Meet MG/YA Author Shawn P.B. Robinson & Writers' Tips

Before our author interview:

Here at Carpinello's Writing Pages, we're heading into the archives to bring you writing tips from the authors we've interviewed over the years. Hope these are helpful, and if so, please leave the authors a short comment.

Keep writing, even if you are discouraged. Even if it feels like no one cares about your words, and even if they did, they suck like a herd of anteaters at an anthill buffet. (By the way—did you know a herd of anteaters is actually called an armory? Well, now you do. You’re welcome!) No one grows as a writer if they quit trying. And, yes, I’ve had to take my own advice. Often. S. J. Henderson, author of Daniel, The Camp-er.

The best advice I was given and can pass along is to read widely from the best books, not only in the genre(s) you want to write, but the classics, too. We all absorb patterns of language while reading, so you ought to read the best. While you're reading, write every single day, even if it's only vague notes or a very rough draft. The only way to learn to write well is to write a LOT of words. I wrote story after story and two complete novels (never published, thank goodness) before I ever sold my first short story (about 500,000 total words in seven years). That was back in the "olden days" (1980's and 1990's) and I collected over 600 rejection letters before that first acceptance. No, that's not a typo! Katy Huth Jones, author of Mercy's Prince.

And Now,

Please welcome MG/YA author Shawn P.B. Robinson

to Carpinello's Writing Pages.

 

Here's a bit about Shawn:

Shawn P. B. Robinson, or as his friends call him, "Shawn P. B. Robinson," lives in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, with his beautiful wife, two awesome sons and two goldfish named Lunch and Supper. Sadly, Shawn’s former goldfish named “Breakfast” decided to explore the inside of the filter.
Contrary to popular belief, Canadians do not live in a continual winter wonderland. We have periods of wet called “Spring” and “Fall” and periods of warm which we call “Summer.” When it is not snowing, Shawn enjoys nature, hiking, riding his motorcycle and writing. While it is snowing, Shawn enjoys staring out the window at the snow and dreaming of warmer days.


Why did you pick to write books for MG/YA? 

I first started writing MG books for my two sons, who were 8 and 13 at the time. I hadn’t planned on writing them a book, but… well… I ended up getting sick—really sick. I ended up with a viral infection in my brain (encephalitis) that nearly cost me my life. While I was lying in the hospital, I decided I would write a book for my two sons. I figured I might no longer be able to tell them bedtime stories, and I thought that if I wrote them a big long story, they would have something they could read and remember me by.

Now, I don’t want to spoil the ending, but… I survived. As I recovered, I finished my first book (Arestana: The Key Quest) and then started into the sequel. Since then, I haven’t really stopped writing! I’m up to around fourteen books, including a YA fantasy series.

What types of books do you like to read, and what do you do when you are not writing?

I mainly read MG books, to be honest. I like them as the stories are often fun and positive. It’s also helpful to know what’s out there in the genre I write, and what works for young readers as I’m writing more books!

Outside of writing, I focus on learning how to self-publish more effectively, and I blog on that topic. We also spend time with my family, and I continue to try to recover. Recovery from encephalitis is a long, hard road.

Tell us about Annalynn the Canadian spy: Terrible Tissues and how the story came to be.

Annalynn the Canadian Spy: Terrible Tissues is the first book in my new series, and it’s been a blast to write and even more fun to share!

It started with a young girl named Annalynn. We are really close to Annalynn and her family. One day at the church both our families attend, she showed me a toy she had been given for Christmas. It was a toy spy gadget, and my wife told me that Annalynn was really into spies. I decided to try to write a short book about Annalynn as a spy and gave it to her for her birthday.

I ended up liking the story so much that I wrote five other books to go with it. Now it’s a six part series!


Here's a peek at Annalynn the Canadian Spy: Terrible Tissues:

 
Ten-year-old Annalynn has just been hired as a spy.

Two men and two women break into Annalynn's home and steal a box of tissues, literally from under their noses. No one can imagine why someone would do such a thing, but Annalynn has been put on the case.

Her country needs her, but does she have what it takes?

Join Annalynn as she embarks on an adventure of a lifetime as she learns how to fly her out of control jet, faces off against a berserk Moose, has to dress up like an Opera Singer, and finds out that thumb tacks are her enemy.

Laugh your way through this series starter in the first book in the AtCS Series: Terrible Tissues!

How do you go about researching for your stories?

I mainly use Google. I know that’s terrible… but Google and I have a special kind of relationship. I search for stuff, and Google gives me information. It’s worked well for us, and I foresee a long and fruitful relationship.

I also seek out other people who have expertise in certain areas. Just recently, for my YA series, I contacted my sister about a challenge I was facing. She has her Ph.D. in Biochemistry, so I asked her about some details regarding a poison that exists in my new book. I wanted to make sure it made sense, and she knows far more than I do about the body and how it reacts to various toxins.

Have you written other books? If so, tell us a bit about them.

Ooohhh… I just keep writing!

My first series is an MG Fantasy series called Arestana. It’s about a 13-year-old boy who gets pulled into another world. Once he gets pulled in, he has to complete a wild quest in a ridiculously absurd world if he wants to get back home. It’s packed full of adventure and oddness and humor (or “humour” as we spell it in Canada)! This series has three books in it, and I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a prequel.

My second series is a series of short stories called Jerry the Squirrel. Jerry is a Squirrel inventor and, while he is quite clever, none of his inventions turn out the way he wants them to. The books are set in the same world as Arestana, and there’s a bit of a crossover between the books. I’ve also created a Jerry the Squirrel novel that lines up with the second Arestana book, but I haven’t published that book yet.

My third series is the newest one is my Annalynn the Canadian Spy series.   

What’s next for your writing? Are you working on a new story?

I have two book series  in mind.

The one series is a YA fantasy book. Book one is written and has moved through the Beta Reader stage. It’s been extremely well received, but still needs a lot of work before it heads to the editor. I’ve nearly finished the rough copy of book two and hoping to finish off book three by this fall.

The other series is all still in my head, and I hope to start writing it this fall. It will be an MG book, but different than my other series. My Arestana, Jerry the Squirrel and Annalynn the Canadian Spy series are all packed full of humor. This one, however, will be a more serious one. It’ll be set in a fantasy world.

What advice do you have for other authors?

Just keep writing! I think a lot of authors struggle so much to get their books written because they do not carve out the time they need to write. If you just “plan on getting to it soon,” you might not ever get around to it. Just write!

Anything else you want readers to know?

Hey! I love to hear from readers! Send me a note through my Instagram, Facebook page, contact page on my website or some other creative means of getting ahold of me. I’m even willing to entertain the idea of carrier pigeons. I’d love to hear what you think of my books and how I can encourage reading in young people!

Oh… and don’t forget to leave reviews!

Where can readers find you and your books?

Everywhere! My books are available on just about every site that sells books, and you can order them through pretty much any book store on the planet. They are also available on Jupiter and Mars. I’m trying to get them into stores on Saturn and Neptune, but everyone knows people on Saturn only read non-fiction and people on Neptune only eat books. So, naturally, those are both hard markets for an author like me to break into.

Here are some easy links to find me and my books!

https://www.shawnpbrobinson.com/books

https://amazon.com/author/shawnpbrobinson

https://www.facebook.com/shawnpbrobinsonauthor/

https://www.instagram.com/shawnpbrobinson/

https://twitter.com/ShawnPBRobinson

Writing Tips & Meet the Author Duo of HL Carpenter

Welcome back! As always, I am sharing writing tips from authors I interviewed in 2016. Hope these inspire you! Please feel free to leave your own tip(s) in the comments.


The best advice I was given and can pass along is to read widely from the best books, not only in the genre(s) you want to write, but the classics, too. We all absorb patterns of language while reading, so you ought to read the best. While you're reading, write every single day, even if it's only vague notes or a very rough draft. The only way to learn to write well is to write a LOT of words. I wrote story after story and two complete novels (never published, thank goodness) before I ever sold my first short story (about 500,000 total words in seven years). That was back in the "olden days" (1980's and 1990's) and I collected over 600 rejection letters before that first acceptance. No, that's not a typo!—Katy Huth Jones author of the YA fantasy Mercy's Prince.

Write what you love despite the trends. If your heart is in it, the reader will love it too—Rita Monette author of the MG adventure The Curse at Pirate's Cove.

Always get your facts straight. And never embellish unless you have to (blush)—N.A. Cauldron author of the children's

And now for our author interview!

Carpinello's Writing Pages welcomes the writing team of HL Carpenter and their unique Middle Grade stories.

Here's a bit about HL Carpenter:

Hello, Cheryl! Thanks for sharing your blog space with us! We're happy to be here!

And hello readers! We're delighted you're here! We're HL Carpenter, a mother/daughter author duo. We write family-friendly fiction from our studios in Carpenter Country, a magical place that, like our stories, is unreal but not untrue.


Why did you choose to write books for middle grade and young adult readers?

We're not sure we chose to do that so much as our work simply evolved in that direction. Our books span genres and can be hard to pin down to a particular age group. All our books do have signature similarities: a strong, practical, intelligent female protagonist, a steadfast friend or two with a sense of humor, and a supportive if exasperating family or family substitute. They're all "clean" too. You won't find explicit sex, violence, or foul language in our stories. While we don't whitewash reality—our characters go through real struggles and their worlds are not all helpful chirping bluebirds and good shoes—we strive to create a world where readers of any age are welcome.

What types of books do you like to read?

Probably easier to say which types we don't read—if we could think of any. We're voracious readers. We like books of all genres: Historical, contemporary, mystery, fantasy, self-help, how-to. Sometimes we read two or three different genres at once, in different formats, with one on the e-reader, another in hard copy, and a third in audio version.

When you are not writing, what do you like to do?

Besides reading, we love the outdoors. We garden, bird-watch, walk, and journal the activities of the wildlife in Carpenter Country.

Tell us about The Ghost in The Gardens and how the story came to be.

The Ghost in The Gardens sprouted from an article we read about a small botanical garden and a woman who spent her entire working career cataloguing the plants in that single garden. Her dedication was inspiring, and we were awed by the variety of plant life in such a small area and how difficult finding a particular plant is.

Here's a peek at The Ghost in The Gardens:

I had the future planned out.

The ghost was not in the plan.

After the first visit, I still didn't really believe in ghosts. But when she came back the second time, I had to change my mind. I hadn't been dreaming and I wasn't crazy. The only other alternative was: I had seen a ghost.

I started researching ghost visitations. What made them stick around in this world? How did they choose who to haunt? Why had no one ever caught a legitimate sighting on video or made a recording?

Mostly what I learned was that people argued a lot about whether ghosts existed. People who believed in ghosts liked other people who believed in ghosts. People who didn't believe in ghosts thought people who did were crazy.

I was not crazy.

Finding out the answers to my questions about ghosts should have been easy. I had my own personal ghost to ask. But every time she visited me, I couldn't say a word. My thoughts got all tangled and my breath stuck in my throat and I got dizzy. Having my own personal ghost was not helpful. The visits were...creepy. Like are-you-here-because-I'm-going-to-die creepy. Maybe the creep factor was why no one had ever documented a ghost.

I shivered, though I hadn't seen the ghost in hours and cheerful sunlight warmed the early June morning. The Water Garden, a magical green fairyland of trickling streams and arched bridges, closed in around me. Shadows shifted. Bushes rustled.

I'd never seen a ghost before, not even when my dad died. Why had one decided to haunt me now?

"Just lucky, I guess," I said. "What do you think, Barkley?"

My long-legged Schnauzer scratched his ear with his hind foot. 

Have you written other books? If so, tell us a bit about them.

Yeah, we've written a few others. We're compulsive and we can't stop ourselves from writing new stories. :) Counting The Ghost in The Gardens, we currently have eight published works.

Jack and The Fountain of Youth: a new-adult novella about a girl who helps a young man rediscover the fountain of youth so he can reverse the spell he's been under for 500 years.
 

 The SkyHorse: a fantasy about a girl who finds a mysterious egg that hatches into a flying horse.

 Walled In: the story of Vandy Spencer, a teenager who has everything—and then discovers her father has been involved in a massive fraud.

 Pirate Summer: the story of a teen who has to travel back in time two hundred years to save her brother.

Dream Stealer: a fantasy novelette about a teenager who is expected to carry on the family business of stealing dreams, even though she doesn't want to.

 A Cause for Murder: a cozy mystery novel featuring a septuagenarian sleuth who solves a murder at her retirement community.

The Demise of Fyne Literature: a short story about fighting the demons within.





What's next for your writing? Are you working on a new story?

We're taking a brief break as we begin introducing The Ghost in The Gardens to the world.

In terms of writing work-in-process calling for our attention, we're waiting to hear back from a publisher on a cozy mystery, we're nearly done with the first draft of a themed collection of short stories, and we're in the revision stage of a collection of contemporary satire. We have a futuristic novella ready for re-release, and a couple of completed cozies for adult readers that we're thinking of publishing as a series, along with novellas featuring the same characters.


What advice do you have for other authors?

Write what you enjoy writing. Find your trigger—that is, find a theme or a plot or a character that sparks your imagination and makes you smile. If you try to write what's popular or what sells, your writing will suffer. Ask how we know—go ahead! :)

If you have a story to tell, tell it. Then put it in a drawer and go study authors whose books you love. Ask yourself what draws you to those stories. Write or type out passages that resonate with you. After a couple of months of immersing yourself in your favorite books, take your manuscript out of storage, and read it with fresh eyes. Revise it based on what you've learned. Repeat the process at least once more.


Anything else you want readers to know?

Once upon a time, we shared Carpenter Country with a horse whose sire was a movie star. But that's a story for another day.


Where can readers find you and your books?

The central hub for all Carpenter Country adventures is HLCarpenter.com, where you'll find links to our social media and author pages, free reads, audio excerpts, reader's guides, and photo-essay updates of the latest happenings in our neck of the human experience.


Release date for The Ghost in The Gardens: June 17, 2018

Pre-order links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Gardens-HL-Carpenter-ebook/dp/B07CV2GJZY/

Mirror World (ebook): https://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/juvenile/products/the-ghost-in-the-gardens-e-book

Mirror World (paperback print): https://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/juvenile/products/the-ghost-in-the-gardens-paperback

Meet Texas Author Katy Huth Jones

Carpinello's Writing Pages welcomes author Katy Huth Jones who writes in a variety of genres.

First, a bit about Katy:

Katy Huth Jones grew up in a family where creative juices overflowed and made puddles to splash in. A member of SCBWI, Katy has published nine books (so far) and over 100 short stories, poems, and articles in magazines, including Highlights for Children, Cricket, Cobblestone, Boy’s Quest, etc., and anthologies. When not writing, Katy plays piccolo and flute in The Symphony of the Hills. She lives with her husband Keith in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Their two sons, whom she homeschooled, have flown the nest and live creative lives of their own.

Why did you pick to write books for children/MG/YA?

Actually, I have written children's books and stories for all ages, from picture books and early readers, to MG and YA. I write for the child in me who never grew up.

What types of books do you like to read?

My favorite books are fantasy, whether for younger children (E. B. White's Charlotte's Web was my first favorite book), MG, or YA. I rarely read books for adults because they either take themselves too seriously (i.e., pretentious) or they have objectionable content. My second favorite genre is historical fiction.

When you are not writing, what do you like to do?

I was a music major in college but dropped out to get married, and then parenting and homeschooling became my priorities. But ten years ago I got a second chance at music performance and play piccolo and flute with a quality regional symphony. It's a real joy!

Tell us about Mercy's Prince and how the story came to be.

My YA fantasy Mercy's Prince, the first in a planned series of five books, can stand alone. I wrote the original draft over 25 years ago after seeing the movie Willow and being disgusted with the lead female character. She was supposed to be portrayed as "strong," but she was a conflicted mess—kicking the male character in the face in one scene and then kissing him in the next. My original version was written to prove that a strong female character doesn't have to resort to violence. But it didn't work because I'd forced an improbable plot upon some paper cutout characters.

I shelved it until early 2011, when my father was diagnosed with lung cancer, and I was helping my mother with his care for the rest of the year. To distract me from the grief of watching this larger-than-life man, my first love, slowly and painfully die over eleven months, I gave myself a writing assignment: Take out that old manuscript, throw away everything but the opening scene, and let the characters tell me THEIR story. I wasn't even thinking publication, but finally the story worked because the plot grew organically out of the characters I now knew and loved as if they were my own children. And the grief over my father was channeled into the grief the characters were suffering, so everything felt real. Once I'd written over 200,000 words, I realized this was one long epic story that would need five books to tell it. I'm currently in the middle of book 4.

Here's a peek at Mercy's Prince:

A heart of peace in a time of war

As second son of the King of Levathia, seventeen-year-old Valerian desires the quiet life of a scholarly monk. But when he fails to save his older brother in battle, Valerian must instead become crown prince. 

While a traitorous knight schemes against him, Valerian meets Mercy, a pacifist Healer with whom he can speak mind-to-mind like the great dragons. Their bond emboldens Valerian to seek out the legendary dragons and ask for their help against the monsters who killed his brother. 

Can Valerian survive the traitor's assassins long enough to find the dragons? And if he does, can he convince them to lay aside their hatred of humans and help him save the land from destruction? 


Have you written other books? If so, tell us a bit about them.

My first published novel, Leandra's Enchanted Flute, is a MG fantasy allegory of the cancer journey, which I first took in 2005 and then had a recurrence in 2015. The original publisher went out of business in 2013, so I reissued the book and its sequel in 2014, which was my first experience with self-publishing. Two of my older books are out of print, but my early reader, Stuck In The Muck, is part of a reading program with RR Books (Reading Reading Books), and my newest book is Treachery and Truth, a YA historical novelization of the life of Saint Wenceslas ("Good King Wenceslas" from the Christmas carol), published by Pauline Books & Media.

What’s next for your writing? Are you working on a new story?

My plan was to finish book 4 in the Mercy series by the end of March, and the last one by the end of the summer. I have completed a MG historical novel about a twelve-year-old daughter of a stagecoach station manager who befriends a Buffalo soldier and a young Apache in 1870 West Texas that I'm going to start letting my critique group tear apart, um, I mean read. After that I have a MG contemporary novel I'd like to finish about three thirteen-year-old girls who are all the oldest kids in their families, each one very different with varying degrees of problems that they have to work out together. The working title is The O.K. Club, but the girls learn cooperation through playing a trio together, so I may change it to a musical title.

What advice do you have for other authors?

The best advice I was given and can pass along is to read widely from the best books, not only in the genre(s) you want to write, but the classics, too. We all absorb patterns of language while reading, so you ought to read the best. While you're reading, write every single day, even if it's only vague notes or a very rough draft. The only way to learn to write well is to write a LOT of words. I wrote story after story and two complete novels (never published, thank goodness) before I ever sold my first short story (about 500,000 total words in seven years). That was back in the "olden days" (1980's and 1990's) and I collected over 600 rejection letters before that first acceptance. No, that's not a typo!

Anything else you want readers to know?

Something I realized last summer while in the fog of pain meds and "chemo brain" was that every one of my novels has a similar theme: Finding hope and faith and love in the midst of great darkness. I guess we writers really do "write what we know" because having survived incurable cancer twice, that's a pretty dark place, but there is so much light and love to be found!

Where can readers find you and your books?

My blog
Amazon page
Facebook author page
Twitter




Mercy's Prince-Amazon
Book trailer for Mercy's Prince