Feelings….character depth – Shannon Vannatter

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Gail

Welcome, Shannon, and guests! Here’s something special to commemorate the Heartsong Presents line since it’s ending this month. Comment to enter the drawing for a copy of Rodeo Reunion. Ten copies will be split among names drawn during my blog tour from June 1st – July 1st. One winner will receive a baseball themed memory board personally crafted by the author. Winners will be revealed on the author’s blog on July 22nd.

And now, here’s Shannon with some useful writing tips.

Feelings, whoa whoa whoa, feelings . . .

Anybody remember that song? Yes, I’m showing my age, but I thought it might grab your attention. The main way I add depth to my characters is through emotions. Feelings bring characters to life. I reveal feelings through reactions, both visceral such a jaw tic and physical such as clenched fists to show anger.

Another great way to reveal feelings is through internal thoughts—the things characters don’t say. So many times I think things I’ll never say. Often because my thoughts are rude, selfish, or too vulnerable to reveal. Characters need to have those thoughts too.

Our feelings, reactions, and internal thoughts are all shaped by our unique backstories. The people who raised us. The people surrounding us as we grew up. The things that happened—good and bad—in our lives. The place we grew up. Life-altering events—it all makes us who we are. Our backstories shape our reactions, emotions, and thoughts.

By basing a character’s feelings, reactions, and internal thoughts on their backstory, everything they feel, think, say, and do rings true. Yes, there are very writerly rules about backstory dumping. If you start the book with everything that happened to your character since birth, the reader won’t get very far.

We have to make the reader care about the character before they will care about what made them the way they are. The best advice I learned on backstory is to sprinkle it lightly like salt. A line or two here. A line there. Just enough to make the character reactions understandable.

Another great piece of advice—reveal your character’s backstory like you reveal your past to a new acquaintance—a little at a time as the relationship deepens. When you first meet, you reveal little, maybe your job, whether you’re married or not, and how many children you have if any. The next time, maybe you talk about your parents and siblings. It takes months to reveal some things about yourself, years for others, and some things you never reveal.

Characters should be the same way. Readers don’t need to know every little thing about them. Just the important stuff that shaped them and only over time as they get deeper into the book and in a deeper relationship with the character.

Here’s a fun way to tackle backstory form the movie, Tangled:

Rapunzel: “So Flynn, where you from?”

Flynn: “Whoa, Blondie, I don’t do backstory. But I am very interested in yours.”

But she doesn’t want to spill either. Later, after practically everybody in the kingdom is chasing them, Flynn fights off guards and a horse, and lots of destruction, they end up in a cave which is slowly flooding. Trapped and thinking they’re going to die, Rapunzel apologizes for getting him into this mess. In a vulnerable moment, Flynn reveals his real name—Eugene Fitzherbert and how he became Flynn Rider, the thief.

Characters don’t necessarily have to be trapped and on the verge of dying to get their backstory out. But their backstory should be revealed slowly as the reader needs to know it and organically to fit the story. Divulge the bulk of it well into the tale—after your reader is rooting for your character.

If every feeling, thought, and reaction the character has is shaped by their backstory, the character leaps off the page, three dimensional, and full of depth.

Central Arkansas author, Shannon Taylor Vannatter is a stay-at-home mom/pastor’s wife. She lives in a town with a population of around 100, if you count a few cows, and once climbed a mountain wearing gold wedge-heeled sandals which became known as her hiking boots. Vannatter won the Inspirational Readers Choice Award in the short contemporary category, The 18^th Annual Heartsong Awards 3rd Favorite New Author and #1 Contemporary Award.

She has ten published titles and is contracted for five more. Her books are available at christianbook.com, barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, harlequin.com, and barbourbooks.com. Learn more about Shannon and her books at http://shannonvannatter.com and check out her real life romance blog at http://shannonvannatter.com/blog/.

Rodeo Reunion cover

Connect with Shannon on Facebook: http://facebook.com/shannontaylorvannatter, Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/29672798-shannon-vannatter, Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/stvannatter/, and Twitter: @stvauthor.

Rodeo Reunion: RAQUEL MARRIS NEEDS A MAN WHO’LL STAY PUT

And Slade Walker’s not a likely candidate. Even if the former major league pitcher just agreed to coach her son’s little league team. The single mom can’t risk everything on a bronc-riding chaplain who’s only passing through Raquel’s small Texas town.

Slade is taking a hiatus from the rodeo circuit to meet the sister he never knew he had. But the pretty widowed nurse next door is making him think twice about hitting the road again. He can’t turn his back on the cowboys who need him, but Raquel and her boy need him, too. Can Slade fulfill his calling and finally find a place to hang his hat?

Purchase Links:

http://www.christianbook.com/rodeo-reunion-shannon-vannatter/9780373487851/pd/487851?event=ESRCG

http://www.amazon.com/Reunion-Heartsong-Presents-Shannon-Vannatter/dp/0373487851/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1431697907&sr=1-5&keywords=Shannon+Taylor+Vannatter

Growing Things

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Gail

My tea bag note says “Plant Something” Dena Rubin.

Probably many readers have been planting lately, now that Iowa weather has decided to give us a chance.

I’ve been thinking lately about the seeds of ideas that come to us. A seed is so different from what it becomes with soil, water, and sunshine, and that’s how it goes with our story ideas, too.

Standing in a hallway one day, a character comes to us. It’s kind of mystical, and definitely a gift. What stirs us to feel this person’s reality, and the story they have to tell?

After months/years of fleshing out a heroine, she “feels” almost as real to me as the actual people I meet. That’s pretty amazing, when you think about it.

So I’m posting a photo of Iowa corn…little seedlings that have already transformed into plants spattering rows. We’ll watch them grow all summer, through sunshine, storms, and scares. Just like our characters.

WAIT FOR ME, Jo Huddleston

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Gail

Our guest, Jo Huddleston, is a multi-published author of books, articles, and short stories. Her debut novels in the Caney Creek Series and her latest book, Wait for Me are sweet Southern romances. She is a member of ACFW, the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN), and holds a M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University. Jo lives in the U.S. Southeast with her husband, near their two grown children and four grandchildren. Visit Jo at www.johuddleston.com.

Following is an Jo’s interview with a character from her novel. Wait for Me

I’m in Coaltown, West Virginia meeting with Claude Capshaw.

Hello. Are you the owner of Capshaw coal mine #7?

Hey, there. Yes, I’ve owned this mine for about a year.

Mr. Capshaw, do you own other coal mines as well?

Please call me Claude. And, yes, I’ve bought coal mines in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. This mine here in Coaltown is my latest purchase.

Do you always live in the community where your coal mine is located?

That’s right. I need to be close to the miners when I buy a new coal mine. They need see me around and come to know me as the fair, honest man that I am. My wife, Lillian, doesn’t much like it when we move to a new coal community. In fact, she doesn’t like living anywhere near a coal mine and is a little standoffish, she doesn’t mix well with the miners and their families.

Claude, do you have children? How do they like living here?

We have a beautiful daughter, Julia. I think Julia likes it okay here. Her mother gives her a hard time about spending time with the miners’ kids and forbids her to socialize, especially the boys.

Why do you think that is?

Well, my wife isn’t much like my little girl and me. Julia and I can mix with the people here. But I know it’s hard on Julia when her mother wants her to stay apart from the other kids. Julia’s a normal high school senior, she wants to have friends, and she’s torn between what she wants and what her mother demands. I try to encourage Julia all I can.

How do you do that?

There’s a boy in her class she likes—Roberto. He works after school every day in my company store. He’s a good kid. I don’t criticize Julia or tell her mother when I see them talking. Like I said, Julia needs to have her friends. She’ll be leaving in September to enroll at West Virginia University. I’m in agreement with her mother about that—it’s important that Julia get a good education.

But I think my wife’s only purpose in sending her to the university is so she will be in better social circles up there. Her mother thinks Julia needs to meet more suitable and acceptable young men than those here in the mining community. I just hope her strict rules and plans for Julia don’t backfire and cause Julia to become disobedient. My little girl is a sweet child, but she has spunk. I just hope her mother doesn’t push her too hard or too far.

Jo is offering a free eBook for Kindle copy of her book to one commenter on this post.

Here is the purchase link for Wait For Me: http://tiny.cc/bhigxx

Website www.johuddleston.com

Blog http://www.johuddleston.com

Blog http://lifelinesnow.blogspot.com

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/joshuddleston

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1615694.Jo_Huddleston

Purchase eBook for Kindle and print copies of Wait for Me at: http://tiny.cc/xndfwx

Here’s the back cover from Wait For Me.

Can Julie, an only child raised with privilege and groomed for high society, and Robby, a coal miner’s son, escape their socioeconomic backgrounds? In a 1950’s West Virginia coal mining community, can their love survive their cultural boundaries?

This is a tragically beautiful story of a simple, yet deep love between two soul mates, Robby and Julie. The American South’s rigid caste system and her mother demand that Julie marry an ambitious young man from a prominent family. Julie counters her mother’s stringent social rules with deception in order to keep Robby in her life. Can the couple break the shackles of polite society and spend their lives together? Will Julie’s mother ever accept Robby?

Characterization in a Single Title/Mainstream Romance by Liz Flaherty

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Gail

You’ll enjoy Liz. Sit back and relax.

I’m afraid, now that I said I’d do this article, that I’ve agreed under false pretenses, so let me start it with a duh-generating caveat. I have completed three single title books: a historical romance, a contemporary romance, and one that’s not hardly a romance at all. As of this writing, none of them are sold. That’s the “duh” part—you know, what makes me qualified to write this?

Well, number one, I’m a warm body with a keyboard. Number two, I LOVE characterization. Number three, even though I have enough rejections and editorial maybes under my belt to re-tree a forest, no one has ever rejected or editorially maybe-ed my characters.

It’s the easiest, laziest part of writing fiction, and doing it in single title/mainstream is just exactly like doing it in short/category except it’s…uh…even easier and lazier.

If you’re like me, your characters drive your story. Plot is incidental; it’s just what happens to those people. If you take away your characters—gosh, I hate calling them that; they’re people—the story no longer exists, because it’s not going to be the same story with others as its protagonists and secondary characters.

Oh, my goodness, have I just said something important? Well, that depends. If you write character-driven, you just said “duh.” However, if you’re a plot-driven writer, you probably said, “What is she talking about?”

Have you read any of Janet Ivanovich’s Stephanie Plum mystery series, starting with One for the Money? If you have, you know Stephanie’s a smart-talking “Joizy” girl with a hilarious grandmother and a cousin for every crime. If, on the other hand, you’ve read any of Lawrence Sanders’ Archie McNally series, you know Archie’s a rich guy in his 30s who still lives at home and drives a sharp little red Mazerati.

They’re both young, attractive, witty, and charming. They both have families whose eccentricities add humor and depth to their stories. They both solve mysteries and murders, all the while creating more mayhem for next time. Gender aside, are they interchangeable?

Nope.

And that, my friends, is single-title / mainstream characterization.

Okay, we all know that we develop our people by giving them individual traits. In a category romance, our heroine may be a little clumsy, a chocoholic, or shy. Something terrible may have even happened to her, a long time ago. Our hero might be a channel surfer, or he might drive too fast, or he may suffer flashbacks of a war fought in a Third World country a long time ago. But any failings they have will be either minor ones that don’t seriously affect the story or they will be in their distant past. This is not because the author doesn’t want to deal with them but because category romances aren’t long enough.

Single title romances are, so all your people’s character traits—or flaws—can affect the story any way you want them to. And if you want that hero to be just six hours home from that war or that heroine to be just three days past the loss of a child, that’s fine, because you have room in single title to address their pain.

And that, my friends . . . oops, repeating myself, aren’t I?

And there’s another part of characterization. If a character starts out with a slightly twitching right eye or a dimple in her left cheek, make sure she keeps it or gets it fixed within the story. If he speaks in a dialect, make sure not to insert enough of it to get annoying, but don’t forget it altogether, or your readers will “hear” your first-generation Irishman speaking with Midwestern nasality. Repeat yourself—just not a lot.

Before I end this, let me add one thought that is purely subjective, speaking from strictly one reader’s point of view, that reader being me. I hate perfect characters. Just as I’m not interested in knowing any in real life, I’m not interested in reading about them, either, because there’s nothing there to identify with.

Happy writing.

***

Liz Flaherty admits, only semi-apologetically, that she wrote this article a long time ago. In the time since then, those manuscripts she mentioned in the first paragraph—along with numerous others—have been sold and published. (She is unbecomingly proud of this, so don’t ask her too many questions—she’ll answer them.)

You can Google her name, or you can go to all the on-line bookstores if you’d like to read one (or nine) of her books. You can also visit her at www.lizflaherty.com or at http://wordwranglers.blogspot.com/ where she blogs every Monday. If you ever just feel like talking, drop an email to lizkflaherty@gmail.com.

Broken Umbrellas

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Gail

I’m interviewing Wendy Chorot, the author of Broken Umbrellas, this week. She writes under the pen name of Emma Broch Stuart.

I’ve yet to meet Wendy in person, but feel I know her. She’s that kind of gal (as my heroine Dottie would say…) so I’m delighted to introduce Wendy to you.

What inspires you to write, Wendy?

Everything! Seriously, I am so awed at the world around me, people and seasons, humanity and compassion, love and tears. I always want to look with eyes that really see. See beyond the surface to the beauty that is often hidden. I’ve been on the battlefield and I know that is why I love and live and dream with a fierceness that carries over into my writing. Sometimes I think I could fill an entire book about how a dandelion touches me. ha, ha They are such a sight for sore eyes after a long winter, yellow dots spring up and feed the bees, and droop in chubby hands as a bouquet of flowers for mama. And oh how us mamas love them. Yes, God uses everything to inspire me.

Broken Umbrellas describes a time when you lived in Europe. I’ve experienced a little of that, and would like to hear more about your time there.

I credit a lot of who I am today on my experiences in Europe. There’s something about getting out of your comfort zone that forces you to relate differently, engage in the world around you at a different level. And most importantly, see beyond yourself. I have dipped my toes in the Mediterranean, hiked mountains in the French Alps, drank wine with my baguette and cheese, breastfed under the Eiffel Tower, and made a complete fool of myself many times as I butchered the language. I have been misunderstood, ignored, lost in a big city, and served fish with the head still attached. But I have also been kissed by complete strangers, given free bus rides when I didn’t have exact change, served delicious cuisine, and most importantly, blessed with knowing Christ at a deeper level. My daughter was born there, my first grandchild buried there, and collected more than a decade of memories—both good and bad.

Living in a foreign country shows you just how strong you really are.

And I might add, how strong you are not! (We won’t go there now, though.D:)

Where did you get the name Broken Umbrellas?

At my precious grandson’s funeral, I spotted a broken blue umbrella flapping in the winter wind. The woman holding it was oblivious to the fact that snow was falling on her. When she moved her broken umbrella to offer protection to the man beside her, my heart was overwhelmed with the symbolism of humanity doing the same thing—“protecting” (or loving, serving, relating) in spite of our brokenness.

Titles have overtaken my brain . . . What a great “title” story!

What writing mentors or authors inspire you?

I admire every single author at WhiteFire, they are the best group of people ever! I also admire anyone—published or not—with the courage to write and share their story. Published authors who inspire me are Beth Moore, Carolyn Custis James, and Francis Chan—to name a few.

Thanks so much, Wendy. And thanks for offering one signed copy of Broken Umbrellas to a fortunate commenter. (I’ve read this book- definitely inspirational!

How can readers connect with you? I LOVE connecting with people! Readers can find my blog on my website: http://emmabrochstuart.com/

updates on my Facebook author page:

https://www.facebook.com/emmabrochstuart

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/EmmaBrochStuart

Or by emailing me:

emmabrochstuart@gmail.com

Remodeling a Manuscript

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Gail

Thanks to author Judythe Morgan for visiting with us today!

Besides being a writer, I’m an HGTV junkie. I love the renovation/remodeling shows.

Maybe my fascination comes from all the moves I’ve made as a military wife and daughter or the constant moves on my husband’s fast track ascent in the corporate world. Each move meant I remodeled or renovated to make our new living space our own. I’ve scraped wallpaper, patched walls, and agonized over what things to keep, what to toss, and what to garage sale.

When we finally settled, I found myself remodeling and/or renovating multiple times. I don’t mean sprucing up with paint and redecorating. I’m talking major projects. Then when we retired to Colorado, we added a garage with an elevator and seven hundred square feet of living space, which require lots of time and energy.

Remodeling a home is not unlike editing or reworking a manuscript. Editing requires ripping apart to make a manuscript better than the original. During editing, we add new scenes, remove others, or rearrange the scenes and chapters.

When Love Blooms was such a major remodel-rewrite project. The original story began as an entry for a White Rose Press 2009 Contest. Editors provided a “Mad Lib” synopsis and cover. The prize for the winning novella was publication.

I wrote the first version of Andrew Fitzpatrick and Darcy Clark’s story for that contest. Sad to say, I didn’t win and filed the original story away.

Years later, I pulled the manuscript out for a rewrite. Chapters disappeared with a stroke of the delete key. New scenes came to life. My critique partners helped and editors offered their professional assistance as the new story rose in the shell of the old story.

An interesting thing happened in the process of the rewrite: Andy’s four brothers and three sisters begin chattering in my head demanding their stories. In upcoming Fitzpatrick Family novellas, each of the rural preacher’s kids will find happily-ever-after.

Revising, aka remodeling, Andy and Darcy’s original story wasn’t an easy process and it wasn’t a quick fix. It took time, patience, and concentrated effort.

One thing I’ve learned with any editing is to create an outtake file. While some scenes and ideas won’t work in one story, they might for another.

Whether remodeling or editing we need the ability to separate ourselves emotionally to make something greater from the parts than from the original whole. It isn’t any easier to press delete than it is to see a favorite object walk away from a garage sale.

Remodeling or Rewriting? To be honest, I’m not sure which is more challenging.

Award-winning author Judythe Morgan writes sweet contemporary romance because she believes in true love, second chances, forgiveness, and, most of all, happily-ever-after. As an Air Force daughter, Army wife, one time Department of Army Civilian, mother, antiques dealer, schoolteacher, and educational administrator, her life is full of diverse experiences. Add years of international travel and an insatiable desire to see, do, and learn and her creative fountain overflows with story ideas.

If she’s not at her computer working on the next story, you’ll find her browsing antiques shops, reading on the front porch or walking with her real life hero and two canine babies in the nearby Rio Grande National Forest.

You can connect with Judythe in all these places, and we welcome your comments on remodeling, editing, or anything you’d like to ask Judythe. Thanks for stopping by.

Website http://www.judythemorgan.com/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/judythe2

Twitter https://twitter.com/Judythe2

Amazon Author Page http://www.amazon.com/Judythe-Morgan/e/B00802MJPY/

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6450879.Judythe_Morgan

WHEN LOVE BLOOMS – Check out this story!

After a hit-and-run accident leaves her mother confined to a special care facility, Darcy Clark abandons her dream of an art career. Instead, she focuses on helping her father run the struggling family landscape business. She has no time or interest in romance.

Then at-risk students from her old high school become her labor force on a city park project, and their teacher Andy Fitzpatrick shows up to help keep an eye on his kids. The chemistry between Darcy and Andy is instant.

Darcy dares to daydream about the possibility of a happily-ever-after until a dark secret connecting Andy to her mother’s accident surfaces. Will the link kill their budding attraction before love can blossom?

Buy Links for WHEN LOVE BLOOMS

KINDLE: http://amzn.to/1o26bwl

NOOK: http://bit.ly/1vwTs98

iBOOKS: http://bit.ly/TPafrP

KOBO: http://bit.ly/1Df4Paj

Good-bye, April

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Gail

April is known as a trickster around these parts, and she lived up to her reputation this weekend. During our town garage sales, she sent treasure-seekers racing between vehicles and garages.

But today, the sun’s spectacular, and the sky as blue as my grandkids’ eyes. So I’ve been out checking on the growth in our yard.

My tulips, surrounded by blue bells, are peeking at the world. By the time you see this picture, it’ll have turned around, because I’m going to ask my husband for help. Every time I try to edit it, I lose everything, even my words, so I’m going to publish this post, then ask for help. If you see it’s still catty-wampus, you’ll know that didn’t work out.

But you get the idea- pretty lavender tulips and lovely bluebells.

The potatoes have decided it’s safe to show themselves, too.

And through another manuscript rejection, I’ve been challenged to slough off old, out-used attitudes. Ya think?

One of my characters motivated me in this area . . . who said we write for publication?

Sometimes I think writing is really all about the journey.

So, as May arrives in a few days, I hope I’ll maintain my late-April resolution and stay in a positive frame of mind. One thing for sure, every day brings a bit more green to our Northern Iowa world, and that’s a very good thing.

Visit with Edie Melson – April 20, 2015

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Gail

My husband always says, “My wife has experienced more deployments than most people I know.” That’s because he counts his two to Iraq and our son’s, (one to Iraq, one to Afghanistan), as ALL MINE.

So I’m excited to welcome Edie Melson as she describes her devotional for military families–this would make a great gift for them as Memorial Day approaches.

Here is the link for preorder. The price is reduced and you receive a free ebook with an additional 15 prayers.

www.WhileMySoldierServes.com

Thousands of families send loved ones off to fight on a daily basis. These families spend a lot of time living in a world out of control. This kind of stress can take an incredible toll, but there is hope. When we feel helpless, we can take our fears to the One who loves us more than anything and holds the universe in His hands.

In this book you’ll find the words to usher you into His presence. These prayers are a place to visit again and again as you take your own fears to God. They’re just a starting point, written to help you find your own voice as you call out on behalf of the one you love.

As the mother of a frontline infantry Marine, Edie Melson lived this book before she wrote it. Edie understands what it is to face adversity and come out triumphant on the other side. Her years as a wife, mother, and ministry leader have given her a unique perspective to reach out to others facing the same struggles. She’s the Military Family Blogger for Guideposts.org, social media director for several writing websites, and a popular ministry and conference speaker. Connect with her on her blog, The Write Conversation, Twitter, and Facebook.

Blooming in Adversity

I’ve come to realize that the seeds of faith begin their journey to the light, in the dark. As the mother of a frontline infantry Marine, I’ve been through the painful process of blooming in adversity.

Neither I nor my husband come from a military family, so our son’s decision to enlist straight after high school caught us off guard. We weren’t ashamed or disappointed in him, although we were worried about where this decision could take him. But we could see his sincere desire to follow God’s leading and knew that wherever this road led, God would see him through.

But as he got ready to leave for his first deployment in Iraq, all those thoughts of faith and how God would take care of him fled. I found myself engulfed in a terror so deep it colored every corner of my world a murky gray.

Throughout the last couple days, I was overcome with fear and uncertainty. As we sat down to eat, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the last time I’d share a meal with him. As he posed for a picture with his brothers, in the back of my mind was the fear that this would be the last picture I’d ever have of him. All through that time, the what-ifs continued to crowd out the faith I thought I had.

Then he was gone—half a world away—fighting an enemy whose main focus was on killing him. It was during those deployments that I learned about darkness of the heart. I wanted to protect him, I ached to shield him from what I knew he was experiencing, but I couldn’t. So I did the one thing I could do. It became my course of last resort because I was at the end of my own strength.

I prayed.

And I prayed.

And I prayed some more.

I learned to take my overwhelming fear to the only One who could protect him. And I left my son in God’s hands. The prayers weren’t pretty. Often times they weren’t even words. They truly were the groanings we read about in Romans 8:26-27.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was like a seed, planted deep in the ground, surrounded by darkness, by rough, rocky soil, pressing in on all sides crushing the life from me. But through that incredible pressure, the shell of my own strength fell away, and I slowly began to push toward the light that I knew lay just beyond the darkness.

And my last resort became my strength, the first place I turned. Instead of praying in desperation, I began to pray in confidence. When the fears threatened to overwhelm me, I learned to lean into God, instead of turning in on myself.

The final harvest of that time of darkness is coming to fruition May 12, just after Mother’s Day. It’s a book of prayers for those with loved ones in the military, While My Soldier Serves. How I longed for just such a book during that dark time. Now God has taken my time of darkness and is shining it as a light for those who are also facing the incredible stress of having a loved one at war.

I can say with confidence, never doubt that God will bring a harvest of joy, no matter how dark the days you’re facing now.

I’d love to know how you get through the dark times and find a way to bloom. Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Edie promises to send a book to one fortunate commentator when they arrive, so please leave your e-mail address. Thanks for stopping by!

On Consistency – Brenda Poulos – April 13, 2015

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Gail

This week, Christian Writers of the West president Brenda Poulos gives us some NEW YEAR’S ADVICE for April. Welcome, Brenda!

A lot can happen between January and April. A writing plan made at the beginning of the year will simply not take us past spring, into summer and beyond. It’s time to revisit, update and, if necessary, rewrite.

In April, we may ask: Is my plan still working? Is it still realistic? What has changed in my life since the plan was written? What needs to be adjusted?
Here’s what I have found. The culprit is time. In January, I failed to factor in time for research, webinars, and writing-related reading or allow for the hours to complete submissions.

Finally, I scheduled so much writing, I failed to leave enough time available for my personal life—family dinners, movies with my husband, walking the dog.

Baxter was glad to hear that walking the dog was now part of the daily plan…
So, perhaps I need to include devotions, writing, exercise, volunteering, family/friends activities, housework, and leisure. I need to allow for the unplanned, too—that surprise visit from Aunt Martha, an unexpected phone call, a refrigerator on the fritz.
This quarter, I’m tackling this time problem, once and for all. I won’t answering the door or phone during my scheduled writing time. I’ll be answering voicemail, email, and texts once my writing time is completed. Second, I’m building in an hour of flex time—time for the “expected interruptions.”

I don’t know exactly when they will come, but I do know with a fair degree of certainty that they will. And when they do, I’ll be ready.
I’m hoping this new daily plan will keep me from getting frazzled and help me meet my husband at the door with a smile, rather than the wild-eyed look I’ve been famous for these last few months.

And, oh yes, I’m giving myself a little reward at the end of each day I actually keep to my plan.

Pleasure reading, calling a friend and chatting (yes, a real conversation, not a text), enjoying lemonade on the patio, and watching a favorite television show are on my short list.
Your problem may not be time, but self-motivation or organization. No matter what they are, problems will remain problems, unless we meet them head on.
It all starts with a plan, tweaked often so we can better reach our writing goals, and offering rewards in increments to encourage daily writing.
This year, someone will write words to inspire others for generations to come. Will those words be yours?

Learn more about Brenda and Christian Writers of the West Here:

www.brendapoulos.wordpress.com
www.spiritualsnippets.com

Please feel free to share your thoughts and what has worked for you, and thanks for stopping by. Brenda would love to have you visit her websites at: www.spiritualsnippets.com and www.brendapoulos.wordpress.com She lives in Gilbert, Arizona with husband, John, and aging pets, Baxter and Brinkley. She volunteers at Gilbert Christian School, Hospice of the Valley, and serves in various ministries at Grace Church in Mesa.

The Joy of the Moment

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Gail

Last week, Iowa boasted Palm Sunday with a wailing wind and cold temps. My only gardening right now occurs in indoor pots, while less than two weeks ago, I enjoyed my neighbor’s incredible Forsythia bush across the street in Arizona

I came home to one Christmas cactus bloom. Yes, one. And then, another popped open. But that was it for the entire plant.

A few days later, my other Christmas cactus showed signs of letting loose.

Just goes to show, we never know what will happen any given season. Imho, that’s part of the joy of gardening.

We await something, not sure exactly what it will be, or when, but pretty certain it will be bright!

Next to the productive cactus, a kalanchloe that blooms gloriously outdoors during summer, prepares to make its springtime statement.

I need to transfer this lesson to my writing endeavors, where I’m much less given to the joy of the moment. No, I’d like a little better idea when certain manuscripts might make their debuts into this uncertain world, thank you very much.

Today, Easter Sunday 2015, I must add another picture of the second Christmas cactus, which has burst into a riot of color.