Comment #1!

Jenni K. H.  What a good-looking group! We love going to Midway and St. George!

Congratulations! I’ve got your mailing address so I’ll get your book in the mail.

1) Go somewhere warm which equals south.

2) Go somewhere we could hike.

3) Go somewhere we’d never been (or even heard of).

Kodachrome Basin State Park fit the bill. Plus it had rocks for the kids to climb.

Even the baby had fun. BTW–I love whoever invented the Bumbo.

It was so nice to get away with just our little family and have fun together. We were even able to start back in with our nighttime reading ritual. (Soccer season is too chaotic–we have to wait until its over for bedtime stories.) We took along the third book, The Home Ranch, in the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody. We LOVE these books.

Speaking of books . . .

I promised a giveaway! Okay, so here’s what you need to do to be entered to win A Christmas to Remember:

Leave a comment telling one of your favorite places to go for a family vacation.

That’s it. Easy Peasy.

Random.org will help me select a winner on Friday night. Look for the announcement Saturday morning.

It’s REAL!

My first published story. Oh, there will be a giveaway. Stay tuned. If you just can’t wait another second, you can get your own copy at Deseret Book or amazon.com

It’s real, it’s real, it’s real! *said in a sing-songy voice* Sorry, I’ll get back to cleaning my house.

Anyway, the story I submitted is about our Christmas tree decorating tradition, thus the picture. Before the book went to press, Samantha, the editor, sent me the final proof. When I clicked open the file, I caught my breath. They kept my title “More Than Pinecones” for the story. It gives me hope I might get to keep my book title FALLING AWAKE. Maybe. A snowflake and swirl design topped my title followed by my name. My name in print! (Oh, my vanity!) Page numbers stamped each corner so I know my story starts on page 67. It was so real. And so exciting!

I love editors. Sam clarified a couple of clunky places in my story with some well placed punctuation. She makes me look good. Thanks, Sam!

I don’t know the title of the book yet or when it’s available for purchase. Rest assured I’ll let you know all the details. I’ll have to do a giveaway here on account of your wading through so many exclamation points. Plus, I’m just a little excited to see something I wrote published in a book and on the shelves of a bookstore! I’ll definitely have to celebrate with a giveaway.

Just one week after the exciting email that Covenant wanted to publish my book, I was assigned an editor. So much for the in a month or so! She sent me feedback from two outside readers to consider and use to make changes before she edits my manuscript.

One of the Readers pointed out that a couple of my characters seemed too perfect. Hmmm … thought I’d given them all weaknesses. Turns out one character is perfect. No flaws. How did I miss that? Thank goodness for Readers. Back to work.

I listened again to a Writing Excuses podcast about character flaws and faults. Brandon Sanderson said he always gives his characters two flaws (internal conflicts) and two faults (external). I’ve got the faults part covered for each of my characters, but I’ve only given each one flaw. So I decided to add one more flaw to each character. With my sleep-deprived brain (new baby), I’ve been struggling to come up with just the right flaws for my characters.

This morning I decided to put out a plea on FB and this blog for anyone to list character flaws. About the time I logged in to FB, it hit me. Do a google search. So I did. And looky what I found! That’s very nearly an exhaustive list. And I LOVE the short definitions that follow. Thanks RPG people! This is one other time (see Dan Wells’ story structure lecture–incredible!) when I’m grateful for your obsession attention to detail.

• Congratulations! Covenant Communications has accepted your novel, Falling Awake, for publication.
• The plot is unique, and the characters are rich and multifaceted. (Wow. The managing editor wrote this! How exciting is that to hear about your work?! Okay, enough with the exclamation points.)
• All of us involved in the review of your manuscript and the decision about its publication felt it was a creative, compelling story that would resonate well with the LDS market.

I’ll be assigned an editor in the next month or so and then the revisions will start. But for now, I’m  enjoying the moment.

Oh yes, savoring the moment. And crying. And smiling. Thank you Covenant for believing in me and giving me this opportunity! (Now I’m done with the exclamation points.)

How You Tube Showed Me My Plotholes

Sadly, I was unable to attend LTUE this year. I know, I know. It’s free. I should be able to make my schedule accommodate such things, but such is life. However, some beautiful people made a video (5, 10 minute segments, actually) of Dan Wells‘ (author of I Am Not a Serial Killer and podcaster from Writing Excuses) story structure class. Then Dan Wells posted not only  the You Tube links but also his coinciding Power Point presentation.

Amazing. Simply amazing. Can I just say, I love these people for doing this, and Dan Wells is brilliant. Brilliant people. You should all check this out. Basically there are seven points to every plot: action, character, romance, betrayal. I used his seven point plotting system to plot my WIP (Work in Progress). When I did this I saw precisely where my plot fell down, stalled, ceased to exist even. It also quickly pointed out which genre I had written–not the one I thought. Now I know what is missing, where in the story it’s missing, and most importantly how to strengthen my plotlines to write the book I thought I was writing.

How Shards of Glass Are the Only Backstory I Need

When Anon critiqued my work, I discovered I had three chapters of backstory. Three! I knew I needed to ax those chapters, but I kept trying to rewrite my favorite scenes into later parts of the book. So frustrating, because if chunks of backstory don’t belong in the first three chapters guess what happens if you try to weave it in later? That’s right–the story comes  to a complete halt while I share this bit of backstory I’ve tried to rework as something that moves the plot forward, but it can’t–because it’s backstory.

Feeling as if this might be the book I have to put away and never touch again, I quit revising. But I didn’t quit searching for answers. At the end of April I came across a backstory series on Jordan McCollum’s website. She is an amazing blogger who packs her posts full of helpful info for writers. I’m in awe of the time and research she puts into each article. Back in March Margie Lawson wrote a guest post on Jordan’s blog.  The light of backstory understanding finally dawned when I read this:

Mark Sullivan (mystery/suspense/thriller writer) has a great plan for back story management.

He suggests writing down what you think the reader needs to know.

Grab a red pen – and go through your back story points and circle what the reader absolutely has to know.

Next, take those points you circled, that the reader absolutely needs to know, and picture them etched on a sheet of glass.Got it?

You’re imagining those points imprinted on a rectangle of glass. Imagine carrying that sheet of glass to a brick patio. Imagine standing on a brick patio, holding that sheet of glass.

YOU KNOW WHAT’S COMING!

Drop that sheet of glass.

Watch it shatter.

Imagine picking up one narrow shard of glass at a time – and slipping each sliver of back story in your first 100 pages. Repeat. You insert one sliver of back story in those first 100 pages, one piece of back story at a time.

That powerful image created quite an AHA! moment for me. Now I knew I had to throw out the first three chapters. No question.

How To Quit Spinning My Wheels and Write

I learned so much from Margie Lawson’s one guest post on Jordan McCollum’s site, I enrolled in her online Deep Editing class. Wow. It’s intense. The first five chapters of my WIP are in shreds.The class ends next week and I’m pitifully behind. However, I’ve discovered that I first need to rewrite with Dan Wells’ Seven Point Story Structure system, and then use Margie Lawson’s Deep Edits to make my manuscript shine.

Knowing what to do makes all the difference in motivation.

This award came from L.A. DeVaul. She’s committed herself to five years of yoga. Everyday. In her own unique and insightful way she’s blogging about her journey. She’s also a soon to be published author. Her novel Roxanne in La La Land (A love triangle between a man, a woman, and a dream.) comes out sometime this spring.

So the rules of this award are to list five fascinating things about myself, and pass the award on to five new blogs. Already I’m in trouble with the fascinating part. How ’bout I go for five perhaps not-so-fascinating-things,-but-things-about-me-nonetheless? Agreed? Agreed.

1. The recipe section of this blog is struggling.

2. So is the running section.

3. There’s a good reason for that.

4. I’m pregnant.

5. For the twelfth time.

Food is beginning to taste better. Maybe I’ll be able to photograph it again. When my energy comes back. Running on the other hand …

Five new blogs for you all to check out:

1. Krista Lynne Jensen This lady I’ve got to meet someday. It’s fun to hear her ever changing playlist.

2.  Chasing Dreams You’ll find a lot of writers commenting here and info about the publishing journey.

3. Preschool by Stormie Yeah, this isn’t a blog. L. A. might have to revoke my award. It’s a fantastic resource for parents who do preschool for their own children and professional educators alike.

4. Cool Running Yes, I know. This isn’t a blog either, but it has fun forums and people. It’s where I found the Couch to 5K program that started me on my running obsession journey. I’ve done a few virtual races with other runners on this site and learned a lot.

5. Writing Excuses This is a blog format. These 15 minute writing podcasts are how I get my Monday morning breakfast dishes done. The comments are fun and informative, too.

Now you know more about me than you really needed  to know on a Monday. Sorry about that.

Over the last two weeks an anonymous soul took pity on my emerging writing skills. Anon dissected my writing sample and offered up invaluable expertise for which I’m very grateful. Anon criticized my dialogue this way.

“It needs to be natural. This is not natural:

‘We like to entertain, and it’s nice to have formal place settings.’

This is more natural:

‘Parties. You know. We like to have people over.’ Sean reached for two large boxes in the back of the Escalade.”

You will all likely agree that Anon’s rendering flows better, sounds better. This is not the first time I’ve received this criticism. However, it’s the first time the critiquer’s example sounded better to me than my own. Previously, I considered the advice and kept an ear out only to discover that I write my dialogue the way my mom. sisters and I talk when we’re together. I decided my dialogue was perfectly normal and continued on my way until Anon. Now I’m rethinking. It’s difficult for a formal speaking person like me to do these revisions, but I’m determined to make my manuscript better.

Last week my daughter typed and posted rules for the girls’ room. Here is rule number eight from her sign: Do not rummage through our possessions. Perhaps formal diction runs in the genes.