by Mary Ellis #1: Schedule your time carefully. Make a weekly calendar so you don’t miss a doctor’s appointment, dance recital, or the neighborhood cookout. Keep certain times “off limits”. Don’t sign up for meetings, exercise classes, or volunteer work if it interferes with the family dinner hour, Sunday morning church services, or other events you hold sacred. Make sure …
ACFW Volunteer Spotlight
Regina Jennings is the Oklahoma Area Coordinator. She volunteers her time to welcome new members, assemble and keep track of monthly reports for our state, and supports both the OKC and Tulsa chapters with whatever they need. She does a great job keeping things running smoothly for Oklahoma! I appreciate what Regina does for the members in Oklahoma but also …
Ten Tips for Effective Research Trips Part 2
by Vickie McDonough Yesterday day we touched on the first five tips for Effective Research Trips, and today, I’d like to continue our conversation with the final five hints. If you missed those, check yesterday’s blog post. 6. Talk to the locals. They love to chat about their town and its history. Ask them questions and ask if they can …
Ten Tips for Effective Research Trips Part 1
by Vickie McDonough I’ve just returned from my first cruise to the Caribbean. I never dreamed a sunset could be so beautiful or the color of the water so vivid. There was such an amazing difference in the houses of the poor, made from tin or only partially built with people still living in them to the lavish mansions of …
YOU. THE WRITER
By Tina Radcliffe Today I’m presenting a helpful guide to assist you with assimilating with the rest of the world. I understand that occasionally writers go out into the world and mingle with non writers. (But I don’t recommend it.) I suggest you print this helpful guide to understanding writers and share it with your non-writer friends, relatives and acquaintances. …
Something You May Not Know About Writing a Book
By Vickie McDonough The idea of writing a book sounds fascinating, and many parts of the process are. Research trips rank up at the top of the fun scale. Traveling to a place you may have never visited before and researching a town’s people and history is exciting–and tax deductible for writers. Brainstorming story ideas with friends can also be …
What I Learned on My Writing Journey
My writing journey began when I realized how much I like to make up stories and live in a fantasy world where I could create the perfect family, especially after my parents’ divorce. I made up stories for my paper dolls and my dolls using them as the characters. I wrote short stories as a teenager and my first novel …
Learning to be Flexible
The first year I worked as a school principal I led my faculty in a year-long study of personality types. By understanding basic personality differences in individuals, we learned how to work with both children and other staff members whose personalities were different than ours. We started out by identifying the strengths and weaknesses in each personality type and deciding …
Using Real Life Experience in Fiction
People are always telling us to write what we know. The best way to do this is to write our real life experiences into our make believe world through the layered fabrics of our characters’ lives. This doesn’t mean that we can’t set a story in France if we’ve never stepped foot in France. It means we need to know …
God’s Plan for our Writing
Regency romance writing called me. Not the calm drawing room conversations and country walks of a Jane Austen, but the swashbuckling romance such as Sylvester or The Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer, or even better, the “Sanguinet” series by Patricia Veryan. I wanted spies and dead bodies amidst the glitter of the haut-ton. Who needed to find God’s Grace more …