The power of black ink and a red pen
Update #348 on my quest for publication: I’m still working hard at it!
I love family get-togethers, but I hate two questions I always get. #1 – When are you going to have children!? (I’ve only been married for three years. Give me a little more time.) #2 – Do you have that book published yet?
For #2 – if I had my book published, trust me, the world would know. Every family member will definitely know. 
Rest assured.
But here is the latest:
I’m smack-dab in the middle of editing my book. I’ve gone through the printed manuscript (360 whopping pages, double-spaced) with my beloved red pen and am now applying all those scribbles to the digital document.
I cannot understate the importance for printing out the document, holding it in your hands and reading it on a page (coming from a devout lover of my Kindle.) This is a lengthy step of the process, but essential.
Once I finish editing, I’ll complete a proposal and send it all in to my agent. This summer, I’ll network with more editors and try to sell the project as well as my other completed manuscript, Lillie Among Thorns.
It’s a long process. I’m still paying my dues, so I don’t expect anything right away. But that said, I’m going to keep writing, editing and blogging away!
Read More
Hunger Games Movie Update – Why I’m not reviewing it yet…
Yes, I braved the crowds and crazies (I say that lovingly because I guess I am one) to attend the midnight premier of The Hunger Games. (I posted why I was excited about it and why it is more than just a movie to me…)
So posting a review of the movie today would make sense.
But I’m not going to.
Because I believe in spreading the love, I’ve shared the book with countless friends and family, many of which haven’t seen the movie yet. (Understandable – those midnight showings aren’t right for everyone.) So until people see this film for themselves, I’m not going to dissect it.
After attending an advance screening of “War Horse,” I might have been a little to praising of it and I fear I set some standards too high. I don’t want to risk that or point out any flaws and taint your movie-going experience.
Go into it with an open mind. Go into it and enjoy the entertainment. Go see the movie with other Hunger Games fans.
Enjoy the Hunger Games experience.
That’s all I’ll say for now.
(Back to regular blog content after my Hunger Games craze has left my system…so TBD)
Read More
Why I’m so doggone excited to see The Hunger Games
A lot of people are excited to see the Hunger Games. A. Lot. In fact, the odds are definitely in favor of this movie being the runaway blockbuster of 2012.
But for me, this movie is so much more.
Back in 2009, my “insider” at Barnes and Noble recommended one book. “You HAVE to read this.” I was starting a book club with two other friends from high school and we certainly needed an excuse to get together and gab each month (thus, book club.) So Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Games was what started it all.
Years later, dozens of books, my book club is going strong. The group has been divided by graduate school, mission trips and life in general, but we’ve held on. We all read Catching Fire with equal fervor and we gathered at the Mockingjay book release party at Powell’s.
The Hunger Games series has ultimately been an anchor for us. It’s so much more than just a book.
There are articles, blogs and theories all over the place as to what made this book such a blockbuster and what we should really make out of all this hype. These are all great articles. Great voices. Great insights.
But for me, I know the Hunger Games is so much more than a book. To see the book from 2008 on the full screen is a culmination of years of anticipation and memories with the hope of only more years to come.
My book club and other Hunger Games addicts will all be there opening night and opening day. I’ve done my patriotic duty and spread the book around, circulated the audiobooks and blogged to my little heart’s content. (I may or may not have even downloaded Rue’s whistle as my ring tone…)
So here I am, counting down the minutes until the midnight release of the movie. (Nerd alert.) What about you? Will you be going to see HG on the Big Screen?
PS – Of course, after March 23rd, I can say with quite certainty that we’ll all be anxiously anticipating Catching Fire - scheduled for 2013 according to IMDb.
Exploring the verb, “To Nikki.”
“To Nikki:”
verb.
…to park where the front tire touches one white line and the back tire touches to other white line.
…to fall down the “stair” and twist your ankle.
…to back into a parked Toyota behind you.
…to drop nearly half of the cooking supplies before they reach, or after they reach, the pan.
…to start cooking a meal that requires 1.5 hours of oven time, when you have only 1 hour until you need to leave the house.
…to break ones nose and then snap it back into place.
…to roll a truck door into a pole, bending it backwards.
…to lose one’s balance while carrying a 70 pound dog and fall face first onto the floor.
…to stub ones toe on the same drawer under the bed, even when the drawer remains in the same place every day.
…to blow up a truck engine. (Specifically, two different engines within two years.)
If you have done (or mastered) any of these things, you have pulled a “Nikki”. Congratulations. Go forth, and beware of those further Nikki moments as yet to be discovered.
Read MoreThoughts on Writing Real and Living Real
Lauraine at the ACFW local chapter meeting.
At this past OCW conference and ACFW meeting last Monday, author Lauraine Snelling spoke on the stories of life and how those play into making your writing real.
This lead me to stop and think about my own life and my own writing.
The drafts I wrote in high school are as simplistic as you can find. Not in the writing skill or plot, necessarily, but there is a definite lack of real-world perspectives.
Of course there was. Back then, I knew nothing. I had seen nothing.
Even now, I know I’m entirely green to the world. I could name twenty people around me who have seen more in their life than I ever expect to see in mine.
I did an entire blog series on the “Story behind the story” where authors shared what inspired their novel. Sometimes it is a question, sometimes it is a situation they endured, sometimes it is something a family member went through. These life experiences are God’s way of providing us story fodder—whether we are writers, speakers, welders or mechanics. These stories can affect others in the way we share them or learn from them.
As Lauraine highlighted, we can react to the high and low situations with reverance for God’s plan, or we can narrowly only look at that situation without hope.
I choose hope.
Read MoreHow Horses Changed Me, Defined Me
My first horse, Whiskey Rose.
Horses defined me long before I was even born. As a child, my mother was a horse owner and my father…sometimes was forced to clean his sister’s horse’s stall. (One of my favorite family stories is of him getting frustrated at having to clean the stall and slamming the metal pitchfork into the ground – and into his foot.)
After I was born, it was pony rides, horse figurines, horse books and everything My Little Pony.
Nothing has changed in 25 years, really.
My first horse, Whiskey Rose.
When I was twelve, I found my first horse waiting in the driveway after I returned from a two-week vacation with a good friend. What a spectacular homecoming. This horse would be my obsession, my teacher, my inspiration, and eventually…my nemesis.
Yes, as any horse owner will tell you, each horse has a unique personality and some are more difficult than others. Some personalities simply clash. And some horses are certainly spawn from the depths of hell. I digress…
My middle school years were fraught with girl drama and all sorts of growing pains. I retreated into myself and my horse. I found sanctuary in working at barns and absorbing all the horse knowledge I possibly could. I met good people, joined some fun groups and overcame many fears. I’m not sure I’d be the person I am today if I hadn’t had my horse to turn to in the days where my best friends rejected me. Depression never seemed to hold on for long when my horse was always waiting with a welcoming nicker.
I had purpose. I had a passion.
That passion spilled into my other passions: reading and writing.
I began concocting novels about brave and beautiful horse trainers and the handsome men they wooed. From there, my writing career progressed.
Into high school and college, the horse-centered life continued. I spent two years as a rodeo queen. Looking back, I never would have entered a beauty pageant. Never. The rodeo queen pageants were different. Your talent was riding. And I was a fair enough rider to earn two titles. Those years taught me about public relations and self-presentation. And hairspray.
My writing career waned in my college years as I pursued my journalism degree. This was a different kind of writing. I did an internship at a business journal, where I swore to the editor (who called me the Cowgirl) that I’d work horses into the paper in some way. I did. I snooped out a decent story about horse businesses and even a scandal or two. Horses shaped the reporter I’d become.
Horses took my writing to a new level as I joined the American Horse Publications and was awarded their 2007 Student Award. I was flown out to their national conference and networked with hundreds of magazine editors and more. I was playing with the big boys.
After graduating, I’d get married, buy a house and get my first real job. My horse would stay at my parent’s house, since I lived in the city limits.
It was then I began my fiction career. For real, this time. I joined writer’s groups, entered contests and even signed with an agent. The heart of all my writing and novel ideas? I’ll give you two guesses, but you’ll only need one.
Horses gave me refuge. Direction. Purpose.
They also gave me a cache of stories and hard-learned lessons. This, is simply the beginning.
Was there something/someone who defined your life?
Read MoreConnect with me
