Trisha Sugarek's Blog, page 86
July 5, 2014
Winners Announced in the FREE book Give-away!
We are so pleased to announce the winners of a signed, copy of Susan Elia Macneal's new book, 'The Prime Minister's Secret Agent'.
CONGRATULATIONS!! The winners are: Sara Hyman and Micheal Nelson
Review~~'The City' by Dean Koontz
REVIEW ~~ 'The City' by Dean Koontz (5 out of 5 quills)
True to Dean Koontz's style he starts the reader off with a great tale of a musical family....Grandfather is a 'piano man' , mother is a jazz singer and eight year old Jonah is a wanna be piano man without a piano. You see, Mom is a single parent, married to an absent, then back again, no good, shiftless man. Theirs is a tight-knit lower middle class family squeaking by.
Then on about page 100, the weird stuff starts to happen and you know you are back in another of Koontz's scary plots. 'The City' does not disappoint; you'll love the characters in the story, good and bad. The story is written in first person from Jonah's point of view and it certainly took me back to being just a kid with very real monsters under the bed and in the bedroom closet. And Jonah Kirk is a great kid; not too good, he's still a kid and isn't above lying to get out of potential trouble. He has a mentor who becomes an unlikely but loveable friend when he needs a friend the most.
As always, it's a chilling, terrifying tale where you hope that good triumphs over evil but, not until the last few pages, will you know if Koontz sees it your way.
I don't know about you other fans out there, but I feel like there isn't anyone walking around that should be writing 'reviews' of Dean Koontz' s work. His writing is perfection. Weaving a tale that not only makes you believe it could happen but penning each word as if it was his last, best work.
So while I've been asked to write a 'review' it's more like paying homage to one of the great writers of our time!
Synopsis: The city changed my life and showed me that the world is deeply mysterious. I need to tell you about her and some terrible things and wonderful things and amazing things that happened . . . and how I am still haunted by them. Including one night when I died and woke and lived again.
Here is the riveting, soul-stirring story of Jonah Kirk, son of an exceptional singer, grandson of a formidable “piano man,” a musical prodigy beginning to explore his own gifts when he crosses a group of extremely dangerous people, with shattering consequences. Set in a more innocent time not so long ago, The City encompasses a lifetime but unfolds over three extraordinary, heart-racing years of tribulation and triumph, in which Jonah first grasps the electrifying power of music and art, of enduring friendship, of everyday heroes. (courtesy of amazon.com)
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July 4, 2014
Author's Roaring Twenties Featured on UK Blog
Author, Blogger Tara Ford seems to love my writing....so much that she is featuring my books on her web site at Fiction Five Fridays.
Tara is a successful author out of the UK. To help support her fellow-authors, she has developed this clever Friday Special. Visit her web site and wander around. You won't be disappointed! http://taraford.weebly.com/fiction-five-friday
The rules are simple - 5 sentences from a page with the digit 5 in the number. Short and sweet and readers get a little taste of what their favorite (or new) author is writing.
TODAY! I have been chosen by Tara with my 5,5,5 contribution (fifth day of the week, a five in the page no. and a five sentence excerpt) from a roaring twenties, hot jazz and cold gin, wild novel that I wrote about San Francisco: "Wild Violets". WHAT FUN!!
June was a very busy month here at my Writer's Blog. An my Interview with author, Dean Koontz. A free book give-away that is going on right now, of Susan Elia Macneal's new release, The Prime Minister's Secret Agent, and of course more storytelling by yours truly. Hope you'll come back often to visit and enjoy my blog!
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July 2, 2014
Win a Free book! Macneal's The Prime Minister's Secret Agent
To promote not only Susan Elia Macneal's new book but also my Blog, the folks at Random House have invited me to do a BOOK GIVE-AWAY! Easy to enter but remember it is for a signed, paperback of 'The Prime Minister's Secret Agent' only and you must have a US mailing address.
Like my page (writeratplay) on Facebook, like Susan's page https://www.facebook.com/susaneliamacneal?fref=ts, and follow us on Twitter. Return to the post and comment on my page, 'Book Give-away - Done'.
We will announce the two winners around July 2nd.
July 1, 2014
Part 2~~My Interview with Dean Koontz!
Q: When did you begin to write seriously?
A: While I was in college. I sold my first short story when I was a senior, and the same piece won a prize in the college-writing contest Atlantic Monthly conducted at that time. I wasn't very good for a number of years, but I kept selling. Later, I recovered the rights to all that early stuff and deep-sixed it, mostly science fiction and Gothic novels.
Q: What makes a writer great?
A: Writing truth, I think. By which I don't necessarily mean entirely realistic settings and story lines. Any genre allows for the writing of truth. To do it means to write stories that are more than plot, to write characters that feel like real people, and to avoid writing ideologically. These days, a great deal of fiction is ideological, and that approach virtually ensures a limited lifespan for the work. Resist the temptation to be swept away by current
"issues" in your work and write instead about timeless human values and hopes. Ideologies sooner or later collapse due to the tendency of ideologues to ignore all manner of realities in the fashioning of their ideologies.
Q: What does the process of going from "no book" to "finished book," look like?
A: After all these years, I'm still astonished when I write the final page and discover that the whole thing--story line, theme, subtext, and the characters' journeys--have actually come together at least somewhat as I hoped they would. I'm always sure, at various points in the process, that the damn thing won't ever work. Then when it's done, my wife, Gerda, is first reader, because I totally trust her taste and honesty. I want no one to read it in process; until it's done, it's my little secret. I will share the first few chapters, so the publisher can develop jacket and catalog copy and so the art director can think about a cover.
I've had bad editors, good editors, and a couple of great ones, and I always look forward to the feedback of those in the latter two categories. I'm obsessive-compulsive about my prose, so there usually isn't a lot that the editor wants done, and I'd say the average time it takes to address queries is three days. I have cover approval, so I often see the cover months ahead of finishing the book. When it's a terrific cover--like those for THE DARKEST EVENING OF THE YEAR and INNOCENCE and THE CITY--having the mock-up of it on my desk can be highly motivating for weeks. I'm an art lover, and a great visual can stimulate my imagination. Then one day you have page proofs, and seeing the story typeset, in well-designed pages, makes it real for the first time. Finally, it's always great fun to get the first copies off the press--and then the grim work of promotion begins, which I always find embarrassing.
Q: Where/when do you first discover your characters?
A: I start with a story idea, a premise. With a little thought, I soon realize what theme, what aspect(s) of the human condition, such a story is likely to concern. Then I brood for a while, usually less than an hour, about the lead or the two 
primary leads, about what kind of people the premise and the theme are likely to require. This usually means knowing no more about them than the central problem in their private lives, separate from the problems that the story will bring down upon them. And then I start. In the first few chapters, the lead characters are forming, and I am learning who they are. I've often said that if I give characters free will, if I don't plot out the story and instead present them with a problem and watch them deal with it, they begin to take on a life of their own, frequently surprising me with the choices they make. This is mysterious and exciting. When it's going well, it's simultaneously an intense intellectual endeavor and an almost dream-state journey of wonder and emotion. I become very attached to my characters, even to those who are swine!
Q: Have you written or do you want to write in another genre?
A: I tend to combine genres in the same book, supernatural with police procedural, love story with fantasy with suspense, chase story with comic novel, because I have a low boredom threshold and have to keep myself entertained while I work. As a consequence, I've more or less written in every genre except the Western. And I might get around to that one yet--if the recent LONE RANGER movie hasn't burnt the genre for the rest of my lifetime.
June 30, 2014
CREATIVE WRITER'S Journal and Handbook Now Available!
Actor, director, playwright, author, Trisha Sugarek has created 305 pages of 'How To', Tips, Quotes, and blank, lined pages for your writing. 'I have created this journal for writers of all genres. Taken from my personal experience in the writing process, I hope it kick starts new writers to begin and more experience writers to continue.'
~~This spirited journal is designed to help writers open their hearts and minds. Much more than a journal for your creative writing, this handbook provides the writer with the ‘how to’s’ of writing. Tips, instructions and prompts to help you to hone your writing skill. Each blank, lined page has writing tips and quotes from other famous authors.~~
Available at www.amazon.com or here in my
June 29, 2014
MacNeal's release of new book Sparks Give-away!
Never one to break with tradition.....there's a side story with regard to my enthusiasm for Susan Macneal's writing.
The first of the Maggie Hope spy mysteries, Mr. Churchill's Secretary, (which I highly recommend) is fiction but based in fact. The author was fortunate enough to have had several interviews with Churchill's private secretary before her death. The book is about a 'typist' who was relegated to a menial job because of her gender. She was actually educated in mathematics and cryptology and could easily have fitted in with MI-Five (British CIA) but for her being a woman.
I was so taken by Winston Churchill's pets having the run of the war offices....and how Susan wove this little fact (with many others) into her story so deftly. At the time I was looking for lighter material to round out my collection
of short
July 1st, the fourth and newest book in the Maggie Hope series will go on sale.
To promote not only the new book but my Blog, the folks at Random House have invited me to do a BOOK GIVE-AWAY! Easy to enter but remember it is for a signed, paperback of 'The Prime Minister's Secret Agent' only and you must have a US mailing address.
Like my page (writeratplay) on Facebook, like Susan's page https://www.facebook.com/susaneliamacneal?fref=ts, and follow us on Twitter. Return to the post and comment 'Book Give-away - Done'.
We will announce the two winners around July 2nd.
June 28, 2014
Interview with the Master of Suspense, Dean Koontz (part 1)
My love of Golden Retrievers and Dean Koontz's brilliant writing began decades ago when I read Koontz's book, 'Watchers'. One of the heroes of the story was Einstein, a super smart golden retriever. I promised myself that when I retired and could dedicate time to a larger dog, I would own my first Golden. I remember back to getting my first; Sadie. I was so excited that I sent Dean photos of her, (nine weeks old) romping in gold and red fall leaves. I enclosed a note from Sadie to Trixie and darned if she didn't write back.
Dean and Trixie, circa 2000
THE INTERVIEW!
Q: Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for
your writing?
A: I have a home office. I work at a horseshoe-shaped desk, the long arms of which are fifteen feet. The desk is made of (and the office is paneled with) honey-toned quarter-cut anigre, and the desk top is of black marble with gold veining. There are bookshelves with books but also a collection of Bakelite radios from the Art Deco period. Most of the radios still work, though you have to wait for the vacuum tubes to heat up.
I've got an under-the-counter fridge in a vestibule area, packed full of Diet Pepsi, which is to me like spinach to Popeye. I have a sofa on which I never nap, big windows with an ocean view that I rarely see because I keep the pleated shades down at all times while working. I know I'm a potential slacker, so I don't tempt myself.
Q: Do you have any special rituals when you sit down?
A: Door closed, blinds lowered, Diet Pepsi at hand, current research books and materials to one side--and then start to sweat.
Q: What is your mode of writing?
A: Entirely on computer. I work on one page, revising and polishing until I can't make it better, then move on to the next. Some pages might get 20 or more drafts before I move on. At the end of every chapter, I print out and read it because I see things on the page that I didn't see on the screen. I pencil the chapter, print it out, pencil it again if necessary, and then continue with the
next chapter. I build a book the way coral reefs are built: millions of little calcareous skeletons piling up one atop another, though in my case the skeletons are drafts.
Q: Do you have a set time each day to write, or do you only write when you are
feeling creative?
A: I get up at 5:45, shower, walk Anna, the dog,
Photographer: Thomas Engstrom
and have breakfast at my desk no later than 7:30, usually 7:00. I read the Wall Street Journal during breakfast--not primarily for its financial news but for its other features--and perhaps look through whatever magazine came in the previous day's mail. After half an hour, I set to work, often by 7:30, and work straight through to dinner. I never have lunch because it makes me foggy-headed. If I waited until I felt creative, I would never have had a career. I long ago learned that a day that starts out badly, when nothing comes out on the page or comes out wrong, can suddenly turn into a good day a few hours later, when suddenly everything starts to click. The brain can be cajoled into being creative.
Q: What's your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?
A: I don't have any. I don't procrastinate because I love the English language and the process of storytelling, and I'm always curious to see what will come to me next. If you procrastinate a lot, you might be one who loves having written, but doesn't so much like writing. I'm the opposite: I enjoy the hell out of writing but don't like what follows: promotion and publicity, which I always strive to keep to a minimum, sometimes to my publisher's dismay.
Q: Do you 'get lost' in your writing and for how long?
A: Sometimes, if I'm in what psychologists' call a flow state, I can be amazed to look at my watch and see that it isn't eleven o'clock, as I think, but almost dinnertime. Flow states don't come along that often, but even on other days, I never think time is passing slowly. Being paid well for something you love to do--it's a grace.
Q: Who or what is your muse at the moment?
A: I've just finished a novel, THE CITY, that's a first-person narrative by a black piano man who, at the age of 57, is looking back on some amazing, wondrous, and mysterious things that happened to him between the ages of 8 and 12. His grandfather was a piano man, too, and was a well-known and admired musician in the Big Band era. So what keeps my fingers flying on the keys right now is Big Band music in the background. I've always loved that music, and I would argue that it's the richest musical period in American history........
Join us for Part 2 on July 1st!
June 27, 2014
Author, Trisha Sugarek Featured on Fiction '5' Friday
Tara Ford, Author**Fiction,Five,Fridays
There's a very clever blog out there offered by author, Tara Ford of the UK. To help support her fellow-authors, she has developed Fiction Five Fridays.
The page features excerpts from various author's books. The rules are simple - 5 sentences from a page with the digit 5 in the number. Short and sweet and readers get a little taste of what their favorite (or a new one) author is writing.
One of Tara's books
TODAY! I have been chosen by Tara with my 5,5,5 contribution (fifth day of the week, a five in the page no. and a five sentence excerpt from one of my novels). WHAT FUN!!
http://taraford.weebly.com/fiction-five-friday
This has been a very busy month here at my Writer's Blog. Tomorrow begins my Interview with author, Dean Koontz. Then announcing a free book give-away of Susan Elia Macneal's new release, His Majesty's Secret Agent, and of course more storytelling by yours truly. Hope you'll come back often to visit and enjoy my blog!
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June 26, 2014
Saturday is the BIG Day....an Interview with Dean Koontz!
FANS will not want to miss this exciting, in-depth interview with Dean Koontz, master of the suspense thriller for three decades! Just in time to also announce the release of his latest book, "The City" July 1st.
'Here is the riveting, soul-stirring story of Jonah Kirk, son of an exceptional singer, grandson of a formidable “piano man,” a musical prodigy beginning to explore his own gifts when he crosses a group of extremely dangerous people, with shattering consequences. Set in a more innocent time not so long ago, The City encompasses a lifetime but unfolds over three extraordinary, heart-racing years of tribulation and triumph, in which Jonah first grasps the electrifying power of music and art, of enduring friendship, of everyday heroes.
The unforgettable saga of a young man coming of age within a remarkable family, and a shimmering portrait of the world that shaped him, The City is a novel that speaks to everyone, a dazzling realization of the evergreen dreams we all share.
Brilliantly illumined by magic dark and light, it’s a place where enchantment and malice entwine, courage and honor are found in the most unexpected quarters, and the way forward lies buried deep inside the heart.' (courtesy of amazon.com)
The New York Times has called his writing “psychologically complex, masterly and satisfying.” The New Orleans Times-Picayune said Koontz is, “at times lyrical without ever being naive or romantic. [He creates] a grotesque world, much like that of Flannery O’Conner or Walker Percy … scary, worthwhile reading.” Rolling Stone has hailed him as “America’s most popular suspense novelist.”
A two part Interview June 28th and July 1st. Don't Miss It!!
