I’m self-publishing this one, and I’ll be sharing from it soon on YouTube, but go ahead and get your copy now. It’s so pretty and such fun, too. How about the title: Friend to Friend–A Home Lover’s Daybook for Adventures in Everyday Life.
And if that’s not enough excitement, I’ll have the expanded edition (as in twice as long) of The Maker’s Marriage available by April 15–so something good on that inauspicious date.
I am learning how to go about this, so bear with me, and we’ll figure it out. Please join in if you have any interest in writing anything!
I’ll be sharing a bit from my experience two weeks ago at the Northwest Christian Writer’s Conference (best conference EVER), and how a little child can lead you in your writing journey.
I’ll also ask you to be thinking of sharing from books that impacted you as a child–this in the June 3rd Day meeting, which will be June 19. Â We do hope you can join in!
My daughter just made homemade bread and added herbed butter and garlic, and served it to me with love. This, Dear Reader, is REAL bread. If we compare the practically spiritual experience of deeply enjoying such bread, to consuming a piece of fluorescent white stuff baked in a factory last week, we can see that making things complicated, expensive, difficult, and FAKE is not the way.
Perhaps I could liken this to writing. When we forget about the joy of simply writing a story, and attempt jumping through the publishing world’s hoops, things can get complicated. It begins to seem as though every time we try to write a bit, there are little gremlins gnawing at our ankles. They’re growling, hissing, whispering and snidely saying the likes of: What about the meaning of your story; what if it’s all a waste of time; you know you don’t know much of anything about anything you’re writing . . . Oh, and have you forgotten about the requisite social media following?
If you’re not having fun yet, consider with me the following requirements from a writer’s conference regarding pitching a novel:
Effective Hook
Describe Book
Title, genre, word count
Protagonist/Main Characters
Setting
Plot
Tone/Feel
How is the novel unique?
How does the book fit into the marketplace-research cited?
Marketing Plan
The size of the writer’s social media platform
Blog/Website promoting book with size of following
Podcast or YouTube channel, number of followers
Email list/number of contacts
Plan for guest posting on blogs, speaking engagements.
First problem for me: my book doesn’t neatly fit into a genre–first ankle bite. Next is I neither know nor care how it fits into the marketplace, and have no inclination to find out. I just want to write–is that so wrong?
The size of my social media platform? Uh, well, can we just skip that for now? My Blog/Website promoting the book with size of following? First off, can anyone tell me again the difference between a blog and a website, and why that matters? My e-mail list? Well, it’s pretty long, but you should know that many of those folks listed are no longer using the e-mail address I’m using.
Ah, but my plan! I do have a plan, and I think it’s a good one. And I’m sure I can get someone super famous to be my guest, and then they’ll ask me to come and speak and everyone in the HUGE crowd will buy my book.
Actually, I have no problem believing that last paragraph, and I actually do have a plan. But until the book is written, all these concerns are complications, aggravations, and creativity killers. They make me want more coffee, more Kombucha (golden pineapple perhaps, with lemon and lime wedges) and if all else fails I’ll get a Haagen Daas bar and eat it at the lake just up the road.
And then I’ll remind myself (and you Dear Reader) how absolutely pathetically impotent complaining makes us all (maybe I’ll have an absolutely pathetically impotent character in my book, and maybe someone with say clever and sarcastic things to him), and I’ll get on with the business at hand (it might be writing, or ice cream, or writing with bites of ice cream now and again.
But for the moment, here my video offering in case you want a bit more convincing and help about ignoring all the noise, confusion, and complication, and just doing a bit of writing:
There will be a few of us seated around my dining room table–with laptops, pens and paper, or even scribbling in journals. We’ll have a few encouraging and wise words, and a prayer, and then we’ll begin. Begin talking about writing, telling what we’re doing, whining about how hard it is???
Nope. We’ll begin writing. Even if we scribble the likes of, “I have no idea what to write,” that’s writing!
Join in and let’s see where this 3rd Day journey takes us!
Today’s broadcast will be for those who believe Bill Johnson’s exhortation, “When at war, create.” The first of many Wednesday broadcasts dedicated to all creative endeavorers, but especially to writers, this one will be about becoming childlike.
Also, because this is my broadcast, there will necessarily be mention of at least one helpful book–today’s authors are Fiona Ferris and yours truly!
I would like to say join me at 11:00, but with our current internet status (on/off, on/off due to efforts at installing a new system) I will just say, “Today, yay!” and pray.
Thanks,
Bev
P.S. Before you think this is probably not for you, remember all of life is an opportunity to create, to take something in your imagination and give it substance. I am speaking particularly here to homemakers, those of you imagining a perfectly lovely life at home (I wrote my first book–quite awful, but still . . . when I had four little kids at home). This video will be short and sweet, so tune in and be glad you did.
I’m hearing lots about eliminating “toxic” people from my life–those who don’t contribute to my “success”–about walking away. I really like this idea, but does God?* In listening to and reading motivational “success” gurus I know I’ve gotta get up at 5:00 a.m. if I’m going to “be somebody.” But God says I am somebody. People always want to know what I “do” and the temptation is to say, “I’m a writer,” as this, unlike homemaking, is an approved occupation. But God approves of me. Just because.
Still, the messages are so compelling, as are the ideas of writing bestsellers and achieving other lauded goals, having an actually heeded day planner, and checking off my to-do lists each day. And the facts that vision boards don’t work for me, and my plans almost always are superceded by “life” doesn’t faze me. It can’t be that all those people are missing something–after all, they’re “successful”–I MUST TRY HARDER. FASTER, FASTER, WORK, WORK!
As I ponder all these things, and wonder why Christian motivational speakers consider non-Christians “successful” simply because they’re famous, I suddenly remember something I once heard, and now I am listening: If at first you don’t succeed, fry, fry, a hen. Ah, now that sounds like success to me. My daughter recently roasted a fat chicken in the Hobbit way – bacon, butter, herbs, and those things under as well as atop the skin. The chicken was first rinsed and then patted dry, to be cooked on high heat, and all in pursuit of a very crispy and delicious skin. Roasted along this dear bird were root vegetables, and all hearts were made glad.
When Rebekah asked what I wanted done with the chicken I could have told her my plan. Rather, I asked for her suggestions and out came An Unexpected Cookbook–The Unofficial Book of Hobbit Cookery. Not my plan, but better than. I’m liking the sound of that: Not my plan, but better than. My daughter is happy, my family enjoys an excellent meal, and I don’t have to cook. Success!
* In Andrew Murray’s classic book, Humility, he writes: “Look upon every fellow man who tries or vexes you as a means of grace to humble you.”
The Home Front Show 
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