New Year, New Possibilities by Annette M. Irby

2019*

Happy New Year!

A fresh year, a fresh start. I love this feeling, don’t you? Anything is possible. Here’s how to make the most of this new opportunity:

* Pray. Without God, we can do nothing. This truth can stump us at times, unless we take it very literally. Our breath comes from God. Our lives were His idea. So, let's cover our year in prayer. What does God want this year? How can we grow closer to Him? He's asking certain things of us. How can we both find and achieve those things? It's time to get alone, set an atmosphere, seek Him. Hear from Him. Enjoy Him. 

* Believe anything is possible. Nothing is impossible with God. How wonderful is it that God included several verses to this effect in the Bible? See Luke 1:37, etc. If you’ve got big dreams, keep believing they can come true. Work hard. Rest. Pray. Let God show you the next steps—or possibility a new dream.  

* Plan. I recently ordered a new type of planner. It’s put out by Susan May Warren and her team at My Book Therapy. It’s called My Brilliant Writing Planner. She includes sections for spiritual and physical goals and chances to review how things are going. And of course, there are areas for setting goals and making plans. If we’re going to make the most of this new start—this new year—let’s prayerfully consider our goals and make plans to reach them.  

* Celebrate every step in the right direction. There are plenty of opportunities to become discouraged as we chase our dreams and walk out our callings, so we should make a point of celebrating every effort we take in the right direction. Maybe that’s making time to write every day. Set a goal to do that daily. Celebrate the first day you sit down and write. Once you’ve gone a week—celebrate! A month—celebrate. You’re creating habits that will help you accomplish your goals. 

* Rest. We all need a time of refreshing. God commands rest, for our sake. It’s not lazy, it’s necessary. Take time to feed your soul, be encouraged and refueled. Then, you’ll be ready for work again. 

All His best on your new year, friends!

Your turn: What plans do you have for 2019? How do you make the most of a new beginning? 

~~~~~

Coming in March

 

FL on Whidbey Island

Finding Love on Whidbey Island, Washington

Could what drove them apart be what draws them back together?

Liberty Winfield lives with loss every day. She’d rather leave her history behind her, but when faced with moving back to her hometown, the past becomes unavoidable. She takes a job at the florist shop owned by her ex-boyfriend’s family from a decade ago. Now he’s unavoidable.

Clay Garrison knows the pain of ruing his mistakes. Most of his regrets center around Liberty. If he could undo his poor choices, he would. Liberty is back. He has one more chance to make things right. She doesn’t believe anyone could love her unconditionally, so he sets out to prove her wrong. He must also try to right the biggest wrong of their past, knowing that in doing so, he could lose her forever.

Will addressing the past together help them find love?

~~~~~

Annette M. Irby**

Annette M. Irby has been writing since her teen years when she sat pounding out stories on a vintage typewriter just for fun. Since then, she’s joined Christian writing groups and launched blogs so she could share the joy of writing. She likes to say she’s addicted to color as flowers and seascapes inspire her. In her off hours, she enjoys gardening, photography, and music. She lives with her husband and family in the Pacific Northwest.

Learn more here on her Seriously Write Page.

Links to connect with Annette:

Website: www.AnnetteIrby.com

Twitter: @AnnetteMIrby

Facebook Reader Friends Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/252272708574760

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/annette-m-irby or @AnnetteMIrby

Amazon Author Page: www.amazon.com/author/annette_m_irby.com   

Book Review Blog: www.annetteirbyreviews.blogspot.com

* Graphic of 2019: Pixabay

** Author Photo credit: Sarah Irby at Irby Photos

Having The “Big Vision” of a Project by Carrie Fancett Pagels, Ph.D.

For multi-published authors, at some point the plan to do a project has to be balanced against the “cost” of doing so. Cost means far more than financially—it includes the time taken away from your family and friends and other pursuits, time spent seated in a chair when you might be better off exercising, costs incurred and time in traveling for research, time spent not only in the “fun” parts of the story but also in the more difficult parts. Those harder aspects of writing vary from author to author, but in identifying the aspects that tax you emotionally and physically you’ll have an idea what those are. It might be the first edits, could be the galley reviews, could be in doing marketing and promo.

Early on, the idea of having something published can be such a motivator that the “big vision” is an unknown. And in some ways it is, until you get into your own pattern of writing, self-editing, being edited, promo, etc. That’s why novice writers are encouraged to engage in those activities before getting published.

Unproductive approaches:

1. Denial. This way of looking at a “Big Vision” chooses to overlook what is required. Or could result in passive-aggressive behavior. An example, instead of going over the editor’s comments and making the corrections, this person might simply accept all suggestions and then blame any mistakes on the editor, ditto when their galley edits come. Or this author may choose to stick their head in the sand when it is time to promote their new release. Facebook party scheduled? –they don’t show up. Blog hops set up – they never bother to comment nor share. You get the picture. 
2. Avoidance. This looks a lot like hand-wringing. “I don’t know what to do.” So no proposals are submitted. Lots of ideas are flung around but the blurbs are never written for the proposals that others have offered to submit. Going AWOL from all social media then popping up once in a while. 
3. Blaming. It’s your husband’s, children’s, or someone else’s fault that you can’t put in the planning for your project. I don’t mean reality intruding. I’m going to address that in a moment. 

Productive:

1. Realistic appraisal of your schedule for writing, based upon the facts as you know them. Daughter getting married? Upcoming surgery? Parent in serious medical problems? Building a new home? Things that take a lot of focus and attention are going to cut into your writing. That’s reality. Plan accordingly. Take some time off. A sabbatical might be exactly what you need to come back refreshed.
2. Acceptance. “If I don’t keep putting in proposals I won’t get another contract and I’ll be dropped…” See #1 under Productive. You live on earth in a mortal body with real life going on around you. Story world will wait. Sometimes we have to accept that publishers and fans might not. And acceptance is needed.
3. Confidence. Because you know the real cost of everything that it will take to get your novel out there you can have confidence that you have what is needed to make it happen, with God’s help. 
4. Trusting in God. He’s got a plan. Trust in Him. He’ll help you get your “Big Vision” just right, in His good time!

Do you have any tips to add for new writers or those struggling to be productive?

~~~~~~

Carrie Fancett Pagels, Ph.D., is the award-winning author of fifteen Christian historical romances, including ECPA bestsellers. Twenty-five years as a psychologist didn't "cure" her overactive imagination! A self-professed “history geek,” she resides with her family in the Historic Triangle of Virginia but grew up as a “Yooper,” in Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula. Carrie loves to read, bake, bead, and travel – but not all at the same time! You can connect with her at www.CarrieFancettPagels.com.

New releases – “His Anchor” in The First Love Forever collection and “Shenandoah Hearts” in The Backcountry Brides collection – both from Barbour. 

Shenandoah Hearts by Carrie Fancett Pagels

1754 - Great Wagon Road, into the Shenandoah Valley (Virginia) As the French-Indian War commences, Magda Sehler wonders if Jacob Owens lost his mind to have abandoned his Philadelphia business and moved to the Shenandoah Valley. Or has he lost his heart?

Website: www.carriefancettpagels.com

Blogs: Overcoming With God and Colonial Quills

My Pinterest page for 18^th Century clothing https://www.pinterest.com/carriefpagels/18th-century-clothing/ 

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Ten Things About Writing by Jana Kelley

“Put your fingers on the keyboard and your feet flat on the floor!”

Mrs. Cohen, my high school typing teacher, made herself famous with this phrase. And sometimes, that’s precisely how you get started.

You’ve got an idea: you’ve talked about it with others, you’ve read about it, dreamed about it, and envisioned your yet-unwritten-novel selling like hotcakes. At some point (how about today?), put your fingers on the keyboard and do it. That’s what I did four years ago, when I sat down to write my first novel. Did those initial pages make it into the published version? Thank goodness, no. But I would not be holding my published novel in my hands now if I hadn’t put my fingers on the keyboard and started.

That’s the first lesson I’ve learned: Just start already!

Here are nine more things I’ve learned about writing since that day that I took my typing teacher’s advice:

1. Set a goal. It can be a daily word count, or an amount of time you plan to set aside. If you don’t set a goal, you won’t get anything done.

2. Write before checking email and social media, which are rabbit holes. If you don’t, you’ll emerge hours later, dazed and wondering what happened to your morning. Write first, then you can go down all the rabbit holes you want.

3. Keep a notebook (or several). I have a small notebook in my purse for jotting down ideas that come to me when I am away from the computer. I keep a larger one for each writing project. Those hold notes from phone calls with my editor, diagrams, sketches, and lists of things I need to research or correct.

4. If you enjoy writing you won’t run out of ideas, you’ll just start seeing more things around you as potential subjects to write about. Annie Dillard says, “Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.”

5. Take time off. You write better after a break.

6. Let others read your work and offer their thoughts. Swallow your pride and listen to feedback. I like to have a professional editor but also beta-readers (regular folks who are willing to read my stuff and give me feedback).

7. Join groups (online or in person), competitions, clubs, or take a writing class. Be a learner.

8. Free-write. Choose a topic and then set a timer for ten minutes. Type about the topic until the timer beeps. No editing, rewriting, or stopping to think. Just type. You’ll be amazed what comes out of your head and lands on the computer screen when you give your mind and hands freedom. Try it! Free-writing is my favorite thing to do.

9. Back up your work. Back up in several places. It stinks to lose your work. Trust me.

What have you learned from your writing journey?

~~~~~~

Jana Kelley is a Texan who hardly ever lives in Texas. Raised in Southeast Asia, Jana developed a love for cross-cultural living early in life. Her love for writing came soon after. Jana returned to Texas to attend East Texas Baptist University. She and her husband married a month after she graduated, and by their second anniversary, they lived in a remote African town. After 13 years in Africa and the Middle East, Jana, her husband, and their three boys moved to Southeast Asia where they currently live. Jana is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, a blogger, and a contributor to Voices of the Faithful by Beth Moore (Books 1 &2). She is the author of two devotional books and three novels. Jana loves to connect with her readers. You can learn more about her at janakelley.com.