One Line Blogfest

I'm thinking about entering this.

My blog-friend, agent Weronika Janczuk, is the prize. (No, you can't take her home, but she will critique the winners' manuscripts ... or parts of them.)

I'm holding back because I'm not sure I'll have time to fully participate. My computer time has been replaced with all-important milk-wagon duties.

But even if I decide not to jump in to the blogfest, maybe a few of you will. And maybe you'll win!

At the very least you'll make some new friends.

Boy, I'm so tempted....

The Two-Wife Quandary

I recently won this Tommy Nelson kids' Bible through a contest on Becky's blog. Thanks Becky! My kids love this Bible. They keep asking to read it when it's time for bedtime stories.

The other day we were reading the story about Jacob working seven years for Rachel. You probably all know the story:

Rachel's father Laban tricked Jacob so that he ended up marrying Rachel's older sister Leah first. He also got to marry Rachel, but he had to work for another seven years. And probably the worst part for everyone involved: he had to be married to Leah when he couldn't care less for her, and was madly in love with her younger sister. POOR LEAH! 

My kids looked a little shocked when I read the part about Laban's trick, so I thought I should talk to them about it:

"Wow, Jacob had to be married to two wives."

They still looked confused. Anna piped up, "But how can he?"

I explained that back in those days, it was culturally acceptable for men to marry more than one woman.

"How would you like it if Daddy had more than one wife?" I asked. (Why I ask these questions, I don't know! Someone just clonk me over the head with a hammer right now.)

Gabe looked especially worried by that idea.

"Boy, Daddy would have to do a lot of kissing."

Yep. I guess that about sums it up.

Isn't it wonderful that my kids are learning such valuable lessons from our Bible-reading time together?

Two Great Opportunities

First of all, thank you for all your words of congratulations! We are feeling so blessed by our little blessing, Naomi. She's been a wonderfully calm baby so far -- sleeping, eating, pooping. Everything a newborn is supposed to do.

Even though I'm mostly out of the loop these days (*yawn*), I discovered these two opportunities for writers and wanted to make sure you all knew about them:

1) You can win a free substantive edit of a YA or MG novel by Dear Editor's Deborah Halverson to celebrate her book Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies. Click here for a list of rules and more details. You have until Jan 31 to enter. (And, by the way, I briefly met Deborah at the SCBWI conference in LA and attended her workshop. She is amazing. Not only is she an award-winning novelist, but she worked as an editor for many years and her advice was so practical. If you write YA or MG and have a completed novel, don't miss this opportunity!)

2) For all you picture book writers, there's a Picture Book Marathon starting Feb 1. It's basically a Nanowrimo for picture book writers. Click here for more details. Sounds fun. I wish I had the time to participate. Let me know if you decide to.

Naomi Rose

Here she is!

Our little Naomi Rose.

Born Jan 17 at 6:05 p.m.

7lbs 14oz, 21 in.

Baby Update: No Baby Yet

I promised myself I would make sure I was really in labor before I ran off to the hospital.

Lesson learned: Don't make stupid promises to yourself. Sheesh.

On Thursday night I ran off to the hospital with contractions ten minutes apart. I got there and of course the contractions decided to stop being regular. (The nurse on duty said they put special oxygen in the air at the hospital to make that happen.)

From 12:30 (yes, A.M.) until 5:30 I was hooked up to machines, listening to my baby's heartbeat (fun!), my Dashingly Handsome Sidekick snoring on the couch close by, and the lady across the hall panting and screaming as she went through at least an hour of pushing her baby into this world. (I prayed for her a lot.)

I think it was the sound of the woman in labor that made my contractions stop. Seriously. My tired body said, "Oh, did I say we were having a baby today? Ha ha, just kidding!"

Anyway, back home I am.

Yesterday was the much-anticipated due date.

Due dates should be banned. I am a strong believer in due periods instead of due dates. I should have said, "Oh, my baby will be here at least by February...."

Then maybe people would stop seeing me and saying, "You're still pregnant?! And you're walking around?! And you're just going about your normal life?!"

Come on, I have four children. I don't have the luxury of holing up in bed until this baby is born. And even if I did, wouldn't that be boring? (Well, it depends if I could take my laptop with me, I guess.)

So, I'm eating a lot of brownies (thanks Dawn Shultz for that idea!) and just ... cleaning, enjoying life, blogging, maybe writing if I can focus enough, watching football playoffs (the Seahawks play today!), looking forward to Downton Abbey tonight (Baby is not allowed to be born during Downton Abbey, you hear that, Baby?), and excited that tomorrow is a holiday for my kids and the DHS (thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King!).

What's up with you? Or not up with you that maybe should be up with you? What are you waiting for?

Epiphany Moment: Strumming on a Cloud?

Don't get me wrong, I have never thought heaven would be boring.

But since I started writing novels more seriously I've had this series of thoughts:

Heaven will be perfect. No more pain. No more angst. No more suffering.

And what's the first lesson you learn as a writer?

Without pain, without angst, without suffering, there's no plot. It's a boring story.

Right?

So, where does that leave our eternity in heaven? I don't think we'll be sitting on a cloud strumming a harp for fifteen billion plus years, but even with work to do and praises to sing and perfection to revel in, will heaven be interesting without the drama?

I'm doing a Beth Moore Bible study on the book of Revelation over the next eleven weeks. This last week we read Revelation 1, the part where Jesus appears in all his glory to John. That's when I had an epiphany moment.

On earth we feel like we *need* drama to be entertained. We need a good dose of angst to keep our minds busy. (As writers, we know this.)

But in heaven, we'll replace drama with glory. Not our own glory, but God's glory.

Read John's account of  what Jesus looked like to him (some of it's symbolic, so don't freak out when you read that Jesus has a sword protruding from his mouth) and prepare to be unbored:

"...and among the lampstands was someone 'like a son of man,' dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: 'Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.'" (Rev 1: 13-18, NIV)

Whew, that gives me goosebumps.

No, I don't think we'll need drama once we're in the presence of the living God.

How about you? If you believe in heaven, have you ever wondered if heaven would be a little boring? (I don't mind you disagreeing with me!)

Who's In Control?

I've been far away from my WiP for a little while now, but occasionally I think of her. I consider little details I want to add, usually nuances to characters. I also wonder if I'll like her as much when I get her back as I did when I sent her off to my critique buddy.

Lately I've been thinking about her ending. It's different than her original ending.

Different than the second ending, too.

In the third rewrite, my characters decided for themselves how they wanted things to be, and I let them have their way.

Is that okay?

What do you think? Should I have kept strict control of them? Or let them decide for themselves?

How do you handle this in your own projects?

FitG Update: The Brothers Torres

Synopsis (copied from Goodreads):

Frankie Towers has always looked up to his older brother, Steve. And with good reason—Steve is a popular senior gets whatever he wants: girls, a soccer scholarship, and—lately—street cred. Frankie, on the other hand, spends his time shooting off fireworks with his best friend, Zach, working at his parents' restaurant, and obsessing about his longtime crush, Rebecca Sanchez.

Although Frankie has some reservations, he doesn’t spend much time thinking about about Steve's crusade to win the respect of the local cholos. Then Frankie gets into a fistfight with John Dalton—longtime nemesis of Steve's, and the richest, preppiest kid in their New Mexican high school. After the fight, Steve takes Frankie under his wing, and Frankie’s social currency begins to rise. The cholos who used to ignore him start to recognize him; he even lands a date to Homecoming with Rebecca.

But after another incident with Dalton, Steve is bent on retaliating. Frankie starts to think that his brother is taking this respect thing too far. Soon he'll have to make a choice between respecting his brother and respecting himself.

In an honest and humorous debut novel, Coert Voorhees examines what it means for a young man to come of age. A compelling look at where loyalty ends and the self begins.


Read my full review here.

In a nutshell:

Excellent book, but if potty-talk bothers you, read with caution. There's also a hot-and-heavy scene near the end that I kind of skimmed because I personally don't like reading in great detail about characters' backseat make-out sessions.

Besides that (and maybe because of it), Voorhees gives his readers a very realistic portrayal of a sophomore boy's struggle to figure out how he relates to his older brother. I was impressed by the writing, the plot, and the unforgettable characters. There were natural consequences, but the book never crossed over into "preachy" territory. And I loved the minor characters as much as the major ones. Voorhees has a talent for staying out of the stereotype pit.

Great read!

Release

Everything seems to be up lately.

Last night in the car I was telling my dashingly handsome sidekick (DHS) how I was releasing feelings of guilt because I didn't have time to go to my writer's group at the local library, or take the girls to library reading time this year. The library reading time didn't jive with Anna's preschool schedule, and since two of my girls have ballet on Monday nights, writing group didn't jive either.

He said, "Honey, you have a lot going on. It's okay."

And there it was. Release. Just to hear someone else say "you're insanely busy" was dramatically freeing.

Maybe it's the stereotype of the stay-at-home mom who sits with her hair in a towel all day, eating bon-bons and watching soaps that messes with my confidence level. (I do admit to eating the occasional bon-bon or two or twenty-seven, but the only TV I ever watch is Go, Diego, Go because that's Sophie's current favorite.) Maybe it's also this continuing struggle with wanting to please people, for people to think what I'm doing is worthwhile. I know most people respect that stay-at-home moms have a difficult and important job, but there's always this doubt in the back of my brain that I should be accomplishing more. I don't know if it's social pressure, or just my own drive, or what....

My DHS is wonderfully supportive. He doesn't expect me to keep the perfect house, he comes home and plays with all four children, he occasionally does dishes and even laundry, and he has been amazing when I've been on my writing/editing binges. He knows I need the creative outlet writing gives me.

But this last month or two has been interesting. I've been sort of manic with this baby coming, cleaning more than I usually do. My WiP has been out with a critique partner, so I haven't been writing or editing my own work much. I've spent a lot more brain time in the daily routine because my mind isn't caught up in my novel. It's been a wonderful break.

I miss writing. But I love this life I have with my family. Focusing on them feels great.

That's when fear seizes me. WILL I EVER MAKE TIME FOR WRITING AGAIN?
I'm having another baby! I can hardly handle the four I've got! Every night I'm falling asleep reading to the kids, so there goes my writing time!

PANIC! My publication dreams evaporate before my eyes.

And then I remember to focus, to be realistic, to be rational.

A break is a good thing. I might be a bit rusty when I get back to writing, but I'll get back into it when the time is right, when I want to, when the stories in my head need to go on paper. When that happens, the need to write will overcome the exhaustion and I'll make time.

I have before. I will again.

Until then, it's okay.

Release.

Three Rivers Rising

Synopsis from author Jame Richard's website:

Sixteen-year-old Celestia spends every summer with her family at the elite resort at Lake Conemaugh, a shimmering Allegheny Mountain reservoir held in place by an earthen dam. Tired of the society crowd, Celestia prefers to swim and fish with Peter, the hotel’s hired boy. It’s a friendship she must keep secret, and when companionship turns to romance, it’s a love that could get Celestia disowned. These affairs of the heart become all the more wrenching on a single, tragic day in May, 1889. After days of heavy rain, the dam fails, unleashing 20 million tons of water onto Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the valley below. The town where Peter lives with his father. The town where Celestia has just arrived to join him. This searing novel in poems explores a cross-class romance—and a tragic event in U.S. history.


In a nutshell:

This book unites two things I love: verse novels and history. I think it's great when I can enjoy a story and learn about something that actually happened at the same time.

Three Rivers Rising was well-written and kept me turning pages, in true verse-novel fashion.

I appreciated the different points of view. While the main characters have a happy ending (so happy that my only criticism may be that it's *too happy*, if *too happy* is possible) after horrible obstacles, the minor characters face some interesting twists of fate. Even the endings that seem happy on the surface didn't always turn out for the best. I think I related the most with one of the minor characters, and as a result spent a lot of time crying around her bits of the story.

Overall, this was a novel with strong characters who acted heroically. Ironically, it's a story about a flood that washed away many people's lives, and about a girl and boy who fight to swim against their own cultural tide, even as the flood overwhelms them.

Great book. I recommend it.

FitG Update: Jellicoe Road

Synopsis from Harperteen:

Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, Taylor Markham, now seventeen, is finally being confronted with her past. But as the reluctant leader of her boarding school dorm, there isn't a lot of time for introspection. And while Hannah, the closest adult Taylor has to family, has disappeared, Jonah Griggs is back in town, moody stares and all.



In this absorbing story by Melina Marchetta, nothing is as it seems and every clue leads to more questions as Taylor tries to work out the connection between her mother dumping her, Hannah finding her then and her sudden departure now, a mysterious stranger who once whispered something in her ear, a boy in her dreams, five kids who lived on Jellicoe Road eighteen years ago, and the maddening and magnetic Jonah Griggs, who knows her better than she thinks he does. If Taylor can put together the pieces of her past, she might just be able to change her future.


You can read my full book review here on the Fill-in-the-Gaps Project site.
 
In a nutshell:
 
I wish I'd read a synopsis like the one above or a few reviews before I dove into this book. I had questions answered just now from reading the reviews that plagued me through the entire reading.
 
The Booklist review on Amazon says younger readers may find the complex backstory offputting. Well, I'm here to say older readers may also be confused by it. I was!
 
But with that said, please do not let my confusion stop you from reading Jellicoe Road. Read a few synopses like the one above, and then sit back and enjoy a very interesting read. The characters are compelling, the setting wonderful, and the writing top-notch. Just go into it ... prepared.