Ask the Author: G. Donald Cribbs
Answered Questions (5)
G. Donald Cribbs
Yes. The Packing House is returning with a new blue cover and is scheduled for release April 7, 2022 from Trigger Publishing and Cherish Editions. You can add it to your To Read List here:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
G. Donald Cribbs
There are a ton of resources out there for those who want to find and use them. An important first step is to find your own motivation and go after it. You aren't going to write a novel by asking authors how to write. Writing is a personal experience and unique for each person, even if some aspects are universal. Go figure it out for yourself. If you need help getting started, my favorite author support sites (http://www.writershelpingwriters.net and http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthor...) are two great places to start.
G. Donald Cribbs
Writing first began as a coping tool for me. I was silenced by the trauma I experienced in childhood. Through reading first and writing second, very slowly I coaxed words out of me and onto the page. This is what saved me. Besides God, and the people who crossed my path and helped me heal a little in my recovery.
Child sexual abuse is what happened to me, but writing helped and continues to help me make sense of it, on this side of it, in the throes of the aftermath as it rakes across my mind and gouges me in wounded places. It was so freeing for me to discover, in an almost secret way, that I could find a pathway around the silence, and most importantly, a way to use my voice to take back what had been stolen from me without my permission.
In high school, this writing developed into poetry, which was a kind of super-charged way to use words to tell a story or a truth, as if each word were a chapter of a book. I loved discovering the associations one word has with other words, and the way these words would interplay when placed into a line of poetry.
I find many other ideas coming to me for future book and story ideas. One of my most recent ideas is for a MG series about Dragons I plan to write with my sons. We've begun plotting out a series of books and details about the world and framework for the stories, including who the main characters are. I love world building, researching, and jotting down the ideas of stories I hope to write soon.
Child sexual abuse is what happened to me, but writing helped and continues to help me make sense of it, on this side of it, in the throes of the aftermath as it rakes across my mind and gouges me in wounded places. It was so freeing for me to discover, in an almost secret way, that I could find a pathway around the silence, and most importantly, a way to use my voice to take back what had been stolen from me without my permission.
In high school, this writing developed into poetry, which was a kind of super-charged way to use words to tell a story or a truth, as if each word were a chapter of a book. I loved discovering the associations one word has with other words, and the way these words would interplay when placed into a line of poetry.
I find many other ideas coming to me for future book and story ideas. One of my most recent ideas is for a MG series about Dragons I plan to write with my sons. We've begun plotting out a series of books and details about the world and framework for the stories, including who the main characters are. I love world building, researching, and jotting down the ideas of stories I hope to write soon.
G. Donald Cribbs
Yes, I have had writer’s block. I vividly remember a time when my wife and I had grieved the loss of her mother. It was especially hard because she was visiting with us at the time and I had to perform CPR, although she had already passed away before we found her.
After that, I couldn’t press through the grief. I had lost my concept of hope and the sense that life was still worth living. Everything seemed meaningless and hollow. It was a very low point for me. So my writing was all but dried up during that time, naturally. I did the only thing I knew to do. I returned to poetry, gave myself parameters of structure and form, and after writing out the unspoken feelings I had been holding onto, I was able to write another using a sonnet format. It was one of the 12 poems included in The Packing House. I haven’t had writer’s block since.
After that, I couldn’t press through the grief. I had lost my concept of hope and the sense that life was still worth living. Everything seemed meaningless and hollow. It was a very low point for me. So my writing was all but dried up during that time, naturally. I did the only thing I knew to do. I returned to poetry, gave myself parameters of structure and form, and after writing out the unspoken feelings I had been holding onto, I was able to write another using a sonnet format. It was one of the 12 poems included in The Packing House. I haven’t had writer’s block since.
G. Donald Cribbs
Currently, I’m working on the second book of a planned duology to finish out The Packing House, tentatively titled, Unpacking the Past. Book two picks up right where book one ends, and dives immediately into the action. It should be a satisfying conclusion for readers. I have already heard from several readers who have finished The Packing House and are ready for book two.
Next up, I’ve got two potential series: one is a Beauty and the Beast retelling in a steampunk world where the girl is the beast and the guy is the beauty. Steampunk helps to explain magic in a more realistic and gadget-sourced way. I’ve got a Pinterest board if you’d like to take a peek at the feel of the story. The second series is a futuristic dystopian sci-fi thriller where the government steals twins at birth, convincing parents one of the twins died at birth, and the main character is a girl who stumbles upon the truth of her twin brother, not only alive, but a prisoner in an underground secret location. In this world there are no diseases, but what it cost families isn’t an equitable exchange.
Next up, I’ve got two potential series: one is a Beauty and the Beast retelling in a steampunk world where the girl is the beast and the guy is the beauty. Steampunk helps to explain magic in a more realistic and gadget-sourced way. I’ve got a Pinterest board if you’d like to take a peek at the feel of the story. The second series is a futuristic dystopian sci-fi thriller where the government steals twins at birth, convincing parents one of the twins died at birth, and the main character is a girl who stumbles upon the truth of her twin brother, not only alive, but a prisoner in an underground secret location. In this world there are no diseases, but what it cost families isn’t an equitable exchange.
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