My Current Work In ProgressROUGH DRAFT/"BEEFED UP" WORD COUNT AS OF August 9, 2009: 54,208
"Beefed up" rough draft is done! Second read-through/edit to watch for flow, repetition, lawsuit, etc., issues to begin August 10.
At the present, I am working on a non-fiction book with the working title
Ailing Body, Nourished Soul. It is a book about how God has prepared, provided for, and protected my family through my husband Marc's major health issues. The first chapter of this book received highly commended/second place in the Faithwriters' Page Turner first chapter contest in November 2008.
Since maybe a few months after my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor in August of 2003, I have felt God prodding me (sometimes softly, sometimes not so softly) to write a book about what we have experienced. I first wrote about it in November of 2006, as a Faithwriters Challenge entry, which I titled
Proof My Husband Has A Brain. (The title, by the way, came from a running joke between my husband and me) It was around this time that I started working on putting this book together.
It wasn't until a year or so ago, however, that I decided I needed to revamp my approach to the book. I needed to do more than share what we had been through. I needed to apply my lessons to the lives of my readers, and draw them closer to God. I worked out my format mostly through the writing challenge. (
In Love and Desperation,
Litter Box Ministry, and
Doctorese-English Dictionary are three "chapter-like" entries I wrote for the challenge last year) Each chapter will begin with a scripture, include a first person account of God's work in our lives, whether it was before, during, or after the "trial itself, and will close with a list of relevant questions and a prayer.
I finished writing the rough draft of this book in March, and the first run-through of polishing and editing was finished in August. I have at least two more "go-throughs" before I'm ready to hand it off to a professional. I have a deadline of sorts, as my Page Turner prize is half-priced editing from Finesse Editing Services, and I have decided I need to have it "professional edit ready" to Deb (aka Mrs. Finesse) before the end of the year. So I need to keep plugging on. :)
On The Back BurnerFirstly, I want to mention that two years ago I had, for the most part, NOTHING on the back burner. I was convinced that I could NEVER sustain a story long enough to actually write a novel. And though I'm still not sure I can, I have been motivated to at least try, soon, to write a fictional novel. So, I currently have ideas (and small "portions" written) for three novels.
- A Biblical fiction novel about the Old Testament character Michal, son of King Saul and King David's first wife. This will likely be next on my list, as it's been thought out the most, and continually draws me back to it. I have written four challenge entries that could end up being parts of this book: Smile, Preparation, Strategy, and Fleeting Respite.
- An historical fiction novel about two girls: one wealthy with in-house slaves, and the other one of those slaves. The idea for this came from one of my early challenge entries, and when I reread it, I decided the characters wanted some more "page time," so to speak. The original entry, A Look of Hope, was in the writing challenge as well as in Faithwriters Magazine.
- An historical fiction novel about Annie Moore, the very first person to be processed through Ellis Island Immigration Station. I stumbled upon her story when I was looking for something to write about for the USA topic at Faithwriters. I wrote a very small smidgen of her story as a challenge article, called New (I got 10th place for it!), but the whole story is even more fascinating. Check out this webpage for just some of what fascinated me, and this one for some recent developments.
I also have one OTHER project I need to get to at some point. About two years ago, I wrote a children's story for the writing challenge called
Flitter's Foggy Day that I REALLY need to polish up and send to a publisher. Many, many people have said it begs to be illustrated, and I feel called to at least give it a try with a few traditional publishers. I've done some work on it already, but still have some to go. I just got this critiqued at the Faithwriters' Conference by the illustrious Deb Porter, and have some more ideas for this - including possibly creating a whole series of books like it.
So, there's more information than you could possibly want on the "books in my head." I hope you check out the links! I'll update this as I have more information.
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