Writing Wednesday

I had a wonderful time at the West Virginia Writer's Conference over the weekend.

I met some wonderful authors, including Cheryl Ware . . . who is the author of Flea Circus Summer,  Catty-Cornered and Venola in Love.

 

and Sarah Dooley. . . who is the author of Livvie Owen Lived Here, published by Feiwel & Friends, and is currently working on her third book.

 

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I attended workshops such as Sandy Tritt's Get your Narrator Out of my Way, Cheryl Ware's Digital Storytelling, Jim Minick's How Creative is Creative NonFiction, Heather Issacs' Freelancing, Crystal Wilkinson's Make a Scene, Belinda Anderson's Oral History, Susanna Holstein's From Ballad to Story and Cheryl Ware's Character Development.

They were very good workshops and I have arrived home with all sorts of ideas and projects I want to work on. If there were only more hours in the day.


There were other workshops I wanted to sit in on, but they took place at the same time as others I also wanted to go to. So, sadly, I had to pick and choose and I never got to go to all the workshops that I wanted to attend. One of the workshops I wanted to go to was  Pam Hanson's Time Management and Organizing for Writers because I really, really do need to get organized.

There were so many talented people there, it made me feel very little in the scheme of things. But, I am happy to report that I didn't come home empty handed.

I received this . . .

 

 Writers attending the conference attach their poems and/or 1 page of prose on the Writer's Wall.

Your name is not on it, only an assigned number and everyone votes on their favorite.

I was surprised to come in 2nd place in the poetry section.

This is special to me, because the people voted on it.

and this. . . 

 

 My MG manuscript, The Family Secret got 3rd HM in the 

West Virginia Writer's Annual Contest

in the Children's Book Section.

I've been sending this manuscript out to publishers this year, 

keeping my fingers crossed that I will find one that likes it.

If you ever get the chance to go to a Writer's Conference, I recommend that you go.

You learn a lot, get to make contacts with writers and have a lot of fun!

It is nice to be in a group of people who are just like you.

Happy Writing!

Yard Sale Goodies

Last Thursday we went to a few yard sales. We had a real good time buying items that we really didn't need, if you know what I mean. But it is hard to pass up neat things at such good prices.

I got this red basket and the items in it - a blue glass fish with a cork in his mouth ( I think I might put it outside as decoration in one of my flower beds), two blue bottles, a copper water dipper, a pretty butterfly (I think I will put it outside in my butterfly bush), a wooded angel, 2 DVD's and a painted enamelware percolator. I saw those percolators online and it said they were made in Sweden. It is so pretty.

 

And, I also got this black basket and everything in it - milk glass salt and pepper shakers, a jar lifter used when canning, and a vintage kitchen utensil. I think it is used for tenderizing meat. Anyone out there know for sure?

 

I got both baskets and everything in them for $5.

I also got this small quilt rack. The doll quilts are ones that I made a few years ago. I think I will stain the wooden rack to make it look nicer.

 

Below is a wooden bread basket, large old green vase, milkglass vase and glass measuring cup.

I have already painted the breadbox red to match my kitchen.

 

And last, but not least, my husband just had to get this.

Why, I don't know.

An old potty chair with an enamel pot for $1.

I guess I could put flowers in it.

 

I got a few other things, but didn't post everything here. I got a bunch of books and a lot of them were from a free box.

We didn't really get to go to any sales on Friday and Saturday because I went to the WVWriter's Conference at Cedar Lakes.

More about that on Writing Wednesday.

Writing Wednesday

Openings!

We need to have good openings to get the publisher's attention.
We call them hooks.
With the first line, the first paragraph and the first page of our manuscript we need to hook the reader (and publisher) so he wants to turn the page and continue reading.

There are many ways to do this.
We can hook the reader by using action verbs and creating an immediate conflict.
We can open our story with an intriguing setting.
We can open with violence or danger.
We can open with mystery.

What do you like to open with?

Our readers want to be entertained. If we do not grab their attention early on in the story, they will put our book down. We don't want to gradually sneak up on the story. We need to start with action.

In my first draft of my MG manuscript, with the suggestion of my critique group, I skipped past the first chapters and started my story at chapter three. I later worked in information from those first chapters. It made for a much better story. I did not lead up to the action, my story now started with action and a little mystery!

I did not know this when I first started writing, but my experienced critique partners noticed it immediately.

In fact, I admit that I did not know much of anything about writing when I first started. But, with perseverance, practice and a very helpful writing group I have grown as a writer.

If I keep it up, maybe some day I will have one of my stories published.

What or who has helped you grow as a writer?

Appalachian Stack Cake

I attempted to make an old fashioned applesauce stack cake to take to our family reunion. This was only the second time I had ever made this cake. I don't have my grandma's recipe, so I just put together my own recipe from others I had.

There aren't many ingredients. 

I think this is why the cake was popular in the old days.

It took a few simple ingredients that they already had on hand.

My grandmother made this cake all the time.

I have many memories of walking  in the back door of the kitchen

and her slicing me a piece of this cake.

My Aunt once told me that if Grandma didn't have applesauce, 

she would put apple butter or jelly in-between the layers.

1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup shortening, 3 eggs, 2 tsp. vanilla, 1 cup buttermilk, 4 1/2 cups flour (I use self rising flour) , 2 tsp. ginger

(48 oz jar of applesauce, 3/4 tsp. allspice, 3/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp cinnamon)

Cream 3/4 cup shortening and 1 cup of sugar

Add 3ggs, beat well. Add 2 tsp vanilla and 1 cup of buttermilk.

(I did not use a mixer, I did all my mixing by hand)

Add 4 1/2 cups flour and 2 tsp. of ginger.

 

This would normally make around 8 layers, but I made my layers smaller than usual.

With my hand, I made the dough into 10 balls and patted them out by hand onto floured wax paper.

 

I greased the bottom of a pie plate. It measured around 7" inside the pie plate. 

Place the floured circle of dough inside and pat it out to fit.

Cook in 375 degree oven until golden  brown (around 15 minutes or so)

(For larger layers, you could use a 9" cake pan.

You can turn the cake pans upside down and put the dough on the bottom

of the greased pan. This way, it will easily slide right off after baking.)

 

Stack the baked layers and place a generous amount of the applesauce mixture in-between each layer.

Some recipes say to let them cool before stacking. I didn't.

 

Poke toothpicks in the top, cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator.

It is better after setting for a couple of days.

It gets moister the more it sets.

 I also put the applesauce mixture on the top.

Many recipes tell you not to do this.

Well, I had to be different. I figured the more applesauce the better.

What would Grandma say? 

"Well honey, at least you tried."

Seriously, it turned out pretty good.

Give it a try sometime, it is not all that hard.

Do you remember your grandma making these cakes?

 

Here's a picture of it on the front of my cookbook. 

Click here to view on Amazon. 

 

Family Reunion

Our McMillion Family Reunion is Saturday!

I've got my pile of vintage tablecloths ready. 

Thirty should be enough, don't you think?

I put these over the picnic tables.

Below is a poem I wrote.

It is a fictional account of a fun family reunion!

The Family Reunion

The road goes up, down and all around, on the way to our family reunion.

Back through the hills to my Uncle Bills, we are going to our family reunion.

We will drive the dirt road, with our carload, up to the end of the holler.

And this time of year, every year, we get to see all of our cousins.

We start to unpack and I grab a quick snack as Sis runs for the babies.

Mom fans her face while Grandpa says grace over the food and the fixin’s.

We see tall Uncle Matt who wears a big hat and is married to short Aunt Bertha.

And this time of year, every year, we get to see all of our cousins.

I scare Uncle Jack who pats my back and I hug my sweet Aunt Gracie.

We eat more than our share, without any care, on the tables under the shelter.

We see Uncle Dan and Grandma Fran who forgets more than she remembers.

And this time of year, every year, we get to see all of our cousins.

Oh what a sight as the cats start to fight and knock over the Kool Aid and coffee.

Dad strums his guitar and I show off my scar when we swim down at the river.

We see big Uncle Jim and Great Aunt Em who brings her black cat named Tilly.

And this time of year, every year, we get to see all of our cousins.

I jump over some logs, catch some bull frogs and fall in a patch of ivy.

We pitch horseshoes, take a snooze, and see who can spit the farthest.

We see Aunt Connie sip tea while old Uncle Lee tells us his many war stories.

And this time of year, every year, we get to see all of our cousins.

“Gee, it’s been fun, but we’ve got to run,” says Mom to Uncle Dilbert.

We say our good-byes, wipe the tears from our eyes and load the old station wagon.

We will miss them all, each one and all, even the dog that bit me.

But this time next year, every year, we will go back to see all of our cousins.

The road goes down, up and all around, on the way back from our family reunion.

Writing Wednesday

I'm "plumb tuckered out", as my grandma used to say, so I am doing a re-post today.

I posted this last year after attending our West Virginia Writer's Conference in Cedar Lakes.

I hope you enjoy it and comment, it has some very good advice on writing.

More Writing Workshop Info

I attended a picture book workshop conducted by children's author, Cheryl Ware. But if you are not a picture book writer, please read on, I think the information will help you with any genre of writing you choose to write.

Here is a group picture of the attendees of her workshop. Cheryl is the tall lady in the middle, I am in the pink shirt beside of her.



I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop. She came with a pile of picture books to share with us. She read a few of her favorites.

She told us something that I think is very hard to do. She said to find the holes in the market - find what hasn't been written. I think this applies to all genres of writing, don't you?

She showed us some books that she stated when she first saw them, she didn't think they were the greatest. But when she read them to small children, they loved them!

They shouted out answers when she read the text to them!
They became involved in the reading!
They wanted it read over and over again!

I think that is what we want to accomplish with any of our books. We want our reader to become involved with the story and for them to want to read it over and over again.

One of her favorite books : THE DOT
If you write picture books, but haven't read this one, go to the library and check it out.
It is so simple, yet so good!

Some very good advice from her:

Start your story on a day that something is different in their life.
Ending should be expected, but a surprise.

As you can see, I think you can take this information and apply it to whatever type of writing you do, whether it be for adults or children.

Some of Cheryl's published books are:

Flea Circus Summer,
Catty-Cornered,
Venola in Love, and
Venola the Vegetarian

Her stories introduce you to Venola May Cutright, a spunky 11 year old girl.

I hope you read something from this post that will help you with your writing.

Happy Writing! And, I hope to see some of you at the Writing Conference on June 4 at Cedar  Lakes.

Weekend Happenings and a Guessing Game

I have been very busy this weekend. 

He have visited one of our cemeteries and have two more to go to.

And, it has been soooo hot! 

On our deck thermometer, which gets direct sunlight, it was 111 degrees today.

These little baby robins seem to be doing okay, though.

Aren't they cute?

 

And, I also found a dove's nest in our grapevines. So far two eggs have been deposited in the nest.

 

There was a rumor Friday that Ripley was on sale, so we checked it out.

Sure enough, they were right. Ripley was on sale!

But, believe it or not, I never bought anything from the Courthouse lawn.

I didn't even buy any of this silvercrest Fenton or salt and pepper shakers!

We did go to a few yard sales, though, and I picked up a few things.

I saw this in the yard of one of my friends.

I would have liked to have brought it home with me, but it wasn't for sale.

Do you know what it is?

Here's another view of it.

I bet some of you know.

 

Any guesses?

I'll come back tomorrow and tell you what it is.

Here is the answer.

Okay everyone, we had some pretty good guesses. 

They said this used to be at our Capitol building a long time ago in Charleston.

That little spot on the back of it used to have a ring attached to it to hitch your horse to.

These were steps used for a lady to step up onto her horse and sit side saddle.

Writing Wednesday

I'm a little behind on my Writing Wednesday post.
Have you heard the old saying, "I've got too many pots on the stove?"
Well, that is the way it is around here. I have got too many things I am working on and I am behind.

I have a work in progress that I have finished, but it needs a lot of editing!
At the moment I am calling it a novella.
For the life of me I cannot seem to write a full length novel.
I guess that is why my specialty is children's books.

Anyone else have that trouble?

I distributed the June copies of Two-Lane Livin' today. If you have time, click over to their site and check it out. If any of my readers live in the Jackson County area, there are copies of it at the Jackson County Library in Ripley, First National Bank in Ripley, Crabby Patti's in Ripley, Your Family Restaurant in Kenna and the McDonalds in Fairplain. They will be at the Ravenswood Library tomorrow night when I go there to my writer's meeting.

The Library was having a book sale today! Tables and tables of books! Bag up what you want and put a donation in the jar on the table. Well, I got a few.

 

 

 

 

As you can see, I got a wide variety of books. 

Civil War books, writing books, children's books, etc.

My husband picked out a few, too.

Happy Writing.

Make Believe Get-a-Way

We've been busy around our little house,

as I am sure all of you have been. 

Seems like there is always some tidying up to do.

Sometimes we feel tiny and get overwhelmed in the hustle and bustle of it all.

That is when we should take a break.

No place special  -  a castle will do.

Or maybe take a refreshing bath to calm and sooth our sore muscles.

And, if that doesn't help. We will take a nice long walk. A little seclusion is good for the soul.

I hope you enjoyed our little make believe get-a-way from it all.

I feel better now, how about you?

Oh well, now it is time to get back to work.

posted by Janet Smart at http://janetsmart.blogspot.com

Writing Wednesday

Writing Wednesday is here again. I really enjoyed last week's comments about What a Writer Needs.

I agree with all of you. I couldn't find it when I looked back at the post, so maybe this comment was emailed to me, but she said a writer needs to write! How true that is, many people say they want to write or they are going to write some day, but they never get around to writing - they keep putting it off.

That advice goes with submissions, also. I used to bring my rejection slips to our writing group's meetings.  I was getting praised on my rejection slips. They said, "Well, at least you are submitting."

You never know if your work has a chance unless you submit your manuscripts. You may get rejection letters or never hear from the publisher, but at least you gave your work a chance by submitting. Later on down the road you won't have to say, "Oh, if only I had submitted my stories."

Unlike most of last year, I have been submitting this year. I am giving my stories a fighting chance.

West Virginia Writers are having their annual writer's conference on June 10, 11 and 12 at Cedar Lakes, WV.
I am so lucky - Cedar Lakes is only a few miles down the road from my house. I just sent in my registration form on Saturday. You can go here and check out the schedule, the workshop presenters, and all the details.
Cedar Lakes is a beautiful place to have a conference. It even has a covered bridge!

It is a very popular place in our area for church picnics, family reunions and get togethers of all kinds.

I've been visiting there ever since I was young. 

 Summer of 1972

There is still time to register if anyone is interested in going.

Happy Writing and don't forget to submit your manuscripts!

I Have a Courting Lamp!

If you have been following me for very long, you know I love Fenton and I love hobnail milkglass.
I have posted here about my milkglass finds before.

I went to a yard sale Saturday and saw this pretty little thing sitting on the table. I picked it up and just had to have it. I thought it was Fenton, but wasn't 100% sure until I went home and looked it up. When I looked it up, I found out that it was a Fenton oil courting lamp!  Isn't she cute. She wanted $2 for it, so it found a new home with me. Now I guess Charley and I are going to have to do some courting.

I also bought this beautiful Westmoreland milkglass vase.

It is very heavy and I think a bouquet of flowers would look so nice in it.

 

I keep saying I am going to stop going to yard sales.
But how can I when these items are waiting on me to come get them?
Does anyone else out there have a courting lamp?

What's Blooming at your House?

We have a rainbow of blooms at our house, their colors bursting forth in the spring air.

Each iris is just as pretty as the other. 

The only one I ever bought was this one and it was supposed to be yellow. 

Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be this color. 

I didn't like it at first, but I have grown to love it's unusual shade.

A couple of years ago, I pulled up a few of them and traded them for these to a lady 

that came to one of my yard sales. 

A small yellow iris tinged with brown.

This is the first year they have bloomed.

 

This solid yellow iris was given to me last year. Isn't he beautiful?
Thank you, Gloria!

 

I have many, many purple irises.

 

 

And a beautiful white patch started by one given to me by my mother in law.

I also have many poppies that were started by ones given to me by a neighbor.

 

A snowball bush!
I grow my snowball bush for sentimental reasons.
My grandmother had two of them in her yard and they were always a backdrop for family pictures.

 

Bleeding hearts always show off at this time of year.

 

And, I am being taken over by hostas. I transplanted three from my flower garden.
I separated them and three became eight! They multiply faster than bunnies!
A fern surprised me by sprouting up in the middle of this one.

 

This little critter didn't seem to be interested in any of my flowers, he just wanted to check  out the garage!

When he gets a little bigger, I don't think he will be as cute as he is now, so we took him and dropped him off down by the creek. I believe he is a baby snapping turtle.

 

What's blooming at your house?

Have you had any unexpected visitors lately?

By the way, there is a great give-away over at The Blessed Hearth. Go check it out.

Writing Wednesday - What a Writer Needs

What does a writer need?

Of course a writer needs pencils (with erasers), lots of tablets for jotting down all those great ideas, a large supply of printer paper (I've learned to save by printing on both sides of the paper) and a good printer (I love my Laser Jet printer)

A writer needs to be able to write while their better half and children keep interrupting them.

A writer needs patience. A lot of patience!

A writer needs to have funny, interesting, and/or talkative friends and neighbors to get great story ideas!

A writer needs a vivid imagination to write a long manuscript from a small idea that came to them while waiting in line at the grocery store.


A writer needs to be able to write in less than 500 words a wonderful picture book that the publishers will love.

A writer needs to keep from rolling their eyes when friends tell them anyone can write a children's book.

An agent would be nice - and so would a publisher.

A writer needs books - how to books, writing books, a dictionary, a thesaurus and lots of books in your genre (and others) to read - and a best selling book!

Since a writer needs lots of books, a large bookcase would also be nice.

A writer needs to have a tough skin so rejections won't hurt them.

And most of all, a writer needs to have a passion for writing.
A passion to tell stories.
A passion to make people laugh. 
A passion to write a story that lights up a child's eyes and brings a smile to their face.
A passion to write a story so good that the reader wants to keep turning the pages until the story is finished.

What would you like to add to my list?

Posted by Janet Smart at http://janetsmart.blogspot.com