Interview of Fireflies paranormal author P. S. Bartlett

This spring, as I count the days until April 16 when my middle grade book The Wide Awake Loons is published, GMTA Publishing has released Fireflies by P. S. Bartlett. 

P. S. Barlett’s  illuminating novel Fireflies is about a boy who, through the "sight" or haunting psychic experience, remembers his family’s emigration to America.  The book relates migrated and newfound life in paranormal terms.   I’ve had the delight of interviewing the author, Peggy, and am  also pleased to publish this first interview at Writing Amid Used Books.

Congratulations, P. S. Bartlett!   Your book Fireflies was published April 3, 2013, by GMTA Publishing under its Mythos imprint.

Could you give a synopsis or some words about your book?  

“Fireflies” at its core, is about love and the bonds of family, however, it is also so much more than I had imagined it to be when I first started writing it. I would categorize it as historical fiction with a paranormal plot. The heart of the story is the relationship between Irish immigrants, Owen and Sarah Whelan and their seven uniquely different children. The soul of the story is the drama that unfolds when they realize that their youngest child, Ennis, is being haunted. However, this isn’t a classic haunting by any means. There are no frightening specters or rattling chains. These lost souls that have latched on to him, give him amazing abilities and bring forth awakenings and changes in all of their lives which both enlightens and enriches them. However, these spirits have another purpose and reason for choosing him but in revealing it, old wounds will have to be reopened in order for them to finally heal.

Fireflies sounds highly intriguing.  Where can the book or information about it be found?   Links?

http://psbartlett.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/PSBartlett

Twitter: @psbartlett

http://greatmindsthinkaloud.blogspot.com/p/ps-bartlett-blog-tour.html

Amazon

Smashwords
Barnes & Noble

Thinking on Fireflies, how do you remember its beginnings as an idea?   After you decided to do this book, how did it proceed?

  I wanted to write a book about a large family with the youngest child being the focal point of the story. I originally imagined him being a healer and even a prophet but once I began developing the characters, a strange thing happened and I found myself researching the area were my mother grew up. She used to tell me wonderful stories about the mix of nationalities due to immigration and although I wanted to stay with my main plot, I became increasingly curious about the history and the early years, long before my mother was even born and from there, the story just blossomed.

If the setting of your book were filmed, where would you imagine that ideally?  How would that concur with scenes?  

It would definitely take place in rural Pennsylvania in a beautiful valley; a small town with the homes separated by acres of pasture or farmland. This setting would match perfectly with the scenes in the book.

Did you understand the characters in your book at first or did they reveal themselves as you wrote the story?  Did they respond to your plot as you planned?

Names are very important to me for some reason. I’ll even research the name meanings to make sure they fit the character’s personality. By starting out with the clear idea of the characters and who they are, it was very easy for them to behave as themselves throughout the story, even when these incredible events start happening, they grow and evolve as themselves. I knew them all before I started telling their stories.

Or did your characters change your plot?  Did your book end as you expected or planned?

One character in particular had a way of trying to push things this way and that way but I held her back and made her stick to the story. Yes, the book ended exactly as I had planned.

Did you have finishing touches?  At the last, when you were editing, did you think of improvements that pleased you?

Absolutely! I’m sure the book was edited at least seven or eight times, including the two times by my professional editor. I received excellent feedback from both her and my beta readers who are also my friends. All of their input was fantastic. Also, on my final round of edits, I changed several small things but they definitely enhanced those few scenes.

Can you tell the path that your book took to being published?

I started in late September of 2012 by submitting it to literary agents in the traditional way. Having never written a full novel before, I did a lot of homework to find out how to choose the right agents to submit to and what to send. I received a few requests for the first fifty pages or first two chapters but nothing panned out. I started in groups of five a month, all the while believing they were passing up the best story I could have possibly written but once I started to get some feedback, I realized the story needed work so I went back to the laptop and did just that. In late December, right before Christmas I started following GMTA Literary on Twitter and checked out there web site. Unfortunately it appeared they weren’t taking any submissions over the holidays so I messaged Kitty Bullard who is the publisher, asking if I could send a query once they started accepting them again. She replied within a few hours and said to go ahead and send it, that she’d be looking at them over the holidays anyway. Long story short, she requested the whole manuscript and by early January, she sent me a contract.  

Is writing your main form of expression or do you have another art outlet?  If so, do these connect?

I’ve also been a visual artist my whole life. I draw and paint and my specialty is portraits. When I was a child I would combine the two by writing my own little books and illustrating them myself.

What is necessary for you when you write?  A place, time, things on the desk, a certain computer?  Do you write at all in hand?

The only thing necessary for me to write is some time alone which I don’t get a lot of. I work a full time job, I still have a teenager at home and I have a three year old granddaughter who I love spending time with. Not to mention my poor husband who puts up with all of this! J

I like to write on my comfy old sofa on my laptop. I can’t write sitting at my desk on the big PC because it feels too much like I’m at my day job.

How is the imaginative process for you?  Does it give some of the satisfaction of reading?  Do you like that part better than the later stages, revising and editing?

So far I love all of it. Although editing can be tedious, it is an essential part of the process. When the creativity is flowing, you can’t stop after every paragraph and fix things, you have to keep going with the flow as fast as your fingers can keep up. I enjoy reading a good story but for me, telling a good a story is a whole lot more fun.

What books in the genre of yours were your favorites?  Did they inspire you to write?

Honestly, I’ve read historical fiction or paranormal stories but never a book with both except for vampire novels. I’ve loved books of every kind since I was a child and have been writing short stories and poetry off and on all of my life. I honestly can’t say that any one author or story inspired me. Somehow it was just always there and either it came out in words or in pictures.

Writing a book is a time commitment.   Is there any particular way that you choose a project and how do you tell if you want to spend that time with it?  Have you abandoned projects?   Did you ever think of giving up the book that you’ve completed and had accepted for publication?

I plotted the time for this book. I had been creating the characters and the plot in my mind for months before I started it last June. At the time, my daughter and my granddaughter were living in Virginia Beach, where my son-in-law was stationed in the Navy and I knew they would be coming home in August to stay with us for a few months. I knew how much time I had and it wasn’t a lot, considering as I said, I work full time and have a teenage son and husband here to take care of. I worked on the book at least five nights a week for up to three hours a night. I didn’t get much sleep but looking back, I am so proud of what I was able to accomplish in those two short months. I considered putting the book on hold when the kids came home from Virginia and I did for a bit but when the house was quiet late at night, even if it was only for an hour, I wrote. There was no way I could have given this up.

Do you write regularly?  Have you had trouble writing some days?  How do you deal with that?

It’s a bit of a struggle right now with “Fireflies” coming out because I haven’t really had much time at all to work on my new book. I’m almost half way through it and I feel like my poor characters are in limbo waiting for me! However, I know that soon I’ll be able to get back to this new story and hopefully produce another book I can be proud of.

During the times when you’re not writing, what sort of activities feed into your imagination?  Do you take walks or talk with others in person or on the internet?

I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. They all inspire me and are all blessed with vibrant, fun and very outgoing personalities. Reading and movies definitely feed my imagination as well. I also have a select few television shows which I cannot miss which keep that hamster on the wheel in my brain running.

Do you have another job?  It seems that some jobs work better with writing than others.  Is yours compatible?

I’m an 8-5, five day a week full time employee so I don’t have the ideal job for a writer. I used to write a good bit at my day job, doing ads and brochures, as well as flyers and the company web site. I’m the office manager, for a sales and marketing department and I wear a lot of hats. Lately, I haven’t been able to use my creativity as much as I used to. My job has become more sales focused and it’s leaving me a little cold and frustrated. My income is essential to our family so unless “Fireflies” blows up and sells a billion copies, I suppose I’ll just have to tough it out because although right now I’m not as happy in my job, I’m happy enough that I certainly wouldn’t even think about working anywhere else. It’s 2013 and I’m just happy to still have a job.

How do you like to describe your background?

I grew up in the inner city in South Baltimore, which is now called Federal Hill. I’m the youngest of 11 children in a blended family. Growing up in my old neighborhood was a wonderful life. Everyone looked out for everyone else. We had corner stores, snowballs, parks, a great little league organization, tons of kids, amazing elders and lots of friends. Many of us who grew up there describe it as Mayberry North, meaning everyone knew everyone else and we were a real community of like-minded, loving people. My father worked 12 hours a day and my mother worked part time once we were all school age until later when I was in Junior high school, she finally got her nursing certificate and worked the night shift at a local nursing home until she retired and went back to working part time in a local drug store. Sure there was family drama and we had some difficult times but we always had love. 

Is there an experience or a person in your life that nudged you into serious writing?

No not really. Friends and family have always told me I had a way with words but writing has always been a part of who I am. I suppose I just have a lot to say.

What are your plans for writing?   Will you write another book in the same genre, write a sequel, or strike out into another direction?

All three of my beta readers “suggested” that I write a sequel to “Fireflies” and I have even started an outline for one but I think I’ll wait to see how the book is received by the general public first. However, as I said I have started another book which I would categorize as fantasy and it is completely different from “Fireflies.” I have many books in me so now the challenge is to find out if people actually want to read them. J Either way, I’m sure I’ll keep writing.



Fireflies is an exciting debut novel and P. S. Bartlett has obviously brought about this historical fantasy in an assuring way!  The book is available in paperback and in Kindle at Amazon.com, and as an ebook at Smashwords and Barnes and Noble. 



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The Wide Awake Loons, my middle grade book set in Northern Minnesota, is scheduled for publication April 16, 2013.  Here is the back cover copy of this  story about a loon family and the children who encounter it.


Ten-year-old Ginny and her mother are opening up the cabin where her family stays during the summer. On an otherwise quiet day, Ginny hears a male loon, Yudel, sparring with a younger bird over territory.

Canoeing with her friend, Wes, Ginny discovers a loon nest on an island. They quickly find themselves protecting the defenseless eggs against predators. On a later visit, Ginny finds Yudel drifting in the water, a fishing line trailing from his beak. Ginny’s attachment to the loons brings her to find inner strength.

During the summer, the loons raise three loonlings. Now faced with many dangers, Yudel and his mate, Owala, will put their courage to the test. Follow the journey of Ginny and the loons as their stories unite . . . 
 

More on that in my next blog post!

 

From Black Beauty to news about horse meat

Red Room has made the challenge for bloggers to write about their favorite children’s adventure story:

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." –Walt Disney

While books had been published specifically for children’s education and entertainment since at least the 1600s, the genre boomed in the 19th century with increases in population, literacy, and ease of printing. From the recording of centuries-old fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Russian and Indian authors to original tales like Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, and Swiss Family Robinson, the most popular stories were always about adventures, often with children or animals as heroes.

The word favorite as applied to books usually has me stumped.  Reading children’s adventure, I often felt I was reading my favorite  – until the next good book.  I had an especial liking for animal stories and lately, with the issues about horse meat, I remember how great Black Beauty was.  Of course, I thought it my favorite book on finishing it.   I read it again as an adult, agreeing with my child opinion of Anna Sewell’s book. 

Edwin John Prittie illustrated

As a used books dealer, I found many editions of Black Beauty.  The book was a favorite of publishers as classics go, reprinted and given another illustrator.  I tended to pick up any good copy of the book but when I looked this week, I found that all are sold.  The only other children’s classic that found so many publishers and illustrators, it seemed, was Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates.

Art nouveau binding

Fritz Eichenberg illustrated

Black Beauty was different from other animal books in being a Dickensian expose of how horse owners use the horse that carries them and other loads.  Black Beauty and Ginger, the female horse with whom he pulled a carriage, had adventure thrust upon them.  I will never forget the harness bit being pulled up more and more so that the horses pranced elegantly enough for a wealthy woman.   If this heartless discomfort weren’t enough, the rest of the book tells of owner changes, demotions for a horse, and the drudgery of cab pulling in the city.  Black Beauty himself relates the vicissitudes of his life and how he spends his last days at pasture.  

Anna Sewell could make a child sympathetic to the sharp shocks in the horse’s fortunes.  She could also prepare a child for life itself.    Her ability to keep the reader with Black Beauty during his bleak and broken periods atones to her characterization of a horse.  She has the reader loving Black Beauty as if he were their horse.  

Wesley Dennis illustration

Black Beauty’s life shows the heroism of a working horse in Britain.  Horses have figured in so many heroic endeavors that a typical horse life reveals heroism as the horse’s nature.  Sewell might have written an equine Iliad if she had wanted more exciting scenes but then the theme would be more about war.  Instead, she focused on the daily dependence humans had for their horse, a dependence that had gone on for centuries.   While many formed a close bond with their horse, horses were necessary for people who felt no sympathy for animals.   Yet I would expect that the horse, after so many centuries of service, would have a status somewhat like the cow in India.

Because a lot of people feel for the horse’s dignity, the idea of eating horse meat horrifies.   The horse has enjoyed some decades of freedom.  Film roles, racing, and pleasure riding would seem its fate now.  But where there is a demand, that old taskmaster is there to use the horse.  Even though horse meat is prohibited in the U.S., 100,000 horses a year are being sent to Canada and Mexico for slaughter.  See http://www.americanhorsemeat.com/

I grew up in a town where meat was slaughtered.  As a child, I was told that the cows and the pigs enjoyed the best lives before they were painlessly killed.   The animals were on the family farm until many of those farms were foreclosed in the 1980s.  Apparently I was born in the wrong place because I had to be goaded to eat meat as a child.  Later, I didn’t have to eat meat.  Nobody did.  And on seeing the treatment of animals, I could not eat meat that wasn’t conscientiously procured.  When I heard about horse meat appearing in European products not sold as such, I was glad I didn’t eat much meat.  

The whole issue of eating meat is a problem since humankind has eaten meat from prehistoric times.   Yet in early cave paintings, there is an admiration for a horse’s form.  From the descriptions of animal sacrifice in ancient literature, it might seem that man was seeking permission or making an agreement with the creator about the necessity of eating meat. In Egypt, the god Osiris was said to teach the growing of grain and other foods so that man didn’t have to kill for his food.

Today there are many more protein sources.  The American habit of eating meat at every meal was not typical at all of most Europeans who came to the United States.  Before 1950, that kind of meat consumption was associated with the well-off, not with the middle classes.  Cookbooks from the 1930s and earlier often had vegetarian recipes and alternatives for families who could not afford meat.

Rumford recipes

The horse meat issue is remindful of the changes in the meat industry.   Black Beauty should be read again.  I’ve enjoyed the recent films of it.   The horse was one of the most taken-for-granted animals, if not the most.  It apparently suffered from being valuable for its tamed possibilities, for being very much needed, and from being available to abusers.  Keeping young people informed about the history of horses would help them to understand the controversy better if they haven’t had the privilege of knowing a horse.