Ask the Author: Sheila Bitts
Answered Questions (14)
Sheila Bitts
Why yes, myself. It says one may toggle to book format, but in reality, one may not. Etc.
Sheila Bitts
I'm not sure this answer counts as a spoiler. It depends on how much you know about the allusions and the tribute references.
This book of short stories is influenced by Vonnegut, Shakespeare, James Joyce, Poniatowska, Robbe-Grillet, Magical Realism, Realism, Dark Romanticism, and many other people/styles including dark humor.
There are some heavy stories with some serious topics, but there are also some comedic pieces including some based on urban legends.
The stars used to separate segments in "The Asters" was taken directly from Vonnegut's use of stars in Slaughterhouse Five. It's also a trauma-driven story.
The Morse code at the end of "Frozen Over Ripples in a Pond" was what the woodpecker said to Carlsbad. You can go to a Morse code site and look it up. It was supposed to be interactive writing and reading as he found nature to be his only friend. That and the boy were part of the magical realism elements others had mentioned. He is symbolic, too, as he looks like the Tarot card for the Sun.
As for "Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire,"
I understand actual trigger warnings, but I was being one who copes through using dark humor and that's why I even mentioned them in the first story. This is also why I called them "Pulp Trigger warnings." It was a dark humor word play as I also write in the private detective/ noir /mystery/ thriller/ heist genres. Self-referencing, true, but also wider, I thought.
On the same story, adding Rod Serling was pure homage to his style because the whole story was imagined in black and white as if it were an episode of the Twilight Zone. I also said that was how Mr. Knowles saw the world. The point about the town being named its name in the first paragraph sounded like the old-fashioned Hollywood/Twilight Zone style of writing. Plus, then, I could introduce values as a theme.
On “Wonder Weapon” and on zombies: In Italy, there is a scandal about cruise ships and about the failure of flood gates stopping flooding in real life. I just took it a step further and made Donald Trump a blonde pomp zombie calling for calamari as he swiped at them because Trump's COO was named Matthew Calamari, Sr. Much of this is about the failure of leadership, banks, and the soul-crushing defeats that they release on the rest of humanity.
On the other zombie story, "The Scriptwriter," the reader does not know the Scriptwriter's real name until the end because it is a pun. If you look it up in the urban dictionary, you will see.
Shakespeare wrote in his sonnet form which I used for both my Othello and my Iago. I placed them on the Lido because I studied medieval pilgrimage. That was where many soldiers waited and died due to disease when they prepared to fight in the Crusades. I added senators and kept the story at the turning point before tragedy struck Othello.
(BTW There is a Shakespearean stage. However, I changed it. I made it rotate. That is a modernization that he would not have done, but yes, a literal turning point for a scene.)
This and the story called "Comandante" are two examples of stories with turning points for main characters. In the latter, Jesusa was at the crossroads. She is based on the novel's character from Poniatowska's Here's To You, Jesusa! So was the Comandante. There was so much violence in Jesusa's life after she chose to marry instead of staying with the Comandante. She was beaten to a pulp until she threatened to shoot her husband even as they fought a civil war on the same side. Her life never got better it seemed. I thought that was her turning point when she met the Comandante. I wish she had stayed with her as she was welcomed at her dinner table.
I could go on, but in short, the stories are often about the choices we make…and regret as much as they are about the value of a human being.
This book of short stories is influenced by Vonnegut, Shakespeare, James Joyce, Poniatowska, Robbe-Grillet, Magical Realism, Realism, Dark Romanticism, and many other people/styles including dark humor.
There are some heavy stories with some serious topics, but there are also some comedic pieces including some based on urban legends.
The stars used to separate segments in "The Asters" was taken directly from Vonnegut's use of stars in Slaughterhouse Five. It's also a trauma-driven story.
The Morse code at the end of "Frozen Over Ripples in a Pond" was what the woodpecker said to Carlsbad. You can go to a Morse code site and look it up. It was supposed to be interactive writing and reading as he found nature to be his only friend. That and the boy were part of the magical realism elements others had mentioned. He is symbolic, too, as he looks like the Tarot card for the Sun.
As for "Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire,"
I understand actual trigger warnings, but I was being one who copes through using dark humor and that's why I even mentioned them in the first story. This is also why I called them "Pulp Trigger warnings." It was a dark humor word play as I also write in the private detective/ noir /mystery/ thriller/ heist genres. Self-referencing, true, but also wider, I thought.
On the same story, adding Rod Serling was pure homage to his style because the whole story was imagined in black and white as if it were an episode of the Twilight Zone. I also said that was how Mr. Knowles saw the world. The point about the town being named its name in the first paragraph sounded like the old-fashioned Hollywood/Twilight Zone style of writing. Plus, then, I could introduce values as a theme.
On “Wonder Weapon” and on zombies: In Italy, there is a scandal about cruise ships and about the failure of flood gates stopping flooding in real life. I just took it a step further and made Donald Trump a blonde pomp zombie calling for calamari as he swiped at them because Trump's COO was named Matthew Calamari, Sr. Much of this is about the failure of leadership, banks, and the soul-crushing defeats that they release on the rest of humanity.
On the other zombie story, "The Scriptwriter," the reader does not know the Scriptwriter's real name until the end because it is a pun. If you look it up in the urban dictionary, you will see.
Shakespeare wrote in his sonnet form which I used for both my Othello and my Iago. I placed them on the Lido because I studied medieval pilgrimage. That was where many soldiers waited and died due to disease when they prepared to fight in the Crusades. I added senators and kept the story at the turning point before tragedy struck Othello.
(BTW There is a Shakespearean stage. However, I changed it. I made it rotate. That is a modernization that he would not have done, but yes, a literal turning point for a scene.)
This and the story called "Comandante" are two examples of stories with turning points for main characters. In the latter, Jesusa was at the crossroads. She is based on the novel's character from Poniatowska's Here's To You, Jesusa! So was the Comandante. There was so much violence in Jesusa's life after she chose to marry instead of staying with the Comandante. She was beaten to a pulp until she threatened to shoot her husband even as they fought a civil war on the same side. Her life never got better it seemed. I thought that was her turning point when she met the Comandante. I wish she had stayed with her as she was welcomed at her dinner table.
I could go on, but in short, the stories are often about the choices we make…and regret as much as they are about the value of a human being.
Sheila Bitts
Obviously, there was the Cold War, which would seek to cause a religious division between the USSR and the NATO countries, especially the US. Also, in current US politics, the polarization has ripped apart the fabric of the American dream. This juxtaposition does lend itself to a right and wrong/ good and evil/ black and white mindset.
In fact, black and white is the color scheme in the novel. Besides Snow invoking actual snow, there is the fairy tale of Snow White and other topics. The kitten in this novel is a male long-haired tuxedo kitten. He is of course, also black and white. The masquerade ball also had men wearing tuxedos. Some innocent, some not so; some wise, some not so.
The Diamond Escape also has a kitten in it. It is a gray tabby with baby blue eyes. You could say the color of the kitten in each novel is the novel's color scheme as it relates to the plot. In TDE, there is innocence and a gray area between right and wrong besides the initially jaded, (another color scheme) seasoned, veteran homicide detective.
Back to the opening quotes in Entanglement:
What King Solomon was saying was that the real mother would fight the most for her own baby. Scripture also is used in literature often, and according to Ann Charters of The Story and Its Writer, she believed Carver's "Popular Mechanics" was doing just this. (On the surface, it is a literal fight over a baby, but in his story, it is a divorcing man and wife.)
On one level, Private Detective Frederick Falloy is also fighting for his son.
On another level, he is entangled in a spy plot to interrupt US elections and policies at the highest levels.
The Lenin quote seems jarring because it seems so friendly and hopeful. It is easy to see how so many people could be roped into his dream of four years to a better next generation. Many socialists stick to him for quotes like these. The four years Lenin requested works for Entanglement because in the US, presidential elections happen every four years.
In fact, black and white is the color scheme in the novel. Besides Snow invoking actual snow, there is the fairy tale of Snow White and other topics. The kitten in this novel is a male long-haired tuxedo kitten. He is of course, also black and white. The masquerade ball also had men wearing tuxedos. Some innocent, some not so; some wise, some not so.
The Diamond Escape also has a kitten in it. It is a gray tabby with baby blue eyes. You could say the color of the kitten in each novel is the novel's color scheme as it relates to the plot. In TDE, there is innocence and a gray area between right and wrong besides the initially jaded, (another color scheme) seasoned, veteran homicide detective.
Back to the opening quotes in Entanglement:
What King Solomon was saying was that the real mother would fight the most for her own baby. Scripture also is used in literature often, and according to Ann Charters of The Story and Its Writer, she believed Carver's "Popular Mechanics" was doing just this. (On the surface, it is a literal fight over a baby, but in his story, it is a divorcing man and wife.)
On one level, Private Detective Frederick Falloy is also fighting for his son.
On another level, he is entangled in a spy plot to interrupt US elections and policies at the highest levels.
The Lenin quote seems jarring because it seems so friendly and hopeful. It is easy to see how so many people could be roped into his dream of four years to a better next generation. Many socialists stick to him for quotes like these. The four years Lenin requested works for Entanglement because in the US, presidential elections happen every four years.
Sheila Bitts
I had a Kurt Vonnegut course in my MFA program, so I studied up on his influences and wrote some satire, but also, whenever I tried to write horror, I scared myself, so it turned into more satire. 😅
Sheila Bitts
Wikipedia explains that Plaster of Paris sculptures were all the rage at The World's Fair of 1893 (just after the Great Fire). Also, From 1905-1906 Chicago hosted the most amusement parks in the US. My novel, Entanglement, has a female sculptor (working working in black and white resin) and performance artist named Jo London.
The color theme for Entanglement is black and white.
Details of the White City Amusement Park and other topics such as fires, race relations, and art were listed at the Wikipedia site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_C...
The color theme for Entanglement is black and white.
Details of the White City Amusement Park and other topics such as fires, race relations, and art were listed at the Wikipedia site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_C...
Sheila Bitts
This answer may change depending on what mood I'm in. :)
Visit with HG Wells' time traveller. The other place might be to go to Hogwarts to live in a castle and just study and write and go to a pub every so often if I could find friends there. Also, I'd go to some magic shops to feel amused. But it would not be like an amusement park kind of thing,
Visit with HG Wells' time traveller. The other place might be to go to Hogwarts to live in a castle and just study and write and go to a pub every so often if I could find friends there. Also, I'd go to some magic shops to feel amused. But it would not be like an amusement park kind of thing,
Sheila Bitts
What's the difference between drowning and being alive breathing the air? To take in a breath for this moment, but it is this moment that can last, can last... it can.
Sheila Bitts
The third novel in the Falloy Private Detective Series.
Sheila Bitts
I haven't ever had it before. I have writer's block lately (2023) because I have had a lot of conflict in my life and that makes it hard to focus on my writing. I also have to pay for my own ads because I don't have a book deal, a publisher, and I still don't have an accredited literary agent. That means, I have to work besides writing, also. To get to the magical land of the sandals, I need to wear the snow boots and socks or whatever. My genre writing contains complicated plots and literary references, so I am taking this down time to collect influences and information for my third novel (if I can live that long).
Sheila Bitts
Finishing! It's great feeling when a novel is accomplished.
Sheila Bitts
Write about the things you care about. Make sure to add new vocabulary. I would say make sure to consider poetry and poets of the past like Shelley and others as well. Try new forms and give yourself challenging assignments like picking a character from a novel and writing from a character's point of view. Try writing a Shakespearean sonnet! Try writing like Ernest Hemingway in The Killers. etc
Sheila Bitts
I love writing. I just write and write. I think line editing can be hard, but I get to add fun new lines here and there, too. My dad taught English and creative writing and wrote short stories. I grew up reading the high school students' short stories in Parallax, their magazine.
Research into historical topics and scientific endeavors usually inspire me to write. Mystery thriller movies inspire me not only because they are interesting, but also, because I can see their structure.
Research into historical topics and scientific endeavors usually inspire me to write. Mystery thriller movies inspire me not only because they are interesting, but also, because I can see their structure.
Sheila Bitts
Riding my bike on the prairie path, going to rallies in the 1990s, current news, women's studies concepts, authors I read such as James Joyce, Raymond Chandler, Raymond Carver, Joyce Carol Oates, and others.
Sheila Bitts
Edgar Allan Poe's "Berenice" and Sylvain Neuvel's: A History of What Comes Next.
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