The Story Behind the Story by Tina Pinson and 2 book giveaway!!

Today we welcome Tina Pinson to my blog. Tina is graciously giving away two books!   To enter, leave contact information below and tell us whether you dream in technicolor?

Hello. Tina Pinson here.

First let me thank Laura for letting me drop by.

I have been asked on occasion where do the ideas for my stories come from.

I have been writing for 30 plus years, so I pull a lot of ideas for characters or things that happen to my characters from family and people I’ve met in life. I also pull ideas from stories and things I’ve seen in the news or in history.

Most of my story ideas have come to me in technicolor while I sleep. Yep. I dream my stories. They unfold like technicolored movie while I sleep. I write my dream down and start to do the research to fit my story into history properly or find a way to finagle history into fitting around my story.

Unless one is writing a time travel where the traveler moves through time after someone else has changed history and you can play with time and facts, it can be challenging to make history fit.

For example – my latest series – Trail of the Sandpiper -- deals with a missionary trying to get herself and several children off the island of New Guinea through enemy lines.

I did a bit of research about WWII in the Pacific, pulling out times and information for that arena of war. What was life like on New Guinea island? Where you lived on the island would determine customs and speech as there was a Dutch side to the island and an Australian and even today there are several different languages (800 known) and customs among the indigenous people alone. They have been fighting amongst themselves for years. Now English ties the island together somewhat in business arenas, but it is still diverse.

During WWII islanders mainly helped the allies. The Dutch side, might have been a bit more populated with foreigners at the time, so several towns were attacked and people were taken prisoner. I needed to know when the Japanese landed on the island and what they did to prisoners. Three Came Home the story of Agnes Newton Keith, documents her time in Japanese confinement on the island of Borneo and give the reader a good idea, how the Japanese treated their prisoners.

Port Moresby an Australian stronghold had several soldiers hoping to hold the Japanese as Port Moresby would give the Japanese a closer jumping point to Australia. As it was, the island gave them a point in the pacific to move from and was a strategic piece of real estate. Over 200, 000 died in the campaign for New Guinea.

But both sides of the island were attacked by the Japanese. I also studied about the bugs and animals and plants and people. What about the allied forces? What kind of submarines and planes and weapons of warfare were available, who were the coastwatchers, what techniques did spies use and more. And I managed to get a lot of information.

Armed with my information and imagination, I wrote book one, “Trail of the Sandpiper -- Betrayed, stopping to research when necessary, which was frequent even with all I’d picked through before.

Once Betrayed was finished, I cleaned up book two which was pretty much written already. I did more – you guessed it – research and worked my characters into history. And still, I have so much to learn about this one arena of WWII. I delve into study and turn over more information that had my mind writing new story lines. While a writer needs to stay focused on their story, it is important to do the research and sometimes see a bigger scope, just not so big it becomes confusing. While I looked at some of the things happening in the war, I didn’t spend my time studying the war in the European arena as it had little baring on my story.

With Rescued finished I turned my attentions to book three – Avenged.

The story was in my head. I saw where my characters were supposed to go. I heard their conversations. I’d written out a three-page synopsis and had some of my main points outlined. While I still had a bit of writing and research to go, (just a bit Ha ha) Book three, I surmised, should be a walk in the park.

I sat down, flexed my fingers, and began to work, certain I would have it done in a couple months probably less.

Avenged picks up the story toward the end of the war and follows one of the Japanese characters as well as the main characters from the first two books, Justine and Tyler. Writing was going well. My characters were staying in line and hadn’t taken any major detours. I was happy and I stayed that way until I tried to get my Japanese character from Australia to Japan. The war was over and I wanted him home yesterday. It shouldn’t have been that hard. All soldiers go home after the war is over, right?

Who knew that several Japanese prisoners didn’t get to go home for several months. I didn’t realize it until I did some research and then I had to sit down and overhaul my storyline.

Did I mention that getting history to line up with my story is challenging at times? Irritating even. I tried to rework my thoughts, even tried to dream it through along a different line, but all the dreams of my stories can’t change the facts. I had to change something in my story. A year and a half, almost two, later I think I have finally settled on the path for the story to move along. (keeping fingers crossed.)

The story hasn’t changed much, and I’m hoping this story arc will fall into place with history. So far it seems to be working, but only time and further research will tell.

In honor of our freedom and the celebration of our Independence, I am giving away the first two books in my Trail of the Sandpiper Series – Betrayed and Rescued. Leave a comment for a chance to enter the giveaway.

BIO

Biography

Award winning author Tina Pinson resides in Grand Junction, Colorado with Danny, her husband of thirty-five plus years. They are blessed to have three sons, and nine grandchildren. (with one on the way) Tina started her first novel in elementary school. Her love of writing has caused her to seek creative outlets be it writing poetry, songs, or stories. She loves to draw, and enjoys gardening.

She hopes her stories, though fiction, will transport you to worlds beyond and touch your spirit and give you a closer insight to yourself and God.

In the Manor of the Ghost, Touched By Mercy, To Carry her Cross, Christmas in Shades of Gray, Then There Was Grace, The Shadow Series; When Shadows Fall, Shadowed Dreams, To Catch a Shadow and This Shadowed Land and her WWII series Trail of the Sandpiper – Betrayed and Rescued are available through Desert Breeze Publishing and major retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Christianbooks and other outlets

Then There Was Grace won the Epic Award for best Contemporary, Christmas in Shades of Gray finaled in the Epic Awards Paranormal Category and Trail of the Sandpiper-Betrayed placed third in the Historical category of ACFW Genesis Contest.

Excerpt from Rescued:

Tyler frowned and turned to watch the waves when she mentioned God.

"You can't run from Him forever."

His gaze flew to hers. "What are you saying?"

"That you're running... from God." Her gaze was thoughtful. "I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. I've seen you battling Him."

He opened his mouth. She waited for him to deny it, but he said nothing. She was right. He was battling God, and she doubted the war would end anytime soon.

"I have a hard time trusting someone or something that allows men to go through so much turmoil. Mercy lady, you of all people know what I'm talking about. Look what he put you through."

"I know what you're saying, but I see this differently. You see what He put me through... I see what He's gotten me through. What I went through was because of men, and their desires. The only reason I'm alive today is because God was with me."

Tyler folded his arms high on his chest.

She smiled. "If you think about it, you'd see that's the only reason you're here. God has a plan for you."

He snorted. "He's one rotten planner."

"It might seem that way, but the truth is, He's the only reason we get through things. He loves us. He loves you," she clarified. "You're just too stubborn to see it."

Chin jutting, Tyler studied the night, trying to ignore her. But she knew she'd hit a nerve.

 After he'd fumed over it for a time, he argued the point. "How can you say God loves me? You don't know what my life has been like."

"No, I don't."

"So how can you say he's been there for me?"

"Because I know without a doubt, He's been there waiting for you to trust Him."

"That doesn't tell me how you know."

She shrugged, and inhaled a bit of the moist night air. "I know because of how He waited for me. I know because He promised to be there for anyone that would call on His name.”

Tyler stabbed a laugh. "Yeah, sure, just call on His name. Do you know how many times I prayed and asked Him to help me? Lots of times. And He didn't come. Honestly, I didn't expect Him to."

"How do you know He didn't?" Justine asked softly.

"I don't care to go into details, but He didn't. He just didn't. I had to take care of myself. I got myself where I am." He tapped his chest. "No one takes care of me, but me."

Connect with Tina:

Tina's Blog

Twitter:@Tina_Pinson

Facebook-- https://www.facebook.com/TinaEPinsonAuthor

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/tinapinson/

Purchase the Trail of the Sandpiper Series

Trail of the Sandpiper-Betrayed 

Trail of the Sandpiper – Rescued  

Find other books from Tina at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD and other outlets,