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 got the best birthday present ever. My sister, Dana, let me yak for almost an hour about Dead is a Temporary Thing. This wonderful gift of time is incredibly helpful. When I am able to articulate out loud what a book is about, I get a clearer picture of where problems still exist.

Talking things out with Dana gave me mental marching orders. For instance:
—I need to provide more motivation for why Tracy lied to everyone about Rick.
—I have to have Shirlee talk to Finn more after Brooklyn leaves and then relay some information from those “chats” back to Brooklyn.
—I need Brooklyn to take more initiative where Finn in concerned while she is in Utah, however, by doing that I am going to get into a big rewrite of some of the back end of the book.

The book is already edging toward 600 pages. Yikes! That is a lot of writing. I don’t care that it’s double-spaced. It’s a good thing I don’t have any preconceived notion of how long a book is going to be or I’d never start them.

I am still looking for people who may be willing to read and comment on this book before I start looking for someone to publish it. Let me know if you want to be on a list of potential readers.
Melissa

I thought I’d share with you the architectural sketch I drew of Finn’s house and the granny flat apartment that Brooke lives in. This is from my current novel, Dead is a Temporary Thing. When you read the book you’ll be able to see exactly where the characters are as I describe what’s going on. I don’t put the sketches in my books; though it might not be a bad idea. I use them for my own reference.

When I write a book I can actually see the characters in my head, along with their surroundings. So if I’m writing a scene where they’re in a house, I can see the house. Possible little known fact about me, I was a draftsman for many years. This means I can create realistic homes to scale.

I sometimes will sketch out the location or home my characters live in. I need to make sure when they walk from room-to-room and I describe their surroundings there are no inconsistencies. Movies and television programs sometimes need to do a better job with this. I think in the film industry it’s called continuity. So if you start out in a silver 2001 Corvette, you can’t later change to a silver 2005 Corvette because there will be slight variations that any Corvette affectionato will pick up on. I mention the Corvette example because this is exactly what happened on the last Burn Notice I watched. They kept flipping between a silver corvette with side molding and one that didn’t have side molding.

That happens in novels more than it should in my opinion.

Read the following passage, then look at the sketch. You will see how it was important for me to say her back was to the television.

“I didn’t make Finn breakfast, he made mine. Then I curled up on the couch with my back to the television and watched him tapping away at his laptop on the kitchen table. He kept saying I could put in a movie, but I was too interested in just observing him. I think I fell asleep at one point because I dreamed he was kissing me and I knew darn well that had never happened.
His ten o’clock call, which he took from his home phone, and not his cell, was probably the most fascinating thing of the work day so far. He was very commanding and tough. He didn’t like excuses from people and asked hard questions that would have made me uncomfortable if I’d been as unprepared as some of his staff seemed to be. I expected the people who’d been in meetings with him before were almost always prepared. His irritation could be pretty palpable.
However, as soon as he hung up, he turned to face me and smiled that big smile of his that seemed to say all was right in the world.”

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