Amazon
Caroline and Mordecai the Gand is a middle-grade fantasy novel full of adventure and heart. And, at its core, there is a message of hope. Of learning to heal when grief brings you down into a dark place you feel there is no escape from. Seeing as how the author wrote the book after receiving a grim cancer diagnosis, the story packs an even more powerful punch (especially that ending). I may have shed a few tears (or more) after I closed the book.
The story follows Caroline, a teenage girl who is dealing with the loss of her father. She's hurting, and not just from sadness and grief. She blames herself, and the guilt is eating away at her. Escaping into the woods for some alone time, Caroline discovers a strange window in the middle of the lake. And when she tries to get a closer look after climbing a tree, she falls throw the window (actually a doorway) into a strange, new world where she meets Mordecai the Gand.
Caroline's journey through this new world, with Mordecai as her guide, is filled with a unique tribe of people who may or may not eat travelers, a witch who may be more similar to Caroline than she knows, a dark, mysterious shadow creature, and yes, even a dragon. Along the way, Caroline learns an important lesson: trying to forget the bad also takes away the memories of he good. You can't have one without the other, and if you try, then life just isn't what it's meant to be.
A quick, easy read for tweens and teens, and even young-at-heart adults.
4.5 stars
Guest Post
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?
Where do you get your ideas? is the most common question asked during conferences, book signings, and even over beers with friends. The question comes up so often that most authors usually have a few good one-liners stuck in their back pocket. Fake answers that try to be funny “I just watch my crazy family” or “I used to watch the news, but that’s stranger than any book nowadays.” Yeah, not great answers. The reality is that the real answer is a bit scary.
Nobody knows.
And everyone is just a little afraid that at some point the ideas will stop coming.
it's kind of like a golfer or a baseball player trying not to think too hard about their swing while they’re in the middle of a game. Once you start tinkering, once you start over-thinking, you're sunk.
That's not to say that during the offseason or in practice before the game it's always worthwhile checking on your mechanics and trying to find ways to improve. That's what writing is, constant evolution. And that's really where ideas truly live – as part of the writing.
What I mean is that you could give five different authors the exact same premise of an idea, even one built out quite a bit from a plot perspective which characters detailed out, then send them all away into cabin in the woods for six months only to have five vastly different books come out of it. So, the idea of a plot, is not where the real action happens. But rather in the execution.
Still, you have to start off with an idea of some kind. My favorite sources tend to be from real life experiences, newspaper clippings, weird dreams, my kids. The key is a constant vigilance in life always asking the what if scenarios.
Reminds me of a time I went into photography. What I loved about carrying a camera with me was that suddenly prosaic landscapes and simple buildings turned into interesting opportunities to find just the right angle to create a cool image. Instead of my eyes wandering across an open field of rolled up hay bales in Iowa, I would stop my car and trudge across the field in order to get an interesting photo of them lined up in a geometric pattern. That constant mindset caused me to look at the world differently than if I did not have the camera in my hands.
I have the same experience when approaching life with the intent of always being open for new story ideas. It's hard for me not to walk into a beautiful cathedral and not look for an interesting place for a clandestine meeting, or a bomb to be placed, or some symbolism or imagery that could speak to a character. Sometimes the smallest thing can trigger the idea.
The truth is that just like with photography and the endless number of images that could be created, authors tend to have piles and piles and piles of ideas and just not enough time to decide which to pursue.
Like most things in life, the success is being open at all times to the possibility what might be. And then, if you're lucky, recognizing the idea that will capture your imagination for a year or more as you write it.
But the next time
your author friend invites you for drinks, just know there’s a great chance
you’re about to end up in her new book!
Happy reading!
Jeff Gunhus
www.JeffGunhus.com
Sounds like a great book.
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