Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts

Saturday, November 3, 2012

What I Do

    Well, now I have two Christian Fantasies on my blog - The Naja Haje Abyss and Desert Spice. I love to write and am currently working on a Christian allegory that may turn into a novel. I haven't decided whether or not to put it on the web.
     I am still waiting to hear from Multnoma Publishing (evangelical division of Random House) about my Gifts for the Road - biblical story about Jesus, Joseph, and Mary's trip to Egypt when Jesus was a baby. It has been over 6 months since they requested to see it, but the agent did say that it could take up to a year before I hear from them. I look at my email daily to see if they have said anything about it. I am not discouraged - just being patient and enjoying my other stories. I must admit, though, that the urge to write often wanes.
     I have truly loved setting up my blog and working on a web site that I am able to do without tech help. It is so simple now days.
     About the decorating - my company name is Flair and Dare. I take what people have and decorate around it. I have been doing this part time over the past 25 years, and have done it mostly with family members and friends. I never believed in charging clients for what I could sell them - most professional designers mark up the goods and make their money that way as well as charging for their time. I think I did not feel like I had enough talent for high-end design as well as education  in that field (I do have some college credits in it). The things I am best at are color and organization....Either way, I love flair and daring rooms by incorporating what people have.
      It has been some time since I actually wrote on my blog and this is fun too. Sometimes I am not sure what I like best, but the one thing I have stuck with since 1984, on an almost daily basis, is taking the first hour of each day to have time with God and study His Word.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Writing

Other Things -
Today I am going to write about WRITING.
For some this may drive you crazy to read about how I work on my books, but for me it is only a short putt. Sometimes I have three books being edited, all open on my desk at the same time. How do I keep things straight, you ask? It’s simple, for each story I keep a list of the characters in the footer. Below is an example of a story I am working on. My books always have lots of characters.

SAMPLE FOOTER OF FICTION CHARACTERS: Sarah of Bethany & her serving girl Anna,& manservant, Gaddi. Crippled Rebecca & Jonathan from Cana, her servants Jochebed and Samson, Bleeding Ruth from Bethsaida, The other prostitute Hannah from Korazin, Zipporah from Sychar in Samaria, and friends in Arimathia. Martha, husband Andrew, Son of Alpheus, son of Zebedee, John, Judas Iscariot, Matthew, Bartholomew, Peter, Philip, Simon, Thaddeus, Thomas Tamar & Ephraim of Nain, Joseph of Arimathia, his wife Dara, Galilee, Nathan of Magdala Mary M’s fiancé, Zilpah,her serving maid., Bezai & mom Hephzibah; Jonas MM head serving man. Cuza, MM servant left to watch the house, Jada, MM servant & Tirzah Jada’s true love., Kishi the old man
IT'S A JUMBLED MESS, I KNOW, BUT I CAN KEEP THE CHARACTERS STRAIGHT.

Why you ask, do I like to work on more than one story at a time? It is because after I write, create a portion of the story, I have to let it sit for a day or two before I go back to it. Often there are many, many rewrites. In the meantime, while I let a story sit or maybe I am just bored with it, I work on another story for awhile.
I write historical fiction, and my stories never have sex scenes or foul language in them. Here are four stories I am working on right now; they are on average 75,000 words. One story is about a young woman in 1931 California, another is about a young business woman in 1902 New York City. A third story is about a family in 1839 England, and a 4th is about the women who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry.
I have one book that is with an agent right now; you can read about that one on my website www.priscillamcdaniel.com .
I haven’t heard back from the agent whether or not she is interested. It takes about 60 to 90 days to hear from an agent once you have sent your material to them. All fiction sent out has to be completed with between 70 to 100 thousand words, which makes up a book of about 300 to 400 pages.
How does one get started on a book? Sit down and start writing#$%^^&**. Make an outline if you need to; sometimes it gives you direction and helps you gather your thoughts. However, the important thing is to START. Write that first sentence, don’t worry about research until you need to know something. The outline comes in handy, when after you have written a few pages, you are stuck. You don’t have to follow the outline, remembering that many stories take on a life of their own, so only use the outline as a guideline.
If you have any questions, please email me at priscillasflair@gmail.