Author Archives: Karen

Guest Post by Colin Falconer

It is my pleasure to introduce to you a person who has eagerly accepted my invitation to guest post today! Many of you may already know Colin or have read one of his many books, yet I thought this might be a wonderful way to get to know the intellect of this most interesting man.

Though he now resides in the land down under, his roots actually stem from jolly old England, north London to be more specific. Colin has done many things in his life. He has worked in TV and radio and free-lanced for many of Australia’s leading newspapers and magazines. But what he’s most proud of is being the father of his two beautiful full grown daughters. Although I thought I remembered spotting him with a gorgeous blonde at his side!

It seems that Colin is quite the daredevil and is willing to risk life and limb when it comes to doing research for each of his novels. He’s been known to run with the bulls in Pamplona, pursue tornadoes across Oklahoma, and has been seen cage-shark diving off the coast of South Africa. Our man Colin really knows how to get around!

But since he is such a well seasoned author, writing more than twenty books spanning over the last twenty years, I thought this would be great opportunity to get some incite as to what prompted Colin to immerse himself into the historical fiction genre that he is most widely known for.

So without further ado, may I please introduce to you, Colin Falconer!

 

Thank you Karen.

I thought I would write a little history lesson about my love/hate relationship with history and how I came to be an author of historical fiction. I hope you all will enjoy it.

 
MY HISTORY WITH HISTORY

I hated history at school. All I remember of my last year is that the teacher’s name was Sheldrake, so his nickname was Bomb-duck. History was first thing on a Monday morning so the class was an excuse to sleep off the weekend. I still made pass grades. All you had to do was memorize the dates and some names and I could do that with a bit of cramming the night before the examination.

So if someone had told me back then that I was going to become an historical novelist I think I would jumped under a train. I couldn’t have imagined anything worse. I wanted to play for Manchester United.

The one lesson I loved was English, which is surprising, because we were reading Shakespeare and most sixteen year olds find Shakespeare hard work. Not us. Our English teacher, with the more normal-sounding name of Mr. Briggs, was a revelation.

He didn’t just make us read Hamlet; he described the stage for us (this was long before Sam Wannamaker rebuilt The Globe); he explained about the hawkers moving through the crowd selling pies and nuts while the play was going on; he gossiped about Marlowe getting murdered; he explained all of Shakespeare’s dirty jokes – and there are plenty, because Shakespeare was a filthy, filthy writer. (He had to play to the whole crowd, from the blue bloods to the hoi polloi in the pit.)

He told us that Shakespeare was bald, had an affair with a woman in Oxford, and built a fancy house in Stratford on the proceeds of his career. He explained how he made up words or used words that no one in London had heard of. (Like there’s a word in old Warwick dialect that describes the shadow made by the round of earth thrown up by a plough at the end of a furrow. As if the Anonymous Edward de Vere would know that!)

In other words, he made Shakespeare sound like one of the boys. What I didn’t realize was that Mister Briggs was teaching us history as well as Hamlet.

Still, when I started my career as a novelist I was not moved to write history. I wrote thrillers and then did a couple of crime novels that did reasonably well. But it was when I wrote Harem that my London agent rang me out of the blue and said: you have to do this. I sold around 180,000 copies of that novel in Germany alone.

Harem was the book that taught me how to research; for instance, if you are going to write about eunuchs you better know about castration, and all the different ways it can be done, no matter how excruciating it is. I also had to learn about the Ottoman system of government, which was worse than one of Bomb-duck’s history lessons. But as a novelist, it is essential that you know these things and then slip them into the narrative when it’s needed in a very un-Bomb-duck-like manner.

But most of all I never forgot what Mr. Briggs taught us; the play’s the thing. History is the background; the story is the star. And more than any other genre I believe historical fiction has the canvas to paint a big, beautiful story. It always has, from literature long past (War and Peace, The Red Badge of Courage, Ivanhoe) until more recent times (Shogun, Doctor Zhivago.) The movies I love are Last Samurai, Dances with Wolves, Gladiator. These are the kinds of stories that I want to write, and there are not enough of them out there for me as a reader.

So in the end, Mister Sheldrake, I have to admit that I have come to love history. That sixteen year old never knew what he was missing. But still – at least he remembered the dates.

Oh, and by the way. I got a B minus.

 
Thank you everyone,

Colin Falconer
colinfalconer.net
BLOG: http://colin-falconer.blogspot.com/
 
 

No, thank you Colin Falconer!

A ‘B’ minus? Well that’s not bad Colin Falconer. Not bad at all. Thank you so much for sharing this with us Colin. You may now go to the head of the class!

So tell me, what do you think? How many of you have jumped into something head first only to find out that you’ve just stumbled upon the right thing? You hadn’t planned on it, but by pure happenstance you fell into what you were meant to do! They say that if we do what we love, success will follow. Are we willing to follow our dreams?

Be sure to hit the follow button for future posts! And thank you so much for your thoughts and salutations.

Karen McFarland

 

A big shout out to Kristen Lamb and all my new classmates in my #WANA1011 class and all others that may grace my presence by visiting this post. Take care and make it a great day!

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Gorillas In The Midst

 

Though many will remember the astounding works of Diane Fossey through her published book, most of us learned about this world renowned primatologist from the above named movie starring Sigourney Weaver in which she received an Oscar nomination for her remarkable performance.

Diane Fossey was the first person to record the social structure of mountain gorillas, interact with them and developed strong personal bonds with each individually. It was her personal quest to protect these primates that made her well known throughout the world. In fact, one could say that if it wasn’t for her bold determination to protect her gorillas at all cost, they would be extinct today.

The picture above was taken at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Alberta was a 32 year old western gorilla who died recently. Her death had come as a surprise, yet the cause of her death is unknown. She is survived by her mate Winston and three offspring. One of them, Ndjole, a male, is on loan to a zoo in Oklahoma. (Loan a son out? Why didn’t I think of that?)

There are arguments that fly back and forth as to whether we are or are not related to these fine animals, yet as we gaze at Alberta’s face, can we deny the look of endearment and tenderness, the characteristics of a sweet sensitive unique being? If we look closely, we can see traces of happiness in her eyes and an expression of keen observation. Hers is a story of warm domesticity, a caring attachment between familial appendages. It is a story of community that evokes communication and caring between the species and how we can connect with others.

Like the gorilla, this may be no easy task as it involves courage on our part, an act of bravery to cultivate a relationship with one another, but well worth the risk. Then, when an element of trust is developed, it can give us a reason to live or a cause to fight and protect.

Hey, we may not be far off from these beautiful creatures, although one could only hope for a better hair stylist.

As our perception of community widens, especially through new acquaintances and friendships we develop socially on Facebook, Twitter and on our blogs, we feel resilient and gain a better sense of ourselves, for we all may be unique, but we are not secluded.

It saddens me a little to think of Alberta the gorilla and the family that she left behind. I’m quite sure she will be missed by all of those whom she came in contact with. But in turn, I must say we should feel encouraged to know that we are all surrounded by great people who want to see us succeed, people who want to be part of a thriving community, a collective gathering of growth and support. And as we bravely reach out, we just need to remember one simple fact: We can all be “Gorillas in the Mist”.

 

So please let me know what you think? Are you reaching out to other individuals, giving them support as they embark on a new path in their careers? Are you interactive in a community of friends via the web or in person?  What have you learned that will help others so that  they may not make the same mistakes you made along the way?

Thank you for your many thoughts and salutations. If you’ve enjoyed this post, don’t forget to follow!

Karen McFarland

 

A big shout out to Kristen Lamb and all my new classmates in my #WANA1011 class and all others that may grace my presence by visiting this post. Take care and make it a great day!

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Guest Post by Donna Newton

I can’t tell you how excited I am to acquaint you with the person who has graciously accepted my invitation to guest post today. Some of you may already know her, but for most, she has patiently waited in the wings for this introduction. (Chomping at the bit is more like it! lol)

Donna comes to us from forty-five minutes north of London in a little picturesque village in Sussex, England where she lives with her husband and two children and counts her laptop as part of her loyal group of friends. (Big yawn. Donna, you’ve got to get out more.)

She has been published in numerous magazines and has had a varied, yet somewhat adventurous career and now co-writes T.V. pilots and is involved in the L.A. scene. She says she decided to write her first novel about three years ago and that’s when she first came into contact with Kristen Lamb who took her under her wing. (More like a guinea pig is how Donna puts it.)

Donna is a graduate of Warrior Writer’s Boot Camp and is here today to give us all some important advice that not only helped her, but will also help us to improve our writing skills.

Take it away Donna!

 

Learning To Write The WWBC Way

Hi everyone.

It all started when I met Kristen Lamb.

She stumbled upon the first chapter of my novel which I posted on a blogger site and proceeded to hunt me down. She pointed out where I was going wrong and had offered to help me. Naturally, I jumped at the chance.

We stripped back my story to its very core, and I wrote a background for my antagonist – something I had never done before.

Kristen’s reply after I nervously emailed it across to her was, “Crap, do it again.”

And again I did. Several times in fact. Until finally, everything clicked into place and I had created a psychopathic alter-ego.

I’m very good friends with Kristen now. She has the most amazing way of making you pay for her kindness (See gun in picture! lol). I’ve since written two teleplays and currently adapting one into a novel, plotted my second book, and lead WWBC Team Delta. I apply the Warrior Writer method to every story I plot and wouldn’t consider doing it any other way.

So, without further ado, here is the way to write – Warrior Writer style.

 

Your Story

First and foremost – you must have an idea of what your book is about. Knowing the genre is extremely helpful, and what your protagonist wants and who’s trying to stop he/she from getting it will also make things a lot easier for you.

Log Line

Once you know the basis of your story, you can write that log line. Now, don’t be scared.

They are easier to write if you follow this simple rule:

An ADJECTIVE NOUN (protagonist) must ACTIVE VERB the ANTAGONIST before SOME REALLY HORRIBLE THING HAPPENS (stopping the protagonist from reaching her goal).

You can read more about log lines here at my website.

Backgrounds

A background is a little like a biography. Imagine you were writing your own life story. You’d start from the moment you were born and take the reader up to the current day. Well, a background is the same thing. Write all about your character from the moment they were born, right up to the moment you are about to start your story.

This is a fantastic way to get to know your character, and give you time to flesh them out. Once done, you will have no trouble writing them, or writing dialogue for them.

Backgrounds – Who To Start With

Antagonist – Why? Because they are the biggest problem. Without them in our story, we have NO story.

Protagonist – Yep, you’ve guessed it. Now do the same for your protagonist. Oh, and don’t make them too perfect. Flaws are good! Flaws make us human.

Love Interest and Supporting Cast – Mentors, Minions, Allies and Love Interests all fit under this section. Note: These are characters that aid your main characters. I’m not talking about the guy who shows up in one scene and delivers the post.

Your Story

You need to ‘bullet point’ your story from beginning to end. Walk yourself through your story step by step. It’s better to hit your dead ends now so you can re-plot, rather than get 40k words in and realise you have to axe 10,000 of them.

Start with:

Normal World
Inciting Incident
Turning Point Act I into Act II
Turning Point Act II into Act III
Darkest Moment
Dénouement

Get to this point and voila! You have a story to write.

I know most of you may read this and think “Huh? What a waste of time.” I’ve met people like this and guess what? They are still at the same stage they were a year ago or more. My team mate Piper Bayard and I are living proof—this method works. Agents have requested fulls on both our manuscripts.

It’s like building a house. Do the prep-work: dig footings, add cement, lay bricks, and your building will stand for decades to come.

It was a pleasure being here and I wish you all the best with your writing!

Thank you,
Donna Newton

 

No, thank you Donna Newton!

What a wonderful introduction to Warrior Writers. And what great suggestions that will not only enhance the way we plot, but will also improve our writing ability.

So tell me, what do you think? If you’re like me, it seems there’s no end to what we can learn. Who of us would deny Kristen Lamb’s strong leadership abilities? Her previous students give powerful testimony of her remarkable teaching methods. So are we reaching out and taking advantage of those who have offered to help? If we do, we will all be successful!

Be sure to hit the follow buton for future posts! Thank you so much for your thoughts and salutations.

Karen McFarland

A big shout out to Kristen Lamb and all my new classmates in my #WANA1011 class and all others that may grace my presence by visiting this post. Take care and make it a great day!

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I’m A Soul Man

For most of us the name of this title might conjure up memories of a Blues Brothers performance.  Though they did a marvelous job with covering a groovy hit, they are not who I wish to talk about.

 

His name is Jon Bon Jovi.

Why am I talking about Jon Bon Jovi? Oh come on Karen, you’ve got to be kidding me, right? The guy has been singing, rocking and swinging his hair around in front of us on stage for more than 30 years. Well thank God he got rid of the hair a while back. (Ted Nugent take note! Have you ever heard of Locks of Love?) But seriously, why Jon Bon Jovi?

It is obvious that Jon Bon Jovi as a philanthropist has been involved with many charitable organizations over the years. He has funded houses for Habitat for Humanity. He has contributed to the Children with Aids Foundation. He has participated in the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center, just to name a few. Then in 2006, he launched his own organization “the Bon Jovi Soul Foundation”. He’s been quoted in Britain’s Daily Telegraph Newspaper as saying, “I think Volunteerism should be fashionable. That’s my goal: To make volunteering the new black.”

In mid October, Jon and his wife Dorothea opened a new restaurant in an old auto body shop near the Red Bank train station in central New Jersey. It’s called the Soul Kitchen and one can eat there if you volunteer to pay it forward or pay-what-you-can. The interior of the restaurant is beautiful. Its tables are covered in cloth, serving up delectable dishes prepared by a chef with entrees such as cornmeal crusted catfish with red beans and rice, grilled chicken breast with homemade basil mayo and rice pilaf, and grilled salmon with soul seasonings, sweet potato mash and sautéed greens, many of which were grown in the herb and vegetable garden right outside the restaurant’s doors. Sounds great right? But here’s the catch.

“There’s no prices on our menu, so if you want to come and you want to make a difference, leave $20 in the envelope on the table. If you can’t afford to eat, you can bus tables, you can wait tables, you can work in the kitchen as a dishwasher or sous chef,” Jon said. “If you say to me, ‘I’m not a people person, ‘I say, ‘That’s not a problem. We’ll take you back to Lunch Break to volunteer with those people. If you don’t want to volunteer with that, we’ll take you to the Food Bank.”

Jon Bon Jovi made it very clear, “This is not an entitlement thing. This is about empowering people because you have to earn that gift certificate.” But he did say, “If you come in and say, I’m hungry, we’ll feed you. But we’re going to need you to do something. It’s very important to what we’re trying to achieve.”

Why go to all this bother one might ask? That all sounds a bit swanky for a glorified undercover soup kitchen. But here’s what Jon had to say in regard to families, “With the economic downturn, one of the things I noticed was that disposable income was one of the first things that went—a lot of memories were made around restaurant tables.” (Could many of the people that you’re referring to Jon be Living on a Prayer?) Then apparently on the night of the grand opening of his new establishment, Jon was seen in the kitchen rolling up his shirtsleeves and volunteering as a dishwasher. He claims he can’t cook.

 

So please tell me, what do you think? Does Jon have a lot of soul? Having soul means to show fellow feeling, emotion, passion, empathy and compassion. What kind of examples pop into your mind of people you know that have soul? Do you have soul? Can we have more soul? And do you find this important? Do any of you volunteer in your community? What does it mean to you to have soul?

Thank you for your many thoughts and salutations.

Karen McFarland

 

A big shout out to Kristen Lamb and all my new classmates in my #WANA1011 class and all others that may grace my presence by visiting this post. Take care and make it a great day!

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A Gentle Giant Turns into a Legend

A couple of weeks ago I discovered an article on the front page of the local section in Yahoo news. You’ve probably heard about the terrible shoot out in a Hair salon in Seal Beach, California. It was a horrible massacre and the people in the area were terribly devastated. That was until later in the evening when a large group gathered together at a candlelight vigil in front of the home of a highly revered member of their community.

Being intrigued by this article, I clicked onto the link to read more and as my eyes began to study the picture and caption to the story, I gasped. I sat there stunned in disbelief not wanting to acknowledge that I recognized this person since I hadn’t seen him in many, many, well too many years.

The person I’m referring to is James Brian Harris. He was my favorite teacher in high school, in fact he even attended my wedding. But to more than hundreds, perhaps thousands, he is now widely known as “Coach Harris” for the Varsity basketball team at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach, California.

For the past 35 years this man has been the only head coach that the school has ever known since first opening its doors. This might be quite a feat on its own, but of course, there is more to this story.

It seems that Jim Harris has not only been the Varsity basketball Coach for the OVHS Seahawks all these years, but it was just two years ago, in 2009 that he was given an award by the city of HB for leading his team to their 600th win! The history of this unique man and his team of numerous talented players has been well documented by all the local newspapers including the Los Angeles Times. But that is not all.

Over the years, this kind compassionate family man lived, taught and coached here and won the reputation of becoming one of the most loving, magnanimous man this community has ever known. I encourage you to take a few moments and browse through the copious heartfelt comments at Coach Harris’ Team! the next time you visit Facebook. I assure you, it will not only make quite an impression, but it will also touch your heart.

You see, when I ran across this short, unpretentious article in Yahoo News, it was meant to be taken as a sign of hope, a little piece of optimism, giving us all courage and faith at the end of a day full of deadly despair. And it did for about a week until we all found out later that this dear man was going to lose his battle to cancer.

After just being granted a clean bill of health in June, Coach Harris developed a cough over the summer and in mid-August had a kidney removed and was told that he had Lung and Kidney cancer. Huh? Needless to say, this has been a complete shock to his family, the entire school and the rest of the community. It’s crazy how fleeting life can be.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to send my love to “Coach Harris” and his family along with countless others who you have touched with your life along the way. A life filled with love and inspiration for your family, the many special students, friends and faculty at school, the community, and especially for the love of that great game called Basketball.

Yes to all of us “Coach”, you will always be thought of as a gentle giant amongst men and a legend that will continue to live on in our hearts and memories throughout the rest of our lives. By the way “Coach”, I hear the lights are back on in the OVHS Gym!

So please tell me, what do you think? Has there ever been a time when a certain someone has stood out in your life? Maybe they influenced you in a direction you might have taken or a decision you might have made? Maybe it was a parent, a teacher, a colleague or mate. Perhaps something they said motivated you to stay the course that kept you on the right track when you were at a crucial fork in the road.

Thank you for your many thoughts and salutations. Take care and make it a great day!

Thank you Everybody!
Karen McFarland

*On a sad note, “Coach Harris” lost his battle to cancer Sunday, October 23rd 2011, shortly after I had written this post. Since then, rumor has it that the Ocean View High School Gymnasium will be named after that cherished man and the prestigious Tournament Of Champions boys basketball playoff will be renamed the “Jim Harris Memorial Tournament of Champions”.

If this all sounds a little bit like the movie “Remember the Titans”, you would be right.

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