Tag: work

New, Improved, and More to the Core of the Story

On By dotluvs2writeIn blogging, Fiction Writing, Inspirational, Musings, Writing Techniques9 Comments

open book pages

With much deliberation, I will be going the self-publishing route, post professional editing and with the help of my editor in taking this path.  And after receiving some information from a publisher, an idea came to me that I need to revise the blurb for my novel, Passage of Promise, even though it wasn’t mentioned in the publisher’s response. I think it represents the core and meat of my story much better than my previous blurb. Hope you find it intriguing. (UPDATED)

Marina’s relationships have a rocky history, with a controlling mother, distant sister, and a string of lousy boyfriends. In the midst of her troubles, Marina’s family discovers her four-year-old nephew, Christopher, is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Her mother orders her to go to the Greek island of Santorini to retrieve her great-grandmother’s wonder-working icon of Saints Anna and Mary for healing of her nephew. Fearing Christopher’s condition and desiring separation from her family, Marina accepts the trip with little deliberation. But when she reaches the island and the church that houses the icon, she finds it’s been stolen. Marina recruits a high school English teacher vacationing on the island, to help her search for her great-grandmother’s precious heirloom. During the search, she finds something more than the icon.

 

~*~*~*~

 

 

A Writer’s Blessing in a Season of Blessings

On By dotluvs2writeIn Beauty, blogging, Christmas and other Holidays, Fiction Writing, Inspirational, Musings, Religious, Writing Techniques4 Comments

pink glitter wallpaper for walls

A couple of days ago, I received an email response to my query letter emailed to a publisher, re-presenting my novel, Passage of Promise, via a blurb, to them.

I’d sent them a query last year in March, and their editor said it had promise (I know… great pun, but it wasn’t intended, I’m sure :D), and to work on my story and resubmit it later.

This current email requested a synopsis and the first thirty pages of my manuscript. Yea!

I got it out to them the next afternoon, with a LOT of help from my editor (polished my synopsis and formatted my document for the publisher to read). She’s invaluable!

They answered me a couple hours later to confirm they received my attached documents and would get back to me as soon as they could. They also wished me a blessed Nativity. In return I thanked them for this opportunity and wished them the same.

Now, I wait.

A few of my friends I told this to were anxious for me, telling me I must be on “pins and needles” waiting to hear. Actually, I’m quite calm, doing all right.

This whole process… the fact that they wanted to see samples of my work… is a blessing in its own.

I will understand if I don’t hear anything until after the New Year because of the upcoming holidays.

If they respond before the holidays, and my work is accepted, it’ll be the biggest, most exciting Christmas present I’ve gotten in years.

sparkly gold present

This whole process has been surreal and thrilling. Whatever happens, I know my work is worth something. Worth a lot. My writing is a gift from God.

A Season of Blessings. What Joy.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Returning Home

On By dotluvs2writeIn Beauty, blogging, Musings, Past Life ActivitiesLeave a comment

Uhaul truck

Friends, sorry for MIA for the past few weeks. My family is busy in transition.

My husband, Troy, has obtained a new job in the same career field of maintenance and facilities manager/director of a school district, but this job is not in our present town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but in Commerce City, Colorado. This city is on the northeastern outskirts of the Denver area.

Troy drove out Thursday late morning and arrived late Friday afternoon in Colorado Springs, where he’s staying with a friend of ours for the time being until some place else opens up to him until he flies back to collect my sons and me on October 5.

He starts his new job on Monday, August 26.

Around August 15, we gave our landlord the required 60-day notice of leaving the rental house.

So, while he’s out West working and house hunting (and sharing the house walk through experience with me via FaceTime and texting), I’m busy packing up the house, with a little help from my oldest son, Nicholas.

I have to tell you, packing gets really old when you’ve done it at least three times before and watched the packers and movers clear out your various homes via many military moves, as well as the nine or so moves through my childhood and teens via my dad’s military moves. There were a few in between Dad’s retirement and meeting my active-duty husband a few years later.

packing boxes

The thought of packing up those flattened boxes in our cellar and garage once again doesn’t really excite me, but it has to be done. So, last weekend, I started packing and get  an average of three boxes done a day.

The good thing about this move is we’re returning to our favorite state. The state where we wanted to retire years ago but didn’t because the plans changed when hubby decided to go to graduate school in Boston.

In any case, God has granted us the blessing of returning to where we consider HOME. A beautiful place filled with our church family and friends. And the Rocky Mountains that we never get sick of seeing every morning, afternoon, and evening, on our walks, doing errands, going to work, and visiting friends.

Mt Elbert Rocky Mtns Colorado.jpg

Therefore, this explains my absence from my blog lately and explains it for the future chunks of time away due to packing and moving in the coming month.

Have you moved around a lot? Do you have a favorite place or state or country you prefer to live in? Are you a military brat like me?

Hope to be back at blogging when I get the time. After all, I’ve got a manuscript to send to my editor once I’m settled into our new home. 🙂

 

~*~*~*~