Monthly Festival : Turn your book into a movie and get it seen by 1000s of people. Or garner FULL FEEDBACK from publishers on your novel and help your next draft. Or get a transcript video of your novel performed by professional actors.
“Terror at the Sterling” is a short horror story based on actual events where the desk clerk is required to perform a simple eviction that plunges him back to the unsolved murders from thirty years ago.
1. What is your short story about? Let’s use the blurb for this one:
February 2013. The day started out normal enough for Mel: emails, phone calls, and general business issues. His normal routine was about to be disrupted when the new General Manager, Cheryl, told him and Jimmy to evict the two hookers whose rent was three days past due. Mel shivered at the thought. The last eviction, six months ago, still haunted him. He couldn’t erase the memory of the blood and gore, he and his partner RJ witnessed. What they saw reminded him of story the ole’ timer told him about the unsolved murders of two oil men in 1973.
Join Mel, as he embarks on a simple eviction that plunges him into the horrors and truths of the crimes from 1973.
2. What genres would you say this story is in?
Horror/Suspense. Some readers have compared it to Stephen King’s “The Shining.”
3. How would you describe this story in two words?
Hair-raisingly frightful
4. What movie have you seen the most in your life?
Patton
5. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the
most times in your life?)
Johnny Rivers, “Dancing in the Moonlight.” It was my high school (RIP 7-20-2009) favorite song back in the day
6. Do you have an all-time favorite novel?
Not really.
7. What motivated you to write this story?
Lee Shendelman, the night clerk at the Sterling told me about this bizarre event when they were evicting two residents. Short version, he went to the room-card key didn’t work. Desk manager came up-card key didn’t work. Tried a master. Door opened to a tornado strike! Found the guys. Went back to the room. Everything was in place-nothing destroyed. How’s that for a plot line?
8. If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would
that be?
Erwin Rommel. Next to George Patton, he was an expert tactician. Lucky for us we had George or might all be speaking German.
9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Model railroading, World War Two and fishing.
10. What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?
Exposure, what else. I submitted it several times before it was picked. Anxious to see how the performers pulled it off.
11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
I’ve lost count how many people have told me they have a story and don’t know where to start. It’s simple, stop procrastinating, sit down and start doing it.
12. For more information on other works, please visit my Amazon page:
This story is a small piece of my own life story. I was married for 8 years and it was an extremely difficult road filled with rejection, disappointment and a lot of grief. This story of “Ruth” and her unrequited love tells the story of disappointment and rejection, but it also tells about the growth that comes with such an experience and the potential it has to bring healing and renewed hope and a better understanding of what true love does look like.
2. What genres would you say this story is in?
non-fiction/faith
3. How would you describe this story in two words?
transparent, hopeful.
4. What movie have you seen the most in your life?
I would say “Milo & Otis” only because a little girl I used to babysit years ago was obsessed with it and we would watch it over and over and over and over and over every day, all day. At least it was a cute movie!
5. What is your favorite song?
There’s a lot of songs I love, but one of my most recent favorites is “It is Well,” performed by Kristene DiMarco (It Is Well – Kristene DiMarco & Bethel Music – You Make Me Brave … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqo4Un2uZI )
(Or, what song have you listened to the
most times in your life?)
6. Do you have an all-time favorite novel?
I LOVE “Anne of Green Gables”
7. What motivated you to write this story?
It was actually a way for me to sort out what I was feeling, to express it, and try to piece together how I got to that point in my life. If I can’t figure out where I went wrong, then I am in danger of repeating the same mistakes. I decided to share the story, because I know I’m not alone in experiencing such a grief as that. Also, in hearing other people’s story of failed relationships, the biggest approach to it I’ve seen is allowing oneself to continue to be defeated and feel like a victim. I think it is so crucial to not just acknowledge where someone has hurt us, but it’s imperative that we also to take a look in the mirror, let God search our hearts to see what needs to change in us. When we do that we come out stronger and our feet are more apt to be set on solid ground onto a better and happier path.
8. If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?
Well, I think I would pick an alive person, because that would be really gross to eat dinner with a dead person. LOL! Okay, seriously, I think Joni Eareckson Tada. She is an incredible lady and what a ministry she has!
9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
I’ve a heart for vulnerable adults, whether they’re battling a disability or illness, homelessness, or they’re simply up in years. The vulnerable adults are often overlooked in society and of all people, these are the ones who have a story to tell. They need to know someone cares and they also need to know that despite what circumstances may look like, there is a God who loves them and He’s got them in His hand.
Aside from that, I love animals and I love to follow different pet therapy groups and see the work they do such as taking dogs and cats to hospitals and nursing homes or equine therapy organizations that help kids and adults with disabilities through interaction with the horses. I love music. I play a flute and I’m actually learning to play bagpipes and I love it! I love to be outdoors and just see all that God has made for us.
10. What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?
Honestly, when I wrote the story, I never thought I would ever submit it someplace to be performed, but when I found out about such an opportunity, I thought it would be an incredible opportunity to reach out to even more and bring them a sense of comfort and hope. I hope it does just that.
11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
Really, the only thing I can think of is something I’ve heard so much. Write about what you know. When we write about what we know – not just simply head knowledge, but our life experiences, our disappointments, our hopes, our faith; it let’s others know they are not alone. It doesn’t matter the genre you pick to deliver the story, when you write from your heart, your message shines through and reaches the people it was meant to reach and it can make someone’s world that much brighter.
This is a heart-written, tweens-and-up fiction book for the ages, set in the innocence and freedoms of early 1960’s rural Iowa. It is a poignant, personal experience-based tale of love, friendship and loss; a delightful journey of both human and spiritual growth, which took me fifty-two years to write!
The main characters are Sharley, who died too young after battling leukemia, and Kate, who recounts Sharley stories from their childhood that helped broaden her perspective on life and encourage her to do things she otherwise would never have done. A grieving Kate struggles with her best friend’s illness and her ultimate death, coping in part by way of Sharley visiting her after her passing with the promise of an afterlife, as seen by a child. I invite you to enjoy this 52-year-old story!
2. What genres would you say this story is in?
Youth Fiction
3. How would you describe this story in two words?
Endearing. “Classic.”
4. What movie have you seen the most in your life?
Easy! A Christmas Story
5. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)
“High Hopes” made most famous by Frank Sinatra.
6. Do you have an all-time favorite novel?
My favorite children’s novel is My Daniel by Pam Conrad. I have definitely read it more than once.
7. What motivated you to write this story?
American children will never again experience the innocence and freedoms of Midwest farm life to be had in the 1950’s and 60’s. It was a hard-fought, yet simpler life; perhaps not so easily understood by today’s standards. It is my hope that I have provided a glimpse into that way of life, and that through my writing, I can allow readers to relive that treasured time.
According to the American Cancer Society, in the 1960s, the 5-year survival rate for children diagnosed with leukemia was less than 10%. The current survival rate has increased to more than 90%. I have lived long enough to witness that monumental improvement. I also witnessed the passing of my own father in 2009, who devastatingly became yet another statistic in the fight against leukemia.
8. If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?
Laura Ingalls Wilder
9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
I am passionate about recycling, honeybees and other pollinators, birds, anti-bullying, preserving local history, my new state, South Carolina, and my old states in the Midwest.
10. What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?
I usually have a “movie” in my head as I write scenes. So, naturally, I would like to see a performance of my writing!
11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
Read. Write. Share. Learn. Grow. Repeat.
Seek instruction through the modeling of successful authors.
Read their products and learn through their craft.
Write with your own, true voice. Write from your heart.
Share in a writing group or with a mentor or editor.
Learn from the feedback.
Grow your skills as you implement that feedback.
Repeat the process in an ever upward spiral of writing progress, development and evolution.
Young Poppy Wainwright feels much like a deck of cards, shuffled around from a boozing mother to a beloved grandmother. Finally bussed to Savannah, Georgia, to live with her grandmother’s cantankerous sister, Sookie. Through the enlightened eyes of a thirteen-year-old girl, the hilarity and insanity ensues.
CROWN AND STEEL Novel Reading
DESTINY FORTUNE FATE Novel Reading
MOST WANTED Novel Reading
MANDELBROT Short Story Reading
85 DREAMS Short Story Reading
YES I CAN Short Story Reading
BECOMING FEARLESS Short Story Reading
MASSACHUSETTS TALE Short Story Reading
NOVEL Transcript Reading – CURLY AND TUBS AND THE GALLOPING ROT
NOVEL Transcript Reading – TO DANCE WITH UGLY PEOPLE
NOVEL Transcript Reading – THE KA
NOVEL Transcript Reading – CULL BLOODLINE
NOVEL Transcript Reading – MINUTE OF DARKNESS
NOVEL Transcript Reading – CACHE A PREDATOR
NOVEL Transcript Reading – AUNT SOOKIE ME
NOVEL Transcript Reading – STORIES NOT FOR CHILDREN
NOVEL Transcript Reading – SHARLEYS LESSONS
SHORT STORY Reading – UNREQUITED LOVE
SHORT STORY Reading – EVERYTHING
NOVEL Transcript Reading – THE MOON HATERS