Who Are you Writing For?

My wife has a tendency to ask some hard-hitting questions. Recently, her best zinger was to ask, 'Who are you writing for?'

It boils down to this - am I writing for me, or for God? Currently, I consider that I'm writing my stories to entertain and build up my kids. But I have a habit of referring to the novels as 'my' book.

I do feel 'called' to write. Creativity is in my blood and in my genes. It oozes out the pores and cries for release. Not bragging, mind. Just a hard look on why I'm doing it. It's almost like I would have to fight to suppress it now.

I thought this question, however, deep enough to send out to those in range of my voice, and ask YOU: (mainly because I am chicken to answer this one on my own)

Who are you writing for?

New Post on NovelTeen Tomorrow!

I will be posting my first 'staff blogpost' at an exciting Teen Fiction site called NovelTeen tomorrow, June 8th.

NovelTeen is an exciting 'new' blog for Teens to find YA books that are clean. There will be book reviews, FREE Books, articles from authors and for authors, author interviews, excerpts from upcoming books, and much more.

The material I'll be posting on will be on developing a 'rhino skin' (not sure who coined that term first) when dealing with Critique and Rejection in the Literary World.

It's an honor for me to be able to post along with award winning novelists. Please take a moment to check them out!

Book Review - Buying Time

Today I'm going to take a break from my usual fodder to give you a review of a book I just finished. It's called Buying Time by author and cartoonist Roland Mann.

Here's the author's back-cover blurb:
If you had a chance to re-do part of your life, would you? Even if it meant dying earlier?

That’s the decision Tom Morgan and Larry Pace must make when they are approached by a time traveling time salesman. Complete opposites, both men are drawn to the idea for the same reason: to save someone’s life. But is that even possible? Can the past be changed? Add to that the problem that it’s very addictive, like a dangerous drug. Each trip back in time shortens life.

Here's a snippet of the plot, and my take on the book:
The lives of two men, Tom and Larry, become entangled through a tragic accident that takes Larry's wife and hospitalizes Tom's best friend, Mike.

Tom, a down-on-his-luck journalist, is in some ways responsible for the accident, and feels an overwhelming burden of guilt and an overpowering feeling of worthlessness. His fascination with Mr. Potter's hateful words spoken to George Bailey in Its a Wonderful Life, "You're worth more dead than alive", borders on mania, and is his mantra.

Larry is a devout Christian professor and newly published author, a father of two daughters who help him to struggle through the grieving process. Surrounded by Christian friends and a loving family, he is coping with his loss.

At the funeral, a stranger comes up to him and asks if he wouldn't like to spend more time with his wife. He offers to send Larry back in time and give him a chance to hold her again, and tell her goodbye. He leaves Larry with a business card and a generous helping of confusion.

This stranger is also the person Tom was headed to interview. Big Ben, as the stranger calls himself, offers to send Tom back in time as well. He warns that the time he takes in the past will be deducted from the end of his life, meaning that he will die sooner.

Tom doesn't particularly care; he is teetering on the edge of suicide anyway. Tom goes back in time, attempting to change the past to keep the dreadful accident from occurring. But his efforts, though they change the past, do not circumvent the tragedy.

Later, Larry takes Big Ben up on his offer, going back to the past in an attempt to save his wife Gracie. But changing the past is like turning a battleship with a rowboat; the tragic day plays out similarly, with only small things altered.

The book picks up pace as Tom and Larry meet, and attempt to go back in time together in a concerted effort to keep the accident from happening and save Larry's wife.

From the time the two men meet right up to the end of the book, it was a page-turner I couldn't put down.

Liberally salted with sincere Christian characters, the book is an honest look at death, the power of prayer, and God's sovereignity over our appointed times.


Disclaimer:No goods or services were exchanged for the review of this book. Seriously, I wasn't paid or anything. I just wanted to tell you what a good read it was.

This day is all about new years' resolutions. I've written a song where I said I wasn't planning on any more, but they aren't necessarily a bad thing if they are manageable and you stick with them.

So here's one for my stack, and it's bubbling up to the top:

I'm resolving to spend more time on Faith, Home, and Family this coming year, so I'll be taking a sabbatical from Social Networking sites for most of the year. I'm on many and they can suck your time away if you let them.

Inevitably, the family suffers when you spend too much time connecting with the thousands of friends you have online. And so, I bid you adieu, with a song that strikes me as appropriate, one I wrote this month for my book 'The Blue Door', which I am currently reading to my wonderful kids...


http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8549109

What foundation are the homes that we build for our families based on? Is it the shifting sands of this passing world, or the solid rock?

Do we build a home where our kids feel welcome? One they'd want to return to if they were ever in trouble? Build up your home as a warm and welcome place, a place that is a shelter from the storms of life.

The Robin and the Jay

Oh, the robin sung sweetly as she feathered her nest
With the soft down that came from the robin's red breast
And she built her home strong, for the eggs that were coming
As the winter snow thawed and the stream started running.

Twas a home built with care for a love meant to share
As the soft songs of Spring filled the sweet morning air
And the rains, they came down, and the wind whipped around
But the nest in the tree stood there, snug, safe, and sound

Are the homes that we build made of wood, hay, and stubble?
Are there gold and bright gems in the midst of the rubble?
Will our children remember, wherever they roam
That there'll always be a place to come home?

Oh, the bluejay came late to the wood in the glen
When the winter storms pased, with the Spring setting in
With a nest thrown together, and nary a feather
Unaware of the wind and the oncoming weather

Twas a home built in haste, and the jay, as she raced
Could not see the dark clouds that would soon lay to waste
All her efforts begun on a home for her young
As the storm cast her home in the dirt and the dung

Are the homes that we build made of wood, hay, and stubble?
Are there gold and bright gems in the midst of the rubble?
Will our children remember, wherever they roam
That there'll always be a place to come home?

Are the homes that we build made of wood, hay, and stubble?
Are there gold and bright gems in the midst of the rubble?
Will our children remember, wherever they roam
That there'll always be a place to come home?

Pantser or Plodder?

Question for you Today:

Are you a 'Pantser' - a person who writes their books by the 'seat of their pants', or do you 'Plot' out your story?

If you plot it out, how much detail do you go into on your novel before you write the first actual word of your story?
Do you outline the entire story, or just a start, an end, a conflict, and the basic parts of the story?
Do you ouline each chapter, the contents of it, what each character does?
Do you use the 'Snowflake' Method?


If you are a 'Pantser', how do you guide your story and keep from writing your characters into a situation they cannot get out of?

What arguments can you give in support of whichever method you choose, or do you fall somewhere in the middle?

Rose-Colored Glasses

If you've read the news recently, you probably are running scared, buying gold, stocking up on ammunition and building a fallout shelter in your garage.

With multiple new countries developing nuclear bombs, our own country (and the world's) finances in a mess, unemployment running into the double-digits, and Lindsey Lohan seeking treatment for alcoholism again, it's no wonder we're depressed, recessed, obsessed, and opppressed.

But God isn't asking us to look at the storm around us, through the eyes of panic and despair. He wants His children to remember that He is in control, and that none of this is taking Him by surprise.

While I'm nearing the final chapters of my new novel, I thought I'd share a song with you that has come out of this story - a song based on the following verse:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.Phil 4:8

If we actually see the world through those 'rose-colored glasses' that some people ridicule, we'll be much happier, and find the positive side of life, and see the Lord's hand at work all around us...

Click here to listen to the song.


Rose-Colored Glasses
Phil:4:8

This world is a mess, there is pain and despair
And there isn't a glimmer of hope in the air
But you'll be so much happier, freer of care
When looking through rose-colored glasses.

In this world there is trouble, and sorrow, and dying
And much of our time seems all tied up in crying
But life would be better when laughing and sighing
So look through those rose-colored glasses.

These magical glasses of rose-colored hue
Will help heal the heart of the saddest of you
For you'll see all that's right, and lovely and true
With these magical, the magical rose-colored glasses.

So when you feel troubled, and tempted to bawl
Just put on a pair; see the good in us all
And if someone you know just gave up on it all,
Just hand them some rose-colored glasses.

Finished... But Not!?

Okay, today I passed the 50,000 word mark on the NaNoWriMo meter. The little bar turned green, and I did the happy dance! The many hours of slamming words to the keyboard, the late nights, the early morning writing hours stoked by gallons of coffee... It's all over! ...??


But, the novel isn't finished yet. Not by a long shot. The Ranger, whose pet myna is really a Court Jester (Or is that, the ranger doubles as a court jester and the myna (named Jester) is just part of his act...) has just captured the handsome thief...


...who turns out to be the self-sacrificing hero who is going to save the kingdom from a dastardly plot.


The family is protecting the hero (and not just because one of the characters has a crush on him) and they are developing a complicated plan to rescue Dad and Granddad from the clutches of the evil baron.

The evil ex-colleague, Professor Pilfer, is stuck in the alternate dimension with two thugs and is out to steal their only way home.

I certainly can't leave it there. Who will save the thief from the ranger? Who will rescue the Dad in the dungeon? Who will foil the various nefarious schemes? Who will save them all from the inane songs of the myna bird?

Could it be... King Author? ;-)

And so, the Nano will continue. I already know what the dramatic conclusion is to the story, but the dear reader won't, not unless I sally forth and assault the pages (and perhaps the baron's castle!) with many more mere words of wit and wisdom.

Not to mention at least another wonderful song or two from Jester, the pet myna.


So, onward and upward, but HURRAY and HUZZAH! I have passed the Mystic Milestone with my sanity somewhat... intact...

Oops, got an idea, better go write it down! See ya on the other side!