The Dog And the Leash

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

The Dog And the Leash

By Nandy Ekle

I took part in a survey recently—one question, intended to make you think introspectively: name one thing you wish you could bring back from your childhood. This question definitely did get my brain cells working.

I started thinking about what kind of child I was. And then a story bubbled which gave me my answer.

Once upon a time, a girl had a dog. This dog was very energetic and very powerful, and the girl had to learn to control it. She clipped a leash to its collar and they went for a walk. The dog wanted to run and play, and he wanted the girl to run and play with him. But he was big and strong and the girl usually ended up huddled in a corner with a skinned elbow or a tear in her jeans.

But she couldn’t get rid of the dog because he was her constant companion. He went everywhere she went. He slept next to her at night, got up and went to school with her in the morning, came home and ate dinner with her, took baths with her, and then went to bed with her every single night.

And every day she took him for a walk on the leash. She learned to tell him no, that she didn’t want to run. She pulled on the leash to slow him down when he went too fast. And she yanked the leash if he tried to run after a bird or a rabbit.

But she also gave him treats. She bought tasty things for him to chew on. She gave him his favorite snacks. She scratched him behind the ears and made sure he had plenty of healthy food and water.

One day she took her dog out for a walk. She took hold of his collar with one hand and held the leash in the other. She rubbed the metal clip of the leash on the metal loop of his collar, but she didn’t really attach them. Instead she hung the leash around her neck, held her arm out as if she actually was holding the leash, and they began their walk. And an incredible thing happened. Her dog walked as if he really was attached to the leash. He didn’t run away from her, or drag her, or jump around. He walked calmly by her side and obeyed her when she talked to him.

After a while she remembered how much fun it was when he was running and jumping, and she wanted him to do that again. So she pretended to take the leash off his collar, but he still stayed calmly by her side. It wasn’t until she began to run that the dog started running as well.

So, I’ve gone through all this to say, I’m the girl and my imagination is the dog. I’ve spent so much time and energy learning to control it, and now when I want it to run wild, it looks at me as if I still have it leashed. If I could bring one thing back from my childhood, it would be my wild and free imagination.

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

Superstitions

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Superstitions

By  Adam Huddleston

First of all, you should know that for years the Centerville Knights were perennial losers. We finished at the bottom, or one standing up if Center City happened to have a bad season (which they rarely did), on an annual basis. By the time August rolled around last year, we were limping along twelve games behind first and the crowds were getting smaller on a nightly basis.

Rumors of a managerial change began to float around town. A few weeks later, some folks where suggesting the organization should be dissolved and the sports complex used for the local high school team. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t entertained the thought myself.

Then, at the beginning of this season, a miracle occurred.

Well, maybe that’s not the best word for it. You tell me after you’ve heard the rest of my story.

Weddings and Family

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Outtakes 249

Weddings and Family

By Cait Collins

 

I’ve been to many weddings in my lifetime. I’ve photographed some, but soon learned I don’t have the patience for bridezillas, unorganized affairs, and brides and grooms who demand more than they paid for, and guests who think the photographer should stage the shots and then allow them to take their pictures before the professional gets his. One bride told me “This is all about me. Do what I tell you.” That was my last wedding shoot.

I have decided I’d rather be a guest. This past weekend, I watched a nephew as he played a song he wrote for his bride. This guy loves music. You see it in his stance and in his eyes. The joy and love whispered with each note from his violin. My eyes misted as he became one with the music.

This ritual was witnessed by friends and family with great joy and pride and love for the couple. Think back to all the weddings you have attended. We they true celebrations of vows given and received or was it a spectacle punctuated by shouts, verbal abuse, and threatening words and gestures? How do the characters behave? Is the bride marrying the groom or is she making her vows to his bank balance? Is the groom taking a wife with joy or is his devotion the upcoming payday? Are the moms and dads ready to let their children make their own home or will they build it for the couple?

Weddings have so many possibilities in the creation of a story. Good, bad or indifferent, we’ve been to weddings. times I can party on until midnight, but other times, I want to bask in the love. And sometimes I want to remember, to savor, and relive a precious moment. Our characters have the same feelings.

The good thing is we have hundreds of examples. Not just for romances, but great weddings in history and the events that played out and added to events in history are good information for creative non-fiction and biographies. Ain’t in grand to know that one common event is workable for so many genres?

So here is the challenge. Gentlemen, imagine you’re a bride who has planned the perfect wedding. At the last fitting, a bride’s maid walks out of the fitting room with the zipper pulled out of her flamingo pink dress. The lady has gained 10 pounds since the last fitting and no way is the dress going to be wedding worthy even if they can get the zipper repaired. You (a) burst into tears and storm out the room screeching about your ruined wedding; (b) have the dress repaired and find a pretty scarf to drape over the bride’s maid’s shoulder to hide the repair; or (c) cut the careless witch from the wedding party? Remember, the year is 2156.

Ladies, as a groom, you’re nervous you’ll fumble the vows; you hope your groom’s men arrive on time and sober. Unfortunately, your best man shows up smashed and without the rings. Put yourself in the groom’s place. You (a) send your cousin back to the house to get the rings and you order lots of hot black coffee to sober the guy up; (b) you punch his lights out and hide the best man in the party room; or (c) cut him out of the wedding party. Don’t forget. Your wedding is being celebrated in Edwardian London and your family is royalty.

Enjoy your writing exercise.

Amazon Author Page / Send Us Your Link!

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Amazon Author Page / Send Us Your Link!

By Natalie Bright

 

Last week’s post was about Amazon Author Pages. I’m still surprised at how many authors have not utilized this social media tool. In case you haven’t done it yet, here’s another reminder: If you have books listed for sale on Amazon.com, you can set-up an Amazon Author Page.

Go to authorcentral.amazon.com to add content. Nothing fancy, just the basics will do. Enough to give you an official presence.

Sign in with your Amazon Account.

Under the Books tab, you can request that any books not listed be added. Search by ISBN, author or title.

Add a bio photo and write a bio.

Include a link to your blog, or write a new blog specific for your Amazon readers.

Add events to the handy calendar.

Post pictures of book signings, research trips, author friends, your pets, or anything that might be of interest to your fans.

Add a welcome video.

Read Author Central News. This section provides great information and ideas on promotional opportunities and specific marketing tools for authors.

Now go and be brilliant!

Include a link to your Amazon Author Page in the comment section. I’m looking forward to learning about you.

www.amazon.com/Natalie-Bright

 

Quoting the Masters

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Quoting the Masters

By Nandy Ekle

 

I like to read quotes by authors who know what they’re talking about. I find a lot of inspiration, instruction, wisdom, truth, and humor.

Here’s a few I’ve picked out from other sites on line to share with you.

  1. “I want to write because I have the urge to excel in one medium of translation and expression of life. I can’t be satisfied with the colossal job of merely living. Oh, no, I must order life in sonnets and sestinas and provide a verbal reflector for my 60-watt lighted head.” — Sylvia Plath
  1. “Writing is my way of expressing – and thereby eliminating – all the various ways we can e wrong-headed.” —Zadie Smith
  1. “When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.” — George Orwell
  1. “I don’t know why I started writing. I don’t know why anybody does it. Maybe they’re bored, or failures at something else.” — Cormac McCarthy
  1. “Why does one begin to write? Because she feels misunderstood, I guess. Because it never comes out clearly enough when she tries to speak. Because she wants to rephrase the world, to take it in and give it back again differently, so that everything is used and nothing is lost. Because it’s something to do to pass the time until she is old enough to experience the things she writes about.” — Nicole Krauss
  1. “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” — Flannery O’Connor
  1. “I started writing novels while an undergraduate student, in an attempt to make sense of the city of Edinburgh, using a detective as my protagonist. Each book hopefully adds another piece to the jigsaw that is modern Scotland, asking questions about the nation’s politics, economy, psyche and history . . . and perhaps pointing towards its possible future.” — Ian Rankin
  1. “Why am I compelled to write? . . . Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger . . . To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispel the myths that aI am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit . . . Finally I write because I’m scared of writing, but I’m more scared of not writing.” — Gloria E. Anzuldua

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

Superstitions

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Superstitions

By  Adam Huddleston

First of all, you should know that for years the Centerville Knights were perennial losers. We finished at the bottom, or one standing up if Center City happened to have a bad season (which they rarely did), on an annual basis. By the time August rolled around last year, we were limping along twelve games behind first and the crowds were getting smaller on a nightly basis.

Rumors of a managerial change began to float around town. A few weeks later, some folks where suggesting the organization should be dissolved and the sports complex used for the local high school team. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t entertained the thought myself.

Then, at the beginning of this season, a miracle occurred.

Well, maybe that’s not the best word for it. You tell me after you’ve heard the rest of my story.

December in June

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Outtakes 248

December in June

By Cait Collins

 

I look at my June calendar and think we’ve already hit the December holiday rush. Every week is booked. I have almost no open time. Birthdays, baby showers, a wedding, critique, Vacation Bible School, a gospel meeting, doctor appointments, dinners, lunches, and car repair appointments have blacked out my calendar. Sometimes I feel as if I have no time to write.

Let’s be honest. Life happens and sometimes we must tend to life. That said, I refuse to feel guilty because my novel has not progressed as much as I want. I do have other commitments, but like so many women of my generation, the word “no” isn’t a common word in my vocabulary. Take my mom for example. She was a housewife with six daughters and a military husband. Even without a microwave, a dishwasher, and a clothes dryer, she still managed to keep house, fix three meals a day, do all the laundry, be a Girl Scout leader; chair the cookie drive, teach Bible class, knock doors for the March of Dimes, make our clothes, and still have time for a bedtime story. God bless her.

It seems her daughters have inherited her busy bee attitude. We are all hard workers, and we volunteer for other causes. We also put family in a priority position. And there are times when we should say no to a request, but we still work in one more thing. So when is there time to write? The answer is to try and schedule an hour or so everyday to work on my novel. Lunch time works best. I can take my Netbook to work and write while I’m snacking. Or I keep a legal pad in my briefcase and write in longhand. I may not get the fine points down, but I keep the story moving and am able to get to know my characters better. If I’m writing longhand, I fill in details when I enter the pages in the computer.

I won’t claim this set up is ideal. It’s not. But getting the essentials down is better than doing nothing. And if I reach a point where I can’t progress on the novel, I can switch to a memoir or a short story, or a blog. I don’t waste time.

Maybe one day, I can retire and spend all of my time writing. Until then it’s steal a few minutes whenever and wherever I can. That’s what writers do.

Why do I feel compelled to write?

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Why do I feel compelled to write?

For me, it’s the past that drives me to write.

I read to know the strength and wisdom of those who have written about their past struggles, ideas and hopes for the future.

And so I write, in the hope that those who read my words and those that exist beyond my days can draw some strength and motivation for their days.

What compels you to write?

Roryckeel.com

HAVE YOU SET UP YOUR AUTHOR PAGE?

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HAVE YOU SET UP YOUR AUTHOR PAGE?

By Natalie Bright

If you have books listed for sell on amazon.com, then you have an Author Page. As the author, you can access that author page and provide updated information that might be of interest to your readers.

As a reader, I like checking out the Author Page before I buy. This information is informative and much quicker than finding the website when I’m short on time. If I love that .99 cent special promo book, I can easily find more books at their Amazon Author Page.

Join at authorcentral.amazon.com and sign in using your amazon account.

Add your books (there may be a waiting time for approval). You can post original content at any time, such as a bio picture, update your bio info, pictures of author events, videos, and blog posts or link to an RSS feed. There is even an events calendar you can utilize.

I enjoy reading other author bios. I have to admit that I’ve reworked my bio several times. I can’t decide if a long and detailed bio works better than having one that is brief, to the point. Should it be in first person or third person? Read several of your favorite authors and decide.

You can create an Amazon Author Page URL link for use in blog posts, Facebook posts, and tweets.

Have fun adding content through yet another way to connect with readers on social media. Comment to this blog and provide a link to your Author Page on Amazon. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Meet the Author – Rory C. Keel

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Meet the Author

Since the creation of WordsmithSix as a critique group, we have evolved in many ways. While every member is like family and brings their own valuable insights to the group, sometimes there are changes. Some of our members have moved on in their life’s journey, however their contributions continue to influence our writing forever. Others have filled the empty chairs and have started their journey into the world of writing.

Each member of WordsmithSix is excited about our writing journey. For the next few weeks we will dedicate a Sunday blog to letting our readers know a little more about who we are. Each author will be asked a few questions to help you understand their desire to write and what motivates them. Maybe their answers will influence you in your writing.

This week we are excited to feature one of our original Wordsmithsix members. An established Author and Blogger, his writing includes: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Writers “The Challenge,” also, multiple devotionals published in the Secret Place magazine by Judson Press.. You can find more about Rory on his website Roryckeel.com

Please welcome Rory C. Keel

When did you start writing?

Being a preacher for 30 years, I’ve written many sermons but never considered myself as a writer. However I seriously started writing around 2006. When I say seriously, I mean with a determination to do something with it like publish or sell my writing.

One day I had a strong desire to write a novel using some historical research I had collected, and was confronted with the fact that I knew nothing about writing a novel. That was the start of my writing.

Why did you choose the genre you write in?

I would have to say that I write in the genre that I read and enjoy. I love reading inspirational Christian stories that encourage the human spirit along with history and the human resolve to overcome adversity. To be able to take lessons from the past and put them into words in order to inspire others in life, drives me to write in the historical Christian, inspirational genre.

What’s the best thing you’ve done to help your writing?

The best thing I’ve done to help my writing is to find a good critique group. To have a group of writers that will encourage you and give honest constructive criticism of your writing is invaluable.

What’s your writing routine like?

My writing routine usually starts with a cup of coffee at my desk in the early morning. This seems to be the best time of the day for me to write. I make a pot of coffee, sit at my desk and listen to classical symphony music while I write. I like to think of it as the soundtrack music to the movie I’m writing.

How do you reach that personal place that allows the writing to flow?

For me, reaching that place where writing flows happens when I put my self into the story. For a reader to be drawn into a story while reading, the writer has to go there first. When I see the setting, and know the character’s good traits and flaws, when I feel their emotions, that’s the point when the writing flows. That place becomes very personal because, by putting myself in the story I must reveal pieces of myself, both good and bad.

Are you an outliner?

Yes, I like outlining. Most of the time I have a beginning point and know where the story ends, so outlining is easy for me, especially if it is a historical writing. I think of my outline as a skeleton and the story is meat on the bones.

What has been your biggest writing challenge?

My biggest writing challenge is feeling guilty when I take the time to write. When I’m writing, it’s hard not to think about all the other things I need to get done. That might be easier to overcome if I thought of writing as work instead of a pleasure.

What are you working on currently, future?

Currently I’m working on a Christian fiction novel about a man with misguided determination and his conversion to the truth. It is the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus to Christianity from his viewpoint as a Jew. Future works will include a sequel with the main character of Timothy, a student of Paul, and a completion of an inspirational story of one family’s struggle to improve their life over the Oregon trail. Along with these works a series of short devotionals for publication keeps the writing juices flowing.

What advice would give to new writers?

Keep going, that’s what I would tell new writers. After you’ve started your journey of writing you will hit roadblocks—keep going. When others tell you that you can’t, you can – keep going. When the mountain seems too high to climb, take small steps and keep going. Every writer, from beginner to bestseller, must start and finish so keep going.

What’s the most positive thing you could tell writers today?

If you really want to, you can!