BookingIt

Yesterday I logged onto Yahoo and got the shock of a lifetime. Okay, not really, but it was a surprise. A man who'd been pronounced brain dead by doctors suddenly, on the day of the plug-pulling, moved. Yes, he moved, then woke up, and forty-eight hours later went home. How incredible is that? How awesome! So I was in a really good mood and decided that maybe I don't want Dear Hubby to pull the plug on me if I'm ever brain dead. 'Cause obviously the doctors were wrong. And then my mind started thinking about books, which is a common ailment of mine. The thinking about books thingy, that is. There was a time historicals were considered dead. And now everyone's saying, NO More Chick-Lit! And guess what? Historicals are back in a big way. The experts said they were dead. The experts were wrong. My purpose in this is to encourage writers to never give up what they love to write, even if the market doesn't seem to be swinging that way. The market is always changing a

A few weeks ago I left a comment on the Seekerville Blog and then I got an e-mail saying I'd won a book. Camy Tang's second book Only Uni. It just came in the mail yesterday, along with two others. And she autographed it, which I thought was pretty cool. So, if you'd like to enter to win a book, check out this blog: www.seekerville. blogspot. com Or if you'd like to flex your writing muscles and win a critique from a literary agent, check out Rachelle Gardner's contest here: http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/

My editing is about done and then I'll be ready to find some readers. These will be people who are not writers. That's because I've made a startling discovery. Once I began to learn things about writing, such as backstory, dialogue, adverbs, etc. I lost my pleasure in reading. I became a judge rather than a reader. And it really stunk. Now, thank goodness, I'm learning how to ignore the critic within, but for a while I was so worried that I wouldn't ever be able to enjoy reading again. So now I'm on a quest for Beta readers (people who'll read for pleasure) and they'll be able to spot plot holes because they won't get hung up on every "broken" rule. I hope. :-)

Right now I'm reading Cheryl Wyatt's second book, A Soldier's Family. I have to say, the best thing about this book is the dialogue. Cheryl has this really funny voice and it comes through her characters. They sound so real. The teenage son talks the way a teenager does. Anyhow, I'm loving it. This is a Love Inspired book and usually the dialogue in these book is toned down, sometimes I think it's even a little stilted. But not this book. Sooooo funny. Go Steeple Hill for upping the quality and realism of their books while still adhering to CBA standards! As a sidenote, Cheryl's plot rocks too!

My sister and I were talking about our wonderful kids today. I looked at my 2 yr old, and for a moment, it seemed as if his face shifted and I saw what he'd look like twenty years from now. Very strange. I watched Jet Li in The One the other night. Great movie. I find the concept of parallel universes intriguing. Dean Koontz wrote a book that dealt with that a little bit. And the concept of wormholes is too cool. Randy Ingermanson has a very interesting story about that. Writing a book involves more than stringing words together. It means creating a coherent plot, readable sentences. A good book will have good sentences, good ideas. But a Great Book? The things that make it so include Great Writing, Great Plot. Fresh ideas. Like wormholes and stuff. Okay, I know sci-fi probably uses that. But in theory they could be real. Therefore, it takes the idea out of sci-fi, in my opinion.