Riding the Autumn Train Blog Hop

Do you have a favorite fall memory linked to a train? What do you imagine you would see if you were riding a train in the fall? Join the authors of Wild Child publishing and Freya’s Bower as we Take an Autumn Train Ride through our blogs.

Prizes will include

• Four $50 gift certificates (two for Wild Child and two for Freya's Bower)
• An awesome swag package that includes:
• • Bookmarks
  • Books
  • Wild Child T-shirt and mug
  • Wild Child and Freya's Bower bags
  • Four handmade, crochet coasters by Kit Wylde
  • An autographed copy of Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
  • A rare DVD copy of the Matheson/Furst classic "Up The Creek" (lovingly used)
  • One ebook copy of Nita Wick’s short story, The Dream (previously published as part of a Freya’s Bower anthology.)
  • Book trading cards
  • Signed Dangerous Waters poster
  • copy of "Battle for Blood: The Blood Feud"
  • the winner’s name as a character in Kissa Starling’s next sweet romance story.
  • A Yankee Candle

and more...

Falling Leaves and Idea Stories
By Matt Campbell

Fall always makes me think of my college years. Something about that drastic change in the weather and landscape forces me to remember my own changes through the years. A lot of that change hinged on college.

In my junior year, I took a creative writing class that focused on short stories. At this time in my life, I was going through some personal problems, and sadly, I didn’t pay attention in class nearly as much as I should’ve. I saw no merit in short stories because I was a novelist. Looking back, I was like one of the mean trains in The Little Engine That Could. “I pull the likes of you? I think not!”

The biggest problem with my short stories class was not my huge ego. This was a high level writing class, and huge egos filled the room. No, my problem was my writing, which at the time I thought was damn good. Looking back, I was lucky to have passed at all.

The story that stands out the most for me in that class was titled The Silence of the Dawn. Based loosely around my own life problems, it was about a guy who has a love-hate relationship with his girlfriend (spoiler: her name is Dawn…ugh). Starved for attention, Dawn attempts suicide by swallowing a bunch of pills, then chickens out, but she dies anyway because the boyfriend ignores her.

Tragedy everywhere, most of it in the title alone, but to me, this was the greatest short story ever written. The characters were so lifelike, so real to me, that anyone reading this would be reduced to a blubbering mess. I turned it in to my prof half expecting him to read it in front of the class next week because the emotions it stirred up were so poignant.

So I was shocked when he returned it to me with barely a passing grade. “No connection to the characters”, “No character development”, and “Cliché title” were among his comments. I was furious, but I swallowed my anger, convinced that I was graded so poorly only because I’d fallen asleep in his class once. I brushed the bad grade under the rug, but I never did quite learn the lesson I was being taught, at least, not until much later in life.

An author in my writing group put a name to this type of story just a few years ago. He called stories like this an idea story. The idea might be a good one, but the story doesn’t work because it’s merely a shell built around an idea. I know now that The Silence of the Dawn was only an idea story. The emotions were strong in my own mind, but I failed to convey them properly in my characters. My characters were only barely acting out the idea, leaving my reader to stumble through the story with no connection to either the characters or the story. I was the only one who felt anything, and that was because I was focused more on the idea rather than the actual writing.

It seems strange to be writing about this now, nearly a decade later, reminiscing on stories that remind me of the fall. The lesson should not have taken so long to learn, but I’m glad I did. I’ve always used my own emotions to help fuel my writing, but that can’t be the only thing driving me. Perseverance and commitment are needed, as is strategy. Idea stories are a great way to find a beginning, but the characters and the writing are what truly matter. Discovering the binding elements between your idea, your story, and your character can be one of the most rewarding aspects of writing.

Over the last twenty years, Matt Campbell has been putting his love for fantasy down on paper. He began writing at the age of 11, but he has been telling stories long before then. With interests in writing, woodworking, parenting, comic books, movies, and video games, Matt always has something new to write about and to inspire him.

Matt’s passion for wonder and love for the fantastic inspired him to write his debut novel, The Chosen of the Light. At a staggering 400,000 words, Matt was forced to split his novel up into three books, the first of which, Spirit Summoner, is due later in 2013.

THE CHOSEN OF THE LIGHT: SPIRIT SUMMONER is an epic fantasy novel, coming in late 2013 from Wild Child Publishing.

Darr has the ability to hear the disembodied voices of the spirits. Unfortunately, the spirits have nothing useful to say. A young, inexperienced Spirit Summoner, Darr often wonders at the purpose of such a useless ability. When an unnatural fire sweeps through his village, Darr sets out on a mission of self-discovery and curiosity.

As a Spirit Summoner, Darr learns he can enter the spirit realm. There he has access to the elemental magic contained within the Sephirs, legendary artifacts that once promised balance for a world turning towards chaos. Now, the Sephirs’ powers are dwindling since their untimely disappearance, and Darr is at the center of the quest to find and recover them. Suddenly, Darr’s curiosity is a whirlpool threatening to drown him, but his compulsion to see things through locks him into a journey attracted to disaster.

For the Sephirs do more than restrain the primal forces of magic. The Devoid, an evil long caged and hungry, has begun to loosen the bars of its prison. If the Sephirs fail, the Devoid will escape and feed on the Light of the living until nothing remains.

And the Devoid knows Darr’s lack of confidence is the key needed to free itself completely.

---

Please visit these sites for more chances to win, the more you visit the more chances you have to win. We have 46 participating authors. You can stop at as many or as little blogs as you wish. At each stop, you will find two chances to enter per blog to win some awesome prizes. If you visit all, that’s 92 chances to win! There will be five, lucky winners.

Take the Blog Train and Visit These Blogs for more chances to win:

Marci Baun/Kit Wylde
Critters at the Keyboard
Teresa D'Amario
Judith Leger, Fantasy and Comtemporary Romance Author
Writing
The Fictional World of Jaime Samms
Follow Where the Path will Take You
The Wandering Mind of Lizzy P. Bellows
Where Love and Magic Meet
Kissa Starling
Marianna Heusler
Hell's Ambrosia
C.M. Michaels
The Shadow Portal
The Blog Zone
Blog By iMagine
Ardyth DeBruyn Author Blog
Shadows of the Past
Dear Reader
Cassie Exline -- Mystery and Romance
Sarcastic Rambling & Writing
That's What I Think
Sue's Random Ramblings

Make Old Bones
Elements of Mystery
Molly Dean's Blog
Kenzie's Place
The Forbidden Blog
David Huffstetler
Cassandra Ulrich
Carol Marvell
Andrew Richardson
Nick Lloyd
Fiddleeebod -- land of stories
Nita Wick's Blog
Ruth G. Zavitsanos
Too Poor for Texas
Jenn Nixon
City of Thieves
Musings and Doodles
Husein
The Western Writer
Bike Cop Blog
The Character Depot
Allen Currier
Tracy Holohan

CLICK BELOW TO ENTER:

a Rafflecopter giveaway