After Dark is the latest release in the With Love series. The With Love series is a charity series of books created to support Doctors without Borders. This series now consists of 3 books, the first produced in March, only 2 weeks after the events that inspired it. The With Love Project was created because of a need to help inside all of those who donated to create it. The need to help was strong within all of the contributors and this was seen in the desire to continue the project beyond the first book. Taking the desire of themselves and others, the publisher and the organizer, collaborated again. This time they discussed lessons learned from the first book and established guidelines to make the creation and crediting process move smoother. Together, Ethics Trading and The Writing Network have pushed forward with two additional anthologies and plan to continue the project indefinitely. The anthologies continue to support Doctors without Borders and the people who are touched by their services. Below is a sample from returning contributor, Stuart Nager’s - Trolling for Love – from the anthology, After Dark Dave de Troll polished his bilious green skin to a glossy dull shine and fixed his limp hair. Humming a tuneless Troll tune (something about damp, musty, murky undersides of bridges, as most good Troll songs went), Dave thought he looked better than dreadful, which made him happy…or happier, as he felt lighter than a wrecking ball. Lianne le Troll had said "YES!" when he asked her out for a date. "TONIGHT! I AM GOING OUT WITH LIANNE TONIGHT!" ***** ***** ***** Lianne le Troll had followed the newscasts and read the headlines: "Troll Munches Lady Who Lunches!" It was Dave, posing by his Troll Booth. This lady, Doris Fletcher of Westport CT, did the unthinkable. Not only did she make Dave wait while she searched for the toll fee and flip him off (according to Dave, said the paper and the newscaster) she tried to drive off without saying "Thank you." You don’t do that to a Troll, especially one who was getting mildly perturbed as it was. Dave ripped the Suburban door off, told her in a quite normal Troll voice (which sounds like shouting to humans) that she had not said "THANK YOU!", and he bit her head off. Literally. He chewed 29 times, for best digestion, as his mother had told him to. Then he threw the Chevy into the levy (well, Hudson River, but levy sounds better). Ms. le Troll had followed the proceedings with great interest. "Don’t Munch a Motorist" became the mantra of the masses-and a headline from The Daily Examiner-but in the end…what were they going to do to a Troll? They had moved in, so to speak, and that was that. The Bridge and Troll Authority (BTA, formally ‘…and Toll’…) had repeatedly warned drivers about saying "Thank You!" all over the place. The newscasts and publicity weren’t the only things that interested Lianne. Dave did, Trollself. He was a fine specimen of a Troll, tall, strong, green, and he sent shivers through her when he spoke. It had been a very long time since she felt any stirrings other than guarding her bridge. She was interested in what happened, and the proceedings and trials and tribulations he was going through affected her and her kind as well. Things had changed the day that the greater metropolitan area New York toll booth collectors went on strike. The first things to clog up were the bridges. Horns blaring, voices shouting, accidents left and right; the noise level was intense. Too intense for those that dwelled under those same bridges. En masse, the Trolls rose up from their lodgings, saw what was going on and their chant "NOT ON MY BRIDGE!" quieted down even the most obnoxious SUV driver. It was, overall, a peaceful exchange. The Trolls moved into the booths and set up SECOND HOME. Everything they did was in BIG CAPITALS, but was not shouting, from what they told the BTA. The BTA were ecstatic with this new arrangement. The Troll Collectors did not have to go for pee breaks; didn’t smoke, so no smoke breaks; never called in sick-they lived there-they were not union, so all the rigmarole of union dogma went out the window, or over the railing, as the case may be. They always were on time, and there was always another Troll waiting to take over when the main Troll went on a break (they kept that rule) or went back down to the underside to sleep. Some union reps learned the hard way. You don’t get in a Troll’s face. Well, they couldn’t literally do that, since the smallest Troll still towered over the tallest union rep. Mike Molotov, Bonnie Taylor and "Big" Joe Delanco, major honchos all, were tossed over the side of Dave de Troll’s Bridge (once the Tri-Borough, then the RFK, now the DTB, so named by the press) after trying to "strongly convince" the Trolls that they were in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing. Bonnie survived, barely, as she had once been almost accepted onto the Olympic diving team (the "almost" a scandal that was hushed up by Daddy). Once over the rail, she immediately went into a closed pike position, judged her diving flight with impeccable precision, did three perfect somersaults, an uber-perfect kick-out into two twists, and her rip entry into the water was a thing to make you cry. This had all been caught on tape. An elderly ex-Olympic swimming judge, Ben Forthwright, supposedly died while watching the replay, uttering "A perfect Ten!", then clutched his chest and passed away with a huge smile on his face. Mike and "Big" Joe were not as lucky, or in good shape at all. They went splatter-splash. Neither had any training in diving, and it showed in their poor form. They did get points from one bar on 32nd Street for Synchronized Falling, but the points didn’t really count. They both had a smack down that did not leave much room for interpretation, or modifying of scores. After that, the union reps were much more cordial to the Trolls, and they all learned to say "Thank You." Concessions were made, none in their favor, and the Toll Collectors Union was forced to play a different tune. The Trolls agreed to pay more dues than the human workers, and in the end, the union went for the cash. ~&~
To date the ongoing project has donated 50 vaccinations for common illnesses that can be prevented, to those who need it. Help us continue our efforts and grow the support for those in need around the world. You can find After Dark on Amazon, Smashwords and most other ebook retailers worldwide. Amazon – After Dark, With Love Smashwords – After Dark, With Love To find the first book in the anthology series, visit Ethics Trading’s page: With Love, by Indie Writers United
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STOP PRESS! What is it with this female? Not being content enough after having a hectic and exciting time solving, The Assassin's Village murder and mystery in Cyprus, she decided to take a holiday in lush tropical Malaysia with her husband, Steve. (He's her long-suffering, patient soul-mate and lover.) The pair checked into their country plantation hotel, luxurious and peaceful, the perfect place to relax and unwind you might think. All is going well until she is asked to take a look at some private memoirs in the possession of the hotel owner, the mysterious Miss Chalcot… ...At first Diana hesitates. After all she is on holiday and both she and Steve deserve a rest…but not for long. Miss Chalcot whets Diana’s appetite for mystery when she hints at past events; skirmishes with insurgent terrorists, illicit love and were certain deaths, murder or misadventure? Diana meets, Children of The Plantation; a spooky child, a family saga set in 1950's and 1960's Malaysia leading to the present, mystery, unrequited love, unexplained deaths, and illicit sex - what more can our heroine ask for? Children Of The Plantation Prologue Opening the kitchen door, she spotted a vixen standing near the refuse bin. Hermione clapped her hands, and it shot through the hedge at the bottom of the garden. Hermione's heart was thudding in her breast as she considered what next to do. Casting a look around, she gave thanks that the clouds scudding overhead made it a dark night. This had to be done in complete privacy. Giving herself a mental shake, she crossed the damp grass to the shed and picked up a spade. A clod of earth still clung to the sharp blade from where she had been digging in her vegetable patch earlier that afternoon. It seemed such a long time ago now. She paused, still not completely certain she was doing the right thing. Making up her mind, she walked over to the newly turned earth. The air smelt fresh after the rain shower, and a light breeze blew the mixed garden scents her way while she dug. The hole was to be small but deep, especially as she had just driven the fox off. Satisfied, she stood back and peered down into the soft loamy material, a sorry place for such a pathetic bundle. 0011Sick at heart, but knowing they had no choice, Hermione laid down her spade and walked back into the kitchen. She picked up the tightly wrapped package and carried it outside; it weighed no more than a couple of pounds as she gently laid it down into the hole. Covering it with fresh earth, she scattered pebbles around and knelt on the grass. Had there been any other choice? Whatever were they going to tell him when the time came? About the Book: Children of The Plantation will be first published as an eBook and later as a paperback by Topsails Charter. As a special lead-in price (eBook) and a Thank You to my friends and followers it will be offered to you first for $0.99c for the first month. All I ask is (when you've bought your copy) if you have the time to please write me a fair review. Thanks! About the Author: Faith Mortimer was born in England. Her father was in the Royal Air Force and from the tender age of five, Faith learned the meaning of travel and living in different parts of our beautiful world. Faith now spends her time between England and Cyprus where she lives with her husband. She’s filled her life with different careers, Registered nurse, entrepreneur and writer. She loves the outdoors, acting and writing. She has written two other bestselling novels and a short story collection. Visit Faith Mortimer’s website for more information. I am happy to present this extremely interesting artifact from the archives of the National Unbelievable Foundation of Filmmaking (NUFF) that was recently uncovered stuck behind a towel dispenser when workmen were redoing the rest rooms at the South Park McDonalds — one of the original McDonalds from the 1950s. An expert at NUFF said that, originally hand-printed on composition notebook paper and written in the form of a TV script, this piece is a classic example of a 1950s Catholic school punishment assignment. There you have it! Enjoy! INT. ST. CATHERINE’S SCHOOL - SISTER CARMELLA’S CLASSROOM – LATE AFTERNOON Several students from Sister Jeanne Lorette’s sixth grade class are in the front of a classroom of eighth graders, preparing for their weekly TV show. A semicircle of five wooden chairs has been positioned opposite one other chair. Two students are setting up the "camera" which is a large cardboard box on a stand with a funnel sticking out one end. One student has a makeshift clapboard and is pacing about, practicing saying "action." Another, obviously the director with a clipboard, is telling the others what to do while trying to arrange the chairs perfectly. The announcer is practicing her lines. The eighth graders are politely waiting for the show to begin, having given up their last period Latin class to allow the sixth graders to put on their show. Sister Carmella and Sister Jeanne Lorette are standing quietly in the back of the room. SISTER JEANNE LORETTE Let’s begin. CLAPPER Action! ANNOUNCER Welcome to the Kids of St. Catherine’s Show, the only weekly TV show produced, directed, and hosted by the sixth grade of St. Catherine’s School. A snicker from the back of the classroom draws a clearing of the throat by Sister Carmella, followed by silence. ANNOUNCER Our host today is the sixth grade, straight-A student Frankie Marx. Ladies and gentlemen, Frankie Marx! Frankie Marx enters, dressed in sports jacket, tie, and black penny loafers with a shiny new dime in each. The two nuns begin to clap and the eighth graders join in halfhearted applause. FRANKIE Thank you, thank you, and welcome to the show. We appreciate your taking the time out of your otherwise boring and pointless day to listen to someone obviously your intellectual superior. There is an awkward, dead silence, and then a single cough from the back. Sister Jeanne Lorette is shaking her head. Frankie clears his throat and adjusts his tie. FRANKIE As I was saying, today’s guests are the Ryans, not by my choice, but they are here nonetheless. They live on Caswell Drive and all five of them are students here. How exciting is that? Without further ado, please welcome Mary, Kate, Sam, Harry, and Tom Ryan. The director holds up an applause sign and the students begin to clap. The classroom door opens and the Ryans enter, led by Tom. The director points them to their seats. Frankie sits down across from them. FRANKIE Please introduce yourselves to the studio audience. Each stands up in turn and says their full name. Tom is the last to speak. He faces the eighth graders. TOM I’m Tom Ryan. I was the one they blamed when someone closed all the windows and let a few thousand caterpillars loose in your room last week. They made me clean them up, including all the guts you guys squished on the floor, but I didn’t do it and they could never prove it. Thanks a lot. VOICE FROM THE BACK Nice going, Ryan! SISTER CARMELLA Thank you for volunteering to clean all the desks after class today, Mr. Kelly. Laughter rolls across the room. Tom sits down. Frankie gestures outlandishly to the Ryans and speaks. FRANKIE Tell us, what brings you on the show today? TOM They made us, Frankie. Remember? It’s part of my punishment. HARRY Can I wave to Mom and Dad, Tommy? KATE It’s just a pretend TV you little goof. HARRY Then why are we here, Katie?" SAM (whispering) The book, Harry, the book. FRANKIE Yes, the book. Specifically, this book, the one you call the "Book of Tom." The director hands Frankie a composition notebook: TOM Hey, give me that. That’s mine. He grabs it from Frankie. FRANKIE Yes, it’s part of your punishment from Sister Jeanne Lorette, isn’t it? TOM You better not have read any of it, Frankie. You see what it says there, right? I’ll pound you. I mean it. FRANKIE Yes, I read your idle threats. Why would I bother to read your ridiculous homework? SAM You take that back, Frankie. Tom’s journal isn’t punishment and it isn’t ridiculous. It’s a story about us. FRANKIE Oh yes, the infamous Caswell Gang, with your silly hats, and your secret handshakes, and… SISTER JEANNE LORETTE Frankie… Tom… back to the script, please. FRANKIE AND TOM IN UNISON Yes, Sister. FRANKIE So, tell us about the story, Tom. What’s so special about it? TOM That’s for me to know and for you to find out. MARY Tell him about the Pink Lady, Tom. TOM Ixnay on the ady-Lay, Mary. HARRY But I like your story, Tommy. TOM Fine. You tell it. Frankie turns to the studio audience and stands up. FRANKIE Ladies and Gentlemen. I now present Harry Ryan telling us the story of A King in a Court of Fools. Harry stands up. Applause. Fade to the story of A King in a Court of Fools. I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of humor about the newly published work, A King in a Court of Fools, by Larry Enright. About the book: A King in a Court of Fools, originally published as a serial novel, is Larry Enright’s second published work. It is humorous, nostalgic fiction about kids growing up in the 1950s and has been already enjoyed by ages ten through ninety-one. It is available in both eBook and paperback from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Click for details to purchase or sample A King in a Court of Fools. About the author: Larry Enright was born to Irish Catholic first-generation immigrants and raised in Pittsburgh. After college, he moved to the Philadelphia area where for the past 40 years he has filled his life with many careers including musician, teacher, programmer, researcher, and writer. He has written three other novels, including the best-selling Four Years from Home. Visit Larry Enright's site. Who is Matt Posner? Where do your ideas come from? I am a fantasist strongly rooted in multiculturalism -- an American magician with a global perspective. I believe in drawing upon what has happened in the world, past and present, history and culture and religion and commerce, as a backdrop for the people my stories are about. Talk about how you plot your novel. My novels emerge from characters. I am writing about a school, so I have an ensemble of people to include, and although I have a strong protagonist who carries two to three story arcs per novel, my supporting cast all get storylines also. I want to make sure that readers who like a character will get to see that character involved in something interesting. It's like a TV series where different members of the cast are featured in different episodes. Plotting a novel begins with my main character's storyline, and then the other people get stories also, and they all intersect, usually with multiple events occurring in the most dramatic chapters. I guess this technique came to me from role-playing, in which each player in my group had a character and needed something to do, so each session had numerous plots going on. What is the setting of your book? The setting of my books is School of the Ages, a magic school on a hidden island in New York Harbor. It was built in the 1840's and merged with a Jewish school, American Academy of Cabala, in the 1960's. So there are both secular and Jewish students there and the interactions are interesting. with both friendships and rivalries. I use New York City in general for more events, with Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens making many appearances. Europe will be essential in book 3, and India in book 4. My new catch-phrase is "School of the Ages -- Growing Up Magical!" The name School of the Ages came about by a somewhat confusing path. I became enamored of the Raphael painting with the philosophers standing in a giant classical portico, which is actually a fresco on a wall in the Vatican, but which I have only seen in a copy in oil at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. I wanted to name my school after that painting, and I got it into my mind that it was called School of the Ages. After writing a lot in the series, I became aware that the Raphael painting is called School of Athens. So where did the term School of the Ages come from? I recently solved the mystery when a Google alert for School of the Ages showed me the relevant reference. That painting appears on the cover of the Harold Bloom book The Western Canon which is subtitled The Books and School of the Ages. Tell us about the main character. My main character is Leicester Moore, a real melting-pot kid who is the product of an Italian/Jewish mother and an English/Asian Indian father. So with four ethnicities, he really reflects the American experience. (It also reflects my own experience, since I have a Jewish father and a Christian mother and an Indian wife. When my students ask me, as they often do, "What are you?" I have to answer "American," and sometimes even say, "I'm a mutt.") Leicester has taken the name he generally uses, which is Simon Magus, after the Biblical villain. He's a serious and somewhat gloomy young man whose main attributes are loyalty to friends, willingness to risk himself for a good cause, a certain mystical detachment from the world, and a fair amount of emo moodiness. He has the magical power of sorcery, although it isn't so well developed in The Ghost in the Crystal as it is later in the series, and this power means that he feels intuitively what sort of events are coming, and as a result, he is nearly fearless. Simon has some very odd gaps in his personality also: very little sense of humor, not much creative impulse, no interest in music or art. Not to worry, though: other kids in the school have that stuff covered. What specific authors inspire you? I am inspired by many authors, having taken ideas, moods, attitudes from a lot of writers. I'll start with Lewis Carroll. The second book of my series, Level Three's Dream, which is scheduled for release by the end of August, is driven by Alice in Wonderland, and features about a hundred pages of my teen magicians matching wits with Wonderland and Looking-Glass characters, and not necessarily being as polite with them as Alice was. Alice herself is there, also. If I had a "precursor poet," to use Harold Bloom's term from "The Anxiety of Influence" - if I had someone I viewed as a progenitor and wanted to top - it would be J.R.R. Tolkien. I also nod to Jane Austen in the way I think about character relationships and write romance, to Shakespeare in some of my feelings about characterization, plotting, tragedy, and syntax. In the fantastic materials, I should acknowledge Neil Gaiman, George Lucas, Gary Gygax, and most of all, Colin Wilson. My plotting and pacing owe a lot to Marvel Comics of the 1970's. Then, while R.R.'s are on the table, there's George R.R. Martin, a favorite of mine since childhood, although I haven't gotten properly immersed in his current work. Do you plan a book in details before you write? I plan a book as a rough outline before writing. I list elements I've chosen in time order. Then I make a chart of the characters who need story arcs or subplots and begin working those out. More always arise during drafting nevertheless. I then move to a chapter outline. Usually I write parts of a novel before the chapter outline is done, while still mainly engaged with the previous book in a series. During drafting, new ideas emerge, and I am also helped by using music to trigger visualization of storyline events. Where and when do you write? I write mostly in marble notebooks, which I then type up. Some material is drafted on computer, but not much. The notebooks, usually 2-3 at a time, and about 7-8 per novel, are shifted from one writing space to another. Writing spaces include the E train; the classroom; the teacher's lounge; the park; the bathtub; in the car between jobs; poolside; and sitting on the toilet. This type of writing is a necessity of my busy lifestyle. The poem William Carlos Williams, who was a doctor making house calls, used to write in the car between stops, so I feel connected to him when I do it. I write in notebooks during the little slivers of time I have between work-related tasks and family/marital responsibilities. I have not had a steady daily writing schedule since college, because writing is not how I make money; teaching is. I sure do envy you, Tim, for being retired and able to write as much as you want! Describe how you've developed as a writer? I had a childhood talent for character and story. My early play was highly narrative and cinematic. I began to write daily while in elementary school, and my college was consistently focused on developing as a fiction writer. My strength has always been technique; despite my being at an early stage in building awareness of myself as a brand, I am actually as good in this area as some of the best established pros, and better than a lot of people who make more money writing than I currently do. People have difficult paths in life, which is why I'm not a literary superstar, but I have the chops. Read my stuff and see. If you listen to music when you write, what type of music? Since childhood, I have always used music for visualization. I listen to music and imagine both written and unwritten scenes. I use music to create the proper mood, and I will become fixated on specific music and replay it constantly till a piece of writing is complete. Not only do I listen while writing, but I use music while commuting so I can think about my writing when I'm not able to put words on paper. On my iPod I have a constantly shifting playlist called "Music for Visualization" which I use to keep my mind on my creative work and get ideas. I also mentally construct partial soundtracks for movie versions of my novels this way. The actual musical selections are very eclectic. There is a focus on what might be called "world music," in other words music that is wholly or partially different from the American mainstream. One genre that often attracts me is "Asian fusion" music; another is Arabic music, including bellydance music. That said, I do have a lot of classical, and a broad mix of pop from many categories and generations. Here are some examples: The track above is called "Further East" and it's a New Age Asian fusion track by James Asher which I am currently using. The track below I listened to for a long time, although I only recently got a translation of the lyrics to learn what it was about. It's a Turkish pop song called Altay - Kocari. Finally, you can't lose with the Gipsy Kings. So are you here to promote anything? I would like to get readers for my School of the Ages series. You can also get it for Nook and other e-book readers and in paperback from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Come to my website, leave a comment on my page at the Independent Author Network, click like on my Facebook Fan Page and follow me on Twitter. So who am I? DJ Bennett. The author of Hamelin’s Child, that dark and deep psychological thriller everyone’s talking about-- —Who? What? Well, I can dream, can’t I? And yes, I am the same person as Debbie Bennett, who is well-known in the fantasy genre for running the British Fantasy Society, editing many small press publications and organising fantasy conventions. I was even once spotted banqueting at the same table as Neil Gaiman! —Oy!. Stop name-dropping … Sorry. Can I mention I once asked Stephen King to dance? Or that I had tea with Alan Garner? —No. Get on with it. Why have two different names anyway? Sounds pretentious to me. Why indeed? My reading and writing roots are firmly established in fantasy and although I have been known to veer to the darker side, it’s mostly always been relatively tame stuff that you wouldn’t mind your mum reading. But my thriller is very different – dark and explicit – and I wanted just a subtle change in author name, to reflect that there are two sides to my writing. It may turn out to be a huge mistake but I figured that the two markets are completely separate so I had nothing to lose. —So have you been writing long? Been published before? Only you sound like a bit of a know-it-all. I’ve been writing all my life. When the kids in primary school were handing in 2-page stories, mine was 10 pages. Then at secondary school, when my best-friend at my posh private school decided she’d rather be best-friends with someone else, and my local friends who went to the grammar school forgot to invite me out with them, I found myself with lots of spare time, so I started writing properly. I wrote what I wanted to read – we’re in the late 1970s here and there was no concept of YA fiction beyond Nancy Drew and Malcolm Saville and the like – so the story Cleveland & Co was born. I still have it, handwritten in a fancy notebook and it’s self-absorbed, self-indulgent rubbish, but at least I finished it at age 14. After that I wrote a sequel and then a post-apocalyptic sf/fantasy (I was reading John Wyndham and Robert Heinlein by then). None of them will ever see the light of day, but I do read them occasionally to see how far I’ve come. My first published story was a sale to the UK’s Bella magazine when they still published twist-in-the-tale fiction. I was paid £300 (and this was back in the mid 1990s *and* I got a nice murder-mystery weekend thrown in too as it placed in a competition). It is, I am not proud to say, the only short story I have ever been paid for – although I have received royalties for stories in anthologies, so I guess that sort of counts. Some of my best stories are available in my kindle collection. —Yep. Definitely a know-it-all. I thought as much. (Sigh). So what's the actual writing, then? I’m a character writer. For me, plot comes out of characters being themselves. My novels are all 3rd person past tense, fairly standard stuff, although I usually have 2 viewpoint characters and sometimes more than 2. But somehow when I write short stories, I tend to slip into 1st person present tense more often than not. I’m not quite sure why I do that. It just seems the more natural form for me. Most of my characters are as real to me as any of my friends and they talk to me at the most inconvenient times. Oh and I don’t plot. I wish I did – it would be so much easier. But I don’t generally know what is going to happen to my characters before they do, which means that their reactions are fresh and genuine. I’ve written myself into more corners than a Mueller yoghurt (if you’re not from the UK, you’re so not going to get that reference, or do you have Mueller yoghurt where you live too). —Moving on from yoghurt … So – fantasy or thrillers/crime? Is there really a difference? In essence my fantasy stuff is about good versus evil, and so is crime; it’s just played out on a different stage. I have a YA fantasy novel I’m hoping to publish on kindle soon that has the tag line What do you do when you realise that the bad guys care more about you than the good ones? And that sums up a lot of my writing, exploring the similarities between good and evil. Even my currently-published adult thriller Hamelin’s Child – where the bad guys are very definitely bad – looks at how what starts off as a horrendous situation can change according to your perspective. Nothing is ever as black and white as it seems in my fiction. When I first uploaded my short story collection Maniac to kindle, I used a work colleague to design my cover for me. He did a fabulous job – there are elements of all my stories in there and the overall effect is perfect. Pete did Hamelin’s
Child for me too – it was originally black and white, moody and effective. But when crime writer, agent and editor Al Guthrie told me quite bluntly that it wasn’t working as a thumbnail, I knew he was right! But he put me in touch with US designer JT Lindroos, and the three of us worked together on the new version which I’m really happy with. I’m about to upload a crime short story to kindle, so I’m off to Liverpool to take some photographs of the Liver Birds, so I can blow them up later in my story (the Liver Birds, not the photos). —Yeah, yeah. Can we wrap this up now? The pub’s open. Anything more to add? Check out my books at either my website or at kindleauthors. You know you want to… Debbie I love that we, authors, share our work and knowledge with each other and with our readers. Let me tell you about my book Daughters of Iraq, which was published in Hebrew four years ago, recently,translated to English, and published in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and several other countries. It is available in soft cover and in eBook form. I was born and raised in Israel, but both my parents immigrated to Israel from Iraq. This month is my twenty year wedding anniversary to Amnon, my husband and we have four boys ages 18, 15, 12 and 8. We also have a very sweet dog called Sheleg (the word "Sheleg" in Hebrew means snow). We share our lives between the Washington state and Israel. Daughters of Iraq is a novel, telling a fictional history story, rooted in my personal family history.The book is close to the Memoir genre. I started writing the book with a great passion to tell the story of my family, especially the story of the women in my family. My family lived in Iraq, which was Babylon, for many generations, and when Israel was established in 1948 most of the Jewish population immigrated to Israel. My family was among 150 thousand Jews who left Iraq. I wanted to tell their story because I felt that this part of world history, and especially Jewish women history, is not widely told or known. My book tells the story of three sisters, and shifts in time and place between Israel and Iraq. Three timelines are intertwined. 1941, when there was a pogrom in Bagdad on one weekend, and up to 1950 when most of our family left Iraq. From 1951 when my oldest uncle and my grandmother managed to escape, at the very last moment before my uncle, who was wanted by Iraqi authorities, for being active in the Jewish underground was captured until around 1983.With the last period occurring in the nineties. When I write I never plan ahead. I just sit at my computer and write, and I feel that my characters are pulling my story out of me, like they have their own wishes. I remember that when I was close to finishing writing my book how sad I felt that I had to say goodbye to them. I felt like they were real people in my life, and now I had to let them go. People that read my book told me how human they felt they were. Readers laughed and cried, and felt like they can really connect to the character’s life and feelings. I love connecting with people, I love to hear people’s life story, and that gives me great pleasure lecturing about my book, everywhere. I go everywhere they invite me to lecture and tell the story of the book, because I think it is important to learn about different cultures, I love doing that myself. I think that when we learn about other cultures it helps us better understand people. I am a people person, I love talking to people, and think that each one of us has a fascinating life story I would like to learn about. I am currently working on a second novel, which I write in Hebrew, and am hoping to publish it in the spring. Please visit me at my Website. Thriller writer Seb Kirby wants his stories to thrill, entertain and inform. Sounds ambitious, I know. I want to give readers an intriguing story, of course. But I want to to leave behind themes that people will relate to after they've finished the book. I don't write like Stephen King, but I work on a story the same way that he does. It's a high risk game. A high wire act. You write with no pre-prepared plan, no pre-planned plot lines, you let it happen. You do this by identifying your main character or characters and placing them in an unfamiliar situation. Then you make that situation worse. And then you make it worse again. Then, as you write, it's the characters that tell you where the plot needs to go. As Stephen King says, "If you don't surprise yourself in what you write, how are you going to surprise your readers?" And surprise yourself is exactly what you do. That plot line works out to be tighter than if you'd tried to pre-plan it because the logic of what the characters need to do demands that. So, how to identify the characters to start with? In Take No More I wanted to place an ordinary person – James Blake – in an impossible situation. I admire thriller writers like Harlan Coben who have done this and, from an earlier generation, Eric Ambler. So Blake is not a supersleuth like James Bond nor an expert police detective or forensic scientist as in CSI, he's an ordinary guy. He has few resources to call on. How bad does it get for him? Well, he comes home to find his wife, Julia, dying from gunshot wounds. And how does it get worse? As he tries to make sense of what has happened, the police don't believe what he says has happened to him and try to pin the crime on him. Oh,and for some reason he knows nothing about, someone is trying to kill him. That bad. Extract from Take No More On the main concourse, a monolithic, artless statue of two embracing World War II lovers stood in sharp contrast to the smaller, more human statue of John Betjeman - trenchcoat blowing in the wind, suitcase in hand - that graced platform 4C. The recently rebuilt overarching roof gave the whole station a feeling of grandeur, but I could not remain interested in such things for long. My mind was set on the short trip downstairs, the walk past the new designer store outlets and whatever awaited me as I attempted to book in for the cross-channel train to Paris. I also wanted to write about Julia. So, I do this in two flashback sections. I wanted her to be a strong, motivated character, but, of course, as a male writer, I had to work quite hard at imagining myself inside her skin. Perhaps it's a measure of my male-ness that I write the James sections from a first person point-of-view and the Julia sections from a third person point-of-view. Maybe I was insecure in my woman's skin. But I also chose to do the flashback sections in a more film-like way, as a series of short visual bursts told from the point-of-view of characters other than Julia and the third person point-of-view works best for them all.
As to locations, I have been lucky enough to travel and stay in some wonderful places around the world. When you do that you build up a list of the places that you go back to whenever you can. For me, three of those places are the South Bank in London, Florence, and Venice in Italy. Those are the three locations for Take No More. Not that I favour a great deal of description of character, appearance, or places. I'm aiming to be minimalist in these respects. After all, what I'm aiming for in writing a thriller is action and event and a satisfying pager-turner. But I'm hoping that the intimate knowledge of the places where the action takes place comes through. I've been taking my trusty Lumix camera with me on my visits and I'm in the process of producing a Novel on my website and linking some of the locations to the text from the book. It's still a work-in-progress, and I haven't quite got all the photos I want from Florence. Darn it, I'll have to use my hard earned holiday time this year to go back there for a few more days….' Like most people, I am many things to many people. I am a wife to one, a mother to two, and the friendly gal at the VOIP Help Desk who resolves phone issues to many. However, I like to think of myself as an indie author. My writing career started in the back of an elementary school bus where I made up stories to entertain my friends on the long ride home. In middle school, I wrote teenage romances for my friends, and in high school, I wrote my first book for the heck of it amid lots of bad teenage poetry. From middle school through college I exchanged letters with a penpal a couple of times a month and during college, I wrote in real time chat forums on GEnie. As an adult, I write technical procedures and copious amounts of email. Now I've written a second book, my first published book, Tenderfoot, for an audience of complete strangers on the Internet! Obviously, writing has been a constant in my life. As the audience changes, so does my skillset. Playing the persona of a character in a chat room was a daily experiment in how quick-witted I could be in real-time. Putting together a technical procedure requires being precise and writing simply. Writing letters to my loyal penpal was an ongoing opportunity to express my feelings about what occurred in my life. All of this was great training when it came time to write Tenderfoot. Writing for me is like assembling a puzzle. Working together the characters, settings, and events is like picking up the pieces and seeing how they all fit together. Sometimes a certain phrase or twist occurs while writing and then part of the puzzle comes into view and I understand instantly how the next section of the story will be told. The other metaphor I like to use is weaving. I like weaving in elements to a story that pop up later, adding emotional significance to a scene or event. Selecting first person to write Tenderfoot in seemed natural. I wanted the audience to know what it felt like to be Jules, the narrator and main character. She's different from her new friends in college and she knows it. She didn't grow up in one place like them; she has a fractured background from living abroad and losing her mother. All she wants is to be seen as normal and accepted. That's where I wondered "what if...?" and added the paranormal elements to the book. Jules is not normal, and never will be. How does she come to accept that? How does she manage this within the confines of her first major relationship? Going to college is pretty damn scary to start with so I loved adding the pressure on Jules. Yeah, she has a couple of freak outs, but ultimately she'd one tough chick. Character development is what interests me most as both a reader and a writer. Even with TV shows, the ones I like best are about the characters, especially if there is tension involved. That's why there is tension between my three main characters Jules, Andrew, and Nick. They all have their own motivations and mistakes to make. They are flawed as individuals and I love them for it. Getting to know them was a journey for me. With a couple of big issues in the book, I sat down with a piece of paper and wrote from each character's perspective about how they viewed the issue. Those exercises felt like cheating - they are fun to do yet no one gets to read them! I decided on a setting for my book that is nearby. I chose the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill because it's about fifteen minutes away and a lovely place to visit. As the oldest public university in America, it has a history of its own that weaves well into a story. The cover of Tenderfoot was taken in Battle Park, adjacent to UNC-CH. I believe it captures the feeling of my book well. I added in South Mountains State Park west of Charlotte, North Carolina, to get the characters out of the microcosm that is a college campus and into nature. I like to use the photos I took at these locations in my blog posts. For me, being able to bring readers with me to these beautiful places is a bonus. While writing Tenderfoot I developed my own way of organizing the process using character summaries and an outline of a plot. Over time, these notes grew fat. Every few chapters, I go back and type in the notes penciled in the margins. A little bag of these notes, outlines, and maps goes everywhere with me as I never know when I will get a moment to slip away into the next part of their story, Blinded. I'm excited about the developments in the next book. I know my readers have some questions about Nick, Andrew, and the mysterious bad guy who makes one short appearance in Tenderfoot yet looms over everything. I've got most of it hammered out with my mighty paranormal pen and I can't wait to offer it to my readers this Fall. Please leave a comment, or contact me on Facebook and Twitter. Hello, world! As any nerd knows, all introductions to computer programming start with the above phrase, so I think that's a good way to introduce me, since I'm someone who's done quite a lot of programming. Oh, programming was never my goal, of course. After all, who wants to be a computer programmer? But, long ago, I did discover something interesting about it. My third-grade teacher had a Commodore 64 in her classroom. During a class recess, I sat down and I wrote something like this: 10 PRINT "WHAT IS YOUR NAME: " 20 INPUT C$ 30 PRINT C$ " IS AWESOME!!! " 40 GOTO 30 Of course, I invited some kids in class to come over and try my program out. They were beyond amazed, and excitedly told my other classmates to come and see. One of the kids named Ryan watched in awe as the phrase "RYAN IS AWESOME!!!" repeated over and over. In a matter of minutes, I had gone from "that boy who reads books at recess" to something akin to god-like status. I didn't bother tempering their praise. Never mind that what I had written was about as simple as printing "Hello world." Writing something impactful, you see, is not about the complexity of language. In fact, impactful writing is just about writing something meaningful to the person experiencing it. I entertained Ryan in a way that he thought it was just for him. I've heard some people say that they write for one particular reader, real or imagined. The same is true for me, but there's often times when that particular reader is me. Another truth about writers is that writers write what they want to read. Both of these truths became even more poignant after I experienced a difficult separation. I found myself obsessing over things that went wrong. At the same time, I recognized that it was getting me nowhere. I wanted someone to smack me out of it, but I was not a fan of violence nor confrontation. I thought about therapy, but I realized I didn't really trust anyone at the moment. I tried self-help books, and they seemed to fall short of the mark, mostly because they were boring. Someone who wanted to help me needed to entertain me, because entertainment is what I value. They would need to make me laugh, because humor is like oxygen, only it bonds less with hydrogen, and outer space is not devoid of it. Then, one day, I heard a voice of a character (with a distinctive southern drawl) who said, "Just stop having problems, stupid!" Dr. Matt had arrived. As I continued to write down what this unique character said, laughter transformed pain and soon I had a finished book sitting on my computer screen. It wasn't a long book; it was more like Dr. Matt bursting into the room and shouting, "Hello, world!" Such a character does not, of course, leave the scene with just one book. Dr. Matt started to write blog posts, which were often in the form of short stories, and eventually, he recorded podcasts. Eventually, it became clear that he wanted to say a lot more about the subject that had started it all: relationships. Not one for tact, he decided to title his next book When It Comes To Relationships, You've Been An Idiot. The title made me a little uncomfortable, but that's Dr. Matt for you. Over the course of two years, he talked about relationships. Each topic was quite a journey, and by the end of each chapter, I had laughed and I had wept. That's when I knew I really had something. I didn't know whether to call it fictional non-fiction or non-fictional-esque fiction, but that's a marketing problem, not a writing problem. In fact, when it came to marketing, the way that Dr. Matt was fearless in his promotion of his finished books continued to teach me: this time about visibility. It stirred in me something I knew for some time. I didn't just want to write; I wanted to be out there with my writing. I wanted not just to entertain my friends or a few kids in a classroom, but to step out and be. After all, if Dr. Matt could do it, so could I. Just weeks ago, I started dusting off stories I'd previously written, some of them that I'd written with only the intention of one person reading them. They were stories written by "Matthew Dean Leichty". Know how to pronounce that last name? Don't worry, no one does. But that seemed easy to fix. I picked up the first story. I edited the byline to read simply "Matthew Dean". That was my name, after all. And Matthew Dean is awesome. You can follow Matthew on Twitter: @matthewdl. Dr. Matt's books, posts, and podcasts can be found at TheDrMatt.com A Fine Line: A Balance to Survive was not an easy book to write, and I am often asked by many people, who have their own stories to tell, the question, where do you start? As my book is a true account of severe abuse my answer was at the easiest place, and what comes into the mind first. Also to remember that my method suits me, and everybody eventually has their own style of writing. I also find that I have to be in the mood to write, but the hardest job a writer of a novel has is the sustainability, and at times I have to push myself, and set a target of either an hour a day or 3,000 words a day. As my book is a true account of survival against the odds, I also had to seek the advice of medical professionals. My consultant was initially against it and said it was too risky, as I suffer from post -traumatic stress disorder, which can be life threatening, I thought long and hard, but my story was seeping out to be written and I also knew that I was fortunate to have the support of a great medical team behind me. I was also very determined to give a true account of the consequences of child abuse, and the ambiguous care at a psychiatric unit which was all new to me and quite shocking at times. My book is not to everyone’s taste as it is quite distressing and disturbing in many incidents, and also includes graphical nature of scenes that are not nice. Yet the book is significant as I simply wrote it as it was. The police and medical professionals have stated I shouldn’t be here, after surviving many murder attempts, burning, rape, and being brought back to consciousness everyday under a cold shower for over twenty continuous years, I have been told that I should either have ended up on drugs, alcohol, in prison, or be dead. I am fortunate that I have ended up living very near to normal circumstances with a loving husband, two beautiful children and a decent life in the countryside rescuing billy goats from the slaughterhouse and many other animals. I also have gained many positives as I have to fight intensive flashbacks from time to time and fight to stay alive, I can appreciate little things in life that I think the average person might not appreciate and these are all bonuses. I feel privileged that the book has received many positive reviews and endorsements from the medical professionals. The British Psychology Society have praised it, the local NHS chief executive has endorsed it alongside a world leading Professor of biological psychology, and that the ebook has been number one in many categories on Amazon UK since before Christmas. The letters of thanks I receive from the public, such as solicitors dealing with child abuse cases, and reviews the book has received has changed negatives to positives and has also endorsed my love of writing. As I finish my degree in psychology I hope that my next book called ‘The Survival ‘ will be finished this year and also give beneficial insight. I would like to thank the people who have supported the book, as it has also given me some important insight to the nicer sides of people and life. A Fine Line A Balance to Survive by Lisa WB: The British Psychology Society 2010: Well done to Lisa WB who has had amazing success with her first book ‘A Fine Line. A Fine Line is based on Lisa’s own story of suffering years of child abuse. The main character, Bridget, is persuaded to check herself into a psychiatric unit, for what she thinks is a matter of weeks, which then turns into years as she unravels a sequence of appalling abuse, blocked from her memory. Lisa explained: "The book has taken a long time to write and a lot of really hard work but I felt compelled to write it to increase understanding of people who suffer from mental health problems, the treatment they receive, and what life is like in a secure psychiatric unit.’ A Fine Line has been positively reviewed and Lisa has been invited to speak at her local NHS Trusts about her experiences. Lisa hopes that books like hers can help to raise public awareness of the signals and patterns that come from suppressed abuse and that people are able to access the support they need before things get worse. To find out more about Lisa and her experiences please visit: www.afineline-lisawb.co.uk Professor Antony Sheehan, Chief Executive of the Leicestershire and Rutland NHS Trust. March 2010: A Fine Line is a very significant text for all those trying to understand what it is really like to use the mental health system, indeed why so many of the women who use MH Services need help in the first place. Lisa has been forthright in her account of the good, the bad and the indifferent. As the chapters go on we see a compelling story unfold with lessons for managers, clinicians and service users jumping out of every page. It's not easy but it's a must! Dr Ojeicha, GP: Nothing splendid has been achieved except by those who dared to believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances... The book, like its author is splendid. |
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