𝐴𝑙𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑧: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝐸𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒 tells the story of a daring escape from a prison that was supposed to be impossible to escape from. In 1979, the movie Escape from Alcatraz was released. According to this movie, Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin did succeed in escaping from Alcatraz only to drown and become fish food. That wasn’t much of a success. But is that what really happened?
All writers are asked, “Where do you get your ideas?”
After many months of mistakes and banging my head against the wall, I came up with a few principles related to creating fictional worlds. I’ve never written them down before and they’re by no means perfect, but they may help you craft your own world or at least generate some thoughts on how you would approach it.
We can all learn from history. I believe it is particularly important to show our children history, especially their family history, to help them understand who they are and where they came from.
How well do you remember the history that you were taught in school? That probably depends upon whether you found your history class fascinating or boring. As a former homeschool parent, I discovered children learn better and retain more of what they are taught when the lessons are not dry and dull. Anyone is sure…
The best lie has a nugget of truth. Likewise, the best fictional story has a nugget, or maybe an entire Happy Meal, of reality. Check out any fantasy book, and you’ll find parallels to either present or historical elements. They might be leaders, wars, or social movements. So why is truth stranger than fiction? In…
About ten years ago, Doug visited a hypnotherapist, and while in an altered state, he experienced several past lives. Although I saw the same person, my experience was different: I didn’t experience much of anything. I have always been skeptical of such things, tending more toward the “if I can’t smell it, taste it, eat…
“Why do you like vampires? What’s so special about them? Why read about them? What’s so appealing?” Thus do the philistines speak. What’s so appealing about literary vampires? Let me count the ways… …by doing a bit of history… The literary vampire didn’t begin to flourish until the mid-1880s. I’ve heard it said that before…
What was the inspiration for this book? Are dragons a hobby of his? Did writing the torture scenes ever make him cringe? How much research did he have to do? What are his thoughts on self-publishing? What was your inspiration for this book? I have an unhealthy interest in cryptozoology and have studied it extensively,…
How far would you go to achieve immortality? The story begins in modern-day Cameroon, Africa, then travels back to the Kingdom of Kesmet in 1720 BC then on to modern day Los Angeles, California. I really wondered how the author was going to weave all three places together in a way that made sense, but…
