Over time on this blog, I have written sporadic posts, documenting what I am doing in regards to writing books. I haven’t given you all an update in some time. That doesn’t mean that I have ceased to write – quite the contrary! Since my last post (in November or December) I have been very busy writing and typing my books.

My first book A Year with the Potter’s was completed sometime last Summer, if I remember correctly. A short book of only 65 pages and about a dozen chapters, it is still going through the editing process. My goal is to have it polished and finished by June 21st of this year, LORD willing. It was my first attempt to write from things that I knew – and I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it! Just about everything else I had written was set in “olden” times with plots and characters that I knew nothing about. A Year with the Potter’s was my first attempt to write from reality. While I don’t think it is wonderfully written, it is better than just about anything that I ever wrote previously.

My second book Christine was finally completed on the 18th of this month! I am still so excited! I’m not sure what technically constitutes a long book – but this one is long compared to my first. It is just over 200 pages and 37 chapters long – more than twice as long as my first book! Editing looks like a daunting project to me but I plan to persevere of course and not give up. This book is rather more complex and (in my opinion) better written than A Year with the Potter’s and I hope I continue to improve. I am trying to come up with a new title for Christine however – if I can decide on one. It seems that there is another book, published in the 80’s I think, given the same name. It’s nothing like my book – something about a murderous car – I’ve never read it, just read about it – and if I can come up with something else, it might be a good thing …

I have now commenced my third book. This one is (at least for now) titled Grandmother’s Letters. I had written the first three chapters and yesterday decided I didn’t like any of it, so I started over completely, keeping only characters and basic facts. I think, and Bethany concurs, that the new version is much better! LORD willing, this book will be even better than my others – we’ll see!

As a side note: we are still planning the hat post, hopefully very soon. I also have a few book reviews I plan to post and LORD willing, a picture of my most recent sewing project …

To the KING be all the glory!

For the last week, I have been writing on my book a lot. I think that I may have a title now … My Mom suggested the classic and simple title “Christine”, since Christine is the character at the heart of the entire book. My only fear is that it may be too simple – to the point of being boring. I’m tempted to just name it “Untitled Novel” … :p

I now have 37 pages and 7 chapters – well, actually I have a lot more than that but those are all the that I have typed out and “finished” on my computer. I always write my book on paper with a pen before I type it – it works better that way! :)

My greatest challenge at present is giving good and believable descriptions of my main characters – or any characters for that matter! It is almost tiring to try to describe the physical features of my protagonists … Half the time, I can not seem to do them justice! Here is part of one good example (the “bad” descriptions, I am truly trying to improve!):

“He was by birth, a pure blooded Scot, directly descended from the Covenanter’s of the seventeenth century. Born and raised in his native land, his tongue still clung to its native accent. At one time, he had stood a little above six feet, but now, bowed with age, he just reached the six foot mark. His once curly red hair was white, only faintly tinted by its former hue. His light blue eyes sparkled with life and vigor and his strong frame held witness of hours of hard labor in years past. His smile, though calm and gentle was full of kindness and warmth.”

I find myself getting thoroughly excited while I write. Wherever I am lately, I tend to be “writing” in my head, just waiting to get my hands on a pen and some paper! :)

To the KING be all the glory!

Writing … I don’t know about you but I love to write!! Essays, stories, reviews, songs, poems, books … you name it and I probably like to write it! At present I am working on writing a book. It will hopefully be my second completed book – well technically, it is my third. When I was about 12, I completed a book. It was called “Rose Showalter Minks”. I still have it – it wasn’t it very good but it was a start.

My second book is a “family” book … simple enough that even a young child could understand it. It is titled “A Year with the Potter’s”. In short it is a collection of short stories (mostly based upon true circumstances) about the happenings in the lives of the Potter’s, a family of six soon to be seven. It is much better than my first book though still not the best that I ever hope to write. I do hope that I can get it published soon, LORD willing.

Currently however, I am working on another book that is more of a novel. I formerly titled it “The Journey” but I do not very much care for that title … It just – somehow seems to be out of place, not to mention that it is rather bland and uninteresting. I have several chapters of the book written but I have gone back to the beginning to add more – I put a whole new chapter between chapter 1 and 2. I think it adds a lot to the story – I hope so anyway. The beginning was too rushed anyway; I just didn’t know what to do about it.

I can’t really decide how to write a summary of this book … so much is going on in it … Maybe when it is complete – or closer to being so. Much of it is based upon things that have gone on in my life, though there is a good deal of the fictitious going on as well. Several of my characters are based upon myself or people I know, including Christine, one of the main characters, a young lady in many respects like myself, but also, quite different from me in various ways. She is a Christian young lady, who has fallen away in her walk with the LORD. The book chronicles her “journey” as she tries to follow the LORD with all her heart. (That is where I originally got the title). Then there is Claudette – she is a character so different then Christine … She claims to be a Christian but shows no signs of it in her daily life. She has no relationship with her brother, she is rebellious towards her parents – and yet she takes an interest in Christine …

Those are just two of the threads that I am trying to weave into this tapestry … I can hardly wait to find a name for the book but I do terrible at naming anything so we shall see how long it will take me … Maybe I can decide on one by the end of the year …

To the KING be all the glory!

I thought I would post a little about one of the things I love to do the most… Write! First, I will give a little history:

I started trying to write books and poems when I was quite a little girl. Before I could write I made picture books. After I learned to write, I tried my hand at writing books, but never got very far.

Then when I was eight or nine I saw a poem that my aunt had written for my Mom when she was a girl. I thought it was very neat. So I tried writing poems myself. I had almost no poetic ear and wrote very poorly, but I had fun. It would be years before I started to rhyme my poems. A few months after the poem incident, I started a book called “What Happened When Rose Came. It was to  be the first in a series called “Rose Showalter Minks”. After awhile it was neglected, but when I was 11 I started on it again and after much hard work, finished the first draft.

Since that time I have begun several other books, the only problem is… I never very many of them. I am in the middle of so many that I finally came up with a plan for finishing them: I am going through all my books one at a time and writing a complete first draft of each, unless I decide that the book has no value. If I decide that I will just throw it away and not waste time and space over it. Once I have completed that first draft I will type it out, making any revisions that I wish. Then I will print the book out and give it to my editor to edit. (My editor also happens to be my Mom.) Then I will move on to the next book. Later when I have gone through all (or most) of my books in this fashion, I will go back to the books that Mom has edited and make revisions based on her suggestions and my own ideas. Then I will give it to Mom again and so it will keep going through the cycle until we are both satisfied that the book is polished enough, then I can pronounce it as done.

I have gone through the drafting procedure with two of my books already.

The first of them is called “Princess Grace; An Allegorical Tale for Girls”. The book is an allegory about a  Princess named Grace. “She was not born a princess, for this is a role of action she must choose to take.” (quote from chapter one) The way to become a Princess is to be adopted by the King of the land. To be adopted by the King you must allow his one perfect son take the blame for all the wrongs you have committed. After Grace has become a Princess, she must go through training in a cottage. When she has learned all her lessons, she will be able to enter the palace of the King. This is to be the first of a series written expressly for girls called “A Princess in Training Series”. Other characters you will meet include: Faith, Faithless, Upright, Knowledge, Simpleton, Glory and Honor.

The second book is entitled “ The Tale of the Say’s Phoebe” It is a true story about some birds nesting on our front porch that I embellished. The story is in the words of a mother bird relating a tale form her childhood to her young. I added adventure, yet tried to not add anything that would have been impossible in the true circumstances. For instance, one of the baby birds disappeared from the nest for two days. We had no idea where it went. In my story, I had it stranded on the roof. She was rained upon and attacked by a hawk while she was there.

The book I am currently engaged in writing is called, “The Encounter’s of Christopher and Christina Howard”. It is by far the longest. The other two books are just a few chapters long and do not exceed 30 pages. This book has reached 7 chapters and is around 50 pages long! And I am not half way through!

The outline of the book is as follows: The story is set in olden times. Christopher and Christina Howard find an entrance to an old house in their kitchen. In the old house they meet an old broken down woman, whom they bring to the Lord.

There are a few subplots. For example their Father, a merchant is undergoing the loss of his ship and crew. He is stuck in England while his family are living in America. You hear about his trust in God even at the hardest times, through his letters he sends to his family.

In this book I have tried to be very descriptive in some areas. An example is as follows:

“They slowly advanced to the door. Opening it they went inside. It was a dining room. It had a long table with many chairs around it. On it lay an old dusty tablecloth. In the middle of the table was an ancient filthy tray of old shriveled fruit. Once it must have been a beautiful centerpiece, now however it only made the table seem filthier.

“A large hutch stood on one wall, behind whose glass doors was a very dusty china tea set. On the wall to their right was a huge window with dingy lace curtains. Cobwebs hung in the corners of the room from floor to ceiling like a thick veil.”

I have so many books to finish after this one that I think I have enough to keep me busy for at least a full year! One of them is about my life, beginning when I was eight years old. It includes such events as the birth of my sisters, the death of my grandmother, lessons I have learned, vacations we have gone on etc… I have not quite reached my 10th birthday and it is already really long! I do not know where I should end it. I also can think of NOTHING to name it! Dear, dear!

My hope and prayer is that all my writings (books, stories, poems, essays, etc…) will first: bring glory and honor and praise to the Lord whom I serve. Secondly, that they will be a blessing to others and thirdly, that I may be able to instruct and encourage young girls. I pray the Lord will use all my writings for His glory.

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” First Corinthians 10:31

Rebekah ~ The Lord’s Daughter