I will be writing a short story daily on this blog. I want to focus on improving my craft, and I think this will help do that. Please do not hesitate, to give me constructive criticism. I welcome it and am trying to learn as much as I can, from as many people as I can.
Candlewick Falls fans- This is for you.
I am currently working on a totally immersive and interactive blog for the Candlewick Falls. I will be busy creating, https://candlewickfalls.wordpress.com/ the next couple of days.
In this blog- you will find out what happened to Taya. The website will also introduce you to the history and mythology of the town, so that you have a better understanding of the strange things that occur in the town. I will also be writing some short stories, that are about the town. I would like this series to be a fully immersive and interactive experience.
I will continue to maintain this blog, and share with you all the journey of self-publishing.
An update on the print books:
The Book Journal has been formatted properly. It looks good on CreateSpace viewer. I hope it looks just as in print. I will be working on updating the Large Print copy of Unspoken words tomorrow. I will be ordering the proofs tomorrow night, and I hope to have the files approved next week. As soon as they are available, I will let you all know.
Book Release Day is Here!
I am so excited! It’s February 1, 1017 and My debut book Unspoken Words is now available in e-book format on Amazon. Included below is a book trailer, available to watch on YouTube. In the description, under the video- are links to my Amazon Author page, and Goodreads page.
Unspoken Words is free for Amazon Prime members and people who subscribe to the Kindle Unlimited program. If you have neither of those, it is $2.99. The print version should be available for purchase on Amazon, at the end of next week.
Book Trailer
Book Trailer for Unspoken Words.
Available for pre-order here:
Book Release
I am excited to share with you the release of my Novelette, Unspoken Words.
As soon as I review the proofs, if everything looks good; they will be available for purchase.
Price is as follows:
Regular Print- $8.00 USD
LARGE PRINT- $9.00 USD
The Kindle Version is available for pre-order here:
Beta Reading Now in Progress!
Beta Reading for Unspoken Words, is now in progress.
Come check it out! Check out my Author page on Facebook. It is pinned at the top of my blog. Send me a message and I will add you to the group.
Bringing in the New Year
I really don’t get this whole, Goodbye and Good riddance to 2016 thing. I have seen many people posting about how horrible 2016 was for them on Facebook, and I am just not seeing it.
I understand life has ups and downs. We all have good days and bad days- However, I fail to see how life is so horrible. As long as my lungs, have air in them and I am breathing- Isn’t that something amazing? Life is a gift and how rare it is to exist. I think that New Years is like another Thanksgiving- a time for reflection- where we look at all the amazing experiences we have had, and all the experiences to come.
I am thankful most of all for my Family. There are days (the hard days), that I’m not so sure I could get through- if I didn’t have them in my life. My Son- The person that I treasure most in this world. He teaches me to live each day as my last- and to live everyday with joy and happiness in my heart. My Mom and Dad- I love you very much. You are the best Grandparents a little boy could ask for. (…and I thought I was lucky, having you as parents!) To my Friends- for the days I just need some extra support.
All these people give my life meaning. I am so blessed and thankful to have all of them in my life. I am lucky to have a stomach full of food. I am blessed that I have joy and happiness in my heart, that many people could only dream of.
My New Years Resolutions
- To continue to live with a grateful heart.
- To make sure I use the gifts that God has given me
- To change the world with the gifts God has blessed me with.
- To make this world a better place than it was, before I journeyed into it.
If there is anything 2016 has taught me, it is that life is sometimes difficult and frustrating. To combat these aspects of life, one must have meaning and purpose in there life. We must live with joy and gratitude in our heart, like children. Jesus once said, “Let the little children come to me.” Those children are us. It is through reflection, and spending time with my greatest teacher- my Son, that I found the God Given gift that was always in my heart. The gift was the gift of words. It says in Genesis, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” Your words have power. As an Artist- or spiritual being, that is the greatest gift God has given us. We were made in his image- our words give us the ability to create the life we desire. This is life’s greatest secret. It is why I believe being a writer, is one of Gods highest callings. It is also why we need to be careful of what we say, because words really do become things. One thing is certain. Love is the most powerful tool we have been given to choose our words wisely.
I know this drives my Husband crazy, but I always say- “You two choices, always- to love, ot to be angry- Life is really that simple.” If more people chose love, this world would be a whole different place.
My challenge to you this year, is to find what burns in your heart. Then keep doing it. Live like children. All of us are guilty of letting life knock us down and beat us up. We are so busy doing battle, that we forget our entire purpose. Remember, when you where young. You thought you could do anything, and change the world. You still can. You just stopped believing, when people told you that you couldn’t. Remember, words are things. Don’t let the negativity drown out your spirit. The only thing we leave in this world-when we go into a pine box, is what was in our heart.
I can’t wait to see what 2017 holds in store for me. I am going to continue doing the things I love, with the people I love. That is the fun of the Journey.
Write, write, write.
I have always been scared to write. The odd thing is, the more I write the less fearful I become. In evaluating my life, I believe I have figured out where this fear comes from.
The fear comes from people telling me over the years that what I wrote did not matter. That I could never make any money from my passion. Somewhere along the way, I gave up on my dream. I know where. In college.
I was told I was good at taking care of others, so I choose to pursue a career in the health care field. I do not regret it because I feel life is a learning experience and I learned a lot. Most of all I learned from the people that I took care of.
Life is full of disappointment. So you should spend it with someone you love, and doing what you love.
I wish I would have listened to my Grandfather all those years ago. He told me to do what I loved, not what other people told me to do. I listened to what other people told me I was good at doing. I didn’t form an opinion of myself at that age. At 18, I really had not had time to form a strong opinion of my own, so I figured I would listen to those that had formed a strong opinion of me as a person. So, I didn’t listen to that voice inside whispering inside of me.
The started getting louder the day my Son was born.
It started shouting at me the day I collapsed and found out I had a Vestibular disorder.
It woke me up in the middle of the night three and a half weeks ago and wouldn’t let me go back to sleep.
Then, I knew I had to write my ideas for my book down. The ideas have kept pouring in, all day long. Every day since. That voice I have suppressed since I entered college has come back and it shows no signs of going away. The voice that the world tried to beat out of me but couldn’t. That voice that says, Write, write, write. So I listened to it. I picked up my pen and I did.
Seeking Beta Readers
Don’t miss out on this opportunity! I am seeking beta readers for my story Unspoken Words just send me a message on my Facebook Author page, and I will let you know details add you to the beta reading group on Facebook! I am looking for people who had give me some constructive criticism, as this is an experimental novelette, and this whole series is going to be an experiment, as I am trying to redefine the way in which stories can be written. I will be talking about that more in the beta reading group. I look forward to hearing from you.
5 a.m.
Sometimes I can’t sleep. The time I am supposed to be sleeping, is used thinking about what I am writing.
I was up tell 5 a.m. last night, trying to figure out what to do with this Novelette I wrote and am in the process of editing. I took a break from this process of editing to watch one of my favorite movies, Copying Beethoven. It finally hit me with a large whack in the noggin, then I heard this voice in my head, Do something unconventional, like Beethoven did.
Oh my God! That’s it! I though, at 5 a.m., as my Husband and Son were snoring away. I had several novels that I was holding on to. I had not figured out what I was going to do with them. Perhaps, I was holding on to them in hopes that someday I would find a proper place for them. They found their proper place last night.
My short novelette is going to tie into each of my novels. Now I have to go back and change characters names in my Novels and Novelettes, so I can weave the stories together. It will be a tedious task, but one that I am looking forward too, because it is all starting to come together now.
My novelette is very heavy in dialogue, and in my novels I have poetry between each scene or beat, for each emotion. This scares me because my writing is unconventional in every sense, but I feel it has to be to tell the story and for the emotion of the story to come across correctly.
On Thanksgiving I was sharing my Novel idea with my Grandfather. He majored in English Literature and Theatre. He told me he could tell I had a passion for writing. Then, he proceeded to tell me Writing fiction in not easy, because there is a little bit of us in it. There is always truth inside the fiction. I have found this to be true.
I find that sometimes a bit of myself comes through in every piece I write, and I would like to share a bit of that with you from my Novelette, Unspoken Words.
“I FOUND A CERTAIN KIND OF PEACE, in the darkness that helped me to think. It was this peace that allowed my heart to be still, however my mind was not. It is one of the many reasons I have never slept well at night. At night when my mind would not be silent I walked, taking in the stillness and quietness of the night, and I hoped that it would be enough of a distraction to allow my brain to shut up.”
~UNSPOKEN WORDS-Christina Oliver~
It is this same thing that happened to me last night. Everyone was in bed, and I had this idea gnawing at me. The idea had to come out of me before I fell asleep. My brain is never quiet and perhaps that is why I must stay up and write, while the rest of the world sleeps.
Snapshots of a Life 