Rock Stars, Romance, and Jesus

How's that for a provocative post title? No, seriously -- I read a romance I really, really liked (and all of you know I’m notoriously tough to please). HER MINNESOTA MAN is set in—well, Minnesota. Brenda Coulter, author of all this bodacious terrificality, was kind enough to join us on JTTS today.

DK: Describe, please, what factors went into your starting the story 5 days after Jeb accepts Christ.

BC: Well, we see a lot of hero-gets-saved-at-the-end-of-the-story romances, don’t we? I wanted to do something different. I also wanted to show that getting saved doesn’t make a person’s life more comfortable, but less so. I mean, it’s easy to please ourselves, isn’t it? But living to please God . . . that’s a hard thing. Especially if you have never even been to church, how do you know where to start? And how are you supposed to respond when the people around you are laughing and pressuring you to get over your “foolishness” and return to “reality”?

A novelist always wants to open her story at a moment of great conflict for her protagonist, so I showed my hero being pressed on all sides as he struggles to find God’s will for his life. Right out of the box (I hope), readers who might otherwise have been less than sympathetic toward a rock-star hero will find themselves rooting for this poor guy who’s trying so very hard to do the right thing.

DK: I was surely rooting for Jeb! And Laney—she’s a tower of strength, but you show her struggling with faith questions. Do you feel that makes her a stronger Christian, or simply a normal one?

BC: I think she’s like most of us in that her faith sometimes wavers like a candle flame. The reader meets her at a particularly difficult time in her life: While she’s a true believer, she’s frustrated and emotionally exhausted to the point that she has stopped praying and attending church. She knows that’s wrong, and she means to get back on track. But just now, she’s feeling a tad resentful that God hasn’t moved to lighten her load.

DK: I can understand that, with all Laney has to deal with! How did you come to write the Three Graces? Do you know ladies like these?

BC: The Three Graces came straight out of my imagination, but I wish they were real. I would adore having tea with them, and maybe I would even ask them to teach me how to knit. I’d love to hug Millie and trade quips with Aggie and make Big Plans with Caroline.

DK: I’d like just to hang with them and see how triplets really interact! What went into your portrayal of the mainstream rock-and-roll singer’s life? Did you have to do “real-life” research?

BC: I watched a lot of “backstage” videos and read some Rolling Stone articles and also a bunch of on-the-road blogs by members of secular bands. It was fun because I love that music, even though I deplore the frequently unwholesome lyrics and the band members’ hedonistic lifestyles. (Over the course of my life, I have often whispered prayers for singers and bands whose lyrics have disturbed me. I imagine that’s where the idea for this story came from.)

DK: I came of age in the 70s, so I can relate to liking music I shouldn’t. At any time up to your decision to take your book direct-to-reader, did you feel any impulse to water down Jeb’s past life or his current struggles? What made you decide not to?

BC: My former publisher’s market research has repeatedly shown that in general, conservative Christian women don’t want to read about actors, sports stars, recording artists, and the like because those people are widely perceived as “hard-living” and unfaithful. I believed I’d written Jackson Bell in a way that would appeal to readers, but my editor was still compelled to “pass” on the project. Almost immediately, I was struck by the idea of self-publishing. My readers kept asking for longer books, and here was my chance to give them one. I would also be free to subtly depict the physical attraction between my hero and heroine without having to worry about those lines ending up on the cutting-room floor. I broke several more of my old publisher’s rules, and had a blast doing it. I was no longer writing for their audience, but solely for my own, and that was tremendously exciting. So this turned out to be a completely different book than it would have been had my editor bought the proposal. The story is bigger and more real, and I couldn’t be more satisfied!

Since I was previously published by Love Inspired, a huge name in Christian romance, some people have asked why I didn’t hire an agent to shop this story to the other Christian publishing houses. That simply never occurred to me. Self-publishing felt so right that I just never stopped to consider any other option.

I’m glad you made that choice. IMO, this was a story that deserved to be told. Brenda, thanks for two things: for writing such a terrific book and for sharing some of your heart for the story.

Potential fans and good-story-lovers, get HER MINNESOTA MAN at one of the links here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0086WXN3U/

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/167264

Back in the Box

Home from the ACFW conference this week, free to process what I heard and what I learned.

I don't usually share sorrows. But I'm in a heavy mood over this one. It's nothing serious -- my loved ones are in health and I've really nothing to complain over. But my dear-to-the-heart 973 Wales book is not going forward in its present form. The story I wanted to tell is not the story the publishers want.

I heard similar things from two editors. The summary I presented on the one sheet caused pursed lips and raised brows. I explained that my plot points were true to their time, but heard, "Yes, I'm sure they are, but our readers will not accept them."

Point: though young women often were given in marriage in their mid-teens, my heroine cannot be in her mid-teens. She has to be older. Readers will not accept a main character who's considered a grown woman and ready for marriage at 15.

Point: my girl's true love and her husband have to be the same person. The readers will not accept that she loves one man and must marry another for political reasons. This, too, was true to the age, but the readers will not accept it.

Get the drift? The story I wanted to tell, how a woman can triumph over stiff odds, can come to love the quest for peace, can come to terms with an unwanted husband...all that must be taken out.

The more outspoken of us Christian fic writers talk about "the box." This far and no further. Write this and not that. Show these characters and delete these others. Deal with these themes and not those. Some of us would love to kick the sides out of the box, and some, including people I'm proud to call friends, have kicked the sides with some success. I honor them for it.

But not this story, and not at this time. Back in the box, PEACEWEAVER. The readers don't want you. Or so I'm told. To pitch this project (hopefully with some success), I'm selling out to The Box. I'm gutting my story.

I feel sad about doing this. What will be left (and I'm 40 pages in to the rewrites) will not be the story I wanted to tell. It may be something more banal, something perhaps less interesting, something I might not want to read were it for sale in a store. I hope as I overtype my original manuscript that it will be a better book than its predecessor, but hoping is all I can do until I see what it becomes.

Many factors in this writing/publishing life are beyond my control. My story and how I tell it are the only things I can control. Heaven knows I'm trying for quality.

I'm not complaining that the market is as it is. My wail is over the fact that it cannot be allowed to spread to cover a little wider span.

Conflicting Projects, Conflicting Emotions

Writer's angst. Which of us hasn't experienced it?

My conundrum: I'm told my medievals aren't wanted. They won't sell. To make matters worse, instead of working on something that may sell, I've got a first century story niggling at my brain, trying to get out.

So what am I doing on these writing-Wednesdays? Working on the third medieval time-travel story, which I'm told will never see the light of day.

It's going very, very well -- probably because nobody but me will ever glimpse it.

Discouraged? You bet.

Your Saturday Free Teaser

Today I'm delighted to post the first few words, just to whet your appetite, for my friend Nike Chillemi's book BURNING HEARTS. Love it, go get it (from Desert Breeze Publishing).

Long Island, New York
September 1946

Erica Brogna hurried down Hill Street, eager to sketch her new design, a forest green taffeta dress with a swirling skirt for a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary -- her first significant assignment. She paused to inhale the salt scent on the ocean breeze, and her gaze lingered on a copse of red, rust, and gold maples near Ada's house and dress shop.
She smiled, pulling her cardigan tight around her, and dropped the newspaper Poppa asked her to bring to her mentor and employer. She retrieved the paper and saw Bess Truman smiling as she entered Walter Reed Army Hospital. With the war over, the First Lady visited broken soldiers in long-term care. Erica slapped the paper closed before rage and depression overtook her. So many boys had not come home.
Chin jutted out, she smoothed the pleats of her skirt and marched toward Ada's house. She'd think on pleasant things and hand the paper over without a fuss as she did every morning. Nothing would ruin this day.
She climbed Ada's wooden front steps and opened the door.
Smoke filled the living room Ada had turned into a fabric shop. Erica waved a hand in front of tearing eyes. Gray vapors, like swirling fog, partially obscured bolts of fabric stacked against the opposite wall.
"Ada! Ada, answer me please." Dropping the newspaper, Erica rushed toward the stairs, trampling Bess Truman's image. "Ada can you hear me?"
Coughing, she grabbed on to the cutting table in the middle of the room, steadied herself, and reached for the phone -- no dial tone. Perhaps the fire melted the line.
She yanked the collar of her blouse over her nose and mouth against the smoke. The stairs loomed before her, seeming as impossible to scale as Mount Everest. She lunged forward, gripping the baluster, and thrust herself up two steps. Since Ada wasn't outside, she had to be upstairs.
As Erica climbed, the smoke thickened and swirled around her. It was darker with each step.
One hand clasped the rail and pulled, and she advanced a few more steps. Heat blasted against her skin from above, and soft crackling sounds drew her gaze to the upstairs landing. Squinting into the smoke, she lost her grip on the banister, missed the next step, and fell backward tumbling to the bottom.
The back of her head smacked against the baluster, and wooziness followed sharp pain. She tried to stand but couldn't get her bearings.
Will triumphed over ability. She hoisted herself, ignoring the dull throb at the back of her skull. Her palms stung, the skin scraped off during her fall. She took a deep breath, and a coughing fit seized her. Shallow breaths were the better alternative.
Planting her penny loafer on the bottom step, Erica began her climb again, shaken but with new resolve. If she could reach the top of the stairs, she could also make it to Ada's bedroom.
Halfway up, the scratches on her palms pulsated as the temperature rose. So did her knees -- must've scraped those, too. The pungent smoke shrouding her darkened, and grit clung to her skin. She couldn't see the banister or the top of the stairs and each breath took effort.
Poppa's lectures on fire drills flashed into mind -- stay low in a fire to get fresh air. She dropped to her knees and crawled, ignoring her pain. A sickening smell made her stomach lurch.
Inch by inch she crept, now three quarters of the way up. Hot, putrid air assaulted her windpipe, and she doubled over, her insides trembling.
Heaving herself forward, she maneuvered up one more step, but the smoke pushed back, choking her. She sobbed, knowing she couldn't make it to Ada, and scrambled down, hoping she could find help.


Good stuff, eh?

Apparently I Told the Story

I gave the full edited MS of SEASONS IN THE MIST to my crit partner Janny over the weekend. Mind you, she's seen pieces of it as it's grown, but never the full.

I'm tearing up now, because here is her assessment of the part she has read so far:

"...your characters have a relaxed sense of humor that shines through; I think that many historical romance writers are so cognizant of the necessity to put in crackling sensual tension that the characters almost end up being too intense and focused on those things, to the exclusion of being balanced human beings (unbalanced, unrealistic human beings in romance books? Surely I jest!).

"And, of course, because there's a spiritual content to yours that is more straightforward and wholesome than secular medievals tend to have, the entire world and the people in it 'hang together' better. One temptation that contemporary writers always have to fight is the tendency to forget that their heroines cannot be modern women in costume dramas--they have to sound, as much as possible, like women of that time WOULD sound, act, and yes, even think. This is hard for most of them to do, especially in the area of faith, religion, and/or the Church.

"In that sense, your characterization of Michael is especially wonderful--he balances the hard (and sad) reality of clerics who don't do their jobs and/or aren't educated properly and/or are lazy against the spiritual reality that, in fact, this is all the people HAVE and that no servant of God is gonna be perfect anyway. There's an almost tender regard he has for the human weaknesses of the priests and other clerics in this book that I think would ring much truer to the time period than the more cynical, jaded, or sarcastic viewpoints that so often show up on the part of characters in other medievals. In that sense alone, you've already risen above the crowd.

"And it goes without saying that as a Catholic, I'm thoroughly sick of reading contemporary liberal anti-Church speeches coming out of characters who wouldn't have made those speeches in the times in which they lived. You not only stayed out of that trap, but you made the character come alive as a man of faith as a result. To which I can only say, 'Brava!'"

As I say, this gets me, like, all misty. I've aspired to something and apparently in my crit partner's eyes, achieved it. All glory to God. This is a story I've wanted to tell for years, and it seems to me a very wondrous and humbling thing that it'll be coming out to the world in general.

If there's a point to this post is: they say, "Write the book of your heart," and it's true. I was told this piece would never sell. I put it away assuming the industry was right and I was all wet, that it would never find a home and I alone would travel this road along with my characters. I guessed wrongly. A most humbling thing.

Interview with One of the Up-and-Coming

Just when you thought it was safe to venture back onto my blog...

Another entry!

Today we're chatting with rising author Lisa Lickels. I posed a few little questions:

Deb: Want to tell us the title of your new book and what it's about?
Lisa: The title is MEANDER SCAR. Tag line: Love can heal even the deepest scars... Just when Ann is ready to move on with a new love, she learns the truth about her husband's disappearance.

Deb: What makes your book stand out?
Lisa: Besides the title? LOL. There's the idea of what happens to all those people who go missing and are never found, tied in with an over-the-top wonderful young man in love with his former next door neighbor lady, outrageously dysfunctional family life...a boatload of generational issues to address. My theme is "what makes a family?" I held my husband's youngest brother, then a USC psychology professor, hostage on a car trip in California to discuss the topic. Then I plotted the book while sitting at a picnic table in Yosemite while they bonded, crawling around on rocks.

Deb: What a visual! If you weren't writing in your current genre, in which would you write? And why?
Lisa: I'm not currently having that issue, as I have yet to discover what genre I'm really supposed to be writing. As a historian, I should like writing historicals, but I don't. As a HUGE Anne McCaffrey and Star Trek and Star Wars fan, I might consider writing fantasy/SF, but the thought scares me to death, even though I'm often told I live on my own planet. I'd like to move toward the literary side of life, but don't tell anyone, 'cause nobody wants to represent or publish literary as it doesn't sell and only gets Pulitzers. MEANDER was supposed to be more literary, but they made me change the ending, except for the last line.

Deb: If you could grow up to write like someone else, who would it be (i.e., what writer do you most admire)?
Lisa: Me, looking toward the ceiling, "May I never grow up, please, God." I adore Ray Bradbury who also happened to publish the best book of the twentieth century in the US.

Deb: Were you born in the right century? If you could pick another era, which would you choose?
Lisa: I think I could handle being a pioneer woman, except for slitting the goat's neck and things of that type (Cold Mountain reference) and butchering, but I guess I'd have to get used to it, since vegetarians didn't do very well over the harsh prairie winters. And not being able to vacuum cobwebs would kinda drive me nuts, but that's why God made brooms and low ceilings in soddies.

Deb: Describe your ideal G-rated romantic evening.
Lisa: Nice meal we make together, well, he grills. Venison in his special marinade. Mushrooms. A walk on the pier at Port Washington as the sun goes down. A turtle sundae at Culver's. A slow ride back through the Kettle Moraine. Listening to Prairie Home Companion and having a beer. Oops, can I say that for "G"?

Deb: Sure! This isn't a stiff sort of blog...Does your book have a heart-thumping hero? What makes him heroic?
Lisa: Oh, absolutely. I have a wonderful fantasy life. Ann, the heroine, thinks Mark's eyes are the color of bluebird feathers in the sunshine (really, the feathers are black unless the sun shines on them), and dimples that probably turn his secretary's knees to pudding every morning. He is still a virgin at age 35 because he thought being married was worth the wait, and he's a great, kind, gentle lawyer. Oh, yeah, and smart - got a full scholarship to Georgetown. And rich. Did I say that already? And has great manners, and drags Ann to church. Sigh. Besides the fact that he's not really much of a Plan B kind of guy, he might be perfect.

Deb: Sounds heavenly. What's your next project (the one you're either currently writing or canoodling)?
Lisa: I'm pretending to work on the third book of the Buried Treasure (or Judy Winters if you've seen it on Amazon) cozy mystery series that no one wants since Heartsong Presents: Mysteries folded. Actually I'm about 2/3 of the way through the draft. Also I'm editing another romance with some great suggestions from some new friends. THE LAST DETAIL was originally written a couple of years ago to pitch during Heartsong's wedding year, but I had to kill someone. Heartsong doesn't really approve of that bumping off characters, so I rewrote the thing for a couple of other markets who still weren't taken with the body count. Now I'm just rewriting it like I always wanted it to turn out and we'll see what happens.
"Can real love survive a tumultuous courtship and marriage between a business woman and a busy pastor? Amalia, a sheltered young woman, and confirmed bachelor missionary Merit learn to accept God’s interference in their plans when he throws them together in an unlikely romance."
I'm also tinkering with a story line I pitched at a conference a couple of years ago. My local crit group likes it. I'm really gonna get stuck writing romance, aren't I?
Oh! Except for the radio drama series I'm writing for FreeQuincy Radio Theater. "As the Neuron Turns," a radio soap opera, will be out on Podcast in the fall. We're recording the vocals now and doing sound effects over the summer. Sometimes I can't believe myself.

Deb: Wow! And I thought I was busy! Where can fans buy your book, and in what format(s)?
Lisa: MEANDER SCAR releases on February 15 from Black Lyon Publishing. It will be available in print and e-book formats, including Kindle. The first chapter is posted on my website for your previewing pleasure. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Fictionwise, and Target.com will carry the book.

http://www.blacklyonpublishing.com/Lickel.html
Author: Lisa J. Lickel
ISBN: 978-1-934912-23-2
Price: $16.95 paperback
Price: $8.00 Ebook (PDF format)
Pages: TBD paperback

Deb: Sounds great. Do you have a blog and/or website of your own?
Lisa: Sure do. http://lisalickel.com
http://livingourfaithoutloud.blogspot.com

Lisa, thanks for a fun interview. MEANDER SCAR sounds fun and different.

A Time for RECKONING

Happy New Year. Hasn't been a great one for us so far, due to family illness and associated challenges. But my husband and kids are healthy and enjoying their school and work vacations.

For my part, work continues on SEASONS OF RECKONING, the planned sequel to SEASONS IN THE MIST. Marcus, the main character, has just been found guilty of murder in a medieval (literally!) trial.

Trouble is--how much do I know about medieval trial procedure? How much do you, my would-be reader, know? Eh?

Realizing I'd written a whole ten pages of trial-fiction without actually knowing one iota about what I wrote. Aargh! This can't be good. So I went to the 'Net, which didn't find much, but I found there's a book. I got it on Interloan at the library, and let me tell you, it's tough slogging. Already in page 4 it uses terms I'm supposed to know but have never heard. Maybe I should've gone to law school before writing this one! Eh?

Then a small voice reminds me: "Hey, Kin, it's a ROMANCE. Get as much of it right as you can and don't sweat the rest." Now I want to understand as much as possible but follow this plan.

A Change of SEASONS

That's right--SEASONS IN THE MIST, the time-travel romance that's been percolating through the writing/submission/ publishing process for many months, is just about revised and ready to send back to Sheaf House. I finished the substantive work yesterday, so the coming week is for tweaks, polishes and a final re-read.

Why rewrite, do you ask? Good question. The publisher thought the middle was "flat."

So I rewrote. It's the first time I've done such a thing, though I've heard other authors moan about rewrites. I did feel their pain, but since I'd never been asked, it didn't affect ME, now, did it?

God uses such things to keep us humble.

Since that's true, SEASONS has morphed into something a little different. There is now a political subplot to the story, and the tension between Lord Mike the Hunky, Lady Bethany Who Tells Lies, and Hairy-Nosed Git Brother is now ratcheted way, way up.

I think it's a better book now.

Stay tuned. The new, improved version is already available for preorder on Amazon and CBD. It'll be released in April.

Taking My Own Advice

A bit more "what's in it for YOU"ish stuff. Today, while laboring diligently in the Revision Pit, I got permission from my publisher to post a teaser excerpt from SEASONS IN THE MIST. It's on my web site. Take a look--tell me what you think.

And remember: it's for YOU and it's free! LOL.

Interested? Get thee (as Janny recommends) to my site, www.debkinnard.com and click on the "sneak preview" button on the lower left hand side.

SEASONS IN THE MIST Gets a Cover!

This is what we arrived at (less me than the incomparable folks at Sheaf House). I'm thrilled, awed, happy, humbled, thankful. Isn't it beautiful?

For me, they captured exactly the right mood. Good fiction ought to evoke the same strong emotions as good music -- they ought to make you feel. This cover does. I hope the book lives up to its skin. I trust in God that it will.

A Cover-to-Be!

My publisher sent the proof of the cover for SEASONS IN THE MIST. They want the cover done early, because the spring catalogs need to get whipped into shape now. Who'd have believed it?

The cover is a honey. Truly. The designer got the mood just exactly right. She wants to tweak it a little more, so I can't share it quite yet. I'm so pumped, though, that if I could post it, you'd be admiring it with me. As soon as I can, I will.

Rejoice with me!

DK's Muse, a Fickle Brat

If ever there was one...mine takes the prize.

I got an idea for a new story. Fine, say I, and go open a new Word document to start making story notes. I use MS One-Note when I want virtual 3x5 cards, but when an idea germinates I'm not ready for those yet, so I just scribble down random thoughts.

Good, huh?

Not so fast. My husband is sometimes very good (read: TOO good) at giving me story ideas. I wish he'd warn me when something's brewing in his head, though. It's always timed wrong. Anyway, along comes this same husband and starts talking about an idea for ANOTHER time travel, and this time it's a guy who does the traveling. The character's a medieval re-enactor in this day, and thinks he's cool and competent. But he gets to the middle ages and is VERY surprised at what he sees. The locals are Not Impressed. My main character, though passionate about his re-enactment efforts, is nowhere near as authentic as he thinks he is.

Wham! Scuttle project #1 and start scribbling notes for time travel project #2, which in the process morphs to a time travel piece that's a sequel to SEASONS IN THE MIST.

How in bejabbers did that happen?

Don't ask me why. This muse is a fickle brat and that's for sure. But I'm making character notes and writing furiously now, have it well into chapter 2 in first draft, and by the Rood this thing is humming!

Working title: THE PEDDLER'S PACK. Wish me bonne chance!

A Book Sale

Pleased to report that my contemporary "second chances" book, DAMAGES, will be released by Desert Breeze Publishing next April.

I love this story. It's about its sixteenth incarnation, where a man recovering from the loss of his disastrous first marriage, embarks on a second for all the wrong reasons. Probably this "mistake" factor is the reason it didn't sell in the mainstream Christian markets. That's fine. Sort of. In any case, I'm glad to see this book get a chance out there, and hopefully engage some readers in a story I like a lot.

There are thematic elements I'm told the Christian reading public won't tolerate. In ANGEL WITH A RAY GUN an early reader told me the main character should be shown praying more. I considered this, but didn't change it much. You see, a "more prayer" theme didn't actually advance the story. And story rules all. In DAMAGES, I was told the marriage-by-mistake theme would turn off readers.

Do Christians make mistakes? Sure. I do, and I don't think I'm atypical. It's how I show the Lord working through these characters' lives that matters. The development of the characters, getting past their less savory decisions, growing in Christ -- that's the story. If the idea that believers make mistakes, even in major life-decisions, turns off some readers, so be it.

It's the Time of the "Seasons"

Hurray! I got all required edits done on the sold book, SEASONS IN THE MIST, and sent it off to the publisher.

My pub has given me such good suggestions on this book--they have made it a much better story. I declined one recommendation 'cause I didn't really feel it was needed, but otherwise I incorporated everything she said. I like this book. I really like it.

Done enthusing now. Until further suggestions come, or until I get my galleys, this book is now put to bed...time for further work on PEACEWEAVER, methinks.

Although I DO have a germ of an idea for a SEASONS sequel...

The Waiting Game, Part XXIV

We're on our wait yet again. Heard from Publisher #1 about the proposal for PEACEWEAVER. Apparently they like it well enough to see it again next spring, if we haven't sold it by then. Drat! I wanted a deal now...

Did I mention I'm not too good at waiting?

DAMAGES, the full manuscript, is wending its way to my agent for submission. I have good hopes for this story because a publisher contacted ME (not the other way 'round!) and said they liked my voice, and wouldn't we like to send in something for consideration?

You bet your sweet bippy we would. So my matchless agent, Tamela, told me to send her the full printed MS plus proposal. It's in the hands of the (gulp) US Postal Service as we speak, and I hope the publisher likes it well enough to give Tamela a call and me something to rejoice over.

Now, if anyone knows ways, other than chocolate, to ease the waiting time, I'm all ears and available taste buds.

SALE!

Except for my DH, you guys are the first to know:

I'm pleased as spiced ale to announce that Sheaf House has offered to publish SEASONS IN THE MIST. SEASONS, as all two of you blog fans will no doubt recollect, is a time-travel romance set (mostly) in 1353 Cornwall.

We're mulling a spring '10 release for it. Due to the awesome nature of Sheaf House's previous covers, I hope & expect a really bodacious cover for this book.

Though I've known about the possibility for some months, my agent advised me to keep mum until released to announce by the publisher. Well, today we all agreed it could come out! As in, SQUEEEE!

Still grinning almost wide enough to split my face.

The Home Stretch

Vacation's come and gone--way too fast for my taste! Sometimes I think the best part of getting away is the anticipation.

Work on DAMAGES is going quite well. After a kick in the slats from my crit partner, I realized what I want to do with this is a semi-rewrite before submission. All I have to do is reorder some events in the book, go through one last time (staying focused all the while), and whip it into shape.

Rewriting, though I've done it in the past, is a real challenge for me. Some authors love doing it. That's not how I'm wired together. I think in me, it's a hangover from childhood. I've seen it in my kids: once they WRITE SOMETHING, put it down on paper, it has a life of its own. "Change this," I advise my daughter, "put in some punctuation, tell us his name..." She looks at me like I've gone bonkers. If it's down on paper, it exists as it is. Change it?

I'm thinking that's my mindset. Once I type it in, easy-edit computer function notwithstanding, I tend to get a prejudice to keep it intact.

This isn't to say I don't edit. But on occasion I've been advised to make a love story into a mystery, or change everybody's motivations, or whatever. I keep wanting to respond, "But that's not what happened!"

Once I write it, it lives, somehow. Very difficult to tweak it then. I just thank God I cued into this misguided mindset at all. It took my kids to teach me.

Toiling Onward

A Faithful Reader (hi to all three of you!) reminded me I hadn't posted in ages. I'll rectify that.

First & foremost, thanks to all of your good thoughts & prayers. I am no longer stuck. Instead, I'm working on agent-suggested revisions for the piece, DAMAGES, we want to send to Steeple Hill. I'm also working on editor-suggested revisions to SEASONS IN THE MIST, the time-travel story. I'd tell you who the house is who's interested, but my agent says then I'd have to shoot you.

Work on PEACEWEAVER is also perking along. My crit partner actually likes it! More reason to celebrate.

Next month I'm off to American Christian Fiction Writers' annual conference, along with several of you. I'm very cranked for this event, and as usual, I have to warn myself not to set my expectations too high. That way lies a major bum-out.

In other news, my web site is being nicely redesigned. I had to get a new domain name 'cause the old host played dirty with my old one. So if you get a chance, take a peek at www.debkinnard.com, currently under construction but shaping up to be very cool indeed.

That's it for now. Gotta go write something. Cat Kelly Kinnard says "mip".

Stuck in the Middle With You

Since last post, I've decided to turn more attention to contemporary novels than historicals. That's not to say I won't finish PEACEWEAVER; since that tale's in my head, I most likely will finish it. Just not right away.

So I went back to a story I started 2-3 years ago, called A ROSE IN LATE OCTOBER. I like this story...

So why is it STUCK? Man alive, if I knew that I'd tell ya. I got it to 35K words and it's just sitting there, glaring at me, daring me to find a path for it to travel.

So far that path hasn't revealed itself to me. I told my crit partner I need to glare back, and drink another pot of coffee, before I get an inkling where it should go.

External disaster? No, just did that. Internal gut-gnawing? Did that, too. Up the conflict? I'm thinking yes, though I can't tell which of the Main Characters needs to have his/her anguish-level intensified at this point in the story.

Gaargh! Did I mention I hate when a story sticks somewhere and won't budge?

Searching for a Mood

SEASONS IN THE MIST is semi-officially, sort of, done. I finished the final edits this past week, and put it to bed 'til I feel like re-reading it for more edits, or 'til it sells, or 'til an agent wants the full manuscript. Sometimes when you work on a book it starts to pall, after a while. So I've put this book to bed and I've started the next one.

PEACEWEAVER will be a medieval also, set in a time period earlier than that of SEASONS. It's set in north Wales, amid two warring clans who try to unite to repel the Saxon and Norse incursions, and use a young girl as a pawn in their search for an end to the warfare. I really like the idea, I know exactly where it's going and who the characters are.

What I'm after is a "feel" for the time. Little removed from the Dark Ages, I'm sure 958 Wales had its own tone and flavor, different from 14th century England. My first five pages lack the flavor. I'll tweak, edit, and up the emotion and detail until that taste is very apparent, even from page one. But at this point it's frustrating when I know I ALMOST have it...but not.

Wish me luck on the new project!