Rachel wished her brother would get lost. And he did. So lost that their parents forgot him and explained him away as Rachel’s imagination, and then as her illness. Having repressed her wish-giving ability through to adulthood, Rachel runs away from her life when the wish-granting bursts forth to affect her best friend’s family. She ends up in Nowhere, NC, where she discovers others’ magic and how to control her own. Crispell’s talented in creating complex characters, with their roller coaster emotions and love-hate relationships with their talents. Like Sarah Addison Allan, the magic is a part of everyday life, including emotional trees and sometimes challenging townspeople. Readers who daydream of having magical capabilities can live out their fantasies through Crispell’s stories. Check out her website http://www.susanbishopcrispell.com/ to learn more about her and purchase her books.
All posts by laelbr5_wp
The Truth Waits by Susanna Beard
Anna finds a teenage girl’s body on the beach in Lithuania while on a business trip to her textile factory. Prevented from leaving by a natural disaster, she meets a journalist named Will, who moves into her carefully constructed life. He and her friends warn her against pursuing the girl’s murder, but her own past urges her on, until she finds herself in danger, and Will is incommunicado. Beard portrays a workaholic with repressed emotions and memories vividly, though Anna seems to throw up a lot and has quite a few anxiety attacks, not to mention the breakdown from grief. The story seems as self-oriented as Anna, focusing on her distress throughout, when it could have explored the horrors of sex trafficking further. Even as Anna is justified in her wavering faith in Will, his character is not developed enough for the reader to make a judgment call either way. Though the story is a good one, it could have given a little more weight toward other characters, and even considered location a main character in its cultural presence, but Anna simply comes across as too neurotic to notice anything else. I was graciously given a digital copy by the publisher through NetGalley.
Marcus Alexander Hart—Author, Screenwriter, Scientist (not really), and Your Old Pal
After reading my Goodreads giveaway win One Must Kill Another, I had a story hangover that prompted me to ask the author for an interview. This was a good move, as you’ll see below. He’s freaking hilarious! I’m gonna be his #2 fan (apparently, #1 is already taken; plus, my author heart belongs to Diane Chamberlain). Read on, my friends, and then click the links to read Hart’s books.
Tell me about your writing process—schedule, environment, strategies, and inspirations inside and outside your head: favorite writers, quotes, stars, moons, etc.
I am a total writing hermit. I don’t understand how some people can set up shop and write all day in a crowded Starbucks. I’m way too easily distracted for that. I can’t even listen to music. In fact, I got a pair of those hearing-protection earmuffs that leaf-blower guys wear that I use while I’m writing. It may be a little excessive, but it helps me focus.
There’s a meme by @adamjk with an inspirational quote that’s partially crossed out and amended that says, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life work super fucking hard all the time with no separation or any boundaries and also take everything extremely personally.” That is so true. There’s a culture around writing that says writing isn’t something you do, it’s something you are, and I think that’s dangerous. We get so caught up in “writer” as an identity that we sometimes forget there are other things in life and burn out, feeling like if we’re not always writing, we’re slacking off or cheating somehow. So when I’m lucky enough to be writing full-time, I try to keep normal business hours. Like, writing from 8 AM to 6 PM with an hour for lunch. Then I “go home,” even though I work at home (with the shades drawn and my earmuffs on).
My favorite living writer is David Wong. I find his writing to be hilarious, but also moving on a personal, emotional level. His John Dies at the End stories are a perfect blend of flawed, relatable characters and dick jokes. I like to think that readers of his particular brand of nonsense will also enjoy mine.
As far as stars and moons, I approve of both. In fact, I approve of everything up to purple horseshoes. Any marshmallows added to Lucky Charms after 1983 are bullshit.
Walk me through your publishing process with a small press—who does what, how much input from you, and what marketing you do. Do you plan to self-publish in the future?
To be honest, publishing with a very small press isn’t that much different from self-publishing. On the positive side, I get a lot of creative control I wouldn’t have at a large publisher, such as input on cover designs and final say on the edits to the text. On the negative side, most of the marketing and promotion responsibilities fall on me. And man, do I hate self-promoting. If I were gregarious and outgoing, I wouldn’t have chosen a job where I can work at home with the lights off!
I’ll definitely self-publish titles in the future. It’s great to have the freedom to write something too weird for traditional publishing and put it out there to see if it can find its audience. Because regardless of what publishers say, there’s an audience out there for everything. Internet Rule 34 is proof of that.
Describe your support system online and IRL—who are your biggest cheerleaders?
My biggest, best, and most important cheerleader is, of course, my wife Amanda. I’d have given up a thousand times without her constant support and belief in me. She is also the reason no hilarious chapter about explosive diarrhea has ever made it to a final draft of one of my books, no matter how many times I try to sneak one in. So my career thanks her for that.
There’s also my biggest fan, J.J. Walsh, who liked my first novel so much that he basically hunted me down and demanded we become friends. Ten years later we still are, and his support and kind words still mean the world to me. I often say that I just need to meet a hundred thousand more people like him and I’ll be set for life. I’m not even kidding. Where are you people? I know you’re out there.
How has your life prepared you to be a writer, how does your life influence your work and vice versa, and what brought you to the dark side?
Back in the early ’80s, the only “social media” that existed was my mom talking to her friends on the corded, rotary-dial phone in the dining room. As a child, I would listen to her chat with one friend, then hang up and call another to spread the gossip. With each call through the day, the story would slightly change, becoming ever more dramatic and juicy with each retelling. My mother inadvertently wired my young mind to understand that a good story is more important than a true story. Which is why I became a novelist and not a journalist.
It would be hard to write anything without infusing it with my personal life experience. That’s the fuel that runs the brain machine. The fun part is doing what Mom taught me and changing it from a straight retelling of true events and into an engaging narrative. For example, in my latest book One Must Kill Another, the protagonists are a Hollywood family, and their experiences draw on my time working in the Los Angeles entertainment industry. But deeper than that, their fears and insecurities are also rooted in my own and modified to fit the characters and the story. I think if the underlying emotion is real, the details can be changed and it all still works.
My next book is very different in content and tone, but it was based on the same experiences. Alexis vs the Afterlife is a Young Adult LGBT adventure-comedy about a burned-out, eighteen-year-old former child star who dies in a freak accident and becomes a rock-n-roll ghost who must save the world from a paranormal apocalypse. It’s completely batshit insane, but it still draws from my real-world experience in the entertainment industry and my lifelong fascination with the paranormal.
What do you love most about your creativity?
In a real world that too often seems completely out of control, it’s great to be able to create my own worlds that work the way I want them to—worlds where everyone has the snappy punch line at the right moment (and not five hours later when they’re in the shower), magic exists if you know how to use it, and the monsters always lose in the end.
Connect with Marcus and buy his books:
https://www.goodreads.com/OldPalMarcus
Hunting Annabelle by Wendy Heard—pub date December 18
After leaving a California psychiatric prison, Sean Suh relocates to Austin, Texas, where he spends his days drawing people and their auras at a local Disneyland knockoff. A girl with a copper aura tempts him despite his understanding that he need protect her from himself. He witnesses her kidnapping, but no one believes him based on his mental health and conviction record, and suspicion falls more heavily on him as he conducts his own investigation. He learns interesting things about this girl he has immediately fallen for, but he could not have foreseen who did it. Heard brilliantly leads the reader through Sean’s emotional turmoil at each new piece of information; this could well be a manual for becoming a serial killer. Flashbacks from Annabelle’s point of view would have given her more depth. Being privy to Sean’s thoughts exposed his internal struggle, a fascinating insight that almost (but not quite) invokes compassion. Fans of Liane Moriarty and Gillian Flynn will appreciate this novel. I was fortunate to receive a digital copy of this fantastic thriller from the publisher through NetGalley.
Flashback Flash Fiction Friday (sending old stuff out to the universe, because I’m on vacation)
I Started A Joke
It was only a joke.
I know. You told me.
I didn’t know you had done anything.
I didn’t know if I had done anything.
I didn’t mean to hurt you.
And yet here you still are.
(Nurse) “I can actually see two people having a conversation.”
(Doctor) “Now that they’ve finally met, we can work on integration.”
Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery
The heartbreak of a good biography is finding out that the artist whose work sings to you is not the person of your imagination. It’s almost like a friendship breaking up over irreconcilable differences. The joy of a great biography is reveling in all the nooks and crannies of the artist whose work speaks to you. Mark Dery’s representation of Edward Gorey’s life is well-researched—including interviews with friends, family, and colleagues—and often feels too intimate, probing as deeply as possible into an ultra private man whose public persona was a purposeful put-on. The brilliant title and chapter headings are Gorey-esque: A Suspiciously Normal Childhood, Sacred Monsters, Epater le Bourgeois, Nursery Crimes, etc. Dery has sectioned Gorey’s life into childhood, education, career moves, and his various obsessions, the main ones being literature high and low, silent movies, and the ballet choreography of George Balanchine, with their corresponding closely-knit fan groups. Any Gorey fan can learn something new in this biography, for the man was quite complex, and he apparently needed little sleep, working on something every moment possible, from his little books sold successfully at Gotham Book Mart, through his book cover art and collaborations, to his work in theater and television. Though far from an open book, Gorey’s career flowed easily through profound and lasting friendships, Dery presenting the development and arc of such friendships with a light touch. Themes running throughout the biography are Gorey’s complex parental relationships, his tendency to keep himself to himself while handing out sardonic opinions like candy, and speculation upon his sexual orientation. Though he’d answered the question of his sexual orientation, speculation continued, with “evidence” pointed out in his work and life. Though Dery may reference the evidence and speculation a bit much, he offers a comprehensive gathering of Gorey’s work and a well-thought-out timeline of his life, with a wonderful takeaway that Gorey made his art to please himself. It’s a must-read biography of a man as interesting and mysterious as his little books of Victorian / Edwardian children suffering unusual demises. Little, Brown & Company graciously sent me an ARC of this fantabulous biography for an honest review.
Jensen Reed—Author and Co-owner of Pixie Forest Publishing and Lead Admin of Writing Bad
I met Jensen in the best writers group on Facebook—Writing Bad—for which she is Lead Admin and does a fabulous job. She is smart, funny, and a talented writer, and she loves Halloween as much as I do. She co-owns Pixie Forest Publishing with Donise Sheppard, putting out beautiful anthologies filled with other talented writers. Read her interview, follow her online, and buy those anthologies!
Tell me about your writing process, including schedule, environment, and inspirations tangible and abstract.
I usually listen to music beforehand (a playlist that fits the story I’m working on) but I can’t have it on while I’m writing or I get too distracted. I used to only write at night once my kids were in bed, but now they are both in school, so I have 2.5 hours a couple days a week to work on stuff during preschool, and I have been taking Sundays as personal time while my husband wrangles the kiddos.
I pull inspiration from all over. Dreams, music, people-watching, Pinterest, and weird things like browning meat on the stove.
Describe the publishing process from the perspective of the author versus the owner / editor. Explain how you created Pixie Forest Publishing with Donise.
I have only ever published anthologies at this point. I edited and formatted Shards of Survival, which is Writing Bad’s first anthology. You’ll find eight stories in it, including ones from Lael and myself 😉 I took that knowledge with me into PFP, but Donise has published her own books already, so even though we both edited, she did the formatting for Love Dust. I will probably do so for the next one, because it’s a lot of work and stressful.
We were talking one night about our publications and anthologies. We are both in Full Metal Horror and were just getting to know each other more. Then we both expressed interest in creating our own anthologies, something we had separately wanted to do for a while, and ended up joining forces to create PFP. With our combined followings and some great support from friends, PFP has really grown since April. We have a different set of strengths and they combine well, and PFP’s success so far is proof.
How did you build your support system—your tribe, and how did you become Lead Admin for the best writers group on Facebook?
Well, most of my tribe is online. I met them through groups, or a few I’ve known since school. A lot of my reading / writing tribe members are also my best friends. I was in a writing group / admin, but it was stagnant, so I went in search of a new one. I stumbled upon Writing Bad and joined, and within a couple weeks, there was an ad for new admin to help. I dissolved the stagnant group into WB and ended up applying to be admin. I’ve been an admin for well over a year now and we’ve grown a lot. We have a promotions group now too, and are constantly filling the website with resources and helpful articles.
How does your life influence your art and vice versa—what has led you to the delicious, delightful darkness? Do you scare your children?
LOL. They know I write, but they don’t really know what. The short story “Pancake Spiders” was inspired by my oldest son, and I read it to him regularly upon his request. I just censor it a bit to fit a five-year-old.
I’m not sure how life influences my writing. I know that I feed a little of myself and those I know into the characters I create. I read a lot. I observe a ton. It all gets woven into the stories and characters.
What do you love most about your creativity?
That it can elicit emotional responses from other people and myself! Read the ending of Ranch, the first book in my zombie apocalypse series, to two of my best friends / betas, and one literally walked out of the house. That is amazing.
I love the times where I go to reread a certain part of Ranch, and end up reading for chapters and chapters, because I get sucked into the story—even though I wrote it and have been re-reading and writing it for years.
Write a 50-word flash fiction, right here, right now!
“Katie!” Ward’s yell echoed across the ravine as the edge gave way beneath his daughter’s feet. She began to fall towards the rocky ledge he was sprawled out on, and he urged his useless, broken leg to work as he struggled to reach her before she tumbled past him.
Connect with Jensen:
https://www.facebook.com/authorjensenreed/
https://www.instagram.com/authorjensenreed/?hl=en
https://www.amazon.com/Jensen-Reed/e/B07BTKK4ZM
https://twitter.com/AuthrJensenReed?s=09
Time and Regret by M.K. Tod
In a post-divorce cleansing, Grace Hansen finds a tackle box her grandpa asked her to keep. Inside she finds mementos from his WWI experience and a letter with a puzzle for her to solve for his redemption. She travels to France to walk through the same towns he did according to the diaries he kept during the war. Her life is in danger as she is stalked and burgled, deepening her grandpa’s mystery, fervently urging her toward resolution. Of course there is a French love interest, an unlikely but not impossible coincidence making the world smaller. Tod’s writing flows so well it seems the reader is walking with Grace through small French towns in her grandpa’s shoes. Fans of Tatiana de Rosnay and Diane Chamberlain, and lovers of history, art, and culture will appreciate this novel. Follow Tod’s forays into her own grandfather’s war experience on her blog https://awriterofhistory.com//.
Flashback Flash Fiction Friday (sending old stuff out to the universe, because I’m on vacation)
Drew’s Cousin
Drew stood on the beach, savoring the moment. He was still processing that he was doing exactly what he wanted, and at only 19, starting his chosen career. At 19. He sent his thanks out to the Universe as loud as he could.
“Thank you!” he screamed out across the ocean.
“Yo, bud. What’s up with that?”
His new best friend and right hand man seemed intrigued at his fervor.
“Counting my blessings, friend.”
“Cool.” They hung together side by side absorbing the moment.
“Who’s that chick? Is she with us? I thought I knew everyone.”
Drew responded by waving and yelling, “Hey, Linda!” To Garret, he explained, “It’s my cousin.”
As Linda came closer, Garrett stood taller, straightened his t-shirt, and pressed back his hair.
“No way, man. She’s off limits.”
“Why? She’s hot.”
“The less you say to her, the better. She won’t understand. Her brain takes things literally.”
Watching the staircase tilting in the wind, Linda whispered to herself, “I’m not going up there again. It’s too scary.”
“Why would you? It’s dangerous,” responded a voice from the crowd.
Drew had said every scene could be viewed from the top, yet Linda hesitated. She’d been torn between the years of her mother admonishing her to never touch the stairs and her favorite cousin including her in his movie production.
“No, I can’t do it today.” Tears raged behind her eyes as she raced home to release them into the comfort of her own pillow.
“Hey, brah, your aunt’s on the phone. Does she want you to come to the big house? Shall we hold our breath as we tremble in fear for you?”
“Nah, she’s not like that. Maybe we should quiet down a little, though. Can you pass that around?”
“Sure thing.”
His crew watched as Drew’s face transformed into a visage of ultimatum expectation. After replacing the phone, he scanned the group.
“Did anyone do something I need to know about?”
Quiet faces with wide eyes stared back at him with no sign of guilt.
“Tremble in fear, my friends.”
The longest mile, he thought, as he walked from the carriage house through the dusk to see his aunt. He entered and went toward the light to stand in the doorway of the front room.
“I trusted you.”
Her voice slashed his brain. With no clue to his transgression, Drew considered a general apology, but determined that it was too soon.
“I’m sorry.” Automatic response. He mentally crossed fingers that he didn’t just imply guilt.
“Sit.” He took a chair nearest the egress, eyeing his aunt carefully. Her eyes seemingly riveted to the fireplace, she stated in a soft, yet damning voice, “You broke that trust.”
“What can I do?”
“You’re ignorant of your egregious error.” He stared at the fire with her. Tears brimmed his eyes. “My daughter climbed one of those rickety staircasees every time your crew hit the beach to film.”
“Why?” Names raced through his mind. Who would tell her to do that?
“At your request, Drew, according to her.”
“What? I never . . . fuck . . .”
“Please, Drew. There will be no fucking in this conversation. We’re both educated adults with intelligent vocabularies.”
“Yes, Aunt _____.”
“Those staircases have remained on the beach for over five decades, the last two against my wishes.”
“I know, I know. They’re from that movie. They bring tourists.”
“Tourists.” She said it the way he’d said ‘fuck.’
I.V. Olokita—Award-winning Israeli Author and Humanitarian
I.V. Olokita specializes in management of medical aid to disaster areas all over the world. He has a BA degree in logistics, and an MA degree in emergency and disaster situations management. He also volunteers to rescue missions in disaster areas all over the world. I. V. Olokita is a happily married father of two adolescents and a foster father of five cats and two dogs. By the way, he hardly ever sleeps. Instead, he spends his nights on writing.
Olokita’s first book (in Hebrew), Ten Simple Rules, was published in 2014. It won an Israeli literary prize, and immediately made an online bestseller. The following year, another book by Olokita, Reasons to Kill God, made a local bestseller in Israel. In May 2016, his third novel, Wicked Girl, was published, to make another great success, and soon presents in English. Olokita’s books are characterized by direct writing, Turns wiry and witty, requiring the reader to delve into and maintain vigilance from the beginning of the book to its surprising end.
Olokita contacted me to share an original short story on my blogblogblog (read here) and also graciously agreed to an interview. I liked his short story, so shared it as a Flash Fiction Friday guest author post. His books sound powerful; I look forward to English versions. Keep an eye open for this author’s work. Follow links at end of interview to connect with Olokita, and trailers to make you long for the books.
Describe your writing process. What is your writing schedule? Do you have an office in your home, or do you work at a remote location? What inspirations do you have for writing—people, places, or things? How do you choose your subject matter?
Since I’m almost out of the house because of my type of work, I do most of the writing in remote places and late at night. Sometimes there is no lighting, and usually, the electricity is minimal, so I don’t have many choices but improvise. Nevertheless, to this day I finished writing seven books, all of them I wrote on my cell phone, in my Gmail drafts. Sometimes my wife laughs at me in this matter. “Who writes books on a cell phone?” She asks me, and I don’t have the right answer, so I reply with a smile, “I do.”
Usually, my subjects begin with a dream or, more precisely, a nightmare. Since I have engaged in this profession of wounded and dying people for almost twenty-five years, it is tough for me to sleep, and when I do so, I have bad dreams. So, I wake up immediately and start writing the chapters, and the whole writing process from that moment takes about one to two months until the book is ready for my beta readers to have their mind of it. My inspiration probably comes from sights and stories that I see and hear during work. Over time all these are processed and changed, taking another form. My books deal with the difficult issues of life, not necessarily dark, humorless stories, but most subjects that people don’t openly talk about—the worldview from the eyes of a Nazi criminal or a pedophile, the point of view of our perfect enemy, or that of the most cunning deceiver who ever entered our lives. All these are presented to the reader as one piece, so at the end of the insights, the reader can agree or deny them. In every story I write, there are at least three layers and many plots that intersect each other into an entire story that moves on a past-present timeline. The reader will enjoy the first reading of what the eye views; during the story he will try to guess where this story leads him. In this context, I have not met anyone who has read my books and managed to think the end of the story during the reading, at least not until he finished the last word of the book. Mainly because what happens in it depends very much on the perspective of the reader at the same point he is at, and his willingness to penetrate the story’s guts, sometimes even finishing the book and immediately rereading it to find this time he is reading a completely different one.
Tell me about your publishing process and your publishing team. How much input are you allowed? How much marketing is expected by you as the author?
Every time someone asks me what is important to me in my books, I reply that I want my stories to be read by as many people as can be. It’s not a matter of money or profit and loss. I have important things to tell the world, and this is my real calling. In that aspect, I was fortunate to be a beginner in Israel. When I published my books in Hebrew, they immediately received considerable attention. As far as I am concerned, it was a complete surprise, mainly because I am an indie writer who corresponded with his readers on Facebook and did not invest too much in marketing. The decision to go on Amazon in another language was not easy for me. There are many aspects here, each of which can significantly reduce the quality of the books— mainly translation and editing, but in this case, marketing is also a significant factor.
So, after I finally made the decision, I made a great effort to find the right professionals, and I’m glad I did, despite the enormous financial cost to me. I believe that the readers who will be exposed to my books will enjoy a high language and a story that stretches and is tightly written, just like in the original language. As for marketing, I rely on the group of professionals who stand behind me and support me; it will allow me to keep in touch with my readers and write them new books instead of spending my time marketing activities. As long as it’s up to me, I’ll go on like this until I’ve run out of money and the last reader in the world will read what I have to say.
Talk about your support system. Whose praise motivates you? Who keeps you motivated?
This will be a concise answer; I write because I have to write. Otherwise, I’ll probably go crazy. The only prize that interests me is the one I already won many years ago, a fantastic wife who contains my obsessions of writing books and allows me to spend all our money on them and two amazing children who, despite their adolescence, are still very proud of their father.
As a humanitarian, how does your life influence your writing? Does your writing influence your life?
I think I’ve written all my life, just from a young age. It was a mechanism I had developed to relieve all my frustrations and disappointments over the years. Writing accompanied me at school and later in my adult life without even planning to publish it as a book. In this sense, my life always influences my writing and vice-versa; everything I experienced went into my books and I processed into a story. Therefore, that everything becomes a story never bothers me anymore. As someone who is responsible for managing a complete medical response to extreme humanitarian events, this system helps me deal with the main sights, smells, and sounds that remain in me. Writing too, like psychological therapy, for example, does not clean everything out of your system, but allows me to continue to function and live a completely normal life.
What do you love most about your creativity?
After I published my third book, questions began to arise that intrigued many of my readers, “Why are all your heroes bad people in essence, and why is the end of the story never good?” I think the answer to these questions is that even though we want to, our world is not a right place to live. I try in my books to show the other side of life, but people argue that despite the controversial issues and controversial characters, my books provide a more optimistic view of the world, basically, that we all end up only human beings, and the change begins with our understanding of each other’s motivation. I think it’s a matter of perspective that my books and short stories provide to the reader.
As for that legitimate question regarding my sources of inspiration about my written heroes, I have never known a Nazi criminal nor a pedophile, and I have no idea how they feel like in real life. However, I certainly give my heroes fears and desires, punish and reward them when I am sad or happy, and they end up getting a slice of my own life.
Writing is a calling—it fills my colleagues and me with happiness and pours a smile on our faces every day anew. It’s an excellent reason to wake up in the morning, knowing that someone else reads your words and soon, he too will write you a response. So, if you wish to tell me about your reading experience, just put your review on the Amazon book page or email me at ivolokita2@gmail.com.
Connect with Olokita: