The Curiosity - Tracy Krauss

Curiosity:

a) the desire to learn or know about anything; inquisitiveness.
b) a rare, or novel thing.












































c) a strange or interesting quality

Writers are curious people by nature, I think, and I don't just mean inquisitive. I'm referring to the 'strange' part in the third definition.

Think about it. Who else but a 'curiosity' would willingly admit to the following?

1. I shut myself off from reality in order to create a different reality of my choosing.

2. I 'hear' voices in my head.

3. I carry on conversations with imaginary people.

4. After months or even years of pouring myself onto the page, i allow other people to pick it apart.

5. My hourly wage for labor would be in the fractions of a cent.

6. The odds of making enough money to actually live on are astronomical but I keep trying anyway.

7. Sometimes I feel tired and discouraged and stuck and sick-to-death-of-writing-so why-bother-because-I'm-no-good-anyway... but I keep going back to it like a dog with a bone.

The list just gets curiouser and curiouser... I could go on but I think I've made my point. All hail to the curious breed known as 'writer'. May you never give up your dream. (Because you really couldn't, even if you tried.) 

Tracy Krauss continues to 'live the dream' at her home in Northern British Columbia. Visit her blog for more about her curious writing habits, or see her website for her extensive list of published novels, plays, short stories and non-fiction. 

Another Year ... and I’m Older by Marcia Lee Laycock

One of the negative things about getting older is that you begin to realize there just may not be enough time for you to accomplish all the things you had planned.

That “bucket list” begins to look like a long list of impossibilities. There are so many places in the world you want to see and just not enough time, let alone resources, to allow you to get to them. That house you’ve always dreamed of right on the ocean, that sizeable nest egg tucked away, that perfect health and perfectly situated family, and oh, that breakthrough novel, well ...

Sometimes the dreams come crashing into the brick wall of reality and all we can do is sigh.

But when the future looks all too short it can also be wonderfully focused. Suddenly you don’t want to travel the world, you’d just like to make it to that one special place. The house by the sea might not be possible but a satisfying reno to the one you live in overlooking that little pond will do just nicely. The nest egg tucked away might seem small but then you realize your wants aren’t really needs after all. Your health is allowing you to live well for your age, your family will never be perfect but they are all connected and involved in your life and that novel ... well ...

There is that new tool you’ve just learned to use that will help a lot and there’s that email you just received from someone who read your latest effort. And suddenly there’s that peace that God is not just in His heaven, but right here beside you, involved in your life, teaching, guiding, drawing you close.

And suddenly the sigh turns to a smile because it is enough. No, not just enough, it is all gift, all joy, all reasons to be thankful for the time, the place, the people and purpose He has given you.

Yes, another New Year is under way. And I am older. So I’m humming a simple old chorus - “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). 

****

Marcia Lee Laycock is the author of three novels and three devotional books. Find her on the web:
Website, Amazon , twitter, Pinterest and Smashwords

Living To Write - Tracy Krauss

Tracy Krauss

Writing is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of hard work and determination, and to top it off, you must brace yourself for criticism and rejection. Who in their right mind would put themselves through such stress when the pay-off financially is often minimal?

Well, even though you can’t see me, my hand is raised. It reminds me of something I read by a fellow author who posed the question, “Do you write to live, or live to write?” For the vast majority of people writing in today’s ‘new reality’ of publishing, we aren’t making enough to live on and thus have to hold down another job. However, to not write is inconceivable. It’s just what I do. It’s who I am. In many ways, it defines me. I guess that puts me smack in the ‘live to write’ category.

Lest you think I’m complaining, let me set the record straight. I am very thankful for the small amount of success I have managed to achieve in the past few years as a writer. Still, it has been a long time coming. You see, despite some relative ‘success’, I’ve been writing now for twenty-eight years, which is more than half my life. (I’ll let you try to figure out the math...) Through that time I’ve experienced some setbacks, rejection, and even health related issues that kept me from using my computer, but somehow I managed to keep on writing.

Someone asked me once how many more books I plan to write. I was momentarily puzzled. “As many as I can,” was my answer. That or when I run out of ideas. I don’t see that happening any time soon. My dream is to have all the time in the world to just pound away at the keyboard. I could probably write three or four novels a year at that pace. Reality isn’t quite as prolific, but even if I don't retire from teaching, I know I’ll still be writing. I’m thankful for every minute I currently have.

Tracy Krauss is a multi-published author, artist, and playwright. She has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Saskatchewan and teaches secondary school Art, Drama and English – all things she is passionate about. She and her husband have lived in five provinces and territories including many remote and unique places in Canada’s far north. They have four grown children and now reside in beautiful Tumbler Ridge, BC where she continues to pursue all of her creative interests. She has several romantic suspense novels and stage plays in print. For more information visit her website at http://www.tracykrauss.com

The good new days - Nesdoly

This month of remembrance has me thinking back to when I first started writing and all the changes I've seen in a mere 15-or-so years.

Horse and buggy days

It was in 1997 (March to be precise) that I made my first manuscript sale to Keys for Kids. What an exciting day that was! I had begun my ICL course "Writing for Children and Teens" just a year before and had promised myself five years of trying before I'd give up on my childhood dream of becoming a writer. Now I had made my first sale just a little past one year in!

Those days my ICL Magazine Market Guide was my writer's bible and a laid-in stash of Canadian and U.S. postage stamps my calling card to request magazine samples and send out manuscripts.

I operated like that for a few years, until the internet came to our house. During our family's first days online we only had the family computer connected so I was still relatively free from the distractions of email and online life. But once I connected my computer to the web, how quickly everything changed for me and my writing business.

Writing goes digital

One by one publishers began accepting email queries and submissions. The speed of this was pushed ahead by 9-11 when publishers suddenly became wary of opening unsolicited packages (after a few mystery deliveries contained ominous white powder).

The internet had other attractions too. As search engines improved, a world of information became available at a mouse click. And I found places online where I could post my writing—places that had "Buy this Article" next to every piece I posted, implying that there were buyers out there who might be interested! My naive hopefulness changed to realism after a few months of offering pieces there without receiving a single offer. But there were other payments to vie for—comments, clicked stars, votes, possible inclusion in anthologies, altogether far too much excitement to ignore!

And then blogging came along. I first got on the blogging bandwagon with with my personal blog  promptings in October of 2004. Of course I soon found out that if I wanted people to read and comment on my blog, I had to read and comment on theirs. I recall how nervous I felt the first time I left a comment on someone's blog with my signature a link back to my blog. I don't know what I thought would happen—the world would come flocking to my little place on the web to find out who violet was? I'll bet you can guess what did happen. That's right. Nothing!

All these changes brought with them not a little dis-ease too. I remember, even in the early days when the speed of online life was still half the pace it is now, thinking—What am I doing? I should be back in my old womb-room writing instead of indulging in all this online gadding about.

But I couldn't go back. It was as if I had shed too-small clothes, moulted,* if you like, and returning to the way things had been before was as unthinkable as a snake trying to fit himself back into the outgrown, shriveled skin of last week.

Changes have continued. I've begun many blogs, joined Facebook, become active on Twitter, set up my own web page, read and sifted through books and articles about blogging, self-publishing, marketing, publicity and selling, and earlier this year published a book...

At each new stage I get some of the same feelings I did when my writing life changed from solitary to web-based: I'd like to go back to the way things were before. But  just like then, I can't. In some strange way I feel like I keep outgrowing the old.

Too much of a good thing

Changes are in the wind again. I've come to realize that I'm a little burned out with blogging and have decided to simplify my online life.  A few weeks ago I shut down my writing blog (Line Upon Line) and have now begun blogging from my website. This will become my main blog.  Though I will keep recycling my kids' devotions and writing my daily adult devotions, my dear old personal blog promptings will change to a photolog with mostly photos and less words. This will be my last post on the Canadian Writers Who Are Christian for a while as I'm taking a break from posting to group blogs as well.

Where is God in all this? I trust that He is in the restlessness to shed some of these commitments  now, as I sensed His go-ahead to get into them them years ago. But as in many things, it's faith, not sight.

Will I be back? In the comments for sure. But as a blogger—perhaps, perhaps not. You see, it all depends on what the next moult allows.

*"Molting, or Moulting, the shedding, or casting off, of feathers, hair, horns, shell, or a layer of skin by an animal. Molting is a periodic process of renewal, the cast-off parts being replaced by a new growth." (emphasis added) - Animal Planet

- by Violet Nesdoly (first published on Inscribe Writers Online - November 12, 2012)
Website
Author Violet Nesdoly on Facebook

The tale of a tale - Nesdoly

I am in the middle of doing one of the most challenging and exciting things I've done since setting out on my writing journey. You see, in November of 2011 I signed a contract with Word Alive Press to publish a novel.  So far this year I've reworked that book,  edited it, and have just signed off on the typeset interior file and cover.  In a few weeks  I'll be entering the self-published writer's strategizing-networking-publicizing-marketing fray—a place I promised myself I'd never be in.

That my first book (not counting poetry) would be fiction is another surprise. I have never thought of myself as a fiction writer. I don't daydream in stories. I never invented imaginary friends. I didn't entertain my school buddies with stories of Jim and Ann, like my best friend did, or invent imaginary animal tales to tell my kids.

And yet over the years certain characters have come to life for me. It seems to happen most often with historical figures. When I researched the life of John Bunyan, for example, I was charmed by his shy but plucky wife Elizabeth. Similarly I have written short stories about biblical characters like the little girl who was Naaman's maid, Rahab, Achan, and the shepherds that visited baby Jesus.

Another Bible character who has fascinated me for years is Bezalel, that craftsman of whom Moses said, "See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel ... and He has filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and understanding in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze..." (Exodus 35:30-34).  Bezalel ended up being in charge of constructing the tabernacle and its furniture.

Who was this young man whom God filled with His Spirit for the arts, I wondered? What was his youth like? Did he train under Pharaoh's craftsmen? Did he have any sense that he was special? I'd like to write about him and find out, I often thought, as his back-story began to form in my imagination. Only, I knew that his tale would be more than a few thousand words.

Over the years when I would come to the end of a project and pray, God, what next? I would often think about that story. I knew I wanted to write it, should write it. Yet the project seemed too big, the research too overwhelming. And so I kept shoving it aside. Until November of 2009.

That year, I decided to take the plunge and make the writing of Bezalel's story my NaNoWriMo project. With the help of  Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake Method, I did some pre-planning. Once the month began the writing flowed and I reached the end of my narrative (and passed my 50,000-word goal) several days before the end of November.

Then—nothing. The manuscript mouldered in my files for the next year or so, even though my prayers for other writing assignments repeatedly brought me face to face with this one, still unfinished. Early last year I finally realized I would have no peace until I completed it.

The Word Alive Publishing Contest deadline of June 30, 2011 gave me a concrete date to work toward. And so most weekdays of March to May last year I set my timer for 99 minutes, 59 seconds (the max it would register) and worked at the sucker.

I declared it finished two weeks before the contest deadline and on June 15th gleefully drove my stack of papers to the neighborhood UPS depot (we were in the middle of a mail strike right then), and sent my baby into the world.

No one was more surprised than I to find, in late September, that Destiny's Hands had made the list of contest finalists. Thanks to the support and encouragement of the people at Word Alive Press I am now only weeks away from having the physical book in my hand.

If there is anything about this lengthy process that gives me courage for the daunting job ahead, it is the sense that God has been with me this whole time, helping me put this story together, keeping me interested, bugging me to finish it. I just hope my efforts won't have let Him down.

© 2011 by Violet Nesdoly, adapted from "The Tale of a Tale" first published on Inscribe Writers Online.

Website: www.violetnesdoly.com

• Personal blog (with a focus on seniors' issues) promptings  
• Writerly blog Line upon line 
  
• Daily devotions for children Bible Drive-Thru
• Daily devotions for adults: Other Food: daily devos
• A poem portfolio
• Facebook author page (see the cover image of Destiny's Hands)