WIPpet Wednesday: "Something Like That"

The WIPpet Wednesday blog hop gives authors a chance to share snippets from their current Works In Progress. Thanks to K. L. Schwengel for hosting!

Happy Wednesday, WIPpeters!

My wrists continue to flare up at the most inconvenient times, so my WIPpeting may continue to be sporadic for the time being. Kinda stinks (for me at least), but at least you know I'm with you in spirit. Or something like that.

Ok, the WIP. This comes from book 2 in My Solar-Powered History series for kids. The title of the book is What Hurricane?

***

We made our way up a ladder to the deck. We squinted in the sun and saw that the ship was still anchored next to land. Some men wen were carrying cargo on board and others were climbing up the ropes and poles that shot up toward the bright sky. “What ship is this?” I asked my brothers. I tried to remember what Dad told us before he programmed the machine. A supply ship to Jamestown. Admiral Somers, my great-great-great-grandpa, or something like that. And what had Dad said about a big storm?

***

As you can figure, the Otis boys have some excitement coming their way. Stay tuned...

And now that the WIP is out of the way (that was 8 sentences from page 8, by the way, it being the last Wednesday in August and all), how about something really fun? This is a video fellow WIPpeter Regi McClain helped me make for my Beloved Daughter audiobook pre-order campaign. I'm including the version with bloopers - this one's a lot more fun, in my opinion.

Speaking of Audiobooks: If you want to help me raise the funds I still need to pay the audiobook narrator, I'd love to invite you to my kickstarter page.

Random Fact: I was at a youth retreat once growing up where a flash flood left thousands of us stranded in a college basketball stadium all night with no electricity.

Good Laughs

This post appears in Christian Home Magazine, brought to you by Laura O.

     A few days ago, my son experienced something totally new and unexpected. We were eating lunch and listening to an Adventure in Odyssey, and one of the characters said something so funny that milk came out his nose.

     I admit, my only experience with trying (and failing) to laugh and drink at the same time happened at a sleepover and involved some especially carbonated Root Beer. At least my son was spared the fizz.

     Truth be told, I've been in something of a funk for the past few weeks. I was hoping to have my next novel edited and ready to publish by the end of the year, but my wrists aren't cooperating. They're telling me they need a little time off of the computer. (Which, incidentally, I've taken as God's way of telling me I need a little time off the computer as well.) Unfortunately, I haven't necessarily been as submissive as I should be to this enforced Sabbath of sorts.

     Which is why I'm so thankful my friend Regi has continued to come over and get me laughing. As you'll see in the video below, we've had our fair share of laughs this past week as we put together a video to let people know about the soon-to-be-released audiobook for my novel, "The Beloved Daughter."

     For some reason, being down just doesn't carry as much pull when your best friend is sitting across the table giggling at you. (I mean with you...)

     Thankfully, neither of us were drinking milk or Root Beer while we made the video. Because that would have been a pretty big mess.

Here's Regi and I trying our darndest to keep that water out of our nose when we made a video about "The Beloved Daughter." It took us a while, but we eventually nailed it. :)

Want to see more of Regi? Check out her blog, or click here for the most hilarious short story I've ever read. (And, no, I'm not just saying that because I owe her one for helping me make this video...)

Interested in The Beloved Daughter audiobook? Click here to see my kickstarter campaign and pre-order your own copy today.

Guest Post: Free Children's Book

Today I'm hosting a guest post from Susette Williams, a writing friend of mine whose book, The Day My Parents Got Lost, is free for the next two days!

The Day My Parents Got Lost - by Susette Williams

 

Has your child ever wandered off or gotten lost? When our oldest daughter was a toddler, she wandered off in a department store. Suddenly we were experiencing every parent's worst fear. Then when we found her, her tone was accusing, “You left me.”

Muttering in my own disbelief, “I… didn’t… leave you.” Then having to spend many years trying to convince her that the way she ‘pictured’ things was not what she thought. I’m not sure who needed therapy more. Our daughter, for feeling abandoned, or us for her making us feel like we were horrible parents. She was too young to realize the whole situation. Now that she’s older, and a school teacher, she’s thrilled to find out I wrote a book inspired by those events. Her students are anxious to read it, especially knowing it was inspired by their teacher.

My newest picture book, The Day My Parents Got Lost, takes a look at getting lost through a child’s eyes. While in the story, his parents are having fun, that most likely wouldn’t be the case in real life. The story gives children the opportunity to see how parents feel. I wrote this as a humorous story because while getting lost is very real and scary, we don’t want to scare children. The book gives parents and teachers the opportunity to speak with children about what they should do if they get separated from parents or a group. If you haven’t developed a plan with your children, or even your grandchildren, discuss safety tips and who they should turn to if they have a problem.

As a tool to help you lead into this conversation with discussing the topic and how to respond, I am offering The Day My Parents Got Lost for free August 20-22. Please download a free copy during these dates and leave a review on Amazon so that other readers know how much you enjoyed the story.

Download a copy for free August 20-22 at: http://ow.ly/o2yom

Feel free to contact me through my website and share if you have ever had a child wander off or get lost. You can also download free coloring pages for Wacky Wishes. We will be having free coloring pages coming soon for The Day My Parents Got Lost.

Comments and coloring pages:

http://www.susettewilliams.com/childrens_book.html

Follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/SusetteWilliams

Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildrensAuthorSusetteWilliams

WIPpet Wednesday: I'm Back

     Well, I'm back. Sort of. My wrists have been giving me a really hard time lately. I took a few weeks off just about all things computer. Not very fun when you're in the midst of editing a book you hoped to launch in November. Half a month later, I'm back at the computer (for short spurts at a time). I haven't even opened my file for Not Alone since my wrists flared up. But when typing for thirty minutes elevates the temperature around your forearms a good three or four degrees compared to the rest of your skin, it's time to give yourself a break no matter how much you dislike the idea.

     The good news is that taking time off Not Alone gave me a chance to focus a little more on some marketing details for The Beloved Daughter. And even if Not Alone might not be launched this fall, the audiobook for The Beloved Daughter should be. I signed up with ACX and connected with a producer who's won 3 Audie awards and has narrated over 40 books on Audible, most of them in the Christian fiction genre. Match made in heaven? Sure, I'll go that far.

     As for WIPs, I hoped to be knee-deep in Not Alone edits by now, but such isn't the case. Fortunately, book 2 in my children's series, Solar-Powered History, is with the publisher and we're waiting on illustrations, so I'm not completely WIPless. Here are the first 14 sentences from What Hurricane?, the second book in My Solar-Powered History.

***

"What are you reading?” I asked my little brother O’Malley. It was snowing outside. O’Malley was sitting on the couch drinking some hot cocoa. His nose, like often, was buried in a book.

“The Tempest,” O’Malley answered. Now, you might think it would be a little strange for a five-year-old boy to be reading Shakespeare. I mean, Dad says even a lot of adults have a hard time understanding Shakespeare’s plays. But O’Malley’s not your typical kindergartner. What other kid do you know who’s published his own poetry collection?

Anyway, on this particular day O’Malley was reading "The Tempest." O’Malley liked Shakespeare so much he was actually dressed in Shakespearean style. He had leggings, short beige pants, and a loose white shirt. Meanwhile, my middle brother Benson was practicing the piccolo solo from Stars and Stripes Forever on his tuba, and Dad was in the garage working on parts for the solar-powered history machine.

***

     Yup, just a typical day in the Otis home.

***

Blog Love: Thanks for K. L. Schwengel at myrandommuse.wordpress.com for hosting the Wednesday WIPpet blog hop!

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Date Night Nightmares

What's up with this photo?

     I haven't had the best luck when it comes to dating. Seeing as how I've been married for nine years, I guess I'm ok with that, but still I wish my dating life had a slightly better track record.

     My dating history began with a trip to a gay bar with a boy from college who decided to have an identity crisis on me. (That was my first date if you don't count the time my best friend's ex-boyfriend took me out to ask me how he should get back together with his lost love. Theoretically, since it was just him and me and he paid the bill, I suppose you could call this a date. I'm not into splitting hairs, but in my opinion it doesn't qualify.)

     I was a pretty pathetic single gal, so I guess it's fortunate that I met my husband to-be when I was 19. Still, I was a senior in college at the time and had plenty of opportunities prior to that to find out just how dismal my dating luck really was.

     And then I got married.

     Phillip and I ended up celebrating our first anniversary at McDonald's. It didn't have much to do with budget (because then it might almost be considered cute); it had to do with the fact that we didn't plan ahead of time what movie we wanted to see, and if we went to a sit-down restaurant we'd miss the show.

     On another anniversary, when Phillip was a full-time Bible college student in Nowhere, Alaska, we made the four-hour drive into the nearest "town" and ended up pushing a stroller around a mall and wishing we hadn't wasted all that gas. After we finally bought our first house, we decided to celebrate with a date night sans children. We got home from a nice dinner only to find that our son had clogged the toilet, and our new place still didn't have a plunger. An hour later, my husband returned from visiting three different stores in search of a plunger and rescued our plumbing.

     I suppose there are worse things to stink at than dating. Maybe in another nine years I'll be able to write a blog post about some of the amazing dates we've shared. Until then, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and invest in a movie directory app ... and an extra plunger.

What about you? What's one of your more memorable dates you've been on?

Blog Love: This post appears courtesy of Laura O and Christian Home Magazine.

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