N. J. Lindquist

Very cool award

Awards

Jun 232010

The Word Guild decided it was time to have its first Blog Award this year, for two consecutively-written blogs. Guess who won? Yes, I did.

The blogs I entered were "The movement to re-engineer writers:" and "Listening with Your Mind and Your Heart."

I'll be posting both of them on here in the next couple of days.

Currently looking for a picture of me getting the award so you can see the very cool dress I found to wear at the awards.

Here I am getting the certificate and cheque from Denise Rumble, the Managing Director of The Word Guild.

The award was actually sponsored by the Christian Herald, but due to printing difficulties, the editor, Fazal Karim Jr., was unable to get to the gala in time for that presentation.

Thanks to Marianne Meed Ward, who was the judge for this award.

Gathering ideas: 6. Bible reading

Finding Ideas

Feb 242010

Noah's ark

I find it almost impossible to read my Bible without getting caught up in possibilities. Such unique settings! Fascinating characters! So many complex themes! Idea after idea tumbles through my mind…. A mystery novel retelling the story of Cain and Abel with a modern setting. A Bible study or devotional where you can share what you've learned. A poem similar to those in Psalms.A drama about Joseph. And on and on….

My guess is that simply by reading the Bible every day, most writers would get enough ideas to keep them busy for years.

So why not simply use the Bible for ideas all the time?

Well, the possibility is that other people have had the same idea that strikes us. Let's face it, there are only so many ways you can rewrite the "love"' passage in I Corinthians 12 into modern language. Or are there? Whether you're writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, a play…you need to be fresh, and that means real and honest. Don't write what you think you ought to say—write what's in your heart.

Keeping busy

News

Feb 232010

I've been totally busy over the past month or so creating three new websites and nailing down details for Write! Canada. So not much time for me to do anything on my writing, etc

However, I did manage to do two online interviews, which are both out this week. Thanks to KD Easley and Linda Faulkner for the interview opportunities. They asked some good questions. Like what would I need on a desert island? :)

Tuesdays with Friends

Author Exchange Blog

Oh, yes, the websites that have taken up so much of my time.

The Word Guild

The Word Guild Awards

Where Two Paths Converge…connecting readers with writers

I've also added new interviews at the Hot Apple Cider site

And, of course, Write! Canada is coming along very well. Registration is now open.

Gathering ideas: 5. People

Finding Ideas

Feb 182010

girls on phones Quite often, we'll get an idea from watching another person. It might be someone we know, or it might be a total stranger we happen to run across once.

The idea could be as comprehensive as discovering something about your mother that makes you want to tell her life story, or as simple as having the odd way a complete stranger backs out of a car trigger an idea for a character.

There are actually numerous outlets for articles about people, whether they're famous or not. Our society seems to be always looking for new information about celebrities and athletes—sometimes to a ridiculous extent.

“Murder in the Bullpen” article published

My writing life

Jan 282010

To read my new article, "Murder in the Bullpen," as well as articles from over 30 other mystery authors who have sports stories in their repertoire, check out the new issue of Mystery Reader's Journal.

The entire list of articles:

The Turf and the Gridiron in Detective Fiction by Gary Garner
Adventure Crime-A Wild Niche in Sports Crime by Jessica Simon
Four Legged Champions by M.E. Kemp
Continue reading »

Interview Up

News

Jan 252010

There's an interview with Patricia Paddey posted at the Write! Canada site this morning. Patricia interviewed Wendy Nelles and me, as directors of Write! Canada, about our long association with the conference and our vision for the future.

Ironically, Wendy and I both attended the conference for the first time in 1988, and we were both on the planning committee for many years. But we really didn't know each other at all until we started trying to save the conference in 2001. We've worked very closely since then, in almost daily communications.

The interview

Gathering ideas: 4. Themes

Finding Ideas

Jan 222010

man talking Most people are passionate about something, or know a lot about something, and want to pass on their knowledge or understanding to others.

This is one of the most common ways people find their ideas. Out of their lives, and values, they think of something they want to say, and then figure out how to say it.

Maybe you've had cancer and recovered, and you want to tell other people how they can survive cancer. Maybe you've been treated rudely one too many times and you decide you need to write something that will tell people how they ought to treat other people. Perhaps you've discovered a way to plant a garden that is more successful than any other way you've seen. You would like to tell someone what you have learned.

Gathering ideas: 3. Theft

Finding Ideas

Jan 212010

Yes, you are allowed to steal ideas. That's because you can't copyright an idea. And what I do with an idea might be very different from what you would do.

Now, there are some common sense boundaries. If I tell you I'm going to query a specific editor about an article on an upcoming event, and you quickly fire off an email to the same editor about writing an article on event, that is definitely a no no. And anything that has been published or produced is protected by copyright.

four people with ideas But on less specific things, stealing ideas is allowed. For example, if I read an article on how to raise great kids in a magazine, and I find that I have things to say that weren't said in the article, there's no harm in my writing another article on how to raise great kids using my perspective and my own examples. No, you can't combine three of the first author's points with two of yours. What you write has to be different, has to be uniquely yours. Other wise you're guilty of plagiarism.

So you write a totally different article, but with the same overall focus—how to raise great kids.

Now, what do you do with it? Well, unless raising kids is the primary focus of the magazine, I probably wouldn't send my article to the same magazine where you read the original. At least not for a few months. Why? Because they just published an article on that topic. And they likely won't publish a similar article for at least several months, probably a year.

Gathering ideas: 2. Association

Finding Ideas

Jan 202010

Have you ever had one thing remind you of another? Maybe it's a smell that reminds you of a similar smell from the past. A person who makes you think of another person you know. A line from a poem or story that makes you recall an event that happened to you…. Or it might be seeing something familiar in a brand new way. Maybe it's putting two things together and coming up with something unlike either of the two.

That happens to me frequently. Often, it's an elusive feeling or insight that disappears as quickly as it came. But sometimes it stays long enough to jog an awareness in my brain, and I make notes before I lose it.

Let me give you an example.

music notes I've been familiar with the song "Oh, Freedom" since i was a child. Always loved it, no doubt as much because of what a good singer can do with it musically as because of the meaning behind it.

But one day, over 30 years ago, someone's remark about "freedom in Christ" started the lyrics from "Oh Freedom" playing in my head. "…And before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free…"

An instant later, it popped into my mind that I needed to write a story about freedom, and that it's not, as most of us think, a physical state, as much as it is a spiritual state. I remembered Paul talking about being free in Christ while being chained in a Roman prison. And my brain began to whirl.

Gathering ideas: 1. Observation

Finding Ideas

Jan 192010

shopping Have you ever found yourself in a position where you could overhear things that were supposed to be private? You might have been standing in a check-out line while a mother and her young son had a long, heated argument about buying a certain kind of candy. The mother may have been embarrassed, but so were you.

Or maybe you were alone at a table in a coffee shop, a shopping mall food court, or a restaurant when you discovered that the conversation at a nearby table was impossible to ignore. Maybe it was someone's birthday and they were celebrating. Even opening gifts. Maybe they were discussing where they had been, what they had bought, what they were going to do next, other people they knew…. And you felt guilty for overhearing things that were none of your business.