...about silence.


It’s supposed to be golden, isn’t it? At least, that’s what I’ve always heard. But sometimes, I fear it’s not valued as gold is. Particularly when the silence is on a blog where the blog host maintains silence (not on purpose, but because other activities crowded out her blog responsibilities).

I am hereby breaking my recent silence, with a word about the other activities which overshadowed my intentions to keep up with my blog.

Fi rst, I turned my back on my computer a few times and got to spend some wonderful golden moments with dear friends...

Second, I’ve spent some time working on a project which means a lot to me...the anthology my writer’s group is producing...

Third, I’ve done a lot of reading/research for the third book in my historical series...and learned a whole slew of things I hope will enrich the story I hope to write during NaNo next month.

So, there ya have it. But be forewarned: I don’t stay silent forever.


Image: Moi Cody via stock.xchng

...about reviews.

When a writer pens a novel (or any book, actually), a haunting thought may occur once the manuscript is finished: will anyone like this story? Will anyone even want to read it?

And if the novel garners a positive review, it’s as welcome as a compliment on a child is to a proud grandparent. Grandma can’t help wanting to tell friends, “Hey, you know what little Jimmy’s teacher said about him today? That he’s one smart kid!” And she trots out her Grandma’s Brag Book of pictures at every opportunity.

I’ve been very thankful for reviews of my novels, and want to share them with others…rather like dragging out that Brag Book. So…here are the latest items in my “Novel Brag Book,” a review of …and night falls and a review of Scribbles, both featured on ICE (Intense Christian Entertainment) ezine.

Thanks so much, Patrick and The Alpha Jan for these great reviews!

...about the winner.

I love to be the bearer of good tidings.

And today, I get to make an announcement that will make someone happy. I was just informed that the winner of the drawing for the e-copy of Rocky Mountain Oasis is. . . . (drum roll please, I like to make things dramatic when I can) . . . Myra Shofner!

Myra, you’re in for a treat!

My husband snagged my copy of Rocky Mountain Oasis from my desk last week and read it before I had a chance to…and he loved it! He’s waiting anxiously for the sequel. For those who didn’t win, be sure to get yourself a copy!

Image: Billy Alexander via stock.xchng – visit his page at: http://www.stockxpert.com/browse_image/profile/BillyRuth3

...about the visit.

In my last post, I told you we had “company comin’”—and our company has arrived. Please welcome Lynnette Bonner, author of “Rocky Mountain Oasis,” newly released by OakTara.

And, as I promised, Lynnette has brought a free gift for everyone who reads this post…she is graciously allowing us to read the first three chapters of her novel: Click Here.

And, as if that isn’t enough, Lynnette is also giving away a free e-copy of “Rocky Mountain Oasis” to one lucky commenter on today’s blog post. So be sure to leave your comment!

Rocky Mountain Oasis is available at:

Amazon.com

ChristianBook.com

...about company comin'.

There’s an old song that just went wafting through my brain. It’s by Porter Wagoner, titled “Company Comin’.”

And it reminded me…we’ve got company comin’ to “Tommie Lyn Writes” on Friday, August 21st. I thought I’d give y’all a “heads up” so you could mark it on your calendar (that’s day after tomorrow, by the way).

Our company will be bringing a free gift for one of you lucky readers, so be sure to check the blog on Friday to learn the details (and be in the running to win that free gift). So I’m dustin’ my blog, sweepin’ down the cobwebs, rollin’ out the red carpet, for our guest.

I’ll send out a reminder email Friday, just in case any of y’all are like me and have trouble remembering….

And don’t forget…y’all come see us!

photograph: Stock.xchng

...about growth.

Everything grows: children, puppies, vegetables, piles of dirty laundry…

One thing I’ve been dimly aware of, hoping it’s been growing, too, is my writing ability. And, yes, it has. Somewhat. It may not seem obvious to some (since my writing abilities may not compare favorably with those of other writers), but my expertise with using the language—with stringing words together into a vehicle that will carry the images in my mind to the minds of others—has grown.

I wasn’t aware of the extent of the improvement, the growth, until I re-read part of my first novel (the one I have to edit “one more time”) last night. And things I’d never seen before jumped out at me: awkward phrasing, redundancy, poor choice of words…you name it, the poor writing was there. I’d known it needed more work. I just wasn’t aware how much more work it needed.

Even so, I’m not devastated at seeing the lack of stellar writing, only a bit more pressured by the “mountain” of work that lies ahead (hey, I just made a pun…cool!).

Let me ask…how is your writing growing?

photograph: Bev Lloyd-Roberts via stock.xchg

...about writing plays.


Have you ever thought about writing a play? I wouldn’t know where to start.

Back during the first ScriptFrenzy, I did write a screenplay (Crawdads and Co-Colas), and that was quite an experience. But I’ve never been tempted to try writing a play.

Until now.

My mentor, Myra Shofner, will be teaching a free (get that? FREE!) online seminar for local writers soon, “Write the One-Act Play.” Since I have so many on-going projects competing for my time and attention, I was going to let the opportunity slide by. But you know what? I can’t (…as I’ve said before, I’m a pushover when it comes to challenges…hence my participation in NaNoWriMo every year). Yesterday, I broke down and signed up.

So, for those local writers who’ve harbored a secret desire to write a play (and for those who haven’t), here’s your golden opportunity.

The Panhandle Community Theatre is planning the 2010 Summer Theatre Festival which will only feature plays by area playwrights. And only writers who’ve completed the online seminar may submit their plays for consideration.

Go to http://writersgalleryms.com/ for more information about the seminar. And to sign up, send an email to: writersgalleryms (at) aol.com (email address purposely mistyped with (at) instead of @ to foil bots).

The deadline for signing up is August 18th. Don’t miss it.

Image: Stock.xchng

...about requests.

When a friend asks me to do something, I try to honor it, if I can. But when two friends (Liberty Speidel: Word Wanderings, and Tamera Kraft: Word Sharpeners) make the same request, I no longer merely try…it becomes imperative to make an effort to follow through. These two friends bestowed on me the “Honest Scrap” award on their blogs…which means ~sigh~ I have to share eight things about myself. (And the fact that the second invitation came today…my birthday…65th birthday at that…well, I don’t believe in omens, you understand…but….) So here goes:

1. As I said in the preceding paragraph, today is my 65th birthday. I’m now officially older than dirt.

2. I was born in Dalton, Georgia, south of Chattanooga, north of Atlanta.

3. I met my hubby at church when I was 14, experienced a classic case of “love at first sight,” and never got over it. We married four years later, when I was 18. And now, I've been married almost 46 years to my best friend and love of my life. God has blessed me.

4. One of the more interesting places where I’ve lived is Okinawa, Japan. Interestingly, before we got orders to Okinawa, I studied Japanese for two years.

5. I took traditional doll making classes while we lived on Okinawa and became a licensed doll maker, and I enjoy other crafts and activities of all kinds: knitting, crocheting, tatting, macrame, pattern drafting, sewing (I even sewed hubby’s Navy uniforms from patterns I drafted myself…and they passed inspection!), drawing, painting, do-it-yourself black-and-white film photography, complete with my own darkroom. I was in a singing group for several years…the Joymakers. I like collecting and polishing gemstones, panning for gold, gardening, landscaping…um…I’ll stop there…I’m getting tired just thinking about all the stuff I’ve done.

6. Hubby and I were a presenting “team couple” in Marriage Encounter for several years.

7. I owned and operated my own computer graphics/animation company, and later co-owned (with hubby) a small printing company.

8. I was valedictorian of my high school class…something I don’t like to talk about.

Whew! I did it! There ya go…the “honest scrap” about me…stuff I’m proud of as well as stuff I’m not.

Now. To drop the other shoe, so to speak…one of the requirements of the Honest Scrap Award is that you are required to pass it on to others. So, here’s the list of my unfortunate victims…er, friends:

Myra Shofner – Myraswritersgallery Blog

Sylvia Melvin – Sylvia’s Scribbles

Shellie Tomlinson - Abiding

Ginny Cruz – Pioneer Poet

Katharine Richardson – Wise Dogs

Nona King – Word Obsession

John Long – Peace Be the Journey

Ray Shoop – Ray Ray’s Blog

…about disasters.

Those of us whose lives are involved in our computer usage live with the knowledge that disaster can strike when we least expect it…our faithful (or not so faithful) silicone friend can turn on us, can become an ugly, vindictive monster, wreaking vengeance on us for all the times we’ve railed at it for not doing what we expected. In short, it can crash. And crash hard.

My “faithful” friend, who would probably have been 97 in human years, died a couple of weeks ago. An annoyance, but not a disaster. At least, that’s what I thought at the time. I’d suspected the coughing, the passing out at odd times and the slow gait at which my friend lumbered along the ‘net paths, meant the end was near. So a few months ago, I bought an external hard drive, copied everything onto it, and smugly made a religion of CD file backups since that time.

I was covered.

Or so I thought.

My new silicone friend and I are making tentative forays into acquaintance and, I hope, eventually, friendship. Things haven’t been as dire as I’d expected. Until this week.

A crit partner discovered three errors in my novel, On Berryhill Road. Yikes!

I loaded my page layout software, pulled out my latest CD backup of my novel files and loaded it…and discovered the font I’d used for chapter headers was not available on my new computer. Sigh. I found the online company which owns the font, plunked down my plastic and bought it. Installed it. Now…ready to go.

But…the first page doesn’t look quite right. I page through the document and discover it is now only 207 pages, not the 250 pages it was originally. Huh?? How can that happen?

It can happen when the font of the body text is a different version than the one on your old computer, with different settings for leading (spacing between each line of text of a paragraph). And when the leading cannot be exactly duplicated when you load the file onto a different computer, no matter what adjustments you make…..you got problems, honey.

So now, after a search through other typefaces available to me on my new computer, I found one which will give me an approximation of the original font, and I’m going through my document, page by page, changing the font (and for those of you who’ve never used page layout software, this process isn’t at all similar to what you can do in a word processor, which is: select all, choose font, voila!).

Yesterday and today, instead of working on my latest WIP, I’m doing monkey work. Page forward, highlight text, select font. Deselect. Page forward…..

…about the power of the written word.

One of the most powerful elements in human interaction is the word. And more specifically, the written word. Our modern world, with its technological advances, would not be possible without reams of written information, inscribed one word at a time. And God chose the medium of the written Word to communicate His will to man, to record what He wanted man to know about Himself.

When I express myself through the spoken word, I don’t always do a good job of getting my ideas across. But when I write down what I want to say, I have an opportunity to evaluate my words, to pick and choose which will carry my meaning best, which will transfer the ideas and images in my mind to the minds of those who read my words. I can hone my message until the meaning is as clear as I’m capable of producing.

Since the written word has the potential for great influence, I believe it behooves us as writers, the wielders of pens (or computer keyboards), to make use of every means to hone our abilities. And I believe it’s good to be reminded occasionally of our potential influence and the responsibility that comes with it.