blogging authors

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (10/06)

By Dan Bessie

Bessie wrote “Reeling through Hollywood” to offer insight into how to survive for people who want to break into show business. He has spent forty years surviving in what he calls a “deliciously rewarding profession.” He learned to recognize success by enjoying the process of doing what he loves. By enjoying the creative process along the way you will “nourish your creative soul.” To make it in this business, dedication and persistence are required. Hard work won’t guarantee success, sometimes people make it just by dumb luck.

Bessie’s story is about the process. It begins in his childhood where he describes his first movie experience. His dad was in the business, so as a child, he got to meet the stars. As he writes about his life in the industry, he shares some really enjoyable anecdotes about things that happen along the way. In addition to it being interesting to read about the stars that he encountered, it is also interesting to learn about the tricks of the trade. I really enjoyed his story about filming “Peter and the Wolf,” and learning about how they got the animals to do their tricks. His stories are humorous and heartwarming. Cartoons and pictures are included to illustrate the story. There are also footnotes that tell more about the person or movie being mentioned.
Continue reading »

The Dirt-Brown Derby

PI Frank Johnson is hired by Mary Taliaferro, a wealthy aristocrat owning a horse estate near Middleburg, Virginia. Mary’s teen-age daughter Emily has died in a riding tragedy. The local law enforcement says it’s an accident. Mary thinks it’s murder. Frank is broke and the money Mary offers is too good to pass up, but his case quickly becomes more complicated when the stable manager is murdered one day after he starts his investigation. Frank soon discovers that there is much more going on here, and he is determined to get to the truth, even if it kills him!

About the author

Ed Lynskey’s fiction has appeared in Mississippi Review, HandHeldCrime, and Plots With Guns. A short collection, Out of Town a Few Days, appeared in 2004 and a novel titled The Blue Cheer is scheduled for 2006.

I arrived to a balmy 82 degrees and a huge welcome from Nancy Killeen, my Peace Corps buddy from Micronesia. She had arranged a book signing at River Oaks Books Store in Houston on Wednesday. We slid through the door at 4:30 pm, and were greeted by that same friendly Texan warmth I have found nearly everywhere for the past two days. Small wonder why the Katrina evacuees don’t return to New Orleans. (Frank and Shannon Carmello, Nancy’s daughter and son-in-law, are moving to New Orleans and everyone asks them why? I view it as a land opportunity in the midst of political constipation, swarms of mosquitoes and high crime, not unlike living in a Third-World country.)

Before I even had a chance to sit down, I sold a book to Bill, who managed not to escape my little pitch for my prose. Within two minutes he bought a copy of The Last Voyage of the Cosmic Muffin. 4:30 to 6 pm is not the best time to have a book signing, but I was honored to be able to sign at this famous little bookstore in a rather posh area inside the I610 loop around the city. Somewhere close by former President George Bush lurked. I was hoping he might pop in, but making special arrangements with the secret service would have overwhelmed me. Anyway, the cozy bookstore offered comfortable seats, punch and cookies, and a relaxed atmosphere.
Continue reading »

Author of Thanks for the Memories

1. As many as 50 million condoms were sold or freely distributed each month during the war.
2. 80% of GIs away from home for 2 years or more admitted to regular sexual intercourse. Nearly a third of these men had wives at home, while almost half indicated they intended to marry their girlfriend waiting back in the States.
3. When madams were forced to close their brothels in Norfolk, Virginia, prostitutes hired taxis dubbed “chippy wagons” and serviced their customers in the back seats.
4. “Khaki-Wackies,” “Victory Girls,” and “Good Time Charlottes” were teen age girls who “sold” their sexual favors for a movie or a coke at the local drug store.
5. Some 650,000 American babies were born out of wedlock between 1942 and 1945, an average of 8.3 illegitimate births per thousand. Continue reading »

Author of Cryptid, The Lost Legacy of Lewis and Clark

A generation ago literature we label today as science fiction was simply fiction. Science fiction as a genre had not yet been born. Then seemingly over night “science fiction” burst onto the scene.

Literature may be experiencing a similar phenomenon today. Just as science fiction’s roots can be traced back to the generation prior to its acceptance, as far back as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a new genre may have roots nearly as old, dating back to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World and the original King Kong. Both of these titles were not considered separate from the rest of fiction in their day, but today they could be labeled within a new genre with strong ties to science fiction. Cryptofiction.

Just as science seemed to have burst into the public’s consciousness at about the same time as the birth of science fiction, a new field of science is spawning a new genre of science fiction. Cryptozoology is a branch of science that studies cryptids, or unknown and as yet undiscovered species of animals. Not yet widely accepted by mainstream science, cryptozoology is nevertheless a self-styled and self-labeled field of study with a growing audience. The same can be said for cryptofiction.
Continue reading »

Author of Silent Battlefields

The premise of this article is that imagination is the fuel of good fiction writing. To be sure, there are many other important, even necessary components that the author must possess and bring to bear, but they all emanate from imagination, without which creative writing is unattainable. When all are present and put into action then there is a synergistic effect, such that the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. These include motivation, discipline, commitment, perseverance, grammar, practice, and, of course, talent. Without such elements as motivation and perseverance, talent will lie dormant. But without imagination, talent will lack the spark to spawn a captivating or mesmerizing story.

Imagination is unique. It is unconquerable, as even a person confined to a cell can take leave by conjuring up its magic. Yet, paradoxically, its possessor must choose to release it, to allow it to roam freely beyond the world that surrounds us; to pull together elements we are already familiar with and assemble them in ways that we are unfamiliar with; to invent new characters that had never existed before and endow them with their own personalities; and to create stories that never happened, yet which have the power to move the reader to tears, anger, inspiration, action, and transformation.
Continue reading »

You are free to duplicate or distribute the following information to your blog, Web site, ezine, newsletter, or friends. We would appreciate a link back to BloggingAuthors.com. If you would you like to review this book for your site, blog, or ezine, email nancy at bloggingauthors dot com

Author of Passion, and Sins and Secrets

Writing erotic romance is certainly a sexual liaison with my muse. Anticipation starts the juices flowing, and then imagination takes over. What is hotter than the expectation of tingles and whispers, caresses and sighs, and finally, skin against skin. The mind, after all, is the most potent erogenous zone. Much like spending a hot night with a lover, foreplay begins while walking up the stairs, or in this case, turning on the computer!

Before computers, writers stared at a blank page in a typewriter. Now, it is a white screen on a monitor waiting to be filled. My muse helps me find the sensual space in my imagination, from which sexy stories appear. Sometimes when I need him, my muse has to be enticed to come out and play. I tease him, pursuing him until he can no longer resist.

My muse is certainly masculine, a commanding presence when he emerges. To coax him out of the private sanctum where he lives, I bait him. He loves music, especially the blues. Oh baby, yes, the blues will lure him out every time. He absolutely cannot resist Etta James.
Continue reading »

Saving Bablyon

On the Patriot missile:
Our star defender was the new Patriot surface-to-air guided missile defense system. Its Gulf War predecessor was designed to explode near slow-moving targets like aircraft, but was never intended to shoot down ballistic missiles. The new version of the Patriot is equipped with a hit-to-kill technology and is capable of intercepting Scuds at a higher altitude than was possible back in 1991. The interceptor would collide with the Iraqi missile like a bullet hitting a bullet. The exploding warhead is capable of destroying incoming Iraqi warheads, including any nuclear, chemical or biological agents.

One evening I was even able to witness one of these Patriots in action. With batteries located on our base, about 200 yards from my tent, I could hear the unmistakable sound of the Patriot’s launch. As I ran outside in my chemical suit, I stared at the distant sky waiting for the hit. Instantly, a bright flash appeared signaling the Patriot had met its target. Seconds later the sound of the collision could be heard, confirming success. We returned to our tents resting a little more peacefully.

Interrogating Mahmood
Not all the prisoners were in good standing with us. I had a few guys whom I treated in a different manner, never to torture or mistreat, but I ran a variety of different strategies and approaches on them during the interrogation process. One such uncooperative character was a general with important governmental responsibilities, General Mahmood, or “Dark Eyes,” as I called him. I was running an assortment of approaches with him to see how he might react.
Continue reading »

You are free to duplicate or distribute the following information to your blog, Web site, ezine, newsletter, or friends. We would appreciate a link back to BloggingAuthors.com. If you would you like to review this book for your site, blog, or ezine, email nancy at bloggingauthors dot com

Author of Cryptid, The Lost Legacy of Lewis and Clark

Literature holds a special place in our hearts, fiction in particular. The art of fiction has been a part of civilization nearly as long as writing itself. But in this day of text messaging, Internet surfing, satellite television, and in-home theaters the act of reading fiction has much competition. And yet, in spite of technology’s pleasures, we continue to read with no foreseeable end in sight.

Why? How can it be that reading a book can hold a candle to blowing an evening playing Halo or letting the hundreds of satellite and cable TV channels wash over us?

It is because stories told with the written word offer the consumer what technology and no other media can—an intimate and uniquely personal emotional experience. An experience that is a cooperative creative effort between both author and reader. And this experience has four distinct and foundational elements.
Continue reading »

You are free to duplicate or distribute the following information to your blog, Web site, ezine, newsletter, or friends. We would appreciate a link back to BloggingAuthors.com. If you would you like to review this book for your site, blog, or ezine, email nancy at bloggingauthors dot com

Author of Silent Battlefields

Let’s begin by uncovering the hidden premise of the title, which is that characters lead the author. But do they? I think we are faced with a paradox here. That’s not necessarily bad or surprising, since some of life’s most challenging questions imply paradoxical answers. Those with a black and white cognitive mindset may be disappointed at this suggestion, but I believe it’s true.

In writing fiction, there can be no doubt that the words, sentences, paragraphs, and so forth, emanate from the author. Similarly, the author is responsible for the plot and characters of his or her novel, as well as the extent to which it generates tension and conflict. If the book is not well received, the author certainly can’t claim, “It’s the characters’ fault.”

Many fiction writers report that they always know where their short stories and novels are going and how they’re going to end. I have no doubt that for those authors their assertion is true and if it works for them, that’s fine. Agents and publishers aside, ultimately it is the outcome of the work and the judgment of the reader that counts, as nice as it might feel to be self-satisfied about one’s own work.
Continue reading »