Posts filed under ‘Walt Trizna's Stories’
POEMS @ FLEETING THOUGHTS
These are the thoughts of an old man as the world sees me. I feel I am younger than they think. Reality has not yet caught up to me.
NO GOING BACK
These are the thoughts of an old man as the world sees me. I feel I am younger than they think. Reality has not yet caught up to me. NO GOING BACK
I want to go back
To right my wrongs,
I want to go back
To enjoy the moments
The best moments
Of my life,
I want to go back
To appreciate the good
And try to obliterate
The bad,
I know this a dream Impossible,
But in dreams
My desires Are accomplished.
POEMS AND FLEETING THOUGHTS: THE WRITING CAREER
Writing is one of the most important endeavors a person can take up.
You may not obtain riches, which, in the end are useless.
But your thoughts; your words will live one.
ELMO’S SOJOURN, FINAL QUESTIONS
9. This would make a great series – have you considered writing the next adventure?
Glad you asked this one, it’s already written. Elmo’s Invention is a prequel to Elmo’s Sojourn. In Elmo’s Invention Elmo is working at Los Alamos and here sets out to build a time machine using an old iron lung, but things do not go as planned.
This novella is longer than Elmo’s Sojourn and still needs a lot of editing, and then out it goes. I’m sure there will be other stories fermenting in my brain, but they have yet come to the surface.
10. What are you working on now?
Currently, I’m doing a great deal of editing. I have two novels written but are in need of a rewrite.
The Beast Awaits is the most complete. It deals with a monster created through stem cell research. It escapes into the Everglades and its destruction leads to enhanced global warming. How’s that for ‘hot button’ issues?
Sweet Depression is a novel which is a cross between the work of James Patterson and Robin Cook, a very sinister thriller set in a pharmaceutical company.
11. In your point of view, what is the most difficult part of the writing life?
Imagining story ideas I find to be the easiest part. The writing can be difficult and the editing is, I find, even more difficult. But the part of writing I find the most difficult is trying to get the work published. I agonize over writing query letters.
12. Do you outline your stories before you sit down to write?
For short stories, I mull over the plot before I put pen to paper. I write all my first drafts by hand. So when I begin writing the story, it’s already fully formed in my mind.
For novels I use an outline but keep it fluid. In a steno pad, for each novel, I form an outline to include scenes and dialog when the characters start talking.
13. What plans do you have for your writing going into the future?
If I can publish Sweet Depression I have plans to write at least one sequel.
I’ve also published a short story, Martian Rebirth, which I want to develop into a novel.
And of course, my brain keeps on cranking out short story ideas.
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/elmossojourn.html
ELMO’S SOJOURN, MORE QUESTIONS
5. Your time machine seemed very well thought out – is it based on something in theoretical science.
The time machine is a product of my imagination.
While I was in college, there was a guy in the dorm who built a tesla coil. You could pull something like a quarter million volts to your finger, but since the amperage was low, you survived. I had to get that thing into a story.
6. How do you personally relate to your main character in your story?
I was a scientist for 34 years, but a biologist not a physicist. I love science and the opportunity it gives you to discover something new, when all the parts of a puzzle suddenly come together. I share the wonder Elmo has for science.
7. How challenging was it to build your alien landscapes and creatures?
I have a very active imagination so it was really quite easy. But the creatures changed along the way. The first creature that comes through Elmo’s machine was going to be the dominant creature on Roth, but of course that changed. Then Valmid was going to be a sinister being and that changed. Since I needed some conflict, Gylex came into being and I could just picture what it looked like.
8. What theme do you want to convey to your readers?
I think, as with most science fiction, I want to create adventure and the wonder of the unknown.
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/elmossojourn.html
ELMO’S SOJOURN QUESTIONS
A few weeks ago Jill Bisker was kind enough, through Melange Books, to ask me questions about my eBook, Elmo’s Sojourn.
I posted a link to those questions, but in case you missed them, I thought I’d post the questions directly to my blog.
I’m also posting the link to buy Elmo’s Sojourn with the hopes that this will cause my sales to skyrocket.
Yes, even at my advance age, I still dream.
1. Please tell me a little about yourself – Where you come from? What led you to writing?
I was born and raised in Newark, NJ, but since then lived in the Midwest, LA, Miami and now in Pennsylvania.
I’ve always been an avid reader, feel naked if there is not a book close by. I began writing poetry in college and pursued that for about thirty years while I pursued a career in science. About 14 years ago I began writing fiction.
2. What books and authors influenced your career?
I’ve read a great deal of science fiction by Arthur C. Clark, Asimov, Ray Bradbury among a host of others.
For horror I’ve read H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King and Algernon Blackwood.
3. Your story, Elmo’s Sojourn, is a space jumping sci-fi story. Do you write other genres?
I also write horror and the occasional poem.
4. How did you come up with the premise of your story?
I belong to a writers group, The Wordwrights, and one of the members writes children’s books. She told us she had to write a story beginning with someone yelling that they have a problem. Couple that with a Far Side cartoon where a wife is looking from a door down into a cellar. In the cellar is her husband with the head of a fly. She’s yelling, “Lunch. Are you still a fly?”
With that in mind I had intended to write a story, Cellar Science, but enjoyed the story so much that I continued and the result was the novella, Elmo’s Sojourn.
UPDATE: SECOND CHANCE PUBLISHED BY SEPARATE WORLDS
My short story, Second Chance, is now available in the November/December 2013 anthology published by Separate Worlds as an online publication.
Along with my story you get over 400 pages of horror, science fiction and fantasy along with nonfiction and poetry all for only five dollars. I hope you decide to buy a copy.
Here’s the link.
ELMO’S SOJOURN
My eBook, Elmo’s Sojourn will be published by Melange Books on February 10th.
Here’s the cover.
THE WONDERING MIND OF THE WRITER
Initially I was going to entitle this piece ‘The Wandering Mind of the Writer’. The reason being that very often story ideas come to me when I least expect them, when my thoughts have no specific purpose, when they are ‘free range’. However, I decided to change wandering to wondering. I’ll tell you why.
I can’t speak for my colleagues, but this writer’s mind uses two types of wonder to process the world around me. The first form of wonder is the amazement I see and record in my brain. The second type is when I wonder ‘what if’ when I contemplate a science fiction or horror story. Both types are filed away in my cerebral cortex until, sometimes quite unexpectedly; these thoughts come together in a story. Those are the fun moments. Then the real work begins, putting those thoughts into words.
The reason I want to share this is that my blog is a writer’s blog, yet sometimes the subject matter may seem ‘off topic’. But for a writer taking in the world of wonder surrounding him, is there really an ‘off topic’?
All that I see and experience is stored away in the depths of my mind. Then, when the time is right, make their way in odd combinations to the surface and from there to the tip of my pen.
I suppose when I cease wondering the writing will also cease.
UPDATE: SECOND CHANCE
Separate Worlds is publishing my science fiction short story, Second Chance, in their November/December 2013 anthology. Publishing with this Canadian publisher will be my first international publication.
I should say that this will be my first legal international publication. Sections of my novella, Elmo’s Sojourn, were published in China without my knowledge. I discovered this by Googling my name. China is unencumbered by our copyright laws so I guess they go ahead and publish what they want. Oh well, even though I didn’t make a penny I don’t mind the prospect of billions of people being able to read my work.
I’ll provide a link when available.
UPDATE: ELMO’S SOJOURN
Next month my novella, Elmo’s Sojourn, is due to come out as an eBook published by Melange Books.
I’ve been working with Melange on the cover and after some back and forth I think we have the final version. If possible, I’ll post it when I am sure the version is a firm choice.
In the meantime, here’s the blurb to peak your interest.
Elmo, a retired Los Alamos scientist, travels through a wormhole in this science fiction story to the planet Roth where he meets Valmid and his wife Cal. All appears tranquil on the planet but there is disaster visiting the planet which Valmid hopes Elmo would have the answer of how to end. Roth’s females are being abducted and taken to the planet Gylex. Unknown to the inhabitants of Earth, the creatures have also abducted human females in the past, but suddenly stopped their raids. Valmid hopes Elmo can discover why the raids stopped on Earth and help Roth.
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