Welcome, Readers! During the next few weeks, you can expect to find a blog post popping up every Monday to Friday. This is because September is full of brilliant bookish adventures, be that as a reader or as a writer, and we are so excited to be sharing them with you. We're dedicating September to new stories, old classics, timeless adventures, and promising tales. Here are the things you can look forward to: 16th September - the launch of All the Time in the World by Elizabeth McKay. This is the story of Jake and Abi, a brother and sister who stumble into a realm where time is not measured in the usual way, but where there are those who seek to control it for their own ends. 30th September - our tenth Crowvus Ghost Story Competition . Have you got a spooky story to share? Can you write a haunting tale in 4,000 words or less? This year is a big one so, in addition to publication, we're including a small monetary prize for all the shortlisted stories. For all the Ts&Cs, h...
Being on this side of the pond, Thanksgiving Day was something which marked the start of the American Christmas in books and films. It wasn't until much later that I found out the background and, even now, I'm pretty sure I don't know it half as well as my Stateside friends.
The history of Thanksgiving, from a writer's point of view, is an absolute gift. Why? Because it encapsulates all the human emotions which combine to turn humans into people - or, in writer-speak: words into characters. It's one of those situations into which you can drop any one of your characters and use it to solidify your knowledge of them. Would they have been a native or an immigrant? Would they have been afraid, excited, or angry? According to the song, the immigrants shot at the natives to frighten them off, but did they do that because of a fear or an arrogance? Would they have survived in that environment?
And then, the best thing of all: the discovery that, just because a character started in one camp, it doesn't mean they will remain there. Just like the immigrants in 1620/21, they can come to better understand other people and situations, advancing and growing into three-dimensional people. This is what is called a character arc, and it is what we all do in real life, so our characters should do the same.
The story of Thanksgiving is really a redemption story. Two populations realising that they can demonstrate true humanity in working together rather than against one another. In this respect, it doesn't matter what genre you write. There is an example here in historical fiction, but in today's world people still create frictions between groups of people and, sadly, I suspect this will go on into the future.
But what the history of Thanksgiving really shows is that humanity has the ability to reach out to one another with fraternal love. So don't listen if people say your story or characters are far-fetched just because the heroes demonstrate this level of compassion and care. Because, the history of Thanksgiving shows us it in action. I love building my stories on the premise of Φιλαδελφία - brotherly love - which translates into the Latin alphabet as Philadelphia...
...that name sounds familiar!
[Although Philadelphia was founded 60 years later, so a few generations down the line.]
Happy Thanksgiving!
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