Ask the author...

[estanlypido12]

Hi Charlie, I honestly love your masterpieces, and I am an avid fan of this series. I want to know what prompted you to create Sarah as an exceptional character full of capabilities. Has this something to do with your life or someone in your life? Thank you!

[Charlie Sheldon]

Your series are great and captivating, Sir. Please, how were you able to successfully connect and situate the storyline?

Not sure I understand your question, but I will try. When I started the series, I had no idea it was going to be three books. I just wanted to tell a story about an ornery youngster, the Olympic peninsula, and an ancient legend. And when I started I had no outline, just this idea, and after several years of research I started to write (first day of a writing class actually) and the book essentially appeared. I had a frame for the story similar to that used by Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness. In his tale a group of men are on a pilot boat waiting for the tide turn turn to go out to a ship and Marlowe tells a story while they are waiting, the story of Kurtz and Africa. I loved that frame, so in my book I structured it such that a lifeboat crashes ashore in the winter and the crew must wait for days before going for help and during the wait one sailor, William, tells a story, which is the Strong Heart story, about Sarah's appearance and her adventures that first summer. But that turned out to be a long book and eventually I stripped away the frame and just did the story. But then I had all these chapters about the lifeboat adventure, and I wanted to do a real live sea story, and so I built a book around that frame, that lfieboat, and that became Adrift.
Now I has two books, and there were some hanging chads, really the mining and the mystery about these vsions Sarah had and some mysterious bags seen at the end of Strong Heart, and I wanted to wrap them all up, plus I was having a lot of fun watching these things appear, and then the idea was, well, a series, now, how long? Three books? Ten? In the end I wrote the third book Totem which is really two books, and kind of wrapped it all up, thinking, I like trilogies.
It took 11 years in total, all of this, the research and writing and pondering. I watched it all happen, too. Seriously.

[Charlie Sheldon]

Hi Charlie, I honestly love your masterpieces, and I am an avid fan of this series. I want to know what prompted you to create Sarah as an exceptional character full of capabilities. Has this something to do with your life or someone in your life? Thank you!

Of course everything one writes has to do with their own memories and experiences and discoveries. Originally I was going to have a young boy be the protagonist, but then I thought, no, this should be an ornery young girl, having an impossible adventure. I thought it would be great to have a series of books where the women are strong, and decisive, and real, especially the hero or heroine.

The spirit that is Sarah, the way of looking at things and the courage, the persistence, the survival of a difficult lonely youth, is a combination of a young girl I once vaguely knew through one of my sons who was a runaway at 13 and whose courage and fearlessness always astounded me, and, most of all, the spirit of my wife Randa, exactly as I imagined she looked and behaved when she was 13.

[Mmaduabuchi Eze]

Your series are great and captivating, Sir. Please, how were you able to successfully connect and situate the storyline?

Not sure I understand your question, but I will try. When I started the series, I had no idea it was going to be three books. I just wanted to tell a story about an ornery youngster, the Olympic peninsula, and an ancient legend. And when I started I had no outline, just this idea, and after several years of research I started to write (first day of a writing class actually) and the book essentially appeared. I had a frame for the story similar to that used by Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness. In his tale a group of men are on a pilot boat waiting for the tide turn turn to go out to a ship and Marlowe tells a story while they are waiting, the story of Kurtz and Africa. I loved that frame, so in my book I structured it such that a lifeboat crashes ashore in the winter and the crew must wait for days before going for help and during the wait one sailor, William, tells a story, which is the Strong Heart story, about Sarah's appearance and her adventures that first summer. But that turned out to be a long book and eventually I stripped away the frame and just did the story. But then I had all these chapters about the lifeboat adventure, and I wanted to do a real live sea story, and so I built a book around that frame, that lfieboat, and that became Adrift.
Now I has two books, and there were some hanging chads, really the mining and the mystery about these vsions Sarah had and some mysterious bags seen at the end of Strong Heart, and I wanted to wrap them all up, plus I was having a lot of fun watching these things appear, and then the idea was, well, a series, now, how long? Three books? Ten? In the end I wrote the third book Totem which is really two books, and kind of wrapped it all up, thinking, I like trilogies.
It took 11 years in total, all of this, the research and writing and pondering. I watched it all happen, too. Seriously.

Thank you, Sir. Your response is insightful. I am cleared. I hope to be a happy, successful writer someday.

[Ailakhu Yusau Aizhebiomon]

Do you have a series coming after this?

[Charlie Sheldon]

Do you have a series coming after this?

One word at a time.....

[Lily_flower_the_reader]

Was any part of the book as a result of your personal experience?

[Tebogo Eugene M]

Please tell me how long did it take you to write the novel, what were the resources you need to refine the novel, the was an overwhelming or simple moment, I don't know but if you can share your wisdom I will be appreciative, thank you?

[Charlie Sheldon]

Was any part of the book as a result of your personal experience?

Of course, many parts are linked to personal experiences, though many others are only imagination. I would say of course my years hiking in the park had much to do with the story, the maps, the trail discussions, just as my years at sea helped me (I think) write about the dream-vision journeys at sea.

[Charlie Sheldon]

Please tell me how long did it take you to write the novel, what were the resources you need to refine the novel, the was an overwhelming or simple moment, I don't know but if you can share your wisdom I will be appreciative, thank you?

Eugene go back through some of the earlier comments in this forum, where I talk at some length about hpw this series of books came to be. This novel I began writing in the winter of 2015 and I finished it, for the publisher, in 2019, mainly, and then covid hit. I made a few changes since. It took 11 years for the entire series.

[Ironside Ms]

My only question is, what motivated this story?

[Tebogo Eugene M]

How did you come up with the idea of the title, what is the motivation behind the title of the series, thank you?

[Ikechukwu+12345]

How did you set up your characters? How did you manage the consistency from the first part to that third part? Is this story exactly ur own life story? Who gave you this perfect plot of presentation?

[Charlie Sheldon]

My only question is, what motivated this story?

I have answered this in earlier questions in this thread...

[Charlie Sheldon]

How did you come up with the idea of the title, what is the motivation behind the title of the series, thank you?

I have answered these questions in earlier responses to this thread...