Vanilla Heart Publishing
Smoky Trudeau is the author of two novels, Redeeming Grace and The Cabin, and two nonfiction books especially for writers: Front-Word, Back-Word, Insight Out: Lessons on Writing the Novel Lurking Inside You From Start to Finish; and Left Brained, Write Brained: 366 Writing Prompts and Exercises to Free Your Creative Spirit, Awaken Your Muse, And Challenge Your Skills Every Day of the Year, all from Vanilla Heart Publishing. She has published short stories and poetry in literary journals such as CALYX and online e-zines such as Smashed Ink, and was a 2003 Pushcart Prize nominee.
An ardent outdoorswoman with a deep reverence for nature, Smoky’s soon-to-be-released book, Observations of an Earth Mage, is a collection of prose and poetry celebrating the fragile beauty of our planet. She is also nearing completion of her third novel, The Storyteller’s Bracelet. She is currently editing Vanilla Heart Publishing’s Nature’s Gifts anthology, to be released on Earth Day 2010.
Smoky is a freelance editor, writing coach, and book doctor who has helped hundreds of aspiring writers achieve their dream of becoming published. Her passion for the written word and for helping others learn to express themselves was the driving force behind the creation of her online radio show, Write Well With Smoky Trudeau, that airs on the first of each month on Books with Heart Radio at blogtalkradio.com. Each show features a lesson on writing well and suggests exercises to help free the listener’s creativity. Smoky offers tips and hints to help writers improve their writing, answers listener questions, and more.
Smoky spent many years teaching writing workshops at several community colleges throughout her former home state of Illinois, where she was also a frequent speaker at writers conferences and book fairs. Beginning in January 2010, Smoky will put that extensive experience to work as she facilitates an online workshop: From Manuscript to Book: Polish Your Prose for Publishing Success. Smoky will teach writers how to take their manuscripts and turn them into books that will stand out from the slush pile, increasing their chances of being published. A workshop for novice writers with a great story idea but who are uncertain how to turn that idea into a marketable manuscript will follow.
Finally succumbing to her bohemian spirit and need to live near the mountains and the ocean, Smoky moved to Southern California in 2008, where she lives with her husband and daughter in a ramshackle cottage in the woods overlooking the San Gabriel Valley and the San Gabriel Mountains beyond. When she isn’t writing, she spends her time hiking in the mountains, camping in the Sierras, splashing in tidepools, and fighting the urge to speak in haiku.
To learn more about Smoky, visit her Website at www.smokytrudeau.com
Redeeming Grace by Smoky
Trudeau
The Cabin by Smoky
Trudeau
Front-Word,
Back-Word, Insight-Out by
Smoky
Trudeau
Left Brain,
Write Brain by
Smoky
Trudeau
Observations
of an Earth Mage by
Smoky
Trudeau
Introducing
The Original Earth Mage, Smoky Trudeau
Vanilla Heart Publishing, Evergreen Books Imprint, is proud to introduce The Original Earth Mage, Smoky Trudeau!
The Earth Mage website is filled with fun and info for enjoying life in our natural world, celebrating nature, and protecting the creatures and habitats around us.
Coming Soon!
The tragic deaths of her mother and two younger siblings have left Grace Harmon responsible for raising her sister Miriam and protecting her from their abusive father, Luther, a zealot preacher with a penchant for speaking in Biblical verse who is on a downward spiral toward insanity.
Otto Singer charms Grace with his gentle courtship and devotion to his brother, Henry. But after their marriage, Otto is unable to share with Grace the terrible secret he has kept more than twenty years. Otto believes he is responsible for a tragic accident that claimed the life of a young woman and left Henry severely brain damaged.
Luther's insane ravings and increasingly violent behavior force Grace to question and reassess the patriarchal religious beliefs of her childhood. Then tragedy strikes just when Otto's secret is uncovered, unleashing demons that threaten to destroy the entire family. Can Grace find the strength to save them, and in the process find her own redemption?
Redeeming Grace is set on
Smoky
Trudeau has written a book of love...marital love, love of family, love of
nature and the land. But that love is threatened by the insane love of an old
man for his jealous god. Long-suppressed secrets erupt into nightmares, a
tornado strikes, and an unspeakable crime is committed. An unlikely hero
saves the day and we see how authentic love does indeed conquer all things.
Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D. is the
author of Pagan
Every Day, Finding New Goddesses , and Quicksilver Moon.
Trudeau's passion comes
through in this compelling tale of a young woman's struggle with spirituality
and cruelty. Written with journalistic precision, Redeeming Grace drew me in so that I
felt Grace's emotions and found my breath catching in anticipation of the next
segment. I was literally there, could smell the marsh and salt and could
hear the lapping water. The people were real to me, as if I'd known them
all my life. Redeeming Grace
is a gripping narration and one I would highly recommend.
Vila SpiderHawk, author
of Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the
Crones and Forest Song:
Finding Home.
SageWoman Magazine
Redeeming Grace
Redeeming Grace
The
Cabin
by Smoky Trudeau
The Cabin is an historical fantasy, with a hefty dose of
romance thrown in (although not romance in the traditional sense of a romance
novel). James-Cyrus Hoffmann has just
inherited his grandfather’s farm, and with it a mysterious cabin deep in the
woods on Hoffmann mountain; a cabin he has dreamed about since childhood. When James-Cyrus enters the cabin, he is
vaulted back through time to the Civil War era, where he meets Elizabeth, the
brave young woman who lives in the cabin, and Malachi, a runaway slave.
James-Cyrus
realizes his dreams of the cabin were visions of the past, and that
Full of Byzantine twists and turns,
Smoky Trudeau's The Cabin is a fascinating read. This truly
beautiful tale of humanity's connection to the natural realm and to a force we
cannot see teaches us that the world is, indeed, a wondrous place full of magic
we do not understand. I highly recommend this haunting tale.
–Vila SpiderHawk, author of Hidden Passages: Tales to Honor the Crones and Forest Song: Finding Home.
The Cabin
The Cabin
Front-word,
Back-word, Insight-Out:
Lessons on Writing
the Novel Lurking Inside You
from Start to Finish
Every day, people sit down in front of a blank computer screen or piece of paper and start to write their own version of the Great American Novel. Many never get beyond “Once upon a time....” Their stories remain stuck inside, where only they can hear them. That’s because writing a book is easier said than done. Writing a good book is even harder. Why? Because novel writing is a skill that must be learned, just like a nurse must learn to take a patient’s blood pressure, a pilot must learn how to fly, and a concert pianist must learn to read music.
Based on her years of teaching writing workshops, author Smoky Trudeau has created a program of step-by-step lessons to teach you how to transform that story stuck inside you into good fiction. You’ll learn winning techniques for starting your story and how to decide which character should tell it. You’ll gather ideas for writing believable dialogue and developing characters readers will love—and those they’ll despise. You’ll learn how to build tension, write an exciting climax scene, then gracefully bring your story to an end; and much, much more.
Full of examples and exercises to help you hone your skills, Front-word, Back-word, Insight-Out is the must-read book for anyone who wants to unleash their inner author and free the stories lurking inside.
Front-Word,
Back-Word, Insight Out is the
Fiction Writer’s Workshop Smoky taught at community colleges and other venues
for eight years. Here are just a few of the nice things her students have said:
Smoky’s impeccable writing expertise and teaching
skills inspired me to write a short story that not only won a local competition
but will soon be published in an anthology.
That story will someday be a novel, and I owe it all to Smoky.
Sue Stewart
Your insights, energy, and sense of humor make you an
outstanding teacher. You should win a
prize.
Donald
Sherbert, Ph.D.
Trudeau is a delight…she knows a lot and conveys
examples in class tactfully and with skill.
I always left class inspired...
Anonymous
Student Evaluations
Write Well Workshops with Smoky Trudeau
Smoky Trudeau has
been a writing coach and editor for the past ten years. Along the way, she has
helped hundreds of aspiring authors achieve their dreams of becoming published writers.
Her book, Front-Word, Back-Word,
Insight-Out: Lessons on Writing the Novel Lurking Inside You from Start to
Finish (ISBN 978-0-9796545-8-9, Vanilla Heart Publishing, 2008) is the
first in her series of Writer’s Workshop books and tools. And, beginning July
1, 2009, Smoky will be live on Books
with Heart Radio each month, chatting with listeners about the nitty gritty of writing
well, including tips and hints, exercises to free creativity and develop skills
that can help writers improve and enjoy writing, question and answer periods,
and more…
Each and every Write Well Episode is available in a self-contained Ebook in multiple formats, including Sony Reader and Kindle, PDF and rich text format, epub, and more, and includes the lesson material, exercises, author development tools, resource information and valuable lessons from Smoky Trudeau, Editor and Book Doctor.
Left Brained, Write Brained: 366 Writing Prompts and Exercises to Free Your Creative Spirit, Awaken Your Muse, And Challenge Your Skills Every Day of the Year
One of the most valuable things you can do as a writer is set aside time every day to write. You don’t always have to be witty. It doesn’t always have to be great prose. The act of writing in and of itself will make you a better writer.
But sometimes it’s hard to know what to write. That’s where writing prompts and exercises come in handy. You don’t have to come up with something to write about; the writing prompt tells you exactly what your subject is for the day.
During my many years as a writing instructor and coach, I’ve created hundreds of writing prompts to motivate my students and clients. The funny thing is, some of the best writing I get back from these students and clients isn’t the stories they’re working on, but rather their answers to my writing prompts!
This book is set up calendar style, beginning with January 1 and ending with December 31, but it’s perfectly fine to start any time of the year. At the beginning of each week (a week being a seven-day period, not necessarily starting on a Sunday), you will be asked to write about your writing goals for the upcoming week. At the end of those seven days, you’ll be asked to reflect back on the week and whether you accomplished your goals. In between, you’ll find exercises on setting, dialogue, grammar, poetry, and just about any other topic you can think of.
Some exercises may seem like they have little to do with writing. In fact, in a few of the exercises, you don’t write at all. This is because exercising your creative muscles in artistic arenas other than writing helps you become a better writer. Carrots are a healthy food, but if you ate only carrots, you wouldn’t stay healthy for long, would you? No … you need a variety of foods to stay healthy. By participating in activities other than writing, you nurture your creative nature and ensure it stays healthy and strong.
Some of the exercises in this book are easy and can be completed in a matter of minutes. Some are more difficult and may take longer. Do the best you can. No one is judging you.
You’ll find some of these prompts deal with serious subjects, encouraging you to explore your feelings about different topics. Others are downright playful, even silly. You’ll find a lot of references to fairy tale and cartoon characters. Just because we call these exercises doesn’t mean they can’t be fun! And when something is fun, it somehow seems less threatening and easier to accomplish.
Let me hear how you’re doing! If you’re particularly proud of your response to a prompt, send it to me at authorsmokytrudeau@gmail.com. I’d be delighted to hear from you. Or, if you come up with a writing prompt of your own that you would like to see included in a future edition of Left Brained, Write Brained, drop me a line and share that, too.
So dig in, have fun, and flex those creative muscles!
— Smoky —
and Coming Soon!
The Storyteller's Bracelet
It is the late 1800s, and the push to remove Native American children from their tribal homes to attend schools in the east to learn the ways of the white man is in full swing. When 17-year-old Otter is forcibly removed from his tribe and sent to school, he fights to retain his Indian identity, but soon finds himself fighting a losing battle. Encouraged by Sun Song, the young woman from his tribe whom Otter hopes to some day marry, Otter throws himself into his coursework.
Given the biblical name Gideon, Otter excels in his studies, and within a year earns the trust of his teachers and school officials. Sent to work as a gardener at the home of the wealthy Thatcher family from town, Gideon meets Rachel, the feisty daughter who soon steals his heart. Their affair is uncovered when Rachel becomes pregnant, and Gideon finds he must flee for his life from the wrath of her racist father.
More than one hundred years later, Lark Waterman inherits a bracelet from her grandmother—a storyteller's bracelet, with pictographs that reveal a tragic story from Lark's family history, a history her grandmother had been forbidden to explore. Lark sets off on a journey to decipher the meaning of the bracelet. She soon meets Sophia, a healer and seer who recognizes Lark too has the power of sight.
With Sophia's guidance, Lark learns to tap into her gift of sight, a gift that soon proves crucial to understanding the meaning of the bracelet. The two women set off for the Southwest, following the clues of the bracelet, on a journey to unlock a secret from Lark's past that just might allow her to reclaim the birthright denied her grandmother a century earlier.
cover photo by Kathi Anderson
In this collection, Observations of an Earth
Mage, by Smoky Trudeau, readers will be delighted and enchanted by the prose
and poetry celebrating the beauty and splendor of the natural world. Humor and
drama. From the magnificent vistas of
Observations of an Earth Mage Video
Observations of an Earth Mage