K.C. Sprayberry's Blog, page 102
June 7, 2018
New Release ~ Curufinwë (Skilled One)
Good morning. Today, we’re getting the first glimpse into a new novella for teens. Briana, a female elf, wishes to deviate from the path normal for women in her world. Will she succeed in her quest?
Get Curufinwe eBook on Amazon!
Get Curufinwe print book on Amazon!
Blurb
Briana Loch O’Calliagh has a choice… follow the wishes of her father or strike out on a path no female elf has taken in the past. She’s conflicted as she approaches the test of her magical abilities but soon finds herself facing danger while working to achieve her dreams.
Can she overcome the obstacles in her path to achieve her dreams?
Excerpt
The sun rose as it always did in her sire’s village. Briana remained in her bed as long as she dared, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t be called upon to display control of her supposed powers.
Why did I tell Father last night that I’d found my magic?
Regret raced through the fourteen summers’ old elf. All her life, she’d been taught that she could never lie, for that would cause her to lose the connection to the magic she desperately needed to become a true part of his village.
Will Father understand if I explain to him?
About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities.
A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page
Google + Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb
Authorgraph Email
Activism
Good morning and welcome to Thursday Thoughts. All month, we’re focusing on teens and the trials they face as they move toward being adults. Today, it’s all about school violence and exactly what everyone can do to curtail school violence.
Following one of the more recent incidents of school violence, students have taken to activism in order to get their message across about what they want. Some adults have conceded that these students are right, because nothing they’ve done has made a difference. After viewing the interviews of these students and their unwillingness to listen to differing points of view, one has to wonder if their method will really work.
This country has a history of activism when people are dissatisfied with how things are working. Sometimes it works, but in recent years this type of activism has included illegal acts that turns away those who might support the protestors. This is especially true when it comes to solving the problem of school violence.
Before I’m slaughtered for mentioning that most of these protests are illegal, might I point out that the First Amendment of the Constitution gives us the right to peaceful protest. Notice the emphasis on the word peaceful. It seems to have been lost when certain groups are protesting. What this means is that you may protest what you think is wrong, but the moment you commit a criminal act, including littering as you dump your signs on the ground on your way out of town, you are no longer constitutionally protected. You have, in essence, become a criminal.
Now, to delve into some other information. Comparing the number of acts of school violence, and this is information only for school shootings, between the current president and his predecessor—a fact that has been misrepresented by the news media quite frequently—the average number of school shootings under our current president is 15.5 per year. In comparison, his predecessor’s term of eight years had an average of 37.5 school shootings. (Let me say now that I spent 11 years in the Air Force analyzing aircraft maintenance, so I’m a statistics freak!)
Now that we have the facts down straight, I am going to say unequivocally that I am not for, nor will I ever be for, a single solution to this problem. This is an issue that has many reasons behind why it happens and will take far more solutions to stop eventually.
With all this information in mind, I’m sure more than a few people are thinking we need to have more gun laws. We most certainly do not. There are so many gun laws on the books now that many overlap others. What we need is better enforcement of those laws. The way to go about that isn’t going on television and talking about your agenda but shouting down anyone who disagrees with you. All that does is turn people away from what you’re trying to say.
Yes, I agree that teens need to be involved in effecting change so that this problem is somehow resolved. In order to do that, we need to look at everything that brings about these incidents. We can’t just label all offenders as having a mental health problem, dump them into an institution, and move forward. That hasn’t solved the problem, as can be seen by the number of school shooters there are. We need to look at all elements of how this happened, which will mean stepping back and viewing everything about the accused and why they felt they had to take this step to be heard.
About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities.
A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page
Google + Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb
Authorgraph Email
June 6, 2018
Educate Don't Babysit
Good morning and welcome to wwwblogs. All month, we’re focusing on teens and the trials they face as they move toward being adults. Today, it’s all about school violence and exactly what everyone can do to curtail school violence.
Many, many solutions have been bandied about over the past few years on how to solve this problem. Some are saying teachers need to take on more responsibility for identifying potential problem students who might or might not become violent.
Hang on there one minute. Our teachers aren’t paid enough for the job of teaching young, impressionable minds already. Over the last thirty years, they’ve taken on a rapidly changing system that has changed from the student being made responsible for their own actions to one where the teacher must justify giving a student a less than stellar grade. In far too many cases, your child’s teacher is also taking over neglected parenting duties in addition to everything else they do.
Therein lies one of the biggest problems students face today. Not that their parents don’t care about them, for the most part. However, most two parent homes have both working careers they’ve labored at for many years. They’re climbing a ladder of recognition and have taken to scheduling their children into sports programs or other types of after school activities that keep the child occupied until Mom or Dad can pick them and run home for a meal followed by homework and bed. The child has little to no quality time at home and problems will arise where they need someone to vent to. That someone has become their teacher.
Don’t get me wrong. Being a teacher is a job not many can handle. The pay is low and the stress level is high. Where once parents believed the teacher was always right and their child needed guidance to improve their grades or behavior, now teachers find themselves on the firing line if they don’t give a student a passing grade, or in some cases a top grade for minimal work.
In reality, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to identifying problems that lead up to school violence. But it’s also a good starting point. Instead of a family having to have all the latest electronic gadgets, live in a home far beyond their budget, and go on organized vacations no one truly enjoys, take the route some families have done in recent years. Give up the luxuries and have one parent stay at home. There are jobs they can do from their computer when the kids aren’t there. A child won’t feel like they’re an afterthought if there’s a parent to talk to once they arrive home. All the extracurricular activities aren’t really necessary either. Make that time for the child and at home parent to bond. You’d be amazed at the difference in your child.
About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities. A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page
Google + Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb
Authorgraph Email
June 5, 2018
A Family Divided
Good morning and welcome to Tuesday Book Blogs. All month, we’re focusing on teens and the trials they face as they move toward being adults. Today, it’s all about the disintegration of a family.
Get the eBook of Bright Shining on Amazon
Get the print book of Bright Shining on Amazon
In the twenty-first century, more children are from broken homes or they’re living with a step-parent. During the mid-sixties, this was a condition where the family, specifically the children, were shamed rather than being accepted as normal. Families simply didn’t quit because one adult discovered they were “unhappy” and wanted to pursue another relationship.
Blurb
Will Melinda discover her inner strength?
Melinda grew up in a staunchly Catholic family. At sixteen, she’s in the throes of first love when her family falls apart. Dad takes off with his secretary, abandoning the family he professed to love. Mom has trouble processing what’s happening to her home.
Melinda is a daddy’s girl, the tomboy but also pretty enough to be sought after by a guy she adores. In the blink of an eye, she feels as if she’s losing the strong faith she believed her family had and her prayers aren’t being answered.
Set against the backdrop of the turbulent sixties, Bright Shining delves into the life of a teen with two possible choices—remain with what she’s always known in her faith or be caught up in the drugs and criminal underworld that has consumed so many teens. Will she make the right choice?
Excerpt
Rough hands shook me awake. I rubbed my eyes and sat up. The first thing I noticed was that I was outside and it was very dark.
“We have to go, Melinda,” Tony said. “Hurry. It’s late. We’re going to be in so much trouble.”
I scrambled to my feet and attempted to brush the grass stains off my pretty mini-skirt. Glancing around, I noticed that no one else was in Library Park. We were alone. I had vague memories of others being here, a party of some sort, but the details were clouded.
“What happened?” I asked.
“We fell asleep.” He pulled me to my feet. “It’s past eleven. The others are already gone.”
My first thought at that point was that in 1965, good girls didn’t fall asleep with the guy they were dating in a park on a Friday night. My second thought was that I had to get home—now!
About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities. A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page
Google + Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb
Authorgraph Email
June 4, 2018
Stop This!
Good morning and welcome to Tuesday Book Blogs. All month, we’re focusing on teens and the trials they face as they move toward being adults. Today, it’s all about school violence and exactly what everyone can do to curtail school violence.
School violence has become epidemic. There is a tendency to only look at the individual committing the violence but we’re ignoring the real problem. All people want is for something to be done to stop the cycle of brutality that is terrorizing our children. Even those teens want the situation to change but that can’t be done with invective filled interviews or shouting down anyone that disagrees with your stance.
First and foremost, this problem isn’t going away overnight, no matter how much we want it to. There is no instant solution to stopping the violence, not as long as a small minority of teens feel the need to get attention by creating havoc.
Can we stop school violence?
We can, but everyone has to be on the same page. The solution isn’t as simple as taking away guns. It’s not going to stop just because we create more laws that repeat laws that are already on the books. As most know, no one really knows which student will be simmering quietly in the background, all the while they’re plotting to get everyone’s attention in a way that will make them the most hated person on the planet. At that point, whether or not they’re still alive to be prosecuted for their crime, they have achieved their goal—the world is talking about them.
So what is the solution?
Some might say this is too simplistic a solution but it’s one that worked for many, many years. It’s time for parents to stop being their child’s friend and be a parent, even if that means making your child unhappy with you. It’s time for teachers to stop stepping in for the parent in schools and only be your child’s instructor. Mostly, it’s time for those tasked with identifying these potentially violent children to do that and divert them away from their destructive path.
Most will say at this point that’s been tried and hasn’t worked.
Wrong. A half-hearted effort has been attempted. It didn’t work because those who are the ones that need to be on the front lines of stopping this problem aren’t putting out their best effort. Teachers are still expected to pass little Johnny or Suzy, even when that child hasn’t achieved the level of education to move onto the next grade. Parents have lives so busy they barely stop long enough between work, after school activities, and planned family nights simply to sit down and say “Tell me about your day.” These people need to shut off their phones, be in a comfortable and non-threatening environment, and ready to listen—and I do mean really listen. Finally, those tasked with identifying potential problems need to quit putting off their responsibility to another organization until the information reaches someone in an group that might be able to assist, if only they were properly funded.
That’s right. I said everyone needs to work together and not with innumerable meetings, false promises that “we’ll nip this in the bud,” and the child is left hanging while the adults talk, and talk, and talk without doing anything productive.
Back to our original question… Can we stop school violence? Yes, we can. If we devote ourselves to a dedicated path of understanding why certain children opt for this type of scenario in order to get attention.
About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities. A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page
Google + Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb
Authorgraph Email
June 3, 2018
Drinking and Driving
Good morning and welcome to Sunday Book Blogs. All month, we’re focusing on teens and the trials they face as they move toward being adults. Today, it’s all about underage drinking.
Get Lone Survivor eBook on Amazon
It’s the time of year when graduation is happening. Teens everywhere are celebrating finishing high school. Some are looking forward to college while others are searching for jobs. They all have one thing in common… they want to celebrate being an adult. Too many go to summer parties where there is alcohol in copious amounts. They’re young. They’re adults now. None care the laws still dictate they can’t drink until they’re twenty-one, nor do they think about the consequences of driving after drinking or getting into a car with a drunk driver.
Blurb
Carla got in a car with a drunk driver. Two other friends in that car were also drunk. She put on her seatbelt. They didn’t. The wreck on their way home left her the lone survivor. Even with a horrific injury, her memory won’t let her forget anything.
Excerpt
I turned down the beer. They didn’t. I ignored the scornful comments. They laughed. I buckled my seatbelt. They laughed louder and refused to use theirs.
“Get real, Carla,” Janie had shouted. “We’re teens. Nothing can hurt us.”
Her scornful words ripped through me now. Janie wasn’t around to tell me that I had been right and she’d been wrong. I wished she was. I wished the guys were with us too. Anything to stop the horrible feelings churning inside me.
They were my friends. Things like this don’t happen to friends.
Don’t they? Didn’t Daddy talk to me about drunk drivers? Didn’t he tell me never to get in a car with one? Oh, Daddy, I’m so sorry.
I stood in the middle of the road, shivering from what I just experienced. A warm wind blasted past my face. Leaves swirled around, part of one settling on my nose. There was no energy left in me to move that leaf. Another blast of wind takes away the bit of greenery. I watched it dance and sway before it dipped below the edge of a cliff.
I stared at the car, at where it finally stopped. From all appearances, no one could have escaped that vehicle without help.
How did I get out?
About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities.
A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page
Google + Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb
Authorgraph Email
June 2, 2018
Revere Life
Good morning and welcome to Sharing Saturday. All month, we’re focusing on teens and the trials they face as they move toward being adults. Today, it’s all about school violence and exactly what everyone can do to curtail school violence.
This post is going to be a bit different. It’s meant to grab your attention and force you to confront your own actions.
We need to learn how to revere life. I’m sure more than a few people are shaking their heads and thinking I must be nuts. Of course, everyone is focused on life. That’s all we do day in and day out.
Is it?
Society, as a whole, has lost track of their surroundings. They’re enamored with their smart phones and spend far too much time looking down rather than around. This leaves people open to be hurt or worse during an attack. Instead of being focused on what’s happening around them, they’re commenting on the latest trend or watching a video. Heads down happens more often than heads up, noticing what’s happening around you.
I’m not saying smart phones don’t have their uses. They do but not to the point where that’s all you do all day long. It’s fun to connect with people all over the world. You get a view you didn’t have a decade ago. Yet, it’s also a way to become immune to the events surrounding you.
This is especially true of teens. Today’s high school students haven’t really known a time where they haven’t been connected with the world instantaneously. They’ll use their phones for everything. It’s not unusual for them to have several apps open and be talking to people on them while they’re walking down a hallway. Bump into someone? You both step to one side and keep going. You probably didn’t even notice who it was or what they were doing or carrying.
You have just put yourself in a dangerous pathway to becoming a victim. Even worse, your lack of attention to the person you just ran into might have been a trigger.
What do you mean?
There are more than a few individuals who aren’t living life from the screen of a smart phone. They want to be recognized and have convinced themselves that they can be, if people would just look up. Because their rage is focused on a lack of human contact, being run into by someone looking at a phone will trigger an emotional response of “I don’t matter enough for them to say excuse me or hi.”
The very point is that the people we connect with on social media aren’t with us all the time. That luxury belongs to those we interact with daily in person. How hard is it to talk to the person next to you? What if you took a moment to smile at the shy guy and say how’s it going? Can you make a major difference in someone’s life if you just take a moment to acknowledge their existence?
Yes, you can make a difference. Take that bump into a person moment and make it fun. Crack a joke about how klutzy you are. Smile. Ask how their day is. Let that person know they matter.
Will this stop someone determined to create havoc because they’ve decided nothing else will work?
There’s no good answer to that question. Maybe you can make a difference. Maybe you can’t. But hang onto this—you tried.
About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities.
A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page
Google + Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb
Authorgraph Email
June 1, 2018
New Release ~ Adrift Souls Barren Holiday 3
Good morning. Today, we’re getting the first glimpse into the third novella in the Barren Holiday series. In this tale, Jen and Nik are caught up in a world of political correctness taken to the extreme degree.
Get Adrift Souls Barren Holiday 3 eBook on Amazon!
Get Adrift Souls Barren Holiday 3 print book on Amazon
Blurb
Adrift, they create a miracle for teens.
Jen and Nik thought they were competing for the marketing manager position. Each was hoping the other would get the job they were so qualified for. In a matter of minutes, they learned their fate was far worse. Their company released them from their employment, along with a lot of other employees.
Cast adrift, they rally the other former employees and work together to create a company dedicated to teens without a good chance in life.
Book Trailer:
Excerpt
Everything is different, changed, causing me more pain that I’ve ever felt in my life. Questions are thrown at me daily: Do I support the madness sweeping through the nation? Am I willing to acknowledge that I am not a good person, because of my ancestry, my privilege? Nothing I respond with is good enough for the questioner. They accuse me of using my ethnicity, or what they call a lack of ethnicity, to get ahead in my job.
“Hey, Jen.” Trey Johnson prances up to me. “Boss wants to talk to you before you leave today.” Tilting his chin to one side, he gives me a sidelong look. “Are you going to mess up my chances for that prime new job? You’d best decide it’s too much for you, because I’ll get it any way I can.”
From deep within me, panic rises. I’ve been working to get this promotion for years. All the nights sitting in classrooms, to finish my master’s degree; the weekends I spent hunched over a computer, studying what I needed to know, all of that may have been in vain.
About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities.
A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page
Google + Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb
Authorgraph Email
Give Me Results!
Good morning and welcome to Friday Feeling. All month, we’re focusing on teens and the trials they face as they move toward being adults. Today, it’s all about school violence and exactly what everyone can do to curtail school violence.
One of the first things we hear from reporters and repeated over and over by those who have just experienced school violence is the demand that they want results… now, immediately, this very instant. Unfortunately, there is no do over wand in the background to undo the violence you’ve just experienced. There is no magical, instant solution to the problem.
But I want this fixed. NOW!
There we go with that screaming thing again. In my normal voice, I’ll always repeat these words. “There is no magical formula to solve this problem. This is a multi-faceted issue that has been allowed to grow while politicians focus on what their constituents are demanding—dealing with the tool rather than the problem.
Results that are needed will take a lot of time. They will require the cooperation of everyone on both sides of this issue. Those individuals will need patience and the knowledge that they will never come up with a perfect solution but they can find a viable one.
What we need are parents remaining involved with their children’s lives, especially when they’re teens. We need teachers, administrators, law enforcement, and lawmakers to understand this isn’t a gun problem but a human problem. There are many common factors all school shooters have and lumping them into the “mentally ill” group doesn’t solve the problems nor does it offer us a solution to the fast growing problem of school violence.
First, we need to examine the size of our high schools. These institutions of learning are often the only one in a district. Students move from a couple of dozen elementary schools, into three to four middle/junior high schools, and finally to the single high school in a district. This means you’re bringing together teens who know up to three-quarters of their classmates and their schedules have shoved them all into the same room, instead of with the people they’ve known pretty much all their lives.
That’s an expensive proposition that will definitely upset working adults, as their property taxes will increase to build the new schools.
Another solution is to understand that not all students learn at the same rate. Once upon a time, way back in the dark ages of the seventies, my high school separated students according to their abilities—average learners, above average learners, and the ultra-smart kids. Somewhere along the line, this was deemed unfair and students are now in classes where they’re bored out of their skulls or overwhelmed and can’t keep up because the pace is set for the midline learning ability. Instead of deciding we have to give everyone an equal chance, we embrace the idea that everyone is not equal. Instead of having classes where students do nothing but worksheets, we embrace new technology and use electronic text books, so the student can read the lesson and absorb the information. Believe me, an ebook that received updates is far cheaper than a print book that’s replaced annually.
We need to step back and admit the social experiment of the late seventies is a massive failure. Students need to learn about history and government, current events and civics, not social studies where they only get a brief lesson on all of these subjects that leaves them with no idea of the whole story.
Part of this solution should also be giving the teachers not just the tools to identify problems in their classroom but ways to deal with it and present solutions without expecting them to be a nanny. Another part will be students accepting that they are in that classroom to learn the subject and they need to be prepared. They also need to do more than sit in chairs and zone out while thinking about how long it will be before they can get on their phone and connect with social media.
What we need in schools is a friendly learning environment. That won’t happen as long everyone demands their way is the only way and refuses to listen to options.
About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities.
A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page
Google + Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb
Authorgraph Email
May 31, 2018
Evolving
Good morning and welcome to Thursday Thoughts. Today, we’re focusing on evolving from writer to author. This step isn’t as easy as most people think.
For many years, I wrote the stories in my head. Most of them are pure junk, yet I still have them saved and hope that one day I can take the time to make them better. More than likely, I’ll end up getting rid of them because I now recognize they are plot light.
That has been part of my growth from writer to author, recognizing what works and what is nothing more than an exercise in writing.
What does it take for a person to make this transition?
It takes the insight to realize not everything you write will be published. Oh, we like to believe our stories are great enough to attract an audience. The simple truth is that some of them should never see the light of day.
This is called evolving, when you recognize many of your old stories can’t be salvaged. And as we evolve into becoming strong authors, we realize the new stories we’re putting together have strong plots, well developed characters, and are memorable enough for readers to want to enjoy them again and again.
There are some authors who never make that transition. They desperately work and rework those old stories, spending time on them only to discover they’re just as weak as when they started. Not to be deterred, these authors will go over the story again, present it to a critique group or their beta readers, hoping for useful suggestions. When none are forthcoming, the author will once again store the tale for another attempt in the future.
Learn when it’s time to let go of a story and move forward. Celebrate your current work, which shows our growth as an author and is attracting fans.
About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities.
A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.
Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
Facebook Twitter Website Goodreads Amazon Author Page
Google + Pinterest Manic Readers AUTHORSdb
Authorgraph Email
