Open Book

 

 

Isn’t this picture just fabulous? I know. It makes me want to curl up with an incredible book and just get lost in it.

So, listen, even as I’m sitting here writing this, I’ve just felt Baby moving around. Our little one still has no official name, but she’s making her presence known at the moment. It’s an amazing feeling–suddenly being reminded that I’m not by myself. I’m reaching that point where everyone knows (or notices) that I’m pregnant. Not that it’s a secret. But it’s a bit strange when the first thing people notice about you is that you’re pregnant. I’m halfway through with this pregnancy, a fact that is exciting and a little daunting, to be honest.

But while the first half has gone by rather quickly, I feel like the last half might be a bit slower. For one reason: That seems to be the experience of other women I know. And for another: We wait so long in Colorado for summer to get here that we try to make it last as long as possible. Winter always feels long. So we make the most of summertime. This little girl should be arriving close to the end of summer.

By the way–Novel Journey has a great blog post up at the moment. Check it out: http://www.noveljourney.blogspot.com/

Blog Tour!

Eleven years ago, Vera Gamble’s brother left their house never to be seen again. Until the day Vera gets a phone call that his body has been found…washed ashore in the tiny island town of Winter Haven, Maine. His only surviving kin, Vera travels north to claim the body…and finds herself tumbling into a tangled mystery. Her brother hasn’t aged a day since last she saw him.

Determined to uncover what happened in those lost years, Vera soon discovers there are other secrets lurking in this isolated town. But Winter Haven’s murky past now seems bound to come to light as one woman seeks the undeniable and flooding light of truth.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764201646

Colorado Christian Writers Conference

I thought I would mention the upcoming Colorado Christian Writers Conference. The conference (led by director Marlene Bagnull) will be held at the YMCA in Estes Park, CO May 14-18. I’ve been to this conference the past two years and enjoyed it both times. I’d love to be going this year–but Baby Bruce and I have decided not to make the trip. You can go to the website at http://www.writehisanswer.com/Colorado/ to see the list of editors, authors, and agents who will be speaking there next month.

I’m excited to hear how God works through the conference this year!

Blog Tour! Trouble the Water by Nicole Seitz

In the South Carolina Sea Islands lush setting, Nicole Seitz’s second novel Trouble the Water is a poignant novel about two middle-aged sisters’ journey to self-discovery.

One is seeking to recreate her life yet again and learns to truly live from a group of Gullah nannies she meets on the island. The other thinks she’s got it all together until her sister’s imminent death from cancer causes her to re-examine her own life and seek the healing and rebirth her troubled sister managed to find on St. Anne’s Island.

Strong female protagonists are forced to deal with suicide, wife abuse, cancer, and grief in a realistic way that will ring true for anyone who has ever suffered great loss.

“This is another thing I know for a fact: a woman can’t be an island, not really. No, it’s the touching we do in other people’s lives that matters when all is said and done. The silly things we do for ourselves–shiny new cars and jobs and money–they don’t mean a hill of beans. Honor taught me that. My soul sisters on this island taught me that. And this is the story of true sisterhood. It’s the story of Honor, come and gone, and how one flawed woman worked miracles in this mixed-up world.”
“…a special sisterhood of island women whose wisdom and courage linger in the mind long after the book is closed.”
-NEW YORK TIMES best-selling author SUSAN WIGGS

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595544003

Conversations with Editors: Melanie Larson

So my good friend Melanie Larson is an editor with David C. Cook. She’s one of those people who can always make you smile. She’s fun to be around and if you ask her husband, he’ll tell you she makes the best cheese dip ever. She’s also a tremendously good editor. Here are her thoughts on publishing:

1. What made you want to work in book publishing?

I’ve always devoured books the way some people devour desserts (though I do that, too). I majored in journalism (most editors have English majors) and assumed I would be a newspaper reporter, even though it wasn’t what I really wanted to do. God orchestrated some events that led to me working an internship in a book publishing program, and I fell in love. Everything about the process fascinated me: the way proposals came in, the roles that agents played, working with real live authors, being able to shape a book that someone would one day buy and read … the whole thing seemed mystical and a little miraculous. I’m over that now, but that’s how I fell in love with it … I still love book publishing, just for different reasons.

2. What do you look for in a good proposal?

Unique and fresh ideas, good writing, and hopefully an author with a platform!

3. What jumps out at you as a bad proposal?

This may sound silly, but any author who compares him/herself to Don Miller or Anne Lamott is a huge red flag, especially because it’s often in a way that doesn’t make sense: “I’d compare my writing to Don Miller, but this is a fiction, and it’s about a woman in India.” What it’s indicative of is a lack of honesty, I think. Ditto that for not filling in the section on comparative titles in a proposal. I hate seeing “I have researched the market, and there is no book like this one out there.” Bull. I don’t believe you, and I don’t believe that you’ve done any research. There are always comparative titles. It’s not a bad thing to compare your book to others, and just honestly tell me what that book is, how it delivers its point, and how your book is different. Also, any proposal that arrives in a fancy binder, or has elaborate packaging/fonts has an air of being unprofessional, and I won’t take it as seriously. Ha, I bet you thought I was going to say, “bad writing,” didn’t you?

4. What books are you reading right now?

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, and The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James. I’m kind of a fiction junkie, and a Jane Austen devotee!

 

Wishes

I was reading in Pub Weekly the other day about a book called Twenty Wishes. (I should clarify that I was skimming the magazine and I’m trying to vaguely remember the title and what exactly the article said.) I’m pretty sure the general idea was having a list of twenty wishes–or twenty things you want to do. The author mentioned something about seeing a waterfall with her husband. I mentioned this to my boss and he said it sounded like the movie called The Bucket List. But I’m pretty sure that movie is about fulfilling goals because you know you’re dying. I’m thinking it might be a good idea to start a tad earlier on this project.

A list of twenty wishes sounds like a great idea. Because I like setting goals, this idea isn’t really new to me. I had a list of things I wanted to do before I got married, and most of them happened. But here I am–five years into marriage and a baby on the way. It may be time for a new list. New goals for the next five years of my life. I can’t think of any one thing that stands out as something that should be #1 on my list–but there are lots of things I’d still like to do, still like to see. Jeff and I decided to go out for breakfast this past Saturday morning. So over French toast, we talked about setting some new goals (or making new wishes).

I won’t tell you all my wishes. But I will tell you one. I’d like to see a frozen waterfall.

I think it’s so important to have dreams and goals and to fulfill those that you can. Isn’t it great to look over your life and be able to check off those dreams that were realized? There was a cereal box a while back that had this list on the back that said “Things to do before you graduate high school!” Of course, when you’re in high school, it’s often difficult to see that there’s life beyond high school. But for those people who start setting goals for themselves early, imagine how much they will accomplish all through their life!

Twenty wishes. I’m going to make a list.

Time management

Time management is on my mind these days. Or maybe the lack thereof. Or maybe the fact that sometimes it just doesn’t feel like there is enough time. Thoughts like this usually creep up when I’m on a tight deadline. (Like now.) I have these moments when I think through what I need to do and divide everything up in my head. It just never seems to work out like I plan. I try not to stress too much. Because things always seem to get finished–albeit sometimes later than originally intended.

But it seems like whenever time starts to feel stretched thin–those things that are really important to me get pushed aside first. You know how it goes. Running out of time? Skip those few minutes for prayer in the morning. Working within a short timeframe? Forget about time for writing. Not enough hours in the day? There’ll be time for relationships and friendships later–maybe next month.

Normal, right? But when there’s not enough time for those parts of living that matter to you, you start to feel like you’re not really living. Lucky for me, these times come and go in relatively short spurts. It’s manageable. And I’m glad. Because I need time for all those things that make life so much better. Without them, time starts to feel wasted. I remind myself that time felt wasted is not the same thing as time that is wasted. Because being productive and doing what you have to is not wasting time. I think it’s all about balance. I feel better when I’m able to do both those things that must get done, and those things that I enjoy doing. And very often those things blend. But not always. Sometimes I just need to push through, realizing that it’s not going to be this way for long. But, then again, I think that sometimes I might need to reexamine my priorities. What should I be willing to push aside, and what should I rearrange my schedule in order to hold on to? It’s something worth thinking about.