First Draft to Published

This month at Paperback Writer we have featured some great authors. Fiction books authors ranged from mystery, love story, historical, children’s, and literary titles. Non-fiction book authors included inspirational/motivational, memoirs, relationships, social issues and psychological titles. If you missed any of their interviews you can find the links to the interview in the author’s name. Michael Anthony, author of the Iraq war memoir, Mass Casualties: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq will be visiting (no stop today)! They say the Army makes a man out of you, but for eighteen-year-old SPC Michael Anthony, this fabled rite of passage is instead a dark and dangerous journey. After obtaining his parents’ approval to enlist at seventeen, Anthony begins this journey with an unshakable faith in the military based on his family’s long tradition of service. But when he finds himself in a medical unit of misfits as lost as he is, Anthony not only witnesses...

Erma Bombeck, American humorist and author of fifteen books, thousands of columns and a guest on television and radios, was a household name when I grew up. She was funny and although, I was not old enough to understand what she wrote about, it wasn’t much longer before I was to be a young mother and wife. Erma wrote humorously about the everyday mundane chores of suburban life and made them seem a little less daunting. Just knowing that life would not come to an end if the laundry was washed on Monday instead of Saturday, was a great comfort to me. Housewives would not be brought before a court of law if we didn’t adhere to the same strict schedules as our mothers and grandmothers had. Laundry on Monday, groceries on Tuesday . . . . . and these amazing women filled every day with something. I can still hear my mother saying, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” In her books At Wit’s End, Family – The Ties That Bind and Gag and others, Bombeck gave the American housewife permission t...

The term Going Green seems to be everywhere and it means to re-cycle, re-use and return to a simpler way of life. As a busy writer time is money and every minute that is spent not writing is a minute lost that you will never regain. If you’re experimenting with cheaper economical ways to save money or the environment it might be wise to think about ways to make more money with your writing. So, when the Going Green bug catches you, here are seven reasons to say no to “going green.” 1. When your child decides to color your walls with a green crayon 2. When the kids whine to you that the cheese and the bread have green spots. 3. Driving all over town to save money on your groceries – the cost of the gas and your time spent would be put to better use writing. 4. Turn on the air-conditioner – You have just written about a rain storm in your story and you wonder where that thought came from and then you realize it’s the sweat running down your face and dropping onto the paper. 5. Hanging yo...

As a writer sitting down and putting words on the page and getting the muse to show up with some good ideas can be a challenge. So it helps if I listen to music at night when I’m writing. I don’t know why the music in the background makes the muse to show up, but I definitely won’t turn it away. My favorite music is country and one of my favorite groups is Brooks & Dunn. Last year this duo announced that they were going their separate ways after 25 years together making hit music. Each will have their own music, but it just won’t be the same. Since they started their music career I have listened and found that they are the perfect background music to jump start my muse. Most of what they sing is love songs and I get so absorbed in writing that when the CD ends sometimes, I wonder, if I even heard any of the songs. At Christmas I picked up a few their CD’s and received a few from my daughter, who understood that the music will no longer be the same. I felt like the squirrel packi...

Nothing is more embarrassing than not fitting in with your peers. As an adult returning to school one area where you’ll want to fit in is in the classroom. It can be daunting to open a classroom door and the room is filled with students young enough to be your children. Most kids will also feel uncomfortable because they might feel like they have a parent in there with them. All kids think everyone over the age of 30 is really ancient. Soon they’ll be asking you if you were born before the car was invented. To be sure you fit in with your classmates follow these simple rules; If there is a scuffle in the class don’t shout out that phrase you would say to your own kids, “Don’t make me come over there.” You probably shouldn’t order another student to move out of your chair since it’s not really your chair like you can claim in your own house. Don’t take your youngest child to class and ask if any of the kids in the class want to babysit during class hours. If you’re in a freshman class i...

In the play, Death of Salesman by Arthur Miller, written in 1949 the American father as a provider was a strongly held fact. Since Arthur Miller wrote the play the man is no longer the undisputed head of the household and this title is now encompassed by mothers and/or fathers, grandparents and same sex households. In this play Willy Loman is living in a life that is not suited for him. He became a salesman because of what he saw his father doing growing up, selling flutes and thought he could be successful. He never gave himself a chance to ask what he wanted for himself and when he did try to go make money with this brother he was to far into his life to make a change without fear of failure. Willy seems more comfortable in the play when he doing things with his hands and we can see the similarities to his older son Biff who enjoys working on the farms in the west. His second son Happy wants to follow in his footsteps as salesman and become number 1 in his industry to give it to his...

The great thing about Thursday is that it’s time for another Thursday Thirteen. Thirteen Things about the novel “Wench” and it’s author Dolen Perkins-Valdez. ABOUT THE BOOK Situated in the free state of Ohio, Tawawa House offers respite from the summer heat. A beautiful, inviting house surrounded by a dozen private cottages, the resort is favored by wealthy Southern white men who vacation there, accompanied by their enslaved mistresses Regular visitors Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet have forged an enduring friendship. They look forward to their annual reunion and the opportunity it affords them to talk over the changes in their lives and their respective plantations. The subject of freedom is never spoken aloud until the red-maned, spirited Mawu arrives and voices her determination to escape. To run is to leave behind the friends and families trapped at home. For some, it also means tearing the strong emotional and psychological ties that bind them to their masters. When a fire on the resor...

by Rebecca Camarena Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop for Death” written in 1862, could be considered an examination of one’s own conscience in preparation for death after a long life. Dickinson was greatly affected by death and had friends and loved one’s who died early in their life probably due to diseases, sickness or injury. When she wrote the poem in 1862 the country was in the midst of the “Civil War”, so while the political aspect of the war was not a major theme in her poetry, dying as a result of war had a major impact on the country and quite possibly her poetry. The speaker examines her life with death at her side. Maybe, the speaker is not quite ready to die and thus the opening line in the first stanza, “Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me” and also, the mention of her state of dress, “For only Gossamer, my Gown – My Tippet – Only Tulle,” give us the image of the speaker being in her night clothes with a light wrap around her should...