I Didn't Know That... by Carol Ferguson

 

 We are pleased to have Carol Ferguson as our Guest Blogger today.

I am a member of the Hillcrest Church Tattered Edges Book Club. We meet once a month at the church and decide on a book or two that we will read the following month. Our choices are meant to widen our reading experience and can be fiction, non-fiction, historical, theology or biographies.

We just finished reading I Am Malala and it has made a drastic difference in how I view women of the Middle East. We have also read Snow Child, Summer of Light, Friendship Bread and Orphan Train. Quite a variety and some that stretch our minds.

At the beginning of this year, however, our leader had a new idea. She came up with a list of books for us to read during the year, in addition to our monthly choices. There were no titles on this list, only topics. A few of her suggestions were: a book about slavery; a book written because of 911; a book about Canada; a book about a place you’d like to visit; a book written before 1900.

Quite by accident I found a book written before 1900 at a used book sale at the mall. I had never read and since it was only $2.00 I bought it. From my past experience with Charles Dickens, I expected it to be an interesting, fun and a fairly quick read. I was mistaken. Great Expectations

It was unabridged, three-hundred and eighty pages long and each page double the average number of lines. I found it hard to keep track of all the characters and the plot was involved and convoluted. Then I also kept stopping to consider if a word I had just read really was a word or if Dickens was playing tricks on his reading public.

Out of that book came this blog. Prompt: choose three words you didn’t know before, look up the meaning and use them in your writing. Now that I’ve finished the book it has been placed on my bookshelf with all my other books circumjacent (surrounding it). That word wasn’t even in my fat Gage Canadian Dictionary. I eventually found it in the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary. I am sorry to say that the reading of Charles Dickens Great Expectations has not given me a monomania (obsessive enthusiasm) for historical English literature. Perhaps in years to come I will confute (prove to be false) that statement as I continue to widen my reading experience.

My habit is to write a book report on each book I read and it was difficult to decide exactly how much of Great Expectations to put in my report. Which one thread should I choose that Dickens had woven through the entire story? What was Pip's Great Expectation? I have no idea so maybe someone reading this would please let me know. J

Utopia? by Carol Ferguson

 

 

 

We are pleased to have Carol Ferguson, author and InScribe member, join us as our Guest Blogger today.

I was challenged recently to write in a new genre. Here’s my attempt at Sci Fi set in the year 2065.

STEPPING UP to the security check at the airport, Jan placed her chin on the Eye-dentity scanner bar, then lifted two-year-old, Livvy, until her chin rested on the bar for the two-second scan. The iris had proved to be the most basic source of identity and unalterable. They had not even been allowed to leave the hospital after Livvy’s birth until a tiny DNA chip was imbedded between her wee eyebrows. It was the equivalent of the old fashioned birth certificate. Every person on earth had one and it eliminated all need for tangible identification. Jan was pleased with the advances in society. She didn’t have to carry an old fashioned purse like her great grandma did.

Jan remembered hearing horror stories about the number 666; Satan’s number, being tattooed on people’s foreheads and Jews with identity numbers tattooed on their arms. Those stories died off after that generation died and now no parent questioned the chip. If your child went missing a satellite would pick up their exact location in seconds.

When Eye-dentity scanned Jan’s eyes it also scanned her ID chip and gave her an update. Great grandma had laughed too about a cashless society when coins in Canada were phased out and paper currency replaced with polymer bills. Now all finances were only recorded on a person’s chip, Livvy’s too. After the World Monetary Fund took control, finances worldwide, had slowly been equally distributed and no one could access another’s finances. With everyone on an equal economic basis, crime had been virtually wiped out. Great Grandma would be amazed.

Free universal health care became available when the World Health Organization took total charge and quickly eliminated all infectious diseases and eliminated huge pharmaceutical companies that once used health to create personal wealth.

The Bible was used to finally get a handle on world overpopulation and, at the time, it seemed so logical. God promised man three score years and ten, so now, on a person’s seventieth birthday, they celebrate their life and are put to ‘sleep’ and no one grieved about the process. It was now an accepted concept.

No one on earth went hungry since The World Food Bank took control the world's food supply. Everyone on earth works the same amount of time, has the same amount of vacation and everything needed for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is free, shared worldwide.

Pollution and energy problems disappeared with the total switch to solar and wind power. Stored solar power is used to start a vehicle and once it is moving a small wind turbine under the hood recharges the battery.

Jan breathed a satisfied sigh. She finally understands Utopia. Only once in a great while does she recall hearing a voice from the past asking, “When He returns will He find faith on the earth?” Who is returning and from where?

Hit Or Miss by Carol Ferguson

 

 

 

 

We are so pleased to have Carol Ferguson, author and long-time InScribe member, join us as our Guest Blogger today.

I recently heard the statement, “An idea without a plan is only a wish.” That thought has simmered in my mind ever since. It describes my marketing skills through the years as I wrote short stories, articles, poems, devotionals and books. Yes, books. I have six finished books gracing my shelves plus numerous poems and devotionals. We’re coming into a new year and I’m making a change.

I love to write and have no problem coming up with something to write about. My big problem was that I had no plans for what I was writing. Oh, I poured over the Christian Writer’s Market Guide, stuck little colored dots by the publishers that looked hopeful and sent my manuscripts off, hit or miss.

My first book was a biography about missionary, Hazel Page, who lived in grass huts as she reduced languages to writing, all by hand until electronics caught up to her. I love missionary biographies but they’re not so popular anymore. Niche market, I figured, so I self-published. I was happy with the outcome and sold the book to everyone who knew Hazel. Then I wrote two Biblical fiction books. Niche market, right? I self-published again. My marketing strategy was limited to listing my books in my e-mail signature but I couldn’t afford to self-publish forever.

Moose Jaw, where I now live, is home to the annual Festival of Words. I had never attended until this past summer and it was exciting to meet and listen to successful Canadian authors. I bought books to encourage the authors (I’m a book junkie) and came away determined to write more: an idea without a plan because I had no concrete idea of what to do with what I was churning out.

Another statement that had simmered in my mind for years came from a great musician, Ken Dosso. When he was beginning to write music he was harshly critiqued at a music festival. “This song might mean a lot to you,” the judge told him, “but it means nothing to anyone else.” Harsh? Perhaps, but Ken said that critique changed his life. He went on to write music that stirs everyone’s heart, not just his own.

In one Festival workshop the subject of self-publishing came up. I listened in horror as everyone in the room ranted about how ‘legitimate’ publishers and authors hate self-publishing. I shriveled into myself as they went on and on (not everyone agrees with that point of view), but that was a wake-up call for me. I seriously began to look at my lack of a marketing strategy.

Blogging was a good place to start. I took my list of books off my e-mail signature and replaced it with my blog spot. I found the Christian Manuscript Submission Services online and learned how to write a book proposal. Who ever said to keep it short? All my proposals had been short and as a result didn’t contain much worthwhile information. Part of my learning process was to describe the psycho-graphics and demographics of my primary, secondary and tertiary audiences. Come again! What on earth was that? I had to go to the dictionary to find out. My grandson, who has a marketing degree, said to me, “Welcome to the world of marketing, Grandma.”

I finished my book proposal, submitted it and for six months my book is being recommended by the CMSS for publishers to check out. It’s a start. No more hit and miss for me. New Year, new marketing strategy!


Visit Great Canadian Authors for more information about Carol and the books she's had published.