What have you written?

What are you interested in?

Have you written the words (metaphorically or literally) "The end" on anything?

(- even if you just know you've got years worth of revision to do on it.)

What do you want to do next?

Good questions.  :)

I've written one play (for a college class).

Hundreds of bad poems.

A novella (for a college class).

Dozens of short stories.

Two novels (desperately in need of editing).

Those are all completed things. I have endless scraps of words here, there and everywhere.

I like Shirley Jackson type stories...everything seems calm and normal on the surface, but something peculiar is going on behind the doors.  I have read in the classics and science fiction (mostly when I was in college, but those are still my favorite. I think every story, no matter what genre, is improved by having some suspense.  I prefer tightly written stories rather than ones that take ten pages to describe a sunrise.  I love theater, but I am too verbose to write for the stage.

Thought it was about time I said hello, so here goes with my own answers to my own questions:

What have you written?

I have written a crime story, 68, 060 words in total with 26,138 words on the sequal and lots of notes on the third in the series.  Also a fantasy with 43,129 words so far... swords, magic and such.

A sci-fi with 12,265 – funny, thought there was more of that one...

And various beginings and lots of ideas, plus the poetry...

What are you interested in?

I find I'm interested in stories in Crime, Fantasy and Sci-fi mainly but with excursions into other fields, like in the crime stories I wandered off into archaeology, various different fields of art – painting, sculpture, crafts, gardening, the theatre... anything that's interesting really.

Have you written the words (metaphorically or literally) "The end" on anything?

Yeah, the 68 thou crime story – never thought I'd ever get that far with anything.  I don’t count the poetry, you can call 4 lines "finished".  Not sneering at poetry, I like writing it, but it doesn’t take anywhere near the same kind of dedication as an entire novel.

(- even if you just know you've got years worth of revision to do on it.)

(and I do)

What do you want to do next?

There I'm stumped.  I've been doing 3D art for the last few years, modeling in 3D as well as rendering the finished result.

I guess I'd really like to be able to do both: writing and the art, like... for instance: being able to illustrate my own novels with my own 3D art work, perhaps my own 3 D models too.

I'd really like to get back into writing.

Quote - Good questions.  :)

I've written one play (for a college class).

Ah, I tried play writing - have acted (and produced once) in many plays over the years, been a green genie, a crabby old lady, a girlfreind, and an enchantress - evil of course! lol!  I actually enjoyed being the crabby, interfeering old lady best - a very meaty part!  But although I even went to classes about play-writing I never managed to get my head around it.

Quote - Hundreds of bad poems.

Hmmm, well I won't say either way, but some of my poetry I liked more than others.

Quote - A novella (for a college class). Dozens of short stories.

I think my novella was merely a short story that ran over... Lol!  I've does a couple of shorts, with varying sucess - one was done for a competition.  Oh, it didn't win... surprise surprise!

Quote - Two novels (desperately in need of editing).

Two completed?  Wow!  That's a lot of work even before the editing.

Quote - Those are all completed things. I have endless scraps of words here, there and everywhere.

Oh yeah, snap!

Quote - I like Shirley Jackson type stories...everything seems calm and normal on the surface, but something peculiar is going on behind the doors.  I have read in the classics and science fiction (mostly when I was in college, but those are still my favorite.

Oh, I forgot to ask about reading preferences.
Not heard of Shirley Jackson before.  What sort of classics do you mean?  And what sort of sci-fi?

Quote - I think every story, no matter what genre, is improved by having some suspense.  I prefer tightly written stories rather than ones that take ten pages to describe a sunrise.  I love theater, but I am too verbose to write for the stage.

I agree about the tightly written, although I still love LotR.

I REALLY like the language of G. K. Chesterton, (and Tolkien) Kai Lung, and D. L. Sayers.

I love Terry Pratchett - but not all equally.  Asimov, Heinlein, A.C. Clarke ... and more

Liked Jeremy Clarkson's "The World According To..."
 and lots more.  Don't much like biographies or non-fiction, except archaeology...

Surely one small paragraph is enough for any sunrise?

Since normally we can assume the sun rose, I think the description should only be happen if the sun didn't rise.  :D

I read somewhere that one should not waste precious space on things people already commonly know, unless something unusual will happen later on in the story that makes that thing necessary and important.  If the description doesn't reveal character or an important plot detail, cross it out, is my rule.

I tend to believe that.  I don't see the point of telling me what an ocean looks like unless there is a storm are a sea montster about to appear.  Very few people write description well.

And I have  a prejudice against someone who spend three pages describing a character and that character does nothing except stand there and be admired for three pages.

I was an English major in college so the classics I read were things like Shakespeare and Dickens with some Brecht and Camus thrown in for variation.  I took pre-16th century drama one year (Ralph Roister Doister, anyone?) and Persian literature (I don't know why). I never picked up a liking for fantasy (LOR lost me with the hairy feet), and the science fiction I liked was more fiction than Science (Bradbury type).  Shirley Jackson wrote domestic comedy and domestic horror stories. I also like mysteries by Jospehine Tey, Ruth Rendell,  and some of Patricia Highsmith's stuff.   I actually have grown to admire Agatha Christie.  While I know style purists turn up their noses at her, no one was more clever at turning a plot around.

I used to like horror when it was civilized and creepy.  Now its just gory boring and I've gone off the genre.

Now I'll step out and let someone else answer some questions.

Quote - Since normally we can assume the sun rose, I think the description should only be happen if the sun didn't rise.  :D

I read somewhere that one should not waste precious space on things people already commonly know, unless something unusual will happen later on in the story that makes that thing necessary and important.  If the description doesn't reveal character or an important plot detail, cross it out, is my rule.

I tend to believe that.  I don't see the point of telling me what an ocean looks like unless there is a storm are a sea montster about to appear.  Very few people write description well.

And I have  a prejudice against someone who spend three pages describing a character and that character does nothing except stand there and be admired for three pages.

Oh sure, you should always fit descriptions around the story, so that (taking a crime story for instance) you can describe the way the sunrise casts a glow onto some building - that later turns out to be where something relevant occured - or else describe the way the sunrise slowly reveals the dead body of some victim... so that you start with a really beautiful scene in which you suddenly realise that that is the shiny bald head of a dead person that the sun is so delicately bathing in an auriole of light... kinda thing.

Or have the protag try to wipe dog poo off his beautiful shiny (good quality) shoes on the grass as he walks into a wood to view the location of a body dump - that way you've included the protag's fastidiousness and his good shoes, as well as what the wood is like - all while he's walking down to the body and you get some description of the scene in as well - economical and doesn't slow the action... hopefully.

The thing is, I know the theory, I'm just not sure if I've slipped up anywhere.
 

Quote - I was an English major in college so the classics I read were things like Shakespeare and Dickens with some Brecht and Camus thrown in for variation.  I took pre-16th century drama one year (Ralph Roister Doister, anyone?) and Persian literature (I don't know why). I never picked up a liking for fantasy (LOR lost me with the hairy feet), and the science fiction I liked was more fiction than Science (Bradbury type).  Shirley Jackson wrote domestic comedy and domestic horror stories. I also like mysteries by Jospehine Tey, Ruth Rendell,  and some of Patricia Highsmith's stuff.   I actually have grown to admire Agatha Christie.  While I know style purists turn up their noses at her, no one was more clever at turning a plot around.

I don't like Patricia Highsmith so much, and not keen on Ruth Rendal - her habit of killing off children gave me nightmares.  But Josephine Tey's writing is great, I also rather like Agatha Christie - sorry about that.  I also like P.D. James - I get a lot out of her writing, deep though it sometimes is. > Quote - I used to like horror when it was civilized and creepy.  Now its just gory boring and I've gone off the genre. Now I'll step out and let someone else answer some questions.

Oh don't do that, if people want to talk they will - in the meantime I was rather enjoying our conversation... don't leave now.  It was just getting interesting.

I'd be very happy to hear what anyone else has to say, but what if no one does?  The conversation would just die away and there'd be a load of unhelpful and intimidating silence...

I'd have to go start a whole new thread to get a response again... Hey, I might even have to think of something... ma brain hurts you know, have pity!

Have you read any of G.K Chesterton's Father Brown Stories?

I particularly like his description of ... well this:

(quote from The Insoluble Problem a Father Brown Story by G. K. Chesterton)
As they went through the mulberry bushes, the landscape of the garden presented that rich yet ominous effect which is found when the land is actually brighter than the sky. In the broken sunlight from behind, the tree-tops in front of them stood up like pale green flames against a sky steadily blackening with storm, through every shade of purple and violet. The same light struck strips of the lawn and garden beds; and whatever it illuminated seemed more mysteriously sombre and secret for the light. The garden bed was dotted with tulips that looked like drops of dark blood, and some of which one might have sworn were truly black; and the line ended appropriately with a tulip tree; which Father Brown was disposed, if partly by some confused memory, to identify with what is commonly called the Judas tree. What assisted the association was the fact that there was hanging from one of the branches, like a dried fruit, the dry, thin body of an old man, with a long beard that wagged grotesquely in the wind.

I think that's wonderful writing, very evocative of the sunlight and the scene and sneaks in a juicy dead body where you least expected it.  Great stuff!

Side note: I started this answer Monday, but my stupid computer crashed (again), Grrrrrrrrrrrr ... I have a love/hate relationship with my Hateway laptop. Just got it back from the shop (again).

**What have you written? **

I have written several magazine articles, reviews, and interviews if that counts, several short stories and tons of poems. One of my children’s stories [one that I am working on illustrating] was read on the children’s hour on Public Broadcast Radio. Currently I am in the final phase of rewriting and editing the first book in my Arthurian Trilogy … October, is the scheduled ready-for-publication date.

What are you interested in?

 I have been very myopic of late, and my library is overflowing with everything Arthurian or Roman Britain, (historical, research, novels); Arthurian, Celtic, Roman-Britain, Roman London. Saxon, Picts, Druids.  

When I am not immersed in the Dark Ages, I enjoy a well crafted and intellectual Science Fiction, Fantasy, and especially a good murder mystery.  

One thing that I detest, and it has seemed to become a trend of late, is for an author to add gratuitous sex that has nothing to do with the storyline. It seems the writer just sticks a detailed sex act between the pages to shock (or gross) the reader out. Not that there is anything wrong with that kind of literature, just please, do not stick it between the pages of an otherwise non-sexual content book.

 Have you written the words (metaphorically or literally) "The end" on anything?

 I have written the words “The End” to my current novel several times. However, after I started the final editing, I found that it needed additional segue chapters in the middle to complete the story.

 As mentioned above, I have completed several short stories (most are steeped in humor); one children’s story, one young adult short story, one romance, several non-fiction silly true-life adventures, and of course my current Arthurian novel.

What do you want to do next?

 After the final editing and rewrites, I will be starting on the second novel in the trilogy.

** Favorite Authors:**

 Top of my list: 

Martin Millar is a London icon. He writes about real life, the underground London-scene, with a twist. He has a fascination with fairies and often weaves them into his true-life tales in an intriguing fashion. His most infamous novel “The Good Fairies of New York,” has recently been re-printed after being out-of-print for several years. If you are in need of a good laugh, mixed with a heart-tugging back story, I highly recommend as a must have addition to your personal library.

 The Good Fairies of New York

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933368365/

Alyn Rockwood is not a new author, but he is a new novelist. His first novel, “How Nobel in Reason,” is a fast paced sci-fi murder mystery, mixed with a non-mushy love-story. I recently interview Dr. Rockwood, and I found both the man and the book intriguing.

Alyn Rockwood interview:

http://www.renderosity.com/news.php?viewStory=13175

How Noble in Reason

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568812884

I love Michael Crichton, and have read every novel he has written.

Also among my favorite authors; John Grisham, Anne Rice, Virginia Woolf.

I don't read in other languages, which makes it difficult to really appreciate authors from other countries, but I have long been fascinated by La Comédie humaine, by  Honore de Balzac, and I've had in mind, for some time, a series of stories that are all set in the same community but are told from different points of view. The main character of one story appears as a secondary character in another story, people move in and out, and beneath it all is this little undertone of something not being quite right about the place.  I guess I am overly influenced by a childhood filled with Alfred Hitchcock films and television shows.   I watched "Outer Limits," "Twilight Zone," and "One Step Beyon." in their originals, and those are still the kind of stories I like best. 

I don't read Ruth Rendell for her plots--I couldn't tell you who was killed in any of them. What I liked was development of her detectives Wexford and Burden.  I enjoy Inspector Morse stories because Morse is such an interesting character...again, I had zero interest in the plots.  I used to like Dorothy Sayers until I realized I could always pick out the killer by what order she introduced her suspects into the story, but I still had a fondness for Lord Peter Wimsey, despite his preciousness (it had a lot to do with the atomosphere of the stories).  I'm watching the "Rosemary and Thyme" mystery series right now for the same reason...the plots are not very well thought out, but the friends are a lively pair and I am learning something about horticulture at the same time.

When I was much younger, I wrote a series of stories about an Amazonian group of women called the Midlanders, who lived between the Hireg and the Lowtry, and while it was certainly not based on reality, I never went the fairy and elf route with it. Strangely enough, the whole thing was built on a merging (in my imagination) of the history of the Roman Empire, and "War and Peace."  Nothing like being ambitious.  In fact, the stories were so elastic that I could throw any historic or theatrical mutation in and it would become absorbed into the mythos (I liked Shakespeare then and still do).  I expecially liked to crash space travelling Earthlings into the place and watch them struggle with the civilization from the point of view of the Midlanders. Sometimes they got out alive, sometimes they didn't.  I was in my "Star Trek" period so that got thrown into the mix.

I miss the giddy arrogance of youth.

I have to admit, I don't read much fiction now.  I try and I usually can't finish anything that's longer than a few pages.  It makes me a poor person to discuss literature because mine is all drawn upon a shaky memory.

DeeMarie: One of my children’s stories [one that I am working on illustrating] was read on the children’s hour on Public Broadcast Radio.  That's awesome!  I knew about your novel...I didn't know about your children's stories.  I tend to like children's books more than adult ones.  One of my favorites is Stellaluna, for many reasons.

What have you written?: How far back should I go? I wrote the alphabet, moving the S before the R; as I think it should remain that way. After that: newspaper articles, Advertizing signs, Theater brochures, and prose, poems and short stories now lingering around somewhere in various anthologies. Plus my shelf contains 15 composition notebooks and approximately 8 CD’s filled with my writings few have seen. (I don’t count napkins, envelopes, bookmarkers and other various textures for writing on that are missing somewhere in this house). What are you interested in?: Besides trying to locate the exact position of the Zeta Recticuli Star system; I’m interested in words. Just words. Words that move the mind, change the color of things, make funny sounds or just plain amuse me. And in turn I am interested in the arts, for me I find that I cannot separate words from art and vise versa. That is why the majority of my artwork is for or from words and vise versa. Have you written the words (metaphorically or literally) "The end" on anything?: I don’t consider anything to have ended if you find yourself thinking of it beyond the written word. As to writing things to completion, then I have completed everything I’ve written so far, except for 5 books I still have in progress. As for my artworks, they are never complete, there can always be more added or something taken away and thus the process is endless. What do you want to do next?: To someday complete my ‘Unauthorized Autobiography’, a project that has changed as often as I have. In the begining I had planned to make it so that it rhymed cover to cover. But the ideas have changed, now it contains a variety of writing styles within it. I started it over 15 years ago. My other endeaver is to create/finish a children’s book in 3D which is much more fun to work on then my ‘Unauthorized Autobiography’.

This is fascinating, what an interesting and diverse group of people!