Lisa Manterfield

  • Home
  • Books
    • The Smallest Thing
    • A Strange Companion
    • Shorts
    • Non-Fiction
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • For Book Clubs
  • Meet Lisa
  • Contact

August 28, 2017 - Lisa Manterfield 2 Comments

How Aiden Walked into Em’s Story and Almost Stole the Show

How Aiden Walked into Em’s Story and Almost Stole the Show by Lisa Manterfield -lisamanterfield.com

We authors love our main characters. We have to if we’re going to spend so much time with them. But I’m always interested to see which of my supporting characters most pique the interest of readers. In the case of The Smallest Thing, Aiden is almost stealing the show.

Aiden is a relief worker who comes into the quarantined village to provide assistance and support, and ends up befriending Em and helping her in ways neither of them had anticipated. Here’s what one reviewer had to say about him.

“Aiden oh Aiden what a wonderful caring character. He also sounds absolutely delicious for a guy hiding in a hazmat suit. Haha. He is a perfect match for Emmott and exactly what she needs in her life.”

As you can see, Aiden is making quite an impact! But, he didn’t exist in the original idea for The Smallest Thing. Like many of my characters and story twists, he was born from a writing prompt.

The prompt was a first line, “He hides in the marrow of my bones” and here’s what I wrote in my notebook back in May of 2014:

In case you can’t read my scrawl, here’s the whole scene.

He hides in the marrow of my bones, never showing on the outside, but going with me wherever I go. I lie in bed at night and I clear my head of thoughts of him, sweeping his image aside with reason after reason for why he doesn’t belong in my head. And after I’ve brushed him into little piles of jumbled memories and admired my handiwork in cleaning up my mind, I feel a gnawing in my bones and I know right away it’s him.

I saw him in the village today, and even though he looked like all the other members of the crew, covered from head to toe in his yellow hazmat suit, isolated from the world and me by his sealed hood, there is something in the way he moved, a flow to his body, that let me know it is him. I turned away before he could see me, pretended I hadn’t seen him and hoped he wouldn’t see me either, and yet I lingered in the street, stopped to talk to a neighbor, and I could tell from the stiffness of my movements, the way I held my head and exaggerated my expressions, that my instincts were pulling me to look and only my determination prevented it.

As I turned back towards home, I saw him looking at me, the face guard of his suit turned my direction. I felt my sense slow down, as if I were moving through water, and before I could stop myself I was swimming his way.

He raised a gloved hand as I approached and through the little window of his mask he smiled at me. His eyes were hazel, with flecks of gold, but as he turned I saw greens and browns and yellows. Tiger eyes, I thought, as the moisture evaporated from my mouth.

“Hi,” he said. His voice was raspy and echoed in the chamber of his respirator. “How’s it going?”

I tried to answer, but my voice had left. All I could do was smile.

I read what I’d written in my workshop group and the response was immediate and intense. Everyone wanted to know, “Who is this character? What is he doing in the village? Why is he dressed in a hazmat suit?” One of the writers in my group developed an immediate crush on this mystery man. And so Aiden was created.

Around that same time, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was just making its way into the news. With it came stories of relief workers risking their lives to provide care in the region. I was struck by the personal stories of ordinary people putting themselves in danger to help others, and I knew that this was who Aiden would be in the story.

As I kept writing, his character blossomed into much more than that, and he eventually became a hugely important part of Em’s story. But he started life as a ten-minute writing prompt. The rough scene I wrote that day didn’t end up in the final book, but if you’ve read The Smallest Thing, you’ll know that elements of that first inspiration did.

If you have favorite characters you’d like to know more about, leave a comment and I’ll be glad to tell their stories.

Filed Under: The Story Behind the Story Tagged With: fiction, novel, The Smallest Thing, virus, YA, young adult 2 Comments

August 21, 2017 - Lisa Manterfield Leave a Comment

The Idea That Wouldn’t Go Away (and a Goodreads Giveaway)

The Idea That Wouldn’t Go Away by Lisa Manterfield -lisamanterfield.com

It’s no secret that A Strange Companion took me a long time to write. I’m talking ten years, maybe longer.

The idea first came to me during a conversation over pancakes. A friend and I were talking about reincarnation and wondering what it would be like if souls found one another over and over in every lifetime. You know, your typical breakfast chit-chat.

I mapped out a complex tale of twisted fates and unexplained connections, and, to be honest, it was a load of rubbish. David Mitchell did a much better job of that story in Cloud Atlas. Plus, that wasn’t the story I wanted to tell. I wanted to write a more personal story of one person’s experience with reuniting with the soul of a loved one. So, bit by bit, draft by draft, the story of A Strange Companion began to form.

The trouble was, my ability didn’t match my vision, and I could never quite get the story just how I wanted it. So I’d abandon the project for a while and work on something new. Sooner or later, the idea would wriggle its way back into my mind and I’d take another pass at the book, each time inching it a little closer to the book I wanted it to be. But I’d always end up disappointed, and eventually, I stuffed the manuscript under the bed and accepted that the story was destined to remain abandoned.

But, not long after I finished writing The Smallest Thing, the story started niggling me again. And this time, I knew how to write it. I knew what I wanted to say and I knew exactly how the story should unfold. So, I dusted off the manuscript and this time I finished it.

If you’ve read the book, you’ll see that the finished story is a far cry from my original idea, thank goodness, but that’s the way it goes. Stories take on a life of their own and they won’t leave you alone until you’ve done them justice.

To hear more about the idea that wouldn’t go away and the twists and turns of the creative process, check out my interview with Melissa Dinwiddie on her Live Creative Now! podcast.

Win a Signed Copy of A Strange Companion

Get your mitts on a signed copy of A Strange Companion on Goodreads this week. I’m giving away a copy to one lucky winner.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

A Strange Companion by Lisa Manterfield

A Strange Companion

by Lisa Manterfield

Giveaway ends August 25, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Filed Under: The Story Behind the Story Tagged With: A Strange Companion, Author, death, fiction, novel, reincarnation, writing, YA, young adult Leave a Comment

July 31, 2017 - Lisa Manterfield Leave a Comment

Readers Ask Their Burning Questions. I Answer.

Readers Ask Their Burning Questions. I Answer. by Lisa Manterfield -lisamanterfield.com

A couple of weeks ago, I sent out an offer to my newsletter subscribers.

“Ask me anything,” I told them.

Fortunately, no one asked anything too awkward or personal, and mostly they wanted to talk about writing, which happens to be my favorite topic.

So, to close out my recent blog tour, here are my responses to my readers’ burning questions:

Did anyone in your personal life inspire the Em character in The Smallest Thing? Or the father? Or mother?

I’ve never knowingly based a character directly on someone I know, but bits of my personal experience and the traits of people I’ve met often sneak in.

There is a bit of the teenage me in Em. I didn’t grow up in small village like Em. I grew in the suburbs of a major city, but I remember feeling like I didn’t belong, like I was destined for something else. I think it’s a universal part of growing up, whether you feel confined by a small town, or someone else’s expectations, or just that you don’t fit in somehow, there’s something in each of us that wants to push the boundaries set for us. Em isn’t a rebel, and nor was I, but she wants to test the limits of her upbringing and be her own person.

Em’s dad is the kind of dad he needed to be to push Em into action. He’s a good guy, but the boundaries of his world don’t match Em’s. His role in the story is to provide the initial obstacles for Em and then teach her how to become her own person within the boundaries imposed on her by the quarantine. He is loosely based on a someone I know who is very involved in the community in which I grew up. He’s a really nice guy and does a lot of great conservation work in the community, but I could imagine the challenges of growing up in his shadow and having to live up to his reputation. He provided the basis for the kind of dad that would create friction for Em.

As for Em’s mother, I’d like to state for the record that none of the terrible mothers I write are in the least bit based on my own mother. I’m sure people who’ve read my books look sideways at my poor mother now, but she couldn’t be more different to the characters I write. Em’s mother came out of a writing prompt. I wrote about a character who discovers a secret (always a good prompt for digging up juicy storylines) and realized that Em wasn’t the only person feeling stifled in the village. Em’s mother has an entire unwritten backstory of how she came to find herself in that awful predicament. I’m pretty certain she has a lot of regrets about the decisions she made by the end of Em’s story.

Has anyone relayed to you their own experience with meeting someone they knew in a prior life?

A few weeks ago I posted something about the research I did while writing A Strange Companion, including doing a past life regression. Someone commented that, as a three-year-old child, she had recalled memories of a place she had never visited before. She knew details of her family life and her role in the village, and even recalled some Native American words. It opened up a whole conversation and several women said their children had had similar experiences. I’m sure there are any number of scientific explanations for this, but I find the possibility of reincarnation fascinating.

Why is it important to you to write about young adults?

That period of life between age 16 and 25 is one of huge transitions. You’ve been inching toward adulthood all through your teens, and pushing the independence and self-discovery envelope. Then suddenly, you’re an adult and so many of the safety nets of school, parents, living at home, being supported financially, and being “just a kid” fall away.

I remember being 17 and feeling like I had this whole “adulting” business sorted out. Then I went away to college and my world blew wide open. I had to navigate new relationships with people from all different backgrounds, I had responsibilities, things weren’t handed to me on a plate anymore, and I had to deal with so many “adult” situations that I was totally unprepared for. That period is such a steep learning curve, which makes it fantastic grist for the fiction mill.

And even though I write stories about young people, they’re not solely stories for young people. The themes of letting go of a lost love, navigating grief, discovering who you really are, and figuring out what’s really important in life are universal themes that we have to figure out well into adulthood. As for the topic of navigating relationships, that is a never-ending program of study.

The Smallest Thing and A Strange Companion are richly set in the English countryside. Any plans to write a book set in SoCal? I’m an Anglophile so I’m happy with more village life.

They say “write what you know” and I seem to be mining my early life for stories at the moment. That said, I’ve now lived in Southern California for more than half my life, so a shift in venue is bound to happen at some point. When I come up with a new story idea, I do weigh the pros and cons of setting it in one place or another. I needed to set The Smallest Thing in Eyam, and I wanted to set A Strange Companion in my hometown of Sheffield. If a story would be better served being set in L.A., I’d certainly be open to the possibility.

Did you need an agent to get your story out, or did you choose the self-publishing route? Considering the route you took, what caveats do you have for new authors with no publishing experience?  

I have published both my fiction and non-fiction books through my own publishing company, Steel Rose Press, so no, I didn’t need an agent for that. What’s wonderful about this current era in publishing is that there are many ways to get a story in front of readers. There are also countless authors willing to share their experiences online, and offer lots of great advice for new authors. My caveat would be that, no matter which publication path you choose, make sure your story is ready to be read. Work on your craft, find trusted beta readers, be willing to accept feedback, and do the work to make the book the best it can be. If you send out a half-baked story to an agent or publisher, you risk a rejection notice and potentially burning a bridge for future work. But if you self-publish a half-baked book, readers will send their rejection slips via bad reviews, word-of-mouth, and with their future purchasing decisions. The trick is finding the balance between getting your work into the world where it can be read, and not publishing in haste, just because you can.

What’s the next book you’re writing? When will that be out?

At the moment, I have several projects bubbling away. I have a couple of novels brewing and some shorter pieces. I keep stirring them and testing their worth. Eventually, one of them will bubble up and demand to be written.

The thing with writing a novel is that you have to live with the idea for a long time. Not just through that first draft, but through numerous revisions and editing, then through the publication process, and then you have to talk about it once it’s published. I’m waiting to see which of my ideas has the necessary heat. So, it might be a while before the next novel is ready.

***

A big thank you to everyone who submitted questions. I answered lots of other great questions during the blog tour. If you missed it, you can still catch up and visit the stops. Here is a rundown of all the sites I visited:

  • July 18: Rebecca Lacko and I discuss researching and writing The Smallest Thing, why fathers figure so prominently in my stories, and how published authors can find effective book marketing techniques.
  • July 19: At A New Look on Books I answer the question, “Could you be a hero?” Hint: the answer is “yes” but you’ll have to read the post to see why.
  • July 20: Heather Sunseri had lots of great questions about favorite destinations and how travel has colored my writing.
  • July 21: At Booked for Review, I chatted about being a late bloomer and how the wrong path can lead to the right destination.
  • July 22: In a rooftop hotel lounge overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Michael Raymond and I discussed killing off beloved characters, tricks for finding a characters voice, and how a scratched record marked a turning point in my musical evolution.
  • July 23: Farah Oomerbhoy asks about the one wish I have for my books, and pries a nugget of Aiden trivia out of me.
  • July 24: Mixed Bag Mama reviews The Smallest Thing.
  • July 25: I visit Pamela Toler at History in the Margins to tell the real-life story of the courageous villagers of Eyam.
  • July 26: YA Book Divas weigh in on The Smallest Thing with their review.
  • July 27: The Reading Wolf gushes in her review of The Smallest Thing.

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: A Strange Companion, Eyam, reincarnation, The Smallest Thing, writing, young adult Leave a Comment

July 18, 2017 - Lisa Manterfield 3 Comments

Join Me to Celebrate the Publication of The Smallest Thing

Join Me to Celebrate the Publication of The Smallest Thing by Lisa Manterfield -lisamanterfield.com

It’s finally here! My latest novel, The Smallest Thing releases today!

1-SFWC-9-29-101-SFWC-9-29-10

The Smallest Thing by Lisa Manterfield

The very last thing 17-year-old Emmott Syddall wants is to turn out like her dad. She’s descended from ten generations who never left their dull English village, and there’s no way she’s going to waste a perfectly good life that way. She’s moving to London and she swears she is never coming back.

But when the unexplained deaths of her neighbors force the government to quarantine the village, Em learns what it truly means to be trapped. Now, she must choose. Will she pursue her desire for freedom, at all costs, or do what’s best for the people she loves: her dad, her best friend Deb, and, to her surprise, the mysterious man in the HAZMAT suit?

Inspired by the historical story of the plague village of Eyam, this contemporary tale of friendship, community, and impossible love weaves the horrors of recent news headlines with the intimate details of how it feels to become an adult—and fall in love—in the midst of tragedy.

Read a preview

Or order now from the following retailers

Nook
I can’t wait to share Emmott’s story with you and introduce you to the fictional people of the very real village of Eyam.

To celebrate, I’ve put together a special gift box with a signed copy of The Smallest Thing and some surprise gifts. To enter the giveaway, come with me on my blog tour as I talk to authors and book bloggers, answer their prying questions about everything from travel to chocolate, and dish up some behind-the-scenes tidbits about The Smallest Thing.

Can’t wait to see you there!

The Smallest Thing by Lisa Manterfield Official Blog Tour

  • July 18: Interview with Rebecca Lacko
  • July 19: Guest Post at A New Look on Books
  • July 20: Interview with Heather Sunseri
  • July 21: Interview at Booked for Review
  • July 22: Interview with Michael Raymond
  • July 23: Interview with Farah Oomerbhoy
  • July 24: Review by Mixed Bag Mama
  • July 25: Guest Post at History in the Margins with Pamela Toler
  • July 26: Review at YA Book Divas
  • July 27: Review at The Reading Wolf

Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: The Writing Life Tagged With: Eyam, fiction, novel, The Smallest Thing, YA, young adult 3 Comments

June 19, 2017 - Lisa Manterfield 2 Comments

A Sneak Peek of The Smallest Thing

A Sneak Peek of The Smallest Thing by Lisa Manterfield -lisamanterfield.com

The Smallest Thing by Lisa ManterfieldMy new novel, The Smallest Thing, comes out on July 18th.

It’s the story of Em, a young woman on the brink of embarking on her new life, who finds herself trapped in a dull English village by a government-imposed quarantine. It’s a story of “self-sacrifice, the power of human touch, and the need to act in the face of horror,” writes Catherine Linka, author of A Girl Called Fearless, who was kind enough to do an early review of the book.

If you’d like a sneak peek, hop over to the book’s page and read the first three chapters of Em’s story.

If you want to keep reading, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until July 18th, but the good news is, you can pre-order a copy now, so you won’t have to wait too long.

To find out more about the real-life village that inspired this book, take a look at this post.

And if you’d like to join me to celebrate the book’s release, I’m throwing a Publication Party at {pages}: a bookstore in Manhattan Beach on Tuesday, July 18th at 7pm. I’ll be signing, reading, and—most likely—eating cake. Hope to see you there.

Filed Under: The Story Behind the Story Tagged With: Author, Eyam, fiction, novel, plague, The Smallest Thing, virus, writing, YA, young adult 2 Comments

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »

Connect with Lisa

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Find Lisa on Goodreads

Lisa Manterfield on Goodreads

Copyright © 2021 Lisa Manterfield · Privacy Policy · Cookie Policy · Designed by Kate Tilton's Author Services, LLC

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkRead more