Ink in the Book

How excited am I? Can't you hear me laughing and squeeing, right there where you are? Yep! I'm excited! I made it tot he first round of the Writers Voice!! So today, I've posted my entry, here int his blog post, for the coaches to come around and read and decide if I'm ready to move on to the next round. Keep your fingers crossed for me PLEASE:) The entry I'm posting as went through numerous rounds of edits and revisions to get it where it is already. I've cut, squeezed, rearranged and replaced so much, I think my brain is on fire! I've changed names, combined characters, cut characters, and I've changed titles a couple of times and agonized over my genre until I cried . I've put th e first three chapters through a couple of workshops and had feedback from a few agents, so I'm sure I 've got the results I wanted. (I can be honest, can't I?) So, here we go, you beautiful guys and dolls. Feel free to leave any comments that might ...

I think the more I try and slow time down, the faster it goes! Why? Sometimes I wonder if there really is fruit in my effort? I mean, no matter how hard I try, like slowing time down, it just doesn't work. where's the benefits? Where's the proof? What do I have to show for my efforts? Then, I have to sit back and realize, maybe I'm trying to change the wrong things. I mean, seriously, I can't change time, slow it down. That's an impossible task, so why do I try so hard to stop it? To time back, or slow it down. It. Can't. Be. Done. When I concentrate on the impossible, I overlook the the possible. Flickr Creative Commons So, I have taken inventory of my life, my goals, and the things that matter. The things I *can* change and the things I *can* produce fruit for later use. I'm no longer going to worry about the things out of my reach. I'm no longer going to concern myself with things I can not change. I'm no longer going to devot...

I hope it's not against the rules, but I had to combine my last three letters into one final post. Partings are so hard to do, but alas, it must be. It's time to say goodbye to the challenge until next year, right! X is for xerophytic  Y is for yawn Z is for zoster Xerophytic is the ability to survive a drought. How appropriate for a writer. I couldn't help but think of writer's block and how necessary it is to  keep at it. Keep writing, even when the well is dry. It will rain again, and when it does, your best piece of writing will appear. As if by magic. Well...not really, but when the drought over, your writing will come back clear, crisp and ready for some wowing:) During those times of drought, you may getting sleepy, causing a YAWN . But your biggest fear should be causing your reader to yawn , which is something you never want to do. Boring reading means you're on the verge of losing a reader. This, my dear friend, is bad for business. It takes stami...

Happy Friday beautiful guys and dolls! Yay for the weekend and yay for family time!!! I'm happy today for THREE things. 1. My mom is out ouf the hospital and doing better. 2. My brother came in a for visit this weekend. 3. I am now a literary intern for Blue Ridge Literary Agency. More happy news coming soon....*smiles* A to Z Challenge: W W is WRITING mommy I love writing . But I love being a mommy. I homeschool my little angels, so I love teaching, too. Dividing my time between all my duties is hard to do. It really is. Because teaching my kids isn't anything to to take easy. I am responsible for teaching them to read, write , math, and all the other fun things school has to offer (yep. I said fun, just in case any of my kiddo's read this post..) But writing is important, too, because if I don't spend time researching, studying, actually writing , then revising and editing, my dream will go no where but to sleep. Of course, I have all my othe...

Understanding Ventriloquism A ventriloquist is a person who can speak or utter sounds so that they seem to come from somewhere else. Being a writer requires you to be a ventriloquist , too. Why? How? Because you, the author, must make each character sound like someone you are not. You may not be a fifteen year old drama queen, but you've got to make you 15 year old teen girl sound real. What? You're not a lab technician, working on a unique case for the FBI? How do you make your MC real and believable? By understanding ventriloquism and putting it to use as a writer. Creating characters who are 3 dimensional and original. That's ventriloquism in writing, not speaking. Do you understand ventriloquism ? Can you make a character, talk and sound real, without the reader hearing you, the author speak?

Author Interview from J.T. Bock!! If you've ever wanted to ask an  author some serious questions, I've done it for you! Enjoy!! 1. What inspires you as a writer? “What if?” inspires me. I read  Discover  magazine where they breakdown scientific advances, theories, and discoveries in layman’s terms, which in turn gives me ideas for story scenarios involving time travel, world-destroying possibilities, and superhuman abilities based on real-world science. I love watching and reading stories about paranormal experiences from a family’s haunted house to a town’s UFO sighting. Recently, I got sucked into the History Channel’s  Ancient Aliens  and found it fascinating how some people are trying to make connections between certain historical, mythological, and biblical events and UFO visitations. What if  all those events really happened because of aliens? Talk about a ton of book ideas right there! 2.    When did you have tha...

T is for Tailor Made Characters. Talk to them. Designing characters is like designing a dress. There is a pattern you start with but you are free add lace, replace buttons with a zipper, and use a different type of fabric than what the pattern calls for in the directions. Feel free to subtract inches and in-seams if necessary. Use elastic instead of string. It's your dress! Follow the pattern, but improvise! Tailor made characters are the best of the best because you created them to be different than the rest. Have you created a character? Have you given him or her a problem? Okay, the next thing in designing a character is to make sure your character has a very gripping and compelling need. The kind of need you give your character may change before the story ends, but without a need that drives your character forward, the will be no need to have a story. And the need may be different than the problem he or she must work through. Or it may be the same. When I r...