A Writer's Review of Lynn Austin's 'Wonderland Creek' ~~ by member blogger Dawn Crandall

I checked Wonderland Creek out through my local library last week--onto my kindle. I’ve read one other book by Lynn Austin—the only other one I knew to be written in first person point of view, A Proper Pursuit. And perhaps over the years I started to wonder if she’d only written that one book in first person just to see if she could do it well (which she did—an amazing job, in fact!), and stopped looking after so long. 

Well, somehow in the last month or so I found out about her book Wonderland Creek, which came out last year. It wasn’t one I needed to read to review on A Passion For Pages... but one of those books that I just simply wanted to make time for. And I am so glad I did!

Alice Ripley is an adorable protagonist who has everything she ever wanted within hand’s reach... a steady, safe boyfriend, a job at the local library... and all the books in the world to read... and the time to read them. Only she loses her boyfriend and her job in the same day, and suddenly realizes that without them her “real” life had become rather boring...  and that she’d been doing most of her living through the pages of her favorite books.

Alice finds herself deserted in Acorn, KY—dropped off by her eccentric aunt and uncle—to deliver the boxes of books she’d been collecting for the start-up library ran by Miss Leslie McDougal. Only Leslie McDougal isn’t a miss, but a very scruffy young man who (of course) goes by the name Mack... and who is much more than he first seems.

I really liked the whole aspect of Alice being lost in Wonderland—only to find that she wasn’t really lost at all, but constantly finding herself and a real living faith in God past the Sunday School verses she’d had memorized. There was also a very sweet romance involved in the book—however the main story was about Alice learning that life wasn’t all about her and her books.

I give Lynn Austin's Wonderland Creek 5 Stars.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dawn Crandall writes long inspirational historical romantic suspense from first person point of view and is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary Agency. She has written two books which are on submission as part of a series, and is working on the third. Soon after finishing her first book and becoming a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) in July 2011 she attended the ACFW national conference where she gained literary representation and soon-after became a 2012 ACFW Genesis Contest Semi-Finalist. She has a BA in Christian Education from Taylor University, writes full-time and lives in northeast Indiana with her ever-supportive engineer husband, Jonathan, and their two cats, Lilly and Pumpkin. Dawn co-hosts a book review blog called A Passion for Pages at apassionforpages.blogspot.com and tweets those reviews at @dawnwritesfirst. To find out more about her, visit her author webpage at dawncrandall.blogspot.com or her Facebook author page: facebook.com/DawnCrandallWritesFirst.

Genesis Judges

In the months leading up to ACFW Conference, contestants wore knee-shaped holes in the rugs beside their beds and judges in the first two rounds kept a low profile, maintaining secret identities. I’m not suggesting they donned trench coats and fedoras, but anonymity helps protect the integrity in the contest. These judges are acknowledged at the conference banquet. However, the final round judges are posted as soon as they are confirmed.

According to Pam Meyers, Genesis Coordinator, “When people see that certain editors or agents are going to be judging the final round in a given category it increases the interest in entering the contest.” Even so, to a contestant, it can seem as if the whole judging process is somehow mysterious.

Pam added, “The final round judges don't necessarily have a different score sheet (than the previous judges, which is available on the website). We always give them one as a guideline of what to look for in the entries, but they are not required to score every element listed on the score sheet. All we need from them is an all-around score for the entry. Of course if they want to make comments regarding the entry, they are more than welcome to do that.”

By the end of September, excitement over this year’s contest had pretty much quieted except for the winner, who can possibly still be seen on clear nights orbiting the earth. It was then that I contacted, Jeff Gerke, the owner and editor of Marcher Lord Press, to get the perspective from the viewpoint of a final round judge.  

Jeff had judged Genesis twice before and knew what he was getting into when he was approached by the contest coordinator. So why did he do it? He laughed. “Mainly because I was asked.”

Jeff went on to explain that the contest coordinators have made the judging very easy. “The biggest difficulty is making sure my scores are consistent across all the entries I judge. I’m not the only judge, even in the final round, so my average scoring level might be higher or lower than other judges. I can’t worry about that. I just call ‘em as I see ‘em.” This year, he received three entries, but recused himself from those he’d already seen as a freelance editor.

“Not many contests are based on just the first fifteen pages of a novel,” Jeff said. “It’s an interesting idea. I usually can spot fantastic writing in the first ten plus pages. Now, whether or not the author can keep it up until the end of the novel is another story.” In his experience, it’s possible to become interested enough in a story that he would request seeing a complete manuscript from even a non-winning participant.

What advice did Jeff offer to future Genesis finalists? “Don’t worry if you enter and get disheartening or even conflicting feedback from judges. There is no ‘right’ way of writing fiction, but pretty much every fiction expert will tell you there is. Only their right way is diametrically opposed to the other guy’s right way. Don’t take it all too seriously. Almost nobody makes more than $5,000/year writing Christian fiction, even authors you’ve heard of, so keep working on your fiction for the love of the task only, not for hope of riches.”

 

Good advice, Jeff. So to Jeff Gerke and all the other Genesis judges, thank you and God bless. We’ll do it all again next year.

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.

About That Daily Quota

Following the advice of James Scott Bell and innumerable other writers' coaches, I've set myself a daily quota of words to be written. A modest goal, I grant you--just 350 words--but I'm amazed at how long I may agonize over that double-spaced page. And I don't write at all on more days than I'd care to admit.

At this rate, my novel of 70,000 words will take forever to complete!

So I did a crazy-gutsy thing last month. I accepted Guru.com assignment to write a 50-page nonfiction e-book in ten days. Simple arithmetic reveals that's 5 pages a day, or 5 times my normal quota. And I completed the assignment on time.

This insane marathon taught me several things:

• I waste a lot of time self-editing my first draft. Better to forge ahead and write that crummy draft (apologies to Anne Lamott) and deal with self-editing later.
• I waste a lot of time with distractions. Checking my e-mail, checking my voice mail, checking my carrier-pigeon roost. (OK, I'm exaggerating, but not by much.)
• I waste a lot of time with superfluous research--in the middle of a sentence! What year was it that my subject went to Argentina, etc.? I find that nagging detail, but uncover another curious fact in the process, which sends me down a rabbit trail of other trivia.
• The long and short of it is, I waste too much time!

Perhaps my real problem is performance anxiety. October's forced march of 1,750 words a day certainly gave me no time to worry about how well I was doing. (I suspect this is one of the greatest benefits of participating in NaNoWriMo as well.)

The rest of the story: My client liked the first draft so much that he's asked me to double the length of the book (at more than twice the fee). He calls the first 50 pages "compelling." Go figure.

Joe Allison and his wife, Judy, live in Anderson IN, where Joe serves as Coordinator of Publishing for Church of God Ministries, Inc. Joe has several nonfiction books in print, including Swords and Whetstones: A Guide to Christian Bible Study Resources. He's currently writing a trilogy of Christian historical novels set in the Great Depression.

Visit Joe's blog at http://hoosierwriter.wordpress.com

Beware of Blog Overload

Writers have always faced obstacles. Lack of skill with grammar. Lack of inspiration. Lack of technique. Lack of knowledge concerning the publishing process. Lack of a literary agent. The list goes on, but so often the barriers seem to be a lack of one item or another. In an effort to solve these deficits, some would-be authors get bogged down in a massive, new quagmire: blog overload.

Yes, blogs can be great. By following the blogs of experienced agents, editors, and fellow writers, any aspiring author can tap into unlimited knowledge concerning the publishing biz. Without visiting the library or even subscribing to Writer's Digest, you can receive a wealth of advice and insider information for free! All you need is a computer, a mouse, and one finger for clicking.

There's the danger. Free insider tips can become intoxicating. You want to write better, right now, so why be stingy on yourself when the info comes gratis? Your finger goes to work clicking and subscribing to blog after blog. Some of these web logs are more helpful than others, but hey, since they're free, what's the harm in following them, right? Besides, your fellow writers appreciate it when you subscribe. They're delighted when you leave comments on what they've written.

Before you know it, you've clicked your way into a veritable Niagara of writing lore. Your craft gets swamped by endless cascades of tips, questions, answers, pet peeves, query letters, good proposals, lousy proposals, success stories, horror stories, examples to imitate and bad examples to shun. If finding time to write was hard before, now it becomes nearly impossible because the multitude of blogs consumes all your spare minutes. Worse, each blog that gushes about yet another writer's new contract for a 20-book series paralyzes you.

"Why don't I get offers like that?" you wonder. "What do they know that I don't?" So you plunge back into the endless current of blogs in search of the ever-elusive secrets to success.

Don't. Blog overload can smother your writing career. Whittle down that list of blogs you follow. Pick three, maybe four, that deliver the most precious nuggets of gold and stick to them. Don't worry about that new friend from the conference being offended if you stop commenting. Don't fret about not having your name and avatar plastered in daily comments all across the web.

Now, use those freed-up minutes to add new sentences and paragraphs to push your manuscript forward each day. This way, you'll still be learning, but you'll also be applying that new knowledge and creating manuscripts of your own.

Happy writing!

Rick Barry has been freelancing articles and short stories for over twenty years. His two novels to date are Gunner's Run and Kiriath's Quest.