Progress!

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I am sorry for missing so much the past couple of weeks.  Life around here has been crazy!  We finished our school year and now need to prepare for our annual homeschool evaluation.  This weekend three of the five of us will attend the annual CHAP Homeschool Convention.

In addition, my husband is recovering from hip replacement surgery and was not allowed to drive until today, but, no, he did not drive today.  Therefore I have been the ONLY transportation for all five of us!

We also celebrated our oldest son’s birthday this past Saturday and mine the Sunday before that, and the Friday right before my birthday, our oldest son and I visited the college he wants to attend because he was to be interviewed for their honors program, AND he was accepted into their honors program!  Therefore, next Saturday, I will again be spending the day with him at the college for him to sign up for classes and a few other things.

I have a couple of things I am excited to share with all of you, but first and foremost, I have received notification of acceptance for one of my devotionals!  Yes, that means a devotional that I wrote and submitted will be published in a devotional book in the near future!  This is the first publishing news I’ve had in a little over a year, and it was the third item to come to me as an affirmation from the Lord that I am, indeed, supposed to be writing.

You see, I have been struggling with whether or not I am really supposed to be a writer or if my timing is wrong because as hard as I try and as much as I desire to spend more time writing, it is still a huge struggle for me.  Most writers say, “It’s a job so make the time!”  I get that and I desire that, but, at the same time, which of my other jobs — Mom, Homeschool Teacher, Wife, Daughter and Friend do I neglect or push aside to make time to write?  You see, all of my jobs are important, and right now, until my husband is back on his feet and back at his job, as much as it frustrates me, my writing job will have to wait.

Now, I hope you will excuse me, as I am extremely tired, so I am headed to bed.  I will try to post at least one more time this week, and it may not be on my usual days, like today.  Bear with me, I hope to get back on track with my blog starting next week, but don’t hold your breath.

How about you?  Do you have too many jobs to know which ones should be priorities?

I believe my first three, listed above, are my first priorities, and those are the ones requiring most of my time right now.  I also believe that there is a season for everything, and I am resting in the peace of the affirmations that God has sent me to let me know that I am supposed to write, and I trust that He will help me make the time when the time is right according to His purposes for my life and the life of my family.

A Heart’s Danger by Colleen Coble

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A Heart’s Danger, Book three in the “Journey of the Heart” series by Colleen Coble finds Sarah wanting to move on with her life at Fort Laramie.  Christmas is coming and relations with the Sioux have turned colder.

Will Rand really go through with the wedding to his fiancee, or will he declare his love for Sarah once and for all?

I received this book for Free from BookLook Bloggers to write a review.

In A Heart’s Danger, Sarah learns how difficult life with the Sioux can be, as well as how painful it is to watch what happens to the Sioux while more white men and women move into their territory.  Another soldier also begins to express interest in Sarah, and she wonders if she could ever learn to love him.

Sarah finds herself in danger several times throughout this story, sometimes because Ben Croftner is a sore loser and a cruel, evil man, and sometimes because she takes risks she shouldn’t take.

A Heart’s Danger is filled with danger, excitement and suspense.  It is well written and is, in my opinion, the best book in the series so far.  As the first two in the series ended with a definite cliff hanger, A Heart’s Danger seems to have resolved enough issues to have a good, solid ending.  However, it is not the end.  There are three more books coming, and though the first two ended with cliff hangers, this one has me more curious and intrigued, wondering what Ms. Coble could possibly do in the next book.  I can’t wait to find out.

I would highly recommend this book to women who love a good romance story filled with danger, excitement and suspense.  If you like a book you can’t put down, this book is for you.  I read this book in one sitting.  I just couldn’t stop reading until I knew how it ended.

A Fine Piece of Chocolate by Jacqueline R. Banks

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I received a free copy of this ebook to review for BookLook Blogger.  I am sad to say this is the first review I am writing where I cannot say that I enjoyed anything about the book.

This is the book description:  Showing that love doesn’t have to be a four-letter word and that redemption is possible, this novel follows three women all involved in the universal search of finding love. Instead, they find lust, betrayal, compromise, and finally, redemption. Banks sends a powerful message through these characters, encouraging readers to know their values, love themselves, and never compromise what is near and dear to them.

However, the novel was not written about three women.  It was three separate stories and all of them were interrupted with paragraphs analyzing decisions the main character was making, or to give advice to young women who may find themselves in a similar relationship/circumstance.  The characters were not well developed.  I did not feel as though I was in the story or in the characters’ heads, but that I was an outsider simply being told about relationships these women had gotten involved in.  There were many grammatical and spelling errors as well, and her descriptions of intimate details were crude and a bit more explicit than I find appropriate for a Christian book.

I noticed that this is Ms. Banks’s first novel, and I strongly suspect that she self-published without having a proofreader or editor look it over.  I would suggest that she seek an editor in the future.

It is clear that Ms. Banks has a heart for helping young women avoid bad relationships.  I believe that her writing style is better suited for script writing, as I often felt as though I were reading a script for a play.

I am sorry to say that I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Profanity — Acceptable or Unacceptable

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Okay, so I have heard differing views on this in the Christian writing realm, and was surprised when I attended a workshop recently where the speaker spoke about the importance of including “absolute truth” in our writing, be it fiction or nonfiction. This speaker also stressed that “absolute truth” only comes from the Bible, which I completely agree with.

The speaker also spoke about the difficulties of getting published with a Christian publisher because they have very strict rules, and the speaker mentioned that if we, as writers, want to reach non-believers, we won’t be able to do that if we publish with a Christian publisher, which I tend to agree with.

However, the speaker also said that it was okay to use profanity; that it makes it more realistic.  (This is something I have heard many times before).  I have been thinking about the contradiction in that workshop — “absolute truth” from God’s word, which clearly says, in Ephesians 4 and 5, where Paul is preaching about believers living as children of the Light:

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God forgave you.  

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.  Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.  For of this you can be sure:  No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a man is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.  Therefore do not be partners with them.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.”   (Ephesians 4:29 – 5:10)

I know that I could have simply shared Ephesians 4:29, but many people make accusations about taking scripture out of context, so I wanted it to be clear that the context is clear.  There is no question that we are not to participate in such behaviors, according to the “absolute truth” of God’s word, the Bible.

Therefore, if we are not to participate in those behaviors with our mouths, isn’t also our responsibility to not participate in those behaviors with our pen or keyboard?

As for the thing about using profanity making it more realistic, I have to say that I live a real life and do not use profanity, and in my real life it has been my experience that when others know that I do not use profanity, even if it is a normal part of their speech, they try not to use it around me and if they slip and use it, they immediately apologize.  My husband has told me the same thing happens to him.

Finally, I have to say that I know many people who use profanity daily, and yet I have never heard them complain about a book that they have read or even a movie or T.V. show that they have watched stating, “That was unrealistic.  There wasn’t enough profanity in that.”  Nor have I heard any of them base their like or dislike on a book, movie or T.V. show on how much profanity, or lack thereof, was included.

Therefore, I will continue to stand on my convictions and write profanity-free.

What do you think?  Profanity — Acceptable or Unacceptable?

Is it Worth Attending a Writers’ Conference?

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YES!

I attended the annual Lancaster Christian Writers (LCW) Super Saturday one-day conference this past Saturday and it was fantastic!

Why should a writer attend a writers’ conference?  Well, we all know that writing is a solitary, sometimes lonely, job.  We need interaction, and what better interaction than to connect with other writers?  I made some new friends as well as connected with friends I already know.  It was exciting to talk to other writers about writing!

I also was able to have 15 minutes of one-on-one time with published author, Karen Whiting, and what a fantastic fifteen minutes that was!  I took approximately 2 1/2 pages of my current work in progress (WIP) with me (it was the third beginning I have written for this WIP).  I was able to ask Karen to read it and give me feedback, and she did!  She gave me wonderful feedback that was extremely encouraging to me because she had very little corrective comments, but she also had lots of great ideas for my story, AND she gave me a great title for my story.  (She had asked me what the title of the story is, and I said I didn’t have one yet, so she gave me a couple of ideas, one of which I loved and thought would be a great fit).

In addition, there were some outstanding workshops to attend.  I attended two workshops that were presented by author,Dina Sleiman — one on using Myers-Briggs personality types for characters.  My favorite workshop was presented by author, Kelly Long.  She presented a workshop about including “absolute truth” in our fiction — stressing that “absolute truth” only comes from the Bible.  She included two really good activities that we had to participate in, and she shared some of her personal life story.  It was a powerful workshop.

I’m not sure if I mentioned on this blog before or not, but this is my second year as a member of LCW, and this year I also became a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), which is a nationwide organization.  They have lots of great resources and ways to connect with other writers online.  There were quite a few ACFW members at the conference and we sat together for lunch and took a group photo after lunch.  That was fun!

After lunch, I attended the second workshop by Dina Sleiman about writing blockbuster scenes.  She went over Making Every Scene Count, POV, setting your scenes, creating your scenes, and exiting your scenes well.

The final workshop I attended was presented by Karen Whiting, and it was on Marketing, and it was another great help to me, as she handed out index cards at the beginning of the workshop and told us to write the title of our book, our name, and what our book is about on the index card and hand them in.  Then as she spoke about the many ways to market, she went through the index cards and offered marketing suggestions to those individuals for their book.  So, not only did she help me by giving me some great ideas for writing my book, as well as the title I plan to use, but she gave me some great ideas for marketing the book, when the time comes.

I also want to mention that our opening Keynote speaker was Grace Fabian, and what an powerfully, inspirational opening she gave.  She has a remarkable testimony, and I bought her book so I can read her life story.  She has suffered great pain and loss but still has a strong faith in God.  What a blessing!

So not only was this conference wonderfully helpful for my writing, but it was a revival to my spiritual soul that had me praising the Lord!  I’m so thankful to know Him.

That’s the kind of great stuff you can get out of attending a Writers’ Conference, and it doesn’t have to be a long, expensive one to make it worth your while.  Sure, I would love to attend one of the big Writers’ Conferences that last a couple of days and cost over a hundred dollars to attend plus the cost of a hotel room, but at this time, I am unable to do that, and not just because of the financial cost.  I hope to be able to do that some time, but until then, I attend all of the inexpensive, one-day workshops I possibly can, and I get something out of each and every one of them, and I have made some new friends by doing so as well.  I highly recommend that you get to whatever writers’ conferences you can, as well.  I don’t think you’ll regret it.

One-Day Super Saturday Writers’ Conference

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A writers’ conference is a great place to learn more about writing techniques and marketing and publishing opportunities and possibilities.  It is also a great place to meet other writers and make connections and form bonds, which is a wonderful thing since writing is a lonely business.  You can make lifelong friends who can help and encourage you and you can do the same for them as you walk your writing journey.  I attended this event last year, and cannot wait to attend this Saturday.  If you are anywhere near Lancaster County, I invite you to come and see what this one-day conference has to offer, and if you like, I can meet you face-to-face if you let me know you are coming so we can connect.

LANCASTER CHRISTIAN WRITERS HOSTS ONE-DAY CONFERENCE ON APRIL 11, 2015, AT LANCASTER BIBLE COLLEGE

For a bargain of excellence and price, no writer, whether beginning or advanced, within driving radius will want to miss Lancaster Christian Writers’ Super Saturday 2015!! to be held April 11th, 2015, from 8:30am.-4:30pm at Lancaster Bible College, 901 Eden Road, Lancaster, PA 17601.

This one-day writers conference offers a full slate of workshops taught by top industry professionals in both fiction and non-fiction fields. An early registration price of $50 is due by Wednesday, April 8, and includes soup/sandwich buffet lunch (think Panini!) and LCW membership. Registrations after April 9 and walk-ins day of the conference are $60.

A fiction track will be taught by award-winning novelists Dina Sleiman and Kelly Long along with children’s author Brenda Hendricks. Non-fiction faculty include TV/radio speaker, marketing expert, award-winning author of 19 books Karen Whiting, professional memoir and ghostwriter Shawn Smucker, journalist/social media experts Lisa Bartelt and Alison McLennan.

Keynoting the opening session will be linguist, missionary, and author Grace Fabian. Workshops cover such topics as: 

Market Yourself Now! Learn Tools to Develop Press Kit, Bio, Website, and Other PR Products.

Writing Blockbuster Scenes: How To Keep Readers Flipping Pages and Asking For More.

 Transformed Manuscripts: Repackaging Your Ideas (Sold or Rejected) to Expand Marketability.

 The Unfortunate Truth in Fiction: Addressing Hard Issues Without Pulling Down Your Story.

 A Story To Tell: Surefire Do’s and Don’ts to Write a Gripping True Life Story or Memoir.

 Myers-Briggs for Your Protagonist: Applying Personality Types to Create Characters with Distinctive Qualities, Motivations, and Voices.

 Let’s Ride the Seesaw: Recruiting Your Inner Child to Communicate with Young Readers.

 100% Guaranteed (Oh, Yeah?) Secret to Blogging Success Beyond Your Wildest Dreams!

A conference bookstore will offer a wide variety of writer resources and faculty titles. Conference attendees can get personal consultations with faculty on a first-come, first-serve basis. Lancaster Christian Writers welcomes writers of all churches and denominations, all levels and genres. Monthly meetings offer opportunities for manuscript critique, networking with other writers, workshops and guest authors.

A Heart’s Obsession by Colleen Coble

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I posted a book review on A Heart’s Disguise by Colleen Coble on March 16, 2015.  Well, this is Book Two of that series.  I am writing this review for BookLook Blogger and received a free copy of this book for review purposes.

A Heart’s Obsession picks up where A Heart’s Disguise left off, with Rand on his way to Fort Laramie as a cavalry man and Sarah remaining by her father’s side because of his failing health.  Both Rand and Sarah are miserable without each other, and when Sarah’s father succumbs to his illness, Sarah and her younger brother, Joel, make the arduous journey to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, with Sarah hoping to finally be with Rand, whom she has loved for a very long time.

However, the reception Sarah receives at Fort Laramie is nothing like Sarah imagined.  Rand seems to be involved with Jessica Dubois, the daughter of the post commander, a cunning, scheming woman.

Things get even more difficult for Sarah when her ex-fiance, Ben Croftner arrives, insisting that he will have her back.

I care about the characters and I long to see Sarah and Rand together, so I continue to read to see how things will end for Rand and Sarah by the time this series ends, and each book ends with a cliff-hanger that leaves you wanting more.

However, I was surprised that this story isn’t as well written as A Heart’s Disguise.  I was also surprised that, since these books are being re-released after ten years, the author would re-release them without updating them (at least that’s the way it appears).  There are places in this story where the pronouns are late, making you look back and reread some paragraphs to link the pronoun with the correct character.  It’s written in third person omniscent, and since I have just finished reading about writing in Deep POV, this book is not written in Deep POV, but has a narrator telling things about characters’ thoughts and feelings, which isn’t wrong, but I just know that Deep POV is the preference for today’s writing.

I do enjoy the plot of these stories, though, and they are short, easy reads.  I believe they would really be labeled as novellas, as I do not believe they are long enough to truly be novels.  I do recommend them to anyone who enjoys entertaining, short, easy-to-read, romance stories, and I will look forward to the next one in the series, as I still want more.

Let’s Talk About POV and Deep POV

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I have been an avid reader ever since I was able to read, as early as the Dick and Jane readers.  I have read many books in my life so far and hope to read many more.  I have read books that were fantastic, some that were just good, some that were mediocre and some that were quite bad.  Many of the books I have read were written in POV, but not Deep POV.  I don’t believe that made them bad books.  On the contrary, some of them were wonderful classic stories.

So, what are POV and Deep POV?  POV is the abbreviation of Point of View which is defined, by Merriam Webster, as a position or perspective from which something is considered or evaluated; standpoint.

In fiction writing, the position from which anything is considered in any particular scene should be the character through whose head we are viewing events.  In other words, a fiction writer should tell the story from only one character’s perspective, or two characters, but then separate each character’s point of view by page breaks or chapters.  There should be no head-hopping because that can lose readers.

Most books have been written well, without head-hopping, but many have used and many continue to use what is now deemed “shallow POV” and it is considered “telling” rather than “showing” and sounds as though there is a narrator telling the story to the reader.

Example:  He realized he was quickly running out of time to find a date for the prom.

Currently, in the fiction writing world, there is a push to do even better; to write in Deep POV; to get rid of the narrator.  This is done by really knowing your POVC, (Point of View Character); knowing him or her well enough that you are completely in their head and can only write things as that POVC sees and experiences them.  Taking the same example I used above for “shallow POV”, here it is rewritten in “Deep POV”:

Wow!  Where did the time go?  If he wanted to attend the prom, he’d better ask one of the girls today.

This may not be the best example, as I am just learning this “Deep POV” stuff myself.  I shared a portion of my WIP (work in progress) in a critique group a couple of weeks ago, and it was suggested to me that I study Deep POV and do my best to use it because it really makes your writing better.  It allows your readers to connect with your characters on a deep level which will draw the reader deeper into the story and keep them reading.

A short ebook was suggested to me, and it was mentioned that it was rather inexpensive at Amazon.  So, I looked it up and purchased it and am currently reading it, studying it and trying to put it into practice.  I have to admit that it will require me to reprogram my thinking in my writing, and I am finding it challenging.  The ebook that I am reading is called “Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View” by Jill Elizabeth Nelson.  I think the book is well written and she gives great examples that appear so easy, until I have to try to do them myself.  Although, after doing her worksheet to try to change some “shallow POV” sentences into “Deep POV” sentences, which I found difficult, I, then, went to a scene in my WIP and tried to apply the concepts and change that scene from “shallow POV” to “Deep POV”, and I found that much easier than the sentences on the worksheet in the ebook.  I believe that is because I know my characters so well.

To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, I would like to share two of the examples that Jill Elizabeth Nelson shares in the book:

Shallow:  Pulling her coat tight against a frigid blast of wind, she thought she would never complain about the desert sun again.

Deep:  A frigid blast of wind iced her skin, and she pulled her coat tight around her.  She’d never complain about the desert sun again.

Shallow:  Thoughts of cake and candy tormented her.

Deep:  No sweets. No way. No how.  She wouldn’t give in to temptation.  “Yeah, right!”  Who was she fooling?

Can you see in these examples, how the shallow sound like they are being told by a narrator, and the deep sound like they are directly from inside the character’s head — no narrator?

So, what about you?  Do you use Deep POV?  Have you found it easy or difficult to utilize?

Quick Note

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Hello Everyone.

I don’t have much time today, but I wanted to be sure to post something to try to keep to my three times a week.  This week will be extremely busy for me as we will be ending our homeschool co-op for the year (officially next Wednesday, but this Wednesday may be the last day for my boys and me).  Then on Saturday, March 28th, I will be attending a one-day writing workshop and I need to prepare 500-1000 words of something I have written or am writing to share in a group.

In addition to all of that, my husband will be going into the hospital for hip replacement surgery next week, so I will be between home and the hospital for three or four days until he comes home.

So, as you can see, I will be a busy lady for a while, but I will do my best to post here, although I might miss a day or two next week.

I hope all of you are doing well, and for those of you who write, I hope your current WIP is going well.

Writing Resources and Groups

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Well, this has been an exciting week, and I know I am posting this a day late, but, hey, at least I’m posting.  I’m sorry there was no post on Wednesday.  That’s a harder one to make happen, but I’m not giving up.  I’ll keep working on it.

Anyway, this week I joined American Christian Fiction Writers.  I am so excited!  They have so much to offer, and I just found out a few days ago that they now have a PA state chapter and I know the Area Coordinator, so I joined that as well!  This gives me many great writing resources, including writing classes for no additional fee, and connections to even more writers than I have already connected with through LCW.  They have lots of wonderful online resources including a critique group, and now with a State Chapter, access to others via Skype as well.  I’m so excited to be a part of this great organization!

In addition to that, I ordered some wonderful writing resources online, and they arrived on Tuesday.  I now own  The Emotion Thesaurus:  A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.  I found out about this resource from my friend Donna on her blog Donna L. H. Smith.  I have already read the parts that are for reading and have looked at many of the thesaurus entries and believe this will be a valuable asset and tool to my writing.  The other six items I purchased are all by the same author, James Scott Bell, who is known as one of the best writing coaches.  He has written many great books on writing that have become bestsellers.  The ones I purchased are:  Write Your Novel From the Middle:  A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between; Super Structure; The Key to Unleashing the Power of Story; How to Write Dazzling Dialogue:  The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript; Conflict & Suspense; and Plot & Structure:  Techniques and exercises for crafting a plot that grips readers from start to finish.  I also purchased his book, How to Make a Living as a Writer, and this is the one I have begun to dig into.  It has a lot of great information and suggestions.  I have many parts already highlighted and several pages dog-eared, yes, I said, “Dog-eared”.  I NEVER dog-ear book pages, and it took me a very long time to even get comfortable highlighting and underlining parts in books because I was taught that books are something you treat with care and respect.  They are not to be written in and pages are not to be bent, folded, wrinkled or dog-eared — Use a Bookmark.

However, I read the following quote on the back of Write Your Novel from the Middle:  “I need three things before I tackle a new novel:  Diet Coke, a laptop, and my dog-eared copies of James Scott Bell’s books on writing craft!”  — Kami Garcia, #1 NY Times & International bestselling writer.  That quote seemed to strike a chord with me, and even though, I have never dog-eared pages before, in my life, I realized it was a great way to be able to find the information I considered, most important, quickly and easily.  So my James Scott Bell writing resources will be the first books I have dog-eared (although I did dog-ear just a couple of pages in The Emotion Thesaurus.

As I dig into these resources and put the lessons into practice, I will let you know what I think of them and whether or not I would suggest them to others.  I am already quite sure I would recommend How to Make a Living as a Writer by James Scott Bell, even though I am only three chapters finished — it’s that good!

How about you?  Do you have some resources that you think are extremely valuable, that you rely on?  I’d love to know what they are.  Please leave a comment and share.  It’s important that no matter how long and successfully we write, we need to continue to study our craft.