Prince Nácil Blog Tour! Day Two | Meet the Author

So now that you’ve learned more than you ever wanted to know about my latest novel, and the world it’s set in … perhaps I should tell y’all little about the crazy chick who wrote it. ;-)

The Good Lord has given me an active and vivid imagination, and from a young age I enjoyed Faerie-tales and fiction of various sorts. I was the typical bookworm, devouring new stories like candy and revisiting old favorites when nothing new was available.

As a wee tot, I expressed my imagination via drawings, sometimes making up stories to go with them. At the ripe old age of eight, I put one of those stories into words to accompany the pictures I’d drawn, and thus my very first “book,” A Friend for Max, was born. Sadly, this important piece of my career history has gone “where the woodbine twines and the Wangdoodle mourns for its firstborn.”
But considering part of the plot involved my orange-haired protagonist† dropping an anvil on a kidnapper’s head … perhaps it’s for the best. :-P

† Right from the first, I had a thing for cayennes (red-haired folk), apparently, LOL.

Over the next two years, I wrote two more “Max Books” (which I do still have), followed by a considerably better-constructed longer story about a pair of identical twins and a magical dollhouse.

I took a creative writing course between the ages of ten and twelve, I think, taught by the mother of one of my mother’s Ballet students.

In high school, I took a professional course and corresponded with a published author, who reviewed my assignments. He eventually encouraged me to skip ahead to the college course.

At the age of twelve or thirteen, I wrote my first “novel” about an English girl named Anna who moves in with her wealthy relatives after her parents are killed in a fire. Being enamored of the Victorian Era at the time, and a wee bit obsessed with my own English heritage, I set the story in 1880’s London.
Please don’t ask me why I set my story during perhaps the stupidest fashion era of the 19^th century, and in a country I’d never been to. >_<

[via Pinterest]

I wrote three books about Anna’s adventures, and at the age of eighteen revised the first book in the series. My family attempted to self-publish it around that time … and by “self-publish,” I mean print it out, laminate the covers, and spiral-bind it ourselves (Kendra, if you’re reading this—sound familiar? ;-)).

Unfortunately, this endeavor proved to be more stress and hassle than I could handle (especially when people found mistakes or things that didn’t make sense after printing). I also discovered Historical Fiction was NOT my forte, as sifting through pages of irrelevant and uninteresting information in the faint hope of finding what I was really after … wasn’t (and still isn’t) my idea of fun.

In all honesty, this experience just about burned me out on writing altogether, and ultimately brought on the dreaded Ten-year Slump.
I thank God that He made my love of storytelling stronger than my stress intolerance.

It wasn’t until I stumbled onto Knitted By God’s Plan and began participating in Kendra’s delightful Character Encounters that I began to feel the old spark of inspiration again. Writing short stories, in which I as the author interacted with my various characters in Real Life, in specific situations, got my creative juices flowing. More than that, though; it made my characters more real to me. Helped me see them not as words on a page or even images in my head, but as my Imaginary Friends—people as real and dear to me as Flesh-and-Blood (and in some cases, even more so). I began to see myself as a biographer writing the life stories of my beloved family and friends, with the goal of sharing them with others.

Many of my Characters are personified facets of my complex personality matrix, with bits and traits borrowed from some of my favorite fictional characters—literary and cinematic alike—and select people I’ve known in my life. They have become the Voices In My Head, my own personal cheering section and Greek chorus,* which I’ve affectionately christened the Peanut Gallery.
If you’ve followed my blogging endeavors for a few years, you’ve probably seen a few of them interjecting their two-cents’-worth now and again—Anton Árgentos and The Pixie being the most vocal (which is interesting, because they’re the least like me in personality. Hmmm … ).

* OK, admittedly, I don’t really know what a Greek chorus is, but it sounded cool and scholarly. :-P

On a more humorous note, it’s also a bit like living in a college dormitory or boarding-house, and having one’s hundred-plus housemates all clamoring for you to write their biographies once they find out you’re a writer. XP
But I digress …

As you can probably guess, this new approach towards my writing contributed greatly to revisiting my old writing exercise about Prince Nácil, and eventually molding it into the epic novel it is today.

[via Pinterest]

Looking back, I can truly see the Hand of God at work in this area of my life, gently but firmly guiding me towards what I believe to be my calling: To write stories that will delight the imagination, touch the heart, spark some serious thought, and ultimately, point others to Christ.

So that’s my writing career in as much of a nutshell as I can put it (now you know why my blog is called The Rambling Rose, LOL). If you have any questions or comments, please do leave them in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!

Join the fun going on elsewhere on the Blogosphere today:

July 1st
Rambling Rose: Meet the Author
Reality Reflected: Interview - Jane Foster

Until next time, Gentle Readers,
God bless,

~ℛ~