Beth K. Vogt's Blog, page 106

Contemporary Romance Writer: A Glimpse at Setting #2: The Stanley Hotel

Watch this video on YouTube

My friend Dee Topliff corrects me on some misinformation in the vlog: Author Stephen King stayed at The Stanley Hotel (in room 217) when he wrote The Shining. The Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon was used for all the exterior shots. Thank you, Dee!

Last week I ventured into the vlog-o-sphere and gave you all a glimpse of Estes Park, CO, the setting for my debut contemporary romance novel, Wish You Were Here. Actually, the story takes place in both Colorado Springs and Estes Park … but that's another blog post.

Today's vlog is a brief glimpse of an Estes Park landmark: the historic Stanley Hotel. (The vlog's just over a minute long.)

In Your Words: Have you ever had the chance to stay someplace that was featured in a book you've read? I'd love to hear about it! If you haven't, what location mentioned in a novel you've read would you choose to visit?

In Others' Words: Potential

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives … not looking for flaws, but for potential." ~Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer prize winning columnist

I know, I know … this quote should have been posted a couple of weeks ago. Somehow I managed to lose track of it.

But take the "January 1″ tag out of it and it's applicable to the mindset we're all in right now — the new year/new resolutions/new word mindset. (My friend Evangeline Denmark, who lives her life outside the box, chose a song for the year.) We're only 13 days into 2012.

There are two ways to look at our hopes for the future: who we haven't been or who we can be. We can cloud the next 11 1/2 months with our past mistakes or light the way with our strengths, our abilities, our faith in who we're created to be.

In Your Words: Re-read Goodman's quote with your 2012 goals in mind. How's your balance? Are you all about changing your flaws, what you've been doing wrong? Or have you zeroed in on your potential, determined to lean into that?

In Others' Words: Time

 

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." ~Carl Sandberg, American poet

I have this oversize plastic container that I keep in my bedroom. I'm slowly refilling it with change — an odd assortment of quarters, nickels, dimes, pennies from my jeans pockets or whatever I scavenge from the bottom of my purse. Every few days or so, the coins get dumped into the container.

I've already done this process once, saving change as I counted the days until a family trip to Mexico. When we tallied up the amount in the container I was stunned to discover I'd saved about $200 in a haphazard, casual sort of way.

But what if each one of those coins — each quarter, nickel, dime, penny — represented an hour of my life? There's no tossing an hour into a container so I can pull it out later when life slows down. No hoarding time until I'm older (and hopefully wiser) and won't mis-spend life's currency.

There's only what is … and what was. Only present … and past.

And how quickly the one becomes the other.

In Your Words: What did you spend the coin of your life on this past week? If you had the chance, would you go back and redo any of your transactions?

photo by foxumon/stockxchng.com

Contemporary Romance Writer: A Glimpse at Setting #1 — Estes Park

Watch this video on YouTube

I took the plunge into the vlog-o-sphere! Thanks to the inspiration of my debut buddy, Katie Ganshert, who is a vlogging trailblazer, I took my FlipShare with me when I wandered through Estes Park right before Christmas.

My debut novel, Wish You Were Here (WYWH), an inspirational contemporary romance published by Howard Books (May 2012), takes place in both Colorado Springs and Estes Park, Colorado.

In this brief vlog — about a minute and a half — I talk about how my favorite bookstore in Estes Park inspired me to get creative with fact and fiction while writing WYWH.

In Your Words: What's your reaction when fact and fiction are woven together in a novel? Do you have a favorite bookstore in your hometown?

In Others' Words: Success

 

"A successful person is a dreamer whom someone believed in." ~Unknown

Who believes in you?

As the saying goes, who remembers the words to the song of your heart when you forget them … and sings them back to you?

You're not meant to tend the fire of your dreams alone. There are days when the dream seems … so … far … off. So unattainable.

That's when the-person-who-believes-in-you comes and sits beside you. Someone who knows you, in some ways, better than you know yourself. Sometimes comfort is offered in the silence of companionship. Sometimes just the right word is spoken that kindles afresh the power of your dream. You may have forgotten who you are, what you can do … but the-person-who-believes-in-you never, ever does.

And they won't let you forget, either.

In Your Words: When the light of your dream dims, who believes in you? And this is just as important: Who do you believe in? Whose dream have you championed? Do they know it?

 

Contemporary Romance Writer: You are Here — Choosing the Setting of Your Novel

I spent a few days in Estes Park, CO right before Christmas. While wandering through town, my 11-year-old daughter looked up at me and said, "You should write a book set in Estes Park."

My reply? "I have."

To which she replied, "Oh. Well … I haven't read your romance novel yet."

Perhaps she now understood why we were traipsing through Estes Park with both my camera and my Flip video camera. And why I stopped at certain places and asked my husband to tape me talking about Estes Park and my debut novel, Wish You Were Here (Howard Books, May 2012).

Why is Wish You Were Here (WYWH) set in Colorado in general — and more specifically, in Colorado Springs and Estes Park? Because I live in Colorado Springs and because my family loves spending time in Estes Park. It's as simple as that.

Keeping it simple. That's another reason Colorado is the setting for WYWH. As a non-fiction writer transitioning to the Dark Side (learning to write fiction), I had so much to learn. I wrote and rewrote WYWH … well, I lost track of how many times. If I had set my story in Kentucky or Michigan or even Tahiti or Sweden, researching those locations would have taken a huge amount of time. And I needed to focus my attention on other aspects of the novel.

Who knows? Maybe one day I'll write a contemporary romance set in some exotic locale.  But for now — books one and two — I'm staying on home ground.

Note: Yes, that's me making snow angels with my daughter while wearing snow shoes. Yes, snow and snow shoes figure into WYWH. No snow angels, though.

In Your Words: Do you enjoy reading novels set in your hometown? Or do you like visiting new places? What's the most favorite location an author's story has taken you?

In Others' Words: Impossible

 

"Nothing is impossible to a willing heart." ~John Heywood, English writer

So many days ahead in 2012 … so many plans.

We distill our "want tos" down to resolutions. Or a word. Our dos and don'ts for the next 12 months.

And yet, for all the planning, we can only see so far along the road stretching before us. We can see up to the first bend in the road … and no farther.

What waits around that curve? Will it be what we've hoped, planned and prayed for? Or will unexpected circumstances veer us into new directions? There's no way to know until we take the next step forward.

Planning will only get us so far into 2012. But committing our hearts to our dreams — and staying the course despite the disappointments and heartaches that surely will come our way — such is the catalyst of change.

In Your Words: What dreams are you pursuing in 2012? How have you set your heart to say "yes" to nothing less than achieving those dreams?

 

photo by Cieleke/stockxchng.com

In Others' Words: Immanuel

 

"If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: God with us." ~John F. MacArthur, writer & minister

 

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"– which means, "God with us."

(Matthew 1:23 NIV)

"Immanuel" is one of my favorite words in the whole Bible.

Here's my other favorite word: reconcile (or reconciling, reconciliation … any version of the word.) God is all about reconciliation, which means to make an enemy a friend. And that all started with Immanuel, God with us.

"For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them."

(2 Corinthians 5:19 a NLT)

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a most Happy New Year! I am taking a break from posting until Monday, January 2, 2011. I'm looking forward to spending focused time with my family and friends.

photo by lifan/stockxchng.com

Contemporary Romance Writer: How Do I Achieve Success as a Writer?

Some days the writing road is lined with ledges.

Ledges perfect to climb up and then stand and ponder the "why" of my existence in the writing universe.

And yes, these ledges are ideal to throw myself off of when my hopes are dashed, my dreams seem nothing more than taunting specters, and my efforts seem … wasted.

(I need to add music to this blog so I can cue the appropriate background music, don'tcha think?)

I've often said that as a writer I need to have the hide of an armadillo. Impenetrable. Insensitive. And yet, too often I feel like a naked mole rat: oh-so-exposed to whatever reactions people have to my writing.

2012 should be an over-the-moon thrilling year for me. My debut contemporary romance novel, Wish You Were Here (Howard Books) comes out in May. Talk about a dream come true!

And yet there are times that 2012 feels like a nightmare waiting to play across the days and nights of my life for 366 days.

I know I need to toughen up — to be an armadillo. Things like reviews or Klout or how many Twitter followers I have or how many Amazon5 star ratings I get (or don't get) shouldn't determine whether I climb back up on a ledge.

Or jump off.

I've talked about this with other writers and with several of my mentors. Earlier this week, I confessed a few days of ledge-sitting to one of my mentors, author Susan May Warren. She listened, reassuring me that I could do this ("this" being write book #2.)

She also said I needed to wear blinders. Once again, she was speaking figuratively. (I hope.) Avoiding the ledges requires focus. Not on others' opinions. Or others' successes. Not even on myself. She reminded me to rest in the knowledge of who I am. He who created me is also the One who enables me to write.

As another mentor, author Rachel Hauck, shared in an email:

This is part of the writer's life — gaining confidence from book to book. But you're trying to figure out how to do this in your own strength. This is God's deal, Beth. Either He's called you or not. He will confirm the work of your hands (Psalm 90:17)

You know the funny thing? I'm learning I'm not the main factor in my success.

In Your Words: I'd love to hear your thoughts on achieving success — in the writing world or any other area of your life.

Two other writing friends blogged about related topics this week. Author Katie Ganshert wrote about The Ultimate Goal and author Jody Hedlund wrote about the inevitable identity crisis that occurs after publication.

 

 

In Others' Words: Tired

"The test of people is what they can do when they're tired."

~Winston Churchill, British politician & statesman

I was a runner-girl for a certain season of my life.

After years of hating the thought of running — and absolutely detesting the few times I attempted running for fun/exercise/because someone told me I should — I read an article that touted a running plan for non-runners.

That would be me.

Suffice to say, I learned to run. I won't say I loved running. But I liked it — especially when I was finished with my route. My husband ran with me. He also was the timekeeper. I was all about time. So many minutes of warm up. So many minutes of "real" running. So many minutes of cool down. And then: done.

Every single run, I wanted to quit before we were done. Every. Single. Run.

Oftentimes, Rob would count out the time. Five minutes. Four minutes. Three. Two. One. Done.

During the season I was a runner-girl, I learned anew what I could do when I was tired.

I could finish.

I could push through the I-wanna-quit-and-sit-on-the-side-of-the-road exhaustion and do it.

Funny thing is, the only way I could learn how much I could do is to get to the point of thinking I couldn't run . . . another . . . step.

In Your Words: What have you accomplished when you've been beyond tired? What kept you going? And how did you feel when you met your goal?

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