Thursday, June 18, 2015

Hello friends. I’m glad to see several of you still reading my monthly blog. Sorry it’s not put out consistently on the same date monthly. Life, as you know, leads you this way and that. I know I pray daily asking God to lead me, to do all He’s called me to do, each day. Therefore I believe it comes out at the time it is supposed to.

Lately He’s been encouraging me to write on my latest Samantha Cain novel. It’s Against Her Will. I believe it will be well worth the wait. As you all know it was expected out last year—but again, life got in the way. The Lord took my husband home to be with Him. So while Scott is up there dancing, praising, playing golf, visiting his family and mine, I’m down here on earth living one day at a time.

The last day of May I sent off a completed manuscript to my publisher, Ramona Tucker. I still haven’t heard back, but I feel I will at the right time. That one was Hidden Secrets. It too will be worth the wait. I feel the novels I am writing, God puts into my heart. The stories are fiction, but God is real in each and every one.

I mentioned in a previous blog about a non-fiction book God has me writing. You all know I stated over the last twenty plus years, I’d never write non-fiction. It’s too hard. But we all know who is in control. God has had me working on a devotional. When it’s completed it will be a yearly devotion, but as of right now the first 31 days have been posted on MY WEBSITE for you to pull up and download on your computer, to be read for free. It is my gift to you at your time of convenience. I just gave the next 28 days to my webmaster to add to the website. It will be there soon, The key to finding it on my website is to click on the LIGHTHOUSE, and you’ll see more. Until 12 sections have been added, you’ll only be able to add one at a time. When the book is completed I will have all 12 months combined into one…well my webmaster will.

I tried adding something today to my website, but kind of messed things up. She’ll fix it or help me fix it soon. On ORDER page I tried adding 3 places people could quickly click on and order the book or ebook of Bayou Secrets – a collection of 3 of my novels in one book published by Barbour Publishing and Oak Tara. I’ll go ahead and note it here on my blog:

        






For those of you who don’t already own Crime in The Big Easy, Be Not Afraid, & Testimony of Innocence, to click on any of the above will give you access to purchase the hard copy or eBook at a discounted rate. Enjoy!!!

Isn’t spring the best time of year? Look around your neighborhood and enjoy the beautiful flowers blooming. Oh how I love flowers. I took a quick glance back to make sure I won’t be duplicating this, but here is a picture of some of the flowers that were blooming in my yard and some I cut and brought inside to enjoy:

               

They bloomed in white, gold, and purple. They were so pretty. Just recently I cut them back in hopes to get more. The ones I’d left on the plants had died and of course the ones I brought inside slowly decayed. I kept them going as long as I could. I don’t have a green thumb so I am amazed that these and the impassions as well as the day lilies in the front yard are doing so well. Scott was the one who kept our garden flowers blooming. He and God that is.



The tip I’m going to share today for writers is something I learned through a course taught by  James R Callan , author of Over my Dead Body,  Cleansed by Fire, and more. He taught a course entitled – Dialog that Sells – He also has a book available on the subject– Write Great Dialog.

His first question to us was why do we care about how we write our dialogue? He let us know that a frequent reason for manuscripts to be turned down is for poor dialog. He went on to give an example of both.

Poor dialog for writing in book:

“Hi, Mary. How’s everything?”                                                               
“Good. And you?”
“Things are going pretty well.”
“Glad to hear that. Been to any good movies recently?”                    
“No. Too busy getting the kids ready for school.”
“Oh, I guess it is getting close to that time of year, isn’t it.”
“Too close; too fast.”
“I guess I’ll be into that next year.”
“Have you seen Joan lately? I’ve called and gone by many times for over   a week and I never catch her.”

Now the way it would work in a novel:

“Hi. How’s everything going?”
“Good.  Good”
“Have you seen Joan lately? I’ve called and gone by a bunch of times. She’s nowhere to be found.  I’m worried.”

Cut out the fat. Don’t waste the readers’ time. Dialog should do one of two things. Either further the plot, or enhance the reader’s understanding of the character. If it doesn’t, cut out that dialog.

As dialog moves your story forward, it can also intensify the conflict or add more conflict to it. It also can be used to describe a character so as not to bore the reader with too much narrative. Dialog can be used in foreshadowing as well. Dialog written well can be very powerful in writing a novel that will sell.

Another form of dialog is internal dialog. I know this as deep point of view, taught to me by Jill Elizabeth Nelson. Another good book to help grow your manuscript. Internal dialog reveals the true character of the character, the feeling of the character, and make the story more believable to the reader.

He taught us more in the on-line course I took through ACFW I believe. I just shared a few of the major points. The most important thing to know is your dialog is important to your book sells. A writer should fine-tune every part of writing a novel and make his/her be the best it can be before shopping it around to agents or editors, or publishing yourself. Your work follows you, so make it your best. Of course, as I writer I can tell you as you grow you can always make your older novels better, but that’s part of the growing experience of being a writer. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

God bless you all

Until next month,


Deb

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