G.D. Talbot's Blog, page 5

My Review of - Times Tables Fun with Naughty Katie

1 Star for writing and publishing1 Star for cover1 Star for formatting interior½ Star for preview1 Star for book as a whole 
First, I have to give a huge thank you to Lorraine. For not only being the first author to send me a physical book but also the first person to send me any correspondence from another country. So thank you Lorraine, my children and I looked forward to your package coming from the UK. It gave me a reason to teach them about other countries and where the UK is.
Seeing that this was an educational book for small children probably around 3rdgrade, I decided to read a little of the book a day to my kids. My kids are going into 3rd, 1st, and Pre-K this year. I also based most of this review on their responses from the book.
As always I gave one star for simply writing and publishing a book. At first I was going to give a half star for the cover, because I didn’t understand the concept of the bubbles and how it relates to the book. Then on the second and third day of reading, my daughter going into 1st grade kept talking about the bubbles and then into parts of the stories she liked when describing it to her mother. It was then I realized that the bubbles on the cover were not for me but for the target audience. It was well done at capturing her attention so I gave one star for the cover. The book has been obviously professionally prepared and I could not find any errors on the interior formatting, so I gave 1 star for that. I’m sorry to say that I could only give a ½ star for the preview or intro of the book. It was interesting but not attention grabbing and a little dry. Finally I gave the book 1 star for the book as a whole. It kept my children entertained, interested and looking forward to me reading the next part. In fact, one day I forgot about us reading because we were busy. One of my daughters reminded me and asked for me to read the next part. As we did my other daughter joyfully joined us. Even my son, who is going into his second year of Pre-k, sat down for one of the readings and listened intently. If you knew my son you would be very impressed with that.
4 ½ out of 5 stars total
I would recommend this book to anyone with small children, children about to learn their times tables, and especially to parents that have a child having trouble with memorizing them. The idea of combining story time with poetry, while reinforcing times tables, was inspiring. It’s too soon to tell if any of the information stuck but what was clear was that my kids enjoyed the book. That means I can always go back and reread the book to help them in the future with their times tables, or just to enjoy the stories again. I would also add that I have recommended this book to my local school district to see if they would like to use in our schools here. I really hope they will consider it because anything that can help kids learn is worth having.
Below are the links to check out this book or to follow Lorraine on social media.
Times Tables Fun with Naughty Katie On Amazon
Lorraine's website is www.lorrainereed.com

Lorraine's email is Lorraine.Reed@live.co.uk
As Always, Happy Reading and Writing EveryoneG. D. Talbot

My Interview with Robert Hazelton

What is your name and/or pen name? 
            Robert Hazelton 
What genre do you write? 
I’ve dipped my fingers into many genres. Urban Fantasy is probably my primary genre but I’ve also got horror, fantasy and science fiction titles. As a freelancer, the sky’s the limit and I’ve done everything from romance to drama. 
What made you want to be a writer? 
My passion for writing began when I was around seven years old. I had the opportunity to play my first Dungeons & Dragons game. When the story didn’t go the way I thought it should, I started thinking I needed to tell the story. I wrote my first novel when I was fifteen with an electric typewriter and pumped out five hundred pages over the next couple of months.
The book was rubbish but it didn’t stop me. I read books on writing, how to improve and kept plugging away. 
What do you use to keep yourself inspired while writing? 
I’ve studied the habits of many authors and took their ideas to heart. When John Grisham wrote his first book, he did so by getting up early every morning and putting a couple hours in before work. Without fail, he’d be pounding out the words. I follow similar methods. During my full time job, I would write at every opportunity.
I use the iCloud so I can work on whatever project I’ve got going with any of my devices wherever I am. This helps me stay focused and I’m able to get ahead. As far as getting myself to do it, it’s harder to stop myself. I love crafting stories and I want to write the next part, to see what method I discover to describe something. It’s exciting.
Music helps too. I worked as a professional musician so many pieces get me in the mood to create. Soundtracks are great for that, especially when I want a specific mood. 
How do you feel about the writing community as a whole? 
The writing community has exploded since I first began. There are so many new folks showing up with great ideas. As a freelancer, I mentor many people from the inception of their idea to organizing their thoughts to actually writing the piece. It’s one of the most fulfilling things I do and it wouldn’t be possible without the amazing global writing community we have today. 
Have you or will you be willing to collaborate with other authors in the future? 
I help a lot of people with their ideas but I don’t see myself collaborating any time in the near future. 
Tell us about your book and if it’s upcoming or already published. 
I have seven books in an Urban Fantasy series. The first is called Glamour & Shadows and is about two supernatural detectives, one an Incubus and the other a Fairy. They attempt to solve a murder that appears to have been caused by a shape shifter. The second book takes the fairy and pairs her with a vampire who owns a role playing game store.
I’ve also released some comic books based on the series so it’s a pretty big deal around here. It’s not erotic by any stretch, but has more of a tone akin to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Plenty of snark and a lot of action. And there are enough characters to keep things interesting so that each title doesn’t follow the same two people every time.
I’d like to offer another brief mention for a brand new series I started called the Savant Diaries. It’s another Urban Fantasy with humans that are paid by ‘benevolent’ supernaturals to take care of feral monsters in order to keep their secrets. The main character in the first book is a film actor who, after an anger management course, is attacked by a vampire.
They’re a lot of fun and there are only two books right now so it’s an easy series to jump into. 
Is your book or upcoming book an eBook, paperback, or both? 
All of my books are on Kindle and physical copy. I do have two new books in the works, one a young adult action story and the next Savant Diaries. 
Is this your first book? 
I have a grand total of 16 books currently available for sale. One of them is also available as an Audio Book and the first Glamour & Shadows is being turned into a radio drama. 
Are you planning to write more? 
            I’m always planning the next project! 
Is there anything you would say to other writers, that want to write and publish a book? 
The key to writing and publishing a book is perseverance and confidence. When you come up with an idea that gets you excited, don’t allow yourself to find reasons that it should be abandoned. Write it down. Let it brew in your head if you’re not ready to approach it. Build upon the story as you go about your day.
When you finally are ready to go, don’t immediately start writing Chapter 1. Plan a little bit. Organize your thoughts. The number one thing I see people do that stumps them is they become excited, immediately start writing without a plan then stall somewhere near the end of Act 1.
I’m creating a Writing Course that takes people from the inception of their idea to finished novel from knowledge I’ve picked up in two years of helping people get through the process. I’ll give away the biggest secret here: finishing the book is literally the hardest part. Whether it’s good, bad, terrible or mediocre, writing the last paragraph is a huge accomplishment.
You need discipline to get your first product out. When you’re trying to decide if you’re going to watch a TV show or work on your project, put the show off. My first two years of writing, I fell behind all of my friends when it came to shows and movies because I focused on honing my craft.
I also recommend reading the book ‘The War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield. It’s an absolute game changer when it comes to writing or doing any sort of art at all. Always be looking for ways to improve, read books, study other authors and enjoy the process. Writing can be incredible fun but it does require a lot of dedication and effort. 
Where can my readers find your book and how they can follow you on social media? Leave only links that you want open to the public. 
My Amazon Link:
www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B002ECOK1C
My web site:
www.roberthazelton.com
My social media:
www.twitter.com/DNBS  
Thank you Robert for sharing with us, I really enjoyed hearing how much you help other authors. You can tell from my blog that I feel the same on that subject.
I hope everyone will check out Robert’s books and follow him by using the links above.As Always, Happy Reading and Writing EveryoneG. D. Talbot

The Inspirational Creative Loop

 Since I started writing and publishing books I have been asked different kinds of questions on inspiration, creativity, and how to write a book. So I decided to share with everyone my creative process which I have titled, ‘The Inspirational Creative Loop.’ The loop starts at inspiration and goes to ideas, story outline, full story idea, and then back to inspiration. The purpose of this loop is to go from beginning to end for a story or book idea. I will go over each step one by one and why they are each important.


The first step is inspiration. This step is very important because people confuse it with ideas they want to write about or characters they want to use for their story. I’m not saying it can’t be both but overall it shouldn’t be because this should be the step where an author’s mind can freely roam and explore without limitations. It should also be the base of all creativity for an author. For me, I firmly believe that God blessed me with a huge imagination and a love for telling an entertaining story. Also my favorite stories are Science Fiction and Fantasy. So it is no surprise that I write Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Because my inspirational step is not limited I have also written Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, and poetry. So From my base I add anything that can help my mind explore. For me it’s fast paced music and location where I can go on long walks in nature. If the weather is bad, I just sit somewhere in my car with some kind of nature scenery around me. I recommend to all authors, that after they discover their base to find places, things, music, activities that they like to do. That can lead to their minds to wonder and explore. For some authors their base is just as simple as a place, things, music, etc. You notice that at this point I do not pin point to any one idea or traits for characters. The point is to be able to imagine anything and everything. The biggest mistake I see authors making is at this very first step saying they want some kind of agenda for their book. This can literally kill your book before it even begins. Don’t do it so anything and everything can be possible.


The idea step. This is where you can start to pin point what it is you want to write from your mind freely coming up with it. Still keep in mind that nothing is placed in concrete and your ideas are just ideas. They can be changed or enhanced as you flow creatively through them. In this step you can start to write down your ideas. I wouldn’t write down all your ideas but instead choose the ones you want to write about now. That way your ideas can grow and become attached and some discarded for later or not to be use at all. It is also at this step that authors make the mistake of trying to write multiple books at once. It is my opinion that this is a bad idea and you should keep multiple book ideas to the side so you can write them later. But you should choose one main idea for the book you want to write now. If you are one of those authors that can write multiple books at once, then I tip my hat to you. Just keep in mind that everyone I have heard from in the industry find this to be a bad idea. Mostly because authors get lost in their stories and when it is time to pitch their story they start pitching multiple stories and not just one. Agents and publishing houses want you to pitch one story, NOT multiple ones. You could accidently not give your story ideas the time and energy they need to become alive on the page. Also I will point out here that the best book ideas are ones that have multiple ideas within them. That basically a good book idea is one made up from multiple other working ideas.
The story outline. At this point you have chosen the idea or ideas you want to work with. And now are starting to put together some kind of outline for your story. This is my favorite part because character and places are created in my mind. Also this doesn’t have to be a complete story outline. For example I almost always start with the climax of the story first and then write the beginning to make sure it is logical to itself. Then during the first draft I start writing the middle to connect the two together. I understand some writers like to start with the beginning and some even like to start with the middle. It really doesn’t matter as long as you are moving forward in getting to how your story will unfold. Also this is where writers should be creating characters or putting together an agenda or the point they want to express in their story. You could come to these conclusions for your story in idea step but you should never be coming up with them in the inspirational step. In fact you really shouldn’t be putting anything into concrete at this point either. You should always give yourself room for change and make it easy for you to make changes when you feel it’s needed. Again, I’m not saying you can’t have ideas or agendas in your inspirational step, I’m saying it will limit you and if it doesn’t inspire more ideas, then it is killing your creative process.
The full story idea, for me it’s having a full first rough draft. At this point you should have a beginning, middle, and an ending. You should have a good understanding of what your book is and where it will take your readers. This does not mean your book is ready to be published but should be able to head to the publishing process. As many of you out there might know that the publishing process starts with you as the author making the decision that you want to share your book with the world. This will lead to rewrites, editing and more editing. Not to leave out a lot of other things like writing a hook, short description, long description about your book. I will not be going into great detail about that now because it’s not about the inspirational creative loop. What I do want to talk about is the arrow going back to the inspirational step. This is because I feel that your story should and want to make you go back to that step. That is why I press that that step is very broad so you can easily move back into it. I’m not saying once you have a full story idea you should go right back to that. I am saying you should be able to go back to that book, even years after being written or publish and have it take you back to your inspirational place. When people have a pinpoint idea for their story or even what kind of character they have and then start the inspirational step they are limiting themselves. I have noticed that some authors can even get started with any idea to make their stories grow because of that. I have never met an author yet that said, oh yes I wrote one book now I’m done forever. In fact the exact opposite, they want to write more but because their inspirational step is not open and free. They find themselves having trouble to keep moving in their writing. Also this is the step where an author might want to look for help for their book. It is very easy to make changes and grow and develop your story while doing rewrites and drafts. If you are asking for help before this step, I would suggest focusing on your inspirational base.
To give more information on this process. I can tell you, that for me once I am in my inspiration step the idea flow fast and hard. In fact, in just a few minutes I go from inspiration to ideas to outline. Where I take the longest is writing the first full rough draft, which can take me from a month to two years; Depending on the length of the book.  Just like most authors, I get a lot of great ideas at once. I write a lot of them down and have them stored away. I have done this so many times that I now have too many book ideas not getting attention. So when I decided to write my next book, I look through all the ideas I have and put them into my inspirational step. If they do not produce more ideas or make the story grow. I put them to the side again and pick another idea to use. If someday that doesn’t work I will have to go back to finding brand new ideas that I have not already imagined. My point is that your inspirational step must push everything forward and create more inspiration.
I hope this article helps everyone with their inspirational process. Of course other authors have and will have different processes and I don’t expect people to think they have to use my way. Instead I hope this article will lead authors to their own process and help to keep them writing. If you do want to use this process you can of course.

As Always, Happy Reading and Writing EveryoneG. D. Talbot

My Interview with Ian Clark

What is your name and/or pen name? 
I write under my real name Ian Clark 
What genre do you write? 
The one book written so far, is an autobiography, but the content would most likely come under paranormal. It would be preferable to say it is about life; no idea if there is such a genre. 
What made you want to be a writer? 
After a particularly bad episode of sleep paralysis it was horrifying to discover how badly  was dealt with by the medical profession. It was frustrating to discover some scientists are not really interested in truth, but their position in their elite club. Their skepticism and patronizing attitude obliged pen to paper. Also it’s possible other sufferers will gain a new insight into their condition, if it can be called that. 
What do you use to keep yourself inspired while writing? 
Life. There so much around us, if only we had eyes and ears, and sense to seeit.How do you feel about the writing community as a whole? 
A disparate bunch, all driven by different passions. The only thing they have in common is passion about their chosen subject. 
Have you or will you be willing to collaborate with other authors in the future? 
Possibly. Not something I have really thought about. Almost certainly we would need the same passionate interest in the subject matter. 
Tell us about your book and if it’s upcoming or already published. 
The book is called “4:26a.m.” and was published in 2015. It starts with a phone call in the middle of the night from hell, drawing upon facets of my life to fathom what happened and why. It looks at sleep paralysis “Hag phenomena”, ESP and language amongst other things. Sleep paralysis is when you wake up, someone is in the room with you, sometimes next to or even on top of you. You cannot speak or move, and are terrified; then you wake up properly. Looking at it logically I came to a different conclusion from science whose explanation doesn’t make sense and conveniently skips details. The book covers too many topics to get into detail here. Suffice to say it is intense. The greatest difficulty was in structuring the book. It felt like having to build a whole new science which interlinked with many other sciences. What to put where, what to omit. That all took the greatest effort. Once the structure was in place it flowed with relative ease. 
Is your book or upcoming book an eBook, paperback, or both? 
The book is in paperback, hardback and kindle versions. 
Is this your first book? 
This is my first book. 
Are you planning to write more? 
More books are planned, some fiction, others about the subject of dreams, and possibly one on the nature of the universe. There are books inside of me more than I can ever write. I teach yoga and would like to include aspects of it in some of the writing. 
Is there anything you would say to other writers, that want to write and publish a book? 
Whatever you do be passionate. Write because of your desire. Proof-read every sentence, every paragraph, every chapter. Get someone who doesn’t know you to proof-read it. They will be more honest with you than a friend. You probably need an editor, not just the spell checker that comes with your software. 
Where can my readers find your book and how they can follow you on social media? Leave only links that you want open to the public. 
The book can be found on Amazon ISBN 9781785074127. The software that deals with books for the publishing profession doesn’t like numbers or punctuation in the title. So best to use the ISBN. It can be ordered from any good bookshop. There are some good and thoughtful reviews on Amazon. Not everyone agrees, but no one has called me a nut (yet). Please add your own review.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/4-26-m-Ian-Clark/dp/1785074121
There is a facebook account for the bookhttps://www.facebook.com/4.26am/
Some people follow me on my personal facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/ian.clark.752
Also if anyone wishes to contact me directly IanClark8361@gmail.comIt’s always a pleasure to discuss the findings of the book. 
Thank you so much Ian, I agree with you when you said, “Whatever you do be passionate. Write because of your desire.” I have run across a lot of people saying they want to write a book while asking me for help on how to write it. When I ask what they want to write about or what their passion is for writing they have no answer. So I tell them to find their passion, and or desire, that they want to share with the world.
I hope everyone that is interested in Ian’s book; “4:26a.m.” will check it out with the link above. Also don’t forget to follow him on his social media accounts to keep up with any future works that he does.As Always, Happy Reading and Writing EveryoneG. D. Talbot

A Simple Hole Creative Writing Exercise

So I decided to share a creative exercise that I do, and that is to take everyday things and write about them. As you can see above we will be using this picture of a hole I came across on one of my walks. So from just looking at this picture write something about it. I gave myself different subject headings when coming up with different ways to write about it. You can do the same or come up with your own style but the point of the exercise is to see the hole in different creative ways.
Scary
The Demon finally made his way to the surface and would spend his days patiently waiting inside the small hole that led him to his freedom. The only thing he was missing now was a host to control. Then he could rise up to enforce his power and evil upon the world. After several weeks a couple put their young baby on the ground a few feet from the hole and then went to set up for a picnic. The baby slowly crawled over to the hole, and as soon as she reached it. The Demon quickly crawled up her arm, onto her neck, and into her ear.
Silly
The unicorn dug a small hole and laid her pink and purple egg into it. But before she could place a spell of invisibility on it, she heard a noise and started to trot off. As her trot turned into a gallop she quickly forgot about her egg. She didn’t realize that in her haste that she had forgotten the unicorns’ number one rule. That by not obeying it, she had just created the first unicorn to be seen by humans in the last 10,000 years, and that her inaction would come back to haunt her someday.
Happy
As George was walking he looked at the spot where he and his wife loved picnicking the year earlier. He smiled as he thought of the fun times they had and started planning to do the same again this year. Then he noticed that an animal had made a small hole and over turned some of the ground where they like to lay their picnic blanket. Suddenly he saw a flash of something sparkling in the hole. He went over and pulled what was making the light and saw that it was his wife’s ring that she had lost. His heart filled with joy as he imagined how happy she would be that he had found it.
Nonfiction
As I was walking I saw a small hole and some dirt that had been dug up and over turned. I became cautious and very aware of my surroundings. Having spent most of my life in upstate NY, I knew who the likely culprit would be for making the hole, and I didn’t want to have to go home and take a tomato juice bath.


I hope this exercise was fun and helpful with getting your creative juices flowing or just to flex your imagination. If you would like to share what you came up with from this exercise, please put them in the comments. If you have your own creative exercises and would like to share on this blog, then email me at g_d_talbot@yahoo.com and put in the subject line. I want to submit an article about writing.As Always, Happy Reading and Writing EveryoneG. D. Talbot