Category: Writing

Jennifer’s Journal is Turning Three

Published on by J. Kelland Perry43 Comments

Happy Birthday to my little blog!

Actually, my blog will turn three years old on New Year’s Eve, but I thought I’d get a jump on marking the occasion with  questions and answers about my experience as a blogger.

1. Did you think you’d still be blogging after three years?

I didn’t think about it in the beginning. I only knew I was willing to see where it would take me.

2. Can you describe your blogging experience in one word?

Rewarding! This post tells why.

3. How has your blog changed from the time you started until now?

At first its purpose was to practise more writing of poetry and short prose to better prepare myself for the discipline of novel-writing. But my posts broadened quickly to include photography, still in keeping with my blog’s central theme of sharing what I love.

4. Are you a better writer three years later?

I believe I am. I think my ability has been honed, while my curiosity about everything has expanded tenfold. Writing a couple of novels definitely helped too. I hope my research and editing skills have improved as well.

5. What do you dislike most about blogging?

I keep wishing I could meet some of the wonderful people I’ve found here on WordPress. Or at least hear their voices. Come on, everyone, let’s vlog! (video-blog) 🙂

6. What do you love most about blogging?

It’s hard to choose only one thing, but I love to create something that readers can identify with and moves them to share their comments. Posting photos that others like as much as I do is gratifying too.

7. What advice would you give to someone starting a blog today?

Commit to a schedule and blog regularly. Be consistent and be yourself; in other words don’t try to be everything to all people. Don’t choose a theme with a white text on a dark background, or too many bells and whistles. Most people find it hard to read those kinds, including me.

8. What has surprised you the most?

Connecting with people who are like-minded, as well as those who have different interests and opinions. Besides it being an education, it is a great way to cultivate an open mind and form new friendships – even if they are the virtual kind.

9. What have you learned about blogging?

Most people are visual creatures. An image catches my eye and invites me to read in a way a block of text alone can’t. The writing still has to be engaging, of course.

10. Who was your first follower?

Carla from Seasons Change and So Do I. We started our blogs on the same day and we still follow each other. We’ve both been through a lot in our lives, and just as her blog name suggests, we have gone through significant changes since we began blogging. I’m grateful for her support. She feels like an old friend.

11. What are the most popular posts of the past three years?

I will qualify this answer with the reminder that I had fewer followers in the first couple of years, so the lists reflecting the most popular posts are also the most recent.

By reader views:

Greenspond – Part II
Friday Bouquet #11
Hello, December – Goodbye, Nano!
Christmas Renewed
Imagine (and a Birthday)
Wildlife of Newfoundland & Labrador
A Walking Trail, Bergy-Bits, and Other Pretty Things
About Me
To Sea by Virtue
Relics of Rome

By reader likes:

 About Me
Unexpected
Photo Challenge: Threes
Battered
Summer Lovin’
Cat Dreams
Vivian’s Room
Photo Challenge: Up
Remembering Rhonda
Is There Room* in Your Book for Me?

12. What are your ten personal favorites?

Thinking Out Loud
My “Backyard” – Part 1 & My “Backyard” – Part 2: The Beach
A Spanish Purr Sounds Just As Sweet
The Day We Met
If Only
She Writes
“That’s my father”…
Hey, Little Girl
Vivian’s View From Here
Autumn Walk on the East Coast

13. Anything you’d do differently?

I should have started blogging sooner. I have a vague memory of wondering why anyone would want to have a blog. Now I know.

14. Anyone you want to thank?

I’d like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read Jennifer’s Journal. I especially want to thank those who have liked, commented, followed, signed up for emails, reblogged on WordPress, retweeted on Twitter, or shared my posts on Facebook. You all know who you are. 🙂

I also thank the lovely bloggers who shared their stories, advice and talent with me, supported me in my writing, and those who nominated me for blogging awards.

15. What will the next year look like for the blog?

I have three chief areas I hope to work on:

a. more opinion pieces, poetry, and short fiction to develop my skills for writing articles and short stories
b. better photography, thanks to a new DSLR camera for Christmas – providing I learn how to use it 😉
c. articles about writing, while periodically sharing what is going on with my pursuit of the craft.

~ J.K.P.

Is there anything you’d like to see more of in future?
Jennifer’s Journal would love to hear your suggestions.

Hello, December – Goodbye, Nano!

Published on by J. Kelland Perry33 Comments

Winner-2014-Web-Banner

Where did November go, people? Don’t get me wrong, I am happy – but a little surprised – that December is already here. You see, I’ve been busy: for the first time, I have successfully completed the National Novel Writing Month Challenge, and I did it two days before the end-of-the-month deadline.

Was it difficult to write 50 thousand words in 28 days, you may ask?

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What do you think?

After sitting still for so long, it was wonderful to have the freedom to get up and move around again. But I have to confess: I felt a tad wobbly at first.

This is how I walked Friday evening when I finished:

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Arthritis? What arthritis?

Joking aside, I am super happy I took on the challenge, and would recommend Nanowrimo to anyone who wants to see results in a short period of time. It is an effective way to kick procrastination and writer’s block to the curb, especially if you have a writing buddy who is as determined as you are. Wendy kept me accountable, and we both finished with days to spare.

So now I have a first draft of the Calmer Girls sequel, minus a couple of concluding chapters that I will finish this month. Those chapters, along with the additions that will go in when I begin editing in January, should bring the word count up to 70 thousand plus.

The Nano website suggested I treat myself to a T-shirt showing off their logo, but I did better than that. Being Black Friday, I got Santa to order me a new camera online for Christmas, saving himself over $200 in the process.

This is me now:

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A new camera for my blog! Yes!!!

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Did you take part in Nanowrimo this year?

Have you ever challenged yourself with a creative deadline and won?

Please share your experience with me. 🙂

Smiling at Death

Published on by J. Kelland Perry15 Comments

I’m too tired from novel writing to come up with anything of my own this week, so I’m sharing a post from Journey Into Poetry. Christine is one of my favorite bloggers for the poems she writes.
Here is one I found especially moving. Love and miss you, Dad. x

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Your whole life was wrapped around you
on that day,
propped up on a pillowy white cloud,
a few extra ones, cool, crisp
arranged in a special way,
a privilege for the dying.

How could your tiny fragile frame
have carried so much,
braved storms at sea,
ministered prayers from pulpit.
The swimming lessons you gave me;
you had the patience of Job.
And the turnip faces you carved
for Halloween, they were perfect;
(you would have cringed at pumpkins.)
But then you could do everything in my eyes;
you knew everything too.
I remember you trying to
show me how to use a slide rule;
I still haven’t a clue.

And there,
on a warm day, early May
in a special bed for the dying,
lay all of that,
your whole life in a cradle of time,
and it weighed next to nothing –

except for your smile.
Your…

View original post 82 more words

Writing, writing, and more writing? Write on!

Published on by J. Kelland Perry55 Comments

 

Hi, everyone. I thought I’d pass along a quick update today about my novel and what has happened lately in my life as an author.

I am encouraged by the reception Calmer Girls has gotten in the publishing world. In particular, I am now patiently waiting on those who have expressed interest in my query, synopsis and sample chapters, and who subsequently requested the full manuscript for review. (Yay!)

Of course, my optimism is tempered with caution and awareness of the reality that these are only first steps. The road to getting traditionally published is a long, slow and arduous one for many new authors, and I am no exception. I read yesterday of a successful novelist who endured TWENTY-NINE rejections before his first book was picked up. And it ultimately made it to the New York Times best-seller list!

So now while my manuscript is out of my hands, I continue on with the sequel. In that area I have made progress, but not as much as I would like due to life getting in the way (Funny how that always seems to happen!).

designed by Elizabeth Doyle
designed by Elizabeth Doyle

For this reason, I am considering taking part in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as it is called. This is a yearly internet event that takes place in November, not only nationally but all over the world. The object is to write 50,000 words of a first draft in 30 days, which means participants write an average of 1667 words a day.

Awesome? Terrifying? Doable? Impossible? You tell me.

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Will this be you?
never
…or this?

If I do indeed sign up, some of my activities will no doubt have to be curtailed or relegated to the back burner. My Friday Bouquet will be suspended for the time being, and my other blog posts will be brief. I won’t be able to read others’ blogs as much as I am used to. But I shall return, my lovelies!

What do you think of such a project? Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo this year? If you are, tell me all about it below. We can give each other moral support. 🙂

Explore Further:
One Wild Word: Get ready for NaNoWriMo by choosing your novel’s story question

Kristen Lamb’s Blog: 8 Elements to NAILING Your Plot and Owning NaNo

 

Friday Bouquet #10

Published on by J. Kelland Perry

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worddreams…

Jacqui Murray is an author, a journalist, a teacher, and a wealth of helpful advice for all things wordy.

I have learned a lot from her posts she fills with hints, lists,  how-tos, and reviews.

As Jacqui says on her About page:

I love writing–always have–so this blog will cover writing topics, with brief forays into other things. If you know writers, we’re intrigued by everything around us. Life is full of characters, plot lines, unique settings, and we want to experience it all.

Here’s a recent post that I found valuable and you might too:

Writers Tips #78:  8 Writing Tricks You Won’t Read Anywhere Else    

Go and check out WordDreams for help with your writing and blogging questions, and say hi to Jacqui for me.  🙂

*Comments are closed here but open on the blogger’s page.

Friday Bouquet #7

Published on by J. Kelland Perry

 

I follow quite a few blogs by writers, and Moon In Gemini: Debbie’s Blog about Writing and Pop Culture is one of my favourites.

On her About Page:

I have very eclectic tastes in fiction, movies and TV.  I love genre fiction of all kinds, and am just as likely to have fantasy, horror, YA, historical fiction, sci-fi or romance residing on my Kindle.”

“… Gemini is a sign associated with writing and communication.  It’s also a sign associated with people who can’t make up their minds about anything, so don’t be surprised by the variety of subjects that may appear in this blog.”

I am highlighting the following post because I agree with her opinion on strong female characters. For that matter, we think all strong characters are intriguing because of their flaws as well as their strengths. Their faults are what make them human and real.

The Strong Female Character: I Do Not Think That Means What Some People Think It Means

If you love fiction of any kind, I think you’ll like Moon in Gemini as much as I do.

Comments are closed here. I invite you to comment on Debbie’s blog.

Have a great weekend, everyone. 🙂

One Thing These Famous Novels Have in Common

Published on by J. Kelland Perry31 Comments

As I await responses from various publishers on my novel queries, I’ve been reading reams of info on the publishing world. Learning what to expect in terms of selling your work can make you wonder if it’s worth it at times, when you think of all the love and effort you put into your project.

If there is one tidbit of advice I keep reading, it’s that you better be in it for the enjoyment and satisfaction of writing, and not for making a ton of money, or even a living. But that’s a topic for a future post.

I wanted to share this book list with you. It may give you more incentive to keep striving for that goal, to get your own work in print.

  • Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights
  • Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees
  • Harper Lee’s only novel To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Margaret Mitchell’s only novel Gone with the Wind
  • Boris Pasternak’s only novel Dr. Zhivago
  • Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones
  • Nicholas Sparks’s The Notebook
  • Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants
  • Daniel Dafoe’s The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
  • Kim Edwards’ The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

All of these ten wonderful works of fiction, are, of course, bestsellers. Some of them even won the Nobel and/or the Pulitzer Prize. 

But what is most interesting and inspirational to me about this list is this: they were all first novels. Yes, that’s right, these were debut novels that were wildly successful, and in fact there are many more ( I shortened the list). The older classics are known to still sell thousands of copies a year.

And many of them were rejected by numerous publishers before ultimately being signed.

As an example, Kim Edwards found great success with her first novel The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, the last one on my list, and the second to most recent I’ve read on the list. Published in 2005, it made it to #1 on USA Today’s list of bestselling books. As a result, in 2006 USA Today chose her novel as the Book of the Year. As they put it:

Book clubs and word of mouth helped send The Memory Keeper’s Daughter to Kite Runner heights, and once you’ve read this heart wrenching story, it’s easy to understand why it has connected with millions of readers.

On a stormy winter’s night in the 1960s, a doctor delivers his own twins. One is a perfect son; the other is a daughter with Down syndrome. He tells his wife the little girl died, and his lie reverberates across the years and affects every character.

Prepare for tear-blotched pages and a redemptive, hopeful ending that makes the tears easier to bear.”

I loved that book and loved finding out it was a first novel. So take heart, burgeoning writers. Perhaps your debut novel will make money. And if the stars align, perhaps it could be added to this list before long. Wouldn’t that be a dream realized? Stories like these are what keep me hopeful in selling and promoting my work.

You miss 100% of the shots you didn’t take. ~ Wayne Gretzky

What keeps you optimistic in your writing life?

Summer Lovin’

Published on by J. Kelland Perry33 Comments

Summer in my province of Newfoundland and Labrador, compared to most of North America, is short but ever so sweet. What makes it so cherished, to my mind?

The following photos were all taken in Lead Cove, the little community where I raised my children.

I love my home for its natural beauty,
its refreshing, rugged and
unspoiled charm,
for its clear and wide blue skies
without a whisper of smog.

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I love the clean, sparkling water
and the glistening rocks adorning the coastline
that beg to be traced
and trod upon by eager footsteps.

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I love summer in Newfoundland
for its breathtaking views
of seascapes and landscapes
when I embark on a hike.

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Whether I traverse
its beaches of sand or
climb its rocky windswept hills,
I know my camera will find its aim.

I embrace it because
the bushes and shrubs,
green and lush,
are heavy with fragrance
and of wild roses in bloom…

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…while in the gardens,
the planted perennials are brilliant with colour,
delighted at last
to spread their bright petals to the sun.

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I love the hardy trees of Newfoundland
in summer…

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…as they stretch
their ripe foliage to the sky.
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Shot through with rays of sunlight,
a shimmering haze settles over the treetops
like a warm summer veil.

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After a long winter and dismal spring
of cold, naked branches,
they, as I do,
breathe a sigh of gratitude
at the return of this warm and golden season.

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Are you filled with Summer Lovin’ where you live?

What’s Up, Writers?

Published on by J. Kelland Perry24 Comments

Anyone who knows me or has followed my blog for a while knows that my most beloved pursuit is writing. Poetry and fiction writing fills many of my days, and I relish the attempt and challenge of producing professional work.

In the desire to write better, and simply because I love it, I consistently turn to my second favourite pastime, reading great books. As with my craft, I prefer fiction over non-fiction, and never tire of immersing myself and my imagination in a good story.

But because I want to improve my ability, I’ve enjoyed some wonderful non-fiction books about the art and craft of writing. Here are a few I have read recently:

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White

I have enjoyed these books, as many have, and highly recommend them as valuable, insightful tools for any writer. The last one in particular deals with the nuts and bolts of good writing: principles of composition, rules of usage, and style.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post. We have always been taught to use proper punctuation in our writing, and I continually strive to do just that. So why have certain authors decided to depart from the rules of punctuation, in particular, omitting quotation marks around dialogue? Well-known writers such as James Joyce and Cormac McCarthy didn’t use quotation marks, and an increasing number of literary authors are following them.

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 I am reading the novel, February, by Lisa Moore, an acclaimed Newfoundland writer, and she too has dispensed with punctuating her dialogue with quote marks. I love the book so far, am greatly impressed with her style, and have no difficulty differentiating the dialogue from the rest, but I have read some readers do have trouble with it. Cormac McCarthy said he doesn’t like seeing all the “weird little marks” on a page, and that a good writer doesn’t need them.

I also read that it is a sign of a “cool writer”, or a literary writer, to omit such punctuation. I have a suspicion, however, that if I submitted a manuscript without quotation marks around my dialogue, the editor, agent, or publisher would send it back in a jiffy, refusing to even read it. Is it only a right of the well-established to bend the rules this way?

What do you think? As a writer or as a reader, where do you stand on this issue? Does it bother you, or are you fine with it? What style do you prefer in your own writing?

Are there any books on writing you would recommend?

*All books above are linked to Amazon for review. Check them out.

 

“…even when I can’t see you anymore”

Published on by J. Kelland Perry21 Comments

 

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I’m away from home this week, lending a hand with my daughter’s children while their regular sitter is on vacation. This morning while I was waiting for the kindergarten school bus with my six-year-old grandson, we had this conversation:

“J, why are you so cute?”

He smiled a little smile and said, “That’s what my mom always asks me.”

“Are you going to love Nanny even when she’s an old, old granny?”

He looked at me. “Yes. And I’ll love you even when you go away forever and I can’t see you anymore.”

With those words, I felt an abrupt squeeze around my heart. I think it broke a little.

I realized, since he and his sister had already lost one grandparent, this was a part of life he now expected.

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I pray I’m there for you for a long, long time, my precious boy! ❤