Malcolm Campbell at Red River Writers Blog Tour

Like most writers, I well multiple hats, and changing from one hat to another forces a momentary personality change as well. When I’m promoting my latest novel, Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire, I must become sarcastic and—alas—slightly chauvinistic. Jock is an old-style reporter on the trail of horse thieves and murders and he doesn’t take prisoners, split hairs or split infinitives.

Some days, I write reviews as a contributing writer for Georgia’s Living Jackson Magazine or work on grant applications for nonprofits. Jock Stewart is nowhere to be seen when I’m wearing my reviewer or grant writer hats.

I’m excited about the upcoming new edition of my 2004 mountain/adventure novel The Sun Singer. I loved the duotone used with the original iUniverse cover with the blinding sun. But, the new color art work from Vanilla Heart Publishing is outstanding. The sun is still blinding. Here’s a look at the new cover:

 

When I work on this book’s promotion, I almost need sunglasses and quite a different kind of hat. My young protagonist Robert Adams is on what’s known as a solar journey—the hero’s journey as we saw in “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings.”

Now, I having to buy a new hat, one that fits the heroine’s journey, often known as a lunar journey. I’ll use this hat when I write the sequel to The Sun Singer to be called Sarabande. Sarabande is a twenty-one-year-old woman, whom you met in The Sun Singer, and she sets out on a double-quest. First, she has to find Robert who is presumed by most of her friends to be dead. More importantly, she has to find the young woman she killed in a fight along a moonlit river when her band of rebels was attacked by the king’s forces. That woman is haunting Sarabande. To end the haunting, Sarabande will have to find herself.

Like most authors, I also have a selection of daily life hats. While I know which one I’m wearing at any given moment, my friends and family are not sure which one I have on. They’re also not sure that I know which one I’m wearing either. Regardless of my hats, I hope you enjoy the stories.

You can learn more about my books by visiting my website at http://www.malcolmrcampbell.com

 

Comments

[Malcolm R. Campbell]

I have been a little worried about writing a novel from a female character's point of view. But as I think through "Sarabande," the characters are talking to me. They're telling me their story. Are they figments of my imagination? Yes and no. Once they start talking, keeping up is quote hectic. I wonder if other writers write like this: listening rather than outlining and overtly making stuff up.

Perhaps all of this is sheer lunacy.

Malcolm