The Story Behind the Story with Heather McBriarty of Saint John, NB, Canada.

 

Let’s welcome Heather back to the Scribbler.

 

She is always a welcome guest here and she has something new to tell us about.

If you missed her previous visit, please go HERE.

Read on my friends.

 

 

I fell in love with books very early in my life and began writing my own stories not long after. History has long fascinated me. However, both took a back seat for many years, as my career in health care and life as a mother took over. Fast forward to 2018, when the discovery of love letters to my grandmother reignited the desire to write a book, resulting in my non-fiction account of the First World War. A novel of the “Great War” followed, about a period of history that has become a passion. I have delivered lectures on the war, and blog about the Canadians who fought in it. I have too many ideas for new books and too little time. Retirement is coming soon (if the economy doesn’t completely tank) which should free up time for writing!

As a passionate reader, I have reviewed for The Miramichi Reader, currently review for The Seaboard Review and served as a juror for the 2023 Atlantic Book Awards. By day, I’m a Medical Radiation Technologist, doting grandmother, and avid sailor, and live by the sea in historic Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

 

Title: The Island of the Golden Orbs

Synopsis: 

Charlotte and Lucas love sailing with their grandparents, but one day they wake up to find they are on a rather piratical-looking ship and about to set sail on a treasure hunt for the mythical Golden Orbs. With Captain Henry at the helm, they navigate dangerous waters to the Island of the Golden Orbs, only to find the treasure and its guardian are not what they expect! Can the Golden Orbs be saved from the real pirates?

The Story Behind the Story:

I wrote this story as a picture book, about two boys who discover their grandparents are pirates, for my two young grandsons who often come sailing with my husband and me, and love to raise the pirate flag (of course we have one on board) and “fight off other pirates” with squirt guns! Being an illustrator of severely limited abilities, it never came to pass and sat for a few years. The boys are now into chapter books, so I thought the time had passed. In November, I was inspired to re-write it with an expanded story line as a chapter book. Working like a demon, I got it ready for a Christmas present for them, adding a fair maiden who had no need of a man swooping in to save her, spiders (because the younger grandson adores them), volcanoes, bad pirates, good sailors who only think they are pirates, and a subtle reminder that the oceans and its inhabitants are the real treasures. Their copies star themselves, but in the “public” version, all names have been changed.

Website: Please go HERE.

A question before you go, Heather:

Scribbler: Where is your favourite spot to write? Are you messy or neat? Your beverage of choice?


Heather: I need peace and quiet with no distractions, no music, so my little desk in my room at home is my most productive - if not exactly “favourite” - place to work. I’m not a write-in-a-coffee-shop person, being terribly fearful of someone peering over my shoulder judgmentally.

My desk is an absolute mess. The bookshelf portion is filled with my WWI library, piled high with other research books. At any given time, there are three notebooks with my story ideas, novel outlines, and research notes on fallen Canadian soldiers. The drawers are stuffed to the brim, and there are two computers (with too many browser windows open). Also, I desperately need to scrub the tea rings off its surface, once I can find them under the papers! Yes, a nice cup of tea – milk, two sugar, please! – keeps me running.

An Excerpt:

Up came the anchor with a rattle of its chain and out rolled the big white sail. Slowly the Golden Orb gathered speed, out between the navigation marks, past the lighthouse on the point and into the open ocean. Over the waves she flew, and Charlotte and Lucas waved to the other sailboats. Overhead, seagulls chased them and once a pod of porpoises swept above the water, leaping and splashing in the sun. All day long they sailed, passing Grampa’s big brass spy glass back and forth so they could watch the big ships way out to sea and the houses on the shore. But soon the sun began to slip lower in the west, and so they sailed into a little cove, furling their sail and dropping the anchor. And when the sun slipped down below the horizon, lighting up the water with orange and pink and purple, they got into pajamas and crawled into their cozy bunks.

It was early the next morning that a creak and a thump and the sound of running feet woke Lucas. Opening his eyes, he saw dark wood beams above his head not the smooth white of Gramma and Grampa’s boat. Shaking Charlotte awake, Lucas was about to ask where they were when their cabin door banged open, and a heavily bearded man poked his head in.

“Awake ye lazy scoundrels!! We’re leaving port and Cap’n says all hands on deck!”

I’ve had the pleasure of reading Heather’s stories and not only are they captivating, but highly entertaining. AH.

Thank you for being our guest this week, Heather. We wish you continued success with your writing.

And a BIG thank you to all our visitors and readers. Feel free to leave a comment.