According to our calendar a new year is upon us whether we want it or not. In the tradition of writing resolutions which many have done for years and years, I’m going to make my own list.
Resolutions For 2018
I resolve to say no as often as I can so that my ‘must do’ duties do not get so overwhelming.
I resolve to finish my current WIP as soon as possible, hopefully by summer time. Then I can work on having it published by October.
I resolve to keep up my blog post schedule of a new post almost every Wednesday of the year.
I resolve to keep up my twice monthly newsletter to my followers and to continually search for new and interesting tidbits to share with these wonderful supporters.
I resolve to lose ten pounds. (We always have to put one of those resolutions in, don’t we?)
I resolve to figure out how to best make use of my new Pico projector as I go out on my speaking gigs.
I resolve to get the most out of Quantum Leap in the remaining two months I have with them.
I resolve to record the third book in my Loyalist trilogy and get them all on a platform so they’re available for purchase.
I resolve to get back into painting and to stretch my creative side a little more in this way.
I resolve to keep my email InBox as empty as I can by unsubscribing to anything I don’t absolutely need or want. Time to be ruthless about guarding my time.
I resolve to practice singing and get my voice back into shape so that I can record a CD for my family. Sh. This is a secret!
I resolve to continue the daily Gratitude Journal I do with my daughter in order that, miles apart, we can keep up on what each other is doing.
Well, there you have it. Twelve resolutions. One for each month. Come next December I’ll try to do a rehash and see how well I’ve done. You might consider doing the same and telling us your plans.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
Click on the Loyalist Trilogy books below for great historical stories with satisfying endings:
My holiday over Christmas was not quite what you would expect. Lucky me, I caught a nasty flu bug which took ten days to dissipate but then left me five pounds lighter and a whole lot more respectful of my health. I hope you did not have to learn this lesson.
While I was nursing myself back to health I did a lot of reading but the book I had was disappointing to me. A multiple prize-winning novel by a well known author, The Lonely Hearts Hotelhad some fabulous and creative language, a testament to the skill of the writer, but I just could not keep reading for long periods of time. No, this was not because of the flu. It was because of the negative tone of the book.
Without giving away too much of the story let me just say that it is about two orphans, their amazing talents, and the sad story of their lives. There is a message at the end. A sad one. Even when the heroine finally has some success both financially and personally, the author cannot refrain from dashing the reader’s hopes for some sort of redemption for all the negatives the heroine has suffered.
In the second last paragraph a murder occurs showing us that nothing good comes without its nasty cost. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific but you may wish to read this book for yourself and I don’t want to give away the ending. Suffice it to say that I was sad still.
I reread the cover, front and back, and the inside page with all the comments. Nowhere did I read any hint of the dark mood that readers would be faced with and I am left wondering. Shouldn’t covers give some sort of clue if the mood is so dark? What has happened to a sense of redemption or well-being in a good ending?
Another Canadian author well known all over the world leaves me with the same feelings with her books. I finally stopped reading Margaret Atwood’s work not because she can’t write–she most definitely can–but because her work is so dark. Life is dark enough with all the bad news stories and negative happenings surrounding us every day. Do we really want to have our cherished reading time make us sad, too?
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry was really interesting for so many reasons but here the subject matter of a poor family in India was difficult. Maybe I’m just wanting to put on my rose-coloured glasses; I confess that I do work very hard to find positives in my life.
Having faced a life-threatening health state about twenty-five years ago I made the decision to surround myself with happy people, places, books, and stories in order to keep my sunny disposition. I’ve noticed that others who have faced life’s toughest trials often do the same. We want to experience positive reinforcement in just about everything we do.
Lest you think my books are all sunshine and roses, let me assure you they are not. All of life’s tragedies are fair game for my stories and I am a follower of Anne Rice’s maxim “Make it bad for your hero. And then make it worse.” This keeps the reader engaged and allows that reader the chance to experience joy and contentment at the end. (I loved her witches series the best, by the way.)
I know that everyone has different ideas on what is good and what is bad writing and that’s as it should be. All I want is some hint on the cover or comment pages that lets a reader know what the mood of a book might be. Have you had any surprises in your reading relating to mood?
Click on the Loyalist Trilogy books below for great historical stories with satisfying endings:
Just in time for Christmas I’m taking part in another BookSweeps contest with my newest book The Loyalist Legacy. This contest’s books are especially geared to book clubs but anyone can enter. You just click on the link and fill in your email address. You could win one of them. Today, I have a fun surprise that I’d like to share with you. I’ve teamed up with 40 fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of book club fiction novels to 2 lucky winners, PLUS a brand new eReader to the Grand Prize winner!
Oh, and did I mention you’ll receive a collection of FREE ebooks just for entering? You can win my novel The Loyalist Legacy, plus books from authors like Tim Tigner and Gwendolyn Womack.
I can hardly remember back to the time when research for school essays, for tidbits to enliven the lessons I taught, and for more background about subjects that intrigued me all took place in the library. I knew the hours of all the libraries around and the best librarians to help. Even when writing my first historical novel, my librarian’s help was very important.
With the advent of the WEB, virtually any piece of information became accessible and the trips to the library were more for books to read or book clubs to join. My research moved to my computer and to related historical museums and forts.
With those changes in mind I wanted to share some very cool things I’ve found that help me every day as a writer:
I like the daily email I get from Google Alert about subjects that I’ve noted. This year being Canada’s 150th birthday and that linking so well with my Loyalist trilogy, I’ve kept abreast of everything across Canada that is remotely related. I had no idea the word loyalist was so widely used. And for many things not connected in the least to my books. Someone advised me to put in my actual titles and I did. That is how I found out about scammers offering my books for sale! A few ‘cease and desist’ letters seem to have eliminated that but Google Alert keeps an eye out for me.
A virtual mecca of how-to information is at my fingertips and yours. Rather than go to manuals written in Chinese English, I now use the http line whenever I have a question about virtually anything. I just typed in ‘What is historical fiction?’ and ‘What is a musket?’. Click on the links to see the variety of sites I can explore about those topics.
Even the magazine I get in my post office mailbox every month, The Writer, has an online version which is wonderful to receive, especially if I’m going to be traveling and can put it on my iPad. It is always full of interesting hints and full-fledged writing ideas–writerly gems, I call them. This month (November) the back page article by Allison Futterman is about television host Mike Rowe who gives writing tips in the article. He says if he didn’t have deadlines, he’d never finish anything as he is a picker who constantly makes changes: “sometimes making [the writing] better, sometimes making it worse.” Recognize yourself, anyone?
Just a few weeks ago, I got an email about something called Bibliocommons. Of course I checked that out on the web and ended up submitting The Loyalist’s Wife so that the ebook version can be listed on library websites and more people will get to see my work. I don’t know how far this exposure will take me but the Bibliocommons people say every book gets read and this approval process can take 4-6 weeks.) I’m hopeful it will broaden my reach. I’m at Stratford Public Library this Saturday as part of their author group in connection with launching Bibliocommons.
This past weekend I was honoured to be speaking at the Colonel John Butler United Empire Loyalist branch in Niagara Falls. There are over twenty of these in our country and a few have engaged me as a speaker. This one was particularly thrilling as this is the largest UEL group in Canada and Colonel Butler and the whole Niagara area figure prominently in my trilogy. The members there were gracious and knowledgeable about Loyalist history. I was speaking to my peeps, you might say.
Of course I mean that as a writer of historical fiction about the Loyalists, specifically a Loyalist couple who came into Canada across the Niagara River in present-day Niagara-on-the-Lake. While that story is fictional, my own story is not. I could really relate to the Niagara group.
What is the fun I mentioned in the title? Well, Sunday we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving at our son’s home by the pool which is still open for business! Crazy weather, we’ve been having here in Ontario. My grandson and I had a lovely few moments talking about rocks and shells and semi-precious stones as he showed me his burgeoning collection. It was all fun and I hope my Canadian friends had similar moments of Thanksgiving over the weekend.
Click on the books below for more historical stories:
For today’s post I bring you a little bit of history and a little bit of real people’s stories. I’ve chosen to give personalities to William and Catherine (Cain) Garner, my great great great grandparents and to interview them. I’ve given them the ability to see into the future, you’ll notice, for I think these stalwart Loyalists who settled in Upper Canada have a lot to say about how we Canadians got here today, having just celebrated our sesquicentennial (150 years).
I’ve come to know William and Catherine having used their names, their situation, family tales, and the characteristics of my own father in writing my trilogy, especially in the second and third books. In the picture at left William is seated with Catherine to his right. The other two are their son, William, and his wife, Rosabella (Cass) Garner. The first William never got to see Confederation in 1867 when Canada was formed but Catherine did. This family settled in Nissouri township on a 200 acre farm which straddled the Thames River.
William and Catherine were there when most people traveled by an old Indian trail which crisscrossed their land. Why? The roads marked out on the township maps were in varying states of disrepair relying as they did on the settlers to maintain the road along their acreages. There were just not enough settlers to have this be a viable way to keep up the roads. I wonder how we would like this system today? Aren’t we glad we have public works organizations? Makes you think taxes actually help us.
Ouch! Catherine just pinched me and William is glowering as he must have when he saw the condition of the so-called roads in Nissouri Township. We had better get started.
Elaine: I am most pleased to meet both of you even though the situation is very strange for all of us. What was it like moving away from Niagara and all of your family after the war was over in 1812?
William: Tough, it was. We both suffered a lot. I was part of the militia for about nine months during the war. Did you know that?
E: I did. I’ve read about some of those battles you must have been in. Can you tell me any details?
Catherine: First I need to say how sick I felt at leaving my parents’ graves and my little Catt’s. No one to say a prayer over them, pull the weeds around the piles of stones.
W: Hush, Catherine. Think of more pleasant times. Remember that barn raising on the lot south of us? We danced all night on the pounded earth. There’s a good girl. A smile.
E: Did you have a lot of times like that? I mean the dancing and partying.
C: No, not really. Mostly we worked from sunup to sundown and sometimes into the wee hours.
W: Sundays, though. We tried to rest on Sundays.
E: I heard about the Chippewa Indians. We call them Natives or First Nations people now, by the way. Do you have any stories about them?
W: The British conquered them. Put them on reserved lands and expected them to stay there. Not just the Chippewas. Mohawks and the others, what you now call Six Nations. All of them were given lands of their own.
E: We’re facing the consequences of that now.
C: I should tell her about that Indian woman, do you think, William?
W: That was a terrible thing.
C: It was a fine spring day. She came to visit with her little one–papoose–she called him. All wrapped up and tied on a board to sleep…..Oh, this part is hard. We left him on the front veranda. In the fresh air, you see.
E: What happened?
C: We were inside, my two china teacups on the table….smiling, talking. As women do.
Chippewa Indians Genealogy: FamilySearch Wiki
W: You’ll have to tell it, Catherine.
C: The baby. Screaming. So loud I can hear it now….we ran out and watched a lynx jump off the porch and run away…looked for the baby. Only the board and the broken strings. Blood. Lots of blood. On the porch, the grass. And silence. No baby screams now.
W: Here now. Don’t cry. It’s all in the past.
E: Um, I…William, what did you think of the Family Compact?
W: The what?….Oh, I remember. A bunch of privileged sons of–
C: William!
W. They had all the power and used it to feather their own nests. Gave the perks to their sons and cousins. Kept it all to their families. Made us so angry…some talked about overthrowing the government. The British! Others tried going to England and pleading. No good. Finally, rebellion. That was after I was gone but Catherine told me about it. Robert was part of it.
E: Who is Robert? Your son?
C: One of them. A good boy, too. Didn’t deserve to be hounded after that fiasco in Norwich. Those rebels never even got further than 10 miles before they turned back.
E: What do you mean, hounded?
W: Terrorized the little village looking for those whose names they found on a list. Most escaped. Others stood trial. A few died because of it.
C: That was such a bad business. Robert made it home but spent the rest of his days looking behind him.
E: What do you think when you look at us now a hundred and fifty years since Canada was born. Do you have any feelings?
C: I’m glad Canada turned out so well. For everyone. But especially for our family. William, we started something, didn’t we?
W: Yes, my dear. We surely did….and it was good.
E: Well, this has been fabulous, meeting my relatives, getting to know you–you’re real people. And, William, I can see my Dad in you. You would have liked him. Thank you both.
W: Just remember we’re looking down on you all.
C: No nasty tricks, no drinking or missing church. We’ll be watching.
E: So, there we have it. Two stalwart people. My relatives. I hope I get to meet them again.
The whole trilogy with these and many other characters is available on Amazon. Just double click on the book cover below.
“…ordinary people somehow finding the inner resources to shape new lives and a new country.”
Yay! Book 2 of the Loyalist Trilogy earned a new award!
The wonderful Pauline Barclay has announced that The Loyalist’s Luckhas been awarded a Readers’ Award by her Chill With a Book site. I’m very happy about this because this site really takes the time and effort to make sure the books it praises deserve that praise. Thanks so much, Chill With a Book!
Here’s the whole gamut of awards given out by Chill With a Book. And now that I’ve told you about my newest award, I’m going to go chill with a 17th century book I’m reading at the moment.
I hate coffee. In my first year of university I sat in the cafeteria with a bunch of friends who were convinced I could learn to like it if only they fixed it the right way for me. They brought me black coffee, weak coffee, strong coffee, sugared coffee, coffee with cream, coffee with milk–you get the picture! I didn’t like any of it and the cafeteria staff didn’t like all the extra dishes they had to wash because of our testing.
Instead I’ve pretty much spent my life drinking weak tea a couple of times a month,–to be sociable, don’t you know?–lots of water, and way more Diet Coke than I ever should have. Still, I like tea a lot more than coffee.
What can coffee drinking possibly have to do with writing? Well, here’s the thing. All my life I’ve played with different writing forms. I’ve written narrative poetry and sonnets, short stories and novellas, descriptive paragraphs and song lyrics. I’ve even tried my hand at plays although I never got beyond the second page. Of course, love poems were a rite of passage for any girl in her teen years back in my day and probably still are although I’m a little old to speak for teenagers!
The point is, never did I contemplate writing a novel. I didn’t even know that idea was lurking in my overcrowded brain until my son asked if there was anything I wished I’d done so far in my life. “Write a novel,” I blurted, and the rest as they say is herstory.
A week later I started down my novel writing journey and haven’t actually looked back for ten years. In the beginning many new writers alongside me were writing short stories and forming critique groups to improve their work, all of them sure these were the right steps. I tried to follow along and have about fifteen pieces in my filing cabinet that were great fun to write but which didn’t begin to thrill me. I sent a few out into oblivion.
And that’s what it seemed like. Short stories just weren’t my thing. You see, I left my heart out of that writing and just as a soulless person is dull and lifeless so also were my stories. At the same time I reveled in researching my historical subject and writing my three pages a day for a year until I finally finished my first draft. I loved it. I thought it was great but my saner self knew about that little thing called revision. I did that for another four or five years.
How could I keep at that first book for the six years it took to bring it to publication?
Finally I had unearthed the thing that touched my joy spot deep inside. Writing those words about my character babies and their part in creating the country I live in today just seemed real. And worthwhile. Important, even. I learned so much that my conversation became peppered with exciting facts I’d dug up about our history as a country but also my own family history. Finding references to my great great great grandparents and using some of that in my novels has been a thrilling and enlightening experience not only for my readers (so they tell me) but also for me.
Were those early writing attempts of any use? Absolutely. I learned so much about cadence and word choice, rhythm and the lilt of my sentences, showing not telling, allowing my reader to fill in the blanks, and above all about listening to my varied characters for their individual truths. Were they like real people? Or were they flat?
Yesterday I was working with someone who is going to do a media sheet for me and my books. She left our Skype conversation for five minutes with instructions for me to write her some ideas about what I might talk about when interviewed. When she came back I’d written a couple of lovely (if I do say so myself!) paragraphs. I wasn’t exactly sure if she could use the points but she did! Every one of them. (I’ll be putting that sheet up on my website when we’re finished.)
I had to swallow my nervousness about being put on the spot like that and just write. And I could! All of those courses and conferences and critiques and rewrites made their mark.
Reading informs so much of our writing. As I get longer in the tooth (well, actually my dentist has shortened my front teeth, much to my dismay!) I’m more choosy about what books I keep reading through to the end. I now give a book about 50 pages and if it hasn’t hooked me by then, I toss it. Life is too short to read stuff that bores or confuses me. (My latest bugaboo is starting a new book and all the characters have similar sounding names: Ellen, Eleanor, Eileen, for example. I can’t keep them straight. Note to self: Name your characters with different sounding names: Ellen, Charmaine, Sue.)
Sticking to genres that I enjoy works for me, too. I have a good writer friend who writes horror/sci-fi/mystery mashup books and his audience loves them. Bravo, John! I didn’t want to review them, though, as I’m not a lover of that stuff so wouldn’t be able to do his books justice. Give me a great Sharon Kay Penman or even Bernard Cornwell and I’ll read right through to the end in no time.
In both reading and writing, then, I hope you’ll consider sticking to books and stories that work well for you. Your soul will thank you for it!
The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck, The Loyalist Legacy
Author Elaine Cougler. A 9-minute tv interview on Rogers TV’s program “Oxford County Living”. Thanks to John Payne for filming this at my home. Click on the image to watch.
The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck, The Loyalist Legacy
Of course we all know about the Ides of March, forever popularized by Shakespeare in his play, Julius Caesar, but there’s much more to think about for us mere mortal writers!
3 Striking Events Which Occurred on this date:
The Ides of March was Caesar’s death day and as such was a turning point in Rome’s history. The Republic was over. Hundreds of years later Shakespeare’s play immortalized both Caesar and “Beware the Ides of March.”
Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate his throne in Russia on this date in 1917 bringing about the start of events which led to the Communist takeover in the U.S.S.R.
On this date in 1939, Germany occupied Czechoslovakia as the Second World War began to ramp up.
We could go on and on with examples of bad things which happened on March 15 (check out the link above for a few), but the point is without the wily William Shakespeare, the Ides of March just wouldn’t be a “thing”. We wouldn’t be making lists of happenings on this date because such an antiquated expression would have passed into near oblivion along with Caesar’s language–Latin–and his death date, too.
But a writer over four hundred years ago chose to have his whole play revolve around “Beware the Ides of March”. Because his writing was so erudite yet spoke to the people all those years ago and amazingly still does today we know about the word “Ides” and its place in the Roman calendar in Caesar’s time. Pretty cool.
What a lesson in word choice for us writers! Think about it. If Caesar’s line had been “Beware March 15th!” would it have had the same punch? Would it have pricked our curiosity and made us wonder just what it meant? No. We would have understood immediately and moved from that line to the next.
Instead, our brains stop and notice that expression. Many of us immediately look for its meaning but even those who don’t realize it’s something different. It’s part of the supernatural aura of a soothsayer or person who understands the supernatural who is warning Caesar. We notice.
We writers need to chose our words with the same thoughts about just what difference our choices can make to our stories. Even those who are not writers in the professional sense can make the same magic by picking words not just because they’re easy or because everyone else uses them, but rather because they underline our points, they invoke emotional responses and they stick a notion to our readers’ subconscious mind where it can be nurtured and grow. Oh, words can be so powerful!
As you read through this excerpt from the back cover of The Loyalist Legacy, pick out the words–verbs mostly–that have the most effect in painting the story. I think there are three or four that show the fear and futility of William and Catherine’s uncertain situation.
After the crushing end of the War of 1812, William and Catherine Garner find their allotted two hundred acres in Nissouri Township by following the Thames River into the wild heart of Upper Canada. On their valuable land straddling the river, dense forest, wild beasts, displaced Natives, and pesky neighbors daily challenge them. The political atmosphere laced with greed and corruption threatens to undermine all of the new settlers’ hopes and plans. William knows he cannot take his family back to Niagara but he longs to check on his parents from whom he has heard nothing for two years. Leaving Catherine and their children, he hurries back along the Governor’s Road toward the turn-off to Fort Erie, hoping to return home in time for spring planting.
Here is my list. Did you choose them? Others? crushing, allotted, wild, laced, threatens, longs, hoping.
This isn’t a right or wrong quiz but as writers we must look at each word we use and make sure it has the appropriate connotation for the feelings we are looking to create in our readers. “Fat” has a negative connotation and “plump” is more positive. They both describe the same condition but one is more palatable.
So today as you go about your busy life, think about Shakespeare and his word choice. Worked for him, why not for the rest of us? And beware the Ides of March!
The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck, The Loyalist Legacy
With much pleasure, today I welcome to my blog author Wayne Turmel and his new novel, Acre’s Bastard. Wayne has a colorful and interesting background which you can read about here and that culminates in his now writing historical fiction. Acre’s Bastard is his second in the genre. For my Canadian readers, know that Wayne originates from Canada where he was a stand-up comedian in Yuk Yuks back in the eighties and now lives near Chicago. Let’s just jump into Wayne’s writing life!
Elaine Cougler: When we talked about you guesting on my blog as an interviewee with your new book, Acre’s Bastard, you mentioned the disparity in our chosen times and places to write about. You even mentioned a link between the Crusades and my Loyalists created at the time of the American Revolution. What connection do you see?
Wayne Turmel: The thing about historical fiction is that it gives you a chance to tell a story from any “side.” What the Crusades and Revolutionary/Loyalist period have in common are huge audiences who see things from their side, while there are plenty of stories on the other. When I have a couple of pints in me, I love to tell Americans the “real” story of the revolution (godless terrorists driving law abiding, loyal citizens from their homes) while hearing all the time about the godless British oppressing the freedom fighters who claimed their birthright. Who’s right? The Crusades is a similar time. The events seem very different depending on whose material you’re reading. And I suspect most people (like Lucca in my book) aren’t really picking sides so much as trying to live through it for another day.EC: Can you tell us which side in the Crusades you favored in Acre’s Bastard? Why did you pick that side?
WT: Wow, that’s a loaded question because I’m of the belief that in any religious war, both sides are equally irrational. That said, Lucca was raised a Christian in an orphanage by the Knights of the Hospital of St John. He’s not religious at all, but finds himself siding with the Crusaders more by default than intention. He tries to save the Kingdom of Jerusalem, because that’s where his friends are, not out of spiritual conviction. In fact, he finds good and bad, evil and grace on both sides.
EC: In the research for Acre’s Bastard, what kind of surprising details did you come across that were new to you? Did any of them shape the fictional part of your story?
WT: I’ve been a Crusades junkie since I was a kid (blame Ivanhoe if you must) so I didn’t think there was much to learn except details. The story really came together, though, when I learned about the Order of St Lazar. The idea of leper knights, and how Lucca becomes involved with them, made the story jump right out of my brain onto the page.
EC: Was research easy or difficult for this book? Where did you find most of your golden nuggets that made their way into your book?
WT: Good research on this period is hard to come by, and most of what I thought I knew was either tainted by the movies, or came from the same limited number of resources. Reading the Arab accounts (especially Malouf’s “The Crusades Through Arab Eyes,” helped counterbalance some of that. Then I found a couple of experts, like Helena P. Schrader who is not only a fine author (Envoy of Jerusalem) but runs the “Real Crusades History” network. She took me to the woodshed on some of the facts and recent research. Kept me from making some major mistakes.
EC: How did you come to write historical fiction? Was this always your goal?
WT: I’m certainly no scholar, but all my life I’ve preferred fiction that is set in other places and times (sometimes real, sometimes fantastic.) Reading a story usually drives me to learn more about the real time period and people, which drives me to read more and so on down the rabbit hole. One of my mottoes is “swords are cooler than guns”. At least so far, my stories have been set in the past, although my first novel (The Count of the Sahara) was only in the 1920s as opposed to 1187.
EC: Do you think writing is easier or harder for those of us who come to being novelists later in our lives rather than earlier? How did your first jobs and experiences shape you as a writer? And did you always know some day you’d find your way to becoming a novelist?
WT: It’s funny, I’ve written most of my life in one way or the other. I started out as a stand-up comedian. Your Canadian readers who remember Yuk Yuks in the 1980s may have seen me. Then after I moved to the US, I became involved in the training industry, and wrote articles, books and blog posts about business topics for nearly 20 years. When I turned 50, it dawned on me that I’d never be a “real” writer until I did at least one novel. I’m sure all that writing warmed me up, but fiction is a very different animal than cranking out business books about Webinars.
EC: Tell us about your main character, especially about why we as readers will fall in love with this person. Do you follow the rule of always giving your heroes flaws and your antagonists at least one shining characteristic?
WT: Lucca is a ten year old orphan, who is half “Frankish” (European) and half Syrian who runs the streets of Acre. He’s funny, and precocious, but also a bit of a liar and a brat. I mean chapter one starts with him and his friends trying to peak in a brothel window! I think audiences will really dig him. There are two main antagonists… Brother Idoneus is just evil…. Al Sameen is brilliant, if on the “wrong” side of things.
EC: Have you tried writing any of your stories from one point of view and then tried it from another? From whose POV is Acre’s Bastard told?
WT: For some reason I find myself drawn to first person POV a lot. Maybe because it’s easier to write jokes that way, and despite the action and drama there’s plenty of humor in my books. My first novel, The Count of the Sahara, alternates between first person (Count de Prorok’s assistant, Willy) and third person (following the Algerian expedition in flashbacks.) Acre’s Bastard is told entirely from Lucca’s point of view, which I think ramps up the stakes (he’s only 10 for heaven’s sake) and also made it challenging to put the history in, because what do kids know about politics and context? My beta readers seem to think I did okay. They like Lucca a lot, even if one of them told me he needs a good spanking.
EC: What is the best piece of writing advice you were ever given and how did it shape you as the writer you are today?
WT: Hmmmmm, I could be a smart aleck and say Hemingway (write drunk, edit sober) but the truth is more mundane than that. I think Louis L’Amour said “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
EC: What is your best book marketing or author marketing tip?
WT: Be shameless about asking for reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and wherever. People don’t understand how important the NUMBER of reviews is to how our robot overlords promote books inside those websites. I tell everyone who buys my book or tells me how much they enjoy it… “Don’t tell me, tell Amazon.” An online review is like applause for an author.
EC: Talk about something close to your writing career which I haven’t mentioned. Show us why we should care about reading Acre’s Bastard.
WT: I think the biggest thing about what I write, is that the “subject matter” isn’t as important as the story. I have a number of readers, especially women, who say they’d have never read a book about a war, or some obscure real life archaeologist, or about a little boy in the 1100s, but once they started, they really got caught up. That’s what I’m looking to hear. That they loved the story, and maybe learned something by accident. Lord knows it’s the only way I’ve ever learned anything valuable….
My holiday over Christmas was not quite what you would expect. Lucky me, I caught a nasty flu bug which took ten days to dissipate but then left me five pounds lighter and a whole lot more respectful of my health. I hope you did not have to learn this lesson.
I can hardly remember back to the time when research for school essays, for tidbits to enliven the lessons I taught, and for more background about subjects that intrigued me all took place in the library. I knew the hours of all the libraries around and the best librarians to help. Even when writing my first historical novel, my librarian’s help was very important.
For today’s post I bring you a little bit of history and a little bit of real people’s stories. I’ve chosen to give personalities to William and Catherine (Cain) Garner, my great great great grandparents and to interview them. I’ve given them the ability to see into the future, you’ll notice, for I think these stalwart Loyalists who settled in Upper Canada have a lot to say about how we Canadians got here today, having just celebrated our sesquicentennial (150 years).
EC: 
