latterdayauthors

Exciting News!

2009-10-28T21:24:00.003-05:00

We have some exciting news to announce! In this day and age where information flies furiously through the internet (ala Twitter, Facebook, etc.), we want to serve you swiftly also.

That's why...

...drumroll...

we're announcing our new LatterDayAuthors email group at Yahoo! Here is the link where you can sign up: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LatterDayAuthors

This group is open to all LDS writers who are interested in being part of a supportive group, one made up of group members eager to help assist each other in writing endeavors.

You might be a playwright. You might be a novelist, a screenwriter, even a poet. It doesn't matter. Our group is open for Latter-day Saints who love writing and desire to improve their craft.

Come visit us today! We've just started the group and are eager to get it going. We'll still do BIAMs and will periodically revisit the old forum (it's under construction at the moment). But we are so excited to be able to provide this quicker form of communication for your writing questions.

So jump on in and sign up for the LatterDayAuthors' Yahoo group. We'll think you'll love it! Here is the link.

Lisa Mangum's Debut Novel is Out!

2009-05-08T22:45:00.001-05:00

I have loved getting to know Lisa Mangum better, both through our recent interview series over at BellaOnline.com (here and here) and at a recent writers' conference. I have been extremely impressed with Lisa as a person. Could you meet a kinder, sweeter individual? I think not. No wonder so many that know her love her.

But being sweet and kind will not necessarily feed or create a can't-put-it-down novel. Lisa's new book, The Hourglass Door, is a work of delightful creativity that stays with you long after finishing it. I had a hard time putting it down. And for all Twilight fans out there, I have news . . . I think Lisa's novel offers more.

In the past two portions of my interview with debut novelist, Lisa Mangum, we learned how The Hourglass Door evolved and the process she used to write it. In this final installment, she shares her future plans and insider information about the publishing industry.

C.S.: Lisa, what other books do you have planned?

LISA: The story of Abby and Dante is a trilogy, so right now I’m working on book two. But I’m also working on an adult fantasy novel that’s about halfway finished. And I have a whole file of ideas on the computer and in my writing notebook just waiting for me to tend to it.

C.S.: How long did it take to hear back the good news for The Hourglass Door? For those perhaps unfamiliar with the process, what was this like?

LISA: Having been in the publishing business for more than a decade, I can promise you that no two authors take the same road to publication. And whether it takes two weeks, two months, or two years, each acceptance is as individual as the author itself. My path to publication was shortened by the fact that I work directly with the people making the decisions. But even then, I knew it wasn’t a given that Shadow Mountain would pick up my book. Publishing is a business, after all, and I knew Chris Schoebinger (our Product Director over YA fiction) wouldn’t say yes to a book unless he knew it was a good business decision—no matter who wrote it. So like every other author, I waited anxiously for his decision and fretted and worried and second-guessed my work. And, like so many other authors, I felt that wonderful wave of relief and joy and excitement when I sat in his office and he said, yes, he wanted to publish my book for real.

C.S.: What is critical that other writers should know about the submission process to a publisher?

LISA: How many pages do you have? J Maybe I can boil it down to these three things: One, submit your work to the right publisher. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your novel is if the publisher you send it to doesn’t publish fiction. Two, have patience. I know everybody hates to wait, especially to hear back about a manuscript, but more often than not the old adage is true: no news is good news. It’s easy to say no to bad manuscripts and send them back; if a publisher is hanging on to a manuscript, generally it’s because there is something there that they don’t want to lose. Three, rejections aren’t personal. There are a gazillion different reasons why a publisher decides to pass on a project—and none of them are because they don’t like you as a person. So keep writing and keep submitting your work.

C.S.: What is your favorite part about being a writer?

LISA: I love that moment when a phrase or a scene or an emotion grabs hold of you and won’t let go. And when you get it down on paper, it’s like you’ve turned a key and the floodgates open. It’s those moments when I feel like the story is telling itself and I just hope I can do it justice by writing it down.

C.S.: What is the most frustrating part?

LISA: For me, it’s been learning how to turn off the editor part of my brain and just write. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to tell myself, “Don’t worry about it. Fix it later,” because part of me wants to stop and look up a grammar rule or check the spelling of a word.

C.S.: Did you ever experience writer's block in the process of writing The Hourglass Door? What would you recommend to other writers if they experience obstacles to their story and/or world-building?

LISA: There were a few times when I sat down to write and nothing happened. On days when that happened, I found that if I told myself, “Just write something; you can delete it later,” I felt free to play around, make my characters do crazy things, and wander into uncharted plot territory. And while I often did delete a whole hour’s worth of work, there were times I would find something worth keeping or worth rewriting another day when I could look at the scene with fresh eyes. Another thing that helped when I ran into a block was to skip it and write something else. I’d just leave myself a note—“finish chapter,” “add transition,” “add something cool here”—and then jump ahead to another part of the story. For example, if a scene with Abby and Valerie was stagnating, then I’d say to myself, “Well, I know I need a scene with Abby and Zo where they talk about this-and-such” and I’d insert a page break and move on.

C.S.: Who have you been most inspired by in your life? What encourages you on difficult days? Or do you never have discouraging moments? :0)

LISA: There are two people who inspire me the most: my mom and my husband, Tracy. Mom is a writer too (she’s LaRene Gaunt, Assistant Managing Editor at the Ensign magazine) and we are like two peas in a pod when it comes to loving the minutiae of a story. She really was the one who set me on the path of being a lifelong reader and lover of words. And she was the one who helped me achieve my dream of being an editor. Tracy is my number-one fan. He always seems to know just when to jump in with the perfect bit of encouragement, or when to stand back and let me find my own way. On difficult days, I know I can always turn to my family and they’ll pull me through.

C.S.: Who are your favorite authors?

LISA: A loaded question, to be sure. Currently, or of all-time? Fiction or non-fiction? Which genre—fantasy, romance, mystery, historical fiction? Since I’ve been reading since I was three years old, and since I’ll read just about anything I can get my hands on, I have a long list of favorite authors and books. I’m dying waiting for the new Patrick Rothfuss novel. And the new George R.R. Martin novel. I’ll read anything Tad Williams writes. Watchmen blew my mind. So did Neal Stephenson’s epic Anatham, which made me wish I’d paid more attention to both science and philosophy in college. I loved Neil Gaimen’s Newberry-winner The Graveyard Book. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is high on my list of all-time favorite books. Stephen King’s Dark Tower series is brilliant, as is Lisey’s Story and The Stand. I had the privilege of attending a reading of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake—I got chills listening to her talk about that book. But ask me again tomorrow and I’ll probably have an entirely different list . . . J

C.S.: What have you seen as some of the most damaging choices an author might make to his or her career ?

LISA: The author-editor relationship is so important and, speaking as an editor, it’s hard when an author fights you on every edit, every change, every suggestion. Having said that, though, there are times when an author needs to fight for their story and their voice. I think the ideal lies somewhere in between—where an author and an editor can build a professional and respectful relationship and understand that everything they do is in the service of the story and for the good of the reader. Editors are here to help—if you’ll let us.

The author-publisher relationship is equally important. Publishing is a business, so you have to have some business-savvy to survive, but still balance it with that creative spark and passion that made you want to write in the first place.

C.S.: Do you have other works in progress? If so, will your path to complete them follow a similar pattern as The Hourglass Door, or will you adjust how you write your next book?

LISA: Writing book two — working title, The Golden Spiral — is following the same path as The Hourglass Door, and I’m happy to report that things are going great. I’m excited by the story and I think some great things are emerging.

C.S.: What words of encouragement would you give other writers?

LISA: Tracy and I love to go to Disneyland on vacation, and one year when we were there, we passed a wall that had a collection of inspirational quotes from Walt Disney and some Imagineers. I fell in love with one them: “Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. Don’t quit.” Don’t hurry your talent—cherish it, develop it. Don’t worry if you make a mistake—rewriting is not a sign of failure, it’s the mark of a great writer. Don’t quit—persistence, persistence, persistence.

C.S.: How do you maintain balance? You lead a busy life!

LISA: It’s about prioritizing and multi-tasking. It’s about making choices. I’m also a big fan of checklists—I love that rush of endorphins when I can check something off my list. Long ago I decided to not bring work home with me. I do what I can to complete my tasks at work, and then I go home. If that means building in more editing time for a project, or asking for help, or figuring out ways to work faster or smarter or harder, so be it. But that way, when I’m home, I’m home: I can spend time with my family, I can work on my stories, I can play on the weekends and not feel guilty about missing a deadline at work.

C.S.: What is your philosophy about life, writing, living?

LISA: My friend at work has a quote in her office that says, “Don’t place a period where God has placed a comma.” I think that holds true in life and in writing. You can’t ever stop reaching for your dream, developing your talent, becoming a better person, because you never know when what you think is a end is really the beginning of something new. I hope that I can always keep going and keep growing.

C.S.: And for those who love trivia, what is your favorite color, food, and music group?

LISA: Green. Chocolate. Rush.

C.S.: Any final words on how our readers can find you and your book signings when The Hourglass Door releases? Do you have a newsletter they can join to hear the latest on The Hourglass Door and future works?

LISA: I’m building my web site LisaMangum.com where I plan on hosting my blog and all the latest, greatest information about me and all my books—current and future. Shadow Mountain will also have www.LeosDungeon.com to market and advertise all three books about Abby and Dante. I’m excited to do some book signings and getting out there to tell people about my book.
~~~~
I'd like to thank Lisa for the time she's taken with us today, especially in light of her busy schedule. And the best part? The wait is over. The Hourglass Door is an excellent read when you need a little pick me up. You can get yours today at Deseret Book stores and online here.

More with Lisa Mangum, YA Author

2009-04-04T00:31:00.004-05:00

Last month we were chatting with debut novelist, Lisa Mangum, about her book, The Hourglass Door, set to release May 2009 and published by Shadow Mountain (national imprint of Deseret Book). She has worked as a serious editor for years, but launching her first novel has been an exciting twist in her life.

Lisa was kind enough to share a bit more about The Hourglass Door, an imaginative story of two teens working to save life as they know it. Although I finished reading it within two days of receiving it...last month...I still can't stop thinking about it. It's that kind of an intriguing read.

C.S.: Thank you, Lisa, for chatting again with us. You have introduced some intriguing concepts within your first book. So I just have to ask, when did the glimmer of these ideas first strike you?

LISA: It was June 13, 2007. Yes, I remember the exact date. I might even be able to tell you the exact time! I remember because I was talking with Chris Schoebinger (my coworker at Shadow Mountain) about young adult fiction and why certain books are better than others. Our conversation was interrupted, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That night after work, I had to drive to Provo, Utah, to attend a writer’s conference and suddenly, there it was. I was driving around the point of the mountain and the story just seemed to drop into my head. It was like Abby and Dante jumped in the car with me and wouldn’t stop talking.

Since I was on the freeway, I couldn’t stop driving, so I just told the story to myself out loud, working out details, repeating storylines so I wouldn’t forget anything. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, I outlined the whole thing on scraps of paper I scrounged up in my car. Twenty minutes later, I had run out of paper and was almost late to the conference. I found Chris and told him about my brainstorm. He said, “When did you do this?” and I said, “On the drive here. What do you think?” and he said, “I think you should write it.” So I did. And a little more than a year later, I was finished.

C.S.: As you were working on this manuscript, which part felt the most naturally vibrant to you? Or did you have to work to make the story come alive?

LISA: In some ways, I think the conversations between Abby and her best friend Valerie were the easiest parts to write. I’m lucky that I have friends with big personalities and so I had a lot of real-life material to drawn on and fictionalize.

C.S.: Ah, yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the interactions between Abby and Valerie. Very real, very fresh. What about the other characters?

LISA:I was surprised a little at how quickly the characters bonded to each other—they felt like real friends or enemies or lovers—and all I had to do was try to keep up. The ending is also one of my favorite parts. I wrote a huge chunk of that in one sitting—just me and the computer—and the story just flowed out effortlessly. I hardly changed it at all during the rewrites.

C.S.: Do you have a favorite character from The Hourglass Door? If so, who and why?

LISA: Is it a cop-out to say that I like them all? J Writing Valerie always made me laugh. I identified with Abby’s quest to break free of other people’s expectations for her. I think Dante is downright dreamy. Zo demanded—and got—many of my best lines (turns out the villain hates to share!). And Leo had such a quiet strength about him, he always reminded me of my father.

C.S.: What are your thoughts about writers groups, critique groups? Do you participate in one?

LISA: I do. We meet every other Saturday morning for breakfast and to talk about our work. We rotate deadlines so we can focus on one person’s story at a time. That way we aren’t overloaded by having to turn in something new every week as well as read everyone else’s work at the same time. It’s worked out really well for us and many of us in the group have finished whole books that way.

I think writer’s groups are essential. It’s the best place to get honest feedback and specific critiques. As an editor, I can’t always give an author details about his or her manuscript. As a writer, I love being able to discuss big picture items—character arcs, pacing, plot twists—as well as the details—does that comma really go there? Is that really the best word choice? I’m energized every time we meet, even when we aren’t talking about my story.

C.S.: Some authors outline; some refuse to. Which kind of writer are you?

LISA: I used to try to write chronologically: Chapter one. Chapter two. All the way to the end. But I learned early on that it’s hard for me to write a book like that. I’d get stuck and instead of skipping the tricky part, I’d just stop.

I took a different approach with The Hourglass Door. After my brainstorm where I mapped out all the relationships and overall plot of the story, I took two or three days and handwrote an outline on the train as I commuted to work. It wasn’t anything fancy, just “Here’s what happens in chapter 1. Here’s what happens in chapter 2.” (Some of my notes were nothing more than “and then something cool happens.”)

Even though I outlined the book chronologically, I wrote whatever I felt like, whenever I felt like it. I wrote the first three chapters in a chunk because those were the scenes that wouldn’t leave me alone. But I didn’t write the Prologue until months and months later.

As I wrote, I realized what I had originally outlined wasn’t going to work so the whole second half of the book changed as the story took on its own life. That’s the fun part about writing—seeing how the story changes and following it down unexpected paths.

C.S.: Working as an editor by day and an author in the after-hours, how did you manage to complete this book? Were there days you never wanted to see a printed page again? :0)

LISA: That was the main reason I didn’t write for many years: I spend all morning in a chair, at a computer, thinking about words. Why would I want to come home and spend all night in a chair, at a computer, thinking about words? I was happy just being an editor for a long time. But once Abby and Dante jumped in the car with me and told me their story, I had to figure out a way to balance my day job and my writing.

I wrote a lot on the weekends. I wrote (by hand) a surprising number of pages on the train going to and from work. Honestly, I surprised at how quickly the word count added up and how many pages I ended up with considering I had to write in the fringes of my day.

C.S.: Do you need absolute quiet to be able to write?

LISA: No. In fact, I find I have a hard time working when it’s absolutely quiet. I love stretching out on the couch, turning on my laptop, setting my iPod to shuffle, and getting lost in the words and the story.

~~~~
I want to thank Lisa for taking the time to chat with me some more about her new book, The Hourglass Door. It releases next month and she'll be back with us one more time to tell us about her next project and what writers need to know about the submission process to a publisher. In the meantime, you may want to pre-order your personal copy so that you can be first on the block to own The Hourglass Door!

Dreaming

2009-03-23T19:17:00.006-05:00

Several years ago I set five goals for my writing: write, polish, learn, attend, and send.

I’m a prolific writer so the first goal wasn’t a problem. I’ve always got a pen and paper—or laptop—in my hands. The second goal, polish, was a challenge. I’m a perfectionist and felt my work was never at its best. With the help of other writers, however, I learned that polishing a story, article, or novel is just that—polishing. Polish, by definition means to buff up. When I spray furniture polish onto my piano, it doesn’t automatically shine. There is, in fact, a dull residue which only after lots of elbow grease—buffing up—begins to yield results.

I began to understand that though my writing starts out needing lots of work to make it shine that doesn’t mean I am doomed to fail. It only means I need to work until I get the results I want—just like polishing the piano.

For me that was a great realization—a blessing.

Since fifth grade, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I just didn’t know it was okay to work at making that dream come true. When I was young I wrote with enthusiasm, then I followed my mother around reading my work. Her response was constantly harsh and to the point: “Lori, writing is not your forte.” She didn’t believe I could become what I dreamed of being, and she feared I’d embarrass myself; her fears became mine.

It took a long time for me to start believing in myself.

Knowing it was alright if my words didn’t shine the first time I wrote them, or when I rewrote them the second time, or even the third, I came to the realization that I could help myself by striving to learn more about writing in general. I began to read more, books on writing and books in the genres I wanted to pursue, thus helping myself meet my third goal. Attend, fourth on the list, involved writing classes and being part of critique groups. I met lots of other writers and would be writers who shared dreams and goals similar to mine.

I become conscious that early on in my life I’d been lead to believe that writing—being a writer—was something you either could or could not do, like walking or talking. When I understood that (just like playing the piano with any degree of proficiency) becoming a writer takes time, effort, and practice I was able to let go of old fears and enjoy the process of becoming.

The last item on my list, send, became easier as well. I analyzed, versus agonized over, rejection letters and resumed polishing before I again sent my work out. In time my efforts paid off. I found many opportunities and enjoyed writing for the newspapers and magazines that asked for my work; it felt good to have my articles, short stories and essays—my own words and feelings—appear in print.

But there was something more, something I dreamed of for a long time: I wanted to write children’s books and novels.

Gathering courage amidst continued opposition, both interior and exterior, I set out once more with my five writing goals. I still have a long road to travel but I enjoy being on that road, grateful to know it's okay to do more than just sit by the wayside and wish.

Interview with Editor and Author, Lisa Mangum

2009-03-07T10:47:00.002-06:00

Lisa Mangum is a person who has helped writers for many years as an experienced editor. So when I heard she had her own novel coming out May 2009, I was thrilled. I love to see others succeed and creating. Lisa was kind enough to spend time with me, chatting over all kinds of things. In fact, she's going to visit with us periodically over the next two months about her pending release of The Hourglass Door. It's a YA (Young Adult) novel that is full of adventure, romance, and a whole lot of intrigue.

C.S.: Lisa, you have a new book that is scheduled for release May 13, 2009. It's categorized as YA (Young Adult), but I bet adults will fall in love with it too. I'm soooooo intrigued with the title, "The Hourglass Door." Tell us about the book.

LISA: First and foremost, it’s a love story. It’s about a girl named Abby who is going through some tough times during her senior year of high school. On the surface, she has it all figured out: cute boyfriend, good friends, and high hopes for college. But it doesn’t take long before Abby’s life starts to take a different turn. Her boyfriend is looking for fireworks, but Abby’s not so sure about her own feelings. Her friends are full of advice, but Abby’s not sure they always have her best interests at heart. And she’s pinned her college dreams on the one school that she fears she won’t get into.

And then Dante Alexander walks into her life. He’s mysterious and interesting and unlike anyone she’s met before. Sparks fly between them almost immediately, and a relationship develops between Abby and Dante. But when the lead singer of the rock band Zero Hour, Zo, takes an interest in Abby and her friends, the danger deepens—and so does the mystery. Soon Abby learns of a centuries-old secret and must make a near-impossible decision that will change her future forever.

The Hourglass Door is technically classified as Young Adult, but I like to think that readers of all ages can enjoy the story.

C.S.: When you were little, did you have any idea of what industry you wanted to work in as an adult?

LISA: Absolutely. In fact, when I was in junior high, I checked out a copy of The Writer’s Market from the library and wrote to the editors of, maybe, twenty publishing companies asking for advice: How did they get where they were? How could I do the same thing? What should I study in school? Almost everyone wrote me back with great advice and encouragement (the editor at Del Rey even sent me two free books!). I still have those letters. It was a great boost to my youthful dream; it made everything seem possible.

In college, when I would tell people I was pursuing an English degree, they all ask, “Oh, so you want to be a teacher?” and I’d say, “No, I want to be an editor.”

C.S.: When did you first start writing?

LISA: I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I’d fill up notebooks with stories, poems, and ideas. I’d spend my summers writing stories on the computer in my pajamas. I guess I started writing seriously three or four years ago when my friends and I started a writing group together. I think that was when I put writing as a priority in my life and said to myself, “Hey, I can do this!”

C.S.: Did you have any self-doubts when you first began writing?

LISA: I think all writers have that little voice in the back of their head that says, “What are you thinking? Why would anyone want to read something you wrote?” It’s hard to silence that voice, but when I do, I find that some of my best writing comes through. Maybe because those are the times I toss my fears out the window and write something that I would want to read.
~~~~~
Thanks, Lisa! Next month, Lisa Mangum will share with us how she got the glimmer for The Hourglass Door in the first place, her most favorite character in the book (hmmm, I wonder if it is the dreamy Dante), and especially how writers' groups are important to the improvement of pure creation. Make sure to subscribe to our blog so you'll be first to know when part two of our interview series posts.

Have fun checking out Lisa's website. And here is a bonus link to President Uchtdorf's message on creativity given at a recent General Relief Society meeting. It will inspire you and lift you, all at the same time. Who knows. Maybe it will be you next year being interviewed here for your own book!

LDSBookCorner.com -- A Great New Website

2009-02-16T20:54:00.002-06:00

Are you an LDS author? Do you love LDS fiction (or non-fiction)? Want to sample a book before buying it? Enjoy this interview I had recently with Deanne Blackhurst and learn about her exciting new website concept. Just wait till you read what she's been up to!

~~~~~

C.S.: Deanne, you have an exciting new proposition to share with us, a website all about LDS books. What was your purpose in starting this site?

DEANNE: The site is LDSBookcorner.com and it is devoted to supporting and promoting LDS authors.

It’s funny but ever since I was a little girl I’ve dreamed of owning a bookstore. Of course in my imagination it was a quaint little shop filled with new and used books, where people could browse at their leisure while I sat in a rocking chair by a fire, a cat at my feet reading a good book. Granted a cyber bookstore is a little different but I do have a wood burning stove near my computer and my black lab is curled up under the computer desk at my feet. So perhaps I’m living the dream after all.

C.S.: When did the idea first come to you?

DEANNE: I’ve always been a big reader, and always interested in LDS authors. I hate to date myself but I remember reading Charly by Jack Weyland when it first came out. Since then a lot of bright and talented new authors have been emerging. I think some of the best writing ever produced by Latter-Day Saint authors is out on the market today.

Originally I just wanted to create a place where all these books could be gathered and appreciated. But my husband pointed out to me that I had to support my dream somehow. So I became an Amazon book affiliate, which allows me to sell books without carrying the inventory. What is really cool is that I can offer everything from the most recent releases to those that have been out of print for years.

C.S.: What do you feel are the best things about LDS books?

DEANNE: First off, I want to make it clear that I support books by LDS authors, not all of which are LDS books per say. But getting back to your question…

Like many avid readers, trying to find something in the national book market today is really a crap shoot. Take Danielle Steele. First rate stories, a skilled writer but in almost every book there is at least one scene that just makes me cringe. But you wouldn’t know that from looking at the cover. No half naked men molesting half naked women. And she is quite successful.

Another example. I saw The Devil Wears Prada at the movie theater and thought I might enjoy the novel, but I couldn’t get through the first chapter because of the foul language. And don’t get me started on the blood and guts mysteries that are all the rage today.

When I open an LDS novel, I never worry. I might not like the story, but I will never be offended. I may explore the hearts and experiences of people who see the world differently than I do, but I’m never going to be fed the lies that evil is good, and good is passé.

This doesn’t just apply to fiction. There are some amazingly wise and insightful members out there who are sharing their expertise in such areas as understanding the scriptures, to how to run a family, teach a class or have a closer relationship with your spouse. I wouldn’t touch a book on intimacy in a national books store, but there are several tasteful and informative books on the subject, written by LDS experts.

C.S.: What do you wish you'd see more from LDS authors?

DEANNE: I read a lot of books so that I can review them on LDSBookcorner.com, and what I’d like to see are more authors continuing to hone their skills. In my opinion, the number one problem is the first chapter. There are so many books that are just wonderful, once you make it to chapter two. But how many new readers will push on?

On my website, I offer a feature called the Daily Chapter. For no charge, a visitor can sign up to receive five or six pages each day Monday through Friday of a select book or novel with a different book chosen each week. This allows readers to sample a number of new authors as well as their old favorites, and buy the ones that catch their interest.

But to catch a reader’s interest, those first twenty pages have to reach right out, grab the reader and pull them in. Once they’re hooked, if the plot is exciting, the threat is truly threatening, and the characters are real and likeable, then people will flock to buy the book.

~~~~

I'd like to thank Deanne. Next week, we'll learn about her very own book that is slated for release soon. Until then, feel free to stop by her site at LDSBookcorner.com and sign up for the Daily Chapter. The writers participating are some of the top selling LDS authors like Jennie Hansen, Shannon Guymon, and more. She'll also be showcasing some lesser known but equally talented up and coming writers. LDS writing has grown up a lot in the last ten years, so sign up and find out what’s out there.

And while you are on the site, you are free to browse the library and explore some of the hundreds of books she has on display.

If you like what you see, pass the word around. if you know of an LDS author that isn’t on her site yet, please drop her a line at ldsbookcorner@gmail.com and tell her about them.

2009 LDStorymakers Conference registration is now open!

2008-12-19T11:12:00.007-06:00

Oh, it is so exciting. The 2009 LDStorymakers Conference registration is now open. And within the first 24 hours (yesterday), nearly all of the hotel rooms were already booked. That's right; registration is filling quickly. Here is the link and in just a second, I'll share more information below (from the LDStorymaker site itself). But I have to tell you: I was present at last year's conference and it was the highlight of the year for me. Register quickly to reserve your space!

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Sixth Annual
LDStorymakers Writers Conference

Friday & Saturday April 24-25, 2009

Provo Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
101 West 100 North
Provo, Utah 84601
Phone: 801-377-4700
Fax: 801-377-4708
Toll-free: 800-777-7144

PRESENTERS INCLUDE:

Keynote Speaker Dean Lorey
who has written extensively for film, television, and recently, a middle grade fantasy series

National Agent Amy Jameson
of A + B Works Literary Agency

Editor Stacy Whitman
previously with Mirrorstone, the children's and young adult imprint of Wizards of the Coast, and now a consulting editor for Tor's children's and YA lines

Representatives from LDS publishers
including Deseret Book and Covenant

Plus many, many national and LDS authors

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That's right; registration is filling quickly. But there is still time for you to register. Here is the link . Again, last year's conference was the highlight of the year for me. Register quickly to reserve your space!

The Power of a Good Book

2008-11-21T09:07:00.002-06:00

As writers, we aim to write a book that influences, sustains, or even entertains. Books are able to do that simply because of ink blobs on the page, formed in shapes we recognize. I have always found that fascinating.

I found an old book recently in a used bookstore (sometimes these stores are our society's most priceless of jewels). Published in 1941, the book is called The American Citizens Handbook.

The book's author quotes William J. Hutchins' 1916 text, "The Code of the Good American." His words remind the reader not to injure another, whether in word or in deed. I found his "ink blobs" fascinating ... and sobering, an almost literary analysis of a gentler time.

And here was the thought that struck me upon reading his words (included below): How far have we strayed as a culture, in the nearly 100 years since he first fashioned his publication?

I must admit, Mr. Hutchins' words saddened me. For against them, the backdrop of our society intensified his society's own gentility. Oh, that we would capture that society's expressions and make them our own. What a better world that would be.

Here are his words:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE LAW OF SELFCONTROL

"The Good American Controls Himself. "Those who best control themselves can best serve their country.

"I will control my tongue, and will not allow it to speak mean, vulgar, or profane words. I will think before I speak. I will tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
"I will control my temper, and will not get angry when people or things displease me. Even when indignant against wrong and contradicting falsehood, I will keep my selfcontrol.
"I will control my thoughts, and will not allow a foolish wish to spoil a wise purpose.
"I will control my actions. I will be careful and thrifty, and insist on doing right.
"I will not ridicule nor defile the character of another; I will keep my self respect, and help others to keep theirs."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That kind of says it all, doesn't it? Again, as writers, are we aware that our words capture more than simple thought as we write them? They contain nuances of mood and lifestyle, veritable snapshots of our day. Ah, the power of the written word.

Discipline is a Muscle

2008-10-15T08:44:00.004-05:00

How many times have you thought to yourself, "I sure wish my book were out."

It can be hard, sitting at your computer screen and looking at a word count that feels measly. Whether that word count is 247 (or 2470 or 24,700) if your goal is a published book, the distance between reality and your dream can feel exhausting and perhaps improbable.

In an interview in the newspaper Idaho Statesman, on 10/14/08, author Laura Lippman shared how she moved from being a newspaper reporter to published novelist -- 4 pages at a time. She spoke how she simply loved writing and really did sit down daily and write about 1000 words a day. It was that simple.

OK. Well, maybe it is a bit more complex than that. There is a craft to writing that must be achieved to actually write books that people want to read. But the craft comes after the actual writing. If you don't have words on a page, how can you polish them?

So the next time you feel like despairing over your unfinished manuscript, instead of getting cerebral about where you're not, sit in front of the computer instead and get lost in the world you are creating. Ignore punctuation, ignore grammar rules. Just play around in your written world.

That's right; romp in your fictional world with your characters and just have fun. You'll find yourself writing more and commiserating less over unfinished projects. And in the end, you will find yourself with a completed manuscript, bringing you much closer to being like published authors similar to Laura Lippman. With a completed draft, then you can focus on the craft of writing and begin the next portion: editing and seeking an agent (if that's your dream).

But until you are actually writing and completing your project, the reality of "published author" will stay far, far ahead of you. For more information on bringing your dreams into realities, visit my new blog, The Butterfly Principle. And make sure to join our LatterDayAuthors.com forum for camaraderie and fun along your "written way."

Announcing a new BIAM!

2008-09-27T09:22:00.004-05:00

Hey, hey, guess what? Are you ready to escape all the misery that the daily news is bringing? If so, get your pencils ready or your laptop ready ... because we at LatterDayAuthors.com are sponsoring another free Book in a Month event!

Whether you are interested in writing your family history, life story, screen play or even a novel, come visit LatterDayAuthor.com's forum. If you're already a member of the forum, you'll know what to do. If not, join today and then scroll down to the BIAM section and click on "October 2008 BIAM" and follow the directions. We have such fun times during these and would love to have you join us!

Finally Arriving...

2008-09-15T09:50:00.005-05:00

It's been a long summer. My family found out in the late spring that we would be moving across the country. Filled with typical feelings of excitement and nervousness, we tried as best we could to prepare for the movers to come. But can one ever be truly prepared for an anticipated event of upheaval and change?

Writing a book is very similar. The long hours my family put in clearing the garage and slimming/trimming our belongings was a lot of work. Our muscles ached and we retired to bed each evening exhausted. But I'm thrilled to say all that work has now brought forth what we'd most hoped for; we're now in our new home in a wonderful location.

How much work have you put in on your most recent writing project? Your back muscles may not spasm from the effort (but then again, they might. Sitting in front of a pad of paper or the computer can be tiring!) Your neck may not experience muscle strain from lifting heavy items (but then again, it might. Writing can be a heavy process.).

The point is, a completed manuscript is much like prepping for a move. You first must put forth the effort to write the thing. Then comes the slimming and trimming of all those initial efforts. Days morph into weeks and some days you wonder if the mental "move" from brain to written page is worth it.

I'm here to tell you it is. Continue your work. One day you'll finally arrive at completed manuscript status (or in my situation, a new home). You'll be able to sit back and look at all those tired efforts and be grateful you continued moving forward. "Finally arriving" is more than worth both the physical and mental strain it may cause along the way.

So back to the computer let us go. Work, work, work. Write, write, write. Your final destination (called "completed manuscript") is calling you. And so is that feeling of having finally arrived.

Making a Fashion Statement

2008-06-29T23:23:00.001-05:00

by David G. Woolley
An editor I once worked with offered a suggestion that the character Shechem King of Robbers in the Promised Land Series was too Robber-like to be credible. He was cliché. Did he really need to dress in so much black? Black cape? Black sashes? Black robes? He didn't buy the short yes answer so I offered him something a little longer like this:

The inspiration for the character Shechem came, in part, from an actual Robber King by the same name who lived in the caves near Jerusalem though in a different era than Lehi. Dressing him in black wasn't just good drama, it was fashionable history. Archaeologists found this scarf left by an ancient middle eastern grave robber caught in the act of plundering a tomb. For the religiously inclined of the day, it was an unthinkable act of thievery. If the perpetrator were a member of the community he was betraying his own religious beliefs. The gold and silver rings left with the deceased were needed for a wealthy afterlife. But if the theft were committed by an ancient robber who didn't share the same beliefs as the culture on which he preyed, a grave made the perfect target.

Robber. Thief. What's the difference? In your world they're likely the same bad guy. An untrustworthy no good who stole a woman's purse. A bank robber. A con man. Maybe even a Mafioso. They take what isn't theirs and if the justice system does its job, they get what they deserve.

Robbers and thieves were a more differentiated lot in the ancient Old World of Lehi's Jerusalem and their traditions likely influenced the rise of robber bands in the Americas. Take your neighbor living down the street in the one story hand-cut limestone Egyptian-style home of Jerusalem's Lower City. You know his name. Jonah. You shop at the same market and draw water from the same well. You're a blacksmith. He's a stone cutter. Your kids play leap frog together. Its a game that's sure to be around a long time. You have no reason not to trust Jonah, but when you leave your new ax near the trunk of a dead olive tree, Jonah can't resist the temptation. He takes it and becomes what ancient Jerusalemites called a thief.

Here's a description of some differences between thieves and robbers taken directly from the historical novel Pillar of Fire (Chapter 2, page 26)

Thieves were loners, working their craft among their neighbors. They stole bread from the baker, sheep from the farmer and coins from a blind man’s purse. And for their crimes they were to make a sin offering at the temple.

Robbers were ruthless outlaws, burning farms and besieging villages, plundering the trade route, and raining terror down on whole cities from their mountain hideouts. With their oaths, they planted men on government councils and assassinated heads of state. And for their crimes, they were not tried by a judge. Jewish law allowed them to suffer beheading by the first man to catch them.

No wonder Captain Laban called Nephi's older brother, Laman, a robber rather than a thief. He was justifying attempted murder while telling every servant and soldier within the sound of his voice that his house guest was fair game. A fairly Israelite-law-savvy cover for his crime. It was also a not-so-subtle legal order to kill (1 Nephi 3:13).

Ancient robbers belonged to an organized group. A band. In some cases it grew into an entire society with its own cultural identity. Members took an oath of loyalty, paid homage to a priestly order of appointed officials who either developed their own religious doctrine and law or borrowed it from previous bands of robbers. Positions like high priest, king, and prince were not out of place. They understood that intertwining a hierarchical government with the trappings of religious zeal was critical for the long term survival of their way of life.

In one of the most telling documents ever recovered from antiquity, the Robber King Giddianhi, in a letter to Lachoneus, the chief governing officer of a group of ancient Americans, details the secret oaths and ruthless means employed by robbers (see 3 Nephi 1-10).

Ancient robbers were parasitic, robbing society of its wealth by taking advantage of its decaying morality, but not entirely destroying it. Without a host culture they had nothing on which to prey. To protect their identity from the uninitiated they administered oaths of secrecy, planted loyalists on government councils, and bribed judges.

With the growth of a band, robber kings, priests, and princes, like Shechem King of Robbers, added ceremonial clothing, medallions and rings to their vestments to convey their authority. The name Shechem is borrowed from Israelite sacred history. Shechem may have taken his name from the holy site north of Jerusalem where the arc of the covenant and other sacred emblems were kept safe until Solomon's temple was built and they were transported to the capital city.

Robbers mimicked the sacred rites and clothing of their host cultures. Capes, flowing robes, sashes, ornamental belts, and loin clothes were important ritual clothing. All of it black.

So the next time your editor suggests a different fashion statement for one of your characters or maybe the addition of some stylish alternative color selections to their wardrobe, tell him Shechem sent you.

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Join author David G. Woolley at his Top of the Morning Blog or his Promised Land Website. He is also a weekly contributor to Rangers at the Far Post blog.

Rhymy-dimey Stuff

2008-06-21T14:54:00.008-05:00

by David G. Woolley

Coming next week: the sequel to Little Green Dwarfs. Come back next week when David G. Woolley posts more thoughts on developing your writing voice. Until then, may all your stories be peopled with little green dwarfs.

__________________________
Join author David G. Woolley at his Top of the Morning Blog or his Promised Land Website. He is also a weekly contributor to Rangers at the Far Post blog.

Invention

2008-06-21T14:17:00.014-05:00

by David G. Woolley

One of Ben Franklin's many passions was lightning. It wasn't a curiosity. It was a force to be reckoned with, understood. After his famous thunderstorm kite flight in June of 1752 his research led to ideas we still use today when we talk about electricity. Ideas like battery, conductor, condenser, charge, discharge, uncharged, negative, minus, plus, electric shock, and electrician are all Ben Franklin contributions. Electric shock is my favorite. He also understood the dangers of untamed electric force and he figured out a way to protect buildings, sea faring ships, and people. The lightning rod is today a metaphor for inventiveness.

It wasn't long before others built on Franklin's ideas. Edison perfected the incandescent filament and tube we call the light bulb, Graham the telephone and Neil Armstrong took a giant leap for mankind when he beamed down the first electrically illuminated video from the moon.

My mother invented Tutti Fruity home made ice cream. No kidding. Its a creamy blend of cherries, pineapple and strawberries with a rather inventive mix of vanilla and a few other secret ingredients that will not be revealed until the US patent office gets back with word on the application. The dessert has clinically addicted our family for decades.

I was a dangling participle in seventh grade. My English teacher was a good man. Mr. Herman paced during class. I napped. He was a grammarian. I was a daydreamer. His lectures on sentence structure were architectural wonders. My papers were an accident waiting to happen. If he remembers me at all it was for our last conversation of the school year. He advised me to avoid any profession which required the use, manipulation or selection of words, pronouns, adjectives, or any other use of the English language. My mother used to apologize for my poor spelling. We practiced a lot. It never helped. I was too busy dreaming.

Mr. Herman said, "You'll never amount to much in any profession if you can't write properly."

I said, "No worries Mr. Herman. I got dreams."

We were both right.

Invention—that seemingly boundless well of ideas that afflicts the curios, finds solutions for the problem solver, and creates wonder in the artistic expression of the gifted. How do you become one of the curious? How do you join the ranks of the problem solvers and gifted souls whose inventiveness delights and amazes?

Necessity may be the mother of it, but there was no pressing need for Franklin to study lightning, Edison to test thousands of materials until he found the perfect filament or for mom to find a more perfect ice cream. Vanilla would have been a fine dessert. There is something divine within each of us that engenders the need to create. Its an inheritance from heavenly parents and when we feel heaven near we simply can't deny the impulse that prods us to ask, "What if? What are the possibilities? If we can dream it, can't we achieve it?"

If necessity is the mother of invention, then the brain may just be the father. That gray matter just happens to have the processing power of 100 teraflops. That's about 100 trillion calculations per second. How do I know? Take the 100 billion neurons in your brain, factor in the 1000 interconnections each neuron makes with other neurons and add the 200 calculations per second that take place at each of those interfaces and you've got yourself a 100 teraflop super computer that's mobile, compact and guaranteed for the life of the handy dandy carrying case.

A couple of years ago IBM built the first computer with more processing power than the human brain. They call it ASCI Purple. Its computing power is a whopping 360 teraflops. The only problem? Portability. It took over a year to move it from the design center in New Jersey to its home at the New Mexico Los Alamos Laboratory. ASCI Purple weighs 197 tons. The human brain weighs about 3.3 pounds soaking wet. ASCI Purple takes up a mere 8,900 cubic feet (about the size of two basketball courts). The average size of the brain? About 56 cubic inches.

There is one other problem. Despite being bested by more than 200 teraflops, the brain still manages to out-do the bulky upstart in the most important category. ASCI purple hasn't the capacity for invention. It simply can't piece together seemingly unrelated ideas and create something revolutionary. Like, say, a 360 teraflop computer. ASCI purple is a huge time saver. Its not an inventor.

For some still unknown reason the mind dreams, creates, and invents. Science calls it amazing. I call it divine. Its so powerful a machine that it even manages to fill in the gaps when you can't. You thought you told the kids to be home at 10 pm, but you only thought it. You were certain you connected all the electrical wiring in an ingenious new grid to improve efficiency and incorporate dimmers in all the bedrooms. Instead you got a blackout. You think you're losing your mind. No worries. Your brain is just busy doing what it does best. Invention.

Try writing a story. One that you're passionate about. One that's been stewing in your thoughts for months maybe even years. You know the beginning middle and end like you know your way home on a dark and stormy night. What doesn't make it onto the page your mind fills in with colorful imagery, rational thought and delightful pros. You've got the beginnings of a masterpiece. Until, of course, you read it aloud. What you thought was a symphony choired by angles is little more than a dangly jitty with flat notes. Where did all the faulty logic come from? There's some important descriptions missing and who made these terribly unspecific word choices? What you lacked in experience and training your brain filled in with an inventive solution.

The next time you set out to follow your dreams, make sure you take the time to train your brain to get to Oz and back. Franklin put in hours of study. Edison put in hours of testing. My mom went through gallons of cream. You can do it too. Combine your inventiveness with some blood, sweat and tears and you'll be amazed by the quality of what you achieve.

May your dreams and your Tutti Fruity ice cream be a symphony choired by angels.

Editor's Note: For Kerry Blair and me, the last line of this post should have read: May your dreams and your Soy Milk be a symphony choired by angels.
__________________________
Join author David G. Woolley at his Top of the Morning Blog or his Promised Land Website. He is also a weekly contributor to Rangers at the Far Post blog.

Little Green Dwarfs

2008-06-04T15:41:00.024-05:00

by David G. Woolley
* Disclaimer: Management is not responsible for blurring the line between dwarfs and aliens. Also, the use of alcohol in the example below should not be construed as condoning the sale or consumption of spirits. May we suggest soy milk?

"A hundred odd-looking men walked into the room and ordered a drink." Not a terribly poor way to describe what's going on in the picture above. The sentence is grammatically correct. The actions are clear. Maybe you fill a page with sentences like these without giving a second thought to how it affects your voice. The issue, in this case, is vagueness. The characters (a hundred odd-looking men) are woefully abstract. Write something like "a hundred little green three-eyed dwarfs", on the other hand, and you've rendered things more specific. The setting in this run of pros could be any room, but a bar is more clear and certainly more consistent with placing an order for alcohol. When was the last time you wrote something like: A man ordered a drink? It doesn't pack near the punch as say, ordering a fifth of scotch on the rocks. The following solution may be just the right stuff to improve your voice:

"A hundred little green three-eyed dwarfs stepped up to the bar and ordered a bloody mary."

Don't worry about your voice when you're writing. You'll end up forcing things. When you find that your voice is flat turn the vague, the unspecific, the abstract, into more concrete pros. Make your unspecific characters more tangible, what a movie director would likely call giving the extras some life. Choose a precise word for your setting. Make your descriptions not just clear, but precisely clear. It is not simply a matter of poor word choice. Strengthening your voice requires discipline. Shed the lazy attitude of accepting as adequate whatever pros happen to pop into your mind. When you go back to rewrite do the hard work of finding a better solution. And remember: There is always a better solution.

Repetition is not just another culprit that weakens voice. It is the ring leader. Do you write sentences with the same structure all in a row? A run of declarative sentences, ones that all begin with say, I or She or He, are certain to weaken your voice. Maybe you've written one question right after the other. Not only is that repetitive, it can be confusing. Do you give multiple descriptions when a single solution is less repetitive if not more precise? Go ahead and re-read the previous sentence again and notice how writing "if not more precise" tends to muddle your voice. Pick one and stick with it. Writing "do you give multiple descriptions when a single solution is less repetitive," strengthens your voice.

Just for the fun of it, let me rewrite the previous paragraph with a weaker voice. That's right, even non-fiction has a voice. Here goes:

Repetition is not just another culprit that diminishes voice. It is the ring leader. Do you write sentences with the same structure all in a row? Do you write a run of declarative sentences, ones that all begin with I or She or He? Do you write one question right after the other? Not only is that repetitive, it can be confusing if not down right redundant. Do you give multiple descriptions when a single solution is less repetitive if not more precise. Go ahead and re-read the previous sentence again and notice how writing "if not more precise" tends to muddle your voice. Pick one and stick with it.

I couldn't resist throwing in an extra repetition in the paragraph above. Did you catch the "not only is that repetitive, it can be confusing if not down right redundant"? Like I said, pick one and stick with it.

There are other observations that may strengthen your voice when you're rewriting. I'm going to post some of them here in the next few days in a blog I plan to call: "Rhymy-dimey stuff."

Until then, may your voice be specific, may your writing be void of abstraction, and may you never, never, never repeat yourself. And if you've got time, come join me for some uplifting commentary at Top of the Morning where I guarantee you'll enjoy an Irish lift to your day and a lilt in your step.

Cheers

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Join author David G. Woolley at his Top of the Morning Blog or his Promised Land Website. He is also a weekly contributor to Rangers at the Far Post blog.

Don't Jump

2008-06-02T19:18:00.023-05:00

by David G. Woolley

Don't jump. Its good advice for people who work in tall buildings. Its also good advice for anyone who would like to write some fiction. Some habits are hard to break including jumping from head to head. If your heroine is feeling an emotion that begs for a line or two of introspection, but you began the scene in the hero's point of view, do something I call RUJ: Resist the Urge to Jump. Use a line of dialogue, settle on some bit of creative action for your non-point-of-view character. Maybe a snippet of description will do the trick, anything that conveys the emotion without jumping. And without explaining the emotion.

You will be richly rewarded for not taking a leap. Initially the only perceptible payoff is less confusion for the reader. But over time you'll notice that your scenes have a much deeper dramatic impact on the reader because you begin to employ internal dialogue that only your point of view character would employ. You begin to think like your character. And then you begin to foreshadow the subtle motivations that prod your character to action.

Even more rewarding than a deeper understanding of your character is the development of what is fawningly referred to as voice. They say you can't develop your ability to achieve a voice for your character. It is said that its a gift, a talent, a genetic endowment from an ancestor of literature prodigy fame. I say fooey. You can develop your voice. The first step is selecting a point of view character and sticking with her through thick and thin to the end of the scene. But then what?

What do you do once you've committed to endure to the end in a single point of view and still your scene lacks a powerful voice? How do you transform a lackluster chapter with a thin voice into a dramatic marvel? Join me Wednesday, June 4th, and I'll share two observations that may help you recognize some sublte tendencies that tend to dampen a strong voice. Its a blog to which I'm applying the working title: Little Green Dwarfs.

Until Wednesday, may your writing be filled with all sorts of twists and turns. And my your hard drive never go belly up.

Cheers

__________________________
Join author David G. Woolley at his Top of the Morning Blog or his Promised Land Website

The Slower Pleasures of Life

2008-05-30T19:24:00.004-05:00

by David G. Woolley

You can save on gas if you drive slower. No rabbit starts. No skidding stops. No kidding. I got 30 freeway miles to the gallon going sixty in my Ford Explorer. And 23 city miles per gallon by avoiding all those pedal-to-the-metal accelerations and breaking decelerations. I also noticed my neighbor put in some flowers and a bench swing. I was in too much of a hurry to notice him reading a book in his garden before I slowed down and drove less.

Our fascination with speed and distance didn't start with the model T. Ancient Mesoamericans tracked their travel in days. An odd measurement for our odometer-obsessed sensibilities unless, of course, you're traveling with a large group of family, friends, goats, and chickens. When moving at the speed of a lama who cares how many steps it is to Nephiha. All you want to know is: "How long have we been on the road and when the heck are we getting there?" Did you know the ancient City of Zarahemla was located about 23 days north of the City of Nephi? The begrudged Lamanite and Nehite enemies were separated by a mere 175 miles. Thankfully 80 of those miles were difficult-to-travel mountain wilderness or the Book of Mormon would have been cover-to-cover warfare.

We have this guy, BYU Professor Larry Howell, to thank for reconstructing a Mormon Pioneer measurement curiosity. Its an odometer. Every time the wagon wheel goes around it turns the gears forward by a single tooth. Did you know there are 360 wagon-wheel lengths in a mile? The only thing missing was an easy-to-read digital display. Poor William Clayton. Brigham Young assigned the Mormon pioneer inventor to the tedious task of counting the number of teeth traveled each day. Brother Clayton translated his count into a fairly accurate 1,032 miles between Nauvoo and Utah. We may not have understood his 1847 journal entry if he wrote, "We traveled 371,520 gear teeth to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake."

In the days before relatively less expensive cars, paved roads and cheap gas, travel was a novelty. There was less obsession about getting the kids somewhere and more imagination. Yesterday the backyard was a space landing on Mars. Today its a frontier ghost town complete with an O.K. corral. The lone family car was for the wage earner to get to the job site. There was no such thing as running an errand. If you didn't get it on your weekly grocery run you didn't need it. Before the dawn of accessible transportation we stayed closer to home, made up games to entertain ourselves and enjoyed a stroll around the block on a warm summer evening.

My friends obsess over the cost of getting around. But if the economics of travel keeps them closer to home is that such a bad thing? Who knows? Maybe a little drive across town to visit family may become what it once was: A trip. Slowing down will save some money at the gas pump, but it may also help you find something you've been missing.

Life's slower pleasures.

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Join author David G. Woolley at his Top of the Morning Blog or his Promised Land Website

Dianne Odell

2008-05-29T12:51:00.009-05:00

by David G. Woolley

I didn't know Dianne. She lived, until this week, at her parent's residence in Jackson Tennessee, 80 miles northeast of Memphis. She was 61 years old. Dianne spent 59 of those years laying on her back inside this 750 pound iron lung where she had control over one thing: the television clicker. She used her elbow to change the channel. Polio was the culprit. It infected her when she was three, just two years before a vaccine was approved to fight the paralytic disease.

When I saw the photo of Dianne I said, "That's too bad."

When the power at Dianne's residence went out and the stand by generator failed, not even her family's desperate efforts to operate the iron lung using a manual lever were enough to save her life. She passed quietly on a blustery Tennessee Wednesday afternoon, May 28th. Cause of death: power outage due to bad weather.

When I read about her story and how a power failure ended her life, I said, "What terrible luck for anyone to suffer."

But Dianne wasn't just anyone. She didn't let her circumstances dampen her enthusiasm for life. She earned a high school diploma while laying inside her iron cell and she wrote a delightful children's book titled "Blinky" about a wishing star. Her pen and paper? A voice activated word processor. I wonder if the wishes she made on that blinky star are finally being realized.

A lot of people helped Dianne the least of which were her parents who, for 59 years, bathed her, fed her and kept her company. There were other actors in this drama, friends like Frank Mcmeen who helped raise money for Dianne's equipment and nursing assistance. He said, "Dianne was one of the kindest and most considerate people you could meet. She was always concerned about others and their well-being."

You may think that Dianne was lucky to have family and friends who were willing to care for her. Voice activated word processing and elbow television clicker control don't prepare meals, change clothes, or do dental and doctor visits. There were a lot of caregivers. But if you're wondering who the lucky ones were, look to Dianne's parents, to her sister and brother-in-law, to friends like Frank. Dianne gave them the chance to care, the opportunity to give, and the hope of being found with a charity-filled soul. It was Dianne's luck that they embraced the chance.

If Dianne left any legacy, it is likely found peacefully entrenched in the hearts and souls of those who cared for her. Look close enough at her circle of family and friends and you may just find the one thing that has the power to save us all.

The pure love of Christ.

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Join author David G. Woolley at his Top of the Morning Blog or his Promised Land Website

Tough Times? Tetherball Anyone?

2008-05-28T15:16:00.013-05:00

by David G. Woolley

Fads and fashions. I've never understood them entirely. Maybe its because they come and go so fast. Blink and you miss it. I never noticed when bell bottoms shrunk, tie-dye became a polo shirt or when the skateboard came, then went, then came again. Fads are cyclical. I'm still waiting for the hula-hoop to come full circle. When it does, I'm breaking out the record collection. Gonna play the pointer sisters' "We are Family!"

I never owned a pair of Batman pajamas, Big Bird bed sheets or a transformer action figure with teleporting capabilities. I wasn't deprived. In Iowa we had tetherball. There was some nasty weather there last week. Seventeen tornadoes, seven deaths. I got an email from some friends. They're okay, but the hog farm got vaporized.

Our smallish Iowa city tested the emergency warning system at noon. Everyday. We set our clocks by the siren. It was a heads up reminder for mom and dad that tornado season had arrived, but then it was nearly always tornado season in Iowa. For us kids it meant lunch. Toast strips dipped in tomato soup.

We tracked a lot of mud inside after one particularly nasty afternoon storm. From the roof of our backyard shed I swear I saw a funnel cloud. Mom shook a can of orange Shasta at us while telling us that, "Where have you been? Its bad outside. You're going to clean up this mess and learn to be more responsible or else."

"Or else what?" I asked.

She popped the tab on the can and spewed pressurized soda across the ceiling and over both of us. We laughed.

The sirens were loud, blaring, four-foot-wide, yellow horns placed strategically all over the city. I know. I used to map their location with the help of a trusty Schwinn bicycle. There was one near the entrance to the Pine Cone Forest, home of the largest evergreen trees this side of the Redwood National Park. Forty fire-breathing monsters with scaly skin and claws hid in dark shadows behind the thickest tree trunks. They ate pine cones and kids.

There was another siren on the bike path at the top of Big Hill. It was the steepest stretch of one lane asphalt in the whole world. If you did big hill with bad breaks you were gonna end up in the skunk river.

The Mighty Skunk. I found a lot of golf balls in that river. Nearly cleaned out my dad's spare change. He was the golfer. I was the caddy. He paid me fifty cents for every ball. Dad died of cancer last year. Nasty, terrible disease. We placed golf balls in floral arrangements at the funeral.

One stormy summer evening the sirens woke me up and I swear when I looked out the window I saw a man dressed in black running down the street carrying a bulging black sack on his back. There was something squirming inside. I thought he'd stolen my sister and I went back to sleep without telling anyone. Dad carted us to the basement a few minutes later where we waited out the worst of the storm. My sister was there. I didn't ask her how she escaped.

The media has reported a lot of disasters this month. Tornadoes all over the country, even in places that never have tornadoes. Have you ever heard of one in Los Angeles? There was a cyclone in Myanmar. It sucked up enough seawater to flood the entire coast. Myanmar doesn't have a lot of beach front property, but there was enough to wreck havoc on the lives of hundreds of thousands. There have been some major earthquakes the least of which are gas prices. I'm still reeling from the aftershocks. Oil goes up eight bucks a barrel and its a modest increase? They say its a sign of the times. Increasing numbers of natural disasters. Decreasing amounts of human kindness. Exactly how do you measure the amount of human kindness? By weight or by volume? And then there's that Economic slowdown. That's the disaster that scares nearly everyone.

I've slowed down to 55. Got 30 miles per gallon in my Ford Explorer last weekend. Amazing what a little less pedal will do to the wallet. My friend's mom, Phyllis, used to drive her yellow station wagon on the freeway to soccer games at 55. That was when gas sold for cents on the gallon. He spent twice as much time in the car with his mom than any of the rest of us. We used to tease him until we found out the drives turned them into really good friends. Maybe an economic slowdown has some advantages.

An official in my church, Boyd K. Packer, gave a talk a few Sundays ago. He told the congregation that things were likely going to get tough. He won't be the last spiritual adviser to raise that kind of warning. He used the word frugality and he quoted the verse: "Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Or do without." It worried a lot of people. Could they afford the Caribbean Cruise? Should they eat out less? What about saving some money for a rainy day? And then there's that nagging debt.

The warning sirens don't worry me too much. Mom and dad taught me well. I know how to play tetherball.
__________________________
Join author David G. Woolley at his Top of the Morning Blog or his Promised Land Website

writing workshop open to all, springville, ut

2008-05-04T14:40:00.002-05:00

You’re Invited to:

6 – 7 - 8 Writer’s Conference

(if you sign up, tell them Janet Jensen sent you!)

When: 6 7 8! (June 7, 2008)

Where: Cedar Fort, Inc.
2373 W 700 S
Springville, UT 84663

What: Writers Conference

Motivational speaker and author Eloise Owens will headline the writing conference. She is the author of Get Off The Beach and has spoken to close to a million people in her career. I saw her in 2006 at the Utah Press Convention, and when my boss said I could bring in anyone I wanted to, I thought of her first.

Schedule of Events:

10 am -10:15 Welcome by Doug Johnston, Publicist, Cedar Fort.

10:15–10:30 Jeffery Marsh, acquisitions editor for Cedar Fort and BYU professor, tells what he wants in manuscripts, book submissions, and so forth.

10:30 - 11:00 Abel Keogh, author of A Room For Two, will teach each of you the importance of websites and blogs, even if you don’t have a book yet!

11:00 - 11:30 Janet Kay Jensen, author of Don’t You Marry The Mormon Boys, will teach on publicizing yourself and your books. Janet is very good at self-promotion and will teach each of you how to do the same.

11:30am - 12:15pm Doug Johnston, Publicist and former newspaper owner, will show writers what they need to know about being an author from a Publicists point of view.

12:15 - 1:00 Lunch

1:00 - 4:00 Eloise Owens will be the keynote speaker. Ms. Owens will make you think, make you better, and make you money through your writing. Like I said above, Ms. Owens is great. You will remember her for years to come and be a better author and self-promoter after listening to her.

During the conference, you can sit down with Jeffery Marsh. Bring him your manuscripts, book ideas, or questions. You will be allowed 15 minutes to talk with him about your ideas. Please call 801-489-4084 and tell the receptionist you want to be added for a time slot. There are a limited number of slots, so call today.

The cost for the conference is $25. You will receive Eloise Owen’s book Get Off The Beach and lunch.

To sign up, please do the following:
If paying by credit/debit card, call 801-489-4084 and tell them you are signing up for the 6 7 8 conference.

If you are paying by check, please make payment to
Cedar Fort
Attn 6 7 8
2373 W 700 S
Springville, Ut 84663

We are limited to 200 seats, so RSVP as soon as possible.

NOTE: After you sign up, you can make some money too. For every person that signs up and mentions they heard about it from you, you will get $5 back from us at the conference. They MUST mention you when they sign up for you to get the money.

If you have any questions, you can email me at djohnston@cedarfort.com or you can call me at 801-489-4084.

I look forward to this wonderful day full of learning!

Doug Johnston

Doug Johnston
Public Relations Director
Cedar Fort Inc.
(801) 489-4084
djohnston@cedarfort.com
See us online at cedarfort.com
Blog at www.atonofauthorsandawannabe.blogspot.com

"Mormon Boys" gets notice Down Under

2008-04-18T23:01:00.002-05:00

Well. Last week CFI's publicist sent out emails about my book to a number of newspapers, thinking that the timing of the polygamous sect's news might increase interest in my novel.

Somehow one email landed in Australia, and the editor wrote back to me. Polygamy is quite rare in his country, he said, and his paper would be more interested in information than a review copy of my book. So I thought it over for a week and carefully formulated my reply. Only a few hours later it was a lead article in the Australian paper, with the headline: "Mormons aren't Polygamists and Polygamists aren't Mormons."

I am in shock, but very glad to have this exchange of information with the editor. Here is my entire email to him:

Thank you for your response. I am sure the subject of polygamy is foreign to you, so the publicist’s email must have been something of a puzzle.

A brief summary: During a period of about 40 years, early in its history, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (often called Mormons) did practice polygamy. Less than 10% of the members did so. The practice was seen as a way to accommodate the fact that there were more women than men who joined the church and participated in its western migration to the area now known as Utah. The LDS church officially discontinuied the practice in 1890, and at that point several splinter groups formed, believing that the church was in error for discontinuing polygamy. The LDS church does not practice polygamy now and excommunicates members who do.

The most notorious of the offshoot groups (at least in terms of recent news coverage) is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (FLDS) led by Warren Jeffs. They lived in a small community in southern Utah which he led, and most people would describe the lifestyle as a cult led by a power-hungry man. Jeff was recently convicted on several counts in Utah, the most serious being named as an accomplice to rape, in the case of a 13-year old girl he forced to marry an older man. It is believed that this practice of marrying underage girls to older men is common within the sect, and is of course illegal as well as immoral. Jeffs is also facing charges in the neighboring state of Arizona. Before his arrest, he established a new compound near Eldorado, Texas, where he moved his “most faithful” followers and young children “who hadn’t been contaminated by worldly influences.”

Several weeks ago a 16-year old girl from the Texas compound phoned Texas authorities and told them she was married to an older man, subjected to marital rape and physical abuse, was the mother of an 8- month old baby, and was pregnant again. She requested assistance as she could not leave the compound with her baby. The compound was then entered by law enforcement officers, and more than 400 children and many of their mothers were removed to a different location where they could be questioned to determine if abuse has occurred within their families.

The girl who called for help has not yet been identified, and now the state of Texas has the daunting responsibility to determine the fate of these children, many of whom have given multiple names to authorities or have refused to name their parents at all. It is turning into a legal nightmare at this point, with so many young children and their parents facing separation due to a lifestyle which is not only illegal, but may have abused some of its weakest members, women and children.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5712603.html

The above URL chronicles some of the recent events in regard to this case and has some related articles.

My book, which was released in November, is about the relationship of two individuals from two opposing cultures – a girl raised in polygamy, in a large and harmonious family, and a boy raised in an LDS family - who meet at medical school. Though they have feelings for each other, they know that polygamy presents an impossible barrier to their future. She is expected to return home to take care of her people, and will eventually become a plural wife, and he cannot embrace that lifestyle. How they continue to develop in their practices after medical school, and how they reconcile their differences after a chance encounter gives them another opportunity to be together, is one major theme of the story.

One of my other purposes in writing the book was to clarify that Mormons are not polygamists and polygamists aren’t Mormons, and that abuse and mistreatment can be found in any culture. In the end, the families of both young people must learn about tolerance and acceptance, and discover that what they have in common is much more important than their differences.

I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have about this current situation as I have described it, or my book, which does not seek to sensationalize polygamy, but to provide a compassionate look at individuals from both cultures. You are welcome to quote any of the above statements in your publication.

Best wishes,

Janet Kay Jensen

Advice, plz

2008-04-18T13:12:00.002-05:00

I will be signing copies of my book, Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys, at the BYU Womens Conference on May 1, 4-6 p.m. Anybody else going? I'd love to see a friendly face. Any advice on how to navigate the campus, parking, signing hints? I plan to have bowls of Hershey hugs and kisses (well, my book is about marriage) and bookmarks with little wedding rings (if I can figure out how to attach them) and . . . I don't know . . maybe set a timer, and when it goes off, someone in reach of me gets a prize such as a package of johnnycake (cornbread mix) in a lovely, decorated brown paper bag . . . (the book's title is from a song, and the clincher is that if you marry a Mormon boy, johnnycake and babies is all you'll see. I do have a video trailer and I do have an mp3 recording of the song . . and I do have a small DVD player . . would you advise taking those, or do you know if there is space? Any suggestions would be more than welcome. I'm thrilled at the opportunity. Just not sure what to expect.

Thank you!
Janet

Snarklights in the blogosphere

2008-04-15T21:24:00.002-05:00

Some of you may be familiar with Miss Snark's blog. http://misssnark.blogspot.com/. She gave fantastic advice on writing and submitting to agents -- and she was irreverent and funny and just a joy to read. She retired the blog last year, leaving behind thousands of devoted snarklings. I was one of them! Many agents, editors, and writers still keep links up to her blog, which can still be viewed.

I'm trying to get the word out to all of Miss Snark's snarklings about a blogosphere candlelight vigil to take place May 20, the first anniversary of Miss Snark's retirement. The link is here: http://snarklights.blogspot.com/. It has an image for all snarklings to post on their blog or website that day, and the blog will be open for comments from well-wishers to Miss Snark for one day only. There's no catch to it. I have no advertising on the snarklights blog and the image has no backtracking links or anything like that. I'm also not trying to convince her to start blogging again. I'm just doing this to let Miss Snark know that although her blog is dark, to those of us who were faithful readers of her blog her influence on why and how we write still shines.

Back when Miss Snark was blogging, her posts were a great kick in the rear on days when I wanted to smash my pc with a hammer.

Feel free to pass the info along to any snarklings you know.

Mamas, here's the right url if you don't want your babies to grow up to be writers:

2008-04-12T11:38:00.004-05:00

Try this url for the essay on country music/writer parallels. It's really very clever! Sorry I had the wrong one in the previous article!

http://www.independentpublisher.com/department.php?page=1213&urltitle=Much%20Ado%20About%20Publishing

And thanks for the kind words, Cindy, (though my novel was a Whitney nominee, not a finalist).

A future post will cover some of the highlights of the recent Erma Bombeck Humor Writers Conference I attended April 3-5. Needless to say, it was hilarious....

Congratulations to Janet Jensen

2008-04-11T11:38:00.008-05:00

Our own sweet Janet Jensen continues to rack up attention with her gifted writing and with her most recent book, Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys. Her newest award is the 2007 AML Marilyn Brown Novel Award, Honorable Mention!

Some of the other awards she has won are:

Finalist, USA Best Books 2007 (Religious Fiction)
Finalist, Foreward Magazine's Book of the Year Award (Religious Fiction)
Finalist, Whitney Award (Reader Views Literary Awards 2007 Fiction: Religion/Spiritual)

We'll be featuring an interview with Janet in the future about her writing experiences, including tips for new and old authors alike. Until then, congratulations Janet!

For more information, feel free to visit Janet Jensen's website.

J. Scott Savage

2008-04-08T17:38:00.004-05:00

J. Scott Savage is one of the nicest guys I've met. But more importantly, he is an amazing writer. He's prepping for his summer book tour and is inviting all to come along for the ride. Visit J. Scott Savage's blog for more information!

Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Writers

2008-03-26T12:40:00.004-05:00

Enjoy this hilarious article at www.independentpublishers.com. And if you come up with your own clever song, be sure to post it here and at my blog, janetkayjensen.blogspot.com. It's bound to improve your day!

Footnote: Sorry, try this url:
http://www.independentpublisher.com/department.php?page=1213&urltitle=Much%20Ado%20About%20Publishing

Happy Birthday, Birthday Lady

2008-03-25T15:59:00.005-05:00

by Lori

“Happy burffdayh to you…Happy burffdayh to you…”

The off-key, seven a.m. solo always made me smile. I never met her face-to-face, never knew her name, but a decade ago, I looked forward to the Birthday Lady’s yearly phone call. For me, it was a pleasant start to the day I celebrated my birth.

In our small town, a ladies group published a calendar which listed the birthdays of their friends and relatives. Since, my grandmother belonged to the group, my name and all the names of my family members were included. Sometime, during the early 1990’s, the unknown “Birthday Lady” decided to start calling everyone whose name appeared on the calendar to personally wish them a happy birthday.

The first year I received her call, I dismissed the elderly woman with a chuckle.“Is this Lori?” she queried. Following my reply in the affirmative, she began to drone, “Happy burffdayh…”
When she finished crooning, she added in a lilting voice, “And I hope you have a very special day.” Without identifying herself, she hung up.

Days later, my husband and daughter received calls on their birthdays. Within a few months, several people we knew reported that the same woman had contacted them. The following year, precisely at seven a.m. on my birthday, she phoned again.“Is this Lori? Happy burffdayh to yooouuuu….”I had to admit, I admired her tenacity -- there must have been hundreds of names on that calendar. And, I found her sincerity and good will refreshing.

Year after year, my family members looked forward to our annual calls from the Birthday Lady. However, there were others in our community who were offended. The Birthday Lady had a bad lisp and some people claimed she was a nuisance, a blight on our fair town. “The nerve of such a person,” they protested, “how dare she rudely awaken innocent citizens with an early morning phone call, and her less than perfect voice!”

Someone did some checking and identified the Birthday Lady. A couple of people phoned her to complain. Soon, she stopped singing. A short while later, the Birthday Lady passed away.

I recently celebrated another birthday and, yes, Pollyanna that I am, I miss the Birthday Lady. I regret that didn't ask her when her birthday was. I don’t sing, but I could’ve called and wished her my best. I could’ve thanked her for the joy she brought to each of my birthdays; it breaks my heart to think no one else thought of thanking her either. Maybe one day I’ll be given the chance to tell her what her calls meant to me. Until then, if blogs are read in heaven, I’d like to say, “Happy Birthday, Birthday Lady.”

The Storymaker Writers' Conference

2008-03-14T08:16:00.010-05:00

The LDStorymaker Writers' Conference is coming in a week! I'm not sure if you've had the privilege to attend one of these before, but the lineup this year is exciting.

Timothy Travaglini, Senior Editor at G.P. Putnam's Sons (a division of Penguin Group, USA) is the Keynote Speaker. He has worked at Henry Holt, Scholastic, Walker & Company (to name just a few of the publishers).

In addition to Mr. Travaglini, Jamie Weiss Chilton will also be in attendance. She is an agent with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc. Ms. Chilton represents children's books, teen novels, picture books, amongst other genres. Her most specific interests include literary fiction with intense emotional content. She too worked at Henry Holt, amongst other companies such as Bantam Delacorte Dell and Knoft & Crown Books.

The beauty of attending conferences such as these is that in addition to workshops presented by published authors with an expert eye of what constitutes an excellent book, you also meet national individuals who work to make literature a fine experience. For example, Mr. Travaglini and Ms. Chilton will have private appointments with writers attending the conference.

Here are just some of the topics being addressed in this year's conference:

"Getting Out of the Slush Pile," by Mr. Travaglini

"Writing in Spite of a Busy Life," by Rachel Ann Nunes

"Writing a Synopsis," by Josi Kilpack

"Writing about Real Issues for Children & Youth," by Tamra Norton

"The Middle Grade Writer: Character, Voice & Audience," by Lael Littke

"10 Things That Get You Noticed/What LDS Publishers are Looking For," by Kirk Shaw (of Covenant)

""Your First Novel: Step by Step Basics," by Heather Moore & Julie Wright

"Creating Your Inner Writing Team," by Carroll Morris

"The Editing Process," by Lisa Mangum (of Deseret Book)

"Non-fiction - Finding Your Niche," Shirley Bahlmann & Jaime Theler

A Publishers Panel

General Session Speaker, Chris Crowe

And all this in just the first day's line-up! Day two of the conference contains even more, including the Whitney Awards Gala. You may check to see if tickets are still available by visiting the LDStorymakers website. But if not, make sure to mark your calendar in January 2009 to purchase tickets for the 2009 LDStorymakers conference. It will be well worth your time!

(Did I mention a writer's best friend, an Alphasmart Neo, is being given as the grand prize to the First Chapter contest winner?)

James Dashner and The Thirteenth Reality

2008-03-06T13:10:00.013-06:00

I love books that are good. Who doesn't? But I've found one that is not only good, it is excellent. It now sits on my shelf right next to my all time favorite book, The Phantom Tollbooth. Who is this newcomer to my coveted shelf of only-the-finest books?

It is The 13th Reality, by James Dashner, just released March 3, 2008. (Actually The 13th Reality is the title of the series.) Even though I have an ARC copy, I am waiting with baited breath to get an official hardback of "Book One: The Journal of Curious Letters!"

This is why I marched into my local Borders bookstore yesterday and demanded a copy (nicely, of course). They have 6 on order and my name is the first in the list to get my copy (I'm sure it's because I asked so nicely). You better run to your bookstore and do the same, because they will go fast when they come in!

After reading The 13th Reality, I had to learn more about the background of the book. So I emailed James Dashner, the 13th Reality man and author himself, if he would oblige. And to make it fun - since The 13th Reality is YA fiction (like the Harry Potter series) - I invited two kids do the actual interviewing!

David is six years old; Cassandra is twelve.
~~~~~~
David: How did you come up with the idea for The 13th Reality?

JAMES: It came from some serious brain pounding after being given one week to come up with a proposal for my eventual publisher. I'd submitted a different book to them, and they liked my writing, but didn't feel that particular book was right for them. So I worked my tail off to write a proposal for an idea that had always bounced around in my head: The concept of a group helping kids by sending out riddles and clues, but also horrible, dangerous things that try to stop them while they solve the mystery.

David: What was it like when you were writing your very first book about Jimmy Fincher compared to now?

JAMES: Totally different. Then, I didn't know if it would get published. This was done with a deadline. I really like the second way!!

David: How did you come up with more ideas for the next 13th Reality book? Isn't that a lot of work?

JAMES: I'm just always thinking, I guess. And when a cool idea pops in my head, I write it down.

David: How old will Tick be in the second book?

JAMES: It ends right at his 14th birthday.

[Now for questions from my daughter, Cassandra.]

Cassandra: What was the funnest part about writing The 13th Reality?

JAMES: Creating Mothball and Rutger, I think.

Cassandra: How did you come up with your characters?

JAMES: Most of them are based on people I know or characters I've loved in other books.

Cassandra: Who was the hardest character to write about?

JAMES: Mistress Jane. I wanted her to be evil, but have a human side. I think I did a much better job in Book 2.

Cassandra: Who was your favorite character to write about?

JAMES: Tick. He's basically me.

Cassandra: What was the hardest chapter to write in Curious Letters?

JAMES: The one where MG explains everything. I wished I had spread that out more.

Cassandra: How did it feel when you were finished? Sad to be at the end? Relieved?

JAMES: I was beyond ecstatic. Not sad, because I knew I had 4 more books to write in the series.

Cassandra: How do you start writing a book? Where do you get your inspiration?

JAMES: My inspiration comes from loving to create stories. I start by creating a very simple outline and then going from there.

Cassandra: What do you do when you run out of ideas while writing?

JAMES: Honestly, I don't very often. If I do, I stop and think. Seriously!

Cassandra: What is your writing schedule like?

JAMES: All over the board. But mostly in the evenings and Saturdays.

Cassandra: How do you plot out your books?

JAMES: I just do a simple list of the main events I think need to happen. Then I expand that a little and develop how they will happen. It usually just ends up as 2 pages of detailed notes. Then I start writing, referring back to that outline often and making further notes or changings things as needed.

Cassandra: What is your favorite part about writing books?

JAMES: Coming up with cool plot twists and writing exciting action scenes. Also, hearing that a reader liked my book.

[And now a question from me...]

C.S.: What advice do you have for new writers?

JAMES: Well, there's a lot on my blog, but here's something: Rejection is part of the game. It hurts, and it will always hurt. But no matter how good you are, no matter how brilliant your work, the odds are astronomical that you will never receive a rejection. Or 10, or 20, or 100. If you learn to accept it and keep submitting, reworking when necessary what you've written, you'll find a home.

~~
I'd like to thank James Dashner for the time he took to answer two new fans' questions - in spite of his busy schedule. He is touring around the United States doing book signings. Check the official 13th Reality website to see if he is coming to a city near you. He not only is a very nice man, but he is a terrific Latter-day Saint who is making the world a better place through his talents. The 13th Reality is a great tale, but it also contains a message of truth and uplift.

Very few books make it to my highly coveted only-the-best book shelf, but The 13th Reality now has its very own spot. This book is that good. In fact, it is not just good, it is excellent. You don't have to take my word for it . . . just check out these readers' opinions!

For all my readers, run to your local Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Books-a-Million and request your very own copy . . . before they are gone.

Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys is March Sponsor at ldspublisher's blog

2008-03-02T21:59:00.003-06:00

I am a sponsor for ldspublisher's March contest. Readers who make insightful comments on her blog may win my book, Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys, at the end of the month. I highly recommend this blog for accurate and informative information about writing and publishing in the LDS market. Visit her blog at www.ldspublisher.blogspot.com

Count to ten before shredding

2008-03-02T16:46:00.004-06:00

by Patricia

The SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) is the author's boomerang -- pitch it in the mail, and it comes right back.

Over the years I have come to accept that, when I open the mailbox and find my name and address, written by my own hand, staring back at me, I have been rejected.

Usually, dejectedly, I will remove the envelope from the box, open it, and cringe as I read the cold, impersonal rejection slip. When I'm finished, I send it to live with the other rejection slips in my office and I try not to think about it. Discouragment, I have learned, doesn't offer much to encourage me into action.

A few months ago, however, I learned an important lesson about SASEs: never take the contents for granted.

I went to the mailbox, and groaned when I saw the 9X11 envelope inside. I brought it in the house and headed for the shredder. I knew which submission the envelope had been mailed with. There was no need to even open the envelope and read the rejection.

I started to tear the envelope in two, right down the center, before feeding it to my little friend, Jaws the Junk Mail Shredder. What would it matter? I thought. There was only a rejection slip inside. No need to even look at it.

Still ... curiosity got the best of me. At least I could add the rejection slip to the stack. At least, after all the effort put forth by the USPS to get my SASE back to me, I could open the envelope.

I opened the envelope, pulled out the letter, and began to read.

It was an acceptance letter.

The moral of the story: Count to ten before shredding your SASEs.

a Tribute to President Hinckley

2008-02-21T16:26:00.001-06:00

Back in the olden days, whenever those were, elegant elderly gentlemen walked about in public with elegant walking sticks or canes, as we call them today, even if they didn’t need them for assistance. The walking stick was associated with gloves, a top hat, and a well-groomed beard and/or mustache. These fashion accessories seemed to be acquired along with age and dignity.

Several years ago, when President Hinckley experienced some episodes of vertigo and was advised by his physicians to carry a cane, he obediently followed their orders and carried a cane. We rarely saw him depend on it as an assistive device, however; he appeared to find it useful to wave at the crowds and point out objects of interest in the distance. It became a joyful extension of his hand, his reach, his warmth, and his ability to charm everyone he met.

Soon canes began to arrive at the LDS Church Headquarters Building in Salt Lake City. They were gifts sent by loving members and represented every possible variety of cane or walking stick known to mankind or womankind, I imagine, and they came from many countries and cultures. One day I expect to see this impressive collection of President Hinckley’s canes as a permanent exhibit at the Church Museum of Art and History.

I was privileged to be in President Hinckley’s presence on several occasions. The last time, about five years ago, took place in the Salt Lake LDS Temple in a meeting to launch the Tabernacle Choir’s summer tour of the east coast. Flanked by beefy white-suited bodyguards, the small white-haired man entered the room, which was suddenly quiet as everyone rose to their feet in respect for the Prophet. And President Hinckley did carry a cane that day. It was hooked over his arm, as usual. The bodyguards each had a hand by his elbow, should he need assistance, which he didn’t.

For one moment, as he walked by our row, I was just a few feet away from him. In that moment I gazed directly into his bright blue eyes, and I was filled with an indescribable sense of warmth and well-being and love.In the meeting, which he conducted, he praised the choir as one of our greatest missionary tools and beamed as they sang to us. Their singing was remarkable, too, as choir members were seated among the rest of the group assembled at the meeting, and simply stood in place in when it was time for them to sing. The effect was surround-sound, one I won’t soon forget. President Hinckley blessed them for their efforts, blessed their families and loved ones, and wished them well on their tour. Then he waved his cane, taking in the whole assembly with the gesture.“All right, let’s all go home now. It’s dinner time.” And with that he was escorted from the podium and out of the room.

News of his sudden passing surprised us, as he had been following his normal routine and had been seen in public shortly before his brief illness. We always knew he was mortal, but in our hearts we never wanted him to succumb to the inevitable end of mortal life. That was a selfish wish, of course, and though he had expressed his loneliness for his dear wife and said he hoped they would not be separated for long, and though he had announced that he was in the “sunset of his life,” we simply didn’t want to let him go.

Because the cane had become a part of President Hinckley’s public appearances, according to Meridian Magazine, “a group known only as ‘Cane Wave Tribute’ is proposing that Church members line the streets between the Conference Center and cemetery, hopefully with thousands of admirers, waving canes as the cortège passes.”On Saturday, I’m sure I’ll be touched by television coverage of crowds of respectful mourners carrying canes for the most beloved, elegant elderly gentleman I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

It’s a lovely thought and should be a remarkable sight. And a fitting tribute to the distinguished gentleman that he was, minus the beard and top hat and gloves. Many have spoken eloquently about the man and his remarkable life and accomplishments, but my favorite memory of our prophet will always be of that warm summer evening, looking directly into the kind blue eyes that sparkled with life and love and wit.

The Right to Write

2008-02-19T15:23:00.003-06:00

I remember as a kid being fascinated with words. I loved their feel as they rolled around on my tongue. I loved their slender shapes sprawled on the page. In fact, I became so enamored with words that by junior high I would sneak a dictionary into my room and spend the afternoon reading nothing but words.

Words like defervescence and boride and academe. Words like penicillamine and featherstitch and quire. And thus, is it any wonder my favorite book was The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norman Juster? (Which, by the way, if you've not read you simply must!)

But in the midst of all these wondrous words, I began to feel smaller and smaller. In the midst of their power, I began to doubt my ability to string them together in stories people would want to read. I still wonder that at times. Do you?

Yet, there is a special something deep in my heart that tells me the God of our spirits feels otherwise. He, who creates universes, knows a thing or two about the import of creativity. And He fashioned us in His image. Do I (or perhaps you) really think He would fail to tuck away within us the creative gift? Could it be possible we, in this one area, are NOT like our Father in Heaven?

I think not! Thus, the next time I feel impotent in my ability to self-express, I will shun the thought. And I hope you will, too. We are created in God's image ... and as such, we have the gift of creativity. We have the right to write! May we use that gift well, working with all these wondrous words.

You Are What You Eat

2008-02-15T12:03:00.011-06:00

by Lori

If someone made a, "You Are What You Eat," poster of me ten years ago it would have revealed lots of pizza, fried foods, and crème Brule. In addition, it would have shown that I consumed lots of bad snack choices: tons of chocolate covered almonds, Doritos, soda-pop, sugar cookies, and mint crisp shakes. My countenance would have beamed with a message which said: eating junk food is cool! Unfortunately, I would also have made a good poster person for the saying, “A Minute on the Lips -- A Lifetime on the Hips.”

I cut out all fried food and 99% of the soda I drank and, within a few months, dropped over twenty pounds. Buoyed by my efforts, I decided sugar cookies could be cut back to one or two a month, mint crisp shakes to one every six months. Doritos went all together, and one of my very last boxes of chocolate covered almonds went to Kenya (the writer, not the country). Pizza and crème Brule had to stay – in moderation.

One problem: working at the computer all day made me susceptible to the munchies. If I wanted to continue to slim down I needed to make healthy snacking choices.

Currently, my favorites are:

Kashi Bars – the honey almond flax is wonderful
Kashi Seven Grain Crackers
Crasins
Dried Blueberries
Wasabe Almonds – thanks, Janie!

I haven’t tried the Kashi cookies yet as I could easily envision myself thinking I couldn’t eat just one – box. I keep a bag of Swedish fish on hand and, for emergencies, I've stashed a hard-to-get-to box of chocolate truffles. Water and lemon favored Propel are my beverages of choice -- a bit boring but much better than cans of pop!

If anyone has ideas for healthy snacks, I’d love to hear about them!

Invisible chains

2008-02-11T18:34:00.000-06:00

I still do not have easily accessible internet. I must beg to use somebody else's computer to write my blog and submit it. Every time I think we have the problem solved a new challenge jumps in and laughs at me.

The challenges stand in a perfect row looking very much like Stepford (is that how you spell it?) Wives. Seemingly innocent, all looking serene and just alike until I have to deal with them. That's when I realize the invisible chains locking doors I've previously gone through with ease.

This is life. It's like flying over the earth. When you look down from the airplane it all looks so uncomplicated. You can't see the conflicts, challenges, sorrows, heartaches, and other problems facing the individual people driving those little bug sized cars or living in those miniature houses. However, the closer you get the more reality you experience.

For me the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know, especially with computers. Or let me say the more things I need a computer to do the more complicated the functions become and then those invisible chains slink around me and temporarily freeze or impede my progress.

I've been taking an intensive writing course leading to the publication of a difficult project. I have wondered almost on a daily basis if I took too big of a bite this time, and I won't be able to eat the whole thing after all.

I know this isn't true. The adversary and his minions would like to paralyze us. They want to enslave us in invisible chains and make us believe we can't progress. But the object here is to realize that the chains are "invisible." They only exist to the degree that we belive they do. If I can just step back a little bit and see the whole picture. I realize I only stubbed my toe on a small stumbling rock. It's just the way the light shines on it that makes it look like an impassable boulder.

I hope this helps somebody else out there who is having "chained down," feeling of discouragement today. You can do it. Somehow, some way there will be a computer you can borrow, or a thought, quote, or bit of research you'll find, or just the hope of a better tomorrow to get you through.

A writer pleads guilty to avoidance behaviors

2008-02-07T21:03:00.000-06:00

by Patricia

Confession is messy, unpleasant, and makes us squirm in our seats. But it's good for the soul -- or at least good for a blog post.

So here we go with a list of my most worn-out, over-used writing avoidance behaviors (not in any particular order):

Testing spider solitaire to make sure it wasn't affected by those pesky hazardous programs my anti-spyware says I picked up while surfing the net.
Checking Miss Snark's blog, because I don't want to miss out when she takes a hiatus from retirement.
Downloading free trials of story-building software.
Uninstalling the free trials after I realize I could write a novel in the time it takes to figure out how to use story-building software.
Giving my cat a bath.
Watching reruns of Law and Order.
Returning to the kitchen for yet another handful of reduced fat Cheez-Its.
Clicking the refresh button on my email inbox.
Visiting QVC.com in case Today's Special Value is something I can't live without.
Listing some of the avoidance behaviors I practice during those times I'm supposed to be writing.

Making Ourselves Understood

2008-02-05T05:24:00.000-06:00

Words are a writer’s most important tool, more important than our computer, our cat, or our hot chocolate. Without them, books and articles can’t exist. And we can’t use just any old words—they have to be just the right ones, and completely understood.

On Thursday, I embark on a new challenge. There is a great need for languages in our ward, and we will be offering English, sign language, Spanish, and Portuguese as part of our literacy program. I’m the literacy leader, and appropriate calling for an author. My friend and I are tackling the English class. We have no special training and neither of us know the languages of our students, other than a vaguely remembered smattering of high school Spanish (and for me, high school was long, long ago.) When someone pointed out my lack of credentials to teach ESL, I pointed out that I was much cheaper than the classes taught by professionals, and that there are waiting lists for those classes. I’ll do until they can get a better teacher.

We are using the Book of Mormon Stories as the text for the religious half of the class. Since they’re meant for children, I thought they would be easy to teach. However, because a number of our students will not be LDS and a number don’t speak any English at all, I’ve realized this is harder than it seemed.

It’s easy to teach some words. Put up pictures of men and women, say the words as you sort them, and they will understand what the words mean. But then you get to sentences like this one: Many churches claimed to be true.

Many is doable, more or less. Churches can be shown. But what about true? You can’t put up a picture of the word true. I know what it means. I use the word all the time. I can define it—if you know enough English to understand the definition. But in an EFL class to brand new English speakers? The word true is challenging. What do you do with the word prophet, when you’re teaching it to people who don’t know what a prophet is and don’t have the words to understand the explanation?

Words are powerful tools, but they are more complicated than I really understood. When I sit down to write, I am beginning to more greatly appreciate those tools, and the importance of making my meaning understood, no matter what level of background my reader might have for the topic on which I’m writing.

Promises, Promises

2008-01-29T18:11:00.000-06:00

Whether you realize it or not, as a writer you make promises to your reader. If you are writing a category romance, you promise a happy ending. When writing a suspense novel, you promise moments of tension so tight that the reader's palms should sweat. And so on.

But beyond the overall promise that a particular genre offers, there are smaller promises, too. Like the one - perhaps - on an author's page 6 which mentions in great detail, candlesticks. Why candlesticks? The reader will remember this for some time, that you spent great effort describing the objects. And if by the end of the book, candlesticks never factored into the story again, the reader will wonder why you bothered to mention them on page six.

Does this mean that you cannot mention any detail at all if not returned to later? Of course not. But what determines a "promise" is precisely the amount of detail you include early on. In other words, don't mention a gun hanging over the fireplace with intense writerly focus, if you don't mean to use it by the bad guy forty chapters later.

Readers love looking for "red herrings", even if you're not writing a mystery. They also like noticing "flaws" - you know, those kinds of images you eventually deleted out of the first draft, yet still remain with ghostly presence in the final draft. Things like three men at the shootout in chapter 14, scene 1, yet now only two men by the time you arrive at scene 2. The reader will go, "Huh? What happened...I thought there were three men?" They then spend several minutes flipping pages back and forth, trying to figure it out.

You might not notice the error, because your mind now has a reason for only two bad guys. But if you don't closely edit out your adjustments, you leave the reader confused - due to poor editing - and perhaps even worse, disappointed - when too much was made of an object early on in the story, never to be revisited again.

None of us like unfulfilled promises. That's why as writers, we seek only to emphasize elements in our stories that hold promise ... and make sure to revisit them when it really counts.

Just Biding my Time

2008-01-28T16:19:00.000-06:00

Monday, January 28, 2008

My mother always wore a watch but never knew what time it was. That was one of her many endearing qualities. She would forget to wind her old one, put a battery in her new one, or she would discover that most watches don't survive the spin cycle. I believe she once found a missing watch in the refrigerator- or was that her bifocals?

On the other hand, I'm time-conscious. On the right-hand column of this blog, near the bottom, you will see four clocks. They are set to tell the current time in the following cities: Logan, Utah (my home); Dayton, Ohio (home of our oldest son, a student at Wright State University School of Medicine, his wife, and our Darling Granddaughter); Jyvaskyla, Finland (home of our second son, a student at the University of Jyvaskyla, his wife and their two dogs), and Berkeley, California (home of our youngest son, a student at UC Berkeley).

As you can see, it's a good idea to check the clocks before I pick up the phone to call one of our sons. Otherwise I run the risk of waking someone out of a sound sleep. I once made a color-coded chart that included everyone's waking and sleeping hours, and I discovered there was a three hour period when it was safe for everybody to call each other, or perhaps even set up a conference call, which we have yet to do.And I'm now signed up with Messenger and Skype, so catching someone online at the same time I am is a pleasure and pure serendipity. Email, of course, is an important way to keep track of each other, and fortunately, doesn't interrupt anybody's sleep. And of course, those wonderful attachments- pictures and video clips- help us to feel closer to our scattered brood.

Just when I get the basic zones of our family firmly established in my mind, we either start or end Daylight Savings Time. Have you ever tried to explain to a child, not to mention an adult, why we trick ourselves by setting the clocks back or forward one hour twice a year? It takes me six months to reset all the various clocks in my home - on the oven, in the car, beside my bed, in the kitchen, on the microwave . . . and there's always one we miss. I have heard intelligent adults wandering around and muttering: "fall forward, spring back . . . or is it fall back, spring ahead?"

Fortunately, my computer and cell phone seem to know what time it is, magically, whenever I turn them on, and for that I am very grateful. We used to call a certain number to receive the exact time so we could set our watches and clocks, but then the phone company started to add commercials to it, and, adding insult to injury, began to charge for the calls, which were only made to a computer anyway.

Then, even when nobody's switching their clocks to fool us, there's jet lag (see above picture) when you travel from one time zone to another and your body simply doesn't know what time it is. Jet lag is real. The first major experience I had with it was on a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, during the White Nights. Not only was there a significant time difference, there was very little actual darkness at all that time of year, and locals celebrated the White Nights by partying around the clock. Then I understood why hotels have those heavy, light-blocking drapes, and why a little pinhole in those drapes can be significant. If you're outside, though, your watch may tell you it's bedtime, but your eyes tell you that it's a lovely evening, and at some point it's mind over matter, or matter over mind. The garden vegetables are still growing, so why should we head to bed?

It's downright embarrassing to stay up all night, reading, because you can't sleep in a new time zone, only to fall asleep every time you sit down during the day. Experts say it takes one day to adjust to each hour of time change, which means that by the time you have adjusted to the new time zone on your wonderful trip, it's time to return home and go back to work, allowing no time to reverse the effects of being back in your normal zone.Time changes can be challenging for children, too. School districts keep Daylight Savings in mind when scheduling annual achievement tests, so children will perform their best and not be sleep-deprived due to time changes.

I've had a bad stretch of my own with watches lately, and for some reason I haven't worn one for months. If I could just find a watch for myself - one that works, so I would really know the actual time- I might get back on track. I do have a drawer of defunct watches. I periodically check them to see if one might be working, but so far no luck. Twice a day, though, each of them is actually correct, so how can I justify throwing them away?

Your Unpublished Manuscript File

2008-01-23T18:30:00.000-06:00

by Terrie Lynn Bittner

I just finished reading the book Writing Magic by Gail Levine. It’s for children and teens who want to write fiction, but it was a great starting point for me as well. She advised writers to save everything they write for fifteen years, because even if it isn’t good because it may spark something later, when your skills have progressed or your perspective has changed. That is great advice for children, but I found myself thinking, “I’m getting on towards fifty. I could be dead in fifteen years.” (It's been that sort of day!) Then I read an article asking if it was inappropriate to publish unfinished manuscripts by dead authors who asked that their unfinished works all be destroyed without reading.

My file cabinet is filled with old manuscripts, largely due to the fact that I recently got ambitious and sorted a box that has moved from house to house without being touched since my first writing career in my younger years. I was surprised to find file folders with stories long forgotten. After I looked them over, I knew why they were long forgotten. Ouch! Did I really write that badly? Did I really submit those stories somewhere and think they would get published?

Fortunately, I’m not famous enough, and never will be, that someone will be tempted to publish “Terrie Lynn Bittner—The Early Years.” Most likely those sad old stories will be tossed by family members trying to undo my years of clutter, and no one will be the wiser. But if things were different, how would I feel?

I do believe it might be that a writer’s greatest fear is not rejection, but the publication of unfinished or unskilled writing. Do I really want people to know about my elephant stage? This is not as impressive as the traditional blue stage or red stage you find with professional artists. It was, I think, a reaction to the realization that the last invisible friend had left my children’s life, and I was trying to keep them all (the friends, not the children) from running away from home by immortalizing them in story…after story…after story.

Maybe it would be a good idea to celebrate fiftieth birthday next year by cleaning out those files myself. I’m not sure I trust my kids to toss them. They might find it funny to fill my abandoned website with elephant stories.

2008-01-22T13:05:00.000-06:00

Dealing with Blows

2008-01-20T16:00:00.000-06:00

by C.S. Bezas

What is your response when you are knocked up side the head?

Hopefully for most of us, this experience does not come literally. But unfortunately, experiences do come at us that unsettle us. We feel we've tumbled to the gritty floor, blood in our mouths, and yet in truth, none of it really happened. It was all perceived, fictional.

Problem is, our brain perceives emotional knock-downs as real.

Perhaps it's the sudden death of a loved one (example: I found my baby in his crib, having passed away from SIDS). Perhaps it's the unexpected loss of a job (example: my husband experienced this twice). Perhaps it was learning of a friend's terminal illness (again a personal experience).

I'm sure you have your own knocked-up-side-the-head blows. They are never pleasant; they always feel nearly as real as a sure kick to the head (or heart, as it may be). What do you do in such times? I'd love to know.

All I know currently is that the only true solace I've found, while collapsed from life's dirty blows, is in the arms of the Lord. Isn't it true that during scripture study and prayer that peace is found - even when peace can't be found any other way?

But This is a Writers' Blog!

What does all this have to do with a writer's blog? Everything, at least in my mind. Writers experience continual "blows" or "knocks" throughout their writers' journey. How a writer deals with these blows determines the rest of their personal triumph (or misery).

The next time you receive a rejection from a publisher, reach for your scriptures instead of any other response. Drop to your knees instead of any other response. Peace can be found when you turn to the Lord first, before anything else. It's the only choice I've found that helps on some of the darkest days.

Again, some blows in life might not be physical ones ... but they might as well be for as much as they hurt. The best way to get off the gritty floors in life and back where we're needed - in my experience, at least - is within the pages of scripture inspired by the Master Writer Himself, within the arms of Him who knows to console like no other.

May you experience few "blows", but if you do, may you find great peace within Him who loves you!

Telling the Truth in Your Writing

2008-01-15T13:37:00.000-06:00

When I first started my homeschooling website, I was very cautious about what I wrote. After all, I was writing about myself and I had no intention of letting people know who I really was and how I really functioned. So I shared only the parts of homeschooling that worked and kept the dramatic failures out of sight. To read my website, you’d think I’d done everything right all the time.

One day I received an email from someone who said she couldn’t decide if my site was inspirational or discouraging. Everyone who wrote about homeschooling, in books and online, seemed to be entirely perfect, functioning to a level she herself could never hope to attain and that made things a bit hard for her.

I began remembering my first explorations into homeschooling. A crisis forced me into it, but I knew nothing about it. The library had two books, both apparently written by perfect people. I’m old enough that the Internet was not yet around. I didn’t know any actual homeschoolers, so I didn’t know homeschooling is normally done by less than perfect people. I began to wonder how my first traumatic experience in homeschooling would have been different if someone had told me the truth—that it was okay not to be perfect.

And so, I sat down to my computer and typed a new article, a true-confessions sort of thing in which I admitted I had been a terrible homeschooler when I started and that my articles were based on 20/20 hindsight and selective experiences. I began editing the currently existing articles to be more honest, and to include some failure stories.

One day a woman emailed me that she had decided to give up homeschooling because she couldn’t do it as well as everyone else, Heartbroken, she had gone online late that night in a last search for answers. She found that confession I’d written, and then sat up all night reading the rest of the site. By morning, she had realized it was okay, and she could do this.

I learned something important that day. When I showed people only the polished up side of my life, I could inform, but I couldn’t change lives. People learn best from someone who is like them, imperfect, with dustballs under the sofa. Since that time, I’ve written a book that is so honest no one in my ward ever asks me to cook for a ward activity or shows up at my house without warning. I’ve written about my homeschooling failures, my academic failures, and my rejection letters. I’ve written about being so klutzy I once tripped over a turkey.

So, now people know all about the real me, and you know what? I still have friends and people still read my writing and my world is still okay. It turns out, people don’t mind if you’re not perfect.

Take a chance and tell the truth in your writing. You get used to it after a while, and when someone says your honesty changed their life…it will be worth it.

Lessons From Great Authors

2008-01-12T14:17:00.000-06:00

When I read a good author, I am constantly watching what it is that makes this book so enjoyable for me. From one I may be getting a sense of tone in the story. In another it may be a sense of setting--Anne Rice does that very well. When I reach a part in my writing where I want it to have the near physical sense of setting like Anne Rice is so capable of achieving, I pick up one of the Vampire or Witch series and thumb through it searching for the parts that makes the perfect impact on me. Then I study how it was done and do my very best at creating that for myself. Perhaps its that she gave the area its own life, or that she used colors to heighten the tension of the place. I say to myself, "I can write like that." And then I do. Well, at least I do my best. So keep reading those great authors. Keep looking for why their writing is so inspiring to you. And keep remembering that they had to learn to be great and so do we.

A Plan of Action

2008-01-09T22:32:00.000-06:00

by Lori

I’m with Janet (see Wednesday, January 2 post). Resolutions set me up for failure. Yet I need some sort of quantitative goal to keep me pointed in the right direction.

I’ve made the mistake, in Januaries past, of setting near unattainable writing resolutions: write for three additional hours a day, send out five queries every other day, submit three manuscripts each week, read dozens of books on writing and editing, etc., etc.

When February rolled around, I was exhausted. Trying to jam so much in caused lots of stress. My efforts were not well thought out. The quality of my writing suffered.

My hard drive overflowed with articles, stories, and books. However, I didn’t polish the majority of what I started. My office was a hub of activity, with myriad distractions and interruptions. I could write amid the chaos but effective editing and rewriting were difficult. I ended up submitting only a fraction of what I wrote because I knew my work wasn’t up to par.

Last November, I decided not to wait until January to set new writing goals. I wanted to try something different. I didn’t want to feel so stressed that the mere thought of writing evoked dread.

I needed a place away from the bustle. My bedroom was the only feasible option. I purchased an inexpensive desk and set up my laptop. Viola! Almost zero interruptions. Plus, with no Internet connection, I wasn’t tempted to waste time checking and rechecking email, or visiting blogs.

I established five simple goals, sans rigid restrictions: write, polish, learn, attend, and send. I posted the list at the bottom of my computer screen. I already wrote on regular basis, a habit I would continue. Polish could be achieved when I secluded myself at my new desk; my flash drive made it easy to transport files from computer to computer. Learn took in studying anything that would further my knowledge of writing, editing, markets, etc. Attend meant going to workshops and critique group. The first four goals set me up for the last: submit, which I felt better about than ever before.

My life is far from simple. No two days are ever the same. But, with my new goals in place, I've resolved not to fret over daily or weekly quotas. Instead, each day, I ask myself if I'm doing my best in at least one or two things on the list. I focus on feeling good about my accomplishments, not dwelling on what I haven't done.

Now, writing is once again enjoyable. Overall, I feel the quantity and quality of my writing has increased. So have my submissions and publishing prospects. I’m excited about the possibilities the New Year will bring.

The year in review - LDS publishing from AML list

2008-01-07T12:10:00.000-06:00

Fascinating read from the AML discussion site. I'd have posted this on the forum but I've forgotten my password and username . . . will have to look them up!

http://forums.mormonletters.org/yaf_postst259_Mormon-Literature-Years-in-Review--Part-1.aspx

Janet

Book Review: Craft & Technique, by Paul Raymond Martin

2008-01-04T11:17:00.000-06:00

Writers can be a lonely group of people. If we're not writing, we're editing. If we're not editing, we might be off somewhere stewing over our next plot line or chapter.

Then again, some of us would like to be like that. For those of us who are mothers or fathers, there are other daily demands. You know the kind - important things like a job or putting food on the table or helping a child with their homework.

It can make "being a writer" a bit of a challenge. That is why I find certain writers' books so helpful. They boil down the most essential elements of writing, so that when I actually sit at the computer TO write, I'm more effective.

Craft & Technique, by Paul Raymond Martin, is one such book. I love this book. It is the one I reach for most often. If I'm in a writing bind, I reach for this book. If I'm taking a break, I reach for this book. It is that good.

At first glance, this little 3 1/2" x 5" book might not seem like much. But oh what impact it carries! The cover of the book states that Craft & Technique "includes more than 300 aphorisms and insights." And it is precisely its pithy quotes I love. For example:

"Think of your writing as a house before moving day. You have to get rid of the clutter."

"Interest Level equals Word Count divided by New Information."

"Writers write long when they haven't taken the time to write short" (p. 4).

The author includes savvy advice in all six chapters: Characterization; Dialogue; Plot; Fiction Techniques; Style; and Voice. Each chapter is equally as refined and potent.

I'm a mother. It's hard to find writing time. Even harder to find time to study what makes great writing. Is it any wonder then that in my house this book is dog-eared and well-used?

Writers might be a lonely group of people, but we also are very busy people. If you need a great book that's a quick read, Craft & Technique is just the thing. Not only will your writing improve from studying it, but you'll enjoy the experience (in the brief snatches of time you might have).

A Writer's Reputation

2008-01-03T11:28:00.000-06:00

by Terrie

When I started out in writing, I sent out nearly everything I wrote. I figured no one would remember me if it was bad. Unfortunately, of course, some of the bad stuff got published, but no problem. A magazine is only around for a month…at least it was then.

Today, some of my bad writing has been posted on the Internet, as magazines put up online archives. Those stories I figured would disappear are still floating around, ready to be found.

Thanks to archives, sites that do nothing but archive the internet, and Google, what we write may still be floating around long after the Second Coming. It’s there for agents and potential publishers to track down. It’s there for readers to find. It’s there to hurt or help your reputation.

Everything you put online is important. You just don’t know who is looking. My publisher found me through a free online column I write, which led him to my website. If I hadn’t been taking my work in those places seriously, I wouldn’t have been offered a contract. Those bits of writing were my resume.

Often when I review applications at BellaOnline, I google an applicant. Sometimes what I find gets them rejected. Sometimes it strengthens a weak application. Your past writing and activities matter.

Whether you are blogging or keeping a family website, make sure every bit of writing you do is worthy of a publisher’s eye. You don’t know who is checking your out because they need a project. If you want to write LDS books, be sure you speak well of the church. If you want to write a parenting book, eye your online writing for suitability. Don’t lose a great opportunity over a little bit of thoughtless writing!

New Year's Resolutions? I don't make 'em

2008-01-02T10:45:00.000-06:00

by Janet

I find that New Year's resolutions set me up for failure. I'm a little vulnerable at that time of the year - I'm still recovering from Christmas and some unrealistic expectations I sometimes have for the holidays. I am putting away decorations and restoring the house to its previous condition. I'm a little overwhelmed about getting my life organized again.

I find that making a resolution or goal in the moment is far more effective for me. This kind of resolution occurs when I'm deeply involved in the creative process, such as:

I will finish this manuscript and submit it to_______. A realistic date is added.

I periodically submit articles, essays, etc. and put them on a calendar. That way, I have ongoing submissions and rejections to track, and I find more submission sources. There's never really a blank on my calendar. I'm always trying to move forward.

A few months ago, as I thought through my writing as a business as well as a creative enterprise, I determined how many workshops I will attend per year, keeping in mind what I want to accomplish by attending them. They are already blocked out on my calendar.

This new year, however, I have entered a BIAM (book in a month) activity at Tristi's blog. That may give me the incentive to finish the work in progress, which is always on my mind, but needs to be on paper, or at least on the computer screen. It will be interesting to see how I do with this challenge. If I don't complete the book by the end of January, at least I'll have made progress. And I won't kick myself if it's not done.

One resolution I make every year, though:

I will not have overdue library books.

Oops, I just checked my online library account and . . . you guessed it. Now my goal is to put library due dates on my calendar, so Outlook will nag me.

OK, OK, I just made a resolution.

Change begins with a blank page

2008-01-01T15:07:00.000-06:00

by Patricia

A new year has begun, and as it does we post our new calendars with all new spaces, waiting to be filled with appointments and dates, celebrations and sorrows.

For writers, this should be the time we open a new document, a new journal, a new reporter's notebook. Make this the year you set a goal to explore the story that's been simmering in your imagination. Release the manuscript you put away a few years ago, thinking it unpublishable, and revise it. Give yourself the gift of time and set aside a portion of your day -- no matter how small -- to write.

Some people embrace change, others fear it. Change brings about the unexpected. To change means we are forced out of our comfort zones. We must sink or swim, run or be left behind.

For many of us, change begins with a blank page and the decision to fill first one, then another, and another. On rare occasions, the page fills quickly. But mostly we stare at that blank page, fearing that we won't have anything worthwhile to fill it with.

When I wrote the last book in the Kevin Kirk Chronicles series, The Final Farewell, I knew Kevin would be faced with many blank pages: life after high school, college, the choice whether or not to serve a mission. As he journeyed through his senior year of high school, his future just beyond the horizon, he had decisions to make. Some were easy. A few, like whether to serve a mission, were not.

The answers were not there for him. He had to make the effort to find them for himself. There were tools all around him, friends and family for support, experiences he could draw from, to help him as he made that final decision. Throughout the book the blank page loomed, waiting for the time when Kevin decided to sit down, make his choice and write the first sentence.

It's tough to choose sometimes; tough to commit to something when you have no assurance it will be successful. But what if you don't commit? What if you don't do that thing you dare?

What if you don't fill that page?

Sometimes, it may not matter. But most of the time, it matters a lot. Maybe not for others, but it will matter to you.

Many missionaries will serve their entire mission and not have an opportunity to baptize someone. Yet many of those missionaries will tell you what they learned about themselves during those two years of service made the mission worth it. They learned about compassion from their experiences in the mission field, they gained a greater understanding of the gospel by working with priesthood leaders, members, and the public. They become more sensitive to the subtle messages of the Spirit. They learned to be more reliant on the Lord.

Do concert pianists consider the years of lessons and practice to be a waste because they didn't earn any money for practicing? No. Do marathon runners look at the miles they ran in preparation for a race to be hours spent running nowhere? Of course not.

And neither should we, as writers, think of writing as an idle activity. It's our practice, our workout, preparing us for all the blank pages that will come in our lives, blank pages that only we can fill.

Don't be afraid of blank pages.

Don't be afraid to embrace change.

Faith, Hope, and Charity

2007-12-24T09:22:00.000-06:00

by Lori Nawyn

My grandparents worked from dawn until dusk, into their nineties, to maintain the life they loved. Their cozy home was nestled in a picturesque mountain valley at the edge of Idaho’s Snake River. Even after they retired from dry farming, life was always busy with abundant chores and hardships. There were horses and other animals to feed and tend, machinery, vehicles, and outbuildings to maintain and repair, plus all the other inherent trials of living and working in a remote area. There was no garbage pickup, no city sewer and water, no natural gas. They were on their own to survive. Traveling the distance to “town” to pick up supplies and groceries necessitated a near all day commitment, precious time that wasn’t easy to spare.

Many would’ve considered their life difficult and stressful. By most definitions, it was. Yet they chose to live fully and make the most of what they had. They chose to give of their time to minister to the needs of family and friends. They chose to find happiness in little things that might have seemed insignificant to the rest of the world. In the end, they discovered and passed on an important secret: true joy comes from things simple and heartfelt, especially at Christmas.

Throughout my life, I enjoyed the blessing of experiencing, with my grandparents, what I can best term as Hallmark Hall of Fame Christmases. My grandfather cut his own firewood and stockpiled it for the frigid days and long, bitter nights of winter. The cozy flames not heated my grandparent’s home but toasted numerous numb red fingers and noses back to warmth after hours spent sledding in the pasture or skating on the pond.

Grandpa loved adventure and there were always snowmobile trips and rides in snowplanes he built with his own hands. Grandma loved to cook for her brood of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. From her mouth-watering fried chicken and potato salad to special cakes and cookies made from scratch, no one ever went hungry.

Each Christmas, a fragrant evergreen was cut from a nearby hillside and adorned with inexpensive decorations. Stockings were hung by the wood stove with care and a brilliant lighted wooden star illuminated the yard and shone as a beacon to travelers on dark, snowy nights.

We grandchildren didn’t look forward to material gifts from our grandparents, and they were few and far between. That was never a concern for us -- we already had the best of what could be given. Grandpa and Grandma knew happiness at Christmas, or any time of year, didn’t come from sales circulars, the mall, or the Internet.

As I grew up and my life became more complex, often fraught with heartache and worry, I looked to my grandparents as shining examples of how life could and should be lived. Last year on Christmas morning, however, tragedy struck. Just as I nestled into the couch to watch my daughters open their gifts from Santa, my uncle phoned.

“Lori,” he sobbed, “your grandmother has died.”

Five days later, my grandfather passed away as well. My life, and Christmas itself, seemed to shatter into a thousand tiny pieces. I looked forward to bleak, teary days filled with sadness. How could I ever look at Christmas the same way again?

Over the ensuing weeks, I am grateful that a truth flickered, and then burned brightly, deep within my heart: Grandpa and Grandma were gone from this world but Christmas was still Christmas. It remained a precious time to celebrate the birth of the Savior and His gift of love that extends to all, a time to count and fully comprehend our many blessings, a time to share what is in our hearts with family and friends. It remained the very Christmas my grandparents commemorated each year with joy and anticipation though they, too, had suffered loss -- the deaths of countless friends and relatives, including their parents and siblings, and the death of their infant son, Roger.

My grandparents had given me a blueprint I wanted to follow. Humbled, I realized I wanted to construct a legacy that would bless the lives of future generations, just as my life had been blessed. The virtues of faith, hope, and charity came to mind. As I began to more fully comprehend how those three simple, yet profoundly inseparable, words impacted my life and how they could guide me, I decided to design and illustrate something that would remind me of their power: three angels named, Faith, Hope, and Charity.

I invite you to discuss with your family what these words mean to you during this Christmas season. Perhaps you will want to write down your impressions so future generations can know what is in your heart. Choosing to fully embrace the season, despite our various trials, in a way that celebrates life and love, faith, hope, and charity, will yield the true joy the holiday was intended to bring.

Christmas is a magical time, and will always be so. The greatest gifts are indeed as simple and heartfelt as the gift of a baby born in a stable.

A Christmas Memory

2007-12-23T22:07:00.000-06:00

The traditional nativity was enacted, with the narrator reading the beloved and familiar verses from Luke. The Angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, who journeyed to the manger to find Joseph and Mary, cradling the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:13-14). The pantomime ended with the cast and congregation singing “Silent Night.”

It was the conclusion of the usual ward Christmas party, with one departure from tradition: instead of Primary children, the nativity story was portrayed by the fifteen and sixteen year olds. I don’t know how their Sunday School teachers persuaded them to don old white temple dresses and pose as angels, or to wear striped bathrobes as shepherds, but they did, and that night they played their parts with reverence, and a sense of awe came over all who watched.

For me, it was especially touching to see my sixteen year old son as an angel, the light shining on his straight blond hair as he stood next to his best friend, nearly a foot taller, with jeans and sneakers showing under the old white dress, and his five-o’clock shadow making an appearance too. But in that moment they were angels; they believed; and we believed.

These special young people have gone on to missions, college, graduate school, marriage, families, and mortgages. They are faithful and stalwart ward members living in many parts of the country, and they still hold that spark of reverence in their hearts that we all felt at that memorable night. And for that and many other reasons, their interpretation of the Nativity will always be one of my favorite Christmas memories.

Practice, Practice, Practice

2007-12-23T06:28:00.001-06:00

Years and years ago, against the judgment of people who said to never write for free, I accepted an online column. I love to write, but my life was packed full of homeschooling, children, church, and family and I wasn’t doing enough of it. Even though my professional career was on hold, I wanted to keep up with my work, and I figured out that I needed deadlines to make it happen. So I started writing this column.

I soon learned that the mere act of having to produce 1000 words a week that other people would read improved my skills. When I wrote more often, I improved faster. I didn’t see the process happening, of course, but recently I was cleaning out some boxes (I’ve lived here a year and a half and though maybe I should finish unpacking) and came across some old manuscripts. I looked them over and cringed. I wrote like that—and sent it to publishers? I wondered how I ever got published!

I got a stack of writing books for Christmas, which we had early this year, and I’m learning a lot from them. But in many ways, I learn just as much by sitting in front of a computer and putting words on paper…well, a screen, these days. I’m old enough that it used to be actual paper I put my words on. As I test out ways to structure, to phrase, to get my point across, as I experiment with styles and ideas, I learn more about the writer I want to be. The free places I write give me a safe place to test out skills I’m not ready to send to publishers.

These days, it’s easier. Anyone can have a blog or a website, and I put a great deal of writing on my blogs and sites. I feel safer testing there, since I can go back and make changes at any time. I can change the cringe-inspiring writing every week, if I want to. The internet is a great place for practice pieces and can give you the courage to send your words out to paying resources.

As C. S. Bezas mentioned, Elder Ballard wants us to blog, which means that blogging can now serve two purposes. It can help us develop our writing skills and ideas, while helping out the church.

Why not try it?

The Courage to Write

2007-12-18T11:52:00.001-06:00

LatterDayAuthors.com's dear Terrie Bittner mentioned in her blog below about the courage it takes to write. I agree. Her post has come during an important time of the world's history. Much is in commotion. Voices clamor for attention. Some of those voices insist on honesty in their verbose declarations. But others couldn't care less for the things of integrity. They seem only interested in elevating their voice above the others.

It is during this cacophony of sound that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a request to its general membership ... and it may be one that interests you as a writer.

Here is an excerpt of that request, coming from Elder M. Russell Ballard:

“We cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches,” he said.

“While some conversations have audiences in the thousands or even millions, most are much, much smaller. But all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time.”

The rest of the information can be found at this link. The important piece of knowledge from this whole statement is that the Lord needs YOU as a writer. He needs your words, He needs your knowledge, He needs your love for Him to shine brighter than ever before.

The Church now requests that the general membership use blogs and other forms of new media to share the joy the gospel brings. Of course, as Elder Ballard stated, "There is no need to become defensive or belligerent" in those communications. As always, we are to be examples of believers and followers of Christ. Our decorum influences others at all times.

So if there were ever a time to shun discouragement or despair regarding your own writing, it is now. The Church needs your voice as a voice of reason during a time of great turmoil and cacophony of sound. You, yes, you are a writer and you are being called forth to share your thoughts, your words, and your testimonies with the world!

Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men

2007-12-16T11:36:00.000-06:00

Last night my husband asked me what I’d like for Christmas.

“Well, I’d like peace on earth, good will toward men,” I began . . .

When visiting Dayton Ohio recently, we attended an event at Wright State University’s basketball arena. We circled the facility, looking for our section, when a sign caught my attention. Actually, I stopped right in my tracks. The sign read “Bombers Club.” I wondered where “Terrorist Club” might be. I later learned that Bombers Club is an elite group of sponsors who have their own suite. They were around long before 9-11, and I don't suppose changing their name is an option.

It made me think of the changes in my own life since 9-11. We bought our home 15 years ago from a couple who retired and moved to be closer to their son. Years later, on the morning of September 11, 2001, the woman and her daughter boarded a plane in Boston, bound to LA. Instead of arriving in LA, it plowed into the first of the two Twin Towers that were the terrorists’ targets. I believe our home mourned. I knew where the daughter’s bedroom had been (from the color of the carpet) and stood at the sink, wondering how many meals the mother had prepared from that very spot, and how many times she must have glanced out the window to see what her children were doing.

I think of the scripture, D & C: 9:30: “I tell you these things because of your prayers; wherefore, treasure up wisdom in your bosoms, lest the wickedness of men reveal these things unto you by their wickedness, in a manner which shall speak in your ears with a voice louder than that which shall shake the earth; but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear”, and still I wonder how we could have prepared for such a catastrophic event to happen in our country. I believe, though, that the scripture has personal application. If we think of the worst that could happen to us in our own lives, preparation takes on a different meaning.

Preparation could mean having your will, power of attorney, living will, and other pertinent documents up to date, so family members will know of your wishes. That could save many agonizing moments and decisions, and also spare them many legal questions, if all is in order. Discussing these subjects with our children may not be easy, but it’s important. Deciding on guardianship of young children requires soul-searching and prayer, and the hope that the guardians will never be needed.

Simply knowing the basics will give our children a feeling of security.

Boarding a plane, which some people still refuse to do after that agonizing day, is more stressful. Every time we arrive at an airport, we are subject to modifications in the security screening procedure, even to the point of the new three-ounce rules. You can’t even take a large tube of toothpaste which has been rolled up, with an ounce of two of paste left. No, the tube must be three ounces or less when it was full. A piece of foil-wrapped gum can set off metal detectors. We are forced to take off sweaters, jackets, shoes, watches, and belts, and to empty our pockets of any objects which might contain metal. Laptops must be taken out of their cases and scanned separately. No doubt the next time I travel, there will be a new rule in place. I have not flown when the alert level has not been “raised to orange.” It’s less stressful to simply plan ahead for these regulations, arrive at the airport earlier and follow the rules, created to catch the bad guys, which inconvenience the good guys.

I believe that if we listen to our prophet and follow his counsel, we shall not fear. Our 72- hour kits and emergency plans should be in place. We should do our best to get out of debt. We should do a better job of taking care of each other.

Then my Christmas wish takes on a different meaning, and reminds me of the many aspects of life in which I can prepare, and the importance of establishing peace in our own lives and families. And then, having done what we can to prepare for whatever may happen to us and our loved ones, we can take comfort and strength from the counsel of this hymn, one of my favorites:

How gentle God’s commands!
How kind his precepts are!
Come, cast your burden on the Lord
And trust his constant care.

Beneath his watchful eye,
His Saints securely dwell!
That hand which bears all nature up
Shall guard his children well.

Why should this anxious load
Press down your weary mind!
Haste to your Heavenly Father’s throne
And sweet refreshment find.

Hs goodness stands approved,
Unchanged from day to day;
I’ll drop my burden at his feet
And bear a song away.

Start Again

2007-12-15T19:09:00.000-06:00

I am restored!
For some technical reason I cannot post to this blog from my computer so I have to use the PC laptop belonging to my husband. If I leave things lying around on his desk heaven only knows what will happen to them since everybody in this family also uses this computer. It becomes the homework place, the chat with teenage friends place, the business place, and of course my blogspot place.
After my last post, the paper that has my login information was misplaced. I was sure it had been tossed out for fertilizer at the local dump. I tried everything I thought I might have used as my password and nothing worked. Finally I requested for it to be restored. The problem was that the response required cutting and pasting a convoluted gobbledy goop call number from an e-mail sent to my e-mail address which is on "my" computer. Try as I might typing in the address on my husband's computer resulted in nothing.
Then one day I was sorting through miscellaneous papers my grandchildren had used to "play school" with and there it was....my missing page with the proper information to login into this
blog.
And suddenly I was restored....and relieved.
I apologize for being gone for so long. The important thing is that I am back.
This situation has caused me to reflect on a much bigger picture... that of the Lost Sheep.
How often in a person's life there is some small thing that prevents him or her from being totally able to be in the place he or she is supposed to be.
Just as I am sure some of you were silently criticizing my absence, in general we tend to look at what we think we are seeing in somebody's life and think we know what is going on.
And just as I was earnestly seeking a solution to my problem I'm sure many of those Lost Sheep are also trying to find solutions to their problems as well.
Probably somebody with greater expertise in computer technology would have figured out my dilemma much quicker than I did. And probably many of us with greater testimonies and gospel knowledge could figure out the way for the Lost Sheep much quicker and more effectively than they do. There is, however, something that is much more permanent in the learning curve if we all figure out our own problems. And just as my paper showed up in a very unexpected location, so do the answers to our dilemmas in life often show up in very unexpected ways or places.
At this Christmas time and throughout the year I believe our focus should be more on the love we should or do have for all of God's children than worrying about whether or not we think they've been restored or where we think they are on the pathway leading to Salvation.
This experience has humbled me showing me how quickly I went from being in the loop of the group to being a Lost Sheep. My new goal is to be more patient and Christlike.

Be Not Afraid

2007-12-15T14:17:00.000-06:00

by Terrie Lynn Bittner

I received The Rock That is Higher: Story as Truth for Christmas, which we had early this year. It is by Madeleine L’engle, the author of Wrinkle in Time. The book is about writing, but even more about religion. L’engle, who died recently, was a devout Episcopalian and this book was written shortly after she was in a terrible car accident that should have taken her life, and led to some intense thoughts about truth and scripture, as well as writing.

She spoke at Wheaton College, a place she loved and had agreed to donate her papers to. However, she was attacked by a group of Christians who objected to Wrinkle in Time. She could tell they didn’t want answers—they only asked the questions to make others hear their point of view, and in fact, interrupted her answers so she was unable to respond to them. They wanted only one perspective to be known. She was shaken by the experience and spent a great deal of time thinking about it. In the book, she writes:

“How do I glorify God in this matter? I think the only way I know is to continue to write what is given me, to write to the best of my ability. I wrote A Wrinkle in Time as a hymn of praise to God, so I must let it stand as it is and not be fearful when it is misunderstood.”

People don’t often think of writing as a career that takes courage. We sit at a desk all day. Other than carpal tunnel and the risk of being buried under the weight of our rejection letters, how dangerous can the job be? However, if we write things that matter to us, if we write about truth (as opposed to facts) and about great principles, we do indeed put ourselves at risk of attack.

When my first book came out, one reviewer was offended by the old-fashionedness of the book, of the idea of moms staying home, of a wife who combed her hair before her husband came home, that sort of thing that is no longer in style. (Who knew combing your hair was controversial?) But my portrayal of the typical homeschooling parent as female was actually factual, as well as truthful. I once accidentally encountered a furious debate (with no one defending me, so it was more of an agreement than a debate) online about me, because I suggested the various factions of homeschoolers stop attacking each other. They all agreed I was single-handedly destroying homeschooling, and furthermore…I was a Mormon. Who gave Mormons the right to represent homeschooling?

I felt intimidated for a bit. I thought I was preaching to the choir, as they say, so who expected my book to generate such intense anger? But I realized if I’m going to write about things that matter to me, I’m going to make people mad over the years. I heard that Mormons shouldn’t be allowed to represent homeschooling as often as Romney hears a Mormon shouldn’t be allowed to be president. Whether I’m writing that Sunbeams don’t need candy during class or that Noah might have been around for the Tower of Babel, I’ll generate controversy. And when I write about more intense things—the gospel, for instance—the emails can become downright scary.

But if my writing is a hymn to God, I must let it stand and not be fearful, as L’engle suggested. When I started my first writing career and was unable to sell anything, I prayed to know why. I was told my writing was fluffy and fun, which is okay, but it wasn’t my calling. My calling was to teach, and so my writing must teach truth.

Truth makes us free, but it also makes us targets. So, if you’re telling the truth in your writing (as opposed to facts), put on your armor and don’t be afraid.

Reading to Write

2007-12-05T20:16:00.000-06:00

by Patricia

I made up my mind a few months ago to get serious about reading. Why?

Because if you want to write, you have to read.

It's not that I wasn't reading anything at all. I read the scriptures. I read the newspaper. (I also write for a newspaper, but that's another story.) I read my emails. I'm a regular blog reader. I read my work-in-progress (and usually get depressed by my lack of progress).

The problem? I wasn't reading in the genre I write.

I wasn't reading children's books.

Lin Oliver, the executive director of SCBWI, gave the keynote address at our regional conference in September. She shared several ways writers and illustrators could improve their work, and reading more children's books was high on her list of things to do.

I am much better at creating excuses than I am fine works of literature. Sadly, I had convinced myself I didn't have time to read because I had a book to revise, and my time was so limited that I needed to spend it producing work, rather than reading the work of others. The problem is, I want to read in the same way I want to write -- all at once, from start to finish.

I've just about convinced myself that desire is not practical as far as writing is concerned. Though I still wish for blocks of uninterrupted time, I regularly tell myself one page is better than nothing and at least brings me closer to the end. But when it comes to reading, I'd still prefer to pick up a book and not put it down until I've reached the last page.

After the conference, I decided to develop the reading habit, even if it was just a few pages a day. I was already reading the morning paper while using my exercise bike. I set a goal to use the last few minutes of my workout to read a book -- even if I only finished one chapter.

I'm pleased to say that since September, I've read six books -- and I understand why it's so important now to read in the genre I'm writing, especially since I spend my days stringing words journalism-style. I need to remember the pleasure of escaping to another world, as I have while reading Anna of Byzantium. I need to revel in the beauty and simplicity of a scene formed in free verse, as in Out of the Dust. I need to be reminded of the tough decisions children have to make as they form and sever friendships, like in the story True Friends. And I need to be reminded that in children's books anything is possible, as in Whittington.

Best of all, the more I read, the more I want to write, and the happier I am knowing I have chosen to spend my free time writing for children -- the best, most imaginative, and most inquisitive audience of all.

Use Your Writing Skills as Christmas Gifts

2007-12-03T11:42:00.000-06:00

As writers, we have some built in Christmas presents we can give for little or no cost. If you’re not good at crafts, try some do-it-yourself writing instead.

I know a writer who enrolls the older children in her family circle in a story of the month club. Each month she sends them an installment of a story about the character she’s created. The gift lasts all year long and lets her play with a story suited especially to her audience.
What about term paper help? Naturally, we won’t write their term papers, but a nearby niece or nephew might appreciate some guaranteed help through the coming school year. Editing, advising, and proofreading are all much needed student gifts.

If you have a budding novelist on your list, give a favorite writing book, perhaps from your own collection, and include a gift certificate for help with this year’s writing projects. Perhaps a monthly meeting over lunch at your house will encourage your future writer, whether an adult or a child, to reach the next level. In addition, it demonstrates your faith in his ability to get published.

Is there a homeschooling family on the list? Why not create a personalized writing unit study for them to use this school year? Include an offer to read their writing. It’s more motivating to write when someone besides Mom is doing the reading.

Most writers are good at research. If someone in your family needs research done—not for a term paper, of course, but perhaps for a personal project, offer your services as an expert researcher for five hours.

Use your imagination. Writing involves a lot of different skills, many of which add up to a very nice Christmas gift for non-writers, future writers, and readers.

Learn new words...feed the world!

2007-11-23T17:59:00.000-06:00

I've been playing at Freerice.com lately, during my lunch break.
http://www.freerice.com

Every writer needs a spectacular vocabulary in order to choose exactly the right word. Freerice.com is a vocabulary building game. You're given a word and have to choose among three possible definitions, some of which are the less common usage. It's great for SAT prep, but also great for writers.

There's an added bonus. Everytime you get a word right, the site donates ten grains of rice to the United Nations to feed the hungry. Ten grains may not seem like much, but combined with the grains earned by all the other word-hungry people on the site, it makes a difference. Yesterday, those of us who learned between turkey helpings donated 147,385,350 grains of rice. You can check their history to see how much has been donated altogether.

I find the combination very addictive. I like learning new words and I like feeding the hungry. As I watch the grains of rice fill my "bowl" and see the running total, I feel good, which of course, motivates me to play a little longer, but also to try to remember the words I miss so I'll get them right next time.

The game learns your abilities as you play, although it doesn't save from game to game. It gives you some test words to choose your level. If you miss several words, it slides you down. If you get several right, it slides you up. The goal is to make you keep learning without getting frustrated.

There are 100 levels, but I read few people make it past 50. I keep hovering around 40, up a little, down a little. I am going to make it to that magic 50.

Ideas are like crystals

2007-11-19T21:11:00.000-06:00

by Patricia

In The Right to Write, author Julia Cameron wrote that ideas are like crystals in the mind of an artist. Now, I'm not a chemist or a mathemetician so I can't give you all the details of how and why crystals form and the results that occur when they connect. Actually, I'm not sure if I can explain how and why ideas form and what happens when, like pieces of a puzzle, they begin to lock into place. All I know is that when I am writing a novel, scenes and snippets enter my mind, one after another. Getting them into a document in some form of logical order is sometimes a struggle. Occasionally, ideas surface, only to be discarded, trumped by ones that make more sense as part of the plot. One thing I have learned, though, is that the scenes that play over and over in my mind usually have some significant meaning and are meant to be included in the story.

One example of this occurred during the prewriting of the last book in the Kevin Kirk Chronicles series, The Final Farewell. (Prewriting includes all the time spent meditating on the story.) Two scenes played over and over in my mind and wouldn't go away. First, I kept seeing Kevin sitting on the bank of the Mississippi. Second, I saw Kevin at Fort Defiance, Ill., standing at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

I'm no psychologist so I can't claim to understand why these visions returned, over and over, and how I could know internally, instinctively, without knowing logically, why they were important to the story. It was as if they were the pole, the magnetic north my story compass was meant to point to.

The moment in the writing process did come, however, when I realized why these events were important.

I am, for lack of a more sophisticated term, a symbolic thinker. I'm sure that's why I am fascinated by parables in the scriptures and literary allusions. These two moments at the river are symbolic for Kevin. At the confluence, as he observes the two awesome, powerful rivers merging to make a whole, he realizes there are forces larger and more powerful in his life than he has been able to comprehend. On the riverbank, for the first time in his life he is keenly aware of the concept that, like a river, "time stops for no man." You either sink, swim, or sit on the bank and live the rest of your life afraid to ever make a move.

As I look back on the process of creating the story, I understand why these scenes are relevant to the decision Kevin must ultimately make in the story, how they are almost like tools that unlock a compartment of knowlege inside himself, helping him understand his own weakness and to have confidence in his faith. But at the time I was in the creative process, the scenes were snippets of time that, at the time, didn't appear to connect to the story at all.

The point of my rambling is this: Don't discount those recurring scenes, those odd bits of vision that keep popping up in your mind. Don't dismiss the snippets of action you daydream or visit over and over in your sleep.

Your brain may be trying to tell you something.

Snake for Thanksgiving

2007-11-13T14:27:00.001-06:00

By David Woolley

I never should have agreed to ten days in a snake-infested jungle, hanging out with local Indian villagers and checking out ancient ruins as possible settings for a future book. But when Ryan Wilson (93 Premier) won an almost-all-expense-paid spot on the Choice Humanitarian cultural work project and expedition to the hinterlands of Guatemala and when his parents declined to fill the required chaperon position, dummy me, I accepted the calling to watch over the boy. Which means when those indigenous cannibals come after us white men, I'll volunteer to go hunt for more firewood while they boil Ryan in a pot.

Early this coming Saturday morning, November 17th, we arrive in Guatemala City and hook up with our eight-member expeditionary team before puddle-jumping in a prop plane into the mountain jungles of Guatemala. Picture a remote airstrip just wide enough for one 12-seat, rusty-bucket, single engine craft from the 1960s to squeeze between mammoth rain forest vegetation rising forty feet off the jungle floor. No radar. No tower. No terminal. Nothing but a lone wind sock made from the intestines of the last white man to land in those parts and you get just an inkling of the stupidity required to volunteer for an adventure like this.

The pre-departure handout from the expeditionary force reads: "In Guatemala we run into numerous creatures which the villagers will tell you cause Muerto--dos horas. All you Spanish speakers out there are already laughing. For you non-linguistic types, the rough translation is "dead in two hours." The literal translation is, "What the heck was I thinking?" In this particular Central American jungle there are, and I quote, "coral snakes, poisonous lizards, poisonous millipedes, and tarantulas," to say nothing of the larger beasts with long fangs and complete disregard for the power of a US passport or the long arm of the US State Department. The advice from the expeditionary force? Be careful. The closest hospital is more than a two hour mad-dash through the jungle. I repeat: "Muerto, dos horas!"

Right next to the I-hate-poisonous-creatures line is the I-detest-pre-departure-shots-filled-with-half-dead-microscopic-organisms line. All that doctored-up gamma globulin is engineered to develop an immunity to yellow fever, white fever, black plague, DPT, DT and Sparta. And they still don't have a shot for the common cold. But then, after reviewing the goal production stats from the U18 state cup third group match, we haven't much of a shot either.

There are lots of shots for this expedition, none of which I have allowed be administered to me due to my complete hatred of needles. Needles in the arm. In the bum. In the thigh. One in my big toe. They're the kind that swell up, hurt lots and produce hallucinations of men with spears and painted faces. The expedition Nazis (aka the Wilson family) finally stepped in and set up an appointment with the health department on Wednesday morning, otherwise the immigration service would have likely booted me from the plane. We could hope, right?

There are some redeeming virtues to this expedition. Ryan Wilson will likely never complain about his mother's cooking again. I get to visit the most likely site for the ancient coastal mountain Land of Nephi (Guatemala City), the likely site of the City of Nephi (Kaminaljuyu) and also the ruins of the most likely location for the Mulekite's ancient city of Zarahemla (Tikal) on the sprawling eastern plains region of the country. We both get to play soccer with the locals (Go Rangers) as long as we bring our own ball. No pig bladders please. We get to help put in the seasonal crops. And the Guatemalan Indian villagers get to watch us run for cover at the first sighting of an *eighty-legged millipede.

So next Thursday, November 22nd, while the rest of you are enjoying moist turkey, mashed potatoes accented with a light brown gravy, a helping of your mother's yams, some sage & onion dressing and your aunt's sweet rolls, Ryan and I will be dodging poisonous darts from the rival villagers across the piranha-infested Grijavla River while fighting over the last helping of raw snake flesh. In all your feasting next week, don't forget to offer a prayer of thanks in our behalf. We'll likely not be in much of a thankful state of mind.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

*Editors Note: millepedes have between 80-450 legs so an eighty-legged poisonous millipede like the one mentioned above, would give us the greatest chance of survival. Its much slower and certainly out-runnable.

Getting a Late Start

2007-11-13T10:25:00.000-06:00

There is an article in the paper about a woman in my area who didn’t commence to be a writer until she was fifty. Her husband told her she’d always wanted to and she’d best get started. Robin Hathaway followed the usual path, lots of rejections, eventually a few with encouraging notes, but after ten years, she hadn’t sold anything and decided to quit. Her daughter talked her into one more try—the Saint Martin’s mystery book contest. She entered, put it out of her mind, and won. Her first book was published when she was sixty and she’s doing pretty well these days.

I’m rapidly approaching fifty, and although I have a book out and one on the way, I am now trying to teach myself to write fiction. Oh, I’ve written it, even sold a few short stories, but they’re bad. (Some are online at LDS.org if you don’t believe me.) This time, I want to do it right. I want to make things up sometimes and the type of writing I do doesn’t let you make things up.

It’s encouraging to know writing is one career you don’t have to get started on when you’re 21. I love knowing that when I send in a manuscript, the readers haven’t a clue that the author has gray hair, wrinkled clothes, and a messy office. If the writing seems immature, they can picture me as a hopeful twenty-year-old instead of an experienced middle-aged woman, as long as they don’t read my published books first and find out I have grown children.

Hathaway’s advice to writers is to persevere. It’s good advice. Many great writers took decades to get noticed, so if this is important to you, keep sending out your work.

But don’t forget to hone your skills while you’re submitting. It’s not enough to submit. You have to study and practice, just as you do with anything else you hope to do well.

Giving Thanks

2007-11-10T23:32:00.000-06:00

During the month of November I try to think every single day about things I am thankful for. In a writerly way I would like to mention a few of those things I appreciate and express my gratitude towards.

A written form of communication. I am grateful we do not have to rely on the ancient tradition of the story keeper where one person was chosen at a very young age to memorize and retain the history and information of the tribe since written form of communication was not readily available to all of them.

Symbols in the form of numbers and letters that speak to me off of a piece of paper when organized together to create words, phrases, and paragraphs.

Punctuation. It's like road signs that tell us when to stop, be cautious, slow down, speed up, and watch for animals interrupting the journey.

Authors of ages past who have preserved bits and pieces of their eras, their beliefs, their cultural mores, their rules and standards in the things they've written whether it be fiction or nonfiction. This helps me better understand the whys of humanity.

I am amazed that it isn't the generals, the political or religious leaders I look to historically, it's the writers. The writers are the purveyors of our history just as the ancient story keepers did. And I am so grateful they did and still do.

Books...how could I make a list and not include books. I can go anyplace, I can be anybody, I can escape any problem just by turning the pages of some book and allowing myself to jump into the midst of it.

And finally, I am so so thankful for writing paraphernalia, pencils, notebooks, papers, pens, old typewriters, modern computers, and the like that enable all of us to record who we are and what we think about humanity, and thus we all become the story keepers of our time.

The Autumn of Her Discontent

2007-11-04T18:24:00.000-06:00

A new, young, and very talented writer recently bemoaned her honorary mention placement in a local writing contest. Surely she should have done better! She even sought out the judge and consulted her to determine “what she had done wrong.” Of course, she had done nothing wrong, and had obviously done many things right; as we all know, judging is selective.

I told her this honor would look great on her resume, and who would know it was a small contest? An award is an award, and she had entered her work in a contest for the first time, which takes a lot of courage. For some of us it’s akin to the nightmare of being naked in school without your homework. And yet we do it.

And, with her first entry, she had won a prize. She should have been thrilled, and I hope she is by now. Perhaps, as gifted and as determined as she is, she is still unhappy about the outcome. That may spur her on to continued improvement I her writing, so perhaps that discontent will work for her. For me, I’ll take happiness, even if I wish I’d done better.

So October 25th’s advice at ldspublisher.blogspot.com was perfect: Celebrate every writing success and never lose your sense of wonder about each opportunity.

We’re taught to be modest in our personal lives, but most writers must blow their own horns to get noticed. It goes against the grain for most of us. But do list any writing success in your resume, and be proud of it.

And please take a moment to send me your favorite rejection letters! see details at my blog: www.janetkayjensen.blogspot.com

Remembering Why We Write

2007-11-03T13:39:00.000-05:00

My first book contract came at the worst possible time. My husband was living in the east and I was in the west, unable to join him until our western lives got wrapped up. My oldest daughter was getting married and I was packing and preparing for a wedding all at once. I had a very demanding calling. And then unexpectedly, I had to write a book on deadline.

One day I found myself feeling stressed and frustrated. I was behind in everything, the calling was getting harder, and the book wasn’t going. As I stared at the computer I felt ready to give up. I shot off an unhappy email to Patricia (yes, our Patricia) asking why I ever thought I wanted to be a writer in the first place. At the moment, it seemed like the least desirable career in the world.

Much to my surprise, she responded just moments later. I looked at a list of ten blessings that came into my life because I’m a writer. I wondered how she made that list so fast. Then I started to laugh. I recognized the list because I had written it myself some time ago. Patricia had challenged me to make the list. She made one too and we swapped lists. She had saved mine and in my moment of frustration, returned it to me.

We all write for different reasons, and we’ve all had different results. I’m guessing, though, that you could find ten ways writing has blessed your life. Write them down and put them in a safe place to refer to when you’ve gotten one too many rejection letters or the writing is going badly.

Or, send it to a friend who can return it in your moment of need.

Congratulations to Patricia!

2007-11-01T14:50:00.001-05:00

. . .. who won the "Scare-Your-Pants-Off" story starter at ldspublisher's blogspot! I highly recommend the site. If you're not familiar with it, take a look at it: http://www.ldspublisher.blogspot.com/

and be sure to read Patricia's entry.

With a Song in My Heart

2007-10-31T21:48:00.000-05:00

Sorry I've been out of the loop. It's because I haven't been home for quite awhile so I haven't been able to post. Tonight I'm posting on the "off" day. Isn't Halloween always some kind of an off day?

Over the past several weeks I've been carrying a project around with me that has been very cathartic and inspirational. I would encourage all of you to try it.

Taking one of those tiny "put in your pocket" church hymn books and a notebook, I've been copying lines out of the hymns that have some special meaning to me. Then I am combining the various lines without adding any extra words and making some kind of message or talk out of the words found in the hymns. There is an accompanist who is working up background music to play while I read the text.

There is great power in the words of the hymns. Sometimes I sit weeping as I write lines like: "Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice returning from his ways, while angels in their songs rejoice and cry, 'Behold, he prays!'"

Many times I find hidden treasures in the unfamiliar hymns, or in the un-sung verses of the familiar songs. "Restore my dear Savior the light of thy face. Thy soul cheering comfort impart. And let the sweet longing for thy Holy Place bring hope to my desolate heart."

Why am I doing this? I really have no idea. Nobody asked me to do it. I just wanted to see if I could.

I think we've basically come to the point in many of our lives where we need an excuse to follow spiritual promptings. We want an assignment to justify taking time out of our busy lives to feast upon things of the spirit. I am a very busy person, but I find if I heed the spiritual nudges, I receive an uplift and more energy to deal with all the necessary things I have to do. And so right now I am copying lines out of the hymns and feeding my soul.

Jilted Writers Contest

2007-10-26T09:42:00.000-05:00

Just for fun, I'm running a Jilted Writers Contest. Send in your best (or worst) rejection letter. Winners will receive wonderful prizes like bookmarks. See my blog: http://www.janetkayjensen.blogspot.com/ for details. So far the entries are hilarious.

But if yours is a tear-jerker, don't hesitate to send it, too.

Though My Talents May Be Small

2007-10-25T19:00:00.000-05:00

One of the many things on my desk--that actually belongs there--is a framed quote by President Hinckley, from a talk called I Believe. One part of the quote says, "My talents may not be great, but I can use them to bless the lives of others." The quote goes on, but ends like this: "I believe in the principle that I can make a difference in this world. It may be ever so small. But it will count for the greater good. The goodness of the world in which we live is the accumulated goodness of many small and seemingly inconsequential acts."

I read this over often as I set out to do my work. Because the majority of my writing is non-fiction, and designed to teach people things, it's something I like to keep in mind. My talents are considerably less than President Hinckley's, and sometimes I find myself wondering if there is even enough to make it worth the effort. But every now and then I get an email saying I helped. I may only be helping a small number of people, but as President Hinckley said, it's the accumulated small acts that add up to the good in the world. So my little morsal of encouragement or advice can be added to all the other morsals, or even the giant batches of help, and together, we writers are making a difference to someone.

Well Behaved Women Don't Leave Home Without It

2007-10-22T11:30:00.000-05:00

Don't leave home without what? Your business card. You can print them on your own computer or order inexpensive ones from various websites. Or you can go the custom route and spend $ on them. Whatever your style, never forget to have a few on hand.

I have met interesting people on planes and at dinners and all kinds of events and as we become acquainted and I tell them I'm a writer, they ask the inevitable question: "What have you published?" Fortunately, I can answer that with two concrete titles now, and hand them my card. It took years to reach this point. But don't wait until you are published to act like a published author, and don't apologize for not being published yet. Have a card ready that announces you are a writer, because you are.

If you are published, be sure to list your titles on your current business card. It's easy for someone to forget your name or book title unless it's in writing.

I recently attended a writers workshop (more on that in a future blog) where the presenter was excellent. Her subject was on being professional, and how to organize a killer PR plan (and a career plan as well).

One of her suggestions was that when you meet specific goals, you should reward yourself. This reward needs to be something you wouldn't ordinarily do for yourself.

So, forcing myself to go to the front of the room to introduce myself and thank her for her presentation, I told her that when my book comes out November 1, I am going to send flowers to myself. She said she loved the idea, would suggest it in her next workshop, and what was my book about? I told her the title and then . . .

The presenter next to her (a publicist) joined the conversation and said she'd seen my bookmark in the lobby and had wanted to find me and did I have any more materials? I just happened to have a press kit in my room down the hall. So I returned with it and she said, "Do you mind if I use this as an example when I present this afternoon?" I said "Please do, and please point out where it could be better." What an opportunity!

She also said "You have a killer title!" which pleased me immensely. I can't claim that it's original, though. "Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys" is an old folksong. I borrowed (stole) my title from it.

Well, as fate would have it, the presenter scheduled in the slot before her went WAY overtime that afternoon, so she had to shorten her presentation significantly and never got to comment on my press kit. But she did mention my bookmark, and with it in her hand for a few minutes, she waved it around as she emphasized various points. Hey, free publicity! And then she asked if she could take my materials home with her (to New York) and email some feedback, as she hadn't been able to address them during her limited time? Well, yes, of course! Hey, free advice from an expert!

I am not one to introduce myself to people, especially people who are from New York, or who are famous in any way. The old shyness overcomes me and I miss opportunities! But by displaying my bookmark (thanks to the kindness of the event's organizer) and forcing myself to approach a presenter, my upcoming release got a bit of attention that money can't buy.

So do carry business cards on your person, keep bookmarks (mine are homemade and unfortunately look like it, but I did my best) and press kits handy. You never know who you will be prompted to meet, or who will be sitting across from you at the table (in my case, it was an independent bookstore representative and a representative from Hastings, both of whom had heard of my book, thanks to the conference).

I don't often quote Dr. Phil, but I believe he is correct when he insists there is no such thing as coincidence. And another piece of encouragement comes from Harvard's Dr. Laurel Ulrich Thatcher, who coined the phrase "Well behaved women seldom make history."

Step out of your comfort zone. You won't regret it.

Ten More Ways to Know You're a Writer

2007-10-21T21:20:00.000-05:00

by Patricia Wiles

(Lori's post is so true for us! I couldn't resist sharing a few of my own quirks.)

10. You dream in stories, and when you wake up (even if it's the middle of the night) you grab something -- anything -- to write the dream down, because if you don't you'll forget it.

9. You have rituals you must perform or objects you must have on your desk in order to write. (I have my "Remember Who You Are" token from Terrie hanging on my desk at work, and I start my day with a soda and a bag of pretzels.)

8. Your friends are either imaginary (because they're in your mind) or invisible (because they're on the internet).

7. You may not recall the terminology used to describe proper grammar when writing, but find you know as if by instinct when something "sounds" right -- or when it doesn't.

6. You become so focused when working on a project you forget to do important things like eat lunch, feed the cat, blow out the candles you lit for ambiance, remove the laundry that's in the dryer ...

5. When you get a rejection letter, you cry. You swear never to send your story out again. You decide to pack up all your writing books. Then, a couple of days later, you realize if you just tweaked a couple of elements in your submission ... and before you know it, you're stamping another SASE.

4. You spoil movies and TV for your non-writer friends. When a character gets a book published and it goes on the market right away, you laugh and say, "That's so fake. That's not the way it is AT ALL." Then you proceed to tell them all about the submission and rejection process. Like they even care.

3. You realize a good book is the result of a good relationship between the author and the editor.

2. You get excited when a new office supply store opens in town.

And, the number one way (at least for me)...

1. You clean out your closet and find you still have copies of The Writer you bought in 1996, and you realize that after all these years, you still haven't given up hope -- and you're still writing.

Ten Reasons Why You Know You're a Writer

2007-10-14T22:20:00.000-05:00

By Lori Nawyn

10. You don’t know when your spouse will be home but you know exactly what time the mailman will arrive.

9. Your neighbors want new living room furniture. You just want a comfortable desk chair.

8. You find yourself stopping past bookstores and libraries that aren’t on the way home.

7. You buy computer paper and ink cartridges in bulk.

6. Your friends want to go on extended, exotic vacations. You just want to spend time alone with your computer.

5. You’ve learned to carry on conversations with family members and type at the same time.

4. You’d never think of spending hours in front of the TV but you don’t find it abnormal to spend days at the computer screen.

3. Some people fantasize about meeting celebrities. You fantasize about meeting editors and publishers.

2. You analyze all your conversations with family and friends to see if there are any good snippets of dialogue for your WIP.

1. Your fear of rejection has nothing to do with romance.

Words have lives of their own

2007-10-13T07:31:00.000-05:00

by Terrie Lynn Bittner

There is a section in my first book that was done somewhat tongue-in-cheek. The book’s target audience got it, and often said it was both funny and true. A reviewer, however, took it seriously and was offended by it. Because I hadn’t labeled it tongue-in-cheek, as I had a section on stupid questions, and because I have a quirky sense of humor that often escapes people, there were those who didn’t get it, and therefore missed the unspoken message of the segment.

In a conversation, you have an opportunity to solicit feedback and make on-the-spot clarifications. When we write, or when we speak in a formal setting, we often don’t. Our words stand alone. It doesn’t matter what we said, only what people think we said. Recent debates over a General Conference talk last week make this issue very clear. People heard the exact same talk, and some were excited and motivated, while others were hurt or angry. They heard the talk in context of their own personalities, lives, and beliefs. The speaker had a motive, a purpose, and a message, but couldn’t control what people took from the talk.

As writers, this is a good lesson for us. There are many ways to say most things. There is no way to be certain every reader will hear our information or message the way we meant it. Words take on their own lives when they reach the reader and we can’t control it. We can try to anticipate it, however. As we make a lifetime study of words, we can try to learn not just the dictionary meaning of the words, but the emotional meanings of the words as well. For some, junk food is a lovely phrase, filled with thoughts of treats and happy indulgence. For others, the same term is filled with evil thoughts of people who don’t care about health. When we choose to use the phrase, we have to anticipate our target audience and how they react to the concept of junk food.

Make a list of ten words and then try to imagine how a variety of people might view those words. If you’re writing a novel, hand the words to each of your characters and ask them to explain the words to you. As you become more aware of how words, concepts, and ideas affect various people, you can increase your ability to communicate completely with your readers. We’ll never become perfect, but we can improve.

Are you lookin' for a fight?

2007-10-10T21:52:00.000-05:00

If you're a writer, you'd better be looking for a fight.

Why?

Because every good story needs conflict.

If you want your reader to care about what happens in your story, the reader needs a reason to care. Conflict forces your character to choose sides. Conflict makes your reader think about what side she would choose if she were that character. It gets her involved in the story and makes her want to turn the page to find out how the character is going to handle the problem.

Life is all about conflict. If your story doesn't have meaningful conflict, it's not going to be relevant.

Don't shy away from conflict. There are conflicts in friendships, conflicts in families, conflicts in communities. It may be hard for us to write about conflict when we have been taught all our lives to be peacemakers. But if we don't allow conflict to occur in our stories, we're essentially removing our character's agency, allowing them to exist in a world where we save them from unpleasant outcomes. (Does this sound familiar?)

I've had many opportunities as a newspaper staff writer to observe conflicts from different points of view. It might be helpful to you to attend city or county government meetings or court sessions just to listen, observe, and take notes. When parties disagree or there is a problem to resolve, how do the parties involved handle it? How visible are their emotions? Did the outcomes meet their expectations?

Some conflicts have a polarizing effect. Take the meeting I attended today, for example -- a discussion about whether or not a board of health has the authority to enact a community smoking ban.

County government leaders say the board of health should not enact the ban, believing it's a job for elected officials. However, the elected officials don't talk as if they want a ban; squeaky wheels in the community say it's just another example of government trying to strip away the rights of the people.

On the other hand, you have the board of health. The members are convinced second-hand smoke is bad for the community, and can back that up with scientific evidence. They've been reluctant to act, or maybe just taking their time, exploring all avenues before making a decision.

This brings us to the critical point. At today's meeting, a state health official told the board that according to a legal opinion, health boards do have legal authority to enact a smoking ban.

Naturally, county government wants the board of health to back off, to say they're not going to enact a ban but allow the magistrates to decide.

The board of health can be pretty certain if the ball is put back in the fiscal court, the court won't pass the ban, considering there are some very vocal magistrates listening to a few very vocal constituents.

But, really now, why should the board do this? They're convinced of the dangers of second-hand smoke; 14 counties in the state have already gone smoke-free; and, in one of the most recent situations, the ban was enacted by that county's board of health, has not been contested in court -- and that county's ban, according to the legal opinion, is lawful and valid.

In that room today, there was no middle ground. People spoke either for or against the ban. But I'll be honest -- I'm eager to find out what happens next. Will the board decide to enact a ban or not? Will they cave in to the elected officials or will they do what they know is best for the community?

Someday -- I hope sooner than later -- our newspaper readers will be turning the page to find out.

Put your characters in a meaningful, relevant conflict, and readers will be turning the pages of your book -- not so they can skim to the end, but so they can savor your story, eager to learn the outcome.

Tricking Time

2007-10-07T22:22:00.000-05:00

By Janie Van Komen

Nobody really has "time." The concept of owning time simply doesn't exist. Time is kind of like a pet that has to be trained or a child who doesn't want to do his or her jobs. Time will find a million things for you to do with it and try to entice you into each one. It will occupy your space here in this life with diddly nothingness.

It must be harnessed and disciplined, but just like the child who doesn't want to go to bed or clean his room you can find ways to trick time.

Each day a person looks out in the morning and takes some kind of inventory of the day's events. Some of us have more control over these events than others do but regardless of your current status of time organization what you have to do can and will take up all your time. It's kind of like when I had my sixth child and I said to my husband. "I wish I had appreciated how much time I really had when we only had four children."

My husband's reply was that I really didn't have more time then. He then said, "Okay if you think you had more time when you had four children then pretend like you had to take care of two more children so that we had eight children for a period of time and they have gone home now and so you are down to six."

"That's ridiculous," I said. My husband agreed and told me that no matter how many children I had they would always take up all my time.

As I pondered this statement and realized the truthfulness of it I realized that whatever I was doing could take up all of my time. If I ever wanted to do anything other than what was required of me I would have to find a way to fit it into the cracks.

What I wanted to do was write. I made a commitment to myself that I had to write something every day. I must admit that there have been days that the only thing I wrote was my name as I signed a check for this or that. However, I have learned how to take advantage of time snippets.

I always have a notepad with me. If I am working on a particular writing project I jot prompts into my notebook, things like; the last paragraph I wrote on the computer; ideas for articles I am going to explore; who I need to write a letter to; etc etc.

At home I have the various things I am working on placed in strategic locations around the house. I try not to put everything away when I'm not using it. If I have to get my writing out of a box, drawer, or closet I am less likely to jump in for five minutes here and there. I have found creative ways to disguise the stuff so that it doesn't look like a lot of excess clutter.

While I wait for kids to get ready for school, sports, or something else I write. Sitting in the car waiting to pick somebody up from school, doctor appointment, or a bank teller who is busy, I write.

I don't watch television unless it is some specific program I have planned for in advance. I don't spend a long time talking on the telephone. I'm not a very good friend. I am very selective in the friends I do things with because friendship can be very time consuming.

I read while I walk on my treadmill or ride my stationary bicycle. (I've tried writing while doing this but I can never read what I have written.)

I make writing dates with myself. A writing date consists of going someplace to write. Sometimes I go to the library, sometimes it's a nature park, sometimes it's Barnes and Noble, but wherever it is I decide how much I want to write while I am there and try to stick to my commitment.

I make deals with my family. If they will let me write for X amount of time then I will do whatever the bribe is.

Very few of us have the luxury of unlimited quantities of time to sit and languish over our keyboards with no interruptions. With a little ingenuity and a little dedication we can each find cracks in our lives where we can squeeze a little writing here and there and maybe even a chunk of an hour if we are lucky.

Keep the secret of writing in the cracks a secret so that time doesn't find out that you are tricking it to squeeze more out than it has to give.

Blogger's Night Out

2007-10-07T21:45:00.001-05:00

By Janet Jensen

A recent Relief Society Enrichment Night (do we still call it that?) featured blogging. We had half a dozen laptops set up, logged on to a wireless server, and demonstrated blogging. Bloggers with some experience set up blogs for non-bloggers. We also took digital photos, downloaded them, and then uploaded them to the blogs. It was great fun, exploring possibilities with creative people.

Chapter One of my upcoming novel, Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys, is posted at Rachel Ann Nunes' web page: http://www.ranunes.com/guestAuthorSpotlight.php

I'm getting really excited/worried about how the book will do . . . and I know many of you can empathize.

We arrived home this morning after taking the red-eye, and Tuesday morning I take off again, to spend a week in Ohio with my three month-old granddaughter. You can see a clip of the little darling at my blog, http://www.janetkayjensen.blogspot.com/.

Janet

Aloha!

2007-10-05T15:35:00.000-05:00

By Janet Jensen

Why I haven't posted this week -

Aloha!

Janet

With These Words

2007-10-03T05:39:00.001-05:00

By Terrie Lynn Bittner

Yesterday, for no apparent reason, I found myself reading about the Tower of Babel. I think this event is the stuff of nightmares for writers. What is worse than the confounding of the language that is our life's work?

I wonder, though, if it made people appreciate the language they had. The Jaredites were spared, and I can imagine words became far more meaningful to them when they saw what happened to those who weren’t spared. Did they speak more carefully, making a special effort to use the most wonderful words they knew to communicate their thoughts? Did they use words sparingly, so as not to waste them, or did they use as many as they possibly could, anxiously afraid the words would disappear from memory if they didn’t?

And what of those who did lose their language? Did they ever look back longingly and regret all the times they took words for granted, never giving a thought to the wonderful gift they’d been given? When they gathered with their friends and family and tried to build a new language, they naturally started with the practical, but once the practical words were taken care of, what did they create next? What words were so important that they took the trouble to create them even though they weren’t essential for survival?

I love you.

I’m sorry.

I’m happy today.

Come watch the sunset with me.

I testify.

Dear Heavenly Father...

What words did they find they had to have to be human? When they figured out how to put those new words on paper, those few who knew how to write, did they choose the words they put down with reverence, knowing now how important it was to save the words and to make them matter?

Today, I’m sometimes shocked by the lack of concern for words in the world of writing. A teacher once told the class that using swear words was too easy. Any lazy writer could fill her book with swear words and pretend it was real writing, but the true challenge was to come up with words so interesting no one would even notice the characters weren’t swearing. I’m sure that wasn’t original advice, but where are the teachers who know that lesson today?

In the Phantom Tollbooth, by Justin Juster (certainly required reading for any writer), Milo is told, "In this box are all the words I know," he said. "Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you may ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones yet to come are made with these words. With them there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is to use them well and in the right places."

What words would you invent first after the necessities were done?

The Smell of Tickets is in the Air

2007-10-01T14:46:00.001-05:00

By David G. Woolley

I'm a long time conference sign holder. I invented the sport. When I started holding signs that read "Hungry for Conference Tickets" the only other sign holders were hunkered down behind police barriers in the free speech zones. They were dressed in jeans and a black T shirt. I wore a white shirt and tie, didn't call anyone to repentance and church security allowed me free reign on church property to scare up some tickets. I got so good that between the parking lot and the front doors of the Conference Center I collected enough tickets for half the souls in the standby line none of whom had a clue about the art of sign holding.

These days us ticket sign holders outnumber the free speech sign holders ten to one and the new arrivals are getting more creative every year. Last conference I didn't even bother to compete on the same street corner with the three 18.9 year-old sign holders begging for tickets with their poverty plea angle written in pencil lead script on notebook paper with a sappy, tug on the heart-strings sign "Drove from California all night. Leaving on mission next week. Please give us tickets." As if all the new competition isn't bad enough, the no-sign-holder-for-tickets-allowed-on-church-property policy is sure to drive an experienced scalper to the Stake President for a handout. It's comforting to think that someone on temple square is thinking of us even if they're the ones with the high-tech communications devices hidden inside the ear canal. Can't they give a tithe-paying regular guy a break? There's simply no such thing as an easy ticket anymore.

Last conference the *do-you-have-an-extra-ticket sign holders hung out on the *street-corner-free-speech-zone with the *you're-going-to-hell sign holders. *(an asterisk is, once again, an excellent word choice to let you know that the topic for my next post is The-Incorrect-Use-of-Hyphens-in-All-Their-Glory).

It was during April Conference 2007 when I found myself (not figuratively or spiritually or even ecumenically, but physically found myself standing next to one of the unhyphenated, really big, yellow with plasticized rain protection, professional quality sign holders). He had a 12 x 14 3mm card stock double reinforced mortar board with felt backing. I had a sheet of typing paper. He had 132 point font Times New Roman. I had magic marker font. He had a ten foot pole with a shoulder harness. I held mine between my fingers. The light was red. The corner was crowded with hundreds of conference goers waiting to cross. I lifted my pathetic sign and asked my unhyphenated-go-to-hell-sign-holder-neighbor if he had any tickets he wanted to unload. He shook his head no before calling the crowd to repentance.

I lifted my sign higher and said, "You sure?"

He said, "The only ticket in there is a ticket to hell."

I said, "I'll take four."

Getting into conference is easier than getting into the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. Its also easier to pull your bottom lip over your eyes. It may be because they don't televise it (the Christmas concert, not the lip pulling). I think its because Craig Jessop gave all my unhyphenated friends complimentary tickets. This year I plan on calling more conference goers to repentance.

Two Christmas concerts ago some of us die hard choir aficionados slept out in front of door #14 at the Conference Center on a snowy October evening to beat the Internet ticket rush and get front row seats. Craig Jessop told the choir about the ardent fans waiting all night in the snow. That was us. The men with the cool listening devices didn't kick us off Conference Center property. They figured the snow would do that, but we persevered. The following year church security changed the distribution policy. I like to think I had a part in forming the new rules. Internet ticket requests only. I also like to tell people I invented it (the Internet not the ticket policy). I think the new rules reflect a fear that the line for Christmas concert tickets is going to form weeks before the conference standby line.

Last October I opened ten windows to the Internet, pointed five other computers at the church website and when the appointed Christmas concert ticket request hour arrived all I got were four hours worth of "Due to high volume, we are unable to process your request at this time."

This year, despite the anti-gambling sentiment among ticket distribution personnel, concert tickets will be awarded by lottery. Beginning October 22nd the church website accepts requests. Two weeks later, after sign ups close, a random drawing awards lucky concert goers with tickets. I have a friend who always gets lucky. Three mouse clicks and she has her tickets. Hundreds of thousands of mouse clicks and I have no tickets. Do you think a lottery is going to change my luck? I'll likely get front row seats in gambler's hell next to my unhyphenated-yellow-sign-holding buddy before I ever get into the Conference Center balcony seating. My only regret is that my unhyphenated friend will be calling me to repentance for eternity.

I purchased an encryption code-breaking program. I can print unlimited tickets for any seat in the house and email them to everyone in my distribution list. If you happen to see one of those men with a cool listening device hidden inside the ear canal hauling a 5 foot 9, 160 pound, dark complected male out of the Conference Center holding a crumpled sheet of typing paper that reads, "Will Work For Tickets", don't judge me harshly.

I should have invested in a sign with a ten foot pole!

Writing Heavens

2007-09-27T19:09:00.000-05:00

By Janie Van Komen

I think I just landed in a Writer's Heaven. There have been other heavens along the way. Whenever I find myself in such a place as this I savor every drop of the time I might be allotted there. You never know. This could be my last one, probably not, but you never know. I never take anything for granted anymore.

Two days ago I flew into Philadelphia for the purpose of tending three of my grandchildren for several days while their mother met up with her husband (my son) on a business trip. They only moved here in May so I've never been here before. They are only renting this home for now. The owner is a doctor of some sort who wanted the experience of building a home. My husband is a General Contractor and all of my children have worked in the construction business.

I can safely say from experience that this home is a million dollar fixer-upper. The design of the home is very unique but it stops there. After this man set up his design he probably built the house using a how to book about building a home. I think he purchased everything from Home Depot. Not that Home Depot is a bad place to buy things but nothing is custom, it's all stock fit awkwardly into a custom space which most of the time doesn't fit.

Hence there are drawers that won't open because they hit into the door jam that is too close, or cupboard doors that won't open because he didn't know he needed a spacer behind it to allow for the swing of the door to work, etc etc.

But the house sits on five acres of wooded seclusion and as an afterthought he closed in the space between the house and the garage and put a visitors suite above the garage, complete with bath. This is where I am staying.

I have the benefit of time with the kids before and after school and the weekend. During the day I have all of this to myself. The view from every window is inspiring. I can stroll up to the main road to get the mail and come back for exercise. I am sitting in the middle of history all around me. It's like the ghosts of the Revolutionary era and the Civil War era are saying, "You can do this." And I am. Everything from the kids to the comical house to the landscape to the ghosts give me fodder for writing.

I have been writing my little heart out. I haven't even punched a tv on button since I arrived. I wish I could stay here a little longer than planned but that's not possible so I will be grateful for the tidbits of time that do have and make it as productive as I can.

2007-09-26T20:39:00.000-05:00

By C.S. Bezas

Life is tough at times. Therefore, it's encouraging to read of individuals who bless the lives of others and who help make our earthly experience a little more gentle.

Such an individual is Jewel Adams. She is the author of several books. The most recent is titled, Against All Odds. Jewel was kind enough to share a few thoughts with me. I think you'll enjoy reading her words.

C.S.: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What is something that those who know you might not know?

JEWEL: Well, I was born and raised in Asheville, NC. My husband and I have eight children, all of whom I have home schooled. Let's see, something people don't know. Well, everyone tells me that I don't have an accent at all, but if you standing close by while I'm on the phone talking to one of my relatives, the southern drawl snaps right back in.

C.S.: You have several books out. What has been one of the hardest things for you as a novelist?

JEWEL: Getting used to rejection:o) Having my work picked apart, even though I know it's usually for my own good and the good of the novel.

C.S.: What has been the easiest?

JEWEL: Coming up with story lines. My imagination usually works overtime. Sometimes that's good, sometimes it isn't.

C.S.: When you begin a writing project, how do you start? How does it start?

JEWEL: Subjects also come easy for me because I've had so many experiences, some good and some bad. But for me, the first paragraph is everything. If I can't draw a reader in with the first paragraph, then I feel like I've failed.

C.S.: How disciplined are you as you write?

JEWEL: It's funny but I have two specific time during the day that I write. Noon til 2:00 and after 9:30 at night. Those are the times that my family says I'm 'in the zone.' Once I'm there you can't talk to me because I literally do zone everything else out.

C.S.: What kind of responses have you received from readers about your novels?

JEWEL: So far everyone has loved them. I keep all the emails I get, and when I'm feeling a little down or unsure about my writing, I just pull those out and it gives me an instant boost.

C.S.: What other kind of creative projects do you have going? Or are you strictly a novelist?

JEWEL: I'm pretty much just a novelist. I am working on a YA romantic fantasy right now, which is totally out there for me. I love fantasy, but I never thought I would attempt to write it myself. My project, however, is not your normal fantasy. The book is called "The Journey," and it is set in another world and based on life and the choices we make. I excited to see how it turns out.

C.S.: What do you believe sets you apart from other writers?

JEWEL: Most of my books deal with interracial couples. It's what I know and I'm told you write about what you know:o)

C.S.: If you were to name one gift the Lord has given you, what do you feel that is?

JEWEL: It would have to be the gift of imagination. Without it, I know I would never have been able to get through so many things I've had to deal with in life. I'm grateful for that gift.

C.S.: What do you view as the purpose for gifts and talents?

JEWEL: To touch the lives of others, as well as ourselves.

C.S.: Do you have a favorite scripture? Something that helps you on difficult days?

JEWEL: Actually, I have two favorites. Revelations 3:21 and 2 Nephi 31:20 Both talk about overcoming and enduring to the end.

C.S.: If there were one thing you would tell a new writer or somebody seeking to better their personal gifts, what would it be?

JEWEL: Just think positive. You're going to face opposition, but you can do anything you set your mind to.

C.S.: What kind of helpful resources are there for LDS writers?

JEWEL: Well, there are writer's groups, LDStorymakers for one. It's pretty neat getting feedback and tips from other authors. There are also books written by LDS authors that offer tips and suggestions on writing.

C.S.: Do you have any favorite writers? Favorite books?

JEWEL: Oh, yes, but there are too many to mention. I would have to say though that my two top favorite writers are Richard Paul Evans and Chris Stewart. My top favorite books are "The Last Promise" and "The Great and Terrible" series.

C.S.: What does your family think about your books?

JEWEL: My oldest daughter is a total romantic like myself and she loves them. My husband has never read my books, even though I've told him that my male characters have his attributes, they're just a little younger and have more hair. (Laugh) The rest of the kids just know their mom writes books.

C.S.: How did you first begin writing?

JEWEL: I started by writing a book about my life. After that, I started doing fiction and giving some of my female lead characters some of my experiences. That way I'm able to share a little of myself, only my characters are a lot more interesting.

C.S.: Any final thoughts?

JEWEL: You know, I just love writing, and if I never got another book published, I would keep doing it. There's just something magical about giving life to people who only exist in your mind.

We at LatterDayAuthors.com wish Jewel and her family the best. May she continue to bless the lives of many! For more information, visit Jewel Adam's website.

Tips to avoid scams

2007-09-23T19:20:00.000-05:00

By Patricia Wiles

There was a post on the latterdayauthors forum recently about identifying poetry scams, so I thought this topic of literary scammers deserved a bit more attention. There are lots of unscrupulous scammers out there who make a pretty good living by emptying the wallets of newbie writers.

We often talk about the business of writing, and writing is a business -- it's a lot more than pouring your creative soul out onto the page. And as with any other business, you will find those whose practices are less than ethical. It behooves new writers to take as much time learning and understanding how the business operates as they do learning how to craft a good story.

Here are a few tips and links I hope you'll find helpful.

1. Poetry and self-publishing scams: http://windpub.com/literary.scams/

There are legitimate poetry journals, then there are scam anthologies. A legitimate journal will not expect you to purchase a copy of their "anthology" if your poem is accepted for publication. A legitimate journal will, at the very least, pay you in copies. This link will take you to other links that expose some of these anthology-producing publishers for what they are: scammers. Also included are links explaining why some self-publishing outfits are less than trustworthy.

2. Legitimate agents and editors do not charge reading fees. http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/;
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/; http://www.sfwa.org/beware/

When you begin subbing your work to editors or agents, it pays to spend some time online at these sites. I've heard stories of "agents" emailing a writer, saying they'd read her work online and wanted to discuss representation. In most cases you will not get an unsolicited email from an agent or an editor. It may have happened in a rare instance or two, but most have too many submissions to spend time searching the web for new clients.

Before you submit to an agent, check Publisher's Marketplace to see what they've sold. Check AgentQuery.com or the AAR website to see if they're listed. Not all legitimate agents belong to AAR, but it's still worth a look.

Agents do NOT charge reading fees. They charge a commission after they sell your work, and most will expect reimbursement for office expenses, i.e. copies. Again, a good way to learn how real agents operate is to visit the blog of a real agent. One I especially like is Pub Rants.

It is common for agents and editors to attend legitimate writer's conferences and accept an honorarium for speaking as well as payment for one-on-one sessions with writers. These private sessions are educational tools to help writers know how to improve their manuscripts. Sometimes an agent or editor may request to see more of the writer's work because of this session. However, there is never any promise of representation or acceptance implied in these activities. They are critiques, not American Idol tryouts.

Real editors and agents will not read your submission, then suggest a friend who's a good freelance editor who can help you whip your work into shape. They can suggest you find one on your own, but they won't point you to one specifically.

3. When it comes to networking, take advantage of writers groups.

I am a believer when it comes to writers organizations. I am a member of SCBWI (The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) and over the years I have found it to be worth the cost of membership many times over. I have had more opportunities through SCBWI to network, meet real editors and agents, and learn more about the business of children's writing than I could have ever done on my own. If you have at least one published book under your belt (with an advance by a royalty-paying publisher) you can join the Author's Guild. There are also organizations for science-fiction/fantasy writers, romance writers, mystery writers and etc.

But if you're not at the point where you're ready to join an organization, there are many online resources you can turn to, such as those listed above. And of course, you can visit our latterdayauthors forum (the link is on the right) and ask there.

The process of writing, for all the creativity it entails, also requires a practical approach. Be sure you're prepared to deal with both. As the editor I work for at the newspaper says, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out before you believe it."

Guardians of the English Language

2007-09-23T06:07:00.000-05:00

By Terrie Bittner

I am the training manager at BellaOnline.com and select new columnists. One of my greatest challenges is finding people who know how to use commas. In fact, I’ve become positively obsessed with commas lately. Some applications have none. Almost worse are those in which the applicant grabbed a handful of commas and threw them at the article.

The very worst applications are those with a single sentence article. We require four hundred words. Have you ever tried to read a four hundred word sentence? There are applications written in text message style, those that have every word misspelled, and the ones with no capital letters—or nothing but capital letters. There are days when I threaten to only select writers from England. I’ve yet to receive an application from England with any of these problems.

Sometimes rejected applicants will ask why they weren’t accepted. They will explain they are the next Shakespeare, and they need this column to get started, and won’t we be sorry when they’re famous and they tell everyone we turned them down? At first, I tried to be helpful and explain they were rejected because their grammar, punctuation, and spelling weren’t at a professional level. I soon learned, though, this extra step was pointless. Nearly all responded, “But I just want to write great stories. I don’t need all that junk.”

A carpenter needs a hammer. A teacher needs chalk. A doctor needs a stethoscope. A writer needs words, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. They’re the tools of our trade. Years ago, when I read that the Internet was destroying writing skills, I laughed it off. My own children, who homeschooled, wrote better after their writing was placed on the Internet and people commented on their skills. However, in the past few years, I’ve begun to be worried about the future of writing. Are we destined to read books written in text messaging style? Will “are” be permanently replaced with a single letter? Will capital letters go out of style? The new Shorter OED says the hyphen is going out of style because of Internet and designers. They’ve removed it from many words. Is the capital letter next?

I read recently that many old languages are dying out. As writers, we’re perhaps the last protector of another dying language—good English. It’s up to us to safeguard capital letters, periods, and the proper use of commas.

Soldiers…take your posts.

LDS Writing Competition!

2007-09-22T14:13:00.000-05:00

Here is a news release from Christian Vuissa, founder and president of the LDS Film Festival:

Hi everyone,

I'm the founder and president of the LDS Film Festival. I wanted to let you know that the LDS Film Festival is currently accepting submissions for the following writing competitions:

7-page script competition
12-page script competition

In both competitions the best scripts will be made into short films that will screen at the festival. If you're interested in submitting a script, go to: http://www.ldsfilmfestival.org for more information.

Christian Vuissa

Here is some additional information:

-------------------------------------------------
CALL FOR ENTRIES 2008
-------------------------------------------------
The LDS Film Festival is the premiere place for LDS filmmakers to showcase their work. With an attendance of close to 5000 in 2007, the festival has become a reliable audience magnet and the ideal networking platform for filmmakers.

We invite and encourage writers and filmmakers to participate in the 7th LDS Film Festival 2008 and submit their work to the festival. Over $3000 will be awarded to the best scripts and films.

For more information go to:
http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?McVUysSm_q79qYMESNrpZg

-------------------------------------------------
NEW SCRIPT COMPETITION ANNOUNCED
-------------------------------------------------

After the huge success of the 7-page script competition, we are happy to announce the 12-page script competition! Selected filmmakers will read all script submissions and pick one script for production. Each selected script is automatically a winner and will be made into a short film by an accomplished filmmaker.

Unlike the 7-page script competition, the 12-page competition has a theme and important rules to follow. The theme for this year's competition is CONVERSION. We are looking for stories that deal with the different processes and stages of conversion. Stories about people that are moved to change or have an experience that transforms their life.

For more information go to:
http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?tmdm9DkiUiK1P8al5X_Sbw

-------------------------------------------------
SUBMIT YOUR FILMS AND SCREENPLAYS NOW
-------------------------------------------------

The LDS Film Festival 2008 offers the following categories for submissions:

Short Film Competition
Films 20 minutes and under

Feature Film Exhibition
Films 60 minutes and longer

24-Hour Filmmaking Marathon
Become an award-winning filmmaker in 24 hours

Special Screenings
Films 20 to 60 minutes in length

7-Page Script Competition
7-page scripts to be made into short films

12-Page Script Competition
12-page scripts to be made into short films

For more information go to:
http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?hAY.Z7IhwJxLeUdZtVeZPg

______

This is not sponsored by latterdayauthors.com, but we are more than happy to pass the information on. Hurry and click on the link. You just may be the one who wins!

September 21st

2007-09-21T10:25:00.000-05:00

By David G. Woolley
History has a way of repeating itself and in my case that happens every 1st, 11th, 21st and 31st of each month. I complained about these dates in my last blog, but repetition has a way of, well, repeating itself. Today's date ends with the cosmic number one. Cosmic because it is likely the meteoric day appointed from the foundations of the world as my Latter Day Authors blogging day. And cosmic because it was the gloriously grand day appointed for Joseph Smith to be yanked out of thinking that his first vision was a personal experience intended only for his personal salvation and inform the seventeen year old that "God had a work for me to do".

We all have a mission in life. Mine is bad blogging. What else could a writer of fiction be than a bad blogger? I spend hours figuring out new and creative ways to muffle my voice and disappear from the pages. If I'm fortunate enough to succeed my voice falls entirely silent and my characters do all the talking. Blogging is the anti-fiction. There is no invisible third party beguiling the reader into believing they are communicating dreictly with a fictional character. The blog is the nightly news equivalent dangerously left to the unable hands of amateurs and for this broadcast I happen to be your anchor speaking right at you without the protecting filter of a fictional character. If you're feeling my intrusion, I beg your pardon, but today is September 21st and there is some good news to share.

Despite my recurring mention of the dates that end with the number one, I'm not fixated on calendars, though this month does sport one of the really important dates in all of recorded history. Sometime tonight, one hundred eighty four years ago, a seventeen-year-old Joseph Smith was concerned about his standing before God and when he prayed for assurance that his sins were forgiven an angel named Moroni not only assured him that his plea had been heard, he set the boy's feet on a path that would lead four years later to the unearthing and translation of an ancient record of scripture.

I am just this morning placing the finishing touches on historical notes that will be appended to a novel titled Day of Remembrance. I'm going to suggest to the publisher that it be released next year in September. Good luck with that. It will likely be a hard sell. Publishers prefer to get things out as soon as possible no matter how non-cosmic the date. Last Thursday, September 13th 2007, Jews celebrated Rosh Hashanah (The Jewish New Year). It's a solemn day devoted to remembering covenants made with God. The feast celebrated on that day is called the Feast of Trumpets. The horn playing is intended to awaken Israel to a remembrance of her covenants. It was the day Moses returned down the slopes of Sinai to the playing of shofar horns (a trumpet made from the hollowed horn of a ram and a common instrument in the homes of ancient Israelites) with the covenant written on stone tablets. About 1200 years later in Lehi's time the day was known as Ha Zikron (The Day of Remembrance).

This Jewish holy day falls on the first day of the month of Tishri on the Hebrew calendar,but doesn't always occur on the same day on our western Julian calendar. Next year the Day of Remembrance will be celebrated on September 30th, 2008. When the angel Moroni directed Joseph Smith to the hill three miles south of his home to get his first glimpse of the ancient gold plated record buried in a stone box it was Monday, September 22nd 1823 and the Day of Remembrance had already been celebrated seventeen days earlier on September 6th. On Joseph Smith's second visit to the hill one year later the Day of Remembrance was celebrate the day before. On Joseph's third visit in 1825 the Day of Remembrance was celebrated nine days earlier on September 13th as it was this year, and in 1826 the Hebrew celebration took place ten days after Joseph's yearly visit to the hill on October 2nd. It wasn't until the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday September 22nd 1827 did the celebration of the Day of Remembrance coincide with Moroni's declaration that the time had arrived for Joseph Smith to receive the ancient record. Not unlike Moses, Joseph Smith returned down the hill south of his home in Palmyra New York bearing a record he called a New Covenant and he did it on the same day Jews celebrate the remembrance of ancient covenants.

In honor of a four-year run of events which began one hundred eighty four years ago tonight with a sincere prayer offered by a seventeen year old boy in the attic bedroom of the Smith family cabin and culminated with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, I share this historical note:

The Feast of Trumpets marks Israel’s final harvest period in the fall of the year. It is the first feast in a series of three of the holiest feast days in Judaism which are also referred to as a trio of feasts of ingathering beginning with the Feast of Trumpets followed ten days later by the Day of Atonement and ending with the Feast of Tabernacles. Bruce R. McConkie indicates that these High Holy days occur during the final harvest period to metaphorically symbolize Christ’s final harvest of souls (McConkie, Promised Messiah, 432-37). These interrelated feasts include the symbolism of the Feast of Trumpets as a time when God remembers His covenants with Israel and is likely the reason the feast day was originally known as the Day of Remembrance (ha-Zikron) before it became better known as a Jewish New Year (Rosh ha-shanah). The term Zikron means memorial or remembrance and according to Hebrew scholars the blowing of trumpets on the Day of Remembrance is in keeping with the definition of Zikhron “as a sound that will arouse God’s remembrance (or judgment) of his people” (Bloch, Jewish Customs and Ceremonies). Numerous Jewish scholars explain the purpose of the trumpet sound on the Feast of Trumpets as the signal of Israel’s redemption from world-wide exile. The Old Testament indicates that “And it came to pass in the day [the time of regathering] that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt (Sherman and Zlotowizt, Rosh Hashanah, 58, 61-62, 112-13, 117-18; Artz, Justice and Mercy, 55, 94, 154; Block, JewishHoly Days, 21; Snaith, The Jewish New Year Festival, 162; Leo Trepp, The Complete Book of Jewish Observance, New York: Behrman House and Summit Books, 1980, 95).

The prophet Zechariah writes that “The Lord God shall blow the trumpet,” and that Ephraim will help raise up God’s covenant people, and that those of Israel’s blood would return to be part of the God’s flock (Zechariah 9:13-16). After the Israelites returned from Babylonian bondage the prophet Ezra gathered them together and read the law to them on the Feast of Trumpets (Nehemiah 8:1-2) and they rejoiced when the truth was restored to them. LDS scholar Lynette Reed indicates that this ancient restoration of the law after exile in Babylon which took place on the Day of Remembrance may have its latter-day counterpart in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Among the ancient readings still used during the celebration of the Rosh ha-Shanah is the restoration of Ephraim. The prophecies of the prophet Jeremiah are among the important readings on this feast day where he calls Ephraim a darling son and that God will “remember Ephraim” (zakhor ezkerenu).

The name most often used for the day on which the Feast of Trumpets is celebrated today is Rosh ha-Shanah which means New Year. But that was not its original name and the significance of the day is really a new beginning rather than the start of a new calendar year. On this day the Lord is said to move from His seat of judgment to His mercy seat by mercifully providing a new beginning through gathering Israel out of exile, remembering His covenants with their fathers, and restoring them as His covenant people. This new beginning was to be initiated by the sounding of the trumpet.

The sounding of the trumpet appears not only as a remembrance of the revelation given at Sinai, but also as an indication of future events. Just as the trumpet preceded God’s revelation of the law at Sinai (Exodus 19:16) some scholars believe the trumpet sounding during Rosh Hashanah signals further revelation, including the establishment of the true law (Goodman, The Rosh Hashanah Anthology, 42). Old Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants scriptures speak of the trumpet preceding the establishment of truth that leads to redemption (Isaiah 58:1, Alma 29:1, D&C 33:2). “And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump” (D&C 24:12). The statue of the angel Moroni atop Mormon temples is portrayed as blowing a trumpet, proclaiming the gospel to the world, and particularly to the house of Israel. A review of LDS history and scripture indicate that most of the restored truths in the gospel of Jesus Christ began with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.

The return covenant-blessings from God which follow Israel’s remembrance of their covenants with God are repeated in prayers offered on the Day of Remembrance and are similar to the words written by the prophet Moroni in the title page of the Book of Mormon where he stated that one of the two main purposes of the book was, “to show unto the remnants of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever”. As part of the prayers offered on Rosh ha-Shanah Jews today still read the Old Testament passage, “I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 26:45).

Jewish religious scholars (Arzt, Justice and Mercy, 146-48) indicate that Jeremiah’s prophecy regarding the remembrance (or restoration) of Ephraim has special significance to the Day of Remembrance, but are uncertain what that significance may be. LDS scholar Lynette Reed suggests that the part the Book of Mormon plays in restoring knowledge of significant religious covenants to descendants of Ephraim is the connection between remembrance (or restoration) and the Day of Remembrance.

Happy 21st of September everyone! And be grateful that September only has thirty days.

Your Favorite Book?

2007-09-19T08:55:00.000-05:00

By C.S. Bezas

Ever heard the quote: "We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own..."? Orson F. Whitney stated this long ago.

Forget the fact that perhaps you have never read any works by Milton or perhaps the only thing you know of Shakespeare is that taught by your 9th grade teacher. What really counts is that quality literature has the power to move and change souls.

To celebrate just such books, the prestigious Whitney Awards have been born. Begun to stimulate the search for quality LDS literature, the Whitney Award is in its infancy and first year. Yet just as the acorn contains immense potential, the Whitney Awards seek those books whose impact resonates and continues to expand through space.

Have you experienced such in your life? Do you have a favorite book? If so, nominate that book today for the new prestigious Whitney Award! Click here for the nomination form and further details.

Sarah Jane's Very Best Story Ever

2007-09-18T17:55:00.000-05:00

By Lori NawynFrom the back cover of the book Sarah Jane's Very Best Story Ever:

"Sarah Jane Van Komen was a most amazing storyteller. Now what made her such an amazing storyteller was that she always knew exactly the right kind of story to tell. Sarah's simple tales began when she first started to speak. Those tales carried children, as well as adults, into her gifted imagination of wonderment and purpose.

Many admirers, friends, and family members were brokenhearted at her tragic death in an automobile accident when she was only sixteen years old. However, not long after her death her mother began to record the occasions of people calling her to report that Sarah had indeed come back and told them stories in their dreams. The common thread in all the reports was that the story or message Sarah brought them was one of purpose and peace. This story is one such story, and Sarah believes that it is her Very Best Story Ever. All of the events in this story talking about Sarah really happened.

Sarah claims that the entire story is true."

I never knew Sarah Jane Van Komen while she was alive, yet she is a person I can say I am much the better for having known about. I know her from the book Sarah Jane's Very Best Story Ever, a book compiled by her mother, Janie Van Komen, which details Sarah's life, death, and return to our Father in Heaven. Sunday night, while I sat in a packed audience listening to Janie speak about Sarah, I savored the comforting surety that heaven and earth are not so far apart and that miracles still occur. I am grateful for the power of the spoken and written word to bear witness.

Thank you, Janie. Thank you, Sarah.

Rating Rejections

2007-09-17T10:15:00.000-05:00

By Terrie Bittner

When my daughter was nine or so, her teacher decided to send a poem she had written to a magazine. He did so without telling me until after the fact. I was not thrilled, since her home address was included and the rejection, if it came, would come to her. This was not a children’s magazine, but an adult magazine, and unlikely to publish her. I worried about the impact of getting a rejection letter so young. My first one was certainly hard on me, and I was an adult when it came.

Sure enough, one day a thick envelope came back, and we know what those mean. I hovered nervously as she opened it and read it. Then, to my surprise, she started to giggle. I leaned over, thinking it had been an acceptance after all, but it wasn’t. It was an ordinary rejection letter. Seeing my confusion, she said, “Look, they have five grammar and spelling mistakes in their letter. It’s a good thing they didn’t publish my poem. Their magazine is probably really bad, too, and who wants to be in a bad magazine? I want my poem in a good magazine.”

So where did this child inherit that sort of wisdom? Not from me, certainly. But this day started a new family game. When my rejection letters came, we graded them together. Often, my children saw funny things I missed, but they (and I) learned not to take our rejections too seriously.

One magazine, run by nuns, sent rejections we all loved. They went on and on about how they could see how much I loved children and God, and about how proud God was of me for wanting to serve Him. They expressed so much sorrow and guilt for not buying the stories we pictured them in tears of anguish. But best of all, they always sent me a present to cheer me up—a pretty bookmark with a scripture on it. Presents are good, and always lead to good grades in Rejection 101.

One had a checklist of reasons the manuscript was rejected. Some of them were silly. The editor I sent my stories to invariably checked, “My mother made me do it.” I was disappointed none of the helpful reasons were ever marked, but my children loved the idea of an important editor bowing to his mother’s demands. Humor got high marks, too.

It was a bit surprising how often we found grammatical errors in rejection letters. These are, after all, editors. I had never noticed them until my children made it their goal in life to find them.

One thing I learned from all this was that rejection is just a part of the job, or maybe even part of the game. Life goes on, and so does my writing career.

Fear -- cluck, cluck -- of Failure

2007-09-15T12:35:00.000-05:00

By Lori Nawyn

I write manuscripts then file them away like a squirrel hoarding nuts for winter. Unlike a squirrel’s stored supply, however, my stashed manuscripts do me little good. That’s because I’m not a squirrel…I’m a chicken. I never submit half the manuscripts I write.

At first, I thought I suffered from manuscript rejection anxiety, an ailment I have yet to find a clear and concise definition of. After an internet search, I discovered it’s not uncommon for authors to suffer from such a malady. I found this appeal from John Last, Emeritus professor of epidemiology of the University of Ottawa, wherein he pleads for a colleague:

“Are there any editors aware of support groups for authors who have something original and important to say but suffer from obsessive anxiety that inhibits their ability to pursue their ideas to fruition?...My admittedly rather superficial inquiries about the prevalence of this condition suggest that it is not uncommon among creative artists and writers, which leads me to wonder whether there is/are support group(s) for victims.”

I didn’t have time to attend a support group, even if I could find one. So, I further researched the subject and stumbled upon the following advice, intended to ease the pain of rejection:

“When submitting manuscripts, send two SASE's, one rose colored enveloped labeled"Acceptance Letter," and a black envelope labeled "Form Rejection Slip.” Enclose a smiley face sticker, with instructions to the editor to affix it to the black envelope if he has scribbled a personal note of encouragement or advice in the margin of the rejection slip.”

Interesting counsel, but not applicable to my particular situation because, after reading and contemplating the advice, I realized it was not the rejections, or the words therein, that unnerved me. Some of my rejection letters actually evoked a smile. One I still have:

“Had we had received your manuscript a year ago, we would have been eager to publish it. However, due to what we perceive as instabilities in the market that render us unable to make a profit, we cannot do so as we plan to cease publication. However, please feel free to send additional manuscripts as we enjoy reading your work.”

And, my personal favorite: “If you were a well-known author, or a male author, we feel your manuscript would be saleable.”

I was working on the first problem. However, since the publisher didn’t mention an option to adopt a masculine pen name, there wasn’t much I could do about the second!

I decided to break things down to see how I really felt about the whole process of writing and submission. Writing - good. Rewriting - check. Filing - great. Getting manuscript out and rereading, revising, and rewriting - wonderful. Putting manuscript into envelope and sending -- eeekkk!

Two images popped into my head. The first was of my fiery, redheaded high-school typing teacher, Mrs. Weidman, who gave my fingers a sharp rap with her ruler if I erred at the keyboard. She made it plain she didn’t like me, and she had zero tolerance for my inability to produce spontaneous, blunder free papers. To this day I don’t know why -- it wasn’t for lack of trying -- but my brain and fingers could simply not make a connection that would allow me to type 100 plus words per minute with no errors.

The second image was of my mother. In my youth, I frequently followed her around and tried to get her to listen to my stories. Her response was almost always the same: “Lori, writing is not your forte.” I knew she thought she was doing me a favor by discouraging me from making a fool of myself. She believed writing, for me at least, to be a frivolous occupation. Her words stung.

Silly as it seemed, though nearly two decades had elapsed, I continued to allow my self-esteem to remain in a battered state. I wasn’t really afraid of rejection -- I pretty much expected it. The problem was I feared I would never measure up. My efforts would never -- ever -- be good enough for the Mrs. Weidman’s of the world. Sometimes, I could almost feel the smack of her ruler on my fingers when I even contemplated putting a manuscript into the mail. “Yes, Mrs. Weidman, I’d better check it one more time -- I’ll file it away until I can…”

In addition, as I’d discovered with a handful of other things in my life, when a parent expresses stringent and repeated opposition to your choices, it can be difficult to overcome. Could my manuscripts ever be perfect enough that my mother would believe writing was my forte?

My yearning to have my manuscripts be undeniably perfect in every aspect, to the point I feared sending them out (some even after private editors combed over them) was rooted in a fear of failure. I had to have a stern talk with myself and remember failure is a normal part of life. Without it, like I often told my children, how could we learn? It’s not failure that matters, it’s the way we handle it. It’s getting up one more time and trying again, even if those who oppose us think we shouldn’t.

I’m getting braver at submitting manuscripts. As a result, I’ve enjoyed some rewarding achievements, milestones I never would have reached had I always been a chicken and not tried. Now, each time I submit, my fingers and heart hurt less because I know I haven’t truly failed until I quit, and I don’t intend to quit.

What All Stories are About

2007-09-14T10:29:00.000-05:00

By David G. Woolley

There was a time in my college days I didn't believe the script writing professor. He said all stories were ultimately about birth and death. The man was an ad director who retired from his Manhattan agency for a career in teaching script writing. Not that you can't trust ad people and their creative attempts to convince me I need a hand sewn magnetic head warmer to promote brain wave function, but they're the ones who hype high fructose corn syrup to reduce the risk of type four diabetes--the type of diabetes the coroner diagnoses. Can you really trust a professor who makes a comment using the word all ?

I don't remember everything I learned in my college statistics courses, but when a lecturer said it was statistically possible to know if a question was true or false based on how it was phrased, I perked right up. You mean there is a real-world application for standard deviations? I admit my perkiness was more about not having to study the course material too deeply and still have a statistically significant chance of acing the test. It was the greatest find since Columbus used a time machine to transport the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. History is my best subject. My statistics professor was also the same scholar who advised a local frozen food packing company that the best way to insure lower rates of employee turnover was to hire applicants who scored below thirty percent on the company's entrance exam. Apparently exam scores predict a reverse correlation between the repetitive work of stuffing pasta into plastic freezer bowls and job satisfaction. Based on those findings I was willing to suspend my disbelief and I took copious notes to preserve forever the knowledge of how to divine which test bubble, A or B, to darken with a #2 pencil.

Turns out it was a pretty simple matter of semantics. If the question uses the words all or always, you can be 95% certain that the answer is false. When my script writing professor insisted that all stories are ultimately about birth or death, I was statistically skeptical. It wasn't until after he explained the nuances of his claim that I learned he fell into that narrow 5% category of being always semantically false while at the same time remaining true to the art of storytelling.

I said, "Where is the story of birth or death in the Sound of Music?"

He pointed out that when characters change they essentially let their old way of thinking or behaving die in exchange for a birth into a new way of behaving. What he called a new life. Maria, the Captain, all the Von Trapp children, the blond-headed telegram delivery boy of going-on-seventeen-fame turned Nazi. Even Max the freeloader who loved rich people ephiphanized new wine and stored it in a new bottle. There's something to that Jewish parable. It was Max who said he loved the way he lived when he was with rich people, but finally exchanged his greed and let his new-found Von Trapp Family Singers escape over the Swiss Alps.

Okay. Maybe my script-writing professor was right. There are metaphorical births and deaths in that rerun-of-a-drama, but that was an old story lost among millions of newer stories.

I said, "What about Ground Hog Day?"

I was willing to concede the stories of romance, drama even documentary. But comedy? I figured I had him until he pointed out that the main character in Ground Hog Day, when he discovered he was living in a repetitive day that re-cycled every twenty four hours, searched for happiness in the base pleasures of the world. When that didn't make him happy, he gave away his former life, essentially letting it die. It wasn't until he was reborn into a new life did the repetitive daily routine break and the story end with a satisfying conclusion.

Darn. I was forced to concede comedy too.

This is the point where I should limit my analysis to storytelling and declare that birth and death act as metaphors for character change. But its deeper than that. Character change just may be a metaphorical death and birth equivalent for slavation. The spiritual connections are obvious. Faith. Repentance (and its corollary forgiveness). Baptism. Atonement. Maybe what my script-writing professor was teaching me without actually mentioning it was that all things are spiritual. Even all our stories.

Always.

Writer's Travel Trunk

2007-09-14T01:09:00.000-05:00

By Janie Van Komen

It’s never really convenient to write. There are always clothes to wash, weeds to pull, people to visit, scriptures to read. I think God set it up that way so that we always have some kind of choice to make.When I was younger I believed I would eventually have time to do everything.

As I collected more and more years into my travel trunk of life I finally realized there is only so much room in that trunk. Everything won’t fit. I am more selective about the trappings of choices I throw in and also about the ones I consider and then throw away. Startled at the revelation that the trunk was filling up too fast I was angry with my past self for dumping lots of tidbits of things I was only interested in for about ten minutes or ten days. Why did I waste all that precious space in time?

Then the writer side of me poked a pencil into a book and as I began to catalogue the contents, stories both real and imagined interrupted the mechanics of the record keeping. The record keeping was my excuse of acceptability to those who prefer I wash dishes or run errands, but the imagined interruptions rejuvenated me.

This exercise of putting my hand to paper is just as vital as keeping my family tree properly trimmed up. The choices of my past rise out of my trunk of life and reappear in some story like coins a magician pulls out of ears and other unlikely places. The choices, whether good or bad, are vital to making my life trunk valuable to a future somebody. My explanations, tangents, and imaginations spun out of those choices are my interpretations of the journey of my mortality.

It’s never really convenient to write but if I don’t, my fear is that somebody else will sort through my travel trunk of life and write what they think my story was all about.

The Day My Mother Died

2007-09-11T13:03:00.000-05:00

By Kenya Transtrum

I wish I could say I don't remember, but the thing is, I do. I remember when I'm sitting outside looking at the blood-red roses or at night when the skies turn deep purple. My dreams are filled with shuffling feet, swirling colors and barking orders. "She's not breathing! Turn her over! Suction! Bag her!"

When my father died he slipped away peacefully with all of his family silently weeping around his bed. I was holding his hand. At the very last seconds he opened his eyes. They were bright and alert. He looked at a corner on the ceiling and smiled and his smile was so joyful I looked to see what had caused it. It was nothing my mortal eyes could see. And then he was gone, the hint of that smile still on his face. Although I was heart-broken at his passing, it was satisfying. If he was smiling, I knew he was going to a wonderful place.

A dozen years later I stood in the ER as my mother, surrounded by chaos and confusion and riddled in pain, stopped breathing. Her room was not filled with loved ones hovering near whispering their 'I love yous'. She was alone with no hand to hold. I was alone with no one to look to for comfort. My father's death had been expected for hours; my mother just stopped breathing.

The day before we had been out to lunch together. We sang in the restaurant, quietly of course, laughed at jokes and talked about my children and grandchildren, her beloved treasures. She had errands to run, things to do, so she briefly stopped at my house to pet my dog, Cleo, and then ran out the door at 1 PM to finish her day. Twenty-four hours later I arrived at the hospital right behind the ambulance.

It was a very busy day in the ER. Although my mother was critical, it took nearly 3 hours for the doctor to see her. In that amount of time, things had gone from critical to grave and my mother's worn-out little body could take no more pain. The death rattle was heard, blood came out of her mouth and I knew she was gone.

And then the dream began. I stepped away from my mom. Nurses and doctors filled the tiny enclosure. I watched and listened as if I were a casual observer. Even as I watched, I noticed the numbness, the lack of hysteria, the utter calm I felt. And I wondered about it. What's wrong with me? My mother is now turning purple and I am calm. I watched patiently as they cared for my mother, suctioning blood out of her airway, bagging her for oxygen, checking for pulse and breathing. When a nurse asks for the suction I even step in to hand it to her. And I am back to my job of watching. It only takes minutes from start to finish. My mother begins to breathe again.

It doesn't matter. In my mind, this will always be the day I watched my mother die. It will also be the day that will haunt me for another reason. Why was I so calm? Why did I feel so emotionless as I watched? I have thought of all the reasonable reasons: I was in shock, it hadn't hit me yet, so much was happening, I didn't really believe she was dying. But the truth is, had that been my husband or one of my children, I can tell you my heart would have been all over the place.

So, as many daughters do, this will be another secret I keep from my mother. In her eyes, I was dutiful and loving to stand by her bedside for 12 hours that day. She needn't know that I am not so sure.

A Shared History with My Mother

2007-09-09T18:01:00.000-05:00

By Janie Van Komen

Today I called my mother and said I was on my way to break her out of the joint. Most of my gifts and talents and certainly a great deal of my inspiration and encouragement comes from my mother. Not exactly the mother from my youth but my mother of the “now.”

For fifty years she acquired all aspects of the history of Garland, Utah and its surrounding community. It was time to write the book. Four hundred sixteen pages, one thousand pictures, and many sleepless nights later we did finish the book just in time for the town’s centennial celebration. Not unlike the people in Whoville of Horton Hears a Who, there were many important lives come and gone and still coming that cried out to be preserved in that tiny dot on the map of Utah.

Three weeks after we finished the book while my mother was selling it at the local fair she became dizzy and fell down on the road. After a few trips to various doctors the brain tumor was tediously removed and the life spared. Two years of grueling therapy and several follow-up surgeries restored her from not quite all of the damage and paralysis. She was so excited to regain her driver’s license and her freedom once again. Four months later when she and my father were returning from a day’s work at the Logan temple they were involved in a head on collision. My mother sustained a broken and dislocated ankle, eleven broken ribs, a broken clavicle, and her neck sustained what is known as the hangman’s break or the Christopher Reeve break.

In some great miracle she was not paralyzed from this, but the resulting disabilities, pain, and suffering along with the leftovers of the brain tumor left her quite a different person than she was when we wrote the book together. She is still inside the body but the body is not so capable as before. Now in order for her to get out of the house somebody has to take her. So, today I did.

After lunch at The Olive Garden we blinked our eyes and found we had spent and hour and a half in Barnes and Noble sharing our love of books and commentaries to each other of “you should read this one,” or “what do you think of this title?” etc. etc.

We laughed and sighed and shared until I had returned her safely back in her house. She gave me an e-mail on some current political prick of information. And then she shared with me a treasure from her bookshelf she had recently read, the 1916 memorial edition of Elbert Hubbard’s A Little Journey into the Homes of the American Statesmen.

Elbert Hubbard was the most sought after lecturer in the United States from 1905 thru 1915. His writings were in great demand and he was paid handsomely for his work. He interviewed people who had known famous statesmen or who were famous statesmen and among other things he wrote about them. On his way to interview Kaiser Wilhelm Elbert Hubbard was aboard the Lusitania when it was sunk by a German submarine. This particular book was printed after his death. My grandmother had signed her maiden name inside the book. It had belonged to her before she was married. The beautiful leather cover is well worn but still holds it original magnificence.

I knew three of my great-grandparents. And because of two house fires, all three of them, my mother’s parents, and my childhood family all lived in the same house for a short time. All of my great-grandparents were born in the late 1800’s. I was born mid 1900’s, and my grandchildren mostly are born in the 2000’s.

Today as I touched the soft leather of that 1916 book I thought about how close in time this man was to the founding fathers he wrote about. I yearned to read his opinions and ideas about those men who shaped our nation. I thought about me holding hands with people from three centuries and wondered if other people will ever want to know what I have to say about those I have known and written about.

Janie

The Memory Jar

2007-09-08T17:38:00.001-05:00

By Janet Jensen

After a major loss in my life, I attended a grieving class. One concept I learned is that it's normal to be forgetful and distracted when you've experienced grief, even when you're not thinking about your loss. And that gave me hope that sooner or later ordinary aspects of my life would settle down. And they did.

Then I happened to read a magazine article about a woman who gave her mother, "the woman who has everything" a unique gift. She took 365 small slips of paper and wrote memories of her mother on each. Then she put them in a pretty jar with a ribbon and presented it to her mother. "Read one each day," she told her mother, who promptly reached in, took out one slip, read it, and smiled. They reminisced about the event on the paper. Then, after the daughter left, the mother read each of the remaining 364 papers! She just couldn't ration herself to one a day, she enjoyed them so much.

I returned to my grieving class the next evening and one member said that her familiy was gathering in a couple of months to honor the life of her brother, who had taken his own life. They couldn't afford to do anything expensive or elaborate, but they wanted to do something significant that would bring them closer and help them heal. I thought of the "memory jar" in the magazine article, and told her about it.

Her face lit up. She said it was a great idea; she would ask family members to write favorite memories of her brother and bring them. They'd put them in a jar and take turns reading them. I later heard that it was a great success. They pulled the memories out of the jar and they laughed and they cried and they began to heal.

From simple ideas great things can happen. And in this case, I had the privilege of passing on a story, one that helped a family deal with their grief.

Blessings

2007-09-05T01:00:00.000-05:00

One summer. Two scares with my health.

I tried to figure out what in my life to throw overboard as I battened the hatches for an anticipated storm. Long abandoned were several time-consuming habits and hobbies, like watching daytime television or nighttime dramas. The cable had been disconnected for years. Gone, too, were hours spent shopping with friends. Those had been replaced with mom-and-daughter bonding time that occasionally took us to the mall. I did, however, continue to spend too much time at local garden centers admiring yard décor and perennials. If indeed I were gravely ill those excursions would need to cease, as would time spent fussing with my yard. I wanted to spend every minute possible with my family.

In order to make the most of the precious time I had left, there would be no more long phone conversations with friends pursuing idle chitchat. Lunches and movies with friends would have to be cut. My frequent, obsessive visits to the library would need to stop. Except for projects I’d committed to finish for the magazines and publishers I worked with, time spent on art and illustration would come to a halt. And, writing…what would I do about writing? It consumed so much of my time, so much of me. Could I really bind up my laptop, my journals, my pens and pencils, and my writing tablets and toss them out of my life?

One more afternoon. One more test. I waited to see a lab technician with cold hands and an austere demeanor. As I sat, I took in the faces and emotions around me. All of us suspended in the act of waiting for the unknown seemed engulfed in our own trials yet we managed, from time to time, to exchange brief smiles of compassion and understanding. I mentally jotted down the experience and the feelings that coursed through me. I had neglected to bring a notebook. How I missed it!

Something in my stomach caught as I realized writing was the backbone of my existence. A good fifty percent of what I wrote I’d never share or attempt to publish but it truly kept me sane and focused.

From a strong warning from an invisible messenger I ignored that instructed me not to weed with my bare hands -- right before I got stung by a hornet -- to unseen help in locating my grandmother’s lost necklace, my M.O.M., Mindful of Me Journal, was a place to record all life’s moments when I knew Heavenly Father was watching over me. My gratitude journal held accounts of sweet moments spent with my family and descriptions of things sacred and dear. My daily journal tracked events that were both funny and heart wrenching. I drew in a deep breath. I knew had to continue to write in my journals.

I had to.

My short stories were my way of reaching out. My way of sharing what I viewed as good, valuable, and wonderful in the world, an attempt to help others travel the rocky paths I had already crossed. I couldn’t give those up either.

Another day, another test result. Everything was fine. I was okay. I’d envisioned spending my last few moments, pencil in hand, scrawling out my innermost feelings, as well as what I wanted to impart to future generations and a last few stories I’d forgotten to tell. Thankfully, I didn’t have to face that yet.

I looked into the faces of my family. I had time -- more time to spend with those I loved. And, a trickle of guilt seeped in, time to write.

Now, it was back to the balancing act which ruled my life. My family came first. No question. I balanced time with them with moments stolen in the tender light of early dawn or the darkness of late evening. Moments found in the cracks and crevices of my life that allowed me to write. It was a process that was often exhausting, sometimes frustrating, but always an adventure.

Always a blessing.

2007-09-04T10:41:00.000-05:00

By Kelly Martinez

Wow! I've never contributed to a blog before. Is it like an instantaneous news article? Is it a journal entry? Hmmm...I will need to swim around a bit to get accustomed to the water.

I love writing. I don't do as much of it these days as I used to, but the love is still there. I don't think I feel more at home anywhere else (except my own home, of course) than I do in front of a keyboard, tapping out what comes to mind, trying to make sense of the thoughts that populate my mind. Writing, for me, is empowering, therapeutic, and cleansing.

For many years, writing has been a hobby to me. I've earned some money from freelancing, but nothing that could ever pay the bills. If I had my way, I'd make a full-time living from my writing. But, reality presides in my world as I continue to graphically design for a living.

Sports has been the focus of the writing I've let out into the public. However, I have found more satisfaction and a truer expression of who I am and what it is that I am thinking and feeling through other writing projects.

For instance, I have a work of fiction on my hard drive that has a sports setting, but is a love story. A story that explores the inner souls of characters who find their true selves in areas they never thought they would. A romantic, familial, and societal love story that follows the life of an athlete who, after the lights have dimmed and the fans have gone home, struggles to find his place in the world. Instinctively, he seeks to recapture the limelight in the only forum he knows: the sporting world. During a series of tragic events, he is forced to eventually prioritize all that truly matters to him and to let go of the superficial things that really don't.

I've found joy in writing about music, television, and general interest topics. While interning at the Deseret Morning News, I wrote about the rock band U2, about corporate groundbreaking ceremonies, and about an LDS musician who is wheelchair bound, to name a few. For Meridian Magazine, I've written about a newsanchorman in Los Angeles who is a convert to the Church. I've also interviewed and written about LDS recording artist Cherie Call for Meridian. I thoroughly enjoyed these writing projects.

It's funny, but 20 years ago, I thought sports was all that would ever interest me enough to write about. For a long time, I adhered to that belief and honed a sports-writing craft that now interests me far less than other aspects of entertainment and life.

Our drive and desire to write, I believe, is God-given and is something we should put time and effort into developing. In the sporting world, an athlete or team cannot expect to improve if they do not practice. So it is with writing. If God has given you the gift of writing, do not waste it away like the foolish in the parable of the ten talents.

Once again, writing has shown me something I didn't expect it to! I am feeling a deeper commitment to developing my writing skills and putting them to good use. I am hereby committing to write more.

How about you?

Genealogy and Writers

2007-09-02T06:25:00.001-05:00

I've been doing the FamilySearch indexing for quite some time now. This involves taking records, such as the 1900 census, and putting them into forms that will later be put online free. When I started, the training said each record takes 30-60 minutes to complete. I've yet to complete a census record of 50 names in an hour. I suspect they didn't beta test on writers.

"Wow, look at this. Ten children in the family, all born in different states. I wonder why they moved so much? I'll bet..." and my imagination is off and running, creating a complete bio and plot line for this family. Twenty minutes later, I come to and remember I'm supposed to be extracting, not plotting.

One day I found a family on a 1900 census which listed the woman as head of household and her husband as "husband." This being 1900, there was a story in there somewhere. This being in an area near where my own ancestors lived, where many of the surnames were familiar to me, there was a really good story in there somewhere. I do not come from boring stock. I knew that if the census taker found no one at home, he sometimes got the information from neighbors. I pictured the scene. "That's my cousin. Let me tell you something. She wears the pants in that family. Put her down as head." The census taker, also being a cousin of some sort, would laugh and know it was probably true. (In the hillls of my family, they're all cousins and the women in my family were strong survivors.) Then he'd tell the story all over town as a really good joke to anyone who would listen...until that head of household dumped this week's batch of whiskey over his head.

I start each session by looking over the country of origin, occupations, and educations of my week's list. We don't record some of that information, but I want to know about the neighborhood I'm in. Then I scan the records to see if they might be kin. Only then am I ready to record. I hold my breath as I reach the part of the form that tells me how many children a woman had and how many died. I pause to mourn for the women who have eleven children and only three living. How did they cope with so much death?

I wonder about the homes with grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren, a niece and nephew or two, siblings of the homeowner, all in one home, some of the adults young and widowed. Were they happy? What was such a crowded, busy home like to grow up in, so much family right there in your own home, but so much hardship that made it happen?

There's a story in every seemingly dull record on that list. I am peeking into a moment in the lives of these people and I wish I knew more. I like stories. That is, maybe, why I'm a writer.

What of the Children?

2007-09-01T19:16:00.001-05:00

I'm going to be a bit vulnerable here. I can't tell you the amount of times I've felt guilty for sitting at the computer and writing. My children, it seemed, knew the back of my head better than they knew my face.

Project after project demanded my time. For you see, years ago I was the Stake Cultural Arts Director. This meant that my days overflowed with time spent writing productions for stake and regional settings.

Don't get me wrong. It was flattering to see my imaginings on stage, playing before hundreds of audience members. In fact, it was more than exciting to see one of my productions in regional committee discussions to become the "Hill Cumorah pageant-of-the-south."

But when your church calling demands so much time...what of the children? What of my children?

This question, "What of the children?", has haunted me at times. For nothing can compare with the quiet moments of looking into the exquisite eyes of my daughter. Her eyes speak of eternity to me, if I look in them long enough.

Nothing can compare with hearing my youngest son's peals of laughter when we get into a tickle fest. His chuckles move me like nothing else can.

Nothing compares with the deep discussions my eldest son and I are wont to engage in. His insights inspire me and aid me on my darkest days.

Thus years later, I've changed my pace. It's been a hard thing to do -- for in truth, I love nothing better than sitting at the computer creating stories and events, articles and book chapters. Those activities, along with my music compositions, have been rewarding.

But -- in truth -- nothing can compare with irreplaceable moments with my children. Therefore, I determined I would shift my priorities. Surely the Lord could help me work more efficiently and complete my projects more swiftly.

As a result, I soon learned the potency of delegation. I also witnessed that reducing perfectionism speeded completion. "Over-the-top" efforts were not required -- not when my children were present and deserved my love (which they seem to spell "a-t-t-e-n-t-i-o-n").

In truth, I may not have three books a year to show for my writing efforts, but at least my children are much more familiar with "Mommy's face!"