new fiction Archives - Page 4 of 16 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

Create an Audio Book!

Several years ago a friend asked me, “when are you going to create audio-books? Your kids’ books would do great. Anyone under the age of 25 is ‘listening’ to books not reading.” This friend even found www.acx.com (Audiobook Creation Exchange) for me so I had no more excuses as to why I wasn’t putting my books on audio. Since acx.com was an Amazon company, I knew there would be quality there and a great distribution plan in place.

It’s a pretty easy web site to use and they have a very large ‘stable’ of narrators to choose from. As the author, you are in control every step of the way. You start by posting an audition excerpt from your book. Professional narrators then send you their audition. I have always received 8-15 auditions for each book, so I had many to choose from. You can pay them outright from a sliding scale (which is my preference) or give them a percentage of the book sales. It took me two tries to find the ideal narrator, Carin Gilfry, for my children’s books. She is open and friendly and extremely patient making any changes I want, no matter how small.

After you find your narrator and they accept your terms of the contract, there are very easy steps you go through as they narrate your book. You proof chapter by chapter, (on line) ask for the corrections or tweaks via acx.com email or personal email.

I then went on to launch my true crime series into audio-books. Daniel Dorse is the voice of my lead detective, Jack O’Roarke of the NYPD. His voice is right out of the Jack Webb, Dragnet era and I love it!

Tip: You should always review and edit the manuscript that you are converting to an audio book before giving it to the narrator. I find that with an audio book, I delete about 50% of the: ‘she said.’ ‘he replied.’ ‘she exclaimed.’ ‘he told her.‘ They are just not necessary because you have a voice telling the listener who is speaking.

The result is that I have a steady stream of sales every month from these books.

Emma and the Lost Unicorn
Dance of Murder
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Reading Books!

This was my journey with books except for the frustration part.

Somewhere around #7 “Rediscovering books” I began to seriously write. Stage plays to begin with…then children’s books….

then full length novels and poetry. And then more stage plays. But always reading…reading…reading. Non-Stop!

Books take you away…to far off lands, to adventures which you’d probably never have, and
to meet other people from all walks of life.

Keep reading, keep writing……remember,

Writing isn’t a calling….it’s a doing!

(acknowledgement: www.grantsnider.com)

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Inspiration Comes in All Forms

You find inspiration in the strangest places. I was dedicated to writing scripts for the stage. A few years back, I attended this production of my children’s play, Emma and the Lost Unicorn, outside of Boston .

After the actors had their curtain calls, the Director told them that if they changed out of their costumes and did their assigned tasks back stage, they could ‘have some time with Trisha’.

So I found myself holding impromptu stage craft classes with these adorable young actors (age 5–18). I was struck how serious they were about their craft. Their questions were very sophisticated. And then it happened……the inspiration to dare to write something completely out of my comfort zone…..a book.

children's theatre, plays for kids, writing, stage plays, — Emma

The youngest ones begged me to write the stories from my scripts into storybook form. They wanted to have Emma, Stare, Cheets, and Stanley in their personal libraries. Six children’s books, a mystery series and three novels later I have found a new outlet for my story telling. These children, who knew no fear, gave me enough courage to try chapter books, poetry, and becoming a novelist. Experimental at times, risky at times, scary, but so rewarding.

I was lucky and had a head start using my stage plays as a story outline as I adapted them to story book form. But for my true crime series and the novels, I was flying solo….staring at a blank screen, typing that first sentence (that I am always talking about).

So step out of your comfort zone and try writing in a different format… it’s very liberating and you might surprise yourself. I did!
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Conclusion: Interview with Regency Author, Jennie Goutet

Q. What makes a writer great?

JG. There is natural talent, of course. But I think what makes a writer great is being able to handle critique and to incorporate the good critiques into future works – to constantly learn and grow in the craft.

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

JG. I get a rough idea and write a few chapters that I love. Then I crash and don’t know what to do next so I call my development editor and we talk through the ideas. I write a really skeletal first draft and hate it. Then read through and think it’s not quite so bad. I get my critique partners to have a look and take their advice. I edit again then send it to the developmental editor in completed form (or at least at 80%). I edit again on the computer then on paper and send it to the line editor. I edit again with her changes and do text to voice to catch repeats or strange wording. Then I read it on my kindle to see it as a reader would before sending it to the proof editor. In the final stages, I send it to early readers who catch all the typos and other mistakes no one else caught. Then it’s ready to go out.

Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?

JG. I’ve lived in a lot of places. I’m curious about human nature. I observe. I’ve suffered from the darker things like grief and depression. I’ve known wild joy and adventure. I think my characters come to life from what I’ve experienced.

Q. What’s your down time look like?

JG. This is a weakness of mine. I do not have down time. I work all day on writing or the other aspects of the business (marketing, social media, production, translation, audio), then make dinner and listen to my teens talk about their day. On the weekend I’m doing ministry stuff. (We serve the teen ministry). I know this is just a phase, though – these teen years – so I’m okay with it. I really enjoy reading in bed at night. And we go away a few times a year, which is great. Sometimes I take a walk by the Seine river, or visit a friend, or go into Paris, but there is no regular downtime.

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

JG. I’ve written contemporary romance. A Noble Affair was my first novel and it’s not the finest in terms of literature but it was good practice for a full-length fiction work. And A Sweetheart in Paris is a decent book, I think, but it hasn’t attracted much attention. I’ve written a memoir as well, Stars Upside Down. I think if I were to switch genres I wouldn’t stray far. Georgian or Victorian as opposed to Regency. But I really love what I write.

Q. Note to Self: (a life lesson you’ve learned.)

A. Well, this won’t be relatable to everyone, but my main life’s lesson is that when I draw my last breath my books won’t matter. Only my relationship to God will. So I need to make sure that success doesn’t go to my head and that failure doesn’t destroy me. I am just God’s kid, and He’ll make sure I have all I need.

Did you miss Part 1 or Part 2?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews, February: Jennie Goutet
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Boy Underground by Catherine Ryan Hyde **Review

5 stars ** Book Review **

Catherine Ryan Hyde’s brilliance as a story teller knows no bounds. In Boy Underground she creates wonderful characters that the reader loves
and cheers for by page three. Secondary characters shine with believability. While the reader may hate some of them, Hyde gives the reader some insight to why they are such terrible parents, friends, and classmates. Dross and riffraff of a small town.

While weaving this wonderful story about four high school misfits, Hyde brings forth a time in America’s history that should drip with shame for all of us. Woven through this fiction is non-fiction history about social norms and the betrayal of US citizens, on so many levels.
(Note: This is as much as I am willing to say about the story to avoid, as I do, spoiler alerts.)

This book is a must for your library; to read and read again and then to keep on the shelf that holds your most treasured books.

Now available at your favorite book store.
Did you see my Interview with Catherine Ryan Hyde?
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews
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Interview with Historical Romance Author, Mimi Matthews

Bestselling author Mimi Matthews writes both historical nonfiction and award-winning proper Victorian romances. Her novels have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, & Booklist, and her articles have been featured on the Victorian Web, the Journal of Victorian Culture, and in syndication at BUST Magazine. In her other life, Mimi is an attorney. She resides in California with her family, which includes a retired Andalusian dressage horse, a Sheltie, and two Siamese cats.

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

MM. I mostly write in bed. This is owing less to laziness than to a cervical spine injury I suffered several years ago. My neck requires lots of propping and support to keep it from flaring up. My room is wonderfully bright and spacious, though, with high ceilings and lots of big windows. I have built-in bookcases filled with history books, law books, and all my favorite novels. I also have a capacious secretary desk, which I don’t use as much as I should. One perk of writing in bed is that my cats and dogs all pile in with me. They’re basically my co-writers.

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

MM. I have no quirks, rituals, or writerly affectations. My process consists of opening a word document on my laptop. Of course, peace and quiet helps tremendously. And diet Cherry Pepsi, too, if I can get it.

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

MM. I love to travel but hate to fly. In the past, I used to master by fear in order to go to the places I wanted to go. Now however, I’m not sure I’ll ever fly again. Even thinking about it makes me anxious. The last time I was on a plane it had to make an emergency landing. There were firetrucks waiting for us on the runway. That may have been it for me.

Q. What tools do you begin with? Legal pad, spiral notebook, pencils, fountain pen, or do you go right to your keyboard?

MM. I start with my laptop. That’s pretty much it.

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

MM. I like to start by 1pm. Ideally, I start earlier, but 1pm is my “do or die” marker.

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

MM. For me, some days all it takes is opening a word document. Once I have the document in front of me, the words often come. If not, it helps to reread the last scene I wrote. Writing sprints can also help if I’m really feeling reluctant.

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

MM. I always begin a story with an idea of them, even if it’s just a vague one. As I write and research, they become fully formed in my mind. I’m a pantser, not a plotter, so am accustomed to discovering things as I go.

Q. What first inspired you to write?

MM. When I was very small, I used to tell stories to my mom. She encouraged me to write them down. It was a personal exercise, done more for my own amusement than with any view to being a writer one day. I’m not sure I even understood what a novelist was.

Don’t miss the conclusion.
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I Guess It’s All In the Writing…

What makes us, as readers, care about the characters in a book? What is it about one book over another? I recently took a chance on a couple of new authors (to me) and was pretty disappointed. The books were like eating a slice of Wonder White Bread, with nothing on it; not even butter. Bland, tasteless and of little interest.

Sophie was listless, I’m sorry to say with long run-on sentences. Beachcomber Motel was not interesting for a different and ‘deadly’ reason; the characters were not well drawn. They could have been more interesting; instead all three had been ‘done wrong’ by life. And quite frankly, I didn’t care about them. The love story of Jules didn’t develop until the last few pages and was more like: ‘Oh! I forgot to finish up Jules and Nick’s story.’ But, I misspoke, it wasn’t finished up but left the reader dangling mid-relationship with those two. Probably in the author’s hope that readers would be enticed to read a sequel. Both of these are going to be a series, which I cannot recommend.
1 out of 5 stars

This is beginning to sound more like a book review but hang in there….I will get to my point about writing.

So I gave up on those two and cracked another new one; The Stationmaster’s Daughter. I was instantly engaged and worried about Tilly and her dad, Ken, Ted and Annie. Of course, the setting didn’t hurt; a discarded railway station out in the wilds of Dorset. (UK) Through no fault of her own, Tilly’s been kicked pretty hard by life. We find that out (artfully written) pretty soon after page one but with no feeling of being rushed. Then there are flashbacks to 1935 when the trains were running in rural counties.

So no surprise, the difference is simple. It’s all about the writing. That something that a writer has in their storytelling that weaves a charming, enticing, well-drawn and interesting tale. This one’s about trains; I don’t care about trains except if they are on time and relatively clean. But the writer based the back story on trains in their heyday; the steam locomotion. And it was just enough that a reader like me didn’t grow weary with the history of trains. It was well balanced with beautifully drawn characters. And the dialogue was excellent; I could hear their voices.
It’s all in the writing. Full stop!
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! May: Jenny Colgan, June: Don Bentley writing for Tom Clancy, August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Matthews
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Interview with author, Susanne O’Leary (conclusion)

Pebbles is a rescue dog, golden retriever/collie mix

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?

SO. Often. I can sit at an airport with my laptop and write, lost in the story—aka ‘the zone.’ Very irritating for anyone who tries to talk to me.

Q. Are you working on something now or have a new release coming up? If so tell us about it.

SO. I am currently working on part 10 in the Sandy Cove series, or maybe I should call it part 4 in the Starlight Cottages series, which is a series within a series,

set in a coastguard station just outside the fictional village of Sandy Cove. The Lost Promise of Ireland, book 9 (Starlight Cottage #3) will be published in mid-December this year.

Q. When did you begin to write seriously?

SO. When I started writing fiction.

Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper books?

SO. No. I think we’ll always have both. A lot of readers love to hold a ‘real’ book in their hand.

Q. What makes a writer great?

SO. A great writer is someone who can pull the reader into the story from the very first page and hold his/her attention right through to the end.

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

SO. It’s quite a long, complicated process. First, I write the first draft from start to finish, then I go over it and chop and change quite a bit before I send it to my editor. After that there are four different rounds of edits: structural, line edit, copy edit and proofreading. The final stage is checking through the different formats, Kindle, e-book and PDF (for paperback). In all, three different editors work on the book. All this can take up to two months before publication.

Q. How has your life experiences influenced your writing?

SO. Mostly in the settings (I have lived in quite a few different countries and travelled a lot) and things that have happened to me through my life that have touched my heart and my emotions. Love, tragedies, illness and so on.

Q. What’s your down time look like?

SO. If you mean what I do to relax, it’s mostly about the outdoors. I love hiking in the beautiful mountains of Ireland, or walking on the beaches. I also like yoga or any other kind of workout.

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

SO. I have co-written four detective stories and also written two historical novels based on the lives of my great-aunt and her daughter who had fascinating lives.

Q. Note to Self: (a life lesson you’ve learned.)

SO. Count your blessings. And carpe diem.

Did you miss Part 1 of this fascinating Interview?

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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! May: Jenny Colgan, June: Don Bentley writing for Tom Clancy, August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary, December: Mimi Mathews
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Author Interview with Susanne O’Leary

Swedish by birth and Irish by marriage, Susanne O’Leary is the author of 35 novels, mainly in the romantic fiction genre. She has also written four crime novels and two in the historical fiction genre. She’s been the wife of a diplomat (still married to the same man, now retired), a fitness teacher and a translator. Susanne now writes full-time from either of two locations, a big old house in County Tipperary, Ireland or a little cottage overlooking the Atlantic in Dingle, County Kerry. When she is not scaling the mountains of said counties (including MacGillycuddy’s Reeks), or keeping fit in the local gym, she keeps writing, producing a book every six months or so.

SO. I usually write in my little office in our house in County Tipperary, with views of the green hills and mountains. When I’m in Kerry, I write sitting in an IKEA chair by the fire, looking at the ocean when I take a break.

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

SO. I always write in my pajamas and sheepskin slippers, tea in my favourite blue mug with a slice of toast with marmalade that I

nibble on while I read through what I wrote yesterday. Then I write new material for an hour or two, and then I do some yoga (still in my pyjamas) before I get dressed.

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

SO. My real first name is Karin. Susanne is my middle name.

Q. What tools do you begin with? Legal pad, spiral notebook, pencils, fountain pen, or do you go right to your keyboard?

SO. Always on the keyboard on my good old Lenovo laptop.

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

SO. Early in the morning is my best and brightest time to write!

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

SO. Make a particular time each day your writing hour. If you stick to that, it’ll be easier to get going.

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

SO. That’s an interesting question. My books always start with a

situation, then I put the characters into that, and then they become stronger and stronger right through the first draft. Then I go back to the beginning and flesh them out, because now I really know them.

Q. What first inspired you to write?

SO. I started my writing career by writing non-fiction and wrote two books about health and fitness (I am a trained fitness teacher). While writing these books, I discovered how much I loved the actual writing process. My then editor gave me the idea to write a fun novel based on my experiences as a diplomat’s wife. This became my debut novel, ‘Diplomatic Incidents’ (now also an e-book with the title Duty Free‘).

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

SO. Usually the situation.

Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?

Part two of this wonderful Interview will be posted Nov. 6th
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! May: Jenny Colgan, June: Don Bentley writing for Tom Clancy, August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary.
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A New Author, A Fine Book, A Season for Second Chances

5 out of 5 quills Book Review

A few weeks ago Jenny Bayliss’ publisher requested a book review from me. I tend to shy away from unknown (to me) authors out of fear of having to write a bad review since my mission is to support and uplift all other writers. But the synopsis intrigued me so I accepted the invitation. And…

…might have missed enjoying a really good book. The writing is superb, the story line rich with detail, the characters charming and engaging. The little surprises of humor had me chuckling and spurting an outright laugh (once in awhile) at the clever writing. The humor is honest and handled with a light hand.

The story speaks to most women who have faced at least a couple of forks in the road of life. I could really relate to Annie’s long marriage fizzling out. The abrupt loss of husband and children. What do we do with ourselves? Is this our ‘chance’ to live a life we’ve only dreamed of? Try some things that we were discouraged to try in our previous (and safe) life?

I love it when a place becomes a character in the book. And Saltwater Nook certainly did that!

Half way through the book I hurried to order Bayliss’ debut novel, The Twelve Dates of Christmas. Which, by the way, has received rave reviews. This is a very talented writer and I hope she continues to crank out the wonderful stories.

Available for sale October 19th.
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My weekly BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! May: Jenny Colgan, June: Don Bentley writing for Tom Clancy, August: Veronica Henry, October: Life Coach, shaman, author, Jennifer Monahan, November: Susanne O’Leary.
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BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK

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