Tanya Sousa's Blog, page 2

The Starling God has made a National Book Award Short List!

Woo-HOO!!! My novel made the short-list of the Green Earth Book Awards! Even if I don't win on April 22nd, getting on the short list is a huge honor. :-)


http://www.natgen.org/author/admin/

A Beautiful Review of The Starling God

I am thrilled to say that "The Starling God" has only received 5-star reviews! I can't believe it, but I'm honored. More people have posted reviews on the publisher's website than anywhere else, but there are a respectable amount on Amazon and then here of course - and the number of "others" that come into my in-box or I see out on the blogs of other authors… well, that's a whole other bunch of them. Thank you ALL for sharing what difference this book has made in your life and in your thinking. Thank you for sharing what you enjoyed about it.

Here is one review on a fellow author's blog. It is so beautifully written - it means a lot because I love this person's work too. Watch for his upcoming series of 7 books! He's working on the first, and I may get to have a sneak-peak before it goes to press. :-)

Here's the link (hope it works!) http://cwthomas-fantasy.blogspot.com/...

The Starling God Fan Photos and Playful Marketing

It started as a playful marketing tool - I used a free online site called faceinhole to place the cover of my novel, "The Starling God" in humorous and often fantastic places. I posted these on a regular basis on my Facebook page for a good laugh and to spread the word. Little did I know how the playfulness would spread!

One reader who'd waited a long time for the book's release sent me a photo of herself holding the book in her hands. Another sent me a photo of her own pet starling posing proudly with it. Then there was another and different image…and another…and another.

To encourage more submissions, I decided to have a drawing for a free signed book and a pack of playing cards with the novel's cover on the backs and my nature photography on the number faces. All a person had to do to have his/her name in the drawing was to submit a photo of some kind with the book in it. To my great pleasure, more images came in.

I love these creative celebrations from people who have read and enjoyed my story! In fact, I thought making a slide show of them with some light-hearted music would be a good way to share them with the world so others could appreciate them too. Here's the link to the video on YouTube (it's also on my author's page under my videos): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c80EF...

Marketing can be fun. Why not? Play with it. Invite your readers to play too. Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, remember!

My Fair Lady!

So for five days I really am a Fair Lady! What I mean by that is I'm selling books at a county fair in Vermont, manning the booth diligently through the first day of torrential non-stop rain, the next two days of chill that increased by 6:00 p.m. or so to the point my teeth chattered all the way to my car when I could finally go home after 9:00. We'll see what today and tomorrow (the last day) bring.

BUT…

I'm having a great time.

There are the amazing and interesting people to meet - old school friends and people who know me, it seems, but I don't remember. There are smiling carnies and the lovely zen-like gentlemen who serve up my freshwood-fired pita sandwich for lunch each day. There are children rushing up for hugs and new acquaintances forged. Smells, sights, sounds - a plethora of mental food for a writer.

There's also endless possibility in the air, and I'm a hopeless possibility addict. A person I love said to me one day, "All it takes is the right person to get your book in his or her hands and who knows what could happen!" YES, I thought - and think every day. I've met a number of people at this 5 day fair who could be just such an important one. Is it the high school boy who bought it? What if he loves it and shares the info with an enthusiastic group of tech-savy well-connected friends and friends of friends and friends of their friends? What if the man who bought the book yesterday - once a "big wig" for an area college and high school, loves it and gives it a push in those venues? I see the book being used in high school or college discussions. Anyone could be that person. There could be many more than one of them too.

The Fair Lady is optimistic!

Ask the Author

I've enabled the "Ask the Author" feature on my Goodreads author page. Have you read "The Starling God" and want to ask me something about a particular part of it? Curious about writing process? Have other questions? Ask away!

Thank you and the trip to Brewster, NY

When I checked into the motel in Brewster, NY, a kind woman greeted me at the counter. What was I there for, she wanted to know. I told her selling my books at Birds of Prey Day. It crossed my mind as I left the place to find dinner that evening that I might drop off the book for her to peek at. Why not? I did without too much thought other than there was a slim chance someone might see the novel sitting on the counter.

I ate dinner at a magical Mexican restaurant - I say magical because everything was beautiful. Everything was perfect. The sun was out, the temperature in the 70's, no wind, and I had the chance to sit outside surrounded by rock walls and terraced areas overlooking a splendiferous view of mountains, trees, and a lake. Later, I slept with that feeling of anticipation that is usually better than the having…

Once at the event the next day, a woman hurried up to my table seeming a bit breathless. "I'm not a stalker, but you're staying at ______, right?" I said I was and she nodded enthusiastically. "My husband works in the office. He saw your story and said, 'you have to buy that woman's book!' " I thought how nice it was that leaving the book there really did result in someone noticing…and buying.

That night when the rush of the day was over and I relaxed at last in the room, the phone rang. To my surprise, it was that evening's desk clerk. "Joyce (the original desk clerk I'd spoken with) loves your book and wants to buy it. She's left a check here with a note for you and would like you to sign it for her."

I did so when I checked out the next morning. The morning clerk had also heard all about "The Starling God". She shook my hand and beamed. Her little son, Henry, offered to show me the way to the coffee as if I was a queen. When I signed the book and read the note, I was filled with gratitude for Joyce's words: "I love-love-love your book! You have written a special story here…" The morning clerk said, "Oh, she loves it for sure! She's already up to chapter 11 or 12!"

Thank you to the people who read it and love it. Thank you to the people who simply give it a chance. Who would have known that just letting one person look at the book would lead to kind words, book sales, and magic? Thank you.

Great Starling God Review!

I handed my book to the journalist who agreed to do a review and I was afraid. What if she didn't understand what I was trying to say? What if she didn't like the anthropomorphized birds in the tale? What if she thought it stink, stank stunk?

When we turn our words over to reviewers, anything can happen. When I saw the review in the paper a few weeks later and read it, tears came to my eyes. Not only did she get it, she said wonderful things about it! Ah, sweet relief.

Here's the link to the newspaper review: http://bartonchronicle.com/book-revie...

The book is also the book discussion pick for April in the "Nature Literature" group. If anyone wants to read and discuss, join in!

The Author's Voice/From Behind the Printed Words

I worked with Desiree in my school counseling room once a week. We brought together paints and canvases and created, simultaneously sorting through the challenges of her twelve-year-old life. She discussed problems, and I sometimes helped her decide what to do by sharing my own past situations and offering different solutions. Sometimes she would stop speaking and hold the paintbrush still in her hand because something on her canvas didn’t look right. I pushed my own brush against the palette and showed her new techniques to make it work.

Sometimes Desiree read me her poems and asked for critique. She wants to be a writer someday, and maybe an artist, and maybe a teacher, and maybe a veterinarian, and maybe a hairdresser. “You don’t have to decide on one thing,” I told her, and pulled out copies of magazines colorful with my words and photographs. I point out my paintings on the wall and gesture around to the school counselor’s office. I show her by example there are no walls that can contain her, and she can blend the things she loves.

Authors have used words to share ideas for countless generations, but I think it takes a writer’s art to a higher level when s/he steps out from behind the words and is also an example. When we are gone, our written words will continue to speak for us if we are lucky. However, the impact we make, not just by what we write but by what we do, will influence generations even if our words have not become classics and are lost in mounds of dust.

Even if I don’t become famous or widely read, benefit has already begun. My students knew I write and what my stories are about. I’d shared some in draft form and shown them the finished product later. They were aware when a dear project was sent away and witnessed some of my successes and rejections.

Assertively seeking resources and taking the risk of rejection is my living example. Desiree’s eyes were wide when she realized how much work my writing takes. “What if you’re turned down,” she asked. “Won’t it kill you to have done all that for nothing?”

I explained it’s never “for nothing”. I told her about the mental exercise of writing, about the importance of reaching for dreams and the beauty of believing in something passionately enough to share it. Desiree seemed to work harder after that on her paintings and her poetry. She began to see. Her face shined like a light when she realized anything is possible.

Where do I want my writing career – the one I’ve been working on since I was in elementary school – to go? I want it to keep reaching. I want it to keep gaining momentum and I want – need – the ideas to inspire. I’ve published in many venues and genres; my most recent success selling the environmental novel, “The Starling God”, to Forestry Press of Tennessee. The publisher came out with a print version and an e-book is to follow soon.

I began to think about how differently some students react when they hear books read out loud. I’ve seen their minds and hearts set on fire by stories they never would have chosen to pick up and read with their eyes. This isn't only true for children - adults have different learning styles too. Some have learning differences and can't take information in well via print. Some people are visually impaired. Some people are busy and the only reading time they have is in audio form on the way to work or during a jog etc.

I've scheduled an appointment to create an audio version of "The Starling God". It's a book for adults, and I won't be able to read the story aloud to them in a school building. By having the audio book available, though, people will still be able to experience the story. It's a whole new way for me to step out from behind the printed words.The Starling God

Making Lemonade and a Comedy of Errors

Life has its share of challenges and disappointments, and they can either make you or break you. You may have lemons or you may make lemonade. You may stay inside grouching about the rain or you may choose to go dance in it.

Sure, those are hackneyed sayings, but they're used and used again for good reason. Turning something that seems like a frustration or unfortunate event into a benefit to you sets you apart from the pack - and you feel good about yourself afterwards.

I practiced what I'm preaching recently when the release of my novel, "The Starling God" was months behind schedule despite the publisher's best efforts. I knew people had preordered, and I'd been talking about the upcoming release date for a long time. I was frustrated and so were my potential readers.

To soothe my own nerves, I began a comic ad campaign on my Facebook page. I changed my Facebook cover image every day after spending a few evenings on faceinhole.com creating situations where my novel was being awaited with bated breath - by groups of humans, groups of penguins, a hungry goat - you name it. The title or cover image showed up in a variety of places that had my friends and fans giggling, commenting and wanting to know more while they (and I) had to wait.

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, right? Not a bad thing to remember.

If you'd like to giggle too, here's the link to my cover photos album!

https://www.facebook.com/tanya.sousa....

The Novel Journey

I want to prepare you to read "The Starling God" - to read about our world and to experience it from a non-human point of view.
When I composed that first sentence, I didn’t notice until I was finished writing that I said “our world”. Yes, we do think of this planet as our world. However, the truth is far different. We share the world with so many other creatures represented in a dizzying number of life forms. Please, then, allow me to start again:
I want to prepare you to read about the world and to experience our impact on it from another species’ point of view. The world in this work of fiction will seem familiar in some ways and foreign in others, and you may have to think differently as you read.
Some readers who are staunch naturalists or sciencephiles may dislike that birds, the creatures looking in on our human behaviors and lives, are anthropomorphized. They aren’t human, after all! They should be seen as different. I agree on one hand, but I would like to point out some of the amazing things we are discovering about our co-creatures every year, every month, every day. Dolphins have names. Elephants weep with grief and communicate in ways and tones we can’t even see or hear. Prairie dogs have a language of sorts that we were unaware of until the tones were carefully studied. They utter sounds that seem basically the same to our ears, but are really full of subtle differences. They identify not only “coyote”, for instance, but identify specific coyotes. They have one sound for a man, and another for a man with a gun and another for a man in a hat. This isn’t fantasy; this is science. So why can’t birds also share intentions and thoughts and even emotions through subtle sound variations and vibrations and body language? There are differences in all living things without a doubt, and we shouldn’t expect them to have the exact needs or reactions we have. However, there is also a growing body of evidence that there is a certain undercurrent of sameness.
I wrote this story already knowing each bird species in the book after spending years observing them. Once I had the idea for The Starling God, I spent another five years researching each kind and actually writing. While the birds are speaking and feeling much like humans do, it was important to me that I had as much factual behavior represented as possible, although I do take artistic liberties in some areas.
The process is similar to what I imagine Richard Adams must have gone through to write his classic, Watership Down. I marveled when I first read that book because I had rabbits, and although his rabbit characters were also anthropomorphized, they had distinct rabbit behaviors and body language I recognized clearly, and I never lost the sense of “rabbit” in his anthropomorphized tale.
Adams only had rabbits to introduce to his readership, however, and almost everyone has a clear idea of what a rabbit is, how it moves and what it eats. I was faced with creating an understandable community of birds that people who don’t observe birds or who live outside my own geographic area need to envision as clearly as those who already do know about them or live around them – yet there are so many species varying widely across this planet. “Robin” in England is not “Robin” in the state of Vermont, USA. Additionally, I had a reviewer from the southern United States read the manuscript, and he had no idea what kind of animal a “fisher” was since those mammals don’t live where he lives. Therefore, to bridge the experience and information gap, I’ve provided a glossary of characters and important terms.
Writing a novel is always a journey. When I took this one, I ended up with much more information than I bargained for, and in complete wonder. I hope that’s what you, the reader, enjoy as well.

See the book trailer on my main author page for more information!