Tag: writing (Page 13 of 15)

Meet Tammy Lowe Author of The Acadian Secret

April 10, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Please welcome fellow Muser Tammy Lowe and her tween adventure The Acadian Secret to the blog today.

Thanks for having me on your blog Katie.

What made you want to become a writer?

Oh, this will no doubt illustrate what a dork I am.

As a kid, I loved to read books and watch shows like Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables. I loved anything set in the “olden days”.

When I was about ten years old, I began to wonder about time travel. My biggest wish was that I’d end up back in the pioneer era. I wanted to go and hang out with spoiled Nellie Olsen. I don’t remember why I wished for Nellie over Laura Ingalls, but I think it had something to do with the fact that her parents owned the candy shop.

I had it all figured out. I didn’t want to live in the 18th or 19th century; I’d miss my family too much. And I can’t live without modern comforts. I wanted the freedom to travel back and forth through time.

My wish to time travel was so strong; I even dressed the part, as much as I could, without raising anyone’s suspicions. I wore dresses to school every day, when all my friends wore jeans and t-shirts. I had to be prepared just in case it worked and I was whisked through time. That summer, I even begged my mom to buy me a bonnet. She did. I wore that white bonnet everywhere. If I ended up in Walnut Grove or Avonlea, I was prepared.

By the sixth grade I was old enough to realize that time travel probably wasn’t going to be a reality for me, so I decided when I grew up, I’d write a story about a girl who could travel back and forth through time.

What books had the most influence on you while you were growing up?

I remember reading Judy Blume books under the blankets with a flashlight, well past my bedtime. I felt like such an adult as I read, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.

So many authors influenced me when I was a young girl, from Roald Dahl and L.M. Montgomery to Stephen King and Sidney Sheldon.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring two books and one movie, what would you bring?

Easy question! My two books would be Anne of Green Gables and Jane Eyre. The movie would be The Sound of Music.

And, if you weren’t peeking…I’d try and sneak in a copy of The Hunger Games too.

What is your favorite part of the writing process? What is your least favorite part?

The first draft is my least favourite part of the writing process. I find it hard trying to get the ideas out of my head and onto the page. I love to go back and polish it up in the editing stages.

What is the single best piece of advice you have for aspiring authors?

When you “think” you are finished your novel, put it away for at least six weeks and forget about it. When the time comes to take it out again, sit back and re-read the entire manuscript. Take notes. You will see a million mistakes and plot holes. Everything that isn’t working will jump out at you. It will be a cringe-worthy read, but you’ll be glad you put it away instead of sending it out.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

I’d love to be able to time travel.

And fly.

And have an invisibility cloak.

And…oh, just one? *grin*

What is something funny/weird/exceptional about yourself that you don’t normally share with others in an interview?

In a scene out of a rom-com, I was on a date with my boyfriend (who is now my husband). One summer afternoon, he took me out on his boat and down the Niagara River. We stopped for a romantic little lunch on the patio of a restaurant overlooking the water.

He tied his boat up to the dock, held out his hand and helped me climb out. We walked up to the patio, took a seat, and ordered lunch. Everything was perfect.

Little did we know there was police surveillance on the fancy boat we had parked next to.

And little did we know police thought WE had just walked off of that boat.

So, we are enjoying lunch, when I clue in that all around us, something is going on. I watch unmarked police cars pull up. They are looking at the boats. They are looking up at us. I then go into full panic mode as I realize they are doing a stake-out on us!

The way we were seated, I was watching it all unfold, but my boyfriend had his back to it. Not seeing what was going on, he of course thinks I’m completely off my rocker.

Crazy new girlfriend alert!

So, I have to convince him that this is all true. I’m not nuts and he needs to go and fix the situation. I’m shaking like a leaf and in tears. My boyfriend walks down to where the police officers are and returns about five minutes later.

Yup. I was right. They were doing a stake-out on us, thinking we arrived on the other boat.

We finished our meal and left. We have been married for twenty years now, but that was probably our most memorable lunch date.

The Acadian Secret blurb:

Elisabeth London is keeping her new friends a secret from her parents. Not only do they live on the other side of the world in the Scottish Highlands, they lived more than three hundred and fifty years ago. Her mom and dad would never allow her to go gallivanting about seventeenth century Scotland. They won’t even let her go to the mall by herself yet.

Twelve-year-old Elisabeth is old enough to know there is no such thing as magic, but when her quartz crystal necklace has the power to transport her back and forth in time, she no longer knows what to think. The only thing she is certain of is that she loves spending carefree days with Quinton, the mischievous nephew of a highland warrior, and sassy little Fiona, a farmer’s daughter.

However, Elisabeth’s adventures take a deadly turn when she is charged with witchcraft. At a time and place in history when witch-hunts were common, those found guilty were executed, children included. Elisabeth must race to find her way back home, while trying to stay one step ahead of the witch-hunter determined to see her burned at the stake.

A little more about the author:

When she isn’t writing, you will either find Tammy Lowe surrounded by little children and covered in glitter and glue, or on some grand adventure: inside an Egyptian pyramid, twirling on an Alp or climbing the Great Wall of China. She’s part Mary Poppins, part Indiana Jones.

Tammy lives in Cambridge, Ontario with her husband and their teenage son. Find her at www.tammylowe.com and her book at the MuseItUp bookstore.

Meet Stacey Marie Brown Author of Darkness of Light

March 25, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m over on the Muse blog contributing to the March theme of writing pet peeves with a post about e-books I ran on this blog last year. While I’m off ranting, please welcome Stacey Marie Brown, author of the new adult novel Darkness of Light, as she gets candid about her writing process.

No Pants Required

by Stacey Marie Brown

The writing process—every writer has one, if not several, for the different types of writing they do. There is the Type-A personality out there who would look at my “process” as more of a “hot mess” rather than an actual method. At closer inspection, though, even I have one.

I learned quickly that, if I was truly serious about writing, I had to leave my house. Yes, I said leave the house—I just heard an outcry of pajama-clad authors around the world rejecting this scenario. Leaving the house means having to get dressed. The horror! I know that half the point of being an author is the fact you can stay in your pajamas and fluffy slippers all day. It’s the little things like hearing the doorbell ring and having no pants on that gets the author’s blood moving. My UPS man is convinced I’m a hermit who doesn’t own any real clothes besides my favourite penguin flannel bottoms my mother made me. I know guys—shocker—this girl is still single. But, some days this is my life, especially if I’m focusing on the marketing aspect of my job. Two o’clock comes around and I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet. Ah, yes, the glamorous life of a writer.

If I want to concentrate on writing, I found being home consists of very little writing and more of my money being spent buying books on Amazon. I am vastly creative on finding distractions. I mean, seriously, how many times do I need to pee in 20 minutes? I certainly don’t go that much when I’m out at a café. And, how many times have I sat at my computer to write when I decide I have to clean my desk. Now, I hate to clean and find every excuse not to do it; but, suddenly, when I should be writing, it MUST be taken care of NOW.

The Internet is the biggest seductress. She is an alluring temptress who could put a Siren out of a job. She certainly has led me down the endless labyrinth of diversion. The hours an author spends “researching” a day, especially on topics that probably have them on some FBI watch list, is astronomical. The Internet is another vice that, for me, must be left at home. Every once in a while, when I really need to know something to carry on a scene, I will break my rule. This is one part of my process, however, I actually try to stick to. I have to—the internet is just so sparkly!

Carrying around a notebook is not really a process but more of a must for a writer. Ideas come at the most inconvenient times: showering, right before falling asleep, driving, or standing in line at the post office. My mind loves doing this. It finds it funny to mess with me. It comes up with those brilliant ideas that only flutter there for a moment before vanishing from my memory forever. If I don’t write it down right then . . . well, tough. I will spend the rest of the day driving myself crazy trying to remember that mind-blowing, hilarious comment my character was going to say. Evil, evil brain.

All writers have different ways in which their characters speak to them. Some authors say they have full control over their characters and what they’re going to say. I’d like to say I was the one in control of the voices in my head. I’m not. Mine seem to have a mind of their own and usually tell me how a scene is going to come out. I’ve gone into a scene wanting the outcome to be one way and, by the end of my writing session, they have taken it in a completely different way. Most of the time they make it better. Maybe it is my acting background that allows me let my “actors” improvise. As their director, I allow them to play out a scene organically, and if I have to pull them back, I do. Most of the time I just let them go. The characters have their own way of speaking each with their own little quirks. I see them playing out the scenes in my head like a movie. This, I’m sure to an outsider, makes me look nuts. Years of having these voices argue in your head . . . is there a writer out there hasn’t become a little nuts?

A new author first feels every word they compose across the page is literary gold and cannot be cut or the entire novel will suddenly make no sense. The truth is that barely half of the words in your first or even fourth draft will make it into the actual novel. This was a hard lesson for me, like being thrown into a gladiator pit. You fight valiantly and brutally for every scene and character and then some editor comes along and mercilessly guts your novel. I felt like giving a funeral to those I had to kill off or cut from existence.

When writing for yourself you can keep every tedious detail intact. But, if you want the story to be published and enjoyed by others, you need to understand that your editor and B-readers are only trying to make your story better. They are not saying you suck, well, at least not directly to your face. Once I let go and got over this, cutting and editing was easier for me. Then I became obsessed with changing, editing, and cutting. I could have continued to work on my book for the next two years, altering and re-writing every line.

There comes a time, though, you have to let go and put it out into the world. And that is like standing naked on burning coals in front of millions of people. Scary, exhilarating, can hurt like hell, and you’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Darkness of Light blurb:

Freak. Witch. Crazy. Schizo.

Ember Brycin has been called them all. She’s always known she’s different. No one has ever called her normal, even under the best circumstances. Bizarre and inexplicable things continually happen to her, and having two different colored eyes, strange hair, and an unusual tattoo only contributes to the gossip about her.

When the latest school explosion lands her in a facility for trouble teens, she meets Eli Dragen, who’s hot as hell and darkly mysterious. Their connection is full of passion, danger, and secrets. Secrets that will not only change her life, but what and who she is—leading her down a path she never imagined possible.

Between Light and Dark, Ember finds a world where truth and knowledge are power and no one can be trusted. But her survival depends on finding out the truth about herself. In her pursuit, she is forced between love and destiny and good and evil, even when the differences between them aren’t always clear. At worst, she will incite a war that could destroy both worlds. At best, she will not only lose her heart but her life and everyone she loves. Once the truth is out, however, there will be no going back. And she’ll definitely wish she could.

Darkness of Light is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and iBooks.

About the Author:

I work by day as an Interior/Set Designer and by night as a writer of paranormal fantasy, adventure, and literary fiction. I grew up in Northern California, but have traveled and lived around the world before coming back and settling in San Francisco. Even at an early age I was creating stories and making up intricate fantasies. I acted in Los Angeles for many years before moving abroad, living in England, Australia, Caribbean, and New Zealand. I came back to San Francisco and went to school for Interior Design. During that time I never stopped writing, moving back to San Francisco brought it to the forefront, and this time it would not be ignored. It’s my passion and my love. When I am not writing, I’m usually out hiking, spending time with friends, traveling, listening to music, or designing.

For more about Stacey and her book visit her website, Facebook author page, and Facebook book page.

Funny Talk with Author Anna Staniszewski

March 1, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Congrats are in order for guest poster Anna Staniszewski as her middle grade adventure My Epic Fairy Tale Fail releases today! Happy book b-day and welcome to the Observation Desk.

Breaking Down Funny Dialogue

If you think about where we find humor in real life, you’ll notice that a lot of it comes through in conversation. When we recap real-life events to friends, for example, we often highlight not only what people did, but what they said, what we said, and what we would have said (if we weren’t such wimps).

It makes sense that, given how much time we spend talking to, about, and at each other, we’d see a reflection of that in novels. So how does knowing this help with writing funny dialogue?

Let’s break it down based on what I said above.

What people say:

You can help your characters’ personalities shine through by showing us how they react verbally to the situations you put them in. The more outrageous their reactions, the more potential for humor. If you find a character seems to be hanging back in a scene, try to get them to chime in more. The result might surprise you.

What people don’t say:

On the other hand, we can learn quite a bit about characters by what they don’t say. If Grandpa keeps insisting that he’s a happy duck—while he’s wringing a duck’s neck—we know there’s more going on than he’s admitting. And if the characters are saying one thing and doing the exact opposite, that can be downright hilarious.

What people wish they could say:

You know when you’re too polite or too chicken to speak your mind? Well, there’s good news. Characters aren’t in control of their editing mechanisms; you are. You can make your characters say anything you want! Maybe a normal person would be too afraid to speak up in a particular scenario, but your characters shouldn’t be too normal. They should be interesting, and interesting people say and do things the rest of us might not.

So when it comes to funny dialogue, by all means, use real life examples to help you make dialogue feel authentic. But remember that you’re not writing about real life; you’re writing about the appearance of real life, which means that the rules of the real world don’t necessarily apply.

My Epic Fairy Tale Fail and the first book in the series, My Very Unfairy Tale Life, are available in paperback and ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, and other book retailers.

About the Author:

Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna Staniszewski grew up loving stories in both Polish and English. She was named the 2006-2007 Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the 2009 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award. Currently, Anna lives outside of Boston, Mass. with her husband and their adopted black Labrador, Emma. When she’s not writing, Anna spends her time teaching, reading, and challenging unicorns to games of hopscotch. You can visit her at www.annastan.com.

Confessions of an Author: Rejection

February 8, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Confession #4: Rejection might be the one thing that makes me quit this whole business of publishing.

Rejection. It’s something every author faces time and time again. It’s fear inducing, debilitating, soul sucking.

I think for most authors the writing journey begins in a blissful place. Inspiration strikes. You decide, I’m a writer…or at the very least, I’m going to write something worthy of publication. You write, and write, and write. Probably a lot of bad stuff, but you’re not aware of how bad it is; in your blissful ignorance, you keep going. Maybe even stumble upon some good writing.

You begin sending your work out, probably before it’s really ready for mass consumption. But again, you’re ignorance keeps a buffer around you. Publishers reject you. No worries! They don’t know what they’re doing; they just passed up on the next J.K. Rowling. They’ll regret it one day. Maybe one rejection has some encouraging words. That’s the thing you latch on to. The ego of the innocent feeds off of it.

Then reality hits. You realize, maybe my work’s not that good. I need to actually…ahem…revise! Those people who rejected you might actually know what they’re talking about. Still, you persevere. Okay, rookie mistakes. Buck up and keep improving.

You work, work, work at creating, honing, revising. Your writing benefits from all the hard work. Maybe you join a critique group, get some positive feedback and productive criticism. You begin to thrive as a creative person. You feel like your work is actually ready for mass consumption…and just maybe others will think so too.

With your improved knowledge of writing, you realize it’s a good idea to study up on the business side of publishing as well. You learn how to write an effective query, target your submissions, what your looking for in an editor or agent. You check and double check that you’ve spelled all the names right, that the grammar in your letter is perfect, you have the right sample pages included. You hit send (or if you’re doing it the old-school way, apply the correct postage).

Now comes the waiting. The incessant checking of emails/mailboxes. The nail-biting. Commiserating with writer friends over the process of having stuff out there. Then the rejections start rolling in. You try to focus on a new project. Keep your mind off the hole your email inbox is burning in you brain.

Your stomach is in a constant state of queasiness. You starve yourself, too sick to eat, and then gorge yourself on chocolate and caffeine. More rejections roll in. Time limits pass, and you get rejected by query expiration date, no reply required.

Sure a lot of good stuff happens along the way. Meeting other writers, forming great working relationships and personal ones you keep forever. A few close calls with a dream agent or editor. But there’s still so much rejection.

Even if you land a publishing contract, it might not be what you were always hoping for. You sign with a small press or decide to self-publish or get a low advance. Maybe you did land a great contract, but then the big reviewers don’t like your book or ignored it all together. Maybe your sales fall short of expectations; you don’t reach as many readers as you hoped. Your option book doesn’t get picked up.

Rejection, rejection, rejection. The old death by a million paper cuts (and you don’t even use real paper to write anymore!). And it hurts. Gives you days where you’re not sure if you can keep going, deluding yourself into thinking you can make it as a writer. Keeps you from revising because it’s just going to be crap anyway, no matter how much you work at it.

I guess a lot of writers don’t even make it to this point. They gave up back a handful of paragraphs ago after the first rejections. What keeps you going? Your love of a character, the way you can escape into a world you’ve created, an insatiable need to succeed, the fact that you’re a glutton for punishment.

Whatever it is, you keep going. Right…it’s worth it to keep going? The punch in the stomach with that email that sends you into a downward spiral. “Thanks for thinking of us, but we’re going to have to pass on that manuscript you’ve spend months, years, decades working on. The one that you poured your soul into. The one that has blood marks on it from where your heart leaked all over it. Yup, that one. It’s not good enough for us. Don’t worry, publishing is a subjective business. It’s not personal.”

Yet every single one of those rejections is personal to you. The story you wrote is deeply personal. You maybe even put more work into that than you did into your own life.

So what do you do when you’ve traveled down every single path you could find and came up with dead ends? Well, I guess you start over. Get a spark of inspiration. Feel the tingle of a new story…of hope…in your fingertips. And you do it all over again. Right, you do it all over again. You’re a writer. That’s what you do.

What kinds of rejections have you faced in your writing career? And what keeps you going back for more?

Meet Scott R. Caseley Author of Isosceles

February 4, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Please give a warm welcome to fellow Muse author Scott R. Caseley and his YA mystery Isosceles as he shares a satirical piece of flash fiction about the writing process.

“Twice in A Millennium Inspiration”

Written by Scott R. Caseley

Swedish Translations provided by Tanja Pihlblad

Like millions of other people around the globe, I bought and read Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium’ trilogy for a book club. While I struggled to get past a lot of the Swedish in the text, I found myself most impressed by his Salander character. Two other club members, Jackie, an American and her fiancée, a Swede named Anders had seen both film versions of “Dragon Tattoo”. While she preferred Noomi Repace in the title role, he was a fan of Rooney Mara. When a heated argument sprung up one night at the library after a book club meeting over which performance was better, I settled it by telling them I would watch both and be the tiebreaker.

“Maybe you’ll get ideas for your next book, too, win-win,” Jackie said with a kind smile. I appreciated it, but her kindness was as constant as my writer’s block both of which had been a part of my life for several years now. I once wrote one novel, a psychological thriller. It received some decent press and sales were not bad for an unknown like me. Since then, my ink well was dry, and the creative part of my brain was on pause.

“We’ll see,” I smirked.

“Go for it, min vän.” Anders said patting me on the back with confidence. He often called me ‘min vän’. I just smiled and agreed though I didn’t know what it meant. I didn’t want him to see me as a stereotypical American who could only speak one language. Though, in fact, sadly I am.

After they left, I perused the video section, which had to have at least three thousand titles. There was an attractive brunette, around my age of twenty-five in the comedy section. When she selected a DVD and held it in her hands, I did a quick check and noticed she didn’t have a wedding band. It had been forever since my last date, but I decided against trying to pick her up. It was difficult enough trying to create clever lines for dialogue for a fictitious piece, let alone an icebreaker to impress a woman. With my tail between my legs, I selected both ‘Tattoo’ films and headed to the counter to check them out.

I watched the Swedish version first and enjoyed the pacing and the action, Noomi’s Salander was deadly, dangerous, and of course, her spiked hair was hot too. I took my phone out of my pocket to see there were seventeen new text messages and all from Jackie and Anders to see which Salander was my choice. Rather than answer them, I popped in the Blu Ray for the Fincher adaptation and began to watch. Mara seemed to immerse herself in the character, making her lethal yet vulnerable. Fincher’s deft direction kept me on the edge of my seat though I knew the story well from both the novel and the Swedish version. When the credits rolled, I felt inspired by both films and convinced myself I needed to write a compelling thriller with a strong female protagonist. But, first I needed to get some sleep.

As a writer, you’d think my imagination would lend itself to impressive dreams with dynamic visuals and compelling action, but alas the reality was they were pretty humdrum. Usually just a retelling of an event that happened in my waking life, or so uninteresting, they aren’t worth repeating here. However, on this ‘Tattoo’ marathon night, my dream got off to a dramatic start.

Rain was coming down sounding like nature’s rendition of Beethoven’s “Moonlit Sonata”, in a haunting and peaceful way. I sat on the couch in my living room reading the latest Young Adult novel by Marysue Hobika on my Kindle. A clap of thunder drowned out the beautiful concerto and I was startled when someone burst through my front door. I powered down my ereader and headed into the kitchen where the attractive brunette from the library stood wearing all black and was drenched from head to toe. She lit up a cigarette and began trembling as she held it and inhaled deeply. Her eyes seemed dangerous, so I hesitated to tell her smoking wasn’t allowed in my apartment.

She removed the cigarette from her lips and spoke nervously, “Hej” I sat down at the kitchen table, and observed her, not knowing what to say, as I couldn’t understand what she said. My smartphone was on the table, I picked it up, and discreetly scanned it for a translate app to see if I could type the word she said, though I didn’t know how to spell it. Was it haj, hij, or hej? Because of my Larsson overdose, I did know it was Swedish, so that was at least a start. I did a quick search for translation apps on Google and found one. I downloaded it, and thanks to my Wi-Fi connection, it took a matter of seconds.

“Jag heter Annika—” as she spoke, the most amazing thing happened, English words in white text started to form in front of her chest revealing she said her name was Annika. “Vad är detta, engelska undertexter framför mig? Hur gjorde du det?” (What is this, English subtitles in front of me? How did you do that?) I could have answered her in English and had the app do Swedish subtitles for her, but I was far too awestruck at what was going on to do so. “Jag heter Annika och kommer från Västerås, Sverige, även kallad ‘gurkstaden’.” (My name is Annika, I’m from Västerås, Sweden, often nicknamed the Cucumber City).

“Hi, I’m Andy Schmidt,” as I told her my name, a smile came across her face. Then, I realized, Duh, she must know who I am, she did come to my apartment after all.

“Jag har förstått att du är författare. Jag sitter på en riktigt bra story som sker framför ögonen på mig på mitt jobb. Det kommer helt klart bli en bestseller. Här är detaljerna.” (I understand you are a writer. I have quite a story unfolding where I work that will be a Bestseller for sure. Here are the details.) Intrigued as I was about the prospect of a new story, a Bestseller no less, part of me was dubious about receiving an idea under these circumstances. Whatever the story was, it must’ve been something very hazardous, since she came to my apartment, looking like a scared child. However, the writer in me won over the protective side.

Sensing none of my trepidation, she continued on, “Jag jobbar som studievägledare på ett universitet och jag hörde av misstag skolans Dekan tala med hennes elevassistent vid vaktmästarens förråd. Dekanens man är konstkurator vid det lokala historiska museet där några antika föremål blivit stulna från ett av rummen. Misstankar riktades mot honom, men nu är han också försvunnen. Hon måste tro att hennes assistent är den enda som kan hjälpa henne att hitta både honom och de försvunna föremålen!” (I am a counselor at a university, and I overheard the Dean speaking to her student assistant by the janitor’s closet. The Dean’s husband is curator at the local historical society where some antiquities were stolen from one of the rooms. He was suspected of taking them, but now he has vanished too. She must believe that her assistant is the only one who can help her find him and the missing items.)

“Nå, vad tycker du? Gillar du det?” (What do you think? You like?) I read the subtitles and smiled like a maniac eager to start putting pen to paper. I knew the best thing would be to start taking notes. I reached for a newspaper sprawled out before me, and removed a pen from my pocket. Just as I began to write, she grabbed me by the wrist. Her grip was callused and intimidating. I glanced up, her eyes boring into me with fiery intensity. I sensed whatever she would say next, I wouldn’t need the subtitles to know it wasn’t going to be good, “Det finns mycket mer men det kostar. Fem miljoner, varav tre i förskott.” (There’s a lot more but it’s going to cost you. Five million, three up front.)

“I don’t have that kind of money,” I admitted out loud, thankful she didn’t speak English, because I was afraid of what she would do to me if she knew how destitute I was.

“Fine, I should have known better than to come here. I’ll get Gillian Flynn’s agent’s number and pitch the idea. She could always use another Bestseller,” she spoke with a southern accent. I was too in shock to speak. Before I could say anything in response, I heard my phone ringing in my pocket, the unmistakable sound of “Moonlit Sonata”.

My eyes snapped open; I was on the couch with my phone sitting in the palm of my hand. The screen indicated ‘1 New Voicemail’ from ‘Unknown Caller’. I pressed the Voicemail key and pressed the phone to my ear, “Hi, I hope I’m dialing the right number, I’m trying to reach Andrea Schmidt. This is so awkward. My name is Stephanie, I saw you in the library yesterday renting the ‘Dragon Tattoo’ films and they’re two of my favorite movies. I was wondering if you would like to watch them with me sometime. You might have seen me there, I was in the video section when you were picking them up and I got your number from the librarian.” She then left her number, and I debated about whether to call her back.

I ended up writing five pages based on what Annika told me in the dream, and then I called up the real woman to agree to meet for coffee sometime. If that went well, then maybe watch a movie with her. I didn’t want to rush things, besides I had a novel to write now.

About Isosceles:

When he finds his best friend Trey Goodsby dead and almost completely submerged in a bathtub filled with bloody water, Sean McIntyre is determined to find out if it was an accident or suicide. If it was suicide, why did he do it? And, did his death accidental or intentional have anything to do with Madeline Edwards, the woman who came between them constantly through their thirteen-year friendship? Isosceles, a coming-of-age mystery romance begins with the death of Trey Goodsby, and explores his relationships with family, friends, his romances, and which of the circumstances he found himself in that led to the tragic event, and the repercussions for those he left behind. Purchse at:

Coffee Time Romance & More

Omnilit

About the Author:

Scott R. Caseley was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. He gained an interest in writing in elementary school in nearby Hudson. Growing up, he carried a small notebook or pen on family trips making observations and frequently turned them into poems or short stories. While attending Franklin Pierce University, he co-wrote and co-directed a student film. After graduating, he wrote and directed a dramatic feature, co-wrote and directed a documentary and conducted interviews for an online magazine. He’s also passionate about acting, and he’s enjoyed performing on stage, in bit parts on film, and is also a trained voice actor. In addition to his creative pursuits, he is passionate about healthy living. He follows a fitness regimen consisting of several activities such as; weight training, walking, swimming, yoga, and hula hooping. He complements this by cooking several nutritious examples of international and American cuisine. Last, but certainly not least he also enjoys just spending time with family and friends until the early morning hours with plenty of laughter and coffee. You can find Scott on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottRCaseleyWriter

Twitter: @scottrcaseley

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/ScottRCaseley

Website: scottrcaseleyauthor.com