Thomas E. Simmons interview with WLOX March 8th for the 4 o’clock show. Home WLOX-TV Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula, Mississippi – WLOX.com …www.wlox.com Simmons is the author of five award-winning books — three nonfiction and two novels — The Man Called Brown Condor, Forgotten Heroes of World War II: Personal Accounts of Ordinary Soldiers Land, Sea and Air, Escape from Archangel, By Accident of Birth, and his new release, The Last Quinn Standing
Creating Mood Within a Novel’s Setting by Johnnie Bernhard
Emotional impact may be created within the setting of a novel by the simple rule that environment affects people. Mood may be created through weather, typography, even the age of a building or a home. In writing A Good Girl, I often used the emotional and physical impact of a hurricane to create mood within the setting. As a life-long resident of the Gulf Coast, I am all too familiar with what a hurricane can do. As a child, my grandmother told me stories about the hurricanes that wreaked havoc in Calhoun County in South Texas. I used her stories combined with historical facts to write the following scene in Chapter Six of A Good Girl.
“The white head stone of Anna Grace was never meant to last, nor was the town of Indianola, Texas. The bones of the little Irish girl were washed to sea on August 20, 1886, when a 150-mph hurricane made landfall. What the howling winds did not blow away, a fifteen-foot storm surge from Matagorda Bay drowned. To ensure all traces of man were swept clean from the port city forever, a fire roared through the remaining buildings, trapping citizens in two story structures and burning them alive. The recently built school by the Sisters of Mercy of New Orleans disappeared in a frenzy of wind and water. All that remained of the town were snakes and bloated bodies hanging from broken trees.”
Amanda Matti, author of A Foreign Affair, interviewed on NBC 7 San Diego February 8th! http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Couple-Brought-Together-in-Iraq-Fear-Travel-Ban-Will-Keep-Families-Apart-413240603.html
Thomas E. Simmons book launch for The Last Quinn Standing (book two of the Quinn Saga)– Gulfport B&N, Cross Roads Shopping Center, Saturday, March 11th 2:pm to 5:pm!
You will also be able to get ALL of his books personally autographed: The Man Called Brown Condor – MWSA Gold Medal winner- 2015 (Skyhorse Publishing), Forgotten Heroes of World War II: Personal Accounts of Ordinary Soldiers Land, Sea, and Air – MWSA Gold Medal winner- 2016 (Taylor Trade Publishing) Escape from Archangel (University of Mississippi Press) and By Accident of Birth (book one of the Quinn Saga – TouchPoint Press) Published by TouchPoint Press Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency Thomas E. Simmons
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| Don’t Miss Next Week’s Show – February 12th
The Inside Story of Steve Jobs & Pixar Studios Former Pixar CFO Lawrence Levy
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Thomas E Simmons to be keynote speaker for the February meeting of the Jackson County Historical and Genealogical Society Tuesday, February 21, 6pm.
Simmons by the bust of Robinson at the Gulfport Airport
Tom Simmons is a local (Gulfport) author whose own life would make a program in itself. For our meeting, he will talk about his book, The Man Called Brown Condor. If you don’t know about John C. Robinson – The Brown Condor, he is our unsung Mississippi hero. What a great true story it is! Regardless, you really must come and learn about John C. Robinson. Growing up in Gulfport during the early 1900’s, Robinson’s skill in mechanics and engines led to a degree from the Tuskegee Institute and then to becoming one of the first black pilots in the United States. If Robinson’s story ended there it would have been impressive, but he went on to help create the flight program at the Tuskegee Institute (Ever hear of the Tuskegee Airmen? Thank John Robinson.), and then trained and led the Ethiopian Air Force in its defense against Mussolini’s Italian invasion. After the war, Robinson rebuilt and reorganized the Ethiopian Air Force and then helped create the national airline, Ethiopian Airlines.
Thomas E. Simmons grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi, attended Marion Military Institute, the U. S. Naval Academy, the University of Southern Mississippi, and the University of Alabama. Tom was once the commercial captain of a seventy-foot sailing vessel, has been a pilot since the age of sixteen, (3000 plus hours in the air), has flown professionally, and participated in air shows flying aerobatics in open-cockpit bi-planes. In the late 1950s, he served as an artillery officer in Korea. He is the author of The Man Called Brown Condor, Forgotten Heroes of World War II: Personal Accounts of Ordinary Soldiers Land, Sea and Air, Escape from Archangel, By Accident of Birth, and The Last Quinn Standing. He has also written numerous magazine articles, an example of which, “Growing Up with Mr. Faulkner,” was published in The Oxford American, a literary magazine founded by John Grisham. He is currently working on the last of the Quinn Trilogy, Yesterday a War, Tomorrow a War, a Family in Between. Thomas E. Simmons Amazon Author Central Simmons Events Simmons Media Facebook LinkedIn
I am not kidding when I tell you that THIS IS THE ONE PROGRAM YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS THIS YEAR. Mark your calendar right now! See you on the 21st!
Thursday / Feb 16th / 5:00 – 6:30pm, Book Signing and Talk – 2 Books! Matti and Westfield!
TWO FEMALE U.S. NAVY VETERANS AMANDA MATTI AND MEGAN WESTFIELD EACH WITH THEIR OWN BOOK A FOREIGN AFFAIR AND LESSONS IN GRAVITY
http://www.baybookscoronado.com/upcoming-events.html
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A Foreign Affair by Amanda Matti is currently on display at the Central Library in Downtown San Diego as part of their annual Local Author Exhibit that opened today and runs the entire months of February.
RIGHTS OR ENTITLEMENT?
If you are driving the speed limit, there is no fear of a ticket.
Obama did this? He should have been impeached.
It is an atrocity to burn the American flag. It stands for the country we live in and love; that some, me being one, served to protect– military and law enforcement. You should stand up at attention and salute it or put your hand on your heart. So many have died and continue to die so you in the publishing world can sling venom then go home and sleep safe and secure. There would be no ‘freedom of speech’ without a “United States of America, for which we stand UNDER GOD, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” It is not a right nor freedom of speech to destroy property, hurt innocent people, or be rude and disrespectful to President Trump.
Leave this country and see what you have to protect you, a United States Passport, which gives you ‘rights’ as a US Citizen. Most of you reading this have been abroad and had to come back through customs. How did it feel to have your passport scanned and stamped, then walk FREELY through to go home to your two-car garages, protected by our military and police, whom you now spit on with your words, hiding behind ‘freedom of speech’?
If you are driving the speed limit, there is no fear of a ticket. If you are in or coming to the USA legally with nothing nefarious to hide, there is NO FEAR. Only someone who is doing wrong should fear the law. Others should respect it. Respect and uphold God’s laws and the laws of the United States of America! All the celebrities and protesters should let illegals and refugees live with them, in their homes, with their children; feed them, clothe them, give them their beds, transportation, help get their green cards, and be here legally. AND IF they are not who they say they are and rape your wife, stab your husband, molest your children, steal your car and run over a crowd of people or use it to blow up a building, and then laugh at what is left of your family, you will SCREAM for President Trump to do something. Well, he has already seen this happen and is doing something NOW. God bless President Trump and all those who love and support him.
I do not think President Trump has the time to read some of the smut novels that are being published today. The man barely has time to sleep. As a literary agent, I see what is being accepted; immoral, hedonistic fodder. Why would he waste his time with that when he has to protect this country; not from Muslims, Christians, or any other religion, but from evil criminals hiding behind those monikers, blowing up innocents and pitting nations against nations. They do not care who gets hurt as long as they get their 15 minutes of fame and are brought up time and again for killing however many by the media. The more destruction, the more famous they are.
Trump stands for TRUTH, which the media seems to know nothing of. I bet Walter Cronkite is disgusted with it all, watching from Heaven, right alongside the founding fathers, shaking their heads, saying, “They know not what they do,” just as Jesus said to the Pharisees.
President Trump is finally doing what needs to be done. We must support him. We must unite as Americans, build the wall, vett all incoming, and “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Building a wall is not wrong. Do you lock your car, your house? Do you have a security system? Would you leave it all open and allow anyone to use it? NO. Why would we do that with our country? We founded this country on our freedoms, but to keep them we have to protect them. To protect them, we have to have a strong military and borders. To have that security, we must have a wall to the south and even north eventually, and those coming in this country must be checked thoroughly. If you are concerned with the veterinarian you use for your pet, the boy your daughter dates, the person who washes your car, the doctors who treat you, then you should be CONCERNED with the terrorists coming into this country; some of which may pose as your innocent neighbor. They do not have to have dark hair and eyes nor come from one of the five countries under scrutiny. You are all smart people. Use your common sense. President Trump would never do anything to harm us, for if he did, he would be harming himself and his family. No good father would do that to their child, nor would he do that to this country.
No one is holding you here as a hostage. Anyone can leave anytime. And if you decide to actually do what some celebrities have threatened to do but have not, which is leave, I would ask you to destroy your US Passport. Why come back when you hate the US so much? That is my ‘freedom of speech.’
