Giving by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Hurricanes, lava flows, mudslides, flash floods, earthquakes, drought, sinkholes, tornadoes, and wildfires. Of these, the only things I haven’t heard of lately are earthquakes, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t happened, because no matter where you look there is some natural disaster happening somewhere.

And I could go into writing mode right now and talk about how writers should take advantage of these things and write them into our stories, but I’ve already done that. I have a story which starts with a whole lot of mudslides, which I know I’ve made a blog post about in the past.

But right now, I’m going to talk about dealing with these in real life.

I know lots of people, myself included, who are dealing with the smoke from these wildfires all over the northwest. I have a Facebook friend who has posted several pictures over the last few weeks about the smoke in her area, and like I said, I’m suffering too. This past Friday they issued a health advisory because of it, telling people with heart conditions or chronic lung issues to stay indoors; needless to say, I wasn’t able to attend church this past weekend. I do have a couple of air filter/purifiers but the smoke was overpowering them Saturday night, by Sunday I was experiencing shortness of breath and chest discomfort, thankfully, it didn’t get any worse than that, but I wasn’t about to exert myself in those conditions.

And at least I haven’t lost anything, like so many others have, and whole towns have been evacuated in some areas.

A cold front moved in Monday, and I’m hoping rain will fall where the fires are; there are several in this part of the state. Except that isn’t everywhere that its needed; there are fires which have been burning for weeks, and may burn for months, especially in California, and I don’t think they’ve gotten any rain.

Too many have lost everything, with still more fires threatening homes and businesses. Around here they’re hoping to at least get containment with a little help from Mother Nature this week.

Anyway, disasters happen, and from what I’ve been seeing they are happening more and more frequently. And more and more often, people need help because they have nothing but the clothes on their back. They have no clean water, no power, no home, no extra clothes, no food; people out there need help, and they need help now.

And I know this is going to be our life for the foreseeable future, this is why the leaders of my church have been telling people to have food storage, and 72-hour kits – to be prepared. Though that isn’t always easy, and sometime those floods and mudslides and such can take even that away. There are some things you can’t plan for.

That’s when charities are needed. I know there are tons of donation drives right after a disaster, but I don’t think that’s enough, especially since I don’t have that much to spare. It’s just a few dollars each month so I’ve started donating to my chosen charity monthly − every little bit helps, it all adds up, plus, I know when any major disaster strikes, my chosen charity will have funds to go help, because I’m not the only one donating regularly. I just hope and pray more people find it in their hearts to find a charity they like and trust (one where the majority of the donations goes to those in need instead of paying the salaries of those running it), and they don’t wait for a call for help, but donate a little each payday.

Think about it, if you get paid weekly, and donate just a dollar per paycheck, that’s $52 a year. Those of you who are barely making it, why not try like a dollar a month? How hard is $12 a year? Not much individually, but what if everyone you know does the same? It starts adding up pretty fast. With enough donations, a charity can all but move mountains. Or maybe they do – they move mountains of donated material.

And I know some of you are thinking it’s better to donate things, but is it really? There’s been a campaign on TV lately to get people to donate money, not water, clothes, or food, because money is faster and easier to ship, they can electronically send the money to their workers closest to the disaster, they then buy the exact supplies needed and transport them only a few miles into the spot, nothing needs to be shipped across continents or across the world. Easier, simpler, better. So, I challenge you to start donating to your favorite charity every payday, like I do.

Happy writing everyone and stay safe out there.

There is a Season by Konnie Enos

Today, our Sunday school lesson was on Ecclesiastes. To start the class the teacher played “Turn, Turn, Turn” by The Byrds. I won’t try to quote the whole thing but go read Ecclesiastes 3:1-11. Then listen to the Byrds song. Turn, Turn, Turn

Between both of those I remembered a book I read years ago when I was maybe thirteen, “A Time to Love, A Time to Mourn” by Paige Dixon. You’ll cry, but you really should read it, great story.

Then I remembered a conversation last week with some ladies we go to church with. Last Sunday she was mentioning the recent marriage of her next to youngest son. She also, not too long ago announced her only daughter giving her a grandchild. The thing is her youngest son is about nine years younger than his next youngest sibling and he is only in middle school right now.

I asked her and she confirmed, all of her other children are now married and except for the one newly married they all have at least one child. One of the other ladies there commented she’d be an empty nester if not for her surprise baby.

Then I went home and was scrolling through Facebook. I happened to see a post by one of my cousins many children congratulating her and her husband on all their years of marriage. It included pictures, of my cousin, her husband, their children and all their grandchildren (counted seventeen). She has at least one still in high school and she once mentioned her younger kids going to school with some of her older grandchildren.

My cousin, like the lady at church, is in about her mid-fifties and still not an empty nester. Only my cousin doesn’t have any nine year age gaps between any of her kids.

Then there is me and my husband.

My prolific cousin is younger than I am by a couple of years and my five children were all born within the span of a decade. (My oldest will soon be 27 and my youngest turned 17 just a few months ago.)

In case anybody hasn’t counted recently, I’m far from an empty nest.

Of my four adult children only the oldest, the nearly 27 year old has moved out. She is in fact, as of this month, married for a full year now.

My second child moved out briefly but health issues forced her to move back home and she has been unable to move out or otherwise take care of herself, at least financially, since. She is hoping and praying to find the means to move out, preferably soon, but it hasn’t happened yet.

My next to the youngest, who turned eighteen just before last Christmas, insists he and his best friend are going to move in together just as soon as they both find full-time jobs and they can find an apartment. The job issue is holding things up at the moment.

My youngest son? One, he isn’t an adult yet. Two, he insists he’s never moving out. (Autism spectrum, he hates change.)

The only other child we’ve got is my youngest daughter. Starting in high school she began telling us her plans for college. At first she was saying she would move off to college right out of high school, but as she investigated her options she decided it would be cheaper to live here and start at the local community college.

She’ll graduate next May.

She’s been saying since she started at this college she’d move out and on to where she plans to continue her education as soon as she finishes here. HOWEVER, she has also, on occasion mentioned the possibility of getting her bachelor’s degree locally and still live at home for two more years. She hasn’t said she’d for sure be staying for quite some time but until she actually settles on a university, there is still the possibility. (After all we do have universities and four year colleges here.)

This all brings me to something my husband said the other day. “We could be empty nesters in the next year.”

After considering everything I just stated I concluded: Only if the three with plans to move out don’t have those plans thrown awry or they never come to fruition because, two, you never know what surprises life is going to hand you. AND three, if the one not planning to move out actually changes his mind OR we move out.

And then in my mind I heard. “To everything there is a season, Turn, Turn, Turn…”

Kind of funny that very song would be played as part of our very next Sunday school lesson.

Now tell me why I chose a fiddler on a roof for the picture for this post.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Prologues by Bonnie Le Hamilton

These days if you mention prologues in a writing group just about everyone will tell you not to write them. I’ve even been told that editors hate them, but I happen to think there are times when a prologue is good and helpful, and even needed.

I’ve also heard that anywhere from ten to fifty percent of readers even read prologues. Well guess what, I’m in that group. I read them, I find them just as important as the story itself, and I have written a few. And by a few, I mean a grand total of five out of my over thirty stories that I’ve at least started. So not very many, and I have no intention of writing prologues for the stories that don’t have them. As far as I’m concerned, they don’t need them, but the five I have prologues for, well, in my opinion, they need them.

And I can explain why I have everyone I do have.

The first one is in the POV a minor character in the story, but the information in that scene is of vital importance. All of the remaining scenes are either in the hero’s or the heroine’s POV, but neither were present in that one scene. These few paragraphs inform the reader what the story is about. And frankly I tried to get away without writing that scene, because after all, I’d been told many times to avoid prologues, but well, this scene was needed, I wrote it.

The second one is partly in the POV of a secondary character and partly in the POV of the hero, its short, but it also says what, and who, the story is about. I guess it could be the first chapter, but its rather short for that.

The next two are short scenes, one in the hero’s POV, and in the other story in the heroine’s POV. They also say what the story is about, but at first it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the rest of the story, its only later that you see what it has to do with the story, sort of like in my first prologue.

The final one is for my sci-fi, and the prologue is an ancient story in the world where my sci-fi is set. A story as old as time, as my heroine later tells the hero. This story is mentioned often throughout what will be my sci-fi series, but I didn’t want it actually in the story, so I put it in the prologue, skip it if you want, but you may end up referring to it later. 😊

I know none of these stories are published, only one is even in the finished rough stage, and I’m currently working on the sci-fi, but each time I read these prologues I’ve worried about how the publishers will feel about them, and what they will do to my chances of being published, because after all, we are told to avoid them at all costs.

Then this past week Konnie came across this blog post: https://www.septembercfawkes.com/2018/06/how-prologues-actually-function-6-types.html  by September C. Fawkes, who is an editor. It’s a pretty good outline of the uses for a prologue.

I particularly like when Fawkes says, “. . . prologues are about making promises of one kind or another to the audience. This is the main function of a prologue.”

Okay, I do make promises. In four of my prologues, they tell what the story is about, they show something that is important or vital to the story. In my final one, well that story lets the reader know the story does not happen in our world. All of them set the stage for what is to follow.

Fawkes also says, “Like all writing rules, there may be some exceptions once in a while, but I’d argue almost always prologues = promises.”

According to what Fawkes says in her blog post my first one is an Alternative Viewpoint prologue, my second is partly an Alternative Viewpoint, and partly a Time Displacement because it happens months before the main story, my next two are little bit Theatrical and a little bit Dual Draw (Well actually, all of these have a bit of the Theatrical in them.), and my final one is both Informational and Time Displacement.

They all serve a purpose, and they all make a promise about what is to come.

In other words, I’ve used prologues correctly the few times I’ve used them. 😊

So, how many of you read prologues?

How many of you skip prologues?

And how many of you have written a prologue?

Happy writing everyone! 😊

Of Storms and Setbacks by Konnie Enos

“When it rains it pours.”

I don’t mean literally.

I live in a desert after all.

I’m talking about life’s little setbacks and unexpected annoyances and minor traumas you have to deal with. Far too often with a price tag you just aren’t ready to deal with.

Sometimes the price is an emotional one.

A young girl we attend church with spoke Sunday about her recent loss of her beloved family member, her pet. The loss of any loved one can be an emotional stressor.

Other times it’s physical. An accident or a health issue.

My own daughter is dealing with several medical issues though recently she finally found a doctor who one, believed her, two wanted to help her find answers, and three felt the best place for her was a tertiary clinic. Then she ran into a huge problem. The clinic won’t accept her insurance and she doesn’t have even the minimum amount of money in cash to get them to see her without insurance. So she is still fighting.

Accidents can be anything from breaking a bone to wrecking a car. Both have after effects.

Then there are times the problems you have to deal with come with an actual price tag. An unexpected bill or repair. Needing to replace worn out, or out grown, clothing. If you have animals, an unplanned trip to the vet.

Usually these unexpected, unplanned events occur sporadically enough you can recover from one before the next one pummels you.

Usually.

Other times, well, when it rains, it pours.

One day you get slapped with an unexpected repair and the next it’s a bill you had no idea was coming. Then you’ve got to cover things like maintenance on your car, or taxes or other things you don’t pay every month and you had been saving for them but now you don’t have any left. Or at least not enough to cover everything you where saving for AND all those unexpected expenses and yet one more repair. And that regular bill that’s going up, yet again. Not to mention the bill that’s higher than you expected it to be. And you can’t possibly squeeze another penny out of your budget.

And you look at all those bills and all those repairs and maintenance needing done along with your empty bank account and the only thought going through your head is, when it rains, it pours.

No, my bank account isn’t empty.

Yet.

Yes, my family is being pummeled.

At the moment I’m sure the only reason we still have money in the bank is because I have yet to do any of my yearly Christmas shopping.

Normally, this time of year I’d have completed nearly half of it. This year, I haven’t even gotten one gift. I’ve barely managed to keep up with getting birthday gifts.

For some reason, this year, I’ve been unable to come up with the motivation or the ideas to even start shopping this year. So now, at a time I’d normally be nearly done with it, I haven’t even started, which might be a good thing this year.

Why?

Because the way things have been pouring around here I’m sure it’s going to have to go next, and Christmas will be reminiscent of our more austere past.

When the girls were little and money was really tight, I made what few gifts I gave them because we really couldn’t afford anything.

Unfortunately, my girls are all adults now and I can’t make them a baby doll blanket anymore. I also have no clue what I could possibly make the males in my household.

In our church we’re told you’ll get hit the hardest when Satan wants to get you off the straight and narrow path, but if you stick with it you’ll be blessed in the end.

Well we’re getting bombarded now and our daughter is preparing to partake in a religious ceremony that is something of a rite of passage, it also shows her devotion to our faith.

All things considered, I think this storm has been long enough.

I don’t want any more unexpected bills or repairs.

I don’t need another bill raised.

I don’t want to replace anymore clothes or shoes.

I don’t need any medical bills or a needed doctor who won’t take our insurance.

If it has to rain, why can’t it pour down some blessings instead of troubles?

Personally, I’m ready for a storm of blessings.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Confusing Critiques by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Here is my problem, I recently received one last critique on my finished novel “Forbidden Connection”, and this one, along with several others was on the line of, “Love the premise, hate that they fall in love so quickly.”

Excuse me?

The entire premise of the story is that the hero is part of an alien society which is set up around insuring that their youth form a “connection” with someone of the opposite sex by a certain age, but the hero somehow manages to “connect” with a young lady who isn’t part of their group. Ergo the title.

I even have in the story where he tells his dad he loves the girl and his dad says, “Son, with the connection, you have no choice in the matter.”

I also have a subplot where the heroine’s cousin connects with the hero’s sister. The cousin goes from barely knowing the hero’s sister exists to can’t take his eyes off her in a matter of minutes! How else I can show this connection is instantaneous? I’m mean I’m certain I didn’t show it with the hero and heroine getting together, because at the very first of the story, I have the hero bemoaning that he finds her, an outsider, so attractive. I also have her telling him she finds him attractive and she had tried to get his attention while they were still at school together.

In other words, the entire premise of the story isn’t whether or not they fall in love. It is about whether or not their families will accept their union, period.

Maybe my mistake is in saying this is a romance, since all other such stories are about the couple getting together and falling in love, not about whether or not their love will be accepted by those around them, but what kind of story would it categorized as?

It can’t be sci-fi, even though the hero is an alien, it is set on contemporary Earth, no fancy technology or anything.

And it can’t really be paranormal because the closest it comes to that is the form of ESP that is what the hero’s people call the connection. It’s a one on one thing. This is in fact how they form couples. There are no spirits, no magic, no mysticism. Nothing supernatural beyond “the connection.”

And now clearly, only a few people see it as romance, the few who managed to get that they fall in love so fast because of “the connection.” The few who actually get the premise.

So now the issue is, do I scrap the entire story and start all over without “the connection” as part of it (in other words come up with a different premise) or do I try to figure out a different way to market this story as is.

I’m telling you, each time I’ve mentioned that I got a critique saying they didn’t like how fast they fell in love to any of the few people who actually get the premise, they’ve exclaimed, “But that’s the entire story!”

And they are right. If I change that they fall in love so fast, if I take out that her cousin and his sister fall in love even faster, then I don’t have a story at all.

After all, why even have the worry about acceptance if you don’t love the person in first place?

And how do I market a story that isn’t your typical romance/sci-fi/paranormal, it really doesn’t fit in any of those categories, and it doesn’t fit at all in any other category. So where do I market it? Who is the audience?

Well I already know that. I know that from the reaction of my then preteen and teenaged nieces to the first draft of the story. They not only loved it they drove their mother mad with talking about the hero and heroine as if they were real and talking about the hero’s alien culture as if it really existed.

And one of my nephews, on hearing how much his sisters talked about these aliens, snuck onto my sister’s computer and read it himself. He loved all the alien parts of the story and hated, as he put it way back then, “all the mushy stuff.” Of course, he wasn’t a teenager yet, and I haven’t asked how he feels about all that mushy stuff now. Then again, I never expected him to read it, I never intended this to be something guys would read.

But now I need to figure out who would read it beyond my nieces, their mother, and my one friend who all got the premise. Any suggestions?

Happy writing everyone. 😊