Midnight is My Time by Mike Dellosso

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If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know that I am a Mike Dellosso fan. I’ve written a review of his book, Centralia, and some of his books have been listed in my old Top Ten Tuesday posts. I have also done an author interview with him here on my blog.

So I was excited to be able to read his latest release, Midnight is My Time. I read it in two evenings because it grabbed my attention right at the start and held my attention until the very end. Midnight is My Time is filled with action and suspense, and yes, some violence. There is a mystery that also runs through the book in regards to the two main characters, Andy and Missy — are they freaks or something special?

Ten years after an Apocalyptic event, Andy and Missy meet and decide to travel together. They travel from the southeastern United States to the northeastern United States. But why are they being pursued and threatened? What is their purpose? Will they reach their destination in one piece?

Mike Dellosso’s descriptions paint a vivid picture of people and places. The action scenes are intense and keep the pace of the story moving, just as you catch your breath, another crisis wrenches your breath away again.

This book was an easy read, and as I mentioned above, it was a real page-turner that kept me on the edge of my seat. Mike Dellosso has produced another great read and I highly recommend it.

To Claim Her Heart by Jodie Wolfe

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To Claim Her Heart by Jodie Wolfe is a Christian historical romance story set in Oklahoma in the late 1800’s.

Any of you who have been reading my blog for any length of time know that, although, I read a variety of genres, Christian historical romance is my favorite. I read this book in four days. It usually takes me two weeks to read a book, but Jodie Wolfe created characters that grabbed my attention and my heart right from the start. She also included some very interesting history — I didn’t know there were “runs” to claim land in Oklahoma in the 1800’s. Therefore, I enjoyed learning about these “runs” while reading the story, and, of course, because some humans make bad choices, there were many complications to getting your land claim in some cases. Such was the problem for Elsie and Benjamin.

Elsie is a young woman who is on her own and doesn’t really behave like a lady. She also has no intention of becoming involved in a relationship with any man. She’s tough and independent, or, at least she thinks she is.

Benjamin is a preacher who wants to build a home and a church, to preach to a community. He’s experienced some tragic losses that have left him determined to remain unattached.

The things that happen as Elsie’s and Benjamin’s paths cross are humorous, frustrating, dangerous, and more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and fell in love with the characters, not only Elsie and Benjamin but many of the secondary characters as well. I highly recommend this book to any Christian historical romance readers or any reader who just enjoys a good historical romance story that doesn’t contain profanity and explicit sex.

I give To Claim Her Heart by Jodie Wolfe five stars and look forward to reading more of her books in the near future.

The Connection Between Stories and Real Life

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As a writer and avid reader, I’m always interested in learning about the lives of other writers, both those who have already passed on, and those still living and writing today. I love to meet writers who are currently living and writing as well.

That’s why I love books and movies like “The Man Who Invented Christmas” which is about the life of Charles Dickens. I have seen the movie and it will always be one of my all-time favorites. I have the book but haven’t had the time to read it yet, but plan to in the near future.

I have also seen the movie entitled “Good-bye Christopher Robin”, which is about the life of A.A. Milne, and what a heart-breaking story that is. A.A. Milne led a very difficult and sad life. I also have the book the movie was based upon, but have not have the time to read it, but, again, plan to read it in the near future.

I usually prefer reading books to seeing movies, because books can give you a much more detailed story, not to mention that often movies change or leave out some of the important facts. Movies even sometimes fictionalize something that they really shouldn’t, especially when they deem the movie “based on a true story”.

I also enjoy visiting places that we read about in books. A few years ago, I planned a family vacation for us and we went to Chincoteague, Virginia because our youngest son and I had just finished reading all of the “Misty of Chicoteague” stories and wanted to see where Misty and the Beebe family lived. While on the island, we visited a museum where we learned that Paul Beebe had passed away, when he was young, in a car accident, but his sister, Maureen was still living on the island, but was older and had health issues and so wasn’t receiving visitors any longer. However, we did get to see some precious items that had belonged to the Beebe family because they were displayed in the museum. One of the items was the family Bible.

It’s so interesting to find and/or visit places we read about or places we know authors live or have lived. It helps to give you a better picture of the writer and their stories. Because even fiction stories are written by real live people, every story has a connection to real life, and that is fascinating.

How about you? Do you like to know more about the people who write the books you read or are you simply satisfied to enjoy their stories?

A Poetry Hiatus

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Hello Everyone,

I’m sorry if you are a fan of my poetry. I know I missed posting a poem last week, and this is not what you were expecting today. However, poetry is a struggle for me. I started writing and posting poems when a friend challenged me to participate in the National Poetry Writing Month about two years ago, but poetry does not come easily to me.

Also, my life is rather busy right now as I have a son preparing to graduate from Bible school and go off to a foreign country on a missions/preaching trip for three months. I also have another son who will be coming home from college today and will remain home for the summer and the fall, then return to take his final semester in the spring of 2019 and then graduate from college. I also have a son who is of middle school age that I homeschool, and we are finishing up our school year.

In addition to all of that, I continue to read books for authors who request that I read their book and write a review because I enjoy helping other writers. I also continue to work as a professional freelance writer, as well as, continuing to work on my first novel, which I hope to have completed by the end of the summer if not before.

Therefore, I have decided to take a break from poetry, and I’m sorry to say that I do not know what to fill my Friday space with here on my blog at this point. So, if you have any suggestions, I would love for you to leave me a comment, but for now, I will simply take a break from Fridays at least until the end of May.

The Joy of Sharing

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As a writer, editor, and reader, I love a good story. A good story excites me and I want to share it with my friends — those who also love a good story. When you have a friend who completely understands that love and excitement of a good story, it just brings so much joy and fun when you can share, with that person, the treasure of a good story.

I have a few friends who fit the above description, but the one who is most fun to talk to about good story, is my dear friend, Sarah. We just love to talk about books we’ve read that we have found to be really good; characters that make us laugh, make us angry, that we can relate to; and movies that have good story and relatable characters. The excitement and joy of a good story just bubbles out of Sarah as she shares, and I catch her excitement and joy, and it works the same way when I share with her.

I treasure this connection with Sarah because she is much younger than I am, and I have found some young people who struggle to relate to older folks, as well as some younger folks who are difficult to relate to, so my relationship with Sarah brings me joy, not just because we relate about good stories, but because she actually enjoys talking to me.

Last Sunday, when Sarah came into church and saw me, she said, “I saw the best movie I have ever seen last night.” When I asked what the movie was, she said, “It’s called The Man Who Invented Christmas.” To which I responded, “Oh, I love that movie!” The woman, whom I had been chatting with before Sarah came in, chuckled at our excitement and enthusiasm and left us to share our joy and excitement over the movie.

But our conversation didn’t stop with that movie. After talking about the movie, we began talking about books we were reading or had recently finished. It’s just such a joy to share something you love with a friend who totally “gets it”.

Do you have a friend you love to share your favorite books and movies with? Does it bring joy to your heart to share with that friend? Good books and movies are worth sharing.

What is a Short Story?

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At a recent writer’s conference, I was talking with another writer about short stories. She happens to be working on writing some, and I have written some in the past. However, she told me that when she shares her short stories with others, they want more–more details, more descriptions, more information, more everything. I shared how I had run into the same issue the last time I had written a couple of short stories.

Then, of course, there’s flash fiction, and let’s not forget the microfiction, which means literally creating a story with one or two sentences. Now, with microfiction, I can fully understand “wanting more”. However, the thing is I haven’t heard many people declaring they “want more” from flash fiction and microfiction. Go figure!

Therefore, I just thought I’d take a look at what a short story is in a blog post. I started by doing a Google search to find out what the required word count for a short story is, since we, writers, measure everything by word count. I was surprised by the span I found. According to Writer’s Digest, they claim that according to “general guidelines”, short stories range from 1,500 words to 30,000 words. ChristopherFielden.com states “for contests/competitions”, short story length is usually between 1,000 and 5,000 words, although he has seen some competitions with a 17,00 word maximum. Finally, according to “Every Writer’s  Resource”, the short story falls between 1,000 and 15,000 words.

Now, based on my experience in looking to submit short stories to magazine publications, the maximum I have seen accepted for a short story is 2,000 words, and that’s rare. So, apparently, the actual length of a short story varies greatly, but what I know a short story must have are: a beginning, a middle, and an end. I believe that the reader should feel satisfied that they have, indeed, read a complete story when they reach the end of a short story.

However, I would like to remind readers that a short story is not a novel, nor is it a novella. Therefore, you cannot expect too many details, extremely detailed descriptions, nor every detail of your characters’ lives. What you should expect is to fill in some details with your own imagination based on the details the writer does provide, and you should definitely expect a clear beginning, middle, and end–an end that is clear and feels like an end. You should leave a short story feeling satisfied.

So, I encourage all readers to ask yourself, when you reach the end of a short story, “do I feel satisfied”, then, if you do not feel satisfied, specifically share with the writer what left you feeling unsatisfied. That could be quite helpful to the writer, but, it could also just be a matter of your personal preference for longer stories. So, I suppose one more question to ask yourself is “how many short stories do I read”.

If you are a reader of short stories, I would love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments section below. And, if you’re a writer of short stories, I’d love to hear about your experience with writing short stories as well as reactions from your readers. Please comment below. I love to interact with my readers.