Tag: Writing

Blog

Silence not required

ellenparkerwrites

Library. Food. Talking.

Not the usual trio of suspects.

Times have changed from the stereotypical library. They are not a hall of silence between rows of books. Wooden tables are not occupied by silent adults pouring over bound periodicals.

Today a library can be a lively place. Bright, small furniture makes a reading corner in the children’s section. Puzzles, games, and computers supplement traditional bound books. Adults browse among books, magazines, audio offerings, and public use computers. They relax in comfortable chairs, chat with friends in soft voices, discuss the newest read or class. For serious or quiet study, a reference room offers tables, chairs, and electric outlets.

Tomorrow I’ll be trying something new: breakfast at a library.

Several local authors have been invited to share our stories with readers. Do I have enough notes? Will I be able to fill my time at each table? How much coffee to repeat my presentation eight times?

Return next Friday for the answers to these and other questions.

Blog

Annual Dance

ellenparkerwrites

Today they bid “farewell” to each other. Their time together at the beautiful conference center ends after breakfast, packing, and last minute hugs with promises to “keep in touch.”

They been together since Sunday afternoon. Working diligently in small and large groups. To learn. To share. To polish both poetry and prose.

Christian Writers have been gathering at Green Lake every year for decades. Amid the classes, a walk along the shore, or lingering over tea in one of the many seating areas, friendships are formed. Ideas are exchanged.

“What do you write?” It’s the most frequent question of the week. Are you a writer? Do you want to be?

There's room in the circle for more.l
There’s room in the circle for more.

Education in a pleasant, relaxed, location.

Blog

Spring Break

ellenparkerwrites

This is the season that students and teachers get a break from each other.

Plans are made. Day trips and multi-day trips are taken. Working parents study schedules. “Dare I ask for an extra day off?” “Can we afford …?”

If you’re lucky, at least some of the days during the school break will be filled with sunshine and temperatures warm enough to shrink snowbanks. Puddles, squishy lawns, and mud win the battle against ice melt chemicals and snow.

A not-so-secret secret? Adults need spring break also. A change of pace. A few days in different surroundings. As the years pass, my desire for this grows. I’ve been fortunate. The last few years I’ve been able to combine a “spring break” in the form of a few days away with an educational opportunity. A day or two of workshops and mingling with others with a shared interest (in my case, writing fiction) makes for a pleasant change of pace. I return with my mental batteries re-charged and ready to tackle the next portion of the project in progress.

 

Blog

How to Tell a Tale

ellenparkerwrites

“You could write a book about that.”

A millionaire has a nickel for every time I’ve heard that phrase. Unfortunately, they didn’t give the nickel to me.

I’ve learned a lot from books. The home I grew up in had novels for adults, storybooks for children and an assortment of “How to” books and pamphlets. My current home continues the tradition. Books about how to sew, knit, make candles, garden, and perform home repairs sit next to fiction and non-fiction on a variety of topics.

And then I have a special shelf. It’s the writer in me. And evidently in a lot of other people. Books on how to write books. Yes, I own a dictionary and thesaurus. I even use them. Perhaps not as much as I should…but they don’t collect much dust. And then there are the others – characters, emotions, plots, beginnings and editing. It’s a wonder an author finds time to write with all the books on the writing craft whispering — Read me. Read me.

Writer's Reference Shelf
Writer’s Reference Shelf

 

Blog

Getting SMART

ellenparkerwrites

Happy New Year!

Did you stay up late on December 31? Party hard? Regret it the next morning?

Yes, we only have 364 days left in 2015. Are you ready to make your mark on the clean slate of a year? Have you made resolutions? Set goals?

Today I have a word about goals – five actually. And I hope that they assist you in having a productive and interesting year.

Specific: Did you make your goals specific — bite size.

Measurable: Will you know when you’ve reached it? Will others?

Achievable: Does your goal hinge on the undependable actions of others? Re-work it until it’s within your control

Realistic: Is it possible? You can stretch and reach – good — but keep it within the laws of physics.

Time-Targeted: Have you got an end-point? I will do XX by YY?

SMART — good for goals.

An example I’m willing to share.   I will attend my class reunion in August.

 

 

Blog

Free to Fly

ellenparkerwrites

Released like doves after a modern wedding. Or allowed to soar like helium balloons into a clear June sky.

Yes, Hiding Places has been launched into the wide world of electronic books.

My late mother, a member of that Greatest Generation, viewed electricity as a little bit of “magic”.  And it is pretty amazing that waves and electrons speeding invisible through the air can bring us sound (radio), pictures (television), and two-way conversation (cell phone).

In recent years you can add printed words and videos captured by computers, electronic book readers, tablets and the next electronic device. (Look out Dick Tracy – your two-way wrist TV is in testing.)

Do you enjoy reading fiction? Recoil at the continuous increase in printed books? Despair looking for more book shelf space? Feel adventurous?

Consider taking the plunge to an electronic book reader. Or tablet. Or Smartphone. Open the fiction world (I’m partial to the romance segment) wider to books released electronic first or only.

9781440571596

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now available : or at:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hiding-places-ellen-parker/1119589488?ean=9781440582707

Blog

Full Bloom

ellenparkerwrites

Moisture, temperature, and time combined and continued the progress on the apple blossoms we’ve been following on the Friday edition of this blog.

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Stories and novels need the right conditions to burst upon the world also. Begin with a solid story, much like the tree with existing structure of roots, trunk, and branches. Then add something new and polish it until the words unfold and each page is a majestic petal. Add a publisher with professional editing and formatting experience (plus established relationship with retail outlets) and you have a book ready for publication.

Currently Hiding Places is available for pre-order. Effective Monday, June 9, it will zip to your electronic reader upon demand. (And payment of retailer’s asking price.) Visit the dedicated page on this site, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble for a peek at Mona and Linc’s sweet romance with complications.

 

Blog

Getting Closer

ellenparkerwrites

Sip. Sip. Sip.

From hair-fine rootlet to larger and larger specialized structure to the fashionable trunk the nutrients wick upward in the xylem. Then plant food, nature’s best, takes a turn – to the right, or the left, or slightly down – into a limb that narrows to a branch that becomes twig.

Small can be mighty as tiny stems feed a swelling blossom.

A novel begins small — perhaps with a single, small idea. Then it becomes a word, a sentence, a paragraph and a chapter. Like drops of natural chemicals dissolved from dirt feed apple blossoms in the spring words fill pages as a story grows and takes a definite form.

Can you see the future apple in the photo?

Can you find a story in the next sentence you write?

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Hiding Places, a sweet romantic suspense, is available for pre-order on Amazon.  Come along and join Mona and Linc as they learn about more than apples in the orchard.

 

Blog

Temporary Housing

ellenparkerwrites

Conference season has begun. Or perhaps it never ended. Writing is a year-round occupation, but winter weather and travel don’t mix well so conferences and gatherings are more popular in the warmer months.

Recently I attended a nice regional event. And spent three nights in the luxury of a hotel room. Luxury in the little things — no cleaning, no trash disposal, and a bed almost as large as my room at home. A chance to sample new scents in shampoo and shower gel. A work table and office chair that puts many offices to shame.

The view from my window wasn’t scenic. It didn’t matter. From breakfast until long after dark I was in the room only long enough to fetch or return an item or change clothes for the next event.

Yet in addition to meeting my needs the room furnished comfort and welcome.

Home away from Home
Home away from Home
Blog

The Right Tree?

ellenparkerwrites

What kind of tree is that?

Good question. Especially when asked during the dormant season. In early spring — when snow remained in our forecast — I decided to photograph apple blossoms from bud to flower to tiny fruit. My first task — find an apple tree.

Apple trees bear fruit – a delicious and healthful one. I knew an accessible one grew only half a block from the regular route of my morning walk. It would be easy to take the short detour — as long as I remembered to grab the camera.

On an early March morning I started. A row of six or more trees bordered commercial property. Which one was the apple? Most of them were about the same size. All of them displayed the bare branches of the season (no help from leaves today). I looked. I thought. I tried to remember where in the row I’d found it two years ago in late summer. It wore apples then, easy to identify.

I settled on the smallest in the row. Something about the shape indicated fruit tree rather than ornamental or shade.

Did I select well? It’s a little like beginning a new story. Do I have the right idea? The proper characters to act out the play on the pages?

Patience. Time. Patience and time as my father used to advise.

Right Tree? Right Story?
Right Tree?
Right Story?