Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts tagged “Mina Witteman”

Psychosis… Or not — The Marbury Lens

Posted on June 30, 2011

The Marbury Lens. I’m not sure anymore who recommended it to me, I think it was on the Kobo site. In any case: I bought the book and read it. Wow! I love scare and horror, but this was way beyond scare and horror. This was like ending up in your very own nightmare, never to wake up again. Sixteen-year-old Jack Whitmore celebrates the end of the school year at a party thrown by his best friend Connor, who will also join him on a two week vacation to London. It is a good party and Jack gets blind drunk. Staggering the six miles back home — that’s when you’re still happy that he didn’t take the car — he falls asleep on a…

Categories: Books, YA books

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Necromancing The Rolling Stones

Posted on June 18, 2011

Paranormal is a big word these days, a controversial word, if you will. There are believers and there are non-believers. Me? I am a believer pur sang. I dig the fact that there is more to this world than meets the eye. So when my friend E.D. led me to Lish McBride’s Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, I felt no objections reading it. Good choice! It grabbed me right away or rather the protagonist Sam LaCroix grabbed me, not in the least because his full name is Samhain Corvux LaCroix. A guy named after my favorite bird? That bode well. Sam LaCroix is a Seattle college dropout and now flips burgers at a local fast food joint. While playing a game of potato hockey in…

Categories: Books, YA books

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Trip, slip or be pushed to death?

Posted on June 8, 2011

Sicily. An island with a rich history, not in the least because of that one mountain that dominates it: Etna. The Arabs named it the Mountain of Fire and word goes that Zeus trapped the deadly monster Typhon underneath it. It’s easy to imagine the father of all monsters lurking below the surface of the Etna, you only have to stick your hand in one of those fuming crevices and you know he’s there, the last son of Gaia who set out to destroy Zeus. He almost got the job done, ripping out Zeus’ sinews in their first battle. But Zeus struck back, like a true ruler of the Gods should, and threw Mount Etna on him, trapping him to all eternity. Or not……

Categories: Books, The Views, Thrillers, Views Abroad

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Celeb encounter

Posted on February 15, 2011

While I was sitting in my usual quiet corner at Odette’s, enjoying my truffle-cheesed omelette, minding my own business, these two lads came in. Black-rimmed glasses were their main theme today, not just on the nose, but embroidered on their matching grey jeans as well. They peered around and, even though there was plenty of space, they choose to sit in the middle of the room, just next to the goodies fridge and spot-on in my view. I had fled the house and the Poles and THE WEED MAN, but didn’t have any company. That turned out to be a smart move, as it gave me plenty opportunity to listen, to observe and to so not minding my own business anymore. Both lads had…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

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The Long Wait

Posted on January 30, 2011

It’s been a while, people, I know. It was hard work, finishing the Dark Fiber revision and it didn’t leave much room for anything else, but last Monday I hit those six keys I’m so fond of, the ones that give me that TGIF feeling: THE END. Dark Fiber is done and I’m very happy with the result. Now starts the long wait until my agent has read the new version and comes with his verdict. Waiting is a constant in the life of a writer. We wait a good deal of our time and most of us have learned to live with it. Some waiting bouts are worse than others, though. The most agonizing one is when you wait for a positive reply to a query.…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Thrillers, YA books

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What inspires me?

Posted on December 21, 2010

Sitting at my desk, trying to fight an ‘Oh god, will I ever be done with this manuscript?’-feeling, I searched for inspiration. I am in desperate need for a spark that will not only my light DARK FIBER, but my mind and my writing. It doesn’t have to be much, just a teeny weeny spark will suffice. You would say that the lady in white, that beautiful snow-covered oldie outside we call Amsterdam, would be enough to get me back on track, but it’s not. Not today. What else is there to inspire me? Fiddling around at my desk, I stumbled upon a picture from way back. It’s a photo of the Ricciotti Ensemble and it features one of my two dearests. He played…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Thrillers

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Revisions

Posted on December 13, 2010

What is it with revisions that they tend to make a writer’s life harder and at the same time light as snow? I am working on the revision of DARK FIBER or TURING’S DECEIT –still haven’t decided on the title– and it goes well. I do the revision in my own well-tried and proven way. I open the manuscript and place it on the left side of my screen. I open an immaculate document right next to it, which I title REVISION. Next I simply start writing from the very beginning. I retype the entire manuscript and along the way I rewrite and rethink, I change and tweak and kill some of my dearest darlings –some of the life one’s as well I must…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Thrillers

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