Bryce Iwaschuk talks about Star of Therapy, a short Film

Ana Pacheco (pictured above)

Bryce Iwaschuk is with me today to talk about the film Star of Therapy which showcased at the Twin Cities Film Festival in October. Bryce is a devoted editor, writer and producer hailing from Vancouver British Columbia

Sunday Post and Anna Johnson talks Bella Yaga @thecowlescenter

Today's post will link up to The Sunday Salon, The Sunday Post and Stacking the Shelves for weekly updates.

           LOOKING FORWARD TO NOVEMBER

Anna Johnson (above)

Anna Johnson is with me today. 

Tim de La Motte and a 'Beautiful Mess' at TCFF

Tim de La Motte is with me today.  Tim is an actor, producer and comedian with at least ten commercials under his name. He's known for his roles in My Treasure, The Box and Genius.

Sunday Post and Cale Reed as Van Helsing in Dracula

Amy Wolf and 'OperaTease' at Minnsky Theatre

Amy Wolf

Amy Wolf is with me today.  Amy is a lyric soprano performing leading roles in opera throughout the United States. Amy has performed with Utah Opera, Minnesota Opera, Opera on the James, Duluth Festival Opera, Arbeit Opera Theater, Twin Cities Fringe Opera, and Garden of Song Opera. Amy continues her drive to grow wider and younger audiences to opera.

Oklahoma/Alabama #Comedian @AmandaCostner #minneapolis

Amanda Costner pictured above

Comedic Musician Amanda Costner,joins me today. Amanda spent her early childhood in Alabama and her teenage years in Oklahoma and bases out of the Twin Cities.  Amanda has performed at Second City, Brave New Workshop, Looney Bin Comedy Club and bars and theaters throughout the modest.  Her comedic songs range from acoustic pop ballads about being a gay preacher’s daughter, to soul-comedy pieces on the war of sexual frustration.

And onto the interview...

Amanda, WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR MATERIAL?

All the songs I write come from real life experiences either from my past, or things I'm going through in the present. One of my favorite songs to play is called "Are You Impressed?", it's always relevant for me to sing that song to audiences because I've always been someone constantly trying to impress the people around me. I spent most of my 20's roller blading in a Fedora through busy intersections of Chicago because I thought I looked cool (I look ridiculous in a fedora and I probably could have been killed without a helmet). That line is in the song because it's just something I did you know?

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PERFORMING STAND-UP COMEDY?

About 5 or 6 years. I initially rejected stand-up to pursue improv in Chicago. Then after a few years immersing myself in improv I realized I really wanted to be a comedic musician. After I started getting more and more stage time I realized I needed to tell jokes in between songs to be a better performer. Now I do both standup and comedy music in my sets and I really enjoy the pace.

WHAT IS THE FUNNIEST THING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU RECENTLY?

A few days ago I was play-wrestling with my significant other on the couch because that's how lesbians roll. All the sudden I stand up, make some bold declaration like "Oh yeah, well watch this!" and then my brain just kind of goes blank.

I don't have anything to back up my declaration but I'm already standing and I feel my body getting into spring-motion position, like my knees bend and I prepare myself as if I'm going to do a back-flip off the couch and onto the floor. But I'm a chubby 31 year old and I've literally never back-flipped so instead my body sort of lifts itself in the air and then I just belly flopped onto the wooden floor in our living room. My girlfriend was possibly panicking and trying to examine my head and I'm pretty dizzy/hurt but about 10 seconds after I get my vision back I burst into laughter. What a stupid thing to do to your body-that was probably the stupidest thing I did that day.

Amanda Costner

WHAT WERE YOU LIKE IN HIGH SCHOOL?

I was a weird combination of jock, class-clown and the kid everyone asked to pray in public (if and when that sort of thing was needed). Other kids knew I was a preacher's daughter and I always felt like I had that label to live up to. Most of my time in high school was spent playing golf and focusing on getting good enough to get a college scholarship.

I won our division's individual title my junior year and then that pretty much became what people knew me for---golf. But high school was also where I began honing my comedy skills. I had very few real friends and considered my dad to be my best friend. At lunchtime I could sit with any of the tables (the popular kids, the jocks, the nerds, the skaters, whoever) and feel comfortable, but on the weekends I never saw anyone.

I think my senior year I got invited to one party but other than that I never hung out or associated with the kids in my school socially. I think that's why I was always clowning. In my head if I could make people laugh then that might mean they'd want to be my friend. I wasn't doing it in the right way though. It took me 4 years of college to realize the difference between people laughing at you and people laughing with you.

WHEN IS YOUR NEXT PERFORMANCE?

On November 1st I'm performing at Wild Mind Artisan Ales for their regular Wednesday night Comedy Night hosted by Zak Brown. November 19th I'll be performing in two shows. The first is Mother Goose's Bedtime Stories presents: Cirque du so Goose, taking place at Seward Community Cafe. Then later in the evening I'll be at Stand Up, Fight Back! : Minneapolis, a really cool charity show which will be held at The Terminal bar and feature a panel of activists along with the comedy.

Thanks for joining me Amanda.

Thanks for having me.

Contact Amanda at the links below:

http://amandacostner.com/

https://twitter.com/amandacostner

https://www.facebook.com/amandacostnercomedy/

http://instagram.com/amandacostner

https://soundcloud.com/amanda-costner

Milaya Spann and 'Till the Last Word,' Poetry Slam in Minneapolis

Milaya Spann is with me today. Milaya is a spoken word poet and model who spoke at the 'Till the Last Word', Poetry slam on November 13, (2019) at The Pourhouse in Minneapolis.

Recognize this Commercial?

Actress Joy Dolo joins us today for an interview.

Joy was born in Liberia and currently lives and works in the Twin Cities. She has a B.A. in Theater Arts and has worked with a variety of Theater Companies. She can be contacted on twitter or facebook.

Sunday Post, Katherine Kupiecki interview

Katherine Kupiecki is with me. Katherine is an actress I saw perform in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at Dreamland Arts.

Katherine, what was the most extreme change to personality, hair, body, etc that you have done to prepare for a role?

I cut 5 inches off my hair for Martha in Virginia Woolf. That was actually big for me!

British writer M.J. Perry

Today I'm interviewing British, Romance writer M.J. Perry who is a full time wife, mother, reader of romance and now an author. She has a love for happy endings so she decided to try her hand at writing her own. You can get contact M.J. on facebook and twitter.

So M.J...what are your ambitions for your writing career?

I love writing. I like the thought of becoming a best-selling author, doesn’t every author? But honestly I just write for myself and hope that whoever reads my stories will enjoy them as much as I do.

Interview with Eliza Gordon

 Eliza wrote Dear Dwayne with Love , a romance.  The main character is Dani who has had a major crush on Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson since she was young . She writes The Rock in unsent letters and later, as she grew older, in a private blog.  Dani must get into great physical shape for a charity event sponsored by her crush. The winner of the event will get a walk-on part in his next movie. So she joins a gym where she is to work with super-hot trainer Marco.

Eliza writes stories to help you believe in the Happily Ever After; Jennifer Sommersby, her other self, writes young adult fiction. Both personalities are represented by Daniel Lazar at Writers House.



And onto the interview...




Eliza, what are your ambitions for your writing career?

Interview with @CDGallantKing #amreading @amjoy

Joining me today is author, C.D. Gallant-King. C.D. was born and raised in Newfoundland and currently resides in Ottawa, Ontario.

C.D. has written eight novels you haven't read, because they're still locked in The Closet. The Closet is both a figurative and literal location - it is the space in his head where the stories are kept, but it's also an actual closet under the stairs in his basement where the stories are also kept. It's very meta.

Tam visits Trin Carl's blog

Today I'm interviewing Tammy May.She writes dark psychological fiction about characters from the inside out. You can contact Tammy on facebook, twitter, pinterest.

Randall visits Trin Carl's Blog

Bloggers, do you have a desire to read new material?

Above is Randall Krzak

I'm excited to inform readers that I will be posting interviews with authors on my blog. This is a chance for readers to get to know up and coming writers.

Today's interview is with Randall Krzak.

Randall is a U.S. Army veteran and retired senior civil servant, spending almost thirty years in Europe, Africa, Central America, and the Middle East.  His residency abroad qualifies him to build rich worlds in his action-adventure novels and short stories. Familiar with customs, laws, and social norms, he promotes these to create authentic characters and scenery.

What are your ambitions for your writing career? I suppose like many authors, to try and be successful. Whether that will happen or not is outside of my control, so the best thing I can do is create realistic stories to share with others.

Which writers inspire you? Tom Clancy, Dan Brown, Clive Cussler, Brad Thor, David L.

Golemon, Robert Crais, Jack Du Brul, and Mark Greany, to name the major ones.

So, what have you written? The Kurdish Connection is my

debut novel and is the first in a four-book series. I took the first chapter of another book I

was working on, cut it to 399 words, and submitted it to a monthly competition held by

Wildsound Writing and Film Festival Review. My entry, called A Dangerous Occupation,

was one of the winning entries in August 2016. It’s read by a profession actor at this Youtube link. Another short

story, Postal Man, was recently chosen for the January members’ writing and art section

on the The Fictional Cafe

Give us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special? I

really have two main characters in The Kurdish Connection, Craig Cameron (referred to

as CC) and Dersim Razyana. CC was born in Scotland but eventually raised in America

and leads the Bedlam Alpha team after a long stint in the military. Dersim is an Iraqi

Kurd, a family man and scavenges to earn a living. His dream of an united Kurdistan

leads to various perils but a change of heart returns him to a level-headed individual

concerned about taking care of his family.

What are you currently working on and what is it about? I have three other novels

underway. The first is Dangerous Alliance, the sequel to The Kurdish Connection. This

one involves the North Koreans and Al-Shahbab, a Somali terrorist group. To counter the

alliance is Bedlam Bravo who will try to stop the transfer of oil and weapons, as well as

rescue a well-known hostage. The second ongoing book is called A Cartel’s Revenge,

and involves a cartel headed by a woman. She makes an unusual alliance with FARC,

not realizing ISIS will soon be involved. Working against her are a CIA agent and an

Army colonel. The third book, which will take some time to finish, is historical fiction. It

begins in 1770 with a tenant farmer and his family. After crop failures, they receive a

lifeline and head to America, arriving in time to be caught up with the Boston Tea Party

and the beginnings of the Revolutionary War.

What drew you to write in this genre? Probably the authors that I like to read. One thing

of interest is many readers of The Kurdish Connection like mysteries, crime, and even

romance, so there’s obvious appeal across genres.

How much research do you do? It really depends on what I need. Whenever possible, I

include personal travels and experiences. When this is insufficient I spend the time to

research either through the internet or purchasing books to gather the necessary

background to continue creating my stories.

When did you decide to become a writer? It wasn’t something I ever thought of doing.

Just before I retired, a long-time colleague suggested I try writing a novel. The Kurdish

Connection is the result.

Do you write full-time or part-time? I write part-time.

How often do you write, and do you have a special time during the day to write? Since

I’m an early riser and my wife isn’t, I spend an hour or so in the morning and then

perhaps two hours in the evening. This time isn’t just for writing, but covers research,

too.

Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day? No. I know a lot of writers who do

this. Perhaps they’re better at writing than I am but I’d rather put time in to create what’s

needed for my stories rather than try to rush against a word count.

Do you write on a typewriter, computer, dictate or longhand? I use a computer but once

in a while I’ll jot things into my phone or even on a piece of paper if my computer isn’t

Available.

Where do the your ideas come from? They come from a variety of places, paying

attention to the news and even other writers. A Cartel’s Revenge, mentioned above, is

based on three sentences someone sent me to see what I could do with them. I have

two other novels planned that are based on suggestions sent to me but I need to

complete the others before working on these.

Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you? I

prefer to use an outline. I begin with a draft synopsis so I have an idea where I’m starting

and where I want to go. The initial chapters are identified but things changes as the

stories unfold, which can change the number and order of my chapters.

What do you do for fun? In addition to writing, he enjoys hiking, reading, candle making, pyrography, and sightseeing.

Bloggers, that is all the time we have for today.  Find more about Randall and his upcoming stories on his blog randallkrzak.com.