READ TUESDAY. THE TUESDAY GANG. CHRIS McMULLEN.

 

READ TUESDAY. THE TUESDAY GANG. LISA CAPEHART.

 

READ TUESDAY. TWENTY QUESTIONS WITH...THE RAMPAGING PAPI ZILLA.

Writers chatting to each other on writing. Tedious or devious? Let’s have twenty questions, and find out. In this guest-spot, The Rampaging Papi Zilla delivers the answers...
   This isn't just about plugging a sale in December. Some authors featured here can't run a sale on the day. The blog is also open to unpublished writers. Blogger Papi hopes to publish one day.



1. Fire rages in your house. Everyone is safe, but you. You decide to smash through the window, shielding your face with a book. What is the book?

The Dark Tower Book 7. I don't care if that tripe gets damaged.

2. Asleep in your rebuilt house, you dream of meeting a dead author. But not in a creepy stalkerish way, so you shoo Mr Poe out of the kitchen. Instead, you sit down and have cake with which dead author?

F.Scott Fitzgerald. I ask him why he wrote the dreadful Great Gatsby.

3. Would you name six essential items for writers? If, you know, cornered and threatened with torture.

Stress ball. Shooter's Bible (to get all of the calibers and gun accessories right), Gray's Anatomy (to get all of the wounded body-parts right), Pen/Pencil/Paper/Computer, Comfortable work space and music.

4. Who’d win in a fight between Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster? If, you know, you were writing that scene.

Dracula. Vampire strength and quickness is more than a match for old Frank.

5. It’s the end of a long and tiring day. You are still writing a scene. Do you see it through to the end, even though matchsticks prop your eyelids open, or do you sleep on it and return, refreshed, to slay that literary dragon another day?

I go to sleep and relax my mind.

6. You must introduce a plot-twist. Evil twin or luggage mix-up?

Luggage mix-up orchestrated by evil twin.

7. Let’s say you write a bunch of books featuring an amazing recurring villain. At the end of your latest story you have definitely absitively posolutely killed off the villain for all time and then some. Did you pepper your narrative with clues hinting at the chance of a villainous return in the next book?

Of course. If Stefano DiMera can return on Days of our Lives, so can my popular character.

8. You are at sea in a lifeboat, with the barest chance of surviving the raging storm. There’s one opportunity to save a character, drifting by this scene. Do you save the idealistic hero or the tragic villain?

The hero.

9. It’s time to kill a much-loved character – that pesky plot intrudes. Do you just type it up, heartlessly, or are there any strange rituals to be performed before the deed is done?

Kill it! Kill it with fire!

10. Embarrassing typo time. I’m always typing thongs instead of things. One day, that’ll land me in trouble. Care to share any wildly embarrassing typing anecdotes? If, you know, the wrong word suddenly made something so much funnier. (My last crime against typing lay in omitting the u from Superman.)

Fortunately I have yet to make this error. Though I believe my time is coming short and it will be epic when it does.

11. I’ve fallen out of my chair laughing at all sorts of thongs I’ve typed. Have you?

Yes. This one time, at band camp...

12. You take a classic literary work and update it by throwing in rocket ships. Dare you name that story? Pride and Prejudice on Mars. That kind of thing.

Great Gatsby Kills Again! In Space! (Anything to make it better than it was.)
   (Overt Danny Trejo references will be removed from this blog - Eclectic Ed.)

13. Seen the movie. Read the book. And your preference was for?

Book, every time.

14. Occupational hazard of being a writer. Has a book ever fallen on your head? This may occasionally happen to non-writers, it must be said.

Yes, many times. I have the dents in my noggin to prove it.

15. Did you ever read a series of books out of sequence?

Unfortunately yes. It was a good enough series that it did not matter though.

16. You encounter a story just as you are writing the same type of tale. Do you abandon your work, or keep going with the other one to ensure there won’t be endless similarities?

I have abandoned the work. And may have angrily plotted the other person's death...oh, you didn't ask that?
   (Overt Danny Trejo references will be removed from this blog - Eclectic Ed.)

17. Have you ever stumbled across a Much-Loved Children’s Classic™ that you’ve never heard of?

No, because then I would have heard of it. ;)

18. You build a secret passage into your story. Where?

If I told you it wouldn't be secret.

19. Facing the prospect of writing erotica, you decide on a racy pen-name. And that would be…

Johnny Jizz.

20. On a train a fan praises your work, mistaking you for another author. What happens next?

Depending on whether the other Author is good or not, I ask if they want an autograph...he he he.

You'll find a whole lot of rampaging going on at Papi Zilla's blog. Sometimes he's Papizilla. Occasionally he doesn't rampage. He rages instead. There's ranting...I didn't want to get into that.
   I answer my own questions HERE on Papi Zilla's blog.

READ TUESDAY. TWENTY QUESTIONS WITH...SUZANNA WILLIAMS.

Writers chatting to each other on writing. Tedious or devious? Let’s have twenty questions, and find out. In this guest-spot, READ TUESDAY participant Suzanna Williams delivers the answers...



1. Fire rages in your house. Everyone is safe, but you. You decide to smash through the window, shielding your face with a book. What is the book?

I grab my copy of Lauren Oliver’s Delirium (which is a hard-back copy and tough) and use it as a shield as I leap through the window into the arms of a waiting hunky fireman.
   Delirium will probably be sliced and unreadable afterwards but it’s probably the best ending for a plot revolving round a surgical cure for love.

2. Asleep in your rebuilt house, you dream of meeting a dead author. But not in a creepy stalkerish way, so you shoo Mr Poe out of the kitchen. Instead, you sit down and have cake with which dead author?

Guess William Shakespeare could offer some interesting advice about writing in changing times.

3. Would you name six essential items for writers? If, you know, you were cornered and threatened with torture.

Pencil - super sharp, for stabbing my tormentor where it hurts the most.
   Pencil sharpener – to ensure above item stays at optimum working efficiency.
   Hardback dictionary – two possible uses: as protective stab-proof vest or to hit my captor round the head.
   Paperclips - not sure how to pick a lock with one of these but everyone seems to be able to do it in movies. How hard can it be?
   Laptop with internet connection – to Google how to pick a lock with a paperclip just in case it’s harder than it looks in movies.
   Dictation machine – I’d make sure my last request would last as long as possible.

4. Who’d win in a fight between Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster? If, you know, you were writing that scene.

I’d probably let Frankenstein win. There are far too many vampire stories around.
   (Suzanna can't possibly mean my Kindle story, VAMPIRES - Eclectic Ed.)

5. It’s the end of a long and tiring day. You are still writing a scene. Do you see it through to the end, even though matchsticks prop your eyelids open, or do you sleep on it and return, refreshed, to slay that literary dragon another day?

If I had the scene all planned, I’d write like the wind to finish. If I have no plan, no amount of matchsticks would keep me from my sleep.

6. You must introduce a plot-twist. Evil twin or luggage mix-up?

Evil twin...evil anything wins every time.

7. Let’s say you write a bunch of books featuring an amazing recurring villain. At the end of your latest story you have definitely absolutely positively killed off the villain for all time and then some. Did you pepper your narrative with clues hinting at the chance of a villainous return in the next book?

Absolutely, positively, definitely not. If for some random reason the villain has to be resurrected in the future, I wouldn’t want to give my readers any hint.

8. You are at sea in a lifeboat, with the barest chance of surviving the raging storm. There’s one opportunity to save a character, drifting by this scene. Do you save the idealistic hero or the tragic villain?

The Hero would be saved every time. No one loves a dead hero, only a dead villain.

9. It’s time to kill a much-loved character – that pesky plot intrudes. Do you just type it up, heartlessly, or are there any strange rituals to be performed before the deed is done?

Day 1, Denial...I’ll think of another way to fix the plot without killing that much-loved character. Everything will be all right.
   Day 2, Anger...Why can’t I think of another way to fix the plot? I am such a bad, stupid writer.
   Day 3, Bargaining...Maybe I could use that character again in another book. So he wouldn’t really be dead? Would he?
   Day 4, Depression...I can’t write this book any more. I’m going to the shop for chocolate and several boxes of ice-cream.
   Day 5, Acceptance...Make sure the house is empty. Do not sit so close to keyboard that tears induce water damage. Keep character memory alive by thinking about him every night before sleep.

10. Embarrassing typo time. I’m always typing thongs instead of things. One day, that’ll land me in trouble. Care to share any wildly embarrassing typing anecdotes? If, you know, the wrong word suddenly made something so much funnier. (My last crime against typing lay in omitting the u from Superman.)

Not admitting any. My typing is god.

11. I’ve fallen out of my chair laughing at all sorts of thongs I’ve typed. Have you?

No. God typing is serious stuff.

12. You take a classic literary work and update it by throwing in rocket ships. Dare you name that story? Pride and Prejudice on Mars. That kind of thing.

The Hunchback of Starbase Sector Nine.

13. Seen the movie. Read the book. And your preference was for?

Usually the book with the exception of Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies which turned out way better as a film.

14. Occupational hazard of being a writer. Has a book ever fallen on your head? This may occasionally happen to non-writers, it must be said.

No but I’ve tripped over a pile of books I’d stacked at the side of my chair so I didn’t have to stand up to get them from my shelf. Penance for laziness I guess.

15. Did you ever read a series of books out of sequence?

I acquired Kate Cann’s Shacked Up which was second in the Hard Cash trilogy, liked it, so then I went back and read book one and then book three.

16. You encounter a story just as you are writing the same type of tale. Do you abandon your work, or keep going with the other one to ensure there won’t be endless similarities?

Mayday. Mayday. Abandon ship.

17. Have you ever stumbled across a Much-Loved Children’s Classic™ that you’ve never heard of?

Enid Blyton wrote 762 classic tales.
   Far too many to have heard of them all.
   Hands up who remembers The Queer Adventure, Rambles with Uncle Nat, or The Saucy Jane Family?

18. You build a secret passage into your story. Where?

I’d sneak into an alien stealth ship via my secret passage. How else would I get there?

19. Facing the prospect of writing erotica, you decide on a racy pen-name. And that would be…

Umm, would probably go with Saucy Jane. Hey, it worked for Enid Blyton.

20. On a train a fan praises your work, mistaking you for another author. What happens next?

“Wait! You think I wrote The Hunger Games?”
   Turning three shades redder. “Umm...”
   Rushing on without waiting for an answer. “I’m Suzanna, not Suzanne. Williams, not Collins.”
   Stammering. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
   “Please don’t be sorry. Because if you loved Katniss and Peeta in her book, you’re going to love Joe and Sarah in mine.”
   (I detect the cold dead hand of a covert plug there. Glad I didn't try that earlier, with my mention of VAMPIRES. In my FICTION FACTORY line. Amazon Kindle - Eclectic Ed.)



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Website: www.suzannawilliams.com.
See my answers to the questions on THIS PAGE of Suzanna's blog.
 
Book links at Amazon...

Ninety-Five Percent Human.
ShockWaves.



 

READ TUESDAY. THE TUESDAY GANG. SUZANNA WILLIAMS. HER OWN POSTER.

 

READ TUESDAY. TWENTY QUESTIONS WITH...KATHLEEN KASKA.

Writers chatting to each other on writing. Tedious or devious? Let’s have twenty questions, and find out. In this guest-spot, Kathleen Kaska delivers the answers...
   Though this series of posts supports the READ TUESDAY sale, not all authors are able to host a sale on the day. We're getting closer to the big day. Kathleen can't arrange a sale in time for READ TUESDAY.
   Beyond that, I'll add that I hope to feature unpublished authors in these sessions soon... 

 

1. Fire rages in your house. Everyone is safe, but you. You decide to smash through the window, shielding your face with a book. What is the book?

Firestorm by Nevada Barr. 

2. Asleep in your rebuilt house, you dream of meeting a dead author. But not in a creepy stalkerish way, so you shoo Mr Poe out of the kitchen. Instead, you sit down and have cake with which dead author?

Elizabeth Peters. She passed away this summer and was one of my inspirations for the creation of my Sydney Lockhart mysteries.
   Her sense of humor and zany characters really appealed to me. I’ve read all of her Amelia Peabody books, some several times. Ms. Peters was also an Egyptologist, a profession I often dreamed of undertaking. 

3. Would you name six essential items for writers? If, you know, cornered and threatened with torture.

A writer’s nest, laptop, Internet, good coffee, good wine, good gin.

4. Who’d win in a fight between Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster? If, you know, you were writing that scene.

Frankenstein. At least he smiles kindly at little girls picking flowers.

5. It’s the end of a long and tiring day. You are still writing a scene. Do you see it through to the end, even though matchsticks prop your eyelids open, or do you sleep on it and return, refreshed, to slay that literary dragon another day?

My writing usually keeps me awake, but if I begin to doze, I know it’s time to quit. Nothing worthwhile ever comes from my foggy brain. And, no, despite what I answered in question three, I don’t drink alcohol while I write.

6. You must introduce a plot-twist. Evil twin or luggage mix-up?

I think evil twin is sort of cheating. Mixed up luggage provides a bit of intrigue.

7. Let’s say you write a bunch of books featuring an amazing recurring villain. At the end of your latest story you have definitely absitively posolutely killed off the villain for all time and then some. Did you pepper your narrative with clues hinting at the chance of a villainous return in the next book?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off his protagonist and almost got expelled from England. He was wise enough not to produce Holmes’ dead body.
   As a result, this decision made him rich once he decided to bring the Great Detective back to Baker Street. If it worked for him, it might work for me. 

8. You are at sea in a lifeboat, with the barest chance of surviving the raging storm. There’s one opportunity to save a character, drifting by this scene. Do you save the idealistic hero or the tragic villain?

The hero. Sydney would haunt me for the rest of my life if I let her die.

 

 9. It’s time to kill a much-loved character – that pesky plot intrudes. Do you just type it up, heartlessly, or are there any strange rituals to be performed before the deed is done?

 

No rituals; when it’s time to go, it’s time to go.

10. Embarrassing typo time. I’m always typing thongs instead of things. One day, that’ll land me in trouble. Care to share any wildly embarrassing typing anecdotes? If, you know, the wrong word suddenly made something so much funnier. (My last crime against typing lay in omitting the u from Superman.)

Once I wrote Davy Crooked rather than Davy Crockett. I thought it was funny, but all the defenders of the Alamo probably turned over in their graves.

11. I’ve fallen out of my chair laughing at all sorts of thongs I’ve typed. Have you?

I have. Sometimes laughing is all you can do if you make a complete fool of yourself; believe me, I know.

12. You take a classic literary work and update it by throwing in rocket ships. Dare you name that story? Pride and Prejudice on Mars. That kind of thing.

I’m not too much into rocket ships or science fiction, except for time travel. So, here’s my classic work with an update: The Great Gatsby 1965: Daisy Receives Her Punishment.

13. Seen the movie. Read the book. And your preference was for?

The book.

14. Occupational hazard of being a writer. Has a book ever fallen on your head? This may occasionally happen to non-writers, it must be said.

Not just one, but an entire box when I was rearranging my storage unit.

15. Did you ever read a series of books out of sequence?

Yes, but I prefer not to.

16. You encounter a story just as you are writing the same type of tale. Do you abandon your work, or keep going with the other one to ensure there won’t be endless similarities?

I stay on track with my story otherwise I get dizzy.

17. Have you ever stumbled across a Much-Loved Children’s Classic™ that you’ve never heard of?

No, but I have an entire list of children’s classics I still haven’t read. Although E. B. White is one of my favorite writers, I’ve never read Charlotte’s Web.

18. You build a secret passage into your story. Where?

In the floor of a costume/prop room behind a theatre stage. This secret passage appeared in Murder at the Luther.

19. Facing the prospect of writing erotica, you decide on a racy pen-name. And that would be…

Chanda Lier. (Pronounced chandelier.)

 

20. On a train a fan praises your work, mistaking you for another author. What happens next?

Hopefully, she will have a book in hand and ask me to sign it, which I will graciously do, but with my own name.

Kathleen Kaska writes the award-winning Sydney Lockhart mystery series set in the 1950s when women were caught between the dichotomy of career and marriage; when fashion exploded with a never-before-seen flair; and movies and music had the country dancing with gusto.
   Her first mystery, Murder at the Arlington, won the 2008 Salvo Press Manuscript Contest.

   Kathleen's site: Kathleen Kaska.

   And Kathleeen's blog: Kathleen Kaska Writes.

WANTED FOR QUESTIONING. KATHLEEN KASKA.

READ TUESDAY. TWENTY QUESTIONS WITH...MARGO BOND COLLINS.

Writers chatting to each other on writing. Tedious or devious? Let’s have twenty questions, and find out. In this guest-spot, Margo Bond Collins delivers the answers...
   Though this series of posts supports the READ TUESDAY sale, not all authors are able to host a sale on the day. Margo has a sale day lined up for December, but not on READ TUESDAY.
   Beyond that, I'll add that I hope to feature unpublished authors in these sessions soon...

 

1. Fire rages in your house. Everyone is safe, but you. You decide to smash through the window, shielding your face with a book. What is the book?

If I’m stuck using a book to shield my face, I’m going for heft! If I can use an anthology, it will be my Riverside Shakespeare. If not, I’ll use Clarissa by Samuel Richardson or House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. All of these pack a serious punch!

2. Asleep in your rebuilt house, you dream of meeting a dead author. But not in a creepy stalkerish way, so you shoo Mr Poe out of the kitchen. Instead, you sit down and have cake with which dead author?

Aphra Behn. She was the first woman to make a living writing in England. I love, love, love her plays, and she wrote some of the earliest novels in English.
   Virginia Woolf said every woman writer should lay a rose on Behn’s grave; I would love to discuss writing with her! (But not with Virginia Woolf, oddly enough — I find Woolf’s essays inspiring, but her fiction leaves me cold.)

3. Would you name six essential items for writers? If, you know, cornered and threatened with torture.

Imagination, Time, Drive, Desire, Self-Discipline, and for me, COFFEE! 

4. Who’d win in a fight between Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster? If, you know, you were writing that scene.

Dracula. Because vampires are much more interesting than Frankensteinian monsters.

5. It’s the end of a long and tiring day. You are still writing a scene. Do you see it through to the end, even though matchsticks prop your eyelids open, or do you sleep on it and return, refreshed, to slay that literary dragon another day?

It depends on the situation. If I already have the basics in mind, I’ll power through. If I am having to try to figure it out, I’ll sleep on it and let my subconscious take over for a while. I often wake up with whole scenes ready to go! 

6. You must introduce a plot-twist. Evil twin or luggage mix-up?

I’m totally an “evil twin” kind of writer.

7. Let’s say you write a bunch of books featuring an amazing recurring villain. At the end of your latest story you have definitely absitively posolutely killed off the villain for all time and then some. Did you pepper your narrative with clues hinting at the chance of a villainous return in the next book?

Probably! But then, I write supernatural thrillers, so dead isn’t always permanently dead!

8. You are at sea in a lifeboat, with the barest chance of surviving the raging storm. There’s one opportunity to save a character, drifting by this scene. Do you save the idealistic hero or the tragic villain?

I’m at sea? I save whichever one is most likely to help me! That probably means the idealistic hero, though I’d really rather spend time with the tragic villain on a normal day...

9. It’s time to kill a much-loved character – that pesky plot intrudes. Do you just type it up, heartlessly, or are there any strange rituals to be performed before the deed is done?

Heartlessly. And maybe a little gleefully.

10. Embarrassing typo time. I’m always typing thongs instead of things. One day, that’ll land me in trouble. Care to share any wildly embarrassing typing anecdotes? If, you know, the wrong word suddenly made something so much funnier. (My last crime against typing lay in omitting the u from Superman.)

I’m sure I have, but I can’t think of any at the moment. But I tend to add extraneous Es to the end of words, thus creating a Ye Olde English effect.

11. I’ve fallen out of my chair laughing at all sorts of thongs I’ve typed. Have you?

If I’m typing thongs, I’m probably falling out of my chair laughing...

12. You take a classic literary work and update it by throwing in rocket ships. Dare you name that story? Pride and Prejudice on Mars. That kind of thing.

Dammit. I am currently writing Pride and Prejudice in Space. Back off!

13. Seen the movie. Read the book. And your preference was for?

Almost always the book, though there are sometimes movies that are improvements. Hannibal, for example. Much better movie than book. But that’s rare.

14. Occupational hazard of being a writer. Has a book ever fallen on your head? This may occasionally happen to non-writers, it must be said.

More than once, I’m sad to say.

15. Did you ever read a series of books out of sequence?

When I was a child, I read the Trixie Belden books as I could get them—and in the days before internet, that meant whenever the bookstore had a new one I hadn’t read. So I got used to reading them out of order.

16. You encounter a story just as you are writing the same type of tale. Do you abandon your work, or keep going with the other one to ensure there won’t be endless similarities?

I keep going. My story will almost certainly be different. That’s what I’ll tell myself, anyway.

17. Have you ever stumbled across a Much-Loved Children’s Classic™ that you’ve never heard of?

Hm. Probably?

18. You build a secret passage into your story. Where?

Under the ancient, crumbling castle for a Gothic touch.

19. Facing the prospect of writing erotica, you decide on a racy pen-name. And that would be…

Desiree Bleu.

20. On a train a fan praises your work, mistaking you for another author. What happens next?

I’d probably simply smile and say thanks—why embarrass someone over something like that?

 

 

Here's Margo's blog: Margo Bond Collins.

   And here's here Amazon Author Page.
    I answer my own questions on this page of Margo's blog.
 

Author of Waking Up Dead, international bestselling paranormal mystery, Solstice Shadows Publishing, 2013;  and Legally Undead, Vampirarchy Series #1, forthcoming from World Weaver Press in 2014.

WANTED FOR QUESTIONING. MARGO BOND COLLINS.

READ TUESDAY. THE TUESDAY GANG. CHARLES YALLOWITZ.

 

READ TUESDAY. THE TUESDAY GANG. STEPHANIE STAMM.

 

READ TUESDAY. THE TUESDAY GANG. MISHA BURNETT. NEW SIGHTING.

READ TUESDAY. THE TUESDAY GANG. MISHA BURNETT.

READ TUESDAY. THE TUESDAY GANG. WANTED POSTERS.

So what's all this about wanted posters?

*

The replies are trickling in. I'm running these posters daily on my blog. Feel free to use these images - no one has objected yet. Not even Doc McMullen, whose crimes were too terrible to mention.
   I tried to design something that could be whipped out and replaced if the author had a better image. And the blank space is room enough to drop in an e-mail address or a logo to the left or right.
   Just a daft little idea. But the central point remains. Plugging a sale is sterile. This is about reading and writing. So we have to do something beyond plugging in a bland way.
   I took the insane step of following the READ TUESDAY Twitter feed. Yes, I'll follow all these people.
   Through that I've encountered loads of authors, and I've helped out here and there with blogging tips.
   On the day itself, the sale may utterly stiff, curl up, and die. And here's the thing. I don't care if all this activity doesn't push my books.
   Why not?
   I've gained immeasurably over the past few days. Just learning about the new tortures Blogger invented for me was reason enough to participate. (Sound of spluttering in the background.) The hell with it. I'm copying this e-mail over to my blog.

*

That's the story. I featured authors on this blog. So far, they've agreed to participate in the sale on the 10th of December. And so far, they've all been published authors.
   This is not about plugging a sale, so I should soon feature authors who can't make the sale. And authors who aren't even published yet.
   Yet.
   Chris McMullen and I haven't actually done the Q&A thing, but as the originator of READ TUESDAY he'll feature in a wanted poster quite soon.
   The next poster will be out shortly. Misha Burnett kicked the whole idea off by wearing a hat. Nice of someone to take the blame...

READ TUESDAY. THE TUESDAY GANG. RLL.

READ TUESDAY. WAITING FOR ANSWERS.

I thought I'd take a look at a different angle, from a different angle, in this post.
   First, this blog post isn't carrying the usual READ TUESDAY logo. There's no corporate sponsorship - I don't own shares in the venture - and I haven't been held at gunpoint. Just aiming for a bit of variety in leaving the logo off.

*

When I contacted loads of authors to see if they wanted to answer twenty questions on my blog, in aid of this Tuesday-based event, I decided I'd blog answers daily.
   Why? With a month to go and dozens of potential answerers, blogging daily was the only reasonable solution.
   There are a few sets of answers in the pipeline. For a variety of reasons, responses slackened off. It could be that a few more authors will check in after more than a week.
   People are busy. Some might hold off until close to the event. My own answers to my own questions are up on almost all of the participating blogging sites...
   The exception being Lois Winston/Anastasia Pollack/Emma Carlyle. She's holding my answers back until just before READ TUESDAY on the 10th of December, so that sticks in people's memories. A mini-advert.
   To potential contributors. If I've forgotten you, tell me. Walked through a blizzard of e-mail.

*

Has technology interfered? Yes. I see my blog picked up more followers. Try as I might, I've been unable to follow those people using similar gadgets on their blogs.
   Where possible, I follow blogs by e-mail. Or I just walk on over to the actual sites - you rarely have to travel so far on the internet that you develop blisters and a limp.
   And now a word about...
   GOODREADS.
   I've tried and failed to import this blog to that site. You need to be a particle physicist to get that job done. Where's Chris McMullen when you need him?
   Yes, the READ TUESDAY guy is some kind of mad scientist. He's working on a formula for increasing spare time. To test that with any degree of meaning or sense, he's NOT working on that in his spare time. May take quite a while.

*

I followed people on the Twitter. Yes, I saw that can marked WORMS and I reached for the lid. Supporting READ TUESDAY, I decided to follow all the people on the @ReadTuesday Twitter feed.
   Forgetting that I set up an e-mail notification for Twitter the week before.
   So if I follow a batch of 50 people and they follow me, I'll have dozens of confirmatory messages in my in-box, swamping the rest of the traffic.
   Run!
   I raced to the stove, but Twitter boiled over. And that was the first batch of 50. I had several pots on that cooker.
   So. If you followed me on Twitter, hello. I'm more of a Gritter - someone who uses Twitter through gritted teeth. Last night I helped out here and there with a hint or a tip, and one or two people pointed things out to me.
   On that basis, we'll say the night went successfully.
   And now, a poll. I can add a gadget to the blog, for poll-hosting purposes. But I'm not sure what sort of poll to host. There's little point hosting a Marmite poll. No one likes it.
   That's why the advertising plays off the love it or hate it ploy. It's a ploy. No one likes it. This was done on an episode of Mythbusters. They proved no one likes Marmite.
   Don't get me started on caviar. Or sauerkraut.

*

Was this a blog post about nothing? Ah hell, why not. This blog post was Twitterised before I published it here. Though, on the Twitter, I was interrupted by two writers who should feature on the blog shortly in READ TUESDAY Q&A sessions.

READ TUESDAY. TWENTY QUESTIONS WITH...LISA CAPEHART.

Writers chatting to each other on writing. Tedious or devious? Let’s have twenty questions, and find out. In this guest-spot, READ TUESDAY participant Lisa Capehart delivers the answers... 



1. Fire rages in your house. Everyone is safe, but you. You decide to smash through the window, shielding your face with a book. What is the book?

My Kindle would likely be nearby, so I'd shield my face with that, and use my dictionary to break the window.

2. Asleep in your rebuilt house, you dream of meeting a dead author. But not in a creepy stalkerish way, so you shoo Mr Poe out of the kitchen. Instead, you sit down and have cake with which dead author?

That would be a toss-up between C. S. Lewis, and Andre Norton.

3. Would you name six essential items for writers? If, you know, cornered and threatened with torture.

Pen, paper (LOTS of paper!), a good dictionary, a quiet spot, a large pitcher of tea, and a cozy chair.

4. Who’d win in a fight between Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster? If, you know, you were writing that scene.

I'd probably have Godzilla show up and stomp them both!

5. It’s the end of a long and tiring day. You are still writing a scene. Do you see it through to the end, even though matchsticks prop your eyelids open, or do you sleep on it and return, refreshed, to slay that literary dragon another day?

I'd have to sleep, and probably have a whole new take on it (I get a lot of writing ideas in my dreams!).

6. You must introduce a plot-twist. Evil twin or luggage mix-up?

Luggage mix-up, of course! You can go so many interesting ways with that!

7. Let’s say you write a bunch of books featuring an amazing recurring villain. At the end of your latest story you have definitely absitively posolutely killed off the villain for all time and then some. Did you pepper your narrative with clues hinting at the chance of a villainous return in the next book?

No. I'm tired of him! I have a new, even more exciting villain waiting in the wings!

8. You are at sea in a lifeboat, with the barest chance of surviving the raging storm. There’s one opportunity to save a character, drifting by this scene. Do you save the idealistic hero or the tragic villain?

The hero would have to be saved, I think. But he would mourn the waste of the villain's tragic life, as he died trying to kill our brave hero.

9. It’s time to kill a much-loved character – that pesky plot intrudes. Do you just type it up, heartlessly, or are there any strange rituals to be performed before the deed is done?

With tears in my eyes, I would write a very touching funeral, wondering if there were any way to bring the character miraculously back to life.

10. Embarrassing typo time. I’m always typing thongs instead of things. One day, that’ll land me in trouble. Care to share any wildly embarrassing typing anecdotes? If, you know, the wrong word suddenly made something so much funnier. (My last crime against typing lay in omitting the u from Superman.)

I've had plenty of those, but none comes to mind at the moment.

11. I’ve fallen out of my chair laughing at all sorts of thongs I’ve typed. Have you?

I use a voice-recognition program, being a two-finger typist. Once I looked up to discover that an astronaut had suddenly appeared in the very down-to-earth scene! (It should have been - and she nodded.)

12. You take a classic literary work and update it by throwing in rocket ships. Dare you name that story? Pride and Prejudice on Mars. That kind of thing.

Hmm...Robinson Crusoe of Ptenlar.

13. Seen the movie. Read the book. And your preference was for?

In most cases, that would have to be the book.

14. Occupational hazard of being a writer. Has a book ever fallen on your head? This may occasionally happen to non-writers, it must be said.

Not my head, but my foot, more than once!

15. Did you ever read a series of books out of sequence?

Not if I can help it.

16. You encounter a story just as you are writing the same type of tale. Do you abandon your work, or keep going with the other one to ensure there won’t be endless similarities?

I usually find them after I wrote mine. But there are always differences, so I'll keep mine, being true to my own writing style.

17. Have you ever stumbled across a Much-Loved Children’s Classic™ that you’ve never heard of?

Once or twice.

18. You build a secret passage into your story. Where?

I have one in my book lined up for the "Read Tuesday" event. But you'll have to read the book for that!

19. Facing the prospect of writing erotica, you decide on a racy pen-name. And that would be…

I never would.

20. On a train a fan praises your work, mistaking you for another author. What happens next?

I'd gently correct their mistake, praise the author, too, and then ask if they might like to read something that I've written, offering a free copy.

Lisa Capehart's AmazonAuthor Page.
   Here's Lisa's blog.
   And Lisa's Facebook Author Page.
   Lisa's book.
   I answer my own questions here on Lisa's blog.