Even Blue Birds Sing

5/14/2022

A Battered Mother’s Message to Her Son
by Karen Buyno, as told by Lisa Kobayashi

Debut Amazon author, Karen Buyno introduces us to “Even Blue Birds Sing”:
Moved by newspaper reports of a family’s tragic plight, a prominent couple donated $50,000 to a Maine Family Crisis Services center. Even Blue Birds Sing recounts the true events behind those media reports, details that were not reported until the publication of this book, events that will cause you to question everything you thought you knew about domestic violence, the protection of children, and justice in America.
Lisa is a mother and the wife of a man who wants to kill her. She escapes through the assistance of an underground railroad of sorts, but what she doesn’t count on is a twist the law takes in declaring her one of America’s Most Wanted. Now she must evade not only the man who wants her dead, but also a justice system intent on sending her to prison.
This is a tale of a mother who sacrifices everything to ensure her son’s happiness. She wants to tell him what happened, if only she could….

I wish this story was fiction. It is so gut wrenching and painful. It is true. Not just for Lisa but for many others.
The author did an amazing job of writing this story. It is clear and unflinching in describing the events that Lisa had to live through even from her early years as a child.
I can’t recommend this book enough, everyone in law enforcement, the justice system and first responders should read this book.
I award 5 stars to “Even Blue Birds Sing”.

You can buy this book:
https://rdrpublishers.com/even-blue-birds-sing-by-karen-buyno
https://www.amazon.com/Even-Blue-Birds-Sing-Battered-ebook
https://www.goodreads.com/-even-blue-birds-sing

Copyright © 2022 Mark L. Schultz except for the author’s introduction

41 Comments

Karen Buyno

6/28/2022 01:54:13 pm

Hi, Mark! I finally landed in one spot long enough to be able to write to you. We live almost 6 months of the year in your neck of the woods in Florida and the other half here in Maine, traveling extensively in between.
Anyway, I do appreciate very much the great review you gave Even Blue Birds Sing. That you found it “gut wrenching” is good. I am relying upon America’s predilection for stories about triumph over extreme adversity and upon the grave injustice my heroine faced to draw readers in and to motivate them to pour their feelings into action. There were many nights when my husband would find me, even after the 15th editing pass, slumped over my computer and crying, enraged by the injustice of a custody system America is still trying to fix.

Mark

6/28/2022 05:50:11 pm

I am glad you liked my review.

Yes, there is a tremendous amount of injustice that needs to be repaired. Your book is a step in the right direction.

Karen Buyno

6/29/2022 09:08:09 am

Thank you. By the way, I’m curious about how you came into your career. It seems like a nifty niche. You get to read a lot, and the editing part must be second nature to you by now. Have you ever considered becoming a contestant on Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune?

Mark

6/29/2022 02:12:45 pm

This is my third career. The first was in retail sales and management, the second was in construction, I hold a journeyman card as a sheet metal worker and as an HVAC technician, this is my third career as a professional proofreader.

I learned to read at an early age in my pre-school years. I was a voracious reader, consuming everything I could get my hands on in our small town. I discovered my talent for finding spelling errors when I was hired by a firm of consulting engineers as their newest proofreader through a temp agency. This is before computers and word processing software was available to businesses. Everything was hand typed.

As the business waned, I was the last temporary proofreader left, they had me organize their library of technical and military specifications to keep me as long as possible. At about the same time, a writing friend asked me to proofread his novel. I think I proofread four or five novels for him. Finding other clients was very difficult before social media in general and Twitter in particular became widespread. I kept at it and the rest is history.

New question.

Please, tell us more about yourself. Perhaps something a little bit beyond your bio.

Karen Buyno

6/29/2022 05:28:14 pm

That's an interesting history. I was an editor briefly for a professor in college. It takes training and a good eye.

A few tidbits about me are

1. My husband is a former ICU nurse with a great sense of humor. When we were dating, I was convinced he was a serial killer. We have five children and nine grandchildren.
2. I am a former genetics scientist who can totally believe that the ideas of evolution and God are not mutually exclusive.
3. I know insects exist in the world for a purpose and have a place in the food chain, but there is definitely no place for them in my house.
4. The most famous person I ever met was also one of the nicest: Victor McKusick. I live close to a famous illustrator and to one of the Milwaukee Fourteen. Every now and then, I see Stephen King. But I live in a town of 84 residents.
5. The issues I see as most urgent in the world include peace, climate change, justice, food and water shortages, cures for diseases, and discovering a way to prevent deer and weeds from invading my perennials!

Mark

6/29/2022 05:36:24 pm

An ICU nurse and alleged serial killer is an interesting combination.

New questions.

Are you a full-time or part-time writer?

What kind of work do you do if you are a part-time writer? Feel free to skip that question, if you would rather not answer.

Karen Buyno

6/29/2022 07:12:20 pm

I am a part-time writer. After retiring from my work as a genetics scientist in 2011, I found I needed hobbies to fill my time. Writing, music, family, and gardening fill that need.

Mark

6/29/2022 08:30:41 pm

You have a nice variety of activities. That is smart. Family is very important.

Family is why we moved from Oregon to Florida, a little over a year ago. Our son moved his wife and family to South Carolina and our daughter and her husband moved to central Florida.

New questions.

You are the first ghostwriter I have had the pleasure to chat with. How did you get into this part of the writing business?

How do you charge for your service?

Karen Buyno

6/30/2022 08:11:59 am

Yes, it’s nice to be next to family. You made quite the change moving from Oregon to Florida, but I’m sure you are glad to be closer to them.

I actually don’t think I qualify as a ghostwriter because I’m getting full credit as the author. After writing my first five books, I felt that my writing skills were there but that I wanted a really good story before trying to get published. And with a retiree’s budget, I needed a creative way to put myself out there. I did so by advertising in Maine’s most famous swap and sell guide, in which I offered to write the book in exchange for a good, exclusive story. I didn't get paid for it. It was a mutual arrangement that worked well for both of us, considering the collaborator's financial constraints and my desire for a good story. We split all costs and now split our royalties.

Mark

6/30/2022 12:58:43 pm

My apologies for mis-categorizing you. I don’t know how to categorize what you did with the story as told by Lisa Kobayashi. You are the author and the story strikes me as a memoir.

So you wrote five books previously to this one, did you publish those books?

The arrangements that you were able to fashion to get and write this story are interesting also. It is certainly a case of being in the right place at the right time because your advertisement was to a limited geographical area. How many other offers of interesting stories did you receive from those ads?

Splitting the costs and royalties is an excellent idea.

Karen Buyno

6/30/2022 03:03:04 pm

No worries. I didn’t know how to categorize it myself. My publisher suggested that it still qualified as a memoir, so that’s what we did. It is a bit unusual.
Having gotten my first book published, I am revisiting two of the ones I wrote previously and am polishing them with the intent of trying to get them published in the near future. One is a children's book dealing with teaching children how to avoid conflict, for which I am thrilled to be collaborating with a high-school-art-student illustrator. My husband, a retired critical care nurse, and I are also putting finishing touches on a book about presencing with patients. And I’ve started to write my mother’s memoir. In addition, I sold a copy of Even Blue Birds Sing to a woman, who turned around after reading it and bought two more copies and then asked if I would write a book based on VOLUMES of poetry her late mother-in-law wrote. That's a future project. All these ideas make me wish I were younger!
The intriguing thing about the woman who answered my ad (and about whom I ended up writing) was that she first left a message on my answering machine with a Hawaiian telephone number. I wondered how someone who lived in Hawaii had gotten hold of a Maine publication. And it was nearly two years after I’d placed the ad that she left the message. This seemed like it was just meant to be.
Before I heard from my eventual collaborator, two other people did reply to the ad. One was a convicted sex offender, who had a taste for some very strange science fiction tales. The other was a man who was concerned for his safety, convinced that the police were out to get him. He thought getting his story in print might expose the police department and keep him safe. I respectfully directed the latter to the FBI and declined both.

Mark

6/30/2022 03:34:42 pm

Until further notice, you can call yourself a memoirist and an author. You could even advertise yourself as a ghostwriter if you wanted to, it seems to me. By the way, on my Twitter page I have a list of people who are freelancers and ghostwriters. Click on the three dots under the banner picture to find the lists.

'Presencing with patients' is an unusual term. What does that mean? My guess is how to conduct yourself in the presence of a patient in the hospital. I find that I am uncomfortable in a hospital as a visitor or a patient.

The extension of the story how you and Lisa connected is more improbable than I thought at first. I have to agree you were fated to tell her story.

I think you made a wise decision about the other two respondents.

New question beside the one above.

Who designed the cover of your book? Feel free to drop a link if appropriate.

At first glance, the cover seems obvious, but I frequently miss a detail or two. What do the elements on the cover represent?

Karen Buyno

6/30/2022 06:07:50 pm

Thank you, I appreciate that validation and the invitation to visit your Twitter page. I went to your Twitter page but didn’t see the dots or the banner. Is that because I’m not on Twitter? (I’m showing my age, ha, ha.) Do you recommend Twitter to increase one's visibility?
"Presencing" is a fairly new term, coined in the 1980’s, and it refers to being totally focused on your patient, so that you can truly share in his or her suffering. A paragraph from the Introduction of our book, "Between Midnight and Dawn: A Treasury of Critical Caring," sums it up this way: “You know when you are really there, in the presence of your patients, when you have immersed yourself in the depth of their pain, have tasted the bitterness of their reality, have lost yourself in their loneliness, and have come alongside them without becoming consumed to patiently continue their journey with them, anticipating their reactions and thus their needs. This is where the spirits of caregivers past and present unite and buoy us up in angelic form to meet sometimes terrifying obstacles; this is the domain of caregiver presence, the realm of critical caring.” I don’t think it’s unusual to feel uncomfortable in a hospital setting; a patient often feels vulnerable, and a visitor often doesn’t know what to do or not to do.
Thank you for asking about the cover design. Cleone Reed of Robert D. Reed Publishers designed it with a photograph I found online, taken by Wesley Deyton more than twenty years ago. Many readers have told me how much they like the cover. I liked the photograph because of the icy branches, which to me signify the harsh conditions that the main character endures. The bird is blue, as all bluebirds are, but in this case, blue means “sad.” As the title suggests, even those who are sad can project positivity and happiness.

Mark

6/30/2022 08:35:31 pm

I think you have to be on Twitter to see features. I do recommend it because the writing community on Twitter is warm and caring. They are very supportive. It seems to be the place to be for authors. It will increase visibility and exposure. I recommend watching the videos Twitter has in the help section after you join.

Thank you for sharing about presencing. I see that it requires a near total commitment to the patient's wellbeing.

Cleone did a nice job on the cover. I like the icy branches even more so with your explanation.

New questions.

Was it hard to come up with the title?

What was the process?

Karen Buyno

7/1/2022 11:46:30 am

Thank you for the information about Twitter. That sounds like a good project for this weekend.

Presencing is indeed incredibly important. It can give a patient a reason to want to live.

Yes, Cleone is a gem, so nice to work with! I was very blessed to have her publish my book.

I love this question. Thinking of titles or names is one of my favorite things to do, and I will be the first to admit that I am obsessed with it until the eureka moment strikes. I started thinking about it at the beginning of the research and writing process, and it took almost a year before I was convinced about the result. Even when my collaborator questioned the title and suggested others, I was steady in my conviction that this was what I wanted the title to express, especially since I wanted the book to read like a narrative rather than a documentary. Once she read the book, she was onboard.

My collaborator (the protagonist of the story) grew up in a town known for its abundant whitetail deer and bear populations. She grew up in a wildly dysfunctional family, and one of her only loving, guiding figures was her grandfather, who taught her about wildlife. I took advantage of my background as a zoology major to incorporate lots of interesting facts about animals in the story in places where they could serve as comparisons with human behavior. From the beginning, I knew that the book would have a title incorporating an animal parallel. I love titles that have double meanings. For a while, I concentrated on the butterfly, because there are a lot of analogies there, but I felt I’d done that enough with the children’s story the protagonist tells her son and with the name of the shelter in Hawaii being Chrysalis. The thing that my collaborator also kept saying was that she wanted readers to know that she now looks for the positive in life and doesn’t let the negatives get her down. That’s what influenced me to use the grandfather’s lesson about the bluebirds and the observation that even though they are “blue,” they still sing.

Mark

7/1/2022 12:08:26 pm

I loved the prominence her grandfather had in her life. Her sole source of comfort and reality for a long time. I also loved the title and how you wove it altogether. I can't think of a better title all things considered.

New questions.

Were the character names difficult to develop?

How did you choose them?

Karen Buyno

7/1/2022 12:35:11 pm

Thank you for that validation.

Originally, I wrote the story using all the characters’ and places’ real names. Considering the number of places to where my protagonist fled and the various people she met there, it was too confusing to do it any other way. When it was time to change all the names, I asked my collaborator, who actually had several aliases by which she was known underground, if she had any preferences. In most cases, she didn’t, so I mainly focused on preserving the flavor of the original name through similar ethnicity or nationality. Unlike the book title, I didn’t spend a lot of time on the names. A few of the names were actually not changed and represent real people who did amazing things (Janet, Noelle, Rosie Tiernan, for example) or who were notorious (Richard Gardiner).

Mark

7/1/2022 03:26:54 pm

I am glad I asked that question. My first thought was that all names were changed. Changing names and place names is important to provide some measure of privacy and/or anonymity.

Novelists, on the other hand, diligently seek names that are representative of the time period they are writing about. To ensure that names are appropriate they consult lists of popular baby names by year and decade for the United States or other countries. There are very extensive lists available because birth records have been kept for a long time.

New questions.

Any further updates for Lisa, her son or her ex-husband beyond the end of the book?

Have you done any public speaking?

If so, will you be doing more in the future?

Karen Buyno

7/1/2022 04:21:16 pm

Yes, my collaborator was adamant about protecting her son’s identity in particular. Come to think of it, I did do as you mentioned and consulted lists of names from that time period. I had forgotten about that, but they did help in maintaining a realistic picture.

It’s interesting you should ask about updates. There is nothing new now, but I would love to think that there will be a happy ending at some point and perhaps, then, a sequel. Currently, thirty years after the trial, Lisa (the protagonist) is still living underground. Last I knew, she had no plans to tell her other grown children about their half-brother. She found the writing of her story therapeutic and is traveling to Maine to meet with me and Patrisha McLean (ex-wife of Don McLean and founder and president of “Finding Our Voices”) this summer. That’s a huge step for her.

I once was the keynote speaker at a New England-wide conference, and I did give a valedictory speech once, ha, ha. Public speaking is not something that I feel very comfortable with, but I’ve found if something is important enough, you find a way. Despite having no plans to pursue it, it’s hard to say sometimes where life will lead you. I did apply to appear on a Maine television program that features topics about Maine, including authors, and am waiting to hear about that.
I imagine you must do your fair share of public speaking at writing workshops.

Mark

7/1/2022 05:06:20 pm

Thanks for updating us. It sounds like she is living a good life at this point and keeping the other life separate and secret.

Public speaking seems to be the number one fear for a lot of people. You have discovered the secret to successful public speaking. I had to attend a Dale Carnegie course about public speaking to learn. The secret is two-fold. First, you must be an expert or know a lot about whatever you are talking about. You have to know it well enough that you do not need detailed notes, a brief outline should be adequate for your speech. Second, you need to realize that the audience is there to listen to what you have to say. They recognize that you are an expert in your field, and they want to hear what you have to say. They are going to eat up everything you tell them.

Simple. Two things that make a huge difference. With these two things, you, as the speaker, can relax and simply share your knowledge with a group of friends. Easy-peasy.

I have had a stammer most of my life. It began after my mom and dad divorced. It followed me all through school and well into my adult years. I have spoken in front of groups of different size up to 1,000 people and the two things above gave me a measure of success. Was I nervous? Of course, I used that excitement to project to my audience and it worked well every time.

With many states loosening pandemic restrictions there are more opportunities for public speaking for authors to promote their book or a cause. We will talk more about that shortly.

Nwe questions.

Have you entered any writing contests?

Have you won awards of any kind for your writing?

Karen Buyno

7/1/2022 07:48:07 pm

Kudos for overcoming the obstacles and being what I imagine to be an awesome speaker! Divorce is traumatic for children. When I got divorced, my ten-year-old son stopped talking to anyone for a whole year. My heart goes out to any child who has to go through that type of loss. Thank you for the advice—I can definitely see how those two things can make a huge difference.

The first writing contest I entered was when I was in second grade. Really! I won first place, and my Christmas story was published in the local newspaper. For years, I carried around a clipping of the story in my wallet. It’s since gone missing, but I remember the story. It was supposed to be a serious story, but it turned out really funny.

During my career as a scientist, an essay I wrote earned me a coveted spot on my employer’s new innovation team. A project I spearheaded then landed me an invitation for the speaking engagement I mentioned earlier.

The only other writing contest I entered was sixty years after the first one, when I entered a publisher’s all-genre manuscript contest with two of my book-length manuscripts. One was the book I’m writing with my husband about presencing with patients, which came in fourth. The other was Even Blue Birds Sing, which placed 14th. There were almost four hundred entries, as I remember. Only the top three were awarded publishing contracts. Both books were also ranked as a top pick among readers for the contest.

Mark

7/2/2022 09:07:19 am

Thank you. The divorce was much harder on me than I realized for a long time. Divorce is very traumatic for all involved.

Your writing contest experience has been quite good. I have recommended to writers that writing contests, especially those that provide feedback from the judges, can help a writer a lot to improve their writing skills. I do have a warning, there are a lot of shady contests out there. Some want to extract as much as they can from your wallet, others want to steal your intellectual property. Here is a copy-and-paste link about those things: Beware Bogus Writing Contests! Look for These 8 Red Flags. https://annerallen.com/2019/05/beware-bogus-writing-contests. You can also use the search box below to find the link. There are other blogs I have links for on my Highly Regarded Blogs page.

New questions.

I noticed that your book is not in Kindle Unlimited. Is there a reason for that?

Have you ever gone through the query process?

Were you seeking an agent or submitting directly to publishers and why did you choose that path?

Karen Buyno

7/2/2022 11:55:27 am

Thank you for the link to the bogus contests article. I will keep it for future reference, should I ever want to do that again.

There is a Kindle version of my book available on Amazon. Is there a difference between that and Kindle Unlimited?

Oh my, have I ever gone through the query process! When I first started, I wrote to agents, thinking they would help me with many of the questions I had as a fledgling writer. But my daughter, who is an editor for a prestigious Toronto publisher, suggested that writing to publishers who accepted manuscripts directly would be just as good and would cut out another person getting a piece of the royalties pie. Before making connections through Barry Goldstein with Cleone Reed, I queried dozens of publishers and agents. It wasn’t until quite late in the whole process that one publisher told me that many publishers don’t want stories about domestic violence because of the possible legal ramifications, even if the names have been changed. It was a disappointment. That’s when I turned from publishers looking for memoirs to publishers who specifically published stories about domestic violence. I was fortunate to be referred to Robert D. Reed Publishers.

Mark

7/2/2022 01:23:33 pm

There is a difference. Kindle is Amazon's e-book. Kindle Unlimited allows people to read a book for free after a monthly fee is paid. To put a book in KU requires exclusive placement in the program, the book cannot be available on any other platform. Authors are paid a fraction of a penny for each page read.

Amazon has crashed the traditional publishing industry. It has undergone tremendous contraction over the years, there are only a few, large, traditional publishers left on the scene. Traditional publishers and agents now survive on the thinnest of margins and cannot afford to publish a book unless they are sure it will cover the costs of publication.

You got lucky with Reed publishing. They publish a lot of different books in many genres, fiction and non-fiction.

New questions.

After publishing with Reed, will you ever go through the query process again?

Have you thought about self-publishing? Hundreds of thousands of people do that each year. Self-publishing means you are responsible for all of the costs such as editing, proofreading, covers, interior formatting and marketing. It also means you keep all of the profit from sales.

Karen Buyno

7/3/2022 08:28:47 am

Thank you for answering my question about Kindle Unlimited. May I ask if you feel this is a better way to go than with Amazon and Kindle?

After getting your description of what traditional publishers are experiencing, I feel even more fortunate to have gotten published. Though I’ve never experienced other publishers, I can’t imagine working with someone as open to doing things your way as Cleone is. She wants the author to be happy with his/her book, and she is very patient in the process. She also tries very hard to make an offer that is friendly to one’s budget. I don’t take anything for granted. As long as Robert D. Reed Publishers is willing to work with me, I’m proud to have their label on my books.

I think if I had to go through the querying process again, I would try to self-publish instead. Editing isn’t a problem for me, nor is proofreading (as long as I repeat both processes several times with time between each), and I’m learning about marketing with my current book. I think I could design the cover, but I don’t know how to format the interior or create the cover digitally. Like anything else, those things can be learned, and probably the time it would take to learn them would be much less than the time it takes to query and get an answer.

Mark

7/3/2022 12:58:58 pm

Between Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. For a new author, with only one or two books I would suggest Kindle. I also recommend Kindle for another reason; you are not prohibited from publishing your book on other platforms. A lot of people buy and read from Amazon, 'Zon is the 8000-pound gorilla! It is huge and throws a lot of weight around. For that reason alone, a lot of people won't buy on Amazon. There are many other platforms to sell on and buy from. Each platform can be a little bit different than the others. This is called 'going wide' publishing on other platforms in addition to or instead of Amazon. So, there is a learning curve that must be mastered. That curve is a deterrent for many. Also, not all of us have all the time in the world. There are companies out there that will assist with this for a price but that leaves you at their mercy for updates or corrections. Here is another copy-and-paste link or search for aggregator in the box below: Aggregators just might be an author's best friend! https://www.kotobee.com/blog/everything-need-know-aggregators/ This is only one of several you will find using the search box.

You are right. Cover, formatting and publishing are all learnable skills and there are likely hundreds of videos on YouTube to assist with every aspect of learning those skills and others.

How did you choose that point in Lisa's life to start the memoir?

Is there a book that causes strong emotions to come up no matter how many times you read it?

Karen Buyno

7/3/2022 02:14:06 pm

Wow, there certainly is a lot of information out there to digest! If I were just starting out and making a career of my hobby, I would definitely invest the time to do the research. Thank you.

The story of Even Blue Birds Sing opens with Lisa finding herself at a point when she must make a gut-wrenching decision. It provides the reader with a quick picture of what the story will be about and then begs the reader to ask how in the world she got to that point. Then, I go back to where it all started, with Lisa’s childhood. That’s where the cycle begins; that’s how far back Lisa herself took me in explaining her story. We get to know Lisa, to see that she is a person no different than any of us. We get to see how and why she makes the decisions that land her in such a terrible predicament. And we get to see how society and the system fail her. So many times, it is the victim of abuse that is blamed for what happens to her. Hopefully, with the whole picture, that attitude can change.

I cannot even think about Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron, without tearing up. The choice that Sophie reveals she had to make and that she has kept as a dark secret for years is unimaginable and horrific. It haunts me, especially knowing that some people actually had to make such a choice.

What about you? With everything you've read, you must have many books that stir the emotions.

Mark

7/3/2022 03:02:06 pm

There are many books that stir my emotions, a few even make my eyes sweat a little. There were a couple of moments in EBBS that stirred strong emotions, I wanted to stop the abuse from happening ever again. There were one or two moments where my eyes got all sweaty and I had to stop reading for a short time.

New questions.

Do you have a favorite book by another author or just favorite authors?

Did you have a favorite book as a child?

Karen Buyno

7/3/2022 06:49:47 pm

My favorite books include Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens), The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah), The Alice Network (Kate Quinn), and The Light Between Oceans (ML Stedman). I love a good ending that you don’t see coming (Where the Crawdads Sing), entertaining, colorful characters (The Alice Network), and impossible dilemmas (The Light Between Oceans). As a child, I didn’t actually read much. That changed when I read To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee). It opened up my eyes to the world beyond my sheltered, childhood neighborhood.

Mark

7/3/2022 07:23:31 pm

You read some interesting and well-known books.

I haven't read any of those. I learned to read when I was five. A retired elementary school teacher lived behind us. She taught me to read that summer and I was launched into the multiverse of books. We got lots of books, we had two different sets of encyclopedias and a collection of condensed classic books and stories from many different ages and countries. Sometimes, only an excerpt from a famous book was in the multi-volume set. The world, indeed, the universes were opened to me.

New questions.

Does writing have a spiritual or healing component for you, does it energize you or make you feel tired?

Why is it important for writers to tap into the emotions of the characters?

Karen Buyno

7/3/2022 08:15:40 pm

I am always surprised when someone tells me they haven't read my favorite books. Then again, we all have particular genres to which we're drawn. What do you like to read?

It sounds like you were a precocious child! Your mention of encyclopedias reminded me that I loved to read those, too. We had a set of Britannica, and I was enthralled with the layered illustrations of human body tissues and organ systems. Encyclopedias sort of became obsolete with the advent of digital media when my kids came along, so I was glad that I’d kept my set. They were outdated by then, but the kids still liked them.

This is an interesting question. Writing does have a spiritual component for me. I believe that people have different talents for doing the Lord’s work. When I write, I listen. And I feel directed to write in a way that might touch hearts and show God’s love. I pray for His guidance, and I want more than anything to be an instrument for His peace.

When the writing is going well and ideas and words are flowing well, I feel energized. But it is tiring to sit at a computer for hours at a time, and my ideas often come in the wee hours of the morning. I have learned to keep a pen and notepad at my bedside for those early morning inspirations. Sometimes, it helps to walk away and get the blood flowing with some exercise or yardwork.

If an author doesn’t tap into the emotions of his characters, their actions won’t make sense, and the story won’t “feel” real or believable. If readers identify with and empathize with a character, they care about what the character is going through and what happens to him or her. They are motivated to read on.

Mark

7/4/2022 07:15:40 am

My top three favorite genres to read are science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction. I like to read well-written books in almost any genre.

I remember hearing that word more than once, precocious. I was pretty good at spelling also. I recall getting a perfect score on almost every spelling test. That was due mostly to reading a lot. Most of the words in books were spelled correctly so the repeated exposure helped to ingrain them into my memory.

Whether we know it or not, most of our actions have a spiritual component. Being a useful tool in God's hands is a wonderful experience, we were made to have a close relationship with our heavenly father.

You understand your muse pretty well. Another author told me her muse visited her regularly and almost daily at 2:30 AM. She kept a pad and pen on her nightstand also. Sometimes she could even read her notes in the morning. She wished her muse would move to a closer time zone. Another author lamented that she was visited by her muse most frequently while she was in the shower. I suggested she get a Fisher Space Pen and a pad of waterproof paper.

When faced with a creative writing block, there are many ways to work around it. Exercise and yardwork are used by many authors. One author told me she likes to bake a cake, another recommended ironing. I like to rake leaves. Most any activity that doesn't require a lot of creative thinking may be useful. Another set of solutions keeps the writer in the chair. Writing about what could be causing the block has helped some writers. Working on another project has served others well. Some writers keep several works in progress current by jumping from a manuscript with a block to another that the creative juices are flowing well on. Here is another copy-and-paste link about non-linear writing or search for it in the box below: http://www.wordrefiner.com/guest-blogs/non-linear-writing

The emotional life of characters is important to readers because we are filled with emotions also. You nailed that one quite well.

New questions.

Have you ever done NaNoWriMo, National November Writing Month?

If you have, what kind of preparation do you do before it starts?

Karen Buyno

7/4/2022 08:41:43 am

If you like historical fiction, you might give The Alice Network a try (if you have time). Quinn does a fantastic job writing it, and its characters are endearing. I’ve just finished A Game of Thrones: Book One: A Song of Fire and Ice. Fantasy is not something to which I normally gravitate, and were it not for my book club, I wouldn’t have chosen it. It was an “interesting” read, especially trying to sort out all the different bloodlines of the various kingdoms.

I’ve never attempted NaNoWriMo, but I can imagine it is quite the experience, especially for people who might benefit from the structure of having to write a certain number of words each day in order to finish on time. If I were to attempt it, I would want to have a story and most of its characters and settings in mind already. I’d probably sketch a plot outline and be thinking of subplots and the best place at which to begin the story. Once I get a story started, the rest comes fairly quickly, especially if I know ahead of time where my subplots intersect. I don’t always know the ending ahead of time, but my characters and their motives generally drive that, so I would want to sketch the characters’ personalities and histories, too. Having these elements already in place helps my ideas to marinate and further develop.

Are you associated with NaNoWriMo, or have you participated?

Mark

7/4/2022 10:51:22 am

A lot of people get involved in a group. There is a lot of encouragement flowing around and sometimes there are prizes for the winners. It can be a fun, party atmosphere. Those that are plotters, spend time before November to plot out the idea. Many of them do exactly what you are talking about. Some do develop the characters and create a biography and/or a history of each. Some search out pictures on the web that resemble the character they see or draw a picture of them. On the first of November, they take off!

Here is another link for you: https://www.wordrefiner.com/guest-blogs/character-creation Rick is a contributor and a client. He has developed a website free to use. It can help an author make sure their characters don't do something out of character.

I have not participated in NaNoWriMo.

New questions.

Are you an under-writer or an over-writer?

When the first draft is done, do you need to add more to it to flesh it out or do you have to cut material because there is too much?

Karen Buyno

7/4/2022 11:40:34 am

I am excited about Rick’s character tool! Many years ago, I took the Myers-Briggs assessment and am familiar with its labels. It’s great that he is not charging to use it. What a great idea!

As you can probably tell from my concise answers, I am definitely an under-writer. Almost everything about me is minimalist. I don’t own a lot of clothes, am not materialistic. There are not many windows in my home that have curtains, nor is there much art on my walls. I value the simple and uncomplicated picture. When I write, I almost always end up with my targeted word count in the first writing. I’ve always been pretty good at estimating how much needs to go into each section to accomplish that. After I finish the first writing, I go back in and embellish what needs to be embellished and omit words that are unnecessary.

Mark

7/4/2022 07:17:13 pm

Rick will be pleased that you find his website useful.

Some writers are under-writers and some are over-writers. I think that is pretty cool.

Today is the Fourth of July, the holiday celebrating the declaration of American independence. This morning, I was in the parade in my small town. I carried the state flag as part of the honor guard leading the parade through town. It was fun. I felt it a great privilege to perform in that capacity. The honor guard was composed of members of the Veterans Club that I recently joined. The Man on my left had served in Viet Nam as a tunnel rat. One of the most dangerous positions for a fighting man in that conflict.

New questions.

Novelists try to flesh out their characters so readers can relate to the characters good and bad. In the books I enjoy the most the characters are multi-faceted, not all good or all bad, a mix of characteristics and desires. Did you need to do anything to flesh out the characters in EBBS?

If you used a close friend or family member to pattern a character after in a book, would you tell them or make sure that they wouldn't recognize themselves in the story?

Karen Buyno

7/5/2022 07:52:15 am

Congratulations for having been chosen to represent the Veterans Club. I’m sure it was quite an honor!

In writing my book, I relied heavily upon Lisa’s characterization of the people in her life. Of course, even with my prompting with a lot of questions, if she saw a character as good, it was difficult to get her to find something bad, and vice versa. While I tried to stay consistent with her views most of the time, the one time I took some license and strayed a bit was with Lisa’s ex-husband’s mother. I wanted very much to make her a sympathetic character, despite her hard exterior. Gradually, through this character’s quiet and surprising actions, the reader hopefully comes to realize that there is more to Marina than what meets the eye or ears.

I also tried to give a lot of background to some of the characters. I felt this allowed the reader to judge if the character had a choice in his or her behaviors. Neither of Lisa’s parents was a model parent, for example, but the father emerges as much more sympathetic than the mother.

The answer to your second question would depend upon how the character is used in the story. In Even Blue Birds Sing, I actually patterned Lisa’s friend Ann-Marie after my best friend of the same name. Because her role in the story was helpful and supporting, I revealed this to my friend. In one of my earlier (unpublished) books, I patterned a character after a boss for whom I once worked. He had a strange little mannerism of wiggling his behind like a puppy’s tail when he was elated about something he was saying. I gave the trait to a trial lawyer in my story, and I don’t intend to reveal the secret of his origins to anyone.

Mark

7/5/2022 07:57:54 am

It sounds like Lisa was a very black-and-white person. I am not surprised based on what she endured over much of her life. When a person is fighting for survival, categorization of the environment is essential.

I bet your friend appreciated knowing that.

Last questions.

Which is more important to a story pace or flow? How do you control it?

What is your writing routine when you sit down to write?

Karen Buyno

7/5/2022 11:43:43 am

You make an excellent point. Lisa did eventually hone to precision her ability to size people up, especially after her start (and failure) as a very trusting individual.

This is a tough question, because both pace and flow are important. I think I would rate flow a notch higher in importance, because if the flow is there, it keeps the reader going. If sequences are disjointed, it causes confusion and ultimately slows down the intended pace. There is nothing worse than having to re-read a section because you don’t understand something. And when a reader stops to try and interpret what is written, he is transported out of the story world, out of connection with the characters and their dilemmas.

Controlling each of these elements is an art. Flow from one scene to the next (transition), for me, depends upon finding some detail that connects the two scenes. It may be a question someone asks in one scene, which leads the responding character to create a flashback. Or it could be something as simple as following one action or event with another that is chronologically logical. Good flow is also a consequence of good sentence structure and proper grammar, since poorly constructed sentences can create confusion. I often find and correct ambiguous sentences in my second writing. As much as possible without making it predictable, I like to leave one chapter with a cliffhanger that can be picked up logically in the next chapter.

I’ve been told that my story flows well and that the pace is fast. I think the pace in part One can be attributed to my minimalist style, which I didn’t attempt to embellish because I wanted to create the impression of a blur. Lisa’s existence in Part One is a series of attacks, a blur. I slowed things down in Part Two, when she is in Hawaii. The intent was to create a sense (albeit a false sense) of relative calm, relaxation, and security after the barrage of attacks she’d endured stateside. I added color, where before there had been just black and white and gray.

When I end a writing session, I make a quick outline of the things I want to accomplish next time. Then, when I sit down to write, I have a working plan. That helps me to concentrate on the piece upon which I’m working. If an idea pops up during this time, I jot it down for a future session, but I keep focused on my outline. I write as the ideas flow and don’t worry about rearranging sentences until after my ideas have spilled out.

Mark

7/5/2022 12:39:46 pm

Lisa was transmogrified (one of my favorite words), I think. She was unalterably changed by her formative years turning into a bad marriage where she had very little support from her family.

It's not quite a trick question but almost, because as you said both are important, nearly even also. You parsed those two concepts very well. Thank you.

Making that quick and concise outline is a brilliant idea. Here is another idea I like quite a bit. If you know all that needs to occur in a chapter, stop in the middle or at least closer to the end than the chapter beginning. By not completing the chapter it will be easy to find your path and continue to the end of the chapter. Since you likely have a full head of steam, launching into the next chapter should be pretty easy also.

Thank you, Karen, for being a fabulous guest on the Word Refiner channel. I have enjoyed our conversation and learned some interesting things.

I have another promotion beginning and must attend to it.

Until next time, keep on writing.

Karen Buyno

7/5/2022 12:56:43 pm

Thank you for your provocative questions and for sharing your helpful insights. I’ve enjoyed getting to know you and learning from your questions, and I look forward to doing another interview in the future. Best wishes with continuing your quest to refine America’s words---and authors!