These three books above are the most read and sold the week of July 11.
July 15, 2021
Reassessing My Process
Chris Pepple
A few years back, I felt as if my writing and marketing projects weren’t headed in the right direction. Time to reassess my work! That thought made me shudder. In the past, I considered reassessing something to be a negative process. In my mind, it meant I needed to revise my plan, seeking out my mistakes. I turned this procedure into a time of extreme self-criticism, looking for faults in my work and blaming myself for errors and oversights.
This negative attitude towards reassessing projects usually slowed my work more than it helped. After any reassessment, I had to find exercises to build my confidence before I could fully dive back into my work.
Reassessments left me feeling deflated rather than feeling ready to take on the next project. But if things weren’t working well, I couldn’t avoid reassessing my current work. Before I started, however, I spent time working on schoolwork with one of my daughters. She had to look up vocabulary words in her dictionary. When she stepped away for a moment, I flipped through the pages and landed on the entry for reassess. There was that first definition: to revise. I slipped into my negative frame of mind which said revising meant changing the plan because of my failures.
Then I saw the next two definitions listed: to renew one’s assessment, to get a feel for again. Renewal? Get a feel for again? This sounded like a wonderful challenge. I could bring new life back into my projects. I could get a feel for them again and revitalize the works and myself. Why had I never looked at reassessment in such a positive light before?
The work began. How could I renew my marketing plan? I had to get a feel for my audience again. In crunching numbers and plotting strategies, I lost touch with the people I had written my e-book for. I got online to see what other books were popular with my intended audience. I searched for advertising targeting this age group. Where were they traveling and shopping? What were their hobbies? This helped me redesign my ads and overall marketing strategies. I was pleased that I had gotten a feel for my audience again.
Then I moved to my writing. I was more than one-third of the way through my next book, but the life had gone out of it. The timeframe wasn’t working, and the characters had become dull as I tried to force them into the plot. I went back to my original notes and character sketches. I got back in touch with my book and breathed new life into the characters as I made small changes to the dates and the setting.
I’m so glad I reassessed my process of reassessment! It gave me a chance to get back in touch with my projects and renew them and me along the way.
I was a long-time writer-at-large for Southern Writers Magazine, interviewing national authors for each issue. My articles have appeared in many other local and national publications, including Delta Magazine.
I speak to writing groups on topics such as self-publishing, how to find your own creative voice and how to break writer's block. Along with speaking to writing groups, I also speak nationally to churches and nonprofit organizations on a variety of motivational and spiritual topics.
Visit at https://www.chrispepple.com/
July 14, 2021
Questions To Ask Yourself
Susan Reichert
Here are some questions for authors to ask themselves.
Do you follow blogs of a few authors you like?
The ones you follow, do they update their readers about the stories they are writing?
How much information do they give you each time they update their blog?
Do they tell you enough to pique your interest to want to keep up with what is transpiring with their new creation?
Do they share things like the period it is set in? Anything about the characters? What about the setting they are placing their story in? You know, the mountains, the ocean, a particular town, or country?
If they do, do you leave a comment, letting them know of your interest? How much you are looking forward to reading this book when it is published? Do you spur them on, keep the dialogue going?
Do they ask you questions for suggestions maybe on name, titles colors? Or do they ask you what you think?
Why am I asking these questions? People love to be involved in projects, especially with authors. Let them in on the up’s and down’s, in’s and out’s-enough to whet the appetites, building excitement and buzz for the book. The important thing to know is it gives them a feeling of being part of and involved in the process of your creating your book. And when it is published, they will be the ones for sure buying a copy of this new book.
Susan Reichert is the author of Between Me and You: God’s Way is Better, God’s Prayer Power, and Storm in Life. Her new book, Listen Close will be released this month.
She and her husband live in Tennessee. They have four daughters with families of their own.
Visit at https://www.susanlreichert.com/
July 13, 2021
What Will Be Different?
Lisa Harris
What will be different about my writing after going through a pandemic? Will I be able to schedule my writing and my family and other responsibilities and keep them balanced? With my new book do I feel I spent more time developing the story, characters, plots, and dialogue? With this new book, what if anything do I want the reader to know about me as an author?
Like with most people, the pandemic brought a lot of changes for me and my family. I was back home in southern Africa when the pandemic hit. By mid-March, my husband and I had decided that I needed to return to the US. I was able to fly out just hours before South Africa shut its borders. (Sounds a bit like a suspense novel!) With three college-age kids and my mother in assisted living, we had no idea just how much change the following months would bring. My kids lost their jobs in the service industry, and with my mother in isolation, we decided to move her in with us. All of a sudden we were a three-generational home, juggling online college classes, new part time jobs, and the reality of a pandemic. My writing continued, but with so many distractions, it was harder to concentrate. I struggled to focus and to meet deadlines, though I never lost my love for writing or my stories. And as tough as it was, I found it therapeutic to pour my feelings into my writing.
Things have changed again for our family. My daughter got married—after having to change the location three times—and was able to go back to school. Both my boys are moving out of the house (again) in the next few weeks. I’ve realized what a special time it was to have them all back under my roof. I’ve soaked up my time with them playing board games, watching cooking shows, making smores, and cooking out over a fire pit in the back yard.
I think the last year will change my writing. It’s helped to show me more layers of emotion, giving me plot ideas, and a desire to dig deeper into my characters to see how they will react to a situation out of their control. My latest book—The Chase—definitely pushes both my hero and heroine to a place where they can’t control the situation. And they quickly realize that they will have to rely on each other if they hope to survive.
Lisa Harris is a bestselling author, a Christy Award winner, and the
winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel from Romantic
Times for her novels Blood Covenant and Vendetta. The author of more
than forty books, including The Nikki Boyd Files and the Southern
Crimes series, as well as Vanishing Point, A Secret to Die
For, and Deadly Intentions, Harris and her family have spent over
seventeen years living as missionaries in southern Africa. She is
currently stateside in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Visit: www.lisaharriswrites.com
July 12, 2021
Dead Zone Days
Susie Finkbeiner
For several years a group of friends and I rented a cottage on Lake Michigan for a weekend writers retreat. We’d take our journals out to the beach or plug laptops into outlets in the dining area. We’d sit in the screened porch to read or daydream while lounging in lawn chairs.
All while being utterly disconnected from the outside world.
That cottage was in a cell phone dead zone and wasn’t wired for Wi-Fi. No matter where I went on that property, I couldn’t manage to check Facebook or Twitter or my email. No one could text me or message me or even call.
Can I tell you; it was glorious.
Well, that was until I needed to look up a bit of research. Or when I wanted to check in with things back at home. Or when I took a picture of a gorgeous sunset and wanted to share it on Instagram.
It was glorious until it wasn’t. Then it was maddening.
Being in a dead zone can be such a frustration.
For a little over a year I’ve felt as though I’ve hit more than a few creative dead zones. I’ve struggled to focus and to get my thoughts organized and onto the page. I’ve spent days feeling completely paralyzed, unable to think clearly enough to work. All while the deadlines inch closer and closer.
And at the end of those days I feel guilty, frustrated, and anxious. I worry that I’d never be able to write again like I used to.
On those days I feel despair creeping up along the margins. And on those days I feel isolated and ashamed.
But recently I read an article that said that what I’ve been experiencing is normal. That living though a pandemic alters our ability to function, to focus, to produce. I read Tweets from writer friends, many saying that they’re experiencing the same fog as I am.
This dead zone is hampering a lot of us.
But knowing that it’s not just me gives me a lot of hope. Hope that, together, we’ll make it through. This isn’t going to last forever.
In the meantime, though, I need to practice compassion.
You too?
I don’t know about you, but it’s easy for me to have compassion for others. What’s hard is having it for myself.
And so, I’m going to make a habit of the following self-compassion practices. Please, feel free to join me and to add your own. I’d love to hear what might work for you!
First, I have to release the expectation of perfection. There is no way that I’m always going to write the perfect scene, chapter, or even sentence. So, I just need to get over it. My task is to do the best I can in the moment. What I have in front of me is a draft that can be edited — and edited again — later on. It will be okay.
Second, I resolve to be as kind to myself as I would be to a friend. There can be no more tearing myself down or beating myself up. If I wouldn’t say it to a cherished friend, I won’t say it — or think it — about me.
Third, I acknowledge that I absolutely cannot survive the dead zone days alone. And in order to have support, I need to be honest about my struggles. I am a fortunate woman to have a handful of trusted friends — my sweet husband among them — to check in on me. But it’s not enough for me to take support and mercy from them. I need to be willing to give it lavishly as well. And in doing so, I contribute to diminishing the fog that hangs over both of us.
The past few months I’ve had more clear headed days than foggy. I’ve felt more life in the work than drudgery. It gives me hope. It keeps me going.
Outside my window is the full growth of a coming summer. And I get back to writing.
Susie Finkbeiner is the CBA bestselling author of All Manner of Things, which was selected as a 2020 Michigan Notable Book, and Stories That Bind Us, as well as A Cup of Dust, A Trail of Crumbs, and A Song of Home. She serves on the Fiction Readers Summit planning committee, volunteers her time at Ada Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and speaks at retreats and women’s events across the
country. Susie and her husband have three children and live in West Michigan.
July 9, 2021
Bringing Relatives to Life in a Book
Ritchie Dawn Hale
When my great aunt moved into the home
of my parents, I became intimately involved with her daily care up until her
death. I watched her exhibit unshakable confidence in God and simple faith that
all things were in His hands. She had a winsome smile and an attitude of great
compassion and kindness - even when circumstances placed her in embarrassing,
and uncomfortable situations. I always wondered where such faith and kindness
came from and had to study my own life with a question about my ability to face
end-of-life frailties with such acceptance that this too was in God's hands.
Years after her death I inherited a tattered treasure keepsake box with many of
her most personal possessions - diaries, art, trinkets, photographs, letters,
and a multitude of things that had been special to her throughout her
ninety-four years. As I dug through these items, I began to see patterns of
faith and compassion that had begun in her life from her early childhood. I
simply wanted to know more. Hence, the idea to write this book, Treasures of
the Tattered Box, was born.
I knew my great aunt Hallie, and her husband, Uncle Warren.
When I say I knew them, I mean I'd been around Warren a few times, heard
stories about him, and seen many photographs of his fishing and jewelry
business. Aunt Hallie - I knew her the same way until I became part of the
caregiver team with my mom and dad. Those are the years I truly began to know
her - but only as the incapacitated, senior adult—Not as the vibrant person I
had heard Dad speak of. Not as the grieving mom of lost children, and not as
the vivacious Bible teacher of hundreds of neighborhood children. I'd seen some
of her artwork, read a few poems she had written, and seen accolades she had
received through the years - but to say I truly knew her - that would evolve
across the years, even after her death.
I knew only tiny thumbnail sketches about her children, her siblings, or her parents—my great grandparents. That was such a precious part of the journey to flesh them out and discover more than mere names on a genealogy chart, but real people with hopes, desires, shortcomings, and victories over insurmountable obstacles. My journey allowed me to interact with people who were unrelated, but whose lives had been touched by the people I sought.
The most difficult part, in the beginning, was the sheer
mountains of material that I had to sort, read, decipher, and catalog. There
were gimongous piles of ancient documents that occupied crates all over my
dining room—for years. Every waking minute when I wasn't at work, or involved
in our church ministry, or being involved with family, I was hunched over boxes
and files of stale-smelling paper that had grown brittle and musty with the
passage of time. No one MADE me do this - but it was there, and I NEEDED to do
it. Somehow, I had appointed myself to be the family historian and wanted to
bring order out of the chaos of family history for the next generation.
The easy part was getting organized.
I love to organize. Purchasing hundreds of hanging file folders and labeling by
years became a fun pass time. At first, I dropped every document, photo, or
letter into the correct year. This took years and LOTS of notes - but it was an
emotional rush to see history becoming organized by year.
As
the years rolled by, my focus changed - again and again. It began with a quest
to discover how Hallie had ended life with such kindness - a kindness that I
had heard about and witnessed in all the years I had known her. As that quest
matured, I began to think more about the influence she had on so many people and
I wanted to meet people who had known her. I thought somehow, I needed to find
all these people to bring their stories to light, thereby giving them a place
in memory - and that without doing this, they may be forgotten. Often, I became
discouraged when the trail would grow cold, and I'd get busy with my life - and
then pangs of guilt would reprimand me for not finishing the job. But the joy
of pressing forward always continued and I discovered that setbacks were a part
of the whole experience. As I met people—real people with real struggles, often
it exposed an area in my life that I needed to adjust or surrender to Christ, grow,
and learn from. We all move forward and backward along the way, and each of us
leaves a legacy in the lives of those who know us during our time on earth.
Even my perseverance in finishing this journey is having an impact on those who
are aware of my undertaking. Whether the next generation remembers me in
particular - if I walk humbly with my God and exhibit His love and grace - I've
left a legacy.
The research was fun! Hard work, but great fun. I
began to discover names, places, and events and with each discovery, I wrote it
down as if I were Nancy Drew looking for clues. The clues took me to some
out-of-the-way places and interesting situations, but every experience helped
shape the story. I met people I would never have met in any other situation and
traveled to places I'd never even heard of. But the caveat to the word fun is,
it was hard and exhausting work but an experience I wouldn't trade for
anything. I spent many hours of every day in libraries across many states. My
car logged thousands of miles, and the best way to gain the insights I gained
were garnered in BEING THERE absorbing the ambiance and the history first-hand.
I became serious with my research around 1987—though at that time it was more like looking into family history out of curiosity. I posted stories on my blog and wrote devotionals based on a few of the stories I uncovered. Then it changed focus and was to be a story about my Aunt Hallie, so the research began. Through the years the story took over and began to write itself as a journey taken with my elderly mother-in-law. Her last trip with me in research was in about 2018 - so the story simmered and matured for almost 31 years.
Ritchie Dawn Hale. Has written for Upper Room, SBC Life, Campus Life, and other publications. A pastor’s wife of fifty years, mother of three, and Nonna to ten, her life is an adventure. Since retirement from teaching she continues to enjoy time at the beach, writing, and photography.
Visit her: https://anotherritchpublication.com/
July 8, 2021
11 Things I Love About Social Media
Edie Melson @EdieMelson
Let’s face it, social media takes a lot of hard knocks and gathers a good bit of bad press. But just like almost anything we have to do—or even love to do—there are good parts and bad parts.
1. I can reach more people. With the advent of the internet and specifically social media, I can connect with more people than I’d ever been able to in the past.
2. I can help others without having to be in person or even on the telephone. I can offer assistance through a comment, a prayer, a practical link, many of the ways I could before, but without the barrier of location.
3. It gives me a wider perspective. I live in the south, in the United States. Without the benefit of social media, this would give me a fairly specific definition of what normal looks like. Connections with people all over the world have broadened my horizons and influenced the way I see things.
4. I can get my message out faster. If I have something I want to share, I can do so almost immediately—with little or no time-lag.
5. I can connect with others regardless of location. This benefit has helped me reconnect with old friends, stay in touch with new ones, and even develop relationships with people whom I might never have met in person.
6. It makes me deliberate about reaching out beyond my inner circle. Social media is a world that grows with momentum. If I’m consistent and diligent about connecting every week, my circle widens. If I don’t, it shrinks.
7. I have learned to clarify and shorten my message. There are good and bad things about living in a world of soundbites. One of the good things is that it has forced me to drill down to the core of who I am and how I want to present myself. This makes my presence on social media more effective, but it also makes my in-person presence better.
8. I have a new skill set and it’s made me more confident. Doing social media well requires a big jump in skills. By learning all these things, I’ve proven to myself that I’m not too old—or stupid, or lazy, or ______—to grow as a person and as a writer.
9. It has made me more respectful of others. By watching the negative behavior of others, it’s made me more mindful that I need to follow the golden rule and treat others the way I’d like to be treated—online and off.
10. My definition of community has grown. I grew up believing that my community consisted of those who were physically nearby. Now, my community consists of those with whom I share life, sometimes in person, sometimes online.
11. I have found a new aspect of the ministry God has given me. Many of us feel God has whispered a unique purpose for our lives to us. With the advent of social media, that purpose has deepened. Where once He could use me to reach a small group in my community, now He can use me to reach the world.
I know we could (and often do) go on and on about how social media is a drag. But it isn’t it nice to spend a little time focusing instead on how it’s a blessing? I’d love to know what you’ve found positive in your time on social media. Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
https://www.blueridgeconference.com/
Visit Edie at:
www.EdieMelson.com
www.twitter.com/EdieMelson
Edie Melson, Facebook
July 7, 2021
How Do You Manage to Write a Historical Novel and Make it Feel Fresh?
Leslie Hachtel
History is about people. Every time you tell a story about someone and the events that shaped their life, through your own voice, set in whatever period of history, that’s always fresh.
I find readers respond to an old story told from a different perspective and also a story they haven’t heard before.
I have always been fascinated with the idea of having a part of yourself remain when you leave a place. I was also intrigued with the thought that someone with a similar experience in the past could reach across time and offer help. This is how the idea for the book, Stay With Me came about.
I have always been fascinated with the idea of having a part of yourself remain when you leave a place. I was also intrigued with the thought that someone with a similar experience in the past could reach across time and offer help. This is how the idea for the book, Stay With Me came about.
Many authors use the "What If?" questions as they write. Here are some of my "What If?" questions. "If you are damaged by a past experience, can you heal and make your life better? (yes) And what if we’re not really ever alone? What if there is always someone there to offer comfort if we know how to accept it?"
The twist was creating this story about two women who share similar lives and can communicate across the years and I chose to focus on survivors, both in the past and the present.
I love history, so I don’t like to limit myself to any specific eras. All time periods have their challenges and after I create the characters, the time period offers the background, the influences and sometimes the goals for the protagonists. The setting definitely influences the characters: the rulers, the environment, the possibilities, and the limitations.
When writing about history, there are always those who influence life and those people are the people who create the settings for me. When asked for advice on writing historical fictions I always tell writers . . ."Do your research"!!!! Making a mistake will take the reader right out of the story.
Leslie Hachtel has been working since she was fifteen and her various jobs have included licensed veterinary technician, caterer, horseback riding instructor for the disabled and advertising media buyer, which have all given her a wealth of experiences.
However, it has been writing that has consistently been her passion. She is an Amazon bestselling author who has written fifteen romance novels, including eleven
historicals and four romantic suspense
Leslie now lives in Florida with her very supportive husband, and her new writing buddy, Josie, the poodle mix.
She loves to hear from readers!
Website: https://www.lesliehachtel.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lesliehachtelwriter/
Twitter: @lesliehachtel
Blog: http://lesliehachtelwriter.wordpress.com
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/leslie-hachtel
July 6, 2021
The Weight of Memory
Shawn Smucker
The last eighteen months has brought all of us many unexpected things: both tragedy and gifts. One of our pandemic gifts has been moving from our row home on James Street, a home we loved and lived in for seven years, to a little cottage at the back of a small development, a property with a border that runs along the woods, and if you walk deep enough into the woods, the Conestoga River waits.
After so much time in the house together, me and my wife and our six children, we needed some space to breathe, to get out of each other’s hair, to stretch out and exhale.
Yesterday I looked through the window and one of the little neighbor girls was climbing the tree in our front yard with our two youngest kids. They were encouraging each other.
“Go ahead, climb up, you can do it.”
“Put your foot here.”
“I’ll give you a boost.”
This seems to be the best example of how we should all be living at the tail-end of a pandemic: full of encouragement, helping where we can, and exuding belief in one another.
* * * * *
During one of our last nights in the old house, a thunderstorm rocked the city. Lightning darted toward the ground, followed by rolling rumbles of thunder. During the flashes of light I could see the small-town minor league ballpark in the distance, the one where games had not been held for a year. The wind whipped the 100-year-old sycamore’s branches in front of our house, lashing the spring leaves.
I sat beside the bed of our youngest child, and when a loud echo of thunder sounded, I’d look up and give her a reassuring glance.
“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
And so hope has survived even the hardest of years, the hope that it is going to be okay.
Even though hope has survived in one form or another, something fundamental has changed in me. But how could something, many things, not have changed after the year we’ve all lived through?
I can feel it in my writing life, which has taken on both a sense of increased importance and a greater sense of helplessness. Surely these stories are more important than they have ever been. Surely I am less capable to tell them as they need to be told.
This is the back-and-forth I feel in my mind after living through 2020 and the first half of 2021.
What real world problems could this writing ever solve?
* * * * *
It all reminds me of something Anne Lamott writes at the end of her wonderful book about writing, Bird by Bird, when her writing students ask her why their writing matters.
“Because of the spirit, I say. Because of the heart. Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul…We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”
This is why I keep writing, why I wrote The Weight of Memory: we are traveling rough seas, but through books and writing and art we can travel these seas together. And we can keep singing while the storm rages around us.
Shawn Smucker is the award-winning author of Light from Distant Stars and These Nameless Things, the young adult novels The Day the Angels
Fell and The Edge of Over There, and the memoir Once We Were Strangers.
He lives with his wife and six children in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You can find him online at www.shawnsmucker.com.
July 5, 2021
An Author’s Twenty-Five Year Collaboration
Allen B. Boyer
Did you ever think about stepping back in time? Maybe twenty-five years in time to collaborate on a book with a younger version of yourself? It sounds like something out of a Stephen King novel, but in 2020, I had such an opportunity.
I’ve been writing books since 2003. I’ve had the good fortune to write thirteen books for two national publishers. As most writers know, the process of sitting at a desk staring at a keyboard with no distractions around can make writing a lonely experience. However, there are some writers who collaborate on books. Until 2020, I never known the experience of co-authoring a book. However, that changed when I found the perfect person to collaborate with. A much younger version of myself.
Way back in 1997 I began to write a murder mystery set in a quiet community called Mount Gretna. Based on a real place, I was familiar with the history of the community and how it attracted artists and scholars every summer to pursue academic interests. Even the streets of Mount Gretna are named after Ivy League schools. A detail meant to reflect the environment of the community. To me, it seemed like the perfect place to set a story where a dead body is found in this perfectly academic place.
Back in the 1990s (when I started this story), I was reading a lot of James Lee Burke. I loved his prose and marveled at his writing. His protagonist, Dave Robicheaux, was a tough as nails detective battling his drinking habits and leading a solitary life. For some reason, I wanted to have a character like this at the center of my mystery. A reluctant hero with dark secrets who tries to solve the mystery by himself. Around a hundred pages into the story, I got stuck on a plot point and couldn’t get around it. With writers block staring me in the face, I admitted defeat, put the manuscript away and forgot about it.
Flash forward to 2020. Like most people, I was locked down in my home because of Covid, looking for ways to occupy my time. That’s when I ran across the manuscript, which I had titled Gretna Greed. A good portion of the story was written by long hand and filled a series of notebooks that I found in a packing crate in my basement. I went through the notebooks and read lots of passages that worked and lots that didn’t work. After reading through a few notebooks, it became clear to me that I had to come up with a better plot and a better character to frame the story.
I gave the plot a lot of thought before I started writing. I’ll admit, I was a bit intimidated by the challenge of rewriting the story. After all, this was the manuscript that gave me writers block once. I was very conscious of that and didn’t want to get stuck again. As a result, I began to make changes.
I kept the discovery of a dead body at Mount Gretna’s Lake, but decided to set the story in the 1960s. Instead of sticking with the dark tone of Gretna Greed, I decided to lighten up the storyline by changing the main character. Gone was the moody and brooding Dave Dampier, replaced by a former Secret Service agent to Dwight Eisenhower named August Summerfield (the last name I found on a tombstone at a local cemetery). Gone was the idea of the main character being a loner. Instead, I had August move to Mount Gretna where he purchased a home next door to his niece, Grace Walker. I had August and Grace both mourning the loss of Grace’s mother (August’s sister). I thought it would be interesting to let grief bond these two characters, and how a murder mystery provided them both with an opportunity to escape that grief.
Aside from his vulnerable side, I gave August a few quirks as a character. He loves Happy Jim chewing tobacco, a brand that was very popular in the 1950s and 60s. My grandfather always had a pouch of Happy Jim around and loved to chew it. He also carried a spittoon around the house with him. I thought it would be an interesting character trait for August. However, unlike my grandfather, August is not that good of a shot when it comes to spitting out his tobacco juice, which leads to some humorous situations.
Another trait I thought would be interesting was to give August his love of bird watching. He’s retired and it’s an activity that, like my father, was interesting for August. I decided to make August very knowledgeable about birds. Knowledge that he sometimes shares when he sees a parallel between the behavior of a bird and the that of a suspect.
What I learned about myself as a writer during this process is that I’m a better writer now than I was two decades ago. While the prose I wrote in 1997 was good, it just no longer fit with my style of writing. I remember how it used to take me a long time to craft these poetic pages of narrative like James Lee Burke. When I read those passages in 2020, it simply slowed up the reader. The story didn’t have any flow. So, as much as I can say I collaborated with a younger version of myself, there really isn’t much left in the story from 1997.
Morning Mist and Murder is the title I gave this first August Summerfield mystery. I wasn’t sure if there would be a need to bring this character back, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the sales in the first month. It was a journey well worth taking as a writer.
Do you have a story that your tried to write but couldn’t? A tale that you put away and never got back to? Well, you might be surprised by what you can do when collaborating with a younger version of yourself.
Allen B. Boyer lives near Hershey, Pennsylvania with his wife and three children and one year old Golden Retriever. He is the author of thirteen books. If you enjoyed Gumshoe Granny Investigates, please check out Bess in the other books in the series, including the Dupree Sisters Mystery Series and the August Summerfield Series.
Website/Blog
Did you ever think about stepping back in time? Maybe twenty-five years in time to collaborate on a book with a younger version of yourself? It sounds like something out of a Stephen King novel, but in 2020, I had such an opportunity.
I’ve been writing books since 2003. I’ve had the good fortune to write thirteen books for two national publishers. As most writers know, the process of sitting at a desk staring at a keyboard with no distractions around can make writing a lonely experience. However, there are some writers who collaborate on books. Until 2020, I never known the experience of co-authoring a book. However, that changed when I found the perfect person to collaborate with. A much younger version of myself.
Way back in 1997 I began to write a murder mystery set in a quiet community called Mount Gretna. Based on a real place, I was familiar with the history of the community and how it attracted artists and scholars every summer to pursue academic interests. Even the streets of Mount Gretna are named after Ivy League schools. A detail meant to reflect the environment of the community. To me, it seemed like the perfect place to set a story where a dead body is found in this perfectly academic place.
Back in the 1990s (when I started this story), I was reading a lot of James Lee Burke. I loved his prose and marveled at his writing. His protagonist, Dave Robicheaux, was a tough as nails detective battling his drinking habits and leading a solitary life. For some reason, I wanted to have a character like this at the center of my mystery. A reluctant hero with dark secrets who tries to solve the mystery by himself. Around a hundred pages into the story, I got stuck on a plot point and couldn’t get around it. With writers block staring me in the face, I admitted defeat, put the manuscript away and forgot about it.
Flash forward to 2020. Like most people, I was locked down in my home because of Covid, looking for ways to occupy my time. That’s when I ran across the manuscript, which I had titled Gretna Greed. A good portion of the story was written by long hand and filled a series of notebooks that I found in a packing crate in my basement. I went through the notebooks and read lots of passages that worked and lots that didn’t work. After reading through a few notebooks, it became clear to me that I had to come up with a better plot and a better character to frame the story.
I gave the plot a lot of thought before I started writing. I’ll admit, I was a bit intimidated by the challenge of rewriting the story. After all, this was the manuscript that gave me writers block once. I was very conscious of that and didn’t want to get stuck again. As a result, I began to make changes.
I kept the discovery of a dead body at Mount Gretna’s Lake, but decided to set the story in the 1960s. Instead of sticking with the dark tone of Gretna Greed, I decided to lighten up the storyline by changing the main character. Gone was the moody and brooding Dave Dampier, replaced by a former Secret Service agent to Dwight Eisenhower named August Summerfield (the last name I found on a tombstone at a local cemetery). Gone was the idea of the main character being a loner. Instead, I had August move to Mount Gretna where he purchased a home next door to his niece, Grace Walker. I had August and Grace both mourning the loss of Grace’s mother (August’s sister). I thought it would be interesting to let grief bond these two characters, and how a murder mystery provided them both with an opportunity to escape that grief.
Aside from his vulnerable side, I gave August a few quirks as a character. He loves Happy Jim chewing tobacco, a brand that was very popular in the 1950s and 60s. My grandfather always had a pouch of Happy Jim around and loved to chew it. He also carried a spittoon around the house with him. I thought it would be an interesting character trait for August. However, unlike my grandfather, August is not that good of a shot when it comes to spitting out his tobacco juice, which leads to some humorous situations.
Another trait I thought would be interesting was to give August his love of bird watching. He’s retired and it’s an activity that, like my father, was interesting for August. I decided to make August very knowledgeable about birds. Knowledge that he sometimes shares when he sees a parallel between the behavior of a bird and the that of a suspect.
What I learned about myself as a writer during this process is that I’m a better writer now than I was two decades ago. While the prose I wrote in 1997 was good, it just no longer fit with my style of writing. I remember how it used to take me a long time to craft these poetic pages of narrative like James Lee Burke. When I read those passages in 2020, it simply slowed up the reader. The story didn’t have any flow. So, as much as I can say I collaborated with a younger version of myself, there really isn’t much left in the story from 1997.
Morning Mist and Murder is the title I gave this first August Summerfield mystery. I wasn’t sure if there would be a need to bring this character back, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the sales in the first month. It was a journey well worth taking as a writer.
Do you have a story that your tried to write but couldn’t? A tale that you put away and never got back to? Well, you might be surprised by what you can do when collaborating with a younger version of yourself.
Allen B. Boyer lives near Hershey, Pennsylvania with his wife and three children and one year old Golden Retriever. He is the author of thirteen books. If you enjoyed Gumshoe Granny Investigates, please check out Bess in the other books in the series, including the Dupree Sisters Mystery Series and the August Summerfield Series.
Website/Blog
https://allenboyer.weebly.com/blog/allen-boyer-an-authors-blog
Amazon link for book
July 2, 2021
July 1, 2021
Redeeming Grace with a Sense of Place
LoRee Peery
One of the things I listed as a to-do with my first book contract was come up with an identifying tagline to go with my name. Some might say it’s a brand of sorts, because I cannot write without giving credit to the Lord for what He does for me. I also determined forever ago that I would write about my Nebraska home. “Redeeming grace with a sense of place” is what I came up with as an email signature. I tossed the phrase around with members of a writing group, prayed about it, and used it for my first website and Facebook page. Nothing ever grabbed my attention as a replacement.
In the early days of my writing, I didn’t know what genre to choose. My first publications were nonfiction set in Nebraska because Nebraska is what I know. The people in my home state are down to earth, hard workers with a rhythm of life I can’t imagine finding in the city. The souls who grew up and live in my state jump at the chance to help others in need.
Just for fun, I researched. According to Wikipedia, “The term sense of place has been used in many different ways. It is a multidimensional, complex construct used to characterize the relationship between people and spatial settings.” Several definitions are then mentioned.
As a Christian who believes in the grace God extends, for reasons known only to the Father, He sent Jesus to pay the ransom for my sin and saved me from an eternity in hell.
Jesus is the only way. Since I’m a reader of fiction, I chose story as a way for characters to come to that same realization. Though imperfect and impacted by situations of the world, readers can identify with the people in my stories and find encouragement as those fictional spirits turn to the Lord for answers and guidance.
The year 2020 will be a memorable one worldwide. For me, it wasn’t so much the covid-19 virus as what I went through physically, mentally, and spiritually. Pain struck on Mother’s Day when I applied eye makeup for the first time since the lockdown began in March. I lowered my arm and gasped in shock. I’m used to something always hurting due to fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, but I have a high pain tolerance. I was sick to my stomach all day. If I’m nauseated, I know the pain is high, and that sudden stabbing down my arm was eight on the pain chart.
A few days later, an X-ray revealed a broken acromion bone, the thin one at the top of the shoulder that curves on the end. A CT scan told the surgeon his earlier rotator cuff repair hadn’t worked. I needed a reverse shoulder replacement.
The next morning, I awoke at 4 a.m. recalling that sometime during the last half of February I had picked up Valentine decorations off the floor that had fallen from the shadow box. Backing up in my journal I found nothing about my shoulder, but my lower back had screamed with pain for a couple weeks. Then I remembered.
My husband had left his shoes on the floor. I tripped over them, and with my right shoulder, hit the narrow edge of an open door. Then I bounced into the wall with my upper left side, knocking off the shadow box and its contents.
I had a reverse shoulder replacement on June 3rd. At the same time, the surgeon used what he called putty from that earlier repair and two screws to hold the acromion in place. In July we saw that the bone hadn’t healed. I needed a second surgery to remove hardware, along with a bone graft. Long, painful, and weak months ensued.
During those months of pain, I was up in the wee hours of many sleepless nights reading my Bible. I found myself pouring out my frustration and praise through what I called LoRee’s psalms. Or lamentations and songs, all with adoration for the Lord God who calls me His daughter. Ever trusting, though my frailty drifted to the surface, my Lord had control and all would be well.
I ended up writing three volumes with working titles, “Shelter in the Night,” “Looking Beyond Self,” and “Gratitude.” I set aside the 500 poems earlier this year to write a Christmas novella.
God’s grace abounds, and here’s a sample of how I view His redeeming grace:
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
God’s Grace Granted
God’s grace is among us
God’s grace is offered to all
God’s grace sets us apart
God’s grace teaches us
God’s grace enables me
God’s grace is patient
God’s grace frees me
God’s grace purifies me
God’s grace encourages
God’s grace corrects
God’s grace saved me
God’s grace grants peace
God’s grace is present
God’s grace is eternal.
Nebraska country girl LoRee Peery writes fiction that hopefully appeals to adult readers who enjoy stories written from a Christian perspective, focusing on the romance. These include novels and novellas for women and men in the Contemporary, Romance, Historical, Time Travel, and Mystery/Suspense categories. She writes of redeeming grace with a sense of place. Her Frivolities Series and the book based on her father’s unsolved homicide, Touches of Time, are available on Amazon. She is who she is by the grace of God: Christian, country girl, wife, mother, grandmother and great-, sister, friend, and author. Connect with LoRee: www.loreepeery.com
https://www.facebook.com/LoReePeery
Find her publications at Pelican http://tinyurl.com/kwz9enk
And Amazon https://www.amazon.com/LoRee-Peery/e/B004UAGL2W/ref
One of the things I listed as a to-do with my first book contract was come up with an identifying tagline to go with my name. Some might say it’s a brand of sorts, because I cannot write without giving credit to the Lord for what He does for me. I also determined forever ago that I would write about my Nebraska home. “Redeeming grace with a sense of place” is what I came up with as an email signature. I tossed the phrase around with members of a writing group, prayed about it, and used it for my first website and Facebook page. Nothing ever grabbed my attention as a replacement.
In the early days of my writing, I didn’t know what genre to choose. My first publications were nonfiction set in Nebraska because Nebraska is what I know. The people in my home state are down to earth, hard workers with a rhythm of life I can’t imagine finding in the city. The souls who grew up and live in my state jump at the chance to help others in need.
Just for fun, I researched. According to Wikipedia, “The term sense of place has been used in many different ways. It is a multidimensional, complex construct used to characterize the relationship between people and spatial settings.” Several definitions are then mentioned.
As a Christian who believes in the grace God extends, for reasons known only to the Father, He sent Jesus to pay the ransom for my sin and saved me from an eternity in hell.
Jesus is the only way. Since I’m a reader of fiction, I chose story as a way for characters to come to that same realization. Though imperfect and impacted by situations of the world, readers can identify with the people in my stories and find encouragement as those fictional spirits turn to the Lord for answers and guidance.
The year 2020 will be a memorable one worldwide. For me, it wasn’t so much the covid-19 virus as what I went through physically, mentally, and spiritually. Pain struck on Mother’s Day when I applied eye makeup for the first time since the lockdown began in March. I lowered my arm and gasped in shock. I’m used to something always hurting due to fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, but I have a high pain tolerance. I was sick to my stomach all day. If I’m nauseated, I know the pain is high, and that sudden stabbing down my arm was eight on the pain chart.
A few days later, an X-ray revealed a broken acromion bone, the thin one at the top of the shoulder that curves on the end. A CT scan told the surgeon his earlier rotator cuff repair hadn’t worked. I needed a reverse shoulder replacement.
The next morning, I awoke at 4 a.m. recalling that sometime during the last half of February I had picked up Valentine decorations off the floor that had fallen from the shadow box. Backing up in my journal I found nothing about my shoulder, but my lower back had screamed with pain for a couple weeks. Then I remembered.
My husband had left his shoes on the floor. I tripped over them, and with my right shoulder, hit the narrow edge of an open door. Then I bounced into the wall with my upper left side, knocking off the shadow box and its contents.
I had a reverse shoulder replacement on June 3rd. At the same time, the surgeon used what he called putty from that earlier repair and two screws to hold the acromion in place. In July we saw that the bone hadn’t healed. I needed a second surgery to remove hardware, along with a bone graft. Long, painful, and weak months ensued.
During those months of pain, I was up in the wee hours of many sleepless nights reading my Bible. I found myself pouring out my frustration and praise through what I called LoRee’s psalms. Or lamentations and songs, all with adoration for the Lord God who calls me His daughter. Ever trusting, though my frailty drifted to the surface, my Lord had control and all would be well.
I ended up writing three volumes with working titles, “Shelter in the Night,” “Looking Beyond Self,” and “Gratitude.” I set aside the 500 poems earlier this year to write a Christmas novella.
God’s grace abounds, and here’s a sample of how I view His redeeming grace:
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
God’s Grace Granted
God’s grace is among us
God’s grace is offered to all
God’s grace sets us apart
God’s grace teaches us
God’s grace enables me
God’s grace is patient
God’s grace frees me
God’s grace purifies me
God’s grace encourages
God’s grace corrects
God’s grace saved me
God’s grace grants peace
God’s grace is present
God’s grace is eternal.
Nebraska country girl LoRee Peery writes fiction that hopefully appeals to adult readers who enjoy stories written from a Christian perspective, focusing on the romance. These include novels and novellas for women and men in the Contemporary, Romance, Historical, Time Travel, and Mystery/Suspense categories. She writes of redeeming grace with a sense of place. Her Frivolities Series and the book based on her father’s unsolved homicide, Touches of Time, are available on Amazon. She is who she is by the grace of God: Christian, country girl, wife, mother, grandmother and great-, sister, friend, and author. Connect with LoRee: www.loreepeery.com
https://www.facebook.com/LoReePeery
Find her publications at Pelican http://tinyurl.com/kwz9enk
And Amazon https://www.amazon.com/LoRee-Peery/e/B004UAGL2W/ref
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