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Tag: author

Tales from Space 3 Short Story Contest

Posted on February 21, 2022March 15, 2022 By admin 1 Comment on Tales from Space 3 Short Story Contest
Tales from Space 3 Short Story Contest

Announcing the latest (possibly greatest!) Tales from Space short story contest! Now’s your chance to write in the hugely popular, dynamic, collaborative world of the Galactic Association of Globes and Asteroids (GAGA), and to tell your story with your favorite characters in Tales from Space. We are accepting applications staring March 1, 2022 – closing…

Read More “Tales from Space 3 Short Story Contest” »

News, Our Characters, Our Writers, Tales from Space

Thanks to Our Poets!

Posted on August 22, 2016 By admin 1 Comment on Thanks to Our Poets!

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I am pleased to announce the completion of the First Annual StarkLight Press 24 Hour Poetry Marathon!

We had ten poets take part in our day long poetry extravaganza, and are amazed by the creativity and heartfelt poetic lines that emerged.

A gigantic thank you to all our poets!

The anthology, still to be named, featuring poems from this incredible creative journey will be available later this autumn. Look for release information here!

Remarkable poems, gifted writers, amazing experience- join us next year for StarkLight Press’ 24 Hour Poetry Marathon and take part in the incredible!

 

– Tony Stark,

Publisher and CEO,

StarkLight Press.

 

Events, Our Books, Uncategorized

Announcing StarkLight 5 Short Story Contest

Posted on August 21, 2016 By admin No Comments on Announcing StarkLight 5 Short Story Contest

It’s here- that moment you’ve all been waiting for-

The StarkLight Volume 5 Short Story Contest!

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That’s right, now you can send in your original short stories to our latest edition of StarkLight Anthology! Be it horror, or fantasy, science fiction, suspense or speculative fiction, send us your original piece before Feb 28, 2017, for a chance to win a coveted spot in one of the most talked-about anthologies in North America.

You can have a look at our submission guidelines here:

Official Short Story Contest Rules

Be sure to like us on facebook at www.facebook.com/StarkLight-Press/ to hear updates about this contest, as well as other cool short story and poem opportunites we have for authors this year.

 

– Tony Stark,

Publisher and CEO,

StarkLight Press.

Author Interviews, Our Books, Uncategorized

Blue Moon Season Release Date!

Posted on August 13, 2016 By admin 1 Comment on Blue Moon Season Release Date!

blue moon season front cover

Our first were-themed anthology is set to hit bookshelves in stores across North America on August 21, 2016!

This rollicking read features stories about transformation into anything… wolves, fossas, lamps… this anthology is filled with spine-chilling misadventures of people who tangled with the light of the full moon, and the monsters that emerge from it.

Featuring a bevvy of new authors, as well as StarkLight Press favorites, Blue Moon Season is perhaps our most horrifying, entertaining anthology to date!

Check into StarkLight Press all this week for interviews with our winning authors, including:

Piper Tadwell                                     Van Fleming

Mod Welles                                         Will Norton

Tara O’Neill                                        Jeren Nethers

Alfie Elkins                                        Virginia Carraway Stark

Nicholas Vincenzi                            Leanne Caine

Cathy Illes

and more!

Congratulations to all of our winning authors!

Look for Blue Moon Season Anthology August 21 on Amazon and Scribd, as well as in bookstores in British Columbia, Ohio, Ontario and California!

 

– Tony Stark,

Publisher and CEO,

StarkLight Press.

 

News, Our Books, Our Writers, Uncategorized

The Great Space Race

Posted on June 23, 2016 By admin No Comments on The Great Space Race

The Great Space Race

space race.jpg

Howard Donovan rolls his eyes in exasperation at the offensive antics of the Pismarian pirate racers as the starting lineup for The 187th Annual Galactic Grand Prix waits. This year’s Grand Prix takes place in the Gamma Quadrant, a dangerous and primitive part of the Milky Way. Pirates and shady characters have found their way into this year’s race as a result, bringing stolen technology like the Winged Particle Surfer to try to increase their winning edge. The Galaxy’s most versatile personal flight craft, the Donovan Jump Jet, will have its work cut out for it in this motley collection of space ships of intergalactic design. Howard will have to be on the look out for cheats and sabotage of all kinds as he tries to negotiate one of the most challenging space race courses in the GAGA.

The account of this thrilling space sport is told in the science fiction anthology, Tales from Space 2. Available this July from StarkLight Press, Tales from Space 2 features this story as well as tales about the wroiling mass of consumers, workers, stars and soldiers that make up the GAF Mainframe science fiction universe.

You can find the first volume of Tales from Space here, in print:

Look for the Tales from Space e-book on Scribd here:

Look for GAF Mainframe books An Incident in El Noor, The Arkellan Treaty and Space Stranded, coming later this summer from StarkLight Press.

Here is an excerpt of Virginia Carraway Stark reading an excerpt from The Great Space Race:

News, Our Books, Uncategorized

The Ginger Mob

Posted on June 23, 2016 By admin No Comments on The Ginger Mob

The Ginger Mob

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One of the many beautiful pieces of art available for sale during the SPCAC’s Art Walk. The Ginger Mob can be seen this summer at Faking Sanity Bookstore and Cafe in Dawson Creek, B.C.

This classic punk retelling of one of Sherlock Holmes’ best known adventures is not the first foray into the Holmesian genre for Anthony Stark. His original tale, The Case of the Porcelain Doll, appeared in Sleuth Magazine and was nominated for a Spyglass award in 2015. Anthony has compiled an anthology of original and re-told Sherlock Holmes stories for StarkLight Press, featuring tales that elucidate such varied subjects as:

Watson’s time in Afghanistan as a member of the British Army

Holmes’ adventures following his plummet from Reichenbach Falls

A Canadian adventure along the frontier that takes place in the close of the 19th Century

In addition, three re-tellings of classic Conan Doyle stories are included in this anthology, which is entitled Holmes, Watson and the Baker Street Gate.

Below you can find links to the original Sherlock Holmes story, The Red-Headed League, as well as links to Sleuth Magazine and the Wisteria Lodgers, Western Canada’s foremost Sherlock Holmes club.

Read the Original Red-Headed League online for free:

https://sherlock-holm.es/stories/pdf/a4/1-sided/redh.pdf

Canada’s best Mystery Magazine, Sleuth,  featuring Tony Stark’s Holmes adventure, The Case of the Porcelain Doll:

https://www.amazon.ca/Sleuth-Magazine-E-Bell-ebook/dp/B018UGTR0E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466641337&sr=8-1&keywords=sleuth+magazine

Wisteria Lodgers of Edmonton

https://sherlockholmesedmonton.wordpress.com/

And finally, and awesome radio broadcast of Sir John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson performing The Red-Headed League:

 

 

News, Our Books, Uncategorized

Brian Paone Sits Down with StarkLight Press

Posted on June 19, 2016 By admin No Comments on Brian Paone Sits Down with StarkLight Press

Interview with Brian Paone

paone author pic.jpgwith Virginia Carraway Stark and StarkLight Press

Hugo Award nominated musical/rock fiction author, Brian Paone, was born and raised in the Salem, Massachusetts area. His love of writing began through the medium of short stories at the young age of twelve. After almost twenty years of consistently writing short stories for only his friends and family to read, Brian’s first full-length novel, a personal memoir about his friendship with a drug addicted rock-star titled, Dreams Are Unfinished Thoughts, was published in 2007. Brian’s second novel, Welcome to Parkview, was published in 2010 and is a macabre journey through a cerebral-horror landscape. Brian’s latest novel, a time-travel romance titled, Yours Truly, 2095, was published in 2015 and follows a man who wakes up trapped in the future, to discover he’s been the victim of a time-travel conspiracy by a woman who is not what she appears to be. Along with his three novels, Brian has two published short stories: “Outside of Heaven,” which is featured in the anthology, A Matter of Words, and “The Whaler’s Dues,” which is featured in the anthology, A Journey of Words. Brian is married to a US Navy nurse and has four children. He is also police officer and has been working in law enforcement since 2002. Brian has ideas for enough future novels where he should be able to continue publishing books well past retirement. When Brian isn’t writing, he is playing or recording music with his band. He is also a self-proclaimed roller coaster junkie, and his favorite color is burnt-orange. For more information on all his books and music, visit www.BrianPaone.com

You can listen to ‘Outside of Heaven’ for free, simply by clicking this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGB_3naL1N4

http://www.scoutmediabooksmusic.com/of-words-series/

https://www.facebook.com/BrianPaonesNovels

https://www.brianpaone.com

(NOTE: Chris isn’t part of the group anymore so I took that part out) Brian Paone is dedicated to helping other authors to realize their dreams and runs the Facebook Page ‘Fiction Writing.’ If you’re interested in an online community that is supportive and fun ask to join the Fiction Writing group to share your work, get feedback, get tips and learn from other’s success and failures check it out here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/611602735649133/

All 3 of Brian’s published novels are available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook.

Paone book cover.jpg

Thanks for joining us at StarkLight Press today, Brian!

I guess my first question is ‘author and musician’? Those are two difficult skills in one Brian shaped package! What sort of musician are you and do you multi-task in this sphere?

  • I have been in recording/touring bands for 19 years now. I have been in a total of 4 bands, and my 7th album is coming out at the end of the summer this year. I am the singer & keyboard player for all 4 of my bands.
  • Drop Kick Jesus has 2 albums: “Splatterguts” (1998) & “Depress The Heart” (2001), and we sound like a cross between Slayer and Slipknot.
  • The Grave Machine has 1 album: “The Grave Machine” (2004), and we sound like a cross between Ministry and Neurosis.
  • Transpose has 2 albums: “A Delicate Impact” (2007) & “Retribution” (2011) and we sound like a cross between Deftones and Thursday.
  • Yellow #1 has 2 albums: “Bottle of Rain” (1997) & “Thanks for the Nostalgia” (that’s the album that’s coming out later this year, 2016) and we sound like a cross between Nine Inch Nails and Digital Underground.

How do you find time to write as well as being a Police Officer? Do you work full time as an Officer?

  • I worked fulltime as an officer from July, 2002 until October, 2011, when I then went to part-time, and have been ever since. I wrote and published my first 2 novels, Dreams are Unfinished Thoughts and Welcome to Parkview while working fulltime, writing on days off and some nights staying up until the morning writing. But I was working part-time when I wrote Yours Truly, 2095.

paone yours truly 2095 cover.jpg

Was it ever a decision between the three careers of Police Officer, Author and Musician?

  • There was never a decision because I was able to sustain all three; working fulltime as an officer, playing concerts and mini-tours with my band on the weekends, and writing at night or my days off during weekdays. I somehow found a way to make it all work. However, because music is my number one love, if a genie was to grant me fame and success in one career of my choice, I would pick music and my band without even blinking an eye.

How do you find that the three jobs nourish and grow the other careers? Do you take a lot of the lessons learned as one of them and apply those lessons to the others?

  • To be honest, I leave my policing career 100% out of my writing and music career. However, if anything, it’s my writing and music career that consistently blend and integrate with each other. My band Transpose’s 2011 album, “Retribution,” is a concept album that is a short story I wrote. Instead of trying to publish the story, we took the story (dialogue and all) and wrote our album around the story. So every night, when we play that album night, it’s me really just singing the words to my own short story. I even made a movie to go along with the album that I published on YouTube:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYb9fx0okmw

What is the most important thing that you’ve learned as a writer?

  • You can’t rely on family and friends to all buy your book. If you want anyone to read your work, you must promote, promote, promote… and then promote again.

Would you say that is the same answer for what the most import thing you’ve learned in life is?

  • Most important thing I’ve learned in life is, when there is a bump in the road, or an instrument doesn’t work on stage, or a plot idea isn’t panning out, you just … keep … moving forward.

If you could pick one song to describe your career as a writer, what song would you pick and why?

  • “A Small Victory” by Faith No More

When you were a kid did you say: I’m going to be a writer and a cop and a musician or did these careers grow with you?

  • Yup. That’s EXACTLY what I said. I started obsessing over Pink Floyd when I was just 6 years old and wanted to be a musician. I saw a girl get beat up in 5th grade and then wanted to be a cop so I could help people. And I read Stephen King and started writing my own fiction in 7th grade and wanted to be an author.

Of your jobs, do you have a favorite? Do you have a dream that you could quit two or one and focus on a narrower field or do you like things just the way they are?

  • I am very happy with my careers so far. I have achieved some milestones and accomplishments in both music and writing that other’s try their whole life to reach. My band has played a sold-out show at CBGBs in NYC (the most famous club in North America), I have toured and opened for many of my musical idols. I have 3 published novels that keep surprising me in their sales and positive reviews.

What’s your most treasured ‘incident’ as a writer with a reader?

  • Last year I had a fan email me to tell me that my first novel, Dreams are Unfinished Thoughts, is his favorite book of all time, and convinced him to not commit suicide and get help for his addictions. He asked if I wouldn’t mind Skyping with him so he could thank me “in person.” I agreed, and then found out … he lived in Russia!!!

What is the worst moment you’ve ever had as an author?

  • Thunderstorm. Auto-save turned off. Writing Dreams are Unfinished Thoughts. Wrote for about 10 hours straight. Lights flickered. Power went out. Lost about 20,000 words. POOF.

If you were suddenly confronted with an alien ship landing in your backyard would the aliens be friendly or fierce? What would you do next?

  • Hopefully they would taste like chicken.

How would you describe your life? Is it generally easy, hard or somewhere in-between?

  • My life is pretty easy. As a part-time officer, I only have to work the street about 14 shifts over the span of 3 months. Other than that, I am in my office Monday – Friday either writing a new story or novel, editing other author’s work, or creating music for my band. I do have 3 children (with a 4th due in August) so when they come home from school, it’s like tornado alley in my house.

When do you do the most writing?

  • Weekdays between 0700 – 1500, and after the kids go to bed at night (if I’m not working on new music with my band).

What’s your worst distraction from writing and how do you fight it?

  • The Fiction Writing Facebook group that I admin. I can’t fight it. I have to be there. Ha!

What is the one thing you would tell yourself as a young writer if you could go back in time and give young you advice?

  • DO NOT approve that first editor that was hired to edit Welcome to Parkview! Go straight to the second editor that was hired after the first one was fired… that’s almost a year of your life you’ll never get back.

paone welcome to parkville-2.jpg

Is this the same advice you tell young writers when you mentor them now?

  • I tell them to at least GET an editor. Do not self-edit your own work, and DO NOT self-publish anything that hasn’t been professionally edit yet.

paone writing young.jpg

What’s something new and exciting that you would like to share with everyone?

  • I have begun outlining my 4th book, tentatively untitled. It’s going to be a comedic-military novel, almost in the style of the film Mr. Mom with Michael Keaton. This will be about the true adventures I had when my wife, who is an Officer in the Navy, left me alone with our two toddlers when she got deployed for 8 months to Djibouti, Africa, and the learning curve and craziness that ensued during those months. I’m hoping to have a 2017 release schedule for that.

Any final thoughts you’d like to share?

  • Best advice I ever received: Don’t write while drinking!
  • Worst advice I ever received: Don’t write while drinking!
Author Interviews, Uncategorized

Blue Moon Season Contest Winners!

Posted on June 15, 2016 By admin 1 Comment on Blue Moon Season Contest Winners!

An official StarkLight Press congratulations to the winners of our were-being anthology, entitled Blue Moon Season!

This anthology features stories of transmogrification- each one has a transformation into something were… sometimes a wolf, sometimes a giant worm, sometimes a lamp. Each story will be certain to send chills down your spine; the entire anthology will make a gripping summer read!

Here are our winners:

Maria Gonzalez

Van Fleming

Jenn Spaulding

Alfie Elkins

Leanne Caine

Will Norton

Anna Brown

Leo McBride

Nicholas Vincenzi

Piper Tadwell

Cathy Illes

 

Congratulations to our new StarkLight Press contest winners!

– Tony Stark,

Publisher and CEO,

StarkLight Press.

Our Books, Our Writers, StarkLight Press Merchandise, Uncategorized

Voices Heard

Posted on June 15, 2016 By admin

StarkLight Press would like to announce the beginning of a very special project, Voices Heard.

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This anthology will feature 100 authors who have suffered a violent crime- one for which they have not found justice. Each author will be given 3 pages in the anthology to arrange as they like: photos, artwork, poems, journal entries, essays, creative writing. In three pages, we invite these survivors of crime to explore and explain not just their experience, but the experience of not having been adequately heard by the world around them.

Please feel free to contact us at starklightdesk@gmail.com with a brief overview (200-1000 words) about why you would be a good fit for this anthology. The first 100 appropriate artists and writers will be chosen for this anthology, the proceeds of which go to anti-violence charities in North America.

We thank you in advance for your interest in this very special project, and invite you to share it with organizations and individuals for whom you think it would be useful.

– Tony Stark,

Publisher and CEO,

StarkLight Press.

 

Events, Our Books, StarkLight Press Merchandise, Uncategorized

Virginia Carraway Stark and Her Posse of Great Ladies

Posted on June 11, 2016 By admin 1 Comment on Virginia Carraway Stark and Her Posse of Great Ladies

virginia athena erect sword

Virginia Carraway Stark has a diverse portfolio and has many publications. Getting an early start on writing, Virginia has had a gift for communication, oration and storytelling from an early age. Over the years she has developed this into a wide range of products from screenplays to novels to articles to blogging to travel journalism. She has been published by many presses from grassroots to Simon and Schuster for her contribution to ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Possible’ as seen on ABC. She has been an honorable mention at Cannes Film Festival for her screenplay, “Blind Eye” and was nominated for an Aurora Award.

She has written short stories in well over twenty anthologies as well as magazines, novels, poetry, poetry anthologies, blogs, journals and many other venues. She is Editor-in-Chief at StarkLight Press as well as for Outermost: Journal of the Paranormal. She formerly worked writing medical papers into language for the lay person and worked on scientific papers for numerous platforms and did professional editing as well.

https://virginiastark.wordpress.com/about/

https://www.facebook.com/Virginiacarrawaystark/?fref=ts

https://virginiastark.wordpress.com/contact-me/

Hi, Virginia, thanks for spending some time sharing insights into your writing today. The Great Ladies Anthology was impacting for everyone who worked on it, how did it impact you?

I ended up writing several stories for this anthology. A lot of people had a hard time with it as an assignment so I ended up with the whole spectrum of what could be considered, ‘great’. Great is a word we throw around without thinking about it much and when it is aptly applied to people, particularly historical people, it is a word with a lot of power to it. “Great Ladies” aren’t often very ‘nice’ ladies and that’s part of how they worked to become great. They had the will and the determination to manifest their light into a world that was predominantly ruled by men. That wasn’t an easy job and nice girls need not apply.

Some of the great ladies were truly great in their time, but Hitler was truly ‘great’ during his time too. He made a HUGE impact on the world and as we counted the toll after the war his ‘greatness’ grew and grew. He caused great horror, great death and great trauma. Nevertheless, he was still ‘great’.

great ladies isabella virginia

Queen Isabella of Spain was the great lady that I wrote that impacted me the most. She was strikingly like Adolph Hitler in how dogmatic, brutal, bloody and racist she was, and yet we owe much of the modern world to her impact on it. She shaped the world in her image and that is in the end greatness whether we want to admit it or not. Great also doesn’t mean likeable, politically correct or ethical.

Greatness is also influenced by the fashions and beliefs of the era. Isabella is the perfect example of this. She was following the ethics and morality of the Catholic Church and she obeyed the Pope in everything he told her to do. She came to the throne at a morally degenerate stage in Spain’s history. The country was in anarchy and her half brother had been weak willed but worse yet, far worse by Isabella and the Church’s standards, her half brother had also been gay.

Isabella honestly believed that she had to do anything the Church told her to save her brother’s soul and she didn’t care who she had to kill, invade or exile to do so. She invented the Spanish Inquisition, overran the largely peaceful area of Grenada that had been home to Muslims, killed or exiled all the Jews and then started in on heretics and witches.

But it gets worse.

Unlike Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Regime, there was a clear-cut beginning and an end to the horrors he caused. There was an end to the death and to his political power. Isabella, on the other hand, not only had a long and bloody rule but her standards for the Inquisition continued for HUNDREDS of years after her death. Isabella was buried and people were still being tortured, maimed, hunted and killed for their religion, their beliefs or just on the accusations of people who were afraid themselves of being burned at the stake and tortured. Or maybe having a finger pointed at you because someone, somewhere, doesn’t like you.

This is another area where Isabella’s ‘greatness’ smacked me hard in the face. She didn’t look for a way to kill millions as painlessly and efficiently as possible, she looked for ways to torture the human body to its utter limit to make the pain last as long as possible.

As I researched her I realized that she was great, but not in the way I had thought. Not in that way at all. She was a great killer and the most terrifying thing is that I’m positive she died believing she had done the will of God and would go to her reward in the afterlife for how incredibly great she was. Even now when we describe history’s greatest monsters I have never once heard Isabella of Spain referenced even though I’m sure she earned the title.

So, I guess to answer your question, the impact on me of Great Ladies was that first of all, I was thoroughly educated in the history of many women that I had a less than complete understanding of and second of all, I had to completely re-evaluate my concept of what the word ‘great’ was. I had to do this without being reactive and disgusted. I had to think about things from Isabella’s perspective and I had to most of all, not judge her, but be her. It was a queasy feeling but I think it made me a legitimately bigger person to learn and understand these less than desirable qualities of greatness.

What Ladies did you end up writing about?

Great Ladies was an invitation only event and we had a lot of people who just couldn’t do the job and so they dropped out. Some people found the lady that they had been given wasn’t a good match for them. If I could find a good match for the lady I would replace the person but the ones that were ‘lost’ I adopted and took onto myself to write. We also had a few people who had last minute problems and so I had to re-write stories after the fact to make up for this.

great ladies aphra behn virginia

The Great Lady that I actually drew was Aphra Behn. I had never heard of her before. I had looked up names of great ladies on the internet and wrote down their names, usually based off of how often they were listed. Aphra Behn was mentioned repeatedly and was a compatriot of Charles the Second of England. I was surprised I had never heard of her since this is a period in history that I have researched relatively thoroughly. She was truly amazing and after learning about her she became a hero to me. She was fearless, creative, beautiful and utterly loyal. I enjoyed the definition of ‘great’ much more in reference to Aphra Behn than I did to Isabella of Spain!

Isabella, I have, of course mentions, I also wrote Eva Peron, Catherine the Great and we will be editing in a new version of Joan of Arc that I will write for the second edition of this collection. If I have time I may also include Elizabeth Woodville. We lost both of those stories, one to plagiarism and one to grumpiness of the writer involved.

great ladies marie curie virginia

How did you deal with those last minute re-writes?

Everyone was shocked to find the original author for Elizabeth Woodville had plagiarized her story. When it was run through a plagiarism checker it came up as 99% plagiarized! I think the one percent that wasn’t was probably just the author putting her own name on the story. The author denied the accusations vehemently even when she was shown the results of the checker and an interview that clearly states what Phillipa Gregory made up and what was on the historical record. The author had just read Gregory’s novel and counted it as historic research and claimed fictional thing from Ms. Gregory as her own creation.

We were mortified! We had trusted the woman involved and when we ran her other stories through checkers the worst came up as 15% plagiarized so, she could write, she just decided that she liked Phillipa Gregory’s story so much that she would take it for herself. How she thought she would get away with it? I have no clue. Pure delusion is the only conclusion I can come to. Gregory’s book The White Queen (which I had read and lead to us running it for plagiarism), is being turned into a mini-series so stealing from it was beyond self destructive. The fact that she thought she wouldn’t get caught out when it was not only from an extremely well known and respected historical novelist but also a mini-series suggested to me that their may have been some mental instability involved.

As for the Joan of Arc story, the author of that one made it plain that he wasn’t happy and then demanded free books and I think was looking for a position as an editor. It was unpleasant and rude and that’s why my husband started a press, so we wouldn’t have to work with jerks. So we cut his story from the second edition and my story will be made available instead.

We don’t like people who undermine and make power grabs at our press. When it comes down to it I would rather help a new writer blossom than a more experienced writer whine and moan at me about every little thing. There comes a point where if you are that critical of the people you work with, then you should spare everyone (including yourself) and just go somewhere else where hopefully you can be happy. Some people, however are happiest when they are miserable lol!

What are your thoughts on doing a sequel to Great Ladies? Who would you pick?

I would definitely like to be involved in a sequel. As for who I would pick for a great lady this time around, I have no clue. There are so many women who are largely unacknowledged or who were in the firs anthology and such a small slice of their life was written about that it would be great to write more about them.

Women come from an angle in history that is totally different from men. There are these huge hurdles that come up before they even get to the meat of the problems of life. With men there is a problem and they can either attain success or not. With women, there is this whole other aspect to things where you have to prove that you even belong on the chessboard before you can start to play.

How did this contrast with the ‘Game Changers Anthology’ due to come out for Labor Day?

I answered some of this one earlier, of course. When writing about men you can kind of cut right to the chase but with women there is always the ‘proving’ stage. It’s kind of assumed that men belong while with women, in nearly any situation you have to make room for yourself.

I chose Leonardo Da Vinci for the Game Changer’s anthology. He’s a fascinating historical figure and had a lot of ideas that seemed to be utterly out of time and space. He was like a time traveler to the era. I think that’s why I chose him, in a way, he starts out of place like a woman does. He had ideas that couldn’t be enacted because they just didn’t have the technology to measure up to what he believed was possible. He was a dreamer and he was out of phase with the rest of the world.

In this way, I find my choice for Game Changers similar to the Great Ladies Anthology because unlike most men, he didn’t fit in with the other men around him. The way he thought, the way he acted and his beliefs in the impossible made him an outsider who had to bend himself out of shape to play by the established rules of the time.

As a mother’s day gift, how do you think ‘Great Ladies’ measured up?

I think that it’s a pretty cool mother’s day gift. It’s hard to express to our mothers how deeply they impact us for good and ill in our lives. Even if a mother dies during childbirth or if a child is given up for adoption, ever action their mother takes is ‘great’. They are our creators and for all the amazing things they do they can mess us up too.

This anthology, as an actual mother’s day gift makes a statement that is deeply profound and possibly, just a little bit insulting but mainly aggrandizing. It is a way to say to our mothers that they are everything to us, their actions affect us on a cellular level from the very start and they can be queens, commoners, monsters or a combination of all three. They can be any thing to us and accepting our mothers as human beings that are capable of evil as well as good is both a high compliment and acknowledgment as well as a realization that they are human and capable of destroying us more than anything else.

Any closing thoughts to share?

This was to date the most challenging of all the anthologies I have been involved with. Other than novels, I have never had to bend my mind around so many corners to understand the essence of people. The histories of these women, their childhoods alone were remarkable. The heights that they rose to were astounding and doing it in the past, where the world was even more of a ‘man’s world’ than it is today makes everything they accomplished exponentially remarkable.

I still think about what I learned from writing about these women frequently even still and I think for everyone involved that these women moved into our heads in a lot of ways. 

Author Interviews, Events, News, Our Books, Our Writers, StarkLight Press Merchandise, Uncategorized

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Recent Posts

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Recent Comments

  1. virginiaseastark on Integrity in the Multiverse
  2. נערות ליווי on Welcome to Poetry Month
  3. נערות ליווי on Tales from Space 3 Short Story Contest
  4. נערות ליווי on StarkLight Press Calendar
  5. נערות ליווי on StarkLight Press attends National Conference
  • Virginia Carraway Stark and Her Posse of Great Ladies Author Interviews
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  • The Lament of the White Star
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