Stephen L. Brayton's Blog (58)

It's a sunny but cool Friday and I'm looking for warmer climes. So I hop in my transporter and pick up this week's author, Cynthia Polansky. She gives me directions which fulfills my desires. Soon, we are sitting on a veranda outside a fashionable hotel in Tahiti. The water is absolutely gorgeous, the air is clean, and the sun is warm. She hands me a passion-fruit punch and we begin the questions.



1. Who is Cynthia Polansky and what makes you the most fascinating person in your… Continue

On this cloudy and cool Friday morning, I hop into my transporter, pick up this week's featured author and we soon find ourselves at the end of a dock overlooking one of Wisconsin's many lakes. It's still cool here in the northern country, so we've brought along a thermos of hot chocolate and unbeknownst to me until that first sip, she's spiked the cocoa with a touch of Bailey's Irish Cream. Yowza! We discuss the upcoming fishing season and relaxing with our toes in the sand. Then, it's on to… Continue

So, another in a long line of book reviewers steps into the arena. I hope you will check out Brayton's Book Buzz, http://braytonsbookbuzz.blogspot.com, where I want to provide a fun and intelligent review of the literature I read. I do a bit of reviewing at GoodReads.com, but I wish to expand a little more in the Buzz postings.



I want to be honest without being overly critical. I mentioned last week about the conditions I must follow… Continue

I wrote last week's rant a few weeks ago during the time I was attempting to find reviewers for "Night Shadows." At the time, I didn't plan for this to go any further than one blog. However, since then, I've taken on a new assignment: reviewing books for Suspense Magazine, a monthly Internet publication. You can find more details about the magazine at www.suspensemagazine.com. I've agreed review a couple of books per month. If you're…

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If I’ve learned anything throughout all my years or writing, it’s that this business is difficult. There are obstacles every step of the way.



First, there is writing the story. Sure, if you want to take a further step back there is the creation of the plot, characters, setting, etc. I mean the actual writing, though. Setting aside a portion of the day to write. Then, after X amount of days working and rewrites and editing and rewrites, you enter the ‘send out query letters and receive… Continue

Another week of rain, but I don't mind since I'm off to Rocky Bluff, California, with this week's author F.M. Meredith. She's taken me to a wonderful restaurant overlooking the ocean where we enjoy, what else? A fabulous seafood dinner. While we're talking, we get entranced by the phosphorescence dancing on the waves rolling onto the beach. What a grand place. Well, onto the questions...



1. Who is Marilyn Meredith and what makes you the most fascinating person in your city?… Continue

Spring has not quite sprung, at least with constantly warm temperatures. This morning is rainy and cold. No matter, though as author Stacy Juba and I are off in my transporter to Disney World! We're waiting with snacks and drinks in hand along Main Street waiting for the parade to start.



Stacy is the author of the mystery novels Twenty-Five Years Ago Today and Sink or Swim (Mainly Murder Press), as well as the patriotic children’s picture book The Flag Keeper. Her young adult… Continue

Yeserday we had a day of rain, so today is cloudy and cool. Not only does my author for this week make me stand around waiting for her to get ready for her trip to be interviewed, she hadn't planned an iternary. Which means, she left it up to me to decide where we go.



So, I transport her to Washinghton, D.C., in the hope I might catch a glimpse of my parent who are vacationing in the area. Author Tina Whittle and I on the Capitol mall enjoying a nice stroll with cool drinks in… Continue

This week, I pick up author Melissa Bradley at her home and she tells me she wants to go to her home away from home. So, I set the transporter controls for Paris. In no time we are sitting on the Left Bank at a pied a terre enjoying wine and fine chocolates. Now this is nice. The City of Lights, a fine wine, and a wonderful author. Onto the questions...



1. Who is Melissa Bradley and what makes you the most fascinating person in your city?



Wow, most fascinating in my… Continue

This week, I'm sitting at my computer, ready to type in my weekly post, when suddenly this woman from Canada, named Jennifer Wylie, bursts into my apartment. Now, normally, I wouldn't mind, but with barely a "How Ya doin'?" she hip checks me away from my computer, and takes my chair. Before I can recover, she's hijacked my blog. She spends a few minutes typing away like mad, then she's out the door in a flash. The bad news is, she left the Canadian cold weather in her wake and we had been… Continue

This week, as the early signs of spring are starting to stay around for awhile, I hop in my transporter and pick up author Debbie Mack and in no time, we're sitting at a table at a streetside cafe in Rome. (You can see a little of where we're having the interview in the picture to your left.) I'm not sure what she's drinking, but I'm trying a very expensive dry red wine. (Hey, she's paying, I'm just the inteviewer.)



1. Who is Debbi Mack and what makes you the most fascinating person… Continue

Well, like so many of my authors do when I come to interview them, they just step in and take over my transporter's controls and assume command. This week, Kris Sedersten even took over some of the narrative and, hey, give me back the keyboard-



Stephen and I are meeting at the fabulous Stanley Hotel in Estes Park Colorado. We are here to enjoy the amazing view and check out the haunted history of this beautiful establishment. There is some awesome mojo in this place. We may take a… Continue

I continue the interview with Kat Thompson, former senior editor at Echelon Press. Every publisher has individual preferences for manuscripts. Where one will accept a tag line after a question, another will not. As I discovered, the rules continue to be updated, but many are to make the writer think, to be more creative, and to put out a better product.



8. I've learned a lot about writing, as have others, through trial and error and from other writers in critique groups. I strive to… Continue

This week, I present part one of an interview I did with Kat Thompson, former senior editor at Echelon Press. Although since she first sent me the email leting me know Echelon had accepted two of my novels for publication, and since she graciously agreed to an interview, she has stepped back from major editing duties. However, as a guide and advisor, she possesses skills and talents from which all writers may benefit.



1. Who is Kat Thompson? Tell me a little about yourself. What one… Continue

One of the many common questions people ask authors is, “Where do you get your ideas from?” Actually, the correct question should be, “From where do you get your ideas?”



Anyway, many authors will answer, “From everyday life.” Just walking around looking at things and people and listening to news stories. At the Killer Nashville writers' conference last August, guest Jeffrey Deaver told how he came up with the idea for The Burning Wire. He had an electrician over one day who did some… Continue

The waiting is the hardest part. Every day you see one more card. You take it on faith, you take it to the heart. The waiting is the hardest part. - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers



Anticipation, anticipation is making me late, is keeping me waiting. - Carly Simon



Yes, the above two references speak of intimate times with a lover yet to arrive, but I haven't been able to get those two songs out of my head for the last couple of weeks. Because finally, finally,… Continue

Brr! Single digit temps and my most recent interview is in Minnesota. Not just Minnesota, but northern Minnesota. At least Ms. Solheim offered me a large mug of hot chocolate before settling in for the round of questions. But I'm graeful she took time to sit with me for awhile. (And I even shoveled her walk afterwards...just kidding. I actually accepted another hot chocolate, then shoveled her walk.)



1. Who is Beth Solheim and what makes you the most fascinating person in your city?… Continue

This week I begin a series of author interviews. I'll be travelling to various parts of the world to talk with them (so I may max out my credit card on expenses. lol Just kidding, I make the authors pay my travel expenses. Okay, kidding again. I actually use my newly discovered transporter. Yes, that's the truth.)



I think you'll find the answers to a standard questionnaire very interesting and I encourage you to click on the links and check them out further.



First, I start…

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