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Showing posts from January, 2013

10 Questions with Novelist Bard Constantine (@BardConstantine)

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This Author Spotlight features New Haven-based writer and novelist Bard Constantine, author of THE TROUBLESHOOTER. Bard Constantine is a writer of gritty futures and far-flung fantasy. If he were a pinata, stories would explode from his innards upon impact, much to the consternation of little children everywhere. When not evading the straightjacket confines of his psychiatric 'buddies', he's usually found somewhere pounding a keyboard while trying to keep a tenuous grip on some obscure thing called reality. His books are available pretty much everywhere, and he'd love it if you'd read one. Or two, if you like the first. 1.  How did you get into writing? I think writing was an inevitable destination for me. I’ve loved reading ever since I knew how, and I’ve always been interested in creating stories. When I was younger I was mainly interested in storytelling through art, but that eventually evolved into writing. Art depicts scenes, but words hav

America's Next Author Runner-Up Jen Barton (@FionaThornBook)

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This Author Spotlight is slightly different from our usual weekly fare in that it features writer Jen Barton in a follow-up interview in order to discuss her award-winning original short story "Movin' On Up." "Movin' On Up" was recently declared as a finalist (top 3!) in the America's Next Author contest. Here is the trailer for the story: Jen is also the author of Fiona Thorn and the Carapacem Spell . Jen Barton was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1971 and spent much of her life on the East Coast. In 2008, at age 36, she and her family moved to California. With two cars, she and her husband moved two dogs, two guinea pigs, a cornsnake and their 10-year old daughter across the country. She counts the five-day road trip, including a near escape by both dogs on Day 3, as one of her best experiences to date. In 2009, with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy from Millersville University, Barton realized her ch

10 Questions with Writer's Writer Marcia Riefer Johnston (@MarciaRJohnston)

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Cover art by Brian Hull. Cover design by Vinnie Kinsella. Holiday mayhem has subsided. A new year has begun. (Though HOW it came to be 2013 is beyond me.) And it's time to get back to work. Back to business. The business of writing. What better way to begin the new year than with an Author Spotlight illuminating a book on writing? I therefore give you Word Up!  by literary luminary and writer's writer Marcia Riefer Johnston. Photo by Wendy Hood. When Marcia was 12, American Girl magazine printed her eight-paragraph story, “The Key,” and paid her $15. She has been writing ever since. She studied under Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff in the Syracuse University creative-writing program. She taught technical writing in the Engineering School at Cornell University. She has done writing of all kinds for organizations of all kinds, from the Fortune 500 to the just plain fortunate. Marcia has written for the scholarly journal Shakespeare Quarterly , the professio