Pamela Q. Fernandes's Blog, page 31

Cover Reveal: Under a Scottish Sky

Cover Reveal for UNDER A SCOTTISH SKY. Yay! It’s finally here.

I wanted to share the cover for my latest romance by Satin Romance.

Under a Scottish Sky

It’s based in the beautiful port town of Oban.

You can probably tell this is a sweet, multicultural romance featuring a Filipino nurse and a handsome Scottish man.  This cover has been designed by the lovely designer, Tara.

What do you think? Like it? Love it? I’m going to share my paperback cover as well pretty soon. Give me your feedback.  We’re gearing for a release date in September so watch this space as there’s going to be plenty of surprises, including Facebook quizzes and prizes. So stay tuned. If you’d be interested in an ARC let me know.

To give you a sweeping view and feel of the book I also have a page on pinterest.

Feel free to browse through the board and who knows you may chalk Oban as you next vacation spot. I know I want to.

In the meantime, if you like the cover, do share it with any of your friends who’re partial to handsome Scottish men and Scottish Romances. I can’t wait to share the blurb and behind the scenes tidbits while making this book. I’m sure you’re going to love it!

Episode 10- How to Transform Tragedy in our Lives?

Overcoming negative emotions is important.

Transforming Tragedy

Gordon Grose pastored three congregations 25 years, then served 12 years as a pastoral counselor in a Portland, Oregon counseling clinic. He now serves with Good Samaritan Counseling Services, Beaverton, OR.

Gordon Grose

A graduate of Wheaton College (IL), Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Brandeis University, and Boston University, he comes from a rich and varied background in theological and counseling training. In 2015, Gordon published Tragedy Transformed: How Job’s Recovery Can Provide Hope For Yours, a book about turning to Job for hope after tragedy.

In this episode, I talk to Gordon Grose, counselor and author of “Transforming Tragedy” about preparing, facing and transforming tragedy in our lives.

Gordon answers the following questions:

– Can we prepare spiritually or otherwise for tragedy?

– How do we transform tragedies in our life?

– What are the steps involved in this transformation?

– Why he picked Job as a model for this transformation?

For our listeners who’d prefer to read, here’s the transcript.

Gordon: Well, first, Pamela, let me thank you for your kind invitation to join with you today on this podcast. My name is Gordon Grose, G-R-O-S-E. And I’m a pastor and counselor, and now recently an author. I pastored 3 congregations over a period of 25 years, different places in the United States. I did counseling with Western Psychological and Counseling Services in Portland, Oregon, where my home is, for about 11 years. And I’m now counseling on a volunteer basis at a place called Community which offers counseling without a fee, and the whole ministry is supported through donations. By the way, this is a worldwide ministry, locations in 23 nations and 18 in Africa. Two years ago, I published my book the first one I’ve written on the subject of recovering from tragedy based on the book of Job in the Bible. I’ve been married 57 years as of next month, July 9th. We have four children, eight grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and one great coming.

Pamela: So you’ve actually had a very long career in counseling? You’ve also experienced lots of people with tragedies and things like that, right? You’ve met these people, you’ve seen this happen.

Gordon: Well, in pastoring, you certainly see it all the time. There’s constant funerals as there are weddings and births of babies, and so forth. So you get an experience of ministering to people in deep grief. And as a pastor you have a great privilege of being essentially in the front lines, seeing firsthand how people respond, and working with them to bring about comfort and resolution, and trust in God in spite of the loss which they are experiencing.

Pamela: So do you think that there are some people who, you know, are better equipped for tragedy? I mean, is there a way that somebody can be better prepared for tragedy? Or it’s just that when it hits us that’s the time you come up with whatever defense or coping mechanism you have?

Gordon: That’s a good question. One of the things I struggled with in the book, and I noticed that a very well-known author Timothy Keller struggled with it as well in his book on, “Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering,” and that is denial. The subject of death, or grief, or loss is something we prefer not to think about. It’s not easy to promote something to get people to face when they don’t want to. And grief and of course is because it’s very painful. People including me, I have things to do in preparation for after my death, with the funeral service suggestions that I want to make and with the ways that…well, I have take care of one issue. But it’s something which I delay and it’s in my box, but I never get to it, because it’s something that it’s easy to put off. There’s a French author, I think it’s Michel Desroches who wrote a book called “Détournements” and it’s the French word for diversions.

And in life we use a lot of diversions. We are heavy into sports, we are heavy into entertainment and movies and televisions, and everything helps us pass the time and diverts us from some of the real issues that face us such as health and illness, and death. We don’t even talk the word death anymore today. If you notice, we always say “passed away.” And one of the things I’m going to instruct my pastor, is to please indicate to the congregation that Gordon has died, that he has not simply passed on, or passed away, but that he is actually dead. And I feel quite strongly about that. I’ve worked with people to help them face their suffering and face their death with God’s strength. And I find that is the best way to help people.

I think the biggest lesson that I learned about that was from the book of Job about which I wrote. If you recall the story, Job was a magnificent success. And he had enterprises in every direction, large family. One day he lost it all. Well, what was it he had to learn? He had to learn, which he didn’t until the end of the book, that there are some things in life over which we have no control. And they’re truly tragic. We can think of natural disasters that come upon us: earthquakes, and tornadoes, and floods. And people have done nothing wrong, but they have to suffer and they have to go through these, there are times when we don’t have control over our own lives. And it’s something that is very difficult to live with, but if people can get their mind and heart around the fact that to control that is a lot, I can’t.

Pamela: Cannot control, yeah.

Gordon: That’s, I think, about the best they can do. So that when it happens and they realize, “Oh, that’s right. I remember now, somewhere somebody told me that you can’t control everything.”

Pamela: Explain to people, how do you go about transforming a tragedy in your life, especially when you’re so upset, you’re broken down, and, you know, you can’t see the light ahead of you. You can’t see God’s grace, nothing. So how do you transform that tragedy in your life?

Gordon: There are some things that we can do, some practical things we can do to prepare ourselves. And then I’ll answer the idea of transforming. For one thing, attend funerals. Somebody in your life dies, go to their memorial service. Go to their funeral. Go the visiting hours, if there’s visiting of the body. This is something which we tend to avoid. And we console ourselves with, “I want to remember them as they were. I don’t wanna see them dead.” But we have…and I grew up, my early days in ministry which I performed and attended many funerals. They were dead, they were in a casket in front of the church. And, yeah, it is painful, but that is something that a person can do because that’s part of life.

Visit the dying. You know somebody is critically ill, go to them in the hospital. Visit them at home. Kübler-Ross wrote a very important book on death and dying in ’60s and ’70s. And she says this, “When we care for the dying, they give us a gift.” The gift is the ability to accept your own death. So visit the dying and the critically ill. Listening to others’ pain is something that we can do too. Ordinarily, we wanna change the subject. Somebody starts to choke up and grief over the loss of a loved one and we wanna cheer them up. Instead what we can do is learn to listen to their pain, and say, “Honey, just talk to me. And I’m just gonna sit here and listen.” You don’t have to have loved one from the dead in order to comfort them, to help them. You do need to show that you care, and that you understand what they’re going through at least. So those are some things that we can do to prepare for our own tragedies when we depend on other people to come and support us.

Now, you mentioned about transforming tragedies, tragedy usually leaves us different than when we began the experience. Some people go down into bitterness because of what’s happened. And some people blame God, it’s a major source of atheism. “If God can allow children to die of cancer, I can’t believe in that kind of a God.” So they become very bitter and irreligious and reject a God who’s worshiped by the suffering that people go through.

On the other hand, a lot of people after they go through are transformed into a greater trust in God. And Job was bitter for much of his book. And the anger is that it’s palpable. He is just inconsolable, and the friends try and they try to reason with him and nothing works. I think Job is a good example of transformation because he comes to a new perspective on life, I mentioned earlier the struggle with control over life, and this was the import of the Lord’s message to Job at the end of the book, in which He confronts him with nature, with the clouds, with the rain, with ice, and snow, over which we have no control. He confronts Job with the animals who give birth and who die, and they are not in man’s prevue. They are completely apart from human beings. They have nothing to do with the city in which we live. And yet they live and they die. Learning that perspective, you know, we are divinely created but we’re also human and part of the natural world as well.

And then of course, there were the two huge chaos monsters over which Job has…and human beings have no control of: behemoth and Leviathan, reading in Job and with understanding can help to transform us through perspective that we begin to see our frailty, accept it, and then gain perspective. Leading the lives of Godly people can be a help to transform our own suffering, Bible characters who endured great difficulties and overcame them, faced difficult circumstances, with a positive attitude that they had to learn and be positive models for us. And then I would say social support. We need people. We cannot go through a tragedy on our own without people to talk to, to listen to us, people who understand, who care about us. And this was the matter of fact with Job’s experience, because he had three friends who didn’t understand everything, but who never left him. And so he was able to find them at the beginning, and yet they were there at the end as well as was his wife. So he had social support to those who…all of the ups and downs of his complains, for chapter after chapter.

And so I think social support is quite important: friends, family, church, small groups, neighbors. We have to learn to live with a new normal, the person is gone, or we’ve lost our home, I’ve lost my job. And so it takes time, and it takes support from others, and it may take some personal growth, inside as well, we are social creatures. I’ve been noticing how much horses are social creatures. And they kind of race together, you know, we got five or six horses and we have some not too far from where I live, you see them and they wanna keep an eye on each other and they feel comfortable being close with one another.

Pamela: And I think this is very important because in today’s world, people have just isolated themselves. In the sense they’re with their social media, or they’re with Facebook, or they’re with Twitter, but they have no real, you know, connections. So a lot of people are depressed, a lot of people are dealing with their own tragedies where they’re not seeking the comfort of their churches, or the social support. So I think social support is really something that people should look at more carefully.

Gordon: That’s a very good point. I’ve went in the mall a few months ago, and there’s a young man and this young woman were holding hands, and was on his cell phone texting. So that really got me as some truly as she was focused elsewhere.

Pamela: As we talk about this transformation, are there any steps to doing this transformation? Let’s say somebody is going through something really difficult, what are the steps that can take them through this transformation of their tragedy?

Gordon: Overcoming negative emotions is important. And you notice in my book, I identify Job’s depression in Chapter 3: He wants to die and he’s very angry with God, because of anger. He goes through fear, he has five major images of God as hostile to him. The arrows of the Almighty are in the…”My spirit drinks their poison.” And he sees God as an archer, and his body is pierced with poisoned arrows, and his life is seeping out. So he has to go through all of this very, very negative and painful emotions and finally gets to grieve. He doesn’t grieve until Chapter 29: And that’s over half the book. After 42 Chapters, and 28 divides the book in two, he doesn’t begin to grief. And very often that’s true with people, they feel angry, if you notice, some people will sue the doctor because the doctor operated on their loved ones, and the loved one didn’t survive, they blame the doctor. And it’s easier to get angry and focus all of your energy on the anger toward a specific person, than actually to simply grieve and let go, and realize that your loved one has gone and you could never done anything to change the outcome.

To grief is very difficult, but sometimes it comes later rather than right away. And of course, all of these feelings can be mixed up. So there’s not a clear-cut, step-by-step. I heard a little bit Kübler-Ross discuss her so-called, “Steps Toward Grief.” And she says there’s no such thing. Publishers referred me to put my ideas into some form which they could publish. But anger and denial and acceptance and depression are not something you bolt from one to the other and you never pull back. She said that herself, overcoming negative emotions, walking through the pain and not avoiding it is important in transformation. Maintaining social support. People can’t do anything and yet they’re very important. There’s been many times when I have sat with a person who lost their husband who was a pastor, and they poured out their heart at the funeral home or at their own home and after an hour of non-stop grieving, I have felt totally helpless, and what am I going to do to help this person? And they say, “Thank you so much. I don’t know what I would have done without you.” Well, I’ve helped them by listening, caring and sitting with them for a long period of time and hearing all the pain. Everything they can think of that’s so painful.

That’s take a little practice and a little training on my part, but it’s worth it to offer that kind of listening ear if you are a person that has some empathy naturally. So decide the time and let people pour out their heart. Maintaining a spiritual life, I think is important as a foundation towards transformation. It’s an important step because it gives you some stability. If you followed my book there’s a passage from Boethius, which is someone who lived many centuries ago, and tried to deal with suffering. The people at that time were dealing with slavery. Each culture would attack and control, and eventually enslave the next culture, death, plague. And he wrote this book in order to bring comfort to the Christians and he likened life to a big wheel, and at the center is God. And the closer we get to the center of the wheel to the heart, the less change there is, the less circular ups and downs of life. So maintaining a healthy spiritual life is that important, buttress against the vicissitudes of life, personal discipline in the word, a church, small group.

Pamela: Do you think people who have a spiritual life do better than people who don’t?

Gordon: Well, I think so. That’s kind of my own opinion. I certainly think that social support, you know, people who go to church also, they give a lot of social support because they’ve got a Bible study, they’ve got a prayer group, they’ve got a pastor, they’ve got elders when they learn, will come and support. So the spiritual life leads to a lot of just plain human contact and support at a time of crisis.

Pamela: Also, I wanted to ask because when I read your book, I was wondering why you picked Job. I mean, there are lots of people who’ve gone through plenty in the Bible. You’ve got Paul, and you’ve got Peter, and you’ve got Stephen, and you’ve got Jesus Himself. But why did you pick Job, of all the people that you could pick as an example of dealing with tragedy? Why did you pick him?

Gordon: Well, I’ve had a life-long love for the book of Job. In 1960 and 1961 I took a course at a Jewish university, Brandeis in Waltham, Massachusetts, and it got me onto the book of Job. I just got so excited especially reading it for myself. I just got so excited. Well, it just lay dormant for many decades, until I got a little encouragement from a friend. I gave a workshop on the book of Job at his church and a pastor friend said, “You need to write a book on Job.” I said, “No, no, no, I’m not…”

And after that… Anyway, one thing led to another and I retired from my counseling on ministry at Western in order to write. And, by the way, the book took me 12 years. So from 2003 to 2015, I was engaged 5 days a week, 3 hours a day in the library putting this together. Again, a life-long love for the book of Job, and it’s a difficult book, and I wanted to make the book understandable to modern readers today. The structure is complicated, and there are three friends, each of them gave a speech. Job responds after each speech. Then they do this three times. So it’s very complicated and it’s so easy to get lost. Each of the friends had a different perspective on Job’s suffering, although they share the one assumption that he’s done something wrong. But they also approach it in a different way.

The tone of the book is very argumentative and people don’t like to read something in which is just…they talk past each other, and they’re angry. Well, all those reasons people today I think just avoid the book of Job, they read a little bit at the beginning and the end. I wanted to make the whole book understandable. It’s much less well-known than say Jesus, or Paul, or Peter. And we have these 42 chapters for the book of Job. So that’s a sizable amount of material that seems to me needs dealing with. And then two, it has have such a powerful, compelling life story. The story in this case  is a compelling drama, this conflict with God, will he or won’t he? Is the big question in the book of Job, will he curse God and die, like his wife wanted, and like the Satan said he would, predicted he would, “If you take all away from him. He’ll curse you to your face.” Well, does he or doesn’t he? And the book has Job on the edge all the time. He’s just so close to doing that, and yet he never does.

And finally, the second calling experience of God, in which he unexpectedly meets God and God decides to confront him. And he had tried every trick, every means possible to bring God face-to-face with him, and to know well, and when he gets loved, then God speaks, it is not the way that God will work as well. We try human efforts to manipulate other people who love to manipulate circumstances, who control our life and nothing works. And when we give up and yield and surrender, then God moves it off the way in our life. So those are the reasons that it was a very personal choice on my part, basically, because I’ve had this life-long love since 1960, 1961 for the book of Job.

Pamela: Would you have any names of books that people could also can read if they want to do an additional commentary or study the book of Job?

Gordon: Let’s see. There’s a book by Habel, H-A-B-E-L in the Old Testament library series. It’s very scholarly, but it’s also very stimulating, 1981, that’s a one volume. But there’s another one by Wilson. It’s a little bit more popular. It’s a major commentary Gerald Wilson, New International Commentary, is based on the New International Version of the Bible. That would be good. It was Habel’s book that I read later that just turned me on to the book as well. And reawakened my love for the book of Job, there’s a three volume series of books by David Hines, [SP] which is, as you can imagine very technical, as Habel as well. And then the other book that affected me and stimulated me was a book by Jack Kahn, K-A-H-N he wrote the book, “Job’s Illness: loss, grief, and integration. A psychological interpretation.” That’s the book that gave me the idea of a progression or a transformation, or the change in Job. Usually if you look at the book it’s talking about, without seeing Job’s movement through all… I’ll give you one good example, at the beginning of Job talking with his friends, he talks about, He, meaning God. He, He, He, he explains around I think is Chapter 9, he changed the person dramatically from He to you. Now, some people have interpreted this as prayers. Well, they’re not really prayers in the technical sense, they are addressed to God, but the same anger is there. And they’re not worship…anyway, that gives you an idea that Job is not static. That the process of talking with friends brings about changes within him, and leads him through these kind of negative stages which I mentioned. So those are the major books I would…

Pamela: Tell us a little bit about your own book. Because I read the book and there’s so much of personal stuff in it. You know, your own personal experiences, your own personal tragedies. So tell us a little bit about your book. Where people can find you if they wanna contact you, what do they do?

Gordon: I had a personal motive as well, in all of these writing. And that is my son and daughter-in-law have been treating chronic illness for over 30 years. And it’s been very tragic. They’re both highly talented people. Musically they were both graduates of The Wilton Conservatory of Music in college, and yet have been, as far as life is concerned, on the shelf. So I began the book with first experience of being confronted with our daughter-in-law’s illness, which changed our son’s life and changed our lives as well. So there’s a personal motive for wanting to get their names and their story into people’s minds, and so that they not be forgotten. And that their lives mean something. Julie’s father has also written a book about them. And so we’ve been able to devote our time to helping people be aware of their lives and be a witness of Christ during this time.

Yeah, it’s available on, amazon.com in both paper and in eBook. Or I have a website tragedytransformed.com which is…I have a blog that I write for regularly, www.gordongrose.com, that’s my name G-O-R-D-O-N, G-R-O-S-E.com. And I deal with subjects related to the book of Job, and related to hope, addiction, recovery, hope in death and dying, and hope in mental illness. I’m on Google Plus, Gordon Grose. I’m on Facebook.

Pamela: Any last words that you have for people who are dealing with tragedies?

Gordon: Sure. When I wanted to write the book, I wrote it in a way which lays out the story of Job according to how we experience life, and I made it in a way that people can grasp because we go through these experiences and stages. It’s not exactly the way the book of Job itself is laid out. So it should appeal to people. The chapters begin with the story of somebody I interviewed, a number of people with different experiences. I have a story about a lady in Chapter 8 who lost her husband suddenly through an automobile accident, who fell asleep at the wheel.

I have a story in Chapter 6 I think it is, of a former client, a mental health client, who was very, very disturbed and who gave me permission to write his story in my book. And when I preached my last sermon at my home church, I called and invited him, and he was there. So that was very exciting. But that deals with mental illness. I have a story of a man who went through depression after he lost his wife and he lost his job the same year. He wanted to die, he tried to, he planned it, he rehearsed it, and what happened to him, a natural disaster, and I have my own son and daughter-in law’s story as well, the beginning of it. Each chapter begins with a story of someone I interviewed, and then ends with self-help suggestion how we can work through these painful experiences, and in the middle, of course, I deal with Job and his similar life experience.

And I hope that the book will be a handbook of healing to help them navigate that private [SP] and hope it would even accelerate their healing, their recovery and their coming out the other side of the grief. So I’m hopeful that the book will have a healing effect on people, and bring them hope and encouragement, bring them closer to a personal experience with God, if they don’t already have it. And if they do, it will draw them closer, even so.

Pamela: So thank you so much Gordon for, you know, spending time and talking about this.

Gordon: I welcome the response from people as they hear me, and as they perhaps are motivated to read the book for themselves.

Enjoyed the show? Leave a comment

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What I learned from working with four different editors?

Four editors. I’ve worked with four of them this year for different publishing houses.  You all know that CINDERS OF CASTLEREA, UNDER A SCOTTISH SKY & THE MILANESE STARS are currently undergoing various stages of editing. And I have to say that finding the right editor is gold. The right editor can really make your book sing which is why I think it’s great that publishing houses pair editors with work that resonates with them.

What I learned from my editors!

So here’e what I learned from them:

Every Editor Has A Different Style

Every editor is different. They’ve studied at different places and universities. They may have worked at different publishing houses before and so their style of editing will vary. Some may want to correct major flaws first, others may just correct punctuation and grammar before addressing issues. Be prepared for different styles.

Editors Work Differently

Some have a very teachable style. Like when we were editing  “Where the Stars Rise,” the editors Derwin Mak and Lucas Law, taught me a lot about fact-checking and using commas. They didn’t have to but they did. I’m so grateful to them. Others will leave comments and ask you to consider changes. Some will change it and ask you to simply approve.

Editors Have Weaknesses & Strengths Too

Like us writers I’ve learned that editors have weaknesses and strengths too. Some are good at checking references or new words, or British and American spelling, others may not. Some will be grammar nazis and not correct too much sentence structure. Each one has different strengths and it’s your job to supplement the weakness.

Good Editors Do Multiple Rounds

I’ve learned that each of my editors worked through three different rounds of edits, which meant almost six to eight rounds of reading for me. Yes. And I caught an error in my work every single time, so did my editor. Editors polish and polish and polish your manuscript till it shines.

Editors Are Your Friends

When you see all the red in your manuscript, you may feel the urge to rant or worse cry. I usually expect the red. Welcome it even. The more red you see, the better the book will be. It’s better to smooth it all now, instead of after a bad review.  Don’t write back the same day if you have questions or something to say. Wait for a day. Let your bitterness pass. Your editor is your friend. He or she will not mollycoddle you into appeasing your ego. He has a job and he has to deliver. Editors are not your enemy.

Editors Will Also Miss Things

If you find an editor has missed a full stop, don’t write back asking him to check his vision. We all read fast and not everything will be seen. I know as I’ve just completed my fourth edit on Under a Scottish Sky how I’ve missed so many things. And I know my story like the back of my hand. I switched genders, midway a land rover became a jeep and I’d messed up so many words. They will miss stuff occasionally. They’re human. That’s because they don’t know the story as well as you.

Editors Work Hard

They really do. In a day where you’re just reading one story, yours. They’re reading multiple works correcting, fine tuning and polishing them. It’s a lot of words and stories and worlds and characters. It’s hard work. Cut them some slack.

 

 

 

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QMC-12- Advice to new Interns

“My first day and I went crazy. Any advice?”

This question cracked me up because it reminded me of my first day as a clerk. Dr. AG asks, “I just started as an intern and I feel like I don’t know anything. the medical students seem to know more than me. My first day and I went crazy. Any advice for a new intern.”

Hmm. Lots. To be honest when on my first day at clerkship and internship was like the first day at any medical practice at any job. It’s going to be the same everywhere. So the advice I give you could be well applied to your any future first job.

I can well remember the first day of my clerkship was in Pediatrics at JBL, San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines. It was the height of Dengue season, two dengue wards were full. I had no clue what to do, where the lab forms were, where the lab was, where the residents slept and what to write. Patients kept bringing their children to me with IV out’s, children with nephritic and nephritic syndromes needed urine outputs monitored and there was a q15 BP monitoring in place for both dengue wards. I won’t lie, by the end of the day I cried. I hated pediatrics. I didn’t ever want to go back to medicine ever again. By the end of the month our top 1 ranker quit medicine completely. She just couldn’t go through it.

When I went into internship I knew what it would be like but on my first day in Medicine, I still ended up crying.

Advice for new interns

My advice to new interns is this:

-If You Don’t Know, Ask

The teams know you’re new. You may think you’re annoying them by constantly asking them for advice but actually they quite like that you’re dependent on them. They’d rather  prefer you want to learn and be cautious than seem like a Mr-know it all.  Ask many times. If you don’t understand, say so.  Do it once but do it right. Don’t be afraid or embarassed to ask.

-Be Patient

You won’t know everything on day 1. It will take time. I didn’t know how to do pediatric IV insertions right till my 29th day of rotation. I didn’t do good admission conferences in pediatrics on any morning when I was on wards. I always got hazed and torn apart till my last day of rotation. Learning takes time.

-Stay Humble

You will be corrected many times, repeatedly and often in front of nurses, ward boys and patients. Don’t react. Be humble. Learn from your mistakes. The hazing will end. Believe me it’s good preparation for the real world. Patients are often worse taskmasters than your attending. Smile and don’t let your ego get in the way.

-If You Have Nothing Good To Say, Shut Up!

Don’t malign your colleague, attending, nurse or anyone else. News travels fast in the small world of a hospital. And payback is a (you know what.) If you have nothing good to say, then keep quiet.

-Develop A Learning Attitude

This is fertile ground for practice. So watch and learn from everyone. the med techs, nurses and respiratory therapists all are experts in their fields. Soak up everything you can from them like a sponge. Ask questions, take an active interest in what they have to say, show they that you’re teachable and they will teach.  They would be happy to advise you with their expertise.

-Befriend The Staff. 

I remember after developing camaraderie with the nurses, they always had my back, even in front of an attending. They will go to war for you if they like you. Don’t suck up. Be genuinely nice. Hospital work is hard. If you make it easier for everyone it gets easier for you. Seek their opinion and include them in decision making. empower them by asking for advice.

-Never Lie To Your Patient

Always tell them the truth. They deserve it.  If you mess up or the attending is late, whatever, always tell the truth. I’ve seen many residents lose their job over trivial lies that didn’t need to have been said.

-Eat And Sleep Well

Don’t forego meals. Eat healthy and on time. Do this at the very beginning of your residency. Arrange a schedule with your co-interns on night shifts so each of you can sleep for a few hours while someone else covers the shift. Often the nurses will tell you to do so. They understand.

-Carry Your Pocketbook With You

It serves as a quick reference guide when you’re in a pinch. Whether an e-version or a physical copy carry one with you always. I used the Oxford manual of Medicine back then and now use the Washington Manual General Internal Medicine Consult. I’ve also heard rave reviews about the  The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine”

-Making Referrals

Know everything about your case before making the referral and I mean EVERYTHING. You should memorize the entire history, physical exam, and pertinent labs when you refer to a consultant and attending.

-Don’t Panic

Never! There’s no need. You’re in a hospital. You can handle this. Someone will step in for you if you don’t know what to do but don’t panic. Having a giant brain fart when you see a cervical cauliflower lesion or anal prolapse is going to make your patient panic as well. So calm down. You can always get help. Remember that song “Pokerface?” That should be you.

-Get Over Y ourself

So you have to go back and refer to your consultant every time. So you have to present each case in front of the med students. So you got hazed. Get over yourself. It’s not about you. It’s about the patient. Take the advice you get, learn from your mistakes and move on.

-Keep Notes

This is hands down the best advice I can give you. Makes notes of what your learn everyday on rounds with attendings or otherwise. Often this will be part of your board exam or rotation exams. You always can refer to your notes later when you practice. It will also help you chart your own learning curve. I still have my notes from my IM rotations. I learned a ton there and sometimes refer to it for the basics when I need to brush up.

Relax. A year from now, you’ll be laughing at yourself for stressing so much. Enjoy the journey. Count yourself lucky. You have an opportunity to learn that so many haven’t received.

Does anyone else have advice for new interns? Feel free to send it in. Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

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Authors are not your competition

I’ve been coming across lot’s of posts on writer’s envy and competition. I was quite surprised when I googled writer’s envy and found there were 400,000 posts on it. WHAT? 400,000 authors envious of other authors and thousands of authors equally commiserating in the comments section of those posts.

Authors are not your competition!

Let me admit; yes I’ve been hit with writer’s envy. That pang of pain is very short lived in my case, roughly thirty minutes and then it’s over. I’ll tell you why.

– Authors Are Not Your Competition, They Are Your Customers

Let’s be honest. Authors are the most voracious readers. I’ve read 102 books already this year and I know I’ll hit two hundred by the end of the year. I will not fall asleep or commute without a book.  Where others see 400,000 green eyed writers, I see 400,000 opportunities to sell books. Just imagine if all those people bought and read your book, what would happen? All of them are readers first and writers second. Focus on your customer, not your competition. The only reason you may think this doesn’t work is if you don’t buy other author’s books or support the publishing business yourself. Please don’t say you’re low on cash. If you’re spending 4 bucks on fancy coffee everyday, you can certainly buy a book a week.

-Authors Are Your A dvertisement

Word of mouth is still the way to go when it comes to advertising books. When I read “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” by Garth Stein, I went on and on and on about the book. I told my friends, my church group, and my family. I spoke about the book everywhere I went . At dinner parties and in crowded elevators, in trains and during potlucks. I told everyone. Authors have huge branding and audiences today. A word here or there can help spread the message about your book. You need their word, you need their mouths.

Happy Pub Day!

Happy Pub Day to me!

Ten Reminders for the Single Christian Woman is out in ebook and print.  Yay.

As part of our celebrations all week I will  be doing giveaways and guest posts on other sites. If you’re aware of a Christian single woman or part of a singles ministry and would love this book to be given away at your church, or local library, get in touch with me. I would be happy to send you a copy.

Here’s my cover!

Ten Reminders for the Single Christian Woman

And my book trailer!

Here’s the  FREE CALENDAR 2017.

For now it’s available on Amazon only.

Here’s the blurb:

-Are you a single Christian woman wondering what’s going to happen next in your life?

-Is your faith wavering as you wait for that special “someone”?

-Have you been praying and enduring for months only to go though another breakup, failed relationship or bad decision?

-If this is you, then this book is for you.

In Ten Reminders for the Single Christian Woman, Dr. Pamela Q. Fernandes talks about why you should stay optimistic and remain in God’s love.

As a follow up book in her Ten Reminder Series, she talks about her own struggles with faith, discerning a vocation and finding meaning as single Christian woman.

It’s also St. Maria Goretti’s  feast day! And I’m so glad this is my pub day. If you pick up my book, then send me your picture with my book for a collage I’ll be putting up when the audio version goes out. I want to share it with my other readers. Especially if you’re a Christian women!

Thanks for all the Pub day wishes in advance. God bless you all.

 

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Sick-of-your-own-story Syndrome

Are you sick of your own story? It’s the bane of writers. You know how it goes. You receive a rejection and you rework the manuscript. Another beta reader suggests something and then you do another edit. An editor kindly looks at the work and another thorough edit follows. If and when the work gets accepted, some of the better editors will work through multiple rounds of edits.  And so it goes on. Till you’re sick of your own story.

On my own I do a few more rounds, because I’m a fast reader and often miss mistakes. What ends up happening is I’ve read they story almost fifty times and then I’m just sick of my characters. Sick of the world I’ve built.

The story you must work on right now is the one that’s dying to get out of you, not the one you can’t wait to get away from.

Sick of your own story!

To combat that I came up with a plan to avoid the sick-of-your-own-story- syndrome?

-Stay fresh

When I work on edits form my beta reader or an editor and they send me feedback, I don’t jump into it at once. Especially if it’s been 10 days or less. I sit on it and work on another project, till I’ve completely forgotten about my story. That way the story gets fresh eyes and a fresh perspective when I get feedback.

-Work on other manuscripts

This is the best advice I can give you from my own personal experience. I’ve been editing Under A Scottish Sky and Cinders of Castlerea over the last few months. Each of which has multiple rounds of editing. I know portions of my own story by heart. I’m not sick of my characters because I have a rotating schedule for edits. When I send out my edits on Cinders, I start working on Under A Scottish Sky. It helps that the stories are set in Scotland’s Oban and Ireland’s Castlerea! Two very different settings. When you work on multiple manuscripts you’re constantly immersed in different worlds and I can promise you, you wont be sick of your story.

-Read a totally different genre

If I’m editing my romance books then I pick up non fiction books like Zero to One which I read this week  and when I’m editing my Christian nonfiction as happened with Ten Reminders for the Single Christian Woman  I read crime and romance.  When you read the same genre you get caught in a vicious circle of stacking up your own story against what you’re reading even if it’s not intentional. Reading a different genre of books helps me forget about tropes, words and plots about my existing work.

-Organize your Calendar

What is your memory palace like? How long do you retain things? Depending on it, plan your reads and edits on a calendar so that you don’t miss out on reading and working on your manuscript way before or after time. If you feel you get sick of your story, then the opposite is true as well, where you revisit your manuscript and have no clue who these people in your book are. Once you set your calendar, you will find yourself working in an organized manner and you will enjoy the streamlined process.

-Read your beta reviews

Often multiple reads can discourage you. You think is this even good enough? I know by the time I reach my last edits, I sometimes think “Maybe I should start all over again.” We all have these doubts. Every writer is worried if the work stacks up.  When these doubts creep in, read your beta reviewers notes. They can be so uplifting. Dwell on them and let them swell you with pride.

-Take all the time you need

Most editors have a tentative date in mind when your book’s published. The final date is only after your edits come through. If you’re planning a book or going through drafts then you will have certain dates in mind, contests, call dates, submission dates etc. While these dates exist at the back of your mind, they’re not set in stone. If you’re truly sick and tired of your story, then set it aside. Leave it be. Let it rest and breathe. Give yourself a break too. The story you must work on right now is the one that’s dying to get out of you, not the one you can’t wait to get away from. The distance will do wonders for your manuscript. Trust me.

How do you deal with sick-of-your-own-story syndrome? Share your tips.

 

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EPISODE 9 – HOW TO DO LITTLE THINGS WITH GREAT LOVE?

 I am determined to find an elevator to carry me to Jesus, as I was too small to climb the steep stairs of perfection.

The Little Way to Heaven.

Charles Johnston is a father and husband in Phoenix, Arizona. His conversion journey has taken years, as he felt God pulling him toward His Church but he resisted until he couldn’t take it anymore. He gave in and fell in love with His Church.  He blogs for ‘Now that I’m catholic.wordpress.com’. In this episode, Pamela talks to Charles about St. Therese’s “Little Way.” He describes the “Little flower”s troubled childhood and singular focus on her vocation. He explains the philosophy of the “Little Way” and how we can do little things with great love in our lives.

 

For our listeners who’d prefer to read here’s the transcript :

Charles: Yes he had a very interesting childhood. I think it might have…it was either last year or maybe it was the year before her parents were actually canonized. She was raised by very holy parents, and she had four other sisters all of whom were Nuns. I think one, right now, is recently beatified too. So, quite the family. They have a hall of fame caliber family, as far as saints go. But, yeah she was born in France, she’s from France, she’s the youngest Doctor of the Church. She died at age….was she 24 or a couple of five years old when she died?

Pamela: Yeah, she was very young.

Charles: So, she was pretty young, yeah. But, yeah her father…her father tried to be a Priest, but he was denied because he didn’t know enough Latin to be a Priest. Like I said, her Mother was a very holy person too and they were both canonized together as a couple, a couple of years ago. And her Mother died when she was very young too. That was a very hard time in her life, and she suffered from all kinds of illnesses like, I guess you would call it depression nowadays. She said that she was a sad child. She would go on fits of crying. I don’t know where she had a lot of sadness in her life. A very hard life, I guess, in late 19th-century France.

Pamela: I believe at that time in France, it was more like, you know this fear of God had been indoctrinated in people. That God was just harsh and he was harsh and he was…So, that was the time that was going on when they were Catholic.

Charles: Yeah, France still was kinda suffering from the after effects of Jansenism, you know where it’s kind of like this…throughout Europe, but it was really focused in France and it was really this angry God. It was kind of like a Catholic form of Calvinism. You know, this real angry God that was just gonna…he was just out there to punish everyone and really…Yeah, I don’t know like if you were born into this world or some sort of cosmic trick, to be able to punish you later on or something like that. Yeah, there was the aftereffects of Jansenism. What had already been condemned as a heresy, probably 100 years earlier, but it still found like lingering effects of this.

Pamela: What about the.her..I mean, you’ve given us about her background, but what about the challenges that she faced? I mean, you know she had her sisters living off and going to the Convent, and she was going through all of these changes. So, what exactly was the hardship or challenge in her life?

Charles: Well, from reading a few different sources of her, I read that she was sick, often, throughout her entire life really because she died of tuberculosis. But she was sick as an infant up until…I don’t think she lived with her parents until she was, you know, like two years old. And then, all throughout her childhood, she suffered from different illnesses and stuff. And so, you know, on top of that she also suffered from severe scrupulosity. And that’s where even though you confess a sin, or you are forgiven of a sin, you kind of like obsess over it. You know, and that’s probably part of that after effect of Jansenism that we were talking about. She was very scrupulous and I’ve known people that had….I’ve had it myself sometimes like, “Oh gosh, did I really…did I do that right this time?” You know, so it’s something you gotta kind of fight against. But then the opposite is laxity, where it’s just like anything goes. So, you gotta, you know, the golden mean, you go shoot for. But she had a very tough childhood.

Pamela: And it is good that you’ve pointed it out because if you actually read the story of her soul, you find oh my gosh, I mean, she’s just a child, and what is she talking about? But when you get it from this point of view, you realize, okay she did have a problem, that she was really suffering with something, right?

Charles: Uh-huh, yeah.

Pamela: In her entire life, I mean, she’s pretty young but then she manages to say so many things. I mean she manages to write books, and even through her sickness write all of her thoughts down. So, what are the most important things that she has taught us through her writing, and through her life?



Charles:Well that anyone could be a Saint. That is I think really the most important thing she taught us because she’s 24 years old, she dies and she joined the Convent at 15 or 16 years old when she joined the Convent. And the thing to it or what’s amazing about it is the Nuns that were in the Convent with her were completely unaware that they were in the presence of a Saint. They just thought she was just a normal everyday Nun. They didn’t know that she had this great spirituality and she kinda had…kinda of an, it was in her interior life. But it was anyone…we don’t have to do like Saint Paul-type missionary journeys. We don’t have to travel to the ends of the world. We can just be kind to the homeless person on the corner, or we can just smile at somebody. She would…that’s what she talked about her little way and the little way to heaven, and just everything you do, no matter what it is, if it’s smiling at a stranger, if it’s you know, giving the waitress an extra dollar type, or just telling someone, just saying hello to somebody. You just…any little thing you do, if you do it for God. You know that really…it can change the world.

And that’s what inspired a little Albanian woman that joined a…you know, joined a Convent in Ireland and moved to India, Saint Teresa. She actually was inspired by the little way, and the story that’s told, and that’s why she took the name Teresa when she became a Nun, was because of Teresa Lisieux. And look what she done. You know we can’t all do great things, but we can do little things with great love. That’s her famous quote, and that’s really, that’s straight out Teresa Lisieux’s playbook.

Pamela: If anybody wants to emulate her, in the sense of doing the little way, explain to her what exactly is this little way? I mean, I know you’ve given examples already. But just define it for people who don’t understand this kind of spirituality.

Charles: From what I know…from what I gather from it is literally just doing the little things. It isn’t…we can’t all…like they say, we can’t all be great. She knew she was just…she knew she was just a young nun living in, you know, out of the way corner of France. That she wasn’t going to do anything great as far as you know, but she could share the Gospel with somebody, or she could do these different things and that was what she understood to be…She said she wanted to find a little way to heaven because she was too small to climb the great steps to heaven. So, she wanted to find…she compared it to like an elevator. And she said, “If rich people have these elevators in their houses nowadays.” I guess elevators was a new invention back then. But she said, “They had these elevators, they don’t have to bother with the stairs.” She said, “Well, I want to climb an elevator to heaven and that elevator is Christ’s arm. I’m going to allow him to lift me to heaven by doing…you know by just cooperating with his grace in every little way I can.”

Pamela: And I think just to let people know, I believe she was a cloistered nun, right?

Charles: Ah, yes, I think so.

Pamela: So there’s…

Charles: No, she’s a Carmelite. Yeah.

Pamela: Yeah, she’s a Carmelite, yeah. So, she does not have to actually go out and go on missions, and you know, have peaceful and do great things. I mean everything had to be done within the walls of the convent.

Charles: Right, yeah and cloistered nuns, that’s, their whole thing is prayer. They just pray, they pray for the Church, they pray for the Pope, they pray for all the world basically. They pray for everyone.

Pamela: Apart from the little way, she’s also had a lot of writings about, I think, the child Jesus. I mean she focuses…because of this constant fear in France at the time, she talked about loving God who came as a child. And do you have any thoughts on that as well?

Charles: It was on Christmas Eve when she was like 13 or 14 years old when she had this epiphany of the child Jesus. And that’s where she really…that’s where she decided that she wanted to dedicate her life to Him. And that was her…her actual religious name that she took was Terese of the Child Jesus. So, she was really dedicated to, you know, Jesus as a child. It really is…I don’t know, when you think about it, you think about…when I think about Jesus, I usually think like, first image on my mind is like Good Friday or the Passion or things like that. Or what I see now. When I was in Israel one time I’ve seen a crucifix and it was Jesus dressed in like royal, it was a carving in a Church. It was dressed in like royal robes with a crown on nailed to a cross at the same time. And it was really like that dramatic King of the Universe, Savior of the world kinda….But she sees Jesus as this helpless infant.

And it really is…like that is just as amazing as Christ dying for us, is Christ taking on flesh for us in the first place. You know, just coming…He didn’t come like…he could have just appeared on earth as a 30-year-old, you know, man. But he didn’t, he appeared as a newborn baby. That’s how he came, he came to us…he didn’t even come as a newborn baby, he came as a fetus, an embryo in his Mother and then went through the whole pregnancy, the whole entire human experience. But she’s seeing him as a child. You know, and that really is…that is, like I said, that’s just as powerful as King of the Universe or ruling…I guess because I’m a man I see more of like the power, she’s seen more of the meek. And it really is, you know, it’s good to think of it that way too. Jesus is the king of the universe but also he came down.

Pamela: You can’t say that what I’m going through is different from what Christ went through because he went through exactly everything that you go through as a human being.

Charles: Right, yeah. He was fully human and fully divine. He actually had the full range of human emotion. And he really showed that too in the agony of the garden where he was sweating blood, and he was praying to let this cup pass because he knew what was coming. And he knew what was gonna happen and everything, but he was willing to accept it for our sake. I like that…the one story about her, she tried to enter the convent at 15 and they rebuffed her and they said,” No, you’re too young.” I think at 14 even. And at 15,”Oh, you’re too young,” and the Convent Director, I don’t know what this actual title would be, but basically the Priest in charge, he said, “Well, you can always go to the Bishop.” I guess he never actually assumed that she would actually go to the Bishop. So, she travels into the town and goes to the Bishop, and she tries to come into the Bishop and the Bishop is like, “No, let’s think about it a little bit because you’re only 15 years old. That’s awfully young to be making a lifelong decision.” So, that year she goes with her family on a pilgrimage to Rome. It was Pope Saint Leo the 13th’s 50th anniversary of being a Priest. And she goes to Rome, and while there, you know how they go up, you have to go up and kiss the ring…

Pamela: Yeah.

Charles: …and just kinda like…kind of like a Papal audience. But it was just kind of…they were supposed to be rushing everyone through and you weren’t supposed to talk, and she just barks out and said, “Please your Holiness, let me enter the convent.” And he laughed at this little girl, a 15-year-old girl saying, “Let me into your convent.” He said, “If it’s possible you’ll enter in the convent.” And she pleaded with him and she never let up. She was very persistent. She knew what she wanted and she was persistent about it. And we really have to be persistent, too, in our…you know when something’s right and you know if something really feels right and you go after it, you cannot let yourself get discouraged by a minor setback. I think that was very important.

Pamela: Right, and that’s very common to a lot of the Patrons, right? I mean that they are persistent, they’ve got this singular focus on doing whatever it is. I mean that’s them.

Charles: That’s what makes them a Saint. That singular focus on doing the will of God. We’d do well to adopt that in our lives.

Pamela: Okay, so I’ll just give people a tip about this because I’m a total skeptic when it comes to novenas. But somebody told me, “If you do this novena, you know, she kinda showers you with roses.” And I thought this was just total nonsense. I thought, but I did the novena and I can tell you for a fact that you see roses everywhere even when you’re not looking. You either get a rose, or you see a rose, or…it’s like roses all the time for the entire nine days that you do the novena. And that is something that…if you are a skeptic, just try this once and you’ll be convinced about, you know, her as a Saint.

Charles: Well, the intercession of the Saints.

Pamela: Yeah. Anything else that you have? Tell us about where you read about her because I read the “Story of a soul” which was her, I think her biography and her sister who was her Superior added on to that.

Charles: Yeah, “Story of a soul.” She actually wrote…she wrote three separate letters that was compiled after she died by her sister into a book. And the funny thing is too that her sister, when she made that book, she only thought that it was going to have a very, not a very wide audience basically. She thought it was going to be just to Carmelite nuns to read to kinda help them on what they should be doing as Nuns. And maybe to a few religious around the world or things like that. But it ended up becoming a bestseller and really that’s what propelled her to her canonization. Really, it was just such so much wisdom in this book, that a person that was 50 years studying philosophy and theology hadn’t really wrote something like this. And she was a 25-year-old girl that really, how much schooling would she have even had too if she went in that convent at 15? And yet she wrote this book that is still one of the widely read Catholic books in the world today.

Pamela: And she ended up being the Doctor of the Church, I mean…

Charles: Yeah, a Doctor of the Church. That’s a pretty…How many doctor, I think there 30, 32 or 33 doctors, and only like 5 of them is women. And here she is 24 years old, and she is a doctor of the Church. That’s pretty amazing. Pretty good achievement.

Pamela: It just goes to show that God can use anyone at any place at any time, no matter how old or young or strong, or what your past is, or whatever, you know?

Charles: Or unfit for the job you are. She was a sick girl that, you know, at 24 years old she died and most people really wouldn’t take advice from an 18-year-old or a 20-year-old. But here she is giving spiritual advice to people all around the world to this day in her book.

Pamela: Any other books that you read on her or any other sources that you think would be…

Charles: There’s a website. There’s actually a shrine to her that I visited one time. I never got to go inside, it was closed. It’s in San Antonio, Texas. But there’s a website, I think it’s littleflower.org and there’s really just, it’s a wealth of information as far as St Teresa Lisieux is concerned. I think it’s littleflower.org.

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QMC 11- A Question about Finance

How do I make money without looting my patients?

Dr. V S asked a finance question. “I’m a specialist doctor. I know many doctors charge a bomb as consultant fees. I want to know how do I make money from my practice without looting my patients?”

A question about finance in clinical practice

Finance question! Wow! Who doesn’t want money?

Well to be honest I think a number of doctors don’t really practice with the “intention to loot.” Everyone starts with “the intention to treat.” But a financially viable practice doesn’t result from simply charging more or less. It’s a lot about understanding and handling finance. Unfortunately  many colleges don’t train medical graduates about accounting and money. They just churn out people with paper degrees. The skills are up to us so is the success  and the finance. The glory belongs to them though!

So here are a few things that will help you set better prices:

-Understand basic accounting

What are the purchases and expenditures? Salaries, rents, instruments, utilities, supplies and medicines. Do a crash course on accounts or finance and tally, if you’re going to be a one man show. But irrespective of the members in your team you need to understand the baby steps of finance. Try reading “Bookkeeping for Dummies” no joke!

Why Every Writer Must Read!

What? Writers can’t find time to write and now you want us to read?

Writers must read

I believe it was Stephen King in his famous book “On Writing,” who said, “If you want to be a reader you must do two things: Read a lot and write a lot.”

Never have I been more convinced than this year. Let’s rewind last year after my dad died I found a companion in my books. My most trusted and loyal friends. From CS Lewis to Ann Cleeves, I devoured everything. Of course I had set my Goodreads challenge to 60 but through no conscious effort surpassed that number by reading 72 books.

Soon after I found two of my manuscripts chosen for publication, with two more receiving R & R’s and realized my writing had changed a lot through reading. So this year I made an effort to get my reading in order. As of today I’ve read 100 books, the latest being “Hooked” by Nir Eyal.  So here I list a few reasons why you should read and then next week I”ll  share a post on how you can make time to read.

-To find out what works

Let’s start with the obvious advantages. You want to know what works. For romance, you have to know the standard tropes. If you know them well you can twist them well. Published books have a certain structure, dialogue, and cadence that you should emulate if not learn from. If you want to nail this in your own manuscript, you need to start reading your predecessors who have successfully done so.

-To find out what doesn’t work

There are some books you just hate and some character that make you want to beat up someone. Those TSTL(Too stupid to live heroines) that we hate so much, guess what, we write them up too. You think it works for your own story. But when you read books with similar characters, you begin to see the problems with your own work. Bad books teach you good lessons.

-To enrich your vocabulary

I love when I find a new word in a book. I enjoy finding myself challenged when I don’t know what a word means. If I have to take out my dictionary then wow. This means I expand my own word base for my next work, and trust me adding new words to your work, does help. I love when an editor makes a comment in the corner of  my manuscript saying, “I didn’t know this.”

-To learn plot and pace

You know those books where you’re going at 90 miles an hour flipping page after page only to find it end like a giant fart, those books which disappoint. You don’t want to be like them. By reading good books you can learn how to vary the pace and write plots that are not cookie cutter plots that millions of other books are plugging. Read t understand pace. How to vary it into a jog, a run, a hike and a walk.

-To learn dialogue

I’ve only recently learned how not to write on the nose dialogue. I’m one of the writers who likes to spoon feed my readers. Tell them everything, tie all the ends in pretty little bows and not encourage much thinking. So my dialogues are very straightforward. But in reality we don’t talk like that. After the many books I’ve read, I’ve studied how not to do this.  It’s painful while I write, but it makes reading conversation in my manuscript very vibrant.

-To understand setting and location

When I’m writing about a place I’ve never been to I read other novels set in that time period or location, just to be able to understand and get the setting and feel of the place. There’s something different to the green of Ireland and the shimmery lochs of Scotland or the powdery white sand of Florida. Read books to understand the location you’re setting your own manuscript in.

-To understand the competition

As writers, many of our queries and pitches require comp titles. I’ve done a post on this. You need to be able to tell an agent or editor or publisher why your 101st book on vampires is better than the 100 books already out there on the same trope. Besides once you start writing, you have to produce a book that far outshines all those other books.

-To build conversation fodder

Books are great conversation material. If there’s a book I’m really passionate about I can be a salesperson because I will talk to anybody and everybody about it. Imagine if you’re going to a conference for writers and agents,  or you’re at a pitch contest, talking about books you love can be great conversation. It’s not supposed to be reserved for book clubs only.

-To remind yourself why you’re writing

Not for the money, not for the fame. But for those lone readers who are going through a hard time and seeking a loyal companion in your book. For the readers who seek comfort and escape from their life. For the reader who wants to smile, fall in love, experience adventure or see a new location through your words. Because that’s what drew you in the first place. To read and find joy. Then when you couldn’t find it in the stories that existed, you decided to write your own.

Bad books teach you good lessons.

How has your reading program gone on this year? How do you use it to write?

 

 

 

 

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