Friday Reads by Christine Locke

Included this week: a fun summer read, a writer's-workshop-in-book-form, and two of those books I can't live without from now on.  For better or worse, here's my take on what's been on my bedside table of late. 

Six Years by Harlan Coben

This was a fun read. Take it to the beach, definitely. But reading this book, which is fast-paced and wraps up loose ends and even gives the MC a chance to work on an inner issue or two, helped me understand some of the recent critiques of my own writing. I've been hearing that readers "enjoy their time with my character," yet want more description or more to the story, somehow. That's how I felt reading Six Years. I wanted to spend more time there, not just come along for the rolicking adventure that rocked the world of a staid, middle-aged professor. Then again, it can't be all that bad when you leave your readers wanting more, which Coben certainly did here. Like I said, take it to the beach. Just don't get so involved that you forget to turn over and burn your backside :) Happy Reading.

Wired for Story

I'm not going to lie: a lot of the information here can be found in other books or in a writing class at your local junior college.
However, that being said, there's some very interesting information here given from the angle of brain science/psychology that's good to read if you're writing. It's always good for a writer to find new ways to keep the reader in mind. Also, something different about this book that was overlooked in reviews I read before buying it: there's a checklist at the end of every chapter. These are "to-do" lists that you can use to apply that chapter's topic to your own novel/story in progress. That was a nice touch, and may be the reason I pick this up again to use in my future work

The Heroine's Journey by Maureen Murdock

 I started quoting this book before I finished reading it. That's pretty much an indication that it's an important one for me. If you write women's fiction and you haven't read this book, read it. If you write about women and you haven't read this book, read it. I'm having a reaction that I've heard others have when they "discover" Joseph Campbell's work for the first time: how did I not know about this book sooner? It's especially strange for me that I wrote a master's thesis in the 90's about the mother role in british lit and somehow I never came across this text. Ah well, I've read it now, and I'll be going back to it. In fact, I have a feeling that as I complete re-writes on my current project I'll be revisiting this text a lot.

The only complaint I have about The Heroine's Journey is that it's dated. Just like the thesis I wrote in 1995 is not what I would have to say, now, about the mother role in our society, I wish we could have an updated edition of The Heroine's Journey. We have a beautiful updated version of Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey (which is were I read about Murdock's work), so how about a similar edition for The Heroine? I'm just saying....

The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler

A few years ago, I did comb through The Hero with a Thousand Faces and create my own guide for my storytelling.  It was hard.  It took a long time--time that I could have spent writing.  If you are, like me, more a storyteller than a scholar, you need to dive right into this one.
If you are already a Jungian or a Joseph Campbell scholar, this book is not for you.  Anyone else, writer or not, should give Vogler's work a try.  If he challenges and inspires you to find out more about Campbell and Jung, he has done a noble thing indeed. 
And, along the way, you will learn some things about why some stories fly off with our collective imagination and others...well, just don't.  And if you are a writer and you've struggled with this problem in selling your own works, you can get some help here.  Unless you don't care about what readers feel and think and you just want to write for you.  That's cool.  If that's the case, this book is not for you, either.
But there are several chapters beyond the "formulaic" bulk of the book that are worth a look even if you catch yourself looking down your nose at this text.  The appendix entitled "Stories are Alive" underscores the importance of your character's initial wish for a change, but also emphasizes that WILL is at least as important as wish (quick, somebody call Rhonda Byrne...oh, never mind).  And I did enjoy "The Wisdom of the Body"--yes, men can write about that, too!  Although this man actually writes that your story should make at least two of your readers' organs "squirt fluids."  Oh yes he did.  But all kidding aside, The final section "Trust the Path" was a moving one for me and most likely the reason why, in the end, this accessible, amusing and very approachable book is a 5 star read for me.

Inspirational Arkansas Musicians by Christine Locke

As I write the latest, and last, novel in the Legacy series, I'm inspired by some of Arkansas' most creative souls.  You can even find some hints for my storyline in the lyrics....

Luther Allison "Bad News Is Coming" with son, Bernard Allison

Lefty Dizz, "Some Things He Used To Do"

Arbee Stidham, "When I Find My Baby"

and a Louisville blues singer who just happened to have my name :)

Bill Locke, "Someone to Take Your Place"



Magic Realism Elements: So Ordinary It Hurts by Christine Locke

In magic realism, the description of the ordinary might come at you in great and painful detail, often beautifully written in almost poetic terms.  I'm thinking of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Of Love and Other Demons as I write, the entrance to the once beautiful and now decrepit hacienda guarded by giant dogs allowed to run free within.  Alice Hoffman's Seventh Heaven and the man who falls in love with his neighbor when he catches sight of her on her rooftop cleaning the gutters.  The hacienda houses a strange girl whose love is a supernatural force and the woman on the roof is a witch, but those bits are not important.  The mastifs running on dirty floors, the clogged gutters and birds in the chimney: these details are what  the writing strives to reveal and through these everyday items something else, something wonderful, something transformative, will emerge. 

Here's a selection from my current project (guess what genre!).

Andy’s head popped up above the pool's edge onto the deck, and the rest of him followed, more tanned and strong and muscled than JoBee could remember any of her friends being when she was that age. Sometimes she just gazed at her children and shook her head, wondering how these two beautiful, strong, accomplished people could be the same babies who still, in her thoughts, waited for her outside the school or ran to her with a scraped knee or wailed in the dark with a nightmare.

JoBee shook her head and took another sip of wine. Of late, she couldn’t quit thinking of the children, remembering their sweet baby faces, their bright wooden blocks, visits to the pediatrician when her babies were the only ones who didn’t cry, and that long drive after the dog died, like they were running from the memory of burying him. All this reached back to the days before this big house, before she decided to cut hair, before David, before the children started school. Sometimes she pretended to wonder why she thought of this so much, but, really, she knew. She took inventory for fear that when they packed up for college, her memories of the children would fall into the suitcases or tumble into boxes and when they left every trace would vanish with them, as if they’d never been hers. JoBee feared what she already understood: there were worse things than being alone.

Why is JoBee so afraid?  Is it just fear of losing her children?  Or is there another kind of tension unlying her anxiety, something so deep and strange she cannot share it with anyone?  Magic realism uses experience outside the normal to illuminate the everyday, draw it into sharper focus, provoke us to think about how we live, why we love, who we are. 

Magic Realism on the Brain... by Christine Locke

I recently sent out a few tweets advertising my interest in young adult magic realism.  I offered to review the best of the recommendations here on the blog.  Know how many responses I got?  One.  Yup.  Even though some generous folks retweeted and helped spread the word, I only got one volunteer. 

I'm wondering why.  Do people understand what magic realism (or magical realism, as it is also called) is?  I'm guessing this could be part of it.  I recently read a complaint by a literary agent that most of her "magic realism" submissions turn out to be fantasy. 

Basically, magic realism is an otherwise realistic story with just a touch of the magical that is treated as if it were real.  So, you've got a story about witches, but the witches and their magic is not the point.  It's just a detail, or a side story at best.  The real issue is that the witches are young and need to figure out how to live and who to love, just like you or me.  (I began that paragraph thinking of the movie Practical Magic, but it occurs to me that the tv show "Charmed" would work here, too.  That was also a story that, in the end, focused on the effort to build a normal life and experience normal problems.  Yet, the plots for "Charmed" revolve so much around the magic and use of magic that that's also a good example of where magic realism becomes fantasy.)

Well known examples: Alice Hoffman and Gabriel Garcia Marquez are always the first to pop into my mind, although a couple of my recent favorites are Mary Sharratt and Sarah Addison Allen.

So, any of you know a writer of young adult magic realism who'd like a review here?  I'd love to find a sampling of several contemporaries.  Let me know!

COVER REVEAL: Michelle Kemper Brownlow's IN TOO DEEP

What fun!  Here's the cover for new author Michelle Kemper Brownlow's first novel, and I must say it looks tempting....  Michelle is also fun to follow on twitter.  You'll find all her links below.  And now, the cover copy of IN TOO DEEP:

 

Gracie has just finished her freshman year of college in Memphis when she takes a job at a local pizza joint in her home town of McKenzie, Tennessee. She is the epitome of innocence when she meets Noah. Noah is unabashedly handsome, intriguingly reckless and just cocky enough to be sexy. Gracie’s instincts tell her to stay far away from him and based on the stories she hears from her co-workers he leaves broken hearts in his wake. But still, she can’t explain her fascination with him.

Noah puts aside his bad boy ways when what he thought was a summer crush has him unexpectedly falling in love. But soon after Gracie transfers to UT Knoxville to be with Noah, their unexpected love becomes riddled with anger, deceit and humiliation.

Jake, Noah’s former roommate and Gracie’s best friend, can no longer be a bystander. Gracie’s world falls out from beneath her and when she breaks she turns to Jake for strength. As Jake talks her through a decision she’s not yet strong enough to make, together they uncover a truth so ugly neither of them is prepared for its fallout. Will Jake pull her to the surface or is Gracie Jordan finally In Too Deep?

 

Michelle Kemper Brownlow

 

IN TOO DEEP, my debut romance novel, COMING SOON!!

"The day he said "I love you," should have been the day she said, "Goodbye!"

Release Date: June 6, 2013

 

Visit my Author/Illustrator blog: MICHELLE KEMPER BROWNLOW

Follow me on Twitter: @MK_Brownlow

"Like" me on facebook: Michelle Kemper Brownlow/ Author

Review of _A Light in the Darkness_ by Heather Sutherlin

As a follow-up to Heather Sutherlin's post on inspiration, here is my review of her first novel, A Light in the Darkness, a good example of fantasy and allegorical (but not obvious allegory!) presentation of faith.

This is a well written fantasy with memorable characters.  Merrilyn's faith in a forgotten god, Loian, and her strict adherance to her professional principles place a strain on her friendship with Prince Justan.  Had she not been the Alaith, Merrilyn's romantic relationship with Justan could have developed more quickly.  Instead, following her professional call and her faith, Merrilyn finds a new friend--and a love triangle.
This is a fantasy set in a capably-created world where magic is a real threat to the health and security of the people of Justan's kingdom. Merrilyn shares a nearly forgotten faith in a god who guides her personally, and an interesting part of the writing of this novel is how to share something as intimate as one's faith in a way that others will find meaningful and helpful.  That is a difficult theme, and Sutherlin handles it well.
I enjoyed this story and its delicate portrayal of shared belief and the community of women who support Merrilyn's work and encourage her faith.

Writers on Wednesday: Heather Sutherlin

This week I am happy to bring back the Writers on Wednesday feature with Heather Sutherlin, a friend and fellow Arkansan writer.  Note Heather's involvement, below, in local writers' groups here in Arkansas.  Way to go, girl!  She's also offering scavenger-hunt fun on her blog: http://heathersutherlin.com/share-the-love-scavenger-hunt/.  Heather homeschools her kids and writes Young Adult fiction while also leading a young writers group, inspiring a new generation of authors.  For this article, I asked Heather to share what inspires her.

 

Christine asked me to explain what inspires me.  Are you sure you want to know? You’re going to laugh. I promise. Most writers are inspired by other writers, by great works of literature or deeply poetic verse. Many today are inspired by the vibrant throng of humanity surrounding them or the depth of human emotion. Not me. I’m inspired by trees.

I like trees. Not just one tree. Trees, standing close together, growing thick and tall until you would call them a wood or, even better, a forest. I adore forests. There is something truly spellbinding about a forest path. I am enticed by the sounds, the way the leaves rustle over head in the breeze, like a lady shaking out her taffeta skirts. My senses heighten as a bird sings in the distance, hidden from sight as the sound drifts toward me. The trees bend and creak as the wind works it magic against their force. Squirrels chatter as they scamper along branches, sending a shower of acorns rattling their way to the forest floor and somewhere nearby a twig snaps. The sound of trickling water always pulls me to a standstill as I listen for the sweet sound of water rushing over mossy covered rocks.

I love forests. I love how the sunlight filters in through the leafy canopy, its rays somehow softened and yet twice as sparkly as it captures dust particles dancing through the air. I smile at the artistic patterns on the forest floor that dance and sway as the light passes through the branches above. When a bright ray of light breaks through to highlight a patch of fern or mossy covered ground, I find myself drawn through the darkness toward its sunny location as though it were sacred somehow, this bright spot in a dark wood.

There, in the quiet expectant wood, my heart races. I feel anticipation building within me, as though something incredible were about to happen. Here there must be magic. Here, in this still moment, I will finally make sense of some chaotic element of my world. I find myself searching for something I can’t quite explain, and that is when I find another sort of magic – Inspiration.

All of my books so far draw on these very real emotions and experiences. Every one of my main characters has found her true purpose, her greatest adventure, in the shadow of a familiar wood. It’s not a theme I believe will disappear anytime soon in my work. There, in the forest, anything seems possible. So, when I’m feeling dry and weary, frazzled and feckless, I go to the woods. I’ll take my notebook along for good company and in it capture those bits of magic that drift my way, saving them for another day. Back in the big city, tucked away at my writing desk far from the quiet calm of nature, I’ll pull out that notebook and breathe in the magic once again. Then, I’ll pour it all out for you, dear reader. I’m saving the best for you.

 Author Bio

1999 – B.A. in Elementary Education from Harding University

2009 - Created Write Start, a workshop for young writers.

2011 - 1^st Place White County Creative Writers’ Conference First Chapter Contest

2012 – Debut novel, A Light in the Darkness, is released along with its sequel, To Light the Path.

2013 – Seen and Wandered, two books in a new YA fantasy series, will be released in the spring.

Featured Author – Arkansas Literary Festival

President - Fiction Writers of Central Arkansas

Heather Sutherlin lives in Arkansas with her husband and three children. She loves all things creative and enjoys the worlds she dreams up, longing to live the adventure alongside her characters. When she’s not at her writing desk, she is busy exploring and learning with her children or cooking big, elaborate meals in the kitchen with her husband.

You can see more of Heather at her website, HeatherSutherlin.com

Or, email her at HSutherlin@gmail.com