Homage to the Village

By Nichole Giles

When I first decided I wanted to participate in this year’s National Novel Writing Month challenge, I had no idea what this month would bring. The intention was to seriously force myself into productive writing, even though I knew I’d be extremely busy.

And it’s paid off in spades.

First and most important, as of posting this blog, I have written 43,138 words in a novel I’ve been excited to get started on for months. That alone is great motivation.

But then a whole lot of my writer friends jumped into the mix, and our group got bigger and bigger, and as we all pushed each other to take this challenge, our buddy lists grew to contain close to thirty people. All of us writing a novel during the month of November. Now, I don’t know about you, but having that many people watching my progress gives me a big push too. Because suddenly it stops being just about me and my novel, but about all of us, and all of our work, and how we can encourage each other to push past our boundaries and just write what’s inside us.

Now I’m seeing benefits I hadn’t anticipated. A lot of my friends are working on projects that they’d previously planned, but had been putting off writing for years. Some are taking journeys into new territory by writing in a new genre or age category. Some are pushing themselves to write more than they ever normally would, just because everyone else is doing it. Isn’t peer pressure grand in this form?

For me, it means I’m giving up a lot of sleep, my house is a mess, and Thanksgiving is a week away and I still haven’t made food assignments to all my family members. (I should at least go buy a turkey and cook it before they show up at my house.) And it’s all okay, because by the end of the month, I’ll have accomplished this huge thing. And maybe once the editing is done, my friends and I will swap our works, so we can see the fruits of our laborious November.

Once again, I must pay homage to my village people, for they give me strength, endurance, and healthy competition. With their support, there are no boundaries, no limits to what I can accomplish.

This week’s writing prompts are also a village competition, made up by me and my good friend Danyelle.

1.Use the word toenail clippers, or a reference to them, somewhere in the text of your story.

2.Make use of any of the following words, in honor of our upcoming holiday:

Christopher Columbus
Pilgrims
Pecan Pie
The Santa Maria

Good luck with weeks three and four, and over the holiday, don’t forget to write!

Nichole

November Gripe

by C. LaRene Hall

I don’t usually complain about much, but it really makes me angry when all I can listen to on the radio is Christmas music at the beginning of November. Don’t get me wrong. I love Christmas music, but not this early. The two stations that I usually turn on during my commute to work is 100.3 or 105.6. Well because they started playing holiday music so early this month, I’ve turned to country. I’m now listening to 104.3 or 107.5. Of course, if they start playing Christmas music too early then I’ll object and change stations again.

It makes me wonder what all my writer friends are listening to. How do you write a good story with Christmas music blaring in your ears? Since the Novel that I’m writing for the month of November isn’t about Christmas I better just keep turning on the country stuff. By the way, last Wednesday I reached the ½ way mark of my 50,000 word goal. It feels good to be on the downward swirl.

I love Christmas, but I also love Thanksgiving. I’m not sure if my biggest protest is because I had ancestors than sailed on the Mayflower and I hate leaving the thankful part out of the month, or if I’m just a Scrooge. I know that my moaning and groaning isn’t going to change anything, and come December I’ll be excited to listen to the beautiful Christmas music. Until then I’ll just stay country.

A Half-Million Words!

By Darvell

My writing group, Authors Incognito, has written over one-half million words in the National Novel Writing Month challenge. While this is quite an achievement, our goal is to write one million words during the Month of November.

You can check out our individual word counts at this link (thanks to John Ferguson):

Authors Incognito NaNoWriMo Counts

Go Authors Incognito!

(For more information on this writing challenge, click here: NaNoWriMo.)

A Thank You to Valor Publishing Group

By Ali Cross

Authors Incognito is a group of LDS writers who have all attended an LDStorymakers conference. Storymakers has provided many of us with the education and guidance to help us keep writing—and to improve our craft along the way. Many AI members have recently received publishing contracts through Valor Publishing Group.

Valor is a fledgling company intent on publishing books in the national market, but with values and ethics dictated by their faith. National publishing coupled with down-home values? It might seem like an oxymoron, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if they succeeded? What an opportunity for LDS writers, and others, to write and sell books that are a benefit to readers everywhere.

Valor is putting a toe into virtually every genre this next year. If you are publishing with Valor and I’ve failed to include you in my list, please comment and I will correct it.

Michele Ashman Bell, Summer in Paris (YA)
Daron D. Fraley, The Chronicles of Gan: The Thorn (Speculative Fiction)
Karen E. Hoover, The Sapphire Flute: Book 1 of the Wolfchild Saga (YA Fantasy)
Kimberly Job, I’ll Know You By Heart (Romance)
Alison Palmer, The Prodigal Son (General Fiction)
Tristi Pinkston, Secret Sisters Mysteries: Secret Series (Mystery)
Mark Shurtleff, Am I Not a Man? The Dred Scott Story (Historical Fiction)
Christine K. Bryant, Blood Bound: Keeper of the Crystor (Adult Fantasy)
Danyelle Ferguson, (dis)Abilities in the Church: A Guide for Families and Church Leaders (LDS Non Fiction)

Now, I can add myself to this list. The Devil’s Daughter (YA Paranormal) will be released in July.

Many people have asked me why I chose to publish with Valor when I could have gone with a national publisher. One of the biggest reasons is because Valor didn’t require me to compromise my values in order to publish my book. Writing for the young adult market can be challenging in a world that thinks teenagers want darker, dirtier, grittier books. Personally, I don’t believe the world is right on this—I think teenagers read books like that because that’s what there is, not because that’s what they want.

I’m grateful that I’ll be able to hold my head high in Relief Society, speak to young women without having to apologize for my stories, and especially to face my Heavenly Father one day knowing that I didn’t sully the waters any further by contributing more muck. Instead, I am so glad I have the opportunity to publish with a company that supports me in writing clean stories.

Thank you Candace, BJ and Tristi for establishing this company and giving so many LDS writers, many of whom are AI members, an opportunity to publish quality clean literature in the national market.

Blog Tour Stop and Other Stuff

By Keith Fisher

Good Morning Dear Readers! And that is not just a greeting, All my readers are dear to me. It has been an interesting week, and, I’m sure, you can say the same about yours.

I have a couple of things to write about today, but first, let me get the blog tour stuff out of the way. Oh, by the way, what do you think of the new portrait?

As many of you know, Heather Justesen, (who used to blog on this site), has a new book out. I reviewed it on my other site A Writer’s Eyes. Go and read what I said, BUT, wait until you finish reading this blog.

Heather is holding many contests and give-away events to kick of the launch of the book. Visit her website and blog for more info. She also has a cool trailer out. Her book, The Ball’s In Her Court, published by CFI, is now in Deseret Book, Seagull Book and Tape, Barnes and Noble, And many other fine book stores and websites. Go see my review, and pick up your copy today.

Now, let me thank you for reading. Let’s be honest, there are times in a struggling writer’s day when we get discouraged. It’s normal, part of the game, but knowing someone is reading makes it all worthwhile. Having those readers come back, is like putting frosting between two Graham crackers. (Did you notice the way I avoided a cliché there?)

I would be terribly ungrateful if I didn’t say thank you dear reader.

Recently, while posting my status on Facebook, I thought of a metaphor that helped me. I had grudgingly decided to take my novel apart and put it back together. I remembered the time I rebuilt the carburetor in my truck. I was in high school, and took it apart, more out of curiosity, than anything.

I put all the pieces in a parts washer, and made them shine. I needed new gaskets, so I bought a kit. When I attempted to put it back together, I found I couldn’t remember where everything went. I panicked when I found the kit instructions weren’t clear enough to understand. To make matters worse, I found new pieces in the kit that didn’t match anything I’d taken off the part.

It took a full day to figure it out, and it helped to realize the kit was universal for many different carburetors and the extra pieces weren’t needed. I learned many other lessons that day. Perhaps the most important was, the order in which the pieces go back together makes all the difference.

My current work in progress has some great elements. The concept is sound, the characters are growing, but but unlike the carburetor, there are problems and I need to take it apart. there are extra pieces I don’t need. Also, by writing important facts before establishing groundwork some of it needed explanation. In some places I tried to cheat the assembly, by leaving parts out. I also had problems with charactor motivation.

Now I have all the parts strung out in my head, and on my spreadsheet outline. I have the instructions I get from critique group, and books on writing to help me. I’m cleaning the parts by going scene by scene, character by character. Adding and subtracting. Hopefully, I’ll end up with a carburetor (book) that will function. Like the carburetor, my book will feed the fire of propulsion. My readers will be driven on a voyage of discovery. The plot and concept will change their lives.

Good luck with your writing, and don’t be afraid to take it apart. The pieces were made to fit. Our job is to examine, experiment, and put it together the right way. Like my carburetor, long ago, it will function, but unlike my truck, your book will last forever. See you next week.

You Have More Strength Than You Know

by G.Parker

Last week I had my first weight training with a personal trainer. She had me lifting 20 lb weights in a back rowing thing. I almost couldn't do it -- in fact, I had to finish my last reps with a lighter weight. I was supposed to do it three days later, and the idea filled me with dread. I knew how hard it had been to do it, and figured it was only going to be harder. My arms still ached so badly that it seemed ridiculous.

The whole day I planned to use lighter weights, and justify it when I saw her next. Then I reminded myself that paying someone to train me and then not doing what they told me was pretty much as waste of money -- so I decided to try it with the original weight.

I actually did all three sets with the weights...and it was easier than it had been the first time. I mentioned it to the trainer that was there, and he congratulated me, saying that it does get easier with time.

It made me think of writing and the Nanowrimo we've been talking about. This is my sixth year of doing this craziness, and you'd think it would be easier each year. Last year was a struggle, but this year, the words have just flowed. I'm finally ahead of my scheduled word count, and I guess I should be thankful that I've been sick...grin.

My count is up to 28229 words and I'm not worried about finishing within the deadline for the first time in several years.

I've discovered that I am stronger than I thought I was. And so are you.

Covers and Galleys and Parties: NaNo, Week Two

By Nichole Giles

In all the craziness of this week, I nearly, almost, possibly did, forget about writing this blog. Not that I could ever forget my faithful readers, mind you. After almost four years of never missing a Thursday, it's kind of hard to forget completely.

But lots has happened and I'm dying to share.This week, my coauthor Cindy and I (aka C.L. Beck and D.N. Giles) got a few happy emails.  The first one was the proofs for our humor book.  This was really good news to us because it means we're getting close to publication time. Just how close we had no idea. The proofs came on the last day of October, but we turned them in on Monday, along with pages of editing requests.

Then the very next day, we got another email with a few jpg attachments. OUR BOOK COVER!  Along with the cover, we were given a kind of, sort of release date of early to mid-December, and told the book goes to press on November 16th. (That's this coming Monday.)  Hooray!

The day after that, we got final galleys. Galleys are the layout of what the pages look like when they're actually in the book. Only ours were in computer format to speed up the process. So most of my day yesterday was spent going through and finding the final, final last minute changes that need to be made. And yes, there were several.

Partway through the day, we got the happy news that our launch party has been scheduled for December 9th. Yes, that's right kids, we're talking less than a month away. One month to order bookmarks and posters and plan for all the fun things we want to do. Can you say eeekk?  (But in a good, happy, excited way.)

Here's the information:

Launch Party for  
Mormon Mishaps and Mischief, Hilarious Stories for Saints
by D.N. Giles and C.L. Beck

6:00-9:00 PM
Barnes and Noble
University Crossings Plaza
330 East 1300 South, Orem, UT 84058
(801) 229-1611

And on top of all that, I'm still trying to keep up with all my NaNo buddies with a current word count of 28,265. Yesterday, Darvell passed me up, but I don't intend to let him stay ahead for long! 


Writing prompts for the week, borrowed from The Pocket Muse, Endless Inspiration by Monica Wood


1.What's the most you ever paid for something you didn't want? Write about why.

2. Write about your most unloved possession. How did you aquire this thing? Why did you think you needed it? How did it disappoint you?

3. Write about the day before the disaster.


Have a great week, kids.  Put the launch party on your schedule, because I hope to see you there!


Nichole