Shawn Maravel's Blog - Posts Tagged "book"
Know Thy Neighbor: An Inside Look
Because Know Thy Neighbor will be published in...like a WEEK, I figured I'd share a little info about the book to hold ya'll over until then. ;)
A fun fact you may find interesting is that I essentially stole my lead characters from the original draft of Know Thy Neighbor for my second installment of the Rider series, Shifting Gears. I loved the names so much that I couldn't seem to part with them. Know Thy Neighbor had the threat of being one of those stories that I'd never get around to publishing, meanwhile I needed names for Shifting Gears so I swiped them. The end result is that I'm IN LOVE with the names I ended up with so there was no big loss. And as an added bonus I proved myself wrong and published a book I had at one point lost all hope of seeing to the end.
Whenever I'm writing action scenes I always get super nervous about how I'd portray them so I often enlist my husband, David to help me map it out. As with a flashback scene from The Wanderer, he essentially "designed" one of the action scenes towards the end of this novel and okayed it after I'd made additions and changed based on his suggestions. coincidentally my mom--who revises all of my work before publication--says that Know Thy Neighbor and The Wanderer are her two favorites of my novels. I'm wondering if I can attribute any of that success to David. ;)
I had originally started this book off thinking that it would have an underlined theme of Alice in Wonderland. I was even considering making Evangeline's character more "Alice-like" in looks and other traits. In the end I dropped the theme though a few details remain leftover. You might be interested to try and spot them. ;)
I had originally envisioned Alex Pettyfer as the male lead for this part but after about a year away from the story I came back to writing it and found that Liam Hemsworth was much better suited for the role I was writing for our male lead, the mysterious John Smith. I had also originally mentally cast Odette Yustman for the part of Evangeline but wanted to make her character a bit more spicy so I changed her locks to red and could much more easily see Emma Stone acting the part, though much less humor driven than most of us know her as.
Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm interested to hear any questions you may have about the novel and it's characters either after reading it or in anticipation. I hope you guys and gals enjoy reading Know Thy Neighbor as much as I enjoyed writing it. :)
A fun fact you may find interesting is that I essentially stole my lead characters from the original draft of Know Thy Neighbor for my second installment of the Rider series, Shifting Gears. I loved the names so much that I couldn't seem to part with them. Know Thy Neighbor had the threat of being one of those stories that I'd never get around to publishing, meanwhile I needed names for Shifting Gears so I swiped them. The end result is that I'm IN LOVE with the names I ended up with so there was no big loss. And as an added bonus I proved myself wrong and published a book I had at one point lost all hope of seeing to the end.
Whenever I'm writing action scenes I always get super nervous about how I'd portray them so I often enlist my husband, David to help me map it out. As with a flashback scene from The Wanderer, he essentially "designed" one of the action scenes towards the end of this novel and okayed it after I'd made additions and changed based on his suggestions. coincidentally my mom--who revises all of my work before publication--says that Know Thy Neighbor and The Wanderer are her two favorites of my novels. I'm wondering if I can attribute any of that success to David. ;)
I had originally started this book off thinking that it would have an underlined theme of Alice in Wonderland. I was even considering making Evangeline's character more "Alice-like" in looks and other traits. In the end I dropped the theme though a few details remain leftover. You might be interested to try and spot them. ;)
I had originally envisioned Alex Pettyfer as the male lead for this part but after about a year away from the story I came back to writing it and found that Liam Hemsworth was much better suited for the role I was writing for our male lead, the mysterious John Smith. I had also originally mentally cast Odette Yustman for the part of Evangeline but wanted to make her character a bit more spicy so I changed her locks to red and could much more easily see Emma Stone acting the part, though much less humor driven than most of us know her as.
Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm interested to hear any questions you may have about the novel and it's characters either after reading it or in anticipation. I hope you guys and gals enjoy reading Know Thy Neighbor as much as I enjoyed writing it. :)
Those Who Wander Are Not Always Lost
If you follow me as an author or you are a fan of my novels, than you may be wondering where I've been. You may be asking yourself, did she give up on writing? Has she STOPPED writing all together? What's the 411?
For those of you that might be curious, I'll brief you on what's been going on and what my future plans for writing are.
Anyone who know a bit about me knows that my family moves around a lot. And as the story goes, this past December marked our forth move in six years. A move that happened to take place while I was pregnant with our second child. In March of this year, I gave birth to our daughter. As you can imagine, settling into our new home as well as being the proud mamma of a two-and-a-half-year-old and a three month old, my hands are quite full.
My husband's job has also changed, limiting how much of my personal life I desire to make the general public's knowledge. It can be a scary world out there and I only hope to remain as cautious as I can in a world where your business is made so public, especially as an aspiring public figure. There always remains that delicate balance when trying to create a family safe public persona.
I haven't seriously written anything since completing my first screen play based on my novel, The Wanderer. Though I have jotted a few things down from time to time. I love to write but the tricky thing about writing is that it's a creative process, one that, for me at least, can not be forced out when free time is available but must flow naturally. This is not to say that sparks haven't been ignited, however, the effort to keep that flame blazing is quite a different thing when you are chasing after little ones. And I must say, I have no quorums with this. Childhood is so fleeting and so precious and I want to experience all of it.
What also remains to be a very difficult aspect of this field is the catch 22 involved. In order to become a best selling author you need to be established, yet to become established...you kind of need to be a best selling author. Making it big in the book world is on par with making it big in Hollywood or Broadway. And because I haven't had the time to try and "make it big" I have taken a few steps back to focus on my family. The thing about being an indie author is that you do all of the work yourself and everything put out to the public is only a fraction of the work actually put into it. So much more goes on behind the scenes. As you can imagine, quite often, something's gotta give.
Where that leaves me and my writing is this. My hope now is to start carving out some time to spread the word about my novels. Over the years and in my absence, I have seen a slow and constant trickle of new readers remain. Without my involvement people still have an interest in my novels. So I am inspired to now take the time to start helping my novels get the exposure they deserve. To have a loyal and supportive following without marketing, no matter how small, is justification enough for me to lend a hand in telling people what these awesome novels are all about. Each one of them is my literary child. They are near and dear to my heart. My greatest hope is to share them with as many people as I possibly can. In saying that, if you have read my novels or know me and would like to offer your support, I would love it if you too could help spread the word. Pass your read copy of one or more of my novels along, suggest one to your friend or family member. The power of word of mouth is an incredible thing.
I look forward to seeing what the future will bring and I would love it if you would join me on this journey.
For those of you that might be curious, I'll brief you on what's been going on and what my future plans for writing are.
Anyone who know a bit about me knows that my family moves around a lot. And as the story goes, this past December marked our forth move in six years. A move that happened to take place while I was pregnant with our second child. In March of this year, I gave birth to our daughter. As you can imagine, settling into our new home as well as being the proud mamma of a two-and-a-half-year-old and a three month old, my hands are quite full.
My husband's job has also changed, limiting how much of my personal life I desire to make the general public's knowledge. It can be a scary world out there and I only hope to remain as cautious as I can in a world where your business is made so public, especially as an aspiring public figure. There always remains that delicate balance when trying to create a family safe public persona.
I haven't seriously written anything since completing my first screen play based on my novel, The Wanderer. Though I have jotted a few things down from time to time. I love to write but the tricky thing about writing is that it's a creative process, one that, for me at least, can not be forced out when free time is available but must flow naturally. This is not to say that sparks haven't been ignited, however, the effort to keep that flame blazing is quite a different thing when you are chasing after little ones. And I must say, I have no quorums with this. Childhood is so fleeting and so precious and I want to experience all of it.
What also remains to be a very difficult aspect of this field is the catch 22 involved. In order to become a best selling author you need to be established, yet to become established...you kind of need to be a best selling author. Making it big in the book world is on par with making it big in Hollywood or Broadway. And because I haven't had the time to try and "make it big" I have taken a few steps back to focus on my family. The thing about being an indie author is that you do all of the work yourself and everything put out to the public is only a fraction of the work actually put into it. So much more goes on behind the scenes. As you can imagine, quite often, something's gotta give.
Where that leaves me and my writing is this. My hope now is to start carving out some time to spread the word about my novels. Over the years and in my absence, I have seen a slow and constant trickle of new readers remain. Without my involvement people still have an interest in my novels. So I am inspired to now take the time to start helping my novels get the exposure they deserve. To have a loyal and supportive following without marketing, no matter how small, is justification enough for me to lend a hand in telling people what these awesome novels are all about. Each one of them is my literary child. They are near and dear to my heart. My greatest hope is to share them with as many people as I possibly can. In saying that, if you have read my novels or know me and would like to offer your support, I would love it if you too could help spread the word. Pass your read copy of one or more of my novels along, suggest one to your friend or family member. The power of word of mouth is an incredible thing.
I look forward to seeing what the future will bring and I would love it if you would join me on this journey.
