It is not the end of the world, or is it

Sad news.  Deseret Book did not want my novel.  So, now I have to find some more publishers to send it off to.  While I'm waiting on that, I am still writing on Lily's story.  How disappointing.

Sunday last was 9 weeks so I sent an email to their submissions email account asking if I was going to hear something soon.  I got an answer back today saying they had sent me an answer on December 2, 2013 saying they didn't want my book.  Not a good night now. oh well...

I can't let it get me down.  I just need to keep plugging away.  Thanks for all of your support and please keep it up.  I'm working on a new novel.

4 star review for Murder by the Way by Betsy Brannon Green

This is a really good read.  I enjoy the Kennedy Killingsworth series, but I do have a little trouble with Kennedy.  I don't like weak women, unless that is their character for the story.  And that is not Kennedy.

When her ex-husband's new wife tells her to leave her husband alone, I think Kennedy should have spoken up instead of staying silent and making it look like she was loose.  I don't like that.  Kennedy should have stood up for yourself, but she didn't. Annoying...

The story is well written, but I don't like the way it was wrapped up.  I don't like who turned out to be the bad guy[s] and why.  It's like she couldn't figure what to do with everyone.

I'm glad she married Luke.  Not giving anything way.  It's in the first chapter.  And I can't stand Miss Ida Jean.  Kennedy's momma should have put her in her place a long time ago.  She's obnoxious.

But, the story is worth reading.  I just think you should read from the first book in the series.  I found the second book and read it first.  Then I read this one, which is the third book.  There really isn't any need to read the first book.  Doesn't matter who does what or why.  Usually it doesn't matter if I pick up a book in the middle of the series, but for this series it does.  So start with the first one.  They are worth reading.

You can find Betsy's books here: Betsy Brannon Green's website

I have not read her other series, but I do have another one of her books on CD.  I hope it's as good.

You can find Green's and other great authors' books here: Seagull Book.  So, stop by one of their local stores here in Utah or shop from their website.

Lily's Dilemma

I told you last week that I would post which book I decided to write.  So here it is.

I am writing the mail-order bride story.  My heroine is Lily Jane Bounds.  And of course I cannot tell you who the hero is.  That would not be fair.  I also can't tell you why I choose another flower name, but I did.  I think this picture of the lily below is quite exquisite.

In the last week I have written 7,213 words.  Not bad.  There would be more, but it just didn't happen.

I hope you will follow me along this new journey.  No, I have not heard about the status of my book submissions.  And I don't like it either.  Say a pray the publisher will accept my novel and An English Summer will be published.

Lily

Go to my facebook author page and like me.  I appreciate the fan loyalty.  Brenda Birch Gallaher, Author Facebook page

Writing Again...finally

Hello all, I submitted my manuscript An English Summer three weeks ago today.  So it's a waiting game now.  I'm praying for good results.  In other words, they want to publish my book.  I certainly hope so.  I spent a lot of time and effort on it.

So, I have been not writing for the last three weeks.  I have been thinking of what I should write on.  I have several story lines and had to choose one.  I finally chose one today.  But before I tell you which one I choose, let me tell you my choices.

1.  Young Adult novel about a 17 year old girl who goes to live with her grandfather in a Southern rural town.  Her mother is dead and her father is a CIA agent sent to the Middle East.  She makes three new friends, does her best to avoid the mean girl and her friends and finds out her grandfather's secret.  He has always been an eccentric type of man who would disappear for hour or days at a time, but for Hazel, he literally disappears.  So she and her friends decide to find out why and how.  And they do.  He's a time traveler.

2.  it's 1932 and a 12 year old girl is walking from Myrtle Beach, NC to California to join her father.  While she and her mother wait for her father to send for them, they live with her mother's sister.  She's bitter because the love of her life marries her sister.  Her mother dies, her aunt is outraged the young girl won't call her Mommy so she places her in an orphanage.  The girl runs away and starts walking to California.

She makes it to Colorado where a couple with three boys take her in.  They will contact her father and he can send for her or come and get her.  She's tired and decides to stay.  The older of the three boys don't like her and the boys' female cousin downright hates her.  Will she make it to her father.

3.  It's the 1890s and Lily has traveled from NYC to WY to get married.  She is a mail-order bride.  Her parents are not happy, but cannot stop her as she is 21 years old.  When she arrives by train the warehouse next door is blown up and she is knocked unconscious.

When she wakes up in the reverend's house she learns her fiance has been murdered and he has left everything to her, even if they don't get married before he dies.  She is shocked!  Should she stay and run the sheep ranch, or should she sell and return to NYC?  This is Lily's Delimna.

Please leave a remark below on which one you think I choose to write.  And if your choice is different than what you think mine is, then tell me why you think I should write your choice.

Next Sunday I will tell you which one I have decided to write.

5 Star rating for Garden Plot by Kirsten McKendry

Kristen McKendry is an LDS author from Utah living in Canada.  Her website is:  Kristen McKendry

I was at Seagull Books one day looking for my favorite author when I came upon Garden Plot by McKendry.  I read the blurb on the back and thought it sounded good.  The price was great so I bought it.  I have an hour lunch so thought I would read during work.  That didn't work out too well.  I would sometimes talk or I would get to a spot where I didn't want to stop, but didn't have a choice.  Back to work I had to go.  But I did finally finish the book.  I got a lot of it read while waiting for my two back tires to be fixed last week and I finished it off today while in the ER.  It's a great book.

The opening line of the book is where the heroine finds a faceless dead body in her garden.  Erin, the book's heroine, runs a wellness center and she finds one of her clients dead in the veggie patch.  How horrible?

Erin is a widow with a 13 year old daughter.  Her daughter likes an older boy with lots of piercings and purple hair.  The contractor who's fixing her cottage thinks she has a crush on him, she doesn't.  And two of her guests are father and son, the above mentioned boy with purple hair.  They fight all of the time.  But all of this pales in comparison to Erin finding a dead body in her vegetable garden.

It's a great story.  She meets a good looking police detective with his own demons who never smiles.  She sees a slight uptick of one corner of his mouth.  But no smiling.  He likes her cooking and he gets along with her daughter.  But who killed one of her clients?  To find out, you will need to read the story for yourself.  If you want a book full of filthy language, gratuitous sex and/or violence then this book is NOT for you.  This is a great story told without all of the disgusting trappings of the world.  It is well worth reading and you don't feel like you have wasted your time.  It's entertaining at times and heartbreaking at other times.  She writes with great humor.  So pick up your copy and enjoy.

I give her 5 stars.  She deserves it.  I would love to see a sequel to this story.

Kristen McKendry, Author

An English Summer - done and submitted

Today, between Conference sessions, I finally finished my novel.  I made some changes to my query letter and summary.  The changes were necessary in order to be more concise and logical.  Then it happened, I submitted to Deseret Books.  Please say a prayer they like my story and want to publish it.  It would mean so much to me.

I started this novel in mid-January  I wrote the first draft, a very rough draft, in four months.  When I finished that first draft I had around 55,000 words.  Now that it is finished and submitted, it has a total of 87,934 words.  What a big difference editing has had on my novel.  I added over 32K words, almost a whole novel worth of words.  The smallest novel is 40,000 words.  Mine is more than double that, but after the first draft it was barely over that amount.  A writer friend of mine said a normal size novel is from 60-90,000 words.  I'm at the top amount.  I'm not sure if that is good or not, but I certainly do hope so.

I want to thank several people for their help throughout this process and journey of mine.  First is author Emily Mah Tippetts.  She would offer words of encouragement when needed and praise when I did something really good.  I appreciate that.  Second is Laura DeLange Bastian, who was kind enough to read my novel and act as editor.  He suggestions for changes and additions was greatly appreciated and acted upon.  It made my story so much better and my writing so much tighter.  Third I want to thank two people who read for me.  The first friend is my long time friend Theresa Lynette Friel Newbury and Philomena Callan.  They both read for me, but did not edit.  The read to tell me if they were interested in the story.  They both liked it.  It kept me going.

Now that the novel as been submitted I can relax.  But just for a little while.  I can relax and enjoy some non-writing time.  I can maybe get a book read now instead of write write write.  I will keep you updated on the progress of my novel as I hear things.

Thank you for following me and being their to support me.

Brenda Birch Gallaher
Author, An English Summer

Almost Ready for Submission

Yippee!!!  My novel is almost ready for submission.  That doesn't mean I am, but my novel almost is.

I went through the suggested changes from Laura who acted as my editor.  I agreed with 98.5% of them.  I worked hard on them and did my best to make them sound as good as she suggested.  One I didn't agree with her on and the other I wasn't really sure what she was referring to.  So I left it.  If the publisher doesn't like it either, then they can make the suggestion to change it to something else.

Now that that's done, it's not complete.  I have to go through one more time and look for missing commas.  I forget to add them around someone's name when they are being spoken to.  An editor at a publishing house will not want to see that so I need to catch all of those before it goes off.  That's really the only thing I'm looking for in this edit.  If I find other things of course I will fix them, but I think I have fixed them.  Keeping fingers crossed.

Now you ask, "what will I do once all of the commas are corrected?"  That's easy, wait for my friend, Emily to return my query letter and summary.  You always need a second eye on something.  When those are returned and I make whatever suggested changes, then I can submit my novel.  I think the worst thing about writing, is the query letter.  I'd rather do a thousand rewrites than one query letter.  oh boy...

So, please drop me a comment of support as I gear up for my next step in this writing process.

Brenda Birch Gallaher

Austenland movie review - 2 thumbs up!

This is a different type of review.  Instead of a review of a book, it's a review of a movie made from a book.  I have not read the book.  I had not heard of the book until I read it in the credits, the movie was from a book.  I will have to see if I can find the book and read it.  With that said, here is my review of the movie.

This week I went to see the movie Austenland with my friend Bev.  I had seen just one preview for the movie, so I wasn't really sure what it was about.  Something about a young woman who loves Mr. Darcy.  Who doesn't love Mr. Darcy?  Well...me.  For all of Jane Austen's heroes I prefer Captain Wentworth.  If there was no Captain Wentworth then it would Mr. Darcy.

Keri Russell plays the heroine, JJ Field plays Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Coolidge plays another woman who has decided to experience the time of Jane Austen.  Jane Seymour plays the lady who runs Austenland; a place where young ladies [and old] can come and live out their fantasy of being a Jane Austen character.  They dress and act like they live in the Regency Era.  At first thought, it seems a little odd that such a place would exist, but once one thinks about it we have Disneyland and Dollyland, so why not Austenland?

Keri Russell's character Jane is so into Jane Austen and her stories that she has finally lost her boyfriend.  She spends all of her money to go to Austenland in England.  She has bought the cheapest packet so she is mistreated.  She isn't sure she should have come but she sticks it out.  She is wooed by the regular grounds keeper as opposed to one of the men who are playing one of the men from an Austen novel.  They have different names, but you can tell by their behavior and mannerisms which one they are.

Now, did I like the movie?  The characters?  Yes and No.  Jane Seymour's character was just mean and I don't like to see actors/actresses I like playing meanies so I didn't like her in this.  I was not happy with her.

Jennifer Coolidge's character I did not like.  I don't like stupid women.  Don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying that Coolidge is stupid.  I'm strictly referring to her character.  Someone else told me they thought she was simple.  She was not simple by any means.  She was stupid.  And the character was just a little gross and over the top.

JJ Field who played the character after Mr. Darcy is an unknown to me.  I have not seen him in anything before, but he's a great actor.  He played Mr. Darcy to the hilt.  Just perfect.

And then there is Keri Russell.  She did a great job.  She played it great both as a modern woman from New York and a young woman in the Regency Era.  This was a good script for her.  She should choose more roles like this one.

Do I suggest people go and see this movie?  Absolutely!!!  I think anyone who likes Jane Austen's books will like this send up to her.  The movie was cute, loved the ending and glad I had the chance to see it.  So, go see the movie and go read the book.  I will have to look for the book to read.  Hopefully I like that just as much.

Here is Shannon Hale's website.  Shannon is the author of Austenland.  After you read my blog stop by hers.  She has more books than just this one.

www.shannonhale.com

Finally - latest edit finished

Hello Followers.  Late last night I finally finished my latest edit.  At which point I emailed it off to my reader.  She said she'll have it back in a week.  Yeah, when it returns I will either accept and make the changes she suggested or ignore the suggestions.  You never have to accept any of the suggestions a reader/editor suggests, but if you're going to send it to someone you should seriously considering accepting the changes.

The story I ended up with is not the one I started with.  Oh, the story is the same in essence, but so many things have been added or deleted.  Twice while doing other edits I would delete 10,000 at once.  I ended up with 89,645 words.  A novel needs the minimum of 40,000 to be a novel.  Under that amount it's either a novella or short story, depending on how many words your story has.

I am sure that once it returns, more words will be both deleted and added.  I am hoping to have it ready for submission by the end of September.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I will keep you posted.  Thanks for following my blog and I hope you continue to do so.

As an added note, I would also like to offer my prayers and thoughts for those people who either died, were injured or lost a loved one twelve years ago in the World Trade Center towers.  There are certain things in History we must remember.  This would include both December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001.


Brenda Birch Gallaher
Author

0 Star Review for Robyn Carr's "The Wanderer"

First let me say that I received the book for free.  I got the book, The Wanderer, off of a drawing on Twitter.  I just don't remember if it was a giveaway by the author, her publisher or someone else who had the book.  I've had it for about four or five months now.  I had other reading commitments and writing commitments that it took me awhile to get to it.

Robyn Carr's writing style is very good.  The Wanderer is a great story, or at least the part I read was good.  Her descriptions are good, she has tight writing and her characters are both believable and likable.  Or in the case of Jag, unlikable.  Cooper is both likable and you feel a little empathy for him.  He's almost forty and no family and lives out of a trailer that he hauls behind him wherever he goes.

Her setting is beautiful and she makes you want to visit.  She has captured the Oregon Coast very well.  The small town football fever was there.

With all of these glowing remarks you probably wonder why I'm giving a NO star review for The Wanderer.  Robyn Carr writes with a potty-mouth.  I don't mean she uses just damn or hell, but she dropped the F-bomb.  She waits until page 158, and you've been sucked into the story, before she decided to show her potty-mouth.  It's sad.  Now I won't know how the story ends.  Did the bad boy get his karma or if the nice boy ended up with the pretty little cheerleader.  I won't know if  Cooper finally meets the girl in the red slicker, the one on the beach with the dog.  What a waste?

The front of her book says she's a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, but what is she selling?  SMUT?  I think so.  Why do authors think that such language is needed or wanted.  I was excited to find an author that wrote so well and had a good story to sell.  But what I got instead was some very vulgar language.  I'm glad I didn't buy the book as I would have demanded my money back.

I do wish books would list on the front or back if it includes vulgar/potty-mouth words or sex scenes.  I don't want to read that either.  It's just sad.  So, you decide if you're interested in reading books.  Now you have been warned.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today.