Call to Christian Writers to Burn It Up on This Forum

[Gravity]

Victoria, Whitaker House is a very solid established Christian publisher, but I don't think they do much fiction (at least they didn't used to). That may have changed, though.

[K. Victoria Chase]

Hi Gravity!

Yes, their fiction line is limited; romances are mainly historical. The editor I spoke to was very nice. Hopefully, I'll hear something soon.

[Deb Kinnard]

My bud from Michigan, Sharlene MacLaren, is pubbed by Whitaker in historical (US-set) fic. From all I've seen from Shar, she's very happy with them and I understand her sales have been quite nice. I own one of the books (I'm more into medieval romance than US-set historical) and the cover art is terrific, production quality just as it should be.

KV, may your work find favor!

[callalily61]

Thanks, Deb. You are the guru of this forum!

[K. Victoria Chase]

Thank you Deb! A few days ago, I was researching some of Whitaker's authors and I actually went to Sharlene's site. I'm glad to hear she is having a pleasant experience.

[writingismypassion]

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving this week! I'll be visiting with family Thursday through Saturday, but the furtherst travel I have is only 15 miles. When I'm not with my family, I'll be editing my query. Fun times!

[David Poellot]

We invited both sides of the family. My wife has five brothers and sisters. I have three. No one took us up on the invitation, so it's just us this year. Just us is still six people, but would have been nice to have some family show up. With my oldest off to college next year, we have to get used to staying here and having Thanksgiving at our house, since we won't feel right forcing the college kids to travel right after they get home.

[Deb Kinnard]

LOL, we have less than a mile to travel. I do about half the cooking, and then we schlep everything over to my dad-in-law's house. The last of my blood relations left are my brother in Arkansas and two nieces, one in Shanghai and the other in Papua New Guinea. Unlikely we'll see my side of the family!

I do wish sometimes I came from a bigger family. In the old days we were all together, four generations at my grandparents' home in Iowa. My nieces and I loved all the noise and busy-ness, and seeing everybody together during the holidays.

In other news, I sent PEACEWEAVER off for my first-ever paid professional edit. We'll see what the lady's eagle eye spots!

[callalily61]

May the edts be light, Deb.

We're home for Thanksgiving, just the four of us. It's peaceful. Christmas is our "drive unGodly distances, schlep between houses, and keep smiling through it all" day.

[DMac]

This year it will be just me and my wife. Her father passed away last Sunday and no one feels much like celebrating. He was a great guy and left a rather large hole in our lives. But he is with our Lord now and it has been surprisingly peaceful. So it will be time for quiet times and personal reflection.

[callalily61]

{{{DMac}}}

[writingismypassion]

DMac, sorry for the loss. Glad you both are able to find peace knowing he is in Heaven.

[K. Victoria Chase]

Hugs DMac!

[Deb Kinnard]

Sorry to hear it, DMac. May the Lord's presence comfort all of you.

[DMac]

Thanks to all. We have certainly experienced the piece beyond understanding. God is good and promises that temptation will not come on us beyond what we can bear but we will be tried and tested. Not to prove anything to Him but so that we will learn our limits and grow beyond them.
Sorry to sound preachy, it's just how I am feeling right now.

SO, who is working on what now? Will you get much writing done before the first of next year with the hollidays and all?

[callalily61]

DMac, I have a deadline of Feb 1st. *flail* So, yeah, I'm doing a LOT of writing. Normally now I'd be knitting a few small Christmas presents. Um... no. Can someone invent 36-hour days, please?

[writingismypassion]

DMac, I just recently finished my novel SHARDS OF GLASS, and my beta is taking a look at it. So I won't be writing much before the first of the year, other than trying to perfect my query. I posted my first draft in QLH and got some good feedback. Hopefully I'll be able to start submitting by January and start my next project.

[Norman D Gutter]

DMac:

Sorry for your loss.

I have two magazine article deadlines between now and Christmas. Those are the only things I'm committing to. My other plans, if time allows, are to proofread novel 1 (1/3 through) prior to e-self-publishing early next year, and to proofread and content edit novel 2, prior to eSP it sometime next year.

Callilily, here's a poem I wrote along the lines of what you suggested.

The Desperate Prayer of a Busy Man Without Enough Hours in the Day
Again
I offer You
this simple fix:
Increase
the daily hours
to twenty-six.

[Deb Kinnard]

Norman, LOL at your poem. As to the 26 hour day, ask any wife/mom whether she's experienced it...bet I can guess what she'll say.

I'll be hoping for a light edit, Calla, but I don't expect it. My editor is also my crit partner. She's brilliant, knows all my bad habits, and wields a vicious red pen. She spent 8 years as a pro nonfic editor, so I won't get away with a thing. So be it -- I want PEACEWEAVER (we've taken to calling it Piece Weevil just for fun) to be the best medieval romance any editor has ever seen. We're aiming for as rejection proof as possible.

So we'll see. Once I get her edits back, I suspect I won't even come up for air for a while.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving, everyone.

[callalily61]

Happy Thanksgiving, all! Good luck with the weeviling, Deb.

[callalily61]

So, the pastor of the little church across the street sleeps out with the homeless every Thanksgiving week. He goes to a local shelter and Christian center to update his FB all week. About an hour ago he posted that he and a fellow pastor got bedbugs when they went into a run-down hotel for awhile to get out of the weather. So they went to the center to wash their clothes. They were in their skivvies and the burglar alarm went off. So they waited--in their underwear--for the cops to show up. Meanwhile, his wife arrived with clean clothes for both of them. (He did post that this really was him and no one had hacked his FB.) Apparently everything worked out.

I posted to him that I was totally using this story in a book someday because it's pure gold.

[DMac]

I was going to take this month off and concentrate on things around home. THEN, I found this site, started reading and figured out that what I wrote really is crap. Oh the story line is great, but the way I let it fall off of my fingers onto the keyboard was junk. So Thurston’s Genesis has just gone into MAJOR rewrite. Yes, it is the only thing I have ever written, except for the sequel Thurston’s Exodus so my options are limited.
Oh those things I need to work on around home? They will still need to get done. So Calla, if you can figure out that 36 hour day thing, I am going to need every minute of it.

[callalily61]

DMac, I hear ya. And while it sucks to realize it, better now than before you queried. Unlike my first book.

[DMac]

Oops! Did that twice and got three rejections. That is one of the things that drove my search for beta readers which is how I found this forum.

[Deb Kinnard]

DMac, welcome to the Revision Pit. Most of my first drafts are unusable junk. But, as someone wiser than I once said, "You cannot revise a blank page." May your rewrite go smoothly and may its end product please you more than the original.