Welcome, Corrine O'Flynn, children's book author

Corrine O'Flynn is a friend and fellow indie press author. She was one of attendees at an ActFourWriters.com cycle a few years back. Her new book, The Expatriates, Book One: Song of The Sending, is now available for sale and I've already purchased a copy. Here's an excerpt:


 “Shh!” Charlie stepped toward the midway, her head cocked to listen. “What in the world?”

I followed her gaze across the fairgrounds where the big top towered over the smaller event tents. Festive red, white, and blue flags atop each of them blew in the morning breeze.

“Do you guys hear that?” she asked.

“Hear what?” Hollis said, wiping sweat from his face. He held the swaddled bird against his chest.

The peaked canopy of the big top stood tall over the row of concession stands. The old marquee twinkled faintly in the sunlight, its red and yellow light bulbs spelling out Sweetwater’s Traveling Show. Everything was quiet.

“Charlie?” I knew better than to question her ears.

“What is it?” Sam asked.

“Shhh.” She closed her eyes and cupped her hands around her ears.

“I don’t hear anything,” I said. “Actually I don’t hear anything at all.”

Usually, on the day we arrived in a town, the fairgrounds were so noisy you could barely have a conversation without shouting. The roustabouts and canvasmen made a terrible racket erecting the tents and hammering the steel spikes into the ground. Then there was the constant hum of generators and cranes and trucks permeating everything as we all got things ready for the weeklong stay. Not to mention the animals screeching and squawking and the regular people noise. But from where we stood, it was eerily quiet. The whole place felt like a ghost town.

A mushroom of black smoke billowed above the big top in the distance. A rolling boom reached us a moment later.

“Whoa,” Sam whispered.

“Sweet Sisters. They’re here,” Hollis said.

I had a chance to talk with Corrine about her book:

Tell me about your book.
THE EXPATRIATES is the first book in a new YA fantasy series about a teenage boy, Jim Wales, who discovers his family’s been hiding him in a traveling carnival because he’s being hunted for his powers.

How would you describe your writing?

I’ve been told my writing is quite visual, and I like to think that’s true. I’m a very visual person and that comes through while I’m at my desk writing because as I build the worlds of my story, I tend to start with visuals in an attempt to bring you into my world, fully in that moment, in that scene. I think all writers want readers to have that immersive experience while reading. And for me, that begins with visuals. 

Do you have to plan to write or are you constantly jotting ideas and lines down?

A little of both. The only way for me to get work done is to schedule the time on my calendar. My biggest challenge in my daily life is time-competition. We’ve got a lot of balls in the air at our house, and even though I work from home, it’s difficult to stay on task and on schedule with things that can be pushed back. So, while I am always jotting things down and making voice memos for myself as ideas and lines come to me, I won’t get anything done unless I make a plan to write.

 

Why do you write?

I write because I love to read. I love reading a story that makes my world disappear, or makes my heart race, or makes my soul ache. I love reading the kind of stories that stick with me, that make me think, and even the ones that are just plain thrilling. I write in an attempt to do that. I have stories inside my own head that transport me in that way, and I think it’s awesome to be able to share that with readers.