#PoetrySummer and Books, Books, and More Books

Week 8: #PoetrySummer

(This is from Dan Well's Summer Poetry Challenge.)

 My poem this week is another lyrics selection. It's from the book These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder. As a girl I absolutely loved this books series and especially this book.

Golden years are passing by,

Happy, happy golden years,

Passing on the wings of time,

These happy golden years.

Call them back as they go by,

Sweet their memories are,

Oh, improve them as they fly,

These happy golden years.

Books, Book, and Books

I've been taking a break from writing, while my critique group and some betas read through a revision. As a result, I've actually had time to read. Imagine that! 

Here are some of the books I've either finished reading or am currently reading:

I have pages of notes that I've taken as I slowly listened to the tale again. Brandon Sanderson is one of those authors who, like Jo Rowling, likes to throw in unexpected twists that he's warned you about but you probably didn't realize you were being warned. He's got a complex storyline going here, and he has a wonderful gift of making me care about the characters.

Fun Romantic Suspense with a nice twist at the end.Stephanie received a Whitney Award for her book this year. It was well deserved. Click here for more details about this book and her other works.

1st book in the Saint Squad Series, a squad of Navy Seals who also happen to be LDS. I'm reading Traci's books to my hubby, and I swear every one of them makes him cry. Click here for more about Traci's books.

2nd Book in the Saint Squad Series

Book 1 in a series with characters from Freefall.

Book 2 in the series.

Something that I enjoy is when we're introduced to characters we love and get to see them again in other books. When we read Freefall we were introduced to a storyline that was back story and only hinted at. It was fun to realize when we began Under Currents that this was that story and involved a younger version of one of the main characters in Freefall. 

Listening to

Fun YA suspense. Click here for a write up.

 I've only got a couple more weeks of no writing (I think), and I've got several more books I'm hoping to get to. *sigh* I suffer from the librarian's lament even though I'm not a librarian.

So many books.

So little time.

So what have you been reading?

"Backlash" Book Giveaway

I've acquired an extra copy of Traci Hunter Abramson's book Backlash. 

So, who's Traci Abramson? 

     As for my writing career, I started writing over ten years ago after resigning from the CIA, and it took me more than seven years to finally create a manuscript that was  worth submitting.  (I tried submitting earlier novels and I have the rejection letters to prove it!)  The idea for Undercurrents had been rattling around in my head since college, and it took that long for it to finally take shape.  Thankfully, submissions have gone much smoother since that first novel made it into print.

What's Backlash about? 

     In the five years she’s been married to Navy SEAL Kel Bennett, Marilyn has lived with fear as a near-constant companion. But the morning she sees two men in naval uniforms approaching her doorway with solemn faces, her fear turns to terror. This is what she signed up for when she exchanged wedding vows with that stunning man in military dress whites: a husband who leaves home whenever the phone rings and who might not ever come back. Turns out Marilyn is lucky this time: Kel is still alive, although gravely injured from the Saint Squad op that thwarted a terrorist attack in the southwestern US. While his wife is relieved to have him stationary in a hospital bed, Kel’s necessary lack of openness about his work puts a strain on their already troubled marriage. As the distance between the couple widens, Marilyn turns to the book she’s secretly writing to express her unspeakable emotions.

     Meanwhile, the backlash from the foiled terrorist mission brings Halim Karel to the States in search of Seth, the undercover agent who’d infiltrated his organization and spearheaded the abduction of his boss’s niece. As danger mounts and the SEAL team springs into action, Marilyn is shocked by her first glance into the grisly realities of her husband’s profession: violence, deception, even killing. And when she becomes a central ploy in Halim’s revenge plan, she struggles to find needed trust and confidence in this military man she loves — not just to save their marriage but to save their lives.

So what's it take to win the book? I'm only going to make you jump through two or three hoops.:

1. Comment here that you're interested in the book (please read the disclaimers below).
2. Follow this blog (if you aren't already).
3. If you've just followed me, please Tweet or Facebook about the giveaway. Please give me a link to your Facebook or Tweet so I can follow you if I'm not already.
4. And if you're already following me, feel free to Tweet or Facebook about it.

Disclaimers:

1. I haven't read this book (yet). It's Book 4 in a series, and I've only read the first book Freefall (to my hubby). We really enjoyed it.
2. While the books generally stand alone, this one volume has a plotline from the prior book Crossfire. When I asked Traci about it, she said she would normally recommend reading Crossfire first, but the book should work without doing so.
3. This book is about religious people. While their religious beliefs are in the background and just part of their lives and culture (not the preachy kind), if you are sensitive against that kind of thing, you might not like the book. Or you might. You won't know unless you give it a try.

The name of everyone meeting the requirements will be put in a bowl at 6:00 a.m. MDT on Monday. I will then have a random person (probably my hubby or perhaps my youngest son if he happens to be awake that early) draw the name. I'll post the winner then.

Other books in the series:

Storymaker Conference - Report 5: Writing Action

Go ahead. Describe what's happening in this pic.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I took two classes from Traci Abramson at Storymaker. She's an entertaining writer and instructor.

Writing Action
The POV should be from the people who have the most to win or lose.

• Visualize your novel like a movie. Don't write about the character -- BE the character. Doesn't this sound just like that Show, Don't Tell thingy?
• Use visual words.
• When there's action, there will be more white space on the page.
• If your pacing is too fast, you'll lose your reader.
• If your pacing is too slow, your reader will get bored.
• Be concise in your writing because sometimes less is more. If five words will do, don't write thirty. Some good examples of concise writing can be found in poetry, song lyrics, and newspaper articles.
• Your sentence structure is important with action. All right, your sentence structure is important in all writing unless you want to sound like Yoda. Watch your paragraph format and see if your sentences are in the right order.
• If you want to write action, read the books of writers who do it well.
• If you're not sure if the action scene is working, act out the movement. Watch yourself in the mirror.

Do you have any particular techniques for spicing things up in an action scene?