In all the busy, mind and body-consuming preparation for my upcoming total knee replacement, I haven’t made time to blog or done much of anything other than visit doctors, add unaccustomed, blood-building foods to my diet (far more beef than I’d ever eat by choice) and try to make certain the house is ready for someone who won’t walk well for a week or so.

 

It was refreshing, therefore, when my friend Nancy Petralia asked me join this blog tour. I’m a reluctant waver of my personal flag, so while this blog is about writing, I haven’t used many keystrokes on discussing my own. One purpose of the tour is to tell this blog’s readers about its writer. Another is to introduce a writer whose work I find exciting and whose blogs are worth visiting.

 

We blog tourists all answer FOUR questions which give us an opportunity to talk about our own work. Then I’ll also introduce Margaret Hawke whose wonderful book, Bellehaven, is one of my favorites.  

  

1) What am I working on?

 

I’ve completed—though I’m still tinkering with it—a young adult novel in the mixed genres of science fiction and romance. In Goodlands, a teenage girl finally gets a chance to meet the aliens who’ve settled on her planet when they send a delegation to the fortress where she lives. She’s heard they look human. Not only is that true, but one of them is a very cute boy. She decides to pay them a visit with surprising results for both Matty and the dreamboat alien boy, Brendan.

 

My second novel, Ned the Mage Knight, was written with middle-graders in mind. Ten-year-old Ned, the fourth and youngest son of Lord De Courtney, lives in Stoneheart Castle in a magical, medieval England. He dreams of becoming a knight like his older brother, but learns Father has other plans. Ned will be apprenticed to the local mage, an untried young man with magical burdens of his own. I’m currently reviewing Ned the Mage Knight with the goal of shortening the book (now 70,000 words) without losing its unique flavor.

 

When not working on my novels or trying to interest a literary agent in representing them, I write short stories. These are mostly science fiction or fantasy and often have a dollop of humor. Oh, and my western short story, The Last Memory of Bally, about conflict between a rancher and his teenage daughter over an aging cowhorse, will appear in Frontier Tales Webzine in the coming months.

 

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

 

My science fiction short stories are often funny. Although that wasn’t the plan when I finished the novels and decided to try my hand at writing shorter pieces. In one story, Well Suited, a fashionista lives on a space station and deals with the problem of having to wear a spacesuit without losing her fashion glam. I recall enjoying the satire and humor of science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, which I read in far younger days. Lately, I’m not finding much amusing in science fiction novels and stories, perhaps a comment on our time’s tendency to both embrace and distrust science.

 

My novels, with the exception of the incomplete Spitting Storm, don’t trend dystrophic. They’re the kinds of adventure and romance I enjoyed reading as a kid. Sure, bad things happen and the protagonists must be strong, but they often get a little help and life isn’t all rain, mud, and torment.

 

3) Why do I write what I do?

 

Most of us write what appeals to us, or we couldn’t write. That doesn’t mean all our characters have to be good guys or, if we write about serial killers, that we have a sick fascination. While it’s smart to be aware of what the market is currently demanding, we often end up writing what we enjoy reading. For me that’s action, adventure, fantasy, and romance. That doesn’t mean my characters lack depth. Their journeys are both physical and emotional, filled with discovery, learning, sometimes doubt and hopelessness, always a gain of self-knowledge and a wider sense of the world.

 

4) How does my writing process work?

 

As I write, it often feels as if someone inside my head is telling me the story and I’m just putting it down. Later, I’m expected to straighten a few plot wrinkles and polish things up but the plot is there, its bones shining through the rough outer skin.

 

The only outlining I did for Goodlands was a day chart where I listed what the two main characters were doing each day while separated so the chronology of events stayed intact when they were reunited. This wasn’t necessary for Ned the Mage Knight. Ned tells his own story and doesn’t know about things happening when he isn’t there until someone tells him or there’re some repercussion.

 

I have another—this time adult (maybe)—novel in mind. It will require research and a bit more pre-plotting, which I probably won’t stick to. I don’t think either my semi-stream of consciousness style of writing or intense pre-planning should be de rigueur for every every writer or even every novel. I’ve been telling stories in my head forever and writing them down while telling them works for me.

 

I would like to say I write every day, but I don’t. At times, I go a few days without writing a thing. Then I read or hear something that sounds like a story, sit down, and let it all pour out. I’m not sure if my days off count as writer’s block or just “I’ll do it when I feel like it.” So far, I’m not particularly worried about writing only when I want to. I always want to.

 

Now for the next blog tourist: Margaret Hawke, http://www.emeraldstonepress.com.

 

 

Margaret Hawke writes novels, memoir pieces and flirts with poetry. Her recently published novel, Bellehaven, has been selected as part of the St. Lucie County Library readers group kit collection, available to more than 40 area book groups. She is presently working on the first in a mystery series featuring a traveling nurse. She divides her time between islands in New Jersey and Florida.