storytelling | Painting With Light

Posts Tagged ‘storytelling’

To Podcast or Not to Podcast?

February 1, 2016

split rails
Knowing Which Way To Go Is Not Always Easy.

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I’ve included (one more time) my recent podcast where I answered reader questions about indie writing (duration approx 15 minutes):

However, instead of following it with my usual rant about indie publishing, I thought today I’d skip some of that. Instead, I have a simple question to ask you. Several of them, really.

Should I do more podcasts?

Would you rather have snippets of new writing, like the one below?

Or should I leave things well enough alone?

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I fled with my family after watching the first of the soldiers come. I saw them prod women and old men with bayonets, forcing them to leave their comfortable homes, taking nothing with them … no food, no coats, sometimes not even moccasins.

I wanted no part of their migration.

We went deep into the woods, almost to the first blue-grey ridges of Shacorage, meaning “blue, like smoke” … the Cherokee name for the mountains. I thought we would be safe when we built our new log house in a small clearing in that valley so far away from everyone, but they found us with ease.

We were downwind and could smell the smoke. I ran to the top of the ridge, saw the uniforms and realized they had found us. I had hoped they would not discover us so deep in the woods in the shadow of the mountain, but it seems we were not hidden well enough.

“Stay down,” I whispered to Ayita and Adahy, “the soldiers have found us.”

“Our house,” Ayita said. Her hands covered her face, as if she did not want to see. My son Adahy said nothing, but his mouth was set in a hard, grim line as he watched his home go up in the mighty blaze.

~ from my new novel “Blood Lake” – coming this summer

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If you have a moment, please take this short survey
to let me know what you think.

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My books have all garnered some terrific reviews, and you can see the ones I have available by using the Amazon link below.

You’re invited to visit my web site, BROKEN GLASS, or
like my Book of Face page. You can also follow some of my shorter ramblings on The Twitter.

Tags:award-winning writing, self-publishing, storytelling
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Storytelling | Leave a Comment »

Should Writers Make New Year Resolutions?

December 30, 2015

Winter-Landscape
What’s on Your Writing Horizon in 2016?

If you’ve been around here a while, you know I quit making New Year resolutions a long, long time ago. I never managed to keep them anyway (particularly those related to exercise and weight loss), despite my best intentions.

The only resolution I’ve ever come close to keeping was my promise to go on writing stories, as long as I could.

I’m happy to say I’m approaching another significant birthday number (at my age, every birthday number is significant) … and my storytelling muse is still going strong.

Thankfully, no special equipment is needed beyond the ability to use words … and a whole lot of imagination, and my long-suffering bride tells me I’m still doing well in both of those departments. She can tell just by the way I answer her when she has chores for me to do.

Imagination and Words
Powerful stuff. I continue to practice my storytelling because well-used words are like magic … and meaningful communication is an art. Besides, it makes me feel good.

About this time last year I was mired in another spell of writers’ block but, by summertime I had finished my novel STREET LIGHT. I’m delighted to say it received a 5-Star review from Readers Favorite, who said “… it was hard to put down …”

There was even more excitement in my house last month (from me, anyway), when the online review site Shelf Unbound made STREET LIGHT one of its Notable 100 Books for 2015.

I honestly thought STREET LIGHT finished the story I began years ago with my novels REICHOLD STREET and ONE WAY STREET but, you know, a funny thing happened.

A few weeks ago when I sat down to write, as I usually do every day, some of the trilogy characters appeared and decided they had more they wanted me to say.

They were so insistent I couldn’t tell them no. So, I’m about 8,700 words into a new book right now based on what they were telling me.

A book I didn’t think was going to happen.

New Work Coming
I’d be further along with it but, at the same time, I’m also more than 22,000 words into a completely new novel.

This one will have a strong touch of fantasy, but it also draws a lot on real American history. I got the idea while researching my family tree.

Look for it next summer.

Advice
For every writer and soon-to-be writer out there, there is a great piece of advice I discovered a long time ago that is still relevant, and worth passing along again.

Keep reading and keep writing … and, by all means, have fun.

I know I will. Call it a resolution, if you like. It’s one I intend to keep. Someday I may even get it right.

Best Wishes to Everyone for the New Year.

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My books have all garnered some terrific reviews, and you can see the ones I have available by using the Amazon link below.

You’re invited to visit my web site, BROKEN GLASS, or like my Book of Face page. You can also follow some of my shorter ramblings on The Twitter.

The Official Book Trailer for “Street Light”

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Comments posted below will be read, greatly appreciated and perhaps even answered.

Tags:self-publishing, storytelling
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Book Promotion, Storytelling | 2 Comments »

Why Writers Help Writers

December 15, 2015

fastest-writer-on-the-world
If Only My Fingers Would Move That Fast.

Writers tend to stick together. I think it’s got something to do with the craft we’ve chosen to pursue. For the most part, it tends to be a rather solitary business, and to a lot of people it looks easy.

“After all,” they say, “all you have to do is write down words.”

Sure. Don’t I wish it was that simple?

Any writer worth his salt (pardon the cliché, but at the moment I’m working on two different novels … plus, it’s the holiday season … who has time to be overly creative?) …

Most of those writers certainly know that good writing (ah, there’s the disclaimer I was looking for … good writing) doesn’t just happen. It takes extraordinary effort.

“It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.”
~ Jack Kerouac

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.”
~ Ernest Hemingway

“Making people believe the unbelievable is no trick; it’s work.”
~ Stephen King

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A friend of mine, Evans Bissonette (above), a fellow writer, mentioned a couple of writing groups he attends in the area that are looking for a few new members and, since they provide that writerly help I’m talking about, I told him I’d put his flyer in my next blog.

I’m not normally a fan of critique groups, but I appreciate the idea of writers helping other writers so much that I might be intrigued enough to attend a couple of these sessions myself … because I’m certain I can use the help … not just because Evans is such a nice guy.

Here’s his flyer:

sunset scribes
The email link above, which doesn’t work in the jpeg image of his flyer, is typefont@gmail.com. If you’re interested in either group (or both), be sure to contact them before the end of January.