New Voices: Tahlia Newland

A novella that empowers bystanders to stand up to bullying

On the blog today I have author Tahlia Newland to talk about her new young adult novella, You Can’t Shatter Me. Tahlia writes magical realism and contemporary fantasy for young adults & adults. You Can’t Shatter Me is a heart-warming magical realism story that will inspire and empower teens and adults alike with its solutions for the bullying issue. She has two short stories available free on kindle for a limited period, Not Me, It Can’t Be from 28^th June to the 2^nd July and A Hole in the Pavement  from 3^rd to 7^th July.

What’s the novella about?

It’s about a sixteen year old girl called Carly who wants to write her own life and cast herself as a superhero, but when she stands up to a bully, the story gets out of her control. Dylan, a karate-trained nerd who supports her stand, turns out to be a secret admirer, and Justin, the bully, makes Carly his next victim. While romance blossoms, Dylan faces attacking words, an unreliable movie director, a concrete habit that requires smashing, and an unruly Neanderthal. Meanwhile, the bully’s increasing harassment forces Carly to deal with flying hooks, unflushable cowpats, and deadly dragons. An old hippie shows her an inner magic that’s supposed to make her invincible, but will Carly learn to use it before the bully strikes again and Dylan resorts to violence?

What is this novella’s contribution to solving the bullying issue?

Ways to deal with bullying are embedded in the story of a girl and her new boyfriend who stand up to a bully and then have to learn to handle his retribution. The books tells us that

• standing up to bullies takes courage, but  we all have to do it if we want a world free of bullying.
• there are ways to handle being bullied, and ultimately, if you feel good about yourself and strong inside you’ll be able to handle it okay and you’re more likely not to be bullied.
•  The book provides, as an integral part of the story,
• analogies as a way to help people remember methods for handling the bullying and the anger that comes from it.
• meditation instructions as a way to practice staying calm and clear-headed so you can do it even in the face of abuse.
• Bullies are often bullied themselves. They bully because they aren’t happy in themselves. They feel weak and powerless and they pick on those they feel are easy targets. To stop the bullying in the long term, they need to be helped to feel better about themselves, treated with kindness not hatred. They are not bad people, they just behave badly. They are sick, not evil.
• to cure the problem in the long term, the victim and the bully both need the same thing. They need to develop a good self esteem. Feeling good about yourself is like an immunisation against the disease of bullying for both sides of the problem.

The biggest, and for some probably radical, contribution that this book makes to this issue is that it lays out a method of gaining self esteem on the deepest level, a self esteem that doesn’t require a person to be good at anything, simply to learn how to feel their inherent goodness. It even offers a way to strengthen this natural inner warmth, or empathy, into love, a force powerful enough to change the way you relate to others and them to you.

Do these solutions work?

Yes. I’ve used the analogies and the viewpoints they represent to help my daughter negotiate the trials of the school ground and also various teens at the high schools I’ve worked in as a teacher. I’m constantly amazed by the immediate positive effect they have.

Trailer 

Book Links

Goodreads page

Purchase links

Ebook

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Shatter-Me-ebook/dp/B008DME8PA
Files for all devices: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/174488

Paperback

The paperback will be available via all major book retailers worldwide. If you would like to be notified when it’s released please fill in the form here.

Author bio & links

Tahlia is an avid reader, an extremely casual high school teacher, an occasional mask-maker and has studied philosophy & meditation for many years. After scripting and performing in Visual Theatre shows for 20 years, she is now a bone-fide expatriate of the performing arts. She lives in an Australian rainforest, is married with a teenage daughter and loves cats, but she doesn’t have one because they eat native birds.

Weblog

Happy Honkers Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Goodreads Author page

Amazon Author page

Smashwords author page

Don’t forget to pick up one of Tahlia’s free short stories for your kindle, Not Me, It Can’t Be from 28^th June to the 2^nd July and A Hole in the Pavement  from 3^rd to 7^th July.

New Voices: Steve Drennon



Author Steve Drennon

Where does inspiration come from? For me, it was my 16 year old daughter. Last year she was helping me clean out the garage and sorting through some old stuff. I’ve always been something of a pack rat, but from time to time I’ll decide it’s time to toss some of the old memories.

                As we were going from box to box, my daughter came across one that I hadn’t seen or opened in many years. When she looked inside she found a stack of neatly typed pages wrapped in an old newspaper. This was the only remaining copy of a manuscript I had tried to shop around over twenty years ago. The story was a fantasy, complete with wizards and warriors and demons and such, and when she asked if she could read it, I said of course!

                Over the next week or so, I’d see her sitting in her room, flipping through the pages, but I resisted the temptation to ask her what she thought of it. I was just thrilled that she was actually reading it! So, I kept my distance and waited to see if she would come to me with any opinions on it, and eventually she did.

                After she finished reading the entire book, she came and asked me why I had never bothered publishing it. I tried explaining that I had sent it out to several publishers, and at one time there were a couple who actually showed some interest. However, after following their suggestions and doing a couple of rewrites, I had eventually grown weary of the process and gave up on it. She told me that was too bad, because she thought it was a really great book!

                Even if I had never sold a copy of that book, just hearing her say that made me more proud than I had felt in a very long time! A couple of months later I started reading about this self-publishing craze and how simple it was to get your book published as an e-book. I started researching it, and then after a couple more months, I decided to do one last rewrite on the book before publishing it myself.

                Since then, I’ve sold over a hundred copies, and I discovered that I had the desire to write again. For the first time in many years, I found myself working on a new book, and just this past week I published my second fantasy novel!

                However, the best part of this story is the impact it had on my daughter. Shortly after I started rewriting my first book, she decided she was going to write a book based on a story idea she had! I’ve had the opportunity to read parts of it, and it’s really quite good! My daughter is now 17, and within the next couple of months, she will become a published author as well, and I think that will be one of the proudest days of my life!

Thank you, Steve, for being such a supportive friend to other writers. Lean more about Steve's poetry and fantasy fiction at his website and follow him on Twitter, @sdrennon!

New Voices: Anita Davison

Author Anita Davison



Born and raised in London, the city’s colourful history has always influenced Anita Davison’s writing, even when it was stories scribbled in lined exercise books. Having lived all over the UK and parts of Europe, the author of Trencarrow Secret is now back in her home city where she immerses herself in writing about the 17^th Century.

Trencarrow Secret

Isabel Hart is afraid of two things, the maze at Trencarrow where she got lost as a young child, and the lake where her brother David saved her from drowning in a boating accident.

Interview with David Hart

I appreciate your showing up for this interview, David.

You’re welcome, and why wouldn’t I turn up? I’m usually close by whenever I’m needed.

Perhaps, but you have the reputation of being somewhat elusive.

[Blinks] Really? I wasn’t aware of that. I admit time is a concept I don’t have a firm grasp of, and I like my own company. I tend to hang around down by the lake. I have some sort of connection with the water and like to sit looking at it for hours at a time.

And the boathouse I believe? Isabel tells me you prefer to stay there during your summers in Cornwall rather than the main house.

[Shrugs] Nothing wrong with craving a little privacy is there?  I brought some chums from school down one year and we had a grand time, swimming at night and holding supper parties in the boathouse.  I suppose the main house with its rigid timetable lost its appeal after that.  Besides, no one bothered me at the boathouse unless I invited them. That suited me very well, so I continued the habit.

Doesn’t Isabel miss you?

Why should she? I’m always close by whenever Izzy needs me. She’s a shy, insecure girl and has needed me quite a lot recently. Ever since......

The accident on the lake?

[Narrows his eyes] I realise you need to delve into our lives, but I’ll offer a word of warning. No one in the family talks about that day Isabel almost drowned.  The poor girl had nightmares for weeks and even now she keeps well away from the water.  I tend to meet her over by that old oak where the bench is. Somehow the lake still upsets her. She won’t discuss it, even with me.

But  you saved her life, surely you have discussed that day with her?

Not really. She mentions how it felt sometimes, to be dragged down by weeds and to see the sky through deep green water but not be able to reach it, while her lungs felt as if they were bursting. Pretty horrific for her I’d say. She always starts to shake at that point so I change the subject.  Why upset her?

She’s almost twenty-one now. Don’t you feel that she’s over protected because of something that happened four years ago?

 [Rolls eyes] Time means little when something like that happens. Has it really been four years? I had almost forgotten that myself. Perhaps I should remind her she has her whole life to live and can’t live in the past.

How do you feel about her becoming engaged to Jared Winters?
[Sniffs] I don't like it at all actually. Jared isn’t right for her, but I can’t simply go up to her and order her not to marry him. She thinks she’s doing what Ma and Pa want.

And is she? Doing what her parents want?

[Stares off across the lake] Pa certainly. He pays attention to all that social status and marrying the right kind to keep family assets intact sort of thing. Ma is more concerned about Isabel’s happiness. I had a word with her actually about this very subject.

Does your mother intend to do something about it?

[Face lights up] Oh, yes.  But Ma is very ill you know, and Isabel hasn’t been told.  Ridiculous if you ask me, she isn’t a child. However, Pa says he wants to wait until the time is right. I’m more practical and if it were up to me I’d come right out with it. And actually, Ma and I have something up our sleeves concerning Isabel.

What do you mean?
Well, Ma has invited a charming young man to spend the summer at Trencarrow. Chap called Lord Strachan. I doubt it’s a plot to match make or anything like that, but who knows?  She thinks that if Isabel is made to realise there are other attractive, eligible young men willing to pay her some attention, she will decide for herself that she doesn’t have to do what she thinks is expected of her all the time.

Suppose this young man doesn’t take to Isabel?
Hah! How could he not? Isabels’ quite the most lovely thing I have ever seen, and that’s quite an admission coming from her brother. She’s built like a racehorse, all red gold mane and long, graceful limbs which make her look as if she glides rather than walks.  She has a kind heart and the sweetest disposition too, which would be entirely wasted on Jared. I only hope she finds out before it’s too late.

Weren’t you once engaged to Jared’s sister, Evaline Winters?
[Nerve jumps beside his mouth and he looks away] How did you find that out? Oh well, no matter. It’s true. We were very young and Evaline would sneak off and meet me at the boathouse. Young love is very strong and all that. I doubt we would have made it official at all if my father hadn’t found us.  Before I knew it, there was an announcement in The Times. Evaline was thrilled of course, engaged at sixteen seems to be something girls in our circle go for. Heady stuff for a seventeen-year- old – and I’m talking about myself!

So what happened – because you didn’t marry Evaline?

[Inhales through pursed lips] I fluffed it I’m afraid.  Acted like a complete idiot and during a raucous night out at the theatre in London with some school friends, I took up with some actress from the show. Can’t even remember her name now.

Evaline found out and broke off the engagement. Broke her heart apparently, not that I fully appreciated that at the time. Too busy thanking my lucky stars for my escape.  [Sighs] I wonder sometimes that I may have been to rash and imagine what being married to her would have been like. Quite agreeable I should think, she’s quite a character. Too late now though.

Tell me more about yours and your mother’s plans for Isabel?
Ma knows she’s dying, and she’s determined to tell Isabel the truth about her and Pa’s marriage, how it affected her life and that she wants more for Izzy. She’ll pick her moment and when she does, it will be perfect. Ma’s shrewd like that.  She may look like a fragile iris whose neck can barely support her head, but she’s cleverer that Pa at times, and persistent. She’ll put Izzy right, you’ll see.

You could help do that too. Isabel listens to you doesn’t she?
[Frowns] Yes, she does. We’ve always been close. Maybe I’ll put an odd word into her ear too. Let her know she has alternatives no one will hold against her. I would hate to see Izzy trapped in a cold marriage with a bounder like Winters. He’s young and brash, and casual about other people’s feelings. There’s a cruel streak in him too, and I doubt he’ll treat her with the delicacy she needs. He’ll trample over her emotions and disappoint her. 

You’ll have to pick your moment too won’t you?

[Laughs] indeed I will or Izzy won’t thank me for meddling. She won’t like it that we’ve been keeping secrets from her either, but I’ll have to face that one.

Thank you for talking to me, David. I do hope you can help make Isabel see things more clearly.

I’m confident I will. [Sniffs the air] Summer’s coming, I can feel it. May it be a good one this year.

Learn more about the enigmatic David Hart in Anita Davison's Trencarrow Secret, available now from MuseItUp Publishing, Smashwords and Amazon for Kindle.

New Voices: Evelyn Lafont

Author Evelyn Lafont

Suffering from Sequelitis

I loved Alanis Morrisette’s first popular album, Jagged Little Pill. I think I was about 19 when it first came out and while I hadn’t suffered all the setbacks in love that she had, it still felt like an anthem for my life.

Did I like her follow up album? The one…uh…oh—called, um…wait—what was her follow-up album called?

This is the conversation that runs through my mind every time I sit down to write the sequel to my first novel, The Vampire Relationship Guide, Volume 1: Meeting and Mating. See, when I wrote the first book in the series, it was my debut work. There were no expectations and nothing to live up to.

Now, while my book isn’t top of the charts or anything, I do have a readership and I have set a standard that I’ll be held to. This is true of any author working on their second work. But in addition to that, since I’m writing a sequel, people are attached to the characters and have certain expectations based on the events in the first book.

Let me tell you, that feels like a lot to live up to. But, as Lisa will tell you (although she hasn’t known me that long, she seems to have picked up on this) I’m not one to run away from a challenge. That means that I park my ass in my chair and force myself to write that damned sequel according to my writing schedule. I write through the fear, I write through the weight of expectations, I write through the insecurity, I write through the doubt, and eventually I reach the gooey, caramelly center of my writing experience—which is the fun. And once I remember that it’s about having fun, oooh, I can’t be tamed.

If you are suffering from sequelitis, sophomore scares, and follow-up frights, just write. Eventually, your mind will go to that special place that only we writers know about and the rest of the world will melt away, just as it should.

Evelyn Lafont is an author and freelance writer with an addiction to Xanax and a predilection for snark. Her debut novella, The Vampire Relationship Guide, Volume 1: Meeting and Mating is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords.




If you do ANYTHING online today, please follow Evelyn Lafont on Twitter! She is all-knowing and altogether fun, all of the time. And, don't miss the trailer for The Vampire Relationship Guide!

New Voices: Alison DeLuca

Author Alison DeLuca

 

My niece, Rachel, once told me that she loved books with lots of adventures and a little bit of romance. I created my trilogy, The Night Watchman Express, in that image.

I was teaching high school Spanish while I wrote the book. After a full day of teaching and an hour’s commute, I would come home, throw dinner together, and go and work on my current chapter.

There was a long hiatus while I had a child and dealt with my mother’s severe dementia. Writing had become an unbreakable habit, though, and after a few years I went back and took a look at my manuscript.

Of course, it needed a lot of work. My characters dragged their way into the story at long intervals, and my vocabulary was too advanced for my intended market. I also had the usual pitfalls of the beginning novelist: far too many adverbs, and far too many uses of the word “then” among them.

I spent another year rewriting the entire trilogy. I weeded out the –ly words, got my characters onstage at the start, and fixed some contrived plot points.

The story began to come together. I liked my main character, Miriam, an angry orphan who was a beginning writer like me, as well as her governess, Mana, a beautiful woman from the islands who had a lot of strength, dignity, and intelligence. Miriam’s clashes with her guardians, the dreadful Marchpanes, were enjoyable to write and edit, as were the arguments between their son, Simon, and Miriam.

However, the adventures were the most satisfying thing to create. The third volume of the book, Devil’s Kitchen, is set, in part, in an underground factory where Miriam discovers horrifying human experiments.

There is a strange, luxurious prison where Simon is dragged, and where he undergoes a type of Stockholm Syndrome with my villain of the piece, Barbara Cantwell. She is beautiful and ruthless and morally corrupt, and I thoroughly enjoyed bringing her to life.

There are some steampunk elements (such as a brass Typing Machine that is really a quantum computer,) since the book is set at the turn of the 20th century. I kept the entire trilogy G-rated; that just seemed to be a natural part of my style.

At the request of my publisher, I am now writing the sequel, The Lamplighter’s Special, and I will have it on Kindle by the summer.

Alison DeLuca is the Scribbler's New Voice. Want to learn more about Alison? Check out these links.

Also available at Barnes and Noble.com

Follow Alison on Twitter

The Night Watchman Express Book Trailer

New Voices: Romi Moondi

Best-selling Kindle Author Romi Moondi

Parody of My Life

It seems that everyone applies the theory "write what you know" into their stories, even if it's just the way their characters feel amidst extraordinary settings.

When it comes to my work, "write what you know" has inspired me from the very beginning.

Maybe it's because there's an endless source of fodder when you're raised by the strictest Indian parents in Canada.

Maybe it's because I only meet the most random men in situations where it's doomed to fail (i.e. a British Barista at Starbucks, an Australian writer, or a Swiss music exec). This leads me to believe that my life is a demented rom-com, which is a huge inspiration in my writing.

Or maybe it's because embarrassing situations define my world, so it's easy to insert them into writing.

My latest effort and first self-published ebook is yet another example of "write what you know."

It's a parody of the bestselling "The Book of Awesome", and my decision to write this came at a rather dark period in my life. Imagine your heart as shards of glass on the floor, then suddenly a dump truck of someone's positive thoughts runs it over. That dump truck was the rise of "The Book of Awesome", in Spring 2010.

So there I was, being blinded with manufactured rainbow-rays of joy, when all I wanted to do was dropkick the universe in the nuts.

And I guess that’s what you'd call "The Book of Awful"---a dropkick to the universe's nuts.

This book is a treasure trove of awkward life experiences. From the time I got head lice as a grown adult, to the struggle to meet normal men online, to my unhealthy obsession with Ryan Reynolds…it all finds its way into the book. Overall "The Book of Awful"'s entries outline one horrific scenario after the next, to demonstrate how much worse life could really be. Because, in my opinion, the road to joy is paved with narrowly avoided collisions, NOT rainbows.

And so, consider this ebook my rebellion to the establishment, because not only is "The Book of Awesome" a marketing jewel of one of the big six publishers (as is its sequel which releases in end of April), but it's also a book that tells you stuff to make you feel good.

And I don't like being told how to feel.

"The Book of Awful" is available on ereaders everywhere, and the rebellion is accepting new recruits. Join me… 

Romi Moondi

Thank you, Romi , for your humorous insight into writing what you know, even if it's awful! Be sure to check out Romi's Amazon bestselling book on Kindle, The Book of Awful.

New Voices: Tessa Stokes

Author Tessa Stokes

I started to write fiction many years ago, but I was waylaid by life and turned to commercial writing in response to my employment.

When I found I simply could not contemplate the writing of another thing that was commercial, academic or education oriented, I turned back to my first love, fiction.

I have had the latest series, The Seven Spell Saga tumbling around my mind for so long that I already knew the characters before I started to put them down on the page for others to discover. Their adventures, their voices; the way they moved, it was all there and I couldn’t wait to start writing. Once I had started finally, to write this series, I have not been able to stop.

I write often all night, or until the early hours of the morning, hence the address of my blog http://tess-three-in-the-morning.blogspot.com

The Seven Spell Saga is a blend of genres; it is romance, urban fantasy maybe paranormal romance too. There are three books to date and I am currently writing the fourth book. The narrator is our heroine Chloe McGarry, she moves from her home in California to an estate in England that is steeped in history and mystery with her family, because her father has taken on a restaurant there. The place is beautiful and though Chloe was not initially happy to leave California she starts to “like the place”. Chloe has never been lucky in love, as the saying goes, boys simply do not approach her, but here within a short time she not only meets but also begins to care for two guys. They are the charming and attractive Oliver, an upbeat, remarkably centred person who falls in love with her. Then there is Tristan, enigmatic, mysterious, emotional, and lovely, she falls for him too. Naturally, the feeling is reciprocated and a strange magical, bond begins to form between the three of them.

The stories contain a dynamic mix of everyday life, love, adventure, time travel, and magic. They provide the reader with a story spanning the already written three books and the books to come that engage them in the characters’ lives, as if you were there with them.

I fell in love with my characters and believe they not only would appeal to young adults but anyone who is young at heart.

There are a few excerpts from the books around on the internet, on my blog, on the sites where they are available to buy, on review sites, and chapters of the first book are on my website to read as a free sample. http://www.tessastokes.info

Here is a passage, which is just one of many pointing to the threads in the stories that link the past, the present and the future as the books progress.

Oliver smiled a bit more then, and said “I passed you a couple of times talking with the enigmatic Mr. Dearing but you were enthralled by him and so didn’t see me”.

“Dearing, is that his name”, I was quick to reply, “Is that Liz’s name too? What do you mean by enigmatic?”

Oliver seemed to be relieved I didn’t know Tristan’s name, and nodded “Yes the whole family is descended from some ancient knights or something, all Dearings, there’s quite a history there. There’s some weird stuff too. By enigmatic I just meant he’s a bit of a mystery. When James was doing his thesis old man Dearing got to know that he was including the Dearing family history in it. He was incandescent and tried to bribe James to leave out any mention of Tristan or other ancestors called Tristan”.

I interrupted here saying, “You’re kidding, but why?”

“Well”, continued Oliver “who really knows because after James had refused, since it would seriously put him behind schedule, and take huge chunks out of his thesis, the old guy went away, and the next day Tristan himself went to see James and somehow they sorted it out.

How about you tell me about yourself Chloe?” He leaned in to me a little. “I feel like I hardly know you but at the same time as if I have known you forever”.)

Buy the books on Amazon,

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004KZOQZG
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004KZOPUW
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004KZOR14
http://www.amazon.com/Spellbinding-Spell-Breaker-combined-ebook/dp/B004UIDGJU

Connect with me online

Twitter: http://twitter.com/seventhspell

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Seven-Spell-saga/138580806204048

My Smashwords profile https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/seventhspell

Buy the books on Smashwords

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/47251

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/40977

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/40980

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/40983

New Voices: Pearson Moore

Author Pearson Moore

Can’t Put It Down: The Essence of a Great Story

A great story is more than an interesting tale. A great story is memorable because of characters for whom we develop strong feelings of empathy, respect, or disgust. We remember Hercule Poirot and Captain Kirk because we feel kinship with them. We can never forget the Wicked Witch of the West and Darth Vader because they stir in us the deepest sense of revulsion. But even an interesting story with memorable characters will go unread if the reader cannot engage. A great story is so attractive, so engaging of the senses, that the reader cannot put it down. A great story, most of all, is well told.

As an author, my full-time preoccupation is the enlistment of your undivided attention. My single objective is to so captivate your imagination, to so immerse you in new worlds and ideas that you wish never to leave. I employ every tool in the wordsmithing shop, and if these are not enough, I make new tools and create new rules. Don’t care about incomplete sentences or real bad grammar, or even ‘bout bad spellin’. All I care about is keeping you entranced in the story. Sometimes I entice you with little extras. I write in a genre you enjoy. Or I complete years of research so my historical characters are authentic. Or I offer my story in an unusual prose style I feel more suited to sharing in the characters’ struggles.

In my first novel, “Cartier’s Ring,” I did all of these things. I wrote about a strong-willed, courageous young woman, Myeerah of Hawk Clan, who defies every social convention of her time to save herself and her family. Myeerah faces some of the worst affronts to humanity, including enslavement, beatings, and exile, yet she never loses hope. I bring in dozens of well-known historical figures to help tell her story, and I do something radical for an action-adventure historical novel: Every page of Cartier’s Ring is rendered in present tense, and Myeerah’s scenes are given in a first-person, just-like-being-there kind of style. I don’t know if “Cartier’s Ring” is a great story. Only you can make that judgment. But I can tell you that twelve years of research, including on-site work in Québec City and Saint Marie Among the Hurons (Midland, Ontario), and extensive use of primary documents informed every page of the novel that was three years in the writing. But I believe it’s the emotional depth of Myeerah's story that brings the novel to life. You will feel her pain, as she is beaten and enslaved, touch her tear-streaked face as she witnesses the ritual torture and execution of her brother, share in her joy as she overcomes deprivation and starvation, and cheer when she vanquishes her enemies.

I invite you to experience a story many are telling me is unforgettable. Myeerah of Hawk Clan awaits.

Thank you!


If you’d like to learn more, visit my website:  http://pearsonmoore.net/

If you’d like to read Cartier’s Ring all you need is a computer and FREE software  from Amazon. You do not need a Kindle device.

You may purchase Cartier’s Ring here.

LOST Identity


Direwolves and Dragons




Author Pearson Moore is author of several books and the Scribblers' New Voice this month. Please visit next Friday for another new voice in fiction.

New Voices: Ann Simon, author of Jaguar Sees: The Lacquer Box

When my husband got a job offer in Russia, I quit my job and we were off. I'd been a public school teacher, a technical writer, and had poems and essay published, but whether from lack of time (between a job and two small children) or lack of energy (between a job and two small children), or lack of opportunity (travel in the days before lap tops), the star in the sky – a novel – eluded me. In Russia, a new life opened before me: learning a new language and culture, a myriad of activities via the American Women’s Organization, a love of vodka.

By the time we'd lived in Moscow for a year and a half, Steve and I had long established the custom of sipping on an after-dinner vodka. One evening we were so engaged, chatting about this and that, when my husband pronounced, “I had an idea for a thriller.”

“What is it?” I asked, amazed. Steve is a scientist and his interest in creative writing was last demonstrated, well, never in the 35 years I'd known him.

“This guy goes to the craft market and buys a lacquer box. Part of the painting on the box is the key to a nuclear weapons smuggling operation.”

Hold the horses! “That’s a great idea! What happens next? How does the box lead to the smugglers?”

“Oh, I don't know; that idea’s the only part I thought up. You should write it.”

So I did.

It wasn't that easy, of course, but Russian winter afternoons are as long and dark and cold as they are described in Russian novels. That makes plenty of time for writing. By the time we returned to the States six months later, I had the better portion of a completed manuscript.

The “guy” morphed into a young woman (Claire) living in Moscow with her scientist husband (Jack). If this sounds familiar, I can only describe Jack and Claire as Steve and I but younger, prettier, and faster. Claire innocently buys the lacquer box and subsequently gets herself and Jack into more trouble than any two people can handle. I gave them help in the form of Claire’s Shamanic power animal, a spirit jaguar. The fun for me became marrying the two worlds: the most up-to-date technology of tactical nuclear weapons with the most ancient of spiritual belief, Shamanism. (Shamanism is fitting in a Russian story as some of the earliest evidence of Shamanism has been found in the Altai Mountains of Siberia). The enigmatic title of the book reflects its intertwining concepts: a fast paced thriller about tactical nuclear weapons smuggling with a paranormal overlay in an exotic setting that jumps from Moscow to a pine forest in Siberia: a little something for everyone. Unsurprisingly, my book is a lot like me: unique, adventurous, and maybe little weird. I prefer to think of it as cutting edge. And just as we are always taught, my plot reflected things about which I was familiar.

I finished the book after our return to the States and then realized that WRITING it was only half the dream. It sat reproaching me from my desktop until I went to Kindle’s KDP (digital publishing) site. I hired a talented young woman to convert Jaguar to HTML format and create the cover from a photo I took from our Moscow apartment. I followed Kindle’s instructions and uploaded the novel. There were a few glitches, but the people at Kindle are extremely responsive and helpful. So there it is, my OWN novel, actually selling with actual people buying it.

People wonder how it feels to have my book published. It feels great, not only because Jaguar is out there roaming in the real world (and Claire and Jack are out there, too), but because I did something I've wanted to do my entire life. There’s no amount of sales, no number of fan letters that top that. Well, okay, the fan letters are really nice to get, but there’s nothing that tops achieving your dream.

Ann Simon is the Scribblers' New Voice. is available at the Amazon Kindle store for electronic readers, Windows 7 phone, i-pads and other i-products. The Kindle app is currently free.

New Voices: Author Richard Warren Field, Swords of Faith

Short Attention Spans: Fiction Writing Style in the Early 21st Century

Author Richard Warren Field

Those of us who write fiction today face a lot of competition among story-telling formats. Not only do we have movies and television (and movies on television), but the internet now offers any number of entertainment formats still evolving (including movies and television on the internet). These many formats lead to a near overload of choices, and that leads to audiences with shorter and shorter attention spans.

Before the 20th Century—before movies and later, television—books offered one of a few story-telling mediums for people. The theater was available, but on an irregular basis, as a special event. If a person wanted to immerse into a new story, having heard all the stories from family and community enough times, a book was the best way. Long descriptions of setting and character were welcomed by readers. The book could very well be the best source for information and images, the best passport to exotic places and fascinating people. Readers appreciated a good book that would last.

The expanded set of story-telling choices today offers a special problem for writers of historical fiction, because exotic settings and unfamiliar people and time periods require more exposition at a time when long expository passages run the risk of losing the reader quickly. Modern writers are told to “show, not tell” to address this situation. (Does that mean the art of turning a clever phrase is lost? No, but a writer is advised to turn that clever phrase describing dramatic action or within dialogue, not as part of a long narrative expository passage.) This maxim is difficult for the writer of historical fiction, writing in a genre that requires more stage-setting than a novel with a modern setting. Many times, readers will say a book “starts slowly.” This is usually a sign of a lot of narrative exposition—telling not showing— to set the stage for the dramatic action to begin. Historical fiction runs that risk more than other types of writing because setting the historical stage is important—essential—to the genre.

I have developed my own style to address this situation, a style I have applied to my historical fiction (The Swords of Faith, 2010, published by Strider Nolan Media and the upcoming sequel, The Sultan and the Khan), as well as to other writing (The Election, 1997; Dying to Heal, 2011). I read as a suggestion somewhere that a writer should start a scene in the middle of the action. I like that idea. I think it creates a quick pace, and constantly engages the reader. I like to give a caption, with time and location, at the beginning of the scene, then start right up, most often with a piece of intriguing dialogue. I offer a few lines of exposition/description to orient the reader to the scene, then let it unfold, in real time, with as much dramatic action per word as possible. I like to burst into a scene, to energize the pace. Because movies and television permeate our world, readers have seen many exciting and exotic locations on screens of one sort or another. It doesn’t take many words to put them in the locale. Impatient readers often skip those paragraphs anyway.

Whether my methods have been successful will be decided by readers. But I know I enjoy this sort of story-telling—I enjoy reading books with a good pace, characterized by less narrative exposition and more dramatic action. I am a product of the times I live in; so much to do, so many things to read and watch and absorb. My attention span is no doubt as short as that of the readers I have been describing! So, I write with that in mind.

Richard Warren Field is the Scribbler's New Voice in February. He is the author of Swords of Faith, available now, and a dear friend with a gift for writing authentic historical scenes.

New Voices: Julie K. Rose, author of The Pilgrim Glass

Why do people create? Why do they choose not to create? How do they create, what is their process? The creative urge absolutely fascinates me.

For many years – until I was 31, to be exact – I refused it. I told myself I wasn't creative. And then, I experienced a series of strange and wonderful synchronicities – good, bad, and unsettling. The only way I could make sense of it all – and myself – was to put pen to paper. I've never looked back.

The creative impulse is definitely a theme running through The Pilgrim Glass. What drove the pilgrim to create the offering? Jonas to repair it? What drove Meredith to photograph in black and white, Dubay to morph his creative urge into something more spiritual?

Here are two short passages, which I think illustrate the creative urge, its expression in art, and the great reverence Jonas feels for it, deep down in his bones…and the powerful intimidation in learning to accept your creativity and find your own way and your own voice. These sections are from Chapter Nine, when Jonas first sees Sainte-Chapelle, during a visit with his friend Steve.

The afternoon had been dull and grey, making the windowed walls glow as if lit from within, as if the alchemy of sand and heat and color had created its own spiritual form that hovered over the long chapel. Jonas emerged from the lower chapel's dark spiral staircase into the shivering glow. "Dear God," he muttered, releasing his breath in a sigh, his eyes wide and an astonished grin spreading across his face. He felt strangely as though his eyes were somehow not created to comprehend this, that he must look everywhere and all at once and still not really take it in.

He stood rooted at the threshold, feeling as though time was moving around him in swirling eddies. And then, the sun had broken through clouds and the world had become glittering and his heart expanded into those eddies of time. Even now, ten years later, he could still remember that moment, when it was all new and wondrous, as if he was seeing colors and shapes and light for the first time.

~

A strange feeling came over Jonas, confusion and elation combining, making him dizzy. "Well, look at it. Look!" he said, his voice rising above the stirring plainsong. "Look how they made that figure come to life – really come to life – more than a painting can really do. Do you know what I mean?"

"Um."

"They're lit from within, they're alive, and it's not just trickery of paintwork and brushstrokes. It's genius…"

"Don't tell me you're swearing off painting," Steve said, looking at Jonas. "Who will I share studio time with?"

"And look at the lines, the forms," Jonas continued, ignoring Steve and gesturing to the north lancets, the stories of Genesis and Exodus.

Steve swiveled in his seat to look at Jonas. "Seriously, you're not going to stop painting, are you?"

Jonas ignored him. "How did they do that?"

"I dunno," Steve replied impatiently. "Faith."

"If you say so," Jonas replied, staring around the chapel.

They sat together without speaking, Jonas taking in the chapel, Steve shooting sidelong looks at Jonas.

"You know what?" Jonas asked finally, his voice hollow.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing will ever be as beautiful as this," he'd whispered. "Nothing."

So what drives you to create? What inspires you? What frightens you about creating? How do you express yourself? What blows you away, like stained glass did for Jonas? I'd love to hear your stories.

Julie K. Rose is the Brooklyn Scribbler's inaugural New Voice. She is the author of The Pilgrim Glass, available now.

New Voices

I love this community of writers. Writers are giving and nurturing. Over many years, I've met so many talented writers and new friendships have blossomed that enriched my life. It's also added sobering perspective on why it's so hard for new authors to break in, especially when there is so much talent out there.

Starting this month, during the last week of every month, the blog will feature New Voices, with debut authors across multiple genres and with varied interests. It will be a chance to promote new writers, and give back to the community of writers that has given me so much.

This month's New Voice will be Mirella Patzer, author of the Blighted Troth, which will be available next month.

If you're interested in a guest post on New Voices, contact me.