Okay, so maybe the title of this blog is off. I really think that proofing anything written in English is more of a science than an art. I am also well aware that this type of English is learned in a “science” class I never took. I have met many creative writers who are in my same predicament. We love the “art” of storytelling, but abhor the science of making sure our works are technically correct. In fact, many of us are known to make up words, or ignore rules of grammar altogether when we write.

For me, there are two reasons for this. One is because I write fast and furious when I am laying a story on paper. I just let my fingers fly across the keys with wild abandon and record what it is I am seeing in my brain. This means I leave out words, misspell words, spell words correctly, but use the incorrect version (they’re – their – there). When dialoging, I am apt to type in all the little “ums” and “wells” because that is how I hear people talk. I later have to take some of them out because they do get a bit tiresome for the reader.  I refuse to take them all out because humans really do use them in everyday conversation, especially when under stress—and my characters are often under stress—after all, I write romance novels. What could be more stressful than budding male/female relationships?

The second reason is I grew up about a mile from the sands of Redondo Beach, California. High school was more relaxed—seriously and figuratively. In many of my friend’s minds, attendance was optional on beautiful days. We all missed school a lot. When we did attend, we had rather creative options for English. I do remember that one English class choice for my junior year was Comic Books as Literature. I took creative writing instead—where proper grammar and spelling were optional. Also, in my high school, senior English was not required to graduate. The net result of this was a rather limited exposure to kernel sentences and dangling participles.

My solution now? I get my college professor husband, who has impeccable English skills, to do the initial proof work. I believe his skills are due to his having been educated in the eastern United States where they seem to take things, like school, more seriously than in California. It’s funny to me that he never missed a day of high school—but then as far as I’m concerned they have lousy weather back east. It’s either hot and humid or it’s snowing.

I try to have Roger proof most of my writing before I send it out. Because he’s my biggest writing fan, he’s gracious about doing this for me. After he makes his first technical pass, I will pass it on for a content check by my sisters and a few friends. If it is a document or important email I will also run it by Roger. When I’m in a hurry, or he’s busy, I sometimes think I can avoid his extra set of eyes—but I usually find myself embarrassed in the end.

So, for me, I’m very grateful to have such a well educated, articulate husband to lean on. It doesn’t hurt that he likes my writing style either. I think we make a great team!

There are so many writing resources to gather amazing information from, that sometimes a writer can spend more time reading about the craft than actually writing. That being said, I found this amazing writer, David Farland, who has an e-mail blast called A Daily Kick in the Pants. I signed up a few weeks ago, then left on vacation, so I didn’t actually read many of them until the past few days. Last night I read almost all of them, and WOW! is all I have to say. The guy is spot-on with his advice. He is going to be speaking at a conference in LA next week that I wish I could attend, but mommy duties call. Brittany is due March 14^th and the conference starts March 19^th.

If you are a budding writer like me (lazy California speak for “like I”), you might want to get on his email list. He can be contacted at http://www.davidfarland.net/. Just a few of the subject lines are: Your Online Writing Persona, If at first you don’t succeed, What Do You Think You Are?, Can You Take Criticism?, More Criticism, etc.

It was interesting that the last two were on criticism, just when I was feeling a bit down about receiving this week’s rejection letters. He gives three reactions that an author might display in the face of rejection. The first is that you might begin to doubt yourself. The second is that you might become defensive. The third is that you might find yourself confused at who to believe; yourself or the people who have rejected you (which could be anyone from friends, relatives, writing groups or professionals).

Then he says you need to sort through what you’re hearing and decide who to listen to and who to ignore, but (and this is why I like David so much) he then goes on to say he won’t be able to tell you how to that. That is honest. I like honest. Really, David doesn’t know me from Adam (or in this case, Eve). He wants me to figure it out on my own and work from there. Spoken like a true teacher, which I understand he is. Between his sage advice and the article about Meg Cabot (over 1,000 rejection letters in three years) who I mentioned in an earlier blog, I am going to read my thanks-but-no-thanks letters as just courteous responses from professionals who didn’t connect with my work – and nothing more. I have plenty of people who really like my chatty and sometimes flawed characters and stories – I am going to assume that at some point I’m going to encounter an agent who appreciates my unique writing style as well and wants to promote my work. I’ll just keep putting my stuff out there and pray (literally) to make that connection sooner than later.

Let me know if you find David Farland’s hints helpful to you as well.

Love you all bunches!

Melissa

I am not quite to the point of having enough rejection letters to wallpaper my office, but on some days it feels like that. Most professional writers say don’t go into this business if you can’t take rejection, because rejection is the norm for most writers-even the successful ones. I read an article in one of my writers magazines about an author who received 1000 letters of rejection over a three year period before she got picked up and marketed to the masses. Now she is publishing best selling books across many genres.

 The quality she has, that I need to emulate, is perseverance. For those of you without a Webster’s handy, the definition of perseverance is: steady and continued action or belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks. Therefore, I have to not only believe in myself and continue writing, I have to keep putting myself out there even when I know that rejection is statistically the most likely outcome.

In some ways, the hard part is behind me. I mean, I’ve written four complete novels for Pete’s sake. It’s like I have 90% of the job done. But it feels like this last part of the process is the steepest part of the mountain and for every step I take to try to take to reach the top, there are thousands of tiny loose rocks that trip me up, bruising and bloodying my knees (read ego).

To that end, in the next few minutes I’ll be on my way to UPS to mail out two more manuscripts that I continue to believe in. Tomorrow I will be mailing out query letters to agents and after that I will start on a new book! I AM going to beat the odds. I just have to continue to persevere and hook up with the right agent/agency.

Why I’ve been silent for a month:

1. Two week trip to Alabama to see son receive his aviator wings at Ft. Rucker. He is now officially a Blackhawk Pilot.
2. Driving above son’s furniture and household goods in 26 foot U-haul trailer from Alabama to California in four days. (Okay, I didn’t really drive, I was just in the rattling, noisy, bumpy cab on a bench seat while Roger drove the beast.)
3. Getting to know and playing with two-year-old granddaughter I haven’t been around for eighteen months. Meeting and getting to know four-month-old grandson I’ve never met.
4. Receiving scary news that required a biopsy.
5. Waiting for biopsy results.
6. Getting “thanks, but no thanks” letters from publishers concerning two of my books.
7. Childproofing my house for current grandkids.
8. Waiting for daughter to deliver baby (due March 14th).
9. Waiting for daughter-in-law to deliver baby (due May 20th).

Okay, so I’ve had a bit on my plate this last month, but things are calming down. The biopsy was negative and I’m quickly acclimating to having grandkids around. I will be back to my writing/blogging schedule this week (yes, even if Brittany goes in labor).

Thanks for all your love, prayers and support these past few weeks. I’ve been very blessed.

Melissa

What does Zumba have to do with writing? A lot. As many of you already know, sometimes I write on my novels for up to ten hours a day. That means I sit on my rear end the entire time – with the exception of a few necessary breaks. I need to do more really, really physical activities to counteract doing the mental calisthenics I do for hours on end.

Okay, don’t laugh, but I attended a one hour Zumba dance class Friday. It was amazing and I think this is the first kind of exercise I might actually be able to stick with because it’s dancing to Latin music. I do love to dance.

I’m still in Pensacola, Florida. My niece Jaime taught the Zumba class. She is a young, skinny, energetic girl – but guess what? She was 75 lbs overweight when she started. She looks beyond amazing now, check her out: www.myzumbasmile.com. Heck, I only want to lose 25 lbs and increase heart strength!

I think getting into Zumba will only help enhance the mental. In fact, I see a slightly overweight, introverted single girl who gets into Zumba in my next novel—who knows, maybe her name will be Jaime!

Melissa

I’m on a mini-vacation right now. As I post, I’m sitting at my brother-in-law’s kitchen table in Navarre, Florida. Being in Florida, when I live in California, means I flew here. Flying means reading on airplanes. The book I chose was: The Survivors Club: The secrets and science that could save your life by Ben Sherwood. Glenn Beck interviewed Ben on Wednesday and Glenn said what an interesting book this was. I picked it up at the airport bookstore in Houston.

I’m almost done with the book. It’s excellent. I think the thing that impressed me the most was how much research went into the writing of this book. Mr. Sherwood read a ton, researched for hours all over the world and interviewed an enormous amount of people for the book. However, he went above and beyond the call of duty as an author when he subjected himself to situations that could have possibly killed him. He trained with the Navy on how to survive an air crash in the water, he was educated with professionals in the commercial airline field on how to escape a burning plane and he went on a centrifuge to experience G-forces. Any one of these three training experiences would kill me. If for no other reason than I would be scared to death (which according to the book is called the Baskerville Effect).

You’ll be happy to know that the two biggest factors he found for people living despite what may seem like overwhelming odds (due to either disease or trauma) were: faith and family. That brought me great peace of mind, because I live a faith-based, family-centered life.

The people who seem to have the greatest will to live are those with the most to live for; this is where family comes in. Many times the people he interviewed, who were in desperate situations, just decided that they wouldn’t die and leave their families alone. It was the single largest motivator for people to survive what seemed liked impossible odds.

I was delighted with Mr. Sherwood’s surprise that faith in a higher being made such a big difference, but more than that, I liked that Mr. Sherwood returned to the church of his youth because of what he learned from researching this book. I think this book could have a similar influence on others. I like books that help people to become better people. What books have you read lately that influenced you to become a more refined human?

Melissa

I was interviewed by a fellow writer: Michele A. Bell. She puts author interviews on her blog. I expect mine will be there in a few weeks. It was interesting the questions she asked me about my writing. Some I hadn’t thought about before. The one that was the most revealing concerned if I liked to write to music.

The answer is an unequivocal NO.

I MUST HAVE absolute, total, complete, utter, unqualified, unconditional and unlimited quiet. This is because I have ADHD so bad that I am excruciatingly aware of the lyrics in songs. If music is on, I can’t focus. Generally, the only time I listen to music is when I’m driving alone in my car and I can turn the radio or CD player up real loud and sing along with wild abandon.

As an aside, my husband owns a Corvette convertible. It is, without question, my favorite way to listen to music. Super loud, with the wind blowing through my hair. And for those of you have actually met me, his pretty little red Corvette may be the biggest reason I keep my hair short. We both suffer in the winter because driving with the top up is just not the same. We are so-o-o-o glad we live where we can drive the convertible nine full months out of the year.

Today is gorgeous outside, but still a little cold (sixty-something). Sometimes though, during the rainy season, we get cabin fever. On dry, cold days we will go out with the top down wearing big fluffy jackets. We just need to feel the wind in our faces and the power of a sports car under our feet. We live in the rolling hills above Sacramento. That means the roads surrounding our home wind up and down the foothills. Real inspiring location for a writer actually. But I digress.

Similar to my need for quiet, I also HATE to be interrupted. If I am writing and you ask me a question, don’t expect me to remember what either of us said. More importantly, don’t expect me to follow through on what you thought I agreed to. I can guarantee I won’t remember you even coming in my office. Feel free to query any of my family—especially my children about this subject. My inability to write on a normal schedule, with normal distractions is, in fact, the hardest part of this new career path for my entire family.

Melissa

My cousin E-mailed me and asked me about the progress of my current writing projects. After I finished, I thought I would share it through my blog as well.

Nicole’s Nic Nackery is an LDS romance novel. It is currently being considered at Granite Publishing in Provo. Covenant (second largest LDS publisher and sister company of Deseret) declined to consider it because it was too edgy (to much sexual tension between the characters – ala Stephanie Meyer who wrote the Twilight series). Granite seems to be a smaller, but more liberal LDS publisher.

I also have Lauren’s Ring, a loose sequel of CTR’s Ring, being reviewed with Covenant.

Life Afterlife is the next book I finished. It is a para-normal romance. It is not an LDS book. I am trying to find an agent for this book. I sent out query letters to five agencies. One of the agencies from New York requested the full manuscript, so that’s a good sign. I haven’t heard from them yet. I got rejection notices from two of the five. The two others I haven’t heard from.

I’m currently working on a book currently titled Dead is a Temporary Thing. This is another non-LDS para-normal romance. It has been a bit more difficult to birth because it’s written in a first person voice. That means the reader can only get information from the main character. I thought I was close to finishing but then my best critics pointed out some fatal flaws and I had go back and rework the book. I added another character and pumped up the dialogue for many of the others in order to give the supporting cast more depth and provide the main character with more motivational background.

I also have another book in the early stages of development. If I decide to pursue it, I’ll let you know. The title would be Chicks Dig Him. Does anyone have a clue what this non-fiction book might be about based on the title?

Melissa

I haven’t written in the past twenty-four hours. I’ve been sewing instead. I invited my sister, Penny, to come to my home along with about six other women. We spent the better part of last night and today making twenty-one quilt tops for humanitarian purposes. One actually got quilted. The other twenty will go to church next Thursday to be matched with backing and batting. The goal is for our stake’s (twelve LDS congregations) women’s auxiliary to finish sixty quilts by the end of the night. Because of recent disasters around the world there is a huge need for food, shelter and bedding. I feel good that I can help with the bedding part.

This is not to say I didn’t think about the book I’m currently writing. I did. I told a few people I was working with all about it. I must have made it sound fairly interesting because the people I told really want to read it now. Just curious, what are some of the things you’ve done for the displaced families around the world? I know there are so many ways to help. Quilt making is just one.

M

Melissa

You ever notice how most fiction books have a disclaimer that reads something like this:

All character names and personalities in this work of fiction are entirely fictional, created solely in the imagination of the author. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

So my question is: Who are they kidding?

If you don’t think authors use people they know to base characters off of, you’re smoking something illegal. We absolutely use our friends and family when we create characters. We use names, we use mannerisms and we use incidents that occurred in real life. We use it all and then put a disclaimer that we don’t. This must be a legal thing. I guess the publisher is worried they’ll get sued for a part of the profits the book may, or may not, generate.

The idea for CTR’s Ring, my first published novel, came from Chris (number three son) who told me he got a tongue lashing from a waitress at Mel’s Diner in Roseville for not keeping the Word of Wisdom (LDS health code) but wearing a CTR Ring (LDS ring kids and adults wear that stands for Choose The Right). She called him a hypocrite. Amazingly, the character of my first published novel goes to Mel’s Diner in Roseville and asks for a smoking table while wearing a CTR Ring and the waitress gives him a hard time. Coincidence? I think not.

Real human interactions, in all their varieties, are much more interesting than anything I could make up. When I write, I’m just embellishing  things I’ve seen, heard or felt. That’s why the big joke of don’t tick off a writer or you may end up in their next book is not just a saying, it’s the truth. Some of the best antagonists are patterned after people we seriously don’t like or even loath. I expect there are a lot of ex-husbands and annoying bosses in most books.

I suspect if you got to know the friends and family of your favorite writer you’d be able to pick out who’s in what book.

So I gave you one, who else can you see from my social network in my books?

Melissa