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By: Laura A. H. Elliott,
on 9/26/2013
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Laurasmagicday
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The Storytellers is my latest release and my first adult paranormal romance. It was so much fun to write and came as a bit of a surprise too, when I least expected it. Did you know there are upwards of 50 characters in the book? At E! I had a few opportunities to work on the show E! True Hollywood Stories for eonline.com. I always found the episodes so fascinating. For me it’s really fun to know the story behind the story. I hope you you do too. So, here’s 10 top secrets about The Storytellers, so just keep it between us, ‘kay? 
At the end of the post you’ll find the list of giveaway winners, congrats all!
1. Djucu nuts appear as lucky charms in The Storytellers and are considered lucky charms in the Caribbean. The nuts grow in tall trees deep in the Venezuelan jungles then float down waterways and into the Caribbean Sea and onto the beaches of Aruba & Curaçao.
2. My dad called the islands just off the northern coast of Venezuela the “A-B-C islands.” This is how I first learned about Curaçao. Ever since I heard Dad talk about the islands they captured my imagination and is one of the reasons why I chose the island of Curaçao as one of the settings of The Storytellers. (A-B-C Aruba, Bonaire & Curaçao)
3. I visited Venezuela as a teenager and my experiences there influenced a few of the settings in The Storytellers and also influence my writing in general.
4. Dr. Alexandra Abernathy’s story line about archeology is loosely base upon some of the experiences my daughter had while she was on archeological digs in Israel and Jordan.
5. Because of my love of jade, I wanted to use jade as an important part of the cursed treasure in The Storytellers. In Central America The Mayans and Aztecs prized jadite jade. The name jade comes from the Spanish “piedra de ijada” — literally “stone of the pain in the side.” Early Spanish explorers gave it this name after they saw natives holding pieces of the stone to their sides to cure their aches and pains.
6. I wrote The Storytellers years ago and put it in a drawer and never thought I’d ever publish the story. It was only after some friends asked if I had ever written anything for adults that I was prompted to dig out the manuscript.
7. I set part of the novel in Georgia because I’ve had a wonderful time on book tours there and I used to love to look at the beautiful red soil out my window every year when we’d road trip from Chicago to Florida when I was a little girl. I remember one time we drive through the eye of a hurricane just outside of Stone Mountain, GA, a place we’d always overnight on the drive down.
8. The name of the mysterious character, Dr. Yuri Knorozov, is a nod to the Soviet linguist of the same name, (Nov. 19 1922-March 31, 1999) an epigrapher and ethnographer who is renowned for his decipherment of the Maya script.
9. Logograms make up the Mayan language and they captivate me. Each script is a little work of art.
10. One of the hardest parts of the novel for me to write concerned the naming and powers of the four idols at the heart of the story: Escrito holds the power of the writer, which we know as the power of the truth; Bailador, the power of the dancer, which holds the power of falling in love; Pintador, the power of the painter, which embodies the power of perception; and lastly Músico, the power of music, which transcends time and space and holds the power of emotion.
And the WINNERS are
KINDLE FIRE : drecordova
2 signed copies of Storytellers and swagpack: qwertzuio789 and grandmatinaof2
2 copies of Winnemuca: ddoan_562 & bobbyehopebooth
YAY!!! Thanks so much to everyone who followed the blog tour and took the time to enter the giveaway. Y’all rock!
I’m super excited about the paperback which will be available in the next few weeks. I’ve gotten lots of requests about its availability. And also, the book trailer is coming soon, stay tuned.
by Deren Hansen
Annette Lyons discussed, "
The 2 Sides of a Good Writer" in a post at the
Writing on the Wall blog, and identified the writing versions of the
Hatfields and McCoys: the storytellers and the word smiths.
If we peel away the petty jealousy for those who collect royalties when we collect rejections, the complaint that someone broke the "rules" and still succeeded often comes down to storytellers and wordsmiths complaining about each other.
How often have you heard writers complain that a best-selling author tells a good story but is a terrible writer? How about critiques that someone writes beautiful prose but the story doesn't go anywhere?
You might say that storytelling vs.word smithing simply echos the distinction between commercial and literary fiction, where the former is all about the story and the latter is about how the story is told. But that observation only speaks to the stereotypes.
The deeper point is that storytelling and word smithing represent two fundamental approaches to the way we share narrative information. Storytelling is about selecting and presenting the best bits. Word smithing is about telling a bit well enough that it's interesting in its own right.
So, does this mean we have to choose sides?
Those of you who have been following for a while know that I don't like dichotomies unless they lead to a synthesis. The real answer is to make peace between the Hatfields and McCoys and strive for a good story, well told.
Jay O'Callahan! Jay O'Callahan? JAY O'CALLAHAN! The name rolls off the tongue. It's that "O" that sets the name apart. But Jay O'Callahan is one of America's Premier Storytellers.
Jay tells all original stories; children's stories that bounce with life and whimsy, personal stories that capture a neighborhood in a bygone era, historical stories that immortalize journeys, adventures, struggles.
Watch Jay as he tells his tribute to space explorers in "Forged in the Stars".
Many storytellers become authors - and sometimes authors become storytellers. It sort of follows - spoken words, written down; written words, spoken out loud. Here are the websites of two storyteller/authors:
Aaron Shepard: I don't know which came first for Aaron - out loud storytelling or paper telling - but Aaron has enriched folktale collections for quite a while. I linked to his storytelling page where he offers some of his own stories to other tellers. Please read any copyright requirements before taking these stories to the public. But wait, there's more - more, more, more! - on Aaron's pages, including tips for storytellers, resources for teachers and parents and even Reader's Theater scripts! Thanks so much, Aaron.
 |
| This face is made for storytelling |
Carmen Agra Deedy! Her latest book,
The Cheshire Cheese Cat, written with Randall Wright and illustrated by Barry Moser, was one of
my favorite books of the year. Carmen started doing commentaries for
All Things Considered. I remember listening to her tell a story about trying to recreate one of her grandmother's dishes - rice pudding - as I drove home from work. She is a featured teller and speaker at storytelling conferences and literacy related events. She is a HUGE supporter of libraries, too.
Book Review:!Chime by Franny Billingsley. Since I just finished reading this last night, this book did not make my list of favorites..but it certainly IS one of my favorite books of the year. It was also a hard book to read, because the narrator and main character, has trouble separating her feelings from her story. Briony's ramblings make the story so diffused that the reader spends a lot of time shoving aside pieces of emotional lint. But these incomplete memories and moods create an atmosphere of dread.
Don't go back into the Swamp, Briony! Listen to your dead Stepmother's words, Briony. DON'T listen to your dead Stepmother's words, Briony. Watch out for Rose - in more than one way. Can you trust Rose? Can you trust Eldric? Can you trust yourself?In an imagined early 20th century English town, on the edge of the Swamp, 17-year-old Briony lives in the Parsonage with her distant father and her twin sister, Rose. Rose is "different". We'd likely say she had high-functioning autism, today. And Briony knows that Rose's differences are Briony's fault - because her dead Stepmother told her so. Her dead Stepmother told Briony many things, many awful, sad, confusing things - and promised to protect Briony
By:
Robin Brande,
on 7/21/2011
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Yesterday I taught a teen writing workshop at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, AZ. As I told the teens…
By:
JD Holiday,
on 12/7/2008
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JD'S Writers Blog
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Copyright 2008 by J.D. Holiday, All rights reserved.
A lot has been written about why writers write. Writers write for many reasons and some, for any reason.
They write to express who they are and to say what they know. To teach and to inspire where no inspiration has yet taken root. To share the stories they see clearly in their imagination. To entertain themselves first, then those readers who find their works, some write to purge unhappiness or injustices for themselves and others.
There will be some writers who tell you their reasons come from deep in their souls, at the very core of who they are. Jane Austen had Lady Catherine say, “I must have my share in the conversation,” as most writers want their voices heard.
Writers show readers vivid characters and pictures that keep them and us ‘safe and sometimes warm’ from our only realties.
We are lucky today where stories are brought to life by writers and illustrators and visionaries in the many different ways there are to entertain us. But first, some idea is thought and it usually starts with a writer.
So it really doesn’t matter why they write, it’s just a good thing they do!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all Storytellers and Wordsmiths everywhere!
copyright 12-7-08 by J.D. Holiday
A sweet reader named Jennifer writes:
I wanted to ask if you had any recommendations for the best Jim Weiss story CDs for littler ones (and/or O’Callahan—you’ve mentioned him a couple times I think?). We checked out Weiss’s Just So Stories from our library, and my oldest is loving it (as am I!), but many of the others look like they might be a bit past her comprehension right now, and certainly past her younger sisters’. Their attention for this one is spotty. We’ll be driving 10 hours next month to my best friends’ weddings, and I’d like some story CDs for the car. I’m just not sure what would best hold my girls’ attention! As I said, my oldest is 4.5, then my twins are 3, and the baby is nearly 18 months, but of course she wouldn’t really be listening anyway.
Unfortunately, Jennifer wrote me in July, so I’m responding way too late to be of help with that road trip. Sorry about that, Jennifer—I hope the weddings were fun and the drive went well!
As Jennifer had observed in my archives, we are huuuuge Jim Weiss fans here in the Bonny Glen. We even got to hang out with Jim and his wonderful wife Randi a couple of times at homeschooling conventions and once at their home in Virginia. But we were fans long before we met the Weisses in person: I remember buying our first Jim Weiss story CDs back in New York, when Jane was a wee thing. The night we had dinner at their house, my girls were utterly starstruck because Jim was a superstar in their universe. Listening to them chatter in the backseat all the way home, I was overcome with a fit of giggles—they sounded just like my high-school friend Caryn and I must have sounded when we used to gush about Duran Duran.
(If I’d been invited to dinner at John Taylor’s house in 1985, I might not have survived to tell the tale.)
Anyway. The best Jim Weiss for very small children would be, I’d say:
• Uncle Wiggly
• Tell Me a Story (that one’s a folk and fairy tale collection—includes stories like The Little Red Hen and Rumplestiltskin)
• the one with The Twelve Dancing Princesses, what’s it called? :::::hollers to children:::: Ah, yes: Best Loved Stories in Song and Dance
• and the Stone Soup one, um, Fairytale Favorites, I think is the name.
I can think of others (my girls loved the Shakespeare CD from the time they were tiny), but a list that goes on forever isn’t of much use to anyone, so I’ll stop with these.
We actually haven’t heard some of Jim’s most recent CDs, sob—that’s what we get for moving out of Virginia. Jim and Randi were kind enough to let my kids raid their shelves when we visited, and gracious enough to be pleased with a stack of my books in return.
As for Jay O’Callahan, whom Jennifer mentions in her email: we are mighty fond of him as well! Although we’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Jay in person. I first encountered his work the summer before my sophomore year in college, when I was a camp counselor at a theater camp in Missoula, Montana. One of the girls brought an O’Callahan story tape with her and I remember the girls—this was the high-school bunk, not the younger set I was in charge of—laughing their heads off over a story about two children who encounter the King of the Raisins in a strange underworld. Half-remembered phrases from the story were still haunting me almost twenty years later when I began this blog. I posted a plea with a vague description of the story—
The raisins are amiable enough despite their aversion to the strange wiggling things at the end of the children’s arms—
“What you got there, worms?”
“No, they’re fingers! See?”
(Sound of raisins screaming.) “Ahhhh! Horrible, horrible! But I like you anyway.”
And a short while later, the marvelous Lesley Austin of Small Meadow Press chimed in with the answer I’d been seeking so many years: the storyteller we were looking for was named Jay O’Callahan. I Googled accordingly, and there he was. The Raisins story is on his Little Heroes CD. To this day it remains a family favorite. Sing it with me: Raisins, raisins, all we are is raisins; big one, small ones, short ones, tall ones…
My favorite art breaks rules. That's true of books as much as other art forms. Now, sometimes the breaches are just something less than great writing. Sometimes the rules aren't really rules at all. Other times, the rule breaking is a writer going big.
Plus, there's plenty of room in the literary world, like there is in other art forms, for works that are purely meant to entertain. I read both literary classics and more plot-driven entertainment, and enjoy both. I prefer well-written books with great stories and aim for that middle when I write, but there's room in my life for books all along the (mostly imaginary) spectrum.
When I see this debate I quote my favorite movie Pirates of the Caribbean when Barbossa says, "First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the pirate's code to apply and you're not. And thirdly, the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner."
And that sums up writing rules.