Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Character growth is good. Reader growth is better.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Writing gives our mind a chance to look in a mirror.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Every story has an emotional soundtrack which provides the real reason why readers read the book.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“The writer’s voice is but a siren call capable of capturing the affections of the innocent reader but, if truth be told, it is the writer’s taste and after-taste, wherein the writer’s heart is exposed.”   Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Beautiful writing is only skin deep.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Writing a story starts like a block of granite. The story is already inside us. All we have to do is chip away the nonessentials.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

Anais Nin 1903 - 1977

"There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person."-Anais Nin 

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

"You have my character
all wrong!"

“I don’t psychoanalyze my characters. I just give them the proper motivation and they necessarily do what the story calls for.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

Doing Makes It So

“I almost never feel like writing until after I start writing. The spirit doesn’t move me. I move the spirit.”  Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

This is the POV center

“An example of great fiction is the idea that there is such a thing as the ‘writing life’.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“I just wish ‘method’ writers, (those who have to be depressed in order to write about a depressed person), would learn how to write and make life easier for themselves and everyone else around them.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Rules for writing are like rules for thinking freely.” Vince Mooney



Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“The working title of all my books, which appears at the top of every page, is always: “Why Would Anyone Pay Money To Read This?” Vince Mooney

Veteran’s Day Blog Appearance at “Seasons of Humility”

I’ll Be Blogging Today at “Seasons of Humility” on the Topic of “What I Wish Romance Writers Knew About the Military”.

If You Can Drop By, Please Say Hello. “Seasons of Humility” is a Very Military-Friendly Site.



Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Even in little stories, writers should write about something bigger than themselves.”

Vince Mooney

This Year’s #1 Feel Good Christmas Book! Next Year it Should be on TV!

What if “The Gift of the Magi”  Could have had a gloriously happy ending?  

What if the roots of the story ran so deep that it read like a 19^th century midwestern farm family diary? 

That would make it, “The Sweetest Gift!”

 

Where O. Henry was after irony, O! Connealy delivers “The Sweetest Gift” – a feel good Christmas tale that will make you smile clear through the Holidays. 

Frankly, I’m Christmas-green with envy!  First, I would not have dared to challenge this classic theme and second, if I did, I wouldn’t have figured out how to do it and still produce such a happy ending! 

I think Mary Connealy is an author too creative for her genre.  She writes Americana and would be right at home working besides Mark Twain.  This novella does a hundred things extremely well. The motivation is amazing.

In just a few pages I found it totally believable that Graham and Addie would have agreed to their sight-unseen marriage of convenience. The motiation comes from all sides and every direction. All the rustic details are so vivid the reader can only conclude that the author is a Nebraska farm wife herself. (Which she is). Indeed, many of the incidents in the story are part of her family heritage. 

All this only explains the 19^th Century realism, however; it doesn’t explain the creativity! That’s just something that happens. Can one explain Mark Twain, James Thurber, or Will Rogers? I can’t. But I can sure enjoy their work. 

"The Sweetest Gift" is a novella. It’s really a short novel with ten fully developed chapters and a very pleasing Epilogue. The story takes place in 1899, mostly on a Nebraska farm. The heroine is a somewhat spoiled, college educated, world traveler, who is an accomplished pianist with a Master’s degree and a job as a librarian.  She is also a shade away from spinsterhood!  The arranged husband is a Nebraskan farmer with an eight grade education – (back when an eight grade education meant something.) 

The plot is so well motivated and researched that the story seems to be inevitably true rather than being fanciful fiction. You 'll just have to read it.  I'd say this is the best Christmas book of the year for other writers to read! Learning has never been so entertaining.

“The Sweetest Gift” is part of a dual Novella eBook. The second story, “A Christmas Angel”, is by Robin Lee Hatcher. I have read it too is a 5-star Christmas feel good joy.  The cost for both is only .99!  That's Amazing!

 

This Year’s #1 Feel Good Christmas Book!  Next Year it Should be on TV!

I can rope, too!

Famous Writing Quote of the Day



The key is OIR:

Objective -Incentive - Resistance

"I don’t expect writing workshops to teach me anything I don't already know. What I expect is something to happen that causes me to think in new and different ways."

Vince Mooney



Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Romance is the poetry of events.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

"Use the 'Black Moment'
as a call to action."

“I’ve noticed that one of the problems with romance novels is that too many young women think they are 'how-to' books.”    Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

"It was a bright and sunny day."

“It’s much easier to teach a storyteller how to write than it is to teach a writer how to be a storyteller.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Romance writing trends are a flashy distraction.  While trends often change with the capricious winds, ninety percent of Romance sales always come from the same ‘bread and butter’ sources. Like a great river, the bulk of sales will forever flow with the main current.” Vince Mooney



Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Readers will forgive a lot if they like the story and little if they don’t.”   Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Books of the heart are the most likely to be written and the least likely to be published.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

“Writing well does not sell books. Writing saleable stories, does.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

That's fast!

“Today novels are written in a month, e-published in a fortnight, downloaded in a heartbeat, read in an afternoon and forgotten in an hour.”  Vince Mooney