A Word Please: Conversations With 24 Authors

by Darcia Helle

  B-Sides and Broken Hearts is your first novel. I read that you have others in the works. Can you give us a hint of what’s to come?

  I should have my next book out by April 2013 – an editor approached my former agent a couple of years ago and pitched the idea of me writing the “‘Eat Pray Love’ of baseball and rock and roll”. I’m completely uninterested in memoir but I am interested in writing about why I love baseball so much and what it’s like to fall into it when you don’t grow up with it, so that’s the next novel. The book after that is the New York in the 80′s book I mentioned above. After that I plan on writing a sequel to B-sides. And I have other ideas after that, but that’s about as far out as I can plan.

  This summer I will be publishing an ebook about my month seeing Bruce Springsteen in Europe. I’ve always wanted to write a travel book and this will let me combine that and writing about Springsteen, which is something I do a lot of anyway.

  Is there one book you’ve read that has influenced you or made a big impact on your life?

  The books that influenced me the most when I was younger were Harriet the Spy and To Kill A Mockingbird.

  Best concert you’ve ever seen? What made it so special?

  I could pick seeing the Clash at Bonds in Times Square instead of going to my senior prom, or Springsteen on the River tour (or even a few years ago when he performed with Sam Moore, a gospel choir and the Miami Horns), or U2 at Wembley Stadium on the Zooropa tour, but I’ve also seen house party shows or shows by bands most people have never heard of that blew me away. Leonard Cohen in 2010 was amazing and he’s in his 70′s!

  The great thing is that I’m still seeing amazing shows every year so I never have to stop and pick that one great show.

  If your life had a theme song, what would it be and why?

  “Ooh Child” by the Five Stairsteps. The lyrics explain it all.

  About the Author:

  Caryn Rose is a Brooklyn-based writer and photographer who documents rock-and-roll, baseball and urban life. She covers the ups and downs of the New York Mets at metsgrrl.com, reports on Bruce Springsteen for Backstreets Magazine and brucespringsteen.net, and ruminates about music at jukeboxgraduate.com. She lives in Greenpoint with her boyfriend and her cat, Jackie Wilson. B-Sides And Broken Hearts is her first novel.

  Caryn Rose on Amazon

  Book Website: https://www.bsidesandbrokenhearts.com

  Blog: https://www.jukeboxgraduate.com

  Website for a taste of everything: https://www.carynlrose.com

  Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/carynrose or @carynrose

  Finally Home by Elysabeth Eldering

  It isn’t just history against progress – it’s daughter against father, or is it? Find out what secrets Kelly learns as she works to preserve an historic house in a small town that will help her bring her father Finally Home.

  Our conversation:

  What inspired you to write Finally Home?

  I had a vision one day while working of an old house. I work at home and have no idea why this vision came to me, but I had to stop working for about half an hour and just write this house. I put it aside for a couple of years and when I returned to it, I tried to make it a past lives story and the house was a bit different. I went through months of creating secret messages and codes that were discovered by Kelly (who at that writing was a 20 or 30 something year-old woman whose job was to preserve the houses). I sent to my editors and both of them nixed the story, saying that I needed to write it as a children’s story or young adult novel. So a while later, I decided to participate in NaNo (that’s National Novel Writing Month) as a writer (I’d already been participating prior to 2008 when I wrote Finally Home but as a spectator and cheerleader for my friends and acquaintances) but that was the first year my JGDS series was published and I was wicked busy during November so, I started the story the middle of November and completed it the middle of December – technically I did my 30 days and 50,000 words but just not during the month of November – lol. Anyway – after I wrote it, I let it sit for a long time before thinking about doing anything with it. I finally sent to my editors and a couple of other persons to edit it, and again putting it aside. I finally decided in 2011 that it was time to take Kelly off the back burner and really do my revisions and rewritings, leading to me publishing late in the year.

  Kelly has a fascination with old houses and preserving them for history. Is this an interest you share?

  No. I am not a history buff at all, although I do like the Victorian style houses and the look and feel of old houses as they do have so many stories to tell us.

  Because of Kelly’s father’s job, the family is forced to move around a lot. Despite this, I found Kelly’s character well-grounded. Many kids would feel lost in her situation. What keeps Kelly feeling secure in her new environments?

  I haven’t ever thought of what kept her secure with all the moves. I guess part of that comes from personal experience in that my father was in the service and we moved something like 7 or 8 times from the year I was born until I started high school. I also think that the house pulling her might have had something to do with it, especially since there was no indication prior to her family moving to this town that it would be any different than previous moves.

  Finally Home has a paranormal twist that I won’t give away, and also talks a bit about destiny. Do you believe we each have a destiny to fulfill?

  I think so. I also believe that we have all had previous lives that are intertwined and that we all have mapped out destinies that will somehow get fulfilled.

  What is it about the YA genre that attracts you as a writer?

  lol – See my answer to question #1 about writing for children or young adults – I just write whatever is in order for the day. I’ve written several short stories that are not young adult as well as children’s stories – so I’m game to whatever contest is calling me on a particular day, although I’ve not written anything for a contest in a while.

  You’ve undertaken a big writing project with your Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state mystery trivia series. Tell us a little about this series and what inspired you to write it.

  This was actually inspired from my first ever writing and contest entry. I took second place with my story “Train of Clues” and it ended up being a children’s story with a mystery destination. I took that ms and sent to an editor with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and asked her to give me some guidance on how to make it a series with each state being the mystery destination or puzzle piece. She sent me some great information and from that I just played around until the right combination of story and game came around and worked perfectly for what I needed to do. I need to get back to writing more state stories but have put them on a hiatus for a bit because I’ve got a new idea brewing for the stories. More on that as the idea develops and formulates.

  What is your writing environment like? Neat or messy? Silent or noisy?

  Messy and quiet – I really should organize my desk but it is my catchall for work related and other things, but I can’t stand for anyone to rummage around on my desk looking for anything because I know where all my junk is and what is in the pile and if it’s messed with it I kind of get out of synch. I have to listen to doctors in my head all day long on my regular job so I totally like writing in silence. I seem to do better if I don’t have other distractions when writing (some days – lol; I can write more when I’m just concentrating on the writing and not listening to music or anything).

  Do you have a favorite author and/or book that helped inspire you to become a writer?

  Not really. I used to read whenever I could when I was younger, mostly mysteries – Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys – but never really developed a favorite author. When I was in my 20s, I did enjoy V.C. Andrews very much but when I found out she had passed away and her books were being ghost written and weren’t of the same quality, I stopped reading her. In my late 30s and early 40s, I
was getting into Jonathan Kellerman but haven’t picked up any of his books in a while either. I think at present, Jim and Joyce Lavene do have a couple of series that I’m into and really like but as far as inspiring me to become a writer – no, since I really didn’t start writing until I was in my early 40s. I was challenged to enter that first contest and that was it.

  When you’re not writing or reading, what might we find you doing?

  Working my day job as a medical transcriptionist, playing spider solitaire, crocheting or watching TV.

  Favorite TV program?

  I have too many “favorites” – lol – Survivor (the earlier seasons were the best), Dancing With the Stars, Rizzoli & Isles, The Closer, Criminal Minds, Top Chef (any and all of their series), Paranormal Kids: Children with Psychic Abilities, The Voice, SMASH, The Millionaire Matchmaker, Castle. Those are pretty much what I watch now, some not so much as others because I tend to forget when they are on.

  Favorite food?

  Any American chicken dish, noodle type dishes but of course most anything Chocolate – lol – seriously, I don’t have a favorite food, I just like to eat – don’t like super spicy foods (or they don’t like me). I also can’t have certain foods due to allergies but crave them so much – Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

  One word or sentence that describes your current mood?

  My current mood is content.

  About the Author:

  Ms. Eldering is the award winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series. Her stories “Train of Clues”, “The Proposal” (available as an ebook), “Tulip Kiss” (available as an ebook), and “Butterfly Halves”, all placed first, second, or runner up in various contests to include two for Armchair Interviews and two for Echelon Press (Fast and … themed type contests). Her story “Bride-and-Seek” (available as an ebook) was selected for the South Carolina Writers’ Workshop (SCWW) anthology, the Petigru Review. Ms. Eldering makes her home in upper state South Carolina and loves to travel, read, cross stitch and crochet. When she’s not busy with teenaged children still at home, working her full-time job as a medical transcriptionist or participating in virtual classroom visits, she can be found at various homeschool or book events promoting her writing.

  For more information about the JGDS series, please visit the JGDS blog at https://jgdssseries.blogspot.com or the JGDS website at https://jgdsseries.weebly.com.

 

  For more information about Elysabeth’s other writings, please visit her general writing and family blog at https://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com or her website at https://eeldering.weebly.com.

  You can also connect with Elysabeth in the following places:

 

  Elysabeth on Amazon

  Twitter: https://www.Twitter.com/elysabeth42 or @elysabeth42

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=714420476

  Metallic Dreams by Mark Rice

  Long-haired Scottish rock singer Spark MacDubh drops dead on a snow-covered street of his native Bronzehall, only to be jolted back to life by what he calls lightning from Heaven. Following Spark’s resurrection, his sanity is stretched thin: during waking hours, he receives instructions from deities known as the Metal Gods; at night he is haunted by visions of a Devil who wields ultimate power over the music industry. Employing behaviour that swings between messianic and infernal, Spark gets his old band back together with a view to steering them towards greatness. The Devil, however, only grants success in exchange for souls. Unwilling to use his bandmates’ eternal souls as bargaining tools, MacDubh comes up with a preferable route to stardom: put the Devil out of business for good. A simple idea but questionable in terms of practicality. For starters, it requires a trip to Hell, and only the right music can open the gateway to that dimension. Catch-22? More like Catch-666.

  Our Conversation:

  Like Spark, you’ve been a heavy metal fan since an early age. I have to ask the obvious question. Are there other similarities between you and Spark?

  Many. Spark MacDubh is an alterego of sorts: the literary Superman to my real-world Clark Kent. Through him, I was able to go on the ultimate vicarious adventure. In terms of personality, we’re very alike. We both have backgrounds in competitive sport. Spark’s understanding of the Universe deepened when he lost beloved family members, as did mine. I instilled my love of animals in Spark. The passion for music is as deeply rooted in the rogue MacDubh as it is in me.

  In one scene, Spark and some friends are playing with pipe bombs and you seemed to have extensive knowledge on these things. So be honest here. How many mailboxes have you blown up?

  Bearing in mind that tampering with US mail is a federal offence, I must word this answer carefully. Six Virginia mailboxes exploded in my presence. Allegedly.

  You include song lyrics for the band’s first song – Little Evils for the Greater Good. Is there music to go with the lyrics? Any chance we’ll hear the song?

  I created guitar riffs, melodies and lyrics for the song. A couple of my virtuoso friends are more than capable of contributing bass, drums and keyboards, so a finished version of the track could happen at some point. It’s on the back burner for now, but it’ll be a lot of fun if/when it happens.

  While discussing the blues and the use of the word ‘ain’t’, Spark makes a comment in the narration that made me laugh. He said, American English is a shabby, bastardized dilution of proper English anyway. Being one of those Americans who uses a bastardized dilution of English, I have to agree that it’s often true. We can be lazy with language. Do you think Scottish people are more proper in their speech?

  In general, yes, but less so than in decades past. Scots have the advantage of a deeper pool of words. In addition to English vocabulary, we have the Scots dialect, which is a rich source of phonetically gorgeous words, for example drookit (sodden), hochmagandy (recreational sex), ramgunshoch (coarse and bad-tempered) and tattie-bogle (scarecrow). And there’s also the old language, Gaelic, which is still spoken as a first language in some remote parts of the country. Speech patterns in Scotland reflect these diverse influences, with vernacular varying wildly from region to region. Despite being exposed to this vast vocabulary and an oral storytelling tradition that stretches back millennia, most Scots are becoming lazier with language. E-mails and text messages have made interpersonal communication quicker and easier, but have also brought about a decline in the quality of writing. This laziness is filtering into spoken language, especially that of adolescents. One technological advance that might help to reverse this is the e-reader. With an increasing number of young people reading for leisure, thanks largely to the Kindle and other e-book readers, literary competence – and, by extension, spoken language – should improve. When I hear flawed grammar, I can’t help myself from blurting out corrections…like grammatical Tourette’s. I view this as helpful to the correctees, but my friend Darran calls it socially retarded behaviour. I’m an equal-opportunity corrector, though; I do it in the US, the UK and (to quote Metallica) wherever I may roam. My corrections often go unappreciated, but that’s my cross to bear: the plight of the stickler!

  Spark’s favorite Pink Floyd album is Division Bell, which made me like Spark more since it is also my favorite. Are you a Pink Floyd fan? Do you have a favorite song by them?

  I’m a huge Pink Floyd fan. I own their whole discography, as well as the solo material by David Gilmour and Roger Waters. To pick a favourite track by Floyd is difficult, as there are several that I consider perfect. If I could only listen to one of their songs, it’d have to be Comfortably Numb. The lyrics are clever and symbolic. David Gilmour’s voice is otherworldly. And that guitar solo…pure bliss.

  The book is, of course, about heavy metal. Do you remember the first metal band you heard? What is it about the music that captured your spirit?

  Saxon, closely followed by AC/DC, Motörhead and Thin Lizzy. I found Saxon’s razor-sharp guitar tones and clean vocals captivating. AC/DC’s amazi
ng high-voltage energy hit me like a lightning bolt, transforming me for the better. Motörhead made more noise than any other band, so they became instant favourites. Thin Lizzy’s folk-inspired heavy riffs resonated in my Celtic soul. All these bands contained larger-than-life performers whose personalities shone through in the music: Biff Byford of Saxon; Angus Young and Bon Scott of AC/DC; Lemmy of Motörhead; Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy. I’ve been lucky enough to spend time with Biff and Lemmy. They’re extremely humble individuals who have an unwavering belief in their musical vision. They understand that a wise man is one who lives his dream each day. This idea of transforming dreams into reality is a central theme of my novel.

  Do you listen to music while you write? If so, do you have a favorite playlist for inspiration?

  I always listen to music while I write. It puts me in a more creative mindset. I don’t have a ‘writing tunes’ playlist. What I listen to depends on my mood and the tone of the piece I’m working on. If I’m writing a poignant chapter, I might listen to something folky and Scottish, such as Paul Mounsey or Fred Morrison, or a classical cello piece. If I’m creating something dark, my music of choice is epic Finnish metal: Amorphis, Insomnium or Nightwish. There’s certain music (Led Zeppelin, Rush, Rainbow, AC/DC, Joe Satriani, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Saxon, Hardcore Superstar, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Thin Lizzy, Motörhead, Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, Jean Michel Jarre…the list goes on and on) that I can listen to anytime at all, as it never fails to get my creative juices flowing. During the Metallic Dreams writing sessions, Rush was my most listened-to band. So they’re partly to blame for the end result!