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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Welcome Martha Rogers and Summer Dream

Please interact with our guest authors by answering the question they provide. IF there is a book giveaway, your response will also enter you in the drawing for a free book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


MARTHA ROGERS' book credits include the novella, Sugar and Grits and A River Walk Christmas, as well as the historical romance series, Winds Across the Prairie. She had also written seven Bible studies, contributed to compilations by Wayne Holmes, Karen O’Conner, and Debbie White Smith. Martha has also written devotionals in several anthologies including recently released Blissfully Blended, Devotionals for Step-moms from Barbour. Martha is currently working on another series, Seasons of the Heart. Book one, Summer Dream, will released in the summer of 2011. Martha sings in the choir at her church and is a co-leader for a First Place 4 Health group. She loves to scrapbook when she has the time. She is a retired teacher and lives in Houston with her husband, Rex where they enjoy spending time with their grandchildren and attending football and baseball games when one of them is playing.

SUMMER DREAM
by Martha Rogers
Published by Realms

ABOUT THE BOOK

The first book in the Seasons of the Heart series is set in Connecticut in 1888, the year of what historians call “The White Hurricane.” The story reveals the power of God’s love to change lives and heal hearts. Summer Dream tells of a young couple’s love for each other and the obstacles that stand in their path of happiness. Until Nathan Reed resolves his anger with God and his family, he has no hopes of courting Rachel Winston, the minister’s daughter.

As the daughter of a small-town minister in Connecticut, Rachel Winston believes the only way she’ll ever have a husband is to visit her aunt in Boston for the social season until Nathan Reed arrives in town. Although attracted to Rachel, Nathan avoids her because he has no desire to become involved with a Christian after experiences with his own family. When a devastating blizzard paralyzes New England, Nathan is caught in it and lies near death in the Winston home. Through the ministrations and tender care of Rachel and her mother, Nathan learns a lesson in love and forgiveness that leads him back to his home in the South. Before he can declare his love for Rachel, he must make amends with his own family. Will he return to Connecticut before Rachel leaves her home to head west as a missionary in Oklahoma Territory?

Readers, buy your copy of Summer Dream (Seasons of the Heart, Book 1) today!

AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR FEATURE AUTHOR

Personality and Writing Style

I’ve read a lot of discussion about organization and writing. For those of us who are SOTP (seat of the pants) writers, writing an outline or any of the other myriad organizational strategies boggles our minds. However as I have progressed, I’ve found that a little bit of both is necessary to get a story done in time to meet a deadline.

New things crop into a story, new characters step in and wish to be recognized, and events occur and come as a complete surprise to “pantster” writers. That still happens even when I do loosely plan my chapters. Usually my chapter outlines are one to two sentences as to what I want to happen in that chapter. What actually happens in the chapter comes as I write the characters and the scenes.

Randy Ingermanson has a “Snowflake” organizational strategy for organizing stories and plots that many love and use, but I could never get my head wrapped around it. The reason being that it took too long to actually begin writing the story. Even when I tried to do charts and graphs, my imagination would kick in and things happened that had no place in the outline.

I’ve heard this happens to even the most organized writer. Characters will began to them and want something entirely different than what has been plotted.

Whether we organize or just dig in and write, we all have some idea of where our story is going and what we want to accomplish in the end. If we don’t know our destination, we will have difficulty along the journey. Sometimes we can get so bogged down with the details that we lose sight of the story and where it’s headed.

Writing a synopsis and chapter events helps with the organization, but it’s the surprises along the way that make writing the book fun. Do extremely organized writers experience surprises as they write? Some with whom I have spoken so, but a few others grimace in horror. It all has to go as they planned or they panic.

Does our personality have something to do with how we organize or don’t organize our writing? Does having a laid-back sanquine personality lead to being a “panster” writer and panic as deadlines near? Is the choleric personality the one who must organize down to the last detail and be completely in charge of the story? Does the melancholy worry about every detail and word to be perfect as he/she writes? Is the phlegmatic writer more calm and relaxed and able to get things done on time?

Think about your own personality and how it affects your writing. Does your personality reflect how you approach writing and how you organize? Do they have anything in common?

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Thank you, Martha, for sharing with us today.

Guest Question: Does your personality reflect how you approach writing and how you organize? Do they have anything in common?

ENTRY RULES Readers, leave your email address (name at domainname dot com/net) along with your answer to the question for your chance to win a FREE autographed copy of the book above. If you do not answer the question, and your email address isn't provided, you will not be entered.

This week, the contest is open to US/Canada residents only.

6 comments:

Debbie Lynne Costello said...

My first ms I wrote was totally SOTP. I didn't know there was another way. I got half way through it and the end started becoming clear. So I loosely plotted the rest of my MS. My second I plotted VERY loosely but I knew all my major scenes and the end. The third was totally plotted with lots of surprises! I'm an organized person but I find that I can't write in a box. My characters sometimes show me they would never do what I had planned for them to do while other times an old friend or a cousin shows up and I have to ask "What are you doing here?" So in answer to your question. I have NO idea! LOL.

Margaret Brownley said...

Plan a book? Good grief. I don't even plan dinner. I want my characters to surprise me. I don't even know how the book will end until I get there.

Come to think of it, dinner's always a surprise, too.

Martha W. Rogers said...

Tried to leave this earlier but it didn't go through. I hear you, Margaret. I love surprises in my stories as they take off in a new direction or with a new character. Debbie, my first book was totally a "write as I go" book and had so many mistakes it's unbelievable.
By the way, I don't plan dinner either. I just open the fridge or freezer and look in the pantry to see what's there.

Merry said...

I am not super organized, I am laid back and just go with the flow... so yes, for me, my personality matches how I write something (mostly devotional/ newsletters)! :)
worthy2bpraised at gmail dot com

Anne Payne said...

I don't know if this is still open or not, but if not that's ok, too. Since I am not usually an organized person, I would imagine that if I was a writer I wouldn't plan my writing out too much, either. I tend to wait until the last minute for a lot of things and then cram! You'd think as an older adult I would know better :0)

homesteading[at]charter[dot]net

Tiffany Amber Stockton said...

This is open until Friday when I'll be doing the drawing winners for May. Got a little behind, but having a newborn and a toddler is drastically affecting my free time. :)

I'm an intuitive or SOTP writer too. I simply can NOT plot my story in detail. I get a general idea and let the story or the characters flow from there. Much more fun that way.