Guest Blog - Martha's Journey to Becoming an Author AND a Book Giveaway!

Iam so pleased to have Martha Rogers as my guest this month on Blissful Writing Thoughts. This remarkable lady has seen her dream come true with the publication of her first full-length novel, Becoming Lucy, through Realms, a division of Strang Publishing Group. Come read her story of faith and find out how to win a copy of her new book!

"My writing journey began when I realized how much I like to make up stories. My mother called it daydreaming, but I liked living in my fantasy world. I made up stories for my paper dolls and my dolls using them as the characters. I wrote short stories as a teenager and my first novel as a freshman in college. My love of writing continued, but I had no clue as to what it took to be published. A short story I sent to a magazine in 1959 was rejected with a form letter. I entered several contests after that but never won any awards.

Through the years I learned that perseverance was the only way to keep my sanity. Rejection after rejection disappointed me, I kept on writing. I met DiAnn Mills at a writing conference, and she took me under her wing and mentored me. She also convinced me that joining ACRW would really help me improve my writing. I took her advice and it’s the best thing I could have done. She formed a critique group with Myra Johnson, Kathleen Y’Barbo and me as members. Later Janice Thompson joined the group then Marcia Gruver and Linda Kozar.

Through ACRW and then ACFW, I met Brandilyn Collins, Lena Nelson Dooley, Deb Raney, Lynn Coleman, and Rebecca Germany as well as my agent, Tamela Hancock Murphey. The most important lesson I have learned from them is patience. Giving God time to work on His schedule and not mine was difficult for me to do because I’ve always been a “take charge” sort of person. It didn’t take long for me to realize that catching the eye of an editor was more than being in charge.

DiAnn, Kathleen, Janice and I collaborated on a novella anthology, Sugar and Grits and submitted it in 2001. Patience paid off as we waited and left it with Barbour until 2005 when we were offered a contract for it. When it was published in 2007, I thought now I would be on my way. Two years later I still didn’t have another contract, but I didn’t give up.

I had adopted Galatians 6:9 as my writing verse because I knew if I didn’t give up on what I believed God wanted me to do, I would reap a harvest. Then in 2009, Tamela called me with the news that Strang was interested in Becoming Lucy. They first sent an offer letter then a contract for one book with an option for three more. I started working on the manuscript and after I turned it in, a got another email from them saying they were ready to contract the next three in the series. In September of 2009 I signed the contract to finish out the Winds Across the Prairie series.

Since then I have signed for Christmas novella that will be released in September 2010. When God opened the door, He kicked it wide open with five books in one year. Unbelievable.

The road has not been easy, and the rejections hurt. But I learned from the rejections. I paid attention to what my critique partners and judges in contest said. Of course some of what they said made me a little angry, but then I settled down and began to think things through. The best way to further your writing is to attend conferences. There you will have an opportunity to attend workshops with great authors and learn from them. Books on improving your writing are usually available, and you have the opportunity to meet and network with others who are on the same journey you are as well as meet those who are well established and long down the road ahead of you. Detours, bad roads, hazardous conditions, stop signs and other road difficulties with pop up to distract and take you away from your writing. The key is to keep on with your writing. However, we sometimes have to put our writing aside for a season because what is happening in our lives is more important than a manuscript. Spend time with the Lord, and He will direct your paths in the right direction. Listen for His instructions and follow Him in all that you do. Be patient because our time tables are not God’s and seldom do they match. If it’s to be, it will be, when He ordains that it’s time."

Martha's book credits include the novella, Sugar and Grits, seven Bible studies, contributions to compilations by Wayne Holmes, Karen O’Conner, and Debbie White Smith. Martha has contributed devotionals to several anthologies including soon to be released Whispers of Wisdom for Step-Moms from Barbour. Martha served as editor of an eight page monthly newsletter for the writer’s organization, Inspirational Writers Alive! for six years and is the state President. She is also the director for the annual Texas Christian Writer’s Conference.

After her parents’ deaths , seventeen-year-old heiress Lucinda Bishop travels to Barton Creek, Oklahoma in 1897 as the ward of Amelia and Ben Haynes, her mother’s sister and brother-in-law. There she meets Jake Starnes, a drifter now employed by her uncle. With Jake, she faces emotions she’s never before experienced. When Jake must return to Texas to face murder charges and certain execution, Lucinda is forced to go on with life which includes Luke Anderson. When Jake is found innocent, he heads back to Oklahoma, but can he arrive in time to prevent Lucinda from marrying the wrong man?

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Martha's web site

To be entered into a drawing for a copy of this book, please leave a comment along with your e-mail address. If you are on Twitter and RT the announcement for this special guest blog, you will be entered a second time. Thanks for visiting!

I Scream, You Scream. We All Scream at Editing.

Courtesy of the website www.wonderbaby.org/images/ivan-screams.jpg

Okay, I must confess. This was me yesterday. Literally. I received the news most authors dread to hear. That your wonderful book did not make the grade with the editors. Look, I remember those papers we handed in in school. They had big red pen marks on them and a large letter on top that was the grade. Well, I got my grade from the editors. And it was not an A. Not a B either. Maybe a C for the idea only. But the writing was bad. The plot was wrong. The characterizations were lacking. It was poor work. It hovered at an F.

AAGH. I screamed. More out of the realization of how much work I would need to do to make it right. Like having to rewrite a good portion of the book (with many scenes from scratch). And all of this when I had another book due in that I was currently working on. And having only a few weeks to accomplish the revision.

Then for some reason I remembered a quote I saw on Anne of Green Gables, in the second movie. Gilbert is complaining about Anne's article that won a baking powder contest instead of something superior. The style, the mumbo jumbo, the poor plot. She screams at him. And he says quite plainly, "You can cry all you want. It won't make you write a better novel." That scene helped settle me down. Nothing was going to change unless I calmed myself and got down to business.

And I realized something else, too. This is not my little book. These are not my ideas. The book was entrusted to me by God. It's His work. I am a vessel of His truth through fiction. And I need to do it the best way I know how. I often wonder if God made some of the apostles rewrite books of the Bible because it wasn't what He wanted. :) That some of man's ideas were thrust in there, and He said calmly, Do it over, please. Of course that probably didn't happen. But I wonder. And if so, the end result was worth it--a life changing message that affects people today.

And so I have stopped screaming and have settled down. The rewrite is massive--the most I have ever had to do for a novel. But for all I know, it could be my best book ever. And that's a book worth writing...

Dog Training for Writers 101

I have a new bluetick coonhound adopted from the Charlottesville SPCA two weeks ago that I am currently training. I went ahead and took a chance on an infomercial about dog training and purchased the kit. So far it has been going pretty good. Until today when the leash slipped out of my hand and the dog took off. After chasing and calling she finally returned. And then I found out all the training I'd done was put again to the test as she reverted back to leash pulling and other bad habits.

Okay, so what is the lesson learned in that for me as a writer? Yes, we are going to be challenged as we are being trained in our craft. We are glad for the control of the Holy Spirit as we navigate the waters of writing and other areas of our lives. Alone, we can try and go after it ourselves. And find us lacking in self control and wandering about lost and without purpose or even a home.

God is training us like I am training this dog. He is commanding us, leading us where to go, demanding that we give Him our full devotion as Master of our lives. We can resist. Try to run away. But He has our best interests in mind. The goal of this particular program I am using on my dog is freedom for any kind of leash or lead. Wouldn't it be nice if God is able to trust us in any given situation to stay by His side and not wander away?

So in the midst of training, no matter how taxing, take heart. Listen. Heel. Obey. And you will then find our Great God giving you freedoms you could never begin to imagine!

Guest Blogger - Roseanna White on Finding a Character's Voice

I am pleased to welcome Roseanna White, author of A Stray Drop of Blood who will talk about the importance of finding a character's voice.

Saying it Straight: Finding a Character’s Voice

Voice is always a huge marker for me of a good writer versus a so-so one. When the words of a character flow, when they not only tell me what they’re saying, thinking, and doing, but how–and even whose head I’m in without being told–then I know it’s a strong voice. I’ve read a lot of opinions on how to “find your voice,” on dialogue, on deep POV. But for me, nothing helps me find each character’s voice like sitting back and listening.

I’ve written all kinds of characters, from coastal Southern to high-society New York, from Biblical Hebrew to Victorian-era Monagasque. My goal is always to use their thought patterns to draw a more complete picture of the character, and this is as never as simple as what they’re expressing. It’s largely about how I write those expressions.

With a minor in linguistics, I’ve learned to pay a lot of attention to things like sentence structure, word choice, and cadence. Ask anybody who has taken a course in which they had to translate a text–there are a thousand ways to phrase every idea, and finding “just the right one” is often a matter of taste and style. Should you use a contraction or not? Should you choose “right” or “just” for that sentence? Would it better capture the verb if you use simple past or past progressive?

When I was writing A Stray Drop of Blood I put a ridiculous amount of time into the language. Set in Jerusalem and Rome at the time of Christ, the common language would have been Ancient Greek. I was learning Greek for two of the years during which I was writing the book, so I had the advantage of first-hand insight into the way the language affected the thoughts expressed. It was an inside joke at our school that our thoughts would occasionally come out Greek, though in English words–we’d mix up the word order terribly, but our classmates would still understand us, because they were “thinking Greek” too. As I wrote, I wanted to somehow capture that–the way people of the era thought, spoke, and interacted.

The result is a conscious choice not to use contractions, but rather to convey formality versus casualness through word choice and arrangement. To have typical Greek replies to questions, which may sound odd to English speakers, phrases like “To me, at least, it seems . . .” peppered throughout. Lots of contrasting thoughts butting against each other, and even having my characters shift between Greek, Latin, and Hebrew to best convey the point they wanted to make at the time.

One of the highest compliments my writing has been paid was when someone said, “I knew they were French before you ever said so. They just sounded French.” That’s what I go for in all my dialogue and deep POV. That the reader will recognize that Louisa is from the Carolinas, Rem from D.C. That Abigail is obviously versed in the Greek poets, that Jason has spent a lot of time in Rome. I can only do this by knowing the word-pictures they paint for themselves, the analogies they would make, the images that fill their mind.

To me, it’s not really about finding my voice. It’s about finding theirs.

About Roseanna's book A Stray Drop of Blood

Beautiful is a dangerous thing to be when one is unprotected.

For seven years, Abigail has been a slave in the Visibullis house. With a Hebrew mistress and a Roman master, she has always been more family than servant . . . until their son returns to Jerusalem after his years in Rome. Within a few months Jason has taken her to his bed and turned her world upside down. Maybe, given time, she can come to love him as he says he loves her. But how does she open her heart to the man who ruined her?

Israel's unrest finds a home in her bosom, but their rebellion tears apart her world. Death descends with Barabbas's sword, and Abigail is determined to be there when the criminal is punished. But when she ventures to the trial, Barabbas is not the one the crowd calls to crucify. Instead, it is the teacher her master and Jason had begun to follow, the man from Nazareth that some call the Son of God . . .

Born free, made a slave, married out of her bonds, Abigail never knows freedom until she feels the fire of a stray drop of blood from a Jewish carpenter. Disowned by Israel, despised by Rome, desired by all, she never knows love until she receives the smile of a stoic Roman noble.

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Roseanna's Website

A Peace-Filled Way

I am a day late posting this but learning quite a bit what it means to deal in peace. This was my word for the New Year, 2010. Above is a peaceful scene - the silent fall of snow from the sky, a major snow we had back in December, though 2 feet of snow in one blow also makes for interesting times!

When the New Year arrives, I spend time with God seeking out His word for me. And this year, peace rings out. Especially the verse in John 14 from the Amplified edition: "Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]" I like how the Amplified brings out more in the verse--stop allowing yourself to be agitated, disturbed, fearful, intimidated. How often we allow situations to arise in our lives where the power of peace is sapped, and we are overcome with worry, anxiety, fretfulness. Already this New Year I have found myself challenged by this verse to stay in God's peace despite what is going on around me. To not give way to doubt and fear. To allow His strength to move me from glory to glory.

I pray that you will seek God out for a mighty revelation for this year. See what word He has for you. And meditate on it continually as you walk out the New Year with Him.

Next week I will be featuring a guest blogger who will be blogging on "Finding a Character's Voice." Don't miss it!

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Blissful Writing Thoughts wishes to extend to you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed 2010. I am looking forward to the upcoming New Year here with new releases (like a brand new contemporary series set in the lovely state of Utah) and new guest bloggers starting January 11. And of course, all the interesting "thoughts" you've come to expect here as I navigate the unpredictable road of writing.

I will blog again in the New Year. Until then, stay safe and lift your eyes to the hills from whence comes your help. Your help is from the Lord Who made Heaven and Earth. (Psalm 121:1, 2)

Reminder - December 19th for a Beautiful Ornament!

Just as a reminder, in honor of my release, "Love Finds You in Bethlehem, New Hampshire" on December 19th, I'll be giving away a handmade ornament with "Bethlehem, New Hampshire" inscribed on it to one of my newsletter subscribers. I bought this ornament in the actual town of Bethlehem, New Hampshire last year while researching my story. If you would like to be included in the drawing, please send me an e-mail to blissful63(at) gmail.com along with a note that you would like to subscribe to the quarterly newsletter by Lauralee Bliss (Note: you may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. But there will be great news on future releases, including a brand new contemporary series set in beautiful Utah!).

Please e-mail your request no later than December 19th. You may unsubscribe from my newsletter at any time. Thank you for being a part of my writing ministry, and I hope you will stay with me as we journey into a New Year!

And be sure to check out the book trailer for Bethlehem and click on the cover to order the book.

Contest rules: US residents only. Void where prohibited by law. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received