Back from Conference? Get to Work! by Angela Arndt

Welcome Back!
Have you ever gotten home from a writing conference and all you wanted to do was unpack and sleep? Sorry. Your job just started.

Angela Arndt

Don't believe me? Consider these:

Thank You Notes
Send a hand-written note instead to every editor, an agent or mentor you met, even those who turned you down. Consider sending a note to the workshop or continuing education instructors, too.

If you really want to show your appreciation, include specific things from your conversation. List the follow-ups that they suggested and tell them how you are going to do them.

Last year, award-winning author, James L Rubart, suggested that your thank-you note echo the theme of your book. My book is set on a bee farm, so I sent a small jar of honey with my handwritten note. If you met in the coffee shop where an agent ordered tea, send them a small box of their fav. Details show that you care.

3-2-1 Contacts!
Are you wondering what to do with all those business cards? There are several apps that will pull the information from them to import directly into your Contacts program.

Be sure to note where you met them and how you connected. Did you sit beside them in a workshop? What did you talk about? Put that information in the Notes section

Why bother? These are new members of your writing tribe. Everyone needs new friends.

Facebook: Like, Follow or Friend? 
Should you “Like” their business profile or send a friend request to their personal profile? The answer to that question is this: how well do you know them?

• Business Page - if they are multi-published authors with followers in the thousands and the only interaction you had with them was to ask them to pass the pepper, you should probably "Like" or “Follow” their business page.
• Friend Request - if the two of you had long discussions and he or she said, “Here’s my card, be sure to friend me on Facebook,” then do it. 

If You Got a Request
If someone asked to see your work, go to the agency or publisher website for submission requirements and follow them. If you can’t find enough information there, check out the requester’s personal website. You may be able to find what you need there.

If “No” was the Answer
What if the agent or editor declined? Don’t worry, the answer could have been, “Not right now” instead of “No.” Check out Wendy Lawton’s blog post, Fatal Submission Fails or Steve Laube's Even the Best Get Rejected for real encouragement if your interview was a disaster.

There you are. You have plenty to do. What are you waiting for? Get busy!

About the Author

Angela Arndt writes women’s fiction with a thread of romance. Stories of strong, independent women in difficult situations set in small Southern towns are her favorite. She and her husband live outside one in the middle of a big wood with thousands and thousands of honeybees. Visit her at www.angelaarndt.com or connect with on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Let’s Talk about Dashes by Annette M. Irby

Red pencil*

Writers have often asked me as I'm editing their projects: what is the difference between dashes? Let’s take a look at three of them and see if we can clear up any confusion.

Three Types of Dashes

There are three types of dashes fiction writers will use most often:

Hyphen: -

En dash: –

Em dash: —

(Note the length of each, which is how we tell them apart and how we know when to use each of them.)

Uses of Dashes

Let’s begin with the first one. A hyphen is used for compound adjectives or other words, names, as well as single letter or first sound stuttering. Hyphens are also used in phone numbers, social security numbers, and ISBNs (yay!). One would also use hyphens to divide single letters when a word is spelled out. Examples:

Broken-down car

Mrs. Smith-Waters

800-555-1234

My last name is spelled: r-i-l-e-y

Y-y-you’re right!

Th-thank you!

An en dash is a little longer than the hyphen and is used for date ranges, as well as Scripture references that include more than one verse. This dash is also used to show sports’ scores. Think of this dash as the word “to” in order to determine whether this dash is needed in your sentence. Examples:

1944–1945

May 3–4, 2018

Jeremiah 29:11–13

The team won 7–4.

An em dash is used often for instances like whole-word stutters, interruptions, and set-apart clauses. Examples:

I–I don’t understand.

“Wait a sec—”

If you don’t mind—and I’m not saying you would—here are the paint choices for this room.

“I can’t tell”—she motioned between us—“which one of you is lying.” (Notice the order here. The em dashes are outside the quotation marks on either side, because they are used to set off the gesture.)

Additional Information

There are also combined en dashes, and combined em dashes, but that’s getting a little involved for our needs. Fiction editors use the Chicago Manual of Style to ensure the proper use of dashes. You can learn more by studying CMS 6.75–94. 

Write on, friends!

~~~~~

Finding Love in Friday Harbor, Washington

Will keeping his promise lead to another broken heart—or help them find love again?

FLI Friday Harbor by Annette M. Irby

Professor Mikaela Rhoades has a plan: she’ll encourage her students’ marine biology research through an exclusive program while helping an old family friend’s whale touring business stay afloat. The challenge is the tour captain is her first love and ex-fiancé. Mikaela longs to help his family in the wake of his father’s death, but she’s keeping secrets. She’ll have to face her past and overcome her concerns about the future to make it through the summer. 

Captain Hunter Cahill has taken over the family touring business after his father’s death. Unfortunately, he’s drowning in grief and debts. He’s hoping the incoming stodgy professor will help resurrect the failing business, but he’s not prepared when that professor turns out to be Mikaela, his former fiancée. To make matters more difficult, he’d promised his father to pursue her if she ever returned to the island single. The more time they spend together, the easier it is to keep that promise, though she still plans to leave at the end of the season. How much will it cost him to spend the summer romancing Mikaela?

~~~~~

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 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

Book Review Blog: www.annetteirbyreviews.blogspot.com

Photo credit: Pixabay
Author photo credit: Sarah Irby of Irby Photography

When Hurricanes Blow Away Your Writing Schedule by C. Kevin Thompson

C. Kevin Thompson

There is little out there more trying on the patience of a person than preparing for a hurricane. In the week to ten days prior to the event, you are watching forecasts, being told how big the storm is, how destructive it is. There’s the dizzying array of “spaghetti models” showing the storm going one way, then another, and another.

At first, Hurricane Irma was going to hit New York. Be another Sandy. Then, it shifted. The people of the Carolinas took notice. Yet again, it shifted. East coast of Florida. West coast of Florida. Then, right up the middle of the state.

During this time, people started to panic as Irma became the most publicized, advertised, and glamorized storm of all time. An estimated five million people headed north. For those who stayed, generators disappeared. Gasoline disappeared. Store shelves looked like Looter Central. I laughed when I went to our local store two days before the storm hit. Even when supplies are scarce, there were kinds of bread and certain types of paper goods nobody apparently wanted. A First-World problem, for sure.

But once you are as prepared as you can be, you still have to live through the storm. Bands of rains influenced by Irma swept across our area Saturday evening, Sept. 10. The outer bands got here on Sunday. By Sunday night, the winds picked up with gusts of 50-60 mph. The power went out at 1:23 a.m., ninety minutes before the eye plowed directly over our area.

By late Monday morning, the winds were still gusty, but the threats were gone, or so we thought. A fifty-foot oak tree that was already leaning toward our house had shifted at least two feet more, and the roots had uprooted partially. This was in addition to a shattered kitchen window suffered during the peak of the storm and what I estimate is 15-20 pick-up truck loads of debris scattered across our yard.

Our power remained off until Wednesday afternoon while heat indexes of 102 plagued our area.

Now (Saturday, Sept. 16), we’re getting back to normal. The Leaning Tree of Lake Thompson is gone. Tree service took it down Wednesday. About 60 percent of the debris is picked up and stacked out by the road, but I’m running out of lot frontage. The piles range from five to eight feet high and are anywhere from four to ten feet wide. FEMA trucks will pick it all up in about a month or two.

Oh, the window is fixed, too.

But one thing that still needs repair is my writing schedule. I’m a good 10,000 words behind, and finding time to be creative is at a premium right now. Especially when you are physically and emotionally drained. (And yet, we didn’t suffer anything like the folks in south Florida—Naples area—or those in Houston. Please pray for those affected.)

But like everything that is important, I’ll find the time. Somehow. Some way. I’ll figure out how to up my word count some days until I’m back on track. Why? Because that’s what writers do. They write. Even if it is only ten words.

And it will probably be awhile before I complain about all the usual, minor things I complain about that get in my way.

It’s amazing how life-changing events help to refocus our lives.

Maybe that’s why God allows them to happen.

The Serpent’s Grasp

The Serpent's Grasp

Something ominous lurks under the waters.

Dr. Evelyn Sims, a brilliant marine biologist, is being watched. Her husband's mysterious death at sea—with the only survivor of the Greenback telling a shocking, unbelievable tale—has thrown her personal life into chaos. Her scientific views are being scrutinized. Her husband's office and their home are investigated. Called in by the FBI to help solve the mystery, Evelyn is thrust into her toughest research project ever...and forced into a maze of deception and betrayal.

Micah Gregson, the Coast Guard captain who rescued the Greenback, is determined to find out why a special unit at the FBI—the one assigned to cryptozoological cases—is involved.

Together Evelyn and Micah will uncover a plot more deadly than anything the ocean could ever produce. One that will either save Evelyn's life and redeem her career, or destroy everything she—and myriad others—stand for.

C. KEVIN THOMPSON is an ordained minister with a B.A. In Bible (Houghton College, Houghton, NY), an M.A. in Christian Studies (Wesley Biblical Seminary, Jackson, MS), and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership (National-Louis University, Wheeling, IL). He presently works as an assistant principal in a middle school.

His Blake Meyer series is out! 30 Days Hath Revenge - A Blake Meyer Thriller: Book 1, is now available! Book 2 of the Blake Meyer Series, Triple Time, is now available! Book 3, The Tide of Times, will be out Labor Day weekend! Also, the second edition of his award-winning debut novel, The Serpent’s Grasp, is now available!

Kevin is a huge fan of the TV series 24, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, and Criminal Minds, loves anything to do with Star Trek, and is a Sherlock Holmes fanatic, too.

To connect with Kevin and learn more, please visit:

Website:                                www.ckevinthompson.com/

Kevin’s Writer’s Blog:         www.ckevinthompson.blogspot.com/

Facebook:                              C. Kevin Thompson – Author Fan Page  

Twitter:                                  @CKevinThompson

Goodreads:                            C. Kevin Thompson

Where Does that Grin Come From? by Kathy Carlton Willis

I’m often asked, “How can you keep grinning despite the challenges in your life? It has nothing to do with me. It has to do with the God in whom I put my trust. Knowing “He’s got this” helps me carry on (in hope) rather than to carry on (complain)!

Grinning instead of grimacing comes from the discipline of thinking on glorious victorious thoughts outside the current stinky situation.

First I get my imaginary lariat out and wrangle those negative thoughts that attempt to defeat me.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV)

Once I evict those destructive thoughts, I fill the void with healthful and helpful thoughts. Thoughts that line up with the mind of Christ.

Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. ...Then the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8b-9 NLT)

If I practice this passage in Philippians, it might look something like this. I’m going to fix my thoughts on what is:

• True: I remember the extreme way God answered my prayer to provide for our family.
• Honorable: I’m blown away by the way that writer stays humble when others try to put her on a pedestal.
• Right: I respect the decision this politician made to choose an unpopular but godly path.
• Pure: How precious the gift of life is when I see photos of the much prayed for Lyla.
• Lovely: How beautiful are the wildflowers dressing up that field.
• Admirable: I see integrity in the choice Russ made to not malign a wrongdoer.
• Excellent: I respect how she endures through her weight-training routine.
• Worthy of praise: God’s faithfulness is something I can count on.

 Are you having a hard time grinning this week? What will your fix list look like?

About the Author:

God’s Grin Gal, Kathy Carlton Willis, shines the light on what holds you back so you can grow. She’s a popular speaker and writer’s coach. Read her book, Grin with Grace, or find more information at: http://www.kathycarltonwillis.com/.