Insecure Writer’s Support Group, My Magic Summer, and Jeremy Hawkins Tribute

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

The awesome co-hosts for the February 2 posting of the IWSG are Joylene Nowell Butler, Jacqui Murray, Sandra Cox, and Lee Lowery!

February 2 question - Is there someone who supported or influenced you that perhaps isn't around anymore? Anyone you miss?

My answer to that lies in the dedication today to Jeremy.

Thanks to everyone who participated in #IWSGPit – we were a trending topic!

We still need a couple more co-hosts for March and April – let me know if you are up to the challenge.

My Magic Summer Movie Influences

Today I welcome fellow author Brian Carmody as he discusses movies that influenced his new release, My Magic Summer: With the Moon Maidens.

Historically, I’m a screenwriter. It is only in recent years I’ve managed, extraordinarily, to actually start finishing novels, and, even more miraculously, find someone willing to publish them. But it’s hard for a zebra to change his spots, so I will acknowledge the cinematic influences on My Magic Summer with the Moon Maidens.

Summer of ‘42
Both Herman Raucher’s Summer and my own are bittersweet stories of first love steeped in nostalgia. I can’t condone the consumption of the former’s relationship, but nor can I deny the influence as a whole, and Michel Legran’s score is endlessly evocative.

Twilight
For the immersive romantic imagery and compelling portrayal of how frightening and fantastic a romance with a higher being can be.

Lady in the Water
M. Night Shyamalan's misunderstood fairy tale is a bedtime story, and you’re either on board or not. Personally, I found it very powerful, and the catharsis of The Healing was a big influence on my lunar climax.

A Monster Calls
In both our stories, a boy coping with his mother’s imminent demise receives guidance and wisdom from a supernatural source. But is it imaginary? Read our books and find out.

Finally, there is A Ring of Endless Light by Madeline L'Engle. This was adapted into a TV movie starring Mischa Barton and Jared Padalecki, but I have yet to see it for myself, so I cite the novel alone as an influence. Why the fantastical element of my Moon Maidens is more explicitly supernatural than Vicky’s possible ESP with the dolphins, both stories I would call magical realism that deal deeply with themes of faith, grief, and hope over the course of a very special season.

My Magic Summer
With the Moon Maidens
By Brian Carmody
Young Adult – Fantasy-Contemporary / Coming of Age / Boys & Men
Print ISBN 9781939844804 / EBook ISBN 9781939844811

Who are these moon maidens?

Summer of ’94 and Connor Whelan is excited to spend the last three months before his senior year with his uncle in Texas. Aware this trip is due to his mom’s cancer treatments, he still hopes this will be a season of magic.

He gets his wish when he encounters three magical women one night. Claiming to be from the moon itself, bewitching Iluna, flighty Eiru, and motherly Cassiopeia are about to make Connor’s last summer of childhood one to remember.

However, his interest in local girl Laura puts him in hot water with her tough boyfriend. His fascination with Iluna also confuses him. Will the moon maidens’ lessons about joy, wonder, and hope get him through this crazy summer?

An award-winning screenwriter and author, Brian Carmody is a dreamer, a wisher, a hoper, a prayer, a pretender and a magic bean buyer. He’s had moondreams from Texas to Virginia, and now California, where he has plenty of other flax golden tales to spin by his fire

Find My Magic Summer at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Scribed, and Goodreads

Jeremy Hawkins Tribute

On January 3, we lost an amazing guy – Jeremy Hawkins.
On February 2, we are paying tribute and give back to one who was so giving and involved in our community.
To honor his life and support the family he leaves behind, on that day:
• Post a story or memory about Jeremy.
• Post photos of Jeremy.
• Share some of the graphics he made for you.
• Post a photo of you wearing one of the t-shirts he designed.
• And to support his family, purchase one of his t-shirt designs, one of his books, or one of his prints. (He also created the IWSG t-shirt.)

There are not words for how I felt when I found out Jeremy was gone. I’d known him over twelve years and he was one of my best blogger buds. Jeremy was the person who would do anything to help his fellow man, and here online that meant he did a lot of free graphics and featured his friends whenever possible. I had several guest spots and ads in the Six Strings magazine, and he made a ton of graphics for my books, for the IWSG, and for the A to Z Challenge. He was a very caring soul, and I remember when we lost Tina several years ago, that really hurt him.

Jeremy, I will miss you, more than you will ever know. You doubted yourself sometimes, but I never did. And you were always there, encouraging me with writing and blogging. God bless you.

I’d like to share some of the designs he did:

Is there someone who supported you? Able to help co-host the IWSG? Seen any of those movies? Picking up My Magic Summer? And what do you remember best about Jeremy?