Tag: writer

Ground Control Has Been Released

Karen Hough’s first novel  Ground Control has been released and my copy arrived in the mail today!

I am looking forward to diving in and devouring it tonight.

Remember the post where Canadian author Karen Hough was introduced? Her Aunt Joanne is my good friend whom you’ve met on the blog before.

Canadian Author Karen Hough residing in London

Here are links for Book Club discussion guide and the link to purchase a copy. too.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56594348-ground-control

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ground-Control-K-Hough-ebook/dp/B08ZY15KGR/
Here is the link to subscribe to her mailing list (book club discussion guide): https://www.subscribepage.com/karenhoughwrites

Podcast. https://samplechapterpodcast.com/ka-hough-ground-control?fbclid=IwAR1Ou1zi4j9cot9lJTLyWeJQfEMcvVGK2_tEiR6zkR5M4grLi76Q7rDGr_s

by Categories: booksTags: , , , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

Meet Canadian Author K.A Hough- Guest Blog

“At my Writerly Desk with tea and biscuits” Karen Hough*
I’m Canadian, currently living in London with my husband and 3 kids. My blog is Dammit Karen and my website is Karen Hough Writes  My author name is “K.A. Hough.” My book is called Ground Control”

Writing by Discovery

In writing, there are plotters – people that plot out their stories and follow that plan – and there are pantsters, which are kindly called “discovery writers.” This pantster signed up for National Novel Writing Month 2019 (NaNoWriMo).

I had an idea, a “what if,” and I had a deadline. Every night that November, after the kids went to bed, I followed my characters around for approximately 1800 words. Some nights it took an hour to meet my wordcount; some nights it took four. It was stressful, and I was tired, but it was only 30 days. I tried not to think about it during the day.

As a “discovery writer,” I honestly had no idea what was ever going to happen next. As I typed, I’d suddenly realize something about a character’s past. Or I’d leave a note to myself in all caps that said, “HOW LONG TO GET TO MARS?” – because now they were going to Mars (unplanned by me, but that’s where they were going, so I should probably find out more about it if I was really going to write this ridiculous book). I did research as I went, and kept a spreadsheet of links to NASA, MarsONE and studies about soil bacteria, which had – also against my will – become an issue on the space shuttle, and one that I couldn’t fix for months. I wasn’t in control.

The story went off in weird tangents – not my story, because my story was never supposed to be about space and soil – it twisted and turned. I wrote completely without a plan, without an ending in mind, and somehow, I managed to type my last word – my 50,083rd – just before midnight on November 30th.

It wasn’t the story I had planned to write, and they weren’t perfect words but there were 50,000 of them. I put it away for a month, then read it with fresh eyes, and while it was still imperfect, it wasn’t terrible. Over the next six months, in lockdown, I revised, expanded and rewrote while my kids sat and homeschooled beside me.

NaNoWriMo was a grind, but it gave me the reasonably short timeframe and the motivation I needed to finally write a novel. I even sat down to do it again this year. I wrote another 50K words in 30 days, but this time I was prepared. I wasn’t a pantster this time: I had an outline, almost chapter-by-chapter, of what I wanted to happen and what I wanted to develop. This story wasn’t going to go rogue on me (though it did, here and there), but I discovered something else: it wasn’t as much fun.

Ground Control is being published in e-book, paperback and hardcover formats in the Spring

 

 

(*My dear friend Joanne’s niece)

by Categories: Photography, WritingTags: , , , , , , , , , , , 9 Comments

You always ask if there is anything you can do…….

A good friend passed early Wednesday morning. You always ask if there is anything you can do…..

E64A6081-9C28-4E2F-ADC3-AE72009D3B33Cj and her daughter at Thanksgiving a few years ago.

She was a loving mother, a devoted sister,  an excellent teacher, a strong woman, a heartfelt writer and a steadfast partner.   An advocate for so many students in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Inspiring thousands. A Madwoman writer at Carlow University. 

I  can picture her signing Go Tell it on the Mountain at a Christmas Choir Concert

Reading her poetry at Poe*Art, touching us with her words.

Playing music to motivate the scores of teachers who became students every summer in The Western Pennsylvania Writing Project at the University of Pittsburgh.

Another friend who taught with her for a couple of years remembers her playing Rocky’s Theme to get the students geared up for testing.  The same friend said Cj always made lemonade when life handed her lemons.  So true.

Here is another song she’d play for her students and sign with them.

 

The plea for help with medical expenses is now compounded by the additional need for Funeral/Memorial costs.  If you’ve ever received a bill in the mail after someone has passed you’ll understand why I am getting this request out to the world.  Cj was always supportive of my blog efforts and an avid follower.  

No amount too small to help the family through this difficult time  Click to donate

Thank you.   E64A6081-9C28-4E2F-ADC3-AE72009D3B33

 

by Categories: Photography, Tribute to a FriendTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 14 Comments

By Their Sidewalks You Will Know Them

First posted in February 2010 and again in 2013.  Thanks Timons Esaias Guest Poet

Sidewalk Shoveled

Tim’s Poem Came to Mind as I Admired the Concrete First Time in Two Weeks – Photographed Feb 2010

By Their Sidewalks You Will Know Them

Originally there were eleven Commandments

Moses, perhaps confused by the unfamiliar

snow, ice, and sidewalk,

botched one, and left it out.

But Buddha said that though Life is Pain,

falling on ice is gratuitous pain

and those who cause it, by neglect,

should never escape the Wheel of Rebirth;

and Lao-Tzu agreed, for those who will not

clear the path will never find the Way.

Zoroaster, in the endless war of light

against ice, demanded diligence;

claimed that those who surrender

the public way to the Enemy

have empty souls,

can scarcely be regarded as human.

The Prophet, regarding sidewalks and snow,

is silent; but his sura

Sand Drifting Against the Caravanserai Gate

is thought to apply. The condemnation there

is brutal and eternal.

Plato counted safe sidewalks as fundamental

to the ideal Republic, noting that those remiss

in this clear duty lacked all character;

and his pupil – perceptive, immortal Aristotle-

further declared, famously, that

lack of character

is destiny.

-Timons Esaias
Timons Esaias is a writer and poet living in Pittsburgh. His short stories, ranging from literary to genre, have been published in fourteen languages. He has had over a hundred poems in print, including Spanish, Swedish and Chinese translations, in such markets as 5AM, Bathtub Gin, Main Street Rag, Willard & Maple, Elysian Fields Quarterly: The Literary Journal of Baseball and many others. He has also been a finalist for the British Science Fiction Award, and won the Asimov’s Readers Award. His poetry chapbook, The Influence of Pigeons on Architecture, sold out two editions. He is Adjunct Faculty at Seton Hill University, in the Writing Popular Fiction M.F.A. Program. This poem was originally published in hotmetalpoets.com when it existed.

This entry was posted on February 19, 2010. It was filed under poetry, Things in the Snow and was tagged with city scene, HIghland Park, photo of the day, photography, Pittsburgh, Poem, poet, poetry, shovel, sidewalk, snow, Timons Esaias, urban scene, winter scene.

→←

16 responses

Bill

Too deep for me.

February 19, 2010 at 7:07 am Edit

Reply

Toni Kichi

Makes me happy that our sidewalks are clear and clean – thanks to Mike!! I couldn’t handle all those punishments! Seems like an almost normal day today!! Thanks for starting it with something special!!! Did Bill mean the snow was too deep – or the poem??!! Either way, I agree! My mind is mush (like this snow will soon be) — been in the house too long!!!

February 19, 2010 at 8:42 am Edit

Reply

Dorothy

All tis is great Ruth. It is like your photos and words are a diary of living through these snowy days.

Dorothy

February 19, 2010 at 9:12 am Edit

Reply

erica

Too wonderful for … words?? 🙂 Changes my attitude on shoveling, altho I am already somewhat aware that I smile and feel satisfaction when I get to the concrete! A bit anxious now, tho, about the snow still on the bushes, bending branches low over the sidewalk leading to my caravanserai gate ……! 🙂

February 19, 2010 at 9:52 am Edit

Reply

Arlene Weiner

There is a special place in hell

where, frozen in ice, only his rear

exposed to Satan’s teeth, he’ll dwell

whose sidewalk’s untouched while his driveway’s clear.

February 19, 2010 at 10:50 am Edit

Reply

joseph k

that is one great photo

joseph

February 19, 2010 at 4:27 pm Edit

Reply

Bonnie Imhoff

I know the snow is a pain, but it is beautiful. I enjoy the pic very much.

BY CATEGORIES: IN THE SNOW,PHOTOGRAPHYTAGS: , ,, , , ,, , , ,, , ,7 COMMENTSEDIT

POST NAVIGATION

7 THOUGHTS ON “BY THEIR SIDEWALKS YOU WILL KNOW THEM – GUEST POET TIMONS ESAIAS- ORIGINALLY POSTED 2-19-2010”

by Categories: Photography, poetryTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments
%d bloggers like this: