On Conversations: #author Pamela Jaye Smith

Please join me in welcoming author, Pamela Jaye Smith to Conversations today! Pamela is here to talk about her book, Show Me the Love. So be sure and check out the cover and blurb below. Plus, Pamela has a wonderfull QandA for us, so be sure and check that out too and get to know Pamela and her work!

Lisa ~
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http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FKO9J6M/?tag=crlaofsu-20SHOW ME THE LOVE
All Kinds of Love for All Kinds of Stories
BY PAMELA JAYE SMITH
AND MONTY HAYES McMILLAN 

For content creators and consumers of all genres, styles, and media this book offers a rich resource, new ideas, and a comprehensive, practical guide to using and understanding the dynamic and dramatic power of all sorts of LOVE.

Identifying, understanding, portraying, and communicating the core of emotion in a story is what entertains, enlightens, and educates your audience.

The best stories have some aspect of LOVE in them: romantic love, familial love, best friends, interspecies love, love of animals, country, art, death and destruction.

When well-crafted, the LOVE aspect of a story lives on in the hearts and minds of readers and viewers, be it “My old love! I’m paralyzed with happiness!” from The Great Gatsby; “I see you” from Avatar“; and Casablanca's "We'll always have Paris".

This book covers the psychological background of different types of love and how it works in myth, history, current events, and media. You’ll learn ways to express that type of love both in words and visuals so you can make your stories much richer and more memorable.

Readers and viewers of all types of media find this information enhances their understanding and enjoyment.

"SHOW ME THE LOVE!  is witty, smart and fun...truly a comprehensive field manual to help you navigate the minefield of romance and all sorts of love. A must-have for both the lover and the lovelorn. And those who create the stories about them." ~Geffrey von Gerlach, Life Coach and author of the novels Ghostpoints, Beehive Arizona and Hexe: Witches, Warriors, Magic & Murder

"I just LOVE, SHOW ME THE LOVE!, a wonderful resource for everyone who is interested in "love". ~Dr. Rachel Ballon. Licensed Psychotherapist, International Writing Consultant, teacher and Author of 5 books on writing.


Buy the book in print or e-book versions



QandA with PAMELA JAYE SMITH

“Emotionally compelling, thoroughly enjoyable, full of insights for writers and non-writers alike. But absolutely essential for all writers. Love, or the lack of it, is at the heart of every story, no matter what the format. How clearly and profoundly that theme of love is expressed determines how well the story succeeds in touching an audience or reader. On a personal level, reading this book made me think deeply of the role of love in my personal life. And in my professional life, I will keep this as one of my most essential reference works." ~Pam Wallace - Academy Award winning screenwriter, Witness
 

What drives your characters? What is their back-story? What stands in the way of them achieving their desires? Most of the answers will revolve around some type of love. This is what this book is about.

Too often people think love is just the romantic or sexual kind. However, people experience all sorts of love at all different levels in many different ways. Included in this book are love of the land, familial love, best friends forever, warrior bonding, love for animals, love of art, love of adventure, love of death and destruction, interspecies love, and transformative chivalric love. Including some of these other loves in your story will help create much more interesting characters and situations in support of your romantic and dramatic plots.

Each chapter explores the mythological, historical, and psychological aspects of different types of love with examples from history and in media, suggestions for written descriptions, the all-important Shining Moment, cinematic techniques, and appropriate symbols.

Understanding the deeper drives that affect how we act and react – along with ways to illustrate those drives – will give you better tools with which to create and motivate your characters and stories along their transformational arcs.

What inspired you to write “Show Me the Love!”?
 

In our language we only have the one word for “love” while many other languages have unique names for different types of love. We saw a need to help story-makers be more aware of other loves that influence our lives every day, and how they can make characters more multi-dimensional and stories more compelling.
 

How do your own experiences influence what you write about in this book?
 

We are really fortunate to have careers in a business that always offers a challenge to learn new things, try new techniques and technologies, go new places, and meet new people. Work and adventurous spirits have taken us to the Arctic, the Andes, Southeast Asia and many other parts of the world working on features, TV series, music videos, commercials, documentaries, web series, corporate and military films.

As for the different types of love, we both grew up in Texas (Pamela on a cattle ranch and Monty on the Gulf Coast) and have an inherent love of the land; we have military backgrounds so warrior bonding is familiar to us; a love of art keeps us enthralled in the media business; and some of the projects involve blowing things up and killing people, for pretend and on camera. Luckily we don’t have any personal experience with interspecies love, unless you count dating actors.
 

How do you suggest writers use the information in Show Me the Love?
 

Romantic love does not necessarily have to drive the bigger story, in fact it can come as a result of other kinds of love. A shared love of land and country can bring people together romantically, as can the intensity of military combat, the pursuit of artistic perfection, and such.

A character’s back-story often suggests the perfect kind of love – or the lack thereof –
against which to frame desires and obstacles. The setting of your story also offers the opportunity for a type of love. The antagonist needs a serious drive, too: love of death and destruction works well, whether it’s the petty acts of destroying budding relationships or the larger threat of total annihilation.


What about non-writers?
 

“This is a very well-written, thought-out guide. I am not an author nor do I have anything to do with the film industry. I am just an avid reader. This book has really opened my eyes on what the author or director is trying to visually accomplish in his or her book or film. I will definitely start paying more attention to symbols and camera angles in the future." ~Deborah J. Richardson


Authors Smith and McMillan have worked in all aspects of the media industry for 35+ years, in Hollywood and around the world.

Monty directed Life on the Slope, a documentary on the North Slope of Alaska and was media consultant for People to People: Heart to Heart,  a peace conference between North American and Ecuadorian tribes.

He led a team that helped establish TV-3, Malaysia's first Public Television Network in Kuala Lumpur and traveled to Burma for The Dhamazzadhi Bell project, to raise a giant temple bell lost in Rangoon Harbor.

McMillan was West Coast director for AUSA’s America’s Army  TV series. He and Pamela both attended the Army War College and Air War College National Security Forums.

Affiliations include the Scottish Heritage Society, China Exploration and Research Society, LA World Affairs Council, and the Community Emergency Response Team in both LA and Austin.

He has written screenplays (optioned and sold) and is currently writer-for-hire on a mini-series set in Burma.

Pamela Jaye is a mythologist, international consultant-speaker, and award-winning producer-director. She’s written five books for writers, co-authored two children’s books, writes screenplays, short stories, and articles.

She’s the mythology expert on Ice Age:  Continental Drift Special Features and was  spokesperson for Microsoft’s Age of Mythology.

Credits include Disney, Romance Writers of America, Paramount, Universal, RAI-TV Rome, UCLA, Natl. Film Institute of Denmark, LA and Marseille WebFests and more. She was also story and design consultant on two Wes Craven films, Nightmare on Elm Street 7 and Vampire in Brooklyn.

The Last Tiger Expedition sought a lost WWII American pilot (her uncle) in the Himalayas and worked with NASA/JPL, the Smithsonian, the State Department, and Pan Am.

Smith served as past president, LA Chapter, of the Pan Pacific SE Asia Women’s Assoc. and is a 3rd degree Master Mason in a co-ed Lodge.

She founded MYTHWORKS – “Applied Mythology for Improved Reality” and co-founded  Alpha Babe Academy.



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