Sneak Peek of Soldiers Don't Cry

My newsletter is coming out in one week! In it I am compiling the 7 articles that I will have published the past week in various article venues around the internet. You can sign up for it today and have access to every one of them without having to look them up yourself. I have been spending a lot of my time lately working on my novel: Soldiers Don’t Cry. I’ve been working on the edits, trying to get the book up to the length that I want it to be, as well as get some of the major aspects of each of the scenes how I want them to be. One of the things I am working on is what some call “my elevator speech”. You know, it’s what you tell someone when they ask you what you do and you tell them you’re a novelist. You know what they always ask next is “what’s your book about?” That’s where the elevator speech comes in. I have been following Author Kristen Lamb’s Blog http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/. One of the things that she says is imperative is that a writer writes what the novel is about in one sentence. The sentence must provide an active goal for the main characters. As the birth pangs of the American revolution intensify, patriot smuggler and spy Elizabeth Thorton is caught between her loyalty to her countrymen and the love of her life— Philip Randolph, a British Army officer who equally dedicated to his work of bringing the American colonists back under subjection to the king. Does this sound like a plot that moves you to want to know more? I’ve also been working on the blurb for the back of the book. Here’s what I’ve got so far. When parliament closes Boston’s port in the summer of 1774, Yankee smuggler and spy, Elizabeth Thorton is caught between her loyalty to her countrymen and the love of her life—Philip Randolph, a boy she knew when she was a child, returns to Elizabeth’s life as a British Officer in the King’s Own. Philip Randolph, who was, as a boy, so traumatized by an ambush by Seneca warriors where he was left a sole survivor that he is left without any memory of anything that happened before or during the event, now returns as a British Officer in the King’s Own—the enemy of the liberty-seeking Colonists. Can Elizabeth keep from getting caught as a Yankee traitor? How does the loss of Philip’s memory of that traumatic experience affect who he is in 1775 Boston? Is there any hope for their love for one another, or will the threat of war forever keep them apart? I would love to hear your feedback! Don’t be afraid to be critical, either. I would love your honest opinion. Remember to sign up for my newsletter. The premiere edition is coming out next week.

To Mine Own Self Be True

This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man-- William Shakespeare.

This quote of Shakespeare’s has become my mantra of late. Actually for the past few years, I have been stubbornly holding onto my own idea of what I want to do with the rest of my life. The way I see it, God created me to be me. He created me to be the best me that I could be, not someone else. I was given a set of circumstances in life, talents, predispositions, weaknesses, and all together, they are what comprise who I am. I am given all these ingredients like a puzzle and have been asked to put it all together into one harmonious package. Too often I have looked at the weaknesses (with help from others I might add) and only saw what I couldn't do. Other times I have looked only at what I thought was good and saw myself as limitless, but then fell on my face because I forgot about the challenges created by the aspects of me which are less favorable. I do best when I am truly in tune with whom God created me to be, even though being honest with who I am doesn’t always seem to be the path of least resistance. My life is like a painting painted in bright and dark colors. The dark colors framing the bright ones causing them to appear to pop from the canvas of time. It is the dark moments, those times in which I am barely able to hold on, that lead to my brightest victories. So what does all this have to do with the coming year? Well, it has to do with the fact that I have unfulfilled desires that need to be explored. I have some wonderful dreams, and in light of eternity, I have only a few short years left to fulfill those dreams in this lifetime. If I'm going to get any of my dreams fulfilled, I need to get on with what I know I want to do. That’s why during this next year I am laying the ground work in making some of these dreams begin to come to fruition. I'm going to be completing my second year of college and beginning my third. I am going to be starting a newsletter after the first of the year, so that I can begin to organize my social networking writing platform. I am also going to be finishing my second novel--Soldiers Don't Cry and publishing it June 30th of this year. I am looking forward to 2012 to being a busy, rewarding year. This all will be the foundation of further plans that I have. I plan to build my own publishing company. This company will not be just for my work, but for the work of countless other Indie writers. I also plan to teach. I love teaching, especially reading and writing. I also would like to begin public speaking. I have been thinking of ways to do that. There are a lot of people who know me who probably can't imagine me going that route. I know I’ve failed them in the past. I failed me in the past. But I know who I am now, and I will be true to myself from here on out.

2011 year in review

I am shocked that it has been almost a year since I wrote a blog post for The "Write Approach". Time certainly has a way of getting away from me. It wasn't because I haven't been working on other areas of my life, however. It has been a busy year for me. I started working on my bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts in January, and have already started my sophomore year. The fact that I have been in an accelerated degree program has definitely taken a large chunk of my time this past year.

Not only that, but I also have started a part time job. I work Friday nights at an artsy kind of restaurant in West Plains, Missouri called the A La Carte Cafe. Susan and Jon Lumsden are the proprietors of the establishment. The food served is, as much as possible, from locally procured sources. Much of what they serve is also organic. As you might realize from my other blog Simply Living, I support local foods and organic foods. Not only does this establishment have the foods I like, it displays creative outlets. Susan spent many years creating artistic quilts. She has a number of them hanging in the restaurant. Jon is a singer/songwriter. The reason I have the opportunity to work here on Friday nights is because on these nights local musicians from all different music styles come into the restaurant and entertain the patrons. From time to time the restaurant also has special events, some of which I have able to be a part. I have also been busy trying to network on the Internet through Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. During the first part of the year I built my twitter account from around 300-1000 people I was following. During the last three months I have increased my following to nearly 2000 and my followers to over 1500. I hope that by the end of the year I will be able to increase my followers to just over 2000. In March I had a major writing setback which has caused me to play catch up ever since. My husband decided to wipe the computer where I had all my documents. I had recently bought a new computer so I told him that I wanted all my documents stored on a flash drive so that I could transfer them to the new computer. Rather than making sure that I had everything off of the computer, he went ahead and wiped the computer. Later, when it was too late, I discovered that he deleted all of my Microsoft Word files and just saved "my documents" files that had been on the computer. My published book had been deleted from the computer as well as the three rough drafts I had of my upcoming novels. I had to start all over again. Fortunately I was able to find an old copy a draft of Soldiers Don't Cry on an old computer that was here in the house. I have since taken that draft and expanded the manuscript to almost 300 pages. I have been working on editing the book since March, and I plan to publish Soldiers Don't Cry on June 30th of next year.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Where do you get your inspiration? I get my writing inspiration from many different sources. One of the ways I get inspiration is through watching old television shows, reading old books, and watching old movies. I'm sure you get the idea. The reason I go to those things that are old is because they help me see a different perspective than what I would see in what is in vogue today. It helps keep me from regurgitating the ideas of others. I like to look at what was written in the past and see what I like about what I'm reading and what I don't like about what I'm reading. What elements would I like to include in my own writing? What elements don't I want to use or how would I use the events in what I read in a different setting than the one where it is used in the old book?

I love to observe people and I find inspiration from their experiences. I like to try to see things from the eyes of a person that I know who is of a different age group. I can gain insight from anyone. The elderly, the teenager and the child all have unique ways of looking at life. I love to listen to the stories of others. There have been many stories that I have picked up from my father and I have taken advice from my preteen daughter.

I gain inspiration from places where I go. I often like to go into my own backyard and experience the moment in time. I close my eyes and listen and write what I hear, what I taste, what I smell, what I feel. I go through it until I write down every sensation.

I can also use this same sensory inspiration when writing about places that I've been and even places that I've only read about in books. I imagine myself going there and experience the location and write about it through all the senses.

I am inspired by dreams. Several of my books have been inspired by dreams. I have been awakened with an idea that simply wouldn't go away and from it I would create a story. Soldiers Don't Cry the book that I am putting out in June 2011 was inspired from a dream.

I have gained inspiration from my own personal experiences. Many negative experiences that I have had to work through have been fodder for some of my best scenes. I think that 'sharing' these experiences with my characters helps me create not only better scenes but it creates more real characters that not only I am able to identify with but others can identify with as well.

Finally I find inspiration simply by asking questions. I write them down and then search for the answers from within. That is how this blog post was written.

Now I present this question to you. Where do you find your inspiration?