Jessica Ferguson

Author, Writing Coach, Speaker

MEET SANDRA ORCHARD

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When Sandra Orchard wrote this post, she had no idea she was writing to, and about, me. I’m one of those writers who has trouble determining my main character’s goal. If she’d asked me what Cory’s goal is, I’d have said, to get the girl. Or I may have asked … when? before he meets Bretta or after? Before he realizes his life is about to change, or after it changes? Okay, I tend to complicate things–as you see, so Sandra’s use of the word urgent really helps. To read an excerpt of her books Fatal Inheritance and Deadly Devotion just click the titles.

WHAT’S YOUR HERO’S GOAL?
by Sandra Orchard

Your novel’s main character needs a goal.

You know this, right?

But do you really understand what it means?

At a writer’s conference I recently attended, I asked every single writer who had an appointment with me this question: What is your hero’s goal for the story?

Only one out of eight gave me a satisfactory answer. Most had a lot to say about what the hero or heroine would learn through the story, especially spiritually, since we’re talking Christian fiction, but very few of the writers I talked to had nailed down a concrete, visible, urgent story goal for their main character.

If you’re writing commercial fiction, and want to be published, your hero needs a goal.

A concrete goal.

New writers often get confused by the lingo. Writing teachers talk about long-term and short-term goals, internal goals and external goals, needs and wants, not to mention scene goals.

I find that most Christian writers don’t have a problem with the character’s long-term goal, which often tends to be abstract. It’s what the character wants (or needs) out of life in general.

Where writers run into trouble is in identifying what is often called the “short-term goal”. I prefer to call it the character’s story goal, to differentiate it from the very short-term changing goals the character has in each scene.

The character’s story goal not only needs to be concrete, it needs to be achievable within the time constraints of the story. The story is over when your main character reaches his/her goal or fails to reach it.

Now, if you’re thinking, I write romance…the hero’s goal is to win the girl, think again.

Okay, occasionally, winning the girl is the singular story goal, but it’s not enough for the goal to simply be concrete and achievable.

It needs to be urgent.

If the hero could wait until next month or next year to pursue his goal or solve the problem then there’s no urgency to propel the story forward.

We suspense writers like to call this urgency the ticking bomb. If the hero doesn’t reach the goal by a certain time, boom.

In my newest release, Fatal Inheritance, my heroine’s goal is to hang onto the century farmhouse she’s inherited from her recently deceased grandparents.

Her sister and brother-in-law are fighting the will. Land developers are vying for the land. One of them, or maybe someone else, wants her out of the house so desperately, he or she goes to great lengths to scare Becki Graw into leaving.

As for urgency…

Since the house is in a rural community, that isn’t a commutable distance from where Becki worked, she quit her job. She planned to live on her savings until she found a job nearby. However, she hadn’t counted on necessary house repair expenses, nor on the suppressed economy in the area that makes finding a job near impossible.

Added to that, her sister’s threat to break the will cannot be ignored. She is determined to make it happen yesterday.

Then when Becki cannot be persuaded to go quietly into the night, the threats mount and her choices morph to give up the house or die. Which of course, adds urgency to the cop-next-door’s goal to catch the person behind the threats.

When choosing a goal for your main character, be sure his or her motivation is strong. He or she must have something significant enough at stake to keep pushing forward when it would be easier to just quit. But that’s a lesson for another day.

Any questions? 

 
Bio:

Sandra Orchard is a multi-award-winning Canadian author of inspirational romantic suspense/mysteries. Her summer releases include: Fatal Inheritance (Aug, Love Inspired Suspense) and Deadly Devotion (June, Revell). She is an active member in American Christian Fiction Writers, The Word Guild, and Romance Writers of America. To find out more about her novels, or read interesting bonus features, please visit www.sandraorchard.com or connect at www.Facebook.com/SandraOrchard

 

IWSG: Unwelcome Deadlines

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Today is IWSG day-the first Wednesday of each month. IWSG stands for Insecure Writers Support Group and was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. You can follow other IWSG members here on twitter using the hashtag #IWSG.

Our purpose is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds. Join us!

After 16 months in Oklahoma, we’re back in Louisiana. Full time. A couple of friends helped us load the truck and tie everything safely in place. Our Okie friends and church are sweet memories now. So far, I’ve received one phone call, several text messages and emails and visited on Facebook with them. They always make me smile. Hubby and I have never shared friends (as a couple), and I’ve never had many non-writing friends. I don’t know why. Oklahoma was an unusual experience. A blessing in a number of ways. 

Hubby will be officially retired on Thursday. We’ll embark on a different kind of adventure. A little scary.

I used to be very organized. I used to be able to multi-task. Since being home, I’m having trouble writing or even accomplishing more than one thing at a time. Deadlines loom and I’m having to force myself to write. Forced writing isn’t good writing. I envy those writers who can whip out a story with no trouble at all and shoot it to their editor with so much confidence they never wonder if that story is good … or even readable. I’m not that way. I struggle. I feel as though I always struggle to put one word after the other. I struggle with my characters’ motivations and strengthening the conflict. I’ll ask a question I’ve asked a hundred times: how do we know, really know a story is good, if it hangs together, is logical, plausible and ready to be sent to the editor? When we’re satisfied with it, you say? What if we’re never satisfied?

I have a Sept. 1st deadline for a  9,000 word Christmas story. I’m struggling. Any advice?

MEET JUDY ALTER

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I’m excited to introduce Judy Alter whose ebook, Death Comes Home releases this week. I spent more than an hour on her food blog called Potluck with Judy, reading about genetically altered foods. Now that’s something that’ll scare your socks off, so let’s move on to something more pleasant: do you plot or do you write like a runaway freight train? Here’s what Judy has to say:

Pantsers vs. Plotters
by Judy Alter
 
Writing habits are individual things. I have long admired people who can plot out each chapter and each scene before they ever sit down to write. Then they have a road map to follow. Some leave room for flexibility, for the inevitable changes that occur when you write, but basically they know where they’re going. And writing a synopsis? Easy peasy—it’s all there in the outline. Some writers use storyboards or whiteboards to keep track of scenes and characters as they write. Or computer programs which allow you to move scenes around and such.

I on the other hand wander blindly about in a familiar world, since I know the settings of my series novels, but with little idea of where I’m going. My publisher now requests a synopsis before accepting a proposal. But recently after I signed a contract, the manuscript began to take a different direction and ended up nowhere near what the synopsis had indicated. When I saw this developing, maybe halfway through, I wrote the managing editor who requested a new synopsis. Fortunately, it passed muster. There’s been one intervening novel since, but now I find my mind going back to the original theme of that earlier project.

The trouble, you see, is that I’m a pantser. I write by the seat of my pants. I prefer to dash off a page of rough notes, get the first sentence, and see what happens when I go from there. Sometimes what happens is magic. Events seem to unfold of their own accord, characters tell me what’s going to happen, and the plot shapes itself, often taking turns I hadn’t expected. Many seasoned authors will tell you to listen to your characters, and they will tell you what’s going to happen. The late western novelist Elmer Kelton used to talk about two of his novels in which the characters took over his typewriter or computer. One was Buffalo Soldier, which he intended to feature a newly freed slave who becomes a buffalo soldier (one of the Negro regiments on the western frontier). But a Comanche chief kept demanding equal time, and eventually the book chronicled both their stories—the buffalo soldier’s rise in life as the Comanche’s way of life disappeared. The other was The Good Old Boys, which he wrote at his dying father’s bedside and based on all the stories his father, a longtime ranch foreman, had told him. The characters, he used to say, took over like a cold-jawed horse with a bit.

 
I don’t find it usually happens that easily, and sometimes I worry about what’s going to happen next. I also worry a lot if the manuscript is going to reach an acceptable word limit—I have a tendency to rush through things, so that my friend and beta reader is always telling me to slow down. He also often tells me I have too much going on in a book—which I wonder doesn’t spring from my desperate attempt to pad the length. But once I finish it, I rarely make major changes, like moving whole sections around, eliminating characters (I rejected that suggestion recently), and the like.

One trick that works for me when I settle down to write: set a goal of a thousand words a day. I wrote a novel that way earlier this year and found it worked well.

But everyone has their own methods. What’s yours?

 
Judy Alter is the author of two mysteries series—Kelly O’Connell Mysteries, including Skeleton in a Dead Space, No Neighborhood for Old Women, Trouble in a Big Box, and the just-published Danger Comes Home, and the Blue Plate Café Mysteries, which debuted this year with Murder at the Blue Plate Café, with Murder at Tremont House to come next year. Her books are available on Amazon and Smashwords. Also the author of several historical novels set in the American West, she is the recipient of Western Writers of America Owen Wister Award for  Lifetime Achievement and several other awards.

MEET JAN RIDER NEWMAN

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If there’s one thing I have trouble with in my writing, it’s setting. I have to admit, while reading I often skip lovely, long passages, jump right to the dialogue. Now that I’m beginning to get a little attention from small presses, I’ve devoted more time to studying how writer’s achieve a sense of place. My education comes late. My writer friend and SLR partner Jan Rider Newman has a fine eye for setting and her short stories prove it. Read what Jan has to share about Fitzgerald’s setting in The Great Gatsby.

Setting: The Character We Overlook
by Jan Rider Newman
 
The Great Gatsby, first published in 1925, has gained renewed attention lately because of the latest movie remake. F. Scott Fitzgerald fictionalized the North Shore of Long Island into West Egg and East Egg. Tom and Daisy Buchanan live in more fashionable East Egg. Gatsby and Nick Carraway, the narrator, live in West Egg.

Setting and sense of place is so important to a story it can be one of the characters. Consider Nick Carraway’s descriptions of West and East Egg:
I . . . rented a house . . . on that slender riotous island which extends itself due east of New York — and where there are . . . two unusual formations of land . . . [A] pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound. . . .

I lived at West Egg, the — well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard — it was . . . Gatsby’s mansion. . . . My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires — all for eighty dollars a month. 

Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water . . .
Even if you couldn’t afford one of the “palaces” or a twelve or fifteen thousand dollar “place,” wouldn’t you really enjoy living in Nick’s little house?

The home of Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson, provides jolting contrast:

About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke . . .

Could anything else offer more contrast or give a better idea of distinctions between and within classes than the descriptions of where the characters live? Tom and Daisy inhabit the ultimate circle—old-money fashionable. Gatsby is fabulously but newly rich, unfashionable in the Buchanan stratosphere. Though not especially rich, Nick is old-money fashionable and moves within both circles. Myrtle, in that village of ashes, lives above a garage, is poor and desperate.

Where is your story set? What does it say about your characters and their society, their passions and ambitions? If possible, go to your setting or one like it. What do you see? Don’t judge. Just look. See the people, the buildings, the sidewalks, streets/roads, animals, trees, and plants. What does the setting say to you? After you figure that out, ask what the setting says about your story. How can you condense the relevance of your setting the way Fitzgerald did, so it practically tells the story for you?

Good luck!
Jan Rider Newman has published short stories, nonfiction, poetry, and book reviews in competitions and anthologies, print and online literary journals. Her published short stories are collected in A Long Night’s Sing and other stories. She publishes and co-edits Swamp Lily Review, an online literary journal, and is webmaster for the Bayou Writers’ Group. Jan’s current WIP, a novel about the 1755 Acadian exile from Nova Scotia, is close to her heart because many of her ancestors fell victim to it. 
 
Her family, including two granddaughters, makes her world go around. They plus writing, research, genealogy, and photography keep her busy. 
A Long Night’s Sing and other stories is available for Kindle and POD. 
 
Jan blogs at Beyond Acadia:  Reading, Writing & Living Well, and her website is HERE.
 

Release Date

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I finally have a release date for The Last Daughter. All I can say is … don’t hold your breath! I don’t want any followers passing out on me. The date is December 4th. Seems like a mighty long time to me, but it could work to my advantage. I can order some promo goodies for conferences. Is that done for ebooks? I’m totally uneducated when it comes to promoting my own work–and the manner in which it should be done. I hate watching the time and the calendar, scheduling blog tours and hops and give-aways, etc. {{sigh}}  All and any advice will be appreciated.

I do have some good news. I’ve signed a contract with a small press for a Christmas story. The theme is The Twelve Days of Christmas. My story will take place on December 15th–the tenth day before Christmas. Now don’t get confused; that means, my hero and heroine will be living their lives on December 15th and their entire story will take place on that day.

My deadline is September 1st.
My release date is October 1st.

Whirlwind, right? I’m choosing photos for the cover and I don’t even have a title yet! Or a completed story! Okay… not much more than a germ of an idea.

How do best selling authors with multiple deadlines do this?

The fun thing is that my Christmas story (about 9,000 words) will be released as a single ebook along with eleven others. And then … and then … we’ll all be combined into a print book, an anthology. I guess what I’m most excited about is having my name on the cover of a book with multi-award winning writer Kathi Macias. Kathi has authored more than 40 books including those she ghosted.

Whatever made me think I could finish my novel before moving on the 27th? I seem to be running in place–ever so slowly adding to the word count. Seems I’m doing more cutting and editing than actual writing.

Tuesday is another long writing day at the library. I know I’ll accomplish something there. Wish me luck, keep fingers crossed for me and/or send prayers. And offer any advice you think I need. My eyes and ears are open!

 

Insecure Writers Support Group – A Made Up Mind

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Today is IWSG day-the first Wednesday of each month. IWSG stands of Insecure Writers Support Group and was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. You can follow other IWSG members here on twitter using the hashtag #IWSG.

Our purpose is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Join us!

So today, my question to you is:
Do you have a writing plan? A marketing plan? A plan for success? Neither do I. Every now and then I jot down goals and things I want to accomplish during a month or week but other than that … nothing.

However, I did draw up a plan several years ago and set out to accomplish some specific writing goals and guess what, it worked. I started publishing on a regular basis. That’s why I believe in The Power of the Made-Up Mind.

Back in November, I was asked to replace a conference speaker at the Bayou Writers Group conference. I had a week to prepare. I can’t do much talking or teaching on craft–not confident enough to go there–but I can talk about how to accomplish dreams and goals. I think I’ve made that a life study. I have a passion for helping people succeed or at least get on the right track. And I know–and believe with all my heart–that any of us can succeed and reach our goals (no matter what they are) if we just make up our mind to do so. We just need a plan and make up our mind to do it. We have to put forth some specific action.

This morning, I read PJ Nunn’s blog post called Business or Busyness and I want to share it with you along with a couple of her other posts:  Is There a Method to Your Promotional Madness and A Publicist’s Day. PJ Nunn owns BreakThrough Promotions. She shares a lot of great tips and advice. These tips are not only workable for your promoting, but adaptable for your writing and selling. No, I’m not suggesting you get a publicist, only you can determine if you need one, but I am suggesting you read these posts, draw up a plan and implement the power of your made up mind. We can accomplish anything if we have a plan and if we work hard enough. Honestly, we can.

Do you agree? Have you put the power of a made up mind into action? Share.

Markets and Moving and More

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It’s true, time flies when we’re having fun.  When we’re experiencing sad, painful things, time drags and every day seems to last forever. We’ve been in Oklahoma for a year and three months. Doesn’t seem like a year. Only when we took the 10-hour trek to Louisiana (and back) once a month did it feel like forever. Today we learned we’ll be pulling out on July 27th.  As anxious as I am to get home, I’m sad to be leaving. I’ve enjoyed being here in Yukon—meeting my friend Janie at the library for writing day, going to Discovery Church, having lunch with friends every Sunday. Exploring the fantastic Salvation Army Family Store for books and going to Half-Price Books in OKC. Things are different at home.  I can’t imagine living there permanently again. We’ll see what happens.

So … I’m setting goals to reach by July 27th because I have no idea what will happen once we get home. I know it will take awhile to get acclimated, and I hate unpacking boxes!
I’m still trying to finish my novel to send to Love Inspired. The editing/revising is what takes so long. Fresh writing moves pretty fast. Interruptions keep popping up. Today I’m reading the galleys of The Last Daughter, my novella. Seems like every time I post, I’m reading over it for some reason.  Has it taken forever to reach this point? Seems so, but my editor says it won’t be long before it’ll be available. I’m anxious to see what kind of response it gets since I’ve never written anything like it. It has a little darkness to it. A dose of reality I call it—dark reality.

 I have a couple of articles to write for Southern Writers Magazine, and a new nonfiction project I’m toying with.
In the meantime, here are a few markets for you.

Over at Cruising Altitude 2.0, D.L. Hammons is revving up his Write Fight 2013. You have until midnight June 30th to enter your 500 word short story. Take a look and follow instructions to perfection.  http://dlcruisingaltitude.blogspot.com/2013/06/write-club-last-call.html?showComment=1372432138957#c822276601668980747 

Slice Magazine is open to submissions from now through August 1 for short stories of up to 5,000 words that explore the theme “Escape.”  “We’re looking for anyone with a fresh voice and a compelling story to share—basically any work that really knocks our socks off. We’re not drawn to experimental or heavy-handed genre fiction. The best way to get a sense of Slice‘s content is to read the magazine.” Slice pays $100 for published stories. Find out more details here .

Samhain Publishing is seeking contributions for a fall 2014 gothic horror anthology. Editor Don D’Auria “wants to feel that claustrophobic, shadowy, oppressive gothic atmosphere” Stories may be supernatural or non-supernatural, historical or contemporary, and may feature ghosts, vampires, werewolves, homicidal maniacs, or almost anything your imagination can create. 25,000 to 30,000 words. Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2013. Stories will be published individually as ebooks in Spring 2014, then compiled into the anthology for the fall. Find all the details here.

Do any of these interest you? What are you working on? SHARE!

Meet Ally Shields – Avoiding Rookie Mistakes

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I can’t help but wonder how many of us receive a couple of rejections and give up. More importantly, how many of us actually make serious changes as a result of our rejections? Ally Shields has some excellent tips that will help us strengthen our stories.

Avoiding Rookie Mistakes by Marketing Too Soon

                                             by Ally Shields
Writing is fun. It’s the publishing end that makes us tear out our hair. I made many mistakes in the process, but I’m only highlighting those that resulted putting my work out there before it was ready.

My first query letter was vague, something about a witch who solved crimes, nothing about the specific plot. A more experienced writer suggested I follow this checklist:

·        Condense the story to a one-page synopsis.

·        Condense it further to an elevator pitch.

·        Write a logline.

I couldn’t believe how difficult this was, and I didn’t understand the term, logline. It also became clear I didn’t understand my basic plot. If I didn’t get it, how could an agent, editor or reader? I went back to the story, adding and deleting, to clarify the storyline. (For help with loglines and elevator pitches try this site: http://writingnorthidaho.blogspot.com/2011/10/blurbs-for-success-loglines-elevator.html. A good discussion of the synopsis can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/holly-robinson/book-synopsis-tips_b_2426724.html.)

As soon as I passed the plot check, I jumped into the query process and received good initial responses. Unfortunately, my writing didn’t live up to the query, and interest dwindled. Why? Because the first round of editing was up to me, as the writer—not the grammar and typos that everyone looks for—but passes through my manuscript looking for specific problems.

1.  Point of View: Is it consistent and clear throughout, without head hopping? Check here for an in-depth discussion: http://www.dbjackson-author.com/blog/index.php/2012/03/01/writing-tips-point-of-view-and-voice-part-i-overview/.

2. Five senses: Is each major scene grounded with as many of the five senses as possible without becoming artificial? Sight and hearing are easiest, but smell, taste and touch can often be added with just a little effort. The payoff is adding a richness that allows readers to share the experience.

3. Backstory/narrative: Backstory and narrative slow the pace of your story. Limit both to only what is necessary and dish it out in small amounts.

4. Over-used and/or weak words and phrases: Skipping this pass can ruin a good story by making it seem amateurish. I’ve found a program that helps (Cliche Cleaner), but my editor finds other words I’ve missed. My over-used words change: in one book it was eyebrows, in the next stared. My next word obsession was well. I use the Find function to ferret out weak, tired, or vague words: just, that, few, several, most. A longer list is on this website: http://goinswriter.com/weak-words/.

5. Pacing: Are the scenes in the right order with enough variation in intensity to keep the reader turning the pages? Take a look at structure forms, such as Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet: http://www.blakesnyder.com/tools/.

I spent three years writing, submitting, rewriting, and abandoned the project twice. I changed names, POV. Gradually, I figured out the issues, but failure was a harsh teacher. I burned a lot of publishing bridges and collected 167 rejections. Finally, I sat down and rewrote the manuscript from the beginning using everything I learned during all those required passes. When finished, I submitted Awakening the Fire, a Guardian Witch story, to three small presses. Two responded immediately, and I signed with one.

The book became a series: two books are published, a third coming in July. I have an approved story-arc for seven. It was a rough journey with a big payoff. I guess I learned a thing or two along the way.
Ally Shields is the pen name of Janet L Buck, a writer born and raised in the Midwest, along the Mississippi River, the setting for her urban fantasy series. After  a career in law and juvenile justice, she turned to full-time writing in 2009, and Awakening the Fire, the debut novel in her Guardian Witch series, was released in September 2012.  The author still lives in the Midwest with her Miniature Pinscher dog, Ranger. When not writing, reading or visiting her grown sons, she loves to travel in the US and abroad. Way too often she can be found on Twitter.

Contact links:

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Meet Judy Hogan – A Real Writer?

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Judy Hogan’s contribution to Be A Real Writer packs a wallop. If you want to write a novel you’ll learn a lot from this short piece. If you’re a time-waster/procrastinator, you’ll feel embarrassed and guilty. If you whine that you ‘ve written two or three novels and can’t sell them so you aren’t going to write any more–publisher’s loss–read on, and learn. Judy Hogan is a perfect role model for all of us.

A REAL WRITER?
            For twenty years I debated: am I a real writer?  I finally decided I was.  I’d been writing: diary, poetry, even a novel.  Nothing published, but it finally hit me: a writer is one who writes.  Then at age thirty-one my first poem was published in a poetry journal a friend, Paul Foreman, and I started, Hyperion Poetry Journal.  My writing life now, at age seventy-six, is more settled, confident, and ritualized.  I have five poetry books out, two non-fiction, and a mystery, Killer Frost.  I expect another mystery, Farm Fresh and Fatal, and a new poetry book, Beaver Soul this fall.

            I have about seventy unpublished books.  I have a great drive to write and feel best when I’m writing.  I use a schedule, spend two hours each morning writing in my diary, then, when I can free the time to write a book, two hours in the afternoon, and two hours in the evening.  I set aside two months when I won’t be teaching or otherwise distracted, this year, July-August.  I’ll do my farm work, a good break from the intensity of creating, let my mind go slack, pick figs, preserve soups for the winter, read mysteries. 

            Elizabeth George’s Write Away gave me my model.  Once I get my basic idea, I use George’s character prompt form to brainstorm new characters: what they look like, how they talk, what their goal is, in life and in the story, significant events, etc.  I want them to become alive for me.  Then I start sketching out the scenes.  I can usually rough out the whole novel.  Some chapters have several scenes; some only one. 

            Then I start composition. If the story moves in an unexpected way, I trust that intuition and follow it, even if the killer changes.  I often draft the whole novel in six weeks, normally 60-70,000 words.  I write by hand and revise as I type it on the computer.  Generally, I don’t change a lot.  I compose like a Japanese painter–study what I want to make vivid, see it clearly in my mind’s eye, and when it is quite real to me, then I describe what I see and hear.  I hear the dialogue better than I see the people.  The roughed out scenes are a guide, and I always reread what I wrote my last session, or more if I need to get into the flow of the novel.  Then I send it to two readers who like my work and help me find inconsistencies or more detail I might need.  Typing and later getting it published and promoted I can do with more interruptions, but composition needs me to become immersed in my book.  It’s work, but very gratifying, and it uses all of my mental life: feelings, experiences, personal history, concerns for justice.  I’ve been active in my community to improve conditions, but my best gift to other people and to justice is the books I write.
 
Judy Hogan’s first mystery novel, Killer Frost, was published by Mainly Murder Press in CT on September 1, 2012 in both trade paperback and e-book formats.  Her second novel in the Penny Weaver series comes out October 1, 2013. Beaver Soul, a poem written about her early experiences in Russia, will come out from Finishing Line Press, in KY, on September 1, 2013.  Judy founded Carolina Wren Press (1976-91) and was co-editor of Hyperion Poetry Journal, 1970-81).  She has also published five other volumes of poetry and two prose works with small presses. She has taught all forms of creative writing since 1974. She joined Sisters in Crime in 2007 and has focused on writing and publishing eight traditional mystery novels.  In 2011 she was a finalist in the St. Martin’s Malice Domestic Mystery contest for Killer Frost.  The twists and turns of her life’s path over the years have given her plenty to write about.  She is also a small farmer and lives in Moncure, N.C., in Chatham County near Jordan Lake.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

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In a few weeks, we’ll be moving from Oklahoma and returning to Louisiana.  I’m trying to finish a requested manuscript to submit to Harlequin’s Love Inspired line before we pull out of here. Once we get home, there will be many distractions until we “settle in” and get into the Louisiana mindset.

I’m looking forward to being back, even though Oklahoma has been a great adventure. We’ve made a lot of friends, found a wonderful church and I’ll miss meeting my friend Janie at the Mustang Library several times a month for a writing day.

Every move we’ve made, I’ve faced readjustment and a new writing schedule. I know that my writing always suffers until I acclimate. This time could be a little different: hubby is going to retire and I’m facing permanence.

We often say, “Nothing lasts forever” or “This, too, shall pass” or “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”  That’s the thing—there’s always been a light at the end of the tunnel for us if we didn’t like a place.

The word permanence makes me uneasy. Same 0’ same 0’ scares me. A routine life sounds both appealing and boring. Okay, we’re facing another adventure, but will we like it?

Do you have any tips? Share a writing schedule with me.  If you were/are retired and wake up in the same place every day with no demands made on your life, what would you do?