Life is a Series of Last Chance Canyons~

A wise cowboy once told me his personal philosophy ~ life is a series of last chance canyons. He said he realized it once while he was riding the range in Last Chance Canyon and wondered about the name. Dry Creek Canyon was named for the creek that went dry in the summer. Rock Creek Canyon had a lot of rocks. It occurred to him that someone must have had a last chance in this canyon once.

He said you have a lot of chances in life, firsts and lasts. Everyone remembers their firsts: your first bike ride, your first date, your first day of school are things everyone recognizes as significant. You remember some of your lasts too, like graduation is an end to you childhood, but some you don't notice until they're passed. Like your last chance to hold your child on your lap or jump on the bed with them. Pretty soon they grow up and you've lost that chance. Or you last chance to see an old friend or loved one. Most of us have experienced a sudden loss where we didn't know the last time we saw or spoke to someone was our last chance to be with them, to share a special moment with them, and let them know how we feel. If we'd only known.

Life is a series of last chance canyons. Don't be afraid to take a chance~

What it's all about? ~ The importance of theme in your writing and how to find it

The more I read and write, the more I find myself fascinated with themes. Not the “moral of the story”, but what exactly is it I’m trying to say about the world through my medium – the story. Exploring powerful themes like love, war, slavery, kindness, religion – themes we all have some connection to in our own lives – have brought me all my best stories. Let me give you some examples of what I'm talking about.

In Vessel, my newest dystopian/scifi novel, many themes surface throughout the pages. I never plan it consciously, but I find that the things on my mind while I’m writing influence my story a lot. We all have deeply held beliefs about the world around us. Those beliefs often surface in our fiction.

One of the themes that first emerged while I wrote Vessel was slavery. The main character, Alana, begins the story as a slave. Her belief that no one values her is analogous to how many of us are mentally shackled by our own negative self-image. Through the events of the story, Alana learns to break free of that image, mentally and physically. Beauty is also a prominent theme in Vessel – what it is and what it isn’t. True beauty is inside us, not on our face, as Alana learns.

Vessel also explores the themes of power and control, like any good dystopian novel. When politics and armed conflicts are on the news every night, it’s hard to get away from. Even the news outlets these days make one wonder about the nature of knowledge, who has it and who doesn’t. Who uses fear to control people? What is really the truth?

Probably my favorite theme in Vessel is kindness. Alana’s kindness to Recks, even though he’s a prisoner and a thief, is the action that sets the story events into motion. Their kindness to each other is the shining beacon that lights their way through the dark times and holds them together.

While Vessel is science fiction, many of the themes are perfectly relevant to today. My goal in writing with themes is not to lecture readers on what they should believe. My goal is to make my story relevant to everyday life, even if the story itself is perfectly fantastical, and to make readers think. For readers, seeing ourselves inside a story, feeling what the character feels, that’s what’s important. As a writer, that’s the best way to entertain, which is always my ultimate goal. If you want to check out my new dystopian novel, Vessel, now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and Kobo. *shamless book plug, sorry*

So now that you know what I mean by theme and why I think it makes a story richer, how do you get it? It's very easy for a beginning writer to be too heavy handed with their themes. Many writers for children start off wanting to "teach a lesson" with their story and the result is often a preachy mess nobody enjoys. Nobody enjoys a lecture, and I mean nobody. So Step One is to get off your high horse and get past the "teach a lesson" stage. If you start with the lesson and give no thought to the characters and the plot, except to illustrate your lesson, readers will sense it. They'll know the story lacks any depth beyond the lesson. Kids can smell a rat and you won't be fooling them into "learning something" if that's what you think, so give that up right now.

Step Two is get back to basics. Ask yourself three things: Who is my character? What do they want? What's standing in their way?

If you craft a compelling character with a compelling problem, BOOM, you just got a theme! Easy peasy! Let me illustrate with my book Hush Puppy. The main character is Corrine, a poor black girl with a fierce determination to get out of her backwater town, go to college, and see the world. What's standing in her way? Lack of money and lack of support. See the theme and the conflict? Where you come from and your economic background have a huge effect on the educational opportunities available to you. The character becomes a real person dealing with a real problem and it's something most anyone can relate to. It's Corrine's choices that illustrate how she deals with her own set of problems. As an author, I'm not trying to lecture anyone on poverty. I'm illuminating it. I'm showing it, not telling it. See the difference? 

Give it a try. Make a character, give them a goal and then make a really big obstacle to overcome. Then come back and let me know what your theme is!  Happy writing~

The Themes in Vessel ~ Where ideas come from

The more I read and write, the more I find myself fascinated with themes. Not the “moral of the story”, but what exactly is it I’m trying to say about the world through my medium – the story. Exploring powerful themes like love, war, slavery, kindness, religion – themes we all have some connection to in our own lives – have brought me all my best stories.

In Vessel, my newest dystopian/scifi novel, many themes surface throughout the pages. I never plan it consciously, but I find that the things on my mind while I’m writing influence my story a lot.

One of the themes that first emerged while writing Vessel was slavery. The main character, Alana, begins the story as a slave. Her belief that no one values her is analogous to how many of us are mentally shackled by our own negative self-image. Through the events of the story, Alana learns to break free of that image, mentally and physically. Beauty is also a prominent theme in Vessel – what it is and what it isn’t. True beauty is inside us, not on our face, as Alana learns.

Vessel also explores the themes of power and control, like any good dystopian novel. When politics and armed conflicts are on the news every night, it’s hard to get away from. Even the news outlets these days make one wonder about the nature of knowledge, who has it and who doesn’t. Who uses fear to control people? What is really the truth?

Probably my favorite theme in Vessel is kindness. Alana’s kindness to Recks, even though he’s a prisoner and a thief, is the action that sets the story events into motion. Their kindness to each other is the shining beacon that lights their way through the dark times and holds them together.

While Vessel is science fiction, many of the themes are perfectly relevant to today. My goal in writing with themes is not to lecture readers on what they should believe. My goal is to make my story relevant to everyday life, even if the story itself is perfectly fantastical, and to make readers think. For readers, seeing ourselves inside a story, feeling what the character feels, that’s what’s important. As a writer, that’s the best way to entertain, which is always my ultimate goal. I hope you enjoy my new dystopian novel, Vessel, now available in print and e-book on Amazon.

Even #Bookworms can help #EndSlavery

One of the themes explored in my upcoming novel Vessel is slavery. Slavery exists in the dystopian future of the novel, just as it exists now. Yes, that’s right. I said now. Slavery is still going on in 2015, right this very minute, all across the world. Millions of women and children, and even men, are living life in captivity, both physical and economic.


Slavery and human trafficking were on my mind as I wrote the book. I feel very fortunate to have been born into the set of circumstances I was, but many are not so lucky. I would like very much to see slavery end. I’m just one person and I know there’s only such much I can do. If just one Vessel reader is inspired to help make that change, I’ll have done some good. So with that in mind, I’ve decided to donate 25% of my proceeds from the sale of Vessel to the International Justice Mission, an organization devoted to helping free slaves around the world.


If you’re on Twitter, I encourage you to follow them @IJM and support their hashtags #EndSlaveryAct and #stand4freedom . Or visit their website at www.ijm.org and get involved. And when you purchase a copy of Vessel, know that you’re helping too. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

My favorite romances~

Happy Saturday peeps! 

If you've read Hush Puppy already, you'll know there's a bit of romance involved.  Someone asked me to name five favorite romance books recently.

 I have to admit, I did a bit of an uh-oh.  While I love romantic elements in books, I haven’t read any true romance novels in awhile. So, here are five (not necessarily romance) novels with romances that I loved reading.

Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Anne of Green Gables series  by L.M. Montgomery

Bridge to Tarabithia by Katherine Paterson

I think these books appeal to me because they’re about first love and all the crazy, mixed up feelings that come with that. They aren’t muddied up with baggage.  For the most part, they’re full on, head over heels, I’ll die without you-type love stories. I guess I like it complicated and messy, as you can see from my writing.  Many of these stories inspired the romance in Hush Puppy.

It's the story of Corrine Lamb, a seventeen year old, black girl, and Jamie Armstrong, a poor white boy, living in a backwater North Carolina town.  Intelligent Corrine, abandoned by her mother, and artsy Jamie, forced to play football by a redneck father, both dream of leaving their podunk town and never looking back. 

Their shared love of literature and a dream of a better life brings them together and a romance blossoms between them in a secret place of their own in the steamy North Carolina woods.  When Jamie is involved in the accidental death of a white girl, he’s terrified of his abusive father.  Corrine takes the blame to protect Jaime, with dire consequences for herself and her dreams of the future.  Her life in danger, Corrine’s left wondering if Jamie ever cared about her at all.

There's a certain Romeo and Juliet theme to the story because Corrine and Jamie keep their relationship secret from the rest of the world, although at one point, Corrine tells Jamie, "I'm not killing myself for you."  I love that "what happens when you fall in love with the wrong person?" question.

And of course, Bridge to Tarabithia was major influence on the story, mainly for it's themes of friendship and loss. It's a beautiful story everyone should read at least once.  What are your favorite romances? Let me know~

Fantasy Author Interview ~ Welcome Gary Vanucci

Today I've asked self published fantasy author and twitter friend, Gary Vanucci, to visit the blog.  Gary was kind enough to post an interview of me on his blog last month and I wanted to return the favor.  Welcome Gary!

Tell me a bit about yourself…where you’re from and how you came to be a writer…

I’m from a small suburb of Philadelphia, PA. I read a lot growing up and found myself gravitating toward comic books, science fiction and fantasy novels. I think that was the mind-expansion or escape from reality that I needed at the time and still do today. If you can read, your mind can go anywhere! I came to be a writer as my history and interests indicated an artistic path. I have always been creative and it was not until the last few years that I discovered a passion for storytelling. I pursued that as a secondary thing that I hope to expand one day into a primary thing.

Can you tell us what genres you write and why?

Right now, I am only doing fantasy. I tried science fiction about 13 years ago, but grew bored with it. I may go back to it sometime. Not sure where my mind will take me next, but I at least want to finish the current story arc in my Realm of Ashenclaw series. If fans dictate that they want more, who knows? If not, I have many other stories I need to tell in a few other genres. Horror being one I find fascinating.

What themes do you particularly like to use in your writing and why?

Great questions! A few topics I like to include are: fallen heroes, addiction, naturally progressing romances and, although my characters are powerful (otherwise they would not be heroes), they have weaknesses. I like to write about things that people could relate to. Everyone has an addiction. Everyone thinks about love. Everyone has flaws and baggage and/or secrets from their past. These are a few things that I like to hone in on. I figure if I don’t care about my characters, why should you? So that thought motivates me to write them with vulnerability.

Fantasy is so much about world building.  When you're writing, how do you go about it?

I have a map and a fairly detailed description of it. As a matter of fact, my friends and I wrote a D&D RPG supplement that had an incredible amount of detail about the Realm of Ashenclaw, and yet, leaves enough open for the users to expand on the framework within. I also take copious notes, reference my documents constantly and progress from there. I have an entire northern section of my world that I had ear-marked for possibly another fantasy realm that is completely separated from the first and has its own unique origins going on. We’ll see if I can bring you there in the future!

 

Your covers are great.  Can you tell us how they were developed?

I found another author, William J. Kenney, who did character work on his covers that I loved. After a few brief discussions, he talked me into letting him do a re-make of my first cover. I loved it. We have had a successful working relationship since then and he is a friend now. We are both struggling to get noticed in this world of self-publishing where anyone with the know-how can put their product out there. It’s difficult to sift through the bad stuff to find the gems, but we feel that once we find a fan base, we will succeed in satisfying them. But, to your point, I deliver a concept of what I want, the descriptions, etc. as I have a vision in my head and send it to William and he fleshes it out. I am very pleased with it. He also did all of the sketches and artwork in the D&D supplement as well. The artwork is top-notch and I highly recommend him for anything!

 
 
 

What influenced your decision to self-publish?

I thought about trying to query an agent for a long time before saying the heck with it and trying it myself. I have never sent in any queries or contacted an agent at all. I figured if I was good enough that people would find me. However, that thought is idealistic. See my above statement about finding the gems. So, I have persevered and am in negotiations right now with a publisher that has a unique formula for publishing and I am in discussions with them. They are currently perusing my first manuscript and we shall see where it goes. I am hopeful that we can come to an agreement and work together on finding an audience.

What advice do you have for a beginning fantasy writer or any indie writer?

Try hard. Don’t quit. If you really believe in what you are doing, that is all that matters. It takes time and there are a lot of pitfalls and discouraging obstacles. But, keep at it. You will find that (hopefully) you will find your voice one day and things will become so much easier. I almost quit once, but I find that the voices in my head need to come out. That and that alone, drive me now. I write only for myself. If you do it for any other reasons, you are cheating yourself. Good luck and get writing!

Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

I think we have covered most of it. I feel that I would also like to thank anyone that has given my work a read, a review and hope they come back for more. I want to thank readers and especially reviewers of all books and hope that more people turn off their televisions more and do some reading occasionally! Books are the ultimate vacation and lead to a higher IQ. So keep on reading! Lisa, thanks for having me and I liked the questions a lot!

 

July 31 - Last Day of the #31 Day Blog Challenge

Whew!  I made it 31 days!

This has been a great exercise for me. I’ve had a blog for a couple years now, but I’d always been pretty lax about keeping up with it.  Having a challenge to blog every day really made me work hard to come up with topics. It also gave me some incentive to come up with several topics and write ahead, which really helped when I took that trip mid-month.  Who knew I wouldn’t have steady internet access for over a week?? Yikes!

I am curious to know which posts were the most useful or interesting to people. If I were to judge by the numbers of comments received, it would appear that topics that cover writing craft are the most popular with my readers. Do you agree?

As much fun as this was, I do think daily blogging is a bit much. What reader is going to visit me every day? I know I’m not *that* fascinating! I do want to keep up with more frequent, regular posting though. The question is, how often to do them? Any ideas?  I’m thinking perhaps weekly…but first I’m going to take a few days off and relax :)

I’ll check in with you soon though. Take care and keep reading, Lisa

Blog 26 One of my favorite things~

I had hoped to be posting a release day post about Hush Puppy in July, but it seems I'll have to wait just a bit longer. There is  a lovely galley in existence now, which means it's getting oh-so close to being published.  There's also a blog post, all ready to go on release day, to tell you just how the book came to be. Until then, I thought I might chat a little with you about the themes in the book and what I was striving for when I wrote it.  You already know how much I love themes, right?

 

Hush Puppy could succinctly be described as a coming of age story, but I like to think it's also about growing into one's own sense of self esteem, something many of us don't truly achieve until later in life.  In addition to that, the book is about a funny little thing called friendship.  It's one of my very favorite themes and it crops up in my writing again and again, no matter what I write.

Friendship is a hard thing to get your metaphorical arms around. If you were to define friendship, how would you describe it? An affection between two people? Is it trust or an understanding and acceptance of another's personality, their flaws and foibles?  Is a friend a confidant, a person you can trust with your secrets?

 

I myself have very definite opinions about what makes a friendship and I wanted to explore that in Hush Puppy.  What happens when the trust of a friendship is betrayed? Or when that friendship gets tangled up with feelings of love or dependence?

To me, a friend is someone you can be totally yourself with without fear of rejection or ridicule.  Even then, there's a constant push-pull between the two of boundaries, of affection and closeness. Some friends are more distant than others and we're constantly trying to gauge where we stand with them. The friends we're closest to are those that know our inner most fears, those that support us, and encourage us to grow, maybe even against our will.

What do you think makes a friendship? Have you ever had a friend betray your trust? What happened?

 

Blog #23 The Best time to Write

I’m finding more and more that the best time to write, for me, is in the morning, which kinda sucks because when do I find the time to write? In the evening, of course.  I can still write in the evening. I do it a lot actually, but mornings seem so much more magical. Especially that oh-so brief bit between entirely awake and entirely asleep. On really good days, I can brainstorm my whole writing day right there.

The other morning, I wrote a short poem, thought of a blog topic, and realized what needed to happen in my next chapter, all before getting out of bed. Since I had no paper or pen, I typed out a few brief notes on the iPhone and went back to sleep. The poem will fit nicely into Storyteller Book III because each chapter starts with a poem or a snippet of a ballad or a word from the wise fictitious character.  When do you write your best stuff?

Just for fun, here’s my poem for you. Enjoy!

Where ever the wind blows,

where ever the owl calls, and the fern grows,

I’ll be there with you~

Blog #20 Don't Knock it till you try it~

One morning, outside the writer's workshop classroom, I was waiting with some other classmates for the room to open and they were reminiscing about games they played as kids. There was hopscotch, kick the can, jacks, and marbles. And of course baseball. But then the conversation took a funny turn, as conversations often do, toward the comparison to today. “Kids today don't play motor skills games, except with their thumbs.” “Kids don't go outside.” “They're not interested in those things.”

 

And I thought to myself, because I'm not a very outspoken person, “And you people think you want to write books for these kids you don't even respect?” They won't get very far. If there's no respect for the reader, and that's just what this is, there will be no respect for the writer. Judging kids today by your experiences without bothering to understand their experiences and perspectives is a mistake and it will ruin any writing you do for children.

Maybe that’s why they say writing for children is just like writing for adults, but harder. You have to set aside your superior attitudes about the way things should be or your misty-eyed, sugar-coated versions of the past being better than the future to do it well. There is no room for nostalgia in children's literature. Young readers want the best you've got.

Blog #14 "The Importance of Theme" or "Why I Love Star Trek"

A few posts ago, I mentioned theme and said I'd do a blog post on it some time. Well, here it is. Aren't you excited?? Hehehe!  No, this isn't some boring English lesson about morals. This is the fairy dust that makes your story fly and your writing shine!  It's the good stuff, the cream with the cherry on top.  If your writing has no theme, it has no soul, no heart. It's dry, dull, and flat, and nobody wants that. So read on...

 When I saw the last Star Trek movie, I was completely enthralled with it.  It's a great movie. Later, after the excitement died down a bit, I thought about what made me, and so many others, respond to it with such enthusiasm.  There's a lot of great reasons why, but one thing that occurred to me is Star Trek has always had great themes.

Like what? you ask. Well, I'll tell you what I think.

Ultimately, after all the explosions and fist fights and Vulcan mind melds, Star Trek is about the friendship between Kirk and Spock. It's about loyalty and sacrifice for others. It's about the push and pull between leaders and followers, competition and camaraderie. Other themes that make frequent appearances include war/peace, courage, teamwork, the quest for knowledge, equality, diversity, love/hate, and the power of emotions. In fact, Spock himself is a walking, talking study in emotion, or the apparent lack thereof. It's awesome!  (My apologies to my grammarian friends; I can think of at least two that are probably cringing at the sentences I just wrote there. Forgive me!)

Now maybe you're saying "Wait a minute, Lisa. Those aren't the moral of the story." No, they aren't, because there is no morality lesson in Star Trek.  Theme is not something you want to beat people over the head with. It's something you show the reader or viewer, and let them take from it what they will.  Let's take the example of Spock and Lieutenant Uhura. **This could be mildly spoilerish, so if you haven't seen Into Darkness, stop what you're doing right now and go see it before reading any further!!**

OK, so Spock has just managed to survive a very dangerous mission, but just barely. Uhura is upset with him for risking his life without any apparent thought of her or her feelings. There's a lovely little scene where he explains to her how the loss of his mother has affected his decision whether to feel his emotions or not and why he has made the choice not to. (I wish I had it memorized because I'm probably botching this explanation. I'm sure some good Trekkie will pop in and lend a hand.) 

My point is, nobody's on the screen telling you that we all carry pain in our hearts from some event in our lives and we all react differently to that pain.  But Spock, with his decision to be only logical, shows you intimately all the results of that in his actions. Love and loss are such powerful themes because we've all experienced them in some way. He pull us into his character because we can totally empathize with how he feels.  As readers, we love that feeling.  That's why understanding theme is so important to a writer.  What are your favorite Star Trek themes?  Why do you think that is? How does it speak to you?

 

And hey, if you totally love Star Trek humor like I do, visit my pin page for more fun :)