Book Parade - Elise Abram

Everyday Parade

EVERYDAY PARADE 

"Sunlight is leaking through my shade / the wake up call from the day." - Bronze Radio Return

The Ancient City Poets / Poet Plant Press blog is participating in the The Indie Lights Book Parade. For the entire month of February, different authors and artists will be parading past our viewing stand. Today we get to spend some time with Elise Abram, a high school English and Computer Studies teacher, former archaeologist, and student of the human condition. Everything she does, watches, reads and hears is fodder for her writing. In her spare time she experiments with Paleo cookery, knits badly, and writes.

Elisa new book is called The Revenant. Here is the synopsis: 


Raised from the dead as a revenant more than a hundred years ago, Zulu possesses superior stealth, superhuman speed, and a keen intellect. His only companion is Morgan the Seer, an old man cursed with longevity and the ability to see the future in his dreams. Zulu has spent the last century working with Morgan in order to save the people in his nightmares from horrible fates. Branded a vigilante by the media, Zulu must live his life in the shadows, traveling by night or in the city's underground unless his quest demands otherwise.
Morgan also has enemies. His twin brother Malchus, a powerful necromancer, is raising an army of undead minions to hunt Morgan down. Will they be able to stop Morgan from raising his army? How will they kill someone as powerful as Malchus?  Is there more at stake than just their own lives?



Elise would like to spend her time with us speaking about a subject that is very near to her heart.


ELISE ABRAM: The Importance of Dialogue Reading should be an immersive activity in which you experience everything the point of view (POV) character experiences. A good narrative should give the reader a fly-on-the-wall-with-extra-sensory-perception feeling in which everything the POV character sees, hears, feels, and occasionally tastes and smells is related. The ESP comes when we hear the POV character's thoughts. This helps to establish pathos, a sense of empathy, compassion and the ability to put myself into the protagonist's shoes.

What about dialogue?  

Every seasoned writer has heard the old adage "Show, don't tell". It's the first thing I teach my Writer's Craft students, repeating it as a mantra to them throughout the semester. Dialogue is the best way to show your audience what motivates your main character.

To demonstrate, consider this:

John said he was mad.

Here the narrator tells the reader what John has said, that John is mad. We know nothing about John's thoughts, or his level of agitation. Rather than tell us what John's said, let your characters speak for themselves.

"I'm mad," John said.

Though this time John is allowed to speak for himself, this excerpt gives the reader nothing more than the first example of telling.

John felt the blood rise in his temples. "I'm so angry I could spit," he said.

Here the author tells us what John's feeling in the moments before he speaks. Something's happened that has clearly agitated him. He's not just mad, he's angry, really angry.

Dialogue doesn't just show detail, it helps advance plot ("Don't follow me," he told her and he climbed into his pick-up, that old Dodge beater he'd bought on Craig's List for a song.), and character ("I hate it when she does that.") to show the characters' thoughts and feelings in a way being told these things (He told her not to follow him and he got into his truck and drove away.) by a disembodied narrator can't.

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Contact info for Elise Abram

Websites - http://eliseabram.com  
Facebook - https://facebook.com/zulutherevenant and https://facebook.com/eliseabram
Twitter - https://twitter.com/eliseabram
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliseabram 
Amazon Author Page - http://www.amazon.com/Elise-Abram/e/B009FF1JGA 
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/EliseAbram
 
Purchase The Revenant :
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Revenant-Elise-Abram-ebook/dp/B00M4V19D0 
Barnes and Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-revenant-elise-abram/1119936760 
Kobo - http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/the-revenant-5 
Black Rose Writing - http://www.blackrosewriting.com/childrens-booksya/the-revenant 

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Rafflecopter Giveaway:

Thanks to our wonderful parade authors Indie Lights has fantastic swag baskets for three awesome winners! Prizes include ebooks, gift cards and fun!

Remember, winning is as easy as visiting, clicking or commenting--easy to enter; easy to win!

Click here to enter

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Many thanks to Elise Abram for parading by our viewing stand. Check in and find out who will be dropping by next. 

Thank you for all your support,

Chris Bodor
Ancient City Poets / Poet Plant Press

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