new fiction Archives - Page 16 of 17 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Interview with Sci-Fi Author, Sheryl Steines

TS. Science-fiction author, Sheryl Steines shares her writing world with us.

Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? (please provide a photo/s of your shed, room, closet, barn….) Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.

SS. I write on the couch, under a blanket with the tv on for background noise. I’m slowly moving back into my guest room/office where I have a large desk, all of my research books and all of my sci fi/fantasy fan paraphernalia. Unfortunately it’s still not put back together after a small computer fire.

Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (a neat work space, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)

SS. When I’m not working full time, I always have to get my housework, errands and other chores done before I can comfortably begin to work. When all that’s taken care of, I sit down with a cup of tea, huddled under my blanket with my computer in my lap. I work best in the afternoon to early evening.

Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?

SS. My guilty pleasure is American Ninja Warrior and I have a secret dream to write the teleplay to turn the Wizard Hall Chronicles (my book series) into a tv show.

Q. Do you have a set time each day (or night) to write?

SS. My most productive times are between 12 pm – 7pm. For whatever reason, those have always been my most productive hours. Otherwise I squeeze in what I can between 7p and 9pm after work.

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

SS. I tell writers all time; write every day. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a sentence, paragraph, page or chapter. If this is what you want to do, just do it and do it every day.

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

SS. Hmm… That’s a good question. I’ve said it lots of time, I don’t plan a book well. I try and it just goes off course. So when I start with a new book, I try and have a beginning, middle and rough end. Since I have my main characters already, I just start writing and every once and a while, I need someone else, and usually, they pop in my head. By my tenth draft, I usually have a pretty well rounded character that adds a little something to the story.

Q. What first inspired you to write your stories?

SS. There was something about the Nancy Drew mystery series. At seven I just fell in love with the detective/mystery novel and I never looked back. But I didn’t just want to read the books, I wanted to create my own stories, so I did. I wrote my own little detective novels.

Q. What comes first to you? The Characters or the Situation?

SS. Situation definitely. It starts with a little idea, whether it’s from watching a tv show, reading a book, seeing something online, it doesn’t matter. That little spark sends me down a path and from there, I can create an entire story.

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?

SS. Sometimes, yes. When the story flows, when the ideas come, I can’t pull away. Part of it happens because I can’t plan books well and I just run off on tangents. However, I like getting lost in the surprises, like a reader would. It’s fun.

Join us for Part II of the Interview on February 25th

sherylsteines.com
Twitter @Sherylsteines
FB : Wizard Hall Chronicles
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? November was best selling author, Grace Burrowes and in December, Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series. January is Dinah Jefferies and February’s author is Sheryl Steines.
Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!

Halo-Halo Book Review Praises Song of the Yukon

A REVIEW

‘I read Trisha Sugarek’s novel Song of the Yukon, as I’m generally interested in homesteading and off-grid stories. Trisha’s novel, set in Alaska, more than satisfied my curiosity. It’s about LaVerne, a teen and budding song writer who followed the poet Robert Service’s trip into the wilds of Alaska. The inclusion of Service’s life offers a welcome layer to the story, and the references are inserted harmoniously so that they seem a natural instead of forced companion to the primary plot of LaVerne’s life: she impersonated a boy to be hired aboard a freighter who took her from Seattle to Alaska; along the way, she experiences boat rides on the Yukon, meets members of native tribes, files homestead papers and works the land.

Song of the Yukon also delights due to its structure of seamlessly weaving poetry, song lyrics and correspondence within the novel’s narrative. There was a scene around a camp fire where LaVerne gets to know the indigenous guide, Black Eyed Joe and his mother, Edna that I particularly liked. Sugarek weaves Service’s poem into the dialogue where Edna makes an observation about Mother Earth.

Sugarek’s use of correspondence also doesn’t grate in the narrative flow. My personal experience is I’ve found the insertion of correspondence to be an interruption or a cheat in writing a story, but such isn’t the case here. Here, the correspondence makes the story more personal as well as is effective in bringing onto the page the rest of the world beyond LaVerne’s particular environment.

Last but not least, the story weaves in a love triangle, (perhaps not the first time but) a rare point of view within the genre of homesteading, off-grid Alaska and Wild West stories. All in all, Sugarek’s multi-layered approach uplifts SONG OF THE YUKON from the crowded field of such stories.’ ~~EILEEN TABIOS, Senior Editor The Halo-Halo Book Review
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? November was best selling author, Grace Burrowes and in December, Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series. January is Dinah Jefferies and February’s author is Sheryl Steines.
Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!

Rustler’s Moon by Jodi Thomas ~~A Review

Rating: 5 out 5 quills A Review Rustler’s Moon by Jodi Thomas

It was great to return to Crossroads, Texas once again. Thomas introduced a couple of quirky new characters to spice things up and blend with returning characters that we’ve all come to enjoy and even…yes I’ll say it…love.

The book has a great beginning when Angela receives a cryptic message: Run. Disappear. Vanish. And she does. Grabbing just a few things, she flees Florida and ends up in Crossroads. But is it far enough to hide in plain sight? I found myself wanting more story from Vern and Carter. They enchanted me with their eccentric outlook and actions. The love story within the tale is tender and sweet. This reviewer always appreciates an author’s restraint leaving much to the reader’s imagination, instead of laying it all out….as it were.

Rustler’s Moon was an excellent sequel to Ransom Canyon and I can’t wait to read book three, Winter’s Camp.

Did you miss my Interview with Jodi Thomas? Click here

Excerpt from Rustler’s Moon

Crossroads, Texas
October
Angela

Dried weeds scratched against Angela Harold’s bare legs as she walked the neglected grounds behind the Ransom Canyon Museum near Crossroads, Texas. Rumbling gray clouds spotted the sky above. Wind raged as though trying to push her back to the East Coast. She decided any rain might blow all the way to Oklahoma before it could land on Texas soil. But the weather didn’t matter. She had made it here. She’d done exactly what her father told her. She’d vanished.

Angela had meant to stop long enough to clean up before she took her first look at the museum, but she could not wait. So, in sandals, shorts and a tank top, she explored the land behind the boarded-up building on the edge of Ransom Canyon.When she’d talked to the board president, Staten Kirkland, five days ago, he’d sounded excited. They’d had to close the museum when the last curator left and in six months she’d been the only one to call about the job opening. Before the phone call ended Kirkland offered her a three-month trial if she could answer one question.Angela thought it would be about her experience or her education, but it was pure Texas folk history. Continue reading “Rustler’s Moon by Jodi Thomas ~~A Review”

Interview with Two Murder Cops

TS. We are sitting in an interview room. It is windowless, small and claustrophobic. Some kind of foam soundproofing covers the walls and there are bare spots where nervous suspects have picked at it. In the far corner, at the ceiling, there is a camera. Why do I feel guilty of something?
Sargent Detective O’Roarke is well…no other word for it…big! He seems to take up most of the room’s space and more than his fair share of air. Handsome, tough and his Irish heritage is mapped on his features. Detective Stella Garcia, sitting next to him, is a lily amidst the stones. Refined features, with cheekbones that could cut steak. Clear, sharp hazel eyes and streaky light brown hair cut in an effortless pageboy.
I begin.

TS. Tell me, have you always wanted to be in law enforcement?

O’R. I was raised in Hell’s Kitchen before it was gentrified. I had my share of brushes with the law and I saw some of my friends go to jail or get dead. The writing was on the wall. Did I want to end up in prison or worse? As a juvie; I think I was fifteen, a cop picked me up for shoplifting. It was my sister’s birthday and I didn’t have any money for a present for her. First he put the fear of hell in me.
Kept me handcuffed and stuffed me in a room just like this one. Left me alone there for two hours. When he came back he had a sandwich and a soda for me. He moved the cuffs to the front and I had to eat like that. He told me I was damn close to the age where he could charge me as an adult. What was I going to do with my life? He confirmed what I already knew, prison or dead.
Then he asked me if I’d like to ride along with him some night? I remember feeling like an anvil had fallen on me. Be a cop? Really? Was this guy joking? I rode with him and his partner a couple of nights later and that was all it took. The old cop started mentoring me and helped me get a partial scholarship to NYU.

TS. And you, Detective Garcia? (O’Roarke snorted and barked out a laugh)

SG. Cut it out O’Roarke. (She turned back to me) I grew up on a horse farm, upper Connecticut. Lived atop a horse or in the barn until I was eighteen, when I went to UC. The first year I had no idea what I wanted to do, didn’t declare a major until the middle of my sophomore year. Some sonority sisters and I went to Manhattan to see a show one weekend. When we left the theatre, a half a block down, three cop cars suddenly converged on the street, lights and sirens. Six cops jumped out of their cars and grabbed what we heard later were three armed perps.
One broke away and ran up the street toward us waving a gun. People scattered but my friends and I were frozen to the pavement. A female cop chased after him and, as luck would have it, tackled him right in front of us. It was a flying tackle; she landed on his back and they both went down. She disarmed him and had him in cuffs by the time her partner got to them. The cop stood up; she’d lost her hat and she had a split lip but she was grinning like crazy at her partner. From that moment on I was toast. Monday morning I went in to school and declared my major in criminal justice. I made Detective two years ago.

TS. And you’re in NYPD’s Homicide Unit.

O’R. Yeah, I was in Vice for a few years and then moved to Homicide.

SG. Domestic Violence and Kids at Risk Unit and then I went over to Homicide. So many deaths result from domestic violence but once the Homicide detectives arrived we’re done. I wanted to be able to follow my cases to the end. O’Roarke and I have been partners since my transfer.

O’R. (Grinning at his partner) Yeah, I had to train the rookie, here. A dirty job but somebody’s got to do it.

TS. You get some pretty high profile cases assigned to you. That famous Broadway director, the celebrity chef on the Food Network Do those kinds of cases require anything different?

O’R. No. Because under all that wealth and glitter they’re just people like you and me.

TS. Wasn’t Chef Jeff Kirikos the mayor’s brother-in-law? That had to add some pressure on the NYPD. (O’Roarke snorted again, this time in disgust.
I had the distinct impression he didn’t suffer fools or politicians, in this case.)

SG. That was a cold case. The mayor requested that we take another look at it. We were happy to get it solved.

TS. Are either of you married? Have children?

SG: I am, with two boys. R.J.’s eleven and Robbie is seven.

TS. ‘R.J’?

SG. Nickname. He’s Raul Garcia, Jr., for his father.

TS. And you, Detective O’Roarke? (Now it was Garcia’s turn to snort.)

O’R. Single. No further comment.

SG. I have high hopes for O’Roarke here. (She poked him in the ribs.) Someday some woman will gob-smack him into marriage.

O’R. Cut it out, Garcia! Right now! (The rough detective was blushing.)

TS. Must be tough on home life.

SG. Yes. At times very much so. But I have an amazing husband. He teaches high school and coaches the swim team. He can be home when my boys get there and they’re amazing too. They always tell me how proud they are their mom’s a cop.

TS. What are the toughest cases on you personally?

O’R. SG. (They answer simultaneously.) Domestic.

TS. Why so?

SG. The children. (Her eyes were suddenly bright with tears.)

O’R. We just closed a case where two little kids, toddlers, were hiding behind a chair while their father beat their mother to death.

SG. Those cases stay with you for the rest of your life.

TS. What do you do for fun? Do you have time for a personal life?

O’R. I work out, watch soccer on the tube. Meet with friends for dinner occasionally. But we’re on call 24/7 so when the mobile lights up we go.

TS. And you Detective Garcia?

SG. Still riding horses. Our family tries to get up to my parents’ farm at least once a month. We ride, help around the barn and visit with my folks. (She beams with pride.) My boys are naturals.

O’Roarke’s mobile lights up and the theme from ‘Dragnet’ comes from his jacket pocket. Garcia’s starts playing the theme from Star Wars and vibrates across the table. O’Roarke opens his text.

O’R. Speak of the devil. We got a body.
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Sample of the audio-book: TasteOfMurder.Audio.Sample.
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One True Heart by Jodi Thomas…a Review

Five out of 5 Quills (rating) ‘One True Heart’ ** A Review

This was a story that this reader didn’t want to end. I found myself rationing the pages to prolong the enjoyment. (I know some of my readers do the same when the book is just so good).
The author, Jodi Thomas, takes us back to the little Texas town of Harmony. Home!
Where people grow up, move away and then (always) return. Sometimes to heal, sometimes to hide, sometimes to reconnect with loved ones.
Captain Millanie McAllen comes home to heal the wounds of a warrior. Continue reading “One True Heart by Jodi Thomas…a Review”

Stellar Review for “The Taste of Murder”

REVIEW ~~~ The Taste of Murder is Book 5 in Sugarek’s ‘The World of Murder’ series (previously acclaimed by this reviewer as a tight, compelling series that builds powerful scenarios and believable protagonists) and is especially recommended for prior fans of the books who want a continuation of the same successful devices employed in the previous titles: emotion-driven protagonists and a whodunit scenario that puzzles readers as much as the characters doing the investigating.

With its dash of romance, culinary-based intrigue, and a New York City setting, The Taste of Murder is as riveting as its predecessors and offers much to newcomers as well as prior fans. And having the subject be a culinary competition mystery is perfect timing, by the way, given current TV viewer interest in cooking show competitions (which are proliferating – sans murder scenarios, of course!)he story opens on the set of a cooking show competition where four chefs are charged with using ingredients from three mystery shopping bags. All is progressing smoothly … until a world-renowned chef/judge keels over dead.
Cut! Continue reading “Stellar Review for “The Taste of Murder””

FREE BOOK Give-a-way!! This weekend!

It’s easy to win a copy of my novel, “WILD VIOLETS” this weekend. Just 1) LIKE my page at www.facebook.com/writeratplay 2) start FOLLOWING me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/writeratplay4. and 3) SHARE this Post. Tweet me or ‘message’ me with your entry.

The (5) prize books are available, to the winners, in audio or a signed paperback. Winners will be selected randomly.

“Wild Violets” It’s the roaring twenties in San Francisco, a decade famous for hot jazz and bath tub gin.

After documenting my mother’s colorful childhood in the primordial forests of Washington State, I went on to write about Violet as a grown woman with children of her own. She has left her small home town in the Pacific Northwest to pursue a successful basketball career and with her earnings, she bought a bar and grill. She is a ‘flapper’ in every sense of the word; working all day and playing all night. While her teenage daughter raises her seven year old son, Violet is out on the town with her latest man de’jour. Dressed in her signature red dress, she is the toast of the town and owner of a speakeasy where she hosts the cream of San Francisco’s society, city politicians, bishops, and Hollywood celebrities.

But there is an underbelly of corruption, grifters, the mob, excess, and neglect in Violet’s life. Her two children are an afterthought and she chooses her men over their well being time and time again. Their childhood needs are always trumped by her self-indulgent desires. The two children are possessions that she can put down or pick up again on a whim, showing them off to her current beau or friends and then forgotten. And when they get in her way, she gets rid of them.
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Wild Violets- Prologue Sample AUDIO
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!

In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Dean Koontz is my June author.

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Writers Must be Multi-Taskers!

Like so many other prolific writers (that I’ve interviewed) we are multi-taskers. And if we aren’t naturally, we learn pretty quick that we should be. As I finished writing the last few pages of ‘The Angel of Murder’, the story line for the next book was rattling around in my head. I edited book 4 one last time and published it. I then immediately sent it to my narrator/producer to begin the audio-book. This also requires my time as I listen to and edit each chapter.

‘Sugarek had barely released her newest book in the World of Murder series entitled ‘The Angel of Murder’ when she was already deeply into the plot of her next one. A famous chef-judge on a successful cooking show has been murdered. Detectives O’Roarke and Garcia have a cold case dumped on them in spite of O’Roarke’s vehement insistence, “We don’t do cold cases!”

Follow the two murder cops behind the scenes and onto the TV set of a wildly popular cooking competition where the suspects are plentiful and the case is three years cold.’
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!

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Part 2 of Interview with author, Sherryl Woods

Part 2 of my time with Sherryl Woods. COMING SOON!! August, 2014 Swan Point, A Sweet Magnolia Novel

Q. What makes a writer great?

A. For me what makes any writer great is the ability to tell a story that resonates with readers and touches them in some way. A book that can make a reader laugh or cry or even close the book with a deep sigh of satisfaction is the absolute best. I always aim for that. If I hit the mark even sometimes, it’s a wonderful feeling.

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

A. Once I know which series a book will be in and which character will “star”, I always start out mulling for a few days, jotting down a few notes about key plot points, motivations, conflicts and so on. I am mostly a right-brain writer, so I don’t make a list of details about character descriptions or history. Once I understand the basics of the story I want to tell, I start writing scenes for a synopsis.
Continue reading “Part 2 of Interview with author, Sherryl Woods”

Interview with best selling author, Sherryl Woods

I think I have read every book Sherryl has written…. spanning two or three decades. It is such a pleasure to have this opportunity to interview her; hearing about her rituals, her work space and what keeps her writing over the years.

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

A. I have two spaces for writing, since I split my life between two states. In Florida, I have an official office in a condo separate from the one in which I live. I actually walk to work…across a parking garage, which isn’t exactly scenic, but gets me there under the “shortest distance” theory. My view includes a tiny glimpse of the ocean, a slightly better view of Biscayne Bay and a snippet of the Miami skyline. That said, I rarely look up from my computer long enough to see any of it!
Continue reading “Interview with best selling author, Sherryl Woods”

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