Posted on September 22, 2019 10 Comments
Good evening dear reader! I am still working hard at writing and staying on schedule. I can’t wait for you to enjoy The House on Maple Street. I hope you’ve had a chance to check out my profile on goodreads.com. Please send me a friend request!
In addition to the updates about my progress, I hope you’re also enjoying the photography I share in my weekly blog posts. I am the artist behind those as well. I’m really enjoying getting to share one of my other passions with you, along with my writing. I mainly shoot landscapes when I travel. The images you’ve seen so far are from Iceland, Montreal, Vancouver, and Arizona. Please take some time to check out some of my other posts to see my images. Enjoy!
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Posted on September 15, 2019 3 Comments
Happy Sunday, reader! I have been busy writing away and am excited to update that I am about halfway through the writing process. I am staying on schedule and looking forward to finish drafting by the end of the month. The House on Maple Street is still on track for release in mid-November! I’m really looking forward to sharing it with you.
As I have been working through this process, I’ve been looking for new ways to connect with fellow readers. I am excited to announce I have become a member of goodreads. If you are also a member, please drop me a friend request! The House on Maple Street will be available to add to your bookshelves as soon as it’s released!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/102676838-heidi-slowinski
If you’re looking for other ways to get updates on my work, I’m a member of a number of reader and author groups on Facebook. So watch for my posts. You can also get the latest updates from my blog on Bloglovin’.com.
https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/heidi-slowinski-20067925
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Posted on September 8, 2019 3 Comments
Readers, I’d like to introduce you to the leading lady in The House on Maple Street, Hillary Altman. Hillary is a grad student at JC, pursuing her MA in Fine Arts. She’s an aspiring historical fiction writer and a hopeless romantic. She is also the newest tenant in the Maple Street Boarding House.
Hillary struggles to find her footing after her best friend decided to forgo grad school in favor of taking off to a horse farm in Arizona. Feeling lost and alone may be clouding her judgement about her mysterious neighbor, down the hall. There’s just something about him.
To top it off, Hillary’s fellow tenants have repeatedly warned her to avoid their landlord, who resides on site. A warning Hillary thought wise to heed given no one seems to want to share the details of his apparent criminal past. She feels she can guess, based on the sounds of arguments between her landlord and his wife, coming from their basement apartment. Though the thought of it makes her uneasy. But all is not as it seems.
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Posted on September 1, 2019 5 Comments
First let me start off by saying I am loving the questions and feedback I’ve been getting from all of you via blog post comments, Facebook, and even face to face! I wanted to take moment to answer some of the questions I’ve been getting about “The House on Maple Street”.
I don’t have an official release date just yet so keep checking back for updates. I’m currently targeting mid-November. So just in time for holiday shopping and for your New Years Resolution reading lists.
It will be available on Amazon.
The book will be available as an ebook on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. It will also be available in paperback. So if you’re hoping for a signed copy, have no fear! That will be possible.
Please keep your questions and comments coming!
Currently I am in full writing mode and staying ahead of schedule. We’ll see how long that lasts! In the coming weeks, I anticipate releasing a chapter of the book, to give you a preview. I’m also looking forward to the cover art selection process. And of course, I will be updating with the release date!
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Posted on August 25, 2019 1 Comment
Oh my is right! It’s been a busy week, dear reader. But I am pleased to say I have finalized my outline! My upcoming work, The House on Maple Street, is really starting to take shape and I’m so excited for it’s release in just a few short months.
When approaching my outline, I decided to approach it in two stages. Because the book has a distinct sub plot, interwoven throughout the main story. So, I started with the main story, putting together the key events of the book. This, of course, led to the discovery of more plot holes I had to fill in. Go figure! The number of times in this process that I’ve sat back and said ‘that doesn’t make any sense,’ is really surprising. Once the main story was mapped out and cleaned up a bit, I worked in the sub plot.
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you’ve already had the opportunity to meet Evelyn Berke. And you know she is an amateur historian, researching the stories of the various buildings around town. She is also the main focus of the sub plot. As the story unfolds, you’ll get occasional glimpses into the work Evelyn is doing. The history of the Maple Street house plays an interesting role in the story that I look forward to sharing!
If you’d like to keep up with updates on my work, please visit my home page and subscribe!
Posted on August 20, 2019 7 Comments
It is my privilege to introduce to you Ms Evelyn Berke. Ms Berke serves as the head librarian at a small private college, affectionately known as JC. But her true passion is history. Evelyn is an amateur historian, working with the local historical society, compiling the stories of the people and places around the sleepy, little coastal town where she lives and works.
Originally from the mid-west, Evelyn completed her Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences twenty-five years ago. While she enjoyed the work, especially hosting story time for preschool children and watching young adults find their passion for reading, her real motivation for pursuing work as a librarian was that she would have full time access to documents on microfiche. To Evelyn, this was Eden! She could spend hours combing through old newspaper articles, uncovering the stories of her community.
Evelyn accepted her current posting with JC five years ago. It was her stay at the Maple Street Boarding House that persuaded her to take the job. She could sense the house was harboring a secret and she had to find out what it was.
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Posted on August 18, 2019 4 Comments
That is certainly the question. To epilogue for that matter. As a reader, I confess I often skip over prologues when I start a book. I’m also prone to skip the epilogue. The idea of gripping the reader with something of a trailer or preview of something that is going to happen later in the story seems a little unnecessary. Along those same lines, if an author has more to say, to tie up the end of a story, add another chapter. Skip the epilogue!
Yet when inspiration struck the other night, I found myself tapping away at my keyboard, drafting a prologue. I will say it was nice to interact with my characters, imagine their interactions with each other. It gave me a chance to understand their personalities, better than a character profile could allow me to do. It’s a piece of writing that probably will not make it into the final manuscript of the book. Mostly because I’ve since come up with an idea that focuses primarily on one character that I happen to like better than my current draft. But more on that later.
I welcome your feedback on this topic. Do you read the prologue when starting a new book? Leave me a comment!
Posted on August 12, 2019 1 Comment
There was a vision in my head, when I started working out my plot line, of what the house my characters would live in would look like. I knew what I wanted it to look like but I couldn’t quite get my head around it. That is until I was combing through some old vacation photos. And there it was.
I have found my inspiration for setting the stage for my story!
There has always been something that makes me wax poetic about a Victorian house with a turret. It’s somehow stoic yet romantic at the same time. I also enjoy the “gingerbread” details of the windows in this house. I can almost picture my lead character at the window in the turret, looking out over the quiet street on a sunny morning. Or one of my supporting characters reflecting on an unfortunate turn of events as rain gently patters against the dormer window.
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Posted on August 11, 2019 Leave a Comment
Okay, I’m really talking about a thought dump but that title got your attention, right?!
My thought dump was a chance to get all of my ideas out of my head and down on paper. The point of this exercise was not to hash out a specific outline for my upcoming book, get into the minutia, or worry about historical elements of the story I’m working on. The point was to just throw up on paper. Every thought I had went on the list. What started to emerge was the plot and potential sub plots for the book. I was able to start high level character profiles. I have a new level of understanding of the world I’m creating for my characters.
One of the many benefits to this process, along with getting everything swimming around in my head down on paper, it helped me start to identify the holes in my plot. It helped me find the conflicts in my story; the elements that made no sense. That happened again as I’ve started developing specific character profiles but we’ll get into that later.
I consider a thought dump a living document. As I am moving through the process of creating character profiles and building the world my story will exist in, I will be coming back to my thought dump for revisions and starting to firm up a solid outline.
More to come! To stay in the loop on my progress, please be sure to subscribe below.
Posted on August 10, 2019 Leave a Comment
As part of getting in shape to begin writing again, I started with a writing prompt per day writing challenge. If you’ve never tried something like this, I highly recommend giving it a try. Your challenge is to set aside one hour each day to take a prompt and just write. Don’t overthink this. No editing as you go. Just write. When your hour is up, allow yourself ten to fifteen minutes to reread your work and edit.
Join in the conversation! Add a writing prompt in the comments or share about your process for getting in shape to write a bigger project.
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As a thank you for registering for our email list, you’ll receive free printable reading journal templates and a bonus 100 book reading list! Members of the email list also receive an exclusive discount code for my Etsy store: MapleStreetStudioHRS.
Join 5,500+ Followers
As a thank you for registering for our email list, you’ll receive free printable reading journal templates and a bonus 100 book reading list! Members of the email list also receive an exclusive discount code for my Etsy store: MapleStreetStudioHRS.
Each month the site hosts a short story contest. It’s a unique contest because each month, participants are challenged to craft a short story based on a visual writing prompt. Up to two selected entries receive a feature guest post here on the site. There is no fee for entry. Visit the Contests page for full details.
In this new world of ‘safer at home’, I’m finding keeping myself motivated to write more and more of a challenge. Apparently, my muse is also practicing social distancing! If you’re finding it difficult to get the creative juices flowing, here are five new writing prompts to help! Join the conversation! Add your own writing…
Heidi Slowinski 