Lisa Manterfield

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July 17, 2020 - Lisa Manterfield Leave a Comment

Em’s Book Birthday = Presents for You

Today is the 3rd Book Birthday of THE SMALLEST THING!

When the book came out in 2017, I never imagined we’d be living our own version of the story. But here we are.

Regardless, I am celebrating. I have birthday gifts for YOU.

Three winners will each have a choice of prizes. Up for grabs are:

THE SMALLEST THING in your choice of format: signed paperback, ebook, or audiobook

OR

A STRANGE COMPANION in either signed paperback or ebook

To enter, all you have do is leave a comment below by July 31. I’ll draw three winners on August 1, 2020.

If you haven’t checked out my podcast yet, please do. Each week I share a chapter of THE SMALLEST THING, along with some behind the scenes tidbits on the history and inspiration behind the story, as well as what’s going on in our pandemic world.

You can listen to the latest episode below and find the entire season here or on your podcast app of choice.

Filed Under: Book Love, The Story Behind the Story Tagged With: A Strange Companion, fiction, giveaway, podcast, The Smallest Thing, young adult Leave a Comment

July 9, 2018 - Lisa Manterfield Leave a Comment

A Tour of my Character Graveyard

A Tour of my Character Graveyard by Lisa Manterfield - lisamanterfield.com

The road to a finished book is littered with discarded characters. As subplots are cut and the main character’s story is streamlined, some characters no longer serve a purpose in the book and are bid farewell.

In an earlier version of A Strange Companion, Kat had a second brother. He was the Golden Child with the perfect family, who could do no wrong in Kat’s mother’s eyes. But he and his family didn’t serve the story, so they were cut and Jon inherited some of his former brother’s traits.

In another draft, Kat sought spiritual counsel from an elderly Chinese woman who had strange mystical powers and operated from a dusty old shop on a backstreet. She was a wonderful character, but I needed Kat to get more pragmatic advice and a bump back down to reality, and so Marjorie Gladstone took over the role.

One of my favorite characters, now residing in the character graveyard, is Victoria, Kat’s classmate and a potential rival for Owen’s affections, or so Kat believed. In fact, Victoria, with her huge purple glasses and plummy private school speech, was an innocent, completely oblivious to the effect she had on men. But after the “watch incident” and Kat and Owen’s break-up, Kat went to Owen’s dorm room to apologize, only to find Victoria sitting cross-legged on Owen’s bed, supposedly getting help with her chemistry homework. Although nothing ever transpired between Owen and Victoria, she raised the stakes for Kat, showing that Owen had other options if Kat didn’t get her act together.

Victoria was part of a storyline that would have thrown Kat and Owen together at a conference later in the book and forced them to decide if they had a future together. But alas, the conference would have taken Kat away from Mai and the main storyline of the book, and so it—and Victoria—bit the literary dust.

I do miss Victoria and many of the characters and scenes that didn’t make the cut. But I’ve kept all their scenes, and maybe they’ll make a comeback in another story. Who knows?

Filed Under: The Story Behind the Story Tagged With: A Strange Companion, Author, young adult Leave a Comment

December 18, 2017 - Lisa Manterfield Leave a Comment

The New “A Strange Companion” Teaser

The New “A Strange Companion” Teaser by Lisa Manterfield -lisamanterfield.com

Oh, yes, yes, I know video teasers are supposed to come out before the book, but being conventional is so dull.

So, here it is, the brand new teaser for A Strange Companion. Let me know what you think!

A Strange Companion is available on:

Nook

Filed Under: The Story Behind the Story Tagged With: A Strange Companion, Author, book, books, fiction, grief, loss, love, novel, writing Leave a Comment

December 4, 2017 - Lisa Manterfield Leave a Comment

How I Found the Perfect Antidote to a Broken Heart

How I Found the Perfect Antidote to a Broken Heart by Lisa Manterfield -lisamanterfield.com

Sometimes people ask me if the characters I write are based on real people. For the most part, the answer is no, at least not directly. The truth is that most characters have elements of people I’ve met, or heard about, or they say or do things that I’ve witnessed in real life. It’s impossible not to draw from experience. In fact, much fiction writing pulls incidents and emotions from real life and drops them into fictional scenarios. It’s the same way that actors draw on their own emotional experiences to give depth to the characters they portray.

That said, of all the characters in A Strange Companion, one is pulled from real life.

Owen was a later addition to Kat’s story. During one rewrite, I realized that, if Kat was really trying to move on after Gabe, she needed to have an enticing option to consider. And thus, Owen was born. Naturally, if Owen was going to be swoon-worthy, he had to be a scientist. I mean, brains over brawn every time, right? And so the floppy-haired, cake-baking chemist loped onto the page.

Years ago, I met a retired petrochemical engineer who had taken up baking and produced the most delicious cakes. This unlikely baker had become so proficient that his claim to fame, he was proud to tell me, was that a recipe correction he’d sent to a well-known culinary magazine had been printed in the following month’s edition. When I’d expressed my surprise that someone who’d spent a life working with toxic chemicals had turned his hand to fluffy cakes and confections, he handed me the line that would later shape Owen’s character: “Baking is pure chemistry.”

But Owen’s cake-baking isn’t the only thing borrowed from a real-life person. The original meeting between he and Kat, when they introduce themselves via charades and a rebus, is based on an another, more personal, interaction pulled from my life.

When I was in college I met “Owen.” Our friendship began with an exchange of information between my study room in the library and his dorm room window. It blossomed into a sweet and fun friendship, and would have undoubtedly developed into a romance had it not been for the appearance of a dashing suitor.

Sadly, brawn trumped brains on that occasion, and “Owen” was cast aside. (I know, don’t judge. I was young and foolish. What can I say?)  Of course, the relationship with Mr. Gorgeous went nowhere. He turned out to be neither sweet or fun, and provided my first big lesson that yummy on the outside doesn’t automatically mean yummy on the inside. So, when Kat’s story called for the perfect antidote to her broken heart, I had to bring in “Owen.”

I sometimes imagine that the original Owen might one day read Kat’s story and recognize himself, and maybe even accept his cameo role as an apology for my appalling behavior. Sadly, experience has taught me that people rarely recognize themselves in books, and those who think they’re the models for characters seldom are.

A Strange Companion is a Kindle Countdown Deal, beginning today. Grab yourself a copy early to get the best deal. Click here to buy.

Filed Under: The Story Behind the Story Tagged With: A Strange Companion, Author, book, books, fiction, love, writing Leave a Comment

November 13, 2017 - Lisa Manterfield 2 Comments

Skeletons in a Writer’s Closet

Skeletons in a Writer’s Closet by Lisa Manterfield -lisamanterfield.com

Mr. Fab and I just moved house. We had lived in our old house for thirteen years and it’s fair to say we had accumulated a lot of stuff. So, for the month before we moved, we set about the task of purging. Which meant I had to face…da–da–da–daaaah…the office.

Oh, good grief. You wouldn’t believe the amount of clutter I’d gathered there. I had receipts dating back to 2010, cross-stitch projects I started for my young nieces, who are now in their 20s, and a giant stuffed Nemo that my nephew’s girlfriend won at the county fair and then couldn’t fit in her suitcase. I had stationery, bags, gift wrap, colored paper, even the user’s manual for a car I don’t own anymore. I had no idea just how much junk I had been hoarding.

Once I’d pulled all of it out and tossed several bags of trash and recycling, I finally made it down to my box of abandoned manuscripts. Ugh, what a trip down memory lane that was.

I found a very early version of A Strange Companion, then titled Bond of Souls, in which Kat is a decade older and working as an auto mechanic in San Francisco. I know there are gems in there (Mary-Jo Lipinsky Meyers, one of my favorite characters) but the story takes a serious turn south around the middle and should never be read.

I found My Mother’s Eyes, a story about a girl who discovers the woman who raised her was her grandmother and sets out to find her birth mother. Meh. I found a screenplay attempt that was so terrible the only bit worth salvaging was the character of Mr. Scroggins, the cat who charmed his way into Kat’s mother’s heart in A Strange Companion. I also found Thicker Than Water, a story based on a vivid dream I had of two sisters tied by a hidden secret. Great concept, but also flawed. This, at least, had sufficient potential to be dusted off and re-examined. In fact, it’s the story I’m rewriting for this year’s National Novel Writing Month. (You can follow along with my progress through my daily Instagram posts.)

Most published authors, when pressed, will admit to several abandoned novels squirreled away in drawers and under beds or in the back of stuffed closets. For most writers, it takes time for ability to catch up with the vision, and the truth is, some novels just aren’t ready to debut.

I discarded much of the paper I found in my office, packing and moving only selected versions of completed books, and a copy of each of the unfinished ones. Even though there are hours and hours invested in those novels, they belong in the back of my new closet, where perhaps my literary heirs will discover and publish them against my will, and I will quietly turn in my grave.

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: A Strange Companion, Author, book, books, novel, writing 2 Comments

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