Interview with Writer and Author, Charles F. French, Part 2

Once again, thank you so much to K.D. Dowdall for conducting this interview with me!

Pen & Paper

Good day to you Professor Charles F. French!  Thank you  for taking time, in your busy schedule, between teaching literature at two universities in eastern Pennsylvania and writing great horror novels! I just read your latest horror novel,  Gallows Hill, and it is a blockbuster of a horror novel!  I am very interested in discovering more about why reading, writing, and teaching is the love of your life.  Thank you for answering the following questions.  I know your readers are as anguish to know all about you as I am.

1.  How do you get your ideas for writing books, such as Maledicus, your first published book, but not the only novel you have written?

This may sound odd, and I do not know what it says about either me or the creative process, but I see characters and wonder what their stories are. I begin to think about…

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Quotations From Umberto Eco

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

I am currently teaching Umberto Eco’s extraordinary novel The Name Of The Rose in my European Novel In Translation class at the Wescoe School of Muhlenberg College, so I was inspired to offer some of his quotations from this book.

“I wrote a novel because I had a yen to do it. I believe this is sufficient reason to set out to tell a story. Man is a storytelling animal by nature.” (546)

“Often books speak of other books.” (306)

“Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry.” (338)

Eco, Umberto. The Name Of The Rose. Trans. William

     Weaver. New York. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2014.

      Print.

 

Gallows Hill can be found here in ebook.

Gallows Hill in paperback can be found here.

An interview about Gallows Hill can be found here.

Please follow the following links to find my novel:

ebook

Print book

Thank you!

The book trailer:

Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I

My radio interview:

interview

An Interview with Charles F. French, Writer and Author, Part 1

Thank you to KD Dowdall for her interview with me!

Pen & Paper

Good day to you Professor Charles F. French!  Thank you for taking time in your busy schedule, between teaching literature at two universities in eastern Pennsylvania and writing great horror novels! I just read your latest horror novel,  Gallows Hill, and it is a blockbuster of a horror novel!  I am very interested in discovering more about why reading, writing, and teaching is the love of your life.  Thank you for answering the following questions.  I know your readers are as anguish to know all about you as I am.

1. How old were you when you started reading books?

I was three years old I believe. I know I cannot remember not being able to read, and I know that my mom always read to me from a very young age.

1. What kind of books, when you were a child, interested you the most?

I loved reading any kind…

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Beautiful Writing Tools Revisited

I have updated a very early post that I thought my readers might enjoy.

charles french words reading and writing

(https://pixabay.com)

I was thinking recently about the beauty of old-fashioned writing instruments. I sit here typing this post on my computer, after having drafted it first by hand, a writing habit I always try to follow. Drafting by pen slows down the process and forces me to focus on the immediate words I am choosing rather than my thoughts flying ahead to other parts of the piece. By slowing the writing down, my concentration increases, and my writing becomes stronger.

Regardless of the length of the project, from a short story or article to a novel, I always work in this method.

On taking a break, I put down my pen, admittedly not a very special or beautiful item, and began to consider writing implements from the past. The two pics I found of an old manual typewriter and a fountain pen and paper are things of beauty. Not only…

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Love Note

This is wonderful!

A Teacher's Reflections

“Dear Jennie, I can’t wait to see you.  But I don’t see you much.  So I am so happy to see you and I will see you the rest of the day.  Jennie I love you so much.”

I love you too, Scarlett. ❤️

Jennie

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Remember to Register and Vote

(https://pixabay.com)

If you are one of the people who was horrified by the recent tragedy of the Parkland, Florida school shooting and you wish to do something to enact changes in gun legislation, there is one crucial action or actions you should take: if you are not registered to vote, register immediately, and then vote.

There is no excuse for not voting–none. And if you want to enact gun control legislation, then do your research and find out where the candidates stand. The population of the United States consistently polls that it wants gun control, so act on your convictions.

Voting is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, tools in our democracy, and I hope the young people who are leading this fight also register to vote when they are 18 and then vote. If we, who want gun control legislation, do vote, then our voices will be heard, and the narrow special interest that is the NRA will have its influence nullified.

Be sure to vote!

(https://pixabay.com)

Tips for Writers: Write What You Know?

This is a wonderful post on writing by Mitch Teemley!

Mitch Teemley

A successful writer friend once went tiradical on me when I mentioned the literary admonition, “Write what you know.”

“I hate that!” she shouted.

“Why?”

“It restricts you! What if you want to write about something you’ve never experienced?”

Interestingly, that very week I’d invented a two-storey tall talking bird named Aviar for my fantasy novel The Wishing Map. I confess, I have never personally known any two-storey tall talking birds. But I did know my father-in-law, an irascibly lovable, salt-of-the-earth Arkansan. And he was the model for Aviar. When my wife read the passage, she said, “Oh, yeah, that’s Dad.”

What my normally insightful writer friend seemed to have missed was this: “Write what you know” doesn’t mean “restrict yourself to direct experience.” It means: write the underlying truths you’ve observed about people, their quirks, motives, fears, hopes. You can invent the window dressing (giant talking bird, Viking warrior…

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It Comes Down To Reading

This is another excellent post from Jennie, and this one is about the importance of reading for children, specifically learning the love of reading!

A Teacher's Reflections

Children who were in my class many years ago are now making decisions on college acceptances.  They stay in touch, and I feel the worry and joy right along with them.  And guess what happens?  They are accepted into the school(s) of their choice.  And, I know why.  I do.

It’s not me.  Really.  It comes down to reading.  Hang onto your hat for these statistics, and one of the best stories about a kid from Russell, Kentucky.

Jim Trelease was spot on when he said “Reading is the heart of education.  The knowledge of almost every subject in school flows from reading.  One must be able to read the word problem in math to understand it.  If you cannot read the science or social studies chapter, how do you answer the questions at the end of the chapter?”

Parents tell me all the time about their child’s struggles in…

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Follow Me~

These are beautiful photographs from Cindy Knoke!

Over the rainbow,

through Tierra del Fuego,

and up the Chilean Fjords, to find the mysteries at the southern end of the earth!

In Southern Chile, in the Lahuen Nadi National Park, live the second oldest trees in the world, the endangered Alerce Trees. Although previously extensively logged, these gorgeous Alcere’s can live up to 3600 years and reach up to 120 feet in height. They have been protected by the Chilean government since 1976.

I have spent much time amongst the oldest living organisms in the world, the Bristlecone Pines in Northern California, so I had to go and see their southern sisters. Just like the Bristlecones, the Alerce’s presence is not advertised in order to protect the trees, and not many people visit here. Walking amongst them is a thrill worth traveling to the ends of the earth to experience.

This temperate rain forest region in Chile is…

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The Old Lie

Please, in the name of the victims of the most recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, let us begin to do something to change the national insanity of gun deaths.

Stop with the old lie — “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” It is illogical, fallacious, wrong, and stupid. Guns are weapons and are designed to expel bullets that are intended to kill. That is their purpose. That is why they exist.

Guns kill people.

Guns are not used to make paintings; they are not used to drive screws into wood; they are not made to make omelets; they are not created to write letters; and they are not aimed at making sculptures.

Guns are made to kill. That is their purpose.

The United States has a history of gun ownership based on the 2nd Amendment. As  I would say to my students, please do a close reading, parse the language, and understate what it says. If you do, then the phrase “A well-regulated militia” is crucial to understand. The militia of today is the National Guard–that is the militia of the United States of America. If you believe in the 2nd Amendment, then you should enlist in the National Guard.

Guns do kill people. Let us never forget that. And let us stop accepting the old lie.