Category Archives: Fiction

How A Character Can Help Shape Plot

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By Dorothy Winsor

Author Dorothy Winsor

Author Dorothy Winsor

My most recent book, Dragoncraft, came out this September and is based on a character named Addy, who appeared in my previous book, Glass Girl. Beta readers told me that every time he appeared, the page lit up. I wanted to write more about him. I suspect many writers create characters they want to write about again. That’s one way we get book series.

But, of course, an engaging character is not enough to sustain a book. In this situation, the challenge was creating an interesting plot that makes the most of what’s appealing in that character. Continue reading →

Putting a Book’s Pieces Together

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by Dorothy Winsor

Book ideas don’t always (often? ever?) leap into a writer’s mind full-blown. Sometimes disparate bits of a book have to be assembled like the parts of a stained-glass window. The idea for my new book, Glass Girl, came together in three pieces.

Piece One: A Factory Run by Women

The first inkling of this book came from a story on NPR. In a factory somewhere in Latin America, the workers (all women) protested when the owner cut their wages. In answer, he flung the key on the floor and told them they should pick it up and see if they could do better. So, they did. When they made the factory profitable, he, of course, wanted it back.

I was immediately captivated by the idea of the feminine world inside the factory, and it’s always satisfying to see the underdog triumph. It was a beginning I could work with.

But I write traditional fantasy set in a pre-industrial world. In that kind of setting, most work was done in people’s homes. So, what could I use for my factory? At that point, I remembered a long-ago trip to the island of Murano in the Venice lagoon. Murano has been known for its marvelous glass for centuries. Glass making was so important to the city that glass makers were rewarded with high social status. Less happily, they were forbidden to leave. I borrowed both those ideas for Glass Girl. More important for the first piece of my idea, glass making requires furnaces and big equipment. That is, it requires a factory. Voila!

Piece Two: A Dragon!

So, the book is set among all women crafters in a glass making factory on an island. As the island took shape in my mind, though, I realized I was picturing it as volcanic. The volcano had been dormant as long as people could remember, so what did my characters think was the source of the occasional wisps of smoke from the mountain top? Maybe I’d been watching too much “Game of Thrones,” but I decided they believe it’s a sleeping dragon. Everything should matter in a book, though, so I didn’t want to just toss in a random dragon. As I thought about that, I realized I could use dragons in a way I hadn’t seen before.

The sleeping dragon could be a visionary who worked through shared dreams. My characters could be artists in glass whose work was inspired by the dragon, meaning it was sacred. This link mattered because it gave a whole new significance to the struggle to save the factory from a feckless owner.

Piece Three: A Murder

At that point, I had a glassworks engaged in dragon-inspired art and a struggle to save it. Sadly, I concluded that wasn’t compelling enough to shape a whole book. What to do? There used to be a literary agent—Miss Snark–on line who gave writing advice. When a story dragged, Miss Snark would urge: “Kill someone! Set someone’s hair on fire!”

I chose the former option. I killed the central character’s mother, who is also the glassworks craft mistress. Well, I didn’t, but someone did, and seventeen-year-old Emlin decides to find out who it was.

Weight is given to her search by her grief, but also by the fact that since her mother was craft mistress, her murder offended the dragon. It was sacrilege.

The Pieces Assembled

So my story about women winning control of a factory had become about women making glass inspired by a dragon. Their art and their connection to the dragon are so important that the murder of the craft mistress threatens the social order. All that added up an idea for Glass Girl in which everything fit together and each piece added to the others like tessera, creating a story that was dramatically different from any of the original ideas.

Between learning about medieval glass making, writing about a dragon, and plotting a murder, I had a lot of fun writing this book. A book idea doesn’t always leap into the writer’s mind full blown. Sometimes the pieces have to be assembled.

Glass Girl is out May 6, the same day as the coronation. It’ll be House of Windsor vs. House of Winsor. Choose wisely. 😊

 

Amazon   https://www.amazon.com/Glass-Girl-Dorothy-Winsor-ebook/dp/B0C3T2Y961/

B & N     https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/glass-girl-dorothy-a-winsor/1143392406?ean=9781913117214

Facebook    https://www.facebook.com/dorothy.winsor

 

An Unlikely Writer

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Today’s interview is with a novice voice who took a bold step into the world of writers to publish a memoir, which goes to prove that anyone can write a memoir.

You decided to write a memoir but you’re a nobody with a seemingly mundane life. Why?

A nobody!? Meeeeoooow! Quite the catty remark from someone looking to me for answers
and inspiration, wouldn’t you agree? Swatting your slight aside, let me just say that most writers know that there are no mundane lives, only poor creatures who plod through a boring
existence without imagination, curiosity, or spunk. Those who settle for skim milk instead
of insisting on cream.

I say “seemingly” because you do come across some challenges, one being orphaned at a young age. How did you get through it?

The cobble-stoned streets of Brussels were a mean but very effective teacher. To survive, I learned not to behave as a victim. Heck, the ordeals I’ve endured could fill one lifetime or even nine. I’m curious by nature and quite fearless. I didn’t do it all alone though. Even a solitary stray like me needs scraps of compassion from time to time. My success and survival depended upon the kindness and aid of an array of acquaintances and strangers.

Who do you find to be the most interesting character in your book?

Your question implies that either I can’t pick myself or I shouldn’t do so. Really, the entire story revolves around me. Who could possibly be more interesting than the hero of the memoir? But if I must choose another character, I’ll say Rex. Why? He’s about as complex as characters come. What we see isn’t what we get. A classic anti-hero with rough edges and a mean streak but also a heart of gold. A bark definitely worse than his bite. Rex is someone who isn’t easy to befriend. But he’s someone, nonetheless, whose friendship is its own reward. Continue reading →

Origins of The Space God Memoirs Podcast

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BWW member Alex Oleksiuk, pen name A.M. Arktos, describes the journey of writing and producing his upcoming podcast series, The Space God Memoirs.

Alex Oleksiuk, creator of Space God Memoirs

Alex Oleksiuk

As I near the final stages of launching my first audio fiction podcast,  I can see that my years spent in the Chicago improv scene, acting classes, and a number of voice-over lessons have paid off.  I chose the audio format as it seems the best medium to bring my characters and world into existence.

The podcast story is set in a science-fantasy universe of soul powered technology, galactic warfare and sentient starships. Space God is a tale filled with action and adventure, a touch of humor, and a dash of spirituality.  It is a continuing story told by Keph, a young adventurer from a backward planet, who finds himself pulled into a conflict of cosmic proportions.  The original idea for the series came to me in a dream, though it features an amalgamation of ideas inspired from role-playing games, ancient astronaut theory, and all the weird media I’ve consumed over the years.

By the time I finished the first draft I was writing with audio in mind.  Like many people I enjoy listening to fiction, and in recent years I’ve gotten more into audio books than paper ones. I knew it would be a daunting task.

The early stages of preparing Space God were similar to writing a novel.  Writing drafts, editing them, re-arranging the chapters, removing characters, adding characters, putting together swathes of lore that was mostly for my own reference, etc.  I went through multiple revisions of what became the first season of Space God, assisted by constant commentary from my faithful BWW writers group.  I spent many moons during the pandemic poring over my documents and refining my work, delving deep into the Space God universe and channeling Keph into this reality. Continue reading →

Moving the Lessons of History Forward in Fiction

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Ed Plum historical fiction novel

Writer Ed Plum

Ed Plum taught social studies and English integrated studies for thirty years at Barrington High School.  A Scripps-Howard grant funded Ed’s masters’ thesis, “A History of the Church of God (New Dunkers) 1848-1962.  He authored eight articles from the thesis for The Brethren Encyclopedia, Vols. 1 and 2, Philadelphia, 1983. He’s working on a historical fiction novel.

You were a high school social studies teacher. What historical time period intrigues you most?

The question is somewhat like asking who my favorite child is. I am most intrigued by periods of major cultural, technological, intellectual, and social change because of the varied responses to these changes. I’ve spent a fair amount of time studying the nineteenth century that created the political contours for the world I’ve lived in for 74 years.  Classical Greece and Chinese civilization interest me for the philosophy and literature.

What made you decide to write rather than read, study or teach from books?

 My pedagogy prepared me to write historical fiction.  I collaborated with others in designing social study problems for the classroom.  Students assumed a character’s identity from a specific time, dressed in costume, and attempted to achieve a particular objective, i.e., convince a Medieval town council to adopt sanitary measures to prevent the spread of a plague without revealing one’s modern identity. Writing a historical novel contains a more compelling narrative and has a wider impact than instructional material.

Your story is set during World War II with characters who are conscientious objectors (COs). How did you go about choosing this as a subject for your novel?
 Continue reading →