290 - How to Create Compelling Stories 1. Getting Started

Have you ever gotten stuck while trying to write the opening scene of your book? Join Kathi Lipp and bestselling author Susy Flory as they discuss how to approach the opening scene of a book. In this episode, you will learn: • How to help your reader get into the story. • How Susy decided to open her new book, Sanctuary. • How you can use your experiences to draw the reader into your book. Tune in next week to learn about the particulars and the ingredients you need for your story. About Sanctuary: For decades, his family rescued lost and forgotten donkeys in the Irish countryside. He had no idea that one day, the donkeys would rescue him. Patrick Barrett grew up on the back of a donkey. In the small village of Liscarroll, the young boy helped his family run a sanctuary for abandoned and abused donkeys. Struggling in school, Patrick only felt truly accepted in the presence of these funny, fuzzy, touching animals. It was like magic, how he and the donkeys understood each other. He became a true “donkey whisperer”—reading their body language, communicating with them in ways they could understand, and teaching himself how to “speak” in their distinctive calls. But when Patrick was of age, he shipped out with the Irish Army and encountered unimaginable wartime horrors in Lebanon and Kosovo. In the aftermath, he returned home a broken man, sinking into the depths of PTSD and addictions. He believed nothing could save him. But he hadn’t counted on the donkeys. Sanctuary is the remarkable true story of how faith turned one lost man’s life around with the help of the rescue animals who loved him. It’s an antidote to despair and a call to hope, revealing the beauty and wonder of Ireland as you’ve never seen it before.