Bestselling Inspirational Romance Author, Carrie Turansky, will be at the GLVWG Write Stuff Writers Conference™, “2020 Vision”, on Saturday, March 14, at the Best Western Lehigh Valley Hotel & Conference Center.
Carrie will hold three craft sessions:
Grab the Reader in the First Chapter
Write Faster, Write More
Bringing History to Life
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Biography:
Carrie Turansky writes historical and contemporary novels and novellas set in England and the US. Carrie was born and raised in Oregon, and she says her heart longs for tall evergreens, the rugged Oregon Coast, and the pristine Cascade Mountains. But presently she lives in beautiful central New Jersey. She and her husband have settled close to Princeton University, Philadelphia, and New York City.
Her first book was published in 2005, and she has written twenty novels and novellas published since then. Before that, she wrote several articles, short stories, devotions, and essays. Writing fiction is her passion, and she thanks the Lord for the creative ideas and characters He puts in her mind and heart.
When she is not writing you will find her enjoying time with my family, working outside in her flower gardens, cooking healthy meals for family and friends, or walking around the lake near her home.
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Carrie Turansky
An Interview with Carrie Turansky
By Conference Chairman – Charles Kiernan
Question: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from rejections?
Carrie: The most important lesson I learned from rejections was to never give up. Learning to write fiction takes time and practice. They say you must put in 10,000 hours of hard work to become an expert at any skill, and I believe that’s true of writing. Most successful authors write a few books before the first one is published. That was true for me. I wrote five complete novels and one novella before Wherever Love Takes Us was accepted for publication. We learn to write by writing, and rejection is part of the process. I think one mistake beginning writers make is to finish one book, and then continue revising it forever. I encourage beginning writers to finish that first book and submit it. Then write the next book and the next! That’s the best way to continue improving your skills and growing as a writer.
Q: Do you have a disciplined writing routine? If so, what does it include?
C: I find setting a weekly word count goal has been very helpful for me. A weekly word count goal gives me some flexibility, but still keeps me moving forward at a good pace to meet the deadline. I use My Book Progress, which is a WordPress plugin, to help me keep track of my word count and chart my progress for each writing session. I am more focused in the morning, so I try to use that time to get most of my writing done. If I still need to meet my daily word count, I’ll keep writing into the afternoon. I rarely write at night because by then I’m tired and I just don’t think as clearly.
Q: Share the strangest source of inspiration for your writing that you can remember.
C: One day I was visiting the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC with my family and I saw a poster for the first International Air Meet in France in 1909. That piqued my interest to do research about early aviation, and that led to me writing Across the Blue, the story of a young aviation pioneer who wanted to build an airplane that would allow him to be the first to fly across the England Channel. That was a fun story to write, and it went on to final in a national writing award.
Q: Who is your favorite main character you’ve ever created and why?
C: My favorite character is Julia Foster, the heroine of The Governess of Highland Hall. She is inspired by two women: Jane Eyre and Amy Carmichael, who was a missionary to India in the late 1800s. I loved weaving ideas from these two women’s lives into Julia’s character. Julia comes from a loving family and has a strong faith. That motivates her to look at family relationships in a very different way than they usually were in upper-class English families during the Edwardian era. Those aspects of her character created interesting conflicts and challenges for Julia and Sir William Ramsey, the widowed hero of the story, who is raising two young children and has the guardianship of his two teenage nieces. I enjoyed writing Julia and William’s story, and readers seemed to really identify with them.
Q: If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
C: I’d love to take another research trip to England and visit the Lake District, where I’d like to set my next historical series. I spent a few days there on my last trip, and I loved the quiet beauty of the lakes and countryside. We visited Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top Farm, and Wordsworth’s home and school. There’s so much more I’d love to see and explore in that area of England!
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Saturday March 14, 2020
Grab the Reader in the First Chapter:
This workshop will show you how to polish your novel’s first chapter so you can hook your reader, with tips on setting the scene using the five senses, weaving in back story, establishing your characters, showing their goals and motivation, making characters likable and sympathetic, and more.
Write Faster – Write More
Don’t get stuck staring at a blank page! In this workshop I share ten strategies to help every writer increase their focus and speed so they can consistently write more and reach their writing goals.
Bringing History to Life
In this Workshop learn how to find great characters and plot ideas for your historical novels. You’ll discover how to balance in-depth research with great story telling, especially what to leave out, what to weave in, and how to know the difference between the two. You’ll be equipped to transport readers to your time period and bring your story to life!
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Carrie Turansky has won the ACFW Carol Award, the Holt Medallion, and the International Digital Award. Readers say her stories are: “Heartwarming and inspiring! I couldn’t put it down!” . . . “Touching love story. It captured me from the first page! Rich characters, beautifully written” . . . “My new favorite author!”
You can find all of Carrie’s books listed on Goodreads and Amazon.
Learn more about Carrie Turansky at her website: http://carrieturansky.com/
Follow her blog: http://carrieturansky.com/index.php/blog/
And her social media links:
https://www.facebook.com/authorcarrieturansky
https://twitter.com/carrieturansky
https://www.pinterest.com/carrieturansky/
https://www.instagram.com/carrieturansky/
