Blog Tour: A Guest Post from Joshua J.Johnson!

Hey guys! Today I'm here as part of the A MALMONT SUMMER Blog Tour and I am very excited to be hosting the author, Joshua J. Johnson on my blog who is here with a wonderful guest post that talks all about locations and the settings for his debut YA novel! I've had a read through it and its brilliant, so without further ado I'll pass you over to Joshua!

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Hello! First of all, thank you so much to Daniel for having me on his blog. It's an absolute pleasure and I'm so excited!

Basically, I'm here today to talk about LOCATIONS, and why I love using different places as my settings in my books, especially in A MALMONT SUMMER, which came out yesterday!

A MALMONT SUMMER follows four girls who live in Santa Monica and attend a private boarding school there who proceed to flit across the world to Australia to figure out their issues and attempt to settle their dispute.

One of the biggest things readers of the book so far have commented on is the descriptions of these settings—in fact, I've even been asked if I've been to Santa Monica or Australia, which is a huge compliment that I am very thankful for, as I never been to either of those places!

As somebody who enjoys traveling and would love to see more of the world, as much as of it as possible, within my life (after all, don't you think that the world is too big of a place to stay where you are forever?), it only seems natural to me that I would explore the world within my writing and live and explore vicariously through my characters!

In my free time, I often find myself just looking at pictures of places abroad anyway, so writing them is something that I was able to put this to. I decide on the locations of my novel by simply choosing the places I would enjoy to go to the most, and then I look at pictures and maps and research the nightlife and the attractions in the day, and essentially everything you would try your best to find it if you were going there.

After all, in a way, you are going there! Myself and my characters spent day after day wandering around Santa Monica and various locations in Australia, even it was only by imagination! 

Looking at pictures definitely helped—you can literally write what you are seeing then. I also think about senses—if you walked down Ocean Avenue (one of the main roads in Santa Monica), what would you smell on the air? What would that air feel like? What could you see as to where that is coming from? Just thinking about these things and breaking it down helps make it more convincing.

Essentially, pick places that excite you as your settings, whether they're places you've made up or places that exist. You might not be able to get there right now, but you can spend time there through your characters, so choose places you're genuinely curious about, and that curiosity and excitement will reflect in your writing! :)

I definitely plan on having my characters visit more of the world in the next few books in The MALMONT Quartet! It would be a pleasure if you picked up Book 1 and came along for a quick flit around the world with my characters and I! :)

Thank you very much for taking your time to read, and again, a massive thank you to Daniel! :)

See you soon!
Joshua J. Johnson

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Well there you have it folks! Wasn't that an awesome guest post? I loved it, especially how vividly Joshua talks about his inspirations for locations and how his writing process is simply formed from pictures! I've read the book and I have to say that Joshua's descriptions of Santa Monica are extremely detailed and to know he's never been there is outstanding!  If you're itching for an adventure abroad but from the comfort of your own living room then I would definitely recommend this one! You can pick up Joshua's novel by clicking following links! Click here if you're in the UK and click here if you live in the USA! For a self published novel I doubt you'll regret the splurge! If you do buy either the eBook/Paperback of Joshua's book then drop him a DM on Twitter letting him know and he will send you a personalised postcard of the cover design!

Thank you to Joshua for being such a wonderful guest host here on this blog, I definitely look forward to working with him in the future and I hope you guys will look forward to a future reoccurrence! Joshua you are welcome on this blog anytime! So if Joshua's guest post has intrigued you and you're looking for that little bit more information about the book, but are hesitant to dash right ahead and purchase it then I have a full review of the book coming up tomorrow so look forward to that! But be warned, it's a little bit spoilery, so if you're conscious of what I'm going to say then don't venture below the warning! I hope to see you guys there!

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About the Author:

Joshua J. Johnson currently lives in England with a serious case of wanderlust and a wardrobe full of books.

He started writing as soon as he discovered that book didn't randomly appear, and that they were actually written by people. After growing up writing short stories by hand for his brother and his family-- including a weekly family newspaper-- he created a blog where his writing has been captivated, treasured, and enjoyed by thousands of people in nearly eighty countries around the world.

You can check out Joshua on Twitter @JoshuaJAuthor , through his blog http://joshuajstories.com or through his Youtube page!