Who's RAD? Beverly Stowe McClure!

Please give a warm welcome to Beverly Stowe McClure! Beverly has been writing since middle school, and her latest release is the intriguing-sounding Rebel in Blue Jeans (such a cool title, no?).

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Random Q&A:

What’s one thing you don’t like about yourself but can laugh about?
I start too many projects at the same time and have to laugh when a character from one story intrudes on another story, and he makes sense there.

What is your favorite onomatopoeia?
Bob White! Bob White! What is lovelier than the lonesome sound of “Bob White! Bob White!” as a quail calls to its mate from one side of the field, and a moment later its mate answers “Bob White! Bob White!”

Complete the sentence: The last thing that ever crossed my mind was ___.
...will I get all the books mailed for reviews and the guest posts and interviews and questions and answers completed in time for my Virtual Book Tour?

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the guest blog:

REFLECTIONS

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary gives many definitions of a reflection. I’m using two of them for my post today.

1. “A thought, idea, or opinion formed or a remark made as a result of meditation.”
2. “A transformation of a figure in which each point is replaced by a point symmetric with respect to a line or plane.”

When I look through family albums, I see pictures that reflect on my life. I pause at the photo of the girl sitting in front of the mirror and reflect or meditate, trying to recall this particular time and event. Bits and pieces come back: a wedding. My mother made my dress with her skillful hands and Singer sewing machine. I was flower girl and carried a basket of flowers that I scattered on the floor as I walked down the aisle before the bride. Mirrors are good reflectors. They don’t lie. We can’t hide ourselves from a mirror. They show us the way we are. Looking in a mirror reflects a happy face, a sad face, or a puzzled face.

Another great reflector is a body of clear water on a calm day. If you look into the water, you can see your face, or your dog’s, or your cat’s. Reflections are all around us: in a windowpane, eyeglasses, a shiny dish or pan. Sometimes reflections are distorted: ripples of water on a windy day, a broken mirror or the mirrors at carnivals that make us look like we’re squashed. In these we see fractured images like in real life, imperfect.

Our writing, too, whether unconsciously or on purpose, reflects events in our lives, and many of them find their way into our stories. The reflections we write about are often the fractured images to help us face reality, rather than the perfect images. For example, Rebel in Blue Jeans, my latest novel for YA readers (I like to say it’s for all ages.) is about separation and divorce and how it affects my protagonist’s life. The story also deals with boyfriends and changing relationships and how people are not always what they seem. Though this is not a biographical work, the story holds some truths, for we have experienced divorce in our family, as have many others. Life is not perfect. How a person deals with a situation makes the story.

When a reader opens my book, he/she sees my main character’s thoughts, hopes, dreams, disappointments, and joys. She also sees a reflection of my ideals, cares, and concerns through the language I use, the actions of my characters, and the theme of the story. I owe the reader the very best part of me. And so I write for all of us: the fractured, the imperfect, the dreamer, the realist, the person that is us.

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What a fabulously insightful post. It definitely makes me want to read more about Rebel.

Visit Beverly online at her website: http://beverlystowemcclure.wordpress.com/, and visit Rebel here: http://rebelinbluejeans.wordpress.com/