Good day!
And what a good day it is so far. The sun is shining and spring is really here, especially as our regular house martins have returned from over-wintering in Africa and are rebuilding their usual nest. I'll let you into a secret ~ we actually moved the nest ten feet last autumn and glued it onto the ceiling in our garage. We crossed our fingers and the birds have accepted the move! Soon no doubt we'll hear the cheeps from half a dozen chicks or more. Nature is a wonderful thing.
My garden is coming along with the addition of colourful bedding plants, I re-pointed an old stone-wall yesterday to keep the snakes out of the house and I was amazed on learning I had 3 wins on the UK premium bonds. Okay they were minor wins but it all goes into our holiday fund - or was it for the new kitchen??
I'm delighted to introduce Sarah Barnard to you as my featured author today. Sarah has a wealth of writing and publishing experience and she has recently launched her latest book 'Impact' the first in her Earthlink series - Enjoy!
Thanks for looking ~ have a great Easter break and coming week.
Faithx
Sarah Barnard
How does a writer write? Everyone writes in a different way, how about, How does THIS writer write?
I've lost count of the number of times I've been asked that. "How do you do it?"
I sit at my computer, I mess about on facebook, I chat with friends, and I type words into a blank document sitting there on the screen. Eventually there are enough words and they make a book. It's not hard.
But where do the ideas come from?
Do you remember, when you were a child and you played with your toys and you gave them names and you played pretend games? You climbed trees, imagined that you could travel in time or space. You were a princess, a knight, a hero. You populated your imaginary world and you played for hours.
I do that. I wander round my house and garden, talking to myself. I imagine things happening as I drive along – my kids think I'm nuts. We make up stories on long journeys. We've seen evidence of dragons in Wales, there are claw marks on the road. There's a giant asleep in the hills there too.
I sometimes wish I could type and drive, or that I had a voice recorder or something.
Then I write down the pretend games as stories and I share them.
The basic idea can come from anywhere. An email exchange that had me in fits of giggles is now in note form for a comedy. Something someone said can get me thinking and following the imaginary path to a story idea. A song can spark something.
The Portal Between started as a line from a song. Dido's Isobel has a line in it about someone vanishing and their car is found, by a tree. No sign of the missing person and the implication is that they may have chosen to disappear, or possibly even killed themselves, but those left behind have no closure, no idea what's happened. The whole Portal series started there. All I had was a starting point, nothing else. I had a car, a tree, a missing person and someone left behind.
My new Earthlink series was conceived after a drive, and a conversation with one of my kids, I have two and this was the youngest. A chance comment about how it would be good if we could somehow zap ourselves to our destination, without all the boring driving in between, took root in my mind and became the technology that will form the heart of the Earthlink series.
I work best that way, like an archaeologist, exposing new characters and new plots layer by layer. I do have a rough idea of where the story might go, but I don't plot and plan in detail as I find that causes me to get stuck in the plan and can't deviate. It strangles the story and the characters don't flow properly. I know others can't work without a solid and extensive plan, and pages of notes, but that's not me. I prefer to let my mind wander and see where it goes.
So far that's worked for me and I intend to let it continue working.
Book links:
The Portal Between - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0037CEUMW/
Earthlink: Impact - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Earthlink-Impact-ebook/dp/B006YR4BIK/
And what a good day it is so far. The sun is shining and spring is really here, especially as our regular house martins have returned from over-wintering in Africa and are rebuilding their usual nest. I'll let you into a secret ~ we actually moved the nest ten feet last autumn and glued it onto the ceiling in our garage. We crossed our fingers and the birds have accepted the move! Soon no doubt we'll hear the cheeps from half a dozen chicks or more. Nature is a wonderful thing.
My garden is coming along with the addition of colourful bedding plants, I re-pointed an old stone-wall yesterday to keep the snakes out of the house and I was amazed on learning I had 3 wins on the UK premium bonds. Okay they were minor wins but it all goes into our holiday fund - or was it for the new kitchen??
I'm delighted to introduce Sarah Barnard to you as my featured author today. Sarah has a wealth of writing and publishing experience and she has recently launched her latest book 'Impact' the first in her Earthlink series - Enjoy!
Thanks for looking ~ have a great Easter break and coming week.
Faithx
Sarah Barnard
How does a writer write? Everyone writes in a different way, how about, How does THIS writer write?
I've lost count of the number of times I've been asked that. "How do you do it?"
I sit at my computer, I mess about on facebook, I chat with friends, and I type words into a blank document sitting there on the screen. Eventually there are enough words and they make a book. It's not hard.
But where do the ideas come from?
Do you remember, when you were a child and you played with your toys and you gave them names and you played pretend games? You climbed trees, imagined that you could travel in time or space. You were a princess, a knight, a hero. You populated your imaginary world and you played for hours.
I do that. I wander round my house and garden, talking to myself. I imagine things happening as I drive along – my kids think I'm nuts. We make up stories on long journeys. We've seen evidence of dragons in Wales, there are claw marks on the road. There's a giant asleep in the hills there too.
I sometimes wish I could type and drive, or that I had a voice recorder or something.
Then I write down the pretend games as stories and I share them.
The basic idea can come from anywhere. An email exchange that had me in fits of giggles is now in note form for a comedy. Something someone said can get me thinking and following the imaginary path to a story idea. A song can spark something.
The Portal Between started as a line from a song. Dido's Isobel has a line in it about someone vanishing and their car is found, by a tree. No sign of the missing person and the implication is that they may have chosen to disappear, or possibly even killed themselves, but those left behind have no closure, no idea what's happened. The whole Portal series started there. All I had was a starting point, nothing else. I had a car, a tree, a missing person and someone left behind.
My new Earthlink series was conceived after a drive, and a conversation with one of my kids, I have two and this was the youngest. A chance comment about how it would be good if we could somehow zap ourselves to our destination, without all the boring driving in between, took root in my mind and became the technology that will form the heart of the Earthlink series.
I work best that way, like an archaeologist, exposing new characters and new plots layer by layer. I do have a rough idea of where the story might go, but I don't plot and plan in detail as I find that causes me to get stuck in the plan and can't deviate. It strangles the story and the characters don't flow properly. I know others can't work without a solid and extensive plan, and pages of notes, but that's not me. I prefer to let my mind wander and see where it goes.
So far that's worked for me and I intend to let it continue working.
Book links:
The Portal Between - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0037CEUMW/
Earthlink: Impact - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Earthlink-Impact-ebook/dp/B006YR4BIK/
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