My Thanks as a Writer

Happy Thanksgiving! May this be a time of remembrance for all God has done and a time to celebrate with family and friends.

This week I would like to share the latest Holiday newsletter I'm sending out to my subscribers. And in it are plenty of reasons I give thanks as a writer this past year, especially to God for allowing me to minister His word through the art of storytelling:

Hello and welcome to the 2009 holiday newsletter for author Lauralee Bliss!
I can’t believe it’s been so long—nearly a year—since I last sent out a full newsletter. And it’s strange, too, as this has been a tremendous year of blessing as far as my writing goes, as you’ll soon see in the NEWS section. But I’ve learned so much and continue to grow as I write and seek new opportunities to minister through the written word. I hope to communicate with you more often as doors open and I see where the journey of writing leads me.

NEWS
Shortly after I sent out last year's holiday newsletter, I received news from the Heartsong fiction editor at Barbour that they were contracting a three book series based in the lovely state of Utah. The first book should be going to press soon, as I just completed the galleys. Book one, entitled Love’s Winding Path, based on the Prodigal Son story and set in Moab, Utah near Arches National Park, will feature rafting on the Colorado, among other things. And what better way than to experience storymaking firsthand, so my husband and I spent a few weeks this past June doing just that. We explored Utah for this series as well as some of the beautiful national parks in the Pacific Northwest. Here’s a link to my Facebook page and the wonderful places we saw. Also check my hiking blog for one of my adventures scaling Lassen Peak in the snow!

I have several new releases out this holiday season. The first of my Christmas releases is Love Finds You in Bethlehem, New Hampshire by Summerside Press (of which we journeyed to the lovely town of Bethlehem to see the town in winter along with the beautiful snow covered mountains). Check out my Bethlehem Blog for reviews and the history of this interesting town set in northern New Hampshire. My second holiday novel is A Blue and Gray Christmas that I wrote with three other gifted authors. My novella takes place during the battle and aftermath at Fredericksburg, VA. I’ve also had past Heartsong novels re released in two collections—Blue Ridge Brides and Mountaineer Dreams. You can find these releases and my Bethlehem book at your local WalMart or Sam's Club or at your local Christian bookstore. And of course, online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Christianbook.com, etc.

This past September I flew to Denver for the annual ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) conference. What a wonderful opportunity to network with authors and editors. Unfortunately on my way to the airport, I suffered a severe ankle sprain and spent most of the conference hobbling around and putting bags of ice on a very swollen ankle. But God was gracious, and I had a good time meeting with editors and discussing various projects, some of which have turned into proposals and are currently being considered at various houses.
Finally, I have written my first nonfiction book, a personal account of the Appalachian Trail hike I took with my son in 2007. I am looking at different avenues of publication, as soon as funds become available.
So it has been a busy year for me!

Blog
"Blissful Writing Thoughts" chronicles my ideas on writing, a writer’s life which can have its many ups and downs, as well as announcing upcoming books and contests. And new this year, I am having popular authors guest once a month on my blog to share their writing insights— some of whom are even offering book giveaways. I hope you will have a chance to pop over and take a look at Blissful Writing Thoughts and subscribe to the blog. I publish every Monday (unless I am out of town).

A Very Special Giveaway!
As a thank–you for being a part of my writing ministry and in honor of my book, Love Finds You in Bethlehem, New Hampshire, I'm giving away a handmade ornament with Bethlehem, New Hampshire inscribed on it. I bought this in the actual town of Bethlehem, New Hampshire last year while researching my story. I will hold the drawing on December 19th. If you are receiving this newsletter by e-mail, you are already in the drawing. If you are not and would like to be included in the drawing, please send me your e-mail address along with a note that you would like to subscribe to the quarterly newsletter by Lauralee Bliss (this is to abide my anti Spam laws. See other restrictions below). Please have your request in no later than December 19th. Thank you for being a part of my writing ministry!

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

AND Great Gifts for Christmas or any time!
With tough economic times these days, why not give the gift of a great book? Most of my titles are on sale on my website and at terrific prices. Shipping will depend on the number of books and how you wish them sent. But if you order three or more titles, I will pay for shipping! So please check out my website for books that I will be happy to autograph.

Wishing you a most blessed Christmas and a New Year filled with God’s mercy, grace, and peace.

Lauralee Bliss
Website: http://www.lauraleebliss.com/ Email: blissful63@gmail.com

I am also on Facebook and Goodreads! Come be my friend. I love readers!

Copyright 2009, by Lauralee Bliss. All rights reserved.

Veterans Day and My Book, Seneca Shadows

This Wednesday marks Veterans Day when we remember our fine men and women who have made the sacrifice in defending our nation. I have been humbled as an author to bring some of these valiant stories to life in my books, and one of them being Seneca Shadows, currently reprinted in the collection, Mountaineer Dreams that is in stores right now. It tells the story of a captain who trains soldiers for maneuvers on the famed Seneca Rocks in West Virginia and falls in love with a girl who lives nearby.

I just recently received the most lovely e-mail from a World War II veteran who happened to read Seneca Shadows. I'd like to share what he wrote to me:

"I just finished reading Seneca Shadows. It brought back fond memories of my time at mountain climbing school at Seneca Rocks. I recognized the picture on the cover instantly. I took to mountain climbing like a duck to water. It was the best time I had while I was in the Army. I was with the 95th Infantry Division. Following climbing school we had mountain maneuvers and practiced our new skills with the troops. We were then shipped to Europe and ultimately to Omaha Beach in France. I was wounded and after my recovery I was in the Battle of the Bulge. After WWII I went to college on the G.I. bill and graduated from Cornell University as an Electrical Engineer. Many years later I retired as a Senior Scientist. My brother and his wife were mountain climbers also. Since I don't have email access they are emailing this "Thank You" to you for me."

God bless this brave man and so many others like him who have served our nation (including my father-in-law, Ken Bliss) and those who are currently serving now, including my nephew Andrew Braun, the son of a friend, Dan Miller, and a son of another good friend, Phil McDowell. God be with them and preserve them in the fight for freedom. Pray for them and all our armed forces.

Guest blogger - K.M. Weiland on How to Write Authentic Settings Without First-Hand Research

I am so excited to have Katie (K.M.) Weiland as my guest for November on writing historical novels. Since I am also a historical author, I am very excited to have her blog on the important topic of writing authentic settings and also to introduce her latest novel, Behold the Dawn.
I write about places I’ve never been, cultures I’ve never experienced, people I’ve never met. The last time I checked, crusading knights, vengeful monks, and countesses in distress weren’t offering interview appointments. Neither can I afford to globetrot my way to Syria, Jerusalem, Italy, and points beyond, every time I need to start researching. (We won’t even mention the fact that no one has yet to perfect a time machine that would send me back to the Middle Ages.)

But I’ll tell you a secret: I like it this way. Writing novels gives me the opportunity to experience what I don’t know. However, that doesn’t mean that knowing your subject matter isn’t vital. On average, I spend three months researching any given novel before diving into the writing. And I love it. I love discovering the solid facts—the bricks—that will turn the imagined walls of my story into something solid. That said, I’m very much aware that research can be both overwhelming and frustrating. Following are some of the tricks I’ve adopted for my own use.

Know the Questions. Usually, I decide to set a story during a particular period or place because I already possess some interest in and at least a basic knowledge about it. Using that foundational knowledge, I’m able to complete my sketches and story outlines. By the time I officially begin my research, my story is already almost fully formed in my head, and I have a very good idea of what questions I need to answer during my research phase. For instance, in my medieval novel, Behold the Dawn, I knew I needed to spend a lot of time learning about not only the Third Crusade itself, but also the world of the tourneys—the huge mock battles that were loved by the knights and banned by the church.

Find the Resources. The first thing I do is run several searches through my libraries’ online card catalogs. My goal is to pick up every book my libraries have available on my subject, so I try to be as thorough with my keywords as possible. After evaluating whatever I’ve come up with, I’ll complete my research library with the necessary purchases.

File the Gems. Whenever I run into a snippet of information that I think might prove useful to my story, I pull out a notebook and mark down the page and paragraph numbers and the first and last three words of the information I want. For example, if I want to remember something on a book’s thirty-first page and second paragraph, my shorthand note looks like this: 31:2 “First three words… last three words.”

The next day, before settling in for more reading, I take my books to the computer and use my notebook to find the passages I marked the day before. I type them up in a Word document, which I divide into appropriate headings. For Behold, I used headings such as “Animals,” “Home Life,” “Tournaments,” “Warfare,” etc.

This may initially look like a lot of extra work, but when I’m in the middle of a scene and I need to know what kind of food an earl would serve at a banquet, my elaborate note system keeps me from having to dig through piles of dog-eared books in search of a minute detail. Instead, I can either look through my research document’s headers in search of “Food & Dining,” or I can simply hit the Find button and run a search for “banquet.” Either way, it takes seconds to find the information and continue writing my scene.

As writers, our fertile imaginations are what allow us to create something out of nothing. But it’s as researchers, that we’re able to make that something into a solid delivery of facts that will keep readers from blinking twice at suspending their disbelief.

About the Author
K.M. Weiland (http://www.kmweiland.com/) writes historical and speculative fiction from her home in the sandhills of western Nebraska. She is the author of A Man Called Outlaw and the recently released Behold the Dawn. She blogs at Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors and Author Culture.

Marcus Annan, a tourneyer famed for his prowess on the battlefield, thought he could keep the secrets of his past buried forever. But when a mysterious crippled monk demands Annan help him find justice for the transgressions of sixteen years ago, Annan is forced to leave the tourneys and join the Third Crusade.
Wounded in battle and hunted by enemies on every side, he rescues an English noblewoman from an infidel prison camp and flees to Constantinople. But, try as he might, he cannot elude the past. Amidst the pain and grief of a war he doesn’t even believe in, he is forced at last to face long-hidden secrets and sins and to bare his soul to the mercy of a God he thought he had abandoned years ago.
The sins of a bishop. The vengeance of a monk. The secrets of a knight.

ORDER the book.