Work clothes

Persuasion by Rebecca H. Jamison Blog Tour!

I'm happy to be part of Rebecca Jamison's blog tour of her book PERSUASION!
I have a good friend who loves all things Austen so I invited her to be a guest reviewer today.
Take it away Mrs. LeBuck!

Rebecca H. Jamison's Persuasion: A Latter Day Tale was an easy, breezy read on a otherwise cold weekend.  Her story echoes Jane Austen's Persuasion well enough that I could easily anticipate the general story line, but the updated new twist kept it fresh as I read.  I especially enjoyed the "new" ways of getting the characters where they need to be.  For example, the accident at the beach was a pleasant surprise, as was the back story given to the character of William.
Jamison's version of Anne Elliot has her own modern issues to deal with, including her work, her car, her friends and roommate.  But the relationship issues Jane Austen gave her original heroine ring true in the modern version--her father's financial issues, her sisters' selfishness, and her own self-doubt.  Played out within an LDS morality, the romantic entanglements work very well too, even in the modern settings.  I could sense her longing for a husband and family life without seeing her as a sappy, unrealistic, washed-up spinster.  And Anne's attitude never felt defeated.
Overall, I appreciated the clean but still romantic  twist on a story I adore from Jane Austen.  Perhaps this new telling will hook younger readers into seeing the brilliance of the character driven novel without the need to spice it up and out of my personal rating's window.

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
			February
			1	2	3	4
			Bookworm Nation/ Six Mixed Reviews/ The Stubby Pencil/	Krazy Book Lady/ The Stubby Pencil/	A Book A Day/ Jacob’s Beloved’s Books/ Lisa is a Bookworm/	Misty Moncur/
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Book Lover’s Paradise/	Book Spark/ Fire and Ice/	Tristi Pinkston/ Getting Your Read On/ Thoughts with Chris/	The Character Connection/ Le Vanity Victorienne/ LDS Women’s Book Review/	Neurotic Writer/ Community Bookstop/ My Book Addiction/	Hopeful Happiness/ Practical Frugality/	WV Stitcher/ Community Bookstop/
12	13	14
	Laurie LC Lewis/ Reading For Sanity/	Dearest Dreams/ WV Stitcher/

Believe in yourself when no one else does

"Some people succeed because they are destined to, but most people succeed because they are determined to." Henry Ford

I know you're determined.
You can do this.
Take that first step.
Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't make your dreams come true!

Here are a few people who were told they didn't have what it takes:

• Elvis Presley was told he wouldn't get anywhere in the music business and that he go back to driving a truck.
• Dustin Hoffman was voted by his class as least likely to succeed.
• Harrison Ford was told by movie execs that he didn't have what it took to be a movie star.
• Abraham Lincoln ran for Congress and vice presidency at least SIX times before becoming President of the United States.
• Henry Ford's business failed several times before he became successful.
• Dr. Seuss was told his work was too different.
• Beatrix Potter was turned down so many times she evidently self-published The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
• Elana Johnson sent out over 180 queries before she landed an agent. 

It seems like, by the examples above, that to make a success we have to fail.
Surround yourself with people who will elevate you. People you trust. Listen to them.
Send out those queries. Get that chapter done.
You have a story inside that is amazing and can only come from you.
Hurry. The world is waiting.

Do you know any other stories of failure turned success?

In frustration, she heaved a sigh

(First off, I'm not sure that title is grammatically correct. Second, I would love to see what a sigh looks like and how it looks to heave it.)

Do you have trouble coming up with a different way to show emotions in your story? Yeah, me too.
The Bookshelf Muse is a huge help with this dilemma! They have put together a "thesaurus" for us writers.
The other day, I needed a new way to show, not tell, my character's frustration. I went to The Bookshelf muse and found a ton of ideas!

For instance:

  Rushed, heavy breathing, hot intakes of breath, an impatient snort or sneer
· Gritting teeth
· Needing to take a moment to calm down
· Storming out of a room
· Throwing hands up
· Stalking away from someone, leaving in a huff
· Name-calling, personal jab, trying to hurt in retaliation
· Sarcasm
· Speaking without thought, often leading to regret
· Slamming a door
· Grabbing hair in clumps, looking up at the sky "Why me?"
· A heavy sigh
· A strained voice

Those were just a few of helps for me.
LOVE this resource.
Go try them out.
You'll be glad you did!

Foto Friday

Wow!
The inside of a wave.
Can a person with magical water powers make this and walk through without getting wet? Or make this like Moses and escape?
Very cool...

http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/laba_q/imgs/f/c/fc2b5680.jpg

Too many pretty words?

Going off this post from the other day (about not thinning seedlings/words) I thought of CHIME by Franny Billingsley. (My brain is odd, I know). Why would I compare CHIME with foliage?

By the end of the summer my garden was overrun with so many ginormous leaves I couldn't find the tomatoes or squash or pumpkins or cucumbers. Ironically, the leaves feed the plants and protect them from the sun but hid them from me.
Toward the end of the season it was easy for me to get lazy and leave the veggies. Then I remembered I didn't want wayward seeds taking over my garden again!
CHIME was amazing. I read the pages slowly, soaking in the ambiance of the story. If only I could write like Ms. Billingsley!
Only, it wasn't her story that moved me. It was the way the author put words and sentences together that moved me.

Here's a couple of examples:
"Another few minutes won't hurt, " said Father in his sermon voice, which is his favorite voice, the one he starches and irons every morning (p. 5)."
"The kitchen door groaned. It was arthritic and cranky from the flood, and it took advantage of every opportunity to complain (p. 13)."
 (Amazing, right??)

After I read the last page and put a day behind me, I realized I couldn't remember the story. The love interest was strong and funny, there was a Dad and sister and voices and a swamp. The plot eluded me.
Don't get me wrong! I loved CHIME and am not dissing on it. I would be overjoyed to have so many awesome reviews.
While I want my words to move readers I also want them to remember the story.
So once again dear readers, we need to watch our wordage. Too many beautiful words can cover up your beautiful story.

Have you read CHIME? What did you think?

PS If you want to read my review you can find it here.

"Seymour! Feed Me!"

Utah weather is strange this year. We still haven't had a good snowfall and it's the middle of January. The weather was soooo nice last Saturday I decided to rake the leaves clustered around my front steps. My daughter and I raked and swept two garbage cans full of leaves. I dumped them in the garden.

While in the garden I had to laugh a little at myself. I remember a couple of years ago we dumped our moldy, gross pumpkins in the garden as well as squash we didn't get around to eating. I was thinking about how good those little gourds would be for the soil, not the consequences of hundreds of seeds scattered around as well.

When the ground warmed up, little green sprouts came up EVERYWHERE! I was giddy with the relief of not planting much that spring. Clusters of green appeared all over and I couldn't bear to thin them.

I hate to throw away a living plant that's doing good (I have no problem killing off all the Morning Glory!). We had at least 1500 plants coming up. I'm not kidding. If I exaggerated I would say we had 2000 plants. Only a handful produced something to eat or carve. And those were small. Soon I had a jungle in my backyard and I was a tad bit scared to forage! I had no idea what was hiding under all those prickly leaves.
My weakness taught me a lesson: I need the courage to thin the good stuff to produce the best.

This applies to editing, don't you think? We need the courage to thin our words to show readers the best. Too much wordage distracts us from the plot, distances us from the characters and draws us out of the story.
Too many adverbs or tags or adjectives or purple prose or...you understand, distracts from a good story.
Be brave, dear gardeners of words. Those beautiful words you love so much will suffocate your work. You must edit. For your story, you must thin out the good stuff to produce the best.

Do you have trouble with too many words? How's your word count?