Sue Seabury #amreading #amjoy

Sue Seabury is here with me to talk about her newest novel, Pop Goes the Weasel.  Sue enjoys writing, reading,chocolate and her kids, although not always in that order. For some reason she lives near Baltimore, where she divides her time between her desk and the kitchen. Sue's newest novel Pop Goes the Weasel is available Free, for a limited time only: May 17, 2019 on Amazon.  So please click This and I do not Love Thee Dr. Fell is also available from May 17-19 check it out by clicking on This

Sue, what are your ambitions for your writing career?

To hit the top of the New York Times best-seller list and stay there for long enough to buy a private island, of course. 

I once had dreams of getting on the Oprah show, but that's off the air, so then I thought, maybe Letterman would be charmed by my rapier wit, but then he retired. In case there's a conspiracy afoot, I won't mention my next hopeful, but her name rhymes with 'Melon DeVeneris.'

Which writers inspire you?

I'm an omnivore when it comes to reading. I love fiction, non-, memoir, you name it, so: Erma Bombeck, Dave Barry, Christopher Moore, Mary Roach, Agatha Christie, Nora Ephron, Jane Austen, Alan Bradley, Helen Fielding...So many, it's hard to know where to stop.

Where did you get the idea for your latest novel?

I went on vacation to Maine and the town was so darned cute with its overflowing window boxes and cedar-shingled houses, I just had to turn it into a crime scene. I also miss Murder, She Wrote, and I think it's time someone brings it back. I'm willing to take the starring role. I've got a bike. I just need a cute wicker basket to stick on the front and then I'm ready to go.

What drew you to write in this genre?

I love a good murder mystery but never thought I was smart enough to write one. But then I said to myself, Self, what kind of self-limiting trash talk is that? And so I gave it a shot. It's even harder than I originally thought.

How much research do you do?

Tons. Google is my best friend. Sometimes he lies, but that just keeps things interesting.

Last question Sue, what is your editing process?

What editing? I use Jessica Fletcher's method of tapping it out in my spare time on an old-fashioned typewriter and then just handing off the first draft to the publisher. 

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Seriously, I go through 3 distinct phases:

1) Exhilaration. This phase lasts from the moment I type the words 'The End' to when I start rereading from the beginning, then it quickly moves to phase II which is:

2) Despair. Hair-pulling and crying are usually involved. Phase II can last for months or years. At some point, either when I'm cried out and/or bald, I can advance to the final phase:

3) Teeth-gritting. Get it done at any cost, including a broken neck (feels like).

Thanks for joining us Sue.  

More about Sue:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SueSeabury

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/sue.seabury.5

website: https://thetechnopeasant.wordpress.com

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sue-Seabury/e/B00AOLIBTM

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SueSeabury

Sunday Post/Sunday Salon #amwriting @kimbacaffeinate

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted  @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things  received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Tynga's Reviews

LOOKING FORWARD TO MAY

Mandy Patinkin pictured above

This week has been a busy one for me.  I listened to actor, Mandy Patinkin, give a about how important it is to feel uncomfortable and feel fear and embrace ti. To sit and feel it for a while and knows what’s going on with yourself, and to breathe in and out and know that you're not dying. To acknowledge the fear. Click here to listen to the talk.
And I think that's true. You can’t grow as a person if you don’t put yourself into tough situations.  I think the scariest thing about doing improv, lately, is thinking to myself ‘what's after this?’

This wasn’t part of ‘my plan’. Mandy talks about how he doesn't regret the decisions he's made in his life "he’s just in them"

I sat in my apartment yesterday and embraced the feeling of fear and not wanting to go to Improv. It was raining cats and dogs and improv started at 6:30pm. Around six o'clock, I sat with my fear and then told myself how much I needed to do it and how much I could contribute to the improv group and then I just 'showed up' and I'm glad I did.

During improv, I listened to a guy talk about Charlie Victor Romeo- which is a movie based on a play. The script consists of almost-verbatim transcripts from six real aviation accidents and incidents, (including flight 232). The guy said that he watched the movie on YouTube and it was intense. I went home late and watched it and it was intense. I highly recommend it.

Over the weekend, I also saw 9 state troopers(in the span of 15 miles). I started getting worried after the fourth one and then I went online to see what's up, and it said that more cops are on the road to catch distracted drivers. And then I saw that they made a big deal out of David Beckham being banned from driving for using his mobile phone (as if that's really going to stop him:)

CURRENTLY

Reading: Baby, You're gonna be Mine by Kevin Wilson, Good Luck Charm by Helena Hunting

Listening: 

Watching: Comedians Roasts talk show Hosts.

ON THE BLOG

Up Coming:

Sunday:Sunday Post

Readers if you want to comment, please do so below.

Fawn-Doe-Rosa

Some baby goats we saw at the petting zoo, Fawn-Doe-Rosa in St Croix Falls

Sunday Post/Sunday Salon #amjoy #davidhydepierce @CaffeinatedbookReviewer

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted  @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things  received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Tynga's Reviews

LOOKING FORWARD TO may

This week I listened to a lot of actors and comedians give talks.  One of which was David Hyde Pierce who sat in at Guest Artist series at School of Drama, The New School
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David is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier.  He also played the brother of Meg Ryan's character in Sleepless in Seattle.

David talked about theater and what works on stage: "things are a lot funnier when they're not laid out in front of you, you feel like you discovered the joke versus someone telling you about it." He also talks about Chekhov and the play: The Cherry Orchard and how hard it was to put on the play because in the short Stories everything is there and Chekhov with just the lines (the script) , we saw how far we had to go to fill it."
He also talked about how he thought he’d become a pianist one day and how he realized he’d never be a good enough after going school at Yale undergrad.  He pursued a acting job in New York and if he’d ever stop and thought about how hard it was to make it in NY then he’d probably not be where he is today.  (And that’s so true about so many things in our life.) David also talked about:

-the distractions off-stage and a family eating a bucket full of chicken while watching his performance

-Acting tips like finding some focal point to talk off stage  

-Support from his family

-His work on Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

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For a laugh this week I also listened to The Funniest Off-The-Cuff Comebacks on YouTube with celebrities and comedians like Mike Tyson, Conan and Gordon Ramsay .  

I listened to Kevin Hart, Roasting Talk Show Hosts  and I thought about Kevin Hart's process and what he does.

It seems like whenever someone tries to show that they’re smarter than him, he impersonates them and their childish ways. He has this no non-sense approach that says ‘NO, you’re not going to intimidate me, because I’ll always have something to say to you OFF the CUFF, and you’re certainly not going to get to me because I KNOW I’m good.
This week I also watched from a distance the Cinco De Mayo celebration in West St. Paul which kicked off yesterday. I saw some softball games and watched some drummers. Last year there was a shooting during the celebration and this year it's ending at 4 vs 9 due to some funding that was pulled back by places like El Mercado. Cinco de Mayo is observed to commemorate the Mexican Army's victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862.

Picture courtesy of Pioneer Press

That was my fun week guys, be sure to let me know about yours in the comments below.

CURRENTLY

Reading: Baby, You're gonna be Mine by Kevin Wilson, Good Luck Charm by Helena Hunting

Listening: Stay Hungry by Sebastian Maniscalco 

Watching: Comedians Roasts talk show Hosts.

ON THE BLOG

Up Coming:

Sunday:Sunday Post

Readers if you want to comment, please do so below.

Thursday fun @happy_thursday

More fun at Backyard play place

Sunday Post #amreading #amjoy @kimbacaffeinate

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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted  @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things  received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

           LOOKING FORWARD TO MARCH

This week I didn't do a whole lot.  I went to play Frisbee golf at Red Oaks Park and was greeted by woodsy areas that you wouldn't want your Frisbee to get caught in, and huge hills. 

I also went to a big indoor playground with my toddler.  It's a good thing I'm extremely short because I was able to fit in a lot of the tiny spaces.

 I did  see a play at the University of Minnesota, put on by the MFA program.  It was pretty good.  One of the scenes was absolutely fantastic.  It had to do with a real estate agent and a buyer.  They real estate agent shows the buyer a condo and begins to vent about how hard it is to be a part time actor and agent and get paid, even though his girlfriend told him that selling property is all about acting.  Then the buyer gets in his business and tells him, he has no girlfriend and he's been stalking him and knows that he's in fact gay and saw him in a romantic entanglement through his bedroom window.  They end up fighting on stage and I love fight scenes-they're so dramatic!

But that's about it.  Not much else, please do comment about your week though.

CURRENTLY

Reading: Scythe by Neal Shusterman and Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Listening: Carpool Karaoke with James Corden (my favorite is the one with Paul McCartney)

ON THE BLOG

Current: The Sunday Post, Stacking the Books

Up Coming:

Readers if you want to comment, please do so below.

#Sunday Post #amwriting #amjoy @kimbacaffeinate

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted  @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things  received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

LOOKING FORWARD TO April

This week I started swimming lessons with the lil' one. Nothing like hearing a toddler scream for joy and fear. I also managed to go to musical improv at HUGE theater.

I listened to a clip on Youtube with Judd Apatow giving a talk at the Chicago Humanities Festival. Apatow is a filmmaker and comedian and was given an AFI Award for Bridesmaids. He talked about his career and where his ideas for movies came from; how he was talking with Amy Schumer one day and how they came up with a whole movie together, and then agreed at one point ‘this isn’t going to work.’ And how he took a different angle by asking her, “Amy, why don’t you have a boyfriend?”

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And she had explained her insecurities and weird things she does in a relationships. ( Amy once compared one of her exes to Steven Hawking) Apatow explained how her past became the premise for the movie Trainwreck.  (side note, I'm stunned by Amy Schumer's ability to perform comedy while pregnant.  Just goes to show women can do anything when they put their mind to it.)

 

He also talked about Steve Carell and how he asked him one day his about ideas and Carell telling him he had this idea where he’s a 40-year-old virgin and sexually frustrated and Apatow is able to connect, having his own sexual frustrations, and how that later became a movie.



Apatow reflected on his career decisions and how he worked alongside actors like David Spade and Chris Farley and how Adam Sandler lived down the block, but Apatow realized he’d never be as funny as those guys and he didn’t want his acting to be mediocre.


That was my fun week guys, be sure to let me know about yours in the comments below.

CURRENTLY

Reading:  Shiny Broken Pieces by Sona Charaipotra, The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena, My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing, Wait for Me by Amy Daws, Who'd have Thought by G Benson

Listening: I can only Imagine By Bart Millard

Watching: Game of Thrones

ON THE BLOG

What Happened:

(Not a whole lot so I'll talk about last week)

Actress Maren Ward was interviewed

Saturday: Weekend Warriors post

Up Coming:

Friday: Interview with actor Luke Daniels, who has narrated over 450 audiobooks, including ones by Nora Roberts and Stephen King.
Saturday:Weekend Warriors 
Sunday:Sunday Post

Readers if you want to comment, please do so below.

Author Zachary Ryan

Author, Zachary Ryan is with us to talk about his writing. Ryan grew up in Maryland, before moving to Chicago to start a new life. There, he found that he was accepted for his misfit status—and learned that it’s perfectly normal to spend your twenties feeling lost and confused.



(Zachary Ryan pictured above )

Ryan writes coming of age, LGBT, and Young Adult novels. He likes to write books with heart. He's written several novels with a coming of age and heartfelt aspect. His novels include: Letters, Long Lost Friend, and The Fifth Coupon, along with his newest: Highschool Queen.Through his writing, he hopes to help other broken souls find comfort amid the chaos. 


Zachary, can you tell us something about your main character/s?

The main characters... I honestly truly enjoy Danielle and Calvin. I wanted to have a friendship that was pure and good among all the lying and backstabbing. I see a lot of myself in Calvin. I try to figure out my life, and I see the relationship between Calvin and Aman as much of what I had with my ex. I enjoy the idea of people trying to protect themselves. The characters are ruthless, and I want to be as cold-blooded as them sometimes. I enjoyed the idea of telling people off and not worrying about hurting people's feelings.


Tell us about your writing process and the way you brainstorm story ideas.

My writing process comes back to when I was in college and a professor told me to create these characters and follow them around and write what they do. I'm extremely character driven instead of plot. I write down some ideas of what I want to happen in the novel beginning and end, but the middle takes me for a surprise sometimes. I love when a character does something unexpected that I wasn't planning on them to do. I love being the writer and the reader at the same time. The beauty also is when I'm close to finishing a novel the next book will come to my mind, so I'm blessed that I don't get writer's block too much.

Where do your ideas come from?

My ideas come from music I listen to, books where I'm like I wish it went that way, so I'll do something different or just random life situations that would be a good book. I don't like drawing from my real life too much because I feel like that puts me too much into a box. I'll try to keep the person as real as them, and I find that very boring. I want to create someone so people fully love them or hate them without it affecting my personal relationships with people.

What were you like in high school?

I was actually popular and well known in high school. I did broadcasting, so people saw my face on the tvs once a week. I also worked a lot, so I didn't get to go to that many parties. My high school reunion is coming up, and I can't wait for it. I will say I won biggest gossip so maybe that's why I write these scandalous novels because I love the drama of it all.


Your book cover is intriguing how was it chosen?

My publishing company picked the cover. I fell in love with it instantly.I like that it's sexy, bitchy, and overall exciting. I wanted a cover to show these pretty girls doing campy things. Nothing says drama like putting on red lipstick and blowing a kiss to a person you just stabbed in the back.

That's all the time we have today folks. Ryan, thanks for being with us.

Sunday Post @seinlanguage @kimbacaffeinate #amreading

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The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted  @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things  received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

looking forward to april

This week I went to North Dakota to spend some time with my brother in a city called Wahpeton.  Small cities always fascinate me because I live in such a big city like St. Paul.

I also started listening to an audiobook based on the Seinfeld show called Seinfeldia. It gives a lot of neat facts about the show's writers and producers.  It tells you interesting things about the sets of the show and how one of the restaurant's was based on a real life Greek restaurant in NY which the show renamed it:Monks. I was surprised to learn:

•  The Seinfeld show is very popular! ( now you must understand I was about nine or ten when this show first aired)  
• Seinfeld went a whole year, never missing a day, to go and see comics in New York. (learning trade secrets)
•  Producers decided to film the show with three cameras instead of one; bringing in a live audience, similar to how films were staged in the 50's.
• There also dozens of websites for Seinfeld trivia.

Well that's all for this week folks, I hope you have a good week.

CURRENTLY

Reading: Dash and Lilly's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn

Listening: Bobby Kennedy's biography

ON THE BLOG

Current: The Sunday Post, Stacking the Books

Up Coming: Interview with author on Friday

Readers if you want to comment, please do so below.