What's To Be Admired?

The longer I work on my writing, the more I have a greater appreciation for what an accomplishment it is to be a published author. There might be some authors who climb the ladder by skipping a few rungs but I think this is the reality. An author negotiates each step up the ladder feeling like they are blindfolded, handcuffed and with ankle weights on. When they reach what they perceive is the top of the ladder and “voila”, remove the blindfold...they see that the ladder’s rungs have grown exponentially.

So, what’s to be admired?

I am amazed by authors like Tracie Peterson and Nora Roberts who are so prolific. How can they write so many books in a year? You know they must have learned how to be disciplined and treat their writing like the job it is.

I delight in authors who can make characters come alive and not seem like clichés. I recently was introduced to a Colorado author, Kristen Heitzmann. I read some of her books and her characters seemed like they were real people with strengths and weaknesses trying to live life. Lee Child and Harlen Coben have some unforgettable characters that have hooked me and their upcoming books are always on my “wish list”.

Who doesn’t admire Jane Austen? Okay. There are probably some of you. But her style and word choice can tickle your ears like a beloved melody that is familiar if not known to all. I love the clear voice of Lisa Samson’s “Hollywood Nobody” young adult series. You find yourself zipping through all four books in no time. “I’m just sayin.”

I will never forget staying up into the wee hours reading Brock & Bodie Thoene’s Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles series and trying in vain to stifle my sobs so I wouldn’t wake up my husband. And it takes a lot to move me to tears.

I regard highly Vince Flynn, C. J. Box and other thriller and mystery writers who keep me guessing or so involved in the story that I can’t wait to finish the book. (I experience many late nights reading with my Kindle and reading light so as not to disturb my husband who probably wouldn’t notice even if I left the overhead light on. Do we see a pattern here?)

Even the authors who share their knowledge with us about the craft of writing are certainly worthy of my admiration. Although I may struggle to remember their words of wisdom and to apply them, they have turned on the lights for me in more ways than I can list in this short blog post.

So, what’s to be admired? The scores of writers who have persevered and poured out their guts, funny bone or poetic phrases for our enjoyment and awe. Congratulations! And for the rest of us, keep writing and maybe one day someone will admire our use of the gifts God has given us that we struggle to express on paper.

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Elaine Clampitt is Secretary/Treasurer of Mile High Scribes. Her normal schedule has been interrupted with the return of two of her children home from college for the summer. She is trying not to let this interfere with her writing pursuits, although, with ice hockey season coming to a close, she anticipates having more time to write, watch Hawaii 5-0 reruns and travel to warm and sunny places.

Author Admiration

June is Authors I Admire month here on the Inkwell.While I admire anyone who finishes a book, there isn't room to honor each of you individually, so before I go any further can I just say, "KUDOS!" to all you authors out there, published or unpublished!

I planned to write several short paragraphs on a variety of authors including some of my favorite contemporary CBA authors, but I instead found my heart drawn to the late Madeleine L'Engle. She has impacted my authoress heart perhaps as much or more than anyone I've read. My hope is that my thoughts of her will encourage your writing journey as they have mine.

Madeleine L'Engle
November 29, 1918 - September 06, 2007

Madeleine L'Engle published 63 books in her lifetime of 88 years. The most famous, of course, is A Wrinkle in Time. Part of the reason I celebrate Madeleine today is that she persevered. According to the sources I checked A Wrinkle in Time was rejected 26 times. But Madeleine didn't give up.

Madeleine's perseverance and tenacity are certainly to be admired, but as I've read her non-fiction books I've also experienced her as a woman of great humor, intellect, and compassion. While her thoughts of life ran deep, she also didn't take herself too seriously. She accepted that the world was full of those more talented and intelligent than she, but believed she still had something to contribute. Her faith journey was quite unique, and it inspires me. She interacted in a culture of great intellects, many of who were agnostic or atheistic, but despite and environment that (to me) didn't seem to support faith, she emerged as a woman who not only knew God, but offered Him, in her own, unique way, to those she encountered.

But perhaps it is my personal experiences with her writing and the briefest of experiences of her as a person that made me choose her for this post. Here's my story: As a youth, my brother loved the Wrinkle trilogy and encouraged me to read them. However, they freaked me out! Something about them tested the safe little "Christian" box I had created for myself. After graduating from college, I gave them another try while teaching 3rd graders in public school. My closed mind was ready to think (a least a little) outside the box, and I was blown away by how these fiction stories impacted me. I explored new ideas I hadn't dared to think about life, God, control, freedom, good and evil. I couldn't help myself. I stayed up late one night and scribbled a long, messy missive pouring my heart out to the famous author. Not too long after I was surprised to receive a hand-written response scribbled to me on a family letter that told of Madeleine's personal life--her children and travels. Soon after my fiance took me to hear her speak, and I got my first autographed book. Somehow I felt my little 23 year-old heart and that of this woman I greatly admired had truly connected.

Recently I had another heart-connection as I read A Circle of Quiet, a non-fiction book where she shares a lot of her inner self--her thoughts on writing, faith, and interacting with the world. In this little book I was especially impacted by two things. The first is a personal story she told. She sets up the scene by talking about how she'd spent her thirties writing and being rejected while she raised her children. She believed the surrounding neighbors thought her an oddity, and she weathered what she perceived to be whispered comments about poor Madeleine who spent all those hours scribbling away but would never be published. (Whether or not the neighbors were talking, I don't know, but I have, of course, imagined just such gossip circulating about me and felt her angst!) Madeleine had told herself that her forties would be years of productivity and success, when her books actually made it into print and she began her life as a true author.

Madeleine then went on to write about her 40th birthday. It was on that very day she received another of those 27 rejection letters. She decided then and there that she wasn't spending another decade writing only to be rejected. She began to dismantle her office, telling herself she would never write again. After she'd been cleaning out the office for a while she realized that in her mind she was composing a story as she worked--a story about an author who weathered rejection. She says at that moment she realized she was a writer. She would never quit. Madeleine talked about how the decision, made in the midst of rejection, was more powerful than it could ever have been if it had been reached at any other time. Again, I had BEEN there and her words resonated deep within. I was a writer. I had determined to be one in the midst of rejection, not just success. I would persevere.

The second thing that impacted me greatly was a thought she had about what she had to offer the world. I can't find my book right now or I would give you the direct wonderful quote. But here's the heart of what she said. Madeleine was told by one of her intellectual friends that she had nothing to offer the world that had never been said. As she processed his comment, she came to believe that he was right. She may never have anything to say that the world had never heard--but it didn't matter. It had never been said the way she would say it.

Then and there I felt validated. I may not be the smartest or more original person I know. I may not even have anything especially new or profound to offer. But what I do have is me. What God wants to say through me will not be said the same way when offered by anyone else. It is the Lord's truths, offered through my fingerprints, that will leave their mark on just the people who could only hear it the way I say it. And that is enough.

My interactions with Madeleine have offered me perspective in the face of disappointment, faith that grows outside my safe little boxes, a determination to persevere, and a belief that what I say has value to the world. In my opinion, Madeleine has given me some of the most important gifts a writer needs.


A writer, speaker, and homeschooling mother of four, Paula Moldenhauer is passionate about God’s grace and intimacy with Jesus. Her website, Soul Scents, offers devotional thoughts, and you can visit her blog at GraceReign. Paula serves as president of HIS Writers, the north Denver ACFW chapter. A devoted Pride and Prejudice fan, she loves good conversation, peppermint ice cream, and walking barefoot. Her greatest desire is to be close enough to Jesus to breathe His fragrance.

Memorial Stones or Stones of Remembrance

On Memorial Day—the day designated to remember those fallen heroes of our country who died protecting our freedoms—is a milestone each year. Yesterday at my church we had a very moving time of remembering these men and women.

Our church is right across the street from the south side of Crown Hill Cemetery in Wheat Ridge. My mother, along with several other relatives, is buried there. Just north of a large section of military graves marked with the distinctive white grave markers: memorial stones giving the name and rank of the military person buried there.

I'm not one to visit my mother's grave very often, because she's not there: she's with her beloved Savior. But every Mother's Day I do go and leave a bouquet of flowers, honoring the memory of a wonderful, godly mother. A milestone—a time to remember.

In our families, we celebrate milestones, as Paula pointed out. Births and each succeeding birthday. Salvations and baptisms. Graduations. Weddings. Promotions at work. New jobs. Or, in my case, rejections (or redirections) of my writing projects, whether they are devotionals or articles or books. And most recently, an acceptance of my first fiction. We celebrated with cheesecake (from my son), a bouquet of flowers from Paula and ACFW Colorado at our annual retreat, and dinner out with my family.

With this first fiction sale, the most special milestone for me was when my daughter posted on Facebook how proud she was of her mother for getting her first fiction contract . . . and the revelation that she'd secretly read and liked my very first attempt at writing a novel—a historical fiction for middle grade students—which she must have discovered buried in a file drawer! I don't know if it will ever see the light of day again. More than likely it will stay in the drawer as a stone of remembrance. :)

One of my uncles passed away this month. We had a "memorial" service, remembering the things about Jim that made him the man of God he was. Particularly he loved to sing. Last evening at church, my pastor and another man sang a duet, an old song titled, "I've Discovered the Way of Gladness." About halfway through, I leaned over to my son and said, "Uncle Jim loved to sing this song." He nodded and said he'd been thinking it was an Uncle Jim type of song. A small, simple stone of remembrance.

And today . . . we're going to spend some time at our family cabin near Eldora (Nederland). My great-grandfather built that cabin about 80 years ago. Over the years, we've spent many  days and nights at our Hessie Hideway. Here's a picture of my siblings and me on the porch of our cabin . . . (ahem) many, many moons ago. I'm the one in the middle. It's there I meet the Lord either alone or with family and friends. It's there I learned to love the mountains. There are many stones, literally, of remembrance at our cabin and the surrounding Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. And today we'll add another.



Marjorie Vawter has lived in Colorado only fifteen years, but she has a lifetime of Colorado memories stored up. She currently lives and writes in Westminster with her husband, Roger, and her 18-month-old Siamese mix, Sinatra.

Anchors and Other Vague Sailing Metaphors

It’s hard to note milestones when you don’t feel like you’re moving at all.

A friend of mine recently complained that even a rejection letter would be preferable to the great, soul-eating silence from the agents she’s queried. I understood exactly what she meant.

In the writing world we view rejections as milestones. It’s been said many times that receiving those rejection letters is part of the process. It means you’re getting your work out there. Blah, blah, blah.

But when you’re stuck in the Bermuda Triangle of publishing, the panicked questions take over.

Did the agent/editor receive my query? Should I send a follow up? Will that tick them off? What if my manuscript was so bad they figured it was a joke? Did I actually even send the query, or was that a dream? Am I dreaming now? Do I even exist?

When you’re this thoroughly lost and confused, it’s time for an anchor, something to tether you to reality. My critique partners regularly joke about tying a rope around my waist so that when I jump off a cliff, they can pull me back up. Critique groups are a writer’s sanity check. I wouldn’t hesitate to call any of the women in my writing group and ask, “Are you reasonably sure that I do, in fact, exist?”

I think only one of them would take that opportunity to really mess with my head.

Another way to drop anchor might be to go over notes you’ve taken in workshops or read an agent’s blog. I heard some good advice from an agent at a recent conference. She suggested that when you send that query off, you should look ahead in your calendar and make a note of the date four weeks out. Then forget about the query. Don’t sweat it. When that day comes and goes, it’s safe to do a follow up. Tips like this can help writers navigate the doldrums of the submission process.

You can also break free of the holding pattern by simply telling yourself, “It’s time to move on.” I know it feels like abandonment to leave that project you love and start on a new one, but this is one of the few things in the writing journey that is solely in the writer’s control. You can move forward just by writing. You can turn your stint in No Man’s Land into a milestone. In a few months time, you’ll look back and say, “I wasn’t getting anywhere, so I (yes, I) decided to move on, and look what I’ve accomplished because of that.”


Evangeline Denmark has to take Dramamine in order to even look at a boat. She has co-authored two children’s books, The Dragon and the Turtle (Waterbrook Press, 2010) and The Dragon and the Turtle Go on Safari (Waterbrook Press, 2011) and also writes adult fiction. You can find Evangeline online at www.evangelinedenmark.com and www.dragonandturtle.com

Doing What You Don't Want to Do

The Apostle Paul said, famously, and this is my paraphrase, "I do what I don't want to do, and I don't do what I want to do."

The Writers Life is chock-a-block full of examples of this lament.

Take me, for example.

I don't blog.

I know, you're reading this on a blog, and you're thinking, "She doesn't know what it means to blog, obviously."

Allow me to repeat myself -- I don't blog. I don't sign up to blog. I don't read other people's blogs. I don't follow blogs. I don't friend blogs.

And yet here I am, doing as I have done since January 2009 (Yes, I went back and checked), something I don't want to do.

You might ask how that came about. Well, I missed a meeting. And got volun-told to blog.

Rule #1: Don't miss a meeting. Missing meetings might get you doing something you don't want to do, or you might miss out on doing something you really want to do.

And that leads me into Rule #2: Do what you don't want to do because it's not all about you. Sometimes your decision to participate is about others. See, this blog thing wasn't about fulfilling some desire in my heart to have millions of people read what I write. This blog was about being part of something bigger than myself, and being able to contribute to that.

And, like I said earlier, writing is about doing what you don't want to do.

I know people who say they are writers who never write; they just talk about writing. Maybe they get caught up in the research, or the outlining, or the plotting, or reading books on writing, or going to writers conferences. But they never actually start a story. Some of that is fear, some of it is a reluctance to put aside other activities and distractions, some is a lack of support or a lack of community.

Which brings me to Rule #3: If you are a writer, set a goal to write more than a list of books to get at the library or a schedule of conferences to attend this year. Write something that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A story of some kind.

Rule #4: Find a community. Yes, that means join a writers group, find a critique group, join a book club -- anything that will bring you into a bunch of like-minded people who get you when you say you hear voices in your head.

Many people who write seem reluctant to join into a community of writers. Maybe the reasons are the same as above: fear, busyness, feeling like they're on the outside looking in. The only way to overcome fear is to jump in. The only way to overcome busyness is to make a date with yourself. The only way to not feel like you're on the outside is to join.

One of my characters says about herself: You don't join because you feel you don't belong, and you don't belong because you don't join.

This month, as you read these blogs about Milestones, consider what leaps of faith you need to make in your own writing --
Do you need to join?
Do you need to meet?
Do you need to write?

And if the answer to any of these questions is Yes, then make your mark on your writing path and join, meet, and write. You'll be glad you did, and so will all the others in your group.