Congratulations to Judy Penz Sheluk who won the second critique from Joan Edwards. Thank you to everyone who left comments. *********** Raise your hand if you remember this commercial: If so, then you may understand how I felt three weeks ago when my mentor, Rebecca Petruck, wrote: Omigosh, I'm really liking the look of this outline!… Continue reading 2016 Challenge: Focus!
I recently submitted the fourth draft of Half-Truths to Rebecca Petruck for her critique. In a future blog I'll clue you in on my marching orders for Draft #5, but today I'm sharing a specific part of her feedback about writing scenes. This is a longer blog than normal, so grab your favorite beverage and… Continue reading Mississippi Trial, 1955: A Book Review and a Writing Exercise
Congratulations to a new blog reader, Chris Hoerter of Chapel Hill, NC, who won the autographed copy of The Nine Pound Hammer. He attended John Bemis' class at Central Carolina Community College last year and now will have one of his books! ********* Warning: Reading this blog may get the tune, "Climb Every Mountain" the the… Continue reading Mark Every Milestone
Congratulations to Ellen Sepnafski who won Eleanora Tate's book, "Just an Overnight Guest." ******* For those of you who are writers, no doubt you have parried the question which friends and relations pose: "What's taking you so long to finish your book?" This question, often accompanied by skeptical looks and eyebrow raises, may or may… Continue reading Psychology 101, Dominoes, and Answers to the $64,000 Question
Congratulations to Melodye Shore who won a copy of Leigh Sauerwein's book, River Music on last week's blog. I had originally planned to post another book giveaway this week, but this post practically wrote itself and I couldn't resist sharing it. Stay tuned--more giveaways coming soon! ********* "I had no idea how hard a game… Continue reading On Golf and Writing: Not so Strange Bedfellows
Congratulations to Gretchen Griffith who won the audio CD of The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill on last week's blog. After twenty-eight years, next week my husband Creighton and I will be loading a truck and moving to the eastern part of North Carolina to be closer to children and grandchildren. This post is full of nostalgia,… Continue reading Book Metaphors, Life Changes, and of course, a Giveaway!
To thank Rebecca Petruck for her support and writing instruction, I'm offering a copy of her debut novel, Steering Toward Normal as a giveaway on this blog. You'll find my review of this middle grade book for boys and girls here and directions for entering the giveaway below. In addition, Joyce Hostetter and I are giving… Continue reading Two Chances to Win Books + Three Writing Classes
In last week's blog I shared the writing exercise which Rebecca Petruck, my writing coach, gave me. She instructed me to think about, "the difference between rote description, and description that reveals something about the character. When you describe the external world around them, it has to be in order to reflect how they interpret it, what it means to… Continue reading A Stab at Internalization: Lillie's POV
Congratulations to Lindsay Fouts, my new blog follower, who won James Scott Bell's book, Plot and Structure. ********* As I begin the fourth major draft of Half-Truths, I need to attack some of my writing weaknesses. According to my writing coach Rebecca Petruck, I have to work on my "internal-life writing muscles." To do this, she… Continue reading Learning Character Internalization
Congratulations to Linda Phillips, for winning Words with Wings on last week's blog. As some of you know, Linda is a close writing buddy but I can assure you--there was no hanky panky in her winning this book. As far as I can tell, http://www.random.org does not keep track of previous winners! ********** Let's start with… Continue reading Digging for Clay and a Giveaway!