Bookshare is a site that makes books available in a variety of adapted formats (braille, large print, audio) for those with visual impairments, physical disabilities, or learning disabilities who have difficulty reading a standard book.  If you know someone who would benefit from this wonderful service, please check out their link and pass it on!

Although it took longer than I’d hoped, due to work, family, and continued writing, I did take Nan up on her suggestion, and sent Blue Bells of Scotland to Bookshare.  Their site tells me that: “In the final step, a Bookshare staff member reviews all books and verifies that they meet all criteria for inclusion into the collection. This person makes the final decision about whether to add it to the Bookshare library.”  On May 19, 2010, my book was added to Bookshare’s collection, reviewed by a staff member, and marked as “Book Quality: Excellent.”

Thank you, Nan, for suggesting I submit.  I am very pleased to work with Bookshare in making books available to all!

Blue Bells of Scotland at Bookshare

Order a signed copy of Blue Bells of Scotland direct from the author

Blue Bells of Scotland at Amazon

Many thanks to all who are stopping by!

Choose your words wisely, pick words that say a lot in the shortest possible space.  Think about what words really convey full, vivid meanings.   Give a few details.  For instance, does the house in your story merely have white walls?  Or are they antiseptic white, off-white or cream?  Are they freshly scrubbed, has someone put hand-down motifs across the top, or do they sport a host of fingerprints at waist level?  More interesting yet, does your character glance up and see large footprints on the walls two feet above her head?  Honing in on even a detail or two brings an added depth to your setting, in addition to telling something about your characters.

Use all 5 senses.  If at all possible, experience your setting first hand, and if not, use the internet to find pictures and research.  Use forums (nanowrimo is a great one) to ask questions of people who have experienced it.  Travel forums, such as Travelpod are also great tools, where people blog about their travel experiences, in addition to posting pictures.

Writing about Shawn and Allene hiking the Highlands was one thing; being there myself and recording every detail was another altogether.  After being there, I knew the sights of oak trees, sunlight glinting off veins of stones lying on the bottom of a stream, lichen-covered boulders, scrubby grass, shaggy Highland cattle with huge horns, and just how dark it is at night with no street or city lights; the sounds of sheep bleating nearby and the lowing of cattle carrying up the hill from a mile away; the smells of cow dung in the fields and coffee shops and fish and chips in the village below; and the metallic taste of the water from the streams and hot coffee and bridies after a long hike. 

I learned what it was like to hike through heather and moorland, with my feet sometimes sinking down farther than I expected and clumps of heather at times reaching past my knees.  It was not the flat and easy walk it appeared in pictures!  I gained an appreciation for just how cold 60 degrees can be at the top of a Scottish monroe with a stiff wind blowing the whole time, what it’s like to climb in medieval boots, and just how much and for how long muscles ache when not accustomed to such activity!

When creating your own settings, list the five senses–sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste–and spend some time listing as many items in each category as you can, for each scene in your story.  Don’t forget to write down what emotions the setting might provoke.  Research what you don’t know personally.  You don’t necessarily need to use everything you list, but it will help bring the places to life in your own head, which will bring it to life on the page for your readers.

Happy writing!

The Medallion has a fairytale quality, a story within a story in the style of Second Hand Lions, the Princess Bride, or Inkheart. Like The Princess Bride, it is set in a semi-fantasy, semi-Medieval world; this particular world is teeming with bandits, a mysterious medallion, a mischievous fairy trying hard to be less so, an enigmatic Lady, and wizards, moving in and out among the ordinary peasantry just trying to survive and make sense of the hardships of life. The story, as told by a mysterious old man, centers on two sisters torn apart by bandits in their youth. One sister finds a semblance of happiness and, eventually, a mysterious and great destiny waiting for her, while the other suffers greatly, but never gives up her dream of finding her sister.

The story opens with a narration in an almost fairy-tale style that promises something magical and mysterious to come, and sets the stage. The language is beautiful, with a rhythm and poetry that echoes the mysterious, dreamlike, fairy-tale beauty of the story itself. I found myself wanting to read slowly and savor every word and lush image, even as I wanted to race ahead and find out what happens.

What attracted me most to The Medallion was the lyric and poetic writing style. The book is worth reading for that alone, with descriptions as lush and beautiful as the Lady’s island. You can see the dew drops on each leaf, and feel the grass under your feet. But lovers of fantasy and medieval times will also love the setting, and the elements of adventure and romance, as Anwen and her sister Alana, separated years ago by an attack of bandits, spend years hoping to find one another even as their lives unwind.

The book ends with one mission accomplished, but the good feeling that there is plenty of story left in these characters, and plenty more adventures waiting for them and for their readers. I look forward to the sequel.

But it means I have been shamefully remiss and dropped a few things I’m juggling.  So, first, my apologies to Jennifer for the delay, and second, my thanks to Jennifer for her review at her book blog, Rundpinne.  Jennifer keeps a very active blog covering a variety of genres in both fiction and non-fiction.  Recent reviews include cookbooks, a book on digital photography, a memoir on dealing with a child’s illness, and a novel that delves deep into two women’s decisions about pregnancies.  (This is from another Minnesota author, Joy DeKok, whose website I will definitely be visiting.)  Jennifer’s blog is well worth following if you love reading.

Jennnifer posted her review of my book on December 4, giving it 5 coffee cups (equivalent to stars, of course!)

Some excerpts from her review:

“The story line sounded promising and Laura Vosika does not disappoint….  

A delightfully intricate tale of time travel, life lessons, challenges of faith, and redemption…. 

I found the story moving, witty, and captivating. This was indeed a page-turner and I look forward to finishing the trilogy. I highly recommend this novel to anyone. It makes for a fantastic read and would make an excellent gift.”

Now seems like a perfect time to add a comment on the characters to whom people are drawn, and why.  Jennifer says in her blog that she is more drawn to Niall, because he actually cares what happens to people, and thinks through the effects of his own actions on others.  Among the members of my writing group, Night Writers, there are those who prefer Niall– because he’s a better man, because he’s all we hope for in a man or hope our sons would grow up to be– and those who prefer Shawn. 

Why would someone prefer a self-centered, drunken, gambling womanizer?  One member of my group said, tongue in cheek, because he’s taking notes on Shawn’s methods!  A member of the audience at Tuesday night’s talk also brought this issue up, noting how Shawn got all of the attention that night.  She thinks it is partly because rogues fascinate us, as they get into all sorts of scrapes we would never dream of.  They live lives that sound fun, exciting and daring, but which our own better natures and common sense prevent us from emulating.  We live vicariously and safely through literature’s rogues.  And partly, Robin said, we love rogues because we can look at someone like Shawn and feel better about ourselves, seeing we’re really pretty decent people after all, in comparison.  I think she made a good point about human nature.

I enjoy hearing people’s views on whom they prefer and why, in part because I’m pleased to find I’m conveying exactly what I’d hoped to!

Amy and her staff put in a great deal of work to make each year’s Author’s Tea unique, and had a very nice set-up in the high school cafeteria, with decor reflecting Genny’s book.  The food service staff had prepared a nice array of bars, fruits, and hors douvres for the 68 women who came out in our first real snow of the season. 

I spoke about my book and the influences that brought it to life, including my background as a musician, and Genny spoke about the 50′s and 60′s: spoolies, home permanents, swimming caps, muscle cars, house dresses, and more.  The audience seemed to really enjoy the evening.  I enjoyed meeting many of the women and talking to them afterward.  The whole night was a real pleasure, and, once again, Amy deserves a great deal of credit for putting on such a nice event.

I was especially excited to be speaking at my alma mater, and to any Osseo alumni, yes, the blue tiles are gone!  The school is largely remodeled and refurbished. 

In other news, November and December have been particularly busy months.  I now have my blog on RSS feed to my author page at amazon.com.  So if you are reading it there, please stop by www.bluebellstrilogy.com/blog to read more on medieval Scotland, and books related to Scotland or time travel.  

I have two more events coming up in December: Tuesday night’s appearance at the Maple Grove Library at 7 pm, and next Saturday’s book signing at the Maple Grove Byerly’s, both with other Night Writers.  The Byerly’s event also features live music and our Rescue an Abandoned Book, so stop by and pick up a free used book that needs a new home.  And in the meantime, I expect to get back to blogging about medieval Scotland.  I will be focusing on medieval and Scottish Christmas and New Year’s traditions throughout December.

The event was well-attended, with nice facilities, live music, and great food!  It was also a good chance to see some old friends.  My thanks go to all who helped make the event a success, and I am looking forward to future events.  On December 3, I will be speaking at the Author’s Tea at Osseo School District with Genny Kieley; December 8, several Night Writers will be speaking at the Maple Grove Library’s Author Talk series.

On December 12, a number of us will be in the community room at the Maple Grove Byerly’s, once again sponsoring a “Rescue an Abandoned Book” event– that means come and get them, they’re free!  Justin Knauss and I will be providing live music with guitar, harp, and flute.  I am looking forward to having a chance to pull out my alto flute, so if you’ve never heard one, stop by! 

And of course, we will be there with our books.  In addition to Eye of the Serpent, I Have Been Thinking, Blue Bells of Scotland, and Sunsets, John Stanton will have his new book available:  The Truth About Aliens, UFO’s, and All That, and I have just received a shipment of 2010 Daily Planners featuring Urquhart Castle in Scotland, which will be available. 

If you’re looking for gifts for a book lover or for yourself, stop by and take a look!

I am currently about half-way through, and finding it an absolutely fascinating story, with very realistic reactions to meeting people of another era, and vivid descriptions.  I would say Jack Finney’s strongest point of his many strong points, is his attention for detail, which really brings each scene alive.

What interested me, however, is comparing the methods of time travel in the many stories available that feature it.  H.G. Wells’ Time Machine is probably the best known.  Like H.G. Wells, Michael Crichton uses technology to transport his characters in his book Timeline. 

A second method that seems to come up routinely is witchcraft or magic.  A sorcerer is the– forgive the pun– source of the switch in time in the movie Just Visiting.  An evil witch does the same thing to her unsuspecting victim in a lesser known book, a romance, called The Gray Ghost.  My favorite childhood novel, In the Keep of Time, by Margaret J. Anderson, fits in the magic category: an ancient ruin of a Scottish keep, whose key at times glows mysteriously– and that is when the switches happen.  I think Diana Gabaldon’s beloved and popular Outlander series would also fall into this category, as the characters travel through standing stones.

Somewhere in Time, the Christopher Reeve movie set on Michigan’s Mackinac Island, relies on the concept that a man can surround himself with the elements of the past and believe himself right back into a different era.  This is the idea Jack Finney uses, although with the twist of an elaborate secret government project, based on Einstein’s theories, in which Si Morley and others like him are trained in self-hypnosis, given extensive training in the era to which they will travel, and left at sites which either are virtually as they were, or can be made, briefly, to be much as they were, in the time era to which the researchers intend to travel.

The recent and very popular Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, has presented the most unique explanation to date: a genetic anomaly.

My own novel, Blue Bells of Scotland, ends with no real explanation as to how the switch might have occurred.  In Book 2, they explore that question, and so far, I have not seen a book that uses the same explanation they find. 

I continue to look for books on time travel, and am interested to find out what other methods have been conjured by authors.   Feel free to comment on time travel novels you’ve read or look into lots of great  Time Travel Fiction at Amazon!  Have fun!

On Sunday, Bridget at Readaholic posted the first virtual tour review of Blue Bells of Scotland, along with an author interview and a giveaway, open until November 19.  Read Bridget’s Review and sign up for the giveaway by clicking on the link. 

If you are busy but love books, you will especially enjoy Bridget’s site.  She is a prolific reader, who specializes in short reviews, not only for the sake of not giving away too much, but because many of us simply do not have time to read lengthy reviews.  Please check out her site.  Enjoy!  And thank you, Bridget!