Becky Wade's Blog, page 101

Life is Filled with Surprises

Baby chicks are born knowing how to eat, drink, walk, and admire themselves. These are 1 day old.

A couple of weeks ago I shared an assortment of facts about chickens. Today I’m going to share a few things only a chicken person would know.

A hen’s egg-laying apparatus–it’s officially called the oviduct–is like an assembly line. Before I had hens, I knew nothing about this sort of thing, so I’m happy to share what I’ve learned. It’s FASCINATING.

Like a woman, a hen is born with all the eggs she will ever lay–or at least the yolks, that is. (Not full-sized yolks, you understand. Tiny little yolks.) Every 22 hours or so, depending on the chicken breed, a mature yolk leaves the ovary and travels down the oviduct on its way to the “vent.” (Everything that comes out of a hen’s rear comes through the vent. But different tubes lead to the vent, so there’s no co-mingling.)

At the first assembly station, the white is wrapped around the yolk. At the next station, the shell encases the yolk and white. At the next station, the shell is “spray painted” with whatever colors are common to that hen’s breed. (My girls lay white, tan, blue, and chocolate brown eggs). At the very last station, a thin, clear membrane is applied to the shell, so that when it is laid in the sand or straw, the tiny pores will be sealed against dirt and bacteria.

You do not have to refrigerate freshly-laid eggs UNLESS YOU WASH THEM. If you wash them, you’re washing away the protective coating, so they need to go into the fridge. They will keep about a month sitting out on the counter. In Europe, they sell unfrigerated eggs. In the U.S., the egg you buy in the grocery store may be spotless, but it may also be three months old. As an egg ages, air seeps into the egg through the pores. You can determine which egg is old and which is fresh by putting them into a pan of water. Old eggs float because they’re full of air. Fresh eggs sink.

If the hen has been with a rooster, the yolk will have been fertilized, but the chick will not begin to develop until the day near-constant heat is applied–99.5 degrees. So a hen could lay six or seven or ten eggs over a couple of weeks, and they will hatch together, approximately 21 days after she begins to sit on them. (I tell you, God outdid Himself with the chicken.)

Now . . . occasionally mishaps occur. I once cracked a freshly-laid egg into my frying pan and gasped when the yolk was brown and stunk to high heaven. Apparently that yolk had stalled along the oviduct and rotted inside the hen’s body before it went through the shelling and shrink-wrapping stages. Fortunately, that rarely happens.

Sometimes a hen will lay a “fairy egg.” These are about the size of a Jordan almond. There is no yolk inside. Apparently a yolk forgot to leave the ovary, so the white didn’t have much to surround, and the shell didn’t have much white . . . you get the picture.

A large egg, a standard egg, and a bantam egg.

Sometimes two yolks will leave the ovary at the same time, and you’ll get a slightly-larger, double-yolked egg. Some hens have a tendency to lay double-yolked eggs, and that’s fine. I know what you’re thinking–could a fertilized double-yolked egg successfuly hatch? Not likely, though it does occasionally happen. But since the chicks breathe the air in the shell until they hatch, it’s not likely that two chicks would have enough air to survive until hatch time.

The other day I found a fairy egg in the nest box. (They always make me smile.) And a few days later I found a ginormous egg in the chicken run–if it had been round, it’d have been a softball. All I can figure is that the hen’s missing yolks got together in the pipeline and created a monster. I haven’t cracked that egg yet, but I’m guessing there are two or three yolks inside.

Those little brown spots you occasionally see in the egg? Harmless. The little globs of white stuff that you sometimes see on the yolk? Those are the chalazae, two little muscles that attach the yolk to the shell and hold it in place. (You wouldn’t want your egg scrambled before you cracked it, right?)

Why are my egg yolks a beautiful orange yellow while grocery store eggs are paler? Because my chickens are allowed to step out on occasion (when the dogs are in the house) to eat grass. The color comes from Xanthophylls. The more plants and grass a chicken eats, the more yellow their egg yolks will be.

Can you eat fertilized eggs? Of course. The eggs will not develop AT ALL until the hen begins her official “sitting” or “brooding.” Before she applies that constant heat, the egg is on hold, and you, the eater, wouldn’t be able to tell a fertile egg from an unfertilized one.

Smaller chickens (bantams) lay smaller eggs. Bigger chickens lay bigger eggs. And no, the humongous egg below isn’t from an ostrich or duck–it came from one of my hens, probably the girl who laid the fairy egg.

I think she deserves a week off.

Ordinary eggs from my girls and the monster egg. (Those aren’t cracks–maybe they’re stretch marks? LOL!)

About that ginormous egg–I cracked it and found a normal egg inside! If you’re interested in an entertaining and educational video about how such things occur, check it out here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tutorial on eggs. The next time you hold one, marvel at God’s incredible engineering. The perfect food, all in one tidy little package. Here’s to the chicken and the egg!

Inspired by Scripture

This Sunday feature is brought to you by ClashVerseoftheDay.com. You may sign up to receive a beautiful photo with Scripture in your inbox each morning or view the verse each day online.

How Important Is Talent in Reaching Writing Success?

How important is talent to a writer? Is talent required in order to become successful? Is talent necessary to rise above the competition?

I’d be remiss to throw out talent altogether and say that it doesn’t matter in the least. The truth is a bit of natural talent can probably help to a degree. Some people are born with wild imaginations. Some have the ability to embellish a story. Others have a smooth way of stringing words together. And all of that can certainly help give a writer an advantage.

Sometimes when people ask me where I get my story ideas or how I come up with a great plot twist, I stumble to find an answer.  There are just some writing nuances that I can’t explain, that just flow, that seem to be hard-wired into my makeup. Dare I say that I have some giftedness without sounding conceited?

However, even when writers are born with certain proclivities, usually talent alone isn’t enough to propel a writer to the NYT best-seller list.  Often there’s a common misconception that those who make it big or land multiple book deals simply have more talent than the average writer.

In fact, I think it’s all too common for many beginners to have an elevated perception of their writing skill. When I was just beginning, I know I did. I thought my first couple of manuscripts were pretty spectacular. I figured publishers would be knocking down my door to buy my books.

Like many newbies,  I thought talent alone was enough to make my books special and different from the masses of others out there, that perhaps my books had an almost magical quality that could propel them forward ahead of others.

Fortunately, rejection was the humbling reality check. Rejection from publishers and agents helped me realize I wasn’t God’s gift to the literary world and that I still had a lot to learn before my material was ready for readers. It wasn’t until my fifth book that I finally reached a point where my writing was good enough to catch the attention of an editor. Even then that particular book was rejected. But the interest helped me see that my writing skill was improving.

Unfortunately today, with the ease of self-publishing, many newer writers have lost the humbling reality check that was once a part of the process. Too many beginners with an elevated perception of writing talent (like I had!) toss aside the cautions about rushing to publish the first book.

It’s all too easy nowadays with social media to see what everyone else is doing, to hear the success stories and to think that “easy” is the norm and that talent alone is enough.

But what we don’t see is just how hard each of those successful writers had to work to reach the point where their writing was finally ready for readers to enjoy. We don’t see the years and years of writing with no return. We don’t see the hours of learning basic writing mechanics. We don’t see the multiple rejections. We don’t see the money spent on editing or critiques.

Yes, having some talent can give a writer a slight edge. But talent alone is not enough to become a good writer. Each step forward I’ve taken in my writing career has been hard-earned. I’ve had to scrape, claw, and fight for every inch of success. Nothing has come easy. Even after writing over forty books, I continue to sweat and fight hard for every small victory.

My advice for beginners? Don’t assume your talent is enough. Talk to successful authors and get a behind-the-scenes look at the amount of work they’ve put in. Look for ways to get “reality checks” to find out how you’re really doing. Be patient with yourself. And most of all keep learning and writing because eventually with enough hard work, your stories will be ready for readers.

So what about you? How important do you think talent is in reaching writing success?

Books & Tea (+Giveaway)

One of my favorite ways to relax is with a hot cup of tea and a good book. A comfy chair and some fuzzy socks add to the coziness.

In 2019, my daughter and I visited Victoria, BC and while there, I fell in love with Murchie’s Tea, a shop that has been in operation since 1894. My history-loving soul adores the idea of sipping a brew my characters could have enjoyed!

I found this wonderful tidbit about their heritage on their website:

As a young boy working for Melrose’s of Scotland, a prestigious tea import merchant in Britain, John Murchie delivered tea to Queen Victoria while she was in residence at Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands. Over time, John became familiar with the types of teas the Queen preferred and as his knowledge of tea grew, he started experimenting with blending teas on his own. When John immigrated to Canada and settled on the West Coast, he brought with him his passion and expertise in tea. He took this passion and pioneering spirit to establish Murchie’s Tea in 1894.

Left: A picture I snapped of Bethany by an antique stove inside Murchie’s Tea Shop in downtown Victoria. She has a sample box in her hand. I had about four samples in my hand.
Right: Tea and scones at Government House Tea Room where we got to sample some Murchie’s tea firsthand. Delicious!

Since that visit, I have become a dedicated Murchie’s Tea drinker. I order directly from them, and after sampling many of their offerings, I’ve settled on a handful of favorite blends. I prefer black tea blends sweetened with honey, so all of the following recommendations are in the black tea family, though the have many herbal blends as well.

1894 – This is their signature blend from the 1890’s, and my favorite–both for its history and its taste. It’s an Orange Pekoe – a rich, traditional blend. They picture the port of Victoria from its early days on their box as a tribute to how closely tied John Murchie’s tea business was to the development of the burgeoning city.

Golden Jubilee – A classic, rich black tea blended to honor Queen Elizabeth II.

Prince Charles – Originally blended in 1981 to commemorate the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana, it is a regal blend of strong, flavorful teas.

Queen Victoria – This is another of their original blends from the 1890’s, blended in honor of Queen Victoria. It’s a sweeter blend of green and black teas. This is my drink at work tea.

Editor’s Blend – This is the tea I drink at home when I need to get serious about writing. It’s a newer blend from 2011, created specifically for the Editors’ Association of Canada’s National Conference which was held in Victoria in 2011.

Library Blend – This blend of black and green teas was created in 1995 to honor the official opening of Vancouver’s Library Square. It was made to pair with books!

Not only do they make great tea, but they obviously know how to pair tea and books, for they have a book lover’s gift set that includes samples of their Editor’s Blend, Library Blend, and Baker Street Blend. This last one commemorates the classic literary sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. It also includes ten pieces of their Earl Grey Shortbread. Yum!

GIVEAWAY

Since I love books and tea so much, I’m giving away the Book Lover Gift Box of Murchie’s tea and shortbread PLUS a copy of one of my backlist titles. The winner can select from my current inventory.

Leave a comment about your favorite reading beverage to be entered for a chance to win.

My Very First Book Trailer!

I consider myself fairly tech savvy. But when it comes to social media and promoting my books? Not so much. 

Recently I watched a webinar on some of the more advanced things you can do on Canva. I’ve been using Canva for awhile and love it. It’s easy to make graphics for social media and my website. But I’d hadn’t ventured beyond that. 

Until now. 

Being with my husband on one of his business trips afforded me a little more “extra” time than usual after I’d finished my must do’s for the day. I thought I’d use that time to play around with Canva, especially to experiment with the video options. One of the authors on the webinar had gone through the basics of how she created a book trailer—all in Canva. 

Honestly, I didn’t think I could do it. I didn’t think I’d be able to find the images I wanted or distill my story down to a few slides or add music—all so it didn’t feel at least too amatuerish. And I thought it would take forever. 

Boy was I wrong! In less than two hours I was practically jumping up and down and showing my husband what I’d created. I could tell by the look on his face he was skeptical. But after he watched it? His tune changed. 

I sent it to a couple of writer friends and got more encouragement. And so I decided to debut it for all of you! 

I’d love to hear your thoughts—even if you see something I could do better!  

Do you like these kinds of book trailers? Do they help you decide what books you want to read? 

$20 Bill from Heaven

Ever had one of those moments when the veil between this world and the next seems to lift ever so slightly, and you feel a “hug” from Eternity? 

That happened to me in November 2014 with a $20 bill, of all things. And God kindly reminded me of that gift again when I ran across that $20 bill in my drawer this weekend.

I was out running errands that Monday over seven years ago now. Nothing huge, just Target, Costco, then I grabbed an Ice Dream cone from Chick-fil-A (an errand staple, you know). Then I ran by the bank to grab money from the ATM, all while missing Mom something awful. She’d been gone for five years at that point.

Mom and me at an awards ceremony in 2007

I was thinking about how she’d worked in a bank for so many years, and how we used to laugh and have such fun together while shopping and running around town.

Then… 

As I was counting my money, I noticed a twenty dollar bill in the stack that looked different from the others. Different print. It was older. I looked at the date on the bill and teared up. 1934. The year Mom was born. 

Even now I remember the Holy Spirit’s presence filling the car. The sense of “And all will be well” that permeated the space—and my heart.

Don’t you love it when the LORD gives you those special moments? When the Creator of time and space and everything that exists cares enough to reach down into the routine day of a ransomed sinner and let her know that he hears, he sees, he cares. 

When was your last “hug” from Eternity?

It would bless me (and the entire community here) to hear it!

Hugs from Nashville,

Tammy

And keep reading, I’ve got two more fun things to share:

#1Colors of Truth eBook on sale

For a limited time, Colors of Truth is majorly discounted in a Kindle Countdown Deal. So if you haven’t read this standalone Carnton novel yet, now might be the time.

If you have read Wade & Catriona’s story (and young Nora’s too), I’d appreciate you leaving a quick 2-3 sentence review on Amazon sharing your thoughts about the book. Reviews help new readers decide whether to “take the plunge” with me or not. Thanks, friends!

#2How will Deb spend Tammy’s $5 at Deb’s next garage sale?

Everyone here knows what a Garage Sale Queen our Miss Deb Raney is, and she and her husband Ken are heading out again this Friday. Because as she said yesterday, “Garage sale season is upon us!”

So I’ve given her $5 (well, she knows I’m good for it ) and have asked her to buy me something this Friday. Whatever she wants. What fun! I hope it’s something really cool like the items she’s found pictured below. Click the pics of flowers below to read a fun “recap” of the Raney garage sale escapades (I STILL Brake for Garage Sales).

Anyone care to guess what she’ll buy for me? : )

A Coffeebar Evolution

About thirty years ago, I spent $100 on this antique cubby that was originally the in-house mailbox at a small-town bank in Kansas. One hundred dollars was a lot of money for us back then, but I had Christmas money from my parents so I went for it! I have never been sorry! I don’t know if the alphabet letters are original to the piece, but they were cut out and pasted over each cubby space. They’ve faded over the years and once or twice I’ve gone over them with colored pencils to keep their color.

The Farmer’s State Bank in Galva, Kansas received its charter in 1909, so my guess is that my piece is at least 100 years old, and maybe much older. I bought it at the Galva Emporium Mall, which is now permanently closed, but still on the street view of Google maps. The business card was taped to my piece when I bought it, which is how I know its history.

When I brought it home, this antique first served as office cubbies on my writing desk in the corner of our living room in the duplex where we raised our four kids. There was plenty of space to store all my office supplies and a few pretty just-for-display items too.

When we bought our first house just outside of the tiny town of Moundridge, Kansas, and it was there that I first had a coffee bar. I had begun spending a couple days a week writing in a coffee shop in town, and found it so inspiring that Ken suggested I set up a coffee bar in my office. I loved the idea and this was my first attempt at setting up a little space to make a cup of coffee without leaving my office.

My first Keurig was a game-changer in this office.

Meanwhile, the cubbies were still holding office supplies atop a rolltop desk in the living room:

But seven years later, when we moved to our house in Wichita, Kansas, I chose to use the “formal” dining room for my office, and was thrilled when I realized I could use the cubbies as coffee mug storage for an even bigger coffee bar in my office. This worked especially well since my office was right next to the kitchen, making it even easier to refill the water and wash the mugs. My mug collection had grown to about 100 mugs by then!

I’ve whittled it down to about 50-60 now, but I still have a semi-annual washing of the mugs.

You may remember that I LOVE to rearrange furniture and that coffee bar spent time on every wall in that room.

About six years after we moved, I had my dad take the thick wood back off the cubbies and replace it with hail screen. Doing that opened up the back and let in light (plus, made the piece much lighter.) I was pleased when my dad was able to use that backing piece to frame a map of his later.

It wasn’t until we moved to our Missouri house that I turned the cubbies back on their side. And in this house, the coffee bar is in the dining room because my office is too far away from the kitchen. It’s handy to have the coffee bar away from the kitchen prep area when we have company over.

Plus, the grandkids love being able to choose a mug for the hot chocolate they want every. single. time. they come over, even in the summer. We love hosting these hot chocolate parties! The coffee cubbies have had a long evolution, and I think I love their current purpose most of all. But who knows? Maybe someday one of my grandchildren will grow up to use this piece on their desk to hold office supplies.

Inspired by Scripture

This Sunday feature is brought to you by ClashVerseoftheDay.com. You may sign up to receive a beautiful photo with Scripture in your inbox each morning or view the verse each day online.

Long Ago and Far Away

In March 1981, I took a yellow legal pad and wrote the opening line of what would become my first published novel. While I had toyed with writing both in high school and as a young adult, I hadn’t given serious thought to writing a novel until the fall of 1980. A number of things played into this growing desire inside of me, but the final straw was reading a book with an ending that didn’t satisfy me.

And so, putting my money where my mouth is (as the saying goes), I decided to write a novel of my own. I’d had a story idea bouncing around in my head for months. I took that yellow legal pad and began to write it down.

I did my writing mostly at night before going to sleep. I wrote longhand, but then I typed the story on the office typewriter on breaks and lunch hours. By November I had a finished book. I sold that novel to a New York mass market publishing house in February of 1982. They went bankrupt within a month or two of me signing the contract, and I sold the manuscript a second time the next year, along with the sequel I’d written.

Forty-one years later, I’ve released 85 novels and novellas with two more written and edited and scheduled to come out in 2022. I wrote 30 books for the general mass market before following God’s call in a different direction.

Publishing has changed a lot since I started. From IBM Selectrics to memory typewriters to personal computers. From mass market paperbacks to ebooks on reading devices like the Kindle and Nook. From audiobooks on CDs (and so expensive!!) to downloading to one’s phone (often for under ten dollars). There were over 500 wholesale distributers in the US when I started. Now there are only a few. I saw Waldenbooks put independent bookstores out of business, and then Barnes and Noble put Waldenbooks out of business, and then Amazon nearly topple Barnes and Noble. I saw the vast majority of Christian bookstores close their doors as well.

But of all the things that altered the publishing landscape, the most changes happened in the last 15 years (less, actually) because of the rise of indie publishing. It’s a whole different world out there for authors, including for me.

Paperbacks from RobinSong, Inc.

I’ll be honest. I hope I’ll be writing and publishing fiction for another 20 or more years. But no matter what, I’m very, very grateful for the past 41 years, for the publishers and editors I’ve worked with, and for the wonderful reader friends I have made. Thanks for joining me on the journey.

~robin

How to Read in Ways That Support Authors

This past week, I posted the below on my Facebook author page. It generated lots of shares and comments and quickly became one of my most-seen posts.

A very kind reader reached out to me in response with this question… “I’ve always wondered if there is a hierarchy of the best ways to support authors. Can you give a breakdown of what is most helpful?”

Today, I’m answering her question! I’m ranking the ways to read that are most helpful to authors by providing insights into the business of publishing.

#1. Buy a copy of the e-book or the print book or the audio book.

Authors who publish via a traditional publishing house earn approximately 5-7.5% if they’re paid on the gross sale price per book or 16-26% if they’re paid on net receipts (profits after all costs and taxes have been paid) per book. That percentage is less for some types of sales, like sales of books that are deeply discounted. To give you a sense of what that looks like for an author, I’ll use my most recent royalty statement as an example. For print book sales of my newest release, Let It Be Me (which has a list price of $16.99), I received $1.13 per book sold. Those of us who have literary agents pay them approximately 15% of that. So I earned about 96 cents per book.

On e-books, traditional authors earn approximately 25% of the net receipts of each e-book sold. For Let It Be Me, I received $1.10 per e-book sold. After paying my agent, that amounted to 93 cents.

On audio books, traditional authors earn approximately 10-25% of the net receipts of each book sold. For my traditionally published novels I’m unsure how much that amounts to in dollars and cents per book because those rights were sold to an audio book producer. My payments show up as a lump sum in my royalty statements without detailing how many units were sold.

With traditional publishing, the house bears the costs of editing, cover design, formatting, marketing, and distribution into book stores and libraries.

Independently published authors earn approximately 30-40% of the print book sale price depending on which platform they choose and how they decide to price the book. For my most recent indie novella, You and Me, I could have set the list price higher than $6.99, but I didn’t want to charge readers more than that for a story that’s one quarter the length of my novels. So I earned 22% of the list price which was $1.54 per print book.

On e-books, independently published authors earn approximately 70% of the sale price (at Amazon, that percentage drops to 35% for e-books priced below $2.99). I priced You and Me at $2.99 and earned $2.06 per copy.

On audio books, independently published authors earn between 25-40% of the sale price. I only have one indie novella audio book, Then Came You. I priced it at $6.95 and made around $1.80 per book sold.

With independent publishing, authors bear the costs of editing, cover design, formatting, paying narrators, marketing. Those costs must be paid back before we earn income. Thus, for example, when I factor in the cost of paying the narrators for Then Came You, my earnings drop from $1.80 per book to 57 cents per book. Paying literary agents typically doesn’t come into play here because agents are not usually involved in independently published projects.

Insider tips…. If you’d like to super-charge the amazing support you’re already giving by investing in books, you can do so three ways. 1) By buying print books at your local independent bookstore. That way, you benefit both the author and a small business owner. 2) By pre-ordering. This is good for readers because you’ll receive the lowest price the book falls to between the time you pre-order and the book’s release. And it’s good for authors because if a book accumulates a lot of pre-orders, it might hit a bestseller list which will make it even more discoverable. 3) By donating your used print books to a charity! Visit this post for a long list of organizations that accept donated books.

#2. Read via Kindle Unlimited.

Once a KU reader reads a certain amount of a traditionally published e-book enrolled in the program, Amazon pays the publisher a set price for that e-book and the author earns 25% of the net receipts. Independently published authors earn between $0.004-$0.005 per page read.

#3. Read via your library.

When a library buys a print book, the author receives a payment on that sale just like she would on a single sale made to an individual reader. With e-books, the library pays either to lend the book out over a specified period of time or to lend the book out a certain number of times. When that limit is reached, they can choose to buy the e-book again. The author earns a payment on those sales. With audio books, I think the library makes a one-time purchase, like with print books. (Librarians, I had a hard time finding information on this, so please correct me if I’m wrong).

While authors don’t make much income on books read through the library, libraries are very helpful to authors because many readers find their new favorite author on library shelves. That reader might then buy other books by that author or they might tell their friends about that author or they might write glowing reviews at online sites or they might share about the book on social media.

#4. Read books loaned to you by friends.

Authors earn no income (except the payment received on the initial sale when it was new) on books loaned between friends. However, there’s no better word of mouth marketing than that of a woman who drops a book by her friend’s house and says, “You have to read this! It’s fabulous.” Just like with library books, readers of loaned books can help authors by spreading the word about books they loved.

#5. Buy used books.

Authors earn no income (except the payment received on the initial sale when it was new) on books sold at used bookstores, flea markets, etc. Just like with library books and loaned books, readers of used books can help authors by spreading the word about books they loved.

I’ll close by mentioning the one actively harmful way to read — via pirated copies. Pirated copies are stolen property. You can be certain that you’re reading/listening to legal copies of books by… 1) Downloading e-books only from reputable online bookstores (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, ChristianBook, KOBO, and Google Play). 2) Visiting this page and scrolling down to see a list of reputable outlets for audio books. 3) Reading/listening via your library.

Based on the above information, it probably won’t surprise you to hear that the profession of fiction author is not usually a lucrative one. Like most creative jobs (actor, singer, musician, artist) there are a few famous names at the top who make a great deal of money. But the large majority do not. And we’d have no income whatsoever without you, readers. My heartfelt gratitude goes to those of you who appreciate what we do and who support our work monetarily and via the other methods mentioned in this post.

What are your thoughts? Did any of this information surprise you?