The love of writing

Do you love what you do? Whether you’re an accountant, doctor, writer, factory worker or a housewife, you have to love what you do. It helps keep you going. I love writing. I also love being an accountant and children’s ministry director. It makes things so much easier when you love what you do.

When I have a story in my brain I look forward to every time I open my laptop. It’s exhilerating just getting the story out to everyone. Maybe what goes through my brain doesn’t appeal to you, but some people like it. According to some of my adoring fans they love it, which for a writer is awesome to hear. That means I’ve accomplished part of my goal and thats to reach someone with my writing. A couple have asked me several times, where on earth do you get all these story lines.

What’s fun is when you’re writing and you actually laugh out loud or wipe tears. One of the stories that I’m working on is a Christian romance that is about grief and going beyond the loss of a spouse to find love again through faith. As I wrote the death scene I kept a box of tissues next to me. I wrote it while thinking of what if this was me. How would I react or feel? How would I handle telling my child? How would I move on from there? It was a very eye opening experience.

That’s what the “Lean on Him” series is all about. It’s to help people realize that faith can get you through life’s many facets. Life throws so many things at us and sometimes we need to be reminded that we are stronger than we think.

Another thing I love about writing is living my characters lives through their eyes. I emmerse myself in the character and imagine the way I’d respond to certain things. I get to live anywhere in the world through my characters. I get to experience things, ride horses, own a ranch, go to Switzerland (childhood dream), and so much more. Through my characters I get to right wrongs, build faith and just be myself. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Fans help make it a wonderful experience also. Hearing from those that love my books helps inspire me. It’s great when someone sends me an email and asks when’s the next book coming out. Some fans keep up with me through this post, my Facebook, Twitter and other areas. It’s awesome to talk to someone from across the world that has been touched by something in one of my books. That makes it so worth every long night, neck strain, finger trauma and everything that comes with being a writer.

So, come join me for the adventure that is a Writer.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Monday morning chill in the South

There was a definite chill in the house this morning as I crept out of bed and headed to the kitchen to make the coffee. It felt good to wrap up in a throw as I watched the news and waited on the coffee to brew. My son actually wore a hoodie this morning. I love this weather. It will bring on the Fall transformation of beauty in the trees.

I’m working on several manuscripts. I can’t seem to stay put on one particular one. Hopefully this morning I can focus on just one. Hopefully my Christmas editions will be ready in the next couple of weeks.

How do you stay focused and away from the other characters and stories crowded your mind? Sometimes a deadline can put a wall of to the over crowding, but most of the time theses stories and characters just keep right on pushing their way through. Let’s just hope I can stay focused for the hour I have before going to the office.

Today’s question: Does anyone else have several manuscripts playing inside their head? What are you working on today?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Is your main character perfect?

For as long as I can remember I’ve been a reader. The trend I’ve seen over the years and I won’t be saying how many, has been that the hero or heroine was perfect. They were always beautiful, handsome, flawless and a perfect body. That’s what people wanted to read.

Well, I’ve noticed a new trend. I’ve read a couple of novels lately that had not so perfect main characters. I think it’s refreshing because we’re not perfect. We have flaws, it’s just a fact. One of the books even stated that the leading man was not overly handsome, actually the writer went on to explain that his beauty came from his heart. I think that’s what we all need to hear.

Take Jane Eyre for instance. She’s not perceived as a beautiful woman. She’s more let’s just say severe. But you still come to love her for her heart that eventually warms. It’s one of my favorites because I love the stories of a plain, poor girl getting the rich flawed man.

So, how does your main character look? Is he ruggedly handsome or does his beauty come to you from his heart? Is she gorgeous and built like a model or does she need to exercise to stay at a maintained weight?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

How to draw out a story

Have you ever been writing a story and suddenly you’re at the end and only have a couple thousand words. You sit there going, “It seemed longer in my brain.” Well, it could be. This is when you open it back up and you read over it. Look at the descriptions. Have you given the read enough to imagine the place or the real character?

A lot of times we get the story down and forget that the reader can’t see it in their mind. We as writers have got to show the reader the story around the story. Meaning, if the story takes place in a small town and that’s significant, then let the reader know about this small town. Give it life.

If the character has a flaw, bring it out in descriptions, the reader won’t know unless you let them know. Remember this story that you can see clearly has to be brought out vividly to the reader. They can’t jump into your brain and see what you see. I had to learn this. My first couple of books needed more descriptions and one day they’ll get them.

So give your character a life, home and description, not only a name.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Still waiting on SYTYCW2013 decisions to be made. Keep fingers crossed and good luck to all entered 🙂

Time to Write

As a writer you have to make time to write. If not, you’re not writing. I sometimes struggle with this as I’m a busy person. As I’ve said before I’m an Accountant, Mother, Wife, Children’s Minister, Blogger, and Writer. My philosophy is you only live once so live everyday like it’s your last.

Some days I get frustrated because the characters of my books are running around screaming in my head, but it’s alright. I know that they’ll find their voice. Do you have a hard time finding time around life to write? Do you struggle with your characters being louder than everything?

Oh, and I forgot to add that I now have a small publishing service called Horseshoe Publishing. Yep, I’m a glutton for punishment. Not to mention my assistant is leaving me in two weeks to finish up college at the University of Georgia. I’m so proud of her, but that’s for another post as I’m already tearing up just saying it out loud. She’s also my niece, so I’m a proud aunt.

Let’s just say time is on short supply and I need at least 36 hours in a day. Go over and support my writing and maybe I can eliminate one of the jobs. Just kidding, I love what I do. Well, you can still go over and support my writing if you want to. I’m not a pushy person as you well know from my blogs.

As always, great writing and May God Bless You…

My post in the “Southern Writer’s Magazine” here!

Yep, I’m all smiles. I just got my copy of the July issue of Southern Writer’s Magazine. I was honored to be featured in this months issue in their Magnolia Corner. They featured the cover of my novel “Rekindled Flames” and my answer to this question:

Do you base any of your characters on people you know? To find out my answer go to http://www.southernwritersmagazine.com/ and subscribe. It’s a great magazine for writers and readers.

Thanks for all the support!

Location…Where is your book based?

One of the difficult things in writing is decide where the books characters and the story takes place. Is it in the US or maybe the UK? Is the story based in a place covered in snow or in the desert? Sometimes when the story comes easily it’s not always clear the location. Your brain tells you what the character is doing but not where it is.

An important point to remember is to make sure you stick with the location you start with. Also if you’re basing your book in a place you’ve never been you might better do your homework. What I mean is the you don’t want to have your character going through the desert in Boston. Just wouldn’t go well. You might receive some interesting reviews 🙂

If your character is going snow skiing, you might want to make sure the place has snow. So, as you work on the outline of your story make sure you write down the location and keep it straight.

This was just a quickie post for Thursday evening. Hope all is well and just think, tomorrow is Friday…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Are revisions sometimes a good thing?

I’ve been playing with the idea of revising two of my novels. Tender Flames and With All My Heart are two of my novels that I published last year.

Tender Flames was one of my first attempts at publishing and I’m proud of the results, but I feel like I need to listen to my readers. I’ve had several great reviews on this book but I’ve also had some good,but enlightening reviews. Some of the readers made suggestions that they thought would make this a novel to be reckoned with. So, I’m planning on doing a revision and then packing it with the second in the series “Rekindled Flames” which is doing great. I plan to sell the both together in a package deal.

Then there’s With All My Heart which is my Christian romance. I’ve had some great reviews on this one. So many have said they wished it was longer, well that good come to reality. As the release of the second book in this series is coming soon, I also plan to release the lengthened edition with the new book. The new book will also be released separately.

So, as I’ve seen several authors do this and have great success, I hope to make them even better. I’m actually excited about reliving these novels. As a writer you live the lives of your characters while your writing, so I get to revisit old friends and make them even better.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Losing a character…

I wonder sometimes why I write when I’m tired. I sit and stare at the screen and totally draw a blank. Sometimes I’m sitting in my accounting office and get the urge to write a paragraph or two but have no time. I quickly jot down the idea and go back to work.

Have you ever forgot your main characters name? Did you wonder why? While working on my latest manuscript I noticed something wrong when I started editing. I had to laugh because it was so ridiculous. Or was it? I had a child named Chance, which was to be after the father, but somewhere in the middle I started typing Chase and it stuck. Boy that was a fun edit. I could have did a find all entries for Chase and replace, but I learned a really hard lesson about hitting that replace all button. 😦

I have started putting a legal pad beside me when I write. As I introduce new characters I write down a short bio on that character and keep it beside me. That way I don’t spend half my precious writing time looking back for a characters name, hair color, or age.

My editor laughed while reading one of my manuscripts. She said ‘I thought your main character had blonde hair’. She smiled and made a note to change that entry. I just groaned and watched her grin. She knows me well.

I have a horror of missing one of these details in my final read through. What if I publish a piece with a critical character flaw? Oh well, I guess that’s why I have an editor to look after me. I definitely need it. 🙂 If you’ve encountered this problem, try the legal pad bio system. So far it’s worked for me. ◊

As always, good writing and May God Bless.

Where your writing takes you…

As I start this post I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was wonderful. Now on to the clean up and take down and enjoying time with my son. My husband says it looks like Christmas threw up in our house. So I like to decorate. What? On to the post…

Where does your writing take you? It can take you to different countries, different lives and let your dreams come true at your fingertips. When you are writing open up your heart and experience it.

As I write I usually try to throw in a fantasy or something I love. That way I get to live the fantasy and make it come true for my characters. I get to do the things I wouldn’t dare do in real life.

Through my characters and lots of research, I get to go to places that I have dreamed of going. It’s so much fun to experience the places through my characters. If you put enough descriptions you can carry your reader off to places beyond their Kindle, Nook or paperback. You can take them to exotic destinations with the sun dancing on the clear blue water or even take them to snow covered chalets with crackling romantic fires.

The sky’s the limit when writing. Give your reader and yourself an adventure, you both deserve it. So get writing and live your dream through your writing. Go to that place, or do that thing you want to do, live the dream.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You!