Marlayne Giron's Blog: Marlayne's Blog, page 2

WHAT IF?

How do most authors come up with ideas for their books? For me the reasons are varied.

In the case of The Victor, I was inspired by an image that popped into my head while listening to Amy Grant's song called "Fairytale".  


Make a Wish was borne out of a desire to comfort a friend who was down in the dumps which then blossomed into 35 different wish fulfillment stories written as gifts for people I barely knew.



For In Plain Sight, I was challenged to write an "Amish" fiction. As a Southern California native, I wondered what I could possibly write that would be unique and original? After all I come from the land of "fruits and nuts". With that thought in mind, an image of crop circles popped into my brain. What would happen if crop circles showed up in Amish farmlands? How would they react?



A lot of ideas are born out of "what if" scenarios. I have just finished my fourth and latest manuscript; three years after I released In Plain Sight. It is a very personal "what if"? It's also a very frightening "what if" for me.

What if I lost my husband? The love of my life? The only man I've had a relationship with for over 30 years. What would I do? How would I go on? In reality I would probably curl up into a fetal position and grieve my heart out until I was committed to a mental institution but the idea became the inspiration for my most recent book which I have just submitted to an agent for traditional publication and it is also the most personal for me to date because it has my own family dynamic at play in the plot.


So now I wait and see if 1) the agent thinks it's good enough to submit to publishers, 2) a publisher will be willing to publish it, and 3) it reaches a big enough audience to bring attention to my previous works.

I never aspired to be an author, I just wanted to see The Victor in print after 30 years of writing and rewriting it. I enjoy writing...when I'm inspired to do so. Most of my writing talent has been spent on proof reading, formatting and editing scientific technical reports written by PhD types, commercial real estate offering memorandums and now property appraisals but when I'm inspired...I write stories.

I'm like Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke from the movie Out of Africa. Give me a few key words and I can make a story out of almost anything. It won't necessarily be a work of art but it will be a story.

So now I wait and see what happens. Below is the first few paragraphs of my fourth manuscript, what do you think?
PLAIN & SIMPLE
“The End of Normal”             Rachel Winston watched the undulating, green Pennsylvania farmland roll past the glass of the train window, her heart leaden. The bucolic scenery was a stark contrast to the concrete jungle she had left behind in Southern California a few days earlier. The green fields were dotted with white farmhouses and picturesque barns, small herds of cows, goats, and sheep grazing peacefully.
            She grimaced to herself. The only thing missing was large letters floating in the sky that heralded WELCOME TO AMISH COUNTRY! Occasionally, she would catch a passing glimpse of an Amish buggy waiting at a train crossing and wondered if any of them held the man who was to pick them up at the station in Strasburg.Rachel turned her gaze from the window and glanced at her teenage daughter, Karen, whose eyes were shut as she listened to her iPod. They had barely spoken for the entire three-day trip. Karen was still giving her the silent treatment, angry at being forced to leave her family, friends, and school behind. Rachel sighed in resignation. She had accepted the punishment as part of her motherly duty. She really didn't blame Karen for feeling the way she did. She was feeling pretty much the same way. If her mom had forced her to leave everything behind and move across the country against her will, she’d have been ticked off too. Financially, there had been no other choice, not after losing Kevin…her husband and the love of her life. Rachel squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back the tears. A little over a year had passed since he had died in a car accident and still the pain was barely tolerable. She brushed away the tears that seeped down her cheeks, not wanting to give in to the grief when they were only ten minutes out from the station. Once she started she wouldn’t be able to stop and she didn’t want to frighten Mr. Miller with the spectacle of a totally unglued “English” woman having a breakdown in his buggy. The train braked suddenly, slowing down and a voice came over the loudspeaker. “We will be pulling into Strasburg station in five minutes. Passengers, please make ready to disembark if this is your stop.”

How a lot of Aspiring Writers are like American Idol Contestants

I'm sure you've watched American Idol at least once, right? If you have, you can't help but notice how some contestants (and their supportive families) often boast about how great they are, how great they sing; how all their friends and family think they are the BOMB and should win American Idol hands down! Yet when it comes times to show their stuff in front of the judges they are...in a word...AWFUL. And when they are told so, they argue with the judges; successful professionals who have been in the music industry for years. When the camera follows them out after their disastrous audition, most of them are cursing at the camera and telling everyone how stupid the judges were not to pick them. These contestants are, in a word: DELUSIONAL.

By contrast, the contestants who truly do sing great are, as a general rule, humble, self-effacing and in no way braggadocios. They are grateful for the opportunity...they don't tell everyone how privileged they should be that they have deigned to share their talent.
Now, I am not a literary agent (but I have a couple of friends who are) or an acquisitions editor for Christian publishing but I often hear from them about numerous aspiring authors who frequently tell them that "God told them to write this story". They have commented that is the number one thing they hear from them. However, there is usually one big problem; a lot of these people can't write - they can't put a coherent sentence together and it's sheer agony for those who are tasked to edit it to get it into a format that is readable.
Some of these authors genuinely think that they have been handed down the manuscript directly from on high. Well if that is truly the case, then someone needs to tell the Lord to take an English Composition class. Why are people like this? Do they honestly think that it carries any weight with a literary agent if they tell them that? If anything, it has the exact opposite effect; they end up thinking the delusional author is nuts.

I was once asked to read a manuscript by a person who had been traditionally published a lot who had written a different kind of book under a different pen name. It was AWFUL. The characters behavior made no logical sense. By the time I got through 1/2 of it I was screaming with frustration. I then went and bought a book by this person under their traditional pen name and it was filled with the same unrealistic behavior by the main characters. (The heroine meets a stranger and immediately begins wondering what would happen were she and this person who comes from a different background to marry ten minutes after meeting him). Who thinks like that?! Only people who don't have a firm grip on reality. This author sold a lot of books - it just amazes me the editors never brought this kind of stuff up as something to be fixed because it was so out of character for the type of person they were writing about. If someone I had only met only briefly began to wonder about marrying me I would run in the opposite direction...fast.
Why are people so delusional about the things they create? Do you think it might be insecurity? I often wonder about my own writing journey, if I was under a delusion as well. I felt inspired to write my first book, The Victor, by an Amy Grant song called Fairy-tale 30 years ago. I even asked the Lord after I began writing it to give me a scripture to confirm that the idea was from Him. My heart's desire with the book was to share the Gospel with people who were like I used to be: didn't want to be witnessed to, wouldn't go to church, and wouldn't read the Bible. I came to the Lord as an atheistic Jew after seeing Jesus of Nazareth on television in 1977. I wanted my book to do for others what the television movie did for me. Immediately after I requested the scripture, into my head popped "Psalm 45". I looked it up and was flabbergasted because the first verse said this: "My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer." It just floored me. I ended up using the rest of the Psalm in the book because it was perfect. I even put scripture references throughout.



My definition of success with The Victor was that people would come to the Lord as a result of reading it but since it was released in 2009, I have never heard that this ever happened and with a name like mine, I'm easy to find. A lot of non Christians have bought this book, Jewish and Muslim included. Of course, I had my own delusions of grandeur too. I hoped that word of mouth would get out and it would sell lots of copies but it didn't. It is still selling after five years and I still get a lot of positive feedback by those who have read it but nothing like what I was hoping for....so I wonder. Was I delusional too in thinking that the Lord wanted to use my book to reach the lost? Guess I won't really know until I get to heaven. I just know that I have been as faithful as I could possibly be with the talents He has given me. I just want to glorify Him in all I do...and that isn't delusional.

Good Writing vs. Having a Platform

I am a Christian author. I have self-published three books. 
In the five years since my first book, The Victor, came out. In that time I have learned a lot about the publishing industry and it's not what you may think. As a self-published author I have had a tendency to think of myself as a second class author. I did have several big name publishers come very close to giving me traditional contracts for my books because they liked my writing and the stories I wrote but declined to do so. The reasons cited were: haven't sold enough (5,001) copies on my own - they would only jump in after reaching that magic number in order to "get a piece of the action." Other reasons were: too many people have already read the books. One publisher who was looking at In Plain Sight, my Amish/paranormal fiction who was looking for more cutting edge fiction.  They took a vote among the acquisition team and the outcome was 50/50. In the end they were too scared to publish something so different. Very discouraging.
Getting a book published nowadays seems to have evolved into more about who you are and how big your"platform" is than writing a well-crafted story. I have a friend who is an agent who tells me that some pretty big name Christian publishers will no longer accept submissions from unknowns - no matter how good the writing is. You have to be already famous. Have a platform. I understand that the book industry is suffering on many different levels. Book stores are disappearing (LifeWay Christian Bookstores is the latest) and that it all comes down to staying in business. Therefore, many publishers only stick with their already known authors and want them to keep churning out more of the same (Amish Fiction is a biggie). Once a book makes it big, all the copycats start getting published (think Vampire and Dystopian society genres). Even their book covers look similar.

 

New and unknown authors, no matter how good they may write, if they don't have a platform, are not welcome. Too big of a risk. I bet if Tolkien were to submit The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings today, it would be rejected by all the publishers for the reasons cited above. He broke all the rules of book writing; his only platform was as an Oxford professor and he didn't self-promote. Oh, and new authors have to keep their word count down to 85,000 words - bigger books are too expensive to take such a risk on...unless you're already famous. 
This is why Fifty Shades of Grey got a big publishing contract and movie deal. It started out as a blog where the author, E.L. James, took the characters from Twilight and changed the story into a S&M Soft Pornography jaunt. The idiom unfortunately is very true; sex sells...even among those who self-identify as Christians. It's a sad commentary on the church today that so many Christian women bought this book and paid to see the movie. Everyone I know who read the book said it was POORLY written (same with a lot of reviews on Amazon, etc.) The movie bombed after the first weekend because word got out that it was awful. So, the author couldn't write but that didn't matter - she had a BIG blog following/platform and that is all the publisher cared about. 


I wonder how many good books we will never have the privilege to read because of how the publishing industry works nowadays? Snookie from The Jersey Shore has a better chance of getting a traditional contract than I do. What are your thoughts on this?

If You Home school Junior High or High School Students

The Victor has been Lexile scored at 1060 and
is worth 15 Accelerated Reader PointsCastles, knights, and kings. Drama, intrigue, and betrayal. Good vs. evil. Right and wrong. Choices and consequences. All of these tantalizing tidbits and more are expertly woven into The Victor, a riveting allegory of the greatest love story of all time. 



From the first page of the prologue, author Marlayne Giron quickly draws the reader into the medieval tale, making this a hard book to put down! There's Baron Lucius, who used to be King Eloth's trusted steward but is now a traitor, a power-hungry manipulator who wants possession of Ephlal, a mysterious and powerful sword that belongs to the king. Lucius will stop at nothing to obtain it, including the disposal of the lives of men who inexplicably serve him. Though saddened and disappointed at the betrayal, the king wants Lucius and his men brought back to him alive by his elite guard. The king's seraphim don't understand their orders, but they carry them out anyway--in a way that they hope will humiliate Lucius.

Presented to the king in the court to be judged, Lucius is unrepentant, and the spectators are giddy as they are sure that he will be found guilty and condemned to a painful death. However, Eloth does something kingly: he refuses to inflict the death penalty and instead offers mercy. The crowd is shocked. Lucius is livid, believing the mercy to be one final humiliation and still refusing repentance. Eloth strips Lucius of all titles and possessions and then personally cuts the rope of the ship The Dark Angel from The Morning Star flagship. Lucius screams threats as Eloth turns away and murmurs about how far Lucius has fallen. . . And that's just the prologue!

It's not hard to see who's who as the story unfolds. The characters are multi-dimensional and realistic. The supporting cast is believable and necessary. The writing is colorful, clear, and not too wordy. I would recommend that this novel be used for middle to high school students, both boys and girls. Although it could be read as a pleasure book, it has so much to offer that I'd suggest finding a place for it in the classroom, book club, or youth group setting.

The comb-bound Lesson Plan booklet includes more detailed information on the author and her journey to publishing The Victor. It also offers a pronunciation key for the unusual names in the novel. Then it gets into the meat of the lessons: vocabulary lists for every chapter, a character trait guide, chapter summaries, and an outline of literary devices used. The remaining (and bulk) of the lesson plans go chapter by chapter, indicating significant quotes or passages and then asking questions pertaining to that segment of the book. Most of the queries are straightforward, black and white, pointing out details or literary methods; however, and perhaps more significantly, some of the questions are introspective and help the student internalize the story better. The Lesson Plan booklet ends with a theme chart and references section.

This is a beautiful representation of the story of God's love for us. I am in favor of that point being emphasized and reiterated in as many ways as possible. This novel will appeal to both young and mature adults, and it could be a way to reach those who wouldn't normally pick up a Bible. Not only is The Victor a timeless story with a profound message, the Lesson Plans make it a natural addition to the classroom, helping the student and teacher focus on such things as literary techniques and reading comprehension.

This is a book that will stay on our bookshelf long after it has been used in our homeschool - except for when I lend it out to those who need or want a reminder of God's love for us!To download the free student workbook click here: http://thevictor.tateauthor.com/lesson-plansmall-group-study/download-the-student-workbook/


Product review by Krystin Corneilson, 
The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, May 2010

Narcissists want to control the world - how does it feel to want?

So apparently my friend's husband did not like being called a Narcissist on this blog when I reviewed a book written by a friend who was also married to a narcissist.

He wants to file restraining orders against people who are talking about his evil and despicable behavior.

Since no names are mentioned anywhere...good luck with that. He will have to file at least 50+ restraining orders because everyone who knew this couple on even a casual basis is aware of what happened and is talking about it and none of them are on the narcissist's side.

We are all in agreement that the person this blog is directed to is a Class A number one EVIL person who needs to REPENT and get over himself or face the fires of judgment.

So basically this blog post is a big finger in his eye. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Narcissist!

My Sweet Encounter with Death

I met a very interesting woman yesterday through a mutual friend. Her name is Ana Christina (pen name). She is from Egypt and her entire family is Coptic Christians.  Although she grew up in a very loving Christian home and was very successful in her professional life, she was the unfortunate victim of two men (her first husband who was a narcissist) and her second (who was a sociopath) who secretly poisoned her for weeks until panicking and giving her a extra big dose before she was scheduled to leave the country to visit family in order to collect on her life insurance.
What these two men did to this loving, gentle woman was beyond despicable. What made it all the more poignant for me was the fact that one of my best friends is going through almost the exact same thing with her (soon to be ex) narcissist husband who had her wrongfully arrested and thrown into jail for 2 days on false charges.
The Holy Spirit prepared Ana spiritually for what she was about to go through in the moments preceding her death.  She lay helpless, completely paralyzed in bed from the poison he had given her but in God’s peace while her husband succeeded in smothering her to death.  She went to heaven, saw Jesus and has related her experience in her recent book, “My Sweet Encounter with Death”.

Her book is very short, it can be easily read in an hour but is very impactful and helpful to those who are struggling with forgiving people in their own lives who have done them wrong.  Here is my review of her book:
I love reading stories like this because my own spiritual walk is so "un-supernatural". Reading stories like this, I get to live vicariously through the authors. What I was most struck by was the similarities between Ana's story and that of a close friend of mine who is now going through the same things Ana did with her first husband who was a narcissist.

I also very much appreciated how the author prefaced her story with the fact that she was just "an ordinary person"; no one special; which I can very much relate to and yet her story is so amazing!! Ana is very relate-able and my heart just hurt for all that she has been though and was gratified to see her supernaturally comforted and rescued by our Lord and Savior.

I had the privilege to meet this dear sweet woman in person and am looking forward to speaking more with her one on one and to learn where the Lord is leading her now in these last days.

If you don't have much time to read but love to read about real experiences with the Lord and heaven, this books is a must read. Very encouraging and uplifting! FIVE STARS!

If you love reading about true life after death experiences, this book is for you!

To purchase her book on Amazon: 

The Last Person on Earth I'd expect to go into the Military....

My husband and I are part of the baby boom generation; the generation whose parents served in World War II. My dad was in the army and my father-in-law was in the Navy.

My older sister and her husband, although teenagers in the 1960's and part of the "flower children" who grew up to be more liberal in their mindsets raised two sons, both of whom were Eagle Scouts, attended the Naval Academy and are now serving as Lieutenants (one as a submariner and the other as a nuclear engineer). In 2006 I got to attend the graduation of my older nephew (who when he was 5 years old was the ring bearer in my wedding) at Annapolis. That was an amazing week. I got to see the Marine Silent Rifle Drill, hear the men's Glee Club sing and watch the Blue Angels perform tricks and do a fly-over before the graduation that just barely cleared the top of the football stadium. The picture below was taken by us when they flew past. We were in the top level and at eye level with the blue angels!


Here is Karina with her cousins Blake on the left who graduated in 2007 and Grant who graduated in 2006.
I never considered my family a career military family so when my daughter announced nonchalantly about a year ago that if college didn't work out (which it didn't) that she would look into going into the army. I didn't take her seriously but said nothing. She was not the type of girl to exercise regularly, was not disciplined by any stretch of the imagination nor responsible when it came to her own person life habits.

All that plus the fact that she was barely 94 lbs dripping wet; we had out doubts but last January we bid her goodbye and prayed for the best.  She really took charge of herself to pass the tests, put on the needed weight (she just barely made the minimum by 1/2 pound) and "shipped out".

On the left her costume for Halloween. On the right - the real deal.

For the next six weeks we had total radio silence and looked forward to getting her hand-written two page letters letting us know what she was going through and to keep praying.

This past Thursday, April 3, to our immense relief and ever-lasting pride, our daughter graduated from boot camp, able to do 47 push-ups and 49 sit-ups and completing a 12.5 mile march with a rucksack that was 1/3 her body weight that concluded at 3:00 am.

We were unable to attend the graduation but she posted the photos of herself which I used to make the celebration video below. Enjoy!

How a Jewish girl found her Messiah and was inspired to write a book about him

I hope you will take just 30 minutes to listen to the interview. I ended up blubbering on the air about my friend Kathy who passed away 2 years ago.

Click here to listen to the interview






To find my books on Amazon and my author page, CLICK HERE

To get the audible version of Make a Wish (10+ hours of blessing for which you will need copious amounts of Kleenex): CLICK HERE

The latest news...

Hi everyone!

It's been a really long time since I have posted. Having run into so many walls with regard to my books I guess you could say that I have taken a break.

I do, however, have some potentially good news.  I received a call from a friend who is on my county's board of Education out of the blue last weekend. Seems that the elections are coming up this June and we have the opportunity to elect Christians/Tea Party candidates to the Board and if we are successful, they will have a super majority. So I would like to ask for all of you to pray for the following people and for God's will to be done.

This gentleman has been research Common Core for the past 14 months and what he has learned is keeping him up at night it is SO BAD. He wants to make sure that Common Core is not welcome into our school district. At the moment I am typing this, a commercial came on the television for Common Core (coincidence?) - from what I am hearing so far, my friend is battling the gates of hell with regard to this "teaching methodology". It seems like it is more about dumbing down our kids and turning them into sex-obsessed illiterates than education them in the three R's! One example is an illustrated book for 4th graders demonstrating with cartoons how to masturbate and put a condom on. THIS STUFF DOES NOT BELONG IN SCHOOL! 

Also, he hopes that if these two people get elected, to put my book, The Victor and its lesson plan into all the public schools to get the Gospel to kids from grades 6-12th grade. The Victor is Lexile scored at 1060 (Harry Potter which is in the reading lists for schools is 1030). For those of you who home school, I created a lesson plan to go with the book (The Victor is suitable for ages 10 - adult). It is this lesson plan that will accompany the book into the public schools, I hope.





So please pray for Tom Pollitt, who is a Christian and a leader in the Tea Party for Costa Mesa, CA.
Also pray for Linda Lindholm, who is running for the Board of Education in the Mission Viejo, CA District.
Pray also for my friend, Robert Hammond - he really needs the Lord's strength, protection, blessing and guidance!

Also Saturday, April 6, 2014 at 10:30 am PDT ( I will be interviewed on a blog radio hosted by Richard Rossi. I hope you will tune in to listen while you are having your lox and bagels!

Blog Radio Link

Audio Book Give Away of Make a Wish - $25.00 value

My second book, Make a Wish is an audio book. You can download the book and save it to CD Rom to play on your car stereo (it takes 9 discs). It is 10 hours of inspirational short stories that will  bless your heart. If you would like to win a free download this is what you have to do:

1) Tweet the link to my page on Audible.

2) Post the link on your Facebook page(s).

3) Share on your blog.

4) Post the link anywhere else you are socially connected.

5) Send me a private email with links to all your postings.

Each above posting is worth a point.  If you have read the paperback version of Make a Wish and include a review you have written (or write a new one for this event) that will count as 2 points.

Copy and paste the link below into all your social media.

LINK: http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Mak...


I will choose a winner by September 28th.
Here is my email: thevictorbook@sbcglobal.net