Jennifer Rainey interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write? 　 I'm definitely most productive in the morning and afternoon (which does not always mesh well with work schedules, I'm afraid). I get too tired at night, and when I try to write it's less than beautiful work. 　 2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer? 　 My brain moves too quickly for me to use paper and pen! I wish I could, because I feel like the cool kids all write their first drafts by hand, but I lose so many ideas if I can't just spit them out on the keyboard. I'm a very slow writer. 　 3: What do you draw inspiration from? 　 The most ridiculous things! Of course I am inspired by other writing, by music and other forms of art, but sometimes I feel like inspiration just comes out of nowhere. I'll be cooking grilled cheese or something and all of a sudden, I've got this idea that snowballs into an entire plotline. Perhaps grilled cheese is inspirational to me. I mean, the Virgin Mary's face does appear on it every once in a while. 　 4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count? 　 I set goals in terms of scenes. When I sit down, I'll say, "Okay. Just get through this scene today. No matter how many words it takes, just get through this specific scene." I find that it works better for me that way than if I actually take word count into consideration. Then I just get all flustered. 　 5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art? 　 I'm a self-published author who uses Createspace and Amazon KDP/B&N Pubit to publish my work. I designed my cover; I used to dabble in graphic design back when I wasn't sure quite what I wanted to do with my life. I use Adobe Photoshop, too, which is so much fun. I could sit on there for hours! 　 6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer? 　 I'm a storyteller. I'm not in this for the money at all. My main drive is to tell stories, to make people laugh, to make people feel a connection with my characters. These Hellish Happenings used to be available online for free (back when it had a different title and it was very, very rough), and people really connected with the story and the characters. My protagonist even won an award for "Best Main Character" or something along those lines. So, I knew I wanted to publish it and get it out there to reach an even wider audience. 　 7: Do you own an ebook reading device? 　 I sure do! I own a Kindle, and I absolutely love it. I always told myself I was one of those hipsters who would never buy an ereader... then I published for Kindle and knew I had to get one and I can't live without it now! It's a modern day love story! 　 8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now? 　 I love Terry Pratchett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Neil Gaiman, Christopher Moore, Aldous Huxley... I majored in English, so the list goes on and on. I'm getting ready to read either Fool by Christopher Moore or An Apple for Zoe by Thomas Amo, and I just finished Hard Day's Knight by John Hartness. 　 9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any? 　 I was planning on making one, and then I heard that they weren't terribly effective, so I scrapped the project. I still have some of the art, though, and I'm trying to find something to do with it. 　 10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book? 　 Originally the book was called In a Handbasket: My Misadventures in Hell. I switched it to These Hellish Happenings about when I completed the first draft. The new title comes from a line in the book. 　 11: What are you working on now that you can talk about? 　 I'm currently about two-thirds of the way through the first draft of the second book in the These Hellish Happenings series. It's called When Hell Freezes Over, and it takes place three years after the first book ends. After I finish that draft and while I let it sit for a month or so, I'm starting on a book of thirteen short stories that takes place in the Hell universe I've created, but is not a part of the series; it's tentatively called The Souls of Dorian Mitchell. LINKS: Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/These-Hellish-Happenings-ebook/dp/B004K1F8KM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1295616509&sr=8-2 B&N (Nook): http://search.barnesandnoble.com/These-Hellish-Happenings/Jennifer-Rainey/e/2940012372154?r=1&itm=1&usri=these+hellish+happenings&if=N&cm_mmc=VigLink-_-k244266-_-j12871747k244266-_-Primary Amazon (Paperback): http://www.amazon.com/These-Hellish-Happenings-Jennifer-Rainey/dp/1456307142/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1289222824&sr=8-1&tag=533633855-20 Website: www.jenniferrainey.com

Today Only Lady Gaga new release only .99

Get Lady Gaga's new release Born This Way for .99 cents full album download. Today Only

Can't get enough LA Noire? LA Noire companion

L.A. Noire has finally been released on the PS3 and the XBox 360. The game delivers a large city scape for you to explore  as a cop in the 1940's. You interview suspects and witnesses.

The graphics are top notch giving the ability to read peoples faces to see when they tell you the truth or lie. The game play is spot on also with shootouts, fist fights, driving, and investigations. You can lose hours of your time lost in the world of L.A. Noire

But what if you can't get enough still? The game may make you want to explore more into what influenced the creation of the game. Here is a list of some books, movies, and Apps to check out when you want a taste of L.A. Noire when you are not playing the game.


Just seen that Netflix is now streaming the original DRAGNET the black and white series.

  

Ethan Cross Interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

For me, there really is no such thing as a typical writing day.  I'm not at the point in my writing career where I can do it as my full-time job (darn kids keep telling me they want to keep hold of the whole food and shelter thing).  This means that I write whenever I can find the time.  Typically, this is from the hours of 11:30 PM and 3:00 AM.  It will be nice to someday be able to get more than four or five hours of sleep in a night, but for now, caffeine is my best friend.


2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

I’m actually the kind of person who doesn’t use paper at all.  Papers are just more things that will clutter up my desk and I’ll end up losing.  I carry an iPhone and iPad with me pretty much everywhere I go, so I do everything digitally, not just writing.  I have a friend who writes 600 page novels longhand into notebooks and then types them up into digital files.  I think that he’s out of his mind :-)


3: What do you draw inspiration from?

I think the simple answer to this is “everything.”  I draw inspiration from life, the world around me, news stories, family, friends, other books, etc…really anything and everything.  For example, I’ve become a really good listener, and I’m always on the lookout for something interesting to use in a book.  Someone may have some small event from their childhood that they share with me.  That small idea (or usually just a tiny portion of it) sends my mind spinning in the different directions for which I could use that information in a book.  Moral of the story: always be careful what you say when speaking to a writer…you never what may end up in the next bestseller.


4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

I do set goals, and I try to stick to them.  However, if you don’t hit your goals on a few days, you can’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking that you’re already behind and then let it drag you down.  They’re more guidelines than rules.


5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

I am published by a great company that is really behind my work.  The head of my publisher is a great friend who was the head of the several of the “big” houses before breaking out on his own and trying to do things outside the box.  So we’re small, but we’re mighty.

In regard to cover art, I actually designed my own cover.  My background is in technology including programming and graphic design.  So it seemed like the natural thing to do.


6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

Telling stories on a grand scale has been my dream for as long as I can remember.  When a fireman or a policeman would come visit my school, most of my classmates’ heads would swim with aspirations of growing up and catching bad guys or saving someone from a blazing inferno.  When these moments came for me, however, my dreams weren’t to someday be a cop or put out fires; I just wanted to make a movie or write a book about it.  And my dream has come to fruition with the release of my first book, The Shepherd.

It started as early as I can remember.  I wasn’t an only child, but since my three sisters are so much older than I am, it felt that way growing up.  I’ve always been an introvert and my favorite pastime as a young boy was playing pretend with my action figures and my imaginary friends (as my parents called them).  But I’m not sure if they were truly the imaginary friends that we traditionally think of.  I say this because they were more like characters in my own little movies.  At the time, it was a boy playing with his imaginary friends, but I still do basically the same thing as an adult, only my imaginary friends find life on the pages of my books.

I’ve also been an ENORMOUS fan of movies since I was very young.  How many ten-year-olds do you know that had a calendar hanging on their wall marking the release dates of every major Hollywood production?  I would force my parents to take me to sometimes two or three movies in a single weekend.  We would often hit the 4:30 matinee at the theater, walk out, and drive straight over to get a good spot at the drive-in or turn around and walk back into a 7:00 o’clock showing at the same theater.  In high school, I would rent a couple of movies every night from our local video store, although I did still find time to date, sing and play guitar in a rock band, play sports, and serve as our senior class president and valedictorian.  Not much has changed since then; my wife and I still take in a movie every weekend.  Shortly after college, I also discovered a great love for reading, sometimes consuming three to four books a week.  For me, movies and books have always been and always will be magical experiences.


7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

I own two actually.  I was one of the unlucky people who purchased a Kindle when they were priced at around $500.  I loved my Kindle for a while, but then the iPad came out.  My iPad goes everywhere I go, and my favorite app is the iBooks app.  In my opinion, it’s the most pleasurable reading experience out of any of the e-reading apps or devices.  But the great thing about the iPad is that you can also purchase Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc books using their apps.  Then, you also have an incredibly powerful device that can do pretty much anything else you can think of.  I think that when someone releases a $50 e-reader, that will become the standard, but the iPad will always be the best experience.


8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

I pretty much enjoy any book that’s action-packed, regardless of genre.  There are also those rare books that are a slow burn but are still completely enthralling for a variety of reasons, but those are few and far between.  I love David Morrell, James Rollins, F. Paul Wilson, Dean Koontz, Jeffery Deaver, James Patterson, Douglas Preston, Clive Cussler, and many, many more.  Currently, I’m reading Hannibal by Thomas Harris.


9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

Book trailers are nice, but a big percentage of the ones out there are so cheesy that they’re painful.  I have one for The Shepherd that I designed, and while I’m not saying that it’s the greatest, it is simple and direct.  It has some exciting music, shows a quick animation, lists a few blurbs and the website, and that’s it.  It doesn’t have overly dramatic narration or homemade video clips of me pretending to stab someone with a rubber knife.  In my opinion, a lot of the trailers on the market are way, way too long, give way too much information, and try to do too much.  I think the best trailers I’ve seen were for the newer Dean Koontz books such as What the Night Knows.  They’re quick, professional, give you a basic idea about the story, and then get out of your way.


10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

The original idea for The Shepherd started out years ago as a short 40 page story for a college English class.  I was watching a movie called Frailty (great movie, by the way), and it got me interested in the idea of turning the tables on who we saw as the villain and the "good guy".  The short story asked the question, "Do the ends justify the means?" and dealt with the abuse of power, which is where the title of The Shepherd originated.  The serial killer in the short story (the character that later evolved into Ackerman) was actually not a character at all, since the story centered upon the finding of the killer's dead body.  I originally intended to use the short story as a starting point for the novel, but the book took me in such different directions that there is basically nothing recognizable left from the short story.  The class was a senior level English course, and the story came on one of the last days before graduation.  The day after I turned in the story the teacher asked me to stay after class and urged me not to stop writing.  Her words meant a lot and really stuck with me.


11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

Beyond The Shepherd, I have written detailed outlines for the next two books in The Shepherd series (with at least five others planned after those).  I’ve also begun work on a new action adventure series and a stand-alone suspense thriller called The Darkness Never Sleeps.  It deals with a repentant serial killer that must fall into his old habits in order to save his daughter from a group of drug runners being financed by the CIA.

But there will most definitely be more Shepherd books on the way soon. The first of these will be a prequel novella tentatively titled The Cage. It will chronicle Ackerman's escape from a maximum security mental institution and has an entirely different cast of characters (other than Ackerman). That will be coming in the near future. Then, the next book in the series is called The Cleansing. It will bring back all of the characters from The Shepherd...those that survive anyway :-)Thank You,

Ethan Cross
http://www.EthanCross.com


http://www.amazon.com/Ethan-Cross/e/B004HZMO4Y/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1


http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Shepherd/Ethan-Cross/e/9781936558063/USRI=the+shepherd

Arshad Ahsanuddin interview

Arshad Ahsanuddin


1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write? 

I'm more of a night person. . . a night person who writes about vampires. That didn't strike me as funny until just now.  Anyway, I generally write in the evening, after I come home from work and take care of my emails and casual web surfing.  Once I get started, then I don't stop until I'm satisfied, even if it means staying up all night until it's time to go to work again.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

I write on computer, then send it to my beta reader or editor for revisions.  Once I get their revisions back, I usually print out the manuscript entirely, and then go through it with a blue pen and take notes in the margins decide which comments I agree with.  Then I enter them into the computer, along with whatever associated other revisions they might require, and the whole process starts again.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

No one source in particular.  I am an avid reader of high and low fantasy, as well as science fiction, though lately I have been reading more books about the craft of writing itself that have been recommended to me.  All of that percolates in the back of my mind, and draws me down roads I would not necessarily would have considered when I sat down to write originally.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

I set goals, but more based on qualitative aspects rather than quantitative measures such as word count.  I would be more interested in actually completing a specific scene or chapter, than I am in reaching a word threshold.  I tend to focus on plot-driven story arcs, so I measure progress by how far along the arc I have gone, and whether I need to backtrack to redefine the original outline, based on the actual writing I have produced.

5: Are you a published or a self-published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

I am self-published, though the printing/distribution services Createspace and Publish Green.  The front cover art was originally designed by me based on specific scenes from the books that I rendered in Photoshop from licensed stock photography elements.  The lettering and back cover art, I allowed Createspace to produce via one of their design packages, in order to get a harmonious visual theme across all the books.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I have stories I want to tell, which are trying desperately to claw their way out of my head.  Isn't that why anyone decides to be a writer?  

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

Yes, I own a Kindle DX, though I often read ebooks using the Kindle for iPhone and Kindle for PC apps.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

The authors that come immediately to mind are Guy Gavriel Kay, Anne Bishop, Jim Butcher, P. C. Hodgell, Kim Harrison, and Simon R. Green.  Some, like Kim Harrison, Anne Bishop, and Jim Butcher, I have only started following in the last few years, but I have been reading Kay and Hodgell for decades.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I don't see how they can hurt, and they open up a new medium for exposure.  As far as I know, there isn't actual data that they help sales, but I'm sure as we progress as a visually-oriented culture, they will become more important in the future.  I am currently working on creating video trailers for Sunset and Sunrise through Createspace, and I plan to have one created for Moonlight when it launches in a couple of months.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

I am fascinated by light and color.  The first two titles, Sunset and Sunrise, are moments of duality between light and darkness, which have special meaning to my characters.  Vampires worship the night, and the sunset signifies freedom to hunt and kill, while the sunrise raises the specter of death and judgment.  Moonlight, the third book, is a title based again on light in the darkness, often associated with transformation and magic.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I am having my final draft for Moonlight proofread right now to catch any small mistakes in the text that my editor might have missed, and the manuscript should be ready to go to electronic formatting for publication by late May.  I hope to have it available for sale by mid-June.  I am also considering writing a connected series of novellas, set in the distant past, to expand on the backstory of the creation of vampires and those who were designed oppose them.  If all goes well, I might release them on Kindle as free ebooks, before collecting them into a single volume as a separate book in the main series.  That's still tentative though. We'll have to see whether that pans out.

Links:

Author website:  http://pactarcanum.com
Kindleboards Sunset profile page:  http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=b004ttwmng
Kindleboards Sunrise profile page:  http://www.kindleboards.com/book/?asin=B004SC9PVG

Michaelbrent Collings interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

It sounds weird, but I'd have to say that the middle of the night is the most productive.  Part of the fun of being a writer is working my own hours, and in my case that means I am often awake at 3 in the morning, clacking away like mad on the ol' keyboard.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

Computer!  Very rarely I'll do some brainstorming with pen and paper, but mostly I try to avoid that.  If you'd ever seen my handwriting, you would know why.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Various places.  I read a lot, I watch movies, and a lot of what I write about starts from very random places.  For instance, I wrote a book called RUN (available at http://www.amazon.com/Run-ebook/dp/B003PPD9NM) that was born conceptually when I went to visit a working silver mine on a vacation and thought, "I've GOT to write a book that has a chase scene in a mine."  Sure enough, a few months later RUN was born.  And it's done very well, going as high as No. 61 on the Kindle charts at amazon.com...out of over 800,000 books!

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

Occasionally.  More often I set a goal of telling a story that will be interesting and entertaining, and that takes a certain amount of time, so word count generally isn't a problem.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

I have been published AND done self-publishing.  Of the two, believe it or not, the self-publishing has been far more lucrative.  I have over a dozen self-published books available at amazon.com and smashwords.com, and they're all doing very well.  As for how I do my cover art, that's a secret.  I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.  And since I'm still on parole for killing the LAST guy who asked that question, I'd better not open that particular can of worms again.  But I will give you a hint: it involves voodoo.  And also a carton of Band-Aids.  More than that, I cannot say.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

Who said CHOICE had anything to do with it?  In my case, my father was an English professor and head of the Creative Writing department at Pepperdine University for something like eighteen decades, so I had a genetic predilection toward the masochistic state known as "writing."  I started writing when I was four - I kid you not, it was a story about a parrot, written all in red crayon - and haven't looked back since.  But with the success of my books, as well as the fact that I've sold several screenplays, I can definitely afford to devote more time to it now than I used to.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

I do.  I have a Nook and an iPad.  I like them both for different reasons.  I definitely like the ability to read outside that I get with the Nook's screen, but it's nice to have backlighting at night when I'm reading in bed.  That way I can read without waking up my wife.  Which is a dangerous thing to do.  Grrrr.  No, just kidding, she's actually very sweet about dealing with my weird hours, but I do like to let her snooze when possible, so the backlight is great for that.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

Dean Koontz and Orson Scott Card are probably my favorite authors.  Not only that, but I count both of them as friends and as two of the nicest people ever.  Koontz actually sent me a Christmas present last year (really!), and Card has let me call him at home to discuss writing on several occasions.  Like I say, they're super neat folks (do people even say "neat folks" anymore?), and excellent writers to boot.

As for what I'm reading now...a book by Dean Koontz, a book on child psychology, a book about FDR, and a couple other books that are sitting on my toilet.  Yes, I'm a dad, which means that my best reading time is often when...well..."otherwise engaged."  <grin>

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I think book trailers are ridiculous.  I can see a book having a small car or a motorcycle, but an entire trailer?  Come on!

What?  Oh, THOSE kinds of trailers.  They're cool, I suppose, when done right.  Mostly I prefer just to read about the books I'm going to take a gander at.  It seems kind of weird to watch a MOVIE about a BOOK.  That being said, I've got nothing against trailers, though I have no real plans to do one for my books.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

The title of my latest is PERDITION (http://www.amazon.com/Perdition-ebook/dp/B005064Z14).  It's a book about a guy whose family decides he is the Antichrist and tries to kill him and his wife and child.  A dark, fun thriller.  And I called it PERDITION because that's what it's about.  I'm clever like that.  Ha!

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I'm working on a number of projects.  I have a book called THE SCRY about a child who is being hunted by a government agency, and I'm working on several screenplays for Hollywood production companies.  Busy, busy, busy.  Which is good!  I've also got a blog at my website (http://michaelbrentcollings.com) that I update semi-regularly (meaning "whenever I feel like it"), and do groovy interviews like this one pretty often.

Speaking of which, thanks for letting me chat with you!  I would love to point out that on my website, there's a link called LTUE papers.  Click it and you can find several papers on writing and how to avoid writer's block, all for free.  Woohoo!

So thanks again...and keep writing!

http://www.amazon.com/Michaelbrent-Collings/e/B003VSI88O/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

LA Noire The Collected Stories Pre-order .99 cents

I celebration of the new game L.A. Noire coming out they have made of collection of short stories inspired by the game for your Kindle. Pre-order for .99 cents


Rockstar Games has partnered with Mulholland Books to publish a collection of short fiction expanding the world of the newest groundbreaking achievement in storytelling: the interactive crime thriller L.A. Noire.

1940s Hollywood, murder, deception and mystery take center stage as readers reintroduce themselves to characters seen inL.A. Noire. Explore the lives of actresses desperate for the Hollywood spotlight; heroes turned defeated men; and classic Noir villains. Readers will come across not only familiar faces, but familiar cases from the game that take on a new spin to tell the tales of emotionally torn protagonists, depraved schemers and their ill-fated victims. 

With original short fiction by Megan Abbott, Lawrence Block, Joe Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, Jonathan Santlofer, Duane Swierczynski and Andrew Vachss, L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories breathes new life into a time-honored American tradition, in an exciting anthology that will appeal to fans of suspense and gamers everywhere.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YYWHAY/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_p6MYnb1E3A60F

My book is now FREE on Amazon Kindle store

My book Closing My Eyes Helps Me To See Clearly is now FREE on Amazon Kindle store

http://www.amazon.com/Closing-Eyes-Helps-Clearly-ebook/dp/B003RISOO6/ref=pd_ybh_5?pf_rd_p=280800601&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1501&pf_rd_i=ybh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1PXEYHVHXPC03DXF4MZ5

Lauren B. Grossman interview

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

Mid-morning is my best time. After I’ve eaten, delivered the children to their programs, ran a few errands – I can then sit down and concentrate with few interruptions. But, there is that rare middle of the night, when I can’t fall back to sleep, that I will go to the computer and write.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

Computer only. I have mild multiple sclerosis and it affects my hands. Nearly impossible to read my scrawl.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

Life. Human beings interacting with other human beings.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

Word counts count only when I am writing short stories. I did get hung-up on word count in the process of writing my novel, because it is not considered a novel unless it’s over 50,000 words. I found that to be a disdainful rule. I believe the content is what matters and not the amount of words it takes to deliver it. So, initially I added extraneous information, and took away every contraction in the book. After reviewing the story, I found it sounded too formal and replaced most of the contractions. I took out the extraneous information as well, giving my readers credit for having brains to fill in.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

I am both. I have had articled published in newspapers and magazines. My novel was self-published. I did work with a publishing house who aided me along. My cover was a collaboration with them, though it was me who found the image online.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

I have always had a need for creative expression. It began with acting, and then progressed to painting, and then writing. Each segment took a large portion of my life – it wasn’t overnight.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

No, but I’m sure it’s in my future. I like the feel and smell of books. I like walking into a bookstore.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

Pat Conroy, Ursela Hegi, Amy Tan, Ken Follett (currently reading “The Fall of Giants”), Tom Robbins.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

In fact I do have one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQorTkiMfuc. I’m told that in the one month that it was uploaded, I have had over 500 hits. Of course, that doesn’t mean that 500 people have purchased it. It seems the onus is on the author to do whatever it takes to get noticed. This is just one more avenue.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

My novel, “Once in Every Generation” is about two women with extraordinary singing voices. When I was 11 years old, my mother made me watch a Barbra Streisand television special. It was Streisand’s third special and she was only 24 at the time. My mother told me something I had never forgotten and often repeated. She said that Barbra Streisand is that phenomenon that happens only once in every generation. And, boy was my mother prophetic.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I’ve begun research on a woman who survived the Holocaust. In fact, I am going to London with a letter of introduction to get access to the British archives. This survivor was shipped from Germany to England, but ultimately ended up in Israel. What makes her interesting to me is that we share a birthday, but 30 years apart. I guess you could call her my muse!

http://www.laurenbgrossman.com/