Rebecca Walker - Author, Feminist, All Around Great Gal:)

Rebecca Walker, author, feminist, writing coach. 
Photography of Rebecca Walker by Amanda Marsalis.

Rebecca is inspirational. She is truly among the Who's Who on any important lists about feminism, women's issues, writing, the arts and politics.

She is a wonderful writer, speaker, feminist, and contemporary woman. I had the pleasure of meeting her in 2009, when I attended one of her writing workshops for memoirists. Well, I don't write memoirs (not yet), I write romance fiction, but the experience and what I learned in a jam-packed week of reading, writing, marketing sessions, and idea exchanging, changed my writing life. So, I am honored to have her as a guest blogger, and she's going to hang around for a day or two - just to talk. So enough of my ramblings, here goes...

Let's get to the facts right up front. What's your full name, website, your latest release, the WIP that is keeping you up at night, your agent, your editor, how long have you been writing…your successes? Yes, I want the mini bio right here, right now!

Rebecca said: Rebecca Walker here, and there are a plethora of ways to find me. Check my site at www.rebeccawalker.com, my FB fan page, Twitter feed @rebeccawalker, and of course LinkedIn for all you business-minded folks. There's more, but I will leave it at that.

My new book coming in February 2012 is called Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness. It's a look at the different elements that make up what we think of when we see Obama step out of the limo with dark glasses, or strut across the White House lawn. What is that ineffable quality of cool? Reserve, audacity, swagger, what? And where did it come from.

This will be my sixth book, my fourth collection. My other two are straight-ahead literary memoirs, one on growing up mixed race in the seventies and eighties called Black White and Jewish and another about my decision after much ambivalence to have a child, called Baby Love, which was very controversial!

I am fortunate that my books have done well, and are taught all over the world. Today I signed  a permission for my introduction from my book on masculinity, What Makes a Man, to be included in 350,000 textbooks! One of my manuscript clients just sold her book to a major publisher, and I'm thrilled to be teaching another master class for writers in December in Maui at one of the most gorgeous resort properties in the world: the Grand Wailea. AND I get to come home and kiss the most beautiful six-year old you ever did see. I count my blessings.

Q.  What's the best-kept secret about your writing process?

Rebecca said: I hate to actually write. I like to write the entire book in my head before sitting down at the computer so the sitting down isn't so brutal and lonely and terrifying. I also find sitting and "trying to find you story" extremely inefficient. Time management people!

Q.  What character/theme have you written or are writing about that keeps you up at night - just one, please:)?

Rebecca said: Lost love. Fidelity. The vast ocean between continents. The need for human evolution.

Q. What recording artist/television or pop culture fictional character has had the greatest influence on your writing style and why?

Rebecca said: Gosh, so many! I feel like a big sponge. I'm constantly inhaling high art and pop art and mashing it all together in that thing called my creative brain. Maybe Miles Davis because I play Kind of Blue on repeat for hours? Maybe Michael Jackson because he's Michael Jackson and my son worships him. Maybe Michael from the Office because his self-deprecation makes me laugh. Don Draper because his character is so beautifully written with so much complexity. Nikki from Big Love because she's at once completely lovable and repugnant.

Q. What book/author is the current "hot read" on your bookshelf?

Rebecca said: I'm reading the Steve Jobs book right now, like everyone else. Also a gorgeous memoir/biography of a woman who started her creative career at 72: The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock. Very inspiring.

Q. What's your favorite drink on a cool October evening - and who (fictional or not, friend or family, celebrity or historic figure) would be sitting at your side enjoying that drink with you?

Rebecca said: Steaming hot chai with almond milk and agave with my husband, for sure. I'd like to have tea with Joni Mitchell. Coffee with Joan Didion.

Q. Who's your favorite author, poet, lyricist and what would you ask them if you had the chance (or when you had the chance)?

Rebecca said: I would definitely ask James Baldwin if it was all worth it. The exile, the torment, the struggle, the coming out, the bearing of the torch. All of it. Was it worth it, in the end?

Q. Last question…what question have you been dying to answer but no one has ever asked?

Rebecca said: People have asked me so many questions, I feel I've covered everything over the years. Let's see. I think the question would be the same: Is it worth it? The struggle to write, to publish, to share, to risk? Is it worth it? What have you lost and what you have gained. The answer to both questions is...everything.

Thank you Rebecca!

Now, it's your turn readers. Take a moment and ask her a few questions, also if you want to spend a week in paradise enjoying the freedom of being a creative artist (because that's what we writers are)...check out her workshop December 19-26. I'll be there!

Today's Thursday Treat: Rita-Award Winning Author Alicia Rasley

Photo of James Marsters as Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer snagged by Denny S. Bryce

I am totally thrilled to have this mega-author, writing instructor, mentor and all around fantastic woman as today's Thursday Treat!!! 

Ms. Alicia Rasley and I met years ago at an event called Writercon, which was a conference created by the online fan-fiction community for Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Since those good ole days we've become buddies and her classes on writing a synopsis is one of the best out there. So here goes...

Q:  Let's get to the facts right up front. What's your full author name, website, your latest new release, the WIP that is keeping you up at night, your agent, your publisher, how long have you been writing…your successes? Yes, I want the mini bio right here, right now!

Alicia Rasley is the author of The Power of Point of View and The Story Within Plotbook.

- RITA-award-winning author.
- Writing instructor, Ivy Tech State College, University of Maryland.
- Nationally known writing workshop leader.
- Former small press editor.
- Editing blogger:  www.edittorrent.blogspot.com.
- Craft of writing author: Articles archived at www.rasley.com.

- Latest book is The Year She Fell, from Bell Bridge Books.

Q:  What's the best kept secret about your writing process?

Alicia said:   Write or Die.  Yes, I need threats of annihilation to keep me focused!  It's a website that lets you choose a goal of X words in Y minutes, and has helped me get back to my previous ability just to free-write without editing. I trust my craft—my ability to write pretty well no matter what—and anyway, I will always edit later. This tool helps me distinguish between the two essential stages, writing and editing.

Q:  What character have you written or are writing that keeps you up at night - just one, please:)?

Alicia said:  Jon Holt. He's a cynical man who finds himself falling in love with a woman he can't trust, and now he can't trust himself either.  He realizes that whatever it takes, lying for her, covering up a murder, even killing for her, he's going to do it for love of her. And he's really pretty shocked to find himself as passionate and reckless and in love as that, because he's a rational, modern, scientific kinda guy.

Q:  What television or pop culture fictional character has had the greatest influence on your writing style and why?

Alicia said:  Well, Spike, of course. He is, to me, the absolute model for a hero who will give up everything for love. His kind of love isn't modern at all. There's no instinct for self-protection, no caution, no considering of consequence.  He's as heedlessly romantic as Tristan or Lancelot or Romeo, a true romantic hero like those in the troubadors' songs, only with fangs.

Q:  What book/author is the current "hot read" on your bookshelf?

Alicia said:  I'm embarking on a re-read of Georgette Heyer's books, actually, and will be blogging about it at my new Regency website (under construction, so ignore all the nails and hammers left about). I am entranced as always by the precision of her prose, the acuity of her perceptions on human nature, and the irony embedded in each line.  I think, at her best, and heresy alert here, she's better, at least on a sentence level, than Jane Austen. And I think Austen's pretty good.

Q:  What's your favorite drink on a hot August evening - and who (fictional or not, friend or family, celebrity or historic figure) would be sitting at your side enjoying that drink with you?

Alicia said:  I'd like Sangria with lots of fruit in the summer, and the Duke of Wellington. Actually, the Duke wouldn't have time to talk to me, as he always has some battle to plan, so he is welcome to delegate the chore to one of the handsomer members of his junior staff, and if the young officer is in one of those extravagant Regency-era regimental uniforms (with a sword), all the better.

Q:  Who's your favorite romance author and what would you ask them if you had the chance (or when you had the chance)?

Alicia said:  Dorothy Dunnett, and I actually did have the chance. Years ago, caught up in the cynical subtext of the House of Niccolo books, I wrote her a letter, enclosing my long treatise on why Primaflora, the courtesan in Lady Dunnett's third Niccolo book, was actually a tragic heroine, sacrificing her honor, his love, and her own life to save Niccolo. I know I was right, but she replied with great tact that no, Primaflora was no more than she seemed to be, a heartless gold-digger. Ha. This only reinforced my belief that the author often cannot see her own subtext. I remain Primaflora's champion, long after Lady Dunnett has left her and Niccolo behind.  I just wish I could send my treatise to Niccolo himself, for I know he never did realize how much she lost for love of him.

Q:  Last question…what question have you been dying to answer but no one has ever asked?

Alicia said:  What type of character are you most drawn to? Answer: Hmm.  Spike the heedless romantic lover. Jon the cynic who finds out he's really a romantic. Primaflora who sacrifices all (even the love of her lover) to save her lover… and secretly, so that only I noticed.

I'm sensing a pattern here: People who can love so totally that they risk everything, even their identities, for the one they love.  They don't fall in love seeking happiness, in fact, they usually give give up any chance of happiness to keep on loving. Love is about intensity, not pleasure, for them.

That's actually a fun question: What sort of character are you most drawn to?

Thank you Alicia. Now readers it's your turn. Alicia has put down the gauntlet so let's talk characters or just ask her questions, and don't forget...Happy Thursday!

Today's Thursday Treat: Special Guest - Author Joy Daniels

Photo of Sexy Mechanic snagged by Joy Daniels

It's the Thursday Treat at Denny S. Bryce's blog (that's me and this is where).  It will consist of guest bloggers from publishing including authors and writers and agents and editors, as well as some of my other artists pals who sing, dance, create games, and do all sorts of marvelous things. Launching the series is a writer who is a wild, sexy, fun-loving gal, who has all sorts of things to tell us about what she's up to, and what makes the writer girl in her tick.

So, here is my first guest blogger for Thursday's Treat, Ms. Joy Daniels!

Q:  Let's get to the facts right up front. What's your full author name, website, your latest release, the WIP that is keeping you up at night, your agent, your publisher, how long have you been writing…your successes? Yes, I want the mini bio right here, right now!

Name: Joy Daniels
Website: http://authorjoydaniels.com
Agent: Louise Fury, L. Perkins Agency
Publisher: not sure where we're going to submit my current short, but I'm working on a proposal for a novel with Ravenous Romance.

Under revision: Revving Her Up, an erotic short story about a New York lawyer whose car breaks down in a small town, forcing her to turn to a sexy mechanic for help.

It's the first in my "Rapture Series", a group of short stories, which feature northerners falling in love in/with the small town of Rapture, VA.

Next: a sexy story set in the capital of country, Nashville, TN! This is story that (currently) keeping me up at night.

I started toying with the idea of writing three or four years ago, but didn't turn to it seriously until I found myself facing layoff with nothing to do. OK, I had a four-month old, so I was BUSY, but without work, so I decided to try my hand at writing a novel. The time-off never materialized - I ended up falling into a consulting gig almost immediately - but I still wanted to write.  Of course, that was two and a half years ago, before I realized how challenging it would be!

Now I understand that writing is hard work - and I love it more than ever!

Successes: I've completed my first short story, which I'm revising after a round of edits from my agent, and I've been tapped to write a sexy novel. I'm pretty damned psyched about those!

(OMG when I first wrote the lines above, I wrote ..."which I'm not revising after a round of edits..."  Can you tell I'm feeling a wee bit guilty about that?)

Q.  What's the best kept secret about your writing process?

Joy said: While working on that critical first draft, I use timed writing software (Dr. Wicked's Write or Die) and wordcount challenges (Fast Draft, NaNoWriMo) to help me turn off my internal editor.

I have yet to discover such helpful tricks for the revisions process...

Q.  What character have you written or are writing that keeps you up at night - just one, please:)?

Joy said: One of the male leads from my Nashville story, a country singer named Rob, is on my mind all the time. He's a small town boy with longish blond hair, cocoa brown eyes and the kind of sleepy smile that makes you want to go right back to bed - with him!

Q.  What television or pop culture fictional character has had the greatest influence on your writing style and why?

Joy said: I don't watch much TV, but right now I can't stop thinking about John Mitchell from Being Human (BBC) and Eric Northman from True Blood (HBO).  Not because they're vampires, but because both men are strong, smart and complex - there's a lot going on behind those beautiful eyes.

I also get a lot of story ideas from country music. I started listening to country when I moved to MD from up north and now I am hooked! Something about the moods, the images, the ideas...The songs just inspire me to write - and to dance!

Q.  What book/author is the current "hot read" on your bookshelf?

Joy said: I am addicted to urban fantasy and when I fall in love with an author/series I pre-order every damned book.

My current obsessions are Nicole Peeler's Jane True series (http://www.nicolepeeler.com/the-jane-true-series/), Carolyn Crane's dis-illusionist series (http://authorcarolyncrane.com/), and Seanan McGuire's October Daye series (http://www.seananmcguire.com/toby.php).

I met the first two women at Authors After Dark in Philly last weekend (August 11 - 14) and discovered that they are as awesome as their books!

Q.  What's your favorite drink on a hot August evening - and who (fictional or not, friend or family, celebrity or historic figure) would be sitting at your side enjoying that drink with you?

Joy said: I love sangria made with dry red wine. As for who I'd be sitting with, the easy answer is my mom, who died six years ago. Alongside her, I'd be happy with any of the authors above plus my fav brainstorming/writing buddy Denny S. Bryce!

Q.  Who's your favorite romance author and what would you ask them if you had the chance (or when you had the chance)?

I like adventure with my romance so again the authors above come to mind.  Right now the question on my mind goes to Seanan McGuire - will Toby and the King of Cats get together?  It's killing me!

Q.  Last question…what question have you been dying to answer but no one has ever asked?

Joy said: How about the question everyone asks but that no one ever listens to the answer:
how do you do it - how are you so happy and productive, etc when there's so much to be down about?

Carpe diem. If my mother's death has taught me anything, it's that you have to live each day as though it were your last. All you ever get - all any of us get  - is time.  Don't waste it. 

Thank you Joy, now folks it's your turn.  Joy will be hanging around all day, and available to answer questions. Also, feel free to take one of the questions I've asked above and let us know your answer...inquiring minds want to know.  Happy Thursday!