F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction Author

fpdorchak

Conscious Living Interview With Wendy Garrett

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Click this link for the interview!

Second time’s the charm?

Wendy and I tried to record this interview a week ago (the last interview that never happened…), but ran into…let’s just call it “doppelgänger issues”…and the interview was lost….

But yesterday, all things fell into place! The irony of it all was that this interview was originally scheduled for yesterday‘s date, but Wendy had moved it to the previous week (and there’s more about this in the podcast, above).

Insert doppelgänger issues.

Here we are now.

Sorry about the occasional feedback issues, but it is technology.

Wendy is so charming, gracious, and fun! Thank you, Wendy, for two fun interviews, thanks for having me, and I hope we do some more of these! Thank you, listeners, for listening! And thanks to Matt, for his excellent production efforts!

Enjoy!

Things are not always as they seem….

Wendy’s Coffeehouse Interview Update #2

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Turns out this interview is a podcast recording that will be available on the Empower Radio website, under Wendy Garrett’s Conscious Living segment.

We are still “in the midst” of things! We were about halfway in, joking about Wendy’s doppelgänger incident with her dogs…playfully dissing her doppelgänger…and all of a sudden, I’m just hearing white noise! No connectivity…so…they’re troubleshooting and trying to figure out what

(…doppelgänger…)

went wrong. I don’t know about Wendy…but I like her doppelgänger. Think she’s a pretty cool person, even if she doesn’t own dogs. And I know Wendy never intended to insult her Better Half.

No, not at all.

It was all just “radio talk”…that’s all it was…filling dead air so we have interesting stuff for people to hear…and she

(doppelganger)

has apologized, so she knows the error of her ways….

So let’s get this show back on the air!

Later followup: nope, didn’t happen! Some gnarly Ghost in the Machine took us down hard, so we’re rescheduling!

Stay tuned!

The Gazette’s Take 10 Interview and Do The Dead Dream? Update

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The Gazette’s Take 10 Interview Rescheduled

My interview with Eric Singer and The Gazette’s Take 10, which was originally scheduled for September 1, 12 p.m. Mountain Time (MT) has changed. Because of scheduling conflicts, it is now scheduled for September 15, 12 p.m. MT.

Do The Dead Dream? Update!

I am going through a final polishing of the manuscript (ms)! Wow, it’s so hard to believe it’s finally coming to fruition! It’s clocked in at 171,420 words, Front and Back Matter and body.

I’ve received multiple blurbs (endorsements) of the stories, have a couple of interviews scheduled, and (so far) only one review (if anyone out there would like an advance copy of the ms to review, please contact me at fpdorchak [at] fpdorchak [dot] com) currently scheduled. I’m going over the hardcopy now, and once done, will be sending it off for formatting! Lon Kirschner is currently working the cover.

As it currently stands, I’m looking to use IngramSpark to publish and release it.

Do the dead dream?

Read these stories and make up your own mind….

“Blondie’s” – An Audio Story!

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I was trying to get an actor-friend of mine, Paul Neal Rohrer, interested in doing the reading of a couple of my short stories for an upcoming interview (September 1st), when Paul sent me this audio file of one of the stories he was to read. Damn, but how it breathed LIFE into the story! To see a story on paper is one thing…to hear yourself read it aloud…but to hear it performed is quite another! Paul did such an incredible job!

I’d met Paul a couple of years ago when he’d interviewed me for ERO, on his internet radio show, The Roaring Success Radio Hour. He’s a published author (Listen, Feel, Respond An Actor’s Workbook, published by Players Press, Inc., and Acting on Camera: A Workbook and Guide are both available through Amazon), and has been a SAG/AFTRA member since 1986. He’s a veteran actor of film, television, and stage, since 1971, and is the founder of the Roaring Success Workshops (1986). Some of his alumni include Naomi Grossman, Anna Sophia Robb, and Caitlin McCarthy.

Paul has done numerous voice gigs and has studied and worked with some of the most recognized and successful leaders of the film and television industry: Richard Dreyfuss, Chris Cooper, Tony Barr, Lynn Stalmaster, Marvin Paige, Mike Fenton, and Dabney Coleman, to drop a few names….

And as if all this isn’t enough, Paul also trains Law Enforcement in Crisis Intervention.

Anyway, I’d brought Paul in on this at the suggestion of a mutual friend of ours, Jan C J Jones. Paul and I hadn’t heard from each other for a bit (I’d thought he’d been abducted by aliens), so it was great reconnecting. I’d been contacted by Eric Singer, of The Gazette, who’d asked me if I’d be interested in doing a new gig of his, called Take 10. And when Eric mentioned that the readings needed to be dramatic, Paul was the first person that’d come to mind. I’d sent him my Do The Dead Dream? manuscript and mentioned a couple of stories for him to look at, and he said “Blondie’s” really grabbed him, so he did up a promo reading and sent it to me—this is that promo reading.

Hope you are as drawn into this recording as I was! To read some background on “Blondie’s,” see my original posting.

As things currently stand, we’ll be on Eric Singer’s Take 10 segment, Friday, September 1, at noon MT. More on this as it develops!

Paul Neal Rohrer’s Contact Information:

Web Site: www.roaringsuccess.org

Acting Workshop Web Site: http://roaringsuccess.org/rohrering-success-acting-workshop

E-mail: pnr1@mac.com

“Broken Windows”

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"Broken Windows" (© F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner, 2016)
“Broken Windows” (© F. P. Dorchak and Lon Kirschner, 2016)

“Broken Windows” is out as an e-short story!

Here’s the link!

I can’t believe I’d originally started this story twenty years ago, in 1997. I’d only written four double-spaced pages. I rediscovered it last year (2016) when I was revisiting all my short stories for my blog. As I read those four pages I was overtaken with emotion—in just in those four pages! That Saturday I’d written the rest of the 22 (I’d actually written 24, but edited it down) double-spaced pages (5,000 words). While I had been working on it…revising it…revising it…I kept getting emotional each time I’d finish reading the story.

Last year I submitted “Broken Windows” to the Longmont Public Library’s anthology, and it was accepted. I decided to not post it for free on my blog like I’d done for a host of my other stories, but to instead publish it as its own KDP Select ebook-only format (like “Clowns“). I went back over it this last year as I got things together…and again…it brought me to tears.

So fine…it’s going to be one of those stories.

Once again, I had Lon Kirschner do my cover. And, once again, he did an incredible job! After working on the story, I felt like it had great potential as a “single” short story. I also had a particular vision for its cover (nothing specific, just some loose ideas)—but I couldn’t even do a cover if it wasn’t its own product! That also led to my decision to release it as a single. But once Lon got hold of the project, he again knocked the cover out of the park!

I love this cover!

Over the past year, I’ve heard more and more about how short stories are making a come back. I’d even read a handful of some really good anthologies last year. Of my own work, I thought “Clowns” was a really fun story, thought it would take off in some fashion…but it hasn’t (yet—I still have hopes for it!). I characterize it as “a fun little scare for the whole family!” Really, you oughta read it! So, now I’m releasing this one, which has more emotional appeal versus horror. Fractured families….ghosts…redemption. And it’s very Twilight Zone. Extremely so. The only “horror” is the emotional horror that some families go through in stories like this—which to some are not stories…but the actual lives they endure. And it’s brutal. Horrendous. Usually there’s little recourse for families that go through problems like this…but in my story I create a different outcome for all involved.

I really love this story…it’s moving, emotional, redemptive.

Powerful.

And it’s got aircraft. Which I love.

But damn it, it brings me to tears every fricking time I read it! So, I hope it will also be one of “those stories” for you! I reread the story for this release and have finally been able to not shed a tear reading it…though I did still well up inside.

Finally, I thought, I could get through it without tearing up!

I’ve also included “Broken Windows” into my 2017 short story collection, Do The Dead Dream? Of the entire collection, this one story has perhaps been poured over more than any other, so, geez, there better not be any errors (thanks, Joyce)!

If you do like “Broken Windows,” and you can swing it, I ask that you also consider purchasing the Longmont anthology, of which “Broken Windows” is also a part, to help support the Longmont Library. This anthology, titled You Belong 2016, Words and Images from Longmont Area Residents, is not available online, but at this time you may contact the Longmont Public Library:

Steve Kenworthy
Head of Technical Services/Systems Administrator
Longmont Public Library
409 4th Street
Longmont, CO 80501
303-651-8614
steve.kenworthy@longmontcolorado.gov

But this version and the one going into my collection are different than the one in the Longmont anthology. It has been heavily reworked and changed in areas…better fleshed out…so if you get both, you won’t be reading exactly the same story! But I hope you enjoy both versions!

Steve Kenworthy  and the rest of the Longmont library staff are great people and they’ve been gracious in allowing us writers to have nonexclusive contracts with our stories to publish elsewhere! Thanks, again, Steve!

Please be on the lookout for my first-ever short story collection, Do The Dead Dream? I am now looking to release it in early October.

And damn it, I hope someone else out there besides me sheds a tear!

A major heartfelt THANK YOU to Jimmie Butler and Joyce Combs! Jimmie pointed out a major “flaw” that was “obvious” to me, but not to readers, and that helped better flesh out the story. Joyce…Joyce has been my indefatigable cheerleader for all of my stories, but she and I have gone over this story more than we can ever count! Thank you both for your indispensable support and critique!