KayeDacus.com

2008 Writing Goals Revisited

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 · 2 Comments

Since we’re getting to the end of the year, now is as good a time as any to revisit the goals lists I posted at the beginning of the year and see what I’ve accomplished and what has fallen to the wayside. The update from May is in plum. Today’s comments are in blue.

1. Send in four applications to teach at the ACFW conference: Showing vs. Telling, Critical Reading, Critiquing, and either POV or Setting. Unfortunately, because of the level of professionals with whom I was competing for teaching slots, none of my workshop applications were accepted for ACFW. My new goal is to try to get onto the faculty for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers’ Conference in 2009. I’ve e-mailed Alton Gansky, the director of the Blue Ridge conference, a couple of times and haven’t heard back, so I’m assuming this isn’t going to happen. However, I have been contacted by Nashville State Community College about possibly teaching a couple of Freshman Comp courses next semester, so I could be teaching next year anyway.

2. Turn in revisions on Happy Endings Inc. Stand-In Groom early. I turned in the manuscript the last week of March. I’m now trying to line up a few published authors for endorsements as well as getting the art direction worksheet filled out for the cover of Menu for Romance. Last time I updated this was back in May, so obviously, I got that art-direction worksheet turned in!

3. Volunteer as a judge in the ACFW Genesis contest. DONE. I judged in the contemporary romance category, and one of the five manuscripts I judged is a finalist! It’s actually about time to be volunteering to serve as a judge for 2009!

4. Complete A Major Event Inc. Menu for Romance by June 30, 2008 to submit to Barbour by the first week of July. By writing a little more than 1,000 words a day, I’ll have the first draft finished by the end of June (just in time for my brief vacation to Hot Springs, AR, in July!). My contracted deadline for the manuscript is December 1, but I intend to have it polished and ready to turn in before I leave for Minneapolis on Sept. 13. Well, this is one of those goals where I fell flat. I ended up spending all of October and the first week of November marathon writing and managed to get this manuscript turned in on November 17.

5. Complete revisions on Ransome’s Honor; begin work on Ransome’s Crossing. The second draft of RH is complete and has been critiqued, and the proposal went to Chip at the beginning of February. We heard back from one publishing house that is very interested in it, but requested some changes to the beginning. Just this week, I received crits back on the new prologue and revised first three chapters. I’d hoped to have those changes finished and the revision back to Chip by Friday, but time has gotten away from me this week, so that’s my project for the weekend. I have made a couple of attempts at starting RC, but nothing that has led me to a point where I feel like it’s a strong opening, thought I do have what is the beginning of a wonderful action scene when the ship Charlotte is on is attacked by a French privateer! When the “interested publishing house” requested the full manuscript, I completed another full revision (including some new/completely rewritten scenes) before turning it in. As you can see by the counter in the right-hand info bar, I have done some writing on RC. In fact, just two nights ago, around three in the morning, I turned on the bedside lamp and jotted down what I think is a really cute prologue for it (when Charlotte is a small child). I also have been toying around with what I feel will be a pretty good opening for the first chapter. The word-count recorded in the counter are all the bits-and-bats of scenes/ideas I’ve written over the past year or so, most between 200–600 words each.

6. Develop and implement pre-release marketing plan for SIG. Still in the “thinking about it” phase on this. By working with the publicist at Barbour, as well as doing a little publicity of my own, I have some interviews set up. But I’m thinking about trying to set up a blog tour (which I’ll work on after Christmas) and I have some ideas for people/places I’m going to send copies of the book to try to garner some media interest once I get my advance copies.

7. Attend Alumni weekend at SHU—possibly co-teach a workshop. Based on airline prices, the cost of renting a car, the difficulty in finding a place to stay within fifteen miles of Greensburg, and the fact that none of the workshops offered for the alumni retreat are of any interest to me, I made the decision that this was not the wisest way to spend my money this year. While it would be nice to see the people who started my final residency graduating, the truth is that I would really be going just to hang out with friends, not for any kind of professional enhancement, which means that I wouldn’t be able to write it off afterward. I wasn’t really sure at the time why God was telling me not to go to Greensburg in June, but with the timing of the layoff and needing the security of what I then had in my savings account, I can see very clearly why this wasn’t supposed to happen this year.

8. Pitch the Ransome Trilogy to at least four editors at ACFW conference. If it hasn’t sold by time of the conference, I’ll be sure to do this then. Well, I didn’t do this . . . because it went to pub board at Harvest House the week before conference and I was getting word that they were really interested in it.

9. Sell the Ransome Trilogy. See #8 DONE!

10. Schedule at least one book signing event for January 2009 (yes, I realize that’s next year, but the work will have to be done this year). See #6 While I don’t have any book signings scheduled for January, I am participating in a multi-author book signing event this Saturday, December 13. And the publicist at Barbour is working on getting me some more signings set up as well, plus I have some connections in a couple of places that I fully intend on putting into action in January.

How have you done on your writing goals for this year?

→ 2 CommentsCategories: Road to Publication · Writing Process · writing business
Tagged:

Don’t Forget the Holiday Story Challenge!

Monday, December 8, 2008 · No Comments

Hopefully you are all working on your short stories and/or scenes for the Holiday Story-Writing Contest! Don’t forget, deadline is Monday, December 15, at Midnight (central time) to get it submitted.

Click here for more details.

→ No CommentsCategories: Holiday Story Contest

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Sunday, December 7, 2008 · 28 Comments

I know, you’re reading this expecting a post about Christmas or the holiday season. Well, this isn’t exactly that post.

In 2006, around this time of year, I entered serious discussions with Chip MacGregor about becoming his client, and signed with him the first week of January. This was somewhat amazing to me because not only was that the first time I’d ever submitted anything (to him and to one other agent whose rejection letter arrived two days before Chip called and asked for a full manuscript), but Chip was more enthusiastic about my story than I was—he had more faith in my ability to tell a story than I did. Which, I’ve realized, is a very good quality in an agent!

However, in the months that followed, as rejection after rejection after rejection rolled in, I began to get anxious, feeling like I was letting him down and that I’d never get published. In September, I met with an editor from Harvest House to discuss a proposal I’d written on spec for them, which she then took to pub board . . . and was subsequently rejected. Again, even as I was working on polishing up the next manuscript to send to Chip, I felt like I’d let him down.

On December 6, 2007, just as I was leaving the office for my lunch hour, Chip called me. Barbour wanted to contract Stand-In Groom, and were possibly interested in a three-book series. My contract for Stand-In Groom is dated December 7, 2007—exactly a year ago today.

After signing the contracts for the two other books in that series in the spring, I started to wonder if anything would ever come from my historical trilogy which was making the rounds. One publishing house said that if I took the “naval stuff” out (the hero is a Royal Navy Captain, and the second book takes place almost solely aboard ship) they might be interested, but most of the rest passed on it. I’d gotten a little interest at one publishing house—had even done some editing and added a prologue (and thus slightly changed the backstory) based on the editor’s request back in April.

Then, on Thursday, November 20, 2008, one week before Thanksgiving, I got a call from Kim Moore, editor at Harvest House and fellow Jane Austen and Horatio Hornblower lover . . .

Harvest House is going to publish the Ransome Trilogy!!!!!

I don’t know any of the specifics yet, but I have heard through the grapevine that they’re looking at possibly releasing the first book, Ransome’s Honor, in Fall 2009. So I could potentially have three books coming out next year!

Naturally, I’ll fill you in as I get more details!

→ 28 CommentsCategories: Authors/Reading · Road to Publication · writing business
Tagged: , ,

Fun Friday–A Christmas Challenge Scene

Friday, December 5, 2008 · No Comments

fun-friday.jpg

Earlier this week, I mentioned having written a scene for a holiday-writing contest. Don’t forget—I’m running a holiday-writing contest between now and December 15!

Here is the scene I wrote in 2001 for the aforementioned challenge.

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


“Oh, come on… please fit.”

Lyric pulled the lid of the soft-side suitcase into place and applied pressure to the center of it with one hand, while trying to zip it closed with the other. She grumbled under her breath as the zipper slowly inched forward, threatening to split at any moment.

She should have known there was no way she’d be able to fit everything in one suitcase for this trip. She didn’t know why she’d even tried. But she couldn’t risk putting anything else in the hanging bag for fear of irreparably creasing her black dress. There just wouldn’t be enough time after she got to DC to have the dress pressed before she had to be at the Kennedy Center.

Finally, the suitcase was closed and locked. Lyric hefted it off the bed and dragged it down the stairs to set it by the door. Her flight didn’t leave until ten in the morning, but she didn’t want any complications making her late. The last things she had to do in the morning were to put her concert dress in the hanging bag and put her makeup, hair products, and sleep shirt into her carry-on bag. Oh, and call her parents to wish them a Merry Christmas.

After a few hours of unsuccessfully trying to sleep, Lyric got out of the bed and went down to the kitchen and put the tea kettle on. She wished she could write-off her sleeplessness to excitement, but she wasn’t excited. And she couldn’t understand why.

Last year, she’d jumped at the chance to return to the Kennedy Center to fill in for the lead mezzo in the Christmas Eve program. She’d been flattered to have been asked since she’d left the Washington Opera company to take a job teaching voice at the University of Louisiana–Bonneterre. It had kept her from spending the holiday with absolutely nothing to do.

Three months ago, when they’d called to ask her to come back this year, Lyric had said no. For the first time since she’d left her parents’ home in Rome to come to the US for college, Lyric had been invited to spend Christmas with a family… with Matt’s family.

Matt. His name tasted bitter in her mouth. When Maestro Domingo had personally called two weeks ago and again asked her to come sing, since the mezzo had just been taken to the hospital for an emergency tonsillectomy, Lyric couldn’t refuse.

She couldn’t help but feel that Matt had reacted out of jealousy – that he was jealous that she was still actively involved in the world of professional music and he wasn’t. Just because his album hadn’t been picked up by a record label and three other alums of the boy-band where he’d spent his early twenties as one of the most popular guys on the face of the earth all had albums in the top 20.

He’d asked her to choose between him and going to DC.

Lyric wanted both. She’d told him that if he’d been invited to sing somewhere on Christmas Eve, he would have dropped everything and done it, trying to get him to be objective about it. She asked him to go with her.

Matt had refused and told her that if she went to DC, he would take it as her saying she didn’t want to be with him any more.

She was going to DC… alone.

***

The lines at the curbside check-in were long, but Lyric could tell the lines were even longer at the counter inside the airport. The bus from the long-term lot where she’d parked let her off a few stands down from her airline, but he helped her with her suitcase, for which she was grateful.

An hour and a half later, Lyric boarded the plane. She’d treated herself to a first-class ticket and so got to board before the rest of the masses of people waiting to board. She pulled out her walkman, put in the tape of the music for tonight’s program, set the ear-plug style earphones into her ears, and closed her eyes, visualizing the music as she listened.

Even with the music turned up as loud as she could stand to listen to it, all she could hear were Matt’s accusations and ultimatums. How could he have treated her like this? Why couldn’t he understand and be supportive?

At the airport, Lyric went straight to the rental car counter and secured a car before going to the luggage claim to get her bags.

Unlike any other weekday in Washington DC, traffic on Christmas Eve was light and Lyric made it to the Kennedy Center earlier than she’d planned. A few of the production staff who were already there recognized her and found someone who could show her to a dressing room.

Lyric napped fitfully and when she joined the rest of the Opera company to warm up with the National Symphony Orchestra, her head throbbed and she felt on the verge of tears. She didn’t want to be here. But now, she didn’t have a choice.

She thought about what Matt had told her his family did on Christmas Eve. They went to the service at their church, then all of his brothers and sisters went back to his parents’ house and went Christmas caroling around the neighborhood. Since Matt was one of seven children, Lyric was sure they had quite a choir going with spouses and children added into the mix.

Mechanically, she went through the warm-ups, receiving the greetings of her former colleagues with a forced smile.

Throughout the performance that evening, Lyric felt as if she were experiencing everything second-hand. She felt numb, dead inside. The familiar Christmas carols, the octavos from the Messiah, even the piece from Bach’s Christmas Cantata which she led vocally all seemed empty and meaningless.

Even the applause and cheers from the audience meant nothing to her. She had to see if there was some way she could get back to Bonneterre tonight. There was no way she could spend even one more day away.

She escaped the back-stage crush as quickly as she could and went back to her dressing room to call the airlines to see if there was a flight back tonight.

The door to her dressing room was slightly ajar. Lyric cautiously pushed it open.

Her mouth dropped open and her heart pounded when she saw the interior of the room. Every imaginable surface was covered with vases of roses. And they were the largest, most beautiful white and red roses Lyric had ever seen.

“I’m sorry.”

Tears sprang to her eyes at the sound of Matt’s voice. Slowly, she turned to face him, her questions written across her face.

“I flew in this afternoon. In fact, I barely got here in time for the performance,” Matt said, reaching up to wipe away the tear that had escaped Lyric’s eye. “You were wonderful.”

“I don’t understand.”

Matt’s smile was gentle and contrite. “I was afraid I was going to lose you. I didn’t want you to come up here and decide you wanted to come back to this. So, I realized I needed to come up here and give you a reason to come back to Bonneterre.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box even as he went down onto one knee. “Lyric, I can’t live without you. Will you marry me?”

→ No CommentsCategories: Fun Friday · Holiday Story Contest
Tagged:

FOUR-STAR Review from Romantic Times!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008 · 10 Comments

A friend just posted this review on an e-mail loop, so I wanted to share, even though I haven’t found a copy of the magazine on the shelves yet.

I’ve received a FOUR-STAR (out of five) review from the leading magazine that reviews romantic fiction (even though they did spell AnnE’s name wrong):

rt-logo

rt-reviewDacus pulls off a delightful story that places readers in the heart of the South with the debut of the Brides of Bonneterre series. Readers will enjoy this look at how lives are transformed through devastating events and how forgiveness is the key to a promising future. Nothing is as it seems in this heartwarming story.

Summary: Ann Hawthorne’s wedding-planning business, Happy Endings, rose from the ashes of her personal life when the famous Cliff Ballantine deserted her and left her with a mound of debt. When Ann meets George Laurence, she’s struck by her intense attraction to the Englishman. But Ann is disappointed when George arrives at Happy Endings the next day with Courtney Landry to make arrangements for a wedding. As Ann and George work closely together their attraction heightens, and George is tormented with his desire to reveal the true nature of his relationship with Courtney. Will Ann forgive him when the truth is revealed?
(BARBOUR, Jan., 288 pp., $14.95)

—Jennifer Reyes

→ 10 CommentsCategories: Authors/Reading · Road to Publication · Writing Process
Tagged:

Holiday Traditions in Your Stories–A Contest!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008 · 4 Comments

Christmas CactusThis is the time of year when it seems like everything on TV has a holiday spin to it—whether it’s the Thanksgiving cooking challenge on Top Chef (which you know they filmed months before it was actually time for the holiday) or the Christmas movies that have been on TV every year since before TV was invented.

There are lots of books that are written specifically around the holidays (Christmas especially), and it made me start thinking about how the authors choose the traditions and customs that the characters in the books observe. Are they regional? Ethnic? Something from the author’s personal traditions?

I was going to say that I haven’t really incorporated holidays in my stories, but then I realized—I have! In my first complete manuscript, What Matters Most, I detail Thanksgiving and Christmas with the enormous d’Arcement family. The events surrounding the Thanksgiving meal were made up, based on the family and how they interact with each other, but the Christmas morning happenings were closely based on my own extended family’s traditions—which both my mom and grandmother commented on when they read it. Before writing this manuscript, I’d already set up the idea of a New Year’s Eve masquerade/masked ball in Bonneterre in another manuscript, which is also shown in WMM—and based off of the Christmas party the newspaper I worked for used to host each year (which ended in the late 1990s).

In Stand-In Groom, we get to see the Guidry family’s customary Fourth of July celebration in the city park. My family has never had a tradition for celebrating Independence Day, but when writing this manuscript, I imagined the kind of gathering I’d enjoy taking part of—a cookout in the park followed by watching the city’s fireworks.

Menu for Romance opens on New Year’s Eve, right at the stroke of midnight. Because the main characters are working, It’s really almost more of an outsider’s view of one of the biggest social events of the year in Bonneterre. But then Meredith’s family celebrates New Years by gathering together in the evening of New Year’s Day and, while eating leftovers from their parents’ open house, going around the room and sharing their New Year’s resolutions.

Many years ago, I participated in a challenge to write a scene centered around a holiday (I think it may have been back when ACFW was ACRW, because it had to incorporate romance as well), which I’ll be sharing on Friday. But it made me think about offering a challenge for the holiday season.

The Challenge:
In 3,000 words or less, share a fiction scene (or a short story) incorporating one of the following scenarios:

–A holiday custom or tradition that your family usually observes. Can be an ethnic tradition, a meal tradition, or a tradition for exchanging gifts—but it must relate to the story being told.

–An emergency situation that arises at a holiday celebration. Could be medical, criminal, or anything surprising/shocking.

–A breakup that happens at a holiday celebration.

–A holiday homecoming. The return of a prodigal, a soldier’s return, an estranged family coming back together, etc.

–A surprise holiday. Someone/a family who thinks they won’t be able to celebrate a holiday is surprised by a good Samaritan/community with a celebration.

–First holiday. This is the holiday as seen by an outsider’s point of view—it’s their first time to celebrate the holiday in question.

Deadline and Prizes:
The deadline to enter the contest is December 15, 2008 at midnight Central time. E-mail your entry to kaye (at) kayedacus (dot) com with “WPWT Holiday Contest Entry” as the subject.

The contest winner (chosen by me) will receive a Christmas with Dino CD and a signed copy of Stand-In Groom.

The winner’s story will be posted here on Friday, December 19.

→ 4 CommentsCategories: Holiday Story Contest
Tagged: ,

Fun Friday–Eight Random Things I Love About the Day After Thanksgiving

Friday, November 28, 2008 · 3 Comments

fun-friday.jpg

I hope all of my American readers had a wonderful, family- and blessing-filled Thanksgiving Day yesterday. Here at my parents’ home in Arkansas, my mom, sister, and I spent most of the morning in/near the kitchen. Thanksgiving dinner consisted of smoked ham, baked sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cornbread dressing, homemade bread (my contribution, in addition to buying the ham), cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes and gravy, followed by our traditional lemon meringue pie. I personally ate a little too much, but I tried to make up for it by taking a long walk that evening.

This morning, my brother-in-law and oldest nephew got up at four o’clock and went shopping—and were back in time for breakfast—which is totally beyond my comprehension. So it made me start thinking about what it is that I do like about the Friday after Thanksgiving, which, of course, necessitates an “Eight Random Things” list.

1. The LSU vs. Arkansas “Battle of the Boot” Football game. This is a tradition dating back longer than I can remember, which was discontinued in the ’70s or ’80s and was revived when Arkansas joined the Southeastern Conference in the early 1990s. There’s a trophy in the shape of the states of Arkansas and Louisiana (thus the “boot” reference) and the Friday after Thanksgiving is the traditional day for the game. This is a special game for our family, since my dad’s from Arkansas and my mom’s from Louisiana—and my sister and I both attended LSU. It has also become a special day for us because we don’t usually get to spend much time with my dad’s only remaining family, his younger brother and his family, so we try to get together with them to watch the game.

2. Leftovers. There’s just something about the food we create and eat on Thanksgiving Day that just tastes better the next day.

3. Putting up the Christmas decorations. Before my parents moved to Arkansas and my family was once again able to start getting together for Thanksgiving (before last year, it had been since I was a senior in high school that my immediate family had Thanksgiving all together), I spent Thanksgiving in Nashville, usually by myself—because before 2006, I worked the day before and the day after every year. But I always made the effort to put my Christmas decorations up on the day after Thanksgiving (usually while the LSU-Arkansas game was on)! This year, since we’ll be having our first Christmas here in Arkansas, my parents brought their tree and decorations from Dallas so that we can put it up and decorate it while the little kids are here to help. Because I don’t like the fact that Christmas has completely infringed upon Thanksgiving, for me, the Christmas season doesn’t actually start until today (even though all of my Christmas shopping/wrapping is finished).

4. Being lazy all day. This is one of the few days of the year where laziness is not only accepted, it’s expected!

5. Putting together gingerbread houses with the niece and nephews. This is a tradition my mom started with the kids a couple of years ago (at Christmas time) that has now transferred to Thanksgiving. It’s fun to watch them make a mess with the candy and icing that come in the kits (yes, we’re kit people, not make it from scratch people).

6. Watching a Christmas movie. Just like with putting the decorations up on this day, it’s been my tradition to make myself wait until the day after Christmas to break out the few Christmas movies that I enjoy—especially A Christmas Story.

7. Playing games with my niece and nephews. We sat up late last night playing come find-and-search games on the computer, and we’re definitely looking forward to finishing those today.

8. No more Thanksgiving-themed e-mail forwards. It seems like every year not only do I receive all of the same forwards that I’ve gotten every year before, somehow people find even more to forward. And just to show I’m really a good sport about it, my favorite Thanksgiving-themed is this one about how our Thanksgiving isn’t going to be anything like Martha Stewart’s, which I posted last year.

→ 3 CommentsCategories: Fun Friday

Potential First Scene for A Case for Love

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 · 8 Comments

I know I said I was going to take time off from writing between finishing Menu for Romance and starting A Case for Love, but night before last, this scene was running so loudly through my head, I had to get it down on paper. Since I stink at writing first chapters, I thought I’d float it here and see what reactions I get to it:

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


“There she is.”

“Where?”

“Over at the mailboxes.”

“Are you sure? I can’t tell from this distance.”

“That’s her car sitting in the circular drive.”

Forbes Guidry squinted against the glaring sunset and tried to force his eyes to bring the feminine figure into focus. Time to get his eyes checked again, obviously.

“Man, why don’t you just go over and introduce yourself? You’ve had a thing for her since . . . well, since I moved in and we started running together.”

Forbes turned to look at his next-door neighbor. “You’re joking, right? Just walk up and introduce myself. To Alaine Delacroix? Do you know how many men must do that on a daily basis? I don’t want to look like a groupie.” Or introduce himself to her like a dweeb only to find out she was already married or involved with someone. He preferred hanging onto his dream that he might one day casually run into the stunning local-TV celebrity, talk to her, and see interest spark in those impossibly dark eyes of hers.

“Pretend like you don’t know who she is, that you’ve never heard of her or watched her talk show.”

“It’s not a talk show. It’s a news magazine.” At least that’s how the on-screen digital cable guide classified it, which he’d seen when he set his DVR to record it every day.

“If a guy like you can’t work up the courage to approach a hot chick like her, there’s no hope for the rest of us.”

Forbes didn’t even want to know what that meant. “Come on, Duff. If we’re going to get three miles in, we’d better get a move on.”

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

There’s more that I’ve written, but it’s more introspection, feeling out his character following this little exchange. Right now I just don’t have anything that *pops* off the page as a good hook line/paragraph to start off with. I’ve written several little snippets from both POVs, but still waiting for inspiration to strike with that “just right” opening.

→ 8 CommentsCategories: Authors/Reading · Writing Process
Tagged: ,

Inadequacy, Self-Doubt, and Professional Jealousy

Monday, November 24, 2008 · 4 Comments

A couple of weeks ago at church, a lady got up and played the violin along with the choir special. She’s apparently new to the church, but several people in my Sunday school class have met her, and they raved about what a wonderful musician she is—how she majored in violin (has a master’s degree in it!), all the different philharmonics and symphony orchestras she’s played with, whom she’s done session work with since moving to Nashville, etc. Just hearing all that about her made me feel rather untalented and ordinary. Then when I heard her play, I knew I was untalented and ordinary, and that she’d been given an amazing gift from God.

Then yesterday, before my Weight Watchers meeting, I started chatting with one of the other ladies who’s been coming for a few weeks now. When I mentioned that I have a book coming out soon, she started going on and on about how she is so jealous of me and wishes she could do that but knows she’d never be able to write (but loves to read) and it finally dawned on me: she might have felt the same way about me that I felt about that violinist at church.

Why is it so easy to look at someone else’s talents/gifts and think that they’re so much better than our own? Why is it so easy to doubt ourselves and the gifts God has given us—to believe that they’re not as important or special as someone else’s?

Here’s one reason: because some people’s talents are more easily showcased than others. The girl I was talking to yesterday is an accountant. She’s talented with numbers. But that’s not something that is going to get her up on stage in front of hundreds of people and win her applause. But it sure will make the company she works for happy. When someone’s talent is easily visible to everyone—and wins accolades for them—it’s really easy to become envious, to begin to compare ourselves negatively because we don’t feel like we have a talent that will win us any kind of appreciation or applause.

Another reason: we may not be using all of the gifts God gave us. Several times over the last fifteen or so years, I’ve taught lessons on spiritual gifts—from Sunday school with youth and singles, to the S.H.A.P.E. study. Through these studies, I’ve learned that (a) everyone is given spiritual gifts and talents (which are separate things) from God (I Corinthians 12:29–30); (b) if we don’t use them, God may take them away (see the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14–30); and (c) everyone’s gifts and talents are vital to the function of the body of Christ (Romans 12:4–8, I Corinthians 12:14–27).

Because most of us are raised to put others before ourselves, to praise others’ accomplishments and not our own, I think we develop an unhealthy sense of self-doubt and inadequacy that seeing others’ accomplishments and achievements only tends to exacerbate. Sure, it’ll spur us on to do better most of the time, but do we ever take a chance to really look at our own gifts and talents to see how God is using us in the world and in the lives of people around us?

I’m the first to admit that I suffer from professional jealousy. When I see someone in an “cushy” editorial job who’s ten years younger than me, right out of college, doing what it is that I wanted to do for so long, it makes me envious—and it makes me negative toward myself; after all, if I hadn’t dropped out of college, if I hadn’t waited so long to go back, if only I’d done this, that, or the other, I might have been way ahead of that much younger person on the career ladder. But then I have to stop and take inventory of my life and where it’s led me—and the life experiences I’ve had that have made me who I am today. And I like who I am right now. Yes, there are things I want to change about myself—and I’m working on many of them (see my Fabulous by Forty blog for starters!). But I can have a healthy sense of self-confidence in knowing that right now, I’m where I’m supposed to be, doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

I also have to admit that when I found out I’m getting a four-star review in Romantic Times next month, the first thing I did was read the rest of the list to find out who else had gotten four stars—and who had done better and worse than me. Because part of that sense of inadequacy I still have brings out quite a bit of competitiveness in me—in an almost unhealthy way. If I’m not going to be at the top of a list, I want to make sure I’m not at the bottom, either. Isn’t that awful? As it says in I Corinthians 12:26: “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” But when that professional jealousy strikes, when it raises up that competitive spirit, it’s hard to remember to rejoice with the other members of my spiritual family.

No one wants to be picked last (or not picked at all)—especially those of us who have quite a lot of experience with being in that situation (wasn’t it barbaric in P.E. in elementary school when the athletic kids were always made team captains and they always chose us last?). And a lot of us carry scars around from experiences in the distant and not-so-distant past that make us either so envious of others’ success that we can’t abide to be around them, or turn it inwards and become so negative toward ourselves that we’re never going to be able to see our own talents, achievements, and accomplishments.

So before things get too crazy this Thanksgiving week, I would challenge you to come up with five things about yourself that you love, that make you proud, that make you feel blessed—whether it’s something you’re talented at, something you’ve accomplished, or something you just like about yourself—and write them down (post them here!) to remind yourself of them whenever you start feeling inadequate or comparing yourself negatively to someone else with a more visible talent or accomplishment than your own.

Here are mine:
1. I love it when my own stories make me smile/laugh.
2. I’m blessed that God gave me a singing voice that I can use to bless others with music that praises and glorifies Him.
3. I’m very proud that I went back to school and completed not just a Bachelor’s but also a Master’s degree.
4. I’m humbled and pleased that, even if it was just one person, someone has gotten enough out of what I do here on the blog as well as at the MTCW monthly meeting to nominate me for the mentor of the year award at ACFW for the past two years.
5. I am extremely proud of my accomplishment of having lost 44 pounds in the past year.

→ 4 CommentsCategories: Reflections · personal · writing business

Fun Friday–An Unused Ransome Prologue

Friday, November 21, 2008 · 2 Comments

fun-friday.jpg

rhpBack a couple of years ago when I realized that the story that was then entitled Ransome’s Quest was too long to be just one book, I toyed around with starting the trilogy off when the characters were children. But then I decided that even I wasn’t interested in spending that much time with them during that stage of their lives. So here’s the original “prologue” of the story, simply because I like it so much and if I don’t post it here, it’ll probably never be seen.

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


HMS Indomitable
April 1795

“Sail, oh! Ship to larboard!”

Midshipman William Ransome glanced at his best friend Collin Yates. As one, they jumped to their feet, tossed the ropes they’d been tying toward a storage bin, and raced up the companion stairs to the quarterdeck.

Unable to make out anything with his small spyglass, William made for the mainmast, stopping when a small figure ran headlong into him.

“Sorry, sir.” Plain britches, an oversize tunic, and a knit cap pulled to the eyebrows couldn’t disguise the identity of Julia Witherington, the captain’s ten-year-old daughter. “I just wanted to see the other ship. Is it French, do you think?”

William reached to doff his hat and realized he’d left it below-deck. “It might be, miss. But we’re only two days out from England. It could very likely be one of our own.”

Her green eyes sparkled with excitement and she turned and started climbing the shroud toward the fore-topmast head.

William stood rooted to the deck, watching the girl’s ascent, until Collin caught up and punched him in the arm.

“C’mon, Will. Let’s follow the lad’s example.”

Will turned. Lad? Was he the only one on the ship who could tell young Miss Julia apart from her twin brother?

Collin scrambled up the shroud on the other side of the mast, quickly bypassing her. She slowed, pausing every so often. If she were to lose her grip and fall while William stood below—

He climbed the ropes close to the girl. Her arms trembled as she struggled to pull herself up higher. He remembered the feel of burning muscles all too well from three years ago when he’d first entered the Royal Navy.

“It . . . looks . . . so . . . easy.” Miss Julia panted, a few long locks of her coppery hair escaping the knit cap.

“Not much further now, miss. That’s it. Push up with your legs. Don’t pull with your arms.”

Her progress slowed to a crawl, and finally she stopped about three quarters of the way up. If she’d been a boy and a member of the crew, he would have teased and tortured to inspire the will to continue. But she wasn’t. She was Captain Witherington’s daughter.

“That’s it, miss. Just take a breather. You’ll get your second wind soon.”

Her arms, exposed where the too-wide sleeves had slid down to her shoulders, trembled with the effort of just holding on.

“Miss, why don’t you let me carry you up the rest of the way—”

“No!” Pain etching her face, green eyes blazing, Miss Julia started climbing again, now muttering under her breath that she would never let a boy carry her anywhere, and if Michael could do this, so could she.

To William’s surprise, she made it to the top and hauled herself onto the platform. She sat panting on the boards a few moments.

William grinned at Collin’s astonished expression.

“That’s not—”

“No.”

Collin shook his head. “If her father finds out . . .”

“What was I to do? Let her fall?” William shrugged and held his hand out to the girl.

Julia recovered and stood, ignoring William’s proffered hand, withdrawing a midshipman’s spyglass—perhaps the one her brother had been searching the ship for an hour ago—to scan the horizon.

“Ooh, there it is. It’s French, and at least a third rate, probably a seventy-four.”

Collin guffawed and lifted his own glass. William didn’t know whether to believe the girl knew that much about ships or if she was just repeating something she’d heard her father say over dinner. He raised his scope and sighted the ship. Still too far away to make a definitive determination.

“Midshipman Ransome, what do you see?” The second lieutenant’s voice rang out from below through the noise and bustle of the crew of Indomitable.

“It’s too far away to be certain, sir.” William leaned over the edge of the platform to respond to his division leader.

“It’s a French seventy-four.” Julia Witherington’s low voice came out as a hiss at his elbow.

Collin laughed again.

“Stay aloft until you can make a determination, Ransome. Is that you, Yates? Good. One skipped duty shift for whichever correctly identifies the ship first.”

William and Collin jostled each other for better position.

Julia squeezed between them. “I don’t know why you won’t listen to me.”

Tempted to push her back, but worried she might lose her balance and plunge to her death, William settled for ignoring her. He squinted, switched the spyglass from left eye to right and back, wished and willed the ship to come into view faster.

William could distinguish two gun decks on the distant ship. He glanced down at Julia Witherington. Had she somehow been able to see how large the ship was further away than he and Collin could? He raised the glass again, just as the flag flying aft snapped in the sun, revealing blocks of red, white, and blue.

“Sir, it’s French! A third-rater!” William leaned over to yell down to Lieutenant Mason.

Collin groaned, and Julia turned to face him, arms crossed. “I told you.”

“Are they cleared for action?” the lieutenant yelled.

Collin snapped his glass back up to his eye; William turned to do the same. The ship appeared much closer than just moments before.

“Not yet,” Collin called. “But they’ve changed course to intercept us.”

The lieutenant shouted orders to the boatswain’s mate, and the sailor’s whistle sounded over everything else. The “All Hands” signal brought the lively crew to a frenzy of action preparing the ship to meet an enemy.
Keep reading →

→ 2 CommentsCategories: Fun Friday
Tagged: ,