ACFW Book of the Year judging

Captain’s Log, Stardate 04.30.2005

I just got my ACFW Book of the Year judging packet. Looking over the score sheets, I realized that this is very much like a contest for an unpublished writer. The authors are receiving anonymous feedback from readers who can freely give opinions on things like character, conflict, motivation. Many times, I’ve read a book where the character is inconsistent, or the conflict isn’t strong enough, or the motivation isn’t quite believable, but I’ve never written to the author to complain.

I can see how this might be scary for an author. I know I’d be freaking out.

I was just talking with a friend of mine last night about Christian fiction. While much of it is excellent quality, there are a few that really disappoint. It doesn’t even matter sometimes if the authors are new or multi-published.

Some things are blatant and unprofessional--I recently read a Christian book where the heroine had absolutely no goal and no conflict with characters in the first several scenes. There was conflict between the secondary characters, but I didn’t like any of them and I certainly wasn’t rooting for any of them. I couldn’t go on--it was just too boring.

Some things are more subtle, but I still wonder how this got past various critique partners (if the author had any) and the editor. I read several books with strong characters who would then do something horribly dumb with not enough good motivation to do it. I call those “Too Stupid to Live” moments. Or else a character will do something and I really can’t understand why, it just doesn’t make logical sense.

However, that being said, I am praying God gives me wisdom and love in judging these books, to be honest in both my praise and criticism. I don’t anticipate poor writing in any of these books, but I guess the sudden freedom of saying exactly what I want has me feeling a bit nervous, just in case I don’t like the book for whatever reasons. I’m probably being silly.

Writing: I got a bit done last night on outlining my wip, but then I read the guidelines for Barbour and I’m freaking out. My storyline is more like a Chicklit, since this is a Chicklit anthology, but I wonder if I need to write it more like a straight romance. Can I write in the straight romance elements and still keep the Chicklit atmosphere? Will I be happy with the finished product?

Diet: I ran for four days this week, and I’m hoping to run a little today with the dog before going to Youth Group meeting. I weighed in and I’ve lost about a pound. I need to work on my portion sizes.

I haven’t felt hungry or deprived the past week, and I think it’s because I’m kind of careful with my food choices, and my lapses are made up for by the exercise. I can’t eat whatever I want, whenever I want, but I think I can indulge sometimes in not-so-good things for me as long as I’m careful with my portions and I keep up an exercise regimen.

Comments

sarah said…

good evening, camy!! i love your blog. and your star trek intros. my dad's a trekky... i guess i am too. oh, dear. good luck with the writing:)

Sun May 01, 10:19:00 PM 2005

Camy Tang said…

Thanks for stopping by, Sarah! I can't believe you actually have a blog for LIT CLASS. That's so . . . wierd. But cool. And remember, being a Trekkie is NOT A BAD THING.

Camy

Sun May 01, 10:57:00 PM 2005

No Cold Bums toilet seat cover

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Year of the Dog serial novel, chapter 19

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Grace Livingston Hill romances free to read online

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In-N-Out from A DANGEROUS STAGE

Source: tumblr.com via Camy on Pinterest In-N-Out, one of my fav burger joints, makes an appearance in the first chapter of A Dangerous Stage . It's a chain on the West Coast and Hawaii, I'm not sure how far east they have restaurants. They don't freeze any of their food, it's all fresh, including the buns and the french fries. When you order, you can see them use this french fry hand-crank machine to make their fries, it's pretty cool. The specific restaurant in A Dangerous Stage doesn't exist at that location, but there's a couple of them near me and I go there way too often than is good for me, but it's oh-so-yummy!

Daniel 9:9

Dear Lord, Thank you for being so merciful and forgiving to us no matter what we’ve done or where we’ve been. Thank you for loving us so much, even when we find it hard to love ourselves. Even if we have rejected you, you still reach out to us and want us to come to you for love and comfort and forgiveness. Thank you for your magnificent grace. Amen 主よ、私たちが何をしようと、どこにいようと、私たちを憐れみ、赦してくださりありがとうございます。私たちが自分自身を愛することが難しいときでさえ、私たちをこんなにも愛してくださってありがとうございます。たとえ私たちがあなたを拒んだとしても、あなたは私たちに手を差し伸べ、愛と慰めと赦しを求めてあなたのもとに来ることを望んでくださいます。あなたの素晴らしい恵みに感謝します。アーメン

Sweet & Clean Christmas Romance sale

I’m participating in the Sweet & Clean Christmas Romance sale. Check out all the sweet/clean romance books available and stuff your eBook reader! Sweet & Clean Christmas Romance

Preorder ONCE UPON A COURTSHIP and get a free ebook every month!

My novella, Lissa and the Spy , will first be released in the multi-author box set Once Upon a Courtship: A Sweet Historical Romance Collection , and if you preorder now, you’ll be able to subscribe to a special Reader Club Newsletter. Every month from now until October 2024, you’ll get a free Historical Romance ebook from one of the authors in the box set. 1) Preorder Once Upon a Courtship 2) Fill out this form with your order number 3) Get the secret link and SUBSCRIBE to the Once Upon a Courtship Reader Club Newsletter 4) Get your first free book The sooner you preorder, the more free books you’ll get! You’ll also be alerted when the Once Upon a Courtship box set is available to read. The newsletter will end October 2024 and you will NOT be automatically subscribed to the authors’ individual newsletters. You can sign up for their newsletters yourself if you wish. Preorder Once Upon a Courtship

Year of the Dog serial novel

About Year of the Dog : A month or two ago, I remembered an old manuscript I had completed but which hadn’t sold. It was a contemporary romance meant for Zondervan, titled Year of the Dog . The book had gone into the pipeline and I even got another title ( Bad Dog ) and a cover for it, but eventually my editor at the time decided she didn’t want to publish it, for various reasons. She instead requested a romantic suspense, and so I cannibalized some of the characters from Year of the Dog and thrust them into the next book I wrote, which was Protection for Hire . Honestly, I didn’t take a lot from Year of the Dog to put in Protection for Hire , aside from character names and a few relationship ties. I was originally thinking I’d post Year of the Dog as-is on my blog as a free read, but then it occurred to me that I could revamp it into a romantic suspense and change the setting to Hawaii. It would work out perfectly as (yet another) prequel to the Warubozu series and introduc

Toilet seat cover

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Update August 2008: I wrote up the pattern for this with "improvements"! Here's the link to my No Cold Bums toilet seat cover ! Okay, remember a few days ago I was complaining about the cold toilet seat in my bathroom? Well, I decided to knit a seat cover. Not a lid cover, but a seat cover. I went online and couldn’t find anything for the seat, just one pattern for the lid by Feminitz.com . However, I took her pattern for the inside edge of the lid cover and modified it to make a seat cover. Here it is! It’s really ugly stitch-wise because originally I made it too small and had to extend it a couple inches on each side. I figured I’d be the one staring at it, so who cared if the extension wasn’t perfectly invisible? I used acrylic yarn since, well, that’s what I had, and also because it’s easy to wash. I’ll probably have to wash this cover every week or so, but it’s easy to take off—I made ties which you can see near the back of the seat. And

Tabi socks, part deux

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.25.2008 (If you're on Ravelry, friend me! I'm camytang.) I made tabi socks again! (At the bottom of the pattern is the calculation for the toe split if you're not using the same weight yarn that I did for this pattern (fingering). I also give an example from when I used worsted weight yarn with this pattern.) I used Opal yarn, Petticoat colorway. It’s a finer yarn than my last pair of tabi socks, so I altered the pattern a bit. Okay, so here’s my first foray into giving a knitting pattern. Camy’s top-down Tabi Socks I’m assuming you already know the basics of knitting socks. If you’re a beginner, here are some great tutorials: Socks 101 How to Knit Socks The Sock Knitter’s Companion A video of turning the heel Sock Knitting Tips Yarn: I have used both fingering weight and worsted weight yarn with this pattern. You just change the number of cast on stitches according to your gauge and the circumference of your ankle. Th

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