Author Guest Post - Therese Walsh (& a Giveaway!)

Readers, please join me in welcoming Therese Walsh, author of The Last Will of Moira Leahy, who'll be guest blogging here today. This haunting debut novel explores the intense bond of sisterhood as a grieving twin searches for her own identity in the ruins of her sister’s past.



When Your Characters Travel the World and You Don't Even Have a Passport

Once upon a time, I had a passport. As a junior in high school, I had the good fortune to be invited for a tour of Europe, to sing sing sing my heart out with others my age. I went, of course, I went. I remember taking pictures of castles in Germany, snow-covered mountains in Switzerland, grand cathedrals in Italy (where there were dress codes, I recall), elaborate town squares in Austria. Unfortunately, when we reached Paris, France, my purse was snatched, my passport, my money, my camera—and all of the film from the shots I’d already snapped—gone.

So sad. You can imagine, I’m sure. I still remember those pictures, even though the actual photographs will never be in hand. As a former psychology student, I know this is probably because I felt deeply moved by the scenes before me while snapping those shots, and so I remembered them better.

As a writer, writing in part about places I’ve never been—like Rome, Italy—it’s sometimes challenging to massage 26 letters into something that evokes place authentically and in a way that can move a reader. Sure, you can buy travel guides, and I do, but so often they merely list attractions in a robotic manner and miss the essence of a place. I wanted to bring Rome to full-bodied life in my debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy; I wanted my readers to see it, smell it, taste it, breathe it in.

A trick: Find someone who has been to that place you wish to know about, and ask them specific questions. What about that place moved them? What is it about that place that they remember? Sheets hanging from a line, the bakeries, everyone kissing, the cobblestone streets, the insane traffic, the flow of the language, music and artists everywhere, so many magnificent structures…

It’s important for me to listen with wide-open ears when they answer, because their answers are the equivalent of storytelling gold. They will remember what they loved, the things that touched them; and as a writer, those are the things I’d like to share and the emotions I’d like to evoke in you. If I can transmit an authentic love of place passed down to you from someone else, I can bring that place to life for you.

So you see, it doesn’t matter that I don’t have a passport right now and haven’t been to Rome—and wouldn’t have the photographs to remind myself of the trip even if I had. What matters is that I know how to ask questions to tap into the essence of place, and use the answers to construct a world out of 26 letters that you can see and smell and taste and breathe, and hopefully that will move you in a way that you will never forget.

Happy reading!
Therese Walsh

Thanks for that enlightening post, Therese. I've often wondered how authors are able to breathe life into the locales of their books, short of visiting that place of course! I hope one day we can have you drop by again, perhaps to details some of the research you've done. I know I'm interested! and I'm sure my readers are as well.

GIVEAWAY

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