One of my quick sketches for White Rose of Promise page decoration idea
My manuscript White Rose of Promise has come home from the copy edit, and I am about to embark on the next stage of the publishing journey. (There are still a few more giant steps to come.)
The first draft of the story was easy to write. I made it all the way to 120,000 words before I realised there was a serious possibility that I would get this finished while juggling all my other responsibilities.
I really liked my characters, both the good ones and the ones who were going to create lots of trouble. I even found a couple of baddies that I was happy to see get what they deserved.
The most important decision I made at this time was to search for an editor who could guide this project from its humble beginnings to the next stage. I prayed and waited for God to show me where to turn. I have found that many people are generous with their time, and have valuable research documents available on their webpage.
Here is the link to the editor that I chose. I can highly recommend Belinda from Small Blue Dog Publishing
Inspiration everywhere
Suddenly I found myself with a project that brought inspiration at every turn. Even the cottage garden at the venue where I supervised an after-school activity provided unexpected opportunities to practise my sketching. I had a title and visual inspiration to keep me moving forward.
During the process of writing WRoP, I rediscovered my love for making up stories and watching them emerge on the page.
The first advice my editor sent me was put into action. I needed to address the high word count, to bring my manuscript back into the range where a new reading audience might be prepared to give this unknown author a chance. Chop, chop, chop. The manuscript came down to 65,000 words as I looked at the best way to bring my story alive.
Now that it has come back, my editor has identified areas where I have left too much unsaid, so I get a second chance to look at key scenes and give them a little more detail. This revision process looks like it will become a conversation.
There is something special about having an animated discussion about a story that is the product of my imagination. When I started talking to my editor I was afraid that I would lose my voice, but instead I have discovered that I am learning how to make better use of it )i(
Dried white roses, pressed after being photographed as part of my investigation for the cover of my first WIP White Rose of Promise. I find it interesting that the white petals have turned brown. The first batch of flowers were thrown out, because I feared I had made a mistake.
“We all have stories to tell, of joy and pain, of hope and suffering and of the way we have found Christ in them. They should be told.” John Grayston, WordLive, 27/9/2018. Click here
The past week has been filled with some personal drama, and in between the unusual events, I have stitched together manuscript two When Promises Are Broken. There is still a lot of work ahead before I am ready to call for beta readers. Comment below if you would like to be on the team.
This month is Inktober, and I have been taking part in the online drawing challenge. The aim is to draw something every day and share on social media. I have created a separate page to share my progress. Click on WROPWRITINGCHALLENGE To go with Inktober2018, I have added a 200-word writing challenge. Each little story will contain some of the backstories for the first manuscript, but there are no spoilers. I hope my readers enjoy the opportunity to get to know my heroine prior to her first published adventure. )i(
“I write my characters with a need for God’s intervention and then wait for them to recognise His presence as their story unfolds.” from Butterfly Prayer House, Facebook, October 1 2018.
Making Each Word Count
“You write long,” my editor said. I looked closely at her more detailed comments. I had only sent her the first 20 pages. At that time, my first manuscript White Rose of Promise was at 120,000 words and still growing.
I went back to my Work In Progress (WIP) and cut, cut, cut.
There were scenes where I told the same story from three different viewpoints. It was easy to choose one and then describe the responses of the other characters.
I had mountains of backstory details to deal with, and I turned them instead into little speedbumps on the journey of discovery.
By the time I finished, I had brought the manuscript back to 63,000 words. My manuscript has been away with the editor preparing to be Copy Edited.
I am waiting to see how much more the editor found to trim.
When God chooses the theme
I am following lots of ‘how to be a successful author’ Blogs. They tell me to start thinking about my branding, about what message I want my readers to gain from the different platforms where I share my voice.
Somewhere I read that I should pick five or six key points and stick to them.
For someone who took 139,000 digital photos for a single four-day exhibition, finding only five or six points is a monumental challenge.
one of thousands from blueskies 2017
Am I listening?
Into my overflowing email inbox came the following treasure:
Flash Fiction I had never heard the term before. It refers to a writing challenge where the whole story, beginning, middle and end are all accomplished in a tiny word count.
Definitely not something that I could possibly consider – remember I multiply everything I touch, words, photos, everything.
If this new direction was from God, then I should keep my eyes open.
Here is the official list for Inktober.
For the past 2 years, I have participated in a drawing challenge Inktober. The aim is to draw something each day in October and share on social media.
I downloaded the 2018 list of official words to be used for inspiration, then prayed about what I should draw. I have been so steeped in my creative writing, only ideas from my two WIP came to mind.
These ideas wouldn’t go away.
On Day 1, a story idea – not a drawing idea – came to me for the first word: poisonous. It was an unknown detail from the heroine’s backstory (remember I had cut all of that out of White Rose ofPromise). The tiny story poured onto the blank page, and I worked on it for an hour. It came in at 200 words. Now I knew I had a new challenge, a theme and very specific guidance to take me through Inktober.
I was amazed and delighted. The accompanying drawing was easy to accomplish. I moved on to the next drawing, without writing a Flash Fiction story, and the difference in style and execution is remarkable. #inktober #inktober2018 #WRoPwritingChallenge
Day 1: poisonous
The door slammed. Maria Evangelina collapsed onto the single bed. The room was tiny, the curtains drawn. Her past life was over, and even the solo flight from Melbourne to Sydney was fading from memory. Zietta Maria’s poisonous words had found fertile ground. The teenager cried herself to sleep. Too soon it was morning. That door opened again. “It’s time to go to Mass. Nonna is waiting.” Maria Evangelina obeyed. Now she sat in the Cathedral, overwhelmed by doubt and fear. The weight of her sin was heavy on her soul. The priest approached. Her aunt broke the silence with the younger Maria’s shameful story. The devastated teenager looked away. Morning light streamed through a stained-glass window. The brightness shone directly in her face. She gasped in astonishment. It was as if she had stepped from this trouble into God’s presence. Her heart fluttered in her chest. God knew it all, and she still lived. Father Finnegan placed his hand on her head. Did he know what had happened? He smiled. He asked her to receive God’s forgiveness in return for her promise to be obedient. The teenager nodded. Hope blossomed and the darkness fled. So began her new life.
Day 2: tranquil
Would you like to take the Inktober challenge with me? Add your drawings to the comments section, or visit me on facebook
What is the worst thing that could happen? This author is good at catastrophising.
This image was taken at my April 2018 Red Skies Mini-Exhibition. Do you focus on the tangles, the balloons, or the artist trapped in the middle?
Never Boring
Some people long for a simple life, while others find a way to enjoy the drama and excitement that is part of the contemporary culture in the twenty-first century.
Writing complications into the lives of my fictional characters seems to be an easy task for me because I am good at catastrophising.
I wasn’t sure if that was a real word, but am delighted to say that it is. It refers to the habit of looking at some ordinary event and thinking about the worst complications.
While I was verifying my facts I came across some helpful information.
How to stop Catastrophising (Tanya Peisley, The SANE Blog, Sane Australia, 31st May 2017) Click HERE
Pinch Points
I have joined a few reader/writer discussion groups recently and discovered that there is a whole new language I need to learn. Pinch Points are the little dramas (aka catastrophes) that I build into my narrative. For example, in White Rose of Promise, my heroine goes for a job interview. She is feeling anxious and worrying about all the things that could go wrong. What would be the worst thing that could happen? She might get lost on the way? She might arrive late? She might get run over crossing the road? *Please add your suggestions to the comments below. If you come close to my own ideas, I will send you a copy when WRoP is ready.
Everything she thinks of comes nowhere near the possibilities that I throw into the mix once she enters the door. By the time I have added some new details to the working environment, she begins to think the worst outcome might be getting the job.
How close to publication?
Book 1: White Rose of Promise – is still away at the Copy Editor. Another author’s project pushed back my return date
Book 2: When Promises Are Broken – first draft complete, halfway through the second edit, with 20 chapters sent to my alpha reader, and 8 to my first beta reader. Initial feedback indicates there may be a quicker turn around for this one.
Book 3 and 4: Untitled – Preliminary research has begun, and the plot outline under development.
There are lots of possibilities. Which one will be the rising star that takes my story beyond the ordinary and makes it shine?
Thanks for reading )i( Please add your suggested catastrophes for my heroine as she goes to her job interview. Perhaps you have had a real catastrophe of your own that you would like to share?
Making choices is a central theme in my series of unpublished manuscripts. It is also significant to my own journey towards being a published author.
Make a better choice.
That has become my mantra when I am working with the children in the real world
I find it applies to my young friends, both at school or here at the KTL Church House in Sorell, Tasmania, Australia.
Children often need reminding about the choices that they make. They can choose to argue with their friends or they can find a way forward that brings them more enjoyment. They can choose to continue their current behaviour which has poor consequences, or they can make a change. They can choose to sit there feeling bored, or they can look around for something interesting to do. The list of scenarios seems endless…
Making better choices is also one of my goals for the characters in my current series of unpublished manuscripts. In Book 1 “White Rose of Promise” the heroine has to choose between the plans her family have made for her life, and the promises that God gave her for a romantic future. In Book 2 “When Promises Are Broken” the new heroine faces choices that will have significant impact on her future. In Book 3, untitled as it only exists as a paragraph outline, my third heroine has to wrestle with past choices that are bringing her an evil harvest.
But it took an evening of sickness to remind me that this command applies equally to me. This morning, I could choose to stay in bed and let the one dedicated day of writing drift away. Or I could get up and make a start on the list of tasks I set myself.
Which brings me here. I have to remember that this writing journey is like preparing for a race. Each day I miss out of my training schedule puts me further from my prize. If I really want to wear the status of being a published author like a crown, then I have to put in the time.
I am a visual learner. Here is one of my inspirational images that helps me get up and keep going. This floral coronet was a gift for my double celebration in April 2018: graduation and my 40th Wedding Anniversary.
1 Corinthians 9:24 (NIV) Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
All week, I sneak moments to think about my writing projects and look ahead to this day where I can devote a solid block of time to writing. I have chapters from Book 2 to print for my alpha reader, and changes to implement in preparation for sending that manuscript out to my beta readers*.
*I am seeking more beta readers, so if you are interested in having a say about character development, and getting a sneak peak at my Christian Romantic Suspense series of manuscripts, please visit my Facebook page and leave me a comment. There is also a secret discussion group where you can contribute to research and planning.
The rest of my list includes looking at cover design options for Book 1, writing advance posts for my daily prayer blog, and praying over the other stories that haven’t made it from my heart to the typed page yet.
I also try to catch up on reading all the subscriptions that are sent directly to my personal email address.
And take the time to meet up with a friend and work colleague to keep myself anchored in the real world.
This is Ezra Teeb-O’Malley. One of his real-world followers made him his own Facebook page
Click here to follow Ezra. Sometimes I think he has a more exciting life than I do 🙂
Here are a couple of inspirational quotes that have been helpful this week.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.” Maria Popova, Brainpickings
“The Dos of Blogging – End every blog post with an open-ended question.” Edie Melson, The Write Conversation, Monday September 10 2018.
A final word for this week – and I am taking the advice of Edie Melson, and leaving you a question.
My first book has a heroine who has the makings of a saint, the second book has a heroine who stands up for herself and readily admits she is a sinner. The third book has a central character who changes her name as easily as changes her clothes. She steps onto a plane as Jezebel and gets off as Delilah. When she tires of this identity she chooses another one, leaving behind broken hearts and shattered lives, but she has no regrets.
When faced with a blank page I turned to an online devotional page. This week’s post is the result )i(
One of my digital drawings inspired by a butterfly wing )i(
This morning I sat down and looked at a blank page, wondering what had happened to the promise I made to myself that I would add snippets of interesting information to the draft for this post, ready for my Thursday morning writing session… The past week has been full of the usual busyness, plus I included a day trip to spend time with a visiting relative, and I was rostered to lead Worship in Church on Sunday, followed by a shared community meal. Otherwise, every spare minute has been spent hunched over the keyboard typing new words into my soon to be completed first draft for my second manuscript When Promises Are Broken. The conclusion is in sight, and I can see the happy ever after ending, but there have been some tears this week as I said farewell to one of my favourite characters.
From the blank page, I turned to an online devotion and found this inspiring quote.”As a result, the psalm invites us to reflect on how the life we have been given is a gift from God: for us, and for our good.” (Psalm 16 reflection, Richard Briggs, 9/9/2018. https://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2018-09-09/The-good-life)
This page also made reference to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
One of the strategies I employ to keep my personal anxieties in perspective is music. If I find myself unable to concentrate, I turn to YouTube for inspiration. For each of my manuscripts, I collect songs that have relevance for my heroines as they deal with my dramatic settings. Sometimes memory comes into play, bringing to mind one of my Dad’s favourite old songs. Here is a video link to the one that is playing in my head – I love the surprising choice of images to accompany the song, and one of them includes butterflies…
Philippians 4: 4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
One of my digital drawings with overlaid text
One final word and then I will close for the week. Here is a helpful list for those who may struggle to find something to rejoice about:
Matthew 6:21 (NIV) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
I have finally fallen under the influence of my first winter illness – as I work primarily with children, and in two different communities, my previous immunity is a miracle in itself. While I have been unwell, the calendar has turned and officially it is Spring.
Finding the mental stamina to write has been a struggle and I spent the recent weekend in bed, only surfacing long enough to go to Church. I have been praying about how I would meet the vows I made to write regularly.
When I turned on my computer up popped this reminder to read a post from my Facebook page Butterfly Prayer House, which was written a while ago, and published to a schedule that allows me some breathing space. The post was published on September 2nd 2018. Here is an excerpt from that post:
Today I am wrestling with a couple of challenges. Firstly, I want to fulfil the vow I made to God and set aside enough time to write more posts in preparation for another busy week of life. One day a week is my dedicated writing day…
I turn to God in prayer, frustrated that all my attempts to bring him the ‘consecrated things’ and to fulfil my vows have taken me to this place of emotional upheaval. My sense of failure overshadows the truth that it is God who has brought me here.
“Many can write about God and live a fairly righteous life by all appearances. Fewer can write from within an experience, portraying lessons learned from the battlefields of life as they worked out their faith in relationships and service to the Creator.” This quote came from a blog post:
* Here is a second one from the same blog: “So, next time you open up a Word document and start to write about something, ask yourself how deep you are embedded in the topic, whether you are writing from deep within it…or whether this is just a surface connection.”
* The most exciting resource to land in my email Inbox this week was from a renowned author Ted Dekker. I had only spoken to some children the evening before about how they would enjoy his work, but I knew that the adult format would be difficult for them to manage. He is self-publishing a four book series for children. I was disappointed to find Australia wasn’t on the current pre-order list, but it is very encouraging to find that an author with many published works to his credit is making a similar journey. Here is the link to the pre-order information: Ted Dekker’s Dream Travellers
I have spent my sick days writing about storms and floods. One of my characters escapes their difficult situation by returning to memories of summer at the beach. Do you enjoy building sandcastles? I have many happy memories, both from my own childhood and from summers since. The delight of standing back and viewing the creation. Then comes the reality, the tide turns and the waves come crashing in. There were times when we worked to try and protect our creations, but more often we acted to speed up the process, to build channels that would entice the waves to come further forward and flood the moats we had dug.
My final topic for today is to tell you about my Works In Progress (WIP). I have received advice from my Copy Editor that White Rose of Promise will return to me on the 24th of September. The first draft of my second manuscript When Promises Are Broken is almost complete. All the dramatic scenes have been written and now I need to wrap up the story to satisfy the readers who want a Happy Ever After ending. This week I discovered that 21st-century readers are sometimes content with Happy For Now endings, which is where I am at the moment, but I am looking for that special something that will transform the heroine’s situation into something filled with more hope )i(
The past week has been a mixture of good experiences and bad. I have made some good progress on my second manuscript but also endured disappointment after losing a computer file that contained hours of research. I have needed to go back and start again, and some online references have proven elusive. The worldwide web continues to expand and even an hour can change the search engine results, especially if the right combination of keywords cannot be remembered…
This untitled digital drawing captures the emotional complexity of my feelings. How many different shapes can you find? I can see a raven, a bear, an owl and a butterfly when I focus on the orange markings.
Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV) “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
These two verses from Matthew 7 are powerful influences in my life. I used them as the foundation for my research approach when I was working on my year-long Fine Arts project that concluded in 2017. In the beginning, I thought I was going to make a series of still life paintings based on a collection of found objects, and set up a strict finding protocol. I could only spend $10 in a single visit to a shop, and each individual object could cost no more than $2.
My weekly visits to the local charity shops were profoundly rewarding, and the volunteers came to know me well and would ask how my blue collection was growing.
While I was collecting objects and taking hundreds of photographs looking for some new way of expressing a still life arrangement with my collected objects, I searched the internet for contemporary artists who were doing similar things. While I found very few who were painting still life arrangements, I stumbled upon a greater number of artists who were transforming everyday ordinary objects into works of art in diverse ways. That became the foundation for the multi-media performance installation that became my final outcome.
The same kinds of skills are necessary for me to write a convincing story. I am confident with character development, but my heroes and heroines need to inhabit an interesting world and have a diversity of experiences to keep me engaged. My second manuscript takes my heroine overseas, and once again I am ‘surfing the internet’ looking for inspiration…
Another of my experiments for an art project. This one is entitled “Wounded Paper” It is amazing where inspiration can come from )i(
Research takes up almost as much time as writing at the moment. The topics are diverse, and I am starting to build up a strong collection of helpful reference texts about the process of writing too. I will share a small sample here today. The first one is about punctuation in dialogue.
Here is an excellent prayer that I found while I was working my way through my subscription emails. As I try to find the right steps along the writing journey I am turning more and more to the words of others who have gone this way before )i(
The third and final one is about an art theory. The abstract images I have selected for today come from my interest in finding shapes in seemingly random markings. Have you looked up at the clouds and recognised shapes. That is Gestalt.
When I told my friends God had asked me to sit down and start writing fiction, some of them were surprised. They couldn’t see the natural connections between the research and development skills that I had been perfecting during four years of university study. Neither could I. Yet week by week, I am taken back to the art journey in my private prayer and reflections, and I am seeing more and more relevance with each passing day.
This is the unedited image of one of my favourite found objects for my Blue Skies:Chasing Away The Blues research project
To conclude my post for the week I will include some of the inspirational images I have created using variations of the two art experiments and the found object. It is my prayer that my readers will have success in all their seeking and finding and make good progress on their own onward journey of discovery )i(
My mood is as changeable as the weather. Sometimes I grow impatient. I am still learning to relax and enjoy whatever opportunities God places before me. )i(
Water is one of the references I am exploring in my River Wild Series.
It is winter here in Tasmania, and it will be a few months before the weather is warm enough for me to contemplate going to the beach. I am one of those mortals who rug up at the first sign of a cool wind and hide away from the colder weather. Yet I also struggle in the heat of summer and could not survive in a hotter climate.
Whenever my mind turns to seasons, I find myself singing an old song, which is based on an Old Testament Bible passage from Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-10 (NIV) There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
This week I have been researching an exotic location for my second manuscript. My heroine is flying to Thailand. That inner critical voice has been asking how I could ever write a convincing account of her experience when I have never travelled there myself.
In a moment of doubt, while I was praying about my anxieties and fears, God brought me three memories.
The first one was from 2000 when I volunteered at the Sydney Olympics. I was assigned to the Olympic Weightlifting venue in Darling Harbour – my husband is a coach, and I have been a State official for that sport for decades. This was my first solo trip to the mainland, and there were lots of new experiences. I remember struggling to get through the crowds to get to my venue. It seemed that hundreds of thousands of people were going in the opposite direction. On more than one occasion I was physically accosted by a stranger, and I had to learn how to speak up for myself and get myself out of trouble.
The second memory is also from the Sydney Olympics. At the last minute, I was invited to accompany some of the other volunteers to the Opening Ceremony. It was a wonderful opportunity and I was very thankful. Afterwards, in the crush at the train station, I was separated from my companions. I waited for hours for my line to get close enough to the platform for me to catch the train home. The conversations with my companions the next day revealed some strategies that would have saved my tired legs and blistered feet from all that shuffling in the wrong queue.
The third memory is from 1993. My husband and I had our one and only family holiday. We went to Queensland in January, not the best time for someone who struggles with the heat. We had with us our two boys. Both of them are on the Autism Spectrum, but that was a diagnosis we had yet to receive. It was a memorable holiday, for all the wrong reasons, a story for another time. Of course, we went to Movie World and this was my first real experience with a crowd filled with faces from many different countries. We arrived early, and stood in a line, surrounded by voices speaking in unfamiliar tongues.
From these three memories, I realise that I have enough connection with the kind of situations my heroine will face to be able to write convincing scenes. I have also discovered some very helpful information on the internet including some great YouTube videos to help me choose the accommodation and the special places my heroine will go on her adventure. I am looking forward to sharing the finished story soon )i(
It is time for my weekly update. So soon? What happened to the past week? Time seems to be passing much faster than it used to! I only have to look at how my morning has gone so far to find evidence of that.
I have spent the past hour working through the backlog of emails in my personal account. There are now only 15 unread messages, and they fit in the opening screen. No more having to search down through hundreds of messages looking for the start of an important conversation. I even found a 2017 newsletter from a missionary family I have promised to pray for. It sat there in the inbox opened, so the habit of marking things as important and then letting them disappear off the first page of notifications is nothing new… Welcome to my confession about procrastination.
Why was I looking at emails in what should be my dedicated Devotional Time? I have been checking for new messages at too frequent intervals for days, as I am awaiting a quote for a cover design from a local graphic artist. The five I have already received through an international referral service were alarmingly above my budget. My editor thought I could use my Fine Arts skills to design my own covers, but I had an attack of self-doubt and wanted some professional advice. I am also waiting for news from my editor about the Copy Edit progress. No news is good news, right?
Here are four experiments for one idea from my own amateur attempts to discover what I might want for the cover of Book 1: White Rose of Promise
Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment.
A year ago, this waiting period would have frozen me in place. Then, I was in the final stages of writing the graduating project assignments for my BA in Fine Arts and Visual Culture. The exhibition was over, and I had to write two reports: one covering the key influences from a year’s research and the other presenting the final images for the artistic work I wanted to be assessed towards my degree. The race was on but every day the designated tasks seemed to be taking so long. Procrastination became my new normal. I found out from my fellow students that this was a very common problem for them too.
Each time I sent off a request to my faithful study buddies I seemed unable to make any more progress until I received their feedback. At one stage, I realised I was spending more time looking for their responses than I was devoting to actually writing my report. I had to learn how to push myself to work on other tasks while I waited. That learning opportunity has served me well in my current ‘assignment’.
Here is my 2017 Artist Statement Here is a link to my Bookworms To Butterflies facebook album for the exhibition. I took more than 139,000 and still have to make time to look at some of them (I had timed cameras set up all around the room).
So what have I been doing this week? Revising the first ten chapters of the sequel – it still feels strange working on the NEXT book while the first one is still in the preparation stage. I have added the main characters to the Series Outline so I can cross-reference their details each time they appear in the story, and I have been looking at how each one expresses themselves in their scenes. It is easy (at the moment) to remember all the central characters from both books, as they are familiar to me, but already I have too many secondary characters to juggle. I need one person to secretly be an enemy, so I went back through conversations looking for clues to that ultimate betrayal. It is also essential to start leaving clues (and add these details to the Series Outline) for future manuscripts so that my readers already have a good understanding of the new heroes’ and heroines’ motivations before those characters get to speak for themselves.
Last night was the first time I experienced confidence in my ability to generate a marked difference in tone between the new story and the first. The heroine of the first book is a devoted Christian, and everything that happens is filtered through her prayer life. But her unbelieving sister is the central character of the second book, and when this sister reaches her breaking point, there is no filter for her pain. Spending so much time describing her emotional turmoil flowed out into my own life. My long-suffering husband decided I am currently overly-sensitive to criticism, which has sent me running to my prayer closet on more than one occasion recently.
As I become more engaged in my fictional world, I have increased the time I spend in prayer and meditation. I don’t want to become lost and irrelevant to the real world opportunities that God has given me. Last week, someone in my family had a real accident that could have been disastrous. As a writer, I can see the different narrative possibilities that would lead me into a valley of shadows (Psalm 23:4). I am thankful God was merciful and saved my loved one from suffering a long-term disability. They are still very sore and unable to function to their maximum potential and have succumbed to a viral illness while their immune system was weakened by the pain and extra medication. Another topic to add to my prayer list.
Here is an image I created using the text from Psalm 23:4 superimposed over one of my own digital drawings. I have a long-term project underway to create a digital image for as many inspirational texts as possible. These are shared on my Butterfly Prayer House facebook page, where I publish a personal reflection (almost) every day )i(
Research fills any gaps in my spare time, as I have been subscribing to newsletters and reading as much as I can about how to become a published author. Somehow I have ended up on a couple of mailing lists that now go straight to the bin, but otherwise, my email inbox is flooding with useful information. I have had to make the hard decision to let go of some of my other interests and to learn how to quickly assess whether an article contains treasure, or is irrelevant to my situation.
I have decided I WON’T be writing my own newsletter. My once a week contribution to this page, and sharing on my different facebook pages will be more than enough. If I were to add any more writing commitments to my schedule and this will be the ultimate procrastination towards getting my novels published. )i(
