I know I usually only post once a week and always on Thursdays, and I don’t usually post book reviews.  However, as a writer, reading is also a big part of my life, and as a part of a writers’ group, I connect with other writers, and we can all use a little help in promoting our work.  Therefore, when I had an opportunity to receive a free copy of a new book by one of the other writers’ in my writers’ group, I jumped at the chance.  It is an historical fiction story for children, what we homeschoolers refer to as a “living book”.  Here is my review of Thaddeus Stevens:  The Making of an Inconvenient Hero by Terry Webb.

Thaddeus Stevens: The Making of an Inconvenient Hero is a good account of the young life of Thaddeus Stevens. It is a story of great encouragement for those who are bullied and exhibits a very appropriate way of dealing with bullies. This story also expresses what life was like when the north and the south disagreed about slavery. It’s a wonderfully honest account, showing both the strengths and weaknesses of Thaddeus Stevens, as well as what his life was like on a farm in Vermont, living with a disability and being raised by a single parent.

There was one disappointing factor about this book and that is that I wish Ms. Webb would have written more about Thaddeus as he was older and championing the importance of everyone receiving an education. I felt that she ended her telling of his young life quite abruptly to include a chapter on his life as an older gentleman, expressing the work he had done to ensure that children, whether rich or poor, would receive an education.

However, this book is a wonderful teaching tool and allows great discussion with students about many issues that Thaddeus Stevens faced in his life; issues that students still face today.

You can purchase your own copy at Amazon.com in either paperback or Kindle edition.

I know, I’m a day late again.  I’m sorry, but our homeschool co-op had their Performance Night last night where the kids get to display work they’ve done in some of their classes, and they get to perform things like skits, Bible recitations, music and songs from other classes.  It was almost my bedtime when we got home, and instead of booting up the computer to post here, I sat down and read a couple of chapters in a book.  Why?  Because I have found if I read before bed, I sleep well.  However, if I do anything else before bed, especially anything on the computer or writing related, I cannot sleep because my brain won’t stop.  Does anyone else have this problem?

Now, let’s get to the real post:  Thanksgiving is less than a week away, and I have lots to be thankful for, and some of it is writing related.  For the past year, I have been immersing myself in books on writing and in participating in the Lancaster Christian Writers’ to hone my craft after having taken so many years off from writing.  I have written a little bit during the past year, but not like I want to.

That’s what I am thankful for — I am finally gearing up and writing seriously.  Over the past week or two I was feeling frustrated because I have a burning desire to write, but am still struggling with finding time to write.  I know what you’re thinking, if you really want to write, you’ll make time (I’ve heard this many times before), but homeschooling two children and being taxi for three children, doing the housework (which, thankfully, the kids help with), and cooking, especially as we are trying to eat much healthier and not eat processed, pre-packaged foods takes a lot of time.  However, because of the changes I have made in my eating habits, I have more energy than I’ve had in a long time, which has enabled me to see how things would work if I got up two hours before the kids each morning to write, and guess what, it’s been working.  Now, I will admit, I haven’t been successfully disciplined enough to do it everyday yet, but, hey, three or four times a week is a pretty good start, and sometimes, I actually do have a couple of hours in an afternoon to devote to writing.

Also, I have been working on a story, but I am approaching this story much differently than any story I have written before.  If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I have always been a “pantser”, meaning I simply sit down and write with no outline or map of any kind.  This time I’ve decided to try doing planning and outlining before actually writing the story, so I am still in the planning/outlining stage, which doesn’t feel like real writing to me yet because it hasn’t come naturally to me, though it is working well.  I see the value of it.  Therefore, I will continue working on the planning/outlining and then write the story once the map is laid out.

Because the planning/outlining doesn’t feel like real writing to me, I decided that I also need to just sit down and write whatever comes into my head, as this will help me to write everyday, and to be able to write something that feels like it flows because it’s going back to “pantsing”.  That is working wonderfully.

In addition to that, I have decided to do what Jeanette Windle of Lancaster Christian Writers’ keeps telling us — to write other things while we are working on stories/books; things that are shorter, that we can submit and earn some money from while working on the longer projects.  Therefore, I wrote a children’s devotion this week and submitted it to a children’s/family devotional magazine, and I am looking for other places where I can submit articles or short stories while I write my longer projects.

This has been a good week that has given me a feeling of accomplishment and has given me the boost I needed to feed the desire to write and to be more determined to accomplish the discipline I need to MAKE THE TIME TO WRITE!

When do you write?  Have you struggled with finding/making the time to write?

Now that my mom is gaining strength and health, I have a little more time to think about the road we traveled since her surgery. As I have thought about it, I realized that it closely resembles the plot line of a story.

We began with a goal (story goal) — repairing the problems with her heart, then we hit an obstacle — her kidneys shut down. Then she had to begin dialysis, something she feared she’d end up on for the rest of her life and didn’t want to. She began to recuperate and was released to physical rehabilitation. Then, another obstacle — a bleeding issue sent her back to a hospital, where she began to improve and then–another obstacle — fluid build-up causing her to go into heart failure and ending up in the ICU. After a couple of days, improvement and back to a regular room. A couple more days and back to the rehab. Then, another obstacle — the bleeding returned and back to another hospital, a battle with a doctor (actually there had been a disagreement with a doctor before the fluid that caused the heart failure as well), and then, finally a good doctor who wanted to find the cause of the bleeding and fix it. Now, back to the rehab, and gaining strength and health and probably to be released in another week. (So, the story hasn’t really reached its conclusion yet).

But, all of that is just like a story plot line: you begin with a goal, and your character faces conflict and a disaster over and over again, scene by scene, until there finally comes a resolution and ending. This is what keeps readers reading, and of course, you need to create your characters well and bring them to life so that your reader can relate to them and care about them, because no matter how good your plotline is, if the reader can’t relate to or care about your character(s), they will either stop reading, or will end the book feeling unhappy and dissatisfied.

So, look at your life and the events that surround you. Can you find a plot line there? It may be the beginning of a good story.