My First Novel

I have just finished the rough draft of my first novel, with the working title of "Carlos and the Corral of Forgotten Ones." It has been quite an adventure moving from writing articles and children's books, both of which are more succinct and easier to manage, to a full-length book, where there are so many pages (297 in my case) to comb through and many more events and characters to keep straight! I am very grateful for the Open Office Manuscript program that I found which helped me to divide my book into chapters, scenes, etc, and then easily find those sections to work on them later!

There have been plenty of challenges in writing this book, including points where I had no idea where to take the character next or how to get him from one happening to the next. (Thankfully, I was in training for my half-marathon at this time and always came back from my morning runs with fresh ideas.) And of course, there have been plenty of joys as well, such as the days I woke up at 5am and typed away until my husband returned home that evening and had to practically pry me from the computer because the story was flowing so smoothly! And lastly there was the point where I realized that I could not look at the story any more and see it clearly, and that I needed the feedback of others. And that's where I am right now. As of now, the book is in the hands of some trusted friends and family members (all avid readers) whose feedback I'm awaiting, hoping that it will guide me into the next step of the process, editing. After a few rounds of editing, I hope to seek a publisher.

At any rate, this story means a lot to me and just being able to share it with others has been a blessing so far. I only hope I'll be able to share it with many more people!

An African Article

Here is the link for my most recent published article entitled "Answering the Call" in Priority! Magazine. It's about a missionary who served in Africa for many years. As many of you know, I have a heart for Africa so interviewing this missionary who is now part of my local church was very interesting. I hope you'll check it out!

http://www.prioritypeople.org/article.php?articleID=500

Magazine Articles in Priority!

I have two magazine articles that have appeared in Priority! magazine, a publication of the Salvation Army's Eastern Territory.

The first piece, Crying Out Against Injustice, is about a difficult time that I faced with my family and the Lord's faithfulness. (As well as my new appreciation of the feelings that David experienced when he wrote the Psalms!)

http://www.prioritypeople.org/article.php?articleID=452


The second, On the Front Lines in Paraguay, is a write-up of a mission trip that I took to Asuncion, Paraguay in the summer of 2008. I spent a few weeks at El Redil Children's Home and was moved by the stories of the children living there.

http://www.prioritypeople.org/article.php?articleID=463

Stay tuned for my next article which should appear in the Fall 2009 Issue of Priority!

Welcome and Children's Book Updates

Welcome to my Author/Writer Blog! I hope to use this site to communicate progress on my works that are either published or in the process of being published!

As of now, I have two children's books under contract with Guardian Angel Publishing! I'm very excited about these and will let you know as soon as I have an idea about their release dates.

The first is entitled Lily and the City of Light. This is the first book I ever wrote and it was written during my senior year of college. Actually, I feel like I had very little to do with the story to be honest. I was praying one day, sat down at my computer, and typed out the whole story without stopping. God truly inspired the story, and I am excited to see how He is going to use it in its printed form.

The second is 'Twas the Year Christ Left Christmas. I wrote this poem one day last year during the Christmas season. I guess I felt like the true spirit of the holiday was getting drowned out under all of the gifts, traditions, and silly rules about saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." I first started out writing poetry back in high school, so it was fun to come back to rhyming verse for this.