Here in the Owens household, the “Cuenca Countdown” has begun. From the date of this posting June 28, 2016, we are at nineteen days.
At this moment, the plans are still a bit sketchy. I’m teaching a Novel Writing class. I’m speaking at several different functions and meetings. My part in some of these will be brief. Brief is good. Especially for one who has never worked with a translator. I’ll let you know how that goes.
This past weekend, I sat on a fiction panel at the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. That’s me in purple. I learned two things. How to be brief, and how to pass the microphone to someone with more experience. I’m a quick-study at these things.
It was a great honor to sit on the stage with some of my favorite people.
One thing I am really looking forward to while in Cuenca–spending time with friends who have given their life to missions. Among them–Bill McDonald, and Jeremy and Tiffany Riggs. I’m sure you’ll hear more about them later. I hope to stay current on my blogging. I will be posting to Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, so you can find our updates there.
It won’t be all work and no play. There is a little sight-seeing sandwiched in between the engagements. Shopping in the marketplace, visiting ancient ruins,sampling food and excellent coffees.
Oh, just a few of the things we’ll do. But most of all, I look forward to getting to know the people of Cuenca, enjoying the views, and learning about life at eight thousand feet above sea level. In a place where there are no mosquitoes. I so look forward to that!
In the meantime, I hope you’ll write these dates on your calendar and pray for our team while we’re in Ecuador. July 16 – July 26 Owens2Ecuador Mission Trip.
Bob & Betty Owens, Todd Owens, April Teeter
We are so thankful for all of the readers and special friends who are supporting us in this effort through prayers, thoughts, and donations. We pray all your time and gifts will be multiplied back to you abundantly.
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.–2 Corinthians 9:8
The Owens to Ecuador Team
Stay tuned for more information about the mission next week!
You barely know what you’re doing. Walking up to the front desk or table, you sign in. Someone hands you a few things you’re too nervous to look at, including a name badge that you promptly drop.
You’ve just arrived at your first writers conference and you haven’t a clue what comes next.
Following the drone of voices, you find yourself in a room filled with excited people. Many of them smile at you and introduce themselves. Business cards exchange hands. This will happen often during the conference, so keep yours handy.
After whatever opening ceremonies your conference offers, the keynote speaker is introduced. He or she encourages and challenges you. Sometimes they make you laugh. Often, they share their horror stories about how they got their start. Bungling, novice writers, swimming against the current. Somehow making it through all the jumble. It’s hard, hard work! But it’s worth it. Every excruciating moment of it, they tell you.
And you believe it.
After the keynote, there are classes. You’ve chosen several that looked promising. By the end of the day, your head may explode. What? Did you really think it would be easy? There is so much to this thing! You’d never even heard about deep POV, or showing versus telling.
And as the day draws to a close, you realize…you’ve been doing it all wrong. Now you’ll have to go home and get out your work-in-progress, examine it for all the problems you didn’t know you had. But maybe not tonight. Tonight you’re tired, and tomorrow is another day of conference. Like the true novice you are, you have scheduled interviews with an agent and an editor.
And now, you know the truth. You’re not ready.
So after a sleepless night, you return to the writers conference. A fluttering tummy accompanies you. You force a few sips of coffee down and check your phone forty-five times to make sure you’re not late for your interview.
The agent sits across from you, waiting. You’re so nervous, you drop your one-sheet and stumble over your words. It’s not the perfect interview you’d envisioned when you signed up for this thing. In fact, it seems a bit like an interrogation. But somehow, you make it through.
She smiles sweetly as she lets you down easy. Your writing shows promise, but needs work.
The interview with the editor is easier, because now you know. Your work is not ready, so why not use these few minutes to get to know this editor? Ask questions. Find out what it will take to get where you want to go.
If they tell you to abandon your dreams–find another way to express yourself because you clearly don’t have what it takes to get published–ignore them. Because that’s what writers do. We ignore the naysayers and keep plodding on, learning and filling our heads with writer-ly things. We swallow our disappointments, pull ourselves up and start over. Over and over again.
By the end of the conference, you realize how much you still need to learn. But you’re stuffed full of hope and encouragement. You’ve made friends and connections. You have a fistful of business cards so you can connect on Facebook and Twitter. You now know how to connect on Facebook and Twitter.
The writers conference can provide you with all that and more. It’s an investment in your future. Continuing education.
If you were playing a video game, you’ve just received a key that will get you to the next level.
Have you attended a conference recently, or in the past? What was your favorite part? My favorite memory is of a connection I made with a published writer who encouraged me to stick with it. Don’t give up. She made me feel that I had a purpose. I’m forever grateful.
If you were looking for news about our upcoming mission trip to Cuenca, Ecuador — I’ve delayed the post until Tuesday, June 28 so I can give you the most up-to-date news possible. There’s a lot happening! 🙂
I am humbled and proud at the same time. Is that even possible? Well, when you’re a writer, it’s a huge blessing to know someone actually likes your stories. Writing is hard work. You never know how it’s going to be received.
Along with Annabelle’s Ruth, which won in the General Fiction/Women’s Fiction category, five other books won their categories. I’ve read a couple of these, and they’re excellent. I’m humbled to be mentioned alongside them. Congratulations to all the winners!
So if you’re looking for a good read this summer, these are a good place to start. And you can order Annabelle’s Ruth by clicking the bookcover over there ⇒ ⇒ (in the side margin). And don’t forget my latest release, Carlotta’s Legacy, Book 2 Legacy Series. Now Available on Kindle! Both books are only $4.99 each on Kindle.
NEXT UP – Stop back by next Tuesday for an update on our mission trip to Cuenca, Ecuador. There are some exciting things in the works for this trip. I can’t wait to tell you about it…
Are you a writer? Then you’ve known great moments of joy and dark moments of despair.
What is it about writing that is so therapeutic? In ages past, folks spent hours physically writing with pen and ink. They wrote letters to family or long, illustrious entries in their journals. I imagine much of this was done in order to process life. If you look at their letters and journal entries–especially the more ancient ones–you’ll note the writing itself was like an art form.
Our handwriting today–not so much. My early training taught me better than my present skills. Sometimes, I can barely make out the items on my grocery list.
I blame it on non-use.
Do you still write letters?When I was growing up, we received an almost weekly letter from my grandpa in California. Now, remember, this was in the days prior to free long distance. They had to pay per minute to talk (scandalous, I know!).
Grandpa would write about his favorite baseball team–the Dodgers. Or he’d tell us about the latest brawl on the roller derby. As years passed, he talked about his experiences volunteering at a local hospital in L.A., where he met Betty White. This was a big day for Grandpa. Somewhere, there’s a picture of the two of them together. I’m not sure who ended up with that one.
Ancient word processing device
By writing, those who don’t have computers can keep up with their loved ones, just as they did in ancient times. In the Old West, the Pony Express carried those letters, sometimes at great personal risk. Now we complain if the mailman is half an hour late on his route. We’re so accustomed to “instant send” we just don’t understand why it takes a week to received a snail post via regular mail.
In my latest release, Carlotta’s Legacy, Rebecca Lewis must communicate “across the pond” by letter. It took weeks, rather than days. They could pay extra for airmail, but the letter had to travel across the ocean first, and that was by boat. So if they had an emergency, Rebecca would need to send a telegram. Though limited by word count, this was the quickest way to send an important message.
So consider yourself blessed. We can send an email or Facebook message from wherever we are to someone on the other side of the world, and receive an answer within seconds (or minutes)–longer if they don’t have WIFI in their homes. Still much quicker than a letter or a telegram.
Welcome to my blog, fellow Write Integrity Press author, Joan Deneve. I’m excited about Joan’s new release, Freeing Ellie, the second book in The Redeemed Side of Broken Series. I so enjoyed her first book, award-winning Saving Eric.
Betty: Joan, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
Joan: It was crazy! Writing came to me, I didn’t go seeking it. Over twenty years ago, I had an idea for a story, but I never ever planned to write it.
Then, four years ago, during my summer break from teaching, I was sitting on my back porch reading a really good book. When I finished it, I read on the back cover that it was the author’s debut novel.
Just for fun, I decided to grab a composition notebook and a pen and play around with that story idea. From then on, it took on a life of its own. I wrote like a possessed woman, barely stopping to eat or sleep. My poor husband indulged my obsession, and even massaged my hand when it throbbed and cramped. Six weeks later my debut novel, Saving Eric, was born.
Betty: Wonderful story! What is the most surprising thing you learned while writing one of your books?
Joan: This is going to sound crazy, but I learned that the characters will actually talk to me and kind of tell me which way the plot should go. I’m a pantster, which means I don’t plot out the entire novel before I start writing.
In my first novel, something happened to the main character that I really didn’t want to happen, but the character seemed to be telling me he had to go through it. Weird, huh?
And I’m ashamed to admit this one, but one big surprise was how much I had to learn about the craft of writing. As a novice writer, I wrote the entire book without knowing much about the craft. I knew nothing about deep point of view or the importance of “showing versus telling.” I’m very thankful for the writer friends who took me under their wings to teach me those concepts. The first draft looks nothing like the published novel.
Betty: Most authors will get that, Joan. I, too am very grateful to the many who helped me learn the craft–in process! So, where do you write best?
Joan: Believe it or not, I still write out the entire novel on paper and then type it. I still write best on my back porch where it is quiet and peaceful and the only interruptions are birds and butterflies and buzzing bees.
Betty: Sounds wonderful to me. Tell us about your latest release.
Joan: I’m happy to announce Freeing Ellie was published in May of this year and is available on Amazon.com. http://amzn.to/25fGKza
Back cover blurb:
Life couldn’t be better or sweeter for Eric and Ellie Templeton as they begin their life together as new Christians and a newly married couple. But Ellie enters her marriage with some baggage of her own. What if Eric goes back on another mission? What if she loses this man who has become her life? Even worse, what if God never lets them have a child of their own?
God has some spiritual surgery to perform on Ellie to free her from the deep-seated feelings of guilt and doubt that have bound her soul for years.
God painstakingly and lovingly creates the perfect storm of events designed specifically to bring Ellie to the place where she can “let go” and fully trust God. No. Matter. What.
Betty: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers about the book?
Joan: In Saving Eric, the first book in the Redeemed Side of Broken Series, we meet Eric and Ellie, two thirty-something strangers who have some brokenness. God brings them both to a saving faith in Jesus Christ and radically changes their lives. They fall in love and marry… happily ever after, Right? Well, almost.
As the back cover of Freeing Ellie suggests, Ellie struggles with many fears and anxieties. I wanted to show a character that loves God with all her heart but still finds it hard to trust God, especially when something hard comes into her life.
Ellie struggles with self-doubt, guilt from past sins, and most of all, clinical depression that rears its ugly head during times of crisis.
But the book has light moments, too. As newlyweds, Eric and Ellie have some fun banter and some tender moments. They are both learning how to adapt to married life and also to their newfound faith.
It’s my hope that the reader’s faith will be strengthened to trust God with the outcome: No. Matter. What.
Betty: Beautiful. Any fun discoveries while writing these books?
The students in my junior high and senior high English classes are some of my biggest fans. I love chatting over plot ideas with the students, and I’ve gotten some really good tips from them. Nobody knows how to keep it real like a teenager!
One very special student asked if she could please read the manuscript of Freeing Ellie because she didn’t want to wait until it was published. I caved and let her. She even did an oral book report on the book without giving away the ending. In the conclusion of her report she added, “I loved the characters and consider Ellie to be one of my best friends.” Needless to say, that student received an A+. 🙂
Another gratifying moment was discovering that my best friend in Texas named her new puppy Eric T. after my character, and my daughter named her new puppy Ellie.
But probably my best discovery was this whole world that opened up when I became a serious writer. I go to conferences and meet people just like me, who spend a lot of time thinking, and planning, and talking to imaginary characters. I’ve made new life-long friends who are really cool people whom I never knew existed. What fun!
Betty: Yes, writers are wonderful and fun. I’ve made so many friends since beginning this journey–including you. 🙂 So, Joan, what’s next for you?
Joan: This summer I will be writing the third and final book in the Redeemed Side of Broken Series. Loving Brock will take place on the mission hospital compound where Brock Whitfield, Ellie’s father and spiritual mentor, faces a personal crisis of his own. This book will address what many Christians experience: How to obey God when He asks us to do something we really don’t want to do.
Betty: Oh, boy, I’m facing that right now. I look forward to reading the next book. God bless your writing journey.
More about Joan Deneve:
Joan Deneve grew up in a small town in Alabama where she and her husband of forty-two years now reside. They have two happily married children and seven phenomenal grandchildren.
Joan teaches English in a Christian school and has a passion to help young people fall in love with Jesus and find His purpose for their lives.
Betty: How can readers connect with you?
Joan: I love to hear from readers! You can email me at cjdeneve@hotmail.com or look me up on Facebook under Joannie Deneve. I also have an author site: www.joandeneve.com
Joan would like to give away an autographed set of her books: Saving Eric and Freeing Ellie (because it would be better to read Saving Eric first). By the way, Saving Eric is a 2015 Grace Award winner!
Betty: If you’d like to receive these two books, leave Joan a comment below. If you have any problems commenting here, use the Contact Me tab to send me an email. In the message, write “Joan Deneve’s giveaway.”
This past weekend, I sat on a fiction panel at the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. That’s me in purple. I learned two things. How to be brief, and how to pass the microphone to someone with more experience. I’m a quick-study at these things.
It won’t be all work and no play. There is a little sight-seeing sandwiched in between the engagements. Shopping in the marketplace, visiting ancient ruins,
sampling food and excellent coffees.
Betty Thomason Owens 