Write Writing Written

I really enjoyed these emails from Janette Rallison:

This is a soap box issue for me. So many of my fellow national market YA authors put sexual content in their books. Maybe they don't think it's a big deal to have their 16 or 17 or 18 year-old have sex, (sometimes the characters are much younger though. My son picked up a book where the 13 year-old characters had sex) but the fact of matter is that it generally isn't 16-18 year olds who are reading these books. It's 11-15 year olds. Once kids are 16, they've pretty much left the YA market and read adult novels.

Yes, we need to have a variety of books that deal with a variety of subjects--even difficult subjects like date rape and incest. Some kids need those books. But even they can be written tastefully. Personally, I don't want sex normalized for young kids. I don't want my kids to have those images and thoughts in their minds when they start dating--and although it's unfair of …

New genre??

Sending your writing out into the world is like watching your child go to school for the first time. Will he eat his lunch? Will the other kids be nice to him? How much easier our parental minds would be if we could sit with that child throughout the day and tell everyone how cool and awesome he is. And how much better they all will be if they are friends with him.

<;----(Yes, this child is in a bathrobe; it was pajama day).
Sending a query or manuscript out is hard! If you could sit by the people reading your work and expound on how awesome it is, you know they would rush to the presses.
The fear of the rejection can be paralyzing. Babe Ruth said, "Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back."
I like this quote by him even better: "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."

Ask yourself: What is the worse that can happen?
Answer: Someone will say no.
This doesn't mean your or your writing isn't good enough. "Sorry, we can't p…

I'm in Julie's critique group or she's in mine, whichever works :) And. She's. Awesome. As is my whole group. They're very patient with me.
I invited Julie to guest post on my blog. 
So, read her post here then race over to her blog and follow 'cause you know you wanna. For everyone who follows her, guess what? She'll follow you back! Can't beat that! Click here.

Read on, dear readers:

A Better Way to Show

I've been reading about my favorite subject lately, imagery in literature, and I keep coming across the term objective correlative. As I delved deeper, I realized that was exactly what my current work in progress is missing.

Objective correlative is a term coined by T. S. Elliot. He said:

The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an "objective correlative"; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which…

Writing is a solitary undertaking, as we've all heard. We worry about our talent. I wonder this every time I read a book that rocks my world, one I can't put down. Fear and discouragement overwhelm me. Am I good enough?

I read a post on improving self-confidence, something I need boosted every so often. One of the sentences struck this writer's heart. "It's hard to start moving again if you're stuck in fear."

I dreamed the other night of playing mud football and getting stuck. No matter where I played the game, I got sucked into the mud and had a hard time getting out. Was my subconscious telling me something? Am I stuck in fear? Or was it a warning to never play muddy sports?
The next part of the post spoke of shifting your fear. This idea hit me harder: shift your fear. When you shift from fear to curiosity, your perception goes WHOOSH! And the world opens up!

Just like a child: no fear, tons of curiosity!

Curiosity is filled with anticipation and enthus…

Ten years later, the pictures and stories somehow still cause my tears to flow.


Never forget.
Never forget the innocent lives lost.
Never forget the nation that came together in grief and support.
Never forget the brave rescuerers, doing their job.
Never forget the way our nation prayed together.
Never forget the God who held us in His hand, comforting us, crying with us, there for us.
Never forget that God is still there for us.





http://www.911-remember.com/images/Pentagon.jpg

Thanks to all the entries who wanted to adopt my books. They found good homes! The homeowners have been contacted and I await their addresses to ship the goods to them.

Congrats to these lovely readers who were chosen to adopt:

Sonya said...
Thanks for the giveaway!

I'd love either pack, but will take A if I have to pick :)

Thank you!

melora said...Thank you for the giveaway! The covers of pack B looked interesting.

I added a third (SURPRISE!) winner because she was follower #300! I'm sending her a surprise book.

The Happy Booker said...I'm follower number 300! Yay! I know its not a requirement, but I love when I get to be the follower that puts a blog to the next hundred followers. :-) Anyway... I think I can provide a good and loving home to either pack but I think Pack A would be a better fit for my bookshelf. Thanks for such a wonderful giveaway!

Thanks to everyone who entered and especially to those who are new followers. I'll follow all your blogs too! 

To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping." - Chinese ProverbKeep going! You're almost there. Sit your backside down for thirty minutes and write.Type that last sentence. Edit that one chapter. Erase the character who isn't helping the plot. Now, do it again.