Coming in April 2014! Stories by the Falls!

Inaugural

Cumberland Falls Storytelling Festival

April 11--13, 2014

at

Cumberland Falls State Park, Corbin, Kentucky

Celebrating Southern Appalachian Oral Tradition and Culture

Introducing the Cumberland Falls Storytelling Festival in conjunction with Cumberland Falls State Park's world-famous Moonbow! Featuring Stephen Hollen, Pam Holcomb, Buck P. Creacy, and Jack's Mama (Sharon Kirk Clifton)! Mark your calendars now to attend this inaugural event.

More information to come!

BIG NEWS! Stories by the Falls!

A Delicious Revision Delight

I love real citrus flavored goodies, so when I saw this bit of lusciousness on my Facebook wall, I knew it would be the perfect treat to nibble with a cup o' joe while I revise The Second Cellar. With zucchini in abundance right now and everyone scrambling for more ways to use it, I thought I should share the recipe. Enjoy!

P. S.: You don't have to be working on a novel (writing or reading), but it helps! :-)

Zucchini Orange Bread

Orange Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
Makes 2 loaves (freezes beautifully sans glaze)

3 cups flour
2 cups zucchini
1 teaspoon salt, scant
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup applesauce, or egg substitute
1/3 cup vegetable oil
zest of one orange
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon orange juice
1/3 cup walnuts or raisins

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoon orange juice
1/4 teaspoon zest
Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease two loaf pans.

2. Wash and dry the zucchini. Using a box grater grate 2 cups worth and set aside.

3. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix well with a whisk and make a well in the center of the mixture.

4. Wash and zest the orange. I wash it with vinegar water.

5. In another cup mix the egg substitute (or applesauce), orange zest, juice, vanilla, oil and sugar until combined. Add to the flour mixture, folding gently until combined.

6. Fold in the zucchini (and walnuts or raisins if you are using them) and split the batter between the two greased loaf pans. I line the bottom with parchment paper. If I don't have parchment paper, I use copier paper, cut to size. It works, too!

7. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden and a tooth pick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.

8. Prepare the glaze: Mix the remaining orange juice and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar in a small bowl. Add the remaining zest and stir until smooth and combined.

8. Cool the bread for 10 minutes in the pans. Then, run the blade of knife around the loaf to gently separate it from the sides of the pan. Invert the loaves and the bread should slide out. Place on a wire rack with a large pan or plate below it to finish cooling.

9. While the bread is still hot spoon half of the glaze onto the top of each loaf. It will almost immediately drip down the sides of the loaf. Cool completely before serving. (Yeah, right. Like that's going to happen.)

The Mystery of the Misplaced Modifier

One of my favorite writers' blogs is The Sentence Sleuth, where I notice that the writer Bonnie Trenga has written a book entitled The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier. While I would love to read the book, I'm not sure I dare. You see, misplaced modifiers have a peculiar effect on me, one that has caused me great embarrassment through the years.

In my college freshman English class, the professor distributed a sheet of examples. Naturally, I began perusing it before everyone had a copy, so I had a head start on the humor.

It all started with a smile that progressed to a quiet snort and on to a chorkle. By the time the professor had gotten through the third sentence<>

I flashed a furtive glance around the room, only to discover that I was the only one thus affected. Again, I made eye contact with the professor. She raised one eyebrow, and I lost all control. I rushed out of the room and down the hall to the nearest restroom. Once inside the security of that room with its stainless steel stalls and porcelain lavatories, I doubled over with laughter, likely frightening a student exiting a stall.

"Misplaced modifiers!" I tried to blurt. She gave me that same deer-caught-in-the-headlights look I'd received from my classmates and hurried toward the door. "You know!" I called after her. "Dangling participles..." She was gone. Without washing her hands.

Eventually, I regained some semblance of composure. Making my way back to the classroom, I stood outside the door, just out of sight, listening, testing my resolve. The professor peeked around the door at me.

"Are you okay?" she asked, broadening her smile. "You can come back in, if you like." I lost it, again, and returned to the sanctuary of the restroom.

When class was over, I hurried to the classroom to apologize profusely to the professor. "Are you an English major?" she said. I told her that I was. "I thought so. You had to be. Did you notice that you were the only one so affected?" I nodded. "They didn't get it. They didn't see what the sentences actually were saying."

If sentences with misplaced modifiers make you laugh, you can stop reading here, unless you're a glutton for punishment. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read on.

A misplaced modifier is a word, clause, or phrase that is separated from that which it modifies (or describes), making it seem to modify a word, clause, or phrase not intended. Here are a few examples:

On the way home, Karen found a gold man's watch. [Oh, really? I'd like to know where she found that gold man. Or could it be that she found a man's gold watch?]

The child ate a cold dish of cereal for breakfast. [Poor kid. He likely would have preferred a dish of cold cereal.]

We ate the lunch that we had brought slowly. [Does the writer mean that it took a long time for them to get their lunch to the place where they ate it? Or does she mean We ate slowly the lunch we had brought or Slowly, we ate the lunch that we had brought?]

After being fingerprinted, the officer put the prisoner in the cell. [So they're fingerprinting officers now, before putting the prisoner in a cell. Hmmm....]

Perhaps you now understand why my reading of The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier could prove fatal to me.

Ten Steps to Writing Great Book Reviews

You read the book and loved it. Chances are you'll tell a friend about it, especially if she likes the same genre. You may go so far as to mention it to a few of your friends or post it on Facebook and Twitter. We authors thank you. But could we ask you to go another mile toward promoting worthy Christian fiction? Would you be willing to take some time to write a book review and post it on various book-centric sites such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Kobo.com, Goodreads.com, Sony, and other such sites? In most cases, you need only write one review, copy, and paste.

Below are ten steps to writing book reviews that will win you favor with customers of bookseller sites. I certainly appreciate a well-written book review. Don't you?

1. Give the book a careful reading. Don't rush through it. If you know you'll likely write a review when you finish, take notes (including page numbers for quick reference) along the journey. Highlight quotations and stylistic snippets--colorful phrases, idioms, creative similes and metaphors, for example. Name the author and the book's name in the first paragraph, if possible.
2. Determine your purpose in writing the review. While you don't have to explicitly state it, you need to keep it in mind as you write. Complete this sentence: I want the readers of this review to _____.
3. Identify the author's overarching theme: Examples--
• When one forgives the most egregious of wrongs, then the heart is free to heal.
• Marriage and family are worth fighting for to preserve.
• Prodigals can still return home and be restored and reconciled.
• Those who commit evil deeds in the dark will be revealed in the light.
4. Explain what drew you to the book. Had you read other works by the author? Is it a favorite genre? Did you hear about it on a social site, or did a friend recommend it?
5. What does the author do especially well? (Note: always write about literature in the present tense.) Examples--
•  Characterization--Who are the main characters? Does the writer develop realistic, believable, multidimensional characters? What are their goals? What gets in the way of their achieving those goals? How far were you into the book before you cared about the protagonist? Is s/he likable?
• Story development--Were you captivated by the story by the end of the first page or the first chapter? What hooked you? Does the author employ an unusual plot structure? Is the pacing appropriate for the story?
• Details of setting--Did you feel that you were in the place and time of the story?
• Evidence of thorough knowledge and/or research on the part of the author--Does the author accurately portray the time period, circumstances, environment, etc.?
• Writing style--Do you especially like the author's imagery, diction, artistic elements, or writing style? Be specific.
6. If possible, incorporate some quotations that exemplify the points you've cited in Number 5 above.
7. What weaknesses in style, structure, or content did you notice? Be gentle, remembering that what you perceive as a weakness others may consider a strength. Follow the Bible's directive to "tell the truth in love."
8. Give your readers a taste of the plot, but DO NOT INCLUDE SPOILERS! Hint at the climax, but DO NOT GIVE AWAY THE ENDING!
9. Tell a little about the author. What makes her life unique? List some of his other works and awards. Include some interesting tidbits, if you know them.
10. Describe how the book affected you emotionally. Did it live up to your expectations of the genre? Do you want to read more by this author? To what audiences would you recommend this book? 

Note: If the book was provided to you by the publisher or the author, make that known. Be sure to read "The FTC's Regulating My Book Reviews!" by Kathryn Page Camp on Hoosier Ink blog, Thursday, 23 September 2010.

* * *

Recently, Rose McCauley wrote a review of a book by one of my favorite contemporary authors, Dan Walsh. She graciously granted me permission to use that review to illustrate a well-executed book review. Thank you, Rose!

Book Review of The Dance by Dan Walsh and Gary Smalley

I have read and enjoyed several of Gary Smalley's books, both fiction and non-fiction, and all of Dan Walsh's books with great admiration, so looked forward to reading The Dance. 1. I wasn't disappointed!  2. Although this was a review copy given by the publisher, that in no way affected my review. 3.
I love books like this that teach spiritual truths through story, similar to Jesus's parables. We start with a couple who seem to be very successful in life, but not in love/marriage/relationships. I've known guys like Jim Anderson  4. who have no clue how unhappy their wife is until it is too late. And even when she tries to explain, he doesn't understand what she is saying. They aren't speaking the same love language! 5. 6. 7.
Things look pretty dire for this couple until Jim meets a little old lady who used to run a dance studio. By following her dance lessons (something he has always refused to take!) he begins to learn the lessons of love he had forgotten and some he had never known. But it will still take a miracle to unharden his wife's heart after all the years of pain. As we know, God is a God of miracles! What better place for this miracle to begin to take place than at a wedding, where Christ's first miracle began His ministry on earth? 8.
Like all of Dan Walsh's books and the books Gary Smalley co-authored with Karen Kingsbury, while reading this story you will laugh awhile and cry awhile and come away better for it! 9. And the great thing is it's the first of a series of books (The Restoration Series) written by this team!10.

* * *

Notice that not everything I included in the ten steps is included in Rose's review, but she covered most of them, and very succinctly, at that.

1. She named the co-authors and the book in the first paragraph.
2. She gives us her opinion of the work.
3. She slips in the fact that she read the publisher-supplied ARC.
4. In this second paragraph, she names the main character.
5. She reveals the main problem or conflict of the story.
6. She hints at the solution.
7. She tells what is getting in the way of solving the problem.
8. She reveals just enough of the climax to tantalize us--well, me, anyway. :-)
9. She gives more info about her emotions during the reading of The Dance.
10. She announce the forthcoming series.
    
    Rose, you definitely whetted my appetite to read The Dance. Thanks, again!
    
    Now, gentle reader, it's your turn to write a sterling review about the book you just finished.
    
    Write on!
    Because of Christ,
    Sharon 

Dear Writer Whose Book I Don't Prefer,

This is to set your mind at ease. I will not review your latest release, even if you provided it as an ARC [advance reader copy]. You wouldn't want me to. Besides, I didn't even finish it.

Please don't take offense. Not every book is for every reader. I'm sure you know that. You're receiving much acclaim for your skill as a novelist, acknowledgement you well deserve. Congratulations on your success. It's just that this latest work becomes very dark very quickly. I found it oppressive. Horror, explicit crime, and anything that reeks of the occult or guts and gore I quickly exit, if ever I dared to crack it open. It's not that I read only "Christian" fiction, because my tastes do extend into the secular, but anything worth my time needs to respect the Christian world view--and yours does that. Fact is, some Christian fiction, including your book, leads to places I don't want to go.

I respect that many of your readers already are hooked on your genre in its secular form and that you offer an alternative that points to Christ. That's commendable. Nonetheless, I had to close the book and play some traditional jazz on Pandora to escape the thundercloud that threatened to rain down on my head.

While I won't review your book, many faithful readers will, and I'm thankful for that.

Write on!
Because of Christ,
Sharon

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." ~Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)

CRASH THE ROADBLOCK! Six Rules of Brainstorming

Most writers run into roadblocks at one time or another, something that keeps their story from progressing. It may be as simple as trying to come up with a name that's true to the story's era and a character's nature, or it could be more complex, say, a major plot twist that isn't playing out well. At such times, we send out frantic S.O.S. for a little help from our writerly cohorts. Observing a few simple guidelines can make our idea sessions more productive.

Rule One:  Pray. Ask the Lord to make your brainstorming fruitful. Also ask Him to give you wisdom to recognize the best choice from many.

Rule Two:  Be specific about your purpose for brainstorming. Clearly articulate what your need is. If the group starts chasing rabbits, tactfully draw them back to task. 

Rule Three:  Accept all ideas as being equal--yours and others'--no matter how random, wild, far-fetched, bizarre, awkward, or exaggerated, without judging them. No put-downs, rolled eyes, or smirks allowed!

Rule Four:  Allow, indeed encourage, piggybacking! Let one person's idea spark another possible solution. And another. And another. Etc.!

Rule Five:  Understand that as a member of the brainstorming team, once you voice an idea, you relinquish ownership of it. Ideas cannot be copyrighted. You've essentially given it to your friend who sought your help.

Rule Six:  In light of Guideline Five, be courteous. Someone asked for your help, and you agreed to participate. If your idea turns out to be the accepted solution, congratulations! It is considered rude--not illegal, but definitely rude--to snatch back an idea you've tossed into the brainstorming ring and use it yourself in your own writing. If you really want to use it (in a different way), meet privately with the person for whom you were brainstorming, explain your plan, and ask her permission. Once again The Golden Rule rules!

Brainstorming is a pleasurable, productive way to solve problems with your fellow scribes. Keep it friendly and . . .

Write on!
Because of Christ,
Sharon

Watch Your Language, for Jesus' Sake

I just closed the book I am reading to come write this article.

The author is one I’ve read before and liked. I’ve even heard her speak in person. She impressed me favorably. She’s a well-known ACFW member and author of a prodigious number of books—both fiction and non-fiction. Most of her work is published with CBA houses, including the one I’m reading. My guess is that she’s in her forties or early fifties. I would further surmise that her critique partners and editors are under fifty-five.

“What has age to do with it?” you might ask. Perhaps a lot. It might explain some naïveté on the part of younger writers.

It doesn’t take a lot of discernment to realize that slang words and phrases such as gosh, golly, jeez (or geez),  cripes, judas priest, and the like are actually euphemisms for God, Jesus, Christ, and Jesus Christ, and are therefore equally as profane as using the actual names of deity loosely and without reverence—in vain. Other words are fairly obvious: heck, shoot, darn, tarnation (a form of damnation), for example.

Then there are the words that have insinuated themselves into common usage, even among Christians, including the one that prompted this piece. Here’s where age comes into play. I’m over fifty-five; therefore, I remember the original words and their meaning. The enemy has done an excellent job of disguising some of that language—drop a letter here, change a letter there, you get the idea—so that people either really don’t know what they’re saying, have forgotten, or don’t give a hoot. (Did you catch that? Insidious, isn’t it?)

The word that sent me off and writing this is ragging. If you’re about my age, you may be blushing about now. Today it means nagging, giving a hard time, being downright hateful. As a woman might be when she’s on her cycle, which is, by the way, the original meaning. It was meant to be insulting, crass, and vulgar. Do I think for one minute this godly author would have used that word had she known what she was saying? Absolutely not! Further, it was the Christian main character who said it. Ms. Writerly simply didn’t know.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, any slang word beginning with the letter “f” –please don’t make me list them—probably is a euphemism for the great-great-granddaddy of “f” words. Do you really want that in your manuscript? (Side note: when a student would use that ancient word in my English classroom, I assigned them to do a thorough etymological study of the word. That deflated their sails quickly.)

My advice to writers would be this: If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling. Listen to Him. Listen for that still, small voice. He’s really good at waving red flags. Pay heed to those, and “if in doubt, CHECK IT OUT!” Though I don’t recommend it as recreational reading because it has plenty of extremely offensive content by nature of its purpose, urbandictionary.com is a good source.

“. . . keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings . . .”

 ~1 Timothy 6:20

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”  ~Psalm 19:14

Write on!

Because of Christ,

Sharon Kirk Clifton

About Debut Novel UP A RUTTED ROAD

Up a Rutted Road, is available for download through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, Sony, Apple, Diesel, Page Foundry, and Baker & Taylor. It is a middle-grade novel set in eastern Kentucky in 1950.

(Notice: Blogger is playing with the fonts again. I apologize for any reading issues that might cause.)

"I often wished I was a bird and could fly away south. I'd dream of running through tall pasture grass with Elsie Blue at my heels."
~Camie McCain, Chapter 1, "Up a Rutted Road"


 


 

"Uncle Glen had always told me dogs could smell fear. I wondered if roosters could, too." ~Camie, Chapter 2, "The Rooster"

"I hadn't noticed any bad smells coming from the old hermit. To me, he smelled like the woods—like dampness, old leaves, and fresh air. If he took only two baths a year, wouldn't he stink to high Heaven?" ~Camie, Chapter 3, "The Hermit"

Are the rumors about the old hermit true? Does he live in a barrel out in the woods? Does he bathe only once or twice a year? Are "all manner of vermin" swarming through his clothes and long beard, like Aunt Charlene says?

What ever made Claude become a hermit in the first place? Had some woman jilted him? Did someone hurt his feeling real bad? Had he escaped from jail and come to the mountains to hide out? What if he'd murdered somebody?

Can a channel catfish be taught to play catch ball?

What eternal lesson does Camie learn from a locust (cicada)?

How did Uncle Glen come to be such good friends with Claude?

What's it like to live in a wagon on top of a mountain and go to church three times a day every blessit day for a week?

Does God punish you if you pray the wrong way? Is there a "wrong way"? Can people die because of faulty prayers?

Read Up a Rutted Road for the answers to these and other burning questions. 

The Writerly Sisters

I love the final Friday of each month because that's when a handful of writerly sisters converge on my little writer's cave--usually bearing some yummy nibble. We rejoice in one another's triumphs, encourage through disappointments, chat about current projects, brainstorm through writer's roadblocks, and discuss various aspects of our craft.

Please don't get offended, but you're not invited. We decided early on we wanted to keep the group small enough for each writer to get her fair share of the spotlight. We rotate through a schedule of presenters, each month featuring a primary and a secondary writer, The primary has the floor for as long as she needs to share her work, teach a mini-workshop, or discuss some writing-related topic. If time remains, the secondary takes the floor. The next month, that secondary will be the primary, and so we proceed through the rotation. It works well.

Last night, there were four of us; one was out of town. Fifty percent of our number arrived bearing gifts--books, of course! Writerly books! Huzzah! I am now the very proud own of five more volumes: Writing for the Soul by Jerry Jenkins, The Writer's Digest Handbook of Short Story Writing, The Giblin Guide to Writing Children's Books by James Cross Giblin, Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon, and A Home in the Woods: Pioneer Life in Indiana by Howard Johnson. (Thank you, Kathi and Natalie!)

It was my turn at primary. We had a lively discussion about e-publishing vs. traditional publishing.

If you're a writer, I hope you're part of such a group. We'd love to hear about your experience.

Write on!
Because of Christ
Sharon