The Wild Rose Press Announces the Easter Lilies Short Story Contest, sponsored by the White Rose inspirational line. We invite you to enter for your chance to win one of three publication slots.
Rules for Entry:
The defining Scripture is Solomon 2:2 "Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens."
Stories should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words. Authors may enter more than one story, but each should be original and never-before-published. Current TWRP authors are eligible to enter.
You may incorporate both the hero's and heroine's points of view, however, as the Scripture is a man speaking of his lady, ideally, these stories should focus on your hero's love developing for his heroine. These stories may be historical or contemporary, but they must be set around the Easter holiday.
In addition to using this Scripture as the reference, some symbol of the Easter Lily must also be incorporated. Easter lilies have long been a symbol of purity, motherhood, the trumpet herald of the Angel Gabriel as he visited the Virgin Mary, of resurrection, and more. (Feel free to research and use different symbols. These are listed as example only).
How you incorporate any of the symbols is up to you. Whether it's an actual flower that the hero gives to the heroine (or vice versa), or a piece of jewelry, or a spiritual experience. The use is up to you. Perhaps your hero is a Christian musician who plays the trumpet. Perhaps your heroine has lily earrings that have been passed through her family. Perhaps your hero had a "resurrection" of his faith through some experience past or present, or maybe your heroine is a mother. How you incorporate the Easter lily symbolism is up to you. It can be subtle or overt, but it has to be there.
Three stories will be chosen, and winners will receive a publishing contract from The Wild Rose Press. Stories will be released in electronic format one per day on the three days preceding Easter 2009.
Entries must be received via email on or before July 1, 2008. Winners will be announced no later than November 7, 2008.
The subject line of all entries must read: TWRP Easter Lilies: [title of entry] [last name of author]
Entries that do not have this subject line will be disqualified and deleted.
In the body of the email include:
Title:
Author Name (and pseudonym, if applicable):
One-word description of symbolism used: (eg. "trumpet" "resurrection" "purity" "herald")
Your story should be typed in standard manuscript format and be attached to your entry email as a Word .doc or .rtf file.
Entitle your entry file: TWRP_EL_[name of story]
Send entries to: NMartinez@thewildrosepress...com
You will receive a receipt confirmation email in return.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Don't mess with me; I'm a lawyer.
That line in HOOK always cracks me up. In fact, if you're looking for some relatively clean insults, the food scene in the movie is the place to find them.
Anyhoo....
While I don't agree with everyone's views, I live in a country where we have the right according to the First Amendment to free speech. So it chaps my hide when people try to silence dissenting views.
I don't at all support abortion, homosexuality, global warming, universal health care, or giving a free pass to illegal aliens/immigrants. But if you want to vocalize your support, then you'd better shut up and allow me to speak. Respect is a two-way street.
Yet it amazes me the number of people who don't want to hear opposing views. Don't preach tolerance to me then be intolerant of my view. What amazes me even more is Christian folks who don't want to hear dissenting views. During my childhood, Mom used to often say, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."
How tolerant of her.
Looking back, I can see what Mom was really trying to teach me is that I shouldn't be so complainy, critical, and negative. And there is a point when criticism becomes negative and damaging, but don't throw out the criticiscm baby with the bathwater. Complaints and criticism can be used to turn things for the better. If you don't complain about poor service, then poor service will continue. If your meal was awful, don't lie and say it was great. Be honest (and gracious) when you explain that salmon tends to taste better when it's fully cooked.
Anyhoooo.....
Over on one of my writer loops, chatter has been going on about what books we like to read. Some have expressed dislike over particular genres or writing styles. I don't always read every thread, but this one has been interesting. See my comments on yesterday's blog.
Well, sure enough a person or two got a little offended by the posts about what books or writing styles aren't liked. In the words of the great prophet of my generation, Mr. Rodney King, "Why can't we all just get along?"
Maybe it's because we're human and we live in a fallen world. But that's a whole 'nutter blog post.
One gal in her well-written post said this in response to the "let's not criticize other genres."
>> 2. It is exposing some failings in Christian fiction and hopefully,
>> challenging me...us to do better. I believe that Christian fiction
>> should be excellent because we are all gifted by an excellent God.
Well said.
Knowing me as well as I do, I just had to respond...to the "let's all just get along" post.
Christian fiction should be excellent. Us refusing to buy and read poor quality Christian fiction should challenge authors and publishers to put out a higher quality. But we also live in a supply-and-demand economy. What the market buys is what the market will sell--good or bad quality.
Bashing a genre isn't the same as saying "I don't like xxx-type books."
Bashing a genre is listing reasons after reasons after reasons why a particular genre is a waste of publishing dollar, and I haven't read a single e-mail on this topic that has bashed a genre. Plus if anyone did bash a genre (in the true sense of bash), then that person would be avoided, shunned, blacklisted...although no one would admit to doing it. You disagree with me so I'm not letting you in my circle.
Expressing our likes and dislikes and reading about others' likes and dislikes should get us AS WRITERS to think about what readers are interested in reading. It should also challenge us to write BETTER. If person after person mentions 20-page long prologues as being a dislike, then perhaps we should reconsider our 20-page prologue. BTW, I read Brandilynn Collins's blog on prologues. Very enlightening!
But agreeing (or in particular, not disagreeing) and only limiting comments to positive things makes us a nice stream of lemmings. No, sheep is a better metaphor. According to Wikepedia, "Due to their association with this odd behaviour, lemming suicide is a frequently-used metaphor in reference to people who go along unquestioningly with popular opinion, with potentially dangerous or fatal consequences."
"I have seen great intolerance shown in support of tolerance." Samuel
Taylor Coleridge
We can disagree without becoming disagreeable. But to say no one should vocalize his/her disagreement or dislike of a particular genre or writing style is...well, intolerant. What are we afraid of when we suggest differing views be silenced? Should not dissenting views be considered the whetsone to make us sharper in our beliefs and convictions?
"So I will play the part of a whetstone which can make steel sharp, though it has no power itself of cutting." ~Horace
Anyhoo....
While I don't agree with everyone's views, I live in a country where we have the right according to the First Amendment to free speech. So it chaps my hide when people try to silence dissenting views.
I don't at all support abortion, homosexuality, global warming, universal health care, or giving a free pass to illegal aliens/immigrants. But if you want to vocalize your support, then you'd better shut up and allow me to speak. Respect is a two-way street.
Yet it amazes me the number of people who don't want to hear opposing views. Don't preach tolerance to me then be intolerant of my view. What amazes me even more is Christian folks who don't want to hear dissenting views. During my childhood, Mom used to often say, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."
How tolerant of her.
Looking back, I can see what Mom was really trying to teach me is that I shouldn't be so complainy, critical, and negative. And there is a point when criticism becomes negative and damaging, but don't throw out the criticiscm baby with the bathwater. Complaints and criticism can be used to turn things for the better. If you don't complain about poor service, then poor service will continue. If your meal was awful, don't lie and say it was great. Be honest (and gracious) when you explain that salmon tends to taste better when it's fully cooked.
Anyhoooo.....
Over on one of my writer loops, chatter has been going on about what books we like to read. Some have expressed dislike over particular genres or writing styles. I don't always read every thread, but this one has been interesting. See my comments on yesterday's blog.
Well, sure enough a person or two got a little offended by the posts about what books or writing styles aren't liked. In the words of the great prophet of my generation, Mr. Rodney King, "Why can't we all just get along?"
Maybe it's because we're human and we live in a fallen world. But that's a whole 'nutter blog post.
One gal in her well-written post said this in response to the "let's not criticize other genres."
>> 2. It is exposing some failings in Christian fiction and hopefully,
>> challenging me...us to do better. I believe that Christian fiction
>> should be excellent because we are all gifted by an excellent God.
Well said.
Knowing me as well as I do, I just had to respond...to the "let's all just get along" post.
Christian fiction should be excellent. Us refusing to buy and read poor quality Christian fiction should challenge authors and publishers to put out a higher quality. But we also live in a supply-and-demand economy. What the market buys is what the market will sell--good or bad quality.
Bashing a genre isn't the same as saying "I don't like xxx-type books."
Bashing a genre is listing reasons after reasons after reasons why a particular genre is a waste of publishing dollar, and I haven't read a single e-mail on this topic that has bashed a genre. Plus if anyone did bash a genre (in the true sense of bash), then that person would be avoided, shunned, blacklisted...although no one would admit to doing it. You disagree with me so I'm not letting you in my circle.
Expressing our likes and dislikes and reading about others' likes and dislikes should get us AS WRITERS to think about what readers are interested in reading. It should also challenge us to write BETTER. If person after person mentions 20-page long prologues as being a dislike, then perhaps we should reconsider our 20-page prologue. BTW, I read Brandilynn Collins's blog on prologues. Very enlightening!
But agreeing (or in particular, not disagreeing) and only limiting comments to positive things makes us a nice stream of lemmings. No, sheep is a better metaphor. According to Wikepedia, "Due to their association with this odd behaviour, lemming suicide is a frequently-used metaphor in reference to people who go along unquestioningly with popular opinion, with potentially dangerous or fatal consequences."
"I have seen great intolerance shown in support of tolerance." Samuel
Taylor Coleridge
We can disagree without becoming disagreeable. But to say no one should vocalize his/her disagreement or dislike of a particular genre or writing style is...well, intolerant. What are we afraid of when we suggest differing views be silenced? Should not dissenting views be considered the whetsone to make us sharper in our beliefs and convictions?
"So I will play the part of a whetstone which can make steel sharp, though it has no power itself of cutting." ~Horace
Dirty mouth? Clean it up!
Over at Seekerville blog, one gal told about her mouse nightmare. And that got me to thinking about my nightmare this morning. Here's my response:
~*~
[Last night a] gal on the ACFW loop asked about profanity in CBA novels. So we got to chatting and I mentioned how even "geeze louise" and "for goodness sake" could offend readers. I mentioned a few other not-really-curse-words-but-some-consider-them-to-be and added I was okay reading the h-word and the d-word, but beyond that, you're irritating me.
I dreamt last night one of the deacons from my church called and left a message on my answering machine, which just so happens to be next to my bed, saying several churchmembers were upset about my blog on profanity and the deacons needed to have a chat with me.
So two guys came over to my house while I was in the middle of pruning my neighbors overgrown azaelas. I left my son to clean up my mess as my neighbor watched (he'd given me excellent advice on pruning). The deacons then rambled on about my profanity blog and even though I wasn't promoting profanity, that I'd blogged about what words I thought were cursing and not was enough that I'd have to go before the deacon board and apologize before going before the church and apologizng.
I think I said something like, "Are you nutso?"
He didn't look too pleased with my response.
So I translated because clearly English wasn't his first language. "Are you stupid, anal, or just wacked out of your idiotic mind?"
He told me if I didn't apologize, I'd be excommunicated. Do people excommunicate from a Southern Baptist church?
Anyhooo, when I woke up, I saw a blinking message light on my machine. Was it all a dream or was the answering machine message real and my half-asleep mind fabricated the rest?
The phone rang and I almost screamed. I've never been so nervous to answer the phone. It was hubby. His mom had send an e-mail about a cute baby contest where the winner each month wins $2500, which hubby said could pay for me to go to ACFW nationals or RWA. I'd just need to get all my friends to vote for my cute baby.
So then I ran to the computer to see what I'd blogged about last.
Whew!
No profanity.
I washed my mouth out anyway.
~*~
[Last night a] gal on the ACFW loop asked about profanity in CBA novels. So we got to chatting and I mentioned how even "geeze louise" and "for goodness sake" could offend readers. I mentioned a few other not-really-curse-words-but-some-consider-them-to-be and added I was okay reading the h-word and the d-word, but beyond that, you're irritating me.
I dreamt last night one of the deacons from my church called and left a message on my answering machine, which just so happens to be next to my bed, saying several churchmembers were upset about my blog on profanity and the deacons needed to have a chat with me.
So two guys came over to my house while I was in the middle of pruning my neighbors overgrown azaelas. I left my son to clean up my mess as my neighbor watched (he'd given me excellent advice on pruning). The deacons then rambled on about my profanity blog and even though I wasn't promoting profanity, that I'd blogged about what words I thought were cursing and not was enough that I'd have to go before the deacon board and apologize before going before the church and apologizng.
I think I said something like, "Are you nutso?"
He didn't look too pleased with my response.
So I translated because clearly English wasn't his first language. "Are you stupid, anal, or just wacked out of your idiotic mind?"
He told me if I didn't apologize, I'd be excommunicated. Do people excommunicate from a Southern Baptist church?
Anyhooo, when I woke up, I saw a blinking message light on my machine. Was it all a dream or was the answering machine message real and my half-asleep mind fabricated the rest?
The phone rang and I almost screamed. I've never been so nervous to answer the phone. It was hubby. His mom had send an e-mail about a cute baby contest where the winner each month wins $2500, which hubby said could pay for me to go to ACFW nationals or RWA. I'd just need to get all my friends to vote for my cute baby.
So then I ran to the computer to see what I'd blogged about last.
Whew!
No profanity.
I washed my mouth out anyway.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
What do you want to read?
Between my kids, hubby, and the Touched by Love contest, I've been distracted from blogging. But over on the ACFW loop, some chatting has been going on about "what do you want to read?" so I thought I'd share because I know you all WANT to know what I want to read. And I don't blame you.
Oh, and I changed the subject line for my post. :-) Author's perogative.
~*~
What doN'T you want to read ANYMORE?
Please, no more inspirational historical romance (IHR) with 20 page prologues. Change the font size to normal instead of large print, and that's still a 15 pager. We get that the hero loved his wife, she died, and now he blames God. See, you could have summmed that up in one line. And no more first chapters that are 95% the heroine's introspection. Reading that in two published inspy romances (2000, 2007) in the last week was disheartening to say the least.
Please, no more IHRs with oodles and oodles of historical blunders.
Please, no more reactive heroes and heroines. I want to read about lead characters who have individual story goals that exist prior to the badguy coming to kill them or Auntie Sue's arrival with the ten orphans, six of which who still aren't potty-trained and one who eats boogers (and she's the only girl).
Please, no more Amish stories.
!!!!! What I want to read...well, that's an entire cheesecake. And I absolutely love cheesecake. !!!!!
I want to read MEDIEVALS that don't sound medieval. If I want to read Chaucer, I'd read Chaucer. Call me crazy, but I think medieval folk knew how to laugh and how to worship the Lord Almighty. Faith didn't end with Emp. Constantine and begin again with the Protestant Reformation. And I don't want to have to have a master's degree in history to read the story. Can we say "historical chick-lit"?
I want to read NON-US-SET-HISTORICALS because, contrary to what us Americans believe, there is a world outside the US. Christianity is not limited to inside the US borders.
I want to read ROMANCES that I don't have to wonder why the hero and heroine are confessing their love ten pages from the end of the novel because I never even could tell they were attracted to each other. Sexual tension doesn't have to be graphic (and certainly not erotic) to exist. When a man becomes a Christian, he doesn't become a eunach.
I want to read STORIES that focus more on QUALITY entertainment than on being edgy or on being sanitized. You can skip the edge and still be a cheesy inspy. You can have the edge and still be a cheesy inspy. And when it's all sanitized...zzzzzzzzzzz. Classifying your novel as edgy doesn't make it any better than a novel that isn't and vice versa.
Why is it we focus more on a tag than on craft?
"Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar, in point of style." ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Oh, and I changed the subject line for my post. :-) Author's perogative.
~*~
What doN'T you want to read ANYMORE?
Please, no more inspirational historical romance (IHR) with 20 page prologues. Change the font size to normal instead of large print, and that's still a 15 pager. We get that the hero loved his wife, she died, and now he blames God. See, you could have summmed that up in one line. And no more first chapters that are 95% the heroine's introspection. Reading that in two published inspy romances (2000, 2007) in the last week was disheartening to say the least.
Please, no more IHRs with oodles and oodles of historical blunders.
Please, no more reactive heroes and heroines. I want to read about lead characters who have individual story goals that exist prior to the badguy coming to kill them or Auntie Sue's arrival with the ten orphans, six of which who still aren't potty-trained and one who eats boogers (and she's the only girl).
Please, no more Amish stories.
!!!!! What I want to read...well, that's an entire cheesecake. And I absolutely love cheesecake. !!!!!
I want to read MEDIEVALS that don't sound medieval. If I want to read Chaucer, I'd read Chaucer. Call me crazy, but I think medieval folk knew how to laugh and how to worship the Lord Almighty. Faith didn't end with Emp. Constantine and begin again with the Protestant Reformation. And I don't want to have to have a master's degree in history to read the story. Can we say "historical chick-lit"?
I want to read NON-US-SET-HISTORICALS because, contrary to what us Americans believe, there is a world outside the US. Christianity is not limited to inside the US borders.
I want to read ROMANCES that I don't have to wonder why the hero and heroine are confessing their love ten pages from the end of the novel because I never even could tell they were attracted to each other. Sexual tension doesn't have to be graphic (and certainly not erotic) to exist. When a man becomes a Christian, he doesn't become a eunach.
I want to read STORIES that focus more on QUALITY entertainment than on being edgy or on being sanitized. You can skip the edge and still be a cheesy inspy. You can have the edge and still be a cheesy inspy. And when it's all sanitized...zzzzzzzzzzz. Classifying your novel as edgy doesn't make it any better than a novel that isn't and vice versa.
Why is it we focus more on a tag than on craft?
"Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar, in point of style." ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Oh, to be One again...
Being the fantabulous mom I am, since it was spring break last week, I took the four chitlins I had at home (Jerah10, Jadan8, Rhyinn4, Niley1) to the library.
All but Niley found some books to check out.
She thought the library was an all you can eat buffet.
We wisely stuck the book back before the librairian noticed. Of course, while checking out the books, we realized we shouldn't have left Niley on the floor to walk around. Umm, I won't mention the number of New Releases she pulled off the shelf. We stuck the books back. No, we didn't ensure they were alphabetized. Sometimes alphabetization is over-rated.
On a side note, the other day I was listening to the top twenty christian music countdown. Casting Crowns had two songs on the chart. Is is just me who thinks East is From the West sounds just like Everyday Man? Call me crazy, but I think the band is over-rated. I can understand having a few songs that sound alike but when it's song after song after song after song...
David Crowder Band is under-rated. So is Fee. Totally wrong. Those guys deserves their props and more.
Anyhoo...
After leaving the library with our books in bag (RWA National Conference 2007 bag, to be exact), we drove down the road to the get our treats. Jerah and Jadan decided they wanted a Frappachino, so we went to Starbucks first. Venti Caramel Frap split in thirds, please.
I didn't even have my straw unsheathed when Niley started freaking out. You'd have thought the baby was dying of thirst. She all but ripped the cup outta my hand. By the time we made it to Brewster's Ice Cream (300 yards or so away), she'd finished half the drink.
That's just wrong.
Well, not that a baby was drinking a frappachino. But that the baby was drinking MY frappachino. I might have had four sips. And most of that was whipped cream.
So totally wrong.
Now Rhyinn decided she wanted ice cream instead of a frappachino. She ordered a kid's mud sundae. Since Niley was under the 40" height limit, she got a free icecream. Orange sherbert, please.
I didnt' even have my change in my purse when the baby started freaking out. You'd have thought the critter was starving to death. She all but grabbed the cone from my hand and then proceeded to jam the icecream in her mouth. She looked like a baby with orange rabies foam.
Like I said.
I'm a fantabulous mom.
Next time I'm going to Starbucks alone.
All but Niley found some books to check out.
She thought the library was an all you can eat buffet.
We wisely stuck the book back before the librairian noticed. Of course, while checking out the books, we realized we shouldn't have left Niley on the floor to walk around. Umm, I won't mention the number of New Releases she pulled off the shelf. We stuck the books back. No, we didn't ensure they were alphabetized. Sometimes alphabetization is over-rated.
On a side note, the other day I was listening to the top twenty christian music countdown. Casting Crowns had two songs on the chart. Is is just me who thinks East is From the West sounds just like Everyday Man? Call me crazy, but I think the band is over-rated. I can understand having a few songs that sound alike but when it's song after song after song after song...
David Crowder Band is under-rated. So is Fee. Totally wrong. Those guys deserves their props and more.
Anyhoo...
After leaving the library with our books in bag (RWA National Conference 2007 bag, to be exact), we drove down the road to the get our treats. Jerah and Jadan decided they wanted a Frappachino, so we went to Starbucks first. Venti Caramel Frap split in thirds, please.
I didn't even have my straw unsheathed when Niley started freaking out. You'd have thought the baby was dying of thirst. She all but ripped the cup outta my hand. By the time we made it to Brewster's Ice Cream (300 yards or so away), she'd finished half the drink.
That's just wrong.
Well, not that a baby was drinking a frappachino. But that the baby was drinking MY frappachino. I might have had four sips. And most of that was whipped cream.
So totally wrong.
Now Rhyinn decided she wanted ice cream instead of a frappachino. She ordered a kid's mud sundae. Since Niley was under the 40" height limit, she got a free icecream. Orange sherbert, please.
I didnt' even have my change in my purse when the baby started freaking out. You'd have thought the critter was starving to death. She all but grabbed the cone from my hand and then proceeded to jam the icecream in her mouth. She looked like a baby with orange rabies foam.
Like I said.
I'm a fantabulous mom.
Next time I'm going to Starbucks alone.
Here Comes Harry!!!
What?!
Well, I too was wondering who Harry was?is?willbe?
Monday and Tuesday, March 31 and April 1, Harrison McLeod, the man behind the scenes at _Men with Pens_ (http://www.menwithpens.ca/) will be in _Seekerville_ (http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/) for a two part series on building your fiction business. The topic is blogs-- “More than Words-Fiction Writing Meets Technology’. Join us as Harry, a writer, illustrator and web designer, shares how to go pro. Are you ready to ride with the big boys? We will be
drawing names for a virtual ride on Harry’s Honda VTX 1800RS.
Well, I too was wondering who Harry was?is?willbe?
Monday and Tuesday, March 31 and April 1, Harrison McLeod, the man behind the scenes at _Men with Pens_ (http://www.menwithpens.ca/) will be in _Seekerville_ (http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/) for a two part series on building your fiction business. The topic is blogs-- “More than Words-Fiction Writing Meets Technology’. Join us as Harry, a writer, illustrator and web designer, shares how to go pro. Are you ready to ride with the big boys? We will be
drawing names for a virtual ride on Harry’s Honda VTX 1800RS.
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