melted into the winding olive streams, where gulls foraged for soldier crabs and edible garbage, a hundred gliding now under a dull winter sky. To the east, past a string of sand-swept houses, the bay spread toward the Amboys, gray and wind-blown like wrinkled aluminum foil. For a final test, I rolled down the window. A chill air carried the dense chemical vapors exhaled by the town’s solitary factory, a scent that I carried with me like a scar. Blessedly the engine revved, nearly every cylinder firing, and I rolled on past front yards of rusting appliances, raised cars and chained dogs, rising from the dirt to track my progress across their territory.
I didn’t consider him a friend, but Glen Ketter had gotten drunk with me a couple of times. Often, after fights with my father, I had slept over at his place, always on the floor. The house was built low as a bunker, punctured in a half-dozen places and patched with raw plywood. Seven kids crowded into it, two girls and five boys. Glen was a year younger than me and the oldest; his brothers followed about a year apart, each one more trouble than the one before. Guys without much brains and less ambition. His two sisters, teenyboppers now, I supposed, I didn’t know that well.
Copyright © 2009 Alex Austin
Matthew Ball
Interviewed by
Shelagh Watkins
Matthew Ball is a full time pianist and teacher, aside from that he enjoys a cool Guinness, chocolate of any kind, a graphic novel or fantasy fiction book, live music, a good movie, and eating out.
Hi Matthew, please tell everyone about yourself.
Matthew: I’m a former attorney, a children’s book author and founding editor of William Joseph K Publications, and a blues & boogie woogie performing artist under the stage name of The Boogie Woogie Kid.
When did the writing bug bite?
Matthew: I’ve been writing short prose therapeutically for years, but never with any specific intent or direction before.
Briefly tell us about your latest book.
M
atthew:
My latest book is a children’s book about friendship and teasing
called Minnie
& Melvira.
What’s the hook for the book?
Matthew: The book contains a life lesson about choosing friends. It was also a collaboration with my father, Larry Ball, who is a twenty-two year veteran of the auto-worker industry, recently laid off with the economic downturn.
How do you develop your ideas?
Matthew: I have an idea or concept that I share with the illustrator, who then offers their thoughts, and the end product is a combination of visions.
Who is the most likeable character?
Matthew: The caterpillar from my book The Worm & The Caterpillar because he is the indomitable optimist against the voice of the cynic.
Do you have a specific writing style?
Matthew: My writing style I would describe as a whimsical rhyme, I’m always, however, trying convey within my writing a meaningful message about life.
What are your current projects?
Matthew: I’m writing another children’s book called The Adventures of Fred d Fly.
Where can folks learn more about your books and events?
Matthew: Folks can always find out what I’m doing next through our website: www.williamjkpub.com
Thanks for joining us today, Matthew.
Matthew: Thank you.
Snippet from Minnie & Melvira
Minnie and Melvira
Were the best of friends in school
Then Minnie met Mariah
Who said Melvira wasn’t cool
Minnie went along
And they called her ugly names
They teased her all the morning
And they chased her down the lane
Melvira wept and cried
And begged for them to stop
But Minne wasn’t listening
And Mariah just would not ….
Copyright © 2009 Matthew Ball www.williamjkpub.com
Elizabeth Bennett
Interviewed by
Shelagh Watkins
Elizabeth Bennett is currently listed with Who’s Who and has been recognized as one of the Great Women of the Twenty-first Century by the American Biographical Institute.
Please tell everyone a little about yourself, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: I grew up in the state of South Carolina. I’m a 1995 graduate of Clemson University with a M.Ed in Guidance and Counseling Services. I worked in the agency setting with children and adults for six years. Since 1995, I’ve been working on Peer Abuse through observational research and theory development. Through speaking engagements, talk radio, newspaper, internet and television, I’ve been able to educate others on Peer Abuse in the USA and Canada.
When did you first start writing?
Elizabeth: I played around with writing as a teenager by writing plays. I wrote for the newspaper in college and as an adult have been writing. I blog, write articles and wrote my book, Peer Abuse Know More! Bullying from a Psychological Perspective. So, off and on I have been writing for about 20 something years. Now, it is part of my work.
When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish?
Elizabeth: When I started writing it was for fun. I never had any goals set at all. Now, I do as I try and use my writing in educating others. I try to write at least three times a week.
Briefly tell us about your latest book. Is it part of a series or stand-alone?
E
lizabeth:
My book is a stand-alone. I use it as an educational tool on bullying
and the fact that bullying is abuse.
What’s the hook for the book?
Elizabeth: That Peer Abuse is an adult problem because as adults, we allow it to continue.
How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?
Elizabeth: As I was bullied growing up and during the early part of my adulthood, it helps tremendously in educating others and knowing this problem and the realities of it.
Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve ever had.
Elizabeth: “I met Elizabeth through networking after I was a Crisis Counselor at Columbine High School 4/20/99. I had researched the main causes of school violence and being bullied, as told by teens, was the top reason why. Having been through Peer Abuse herself, Elizabeth has dedicated her life in helping others understand how harmful bullying can be. The affects of being bullied as children can stay with them for the rest of their lives. Elizabeth, in her book and networking, shares such important information about bullying and how it can be stopped. For that I highly applaud her journey as she educates others.”
—Ruthie Owen, former Columbine High School Crisis Counselor. Colorado
What are your current projects?
Elizabeth: Basically, writing each week on my blog and articles. Also, speaking at two schools in the near future to educate children and adults on the dangers of bullying.
Where can folks learn more about your books and events?
Elizabeth: Please visit me at www.peerabuse.info or can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PeerAbuse.
Thank you for visiting us today, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: Thanks for all you do and have a good week…
Snippet from Peer Abuse Know More! Bullying from a Psychological Perspective:
The problem of bullying has always been around, even as far back as the days of the caveman, before and after the birth of Christ and through the centuries. Generally the bigger kids would tease the smaller ones. In adults, these were always the bad guys that would steal, kill and destroy. They exist in the Bible, are in our history books and today they exist in larger quantities.
Copyright © 2006 Elizabeth Bennett www.peerabuse.info
Lorin Lee Cary
Interviewed by
Shelagh Watkins
Lorin Lee Cary PhD spends the majority of the year by the idyllic sea and pines of the seaside arts colony, Cambria, nestled on California’s central coast.
Trained and published as an historian specializing in US labor and social history, Lorin’s longstanding love of the historical and telling detail suffuses all of his work – whether as a novelist, crafter of wry short stories or keen observer of local color, seen in his lush photos.
Hi Lorin, please tell everyone a bit about yourself.
Lorin: After a career in university teaching U.S. labor and social history, I turned to fiction. The tipping point was a short stint as a researcher for a company developing a computer game based on Dante’s Inferno. I was hired to provide “historical context material,” although this was rather far from the American colonial and US materials with which I’d worked. The head of the outfit liked the way I wrote and suggested I prepare the first draft; I did and found the freedom of creating my own cause and effect relationships liberating.
When did you begin writing?
Lorin: I’d written various articles and essays and co-authored two historical books. When we moved to Cambria, CA, I found there an active writing colony with a critique group with numerous published authors. This was in 1994 and the only goal in fiction I had at the time was to have fun, and to get my stories published. I learned fiction in the Cambria group.
Briefly tell us about your latest book.
L
orin:
The
Custer Conspiracy features
a diary written by someone who served with General George Armstrong
Custer between roughly 1861 and 1876, from the Civil War to Custer’s
Last Stand. This diary is found on the battlefield by Indians and
kept secret for decades. When it surfaces and ends up in the hands of
Walter Reeves, an academic who wants to publish it, two groups swing
into action. Native American activists seek to hide the fact that
some of their ancestors collaborated with Custer. (Telling you how
would spoil the story, and the attached humor.) A group of
Custer-worshiping militia members, meanwhile, understand that the
diary undercuts their hero’s image. Ultimately the two groups
collide with Walter, the academic, near the site of Custer’s
demise.
What’s the hook for the book?
Lorin: The hook is the diary, which is in itself a character. It appears in excerpts scattered throughout the text as Walter tries to determine its authenticity.
How do you develop characters and setting?
Lorin: I like to develop characters by both their dialogue and their actions, usually presenting them in close third person. In this novel there are several point-of-view characters, and that permits me to round out the developing conflict from several sides. Setting is there as each character sees it or experiences it, in general.
Who is the most likeable/unusual character?
Lorin: Most of the folks who’ve read The Custer Conspiracy consider Walter Reeves the most likeable character. He’s the academic, somewhat quirky in his choice of research projects (the politics of Michael Jackson’s gender and the election of 2000, for example), not totally a stereotypical absent-minded sort, but sometimes headed in that direction.
There are several other unusual characters. An undergraduate who has difficulty choosing a major; a militia leader with deep set eyes who dresses in red, white and blue outfits; a militia man who misuses words (chloroform for chlorophyll); a tiny department chairman whose feet do not touch the floor when he is sitting down.
Do you have specific techniques to help you maintain the course of the plot?
Lorin: The story seemed to unroll itself as time progressed, most days. When I had a good sense of where I was going, it helped to stop knowing where I’d start the next day. If I wasn’t sure, I’d read over what I’d written and then plunge on.
How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?
Lorin: My academic background (close to thirty years teaching) is a major influence. It is tempered as well by what might be called “the Cary gene.” That is a tendency to engage in odd-ball, quirky humor. It pops out in my writing and often in the types of photographs I sometimes take: aside from landscapes, abstracts and clouds, I love to come across the odd sign which, for instance, declares that there is to be “No Trespassing After 6 PM.”
Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve ever had.
Lorin: I’ve yet to see a full blown review (although I’m told reviewers have requested and received the book), but the blurbs on my book have been nice. I especially like this one :
“Prepare to laugh. The Custer Conspiracy takes the reader on a wild ride, mixing the true history of George Armstrong Custer’s career with ironic, tongue-in-cheek fiction. Cary, a former professor of history, displays his grasp of historical research, his story-telling skills – and his dry and quirky sense of humor. Inventive, intriguing, and very funny.”
It’s from Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of 14 novels including, Pay It Forward, Becoming Chloe, Love in the Present Tense, Chasing Windmills, and When I Found You.
What are your current projects?
Lorin: I’m working on several: a second novel in which the same academic confronts a university president using campus computers for illicit purposes (red light doesn’t quite say it, but…); a short story about a fellow who wants to kill his boss, among other reasons because she has false teeth that are loose and hence her words are cloaked in whistles; a story about nameless “ids” which long ago sought to shape human development and which ultimately found the going a bit rough…
Where can folks learn more about your books and events?
Lorin: The best place to check out some more about me is at www.lorinleecary.com
Thank you for joining us today, Lorin.
Lorin: Thanks so much, Shelagh, for the opportunity to share all this with you and the group.
Snippet from The Custer Conspiracy
Pico clutched the box and pushed into the store, catching his breath as the dry, musty odor hit his nostrils. He stopped and stared at the utensils, clocks, and gadgets heaped on tables, at the old furniture scattered about the room. Dusty books lined shelves. Pictures of the early days in Hardin filled one wall, signs another.
“Close the door please,” said Cassius. Then he looked up. “Oh, “it’s you.” His eyes moved from friendly to cold.
“Okay, okay.” Pico closed the door, walked through the cluttered room and set the box on the counter.
“You out of money again?” Cassius stared at him. “What you got now? Hope it’s better than last time. This is an antique store, you know, not a crap shop.”
Pico hated those weird eyes, set so deep you could barely see them except they were so big, bug-like. Guy should be in some horror show. “It’s good.” He opened the box and pulled out a worn leather bag.
“Jesus,” said Cassius, “look at your hands shake.”
Bits of metal clattered as Pico emptied the contents onto the counter.
“Buttons?” said Cassius.
“Yeah.” Pico eyed the pistols and rifles in the case behind Cassius. “Maybe Custer’s.”
“Sure. You and every other drunk on the reservation claims he’s got things belonging to George Armstrong Custer.” Pink scalp showed through Cassius’s thin gray hair as he leaned over and rubbed a button with a knobby finger. “Least you could do was clean ’em.” He grimaced. “A bird, right?”
“Military eagle, I figure.”
Copyright © 2009 Lorin Lee www.lorinleecary.com
Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow
Interviewed by
Shelagh Watkins
Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow is Founding General Manager of WYCC-TV/PBS (Chicago’s Public Broadcasting Station) and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Wright College in Chicago.
Please tell everyone a little about yourself, Elynne.
Elynne: I am an author and adult storyteller. My non-fiction stories and essays have been published in magazines, newspapers and the following anthologies: The Revolving Door in Chicken Soup for the Chocolate Lover’s Soul (HCI Books); Grandma Lebedow in The Wisdom of Old Souls (Hidden Brook Press); The Red Pen, The Elevator, Mr. X and Mr. Y, and Life 101 in Forever Friends (Mandinam Press); His Way in My Dad Is My Hero (Adams Media Publishing); The Hat in The Ultimate Teacher (HCI Books); The Needle in the Haystack, and My Gift of Now in Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages (All Things That Matter Press); Ronald in Chicken Soup for the Soul: True Love (Simon and Schuster).
My story, A Tale of Two Vardas, was published internationally December 2009 in the Jerusalem Post Magazine. The sequel, A Journey of the Heart, was published in The Jerusalem Post Magazine January 2010.
June 1, 2009, marked the recording debut of my audio fiction story, Professor Gabriel and her 101 Posse. The story airs on The Deepening Website (World of Fiction) and is recorded by D. L. Keur.
I am married to my best friend Richard Noel Aleskow.
When did you begin writing and in what genre?
Elynne: I have been writing since I was around nine years old. As a young girl, I used to write stream-of-consciousness prose that bordered on poetic prose. That writing was just for me. It was a way to express my most personal feelings as I was growing up. Two and one-half years ago I decided to retire from college teaching. My husband wisely suggested that I have a plan in mind for retirement and asked me what I would like to do. Having had successful and fulfilling careers in Public Television and teaching, I answered that there was a dream I had always wanted to do. I wanted to write and publish my stories. And so I began my third career.
I had always been a reader of the short story genre. Artistically this genre gave me great pleasure as a reader and writer. The only difference was that my stories were non-fiction. With the experiences I had lived and knew about, non-fiction was a natural and exciting genre for me. I could never imagine in fiction writing some of the events that I had lived. The first year and one-half of my writing, the stories poured out of me. I was productive and inspired and wrote everyday. Then my submissions turned into published stories and I have not looked back since.
When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish?
Elynne: Many of my non-fiction stories are inspirational. I want my readers to be moved and to understand and empathize with the reality I am conveying. I want my stories to offer my readers insights and to entertain them. Many of my travel stories are very funny recounting the travel adventures of my husband and me
.
Briefly tell us about your latest stories.
E
lynne:
My stories are presently published in seven anthologies and several
magazines including the international Jerusalem Post Magazine. Two
very important stories about my life, The Needle in the Haystack, the
story of how my husband and I met in middle age and, My Gift of Now,
about my retirement and the beginning of my writing career, have just
been published in the anthology, Contemporary
American Women: Our Defining Passages.
I intentionally have chosen to submit my stories for publication in a variety of anthologies because I feel that they will get the best distribution and variety of readership this way. Each editor and publisher along with the contributing authors works hard to market each anthology. I believe it is an advantageous way to establish an audience for one’s work.
How are the anthologies marketed?
Elynne: Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages (All Things That Matter Press) is being marketed to the public as well as to Universities and Colleges as a text for Women’s Studies Programs. That thought thrills me. I see this book as an eloquent mentor to the next generation of women. It can be purchased from the publisher and at Amazon.com.
Do you have a specific writing style or preferred POV?
Elynne: My point of view preference in writing is first person. There is a personal quality and tone that a first person narrator is potentially able to convey in telling the story. As a reader, I have always been attracted to and interested in storytelling and the narrator’s role and effectiveness in this process.
In performing my stories, I find the audience engages naturally with a first person narrator. The first time I performed a program consisting solely of my own published stories was a moment I will never forget. I had achieved my dream.
For me performance of my work is a natural extension of my art as a writer. To perform my work for an audience establishes a connection and bond between them and me as I function as both the writer and the performer. The audience feedback is immediate. Will they laugh where I intended them to laugh? Will they feel moved as I intended them to feel? Will my interpretation of my story parallel their own interpretation as readers?
As an artist, combining writing and performance is an exquisite challenge.
Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve ever had.
Elynne: I have received many wonderful and insightful reviews about my writing and my performing. I would be happy to share one of each.
The following is a review of my audio fiction story, Professor Gabriel and her 101 Posse, which is available at www.thedeepening.com. It is a short story that lends itself well to being read and recorded. It was recorded by D.L. Keur.
Elynne’s vivid and creative story touches the reader with emotion, just as Prof. Gabriel touched her students…The story of LK and the kidnapping would make an inspirational anticipatory set for any curriculum on creative writing … punctuated with chapter-like titles; i.e. “The Attic”, “The Billboard”, “The Conversation”, etc. the reader is held captive. I love how the story of Miguel is woven as a sub-plot to help clarify the Prof’s “mission” to help LK. The wisdom that the writer (and Professor Gabriel) imparts throughout is invaluable. “My burden was to help him lose his arrogance.” … “She taught us how not to be afraid” … Listening to her story was a very “deepening experience”. Thank you.
—C.J. Breman
The feedback I have received from my performance programs are reviews that are indeed gratifying. The following is one of my favorites:
Most writers are Sooooo disappointing as speakers but you are
dynamite wrapped in silk.
—Illene Ashkenaz
What are your current projects?
Elynne: My most current writing project involved a Facebook experience that became two non-fiction stories published internationally in The Jerusalem Post Magazine. After the first story was published, the Jerusalem Post Magazine editor invited me to write a sequel. The entire experience from living the stories to writing them was magical. And gaining an international audience through this paper’s print distribution and website was an invaluable opportunity.
I have stories accepted in two more anthologies that will be out toward the end of 2010.
I am always either thinking about my next story or writing it.
Where can folks learn more about your books and events?
Elynne: The anthologies with my stories, my performance schedule, reviews and book signings can be found at: www.LookAroundMe.blogspot.com
March 22nd, 2010, I was invited with other contributing authors to the University of Maine to perform my stories in Contemporary American Women: Our Defining Passages. Both Cynthia Brackett-Vincent, the editor of Passages, and I are contributing authors to the anthology, Forever Friends edited by Shelagh Watkins.
Thanks for joining us today, Elynne.
Elynne: I am delighted to be interviewed by you. Thank you for the invitation.
Snippet from The Needle in the Haystack
The odds were nothing less than finding a needle in a haystack. Richard was a 49-year-old man. I was a 42-year-old woman. Our search for the needle was about to end on a dance floor. Across a dark crowded room Richard saw me first. I was on the dance floor and as the other dancers moved making a slight opening I saw him for the first time. He was smiling as our eyes met. I smiled back, the dancers again shifted their fluid form and he was gone from view.
When the dancing ended, I walked toward the man with the welcoming face. Standing in front of one another, we made our introductions and acknowledged the like coincidences of our professions and educational backgrounds.
Richard joined me on the dance floor. Dancing was my passion not his. Yet he kept up with me. We closed the club. We were strangers in the night like Sinatra’s song.
Two nights later we shared a walk and talked about our pasts and our dreams of finding a needle in a haystack. We held hands and hoped our search had possibly ended.
Could we have defied the odds of the single world? Could one glance in a crowded dance club have changed the course of our lives? We were not singles in our twenties or thirties. I was one month into my forty-second year. Richard was four months away from turning fifty.
This prince charming and his princess were on the brink of middle age. The needle was harder to see and more difficult to thread. We were acutely aware of the golden chance dancing had brought us that night.
Copyright © 2009 Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow www.LookAroundMe.blogspot.com
Daniel Dinges
Interviewed by
Shelagh Watkins
Daniel Dinges, who earned his MBA from the University of Washington at Seattle, retired to write after careers in business management and education.
Please tell everyone a little about yourself, Daniel.
Daniel: Recently I moved to the Rio Grande Valley after a varied career in business, consulting, and management. Along the way, I earned degrees in economics and business. My life’s journey has taken me to virtually every state in the union. I have had long-term residences in Illinois, Virginia, Washington state, Alaska, and Minnesota.
Semi-retirement gives me the opportunity to explore interests, including writing, that I overlooked in the scramble for material success. I am also able to spend more time with my spiritual side and at the time of this writing, am a member of the council of elders at my church.
Companion animal rescue is a passion for me. I am active at the local shelter in the areas of adoptions, breed rescue, and fundraising.
My two boys have families of their own now. The eldest lives in Boston and is busy raising two sons of his own. The younger, who is also raising a family, moved to Dallas, Texas, recently. A granddaughter joined us last fall. I hope to see a lot more of both families in the future.
In my leisure time, I enjoy travel, golf, and long walks with my two dogs, who were both adopted from the local shelter.
When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?
Daniel: Writing has always been a part of my professional life. As a consultant, manager, and trainer, I have often been tasked to use the written word to put across the results of my labors in reports using clear, concise, and complete terminology. The goal of a report is to make the complex understandable and actionable.
Get Out of the Way is my first attempt at writing for the entertainment of an audience.
I think that all good books try to engage readers on multiple levels. In this respect, Get Out of the Way is no different. It refers to a time of great social change that left many without a feeling of closure. To some, it seemed that the country shut the door on the mistakes and failures and went into a state of denial. The message of this book is one of hope for growth through retrospection and healing through reconciliation.
I also believe that the messages in books should be tailored to the work. At this point, I do not believe the subsequent works in this series or in future projects will be based on the same message.
Briefly tell us about your latest book. Is it part of a series or stand-alone?
D
aniel:
Get
Out of the Way
is the first book in a series about America in the last century. The
series will tell the story of this amazing and in some ways frenetic
period in our history through the eyes of Tom Daniels and his family.
The
kaleidoscope of sweeping changes the series will examine include: the
integration of the western pioneers into an emerging industrial
society, the assimilation of refugees from post WWI Europe, the Great
Depression, WWII, the Vietnam era, and the post-Vietnam transition of
America from an industrial power to a service-based society.
How do you develop characters and settings?
Daniel: My characters act naturally within the context of the story. I build profiles for each of them using a combination of available checklists plus some personal insights. One thing I do that may be unusual is to try to add a cast of archetypes from classical literature to each of them.
Actually, I see the War and the Draft as characters, or rather extensions of the Greek God of war and one of his henchmen as opposed to back-story. They are creators of action on the part of the protagonist.
Settings are not just places. They also add color and action to the story. In addition, they are important to the reactions of the characters.
Do you have specific techniques to help you maintain the course of the plot?
Daniel: The way I went about putting together this story is similar to the way I learned to put together a consultative piece. The entire piece needs to work as a whole before the actual writing begins. I need to know where I am going before I start out. I use a top down strategy including storyboarding to plan how the action progresses. Each scene is a chapter or set of chapters. That way there is a blueprint to go forward.
This does not mean that the final product looks exactly as it did during planning. There are always changes in direction as the creative process evolves. Each new development needs to be integrated into the overall plan before proceeding. That way I avoid running into a dead end three quarters of the way through.
This process worked well for me, and I plan to go forward with new projects in a similar fashion. No doubt, experience will dictate modifications.
Do you have a specific writing style or preferred POV?
Daniel: I hope that I present a distinctive author’s “voice.” Voice is as telling to a writer’s identity as an author’s signature. My intention is to maintain it throughout my work.
POV follows from the nature and structure of the specific piece. For that reason, the POV of Get Out of the Way is first person. The result generates mixed consequences. On the one hand, the work is, as one critic stated, authentic, believable, and true to life. Another view, put forward in different review is that the work is a memoir thinly disguised as a novel. While the work depends heavily on historical events, critical parts of the book are purely fiction. This is intended to be an example of a relatively new genre known as Creative Nonfiction where the whole attempts to provide an entertaining yet insightful look at an important time in US history.
How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?
Daniel: A writer’s voice is a combination of a number of factors. The environment/upbringing of the individual is part of it. I do not know how it could fail to come through. I think my journey through life brings on a certain skepticism and challenging of authority that is perhaps indicative of my generation and evident in my writing.
Share the best book review you’ve received.
Daniel: Get Out of the Way was an amazingly enjoyable read. Written from Tom’s point of view, Daniel Dinges did a wonderful job capturing the spirit of a young man and his struggle to survive the war. Written from the first person point of view, Tom was a likeable voice. His walk down memory lane brought to life his problems, fears, and struggles of his choice to enlist. His account was so lifelike, that I felt like I was there along with him throughout his two years of service.
I enjoyed Mr. Dinges’ captivating style of writing. I look forward to seeing more from this author and will be keeping him on my watch list.
—Theresa Dunlap, Library Thing & Just One More Paragraph Blog
What are your current projects?
Daniel: On the writing front, I am in the preliminary stages of writing the next Tom Daniels book.
I am also developing a work of speculative fiction set in the Southwest about seventy-five years in the future.
It takes place in a group of new United States territories located in what is left of Mexico. The Mexican nation succumbed to the onslaught of organized crime and invasion by an unlikely coalition of socialist and Islamic jihadist powers whose ultimate goal is the destruction of America. The remnants of the country petition for protection and the US really has no choice but to come to their aid despite the fact that it is itself on the decline.
Where can folks learn more about your books and events?
Daniel: http://danieldinges.tatepublishing.net
Facebook:: www.facebook.com/daniel.dinges
Tate Publishing: www.tatepublishing.com
Thank you for joining us today, Daniel.
Daniel: Thanks for including me.
Snippet from Chapter Eleven Get Out of the Way
Hand Grenades and Atropine
There were all kinds of other things to learn, of course. Most topics were just skimmed over. For instance, the two days of hand-to-hand combat training we got. I don’t think I would feel good about having to defend myself against a skilled, trained, and experienced adversary with that little training. For most of these topics, it was just preparation for advanced infantry training, which would come next for most of us.
I remember a particular CBR (Chemical, Biological, Radiological) lecture very well. It had been an unusually cold day for April, and by midmorning, we were all shivering. The lecture hall was warm. and as we thawed out, we began to get sleepy.
The instructor began the session by announcing that if anyone were caught sleeping during the lecture, he would be invited to demonstrate the use of an atropine injector for the class. The class was very informative, but boring. Then we got to the atropine injector. Atropine was and is the antidote of choice for nerve gas. It looked like a cigar tin. Inside were a large long needle and the dose of the drug. You use it by slamming the end of the tin against the body. A very strong spring propels the needle through the clothing into the body and injects the dosage.
The recommendation was to inject it into the meaty part of the thigh at the back. Just about that time, the instructor noticed a sleeping trainee in the back.
“Send the trooper in seat forty-one down to the stage.” Up he came, still half asleep. “You were sleeping, right?”
“Uh, yes, Sergeant.”
“Sit down.” The trainee obeyed.
“Here, inject yourself with this.”
“Sergeant?”
“Slap the end on your thigh.”
“Aaaaaaah!”
The trainee had slept through the part about the meaty area behind the bone. Instead, he slapped the injector right down on top of his thigh. The needle imbedded itself in the bone, and the whole thing stuck there waving like a flag in the wind.
Copyright © 2010 Daniel Dinges http://danieldinges.tatepublishing.net
Frank Fiore
Interviewed by
Shelagh Watkins
Frank Fiore is a best selling author of over fifty thousand copies of his non-fiction books that include: Launching Your Yahoo! Business, Succeeding at Your Yahoo! Business, Write a Business Plan in No Time, The 2005 Online Shopping Directory for Dummies, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting an Online Business, eMarketing Strategies (translated into other languages), Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants, TechTV’s Starting an Online Business and Dr. Livingston’s Online Shopping Safari Guidebook
Please tell us a little about yourself, Frank.
Frank: I live in Paradise Valley, AZ., with my son and wife of 30 years. I have a B.A. in Liberal Arts and General Systems Theory from Stockton State College and a Master Degree in Education at the University of Phoenix. During my college years, I started, wrote and edited the New Times newspaper which is now a multi-state operation.
My writing experience includes guest columns on social commentary and future trends published in the Arizona Republic and the Tribune papers in the metro Phoenix area. Through my writings, I explain in a simplified manner, complex issues and trends.
My interests in future patterns and trends range over many years and many projects. I co-wrote the Terran Project, a self-published book on community futures design processes, and worked as a researcher for Alvin Toffler on a series of high school texts on the future. I’ve designed and taught courses and seminars on the future of society, technology and business and was appointed by the Mayor of Phoenix to serve on the Phoenix Futures Forum as co-chairperson and served on several vital committees.
I’ve also written a book entitled To Christopher that, under the guise of a book to my young son, leads the reader through social commentary, personal experience and entertaining teaching stories on a thoughtful journey through the challenges and opportunities that face the next generation.
When did you begin writing, and in what genre?
Frank: To tell you the truth, way back in High School. I wrote the first few chapters of my first novel. I completed a novel many years later in college but never pursued publishing it. Over the last ten years I wrote a dozen or so non-fiction books but my love was always to be a novelist.
When you started writing, what goals did you want to accomplish? Is there a message you want readers to grasp?
Frank: I think almost every novelist has a back-story to tell. What motivates them to write a book or perhaps a moral or lesson to get across to the reader. My message in CyberKill is one of ‘unintended consequences’.
Briefly tell us about your latest book.
F
rank:
CyberKill
is my first book of fiction. A brilliant programmer, Travis Cole,
inadvertently creates ‘Dorian’, an artificial intelligence that
lives on the Internet. After Cole attempts to terminate his creation,
Dorian stalks his young daughter through cyberspace in an attempt to
reach Cole to seek revenge.
When cyber-terrorism events threaten the United States, they turn out to stem from the forsaken and bitter Dorian.
In the final conflict, Dorian seeks to kill his creator – even if it has to destroy all of humanity to do it.
The geographic locations, government and military installations and organizations, information warfare scenarios, artificial intelligence, robots, and the information and communications technology in this book all exist.
As for SIRUS, pieces of the technology are either in existence or in the research and development stage. According to the Department of Defense, it doesn’t exist.
The Fars News Agency of Iran reported otherwise.
What’s the hook for the book?
Frank: A twist on the Frankenstein myth. The Frankenstein – the Artificial Intelligent piece of software – stalks his young daughter through cyberspace. It asks the question: “How far will an Artificial Intelligence go for revenge?”
How do you develop characters?
Frank: I do a detailed outline of the book before I write it. Characters are developed to drive the plot. So plot comes first then I create characters and motivate them to drive the plot.
Who is the most likeable character?
Frank: I like Dallas. He’s a techno-nerd – a thorn in the side of the establishment. Like me.
Do you have a specific writing style? Preferred POV?
Frank: I write in third person.
How does your environment/upbringing color your writing?
Frank: Well, my background is in the computer industry so CyberKill waseasy to write as far as technology is concerned. My main character reflects me. Intellectual. Not any kind of James Bond sort even though my books are thrillers. He uses his wits to get out of trouble. A driven person but into short cuts.
Share the best review (or a portion) that you’ve ever had.
Frank: “DO YOU WANT TO EXECUTE? Y/N”
With the stroke of the ‘yes’ button Travis Cole’s life, the life of his daughter, his friends and everyone on the planet hangs in the balance. Thinking he deleted all of his artificial intelligent (AI) agents Travis begins a new life. What he is unaware of is…he forgot one.
Dorian, the leader of the Digitari Brotherhood and forsaken AI, unleashes multiple cyber-terrorist attacks on the United States with one true target in mind – Travis Cole. As each of the attacks from the bitter and forsaken AI fail Travis gets closer to realizing the truth of the nightmare his life has become. Dorian will stop at nothing to have its revenge against the man who tried to terminate him, even if that means destroying mankind to do it.
Cyberkill is a sci-fi thrill ride with fast pace action and gripping realism.
It is clearly evident that Author Frank Fiore went to great lengths researching the technology, locations, and government agencies when writing Cyberkill which lends to the believability of the story. But Fiore goes beyond that by developing rich and interesting characters, tense drama and moments of mirth. It is easy to connect with Travis as he tries to save the day but what is amazing about Fiore’s writing style is his ability to deliver the motivations for Dorian in a way that readers can both understand and sympathize with.
By weaving together current events, the Internet, real scenarios, action and suspense Cyberkill instills enough paranoia to make the reader wonder as they frantically turn the pages to find out what happens next.
Those who read Science Fiction will love Cyberkill but make no mistake anyone who uses a computer will enjoy this thriller. This story of revenge and survival will stay in your mind long after you finish reading it. Cyberkill is a must read.
The Internet will never be the same after you read …Cyberkill.
What are your current projects?
Frank: I am currently working on a new three book character series called The Chronicles of Jeremy Nash, about a noted debunker and skeptic of conspiracy theories, urban legends and myths. Jeremy Nash is pressed into pursuing them by threats to himself, family and reputation. The Chronicles of Jeremy Nash capitalizes on the continuing interest of the reading public in conspiracy theories, unsolved mysteries, urban myths, New Age beliefs and paranormal events. I also feeds the growing appetite of the public for ‘puzzle stories’ in the vein of National Treasure and Indiana Jones with a little of the X-Files thrown in. The formula of the chronicles consists of a conspiracy theory, unsolved mystery, urban myth, New Age belief or paranormal practice that Nash is forced to pursue; combined with an underlying real world event, organization or persons that is somehow connected to what he is pursuing and tries to stop his pursuit. This provides the thriller aspect of the stories. The web site is www.jeremynashonline.com.
Where can folks learn more about your books and events?
Frank: Where to find Frank Fiore online:
Website: www.frankfiore.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/followthenovel
Facebook: Facebook profile
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/frank-fiore/0/189/b86
Where to buy in print: www.trapdoorbooks.com
Thanks for joining us today, Frank.
Frank: Thank you for including me.
Snippet from Cyberkill
The airplane was leaving in a few hours, but Travis Cole still had some unfinished business in his MIT office – one of which was to get his in-law off his back.
“Please, John. We’ve been over this a hundred times,” Cole murmured, leaning forward on his desk to stare down at the computer monitor in front of him. He rested his fingers lightly on the keyboard, his hazel eyes focused on the command prompt on the screen:
DO YOU WANT TO EXECUTE? Y/N
Could he really do it?
Though Cole had made up his mind, it was now formal decision time. Pressing ‘N’ would continue his life as a well-known researcher in eco-biology at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Pressing ‘Y’ would end three years of cutting-edge work and move him and his daughter to a new home in Washington, D.C. and a lucrative research job with the U.S. Army.
Cole’s finger hovered over the keyboard – he felt sick.
John François was, as usual, sucking on the end of an ornately-carved wood and leather pipe. It went along with his academic look: elbow-patched sports coat, baggy brown pants, and loafers.
“It’s not right, Travis,” François implored. “It’s not right to take Shannon away from the environment she knows just weeks after her mother’s death. It’s just not right.”
Cole kept his focus on the task at hand. They had been over this a thousand times. Shannon, Cole’s young daughter, was already in the car, waiting. In fact, all his luggage and many of his important worldly belongings waited there as well. He would return later for the rest of his stuff.
For now …
For now, he had to just get away.
Cole’s finger still hovered. He blinked hard. Could he really do this?
Yes, I can do this.
“And what about this?” François said as he opened the cover of a three-ring binder with the title TERRAN PROJECT written in blue across the front. François gently thumbed through the pages and pointed at the different artificial intelligence programs that Cole had cataloged and tracked while at MIT. “You’re just going to throw away years of work?”
Cole ignored François and turned back to the computer terminal with its blinking white cursor awaiting a reply.
He took in some air – and pressed the ‘Y’ key on the keyboard.
Copyright © 2009 Frank Fiore www.frankfiore.com
Mark Glamack
Interviewed by
Shelagh Watkins
Today’s guest is Mark Glamack, animator, businessman, director, producer, writer, and patented inventor. Mark has worked in every area of the animation industry. Over the last twelve years, he has created, written, and developed two motion picture projects and a television series. In 2002, Mark completed his sixth term as Governor for The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Hello Mark, please tell everyone a little about yourself.
Mark: Born and raised in Rochester, New York, I attended Art Center College of Design, UCLA, PCC, Sherwood Oaks Experimental College and various animation courses.
Currently, I’m the creator, author, and illustrator of the novel, Littluns: and the Book of Darkness: the “Mom’s Choice Awards” Gold winner for 2009. In 2010, Littluns received “The Indie Excellence FINALIST Book Awards,” and won “The Dove Award.”
Earlier in my career, I worked at Walt Disney Productions and went on to work on the animated classic The Jungle Book, and animated many of the special effects for the combination live-action/animation, Bed-Knobs and Broomsticks. I also worked on the EPCOT promotional film, animation inserts for The Wonderful World of Disney, and The Story of Walt Disney: a Disneyland attraction.
Drafted out of Disney to serve in the Viet Nam War, I spent a year as a medic with the First Air Cavalry Division based thirty miles from the DMZ. I also photographed and directed an ambitious documentary entitled Is Freedom Just a Word? I was awarded the Bronze Star.
Back home in the United States, I continued my career working on countless projects for Hanna-Barbera, Filmation Associates, HBO, Film Roman, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and others. Some of the titles I’ve animated, directed or produced are: All Dogs Go To Heaven, Life with Louie, He-Man and She-Ra: Princess of Power, Oliver Twist, Bobby’s World, Zazoo – U, Spawn, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Do, Tom & Jerry, Dyno-Mutt, Future Flipper, G.I. Joe, A Flintstone Christmas, Last of the Curlews, the animated inserts for That’s Entertainment II, and many more. Also, the direct to video projects: Gen 13, Christmas Classics, Tom Sawyer, All Dogs Christmas, and All Dogs Go to Heaven.
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