Cold

This week in the Cold, I'm sharing with you a story about a one hundred- and two-year-old woman who I met as a teenager. She quite literally changed my life and my perspective, and may just do the same for you.

Victoria's website:

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/sundays-with-merle/

This week in the Cold, we talk about creators and how we feed our creativity. The life of an artist (and I use that term fairly broadly) can be reclusive, engrossing, and hugely rewarding. But when we feel blocked, or experience a creative stutter, those same inclinations towards solitude that serve us so well when the juices are flowing can turn on us, leave us feeling like we're floating alone in outer space. Well...no more! I've got some inspiration and ideas to help!

Victoria's website:

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2018/06/29/the-funny-thing-about-the-life-of-an-artist/

This week in the Cold, we tell some stories of the dead, as we walk through a few odd and notable cemeteries. It's a spooky, but mostly soulful contemplation that puts a different spin on the Halloween season.

If you'd like to read my essay on the lost cosmonauts of the Soviet Union - the one mentioned in the podcast, you can do so here:

In light of the recent eruption of violence in Gaza, I hope you'll join me in a short prayer (or meditation) today.

This week in the Cold, we talk about the institutions and experiences that shape our lives, change our trajectories, and allow us to see ourselves anew. We get contemplative, sentimental, and philosophical...and yes, some great stories are told (ever been chased down a dark alley by a Servian gangster?). Don't even think about not joining in.

Heads up! My novel "Savage Island" is on sale on the following platforms ($.99 October 6-9)

https://books2read.com/u/bowBVR

Victoria's website:

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/prague-my-alma-mater/

This week in the COLD, we dive back into family lore. We explore estrangement from a parent, grief, and the unorthodox gift of a misfit relative. Please find a comfortable spot, pour yourself something warm, close your eyes and have a listen.

My BREATH series (books 1 and 2 will be on sale this weekend (Friday, the 29th and Saturday the 30th of September).

BREATH, book 1:

https://books2read.com/u/4XrYoN

OF SAND AND BONE (book 2 of BREATH):

And here's my website:

This week in the Cold, I tell you all about one of the biggest pieces of shite that I've not only ever come across, but actually had the audacity to translate and produce for the stage. And I say this with tremendous affection. I do this not to torture you, but to demonstrate why, sometimes, really bad stories hit a sweet spot in the greater culture and go on to phenomenal success.

Victoria's website:

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/so-bad-its-good-or-something-like-that/

This week in the Cold, we're talking about learning to listen to our muses, and subsequently, developing our true voices as writers. Will you write explicit sex into a love scene, or leave most of that to the reader's imagination? How far will you go with violence? When developing a magic system, will you make it subtle or spells-and-broomsticks obvious? Making these decisions is crucial to developing our styles and attracting readers who will keep coming back for more.

As promised, here is a short excerpt for what I'm working on, as I hone my voice for a Cold War detective noir series.

A single bead of sweat trickled down Rodki Semyonov’s face, pooling at first in the saw-toothed scar on his cheek, then spilling over, carving a silvery path through the grime and soot that clung to his skin. The chill of the stone slab beneath him was welcome, even if it did little to cool him down. The Bombay heat was relentless, even this deep underground. He blinked up at the dripping ceiling, the sound echoing like a funeral dirge through the dimly lit chamber he found himself in. A place so abandoned that even the smells of mold and rust seemed faraway. But maybe that was more to do with Zoya.

“Rodki,” she said.

Hers was a cold soprano of a voice, made for a woman who was born to wear black velvet, but never did. And it had

Zoya leaned over him, blotting his face with a damp towel, letting her fiery hair brush his temples. “You’re a long way from Mother Russia.”

NO IDEA WHERE TO TAKE THIS YET. Likely, it’ll end in passion or death. Maybe both

Victoria's website:

This week in the Cold, I give you the skinny about what it's been like to renovate a nearly two-hundred-year-old house over the course of almost twenty years, and how this process mirrors the creative process. Particularly the process of conceiving and writing a novel or series. If you love adventure, you won't want to miss it.

Victoria's website:

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/down-there-by-the-train/

This week on Cold, we talk about absorbing and interpreting our very own surroundings as part of our stories. We delve into my experience as a northerner who has now lived most of her adult life in the south, and what it's like to view a place as an outsider, but eventually blend in and become something resembling a local.

Victoria's website:

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/northern-lights-southern-exposure-a-yankees-thoughts-on-living-in-the-south/