Research

Welcome to the Willow Tree,

My debut novel, Gypsy Spirits, was set in 1967. The slang, language, trends, popular vs. unpopular items such as cars and clothing used during that time wasn’t difficult to describe since I graduated from high school that year.

The sequel novel, Annamarie and Magdalena, also took place in the next few years. Fortunately, my youngest child was approximately the same age as my main character’s child. I was also able to utilize memory to write.

The third book in the trilogy will be titled, “Lena,” which is Magdalena’s nick-name. There will be a time jump of approximately fourteen years which is also helpful because my daughter was the same age at that time. Piece of cake, right? So far so good, but there will also be sections when Lena travels back in time to stop her father’s spirit from wreaking havoc on her ancestors. Now things become harder.

Research. I have to admit internet research beats spending hours in the library, after school, on a Friday night with a half-dozen books scattered on the table. It is faster and easier although no cute boys to flirt with.

Which brings me to the real topic of this post: realism. Since I haven’t decided how far back Lena must travel I have all of history to choose from, but the details have to be right. I have read books and perhaps you have, too which didn’t sound real. Maybe you know enough about that period in time to know there are errors. Don’t assume that since it was hundreds of years ago someone doesn’t know that period of time in detail. Although we call it fiction, we can only go so far.

If you are going to make up wild details to sell a book or jazz up a scene you should write a fantasy book. I might try one at some point to see how wild my mind can be when I let it go. My granddaughter made a very good point when we were discussing the third book. She told me to do detailed research and be absolutely sure my details are accurate. “Just because it is fiction, grandma, don’t assume everyone will believe it.” She’s right. Someone could call us on it and we could see the dreaded 1 star review for inaccuracy. No one wants that. Do the research. I am beginning mine and find it interesting. I hope you do, too.

Happy Writing.

Marianne

   

Interview With Barbranne Herrera

Today I am interviewing Barbranne Herrera here under the Willow Tree. She writes under the pen name Martha Emms. This is Barbranne's first interview and her book has just been released. Let's give her a huge welcome and wish her well in her writing pursuits. Welcome Barbranne.

What are you currently working on and when do you plan to release your next book?

My book was just uploaded to Amazon, Createspace, Pubit, and Barnes & Noble today. So I’ve been researching marketing methods. I’m in the middle of transition, after a divorce I’ll be selling my home and moving to another state, so right now life is topsy turvy. I’ve already started my next book and I’m hoping within a year at the least to have it done.

Do you have a favorite genre for your writing or do you write whatever moves you?

I believe I will be writing whatever moves me :) Why limit creativity? I have ideas for family and adult stories. I am a dreamer and stories often play out like movies in my dreams.

What is the best piece of advice you were given about writing?

I think the best advice I received was if you’re self publishing to hire an editor. Regardless of how many writing groups or friends read your work a good editor can catch things and make you rethink some of your decisions. As the writer you get close and involved in your story and sometimes that’s too close because you already know it. An editor can make you see what you may have missed and question things as a virgin reader to your work. You don’t have to take all their advice but you should respect it and give it some serious thought.

Do you have a special spot where you like to write or are you a “have lap top will travel” writer?

I write in many different places but my favorite is in bed with the TV on. I write best late at night until the early hours of the morning.

What is your favorite book and favorite author?

Ugh, I can’t answer that so simply, LOL. I love too many of them. One of my favorite books is The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk, it was like watching a movie while I read it. His character descriptions and development were amazing. My favorite authors are many. I can’t pick one above the other because they each fill different needs when I read their work: Ken Follett, Robyn Carr, Jill Shalvis, Debbie Macomber, Tom Clancy, Lawrence Sanders, Stephen King, Nora Roberts, Jodi Thomas, Constance O’Banyon, and Bobbi Smith just to name a few :)

When did you discover your passion for writing?

I‘ve always liked to write but I’ve a love hate relationship with grammar and structure. When I was very young I would make up stories and scribble them down to tell my friends. In elementary school I would get in trouble for having “an overactive imagination” and so embarrassed, for many years, I stopped writing. In the 1990s I began working on a children’s book and a screenplay but never brought either to fruition. In 2009 my passion returned and thus my book.

Do you have a favorite beverage or snack you must have while writing?

I really enjoy tea, iced or hot. Most of the time I am more thirsty than hungry when I write. But if I have a craving it would be popcorn.

What inspires you?

I find animals, people who overcome hardships, people with patience, the human spirit, family, children, nature, gardens, farmers, the weather, books, and movies all inspiring.

Do you have any advice for other writers on any subject you choose?

I have four suggestions. First, learn about the business of writing for one thing. I’m learning now and I should of thought about this all before. Talk about a rude awakening. Second, try and keep abreast with technology. Third, keep learning and read a lot. Fourth, you’ll get plenty of advice along the way. Listen with an open mind but remember to stay true to the characters and story you want to write.

Any last thoughts you would like to add?

Don’t let anyone talk you out of going after your dream. No matter what it is, how old you are, what you look like, what your friends or family say, just do it. If you spend your life being afraid of failure you will have failed without even trying. So go for it and put yourself out there!

Portrait of Our Marriage, Memoirs of Love, Family, the Internet, and Obsession is a fictional memoir and I’m using the pen name Martha Emms in honor of my Mother and Aunt. Both suffered from brain tumors. My Mom, Martha, wanted me to be a writer and write from my heart. My Aunt Emma wanted me to stir the pot. I think my book does both. 

Friends have compared it to Revolutionary Road, the Ying to 50 Shades of Grey’s yang. The romance will seduce you. The story could be yours. Can one book make you smile, think, touch your heart, turn you on, see different sides, break your heart & twist your insides up? My book can!
This is not a story about the famous. It is not about hype, fame, or fortune, no headlines or big custody lawsuits. It is a woman's story that you don't want to miss. How does a wife compete with pornography? Some may call her a wimp, others will say she's a woman in love trying to hold her family together. Will porn consume her marriage and change the man she loves.

From the back cover:
Nicky led a sheltered life until she met Brett: An adventurous, handsome, smart, and exciting lover. She had never known this kind of love before, either emotionally or physically. She pictured her life with Brett as a partner, a friend, and a father to her future children. And when they married, Nicky knew she had found everything her heart and body desired.

But when Brett’s fantasy world of racy magazines, explicit videos, and disturbing internet porn becomes an obsession and affects their marriage, Nicky has to ask herself: What happened to the man I married?

Portrait of Our Marriage is the story of one woman’s journey to find herself and become her own person despite the legacy of a domineering father and an emotionally—and often physically—distant husband.

Amazon book link
Facebook--Portrait-of-Our-Marriage
Twitter

I love and enjoy time with my family, which includes my cats. An avid reader I also enjoy movies, wine, good food, nature, and writing. Causes close to my heart - proper labeling of our food especially genetically engineered food, the safety and care of our military & their families, child/adult literacy volunteer programs, spay/neuter pet projects, pet rescues, and women’s issues.

Barbranne Herrera
(Martha Emms)

Reviews

Today I would like to welcome you all to my Willow Tree where I am sitting and wondering about reviews. We all work hard on our books and want everyone to enjoy them, but not everyone will. It's a fact of life. My son gave me a book he raved about. I read two chapters and didn't care for it. It was my personal preference and if I were to review the book I might say I didn't care for the story line, but no matter what it was like I wouldn't attack the writer personally. I believe it is going over the line.  

I would like to suggest before you go crazy trying to figure out what one reviewer found so awful about your book that you read their other reviews. I recieved my first bad review and was devastated. I'm not sure they read the same book I wrote until I read their other reviews. Now I understand. I think we all need to take each review with a grain of salt and know that not all genres and books will suit all people. Much easier on the nerves :-)

This post is short because I don't have anything else I can say about these types of reviews. They happen, read them, glean anything good you can and ignore them. Happy reviews everyone.

Blessings,

Marianne

Interview With Tom Hobbs

Today I am welcoming the very talented author Tom  Hobbs to the Willow Tree. Tom is the author of "Trauma Junkie." I read “Trauma Junkie” and I finished it in only a few days. It grabbed my attention and held it. I think you will find it a very good read. I look forward to the sequel. Welcome Tom.

What are you currently working on and when do you plan to release your next book?

I am currently working on a follow up novel to Trauma Junkie as well as a with a producer and screenwriter friend of mine to them into a cable TV series. I'm always outlining new stories, mostly as screenplays, but I use that framework to write the novels as well.

Do you have a favorite genre for your writing or do you write whatever moves you?

I would have to say real life action. I feel that I don't have to look further than across the street to find a good story. I kept a journal for 10 years as an NYC paramedic, so i drawn on that as well as the stories from my partners.

What is the best piece of advice you were given about writing?

Just write, and write about something you care about. The first draft is always going to stink. Writing is 90% revision.

Learn to write good dialog. My prose is the weakest part of my writing and I tend to rely on the dialog probably much more than I should. Then again my background is screenwriting.

The trick to dialog is not so much what is being said, but how it is being said. When people speak the do so with a rhythm. Nail the rhythm and you can get the words right. I always speak the dialog out loud immediately after writing it, or sometimes even before I write it. I cut no corners with the language for the most part, because most people don't do so when they speak.

I often write from the end backward or the middle out. That's just me, I like to know where I should end up and then fill in the space to get there.

Do you have a special spot where you like to write or are you a “have lap top will travel” writer?

I take my lap top everywhere and sync it to dropbox with my work computer and home desktop as well. I write at work (I can get 95% of my job done in the first couple of hours and fake it the rest of the day), at home, on the train, and where ever else I can. I will often come home with a pocket full of paper scraps that I have made notes on.

What is your favorite book and favorite author?

First and foremost The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I still have the copy I used in college and have read it well over 100 times, because I find something new every time I do. I'm also a huge fan of the old pulp fiction series "The Destroyer" by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. That's the style I model my Trauma Junkie books after.

When did you discover your passion for writing?

When I was about 10. I rewrote the ending for "The Towering Inferno" for an essay in a 5th or 6th grade English class. I went on to revise episodes of "SWAT" and a James Bond movie or two.

Do you have a favorite beverage or snack you must have while writing?

No not really, I find that I get so wrapped up in writing that I seem to lose all track of that sort of thing (that's saying a lot for me.)

What inspires you?

I know it sounds corny, but I get all the inspiration I need from living in the world. For example, after I left the medical field as a paramedic I took a job as a door man at a swanky upscale building in Manhattan. When you are invisible to people like that they tend to show their true nature. That sort of thing writes itself.

I get a lot of my dialog straight from the source, My paramedic Brian, is based on several medics I knew over the years, and a lot of his dialog is simply transcribed. I ease drop on every conversation I can hear, on the bus, in Starbucks, on planes, where ever I can.

Do you have a favorite vacation destination and do you write while vacationing?

Hawaii, specifically Kauai or New Mexico. I also have a degree in Photography from the University of New Mexico, so it is great to go back. Yes, I take my laptop, and write there as well.

Do you have any advice for other writers on any subject you choose?

Choose a subject you are passionate about, and know really well. It goes back to the first rule of writing "Write what you know." One of the worst books I ever read was "Dog Soldiers" by Robert Stone. Yes it won a lot of awards, yes it was very well written, but totally unbelievable to me as an ex-soldier because none of the jargon was right (on the first page he referred to a soldier of the rank Spec-1 and anyone who has been in the military knows that there is no such thing.) The only reason I finished the book was because it was required reading for a class.

Any last thoughts you would like to add?

Nothing other than thanks for taking the time to check out my books and I welcome any and all feedback.

Like Trauma Junkie on Facebook (Excerpts and links to Amazon there as well): Tom's "Trauma Junkie" Facebook link.

Free and Inexpensive Kindle Books

Hi and Welcome to the Willow Tree,


This week I am honored to be the spotlight author on KOTC.
Check out their great page for free and cheap Kindle books!

I have found some very good books and excellent bargains.
Click here for their page: KOTC

Interview With Leanna Palermo

Today I am welcoming the very talented author Leanna Palermo to the Willow Tree. Leanna is the author of "Swallowed-A True Story." I read Swallowed and found it difficult to put down. Leanna's honesty about her life and the happiness and tragedy she endured touched me. I think you will find it a very good read. Welcome Leanna.

What are you currently working on and when do you plan to release your next book?

Currently I’m compiling a couple of decades worth of poetry destined to become  “Before They Knew.” This is a book that I always knew I’d write but whose name and specific goal “came to me” while having my very first Reiki session, almost a year before the main character came into my life.  That whole story I wrote about in Swallowed: A True Story, so this book of poetry is a bit of a prequel/sequel to Swallowed. And you can read the excerpt by clicking here.

Do you have a favorite genre for your writing or do you write whatever moves you?

Both, really.  I write what moves me, which is typically in the form of poetry.  My first book is a spiritual memoir covering the topics of child abuse, children of lesbian mothers, bullying, cutting, teen suicide, all culminating in a love story that transforms a heart and soul to believing in life after death and the true nature of our beings.  My most enjoyable reads are usually historical fiction or non-fiction, but I often stray outside generalizations…

What is the best piece of advice you were given about writing?

I joined my first writer’s group one summer, and in September I found a website, NaNoWriMo.  This is an (inter)national “competition” where you are challenged to write 50,000 words in 30 days, held each November.  My momentum just kicked into overdrive.  I just knew this was my time.  I reached the goal in 19 days, completing the first draft of Swallowed: A True Story, after a 16 year gestation period.  I found this group of people most encouraging and just knowing they were “out there,” struggling or not to finish the month’s quota, I felt supported.  Their presence at that time in my life, via emails and regular website motivational excerpts, was the best “advice” I could have received. 

Do you have a special spot where you like to write or are you a “have lap top will travel” writer?

I love my home, my home office and my computer.  (She may be listening and I’ve found sweet talk is better than my Sicilian tendencies)

What is your favorite book and favorite author?

My favorites change as I change, but as long as there is good dialogue, good scene setting and a skill on the part of the author to be genuine and make me feel the characters, I’m thrilled and will likely buy everything they write!

When did you discover your passion for writing?

Not sure exactly what age my passion made itself known, but I remember writing a deeply profound poem on the qualities of love resembling a young kitten when I was in third grade.  That was about when I started journaling, too, which I am convinced kept me sane during my darkest times…

Do you have a favorite beverage or snack you must have while writing?

Teeccino or Kombucha, depending on the temperature outside!!  I never eat while writing though, because She despises crumbs and sticky things, preferring to be clean…She being the computer, once again.

What inspires you?

Life!  That pull that I feel when I am in the flow, instead of stressing out over some minutia of my day.  Reading a great poem, a great story, and…love!

Do you have a favorite vacation destination and do you write while vacationing?

I had my first outline of a novel drop in my head while sailing for the first time.  A real momunmentus event, as if a switch was thrown and I was so utterly relaxed, it all formed seemingly right in front of me!  Took notes and haven’t touched it again since, but it’s there, waiting…

Do you have any advice for other writers on any subject you choose?

Wow, this is a tough one.  First, being in a position of giving advice on this topic seems premature and surreal.  Second, I think our best advice comes from within, ultimately.  I guess I would say, just keep writing, and never toss anything until you’ve distilled every last morsel from it. (which may take a lifetime!)

Any last thoughts you would like to add?

This is the life, “every juicy and jaundiced morsel,” and I’m thrilled to say I’m a published author now, and I just know that everyone out there loves my first book, can’t wait for the next, it’s just that they don’t know it yet! (quote from Swallowed: A True Story) 

Leanna Palermo, D.C. is an energy healer, author and poet.  Traditionally trained as a chiropractor, she became a holistic therapist through clinical practice as a Network Spinal Analysis Practitioner.  After a decade of studying nutrition, she went on to become a raw food enthusiast and a Natural Eyesight Educator.

Leanna wrote Swallowed: A True Story after grieving the loss of a spirit partner, when she experienced multiple paranormal events, after death communications and dream like visits from those who had passed to the afterlife. Further, Swallowed emerged as a message of inspiration and ultimately, as a way to stimulate thought on the true nature of our beings.

Interview With Joanne Lessner

Today I am welcoming the very talented author Joanne Lessner to the Willow Tree. Joanne is the author of The Temporary Detective and Pandora's Bottle.  Welcome Joanne. 

Joanne Sydney Lessner is the author of Pandora’s Bottle, a novel inspired by the true story of the world’s most expensive bottle of wine (Flint Mine Press), which was selected as one of Paperback Dolls’ top five books of 2010. The Temporary Detective (Dulcet Press) introduces Isobel Spice, aspiring actress and resourceful office temp turned amateur sleuth. No stranger to the theatrical world, Joanne enjoys an active performing career in both musical theater and opera. With her husband, composer/conductor Joshua Rosenblum, she has co-authored several musicals including the cult hit Fermat s Last Tango and Einstein s Dreams, based on the celebrated novel by Alan Lightman. Her play, Critical Mass, received its Off Broadway premiere in October 2010 as the winner of the 2009 Heiress Productions Playwriting Competition. She is a regular contributing writer to Opera News and holds a B.A. in music, summa cum laude, from Yale University. 

What are you currently working on and when do you plan to release your next book?

I’m coming into the homestretch on the second Isobel Spice novel, Bad Publicity, which I’m planning to release early next year. I also just finished an Isobel short story for an anthology edited by Jen Blood to be published by Adian Press in the fall. Besides that, I’m working on the book to a musical I’m writing with my husband on commission for the Signature Theater in Arlington, Virginia. It’s an adaptation of the Wilkie Collins novella The Haunted Hotel. Gothic, spooky fun!

Do you have a favorite genre for your writing or do you write whatever moves you?

I always try to let content dictate form, so I bounce back and forth among novels, plays, musicals, and screenplays depending on which medium I think will be most effective for the story I want to tell. I love writing with my husband—we’ve written five musicals together—but there is something I cherish about the solitary craft of novel writing, or noveltry as my ten year-old daughter calls it.

What is the best piece of advice you were given about writing?

From fellow writer Marc Acito: it’s amazing how much you can get done in five-minute bursts. It’s absolutely true. It’s very freeing to realize you don’t need to carve out a huge chunk of time to write. There’s less pressure to produce brilliance, because, hey, it’s only five minutes! At the same time, you can’t use lack of time as an excuse. But that’s how books get written, even if you do block out an entire afternoon: bit by bit. I wrote my first novel, Pandora’s Bottle, in three months, largely while the pasta water was boiling.

Do you have a special spot where you like to write or are you a “have lap top will travel” writer?

I write at my desk. My husband sits three feet away from me at his keyboard, composing or practicing with headphones. It’s very companionable.

What is your favorite book and favorite author?

Oh, that’s so hard! I will say that the book that influenced me most as a writer was Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, which I read in AP Lit my senior year in high school. The funny thing is that I almost didn’t take the course because of that book! A friend a year ahead of me was reading it, and I scanned the blurb and thought, “A slog about southern politics? I’m just going to hate this!” Boy, was I wrong. It changed my life.

When did you discover your passion for writing?

I’ve always written. In fourth grade I wrote a seven-page murder mystery play for my class. I came across the script recently in my parents’ basement, and my daughter and I read it aloud in English accents. We had a good laugh over it—it was pretty bad! But I really got hooked in eleventh grade when my father brought home an electric typewriter for me to type my term paper. I finished the paper, but was having so much fun typing that I kept going and wound up writing a novel—also recently unearthed in my parents’ basement, but significantly better than the play.

Do you have a favorite beverage or snack you must have while writing?

I’m currently addicted to Celestial Seasonings Peppermint Tea. I also like Trident Layers gum in strawberry/citrus. So I guess that makes me equal parts little old lady and tween girl.

What inspires you?

Seeing great theater, hearing great music, reading great books. Not only do they inspire me to act, sing and write, I find that witnessing other people’s accomplishments tangibly makes me better at mine.

Do you have a favorite vacation destination and do you write while vacationing?

We’re big cruisers in my family. It’s the ultimate relaxation vacation. I never write while we’re away, although my husband and I do enjoy bouncing ideas around. We often use it as a time to take stock of our projects, which can be easier at a distance. That said, we did scribble down ideas for our very first musical on a napkin while drinking hot chocolate at Demel in Vienna on our honeymoon.

Do you have any advice for other writers on any subject you choose?

James Thurber put it best: don’t get it right, just get it written. Try not to judge yourself every step of the way. I’m pretty self-critical as a performer, but for some reason, when I write, I’m able to get out of my way and let the ideas flow through me onto the page. A lot of times I feel like I’m channeling. It can be a real leap of faith, but you have to give up control to get control. It’s true of performing as well.

Any last thoughts you would like to add?

I’ve been very fortunate in my life to be able to juggle all my creative pursuits: writing, singing, and acting. Sometimes I get frustrated when I see other people shoot to the top, but I honestly don’t think I’d have been as happy having to choose one career over the others. I think you have to do what fulfills you creatively, whether it’s one thing or ten. 

The Temporary Detective

An Isobel Spice Novel

By Joanne Sydney Lessner

Publisher: Dulcet Press, April 9, 2012

ISBN: 0615605818

ISBN-13: 978-0615605814

Phones, light typing…and murder.

Think breaking into show business is hard? Try landing a temp job without office skills. That’s the challenge facing aspiring actress Isobel Spice when she arrives in New York City, fresh out of college and deficient in PowerPoint. After being rejected by seven temp agencies for her lack of experience, Isobel sweet-talks recruiter James Cooke into letting her cover a last-minute vacancy at a bank. New to his own job and recently sober, James takes a chance on Isobel, despite his suspicion that she’s a trouble-magnet. His misgivings are borne out by lunchtime, when Isobel stumbles across a dead secretary in a bathroom stall and discovers an untapped talent for detective work—a qualification few other temps, let alone actresses, can claim.

Pandora’s Bottle

By Joanne Sydney Lessner

Publisher: Flint Mine Press, June 12, 2010

ISBN-10: 0982520824

ISBN-13: 978-0982520826

What happens when you pin all your hopes on a single event and it all goes terribly wrong? When that event is the uncorking of a fabled bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite once owned by Thomas Jefferson, the repercussions are emotional, financial, theatrical and, in every way, unexpected. When Sy Hampton purchases this legendary bottle, which, through a quirk of preservation, may yet be drinkable he shocks the wine community by choosing to uncork it privately with a female companion, rather than at a special public event. Sy intends the evening to be a quiet reassertion of his virility in the throes of middle age, but for ambitious restaurateur Annette Lecocq, the event offers an irresistible opportunity for much-needed publicity. Their competing agendas are not the only things to collide on the fateful night. Caught in the crossfire are Tripp Macgregor, a waiter on the verge of his long-awaited Broadway debut, and Valentina D Ambrosio, the beautiful but unworldly working girl from Brooklyn Sy hopes to impress.

[There are excerpts from both books on my website in flipbook format]

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Audio excerpt from The Temporary Detective

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