Writing My Life

Now and Then


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… a saturday in september …

September is one of, if not, my favorite month of the year. And while I won’t go into the reasons here because I listed a few on my “other” blog, I do want to share some fun photos from yesterday’s trip to Big Cottonwood Canyon for a picnic with our Utah kids.

I love occasions like this one, but the down side is that I miss our California kids all the more, and I want them to know we feel their absence. Nevertheless, it was a great day in the mountains. Sunshine, trees, rocks, streams, hamburger, hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, AND fine company! Loved EVERY second of the afternoon!

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… what CREATURE am i trying to recreate? …

As I dived into my beauty(?) routine this morning, I had to wonder what I was concocting with all these crazy products.

  • First I wash my face with good old H20 and facial cleanser to remove all that gunk that accumulates during the night.
  • Next I apply WITCH HAZEL – OooooooOOOOOOoooooooo – casts a spell to close pores and fight against evil grime.
  • REgeneration SERUM – SpOOky! To regenerate means to …
    • To reform spiritually or morally.
    • To form, construct, or create anew, especially in an improved state.
      • To give new life or energy to; revitalize.
    • Biology. To REPLACE (a lost or damaged organ or part) by formation of NEW TISSUE.
  • After ingesting the SERUM, I apply micro-SCULPTING cream. Are you curious as to what I’m sculpting? A protruding brow? A hook nose? Sunken cheek bones? CrEEpY!
  • The FINAL step requires moisturizing HYDRATION! And voila!

Notice the amputation of the double chin!!!


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… Connor and Carter go to the farm … and Miss Taylor, too!

Before autumn inches its way into the valley, I want to finish posting my fun-in-the-sun photos and video clips. Then when the wind swirls, and the snow falls, and the temperatures plummet, I can review them and warm right up.

Today’s feature stars Taylor, Connor, and Carter, along with the animals at Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. Too fun for words!

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What a great way to spend a summer day!


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Epiphany at WRITING for CHARITY

Found on Flickr

When August 21st rolled around, and Writing for Charity (WFC) along with it, I had completed 13 pages of my work in progress (wip). I was EXTREMELY anxious to share my first page (cuz that’s all you are allowed to share at this event) as I was experimenting with a multi-writing-genre format.

The protocol for most writing groups requires that someone OTHER than the author reads the draft. The writer CANNOT say ANYTHING. This is difficult for me, and I slipped when my reader Ann Dee Ellis couldn’t figure out a weird contraction.

“Ah, ah, ah, Renae,” she said. “You need to listen to the way readers might say this word.”

Of course she is right, and such a read-through revealed several issues that I immediately recognized. I started to point them out, and Ann Dee stopped me again as I needed to see if our group members identified the same problems FIRST. And they did.

I had hoped my writing experiment wouldn’t appear gimmicky, and that it would introduce readers to a WHAM-BAM first line; SUPER strong voice; and an INTRIGUING plot set-up.

If those areas were graded, I’d say I received a D, B, and D. And this is why.

  • The first line introduces 2 pieces of the plot that I wanted to emphasize, BUT one part overshadowed the other to the point that my readers didn’t even notice the second detail. And that one was THE most important! This problem deflated both the WHAM and the BAM.
  • While the first page does a decent job of creating a YA voice, the experimental format doesn’t help readers get a real feel for the character’s voice. THIS is critical. Without it, we don’t understand enough about the MC to decide whether or not we like him/her, and if we don’t like that him or if we aren’t intrigued with her, why read on? (I just talked myself into reducing the “B” to a “C”.)
  • While I think I have an intriguing plot idea, I failed to clearly introduce it. My peer readers had to go back and re-read the first part to figure out what had just happened. (NOT a good thing.)

So with those flaws in mind, my group discussed what I could do to “fix” the problems. Ann Dee led the discussion, and she helped me understand the limitations of the format, and she also threw out an idea that could improve the ALL-IMPORTANT first line.

Other group members asked good questions that helped me recognize additional holes.  And so, I went away with concrete ideas that should strengthen that first page and, hopefully, the rest of the manuscript.

The question I asked myself was this: Shall I revise OR start over? I remembered that Carol Lynch Williams challenged followers of Throwing Up Words to toss out the first 5 pages and reCREATE them – NOT reWRITE them. I believe recreation means I come at the story in a different way; and while I like the multi-writing-genre idea, I think I need to scale it back some. BUT I will NOT even look at those first 5 pages when I reWRITE/CREATE them!!!

The point is I walked away from the workshop experience rejuvenated because I remembered this quotation from Writing Simplified:

Writing alone isn’t enough to help you improve; you need FEEDBACK.


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Crazy Fun at WRITING for CHARITY

The best thing about being a writer is I’m my own boss, and the worst thing about being a writer is I’m my own boss.

~ Rick Walton

These are some of the best chunks of craziness I picked up at Writing for Charity (WfC). I encountered some from the question and answer sessions, some from the author/writer workshop, and some from eaves dropping! 😉

  • Most surprising discovery: Once you publish, don’t be surprised if your book cover shows up on one OR more other books. Check THIS out.

What makes this a little more surprising is that both authors live at opposite ends of the Wasatch Front – Wendy Toliver, who penned Lifted, lives in Davis County and Ann Dee Ellis, author of Everything is Fine, calls Utah County home.

The books couldn’t be more different, but I’m thinkin’ the cover girl fits both main characters in some ways. I believe Toliver’s Poppy could be an older version of Ellis’ Samara. (Of course, I’m basing this opinion on having read Everything is Fine in its entirety and Lifted’s entire SUMMARY. But this book IS on my Utah writers’ to-read list.)

Both Wendy and Ann Dee attended WfC and were good sports about the double-take. They explained that publishers use stock photos for book covers, and Wendy said that this same cover is on yet a 3rd book. The authors added that they have NO say, whatsoever, in the choice. While their opinion is asked, it’s not really heeded.

Wendy told her agent about this, but the publisher said, “Oh, well.”

  • Best Twilight Zone experience for an author goes to Anne Bowen, picture book author who is trying her hand at writing a YA novel. She decided a LONG time ago to name her main character Kendra Anderson. And so this summer when she started working on the novel featuring Miss Kendra, guess what! Anne started receiving MAIL address to – yup, you guessed it – KENDRA ANDERSON. (Insert the “do doo do doo” Twilight Zone theme here! 🙂 )
  • Strangest coincidence award goes to Emily Wing Smith, author of The Way He Lived and her new book, the April release of Back When You Were Easier to Love. After the publication of her first novel, she received a message from an aspiring author who said, “I’m jealous of you.” Of course, Emily thought that was pretty cool until the author of the message continued, “because back in high school you went to prom with my husband.” (Not that the couple was married then – oh, you know what she was saying.)

The coincidence lies in the fact that this guy DATED an aspiring YA author and MARRIED another aspiring YA author – who, unlike Emily, is STILL aspiring. Interesting.

  • Craziest silent auction prizes. Author of I’m Not a Serial Killer, Dan Wells, offered to kill you off in his next book. This is crazy at so many levels:
    1. Dan is NOT a serial killer nor a hit man, and so this is a fictional killing. (Sorry, insane people, this won’t help you bump off your in-laws or anyone else for that matter.)
    2. Someone actually entered a $500 bid online, and I’m thinkin’ Dan’s mom, dad, or brother might be the author’s  next FICTIONAL victim because who else would pay that much to be knocked off in a fledgling author’s book but a relative? I mean $500???
    3. BTW, Dan doesn’t seem to be serial killer-crazy and yet he’s written a YA novel about a kid who is a potential serial killer and is fighting it. (I don’t think this is the Edward fighting his vampire-hood kind of story. I just started reading it, and I don’t suggest it for bedtime reading.)
  • Most far-flung event goes to fellow aspiring writer Brodi Ashton’s maniacal purse that knocked my copy of Dan Well’s book from my hand and sent it sailing across the room barely missing two WfC staffers. And Brodi was totally unaware of her bag’s shenanigans.

Only when Dan opened the book to sign it and commented that the title page was all bent out of shape did I say, “It was Brodi’s purse’s fault.” Upon which, Brodi felt all bad, but Dan wrote a fun message that will bring a smile to my face for years. So it was worth it, Brodi! Seriously. 😀

Brodi Ashton totally beat this book and owes you an ice cream cone. Daniel A. Wells

  • Most surprising good/bad news was finding Ann Cannon at the event – NOT as a participating author but rather as a cute King’s English Bookstore sales dude. At least I was able to say hello, give her a hug, and line her up for a guest spot at a Jordan Council International Reading Association meeting. 😉
  • Insanity personified is awarded to someone’s statement I overheard while eating my delicious sandwich: “I have STARTED 13 novels.” (Oh please don’t let that be me in a few months!)

If anyone reading this wonders what helpful insights I learned when workshopping my WIP, stay tuned for the next post. In the little time we had, I gained what I went there for, thanks to the AMAZING Ms. Ann Dee Ellis.

As for my writing friends who couldn’t attend, I MISSED YOU! SERIOUSLY!



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Just plotting along.

If an author writes, ‘The king died and then the queen died,’ there is no plot for a story. But by writing, ‘The king died and then the queen died of grief,’ the writer has provided a plot line for a story.

~ from The Elements of Literature

If it were just that simple! You have this story running amok in your brain, and you know point A and point Z, but getting there is when you enter the crazy maze. Before you know it, you are totally lost! And so are your characters.

What SHOCKS me is how quickly it can happen. I’ve found that STARTING the novel is NOT a problem for me, BUT just a few chapters in, I feel like that little lost mouse or hamster in search of the BIG CHUNK ‘o CHEESE or the exit, whichever comes first.

So, I did something I didn’t want to do. I solicited the help of my eldest son, the screenwriter. Chris has written about a dozen screenplays over 13 years, and has yet to sell one or see one produced. Nevertheless, he PERSEVERES, and he is close to seeing his dream come true – at least we think so. At any rate, his scripts are outstanding – seriously – and I’m not just saying that because I am MoM. Enough credible people have critiqued them to support my assessment.

So the other day I chatted with him about my latest WIP. (Even though they are all very encouraging, I don’t like to do this with family. Not sure why.) Because Chris has a lot of writing fiction experience, I decided to take a chance. Besides he might want company in his misery in pursuing the big break.

As anticipated, he asked the hard questions about my plot, including these …

  • What is your overarching theme?

    • I am an English teacher and must admit I didn’t even think about the theme! For shame. I guess I thought it would just “show up.” But Chris said that having a theme in mind helps guide the plot’s development. It doesn’t have to be one of those super deep messages that only an English professor will recognize, but rather something simple that holds the story together.

    And so I am thinking about this and have come up with a theme that is reflected in both the content AND the text structure. It has to do with the ways and means beings try to communicate with each other. Got that? Really intriguing, huh? But I hope it makes sense once this project is completed.

  • Who is the antagonist?

    • While this might not seem like a plot-related question, we discussed how characters drive the plot. If I don’t have a good idea of who my characters are and how they contribute to the unfolding of the story, I will most likely end up with a loser plot.

    Although I thought a lot about the main character, I hadn’t really decided upon a bad guy or girl or “thing.” But I threw out a couple of ideas, neither of which could really work into much of an enemy. So Chris shared 2 suggestions: that I look beyond the MC’s immediate circle of family or friends and that I introduce that character early in the book.

    He also mentioned some possibilities, including a teacher, but I could NOT bring myself to turn an educator into a villain. Teachers have enough problems right now without capitalizing on the few miscreants who give good ones a bad name.

    Shortly after our conversation, I thought of a perfect foil, and I had even met such a person. It was a TERRIBLE experience!

    Chris’ last suggestion was to consider studying Michael Hauge’s “Six-Stage Plot Structure.” This structure was created to help screen writers, but Chris thinks it will work with novels as well. Here is what it looks like:

    (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

    I haven’t “played” with this structure yet, but I am anxious to. I’ve written 5 chapters of my WIP, but I’m feeling the effects of wandering in that maze. I think I better give this a try.

    So, writing friends, what do you think? Have you ever tried anything like it? I’d love to hear from you.


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    … summer fun: kidfest #2 of 3 or 4 …

    As summer winds down, I want to post more fun time photos of the good times I enjoyed with my grandchildren. The first kidfest was in San Jose, CA. But these next 2 or 3 feature my Wasatch Front kidlets.

    In a seven-day period in the latter part of July, I visited two petting zoos – well, the one at Thanksgiving Point was more of a Pet Peeking Zoo. While a few goats romped free on the square,  little visitors could pet MOST of the domestic animals through the wire fence.

    The petting zoo at This is the Place Heritage Park, on the other hand, was an up-close-and-personal experience as you will see in this slide show of Misses Mia and Evie.

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    It was a GREAT day.

    Stay tuned for the Thanksgiving Point Pet Adventure!


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    “You like me. You REALLY like me.”

    It’s a major award!

    ~ Mr. Parker from A Christmas Story

    I have been presented with my first blogger award EV-er! And I love the title of award: The Circle of Friends. That’s one thing I truly enjoy about blogging – the creation of a circle of friends, most of whom we meet in the blog-o-sphere. And these friends are often very different from our “reality” buddies – our neighbors, our colleagues, etc. This circle of friends like to reflect, write, and comment about lots ‘o stuff that is ofttimes of little interest to your face-2-face friends. My family, including my husband, rarely reads my blogs – any of them. Sometimes I “force-read” a post to the big guy, but most of the time I don’t. Sniff, sniff.

    My colleague/friend/blogger buddy Amy Jo Lavin at Ramblings of a Novice Writer presented me with the much appreciated award. She is seriously amazing. She has written 1 1/2 novels; she hosts a blog that is fun to read, and she even issues challenges and hosts contests; plus she teaches school and mothers little boys – her own! Now my job is to present this award to 5 more bloggers, and so here are the recipients I have chosen:

    I visit these blogs often, and all the creators have either responded on my blog or replied to my comments on their blogs. These women are talented. They represent a range of ages from youngsters to oldsters. But they all love writing, and I love what they bring to my life. Visit their sites and see for yourself!


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    … i have a garden, a lovely garden …

    For nine years I attended church at the LDS Pocatello Fifth Ward – that’s what we Mormons call our parishes. I have many fond memories of my religious upbringing there, and among them are the songs we learned in Primary.

    Now a reception center, this chapel is where I worshiped.

    Every Wednesday at 10:00 A.M. in the summer and 4:00 P.M. during the school year, children from 3 to 12 years old gathered at the meeting house on McKinley and Elm to sing songs and learn about the gospel. Sister Stolworthy was the chorister who taught me songs and melodies I sing or hum to this day.

    While taking a walk in my yard last Wednesday to monitor the progress of our year-old plants, flowers, and trees, I remembered the first couple of lines to one of those old favorites from that long-ago time, and that heightened the joy I found in my garden that morning.

    The little song, “I Have a Garden,” also reminds me of my grandmothers’ gardens that I enjoyed so much. They inspired me to create a miniature “secret garden” beneath their lilac bushes.

    While the young flowers, bushes, and trees of my garden in the western desert have to mature into back yards like Grandma B.’s and Grandma H.’s, I enjoy it still.

    I invite you to sing along as you peruse a few pictures of my growing patch of happiness . (Just follow the bouncing ball – oh, wait. Dear Mitch Miller passed away recently. There will be NO bouncing ball. Sorry.)

    I have a garden, a lovely garden ...

    with flowers blossoming ever-fair ...

    Where sun shines brightly, and rain falls lightly ...

    and breezes gather sweet fragrance there.

    Song birds come singing out of the sky ...

    butterflies winging, hovering by.

    And in my garden, my lovely garden ...

    there’s always beauty to greet the eye.

    Oh, and we have veggies, too! A true MIRACLE!

    Can't forget ZUCCHINI!

    The rewards of tucking veggies amongst the flowers! From garden to grill! YUM!


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    After reading this, you’ll think I’m bi-polar.

    If you’re down and confused
    And you don’t remember who you’re talkin’ to
    Concentration slip away
    Cause your baby is so far away.
    Well, there’s a rose in a fisted glove
    And the eagle flies with the dove
    And if you can’t be with the one you love
    Love the one you’re with
    Love the one you’re with

    ~ Stephen Stills, 1970

    I am clueless as to what the first two lines of the chorus means, but “a rose in a fisted glove” and “an eagle [flying] with a dove” are pretty cool images. If I understood the symbolism, I could probably tie them into this post, but since I don’t, I’m going with “… if you can’t be with the one you love, then love the one your with.”

    Naturally, I’m NOT writing about a former boyfriend or a clandestine lover – I’m a happily married blogger – but I am thinking how this applies to my writing doldrums of the past few weeks: To abandon a potentially great idea because it is NOT really I’m not REALLY into it. When I ventured to write up a character bio, as I committed to do, and found I couldn’t even complete that, I decided it was time to admit momentary defeat and hang with the NEW idea “on the block.” But what exactly was that?

    I know all this sounds too familiar, BUT I promise this ends on a more positive note. For awhile now, I’ve toyed with an idea that I liked but couldn’t solidify, and then …  (Is the anticipation significantly building?) …

    I watched NEW MOON!!!

    For the first time.

    Do NOT – I repeat – do NOT panic. I have NO intention of whipping out yet another vampire novel, but watching 2 freaking MISERABLE characters MOPE over each other added substance to my nebulous idea. And I decided I LOVED it. (The IDEA, not New Moon.)

    Because this story is lighter than Not That Way, the working title of the “other” novel-in-the-making, I’ve been able to “throw up words.” Something I wanted and needed to do but couldn’t because the subject of Not That Way was SO heavy, and the character-arc SO wide that INTENSE thinking prohibited puking on paper.

    This is a truly lame comparison, but I felt like I was TRYING to love deep and dark Edward, but I’m NOT obsessed and depressed Bella! I was forcing a relationship that wasn’t there. NOT to say it will always be that way, but for right now, I’ve ditched the … . Well, you know what I’m sayin’.

    The point is that for a first-time novelist, I need (I was tempted to write “Jacob” but controlled that urge) something different. I’m not sure of all the reasons why, but this new thing feels right.