C.A. Rowland's Blog

 

This is my first blog post which is about traveling to Peru.

I was flattered when Diane Brandon  at http:\\eclecticintuitive.blogspot.com asked me to participate in a blog tour.  Diane is currently writing not one but two books:  Spiritually Aware Since Birth and 100 Dreams Interpreted, which will be a follow-up book to Dream Interpretation for Beginners — Understand the Wisdom of Your Sleeping Mind which is being published in March 2015.   I love the idea of sharing our work and process.  Writing cab be a lonely act and being connected with other writers through blog tours such as this or critique groups or other avenues are all what keep us going and inspired.

For this blog tour, each of us has been asked to answer four questions. Here they are, as well as my answers to them:

1) What Am I Working On?

I tend to work on a number of things at one time.  Right now, I have several stories in anthologies and am continuing to write short stories and a novella.  However, my primarily focus is editing my humorous paranormal amateur sleuth novel set in Savannah, Georgia.  I’m finding that the editing process is much more enjoyable than I thought it would be – and am headed back to Savannah later this summer to re-visit some of the places where the events in my occur.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

The mystery genre requires certain conventions that our readers expect.  In that respect, my novel is similar to others in the genre.  However, my main character, Trisha is unique as well as her late Aunt Harriett who plays an active role in “helping “ Trisha solve the murder.  While I read lots of different kinds of books, including lots of mysteries and thrillers, I gravitate to those that make me laugh, give me a real sense of place and where I learn something.  All of those qualities are in my story to some extent and together with my characters, that makes my work different and distinctive.

3) How does my writing process work?

My process is like a lot of pantsers (we write by the seat of our pants).  I usually know the beginning of my story and an ending, although both tend to change some.  From there, I have a character that I work to get to know by writing scenes.  Somewhere along the way, the plot begins to order those scenes.  Then the editing and re-writing starts and I go back through, moving things around and adding missing pieces.  It’s a bit organic in nature but it seems to work for me.

As for inspiration – that can be from anything. I was telling my critique group last night that the beginning of the story I read came from watching “So You Think You Can Dance.”  I had it on as I was winding down and finishing up things for the night.  It was a first for me and we all had a good laugh over what I was inspired by – but you just never know.  But it was one of those times where my brain was focused on something else and however it works, the part that controls inspiration was watching and noted the kernel of an idea.

4)  Why Do I Write What I Do?

This one’s really easy. I write what I like to read.  I write what I am curious about.  I write what inspires me.  I write when the character in my head won’t leave me alone.  Finally, I write for my own enjoyment and share it so that hopefully others will enjoy it as well.  It’s a wonderful creative journey.

Three excellent writers and wonderful women will continue this blog tour, and they are the following writers:

LAURA BENEDICT

Laura Benedict’s latest dark suspense novel is BLISS HOUSE (Pegasus Crime), praised as “Eerie, seductive, and suspenseful,” by Edgar award-winning author, Meg Gardiner. Laura is also the author of DEVIL’S OVEN, a modern Frankenstein tale, and CALLING MR. LONELY HEARTS and ISABELLA MOON, both originally published by Ballantine Books. Her work has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, PANK, and numerous anthologies like Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads (Oceanview), and Slices of Flesh (Dark Moon Books)

 
A Cincinnati, Ohio native, Laura grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and claims both as hometowns. She currently lives with her family in the southern wilds of a Midwestern state, surrounded by bobcats, coyotes, and other less picturesque predators.
 
Visit laurabenedict.com to check out her books and enter her monthly contest in which she gives away books she likes and other goodies.

EMILY HANLON

 
Emily Hanlon is a writing coach and novelist. She holds private coaching sessions and weekly workshops for all levels of writers in her home in Westchester County, NY and on as a conference call/webinar. In addition, she holds an annual five day writing retreat in early May near Philadelphia and a ten day writing retreat in Bar Harbor, Maine, in September.

She is the author of Petersburg, an historical adventure and love story set against the Russian Revolution of 1904. Petersburg reached the Best Sellers List in England. In addition, she is the author of five novels for children and young adults as well as several picture books for young children.

The Art of Fiction Writing or How to Fall Down the Rabbit Hole Without Really Trying is a course in fiction writing based on her more than thirty years of coaching. It is comprised of a workbook and five audio journeys that open doorways to your imagination, and teach you ways of writing that will surprise, delight and free the writer in you!

Emily has an unpublished historical novel, Mistress of the Labyrinth, set against the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and Jerusulem at the time of Christ’s Crucifixion. At the center of the story is the burial Shroud of Christ, stolen from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. In order to save the Shroud, a young Greek seeress journeys to a past life in time to Jerusalem at the time of the Crucificion.

Emily is currently working on a novel set in Maine in the 1920’s.

Emily websites are:

www.thefictionwritersjourney.com  and www.creativesoulworks.com

Emily’s blogs are:

http://fictionwritersjourney.blogspot.com/ and http://creativesoulworks.blogspot.com/

KARI KILGORE
 
 I’ve been a writer since forever, but I wouldn’t say I really started working consistently at it until 2005. Back in the early 90s, I wrote several short stories and started a novel, but a hard drive ate all of them. Yes. I know to back up now. After recreating a few of those and starting the novel again, it really took off in the fall of 2006. Since I didn’t start it on 11/1/06, it wasn’t technically a NaNoWriMo novel, but I used all of the tips and encouragement and energy to turn it on and finish by 12/31/06. That turned out to be a very long novel called Hand Me Downs.A whole lot of life intervened, and I didn’t start revisions on that one in any organized sense until May of 2012. By the start of 2013, I really dug into the second novel in that universe, again seriously fueled and encouraged by NaNo. I finished that one on 12/31/13. That one is called The Sheltering Souls. I’m still amazed by what happened in that story. Nothing I expected!Now I’m doing what I hope will be a final hard edit of Hand Me Downs, checking grammar, making sure everything makes sense with the second novel, etc.. I can feel novel #3 starting to percolate and demand my attention. I can’t wait to see what that one turns up!I have a day job doing page layout and editing on a mostly freelance basis. Some of those projects live over at Spiral Publishing, and that’s where my fiction will live someday too. I would love to help other writers with those parts. I’ve edited and designed some insanely complex things, like a current 300+ page book with over 1000 images, so I think working on a novel for someone else would be a great change of pace and a lot of fun. I will definitely be hiring help for the covers though!  See more about Kari at http:\\www.spiralwriter.com.

Ankere (Emu) by Emily Kame Kngwarreye

 

I glanced at the clock – five minutes to go before this session ended.  It was the same evaluation routine every month – same doctor, same sterile vanilla room, same playing cards.

Dr. H turned over the card.  I wondered if Dr. H ever tired of the responses.

“Butterfly,” I said.  Most people would recognize this inkblot card as the first in the Rorschach test.  Butterfly was always a safe answer.

Dr. H looked at me for a moment.  Perhaps I’d answered too quickly.  I wondered if I should vary my answer next month.  I made a mental note for later consideration.  Dr. H made a note under the other scribbles on this session’s yellow pad.

My eyes widened at the next card. I glanced up.  Dr. H watched closely.

“That’s not a Rorschach card,”  I said, stating the obvious.  What else was safe to say?

“No,” Dr. H said.

I remained silent. I knew this card.  It was a painting by an Australian aboriginal artist, full of lines and dots on a tangerine desert.  I recognized the artist as Emily Kame Kngwarreye.  The yam lines made her art distinctive from all others.

Was this a prompt to talk about my childhood in Australia? What did Dr. H know about my history as a child?   It didn’t matter.  I wasn’t an amateur of these games.  I waited knowing that Dr. H would fill the silence and say something further.

Dr. H sighed, resigned to giving in since I had never done so in past sessions.  “I thought it would be helpful to get your response on something different.  Mix things up a bit.”

“No. No. NO. NO,” a voice in my head screamed.  “That’s not fair.  We’re not prepared.”

I felt the acidic juices in my stomach start to foam.  Panic was building and I knew the suffocation of it would begin if I didn’t calm myself. An unexpected turn of events but I could deal with this.   I took a couple of deep breaths through my nose so Dr. H would not see the turmoil inside my head and body.  I doubted the movement of my nostrils would give me away.

“It’s a trick.  A way to get you to reveal something about us,” another voice accused.

Dr. H was watching and I couldn’t glance at the clock without possibly revealing my discomfort.  A swirl of mist seemed to cloud my eyes and I was drawn back into a memory.  Or at least what I thought was a memory.  The story had been told so many times I no longer knew what was my memory and what was simply part of the story become legend.   I hadn’t thought about that night in years.

It had been a warm evening. I’d been put to bed early since I was only 6 years old.  A remote part of Australia.  My parents wanted to experience the wilds of the country.   I remember waking to a bird’s call.  It drew me – that much I remember.  My parents must have thought I was safely asleep for the night and had left me unattended.  Getting up from the bed, I wandered outside.  The door had been left open.  Cool breezes of the night air drifted in and out as if visiting for a spell.  I have no memory of the direction I headed – only of the bird’s call, beckoning me.  A lovely trilling that I’ve never heard again.

Step by step I moved deeper into the outback until the bird’s song disappeared.  I sat down to wait.  Then I began to cry. Time passed.  I must have fallen asleep, still weeping, growing cold as the night deepened. What I remember next is the warmth that banished the cold and the gentleness of the touch.  A different sound, rhythmic and soothing gently rocked me – a foreign lullaby.  I slept.

The warmth of that presence stayed with me during the night.  At dawn’s breaking, the warmth disappeared and I whimpered at the loss.  I cried more loudly as I was placed on the wood porch.  Quiet then frantic footsteps going and coming are my recollection.  Then my mother’s relieved cry that I had been found.  Safe, I lay at the door of our cabin.

Back in the present, I glanced up.  Dr. H waited patiently.  I checked the clock.  One minute to go.

I stared at the picture.  What could I say?  A dog with motorcycle goggles stared out at me.  That would never do as an answer.  A race horse with goggles maybe but again, that was a risk I was not comfortable making on my own.  An ant farm with tracks might be acceptable.  Still…

I hesitated.

“You can’t know if that will help you,” a voice said.

“Dr. H will read into your answer.  Careful,” another voice warned.

“Cooperating will help you,” another voice argued.

“Get up and dance.  Show Dr. H something new,” a voice said.

“Tell Dr. H about the painting,” another whispered.

I struggled to quiet the voices while maintaining a nonchalant pose.  It would not do to show my anxiety.

“It’s an Australian artist’s painting,” I said.

Surprise showed on Dr. H’s face.  “How do you know?”

“My family spent some time in country when I was little.”

“That’s very interesting,” Dr. H said.  “What do you see in the painting?”

“The yam rows she is known for,” I said.

The timer rang.  Dr. H seemed conflicted, wanting to continue but knowing there was another to follow me.  Shoulders relaxed.  “That’s it for today.  We’ll talk about your time in Australia next month.”

I smiled.  “Of course,” I said.

I would have time to consult the voices and decide  on what was safe to relate.  Time to consider what I could say that would help me escape this prison of an asylum.

 

This story was submitted as part of the Fralin Museum’s Writer’s Eye annual contest.  I didn’t place in the contest but I liked the exercise and the story that came out of the process.  The museum picks a number of art works and then the writer can pick which one he/she wants to write a story around.

If this has been your story using this picture – what would you have written?

What do you see in the story?

Also, in this instance since the art was subject to interpretation, I left out any use of an identifier as to the patient and the doctor. I also used the dream which left the reader with interpreting what really happened.  Did these devices work?  Have you used them before?

If you choose to write a story – the length maximum was 1,000 words.  I’d love to read it if you choose to write one.

 

 

 

SIPs are what I call Shorts Inspired by Pictures. Each post will contain a picture and a short story inspired by the picture. You, the reader, are encouraged to use this picture for inspiration, comment on the story, or write (and share) your own short story inspired by the picture.