The Divining Wand

Simply defined, a muse is something that inspires. And — to discover what’s beyond their pages — The Divining Wand asked its authors: What does your Muse look like? Or what does s/he sound like? Or what does s/he feel like? Muse(less)? What inspires you to write?

Here’s how a few writers described the company they keep.

Ad Hudler (Man of the House, All This Belongs to Me, House Husband):

“My muse is the daily newspaper in whatever city I happen to be in. Newspapers are the daily diaries of the human race, and since Florida is the White Trash Crime Capital of the Universe, we writers here can get plenty of stories straight from the headlines.”

Kristy Kiernan (Catching Genius, Matters of Faith and Between Friends coming April 6, 2010):

“I’m not a big muse believer, much like I don’t believe in astrology and yet I read my horoscope every day. I am nervous about allowing anything other than me any power over my work. I always feel that if I do that, then I can blame the muse when things aren’t going well, that I can use it as an excuse to not work, or to not do my best. So, I take full responsibility for whether I work or not, but if I don’t, I still secretly curse my muse. Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone.”

Sarah Pekkanen (The Opposite of Me coming March 9, 2010):

“My muse is scruffy: He’s usually wearing a mis-buttoned plaid shirt and old jeans with a hole in the knee, and he wanders over to me, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Often I suspect he’s hung-over. “What, you haven’t written ANYTHING yet?” he bellows at me. “It’s your fault!” I shout back. “I’ve been waiting for you.” Sometimes he gets pouty and refuses to help and storms away. Other times, if I cajole him with coffee and chocolate and compliment him on his brilliance, he gives me a few pages.”

Announcement: The three winners of Jessica Barksdale Inclán’s trilogy sets — including The Beautiful Being — are Debra, Diana and Dot S. Please contact me at: diviningwand (at) gmail (dot) com with your mailing address.
Congratulations!

[Note: The Divining Wand congratulates Patti -- winner of the Crazy Beautiful Book Giveaway. If you'll contact me, Patti, with your mailing address, your copy will be sengt on its way. Enjoy!]

Our authors have been out and about in the media recently, let’s discover where some have appeared:

Kristy Kiernan (Catching Genius, Matters of Faith and Between Friends coming April 6, 2010) goes in search for the modern day Fountain of Youth in her article, Saving Face, for Gulf Shore Life Magazine – The Magazine of Naples and Ft. Meyers.

Kristina Riggle (Real Life & Liars) appeared on Take Five Book Club — a local TV show — to discuss her novel.

Masha Hamilton (The Camel Bookmobile) is featured on Author Buzz this week. Read the open letter that Masha writes to the reader about her just released novel, 31 Hours. The “official” release date for this book is at the end of September when a full presentation will appear here. However please don’t wait in checking this out on your own and even entering The Contest for a chance to win a free hardcover copy of 31 Hours

And though this news item was published last year, on August 19, 2008, — when Liz Smith still wrote for The New York Post –, read Saved by the ‘L’. That’s the first buzz about Therese Walsh’s debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, originally entitled UNBOUNDED. Much more about “Moira” will appear here within the next month.

Having learned how some of our authors spent — or wished they had spent this summer — let’s hear from more of them beyond their pages.
Katie Alender (Bad Girls Don’t Die):
“What do I wish I were doing this summer? Exactly what I’m doing! Except maybe in a cleaner house. Although I would love to have the chance to visit my brother and his family in Switzerland, but my short deadline doesn’t really leave much opportunity for that. I also wish I were losing a pound or two a week… ha ha.”

Tish Cohen (Town House, The Invisible Rules of the Zoe Lama Juvenile, Inside Out Girl and Little Black Lies YA coming October 13, 2009):

“Right now I’m finishing up edits on the third adult book (due out next summer) and am listening to French jazz and the soundtrack to Something’s Gotta Give – which is all, you guessed it, French jazz.”

Meredith Cole (Posed for Murder):

“I wish I were writing in a quiet vacation home, preferably at the beach. Instead, I’m writing in my half unpacked/half painted house. I’m not very good at writing when everything is packed and in complete disorder, so I’m not getting much done right now.”

Ad Hudler (Man of the House, All This Belongs to Me, House Husband):

“I wish I were exploring the entire state of Oklahoma, border to border, in my truck.”

Jessica Barksdale Inclan (The Beautiful Being coming September 29, 2009):

“I need to teach and I love to teach, but I wish I did not have to teach so much — Five classes much.”

Holly Kennedy (The Silver Compass, The Penny Tree, The Tin Box):

“I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing this summer. I’m spending time with my kids and husband, then sliding off to Hawaii for 12 days to take in a writers retreat and present at the conference (where I’ll hopefully inspire some upcoming writers.”

Kristy Kiernan (Catching Genius, Matters of Faith, and Between Friends coming April 6, 2010):

“I’m doing what I want to be doing (editing BETWEEN FRIENDS, starting on the new one), but I’d rather be doing it somewhere else…like St. George Island, FL.”

Judy Merrill Larsen (All the Numbers):

“I’m having a great summer–I finished a major rewrite of what I hope will be my next novel on June 30, so now I’m taking some time away from it before going back to tweak it. In the meantime, I’m traveling to Seattle to visit my son and have a reunion with my mom, sister, aunt and cousin (one of those trips we’ve talked about taking for years), and then at the end of August my husband and I are running away to Amelia Island. And of course, I’ll be reading up a storm, trying to catch up.”

Kristina Riggle (Real Life & Liars):

“I wish I had more time to go camping. I miss sitting by a campfire in the still, cool night.”

Allison Winn Scotch (The Department of Lost & Found, Time of My Life):

“Oh gosh, summer really, really makes me wish that I didn’t live in New York City. I am a beach bum at heart, so I’d much rather be loitering on the beaches in Southern Cali than pounding the asphalt pavement here. Just to wake up at a beach house and step outside and inhale the air…oh, I’m getting depressed just thinking about it. But that said, we’re headed out west for two weeks, so I should get my California fix then.”

[Note: Not only did Allison enjoy her vacation, she just heard that Time of My Life paperback edition has gone into its third printing. Congratulations Allison!!].

In whatever one chooses to do in life, there’s usually a catalyst or defining moment when a career and/or life’s direction becomes a given. And, working on that premise, it would be reasonable to wonder what one book had most influenced our authors’ careers. So they were asked and the following take us beyond their pages:

EILEEN COOK (Unpredictable, What Would Emma Do? (YA))

“One book? Yikes. I’m not sure I can narrow it down to one. Without a doubt the biggest influence on my choice to be a writer was that my parents were huge readers. Our house was always over flowing with books. We always talked about what we were reading and I grew up having an insatiable desire to consume more and more books. I always knew that I wanted to be one of those people who got to make them up. What power! To be able to create your own world, populate it with whomever you want and to choose the ending.”

[Eileen recently heard that CBC Radio One listed What Would Emma Do? as one of their summer book recommendations.]

KRISTY KIERNAN (Catching Genius,Matters of Faith)

“Wow, that’s pretty tough. I can’t pick. I was such a voracious reader. I finished one and picked up the next. I read so many, so quickly, they ALL influenced my life and my career, the good ones, the awful ones, the ones I recall and the ones I’ve long forgotten.”

JUDY MERRILL LARSEN (All the Numbers)

“To Kill a Mockingbird is at the top of my list–the first time I read it I realized books could matter in a way I’d never understood before. It led me to want to be an English teacher (which I did for 15 years) and also made me want to create characters and stories that readers would fall in love with. And of course, as an English teacher, I got to fall in love with so many other writers and books–and what I found was that I’m really drawn to voice in a book–and characters and stories that capture a specific time and/or place. The classics are good for that!”

LAUREN BARATZ-LOGSTED (Crazy Beautiful)

“After Many a Summer Dies the Swan, Aldous Huxley. It was significant because it was given to me by my eighth-grade English teacher, the same man who first gave me the idea that I had stories to write that others might want to hear.”

ALLISON WINN SCOTCH (The Department of Lost and Found, Time of My Life)

“Well, my life is probably too big of a question to answer, but my career, I’m going to have to say Good Grief by Lolly Winston. I was piddling around with fiction, writing it, but not necessarily writing it well, when an editor friend referred me to this book. She said, “Read this. THIS is what you could be writing. THIS is how you craft a good book that you are capable of.” I read it, and not only was it and is it to this day one of my all-time favorites, but a light bulb clicked on – ah yes, this IS how you write a good book. I understood what Winston had done (not to take away from what she did, because as I said, I LOVED it) and how she did it in a way that I hadn’t before, and it really inspired me. I sat down and shortly thereafter wrote my debut novel, The Department of Lost and Found.”

Therese Walsh (The Last Will of Moira Leahy)

“I can’t name any one book that changed the trajectory of my life as a writer, but many influenced me. My favorite book is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger; it taught me what it meant to take risks, to write beautifully, and that a novel is capable of evoking great swells of emotion. My second favorite book is probably The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime; again, it provided a great example of taking risks with the narrative, but it was also just brilliantly written. I have great admiration for both works and their authors. (And there are many more books I could talk about!)”

Also Therese and co-founder Kathleen Bolton of Writer Uboxed announced in yesterday’s post, On your mark, get set…CONTEST!, which runs through next Tuesday, August 4th. This requires you to become unboxed and submit as many hilarious analogies as possible for a chance to win a treasure of literary goodies. Play and have fun…

Debut novelist Lynne Griffin (Life Without Summer) is thrilled to announce that her next novel, SEA ESCAPE, will be published next summer by Simon & Schuster. Lynne claims that SEA ESCAPE, about a mother trapped in a silent world following a stroke, and her daughter, who becomes desperate to unravel their tangled family history before it’s too late, is a novel she was born to write.

Also this author is visiting book clubs and loving it! Please email her to arrange a visit — by phone or in person — to yours. Contact Lynne: pr@lynnegriffin.com

Rather than having a life without summer, it sounds as though this writer is experiencing a most wonderful summer!

Kristy Kiernan’s third novel, Between Friends, due out on April 6, 2010, is now available for pre-order on Amazon! It has yet to be posted on IndieBound or Barnes & Noble, but once it’s up on Amazon, those are never far behind. If you’re all about covers, here is the “official” art work.

Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon was reviewed in The New York Times Sunday Book Review on July 5th. Of course you read about this suspense novel here on its debut day!

Katie Alender is holding a contest at her website. Enter to win a signed copy of Bad Girls Don’t Die and “some other fun stuff!” The contest ends this Friday, July 10th.

And Carleen Brice with Children of the Waters is featured on Author Buzz this week. She’s also announced a Contest that will giveaway 5 FREE Copies of the novel. Enter by July 31st!

CJ Lyons WARNING SIGNS was one of the books featured in Barbara Vey’s Publishers Weekly blog yesterday! What great press, CJ, congratulations….

Also yesterday, Katie Alender’s post, So much for being a housewife announced the news that her YA novel, Bad Girls Don’t Die, is going to be a series! Indeed, there are going to be “two more books full of spooky shenanigans with Alexis and pals, with Book 2 set to release in Spring of 2011.” How thrilling and deserved!

And now I’d like to acknowledge two authors/friends who supported and believed that this site and role were my “inevitable.” They’re “Special K’s,” with the first one being Kristy Kiernan. Almost all know her name and brilliant work — Catching Genius and Matters of Faith –, and then there are those of us who know her by having been touched by her visionary mind and generous heart. Kristy acted as a sounding board, advisor and co-dreamer on this project. True, it was my idea, yet when “K” declares something to be “brilliant”…you have to see it through! Yesterday, she paid me the ultimate compliment with her blog post, The Divining Wand – Choosing Authors as Friends. Thank you Kristy for being an author and friend.

Katie Alender is my second “Special K” and well on her way to being Kristy Kiernan, Jr. More than a talented and skillful writer, Katie — like Kristy — is a meaningful storyteller. And then there are all of her other interests, including Photoshop “hobbyist.” Are you getting the picture? Yes, that’s correct, this “gorgeous,” “knockout,” “lovely,” and “amazing” site was put together by Katie. The design, images and ideas were mine but Katie created/perfected every little detail down to the fingers waving The Divining Wand. Thank you Katie for being an author and friend.

The Divining Wand will now wrap up its first week, running on a four day post schedule to allow for gathering more content, filling more pages, and reading more books. Have a wonderful weekend and do return on Monday because there’s yet another novel about to be released!