Monthly Archives: November 2012

CONVEY

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CONVEY

By Sharon Stevens

I was so disappointed in the blog I wrote last week. I had read it over and over again and again before I sent it into cyberspace, but still didn’t catch the attitude. It wasn’t that it was so bad in the writing. Some may disagree with that. What was more telling is the slant it portrayed.

When I wrote the blog I wanted to convey all the wonderful connections to everything good. What came across, I feel, was just another marketing ploy to spend money on objects.

Shame on me! I know better than that. I have been writing too many years to know the difference.

Looking back, I guess it was because I had just found out a good friend was being used for ill-gotten gains. At the very least he was being taken advantage of. He didn’t speak well and his clothes were not the most presentable, but never-the-less he didn’t deserve to be targeted for someone else’s benefit. This is what found its way into my blog. Could be that it wasn’t that bad, and maybe I am more critical of my own work. I know it could have been so much worse if my inner heart hadn’t nipped it in the bud. But it still bothers me.

Maybe if I had read Dr. Phil McGraw’s book, “Life Code”, about “baiters” I would have recognized what was going on, and purged my soul of the ugliness I harbored before I put pen to paper so to speak.

As writers we are faced daily with the struggles within our hearts. We type our words and send them out, and have absolutely no control over the content once in another’s hands. We can never apologize once it is tangible, and there are no excuses we can make.  But each sentence we write is another opportunity to write again and to share the message we truly intend.

And as writers, this is the best we can do.

Nothing Personal

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Outtakes 68

 Nothing Personal

By Cait Collins

My job requires me to write responses to our customers’ concerns, questions, and complaints. There are days when I hate the job. It’s not easy to tell a beneficiary the funds they were hoping to receive were surrendered before the owner died. Or try explaining the owner took loans from their contracts and did not pay them back; therefore the funds are depleted. Due to the legal and sensitive nature of our correspondence, nothing leaves the building without being reviewed by another member of our staff. There are days when every letter I’ve written comes back with corrections or requests for additional research. Some staff members have problems with the review process. Every correction is a personal affront.

As writers, we can be too sensitive regarding critiques. The purpose behind sharing our work with peers is to gain feedback regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the piece. I’ve been with some groups that slash and burn. There’s nothing right with the novel or story. Trash it and start over. That approach is a personal attack. There is nothing professional in ripping every sentence apart. Good critique partners focus on both the good and the bad. Not everything can be smiley faces. Would you really want to submit a story containing holes in the plot or character inconsistencies to an agent or editor? Good critique is an asset not an attack. It’s good business.

The same goes for rejections from agents and editors. Good stories may not meet market requirements. The publishing house might have their quota of paranormal buys. The author receives a letter expressing regrets but the work does not meet their needs at this time. I’ve heard some suggest the editor didn’t like his story. Trust me there is not a hidden message here. It’s not an attack on the writer’s story or the author’s ability. It is a business decision.

Face it we are all territorial concerning our creations. These are akin to our children. You wouldn’t tell a new mother her baby is ugly; therefore any negative reaction to a submission is personal. Please, please, please do not let this discourage you or cause hurt feelings. Accept the rejection as a learning experience and go on. Do not toss the rejected piece aside and quit writing. There are many agents and editors out there. You may not have hit the jackpot with the first person, but the next reader just might find a home for the story. Even multi-published authors don’t hit a home run every time. It’s important to develop a thicker skin and keep plugging along. After all, it’s not personal; it’s business.

WRITE TO MAKE DIAMONDS

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Write to make Diamonds

by Rory C. Keel

I recently conducted some interesting research on diamonds, how they are formed in the earth, the process used in mining these allotropes of carbon and what happens to them on the journey from mining to the market.

Dealing with diamonds the industry uses what is called the 4C’s. The first “C” is the Carat. This is a term used to reference the size of the diamond. The second is Color. This can range from colorless, the most valuable, to a yellow hue. On occasion a diamond of another color is found such as the blue Hope Diamond. These are rare. Thirdly is the Clarity. This describes the degree to which a diamond is free of blemishes and inclusions. Finally is the Cut. The cut is the jeweler’s touch. The angle at which a diamond is cut makes it attractive to the eye and gives it its shimmering brightness.

I have found that these “4C’s” are very useful in writing.

First, the carat. What size does my writing project need to be? Many contest pieces, devotionals, short stories and articles are subject to a specific word count. Publishers and agents may also require a word count in the length of some novels.

Secondly is the color. What is the genre’ of my writing? The answer to this question will not only help you in what to write, but in determining your target audience when it comes time to publish.

Third is clarity. What point of view are you writing from? Is it first person or third person, past or present? Double check your grammar usage and make it proper for the piece; and don’t forget the punctuation and spelling. These things can determine whether your story shines or is as clear as mud.

Finally the cut. The goal of this stage is to produce a faceted jewel where each angle between the facets optimizes the luster of the diamond. The jeweler cuts out weaknesses and flaws to focus attention on the beauty of the diamond. As writers, we type as fast as we can, elaborating on every little detail and sometimes find ourselves in a dark alley away from our storyline; or we add filler just to make the word count. Let’s face it; there are some things that will need to be taken out to make it shine.

At the jeweler’s a rough diamond is placed in a small vice, then carefully and strategically cut, and when it’s polished, it’s beautiful!

The diamond is your story.

Ignoring the Spark

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Middle Grade Mondays

Ignoring the Spark

By Natalie Bright

How does a spark of a story begin for you? Does it start with a place, an overheard conversation, or a strong plot idea?

Probably the most asked questions to all authors, is where do ideas come from? And the answer is everywhere, anytime, and at the most inconvenient places. For me, it’s usually begins with a larger than life character.

Consider the Story

I’ve been researching the Texas Fort period of 1860’s for several years. The years 1860 has been identified as the “bloodiest year in Texas history.” The western frontier of Texas was a clashing of cultures with the fiercely independent Texans, cattle ranchers, Mexican traders and sheepherders, railroaders, plantation owners and the fiercely proud Comanche.

The two main characters are clear in my mind, their mission and obstacles are in there somewhere, and I even know the ending. Time to lay down the first draft during November for NANO, however there are still so many historical details unanswered. I decided to forge ahead and save fact checking for later.

Brain Overload

And then the most horrible thing ever happened. A new character popped into my brain. A young lady from colonial times sashayed through my head and now, refuses to shut up. To appease her, I went to Amazon and ordered a few books on the time period. Scenes from her story started interrupting the flow during the time I was writing the above mentioned story. Fine. I stopped writing about forts and started a notebook for plot ideas and research notes.

Now What?

My family thinks I’m a total basket case, so I’ve learned to not say much about what’s going on in my head. It’s an absolute mess in there. So now what? Do you power through the work in progress and ignore the new spark? I’m afraid if I do, the colonial girl will be lost from me forever. And consequently, the fort story seems to have faded as well.

In the words of a Native American saying: Certain things catch your eye, But pursue only those that capture your heart.

Page 1, Chapter 1…

 

Dreaming the Impossible Dream

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Dreaming the Impossible Dream

by Nandy Ekle

 

This is not a political rave or rant, but I will be talking about the night of the election. We sat in our living room watching the news reports on the television and the computer at the same time. When “the fat lady sang,” we migrated to bed since we had to get up early for work. I lay there for a while with my eyes open, then they closed and I fell asleep. That’s when the adventure began.

Behind my closed eyes a dangerous new character made his presence known. It started with a knock on my front door. When my dream self answered the knock, he pushed the door open, entered my house and began to ransack my living room. As my night wore on, this character continued to wreak havoc.

The next morning I woke up feeling like I had visited another planet. I went to work and tried to do my job efficiently, but the new character stayed in my head all day. He had messed up my night and was now effecting my day.

When I got home I grabbed my computer and began to write. I had the beginning of a story that I started, but then it went nowhere. My new character fit perfectly in this story.

Congratulatioins. You have just received a post card from the use.

LABELS

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LABELS

by Sharon Stevens

 

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.”  Benjamin Disraeli

This evening I was just going to DASH into the grocery store to pick up three items.

But make no mistake; dashing had nothing to do with it. Living in a small town I knew I would encounter someone along the aisles that would invariably lengthen my stay. That’s just the way it is.

I know this, they know this, and my husband sure knows this if he happens to be along for the ride.

Today though, my distractions started early when I walked by a table set up outside United Supermarket. The kids manning the booth were from the Phi Delta Theta WTAMU campus fraternity asking for donations of canned goods to benefit the local Ronald McDonald house in Amarillo. Now, just this afternoon I had been researching in the Canyon News and had come across a news article about the Shaw family and their Make- A-Wish excursion to Disney World in 1997. They had stayed at the McDonald House in Fort Worth prior to their child’s Bone Marrow Transplant.

And not only that, a wonderful family from our area had been posting on facebook while staying in the Ronald McDonald House with their newborn after heart surgery. And yet another family lived there this last month after their child’s heart transplant.

I told the kids volunteering at the table I would be right back out with some canned goods after I bought the THREE things I had come to get. Amazingly I didn’t connect with a single soul while in the store. I was able to find what I needed within five minutes or less which left me more time to make my selections of those goods for the young college kids awaiting outside the front of the store.

I entered that section from the top down instead of the other way around and came across the canned fruit first. Glory be, they were having a sale! But the marked down price isn’t what caught my eye. It was the labels calling me from four feet away that pulled me in. The fruit looked luscious from all angles. I could imagine cold pears, fresh peaches, rings of pineapples, and of course, the ever popular, fruit cocktail. Who doesn’t remember this colorful delicacy at the dinner table for desert on a hot summer’s day? Over ice cream is just fine, (thank you very much) or pie, or chocolate. It doesn’t matter. Even then, visions of school lunches clouded my judgment although my thoughts from this memory turned more to the hot rolls served by the silver haired grannies with nets covering their hair. Funny what you remember.

Back to the fruit cocktail…what is there not to love? You have your grapes, and your pears and your peaches, and what about those miniscule cherries. How they could look so inviting from just the label on the can? And that’s when it hit, didn’t the families or the kids at the Ronald McDonald House deserve a little “sweetness” along with their mixed vegetables, cans of corn, and/or your garden variety of green beans? Of course they did!

That did it! I made my purchase, several cans of each, dropped them off at the table outside, and dashed my way home.

The marketing industry pays a quadrillion, billion, million dollars on marketing strategy for the average shopper. They study trends, they look at temperature control, and music selections. Brightness affects buying power as well as too bright, and not bright enough. Impulse is consulted and grocery lists combined. Grocery carts are evaluated and welcome signs are hung. All to lure the customer to make that little extra purchase that makes CEO’s and stockholders smile.

As writers we never know what will catch the reader’s eye. We have no clue what they are feeling or witnessing, but we always need to be prepared to settle somewhere in their heart and mind, from their standpoint, not ours. With whatever genre we write, we have to keep it simple, but make it colorful and inviting from every angle. We shouldn’t depend on the publishers, or editors to drive our story. Forget about the obvious label that “labels” your thoughts. Right up front, give your readers that little extra something, that visible tug, that piques a memory within, so that they will choose you, your work, your very soul, to carry home.

After all, everyone needs a can of fruit cocktail every once in a while, if only for the memories.

Holiday Let Down

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Outtakes 67

Holiday Let Down

by Cait Collins

I can’t speak for others, but my November and December calendars are starting to get full. It’s not just the holiday dinners and the shopping; it’s parties, concerts, movie dates, addressing Christmas cards, helping with holiday boxes. The list just keeps growing. Don’t get me wrong, I love the season. Unfortunately, I often use my busy schedule as an excuse to set aside some of my writing projects.

Not this year though. I have a plan.  Saturday and Sunday afternoon are my blog prep days. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I concentrate on the reread and edits for HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW. Tuesday and Thursday I work on new projects. If I keep this schedule, I’ll be in good shape for the New Year.

Here’s the challenge. Set aside one hour each day to work on a writing project, write blogs, catch-up on social media posts, or plan a new work. If you can’t do 60 minutes, go for 30 minutes. Bits and pieces each day will prevent falling behind. Instead of starting the New Year with a loaded desk, you will have a clean slate.

Good luck and enjoy the season.

ARE YOU AFRAID TO FLY?

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ARE YOU AFRAID TO FLY?

by Rory C. keel 

It’s amazing that so many people have a fear of flying. Several years ago, while on a plane from Saint Louis Missouri to Portland Oregon, I remember boarding and seeing a man who looked as pale as death. He took his seat across the aisle and immediately buckled the seat belt, grabbed the armrests and shook so violently I wondered if it was the engines or him shaking the plane. After sedating himself with a couple of adult beverages, he slept soundly to our destination.

While I have never been afraid to travel in an airplane, I have experienced a fear of flying. Realizing I would never pilot an F-16 fighter jet, I turned to the hobby of remote control airplanes.

After what my wife called “investing heavily” in a kit, I began to build my first R/C airplane. For days I trimmed every piece of wood with the skill of a surgeon to the exact specs. For weeks, I placed every drop of glue precisely in the correct spot, as to not change the balance of the plane. And after months of careful tune-ups on the engine and electronics, along with a few instructions from others to assure that my plane would soar with the eagles, fear took over.

What if it crashes? All that hard work and time will have been in vain.

On my first solo flight, I rolled the plane down the tarmac and lifted off. A feeling of accomplishment flooded over me as I made one pass, then another over the stands. Not wanting to run out of fuel and lose the plane, I made the approach to land. That day I witnessed the most horrific sight—in front of me laid splinters of wood, pieces of plastic and shards of metal. I crash-landed my plane.

In writing, there are moments when we are afraid to submit a piece of work, fearful of rejection. We work on a piece until it is perfect then, “WHAT IF” takes over. What if it’s rejected? What if it was a waste of time because no one likes it?

The good news is that my first plane did finally soar. I learned that my time wasn’t wasted at all. In all the hours of building I had learned how to repair the broken plane, and after adjusting the mistakes I made in the landing approach, confidence took control.

Yes, I have letters of rejection for my writing, however with repairs and a few adjustments, those same pieces have been published.

Don’t be afraid to fly!

And So It Begins

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

And So It Begins

By Nandy Ekle

November first. The madness launched twenty-one hours ago (from where I sit on the globe). The crazy, hilarious, maddening self-punishing NaNoWriMo began. For the next 29 days, I will perform all my daily tasks while breathing, eating, living in the dream world of my newest work in progress. I have 29 days to write the 50,000 words it will take to put the story down on the paper of my word processor.

I have not finished a NaNoWriMo yet, and this year I am actually starting a little behind the eight ball. The story I am writing began as a tiny seed in my brain about twenty years ago, so you’d think I’d have the whole thing worked out by now. Since deciding the time has come to commit to my young character, I have discovered several things I didn’t notice about her before.

So this morning, as I wrote the first words of her tale, an entirely new element of my character popped up. This new discovery is something that will take some research because I know nothing about cheerleading. I wrote a status on facebook asking for help from some of my friends with cheerleading children. I googled cheerleading stunts and found tons of information. However, since I have such a limited amount of time, I will simply write the highlights of my character’s activities.

Another thing I realized as I started this story is my limited knowledge about colleges around the country. So when the place came to name a famous college, I simply put in brackets {large college far away}.

The point is, in a mad dash to get words that make any kind of sense at all down on paper, the research does not have to be immediate. Simply put a note in your manuscript and you’ll remember to look it up later when speed is not the issue.

Congratulations. You have just received a post card from the muse.

 

CAKIES

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CAKIES

by Sharon Stevens

Our daughter called looking for the recipe for Cakies.

She needed to take something to work for Halloween, and thought this treasured family favorite would be the perfect addition for the office celebration. She knew the basic ingredients were devil’s food cake mix, oats, brown sugar and oil, but couldn’t remember the exact ingredients and neither could I.

The recipe for Cakies was given to me years ago by Maggie Henry, a Girl Scout leader.  Once I had perfected it with trial and error, I took it to every PTA, Girl Scout, choir and fundraiser event from the get go. I also made it for Easter, Christmas, and especially Halloween. We would buy cake mixes on sale and freeze them until the next event. And we always kept everything else on hand.  If the girls came home saying they needed to take something to share I knew I couldn’t go wrong with something simple I could fix at a moment’s notice.

That evening I pulled out everything I had collected over the years trying to find what I was looking for. What a trip down memory lane! This brought up the most precious thoughts of our children, and every function we had attended together as a family. I had so much fun going through the collected memories right at my fingertips. Most of the favored ones were spattered, and stained with various and sundry long forgotten splatters.

When I finally found it, I e-mailed the recipe to my daughter, and thought I had added every piece. That evening she called and told me I had neglected to include the amount of oats which could alter the final result. After the discussion, I admitted I had made it wrong all these years or at the very least, hadn’t followed it to the letter.

Isn’t that just like writers? We take a simple basic recipe and change the story to fit our needs. No matter what genre we enjoy, we can adjust, knowing that it won’t ruin the final product, but only enhance our tale.

Our daughter called today and told me that the Cakies went over big, and several had asked for the recipe.  I had forgotten over the years how much fun I had in making this, but also in trying new things. I was never very adventuresome, and knew no matter how hard I tried it would never look like the perfect photo shoot in the magazine. No matter, I always enjoyed a good recipe.

So on the way home I stopped at the United Grocery store and picked up a copy of the November “Accent West”. I knew I would find something I could cook. And there I found it in Becky McKinley’s article about heirloom and family recipes “Cookies, Candies and Pies!” With just a quick glance I realized I had all the ingredients at home to make the Buffalo Chip Cookies.

I wonder what simple changes I can try to make it my own.

CAKIES

Cream 1 egg, ¼- ½ cup water, 1 stick of butter or margarine, ½ cup oil, ½ cup brown sugar

Stir together one box of devil’s food cake mix and 2 cups of oats

NOTE-for years I thought it was old-fashioned oats, but the recipe I founds says quick cooking

Spread into sheet cake pan

Mixture will be very thick.

May add nuts, chocolate chips, or fruit

Can use any kind of cake mix and any frosting.

Spice cake with cream cheese frosting is yummy.

Preheat oven to 375

Bake for 20-25 minutes, cool and cut into bars