Archive for April, 2012
Salted Wounds
I have ridden on the backs of dolphins and floundered searching for breath when all the seas come crashing down and ghost ships land on bitter swells I have rested in the shadowed trees and swayed among scattered branches when summer shudders and autumn falls and the sunlight pales to silver strands I have walked in snow filled steps and wondered at the intrepid boots when all other strides are missing and heavy arch has cracked the surface I have known a burdened sorrow and held it tight against my breast when all the light has left the sky and hearts break upon the marble I have questioned my validity and frowned with great intent when words drop on salted wounds and the bleeding does not cease I have loved more than I should and accepted the pittance gratefully when love has simply stopped being and retreats as seafoam at my feet Yes, I have ridden scattered branches and known a burdened heart when all light has been bled away and love has simply stoppedSingle Heart
When night falls upon cerulean crowned silence, A lone heart beat is as the peal of a single bell A clear note impeded not by the dense night, nor the veil that settles over the sleep seekers It echoes in the hollows of empty stalwart corners, keeping sentry still in the shadows Held on the air among the silver tips of slivered moonbeams, carried on the backs of caped night owls Heart beat tolls and falls like rain on the ocean, and disappears beneath leviathan wings of cerulean crowned silenceScar Tissue – Review by Tom Webb ~ A Bear On Books
For me, seeing the characters of my stories in my head is like breathing. It just comes naturally…after a slap to the bottom. Once started the characters make their way into my everyday life until I commit them to paper (or in this case cyberpaper). When I first met Bob Elkins and Mike Wells, they were just two men with similar backgrounds. Fiercely patriotic, strong, and confident. They stuck with me until I wrote three novels with them, then a novella to introduce them, and describe how they met and fell in love. They became very dear friends of mine, and putting them down for others to read was like raising children. They had to be nurtured and cared for, tended and grown. Their story had to be real to me. Something I could touch and see. The era in which the story would take place, had to linger on my fingers as I typed. My characters had to be steeped in the teabag water of the time. Once the story was written, my first question to myself was “Will anyone understand my characters?” I waited for the reviews.
Book reviews are often subject to the reviewer’s preference in many things; style, voice, length, character type, story line. All will set the mood for a reviewer. It is when the reviewer gets my characters that I want to read the review over and over again. Sharing it with my friends and family; with the strange little man down the hall, or the neighbor upstairs. I want to take out an ad that reads “He got my characters!” and post the ad on every empty wall. That is what I am doing here. My novella, Scar Tissue, received a Highly Recommended from Tom Webb over at A Bear On Books. The link to the review and Tom’s site is shown below. Please pop over and read the review, and check out Tom’s other reviews while you are there. His reviews are honest assessments of the stories he has read. He reviews the story, and that is what every author should wish to happen to them. Please check out Tom’s review of Scar Tissue here:
http://tom-webb.blogspot.com/2012/04/scar-tissue.html?spref=fb
To Buy Scar Tissue please go here:
http://www.seventhwindow.com/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&cPath=&products_id=41
G.L. Roberts’s books on Goodreads
Guest Blog Spot at KoolQueerLit
Guest blogging on koolqueerlit.com today. Come learn a little bit about me and my current writing genre.
Thanks for stopping by!
How to Guest Blog When Your Muse Refuses to Cooperate
A short while ago, I became a published Author. I was excited of course, but then the awful gut wrenching what ifs starting popping up with every new keystroke. Everyone, everywhere can understand the concept of the what ifs. They are universal. They know no boundary of color, race, creed, gender, or ice cream flavor preference. They sneak in like flies, first one, then another, multiplying into a hoard of buzzing nonsense. What if the book doesn’t sell? What if I get the most abominable case of writer’s block? What if I never write another book, let alone another paragraph, another sentence, another great word? Those pesky what ifs can cast a pall so dense you need a torch the size of Lady Liberty’s in order to even see the glare of the computer screen. I struggled to shake the what ifs.
My publisher suggested a guest blog spot on a blog that hosts other authors of my current genre. Guest Blog? Me? When I can’t even get a coherent sentence framed that even my neighbor’s seven year old could understand? What about? And more importantly why? To grow your audience, to bring in new readers to your published work, to make new friends, influence people, become a star! Well, okay maybe not an overnight sensation, especially if you read my first attempt at guest blogging, tomorrow April 12, 2012, on KoolQueerLit.com. My feeble attempt to promote myself will be viewed by several, perhaps many, and I am already second guessing myself and the content.
The nice thing about guest blogging is that you can start and stop all you want, as the content does not go live the moment you submit it, unless you are invited to guest blog a ‘live’ interview. For the most part, you can write your copy; stare at it for days, then edit, slash, burn, destroy and start all over again. Provided, that is, that your muse does not leave to get a cup of coffee and then decides to get said coffee in Costa Rica, leaving you alone in the Pacific Northwest. A muse is a funny creature; never around when you really and truly desire the help. I cursed my muse. I begged my muse. I even offered bribes like an extra shot of Crown Royal, or a large gooey cinnamon roll. Nothing worked. I was stuck writing my guest blog copy alone, without a creative juice to be squeezed out of my desert dry brain. I had all the adages from my childhood to fall back on. You don’t start walking at birth, you learn how to. You don’t start reading words, you start by learning letters. Okay, I thought, I can do this…one step, and one letter at a time.
It was not as bad an experience as I first thought. My guest blog copy is not earth shaking, nor is it ground breaking. I do not offer a cure for hate and intolerance, there is no recipe linked. Then again, that is not what I was asked to blog about in the first place. I went to introduce myself as a new Author, with a first published book, in hopes of finding a new following for my style of writing, and the stories I want to tell. It was a first for me, and I will admit, I hope it is not the last. Guest blogging is not open heart surgery even though your heart pounds with every word. What it is, is the free association of words that move you, the blogger. That is the advice I decided to take…free association of words that move me, the blogger.
You may offer your muse all manner of bribe and consideration, but in the end, it will be you, your words, that make the appearance as the guest blogger. Perhaps, your muse will read what you managed to write without their help, and realize they can be replaced. Just like your blog, your muse is subject to your whims of fancy.
View my guest blog here:
Note: koolqueerlit.com contains adult themed content and may not be suitable for anyone under the age of 17.
A Thought For Every Word
GL Roberts Books 