Saturday, June 25, 2011

Steve Piacente was Our Guest on June 26th



Author Steve Piacente was our guest on June 26th. Listen to the Podcast now:




It all started for me in 1954. Eisenhower was president, no one beat the Yankees, and Elvis was still an unknown. TV was three channels and two colors, black and white. Growing up, I didn’t particularly like school. I liked baseball, egg rolls and comic books, and it was Superman that got me interested in reading and writing.


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Raised in New York and educated in Washington, I kept moving south after college, eventually learning all they left out at journalism school at the feet of street-smart newspaper editors in Florida and South Carolina.


In 1985, one of those editors found me presentable enough to send back to D.C., this time as correspondent for the Tampa Tribune. The job ended four years later, and I found myself in steep competition for a similar slot with the Charleston, S.C. paper. I remember pumping the Charleston editor’s hand and pleading, “Please don’t let me become a press secretary.”


The man was merciful, enabling nine more years of Washington reporting, and front row exposure to the real South, as Charleston is far deeper into Dixie than Tampa, geography be damned. As time wore on, my NY sensibilities blended with Southern convention to produce stories on intriguing topics such as public celebration of the Confederate flag, and segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond.


It was a great time until Charleston ran out of cash and shuttered its one-man D.C. bureau. Out in the cold, I - by this time a father of three ravenous, athletic, college-bound children - found warmth in a little known Federal agency called the U.S. General Services Administration. I began as a speechwriter and today head the agency’s web, new media, and graphics teams.


Though Bella is my first real fiction, some thin-skinned politicians would say the stories I wrote about them were just as fabricated. In fact, no fiction bubbled up until I earned my license to write in the Johns Hopkins Masters program in 2000. During this time, I also reentered the classroom at American University, my alma mater, and began teaching journalism classes.






My insistence on clean, tight writing did no lasting harm to the three afore-mentioned children, now taxpaying adults in the fields of public relations, web design, and engineering. It wasn’t until years later that I learned that the kids snuck secret help from their mom, Felicia Piacente, a special education administrator in the Montgomery County (Md.) Public School System.


Facebook: http://on.fb.me/bellaFB
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wordsprof

There are more videos on the YouTube page here:
http://www.youtube.com/getbella

And you can check out the Amazon reviews at: http://amzn.to/catchingon

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Stephen Jay Schwartz was Our Guest on June 18th


Author Stephen Jay Schwartz was our guest on June 18th. Listen to the Podcast now:

Los Angeles Times Bestselling Author Stephen Jay Schwartz spent a number of years as the Director of Development for Wolfgang Petersen where he
worked with writers, producers and studio executives to develop screenplays for production. Among the film projects he helped developed are Air Force One, Outbreak and Bicentennial Man.

His two novels, BOULEVARD and BEAT, follow the dysfunctional journey of LAPD Robbery-Homicide detective Hayden Glass as he fights crime and
corruption while struggling with his own sex-addiction.

Stephen has also written for the Discovery Channel and is currently writing his third novel, as well as a 3D zombie film on assignment.

Stephen Jay Schwartz lives in Southern California and can be found at his
website, www.stephenjayschwartz.com

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Kenyana David was our guest on June 11th

Author and Blog Talk Radio host, Kenyana David was our dynamic guest on June 11th. Listen to the Podcast now:
Listen to internet radio with The Funky Writer on Blog Talk Radio

Kenyana David is the host of PracticSeries, a writing podcast for emerging writers. Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she now lives in Buffalo, New York with her husband and their two children, boy and girl. Nidoy, her debut novel is set to release April 2012.

http://blogtalkradio.com/practicseries

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Francine Silverman was Our Guest on June 4th


Talk Radio Advocate Francine Silverman was our guest on June 4th. Listen to the Podcast now:

Listen to internet radio with The Funky Writer on Blog Talk Radio

“Talk Radio Advocate” Francine Silverman is an author/publicist and radio host, whose latest book is Talk Radio Wants You: An Intimate Guide to 700 Shows and How to Get Invited (McFarland & Co. 2009), a National "Best Books 2009" award winner in the Business: Reference category. The book contains everything a potential guest needs to know before contacting a host, including the theme of the show and guest criteria. She is now offering 16 ebooks of talk radio shows that follow that pattern and are in the following categories: Authors, Animals, Business, Entertainment, Environment, Food & Travel, Health, House and Garden, Men & Women, New Age, Parenting, Politics, Relationships, Science & Technology, Self-Help, and Sports.

http://www.talkradioadvocate.com