Giveaway! Firefly Island by Lisa Wingate!

Welcome to Writing for Christ, Lisa Wingate! It's great to have you here.

Firefly Island is a story that begins with a love at first sight.  Do you think love at first sight is still possible in this busy, modern world?

I think it is, although perhaps, living in this media-frenzied culture, we’re more jaded than we were two generations ago when my grandparents met at a dance.  My grandfather went home that night and told his mother he’d met the girl he was going to marry. He just knew it, and he was right. 

I don’t think my grandfather and grandmother questioned it nearly as much as Mallory does in the story, and I think that’s where modern culture comes in.  Mallory has a hard time trusting herself, and as a career girl devoted to a life on the political scene, she has a hard time losing the image of herself that she has created.  She’s worried about what her family, friends, and co-workers will think.  These days, women feel so much pressure to have it all and do it all.  Falling unexpectedly in love, getting married, and giving up a career is sometimes looked upon as a failure.  While Mallory’s heart knows that Daniel is the one, she dreads the idea of trying to explain things to the people around her.

Mallory’s story has been likened to a modern-day mail-order bride tale.”  Do you think this fits?  In what way? 

Mallory in many ways experiences the life of a mail-order bride.  Because she and Daniel have only known each other a short time when the job move forces a huge leap of faith in their relationship, she finds herself married to a man she adores, but barely knows.  Like any newly-married couple, they have much to learn about each other, but Mallory is also facing the sudden step-parenthood of three-year-old Nick, and the trials of leaving behind her family, her career, her friends, her identity, and all that is familiar.  The challenges of life on a ranch are completely foreign to her.

In days of old, mail-order brides faced many of the same challenges.  Our great-great grandmothers attempted to solve the problem by writing letters home, joining in sewing circles and ladies’ societies in their new locations, and sometimes by documenting their experiences in journals.  Mallory finds herself unwillingly drawn into the tradition of journaling, but in a much more modern way, when she stumbles into the blogging life.  As the blog draws fans, she becomes The Frontier Woman, and her world expands in ways she could never have dreamed.

Do you have a nugget of writing advice that has completely changed how you view writing?

Well, I’m glad you asked that! Some of the fun in being a writer is that there are always things to learn, ways to get better. I’m always seeking out conference sessions and online workshops devoted to the topics that I feel are holding me back. I study other authors’ techniques make notes, keep a scrapbook of examples and notes-to-self.

I’ve learned to watch for overbalance of narrative in my writing. Nothing slows down the pace of a story like huge patches of narrative. Narrative produces pages with big, blocky paragraphs that read slowly, and that tend to “tell” rather than “show”. I’ve learned, when possible, to work story elements into dialog, action, reaction, and short thought sequences, rather than using narrative. For example, rather than describing the main street of the town, I might have a character walk down Main, greet a neighbor or two, and reflect on a few random childhood memories of people/places. I work at using these various techniques to avoid sliding down the slippery slope of having characters engage in meaningless chatter designed only to dump information to the reader, but to always seek opportunities to work details in naturally during character interactions. Sometimes body language can speaks volumes, too.

So, having said that, I stumbled on a new technique just recently. I made friends with Siri, my personal iPhone assistant. I began to trust her when I dictated some of these notes-to-self and email replies. I began to feel a certain freedom of expression and power, superpower even. One day I put Siri in my pocket and plugged in my earbuds with the attached mike and spoke a scene -– Yes, I did!. After emailing it to myself, I copied it to the word processor, fixed up some of Siri’s errors and was surprised that it all felt good. Then I started dictating as I was walking around, really getting into my old childhood game of Let’s Pretend. So, I think I’m hooked. There was a time I only wanted to write in notebooks and on legal pads. Then there was the phase when I felt the power of composing on the computer. Now, I feel like I’m in a whole new dimension, but in a way, I’m back to playing Let’s Pretend just like when I was little.  

What fun it is to be a writer! 

Where can readers find you on the Internet?

Lisa Wingate
Fiction That's Good for the Soul
www.lisawingate.com
Blogging at www.SouthernBelleViewDaily.com  Join us on the porch!
Join me on Facebook and Youtube and Pinterest

Read a free excerpt here!

Thank you for being with us today!

Readers, here is your chance to enter to win Lisa's book!

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Contest is only open in the U.S. and void where prohibited. Chances of winning are based on the number of entries and winner is draw from a non-biased third party- Random.org. I am not responsible for any lost or damaged items for said prize.

Thanks for coming by to enter! Contest ends on February 22nd

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