Author Archives: sassevn

FREE! WHICH HALF DAVID: A NOVEL

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Thursday May 17th through Sunday May 20th only!

Which Half David is FREE on KINDLE.  (Get yours here!)

  • A few facts about Which Half David:
  • It’s a modern-day twist on the ancient story of King David.
  • It’s set in a fictitious island nation in Southeast Asia called Sulu.
  • Did you know that the Sulu Sultanate actually existed at one time? It was located between the Philippines and the island of Borneo. The Sultanate profited by commandeering shipping vessels in the region. Yes, they were pirates. Oh, and this is where my fictitious island is! No coincidence.
  • It’s my longest novel at nearly 100,000 words.
  • It’s a psychological thriller as the protagonist must comes to grip with the type of person he really is.
  • If you like a read that has some unexpected twists and turns along the way, you should most definitely check it out.

Best yet, IT’S FREE UNTIL SUNDAY. If you read it and like it, please consider leaving a review.

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Australia

Thank you & enjoy!

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Midwest Book Review Weighs in on “A Man Too Old …”

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The venerable Midwest Book Review published a review of A Man Too Old for a Place Too Far in their online book review magazine “Small Press Bookwatch” in April 2018.

They categorized A Man Too Old under the Fantasy/SciFi heading and had this to say about it:

“Critique: A unique, entertaining, and deftly crafted novel by an author with a genuine gift for imaginative and engaging storytelling, “A Man Too Old for a Place Too Far” is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community library collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that “A Man Too Old for a Place Too Far” is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $3.99).”

The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf
A Man Too Old for a Place Too Far
Mark W. Sasse
CreateSpace
4900 LaCross Rd., North Charleston, SC 29406
9781979948289, $13.99, PB, 322pp, http://www.amazon.com
If you haven’t read it yet, you can order your copy HERE!

Just Write. That’s the Bottom Line.

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I recently wrote a post about outlining in novel writing and how I’m not a huge fan. Of course, there is always a time for outlining, and I do tend to use it sometimes.

I’ve been trying to outline book three of my trilogy since I know how I want it to end. I just figured it might be easy to plot everything out and get where I need to be. Right? Simple!

Forget all of that. I finally arrived at the point where I am doing too much thinking and not enough writing. So yesterday, I scraped the outlining idea. Be gone, bullet points!

It’s time to write. It’s time to power through on the ideas that I do have and trust in my process.

And that’s the key. If you have a writing process that has worked for you in the past, trust it. Let’s use a baseball analogy. I’m a big baseball fan, and every hitter goes through a slump. Sometimes an extended slump and it can be disconcerting. They start doubting their swing and their mechanics. Should they start tinkering with what has worked in the past? Should they try and find a new silver bullet? One of the players I follow has been horrible for the past three weeks, but I keep reading how he just remains confident, keep working hard on all aspects of the game in which he can control, do the things which have brought him success in the past, and just wait for the resurgence to come. It has, by the way.

Isn’t writing the same? It is for me. Just write. That’s always been my motto. Let the story unfold. Let the story — the written story — tell you where it should go next. Don’t force it. Let if flow.

That’s what I’m doing. I just finished chapter 1 of book three. I really like it. It is going to help set the tone for what’s to come. Now, I know what chapter 2 will do. That will lead me to chapter 3 and, hopefully, before I know it, I’ll be writing the ending that I know I want.

While outlining and pausing writing to think can be helpful, it should never replace the actual writing. I have been reminded of that this week.

Now get to it. Chapter 2, here I come.

Time + Thinking = The Solution to All Writing Problems

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It’s not always easy to know which way a story should go.

Should minor characters begin to play a more major role?

Should a character be killed off?

Should I change the setting?

Story threads are fragile. Each minor decision can send a story spiraling in a direction that may or may not be good.  As a writer, it’s impossible to explore every plausible avenue or nothing would ever get done.

I have found, however, that the right amount of time and a proper amount of thinking can solve even the trickiest writer’s problem.

My current issue revolves around part III of my new trilogy. Parts I and II flowed remarkably smooth. I finished part II in August 2017 and have been revising and editing it ever since, and it’s now about 6 weeks away from being released. Part III has proven to be more elusive. I know the ending. But the problem is how to get there.

My book has a rather large cast of main characters. The supporting cast is large and has played a significant role. In book two, I added a new main character to help support the story, but that has added additional challenges to an already unwieldy cast.

And so over these past few months, I’ve been trying out many different reiterations of what should happen in part III.

What I’ve come to realize is that if you put enough time into thinking through all the ramifications for each main idea, the path forward will slowly start to emerge. Just this morning, I reordered the first couple chapters, imagined a few new ideas and with some reworking, believe I now have a solid way forward which I didn’t have last week.

That’s progress.

It came through

1. TIME

Let the manuscript sit.  Don’t be too hasty to get it to the marketplace. Read it fresh after a month of not thinking about it. It will help bring clarity.

2. THINKING.

Sometimes you don’t need to write, you need to think.  Jot down a few ideas. Think. Jot down new idea. Think some more. How does it change things? Better? Worse? What are you overlooking?

And when you put proper TIME together with the right amount of THINKING, you’ll be on the road to solving your writing problem.

Don’t be afraid to slow it down.

BUT, once you figured it out, finish it! Without exception! Go! Go! Go!

Get it done and get it out in the marketplace.

Now on to the next.

 

 

My New Show: “Crazy Love”

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This afternoon, I was thinking ahead a little bit about my new show coming up at the end of the year. It will be my first, all-original production since December 2016’s “Tales of Wonder II.” Not that I haven’t produced anything since then.

May 2017 – RLT “Our Best” did include some original content though it was mainly a best-of show.

May 2017 – RLT Musical also was a re-hash of old musical numbers except for one new piece.

January 2018 – “For All Generations” was a re-designed show based on my 2014 RLT Players’ show.

April 2018 – “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” – the Broadway Musical.

So finally, it’s coming, the new show:  “Crazy Love.” This is a MOSTLY original show. It does include two of my award-winning scripts from previous shows, but it is mainly new. Six new dramatic sketches and one mini-musical. This 9 piece production will be about one and a half hours long and it will be performed in our brand new campus’ brand new theatre! I can’t wait. Lots more to come on this later. But here’s the lineup.

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When Was the Last Time an Author Graced the Cover of a Novel? Probably never.

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There’s a reason why novelists don’t put their photos on the cover of their books the same way the latest hip-hop stars pose on theirs.

Let’s face it: novelists hide in dark quiet corners, hunched over a screen, tapping out nerdy words for hours on end. Novelists have disheveled hair, four-eyed faces, pale skin,  rounded-waistlines and a host of other descriptions never seen on the cover of Vogue without spending hours in the Photoshop chop-shop. Novelists don’t spend a lot of time at the gym, but you might find them sitting for hours under a tree, looking at the pattern of ant columns while waiting for the perfect murder clue to make itself obvious so it can be plopped into the latest plot. (How can that ant carry that leaf on its back? Ah-ha! New superhero idea!) Novelists create words of grittiness and glamour, of fantastical realms and hard-truth real-life. They wipe away image and pretentiousness to delve into the heart of the matter–the uncovered motive, the sheer nakedness of belief which leads to any manner of sordid tales. Novelists eat too much, sleep too little, drink too much, exercise too little. (Unless you’re referring to exercising their brain. They would be Olympic champs if that was a sport.)

So is it any wonder that novelists don’t grace the cover of their books. How many people would buy a book with a pale, bespectacled visage sitting on a bench under a tree?  (I’m sure we’d have a goofy smile on our face, too!)

Novelists are meant for small, blurry mug-shots on the back cover of their paperbacks. Nothing more.

Pop stars, however, were made for album covers. Literally. Photoshopped faces and slim bodies with parts hanging out all over are the requisite requirement of album covers. Image is king.

But isn’t image king for novels, too?

Absolutely! And that’s why authors don’t grace the cover!

Unless, that is, if it’s a non-fictional title and the personality, not the story, is driving the sales. That’s when the celebrity chefs and TV personalities plop their images on the cover of their books and ride to the top-sellers list based on their other profession.

But for the novelist, who would dare think that their coffee-fueled or hungover eyes would ever elicit a sale?

 

So keep looking for those stock images, authors. We’re destined for the back cover or the obscure blog post.

And you know what? That’s just fine with me.

Magnificent – Lyrics without a Melody

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I enjoy writing lyrics. I started this when I was in Ireland, and I finished it up (at least for now) just this evening.  Who’s going to put it to music? What’s it about? Picture a boy who walks through the jungle two hours one way to attend a small village schoolhouse. Certainly, it’s a true story.

Magnificent
lyrics by Mark W Sasse
1
Calloused hands of only twelve,
Dining on scraps and banana rows
Too many mouths, and not enough time,
but he smiles and laughs through his daily throes
Magnificent.
2
Tire tread sandals, half torn to shreds
from the rugged path he’s learned by heart,
three days a week if time to spare
he walks the mountain path to learn his part
Magnificent.
chorus
And the modern world nods its head
at the glitz and glamour and vapid threads,
That saturate our well-lived lives while he walks the jungle trail
magnificent
3
He’s late of course, ‘n has no books,
But eyes peer round at the blackboard lesson
language and numbers elude his grasp
he’ll fail his exams with or without this session
cause he’s one day closer and two hours farther from …
magnificent
chorus
And the modern world nods its head
at the glitz and glamour and vapid threads,
That saturate our well-lived lives while he walks the jungle trail
magnificent
bridge
The distance is not the problem cause he has the strength,
and time is not the issue cause he has all day
it’s not the humble school house without materials
it’s not government promises which always feel betrayed
it’s not the the blanket statement from ignorant city folks
Or his uncle who thinks it’s silly he gets nothing for his walks
It’s not the village children who have a head start
or nature which pounds his every inch when monsoon season stalks
The problem issue lies much deeper
Hidden in the human condition,
a failure to recognize that which truly is …
magnificent
4
The jungle trail welcomes the math
two trees multiplied by twelve ants,
a glorious quorum of learning begins
a history re-imagined by a small boy’s pant,
reborn each day by two hours of walking towards …
magnificent
chorus
And the modern world nods its head

at the glitz and glamour and vapid threads,
That saturate our well-lived lives while he walks the jungle trail
magnificent