Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas & Writing, Holiday Cheer

Hey, y'all,

Hope you all have your Christmas shopping done and are ready for take off to intricately and decoratively wrap those marvelous gifts. Or maybe they're already packed and ready to ship off to Brazil, Europe, Canada, Marlyland... Maybe you've bought all your presents from one store, like Herbergers, Wal-Mart (like I usually do, haha), or K-Mart. Maybe you've just made all your presents this year. Family gatherings, lush dinners, big surprises, happiness all around. That's part of Christmas, but what it's really about is celebrating Christ's birthday and how He came into the world, born in a manger, to pay for our sins and fulfill His amazing and wonderful will for our lives.

I wish I was writing a book about Christmas, but there could be Christmas in it, I suppose. I've done a lot more writing lately. The Lord has helped me grab plenty of time to finish off my book "Greatest Is Found." This book is about a woman who falls in love with her neighbor across from her. However, when they begin to go forward in their relationship, the couple begins to realize the man's parents will play a certain part in their lives to make them think about their lives in a brand new light. They're soon headed on a dangerous mission that will literally cost them their lives. I'm so excited to finish off this book, edit it, and then hopefully finish my Japan book then. I'm still debating on whether or not I should write that book of mine set in the early 1900s that will end in tragedy. Should I or should I not write it? That is the question, haha.

Well, as I'm rambling on, let me tell you that I can't wait for Christmas. I get to spend it with family and see the joy on their faces as they open their gifts. I get to go to church, especially, to celebrate Christ's birth. Getting new stuff isn't as important as who you get to share this Christmas time with, and all of you remember that. I know you might be fighting to get the best thing at the store for your loved ones, or make sure your stuffing is just right this year, or make sure you remember to send those Christmas cards to all your relatives and friends. What I like to incorporate best in my books when I write is not just that God is with you, watches over you, and has a plan for everyone's life. It's not just about that or how amazing he is. It is ALL ABOUT that. It's ALL ABOUT Christ and what He has done for us, and how amazing He is because of that. Think about it, where would Christmas be without Him? It wouldn't be Christmas. It would just be Mas. And what a lame title, huh? Haha. We wouldn't have the freedom and ability or even the money and resources we need to celebrate Christmas without God. Without Him, it would just a big, empty, black space. There would be no world. No nothing. Just absolute silence, just how it was before Creation. I hope y'all get my meaning here. Yes, family traditions are wonderful and cool. Our own family has them. But I thank God every year for these wonderful blessings He's given us and how we wouldn't have these traditions without Him. We wouldn't have this family to spend Christmas with if it wasn't for Him. :)

As I finish my writing for the rest of this year, I plan to keep my focus on God and His amazing blessings in my life. What amazing plans He must have for me! For all of you! Have a very Merry Christmas everyone, a good rest of 2011, and an amazing New Year start of 2012!! Wow!! God is sooo great. :)

MONTHLY QUOTE: "Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts; the sight of the deep-blue sky and the clustering stars above seems to impart a quiet to the mind."--Jonathan Edwards

WRITING TIP: Think of the peace this Christmas season that Christ brought to the world when He was born in a manger, and plan your book accordingly.

TA!!! TTYL!! :D GOD BLESS!!! :D

JMG~~ :)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

November Fun~~~~ :)

Hey, y'all,

So, every time I think about writing, I think about my latest characters. However, writer's block has been pretty severe lately. Of course, it doesn't help that I have absolutely no time to write these days. Hopefully, that will change immensely, and soon!! So, please pray that it will! Thanks! :)

This weekend, I was looking over a book I wrote a few years ago called "Changed." I'm sure the bio of the book is in my blog somewhere. You can actually see the full bio of it on my actual website: http://www.booksjmg06.webs.com. Check it out! I haven't anyone sign my guestbook yet either, haha.

Anyways, I was checking out "Changed." And when you see the book's bio, you're going to wonder what I was thinking when I was writing it. Wellllll....at the time I couldn't get the story out of my head. And I know it might not be the most realistic kind of story, but hey, what if it actually happened one day? And showed up in your local newspaper? Hmmmmm??? So, if it could happen to Jack Hayes, it can happen to Mack Taylor, who was the second fugitive in this RV on this trip. He is also a new Christian and just exploring the goodness of life instead of the evils of it, and wah-la, he meets an extraordinary woman named Faith Marshall who shows him all about what the Christian life is all about! I'm so excited for this book. Like its predecessor, I will more than likely add thrills and chills inside it. I will see what the good Lord has planned for it. I consider my books thriller-inspirational anyways, these days.

As for another book idea that I've kept putting over for years now, I'm stumped, and maybe all of you could help me. There is this book called "In Remembrance" that I started writing my sophomore year of college after taking a college history class where, in one tiny topic, we as a class learned about the great tragedy of the Triangle Factory Fire in New York City in the early 1900s. At the time, I was so flabbergasted about the tragedy, that I wondered, Why hasn't anyone written a story about this or about these women? Why isn't this historical event better known throughout history? Is it that no one cares or simply that since it just happened in a couple hours at one tiny part of NYC, it really doesn't matter anymore? Twenty-some innocent victims--all women and immigrants looking to start a brand new life in the USA--were either burned alive or died in the Triangle Factory Fire (a clothes factory.) The supervisors were cruel, locked all the doors, and the people who built the building were so stupid that they were still building the elevators at the time. Many women were burned alive or died from smoke entering their lungs--but hundreds others plunged to their deaths from the eight or nine story floors, falling to the sidewalks below to the crowd's great horror.

Now wouldn't it be cool if I wrote a book about it? Well, I started a book about it, but I was too timid to write it, because I already knew how it was going to end--in tragedy. So, should I finish the book? I'm really reluctant to. I want to tell about two immigrant young women's lives, immigrating from Italy. Should I finish the book, everyone? It would be terrible, but the ending, I'd planned, was going to have a bittersweet ending instead of a terrible sad ending.

Those are my writing thoughts for this month. I'm still plugging away off and on on the other books. I got more of the Japanese book written, and I finally figured out what my main guy character's past is going to be, so it should be smooth from here on out, hopefully, if writer's block doesn't come again, haha.

MONTHLY QUOTE: Failure is blindness to the strategic element in events; success is readiness for instant action when the opportune moment arrives. --Newell D. Hillis

WRITING TIP: Take a walk. Nature always gives us ideas about writing, characters' lives, and the world through their eyes.

Take care and God bless!! Ta and TTYL!! :D

JMG~

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Sadly, No Halloween Stories For This Writer, haha!!

Hey, y'all!! :)

I FINALLY got my blog posts to actually post on my blog. I'm SO excited. I had posting problems since May, and now that it's finally fixed--Hallelujah!!

So anyway, I've been writing a lot lately. I had writer's block for a while, and now I finally have three book ideas. The first book idea: "Never Fail," is hopefully going to be around 200-some pages, God willing. The book is about a couple who grow up as friends as children and one day realize that one day, they had loved each other all along. How does that sound? I know it's corny, but I guess I'm just a corny writer! So far, God hasn't revealed to me anyother genres that I'm good at writing. HOWEVER, haha, I am confident that this book will be a very excellent read. It's going to be filled with thrills and chills, so it's not like readers are going to ASSUME that Ryder and Addie are just going to end up together in the end, or that things are going to work out for either one of them...it'll be a surprise what happens, so I hope I intrigued your interests.

The second book idea doesn't really have a strong title or much motivation to it...yet. I still haven't decided if it's worth writing. It's about a woman who visits Japan to start an art shop, hoping it'll turn into some kind of creative art company. When she goes there, she realizes that one man's life is a lot scarier than she'd ever imagined. I don't yet know WHY his life is so mysterious or scary. Haven't figured that part out yet. Hopefully will soon!

Besides finishing to write my book "Greatest Is Found," I've been doing some poetry. I edited my poetry book and still deciding if I should add some more poetry to it yet or not. So far it's only around 90-some pages. I think that I'm more excited to publish a book of poetry than anything else lately. I have no idea why. I just seem to be a lot more passionate about it lately. I also finished writing my short story "For Better Or For Worse," which was about a married couple where the man's dangerous career greatly threatens his family's lives, as well as his brother's, and also his own.

Let me know if any of y'all ever want to read a few excerpts from one of my books. If I know who you are, I may even let you read some of my poetry, short stories, or novels, depending on what you want. :)

***WRITING TIP: Trust God that whatever you are writing, whether it's a paper or a journal write, or a book, etc., that He knows what the story will be about, much like your life. And He will never fail you.

***QUOTE: "Life is all about risks and it requires you to jump. Don't be a person who has to look back and wonder what they would have or could have had. No one lives forever." (Unknown)

That's all I have for this month! :) God bless, and may God's peace continue to add joy to your lives. :)

TTYL!! Ta!! :)

JMG~

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

July Power~

Hey, y'all,
I recently watched the movie "Julie and Julia" and absolutely adored it!! I wish that I could meet Julia Child, even Paul Child. They seemed like such amazing people. The movie tells so much about their lives together, their romance and relationship, how they longed for and couldn't have children, and their life in France in the late 1940s and early 50s. I like that movie a lot, and I wish that I could be able to write a blog where I could be able to get at least one comment every time I post it! For some odd reason, Blogger doesn't want to post my June post, and I'm a little miffed about that. But hey, it'll post eventually, even if it's next June. Haha....hopefully not!
Well anyways, I've started writing again, little by little. I write a poem here and there, but lately I have been stuck in writer's block and unable to get out of it, apparently. I got influenced by the "Julie and Julia" movie so much that not only did I decide to blog today, but I decided that the main character in this one book I've decided to maybe write (Lord willing) will have a diary that she constantly writes in, where the reader will read her thoughts in first person and the rest of her life in third person. I don't think I've experienced with this kind of thing yet, so we'll see how God decides to bless it. :) The book is about a woman artist who is quite funny. She decides to visit Japan, where her life is changed forever when she meets this man who is not only Japanese, but has never had the chance to really know the Lord. And she's going to teach him about Him!! Doesn't that sound exciting? Lately, I've decided that maybe, just maybe, my books should contain more love and tenderness and plans from God for people. I feel like I haven't included that in my other books as much as I probably should. After all, God is the One who gave me this amazing talent of writing!! :)
By the way, if it hadn't been for God, I would not have realized today that I actually like to cook (also something from "Julie and Julia", haha)! I've been telling people I hate it, which I do if it's boring, but if it's interesting....oh, boy, am I excited to cook now!! Okay, I won't go on and on about the movie, but at any rate, what do my readers think....if I have any readers??
Well anyways, let me know what you think of my brand new book idea. Also, let me know if any of you has a poem subject idea. I'm open to anything, really, as long as it honors God, of course. :)
Monthly Quote: "What matter is not what is witty, but what is true." --Albert Scheweitzer.
Ta!! TTYL!! :D Hopefully Blogger will be happier next month. :)
JMG~~

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

May Flowers Bring May Writes??

Hey, y'all,

Once again, I have writer's block. You know, this is really getting kind of sickening. Not only do I have writer's block, but I also have absolutely no time to write!! Even my own writing tips from my own website do not work, and that's pretty sad. I've written and edited some poems, but I even have writer's block from this. However, my poetry book is pretty much done, and for that I am glad!!

I have decided, though, that at every blog, I'm going to have an interesting and hopefully inspirational quote from someone famous, or else a Bible verse at the end of every blog. It makes it to be a lot more interesting!

Instead of talking about books I'm writing or reading this month, I'm going to give you some writer's advice. Now having an English degree and writing for ten or eleven full years, at least every day per year, I'll try not to boast upon the fact that I know a lot of writing stuff. So, since I have writer's block, I suppose it would be a pretty awesome idea if I give you writing tips per blog until I FINALLY don't have writer's block anymore!! (whenever that is haha.)

Soooo, WRITER TIP #1: Write from the heart. I know, I know, this sounds extremely corny, but just go with me. Everyone has a heart, and everyone is capable of love and compassion. It says so from the Bible. If one is born of God, they have love. I read that in 1 John chapter 4 only this morning! So anyway, if you don't write about what you most like to write about, whether it's about zombies, aliens, or cowboys fighting crooks, etc., it's all good fun. BUT, and here's the tricky part: it MUST coincide with God's Word. It will be sin to write about something that He disapproves of, and if you don't care, that's really too bad, but I guarentee you that no matter what happens, no matter how much you enjoy writing about something, the bad qualities of it will eventually catch up with you. God will one day make sure you know the sin you committed and will ask you to repent of your sins, which you certainly must do. So when I say write from the heart, write first from God's heart and what please him. THEN, you find a topic from the heart to write about that will please him!! I hope this makes sense....

So that's my tip. Please comment if you have any questions whatsoever, and I will be happy to clarify stuff.

Alas, QUOTE OF THE DAY: By: Helen Keller: "Behind and before me is God, and I have no fears."

TA!! TTYL!! :D Everyone, have a blessed and happy month!! Enjoy the beautiful sunshine outside!! See you next month!! :D

JMG~~

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

April (Spring has finally sprung!!) idea!!

Hey, y'all, So, I've been thinking a bit about what book to write next. Right now, my main motive with writing is to finish the poetry book I've been working on. It has my poems from now since I first started writing poetry when I was either eleven or twelve years of age. The poetry is all expressionistic, emotional, amusing, and very inspirational poetry about God, family, friends, true love, and animals. Once I finish my maximum count of poems of 60-70 poems, (and if I write a poem a week this shouldn't be too hard, since I only have 12 or so poems left), then I will finish editing the poems and go on to finish editing the books I have written over the years. Because it occurred to me that with everything going on in real life right now, my heart is just not into writing a brand new book no matter how tempting that may appear. Nope. If I finish this poetry book and God willing, write another one, then finish editing and publishing the books I've written up until now, that would work out just fine. I've been wondering on if God wants me to stop writing books so I can concentrate on just writing poetry and finishing with editing everything else. What do you guys think?? Well, that's Plan A. Plan B would be to just take some time off of writing books for a while. Both are similar in their own ways. On the other hand, at my apartment I have this small stack of notebook stories that have never been typed. I could also, of course, finish typing and editing those ones (the ones that are print-worthy anyway, haha) while working on poems. This plan won't be that much work. I can continue to edit my other books as I please, extremely similar to Emily Dickinson toward the end of her life. As her life drew to a close, she edited her poems to her complete sense of perfection, even though, pathetically, some of her poems were ruined by critics multiple years later. Thankfully, in this day and age, everyone loves Dickinson's poetry exactly how she made them. I want it to be a similar experience for me, y'all. How I edit my books shall be exactly like that. Well, I gotta go, y'all!! Take care, stay blessed, and see you next month!! :) TTYL! TA!! :) JMG~

Thursday, March 10, 2011

No March Madness~

Hey, y'all,

So, once again, I have writer's block. I have so much going on that the most writing that I do is in-class poetry writing or writing a poem a week in general. Lately in my poetry, I write about God's will in people's lives and how it affects how you live in a good way. I wish I could share a couple with you, but they are not copyrighted and people may plagarize. Which isn't good, you know, because in all of my English classes, every professor always warned us at the beginning of every semester, and even sometimes whenever we are preparing to write the first term paper, to not plagarize, or steal someone else's work. It got me to thinking just now, why would a creative writer plagarize? If they love writing, why waste that time and money and effort on stealing another person's work? It doesn't make any sense.

Even though I did not do any writing last month of February, which is kind of sad if you think about it, I still have decided to not write "For Better Or For Worse." Why? Well, my heart is just not into writing another story where there are killings.... It just doesn't seem right to me anymore. So that is out of the question, that story, but if anyone wants to steal it, be my guest, haha. On another note, I'm trying to figure out (that is, when I actually have the time to think about it) how to finish my story of "Stay Alive." Yes, I'm still writing that story. I think one of the reasons why I'm holding onto it besides the fact that I have to finish it and love the story's plotline, is because I wrote it as a teenager and it has always stuck with me. I'm not sure if I've written in my blog about this, but I got the story idea from all the survival stories that are real-life, true (which both mean the same thing, I guess) and are probably still happening right now as we speak. In fact, I watched a half-hour TV program one Saturday afternoon where an avalanche descended upon this dog who'd been with his owner as they had skiied up and downhill. He was buried under snow and it was a miracle that the dog had survived or had been still been alive under all of that snow. They'd used some training dogs (since that dog had been a trained dog as well) to sniff out the dog and find him. It was definitely exciting to watch. So anyway, "Stay Alive"'s plot line is on my website if you want to check it out. My new website is http://www.booksjmg06.webs.com. I hope you enjoy it!!

Well, that is all the news I have for this month so far!! Hopefully, by the time I blog again, there will be no more snow!! Root for no more snow, people!! Stay blessed, warm, and have an awesome month!! :)

TA!! TTYL!!! :D

JMG~

Thursday, February 3, 2011

February For Looovvvvee!!! ~

Hey, y'all,

So!! It's been a real busy month, so very little time for writing. Although, I have written a poem that I would like to share with all of you, but I can't because the copy/paste thing is not working so well right now. It's called "There's Literature In All of Us." Why did I write this? Because when I graduate from college this May (yikes!!) I will be seeing a whole new brand of literature. Anyway, lately, I've been trying to figure out on if I should write the book (still) called "For Better or for Worse." It certainly sounds like an interesting book, doesn't it? Why, yes, it does, but today I was looking over some past novels that I've written and I realized that the excited and thrilled spark of love I had when I wrote them isn't as much there when I think about writing this book, or the two books I have still yet to finish (very slow going, unfortunately). When you write or read a really good book, there should be that magnificent thrill you have. It should be there and stay there every time you read or write something totally awesome.
If it's not there, what's the point? If there is a point, it's only the need to get it out of your head. Sometimes that's all right, and sometimes, it is not all right.
Right now, lately, I'm trying to figure out which one it is. With God's help, of course.
So anyway, enjoy the poem. February is a month of love, so maybe I'll get blessed with finally having my love for reading and writing grow as much as it had before. Wish me the best in that!!
Until we meet again, read, write, love, and love God with all of your hearts!! Be blessed!! :D
Ta!! TTYL!! :D
JMG~

Monday, January 10, 2011

Happy 2011!!!!!

Hey, y'all!! Happy 2011!! Hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas & New Year's!! :D

Lots going on lately. Book wise, pretty slow. Writer's block is a real killer. I finished "Miracles Happen" finally, and am now on deciding which book to finish writing next: "Home To You," "Stay Alive," or "Not My Life." They are all interesting books, and so far, all pretty much the same length of pages. The problem is deciding which one interests me the most (once the writer's block is gone, that is) to finish writing first!!

I thought of this book idea, but I'm still not sure on whether or not I should write it. It's not exactly the kind of book I write, although I'm always open to new ideas. It would be called "For Better Or For Worse." The book would be long-ish and would be about this married couple and the flashbacks they had of how they met, their children...all wound up in this mystery / suspense novel where the audience would see the flashbacks from a different-named couple, who actually ends up to be the same couple: Rick and Molly McCarthy. To confuse readers, I planned to change their names to Richard and Margaret, different last names, to show not only that this is about one couple and not multiple ones, but also to show how dangerous Rick's career really is. His career is so dangerous and life-threatening, not only his wife Molly can imagine its horrors and terrors inside it. Rick has to be away from his family up to a month at a time, and no one he works with in this "company" knows he even has a family. If any of you like "Lost" or "V," this is the book to read for you....if I ever decide to read it, that is. Let me know if any of y'all think of it as an awesome book for me to write!! After all, it still has plenty of romance in it. And Rick is not at all like a regular father / husband type. His career sort of outlies who he truly is. I guess it's hard to explain, but I haven't gotten it all figured out yet.

By the way, personally, I've never had much of an interest in the TV show "V," but whatever, I guess that's the best way to explain the entire story idea.

Because I'm back at school for one final semester (sad), I probably won't have as much time to write. BUT, fortunately, I think I will have a lot more time to write than last semester. Hopefully, anyway, because I go crazy if I don't write. Also, I'm now planning on giving some writing tips /advice for beginning or professional writers out there. Any kind of writers out there, really, because, after all, I'll be graduating at the end of this semester with an English degree that defines a truly English-major career. My siblings ask me to review their high school work all the time, so I'm pretty sure that, now that I'm so close to my English degree I can practically smell it, I can give writing advice that is not lame!! :D Yay!! Hehe.

**Writing Advice #1: Write whatever kind of genre you want, even if it ends up being corny and cheesy work. It's your own work, and no one should ever try to take away that kind of work from you. God grew that genre of writing inside your heart. It's a talent that you have been blessed with. So write what makes you happy, what's in your heart, because since God built it there, then. everything will fall into place. :)

Stay warm and healthy, everyone!! Ta!! :) :D

JMG~~