Musings of Two Creative Minds

I've been asked by a number of people recently, "Why did you get into writing?  What is the Para-Earth Series?  And how did you come up with it?" Well, to help answer those questions and others people may, have I invite you all to check out the podcast interview below, where I get to answer all those questions and many more.  And before anyone asks, "How did you get on a podcast?", I've been on Google+ for a while now, sharing my posts about writing on a regular basis.  Well one of my acquaintances on Google+, the awesome Tony Mendoza (writer/filmmaker) extended an invitation to me to be on his podcast "Life In The Hole", where he interviews authors about their work.   I invite you all to check out some of his other interviews after you've listened to this one.  Tony's a great host, and a fun person to get to know.  While your at his site, you might also want to check out his upcoming film "The Hole", a fascinating psychol...

In the first half of this discussion I talked about collaborating with my wife Helen and how much of an impact she's had on my writing.   Today I would like to introduce you all to my other cohort in crime, mischief, nonsense, lunacy, chaos, and other things too numerous to mention, as well as writing.   Richard Caminiti and I go back as far as Levittown Memorial High School (Go Panthers).  Mind you shortly after we graduated the school was closed.  Coincidence?  You decide. I cannot count he number of hours Rich and I spent together both in and out of school.  We shared a number of interests such as science fiction, the paranormal, and a number of great friends.  He was also involved in the Nassau County Auxillary Police and still has his badge from those days. But when I left Levittown, Long Island (New York State), in 1985 I lost touch with him an so many others.  So I was not there to watch him rise up through the ranks from...

My debut novel "The Bridge" is a unique blend of horror/mystery/science fiction and it will be available on Smashwords, Kobo, Apple, Sony, Nook this Friday.   The novel will also be available in Kindle and Trade Paperback shortly. Here's a the book jacket blurb" Alex Hill buried his psychic talents for eighteen years. But with the scream of tires and twisting metal all this changes. When his girlfriend, Police Sergeant Veronica Ross, is nearly run down by two teens he becomes concerned. But upon learning that both the driver and passenger had both been dead for almost twelve hours before the crash, he knows what he must do... WELCOME TO BOOK ONE OF THE PARA-EARTH SERIES Note: Books 2 and 3 are already under way.

This latest installment not only deals with creating characters, but also explains a bit why I haven't been making as long an entry as I'd like lately.  I hope to do a more proper entry shortly.  Thanks...

And here is part 2 of "My Setting Is Changing". This time we're starting to say farewell to some very close friends...

Today's entry is not going to be very long.  But sometimes we don't need a lot of words to get across what we're saying.  Then again, it depends on what you're trying to convey in a scene.  I've recently had an interesting question come up where a friend told me they could write an action but didn't know how to fill the rest of the scene out.  Details, setting, background, etc. were the areas they had trouble with.   I knew this problem all to well, I went through it a number of times and I know other writers have as well.  Interestingly enough in my Writing Class we came across an exercise that really helped me and I'm going to share it here with all of you. It's nothing special but it really helped me and I hope it does the same for all of you. Here goes... MAIN ACTION: She walked out onto the porch. Not a lot there besides the activity.  Now here's the first layer I added to the scene. She walked barefoot out onto the wooden deck of th...