To Send or not to send...that is the question...

Hello folks.

What's new with you?

Here's what's new with me:

I am about 130 pages into my new WIP. YEEEEEEEEEEEE! I started it in December but have been hammering on it this month. Now, of course we're talking rough draft here. I write fast but the editing takes a little longer. I try to proofread for grammar, spelling and punctuation errors as I go, but for craft mistakes, I comb the tangles out (my term for self-editing) in layers.

Speaking of editing, I just found out the girl (Hi Jessica!!!, Squirrel waves frantically) who does childcare for the prayer group that meets in my home is not only an awesome babysitter, she's also a copy editor for the biggest newspaper in our area. YEEEEE!

So many people have been willing to help. Another woman from church (Hi Trish!!!!! I'm sending CY, promise!!!) helped proofread and critique my pitch and synopsis plus first page. She write a humor column (reminds me of the late Erma Bombeck, only better) for another small town paper around here and she called my stuff "gritty." (Can you see my cheezy grin right now?) Thanks Trish!!!!

Plus, it helps that my M.I.L. did proofreading for a living in college and has been an elementary school teacher for.....gobs and gobs of years.

Moving on.....

I'm adding some new features to my blog and on behalf of Camy, my sight has a new look.
I've gone from black to.....well...bright pink....LOL.

New features:

I'm going to add a "Writing Tip of the Day" for all you writerly types.
I'm going to add a "Blush and Cringe" section. You'll not want to miss that. I'm going to actually admit something really, really embarrassing about myself each entry. Feel free to send me entries and I'll add yours to the mix for the world to read, too. HA-HA! No?

Chicken. Fine...let's move on...Since God is the love of my life, and the most important thing and the reason I exist, I will be adding a "Borrowed Prayers" paragraph. I'll post a prayer that you can "borrow" and use as your own in case you're going through a dry spot in your relationship with God, or are still seeking.

Verse of the day: Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, plans to give you a future and a hope." NLB The New Open Bible

BLUSH AND CRINGE
Did you know when I started writing seriously a year ago (novels) that I didn't even know what the term "manuscript" was? AAAAAND, since this is a new section, I'll post a second embarrassing thing: Another thing I did a year ago was place my periods and commas OUTSIDE of the quotation marks instead of inside. I also ALWAYS used periods instead of commas. Like this: "Hi." Squirrel said. Instead of "Hi," Squirrel said. LOL!!! Thanks to Mae Hanna (another proofreader who had the daunting task of reading through the entire story, first one I ever wrote. Poor Mae, I don't know how she survived it, honestly.)

Writing Tip for beginners:
Do a search and destroy...er...find of words that end in "ly" (Nevermind that I've used about twenty of them in my blog today. Grin.)
Those kind of adverbs are generally a No-No in polular fiction today.
This forces you to find stronger verbs.
Example: She leaned lazily in her chair. (Bad)
She slouched. (good)
Get it?

BORROWED PRAYERS
Dear God,
Make Yourself real to me. Show me who You really are. And show me who I am to You.

Squirrel must skitter away now. Until next time....

Bye.