Lynn Garthwaite: Video Games

Can you give some background on your piece?

Having raised two boys, I lived with the nearly constant cacophony of video game sounds in the background. To this day (and those boys are now 33 and 31 years old) it still makes me smile to hear those sounds.

Your poem is short and sweet; using sounds, actions, and rhyming patterns. It made me think of a journey, challenging but fun, filled with ups and downs. While it is a short piece, is there a deeper meaning that is told through the simplicity? 

Playtime is a universal part of growing, maturing, socializing and finding joy. Play is where we learn the values of sharing and community, so I felt it was a nice little addition to a book about multicultural society.

Throughout your work, what message are you trying to share with your readers? 

I have written in many genres, but I believe that a through-line in all of my projects is a theme of adventure, fun, and fascination with the world around us.

In your author bio, you share your belief that everyone should have stories that reflect them and their communities. Can you speak more on the importance of representation in stories?

If we haven’t learned anything else by this time in the 21st Century, I dearly hope that we have learned that we should value the contributions that all people make to our communities. I think that every generation has gotten better at forging friendships based on common interests rather than ethnic or religious identities, but it helps if young children have role-models, pictures, and stories that reflect their own experience so that they know in their very core that they are capable of anything.

How do you connect with your piece in Story to Story?

I try to incorporate fun into my life in big ways and small. I think it’s important to sometimes set aside the things that worry us, and focus for a while on the things that bring us joy.

Have you always wanted to write? Can you tell us about your journey as a writer?

By about the age of ten I was answering that standard question – what do you want to be when you grow up? with the words: A writer. I’ve always been an avid reader, so it seemed obvious that there couldn’t possibly be a better job than being able to make up stories and put them into books. I took many writing classes all through high school and college and just kept writing stories. But it wasn’t until I was in my 40’s that I could truly focus on doing it for an actual job.

Do you have any advice for children who want to be writers? 

Let your imagination go wild. They’re your stories, so make them whatever you want. If you’re interested in time travel, write a story about that. If you’re fascinated by the animals that live in the jungles, definitely put them in your stories. If you want to research how people live in other countries - do it, and then write about it - because other people will be interested too.

Do you have any book projects we should look out for?

I just released my first mystery novel, titled Starless Midnight, which is about a bi-racial woman who solves a forty-year-old murder mystery at the same time that she finds herself the target of a domestic terrorist group. I am starting to make notes for a sequel.

Is there anything else you’d like your readers to know? About you, your work, or life?

My first children’s early chapter book went to forty publishers before I got the call that one of them wanted to publish it. I tell this to kids that I speak to and to aspiring writers that I meet because I want everyone to know that you have to be tenacious to achieve what you want. Don’t give up the first time someone says “no.” Whether it’s playing sports, or learning to play an instrument, or writing stories - - - if you want to do it badly enough, just keep practicing and don’t give up.

Lynn is the co-host of a cable tv show called “That’s Odd.”