Happy Friday everyone and welcome to the daily with sillstein here on anchor. I for today I'm going to recommend the books by author Lori Fontenas. Lori Fontenas has written two books she has Phantoms of faucets out if you're into the horror genre and the closet. I hope you will check out the books by Lori Fontenas She is an author from West Virginia.
She's a great friend. She's been on the podcast So I hope you'll take the time to check out the books by Lori Fontenas So and it's F-O-N-T-A-N-E-Z. So please check those out So on another note for my author news as I mentioned before finally my book chasing clarity was accepted into Amazon KDP and I will be Now I'll be ordering copies of the paperback and I was very pleased with the work that they did for it Yes, you know create space is migrating to Amazon KDP So even if you haven't done that you will have to migrate to the Amazon KDP They do paperbacks there now and they also have of course the Kindle books I've always done the Amazon KDP through Kindle editions of the book, but I had never done the paperback I was always through create space now Amazon KDP also does paperbacks and I migrated all my books to Amazon KDP now, and I'm really pleased with chasing clarity. I was having difficulty and they did a magnificent job So if I hope you'll check that out as well But I'm really pleased that all my books are out now I can order copies to take hopefully put chasing clarity in the local library I've already added closure and and the diary of a broken father.
They're in the Wake County library So I hope you'll check those out. I'm working on book events for next year Hopefully and I'm also working on my podcast to you know talk more about my book and working on my thriller battered mind Which you'll be out next year in the spring of 2019. I'm hoping by April So I'll keep you all posted and I'll read some excerpts on it when I have a chance now right now We're going to start on the writing corner But I'm going to do the next segment on that so we'll be right back and welcome again to the daily with those time here on anchor Happy Friday and welcome back to the daily with so Stein here on anchor I went over books. I recommend in the author's corner my author news Which is I'm working on my thriller for battered minds book events coming up next year And I finally have my book chasing clarity accepted through Amazon KDP as a paperback all paperbacks are accepted They're all on Amazon Barnes and Noble online other getting into some of the Barnes and Noble bookstores and Right now all Kindle editions of my book including Barnes and Noble online are all 99 cents So be sure to get your Kindle edition or your digital copy of chasing clarity closure and the diary of a broken father And I do appreciate the reviews right now closure has 42 reviews.
If you have read closure, please leave a review It's always always appreciated chasing clarity is getting up there with reviews and the diary of the broken father needs more reviews So I hope you'll read them and and leave a nice leave a review and I do appreciate all the support Thank you it very much guys and now we're going to dive into I really do appreciate everything you guys do Thank you now. We're going to dive right into Stephen King on writing a memoir of the craft and I will start where I left off We were talking about Research and the backstory and the last thing I read to you guys was where he says for every success This is on page 228 of the book for every successful writer of the factoid type However, there are a hundred perhaps even a thousand wannabes some publish most not on the whole I think story belongs in front But some research is inevitable you think you you shirt it at your peril in the spring of 1999 He says I drove from florida where my wife and I had winter back to main My second day on the road and stop her gas at a little station Just off the Pennsylvania turnpike one of those Amusingly antique places where a fellow still comes out punch your gas and ask you how you're doing and who you like in the NC AA tournament I told this one as I was I told this one I was doing fine and I liked Duke in the tournament Then I went around back to see the men's room or to use the mentor there was a brawling stream full of snow melt beyond the station When I came out of the men's I walked a little way Down the slope which was littered with cast-off tire rim and engine parts were a closer look at the water There were still patches of snow on the ground. I slipped on one and started to slide down the embarkment I grabbed a piece of someone's old engine block and stopped myself before I got fairly started But I realized as I got up that I'd fallen just right I could have slid all the way down in the stream and been swept the way I found myself wondering how that happened How long it would have taken the gas station attendant to call the state police in my car A brand new Lincoln Navigator just continues to stand there in front of the pumps by the time I got back up on the turnpike I had two things a wet ass. He writes from my fall behind the mobile station and a great idea for a story We'll be right back with more And welcome back to the daily with selstein here on anchor And we're gonna go to the next segment In it a mysterious man in a black coat likely not a human being at all But some creature in next in expertly in expertly disguised to look like one Abandoned his vehicle in front of a small gas station in rural Pennsylvania The vehicle looks like an old but uh old Buick special from the late 50s But it's no more a Buick than the guy in the black coat was a human being The vehicle falls into the hands of some state police officers working out of a fictional barracks in western Pennsylvania 20 years or so later these cops tell the story of the Buick to the grip stricken son of a state policeman who has been killed in the line of duty It was a grand idea and has developed into a strong novel about how we hand down our knowledge and our secrets It's also a grim grim and frightening story about an alien piece of Machinery that sometimes reaches out and swallows people whole of course there were a few minor problems The fact that I knew absolutely zilch about the Pennsylvania state police for one thing But I didn't let any of that bother me as simply made up all the stuff I didn't know I could do that because I was writing with the door shut writing only for myself and the ideal reader in my mind My mental version of tabby is rarely as prickly as my real life wife can be and my day rings usually applauds and urges me Ever onward with shiny nice on one of the most memorable sessions took place in a fourth floor room of boston's eliot hotel Me sitting me sitting at the desk by the window writing about an autopsy on an alien Bat creature while the boston marathon float exuberantly by just below me and rooftop Boombox has blasted out dirty water by the Standels there were a thousand people down there down there below me in the streets But now a single one in my room to be a party pooper and tell me I got this I got this derail wrong or the cops don't do things that way in western, Pennsylvania, so Nia Nia Nia That's what he writes the novel is called from a buick eight has been set aside in a desk drawer since late May of 1999 when the first draft was finished work on it has been delayed by circumstances beyond my control But eventually I hope and expect to spend a couple of weeks in western, Pennsylvania Where I'd been given conditional permission to do some right alongside the state police the condition Which seems eminently reasonable to me Was that I make them look like meanies maniacs or idiots Once I've done that I should be able to correct the worst of my howlers and add some really nice detail work And we'll be right back and welcome back to the daily with sylstein here on anchor We're talking about the writing tips section here on the daily with sylstein on anchor using the book by steven king on writing a memoir of the craft And now it says Says once I've done that I should be able to correct the worst of my howlers and add some really nice detail work Not much though.
He says research is backstory and the key word in backstory is back The tale I have to tell and view it gate has to do with monsters and secrets It is not a story about police procedure in western in western, Pennsylvania What I'm looking for is nothing but a touch of various multitude Like the handful of spices you chunk into a good spaghetti sauce to really finish her off That sense of reality is important in any work of fiction But I think it is a particularly it is particularly important in a story dealing with the abnormal or paranormal Also enough details always assuming they are the correct ones can seem the Can stem sorry the right of letters from picky ass readers who apparently Live to tell writers that they messed up the tone of these letters is and raringly gleeful as we says when you step away from the right What you know rule research becomes inevitable and it can add a lot to your story Just don't end up with a tail wagging the dog remember that you are writing a novel not a research paper The story always comes first. I think that even james missioner and arthur haley would have agreed with that Okay, and then we says The next segment that I will read. I'm often asked if I think the beginning writer The beginning writer of fiction can benefit from writing classes or seminars Is what he says the people who ask are all too often looking for a magic bullet for a secret ingredient or possibly Dumbles magic feather none of which can be found in classrooms or at writing retreats No matter how enticing the brochures may be as for myself I'm doubtful about writing classes, but not entirely against them. That's what he says So one last segment here in tea corahan some boils wonderful tragic comic tragic comic novel east disease There's a description of a writer's colony in the woods that struck me as fairly as fairy tale perfect Each attendee has his her own little cabin where he or she supposedly spends a day writing at noon a waiter from the main lodge brings these fledgling hamming ways and card third And catheters a box lunch and puts it on the front stoop of the cottage very quietly puts it on the stoop So it's not to disturb the creative trance of the cabins occupant One room of each cabin is the writing room and the other is a cot for all the important afternoon nap or perhaps for reviving bounce with one of the other attendees In the evening all members of the colony gather in the lodge for dinner and an intoxicating conversation with the writers in residence Later before a roaring fire in the parlor marshmallows or throw our toasted popcorn is pop and wine wine is strong And the stories of the colony attendees are read aloud and then critiqued Retiqued and then he says to me this sounded like an absolutely enchanting enchanted writing environment Especially like the part about having your lunch left at the door Deposited there as quietly as the tooth fairy deposits a quarter under a kids pillow I imagine it appealed because it's so far from my own experience where the creative flow Is apt to be stopped at any moment by a message from my wife that the toilet is plugged up and what I try to fix it Or a call from the office telling me that I'm in imminent danger of blowing yet another dental appointment At times like that, I'm sure all writers feel pretty much the same no matter what their skill and success level God if only I were in the right writing environment with a right understanding people I just know I could be penning my masterpiece and we'll be right back with that And we're back to the daily with sylstein here on anchor This will be our last segment for the writing Us uh the writing tips section of the daily with sylstein using the book steaming king on writing a memoir of the craft He continues by saying in truth I found that any day's routine interruptions and distractions don't much hurt a work in progress and actually help it in some ways It is after all the dab of the grit the dab of grit that seeps into an oyster shell.
It makes the pearl not pearl making seminars with other oysters And the larger the work looms in my day the more it seems like an Like and I have to instead of just and I want to the more problematic it can become One serious problem with white writers workshop is that I have to become becomes a rule You didn't come after all to wander Lonely as a cloud experiencing the beauty of the woods or the grander of the mountain Mountains you're supposed to be writing dammit You've only so that your colleagues will have something to critique as they toast their god He says they're marshmallows there in the main lodge when on the other hand Making sure the kid gets to his basketball camp on time is very bit as important as your work in progress There's a lot less pressure to produce And what about these critiques by the way? How valuable are they? Not very in my experience. Sorry.
A lot of them are nominally vague I love the feeling of Peter's story. Someone may say it had something a sense of I don't know they're a Loving kind of you know, I can't I can't exactly describe that describe it other writing seminar jammies include Jam other writing seminar jammies include I felt like the tone thing was just kind of you know the characters Character of policy pretty and much stereo Typical. I love the imagery because I could use What he was talking about more or less perfectly And instead of pelting the these babbling idiots with their own freshly toasted marshmallows everyone else Sitting around the fire is often nodding and smiling and looking solemnly thoughtful In too many cases the teachers and writers and residents are nodding smiling and looking soundly thoughtful Right along with them. It seems to occur too few of the Attending that if you have a feeling you just can't describe you might just be I don't know kind of like my sense of it is that maybe I'm in the wrong class Non-specific critiques won't help when you sit down to your second draft it may hurt Certainly none of the comments above each above touch on the language of your piece or it's Narrative sense these comments are just when Offering no factual input at all So we'll be right back with the daily with Bill Stein here on anchor for the wrap up Happy Friday and welcome to the daily with Bill Stein here on anchor and now thank you for joining us today and now it's time for the wrap up As I mentioned, I did the author's corner.
I discussed the book by Lori Fontenas The book I recommended with Lori Fontenas shout out to her and her books books bosses of phantoms and the closet I think she has other anthologies there, but those are her solo books. Please check her out. It's Lori Fontenas Bosses of phantoms and also the closet is her latest book and don't forget to check out my sale on the my Amazon Kindle and new press books Closure the diary of a broken father and chasing clarity And we discussed Stephen King on writing a memoir of the craft. I went over pages to 29 to 30 to 31 and 232 and we'll and we'll discuss more on Stephen King on writing a memoir of the craft I hope you'll join us here on the daily with Bill Stein here on anchor.
I hope you all have a happy happy Friday Thank you all for the support of my podcast. See you next time