Author name: DahliaDW

Blogging, Tuesdays

Old Characters Made New

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Sometimes it’s okay to look back. I’m doing an author’s challenge on Instagram, and day 12 asked me about my protagonist. Now, I’m currently working on three stories, editing and updating them for publication. Not such bad work, especially since I’ve been living with these characters for a while. I do best with writing when I’m the most familiar with my characters, at least for a few months. I guess I’ll never be that writer who can pump out a new book every month, and I’m okay with that. I’m working with characters I’ve “known” since 2011-2012 For those of you who have read Second Chance Christmas, know that Naomi and Zach had a story before their Christmas story. Yep. They were the very first story that I submitted for publication. Unfortunately, it was rejected. I then wrote Kitty Wishes, and I never went back to the story. However, I… Continued

Movies--Books--Music--Television

Movie Review: A Kind of Murder

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I’ve been neglecting this blog, I know, but I’m back with a new routine and a vengeance.  This time around, I’ve got a bit of a change for your reading pleasure.  Instead of a horror movie review, I have a bit of a thriller review. Title:  A Kind of Murder Starring:  Patrick Wilson, Jessica Biel Based on Patricia Highsmith’s book, The Blunderer Summary, from IMDB: In 1960s New York, Walter Stackhouse is a successful architect married to the beautiful Clara who leads a seemingly perfect life. But his fascination with an unsolved murder leads him into a spiral of chaos as he is forced to play cat-and-mouse with a clever killer and an overambitious detective, while at the same time lusting after another woman. Now, an admission:  there are two reasons why I chose this movie.  First of all, the filmed is based on a book by Patricia Highsmith, author

Blogging

Why I Write and Other Shocking Revelations

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“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic, and fear which is inherent in a human situation.” ― Graham Greene   I’m not going to start off this article with a starry-eyed reminiscence of how I longed to write as a child and left little scribbles of unfinished genius yet to be found in my bedroom in my childhood home. Even though that may be true. No.  My purpose of sitting down and writing this instead of tooling around on Toon Blast is to clarify for myself as to why I write. And you’re gonna listen. While you, as a reader (and all authors are readers) may think the answer is simple: I like to make up stories.  Or you see the quotes bandied around social media about “the story within”

Movies--Books--Music--Television, Tuesdays, Uncategorized, Writing

The More You Know: the Magic of Why

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I’ve been writing professionally for about seven years.  The one thing I’ve noticed about my writing and my production of published books is that I’m a slow writer.  Now, don’t take that to mean I put in a comma in the morning and remove it in the afternoon, no.  It’s just that my stories come together very slowly.  Sure, I may have an awesome idea for a book, but to be honest, it takes years for some books to come to fruition. I wrote my first published book, Kitty Wishes, in a week.  It’s cute enough book, but it’s not satisfying to me.  I feel I could have done a lot better.  But hey, it was my first book and it was a learning process. Another of my books, Loving Among the Dead, was basically written in 2012, but fussed over and revamped until it was published in 2014. It

Horror Movie Reviews, Movies--Books--Music--Television

Horror Movie Review – Tales from the Hood 2

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The one thing I enjoyed the most about Tales from the Hood 2 was Keith David. The moment I saw his face, I knew that at least the wrap-around story would hold my attention. Mr. David has a strong screen presence and a resonant, unique voice and thus is the perfect choice for a storyteller. However, while I did enjoy his presence in the movie, the stories left a lot to be desired. The first story, “Good Golly”, had a lot of promise. The Museum of Negrosity’s proprietor talked about the atrocities visited upon Blacks that the silly visitors (one black, one white) were making light of. I appreciated the reminder/history lesson of what Africans went through as slaves and as second class citizens in this country, much of which continues to this day. I also liked how the segment insisted that we in the present not make light of

Uncategorized

Ode to an Electric Pressure Cooker

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I am not a cook. It is only rarely that I enjoy putting together a meal, and that’s when I get inspired by a new recipe or stumbled upon an old favorite while leafing through a cookbook. That being said, I’m not a total flop in the kitchen – I can throw together a pretty good holiday dinner.  It’s just the everyday of cooking that I find a little tedious. That being said, I have recently acquired an appliance that has made my cooking life that much easier.  It’s not a new recipe book, nor is it a live-in cook, or a meal delivery service. It’s an electric pressure cooker. Somehow these magical appliances have flown below my radar for the past few years. If you had asked me about a pressure cooker, I would immediately recall a scary, hissing pot sitting on the back of my mother’s stove, with

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