“Revise,Revise.Polish,Polish,” is just one of the many writing tips author Erin Bowman shared with Woodstown Middle School students. On Friday, January 8th, Woodstown Middle students held a skype session with author Erin Bowman. Erin Bowman is the author of the Taken series and Vengeance Road. Both books are fairly different with one leading you back into the “Wild West” and the other giving you a dystopian vibe. Just as a young girl, Erin always loved to read or write. Having her mother as a librarian, she always got a head start on new books and had a wide variety for a choice selection. Her biggest influence as a writer is the Harry Potter Series. Just like Hogwarts, Erin wanted to be able to create a world where readers wanted to live in through her writing. Not only that, “Inspiration comes from many things,” she said. A tiny voice in her head about an 18 year old boy, sparked the idea of the Taken series. It just goes to show, that amazing stories can be created through the simplest ways. Along with that some of Erin’s favorite books include the Book Thief by Markus Zusak and The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly.
During the skype session we asked many questions and one happened to be, “If you could be one of the characters you created, who would you want to be?” Out of all the character’s Erin created, she would want to be Kate from Vengeance Road. Kate is a very strong-willed girl, who doesn’t struggle with confrontation or let anyone hold her back. Erin really admires her traits and hopes to let them have an impact on herself. Speaking of characters, Erin currently is working on two different books. One is a companion novel to Vengeance Road, which takes place in the west but has a completely different story. Then she started working on a sci-fi novel about a mission that goes terribly wrong! One thing I found interesting was that Erin really is amazing at writing different types of genres. Not all her books are the same. Lastly as Erin advises, pick up a fresh notebook, brainstorm ideas, and then move to a computer to begin creating a story of your own.
By Julia L.
