YA Fantasy Author, Barbara C. Burgess Shares Insight into Her New Book, The Magic Manuscript: Book One - Voyage to Eve Ilion

I’m a Canadian writer and freelance editor. In 1983, I received my Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. I was First Class Honours in English and “University Scholar.” At McGill, my Honours thesis was on the influence of the German romantics on the Scottish fantasy writer George MacDonald. In the MA English Literature program at McGill, I focused on medieval romance literature. My thesis advisor, Professor Paul Piehler, had been mentored and tutored by C. S. Lewis (British author of the Narnia books) in Oxford, England. (Piehler has contributed a chapter to the book C. S. Lewis Remembered: Collected Reflections of Students, Friends and Colleagues.) Recently, The Magic Manuscript: Book One – Voyage to Eve Ilion was reviewed by Paul Piehler. I was honoured that Professor Piehler wrote such an insightful review, and I was especially touched because when I was in university, his ideas about allegory and literature had a profound influence on my thought and writing.

In 2002, I worked briefly as the assistant to the Executive Director of the Federation of BC Writers in Vancouver, Canada. Over a period of five years, I taught English to international students at a private ESL school in Vancouver. Currently, I write and edit on a freelance basis. I am the deputy editor of Writing Edge Magazine, an Australia-based international magazine, to which I also contribute articles. I judge in writing competitions.

Tell us about the genre of your work. 

C. S. Lewis's words: “I wrote the books I should have liked to read” deeply resonated with me. I decided to write the kind of YA (young adult) fantasy book that I would have enjoyed reading.

In The Magic Manuscript: Book One - Voyage to Eve Ilion, many magical transitions recur. The main characters, Jennifer and Arthur, are transported to other times and, indeed, other worlds. This book is intended for young adult and adult readers who appreciate YA fantasy literature. We’ve seen in the new millennium a notable spike in young readers’ interest in paranormal literature, for example, Stephenie Meyer’s vampire-romance Twilight series. But not all teens are grabbed by tales of vampires, werewolves, and ghosts; some young adult readers may well gravitate more towards the lighter shade of paranormal literature. The genre “paranormal” is very wide and may also include stories about fairies, angels, telepathy, superpowers, wizards, reincarnation, and time travel. Those were the aspects of fantasy literature that captivated my interest when I read YA books, and so I decided to incorporate them into my book. There are faeries, superpowers, wizards, reincarnation, and the whole plot centers on time travel.

Why did you choose this genre?

I grew up with the following books by George MacDonald: At the Back of the North Wind, Phantastes, The Princess and Curdie, and The Golden Key. I read and reread C. S. Lewis’s Narnian books, as well as his fiction for adults, such as his science fiction trilogy and the novel Till We Have Face (Lewis's retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche.) The concept of entering another dimension via a seemingly mundane portal in this world fascinated me, and writers like C. S. Lewis and George MacDonald first opened that magical door for me. For instance, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy enters the world of Narnia after darting into the back of an old wooden wardrobe while playing hide and seek with her siblings. In Phantastes, the main character steps out of bed one morning and finds that he is standing, not on his floral-printed green carpet, but on a grassy "sward" or lawn; suddenly, he has entered Faerieland. C. S. Lewis wrote that after he began reading Phantastes, he was overwhelmed and knew he "had crossed a great frontier."  I think that fantasy novels in particular offer the gift of entry into the imagination through which one can cross fantastic frontiers.

What are some of your books, stories that have been published?

The Magic Manuscript: Book One - Voyage to Eve Ilion was published by Piraeus Books in the USA in June 2011. Two novellas were published last year in Australia. The first was Suzanne and the Maharaja's Son, a story set mainly in India. The second was A Weekend on Monte Bianco, a story set entirely in Italy.  I've written a number of article, including: "The Early British Adventurers in India," “Paranormal Romance for the Young Adult Market”, and “Cold Prevention”; I write a health column and sometimes judge in writing competitions.

What ages do you direct your books?

My young adult fantasy book is intended for an audience aged 12-18. There are many adults who like YA fantasy literature, so my latest book can certainly be enjoyed by readers from ages 11 to 100 and more! The two novellas and all of my articles have been written for adults, while I have a picture book {Minnah Kim’s Piano-Playing Pet Parrot) and a chapter book (A Cat Called Good Morning) which I hope to publish soon for younger children.

Give a description of each, and where they can be found.

It turns out that there are several authors by the name of Barbara Burgess, so I use the initial “C.” to distinguish me from them; hence, people can do an online search for me under “Barbara C. Burgess”.

The Magic Manuscript: Book One - Voyage to Eve Ilion by Barbara C. Burgess

ISBN-10: 0983185379

ISBN-13: 978-0983185376

is available as a paperback at the following websites:

http://www.amazon.com (USA)

http://www.amazon.ca (Canada)

http://www.piraeusbooks.com (My publisher’s website, in the USA)

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca (Canada)

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk (free worldwide shipping)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com (North America)

http://www.amazon.de (Germany)

http://www.amazon.fr (France)

http://www.amazon.jp (Japan)

The e-Book version of The Magic Manuscript: Book One - Voyage to Eve Ilion is available at http://www.amazon.com and at http://www.piraeusbooks.com

The book is available in various bookstores and libraries across North America, including:

Banyen Books & Sound (Vancouver)

Bonder Bookstores (Montreal)

Babar en Ville (Westmount)

La Maison Anglaise (Quebec City)

Do your books have a teaching objective?  If so, what is it?

Sir Philip Sidney, a famous English poet, wrote about the importance of teaching by delight. I’ve always loved that phrase. I certainly hope that readers find truth and wisdom as they enjoy my YA fantasy book.

How do you come up with the names of places and characters in your books?  

It depends, of course, on the book. In a picture book I wrote, titled Minnah Kim's Piano-Playing Pet Parrot, the main character, Minnah Kim, is enrolled in grade two in North America. She has just arrived from Korea. I chose the main character's name because it is quite common in Korea and I wanted to lend authenticity to my story. In my YA fantasy The Magic Manuscript: Book One - Voyage to Eve Ilion, the story spins off the Arthurian legend; thus, the names Arthur and Jennifer echo King Arthur and Queen Guinivere.

How did you develop the character/s of your in each of your books?  

This YA fantasy story is set in three different times with four main characters that appear in each time period; thus, when I was writing the book, I had to use a chart to keep track of the main characters' respective physical and psychological characteristics, as well as the modifications of their names. In terms of places, well, I visited Mawgan Porth, a lovely spot in Cornwall, England, when I was twenty-one; however, none of the names, characters, or events described in the books were based on real people or places; it's pure fiction! I did, however, consult with a British history teacher to verify certain geographical and historical points that I wove into my descriptions.

What is your favourite thing about your most recent book?

I'm always delighted by the thrill of suspense when you reach the end of each chapter. This leaves you intrigued and eager to read on to see what happens next. There’s a real element of surprise and suspense in the time travel sequences in the book.

Is your book illustrated?  If so, would you tell us by whom, and if you worked with an illustrator, can you discuss that experience?

The book cover was done by a wonderful illustrator, Keith Bona. The publisher at Piraeus Books chose to use Keith, and I am delighted with the result.

Why and when did you begin writing?

I began writing poems and stories when I was a very young child. I don't know if there is a why. I think some things are just constitutional, but I can say that I was always fortunate in school (elementary school, high school, college, and university), because I was blessed with teachers who encouraged me to think originally, and who encouraged me to write. I believe that if you have a positive experience with literature by having good teachers, you stand a much better chance of developing your reading and writing skills. I was really lucky, too, because both my parents encouraged me to be creative.

Reading books voraciously from early on in my childhood definitely inspired me to become a writer. At an early age, I requested tales of Greek, Norse, and Egyptian mythology, and I devoured all of Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books (a twelve-book series of collected fairytales). When I began creating my own stories and novels, I realised that, like C. S. Lewis, I wanted to write the kind of stories that I enjoyed reading.

What is your writing schedule?

I find that I do my best writing in the morning. I also frequently work in the evening until very late.

What projects are you working on now, or plan for the future?

I’ve begun research for the sequel to The Magic Manuscript: Book One - Voyage to Eve Ilion. I envision at least five books in the series. They are all sitting dormant in my imagination, waiting for the opportunity to manifest.

What kind of advice or tips to you have for someone who wants to write and get published?

The first tip I can offer is that you should be true to yourself. You should write because you love to write. The second point is that you should have patience. Sometimes, you need to put a project down and let it sit for months if not years. Books often correspond to our own inner evolution and have their own time frame. Having said that, if you are a writer, you should just keep writing, whether you feel inspired to write or not. You can't wait for inspiration to come.

I firmly believe every writer should be open and dedicated to the revision process. If you don't like editing, then change your view and interpret "revision" as "rewriting". It is not writing something over, it is writing something better. We need to temper our creative and sometimes self-indulgent imaginations within the structure of grammar, syntax, and the comments of an editor who prods us and makes us question every flaw in the book until any existing flaws are removed.

Finally, don't give up on your dream of being published. So many famous writers experienced rejection letters again and again before their works got published. When I was in my late teens and late twenties, I received a couple of encouraging letters from Madeleine L’Engle, in which she encouraged me to keep writing. I was touched that she answered a letter I wrote her when I was just nineteen. Years later, she also wrote me back when I asked her advice about writing my YA fantasy work (I actually began writing The Magic Manuscript in 1988, though it went through several titles and numerous versions and revisions). She encouraged me to keep writing poetry and stories. I still have her letters in one of my bookshelves. It helps to have people mentor you, but you must believe in yourself.

Are there any other comments, advice or tips that you would give to beginning writers?

Enjoy reading. Whenever I read good poetry, I find it echoes in my head and I begin composing a poem almost despite myself. Write for the love of writing. Anything that comes after that is a gift.

What do you do when you are not writing? 

I love walking in nature. I like travelling, watching movies, reading books, meditating, and I like being with people, as well as being alone. When I spend time in contemplation, I find that I get to the source of words. That is essential for someone who has many words and imaginative thoughts swirling in their head. Then, when I re-immerse myself in writing, I find that my creative capacity is clearer, reenergized, and the words flow by themselves.

Anything else you would like to add?

I'd like to especially thank you for creating this opportunity for writers.

You can learn more about Barbara and her work on the following sites:

Personal website: www.burgesswrite.com

Publisher's website: www.piraeusbooks.com

My blog about my latest book:  http://themagicmanuscript.blogspot.com/

My latest YA fantasy book The Magic Manuscript: Book One - Voyage to Eve Ilion is available as an e-book at

www.piraeusbooks.com

www.amazon.com

The book is available as a paperback at

www.amazon.com (USA)

www.amazon.ca (Canada)

www.piraeusbooks.com (My publisher’s website, in the USA)

www.chapters.indigo.ca (Canada)

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk (free worldwide shipping)

www.amazon.de (Germany)

www.amazon.fr (France)

www.amazon.jp (Japan)

www.barnesandnoble.com (North America)

I was recently interviewed by Renee Hand. Here is the link to the interview. You can download and save the entire show onto your computer: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/storiesfrom
unknownauthors/2011/12/14/interview-with-barbara-c-burgess-for-the-magic-manuscript

Discussing Joe Rinaldo's New eBook, A Spy AT Home

Joe is getting some really great reviews on Amazon, and this book sounds like a great read.  If this is the genre you like to read, I am sure you will want to get his book.

Hello, I am Joe Rinaldo, and I have written nine novels, one of which, A Spy At Home, is available on Amazon. By day I work as Credit and Financial Manager for a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning distributor; we sell to the guys that come to your house. When I first started writing, I thought being a numbers guy would make me an oddity as an author. That’s proved to be wrong. The more people I meet in this industry, the more I run across accountants and CFOs. Apparently, creativity infects a variety of people. Of course, I have the same dream as other writers. I hope my book sells a million copies and becomes a smash hit movie. Selling eBooks for ninety-nine cents is not the get-rich-quick scheme I thought it was before being published. It’s been a lot of work.

The genre of my books is very hard to pin down. My wife and I have searched numerous times for standardized publishing industry definitions with no success. As silly as that may sound, especially for a person who wants to deal in words as a career, genres are hard to define. A Spy At Home could be considered contemporary fiction, mainstream (this sounds like a synonym for dull), thriller, suspense (what’s the difference between thriller and suspense? Shouldn’t you be thrilled reading a suspense novel, and shouldn’t you wonder what will happen next in thriller?), drama (any book without intense turmoil probably won’t be worth reading), or adventure (my main character travels to another continent; that’s adventurous, right?). I honestly don’t know where my books fall in the narrow definitions of the publishing world; I do know I have tried to make the characters interesting and multi-faceted, moving through difficulties in their lives.

What are some of your books, stories that have been published?

A Spy At Home has been published as an eBook on Amazon. My staff/ spouse and I are learning what works in marketing an eBook. With all the “noise” on the internet, getting noticed has proved incredibly difficult. Sometimes selling eBooks seems to require contacting each individual using the internet. My advice to writers would be this: if you are thinking about self-publishing an eBook, be ready for a long road.

Give a short description of each. 

My one and only eBook available for sale at this point is A Spy At Home.

A retired CIA operative comes to believe he wasted his professional life not only promoting questionable American policies, but missing life with his family. To ease the pain, he diverts millions that the CIA expected him to use funding a coup attempt that would establish a pro-American government in an African country.  Seeing the coup would fail, Garrison decides to keep the money for himself. The reader can decide if he's a villain with evil intent, a hero with altruistic motives, or a regular guy sick of working for peanuts in a dangerous environment.

Once he’s back at home, he and his wife look forward to their golden years being luxuriously comfortable and opulently relaxed. Unfortunately, after his wife dies in a tragic accident, he must learn all that she knew about caring for Noah, their mentally retarded son. After a life of planning for contingencies, the former spy must deal with the possibility that he may die before his son. Who will care for the son when the dad spent a life out of the country and now has no one to lean on?

How do you come up with the names of places and characters in your books?

Naming characters can be tricky. You probably don’t want to name the world’s leading neurobiologist Bubba Joe Skeeter. I don’t like to use names that can be male and female for important characters, e.g. Leslie, Kelly, etc. Others do that, but it’s a pet peeve of mine. I also think it’s a lazy writer that uses a main character that’s a writer. Stephen King did do a great job with this in Misery, but I think a writer whose main character is a writer by day and solves crime at night is pathetic. Back to naming characters, they can convey a lot, but if the name provokes something in the reader’s mind, you’re most likely playing on a stereotype. A main character named Abe is tall and honest. William Clinton speaks with a southern drawl and does well with the ladies. I change the names of my characters A LOT during the writing process; thank heavens for the Find and Replace command. The names of places in a story can do a great deal to change/set the mood of a scene. For instance I’m typing this from a dark room in Linda’s House of Love. Your picture of me changed, probably for the worse, despite the fact that this is a home for abused children and the lights are turned down for the kids to sleep.

How did you develop the character of your protagonist in this book?

Garrison in A Spy At Home really came to me all at once. Suddenly he was in my head. This may not make me a healthy, well-adjusted member of society, but having people and their voices in my head helps me write novels. Hopefully, that makes sense; I don’t feel like I did anything. In my mind, Garrison is completely separate person from me.

What about an antagonist…is there a unique “bad guy” or a recurring nemesis of any kind?

The US government is the main antagonist in A Spy At Home. Garrison feels it cheated him. Other bad guys play parts here and there, but the government is the looming evil-doer in the background.

What is your favorite thing about your book?

I love the way Garrison interacts with his wife, Louisa. He’s terrible at expressing himself around women, and she patiently puts up with it. You really should read how he proposes! A Spy At Home is serious and intense except where Louisa brings a calming influence.

How is writing in the genre you write, different than other genre?

I never concern myself with genre. In fact, if my books only fit into one genre, that would be insulting.

Why and when did you begin writing?

This is the entire history of my life as a writer. Freshman year of high school we had to write a short story, and the teacher suggested that those struggling ask one of five people to help them. I was one of the five, and she was right. To my surprise, my story was better than most. Ten years later I started to write a book. I read it to my girlfriend (now my wife) and she pointed out that characters weren’t telling the story. Those handwritten pages promptly went into the trash can. Eight years later while temporarily unemployed, I was reading Nicholas Sparks’ Three Weeks With My Brother (excellent book!). He mentioned that he got a million dollar advance. I said, he writes pretty well, but I can do that. From that point on six years ago I have written and written. Today I have nine completed books that will eventually be published on Amazon.

What is your writing schedule?

I write at night and on the weekends as I have an eight-to-four job. When I was doing most of the writing on the nine books, I worked part-time as an adjunct professor. Teaching really didn’t appeal to me in any way, except it provided time to write.

What projects are you working on now, or plan for the future?

I have three books circling in my head. This is part of the business of writing; we had to choose if I keep writing new books or work with an editor to polish the ones already written and get them available for sale on Amazon. We chose to get more books ready for sale. Once these are out for readers, I’ll let the flood gates open and write, write, write.

What kind of advice or tips do you have for someone who wants to write and get published?

In my mind, the Christmas of 2010 changed the publishing world forever. That Christmas saw many eReaders given as gifts. As more and more people come to love the convenience of the eReader, the number of paper books will continue to decrease. Authors like me without a publisher welcome this seismic shift in the retail book market. We can put out our books for sale very cheaply and reach many customers. The problem as I’ve said earlier is distinguishing yourself from the influx of writers doing the same thing you’re doing.

Are there any other comments, advice or tips that you would give to beginning writers?

I was at a writer’s conference, and a woman was telling me about her historical novel. She found the menu for the heads of states dinner that actually happened and she was using it in her novel. While she said this, I kept thinking that has to be the most boring book ever if you are telling the reader what they had to eat. Research can be good and bad. Research can make the book come alive and seem real. It can also come across as if the writer is bragging about all he/she knows. If your reader wanted to read a textbook, she/he would’ve bought one. For writing novels the most important thing is being believable, not scientifically accurate.

What do you do when you are not writing?

I like to go boating, running, volunteering for Special Olympics, and of course, reading. Whatever hobbies a person has can and should influence your writing. An important character needs to have some depth, and hobbies help provide that.

What “Made It” moments have you experienced in life?

I have really only had one big one. In May of 2011 we had a goal of selling a certain number of books, and we significantly beat that! Now we hope those that bought the book in May tell their friends about it.

If you want to know about this author, leave a comment to let him know.