Thursday, January 31, 2019

INTERVIEW: Young Adult Author Dana Burkey

  
Dana Burkey
Bellingham, WA 


Good morning, Dana, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the site for book and art lovers. Can you tell us a little about what you've written?
Since I started self publishing back in August of 2014 I have published more than a dozen books. My books that are most known are my TNT Force Cheer Series that are the only young adult fiction series about all star cheerleading.



What is your favorite genre to write?
I love writing YA! Even when I was younger and that genre wasn’t really as established like it was now, I was still writing for that age range even if I didn’t quite understand it just yet. I work with kids K-5 every day, and knowing that I can create stories that the older kids can read and take interest in brings me so much joy.

Favorite food.
Sushi

Tea or coffee?
Coffee! All day every day please! 

Pizza or ice cream?
Pizza

Wine or beer or soda?
Dr Pepper in the day, but a glass of wine at night would be perfection.

Where would you like to visit?
I would love to go to Chernobyl. One of my books was focused around the 1986 nuclear power plant meltdown in fact, since I’ve been fascinated with the area for years. 

Favorite musical artist.  
Hanson

Do you listen to music when you write?  What?
I don’t listen to music since it’s hard for me to focus on the lyrics and what I’m writing. But I do like putting on movies in the background. 
It has to be something I’ve seen a few times though so I won’t be tempted to stop and watch the whole thing.

What makes you laugh?
All kinds of things. I’m a fun loving person and like to be silly and crazy often! 

This is an Art AND Author blog, so I am obliged to ask: Favorite work of art or sculpture.
Starry Night

How old were you when you started writing?
Although I wrote for fun when I was as young as elementary school I started seriously self publishing when I was 29.

Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?
I usually make note cards that have a chapter title or a general idea on the front and details on the back in bullet points. Some books I have actually gone through and made an outline in bullet points for the whole thing before I sit down to write as well.

Describe your perfect evening.
Dinner with friends, followed by relaxing at home with nothing to do. No dishes, no laundry, and no plans that I need to worry about accomplishing. Just time to relax.

Where do you get your inspiration?
I get inspired by the most random things at the most random times. Since I write about all star cheerleading the most though that is a sport and world that I am often inspired by. Also, when I have readers come up to me and let me know they enjoy my books when I am at a cheerleading competition it makes me feel beyond amazing and makes me want to keep writing!

What do you do when you get a writer's block?
If I am in the process of writing a book and I get a block I try to work through it. I just keep writing even if what I am putting on the page is going to be terrible. Often if I can get through the scene I am stuck on then I’ll be good to keep going on to better moments and things. But, if I don’t feel like writing at all sometimes I will go weeks and even months without sitting down to work on a project. This often happens when I get too busy during the all star cheer season when I am attending events and vlogging for my YouTube channel.

Who is your favorite author?
Rick Riordan

Best book you ever read.
So many to choose from! I would say Battle Of The Labyrinth (Rick Riordan), The Host(Stephanie Myers), Ready Player One(Ernest Cline), and The Maze Runner(James Dashner)

Last book you read.
I honestly think it might have been my third read of Ready Player One

What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
I actually work full time in Christian Camping. I am the assistant director in charge of programing for a before and after school program, so I work with about 100 K-5thgraders every day!

Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
I have two! When I was in middle school Mr. Cordon was the first teacher to really put a focus on story writing. His writing prompts were what really continued to grow and build my passion for writing. And then Jon Lundwall who helped me choose full time camping as my career after my first summer working at camp in Ohio. 

If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
I would love to hang out with Grace Helbig. She is my favorite YouTuber and also someone I think I would just get along with. Her brand of comedy is something I love a lot, and just getting to know her process and enjoy a drink with her would be a fabulous day!

What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
I had a teacher in college once tell us that everyone has a story to tell. That really stuck with me since I found it to be so true. Weather a movie, a book, a poem, or even just speaking everyone has something to share with the world. So, even when it feels scary to put it out there, or like too much work to sit down and write, DO IT! It will be worth it to share the story that is uniquely you. 

Do you have some links for us to follow you?


Monday, January 28, 2019

BLOG: Ramblings of an Unknown Author, 01/28.19


Dear Gentle Readers,

This week I was named as one of the Top 50 Indies Writers You Need To Be Reading. I can hardly believe it.  I am so pleased, but totally surprised, and deeply honored by Caleb and Linda Prittle, to be included on this list. As you can tell from the title of this blog, even after seven years as an author, I still think of myself of an unknown.   

If you have a minute, maybe you'd like to read about it.
Link:


Sunday, January 27, 2019

SCHEDULE: January 28 - February 1, 2019


Schedule
Mon., Jan. 28 - BLOG:
 Ramblings of an Unknown Author
Tues., Jan. 29 - ART BOOK:
The New York Dance Project
Wed., Jan. 30 - ART:
The Fabulous Work of Dutch Artist
Suzan Drummen
Thurs., Jan. 31 - INTERVIEW:
Young Adult Author Dana Burkey 
Fri., Feb. 1 - BOOK:
The Captain and the Ambassador 
by Carol Ann Kauffman, 
An Excerpt for You

Friday, January 25, 2019

BOOK: The Cat Collier Mystery Short Story Series by Carol Ann Kauffman




Dear Gentle Readers,
The Cat Collier series began with a short story called January Black Ice. It's written in the style of a 1940's first person detective story. It's been called by some of my associates "Mike Hammer meets Nancy Drew." There are many NE Ohio references and local color. The small town where Mary Catherine Collier lives is called Heaton Valley, a reference to one of Niles, Ohio's former names, Heaton's Furnace, named for the founding father of Niles, 
the industrialist James Heaton.

Also mentioned is the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna, Ohio, the Mahoning River, and the beautiful library and post office in downtown Niles.   

This is a serial book series. To understand what's going on and the relationship between these strangers who've band together to form a family of their own, you need to start at the beginning. Here are the first few pages of January Black Ice:




January Black Ice
A Cat Collier Mystery



“Name, please,” asked the unknown polite man in the wrinkled suit at the front desk of the Palazzo Castellano in the heart of beautiful downtown Heaton Valley, Ohio. I looked for a nametag. These guys are always more agreeable when you call them by name. No nametag.
“Mary Catherine Collier.”
“Oh, the obituary writer for the Herald?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you’d be…older.” He squinted at me as if I were out of focus.
“I’m here to see Mr. Bittmor,” I answered as quietly as I could, not for his sake but for mine. My head was killing me.
“Do you have an appointment?” He scanned an appointment calendar in front of him. “Collier…Collier.” 
“Would I be here so damn early in the morning on this cold, gray, snow-clogged, icy, miserable day if I didn’t?” I was seriously considering leaping over the counter and choking him. Not a death-grip. I’m not a violent person. Just a little squeeze.
“Shall I take that as a yes?”
“Yes,” I smiled instead of choking him, a much better option I thought, mainly because I still might need his help in the event the cantankerous, old Mr. Detrick Bittmor was less than cooperative.
“Ahh, yes, here you are. ‘Cat’. Mr. Bittmor will see you in the lounge, madam.” He pointed toward the bar. What decent, self-respecting bar is open at seventy-thirty in the morning? And who the hell is madam?
“Madam?” I squealed. “Just what do you think I’m delivery this morning, buddy?” I tried to pull in my bristles, but it wasn’t working. I needed sleep. I needed warmth.
“I have no idea, madam. I’ll bring you some coffee as soon as I ring Mr. Bittmor’s suite.”
“What happened to Fred? I liked Fred.”
“Fred retired. “ 
“Thank you, ur…”
“Rodney,” he answered with a nod and the teeniest smile, making old wrinkly Rodney appear slightly less creepy, for the moment.
“Thank you, Rodney.” I happily strolled into the lounge, found a table where there was enough light for me to see what I was doing, pulled out my notebook and pen, and patiently waited…for the coffee, not so much for Bittmor.

Detrick Bittmor was the city’s oldest living lawyer-turn-recluse. He’d made his fortune defending the good, the bad, and the downright guilty. It didn’t matter to Bittmor. The only thing that mattered was if you could afford him. 
Bittmor lived in the penthouse suite, which occupied the top floor of the Palazzo Castellano Hotel. It overlooked the heart of the once bustling and beautiful city of Heaton Valley, Ohio. Founded in 1806, the city center was set in the middle of Central Park, complete with monuments, statues, and meticulously maintained lush greenness and graceful, curved brick walkways that spread all the way to the Mahoning River. There were two major areas flanking the park, the downtown circular retail section, affectionately called ‘the doughnut’ by the residents, and the Heaton Valley Athletic Club, which housed the convention center, a gym, a restaurant, a smaller, less expensive hotel, a few boutiques, and some little craft shops. 
Detrick Bittmor’s suite was his reward for negotiating a settlement in a case involving the federal government versus hotel owner, the now-deceased Elwin Foster, also known as Boss Foster, and his ring of underage Russian girls who were brought to town on the pretense of participating in a work-study program in hotel management, which turned out to be room and board and sex acts. Rumor had it Bittmor bought the hotel when Foster died, but the owner is listed as a holding company in Canada.
Rodney carried in a tray with white mugs and a pot of coffee. He carefully placed a mug in front of me and poured. It was hot and dark and steamy. I wrapped my cold, stiff fingers around the mug and sipped. Heaven…
I was pulled out of my religious experience by the clomp of Mr. Bittmor and his cane moving slowly but steadily across the wooden floor toward me.
“Cat! Thank you for coming so early in the morning. I wanted some privacy while we discuss my proposal.”
“Ahh, that’s sweet, Mr. Bittmor, but I can’t marry you. We’re both Pisces. That would be four fishes swimming around in opposite directions. We’d never get anything done.”
“No,” he chuckled, clutching his chest, “that’s not what I meant. I have a… matter I wish to discuss with you, something I think you are uniquely qualified to handle. It’s a very personal matter to me and I ask your utmost discretion. And I pay very well.”
“I don’t do anything illegal.”
“I know that. What I’m asking you to do is not outside the legal parameters of the law.”
“Your outside and my outside are two different playgrounds.”
“There a new resident in Heaton Valley, a young man about your age. I need some information on him.”
“That’s it? Sure, I can do that. All I need is his full name and date of birth and I can pull him up on the computer.”
“I do not have that information.”
“You don’t have his birthdate?”
“No.”
“That’s okay, most of the online databases will work with an estimate. You say he’s about my age? So we’ll go with between twenty-two and twenty-eight, does that sound about right?”
“He’s twenty-four.”
“Okay, twenty-four year old male,” I jotted notes in my notebook. “Name?”
“I believe he is using the alias, Carter Brooks.”
“An alias is probably a dead-end.”
 “He’s been here about a month. He’s working at the drugstore on the corner. He spent Christmas Day on that park bench, looking up at my windows. 
“Maybe he’s homeless. Did you send Rodney out to invite him in for Christmas?”
“No.”
“Did you at least send him food? It was Christmas, Detrick! You don’t let a guy sit alone and hungry on a park bench in the cold on Christmas Day!”
“I never gave it a thought.  He eats his lunch on that park bench across the street and stares up at my apartment every day.”
“Mr. Bittmor, maybe this poor guy is just looking at the sky. The sky is a gorgeous, vibrant blue in January.  The clouds are beautiful. Wait until February when the sky is as cold and gray as the streets, the buildings, and our dispositions. See if he’s still staring up toward the sky then! Why do you think he’s looking at your penthouse apartment?”
“I’m suddenly very tired, Miss Collier. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.” He held his head and the color seemed to drain right out of him.  “I think I need a nap.”
He attempted to get up. I reached out and touched his arm. “Detrick, I want to help you. But I can’t help you if you’re not honest with me. You know whatever you tell me will be completely confidential.”
“Oh, I know. That’s why I called you. You are trustworthy, and that’s not an adjective I’ve tossed around lightly in my lifetime. Trust and loyalty, Cat, are hard to come by these days. I know whatever I tell you is completely confidential. I can invoke the client and his obituary-writer privilege, you know. Not a word until I die! This is just a delicate subject with me.”
I stared at the old man. He seemed much older than his seventy-two years this morning. But I got up at seven o’clock in the morning and slid my way through the ice and snow to get here, I had a headache, and I needed to buy new snow tires, so I wasn’t letting him off the hook.
“Who do youthinkthis man is, Detrick?”
“I believe he’s my son.”

Amazon Link:

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

INTERVIEW: Historical Fiction Author Gerald L. Guy




Gerald (Jerry) L. Guy
Palm Coast, FL
USA


Good morning, Gerald, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the site for book and art lovers. Can you tell us a little about what you've written so far? 
I’ve written eight novels in several genres, including:
Sara: A Hero’s Story (Historic fiction)
Wolf Pact: The New Order (Fantasy, suspense) 
Wolf Pact: Escape from Captivity (Fantasy, suspense) 
Act of Kindness (Historic fiction)
Tree of Wonders (Historic fiction, YA) 
Run Like the Wind (Western, YA, fiction)
Run to Danger (Western, YA, fiction)
Casing Gold (Western, YA, fiction)


What is your favorite genre to write? 
I like historical fiction because I can get in there and bend history a bit to fit my story line. Act of Kindness is a good example when an evil spirit, the scorned wife of Alexander Hamilton, haunts one of the residents of a nursing home.


Favorite food? 
Fresh seafood. Come on, I live eight miles off the Atlantic Ocean.


Tea or coffee?                  
My mornings always start with black coffee, but the rest of the day I drink ice tea, brewed in the beautiful Florida sunshine.


Pizza or ice cream? 
I could eat ice cream every evening, but I don’t because I’m watching my weight. Pst: I make the best apple pie ice cream.



Wine or beer or soda? 
I never drink soda, but there is nothing better than a cold beer on a hot day on San Sebastian (St. Augustine FL) wine at supper. 


Where would you like to visit? 
After reading Blue Lake, Tuscany sounds lovely. But I think Antiqua might be my next stop.


You are a sweet talker, Mr. Guy. Tuscany 
is lovely. The Lakes region is amazing. Venice is pure magic.  Go. Soon.
Favorite musical artist.  
I grew up listening to Motown but am a Country Western fan now. Garth, Reba 
and the Oak Ridge Boys rock my world.


Last concert I attended. 
Believe it or not it was a Chubby Checker concert here in Palm Coast three or four years ago. He was tireless and took me right back to my youth.


Do you listen to music when you write?  
If I have music playing while I’m writing, it is most often classical.


What makes you laugh? 
People, I can sit and watch them all day. We do the zaniest things when we think nobody is watching.


Favorite work of art or sculpture. 
The Mona Lisa. What is she thinking anyway?


How old were you when you started writing? 
I started writing in junior high, was editor of my high school newspaper and then jumped right into journalism as a profession.


Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write? 
I generally know where they begin and how they will end. The middle comes from a mental outline that contains unique characters who become mini stories in themselves sometimes.


Describe your perfect evening. 
Warm beach, soft breeze, fine wine and a finer woman.



Where do you get your inspiration? 
They say there are a million stories in the naked city. As a newspaper editor I experienced many of them and they sneak into my writing. And I love history. “Run Like the Wind” centers on the Black Hills Gold Rush of 1870s. Chasing Gold centers on the lost treasure of Ferdinand Maximillian, the deposed European emperor of Mexico.



What do you do when you get a writer's block? 
I sip bourbon at night and take long walks on the beach during the day.




Who is your favorite author?        
I don’t read a lot of mainstream authors anymore. Although Nicholas Sparks is hard to pass up. I love the independents and up-and-comers. But here is a quick list: I would love to read every book Louis L’Amore ever wrote but I keep getting sidetracked by the likes of David Wood, Ernest Dempsey, Antoinette Stockenberg, Mary Jane Forbes, Emily Kimelman, Juliette Douglass, Michael Crichton and Clive Cussler. (I only stopped because I was out of breath.)



Best book you ever read.
The Stand by Stephen King


Best book of 2018:
Open Primary by A.C. Fuller, is the most intriguing tale I’ve read in a long time. It is about a presidential candidate who emerges from an internet contest to actually crack the two-party system. I couldn’t read it fast enough.


Last book you read. 
Walking to Gatlinburg by Howard Frank Mosher.


Favorite movie. 
Braveheart, the perfect mix of love and violence.


What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer? Photographer/Graphic Artist


Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why? 
My parents were exceptional, strict but loving disciplinarians (I needed lots of discipline) who encouraged me to follow my dreams.


If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why? 
I think George Washington was fascinating and today’s world knows so little about his vibrant personality. Edgar Rice Burroughs was and interesting character, too. How does one dream up “Tarzan of the Apes?”


What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer? Have fun. Write every day. Fear nothing. Create characters you love and hate. Let it all hang out on the first draft and then edit harshly. Invest in Microsoft Word 360 or Microsoft Office. They are an independent author’s best friend.


Things you are working on now: 
I just finished “Chasing the Past,” the fourth entry in the Gus McIntyre series. It will lead to a fifth novel I’m sure. I’m also a couple chapters into Part III of the Wolf Pact sago and haven’t picked a title yet. I also have a murder mystery, “Altered Lives,” that is three-fourths completed but I keep getting pulled away from it by other projects.

The best way to become familiar with my novels and short stories is to go to my website – www.storiesbyguy.com



Do you have some other links for us to follow you?




Note from Jerry:
This cause is dear to my heart. All proceeds from “Act of Kindness” go to Alzheimer’s research. I raised more than $500 for the cause this year. Unfortunately, my father lost his battle with the disease in November. He is the central figure in “Sara: A Hero’s Story,”  which documents the role of the venerable aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Saratoga CV3, in WWII.



Tuesday, January 22, 2019

BOOK: Book Review, Bounder Redeemed by Alison Jean Ash


The light and sparkling Magical Marriage Bureau series continues in this tale of a modern incarnation of the cad Willoughby from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. 

Now the cinema hearthrob Jack Willow, after several painful past lives, he is much sadder, lonelier, and more cynical. By consulting the Wise sisters, a trio of English witches who've been helping people find love for centuries, Jack hopes to meet a woman who wants him for himself, not for his fame and fortune. 

Unfortunately for this plan, his fame has traveled even to this quaint village so far from Hollywood, and the Wise sisters’ results have always been a trifle…mixed.