Coming of Age with Kurt and Ellie Johnson

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About Kurt and Ellie: Kurt and Ellie are a father daughter combo team who have authored the book The Barrens: A novel of love and death in the canadian arctic.

In this episode, Mike, Kurt, and Ellie discuss:

Ellie’s trip in subarctic Canada and how it inspired the book
How they made the story come alive as being so real on the page
What it’s like working with your father in writing a story
Learning about yourself during the writing process

Key Takeaways:

Your travels can be turned into a fantastic adventure story, it’s simply a matter of figuring out how to incorporate the various elements into your journey in order to create a one-of-a-kind story.
Plotting out your journey, attempting to create dialogue and movement, incorporating your life experiences, and attempting to form something that creates a character at his core all work together to help your story feel more realistic.
Allow yourself to be vulnerable in front of your parents. You may feel awkward sharing your journey with them, but sharing more of yourself is essential to developing a stronger bond.
Reflecting on your own story can be both enlightening and difficult, but it will undoubtedly teach you something.

“If you’re reading what you like and reading a lot of it, that translates into your writing style.” – Kurt Johnson

“Stop taking everything. If you could just keep moving forward and try to have fun sometimes, things will work out as they were meant to pretty much either way, but you might be a little bit happier at the end of it” – Ellie Johnson

Connect with Kurt Johnson:

Website: https://www.kurtjohnsonbooks.com/

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kurtjohnsonbooks/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KurtJohnsonBooks

Connect with Ellie Johnson:

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: https://instagram.com/elliej418?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Grab a copy of The Barrens:

Bookshop.org

Amazon

Connect with Mike Carlon: