Merida Johns

"We should write because it is human nature to write. Writing claims our world. It makes it directly and specifically our own. We should write because humans are spiritual beings and writing is a powerful form of prayer and meditation, connecting us both to our own insights and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance as well… We should write because writing is good for the soul… We should write, above all, because we are writers whether we call ourselves writers or not." – Julia Cameron

This quote sings to my soul and makes it dance! 

In 2020, Luci, Sam, Barry, and the Gang of Nerds in Blackhorse Road guided and taught me more about perspective, perseverance, and forgiveness.  And I'm a little better because of them.

In 2021, Suzanna, Craig, Elliott, and a set of secondary characters are my traveling companions on life's continuing journey.   These are people who strive to live life dedicated to living their truth and love life committed to seizing the day.

These are not perfect people—they have their shortcomings. And the path they cut toward their North Star is compounded by challenges that seem insurmountable and potent antagonists who cause them to stumble.

But their strengths of courage, creativity, curiosity, optimism, love, and kindness pull them up and help them to the next steppingstone of their journey.

This new cast of characters has a lot to teach me. They keep me company and comforted, and I am listening and learning from the stories of their interconnecting pathways.

As many know, I began writing a novel in late winter of 2018. Writing fiction was always a dream—to use my creativity in imagining and writing about regular people and how they faced and overcame challenges. However, it wasn't until meeting and overcoming a significant medical challenge myself that I put a computer keyboard to a digital screen and started writing my first story, Blackhorse Road. Writing this novel has been a journey of fulfillment, personal introspection, insight, and, yes, a stress reducer.

During this chaotic and uncertain time, polishing off my novel during its last round of copyediting has given me a quiet place to hang out with the book's characters. And my characters, in turn, have provided me with a therapeutic escape and the energy to come back and face the real world.

I think all people have a gift of storytelling—after all, we share stories every day with our family and friends! Give yourself a gift of time to put the computer keyboard to a digital screen and write a story, creating characters that will give you a therapeutic escape and a quiet place to hang out for a while. 

Originally published LinkedIn March 20, 2020

Who is the loathsome villain in Blackhorse Road that makes our protagonist, Luci, shine in the end? 

To avoid a spoiler, I will not share who plays the villain. But I will share the five thresholds that any villain of mine must cross before being worthy of the role!

The first bar is that my villain must be relatable. I ask myself, What is the villain's hook?  What draws the readers to the villain's web?  Who in the reader's life might the villain represent. It could be a crazy uncle, an overcontrolling parent, a bully, an unfaithful spouse, a deceitful friend, a competitive sibling. On the other hand, the villain can easily be an inanimate object that dredges up readers' visceral feelings—a storm, a sickness, a haunted house, an imaginary monster.  Haven't most of us been there?

The next threshold is all about relationships.  My villain has to have a close personal connection with the hero.  Whether the villain is a person or an inanimate object, the relationship between the hero the villain must make the reader feel the connection, too.  The villain must get into the hero's space, in her head, and obstruct her way, and readers must feel the villain getting into their space, in their heads, and obstructing them too.

The villain has to be a strong adversary.  In other words, the villain must be a worthy opponent—no sissies or milk toasts for my heroes!

The villain must push the reader's buttons, making the reader want to reach into the book's pages and shake sense into or evil out of the villain. 

The final threshold is that the villain must evoke readers' empathy—there's something more to villains than painting them in evil. This doesn't mean that readers excuse the villain's behaviors or fail to demand justice for the hero.  Instead, it means that readers must grow with the hero. Readers must walk the same path as the hero in transformation and come to understand the villain's perspective and what makes the villain tick. Blackhorse Road will make readers hate the villain. But it also leaves many breadcrumbs along the hero's path so that readers come to understand the villain and hopefully have a wee bit of empathy for the villain even as they celebrate the hero.

Tony Hoagland, author and poet, writes that "The glory of the protagonist is always paid for by a lot of secondary characters."

In Blackhorse Road, time is not an add on or a placeholder. Instead, it is a secondary character that adds depth and perspective to the protagonist, antagonist, and other secondary characters. 

Stories are about relationships with people, but people also have a relationship with the eras.  I wanted to make those relationships come alive in Blackhorse Road, whether it was a treacherous immigration period, a turbulent social justice era, or a time when many people lost all hope.

Readers tell me that they connect with the different time periods represented in the story in Blackhorse Road. Just as they form relationships with secondary characters that are people, they also form connections with different eras in the story.  For some, the association is most acute surrounding the Irish immigration to Canada between the 1830s and mid-nineteenth century. For others, it is the mid-1960s or even a sliver of time, such as the street dance scene.

Readers might ask, "How do you turn an era into a secondary character?"  I connect people to eras by reading old letters, diaries, or other firsthand accounts of the period. These documents reveal a relationship between a person and an inanimate object, and through this relationship, it becomes easy to turn an era into a secondary character.

It's my hope that that as readers connect with Luci, the protagonist, and Sam, Barry, Shelia, Chris, and the other secondary "people" characters in Blackhorse Road that they also feel a bond with the time eras in which the people in the story lived as well.

The first virtual book club discussion for Blackhorse Road is happening tonight!  So excited to hear the insights and answer the questions from the twelve members who hail from Maryland.  

As soon as I saw this article, I had to share with the readers of Blackhorse Road. "A novel changed the life of Francesca Lo Basso—and there's scientific evidence that she's not alone."

This is exactly what I hoped for Blackhorse Road.  Read the article from The Greater Good Magazine--Science-based Insights for a Meaningful Life

How Reading Fiction Can Shape Our Real Lives

I recently answered a question on Goodreads, "How do you deal with writer's block?"

There are myriad definitions of writer's block, but Merriam-Webster probably has it right—a psychological inhibition preventing a writer from proceeding with a piece.  I think we all have experienced writer's block one time or another that invokes irritation, frustration, exasperation, and even conjures up an inner critic who is ready to heap tons of self-blame on us.

When I get writer's block, I see it as an opportunity to clear my mind, and I push that frustration and inner critic to the side and take a minute.  Writer's block is my brain telling me it is overloaded—it needs a rest; it needs a small retreat.  I call it the mindful minute. 

The mindful minute can take various forms.  Sometimes it is just sitting, taking a deep breath, closing my eyes, and being with myself and just listening!  Listening to the sounds around me, being curious about them, and not judging whether they are good or bad.  When extraneous thoughts come to mind, I acknowledge them and then gently push them away and go back to listening.  Other times, it is sitting, taking a breath, closing my eyes, and focusing on my emotions.

So, when I hit a writer's block, I look at it as an opportunity to recharge my creativity. I take a mindful minute (or maybe two or three).  Afterward, I write down my feelings about the experience in my writer's journal, and my creativity is awakened its flow breaks through the writer's block.  Here are examples of my "in the minute" journal entries:

9/13/2020:  In the minute listening:  Although I cannot see them, I can hear and visualize the piano keys in deliberate slowness moving up and down, producing the clearest of sounds.  What beat is that, I ask? Whole notes, half notes?  What does it feel like to be a piano key moving in that purposeful order?

9/14/2020:  In the minute smiling:  Feel what happens when you smile:  I smiled, and tranquility came over me, and I felt I as if I were floating on air.  I felt at peace.  I felt that nothing else mattered except being in this moment of calm.

See writer's block as an opportunity to recharge creativity!

Thrilled with the new review of Blackhorse Road from Our Town Book Reviews: 

"A really nice read. What a picture of life in the 60's. This book deals with so many items, emotions really. From the moment I began to read about the true hardships, the real picture drawn by the people trying to immigrate I wanted to keep reading to see what happened. I wanted to see where this was going to lead. At first I thought the letters would create a back and forth kind of reading confusion. That didn't happen here. Everything centered around Luci in one way or another and the author seemed to be able to weave this story without any confusion, Even no hiccups to my reading which I thought surely would happen. This is an interesting book, suitable for all ages. "

https://www.ourtownbookreviews.com/2020/08/black-horse-road.html

Thrilled to announce that my novel Blackhorse Road is featured in the September 2020 issue of the WFWA (Women's Fiction Writers Association) reader-focused newsletter ReadON.  Check this out at https://www.womensfictionwriters.org/read-on--august-26--2020

10 Quotes To Live By are highlighted today on the book tour for my novel Blackhorse Road! Thank you to Joanne for giving me the opportunity to share these from the characters in the book to use as fuel to power up your week https://joanneguidoccio.com/2020/08/17/10-quotes-to-live-by/#comment-95839