Looking Out The Window: Calling All Writers. April Gardner Talks About Her New Writer's Resource, Body Beats To Build On. Gives Away A Spiral Notebook.

A Warm Welcome to April Gardner

To enter to win the spiral bound notebook of Body Beats To Build On leave a comment and an email address below. (U.S. citizens only)

Hi April, first, tell us a little about yourself.

Hey there! My name is April Gardner, and I’m an author of Christian historical romance. I grew up as a missionary kid in Spain and have lived a total of 21 years in Japan, Spain, England, and Germany. As much as I loved experiencing the world, I’m more than happy to settle down in Texas with my USAF husband, two high schoolers, and two German shepherds.

Were you an avid reader as a child? If so, what did you read? 

I struggled in school and was a delayed reader, but once I discovered books, I never turned back. My favorites were books about horses.

What do you write?

I write Native American historical fiction generously doused with romance. The Muscogee (Creek) of the Southeast is the tribe I focus on. Too many people have never heard of the tribe, even though it ruled all of Alabama and Georgia and parts of Florida for over one hundred years. The Muscogee people have a rich culture and tragic history—it simply must be told!

Tell us about your latest book.

My latest book is actually non-fiction. It’s called Body Beats to Build On, A Fiction Writer’s Resource. It is a compilation of frequently used body beats (actions the body does like shrugging and smiling) organized according to body part or action. Its purpose is to help authors add variety to their work and help them do it fast.

What inspired you to write this particular book?

My own need! One of my pet peeves is repetitive, overused beats. I want every page of my work to be bright and fresh, but that takes a lot of thought and more time than I’d like. So I started collecting the beats as I created them. Then I organized them in a way that made for easy access. Putting them all into a spiral-bound format was pretty close to genius, if I do say so myself. Haha!

What do you love about this book? And what do you hope readers will tell others about it?

I love having thousands of beat templates at my fingertips. It takes the stress off the editing phase. This book never fails to instantly inspire me when I’m stumped about how to, yet again, write some version of “she exhaled.”

What is your writing schedule and where do you write?

Life never gets slower, does it? Sigh. Unfortunately, it’s getting harder and harder to find writing time. I’m doing good to fit in one hour a day, whether that’s before work or in the evening. Sadly, I don’t have an official work space. Since I need quiet to focus, I write wherever the family is not. 😊

Are you a plotter or a pantzer?

The more confident I become as a writer, the more I move away from plotting and toward pantzing. That said, I will never be a full-blown pantzer. I’m too much of a control freak for that!

Does your faith affect your writing? If so, how?

It does. My novels are not heavily spiritual, but they always have a faith message—a verse or hymn that impacts a character, or a fruit (mercy, hope, etc.) they learn to develop.

What are you working on right now?

I’m 50K words into book six (the last) in my Creek Country Saga. This series has been ten years in the making, and I can’t wait to see the whole thing sitting prettily on my shelf!

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Write. Just write. Write, write, write. It’s okay if it stinks. Just put it down on paper.

Read. Fiction, craft books, and more craft books. Read, read, read. Study authors you aspire to emulate. Pick apart their sentences. Analyze their paragraphs and scenes. Keep a record of the words and phrases you admire.

What would you be doing if you weren’t writing?

Reading. Always reading!

What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done?

I’ve visited lots of castles. Castles of all shapes, sizes, and ages. One of my favorites was one I came upon as a teenager on the southern coast of Spain. Most castles are businesses or tourist stops. You pay to get in, and you’re restricted from seeing the really cool parts. This favorite castle of mine was Moorish and mostly in ruins. It was also abandoned, making it the ideal place for a kid to climb and roam. And of course, I did. I climbed to the top and settled down to watch the sun set over the Mediterranean. Very cool.

More About Body Beats
(Spiral Bound in photo)

Body Beats To Build On is on a mission to nix the same old "he smiled," to transform the beat into phrasing the reader won’t flag as been-there-done-that. Need help revolutionizing your tired beats? Now, there’s a resource.

It all starts with a gasp. Fifty-seven of them actually. In one manuscript.

You probably just gasped. Or maybe you...

-gulped air
-pulled a sharp breath through your teeth
-sucked in a lungful of wind
-took a crisply indrawn breath

The truth is, having numerous inhales over the course of a manuscript isn’t so odd—we humans, even the fictional kind, do tend to breathe. The trouble arrives with repetition, which readers will interpret as lack of originality or, Muse forbid, laziness. And they’ll be right.

Staying inventive isn’t easy, though. Especially when it comes to those actions an author can’t avoid repeating, such as gazing, shrugging, making a fist, and the list goes on.

Body Beats To Build On provides the bones for fresh, vibrant content. Layer with a little imagination, mix and match, and voilà—endless, unique beats. No more pet phrases. No more wasting time in search of a different way to write "she blushed."

Just you and your manuscript climbing to the next level.

Bonus Material:

-thesaurus of 600+ adjectives used to describe gazes, smiles, and laughter
-library of 500 dialogue tags categorized for quick grab

Body Beats is available in Kindle, paperback and as a spiral notebook

Buy Body Beats Kindle and Paperback on Amazon

To purchase the spiral-bound version April referred to follow this link

Bio: APRIL W GARDNER is an award-winning author who proudly waves an indie flag. Her great passion is historical romance with themes of Native American and Southeastern U.S. culture. Copyeditor, military wife, and mother of two, she lives in South Texas. In no particular order, April dreams of owning a horse, learning a third language, and visiting all the national parks.

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/april.gardner1/
Website:
www.aprilgardner.com
Email:
aprilgardnerwrites@gmail.com