Why and how I started writing.

I must begin by saying that I was not one of those people who always wanted to be a writer. I had dabbled in a few stories on no consequence when I was first married, but it never amounted to anything. Then one day after my husband and I watched the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice with Column Firth, I was smitten.
My husband, too, enjoyed the movie very much, especially the subtle English humor and asked me when the movie ended, “What happens after that?” I
I admitted that I didn’t know but went downstairs to my computer, absolutely inspired to make up a story about how the Bennett sisters faired (I eventually changed the story from a J Austin follow up to one of my own). This was in 1998. At the time I was a marketing director with a high profile in the business community in Ventura County, CA. However, my enjoyment with the position I held was beginning to fade. I had done some corporate writing, but I soon found out that it had little to do with writing fiction.
The programs on television never impressed me nor did the stupid commercials; it seemed to be a good reason to stop watching TV altogether. Instead, I thought that perhaps I could write something that was worth watching or reading. Hence, I begin to write every day after work and late into the nights. I loved it and found that it challenged me more than anything I had ever done, with the exception of my Bible studies, which I have done daily since 1984 when I was born again.
Six months later I quit my job so that I could write. Of course, my nasty boss and many of the other employees laughed! Until I retired in 2008 I had various management positions in the retail world and later when my husband and I moved to Sacramento, CA I worked as an office assistant with two different financial institutions.
Writing was so much fun, and I was wholly and completely inspired by the Lord. I know this because the words and ideas just poured from me, beginning at age 54 - someone who never thought of writing a book. I was mesmerized by how difficult it was to make the words in my brain come out on paper in story form.
On my next blog I will tell what my husband thought of my writing abilities.

Just starting

I have renamed this blog and hope to replace it with my website, which is outdated. Currently I am working on my latest book, Gifts for the Road. It is approximately 91,000 words and I have been editing it and proofing it for the last month. I want it to be perfect when I send it out.
It was at one time with an agency, but I was not happy with their progress so I took it back. Since then I have rewritten the beginning and made it more exciting.
Oh! And did you wish to know what it is about- here is a snippet:

Ordered by God to flee from Bethlehem, Mary, Joseph, and fifteen-month old baby Jesus leave town in the dark of the night. They know King Herod has sent his soldiers to kill the baby, but they are unaware they’re being followed by two bungling thieves who are after Joseph for the money from the magi. One thief must choose his destiny—to find salvation or return to his life of crime.

Is it Baby Jesus or an Angel of the Lord who saves the travelers from a lion in one of the caves where they spend the night — helps them escape the soldiers through an underground tunnel leading away from Beersheba into the desert — delivers them from archers and an angry mob of Egyptian priests — saves them from a falling boulder?
Mary’s maidservant and Joseph’s carpenter helper traveling with them must decide whether to marry in Egypt or wait until they return to Bethlehem, all the while being careful not to let their lover for each other overstep the bounds of proprietary. Meet the families that host Joseph and his troupe as they journey from Israel to Asyut and back, via Alexandria, Egypt. Feel the excitement when a wealthy Roman citizen offers safe passage on a Roman cargo ship back to Israel? See the pastoral home where Mary, awaiting the birth of her second child and Joseph gather with family and friends. Inspect Joseph’s carpenter shop as he rebuilds his carpenter business and Jesus prepares to attend the synagogue school.

Alaska, 8-12--8-29 2011

We flew to Anchorage Alaska for 10 days in mid-August. Temperatures were in the low 60’s during the day and in the 50’s at night. We had a busy and fun time staying with our son, who had a great deal to show us during our stay. We arrived on Saturday at 1 in the morning and during the day we saw a bit of down town, ate lunch and shopped. On Sunday after church, we went to the Blueberry festival in Girdwood, 25 miles south of Anchorage. It was too rainy to pick blue berries, but there were plenty of booths with crafts to shop from.
Monday we took a 4 hour train ride to Seward and went to the sea life museum, had a fine lunch and did more shopping, we returned home via train that night. Tuesday my husband and our son played Disc Golf; I stayed home and cooked fresh halibut for dinner. Wednesday we drove past Girdwood another 15 minutes to the Wildlife preserve—my favorite place. Afterwards, we drove another 10 minutes to Whittier which is on the inlet where all the cruise ships dock for travel into Anchorage and other points. To get into Whittier, traffic goes into town one way on the half-hour through a one lane, 2&1/2 mile long tunnel. Leaving town, the traffic goes at the top of the hour. It was interesting.
On Thursday my husband and I went to the Alaskan Heritage Cultural center and saw how the natives used to live. Then we met a MUSHER who breeds his own sled dogs and runs in the Iditarod. He was offering dog-sled rides for $10 – a way for him to raise money. We did not take a ride but purchased a DVD from him where the Discovery channel filmed the 2011 race as it happened. On Friday went to Earthquake park where they said the earthquake shook for 4 minutes in Anchorage and in the outskirts it shook for 15 minutes, unbelievable. After the park, we went out to a great place for dinner and had fresh Alaskan king crab legs...yum lots of fun. Flew home the next day.

Minnesota

The pictures here are of my 7 and a 1/2 week stay in Owatonna, Minnesota with our daughter, Susie, and the grandchildren, Samantha and Jake. THE PICTURES - 4) Me, Susie and granddaughter, Samantha, 3) Grandson, Jake, 2) friend Pam and me at Sat night reunion, 1) Breakfast in Sock City WI with Sandi and Dave on the way to Sharon & Greg's.
My husband, Ed, and I flew there for Jake’s high-school graduation. Then Ed had to return to Sacramento to work. I remained to spend time with Susie and also to attend my 50th high school reunion in Madison, Wisconsin the last week of July.
Susie had an opportunity to participate in a charity affair for Healthy seniors, Dancing with the Stars, in Owatonna. Her partner was Owatonna’s hospital administrator, Dave, who she knows from Rotary. Neither had ever danced much, but they practiced twice a week for 3 month and they won, as they should have. It was quite clear that they were the best in the show.
I had a good time meeting Susie’s friends, dining with them and even hearing a review of my two books. Susie has a book club that meets every other month and for July they chose to review both of my books, Morningside and Crystal Pines. I was very pleased with what the all the ladies in the group had to say. They seemed to like what they read. FYI – the screen play for Crystal Pines is finally finished and in the producer’s hands. I don’t what happens from here, perhaps nothing.
I have another book that is near being ready to send to a publisher. I sent 300 pages to Susie’s so I would have something to edit while there. Now I am making the corrections on my computer here. I brought a small Acer Notebook to Minnesota but did not feel comfortable putting my book on it.
For the reunion I spent the night with three different girlfriends. On Thursday I took the bus from Rochester MN, where Susie works, to La Cross WI where my friend Sandi picked me up to take me to Onalaska where she and her husband have lived for 35 years (this is about a half hour drive from La Cross. Had a wonderful time with Sandi and Dave, gracious hosts, good food and conversation – also played cribbage.
Sandi and Dave drove me to Waunakee, Wisconsin, where I spent the night with my friend, Pam and her highschool sweetheart, husband, Dick. They have a beautiful home in a senior community. We also had a good visit and went to the Friday night reunion party and then out to dinner.
The night of the reunion, I stayed at the Candlewood Suites in Fitchburg, just outside of Madison. The reunion was held there – in attendance were 50 class mates and a total of 90 people. It was great fun. On Sunday I rode with my friend Sharon, and her husband Greg to Trempealeau, Wisconsin, right across the Mississippi River from Winnona, Minnesota. As with my other two friends, Sharon and Greg were delightful hosts and their home was also beautiful—played cribbage and lost.

Writing and editing - . Anyone writing to be rich is in for a diaspopointment. Not that one cannot make a living at it, but how many of us are Mary Higgins Clark or John Gresham---yet that is? I do not read a lot of fiction, because I write fiction, but I did read a historical noval not long ago. It was the life of Nefertti as told in the first person by her sister. I am glad I decided to read it because I was able to get a fresh perspective on writing. As a rule, though, I believe it is too easy to subsconsciously use other peoples pharases in your own writing and think they are your own.
I have been reviewing my latest book, thinking it was ready to go to a publisher. As I began to read over it to make sure there were no errors, I realized it needed a great deal of tightening up. The book had been sitting for several months, and as I read it I remembered the rough spots that I might have left alone if I had not decided to look at it again. Though it is disapointing to realize that my book wasn't nearly as perfect as I thought, It is gratifying to see how much better I can make it before I send if off.
I will try to be more diligent in my blogging, as i am spending June and July in Minnesota with my daughter and should have ample time. I have only my new Acer Notebook with me and it is not really easy to type on the small key board, or on my Notepad, which has no red underlines for spelling errors . Nevertheless,between my spare time and the 600 actual pages of real paper I mailed ahead for editing, I am thrilled that I was able to bring the Notebook with me, which allows me to interact with the internet and my email while I am away from home. Until next tine, Priscilla

Faith Salon

Beauty Shop remodel
A friend of mine who recommended me to her nail salon, which she has been going to for many years, paid me a worthy compliment. She suggested to the owner of the salon that she ask me to help her decorate her new location, because I had a beautiful home and would be good with helping her pick out colors, etc.

I was happy to do it, and as payment, I get my acrylic nails done free. For the salon I picked out large tiles for the floor in colors of earthy greens and we painted the walls in a medium, soft green that picked up one of the colors in the tile. The new shop is very long and narrow and upon entering the first thing your eye catches is the floor. The comments are rife with oohs and ahas by the customers indicating admiration for the new color scheme; many have indicated that they were happy not to see clinical white walls.

We hung a large, scroll framed white clock on the wall for all to see when they walk in. I have to admit that the owner did a beautiful job of picking out the new salon chairs and nail tables. I found great wall hangings from Target and when all the accoutrements were purchased from there and Ross’s (right next door with Target) the owner had spent a total of $400—the salon looks like perfect. I only show the finished pictures.

Books and things

My apologies for not having updated this in sometime. We had company through the holidays and prior to that celebrated our 3oth wedding anniversary. Also, I ran out of decorating ideas to talk about. Instead, I have taken more time for my writing. I had planned to attend the Mt. Herman Christian Writer's Conference in April this year, but found out that the person I wanted to room with was not going until next year.
I was at first disappointed but it has worked out for the good. I am working on two books and decided that I could take this year to make them more worthy. My Gifts for the Road book, about Jesus, Joseph and Mary’s trip to Egypt has been with various agents over the past year and I have had rejections…except for the agency that I removed it from. They were a do nothing agency. In the mean time, I decided to re-read the story and make some significant changes. I restarted the beginning of the book with a little more action, and I think it reads better. I also found a couple of errors that were missed in the beginning of sending the book out. I also changed the ending and improved on it.
My other book, which I wrote 10 years ago, but never really polished, I have completely re-written. I changed the time frame from 1798 England to 1931 California and had a great time doing it. I also needed to make the story twice as long – it was more of a novella. Hence, I have added a great deal to it. It is one of my favorite stories, and now I have a year to really polish it. ‘
I understand that attending a writer’s conference is almost a sure in to getting an agent’s attention, and that is the only reason I am planning to go….UNLESS…an agent accepts one of them before that. I do plan to send the Gifts for the Road book out to more agents. You never know, after all it is in God’s hands and he is in charge. That’s all for now..