My Life Telling Stories by Author Joanna McKethan

Author Joanna McKethan stopped by to tell my readers about her life telling stories. Take it away, Joanna!

When I lived in Germany, I would take my legal sized, thin-lined pads of yellow paper in a leather open binder to a nice Lokal with plenty of pens to do my writing, creating my own private closet much more exciting than sitting at home thinking I need to clean my bedroom. There is nothing quite so exhilarating as an impersonal but lively atmosphere for getting the juices flowing. And the miniscule bits of action that come in such a location can inspire their own novels--I have two waiting in line that grew out of exactly that environment.

German restaurateurs are quite happy with authors who want to write on their premises--you can stay all day, unlike at American restaurants where the owner threw me out for staying too long. How humiliating was that!

My whole 9-year stay in the Munich area of Germany supplied me with countless themes, since we traveled out from there on secret missions into many of the East Bloc (Communist) countries crossing numerous scary borders in the Cold War days.

Take me back to Camp Monroe, a Presbyterian camp near Laurinburg or Wagram, North Carolina, and you will see me telling scary camp stories to my roommates in the screened-in, primitive porch, loving to hear them scream in horror as destruction approached. So in a way, like Grandmother used to say, “You’re a born story teller, Daughter,” I just kept on telling stories to create effect. And to think, I’ve been criticizing Stephen King and Daphne du Maurier for liking to do what I liked to do way back then, and now.

Because what I like to do is to search the normal for the one thing that is ‘off.’ Having an extremely suspicious mind, I can do that. I am also by turns gullible, so that sets the stage for playing one of my sides off against another. I also pick the ordinary for bits of intense tenderness or romance. It is amazing, once on the hunt, what you see--in newspapers, among friends, a whirlwind love story, a tragic accident or suicide.

I guess the clue is seeing, really seeing, and remembering, really remembering, because when you do the insight just jars you awake, and you think, why didn’t I see that before? Why did that not strike me. So staying close to people who are not always soothing, but who challenge the status quo is something I’m committed to doing, even when it is off-putting, because they are the people who jar loose the story threads, the moments of intense hunger, passion, love, and evil, the ones who discover the plot that makes the story.

‘What if’ clauses excite me, because they are so true. Although I write fiction, I do it because there is often more truth to fiction than to life.

And now that I’ve finished telling the story in Stone of Her Destiny which has at the very last minute spawned a sequel, I can’t wait to get back to my yellow legal-sized pads of thin-lined paper and my gel fountain pens to write fresh copy, fresh story.

Book Blurb of Stone of Her Destiny

Two unlikely characters meet--Kenna, a spunky but sophisticated heroine of Scottish descent, and the man of her dreams, Lane, Scottish owner of Blackheart Heights Castle--but it doesn’t look hopeful. He is betrothed to another and must keep his promise in order to keep his castle. Taste Scotland’s lovely atmosphere, the delicious food they eat, the sporting games they play, and the cold, but unique castle in which she stays during her visit. Kenna possesses a unique gift, which makes delving into her ancestry an exciting adventure, but at times can make life among the locals precarious. An old letter and an older still Stone speak, but you’ll have to read the book to find out if these star-crossed lovers end up in one another’s arms and how the Stone changes her future.

BUY LINKS FOR JOANNA'S BOOKS

Yuletide Folly at Amazon

Veiled in White at Amazon

Deadly Provenance at Amazon

For Nancy's Readers only, 

click this link to purchase a 

Specially Priced PDF of 

Stone of Her Destiny

More About the Author

           

Joanna A. McKethan grew up in the country of the Old South in Harnett County, one of the offshoots of the Scots Presbyterians who came up the Cape Fear River in the 1700’s. After graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill she lived 9 years abroad in Germany and Austria working in Communist Bloc countries. She now writes and paints full-time from her studio in North Carolina. She loves everything Scottish and secret, loves combining gothic romance with thrillers and ‘a little Armageddon’ thrown in.

Joanna is a member of Romance Writers of America with PAN status, Heart of Carolina Romance Raleigh area, and North Carolina Writers’ Network. She has attended numerous writers’ conferences in many states.

She has completed six novels to date. She is an Amazon Author with three novels for sale on Amazon, two released for promotional, and one which is being soft-launched prior to publishing on Amazon.

Please visit her website at http://books.joriginals.net/ for books, and http://joriginals.net/ for her blog. She is on Facebook as Joanna A. Mckethan Author and on twitter as @JoMcKethan. She is also on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Goodreads, and Instagram.

See all her books on her 
Amazon Author Page