Blue Skies, Raspberries and News

I have absolutely no reason for this picture other than I wanted to use a picture and we've had blue skies this week. This is a hayfield on our farm and a place I sometimes walk. I'd like to walk around it now because there's a nice patch of raspberries in the fencerow, but my husband hasn't mowed the hay yet and the grass would be up to my waist. So guess the deer will enjoy the berries. They are another reason I'm not wading through the grass. They're probably eating all the berries off the vine and I'd make the trek only to find nothing to pick. The other reason is we've got some raspberries in the garden. I love black raspberries. They hold the sweetness of early summer for me even more than strawberries.

In my work in progress it's June and I have my girl picking blackberries. Maybe I'd better go back and change that to raspberries. I'm two weeks or more early for the blackberries.

It's been a slow week down here on the farm. Hay mowing time for Darrell which means equipment breaking time. The baler is in the baler repair shop now. Meanwhile I'm having my periodic computer troubles. I'm about ready to go back to those wirebound notebooks I used when I started writing years ago. I actually met a writer the other day who still writes everything in long hand first. Not me. The keyboard is my pen of choice. Gotta get those words down. But there are times when the keyboad along with all it's connected to does its best to drive me bonkers.

I'm pushing hard to finish Shaker 5 that has an accepted title now, The Gifted. I'm in one of those awkward places for a writer. I need to get the story finished. I'm rushing to get it finished. And I've got enough words written for it to be finished, but I'm some way from being finished. That means I'm going to have too many words. That means I'm going to have to cut lots of words. Nice words that I worked hard to dig out of my head. Sigh.

But it's a good writer time for me too with a new book out. The Blessed is available on Amazon now.  I got my copies last Thursday. So I planned my Hometown Book Launch for Sunday, July 24 at 2 p.m. at the Anderson County Public Library. If you're in the area, I hope you'll come join in the fun. I always give stuff away and we have fun talking books. I might even make brownies again. Maybe.

I've actually got a lot of things going on in the next few weeks. Blog tours and posts and interviews. First up is an interview on Carole Brown's blog, Sunnybank Meanderings on June 15. Then on June 24 & 25 I'll be doing a couple of workshops at the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference in Elizabethtown. www.kychristianwriters.com Maybe I'll give you guys a preview of my classes next week. So you can see why I need to get this new Shaker book finished. I think I know where my characters are going. I think I know what they're going to do. I think I can, said the little writer who thought she could get over the hill to the end.

By the way, if you leave a comment on my interview with Carole, you'lll have a chance to win an autographed copy of either Angel Sister or The Blessed. And now that I've got my author copies, I'll be drawing the winners for my celebration giveaway next Saturday. So if you haven't entered, check out the details on my website and join in the fun. 

As always thanks for reading. And hope you liked the picture.  

Remarks that Sting

Criticism is something we can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. --Aristotle

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Virginia Smith and I were all smiles after the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference a few weeks ago. Ginny was the keynote speaker and did a fantastic series of speeches about the writing road. She used her own experience including the potholes and bumps she has encountered and her words were very inspiring for the writers in attendance. And for the fellow staff people like me.

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I taught a couple of classes. One about character (twice) and one about revision. People actually came to listen to what I had to say about both. The room was overflowing for my first character class and then only one showed up for the repeat of the class - the staff person assigned to my class. So I told her the old joke about the farmer who was the only person to show up for revival services and the preacher asked if he wanted to just skip the service and go home. The farmer said, "Well, preacher, if I go out to feed my cows and only one old cow shows up, I still feed her." So the preacher got behind the pulpit and preached his entire message as if a hundred people were listening. When he was through he asked the farmer what he thought. The farmer gave the preacher a look and said, "Well, preacher, when I go out to feed my cows and only one old cow shows up, I don't give her the whole load!" That story's always good for a laugh. Especially when I tell whatever sparse crowd I'm speaking to that they're going to get the whole load. Another person wandered in and the three of us had a good class. The two ladies didn't seem to get over full even though I unloaded the whole load on them.

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At the end of the conference the attendees were asked to fill out evaluations of the classes they'd attended. Last week I got the summary of those evaluations and a few remarks from the people who had come to my classes. There was a star rating system with five stars being the best and one star being not so good. I got three times as many five star scores as four stars and only a few three stars. Guess which ones I think about most? The remarks were that way too. "Enjoyed." "Very entertaining." "Good speaker." "Good points." "Good presentation." And more along this line, but then there were those two or three remarks that sort of made the good ones fade like invisible ink. "Inexperienced speaker." "Hoping for more." "Not much new info."

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Now why, when I think about the evaluations, do I dwell on the ones that pointed out places I might have come up short? Do you think it was because I thought I did come up short? Why can't I just believe those thirty of so people who enjoyed the classes and gave me such great feedback?

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That's the way we are, isn't it? That critical word sticks to us like a cocklebur while we let the good words fly right past our ears. We need to accept the good. That's not to say that I couldn't have done better with the classes. I could have. Maybe that's why the remarks stung a little, because I saw the truth in them. If I teach more conferences I'll be ready to improve on what I did at this one. So maybe even though criticism can sting, we learn more from it than from praise.

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If you want to hear a live internet radio interview with me tune in tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon at 5 p.m. EST to Amish Wisdom with host Suzanne Woods Fisher. I'll be talking about Shakers and not the Amish, but it still sounds like fun. You can check out the website and connect at http://toginet.com/shows/amishwisdom. Plus you can leave a comment there to have a chance to win an autographed copy of The Seeker. The final winner in my June and July drawings was Anita from NC. She won the Shaker gift, a bun and bread warming stone, along with the copy of my book. I'll be doing a new giveaway soon.

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Love this quote below. Hope you have more love than criticism this week and every week.

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Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you. -William Arthur Ward

My First Christian Writers Conference

Here I am with Virginia Smith, writer and great keynote speaker at the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. Ginny did a great job of firing up all us writers at the conference with her three speeches on The Road to Publication. She told us about her bumpy road as a writer when she went for years without selling any of her writing and collected 143 rejections. She kept all of them in a file. I've collected my share, probably more than that, but I certainly saw no need to keep them all or count them. The ones I wanted to count were the ones that said yes. I threw those "we're sorry" letters away. Or most of them. I probably still have a few scattered in among the pages of my writing journal. I did keep a running record of my submissions and the responses. You can believe I put stars beside the ones that sent checks for those first short pieces I sold back when I was learning to write. That was before I tackled a novel. The checks were very small but the knowing that somebody was willing to pay anything at all to publish my words was encouragement worth thousands.

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This is the only picture I got. I was too busy talking to people and listening to people and running from the bookstore to my classroom and back for picture taking. And making friends. I did a lot of that. Everybody was so nice to a first-timer like me. Somehow I've missed out on writers' conferences prior to this. Most Christian writers attend conferences, but that was something I didn't even know they had until after I'd published my first Christian novel, The Scent of Lilacs back in 2005 and met a few other Christian writers at book fairs. Those writers were always surprised to hear I had never been to a conference. Well, now I won't have to surprise them. I have a Christian writers' conference under my belt.

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I taught three classes and people actually came to hear what I had to say about making characters come to life and about revising. I was sure people would avoid that last class about revising because that's not something most writers like to do. But they came and they listened and I hope went home with some idea of how to polish their writing to make it better. And I hope they were encouraged. That's what I wanted to do. Encourage the people I met. I told the lady who is going to be one of the coordinators of the conference next year that I didn't think there was anything better than being an encourager - a role she had felt comfortable in for years as a pastor's wife. And now she was going to be an encourager of Christian writers.

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My book is hitting the stores and people's mailboxes. So much fun. And the winner of the second week's drawing for a free autographed copy of The Seeker is Shirley Garwood. Congrats, Shirley! I'll be getting in touch to find out your mailing address. It's not too late for you to join the fun by e-mailing me or leaving a comment here on One Writer's Journal. That's how you can add your name to the pot for the rest of the drawings. I'm still planning to give away five or six more books.

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Enjoy your week and take a few minutes to read a good book. I've heard that Gabhart woman has a new one out. ;-)