May Featured Author: Neetu Malik
May 21, 2021 by Neetu Malik in category Featured Author of the Month tagged as May Featured Author of the Month, Neetu Malik, Poet's Day, poetry
Neetu Malik’s poetry is an expression of life’s rhythms and the beat of the human spirit. She draws upon diverse multicultural experiences and observations across three continents in which she has lived. She has contributed to The Australia Times Poetry Magazine, October Hill Magazine, Prachya Review, among others. Her poems have appeared in The Poetic Bond Anthology V and VI published by Willowdown Books, UK, NY Literary Magazine’s Tears Anthology and Poetic Imagination Anthology (Canada).
Her poem, “Soaring Flames”, was awarded First-Place by the NY Literary Magazine (2017). She has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, 2019 for her poem “Sacred Figs” published by Kallisto Gaia Press in their Ocotillo Review in May, 2018.
Neetu lives in Pennsylvania, USA.
You can find Neetu’s poetry in these volumes.
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Confessions From Quarantine
May 19, 2021 by Jenny Jensen in category On writing . . . by Jenny Jensen tagged as Doc Savage, quarantine, reading, writing series
Confessions From Quarantine
Fourteen months ago, when life became weirdly constricted, I didn’t wonder what to do with all that extra time. I’d read of course. Read, write a bit, and read some more. I could never tire of reading but by month 7 my eyes could — and did. I was ordered to rest my vision for one month. There’s always audio books, but I hate earbuds.
Daytime TV
I tried daytime TV – in that murky upper cable range. I found myself in awe of the creativity of producers desperate for material to fill a 24/7 schedule. What obscure subjects! Shows like Storm of Suspicion. “True crime series that examines spellbinding crimes where the weather uncovered or solved crimes.” Wow! How many of those can you dig up? I moved on to an array of paranormal shows that all seemed to feature casually dressed young people filmed by a shaky camera in a deserted house where they would stop in shock and ask in a whisper, “Did you hear that?” Well, I never heard any thing and Ghost Busters did the hand held ghost meter thing a whole lot better. I conclude that daytime TV is not much of a pasttime.
Cooking
Next — cooking. I’ve said before I’m not much good at it, but I do strive (now and then) to improve. I Googled ‘simple French recipes’ hoping to dazzle Tom and tried a stuffed chicken roulade touted to be “All the French, none of the fussiness.” Tricksy click bait, that. First I needed to pound my butterflied chicken breasts to ½ inch thickness. Pound them? I have hammers, but I wouldn’t eat something I used them on. I settled on whacking them about with a rolling pin. They weren’t all that thick anyway.
I made the simple filling (I’m good with vegies and nuts). It was the roll up part that got me. My breasts just weren’t cooperative. Once I finally got them in the hot pan they refused to stay neatly rolled. In the end it tasted pretty good, but it wasn’t pretty. Enough with cooking.
Back to Reading
By now the eyes felt rested and ready to resume their primary function— reading. It was just a question of what to read. I wanted something entirely new to me. Something I might never in a million years seek out. And I found it by the cover. There is a promise in the lurid illustrations of a hugely muscled man, his clothing torn from battle, his eyes uncompromising. The tales of Doc Savage, the man of bronze were written in the 1930’s and 40’s, all 182 of them.
Lester Dent authored most under the house name Kenneth Robeson and the world and characters he built for the tales hold up beautifully 90 years later. Doc himself was once a victim— his parents were killed by bad guys — and he spent his youth honing his mind and body with lots of mysterious eastern mind techniques, exotic hand to hand fighting methods and grueling discipline — so he could spend a lifetime righting wrongs and punishing evil doers. Doc gathers a group of wonderfully eccentric characters to fight along with him. My favorites are Ham the dandy, and Monk the ape-like chemist.
All successful series books need to work as stand alone stories but need to supply enough background to explain the series characters and setting. It’s a difficult thing to do well without feeling heavy handed. Mr. Dent solved the problem simply: every Doc Savage book uses the exact same one to two paragraph description and character sketch of each supporting actor — and then he gets on with the action. And it works! I read 22 of the 182 Doc Savage adventures and by book 4 I had those set pieces memorized, but they are so good and so funny the tale would have felt empty without them.
It’s hard to decide what’s best about the Doc Savage books. It could be the complete innocence of of the world Doc protects, or the fact that Doc and his team never kill anybody (instead they take them to his Fortress of Solitude in the arctic and give them an operation that ‘cures’ them) or that Doc is a real doctor, he’s stinking rich and uses his money well, has a photographic memory, or that he is very shy around women. I loved it all.
It just goes to show that you can judge a book by its cover.
Writing Believable Fight Scenes
May 18, 2021 by marianne h donley in category Ages 2 Perfection Online Class, Online Classes tagged as Aged to Perfection, J. T. Evans, Writing class, writing craft, writing fight scenes
Writing Believable Fight Scenes
Presented by: J.T. Evans
Date: June 1 – 30, 2021
Pricing: A2P Member fee: $15
Non-A2P Member fee: $30
About the Workshop:
Knowing how to write a true-to-life fight scene requires getting into fights. Yes, multiple fights. Many of them. That’s painful because your opponents tend to strike back. There is an alternate approach, though. Find someone who has been in their fair share of fights, also knows how to write, and can impart their decades of battle-earned wisdom to the eager student. This class will cover a wide range of topics including the purpose of a fight in fiction, gender differences, martial arts styles, weapon types (melee and ranged), writing mass combat, how to visualize a fight scene, and what happens to people when they are wounded. There are many nuances to each of these topics (and more!) that you won’t want to miss out on.
About the Presenter:
Roughly thirty-five years ago, J.T. was the target of the bullies (yes all of them) of his school. Between seventh and eighth grade, he enrolled in his first martial arts class to learn how to defend himself. This allowed him to not only drive the bullies away the next school year but put him on a path of passionately learning as many different forms of martial arts as he could get his hands on. Through the years, he’s learned “soft forms,” “hard forms,” armed combat, mass combat techniques, and even has some mixed martial arts experience. As a result of bouncing between the different arts in the world, he has never earned a black belt in a single one, but his broad-spectrum approach has allowed him to get out of many a tight situation over the years.
When not thinking about what martial art to tackle next, he writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. Between the times he slings words at his laptop, he keeps computers secure at the Day Job, home brews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card, board, and role-playing games.
J.T.’s first two novels in his Modern Mythology series from WordFire Press GRIFFIN’S FEATHER and VIPER’S BANE are out now.
Writing Conflict Hurts
May 18, 2021 by marianne h donley in category Ages 2 Perfection Online Class, Online Classes tagged as Aged to Perfection, Craft, June 2021, Melinda Curtis, Writing class, writing conflict
Writing Conflict Hurts
Presented by: Melinda Curtis
Date: June 1 – 30, 2021
Pricing: A2P Member fee: $15
Non-A2P Member fee: $30
About the Workshop:
Writing conflict hurts – not just because it makes your characters suffer, but also because it’s painful to create and carry through on the page. However, conflict drives story and holds an editor’s attention, which means it sells books. Conflict also entices readers to turn the page, which helps create a satisfying experience (plus repeat purchases). Bring a story idea to this interactive course and learn how to build, refine or edit your stories by creating compelling conflict and stronger plots, one element at a time. Takeaways include:
- Developing story goals that are hindered by conflict
- How to deepen character and create emotionally satisfying endings
- Better understanding of internal and external conflict
- The “bumpers” that keep your characters acting consistently
- Conflict that catches the attention of editors and agents
- Summarizing and presenting your finished or developing story, including synopses, taglines and product descriptions
About the Presenter:
Prior to writing romance, award-winning, USA Today Bestseller Melinda Curtis was a junior manager for a Fortune 500 company, which meant when she flew on the private jet she was relegated to the jump seat—otherwise known as the potty. After grabbing her pen (and a parachute) she made the jump to full-time writer. A hybrid author, Melinda has over 60 titles published or sold, including 40 works to Harlequin and five to Grand Central Forever, mostly sweet romance and sweet romantic comedy. One of her books, – Dandelion Wishes –, was made into a 2020 TV movie – Love in Harmony Valley. She recently came to grips with the fact that she’s an empty nester and a grandma, concepts easier to grasp than movies made from her books or jet-setting on a potty
Normally I Wouldn’t Mention It
May 15, 2021 by Rebecca Forster in category The Write Life by Rebecca Forster tagged as amwriting, paranormal, writerslife 
May 3, 2021 was National Paranormal Day. In keeping with the spirit of the day, nothing went right. I played tennis that morning, but every time the ball came my way I miffed it, missed it, or muffed it. Poltergeists, I decided, were having their way me.
As they say in sports I shook it off, and went home deciding a long hot bath was what I needed to set the day right. Before I got in the tub, I looked in the mirror to see one of those pesky chin hairs. Unable to manage to pluck it out with the tweezers, I reached for one of those fancy little shaving blades and sliced my thumb. The little cut bled profusely, and my attempts to bandage the awkward injury were a dismal failure. I sat on the edge of the edge of the tub, with a towel on the cut watching the room fill with steam. But maybe it wasn’t steam. Just maybe it was a ghostly presence swirling around me. Something – someone – pushed my hand and made me cut myself. The silver lining was that the thing didn’t want to kill me because it missed my wrist by a mile.
Evening came. I was scheduled to do a Zoom with Patrice Samara, COO of Wordee.com, and author Mara Purl. The topic was writing the paranormal. I was going to discuss Before Her Eyes. This is the book of my heart. It was inspired by the last days of both my dad and father-in-law and the strange things they experienced in their waning days.
As requested,I logged in fifteen minutes before the assigned time only to land on the tenth level of hell. I glimpsed Mara and the hostess through undulating, writhing, tongue wagging, screaming, pierced and tatted young men and women. My ears were blown out by the most God-awful heavy metal music. My eyes were assault by a scrolling list of vile, generic curses that eventually were directed at me by name.
My first thought was, “This doesn’t seem normal.”
My second thought was, “I wonder if I should mention this. What if these ladies like a little shock value to their interviews and this is normal for them?”
My third thought was, “Don’t be an idiot, Rebecca! This is bizarre.”
I kept the third thought to myself and waited because sometimes when things get really weird the best thing to do is wait. Watch. Listen. Finally, I decided to dip my toe in the water. I said:
“The music is very loud, do either of you know how to turn it down?”
That seemed neutral enough. Either they would tell me how to turn it down or they would unleash the hounds. They did neither because Mara, realizing we had been hacked, shut down the Zoom. The vile devilish hackers were sent back to the inferno, and three very normal ladies were left looking at one another from our little Zoom boxes. We laughed and went on to record the interview, Writing the Paranormal, to be posted later.
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A foreign woman is dead, two countries want her forgotten. Detective Finn O'Brien wants justice.
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