E.D. Martin's Blog, page 32

Friday Five: Angela Castillo

This week’s Friday Five focus is Angela Castillo, author of sci-fi and Christian historical short stories, novellas, novels, and poetry, plus blog freelance.

There’s magic all around us, if we just know where to look. Angela Castillo has a goal as an author; to help people see. She comes from the small town of Bastrop, Texas, where she loves to walk in the woods and shop in the local stores. Castillo studied Practical Theology and Music at Christ for the Nations in Dallas, Texas.

Her latest works are the Toby the Trilby children’s series. He was born underground, at the edge of the world’s destruction. Twelve years old, Toby has never seen the sun. Created by six scientists who accidentally gave him cat ears (and a tail), Toby decides to leave the safety of his cavern world to seek answers. Did anyone survive the Great Destruction? Why has he been hearing a mysterious Voice? And, most important of all, does he have a soul?

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1. What author has influenced your writing style/subject the most and why?

Such a tough question! Probably C.S. Lewis. He has influenced my life in so many ways, spiritually, creatively and in my writing as well. He created worlds and people that children could step into and become friends with, and that’s what I hope to do with my stories.

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

I think the most important thing is that everyone has a purpose, and that there is more inside of us then we think, we just have to reach down and find that part of ourselves that can love, that can forgive, that can be brave.

3. Why should people read YOUR stuff? Who’s your target audience and why?

I have had people of all ages enjoy my Toby books, but the most important group for me is young boys. Sometimes they are a harder group to encourage to read, and I wanted to write books they couldn’t put down.

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

I hate allowing my MC’s to get hurt! I pretty much have to shut my eyes and type!

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

Toby the Trilby is my favorite. He’s so tiny, but so brave, and he tries to think the best of people and help everyone no matter what they have done to him. I’d like to hope I’d make the same choices he does when faced with those situations, but I don’t know if I could be that brave.

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Angela’s Toby the Trilby series is available at Amazon, where the first book is currently FREE

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Media Monday: African mercenaries and child soldiers

The books:

The Consequential Element by Dee Ann Waite
Only the Dead by M.W. Duncan
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier by Ishmael Beah

The music: “Fatima” and “Strugglin’” by K’naan

Last fall, I moved into a new house. It’s in the part of town single white women aren’t encouraged to live in, but I love it because of all the diversity. There are at least five languages spoken on my block, in part due to a recent influx of immigrants and refugees. Reports says there are 30 languages spoken at the nearby elementary school, from Karen to Kirundi.

I’ve worked with some of these immigrants. From a coworker who fled Sudan to Egypt, taught himself English, and found his way to the Midwest, to a young Ghanian woman who came over with her family and found herself homeless after deciding she wanted to forgo marriage in favor of college, some of their stories aren’t pretty. I’m really looking forward to my school social work internship this fall, so I can work with some of these immigrant kids.

My whole point is that I tend to see the human side to war. At the same time, I want to understand my neighbors’ and clients’ experiences, so I’ve been reading a lot about African conflicts, from multiple perspectives.

First there’s The Consequential Element by Dee Ann Waite, which I’d describe as a geopolitical romantic thriller. An archeologist in central Africa has found a rare element and sends his notes to his niece, á là Indiana Jones. The CIA and Chinese military are after her, as is a Congolese warlord. A handsome mercenary and some old Batswana friends help her out. It’s a well-written, well-researched story, but the reader’s sympathy is always directed towards the protagonist, and the story lacks the nuance needed to make the warlord and his child soldiers three-dimensional.

Only the Dead by M.W. Duncan is a novella about a mercenary in Africa. It lacks the romantic subplot and instead focuses solely on the protagonist’s struggle for survival in the jungles of Liberia. The author does a decent job of building empathy for the child soldiers, allowing the reader to see that they’re victims of circumstance as well. He includes a very touching scene about a boy left to die as the army evacuates its village headquarters that’ll leave the reader angry more isn’t being done about forced enlistment of children.

And if you want to get really angry and sad, pick up A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier by Ishmael Beah. When Beah was twelve, civil war struck Sierra Leone. After witnessing the brutal murders of his family and friends, he was conscripted into the government army (yes, governments use child soldiers just as much as rebels; the Sudanese government is doing it as you’re reading this), hopped up on drugs, and made to commit atrocities kids that age shouldn’t even know about, let alone witness. Fortunately he made it out alive and was one of the lucky kids who was rehabilitated.

The music pick, Somalian rapper K’naan, has a similar story. He was on one of the last flights out of Mogadishu after the country descended into violence (20 years later and it’s still violent anarchy) and settled in Toronto. His songs mix his experiences as a troubled innercity black male with the violence he witnessed in Somalia.

Like the protagonists in this week’s books, K’naan is just looking for a path to healing, and like my neighbors, clients, and coworkers, it’s often easier said than done.

Weekend Writing Warriors 6/21/15 #8Sunday

All month I’ve been pulling from my short story collection, Us, Together. Since today is Father’s Day, this week’s excerpt is from “Man of the House,” the second story in the collection.

In this story, a little boy is confronted with his parents’ failing marriage as he spends the afternoon watching a baseball game with his dad.

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Her voice raised, Mom railed at Dad. Jerry Jr. squeezed his eyes shut, then went to the corner, picked up his sister, and took her outside, watching from the stoop as she toddled around the yard in the too-high grass, grass that Dad used to keep greener and better cut than any other house on the block.

He sat there and watched the sun dip low in the sky. The game would be over by now and he wondered how badly the Cubbies had lost. He watched Jennifer sit in the flower bed, pulling the petals off all the tulips and dandelions; last year there hadn’t been any dandelions in there, just tulips of every color he could think of and some he couldn’t even name.

Dad came out of the house just as the street lights were flickering on, suitcase in hand, and nearly tripped over Jerry Jr. sitting there on the step. He paused, looked down at his son, and Jerry Jr. stood up.

“Well, son, looks like you’ll be the man of the house now,” he said as he clapped his hand on JJ’s shoulder for a moment, then threw his suitcase in the back of his truck and backed out of the driveway.

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Read more in Us, Together, just $.99 at Amazon, then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

Friday Five: A. L. Maher

This week’s Friday Five focus is A. L. Maher, author of children’s fiction and not children’s horror short stories, novellas, and novels.

He’s a graphic designer interested in motorcycles, martial art, music, story telling, and writing – got bitten by that bug a few months ago now.

His latest work, the children’s story Tim, The Toothpaste Troll, is a good story if you’ve ever wondered how or why your toothpaste ends up all hard and crusty. Follow the adventures of Tim, an unemployed troll who is out to find himself. He’ll have a try at anything from being a sandman, to butterfly painting, but he’ll have to think quick if he’s to avoid being caught by the notorious Tinkerbell’s Angels Outlaw Motorcycle Fairy Gang. And it’s FREE on Amazon right now!

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

I was a massive bookworm. I started on Harry Harrison, then went to Tolkien, then pulled back into Sci Fi. As a 16 year old, I discovered James Herbert and Stephen King. I’ve been a horror fan ever since.

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

Jon Snow. I know nothing…and I’m still alive for the moment.

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

I was a dish pig at a greasy Joe’s Cafe as a kid in England …

Why was it the worst … I was a dish pig at a greasy Joe’s Cafe in England … there was no upside

4. What do you want your tombstone to say?

“I’ve tied my shoelaces together” … it’ll be piss funny if there’s a zombie apocalypse!

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

I’m simply a funnel. The story starts from me, but then the characters take on a life of their own and they start to tell me what happens. I just channel what they tell me.

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A.L.’s latest work, Tim, The Toothpaste Troll, is currently FREE at Amazon.

Media Monday: H.L. Burke and Evanescence

The books: The Dragon and the Scholar series by H.L. Burke

The music: “Bring Me to Life” Evanescence

The Dragon and the Scholar series is comprised of four fantasy books about the adventures of a scholar who’s fallen in love with a dragon.

Book 1 starts out with scholar Shannon sent to the kingdom of Regone to heal a young king with a serious attitude problem. Turns out he was injured fighting dragons after one ate his brother. When a dragon shows up near the castle, Shannon takes it upon herself to convince him to leave without bloodshed, but instead she ends up enjoying his company.

Without any spoilers, the rest of the series is about her relationship with Gnaw, as the dragon calls himself. The two are obviously in love, but Gnaw is a pragmatist – how could Shannon possibly be happy with him – and keeps pushing her away. Shannon tries to hold out hope that they’ll get a happy ending, but Burke throws a nice mix of obstacles in their way, from other princes to vengeful wizards and even a power-bent Fey queen from the past.

Overall, The Dragon and the Scholar series is a quick read with likable characters and fun plots.

For the music, I think Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life” is fitting for the whole series, as the overarching plot concerns how Shannon can save Gnaw – both from his dragon nature and his own thoughts.

Weekend Writing Warriors 6/14/15 #8Sunday

This week’s excerpt is from “Of Gods and Floods,” the fourth story in my short story collection, Us, Together.

Richie and his older brother Eddie live in a small rundown town with no future. In this scene, Richie is practicing his jumpshot. Eddie overheard him tell a friend he thinks maybe he’ll end up in the NBA some day.

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“And how exactly you planning on getting into the NBA?” Eddie asked as he leaned against the chain link fence next to the court, a cigarette in his hand. “You ain’t even on the school team, not that any agents are gonna be hanging around here looking for players.”

“I’ll practice real hard.” I paused, then swooshed the ball through the netless hoop. “And maybe they’ll come through town some day while I’m playing and they’ll like me so much they’ll put me on their team.”

Eddie opened his mouth, then shut it and walked away with his friends, their cigarettes clasped between their fingers.

Later that night, as I was sitting in the kitchen working on my math homework, a firetruck zoomed by our house. But I heard the sirens so often anymore I didn’t even look up.

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Read more in Us, Together, then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

Friday Five: Leslie E Owen

This week’s Friday Five focus is on Leslie E Owen, author of children’s, mainstream, and spec fiction short stories, novellas, novels, poetry, plays, and libretti.

Leslie has worked in publishing for 33 years, as an agent, editor, and foreign rights director. She’s currently writing her second novel — due to her agent this summer — and running her own literary agency. Her first book was a children’s science book published in 2003-2004, Pacific Tree Frogs; her second was a Star Trek novel currently on submission.

Pacific Tree Frogs can be ordered through Tradewind Books in Vancouver, Canada, as I don’t think Amazon has any copies left. It’s an illustrated science book for kids, 5-10, and was a Top Ten in Canada in 2003.

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1. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever researched for your works or biggest/most out-of-the-ordinary thing you’ve done while researching?

Of course, there I was, in hip boots with a net and a giant torch, in the middle of the bloody night, with my illustrator, standing knee deep in swamp and listening to the “reek, reek, reek” of the Pacific Tree frogs all around us, a barred owl calling in the distance, the mink and beavers splashing in the channels of the glacial lake up ahead, the squonk of a blue heron as we disturbed him…

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

Other than writing believable and memorable characters?

I’d like to be able to communicate with plants and animals, in the way the Transcendentalists thought we could.

And I’d like to teleport so I could warn the Vulcans to stay away, because JJ’s just going to blow them up.

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

My Star Trek novel is the story of an adult survivor of child abuse who develops severe complex PTSD. It’s a psychological thriller, not your normal ST book at all. Most of the novel is set in sickbay and deals with the trauma and treatment of PTSD. The abuser, however, is still alive and well, and it becomes a race to see which one will survive — the victim or his abuser?

So at the end of the novel I’m well into real Star Trek territory, blowing up shuttlecraft and firing phasers, hand-to-hand combat and traveling at warp speed…Not only did I have to write completely plausible fight scenes to end the novel, but I also had to research all the Star Trek technology to get it right, since I hate making mistakes. Thankfully, I know a wonderful FX guy who has worked on Trek, and he supplied me with the science of comm. badges, etc.

4. What are three things on your bucket list?

Write for Star Trek. (So, so close.)
I’d like to see the countries I haven’t seen yet — Ireland and the UK, Norway, Israel, Greece, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica and Honduras, Belize.
Find a cottage in Maine on the sea to retire to.

5. Why should people read YOUR stuff? Who’s your target audience and why?

It’s good. My characters are real. You’ve felt what they feel — you’ve been where they’ve been — you’re nodding your head as you read. I remember that, you think. You’ll fall in love.

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Leslie’s children’s book, Pacific Tree Frogs , is available through Tradewind Books.

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Weekend Writing Warriors 6/7/15 #8Sunday

This week’s excerpt is from “Man of the House,” the second story in my short story collection, Us, Together.

In this story, a little boy is confronted with his parents’ failing marriage.

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For eight-year-old Jerry, Sunday, May 17th, 1987, started as a day just like any other, with church in the morning followed by an afternoon on the couch watching baseball with Dad. Mom kept popping her head in from the kitchen to complain about the beer, the cigarettes, the TV being so goddamn loud and didn’t he realize the baby was trying to sleep?

Of course Dad must have realized it, sitting there hunched over, rubbing his temples and downing can after can of Budweiser. Good American beer for a good American man, he always said. When Jerry was older he was never able to drink the stuff himself, told everyone it tasted like crap but really the taste brought back memories that made him cry.

But that day in May, that Sunday, Jerry wasn’t crying. He was eight years old, bouncing on the couch, rooting for the Cubbies, asking Dad if he saw that play, if he thought it could’ve gone another way, if that ump was crazy. And Dad just sat there on the couch, drinking beer after beer, not answering.

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Read more in Us, Together, then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.

Friday Five: Robin White

This week’s Friday Five focus is on Robin White, author of lit fiction and speculative fiction short stories, novellas, and novels.

Robin is a twenty six year old writer and teacher from the U.K. He has had work featured in Dogzplot, Bartleby Snopes and other places besides. He splits his time between the British countryside and the Wilds of Brooklyn.

His latest work is a piece of speculative flash fiction, set in Japan. There are robots. And there is fishing. It’s spectacular. Find it over at Bartleby Snopes.

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

Goodness. I’ve no idea. I’m fond of a robot I wrote about in my most recently published piece. His name is Francis and he likes to fish.

2. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever researched for your works or biggest/most out-of-the-ordinary thing you’ve done while researching?

Where to start? All manner of sexual practices. Japanese slang. How long it takes spit to hit the ground if projected from a high building. How much the average male prostitute can charge in an hour. The Olive Garden.

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

Any short fiction. I’m not worried about genre right now, though I do drift towards the speculative. I’ve been reading Haruki Murikami, lately.

4. Why do you write in the genre(s) you listed above?

I enjoy writing about the absurd, quite honestly. Speculative Lit allows me to indulge that fancy. Otherwise, I adore the tone of Literary Fiction. It’s character driven, it’s unapologetic and it’s a genre which contains many of my favourite works.

5. What do you want your tombstone to say?

“Vacant.”

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Robin’s latest short story, “The Great Strawberry,” is available at Bartleby Snopes.

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Weekend Writing Warriors 5/31/15 #8Sunday

This week’s excerpt is from “Us, Together,” the first story in my short story collection of the same name.

Jake and Andrea are two high schoolers with a bit of a problem, to put it mildly.

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There are lots of words nobody wants to say or hear during sex, but I think the two syllables I’d just uttered were at the top of the list.

“What do you mean, ‘uh-oh’?” Andrea asked as I eased my sweaty body off hers. We were in our usual spot, parked halfway down an abandoned driveway off Route 12, scrunched into the back of my beat-up Impala; several weeks ago when we’d first come here we’d tried doing it on a blanket in the grass, but I got too nervous thinking about a cop or somebody coming along and had what I euphemistically called performance anxiety.

“I think it broke, Andrea,” I said as I reached down and fumbled between my legs. “Shit.”

“Did you…?”

“Yeah, I always do with you.”

“Shit.”

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Read more in Us, Together, then post a link to your eight sentences blog entry, or join the fun at the Weekend Writing Warriors website.