Welcome PJ Sharon - Dealing with Garden Pests and Writing What You Know

Welcome to Mary's Garden. Today I'm letting PJ give our garden tip. 

Gardening Tip:

(Photo credit: PJ Sharon)

Recipes for natural pest control.

Here are two great sites I found for Natural Pest Control, including safe, effective, and easy to concoct recipes to keep your garden growing and the planet happy! 

Tree Hugger shared these eight natural and homemade insecticide recipes while Gardening Know How has these organic garden pest control suggestions. There’s some overlap here but I like options when doing research and these are all simple, earth-friendly solutions made from ingredients you can find around your home. Which brings me to today’s topic…

Research vs. “writing what you know”

Common advice for writers is to “write what you know.” This makes sense for several reasons. Writing on familiar topics—especially ones for which we are passionate—allows us to write from personal interest and expertise and has the advantage of creating a deeper connection with the reader through shared sensory experiences. A clear description of the sweet, spicy scent of homemade pumpkin pie or the crimson brilliance of a Caribbean sunrise can make the reader feel as if they are in the story alongside your characters. Our job as writers is to create a picture in the reader’s mind that draws them into another world and takes them on a journey. There’s nothing like real life experience to bring those images to life. However, there are draw backs. Sometimes we think we know our “stuff”, only to find out the hard way that none of us knows it all, and that we don’t know what we don’t know. Believe me; if you get something wrong, readers will notice…and they won’t be happy!

One would think that writing from a place of personal knowledge would reduce the need for mountains of research. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. I know most writers spend a good portion of their writing time going down the internet rabbit hole to ensure authenticity and accuracy—or to endlessly procrastinate (speaking for myself). It seems no matter how well-versed on a topic you might be, there are always details you need to verify.

In an early draft of my first novel, HEAVEN is for HEROES, for instance, I made the mistake of calling a Marine a “soldier”. Fortunately, I had a friend who was an Army Ranger who agreed to beta-read the story and caught it, letting me know this was a grievous error that would be insulting to any military person who knew the difference and would likely get my book tossed across the room. Despite having had a brother in the Marines, a dad who’d served in the Army, a sister in the Navy, and another brother in the Army National Guard, I had no idea my choice of that one word would be a problem. A classic case of we don’t know what we don’t know. Thank goodness for beta-readers and the ability as a self-published author to go back and fix it!

Aside from the need for extensive research, write what you know could also translate to write who you are. Parts of me—my collective life experiences—go into every book and character. Books and characters are their own stories and people, but parts of me shine through in the most interesting ways, revealing recurrent themes throughout my writing. Trauma, loss, forgiveness, survival, healing, love…these are the driving themes of every story I write. Those recurring themes and my love of nature. Brinn came about because of a walk in the woods with my dog that left me wondering what it would have been like to grow up in the wild.

When I had the idea for SAVAGE CINDERELLA, I knew there would be tons of research on topics like locations I’d never been, edible and medicinal plants native to Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, seasonal weather patterns, and serial killers to name a few. But I also wanted to draw from my own knowledge of natural healing, survival, and recovery—all topics I could speak about passionately, and ones I felt I could seamlessly weave into my character’s story. Having been an avid hiker, camper, and naturalist all my life, and overcoming many of my own traumas, I saw myself in that wild child and wanted to share Brinn’s story. 

Brinn’s experience of having been kidnapped and living in the wild isn’t one most of us are intimately familiar with or can even relate to, but when we do our research and draw from every life experience, memory, and dream inside us, it all comes together in a giant melting pot we call imagination. When we write what we know from a place of who we are, that’s when magic happens.

I hope you enjoy reading about Brinn’s journey as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. If you haven’t yet read SAVAGE CINDERELLA, it’s still available for free download. Join Brinn and company in a series of action-packed follow-up novellas sure to curb your craving for an adventurous reading snack!

Until next month…peace and blessings,

PJ

We always enjoy your posts when you visit, PJ, thank you for joining us. See you next month.