8 April 2017 - LARRY PAYNE - Guest Author

LARRY PAYNE

- Guest Author -

G'day folks,

I'm pleased to introduce a fine author from the USA. 

Welcome, Larry ...

1.   WHEN AND HOW DID YOU BECOME A WRITER?

I’ve always been an avid reader and would dabble with writing stories. The very first thing I ever wrote was a story about my hometown using song titles and lyrics. I didn’t really get serious about writing until about 12 years ago when one of my relatives read one of my short stories and told me, “Dude, you should think about getting this published.”  To which my response was, “Yeah, Right!”  After I thought more about it, it started to intrigue me so I joined a writer’s website called Gather. And so it began!

              

2.    WHAT TYPE OF PREPARATION DO YOU DO FOR A MANUSCRIPT? DO YOU PLAN EVERYTHING FIRST OR JUST SHOOT FROM THE HIP?

I’m a pantser, not a plotter. I tried used an outline one time and by the middle of the second chapter the outline was in the trash! When I prepare a new story I have a protagonist and an antagonist and I know how I want to start it and how I want to end it. How I get from point A to point B is anybody’s guess. The story surprises me sometimes. I’ve had stories change directions four or five times before it was finished. You ever hear of characters taking over the direction of a story? Believe it! It happens!

       

3.   WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?

The wait after a submission never gets any easier no matter how many times I do it! Wondering if they’re going to believe in your work like you do!

4.   WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WRITING ACHIEVEMENT?

Getting that first book published will always be my greatest writing achievement!

5.   WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?

The publisher of my westerns closed its doors on January 1^st, so I’m currently in the 3 Rs mode, Revise, Re-edit and Resubmit, on the two books they had published.

6.   WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

Success and Acceptance. One good review or one piece of good feedback and knowing that one person enjoyed what I wrote is all the inspiration I need!

7.   WHAT GENRE DO YOU WRITE?

Traditional Western Fiction is my passion, but I do dabble a bit in Crime Fiction and Science Fiction

8.   DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR NEW WRITERS?

Write, Write and then Write some more! Never give up and don’t let negative criticism get the best of you! Remember if one person enjoys what you write, then it’s all worth it!  Keep On Writing!!

9.   DO YOU SUFFER FROM WRITER’S BLOCK?

Yes, that’s why I always have 3 Works in Progress at all times. If I get hung up on my primary project, I always switch and usually to one of a different genre for a day or two!

10.   DO YOU HAVE A PREFERRED WRITING SCHEDULE?

I always seem to work better when the sun is up, although I have been known to work into the wee hours if the words are flowing!

11.   DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE WRITING PLACE?

I have my own favorite little corner of the living room!

12.   WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND WHY?

Louis L’Amour…He’s the reason I’m writing westerns!

13.   WHAT’S THE GREATEST COMPLIMENT YOU EVER RECEIVED FROM A READER?

“You’re the only one who could make me read a western and enjoy it!” Came from a co-worker.

14.   WRITERS ARE SOMETIMES INFLUENCED BY THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THEIR OWN LIVES. ARE YOU?

My Father was a fanatic of western movies and books and I owe any amount of success I have in that genre to him! Thanks, Pop!

15.   OTHER THAN WRITING, WHAT ELSE DO YOU LOVE?

Fishing! Nothing beats sitting on the bank of a river enjoying a summer day and catching a few fish!

16.   WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?

Keep Writing!

17.   DID YOU EVER THINK OF QUITTING?

Never, I’m enjoying myself too much!

18.   WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE MANUSCRIPT TO WRITE? WHY?

Ride The Savage Land because it was the first western!

19.    HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE ‘SUCCESS’ AS A WRITER.

                         Acceptance

20.   WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE DREAM?

Having one of my books or short stories made into a movie!!

21.    ARE YOUR BOOKS SELF-PUBLISHED?

                         Yes, as E-books.

22.    ANYTHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD?

I would like to thank you, Clancy, for sharing your readers with me. I totally enjoyed it!

                     

AMAZON

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        Clancy's comment:   Thank you, Larry. I know many Aussie libraries are always frantic for good westerns. 

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6 April 2017 - WAS THERE A ‘RED TELEPHONE’ HOTLINE?

WAS THERE A 

‘RED TELEPHONE’ HOTLINE?

G'day folks,

During the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union established a direct communications link to allow their leaders to contact one another in the event of a nuclear crisis or other emergency. This Washington-Moscow hotline has since featured in countless novels and films such as 1964’s “Dr. Strangelove,” but contrary to its depictions in pop culture, it never took the form of a red telephone. In fact, it never involved phone calls at all. 

The Washington-Moscow hotline was first proposed in the 1950s, but the idea didn’t gain traction until 1962’s Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Americans and Soviets found that their diplomatic messages often took several hours to reach one another. Fearing that any further mishaps might trigger an accidental nuclear war, the two superpowers met in Geneva the following year and signed a “Memorandum of Understanding Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Line.”

On August 30, 1963, the new system went live. Rather than a telephone link, which presented the possibility of miscommunications, the hotline consisted of teletype machines that allowed the two countries to send written messages to one another via transatlantic cable. The Soviet system was located in the Kremlin, but the American version was always housed in the Pentagon, not the White House. Satellite links were later added to the hotline during the Nixon administration, and in 1986, it was upgraded to include high-speed fax capability. The most recent overhaul came in 2008, when the system switched to email. 

While there is no evidence that the hotline was ever used to avert a nuclear disaster, it often played a key role in U.S.-Soviet relations. In 1967, Lyndon B. Johnson became the first president to use the system when he negotiated with Soviet leader Alexei Kosygin during the Six Day War, a brief conflict between Israel and several Arab states. Richard Nixon later used it for similar purposes during 1971’s Indo-Pakistani War and 1973’s Yom Kippur War, and Jimmy Carter famously hopped on the hotline to object to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The hotline’s last crisis uses came during the Reagan administration and the dying days of the Cold War, but it still exists to this day. To ensure that the system will function in the event of an emergency, Russian and American technicians continue to send test messages to one another once every hour.

 

Clancy's comment: We can only hope common sense prevails at any given time.

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