My 365 day writing journey, as you've probably notice, has come to stop over the past couple of weeks. I've been dealing with computer issues and also having to try and fix my computers. As a result my writing journey hasn't been happening. My hope is that I will be able to pick it back up at the beginning of June. In the mean time, please stop by each Friday for The Journey. My hope is that each person story that is share might encourage you in some way like it does me. … [Read more...]
The Journey with Shannon Vannatter #acfw
Please welcome this weeks guest Shannon Vannatter for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? God Sent Encouragement God called me to be a writer in 1996 when I went to the library looking for clean romance and couldn’t find any. At the same time, it hit me that the story I’d had in my head since my teens could be a book. But I didn’t have a computer and I wasn’t a great typist. I told myself that if I ever got a computer, I’d write that … [Read more...]
Day 109: Just Reading #acfw
For years I have read romances and they are my favorite to read. I can remember thinking as a teenager, and even as an adult sometimes, that I'd love to write one but had no clue how to or, for that matter, any desire to do so. Today, I not only read books but I also have been doing a lot of writing. I've been working on both my fiction book as well as Mari's story (which is basically done and almost ready for beta readers). I've learned so much in the last few years. I understand better what … [Read more...]
Day 108: Aunt Boo’s House #acfw
My grandpa passed away exactly one year and one month to the day after my daughter passed away on August 16, 2009. Since I can remember, Grandpa told me stories about his time in the Navy in World War II. When he went to basic and his job school (which is the equivalent of AIT in the Army), everyone put down their preference of where they wanted to be stationed. They could either choose the East Coast or The Pacific in Hawaii. Since he was from the west coast he choose The Pacific and since … [Read more...]
Day 107: A Love Story #acfw
Great loves of our life. Depending on the person, there can be many great loves or only a few to maybe only having just one. For me, my first great love is for my Heavenly Father in heaven. It is through Him all things are possible. My next great love is for my husband, Keith. In my childhood there were many kinds of abuse that happened to me and as a result this shaped who I am today, or at least partly shaped. I don't have the greatest self-esteem. I have issues with letting go of … [Read more...]
Day 106: Odd Notes #acfw
In life we all have our times where we will either jot down a quick note or store something away in the corners of our minds for later use. As writers I think it's even more important to write down those sudden thoughts that come to us. It's in those thoughts that the true magic of our writing comes out. Our hidden story ideas that get written on the page. I still remember the day about three months after Mari died where I had all these thoughts floating around in my head needing to be … [Read more...]
Day 105: PERFECTION! #acfw
I don't think there's a single person out there who wouldn't want to do something and know they did it perfectly. The thing is we are human and we will never be perfect. As parents we try our very best to be the best parent we can. We want to raise our kids to one day be adults and be as successful as they can be. But no matter how hard we try we will never be perfect at it. We will make mistakes along the way. We will doubt ourselves. We have to learn from both our own mistakes and also from … [Read more...]
Day 104: Writing Your Own Front Yard #acfw
Think about this for a moment. When we write or talk about things do we use our past experiences during those times or do we just guess and hope what we say makes sense to others. Personally, I think our best writing comes from the things we have personally experienced. I'm not saying that those who haven't experience something they've written about is good. What I do mean is when we write from things that have happened in our past, we're able to put part of ourselves into what we write. There … [Read more...]
The Journey with Natalie Monk #acfw
Please welcome this weeks guest Natalie Monk for The Journey. She answers the question: How have you seen God work in your writing journey? “He hath made every thing beautiful in His time...” Ecclesiastes 3:11 Sometimes the writing journey is wonderful. Other times we writers shove our foot onto the brake pedal and ask ourselves if the endless hours we spend drafting, rewriting, editing, marketing and networking are really accomplishing anything. This is especially true for those of us … [Read more...]
Reflecting back over the A to Z Challenge #AtoZchallenge #acfw
This year is the first time I did the A to Z Challenge on this site. However, I did do it last year on my daughter's dedication site (mommysangelinheaven.com) and fell in love with doing it. So this year I decided to really up the ante, so to speak, and do the challenge on both this site as well as my daughter's site. It wasn't easy and I even was late a couple of times with posting, but I was able to write on every letter and get them posted on both sites. Yea!!!! The topic I chose to write … [Read more...]