Squee!, second part

Let the excitement continue!

Read the prologue at Rebekah's website here.

Two weeks ago, I told you about the e-release of Petals by my twin-separated-at-birth (but not really) and best friend (really), Rebekah Roberts. I shared a quick interview and a little bit about the book and I got my copy. You can read that bubbly post here. (And remember, I'm not getting paid for this, not even bribery money.)

Well, today, when I postponed breakfast and hopped online, I scooted over to Amazon.com and found the paperback is already ready to order! It will also be available at BarnesandNoble.com; it's jut not up quite yet.


Last time, I had asked my twin some more questions about her writing, and now I would like to share them with you.

 

D: What has the journey been like to getting published?

R: Amazingly fast. I know that I am so blessed to have found a publisher so quickly. I hope that that means my book is something special.


D: Where do you write?

R: I love to go to Barnes and Noble. Most of Petals was produced there. The smell of coffee and new books gets me in the writing mood.

D: Do you have a writing routine?

R: Not really. I just try to fit it in where I can. I work long hours and there isn't always time. I think lamenting over not getting in our writing time is a constant struggle with most writers.

D: So what do you like to do in your free time?

R: Lately I have been napping. ;) But when I am not sleepy, there is nothing I like more than to hang out with my family or a good friend. I love reading and TV and movies, but I think, given the choice I would rather hang out and have a good talk with someone than just about anything.

D: Probably because you're an encourager. How do you hope to encourage readers with Petals?

R: The themes that are in Petals and now in the following books have a lot to do with true beauty and true love. I love romances, but I want to write a story that is more than just "boy meets girl." I want to write a story that has broken characters that may not be perfect by the last page but they are on their way to becoming better people and then maybe somehow that might affect a reader in his or her own life.

D: What is your fear with your book?

R: Wow... Good question. I guess, that no one will buy it... But I think more than that I am afraid of sending the wrong messages. I set out to send a message about beauty and love, but I have learned so much since I wrote it that I hope it still rings with truth. A single book is just a small stopping place in a writer's life. I have grown so much as a person and as a writer since I started the project, so I just hope my younger self knew what she was talking about.

D: Everybody has dreams. What are yours?

R: My dream as an author (wow that looks weird to type, author..), is to keep writing and keep getting published. I don't know that I will ever just write. I am currently a full-time nanny and I love it. I think I will always write and do something else, at least on the side. As for personal dreams... I'm like any hardcore dreamer, I want my own fairytale, my own happily ever after and I pray that I find it someday.

D: In addition to writing and nanny-ing (yeah, I don't think that's a word yet) you also have a ministry outreach in the works. Tell me about it.

R: Unfolding Rose Ministries is a new adventure that I am embarking on this fall. It is a ministry that I'm starting. I want to use my own fiction, other fiction, and interviews I'm conducting with men and women as a way to talk to young women about love, purity, modesty, guys, true beauty, and most of all who they are in Christ.   

D: What keeps you going every day?

R: My faith in Christ. I suffer from anxiety. It's something that I am not ashamed to talk about and anyone who knows me, knows I deal with worry and doubt on a daily basis. I guess you could call me a sensitive artist or just a plain old worry wart, but God takes that and uses it. Jesus is the one who gets me out of my head and gives me the strength to be there for others. It's because of my fears that I am able to write better characters and I am able to be sensitive to other peoples' struggles. So I thank God for my weakness and I thank Him for His strength in my life.    

D: What's the one thing you want people to know about you?

R: I guess what it says in the info section of my personal Facebook page: "I am the creation of The Creator, the loved of The Lover, the daughter of The Father and the saved of the Savior. I am His."  And that this book is for Him as well.

 

You can keep up with the latest from Rebekah on her Facebook page or Twitter profile. There's also more at her official website, RebekahRoberts.net. And for fun, you can listen to the playlist that Rebekah put together of songs and videos that inspired Petals.

I've started reading my e-copy, and I'm excited to get my signed book soon! And I can't wait to find it in bookstores and geek out in a public place! Oh yes, I will be looking.

Cover image by 5 Prince Publishing

                                              "Beauty might just be the beast."

        Calla Williams is not like other girls.  Most girls spend their whole lives trying to be beautiful, Calla already is…and she hates it.
        When she is shipped off one summer to live with family friends in their dilapidated Mississippi plantation, Calla is faced with the prospect of living with strangers and their teenage son.  This is annoying because, like any other boy, he is sure to fall in love with her on sight. However, Griffin Davenport is not your typical teenage guy. With his hot temper and half of his face severely scarred, “hate at first sight” is closer to what she finds.
        Though the two teens try to stay out of each other’s way, an odd attraction to each other makes staying away anything but easy.
        Now, Calla must deal with growing feelings, her own prejudices, and finding the secret to Griffin’s past. As hate turns to friendship and friendship becomes something more, Calla learns a startling truth: God uses even how we look in His plan for our lives.

Squee!

Okay, I am psyched. It's not my book, and I'm not getting any money out of this (I'm actually spending money), but I'm already in line for my copies.

I'm talking with my best friend, Rebekah Roberts, PUBLISHED AUTHOR. Her first book in the Once Upon a Tuesday series, Petals, comes out today in ebook format (available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com) and in print form on July 11th (and it should be in some local bookstores, but we don't have the info of where yet). (Here's a link to the publisher's blog with an excerpt from the book, a list of all the places online the book can be bought, and an easy contest for a $10 Amazon gift card [contest is today only].)

Rebekah and I have been best friends (identical twins separated at birth, really) since we graduated high school together. I love her for her honesty, humor, love, graciousness, and her persistence to hope. She has been one of my main encouragers and carries hope for me when I can't.

Rebekah has a love of fairytales and romance, and a heart for today's teens and children. Through her writing she has found her gift for sharing God's love with people she may never meet (expanding her already impressive reach!).

I asked my twin some questions about this new milestone to share with you.

 

D:  Why do you want to write books?

R: I have always been a story teller.  I can remember gathering kids at church around me and I would tell them stories. The crowd would always grow bigger as I spoke.  So I write to tell a good story, but also I look at it as a ministry.  I want to write stories that will make people think, make them grow and hopefully bring glory to God.


D: What are your most and least favorite parts of being a writer?

R: Least favorite part would have to be feeling guilty for not getting any writing done in a day or week. The best part is watching the story play out. Getting to see something that was just in your head come together and actually become something real and tangible.


D: How does it feel to achieve your dream of being a published author?

R: It feels amazing.  Like going on a journey for many years and finally getting to the "Welcome" sign. It must be how Frodo felt after getting to Mordor or how Ella (from Ella Enchanted) felt when she made it to the giant's wedding. But at the same time I know this is just the welcome. I still have a lot of stories that I want to write and a lot more dreams, even in the area of writing, that I want to achieve.


D: Why this book, this story? And why now?

R: Now, is the perfect time for a wholesome look at romance. Our genaration is overly sexualized and what true beauty really is has been lost... We need to fight to get it back... This book is about inner and outer beauty, it's about realizing that God uses everything, even how we look, in His plan for our lives. I think that you will relate to the characters and maybe grow with them.


D: Why you?

R: I have always loved Beauty and the Beast.  One of my earliest memories is watching the Disney version in the theater.  I was so scared of the Beast but I still loved the film.


D: How did you choose the title?

R: Um...It started out being called "Calla and Griffin: A modern day tale of Beauty and the Beast."  But long titles were not "in" at the time so I decided to change it to something catchy. I figured petals go with roses and no one can think of B&B without the rose. It was cool how the petals became a theme and you will find them throughout the book.


D: You wear roses every day, don't you?

R: Not every day... But most days, yes. It's not even always on purpose... I just love roses so much that they end up as a pattern in a dress or on my earrings. I didn't even notice the trend until someone pointed it out.


D: What are you working on now?

R: The second book in the Once Upon a Tuesday series. The working title is Sheltering Snow.  It is a modern version of Snow White.  It's about a teen runaway who is befriended by a quirky family of siblings.  It's about heartbreak and learning what real love and real family is.

You can keep up with the latest from Rebekah on her Facebook page or Twitter profile. There's also more at her official website, RebekahRoberts.net.


...I feel like a bridesmaid: excited for my dear friend and anticipating the bouquet toss! And I can't wait to read this novel again!

Cover image by 5 Prince Publishing

                                              "Beauty might just be the beast."

        Calla Williams is not like other girls.  Most girls spend their whole lives trying to be beautiful, Calla already is…and she hates it.
        When she is shipped off one summer to live with family friends in their dilapidated Mississippi plantation, Calla is faced with the prospect of living with strangers and their teenage son.  This is annoying because, like any other boy, he is sure to fall in love with her on sight. However, Griffin Davenport is not your typical teenage guy. With his hot temper and half of his face severely scarred, “hate at first sight” is closer to what she finds.
        Though the two teens try to stay out of each other’s way, an odd attraction to each other makes staying away anything but easy.
        Now, Calla must deal with growing feelings, her own prejudices, and finding the secret to Griffin’s past. As hate turns to friendship and friendship becomes something more, Calla learns a startling truth: God uses even how we look in His plan for our lives.

Seeker's Intro

I missed a week of blogland and accidentally did not post last Friday.  So, let me tell you what I saw this week.

I saw an episode of Legend of the Seeker for the first time this week.  I think it was the first episode since all of the characters and the story problem were introduced.  I've seen lots of sci-fi on TV before, but I can't say I've ever seen a fantasy series.  It's cool.  Horses, pretty dresses, halfway decent special effect (some better than others).  I'd like to watch more and see where the story goes (I know, I'm behind the times. Please, no spoilers.).

I liked the intro to the characters and the story.  Richard's intro showed him in action in his element.  He's strong, capable, and clever enough to build a bridge by himself.  This we learn before a word is spoken.  It slows up the pace, but after Kahlan's flight a change in pace give viewers a chance to catch their breath.  Then we learn Richard's name with the little boy's "Hi, Richard," adding humor as well.  We're given a chance to see the caring side of Richard—he crosses the bridge to assure the boy it's safe—before we see his other, not quite as favorable characteristics.  This is a good thing.

I have been told to introduce my protagonists at their best.  Yes, they should grow throughout the story, but readers need a reason to want to follow that growth.  This is accomplished by showing the protagonist at his best at the time.

With Richard, once the trouble starts we see he is reluctant, a tad whiny, and not perhaps the most respectful of young men.  But, since I have seen him hard at work and looking out for a little boy, I have hope for him, so I want to keep watching.

Is Richard's introduction dishonest?  I don't think so.  It's just a layer of him, one that we need.  When everything's hunky dory, he is fine, hardworking, and nice.  When things fall apart, he's not so much, but we know that he can be.  He just needs the motivation to reach for the story goal.  Once he's motivated, we have a good dynamic in this one character to keep things real and interesting.  What will kind, stubborn, capable, resistant, hardworking, lazy Richard do when x disaster is thrown in his face?

Good question.  Don't you want to know?
 

The Art of War for Writers - Three

Chapter 9:  The outsized ego is not a weapon of value.

Chapter 10:  Status, worry, and comparison are ways to madness, not victory.



'Nuff said.

(The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell. p31, 33. Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati, Ohio. 2009.)

Who Won the War? The Ants? Or Me?

I did, of course!  But the battle was not won without cost.

Earlier this week I made my final excursion out to the peach tree to pick the fruit.  I may have waited a day too long, but as it was, I think I got a pretty good crop.  Just look at what I stole away from the little insects!  (I used the same bowl as last time, so you can see these are decently bigger.)

What I had intended to be about a fifteen minute trip turned into right about an hour.  When I got back in the house, I was happy that I hadn't burnt to a crisp.

The fighting took place mostly with my own squeamishness, which is still hanging around.  The peaches this time were not romantic.  The bugs had gotten to more than last time (see that bowl? those were the only ones I figured were salvageable).  I found bug-bit after bug-mauled.  A few times, I accidentally stepped on an already fallen peach, and it smooshed under my shoe.  Another time, I shook a branch to make the bad peaches fall, only I placed my hand in a not so helpful spot, and an overdone peach smacked me on the back of my hand, sharing its gooeyness with my skin.  It wouldn't shake off, so I wiped it off on the leaves.

I know.  I wouldn't make a good farmer.  I'm not even a gardener.  Still, I'm looking forward to eating the fruit I managed to harvest.  They look pretty much ripe, but I think they could benefit from that wonderful paper bag, which was mentioned here, for a little bit.

I have been told it's not a good idea to leave the spoiled peaches under the tree.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Do I really have to pick up each and every one of the bug-eaten and rotting (and one even had mold on it..yuck!) peaches?  What else should I do to for the tree now that the peaches are gone?

Green Peaches

Have you read "Green Patches" by Isaac Asimov?  A bunch of little green patches show up on test animals in the story.  And green patches are scary.

Well, this isn't exactly scary, but I have a bunch of green peaches.  And I'm not sure what to do with them.

On Thursday I went back out to thin the peach tree some more.  I found that the tree was trying to make more, new peaches.  Too much, silly tree.  Since the peaches have grown, the limbs have been weighed down again.  It certainly can't support more.  The center branch, which stood pretty much straight up, was so loaded down with growing fruit, that it had sagged all the way down into the lower branches (which were also drooping).

I knew this couldn't keep up.  But it seemed such a waste to just pluck peaches and drop them to the ground if there was nothing wrong with them.  So I got a bowl and put the ones that seemed fine in it.  I got a good bunch, but I'm probably going to have to go back out and thin the tree down further.

I washed the fruit, discarded a few that I found problems with, and now I have small, green peaches, probably somewhere in the two dozen count, sitting on my counter, waiting for...well, something.  I don't know what.

Can I salvage these peaches for something?  Will they ripen where they are?

Please tell me I don't have to learn how to can fruit.

The Art of War for Writers - Two

Last time in this series, I shared a quote from page fifteen and asked for your response.  You had good thoughts, and for those who didn't see them, you can read them here.

Now I'll share what I penciled in the lines of my copy.

I have never wanted a specific job more than this one, sir!  I delight in writing.  And it's harder for someone outside to discourage me than it is for my inner doubts to discourage me.  But I press on because I know I have something and I refuse to be pushed or kept down for long.  It's actually easier to distract me with family and friend emergencies than it is to discourage me to the point that I would stop.

Can you tell I was motivated and excited about writing fiction when I gave my answer to the quote?

So, I wondered why I discourage myself.  Why am I sometimes afraid?

Chapter 8 starts out with this:

The biggest mental obstacle—in writing, in war, in life itself—is fear.

Fear paralyzes.  It shrinks the mental faculties.  It keeps us from action, in this case, writing words in order to get them published.

(The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell. p28. Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati, Ohio. 2009.)

I have seen this restraining fear in others.  I have lived it myself.  Fear is a part of life.  As mentioned in the book, it is one of our alert systems.

The book suggests that we learn from Theodore Roosevelt who pretended to be brave until the pretense became a reality.

I was recently uneasy about my writing.  I'd had so many other urgent responsibilities that I had accidentally separated from writing and even from creatively thinking about my storyline.  So I was afraid of jumping back into the story and continuing as if there had been no interruption.

But I did.  I finally buckled down and stepped back into my character's life...and gave her my fear.

It actually happened to match where Makani was, facing a point where she was uncertain and afraid.  So, I gave her my unease, and we both plugged on anyway, facing and using fear.

Have you been stopped by fear?  What are your tricks for moving on and not letting it defeat you?

Sun Kissed Fruit

So, I went back out to look at the peach tree.  I haven't done anything to it since I thinned out all the branches (like I said, not a gardener), but I think it was looking pretty good.

Unfortunately, the ants have found the tree, and there were a few sections of leaves that had bug bitten holes throughout.  I wasn't sure what to do about that, so I did basically nothing.

But the peaches looked pretty yummy, if a bit small and still green.  They're plumping up nicely, especially in comparison to all the discarded ones that have shriveled up into skin covered seeds under the tree.  And, the peaches on the tree are, to my delight, quite fuzzy.  Fuzzy fruit is such a strange concept.

I would have taken more pictures, but the camera battery quit.

Tan line!

The Art of War for Writers - One

I like martial arts.  I was able to take a semester of intro to martial arts, where we spent half the semester learning judo (read falling on purpose [properly], pinning an opponent, and getting out of being pinned - great fun!), half the semester learning karate (yelling, kicking, punching, blocking, and katas [forms - a way to display the techniques one knows]), and a couple other martial arts for a couple of weeks, of which Aikido was my favorite (for it's simple defensive moves that make one's attacker defeat himself).

But that's not what The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell is.  Not exactly.

I'm reading this book, and I've gotten through the first four chapters in Part I: Reconnaissance.  It was given to me as a gift, and I figured it was high time I read through the whole thing.  So far, it's got some pretty funny and dead on tidbits, wake-up calls, and advice, perfect for writers.  Some of the things that have stood out to me in the first four chapters are the hero and fool comparison on pages 16-17, the writer's list on pages 11-13, and the short section of quotes to respond to on pages 13-15.

Know the difference between a hero and a fool.  Chapter 3 of a page and a half is a brief but useful and amusing comparison between the two states of mind.  It can be a nice reminder if you're not acting like the fool that you are on the right track, even if you don't feel heroic.  If you are acting like the fool, well, you'd better change that or you're in trouble.

The writer must understand the essentials of success for a long-term writing career, and count the cost accordingly.  To be a writer, you've got to want it.  Chapter 2 provides a list of characteristics that writers should possess or develop.  Some of it comes down to "if at first you don't succeed" and "never stop learning" - two bits of advice many of our parents gave us when we were children, but good advice to be reminded of nonetheless.

After the list of characteristics, the book offers its first interactive challenge.  Read the quotes from George Bernau, Phyllis Whitney, and Jack Woodford and respond in the text's pages with your honest reaction (writing in a printed book is not always easy for me - I used a pencil).

What say you to Jack Woodford's statement?  I'll be back to share my reaction.

In Boot Camp, tough sergeants deliberately try to break the morale of inducted men.  Those who break they send back to civilian life, or to some more or less ignominious chore in army life.  There are two or three hundred thousand 'writers' who 'write at' writing in this country.  Ninety percent of them make next to nothing.  The few who do get by are those who were not "broken" in the Boot Camp of their own wills, or lack of same. 

(Jack Woodford as quoted in The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell. p14-15. Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati, Ohio. 2009.)

The Peach Tree

Let me just say I'm not a gardener.  But if I were a bat, I'd probably be a fruit bat.  And my family has a dwarf peach tree in the back yard.  Over the last couple of seasons, my family and I were so swamped with insanity that we didn't get to harvest that many.  I think last year we missed it entirely.  This year, this fruit bat would like to eat some peaches.

So, I decided to see what I could do to take care of the tree, at least a little, so we could enjoy it's sweet, zangy fruit when it ripens.

The first step was to reduce the tree's burden.

Our tree likes to produce peaches.  No, really, it likes to produce peaches.  More than it can handle.  In some places, I thought the fruit looked like grape clusters.  And I noticed after I went through a branch and thinned it out, it sprang back up and looked a lot more cheerful.  This crazy tree likes to try to do more than it can.

So, I went at it, branch after branch, making sure to get up close and personal all the way to the core of the tree, and in the process, I came across six ladybugs.  Now, there are not many bugs that I like, and even fewer that I will purposefully allow to touch me, but the ladybug is one that fits both categories.  So, every time I came across one, I was delighted.  At one point, my papa came out and helped, and he almost immediately found another ladybug.  Seven in all protecting our peaches from aphids.  That's happy.

We'll see what happens from here.  I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm hoping thinning out some peaches will make it more likely that we can actually eat some.

Before and After.

Note the ground underneath.