August

This month has felt like a fight. A fight I was losing. For the first time I feel like I have an upper hand. I know the month is almost over, but maybe I can get back on top before them. Either way I'm starting to work again and that is a very good feeling. Here are a few links to keep you company through the rest of the month.

If you're following the Amazon-Hatchette controversy you might find these interesting. They helped me see things a little more clearly.  Making Sense of Amazon-Hatchette.  Amazon Channels Orwell.  And, Dispute Between Amazon and Hatchette. 

You can avoid these newbie writer mestakes.


A great post on writing a synopsis.

Kristin Nelson's quick tips on Query letters

Failure, Writing's Constant Companion

And How to love a Girl who Writes.  I'm sure this could apply to men who write also. I'm not going to say how much of this applied to me but I had to go appologize to The Engineer when I was done.


Hope you enjoy.

Shelfies

Over at Compuserve we've had a thread of 'shelfies' going. It's been fun (if a little jealousy inducing) to see everyone's bookshelves. It's a great way to get to know virtual friends, make them feel less virtual and more actual. While I actually have 8 bookshelves in my house here's a look at two of them. 

Yes, I did cut out everything surround the shelf.  I didn't want you to be disturbed at the clutter or amazed (disturbed) by all our Star Wars memorabilia. Cause that's a whole other post.

So, post your own shelfie and put a link in the comments.  I'd love to see your shelves.

Introducing...

Our new son!

This last week has felt like riding a roller-coaster through a tornado. It has been crazy hectic but oh, so fun.  Sorry to everyone for not visiting your blogs or responding to comments. 

Last Tuesday evening we got the phone call. Friday we started driving (12 1/2 hour trip. Plus bathroom breaks). Sunday we picked him up. And Tuesday we finalized the adoption.  (This is not normal but the state we adopted him from has some pretty easy going adoption laws).  Now we are home and loving it.

Truck Boy is two years old and the sweetest, happiest kid you have ever met.  He is super friendly and will introduce himself to and hug every single person we see.

Mini Engineer and Pretty Girl are adjusting really well.  Tuesday is the first day of school then hopefully we can get into some sort of routine. I'm looking forward to writing time again. 

So, what's new with you?

Reading as protest

One thing we see in many dystopians  is some sort of banning of books and literature.  Unfortunately, it doesn't just happen in books. There are times in history and places in our world today where people can’t read anything they want, where people are only allowed to learn or know what their government approves.  I saw an article here, where the people of Thailand are using reading as a form of peaceful protest against the new  military rule. It remains to be seen what, if anything, the government will do with these protesters.  

  

But it makes us wonder why. Why is reading an act of defiance? Why are books some of the first things to go in restrictive or dystopian governments?  Why does that scare us so much?

Reading can expand our minds, teach us new things, show us that their way isn’t the only way, give us strength to say no.  A government, real or imagined, that wants to control the people need to control how they think, how they see the world. To do that they must control what people put into their brains. They must make sure that only literature supporting their decisions, or making their decision seem logical is available to the masses. Otherwise the people might just start thinking for themselves. But  they can never take away whats already there, the things we already know, all the books we've already read.

Sometimes, reading can be an act of defiance. I hope those people in Thailand that are using books to show their discontent are safe. I applaud them for standing up for literature and for the society they want to have. I wonder if I would be so brave. 

Absent

When a person lives with something for a long time, an addiction, an illness, a child, a spouse, it becomes the new normal. It’s easy to forget what it was like to live without it. When that thing is taken away we are dropped in a whole new world. Maybe a good world, maybe a bad one.  For a time we may be lost, confused and alone, wondering how in the world we can adjust. How we can get back to normal.

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, humans are adaptable. The events in our lives mold us, refine us.  Yet no matter how horrible, or how good, we move on, we find a way to change, grow, and deal with those events. We may struggle while doing this, but the possibility to adapt is there, even while wondering what to do, or how to live with that absence.  

Gradually we remember how to be the us we once were.  The us that lived without it. The person a part of us still is. Only now we’re tempered with the wisdom that life has brought us.  

Lest any of you believe I have lost a loved one that is not the case. For me the absence is a good one.  It won’t be gone forever. It will return sooner than I wish. But for now, I am rejoicing in the me I once was, in the freedom I currently have.

Sacrifice

Friday, after months of struggling, our router stopped working for good.  To our surprise, our dishwasher followed along within an hour of the internet being gone.  We've had problems with the dishwasher from day one and The Engineer has had to fix it several (lots of) times. This time he couldn't.  He looked me in the eye and asked if I would rather have a dishwasher or the internet.

Easy question.

"Internet." I said without batting an eye.

I can wash dishes by hand, even the amount we go through with two kids and a mom who loves to cook. But I can't stay in touch with friends, my writer's websites, or my career without the internet.

I knew taking up writing professionally would require some sacrifices, Though I hadn't really thought about the dishwasher. I knew that I might not get out socially much. Hobbies have been dropped to the wayside. My house isn't as clean as it once was. But I have no regrets.

 If you need me, I'll be washing dishes.

Who am I kidding, I'll be on the internet.

What would you choose?  What have you given up to write?

Release day and give away!

Today is release day for Lori Benton's  THE PURSUIT OF TAMSEN LITTLEJOHN! 

 

   Isn't that a beautiful cover? I was lucky enough to be given an ARC (Okay, I begged like a fan girl, but it was worth it!) of the book and I can tell you the story is equally as good.  

Blurb:  In an act of brave defiance, Tamsen Littlejohn escapes the life her harsh stepfather has forced upon her. Forsaking security and an arranged marriage, she enlists frontiersman Jesse Bird to guide her to the Watauga settlement in western North Carolina. But shedding her old life doesn’t come without cost. As the two cross a vast mountain wilderness, Tamsen faces hardships that test the limits of her faith and endurance. 

Convinced that Tamsen has been kidnapped, wealthy suitor Ambrose Kincaid follows after her, in company with her equally determined stepfather. With trouble in pursuit, Tamsen and Jesse find themselves thrust into the conflict of a divided community of Overmountain settlers. The State of Franklin has been declared, but many remain loyal to North Carolina. With one life left behind and chaos on the horizon, Tamsen struggles to adapt to a life for which she was never prepared. But could this challenging frontier life be what her soul has longed for, what God has been leading her toward? As pursuit draws ever nearer, will her faith see her through the greatest danger of all—loving a man who has risked everything for her?

 Lori was gracious enough to answer some questions for me.

1. Let's start at the beginning, how did your love of words begin?  When did you know you wanted to be an author?

My love of words began when I was nine years old. I wrote my first story after my best friend announced one day that she had written a story. I guess it never occurred to me before then that I could write a story, though I already loved to read. It was simply too intriguing an idea not to give it a try. I did, and I was hooked.

When did I know I wanted to be an author? All through my teens I had the niggling urge to write a “serious grown-up” sort of story, and made a few false starts. But it wasn’t until my early twenties that I buckled down and got serious about pursuing novel-writing as anything like a career. Once I finished that first novel, I knew this was how I wanted to spend my days.

2. This is your second published book, did you find publishing it easier or harder than the first one?

A little of both. The editing process on this second book was far more difficult and stretching to me as a writer, which isn’t a bad thing. Just challenging. As far as the publishing process, it’s been easier because I’ve known much better what to expect.

3. Your main character, Tamsen, loved fabric and sewing. Do you sew? Does your personality influence your books or characters at all?

I can manage to sew on a button, but that’s the extent of my ability. For a woman happy in her jeans and 90s-era flannel hoodie, I was surprised to find myself writing about a character with a passion for clothing, both the wearing and the creating of them.

Does my personality influence my books and characters? How could it not? If you want to know a writer, read her books. There’s no hiding who I am on the pages. It finds it way there. That doesn’t mean every character I create is a carbon copy of me, obviously. How boring! Yet there is something of me in every character (even the antagonists; I create them too, after all).

Characters—mine anyway—often spring into being with personalities and interests that hold firm despite my efforts to shape them. I gave up trying with Tamsen Littlejohn, embraced that “girlie” aspect of her character, and soon saw how I could use her preoccupation with clothing to show the stages of her growth—her rejection of the cage she feels caught in, her shedding of her old life, her attempts at “trying on” various aspects of frontier life, until we see her constructing a set of clothes unlike any she’s ever imagined, for the sheer joy of creating. Which I can fully embrace and understand.

4. How much research do you do for your historical novels? What is the oddest thing you've ever researched?

A tremendous amount, and it never stops. It’s become a way of life for me. The oddest thing I’ve ever researched? Some might think it odd that I’ve researched the history of undergarments, or the way 18^th century scholars at Oxford were required to curl their hair, or how to tan hides using an animal’s brains, or the erratic spelling and capitalizing of 1700s penmanship, or how a woman could manage to get trapped in her stays. None of it seems odd to me. Learning how our 18^th century ancestors lived is endlessly fascinating.

5. The cover is gorgeous! Did you have any input? How did you feel when you saw it for the first time?

I’m very pleased with the cover for The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn. It’s beautiful. I’m thankful that my cover designer, Kristopher Orr, is willing to discuss this aspect of the book with me. In this case I was given a choice of three models for Tamsen. While all three women were lovely, one of them so strongly embodied not only Tamsen’s physical appearance, but her inner person—her vulnerability, strength, and sweetness—that there was no other choice for me. She’s the Tamsen who appears on the cover.

Seeing a cover for the first time is always, for me, a bit of shock to the system. I’ve carried around potential covers in my head for months before that moment, my own hopes, ideas for what I think it should look like. When I see the cover for the first time there are a lot of happy feelings because my cover designer does beautiful work. At the same time, all those possible covers in my mind die a little death. After a while I cease to remember them, as I fall in love with the cover that is.

When you've finished this book, go ahead and pick up her first book BURNING SKY which is also brilliantly done.  

We do have a copy of THE PURSUIT OF TAMSEN LITTLEJOHN to give away to one lucky person.  It would be awesome if you wanted to add her books on Goodreads, or leave reviews somewhere, buy her books or give a shout out about the book or contest on your social media but I hate making people jump through hoops (probably from years of filling out adoption papers) So, the only thing you need to do to enter is leave a comment on my blog sometime before Friday the 18th. That's it. I'll announce the winner next week. But if you want to do those other things too, feel free. Sorry, but this is limited to postal addresses in the United States. 

If you want to find out more, here are some links. 

Lori's website here.  Facebook page here.  Her pinterest book boards, which are really amazing are here.  Amazon here.  And, if you want to read the first two chapters free, you can find them here.  Enjoy!

Self Lovin' Bloghop

This week Tara is hosting a Self Lovin' Bloghop.  It's really easy for writers to get down on themselves.  With the rejection we encounter, the fact that there's always a different part of the craft we can improve, it can be depressing. 

But there's  reasons why we're writers. Reasons we endure the solitude, the hours of work with no pay, the fact that our family and friends may not understand what we do. And those reasons are because we love it, and because we're good at it. 



Each of us have something we're good at. Did your English teacher exclaim over your descriptions? Do your beta readers Oooh over your characterization?

This week we're celebrating our skill as a writer.   

One thing I can do well is dialogue.  It wasn't always that way. I  had to work hard, but now it's comfortable and I get a lot of comments on how natural it sounds.  It feels good to own what I can do. To ignore all the things I'm still struggling with and say here, this is what I've learned.

What have you learned, what are you good at? 

Around the Town

Hey all. Hope you had a great weekend.  I have some links here to start you off to a fabulous week. Or to give you something to procrastinate with as you recover from the weekend and try to switch into productive mode.  What?  I can't be the only one that does that.

First, a great post over at Behler Blog on how to decide how much goes into each chapter.

Next, here is a cool video on how writing is changing the lives of kids in Juvenile detention. it's entitled 'writing saved my life' and was very interesting to watch.

Here is why writers are the worst procrastinators. Rather, we're the worst if you think procrastination is a bad thing.  If you think it's a good thing then we're really the best.  And being the best it good.  No I'm not rambling on just to procrastinate getting back to work. Fine, on to the next and last link.


 Finally, here is 20 things that mentally strong people don't do.  Procrastination isn't listed so I think writers are safe.

Hope you all have a great week!

The worth of a goal

Author and teacher extraordinaire, Barbara Rogan has a post here in which she talks about a study recently done on authors.  In her post Barbara says:


My advice to aspiring fiction writers is and has always been that if they can imagine themselves happy doing anything else, they should do it. 


 This statement wormed its way into my subconcious and brought back out a memory. When my brother, who is an anesthesiologist, was starting at a university and considering the long journey of pre-med, med school, residency, school loans, and such, spoke with many doctors. He asked about the process, if they thought it was worth it, how to prepare for it.  He was told by the doctors, if there is anything else you can do and be happy, then do it.  The long arduous trip was only worth it if you were driven to practice medicine. If it was a calling, rather than an occupation.

It surprised me a bit at first to see the same words applied to writing, but then it made perfect sense.  I've often heard that a writer has to write a million words before they are good enough to get published. I guess those million words are our med-school and residency.  No, writing doesn't save people's lives, but it can save people's souls.

Most, if not all, professions have some sort of training or certification that one has to complete before being able to do the job.  All our training is on the job, and because writing is a solitary pursuit it can sometimes take us a long time to really grow. The pathway to publishing is long, and difficult.  One of the hardest things is how subjective it is.  Even if we practice and write our million words, even if we are very, very good, there is no guarantee that we'll find someone who believes in our book the same way we do. 

All in all I agree with the statement, if you are not driven to be a writer, the rejection strewn pathway may not be worth it for you.  I've known others who have given up rather than trying to learn and grow. The reward of being published wasn't worth the work, effort, and rejection received.

But it is for me.

Monday Help

Hey all, hope you had a wonderful weekend!

I have a question for you.  I'm struggling with part of my current WIP. I have some people who are a little snarky and a lot condescending. They are supposed to be mean to my MC but I'm having trouble coming up with the right attitude and words.  Basically I want them to deliver comments that sound almost like compliments, but are really completely insulting.  Does anyone know of novels (or TV shows for that matter) that have that kind of character I can read to get into the mood and  get ideas? I guess I'm glad that I'm struggling to write mean people, but it will make for a pretty boring book if I can't get it figured out.

And here's a bonus link to a post about satisfying endings.  Hope you enjoy!

Edited to add: I forgot this link for ten signs you just might be a writer. I resembled quite a few of them.