Bible Study

I’m taking an online Bible study in Ephesians - an excellent course taught by Pastor Ralph Wilson of Joyful Heart Renewal Ministries. The study is also available in an e-book or print book.

I’ve also signed up for the next study beginning March 9th: Resurrection and Easter Faith Online Bible Study.

Whenever possible, a live Bible study is my first choice. However, for health reasons, I’m not able to regularly attend the fine Bible studies at my church—All Saints Anglican. An online course is convenient because I don’t have to leave home to participate. And if I can’t study the lesson when it is sent (every Saturday), I can study when I’m able. I’ve taken several courses from Pastor Wilson and always found them valuable.

Father Chip Harper, All Saints’ rector, talks about the need for Bible study in his devotionals blog. He compares spiritual fitness to physical fitness and reminds us that just as we must exercise our bodies to become physically fit, we must read and study the Word to become spiritually fit.

[tags]Bible study, Ephesians, Resurrection, Easter, faith, JesusWalk, Pastor Ralph Wilson, Father Chip Harper, All Saints, devotionals[/tags]

Five Things

David Bowles at Writing the Western Sagas tagged me to tell five things about myself you probably don’t know. Then I get to tag five more bloggers by leaving comments on their blogs, and they tell five things about themselves, and each tag five more, and on, and on, and on. 

If you read this blog and have been to my Web site, you probably already know more about me than you really want to know. But you probably don’t know:

1. I’m one of “110,000 of the nation’s most noteworthy people” included in Who’s Who in America®. You’re probably wondering how that happened; Who’s Who is supposed to list important people. Actually, I’m wondering the same thing. Back when I started my interior landscape business, women entrepreneurs were rare. Somehow I ended up in some of the regional (South and Southwest) and specialty (American Women, Finance and Industry) Who’s Who editions that Marquis publishes. Then in 2000, I made it to the big time: Who’s Who in America. My husband was so impressed that we bought a copy of the book. Since then, I’m notified that I’m in each new issue, but I can’t say for sure because I’ve never looked at another edition.

2. My first editing assignment came about because I wrote to a publisher expressing disappointment in the poor editing of some books I read. The company (which was new and small) recognized it had a problem, and instead of taking offense at my unsolicited criticism, hired me to edit some of their books.

3. I finished Southwestern University in three years with one summer semester at San Antonio College (SAC - a community college). My husband and I were married between the end of the regular school year and the start of summer school. SAC allowed me to take the first and second semesters of American history simultaneously so I could finish the six hours I lacked for my degree in one semester. But since Southwestern didn’t have summer school and had graduation only in the spring, I officially graduated the following year.

4. My degree is in sociology with a minor in psychology, and my first job was as an employment counselor in one of the poverty programs of the 1970s. That job involved a number of adventures: I visited a client in jail and testified in court for her. I was the last person to talk to a Vietnam veteran with a mental disability before he robbed a fast food restaurant and slit the throat of the manager. A client’s irate wife came to the office and asked to see me; when she opened her purse the receptionist saw she was carrying a gun; my boss got her out of the building without any trouble. I was sent home early one day because a man whose application for a training program I rejected threatened to be waiting at my car with his “piece” when I left work. One of my clients (an 18-year-old girl) told me she took her baby to the emergency room, and “they kept my baby!” It turns out she had baby-sat the child two years ago when he was a tiny infant and she and the baby had disappeared when the parents returned. Her explanation to me: “I prayed to God for a baby, and He gave me a baby.”

5. My husband and I have been married for nearly 40 years, and we’re both perfectionists (some would say obsessive-compulsive) … but in different ways. Jack likes all the labels on the cans in the cabinet to face forward; I don’t pay attention to what direction the labels are facing. I like everything organized and put away; he likes everything out where he can see it so he can find it. Of course, he has so much out where he can see that he can’t find anything!

OK - enough about me. Now I’m tagging five more bloggers to tell five things we don’t know about them:
Robin Bayne at Between Sundays
Vikk Simmons at Down the Writer’s Path
Georganna Hancock at Writer’s Edge
Denise Jacleen at Freelance Writing
Evelyn Bourne at a productive pen

These ladies are bound to have interesting things to share.

[tags]five things, tag, meme, writers, Who’s Who, college, jobs[/tags]

Update on Fuel My Blog

I wrote about Fuel My Blog, the Great Wall of Blogs a few days ago when I first signed up and promised you an update.

The number of blogs on the home page has more than doubled since I added my blog, along with Devotionals from Father Chip for my church and Writing the Westward Sagas for my client David Bowles. And Fuel My Blog has added four more pages, all of which have a few squares taken.

The site has its own blog and newsletter and the site’s owner, Kevin  Dixie, will soon be interviewing bloggers on a weekly radio show. Every communication from Fuel My Blog is filled with enthusiasm and exciting plans to grow the site and build readership.

I tried to gauge the number of clicks for each of the blogs I submitted. However, each time I selected “View Clicks,” the numbers were so disparate that I couldn’t make sense of them. For example, the highest number of clicks was 63, then 180, then 63 again. (Yes, in case you’re wondering, I did refresh the page.) Fuel My Blog showed 16 clicks on my blog, but my Web site stats showed only 2. But hey, that’s two people who found my blog who hadn’t heard of me before, and I’m happy about that!

Related Posts: Fuel My Blog

[tags]Fuel My Blog, pixel, advertising, blog, promotion[/tags]

Literacy Event

Like most writers, I’m a big supporter of literacy. The Literacy Council of Fort Bend County has been, in the words of the organization’s slogan, “changing lives through literacy since 1987.” The 7th Annual Book & Author Dinner will be held on February 18, in Richmond, Texas.

Four authors will be guest speakers, and another fourteen authors will be guests at sponsors’ table. I’m pleased that two of those fourteen authors are my friends and clients: Grace Anne Schaefer and David Bowles.

Lights, Camera, Author! promises to be a fun event that will benefit a very worthy cause. If you’re in the Houston area, I hope you can attend.

[tags]literacy, Houston, David Bowles, Grace Anne Schaefer, books, authors, Fort Bend County[/tags]

In memory of 40 million aborted babies

Here’s a powerful post on the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade: Think of Me Turning 34 Today.

As a Christian who believes that every life is a gift from God, I pray that we will come to respect life and give every child the inalienable right to life described in the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed in the 5th Amendment to the Constitution: “No person shall be … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Ten Tips for Self-Editing

These tips apply to editing your own work  - a manuscript you’re submitting to a publisher, a letter to the editor, a report for work, a blog post, an entry in your personal journal … or anything else. Not everything you write requires all of these steps - an e-mail to a friend may just need one quick read-through to check for errors. But if you want to accomplish your goals for writing the piece - demonstrating to your boss that you deserve a raise, convincing readers of the need for community action in a letter to the editor, selling your novel to a publishing company, whatever - follow as many of the steps as it takes to make your writing the best it can be.

1. Remember that writing comes before editing. On the first draft, don’t worry about making the prose perfect - just focus on getting your ideas on paper (or screen). You’ll have plenty of time to improve the work after you’ve written something to improve.
2. Whenever possible, allow some time to pass between finishing your first draft and beginning to edit. You’ll see your work with fresh eyes if you haven’t been struggling with it for hours or days. Depending on the deadline and the length of the piece, I like to focus on other things for a week or more between writing and editing. Often, that isn’t possible, but even a few hours will help.
3. First, read the entire document for the big picture. Look at the content, organization, and flow. Have you included everything you intended and nothing that isn’t needed? Does it make sense? Is it organized in a logical way? Does the text flow smoothly or is it jerky? Add or delete material, move things around, and insert transitions.
4. Correct any grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors as you find them, but don’t spend time proofreading for these mistakes until you are satisfied with the content.
5. As you edit, be aware of your pet problems. I’m notorious for leaving out words; some people tend to repeat certain words and phrases frequently; other writers have trouble with spelling or grammar or punctuation. You can improve your writing quickly by looking for and correcting these problems.
6. On the next edit, look at your word choices. Could you have chosen a stronger verb or written a better description? Are there superfluous words that can be eliminated to strengthen the writing? Can you revise sentences or paragraphs to make them clearer or more interesting?
7. Next, proofread for grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation.
8. If time permits, put the document aside again - for a few hours, days, or weeks - to clear your mind and give you a fresh perspective. Then edit again - and again - and again if needed.
9. Read the work aloud. I am always amazed at how many mistakes, awkward constructions, and overused words jump out when being read aloud. If you have a critique partner, fellow writer, or friend who will read the work aloud to you as you follow on a print copy, you will hear where they stumble and sometimes even read something different than what is written on the page, alerting you to areas that need to be changed.
10. Get another qualified opinion. If you are preparing a manuscript, report, or other document for publication or submission to a large or important audience, ask someone else to read it and give you their advice. Find someone who can really help you - a professional editor, a published writer, a coworker familiar with the subject matter, a teacher, an avid reader in the genre - someone who will give you an unbiased opinion. Your mother will tell you it’s wonderful; your best friend who is unfamiliar with your technical subject will nod and smile; a jealous competitor may tell you it’s awful. When you receive feedback from unbiased, knowledgeable readers, consider their advice and use what you determine will make your manuscript your best work.

Related Posts:
The First Draft: Pure Green Dreck
Editing: Turning Dreck into Prose

[tags]writing, editing, Lillie Ammann[/tags]

Religious Freedom Day

The President has declared January 16th as “Religious Freedom Day, 2007” in the United States.

It’s a good day to give thanks for the religious freedom we have in this country and to pray for those who are persecuted for their faith. To realize how much persecution goes on in the world, to be inspired by the faith and courage of persecuted Christians, and to focus your prayers, visit The Voice of the Martyrs and its Persecution Blog.

I’m adding this link on 1/20/07 because I just discovered it and wanted to keep it with this post: Mick at Romans 15:4 Project wrote Religious Freedom Day - Modern Paradox - well worth reading!

[tags]religion, Christian, freedom, persecution[/tags]

Fuel My Blog

Pixel advertising seems to be the new craze on the Internet.

According to Pixel Traffic Watcher, ”traffic from sites selling advertising space by way of selling blocks of pixels is one of the hottest things going on the internet.”

It seems this fad was started by a British student to earn money for university - and obviously more as The Million Dollar Homepage filled up and generated a million dollars in sales in a little over four months.

On the list of the top sites at Pixel Traffic Watcher, you’ll find the usual porn and gambling sites along with business promotion and other sites.

One pixel site I discovered that looks like fun and doesn’t allow “offensive” sites is Fuel My Blog. It’s free and limited to blogs. I just signed up and will see if it generates any traffic.

[tags]Fuel My Blog, pixel, advertising, blog[/tags] 

Success!

After bemoaning the many spam comments on blogs, I downloaded the Akismet plugin for WordPress … and I haven’t had a spam comment since! According to Akismet’s Web site, it is catching more than 600,000 spam comments a day, and 94% of all comments are spam. If your blog is being buried in spam, I recommend this solution.

Congratulations are in order …

Author David Bowles just received a glowing judge’s commentary on his historical novel Spring House from the Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards.

Congratulations, David.

[tags]self-publishing, awards, David Bowles, Spring House, Westward Sagas[/tags]

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