writing community – Page 33

Friday Five: Q&A with short story writer Doug Brown, author of ‘My Bohemian Baptism and Then Some’

I discovered the short stories of Doug Brown thanks to an interview of him a couple of months ago on the podcast Short Story Today (which I highly recommend), and I have since delved into his collection of short stories, My Bohemian Baptism and Then Some (Serif Press, 2023). What immediately struck me about Doug during the interview was his background, which is similar to mine. After a 40-year career in marketing and management, he is focusing on his passion for writing fiction. He also describes his formative years as a “feral youth,” which is a fitting description of my early years. Follow Doug on X/Twitter at @DougBrownFables.

‘E-vangelism’ revisited

Reflections on my first published book, which was released April 1, 1999.

Update: Since posting this Monday afternoon, Amazon has sold out of its copies of this book but some used copies are still available. The book appears to be available from other online booksellers, however, and if anyone is interested in a signed copy, please contact me and I’ll get one to you.

Twenty-five years ago next week, my first book, E-vangelism: Sharing the Gospel in Cyberspace, rolled off the presses of a Christian publishing house in Lafayette, Louisiana, and was shipped to Christian bookstores and, on April 1 of that year, an online bookseller known as Amazon.com.

It was 1999, the year made famous by Prince’s 1982 hit single of the same name. That spring also saw the release of The Matrix in movie theaters, the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe, and the debut of SpongebobSquarepants on Nickelodeon. It was the spring of the Columbine massacre. It was the year Amazon broke the $1 billion mark in revenues for the first time and expanded their product line by introducing an ebook reader called the Kindle and a smart speaker called the Echo, which was used with the company’s Alexa personal assistant system.

Friday Five: Q&A with poet Agnes Vojta

‘You don’t need anybody’s permission to be a poet. You just need to love it.’

Continuing this blog’s celebration of women authors throughout Women’s History Month, and furthering my desire to use this platform to highlight other authors, I’m delighted today to share this email interview with Agnes Vojta, a poet who happens to live in my neck of the woods here in Missouri and who also happens to teach physics at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

A native of Germany, Agnes is the author of three books of poetry — Porous Land, The Eden of Perhaps, and A Coracle for Dreams — all published by Spartan Press in 2019, 2020, and 2022, respectively. More recently, she and eight other poets from Missouri and Arkansas collaborated to create the anthology Wild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry, published in December 2022 by Cornerstone Press. Agnes also serves as an associate editor for Thimble Literary Magazine and hosts Poetry at the Pub, a local reading and open mic event. She and her husband, Thomas, a professor and chair of physics at Missouri S&T, are avid hikers and kayakers who share their passion for the outdoors and information about Ozarks trails and more at RollaHiking.info.

Celebrating women writers

“Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.“
Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” (source)

Today is the first Monday of Women’s History Month, held each March to recognize and celebrate the achievements of women throughout U.S. history. Reflecting on Virginia Woolf’s comment, and how women have long been overshadowed in the world of literature (among other fields), I’m using today’s post to highlight a few of the women writers whose work has influenced my writing and thinking in recent years.

Friday Five: Q&A with ‘Mercedes Masterson’ author Nathan Weaver

Welcome to the inaugural post of Friday Five interviews with fellow travelers on this writing journey. I plan to post occasional five-question email interviews to spotlight other authors and their work. We kick it off this Friday with a question-and-answer session with Nathan “Nat” Weaver, author of the Mercedes Masterson series of detective stories of the hard-boiled variety. The first in the series, Sweet Sixteen Killer, was published in 2020. The next book, Jonah of Olympic, is expected out later this year. Nat is also a personal friend and a friend of this website.