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Archive for October, 2009
Friday, October 16th, 2009
 Got some good news from my editor the other day–she likes SOMEONE FOR SARAH. Hopefully that means only minor revisions. Now to try to recover my writing work ethic as I get into THE WEDDING TREE. These cold grey (”grey” really shows the mood better than “gray,” doesn’t it?) days really wreak havoc on it. All I want to do is sleep and eat. But I slept last night, and lunch is done, so now it’s time to write.But I have no deadline right now, and it’s easy to fool myself and say there is no rush…
At these times I really need some tricks to get going. One is to light a scented candle on the printer–it’s a black cherry one currently. Another is to glance at my calendar. I’ve been using colored smiley faces on the days I write–at first I only had yellow, but now I have ones in various colors, and I’ve developed a whole symbolism system for the colors. A yellow smiley face equals an average writing day, orange a good one, pink a really good one, and red means a red-hot writing day, when I’m really writing “in the flow” or writing fast because a deadline is looming. Green is for days when I’m doing something writing-related, like editing, going to a conference or writers’ meeting, doing some promotional activity. Green symbolizes to me that while I’m not actually composing new material, it’s definitely part of “growing my writing career.” Blue and purple faces–blue means I’m trying till I’m blue in the face, but there are too many interruptions to get much written, and purple means I tried but had to quit due to overwhelming interruptions. Fortunately there aren’t too many of those. I also write how many hours I wrote, or write my time in and time out, and make special mention of chapters or whole manuscript completion.
Glancing at that calendar really makes it impossible for this writer to fool herself about the number of days when there’s no smiley face at all–those days when I can’t write or I’m playing hooky from the keyboard. No faces=no writing, period. A calendar page full of smiley faces, especially yellow, orange, red and pink is my “time card” to prove I showed up to work. Maybe it’ll help if I ever get audited by the IRS for my home office deduction. 
What tricks do you use? Let me know!
Blessings, Laurie
Tags: Add new tag, smiley faces, the seasons, THE WEDDING TREE, time management, writing life, writing professionalism
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Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
OK, so I’m required to get both the seasonal flu shot and the H1N1 flu shot by my job. No sweat. I get it. It’s probably a good idea, since health care workers are the ones most frequently around those infected, and we don’t want to pass the flu to other patients and our families. I missed the first couple of offerings of the seasonal one at my job by the fact that I was so exhausted after my shift that I couldn’t even think, much less remember that I had to make it upstairs to get it before I left.
So now they’re saying they’re out of the flu vaccine, and we can get it at our doctors, or the grocery and drug stores that are offering it. And they’ll reimburse us after we jump throught a couple of hoops…uh, fill out form XYZ and an X-911. Right. Only…these places are out too. And if we do find one that has the vaccine and get our shot, but meanwhile the hospital clinic gets the vaccine in, they won’t reimburse us. Huh????????????? So I’m supposed to call before I get the shot elsewhere, be put on hold for 5 minutes by an overworked unit clerk who’s in the msst of calling a trauma alert, only to have her come back and say no one knows if they got the vaccine in? Sheeeeesh! Wouldn’t you think, if they’re “requiring” the vaccine, they’d count their employees and order more than they did?
Sorry. Just had to vent. I’m trying to be a responsible employee in my other job, but they’re making it hard!
Blessings, Laurie
Tags: flu shots, H1n1
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Monday, October 12th, 2009
 This time I am reviewing for Waterbrook THE SOUND OF SLEIGH BELLS by Cindy Woodsmall, a Christmas novella.
This is the story of Beth Hertzler, an Amish woman who runs a craft store, has suffered a tragedy–her fiance was killed and she has worn black ever since. Her aunt, who never married, is sure that Beth is missing out by not going on with her life and falling in love with someone else. But Beth hides secret guilt regarding the death of her fiance, and feels unworthy to love again. So her aunt engineers a meeting between her and Amish carver Jonah, who has been crippled in an accident. Mistaken identities and the resulting offense caused when the maneuvering is discovered almost prevents love from triumphing, but it is Christmas time and miracles can happen then.
I am not one who reads a lot of Amish fiction. The market seems crowded with them–in some places that only carry a little Christian fiction, such as my local Giant Eagle supermarket, “bonnet romances” are the only Christian fiction represented. This story is not as “purely Amish” as some because the heroine does a lot of car traveling using a non-Amish driver (who seems to be just a walk-on character, probably because of the length limitations of a novella) and that takes away some of the Amish atmosphere, but this reflects the realities of life for some Amish living today. But reading THE SOUND OF SLEIGH BELLS was very rewarding, perfectly evoking the atmosphere of Christmas miracles and the joy and pain of healing.
For those who are interested in ordering the book, here’s the link: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307446534
Blessings, Laurie Kingery
New FTC regulations require that I post that I received this book for review free from Waterbrook
Tags: Amish romances, Cindy Woodsmall, THE SOUND OF SLEIGH BELLS, Waterbrook
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Friday, October 9th, 2009
Thinking back on the recent ACFW conference, the most important idea I heard about in the workshop was the concept of “tribes,” based on the interesting little book by the same name by Seth Godin. I think it was mainly meant for inventors and salesmen of products other than books, but Allan Arnold of the publisher Thomas Nelson used the concept to apply to the fans of our writing. In that context, our tribes are those readers who have voluntarily become our fans, who look to us to be the “hosts” of the “perfect party.” As I understand it, I need to respond to my readers by my internet presence–here on this blog, on Facebook, Shoutlife, etc. in such a way as to give them added value, a feeling of belonging to a great tribe. The big authors who have succeeded in this–he mentioned Ted Dekker in CBA fiction, Stephenie Myers, Suzanne Brock and others–have grown their tribe to such an extent that the author doesn’t even need to always be there–the tribe carries on the party themselves and has a great time. Some of these authors even hold in-person gatherings for their tribe, a la Star Trek conventions.
Sigh. It’s an interesting concept. But I can’t help feeling like the list of “extra” things I’m supposed to do–blog, tweet, Facebook–is becoming endless. i’m grateful–more than I can express–for those who take the time to write me about my books. Are they my “tribe?” I hope so, though I’d guess most of them haven’t heard of this concept. I’d love to have a tribe like the ones I’ve described above. I don’t think it’s possible for me to do more than I am already in these “extras.” As it is I can’t seem to manage to blog daily, or even weekly most times. Oh, and now I’m supposed to join Goodreads too…ARRGGHHH! I’m not saying I don’t want to, just that there aren’t enough hours in the day!
What do you think? Readers, would you say you’re part of any author’s tribe? Authors, what do you do to promote that feeling with your readers of being part of your tribe? I’m interested!
Blessings, Laurie
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