A Bright New Day

Good morning everyone. Today is another glorious day God has given us. I don't know about the weather around your home, but down here in the south we've been blessed with perfect weather. Love the cool breezes and the clear skies.

For the record, The Louisiana Book Festival that was held this past Saturday, was filled with people, fun, food, music, and so much more. Again, the weather was perfect. I hope all of you who live Louisiana way, were able to make it out there. Those of us who are called to write, when we begin we feel we are all alone, but let me tell you there were so many authors at the festival it took many tents to have covers for our tables to house us all. Some were even sitting out in the beautiful sunlight, soaking it in as they met readers of our books. Let me fill you in on a little secret. Meeting you readers is a joy and highlight in our lives. As much as we love getting lost in our writing, whether it is truth or fiction, we love the one-on-one contact we have with you. So thank you all who made my day and other authors like me. :-) I hope you had as much fun as we did.

A quick update on my family life-- Our oldest daughter (who lives in California) will be flying in Saturday to spend almost 2 weeks with us. Our baby, our son, is getting married 11/11/11 and Rachael is coming in early for it. We are so excited. And I got word this morning she is 4 tenths of a pound away from reaching her goal of losing 45 pounds before coming home. She'll make it!! Our middle daughter, Molly, is enjoying a visitor from England. Her husband’s stepdaughter flew in to America. She planned to spend some time with friends in New York, but took several days out of her trip to fly down here and meet her dad's wife. They were waiting to tell her the good news of the baby-on-the-way. I think Molly & Pete will be celebrating their 3rd wedding anniversary in February. What better way, then by planning a new child in their lives? Remember that old movie, Yours, Mine & Ours? And of course, the remake. Anyway we have our own personal experience with that. Loving it and looking forward to the OURS. Boy or girl??? We don't know yet. But we all look forward to which ever...it may even be one of each. My husband is a twin. :-) Last but not least, Chris, our son, and Rosie, our future daughter-in-law have been busy working while trying to finish up on the last few things involved in their wedding plans. 11/11/11 is right around the corner. We are sooooo excited.

The closing of our house of 20 years and passing it on to the next owner, is right around the corner. We love our home God blessed us with and we pray the new owner will find as much peace and joy as we've had. Most people who come to visit, when they sit in the living room comment on the peace they feel in our home. I love that. It's the peace from God and we know it. I prayed about 30 years ago for this home and God answered the prayer 20 years ago. Wait on God, and it's always the right thing. The only reason we're moving on is to downsize and we believe this is God's will for us. Our new home is gorgeous, sits on the edge of a lake, and it’s a small community of houses. Beautiful houses. We are being blessed again and we know the peace is coming with us!! Praise God!!

Writing tips for today:

When I first got started writing, I had written 5 novels before ever sending out a query letter. I never thought about selling my manuscripts. I wrote them for the pleasure it brought me...never thinking others could enjoy them (except my mom and our dear friend, Rhonda). When I was encouraged to try to get published and I sent out my first query letter, the response came that they would love to see the first three chapters and an outline of my manuscript. The first three chapters were easy, but an outline?? How do you take a 50000 - 60000 word count manuscript and turn it into a 3-page outline. That was hard, let me tell you. But I did it, and after a very long wait, I was rejected. Why? Because I did a lot of head hopping. 

What is that? It's the way they used to write so the reader knew what every character was thinking as they spoke. It is the omnipotent way. But TODAY we write in a certain character or characters Point Of View--POV for future references. Writers either right in the main character's POV in first person (I this, or I that) or they write in 3rd person (he or she did, blah blah blah). When you write in 3rd person, you can stay in the main characters POV or you can occasionally go to another characters POV but you have to do it in block form. The best thing is when writing a scene you determine who's POV you need to be in. If writing a mystery, sometimes you'll want to write in the killers POV without giving away who he/she is, but you want to get some of the killers thoughts across to the reader, usually increasing the tension or fear. You can also write in 1st person with the occasional 3rd person chapter. The first I ever saw this was when reading a James Patterson suspense novel. One short chapter here and there was in the killer’s head. Later I noticed in Sue Grafton novels as well. They do a wonderful job of it. The main thing to remember, when writing and you want to have more than one POV in a scene, remember to block it out, and be in the character who best grows the story, keeping it moving forward. Don't hop back and forth. Give your character either a chapter to his/her self and when its within another chapter give them several paragraphs, maybe even a few pages...which is what I mean by blocking it out.

Another thing I learned with my first rejection and a few more rejections later (of course I learned it over 10 years later) is when a publisher rejects you and gives you specific reasons they rejected it, take time to fix those things and then resubmit. I was told once you are rejected, they’d never look at it again. But a published author, whom was getting an autographed copy of her book, told me that wise piece of wisdom. Basically we want to learn from our rejections and grow as a writer. So keep on writing and keep on growing.

Till next week, have a blessed time. By the way, I've been emailed by several who have tried to become a follower on my blog, but for some reason it hasn't allowed anyone...yet my iPhone tells me people have started following. I don't see any comments or people showing yet, but I'll get with my web-master, Moore by Design, and get that remedied. Hopefully quickly, but don't give up trying. I'll let you know more next week.