A great witch story: brooms, salt and Apple cider

Stephen Cosgrove’s Bump in The Night
Book Four: A Pinch of Salt

The story’s opening chapter presents the Hickabee family history including their orchard and the different tragedies that befell the family, her great grandfather, and her father both died on Halloween. This impersonal style of writing relates simple fact and basic details without a hint of the impending danger.

So, you have finished your latest novel, had it edited and polished to perfection. Now how do you do to get it published? Alert the press? Send a copy to the New York Times?

Sadly, now the real work begins.

Everyone has vague memories of this time year. Bad weather. Candle lit graves. Each culture has different traditions and rituals. But, when I was kid, October was a wonderful magical mystery of shadowy creatures and invisible scares.

Philip Pullman crafts Clockwork in the style of Grimm’s fairy tale. A story is like a clock. The narrator states, “Once you’ve wound them up, nothing will stop them’ they move on forwards till they reach their destined end.” The clockmaker’s apprentice, Karl, the story teller, Fritz, Prince Florian, Dr. Kalmenius are all cogs ticking away. Who know how it will end? The story is set in a German village on the snowy night before the revealing of a new figure in the clock tower.

Last Saturday, I got married. And yes, for the record, it was epic.

You know you’re nervous about missing the 3:51 pm bus to Podborany when you arrive 40 minutes early at the bus stop. A thousand fears ran through my mind. Making connections in unfamiliar ghost towns (Czech villages are famous for being empty on Saturday afternoon), running with a back pack for a bus, getting off at the wrong stop, I just kept repeating one thought in my head. Get to Zatec and you’ll be fine. 

But, now what?

You’re not a fake, a wanabee, or a pretender. You are the next Orson Welles, J.K Rowling, Ella Fitzgerald, Alphonse Mucha, or possibly, Frida Kaleho. To become an artist in the Fine Arts, Literature, Music, Film, even Architecture, you must treat yourself like the god-like artist- you want to become.

Written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the Little Prince is a classic for young and old, as one explores its pages and learns about the importance of friendship and love.

Last week, I found this memory stuck in the book pages, between the water color drawings of a starry night sky and a vast desert.

Enjoy.

I was baby sitting my nephew and nieces once. In the night, he woke up crying, with a runny nose and tear stained eyes. “Where’s Mommy and Daddy?”

I once thought writing was like building a wall. Each brick had to be perfect in just the right place. Unfortunately, this process is very slow. You don't set the next one until you are absolutely sure that it is in the right spot. With this method, I quickly realized that this writing style took forever and I would have to find a new way or I would never finish any of my writing.

Gears in Wonderland (by Jason Anderson) is a steam punk fantasy adventure. A timid milk toast, James, is pushed around by his boss, and harassed by his finance. But, after witnessing his friend’s murder, James is tackled by a man in a white suit and falls into Wonderland. There, he discovers the truth about himself as he tries to find a way home. 

The American

On Sunday, I was walking past Bohemian Bagel. When an older gentleman, in his late 50’s, tan face, sunglasses on his head, walked up to me and said, “Supermarket?” twice and pointed in the direction of Obecni Dum.

In honor of the World Cup, this week’s blog is about my amateur football career (soccer for Americans).

Once I thought my favorite authors wrote their books in their secret hideaways, and then months later, their masterpieces were published.

But, this is a myth. Writers don’t work alone. They get feedback as they work on their stories. When they are done and published, probably, even then, they fight the urge to go back and change parts of their books.

Under the Mountain by Maurice Gee is a sci-fi story about red headed twins Rachel and Theo Matheson who help Mr. Jones stop the shadowy Wilberforces.

School is over. Vacation has begun. Yippee! It is a time to lie around and do nothing, except READ!

Summer is a time for beach trips, barbecues, and hot lazy afternoons in the sun. But, it is also a time for movies. Sci-fi, comic book, rom-com, war, chick flick, fantasy, drama, thriller and the best and most controversial genre-- the children’s film (adapted from a book). For every great film (How to Train your Dragon), there is a Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief.

A good film will find you when you are least expecting it.

As a kid, none of these books made me fall in love with reading:

The Little Prince,
The Last Unicorn,
The Jungle Book,
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The magic story that I couldn’t stop reading was. . . .

Today I mailed the latest draft of my book including revisions, additions, and changes to my story editor and seven readers. Yea! While I am waiting to get feedback from them, what am I going to do?