WIPpet Wednesday: "One More Push"

     Hello, WIPpeters! And a Happy Thanksgiving Eve to my friends in the US. Belated wishes to you
out there in Canada. As for the rest of you ... do you have a Thanksgiving or similar holiday where you live? (*blushes apologetically for my xenocentric public school education*)

     I'm trying to get back in to the WIPpet swing. I really am! And so, for my last WIPpet post in November I'm showcasing eleven sentences from my current WIP, Not Alone.

***

     No matter what happened, it had to end soon. Either she would die, or she would evict the child from her womb. There would be no more waiting. Mee-Kyong gritted her teeth, grunting from the effort. Sweating from the exertion, Mee-Kyong barely had time to inhale before she needed to bear down again. Her skin burned. She clenched her eyes shut, and with one more push, she stretched wider than she thought was physically possible. Another small push*, almost an afterthought, brought her child into the world. Soft fuzzy down covered near translucent eyelids. Perfectly formed nails tipped the end of ten wrinkle fingers. Pang’s child was a boy.

***

     Now, I really doubt any of you actually noticed this is only ten sentences, not eleven. But for the sake of transparency, I should tell you I ended up deleting the last sentence. Feel free to come up with your own conjectures, or else just thank me now.

*virtual cookies to whomever can help me come up with an appropriate synonym for push here

Blog Love: Huge thanks to K L Schwengel for hosting the WIPpet Wednesday blog hop, where authors post snippets from the current Works In Progress!

Random Fact: My longest labor lasted about 81 hours.

WIPpet Wednesday: "It's Time To Decide"

     It's WIPpet time! Time for me to pull out nine paragraphs from "A Boy Named Silas," the Work In Progress (A Second Time) I've been touching up. Silas, by the way, is now a healthy almost-six-year-old. At the time this part of the story takes place, my husband and I are trying to decide whether we will withhold life-saving medical care or not for our little nine-month-old.

***

     I never saw my son struggle like he did that night. Silas was working so hard to breathe that he bent his legs with each exhalation to try to force the air out of his sickly body. He was drenched with sweat from the effort. Even with my lack of medical training, I could tell Silas was going to wear himself out if things didn’t get improve quickly.

     And then the doctor touched my shoulder and told me I needed to decide whether to put Silas back on the ventilator.

     Or not.

     The fated moment had come. Philip and I understood from his birth that Silas might not survive. Still, we pleaded with God that we would never have to make that decision of life or death ourselves.

     When the doctor asked me what I wanted to do, it was two in the morning. I called my husband.

     “You’d better wake up Nate and get over here,” I said. “It’s time to decide.”

      By the time Phillip arrived, Silas' oxygen saturation refused to rise above 80%. His lungs just weren't working by themselves. As I heard Phillip and a now very-awake Nate coming down the hall to our room, I wondered if this little reunion was really going to be our family's last time with Silas on earth.

     Even though Phillip and I had discussed this kind of scenario in full detail, both with Silas' pediatrician and with each other, I was unprepared to make the decision final. What if Silas actually did die? Phillip and I would have to live every day with the knowledge that we let him go. Should we have fought more for him? Should we have given God another chance to work that miraculous healing we had hoped for in our son's life?

     Would our marriage survive the grief of losing our child? Would we wake up one day and blame each other for Silas' death? We did believe that Silas would be better off if we denied drastic measures, but was our choice truly in Silas' best interests? Or were we so exhausted from raising such a medically-fragile baby that we wanted to take the easy way out?

***

     So, that's my WIPAST submission. I look forward to reading all of yours! Oh, and if you're feeling lucky, check out my giveaway this week for a chance to earn a Bath and Body Works gift card or a collection of adventure books for kids.

     Thanks for helping me get my Kickstarter campaign fully funded. (You know who you are!!)

     Today's random fact: Eleven years ago, I was a click of the button away from applying to med schools. So glad that never materialized!

     Thanks to our fearless WIPpet leader, Kathy Schwengel! Can't wait to see what you've got coming off the press next!

WIPpet Wednesday: Exhausted

     Happy Wednesday the 18th! Here are 18 sentences from my current WIPAST (Work In Progress A Second Time)... If you haven't tried sounding out WIPAST phonetically, I suggest you do so now. You're welcome.

     I am re-editing "A Boy Named Silas," a memoir about my son's traumatic birth and subsequent medical issues. I wrote it for family and friends and am now re-doing it with the general public in mind.

***

     I am ashamed to admit it, but early on I imagined my life might have been easier if Silas hadn’t survived his first day. I had absolutely no idea that something was wrong in the delivery room. If Phillip didn't finally get the doctor, there is no doubt Silas would have passed away, and we might have never even known why. It would be devastating, of course. But I couldn't help wondering if losing a baby would be easier than caring night and day for a child who might always be a vegetable.

     At that point in Silas' life, I didn't know what level of functioning to expect from my son. In fact, I didn't know if he would survive at all. And, in my worse mommy moments, I found myself resenting the time Silas took away from my able-bodied toddler, who looks perpetually lost and bedraggled in all our photos from that season.

     There was really only one word to describe my emotional state: exhausted. I was tired of pumping breast milk around the clock like some kind of dairy cow or human experiment. I was tired of suctioning Silas' throat several times an hour to keep his airway as clear as possible. I was tired of all the paperwork and logistics that were required to get Silas set up with all the services he needed. At that time in my life, I really could have used a full-time secretary. (Now that I think about it, a full-time nurse and housecleaner would have been welcomed too.)

***

     I would still welcome a full-time housecleaner, but I don't see that happening any time in the  next several decades. O well.

     And now for some virtual house-keeping: Congrats to Elaine Jeremiah for launching The Inheritance this week! Can't wait to read it. Speaking of reading ... do you know anybody who likes audiobooks? (That segue needs work, I know. I guess I need a virtual blog-keeper too.) Anyway, I need one or two more pre-orders for my Kickstarter campaign to be fully funded. If you're not familiar with Kickstarter, it's all or nothing. Not funded fully = no money at all. Please check it out! You can even order a gift copy of The Beloved Daughter audiobook for a friend. It will be releasing in time for Christmas (wink, wink)!

    As always, many thanks to WIPpet leader lady Kathy Schewengel! And if you're waiting for a fun, random fact about me, it's that I once had the first 18 chapters of the book of Matthew memorized. Don't ask me to prove it - I can't even get through the genealogy in chapter 1 anymore!

     Oh yeah, and remember that video of Regi and me that didn't work? Now it does! Here we are.

Now go check out that Kickstarter campaign! (Pretty please?!)

WIPpet Wednesday: "What Really Happened"

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! 

     I'm not giving you a WIP today. "The Beloved Daughter: Bonus Materials" is now available on amazon and smashwords (and is therefore not a WIP). My kids book, "What, Hurricane?" is still in the illustrations stage, but since I'm not self-publishing it, I'm limited in how much of it I can share with you at this point.

     So, I'm going to give you a WIPAST (work in progress a second time). I've decided that while I wait for God to heal my wrists to the point where I can start working on "Not Alone" again, I'm going to re-edit, reformat, and relaunch my first-ever published book, "A Boy Named Silas."

     Today is 9/11, a day that no American who was alive in 2001 will forget. (It's also the birthday of a very special WIPpeter I know, but I doubt she wants me to make that public, so I won't mention who I'm talking about.) Back to 2001 ... after the attack on the Twin Towers, many Americans were left asking, "Why would God let something so terrible happen?" That's the same question my husband and I wrestled with almost six years ago when our son Silas stopped breathing in the delivery room. So, in honor of 9/11, I give you page 11 of "A Boy Named Silas: The First Five Years."

(Quick disclaimer: You'll definitely see my faith come out in these WIPASTs, because that's really the only thing that carried our family through Silas' traumatic birth experience. I know not everyone in cyberland shares my convictions, and I won't be hurt if you just decide it's not your thing to read.)

***

In writing Silas' story, it's hard to know where to start. I could tell you all about the moment when my husband Phillip realized something was “wrong” and went to get the doctor. I could tell you about all the medical procedures of Silas’ NICU days, including a surgery at three weeks to close off the top of his esophagus and put in a feeding tube directly into his little stomach. I could tell you about the friends and family who visited us and sent us cards, about the one year­ old big brother who woke up in our hotel room singing Jesus Loves Me, or about the family outings to Walmart that became the highlights of our weeks.

These are all great stories, and part of Silas' life that I don't want to ever forget. But there's an even more amazing story that needs to be told first. In spite of Silas' traumatic birth, I never felt the need to ask, Where was God in all of this? Where was God when massive brain hemorrhaging made my son stop breathing only an hour and a half after his birth? I already knew where God was. I didn’t need to ask. He was right there in the hospital room with us, and He was holding Silas. Of course. What else would the Almighty be doing at such a moment?

our miracle baby, 1 day old

It wasn't until Silas was three years old when I got an even more vivid picture of what really happened that horrible morning. And that’s the story that really matters. Silas is fascinated by angels. Once he spent an hour playing with Legos and literally built and entire army of angels. There were months of his life in which angelic beings occupied a large percentage of his imaginative play. Eventually I had to ask myself, Were there angels there with Silas that day he almost died? 

Finally I took the question back to God. And in my mind, I saw dozens of angels ... not cute little guardians, but soldiers who fight for the advancement of God's kingdom. Each one of these heavenly warriors guarding Silas' crib. They completely surrounded my son, watching attentively, even militantly. Each one wanted the honor of holding Silas as the doctors tried to resuscitate my limp and lifeless child. Then God came down, parted the company, and told his faithful servants, "No.” The angels moved out the way while the Almighty Himself declared, “I will be the One to hold the child in My own arms."

“A Boy Named Silas” is about what God has done from that moment on, and what He will continue to do in the life of an amazing little boy named Silas.

***

Random Fact: Silas has now gone four and a half months without using his feeding tube at all!

Want More? Check out my books on amazon! 

About That Video... I have no idea why the video I showed you guys of Regi and me didn't work out the other week. But if you want to see our video, it's up at the Kickstarter page for The Beloved Daughter audiobook, coming out soon! (I just need one or two more pre-orders for my campaign to be fully funded. Check it out!)
 

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.

WIPpet Wednesday: "Pretty Mousey"

     I've been really naughty this week. I've been stalking my amazon stats page like a psychotic ex-girlfriend. But, I guess all that obsession paid off, because tonight, I got a snapshot of this:

     Yup, that's The Beloved Daughter sitting pretty at number five in Christian suspense. (It also somehow got listed as a mystery; don't ask me why). It's place in the spotlight only lasted for about twenty minutes, so now you see how important it was for me to compulsively refresh my amazon page thirteen times an hour. Anywho... I am so thankful for our little band of WIPpeters and wish we could all have a big reunion somewhere together. (Actually, since most of us have never met each other, we couldn't even call it a reunion, could we? Shucks.)

     Anyway, back to the important stuff. Yup, it's Wednesday. Happy WIPpeteering day, everyone! Here's seven sentences (in honor of the seventh month) from The Beloved Daughter: Bonus Features. This comes in my character studies section, where I dissect my favorite (and not-so-favorite) characters and tell you all the stories behind their fictionalizations. If you've read The Beloved Daughter, you might remember Mee-Kyong, the protagonist's resourceful and effervescent best friend from labor camp.

***

     Why do I love Mee-Kyong? Because she's so much the opposite of me. I'm pretty mousey, if you really want to know. I don't rock the boat. If I were a hobbit, I'd be the kind that didn't like adventures. Mee-Kyong's dramatic flair and zest for life - even life behind barbed wires - is such a striking contest to my own timid, rationalistic existence that I can't help but love her. Maybe even envy her.

***

     So that's what I had to say about Mee-Kyong in the Bonus Materials for The Beloved Daughter. Short, isn't it? But that's ok, because I liked writing Mee-Kyong's character so much that she's about to get her own novel. Consider this the last WIPpet from the Bonus Materials since I am now in editing phase for Not Alone, which will star none other than the dramatic, vivacious Mee-Kyong. Tune in next week for more!

Random Fact: My favorite literary character is Vera Aleksandrovna from the Russian play A Month in the Country. She's a mousey little ward of a rich noblewoman, but she gets this great scene where she tells her manipulative, overbearing benefactress off. Gives me chills! Vive le mice!

Would you mind? If you have a moment to sign up for my monthly(ish) email newsletter, I'd love to be in touch with you! You can sign up on the right-hand sidebar or click here.

WIPpet Wednesday: "About the Author"

    It's WIPpet Wednesday again! Shout out to our lovely hostess, K. L. Schwengel from My Random Muse, the one writer who does simply walk into WIPpet Wednesday ... and lives to tell about it. 

     Today's WIPpet is going to be fun. Last week, I mentioned that I'm working on The Beloved Daughter: Bonus Materials to release soon as an ebook. One of the chapters is called About the Author (Unedited Edition). This is how my amazon author page would appear if I had the room for all 17 sentences (and if I didn't think it would ruin my writing career).

***

Alana Terry loves to write. Unfortunately, her passion for literature has sometimes caused her children physical discomfort. When her toddler asks her for something as simple as a drink, Alana has been known to make him wait for up to a full half an hour before she caters to his reasonable request.

Saving Natalie, the first manuscript Alana ever completed, was a total failure. It had type-casted characters, minimal plot, and enough POV (point of view) issues that you’d need a roadmap and two Advil just to make it through the first chapter. Thankfully, it was never published so she wasn’t exposed to public disgrace. Alana’s other failed attempts at writing include a historical fiction book set during the Alaskan gold rush, a non-fiction book for homeschool families about holidays around the world, and a collection of poems inspired by each of the Psalms.

Alana has some fun and cute photos up of herself online, but in truth she doesn’t even stand five feet tall and never got over the acne from her teenage years. She hasn’t worn makeup in about a decade, and a hairdresser would need to take a good five inches off her hair just to get rid of the shaggy ends. Alana suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome and sensitive teeth. 

Alana is not Korean (but thanks for asking). She also is not Chinese (note to the little kid in elementary school who teased her every day). She is half Japanese, which would have made her an enemy to the Koreans about a century ago. She has never been to Asia (thanks for asking). If you are a supporter of the arts with the means to send her on a fact-collecting trip, you can find her contact information on her webpage. 

Alana’s literary pet peeves include goody two-shoes protagonists and I-prayed-and-the-problem-was-gone plot mechanics. She’s not very fond of women who cry more than once in a novel and prefers heroines who puke under duress over ones who faint.

***

Random Fact: I weight ten pounds less than my driver's license says I do. (I gave myself some wiggle room when I first filled out my application so I wouldn't feel guilty down the road.)

Have you heard? The Beloved Daughter is only 99 cents for this week only. I'm really hoping for a boost in amazon rank. Click here to tweet it to your friends!

WIPpet Wednesday: Christening Book 2

     I'm so glad it's Wednesday. Know why? Because you WIPpeters are some of my all-time favorite
online buddies, and I've been waiting all week to share some great news with you! Ok, maybe I shouldn't call it news. Developments is a better choice. Here's some new developments.

     I'm working on my followup novel to The Beloved Daughter. But most of you know that already. What you DON'T know ... is that IT HAS A NAME!! My next novel will be called Not Alone. I have such high visions and hopes for the book and for what's to come after it's printed. In fact, as we speak I'm in the planning stages of starting a small Kickstart campaign in August so people can preorder copies (yes, I'm even doing international shipping because I love my WIPpet friends so much!).

     Anyway, in addition to working on some of my pre-pub promo for Not Alone (the baby has a NAME everybody!), I've been working on something else really fun called The Beloved Daughter: Bonus Materials. See, after I ran my Amazon free promotional period for The Beloved Daughter, a lot of people read it and then downloaded my special-needs memoir, A Boy Named Silas. The blaring message these readers were sending me was, "We don't just want to read your novels. We want to know about you, too." Who wouldn't be flattered by that?

     So I started working on a Bonus Materials ebook. Just picture a DVD. If The Beloved Daughter was the movie, this new ebook would be the bonus disc. So far I have character studies on each of the characters, outtakes (scenes I took out, with author commentary), sneak peaks (the first chapter of Not Alone, the NOW-NAMED followup to The Beloved Daughter), and my favorite part - Becoming Beloved: A Mini Memoir. In this section, I talk about my experiences writing The Beloved Daughter through to my post-publication depression last spring. I hope to show my readers that even though I write really heavy fiction, I also have what might pass in some spheres as a sense of humor. (Who would have thought, given what I write about, right?)

     So... after that long introduction, today's WIP is from my all-time favorite chapter in The Beloved Daughter: Bonus Materials. It's in the mini memoir section, and the chapter is called... well, we'll get to that in a minute.

***

     During the first month of its publication, The Beloved Daughter got only five-star reviews on amazon. You can imagine what it did to my ego reading phrases like riveting and heart-wrenching, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (in all caps for emphasis), page turner, and couldn’t put it down.

     I’d check my review page every hour (although my husband might argue it was more often than that), and whenever a new review popped up I’d make some kind of meek comment like, “Got another five-star today.” I even remember at one point thinking something along the lines of, Wow, I didn’t know my novel was that good. 

     Can you tell I needed some humbling?

     My first four-star review came a month after The Beloved Daughter was published. I should have been ready for it. But I wasn’t.

***

     Ok, so the chapter this WIPpet appears in is called "Reviewers’ Curse (or The Day My Best Friend Only Gave Me Four Stars)." So my chapter title (and subtitle) plus the nine sentences above, make a total of ten - perfect for a WIPpet post on July 10th!

     Anyway, you'll have to read the Bonus Materials when it comes out to hear the outcome of this fateful day, but I'll give enough of a spoiler to let you know that my former best friend remains my current best friend, and that I no longer stalk my amazon review page.

     (Very often.)

***

Blog Love: Thanks to K. L. Schwengel from My Random Muse for the WIPpet fun.

Random Fact: My very favorite bonus features from a movie is the deleted scenes from Rat Race.

Straw Poll: Like I mentioned, I'm getting kickstart campaign ready in preparation for Not Alone's release. Could you anonymously click on what you're most likely to do once that campaign is up and running? (No commitments, I'm just wanting a general feel to help me gauge where to set my fundraising goal.)

When Alana starts here kickstart campaign for "Not Alone," I'd be most likely to:
	1. Pay $5 in exchange for the ebook when it's released.
	2. Pay $20 in exchange for the paperback when it's released (USA).
	3. Pay $35 in exchange for the paperback when it's released (non-USA).
	4. Pay even more because I'm filthy rich and would love to support Alana's writing.
	5. Wait until the book is released and think about buying it then (no hard feelings).
pollcode.com free polls

WIPpet Wednesday: "Just Too Scared"

     Happy July, everybody! Which means I'm done with my crazy month of JuNoWriMo and will hopefully be blogging a lot more. And it's almost Fourth of July, so happy Independence Day to all my US friends reading this! 

     I haven't started editing JuNoWriMo Draft 1 yet. My mind - and wrists - kind of need a break. So for now, in honor of the first week in July, here are seven sentences that didn't make the first cut into the manuscript. Hannah is a young woman who escaped North Korea and then was trained by an American couple to return there as an underground missionary.

***

            Would she have decided to back into North Korea on her own? Probably not. Hannah felt like she owed it to the Sterns. They wanted her to do it, and Hannah agreed. Since she was the only female graduate, Hannah was hailed as the brave one. As the Yalu River came in sight, Hannah wondered if it wasn’t the other way around.

            Maybe she had just been too scared to say no to the Sterns.

***

NEWS UPDATE: The Beloved Daughter placed first in the Book Club Network's book of the month contest! Thanks to everyone for their votes! I'm really floored. Tweet the good news!

Blog Love: Thanks to K. L. Schwengel from My Random Muse for the WIPpet fun. And thanks to fellow WIPpeter Raewyn Hewitt for the interview about The Beloved Daughter!

Random Fact: There have only been four years of my life in which I have not lived under the same roof as a Trekkie. And what glorious years those were...

WIPpet Wednesday: "Take Me First"

WIPpet Wednesday: A sneak peek at a scene from Not Alone.

***

            Hannah squinted when the door to her dark cell clicked open. “Bring the girl to me,” ordered a voice from outside.

            David jerked against his restraints. “No, take me first.”

            Hannah didn’t have the courage to look at him. She waited in silence as a guard unbuckled her handcuffs and yanked her toward the open door.

            “God be with you!” David’s shout echoed in the concrete cell. Hannah turned her head back as David called out, "I won't stop praying for you!”

            Hannah wondered if she would ever see David again. “Nor I you,” she whispered. The guard led her away.

***

Please join my email list if you want more information about my progress on Not Alone!