Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Day 15: Month-long-anniversary-celebration: Perks of the Writer's Life by Naomi Kinsman + Shades of Truth Giveaways


  Bookshelf Confessions welcomes Naomi Kinsman, author of (Faithgirlz!/From Sadie's Sketchbook #3) for a guest post and giveaway:
Perks of the Writer’s Life
by Naomi Kinsman

People often dream about what they’d choose to do if they could have another life. As a writer, I’m realizing that one of the many perks is that I get to explore those imagined lives. Characters need all sorts of life experiences, and the more unique, the better: bee-keeping, glass blowing, drag racing, scuba diving... In order to collect story ideas, then, I’m required to be an explorer in my own world, take on new challenges, try new things. 

Sometimes the experiences are once in a lifetime, not likely to be repeated events. But other times, the experiences seep over into my real life. When this happens, I end up with a new habit that once belonged to a character. Sadie, of my From Sadie’s Sketchbook series, gave me one of her habits. She taught me to keep a sketchbook. At first when I started writing the series, I picked up drawing as a hobby to tap into how Sadie would feel as she learned to see, to make shapes on the page. 

As the writing progressed, I learned from Sadie how much insight was to be found in images. As an artist sketches and then begins to refine and layer an image, the concentration and focus leads to new thoughts, new discoveries. Whether I’m drawing an idea from my mind or drawing something I’m looking at directly, the rest of my mental chatter falls away and new ideas pop up. Sometimes it’s a creative idea such as I should draw this next, or write that next. More times than not, it’s a personal discovery. Ah. I need to spend more time on x or stop doing y.

My life is richer because of what I learned from Sadie. Maybe this is one reason that I encourage all people, even those who don’t aspire to be writers professionally, to write every once in a while. Even if you’re not writing fiction, write about your own life. Capture the details. Writing is thinking made visible, so when you write, you can’t help but make new discoveries. Who knows? Your writing might might lead you to a vacation, a new hobby, or a new friend. On the flip side, be an adventurous reader, too. Explore some of those dream lives on the pages of books. Stories take us to wonderful places, and often, they change our lives.
About the author
Naomi Kinsman is the author of Spilled Ink (winner of the 2009 Moonbeam Gold Medal for Educational/Activity book) as well as the From Sadie’s Sketchbook series (Zondervan). She has written and directed over 50 plays for young audiences, and has written for Highlights, Spider and Devozine magazines.

As founder of the Society of Young Inklings, Naomi shares her passion for writing and creativity with young people across the country. Society of Young Inklings offers game-based classes, unique resources, national club membership and publishing opportunities for young writers. Naomi has a BA in Theatre Arts from Seattle Pacific University, has studied theatre with the Piven Theatre Workshop and ACT, and has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University.

She is the Assistant Regional Advisor for the San Francisco South chapter of SCBWI. Naomi lives in Northern California with her husband, and identically colored pets: a tuxedo cat and a Portuguese Water Dog

 Author, From Sadie’s Sketchbook Series
Shades of Truth
It's Going to Be a Bear of a Year Sadie thought she'd have a perfect fresh start when she moved to Owl Creek, Michigan, but finding her place in her new school proves harder than she expected. In this divided town, Sadie's father's job mediating between bear hunters and researchers doesn't help her social life. Sadie's art instructor encourages her to explore her beliefs and express herself through her sketchbook, and things improve after Sadie befriends a kind girl from school and a researcher's son---but she can't stop worrying about the bears. As everything swirls around her, Sadie must learn what it means to have faith when you don't have all the answers.
I've been lucky enough to read one of her books, Waves of Light as an ARC, go check out my review here 
 
GIVEAWAY 
2 copies of Shades of Truth

or click here 
Grab my Giveaway Button!

Bookshelf Confessions

<div align="center"><a href="http://bookshelfconfessions.blogspot.com/" title="Bookshelf Confessions" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-BTaW9ir2Z8_dYjpkVyYet9novazV1u6MCJLLXFUMNA3u0XiFYmMusePWk71pHtCQRmJwZPZs0WqRupFNVY8bP8P4aBn2BqmkwOy-BWiWMPEodW6Qp1oPhtFmSXSR5FrdCruK01Bxt3c/s1600/MyBannerMaker_Banner.jpg" alt="Bookshelf Confessions" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comments are very much appreciated!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Listia

Auctions for free stuff at Listia.com