#WriterWednesday Interview with Teresa Trent

I’d like to welcome Teresa Trent to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Favorite thing to do when you have free time: I love to sew apparel. I have a list of YouTube ladies who sew and I get my inspiration from them. When people find out I sew they almost always say sewing is no longer a way to save money over buying garments in a store. That’s when I tell them that I don’t sew to save money. I sew because I’m a creative person and it’s fun!

The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: It used to be going to the dentist, but now I would say tax-related paperwork.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Writing a book and self-publishing it.

Something you chickened out from doing: Seeing a scary movie in a theater. I hate “jump-scares.” When I went to see The Shining, years ago, someone in the seat in front of me asked me to quit screaming.

The most exciting thing about your writing life: There have been many wonderful things. I was over the moon when my late agent, Dawn Dowdle agreed to represent me. I had only self-published, so it felt like I was becoming one of the cool kids. Then getting the opportunity to work with traditional publishers, which was not always easy, but always rewarding. Then, getting the chance to share my writing and have people actually like it. I will always be Sally Fields at the Oscars. “You really like me? Really?”

The one thing you wish you could do over in your writing life: I wish I would have waited to self-publish my first book, A Dash of Murder. It was full of grammatical errors and even though I had it professionally edited, the first reviews are still up on Amazon.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: I had a reader tell me she wanted to live in the small towns I create in my books. I understood completely, because there are days I live there, too!

The craziest thing a reader said to you: Is that me in your book? Am I that character?

Best piece of advice you received from another writer: Your book is your product that you are trying to sell. Along with making it creative, make it buyable. That means no buggy books. The story should flow, the grammar is correct, and it should have a clear-cut resolution in the end.

Something you would tell a younger you about your writing: Have confidence in your abilities and do not compare yourself to anyone else. No one has the life-experiences you have, and you do not have theirs. Your story is worth telling.

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: I wanted to be an actress. I went to New York City to visit a friend when I was 19. She was trying to get hired on Broadway. The minute I saw all the sacrifices she was making, I changed my mind. I went into teaching.

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: Write a book! I wanted to write when I was younger but got busy with teaching school and raising children. When I decided to make time in my life for writing, I never dreamed I’d still be at it over a decade later. It’s been a wonderful journey so far!

About Teresa:

Teresa Trent is the author of the Swinging Sixties Mystery Series published by Level Best Books featuring The Twist and Shout Murder (2022), If I Had a Hammer (2023), and Listen, Do You Want to Know a Secret (2024). She has been writing and publishing mysteries since 2011 starting with the Pecan Bayou Mystery Series and followed by the Piney Woods Mystery Series. When Teresa isn't writing novels and short stories, she spends her time creating narrated excerpts on her podcast, Books to the Ceiling, where she gets to use all that community theater experience from her teens and twenties along with a little audio editing she learned from her daughter. Teresa is a former English teacher, but also spent many years teaching music to preschoolers working with children of all abilities. Teresa makes her home in Texas with her husband and son.

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Everyone has a secret, and in 1964, Dot Morgan's new job at KDUD Radio is filled with them. Her boss, Holden Ramsey, is a terrible flirt, but he's also engaged to a beautiful socialite. When Dot finds out he's hiding involvements with other women, the hidden facts lead to a grisly murder. Can Dot figure out who is murdering the women in Holden's life before she finds herself next on the hit parade?   

Amazon Link    https://www.amazon.com/Listen-You-Want-Know-Secret-ebook/dp/B0CQ192VZ1/

Happy National Proofreading Day!

Happy National Proofreading Day! I believe that the editing/revising stage of your writing is the most important part of your writing process. You often have one chance when you’re querying, and you need your manuscript to be the best it can be.

Here are some proofreading tips that can help.

• Print out your document and proofread it on paper.

• Use your word processor’s read-aloud functionality to listen to your manuscript. You will often hear misused words (e.g. then for than) that you may miss reading.

• Make sure you spellcheck your document after ever editing session to catch any gremlins that slipped in.

• Check for missing punctuation, especially quotation marks.

• Make a list of your overused words. We all have them. Then use the search feature to find them. You will be shocked at how many times you used some words/expressions.

• Find a writing partner who will swap manuscripts with you for proofreading. It helps to have another set of eyes on it.

What would you add to my list?

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Elizabeth Crowens

I’d like to welcome Elizabeth Crowens to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you never want to run out of: Money, milk, and coffee. I can live without sugar or honey in my coffee but not my whole milk, and I hate powdery coffee creamer—the fake stuff.

Things you wish you’d never bought: A bed-in-a-box that gets shipped to your house. They give you a 90-day free trial. The mattress felt fine for 90 days. Then it hurt my back. Also, they are too unwieldy to repack in the box they came in to return. Wasted close to $450 on a piece of crap.

Words that describe you: A progressive, “big city” liberal, Type-A, New Yorker personality (but without the accent), often a fish-out-of-water, especially in small, Southern towns.

Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Pushy and aggressive to the point of being annoying, especially when I refuse to take “no” for an answer. Willing to still beat that dead horse. Extremely impatient.

Favorite foods: Katz’s Deli (Where Harry Met Sally) Kosher corned beef or pastrami sandwich with creamy coleslaw and homemade dill pickles, and steak fries. Junior’s cheesecake. Top-notch New York Pizza. Red bean sesame balls from Chinatown bakeries.

Things that make you want to gag: Natto, a Japanese fermented soybean that tastes like rotten beans swimming in spit. You’d never convince me to drink Mezcal and swallow the worm afterwards.

Favorite music or song: 30’s and 40’s jazz and blues, Swing music and big band. Rock and Roll – Fifties through select eighties (Queen, Punk, New Wave, Van Halen), and select Nineties (Green Day, Weezer, Foo Fighters), Classical music, Motown, Funkadelic, Soul.

Music that drives you crazy: Heavy Metal and Rap gives me a headache.

Favorite beverage: Coffee

Something that gives you a sour face: Lemon-flavored Magnesium Citrate (colonoscopy prep solution!)

Favorite smell: Pungent roses. These tend to be garden grown. So many flower sellers have roses with no smell.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Cigar smoke!

Something you’re really good at: photography and graphic design

Something you’re really bad at: putting together Ikea furniture.

Things you’d walk a mile for: A Haagen Daz or Van Leeuwen ice cream parlor.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Listening to a recording of Yoko Ono.

Things you always put in your books: Humor and/or history

Things you never put in your books: I’m a big fan of Victorian paranormal and ghost stories and Gothic horror like Poe, Shelley, and the Hammer Horror films, but am turned off by spatter punk, body horror, and zombies just don’t do it for me.

Things to say to an author: I just read your latest book and gave you a five-star review on Amazon, Goodreads, on social media, my blog, and everywhere else I could post it.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I just read your book and gave you a one-star review, because Golden Age of Hollywood-style mysteries with celebrities aren’t my thing. I posted my opinion on NetGalley and Goodreads and told my book club that I would never recommend it.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: When I was in college, one of my best friends and I hit a few bars on Ft. Lauderdale beach looking for cute guys and a party, but we kept striking out with dull crowds and nothing going on. Then my friend came up with a crazy idea.

She said, “Why don’t we hop in your car and hang out in Marco Island?”

My response: “Where is Marco Island?”

Her response: “Through the Everglades across Alligator Alley.”

It was already 11 pm. Without thinking and with seven dollars cash in my pocket with no credit card, we went for it, managed to find cute guys to buy us drinks, and realized it was 2:00 am and we couldn’t afford a hotel. She wanted to sleep on the beach. The bartender found us a friend’s vacant apartment where the furniture had been left behind. We crashed there, gave phony room numbers, and got free mimosas on the beach at a local hotel the next morning before driving home. I can’t believe we did it and got away from it but would never do that again. Ah, youthful folly!

Something you chickened out from doing: Diving off a high diving board. Always pissed off the lifeguards.

About Elizabeth:

Elizabeth Crowens has worn many hats in the entertainment industry in NY and LA for over 25 years. Writing credits include short stories and articles in  Black Belt, Black Gate, and Sherlock Holmes Mystery magazines, stories in Hell’s Heart and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated A New York State of Fright, and three alternate history/SFF novels, which she self-publishes under the name of Atomic Alchemist Productions.

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Happy National Unplug Day!

Happy National Unplug Day! I hope you can take a few moments to get away from the craziness of a normal day. Here are some ideas…

• Turn off the phone. If you can’t do that, then silence it and ignore the alerts and updates for a little while.

• Start a new, fun project. Try something you’ve always wanted to do.

• Work on something that’s been on your list for a while that you never get around to doing.

• Go for a walk or take your dog for a walk.

• Play tourist in your own town. Check out some sites that you’ve haven’t been to. (And take pictures for your social media posts later.)

• Reach out to someone you haven’t talked to in a while. It’s too easy to lose touch because of hectic schedules.

• Take a nap.

• Volunteer. There are so many worthy organizations out there in need of helpers.

What do you plan to do to unplug today?

#ThisorThatThusday Author Interview with Margaret Montet

I’d like to welcome Margaret Montet to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you need for your writing sessions: I need Sharpie pens in many colors and a notebook. All of my first drafts are written in longhand. My first revision happens when I type up my sloppy, colorful mess of a first draft.

Things that hamper your writing: Noise and hunger.

Things you love about writing: I love the act of putting my ideas onto paper in order to tell a story in a unique but logical way. I love talking about my writing, answering questions about my writing, researching ideas, and meeting other authors and finding out their processes and ideas. I love reading books about writing.

Things you hate about writing: I hate when I don’t have time to write when a clever idea occurs to me, and I have to wait until I have a way to put this all down in detail. By then there are probably fewer details.

Favorite foods: I like pizza, burritos, Boston Cream donuts, blackberries, and lately, chicken & waffles.

Things that make you want to gag: Coffee, Brussels sprouts, fish

Favorite music or song: I love classical music (including opera), Bruce Springsteen, Prince, the Glenn Miller Band and swing, Dexter Gordon and saxophone jazz.

Music that drives you crazy: Country (except Johnny Cash)

Favorite beverage: Diet Coke, Chocolate Egg Cream, Shirley Temple, spring water

Something that gives you a sour face: anything with coffee mixed in: mocha is not an approved flavor.

The last thing you ordered online: Drawer dividers for the kitchen in the beach house.

The last thing you regret buying: That black winter coat with the soft fake fur around the neck which is plenty warm, but the zipper that worked in the store refuses to work in real life. It has snaps, too, but the zipper would be better.

Things to say to an author: I’ve read your book many times, and it becomes more meaningful with every reading.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: How long did it take you to write this?

Favorite places you’ve been: Cape May, NJ; Philadelphia, Manhattan, Colorado, Brooklyn, Paris, Vienna, Barcelona

Places you never want to go to again: I can’t think of any. I’d go anywhere again just to see if it changed, or I noticed something new!

Favorite books (or genre): Nonfiction, memoir, literary fiction (I read pretty broadly)

Books you wouldn’t buy: horror, fantasy, romance

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): Bruce Springsteen, John McPhee, Colin Firth, Elizabeth Gilbert, James McBride

People you’d cancel dinner on: Miley Cyrus

The nicest thing a reader said to you: “I read a lot of your book on the beach, and it made me LAUGH!”

The craziest thing a reader said to you: “Margaret probably has a lot of money because she writes commercially.” Actually this probably wasn’t a reader, just another writer in my circle. It has been a couple of years, and I am still trying to figure out what she really meant.

About Margaret:

Margaret Montet's narratives of place feature music, memoir, culture and occasionally genealogy. Also a college librarian, Margaret holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction, teaches public speaking, and presents multimedia music-centered lectures at lifelong learning venues. Her creative nonfiction has been published in many journals and anthologies. Margaret’s first collection of travel essays is Nerd Traveler (2021). Brooklyn Family Album will be published in September 2024.

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#WriterWednesday Interview with Bill Hemmig

I’d like to welcome author Bill Hemmig to the blog for #WriterWedneday.

A few of your favorite things: oysters on the half shell, red wine, popcorn, cats.

Things you need to throw out: amaryllises that have given up blooming (not to be thrown out—to be given to a friend who has family in Florida, where they’ll be planted outdoors and thrive); blazers I don’t like anymore (to clothing drive); ground spices that have been around for years (compost pile).

Things you need for your writing sessions: a dedicated space; a legal pad (color of paper irrelevant); Uni-Ball pens (black fine point); a handy means to do quick internet research; music inside my head.

Things that hamper your writing: music outside my head; constant typos; multi-tasking.

Things you love about writing: first drafts; research; public readings; that aha moment when I realize where I’m going next.

Things you hate about writing: persnickety revisions; self-promotion; researching places to submit to.

Favorite foods: salt and pepper grilled chicken wings; roasted okra; fried calamari; wienerschnitzel; BLTs.

Things that make you want to gag: out of season tomatoes.

Favorite music or song: Renaissance polyphony; Bach, Beethoven and Brahms; Mahler; Joni Mitchell.

Music that drives you crazy: much but not all Country; most Philip Glass.

Something you wish you could do: sew (my parents both operated sewing machines for a living, and probably for that reason I never learned how).

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: make candles (I almost burned the house down when I was about twelve years old).

Last best thing you ate: a spectacular lobster mac and cheese.

Last thing you regret eating: that expired mayonnaise in the fridge.

Things you’d walk a mile for: a great meal (and I have, literally).

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: physical therapy, the most boring activity on earth.

Things you always put in your books: cars; children; golden sections.

Things you never put in your books: motorcycles; infants; fictitious song lyrics.

Favorite places you’ve been: Venice (Italy, not CA); Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst; Granada; Rincon, Puerto Rico.

Places you never want to go to again: Dallas (sorry, Dallas); Anaheim, CA; the Key West Airport.

Favorite books (or genre): Orlando, Mrs. Dalloway (both Virginia Woolf); The Magic Mountain (Thomas Mann); The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Thornton Wilder); Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child, et al.).

Books you wouldn’t buy: A thousand apologies, but the Harry Potter books have no appeal for me.

Best thing you’ve ever done: Made myself chief caregiver for my ex when he way dying.

Biggest mistake: See my response to “Something you wish you’d never learned to do.”

About Bill:

Bill Hemmig is the author of Americana: Stories and Brethren Hollow, both published by Read Furiously. His short stories appear in Read Furiously’s Life in the Garden State anthologies, The World Takes and Stay Salty.  He has had stories published in the journals The Madison Review, Philadelphia Stories, Pink Disco, BarBar, and Children, Churches and Daddies (cc&d), and he is a three-time finalist in the New Millennium Writing Awards. He is a native of Reading, PA and now lives in Bucks County.

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What I Learned about Character Development from Vicki Delany

Recently, I attended the Sisters in Crime - Grand Canyon Writers’ presentation featuring the fabulous Vicki Delany on Character Development. If you haven’t checked out her multiple series yet, you need to add them to your to be read pile. (She also writes as Eva Gates). Here is some of her great advice.

• A series is a chance for characters to grow. When you start, you’re in the head of a new character for the first time, and it takes time to learn about him/her. You don’t always have this luxury in a stand-alone novel.

• Trust yourself as a writer.

• Read all the time. Curiosity and reading are important for writers.

• In many cozy mysteries, authors introduce a lot of characters at once. This can be tricky. Make sure that the characters’ names don’t look or sound alike. You don’t want to confuse readers.

• In fiction, writers often drop or call out names in conversation more than what happens in real life. This is often done to make it clear to the reader who is talking.

• Be careful if you write dialogue with an accent. It can easily be overdone.

• Names are a strong indicator of age. Use online baby name lists from specific years to see what names were popular during an era.

• If your sleuth has friends or sidekicks, their likes and personalities should be different. They should complement the traits of your protagonist.

• In mysteries, sidekicks give the sleuth someone to talk through the case with, and while they don’t solve the crime, they often offer suggestions that puts the protagonist on the right path.

• A sidekick also offers the author a way to break up internal dialogue of the main character.

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Alethea Lyons

I’d like to welcome the amazing Alethea Lyons to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you need for your writing sessions: Laptop if I’m editing or notebook for new ideas, coloured pens and post-its for plotting, background music is preferred

Things that hamper your writing: My toddler waking up early, unexpected noise, the internet, other story ideas

Favorite foods: Chocolate, ice cream, cheese, pizza, most Italian food, my husband’s roast potatoes, hot sugared pecans, curry… basically, I’m a bit of a foody.

Things that make you want to gag: Tuna (intolerant or something), scampi (I used to work in a scampi factory), mint sauce (Savoury mint sauce. Weirdly I do like the sweet.)

Favorite beverage: Tea – comfort drink is Assam with a touch of milk, but I like most types of plain tea. Flavourings added to tea are very hit and miss.

Something that gives you a sour face: Coffee. I hate it. Can’t even stand the smell.

Something you’re really good at: Writing (I hope), listening, finding my way

Something you’re really bad at: Anything with balance e.g. bike riding, skating

Things you always put in your books: Found family, queer rep, mental health rep – these aren’t always intentional, I guess it’s just the kind of character who lives in my head

Things you never put in your books: Abusive relationships, heavy gore

Things to say to an author: “I love your book.” “I like character because…” “I enjoyed [element of book], that really touched me.”

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “[Famous Person] has to query [some ridiculously low number] of agents/publishers and now they make hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

Favorite places you’ve been: Italy (Rome & Venice), Arches National Park, The Yorkshire Dales, The John Rylands Library

Places you never want to go to again: Any food factory, inside an MRI machine

Favorite books (or genre): Fantasy although I also like sci-fi, thriller, crime fiction, and historical fiction

Books you wouldn’t buy: Straight up horror that’s really gory, contemporary romance without any speculative elements. No problems with them as genres, just not my personal cup of tea.

Things that make you happy: Family, stories, hilly scenery, music, sunshine

Things that drive you crazy: Inefficiency, ‘because we’ve always done that,’ books in the wrong order.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Either the first time I went to see my now-husband after breaking up with my then-boyfriend (see below about how I feel about talking to people!) or rock wall climbing after getting halfway up and getting literally frozen with terror, then doing it again because I was stubbornly determined to get to the top. I then had to do it a third time so my mother could watch.

Something you chickened out from doing: A lot of times when I kept thinking I should talk to someone and couldn’t work up the nerve. Starting conversations with strangers, especially if I have to talk about myself, e.g. if it’s a date or about my book, is so hard!

The nicest thing a reader said to you: That one of the scenes in The Hiding was like a cross between Neil Gaiman and Guillermo Del Toro.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: When people say they don’t like the romance subplot in The Hiding, because, as far as I’m aware, there isn’t really one. Also two people who read the same chapter one in the same week and one said it made perfect sense and the other said they didn’t understand anything that was going on. Really drives home how subjective things are.

About Alethea:

Alethea Lyons (she/ze) writes various forms of SFF, with a particular love for science-fantasy, dark fantasy, dystopias, and folklore. Her debut, The Hiding, is out March 5, 2024 as part of a three-book deal with Brigids Gate Press. Her short stories can be found in a variety of publications. Alethea lives in Manchester, U.K., with her husband, little Sprite, a cacophony of stringed instruments, and more tea than she can drink in a lifetime. Buy works or follow on social media at https://linktr.ee/alethearlyons

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