Josephine Strand's Blog
December 12, 2021
Our Words Matter
As a self-published author, I have developed a new appreciation for book reviews. I have always been a voracious reader, but before I became a published author I seldom left a review. The books I usually read were written by established authors, authors whose books amasses hundreds, if not thousands of reviews. What difference would one more make to them? Why go through the trouble when an author or publicist might not even glance through it or give it a second thought? But all that changed after I, too, found myself in much need of those.
Continue reading . . . http://josephinestrand.com/2021/12/07...
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Continue reading . . . http://josephinestrand.com/2021/12/07...
Get updates on my writing journey by signing up for my newsletter: https://josephinestrand.com/newsletter/
October 11, 2021
Monkey Business
Writers love using pets in their novels. Not only is it great for character development, but it adds an extra element of emotion and makes the story more enjoyable. Even some book or movie villains are dog or cat lovers, though they tend to prefer cats, perhaps because cats are not as heroic as dogs, and not as easily manipulated. Like the crazy cat lady in the Harry Potter Books, and Cruella De Vil in the original novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. After all, isn’t the main purpose of fictional pets to show a softer side of the characters?
I don’t know what inspired me to use a pet monkey in Misty Dreams. While romance writers typically write dogs or cats into their stories, I went with a primate. A bit unconventional, perhaps, but once the idea set in, it wouldn’t budge. I’ve always had a fascination with monkeys in general. I just think they’re cute and smart and funny. I don’t have anything against dogs or cats, don’t get me wrong. I just thought it would add a unique touch to the story. To make a tropical island the story’s present-day setting was an afterthought, and completely unrelated to my choice of fictional pet.
Continue reading: https://josephinestrand.com/2021/10/1...
I don’t know what inspired me to use a pet monkey in Misty Dreams. While romance writers typically write dogs or cats into their stories, I went with a primate. A bit unconventional, perhaps, but once the idea set in, it wouldn’t budge. I’ve always had a fascination with monkeys in general. I just think they’re cute and smart and funny. I don’t have anything against dogs or cats, don’t get me wrong. I just thought it would add a unique touch to the story. To make a tropical island the story’s present-day setting was an afterthought, and completely unrelated to my choice of fictional pet.
Continue reading: https://josephinestrand.com/2021/10/1...
September 26, 2021
What type of reader are you?
I often wonder if other readers are as volatile as me when it comes to reading habits. Are you a multi-task reader, the type who likes to read more than one book at a time or a single task reader, preferring to read one book at a time? Are you adventurous, the type that likes to read everything, or do you stick to the same genre?
Continue reading: https://josephinestrand.com/2021/09/1...
Get updates on my writing journey by signing up for my newsletter: https://josephinestrand.com/newsletter/
Continue reading: https://josephinestrand.com/2021/09/1...
Get updates on my writing journey by signing up for my newsletter: https://josephinestrand.com/newsletter/
August 3, 2021
Christmas in July
Okay, this title has nothing to do with this article, but I couldn’t resist using it, even though it’s August. Every time I hear this expression I’m reminded of my Christmases in South Africa, where the seasons were topsy-turvy and a ‘white Christmas’ was some ridiculous idealistic illusion we compensated for by ‘dressing’ the branches of the Christmas trees with cotton wool.
Read the rest of the post here https://josephinestrand.com/2021/08/0...
Read the rest of the post here https://josephinestrand.com/2021/08/0...
July 12, 2021
HAVE TRAVEL, WILL WRITE
Ever since I was a little girl I have loved traveling to new places. I believe traveling and living in different parts of the world has helped shape me and my writing and impacted the way I see the world. Family outings and vacations were always a source of inspiration for me. Even at school, my writing projects would often be about a new adventure or a new place I had visited. It’s no wonder geography was my favorite subject. Whether it was a road trip across the country or a day trip to the lake, I would always come home with fresh ideas for a new story or setting for a story. Even a field trip to see a ballet would prompt me to write a story about a ballet dancer. Fresh out of high school, I wanted to become an air hostess, but I stopped growing at seventeen, and my being vertically challenged pretty much ruled that out.
When I say ‘travel’, I don’t mean flying to exotic vacation resorts. Traveling can be expensive, but as a child I was blessed to have parents who loved having fun the cheap and simple way – road trips, picnics in the countryside, visiting friends in a different region of the country and the occasional splurge on a beach vacation with affordable efficiency accommodations. Yes, our family wasn’t averse to sacrificing a few luxuries in the name of fun.
And when I didn’t travel, I would do so in my imagination, and still do. I become a couch surfer, or an armchair traveler, which basically means the same thing—just a more elegant way of slouching. While living abroad, when relocating to the USA wasn’t even in the books (I just had to throw that pun in there), I always had a fascination with the United States and everything American, and it became the setting for many of my stories. Of course, there’s no substitute for the real thing. To visit a place, you can sense its smell and feel, study its customs and history, the different styles of architecture. You meet new people, locals and visitors, and learn about their backgrounds. On a recent trip to the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area, I went on a self-guided tour of covered bridges, and it was such a lovely, peaceful and inspiring experience. I took a ton of photographs, feeling like the female version of Clint Eastwood in The Bridges of Madison County, although I see myself more in the role of Meryl Streep. But I digress…
I often find that in my writing I will include an element I have personally experienced, whether a recipe or a book I once read. I’ve developed a sensory memory where I associate certain smells with places I’ve visited or lived in. The smell of cut grass will propel me back to South Africa, to when Saturday was the day my father would mow the lawn, and the scent of Jasmine will remind me of the country I was born in, sunny Italy. Living in three continents through the course of my lifetime has left me with great memories. I wrote a short article once, published in a now out of print magazine, of the importance of preserving memories. It can be downloaded from my website https://josephinestrand.com/.
In summary, to enrich your life and feed your imagination you don’t need expensive hotels and flights. Day trips can be socially satisfying and enriching experiences as well. You just have to make the most of whatever opportunity comes your way. And if that’s still not an option, as we saw with the safety restrictions imposed during the pandemic, in this era of virtual reality you can armchair travel to your heart’s content.
When I say ‘travel’, I don’t mean flying to exotic vacation resorts. Traveling can be expensive, but as a child I was blessed to have parents who loved having fun the cheap and simple way – road trips, picnics in the countryside, visiting friends in a different region of the country and the occasional splurge on a beach vacation with affordable efficiency accommodations. Yes, our family wasn’t averse to sacrificing a few luxuries in the name of fun.
And when I didn’t travel, I would do so in my imagination, and still do. I become a couch surfer, or an armchair traveler, which basically means the same thing—just a more elegant way of slouching. While living abroad, when relocating to the USA wasn’t even in the books (I just had to throw that pun in there), I always had a fascination with the United States and everything American, and it became the setting for many of my stories. Of course, there’s no substitute for the real thing. To visit a place, you can sense its smell and feel, study its customs and history, the different styles of architecture. You meet new people, locals and visitors, and learn about their backgrounds. On a recent trip to the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area, I went on a self-guided tour of covered bridges, and it was such a lovely, peaceful and inspiring experience. I took a ton of photographs, feeling like the female version of Clint Eastwood in The Bridges of Madison County, although I see myself more in the role of Meryl Streep. But I digress…
I often find that in my writing I will include an element I have personally experienced, whether a recipe or a book I once read. I’ve developed a sensory memory where I associate certain smells with places I’ve visited or lived in. The smell of cut grass will propel me back to South Africa, to when Saturday was the day my father would mow the lawn, and the scent of Jasmine will remind me of the country I was born in, sunny Italy. Living in three continents through the course of my lifetime has left me with great memories. I wrote a short article once, published in a now out of print magazine, of the importance of preserving memories. It can be downloaded from my website https://josephinestrand.com/.
In summary, to enrich your life and feed your imagination you don’t need expensive hotels and flights. Day trips can be socially satisfying and enriching experiences as well. You just have to make the most of whatever opportunity comes your way. And if that’s still not an option, as we saw with the safety restrictions imposed during the pandemic, in this era of virtual reality you can armchair travel to your heart’s content.
June 16, 2021
How Misty Dreams Came to Be
Original post in https://hopeheartsheroes.wordpress.com/
People sometimes ask me what inspired me to write Misty Dreams. My response is always: my characters. Richard and Clare came to life long before the plot was even conceived. The story evolved around them as I wrote it. It was my first attempt at a full-sized novel, and I had no concept of how to plot a story. The writing process was one long exercise in perseverance, as well as a learning experience.
Through my teens I wrote short stories that invariably ended up in the waste basket, such was the level of my self-confidence. I began writing longer fiction in my late twenties when I was living in Italy, after my daughter was born. Whether motherhood sprouted an extra creative gene in me or made me more focused, I don’t know, but I started writing with more purpose, often well into the night hours when baby and father were asleep. In between caring for my daughter, housework and helping my husband in his business, I wrote a series of novellas based in a vacation resort in the Southeast of the United States. It was superficial, frivolous stuff, unfit for publication, with just my little Olivetti typewriter and zero editing skills. I wrote because I loved inventing stories.
I may have been on my twelfth book of the series when I realized I had the perfect set of characters for a standalone novel, Richard and Clare. Nobody told me Clare was more commonly spelled Claire in American English. Changing it, alas, was out of the question. I might as well be writing about a different person. Strange how, when you’ve spent so much time with your characters, they assume a life of their own, becoming almost a part of you. What laid the groundwork for Clare’s and Richard’s story was probably my deep-seated regret for not having been blessed with a sister. Lucky Clare has a sister, albeit not a very nice one (but enough with the spoilers).
Having the perfect characters and a seedling of a plot, I got to writing. I worked on it on and off for a number of years. By then I had a demanding full-time job, spent four hours a day commuting to and from work, and had little time for writing. Still, I persevered. I amassed draft upon draft, shaped and reshaped the plot with the same purpose with which a child remodels the same piece of Play-Doh over and over again until he gets it right. I just couldn’t let it go. What’s more, I enjoyed every moment of it. Nothing gave me more pleasure than editing and seeing my work improve. Something better-sounding or more appropriate would pop into my head and I’d be back at the keyboard. Luckily, computers and word-processing apps had been around for a while by that time. When I was finally somewhat satisfied with the results, I woke up to the realization that the publishing world had changed. The rise of digital content and the self-publishing boom had changed the landscape of the industry. E-books had opened a whole new door of opportunity for writers. Having my book published, was not a utopian dream anymore.
Misty Dreams was a long time coming but I enjoyed every moment of the ride and can’t wait to begin my next.
People sometimes ask me what inspired me to write Misty Dreams. My response is always: my characters. Richard and Clare came to life long before the plot was even conceived. The story evolved around them as I wrote it. It was my first attempt at a full-sized novel, and I had no concept of how to plot a story. The writing process was one long exercise in perseverance, as well as a learning experience.
Through my teens I wrote short stories that invariably ended up in the waste basket, such was the level of my self-confidence. I began writing longer fiction in my late twenties when I was living in Italy, after my daughter was born. Whether motherhood sprouted an extra creative gene in me or made me more focused, I don’t know, but I started writing with more purpose, often well into the night hours when baby and father were asleep. In between caring for my daughter, housework and helping my husband in his business, I wrote a series of novellas based in a vacation resort in the Southeast of the United States. It was superficial, frivolous stuff, unfit for publication, with just my little Olivetti typewriter and zero editing skills. I wrote because I loved inventing stories.
I may have been on my twelfth book of the series when I realized I had the perfect set of characters for a standalone novel, Richard and Clare. Nobody told me Clare was more commonly spelled Claire in American English. Changing it, alas, was out of the question. I might as well be writing about a different person. Strange how, when you’ve spent so much time with your characters, they assume a life of their own, becoming almost a part of you. What laid the groundwork for Clare’s and Richard’s story was probably my deep-seated regret for not having been blessed with a sister. Lucky Clare has a sister, albeit not a very nice one (but enough with the spoilers).
Having the perfect characters and a seedling of a plot, I got to writing. I worked on it on and off for a number of years. By then I had a demanding full-time job, spent four hours a day commuting to and from work, and had little time for writing. Still, I persevered. I amassed draft upon draft, shaped and reshaped the plot with the same purpose with which a child remodels the same piece of Play-Doh over and over again until he gets it right. I just couldn’t let it go. What’s more, I enjoyed every moment of it. Nothing gave me more pleasure than editing and seeing my work improve. Something better-sounding or more appropriate would pop into my head and I’d be back at the keyboard. Luckily, computers and word-processing apps had been around for a while by that time. When I was finally somewhat satisfied with the results, I woke up to the realization that the publishing world had changed. The rise of digital content and the self-publishing boom had changed the landscape of the industry. E-books had opened a whole new door of opportunity for writers. Having my book published, was not a utopian dream anymore.
Misty Dreams was a long time coming but I enjoyed every moment of the ride and can’t wait to begin my next.
May 15, 2021
Hi, a little about me . . .
Hi, my name is Josephine Strand and I recently published my debut novel Misty Dreams. My fascination with books began very early in life. When I was little my parents barely had money for schoolbooks, let alone storybooks. My town didn’t have a public library and bookstores were only for the rich (but that’s a whole other story to tell later). When I started attending elementary school and was introduced to the school library, a whole new and exciting world opened up to me. I devoured everything, from fairy tales to children’s classics, to picture books.
The first fiction I wrote was at age eight or nine, a fantasy short story on how fictional characters came to life in the school library when the clock struck midnight. As a teenager, I would invent stories in my head and test them out on my best friend. How grateful I am to her for humoring me all those years and feeding my hunger for creativity! One of the things my childhood friends remember about me is how I always said I would write a book one day. It took a while but I finally made them-and myself-proud!
The first fiction I wrote was at age eight or nine, a fantasy short story on how fictional characters came to life in the school library when the clock struck midnight. As a teenager, I would invent stories in my head and test them out on my best friend. How grateful I am to her for humoring me all those years and feeding my hunger for creativity! One of the things my childhood friends remember about me is how I always said I would write a book one day. It took a while but I finally made them-and myself-proud!
