Writer Interview - A.L. Kaplan

Today I'm pleased to bring you a writer interview with speculative novelist and poet A.L. Kaplan! A. L. Kaplan’s love of books started as a child and sparked a creative imagination. Born on a cold winter morning in scenic northern New Jersey, her stories and poems have been included in several anthologies and magazines. Her novel, Star-touched, was released October 1, 2017. She is the Maryland Writers’ Association’s Chapter/Board liaison and served on the Howard County Chapter board for several years. A. L. is a member of Broad Universe and holds an MFA in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art. When not writing or indulging in her fascination with wolves, A.L. is the props manager for a local theatre. This proud mother of two lives in Maryland with her husband and dog.

1. You have only three minutes to convince a stranger to read your latest work. What do you tell them about your writing, and about yourself, to get them interested?

Eighteen-year old Tatiana is running from her past and her Star-touched powers eight years after a meteor devastates earth’s population. Gifted with the ability to both heal and destroy, Tatiana seeks refuge in a town she once visited. But this civil haven, in a world where society has broken down, is beginning to crumble.

I had no idea that we’d have so many natural disasters or that huge asteroids would be flying so close to earth this year when I wrote Star Touched. It’s rather frightening how many similarities there are to what’s going on now both environmentally and politically.

2.  Your spaceship can travel to any world, real or imagined. Where do you go?

I’d love to travel inside my mind and find out what’s going on in there.

3.  What was your favorite book you that read as a child? What have you read recently that you can recommend?
I grew up reading James Herriot, Jack London, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Albert Payson Turhune, and of course J. R. R. Tolkien. Lord of the Rings may have birthed my love of fantasy, but there are three other books I read that were a huge influence: Island of the Blue Dolphins, My Side of the Mountain, and Julie of the Wolves. I guess I have a thing for kids surviving on their own in the wild. My favorite musicals are about orphans as well: Annie and Oliver.

There have been several books I’ve read recently that have been really good. The House on Moss Swamp Road by M J Patrick comes to mind, as does The Fuller’s Apprentice, by Angela Holder, The Enchanted Dagger by Vonnie Winslow Crist, and Dawn Study by Maria V. Snyder. I don’t often read non-fiction, but The Strong Woman Trap: A Feminist Guide for Getting Your Life Back by Sasha Mobley was very enlightening. I could go on, but there is only so much space in your blog.

4.  How do you meet and stay engaged with other writers?
I’m very active in the Maryland Writers’ Association at the state and chapter level. I’m also in a critique group and am a member of Broad Universe. I’ve made some great friends at conventions like the MWA Writing Conference and fan-based cons like Balticon. This year I’ve been invited as a participant at Raven Con in Williamsburg on April 20 – 22, and Balticon in Baltimore, Maryland on Memorial Day weekend. I’m really looking forward to them. Book festival are a great way to meet people as well, and Facebook makes it easy to stay in touch and find out what other writers are up to.

5.  What is a quote that resonates with you - either from yourself or someone else?

“Be who you are.” It’s an important theme in Star Touched. My main character, Tatiana, is afraid to be who she really is. It’s one of the quotes I sign in my books. It’s also on my license plate. (A birthday present from my husband this year.)

6.  Do you have a personal symbol or icon with which you identify?

I don’t know about an icon or symbol, but I do feel a connection to wolves. When I was in high school I had a dream about wolves. The next day I went to the library and started reading. The more I learned, the more I liked. My collection now includes books, art, toys, and a few odd things like a howling cookie jar. Wolves have also inspired several stories, including my short story, Wolf Dawn, which is in the Young Adventurers: Heroes, Explorers, and Swashbucklers anthology.

7.  How do you find good new reads in your genres of choice?

There are several places to find new books. Friends recommendations, perusing the stacks in a bookstore or library, Goodreads, and of course, talking to authors. There’s a lot out there. I also look for those free book days. If I like that first one I’ll by others by the same author.

8.  What is one thing that really scares you?

That would be tornados. I’ve never seen one, but they really freak me out.

9.  Which conferences/book fairs/meetings do you try to never miss each year?

Balticon has always been my go to.

10.  You have a magic wand that can cast only one kind of spell. What does your wand do?

My wand has the ability to cast unlimited heal spells that can also cure illnesses like cancer, AIDS, and depression.

11.  Where can fans find you and your work online?

https://Alkaplanauthor.com

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorA.L.Kaplan/

@ALKaplanauthor on Twitter

Image Credits:  All images provided by author and used w permission.

Writer Interview - Shadow Leitner

Shadow Leitner - Beautifully Haunted Writer

I'm honored to present a blog interview with Haunted writer Shadow Leitner!  She graciously posted an interview with me on her excellent blog Dark Inklings, and I'm so happy to have her here today - so read on to learn about Shadow, her haunted writing, and what really scares her :)

Shadow Leitner spent over a decade in the performing arts but left the stage for the page to write Paranormal, Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Gothic Romance novels for Young and New Adults, and thoroughly enjoys torturing her imaginary characters with love and other peculiar things.  She also creates beautifully haunting art with her iPhone, consumes absurd amounts of coffee, and is enchanted by all things vintage, old world and macabre. She’s also quite fond of nonsense literature. Well, all sorts of nonsense really.  Shadow haunts from Maryland, with her husband, their two spawn, and a menagerie of mostly domesticated creatures.

1.  You have only three minutes to convince a stranger to read your latest work.  What do you tell them about your writing, and about yourself, to get them interested?

I am Beautifully Haunted. Eventually, the voices in my head make it to the page where they can haunt you, too.

 

2.  Your spaceship can travel to any world, real or imagined.  Where do you go?

I travel to a steampunk world where the cities and towns float in the air. There I own a Victorian mansion which I open-up as bread & breakfast for other airship travelers.

3.  What was your favorite book you that read as a child?  What have you read recently that you can recommend?

I was a bookworm growing up, so I have many, many favorites, but the first book I remember having a real impact on me was Shadow Castle by Marian Cockrell. It’s about a fairy prince who marries a human princess and trouble ensues.

Where to start, I’ve read so many great books lately. I just finished The Mara Dyer Trilogy and started the first book of its companion series The Noah Shaw Confessions by Michelle Hodkins.  They are YA and deliciously dark. I’m in love and dying for the next one to be released. In the adult, more ghostly realm, I’ve recently finished and highly recommend The Haunting of Maddy Clare and Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James.

4.  How do you meet and stay engaged with other writers?

Well, it works like this, I stalk my favorite authors, wrestle them to the ground, chain them in my basement and like that we are besties. Okay, not really, that would be creepy. Don’t do that.

The real answer is I belong to author organizations and attend meetings, conferences, etc.  I write a blog for Dark & Gothic Writers called Dark Inklings where I get to hang out with other cool Night Writers. And yes, I do totally stalk other authors, but in the nice, safe (for them) environment of the internet and social media.

5.  What is a quote that resonates with you - either from yourself or someone else?

So the darkness shall be the light. – T.S. Elliot

6.  Do you have a personal symbol or icon with which you identify?

White spiders. Though I’ve never really thought of them as a personal symbol or icon and I’m not particularly fond of them, either. However, they seem to have an affinity for me and show up often. I certainly sit up to take notice when they do. I’ve come to accept them, seeing them as messengers, who let me know when I’m on the right track.

I’m also very fond of black hearts.

7.  How do you find good new reads in your genres of choice?

Well, there is this place where all the available space is covered in books and all of them are free. FREE. Maybe you’ve heard of it. It is called the Library, and while I could literally set up a cot and live there, I don’t have to, because I can take the books home with me. I promise this place is not a figment of my imagination. It’s real. One should really check it out. ;)

I refer to Goodreads a good bit, as well. Come friend me and we can share all the books. Muahaha.

8.  What is one thing that really scares you?

Being eaten alive by zombies and tornadoes, but then that would be two things. So let’s stick with zombies because they really freak me the f**k out.

9.  You can create the perfect one-week writing retreat - describe what makes it ideal for you.

The perfect retreat would to be holed up in a historical place, such as a Victorian mansion or castle with roaring fires and plenty of coffee. Being in such a surrounding the stories almost vibrate out of me and reverberate off the walls, but then that might be coffee. It’s hard to tell.

10.  Which conferences/book fairs/meetings do you try to never miss each year?

A new one for me, but one I don’t plan on missing is HallowReads. There are many others I haven’t been to but would love to attend.

11.  You have a magic wand that can cast only one kind of spell.  What does your wand do?

My wand transports me where ever and whenever I want.

12.  Where can fans find you and your work online?

ShadowLeitner.com is my main haunt, but I can also be found creeping around on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest.

13.  What is the question I should have asked?  Answer in the form of a haiku or limerick.

How reliable of narrator are you?

When you've bats in your belfry that flut,

When your comprenez-vous rope is cut,

When there's nobody home

In the top of your dome --

Then your head's not a head; it's a nut

-        “The Nut” by Anthony Euwer

Image Credits:  All images provided by and used with permission of Shadow Leitner.

Guest Post and Blog Swap with Author Lynn Mann

Mr. Smith's Errand
by Lynn Mann

And now for something completely different ...

I've long been wanting to have more guest posts and interviews here on the blog. So I'm happy I have the honor today of presenting a "Guest Post" of Maryland author Lynn Mann. She and I agreed to answer the same six questions about ourselves, and then post the responses on each others' blogs. You can find the pair to this post with my responses on her blog at http://lynnmannauthor.com/

To try to present something other than the same old interview, we agreed to each provide three fun-and-different questions for the other writer (for a total of six). Here are Lynn Mann's responses to the questions. Her bio follows, with more details on her publishing and awards.

1. Which of the seven wonders of the ancient world would you have wanted to see at its most glorious?

"I want to see the pyramids, clad in their coats of shining white limestone, topped by pure gold at their apex. I want to see the sun rising over the desert, its rays striking the gold, turning it into a blinding beacon daily demonstrating the king’s power and wealth. I want to see the grand processions, taking a recently deceased courtier or noble to his final rest in a mastaba near his king’s pyramid, with all the chanting and wailing (professional mourners were de rigueur). I want to see the grave goods piled high, the ceremonious sealing of the tomb and, as soon as night fell, the tomb robbers (usually the same people who built and decorated the tombs) coming out to pillage them."

2. You can have any superpower / magical ability / force - what is it and why?

"I want to power of silence. I want to be able to flip an internal switch and make all the chattering idiots be quiet. I want to make all the negative voices in my head to shut up long enough for me to do whatever it was they said I couldn’t. I’d also like to make that annoying woodpecker in the woods behind my house stop tapping."

3. Do you have houseplants? Are they in good condition?

"When people hear that I grow orchids they think it’s something special, a talent that only extremely green-thumbed people have. I’m living proof that this theory doesn’t hold up. I grow phalaenopsis - those orchids with the long arching stem full of gloriously colored flowers you often see at various big box hardware stores and grocery stores. If you truly want to learn to grow orchids, please find a professional grower to buy from. The ones in grocery stores, or any other place that doesn’t specialize in orchids, are typically culls that the pros refused to buy. The plants will bloom for a few weeks and then, because you don’t really know how to take care of them, they will die, convincing you that orchids are hard to grow. They really aren’t but just as you wouldn’t go to a plumber to set a broken bone, you shouldn’t buy orchids from people whose expertise is selling hinges and lawn mowers. Phals make excellent houseplants and start blooming right around Thanksgiving, when my outside garden is dying. Phals will bloom for 6 months or more, and they each have their own cycle. At any given moment 4 or 5 will be looming at once, which fills my bedroom with glorious, jewel-like colors and gets me through the winter doldrums. A few years ago I installed a rain barrel on my back deck. The orchids have thrived since I started using rain water and not the chlorinated stuff out of the tap. I have found that a regimen of benign neglect seems to work best with them."

4. Which performer would you like to meet backstage and what would you say to sound cool even though you're totally star-struck?

"I would love to meet Paul Simon, although I can’t think of a single non-geeky thing to say to him. What question hasn’t he already been asked? I always wonder whether performers stop enjoying hearing how much you love their music, that their music has meant so much to you, etc., etc. I think just seeing the show from backstage, to see the inner-workings, would be magic. I guess the short answer is there isn’t anything I could say to Paul Simon that wouldn’t make me sound like star-struck to my bones."

5. Three world heritage sites you want to visit before you die.

"I’m having too much trouble with this question. The Great Barrier Reef, Petra and Angor Wat are the 3 that leap to mind. I visited the World Heritage website http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/ and was overwhelmed with the number of sites listed and how endangered most of them are. I’m going to cheat and add one more: Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord in Norway. Guess it’s time to get out the calendar and start planning 2013’s trips..."

6. If you see a clothing tag sticking out of a friend's shirt, what do you do? What if it's someone you only know casually, not a real friend?

"I hate having the tags sticking out of my shirts and always appreciate being told when they are. I assume most women (and some men) are like me and will always tell a friend (of either gender) or even reach over and fix it for them. Someone I know but am not friends with I’ll still tell and a total stranger depends... I guess it mainly depends on the vibe I get from them. I love that so many manufacturers are now printing the tag rather than sewing it on."

Bio: Lynn Mann resides in Columbia, MD with two rescue cats and a supportive husband. Her writing reflects her eclectic reading, unusual education and far-flung travels. Several of Lynn’s stories have been published on-line and in small magazines, and her short story collection, Mr. Smith’s Errand on is available on Amazon (Mr. Smiths Errand). Her awards include 1st Prize in the 2011 Maryland Writers Assoc. New Novel Contest (Do You Do Murders) and 3rd Prize in the Windmill Women’s Writers annual Short Story Contest. Lynn’s story “Taking Care of Business” will be published by Rhino Press in Uncommon Assassins, due out in Sept. 2012. Along with her full time job she writes, raises orchids and sails on the Chesapeake Bay whenever possible. For further information or to contact her please visit http://lynnmannauthor.com/

Hope you enjoyed the blog swap! We'd love it if you visited both blogs and left us some comments to ponder - say, how would you answer these questions, anyway?

Pax, all

What Makes a Good Writing Prompt - Interview with Writer and Poet Amy Grier

Image: Amy Grier and a wax Patrick Stuart at 
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, Las Vegas, NV

Writing prompts have been on my mind. I find a good prompt to be a good tool, and that is part of the reason I am creating my own archive of general writing prompts on this blog. During April, many poets post lists of daily prompts to help keep writers on their "poem a day" schedule. I had a conversation with writer and poet Amy Grier on the subject, and gleaned some great ideas, and new insight, into what makes prompts effective for any kind of writing.

Amy possesses an eclectic background that informs her many styles and platforms of writing, from plays and memoirs to poems and textbooks. She has two MA's, one in Literature and Writing from Rivier College, and another in East Asian Studies from Washington University. Her BS is in Music Education from Clarion University. Her most recent publication was the poem "The Feeling of Autumn" in Poetry East, No. 60, 2010. She has also had a short story published in Dream International Quarterly, has produced content for a series of textbooks for teaching English to Chinese middle school students, and is a certified professional resume writer (among much else). She enjoys blogging, and is planning a revamp of her successful site "Living Poetry."

Bryce: "What do you think makes for a good writing prompt?"

Amy: "A good writing prompt must spark imagination, emotion, and intellect. The prompt should make you go “Oh!” and immediately deliver an imaginative focus. It needs to prod you to start thinking organically and naturally, not something that feels like homework. Not every prompt will do that for everybody, but a good prompt should attempt it."

Bryce: "What sorts of prompts can spark that kind of engagement? What needs to be present or be avoided?"

Amy: "Prompts must be specific, not vague. A prompt that is too vague won't help you go someplace that allows you to explore where you are psychologically in this moment.  For example, the prompt "write a poem with a profession as the title" is not as helpful as the prompt "write a poem about your first experience with nursing." This immediately sparks ideas. Some people will think of breastfeeding, others about their own time as a nurse, while some people will think about their first surgery and a specific nurse that was there. This creates the opportunity to prod imagination, draw on emotion, and engage the intellect. The word "nursing" is both comfortable and threatening. The intellect might generate thoughts of caretaking, being elderly, parenthood, illness, medical procedures, and more. The word “Nursing” activates your brain in all these ways."

Bryce:  "Tell me a little more about engaging the intellect."

Amy: "Always use a word or words in the prompt with power, a word that has many associations. The prompt "write a poem about an experience you have had with a needle" might seem to border on vague, but the word "needle" is very powerful.  It generates thoughts of sewing, drug use, vaccinations, even needles of minerals in gemstones. The mind will consider the definition of "needle" as well as the historical and cultural implications. You can get an untold number of poems from that prompt, or short stories, material for a novel, or whatever."

Bryce: "Can you leave us with a few specific examples of poetry prompts that you like?"

Amy: "Write a poem with a line in a foreign language. Write a poem that starts and ends with a line of dialog. Write a poem about a nightmare you had as a child. Include a cartoon character’s catch phrase in your poem. A common prompt is to take your favorite poem and use its last line as your first line. This sounds lazy, but it can work, because it gives you a concrete place to start. It gives you something to build around. Ultimately, if that line is dropped when you edit the poem, that’s fine.

Bryce: "Thanks!"

Did you like this little interview?  Useful?  I would be happy to do an interview, guest writer, or other type of blog swap on a topic of mutual interest, just drop me a note in the comment line.

Pax, Bryce