Hello ladies!

We woke up to roughly ten inches of snow on the ground today! Sometime in the night I recall waking up and hearing the wind and the sound of rain or sleet or something hitting the window but I went back to sleep without looking. Today, the blanket of white is beautiful! It’s 27 degrees right now (bur!) and I am so thankful I write from my home office!

To answer some questions…

#1. I LOVE your quote, Dotsie! We should all write that and put it on our computer screens! Here’s another quote I refer to often: DO WE CONFUSE MOTION WITH PROGRESS? Hmm, food for thought, eh?

#2. Dianne asked about Query letters. The KEY with any query is to make sure to follow the requested guidelines. If a publisher asks you to “Query with a sample chapter,” then send a sample chapter and not the entire book. If they ask you to “Query with a chapter outline,” then send a chapter outline, and not the entire book. (See where I’m going with this?) If they ask you to “Query with a Proposal, then send a proposal and not something else.

You would be surprised how many people do not read guidelines. For example, I get query letters all the time about story ideas for my God Allows U-Turns anthology series. My writer’s guidelines clearly indicate NO QUERY NEEDED, SEND COMPLETED STORY. We don’t have time to respond to queries; we want to read the complete true short stories from the get go.

So make sure to give the publisher or agent what they are asking for in your query letter.

The next major issue I see a lot of is poorly formatted query letters. Seriously. The competition is intense, ladies, you must make the query letter stand out! That means a crisp, clean, and perfect letter. That means NO typos, NO weird formatting and NO fancy bullets, bells, whistles, graphics, colored thingamajigs, and/or talking icons. Short and sweet, NOT long and laborious. Professional presentation is paramount. I know editors at major publishing houses who won’t bother to read a query letter if it comes in looking less than perfect. If you don’t take the time to present yourself as best as possible, why should an editor take the time to read what you have to say? Cruel…but true.

As authors we cannot fear an assignment of any type, including query letters. This is an opportunity to shine!

#3. Jane asked about my debut novel (bless your heart.)

About the story line… I had gastric bypass surgery in 2000 and thought it might be fun to write about a character that also had the surgery. There is so much “behind the scenes” stuff in weight loss surgery that most folks don’t know about and I could give this fictional character an added dimension that readers might find interesting.

I was also a professional fundraiser many years ago and giving my lead character a career that allowed for some outrageous situations, events, locations, clothing and a host of added elements made for a lot of fun.

My debut novel IS NOT my life story…but it’s often said that many debut novels are sometimes somewhat autobiographical in that a new novelist gleans from real life to get that first book down on paper. That was true for me. “Write what you know,” is also a frequent mantra in writing books and workshops.

What was my inspiration? Along with giving her some of my own personal characteristics, I wanted to write about a character who was a new Christian—whose walk of faith was relatively new and thus enable her to lapse back and forth between two worlds from time to time. I was also inspired by the transformational inner journey a person goes through when their outer journey is so transformational as it is when having weight loss surgery. My character lost 150 pounds and it was a new life for her. But was the grass greener on the other side? Ahhh, the age old dilemma.

How did I develop the characters? In fiction, you need your protagonist and your antagonist and a host of other characters as well. When I sat down to write A STITCH IN TIME I made a list of characters I thought would be fun to follow. Some stayed in the book; some went by way of the big fat red ink pen. (smile) I then wrote out detailed character descriptions, including the back story of every character…those things you’ll never know as a reader but things I MUST know as a writer, such as where they grew up, what their parents were like, what their childhood was like, etc. etc.

What about the ending? I knew the basic ending I wanted, but as I wrote and the characters evolved, the route I took to get to the end changed- but not the end I had in mind. Some writers say they never know how their story will end up until they get there. I find that so hard to understand. Certain things need to occur in order for a certain ending to happen…so we must write to that end result….of course like I said, things leading up to that ultimate ending may change, but I feel the end needs to be clear in my mind when I start.

NOTE: What do you folks think of how I ended the book? Please let me know what characters you liked best or least. I’d love your feedback! Did you enjoy First Person POV?

#4. Lynnie…the “Catch 22” is that typically a publisher doesn’t want to see your work until you’ve been published but how can you get published? Or…often an agent will not review your work until you can show them something has been published but you can’t get published because the publishers want you to have an agent first...and on and on it goes…a vicious circle. Of course there are always exceptions to those rules, but it can be frustrating at times!

#5. And last but by all means NOT least, Da Queen asked about the most important “Marketing Tool…” and the most “Rewarding…” (leave it to her, huh?)

While there are a host of marketing tools I utilize, by far the most vital has been my STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN. I went into my business/ministry with a detailed 5-10-15 year business plan that I used as my guideline, as well as sharing it with my potential publishers and literary agent. When they were able to see that I was clearly focused on my writing as a business, that I fully understood all of the variables to conducting my writing as a business, it made them more receptive to taking a chance on me.

As for rewarding…I love teaching and speaking at writer’s conferences. I love to see new authors get published. I love mentoring folks along the path. We’re all in this together and it will all come back around full circle one day. I receive great joy in watching others succeed.

Okay ladies! That’s all for now. I’ll be back online later tonight. Have a blessed day to all!