Carnival Ink

In my last blog I talked about the new story I was working on, tentatively titled Carnival Ink. It was going to be a depression era, kinda bleak story about traveling carnivals. Well…now it’s a play on the Robin Hood mythos. And there are pirates. And magic. It’s interesting how a story evolves, isn’t it?

I wanted the magic. It was important to me to have it, and I had to make it work.  We all know that readers don’t really like a story to go, “because magic” so I had to weave it into the story in a believable way, that made it an actual part of the world, not just a mcguffin.

So I took a look at our world, the unrest and the worry and the division, and had an “ah ha” moment. So now my story is alternative history with some pretty major big guys of our past in a whole new light, pushing the story to a reality that isn’t completely out of reach. If magic were alive within us, that is.

The words are flowing and I really, really love the story. It has all of my favorite things. A strong young girl, a sassy pirate, magic and cool steampunk clothes. My goal is to have the story written this month, so I can work on edits and polish it. I want to query this one. Having an agent is the goal, and something about this story makes me feel it might be possible.

Movie Monday

I’m still feeling a bit weird coming off vacation, not back on schedule yet, so I wasn’t sure what to write about today. Then I thought again about the amazing movie I had just watched and I figured this would be a good place to talk about it. So this is my first ever #MovieMonday

Not long back I saw a trailer for the most adorable looking animated film, Song Of The Sea, out of Ireland. Now I love animated movies, I have two daughters who I so conveniently use as an excuse to watch a multitude of them. But this one was all me. I was looking for it streaming and finally found it on Amazon Prime, I said a little Woo Hoo, and called my girls in to sit down and watch it with me. The youngest girl didn’t last but a few minutes, but my oldest was hooked. So was I. I knew it was going to be beautiful and it did not disappoint. Completely different than any other animated movie I’ve ever seen, it sucks you in with the immediate magic that you feel watching this pair of siblings. You go an adventure with them, and at points you will get frustrated, sad at others, and then finally, happy.

I could go on and on, but really I just hope you find the movie and let it speak for itself. It’s lovely. Magical. Both my 7 year old daughter and I gave it five stars.

(if you click on the movie poster it should bring you to the trailer.)