Another Draft

Well, I’m about to write another draft of my first book. It has been heavily revised and rewriting it won’t take many days. First though, I have to take a break, so I pulled out the quilt I’ve been working on for 5 years and hopefully, I will finish it about the time I finish my draft.

Wish me luck.

PS==Don’t forget about the anthology Writers on the Wrong Side of the Road in which two of my best short stories are published. Find the book at Amazon. Remember my own anthology Short Stories That Kill Time and the anthology Mouthful of Bullets Best of Year One in which another best short story of mine is included. Both of these can be found at Lulu.com; either print or the cheaper pdf format. All of these books are worth the money spent and will make good gifts if you wish to give them away after you read them.

Review of A Cloud of Suspicion

A Cloud of Suspicion is a very good story. The setting is a favorite since I also live in Louisiana where this story takes place. The description of the setting comes across as common to most Louisiana small towns. The characters are well-rounded and believable. I especially like Shelby the librarian. Her faith in God is strong despite her life being so filled with danger nowadays. And Patrick is indeed a knight in shining armor, or rather, a biker on a custom built motorcycle. But as heros go, it doesn’t matter if Patrick comes riding a white horse or riding a motorcycle he built himself, he proves to be a strong man Shelby can lean on in her hours of need.

I find little about this story to complain about, but since I am from Louisiana and the Cajun country, I thought I’d mention one little thing that wore on my nerves a little more each time I read it. Down here, everyone in the country knows we shortened up you all to ya’ll. Or perhaps you are one who likes to spell it y’all. Or maybe you use another spelling. The point I am trying to make here is that the contraction, any way you happen to spell it, used for you all means all of you. In A Cloud of Suspicion the author uses it to point to one person. This is not real. You all, ya’ll, y’all, or all of you never refers to one person. So to hear a character ask Shelby, “How are ya’ll doing today?” is really bad English grammar. We are not so backward as to use this slang contraction in this way unless we are asking more than one person who are in a group. We still ask, “Shelby, how are you today?” I have to compliment the author in refraining from trying to use any of our other slang words and hope that she reads this so she won’t make the mistake again.

A note to authors: If you really want to use words or sounds perculiar to a certain group of people or town or city or country, always opt for the simplest ones that you know you can handle and don’t use more than a couple of words which can be used over and over again, say, by one character. AND always make sure you spell the word correctly and use it correctly in the sentences.

Afraid to Believe in Free Will by Carl E. Begley

I have been trying to read Afraid to Believe in Free Will for a long time and can’t get past the first few pages. For the following reasons I have procrastinated:

Thomas Nelson Company has stood for Bibles, and other fiction/nonfiction books dealing with faith in God so long that it has developed a reputation stating it has a belief in God itself. I began reading AFRAID TO BELIEVE IN FREE WILL, then stopped after the first page. The author evidently believes in evolution, not God. I tried to continue reading, but why finish the reading when I’ve already formed an opinion and when the author believes in evolution? In fact, he believes evolution has stopped only temporarily while it waits for people to accept free will.

The author stated: “I’ve become certain that long, long ago, after eons of restless evolution, there came a time of silent crossing into true human freedom. We do not know exactly when that threshold was reached, but with that crossing came mysterious free will and frightening responsibilities so awesome as to allow for the possibility of evil. We have come to a time when evolution will go no further unless humans freely choose to make it so. The mechanics and the dynamics of pre-human evolution are now mixed with the activity of conscious choice, a rich freedom that nevertheless places further progress in jeopardy. If we deny our freedom of choice or misuse it by failing to take part in ongoing change, we cannot continue to progress.” He also believes free will is hard to define; that defining determinism is easier.

From this statement alone I understand: the author believes in evolution, he beieves humans deny they have free will, so how can he believe in God and the everlasting life the Bible teaches us?

I refute his argument that people deny they have free will. It is their knowledge and belief in their free will that causes them to do whatsoever they want to do then either pretend they didn’t know what they were doing when they do bad or else blame their bad behavior on someone or something else. This goes all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden. This is a rotten argument not worthy of someone with education and/or someone that believes in God, but it is not surprising to have the educated believe these things. In my 66 years I have come across people without education portraying common sense and intelligence and people with education making foolish mistakes their education should have avoided. People may not fully understand why we can do what we want to or how we got this ability, but people do know they have free will and can do anything they want to do. Children in the fifth grade classes I have taught know they have free will and exercise this will freely to the point of going to detention yet while they are forced to face their actions they will always blame it on someone else or something else just like Adam did in the Garden.

One more point–Free will is very easy to define. Free will was given to humans by the Lord God when He created Adam and Eve and it simply states that we can do whatsoever we want to do. However, the consequences of free will always have to be faced whether we do bad or good.

One cannot serve God and believe in evolution.

Hi, All

I’m in a big hurry cause it’s so late–like 1:35 am CST. Staying up too late and sleeping too late, but still getting a lot done with my writiing.

I’ve been working on Holly Lisle’s Create a Plot Clinic. Last year when I first started the How to Revise Your Novel course I also did the free brief lessons on how to create a plot. This time, it’s the full Plotting course and I’m going through it as though I haven’t written the book yet. I’m using the characters from the first draft, the settings, and most everything else, but I’m also allowing any new stuff to attach itself to me. Once I’m finished with this course I will decide then what I should do next. There are still a few very short courses on creating settings, the language angle, and other stuff I want to explore first.

At this stage in the course, I’m working on fleshing out my characters, making note of anything that comes to mind. Then after this, there will be a lesson on what I can salvage from all the notes I wrote to put into the actual story. I’m looking for better than my usual writings and hopefully the story will be so catching that a reader will not be able to put it down before finishing it.

Pray for me. Perhaps the Lord will have mercy and inspire me to greater lengths.

My writing events

I’ve already mentioned that I have been taking Holly Lisle’s course on How to Revise Your Novel. Well, she has made available many mini courses as well.

Today, I’ve worked on her mini plot course in creating, or I should say, re-creating my first book. I have finished, since I began late last night, all four short lessons and the mini plot outline lesson.

Next I will attempt one of the other short courses. I haven’t decided on which one, but actually it doesn’t matter much which I do next since all of them will be used to make my first book a winner.

Stay tuned.

For Writers and anyone else interested…

Trying to create characters for a story? Trying to understand that loved one and why he/she acts the way they do?

The answer to both questions lies on the page at this url

http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html

and don’t forget to search the links involving careers for these personalities, relationships, and personal growth.

As a writer, it’s good to know what drives our characters, how they may act in certain situations, and such and these articles will help the writer understand much. But these writings can also be used to create a character from scratch, add to a character you may have already created, and even suggest obstacles and/or supports for your character. Writers need to know human nature.

As an ordinary person not given to writing fiction, one can learn to understand and get along with variious friends and relatives. Include in this the getting of ideas on how to please them and/or aggravate them.

Find me now on Author Central at Amazon.com

Just created a spot for myself on Author Central at Amazon.com

The link to follow is:   http://www.amazon.com/author/lucilleprobinson

Ok, wait until tomorrow. The account is so new it isn’t yet functioning so you won’t be able to find it just now. But don’t forget to visit me there.