Blog

While I am waiting

My first manuscript, White Rose of Promise (WRoP) is away at the Copy Editor, but there seems to be a growing a mountain of tasks to continue with. 

One of the first challenges seems to be the contemporary trend to constantly update and improve everything. Last week, I managed to combine text and images on this Blog without too many problems. Today, I come to my page to discover that I am ‘trialling’ new software. It has taken me a few attempts just to work out how to get started (again).

Time to add a peaceful little image here to restore my peace, which is accompanied by some quiet prayer.

I wanted a small image, with text beside it, like I did last week,
but this is the best I can manage )i(

Now that I have had my little panic for the day, I will get to the reason I am writing. I am currently halfway through writing the second book in the series. This one picks up the story of a Secondary Character from the first book and there is some overlap in the timeline. It has been a reasonably easy task to make sure that the concurrent events match up.

But as I already know some of the following unwritten stories will overlap both White Rose of Promise and When Promises Are Broken I begin to see the complicated web I am weaving for myself.

Blue Skies: Chasing Away The Blues Exhibition 2017.
Mixed media, site-specific installation. Photo credit Bookworms To Butterflies.

This immediately reminds me of the artistic process involved in creating my mixed media artwork. For my final Fine Arts university project, I invited participants to make a room weaving installation as the central performance piece. At first, it was easy to see how each of the participants wove their way around the community hall where the performance took place. But after a few hours, the tangle of connections was almost impossible to follow. 

Three days later, and the tangled web had become a canopy and the child participants took up habitation for creative play. 

In a similar way, my characters are weaving themselves a creative world where their adventures are played out. I started with a simple story, a tale of a lonely woman in search of family and love. As she navigated the challenges before her, she drew other people into her story. Her life became entangled with theirs in such a way that I found myself wanting to give them a story too.

My creative writing time has been devoted to placing the major events from White Rose of Promise into a timeline so that each character, as they come to tell their story, has a connection with all the other characters. This has raised some important questions about how much detail my readers will need in each story about what has happened before.

Another important task in becoming a published writer is to seek out advice from people who have already walked this journey. This includes subscribing to newsletters and following other writers’ Blog posts. I have been praying for specific direction, and this treasure appeared in my inbox this morning.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I pray you will move forward with your own social connections, weaving strength and success as you make your way forward )i( Happy reading (and writing)

Chrissy )i(

Confession time )i(

Confession time. There are more steps to becoming a published author than I ever imagined. This is a learning journey of great proportions. You, my intrepid readers, play an important role. When I feel like I want to sit down and give up, I am reminded that people are waiting for an update, waiting for the next instalment, waiting to see the finished book…

For me the process of writing is easy. Taking my creation and working towards getting it published is not. Some essential tasks seem almost impossible!

Problem #1 Setting up a webpage is much harder than it looks. I made what I thought was a good start and then hit a brick wall I wasn’t able to get around. I tried many different ways and then I gave up. A few weeks later I am ready to revisit the how-to videos and make another attempt. Watch this page for updates in the coming weeks – I hope to have more links for you to click on!

Problem #2 I hit a snag with my email account and accidentally unsubscribed because I kept getting pop-up boxes asking for information that seemed irrelevant. So if anyone has emailed in the few days and is waiting for a reply, please accept my apology… and send the email again. The server deleted everything. That problem has now been fixed – happy dance here!

One of my rose drawings

My first manuscript moves closer towards publication.  White Rose of Promise fits in the Christian Romantic Suspense genre.

The goal of having a happy-ever-after ending seemed elusive, but the heroine arrives at the final chapter with joy in her heart and her faith made stronger by the adversity. The man she falls in love with remains a work in progress right to the end.

There are 26 chapters in the novel, one for each letter of the alphabet. If you guessed that each chapter starts with a letter of the alphabet from a-z you know me too well already!

 

The first chapter title:  Anticipation – A Promise Given. The companion text is Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV)

Chapter 1 image

 

To go with White Rose of Promise I am planning a colouring book and a devotional book based on the Bible reference texts that guided me through the chapter development. This image is a work in progress. I am still playing with design ideas.

White Rose of Promise is currently away from home, enjoying time with my Copy Editor. It will be a few weeks before I get it back. What happens after that is still unknown! I am hoping to self-publish so another learning opportunity is looming. Hopefully, it won’t be as tricky as setting up this webpage!

 

The manuscript left me at various stages to spend time with my amazing beta-readers (those brave friends who agreed to listen to my ideas and took the time to give me feedback). I keep in regular contact with my beta-readers, asking them random questions, and keeping them informed about the day to day challenges. If you would like more information about being part of the day to day discussion, please email me, or message me on facebook.