Loreena Picket thinks she knows herself. A blind young woman who lives with her uncle, a reverend at a small-town church, she's a dutiful niece and talented pianist for the congregation.
But they're both hiding a terrible secret. Loreena can kill people with the touch of her hand.
While her uncle sees her as an angel of mercy, helping usher the terminally ill members of his flock into the afterlife, Loreena has her doubts.
Torn between doing her uncle's bidding and the allure of the fleeting moments when her eyesight returns on the journey to the other side, Loreena cooperates with her uncle until her troubled older brother returns to town. When she reveals her power by saving him from a local drug dealer, she is drawn into a sinister and dangerous world that will test the true nature of her talent and force her to consider how far she is willing to go to survive.
An exciting debut that crosses fantasy and literary fiction, Loreena's Gift is a thought-provoking meditation on life and death and what ultimately lies beyond this world.
* Loreena’s Gift was recently named 1st place fiction in the 2016 Idaho Author Awards *
_______________________________________________________________________
Author Guest Post: 3 Things You Can’t Teach About Writing
When I read that Maria Grazia was a teacher, I was
reminded of the age-old debate about whether or not you can teach someone to
write.
Is an artist born an artist, or can anyone
learn how to be one?
Human
Beings are Made to Learn
I’ve been a teacher myself for most of my
life. From kindergarten on I was often asked by my teachers to help tutor
students who were having trouble in class. I took to it naturally. Teaching
came easily to me, and I enjoyed helping others to understand new things.
No surprise then that I planned to be a
teacher when I grew up. Later in life, I was drawn to music, and it became my
focus when I went to college. When I realized I could actually teach students
more effectively through private lessons than I ever could in public schools, I
decided to go in a different direction.
I worked odd jobs for awhile, and taught
private music lessons on the side. Then I started writing just for fun in my
leisure time. Soon I was submitting stories, and within three years, I’d gotten
my first one published. I landed a job as a copywriter soon after that, and my
new career took off.
I continued to teach privately in my off
hours, and do so to this day. I’ve seen students of all abilities come through
my door to learn how to play the piano, the French horn, and a variety of other
instruments. I’ve also tutored special needs kids and those diagnosed with
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
I know that if a student wants to learn,
you can teach them just about anything. Human beings are primed to learn. It’s
how we’re made. Some people may learn differently than others, but if you find
the right key, you can unlock understanding in most any mind.
After over 25 years of teaching, I’ve yet
to find one student that I couldn’t help to learn and succeed.
Does that mean I think you can teach
someone everything about writing?
Almost.
Three
Things About Writing that Can’t Be Taught
Plot. Characterization. Pacing. Setting.
Dialogue.
All of these can be taught. I ought to
know. I’ve learned a lot about them over the years, and I continue to seek out
educational opportunities. That’s one nice thing about being a writer—you never
stop learning.
But there are three other things about
writing you can’t teach someone. They have to either feel it, or learn it, on
their own.
1. The
desire to write.
I have always enjoyed writing. I used to
keep a diary as a kid, and I loved it when teachers announced essay tests, as I
knew I would do well on those.
I didn’t think of writing as a career for
myself, however, until I was in my early twenties. Then, for some reason I
still can’t quite explain, I felt the desire to write stories. I was compelled
to get a word processor (shows you how long ago that was!) and started using it
right away.
I began with children’s stories, then moved
to short stories, and then into novels. When I got the copywriting job, I wrote
a lot of nonfiction, too. As a full-time freelance writer, I continue to do a
lot of that today.
Once the writing bug took hold of me, it
never let go.
I’ve since heard similar stories from other
writers—that writing was like a compulsion, something they were drawn to,
something that they couldn’t not do.
I’ve also talked to people who hate to
write, and I know that no one could ever teach them to want to write. That desire comes from somewhere within, and it’s a
pure desire, like wanting to have children, or wanting to volunteer, or wanting
to paint or make music or find a cure for cancer.
Some people feel that desire to write late
in life, and others are born with it. Either way, it appears on it’s own. It
can’t be taught. You either feel it, or you don’t.
2. The
love of writing.
Not everyone who feels compelled to write
ends up loving it.
Many do, but again, this isn’t something
you can teach.
Writing is hard, as anyone who’s tried it
will tell you. Some people give it a go, in the hopes of penning a bestseller
or making some extra money on the side, but when they see how difficult it is,
they give up.
Others find out only after awhile how much
time, energy, and focus it takes. Writing means spending a lot of time
alone—time you could be spending time with other people or doing a number of
other things that might be more fun.
If you hope to find an audience for your
work, you must commit to even more time. In today’s world, authors must do the
lion’s share of the marketing on their own.
In other words, the whole thing ends up
being a lot more complicated and time-consuming than most of us imagine when we
start.
Those of us who stick with it? It’s because
we love it. We love the process. We love the creation. We love getting to know
the characters in our heads and seeing how their stories play out on the page.
To people who don’t get it, it looks like
we’re crazy, and no amount of teaching is going to change their minds.
To writers, there’s a magic that happens in
the process. We know it intimately, and despite all the difficulties, we go
back again and again just to re-experience it.
3. The
meaning of writing.
What does writing mean to you? Ask ten
authors and you’ll get ten different answers.
When we start out, writing may be a mode of
personal expression, a way to share the stories inside us. At other times,
writing can be therapy, an occupation, or a hobby. It may be a way to encourage
change, or to develop as individuals.
Over the years, writing for me has been a
fantasy, a dream, a discipline, an education, a way to pay the bills, a way to
grow, a way to explore the unanswered questions, and perhaps above all, a
solace.
I imagine in the coming years, writing will
be many other things, as well. Ultimately, what will be the one true meaning of
writing in my life?
I couldn’t say right now, but I know it will
be something that I discover on my own. What writing means to any individual
author is not something that can be taught—it’s something that must be
discovered over the course of a lifetime.
If you want to write, don’t let anyone stop
you. But if you think you may be missing any of these three characteristics,
think again.
After all, writing’s not for everyone. As
Junot Diaz, author of the short story collection This is How You Lose Her says:
“You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well
and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is
golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope,
even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.”
Colleen
About the author
No comments:
Post a Comment