Saturday, June 26, 2010

The Pool

It's been finished for a week now. The kids have played in it every day and my youngest has finally learned to swim. Through this adventure, I've thought about two things.

First the process of refinishing the pool from start to finish. Our salesman was fantastic and very knowledgeable - hence the choice of his company over a few others. We signed all the papers and went down to the showroom and picked out our color and our tile. They came and chipped out the old plaster. Then we waited. And waited. A worker showed up one morning to place the tile turtles on the step. This was fine except that I wasn't home and my husband kept sending pictures as I drove. Then we waited and waited some more. We called. They looked into it and I guess there was some confusion about who was installing some anchors. They finally came out and did a blue pebble-sheen finish.

So what does this have to do with writing? It's a long process, from rough draft to polished copy, but in the end we aim to have something wonderful that people will enjoy.


   

The second thing that occurred to me is that sometimes we have to jump in, learn all we can about our craft, trust our mentors (our crit groups, our editors, our agents etc.), have fun, and give it our all. Then, before you know it we are swimming like pros. Jump in and Write On!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Special Olympics

I am fortunate enough to have a daughter with special needs. She is an amazing girl that has blessed our family enormously. Most of us know someone with special needs - and if you don't, I challenge you to volunteer to help at Special Olympics and get to know these great people.

Clearly this is a cause that is dear to my heart and I was so impressed when my cousin Lauren decided to get involved. She is raising money for Special Olympics in Utah.  Special Olympics Utah is a non-profit organization that receives no local, state, or federal government or United Way support. They rely on donations of time and money to provide these great programs.

Please click here to learn more and join me in supporting Lauren and Special Olympics Utah.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Copyrights and TM

Copyright laws. It all depends on the question. Rather than try to cover everything there is about copyrights - which has already been done, I am going to list some of the resources I found in researching copyright laws.
Government website
Get copyright permissions HERE
Using trademarks in fiction - a publishing and intellectual property attorney's point of view
More trademarks in fiction - from a publishing company point of view
chart of copyright terms and public domain in the US
An easy to use site with tons of links and resources.

Remember, citing a source is not "permission" to use someone else's work. Good luck and write on!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

More Heroines

Yesterday started with me dropping my oldest daughter off for a week long youth conference. She is beautiful and amazing and by far the most persistent person I know. She going to have a great week.

Then I had lunch with a dear friend whom I met at the LDStorymakers Conference in April. She is such an inspiration. I truly believe that God puts people in our path from whom we can learn. Connie is one of those people for me. It's a little (OK, a lot) unfair - it's as if I am feasting at this great banquet and all I've provided is the cheese plate. I've started her LifeChange Program - a simple way to set goals and make simple but effective changes in your life - love it! I am currently listening to her Get Organized CD (yes, I need to get organized!) So, you can see, I am nibbling on this fabulous table of goodies thanks to her.

After a long and wonderful lunch, I went to see my best friend from high school. It had been way, WAY, too long since we'd gotten together (like 10 years). How does that happen? I guess it doesn't help that we live in different states - about 11 hours by car from each other. But still. I should be better at the keeping in touch thing, after all, she's another amazing person in my life - and I love her! She's had to face some incredible trials throughout her life.

But what does this have to do with writing you ask? Well, creating characters in our books that are believable and real sometimes comes as a challenge. What kind of attributes do I want my protagonist to have? These ladies are my heroes and the strength of their amazing character is a great example of the kind of women I want to write about. They have profound faith and true courage. Even when the pain blurs minute into minute and day into day, they reach deep inside, lean on the Lord - God is an integral part of their lives - and work through it. Thank you my friends for your friendship and your example and for being women of God.

Book Sale!

Need some sweet romance to sigh your way through the holidays? Here you go: Merry Christmas and happy wishes for however you celebrate!