Rachelle J. Christensen

Romance, Suspense, Mystery Author

Memory Lane

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For Writers

I’d like to take a trip down memory lane. Would you like to come along?

I started blogging in 2007 because I wanted to build a web presence for myself as an “author” and challenge myself to learn some of those technical computer things. Little did I know how much I would enjoy blogging, the opportunities that would come my way, and most of all the incredible FRIENDS–like you–I would meet along the way. We’ve come a long way, and I say “We” because I wouldn’t be here without the great support from each of you! Thank you!

I’m reposting one of my very first posts today. It’s kind of fun for me to look at what has happened since I wrote that post.

I feel incredibly blessed to have realized my dream of becoming a published author. A pivotal part of that journey was my introduction to a wonderful critique group, AuthorsIncognito and my authors guild LDStorymakers. I feel like I’m only beginning my journey. I have so many more goals to achieve, so many more stories to write, and blogs to post. 🙂

Many of the things on my top ten list still apply to me. Even though I’m a published author, I’m still vulnerable, and I’m putting myself out there right now for more rejections because I’m querying agents. Yes, if you have any extra magic fairy dust, sprinkle it here because this farm girl knows how to work hard and I’d like to double my efforts in my career with an agent.

So here’s that list. If I were writing this list today, it’d say “my inbox” and “emails” instead of “mail”–crazy how things change!

First posted on September 15, 2007:

The Top 10 Reasons to be a Writer According to Rachelle J. Christensen

I love being a writer and I want you all to know how much I enjoy it, so here’s my top ten list!

10. You get lots of mail. Yes, it’s usually rejection letters with words like “unfortunately, sorry, and it’s just not right for me,” but hey, everyone loves to get mail—right?

9. You get to have your self-esteem tested on a regular basis. Most people go around thinking they are no good, but you have the actual proof in the letter you just got out of the mailbox.

8. You are one of the few people who will get to enjoy The Look in your lifetime. The Look is when you are talking about what you like to do and you say, “I like to write.” And the person says, “Really, have you been published?” and if you say, “No, but I’ve got 289 queries out right now.” They give you The Look and say, “Hmmm, that’s nice.” (If further explanation is needed just try it on one of your friends).

7. You know how to do things with Microsoft Word that Bill Gates doesn’t even know.

6. You can feel good about devouring an entire bag of M&M’s, ½ pound of cheese, a box of crackers, another bag of M&M’s, and a Dove dark chocolate bar because you are going to reach your word count goal today!

5. You will acquire the odd habit of addressing letters to yourself with postage paid and dropping it in the mailbox and excitedly counting down the days until you get it back.

4. Writers are intelligent people! You know what ms, SASE, SAE, SCBWI, IRC, b&w, 20 lb. white, YA , dummy, and agent only means.

3. You also know what query, outline, sample chapter, spreadsheet, synopsis, unsolicited material, simultaneous submissions,em dash, table of contents, royalties, advances, and submissions editor means. Oh, and of course you know what rejection means too.

2. When you step into a bookstore from now on, you will look around at all the sundry bestselling books on the shelves in awe and smack your palm against your glistening forehead and vociferate, “What am I doing wrong!” and then wince as your hand tingles and your wrist throbs, and you remember that you shouldn’t slap things because you have carpal tunnel syndrome.

1. Because you like to write prolifically, and you compose, dash off, draft, scribble, create, rewrite, reference, versify, and inscribe on a daily basis— you can write up silly, zany, cockamamie, amusing, sardonic top ten lists and post it for your friends when you are having an otherwise uneventful day. (And you can count this list as 461 words closer to your word limit today and insist that all of your friends give Rachelle J. Christensen credit for writing something worthwhile today.)

Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane, and thank you again for making this journey so enjoyable!

How has your life changed in the past 12 years? Have you achieved some of the things you’d hoped to?

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Writing and Rewriting

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For Writers

Years ago, I was able to attend the wonderful LDStorymakers conference and I have to put in a plug! I had such a great time and had all kinds of ideas running through my head after I returned. The conference is usually in May and can sell out quickly, so watch for your chance to sign up for it–it’s well worth it!

It seems like I am always busy revising and rewriting a few manuscripts to get them ready for submission. I am always really excited about getting some of my manuscripts a step closer to publication. Of course, I know some of those steps involve receiving rejections but I’m getting good at that, so bring ’em on!

The problem with revising a book is I have fallen in love with my characters. I really like them and it’s hard to see what they are doing wrong (which basically means what I have written them doing wrong). It’s also hard to cut, cut, cut out favorite lines because they aren’t relevant to the story. Does anyone else think of the movie Rainmaker when I say “Cut, cut, cut!”? Anyway tangent, but we authors will do almost anything it seems to get away from the revising project. But I’m determined to make some definite headway this week.

After I returned from the conference, I was working on a story and while my then 2 year old was taking her nap, I read my middle-grade novel aloud to my then almost 5 year old. It’s important to read your manuscript aloud to catch things and since she was playing by me, she got to hear it. What was fun, was how much she comprehended and then would ask me questions. In one part, my character has a confrontation with a bully and my daughter said, “If he did that to me, then I would slap him.”

I think I’ll go eat some Dove dark chocolate now to get those creative juices flowing again.

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Guest Post: Miracle of Creation by Angela Morrison

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For Writers:

Today I’m excited to feature one of my favorite authors, Angela Morrison. She has a wonderful thought to share!

Angela:

It’s been almost 17 years that Michael, my scuba-diving hero in Taken by Storm, escaped from the “what ifs” swirling in my brain and swam onto my page.

I still remember the awe I felt when I looked down at the words and realized they weren’t mine. They were his.

Between my brain, hand, a piece of paper, and a little ink, I’d created something new. Like any first-time mom cradling her newborn, I filled with joy, excitement, love, and gratitude. The voice on my page was a gift.

And, like an untried mother naive to the demands of a new baby, I didn’t know how many nights that voice would wake me up at 2 a.m. I didn’t know it would take years of hard work to get it to walk on its own two legs. And more years of heart-ache, patience, continued effort, and miracles to find someone who believed enough in my creation to want to share it with the world.

I didn’t know how much it would change my life.

I didn’t know how much joy I’d find in the journey.

I didn’t know the wonder of an email from a reader.

There is nothing more joyful–or miraculous–than a child’s birth. New-sent from heaven. A precious partnership with the Father of us all. I find tremendous joy in those wondrous, electric moments when that partnership blesses my own, humble efforts to create. When I finish a project, I long to feel it again.

My thought for you today is dance and sing and enjoy the creations in your life–be they babies or books, poems or cantatas. Smile on them today. Take joy.

Angela Morrison

About Angela Morrison

In kindergarten I wanted to be a veterinarian and have a hundred cats and ten kids. Then I went to first grade and learned how to write. I’ve been a scribbler ever since. My passion is writing break-your-heart YA romances. First love stories that will make you weep. I have an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA in English from Brigham Young University. My husband and I share our time between the alp-lined shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland and Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. We have four kids, mostly grown up, the two most amazing grandkids in the universe, and no cats–unless you count the bobcat that likes to hang out on the veranda. Please send questions and comments via www.angela-morrison.com. E-mail me if you want to be personally notified of new releases.

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Guest Post: G.G. Vandagriff

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For Writers:

What inspires you to write? Some authors need to be in a certain room, have a favorite snack, or listen to music. Author G.G. Vandagriff was kind enough to do a guest post about how music influences her and her writing. Enjoy!

My Soundtrack by G.G. Vandagriff

Right next to my love of writing is my love of music. In fact, as I look at my novels, I find that music is inescapably woven through them. I take my literary cues from the music I listen to.

PaperbackTchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major was the inspiration behind my women’s fiction: Pieces of Paris. My heroine, Annalisse, is stuck in the Missouri Ozarks with her Quixotic husband who thinks he has found the Garden of Eden. However, she grew up on a farm and knows that a farm is just a farm. She is overcome by PTSD and finds herself immersed in flashbacks of another life her husband knows nothing about. Before that life ended tragically (thus causing her to bury the memories deeply), she was a concert pianist (Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto and Chopin’s etudes figure here). More importantly, she was passionately in love with a brilliant violinist consumed by Tchaikovsky. In creating that character, I also became consumed—both with him and with that amazingly complex composition. I played it as I wrote, and Jules became one of my most memorable characters. The concerto is vastly yearning, longing for resolution. Jules’s character development traced the concerto’s. In the same way, as I wrote this book during my twenty-five year apprenticeship, I was yearning for the completion that only writing could give me. I was stretching, as the violinist stretches in this composition. It was plainly the soundtrack for my literary life.

The Only Way to Paradise by [Vandagriff, G. G.]In another book, The Only Way to Paradise, a tale of four women who find hope and healing in Italy, two of my “crazy ladies” are violinists. Arthritis has stricken Georgia, ending her career as a violin sensation. The Mendelssohn Violin Concerto was her signature piece, and she played it “like silk.” As I wrote of Georgia and her memories, I played the concerto as my “soundtrack.” When she thinks she wants to end her life, she hears through her window in Florence, the sound of the Dvorak violin concerto played by an anonymous virtuoso. The Slavic melody of the music echoes her mood, but saves her life. The violinist turns out to be one of her companions, whom she undertakes to mentor.

Kindle EditionWhen I was writing the penultimate love scene in my Regency romance, Miss Braithwaite’s Secret, music inspired me. To put me in a sweepingly romantic mood, I put Pandora on Giacomo Puccini, my favorite composer of opera. It worked! Anyway, I think so. You will have to judge for yourself and read the book!

It is one of life’s great ironies that I understand music, but cannot play a note, nor even read it! However, I cannot live without it.

About G. G. Vandagriff

G. G. Vandagriff

G.G. Vandagriff is an Amazon #1 best selling author of Regency romance, however she has recently begun a Romantic Suspense series starting with the publication of Breaking News It surrounds the events in a Chicago TV station’s investigative journalism unit and is lots of fun.

Her first novel The Last Waltz, the first novel in her 20th Century Historical Romance Series won the Whitney Award for Best Historical Novel in 2009. There are now two more books in that series–Exile and Defiance.

Her thirteen Regencies have been lauded by critics and compared to the witty novels of Georgette Heyer. She has also written a lively genealogical mystery series featuring Briggie and Alex, two wacky widows, as sleuths. Alex is in her thirties, Briggie in her sixties, and both have plenty of romance in their lives.

Vandagriff graduated from Stanford and received her master’s degree from George Washington University. She worked as an associate editor at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, an assistant treasurer in the Harvard Treasurer’s office, a bond analyst at Fidelity Investments, and an international banker for Continental Illinois National Bank (later acquired by Bank of America).

She and her husband David are the parents of three children and seven grandchildren, her greatest joys in life. Her favorite novel? Jane Eyre. She also loves Florence, Sundance Resort, Cubs baseball, hot chocolate, lilacs, and dachshunds.

Find out more about her books, download a free novella, and sign up for her newsletter at http://ggvandagriff.com.

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Determination and Perseverance

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For Writers:

In order to be successful in any walk of life you’ve got to have guts. This is especially true for writers. Successful writers are a determined breed. I know a little bit about this process, especially the rejection process. But I’m pretty dang determined. Some call me feisty and strong-willed, but I’m also busy and stubborn as anything for a cause. When I put my mind to something, I’m going to do it.

I’ve put my mind to writing and I have already seen some successes. Now I’m not bank-rolling on the New York Times Bestseller list yet, but I’ve learned a ton and I know that as long as I stay determined and persevere towards my goal, I’ll achieve it.

For all of my fellow writers and friends who are aspiring towards a goal, I dedicate this awesome article and video clip about the World’s Strongest Dad. It is one of the best examples I’ve seen of being dedicated to a cause and going after it with heart and soul. Read the article first so you’ll know what you’re watching, it’s amazing!

ARTICLE

VIDEO

After watching the video, I figure I can write about 1,000 more queries or whatever it takes to reach my dreams!

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Writing Conferences

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For Writers:

I’ve been reminiscing about the times I have been able to attend the LDSStorymakers conferences. In 2011, I was able to attend for my 6th time (it was the 8th annual conference) and I was again blown away by the sheer amount of knowledge and opportunities available.

National agents Becca Stumpf, Sara Crowe, and Sara Megibow were all in attendance as well as Marcia Markland, Senior editor at Thomas Dunne books.

A few highlights:

I won a seat at the VIP table with Becca, Sara, Marcia, and Larry Brooks for the Friday night dinner. It was so fun to talk with them in a more casual setting.

Dave Wolverton/Farland is one of my favorite teachers. He has so much knowledge, I wish I could just plug into his brain and download it!

Larry Brooks taught a great class on Story Structure and I bought his book Story Engineering

I attended Elana Johnson’s “How to Write a Killer Query class” and she knows her stuff!

I also attended Sara Crowe’s class on Query pitches and she gave some awesome advice and examples.

I met a ton of new writing pals and reconnected with some of my favorite buddies.

I felt like I was running the entire time (and sometimes I really was sprinting through those halls) to go back and forth to my room to take care of my baby. Here’s me with a picture of my baby–does he look hungry to you?

My wonderful mom came and stayed with me to take care of my baby–I love you Mom!

She made it possible for me to participate in this conference and I’m so grateful.

Attending these conferences can allow for so many opportunities and networking. As you can see, it was hard for me to go that year with a baby, but it was possible, and I learned and grew so much from my experience.

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