Carrie | July 2, 2011
Last month, on May 5 to be exact, I began the process of rewriting Perfect Opportunities and submitting it to a couple of crit groups for objective opinions. My goal was to submit one chapter per week until the novel was complete. I began the process knowing there would be things to change, tighten, improve, [...]
Carrie | June 4, 2011
Some stories are easy to write the first time through. It’s in the second (third, fourth, fifth, etc., etc., etc.) draft that things get sticky. Anyone who has been writing for any length of time knows stories sometimes resist every effort at completion. Something stands in the way. A problem with characters. A problem with [...]
Carrie | March 4, 2010
After several days of dedicated prayer and a day of fasting, I’ve decided to give Saving Grace a sabbatical and myself a much needed break. The questions that prompted that decision still need to be answered, but they are no longer dominant. In their place is a quietness of mind that lets me know it’s [...]
Carrie | January 30, 2010
I had hoped to have the Saving Grace snowflake finished by this time, but that didn’t happen. Even so, it was a great week for writing. Today, I worked on Step Eight, which is listing the scenes. It’s less of a creative process and more of a sequencing process at this stage because the story [...]
Carrie | January 26, 2010
It doesn’t matter how carefully a first draft is crafted or how well the foundation is built, there are changes between the drafts. Loose ends to tie up. Redundancies to eliminate. Plots to tighten. Dialog to clarify. Sometimes names and locations get changed, too. In other words, everything is subject to change. With a first [...]
Carrie | January 19, 2010
At some point in every story, there comes a time when writing, plotting, character and story development stops and stock taking begins. It could be a day spent pondering plot dilemmas in the middle of a first draft or it could be a couple of weeks spent brooding between drafts. To an interested observer, it [...]
Carrie | January 13, 2010
Sometimes life is easy. Sometimes life is hard. The same goes for painting and for writing and for every other human endeavor. I remind myself of that principle every time I hit a snag in anything. I also tell myself that if something was easy, everybody would be doing it. I’ve had to remind myself [...]
Carrie | January 9, 2010
Second drafts in particular and rewriting in general is like eating oatmeal for breakfast. Most of the time, it’s not something I prefer to do, but it’s good for me, so I do it. I’ve been working on the rewrite of Saving Grace five days now and have made a lot of progress. The first [...]
Carrie | January 7, 2010
Saving Grace officially entered the second draft phase on Tuesday, January 5, 2010. It took three days to do the first reading and analysis, one-and-a-half days for each phase. It had been my hope to move directly from analysis to second draft while still in Michigan. When we left, I thought I had every file [...]
Carrie | December 26, 2009
Christmas Day brought two things to me this year. A day of quiet and rest after the drive from Newton, Kansas to Clare, Michigan; of eating leftovers from the annual Christmas Eve Dinner and of lounging around the house with Mom and family members I haven’t seen since October and, of course, snow! But it [...]
I've been an avid looker-at of books since I was old enough to sit on her lap and listen to the stories she read.
The oldest complete manuscript I have was written when I was in the eighth grade.
Throughout grade school and high school, I read every horse story I could get my hands on. Walter Farley was a huge favorite and I still enjoy reading the adventures of the Black Stallion and Flame and all the rest. But Marguerite Henry, C. W. Anderson, Thomas Hinkle and anyone else who wrote a story about a horse was on my to-read list. I couldn't get enough of them.
Then I found Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and discovered another world; the world of mysteries!
More recently Dick Francis has combined my love of horse stories with my love of mysteries with his series of books.
In the early part of this century, I was introduced to the world of Christian fiction and in July of 2008, I took my first ever writing workshop. The workshop covered several aspects of writing from a Christian worldview and an entirely new vista opened before me.
I am, as yet, unpublished. I write every day, maintain painting and writing blogs, painting journals, writing journals and a number of other writing endeavors. Along with other members of my church family, I've written devotions for Advent and Lenten devotional booklets. For a time, I wrote a monthly column for the Newton Kansan newspaper.
I still enjoy a good horse story but I also enjoy a good mystery or cozy mystery, suspense and a little bit of action here and there, as well as literary works. I hope, Lord willing, to try my hand at each of those genres.
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