Category Archives: Writing

Ghost Writer

www.ghostwriterwriting.com

www.ghostwriterwriting.com

Once upon a time I thought I’d like to write picture books. After all, I loved reading picture books and was sad when my children became too old to enjoy them with me.  My first attempt was a story called The Noodle Monster and it was based on the antics of my two-year-old daughter who refused to eat anything but noodles ~ noodles for breakfast, noodles for lunch, noodles for dinner. I had great fun imagining the illustrations for this story as this little girl slowly begins to turn into a Noodle Monster, her hair growing in like fusilli noodles, a cannelloni body, a tortellini nose, macaroni ears  …. you get the picture. However, after many, many rejections from publishers I realized that I was not going to become the author of a picture book. Not yet, anyway. Continue reading →

Writing Pain

grievingThe theme of my current novel-in-progress is grief. Each morning when I re-enter the world of my characters I have to delve back into their pain, and it’s really hard. I wish I was writing about joy. That would bring lightness to my life, but that’s not the story that’s calling to me right now. I know that the writing will get easier towards the end as my characters work through their grief, and, (hopefully) find meaning in it but here in the middle it’s agony, which is exactly what grief is.

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.” (Robert Frost)

I struggle on, and in doing so I learn, for in the end that is why I write.

Feeling Blessed

Book launchThe book launch for Allegra was a great success. So many of my friends came out to support me on this happy occasion. One of my daughters was unable to attend but she was there in spirit, and look at how much she resembles Allegra!Cara & Allegra2Cara & Allegra

The First Review for Allegra is in…

Book reviews…. and it’s pretty good!

Excerpts from Quill & Quire, April 2013…

“Allegra’s anxiousness and love of dance (and, as the book progresses, music) feed into each other, resulting in a character who might have little in common with the average teen, but is deeply sympathetic and interesting. As an examination of mental health troubles, the book is a sophisticated and subtle anomaly in a genre that often places emphasis on the ‘issues’ first and characters second.”

“Hrdlitschka’s prose is clean and clear as she balances Allegra’s school and home life, which includes the dancer’s complicated relationship with her musician parents. Avoiding the one-dimensional depictions often foisted on older generations in YA, Allegra’s mother and father are fully realized, flawed, and believable.”

“You can’t hear the music, but you can feel it in this fresh, engrossing story.”

Phew!!

On Pins and Needles

pins-and-needles-purple-cushionI once sat on a panel of authors and we were fielding questions from an audience of teenagers. One of the questions was, “What is the hardest thing about being a writer?” My immediate response was “Rejection Letters”, but when the writer to my left said “Bad Reviews” I quickly retracted my answer to agree with hers. Continue reading →

Uncanny Similarities

The Chosen OneI recently read The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams. I selected it because I knew it dealt with polygamy, just as my book Sister Wife does. It’s a subject that fascinates me so I was curious to see how Williams handled it. What I didn’t expect was that our two stories would share so many of the same elements. In each book the young protagonist is secretly meeting a teen boy, a hugely forbidden activity. They both have mothers who are struggling with their pregnancies. They are both about to be married to a much older Sisterwife wpman. They both have a little sister they are very attached to. They also both have a sister who is close in age and more committed to the religious practises. Forbidden books and librarians are featured in both stories. The list goes on…

I checked the publishing dates and they came out at about the same time which is not surprising, polygamous communities were being highlighted in the news then, but still, the similarities were uncanny. Most of us know that when two writers set out to write about the same subject, the books usually come out distinctly different. Not in this case.

Our writing styles are very different though and although the story endings are similar, they each have a different twist. Regardless, I find it amazing that someone else’s writing brain works so much like my own…


My heroes

What Happened to IvyOver the weekend I read two young adult novels that tackled extremely difficult topics and yet both authors handled the themes brilliantly. I truly admire these two writers for taking on these subjects. It wouldn’t have been easy.

The first book was What Happened to Ivy by Kathy Stinson where she explores ‘mercy-killing’ and the implications of it. She shows the many different ways of looking at the ‘accidental’ death of a girl with multiple disabilities.

The second one was My Book of Life By Angel by Martine Leavitt which looks at child/teen prostitution on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside during the days of Robert Pickton. My Book of Life

Both books deal with grim subjects but are told beautifully and with compassion. They ask the reader to reflect on the dilemmas the characters face, and perhaps see those situations in a new light. They are the kind of books I try to write myself, books that explore those ‘grey’ areas and try to make sense of an aspect of human behaviour that at first glance appears senseless .

These two authors inspire me to dig deep in my own writing, and to not shy away from the ‘tough stuff’. They are my heroes.