And many kudos to Bonnie Doran for her book trailer for her new book Dark Biology, now posted on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2FWJ0RYIt0

We are all so proud of both of you! 

The following is a letter from him describing the opportunity along with where to send for detailed guidelines.

Dear Contributor,
You may recall my role as editor for story collections such as: A Cup of Comfort, Life Savors, Extraordinary Answers to Prayer, and Love is a Verb. At present I am putting together a sequel volume of stories that will follow Angels, Miracles, and Heavenly Encounters, published by Bethany House Publishers in the first half of 2012.
The content will be similar to the original volume. The supernatural realm consisting of God and His angels, as well as evil spirits, is ever present in our midst. On rare occasions this realm becomes visible or we see its direct effects that can in no way be explained in the natural realm. These stories will cover the gamut of supernatural encounters: from supernatural miracles including physical healing, angelic visitations, near-death experiences of the afterlife, manifestations of evil, apparitions, and miraculous rescues. For the sake of authenticity, we are interested only in first-hand accounts in the first person. The stories need to go beyond subjective or speculative interpretations of events and be as concrete as possible, so if presented in a court there would be no human explanation of hard evidence.
We’ll consider original, unpublished stories from 1,000 to 2,000 words. The stories should have a creative title, an attention-grabbing introduction, main body with a conflict or challenge, and a clear, satisfying resolution. They need to be descriptive, rooted in time and place, with a realistic portrayal of the characters involved. They need to be substantive stories rather than mere testimonies or teachings, and the focus should not be on the supernatural realm alone, but rather the spiritual lesson learned. Please include a personal biography of 30 words or less at the end of each manuscript.
The book will be released by Bethany House Publishers sometime in 2014. Your manuscript will be due no later than July 1, 2013, but we would prefer it much earlier. Please send your manuscript attached to the e-mail rather than pasting text in the email window as a Word document. Send your manuscript in normal manuscript formatting, with your full contact information–name, address, phone number, and e-mail address on the actual manuscript, not just in your e-mail. We are offering a one-time fee of $50 for stories 1,500 words and over, and $25 for stories under that word count.
We will send you contracts upon the publisher’s acceptance and would need them back promptly. Payment will be made after all contracts have been received. Please direct all inquiries and manuscript submissions to my colleague, Jeanette Littleton, at supernaturalstories2@earthlink.net.  If this e-mail has been forwarded to you, and you can’t submit to this call, but would like to hear about other editorial needs as they arise, please send us your e-mail address and we’ll add you to our notification list.

Blessings to you and yours,

James Stuart Bell
Supernatural Stories (Bethany House)
A James Stuart Bell Project

Donna Lee Loomis wrote a piece for the anthology Grandmother, Mother and Me: Memories, Poetry, and Good Food, edited by Donna Clark Goodrich.

Robbie Iobst released her Joy-votion book called Joy Dance: 52 Joy-votions that Free your Heart to Grow in Jesus

Congratulate these members as soon as you see them. These are great accomplishments!

In part one, we explored reasons to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This blog is about reasons why not NaNo.

1. I’m in the process of moving to another state. This actually didn’t happen to me, but a good friend was packing up her house during the month of November for a cross country move and tried to take the NaNoWriMo challenge. There just aren’t enough hours in a day to do both projects and still get a nap in the schedule.
2. I’ve learned from experience it can drive me insane. I lose sleep. I have the pressure of a looming deadline. And worst of all, I willingly chose to put myself in that position.
3. Every time a family member wants me to stop and do something, I give them “the look” and they roll their eyes thinking “She’s at it again.”
4. I turn into a person who talks to complete strangers about my book and every interaction becomes a potential plot twist.
5. I’m having major surgery. One year I tried to do NaNo at the same time I had gall bladder surgery. I know there have been writers who used drugs, but I’ve learned I am not an author who can do that.
6. If you’re a writer who writes from a planned plot outline. As a “pantser” who likes to write from the “seat of my pants” I enjoy this format, but many of my writing friends who like to be more organized and have everything plotted out in advance find NaNo to be very hard and very frustrating.

So, think as you can see from these two posts, I can think of more reasons to NaNo than reasons not to. I encourage everyone to give it a try. For more information about NaNoWriMo, go to www.NaNoWriMo.org.
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This post is also posted on Chris Richards’ website Passing the Quill, under the title … Or Not to NaNo.

By Chris Richards, Assistant Director

It’s almost November and my writing friends and I are talking about NaNoWriMo.

For those who don’t know, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. When I first learned about the challenge I thought “no way can I do this.” But thanks to my pushing, prodding, shoving, and daring friends, I finally tried it one year. After participating for several years, I’ve learned some good reasons to NaNo and some good reasons not to NaNo. This blog is why authors should NaNo.

1. It teaches me to free my mind. Any good author edits his or her work. In fact we spend so much time editing it can become difficult to read anything or even to write without editing. The concept of NaNoWriMo is to just get the novel done. One of the primary instructions is to turn off my internal editor and just write. Editing comes later.
2. It teaches me to meet deadlines. To write 50,000 words in 30 days requires writing an average of 1,667 words a day. Now I know many writers who are disciplined enough in their writing that this is not a problem but I have to work at it. Therefore, this is good training for me. The NaNoWriMo website includes a place for me to enter the number of words I’ve written so I can track my progress and know whether or not I’m on schedule.
3. It helps me connect with other writers. Authors all over the world participate in NaNoWriMo and through the website I can connect with them and enjoy their company. Even throughout the year I find myself in situations where the topic of writing comes up and NaNoWriMo is mentioned. This leads to discussions of what various authors did or did not do, as well as wonderful stories of the adventures of the challenges of getting our word count completed midst the responsibilities and demands of life.
4. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. The prize for completing the 50,000 words during the month is a certificate and a ribbon that can be posted on my website. That is pretty lame as prizes go. But I the emotions around completing are amazing. I print out the certificate, and jump up and down with joy as I show it to my husband and other members of my family and friends—and even some strangers who probably think I am very weird and they want to run away from me.
5. I rediscover the sheer freedom of writing unrestrained.
6. I let go and embrace the story.
7. I create more than I ever thought possible.
8. I feel like I’m part of something big and amazing which makes me feel powerful.
9. I try things I’ve never tried before.

So this is why I NaNo. My next blog will be about why I have learned I shouldn’t NaNo.

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This post is also posted on Chris Richards’ website Passing the Quill, under the title To NaNo . . .

Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.” ~ II Kings 5:10

Has God asked you to do something ridiculous? Something illogical? Something that He says will accomplish healing, or greatness, or peace, even though you don’t see how it could?

Are you too uncertain to go out and do it? Many Christians are.

In the above verse, Elisha tells an Aramaic general, Naaman, to wash in the Jordan seven times, and promises that the man will be healed of leprosy. How crazy is that?

And Naaman’s response was the same as many of us—That’s ridiculous! In fact, he got angry. He’d expected that Elisha would pray over him and command the disease to leave, but Elisha told him to do something illogical.

Naaman traveled a long way to get what he thought was silly news.

But his servants convinced him to bathe, he did, and was healed! He performed an illogical act and got his miracle!

I’ve come to the conclusion that my understanding of how the act connects to the results doesn’t matter. In fact, the craziness of it might be the point. So, if He tells me that washing in the Jordan seven times will bring me an answer to my problem, then I need to believe Him and simply do it.

This is called an act of obedience. From my past experience, acts of obedience can release great miracles.

Scripture is full of people who obeyed, did crazy things, and received miracles in return. These were times in the believer’s life when God called him to an adventure—a spiritual adventure where the believer had to go out of his comfort zone to find new and surprising treasure.

A spiritual teacher of mine once told me, “Faith is spelled R-I-S-K.”

So, to what adventure has God called you? Is there something he’s told you to do that seems silly, illogical even?  I think it’s time to pack your gear, go out and face the adventure.  The worst that can happen is people will laugh at you.

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This post is similar to a post on RedHotRead.com called Crazy Faith.

1st Prize, Nook Color e-reader, Niki Nowell for A Father’s Voice

2nd Prize, $50 Barnes and Noble gift card, Donna Lee Loomis for Only One

3rd Prize, $15 Starbucks gift card, Chris Dellacroce for All that I Need.

Donna Lee Loomis and Linda Hamilton’s entries also rounded out the top five. So proud of all of you!

Wherever you go, as a writer you need to promote yourself. You will especially need to promote when you are  engaging editors and agents at conferences. ALWAYS be ready to tell people what you do as a writer–and keep it to thirty seconds or less.

A dynamite way to do this is with a verbal business card. It’s very much like the “elevator pitch” you practice for your books, but it’s about you.

When asked what they do, most writers say, “I am a writer,” or, “I write romance novels,” or “I write historical non-fiction,” etc.  This response is somewhat interesting, but it doesn’t  grab. Proponents of the verbal business card say that you need to hook the listener, much like you hook the reader at the beginning of a novel.

Here is what a VBC does–it discards bland verbs like “I write” or “I am” and uses exciting verbs instead such as build, craft, teach, inform, manage, design, construct, generate, train, guide, establish, mentor, regulate, develop, structure, organize, etc.

The reason these verbs work better is they are verbs used to describe what authorities do. Teachers are authorities in our society. People who construct and train and design and regulate all have authority. Writers? Not so much.

Notice how much more powerful these statements are than “I am a writer”:

“I craft futuristic mystery stories that inform readers about social issues in an entertaining way.”

“I teach people who hate gardening how to care for their gardens in five easy steps  so they have more time to enjoy Life.”

If you are a Christian writer, here are more examples:

“I inform Christian women through my romance novels about God’s love, so they can find a deeper happiness.”

“I design materials for Sunday schools that helps primary-school-age children understand how to have a walk with God.”

“I teach teenagers about history through non-fiction that emphasizes the biblical worldview so they make constructive decisions.”

There are two more things we need to look at when writing a VBC–specificity and benefit.  These will be covered in Part 2.

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This article is the same article called The Power of the Verbal Business Card, Part 1 which is posted on Red-Hot Writing Tips.

“I gave my back to those who strike me,
And my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;
I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting.
For the Lord GOD helps me,
Therefore, I am not disgraced;
Therefore, I have set my face like flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.”
~ Isaiah 50:6-7

May 27, 2002, Boulder, Colorado. The day of my first 10K running race. Sixty-two minutes later, as I crossed the finish line in front of 40,000 fans, I looked only for the faces of my husband and three little boys in the crowd, cheering me to the very end. They’d driven over an hour and waited for another two just for those few seconds of reassuring affirmation at the finish line.

April 21, 2007, Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Another day, another 10K race, but this time in my home town. Without a single familiar face in the crowd, I ran every agonizing step, climbed hills and covered rocky terrain, with the thought of quitting never far from my mind … and received my worst race time in five years of running. Due to other responsibilities, my cheering section couldn’t make it. How I needed them that day!

When Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth in Luke 4, it was as if he stood at the starting line of the launch of his ministry. I wonder if he hoped for a send-off, a crowd of familiar friends and family cheering him on as He embarked to finish the race the Father called him to run. It wasn’t to be, however. Instead of support and encouragement, those who once cheered from front row seats now hurled accusations and rage.

It’s hard to run a race alone. I have to be honest with you: When it comes to rejection, I’m a quitter. All it takes is the evaporation of my fan base and I hardly have the strength to keep going on. I need the support of those closest to me like I need air. But I’m not sure that’s a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with having people who encourage you, but absolute dependence on it? Well, that’s a fickle foundation if I’ve ever heard of one.

As Jesus left his hometown behind, I think He knew He was on His own. With a God who loved Him, yes. But without those people who should have understood him, believed in him, and cheered for him. He would face more opposition than praise, more rejection than acceptance. And still He ran, determined and face-forward anyway. Because the God who called Him was worth it.

Father God, strengthen me to do the same!
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This post was originally sent out to our newsletter subscribers in 2010.
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There are four main types of dialogue: Modulated, Directed, Misdirected, and Interpolated. Wow, that’s a mouthful! In this series, I will be sharing basic facts about each style. Today it is . . .

Modulated Dialogue

Modulated Dialogue uses narrative commentary and details to enhance the dialogue. I also call this meat and potatoes dialogue. It’s the most common dialogue type, and it has a beat, which I discussed in my lesson How to Write Remarkable Dialogue, Part 1. This is dialogue that goes back and forth between what the characters say and narrative description. Good authors get a beat with this—a nice back and forth that gives the writing rhythm.

With modulated dialogue, each line of dialogue is also a place for narrative details. One character may talk about the past, and this sparks internal thoughts which the author describes. Or, a character comments about his or her surroundings, then the author adds scene details before continuing with more dialogue. Body language is often described.

The following is an example of modulated dialogue, starring one of my favorite characters, James Bond, in a scene I made up for this occasion:

“I was wondering when you might show me this,” Bond said, touching the tiny microphone lightly.
Q whipped his arm back, taking the microphone with it. “That isn’t ready yet. What I want to show you is this.” He slowly removed the Mylar blanket that had been covering a large something to Bond’s left.
Bond’s sharp intake of breath was louder than he expected. What had been hiding under the blanket, the lump he had so arrogantly leaned upon as if it were furniture, was the most beautiful automobile he’d seen in his life. Metallic red reflected the laboratory lights as if they were the sun, and the sleek, cat-like design gave the feel of a jungle predator, sure-footed and fast.
“May I?” Bond asked, pointing to the driver-side door and fighting an almost desperate tone in his voice.
Q blinked slowly in assent. “Of course. Just don’t drink, eat, or smoke in it, please.”
“I quit smoking long ago,” said Bond.

This is modulated, meat and potatoes, dialogue. It just goes back and forth between dialogue and description, dialogue and description. It moves the story along, sets the pace, and lets us know what the characters are thinking and feeling (often through body language) and what the environment looks like. As a writer, you should practice modulated dialogue first and get your rhythm. Rhythm is part of your style and voice. Learn it well.

Next time, we’ll cover Directed Dialogue. It’s used to emphasize the tension between two people in a scene.