Wohoo! We made it to hump-day...week half over, holiday weekend coming up. Did I tell you that my car runs like it was new! Wohoo...I got real pep in my step...And the gas pedal too!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Plot Development, now we're moving on to General Story Techniques! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Brainstorming.

Did you ever hear a premise, snap your fingers, and think to yourself, "Now, that is a great idea for a story!" Or maybe you thought, "Boy, I wish I had thought of that one myself!"

Some ideas are like that: They immediately engage. They are naturals. Right away the story begins to write itself in your head. You can see what will happen first and exactly how it will go after that. Strangely, although the story already is familiar, so much so that you have begun to appropriate it, your feeling is not "How common," but "How original!"

What causes that reaction? Why is it that although there are no new stories, some ideas nevertheless feel fresh? I believe that there are several qualities that can invoke that feeling.

First is the surprising new twist on an old idea. Take the murder mystery: The essential story is the same every time. Someone is killed, and a detective figures out who did it. So familiar is this formula that it is frequently reduced to "who-dunit".

Every working novelist must come up with ideas, but beyond the premise, it is developed by brainstorming to develop it into a full-fledged plot. The key to keeping a novel lively and surprising is remembering the principle of reversal. When mapping out a scene, toss your first choices and go the opposite way. Why? First choices tend to be the safest, and most predictable.

Mostly, though, originality is within everyone's reach. Practice the techniques of brainstorming: new twists on old ideas, combining stories, gut emotional appeal, and reversing the expected. These techniques will steer you to some challenging, and definitely interesting, choices for your story.

Step 1: Pick a time and a place. Pick a problem...Brainstorm!

Step 2: Every time you write down an idea, reverse it. Go the opposite way. See where it takes you.

Note: The best villain is often less obvious; someone who is, say, connected to the hero in a personal way. A better choice than "senator" is almost always, "the hero's mentor." You see? It takes work to make that person a credible antagonist, but the conflict between hero and villain is a;already more complex because of their prior alliance.

Follow-up:
Go through your folder of story ideas. Pick a check mark on those that offer a new twist to an old idea, or that have gut emotional appeal. Try combining ideas. Also try turning them upside down and inside out. Reverse them. See what happens!

Conclusion: Whatever you do, push your premise and plotlines further. Do not be satisfied with just a good story. Be satisfied with a story that is original, gut grabbing, unexpected, layered, and complex. In other words, stop working only when your story is great. How will you know? It will take longer than you think. Keep pushing!

Hey, hey, it's Tuesday! And I have my car back! Thank you Jesus...No more rides with my DH. I do love the man, but his driving leaves much to be desired! Ladies...You all know what I mean!

Well we only have a few lessons left in this book, so let's get at it!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Plot Development, now we're moving on to General Story Techniques! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Symbols.

Symbols, which sometimes go by their more academic name, objective correlative, are another literary device that feels old-fashioned. The very word takes you back to high school!

In their simplest form, though, symbols are anything outward that stands in for anything inward, or abstract, such as a mood or an idea. A statement like, "He was in turmoil" can feel blunt. Instead, we might substitute an image; say, "Outside, the Siberian Elms held their heads in their hands and swayed, wailing like a chorus of Greek women." Okay so it's over the top, but it nevertheless conveys an inner state.

Symbols can be glaringly obvious, of course. Think sunsets and trains rushing into tunnels. At their best, though, they are elegant and evocative. Their effect can be subliminal, barely noticed. A device they may be, but they also can be quite powerful.

Are there physical objects or recurring events that might serve as symbols in your novel? The exercise that follows asks you not to impose symbols on your manuscript, but to discover them already there. They are buried like artifacts that readers can happen upon and enjoy, either consciously or not, for the extra meaning that they add to your story.

Step 1: What is one prominent object, event, or action that appears in your novel?

Step 2: How can that object, event, or action recur at your novel's end?

Step 3: Find three other places where this object, event, or action can recur in the course of the story.

Note: Whether it is a gathering hurricane or a pink ribbon from a child hood Christmas package, symbols gain power as they recur. Naturally a hurricane forming in every scene would be a ridiculous run of bad weather, but as the opening and closing framework to a story? That could work.

Same thing with rings, ribbons, whooping cranes, green Packard convertible...Any natural or inanimate object that returns at portentous moments. Such objects soak up meaning and then release it.

Follow-up: What is the opposite of that object, event, or action? Find a place for that to appear or occur too.

Conclusion: Sometimes called objective correlatives, symbols can be overly obvious, but when cleverly chosen and tactically deployed they can punctuate a story in powerful ways!


And the end of the Wisdom and Questions:

1. Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice"?

2. Where do forest rangers go "to get away from it all?"

3. What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?

4. If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?

5. Would a fly without wings be called a walk?

6. Why do they lock gas stations bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?

7. If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

8. Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

9. Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?

10. If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?

11. Why do they put Braille on the drive-through bank machines?

Good Monday...Well, it's Monday, but not necessarily good! The timing chain on my car decided that it was done with me on Friday...*sigh*...So I have been sans car. I'm riding with the DH but that's like taking your life in your hands as any given time. Let's just say I've been doing a lot of praying! My homegirl Debbie Brand picked me up for church, so I did get one safe ride this weekend!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Theme.

This is the final exercise in this section. It's called Making the Antagonist's Case.

Step 1: What does your antagonist believe in? Why do they feel justified and right? How would the world be better, through their eyes, if things ran the way they would like them to run?

Step 2: Make the antagonist's case stronger. Assume that the antagonist is actually correct: What support for their case can be found in philosophy or religion? On a practical level, how would things really be better? Explain in writing.

Step 3: Choose a character who supports your antagonist, and make the antagonist's case from that character's point of view.

Note: In many manuscripts the antagonists are cardboard. They are bluntly evil or wrong. One dimensional villains do not frighten me...or most readers. Far scarier are villains who have a good reason for doing what they do, and who can justify their intents and actions as working for the good.

The more sincere your antagonist, the more effective they will be, and the more powerfully you will be forcing your reader to decide what constitutes right and wrong. (Which, of course is more effective than telling your reader your own opinion outright, don't you agree?)

Follow-up: find the moment in your story when your protagonist realizes that you antagonist is right, and why.

Conclusion: Certainly you want your hero to doubt himself at times, don't you? Why not push that all the way and let your hero doubt him/her self in the extreme? What would be the circumstances? How close to failure does your protagonist come? In that moment, you will be very close to your core values and theme.


Here's some Wisdom and Questions for you to ruminate on!

1. Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

2. One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor. *yikes*

3. Atheism is a nonprophet organization. *mwhahahaha*

4. If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?

5. I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

6. Could it be that all those trick-or-treaters wearing sheets aren't going as ghosts but as mattresses?

7. If a mute swears, does his mother wash his hands with soap?

8. If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?

9. It there another word for synonym?

10. How do they get the deer to cross at that yellow road sign?

11. Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

Wheeee! We made it to the weekend....Everybody's workin' for the weekend! I wish I could put little musical emoticons on this...LOL!

Anyhow...We are on another exercise of chapter 32 - Theme. Let's get to it!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Theme.

This is the third and final exercise to this chapter. This one is entitled Same Problem, Other Characters!

Step 1: What is the main problem in the novel?

Step 2: Who else in the story besides your protagonist could have that problem? How would it manifest differently for these other characters?

Step 3: Incorporate the results of the previous step into the story. Make notes!

Note: Theme is not smeared onto your story in the final draft. Like frosting on a cake. Rather, it emerges from the very substance of the story. To make your theme large and resonant, let it work in your story in more ways than one. It doesn't matter that the central problem is different for other characters. Your variations on the theme will only reinforce the themes itself.

Follow-up: Who in your story could have the oppositeproblem? Incorporate that into your novel!

Conclusion: Just as it is advisable to strengthen your theme, it is also no problem to run counter to it. Does your hero rescue his family from the wilderness, struggling against nature? What about the hermit who helps them? He lives at peace with nature, yes? His struggle man be the opposite: to connect again with his fellow man.


And this joke...I got from my homegirl Debra Brand That's D-e-b-r-a...LOL, Hi Deb, just wanted to make sure credit went where credit was due, especially so people don't think my taste for jokes has headed...er, uh...south!

Ok, so a frog walks into a bank and tells the lady at the counter he would like to make a loan of $200,000. He notices her name is Paddy Wack, from her name tag on her blouse.

She says that that's quite a substantial amount and she will have to get authorization for it first, and that it may take a while.

She asks him what his name is and he says "Kermit Jagger, my dad is Mick Jagger so everything should be fine."

The teller lady tells him she will have to go and see the Bank Manager first. Upon which the frog gives her a little pink elephant and says "Here take this with you, give it to your Bank Manager."

She goes to the Bank Manager's office with the pink elephant and when she tells him the story of the frog and shows him the pink elephant she says:"He said I should give you this, but I don't know what it is..?" And the Bank Manager says to her:

"It's a nick nack, Paddy Wack, give the Frog a loan - his old man's a Rolling Stone..."

REMEMBER THIS WASN'T MINE...LOL, but it mad me laugh all the same, because it was so bad!

Good Thursday...The weekend is sneaking up on me! *Smack!* I saw you coming! Boy the days do so fast that it makes me feel old...LOL!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Theme.

Yesterday we went over Theme, and the exercise was about alternate endings. Today we'll do "the Larger Problem" as an exercise.

Step: 1 Thinking about the story as a whole, what is the main problem facing your protagonist?

Step: 2 What is the bigger problem beyond that?

Step: 3 What is the problem that your protagonist cannot solve?

Step: 4 Find ways to introduce into the story the bigger problem and the problem that cannot be solved. How can that be accomplished?

Note: What public issues stir you up. If you could change the world what would you change. Allow the words to emerge from not only your heart, but from your protagonists problems!

Follow-up: What is the main problem in your protagonists second plot layer? Write it down and follow the steps above to develop a secondary theme.

Conclusion: Every issue conceals a bigger issue. At the heart of every big issue is a dilemma that has no answer. While it may sound downbeat to introduce these elements into your story, in fact they will amplify the problem at hand. the ripples that they send outward in your readers minds are, in essence, your novel's deepest issues, or to put in another way, it's theme at work!

This is a real story, I checked it out at Snopes.com!


With a year to go before it even touches the water, the Navy's amphibious
assault ship USS New York has already made history. It was built with 24
tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center.

USS New York is about 45 percent complete and should be ready for launch
in mid-2007. Katrina disrupted construction when it pounded the Gulf
Coast last summer, but the 684-foot vessel escaped serious damage,
and workers were back at the yard near New Orleans two weeks after the
storm.

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that
include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors
and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and
assault craft.

"It would be fitting if the first mission this ship would go on is to make sure that
bin Laden is taken out, his terrorist organization is taken out," said Glenn
Clement, a paint foreman. "He came in through the back door and knocked our
towers down and (the New York) is coming right through the front door, and we
want them to know that."

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA
to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003,
"those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt.
Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the tradecenter steel
first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up."
"It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."

The name New York was reportedly revived for the warship (which was already under construction) at the request of New York governor George Pataki to commemorate the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., creating an exception to current U.S. Navy policy of using state names only for nuclear submarines.

The ship's motto - 'Never Forget'

Good Wednesday!

Yahoo, I'm a Blogging Chick, that is so cool. Ladies, all ladies this is a Blogroll group that is just for ladies....no Blogging roosters allowed! There are 140 women, come join! Blogging Chicks, Blogging Chicks, Blogging Chicks...go check them out and join! Aren't they cute little chicks!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Theme.

This chapter is too big to be one post, so I'll divide it up over a couple days!

There are many different ways to discover and develop the themes in your novel. Themes can be motifs, recurring patterns, outlooks, messages, morals...any number of deliberate elements that make your manuscript more than just a story...indeed, that makes it a novel with something to say.

What are the themes of your current novel, and how are you developing them? Whether you are making your point by creating a backward antagonist, or by giving other characters parallel problems, or by introducing problems that are bigger than your protagonist, or by showing us what your character is aiming for (or at least will settle for).

Be sure that you have a means to bring out what you want to say. A novel that has nothing to say will have a tough time breaking out!

Step:1 With respect to the story as a whole, what does your protagonist want?

Step:2 If your protagonist cannot get that, what would she/he take second?

Step:3 If he/she can get nothing else, what would he settle for?

Step:4 Work out alternative endings for the novel based on each of the above answers. How would each ending go?

Note: the point of this exercise is not necessarily to change the ending of your novel( although it might). It is to use alternate outcomes to understand what it is that your protagonist is really after, and why.

Is second-best or the minimum good enough? Then perhaps you need to raise the personal stakes so that those lesser outcomes are in no way acceptable. Buried in the results of this exercise also are clues to what you novel, really is about: it's theme!

Follow-up: Again thinking of the story as a whole, what outcome would be more than your protagonist possible could hope for?

Conclusion: Ah! The answer to that last question may open up even more possible outcomes for the story. Could it be that your protagonist (or you) has her sights set too low? Even if that dream outcome is not practical, how can that vision of greater good be incorporated into the story?


And now for a joke I got from my friend Sandra!

Two little kids are in a hospital, lying on gurneys next to each other outside the operating room.

The first kid leans over and asks, "What are you in here for?"

The second kid says, "I'm in here to get my tonsils out and I'm a little nervous."

The first kid says, "You've got nothing to worry about. I had that done when I was four. They put you to sleep, and when you wake up they give you lots of Jell-O and ice cream. It's a breeze."

The second kid then asks, "What are you here for?"

The first kid says," A circumcision."

The second kid says, "Whoa, Good luck buddy! I had that done when I was born. Couldn't walk for a year."

Well good Tuesday, we're almost done with this series. I'm looking for other books that will help us in our writing.

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Character Delineation.

Having sharpened the POV's you have chosen for your novel, it is now time to take the next step and make sure that your characters sound, act, and think differently from each other. That's the business of character delineation.

How are your characters different from one another? In your mind, I'm sure they are quite different, but how is that specifically conveyed to your readers? Use a chart to create separate vocabularies, traits, actions, and more for your characters. You will be surprised how much more individual they become.

Step 1: Create a chart in a spread sheet program like Excel. Write down the first column: sofa, bureau, dress, pants, shoes, auto, soda, coffee, alcohol, cash, "Hello", "Cool", "Oh well", God, mother, father, partner/spouse, man, woman, attractive, unattractive, music, periodical. Now in the next three columns to the right place a POV character at the top. Down each column fill in the character's word for the one you've listed.

Note: You can make the list as long as you want. The point is to find each characters voice.

Follow-up: for each POV character give them unique traits, gestures, rationalizations, peeves, hot buttons etc.

Conclusion: Have you ever read a novel where all the characters sounded the same? That's weak POV writing. Strong POV is more than just the words, even cadence and sentence structure will be different. Make your characters different just as people are different!

AMAZINGLY SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES
1. If you are choking on an ice cube, don't panic. Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat and presto. The blockage will be almost instantly removed.

2. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

3. Avoid arguments with the little woman about lifting the toilet seat by simply using the sink.

4. For high blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember to use a timer.

5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then you will be afraid to cough.

7. Have a bad toothache? Smash your thumb with a hammer and you will forget about the toothache.

Hey, it's Monday and I have my head screwed on straight...well relatively speaking anyhow! The Christian Fiction Blog Alliance website is up and running. The CFBA Blog is also open for commenting. The CFBA Blogroll is almost done, just a little Beta testing to do, and a half dozen other projects are nearing completion, so we're back on schedule.

Hey, I remember where we left off! Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Point of View.

Most contemporary novels are written from the POV of their characters. This can get quite intimate...first person being as intimate as you can get! But there are plenty of alternate POV's to employ, including the objective and authorial POV's.

Although these are older approaches as somewhat out of fashion...Hey who ever though bell bottoms and platform shoes would come back...LOL!

Whatever your choice, POV is the perspective you give your readers on the action of the story. It pays to make it strong.

What sort of voice do you have? Soprano? Alto? Tenor? Bass? What kind of soprano...bright? What kind of tenor...high? Is your voice pop, smooth, operatic, or belting? The type of singing voice you have makes a difference to the sound that comes out of your mouth, correct?

So it is with the voice of your novel. The voice will largely be determined by your choice of POV, but more than that by how you use that POV. Are the voices ordinary and generic, or are they highly colored and specific?

Heighten POV throughout your manuscript, and you will strengthen your story's impact.

Step 1: Open your manuscript at random. Whose POV are we experiencing the action through?

Step 2: On this page, select anything the POV character says, does, or thinks. Heighten it. Change the dialogue. Exaggerate the action. Grow the emotion, thought, or observation to make it even more characteristic of this character.

Note: Capturing a character's unique speech and outlook is perhaps easier in a first-person novel. But POV is more than just looking through a set of eyes onto the world. The mouth and brain must come into play also or your novel will have the chilliness of a movie camera

Follow-up: Turn to another page at random. Do the same exercise....repeat the steps about once in every scene in your novel.

Conclusion: What would happen if you did this exercise instead of just think about it? Your novel would take longer to write, but wouldn't it be stronger? Good news. The next exercise is a tool that might make the job easier!


And now for a Metamucil moment:

Sometimes, we just need to remember what the rules of life really are.

You only need two tools: WD-40 and Duct Tape.

If it doesn't move and should, use the WD-40.

If it shouldn't move and does, use the duct tape.

Also, remember everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

Never pass up an opportunity to go to the bathroom.

If you shop anywhere but Wal-Mart(that reminds me of a story), you are just showing off!

And finally, be really nice to your family and friends; you never know when you might need them to empty your bedpan.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

The new website for the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is live!

I fudged and used a Blogspot blog as the blog link...I didn't like the format on the .com blogs. And I still have one more page I can make. But for the most part it's pretty much set!

All of our active members are present and accounted for on the Reviewer page.

Our upcoming books are listed on the Schedule page.

There's several good industry links on the page of the same name.

And there's the greeting page...LOL...I'm tired...on to the spreadsheet for member genre preferences.

I haven't forgot you guys. I just promised the membership that this would get done this week!

I'm sorry that I haven't posted this week. I had to get the finished, just learned touches on my manuscript to send it out...and (LOL, Mimi hates my elipsis!)I've been building the new website for the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance. I'm almost done...one more page to go. I promised our members that I'd get it done as soon as I came back from the conference!

But...go over to Mimi's. She's got more great pictures and a good rundown of some of what we did....Yikes! I look like a deer caught in the headlights. I think someone was holding a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich!

Hello, hello, hello! We're home! I'm safely ensconced back in upstate New York as of Saturday evening...in time for Buffalo Chicken wings, I might add! And Mimi is safely back in North Carolina as of Sunday evening!

Oh, and greetings and salutations to all my new readers from the conference! If you need help with blogging just email me!

Well folks I can't say enough about the conference. If you've never went to one, especially the GPCWC This wonderful lady pictured right below with me, Marlene Bagnull, did a fabulous job of setting up this conference. The schedule was full of so many interesting classes that Mimi and I never even had time to find a Phila Cheesesteak sandwich!

The GPCWC also has its Own Blog Check it out!

Ooh, ooh....this mysterious blonde in between Mimi and I, is none other than Kathryn Mackel. Remember we reviewed her latest book, The Hidden. Go check out the review on my Book Reviews in the top Navbar! Mimi and I took her three day Continuing Sessions course on Story Structure for Novelists. She taught us everything from Concept to Climax. And spent personal time with each of us and our manuscripts!

This little dark-haired beauty is none other than my friend and author, Lisa Samson She will have a new novel out soon called Straight Up. She's got 16 novels out there...so...LOL...she's doing something right! I call her my Bohemian friend...*sigh* I probably should change that since she cut off all her long blonde hair and went au natural...Oh, well...Lisa...babe...BACK UP YOUR HARDDRIVE!...ROFLOL!

This tall gentleman with the mustache is William K Jensen, the literary agent!

While this gentleman is none other than Terry Whalin, the fiction acquisitions editor at Howard Books. I'm holding up his Book Proposals That Sell. Believe me when I say, if you want a leg up on the competition, this is a book that you need!

And this darling girl, is Jennifer Peterson. The Senior review editor for Peterson Ink, the inhouse publishing company responsible for Heartsong Presents line of Barbour Books. She is just delightful...and thanks again Jenn, for the help with the prologue!

So here we sit, tired and happy...and with funny, glowing eyes from the camera! We met so may cool people that I can't even name them all, but Jeff Edmondson...Yikes! LOL...sorry Jeff, I just realized what I said on your tape!, Julie Smith, Bryan Davis, Wanda Dyson, Patricia Haley, Cec Murphey, Joyce Moccero, and Pam Halter (I know she has a blog! Mimi, what's the address??) top the list!

I've got the book proposal done. Packing is in progress, and my best blogging buddy M.C.Pearson (Mimi) and I are good to go! I leave on Wednesday morning! Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference (GPCWC) here we come! Philadelphia will never be the same! I'll try and blog from the conference!

This one is an oldie but goodie!

No Maass lessons this week, I'm preparing for the conference! Have a cute story that I posted last year.


Have you ever told a white lie? You are going to love this especially all the ladies who bake for church events!

Alice was to bake a cake for the Church ladies' group bake sale, but she forgot to do it until the last minute. She baked an angel food cake and when she took it from the oven, the center dropped flat. She said, "Oh dear, there's no time to bake another cake."

So, she looked around the house for something to build up the center of the cake. Alice found it in the bathroom...a roll of toilet paper. She plunked it in and covered it with icing. The finished product looked beautiful, so she rushed it to the church.

Before she left the house, Alice had given her daughter some money and specific instructions to be at the bake sale the minute it opened, and to buy that cake and bring it home.

When the daughter arrived at the sale, the attractive cake had already been sold. Alice was beside herself.

The next day, Alice was invited to a friend's home where two tables of bridge were to be played that afternoon.

After the game, a fancy lunch was served, and to top it off, the cake in question was presented for dessert.

Alice saw the cake, she started to get out of her chair to rush into the kitchen to tell her hostess all about it, but before she could get to her feet, one of the other ladies said, "What a beautiful cake."

Alice sat back down in her chair when she heard the hostess (who was a prominent church member) say, "Thank you, I baked it myself."

Think about it...What would you have done?

Here's a funny story to hold you 'til Monday!

There once was a man that had a Labrador retriever. He was buying a large bag of Purina at Wal-Mart and was in line to check out and the woman behind him asked if he
had a dog? On impulse, he told her no, but that he was starting The
Purina Diet again, although he probably shouldn't because he'd ended up in
the hospital last time, but that he'd lost 50 pounds before he awakened in
an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of his orifices and
IVs in both arms.

He told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that
it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply
eat one or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is
nutritionally complete so he was going to try it again.

He had to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now
enthralled with his story, particularly the guy who was behind the woman he was talking to.

Horrified, she asked if he ended up in intensive care because the dog food
poisoned him.

He told her no; he'd been sitting in the street licking his uh, er family jewels and a car hit him.

The guy behind the woman, staggered out the door laughing so hard, it looked like he was going to need an ambulance!

Yahoo! We made it to another weekend, and some of the heat has dissipated...Thank you Jesus! This week was a good example of why I want to avoid hell! Yikes! Did I say that...!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Setting.

How many settings are there in your current novel? From how many POV's is each of them seen? Each outlook on each location is an opportunity to enrich your story. In your novel, how many of those opportunities are you taking?

Our perception of place changes as we change. The difference between a town as remembered from long ago and how it seems now is the difference between who we once were and who we are now. The same is true of characters in fiction. Take them anywhere and show us how they feel abut the place, or how that place makes them feel, and you will reveal to us volumes about their inner frozenness, or growth.

Step 1: Pick a high moment, turning point, or climax involving your protagonist. Where is it set?

Step 2: Write a paragraph describing how this place makes your character feel, or how your protagonist feels about this place.

Step 3: Move forward one week in time or backwards one week in time. Return your protagonist to this place. Write a paragraph describing how it makes your character feel now.

Note: There is something powerful about returning to to a place of significant action and discovering how it feels different. Pinning that down is using the psychology of place, that is, employing the perception of place as another way to measure change.

Follow-up: What is the setting that recurs most often in your novel? From whose point of view is it most often seen. Count the number of times that character is in that place. Write a list, and for each return to that place find one way in which that character's perception of it changes.

Conclusion: Bringing to life the world of your novel is more than just describing it using the five senses. A place lives most vividly through the eyes of characters. Delineate those evolving perceptions, and the world of your novel will feel rich, dynamic, and alive!

And now for a cute joke:

An old man lived in Idaho. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it
was very hard work. His only son Bubba, who used to help him, was in
prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his
predicament.

Dear Bubba,
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant
my potato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me.
Love Dad........

A few days later he received a letter from his son.......
Dear Dad,
For heaven's sake, dad, don't dig up that garden, that's where I buried
the BODIES.
Love Bubba

At 4 A.M. the next morning, F.B.I. agents and local police showed up and
dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to
the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.....

Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the potatoes now.
That's the best I could do under
the circumstances.
Love
BUBBA

And....a woman's thought for the day!

"Don't think of it as getting hot flashes. Think of it as your inner child playing with matches."

Good Thursday. While we northerners are sweltering in the heat, our southern brothers and sisters are battening down the hatches....I pray all goes well with you folks down there! At the end of this post I have a little 'hurricane humor' that might give you five minutes of smiles!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Inner Change.

We grow and change. We also note the growth and change in others. The moments in breakout novels in which such changes are observed are milestones that measure the journey that is each story.

Change in characters, or rather, characters' perceptions of the changes within themselves and others, may happen within a scene or across long stretches of time.
It doesn't matter. Inner changes calibrate a plot, lending it a sense of inexorable progress and pace.

How does your protagonist's picture of himself change throughout the course of your novel? How does she/he view others in the story, and how do those views change? How do others see your protagonist? How do those assessments, in turn, alter? Delineate these shifts in your characters' self-perceptions and perceptions of each other. It is yet another way to tighten the weave of the story.

Step 1: Find a moment in your manuscript when your hero is speaking with a major secondary character, or when that secondary character carries the point of view while speaking with your hero.

Step 2: Create a paragraph in which your hero assesses this other character; that is, delineates for himself this other character's qualities, mood, or situation in life. Put simply, how does your hero see this character right now?

....Alternately, have your point of view character regard your hero by the same criteria. How does she view your hero at this particular moment?

Step 3: Move forward to a later point in the story when these two characters are again together on the page. Repeat the previous step. How does your hero view this character now?

....Alternately, how does that character view your protagonist at this point?

Note: You grow and change, so do your characters. But you need to once in a while measure the difference so that we as readers see it!

Follow-up: Find three points in the story in which to delineate your antagonist's view of your protagonist.

Conclusion: allow characters occasional moments to take stock of each other is a powerful way to mark each players progress through the story. Examine your hero from several points of view; later, show us how those views have shifted.

"Florida Hurricane Advice"

We're about to enter the peak of the hurricane season. Any day now, you're going to turn on the TV and see a weather person pointing to some radar blob out in the Gulf of Mexico and making two basic meteorological hints:

(1) There is no need to panic.
(2) We could all be killed.

Yes, hurricane season is an exciting time to be in Florida. If you're new to the area, you're probably wondering what you need to do to prepare for the possibility that we'll get hit by "the big one." Based on our experiences, we recommend that you follow this simple three-step hurricane preparedness
plan:

STEP 1. Buy enough food and bottled water to last your family for at least three days.
STEP 2. Put these supplies into your car.
STEP 3. Drive to Illinois and remain there until Halloween.

Unfortunately,statistics show that most people will not follow this sensible plan. Most people will foolishly stay in Florida.

We'll start with one of the most important hurricane preparedness items:

HOMEOWNERS' INSURANCE:

If you own a home, you must have hurricane insurance. Fortunately, this insurance is cheap and easy to get, as long as your home meets two basic requirements:

(1) It is reasonably well-built, and
(2) It is located in Illinois.

Unfortunately, if your home is located in Florida, or any other area that might actually be hit by a hurricane, most insurance companies would prefer not to sell you hurricane insurance, because then they might be required to pay you money, and that is certainly not why they got into the insurance business in the first place. So you'll have to scrounge around for an insurance company, which will charge you an annual premium roughly equal to the replacement value of your house. At any moment, this company can drop you like used dental floss.

EVACUATION ROUTE:

If you live in a low-lying area, you should have an evacuation route planned out. To determine whether you live in a low-lying area, look at your driver's license; if it says "Florida," you live in a low-lying area.

HURRICANE SUPPLIES:

If you don't evacuate, you will need a mess of supplies. Do not buy them now. Florida tradition requires that you wait until the last possible minute, then go to the supermarket and get into vicious fights with strangers over who gets the last can of Spam.

In addition to food and water, you will need the following supplies: 23 flashlights; at least $167 worth of batteries that turn out, when the power goes off, to be the wrong size for the flashlights. Bleach.

(No, I don't know what the bleach is for. Nobody knows what the bleach is for, but it's traditional, so get some!)

A 55-gallon drum of underarm deodorant. A big knife that you can strap to your leg. (This will be useless in a hurricane, but it looks cool.) A large quantity of raw chicken, to placate the alligators.

(Ask anybody who went through a hurricane; after the hurricane, there WILL be irate alligators.) $35,000 in cash or diamonds so that, after the hurricane passes, you can buy a generator from a man with no discernible teeth.

Of course these are just basic precautions. As the hurricane draws near, it is vitally important that you keep abreast of the situation by turning on your television and watching TV reporters in rain slickers stand right next to the ocean and tell you over and over how vitally important it is for everybody to stay away from the ocean.

Good luck, and remember: its great living in paradise.

Hey it's Hump day...time sure flies when you're having fun! I know, I know...the heat had dried out my little brain and my synapses are misfiring...it got to be like 98 yesterday...Ya'll in Texas might be used to that kind of heat, but we here in NY aren't...LOL...Wahhhh!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Moments in Time.

There's no doubt that immersing ourselves in another world is one of the pleasures of reading a well-written novel. But as a writer, how can you capture the world of the story, and lives of the characters in just the right way?

As an exercise, it is, in part, a matter of selecting individual moments to freeze for the reader. How do you delineate these in your current manuscript? Can you identify six passages in which you go beyond simple scene settings to capture the flavor of the moment in time, the feeling of an historical era of the uniqueness of a place like no other?

If nit, is there any reason not to put that stuff in!

Step 1: find in your novel a moment of transition, a pause, a moment of character definition or testing, a place where the action can be momentarily frozen, or the prelude to (or the aftermath of) an important plot event.

Step 2: What are three things that make this minute in time different from any other minute in time?

Step 3: What are three things that make this place uniquely different from any other place.

Step 4: What are three things that define the social world of the story at this precise moment?

Step 5: Use the details generated in any of the steps above to craft a paragraph that freezes, for the reader how the world looks and feels toward your POV character. Pin down those unique feelings

Note: Yes we always want to keep things moving in our stories, but it must happen in time, in space and in social context that is credible, detailed and specific! Use the steps above to create at a given moment a snapshot of the story's time to bring the world of the story into sharp focus.

Follow-up: Choose four other moments in time to freeze in the novel and delineate them using the steps above.

Conclusion: Here is where you apply your powers of observation. Give your protagonist the same awareness of the world that you have, or maybe one that is keener!

Egads! It's August already...The kids start going back to school at the end of the month. Let's hear a shout for all the frazzled moms...School, school, school!

Good Tuesday...I'm ready...I'm ready...I'm ready! Well mostly...I still need to do the book proposal for the manuscript that I'm taking to the
Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference (GPCWC) next week! My best blogging buddy M.C.Pearson (Mimi) and I have been keeping our noses to the grindstone for the last few weeks preparing.

We're going for the whole three days. This will be great fun because we've been friends for about a year and a half. But we live so far away that other than the net and phone calls we've never met face-to-face. And not only that but we'll get to me a lot of our favorite writers...Wahoo! I'm so excited!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: General Story Techniques.

Oh, BTW...I've been using this book as a review for the manuscript I just edited, so I had to work ahead of you guys so that I was done by the time I leave for Phila!!

Today we're going to look at First and Last lines. No doubt about it, a great first line pulls us immediately into a story. It hooks. It intrigues. It opens a world in which things already are happening, in which discovery awaits.

Or it can, sadly, lie flat on the page doing nothing helpful all all, merely setting a scene or in some other way getting ready for the story rather than telling it. Weak first lines greet us like a limp handshake.

What makes a first line effective? Part of it would be the intrigue factor. It's the element that makes us wonder..."What does that mean? or "What happens next?...and therefore leads us to the next line where we may find the answer.

All of this usually happens so fast that we don't notice it. In the few seconds it takes to read an opening line, our subconscious minds are already racing ahead!

Just as surely as an intriguing first line can draw, a stunning exit sentence can propel a reader onward in wonder...wondering perhaps, when your next novel will be out!

Have you yet reached the last line of your current novel? If you have, go back. If you haven't, pause when you get there. Take the time to get your last line just right. Whether it leads forward or lifts our spirits or softly closes a door. Make it a line we will remember...Especially when we see your next novel on the bookstore shelves!

Step 1: What is the intrigue factor in your opening line? What question does it pose, or what puzzle does it present?

Step 2:If you are not able to answer the question in the first step, try shortening your first line. If that doesn't work, audition your second line for the lead spot. Or combine elements from your first paragraph into one short, supercharged sentence. Whatever you do, choose or construct a different first line.

Note: the one thing that all good first lines have in common is the intrigue factor.

Follow-up: Work on your last line until it has wit, a touch of poetry, or a sense of dawning peace. Try it out on others!

Conclusion: Whether it is a sigh of satisfaction, a soaring passage of word art, or nothing more than a clever exit line, put the same effort into your last line as went into your first. A book needs front and back covers to hold together; in the same way a novel needs strong brackets to bind it!

This next little story is not a joke, but a memory of says gone by...So shoot me, I'm old. I like this kinda'' stuff!


I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples That had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch,
waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes.

Send this to those who would know, and love the story about Grandma's aprons.

REMEMBER

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool.
Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.