Books We Love Insider Blog: #WordMovie

Saturday, March 16, 2019

And.... ACTION! Generating word movies, by J.C. Kavanagh

VOTED Best Young Adult Book 2018,

Reading fiction out loud is an art form - but only if you want it to be. You could read the printed word without nuance and without intonation. Yawn. Or you could bring your story to life by embracing the 'actor' within, by proactively taking centre stage. Because reading your book out loud is actually an audition of sorts - an audition to generate credulity and confidence in your story, in the characters and in the details and descriptions of the various settings. Reading out loud triggers the auditory senses, which triggers brain function and hopefully, triggers a sequence of images in the internal playground that is within your mind - images that I call 'word movies.' The writer/speaker is in charge of setting the mood and instilling uniqueness to each character, all by using tone of voice, hand gestures, facial expressions. It's acting out your own novel and generating a word movie.

How exciting is that?

Yeah, it seems that way until you're challenged to read your novel to a group of teenagers. In a classroom.

That's where I'm headed in the next couple of weeks - to 'read' my second novel, The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends, to a group of Grade 8 students. My throat gets dry, my knees knock and I tremble at the thought of 'acting' out my book. Basically, I'm performing my audition of every character and every scene in Darkness Descends. But... I believe in my book. I believe the story. I believe and love/hate the characters. And I believe that a truly good book will draw the reader into the playground-mind of the writer so that they both 'see' the same word movie. If I can keep a group of teenagers engaged, then I'll know my audition was successful.

I hope everyone who's read The Twisted Climb series enjoyed the word movies. I did. I'm proud of the fact they both were voted Best Young Adult Book (The Twisted Climb in 2016 and Darkness Descends in 2018).

Speaking of auditory senses, kudos to authors Jude Pittman and John Widsomkeeper for delivering the first audio-book for BWL Publishing, entitled "Street Justice." You can find the audio book via this link: http://www.bookswelove.net/authors/pittman-jude-mystery-romance/

TWO Book Signing Events

Come see me on Saturday, March 30 at the Chapters store in Newmarket, Ontario from 1 till 5.
Two weeks later, I'm heading to the Chapters store in Barrie, Ontario (Saturday, April 13). Drop by!

J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll

AND

The Twisted Climb,

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh

www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh

Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)

Friday, November 16, 2018

Is a big stick required? by J.C. Kavanagh

Darkness Descends,

Book 2 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

So you've read a book. A fantastic book. You immersed yourself in the characters and in the various scenes and allowed yourself to be pulled into the intricacies of the plot. The words in the book joined together like a movie unfolding in your mind - word for word, paragraph for paragraph, page by page. What I like to call a word movie.

Finally, you flip the last page and then sit back slowly in satisfied awe.

Now what?

Well, if you really-truly-completely want to share your satisfaction and acknowledge the author's way with words, a 'thank you' in the form of an online book review is your next step.

But somehow, the book review is a step that most people skip.

It's not because they don't want to say 'thank you' for the wonderful piece of work, or 'thank you' for bringing them totally and completely into the playground of the author's mind, it's because... well, it's because it's not encouraged enough. Not stressed enough. The importance of writing a positive review makes a huge impact on a writer's audience and fan-base. Think about it. How often do you search specifically for a particular author, or for books that are 4- or 5-star reviews? All the time? Most of the time? Probably.

Some websites make it easy to write a review. Others, not so easy. It's the resolve of the reader that determines which website(s) they place their opinion and name. Mind you, not all sites require the inclusion of your real name - so some form of anonymity is allowed. I know that the anonymous review is often the crutch used by negative trolls, but I'm only speaking to the readers who truly enjoy jumping in and out of the author's page-by-page creative playground.

If readers understood how important it is to share a positive reading experience with others around the globe, there would be more 'famous' writers. Yeah, I really think so. Then, 'unknown' writers would have their works lifted for others to 'see' the word movie that each book brings to the screen of your mind.

It doesn't take a big stick to write a review. All it takes is some good words.

That's the 'thank you' a good author deserves.