I had to laugh. Not too long ago I was talking to a friend on the phone and telling her about my story. She said, “Well, I’m glad I’m not in that family.” I had to agree. My main character is goes through a tragedy that so few will ever go through, and thank goodness most people never will. However, I hope it will still resonate because everyone in life at some points has some type of tragedy that befalls them. Whether it’s as simple as being laid off or as tragic as losing a child, we all go … [Read more...]
Day 124: Breaking Glass: Metaphor and Symbols #acfw
In life, it seems so many of us try to compare our grief and pain to someone else’s. Our tragedy to theirs. The thing is that even if the tragedies sound similar in nature, no two are the same. I remember going to a wake a few months after my daughter had passed. This may be long but here it goes: My husband’s sister’s husband’s (David’s) grandfather had passed away. Both David’s grandmother and grandfather had come to Mari’s wake. Basically his whole family came by to pay their respects. I … [Read more...]
Day 121: Life Rafts #acfw
Life rafts can mean so many different things to different people. For me, my life rafts come from my Heavenly Father. He knows when I’m about to drown. It’s in these moments He gives me a life raft, in other words, He carries me through whatever is happening in my life at that time. When Mari got sick, I started on my very long sixteen day journey that felt like the worst roller coast I’d ever been on, and I love roller coasters. It’s like I couldn’t wait for the terrible ride to end, only in … [Read more...]
Day 113: Surrender #acfw
I love what the author said about surrendering. “Surrender to your own ego. Let yourself sound dumb, dull, or overly earnest, or whatever you fear most about your own writing. Surrender and then rewrite.” Think about that. For a long time I had it in my head that if I wrote something everyday on my daughter's dedication site that I would start to sound redundant. I didn’t want to bore people so I only write when the mood struck me with something. In those times I just hammered out entries. … [Read more...]
Featured Book: Wounded Hearts #acfw #featuredbook
Wounded Hearts is written by Allyson Carter. Back Cover Blurb: After a bitter divorce, Shelby Johnson is looking to rebuild a life for her and her daughter, Hannah, while avoiding the thing she mistrusts most: men. Her resolve is tested, however, when her brother’s best friend, Mark, moves in across the street and her long-buried feelings for him return. Can she possibly open up her heart again? Is she willing to let herself love? When someone threatens her life she quickly realizes that her … [Read more...]
Z is for ZZZs #AtoZchallenge #acfw
The dreaded ZZZs. It's exactly what we don't want to do to our readers. That is make them fall asleep as they are read our books. We want our novels to be so engaging that they have a hard time putting it down so much so they don't want to go to sleep. This has happened to me so many times where I'm so into the book that it's hard to put it down. I still remember waking up not to long ago and my Kindle was on my bed beside me. I was so close to the end of a book the night before that I wanted … [Read more...]
Y is for Year Journey #AtoZchallenge
For those of you who've been following my site for a while know I've been doing a year-long writing journey. What I've been doing is going through a book with 365 different entries, reading through what the author has put, then I write out my own take on the prompt she had for that day. I temporarily put doing this on hold while doing the A to Z Challenge. However, on May 1 I plan to pick right back up where I left off on day 104. I think by doing this those who read the posts get to know me … [Read more...]
W is for Women’s Fiction #AtoZchallenge #acfw
Picture this. You take a woman who is an avid reader of romance. She loves both historical and contemporary. With or without suspense. She's been reading it since the time she was about thirteen. So what kind of book do you think she would probably write? I bet you'd logically said romance. However, since today's letter is W and the topic is women's fiction, it must be women's fiction, and that writer would be me. From the time I first read a teen romance I fell in love with the heroine and … [Read more...]
The Journey with Sylvia Bambola #acfw
Please welcome this weeks guest Sylvia Bambola for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? Years ago God spoke to me about writing a novel for the secular world. I believed it. I received it. There was no doubt in my mind that it was God even though He sounded nothing like Cecil B. DeMille. So, for two years I worked feverishly until finally the great American novel was ready. I had amassed a list of all the publishers I planned to favor with … [Read more...]
Day 102: Five Things Writers Can Learn from Cats
1. Stay focused. As writers it's important to stay focused on our writing to make it the best we can. When we don't we end up with a mess and more likely than not have to go back and either do some major edits or to rewrite it all. No fun at all. So staying focused is paramount to making the writing successful. 2. Retain mystery. It's important to keep the story a mystery so the reader will continue to keep the reader engrossed in the story otherwise they would lose interest. 3. Hunt … [Read more...]
