Mark Koopmans' Revival Book Tour

As part of my occasional series of How-To guest posts, and as part of his blog tour for his new book Revival, I've asked Mark Koopmans "How the heck do you write a memoir?"

Aloha,

I flew over the pond to hang with Annalisa, who’s been jolly good (wot wot) in letting me park the REVIVAL – The Donald Braswell story Tour bus in her front yard. (The damage to the fence looks mainly cosmetic, don’t you think?)

Apart from the damage to her property, Annalisa wondered about how do you even start writing a memoir?

With the power of hindsight, it’s easy to see (at the beginning) I wouldn’t have been able to answer that question!

First thing I did know, in this case, was to get Donald on board. The poor man was naturally hesitant to commit, and I don’t blame him. I was a stranger on the phone with a weird Irish accent who wanted to write his life story for free. (I’m sure he was waiting for a punch line, or an offer to buy a really nice bridge in Brooklyn.)

I had tons of journalistic experience, written hundreds of articles, reports and stories, and I was passionate about REVIVAL from the get go. However, once the project was on, I totally worked on a wing and a paragraph until Donald and I had a full set of interviews recorded/written down.

My wonderful OCD could then see the “big picture.”

I later found a beginning (which took a long time) and “the end,” which allowed me to tighten things up. (Later, I added a lot more to the earlier part of the story, but beta readers said the story was slow-moving. I listened, cut 10,000 words (cried, went into the fetal position for a while), but the eventual finished manuscript was (and is) one that makes me very proud.

When I conceived the idea, I had no idea how REVIVAL would become a labor of love, and I’m so glad to announce my “baby” was born earlier this month!

###

Thanks Annalisa for hosting me and Happy Friday everyone!

On Monday, I’ll be back stateside with Carrie Butler who looking for tips on interviewing guests.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Five years removed from his 1990 Juilliard graduation, Donald Braswell is set to be “the next Pavarotti.” Braswell’s successful career ends, however, not with a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall, but alone, lying in a dirty ditch.

Following the hit-and-run accident that steals his voice and future, the “Texas Tenor” struggles with depression and despair—until the night his daughter, Aria, is born. Understanding this new and immediate life change, Braswell fights to relearn how to speak, sing—and share this gift of second chances with others.

Working as a plasterer, a car salesman, and many jobs in-between, it takes thirteen years—and a musical miracle—for Braswell to battle back and sing on a professional stage. His dreams and ambitions collide with a tired and angry crowd when he auditions for America’s Got Talent. For his family, his faith and his entire future, can the Rocky Balboa of the operatic world find the courage and strength to win just one more fight?

Show your love for Revival on Goodreads. And buy it on Amazon and B&N.com


AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
Mark Koopmans is originally from Ireland. After working in Holland, Spain, France and England, he won his U.S. “Green Card” in 1994, and is an American by choice since 2003. Koopmans began his writing career with a feature for a regional magazine in California. Since then, he’s worked as a staff writer for newspapers in Florida and Texas. Koopmans is also a proficient blogger and is working on his next book, a novel. Koopmans lives in Virginia and is a married, stay-at-home dad to three active boys under the age of nine. He writes at night.

Mark blogs here and Tweets here.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Help! World-Building!

In a very occasional blog series, I reach out to bloggers and yell "Help!" In this case, I had a speculative fiction idea, but the whole world-building element scared me.

"Gwen Tolios," I said, "how do you world-build?"

And she said... 

My World Building Secret - Pretending I'm Five by Gwen Tolios

  

When Annalisa asked me to do a guest post on world-building, I was so excited. Because world-building is my favorite part of the writing process. I like naming things, drawing maps, figuring out how things work.  To me, it's no different then going to a new city and hitting the streets to explore. Instead, I'm just hitting the keyboard and peering into stories.

So how do I world-build?

I ask my favorite question - why? - ten million times.

For example, in my current WIP I am running with the idea of humans being modified for space colonization instead of the planet. But this just can't happen, oh no, there has to be a reason.  So why did it happen? Is it cheaper? Faster? A science experiment?  Or maybe something a little more dramatic, such as the disastrous Moon Failure that highlighted just how risky living in artificial environments were.

The thing is, the world your story takes place in might be fictional, but it still has to function as a real one. It's real to your characters and it has to be real to your readers. And here in the real world, there is always a reason. Why aren't airships a thing anymore?  It has to do with the dramatic intersection of incidents like the Hindenburg and the improvement of airplane technology. Why did Westeros build a giant ice wall? To protect it from the White Walkers.

It's often not just one thing, one reason.  If I've learned anything in life it's how interconnected things are.  America has a problem with obesity and it's because there are lots of fast food chains. But fast food is also cheap food and it can be the only way for low income families to get a full meal. Eating right and healthy is expensive and out of reach.  So obesity is a poverty issue. Or maybe a cultural one, because America is a car culture that's also addicted to TV and the Internet. Or a social one, as social movements preach body positivity and more and more people are okay with being overweight.

Things can get messy, but that's life, and often times in your fiction that same thing has to happen.

Take the Hunger Games. Why do those Games even exist? It's a way for the government to install fear and control over the Districts. It is symbol of how a previous uprising had tried pull down the Capital, but didn't. It is a show of power. It is a distraction and entertainment for those in the Capital. It's a way to pit districts against each other. It gives the average citizen a rare chance at getting a better life.

Why is a minority treated harshly? Their country attacked this one 50 years ago, but lost, and it's the remnants of the army that live in the slums and fill the bars. Why must wizards use wands? They need its a buffer, because channeling magic through the body can be deadly. Why is do people never address gods by name? It draws their attention, which you might not want. Pick a part of your world, or even your plot, and ask why?

Dig deeper and deeper, asking questions, and before you know it you'll have a world with a history and a reason for why things are they way they are. 

Thank you so much, Gwen. I love asking myself What If...? but now I know I need to ask Why? as well.

About Gwen Tolios
Gwen Tolios hails from the American Midwest and uses her experiences abroad to shape her speculative fiction. Author of Flicker, she's currently working on YA SF story inspired by her time in Ethiopia.
Gwen blogs at Fulfilling Dreams.