The Holocaust Engine

The Holocaust Engine by David Rike and Stephen Patrick

Tag: #writerslife

What dreams may come?

October 14, 2020 /

For many writers, the ethereal landscape of the dreaming mind has generated countless wonders that amaze the dreamer and the reader alike.

Coleridge’s Kubla Khan sprang forth from an opium-influenced dream. Mary Shelley first met Frankenstein  while she was dreaming. Mr. Hyde (and Dr. Jekyl) crept up on a feverish Robert Louis Stevenson in a dream. Edgar Allen Poe was the master of dream-mining, putting the quickly evaporating tales into print to share with the rest of us (and cause a few nightmares, too).

Today’s question: do you take inspiration from your dreams? Ever woke up, scribbled down the nonsense and tried to decipher it? Nuggets of wisdom? Puzzles to unlock? or just gibberish? If so, tell us about the experience and the result.

Writing Wednesday #4

October 7, 2020 /

Who sits in your co-pilot’s chair?

When you set down to create at a desk, laptop, easel or workbench, do you have a partner? We’ll share ours below, but we’d love to see yours in the comments section, including any suggestions for keeping that co-pilot happy.

***

David Rike and I write as a team; brainstorming, plotting and scheming across a variety of mediums. However, when it’s time to set down the story in ink, our writing practices diverge quite a bit. See below for a bit of insight on who sits beside us when we create.

STEPHEN PATRICK:

“There’s always a furry friend beside me. Curled up in my lap, on my feet, on the couch beside me, somewhere close by. My current muse, Ash, a silver/smoke Maine Coon, always keeps a close watch. I’m pretty sure he’s hunting for any words that try to escape.”

DAVID RIKE:

“no partners. minimal distractions.”

Writer Wednesday #3

September 30, 2020 /

“How” do you write?

For my writer friends, what is your preferred method for putting it all down for your reader? Ours are at the bottom, but please drop yours in the comments. We want to see inside your process.

  • Pencil + paper?
  • Ink + notebook?
  • Chisel + stone
  • Fire + blanket
  • In the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • Not at all (writing words down robs them of the freedom to be what they want to be)

DAVID RIKE: I only write in a notebook these days if I’m somewhere interesting enough (beach or mountainside) to justify the extra step of typing it up later. Otherwise it’s on a laptop, in an empty room, with mood music.

STEPHEN PATRICK: Pen + paper. I carry a notebook with me almost everywhere, specifically this one. I’ll burn through 2-3 each year (typically one in the Spring and one in the Summer), filling them with story seeds, character ideas, plot threads, lists, and all sorts of things. Sometimes they come to live in a work-in-progress. Other times they survive on the bookshelf until I hit a wall and skim through them, mining them for new ideas. I regularly find a solution to a problem that hasn’t arrived yet. Most recently, I’m using MS OneNote for the formal storytelling, using it to build up to a final draft in MS Word.

When pen hits the page

September 20, 2020 /

Today’s “Writer’s Life” post explores the “when” of our writing:

When do you write and why?

DAVID RIKE: I like morning best.  I’ve found I only have a certain amount of creativity each day and if I don’t use it writing I wind up exhausting it just in the other details of my day.

STEPHEN PATRICK: Morning before the family is awake and late at night when they are asleep are my most productive times. I’m a big fan of speech-to-text, so I’ve crafted scenes and ideas while driving to work and while on the treadmill. To be fair, I’ve also sketched a few scenes in waiting rooms and on a train ride downtown.

Writer Wednesday

September 16, 2020 /

One of the best things about being a writer is having writer friends. The creative churn of new releases, WIPs, and discussions about what they’re working on is inspiring.

To celebrate the release of “The Holocaust Engine” by Evolved Publishing, I want to hear what my friends are working on. Drop your links, or even thoughts about that new WIP in the comments below.

Show us what’s out there and what’s coming.

September 14, 2020 /

With the release of “The Holocaust Engine”, here is a guide to our corner of the web. This post should help you get started with what you may find here and why you should take a look around or subscribe to keep up with our updates.

http://holocaustengine.com/ has three goals:

  • Provide a home for news and insights related to “The Holocaust Engine”, our thriller trilogy set in Key West, FL.
  • Provide a platform for deeper dives into the book for those readers who want to learn more
  • Provide a place for to share inspirations and and insights related to writing and the process that guides the development of this series and the authors’ writing processes.

Whether you find what you’re looking for or you want something more, please let us know in the comments or simply like/share as you wish.

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