Guest Post: Teagan Kearney - On Writing

I received a lovely surprise when I opened my email the other day. Australian writer and author of the YA novel, Sky Stone, Scarlett Van Dijk, had sent me an invitation to write a guest post for her website. As I’m approaching the release of my second novel, Tatya’s Return, the request came at a deliciously opportune moment, and I emailed back an elated yes! I’ll admit I’m nervous and excited as this is my first guest post.  

To start with, Scarlett, I’d like to share some of my realizations about writing with your readers.

Many people who write, myself included, work towards publishing their work, either through traditional or independent routes, irrespective of whether they’re writing a children’s book, poetry, non-fiction, memoir, or a novel. Nobody I’ve met starts writing with the idea of becoming a millionaire. Okay, the daydream of repeating J. K. Rowling’s success will fleetingly light up your imagination, but it doesn’t take long to realize that writing for such a reason is unrealistic to say the least.

As with any activity in which you wish to achieve a degree of proficiency, you must put serious time into learning the nuts and bolts of the craft, listening to advice, and most important of all, the activity of writing. If you have the desire to write, you’ll learn that it entails hard work, which you will be doing on your own.

Taking courses, attending local writing groups, and going on writing retreats are places where you learn and meet others with similar aspirations, but the real work of writing is done alone. Writing takes time, skill, dedication and passion.

If you write because you feel compelled to put your thoughts and stories down on paper/screen, my advice is go for it. Steal the time from your other activities, prioritize, make the sacrifices you can, and squeeze it in somehow. We say it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved: I say it’s better to follow your dream than to regret never having tried.

About My Writing

As a reader, I read anything which takes my fancy – one of the books I’m currently enjoying is Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden. Alongside a taste for Russian and French classics, I also grew up reading science fiction, which later led to fantasy novels, but it was watching the True Blood series on TV that led me to reading the paranormal genre.

So although my debut novel, One Summer in Montmartre, is commercial women’s fiction, my second, Tatya’s Return, is a paranormal thriller/romance, and has much more action/adventure in it – which I really enjoyed writing. 

As in my first, I’m fascinated by the development of relationships, and Tatya’s Return is based on my perspective of the eternal triangle.

The book is set in the fictional Midwestern town of Orleton, and the protagonist is Tatya, a healer and herbalist who possesses powerful, but undeveloped, talents. Vanse, a master vampire and the local supernatural head honcho, has loved Tatya for a long time.

The book opens with Tatya visiting her aunt in St. Raphael’s hospital, which also happens to be Vanse’s headquarters, but everything changes when Angelus, a powerful vampire, comes looking for Tatya. Vanse and Angelus become locked in a struggle over Tatya, starting a chain of events that ends in an Armageddon struggle between good and evil.

Tatya’s Return is Book One of the Samsara trilogy. Release date (almost decided!) will be before the end of October, so if you’re searching for an action packed Halloween read, please check out the book!

If you’re interested in my writing, I posted the first chapter of One Summer in Montmartre on my website last week. If you do visit and enjoy the extract, the book is available on Amazon, or you can pop over to Wattpad and read any of my posted stories. You’ll find all the links on my website.

http://writingmynovelnoworkingtitleyet.blogspot.co.uk

You can also join me on Twitter at: teagankearney@modhaiku   

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About Teagan Kearney

Teagan Kearney was born in London of Irish parents, and writes commercial women's fiction, magic realism, science-fiction, paranormal and fantasy stories. She's just released her debut novel, One Summer in Montmartre, and is working on the first book in a paranormal thriller/romance trilogy. 

She loves travelling, and enjoys photography, drawing in pastels, theatre, film, television, and reading. She gardens when the sun shines.
She's also compiling an ever increasing bucket list of places she wants to visit from Iceland to Australia.

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