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Under the Northern Lights by J. S. Marlo

J. S. Marlo BWL Author Page

Hello, everyone!

I’m JS Marlo, but my hubby calls me Marlo, which is why I chose that pen name. “Voted Out”, my first novel with BWL,  was released two weeks ago, and it’s my first time on this blog, so I’m not too sure what I’m doing. I can’t believe my publisher gave me access to all those buttons in the blog. Trust me, it doesn’t matter if it’s supposed to be fool proof, I could manage to derail a train, any trains, even one that is docked at a railway station. My publisher is brave…

I was born in Quebec, but I've lived all across Canada. Two words: military wife. Nowadays, when someone asks me “Where do you live?”, I answer “Northern Alberta”. Quite often that person will say “Oh, Edmonton”, and I will reply “No, no. Keep driving from Edmonton, keep driving north for another five hours, and don’t forget to fill up on gas. That are no gas stations in the last 200 kms. Then you’ll find  me—under the Northern Lights.”

Someone asks me once to describe the northern lights, but I couldn’t. The first time I saw them, I just stood there in the cold, staring in awe at the night sky. It’s almost like looking at the ocean and seeing waves roll in at twilight, but not quite. One moment the sky is dark, then seconds later, an invisible hand streaks the heaven with colorful waves, and then the waves waltz for a few seconds, a few minutes, a few hours. Most of the northern lights I’ve seen were light blue, green or turquoise, but I recall two magical instances when I was transfixed by the sky’s ethereal beauty.

Many years ago, hubby and I were driving back from visiting our daughter in university at the end of September. We were on that long stretch of road in the middle of the forest (the 200 kms without gas station, or any other structures) around 2am, when suddenly the sky lit up. Waves upon waves of bright turquoise, rich purple, and striking red dance above our heads. We were driving straight north, but the northern lights played havoc with the compass on our SUV. The compass twirled around. N, NW, SW, S, SE, N, SW… We stopped alongside the road. And watched. I can’t remember how long we stayed there, but I remember the beauty of it.

The second instance was a few weeks back. When I checked to make sure my back door was locked, I looked outside. When you can see the northern lights through the window, you know they are bright, so I stepped onto the deck. Despite the streetlamps, I saw pink and purple peeking at the edge of the turquoise. We’ve been spoiled this fall as Mother Nature has given us many amazing nightly shows. Maybe it’ll continue throughout the winter.

Many of my friends want to come visit me so they can see them, but I can’t promise that the sky will light up any more than I can promise a cloudless night will await them weeks ahead of time.

Some say in the silence of the night, you can hear the northern lights sing. Maybe one day I will hear them.

JS

J. S. Marlo's Website

Priscilla Brown ponders the stages of an author's writing life

This contemporary romance, set in the Caribbean, sees the two main characters struggling with different lifestyles and ambitions. The story got stuck in the second stage described below, went into hiding for a few years, then emerged to undergo a major re-write in Stage Three.

Find it on Amazon at B01FA8JSY

  

 How did I get to be a fiction writer? Every author will have a different set of 'stages', but perhaps for most the first stage is when we decide to write a book. The type of book -- fiction, non-fiction--may be unknown, but the mind-picture arrives of 'self as author'. We've been to school, presumably we can spell, have a working knowledge of grammar, have acquired a vocabulary, and can put a decent sentence together. Millions of people have written books, so how hard can this be? Such confidence!

I think I decided I wanted to be a writer while in primary school. I came top in spelling tests, and received good marks for what was called composition which included creative and non-creative writing. Then, at age about 11, I  won a short story competition. (The prize was Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows which I still have.) Therefore, I could write! This early success indicated to my child's mind that I was going to be an author.

In what I consider to be the second stage of my writing life, a stage which was difficult and lasted years, I discovered that what I thought I'd learnt in the first was hopelessly inadequate. I knew nothing about creative writing. This period is a kind of apprenticeship, trying to grasp the technical skills--characterisation, plot, dialogue, pacing, tension, conflict, and a hundred other things essential to a well-crafted story. Lots of work to be done, reading widely in the chosen genre, joining relevant groups and finding similar writers, studying how-to books, attending workshops and conferences...and writing, re-writing, scrapping it all and tackling the ironing instead, deciding training as an astronaut must be easier than becoming a published writer. And yet the compulsion to write, to develop those ideas scribbled into a notebook, remains significant. Plus, and this is important, I started to enjoy this  preparation, and still do.

By Stage Three, I like to think I've more ore less mastered the individual elements that can pull a book together. But still, somehow, it may not feel right. While in theory the writing may be adequate, the story could lack soul. Perhaps it needs more emotion, more tension, to encourage readers to page-turn even though the dinner is burning, to care about the characters and be anxious about their prospects. Working on this can be challenging, but worthwhile and ultimately satisfying.

 Sales success launches Stage Four, when I can honestly describe myself as a writer. However, Stages Two and Three remain present in my writing, as there's always more to learn and to apply.

If you are not a writer and would like to be, I encourage you to go for it!  Good luck! Priscilla







For those of you celebrating ghosty and witchy happenings this 31st of October, have fun! 






 
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