author life – Page 2

Awful People, Awful Places

Published on September 27, 2019September 23, 2019 by Noreen Lace1 Comment

I had the unfortunate displeasure of spending time with people I’m not fond of. I am barely able to tolerate negative people. I can’t stand people who are so mired in their own sense of self importance or righteousness that they can’t see beyond their own bullshit.

I came away regretting my decision to go and feeling very nasty inside, as if a piece of my soul had been burned away. I sat with it all night, no television, no radio, nothing to drown out or distract myself from the boiling nastiness of an impression they left on me.

Then I thought – I’ve never written anything about them. And I can see why. I never want to deal with them or be around them or even think about them ever, ever again.

But that inspired something. One woman has a big round face that appears to be growing from another face. Her husband stared at me as if he was planning the perfect recipe for my kidneys, liver, heart. “A slaw, soaked in buttermilk and vinegar.” I’m pretty sure I heard him say as he passed by.

And then the keepers of the whole chud-like crew.

I’ve been known to write some pretty dark things. People like this are the reason why.

Untitled, but begun.

I will give these soul sucking people a different life. I’m sure they won’t like – if they bother to recognize – themselves.

This will give that scent of madness, the sickly feeling of food poisoning filling my bodily cavities, some place to go and rest.

Use it, ladies and gentlemen, use all the things and people and places you don’t like to fuel your writing.

Book Signing!

Published on September 25, 2019September 23, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

I love autumn. I love October. I love Halloween. And this October 19th at 4pm, I’ll be signing How to Throw a Psychic a Surprise Party and Eddy at the $10.00 Books in Northridge, California.

This bookstore is one of my favorites. They mix classics, used, and publisher buyouts for a unique collection of books. AND they happen to be between TWO COFFEE SHOPS! Both of which serve bomb pastries.

This book signing will feature our own psychic! She’ll be reading your fortune using the Tarot.

Plus other surprises!

More Info to follow!

Author Interview

Published on September 13, 2019September 13, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

I just finished an interview and thought I’d give you guys a little sneak peek.

interview

auQ: When did you start to write fiction and poetry and how would you describe your works?

A: I started writing when I was very young, as soon as I could hold a pencil. I finished my first “novel” when I was eleven. I use the term novel loosely because it wasn’t long enough nor complex enough to be a novel, but it was quite lengthy and angst ridden for a such a young child. These days, I describe my work as literary. It is usually character driven and deals with the darker aspects of human nature and relationships.

Q: What would you say are the benefits of writing on a regular basis?

A: If you’re a writer, writing on a regular basis keeps you in the flow. Ideas flow. Writing comes easier. If you’re not a writer, it helps with articulating thoughts, considering feelings, problem solving, and improves your communication abilities, reading, and diction.

Available Here psych cover for kdp

The Unintended Consequences of Story

Published on September 4, 2019September 2, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

I heard from a woman who asked me to share a story with young people. The story was my own, The Healer’s Daughter, from How to Throw a Psychic a Surprise Party.

She said the story was valuable and every young person who has ever bullied or been bullied needs to read it.

Bullying is a part of the story, and for the little girl in the story, it’s a very big part – as it was for any and all of us who were on the wrong side of the mean kids.

She felt, I believe, it would also help bullies to gain some sort of understanding. Maybe, maybe not. But I appreciated her feedback on what some people feel is a minor part of the story.

I appreciate the feedback and that my story touched her so much she feels the need to share it.

Much appreciated.

Our stories have power. And they have unintended consequences. I’m happy that mine leaned toward positive.

I write to stop myself from punching people in the face…

Published on August 28, 2019August 23, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

My next story will have violence.

Unless, of course, I’m in jail.

Nothing angers or offends me more than men telling me to offer myself. “Flirt,” they say, “for a discount,” “to get out of a ticket,” “to get a good deal,” etc and so on!

Someone said this, again, recently. He was drunk (not an acceptable excuse) and offering unsolicited advice. I sincerely wanted to kick him in the knee caps.

None of my lady friends have EVER said suggested this, nor done it to the best of my knowledge.

NO, THANK YOU!

I’d rather PAY!

How many of you write about what angers you?

Would they tell their wives to flirt? Their sisters? Their mothers?

I AM NOT A COMMODITY!

prepare-to-die-t-shirt-teeturtle-1000x1000

I do not trade myself for anyone or anything.

I do, however, write books. They are a commodity that can be bought, sold, traded.

Prepare to die, asshole.

In my next story, that is.

Overcoming Procrastination

Published on August 23, 2019August 20, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Procrastination-lead-1000x486

Something happens after a book is published. Writers, then, have a dual focus. Trying to promote and continuing to work on their next project. This leaves me, personally, overwhelmed. And I don’t function well in that place.

Some authors speak of a “let down” time after their novel or book is published. That they feel depressed, blue, unable to work.

I wonder if it’s something like postpartum depression. You’ve worked so hard and birthed this marvelous creation, and you’re somewhat exhausted and now have so much to take care of.

Writers do refer to their writing as offspring in some sense or another.

The thing about procrastination is that it becomes a habit.

When I’m overwhelmed and don’t know what to do first, I tend to procrastinate. We’re not just talking about a lot to do. I regularly have a lot to do and have it scheduled, done, and still have writing time.

I think scheduling helps overcome or even usurp any potential procrastination. So it’s summer, no schedule, makes it even harder.

I got a schedule book, instead of just my phone, and keep that on the table I pass most often in the house. There it is, laying open, telling me what needs to be done and by what time. No phone beep that I tend to ignore or swipe to dismiss, but an open book written in pen and ink.

I’m old school. An open book is my catnip.

I’m a tad neurotic. A to-do list is my medicine.

Take that procrastination!

And another one down…

Published on June 22, 2019June 21, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

delphinium 2019 front cover for kdp.jpg I’m open to a great number of inspirations. There’s a little understood affectation on people’s faces when they’re happy, when they’re sad, lying, telling the truth. Their faces betray what their words do not. However, not many people on the planet are very good at reading or understanding these micro-expressions.

For example, when a person is really happy, their eyes show it first. Their eyes brighten and lines around their eyes lift and tighten (I think), regardless of what their mouth actually does. At least this is what I understand.

I was inspired by these facts or theories and wrote a little story called “Deception.”

Deception is about a woman who believes she can read others’ micro-expressions and no one can read hers – because they’re not bothering to look.

I submitted this to one editor and he rejected it with a passion. I think I struck a nerve. He was obviously offended.

The story is fiction. It’s completely fiction. But, obviously, something about it was too real for him.

I believe it might be a bit too real for many, many people.

It’s in the summer issue of Delphinium. Available now.

Presto, Chango, Story time….

Published on June 6, 2019June 3, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Ron Terranova wrote, “we writers are fortunate in that we can take a traumatic event and, presto, there’s grist for a story…”

True!

Traumatic or not – it’s got to come out.

Many writers share some commonality of a twisted sense of being.

Before you grab your pitchforks, people, let me explain.

Someone asked me quite recently if they would end up in one of my stories. I said, that’s not the way it works. I rarely pick up a whole person and plunk them into a story. It’s smaller than that. It’s the way they stand, their scent, the sideways slide of an eye. It’s an essence coupled with other impressions that becomes something in my novel.

Whether big or small, the event or person or tragedy goes in one way and will come out in a, sometimes, completely different form.

Ron was talking about my monkey bite, which many friends and family seemed to understand as more traumatic than I did or do. Not to downplay the incident, but life happens. Some people get into car accidents, I get bitten by a monkey.

In Alaska, at some strange and lonely crossroads, there was a reasonably nice hotel whose smallest rooms were rented regularly to truckers, and only the honeymoon suite remained available. The water came out boiling hot and we needed to wait for it to cool down unlike most places in the country where we need to wait for it to heat up. There stood a single but large restaurant, and a small video store run out of someone’s small home behind a gas station. Whom I was with and what we were doing there became lost in the haunting images of a lost crossroads; those images remained and found their way into West End when the heroine escapes her madness into this sort of waiting room between life and death.

Twisted.

Writing Out the Darkness

Published on June 5, 2019June 3, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Dark, Dark, and a little darker. This is how someone described my writing recently. They’d picked up Here in the Silence.

I think I’ve lightened up a little since then. My writing is (as I am) more ironic or sarcastic. I’ve always been – it’s just coming out in the work more than ever before. (If you’re at all interested in reading both in a fun little story, try Of Strays and Exes).

I’ve always had a dark sense of humor. That’s how some of us make it through life. Someone once said to me, “it seems writers have more odd experiences than most.” I remember I wanted to pop her at the time. However, she was my best friend and she was trying to cheer me.

Some writers do share that common trait of strange and unusual backgrounds.

Writing out the darkness allows me to be the light and happy person I am.

On my bookshelf

Published on April 24, 2019April 23, 2019 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

I’ve finished my Tana French detective series and didn’t want to go to bed without another book in hand. (Nevermind there are three on my bedside table).

I began browsing my bookshelf, which is semi-organized: books I’ve read and loved. Books I want to read. School books. Writing books. and, of course, Poe books

I also have something mixed in that would seem, at first glance, not to belong. Books on psychology, the law, philosophy. I assume many writer’s bookshelves are this way.

A writer needs a wide variety of knowledge.

I know we have google at our disposal; however, I find reading books about, for example, the Psychology of Marketing allows me to get an in depth look that a wikipage or a few short articles are not going to give me. This allows me to create a more realistic character or more thorough background to make the story more believable.

For West End, I needed to understand two things, the idea of an absent or unloving mother, and the different forms depression can take. Anxiety runs throughout my work from Of Strays and Exes to Life of Clouds – which features children affected in different ways by the disappearance of their father.

I’ve heard handymen say they are the jack of all trades. I think writers are akin to that. We need to learn many things in order to live many lives.