Fran Friel's Blog, page 4

The Haunted Mansion Project Interview

Angel and Fran Survive the Skeery


WE SURVIVED
Have a peek at my interview with the marvelous and talented, Loren Rhoads.
We survived The Haunted Mansion Retreat together, along with a bunch of other intrepid writers and artists. Loren digs deep and makes me share the skeery.
Visit Morbid Is As Morbid Does for the Interview:
http://lorenrhoads.com/2013/07/25/the-haunted-mansion-interviews-fran-friel/

Enjoy!
Wickedly Yours,Fran Friel

TREASURES To Come!

My dear friend (and brother from another mother), Bourn Archer, is doing something spectacular. He is creating TREASURES!

When the corporate world decided to eat up all the small businesses where his restaurant has been for over a decade, he decided it was an opportunity. Bourn took a sharp turn on the highway of life to follow his passion--Music!

Not only is he the lead singer for the

They're Baaaack...The Cyberman!

BBC America - Neil Gaiman's Cyberman


















They're Back


Squeee...!

From I09:

"This Saturday, renowned author Neil Gaiman returns to Doctor Who, with a brand new mission: make the Cyberman actually terrifying again. "How Neil Gaiman did away with the "clanky clanky steampunk" CybermenThis Saturday, renowned author "Neil Gaiman returns to Doctor Who, with a brand new mission:

ASM Blog Horde Interview with Daine Severson

Welcome to the Amazing Stories BLOG HORDE INTERVIEWS!The ASM Blog Horde is a diverse and wonderful species. I have the privilege of talking with all of them, and I get to share those chats with you. In this long-running series, you will have the opportunity to peek inside the minds of the ASM bloggers to to see just what makes them tick.I hope you enjoy the series as much as I have enjoyed preparing it for you. Please feel free to ask questions, or just let the Horde know you've stopped by for a visit.Bloggers live for comments, so keep 'em alive!   --Fran Friel
Tonight's Featured ASM Blogger: DIANE SEVERSON  is a professional singer and vocal teacher. She specializes in "Early Music," and freelances mostly in Medieval and Baroque music. She is also a wife and a mother, a podcaster, a narrator and blogger.After finishing her Bachelors of Music Degree in Vocal Performance in Madison, Wisconsin, Diane moved to Germany where she lived for twenty years. She recently relocated to Paris with her family—an Italian husband, and their 3-year old linguist son.
Fran Friel for Amazing Stories: Welcome to the ASM Blog Horde Interview Series, Diane. I’m thrilled to be here with you. So, let's start with how you became interested in blogging for Amazing Stories Magazine.DS: I saw Steve Davidson’s post calling for bloggers for Amazing Stories over on the StarShipSofa Facebook Page. Since I’ve been Science Fiction poetry’s self-appointed spokesperson for a while now, I thought blogging for ASM would be a perfect opportunity to expand that to a wider audience.
ASN: As you well know, Amazing Stories Magazine has quite a wide variety of blogging categories. In which categories will we find your blogs?DS: I blog about Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction poetry. My main focus will be to review SF poetry – chapbooks, collections, anthologies, online poetry zines and the like. I plan to throw in the odd interview with a prominent or favorite SF poet every once in a while.
ASM: Diane, who are your favorite authors, and what keeps you coming back to their work? Any book recommendations for us? DS: My favorite author within or outside of the genre is Ursula K. LeGuin. I haven’t read all of her work, not by a long stretch, but I’m trying to space it out, so I don’t run out of things to look forward to, if you know what I mean.My favorite novels by UKL are The Left Hand of Darkness (SF), The Other Wind (part of the fantasy, Earthsea Cycle) and The Lathe of Heaven. Her short stories are also incredibly powerful, but there are too many which have affected me to name here. Long before I discovered SF poetry, I fell in love with UKL’s style. It’s slow and melodic and beautiful, just like poetry. I think that might be just what turns some people off of her work.There are a number of other authors that have inspired me to read book after book: Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury, James Tiptree, Jr., Lois McMaster Bujold, Robin Hobb, Charles DeLint, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Nicola Griffith, Marge Piercy, Anne McCaffrey, Sheri Tepper, Neil Gaiman, Philip K. Dick, and Margaret Atwood.
ASM: That’s a juicy list for sure, Diane. I would happily get lost in your bookshelves. Now, how about new or lesser-known authors? Is there anyone you would suggest to our readers?DS: I’ve been introduced to so many authors through podcasts, specifically StarShipSofa and PodCastle, that I’m losing track of who is well known and who is not. However, I feel fairly confident that Lawrence Santoro, Matthew Sanborn Smith and Grant Stone might not be household names.
ASM: Discovering new talent is like finding buried treasure, so thanks for the recommendations. What are you reading now, and how is it so far?   Thanks for reading, gang! Please pop on over to Amazing Stories for the rest of Diane Severson's ASM Blog Horde Interview:   http://wp.me/p2T3WE-3kA Wickedly Yours, Fran Friel

An Amazing Stories Interview with C.E. Martin

Welcome to the Amazing Stories BLOG HORDE INTERVIEWS!The ASM Blog Horde is a diverse and wonderful species. I have the privilege of talking with all of them, and I get to share those chats with you. In this long-running series, you will have the opportunity to peek inside the minds of the ASM bloggers to to see just what makes them tick.I hope you enjoy the series as much as I have enjoyed preparing it for you. Please feel free to ask questions, or just let the Horde know you've stopped by for a visit.Bloggers live for comments, so keep 'em alive!   --Fran Friel
Tonight's featured ASM Blogger: C.E. MARTIN  left the Midwest in 1990, after joining the USAF. After serving two years in Germany and then two more in California, he returned to Indiana, settled down, got married and is now the proud father of two girls.Toiling by day as a civil servant, C.E. enjoys the classic pulp novels and B Movies in his spare time.When not writing, C.E. can be found lurking around the Internet, as @Troglodad or even on Xbox Live—when his kids let him have the TV.
 FF: So, Chuck, please tell us how you became interested in blogging for Amazing Stories Magazine.
CEM: I've been blogging for about six years now, and in 2012 started up in the Indie Author biz and saw a post at a writer's forum asking for bloggers.
FF: As you know, Amazing Stories Magazine has a huge variety of blogging categories. In what categories can we find your blogs at ASM, and what is your special interest in those topics?
CEM: Well, I try and write about SF/F from a family, fatherly angle. It seems like a lot of SF/F has gotten very mature in the 21st Century. A lot of great stuff my kids cant see until they're older. Much older. But, because they're kids, they've missed out on a lot of classic stuff from before their time. I hope to share my education of my kids in Classic SF/F with other parents out there.
FF: Can you tell us a little bit about your previous work in the publishing or genre industry?
CEM: I'm an Indie Author- I have three novels out now on Kindle, Nook, etc. I'm planning about five more this year. Hopefully, they'll come out of the shadows and into the spotlight and I'll be able to consider myself a professional writer.My first professional writing gig was in 2007- I landed a freelance bit with a local newspaper doing opinion pieces. Alas, they went under shortly thereafter (totally not my fault) and I only made enough money to buy my kids an Xbox. I then was recruited by the paper's former editor to do opinion pieces for a regional blog, mythoughtworld.com, which had a decidedly political bent. I also blogged for myself, under the pseudonym, Troglodad. But like Sasquatch, my work there remains elusive to the Internet at large.I was big into amateur filmmaking in the 1980s. If back then we had YouTube and all the fancy editing and HD stuff the kids have now, I'd be as famous as Freddie Wong or Zack Finfrock of Wayside Creations. Instead, my work often remained unfinished or in the form of cool VHS doorstops.
FF: Chuck, how might you categorize the type of blog you enjoy writing?  
CEM: Well, I enjoyed my sarcastic, right-leaning political digs as Troglodad, but it (politics) started getting a little too nasty and personal a few years ago. Today I enjoy talking about what's good in SF/F for kids. If I had my dream blogging gig it would be reviewing movies with an honest everyman's approach. As long as I got free tickets to them, that is. And popcorn. Gotta have popcorn.
FF: One of the things I love about Amazing Stories Magazine is that they’re focusing on multiple genres—Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Do you have a favorite?
CEM: Tough question. I prefer reading Science Fiction. I prefer watching schlocky "horror" B Movies. Fantasy can be okay—I'm a big fan of Piers Anthony's Xanth series. I guess over all, I like them all equally.I actually enjoy Monsters more than all around horror. I like the cheesy ones and the well done ones. I think it's because I prefer to see non-humans get killed in movies. I feel zero guilt cheering when Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward trick a graboid into diving off a cliff. Watching people kill people, even bastards that deserve it...well, that just isn't cool.I greatly enjoy the sciency aspects of Science Fiction, but I find that as I get older, my nitpicking skills have increased and I find most SF/F to be implausible and that kind of ruins it for me.
FF: My husband says the same thing. I guess that’s one of the dangers of getting older. It’s harder to forgive those messy details. How about your favorite authors? Who do you read and what keeps you coming back to their work?
CEM: My all time favorite author would have to Warren Murphy. Lester Dent, ERB, and Robert E Howard would all tie for second place. I say this based on the enjoyment factor—how much I enjoyed reading all of their works. Warren Murphy, and his late writing partner, Richard Sapir, wrote the best series ever, The Destroyer, and it never disappointed. (Well, there was the one time, but that was a ghostwriter). The series also had some closely supervised ghost writers that were fantastic, like Jim Mullaney and Will Murray. But what really sets the books apart from others is the combination of humor, tension and just all around fantastic ass-whoopery.The latest Destroyer novel, #150,  The End of the World , is out and is just like reading the series in the 80s. Incredible.There's a new Destroyer spin off series, Legacy, written by Warren Murphy and Gerald Welch. It is SO good. First book is  Forgotten Son . Five Stars, people. Read it!
FF: Great recommendations, Chuck. You had me at “fantastic ass-whoopery.” How about new authors? Have you read any new or lesser-known authors you’d like to bring to our attention? ...  http://wp.me/p2T3WE-2YM


If you've enjoyed reading CE Martin's interview, please go to my blog at Amazing Stories to read the second half:  http://wp.me/p2T3WE-2YM

Thank you so much for reading, folks! Please come back next week for another featured Amazing Stories Blog Horde Interview.We'll keep the light on for you!Wickedly Yours, Fran Friel

Welcome to the Amazing Stories BLOG HORDE INTERVIEWS!Th...

Welcome to the Amazing Stories BLOG HORDE INTERVIEWS!

The ASM Blog Horde is a diverse and wonderful species. I have the privilege of talking with all of them, and I get to share those chats with you. In this long-running series, you will have the opportunity to peek inside the minds of the ASM bloggers to to see just what makes them tick.

I hope you enjoy the series as much as I have

Your Brain on Storytelling: BOOM!

wikipedia.org Edmund Dulac The Mermaid The Prince.

Story Horder
As a child, I was a story horder. I couldn't get enough of them. I was very fortunate to have parents who read to me, and looking back, they were saints in this regards. I was voracious. I always wanted more, and I wanted my favorites again and again.

The original story of The Little Mermaid and its illustrations

"...On Behalf Of One's Obsessions"

‎"The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists adventurers on behalf of us all." --John Updike
Wishing you all a very Merry Little Christmas!
Yours Most Sincerely,Fran Friel

In Times of Disaster

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.” - Mr. Rogers

Wild Life in Santa Cruz

Photo by Fran Friel 2012With so much of the country struggling with flooding, snow, frigid temps, and disaster clean-up after epic Hurricane Sandy, I thought I'd just offer a simple little glimpse of beauty.  This gorgeous orchid is just one of many I had the pleasure of viewing this past weekend at the Santa Cruz Orchid Society show.

I was dazzled and inspired.  To me she looks like an exotic beast ready to come alive and fly around the room, swooping and diving.  Hide your children!

 I hope you've enjoyed this solitary beauty as much as I have.

Wickedly Yours,
Fran Friel