Nancy Lee Badger Presents Local Poet Lisa Tomey

April is National Poetry Month so I am glad a local Raleigh-area poet, and fellow member of the Triangle Association of Freelancers, stopped by to share her latest work. Take it away, Lisa!

Nancy, I appreciate your taking the time to share about my book Heart Sounds, a chap book of poetry. This is my first book of poetry. Much of my work has been as a ghostwriter, but my first language is poetry. This book has been in my heart for several years. It came to life when I reviewed my collection of poetry, which spanned for years, and selected the poems which fit into the theme. 

Blurb:

Heart Sounds is a Chap Book of poems about love in many forms. The focus of Heart Sounds is love in four areas: Family Love, Love of Friends, Love Sounds, and Self Love. While this book is not all-inclusive of the various forms of love, it is a sampling from the heart and more work is in the works.

Excerpt titled Love Note

Sliced between the pages of cheddar and salami

Was this note

Love it expressed

Mustard scented tastefulness

Like the seed

Exuding faith

In a dream come true

How could I argue with this?

Not a chance in a million

I would change my mustard scented note

For vanilla

*Note from Nancy- This is only one example of the many wonderful poems Lisa has included in her book Heart Sounds.

Buy Links:

Amazon Kindle      Amazon Paperback 

More About The Author 

Lisa Tomey has been writing ever since she took to the pencil, really getting a true taste at the age of 11 when she was inspired by her 6th grade teacher to keep participating in Creative Writing classes. Her class participated in an anthology of poetry and shared poetry in the various forms they had been studying.

While poetry is Lisa's favorite writing style, she has also written short stories, prose, memoirs, fiction and non-fiction. As a professional, she wrote plays for use in grade schools. She has also written many presentations and speeches for her work. Many years ago, Lisa was bitten by the puppetry bug and created puppets and wrote plays to present with her family at church and for herself to use in the local library. She is working on a book about puppet plays. Due to be published in the fall of 2019, Tomey is also working on another book of poetry, including short stories. As a college student, specializing in journalism, Lisa wrote for her college paper and illustrated her own and other's work. As you can see, writing has infiltrated about every facet of Lisa's life, early on. Connect with her here:

Blogsite      Facebook Author Page 

Twitter     Instagram     Goodreads 

Amazon Author Page  

*Note from Nancy- find out more about Lisa on the TAF Website  

Nancy Lee Badger Interviews Author James Hutchings

Please welcome author James Hutchings all the way from Australia! His book, 

They Say the Sirens Left the Seas, is a collection of poems, often fantasy-themed, and was released on May 26.

Please tell my readers a little bit about your book. 

It's a collection of 46 poems. It has a particular emphasis on poems that tell a story, particularly in the fantasy genre.

When did you start writing toward publication? 

I wrote a novel in the early 2000s that's best not spoken of, but I've been writing and submitting continuously since 2010.

I started submitting stuff (turned out to be crap) in 2007, and sold the good stuff starting in 2010. Practice makes perfect! Do you have any rejection stories to share?

I got a rejection email for one of my poems which said that "There were several amusing parts in this poem, but it’s not consistently funny throughout, which is what I’d be looking for in a humour poem. I think the problem (as I see it) is that you’re often vague or allusive; specific details tend to be funniest." This would have been a lot more encouraging if the poem was meant to be funny.

What is your writing routine like?

I've heard some writers say they can only write in a particular room, or only at a particular time of day or something, but I've never had anything like that. At the moment I mostly write last thing in the day, but I'd be happy to change this if circumstances required it. I've done a lot of writing on bus or train trips.

Me, too! With a husband and several volunteer 'jobs', I try to get 'stuff' out of the way, then write until something else interrupts. Are you a member of any writing organizations and, if so, have they helped?

I've been a member of a few different face-to-face critique groups, as well as online ones, and have found them mostly useful. However I've never been a member of bigger, fee-charging organizations like Writers Victoria. I've found that, at least for an amateur like me, the cost isn't worth what they offer.

Please share THREE fun facts about you that most people don’t know:

1) I have three nipples (the third one is small, and looks like a birthmark or a pimple, but it's a nipple).

2) This isn't really a fun fact, but it's a strange fact. Some local neo-Nazis called Australia First recently decided (falsely), that I was the author of an anti-Nazi blog. They published my photo, name, address and even date of birth online (I assume they found them on facebook). I went on local radio with the real author of this blog to prove that we were two different people- but even after I did this they kept insisting that I was really him! I've actually had to get lawyers to threaten to sue them.

3) I used to dance like no one was watching, but everyone stared at me.

What’s next for you?

Later this year I hope to put out two more ebooks: one based around a long poem set in my fantasy city of Telelee, and the other around a long Western poem called 'Confession of a Bounty Hunter'. At the moment I'm working on a longer poem, set in the distant past and with a fantasy-like atmosphere, but no magic or monsters.

BOOK BLURB

The last dragon faces his death...
A magician bases his life on a misheard word...
A teenager goes looking for his friends' girlfriends, none of whom have ever been seen...
46 poems by James Hutchings.

Excerpt:

The Cat and the Toad

At the dawn of the world on a tree-sheltered road

an agreeable cat met a horrible toad.

When the cat saw its neighbor it fearfully shook

for in those days all creatures would act as they looked

and the toad was all warty, and bulging, and slimy.

The trembling cat mewed a terrified "Blimey!"

(more vigorous oaths had not yet been discovered)

and looked at the evil made plain on the other

one hideous sin for each hideous feature.

"Oh please do not kill me, most wicked of creatures!"

it begged without hope. But the toad thought awhile

then it gave what might almost have been called a smile

and it said, "You may keep what you carry within

but if you are to live, you must give me your skin."

Now the cat had no choice, though it bitterly cried

but to take off its fur and to put on the hide

of the venomous toad, and no creatures had made

such a villainous threat, such a terrible trade.

Then the cat hopped away where it once would have strode

for the toad was a cat, and the cat was a toad.

This explains why the toad, though so utterly charmless

is gentle in nature and totally harmless

while cats appear graceful and splendid and good

but would murder us all in our beds if they could.

(Disclaimer: This only refers to other cats. Your cat is lovely of course).

Thanks! 

How can my readers 

buy your book? 

SMASHWORDS     AMAZON

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Hutchings

James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. He fights crime as Poetic Justice, but his day job is acting. You might know him by his stage-name 'Brad Pitt.' His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and Wisdom Crieth Without among other markets. His ebook collection 'They Say the Sirens Left the Seas' is now available from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and DriveThruFiction.

You can find more information 

about James here:

BLOG    Goodreads 

Goodreads  

Win Nancy Lee Badger's DRAGON....

While researching the poetry of Robert Frost to use in my soon-to-be-released book, MY RELUCTANT HIGHLANDER, I wondered if my readers would question why an American poet's work was quoted in a Scottish time travel romance.

First of all, my hero is a present-day American Blacksmith. A farrier, who shoes horses, and who finds himself back in 1603 Scotland. When we first met him, in the 1st book in the Highland Games Through Time series, he was leaning against a tree at the New England Highland Games, secretly reading a book of Robert Frost poetry.

Jake Jamison is my 'hero' in book #3, so I thought a little poetry would work. My research found several poems no long under copyright protection, and I chose a few lines of one that is dear to my heart...so much so, that the title of this blog is loosely named after it.

Can you guess the poem's title? If you know it, leave your answer and email address in a comment for a chance to

WIN A PRIZE

Since I do not yet have a cover for my newest book, above is a photo of the prize: a gorgeous double-sided window sticker of Keltic Dragons by Jan Delyth.

Who doesn't love dragons? Do you? Then you will love these books (as well as MY RELUCTANT HIGHLANDER)

Dragon In The Mist   

 

Dragon's Curse

 

                                                             Southern Fried Dragon

Drawing will be Friday May 24, 2013. GOOD LUCK!

Nancy Lee