Over at the Promptings blog, Violet is posting an advent calendar, complete with surprises to open every day from December 1 to 24.
What a lovely way to start each day! Why not stop by?
Online Advent Calendar
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Category Archives: Writers and Books
2008 Canadian Blog Awards, Round Two
Voting is into round 2 for the 2008 Canadian Blog Awards. Check out the finalists, you might find something new that you really like. Thank you, everyone who voted for this blog in round one’s “Best New Blog” category, and thanks again, Belinda, for nominating me. You are such an encourager!
Belinda and friends’ Whatever He Says (Religious/Philosophy) and Denyse O’Leary’s Post-Darwinist (Sci/tech) are still in the running.
Click on the beaver to go vote!
2008 Canadian Blog Awards
I’m surprised and pleased that God with Us: Finding Joy has been nominated for the 2008 Canadian Blog Awards, in the “best new blog” category.
Thank you, Belinda!
Some of the blogs in my blogroll have also been nominated, including Belinda and friends’ Whatever He Says for “best religious/philosophy blog”, Imperfect Prose for “best personal blog”, Canadian Authors Who Are Christian for “best group blog”, Fit for Faith for “best blog post series”, Future Tense and Fiction Matters for “best professional/career blog”, Post Darwinist, Mindful Hack and Colliding Universes for “best sci/tech blog”.
Round one voting is from Nov. 23 – 29, with voters allowed one vote per category. To vote, go to the 2008 Canadian Blog Awards site.
Review: Eye of the Storm, by Janice L. Dick
[Note: this review is of the original version of this book, which has now been revised and rereleased. For the review of the 2020 edition, click here.]
Eye of the Storm, by Janice L. Dick (Herald Press, 2003)
In Eye of the Storm, we follow the characters from Calm Before the Storm through the years 1917-1919. A less compassionate author would overwhelm readers with the cruelty and horror of this part in Russian Mennonite history.
The story centres on the fictional Hildebrandt family, but gives glimpses of historical figures like Trotsky and Lenin – and the execution of Tsar Nicholas’ family. At times the sense of growing tragedy made me put the book aside until the next day, but the characters always drew me back.
Rich in historical and cultural details, the book opens a window into the suffering of both rich and poor – and the faith of the Russian Mennonites. The Mennonite landowners experience raids on their property and possessions, but their faith calls them to a peaceful life. Some choose to learn self-defence, but family head Heinrich Hildebrandt cannot reconcile this with his beliefs. He removes all weapons from his estate, “that I might not be tempted.” Whatever the reader’s personal beliefs on pacifism, this book brings the agony of the Russian Mennonites’ choice to life.
It also demonstrates the struggle to keep hope and live by faith when the world is falling apart. Although the characters usually come to decisions in line with the tenets of their faith, it is never trite or without serious wrestling.
I’m glad I picked up books two and three of the series together – the ending of Eye of the Storm is the beginning of a new adventure, and I can’t wait too long to discover how things work out.
To learn more about the series, or for an overview of Russian Mennonite history and some authentic Mennonite recipes, visit the author’s website.
Writers’ Workshop in Barrie, Ontario
If you’re a writer or aspiring writer living in or near Barrie, Ontario, I highly recommend taking in author NJ Lindquist’s Recycle Your Personal Experiences workshop on Nov. 15 at Barrie Free Methodist Church.
Recycle Your Personal Experiences is an all-day workshop filled with warmth, encouragement and practical help for people who feel a desire or even a pressing need to write, but don’t know where to begin or how to market their work. The goal for this workshop is to bring like-minded people together in an environment that allows them to connect with each other, learn necessary skills, and formulate an action plan in order to achieve their goals. [from the promotional material]
I attended this workshop last month in Nova Scotia, and it was empowering. Attendees ranged from published writers through those trying to break into print to some who came wondering “Could I be a writer? Is this writing thing for me?”
Speaker NJ Lindquist ended each of the four sessions by breaking us into small groups to apply what we’d learned. By the end of the day, we had identified some ideas to write about, thought through why they held our interest and how we wanted to present them (article, devotional, story, poem etc), and identified potential markets to research for them. We’d also made some new friends.
I’d never been to a workshop that combined teaching and practical application this way, and I think it’s great. Too often we get inspired but then in the cold doubt of second thoughts once the event is over, we don’t know how to follow through.
Recycle Your Personal Experiences
Date: Nov. 15, 9:00 – 5:00
Location: Barrie Free Methodist Church
Cost: $85 (students and seniors, $60). Group rates for 10 or more.
Registration: Via TicketWindow or phone 519-886-4196.
Sponsored by: The Word Guild and That’s Life! Communications.
Marcia Gruver: author of Diamond Duo
I haven’t had the chance to meet Marcia Gruver yet, but we’re both members of American Christian Fiction Writers (yes, they let Canadians join too) and I’m excited to be part of the blog tour for her historical novel, Diamond Duo, released this month from Barbour Publishing.
Marcia is a full time writer who hails from Southeast Texas. Her deep south-central roots lend a Southern-comfortable style and a touch of humour to her writing. Recently awarded a three-book contract by Barbour Publishing, she’s busy these days pounding on the keyboard and watching the deadline clock.
Lifelong Texans, Marcia and her husband, Lee, have one daughter and four sons. Collectively, this motley crew has graced them with ten grandchildren and one great-granddaughter-so far.
JS: Thanks for joining us today, Marcia. Please tell us a little bit about who Marcia Gruver is.
MG: Which Marcia? Like everyone else, who I am depends on the hat on my head. I’m wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, granny, and just recently, great-granny to a little sprite of a girl who seems well qualified to carry our legacy into the future. Even more recently, I’m a published author of inspirational fiction. How about that? Marcia Gruver is content, well loved, fulfilled, and grateful to God for every second of her life.
JS: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
MG: Guilty secret time? I love to play video games. I look for any slip of time and any excuse to play. I also love to read and watch movies in all genres.
JS: When you sit down to read for pleasure what authors do you choose?
MG: Linda Nichols, Kristen Heitzman, and Brandilyn Collins are at the top of the list. But I have so many books in my ‘To Be Read’ pile, I just know there are favourites sitting there waiting to be discovered.
JS: Tell us about Diamond Duo.
MG: Bertha Maye Biddie’s in love. Trouble is, she’s not sure the object of her affection feels the same. He seems to be interested, but something’s holding him back. So when opportunity rides into Jefferson on the northbound train out of Marshall, young Bertha leaps at the chance to learn a few tricks. A charming, charismatic stranger offers to take Bertha under her wing and teach her the art of wooing a man. But when the woman is unable to keep her promise, Bertha realizes their chance meeting held far more eternal significance.
JS: Bertha is a breath of fresh air with her fun and refreshing sense of humour. And I totally relate to her aversion to those uncomfortable-but-height-of-fashion shoes! If I were to ask those close to you about your sense of humour, would they describe similarities between you and Bertha?
MG: Oh, boy! I’m afraid so. I’m actually dry and rather reserved at first-so much so that I’ve been accused of having a split personality. When I’m very relaxed and get to know a person well, the real me comes out to play. Yep, the lights are on and a whole bunch of us are home.
JS: Has being a published novelist differed from your expectations?
MG: Yes. I’ve discovered that when you do it right, it’s actually work.
JS: Do you plot your novels out or are you a so-called seat-of-the-pants writer?
MG: I used to fly by my seat from start to finish. My first experience with working a plan came after discovering Randy Ingermanson’s snowflake method for plotting a novel. After working through Karen S. Wiesner’s First Draft in 30 Days, I’m a born-again plotter. These days, I don’t think I’d do it any other way. I sort of like knowing where I’m going when I sit down to write.
JS: Has being a writer brought you closer to God and if so, how?
MG: Not really closer. More in tune, maybe? I just know there’s no step in the writing/marketing process that I could pull off without His guiding hand. That teaches you to report on a regular basis for your marching orders.
JS: Can you tell us about your next book?
MG: Chasing Charity, book two in the Texas Fortunes series, picks up in Humble, Texas, several years after Diamond Duo ends. Charity Bloom, Bertha’s daughter, stands at the altar watching her best friend flee the church on the heels of her departing fiancé. This is the final straw for Charity, who is distressed by the many changes taking place in her life and in her hometown, most notably the devastation wrought after oil is discovered near Humble. Imagine Charity’s surprise when one of the men responsible comes to her rescue, and she finds her heart torn between two suitors-the handsome roughneck and the deceitful rogue who broke her heart.
JS: Well, thanks for the chance to get to know you a bit, Marcia-and for the chance to read Diamond Duo. I enjoyed meeting Bertha Maye and her friends, and I have to put a plug in for my favourites: Sarah and Henry King. They grabbed my imagination from our first meeting, and taught me a few things along the way.
To read more about Marcia, check out her website or her blog. You’ll also find a variety of interviews on the different blog tour sites-they’re worth a visit:
A Latte and Some Words, A Little Bit of Sunlight, Anne Greene, Be a Barnabas, Book Splurge, BookingIt, Cara’s Musings, Dawn Michelle Michals at ShoutLife, Erica at ShoutLife, Fictionary, Horizontal Yo-Yo, Janice Olsen, Lighthouse Academy, Marthawrites, Mary Connealy – real life, My Christian Fiction Blog, Net’s Notes, On The Write Path, Pam Krumpe, Patti’s Porch, Readin N Writin, Simple Living Christian Style, Tamara Lynn Kraft, Terri Tiffany, The Friendly Book Nook, The Writer’s Tool, and Writing by Faith.
Online Course: Writing Devotionals
Marcia Lee Laycock will be teaching an online course in writing devotionals, November 3 – 24, 2008.
Content: Writing in an anecdotal style, learn how to stimulate your readers to consider spiritual things. The course will cover Using Literary Devices, How to Show instead of Tell, Keeping your Focus, Using Metaphor
Cost: $90.00. Receipt of fee confirms enrollment. Enrollment is limited. To enroll and for payment information, please visit the InScribe site here.
Format: The course will run as a Yahoo group. Students should make themselves familiar with Yahoo Groups before the course begins. A short lesson and assignment will be given at the beginning of the week. Each student will send her/his devotional to Marcia for critique. Students are also free to comment on/critique one another’s work.
Credentials: Marcia is an award-winning, published writer. She has been writing a weekly devotional column for the past 18 years and has been published in both national and provincial newspapers and magazines. Marcia has taught writing at InScribe’s conferences as well as at God Uses Ink in Ontario and through Adult Learning of Alberta. She has been invited to read at The Gathering, a yearly event for poets in Edmonton, AB., as well as the Festival of Faith and Writing, Grand Rapids Michigan. Her devotional books, The Spur of the Moment and Focused Reflections have been endorsed by Janette Oke, Phil Callaway and Mark Buchanan. Her novel, One Smooth Stone, won her the Best New Canadian Christian Author Award in 2006 and was released in Sept. 2007.
I haven’t taken this course yet myself, since I focus more on fiction, but I’ve heard many good things from Marcia’s former students.
Creativity and Writing Workshops in Eastern Canada
I can’t believe I haven’t already posted this information!
If you live near Montreal or in Canada’s Maritime provinces, there are creativity and writing workshops coming your way (click on the workshop name to reach its website):
Release the Creative You is a 2 ½ hour evening workshop for teens and adults who want to explore their creativity, who have a dream they’re afraid might never come true, and who long to set their imagination free. The session will challenge, inspire, motivate and offer tools for attendees to find the courage to trust God and become the person He created them to be. Tickets: $20 ($25 at the door) for adults, $10 ($15 at door) for high school/university students.
Friday, Oct. 17, Brossard, Quebec
Monday, Oct. 20, Sussex, New Brunswick
Tuesday, Oct. 21, Sackville, New Brunswick
Wednesday, Oct. 23, Charlottetown, PEI
Friday, Oct. 24, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Write! Montreal and Write! Maritimes are all-day sessions (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) that will help attendees identify which of their stories would be the best to begin writing; teach them a variety of ways to use their ideas; and offer tools to help with marketing. Tickets: $85 ($99 at the door) for adults, $60 ($75 at door) for seniors and students.
Saturday, Oct. 18, Brossard, Quebec
Saturday, Oct. 25, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Registration for all events is through TicketWindow.
Speaker NJ Lindquist is a Canadian author, and co-editor of the ground-breaking anthology of Canadian Christian writing, Hot Apple Cider. Here’s a brief intro from her website: “Her mysteries have been compared to the best of Agatha Christie. Her novels inspire teenage boys to read. Her wisdom and leadership have empowered thousands. Her journey from accidental conception in a tiny hamlet of the cold Canadian prairies to award-winning author and international speaker is truly inspirational.”
NJ blogs on life at What’s on My Mind? and on writing at Blue Collar Writer.
These workshops are sponsored by The Word Guild, in partnership with World Vision and That’s Life! Communications.
Fit for Faith interview
Over on the Fit for Faith blog, Kimberley Payne is interviewing “average jills” about their fitness habits. Today was my turn, and you can read the interview here. I think this is going to be a neat series. Reading about uber-fitness-types doesn’t inspire me, but reading about people more like me—but more successful in meeting their fitness goals—can inspire me to persevere. A good thing, after all the ice cream I ate on vacation.
Cara Putman: author of historical romance and romantic suspense
Cara Putman is the author of three historical romances: Canteen Dreams, Sandhill Dreams and Captive Dreams (Barbour’s Heartsong Presents) and a romantic suspense, Deadly Exposure (Love Inspired Suspense).
She’s also an attorney, wife, mom, women’s ministry leader, and publicity officer for American Christian Fiction Writers and adviser to the Indiana chapter.
JS: Welcome, Cara, and thanks for taking time to join us. Along with all the other things you do, you’ve just had four books release in under a year. Wow! Do you have any advice for us on how to juggle priorities? Or do we simply have to give up sleep?
CP: Giving up sleep is part of it. LOL But if writing is a dream and a passion, then you find ways to squeeze it in. And having deadlines makes it critical. I’m not writing just because I want to. I now have houses depending on me hitting deadlines. But I’ve cut 99% of TV watching, I’m very careful about commitments, and focusing on what I have to do. The rest slides to the side – at least for now.
JS: You started with historical fiction. Tell us a bit about your three Dreams books from Heartsong.
CP: Each of these historical romances tells a homefront story from World War Two. You could call these the stories of my heart, since I get to tell the world about the wonderful people of my home state, Nebraska. Canteen Dreams is a novelized telling of my grandparents’ story along with the North Platte Canteen. The canteen served more than 6 million servicemen and women during the war. An amazing story of sacrifice and service. Then Sandhill Dreams pulls out the story of war dogs trained at a Fort way up in northwestern Nebraska. That one was fun to research! And Captive Dreams uses the prisoner of war camps scattered across Nebraska as the historical backdrop. Those elements make the stories unique, then the romance and characters blossom from there.
JS: It sounds like setting is important to you. Are you a writer who likes to immerse herself in details of the setting while incubating the story idea?
CP: Absolutely. The series I’m starting right now is set in Ohio. I’ve driven through, but never been. So I took a research trip there and am changing the setting for the first book because I couldn’t get up to the town and was having a terrible time getting resources and people to call me. Rather than get it wrong, I’m moving it. The history is too important to get it wrong.
JS: What differences did you find in writing romantic suspense?
CP: For me, the biggest challenge was making sure there was enough romance. I loved the suspense thread. And because of the tight timing I had to really work to get the romance thread to work in a way that was believable to me. The research is in different areas, but still very important. And it’s all about getting the heroine in lots of trouble. Gotta love that.
JS: Did you have all three Dreams stories written before writing Deadly Exposure?
CP: Actually Deadly Exposure was the first book I started. I wrote Canteen Dreams in the middle because an editor wanted to see that book. I wrote Sandhill Dreams while I edited Deadly Exposure. Talk about challenging. Music became an important cue to remind my brain which story I was writing.
JS: Which songs did you choose to identify each story?
CP: “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” for the 1940s – though I have a CD of War era music that I’d listen to. And then for Deadly Exposure it would be contemporary praise and worship or Carrie Underwood 🙂
JS: Are you going to keep writing in both genres?
CP: I’m currently working on a three-book Ohio World War Two series. It will be a lot of fun! And a sequel to Deadly Exposure. I’m in one of those crazy places they always tell you not to go. I write historical romance and romantic suspense. I plan to move to legal thrillers, but right now, I’m straddling genres. I can’t wait to get back to Deadly Judgment, the sequel to Deadly Exposure. All kinds of chaos – and I love the ticking time bomb that suspense has. But I love writing books set in the early 40s, too. One day I’ll have to decide, but right now I get to write in two genres that I love.
JS: Working on so many different projects, do you ever find yourself thinking of one character only to remember that he or she is in a different book?
CP: Not often J But I use music and other cues to help me switch gears. And I keep photos of key characters in a file so I can pull them out when I get a tad lost.
JS: What do you like best about the writing life?
CP: I love creating a world and characters that are familiar, but bigger than my life at the same time. And I love the letters that let me know a truth that was sprinkled into the story resonated with a writer at the right time.
JS: What do you like least?
CP: The solitary nature. That’s why I’m so active in groups like American Christian Fiction Writers. I’m not an introvert, so I need to find time to be with others and sharing what I’m learning.
JS: What do your husband and kids think of your writing?
CP: They are literally my biggest cheerleaders. Abigail is quick to tell others about my books and booksignings. And Eric is always talking me up. I couldn’t do this if they weren’t excited and behind me.
JS: Writers are told to read widely and voraciously. I think that’s one of the perks of the deal. What are you reading these days?
CP: I read all the time! Love books. A Passion Redeemed by Julie Lessman was a great romance. And Sandra Byrd’s new book Bon Appetit was a delightful surprise. I LOVED Randy Singer’s latest By Reason of Insanity – move over, John Grisham, there is competition in town.
JS: Thanks so much for taking time to let us get to know you a bit, Cara. May the LORD continue to bless you and make you a blessing to others-in every area of your life.
CP: Thank you so much for having me. I so appreciate it, Joanna!
You can visit Cara’s website, or catch her at her blog, The Law, Books and Life. Cara is also the Thursday blogger at Craftie Ladies of Suspense.
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“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. Isaiah 43
In Sandhill Dreams, Lainie Gardner finds herself on a train to Crawford, NE, and Fort Robinson. It’s the last place she wants to be, but if she wants to be part of the war effort she has no other options. Tom Hamilton enlisted to work with the thousands of horses at Fort Robinson, and finds himself assigned to the War Dog Training Camp.
From the moment Lainie and Tom meet, sparks hot enough to light the prairie on fire fly between the two. Tom is assigned to train the dogs that have been sent to the army by a patriotic public. The only problem is he’s afraid of dogs after being bit by one as a child. Lainie travels to Fort Robinson to find a civilian job at the post after her plan to ship overseas with the Army Nurses Corp. is ended by illness. Join them in their adventure during the summer of 1943.
Sandhill Dreams released in May08 from Barbour’s Heartsong Presents. Right now it’s available from the publisher, and it should be in the online stores sometime this fall.
Cara graciously gave me a copy of Sandhill Dreams. I enjoyed it, and learned something too: I hadn’t known dogs were used in WWII–nor that patriotic Americans were encouraged to donate their family pets!