Writeful

a weblog for readers and writers

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Real Travel Adventures Goes to Madrid

Does the rain and snow (depending on where you are) have you wishing for sunnier weather? Pour yourself a snifter of Spanish brandy, prepare a bit of tapas, and come with me to Madrid!


Real Travel Adventures is an online travel magazine that draws the eyes of half a million unique visitors each year. The current issue features my travel story, called “Spanish Holiday: Part 2, Madrid.” It's illustrated by my wife, Nataliya A. Goodman.

I’ll admit that the published story has been cut down to size, and much of the detail and experience has been omitted or altered—rendering some reference confusing or unexplained. But the story will give you a glimpse of Madrid's beauty, along with its darker side.

So warm that chill with me in Madrid at Real Travel Adventures International Magazine!

www.realtraveladventures.com/2Feb2013/spanish_holiday_in_madrid.htm


You can also go back to Part 1, Barcelona, at the following link.

www.writeful.blogspot.com/2013/01/real-travel-adventures-goes-to-barcelona.html


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Friday, February 15, 2013

In With The New

I don’t want to say “out with the old,” so let’s just agree to welcome in the new.


Last week, I was The Next Big Thing! This week, I’m the last big thing.

The Next Big Thing is a a sort of “pay it forward” interview series providing readers with an ever-growing series of discussions about writers and their works. It offers an inside view of our process, our passions, our efforts to create our best work.

Author Debra Leigh Scott asked me to participate a few weeks ago. You can see my write-up about her interview here:

www.writeful.blogspot.com/2013/02/writers-pay-it-forward.html


My own Next Big Thing interview from last Friday is here:

www.writeful.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-next-big-thing-interview.html


And now, I’d like to introduce The NEXT Big Thing!

Lauren Eisenberg Davis is working on Other Mothers’ Daughters, a memoir about the plight of vulnerable children and the adults who exploit and protect them, told from the point of view of the child of an abusive mother and the adult wife of a pedophile.

Find Lauren’s interview at her Facebook page.

www.facebook.com/LaurenBethEisenbergDavis



Sherry Audette Morrow is currently working on two novels. Her articles, short fiction, and poetry have appeared publications in the United States and Canada. The anthology New Lines From the Old Line State includes one of her short stories and one of her essays is featured in Mean Girls Grown Up: Adult Women Who Are Still Mean Bees, Middle Bees and Afraid-To-Bees. Sherry is the founding editor of Scribble Magazine — www.scribblemagazine.us.

Find Sherry’s interview at her Facebook page.

www.facebook.com/notes/sherry-audette-morrow/the-next-big-thing/10151294288882711

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Friday, February 08, 2013

The Next Big Thing Interview


Today, I’m The Next Big Thing!


The Next Big Thing is a writer interview series that is getting a lot of buzz this year. It’s a sort of “pay it forward” interview series providing readers with an ever-growing series of discussions about writers and their works. It offers an inside view of our process, our passions, our efforts to create our best work.

I was asked to participate by author Debra Leigh Scott. You can see my write-up about her interview here:

www.writeful.blogspot.com/2013/02/writers-pay-it-forward.html

Now … here is my ten-question interview for The Next Big Thing



Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:

1– What is your working title of your book?

The book I’m used to talking about is Tracks: A Novel in Stories (Atticus, 2011) which you can find at www.TracksNovel.com.  

But the book I am working on now is called Setting the Family Free. I plan to have a draft to my agent this spring.

2–Where did the idea come from for the book?

Although fictionalized, I was inspired to write this book by a unique news story. In 2011, a private animal collector unleashed his zoo of exotic pets and then killed himself. Most of the animals had to be killed because they were a threat to local residents. I thought the idea of these animals on the prowl and the hunters tracking them was as fascinating as what made the man release them and then take his own life. I pretty much knew from the first news story to break that I wanted to write something about this.

3–What genre does your book fall under?

Something between literary fiction and contemporary fiction. It’s all about the drama and feelings and relationships between the people involved in the story.

4–Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I have a hard time picturing actors while writing—and I don’t want to taint the characters by beginning to write descriptions of the actors playing them. So instead, I’ll refer to Tracks: A Novel in Stories, which is already written.

I could see Morgan Freeman playing Franklin, the conductor. Tom Wilkinson as Prewitt. Natalie Portman as Christi. Harrison Ford as Murdock, the salesman. Daniel Craig as Charlie, the hit man. Demi Moore as Demi. Johnny Depp as Colin, the poet. George Clooney as Gene Silverman. Know their agents?

5–What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Tracks: A Novel in Stories, set on a train traveling from Baltimore to Chicago, is all about how people—even strangers on a train—can connect in meaningful ways.

But back to Setting the Family Free … (and this is my first attempt): As experts hunt down a private zoo of exotic animals set free in the city, those who knew animal-lover Sammy Johnson struggle to understand why he sent his beloved family to their deaths before taking his own life.

6–Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Tracks was published by Atticus Books. Setting the Family Free will also find a traditional or independent publisher (I hope) with the help of my literary agent.

7–How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I find rewriting to be the hard part. The original draft came to me in only two weeks while I was at a writing retreat. Granted, every need was catered to during that two weeks, so I was able to devote all of my energy to writing. But I was able to write that first draft (about 320 pages) in just two weeks.

Rewriting? Months and months, so far.

8–What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

The subject matter is something I haven’t encountered before—the idea of this person releasing his animals into the city, examining why he did it, following the local authorities and neighbors as they discover what is happening and prepare to hunt the animals down. But in style, I tried to take some examples from the work of one of my favorite authors, Tim O’Brien. This is no war story. But In The Lake of the Woods inspired me to try something that included quotes and excerpts as part of the story. And I liked his method of weaving backstory with current story from multiple perspectives. This is more story than novel in stories, but different chapters are told from different points of view. We see things from Sammy’s point of view, and from the wife’s, and from the sheriff and his deputy and the animal experts. So in some ways, although it is a novel, its individual parts may have the feel of a story collection.

9–Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I was inspired by Tim O’Brien’s format and style in his novel In the Lake of the Woods. I had recently re-read it when the real animal story broke. The real event inspired me to think about writing either a non-fiction narrative or a fictional account of the events. Imagining the great news quotes and different takes on the story, I realized it was a perfect match to the format.

10–What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I think readers who enjoyed the novel-in-stories format of Tracks sill like the format of this book. It is more novel than Tracks was as it follows one story. But within that story are many others. The man who made it all happen. What drove him to do it? The wife, who lost everything she loved. The sheriff, forced to lead the hunt. The deputy, who struggles with guilt over the slaughter of the animals. Some chapters even look at things from the point of the view of the animals. That said, the chapters of this book are much tighter than my novel in stories. The chapters in Setting the Family Free are not stand alone stories so much as parts of the larger story.

That, and animals. Readers who love animals, should try Setting the Family Free.



NEXT UP for The Next Big Thing: Tune in for interviews with Sherry Audette Morrow and Lauren Eisenberg Davis next week. Visit www.Writeful.blogspot.com next Friday to link to their interviews!

Lauren Eisenberg Davis is working on Other Mothers’ Daughters, a memoir about the plight of vulnerable children and the adults who exploit and protect them, told from the point of view of the child of an abusive mother and the adult wife of a pedophile.

Sherry Audette Morrow is currently working on two novels, and her articles, short fiction, and poetry have appeared publications in the U.S. and Canada. The anthology New Lines From the Old Line State includes one of her short stories and one of her essays is featured in Mean Girls Grown Up: Adult Women Who Are Still Mean Bees, Middle Bees and Afraid-To-Bees. Sherry is also the founding editor of Scribble Magazine — www.scribblemagazine.us.  

Keep following The Next Big Thing—it’s the next big thing!

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Monday, February 04, 2013

F. Scott Fitzgerald House Up for Grabs

If you are a writer (or a musician or artist) then it’s likely you’ve dreamed of living the “Jazz Age” lifestyle of F. Scott Fitzgerald.


If you happen to have half a million dollars to spare, now you can!

F. Scott Fitzgerald's town house at 1307 Park Ave. in Baltimore is up for sale. For $450,000, it could be yours.

This is one of two Baltimore homes F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald lived in during their five years in Baltimore. (Zelda burned their first one down while dispensing of papers.)

He’d already enjoyed the success of The Great Gatsby, known by many as the Great American Novel, when he lived in this home. He lived here when he published Tender is the Night.

What a perfect place for a writing residency, visiting authors, and literary events!

Read more about it in the Los Angeles Times.

www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-f-scott-fitzgerald-baltimore-town-house-20130130,0,4281960.story

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Friday, February 01, 2013

Writers Pay it Forward

The Next Big Thing is a writer interview series that is getting a lot of buzz this year. It’s a sort of “pay it forward” interview series providing readers with an ever-growing series of discussions about writers and their works. It offers an inside view of our process, our passions, our efforts to create our best work.


I was asked to participate by the founder of the Eludia Award for Fiction and the Hidden River Writers in Philadelphia: Debra Leigh Scott. Debra is the author of Other Likely Stories and is working on a documentary—but in today’s interview, she talks about her most recent project: Piety Street, a novel being published this year by New Door Books.

“Readers who like entering into an entire world and staying there, discovering a variety of powerful characters, experiencing mystery, struggle, injustice, crime, and ultimate resolution and redemption, will love Piety Street. It’s filled with everything found in my beloved New Orleans: mysticism, magic, spirituality, passion. And all of that is blended with historical events: the great immigrations of Sicilians to New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century, the sweep of death caused by the 1919 influenza pandemic, the great flood of 1927 that destroyed large areas of New Orleans – much like the more recent Katrina.”

Check out Debra’s full interview today, and come back next Friday to see mine!

http://hiddenriverwriters.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/the-next-big-thing-an-writer-interview-series/


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