Blog Archives
A Satisfying Story in Minimal Words
Robinson, IL and Other Flash Fiction Stories is a collection of imaginative stories with intriguing commentary on society. What inspires you to write flash fiction?
I think my interest in flash fiction comes from the “tweet” and Facebook posting. Most posts are stories with tone a beginning, a middle and an end. With all the devices we have on hand and all the platforms we have the come with devices, there is a challenge to telling a satisfying story in minimal words.
Did you write these stories specifically for this collection or did you write them over time?
I had no intention of creating a collection. These stories were written to stand alone between 2012 and 2019.
My favorite story from the collection is ‘Eighty-Five Days’. Do you have a favorite story from this collection?
I love “Have a Cookie”. This is exactly how the majority of people from my hometown think.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I’m currently working on a play (for the last five years) called Doris Tate. The play got it’s second workshop last February 2021 with actors over Zoom. Doris Tate was the mother of actress Sharon Tate best known for Valley of the Dolls. When you see someone giving a crime victims impact statement on TV or in a film, that is the work of Doris Tate. After the Manson family murdered her daughter, Doris Tate went from grief to grit and became one of America’s most effective crime victim’s advocates.
Author Interview: GoodReads | Facebook | Instagram
Here you will find a kiddie pool, the Miller Family reunion, and a Nazi-themed gay bar. There’s even a home for Dad.
Sissies and nancy-boys. A boy playing with dolls in the garden. A therapy doll, renewed.
A cocktail truck that delivers a disco to your cul-de-sac.
Book a ride on Patsy Cline Airlines … if you dare.
Meet Dick and Jayne, a pirate diva, and the author himself.
A handsome young man named Eric in your bed after a harried Thanksgiving dinner.
Dennis Milam Bensie is still called “Denny” by what’s left of his family in his hometown of Robinson, IL. The author of three memoirs, Mr. Bensie is now offering twenty-seven flash fiction short stories from his rich and twisted imagination.
Denny doesn’t aim to offend … but he/him/his might.
A Southern California Twist
Sundays at Simone’s follows a young man who gets tangled up in L.A.’s high society and weaves through a mix of intriguing characters and situations. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
As a native of Los Angeles, I’m pretty tuned into the psyche of the place. Besides, I was always fascinated by the great French salons of the 19th Century and thought it would be fun to give them a Southern California twist. Satire was the attention, but I also got wrapped up in the story of the young pianist and his loves.
Your characters were all interesting and I enjoyed how they evolved throughout the story. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Michael’s character, like any other, developed through disappointment, heartbreak, triumph, and experience.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I’m always drawn to the place of the artist in each society, so that is certainly near the top. Also, the pretensions that come with wealth and sometimes fame. Also, the ups and downs of ambition.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The Anachronist has just been published.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
The Inevitable Ambiguity of Words
Strange Bedfellows: Fun with Etymology uses a unique brand of humor to show readers how fun etymology can be. What inspired you to start this series of books?
I am primarily a wordplay writer and have published over 200 articles of assorted styles of word play in the online journal Word Ways, not all humorous. Within the general category of word play, my favourite type is constrained writing of various ilks. My two Strange Bedfellows books use the constraint of using only words that are etymologically related to construct fun phrases and sentences. I then embellish them with my own weird sense of humour in explaining or more often simply extending the SB thoughts to a more free form of humorous expositions and stories.
The idea of using pools of etymologically related words as a type of constrained writing came to me when I noted, in Eric Partridge’s wonderful etymology dictionary Origins, what a huge number of interesting words are surprisingly ultimately related to ‘legend’. From there I devoured Origins looking for other pools of relatives offering interesting combinations. I collected many and managed two volumes of the constructions from them as skeletons on which to overlay my personal style of humour and nonsense. The latter is heavily influenced by the writings of Will Cuppy as well as Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl, James Thurber, Ogden Nash, Dr. Seuss, Edward Lear and others.
What is the collaboration process like between you and the illustrator, Kalpart?
Kalpart is the company name of a commercial art collaboration headed by Kalpa Joshi. For my books, I describe to her the images I visualise and she is very compliant in revising her first efforts to capture them until they meet my wishes. Other of her artists usually do the final coloured illustrations. I couldn’t ask for a more cooperative artist. She does, however, often make suggestions that I like and let her use.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from your book?
Joy! Plus a sense of the inevitable ambiguity of words, phrases and sentence that allow puns and other twists to amuse and/or expand the reader’s perspectives. (Oops, that two things!)
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have two upcoming books, both being sequels to my Silly Animal Rhymes and Stories A to Z (‘SAR1′, 2018), profusely illustrated in colour by Kalpart. They use a different type of constrained writing, monorhyme verses on animal themes, which I call animal uni-verses.
- 101 Animal Universes, unillustrated and with limited prose addenda, finished and seeking a publisher as a ‘pure’ poetry book. Hence the release date is unknown. It includes some of the best verses from SAR1 and the following (SAR2) plus many more mostly new universes.
- Silly Animal Rhymes and Stories: Zoo Two, in press, text approved and awaiting the rest of Kalpart’s brilliant illustrations, half finished. It should be finished and released in 2-4 months but possibly longer. This and my three recent books are self-published by SBPRA, the fifth (101AU) hoping to find a regular publisher, but failing that, again to use SBPRA.
I also have three other books firmly in mind, all partly written, the second two illustrated:
- a short small book of embellished Spoonerisms;
- a commercial satire Dr. Duck’s Dealy Deli based around an enterprise and characters that clutter the pages of my other five books; and
- a rewrite of an old self-illustrated volume from 1979, Anno Dodo, a humorous satire cum word play on the theme of extinction.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads
A Surreal Childhood
Surviving Chaos details your difficult childhood, the obstacles you faced, and how you came to terms with it all. Why was this an important book for you to write?
It was a surreal childhood that was full of failures, disappointments, and humiliations. I felt a need to share the stories as a way to gain victory over the demons that tormented me for such a long time. By telling my journey I hope to help others to relate, understand, and prevail against any obstacle or dysfunction.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you shared your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
Losing my mom! I wanted give her more than I did so I had to swallow my sense of failure as I wrote above her.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Schizophrenia, Parental neglect, and being a constant Outcast.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
If you know of anyone with a mental condition do try to get them help.
Don’t overlook the effects it may have had on those around the person with the mental challenges especially the offspring’s. Next, even while I was mentally bound I found time to laugh. You can always find a way to turn lemons into lemonade if you just keep stirring.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
I Used Kaos
Apocalypse Blockers follows an odd group of unlikely heroes that take on a mission to prevent the apocalypse. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Apocalypse Blockers is a culmination of several different books of mine, each character has their own book in which they already stopped an apocalypse, all very different books and different genre’s, they all have very long back story’s that are not linked, I used Kaos as a way to link them and bring them all together in one place, I don’t think you need to read the other books first but the idea being they will be better after you have read Apocalypse Blockers or Apocalypse Blockers will be better after you have read them.
I enjoyed the creativity imbued in your characters. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
I wanted to move the characters on a bit, I did not just want to throw them all together without any of them changing or growing, this would be the last time I work with any of them so I wanted to leave them all in a good place, the Running theams with Rick Tonail in every book he has been in was that he needed to stop doing everything alone and get some freinds, Bob and Karen found eachother and a new dynamic was born for them two, the good father’s and Green had their own issues that they worked through and Larry and Max finnaly got to stop being in a post- apocalyptic zombie apocalypse.
This seemed like a fun book to write. What was the funnest scene for you to write?
For me the scene were Bob and Rick first meet fathers O’Malley and O’Riley who were coaching at the over 80s wrestling championships was the funniest thing to write.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am working on my first young adults book at the moment called, Noobs, it’s a story about two friends caught in the afterlife when a meteor takes out the kabab shop they were in, the Grim reaper makes a deal with them that they can go back if they retrieve ten keys from inside different video games, it should be finished by June.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Twitter | Website
A Matter of Self-Expression
Out of Time explains how everything in the universe is scientifically created and provides thorough research and discussion on the topic. Why was this an important book for you to write?
There are two ways in which it was important to write it – 1) for myself, and 2) for others. To answer 1) and 2) together – It was a matter of self-expression. I first had ideas related to those in the book some 40 years ago. I started working on them seriously in 2005 when I wrote my first paperback. Then I continued developing my ideas and writing skills with more paperbacks during the next decade or so – and also with a website for science preprints called viXra, which I discovered in 2012. In the last few years, I tried submitting to science journals since I believed my thoughts were worth consideration and that my writing skills had become adequate. Sometimes I was severely criticized … sometimes my articles were highly praised, In both cases, every journal rejected everything I ever wrote (so I never progressed from pre-printed articles on the Internet to a printed one in a journal). I finally got smart enough to stop beating my head against a brick wall, stopped sending material to any science journal, and assembled my best writings into this book.
I appreciated all the research and references you provided in the book. What was something that surprised you during your research on this subject?
I was amazed at how well all my researches came together in the end! It was as if the book had already been written and was giving me an intriguing idea here and there. That speculation sounds simply impossible – but since the days of Albert Einstein, modern physics has been searching for a unified picture of the universe where everything in space and everything in time is entangled. If such a Unified Field Theory or Theory of Everything or Theory of Quantum Gravity truly exists, it’s logical that the book could have already existed (I must admit that typing those words makes me feel a bit uncomfortable – but maybe it shouldn’t).
What were some ideas that were important for you to explore in this book?
The book began when I read another book by Prof. Geraint Lewis and Dr. Luke Barnes about how to overturn astronomy’s Big Bang. I’d possessed a strong desire to do this since taking some astrophysics courses with Australian National University a year earlier (they were conducted by Prof. Paul Francis and co-winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, Brian Schmidt). I found the Lewis/Barnes book a valuable guide – and added my ideas about Mobius strips, figure-8 Klein bottles, and Wick rotation. Then I went through the best of my previous writings and put together a collection of 11 essays totalling approx. 42,000 words. Ideas that are important to me in those previous writings include quantum gravity, division by zero, what I call vector-tensor-scalar geometry, modified evolution, band-gap implants in the brain which aren’t inserted surgically, the topological universe, dark matter/dark energy, interstellar/intergalactic/time travel, future computers, COVID-19, uniting science with religions and spirituality, and the little piece of science fiction that finishes the book – “Time Trek”.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
I hope readers can catch at least a brief glimpse of the unlimited human potential! We all think we know what a human is, and what our civilization is like. But I’m convinced that we have no idea what people and civilization will be like in a thousand … a million … a billion years. I don’t know either. But I hope I can point readers in the right direction to see how different everything might be from today.
Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter
The Risks Necessary to Live
HEAVENLY follows a man who is given a second chance at life after he dies and comes back as another man. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I based the premise on an idea which begs this question: If you were to die unexpectedly, would you feel that you lived a satisfying life? I think people are pursuing their financial goals and personal goals every day but rarely do they stop and take the risks necessary to live a truly fulfilling life. Some of those risks include reaching out to other people. Without other people, it is not possible to live a full life. That is in my opinion, of course. It’s human connections and interactions that make this life worth living. We may not get a second chance like Peter does in the book so we better be prepared just in case we have to answer to a higher power about the lives we’ve lived here on Earth.
This is the ninth book that you’ve written. What were some things you’ve learned as an author that you’ve used in this book?
I learned that not everybody will relate in the same way to every single book I write but I also discovered that every book is unique. HEAVENLY says everything I ever wanted to say about life and the possibilities that await us when we die. I have no regrets about writing it nor do I have regrets about any book I’ve written. Each book I wrote had a purpose and a story to tell. Whether or not everyone relates to that story is another topic altogether. I hope other people can get something positive from the books as well. If they don’t, I can’t make any apologies. Everybody is different and I’ve learned to understand this fact.
Your characters, as usual, feel authentic. Were you able to relate to your characters while writing them?
Of course, I felt a connection to the characters in HEAVENLY, almost more so than in any other book I’ve written. I feel the characters I write so deeply and hope others can see that the central characters I write are full of passions and dreams. I want my books to have relatable characters first and foremost. That is the goal I strive for in each and every book. I see myself in both John and Peter in this particular novel.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am working on a film criticism book. I also do movie criticism on the side and I’m writing a book called “100 Movies I Love” which details my analysis of 100 movies I absolutely adore. It should be out by the end of the year. Movie fans, take note. Some classics and some modern day classics are discussed in great detail!
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Creating a Trilogy of Trilogies
The Penitent – Part 1 begins an epic fantasy series spanning three novels. Did you know how deep the story would go when you first started?
I wanted to write a series like this one for a long time now. When I first started planning The Immortality Wars I knew it would be at least one trilogy. It very quickly morphed into the idea of creating a trilogy of trilogies. I wanted to create a series of realities, in part, that the characters in the story would experience. So the tale is built around a thought experiment that is configured like a Russian doll. I later learned that a work containing nine related books is called an ennealogy. I felt I needed such an expansive framework to house the full length of this saga on a comfortable basis.
I enjoyed the relationship between Pall and John. What were some sources that informed the development of their relationship?
One of the sources informing the development of their relationship with one another is the story of Robin Hood and Little John. However, I wanted to develop their relationship in a different way than it is cast with Robin and Little John, especially in their being more independent of one another. Each has a unique set of skills, background, and way of life. Yet, they are fierce warriors in their own right. When I originally introduced them in the story, one was going to kill the other. Curiously, they both immediately rebelled at this thought.
Was there anything personal, or taken from your own life, and placed in the story?
There is a sense of loss and of tragedy that imbues the story, as well as a love of nature and a deep sense of love of family that are all taken from my own life. Equally so, is my experience of and commitment to God that permeates Pall’s story. For example, there is a miraculous healing of Captain Joseph Martains. It is taken from a real-life experience I had in 1973. A professor was brought back to life as a result of a terrible fall he had from a roughly made staging placed against his house. He fell headfirst onto his cement driveway. No one expected him to live. However, God had other plans than death for the professor at that point in his life.
What has been the most surprising feedback you’ve received from readers about your series?
I am surprised at the reaction some readers have experienced from the intensity of the story, particularly the paranormal and combat scenes. These points in the story are not meant to be moments of gratuitous violence or unspeakable horror alone. They are set within the plot for a variety of reasons some of which would become spoilers if I explained why they are occurring there. Hopefully, I’ve written a tale that makes readers intrigued, on edge, and looking forward to what happens on every page that they read.
Author Links: Amazon | GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
LITERARY TITAN 