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Guest Post…An 18-Year Quest

The fire that ignited the fuel of my 18 year quest…

A recent reviewer for The Bridge of Deaths wrote, “Would you spend 18 years researching anything?”  I smiled and my first thought was, these are the words of someone young. They were indeed the words of a woman in her early 20s. Time is a matter of perspective and at 52 18 years does not seem like a very long time to work on fulfilling a dream or reaching for something as important as the image and love of a grandparent.

In many of my earliest memories as a little girl are thoughts and desires to sit on a grandfather’s lap and to get to know a person that inexplicably I loved and missed. He died 20 years before I was born, and not all the stories about him painted the image of a perfect wonderful man, but I felt an amazing affinity to my mom’s dad.

Do you know the scene in the movie The Parent Trap when the twin who has never met her grandfather gives him a big bear hug and tells him she is creating a memory with the smell of pipe tobacco and peppermint? Well it was that kind of fire that ignited the fuel of my 18 year quest, a fire of longing and loving for a grandfather.

That type of fire I refer to is motivated by two very strong forces all of us possess; love and curiosity.  These two strong elements combined with determination are bound to get anyone to the finish line. There were understandably some big hurdles and roadblocks and I am not shy to admit that amongst them one of the biggest was my absolutely limited knowledge in HISTORY and especially history of the era I had to work with.

This particular hurdle had a solution that can be useful to many with problems for variety of career goals. The solution was simply this, a willingness to learn, work hard and well yes, one could call it study. In my case it was the self-imposed story of historical data. Some of you may have goals where there might be a class you can take or a workshop, it can be training physically or making lifestyle changes.  I can tell you this from my personal experience, if something is important enough to you give yourself the gift of setting the goal and reaching it.

May all the Bridges you cross lead to happiness and great success!

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About today’s guest: M.C.V. Egan is fluent in four languages, Spanish, English, French and Swedish. She lives in Delray Beach, Florida with her husband and teenage son. Author of The Bridge of Deaths, you can find out more about her work on the links below:

http://www.thebridgeofdeaths.com

twitter: M_C_V_EGAN

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Guest Post…Why is YA Fiction so Popular?

Today’s guest post is from author Suzan Battah, pondering the popularity of YA fiction today.

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Young Adult Fiction has come a long way since I was a teenager. The quality of the stories has jumped a thousand percent. The length in young adult novels has expanded and exceeded what it used to be.

I remember growing up with Young Adult Fiction, quickly growing bored with the novella sized books and repetitious storylines. Between the age of 12 and 14 I was devouring books and nothing was interesting me anymore. So I ended up going straight to the Adult Fiction section in the Library, even though I got a frown from the elderly Librarian.

Fast forward to present day and wow! Young Adult Fiction is hotter than ever. And I’m going to tell you why. It’s become more edgy, readable and it pushes boundaries that it never used to do. Young Adults don’t need to be coddled. They can read a full length novel and enjoy it without losing interest. They can delve into complicated plots and multi-dimensional characters.

Not only is it more appealing to Young Adults but a new generation of older ‘Young Adult Fiction’ fans are hopping on the tracks. I’m one of them. I love coming of age stories that are complicated, adventurous and so real in that I can identify with the characters. Young Adults face more challenges with growing technology and a changing world and by bringing some type of essence of reality into YA Fiction is a big reason why it’s so popular.  I’m including all subgenres of YA Fiction in this statement because even in Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Dystopian and Historical YA Fiction there is always a special connection between the storyline’s reality in which a reader is absorbed in.

Twilight is popular, very popular not just because of Robert Patterson being the super hunk that he is playing Edward but because so many teenage girls have fallen in love with the idea of a chivalrous boyfriend willing to do anything to protect you. This is what the story’s underlying message is,  despite his most deepest urge to taste Bella’s blood, Edward loves her enough that he won’t risk hurting her. Also, interestingly if you do take the Twilight series apart without googly, lovey dovey eyes there are plenty of flaws but it’s believable and written well enough to have collected a fantastic following of not just Young Adults but Older fans as well – including me.

Moving on to another example, Richelle Mead’s popular Vampire Academy series, after reading Twilight, I really didn’t want to read another ‘vampire’ book but I was somehow drawn to this story and after reading the series completely out of sync, I am now a huge fan of Richelle Mead. Her plots are complicated and fascinating. The characters are real, intense and emotional and what a heroine in Rose Hathaway. She fights for what she believes in with such attitude and does it well. The relationship between her and Dimitri is riddled with issues. He is her mentor after all. But this whole story is done really well. It tests the boundaries and goes beyond limitations.

And JK Rowling, yes I will include her in this conversation because the Harry Potter series though it did begin as Middle Grade novels, the series grew and developed and completed as Young Adult Fiction. She did a fantastic job in creating Harry Potter in such a way that not just Children and Young Adults could enjoy but the whole world became awed by him. Personally, I was pushed into the reading HP by a colleague at work, who absolutely loved the books. I bought all seven in one hit and read them back to back. And although I didn’t love this series,  I believe it is one of the best written, most creative series of all time. In my opinion she wasted the last book and should have put the ending of the seventh book into the sixth and be done with it.

Young Adult Fiction is so popular because it relates to all people on so many different levels. Young Adults have access to many new digital formats, inexpensive Ebooks are available and social networking is expanding to a new level where teenagers can communicate and discuss their favourite books, movies etc to a worldwide audience on the web. Word of mouth spreads quickly and can go viral on the internet. Amanda Hocking did it with her YA novels by writing stories that entertained readers and though not the best written novels still managed to build a connection. She did a great job all on her own. And all it took was for her fans and readers to start talking about it.

The Young Adult Fiction market is saturated but the success of YA comes from being able to connect with readers – a great story, complex characters with substance and you’ll have fans for life.

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About the Author

Suzan Battah is a proud Australian born author who has loved to write since her teenage years. In 2011 she published her first novel a contemporary multicultural romance – Mad About the Boy. In her spare time she weaves magical tales to entertain. Suzan writes YA Fiction -Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance, Regency Romance and Contemporary Romance. Other fun things you can find her doing is training at the gym and Latin/Ballroom dancing. Suzan is afraid of heights, loves most things that are sweet, has no clue about fashion and one day hopes to speak Spanish fluently and travel the world.
Want to know more? Check out the links!

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Guest Post…Is it Really Inspiration? by Stephen Graff

I’ve read a few passages about what has inspired some of the great novels.  Three famous horror novelists share a common thread: that their books were inspired by disturbing dreams.

Two years ago, I started writing a dystopian suspense novel called RIVER DAWN after a series of strange, recurring dreams set in an abandoned shore town.  In this town, the hotels are all empty, but reservation clerks are on duty waiting for vacationers that never show up.  I am there, with suitcase in hand.  Sometimes I am there with my wife and daughter, sometimes alone.  But we manage to secure a room for the night, and all night long, as we try to sleep, the ocean is pounding the shore with relentless fury. There is some comfort in being near the sea, but also a sense of impending doom.

For the book, I imagined a family on a journey in a future, flooded world where darkness reigns and the sea is always a force to be reckoned with.

But was it really inspiration in the traditional sense? According to one account, Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN was inspired by a strange, eerie dream involving corpses.  Nightmares also inspired Steven King with his novel MISERY and Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic horror novel DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. But it’s difficult to think of these famous authors having to find time to write in the midst of mundane schedules. Like most of the writers who venture forth into the universe of self-publishing, I struggle to find the time to write, and inspiration has to reveal itself rather quickly because I have to go run some errands, finish my tax return, take my daughter to school, walk the dog, mow the lawn, or keep a dentist’s appointment.

Perhaps we over-romanticize the writers we admire.  Robert Louis Stevenson spent much of his younger life in poor health, in bed and unable to participate in the normal pursuits.  Much of his early inspiration rose out of boredom.

Today, there are many thousands of part-time novelists; writers juggling jobs, family, and schedules.  What we end up with is the result of fleeting dreams that have to be captured and revealed quickly, between the challenges of everyday life.  I’d call it inspiration on the fly.

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Stephen Graff is the author of the dystopian novel River Dawn, available now at Amazon.

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Stephen has been a teacher non-stop for 27 years, starting out in Philadelphia at a number of proprietary schools.  For the past 9 years, he’s worked as an elementary school teacher full-time, a musician/performer part-time, a free-lance writer and fledgling beekeeper in his spare time.  He lives in Woodbury, NJ with his wife and daughter. He is the author of the dystopian novel RIVER DAWN.

Want to know more? http://www.sgraffwriter.com