New Screenplay Done!

I just finished my latest screenplay. Yahoo! Learning this art has been a blast of a challenge and with every new piece of work, I discover more about the craft. I still love writing novels, but variety is giving this gal’s life a little more spice.

Now what? It gets posted on Script Revolution a free script hosting platform that offers screenwriters a place to promote their scripts and filmmakers the tools to search through them. Then I dream…

https://www.scriptrevolution.com/

About Laurie: The author of Forests Secrets and Finding Joy as well as The Pharaoh’s Cry, Portal Rift, Persistence of Memory, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky of the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles, Laurie Woodward is also a screenwriter who co-authored Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy. Her poetry has been published in multiple journals and anthologies and she was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California. More about her work can be found at Author Laurie Woodward — Next Chapter ia.net

Forest Secrets: An Homage to Trees

About 20 years ago I was on a family trip in Alaska gazing out at the varied spruce, aspen, willow, and pines thinking how each was so unique. One might remind me of a bent old sheepherder, while another was a pixie about to toss dust over the wildflowers. Some seemed noble but there were several that were melancholy as they lost their home to logging.

And an idea formed in my mind.

What if trees could morph from human to plant and back again? Would that make an interesting story?

Thinking it might, I began to write. And research. And outline. And write some more.

In the end my first novel, Forest Secrets, was born.

When a tree creature is lost with her forest on the verge of destruction, 11-year-old Daisy Castillo sets off on a quest to save her. But time is running out and if she doesn’t act soon, a race of mythical beings will lose their only home.

Resonant Beats: A Poem

Their hearts once beat with mine

And now pulse with a strength

That resonates through

Bone

Sinew

And skin

Filling the air

With rhythms

And expansive

Dance.

Encore: A Poem

Lighting upon a liquid stage

Briefly for an audience of one

Two fallen birch leaves

Pirouette in a whirlpool,

Mirrored mimes in

Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet,

Carmen, and the Firebird.

Those who had once been

Skyriders reflecting and

Filtering light

Fell to Earth

Reluctant parasailers

Only to battle ensuing currents

In a watery waltz

All escape blocked by

Cries of encore.

One ochre lover

Makes his way upstream

While his partner is left

Swirling in the sun

Lost and alone

These former cloud dancers

Surrender to the stream

And are gone.

To where they are destined

Is unknown but I’d like

To imagine

That when the wind

Choreographs them

One final time

They embrace

As they slowly sink

Forever from the sky.

Artania V: Soon to Be Published!

My publisher said yes! They accepted my new novel, Artania V: Persistence of Memory and are now doing the final edits. Yahoo!

What is it about? Saving an art-created world changed little for Bartholomew Borax III. His germaphobe mother still makes him bathe six times a day. He can’t tell anyone about the mystical Artania. And he must secretly sculpt. But then, Bartholomew is yanked, alongside skater-girl Gwen and fellow artist, Alex back into that world. Here much has changed. Artanians are being infected with amnesia and no one can find a cure. With epic battles, surreal creatures, and a growing threat the trio race to save Artania from certain doom.

I’ll be so excited to see what covers they come up with!

Disembodied Embrace: A Poem

Disembodied embrace

Of a dream lover.

He who exists beyond the

Corporeal plodding through

The mundane, that muck of life

That seeks to pull us under.

Ethereal, his voice transcends

Skin, scent, and taste

Until we are afloat

In a buoyant fantasy

Soaring in the sublime

About Laurie: The author of Finding Joy as well as The Pharaoh’s Cry, Portal Shift, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky of the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles, and Forests Secrets. Laurie Woodward is also a screenwriter who co-authored Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy. Her poetry has been published in multiple journals and anthologies and she was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California. More about her work can be found at Author Laurie Woodward — Next Chapter ia.net

Thank You Queen Elizabeth

A life of service, dignity, devotion, and love for her country. Promises kept. Always maintaining composure even in the most trying of times. An example we all can learn from.

As I watched the events during the United Kingdom’s official mourning period, I couldn’t help but see the stark contrast between her life and that of other leaders throughout history. How many other prime ministers, presidents, kings, emperors, or other heads of state have kept promises made to serve? Just as she did on her twenty-first birthday.

An example we all can learn from. You served us all. Thank you Queen Elizabeth. Your footprint on humanity will long be felt.

You make me want to be better. And serve in my own small way.

Review of The City of Dreaming Books

This book by Walter Moers is wonderful combination of fantasy and ridiculous farce. Probably the most imaginative book I’ve ever read with absolutely unique settings, characters, and symbolism. It is told in first person by an author-wannabe-dinosaur named Optimus Yarnspinner. He begins his tale in Lindworm Castle at the deathbed of his authorial godfather, Dancelot Wordwright. Wordwright gives him a manuscript, which he claims to be the greatest piece of writing ever. Upon reading the manuscript, Yarnspinner is so blown away that he feels he has to go to the City of Dreaming Books to find its author. There, Yarnspinner meets the shark grub Pfistomel Smyke, who offers to help find the author. Unfortunately, Smyke is not who he seems; he poisons Yarnspinner with a hazardous book, and maroons him in the city’s catacombs. Here he must watch out for bookhunters, harpies, the fearsome booklings, and the legendary Shadow King.

Will he ever find his way out to become the writer he has heretofore only dreamed of? Read this amazing tale and find out!

About Laurie: The author of the recently released Finding Joy as well as The Pharaoh’s Cry, Portal Shift, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky of the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles, and Forests Secrets. Laurie Woodward is also a screenwriter who co-authored Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy. Her poetry has been published in multiple journals and anthologies and she was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California. More about her work can be found at Author Laurie Woodward — Next Chapter ia.net

World Building: Creation and Prophecy

How do writers world build their fantasy novels? Is there a technique to help visualize details? There are several strategies for writers from sketching to outlining to stream of consciousness journaling but two that I’ve found effective are the creation myth and a prophecy.

When I started writing Artania some years ago one question I asked was, “How could an art-populated land begin?” It made sense to me that it would have begun with the beginning of the first art. So I researched ancient archeological findings and used this to envision early humans making cave drawings. From there it was easy to visualize the cause and effect relationships for these art pieces to birth an entire planet. The next logical step was to wonder what might endanger Artania and how soothsayers would give their people hope. This lead to writing The Prophecy in poem.

Reading The Prophecy Using Voiceover

The Prophecy has helped to guide my writing multiple times over the years. I’ve used it in both the books and here in videos. So if you’re trying to world build and are frustrated, why not try creating your own.

Create Together This Father’s Day

However you celebrate, may it be filled with joy!