The Final Tour Stop

Today is the last stop on the I Love to Write blog tour. We'll be featuring the "My Book Therapy" book, From the Inside... Out.

You might be thinking to yourself, "I'm not a writer, why does she keep posting these weird if you're a writer type blogs?"

Well, you're probably wrong.

You might be a writer if...

• You know you've got a story inside that's just bursting to get out;
• You love to tell stories to others to make them laugh, think, cry, whatever; or
• You've ever read a book and thought, "I could do a better job than that."

I'm guessing by the mere virtue of you having a blog (which is an informal form of story-telling), that you've got some part of a writer somewhere inside of you.

That being said, if you think that you've got any bit of inkling inside of you, check out this book which may be the one tool that could help you get over the hump and get on your way. Count this as the one required reading you need to get to in 2009. You owe it to the writer who lives inside you that you've been starving for all these years.

If you'd like to win a copy of From the Inside... Out, click this link and leave a comment telling "My Book Therapy" what kind of novel you have inside of you that's just bursting to get out.

Here's a video that talks a little bit more about one of the authors of From the Inside... Out, and how she stopped starving her inner writer.

Have I Been Busy?

So, you might think that the title of this post is my admission that I've been negligent in my blogs. In some respect you'd be right. In other respects you'd be so wrong that it's not even funny!

I'm actually using that title because I'm posting another installment of the Inside... Out Blog Tour. Today's post is an article by one of the Book Therapy Therapists, Rachel Hauck, about writing in the midst of a busy life. Take it away, Rachel...

"A therapist thought: Writing in the midst of a busy life" by Rachel Hauck

Early on in my writing life, I had to give up the notion that writing time would come easy, be ideal and full of inspiration. When I signed my first book contract, I was working full time for a software company as a department manager. I’d recently become a worship leader at my church, adding that to my job as youth pastor’s wife. My husband and I also gathered with other area pastors to start a weekly multi-church prayer meeting and I’d become the Vice President of a national writers organization and was coordinating our second annual conference.

Writing? Yeah, like when? Where? And I didn’t even have children to raise. I felt pushed, pulled, torn, frazzled and on the edge. I’d never written a book to be published before. I’d not coordinated a conference and my committee was “out there” across America. If I failed, I’d let so many people down, including myself.

I lay in bed one night praying, trying to decide if I should just work up my courage and resign as Vice President and admit I couldn’t do it all. I didn’t need to be that kind of person. But as my final grasp for God’s grace, I whispered in the darkness, “Lord, you have a conference to coordinate, let me know what you need me to do.”

Peace washed over me. I didn’t resign. The Lord sent me a co-coordinator. The conference was a success.

And, I wrote my first book by June of that year and met my deadline.

A busy life seems impossible to avoid these days. We have so many options and opportunities available to us. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

1. Make sure the jobs or opportunities you embrace are really from the Lord. Don’t say yes out of guilt or even selfish ambition. Know that you know all you’re doing is right and good. Sure I had a full plate that one year, but I knew God had loaded me up for a reason.


2. Give it all back to Him. Ask for wisdom and grace, insight and help.


3. Let go of any and all concept that you have to be perfect. You’ll fail and it’s okay to fail. There were quite a few bloopers at that second annual conference, but we got past them. God’s grace was greater.


4. Get organized. Since I knew my book deadline, I wrote out my writing schedule on a calendar. I had a few extra vacation days so I scheduled them as mega-writing sessions. It’s not unholy, or ungodly to plan. Most of us fail in our sincerest desires because we live by the tyranny of the urgent. We don’t plan so our lives are governed by the moment. If we do plan, we allow ourselves to be knocked off course. Schedule writing time and STICK to it. If it’s one hour a week, then guard it with all your might.


5. Be confident before God. Know that He has good works planned for you to walk in. He loves you. He wants you to succeed.

In the midst of juggling my schedule, I worked hard to maintain my own intimate relationship with Jesus. It wasn’t always easy and I failed to reach my ultimate goal, but by having a goal, I found success. Otherwise, I might have drifted way away from the heart-to-heart relationship I wanted with Him.

There were a few tools I used to help me stay on track with my relationship.

1. I attended corporate prayer meetings.


2. I was faithful to all worship services.


3. I went early to youth church or main church to have prayer times.

Look for ways to fortify your spiritual as well as natural life.

1. Find a buddy to pray with or write with.


2. Ask your family to “do it with you.” As parents we spend time driving our children to school, music or dance, sports events. Wouldn’t they love to help mom or dad meet their writing goal? Bring them into the adventure with you.


3. Pray. Ask Jesus for grace. For help. If all else fails, use my prayer. “Lord, you have a book to write, let me know what I need to do.

If you find you just can’t manage it all, set is aside and wait. Maybe your season of writing is not yet. But keep taking notes, keep praying, keep learning.

God is faithful to keep us in His will. Even when we fail, He will not.So exhale. Relax. Have fun.

Blog-a-Book

Remember those games you used to play where your friend started the story, and you finished it? Or the "choose your own adventure" books? Ever wanted to be a part of the story process, giving input on the character's decisions, learning how to write a book as you go? Me too!

At My Book Therapy, they love to write, and they love to teach writers how to find their voice. So, in 2009 they're opening things up to you (and me and the rest of the world) to write a book together! We'll create characters, a plot, develop conflict, the black moment, the epiphany and finally... the happy ending. Then, week by week, you'll be a part of the creation process, voting on the next step of our hero's journey, watching the book take life, and learning the nuances of crafting a story. You'll Blog-a-Book with the My Book Therapy authors and get tools to help you write your own novel.

Then, at the end of the year, we'll have a book we've all created, something that we'll publish! And, best of all, the proceeds will go to support IJM, an organization that fights human trafficking around the world.

(Check out the site here... you want want to miss too much more, they've already started developing the story and picking out main characters.)

Inside/Out Blog Tour

The lovely book "therapists" at My Book Therapy, a boutique that provides full-service assistance to aspiring writers, are doing a blog tour and they've landed right here on little old What Was I Reading? Over the course of the next couple of weeks I'll be bringing you articles and tid-bits as a teaser for their new book Writing from the Inside... Out: Discover, Create and Publish the Novel in You. There are tons of cool promotions going on, and here is the place to find out about them.

To get us started, I thought I'd post an article from one of the therapists, Sarah Anne Sumpolec. I read a good deal of YA Literature (and don't have the handy excuse of being either a young adult and/or interacting with young adults on a regular basis), and the series I'm writing is YA literature. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to get the opinion of Sumpolec, a published YA author, as to: Why YA?

Sumpolec writes in her article, "Why I Love to Write YA":

My first book idea grew out of my work with our church’s youth group. I tried going to Women’s Bible Studies and do all the grown up things, but I always felt called to care for the youth. So writing for them simply became a natural extension of what I already loved to do.

Even now, I spend more than twelve hours a week hanging out with eighty kids and teens at our local Christian Youth Theater. I like being around them. I love to encourage them. And I want to do all I can to help them as they grow in Christ. My own teen years were tough (whose weren’t?) and I didn’t have anyone to talk to or turn to. I simply want to be available to these teens. You just never know when you might get the chance to offer a few life-giving words from God.

So who I am as a person, and who I am as a writer are hopelessly intertwined. I’ve written five novels for teens and over and over, God has shown me how a simple story can affect the lives of teenagers. But they need more. I’ve lost track of how many letters I’ve gotten where a teen wrote, “I read all five of your books last week…” Teens are hungry for truth and stories that they can relate to. They need more great stuff to read that is written for them, by people who care about them.

The YA market can be tough. But we can’t write because a certain market is booming. We must write out of our God-given passions and that’s what YA is for me – a passion. So yes, I realize that Amish books sell really well, but I’m staying in high school. It’s where I belong.

That's a lot like why I wanted to write YA literature... I saw lots of teens snatching up book series that were okay, fine, whatever, but not the kind of stuff that was really teaching them about life (in my case, literature) in the fullest sense of the term. The real straw that broke my back was when Stephenie Meyer was asked a question about symbolism in her books and she responded that she was just telling stories. That got me to thinking, "Why do lots of teens like to read vampire novels or the Gossip Girl series, but they don't like Lord of the Flies?" I wanted to reinvent LotF for contemporary readers, in a contemporary format, with contemporary imagery, but still use the devices of symbolism and motif to teach to a larger theme (the same theme that William Golding was addressing with his original work). Granted, not that I'd say that my books are going to be taught in public high schools 60 years from now, but I want to see books that teach teens how to critically read.

If you'd like more information about the services provided by the book therapists at My Book Therapy, visit http://www.mybooktherapy.com/. If you want more information about their book tour (that'll be making three more stops on the blog), check out the tour website.

Finally, if you want to look more into my idea of contemporary literature that "teaches," check out my website at http://www.heathernkemp.com/ and click the link for "Freshman Failures."

Noontime Book Chats: Chasing Windmills

Sorry, I'm getting this up a little late--I was conducting some interviews (none of you are looking for a job as a research tech in Indianapolis by the way, are you?).

My question/comment/thought for discussion today is in regard to the depth of the love between Maria and Sebastian/Tony. I don't think I've ever had a love experience that was that deep--before you even know someone's name you're willing to chase windmills out to California with them.

Had you ever had an experience like that? How did that affect your reading of the story? Did you feel it increased the "fantasy-like" aspects of their relationship? Did it make them seem more or less sympathetic?

Discuss, ladies. Discuss.

If that's not enough to whet your whistle, check out the past noontime book chats of Chasing Windmills (Monday at J. Kaye's blog and Tuesday at Naida's blog).