Diana J. Davidson
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Roz MacLean: Talented New Author and Illustrator

7/30/2016

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       My dear friends, I have had the enormous pleasure of getting to know this delightful new artist-author: Roz MacLean.
 
     Throughout her life, this creatively-insatiable gal has been a devoted book worm greatly inspired by many writers. Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series for starters, “It was very important to me as a young adult,” Roz says. “And I had a deep emotional connection to Anne Mcaffrey and her Pern series about dragons.”
 
     She still loves picture books, and her favorite illustrator is Shaun Tan; especially his books The Arrival and The Red Tree (both excellent reads!). Roz also loves graphic novels and comics, and has immense admiration for comic journalist Joe Sacco, not to mention Kate Beaton, and Lisa Hanawalt’s work.
 
     “Growing up, I was a big English and art nerd, but I also played sports,” Roz says.
     She played soccer and field hockey, and earned the Female Athlete of the Year award in both 11th and 12th grade. “But I think I mostly won because I was so enthusiastically supportive of my teammates,” laughs Roz.
    
     She loves the outdoors and rides her bike most places. “Like many Vancouverites I love sushi!” Tuna sashimi with tons of ginger is her favorite.

     “I have a reaaallly cool pair of rain pants for the rainy weather,” Roz laughs. “I am addicted to listening to podcasts while I bike (just one ear bud of course), and like to listen to a range from comedy to world news to science.” 
    
    “Music and dancing brings me tons of joy as well, although I've embraced my lack of coordination as a gift that puts others at ease,” she says with a smile.
     
     She loves spending time in forests and near the water whenever possible. “And although I was traumatized by some early life camping experience involving a lot of rain, wet sleeping bags and many, many mosquitos, I am now trying to become a more competent camper.”
    
     To make her even more well-rounded, she is currently in love with reading non-fiction about artificial intelligence, human development and psychology. I imagine this helps her be more intuitive with her other passion, Special Education. For the past seven years, Roz has been working as an Intervenor in the field of Deafblindness. This means she supports a student who is deafblind one to one at school, helping them to communicate and understand the world around them. 
     “Much of my artwork incorporates themes of inclusion, stigma and empathy, as I'm always trying to imagine what it would be like to experience the world differently,” says Roz.
 
     Her latest book, The Body Book, illustrates in a colorful fun way just how unique each body is. I think this book will help break down stigmas in the young reader’s mind about what a body “should” look like, and help us see the beauty in diversity. I personally can’t wait to share this book with my children! Here are some lovely samples from the book:

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     This adorable book will be officially released August 31st, though it can be pre-ordered at Promontory Press. https://rozmaclean.com/artwork/books/the-body-book/
 
    In an interview about her book, Roz stated:
 
     “I created The Body Book in part because of my own struggle with body image growing up, and the serious effects this had on my health.  I know that our culture shows limited options to children, and girls especially, of what type of body is ok.  On top of that, all of the fat shaming that goes on can be incredibly harmful to children's self-esteem, and can cause them to live with constant anxiety about monitoring their own size and shape. I see little girls I work with who have low self-esteem because their perfectly healthy body is not thin, and it breaks my heart. 
 
     Our society only gives people respect on the condition that their body fits a narrow norm, and that needs to change.  The Body Book is my contribution to a new kind of education of self-love and body positivity.”
 
     She spends quite a bit of time drawing and painting in her studio and has a few styles that she alternates between, such as the series of watercolor dog portraits she is currently working on.
    “Recently, I completed a series of drawings of the hand shapes that make up the American Sign Language alphabet. I know a little bit of ASL, but am excited to learn more this Fall when I take classes,” Roz says.
 
      The Body Book is the second book she’s written and illustrated, the first being Violet's Cloudy Day, which received an Honorable Mention from the Eric Hoffer Book Award in 2015. She has also illustrated nature-themed Lucy's Tree by Helen Davidson for which she was awarded the West End B.I.A. “Free Spirit Award,” as well as Mommy's 26 Careers, a book written by actress Keegan Connor Tracey that will also be coming out this Fall.
 
      “The way I reflect on new ideas is by making art about them.” –Roz Maclean.
 
 
     If you’d like to visit her website or find her on social media, you can use the links below:
 
Website: www.rozmaclean.com
Twitter: @rozmaclean
Facebook: Roz Maclean Art
Instagram: Roz_Maclean_Art


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"The Benefit of a Bad Review" by Josi S. Kilpack

12/27/2015

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I stumbled across this golden post thanks to an amazing woman named Lisa Mangum of Shadow Mountain. I found this post a refreshing and positive take on something all writers have to face at some point or another: Bad Reviews, or feedback. I hope you guys benefit from it as much as I did! A big thank you to the wise author, Miss Josi S. Kilpack for sharing it with us on the Writer's Muse! And, without further ado---
www.josiskilpack.com
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
The Benefit of a Bad Review

In February of this year, I had my first ever Publisher's Weekly Review. Not only was it a good review of "A Heart Revealed", it was a starred review--a week later I got a starred Kirkus review too! I blogged about these awesome reviews HERE and I was over the moon! I was writing a new genre and I so wanted the reception to be a good one. And it was. 

Hooray! 

Life is Good!

I have arrived!

But in the back of my mind was that niggling creature of doubt. Did I just get lucky in the reviewer who happened to get my book on their desk? Was this book the best thing I'll ever write? Will the book I'm working on be equal to it? Will it be a one hit wonder? Will the industry reviews translate the way my publisher hopes it will?

I didn't move these doubts to center stage--advice I would give to anyone--but I never forgot they were there. They gave me both encouragement to do my best work and validation that, in this book, it seems that I had. 

My next regency, "Lord Fenton's Folly" came out in the fall and I eagerly/anxiously waited for the PW and Kirkus reviews. Would they also be starred reviews? 

They were not. 
In fact, Kirkus said this: "Occasionally slow-moving, but an interesting take on respect and respectability and the choices a noble family must make when things go awry."



And then PW said this: "There’s something tawdry about putting “I believe romances are for silly girls or homely ones” in the mouth of a romantic heroine. A book would have to be a comic gem or a profound character exploration to recover from that slap to the reader’s face, and Kilpack’s second Regency (after A Heart Revealed) is merely a solid piece of genre writing, with no particular feel for its period but some nice imaginative touches."

And this: "There’s good stuff here, but it takes 100 pages to find it."

Umm ... well ... ouch.

There were other good reviews--Foreward, for instance, said "This novel will be a joy for any lover of true romance."

But I think most people agree with me in that the negative ones are the reviews that stick in your craw. They sap your creative energy like siphoned gas from your tank. Whatever you're working on is suddenly the enemy--it could bring this same experience again. You're embarrassed, you're discouraged, and it is very, very hard to pull yourself out of the funk that a few words throw you in to. To say nothing about those "few words" being on the internet and therefore eternal. I absolutely felt all of those things. I limped to some friends with my tail between my legs. I wallowed and felt like a loser. 

And then. 

I sat very still and realized that there was a new feeling--something I hadn't noticed amid the shame I felt. 

Relief. 

The fact is, I know I'm not all that. I love to write and I love my stories and I am beyond grateful when professionals validate that, but I'm not The Great American Novelist. I still have learning to do, and a bad review confirms that. It proves to me that I can't rest upon my laurels. It reminds me that I grow personally as I face challenges in my craft, and I need that personal growth. It gives me new goals to set and spurs me to be more objective about my work. I need that objectivity--every writer I know needs it--and a bad review is kind of a scraped knee in the pursuit of balance and skill necessary toward improvement. Sometimes we need people to tell us we can do better.

On the flip side of needed humility, I also need to love my work outside of what other people might say. That doesn't mean I'm not writing to an audience, I am, but I need to have my own separate relationship with my stories. "I" need to be their biggest fan, rather than waiting to see if other people like it before I make my own decision. In regard to the PW review where the reviewer highlighted one sentence that she felt offensive toward readers--we got the review before my publisher had sent the final edit to the printer. They gave me the option of changing that line if I wanted to. I spent hours redrafting that scene, anxious to avoid offending my readers, but some good friends encouraged me to think twice and my publisher was not asking me to change it. I again had to sit very still and look closely at that line. What was its purpose? Why did I have that particular sentence there in the first place? I was able to remember that the reason I wrote that line was to define an aspect of my character--a girl who was not false or cruel, but who makes a false and cruel comment because she wants the boy to like her. Who hasn't done that before? In the course of the story, while Alice never reflects on that line again, she comes to hide herself in similar things as a form of protecting herself. Her protection becomes much more extreme than an off hand remark--but that remark was the first of her falseness. I kept the line in the book. I owned it. And, quite frankly, I love it. I loved what that one sentence did for a story. I feel a kind of healing in the stories I write, a redemption of some small part of my own life or past that, through my characters, I get to relive and conquer. And that story healed something important for me regardless of what that reviewer thought. That doesn't mean that I can be wiley niley about the words I use, and I need to be wise, but I do not need to dispose of my love or healing simply because someone else didn't feel something the way I did.

I did not link my book to the poor reviews the way I linked "A Heart Revealed" to its starred reviews. I did not post the reviews on Facebook and I kind of held my breath when the book came out, wondering if other readers and reviewers would find the line offensive and the story weak. I was glad to have rediscovered my own love of that story, but I also need to sell books and if this book was a commercial flop I could be in trouble. However, the reviews began to come in and although not everyone loved it, most people did. A few people went out of their way to tell me is was their favorite book I had written. What I realized is that everyone, including myself, "gets" to have a different experience. Some people will be put off by something, other people will be drawn in by something else. For some people any book will be a waste of time, for other's it will make for a cozy afternoon, for others it will leave them thinking on something for days afterward. Just last week a reader sent me a link to a blog post she did about part of the book. It was beautiful, and allowed me to look more deeply at something I had written. You would think I would have the greatest insight, but I didn't, she did. You can read her blog HERE. 

In the bible it says that God can make "Beauty for ashes" and work evil "For our good." A bad review is certainly not evil, nor is it ashes, but it did compute to embarrassment and self doubt that, once I took the time to ponder and think, became something beautiful for me. It's made me think of other negatives in my life and how, between God and I, we might make them be for good. The tragic death of my brother has helped me to value life and try to be more attentive to those who find themselves in dark corners. A toxic friend has helped me mind my own tongue better. A difficult vice has turned me to God for help and grown sympathy towards others I have judged harshly. And, because of poor reviews, I have the motivation to be objective about my work and improve my craft, they have helped me to find my own love for a thing outside of anyone else's, and to cherish and appreciate those who see what I wanted them to see. I can be better for a bad review so long as I don't allow myself to stay in the "Molasses Swamp" of regret and shame for too long. I can also be better at sharing my enjoyment of someone else's work, so that the author gets to feel the validation we all need. There are critics everywhere, and we need them, but we also need cheerleaders and I very much hope to be a cheerleader for others rather than a critical voice (unless they specifically ask me to be critical, which some people do :-) )

There is relief in having someone else say that there is room for improvement--I would be very disappointed to learn I'll never be better than I am right now. 

To read the full PW review, go HERE
To read the full Kirkus review, go HERE
To read the Foreward review, which I appreciated SO much, go HERE


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How to Create Life:                                        Good Characters and Development

3/4/2013

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How to create life: Writing good characters and developing them.

This month we’ll be discussing how to write brilliant relatable main characters, interesting supportive characters, and successfully dynamic antagonists. I’ve composed a walkthrough of sorts, based on personal observations and experiences, and bits of wisdom I’ve collected from other writers over the years.

First Step: Write a Basic Profile for each character. This should cover the following:

         Name-

         Character type- Clarify if it is a main character, supportive character, or antagonist/ villain.

         Physical description- Age, Hair, eyes, face shape, height, build, skin tone, highlights (freckles, scars, warts, big ears, fuzzy eyebrows, etc)

          Personality- Mama’s boy, outgoing, arrogant, timid, dorky, spunky, artistic, opinionated, laidback, etc.

         Physical Quirks- Always flipping her hair, bites fingernails, hand twitches, smiles too much, nods a lot, nervous laughs, laughs like a horse, etc.

        Personality Quirks- These could include pet peeves, things they’re very interested in, emotional reactions to certain topics, chips off the shoulder, things that bring out the child in them, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, etc.

         A Brief Bio that covers- Where they’re from, what their parents did/do for a living (this can really explain a lot about a character), siblings and other relevant family members, describe their house (or apartment, car, trailer), a few sentences on how life was for them growing up, highlight defining moments relevant to the story.

 

Second Step: If all goes well, writing this basic profile should give you lots of ideas as to how to further develop this character. Just the act of filling in the blanks will get your creative juices flowing. Once you’re done writing Basic Profiles, take it to the next step, and write a one to two page background story. Be sure to highlight/underline key plot points you want to use, as well as important details like DATES, (it is really important to keep track of an accurate timeline if you want your story to be believable).

Some Tips & Words of Wisdom:

          One of my beta readers (Here's to you Cindy Sorensen!) made an excellent point that while you’re writing a character, it’s important to show what the character is feeling, not tell. It’s what can make the difference between a pretty good story and a great one. Your readers want to figure some things out on their own, and don’t always want everything handed to them cut and dried. Here is an example of Telling how someone feels in your story versus Showing:

1.      Telling: “Joey looked really sad suddenly.”

2.      Showing: “Joey’s face fell, and he turned away with slumped shoulders.”

That’s just an example off the top of my head, I’m sure you can probably come up with something better, but I hope you get the idea. Also, unless you’re writing in Omnipotent, your main character can’t always “know” what another character is feeling. If your character has to deduce what someone is feeling, then really your reader does, too.

         When writing characters, Motivation is terribly important for both protagonist and antagonist and supportive characters. When a character has realistic motivation (the reader doesn’t have to agree with their motive, just understand it), it makes them much more believable and “Brings them to Life.”

         Along those same lines, characters need to noticeably grow and change through-out the story. Personal philosophy, perspective, beliefs, opinions, all these change or adapt with experiences in real people, so it should be the same with written characters to make them more "relatable."



    I’d Love to hear your thoughts on this article. If you disagree with something or think I’ve left out something important, leave a comment. If you have another tip or thought to add, or if you found this article useful, leave a comment! I hope this has helped you in some way.

Happy Writing, my fellow storytellers. =)

~Diana J. Davidson, Author of ONE OF A KIND and THE SKYSLES OF WYN’AUREN

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