Guest Post by Mary E. Martin

Exciting news, everyone: today we are being visited by a virtual blog tour celebrating the completion of author Mary E. Martin's second series, The Trilogy of Remembrance. A special welcome to followers of the tour joining us from Book Readers Heaven, http://gabixlerreviews-bookreadersheaven.blogspot.com/ and from other sites on the tour.

Followers of the tour have an opportunity to enter in a $200 Amazon gift card giveaway! Entries will be accepted until midnight on August 31, 2015 with an announcement of the winner posted from Mary's Blog on September 1, 2015. Anyone submitting a proof of purchase entry in the giveaway draw will receive as an added benefit the tour purchase incentive rewards package of free e-books and discount coupons donated by tour hosts. For a full tour schedule of events, as well as details on how to enter, visit Mary E. Martin at http://maryemartintrilogies.com/virtual-tour/

You can also tune in to JD Holiday's World of Ink Network interview with Mary and guests, over BlogTalkRadio at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork.

 

What Makes a Novel Great?

a guest post

by Mary E. Martin

Because everyone has his or her own personal taste, it’s hard to answer this question. What appeals to me, you might consider dull, boring or even downright ridiculous. And of course, vice versa. It’s the same with a painting or a song. Personal taste. I might love Anton Chekhov’s stories and you might think they are too dated to be relevant in today’s world—NOT great for a writer who wrote almost two centuries ago. You love Stephen King, but his work might leave me cold and eventually bored which would not be good for a horror writer.

Does this mean neither writer has written a great novel? Of course not. You can devise all sorts of rules to determine whether a piece of writing is great. Is it a page turner with an interesting plot? Do the characters seem real? All that is helpful, but lots of novels are like that.

Will it be read one hundred years from now? For me, that’s the real test. Unfortunately that means we’ll not be able to apply that test to novels written today. But we can look at the old ones still popular today and try to figure out why we still love them. Some examples? Take any one of Dickens’ novels. Even if you haven’t heard of his novel, Bleak House, I’ll bet you know about Scrooge. Why? Scrooge was such a powerful character and his story was so transfixing that some of us read his novella every Christmas or at least watch the movie. Why? Because the character Scrooge is embedded in the consciousness of popular culture and has been from the beginning.

When I was a child, I was extremely impressed with Alastair Sim’s portrayal of Scrooge. In one of the dream sequences, Scrooge was confronted by an apparition in a long black robe. When he drew it back, small children were huddled underneath representing “ignorance and want.” If that can’t frighten you, what can? What is it about Scrooge that sticks? He’s intensely unlikeable, stingy with a flinty disregard for his fellow man. Do you know anyone like that? Sure you do! He’s your boss. Or maybe he’s even closer to home. If we’re honest with ourselves, we know we all have a bit of Scrooge in us.

No one wants to be like Scrooge. When his employee Bob Cratchit tries to speak well of him, we see compassion at work. We all want a world with second chances to do better. It is one of the very best redemption stories ever written which was published just in time for Christmas in 1843 and to this day has never been out of print. With his characters and the dream sequences, the story strikes something very powerful—a universal and timeless chord. The story asks—what does it mean to be human and how do we deal with the many complications of our own nature? The characters are as real to us as our spouse, child, neighbour or—ourselves.

The writer and his characters make us think about what it is to be a human being in the place, time and circumstance he or she is in. And if it is truly universal and timeless, then it may stay with us forever and speak to future generations. The next question is: how to do this? Maybe it’s not so hard. I wonder just how much human beings have changed over the aeons. We still love and hate. We still suffer from greed, ambition, pride, lust, envy, wrath, sloth and gluttony. Paradoxically, at the same time we are still capable of great acts of kindness, forgiveness and love. If you look at that list of failings and attributes, you can easily see hundreds if not thousands of opportunities for terrific stories.

But it’s not just confined to characteristics of humans. Those characteristics drive plots. One of the most fundamental is the quest. Scrooge was dragged through dream sequences which were a hair-raising quest. We often say that Shakespeare’s characters were very powerful. Just think of Macbeth and his Lady. Ambition drove them to murder the King. Lear, the near feeble but once great King, is blinded with pride as he turns upon his daughters. But think what his pride did to him. Because of that foolishness he was turned upon viciously by those who should have loved and cared for him. Old age was never so terrifying!

If we start thinking of our characters and plots as embodying some of these characteristics, they may have a chance to survive. Why? Because humankind has not really changed all that much. In 2015, we will still be captivated by a character who is driven to a bad end by lust or avarice. He or she might be just like that person across the desk from you at work. Or if you look closely, a tiny bit might be found in our own hearts. When we’re writing our stories and want to strive for the top, let’s be thinking about what it means to be human and driven (even mad) by high emotion. Those are the questions to explore when creating our characters and plots if we want them to survive.

BIO: Mary E. Martin is the author of two trilogies: The Osgoode Trilogy, inspired by her many years of law practice; and The Trilogy of Remembrance, set in the glitter and shadows of the art world. Both Trilogies will elevate the reader from the rush and hectic world of today and spin them into realms of yet unimagined intrigue. Be inspired by the newly released and final installment of The Trilogy of Remembrance, Night Crossing.

 

Interview with Anna Geare

Anna Geare is an 18-year-old recent graduate of Foothill Technology High School in Ventura, California. She has been writing poetry since the 7th grade and is also in love with the theatre -- she has written a one-act play and multiple scenes and monologues for her acting class, and is currently working on her second one-act play. In addition to theatre, she has an interest in science and engineering. At Foothill she was on the school robotics team and is planning to major in chemistry in college. She plans to become a chemical engineer while continuing to be involved in acting and writing.

Anna's poem "Through Open Eyes" is featured in Dancing With The Pen: a collection of today's best youth writing, available on Amazon here.


How did you get your idea for "Through Open Eyes"?

"Through Open Eyes" is a poem about the different problems that the world is facing and how so few people seem to really care or are passionate about helping. They include, among other things: Global Warming, child soldiers in Africa, terrorism, and poverty. I volunteer for a variety of different organizations and grew up with social worker parents. I’ve become real passionate about helping the world in as many ways as I can. This poem was a way for me to express my message and hopefully inspire others to help the world as well. My personal inspiration for the poem was the Black Eyed Peas' song “Where is the Love?” I wrote my poem with a rhyme scheme and beat that reminds me of rap and comes off as a little angry. I was inspired by the idea and just sat down and wrote a bunch of different couplets, each about a different problem, then rearranged them in a multitude of different ways until it just felt right.

Have you been writing for a long time? What do you like about writing?

I wrote some as a kid, but not much. When I truly took on writing as a hobby was in the 7th grade when we had a huge unit on poetry that I loved. I entered a local poetry contest that year with a poem I wrote entitled “The Color of Peace.” I went to the Santa Barbara Writers Conference the summer after 8th grade where I was inspired to pursue writing a bit more. My love of theatre then lead me to playwriting, which seemed to come fairly naturally to me. When I see a story, I naturally see it on the stage. Writing, especially poetry, gives me a way to express myself, but only when I write personally. Then there are times when I write from a view completely different from my own, about things I may have never even experienced. This type of writing attracts me the same way acting does. It gives me an opportunity to take on a character completely different from myself and explore emotions I don’t feel on a daily basis. This fascinates me.

What does it mean to you to have your piece included in this book?

When I think about being published in this book, I’m reminded of my first attendance to the Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference. I talked to an agent, simply for the experience, knowing very well I was not going to get far with the poems I had written at 13. The agent told me poetry was incredibly hard to get published, and others have also been discouraging. Well, here I am, with a poem published in a book! I was ecstatic when I was notified that my poem was chosen to win honorable mention and be published in Dancing With The Pen.

Do you have any advice for other writers, or for other young people going after their dreams?

Don’t give up and don’t put your true dreams aside for more “practical” ones. Especially with writing, it’s easy to put your more artsy or impractical dreams aside to concentrate on school or related interests. I didn’t always spend much time on writing, or even acting for that matter. Science was my more practical interest, so once I got into high school, that pursuit came first. I can tell you that I have never once regretted taking the time to attend a writers conference or write a play, but I do sometimes regret not putting time aside each week to work on my play or write a poem. Life is just going to get more and more busy as you get older. Take advantage of the time you have and follow any dreams you may have.

Can you share a few of your favorite books or authors?

I will give the “cliché” answer of J.K. Rowling and Tolkien. Growing up, those were definitely my favorites as well as Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become a pretty big Ray Bradbury fan. I’ve had the opportunity to hear him speak at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference a few times, which were priceless experiences. Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone has also been a very inspirational book for me. The autobiographical story of a child soldier from Africa is what inspired my senior project to build a school in Sierra Leone, which has lead to my desire to join the Peace Corps after I get my Bachelor's degree.

What inspires you?

Lots of things actually. I have an array of interests, so I find interesting things to write about from many different places. I’ve written about my family, about problems in the world that interest me, about my emotions, and about experiences I have never had. In fact, the original poem I won Honorable Mention for was not suitable for a book for young students, but was inspired by a random set of words pulled from a magazine. The play I’m currently writing was inspired by a lesson on WWI I learned in school. The world is full of inspiration, it just takes someone to recognize it and write it down.

What are you working on now? What’s next for you?

I haven’t been working on as much poetry lately, but I have been doing more stage writing. It can be pretty hard finding scenes and monologues for youth to perform, so I’ve been writing some stuff for my acting class. I just wrote a scene that everyone seemed to love. I’m also trying to work on my one-act play. It’s still in the planning stages, but I’m getting pretty close to being ready to write it out.

Links:

• Order Dancing With The Pen on Amazon. (It rose to a #2 ranking on Amazon.com in the "literature anthologies" category in its first week of release!
• Please take a few seconds to "like" our Amazon page!
• And, if you have a few minutes and could write a review on Amazon, that would be fantastic! 
• You can also follow Dancing With The Pen on Facebook and Twitter. We're now featured on Goodreads, too!
• Discounted bulk orders are available at the Write On! website: www.writeonbooks.org. 

Guest Post by Korina Chilcoat: A Young Writer's Journey to Success

Today we're kicking off the summer Dancing With The Pen blog tour with this beautiful essay by Korina Chilcoat, one of our contributing young writers. Come back tomorrow for an interview with Korina. You can read Korina's poem "What Makes You Happy?" in Dancing With The Pen.

A Young Writer's Journey to Success

by Korina Chilcoat

We are artists. Yes, we use the title “writer” to describe what we do but, in fact, we are artists who paint pictures with words. As artists, there is a far different connection with our work than individuals who perform a typical 9 to 5 job. Our work is an extension of our souls, so when we face rejection, are criticized, or don’t have our work accepted it’s not like someone is simply judging the quality of our work. They are judging and evaluating everything we are and who we stand for. It feels like they’re not saying the work isn’t good enough; they’re saying we’re not good enough.

As a fellow artist, I know as well as anyone the heartache that follows after a painful rejection. Like any breakup, the aftermath, for me, is usually marked by several tears shed and a bantering rage against the imbeciles who didn’t find my submission up to par, followed by cookie dough binge eating.

However, somehow I manage to pick myself up and dust myself off and continue on after each fall. To quote a line from the song “Moving Too Fast” from one of my favorite Broadway musicals The Last Five Years, the protagonist Jamie, also a budding author, utters, “Things might get bumpy but some people analyze every detail. Some people stall when they can’t see the trail. Some people freeze out of fear that they’ll fail, but I keep rolling on. Some people can’t get success with their art. Some people never feel love in their heart. Some people can’t tell the two things apart, but I keep rolling on.”

My writing journey started three years ago. Previously, I had written casually for fun and leisure but I thought to myself, maybe I have something important to share with others where they can read the words I write and feel the same way about the things I’m so passionate about. So, I began to research writing contests online. Amidst my busy schedule I would somehow find time to pen thought-provoking essays, emotional poetry, and scandalous short stories. Contest after contest after contest, I would eagerly mail in my carefully crafted literary pieces, ensuring each word rang out clear and vividly on the page.

Unfortunately, editors and judges weren’t as eager. My collection of rejection letters grew into medium-sized heap shoved into a shoebox under my bed, out of sight. But this only made me determined to prove them wrong, that my work was worthy.

I soon doubled the amount of submissions I sent out, sending work to any publication house or contest which I was eligible. My work consisted on everything from the dancing pattern of honeybees to poetry about heart-broken, distant lovers. Still, I wasn’t getting the news I desired. My unbridled optimism began to fade with the passing days and increasing income of rejection letters and worst of all no news at all. I began to doubt myself. Was my work good enough? Why didn’t anybody see potential in what I was producing? Should I continue to create or choose a more sensible, rewarding hobby? My submissions slowed and eventually nearly came to a complete halt.

Then, one ordinary day, in one ordinary week, of an ordinary month, I logged into my email account, like I did several times a day, to find an email from a Dallas Woodburn. Dallas Woodburn? That name seemed familiar and I kept repeating it over and over in my head. I decided not to simply sit there and continue to guess like an imbecile so I clicked open the email. To my shock it was a writing contest I had entered several months back and I was thrilled to discover that I had placed honorable mention in this national contest for my poem!

This was the news I needed and had waited so long to hear. Two years spent sending submissions around the country and the world to finally have the gratification of finally knowing that I did something right. My stall ended and I went back into writing full force.

So now, as I recently celebrated my nineteenth birthday, I am proud to say that I have been published in the national youth magazine Teen Ink (which my article made the cover), in several national anthologies of writing (one of which I won first place in the nation and received a congratulatory letter from my state's Senator), and one of my poems is in the final round of submissions to be published in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book, hitting bookstores across the nation July 2011. Looking to the past is bittersweet, seeing that teenage girl furiously typing away at her computer, ignoring the rejection letters stuffed in a pile.

But this story isn’t just about me -- it’s about you, too. This is the message, the mantra, the manifesto of the wanna-be writer: failure isn’t fatal and those who fall are only failures if they stay sitting on the ground. You do not know which unsuccessful attempt is the last one right before your moment of glory, your big break, your time in the spotlight. So keep pressing forward, do what you do, and you just might find out that your dreams can come true.


Korina Chilcoat's poem "What Makes You Happy?" is featured in Dancing With The Pen: a collection of today's best youth writing, the debut anthology from Write On! Books. To contact Korina regarding writing inquires and speaking engagements you can email her at korinachilcoat@yahoo.com. To find out more about her, check out her literary blog “Louder Than Words” at http://korinachilcoat.blogspot.com