E.D. Martin's Blog, page 27

Friday Five: Mandy Webster

Today’s Friday Five focus is Mandy Webster, author of upper middle grade, medieval novels.

Mandy writes for a popular children’s website. She’s also edited an online parenting magazine and worked as an advertising copywriter. Young Marian: A Viper in the Forest is her first novel.

A prequel to the classic Robin Hood legend, Young Marian: A Viper in the Forest introduces Marian at age 13. Marian and her best friend Robin’s carefree childhood in Sherwood Forest takes a dark turn when the arrival of a sadistic new lord sets off a series of intrigues including robbery, kidnapping and murder.

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1. What was your attitude towards reading when you were a kid?

I read all the time when I was younger. I was lucky enough to have two older sisters so the house was already filled with books by the time I was old enough to read. I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on. It ran the gambit from Archie comics, to Nancy Drew, Enid, Blyton, Judy Blume. I think my favourite was The Trumpeter Swan by E. B. White – but then my favourites changed all the time! When I was a preteen my mother banned me from reading my sister’s Barbara Cartland romances, but I used to sneak them anyway.

2. What do you want your readers to take away from your works?

I’ve always loved the legend of Robin Hood, but it occurred to me that we usually hear the story from the male point of view, and the female characters are primarily the love interest. I wanted to turn the story on its head, and write a book that would encourage girls to look at it a new light. Marian stands strong in a medieval setting that is not necessarily friendly to women. I hope her courage inspires girls to reach for their own dreams.

3. Is there a certain type of scene that’s harder for you to write than others? How do you deal with this?

I prefer to write scenes between the kids, over scenes where they are interacting with the adults. For me, it’s the dynamic between Marian, Robin, Midge and Guy that is the most fun to explore. The adults are necessary, of course, but wherever possible I try to put the dialogue into the kids’ mouths, and base the majority of the action there.

4. How much of your published writing is based on personal experiences?

Well, I did not grow up in Nottingham in the 12th century. But I did move from Canada to England when I was just a little older than Marian. I lived in one of the most beautiful parts of the country (although to be honest, it’s ALL beautiful!) My home was right at the bottom of Cheddar Gorge, so I was surrounded by soaring cliff faces, rolling hills, dense forests, and best of all – the deepest underground caves in the UK were a five minute walk from my house. How cool is that? So whenever I’m writing about Marian and Robin, I am remembering that wonderful time exploring gorgeous Somerset.

5. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Maybe super-speed, so I could get through all the boring things I have to do – like housework – and spend more time writing!

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Young Marian: A Viper in the Forest is available now through Amazon.

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Weekend Writing Warrior 12/13/15 #8Sunday

This month’s excerpts are from my short story, “A Place to Die.”

When Libby Starr spends a summer helping out at her mom’s bed and breakfast-turned-hospice, she doesn’t expect to spend her time babysitting someone like Mr. Calloway – a young, vibrant financial planner with a mischievous streak. But Mr. Calloway is sicker than he seems, something neither he nor his family want to acknowledge. Can Libby help him accept his fate without losing her heart?

We’re skipping ahead to the Fourth of July. Libby and Mr. Calloway are stargazing while waiting for the fireworks to start.

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“I can only find the Big—” Coughs cut him off.

I handed him the water bottle I always carried with me now. He took a drink, then continued as if nothing had happened, “Dipper.”

“Ursa Major.”

“Doesn’t look like a bear to me; it looks like a big net to catch stars with.”

I heard him shift and out of the corner of my eye could see him watching me. The wind died down, as if the world were holding its breath, and I said, “It’ll take more than a net to catch this Starr.”

He shook his head, smiling at me, and the wind picked up again as he squeezed my hand and the first fireworks exploded above us.

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Get the rest of my story FREE when you sign up for my mailing list. Then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

Friday Five: David Neilson

Today’s Friday Five focus is David Neilson, author of historical crime novels.

Having retired from teaching in further education in Glasgow, he lives on the Rhine growing runner beans, courgettes and kohlrabi.

His latest novel is The Prussian Dispatch. Vienna, 1772. Sophie Rathenau is desperate for work. Countess Wielopolska is desperate to hold her country together. Chancellor Granitz is desperate not to be found out. And the Prussians are desperate to get their dispatch back.

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1. What’s the worst job you’ve ever had and why? What was the best thing about that job and why?

I had a student job handing out flyers for a steamer on the Clyde Coast, near Glasgow, Scotland, advertising day trips. It got unpleasant when the Captain was dragged into court on a charge on interfering with chidlren.

2. What’s your current writing project and what are your writing plans for the near future?

The Prussian Dispatch, which I’ve just published, is the first in a series of seven about Sophie and her work as an early private detective in Mozart’s Vienna. (She will never, never be allowed to meet Mozart in the series, by the way.) The second, Lay Brothers, focuses on Sophie’s war with the Jesuit Order. I’m getting feedback on that at the moment, though unfortunately not from any Jesuits, and plan to start editing soon.

3. Thinking about the stuff you’ve written, who’s your favorite character and why?

It could only be my main character, Sophie Rathenau, whose voice is always resonating in my head. She knows she’s the star turn and she doesn’t tolerate rivals. I can catch her sometimes thinking whether she’s tough enough in one scene, or vulnerable enough, or self-righteous enough. I really love it when one of the other characters shows a bit of independence, but the best moments for me come when Sophie says or does something outrageous, for example getting to get into a ball for free by pretending that a non-existent husband will pay, or trying to con a Jesuit rector into believing she’s a rich patroness. She puts her whole heart into gambits like that, and I notice that readers take well to them, too.

4. Where do your inspiration and ideas for your stories come from?

I really like my world – eighteenth-century Vienna in terms of music, surroundings and costume really appeals to me. I’ve wandered about central Europe so much that writing stories featuring its palaces and rat-infested alleys seems quite natural.

5. What are three things on your bucket list?

I need to learn a Slavic language. I can travel overland to Poland in a day if I want to, living as I do in Germany, but my Polish vocabulary is shockingly limited.
Learn the clarinet and play a Mozart concerto.
Travel to a continent outside Europe. There have to be good places elsewhere!

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The Prussian Dispatch is available now through Amazon.

Become a Friday Five author.

Weekend Writing Warrior 12/6/15 #8Sunday

This month’s excerpts are from my short story, “A Place to Die.”

When Libby spends a summer helping out at her mom’s bed and breakfast-turned-hospice, she doesn’t expect to spend her time babysitting someone like Mr. Calloway – a young, vibrant financial planner with a mischievous streak. But Mr. Calloway is sicker than he seems, something neither he nor his family want to acknowledge. Can Libby help him accept his fate without losing her heart?

Prior to this scene, Libby and Mr. Calloway had an argument over her being too mothering. After talking to her mom about how many people die alone, she’s focused on making sure that doesn’t happen to her charge.

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The next morning, I headed to the dining room to find Mr. Calloway, more determined than ever to keep an eye on him after my conversation with Mom. I kept seeing myself fifty years in the future, surrounded by stuff that didn’t care whether I lived or died. She was right; he needed a friend now more than ever.

But Mr. Calloway wasn’t at breakfast. No big deal; lots of guests slept in or ate granola bars they’d stashed in their rooms. When he wasn’t at lunch, however, worry started to gnaw at me. What if his coughing fit from the previous day had been worse than he’d let on, and what if he was dead in his room, right now? Mom would kill me if a guest died on my watch.

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Get the rest of my story FREE when you sign up for my mailing list. Then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

New book release and sale! (kind of)

This week I released a new title – Yours to Keep or Throw Aside. It’s about a housewife whose husband cheats on her, and she has to decide whether to fix her marriage or get into a relationship with a cop who has a lot of problems of his own.

What’s that? This sounds familiar?

Yes, actually, it is. We’ve retitled and re-released my 2013 debut novel, The Lone Wolf. The cover is different, but the content is still the same.

It’s on sale this week at Amazon for only $.99. Make sure you get a copy if you haven’t read it yet!

 

Weekend Writing Warrior 11/29/15 #8Sunday

This week’s snippet is from my short story collection, The Futility of Loving a Soldier, which has a print edition coming out this week.

Today’s excerpt is from “Gone But Not Forgotten.” Carolyn is going through boxes belonging to her ex-husband when she finds a medal that triggers some memories of when she went out for the afternoon, leaving her husband to watch their baby. She arrived home and no one was there. After several hours of searching, the police called to let her know they found her baby, safe.

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Her mom drove her to the station, where Shanna slept in a strange car seat. Carolyn picked up her daughter and embraced her so hard the baby woke and started screaming, their tears and cries mixing.

Carolyn had so focused on Shanna she hadn’t noticed Bryce, who now stood right next to her, and she pivoted, trying to shield the baby from him with her arms.

“I knew I couldn’t trust you,” she said, her frustration and relief and fears morphing into anger. “Three hours, Bryce, I left you for three hours, and you couldn’t handle that. What kind of father are you?”

His eyes, unstable at the best of times, flashed with an emotion she didn’t have time to read and didn’t want to read, and then hardened. He stared at her, stared at her daughter, and turned on his heels and walked out the door.

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Read more about Carolyn and Bryce in The Futility of Loving a Soldier, then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

I’m thankful for…

This year I get to have four Thanksgivings. Three are with family, and those are nice and all, but the best one was at one of the schools where I’m doing a social work internship this year. Every year for Thanksgiving, the teachers show the students how thankful they are for their students by providing the kids a big meal.

These aren’t average kids; it’s an alternative high school, and many of the students are there by court order, or because they’ve been sent from a regular high school. Most of the students are dealing with multiple other problems, too: addiction (either theirs or a parent’s), incarceration (again, theirs or a parent’s), poverty, violence…. the list goes on, and it’s heartbreaking.

But these kids, despite their problems, are wonderful. I’ve only been working with them a few months, and already I can see how thankful they are for their caring teachers – even if they don’t express it.

It’s a wonderful experience when the teachers can turn that around and show how thankful they are for their kids. It takes a village, after all, and I’m thankful to be part of that village this year.

Weekend Writing Warrior 11/22/15 #8Sunday

This week’s snippet is from my short story collection, The Futility of Loving a Soldier, which has a print edition coming out later this month.

Today’s excerpt is from “Gone But Not Forgotten.” Carolyn is going through boxes belonging to her ex-husband when she finds a medal that triggers some memories of when she went out for the afternoon, leaving her husband to watch their baby. She arrived home and no one was there.

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“I left Shanna with Bryce and I got home and I can’t find them,” Carolyn said, her words coming in a rush, the syllables matching her pounding heart. “Have you seen them?”

Her neighbor Meredith exchanged a look with her husband, Jim; They were military too and probably trying not to reach the same conclusions as Carolyn.

Other neighbors popped out of their houses, and Jim organized them into pairs. They fanned out on foot through the neighboring streets, or jumped in vehicles to search farther spots.

Carolyn’s mom arrived, coaxed her daughter into the house, and made her drink some tea she’d probably laced with Valium too because the next few hours were a fog.

It was dark when the police called to say they’d found the baby, and Bryce too, but Carolyn barely heard that part. All that mattered was that they’d found her baby and that her baby was safe.

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Read more about Carolyn and Bryce in The Futility of Loving a Soldier, then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

Weekend Writing Warrior 11/15/15 #8Sunday

In honor of Veterans’ Day last Wednesday, this week’s snippet is from my short story collection, The Futility of Loving a Soldier, which has a print edition coming out later this month.

Today’s excerpt is from “Gone But Not Forgotten.” Carolyn is going through boxes belonging to her ex-husband when she finds a medal that triggers some memories of when she went out for the afternoon, leaving her husband to watch their baby.

* * * * * * * * * * *

She pulled into the driveway beside Bryce’s car and hurried inside, leaving the groceries in the car. Of course Shanna was fine. It was the middle of a Saturday afternoon, the sun shining down on their rundown piece of suburbia, so why was a voice screaming in Carolyn’s head that everything wasn’t okay?

“Mommy’s home,” she called as she entered through the kitchen door, throwing her purse on the counter next to Bryce’s phone. “Did you miss me?”

No response.

“Bryce, I’m home.”

Still nothing.

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Read more about Carolyn and Bryce in The Futility of Loving a Soldier, then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

And if you’re a writer, sign up to be a Friday Five author, which gets you and your latest work featured on my blog.

Friday Five: Mickie Bolling-Burke

Today’s Friday Five focus is Mickie Bolling-Burke, author of Horror/Thriller/Suspense short stories and novellas.

Growing up on the east coast, Mickie kept her wrist watch at California time. When she finally made it to the palm trees and Pacific Ocean of the west coast, she knew she’d come home. Working as an actor fed her creative soul, until her beloved Los Angeles grew too big for her. She and her family now live in a small corner of the southwest, where she finds the sky as majestic and blue as she did the ocean. Mickie spends her time writing, reading, hiking and watching The Three Stooges with her very adored rescue cat, Pal.

Her latest book is Blood Mask, two short stories of horror filled with fraud and murder. A woman has accomplished nothing until she writes a book that becomes a bestseller. When she can’t write her second book, she makes a desperate bargain to break her writer’s block. Another woman has run away from her horrible childhood. When ghosts from her past catch up to her, she tries to fight them so they can’t drag her back to hell.

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1. Where do your inspiration and ideas for your stories come from?

Everywhere. Anywhere. Something will click and there is a story demanding I write it down.

2. What genre do you currently read most and why?

I read a lot of different genres – literature, general fiction, suspense, mystery, because they are entertaining and compelling, but I do come back, often and always, to horror.

3. What do you want your tombstone to say?

She had love, she had laughter, she had cats, she had books.

4. What literary character are you most like and why?

When my husband wants me to do something, I’m like Bartleby the scrivener – “I prefer not.” When my Russian Blue cat is avoiding me, I’m like Captain Ahab – chasing the ‘great grey kitten’.

5. What’s your current writing project and what are your writing plans for the near future?

I have a novella that I’m doing major edits on now, and writing a short story, and I have seventy-three stories in the queue waiting to be written. We’ll see what’s what after that.

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Blood Mask is available now through Amazon.

Become a Friday Five author.