WELCOME BONNIE MILANI
BONNIE MILANI
Bonnie vividly recalls the book that helped her decide she could out-write another writer: it was a junior reader’s biography of Sir William Harvey, the 17th century English physician credited (in the West) with discovering how blood circulates. After about 30 pages of telling herself “I can write better than that!” she grabbed a crayon that just happened to be blue and started editing. She was all of seven years old at the time. Unfortunately for her juvenile bottom it was a library book. She followed the dream through college and after grad school, freelancing feature articles for newspapers along the East Coast. Milani even wrote a cover story for Science Digest! Alas life and grown up responsibilities caught up with her and by her late twenties she put writing away with so many other dreams while she followed a ‘career track’. After losing her entire family, she realized story telling just a want but a need and a gift God gave her. So here she is, a self-declared “middle-aged pudge” working on getting back into a writer’s kind of real life!
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GUEST POST
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
I don’t think there’s any one answer to that question. Story ideas pop out of conversations, observations, day dreams, or even just a flat out ‘what it’? Or sometimes even from just a shuddery moment. I’m working on a short story right now that grew out of an incident like that many years ago. Back when I was young and thin and thoughtless, I walked into a pet shop just to ooh and aah and the puppies. I noticed a fellow with a circle – a wide circle – around him over at the store counter, but didn’t pay him any attention. After all, to a ‘tweener what’s a guy compared to a puppy? I should’ve noticed, though. Because I was still ogling the puppy cages when I started to walk out – and found myself face-to-fanged face with the tarantula sitting on the back of that fellow’s hand. Now, I don’t know about the spider, but I’m reasonably sure I broke an Olympic record for standing side jump. I know I woke up ever living creature within a couple of hundred yards. I certainly annoyed the fellow; turns out tarantulas hate loud noises and that one was sitting on his hand. I didn’t stay around to find out. Now the reason I’m telling this story purpose of this story is that while I was shuddering my way home I got to wondering what the incident felt like from the tarantula’s perspective. And suddenly a very put-upon arachnid popped his head out of a web at the back of my mind and introduced himself as Rahss. Took many years and more questions to spin a story (sorry; couldn’t resist) around him, but Rahss is finally coming into his own.
By contrast, the idea for Home World grew out of a dream I had. In it a young woman in a highly decorated military dress uniform was chained to a dungeon wall. The imagery was so disturbing it woke me up. I am emphatically not into S & M or bondage. Fifty Shades does NOT have a place on my bookshelf. So the idea of a chained woman both puzzled and intrigued me. Maybe that’s why it turned into a recurring dream; I just couldn’t let the idea go. Gradually I worked out that she was Keiko Yakamoto, a Samurai-trained native Hawaiian from the wrong side of the gene pool. What grew up around her was a love story of interstellar political intrigue as two young princes vie for Keiko’s love with the very existence of humanity at stake.
I think we all come up with story ideas every day. Most of the time we just don’t realize it. Do you have something that feels like a story idea? An incident, maybe, in search of a plot? Sometimes all you need to do to find a good story is take a simple, everyday incident and turn it around. And voila! A story!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Home World is a fast paced well written story about the power and the price of love. This story takes place amid the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Waikiki. Jezekiah Van Buren thinks he has found a way to restore Earth – Home World, to the other worlds of the human commonwealth. His goal is to restore his home to her lost glory.
Ingenious even by the standards of the genetically enhanced Great Family Van Buren, Jezekiah has achieved the impossible: he has arranged a treaty that will convert Earth’s ancient enemies, the Lupans, to her most powerful allies. Not only will the treaty terms make Earth rich again, it will let him escape the Ring that condemns him to be Earth’s next ruler. Best of all, the treaty leaves him free to marry Keiko Yakamoto, the Samurai-trained woman he loves. Everything’s set. All Jezekiah has to do is convince his xenophobic sister to accept the Lupan’s alpha warlord in marriage.
Before, that is, the assassin she’s put on his tail succeeds in killing him. Or the interstellar crime ring called Ho Tong succeed in raising another rebellion. Or before his ruling relatives on competing worlds manage to execute him for treason. But Jezekiah was bred for politics and trained to rule. He’s got it all under control. Until his Lupan warlord-partner reaches Earth. And suddenly these two most powerful men find themselves in love with the same woman. A woman who just may be the most deadly assassin of them all.
BOOK DETAILS:
Publisher: Promontory Press; 1ST edition
Publication Date: Aug. 22n 2013
Number of Pages: 423
ISBN-10: 1927559235
ISBN-13: 978-1927559239PURCHASE LINKS:
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Hi, Cheryl!
You are so sweet! THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking the time to chat with me & allow me to share with your readers. Really appreciate it! If there’s anything you’d like me to add, or any questions you’d like answered just let me know.
Hugs
Bonnie Milani