Book Review: Olivia

Since it worked out so well last week and with Debra's suggestion to shake things up a bit, I thought I'd try book reviews on Monday for a while. Then we can talk about Monday night TV on Tuesdays! I know, it's so perfect!

Today I'd like to tell you about Olivia by Julie Wright. Olivia is a woman who is trying hard to build the perfect home life on the outside. She does everything a dutiful wife and mother should, but when she spends hours making a perfect anniversary dinner and sits there alone while the candles melt to nubs, she realizes that everything is not perfect in her marriage. And to top it all off, she feels like she's lost her own identity.

When her husband comes home and doesn't even apologize for missing the dinner, Olivia realizes she needs to make some changes in her life. She sees a flapping flier advertising a book club and joins it which brings an entirely new dimension to her life. Of course that dimension becomes a lifeline as she starts to really address the problems in her marriage and family. I loved the introduction of each lady in the book club and their distinct personalities as they provide support for Olivia in their own way. It's clever since the other characters in the Newport Ladies Book Club will each be the main character in their own book. (I believe the next one comes out in June and is by Josi Kilpack.)

The thing I like about Olivia is the thing that all Julie Wright fans like about her writing. It's very visceral. Julie takes her readers down to the mat with the emotions of her characters and then pushes it two feet more. She engages you on such a realistic level it feels like you are right there experiencing a distant marriage that may be on its last legs combined with trying to deal with step-children who don't know where to turn or how to act and feeling exhausted by it all. It's a basic human emotion to want love and to be able to give love and Julie Wright taps into that while giving you so much more. If you read her book My Not So Fairy Tale Life, you'll know what I'm talking about---emotions written so well you really feel the punch in the gut surprise or the happy feeling that make you smile in a goofy way that would scare people if you were in public. Visceral. It's the only way to explain it.

Olivia has all of that and more. It's the story of a woman's journey in finding friendships, figuring out her marriage and family, but most of all discovering the strength she has within herself.

As I mentioned this book is the start of a series written by four separate authors. I think Julie Wright has set the bar high for the rest of the authors and I'll be anxiously waiting to see what happens to the ladies of the Newport Book Club.

Here is the back copy:

The Robbins household looks perfect from the outside: no dust, no stains, no wrinkles. Yet a glimpse into its heart reveals no laughter, no closeness, no joy. Olivia thinks that if she keeps everything tidy and serves delicious meals on time, family life is bound to get better. But when her husband, Nick, misses their anniversary, she realizes no amount of domestic success will compensate for failure in their marriage, or for her own failure to develop her identity, always busy as a mother, wife, and neighbor, she has forgotten how to be a unique and vibrant individual. Determined to make a change, Olivia joins a local book club, where she nurtures new friendships and explores new ideas. But her growing confidence falters when Nick declares his independence, and while her new friends lovingly encircle her with support, only Olivia can reach into the depths of her fledgling self to find the faith, hope, and love her troubled family needs.

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First Page Friday

Aaaaand we're back. It's Friday. And you know what that means. Quality time with some of the best editors in the country!

This one is a little long, but I loved getting Angela's perspective on a myriad of issues that authors can sometimes face in their writing. It's one worth reading twice!

If you would like to have your first page critiqued, just send your double-spaced, 12pt. font entry to juliecoulterbellon@gmail.com

On to today's submission!


The Entry
Out of the Water
by Deniz Bevan


She hurtled down the corridor, the slap of footsteps close behind. Her feet turned and her body followed, her thoughts a waterfall of words. Get away, get away, get away.

One flight, two flights. Gasping for air, she reached a long corridor lined with high windows. A haze of early morning light gave the stone walls a forbidding aspect, as though they might move inward to trap her.

The smell of sizzling garlic led her to the kitchen and a pot bubbling over an open fire. A man in an apron rolled out dough at the table. He was a stranger; not one of the inquisitors who’d removed her from her uncle Aram’s house nor yet de Armas, the officer who’d questioned her last night.

Behind him, a door stood open to the gardens.

She grabbed a poker as she skidded past. The man called out, lunging around the table, and she hooked the poker to the pot’s rim and yanked, jumping back before the hot liquid could splash on her. He yelped as broth splattered across his arms. The rolling pin clattered to the floor.

Out through the door and across the herb garden, a crashing and banging coming from behind as the man followed her. She was halfway to the gate when a second man stood up among the mint, a fistful of green leaves in his hand. She caught one glimpse of his gaping mouth and kept running, the strong scent of trampled dill rising up around her.

Flecks of mud flew up against her legs as she ran on and on, towards the forest at the edge of the field, clutching a stitch in her side, not stopping or looking behind. Bursting into the shelter of the branches, she tramped through the undergrowth, slipping and sliding on pine needles, ears pricked to their utmost, straining for the sound of pursuit above her own thrashing and of a river up ahead.

She sprang out of the tree line and crashed into another man.

“¡Cuidado!” A deep voice cried in her ear. A heavy clasp on her arm pulled her back from a swirl of foamy water.

“Let me go!” she hissed, and wrenched aside, snagging her sleeve on a branch.

He dropped her arm. “Disculpe me, Señorita.” Excuse me.

She could not return, nor cross the river, and this man’s height and broad shoulders blocked the only remaining direction she could take. Had she run so far, only to collapse from hunger at his feet?

Angela's Critique

Before we begin today, I'd like to thank one of my assisting editors, Heidi Brockbank, for helping put these reviews together. She is wonderful.

This one is a little long, but that’s a good thing because it means the author gave us a lot of great stuff to analyze and discuss.

Strengths

This is a nice opening with something at stake right away. I like the second sentence – it’s nice writing. Maybe I’d clarify the connection between the second and third sentence with an em dash or even ellipses for an emotional effect, but the two lines have a nice auditory effect. The strong writing in the opening of this suspense scene gives it a unique flavor and prevents it from feeling like the cliché opening of someone in danger.

Mystery Characters

One problem is that the POV character isn’t super developed. The potential tension is good, but mere curiosity is all that’s holding me hooked for the first few paragraphs. You want the reader to actually feel an emotional connection to the character pretty fast, so what’s at stake for the character is also vicariously at stake for me as the reader. Is there a reason we don’t get her name? My recommendation would be to give her name in the first sentence. A quick survey of a couple dozen books from my bookshelf had the main character being tagged with a name, generally within the first sentence or paragraph, all within the first page.

When you don’t give a name to a character, it can unintentionally indicate that they aren’t a main character. Perhaps, the reader thinks, they are going to be killed off in the first scene, and someone else is going to be the main character? That’s one reason you occasionally find stories opening with an unnamed character in the action. But even in that situation, a short-lived character with a name carries more emotional impact when they are murdered than an anonymous “he” or “she.”

If you are aiming to increase the mystery and tension, withholding a name isn’t the way to go. If she is a main character, the reader is going to find out shortly, so there is really no long-term benefit of withholding a character’s name, and always the possibility that you lose the reader’s interest. After all, one of the first things we do when we meet a new person is to find out what their name is. Mentally, we tend to relate to characters in a story the way we do to people in real life – one of the reasons that fiction has the capacity to be so powerful and, sometimes, even life-changing. So give “her” a name from the start. An added bonus: if you are trying to establish a certain culture or time period, the character’s name can help with that. So if this is the era of the Spanish Inquisition, and her name is Inez or Catalina, it provides one more detail to the image the reader is compiling in their mind.

In addition to giving her a name, could you give us a little more of her unique POV while she’s running—sort of like the nice writing in the first few lines? It’s helpful that you mention the inquisitors in the third paragraph, but it’s not quite enough to give us a clear picture of the setting. If you can ground the characters in a clear setting and help us make an emotional connection to them right off the bat, you’ll have an even stronger hook—which is important these days given how many people are competing for agents or readers. Fresh voice is key, and voice in this case will need to come from the POV character. For instance, what type of inquisitors are we talking about? Is this THE Spanish inquisition, and if so, can you subtly work in a hint about that – what religion is she or what ideas landed her in this predicament or…who betrayed her to them and why? Give us something to more clearly hint that we’re looking at a particular time period.

Ready, set, action – Helping the reader visualize the action

She grabbed a poker as she skidded past. The man called out, lunging around the table, and she hooked the poker to the pot’s rim and yanked, jumping back before the hot liquid could splash on her. He yelped as broth splattered across his arms. The rolling pin clattered to the floor. The layout of this scene is slightly unclear—is she jumping forward past it on her way out the door? I would maybe just have her hear him yelp as she leaves—seeing the yelp and the rolling pin seems to slow down the scene as if she’s standing there watching rather than running past. Perhaps give her a goal as she does this, so we understand her motive is to slow her pursuer.

Out through the door and across the herb garden, a crashing and banging coming from behind as the man followed her. Once again, having a nameless character creates vagueness. “The man” isn’t very intimidating. Who is following her so we can be afraid with her? Her torturer? The guard who was taking advantage of her and accidentally allowed her to escape? A priest who had never known the love of the God he accused her of blaspheming? Some specifics would help us understand her and the context in a way that makes this opening more compelling and unique.

Bursting into the shelter of the branches, she tramped through the undergrowth, slipping and sliding on pine needles, ears pricked to their utmost, straining for the sound of pursuit above her own thrashing and that of a river up ahead. Replacing “that” with a concrete word makes this flow better: “straining for the sound of pursuit above her own thrashing and the crash of a river up ahead.” Sometimes the smallest things make all the difference in our writing.

She sprang out of the tree line and crashed into another man. So you say she’s running toward a forest and runs into the “shelter” of branches. Now moments later, it seems like she’s running out of the forest—out of the tree line. I’ve never seen a forest that small. Explain or fix the scene? Clarify she was running in it a lot longer, or that it wasn’t a full forest but some copse of trees next to the river that cuts off her escape route.

A heavy clasp on her arm pulled her back from a swirl of foamy water. Is there a cliff or a steep bank she didn’t see? You’ll want to clarify this so the reader doesn’t get lost in the logistics of the flow of action.

She could not return, nor cross the river. Why can’t she cross? Is there a cliff or bluff that she can’t descend? Is the river too wild and rapid? She can’t swim? She seems desperate to escape, even desperate enough to try and cross a dangerous river, so help the reader understand what prevents her from this course of action.


When to Translate

“¡Cuidado!” A deep voice cried in her ear. A heavy clasp on her arm pulled her back from a swirl of foamy water.
“Let me go!” she hissed, and wrenched aside, snagging her sleeve on a branch.
He dropped her arm. “Disculpe me, Señorita.” Excuse me.

Is she speaking in English or Spanish? Because having her speak in English but the man in Spanish automatically sets them up as being different—different cultures or worlds. You don’t want to do that if Spanish is her native tongue. If you just want to give it a little Spanish flair and the rest of the book will be in English for the reader but is supposed to be a Spanish-speaking world, go ahead and have her speak in Spanish first, followed with a context explanation of “she demanded, trying to force him to let go.” Then gently merge the reader into the fact that we’re going to get their world from a translation viewpoint. Although technically, if this is a Spanish-speaking culture and she’s part of it, there is no need to actually have anyone speaking Spanish. There are plenty of other places to establish the setting. Most often, you would use language in this manner to indicate a difference between the languages/cultures of the main characters. If you want to keep a few words for embellishment, try to stick with well-known phrases that a majority of readers would understand.

Sometimes a story makes more extensive use of another language, and providing the translation as you did is a standard way of handling it. (Though I would suggest not using this method, as it is not the most subtle/skilled way of cluing in the reader—see details on why below.) However, if you are only using a limited amount of Spanish to accentuate the setting, you’ll want to subtly disguise explaining to the reader what someone is saying in a foreign language. Does she understand him? If so, then the next line should be her realizing that his tone is polite, conciliatory, apologizing. That will let the reader know what’s going on. They don’t need to know the exact words. In this case, it’s better to have a decent hint from context than to use Spanish and then relay it in English. Better to just say, ‘he apologized in Spanish’ than to use both. Providing an exact translation right after the Spanish can be awkward and defeats the point of having Spanish at all—which is to give the scene the flavor of realism, as if we’re really watching it happen. Throwing in the English pulls us right out of the imaginative place we’re in, which also helps dampen the effect of the suspense since that’s a real-time emotion.

Speaking of emotion, consider this sentence: Had she run so far, only to collapse from hunger at his feet? This emotion or physical sensation (hunger) sort of comes from nowhere. You need to hint at it earlier—that the energy she’s drawing from is hard to get due to the lack of food. Also, immediately precede the line with something like “even as she struggled to pull back, she felt the strength drain from her muscles, her reserves depleted. She could not fight him nor escape…” (Though you definitely don’t want to use the word “nor” more than once within two pages.)

Finally, be frugal about using old-fashioned sounding language (such as “nor”). Even if you are striving for a different time period, you can imagine your story as a translation, and your job as translator is to convey your story in the language that your audience best understands or relates to. An occasional use of an archaic expression (especially in dialogue) does lend flavor and set the scene, but overuse makes it hard for the reader to slip into the story, because each time they are confronted with unusual word usage, it interrupts the flow of the story for just a moment. (Using language from the period is far superior to overly modernizing the language however, like using terms, phrases, or viewpoints that were not in use in the time period.)

Conclusion

You’ve got a good opening with lots of potential; you’ve shown something at stake and have hooked the reader with curiosity, but to continue to keep us hooked, ground us in her identity, why she’s running, and who is after her, so the chase doesn’t get old or fail to keep our attention. Remember, you want initial curiosity to turn into concern pretty quickly, and for that to happen, the reader has to know enough about a character and situation to feel empathy.

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Meridian Magazine Published My Book Review!

I am so excited today because Meridian Magazine published my review of Jennie Hansen's new book, Heirs of Southbridge. Woohoo!

Now some of you might say, oh, pshaw, Julie, you're already a published author, why would a magazine article be that big of a deal to you?

And I would say, because this is Meridian Magazine! Meridian! One of the biggest LDS online publications. And honestly, anytime I'm published, whether in a book or a magazine, or wherever, I get that giddy feeling and I want to call all my friends to tell them so we can celebrate together.

So consider yourself called.

I know you all probably want to read this masterpiece yourself, with your very own eyes, so you should go here then come back to the blog and we'll break out the celebratory chocolate. If it's not too early for you of course. (If it is, I'll just sneakily eat mine until you're ready.)

Seriously, though, I'd like to thank Meridian Magazine for publishing my review and Jennie Hansen and Covenant Communications for giving me such a great book to review. It was a wonderful experience!

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Word Count Wednesday

So I stumbled in the door from critique group last night (or this morning?) just after midnight. For some reason, whenever I'm together with those ladies, the time just flies by and it never feels like we've been there all that long, and then when I look at the clock I think, boy I'm going to pay for this tomorrow. Yet, even though I have to get up early with the kids and I feel like a walking zombie, critique group is totally worth it in the laughs alone. (Fun fact for you: because of crit group I now know that when I read my book aloud, I laugh a lot in all the wrong places. I know, weird!)

Last night we eviscerated my chapters, my hero, and my plot. However, once the guts were on the table, we picked over them and figured out how we could put it all back together to make one working whole. That's why constructive criticism is so valuable because it helps me see where my plot is twisted and bleeding and helps me fix it. I know that my story will be stronger for it, even if the initial gut-ripping can hurt. (Is that too gory of an analogy? Sorry.)

I was also having difficult in finishing my finale scene. I'd rewritten it so many times that now it didn't have any direction and just seemed sort of lame. But after brainstorming and analyzing with my crit group, I am excited to get to it today. Yay for explosions and gunfights and utter mayhem! (Did I just give it all away? Sorry.)

So, while my word count was only 2400 words this week, I am ever so close to the final read-through of this puppy and then on to the next step.

How did you do this week?

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Castle, You're Killing Me. KILLING ME!

Last night was a new Castle and it finally FINALLY gave us some movement on the relationship front. It's what I've been waiting for all season.

But let's start from the beginning.

We have a reporter covering a sort of Occupy Wall Street protest when suddenly a bomb goes off behind her. People are killed, dozens injured, it's horrible. (And oddly, they kept showing the bodies. Castle isn't really known for doing that.) The FBI takes over the investigation and our fearless detectives are doing the fringe/support work. They interview a bunch of people and you just know the bomber is one of the "Waldos among Waldos" as Castle puts it.

But as they peel back the layers of the case, both Castle and Beckett are also thinking about how most of the victims were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Castle especially seems to be thinking about how "tomorrow isn't guaranteed." He talks to his mom (I love Martha/Castle scenes. They play them so well) and she tells him that maybe it's time to tell Beckett how he feels. Castle takes her words to heart and goes to tell Beckett, but of course they are interrupted. The case rolls on and we're still trying to figure out who the bomber is---

And then the other shoe drops.

Beckett is interrogating a suspect and unbeknownst to her, Castle is watching on the other side of the glass. She tells that suspect he can't claim a trauma amnesia from the bombing because when she was shot she remembered every moment.

Uh oh.

She'd told Castle she didn't remember anything, including his declaration of I love you. The look on his face is so real. Hurt, anger, disbelief. Nathan Fillion is amazing at facial expressions, I'll tell you that.

Castle goes with his mom to a bomb memorial and I think this is a powerful scene because Castle is mad and hurt and he's trying to figure out how to deal with this. The one line, "I was willing to wait," hurt my heart because he was. He was willing to wait for Beckett to get her act together, but apparently Beckett has known all this time and didn't feel the same way. His mother tells him to move on, that he can't work next to her knowing she doesn't love him back (frankly I don't know how his mother restrains herself from going down to that precinct and ripping Beckett's hair out. Mother bear Martha would have been awesome to watch!) but he thinks he can do it. So he goes back to the station.

The only thing I was hoping for was that Castle would call Kate out on this and give her a chance to explain. Of course he doesn't, he goes the passive-aggressive route throwing out little jabs "silence is cowardly" stuff. Beckett just looks confused. And then Castle's kicked puppy look in the elevator, *sigh* hasn't this poor man put himself and his heart on the line for Beckett just one too many times? I'm sort of starting to hate how she strings him along.

So, while it wasn't exactly great movement in the relationship, at least is was something more than the brother/sister vibe we've gotten since the bank robbery episode. Although since there's only five or six new episodes before the season finale I have a sneaking suspicion the writers aren't going to handle this well and leave their fans more frustrated with this season than they already are. (But I'd be happy to see them prove me wrong.)

(Oh, and the bomber ended up being someone who wasn't even on my radar, so kudos to the writers on that aspect of last night.)

The previews for next week look awesome with Castle going back to his playboy ways and Beckett finally realizing that hey, maybe she shouldn't have strung him along for almost an entire year (sort of like how the fans are feeling? Is that bad to say?) I guess we'll see how it goes since previews are notoriously misleading.

But we've taken a step forward (or a step backward depending on how you look at it). Castle is hurt (again) and Beckett is unaware that she's hurt him (again). It seems like we've been here before. So, please, writers, don't screw this up. You're killing the tension between Beckett and Castle, you're killing the fans with the made up ways to keep them apart, and yet, even with all that said, Nathan Fillion is KILLING ME with his spot-on acting, facial expressions, and the way he just IS Castle. I totally buy him and all the Castle angst he has. Love him. (And we even hail from the same hometown in Canada. So, that's special, right?)

Who's your favorite TV couple? Do you like the angst TV shows seem to always heap upon their popular couples?

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Book Review Caller ID

I know I usually do book reviews on Tuesdays, but I'm part of Rachelle Christensen's blog tour for her new book, Caller ID, and somehow I got scheduled for a Monday. So I apologize and hope you will bear with me in the change of plans.

Rachelle Christensen is a fairly new author since her first book, Wrong Number really burst onto the suspense scene two years ago. Rachelle had a way of ratcheting up the tension a little higher with each page in that book and I really enjoyed the sprint to the final scene. I couldn't seem to read Wrong Number fast enough, so I was pretty excited to get my hands on her new book, Caller ID.

In Caller ID we meet Courtney Beckham, a rich girl who is out for a run with her boyfriend. We get hints that she's more than just a pretty face, and she tells herself she's not spoiled, but in the first few chapters I have to admit I had a hard time liking her. She seemed like a player (has a boyfriend while kissing someone else, although there is some hinting that she's suffered some trauma in the past that makes her act this way) and more often than not she acted so childish I couldn't really identify with her. I kept plugging along, however, and I'm definitely glad I did.

After disobeying her father, Courtney stumbles onto something she shouldn't have and ends up kidnapped. Beaten, bruised, and with a kidnapper who seems to enjoy her pain, Courtney is left with only her wits to help her escape. There were times when I questioned her actions and the turn of events, but by mid-book I was hooked and felt the familiar pull of action that Christensen had displayed in her previous book. From the middle to the end was definitely a roller-coaster ride as the reader is right there with Courtney experiencing the myriad emotions of someone who knows a secret she shouldn't while trying to stay alive.

I have to say I enjoyed the quirks of our FBI hero Jason Edwards---the kind of guy who never gives up and never surrenders. (I love you Galaxy Quest for that quote alone.) I liked the interplay between Courtney and Jason and thought the undercurrents between them were subtle and well done. The suspense is definitely the strong suit in this novel, but the dash of romance and the twists the case takes really make the ending worth the wait and earns this book a place on the keeper shelf.

Here is the back copy:

When twenty-three-year-old Courtney Beckham is abducted near her home, the search turns up more than just a kidnapping crime. FBI agent Jason Edwards investigates the ten-million-dollar ransom and stumbles upon something he wasn't meant to find. When Courtney catches a glimpse of the caller ID in her kidnapper's home, what she sees turns her world upside down.


Want a New Camcorder? You Can Win One is Rachelle's Contest!

To celebrate the release of CALLER ID, Rachelle J. Christensen, is hosting a contest for a new Ultra Flip Video Camcorder (4GB memory, Records 120 minutes Value $149.99) and other great prizes. There are multiple ways to enter between now and April 14, 2012. Winners will be announced and notified April 16, 2012.

For additional ways to enter, go here to Rachelle's blog and click on the Contest tab.

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Getting to Know A First Page Friday Editor

I thought it might be fun for us all to get to know the editors who help us every week. We'll start with Angela Eschler, our editor extraordinaire from Eschler Editing.


Angela, how did you get into editing? Did it always come naturally to you? 

I’ve always loved reading and writing, and I was very fortunate to discover an Editing for Publication class in college the semester before I graduated or I might be on the street begging even now; I had no plans for a career before that point. I guess I just hoped I could find a job where I got paid to use my reading or writing skills. It sounds crazy, but I honestly had never even thought of what editors do or if I could get a job like that. I just wanted to read or write. All of my jobs in college (once I got out of washing dishes for the dorms) were in the writing lab, or as a TA grading papers, or working as a researcher for novelists. My dad kept warning me that I’d never get a real job as an English major, but there was nothing else I ever wanted to do besides read and analyze books and write about them. Even in high school it was my favorite thing to do. In fact, even before high school that’s all I wanted to do when I grew up—read and tell stories. When I was in fourth grade I wrote a novel about a girl from Wales who got kidnapped and time-traveled into ancient Egypt. I knew nothing about either of those places. I just knew I loved the adventure of finding out things about the unknown world. The Chronicles of Narnia, I think, are what put me on the path to being an English major. My parents read those to my siblings and me over and over and then I read them myself a few times. I just knew I was destined to spend my life with books from that point on. After college it was just a matter of finding editing jobs until I was able to finagle my way into book editing.
 
Do you have any funny editing/author stories you could share?

Many hilarious and unspeakable things happened to me and my coworkers when I worked in- house for a publisher, but I’m not sure they are for public consumption.  I guess I can tell one of the more mild and nameless ones: Sometimes authors take rejections very personally when it’s just business—their book doesn’t fit the publisher’s needs, even if we agree their book was a worthy project. One day an author sent in a manuscript about the Deseret Alphabet, which (summarizing history very badly here) was a curious thing early Mormon pioneers came up with for several reasons: so all those foreign converts living together in the valley could learn to speak/write English more easily, to hide secrets from the enemies of the Church, to keep the enclave of Mormonism exclusive from the world, etc. (It had thirty-eight characters that matched the basic number of sounds in the English language.) Anyway, an author sent in a little book on the topic, and while it is a very interesting subject, it’s an extremely niche topic and the publisher didn’t think we could sell enough copies of the book to make up for production costs. The author received a rejection to this effect, and I guess was either really mad about it, or was playing a prank on us, but they replied to the rejection with a threat—written in the Deseret Alphabet. Though we were all working insane hours and had deadlines coming out our ears, we couldn’t let the thing go. So we went to the effort to find an expert in the Deseret Alphabet and had the letter interpreted and everything. I don’t even remember what the threat said—something about ruing the day we’d rejected the manuscript probably (that’s usually what authors said when we got responses to rejections). But it was a pretty funny way to get revenge, as I’m sure the budget hours we didn’t spend producing the book went into trying to translate the threat! (If the publisher is reading this, I’m sure we followed up on this during our lunch breaks…)

You also write books. Can you tell us about your projects and what you're currently working on now?

So far I’ve written nonfiction gift books, mostly for the women’s inspirational category for the LDS market. I did write a nonfiction book on building a “green” home several years ago (sort of a group project), but it was being typeset right when the economy crashed and many publishers stopped all production or went out of business at that time. So it never made it to production. My current books on the market are Love Letters of Joseph and Emma, and Christ’s Gifts to Women. Both are coffee table art books with inspirational prose. The talented Heather Moore is my co-author on Christ’s Gifts to Women, and you can listen to us talking about the project on various sites. Click here to watch the video. In it we look at the women who were friends and associates of Christ during the Meridian of time, and what He taught them personally about their worth and potential and of His love and mercy for them; and then it compares those experiences to the same personalized messages Christ is trying to give us today if we will slow down enough to listen. It’s a very meaningful book for me personally, as the study that went into the project really helped me work through some difficult and ever ongoing trials and helped me come to terms with some damaging lies I believed about myself and my mistakes and potential.

After this project I want to do a book about money as a spiritual principle, and then a book I’ve half finished on how women can relax, laugh more, and find peace through daily mini vacations. Then maybe I’ll tackle weight loss (I’ll leave you hanging as to whether I mean literally or literarily).
 
What would your top three pieces of advice be for a writer?

--Research and understand the publishing business and the market you are writing for well before finishing your book (if your goal is to be traditionally published or sell your work).

--Be ready to put in some serious hours learning how to write and studying the craft of writing and how to appeal to particular markets with your writing—I’m talking hundreds and hundreds of hours, sort of like getting a degree in a topic when you go to college (and you better love writing and not just be in it to make money, because it usually takes years to be a good enough writer that you make sufficient money to justify your time investment).

--Be patient. Writing and being published are definitely things God put on the earth to force us to learn patience and appreciate the process of time, and through which to learn that you can’t run faster than you have strength or means. You have to get through this career the same way you have to get through everything in life that doesn’t just fall prettily into your lap ready to make you a millionaire.

It’s like I said—you have to love it. If you can do those things above, and just love the growing process and the field, you’ll eventually be published and have a part-time career or hobby that’s lots of fun and that brings in new friends and adventures (and tax writeoffs).


Is there something you think writers should always avoid in their work?

Lots of exclamation points. A couple per chapter might be the max. It has the unfortunate effect of making characters (or the author) seem like they are yelling at each other and at the reader.

Other than that, you can easily Google articles editors and agents have written on this topic—many will agree never to start your story with a dream, an alarm going off, etc. (Writer’s Digest magazine has several of these articles available.) I don’t personally believe in rules, I just believe in principles of good writing and understanding good writing and your market—understanding why these gatekeepers don’t want to read another story that starts with those things.

You can break any rule if you know what you’re doing and why. The key is to knowing those two things. The problem with many writers that can’t seem to get a break is that they don’t know things they should—information on their genre or the agent they’ve submitted to (or whatnot) that is readily available via a simple Internet search or by reading a few good books on their topic and/or going to writing conferences and reading blogs, etc.

Mistakes relating to the craft of writing can be avoided only by doing LOTS of writing within the context of studying good writing and WHY it is good writing. Please get involved in the writing community via conferences, the blogosphere, writing groups, classes, etc., and read books on good writing by authors/editors who have been in the business for a long time. If you don’t know where to start, there are a ton of good resources for all of those areas on my website—available for free and at the click of your mouse. (BookEditingAndMore.com)

 
If you weren't a writer or an editor, what would you be?

Personality profiling says I could be a psychologist/therapist. But I have a lot of friends who are therapists, and I think that would burn me out after a while. I don’t know—over the years it gets harder and harder to hear all the sad, tough things in life. I want to move to Disneyland or something. Maybe that’s why I like escaping into books. 

Other jobs might have come from other passions, some of which are body/brain science, exercise and the outdoors, holistic health, interior/exterior design, art history, psychology/behavioral economics, and adventures in child-rearing—though this last one might do me in before I make it to that great Disneyland in the sky.


What book is on your nightstand right now? Are you an avid reader? What's your favorite genre?

I never go anywhere without a book. I walked my dog, and now my dog and baby, with a book in hand (I tie the dog’s leash to my waist and try not to run into trees). When I can convince my husband to put something on the iPod for me (I’m technologically challenged), I’m less likely to come home with injuries.

On my nightstand/kitchen table/pantry/bathtub/office/car right now are: Night Circus (great fantastical/fantasy/speculative fiction), South of Superior (lovely literary fiction), How to Debt Proof Your Marriage (practical nonfiction), Nourishing Traditions (a cookbook on the health benefits of ancient food preparations), several raw food “cook”books, several books on the history or doctrine of the LDS church or the gospel of Christ, some books on yoga/meditation/the chakras, Daughter of Smoke and Bone (epic-battle Romeo and Juliet speculative fiction with scrumptious writing), several books on behavioral economics, some on brain or body science, Tuesdays at the Castle (great middle grade fiction by our talented and local Jessica Day George), The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (a delightful historical mystery from the viewpoint of an 11-yr-old chemistry genius/sleuth), multiple offerings from the talented LDS authors in our area, and several fantastic manuscripts I’m editing for clients whose names will someday be up in lights!

Lastly, the genre question is REALLY hard for me. I love zillions of topics and writing styles. I really do love speculative fiction though—that visiting-other-worlds thing. I’d be reading my own published novel if only agents were looking for a book on Wales and ancient Egypt by a fourth-grade debut novelist….



Thanks so much, Angela! It's fun to see another side of you. We'll see you all next week when we wade back into the critiques.

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