{"id":18333,"date":"2019-10-09T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T16:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=18333"},"modified":"2019-10-09T11:57:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T18:57:17","slug":"camosun-english-instructor-laurie-elmquist-releases-new-childrens-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2019\/10\/09\/camosun-english-instructor-laurie-elmquist-releases-new-childrens-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun English instructor Laurie Elmquist releases new children\u2019s book"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Writing, as any writer will tell you, is hard work. Writers work day and night to provide readers with quality material that not only entertains but also tells the truth and accurately represents the writer\u2019s point of view. Camosun English instructor Laurie Elmquist writes children\u2019s books when she\u2019s not teaching, and she follows that formula down to the letter.<\/p>\n<p>Elmquist\u2019s new book, <i>Ruckus<\/i>, is her second story chronicling young Reece Hansen as he struggles through his parents\u2019 divorce and, this time around, gets some furry help as he finds the way to acceptance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI suppose that I was drawn to this situation of a young boy going through a divorce because I understand that it\u2019s a very common problem for young children, probably one of their biggest struggles at a early age,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, it\u2019s a theme I\u2019m interested in, but I am also interested in what sustains us in life, what makes us resilient. And I think the love of animals and pets is so important. It\u2019s something young people can hold tight when everything is falling apart. That\u2019s a stable influence in their life, and it\u2019s something that they can hold for comfort, so that was why I was drawn to this subject material of a boy and his dog. And I own a Jack Russell, so I modelled this dog from my own experience with that breed.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18335\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18335\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_4018.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-18335 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_4018-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_4018-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/IMG_4018.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18335\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camosun College English instructor Laurie Elmquist and her new book, <em>Ruckus<\/em> (photo by Milo Hogan-Apperley\/&lt;em&gt;Nexus&lt;\/em&gt;).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Elmquist says that writing is very important to her, as it is not only her passion but also what she does for work. It has a personal meaning as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, writing really means a time that I get all to myself to create,\u201d she says. \u201cI think that the act of creation is so important to being alive, so I often write about topics to try to understand them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Ruckus<\/i> is a book for children, but Elmquist says that she manages to address big subjects in it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat surprises and delights me is that when I\u2019m telling my stories, I can work in some important themes, and I never talk down to my audience,\u201d she says. \u201cI always try to put in the kind of language that I love to read and I enjoy. So, in terms of quality, the writer is still trying to be the best that they can be and tell the best story that they can tell. Truthfully, I think the best stories that are being told right now are being told at the middle-grade YA [young adult] level. The storytelling is so terrific&#8230; writers realize that it\u2019s very important to their audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As far as advice for young writers goes, Elmquist says that there are so many things to say, but one thing she really stresses is to make sure they\u2019re working on their words.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would advise them to make time for their writing. It seems like there are so many things that press upon us. I always write in the morning and make it almost the same as exercise\u2014you just put it in your schedule so it\u2019s something you don\u2019t even think whether or not you\u2019re going to write that day. You simply just write,\u201d she says. \u201cSo that\u2019s what I will advise them to do, because there is only one way to become a great writer, and that is to write.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Writing, as any writer will tell you, is hard work. Writers work day and night to provide readers with quality material that not only entertains but also tells the truth and accurately represents the writer\u2019s point of view. Camosun English instructor Laurie Elmquist writes children\u2019s books when she\u2019s not teaching, and she follows that formula [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,241],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-october-9-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18336,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18333\/revisions\/18336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}