....a gal I went to nursing school with who lost two of her four precious children this weekend in a car accident. Kelli, if you're listening....I cannot imagine the crushing grief of this tragedy. Please let God hold you and carry you through this. He loves you, and I pray the hope of Heaven that comes through the son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you will take root in your heart, in Jesus' name. I'm so sorry for your losses, Kelli. You, your remaining children, and your entire family are in my prayers.
Squirrel (Cheryl Wyatt)
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Sunday, June 26, 2005
JULY PROMPT CONTEST
SQUIRREL'S STORY STARTER FOR JULY:
Write a story scene from a man's point of view, beginning with this sentence:
He never guessed in a million years he'd see her show up at the funeral.
Now, write a follow-up scene from a woman's point of view, using this sentence somewhere:
She knew he'd probably never speak to her again, but she needed closure.
PS: you can use proper names in the place of "he" , "she" , "her", and "him" up there if you want, although sometimes not putting a name down hooks the reader because they want to know who "she" is.
Happy writing! Contest ends 7/20/05 and winner will also be announced by 7/23/05.
Write a story scene from a man's point of view, beginning with this sentence:
He never guessed in a million years he'd see her show up at the funeral.
Now, write a follow-up scene from a woman's point of view, using this sentence somewhere:
She knew he'd probably never speak to her again, but she needed closure.
PS: you can use proper names in the place of "he" , "she" , "her", and "him" up there if you want, although sometimes not putting a name down hooks the reader because they want to know who "she" is.
Happy writing! Contest ends 7/20/05 and winner will also be announced by 7/23/05.
TARA FINALIST!!!!
Another story finaled in the TARA (formerly First Impressions) contest!!!
So here's the tally:
AMBIENT BETRAYAL: First Place Where the Magic Begins 2004
AMBIENT BETRAYAL: Touched by Love finalist 2005
CODE YELLOW: Finalist winning Second Place Heart of the Rockies 2005
COVENANT SEAL: Finalist in the TARA (formerly First Impressions) 2005
SEVEN STRANDS: Short story won Flash Competition-Steeple Hill Message Board 2004
It sure feels a heckuva lot better than coming in DEAD LAST, I'll tell you that much. By the way, if you've never entered a writing contest, you are only a number and not a name so don't worry if you come in last. No one will know it except for you, and possibly an extremely gentle and confidential contest coordinator (who would never, ever tell on you in a million, gazillion years.)
Squirrel
So here's the tally:
AMBIENT BETRAYAL: First Place Where the Magic Begins 2004
AMBIENT BETRAYAL: Touched by Love finalist 2005
CODE YELLOW: Finalist winning Second Place Heart of the Rockies 2005
COVENANT SEAL: Finalist in the TARA (formerly First Impressions) 2005
SEVEN STRANDS: Short story won Flash Competition-Steeple Hill Message Board 2004
It sure feels a heckuva lot better than coming in DEAD LAST, I'll tell you that much. By the way, if you've never entered a writing contest, you are only a number and not a name so don't worry if you come in last. No one will know it except for you, and possibly an extremely gentle and confidential contest coordinator (who would never, ever tell on you in a million, gazillion years.)
Squirrel
WHOOOPS!!!!
Can you guess what I forgot? To post June's Prompt winner yesterday. BIG congrats going out to A. D. for her entry.
I'll post July's prompt shortly so stay tuned and thanks for your patience.
Squirrel
I'll post July's prompt shortly so stay tuned and thanks for your patience.
Squirrel
TO DELETE OR NOT TO DELETE.....
...THAT is the question. Bleck. My favorite scene in a book...and I might have to let it go due to point of view issues. So I'm in mourning over it, but I'm praying for strength to do what needs to be done with it in order to make the story better.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(That was NOT your town's tornado siren...it was me, wailing in agony.)
BUT...(you knew there was going to be a but, didn't you?) every time I've had to endure the pain of letting something go, something much better has returned in it's place. This doesn't only apply in my writing, but in life. Wrong relationships, careers, motivations, goals, even dreams. Some things you give up for God, the rewards of that may not show up until you get to Heaven, but you can rest assured it's there, waiting for you.
BORROWED PRAYERS:
Father, help us to open our hands and release things to You that hinder us. Especially since it's going to hurt a lot worse if You have to pry it from our hands. So what ever it is, help us to relinquish control to You, trusting You know what is best.
VERSE:
He will be used for special purposes, because he is dedicated and useful to his Master, ready to be used for every good deed. 2 Timothy 2:21 TEV
BLUSH AND CRINGE:
Once at work I was chewing a blue pen and about the time I tasted the (permanent) ink, several coworkers gasped, pointing to my face in horror. My entire mouth-- tongue, teeth, gums, lips, EVERYTHING, were stained bright blue for days.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(That was NOT your town's tornado siren...it was me, wailing in agony.)
BUT...(you knew there was going to be a but, didn't you?) every time I've had to endure the pain of letting something go, something much better has returned in it's place. This doesn't only apply in my writing, but in life. Wrong relationships, careers, motivations, goals, even dreams. Some things you give up for God, the rewards of that may not show up until you get to Heaven, but you can rest assured it's there, waiting for you.
BORROWED PRAYERS:
Father, help us to open our hands and release things to You that hinder us. Especially since it's going to hurt a lot worse if You have to pry it from our hands. So what ever it is, help us to relinquish control to You, trusting You know what is best.
VERSE:
He will be used for special purposes, because he is dedicated and useful to his Master, ready to be used for every good deed. 2 Timothy 2:21 TEV
BLUSH AND CRINGE:
Once at work I was chewing a blue pen and about the time I tasted the (permanent) ink, several coworkers gasped, pointing to my face in horror. My entire mouth-- tongue, teeth, gums, lips, EVERYTHING, were stained bright blue for days.
Monday, June 20, 2005
JUNE PROMPT CONTEST OVER
Winner will be announced by June 25th. Thanks to all who entered! July's prompt will be posted this week.
Squirrel
Squirrel
BEWARE OF THE....
BLOG.
Specifically my blog if you're a stickler for typos. I promise, I really DO proofread these things before I hit "send" but I'm one of these people who doesn't proofread well by computer monitor. My advice if you're like me? Print your ms out. Most people tend to pick up more errors by paper than monitor. I recently viewed an author's blog (sorry, can't recall whose it was...it may have even been an editor's blog) that stated, "Edit-free zone." I really like that.
BLUSH AND CRINGE
I am in a writing course where you email your instructor assignments and they send them back critiqued. I was trying to multitask (another thing I don't do well by computer) and I had two different e-mail accounts open. One I was responding to a family member and the other was my instructor. Well, I also had three people IM'ing me, so those three windows were open as well, plus I had a word document open, critiquing for someone.
You can imagine how confused I got.
I was trying to wrap up the email to my family member-who was coming for a visit after just having back surgery and wondered if we had extra sleeping space. I typed in, "you can come stay at my house anytime, you can even sleep in my bed." Then MEANT to type, "Love, Cheryl" but hit send before I looked at the screen. When I looked back up at my monitor, I saw the unfinished email to my family member still staring at me from the screen and realized with a gasp of horror that I had tacked the last sentences (meant for my family member) onto my intructor's (who is a well-known editor in the writing industry) email. Frantic and hyperventillating, I pulled the "sent" message up, and nearly fainted with dread and embarrassment when I realized that not only did I write the wrong message in the wrong email, I must have hit the "r" as I hit the "e", ending my message (to the editor/instructor) "Here's assignment number 26. You can come stay at my house anytime, you can even sleep in my bed. Lover, Cheryl."
Yes. I immediately sent an explanatory email, apoligizing all over myself. He not only got a good chuckle out of it, he sent the message back proofread and edited. LOL!
I know. What a dork I am.
=====================
VERSE
God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. Romans 5:8 NIV
=====================
BORROWED PRAYER
Dear Lord, thank you for sending us your spirit to teach, help and comfort us. Help us to know Him, know you. Help us to bless you as much as You bless us.
=====================
That's all for now.
Lover, Squirrel
**snicker**
I
Specifically my blog if you're a stickler for typos. I promise, I really DO proofread these things before I hit "send" but I'm one of these people who doesn't proofread well by computer monitor. My advice if you're like me? Print your ms out. Most people tend to pick up more errors by paper than monitor. I recently viewed an author's blog (sorry, can't recall whose it was...it may have even been an editor's blog) that stated, "Edit-free zone." I really like that.
BLUSH AND CRINGE
I am in a writing course where you email your instructor assignments and they send them back critiqued. I was trying to multitask (another thing I don't do well by computer) and I had two different e-mail accounts open. One I was responding to a family member and the other was my instructor. Well, I also had three people IM'ing me, so those three windows were open as well, plus I had a word document open, critiquing for someone.
You can imagine how confused I got.
I was trying to wrap up the email to my family member-who was coming for a visit after just having back surgery and wondered if we had extra sleeping space. I typed in, "you can come stay at my house anytime, you can even sleep in my bed." Then MEANT to type, "Love, Cheryl" but hit send before I looked at the screen. When I looked back up at my monitor, I saw the unfinished email to my family member still staring at me from the screen and realized with a gasp of horror that I had tacked the last sentences (meant for my family member) onto my intructor's (who is a well-known editor in the writing industry) email. Frantic and hyperventillating, I pulled the "sent" message up, and nearly fainted with dread and embarrassment when I realized that not only did I write the wrong message in the wrong email, I must have hit the "r" as I hit the "e", ending my message (to the editor/instructor) "Here's assignment number 26. You can come stay at my house anytime, you can even sleep in my bed. Lover, Cheryl."
Yes. I immediately sent an explanatory email, apoligizing all over myself. He not only got a good chuckle out of it, he sent the message back proofread and edited. LOL!
I know. What a dork I am.
=====================
VERSE
God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. Romans 5:8 NIV
=====================
BORROWED PRAYER
Dear Lord, thank you for sending us your spirit to teach, help and comfort us. Help us to know Him, know you. Help us to bless you as much as You bless us.
=====================
That's all for now.
Lover, Squirrel
**snicker**
I
Monday, June 13, 2005
ROMANCING THE.....
Phone.
Pardon me if you're a telemarketer. I'm sure you have issues of rejection having heard, "put me on your no call-back list" hundreds of times. BUT.....I don't call YOU at home and I WISH you'd stop calling me at home.
It never fails. Every ten minutes, the phone rings. I hate it most when I have a family member who is ill, or I know any day some coordinator from some contest is calling finalists and I entered. When I see "Unavailable" or "Unknown" or "Private" on caller ID and he's home, I let my husband answer the phone.
Then I spend the next sixty seconds giggling as he torments the caller.
One time a long distance phone company called (for the THIRD time that day) asking us if we wanted to switch our long distance to them. My husband replies, "No thanks. We don't have a phone." The telemarketer says, "Oh, Okay. I'm sorry to bother you.....wait...if you don't have a phone, how are you talking to me?" Hubby answers, "Give me your name and home number and I'll call you back this evening and tell you." Telemarketer says, "I'm sorry, Sir. I cannot give out my name and number." Husband says, "Well you got mine, didn't you?" Telemarketer: "Click. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ."
That leads me into the BLUSH AND CRINGE
Groggy from napping, phone rings, I answer it without looking at caller ID. I hear a voice asking to speak with me. I automaticially assume the woman is a telemarketer. Now, my brain wakes up thirty minutes after my body, so at this point I sit up, but am not completely coherent. Wanting to go back to sleep and get the rest of my nap in before my kids get home, I interrupt her mid-sentence, saying, "I'm not interested. Please put me on your no-call back list." One second of silence and three muffled giggles later, she informs me she's a contest coordinator, calling to tell me one of my stories finalled in a contest.
=======================
VERSE
"All of my prayers for you are full of praise to God." Phillipians 1:3 TLB
=======================
Speaking of the Living Bible, the man who translated it died this past week.
=======================
BORROWED PRAYERS
Lord, help us to trust you with everything. When things seem out of our control, help us remember you are always in control.
=======================
WRITING TIP:
Begin and end chapters with a hook. (A sentence that will immediatelly draw the reader in, "hooking" them---making them want to read on...and on....and on....)
=======================
That's all for now!
Blessings!
Squirrel
Pardon me if you're a telemarketer. I'm sure you have issues of rejection having heard, "put me on your no call-back list" hundreds of times. BUT.....I don't call YOU at home and I WISH you'd stop calling me at home.
It never fails. Every ten minutes, the phone rings. I hate it most when I have a family member who is ill, or I know any day some coordinator from some contest is calling finalists and I entered. When I see "Unavailable" or "Unknown" or "Private" on caller ID and he's home, I let my husband answer the phone.
Then I spend the next sixty seconds giggling as he torments the caller.
One time a long distance phone company called (for the THIRD time that day) asking us if we wanted to switch our long distance to them. My husband replies, "No thanks. We don't have a phone." The telemarketer says, "Oh, Okay. I'm sorry to bother you.....wait...if you don't have a phone, how are you talking to me?" Hubby answers, "Give me your name and home number and I'll call you back this evening and tell you." Telemarketer says, "I'm sorry, Sir. I cannot give out my name and number." Husband says, "Well you got mine, didn't you?" Telemarketer: "Click. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ."
That leads me into the BLUSH AND CRINGE
Groggy from napping, phone rings, I answer it without looking at caller ID. I hear a voice asking to speak with me. I automaticially assume the woman is a telemarketer. Now, my brain wakes up thirty minutes after my body, so at this point I sit up, but am not completely coherent. Wanting to go back to sleep and get the rest of my nap in before my kids get home, I interrupt her mid-sentence, saying, "I'm not interested. Please put me on your no-call back list." One second of silence and three muffled giggles later, she informs me she's a contest coordinator, calling to tell me one of my stories finalled in a contest.
=======================
VERSE
"All of my prayers for you are full of praise to God." Phillipians 1:3 TLB
=======================
Speaking of the Living Bible, the man who translated it died this past week.
=======================
BORROWED PRAYERS
Lord, help us to trust you with everything. When things seem out of our control, help us remember you are always in control.
=======================
WRITING TIP:
Begin and end chapters with a hook. (A sentence that will immediatelly draw the reader in, "hooking" them---making them want to read on...and on....and on....)
=======================
That's all for now!
Blessings!
Squirrel
Sunday, June 05, 2005
ATTACK OF THE KILLER...
COMMAS.
I've figured out commas are one of the biggest grammatical speedbumps I trip over. I tend to leave too many in the sentence. And speaking of sentences...another weakness I have (I'm sure you've noticed if you know me) is that I write EXACTLY like I talk...so I have tons of way-too-long-complex sentences. I'm working on it. The other thing I'm studying as far as the craft of writing at the moment is about goal, motivation and conflict. If you are a beginning writer (more beginning than me I mean) your fictional characters need to have something driving them (motivation) toward something they want (goal) while creating obsticals (conflict) throughout the story to keep them from attaining that goal.
Even though I always write romantic tales with happy endings, when I write a story I set out to do everything in my power to make the reader think there's no way everything could possibly work out for the good for the hero and heroine, and create such havok that it seems impossible that they'd actually end up together.
See what I mean about my loooooooooooooooooooong sentences?
=========================
BLUSH AND CRINGE
That long sentence up there.
=========================
VERSE
With God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26
(Even Cheryl learning to write short sentences.)
=========================
BORROWED PRAYERS
Lord, help us to commit our works to you. Help us to use the gifts you've given us. Help us to teach others freely.
That's all for now.
Blessings,
Squirrel
I've figured out commas are one of the biggest grammatical speedbumps I trip over. I tend to leave too many in the sentence. And speaking of sentences...another weakness I have (I'm sure you've noticed if you know me) is that I write EXACTLY like I talk...so I have tons of way-too-long-complex sentences. I'm working on it. The other thing I'm studying as far as the craft of writing at the moment is about goal, motivation and conflict. If you are a beginning writer (more beginning than me I mean) your fictional characters need to have something driving them (motivation) toward something they want (goal) while creating obsticals (conflict) throughout the story to keep them from attaining that goal.
Even though I always write romantic tales with happy endings, when I write a story I set out to do everything in my power to make the reader think there's no way everything could possibly work out for the good for the hero and heroine, and create such havok that it seems impossible that they'd actually end up together.
See what I mean about my loooooooooooooooooooong sentences?
=========================
BLUSH AND CRINGE
That long sentence up there.
=========================
VERSE
With God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26
(Even Cheryl learning to write short sentences.)
=========================
BORROWED PRAYERS
Lord, help us to commit our works to you. Help us to use the gifts you've given us. Help us to teach others freely.
That's all for now.
Blessings,
Squirrel
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
