Beth K. Vogt's Blog, page 93

In Others’ Words: Dirty Business

photo by VinnyPrime/stockxchng.com

“Writing is not a genteel profession; it’s quite nasty and tough and kind of dirty.” ~Rosemary Mahoney (1961-), American non-fiction writer

There is the dream of the writing life … and then there is reality.

I bet you think I’m going to say I prefer the dream.

Nope.

I will take the nitty-gritty reality of the writing life over the dream any day.

Dreams are all well and good — up to a point. There comes a time when you have to abandon the clouds — the wishing and hoping — and get down to the business of doing.

Here’s what I learned once I set my heart on being a writer:

This is a tough occupation. One that requires a heart as fragile as the last quivering note of a violinist’s solo … but a heart that is also as tough as an armadillo’s shell, able to withstand critique and rejection and plain old “I can’t get this scene right” frustration.
People can be nasty. Some people even seem to enjoy tearing apart your writing, doling out a single star or raking you across the black and white coals of their review.
You’re gonna get dirty. Edits and rewrites and feedback — even the ones spoken in the kindest of tones — leave marks on your soul. It’s okay … they wash off when you bathe in the Truth of who you are.

Toughen up. Don’t be one of those nasty people. And accept that writing is a dirty business, but that doesn’t change who you are deep down in your soul.

In Your Words: Writing — are you going for the dream or the reality? And besides being dirty and tough and nasty … what else is it?

Contest: Where in the World is Daniel? (Postcard #4)

A new week — and a new postcard from Daniel to Alli! So, let’s guess: Where in the world is Daniel today?

Leave your comment below or on my Author Facebook page for chances to win a prize package worth over $100. (Share on Twitter and your FB for extra entries. Be just sure to let me know!):

a collection of sixteen postcards by wildlife photographer Thomas Mangelson (Remember how Daniel gave Alli a gift of a Thomas Mangelsen photograph, Maroon Bells Daybreak?)
a $20 Starbucks gift card (Daniel keeps himself caffeinated while he travels the world!)
a “Life is Good” water bottle (Daniel’s motto — and he was wearing a “Life is Good” T-shirt in Chapter 1 of WYWH.)
a $50 Visa gift card (Always good to have on hand if you’re a traveling man like Daniel.)
a Heart of Adoption necklace (The same necklace that we gave away at the Debutantes’ Story Soiree.)
a signed copy of Wish You Were Here
a signed copy of my to-be-released in May 2013 novel, Catch a Falling Star

I won’t “approve” any guesses until the end of the day so that people have a chance to enter their answers. And I’ll give you one hint: Ignore the “Europe” stamp.

photo by michaelmill/istockphoto.com

Last Thursday Daniel was at Assateugue Island, Maryland — a place where my family camped several summers during my childhood. I have very fond memories of going to sleep to the sound of the surf and the wild ponies’ whinnies and neighs as they wandered the beach.

In Others’ Words: Hero (Guest Post)

To celebrate her latest book release, Lakeside Family, my friend, Lisa Jordan, shares a quote with us today.

istockphoto/com by poco_bw

 

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” ~Christopher Reeve (1952-2004), actor

 

In Lakeside Family, Nick Brennan feels like nobody’s hero. After his father abandoned his family, Nick promised never to follow in his footsteps. While shouldering the guilt of family tragedy and being responsible for his adult brother with special needs, Nick learns he has a daughter who needs him—her life depends on it. Nick learns heroes come in different shapes and sizes and God can use the ordinary man for His extraordinary work.

To me, real heroes are those who don’t consider themselves as being one:

single parents who work hard to ensure their children are healthy and safe.
parents with children who have special needs.
teachers who encourage and mentor those who feel forgotten.
victims of tragedy who clings to hope and use their trials to witness to others.
ordinary people who donate to provide others with hope for a new life.
anyone who acts as a voice for those who can’t be heard.

 

In Your Words: Who is your hero? What kind of hero do you strive to be?

 

Lisa is celebrating the release of Lakeside Family with a month-long party of giveaways, including Coffee Lovers and Tea Lovers baskets. For more details and to enter the gift basket giveaways, leave a comment here.

Married 23 years to her real life hero, Lisa Jordan knows a thing or two about romance. She and her husband have two college-aged sons and will be facing an empty nest soon. By day, Lisa is an early childhood educator, and by night, she is a contemporary romance novelist with Love Inspired. Lakeside Reunion, her debut novel, is a 2012 Carol Award Finalist. Lakeside Family, her second novel, releases in August 2012. She is represented by Rachelle Gardner of Books & Such Agency. In her free time (ha!), Lisa enjoys good books, chick flicks, crafting with friends and feeding her NCIS addiction. To learn more about Lisa, visit her website at www.lisajordanbooks.com.

 

Lakeside Family

The one man she never wanted to see again is the only who can save her daughter’s life.

In the space of a minute, Nick Brennan learns he has a nine-year-old daughter— and that she desperately needs his help. All this time, his high school sweetheart, single mother Josie Peretti, thought he knew about their child. And that he just didn’t care. About the ill little girl—or Josie, the woman he’s never forgotten. But Nick made a long-ago promise never to forsake his family the way his father did. A promise he vows to make good on now… if only Josie will bless him with a second chance.

Read Excerpt

 

 

In Others’ Words: Wake Up (Guest post)

Today I’m at the MOPS Convention in Dallas, teaching a workshop on cyberbullying. So writer Susannah Friis shares a favorite quote with you.

Photo by smoro/stockxchng.com

 

“I wake up every morning determined to both change the world and have a [heckuva] good time. Sometimes that makes planning my day difficult.” ~ EB White (1899-1985), American writer

 

I love this quote because it sums up so succinctly how I feel about life.

I am passionate about the changes that need to happen in our world – like the sex slave industry, racism, poverty and starvation.

Yet, I also have a great passion for art, music, good wine and especially having a laugh and fun with family and friends.

Sometimes, I feel twinges of guilt when I am enjoying myself, dogged by feelings that I should be doing something “useful” instead of having fun. Or feeling it insignificant to buy a piece of art simply based on its beauty.

As I grow older, I am slowly learning to reconcile the two and realise that God made me the way I am – with passion for both the “big” issues and the “small” pleasures, and that with Him, there is room for both.

In Your Words: Do you ever feel the pull of two worlds? How do you reconcile them?

 

Raised a pastor’s kid, Susannah Friis is first and foremost a follower of Jesus, as well as a wife and mother of three children aged 22, 15 and 9. She is also an aspiring writer who currently owns and runs four community publications with her husband. When not working or writing (or having some sort of other fun), it is not uncommon for her children to find her singing and dancing in the kitchen, always off key and out of time. She also likes to look at life sideways and enjoys speculating on the “whys” of how we behave as humans. You can join in the speculation by stopping by her blog at www.speakingpersonally.wordpress.com or follow her writing journey at www.thewriterlyway.wordpress.com.

 

Contest: Where in the World is Daniel (Postcard #3)

 

 

Welcome back for Daniel’s third postcard to Alli! Let the guessing begin: Where in the world is Daniel this week?

Leave your comment below or on my Author Facebook page for chances to win a prize package worth over $100. (Share on Twitter and your FB for extra entries. Be just sure to let me know!):

a collection of sixteen postcards by wildlife photographer Thomas Mangelson (Remember how Daniel gave Alli a gift of a Thomas Mangelsen photograph, Maroon Bells Daybreak?)
a $20 Starbucks gift card (Daniel keeps himself caffeinated while he travels the world!)
a “Life is Good” water bottle (Daniel’s motto — and he was wearing a “Life is Good” T-shirt in Chapter 1 of WYWH.)
a $50 Visa gift card (Always good to have on hand if you’re a traveling man like Daniel.)
a Heart of Adoption necklace (The same necklace that we gave away at the Debutantes’ Story Soiree.)
a signed copy of Wish You Were Here
a signed copy of my to-be-released in May 2013 novel, Catch a Falling Star

Me, enjoying myself in Destin, FL last February at the MBT Deep Thinkers retreat

Wondering where Daniel was on Tuesday? He stopped by Destin, FL, “The World’s Luckiest Fishing Village.” We lived right across the bridge from Destin for 8 years — well, actually, when we first moved there, the Bay Bridge wasn’t even built!

In Others’ Words: Writing … and Reading

 

photo by ryasaurus/stockxchng.com

“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.”
~ Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-), American author

 

I call myself a writer — an author even. But long before I morphed from a wish-I-may-wish-I-might wannabe writer to “the real deal,” I was a reader.

I had my favorite authors — and I still do. If I fell in love with a writer’s way with words, if a hero and heroine became almost flesh-and-blood real to me, I read every single book that author wrote. (I still do.)

Back then — when I was only a reader — I thought the author made the story come to life. Not me.

But now … now I understand the value of readers. How they, by reading my stories, breathe life into those “little black marks on wood pulp” and transform them into chapter one … and two … and three … all the way to happily ever after. Whenever a reader opens one of my books, my heroine embarks on her journey all over again. My hero has the chance to succeed — or fail — all over again.

In Your Words: Writer or reader — who brings a story to life?

 

Contest: Where in the World is Daniel (Postcard #2)

 

Welcome back for Daniel’s second postcard to Alli! Let the guessing begin: Where in the world is Daniel this week?

Leave your comment below or on my Author Facebook page for chances to win a prize package worth over $100. (Share on Twitter and your FB for extra entries. Be just sure to let me know!):

a collection of sixteen postcards by wildlife photographer Thomas Mangelson (Remember how Daniel gave Alli a gift of a Thomas Mangelsen photograph, Maroon Bells Daybreak?)
a $20 Starbucks gift card (Daniel keeps himself caffeinated while he travels the world!)
a “Life is Good” water bottle (Daniel’s motto — and he was wearing a “Life is Good” T-shirt in Chapter 1 of WYWH.)
a $50 Visa gift card (Always good to have on hand if you’re a traveling man like Daniel.)
a Heart of Adoption necklace (The same necklace that we gave away at the Debutantes’ Story Soiree.)
a signed copy of Wish You Were Here
a signed copy of my to-be-released in May 2013 novel, Catch a Falling Star

photo by bunkers/stockxchng.com

Wondering where Daniel was last Thursday? I’ll tell you: The most photographed mountains in North America are the Maroon Bells, located in Aspen, CO. In Wish You Were Here, Daniel gave Alli a photograph by nature photographer Thomas Mangelsen titled Maroon Bells Daybreak.

 

In Others’ Words: Now

 

photo by saavem/stockxchng.xom

Living the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causing you to bump into people not going your way.  ~Edna Ferber (1885-1968), American novelist

I can’t transport myself to the future, except when I escape in the pages of a spectacular novel.

And I know I can’t go back to days past. But I’ve wasted hours looking over my shoulder at days gone by, rethinking things I said and I did — and things others’ said and did.

The only result? A serious case of virtual neck strain.

Living now requires looking around at what’s happening this minute. Knowing where I’m headed — and yes, not forgetting those tough lessons learned along the way. “Now” means walking with people who are headed my way. Sometimes I’m fitting my feet into the the footprints of those who’ve forged a path ahead of me. And sometimes I’m breaking a trail all my own.

In Your Words: Where are you living — the past? Or are you living your “now”? Are you bumping into people heading the wrong way or breaking a trail all your own?

In Others’ Words: Teachers

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.  ~Lily Tomlin  as “Edith Ann” (1939), actress

I registered my caboose kiddo for school this week. We bought school supplies weeks ago. Today she went with her BFF and got locker supplies. Middle school, here they come!

Funny, I never bought locker supplies when I was in school. We just had a locker. Period. The only thing I ever put in my locker was my books … and my coat … and my lunch. Nowadays you can decorate your locker with all things magnetic: fancy paper, mirrors, message boards. There are hanging fabric shelves and metal shelves and who knows what else. A mom can bust her school buying budget on her kid’s locker.

But I digress — badly.

This post is about teachers because, while buying all the neat-o supplies is fun, the teachers are the greater influence in my daughter’s life. I’ve given these other adults permission to spend time with my daughter — to teach her — to affect who she is.

The teachers I appreciate the most? The ones who step out from behind the books and the tests and the memorize-this-don’t-forget-that-make-sure-you-meet-the-deadline rigmarole and develop a relationship with their students. The ones who go past reading, writing and ‘rithmetic  and challenge you to think about more.

In Your Words: What teacher gave you something to think about besides homework? What was it?

 

Contest: Where in the World is Daniel (Postcard #1)

 

Let the contest begin!

Daniel Rayner, the hero of my debut novel, Wish You Were Here, is traveling again — but, of course, he’s sending Alli postcards. He’s given her — and you — a clue to his whereabouts today. Where in the world do you think Daniel is?

Leave your comment below or on my Author Facebook page (and share about the contest on Twitter, Facebook, wherever!) for chances to win a prize package worth over $100:

a collection of sixteen postcards by wildlife photographer Thomas Mangelson (Remember how Daniel gave Alli a gift of a Thomas Mangelsen photograph, Maroon Bells Daybreak?)
a $20 Starbucks gift card (Daniel keeps himself caffeinated while he travels the world!)
a “Life is Good” water bottle (Daniel’s motto — and he was wearing a “Life is Good” T-shirt in Chapter 1 of WYWH.)
a $50 Visa gift card (Always good to have on hand if you’re a traveling man like Daniel.)
a Heart of Adoption necklace (The same necklace that we gave away at the Debutantes’ Story Soiree.)
a signed copy of Wish You Were Here
a signed copy of my to-be-released in May 2013 novel, Catch a Falling Star