Marriage Isn’t For You

Before you judge, actually read the article below. Then come back and share your thoughts with me!

Best,

Jen

 

READ HERE: Marriage Isn’t For You.

Author Business Cards

Things I wish I knew before ordering my cards at Vistaprint. Next step: printing out my pitch on address labels to attach to the back of my cards, which thankfully do not feature a picture of a butterfly, puppy, or phallic-looking lighthouse.

Back to editing my book!

~ JLB

SlushPileTales

I’m going to go out on a limb and be riskily honest. When authors hand me business cards at conferences, I politely take them, glance down at them for the three seconds etiquette dictates, and then I never look at them again. I throw them out when I get home.

Hang on, hang on. Quit your outraged rabble-rabble and hear me out. Please. By throwing out an author’s business card, I’m not throwing them out. I just can’t remember who they are by that business card. It’s a generic-looking piece of cardstock with butterflies on it. Even though the author claims to write women’s fiction in which no butterflies are featured. I’m not calling that author’s cell. I’m not emailing her to see what’s up. And here’s the last nail in the business card’s coffin: there is only one reason I would need to be in contact with the author…

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I’m Not Called to Write

Are you called to write?

That question has come up many times during the past fifteen months as I’ve worked on my first novel. At writing conferences, in blog posts, in emails on the ACFW loops-I’ve lost count of the number of times people have referred to being “called” to write, with not much discussion about what that means.

I’ve struggled with the concept, partly because I dislike undefined religious jargon. I’ve pondered-what does it mean to be “called” to write? Am I “called” to write? And if I’m not, does that mean I shouldn’t do it? Isn’t it okay to write just because you enjoy it? Does being “called” to write somehow elevate your writing in some way?

I thought about this for months. When I searched the Bible for verses about being called, I didn’t find anything that persuaded me that I’m “called” to write.

* I am (we are) “a chosen people … a people belonging to God, that [I] may declare the praises of him who called [me] out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Pet. 2:9).
* I was called “to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.” (2 Thess. 2:13–14)
* I was called to hope (oh, thank God). (Eph. 1:18, 4:4)
* I have been called (chosen and appointed) “to go and bear … fruit that will last.” (John 15:16)
* I’ve been called to fulfill the Great Commission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19–20)
* I have been “called according to his purpose … predestined to be confirmed to the likeness of his Son… .” (Rom. 8:28)

I have come to believe that I am called to one thing, and one thing only: to follow God.

I am not called to write. Writing is merely an expression of my calling. It is, I believe, a gift God has given me, and we are told to use our gifts to serve others. (1 Pet. 4:10)

Maybe I’m misunderstanding the concept, but I think a calling is something indispensable, undeniable, necessary, irrefutable. Something required of us.

And I don’t find anything in God’s word that convinces me that we are required to write. Instead, I find this…

Read the rest of the article here: I’m Not Called to Write.

Reblog: The Summer Season of Writing

Arizona (Photo credit: Moyan_Brenn)

by Telena Tanara Contreras

The Arizona summer is an early arriver. In late March a dry breeze descends on the valley to give spring its notice; and a mere month later Queen Summer herself follows behind a procession of scorching rays, ridiculous temperatures, and dramatic dust storms to begin her ruthless reign.
Come May, the people are done.

Snow birds lock up their homes, cover their pools, and head back north or east or wherever it is sane people run to when the weather is more foe than friend. The frugal adopt a beans-and-rice budget in order to crank up the air in homes where they will become hermits for the next five months. All projects that were started with fervor melt into burdens the initiator wishes would simply go away.

My first novel has hit that summer season.

It’s done, and has been for quite some time now. When I first finished it-before I knew anything about the publishing world-I took it to a conference sans edits and put out feelers. My feedback was favorable (the feedback I did get) but I was made aware of the need to do some editing.

After reading a few books on writing, like Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne & King (and feeling appropriately horrified that my first draft was ever let out of its cage), I decided to put the novel through a rigorous edit-walkaway-read program …

You can find the rest of the article here: The Summer Season of Writing.

Related articles

• Two Articles From “Writers Write” (johananrakkav.wordpress.com)
• Planning Your Writing – Is An Unedited Writing Spree Worth the Time? (selfpubadvocate.wordpress.com)

Nature and Writing

Writers! Are you looking for a unique opportunity to further your skills and meet some new writing friends?

Check out this new endeavor by my friend, Darren Rome Leo:  Nature and Writing. From the website, “Whether you’re a serious writer, a dabbler, just curious, or devoted to another medium, our workshops offer inspiration, motivation, and real tools to pursue your goals.  Expand your creativity, see the world with a new lens, and apply it to your craft.”

Also, please feel free to share any writing workshops, groups, or programs that you have found helpful.

Happy writing! – JLB

Slow Death of the American Writer? Not So Fast…

Here’s an interesting blog post I came across today, and had to share. It’s a rebuttal of Scott Turow’s NYT article titled, The Slow Death of the American Author.

Scott Turow woke up from his slumber recently to bark nonsense about Amazon’s acquisition of Goodreads on the Authors Guild blog, before being thoroughly eviscerated in the comments.

Undeterred, Turow sought out the considerably larger platform of the New York Times’ Op-Ed pages on Monday to decry The Slow Death of the American Writer.

On reading the latter, my first thought was: if Scott Turow didn’t spend so much time hating Amazon and pretending self-publishing didn’t exist, maybe he wouldn’t be so depressed.

It’s easy to poke fun at Scott Turow’s views. A child could de-construct his arguments, while laughing at how a practicing lawyer is unable to grasp the definition of the word “monopoly.” If you want a proper debunking of his Op-Ed, Techdirt do a good job, but I think there’s no real point attempting to engage Turow on this issue. His hatred of Amazon and fear of change is completely clouding his logic.

What bothers me about Turow’s obsession with Amazon and his opposition to change is not his blatant disregard for the facts (or the definition of words), it’s that he allows this Luddism to become all-consuming, blinding him to the issues that really matter to writers.

Even if we granted Turow his brain-dead thesis, we still have time before Amazon becomes The Great Evil and exclusively powers its website with the tears of exploited writers.

But there’s a bunch of really awful stuff happening right now that Turow ignores, and has been ignoring, since his term as Authors Guild President began.

Continue reading: A List of Things Scott Turow Doesn’t Care About.

Related articles

• Scott Turow Opens His Yap Again (mikecanex.wordpress.com)
• Turow Stands Up For the American Writer But Misses On A Major Point (creativitytech.com)
• Scott Turow decries ‘slow death’ of the American author (guardian.co.uk)
• Kindle e-book piracy accelerates (reviews.cnet.com)

Shades of YA | Blog | Epic Reads | Your World. Your Books.

Very cool blog post!

Shades of YA | Blog | Epic Reads | Your World. Your Books..

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5 mind-bending facts about #dreams

Happy Tuesday! Here is an article that (in part) references why I chose to name this blog BetweenAsleepAndAwake.

I frequently remember my dreams and often they are lucid. How about you? Have you ever written down a dream or kept a dream journal? If you’re a writer, how often has a dream influenced a project?

5 mind-bending facts about dreams | MNN – Mother Nature Network.

Feel free to share your dreams below, and what, if anything, you’ve learned or gleaned from it.

~ JLB

The Block Party No #Writer Wants To Go To

We’ve all been to this neighborhood: Writer’s Block. It’s not even close to being a party. Check out this interesting article for ways to move forward with your writing, regardless of how you are feeling. Please share which tricks and tips have worked for you!

Stuck or blocked? How to keep writing anyway.

 

Don’t forget to check out these related articles:

• Writer’s Block? Try Freewriting (storywritingstudio.wordpress.com)
• IWSG – February – Confronting Writers Block (the-view-outside.com)
• Being stuck. (Or, the fight against writer’s block.) (mrminddump.wordpress.com)
• The Writers Wall of Doom (naimeless.wordpress.com)
• Muse, where are you? Me against my writing. (brittanywesterberg.com)