Truth...
“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.” ― Buddha
Prophets come from many walks of life and I believe Buddha was a Prophet blessed by God to speak to the Chinese people.
First of all, I want you all to know that I won't be competing in any of the contests that I'm helping to sponsor for this group. I feel that would be in bad form to do so. So any and all contests will be solely for the group members only. My role in all contests will be to develop and implement them. However, if a group member creates a conviction type challenge, such as the one JL Mo created I will fully take part in that, because it makes me more aware of the world around me. If I do write a short story related to any of contest criteria, I will post it to the group so you can read it.
I also want to let you all know that I hope to increase prize amounts for future contests, so I can give second and third prize levels too. I am also considering other types of prizes as well. So if you have anything in mind that you would like to receive as a prize, besides money, let me know.
(1) In which genre(s) do you write?
I like to write Science Fiction/Fantasy with a little mystery, suspense and romance thrown in to spice things up a bit.
(2) How long have you been writing?
Someone else asked me this question yesterday when I was leaving my guitar lesson and she was going to her lesson with the same instructor. My simple reply to her was 13 years. Before that I didn’t realize I was a writer, even though I got a big kick out of writing long forum posts that people seemed to love to read. And I actually had gotten a small following of people that wanted to read anything I wrote and followed me around to different forums for a while. But it wasn’t until I started writing a fan story on the Lineage II beta forum that I fully realized I had the potential to become a writer. Then the best thing that had happened for my writing was stumbling upon tNBW in the spring of 2006. Now that the training is done with it’s time to take my writing more seriously.
(3) Is your primary goal to find a traditional publisher or to self-publish, or both (and have you published before)?
I would love to find a traditional publisher like – TOR – to publish my novel, but in the meantime I am working toward self-publishing this novel – with the same high standards of a traditional publisher.
(4) Have you submitted your current work to agents or publishers, and if so, any feedback you’d like to share?
No – It’s only a first draft and I feel I have some work to do to get it ready to start submitting it to an agents or publishers.
(5) Who are a couple of your favorite authors?
Anne McCaffrey and Robin Cook – if I have to name only two. 
(6) What's a fun, quirky, or interesting fact about you?
I love animals and when I was growing up I wanted to be a veterinarian. Then when I learned the amount of schooling I’d have to take I switched gears and went to college for equestrian science instead. It was the best year of school I have had. Sadly, I put that dream aside. But then I bred Himalayan Persians for about four years. And I have three regular house cats now, which I adore. So in anything I write I find a way to include animals in it and not just as filler, but as an essential part of the story.
JL, You're very Welcome!
Confidence...
“Confidence... thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.”― Franklin D. Roosevelt
I feel in order to be as Brave as we all would like to be, we also need to be confident in Who's we are.
Potential...
“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!”― Anne Frank
When I think about Bravery - Anne Frank is one of the people who comes to my mind. Who else do you think of as Brave.
Amen JL! That is what this is all about. And what the Church I attend wants us all to think about. Not just with this sermon series entitled Brave, but always.
It truly shakes you to the chore when you take a step back and analyze your day to the moments you could have acted as Jesus did and realize you didn't.
Brave - also makes me think of all of the people in countries that still persecute Christians and is a reminder to me to pray for their strength and courage. Plus it makes me aware of whether I'm as Brave as I want to be as a Christian. So if Christianity was outlawed tomorrow I would be one of the first to be put in chains in a prison cell.
Hi JL, He definitely does all that and more.
Welcome to the community! I look forward to getting to know you better.
Congrats!! I just picked up my Kindle copy.
Hi Dirk thanks for the advice, I corrected it for my novel.
I get an email with an inspiring thought for the day. And thus morning I thought it would be nice to start a topic for quotes like this. Whether they're written by members of this group or by someone else. These types of thoughts can help us in our daily life.
Happiness...
“I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.” ― Martha Washington
Hi Christina - you're posting your novel the correct way. The first chapter of a novel usually gets more reviews then the rest of the chapters. And since you have your novel only available to connections and group members you are lowering the amount of people that will see your novel and therefore potential reviewers.
I was gone this weekend. I went to a second cousin's wedding in Duluth MN with my mom. It was nice spending some quality time with her and getting to see soma family I haven't seen for a long time. I had a great time at the reception. But I'm paying for it now, because I had danced like I was twenty, now I have the aches and pains like I'm forty. Now that I'm back I'll continue to work on my plans for the short story wring contest.
I’d like to extend a heartfelt welcome to everyone who joins this group. I want you to feel comfortable in this group. If there’s anything you want to bring up to me in private please send me a connection request. I also want you all to know that these forums are yours to post new topics in. Start threads to open discussions about the projects you are working on to even what you like to eat for dinner. I know that wasn’t an A to Z type of suggestion, but I think you’ll all get my meaning. It’s through these discussions that we will get to know each other better.
Congratulations, Madison! Once I get my new Kindle reader registered I will look for your novel on Amazon. Due to working on completing the first novel I want to get published, I don't know when I'll have a free moment to read it, but when I do, I will definitely leave a review on Amazon for you.
Tom, I got chills just reading your introduction.
For those who may not know what I mean when I say that "I got chills"- I get these tingles that start at the base of my neck and shoot down my entire body when I read, hear or even just sense something blessed by God. Or like Tom refers to Him as the Man Above. I think of it as God's way of letting me know He likes it too.
There are many ways we commune with God and I can tell that what Tom has experienced with doing these vision quests has fully opened his heart to the Man Above.
I also have many names for God - I call Him my Heavenly Father, Big Guy and my Main Boss. These depend on the context of what I am discussing at the time. His Holy Spirit is my guide and Jesus is my comforter.
I look forward to learning about Tom's experiences. We may not all have the opportunities to participate in a vision quest as Tom has gotten to do, but I truly feel we can learn from his experiences and find some ways to implement what we learn from him in our daily walks with the Man Above.
I'm not sure if this was brought up in the wish list yet, so I'm just going to add my wish to the list.
Yesterday as I was promoting the new group I created yesterday, I was hoping to find a Twitter button and a Facebook button on the home page of the group, so I could click it to tweet or share it directly without having to copy and paste the link into my Twitter feed or onto a Facebook post.
Hi HueytheHuey! Welcome to the group. Your energy and enthusiasm is a good thing for all writers to have. Don't worry about not having a formal writing courses. Those don't matter, because with the help of this site, you will learn everything you would learn from those types of courses. And sometimes knowing too much can be a slight detriment to the creative mind.
Karen
I look forward to learning and sharing in this community. Thanks!
You're very welcome! I look forward to getting to know you.
Since you’re all a part of this group for Christian and/or Historical writers. I would like to extend an invitation to my newly formed group. http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/group-b … writers-63 At first Sol was just going to have me take over as the moderator for this group, but when I emailed him the vision I had for the group we both decided that I start a new group and we leave this one as is.
I will do what I can to help get this group you are in more active, but my main focus will be on this new group. Come take a peek at what I’ve started so far and if you like what you see then come join me there.
I have big plans for this group. And I would like to share a few of those plans/ideas with you now.
For starters I am working with Sol to for a contest for members of this group. So far what I’m planning for this contest is a Short Story with Brave being the main theme. I’m working out how to narrow that down a bit more.
My other ideas are to bring in a few quests:
Such as a published Christian author that you can have a question and answer session with.
A worship pastor who is prolific at writing worship songs that you can have a question and answer session with.
I won’t guarantee I can fully make those ideas happen, but I believe if its God's will then it will become a reality.
If there are other things you would like to see happen within this group post it in here and I will see what I can do to make that I idea a reality.
A little background about me, I’ve been a Christian all my life. As a child I was taken to Billy Graham revival services when he came to the Twin Cities. The Methodist church I attended as a kid wasn’t afraid to introduce us to other Religions and we even did a few Hanukah celebrations. Some of the young adults even started bringing a few of us to other church services like “Speak the Word”. Back then those services had seemed pretty foreign to me, but I could also feel God’s Spirit in the service too.
For a while as I became a young adult I stopped attending church. I didn’t reject God. It was organized religion I was rejecting. So I had years of private communion, discussion and even one sided arguments with Him. Which I’m sure He just grinned and shook His head as I yelled at Him for something or other.
It wasn’t until a few years after my mom started attending Bridgewood Community Church and started inviting me to the woman’s retreats that my faith journey started to really blossom. That community of woman truly showed me what a Christ follower was all about. And I look forward to attending those get together every year.
While attending a retreat back in 2012 I was able to get to know Susie Larsen, http://www.susielarson.com/ who was the speaker for that retreat, on a more personal level, because my mom and I were booked in the cabin she was in. I had heard her speak a few other times before this weekend and I had felt blessed to been placed in the same cabin. So I wanted to know where she was going to feed her spiritual life and that’s when I discovered the Emmanuel Christian Center.
From the day I set foot in that church my walk with God has been strengthened and although I will never be perfect until God calls me home. The work the Holy Spirit is doing in me is amazing.
I invite you all to share a bit of your Faith Journey as a way to break the ice and start to get to know each other.
Dags did I say too much in my opening? I didn't mention the reviewers name. Maybe I'll edit it a little, so people can't figure out to whom I'm referring to.
NO Mikira, you didn't say too much. You can say anything you want, I just wanted to remind people this is Fight Club where you can iron out your differences. I have no problem with you naming names, but the owner of the site might.
I did send Sol an email about this, but I also wonder if other group leaders have Uploaded an image for their groups and then decided to change the image. Because I did that for a new group I'm forming and now I've lost the original image I started with and it won't upload the image I was going to change nor will it re-upload the image I originally started with.
So is there something that I'm missing when I'm changing the image? Thanks
I got this as an in-line comment:
"I don't mean to throw cold water on your project, but if this is the premise, I'd reconsider. I think it's a very popular one right now among novels and films; it'll be hard to stand out."
My premise is seeking out and finding a new planet to migrate to.
I don't want to fight with the reviewer and I wrote a comment back explaining that its a little difficult to change the premise of my novel when I'm close to completing writing it. I just feel the need to vent about how wrong it is for a reviewer to make a comment like that in the first chapter of a novel when they don't know how far along a writer is with the actual writing of the novel they are reviewing. I'm not sure a reviewer should even do that if you had just started writing the novel, because you don't know how much research a person might have already done before they even sat down to start writing the novel they are planning on writing.
Okay I think I've vented all the steam that built up inside of me, because of this comment.
