“Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life.” Herman Melville: Moby Dick
All posts tagged one insular tahiti
Find your Tahiti
Posted by Thea Atkinson on March 25, 2012
http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/find-your-tahiti/
What about blurbs? Can you write one?
Please Click to buy One Insular Tahiti from Amazon
I write novels. You know that, right? i write nonfic articles for magazines, and I write essays, and short stories, and sometimes (as in my blogstreak last April) I write flash fiction.
But I’ve never been great at summaries. One would think if I could write in different forms I should be able to write a stoopid blub. But I can’t and all my book blurbs are just terrible because I can’t. I really think they are holding back some readers from testing out the books. The blubs just aren’t intriguing enough.
(Note: The Green Water blog has an awesome post on writing blurbs. )
So I recently hired the Blurb doctor to work me through my blurb for One Insular Tahiti. I sent her a synopsis so she could get a feel for the story and then answered a few questions. She sent me back a first draft and we worked it out together.
I feel pretty good about the experience and the result. I still think it’s not bang on, but it’s closer.
Here’s the before and after. You decide and if you’re inclined, vote in the poll or leave a comment. If you think you can add something better, please feel free to suggest it. I make no bones about my blurb writing expertise. I just need to get it right.
Which leads me to think that maybe I just might offer a blurb writing contest in the new year for one of my novels…not sure what the prize would be, but I’m thinking a $25 Amazon coupon could go a long way.
|
Before |
After |
| Luke’s death has come the way he always feared it would: in the claustrophobic, underground heat of a Cape Breton coal mine. He had suspected it would end this way, had embraced it even, so while his body is buried, his soul settles into a watery existence of endless waiting.Soon, something changes in his personal purgatory; all is not quiet the way it was when he first realized he was dead. Now a wind howls and storm seas bring waves of half remembered events from his past life that are so terrible he will do anything to avoid reliving them: images of war and abuse and of a favored brother spoiled by disease.
He needs to find a way out. This is when he notices Astrid, a newborn fighting for her life. She isn’t supposed to survive her birth, but if he can just will her to be his mother, he can save her and escape the anguish of this terrible supposed insular Tahiti. Too late, Luke realizes that the connection that binds him to Astrid is the same inevitable battle of memories he left his purgatory to forget. Now he must endure the replay of horrific images that will ultimately change his soul and Astrid’s forever. One Insular Tahiti is a nonlinear tale of one’s souls search for redemption and the lengths the human spirit will go to find peace. |
Luke MacIsaac is dead, and not restfully dead. His death has come the way he always feared it would: in the claustrophobic, underground heat of a Cape Breton coal mine. He had suspected it would end this way, had embraced it even, so while his body is buried, his soul settles into a watery existence of endless waiting.But in short order the placid waters of his afterlife turn to rolling seas of time and memory as his violent past plays out again for him. Images of war, childhood abuse, and the tortured life of a brother he loved and failed threaten to inundate him.
More than anything, he wants to escape. In his confusion and pain, he senses a kindred spirit in Astrid, a newborn struggling to stay alive. Luke helps her in hopes she may one day be the one who brings him out of his purgatory and into a new incarnation. He discovers too late that Astrid’s soul is linked to his hellish past life. Now he must experience all the anguish they went through together, and watch helplessly as Astrid goes through sorrows of her own, before the two of them can finally meet in this world and find peace together. |
Related articles
- AW Blog Chain November – The Blurb (clairegillian.com)
- The secret life of blurbs (scottberkun.com)
- Flash Fiction Friday! (annikay.wordpress.com)
Posted by Thea Atkinson on December 17, 2011
http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/what-about-blurbs-can-you-write-one/
Search for your soul among shards of glass
blue beachglass is not as common as brown or green
The end of summer. It had to come, we all knew it would. It’s as inevitable as the coming of summer–its going–and truth betold, I love fall best anyway. But it’s always bitter sweet, this end of the season. I feel older each time it wanes. I felt especially old this last weekend with a challenge ahead of me that I did not ask for and do not want. This challenge has taken the wind out of my usually amply puffed sails, and so thanks to my brother and sister in law, I spent my time in respite with my husband this last weekend, beachcombing for beachglass.
It’s a strangely addicting activity that I succumb to each time I’m ferried to my husband’s family fishing shanty, a twenty minute sail out into the Atlantic. Oh, they don’t fish from there anymore, not like when I first started dating him and he stayed in his little island home for weeks in the winter and spring during the lobster season. No. Not many fishermen really stay in their island shanties now for longer than 3 weeks in the first of the season, but they all go there in the summer for the weekends. It’s become a place of leisure not so much of bone weary work–unless you want it, and some do. They like to work when they are there. Mostly, the shanties have become cottages where its inhabitants party, drink, relax, work on gear, and in some cases have potlucks and bring their newborns to see from whence their grandfathers have come.
So as I pick about the rocky beach with so little sand you couldn’t truly call it a beach, I scout for telltale signs of frosted colour among the pebbles and can’t help but think I’ll find my spirit in the crags too, broken maybe, frosted with anxiety, but still a thing of beauty if the pieces can be found and salvaged.
I let the search and the intoxicating MEDITATION of it fill me. I have no reason to pick the beach, I have enough glass at home. There’s pieces in the shanty to fill at least 8 old coffee jars. No. It’s not the acquisition that I seek. It’s the act.
It’s not enough spy the glass, you see, one has to LIFT it from the beach for it to truly be yours. You can’t just let someone else pick it for you and pass it to you. It must come to your hand and nestle in your palm, be turned over and admired. Brown, green, white, sometimes lavendar and blue. Even once a shard of orange.
I scan, step, bend, reach, and grasp over and over as this particular island has a lot of beachglass to reward a committed eye. As I step, scan, reach, step, I sense something shift within. I think about another beach: one of my own imagining and put down into words for another broken person. This person exists only in my mind: well, there and in the novel I put him into.
Luke MacIsaac has my maiden name because he lives in the Maritime provinces. I wanted him to have some of my blood and heritage. Not because he’s a great protagonist: he’s miserable, actually. He’s mean and spiteful.
And he’s broken into as many pieces as I can find pieces of seaglass on this little Tusket island.
I think about him and why I felt he had to lose himself and find himself again on a beach in order for his arc to be right, and I think that maybe it’s because of the intoxicating nothingness of the sound of surf. The feeling that a beach is a sort of soul’s plane for any Maritimer. We need the sand beneath our toes to feel grounded. We need the smell of seaweed in our lungs to be able to breathe.
Luke was broken in One Insular Tahiti, but he came out whole, I remember. I tell myself that as I scan, step, reach, pick another piece of glass: turquoise, this time–a rare find.
And he found his spirit too. In pieces at first, but fully repaired when all the hard work was done. I’m certainly not in as bad a shape spiritually as Luke, but he serves to teach me a lesson.
Luke, a man who existed only in my mind for a while until he forayed into e-ink has reminded me that sometimes things can be more beautiful after they’ve been broken.
He, and a few pieces of frosted, colourful beachglass.
-30-
Please Click to buy One Insular Tahiti for 2.99
If you liked this post, please do share. If you tweet it with the hashtag #theagimmesome I will enter you into a weekly random draw to win an ebook.
If you want to read about Luke and his search for redemption, please click the link to Amazon or BN or Kobo to sample–or buy–a copy. It’s only 2.99 and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Posted by Thea Atkinson on September 5, 2011
http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/search-for-your-soul-among-shards-of-glass-2/
Talking about birds on a wire: a guest post by @jarrettrush
Prelude Ramble by thea
I get asked it all the time; you do too, I imagine, if you’re a writer: “Where do you get your ideas?”
I dread that one almost as much as I dread the question about what my book is about. I still haven’t nailed that one yet. The truth for me is that I really don’t know.In a post on Jason McInytre’s blog, I told him that my approach to writing is one of discovery and that it’s always a pleasant surprise to find something I write holds up to the research. He seemed to ‘get it’, which leads me to believe that stories and ideas are out there in the ether somewhere, waiting to be pulled down and brought to life.
If you're lucky OIT is still on sale at Amazon for 99c
For instance, in One Insular Tahiti, I wanted to freefall write from a famous first line of a novel. I picked THE most famous first line I could think of: Moby Dick’s “Call me Ishmael.” What ensued was a full novel about reincarnation and the idea that who we were can shape who we are.
Free Stuff:
Later, Jarrett Rush will guide you through a writing exercise, but first I’d like to mention
comment to enter the montly draw
that I’d like you to come back and tell us how it went. this month the gift for a lucky random commenter is Mel Comley’s Impeding
Justice. Simply comment on Writer Wednesdays and get entered into the monthly draw.
Need More Exercise?
If you don’t like this exercise or you still feel the need for some inspiration, The Writing Network (twitter ID @theladywrites) has a different one you can try. It’s just about getting creative and feeling inspired. Doesn’t matter to me whose exercise you do, just exercise.
And now without further Ado:
To get your engines revving, Jarrett Rush takes over the blog post
Buy Me from Smashwords
by Jarrett Rush.
I think most writers are interested in the creative process of others. I know I am. I like to read how someone’s latest masterpiece came about. How did it go from that nugget of an idea to a finished product? It’s the nugget that interests me the most. Where does it come from? How do we get ideas? Seriously, if you know, please leave a comment and tell me.
For me, my book, Chasing Filthy Lucre, is ultimately the result of lunch. Or really the walk back to my desk at my day job after lunch. My mom liked the movie “Bird on a Wire” when I was younger. For a reason I can’t explain, the title popped into my head while I was walking down the hall heading back to my office. I let my mind spin the rest of the walk. I have to climb three flights of stairs and down a long hallway, so there was a little time. When I sat back down at my computer I banged out the following bit of dialogue. (It was OK. I was still on my lunch break. )
“How long have you been on the wire?”
She was blonde, tall, and entirely fake. I could practically hear the servos fire when she batted her eyes.
She slid her long legs a bit closer and swirled her drink in her glass.
I grunted an answer and she asked me to repeat it.
“For as long as I can remember,” I said again and kept staring at our reflection in the mirror behind the bar.
“Oh, a lifer.”
“Practically.”
“Well, I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but you are very mature for someone who has been riding for that long.”
A flub in her language database programming. “I don’t think you mean mature. I think you mean old. And, yes, I am.”
A soft chuckle. “I suppose I do. You’re old for a lifer.”
That was all I had. Interesting, or at least I thought so. I wasn’t sure where it was going or even what it was all about, but I liked it. I emailed it to myself and added to it that night once I got home. It’s a story I haven’t done anything with and it sits half-finished on my hard drive. It wasn’t a fruitless effort, though. That story did give me the concept of data addiction and a network that people can plug their bodies directly into. It’s a concept I fleshed out with a writing prompt from my writers group. That story became one that I loaded to Smashwords. (Get your free copy here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/31485)
And those two bits of creativity are what turned into Chasing Filthy Lucre and the New Eden Series of novellas I’m working on. The novellas didn’t come directly from those ideas, but the concepts that my mind spun out of the movie title “Bird on a Wire.” I find that fascinating. Now if someone could just tell me how that title got there.
It’s Wednesday. Thea likes to give writing prompts on Wednesday and all this talk about ideas has me curious. What would you all do with the title “Bird on a Wire?” Post your creation in the comments. Or put it on your blog and leave a link in the comments. I’ll come back next Monday and read what you wrote. My two favorites will get a free copy of Chasing Filthy Lucre.
Jarrett Rush lives in the Dallas area with his wife, Gina, and their chocolate Lab, Molly. His short fiction has also appeared at A Twist of Noir. His novella, Chasing Filthy Lucre, is available at Amazon ( http://tinyurl.com/43zg5rd ), Barnes and Noble ( http://tinyurl.com/3wqzm7a ), and other ebook retailers. He blogs at Jarrett Writes (http://jarrettwrites.blgospot.com).
BTW: by Thea
God in the Machine is free. totally free
my free short story God in the Machine available at feedbooks and Smashwords.
Posted by Thea Atkinson on July 27, 2011
http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/talking-about-birds-on-a-wire-a-guest-post-by-jarretrush-2/
Writer Wednesday exercise: Brainstorming ideas by Ava Jae
Prelude Ramble by thea
I get asked it all the time; you do too, I imagine, if you’re a writer: “Where do you get your ideas?”
I dread that one almost as much as I dread the question about what my book is about. I still haven’t nailed that one yet. The truth for me is that I really don’t know.In a post on Jason McInytre’s blog, I told him that my approach to writing is one of discovery and that it’s always a pleasant surprise to find something I write holds up to the research. He seemed to ‘get it’, which leads me to believe that stories and ideas are out there in the ether somewhere, waiting to be pulled down and brought to life.
Purchase Thalo Blue on Amazon
For instance, in One Insular Tahiti, I write about an event in WWII where a whole regiment of Nova Scotia soldiers is surrounded and massacred by the German army–no big surprise there, I’m sure, as I bet it happened to a lot of regiments. But the kicker for me was that it HAD to be in an apple orchard–or at least apples had to be there somewhere.
First off, I had no idea if an entire group of Nova Scotians had been killed this way, but it was crucial to my plot so I needed to know it would match up loosely with history. If not, I’d have to change a bit of things. Imagine my surprise and delight when I find a link that discussed a North Nova regiment–and get this–an apple orchard. Some of the details I had added were sitting right there on the screen in front of me.
I found this link, at least. I think the others have disappeared into the internet never to be retrieved, but at least you can see the synchronicity.
I’m sure you’re thinking, Brah. You could easily just be saying this and finding stuff to match what you say. Sure. Sure, that could happen, but it didn’t. It always amazes me that the universe can offer us such aid when we need it. And for me, it’s all from the discovery of writing.
So the writing exercise is to write and let yourself discover something: Discover a character,
a concept, a plot, a new world. Just write for 10 minutes and see what comes.
comment to enter the montly draw
Remember to come back and tell us how it went. this month the gift for a lucky random commenter is Mel Comley’s Impeding
Justice. Simply comment on Writer Wednesdays and get entered into the monthly draw.
And if you don’t like this exercise, The Writing Network (twitter ID @theladywrites) has a different
one you can try. It’s just about getting creative and feeling inspired. Doesn’t matter to me whose exercise you do, just exercise.
To get your engines revving, I offer this piece on brainstorming from Ava Jae. I think you’ll really enjoy it.
Brainstorming
by Ava Jae
As I’m currently in the brainstorming-editing-brainstorming-rewriting-brainstorming-WAITING FOREVER TO EDIT MY RECENTLY FINISHED WIP!-stage, I thought it appropriate to talk about ferrets and how ridiculously adorable they are.
Aha! Weren’t expecting that, were you? Just kidding. Today I’ll introduce you to my two favorite brainstorming techniques; one of which I’ve used for ages and another I just recently fell in love with.
TECHNIQUE #1: THE WHAT-IF GAME
I’m sure many of you have tried this, but if you haven’t, for the love of all things bookish, TRY IT!
The What-If game is very simple. I’ll describe it in steps, because steps are fun.
- STEP ONE—THE MAGICAL QUESTION: sit down with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil (or pen or marker or crayon or keyboard or what-have-you) and at the top you write the miraculous words “What if…?”
- STEP TWO—DOT: Now make a bullet point (or star or heart or fish because you can).
- STEP THREE—BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT, THINK: Close your eyes, take a deep breath and let the question hang. What if…what if what if…what if ALIENS INVADED THE EARTH AND THEIR ONLY WEAKNESS WAS…WAS…FERRETS! Ok, that one might be a tad bit ridiculous, but write it down anyway. There’s no such thing as anything that’s too out there for the What-If game.
In all seriousness, this really works. Start with an idea, a basic idea (What if I wrote about pirates?) and see how far you can push it. What if their Captain was a crazy, egotistical half-wit only someone as insanely talented as Johnny Depp could play convincingly? What if he didn’t have a ship? A crew? What if the world was flat? What if they sailed over the edge?
This can go on forever people, FOREVER! And it’ll help you uncover some gems you may not have thought of otherwise. Trust me.
TECHNIQUE #2: THE IDEA PAGE
As I mentioned earlier, I discovered this technique very recently, but it’s quickly becoming a favorite.
The word page is simple and best done on a sheet of notebook paper or on a program that lets you write literally all over the page, like OneNote. I still think pencil and paper will work best, though. It helps with the whole freeing, creativity thing which is what you’re going for here.
So! I was inspired by the Wordle word clouds online (http://www.wordle.net/ ) and thought it’d be fun to make one by hand, except instead of writing words that you use often, you write words that relate to whatever you’re trying to write. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Step by step, here we go!
STEP ONE—PAPER: Get your notebook paper out and turn it SIDEWAYS. I don’t know why this helps so much but something about writing over the lines instead of conforming to the shape of the page really gets your right brain going.
STEP TWO—THE FIRST WORD: Write a word somewhere on the page. It can be as big or small as you like, except it’s probably best that you don’t take up the whole page (unless you want to cram the rest of your words in tiny little letters around it. Actually that might be fun. Maybe I’ll try that.). Anyway! If all you know at this stage is that you’re writing a dystopian novel, then go ahead and make your first word dystopian. Maybe you want to make your antagonist sympathetic. Write that. Maybe you only have a name. Go ahead and slap that baby down.
Great. Now you have the first word.
STEP THREE—GO CRAZY: This is pretty self-explanatory. Go crazy. Write all over the page. Write in funny angles if you want, different sizes, above and below the red line, around the holes in the page, it doesn’t matter, write wherever you’d like. The goal is to fill up the page with ideas, words, thoughts, names, even full sentences that pertain to your new WIP idea. If you’ve got some symbol in your head, go ahead and draw it. There are no rules here. Use funny colors, use pens and pencils. Doodle if you’d like. Just think about your idea and get it down.
Best part is you can use either one of these at any stage of the game. Don’t have a novel? Start with this. Stuck in the middle of a scene and don’t know how to end it? Whip out the paper and get your brain storming.
I challenge you guys to try these at least once. Who knows? You might just find you like these methods too.
These are obviously only two of many different brainstorming techniques. What do you do to get your ideas on paper?
-30-
Bio: Ava Jae writes books and blog posts and spends unhealthy amounts of time on Twitter. When not reading, editing a WIP or dreaming up a new novel, you can probably find her nerding out on Photoshop or squealing over the newest X-Men movie.
You can follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Ava_Jae
she blogs at: http://avajae.blogspot.com/
BTW: by Thea
God in the Machine is free. totally free
I use a brainstorm technique when my writing stalls, but I use it in concert with freefall. Basically, I free word associate until I hit a word that ‘sticks’ then I freefall from that word. I use it more for short fiction like my free short story God in the Machine available at feedbooks and Smashwords.
Posted by Thea Atkinson on July 20, 2011
http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/writer-wednesday-exercise-brainstorming-ideas-by-ava_jae-jasoncmcintyre/
OIT mentioned on JA Konrath’s blog
Ok. so I bought a book. That’s the truth of it, I didn’t really deserve to on his page, but I am. He was kind enough to post a link to everyone’s book who helped in his Draculas’ media frenzy. And whoa. what a frenzy! I think it’s an unsurmountable task for a Kindle author to get in top 1000, but Dracula’s made it to about #57 topsellers. No mean feat.
Check out his blog on my blogroll: A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing. He’s a good blog read
Posted by Thea Atkinson on November 4, 2010
http://theaatkinson.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/oit-mentioned-on-ja-konraths-blog/
Mouse over to see who this Thea chick is
All Thea's novels are available on Kindle, Nook, Sony, and Kobo
Signup to GonzoInk news
I’ve been Honored!
Bloggers.com
Cheap Kindle Reads
