Sarah E. Morin's Blog, page 10

Author Interview with Storm Sandlin

Today I want to introduce you to a special new author (really two authors!) by the name Storm Sandlin.

I met Ben Cornwell and Millie Williams at a fairy tale workshop at Elwood Library this past spring. Although their writing genre is not fairy tales per se, I immediately saw we shared a passion for getting our hands deep in the craft of writing, and just enjoying it. They were lots of fun to talk to. The coolest part about it is how they play off each other. Not only are they writing partners and cousins, they are close friends! With such enthusiasm and determination to learn the craft I am convinced they will go far.

Storm Sandlin released some exciting news on September 1, and I asked the honor of helping share it. We sat down for a recent interview.

Morin: Hey, guys! So introduce yourselves and give us your pitch.

Williams: Do you hunger for twisted tales, crave petrifying poetry and yearn for haunting haikus? Have you been waiting for a collection that will bring a chill to the air? We are Wm. Benjamin Cornwell and Amelia N. Williams, we are the force that is Storm Sandlin. We have just what you are looking for! We are cousins who formed their own style of horror and chose to pick our name in honor of their ancestors surnames Storms and Sandlin. On Halloween day 2015 we will be releasing our first book A Chill in the Air: A Collection of Stories and Poetry.

Morin: Your title makes me shiver. We should celebrate this great news!

Cornwell: We agree! We’re holding a launch party at the Elwood, Indiana library from 1:00-3:00 pm on Halloween to mark the occasion.

Morin: What fun! How else can I get ahold of a copy of your book?

Williams: Pre-orders are now being taken until the 30th of September, every pre-ordered copy of the book comes with a special gift. If you are interested in purchasing a copy contact us at cornwellwilliams@att.net. It will also be available on amazon.com.

Morin: So let’s talk a like about the writing process. You clearly admire the style of Edgar Allan Poe. What is it about his works that inspires you, and what elements do you intend to bring to a modern audience in your own writing?

Cornwell: Yes, Poe is definitely the master. His level of supernatural thrillers has influenced a great deal of our work. Being a history buff, Victorian tales just seem to come naturally.

Morin: I understand that! I am a history buff too.

Williams: We also often use a first person point of view to help the reader feel like they are experiencing the events of the tale along with the characters. This is one of my favorite things that Poe did to make his stories come alive.

Morin: One of the things that stuck out to me about you two right away was how clearly you function as a team. Talk about the process of collaboration. When did you two start working together? And tell us more about how you blend your talents and share the workload.

Williams: We started writing together in 2011, when we realized that we were both struggling to finish writing stories on our own. As we shared the ideas we were working on separately, we realized that together they would make an interesting story. That is how our first project began.

Cornwell: Since we were very young we have been best friends, because we would tend to agree on about everything. One of the best parts of collaboration is that in dialogue there are two voices and two points of view. And with a partner there is no such thing as writer’s block.

Morin: Do you use any visual art or music as a source of inspiration?

Cornwell: People like Alfred Hitchcock, and Tim Burton have played important roles in the process, as for music; many classical works and even nursery rhymes have inspired elements of the book.

Morin: Are you part of a writing group? How has that improved your writing?

Williams: Yes, we are members of the Elwood, Indiana Library’s writing group. I think that one of the best things you can do as a writer is join a group of other writers that you can learn from and get their advice about how to improve.

Cornwell: It is wonderful to be around people who also enjoy writing, and our wonderful group is full of many talented people. Also, while working on a project like A Chill in the Air it’s nice to get real reactions and see the fear in our friends’ eyes.

Morin: What is one valuable thing you have learned about the road to publication you’d like to share with budding writers?

Cornwell: With self-publishing you are all on your own, make sure you read all of the rules whatever route you take. Make sure you find people such as editors and illustrators that will make your job easier.

Morin: That’s great advice. Writers who self-publish have to be so smart about educating themselves on the process. So ready for your crazy question? If you ran away to join the circus, which act would you be a part of?

Cornwell: I would want to be the ringleader, because I like being in charge. I would also want to ride the elephants.

Morin: I can so see that.

Williams: I would never join the circus – I have an irrational fear of clowns.

Morin: Ha! That is a perfect answer from a writer of scary stories. Finally, where can readers find out more about you and your writing?

Williams: We have a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/stormsandlinauthor and a blog: http://stormsandlinauthor.blogspot.com/ where we post monthly short stories and poetry. We are also on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/46151388-storm-sandlin

Morin: I know I promised that was the last question, but would you be willing to share with readers a small taste of your style of writing?

Cornwell: Sure, how about a poem?

Morin: I love poems! Let’s end with your words haunting our ears. Good luck and thank you so much for your time.

Yes it is I

Yes it is I, the one who sends chills down your spine

Yes it is I, the one who flashes behind you in the mirror

Yes it is I, the one who makes the untraceable sound

Yes it is I, the one who whispers things in your ear

Yes it is I, the one who stares holes into your soul

Yes it is I, the one who makes your nightmares come true

Giveaway: Enough ebooks to last a year!

I have never seen a book giveaway like this one!

My publisher, Enclave Publishing, is giving away every single ebook in our catalogue. That’s over 52 ebooks to a single winner! Read one a week for an entire year!

Who’s gonna do a happy dance with me?

Enclave specializes in Christian speculative fiction (fantasy, sci fi, etc). You’ll get books from John W. Otte, Morgan Busse, Jill Williamson, Kathy Tyers, and more. (I am in there, too, happy to be riding on their coattails.)

Contest ends Sept 7, so enter now!

Winner of Book Giveaway – and Fairy Tale Retellings

Thanks, everyone who entered my book giveaway for Waking Beauty.

I received a lot of good answers to the question:

“What fairy tale needs to be fixed and why?”

So which fairy tales received the most votes?

Snow White was high on the list. Beauty and the Beast was popular. That’s one of my favorites, too. I’ll be interested to see what Disney makes of it in their live action version. Downton Abbey meets Harry Potter. Yes, Beauty and the Beast is a great universal story to retell, so much so that one famous fantasy writer, Robin McKinley, retold it twice herself!

Beauty, her first book, came out in 1978.

Rose Daughter came out in 1997.

Both retell the story of Beauty and the Beast, but you can really feel the difference 2 decades of writing and life experience made. Rose Daughter is the more psychological and symbolic. And the twist ending…! But I have to say Beauty, more simple though it is, is my favorite of the two.

Isn’t it neat how the same story can take on a different meaning for us as we enter a new stage in life? I feel that way about The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope. It is a Newbery Honor Book from the 1970s, based on the Ballad of Tam Lin. I have reread Chapter 12 on Halloween every year since the 7th grade. The climax of the story takes place on All Hallows Eve. Every year I find some new layer in this book.

The best books are those that grow with you. You connect with them on so personal a level that in each retelling, you are retelling the story of your own life.

I also appreciate people who suggested less common fairy tales to me. Snow White and Rose Red! And I don’t know if I have the stuff to write a steampunk Pinocchio, but I’d be so into reading it!

And the randomly selected winner of the giveaway of a paperback copy of Waking Beauty is…
Charlie Davies!

Congrats, Charlie! I will be emailing you shortly to arrange shipment.

If you didn’t win (and even if you did), look for news about a HUGE ebook giveaway contest from Enclave tomorrow! Cheers.

Now I Can Survive a Stuffed Bear Attack (and last chance for my book giveaway)

First, there’s still 1 day left to enter to win a copy of Waking Beauty! Just leave a comment about which fairy tale I should try to fix…er…retell next!

Second, I met all kinds of fun people at the Carmel Clay Public Library Author Fair this past Saturday!

One of them was a foot and a half tall. And very fuzzy.

You need to meet Max Bear and join his nearly 1000 fans on Facebook.

Max is a spunky little bear who has written a book, How to Survive a Stuffed Bear Attack. I have been assured the nice lady who accompanied Max, Kris Ball, merely recorded his words. She is just his human and of course would never ever put words into his mouth.

Thanks to the inside scoop of Max Bear, I will now be wary of making eye contact with cute fuzzy stuffed bears in the store aisle. It could be the first step to mind control and world domination (by said cute fuzzy bears).

You will need to read the book to prepare yourself.

Max has a book signing Saturday, August 8th, from 12-3 pm at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Noblesville, IN. Max will be pumped up and ready to read to his fans, as well as sign copies of his book! There will be story time and crafts for the kids.

Here’s me cuddling up to Max. See, the mind control is already taking effect.

Max is not the first stuffed bear to have this effect on me. When I was in elementary school, a stuffed bear in the toy section at Target fixed his woebegone, deep, dark, plastic button eyes on me. “Buy me. Take me home,” they seemed to plead.

My own pleading didn’t work on my mom. She made me save up my allowance (50 cents a week) for a couple month to earn the $7.50 this bear cost. (Wow. I’m old.)

When I finally saved enough, the bear was sold out. I was so heart-stricken I put on sackcloth and mourned publically in the toy aisle for at least 2 minutes.

Then I found another bear and bought it. What can I say? My loyalties are fickle.

Max started his adventures as the stuffed bear of Kris’s son. Her description of how a stuffed animal acquired a life and personality of his own reminded me of Percy, our family penguin puppet. Percy was a horrible cheat at cards. He was always sticking his beak and peaking at other people’s hands.

What stuffed animal took over your home?

Author Fair at Carmel Clay Public Library

I’ll be at Carmel Clay Public Library this Saturday with Waking Beauty!

 

The library is located at 55 4th Ave SE, Carmel, Indiana 46032.

From the library website:

Drop in to the Program Room anytime between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. to meet writers in our community and celebrate our local talent. Writers of fiction and nonfiction for children and adults will be represented and their books will be available for sale. Reservations for this program are not required. For more information, contact Brian Barrett at (317) 844-3362.

There is also a free self-publishing workshop at 2pm!

Hope you can come. I will give you a (Hershey) kiss if I see you there.

That is, if the bag makes it out of my house. Tee hee.

Leave a Comment and Win a Copy of Waking Beauty

Want to win a copy of Waking Beauty?

Just leave a comment below answering this question:

What fairy tale needs to be fixed and why?

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

That’s all there is to it! I will announce the winner on Aug 25, at which point I will collect your shipping info privately to send you your prize!

Bronte Vs Austen

I hate Wuthering Heights. It’s like an episode of Jerry Springer. There is absolutely nothing empathetic about these people, their affairs, their makeovers, their vengeance, their larger-than-life issues.

But I just can’t stop watching (aka reading) to the very end, to see what crazy things they are going to do next. Because really, who behaves that that? So unrestrained? So uncivilized?

This debate by Intelligence Squared has done more to make me almost change my mind than anything I have ever seen or read.

The premise:

Two experts debate who is the Queen of British Literature: Emily Bronte or Jane Austen. They each have 30 minutes to present their argument. A nice twist: they also have a panel of actors (many who have played Austen or Bronte roles) at their disposal. So we the audience have our memories refreshed as we consider the debaters’ particular points.

The audience votes both before and after. Who is Queen?

Of course I cheered for Austen. It is a truth universally acknowledged that Austen is the best British novelist of her time. The presenter on her side is funny and responds with excellent quips to challenges to his position. (Free Tip for Men: Wanna win yourself some attractiveness points? Quote Austen.)

But the Bronte presenter puts forth a challenge that honors Austen while making Bronte look a bit more. She makes the melodramatic TMI that is Withering Heights (oops, Freudian slip)–Wuthering Heights—seem epic and grandiose and almost godlike in scope.

Indeed, I am ready to concede that I can enjoy Wuthering Heights the way I do Moby Dick. Both are classics that are amazing in CliffsNotes version. (Or shall I say, Heathcliff version?)

I just don’t want to read them.

They are too big, too overblown, too rambling. Which given my usual word count is possibly unfair, but I do not wallow in my emotions quite the same way.

If I were to pinpoint an argument in which our pro-Austen presenter lost ground, it’s this: The pro-Bronte presenter argued that Austen is primarily confined to discussing marriage and courtship, and is sweet and romantic about it, while Bronte is complex and unafraid to show the darker side of marriage. She is about more.

I think this is too limiting. Both authors are about love and marriage, and both are about more.

Wuthering Heights utterly depends on these elements. Heathcliff and Catherine love each other fiercely, but marry other people. Disaster, angst, revenge, and long-winded speeches ensue. Without love and marriage, there is no plot.

I enjoy the romantic element in Austen, and yes, she has a much lighter hand. But I don’t walk away with the message, oo, I really need to get married now. I relate more to Emma’s disastrous Box Hill moment, when she jokes at Miss Bates’s expense, and wonder if I have ever done the same. I relate to Jane Bennet, the elder sister of Elizabeth, and her need to “make everyone good” despite the evidence. I wonder if this affects me as an effective manager in the workplace. I relate to Mary Bennet, eager to show off her accomplishments at the piano-forte, and coming across as stilted. I wonder if I have a need for praise that comes at the expense of a true love of art. I look at Mr. Bennet. I would excuse him anything because he makes me laugh, but is he really a good father given his lax parenting methods, even making fun of his own children rather than correcting them?

I could go on, but my point is that Austen is about far more than marriage, although you cannot deny marriage is a key element. And certainly Austen does not idealize every marriage she writes. If Bronte writes of the consequences when Catherine marries for economic reasons instead of passion, well, what about when Austen writes of Charlotte Lucas? She settles for a ridiculous and pompous man, Mr. Collins. But Austen lives in a practical world while Bronte does not. Catherine can speechify all about her passions in larger than life terms. Charlotte Lucas makes us laugh and shake our heads as she adroitly sends her husband into the garden—away from her—and makes the most of a passionless marriage.

And what of the botched love/marriage examples of Maria Bertram? Lydia Bennet? Mary Crawford? Mr. Elton? Just because something is restrained in its depiction or makes us laugh does not mean it is not making a deeper commentary.

How does this apply to unruly fairy tales? Let’s voice this as a style question. Do you, as a reader or writer, prefer the grand and epic, unbridled passion? Or do you prefer something more subtle, where you have to work harder to unveil the criticism and deep emotions? Do you prefer your books to be larger-than-life, or more restrained?

After watching this youtube debate, I cannot be swayed from the Austen camp, but I at least concede Bronte is better than I thought she was. I admit as a writer I share something with Bronte. I do ramble. I do enjoy a good angsty moment in Waking Beauty. But whenever I go on for more than a page or two in serious philosophic writhing, I have to crack a joke. Or as Jane Austen said,

“I could not sit seriously down to write a serious Romance under any other motive than to save my Life, & if it were indispensable for me to keep it up & never relax into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first Chapter.”

letter to James Stanier Clarke

April 1, 1816

Now if only the debate had been between Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen. Then I might have been truly torn. But that is another story, and shall be told at another time.

Who do you think the Queen of Brit Lit is?

Who Owns Atticus Finch?

The moment is here! At midnight comes the release of Harper Lee’s loooooooooooong awaited 2nd novel, Go Set a Watchman. Have you been following that? If not, short summary:

There have been 55 years between Lee’s first masterful book about racism, To Kill a Mockingbird, and 2nd.  Frankly some people are suspicious of her 2nd. Was she pressured into publishing this manuscript they just unearthed? She is quoted as being delighted. But Harper Lee has always been like her own character, Boo Radley—a bit reclusive. So as she has not come in front of a TV camera and reassured all of us celebrity-hungry fans, I could not judge either way. If this is her decision, I applaud her for entering the race debate again, and holding true to herself as an artist no matter what anyone says.

I’m just worried about Atticus.

Go Set A Watchman continues the story of our beloved Scout, 20 years after we saw this spunky tomboy in To Kill a Mockingbird. But it would be slightly misleading to call it a sequel. Chronologically, it’s a sequel, but Lee wrote it before To Kill a Mockingbird. The 2nd book is really one of her first, or even a draft of her masterpiece.

The reviews are a bit scandalous. The grown-up Scout (Jean Louise) discovers her father was a racist all this time. Seriously, you can’t do this to Atticus Finch. As one person tweeted, “First Bill Cosby then Atticus Finch.” Implying all the childhood icons of fatherhood and heroes are falling.

My reaction? Well, I hate to judge a book by its coverage, and the tweets are fierce. If Atticus turns out to be a racist in Watchman, I will be sad, but I won’t look at him as the “True Atticus.” I view the printing of this book as a scholar’s study of how Mockingbird evolved. So maybe I’ll read them in opposite order, Watchman then Mockingbird, and look upon it as the redemption of Atticus Finch. It’s a wonderful story in the writing world, isn’t it, of how a character Lee wrote as a bigot in one draft turned into a man we have admired for decades in a later draft?

I worry the general public won’t see it this way. Maybe Harper Lee doesn’t intend for me to see it this way. So here’s really my question of the day:

Who owns Atticus Finch? The American public or Harper Lee?

Legally, Harper Lee does, of course. But we have 55 years of our reaction to Atticus as a culture. We grew up wanting to be Scout, both to have her adventures and her dad. We love the fact that Atticus can’t play football with the other dads but can save the neighborhood from a rabid dog. We love his moral courage, his human empathy for a black man wrongly accused of rape. And in the courtroom? We root for him. And then we stand overhead as someone whispers for us to stand up and honor this man as he passes by in his noble defeat.

Our American culture has adopted this Atticus. We read the book in school, saw it on stage, watched Gregory Peck in the movie, adopted it into our book clubs. There is a dance between writer and reader. The magic cannot happen unless the writer shows us her vision and we somehow make it our own. And in Lee’s 55 years of relative silence, we have taken her story and made it ours, almost without interference.

I am not arguing that Lee has no rights to her characters. See my blog, “The Ethics of Wonderland,” about Frank Beddor’s Looking Glass Wars. He not only has a unique take on Wonderland, he has Alice chew out Lewis Carroll for getting her story wrong. That’s going a giant step beyond fan fiction. But I am saying, no matter how Atticus is depicted in Watchman, it’s too late to undo the relationship between the American public and the characters we came to love in Mockingbird.

Whatever hesitation I might have had I put aside to participate in an all-day book launch event for Watchman. Barnes and Noble hosted an all-day reading of Mockingbird today. One person read for 30 minutes, the next picked up wherever they stopped. I got the portion with the cranky old neighbor lady with a foul mouth. Quite by chance, I ended with the quote a friend and I are using in a community art project called NICE.

The event was fun. The store was not crowded when I was there in the early afternoon, but you could see customers pause, and tune into the forgotten phrases of that Great American Novel they once read in school. I was honored to be a part of it. Regardless of the merits or flaws of Go Set a Watchman, To Kill a Mockingbird will remain a classic that reaches us as Americans and human beings on a profound level.

Do you like Mockingbird? Will you be reading Watchman? And do you think a work of art can ever become so big and important to the culture, the author loses some control of it to the culture? Have we adopted Atticus to the point Lee cannot take him back?

Free Twisted Fairy Tale Workshop Saturday

Central Indiana folks, this one’s for you!

Clock on the banner to find out more.

Fairy Tales in the Wild West

My Splickety Prime arrived today, including one of my flash fic pieces, yee haw!

See the issue!

Splickety is a publishing group that has 3 magazine imprints (hard copy and online) for flash fiction. One of the imprints, Havok, specializes in fantasy/sci fi, yea! My unruly fairy tale wound up in Splickety Prime because it’s a crossover piece for the Wild West issue. Wanna find out what temperance ladies bearing axes, Snow White’s dwarfs, apple cider, and saloons have to do with each other? You’ll have to read Band of Seven.

Yes, I have played a temperance lady in historic costume. And used an axe. Not simultaneously.

 

I write flash fic because it’s HARD and it’s HEALTHY, rather like a diet and exercise plan. I always tend to overwrite (see my New Year’s 6-Word Diet Plan). While I was deep in editing Waking Beauty this winter, I wrote some flash fiction as an exercise. The idea was if I could figure how to edit 500 words from a 1500 word piece, maybe I could find 10,000 to take out of a 160,000 word tome. I stayed within my genre of fairy tale tomfoolery. Band of Seven keeps the hoaky humor I love to put in Waking Beauty, but there’s none of the philosophy. It’s just a hog-squealing, rip-snortin’, belly-achin’ good time.

Do you write flash fiction?

It’s great for unpublished writers, because more markets are open to you. It’s great for experienced writers, because it keeps you in shape editorially. You really have to make every word count. I was especially pleased with Splickety because they gave me feedback on what did and didn’t work in my piece. I don’t know if that’s their common practice, but what a gift for a writer.

Enter the Lost at Sea Contest through July 10

Set sail for the high seas and lose yourself in a typhoon of terrific flash fiction in our Lost at Sea contest! Pen your best story that features some element that pertains to our Lost at Sea theme, and you could win hundreds of dollars in fabulous prizes!

Our submission deadline is July 10, 2015, so read here for more information on our theme and directions for how to enter today. (Entry fee is $10.00.)

Check out Splickety’s upcoming themes and standard submission guidelines.