Blog Tour: Loki's Game Guest Post
So today, we are officially back with some great posts for you. Not only are we going to be talking about Fan Fictions here sometimes on The Twigasm but we are going to be showcasing some amazing and talented Published Authors. Today we have author Siobhan Kinkade with us to share a great guest post about
The Art of Storytelling. So we hope you enjoy this post today. Also at the bottom of this post is a great giveaway as well for you to enter!!!
Enjoy!!!
Guest Post
The Art of Storytelling
My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Neal,
gave my class a writing assignment.
"Choose your favorite fairy
tale," she said, "and tell me what happens after your 'Happily Ever
After'." I choose Beauty and the Beast, because I'm a hopeless romantic
and I believe in the underdog being given a chance. I was so excited
about this assignment that I started crying. I ran up to Mrs. Neal's desk
and asked her if I could rewrite the ending and then tell what happened
next. She said yes, and I think she was a little surprised by my fervor.
We started writing it in
class. It was a project, so we were given a week to finish it.
I spent every waking moment furiously
scribbling my story. Then on the following Monday morning, we found out
that we would each be given a chance to read our new endings. Most of my
classmates wrote two paragraphs...or maybe a whole page if they felt really
inspired.
I wrote sixty. Sixty pages -
as in sixty loose-leaf sheets of wide-ruled paper, front and back, in my
scribbly little fifth-grader handwriting. When it was my turn, I gathered
my papers together and, beaming, walked proudly up to the front of the class,
put my papers down on our little podium, and started to read.
It took me two days to read my
story, and when it was over, everybody clapped for me. Everybody wanted
to know how I did it. They all wanted me to write another one. And I knew
in that very moment what I wanted to do with my life.
I wanted to be a writer.
I wasn't really one of her favorite
students - I was overweight and gawkish, and for the majority of my fifth-grade
year, on crutches with a broken knee. But even though she and I never
really saw eye to eye, Mrs. Neal's English class had the most profound effect
on me. She unknowingly gave me permission to express myself through
words, to use them as tools to craft worlds, to let my imagination off of its
chain and run free.
I tell this story for a reason -
Storytelling is an art. It is
a passion, a very reason for being. It requires a certain command over
language, to bend and twist the words into the shapes required to build the
story. It requires thought and foresight, and it takes patience, love,
and effort.
I may not be the best storyteller
ever to walk this planet, but I know my craft well enough to know that I am
certainly capable of keeping an audience's attention, at least for a moment or
two. Of the sixteen children in my fifth-grade class, I am the only one
that has attempted to make a living with words.
Take this story, for example. The
fifteen others in that room that day would have told my story in the simplest
way possible -- "In fifth grade, I had to write a fairy tale ending, and I
got a B", or something of that nature. Many of them probably don't
even remember that assignment, but I do. It was a life-changing moment
for me.
Later that year, I had two pieces of
poetry published in one of those silly "Who's Who" anthologies, and
while it was sort of vanity press for gloating parents, it reinforced the idea
that I could be a great storyteller someday. I still remember one of
those poems word for word, and I wrote it two decades ago.
I constantly hear people talking
about new or relatively unknown authors - they aren't any good...they have no
language control... they don't use grammar properly... and I, too, find myself
falling into that judgment trap.
I'm trying to do better, I promise.
I'm trying to do better because I
know now that my style won’t appeal to everyone. In time, other people
will say the same things about me. People disagree with my word choice or
my phrasing, or even my story content. I am prepared for that, and while it
stings, I accept that it is part of the process of becoming a better
storyteller.
I take that criticism, and I will
learn from it. I use it to make myself better.
No storyteller is a great
storyteller from the start. We all have to learn, grow, and change.
We all have to take our hard knocks right alongside our praise. And no
matter what we do, we have to keep doing it, because the worst possible thing
for someone with an imagination as wild as mine can do, is keep it all bottled
up.
Like I've said quite a few times
already - Storytelling is an art. And like any art, it is very much
subjective. Just because I don't like something doesn't mean someone else
won't. And just because they do like it doesn't mean I will too.
Bottom line – I’m a storyteller, and
a pretty good one if I do say so myself.
TEN THINGS I LOVE ABOUT AUTHORSHIP
10. I can set my own hours.
9. Being an author means I can work
in my pajamas.
8. Royalties. For being myself.
7. Stress relief.
6. I went from being the “weird
girl” to “that awesome author.”
5. My kids think I’m a superhero.
4. I can use my shameless book
addiction for tax breaks.
3. People don’t look at me funny for
being creative.
2. I’m finally interesting!
1. The sense of accomplishment. I
can say I did something with my life.
Book Summary:
.jpg)
Unemployed museum curator Lily Redway responds to an advertisement in the newspaper, thinking she is applying for a job. On the other side of that small, black-and-white box waits two things: a fantasy world come to life and a man named Rowan Keir. Rowan is a man with many secrets. He is a shape-shifter, a descendent of old world mythology, and the guardian of a rare and valuable Nordic artifact. He is also being hunted by the god Loki and has spent the last six hundred years outsmarting and outrunning him. With the fury of Asgard on Rowan’s trail, Lily finds herself caught up in a real-life fantasy story, a love triangle, and an ages-old war that pitches her into a different world and one very hard truth: All is fair in love and war.
Author Bio
At a very early age, Siobhan developed a love of reading. By first grade she was on a fifth grade level, and by the time she was a teenager she spent every penny she earned on new books. Oddly enough she gravitated toward science fiction, fantasy and horror while avoiding the romance genre at all costs. It wasn’t until her mother introduced her to Nora Roberts that she realized romance could be fun. Not much has changed since then. She is still a voracious reader and recovering grammar junkie. Left to her own devices, she plots interesting ways to seduce, frighten, and destroy. While she finds herself drawn to the dark and eerie, she is also very much a free spirit and hopeless romantic. With multiple stories in publication and several more on the way she spends her time writing happy-ever-afters for the underdogs. Siobhan writes both contemporary and dark paranormal romance (and a little bit of fantasy and horror under another name, omitted to protect the guilty), much of it of a highly erotic nature. Having never really enjoyed reading romance, she finds writing it to be a cathartic act. By manipulating the characters, she can make the happy endings much more satisfying for herself, and hopefully for her readers as well.
Author Links:
Blog:
http://siobhankinkade.wordpress.com
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSiobhanKinkade
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/#!/siobhankinkade
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/siobhankinkade
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSiobhanKinkade
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/#!/siobhankinkade
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/siobhankinkade
Giveaway!!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment