Hey guys! I thought that I'd show you guys two things today: first, how many books I've started writing, and the ones that I've finished. Then, I'll show you my story line for the mystery that plagues my life out! The problem I have found is this: it is a good story, and a good mystery- not even I can figure it out. And that is the problem! :)
Books I have begun writing:
"Buttercup Promise"
"Tidbits"
"The McBride Story"
"Miss Pemberthy"
"The Treasure of Riverly Manor"
"Forgetmenots"
"Ruby's Journey West"
and several more
Books I have finished:
A Mother For The Seasonings
"The Ella and Cornelia Story"
"The Harrison Happenings"
Bramblewood Hedge series (The Twinkletoes' Harvest, Mr. Mocker's Picnic, etc.)
Now, here is the storyline for "The Treasure of Riverly Manor"
Lindsey Riverly is 15 years old during the Great Depression. She has lived with her widower-father, and her younger brother Thomas in a small yellow house ever since she can remember. But when her grandfather dies and leaves the independent family estate of Riverly Manor to Lindsey's father, the family has to move. Lindsey finds it difficult to adjust to her new position of Mistress at Riverly Manor, and all the lesson her Great Aunt Henrietta insists on giving her. But despite the fact that there is a Riverly Family fortune, the family is struggling financially. The reason? The fortune is hidden, including the map of a hidden oil field. It begins looking as if Mr. Riverly will have to sell the manor. Lindsey and Tom find a secret passage in the house, and go down it. When they emerge, they are quite lost, and do not even know if they are still on the Manor's 2,000 acre grounds. They find a cabin and an old black man who was the best friend of their grandfather, without any legs. He tells them clues to the treasure and they make their way home. But a strange man, Drew Baxter is pressing their father to let him buy Riverly manor. Lindsey distrusts the man deeply, and begs her father to wait a month, and help them find the treasure. He agrees, and the threesome begin working together to follow to clues. The guest, Mr. Drew Baxter is residing in a cottage on the grounds, and when Lindsey goes there to clean it up a bit, she finds a letter with a mysterious message in it. Then Tom disappears, and Lindsey finds him chloroformed in the attic, and the paper with the clues missing. Tom recovers, but can't remember what had happened to him. Lindsey suspects Drew Baxter, (who is an agent for a German war mastermind posing as a oil-hungry man posing as a buyer for Riverly Manor) and finds a file of correspondence that proves he is acting falsely. But Mr. Baxter has disappeared. The Riverly family goes on a chase that crosses three states, and ends back at the Manor, where it is a race to see who finds the treasure first......and I haven't decided who finds it! :)
Sound interesting? Do you think I should finish it? Well, I gotta go! -Rachel
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Ennui- otherwise known as months of rain
Hello! How is everyone? I am doing well, but excessively tired of all this rain. Some mornings I wake up wondering if our home is just an island in a mucky sea of puddles! Very dull indeed. Okay! So, I have been reading "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens. Something I have noticed about his writing, and the writing of other great British authors like C.S. Lewis, is how well they can describe characters in very few words. I have been continually amused throughout the book by the way Dickens described various peculiarities in people- like Mr. Wemmick, who is said to have "a mouth that looked like a post-box" and from then on when speaking of it, he would say, "by now I could have posted an entire package in Mr. Wemmick's box" or something like that. It just amuses me. I consider it a mark of a fine author when they can make you form an exact picture in your mind of someone's build, or mouth, or clothes, or anything else without ever using words commonly associated with the object. That is something that I am not particularly wonderful at in my own writing. Another thing I have observed, is how you can turn your reader's mind to either like or dislike a person, merely by the way you describe them. Take anyone from a picture for example. I am sure that you could write two descriptions of them that equally represented the person: one favorable, and the other not. Well, this is not a very interesting post, and I have to do school! -Rachel
By Abigail's Request
Hey! Here is the "Companion Post" to the one below. This is the topic Abigail chose for me to post about. Her question: How do you come up with the story lines for your books and stories? Do you have them made up before you start writing?
I have to tell you- there really is little method to my madness! Usually, the topics are suggested by something I've been randomly thinking: take A Mother For The Seasonings: I was doing dishes or something and thinking, "Wouldn't it be cool if there was a family of children who were all named after herbs?" And immediately, the characters in my story were born. (Oh! You test people, we ran out of ink, so I'll be a tad late sending you your copy! Sorry!)
For my mystery I am attempting to write...it is turning out rather tragically. I don't mean the story-line itself- I mean, I am no mystery writer! For pity's sake! Everyone likes this story the best, and I can't keep track of all the details myself!
For that story, I wrote out a story-line. The problem? I made the villain a man who was pretending to be a man who was pretending to be a man. Note to other authors: NEVER DO THAT TO YOURSELF!!!!!!! My head spins every time I try to pick it back up. But I have made a promise to Sarah to finish it!
So basically, I model my stories after real life usually. Things I know about, and love.
It also helps that I am constantly observing people. Ask anyone in my family- when I go to a concert, I spend half the time looking at the people around me. So when we come home I'll say to Sarah, "You know that girl with the red dress and shiny black shoes with the scarf around her neck and the white purse? She kept smiling at us." Or something of that sort. I am a fairly observant person. Therefore, before I had ever heard Tim Hawkins mention this fact, I had found out that when people are gossiping, they always say, "Bless her heart" immediately after as if that makes it okay.
Another fun thing I have done is look in the phone book when choosing names for a character. They have the best ones! Some I've pieced together (last names from one person, first from another) are: Raleigh McBride, Bardwolf Becker, (doesn't that sound like a banker?) Opal McCain, Katherine Durrant, etc. (Isn't the last one perfect for a beautiful heroine? Don't go and steal it! :)
Anyway, hope that satisfies you Miss Abigail! ;) -Rachel
I have to tell you- there really is little method to my madness! Usually, the topics are suggested by something I've been randomly thinking: take A Mother For The Seasonings: I was doing dishes or something and thinking, "Wouldn't it be cool if there was a family of children who were all named after herbs?" And immediately, the characters in my story were born. (Oh! You test people, we ran out of ink, so I'll be a tad late sending you your copy! Sorry!)
For my mystery I am attempting to write...it is turning out rather tragically. I don't mean the story-line itself- I mean, I am no mystery writer! For pity's sake! Everyone likes this story the best, and I can't keep track of all the details myself!
For that story, I wrote out a story-line. The problem? I made the villain a man who was pretending to be a man who was pretending to be a man. Note to other authors: NEVER DO THAT TO YOURSELF!!!!!!! My head spins every time I try to pick it back up. But I have made a promise to Sarah to finish it!
So basically, I model my stories after real life usually. Things I know about, and love.
It also helps that I am constantly observing people. Ask anyone in my family- when I go to a concert, I spend half the time looking at the people around me. So when we come home I'll say to Sarah, "You know that girl with the red dress and shiny black shoes with the scarf around her neck and the white purse? She kept smiling at us." Or something of that sort. I am a fairly observant person. Therefore, before I had ever heard Tim Hawkins mention this fact, I had found out that when people are gossiping, they always say, "Bless her heart" immediately after as if that makes it okay.
Another fun thing I have done is look in the phone book when choosing names for a character. They have the best ones! Some I've pieced together (last names from one person, first from another) are: Raleigh McBride, Bardwolf Becker, (doesn't that sound like a banker?) Opal McCain, Katherine Durrant, etc. (Isn't the last one perfect for a beautiful heroine? Don't go and steal it! :)
Anyway, hope that satisfies you Miss Abigail! ;) -Rachel
Wisdom From Avonlea
We finished watching Anne of Avonlea last night! The first two Green Gables movies still delight me, and I have quite a notion that when I am an old woman and watch them, I shall still wish I could sweep my hair up in a pompadour and wear trailing dresses. But that's just a guess! I think what I love about the movies, is that they show all kinds of people in such a sometimes exxagerating way that you have to laugh, because the characteristics are so recognizable. Take Mrs. Rachel Lynde ;) for instance. We've all met people who take it upon themselves to decide what everyone else should and shouldn't do. And ones who tell people exactly what they think of them. Therefore, all of us older children had to laugh (for the thousandth time) when Mrs. Lynde says of Anne going to Boston, "I don't approve of way young woman go traveling all over the world today! It reminds me of the devil in the book of Job, going to and fro and up and down!" And old, critical, fussy Mrs. Harris when Anne tells her she can go on a carriage ride and "crrritisize everybody who passes by" and she retorts, "Crritisize? Miss Shirley that's not Chrrrristian!"
I just love the simplicity of the storyline, and yet it makes a very entertaining movie! Maybe it's charm lies in the fact that it is about things that are close to home and familiar. In Little Women and Anne of Green Gables, both young women writers are given the piece of wisdom to write about things that are part of their life and important, not, in Gilbert's words: "High faluting mumbo-jumbo". I don't think I'd hit Matthew with a basket if he told me that, or crack a slate over Daniel's head if he called me "mud-head", (my hair is brown, I wish it was red!)
I've taken that piece of wisdom into my writing, even though I never was one to go writing stories set in Camelot. I prefer the pioneer, Victorian,or Civil War times to midievil times anyway! But the point is, you should write about as Gilbert also says, "the people and places you care about! Right here in ____ (insert you family)"
So that is why one story I have written is a book about our family, set in a different time, but correct otherwise. That is why most of my stories center around families and family relationships. This is what I know and care about, where God has placed me, and this is where my greatest writing will be found. Anyway, just thought that would be an interesting post for any fellow scribblers! Hope you enjoyed reading! And please leave a comment if you can! (Because we otherwise shall ban you from our blog! ;) just kidding!) -Rachel
A Thought
Okay! This is the long lost person who's supposed to be writing in this blog, but hasn't recently, otherwise known as: Sarah!
Today we're getting hi-speed Internet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *woot, woot* (as Abigail would say)
Yeah, so I'm pretty excited about that- we'll be able to see all those blog videos that we haven't seen, Dad can watch the weather online, we can post pictures on our blog, and there are endless other possibilities! We've been trying to get hi-speed for some time, but Verizon doesn't have a line this far out in the country, I guess, the only other possible situation was Dish, and our server doesn't have hi-speed so we hadn't got it. But on Monday Dad was calling around and Ntelos had a really good deal so we got hooked up and I think we received the modem thing today in the mail! So now that that's settled I was going to talk about something that I came across this week.
This week while working with Dad and Daniel, I was reading "Christie, the King's Servant" by O.F. Walton and came across a section which made me think. (The book is set in a fishing village in Yorkshire, England and the town has just had a festival of games, including Tug of War. This segment is the next Sunday when the preacher's talking)
"The Tug of War is our subject to-day, dear friends," he began, " and a very suitable subject, I think, after what we have witnessed on this green during the past week. We have seen, have we not, a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull together, as yon heavy crab-boat was dragged up from the beach? How well she came, what progress she made! with each yodel we brought her farther from the sea. We all of us gave a helping hand; fishermen, wives,visitors,friends,all laid hold, and all pulled, and the work, hard as it seemed, was soon accomplished.Why? Because we were all united. It was a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together. And now let me bring back to your memory another event during this past week. The place is the same, our village green, the same rope is used, and those who pull are the very same men, strong, brawny,powerful fishermen. Yes, you pulled your very hardest; if possible you put forth more strength than when the crab-boat was drawn up, and yet, strange to say, there was no result, the rope did not move an inch. What were you pulling? What was the mighty weight that you had to move? What was it that, for such a long time, baffled the strength of the strongest among you? The weight you could not move was not a heavy boat, but a light handkerchief! What was there this difference? Why was the handkerchief harder to move than the boat? The answer to that question was to be found at the other end of the green. There were other pullers at the rope that day, pulling with all their might in an exactly opposite direction. It was not a united pull, and therefore for a long time there was not result, and we watched on, until a length one side was proved the stronger, and the handkerchief was drawn by them triumphantly across the line. To-day, dear friends, I speak to you of yet another tug of war. The place is the same, Runswick Bay, and our village green, but the weight to be drawn is not a boat, not a handkerchief; the weight is a human soul. It is your soul, my friend, your immortal soul; you are the one who is being drawn. And who are the pullers? Oh, how many they are! I myself have my hands on the rope. God only knows how hard I am pulling, striving with all my might, if possible to draw you, my friend , to Christ. But there are other hands on the rope besides mine. Your conscience pulls, your little child pulls, your Christian mate pulls; each sermon you hear, each Bible class you attend, each hymn you sing, each prayer uttered in your presence, each striving of the Spirit, each God-given yearning after better things, each storm you come through, each danger you escape, each sickness in your family, each death in your home, each deliverance granted you, gives you a pull God-ward, Christ-ward, heaven-ward.
Yet, oh, my dear friend, you know, as clearly as you know that you are sitting there, that, so far, Christ's pullers are drawing in vain. You have never yet, you know it, crossed the line which divides the saved from the unsaved. Why is this? Why, oh, why are you so hard to move? Oh, my friend, do you ask why? Surely you know the reason! Is it not because there are other hands on the rope, other pullers drawing in an exactly opposite direction? For Satan has many an agent, many a servant, and he sends forth a great army of soul-pullers. Each wordly friend, each desire of your evil nature, each temptation to sin, each longing after wealth, each sinful suggestion, gives you a pull, and a pull the wrong way, away from safety, away from Christ, away from God, away from heaven, away from Home. And towards what? Oh, dear friend, towards what? What are the depths, the fearful depths, towards which you are being drawn?
Alright, so I know that was sort of an old-fashioned sermon(all those "dear friends!") But the point he was making is very important. Now I know a lot of us are Christians and this is talking about the pull for your soul for Christ, but if you think about it, everyone, every day is making different choices and decisions that are either drawing them closer to God or separating them from him. We know that "We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Our sin separates us from God and it's "When we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So I just think that we all need to be conscious all throughout our day of where our choices are taking us: away from the Lord or Drawing us to Him.
So that's that, but also I wanted to tell everyone that Rachel did end up writing a story that she's very pleased with and was exactly on the word limit for the contest!!!! Yay!!! I really like the story too.
That's all for now! -Sarah
Today we're getting hi-speed Internet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *woot, woot* (as Abigail would say)
Yeah, so I'm pretty excited about that- we'll be able to see all those blog videos that we haven't seen, Dad can watch the weather online, we can post pictures on our blog, and there are endless other possibilities! We've been trying to get hi-speed for some time, but Verizon doesn't have a line this far out in the country, I guess, the only other possible situation was Dish, and our server doesn't have hi-speed so we hadn't got it. But on Monday Dad was calling around and Ntelos had a really good deal so we got hooked up and I think we received the modem thing today in the mail! So now that that's settled I was going to talk about something that I came across this week.
This week while working with Dad and Daniel, I was reading "Christie, the King's Servant" by O.F. Walton and came across a section which made me think. (The book is set in a fishing village in Yorkshire, England and the town has just had a festival of games, including Tug of War. This segment is the next Sunday when the preacher's talking)
"The Tug of War is our subject to-day, dear friends," he began, " and a very suitable subject, I think, after what we have witnessed on this green during the past week. We have seen, have we not, a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull together, as yon heavy crab-boat was dragged up from the beach? How well she came, what progress she made! with each yodel we brought her farther from the sea. We all of us gave a helping hand; fishermen, wives,visitors,friends,all laid hold, and all pulled, and the work, hard as it seemed, was soon accomplished.Why? Because we were all united. It was a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together. And now let me bring back to your memory another event during this past week. The place is the same, our village green, the same rope is used, and those who pull are the very same men, strong, brawny,powerful fishermen. Yes, you pulled your very hardest; if possible you put forth more strength than when the crab-boat was drawn up, and yet, strange to say, there was no result, the rope did not move an inch. What were you pulling? What was the mighty weight that you had to move? What was it that, for such a long time, baffled the strength of the strongest among you? The weight you could not move was not a heavy boat, but a light handkerchief! What was there this difference? Why was the handkerchief harder to move than the boat? The answer to that question was to be found at the other end of the green. There were other pullers at the rope that day, pulling with all their might in an exactly opposite direction. It was not a united pull, and therefore for a long time there was not result, and we watched on, until a length one side was proved the stronger, and the handkerchief was drawn by them triumphantly across the line. To-day, dear friends, I speak to you of yet another tug of war. The place is the same, Runswick Bay, and our village green, but the weight to be drawn is not a boat, not a handkerchief; the weight is a human soul. It is your soul, my friend, your immortal soul; you are the one who is being drawn. And who are the pullers? Oh, how many they are! I myself have my hands on the rope. God only knows how hard I am pulling, striving with all my might, if possible to draw you, my friend , to Christ. But there are other hands on the rope besides mine. Your conscience pulls, your little child pulls, your Christian mate pulls; each sermon you hear, each Bible class you attend, each hymn you sing, each prayer uttered in your presence, each striving of the Spirit, each God-given yearning after better things, each storm you come through, each danger you escape, each sickness in your family, each death in your home, each deliverance granted you, gives you a pull God-ward, Christ-ward, heaven-ward.
Yet, oh, my dear friend, you know, as clearly as you know that you are sitting there, that, so far, Christ's pullers are drawing in vain. You have never yet, you know it, crossed the line which divides the saved from the unsaved. Why is this? Why, oh, why are you so hard to move? Oh, my friend, do you ask why? Surely you know the reason! Is it not because there are other hands on the rope, other pullers drawing in an exactly opposite direction? For Satan has many an agent, many a servant, and he sends forth a great army of soul-pullers. Each wordly friend, each desire of your evil nature, each temptation to sin, each longing after wealth, each sinful suggestion, gives you a pull, and a pull the wrong way, away from safety, away from Christ, away from God, away from heaven, away from Home. And towards what? Oh, dear friend, towards what? What are the depths, the fearful depths, towards which you are being drawn?
Alright, so I know that was sort of an old-fashioned sermon(all those "dear friends!") But the point he was making is very important. Now I know a lot of us are Christians and this is talking about the pull for your soul for Christ, but if you think about it, everyone, every day is making different choices and decisions that are either drawing them closer to God or separating them from him. We know that "We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Our sin separates us from God and it's "When we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So I just think that we all need to be conscious all throughout our day of where our choices are taking us: away from the Lord or Drawing us to Him.
So that's that, but also I wanted to tell everyone that Rachel did end up writing a story that she's very pleased with and was exactly on the word limit for the contest!!!! Yay!!! I really like the story too.
That's all for now! -Sarah
Bemoanings of an Authoress
Greetings all you fair followers! I am here to bemoan my lot- actually, to tell you something that is sort of exciting and quite a pain. I am entering a story in the Vision Forum contest. In this contest you must tell the "true" story of the cover of the magazine. It has a princess, a king, a knight, and a dragon on it. When I saw this, I thought, "Wow! This should be easy!" because I am constantly writing things, and this shouldn't be any big deal. Well, I have just recently discovered that I am a long-winded creative person. It is painful for me to try to cram a story into no more than 1200 words! Ahhhhhhh!!! So I wrote the story and it was well told. Until Mama pointed out quite gently but pointedly, that my story-line was very unoriginal. It was, in fact, precisely what you would expect seeing the picture. She's right. And my creative streak has been stunted by the late nights and crazy schedule recently. I haven't a scrap of courage large enough to try to rewrite the story right now. Or at least keep it short and sweet. Thinking that the bracing cold air would freshen my perspective, I paced up and down outside for a half-hour at least, but to no avail. I had ideas, but they would all take far more than 1200 words. What's more, they were all traditionally fairy-tale-ish, or else improbable. By the end of the time out there, I had only succeeded in discouraging myself and scaring Daisy Sofia (the goat) out of her wits by coming up and saying in a flat monotone: "Hello goat." (And perhaps it was also scared by my white shawl or something.)
Anyway, I am determined to rewrite this to Mama's (and my own) satisfaction, but I'll just hope and pray for that all-illusive inspiration that I am sorely lacking. After all, when a 1000 $ prize is at stake, I had better listen to wise council. So there you have it- Aren't authors known for being moody? (I despise moodiness in myself so I am determined that this fit shan't last! :) Well, wish me well!
-Rachel
Anyway, I am determined to rewrite this to Mama's (and my own) satisfaction, but I'll just hope and pray for that all-illusive inspiration that I am sorely lacking. After all, when a 1000 $ prize is at stake, I had better listen to wise council. So there you have it- Aren't authors known for being moody? (I despise moodiness in myself so I am determined that this fit shan't last! :) Well, wish me well!
-Rachel
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