You've Got the Power

I did something today I've never done before. I walked my 70-year old mother through her first on-line shopping experience. I'll spare you all the gory details, but just picture this: I have the computer; she has the need for new pants. We're on the phone together and she knows nothing about websites, on-line shopping, or the number of the specific Levi's she wants to purchase. So, as I try to find the perfect pair of pants for my gray-haired momma who is under 95 pounds and stands 5-foot, 1-inch, including her cow-lick, I’m also trying to help her understand the art of on-line shopping. We successfully found the jeans of her dreams and I got them for 25% off and free shipping. But I digress.

This experience prompted me to post about it on Facebook which elicited a rather interesting and lengthy conversation with some friends about the lack of techno- know-how of our aging parents.

 I thought about my own journey with technology. Before I graduated from high school 20 years ago, I learned to type on a typewriter. College afforded a little more technology but computers were basically fancy word processors, to use one you went and waited your turn in the lab, and I didn’t even have an email account.

 Since starting this journey of writing, I’ve learned to cut and paste—on a screen, not with art supplies, post a review, send a fax, create and update a blog, post a status update and a tweet, and a slew of other things that seem commonplace today.

 And I’ll likely learn new things, things that haven’t even been thought of yet. And I’ll do it because it is my job. Just as a surgeon needs to comprehend his instruments or a chef needs to know his recipes, I must make it my business to master my business.

 There are a few ways you can learn technology even when you feel like you’ve just stepped from the pages of Stone Age Today.

Ø  Read books, study on-line, or ask questions. Use the knowledge gained by others to your own advantage.

Ø  Take classes at the local community college, library, or computer store. Often they're free or inexpensive.

Ø  Ask a teenager. Chances are whatever new-fangled thing you need to learn, he or she already knows and will teach you in exchange for food.

 So, I’m curious. Are you letting lack of technology know-how hold you back or are you on the cutting edge of all things geek? What do you do when faced when learning something new? How do you stay current in this ever-changing world?

Nikki Studebaker Barcus

Time, time, time ...

I won't amaze anyone by saying this is written at the county fairgrounds on my laptop via WiFi while my kids are at their 4-H Dairy Club meeting.

These kinds of technological short-cuts surround all of us now. It's new to me, but sometimes my "Oh, wow!" reactions just earn me some eye-rolls from the kids.

To an extent constantly updated technology help all of us make use of our time.

As a writer, though, I often find myself longing for more time. Big uninterrupted chunks of time. Maybe in my sweats, hoodie, fuzzy slippers and with a hot cup of good coffee right at hand. I don't know when I ever experienced that, though. Before working in town, the kids were a lot younger and we had a lot more cattle and things happening on the farm. Now I have to grab bits of time when I can.

However ... so many evenings when I sit down to write, I wander off into the world of Facebook and browsing various sites for the latest news.

So how do I embrace the new normal of working in town and finding time to write and take care of my other responsibilities?

I have to make some choices. Lately I've been trying to "fast" from my favorite news websites, and only checking Facebook once a day. (Sorry, cousins!) I do try to take the laptop with me whenever I might have to wait on the kids at ballgames, 4-H meetings or appointments. I also try to keep a pen and scrap paper handy in case a cool idea crosses my mind. Actually, writing on the laptop while not online has worked out well.

I would love to hear other ideas for making more time for writing. See you all tomorrow afternoon after work!

You Don't Want This Agent!

by Rachael Phillips, with appreciation for help from Jenna Glatzer and Daniel Stevens, "Testing the Agent Waters" in Writers Digest

Given today's publishing climate, most of us find it advisable to procure an agent, a business and literary advocate who will help sell our work, manage our careers, and when nobody seems to appreciate our literary genius, hold our hands.

However, we do not need someone handing us an anvil disguised as an agent contract. The agent industry is largely unregulated, so a plumber with no other qualifications other than he reads Reader's Digest and resembles Charles Dickens can hang up an agent shingle, establish a Web site, and sign unwary authors unless they heed the red flags listed below:

The agent charges fees for reading/representing your work. She can tout these as reading fees, retainers, set-up fees, evaluation, editing, or you-breathe-therefore-you-will-pay-me fees. If you are unpublished, she may say she'll refund your money when your manuscript sells. Run away screaming if you encounter such a person. Good agents make money from selling manuscripts, not inventing fees.

Disclaimer: Some legitimate agents include minimal charges for copying, mailing and/or travel expenses in your contract. They supply you with itemized statements. Never sign with an agent who expects you to foot all the bills.

The agent writes/speaks/presents poorly. Warning signs include typos in correspondence, bad editing, poor phone skills, powder blue leisure suits and picking his nose. Even if this person appears legitimate, do you really want him to represent you to the industry?

The agent conceals his selling history. A new agent should evidence experience as an editor, sales director, author, agent's assistant, publicist, or book packager. A seasoned one should be able to name books she has sold and authors she has worked with. There is no ethical problem with divulging this information. If the agent says, "My client list is confidential," it's probably nonexistent.

The agent displays overall industry ignorance/lack of skill. If you know more than the agent, don't sign with her.

The agent presents an unprofessional Web site and/or e-mail. Freebie sites indicate the agent is not making enough money by sales. Stay away from agents with Homestead, AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo Web sites with long URLs and banner ads. No cutesey e-mails, either. Do you want someone with loveskitties@cybernet to represent you to editors?

The agent tries to re-create clients in his image: "Always keep in mind that although an agent may possess the map to get you to your destination, the car still belongs to you." Christina Hamlett.

The agent makes it difficult to break off the relationship. Do not sign away your life to an agent; We're talking business here, not wedding bells. Most legitimate agent contracts allow either party to send a 60-day notice if she/he wants out.

A good agent (and I'm incredibly blessed to have one) can help make your career. A bad one, representing your work poorly, may cause repercussions long after you've fired him. Editors may dislike your work simply because of the bad agent. And you may find it difficult to persuade a good agent to accept your work, since it's already been shopped in the industry by the loser.

Bottom line: do your homework before you sign on the dotted line!

Wicked Hurry

Leave late. Drive fast. Pray on the go. Hurry can be a way of life.

Hurry, according to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, is 1a: to carry or go with haste <hurry them to the hospital>, 1b: to impel to rash or precipitate action 2a: to impel to greater speed: prod <used spurs to hurry the horse>, 2b: expedite, 2c: to perform with undue haste <hurry a minuet>

How can hurry be wicked?

Click a little farther in Merriam-Webster's and you'll find that among other things wicked is a state of being 1: morally very bad; evil, and 3b: causing or likely to cause harm, distress, or trouble <a wicked storm>

Hurry harms others. If in my race through a day I notice others' faces, I often don't recognize the pain in their eyes or their voices. Worse, if I do recognize it, I am all too often callous. I might not ask, afraid of that it will cost more than I want to pay.

Hurry recently troubled my husband, who surprised me with a dream anniversary trip. Rather than enjoying the time with him from the start, I took more than a day to fret over a writing submission.

Hurry distresses writing, too. It makes a mind run shallow and words run dry.

Hurry distresses readers, too. Saturday I met my writers group, who had received the fretted-over writing. They shifted in their seats, unsure where to begin their kind criticism. The ideas, though strong, seemed like stones spanning a river. As readers they felt forced to leap from one to the next without a moment to steady themselves. They'd wanted to savor each idea, but I wouldn't have it. In short, I had offered four pages of hurry. Whatever was good in them was all but lost.

On this frozen-silent Sunday morning God pours forth speech and I return to my senses. I repent of self-centeredness, of idolizing accomplishment, of the slipshod belief that writing should come easy, and of coveting others' strengths that, if mine, would enable me to accomplish so much more. I relinquish the expectation that God support my fast-forward modus operandi and place myself under His eternal, altogether lovely rule. His words wash a weary soul.

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
(Psalm 90:1-2 NASB)

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
(Isaiah 40:22 NASB)

For thus says the high and exalted One
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
"I dwell on a high and holy place,
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
And to revive the heart of the contrite.
(Isaiah 57:15 (NASB)

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and
My burden is light."
(Matthew 11:28-30 NASB)

Time and Blood

I always wonder how someone can write in coffee shops or restaurants and get anything done. Complete strangers will come up to someone writing and feel free to ask all kinds of questions about it.Usually the verbal exchange will end with, "Oh, you know, I could write a book. But I don't have as much time as you." 

Tell me, writers, how many of you have heard that? Have you even said it before you started? Another common lament is "If only I didn't have a day job!"

In other words, the writer MAKING time to write is obviously a layabout and lazy person who gets scads of money and probably smokes and drinks (or at least drinks coffee) and eats DeBrand's chocolate all day. Their words go on the page like pouring melted butter on hot bread with an ending to leave the reader full and satisfied. Right? Is that how it is with you?

  Ernest Hemingway said, "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." (Nowadays that's called a keyboard, Ernie.) 

My friend, W. Terry Whalin, a writer and editor and publisher wrote a very helpful book, Book Proposals That $ell: 21 Secrets to Speed Your Success. He has this in his book, "Jerrold Jenkins, CEO of this group [Jenkins Group,] estimates that more than 6 million Americans have actually written a manuscript--just over 2 percent of the population. Publishers Weekly recently said that more than 1,000 books were published each week during 2003."

That sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. Writing the book is the first big battle, but getting it published is a whole new battle. If you have a desire to write a book, then the first thing to do is to find the time to write first. Then, you must find out all you can about writing craft, professionalism and the proper channels to take in order to sell your book, too. 

This takes time, as any published author, editor or agent will tell you. But again, the first thing to do is put your behind in the chair and crank out the story. That's easier said than done. It helps if you have an ending, but most authors will tell you that they did not just sit there bleeding out words and--shazzam!--it was published. There is a lot of stuff in between "Once upon a time" to "The End."

How do you find the time? Well, you cut something out.of.your.life. in order to become proficient at that thing you desire. A doctor doesn't just decide to be a doctor and walk into a hospital and say, "Hey,I'm going to doctor on you now. I finally made the decision." 

And also, a wannabe writer doesn't just call up an editor and say, "Hey, I've got this idea for a book, I know you're going to love it." Or worse,(well, depends on if you're an editor or a writer, I suppose) you don't approach a writer/author and say, "I have a great idea for you to write for me." (Believe me, most authors have enough of their own ideas. That's another business relationship entirely--one YOU pay for.) 

One prolific author I know was a full-time wife, full-time mom/then grandmother and a court reporter. She typed all day long. But when she decided to start writing fiction and "live her dream," she took a night class with author/professor, Dr. Dennis E. Hensley, at the university where he started a professional writing major in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, Taylor University. (This program is now at Taylor University, Upland, IN.) She got up extra early every morning to write before typing at her job all day, never knowing if she’d ever publish. She admitted that she is not a morning person.Then, she’d go to her night class once a week. (I was in that class with her.)

Today she is doing what she loves--an "overnight success"--Diann Hunt took many years to become that overnight success, and a lot of behind in her chair. You can check out her blog with her writing buddies at http://www.girlswriteout.blogspot.com/. Even though life hasn't been easy these days, she continues to write. She made the decision to write and make time to improve, too. Check out The Girls Write Out gang of Diann Hunt, Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck and Denise Hunter (3/4ths of these women are Hoosier ACFW authors, and we just love Kristin, too.) :) which just published the book Smitten (Thomas Nelson.) (Also, note Hannah Alexander, another one of the Girls Write Out crew.) Every one of those girls started off putting in time and money to learn to write, the rejections, the years of not publishing.

You make the decision to WRITE and to give up something in your life in order to do what you love. Where you spend your time says a lot about what you are passionate about--but you have to make those choices. Joining the American Christian Fiction Writers is a great place to make that step to excellence and commitment. Once you join ACFW, and if you live in Indiana, do come join our chapter! (And if you live somewhere else, there are chapters all over, even for international members.)

"It's never too late to become what you might have been." George Eliott said. Just start today. Take that step. 

If you're a writer/author, what do you give up to follow this dream? Do you have advice for anyone who might come across this site?

And, if you want to be a writer, what could you do to free up some time each week to write? 

Crystal Laine Miller