This song has been on my mind since last night! I mentioned Farante and Teicher to a younger friend. When I googled their names, I found that “Exodus” was one of their songs. Since I LOVED the book, the movie, and the song, my mind went into binge listen mode!
It’s a sign one of my clients who is from Israel and fought with the Israeli army needs to finish his book with me!
A book I read in high school and have not forgotten it! The characters live in my heart. The music makes me teary as only music can. I graduated in 1961!
This #1 New York Times international bestseller tells the epic history of Israel’s birth through the eyes of two generations of Jews as they fight to reclaim their homeland. Leon Uris tactfully meshes together the story of two 19th century Jewish brothers who seek refuge in Palestine with the 20th century story of how Israel gained its independence after World War II. Rich in historical accuracy and compelling characters, this literary classic sheds light on the long history of the Jewish diaspora, their struggles for liberation, and the costs of war. One of Uris’s best works, Exodus is just as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1958. The 1960 film adaptation…
The first is about how to corral the ideas that fight each other for our attention.
This One-and-a-Half Hour Workshop benefits Beginners who have dreamed of becoming a Writer, as well as Beginners who have started writing and stalled out on their Story.Learn Tips to Organize your thoughts and get your message across! Mary will teach you how to ‘Stay On Course’ to make that Book happen!This is an interactive, learning Workshop with Worksheets and Attendee Participation. Come prepared with your Pen, Pencil, Writing Pad, iPad or Personal Computer, and a Hunger to Learn! Light Refreshments Provided.$35.00 Registration includes All Workshop Materials, Access to Mary Marvella’s Intellectual Property, Personal Consult Time, and Light Refreshments.Please feel free to contact MMARVELLAB@aol.com or Event Host & Coordinator, Barbara Reynolds with any questions via email: barbara.reynolds@bfabulous-eats.com.
This Two-Hour Workshop benefits Active Writers who have stalled out on their Stories or new writers who started their books but have no clue where to go from there.Learn Tips on Creating that First Draft! Organize your thoughts and get your message across! Mary will teach you how to ‘Stay on Course’ to make that Book happen!This is an interactive, learning Workshop with Worksheets and Attendee Participation. Come prepared with your Pen, Pencil, Writing Pad, iPad or Personal Computer, and a Hunger to Learn! Light Refreshments Provided.$55.00 Registration includes All Workshop Materials, Access to Mary Marvella’s Intellectual Property, Personal Consult Time, and Light Refreshments.Please feel free to contact Mary Marvella @aol.com or Event Host & Coordinator, Barbara Reynolds with any questions via email: barbara.reynolds@bfabulous-eats.com.
I helped a client write and publish a book about her life. It’s well worth the price and time you need to read it. You’ll enjoy her easy reading style and her message! I LOVE being a writing coach!
There is always hope when you believe in God’s plan.In this book, Sonya King, chef, wife and mother, tells of her journey to regain her health and find relief from her crippling pain to do the job she loved and enjoy her new marriage. After one marriage that failed, Sonya had to start over and raise her two children on her own. She overcame being a homeless teen in Atlanta, Georgia for months and graduated high school, so she knew she could do it again. She regained control of her life by earning her certification as a chef and starting a successful business. Fate stepped in and brought about debilitating pain that nearly robbed her of her hard-won, successful life. She shares her journey to recovery and the knowledge she gained while regaining control of her health and becoming stronger than ever before. This memoir about Chef Sonya’s journey will give you hope that you can overcome life’s roadblocks through faith in God and hard work on your own part, as well as help from her friends. Finding happiness depends on you.
I have been looking diligently for my writing tool box so I can begin a new book!
“Ah, there it is.” I squat down to heft my large tool box, but it proves easier to lift than I remembered.
How odd!I remember filling it with wonderful words and techniques I learned while reading voraciously in high school and after I retired from teaching school. Studying the master writers of the classics gave me more tools. Many tools I found while I taught writing and literature.
Fighting the rusty latch makes me ashamed of my neglect. Has it really been that long since I began to fill the toolbox with story-telling tools or since I last dug for something to interesting to use? Ah, I remember how much finding the right adjectives and adverbs made me smile. Some rule makers said I couldn’t use them, but must choose the right nouns and adverbs. I wonder where I put those descriptive words. Maybe I left them with the tools I insisted my plumber leave at home. Any good plumber should be fine with a couple of wrenches, right?
As much as I enjoyed reading stories using omniscient point of view, I had to get rid of that. It landed near the prepositional phrases I heard must go. Mixing points of view in scenes, I had to take those out. Those tools are probably with the carpentry tools I had my carpenter dump. Who needs more than one hammer, screw driver, or saw? How many nails and screws does a builder need?
Could I use some of the old tools I once enjoyed? How many readers would welcome them?
The concepts of paranormal have changed immensely, too. Once upon a time stories about ghosts, reincarnation, vampires, werewolves, fairytales, or monsters were paranormal. Occasional super heroes made readers drool and we loved a bit of mind reading and predicting the future. (I’m a bit old!)
Which tools did you toss from your writing toolbox? Do you miss them?
With all the changes in publishing, I sometimes find myself missing the classics, the stories modern publishers might not publish today. Sorry, Bill Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and others! I have two paranormal stories with very little in the way of super powers. If you like stories of reincarnation, ghosts, and/or premonitions, with no super powers, please check out TheProtective Series and Haunting Refrain.
They met because he had premonitions and she was in peril. But you will never believe why they fell in love. Paranormal romance at its best.After mourning the loss of her husband, Brit Roberts manages to pick up her life as a teacher for a rural Georgia High school. Things are fine until anonymous phone calls turn creepy and her life is endangered.
It’s not until Sam Samuels, shows up to check on her that she finds a little peace, if not a slight attraction to the handsome yet meddling security specialist. Sam Samuels isn’t just the father of one of Ms. Robert’s students, he’s a man with premonitions so strong, they make him ill. So when he meets his son’s teacher and pain kicks in, he knows something’s awry but can’t put his finger on it until he interrupts an attempt to rape and kill the teacher. Sam makes it his personal goal to protect her, only he didn’t count on falling for her.
I have been looking diligently for my writing tool box so I can begin a new book!
“Ah, there it is.” I squat down to heft my large tool box, but it proves easier to lift than I remembered.
How odd!I remember filling it with wonderful words and techniques I learned while reading voraciously in high school and after I retired from teaching school. Studying the master writers of the classics gave me more tools. Many tools I found while I taught writing and literature.
Fighting the rusty latch makes me ashamed of my neglect. Has it really been that long since I began to fill the toolbox with story-telling tools or since I last dug for something to interesting to use? Ah, I remember how much finding the right adjectives and adverbs made me smile. Some rule makers said I couldn’t use them, but must choose the right nouns and adverbs. I wonder where I put those descriptive words. Maybe I left them with the tools I insisted my plumber leave at home. Any good plumber should be fine with a couple of wrenches, right?
As much as I enjoyed reading stories using omniscient point of view, I had to get rid of that. It landed near the prepositional phrases I heard must go. Mixing points of view in scenes, I had to take those out. Those tools are probably with the carpentry tools I had my carpenter dump. Who needs more than one hammer, screw driver, or saw? How many nails and screws does a builder need?
Could I use some of the old tools I once enjoyed? How many readers would welcome them?
The concepts of paranormal have changed immensely, too. Once upon a time stories about ghosts, reincarnation, vampires, werewolves, fairytales, or monsters were paranormal. Occasional super heroes made readers drool and we loved a bit of mind reading and predicting the future. (I’m a bit old!)
Which tools did you toss from your writing toolbox? Do you miss them?
With all the changes in publishing, I sometimes find myself missing the classics, the stories modern publishers might not publish today. Sorry, Bill Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and others! I have two paranormal stories with very little in the way of super powers. If you like stories of reincarnation, ghosts, and/or premonitions, with no super powers, please check out Protective Instincts and Haunting Refrain.
They met because he had premonitions and she was in peril. But you will never believe why they fell in love. Paranormal romance at its best.After mourning the loss of her husband, Brit Roberts manages to pick up her life as a teacher for a rural Georgia High school. Things are fine until anonymous phone calls turn creepy and her life is endangered.
It’s not until Sam Samuels, shows up to check on her that she finds a little peace, if not a slight attraction to the handsome yet meddling security specialist. Sam Samuels isn’t just the father of one of Ms. Robert’s students, he’s a man with premonitions so strong, they make him ill. So when he meets his son’s teacher and pain kicks in, he knows something’s awry but can’t put his finger on it until he interrupts an attempt to rape and kill the teacher. Sam makes it his personal goal to protect her, only he didn’t count on falling for her.
Mary Marvella has been a storyteller for as long as she can remember. The arrival of the book mobile excited her more the music of the ice cream truck. As a child of the South, she inherited the storytelling gene from her parents.
Retired from teaching classic works of the masters, Mary plays let’s pretend with her characters. She has published 10 novels, 1 book on editing, and a collection of Christmas stories.
Mary tutors and coaches writers when she isn’t working on projects as a freelance editor. Mary loves soaking up new knowledge.
Georgia raised, she writes stories with a Southern flair.
Mary has taught workshops for GRW, East Metro Atlanta Christian Writers, Savvy Authors, Hearts through History (RWA) and FF&P (RWA) & The Southern Pen Indie Conference. Mary published Weeding of your Manuscript: What Editors Wish You Knew
The Cost of Deception
It was late and Drew nursed a glass of watered down whiskey as he stared at his reflection in the mirrored wall behind the bar. He looked like a renegade. The scraggly, black beard and the tinted lenses hid what was on the outside.
Why do bars have so much mirror space? True, he could see what was going on behind him, as well as anyone who approached him. He hoped to see the man who would be his connection in his current investigation. He could also see too much of himself, which wasn’t much help tonight. He couldn’t stop the mental reflections any more than he could the ones in the mirror.
Not since he left home had he worn glasses, except when he needed a disguise. He wasn’t the skinny wimp he’d been in high school or even during his first years at Georgia Tech. Now few men dared tease the muscular man who filled the black tee shirt and stretched the short sleeves rolled a notch over the bulge of his upper arm. The forearm he saw in the mirror looked lethal as veins bulged each time he flexed his hand. Drew was a man to be feared and respected. He’d worked hard to become that man.
The first year in the army was responsible for most of the transformation to the undercover cop who answered to the name Drew. He answered to many aliases. Tonight he answered to Spider, as the sinister tattoo on one forearm would suggest.
The Cost of Deception is a romantic suspense. Tess, widowed mother and teacher, has been so wrapped in in her role as a mother that she has forgotten how it feels to be a desirable woman. Seeing Drew at the class reunion awakens her sexuality.
Drew is an undercover cop in Atlanta, GA. During his years in the military he had no concerns about marriage and starting a family. His life put him in danger, and he liked things that way. Seeing Tess at the class reunion made him rethink what he really wanted.
How can he make his career work with the things Tess and her kids make him want, when everything he tells her and her kids is a lie?
Yes, there will be hot sex and danger will stalk her family.
Reflexology, also known as zone therapy, is an alternative medical practice involving the application of pressure to specific points on the feet and hands. This is done using thumb, finger, and hand massage techniques without the use of oil or lotion.
I was too busy trying to figure how hard to press and where and how much that I didn’t relax! Grin! By the time I reached my feet, my knees hurt and my ankles didn’t like staying in the position needed for me to reach the bottoms of my feet. I think I need to let someone else do this for me. Maybe a pedicure would be good, having one, not doing it myself.
Next week I’ll finish an editing class about, well, editing and polishing our manuscripts. It’s about the nitty-gritty of grammar, punctuation, and such! I’m a guest instructor of FF&PRWA, Future, Fantasy, and Paranormal
Saturday I’ll be presenting for the monthly meeting for Georgia Romance Writers of RWA. I’ll discuss creating characters you will love or hate but not forget when you reach The End.
March will be all about characterization, or showing instead of telling. Yep
Getting to Know Your Characters by Showing not Telling
Presented by: Mary Marvella
Dates: TBD
Fee: OIRW Member $25| Non-Member $35
Course description:
Instead of telling about characters, show our readers. What our main characters think, say and do, that’s easy. But how do other characters react to out main ones? How do they treat our main characters? How else can we show?
Instructor Bio:
Mary Marvella has been a storyteller for as long as she can remember. The arrival of the book mobile was as exciting as hearing the music of the ice cream truck. As a child of the South, she inherited the storytelling gene from her parents and her grandmamas.
Retired from teaching classic works of the masters, Mary plays let’s pretend with her characters. She has published 10 novels, 1 book on editing, and a collection of Christmas stories.
Mary tutors, and coaches writers when she isn’t working on projects as a freelance editor. She has always been a grammar geek who loved soaking up new knowledge and reading everything, including labels on cereal boxes.
Georgia raised, she writes stories with a Southern flair.
I posted this several years ago, but we tend to forget things, especially if they don’t apply to us.
Why should writers be concerned about the hearing problems of others? Because writers operate in a world with other people, and one day any of you could start losing your hearing.
It’s happened to me, and it often affects my interactions. You might know someone who hides a hearing problem or you might not be paying enough attention to notice. Some people aren’t aware they’re not hearing everything or that people with them aren’t.
For example, I was walking with two people at a writers’ workshop. Since I’m a klutz, I was looking down while we talked. One of the people asked me several times to repeat what I said. After a while he caught my attention and said he hadn’t heard much of what I was saying.
Tired but excited after a long and productive day Wednesday evening, despite having my jumped off twice, I backed into my garage. Folks who know me well know I DON’T often back up, so I had to work on that. I figured that would make it easier for someone to start my poor car.
The second I turned off the engine, I tried to restart it. It worked! Ten minutes later I went back out and turned the key. Silence! I had expected that! The battery was indeed dead.
Since I had nowhere to go for 4 days, I didn’t worry about the battery Thursday. However, Friday reminded me that I couldn’t go anywhere if I had an emergency. Hmmm. I sent messages to 2 of my former students, about the costs of batteries and the best place to get one, but neither responded, so I googled and found a place.
No brand names mentioned here. I could save by ordering online. Have you tried to order a car part online? The site even wants to know the color of the car and its parents’ names. Slight exaggeration. I ordered one at a store not far from me and made an appointment to have it installed FREE!
Next I called my insurance company to get roadside assistance again. Did you know you if you don’t have a stinking app, it takes 30 minutes to fill out the request? Maybe not that long, but it seemed like since I kept making mistakes. By the way, I had appointments with editing clients later.
Once I got a jump start an hour later, I checked my phone for directions to get my battery. By the grace of God, I caught that the store location was much farther than the one I had in mind. I had barely pulled out of my garage when 2 lights of death flashed on the dash! LOW tire pressure and LOW gas. Neither light was on Wednesday when I pulled into my garage. I could have asked the Roadside Assistance guy to check the tires, but NOOOO. He was long gone.
Driving like an old little lady, I watched those lights and finally gave in to look for a place to get the tires checked. Easy? NOT! I finally pulled in to a tire store and asked an attendant to check my tires. Smart man told me they were low. I KNEW THAT! He also wanted me to let him check for a nail causing the loss of air. I didn’t have time for that! I was already late for my battery appointment.
Of course, the low fuel light still taunted me, and I could imagine sitting on the side of the expressway with no gas, so I pulled into a gas station/convenience store close by. Can you guess what I did? What are we supposed to do when we gas up our cars? The second I turned off my engine I tried to restart my car. I could pray I didn’t run out of gas. It didn’t matter! The battery was well and truly dead.
Panic made me feel like a mad woman. I paid for gas and asked the clerk if someone in the store could give my battery one last jump start. Of course not! Since my trunk is full of boxes of books, I couldn’t have found my jumper cables if my life has depended on it. Picture a short, elderly woman begging men for a jump start in the sprinkling rain! I was not a pretty sight. Fortunately, a customer offered help and got me on my way.
FINALLY, I MADE IT TO THE BATTERY STORE. I had planned to go get the tires checked, but they weren’t low anymore, sooooo.
That evening I had two client conferences, both of which had rescheduled while I waited for my NEW battery, and made a little money! I admit that wasn’t exciting the way winning a trip is, but I’ll take it!
If you find yourself wanting to skim your own book to get to the wonderful end or if you want to just write “And more stuff happens.” and the get to the good parts.
Time for another course! Avoid that sagging middle readers skim. The course will involve ways to cure sagging middles in any story. Writers who don’t plot can find themselves painted into a corner or wondering what to do next. Even plotters sometimes find a story seems to be going nowhere. Sometimes the problems are solved, but the book needs to be longer. OOPS!So what can we do about that? Students and I will share ways to make scenes more meaningful and give characters problems that fit the situation and make those characters stronger for the new problems.I will give lessons/lectures about why stories need conflicts, small and large, internal and external, to keep excitement going and readers reading.Students will select slow scenes from their projects or create them so we can pump life into them with small or large rocks. I will give examples of problems based on the stories. We will brainstorm and share scenes on the loop each week.http://www.oirwa.com/forum/workshop-registration/ONLY $35 for a one month class!
MaryMarvella 
