Robin Lee Hatcher's Write Thinking

I can sleep better now

The following post is from Popwatch:

Simon will return to 'American Idol'

Insult-happy American Idol fans, rejoice! Simon Cowell is staying put -- and for quite a while. Fox announced today that both the acid-tongued judge and the show he helped turn into a ratings -- and radio -- juggernaut will be around for at least five more installments (counting the one that premieres this January). Apparently, Idol creator Simon Fuller decided that little copyright-infringement lawsuit against Cowell wasn’t that big a deal after all (the suit was settled quietly out of court). You know what this means, people? More Kellys, Clays, Carries, and Bos! Can you stand the excitement? I can’t. I’m already attempting to program my TiVo a half-decade in advance.

Are we happy now?

-rlh-

romance by the numbers

I cut my writing teeth in the historical romance market, publishing 27 general market historicals and three contemporary "category" romances before I followed my heart to write novels with Christian faith as an integral part of the story.

As of this date, I've had 17 CBA releases with two more to follow in early 2006. Of those 19 CBA books, twelve would be categorized as romances (historical and contemporary). The other seven, more issues-related women's fiction, still have dashes of romance in them. That's because I'm a romantic at heart.

I tell you all this because I'm going to throw some numbers your way.

According to Publishers Weekly (11/21/05), Romance novels have a 39.3% market share, General Fiction 12.9%, Mystery/Thriller 29.6%, Science Fiction 6.4%, and Other Fiction 11.8%. (In paperback mass market, romance has about a 55% share of the market.) CBA/Christian fiction falls, I believe, into that "Other Fiction" category.

According to SIMBA Information (a Bowker company that is "widely recognized as the leading authority for market intelligence and forecasts in the media industry"), the Romance category was estimated at $1.7 billion in sales in 2004. IPSOS (another marketing research firm) reports that Inspirational Romance had $54.5 million in sales in 2004. While it represents only 3.2% of the total market, Inspirational Romance has grown 26% in the last five years compared to only 5.3% for the whole Romance category.

The numbers speak for themselves. Christian fiction, and specifically Christian romance, is being embraced by readers, and I think that's grand.

-rlh-

P.S. These days I try to steer readers away from my old mass market romances. I've learned a lot as a writer over the years, so my writing is stronger today than it was in those early years. I have also worked with some of the best editors in the business since coming to the CBA; learning from them has improved my novels immensely. And, of course, my worldview has changed since I began my career. I have something much different to write about today than I did in the '80's and early '90's. You can visit my web site's book page for a complete list of my Christian fiction.

grace and forgiveness

I've often said that Jesus gives us countless second chances and do-overs in this life, and He surely gives them to us when we don't deserve them. So I particularly loved this AW Tozer excerpt when I read it in my morning devotional:

"Jesus was able to see potential in the woman at the well that we could never have sensed. What a gracious thing for us that Jesus Christ never thinks about what we have been! He always thinks about what we are going to be. You and I are slaves to time and space and records and reputations and publicity and the past-all that we call the case history. Jesus Christ cares absolutely nothing about anyone's moral case history. He forgives it and starts from there as though the person had been born one minute before."  Faith Beyond Reason, 103-104

It truly is an amazing grace.

-rlh-

5th & final Saturday reports - writing challenge

I missed putting up a post last week when my mom was in the hospital. Now I'm late getting up this, the final Saturday call for reports, on the writing challenge. This wasn't exactly a book in a month. Just a place to encourage and challenge to those who wanted it. Not sure how many did. The reports in dwindled.

The health of my mom definitely impacted my writing. I have not made my goals, and it is going to be a scramble to finish this story on time. Technically, I have four days, and technically, that could be enough. But since I haven't been writing that fast in the recent past, I have my doubts about the immediate future. But as they say, hope springs eternal.

December 1 ends our challenge. I hope you are all writing like crazy until then.

-rlh-

a friday's feast

In an effort to be a little more regular with my posting, I'll answer this week's Friday's Feast.

Appetizer
What did you look like when you were a teenager?

I had a few good moments, but I was kind of gawky. Naturally curly dark blond hair (but I thought of it as brown) when what was popular was long, pale-blond, and straight. I used to iron my hair on the ironing board to try to look like the other girls. I was slender, and when I was in high school I was considered on the tall side. These days I'm on the shorter side of average, I think.

Salad
Whose advice do you listen to?

I try to listen to the Holy Spirit's still small voice. I have two very close friends who are both Christians; they are my most frequent sounding boards because I trust their godly wisdom. I listen to my pastor's advice from the pulpit.

Soup
Name a book you would like to memorize.

Wow! I would love to be able to memorize the entire book of Psalms.

Main Course
How often are you sick?

Not very often. I get aches and pains, but it isn't often that I'm sick.

Dessert
Do you like or dislike change?

Hmm. When I see it coming, I'm not very fond of change. And going through it, I'm usually not fond of change either. After the fact, after the dust has settled and whatever is different is done, then I often like what has happened. Must be because God is in control, huh? Romans 8:28 applies here.

In the grip of His grace,
Robin

happy thanksgiving

What a week it has been! My mom was in the hospital for five days with what apparently was a clot in her lung plus a touch of pneumonia. She is more frail than before, but I feel very blessed to have her home with me again. She was able to go to Thanksgiving at my daughter's today, and a week ago, I wouldn't have thought that possible.

We were a large bunch. There were 17 in all (counting the new baby who is now 17 days old). In addition to the family, my daughter's neighbor and his two children joined us. Boise has been socked in with dense fog, canceling flights in and out, and his wife was stuck in Wisconsin. When my daughter learned that he and the kids wouldn't be having Thanksgiving dinner, she invited them to join us. And isn't that part of what Thanksgiving is about?

All of the upheaval here at home hasn't done my deadline any favors, so I am likely to post sporadically. However, I must say that I'm enjoying the story I'm working on. That's always a good thing.

I watched Batman Begins last night. I enjoyed it a lot. I think it's possibly the best of all the Batman movies I've seen.

Oooh, and wasn't last night's LOST episode really good?!? I must admit that not getting hooked on LOST until the first season was out on DVD had one benefit -- being able to watch one episode right after the other, without commercials and reruns. I hate this waiting between shows.

And as long as I'm talking television, do you think it is true that Simon won't be a judge on American Idol this coming season? Hmm.

-rlh-

energy crisis

No, the title of this blog entry is not about lack of fuel or power or natural gas. It's about me.

I was under the weather at the start of the week. I guess I had a touch of the flu (fever and chills, fever and chills), but it didn't last long. Then yesterday I took my mom (91) to the hospital. She's having chest pains. Doesn't look like a heart attack at this point, but she is still in pain and in the CCU. It's hard to see my mom in pain. She is so rarely sick, and not knowing what is the problem makes things somehow worse (I think). And there are some tests she doesn't want to undergo because they cause her so much more pain. My mom, bless her heart, can be stubborn.

The design pages for Diamond Place arrived yesterday. I have to read and turn them around rather quickly. And, of course, I'm looking at my December 1st deadline for my Christmas story and growing nervous.

Prayers appreciated.

-rlh-

from the past

I was reading old blog entries (sometimes it's good for us to look back to see how far we've come) and decided to see what I had to say in my blog two and three years ago.

---

From November 11, 2002:

"As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands." Psalm 119:143

God's word brings joy. Stress is caused when we feel stretched beyond our limits, our finances, our capabilities, our wisdom, etc. But God's word brings joy. It's there, in His written word, that we learn nothing is impossible with God. It's there that we learn He gives strength and wisdom and is our resource for every need. Ahhh. Comfort and joy.

---

And a longer post from November 12, 2003:

My Lord's Prayer

When the disciples who walked with Jesus said, "Teach us to pray," He gave them a model for prayer (Matt 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4). And so this morning, I am following that model:

Father-God, You are holy. You are righteous. You are just. You are awesome. You are the Creator of everything. Heaven is Your throne room and the earth is Your footstool. I praise and worship You because You alone are worthy, my King.

Jesus, let Your kingdom be established here on earth. Rule in the hearts of men as You already rule in heaven. Rule in my heart. When You speak, may I always obey.

Lord, You know what we need even before we ask, but You have told us to ask for our daily needs. Help me not to worry about tomorrow but to trust You in every way. I pray especially today that You would give comfort, food, and shelter to those in want.

Father, forgive me my sins. Forgive me when I fail to seek Your will, when I fail to pray, when I don't spend time in Your glorious word or in worship. Strengthen me, Lord, to serve You. And God, help me to forgive others as You forgive me. Remove from my heart any resentment or anger I might harbor, even unknowingly.

Holy God, guard me from the wiles of the devil who would tempt me to sin. Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts I entertain be God-honoring. Help me to resist the enemy with Your powerful word on my lips.

Jesus, You are my King, my all, my everything. Your power and Your glory will never fade or fail. Your kingdom is established for all eternity, as it was from the moment time began.

Maranatha. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen.

---

-rlh-

3rd Saturday reports - writing challenge

Okay, fess up. Do I need to be scolding you? I'm not seeing your reports.

I am very pleased with my week. I made my goal. I finished my revisions/edits and added about 4300 words in length which was needed. In the process, I made the book better (which is the reason for revisions). The manuscript was returned to the editor early on Thursday morning. Later that day, I wrote the opening scene for the next book in the Hart's Crossing series (Sweet Dreams Drive) and sent to the editor to use as the "teaser" in the back of Diamond Place. I received a reply from her, saying she loved the work I'd done on Diamond Place and had already sent it off to the design department. She also liked the opening for SDD.

I spent yesterday doing laundry, replying to email and snail mail, and accomplishing a little bit of clean up in my office. Not enough but a start. It gets so bad when I'm writing and ignoring everything else. I am determined to stop saving so much paper!!

Today I am back to work on my Christmas novella. Gotta write like crazy to get it done in time. I'm just thankful that I'm writing this in winter with the Christmas season approaching. I've written a Christmas book before in June. It just didn't feel the same.

So report in, dear writers. And if you didn't sign up for the challenge in the first place, no matter. Report how you're doing on your writing goals. Yea!

-rlh-

listening to myself talk

Stacy Harp at Blog for Books conducted a telephone interview with me earlier this week, and it has now been posted to her blog. She says the interview cuts off abruptly before it was concluded and is working on fixing it, but most of it is there.

It's painful for me to listen or to watch interviews of myself. It makes me squirm. Why did I say that? Why didn't I say this? Yuck! That was a dumb sounding laugh. What was I thinking when I ... It helps to know that many wonderful actors and actresses never watch their own performances because they hate it too.

Anyway, Stacy was a delight to talk to. We chatted about my age (young grandma and all that), my books, the Bible and its importance in the life of believers, etc. It was fun. So get yourself a cup of your favorite beverage and go have a listen if you're so inclined.

-rlh-

listening and seeing

For the writers who read my blog, I'd like to pass along this recommendation. In the mid-1990's I started using a software called Monologue that read my manuscripts aloud to me. The last version came out in 1997, I believe. I guess the company went out of business, although you can sometimes find copies of the software on the Internet. Anyway, somewhere along the way with new computers, I lost my Monologue and have missed it a great deal. But now I have found Natural Reader, so I am once again a happy camper. There is a free version which I have on my laptop, but I bought the Professional Version for my desktop because it integrates with Word and Outlook, etc.

The beauty of this software (and Monologue before it) is that it reads my manuscript back to me and I fix things I might have missed if only using my eyes. That's because I know the story so well that my eyes often skim over mistakes since I know what I meant to say. I highlight a chapter at a time (my chapters tend to be shorter, especially in novellas), and with the hard copy version in front of me and red pen in hand, I have the computer start reading. I circle errors as I catch them. When the chapter is done, I go back and make the changes on the hard copy, then enter them into the electronic document.

The voices in Natural Reader Professional are better, but the free version worked fine, too. There are some quirks in the reading software, i.e. "his co-workers" was read to me as "his company workers." If I write "Tell James I want..." it will read it as "Tell James the First want..." Words that can be pronounced two ways such as "read" aren't always pronounced the correct way in context. But once I got used to these quirks, they stopped causing me to stumble as I proofed. (These quirks were in Monologue and are also in Natural Reader.)

I know that using Monologue before and using Natural Reader now helped/helps me turn in better, cleaner manuscripts. I highly recommend it to any novelist (both aspiring and published).

Happy writing and listening!
-rlh-

snoopy dance, part deux

Yippee! At around 5:30 this morning, I shipped off the completed revisions/edits of Diamond Place. The first round of edits, including adding new scenes, was actually done on Tuesday, but I spent yesterday reading through the manuscript and giving it some more polishing. It feels oh-so-good to have it done. Now I wait breathlessly to see if the editor approves the changes/additions. Me, I like the story. It's simple and sweet, a perfect addition to this warm, small-town series set in Hart's Crossing, Idaho.

Today, I need to write the opening scene of the next book in this series so that it can be placed in the back of Diamond Place. As soon as that is done, it's back to work on my Christmas 2006 release, due on December 1.

Better get to it!

-rlh-

Christian Carnival XCV

The latest Christian Carnival was posted yesterday over at Eternal Revolution. Follow the link and discover a new Christian blog or two (or more).

-rlh-

a pause in our regularly scheduled program

I paused in the editing of Diamond Place yesterday evening to be present for the birth of my new grandson. Mother and son doing well, and Grandma Robin is thanking God for the safe delivery as well as the full quiver of children He has granted this family. [My latest grandson has the most creative and beautiful name, but I make it a practice not to give the names of family members in my blog so you'll just have to trust me on that.]

Mom, Dad, and Aunt (and Grandma Robin, not shown here) are all thrilled with the new addition to our family.

-rlh-

what you miss when you aren't there

I've read a number of blogs where people are struggling within their church homes. They aren't happy with the preaching/teaching or the worship or any manner of other things. I have friends who are going through or have gone through the same sort of thing. I went through a similar struggle a number of years ago when the pastor resigned and moved away, and after 23 years in the same small church, I felt called to depart. Soon, I found myself planted in another, much larger church home where I have been so blessed. The teaching is strong. The worship is honest and deep. The ministries where a person can serve are many and varied. The people are disciples of Christ who are pursuing authentic Christianity. I am thankful to God for bringing me to this family of believers. But that doesn't mean what led up to my departure from my former church wasn't painful.

I believe in the importance of gathering weekly with other believers because God calls us to do so. It is a worship thing. It is an accountability thing. It is an obedience thing. It is a family thing. I believe that we are to be planted and not hop around, looking for the latest thing or wanting to get our ears tickled.

Do you know if you miss one Sunday a month, you've missed one-fourth of what you would have heard/experienced that month? But it's more than that. You may miss the Lord showing up in the midst of the people, and no amount of others explaining to you what you missed will make up for it. Look at what happened to Thomas after Christ rose from the dead:

That evening, on the first day of the week, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! "Peace be with you," he said. As he spoke, he held out his hands for them to see, and he showed them his side. They were filled with joy when they saw their Lord! He spoke to them again and said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."  Then he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven. If you refuse to forgive them, they are unforgiven."

One of the disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin ), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he replied, "I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side."

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. He said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!" 

"My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed. (John 20:19-28, NLT)

By not being present with the other believers on "Sunday," Thomas missed seeing the Lord with his own eyes. He was told about it, but it just wasn't the same thing. He couldn't believe what he was told because he hadn't experienced it for himself. He had to wait a whole week to experience what the others had experienced. He might have missed it altogether.

Don't miss out.

In the grip of His grace,
Robin

a question for the ages

This morning, my through-the-Bible year brought me to the 18th chapter of the Gospel of John.

[Jesus said] "I came to bring truth to the world. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true."

"What is truth?" Pilate asked. (John 18:37b-38a, NLT)

It seems to me that this broken world of ours has been asking the same question through the ages. "What is truth?" It certainly isn't what our present society says: that whatever you believe is fine, as long as it doesn't hurt someone else. Such a lie!

America has lost its moral compass because we made everything relative. Except everything isn't relative. Some things are relative, but not everything. Some things are definitely right and some things are definitely wrong. Some things are definitely black and some are definitely white.

Truth is truth. Too many wander around asking, "What is truth?" but they never really look for the answer to their question. They make it all relative. And relative thinking has left us with countless ills in this world. Look at what Internet porn is doing to families across the country. Families are being destroyed by it; I've heard the stories with my own ears. How about this statistic that I heard recently: In 1970 (I believe that was the year), one in 100 Americans were/had been in jail. Now, one in 33 Americans are/have been in jail. So has relative thinking — living without a moral compass — brought us to a good place?

-rlh-

P.S. I am passing along this link regarding the "gay cowboy" movie that's about to release. It's already positioned to be the huge Oscar winner of the year. Read this report. Talk about lack of a moral compass. I hope people stay home in droves. Must every intimate act and type of relationship and behavior be put on the screen? It seems so, judging by this and HBO's Rome and so much more that comes out of Hollywood.

2nd Saturday reports - writing challenge

How did the writing go this last week? Are you meeting your goals? Close? Don't give up. Don't get discouraged. You can do it. Go for it! Sis boom bah! Rah, rah, rah!

Please post your reports in the comment section of this post.

My revisions arrived in mid-week, so I've been working on those rather than on the new book. But I am pleased with how they are progressing. So far I've added 2900 words and need about another 2400. I'm in the last fifth of the book with one brand new chapter to write, which will, of course, impact the following chapter, requiring deletions and changes.

All that to say, I did meet my goal for where I wanted to be by today, so I can answer my own question with a resounding YES!

Okay, players. Speak up.

-rlh-

blog interview

My introduction and interview (two separate posts) by Gina Holmes at Novel Journey are up as of this morning. Drop on by and see my answers.

P.S. Made some real progress in the edits/revisions/additions yesterday. Hope for more of the same this morning before my afternoon of appointments rolls around.

-rlh-

mining for words

The edited manuscript of DP landed in my mailbox by email attachment yesterday, and I went straight to work on it. Managed to finish only chapter one, but I did make notes for chapter two which I will tackle soon.

I actually need to add quite a bit to this manuscript at the same time I'm going through the edits (which are slight, thankfully). I think it's very hard to add to a book once it is done. That's probably why I add and change and revise during my first draft — because I don't "layer" well later. I struggle with it. Then there are all the threads that I have to make sure I connect (i.e. if I add here, remember to remove something else there). Groan! If there wasn't a tight turnaround, it would be easier.

All that moaning and groaning aside, I can recall several books where something I added during the revising/editing process turned out to be what readers commented on the most as something they loved. That helps as a reminder that I can do this and I can do it well, even under the gun.

As a side note, I am not a fan of Microsoft Word. I much prefer WordPerfect. But I am a fan of Word's Track Changes, and I'm so glad that all but one of the editors/publishing houses I work with use that wonderful feature. WordPerfect has a similar function, but it isn't quite as friendly, IMHO, as Track Changes. So for the next week, I'll have Word open on my computer instead of WordPerfect.

Off to the salt mines,
Robin