Gareth S. Young - - 1000 Trillion Suns

2012 is rapidly coming to a close with 2013 looming large on the horizon. Who better to see in the New Year with than Karen Y. Bynum? (That's a rhetorical question...there's nobody better to see the New Year in with and to even have given that question a moment's thought is, frankly, insulting. *HUFF*) Sorry. I meandered. Ladles and Jellyspoons, I would like to introduce you to the lovely Miss Bynum. She bravely agreed to come visit my blog and impart some of her wisdom, experience, a wee bit of crazy and tell us about her latest book: Witch Way to Turn. Don't worry, I'll let Karen do most of the talking... Karen Y. Bynum (Likes devouring cookies and souls) Karen Y. Bynum is an author of young adult paranormal fantasy.    Her debut novel Witch Way to Turn is published through Lyrical Press.    She grew up in Hickory, North Carolina where mountains and magic surrounded her.    Even as a child, she wrote her own faery tales and prattled in...

The second patient on my operating table...ready for dissection...hmmm, this intro is a little on the serial killer side. Let me try again. My second unsuspecting victim...ugh...just roll with it... ...is the delightful Carey Heywood. Many of you may know her from Twitter, or the surrounding internetosphere, and she has graciously accepted my invite to swing by my wee blog and answer a few of my questions. I bumped into Carey on twitter and despite the fact she's happily married and a proud mama with younglings, she made me her twitter husband. The relationship was rocky from the outset due to my lack of "Swedish Fish" knowledge. I think we weathered that storm and have survived about 100 tweets since then. I still haven't tasted a Swedish Fish but fortunately Christmas approaches, her new book is available to buy on the Kindle site and she's in a forgiving mood!  So without further ado...and while she's still talking to me... Carey Heywood ...

Hello blogoverse! It's 12/13/12 so it's time for a new post. I sometimes struggle for ideas so luckily the delightful and super-cool  @MeganPaasch  called me out on her Blog: Rhymes with Smash ! ...and so now to the questions: I hope I have some good answers... What is the working title of your book? It started off being called Solace. Which is the name of the fictional town it's set in. For the last six months though I've been calling it PERSEPHONE, after the main character. I think I'm going to stick with that. Where did the idea come from for your book? I had an idea for a trilogy of stories based around the disappearances of three young girls. The first was MONSTERS , my self-published book about a detective hunting for a young girl kidnapped on Halloween. The idea was to connect the stories both thematically and using the same basic cast of characters. One of the characters in the first story, Emerson Watts, used to be a Federal Agent and his life was de...

 As promised, today I begin a new series of interviews with a diverse group of writers I've met on my internet journeys. The first head on the chopping block (volunteer) is Valerie Haight. Valerie is a prize winning, contemporary romance and suspense writer from Arkansas. Always supportive of other writers, she was one of the first people on Twitter to extend the hand of friendship to me and the first (and still only) person to ask me to post (guest blog) on their website. I am hugely honored that she has finally relented and agreed to come over to my wee blog and talk to you all (or y'all...whichever is more appropriate lol). So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce the first "Bright Light" in this ongoing series: Valerie Haight GUS: Hi, Valerie! This is a very exciting time for you in your writing career.  Now that you're nearing the release of your first novella, which part of the journey has surprised you the most...

Soon I will have the first of what, I hope, will be a series of interesting and enlightening AUTHOR INTERVIEWS . I realize these pop up everywhere but I intend to add my own little slant to proceedings and hopefully keep them interesting. I'm also going to be talking to a diverse range of writers covering many genres and at many different points in their writing careers. With any luck there will be good information for everyone, from the newest of newbies to the most experienced of old heads. So, come back MONDAY 26th for my first interview. I'll be talking to my good friend  VALERIE HAIGHT . In the meantime, I hope you all had a fun and filling Thanksgiving. I figured I'd keep it light this evening and offer another silly poem I wrote...twenty years ago. Again, I was working on some background stuff for stories and this just popped into my head. I used to love the antagonistic relationship between pairs of cartoon characters and wanted to come up wi...

I read somewhere, a long time ago, that the nursery rhyme "Ring-a-ring o' Roses" was suspected to have been about The Black Death (or some other pandemic). I was fascinated by the dark and grisly origin of a children's playground game and noticed its not an isolated case. One of the most appealing things about Fairytales is that many of them are very dark, lots of axe-chopping, wolf slaughtering, pig eating and witch murdering topped off with some really bittersweet endings. There's a dark streak in children where just a little bit of scary is a good thing. Roald Dahl's books, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and his book of Revolting Rhymes, are appealing to children for that very reason. Dahl had no problem putting the children in his stories into very dark situations. I recall as a young child being on vacation with my family and coming across a small bridge across a stream. We were somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland...

NaNoWriMo is upon us and it's time for all you writers to lock yourselves in your respective writing dungeons, shun the world, family, friends and forego television, movies and proper sustenance. Are you ready? I am. Sort of. I have an idea but no clue how I'm going to write it. Still not even sure if it's going to be in first person or third or a mix of the two. I know the characters and basic gist of where I want the story to go but the little details elude me. Typically, I'm a slow starter and require a big push at the end to reach the 50k word target. This will be my third year and so far I have two victories under my belt. What is a victory? With NaNoWriMo its really straightforward: just write. You are aiming for 50,000 words, or more, but 50k will win you a nice certificate. You don't worry about spellcheck, editing or spending too much time on any given moment. You write...and write. And at the end of it all you'll have 50,000 words towards y...

This is part four of my 100 Favorite Movies. Counting down from  070-061 . Part 1 can be seen here:   100-091 Part 2 can be seen here:   090-081 Part 3 can be seen here:  080-071 ...and now for Part 4... 070  The Mothman Prophecies (2002) - This one is a slow burner...you have to be patient. Richard Gere stars as a reporter who is drawn to a small town in West Virginia where the locals report seeing a mysterious Mothman and other strange occurrences. He is drawn to the story because of things his wife said to him before she passed away after a car accident. His obsession with the Mothman is increased further when he learns of the small town and starts to experience some unexplained things for himself. And then one night in his motel, the mysterious Indrid Cold calls his phone. This one is creepy rather than scary. Are things happening because of something easily explainable or because of some mysterious creature who seems ...