New Books for Authors

 

September marks the beginning of the fall book season, a good time to identify new resources that can give us a fresh perspective on writing. (Besides, with Christmas just around the corner, it’s not too early to drop gift hints to family and friends!)

How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling, by Meg Bowles, Catherine Burns, Jenifer Hixson, Sarah Austin Jenness, and Kate Tellers (New York: Crown, 2022).

You may already be a fan of “The Moth,” NPR’s weekly program of true stories now in its twenty-sixth year. How to Tell a Story explains how their staff coach people to find memorable stories in their own life experience, then relate them in ways that make the deepest impression on the rest of us. Few of these storytellers are writers, but they harbor stories that give us life-changing Aha! moments. How to Tell a Story reminds us that if we identify our most significant stories and tell them in significant ways, we will earn the gratitude of people who live and work beside us.

The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write: A Handbook for Fiction Writers, by Sarah Burton and Jem Poster (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022).

Burton and Poster co-founded Cambridge University’s creative writing program, yet this book is not a desiccated text for college students to memorize for final exams. It’s a liberating journey of self-discovery. The authors say, “We don’t have a formula (because there isn’t one), and although we’ll be offering plenty of advice, we won’t be giving you rules, because unless we want all writers to be writing in the same way, rules are not going to be helpful. And although this book is written by writers, we don’t aim to make you write the way we write. We want to help you write the way you write, to develop your own unique voice.” The Book You Need to Read… is both inspirational and iconoclastic, likely to open the floodgates of your own creativity.

Writing Unforgettable Characters: How to Create Story People Who Jump Off the Page, by James Scott Bell (Woodland Hills, CA: Compendium Press, 2020).

James Scott Bell was a frustrated writer. Creative writing professors panned his first attempts, saying they were dull and lifeless. So he tried to get a law degree. He tried acting. Still no spark. Then he and his wife went to see the movie Moonstruck, starring Cher Bono. The movie bowled him over. On their way out of the theater, he told his wife, “I have to try writing again. I want to be able to make people feel the way I’m feeling now.” So he focused on creating one-of-a-kind characters like Cher, and his writing career took off.  Writing Unforgettable Characters explains why memorable characters are critical to memorable fiction, and teaches us how to create them. Another indispensable tool from James Scott Bell.

On Revision: The Only Writing That Counts, by William Germano (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021).

“Good writing has a convincing shape. But it doesn’t just look good on the page. It sounds good…,” William Germano writes. “So the best rule for revising your writing is the simplest: listen to it…Read it out loud.” Unlike the stiff, formal guide we might expect from a university press, On Revision is an intuitive book that encourages us to follow our hunches and keep revising a manuscript until its true vision emerges. Germano has written several books on scholarly publishing. He is dean of humanities at the Cooper Union in New York.

Write Your First Novel, by Gilbert Morris and Steve Laube (Phoenix, AZ: Christian Writers Institute, 2023).

To be released next March, this book caught my eye because of its authors. The late Gilbert Morris published more than 230 Christian novels with total sales of more than seven million copies, making him the undisputed pioneer in this field. Agent Steve Laube represents some of the leading Christian authors of both fiction and nonfiction, and now edits the annual Christian Writer’s Market Guide. With these reputations, Morris and Laube are sure to produce a book that aspiring authors will want, sight unseen.

Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. His most recent book is Hard Times (Warner Press: 2019). He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth.

Writers Nurturing Writers

by Jean Kavich Bloom

My husband and I didn’t plan or push for our children to be writers, yet they are. Apparently we watered the right garden.

Our two sons write professionally. One is a screenwriter and the other is a copywriter, and they’ve both written books. After working for a time in the publishing field, our daughter, who has a master’s degree in comparative literature, is now a dedicated homeschooling mom who teaches her children writing as they move through each grade level.

We nurtured writers without even realizing it. That nurturing doesn’t have to come from family, of course, but our accidental nurturing might demonstrate some ways we can all nurture other writers intentionally, no matter their age or where they are in their writing journey.

Encourage Reading 

My husband and I are daily readers. As I grew up, trips to the library were exciting, and discovering a friend had every single Nancy Drew book for me to borrow was glorious. Oh, how I wanted my children to be readers, too, and they were. They are. Introducing my daughter to my favorite book to this day, Anne of Green Gables, was fun, and today she reads both fiction and nonfiction every chance she gets. Like a lot of boys, my sons read comic books, but they soon moved on, and today some of their heavy-duty reading choices just about put me to shame. Reading words informs their writing words.

How can you inspire aspiring writers to read?

Encourage “Viewing” 

Although our screenwriter son takes first place, we all like movies in our family. The earliest live-action film I can remember my kids adoring was The NeverEnding Story, which hooked them on story forevermore. Story in film is delivered with dialogue as well as image. I’m intrigued by how the dialogue can be honed until it shines and communicates exactly what the filmmakers want for their audiences. And who can’t repeat a favorite line from a favorite movie? Stellar film dialogue can inform stellar dialogue in any writing, and I think the magic of movies nurtured my children’s love of words. Live theater works too!

What films or theater productions with stellar dialogue can you recommend to other writers?

Encourage Discussing 

One day my older son said, “Other families sit around the table and talk about sports or politics. Our family debates word choices.” (This is the same son who now routinely defeats me at Scrabble.) Of course, to the degree our three were interested in other topics, we discussed those, too, but our being a wordy-nerdy family is what struck him as unique. I’m not sure how we got that way, but there we were. Today their vocabularies far exceed mine. Really. They do.

When and where can you discuss the creative process of writing with other writers?

Not every writer comes from a breeding-ground-for-writers family, whether that ground was watered intentionally or not. And families can't take all the credit anyway; God hands out gifts, and their recipients must develop them. But ask yourself, Where has my writing been nurtured by others? In a family of relatives, perhaps before I even realized I had the writing bug? In a family of friends, encouragers, teachers, or mentors? And how did they nurture my writing?

Why ask yourself these questions? Because realizing how our writing has been nurtured can help us know how to intentionally nurture other writers.

Jean Kavich Bloom is a freelance editor and writer for Christian publishers and ministries (Bloom in Words Editorial Services), with more than thirty years of experience in the book publishing world. She is a regular contributor to The Glorious Table, a blog for women of all ages. An aspiring novelist, her published books are Bible Promises for God's Precious Princess and Bible Promises for God's Treasured Boy. She and her husband, Cal, live in central Indiana. They have three children (plus two who married in) and five grandchildren.

photo credit: https://publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=211016&picture=gardeners-pride

Hollywood, Texas ~ A Compelling Novella of Inspirational Contemporary Romance

One of the current publishing trends I adore is the rise of the novella. A novella is typically 20,000 to 50,000 words, an easy length to read without a major time investment.

When I was in school, I would dive into 600+ page tomes without blinking an eye. Now, a husband, six children, a home, a blog, and my own fiction writing all vie for my precious reading time.

The busier I get, the more I appreciate novellas, especially from master storytellers like Kathleen Y’Barbo. Characters are still developed fully, and backstories are complete. But we see just a snippet of the lives of the characters. Although, to tell the truth, I was sorry to see my acquaintance with Amy and Adam come to an end.

But now I’m getting ahead of myself….

Amy Foreman is the girl next door from Hollywood, Texas. But her time acting in Hollywood, California, has heralded her as the next Grace Kelley. When personal trouble brews in California, Amy runs home to hide… right to Adam Chambers’ veterinarian practice. According to Adam, though, she’s a trespasser and the girl who broke his heart.

I love a happily-ever-after as much as the next reader, but when Adam calls Amy a trespasser in the very first sentence of the book? Ooo, that’s conflict. *biting nails*

It's a quick, sweet read (71 pages) at a sweet price – only $1.99 on Amazon.

And my favorite part?

Adam Chambers is one of the most adorable heroes I've read who, quite frankly, reminded me of my own husband. He's skilled in his job. He has a heart for the Lord. And the way he ignores the flirtatious waitress at the steakhouse? Love. It.

Author: Kathleen Y’Barbo

Title: Hollywood, Texas

Price: $1.99

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Date Published: February 20, 2014

I was given a digital copy of this book by Kathleen Y'Barbo herself in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Quite frankly, I requested the copy to review because I knew it would be good. J

Meghan Carver attended her first ACFW conference this past September where she had the unbelievable pleasure of driving Kathleen Y'Barbo and her husband from the airport to the hotel. She still reels from the experience of having a best-selling author in her van at the mercy of her driving skills.

My 2014 Reading Plan

One year. Fifty books. That’s the absolute bare bones of my reading plan for 2014.

In the past, my reading has been purely seat-of-the-pants. Cover, title, recommendation… whatever catches my eye I jump right in to. But I’ve been inspired by other writers and readers who actually formulate a plan for their reading for the year. I’ve embraced this idea for two reasons.

1. A plan of attack means it could actually happen in an orderly fashion. Reading time is precious. I don’t want to waste it. J
2. The plan gives me permission to read books other than writing craft books and books in my genre. Intellectually, I know it’s good to read history and psychology and missionary books, but I’ve been so intent on studying my genre that I couldn’t convince myself to read anything else.

For me, the Bible is a given, so I’ve not included it on my list.

So, here goes. My already-been-tweaked-several-times-and-that’s-why-it’s-just-now-coming-out-in-the-middle-of-January reading list for 2014 ~

·         2 R.M. Ballantyne books

o   The Dog Crusoe

o    The Lonely Island

·         2 Jane Austen novels (possibly all six) to discuss from the perspective of motherhood

o   Pride and Prejudice

o   Sense and Sensibility

·         6 contemporary romance, including Love Inspired {absolute minimum!}

o   Millie’s Treasure, Kathleen Y’Barbo

o   Smitten, Colleen Coble, et.al. {Just need to finish it.}

o   Nicholas Sparks?

·         2 historical romance {absolute minimum!}

o   Rebellious Heart, Jody Hedlund

o   Love’s Awakening, Laura Frantz

·         1 legal suspense – Dead Lawyers Tell No Tales, Randy Singer

·         5 favorite fiction authors

o   Cynthia Ruchti’s new book coming in May

o   Lady in Waiting, Susan Meissner

o   Not in the Heart, Chris Fabry

·         3 new fiction authors {absolute minimum!}

o   The Bone Box by Bob Hostetler

o   Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio

o   Richard Mabry

·         8 young adult

o   Gunner’s Run and Kiriath’s Quest by Rick Barry

o   The Legend of Annie Murphy by Frank Peretti

o   The Caroline books from American Girl {It’s always good to keep up with what your young adults are reading. J}

·         4 writing craft books {absolute minimum!}

o   Stein on Writing, Sol Stein

o   The Moral Premise, Stanley Williams

o   Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Renni Browne & Dave King {just need to finish this one}

o   Revision & Self-Editing, James Scott Bell {need to finish this one as well}

·         3 assigned missionary books from our church conference

·         2 creative non-fiction history

o   “They Have Killed Papa Dead!” The Road to Ford’s Theatre, Abraham Lincoln’s Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance, Anthony S. Pitch

o   Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims, Rush Limbaugh

·         1 creative non-fiction/memoir

o   Gifted Hands, Dr. Ben Carson

·         5 non-fiction {absolute minimum!}

o   Ragged Hope, Cynthia Ruchti

o   You’re Made for a God-sized Dream, Holley Gerth

o   When Godly People Do Ungodly Things, Beth Moore

o   Large Family Logistics, Kim Brenneman

·         1 marketing book – Rob Eager?

·         1 uncategorized – The Book of Useless Information – Doesn’t that just sound intriguing? J

·         2-3 Christmas books

o   The Christmas Candle, Max Lucado

o   The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson

·         1 daily devotional – Praying God’s Word Day by Day, Beth Moore

·         An untold number of children’s picture books. J

I’ve allowed myself some wiggle room in the numbers to allow for decisions along the way, although I would love to read far more than fifty. If a fantastic book comes available in May, I don’t want to have to put it off until the New Year.

I’m also allowing that I may have to extend myself some grace. I have six children, I homeschool, we’re building our own home, and my husband is contemplating a Ph.D. program. Whew!

It’s not too late to make your own reading plan. Keep track of what you read through the year, and let’s meet back here in December.

Meghan Carver is a 2013 ACFW Genesis semi-finalist and the author of several articles and short stories. After achieving a Juris Doctorate from Indiana University and Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Millikin University and completing a brief stint in immigration law, Meghan heard God calling her to be at home. Now homeschooling her six children with her college professor husband, Meghan has returned to her first love of writing. She blogs about homeschooling and homemaking at www.MeghanCarver.blogspot.com.

Writing Cave part 2

Karla's Cave Desk

Last month I posted about how much I love writing from my chair in the living room. But family dynamics have changed in my house with a "boomerang kid" (read: adult child moves back home), and his social life. So I've found myself spending more and more time in my writing cave. Don't get me wrong, I love my cave. There's something about being surrounded by my favorite things (books) that makes me feel peaceful. Books make great sound barriers. I can't hear much in here and likewise no one can hear me when I call for them. (I know this because I fell in here once and no one came to help!)

Karla's Cave 2

I have shelves of books, yes, hard copy books, going all around the room and book shelves back to back going down the middle. It's the books down the middle of the room that make for such a great "sound booth." When I do a podcast in here, it doesn't pick up any noise from outside the room (you know, like the kids tying the dogs' tails together and laughing at them running in opposite directions through the house, or sword fights with swimming pool noodles, that sort of thing).

I don't hoard books for the sake of hoarding books. I give away many more than I keep. But I do keep a lot of my books because of research. Yes, I've read all the books in the room except for the ones on that top right hand shelf. That's my "to be read" pile. It's two books deep. I'm a little behind on my "reading for leisure" books. But it's rare anymore that I find a book that I can lose myself in fiction-wise because I'm always looking at the mechanics of it. Do you have that same issue? I do that with movies, too. "Oh, that's a great conflict." "Excellent character trait," etc.

I must confess that my Kindle is just as full of books as my cave. And more and more I prefer reading my Kindle (on my iPad) than a hard copy book with one exception: I buy hard copy books for my research because I like marking in them. I find that more difficult to do on an electronic device. Sure, you can highlight, make notes, etc, but I find it faster to mark up a hard copy book and then remember where that information was. Is that true for you as well?

I have a DO NOT DISTURB placard on my door but everyone ignores it. Not relevant if it's Mom in there. Mom always wants to be disturbed. Or is already disturbed. Can't remember which one of those excuses they use.

As for my desk, it may look busy, but it's organized. I know where everything is. I use magazine file boxes to file papers that I need access to on a regular basis as well as writing notebooks and journals I use when I'm on the road (read: doctor's office waiting rooms, etc.). Most of the papers have to do with my special needs' kids' health, but I also have time management files, research files, etc., right at my finger tips this way.

I like to use little square baskets and small wooden crates on my shelves for those little gift-size-type books such as small devotionals. It seems like those little books always get pushed to the back of the big books and lost. I like being able to see each book.

I'm not an organizing queen but I do like to have things where I know they are. In future posts I'll share some organizing secrets from other parts of my office.

Until then, write on! And please share your thoughts concerning my two questions: as a writer, when you read fiction, do you find yourself noticing the mechanics more than the story? And what about research? Kindle or hard copy?

 Karla Akins is a pastor's wife, mother of five, grandma to five beautiful little girls and author of the best-selling Jacques Cartier (that went #1 on Amazon in its category) and O Canada! Her Story.  Her debut novel The Pastor's Wife Wears Biker Boots  was sold to Pelican Book Group and due out in 2013. One of her columns on MNN.com was featured on the CNN homepage. Represented by Hartline Literary Agency, she lives in North Manchester with her husband, twin teenage boys with autism, mother-in-law with Alzheimer's and three rambunctious dogs. When she's not writing she dreams of riding her motorcycle through the Smoky Mountains.