WRITE2IGNITE! 2012

It's finally here! Registration for Write2Ignite! 2012 is up and running at http://www.write2ignite.com/.

Praise-A-Lujah!

I hope to see you March 16-17, 2012 at North Greenville University.

CONTEST!

Don't you just love winning? My dear friend, Donna, has a contest going on her blog, WordWranglerNC.

You can win your choice of three terrific books:

Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen

Complete Idot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books by Harold Underdown

Jesus in the Present Tense by Warren Wiersby

Now, you can't beat that with a stick!

Book Review: The Fight of Our Lives

Another book review as I promised.

The Fight of Our Lives: Knowing the Enemy, Speaking the Truth & Choosing to Win the War Against Radical Islam by William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn (Thomas Nelson, 2011)

The Fight of Our Lives is a clearly written book. Bennett and Leibsohn dogmatically, repeatedly and unapologetically state the theme:”Lifting the veil and engaging the fight, as both a matter of military and civic strength, is our great task. It begins with knowing the enemy and knowing ourselves. The time to take this up is now. It cannot wait.” (page 142)

The authors base their observations and conclusions on contemporary news events, current political and cultural theories, their own professional expertise and interviews with current political and diplomatic officials. Bennett and Leibsohn never waver in their message: we must recognize and identify the current enemy of the USA as it is—radical Islam with its doctrines, behaviors and plans. Contemporary Americans and our political leaders close our eyes to the truth and hide behind political correctness and tolerance to our own demise.

The authors explain many terms associated with Islam and radical Islamists. They clearly differentiate between the two, and they thoroughly investigate contemporary terrorism against America and current American political and cultural responses to terrorist activities and agendas. They also delve into the growth of radical Islam throughout the Middle East.

No rosy colored glasses in this book. No playing nice. You’ll either close this book with a hearty, “Amen!” or you’ll hate it. Dr. Bennett and Seth Leibsohn are adamant in their plea for the American public and politicians to wake up, identify our true enemy and take offensive action in order to save our 21st Century American way of life.

Their words seek to alarm us. Their warnings aim to frighten us. And, their research and logic shoot to alert us to take aggressive action now against what they state is America’s most deadly contemporary enemy – radical Islamist terrorism.

Book Review: Heaven Revealed

I'm back--temporarily. I need to post several book reveiws (as I promised to do). I hope they are helpful to you all.


Thanks,
Jean


Paul and Helen Enns dreamed of growing old together. But God had a different plan. Helen passed away and went home to Heaven leaving Paul behind to mourn.

In his own words Enns says: “That singular event has changed my life and my thinking. My thoughts are constantly focused on heaven… I am consumed with the thought of heaven.” (pages 11 and 12)

In an effort to make sense of his loss and to comfort himself, Enns preached sermons on heaven. Listeners told him repeatedly how his words gave them comfort. Those sermons evolved into this book, Heaven Revealed: What Is It Like? What Will We do? And 11 Other Things You’ve Wondered About by Paul Enns. (Moody Publishers, 2011)Enns goes into great detail explaining numerous quotes about heaven from the Bible. His research is interesting. His thoroughness is obvious. To support his views he also quotes great gospel scholars and preachers such as J. Oswald Sanders, Randy Alcorn, Erwin Lutzer, John MacArthur and C. S. Lewis.

The theme of the book is “Heaven is always better.” Whatever we can compare the details of heaven to, it is always better. Whatever elements will or won’t be there, heaven is always better. Whatever we think we will miss about life on earth, heaven is always better. I also like Enns' closing emphasis on how we get to heaven – through accepting Christ as our personal Savior.

Several people dear to me are now in heaven, and the facts and explanations in Heaven Revealed did bolster my comfort and peace. In my opinion it will make a great gift book for someone who is a habitual student of Scripture and is seeking comfort after the death of a loved one.

The only fault I find with this book is that the chapters were repetitive. That is, Enns expounds the same Scripture passages again and again from chapter to chapter. I agree with most of his conclusions. But I think the exposition could have been more concise.

Bye-Bye

Maintaining this blog has been a fun challenge for me in several ways:

• It has forced me to think about the things I am learning as a writer
• It has disciplined me to write concisely (most of the time)
• It has helped me to connect with other writers
• It has disciplined me to write even when I don't "feel like it"
• It has given me opportunities to encourage other people using their talents to glorify God

But It's time for me to say good-bye. My life, your life, is filled with changes and I sense some changes coming to both my personal life and my writing life. I spent a few hours alone yesterday listening to God. I needed some direction and encouragement, and I've learned that He is the best source of both things for me. He let me know that it is time to put Encouraging Words to rest for a while.

Please come back and search through the topics whenever you wish (or need). Meanwhile, any blogging I do will be at Write2Ignite!

I pray God's direction, God's power and God's blessings on the things you write with the gifts He has given to you.

Thank you for visiting here and encouraging me on my writing journey.

Jean

Wake Up, Brain of Mine

What am I learning lately about writing?

Sometimes I think my learning has stalled a bit. I'm not picking up new information and new skills like I did three or four years ago.

But then, I go back and read the things I wrote three or four years ago, and compare them to pieces I'm writing now, and I realize that I'm doing much better than I was.

I'm refining the skills I've already learned. I'm becoming more confident in those skills. That's a good feeling. And it's a feeling that will prepare me for all the gazillions of new things about writing that I need to learn in the future.

Today I was helping in my grandson's school media center. I spent five hours enjoying the quiet and thumbing through several hundred new books for  the lower school media center. My job was to physically check them for flaws, double check the packing slips for errors, then give those crisp new books their Lexile dots.

It was heavenly.

I saw so many picture books, early chapter books, MG and YA books to add to my reading list! I jotted a few titles and authors in the little notebook I carry in my purse.

 I wonder if they give volunteer grandparents a library card at Union Academy.

After an hour or so my brain went into writer mode. I pulled out my handy-dandy notebook again and started a list of the publishers and suppliers for these books:

• Sleeping Bear Press (no submissions at this time)
• Millbrook Press  (Lerner Books)
• Swartz Wade Books (Random House)
• Annick Press Ltd. (Canadians only)
• Picture Window Books
• Capstone Kids Books
• ABDO Publishing
• Magic Wagon Press

While I was typing this post I found this nifty site.

Then I started making mental note of the formats that some of the series followed. Series like:

• Katherine the (Almost) Great
• The Dog Who...
• Katie Woo (I love this one!)
• Fancy Nancy
• Amazing Athletes
• Kid's sports stories
• Babymouse (cute graphic "novels")
• The Warriors (three different series)
• fairy tales retold as graphic novels
• fairy tales totally revised and retold as first readers

• and more....

Manyof these school and library books have useful back matter - all of which had catchy titles, of course:

• Writing prompts
• Things to do (projects, recipes)
• Glossaries
• Discussion Questions
• Info about the authors and illustrators
• Info about related Internet sites

Then...

Once my brain was fully awake...
I got several ideas for new PBs. I again whipped out my notebook and scribbled a few sentences to jog my memory tonight.

Years ago I learned in my head that reading stimulates creative writing. I learned in my head that immersing myself in PBs will put me in a creative PB frame of mind. And I learned that reading tons of books in my genre will enable me to write well in that genre.

But today, I was aware of these things while they were happening in my own head and imagination.

So, though I didn't learn anything NEW today, I put into practice (unconsciously, without premeditation) something I learned years ago.

It was so much fun. Try it. Just go to your local library and pull several armloads of books in the genre you wish to write. Sit down and start reading them. Or simply thumb through them and read snatches of each book. Keep it up for a few hours and I'll bet your imagination will awaken, too.

Try it. I d-double-dog-dare you.

A Day Apart

Write2Ignite! has become a huge part of my life. I'm a business owner (I said I would NEVER do that!).

I'm an entrepreneur! (Whatever that is.)

And I'm responding to God's call on my life to be a writer, a teacher, a leader and an encourager. I can't think of a better way to "be" all of those things than Write2Ignite!

With that in mind I'm happy to announce a new one-day Write2Ignite!event called A Day Apart. 

It’s not another conference. It’s not a writer’s retreat. And it’s not just a workshop. It’s more than a critique group or a writer’s group. A Day Apart is bits of all these things rolled into one day. It is A Day Apart for children's and youth's writers to focus on revision, and on helping each other perform radical surgery on ailing manuscripts. 

Great writers soon learn that as we help each other we help ourselves. So we, the Write2Ignite! Team have designed A Day Apart to be an opportunity for all of us to do just that. We’ll work together in small groups, critique partnerships, and a large group to brainstorm new ways to look at old manuscripts. Then we’ll work individually to make radical changes and give new life to those stories.

The date is July 30, 2011. Mark that down! The cost is a mere $45. Can you believe it?

The location is First Baptist Church Indian Trail, Indian Trail, NC.

Soooo, dear readers...

If you have a short manuscript that is painfully close to finished, but something just isn't working right and you can't figure it out alone, please consider joining us for A Day Apart. Especially if you live within a few hours of Charlotte, NC.

Click right here, ya'll, for the details. 

Oh, I hope to see many of you there.