Linda K. Sienkiewicz's Blog, page 43
August 4, 2016
What, Why, How: E. Ardell
What? What do you mean “what”? Haven’t you heard? My new YA Science Fiction Fantasy book, The Fourth Piece is out now! Ha-ha, just kidding. I’m not that full of myself. I’m a newly published author. I was discovered by a small press called 48fourteen. The publisher loved the concept and the manuscript and offered me a deal.
What is it about? This is where I get to plug in my summary, because I love it (
July 28, 2016
What, Why, How: M.J. Schiller
What? I enjoy writing romance and romantic suspense. I have gathered my books in three collections, the Rocking Romance Collection, RealRomance Collection, and Romantic Realms Collection. The Rocking Romance Collection, you might have guessed, has a character who is a rock star. I have four books out right now in this collection. Three have rock star heroes; one has a rock star heroine. TheRealRomance Collection is about people with “real” jobs, as opposed to being rich and famous. I have tea...
July 25, 2016
My Favorite Lawn Kitsch
I spotted this donkey, deer family, lighthouse, gazing ball, and Dutch children in one front yard in a section of houses built in the fifties. The children are supposed to be smooching, but the homeowner separated them. I don’t think that’s fair. Somehow I imagine the kitchen in this house has pink or avocado green appliances and a formica table with metal chairs and vinylseat covers. In the living room, there’s a starburst clock, console television, and dial telephone with a...
July 21, 2016
What, Why, How: Karrie Waarala
What? Poems, mostly, and mostly persona poems told from the point of view of characters in and around a circus sideshow. The book version of those poems, which centers on a sword swallower and a tattooed lady and is tentatively titled Pierce & Brand’s World of Dangerous Wonders, is currently looking for a home, though it did come close this past year as a book prize finalist. The performance version, LONG GONE: A Poetry Sideshow, is a one-woman show that focuses on telling the tattooed lady’s...
July 14, 2016
What, Why, How: Briana Morgan
I write YA and NA thrillers, for the most part. My debut novel Blood and Water (Oct. 2015) is a YA post-apocalyptic thriller about a group of teenagers whose lives have been drastically altered by a global pandemic. But the novel doesn’t focus on the virus itself. Instead, I’m more concerned with the way people act in the face of trauma and how widespread tragedy changes human behavior. I love exploring the ways that different circumstances can change group dynamics and relationships,...
July 11, 2016
How Many Flaming Chainsaws Make a Novel?
Ever wonder what makes a book catch fire? What makes a book impossible to put down?
Flaming ChainsawsI found this gem of an essay on storytelling with anunlikely title, The Dance of the Flaming Chainsaws, by Benjamin Percyand wanted to pass it along to my readers. Percy wanted to understand how The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is 672 pages long, was so compulsively readable, so he read the book again with a pen and legal tablet, outlining the structure.
Percy says:
I paid particular...
July 7, 2016
What, Why, How: Robert Tell
Reading and books were my passion as far back as I can remember.By seventh grade I was hiding under the blankets and reading by flashlight when I should have been asleep. That’s probably why I needed glasses by age 13. But it wasn’t until I majored in English Literature as an undergrad that I realized how much I liked to write. In fact, my first poetry and stories were published in the University literary magazine.But then I had to make a living. It took me a very long time to develop...
June 30, 2016
What, Why, How: Weam Namou
What? I started out writing novels that were based on true stories, but later in life, I began to write and publish poetry. I then became a journalist for several local newspapers and little by little, I moved toward nonfiction, particularly memoir.
In 2011, I came across Writing Spirit, a book by bestselling author and mystic Lynn Andrews. The book really moved me so I called the author for some literary advice, not imagining that I’d end up in a 4-year shamanic school. This journey chang...
June 27, 2016
Fierce Girls, Superheroes and Zombie Killers
Girls embracesuperpowers. They love to fight imaginary criminals and save people just as much as boys do. Last Halloween, my 8-year old granddaughter was Catgirl, a character she created herself. As you can see, she enjoyed beingfierce:
In addition to being fierce on Halloween, herfavorite game when she visits me is playing Super Kitty Zombie Killer. The game goes like this: I use ahouse phone to call her on my cell phone while she’s in her “office,” which is anothe...
June 23, 2016
What, Why, How: Veronica Dale
What? Over the years I’ve been a librarian, pastoral minister, a non-fiction writer, and a mom. Now I’m the author of Blood Seed, book one of the Coin of Rulve series; and Night Cruiser: Short Stories about Creepy, Amusing or Spiritual Encounters with the Shadow.
Blood Seed, my first novel, stitches literary fantasy and tender romance into the fabric of the dark spiritual journey. Eighteen-year-old Sheft grows up as the despised foreigner in the backward village of At-Wysher. But the quiet,...
