Laura writes time travel/Scottish history novels. I've not read any of them, but they do look interesting.
The blog of a girl who's looking for God's plan for her life. In the mean-time, she's knitting books and writing scarves ... or something like that.
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Hi, Kendra and readers! Thank you for having me today!
ReplyDeleteHi, Laura! What got you interested in writing time travel/Scottish history books? They sound like they'd be SO cool ;).
ReplyDelete~ Savannah
scattered-scribblings.blogspot.com
Hi, Savannah, thank you! I'm biased of course, but I've had a lot of fun writing them! It was a children's book called In the Keep of Time that I think first sparked my interest in time travel. It's the story of four children who go into a medieval keep in the 1970s and come out in the 1500s in the midst of the cattle raids and other issues.
DeleteAs to Scotland, that sort of came from a piece of trombone music (I was originally a freelance trombonist with a degree in music) called Blue Bells of Scotland, whose lyrics speak of streaming banners and noble deeds. Who doesn't love stories of noble deeds and heroic sagas! I wanted to write a book that captured some of the spirit of that song, and it seemed it had to be set in Scotland, with that title, so I started looking for a battle in Scottish history, and settled on Bannockburn, their greatest victory.
Very cool! I love how you got inspired by a piece of music, that's really neat ;). Thanks for sharing!
Delete~ Savannah
scattered-scribblings.blogspot.com
Thank you, Savannah! One thing I love about the world of music is that it's full of stories, in ballads, in ballets, in orchestral pieces. I could spend several lifetimes writing stories spun from these sources.
DeleteOohhhh! I think this is the series I need to read based on yesterday's character interview post.
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
-Do you have any special connection to Scotland? Or do you just write about it because it's awesome?
-What's your favorite part of the writing process?
-What's the strangest writing advice you've ever received (that's still true)?
Hi, Sarah, thank you! I hope you'll enjoy them!
DeleteScotland is wonderful! I've been there five times now. But I had no other connection to it, except for the trombone piece Blue Bells of Scotland. Of course *now* I have a special connection to it, and even had a friend, through my writing, who welcomed me into her home every time I went.
My favorite part of writing is the writing itself and the research. I love that I can spend hours learning and call it 'work!' And I love getting lost in the actual writing, as Shawn, Niall, Allene, and Christina...do as they will!
I hate the editing.
I can't think of any really strange writing advice I've gotten! But I got one unique perspective from a friend when I was really stuck on all the possible ways the story might go. He was quite excited and said, "This is the FUN part! It's like playing with your action figures!" Sometimes, it still helps me to think of it like that when I feel stuck. What would Action Figure Simon do now? (BWAHAHAHA!!!)
Cool! Thanks for sharing!
DeleteMy question for you Laura is how you do your research? Do you have a background in Scottish history? Or is it something you were just interested in? How much time did you spend researching before you wrote these books?
ReplyDeleteHi, DJ, thanks for being here!
DeleteI research by book, internet articles, asking questions on forum, listening to youtube videos, and going directly to Scotland, to the locations in my book, as often as possible. I have a vast and growing collection of books on all things medieval and Scottish, and expanding into Wales and England, as the events there obviously impact what was happening in Scotland at the time. Some are very specific--James Douglas, Robert the Bruce, Roger Mortimer (who was English), and some are much broader "medieval Europe," for example.
My only background in Scotland, originally, was the trombone piece Blue Bells of Scotland, and the children's book In the Keep of Time by Margaret J Anderson, which is set in Scotland.
Probably my love of it stems partly from spending my early years in Germany, though, when I did see plenty of castles and medieval towns, and traveled to Spain and England.
I do my research as I write, but I would say the research takes up at least twice as much time as the writing and editing combined. I can spend a day and a half tracking down an answer to a small detail, so I don't create an anachronistic moment--kilts, canons and buttons did not exist in Niall's time.
It's amazing, when you get into writing history, all the little details of daily life you become aware of, that have to be right--and aren't necessarily discussed much by historians.