Sneak Peek at Love Comes Home

I usually hold off on putting the cover of my books out here on the net until closer to time for them to actually be on the shelf, but I'm giving you a sneak peek at Love Comes Home since I've been working on edits for it all week. The release date isn't until summer, July 1, 2014 to be exact. So do you like it? What do you think?

I think you're going to like visiting Rosey Corner again. At least I hope so. The Merritt sisters have a lot going on in their lives. While I've struggled with untangling some knotty writing in a paragraph here and there, I have enjoyed going back to Rosey Corner myself to live the story with my characters again as I'm editing. I got to hear some more of Aunt Hattie's prayers and homespun wisdom. I got to witness Graham doing some more matchmaking. I got to walk in the woods with Fern and that is always interesting! I teared up when the boys were welcomed home from the war by their loved ones. I went with Lorena to find out the "rest of her story." And more. Lots more. The book is already available for pre-sale on Amazon.

But while I was enjoying the story again, I was also reading the editor's comments on how to make my writing better. The surprising thing was I never thought the editor was off-base with her suggestions on how to make the story read better. Sometimes a writer can struggle with edits, and not see the need for the suggested changes. But this time when my editor noted a little muddy writing, I could see that I hadn't been clear enough. When she said I'd used the same words too often or too close together in a paragraph, she was right. Sometimes "echo" words are okay. Sometimes they're not. (Note my "I got to" echoes in the paragraph above.) Perhaps I was okay with her comments because she didn't ask for a lot of changes.There was one place where I had to shift the scene a bit, but the rest were fairly easy changes. Of course, there was that one knotty paragraph that I spent hours on and I'm still not sure I've got it right. I'll have to go back and read it again before I hit the send button to turn it in to the editor. 

These were the first copy edits where I could make as many changes as I thought were needed. So whenever my reader's eye stumbled over a phrase or sentence, I worked it over to try to make the reading smoother. The intent of careful editing is to make the words disappear so the story can play like a movie in the reader's mind. A clunky sentence or a bad transition between scenes can jerk a reader away from the "movie" and make her remember she's reading words. That's not good! I want to keep the magic of the story alive in the reader's imagination. I'll get another chance to edit, but then the book will be almost ready to go and any editing changes will need to be minor.  

So now how would you like a sneak peek at a new Rosey Corner character? Clay Weber. I'm hoping you said yes, because here's a bit of a scene from Clay's point of view as he thinks about finding a way to capture the affections of the girl he loves even though she shows no sign of wanting his love. 

    He [Clay] might not be the handsomest guy in the room. But he knew how to stick to something and get it done if it was worth doing.

    Working a farm taught a man that. Every year that a man plowed a field, more rocks rose up out of the dirt to be hauled away. Weeds kept sprouting no matter how many calluses a man got plying his hoe. Horses went lame. Machinery broke down. Cows went dry and hawks swooped out of the sky to steal the chickens. The ground didn’t give up its yield without a man watering it with plenty of sweat. But just because something was hard didn’t mean it wasn’t worth doing.

So there you have a sneak peek at the cover and Clay. Now I'll push Love Comes Home back in line to wait its turn since I do have the re-release of my third Hollyhill book, Summer of Joy, coming out in March. I'll reveal that cover on Jocie's blog, Hollyhill Book of the Strange later this week. I'm gearing up to celebrate the last story in the Heart of Hollyhill series. In fact, there's a Goodreads giveaway opening up on it Tuesday, Feb. 4. Here's the Goodreads' giveaway link. And I'll be doing my own giveaway soon too. Stay tuned for that. 

Thanks for reading and I'd love to hear what you think about the cover of Love Comes Home. 

Bumpy Sledding and Editing

I've been away from home for a few days keeping my son's kids. Great kids, but lively. There was snow up their way and of course they wanted to go out and play in it. Trouble was the wind chill was double minus something. It wasn't so bad the day I got there and so we rushed on our boots and gloves and hurried out before dark to decorate the yard with some snow people. Then those minus temperatures helped the snowmen stick around. On the second day the boys wanted to go out and sled on their backyard hill. It was cold. We had to hunt boots and gloves. Took us thirty minutes to get dressed. They got cold and were ready to come in after about fifteen minutes. That's how it goes. But before they got too cold, we did find a little sled. Neither boy made it to the bottom of the hill, but tumbled off about halfway down and rolled the rest of the way. They both wanted me to sled down the hill, but this grandma has learned better than that. The last time I tried to go sledding several years ago with another grandson, I found out pretty fast that older bodies don't like the bumps under those little plastic sleds. So I can build snow people and I can launch my grandkids on the sleds with a little push, but I'm not seeking snow thrills these days. Don't even like slipping in ice on foot or in a car. Does that mean I'm over the hill or just finally getting wise?

My son and his wife were stuck in Atlanta for an extra night and day and so I was late getting home. Since I have a writing deadline looming, I checked back in my blog archives and found a time when I compared that bumpy sledding episode a few years ago to the "bumpy sledding" I was having as I tried to get my new story off the ground. I'm at the same spot now and doing the same as then - hanging on and absorbing the bumps because I think the story is there. I'm putting that story aside to work on the edits of Love Comes Home. No major rewriting, but the little stuff can drive me crazy. I've spent three or four hours on one scene the editor has asked me to do a better job of transition. I'm still not happy with it. It's funny how when I'm in the flow of writing things come easier than when I'm trying to untangle a bit of knotty writing.

So here are a few quotes I put in that long ago post about bumpy writing. I hope it will encourage you if you're a writer and help you understand some of what writers struggle with if you're a reader.

• A writer and nothing else: a man alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right. --John K. Hutchens (A woman alone in a room, too. I do work much better when I'm alone.)
• Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself-it is the occurring which is difficult. -Stephen Leacock
• I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension. -Norman Mailer (I couldn't agree more. I simply cannot talk about my story in progress. One author I read suggested that if a writer tells her story, there's no need for her to write it.)
• Make 'em laugh; make 'em cry; make 'em wait. - Charles Reade

That last one is advice I want to follow. I think I'll write those words in red on my desk calendar where I can see it every day when I start writing. I'll put it right beside the Proverb about how laughter works good for us like a medicine. Hope you have much laughter and smooth sledding!

By the way, how long has it been since you tried sledding down a hill?  Maybe that was today!

Scavenger Hunts and Books by the Banks

Ever been on a Scavenger hunt? That's where you have to find things. I used to try to think up some fun scavenger hunts for my Bible School kids. I think it's more fun when you do clues. Like something a squirrel would love. (Lots of acorns at our church.) Or the pastor's favorite verse. (Going to have to ask him that one.) And on and on. I was in a group once where we had teams that competed to get the items first. I remember one of the items was a sock with a hole in it. Okay, so how many of you thought about the fact that all socks have a hole in them where you stick your foot in? Not many of us rushing around to gather our items thought of that. 

When we were kids we sometimes made a different kind of scavenger hunt. We had clues. You looked where you might be in hot water and then in the teakettle or perhaps the bathtub you found the next clue and on until at the end there was the prize. Fun games that took a little thought. 

Well, I'm going to be taking part in a Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt beginning on October 18. I've heard about these where readers chase around to all the different blogs where they can read some new and fun things about the authors or their books. Then they gather the clues and put them together for the answer. That qualifies them for the prizes. And there are some neat prizes. One is an iPad. And then a couple of people are going to get copies of all twenty-five books. On top of those prizes, a lot of the individual blogs are offering extra prizes. I'll be offering a choice of one of my Shaker books. 

I've never taken part in one of these before, but I've heard they're great fun. So on October 18, not a normal blogging day for me but Scavenger Hunts are not normal times :), I'll post an article written by my guest blogger while another writer will be posting the article I sent her. And on and on. Some great writers in the mix including several writing friends, Laura Frantz, Suzanne Woods Fisher, Lyn Cote, and Judith Miller, to name a few. I hope you'll mark the date and come take part in the fun. 
 
It's been a busy time for me this week with the edits due for my 2014 release, Love Comes Home. I had to cut over 13,000 words. My delete key stayed hot from overuse all week. I've had a few of your sweet people say you'd like to have those extra words. So here are a lot of them - was, just, and, that, said. Not too interesting so far, are they? lol. I did cut a few paragraphs here and there too, but I think the story is better for it. 

I'm headed up to Cincinnati to Books by the Banks this Saturday, October 12. If you're in the area, please come out and join in the fun. And don't leave without saying hello. I'll be there somewhere! The organizers do a great job of having fun things for the kids and always have a full room of writers eager to talk to you. Here's a photo I took on the way out of Cincinnati last year. My husband was driving then. I'll be driving this year, so no pictures of the drive. But maybe I'll get a picture with some of the other writers. Always fun to meet new writing and reading friends. For more information about events that day and the authors go to Books by the Banks.

Thanks for reading. Check back Sunday. Maybe I'll do some of those mystery pictures and let you guess to enter for a chance to win a copy of the newly packaged Orchard of Hope.