Why Hire A Professinal Freelance Editor?

When I'm not working at my writing, I'm doing goat chores.

Hiring a professional freelance editor to edit our work is top notch important in this publishing climate.

I had no idea how important, until recently. You can hire one to help you with the mechanics of your work. I've done that before, and it was so helpful. I'm finding, though, I needed to flesh out my story: plot points, theme, exposing the emotional needs of my protagonist.

Presently, I've hired someone who is also a writing coach. She charges more, but for me with this current novel I'm working on, it's do or die.

What do I mean by that?

I either do this or my story dies in a drawer.

I came to a place over a month ago, that I had to ask the hard question: should I put away my current book project forever? I prayed, willing to do whatever the Lord leads. The answer surprised me. Lord God gave me a "go for it" to continue. I prayed over my pages and asked Him to give me the words needed to make this story shine. He needed to help me because I was sick of my story.

So He did.

During all this time, a name kept coming up. Someone that had critiqued a few chapters of my story two years ago. We drifted apart, but now her name kept coming to my mind. I became bold and emailed her. She was glad. She was willing to become my critique partner once again.

My critique partner goes through my pages first, then the freelance editor does her job. These two ladies are pressing me to go deeper into my story. It becomes quite mind boggling. It hurts to dig deeply to find out what my protagonist wants. I remember to pray and let God help.

I've read about many Christian authors that claim praying through your project is a must. I never tried it until my Christian devotional book, which is still a work-in-progress. Praying works. The Holy Spirit does His job and I obey. Perfect.

Hiring someone who can tear apart your work to bring out the jewels, like a regular publishing editor would do, is costly. My writing is my business. I must invest in my business.

Until next time . . . pick that perfect critique partner/partners and professional freelance editor and get to work. Don't forget to pray along the way.

Much To Do About Writing: Healing After Injury

Anise, my best milker, with a halo of webs between her ears

Hi readers,

It's been too long since I last posted. I injured my back: four torn ligaments and various other injuries to hips, neck and pelvis.

I have a goat farm, with two does to milk, so how do I heal properly with all that responsibility? Or how do I heal at all, for that matter?

The Lord was gracious and sent caregivers to my home. It was rough going, no sitting, only reclining, no standing, stooping, or lying flat. Heat and ice a million times a day, and doctor's orders: walk, walk, walk.

I found I could cook our meals, though. Whew, at least I was good for something. I still had to have help with pot and pans lifting and someone else doing the cleanup (my husband did mountains of dishes). :))

I even discovered mountain climbing while we deer hunted helped my lower back. I started out with small inclines and when my back didn't hurt, I graduated. My husband and I climbed our first ever mountain, and that's the day he shot his first deer in thirty years. Wow, huh.

What does this have to do with writing? Much to do about writing.

I now know what it's like to feel the pain of torn ligaments, so I can write about it with authority. I now know what it's like to teach people to milk goats. I've learned it's humbling to ask people a half a dozen times a day to pick up what I've dropped on the floor. I've been embarrassed when someone younger than me, a 13-year-old, mine you, shakes a finger when she's caught me bending to pick up something I've dropped.

I observed the people who cared for me. I learned more about different types of personalities for characters in future stories. What I learned the most is that I'm a projects person and when I'm down, I lose a bit of who I think I am. I'm a doer. I have two speeds: fast and faster. I'm still moving a bit slower these days, but I can do fast once again. Every so often. When it's a better day. :)

To sum up, a writer never, ever let's life experiences go to waste. And a Christian never, ever passes an opportunity to see what God may have in mind for us as we suffer in the moment.

Until next time . . . live life and use it to write.

"One Thousand Gifts"~A Book Review

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, is a must read for anyone desiring to draw closer to Christ and live fully right where you are. Ms. Voskamp writes with deepest longings few people are brave enough to share with the world. The author asks a lot of questions, many I have asked myself.

In One Thousand Gifts, the author comes to terms with a huge loss in her life. Her baby sister died when Ms. Voskamp was only four years old, and the family dynamics changed for her and the family.

An uptight and nervous worrier that began at an early age, Ms. Voskamp is challenged to write down one thousand things that are a blessing in her life. She begins to count and is amazed by the many gifts the Lord has given to her.

My favorite quote in One Thousand Gifts from Ms. Voskamp: "This act of naming grace moments, this list of God's gifts, moves beyond the shopping list variety of prayer and into the other side. The other side of prayer, the interior of His throne room, the inner walls of His powerful, love-beating heart." 

Brilliant-white beautiful!

The take away for me in One Thousand Gifts, besides the deeper meaning of Jesus' sacrifice for humankind, was that even through loss of a loved one, we can continue to grow closer to Lord God and His Son.

I needed to read this book, for I struggle daily with grief over my son's death by suicide.

Ms. Voskamp writes with a literary bent and even though it's not my favorite style of writing, she did it with a simplicity I enjoyed. Her words grew on me like a fresh breeze after a hot day. 

Great job, Ann Voskamp! I look forward to reading more of your books. God bless you and continue to keep the faith of Jesus Christ.

If any of you read One Thousand Gifts, please let me know and let's discuss it.

Until next time . . . let's find more books that draw us closer to Christ.

You Should Really Write a Book~Review

As part of building my platform, I decided to read Regina Brooks and Brenda Lane Richardson's You Should Really Write a Book: How to Write, Sell, and Market Your Memoir.

This book not only talks about the categories of memoirs, it also talks about just what the title suggests. And the authors cover platform building. I highly recommend this book for anyone considering writing a memoir. The authors wrote this book to help out those of us unknowns, meaning we're not celebrities, who want a chance to get their memoirs written and into the hands of those who can publish it.

Brooks and Richardson lay out the groundwork in simplistic and easy to understand steps on how little known folks can get a shot at their book being read by the masses. The book is 290 pages and has many examples of memoirs that succeeded and those that could have done better.

This honest and detailed book is well worth the time for anyone wanting to gain insight on writing and publishing a memoir.

One of my main goals in reading You Should Really Write a Book was to find out how well the memoir sells, and to also learn about the categories. Not only did I read that memoirs are selling and selling well, but there are many more categories than I had imagined.

Major Memoir Categories:

• coming-of-age
• addiction and compulsion
• transformation
• travel and food 
• religion and spirituality

 Outlier Subgenres:

• biblio
• canine
• comedic
• family saga
• gardening
• grief
• incarceration
• information-based
• parenting
• romance
• venture

After reading You Should Really Write a Book, I have identified the category of the memoir that I am writing in a devotional style: spirituality/grief.

To rate this book, I'd start my own category of ratings and give it seven stars!

Until next time . . . read and write!

How To Build Your Platform, Part III

Jean Ann Perches On Top Of A Winter's Supply of Firewood

I stand amazed at how willing people are to encourage me and help me with platform building.

There are a lot of kind folks out there in the world. A sweet lady, Dorene, wrote an email to The Drew Marshall Show, and she told Drew he should consider having me on his radio featured as a God Blogger. Drew contacted me, and we set a date and a time. Just that simple and my interview went real well.

Drew said the point was to drive more traffic to my Love Truth blog. Guess what? It did just that. I am averaging 50 to 75 page views daily, since the interview. Far more than ever before. Thank you, Drew Marshall!

Now I know God as always had a hand in all this, and then a sweet woman felt a need to help me. Thank you, sweet lady, Dorene!

In two months, I've had one TV news interview, two radio interviews, and one radio interview scheduled for April. In this same time frame, I've also had several people featured on my Love Truth blog and have two more interviews scheduled, one will be a week long of posts.

Also, I've been accepted as a contributing writer for the Thinking About Suicide blog that helps others to NOT consider suicide. I'm very excited about this opportunity to help out this fantastic blog. I'll keep you updated on how that goes.

I'm still reading Chuck Sambuchino's "Create Your Writer Platform" and folks it's good stuff. Allow me quote from his book:


Chuck writes, "Numbers matter in this business, so you must find ways to quantify your platform." Here's Chuck's example:

Wrong: "I am on Twitter and just love it."
Correct: "I have more than ten thousand followers on Twitter."

Wrong: "I do public speaking on this subject."
Correct: "I present to at least ten events a year--sometimes as a keynote. The largest events have up to 1,200 attendees. A full list of events is on my website."


I would never have thought the numbers should be this high as a platform builder. I did know to include details in my proposal, but they are very small in comparison. It's a truth that I am just getting started in this business of platform building.

If anyone has any words of wisdom that they've learned about platforms, please let me know. Hmmm, that just gave me an idea. I need to find some people to interview about their journey to building their platform. Any takers?

Until next time . . . I keep building.