Wednesday's Word: Drive

Drive. I'm not referring to that leisure jaunt in an automobile on a Sunday afternoon, I'm talking about what motivates a person to do something. In this post I want to delve into what drives someone to write. Being an author is a lonely job. There are no office parties, chats around the water cooler or over the cubicle wall. A writer sits alone all day (when they are lucky and don't have family take all their writing time), at their computer, their only interaction with other people comes through online social media. And then there is the pay, or lack thereof, and the rejections, and the possible tossing of a year's worth of work in the cybertrash. So what could possibly motivate a sane person to devote their life to wanting to be an author?

To my author friends out there, what powers the DRIVE that keeps you going when everything around you tells you it's not worth it?

This is what drives me:

Society says
today's youth want to read
books filled with suicide, sex, smut, and greed.

But I don't agree
with the message this sends:
"If you like to read, you must bend to the trends."

That is why I write,
to make books that inspire
to live life on a plain a step higher.

And . . .
to give kids a choice
in the books that they read.
If I lift but one soul, I succeed.

Wednesday's Word: Book Trailers

This morning, rather than composing a post for my blog, I got on the subject of book trailers with my daughter. (That's why this post is so late). She shared with me some of the music my son-in-law had written, performed and recorded. I mentioned I should have her husband create some music for a book trailer for my novel Hattie's Promise. "What's a book trailer?" she said. So I commenced to visist some of my writing buddies' blogs and showed her samples of book trailers.

Some were simple, others involved actors and were much more complex, but all captured my attention better than any written blurb ever could. It cemented for me the need to produce a book trailer for my soon to be released book. That fact that I am self-publishing only increases the importance. When my daughter then said, "Matt could so do that," refering to the production of a book trailer, I became very excited. He is a communications major and has all the equipment, skills and talent to produce a quality trailer. I can see the promotion of my first novel fall into place. But I'm even more excited for my son-in-law. If he can produce a quality trailer for my book, and the word gets around that he is available to do the same for others, perhaps this can not only be a way for him to add to his portfolio, but to bring in a few extra dollars to the "poor, starving college kids" that live in my basement apartment.

For those of you who are like my daughter, and have never seen a book trailer before, I have tried to include a YouTube clip of the book trailer for a group of my writer friends who are releasing their books together on November 11. They have launched a book tour, entitling it the Dark C.A.R.M.A. tour, CARMA coming from the first letter of all the participating authors, (clever, huh?). Unfortunately, I'm to technologically inept and I couldn't do it. Visit my friend, Christine Bryants blog to view it, also if you want to learn more about  their blog tour.http://www.christinebryant.blogspot.com/

Wednesday Word: Goodbye

My father with my grandson (his great-grandson)

My father passed away peacefully this past Sunday evening. He'd only been in the hospital a for a few days when it became evident that he would not ever leave the same way he came in. Before his visit to the hospital, my dad had been living on his own, driving his car around the town of Payson to get out of the house for awhile, or riding his Jazzi two blocks down the street to the Senior citizen center for lunch and some socialization. Up until a half year ago, he still held his church calling as the ward finace clerk. He'd had that job for over 40 years and took pride that his mind was still sharp and he could do a good job for the Lord. He'll never know what an impression this left on me. I've known many other members of my faith, who at much younger ages than 85, have taken the attitude, "I've served in the church long enough.  I'm old and I deserve a break." I don't believe our obligation to God works that way. My dad obviously didn't either. What a great example he was.
He was also a great dad. I loved him dearly, and I'll miss him.

As I say good bye to Dad,
my exemplar, strength, and friend,
I know death is but a gateway,
in no way it's the end.
Though tears shed with the memories
of camping trips and skis,
biking down the canyon,
and others just like these,
I'm at peace with my dad's passing,
he's in a joyous place,
with my brother, mom and God,
and they're saving me a space.

Tuesday is the New Wednesday, or Is Time Speeding Up?

I kind of goofed yesterday. I meant to preset my blog post to publish Wednesday morning (this morning), but instead I pressed PUBLISH. I didn't know how to reverse it, so you got Wednesday's word on Tuesday. Oh well, it's not the end of the world I figured. I'm just hurrying your week along. 

For some people that could be a good thing--speeding up a dragging week. But for people like me, I don't need life to move along any faster. I swear the earth is spinning around on its axis much faster than it did when I was a kid. The term "endless summer" truely fit back then. This past summer, however, it seemed to zip by at the speed of light. I went up to the local farmer's market stand Monday to buy some corn on the cob. They told me they had just sold out that morning and there would be no more corn. The season was over. I had to hold back an emotional "NO," summer just started yesterday, didn't it? Or so it seemed to me.

Is it only me that feels time is moving by faster than it used to?

Wednesday's Word: Calm (and Covenant Communications)

For years I have been envisioning how it would happen, and how I would feel when I finally got my first non-rejection letter from a publisher. Like you can imagine, words like excited, elated, thrilled, dancing on the ceiling, etc., were part of that vision.


Well, it finally happened to me the other day, not the dancing on the ceiling, but a non-rejection letter. I received an e-mail from Covenant Communications that they really liked my novel and they wanted to consider it further, (here’s where the dancing on the ceiling should have come in), but they would like me to consider changing the voice from YA to Adult for marketing purposes.

I can really see their point, and so I’m more than willing to attempt the rewrite.

Then why am I so unmoved by this milestone in my writing career? I feel like a mountain lake on a lazy summer day: calm.

Am I subconsciously shielding myself from possibility they will reject my rewrite? Have I become so conditioned to rejections that I fail to believe their e-mail was real? Or has the magnitude of that notification  just not sunk in yet? In any case, I am quite baffled at my emotions.

Then again I get to thinking. The times when I have felt calm about something has usually been when the matter at hand ends up being a good thing. Like my husband. Before I met him, it seemed I got twitter pated by every guy that I dated. But when I met him there was none of those butterfly-like feelings flittering around inside me. Instead a calm feeling permeated my emotions and everything about him just seemed to fit.

Calm is a good feeling. I’ll take it as a good sign.

Now, I’ve got to get to work.

Book Review: Fall by Jennifer Hurst

     Fall unfolds in the delightful setting of the coral canyons of southern Utah. Add to it JD, a main character determined to restore an old school building, despite being a female contractor in a male dominated career, the premise of Fall immediately caught my interest.
     Though I was pulled in and introduced quickly to a mysterious anomaly within the old school, I felt the author substituted a soap opera-like romance in the place of solving the mystery. When  JD's whirlwind romantic interest comes into the light as a jerk (and a fallen angel) who was using her, the sappy romance made more sense to me. I was relieved when she falls for the jerk's brother, Nathan, a good angel.
     Fall is filled with mystery and vivid details of demons who lurk in the background of everyday life, camouflaged to their potential, unsuspecting victims. The reader learns angels are just as invisible, but are contstantly struggling to keep victims like JD safe.
     The book will appeal to readers of paranormal romance and/or fans of fantastical characters like demons and angels.
     If you are interested in purchasing the e-book, go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/71705 or to visit the author's blog go to http://jenniferhurst.wordpress.com/ 

FALL BLOG TOUR
In conjunction with this blog tour, Jennifer is holding a contest. It will involve any of the blogs that Jennifer visits or where her book is featured and will close on December 31st, 2011. The entrants have to answer three questions about the book they’ve read (bought, borrowed, or stolen - shame on you) and post a link to Jennifer's website on their Twitter, Facebook, or blog (need link for verification).


Then the names will be entered in a random name picker generator (http://textmechanic.com/Random-Line-Picker.html) and announced on Jennifer's website (www.jenniferhurst.com) on January 31st, 2012. The winner will receive a gift certificate for a night’s stay at the actual bed and breakfast where the story takes place.

Other prizes include an autographed copy of FALL, and she will randomly select 3 contestants’ names to use in the sequel to FALL. Plus, they will receive a free copy of that book when it is published.

Each blog that Jennifer Hurst visits will have a different set of questions people can answer, and they may enter as many times as they want - but they can enter once per blog site that they visit. So the more sites you visit, the more you can enter your name, thus increasing your chances of winning the gift certificate, a copy of the book FALL, and your name in the sequel.

Get the book, read the book, and then read over the questions below. Once you have your answers, e-mail them to Jennifer. fall.jenniferhurst@gmail.com

Your privacy is respected and your email address will NOT be used for anything but the contest. Once the contest is over - your email address will be deleted from the database.

Here are the questions for you to answer:
What did Matthew do to JD on the arch that made her scared and mad?
Which Holiday did JD celebrate with the Parkers?
What color was the jacket that the truck driver loaned to JD?

If you would like to visit the other sites, go here for the master list of all participating sites: http://fallbyjenniferhurst.wordpress.com/

Best of luck, and thanks for participating!