The other day, I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine about the pros and cons of Facebook. About halfway through the conversation, he asked me how many Facebook friends I have, to which I replied, “A couple hundred.”.

He scoffed and smugly told me that he had over two thousand. At first, a part of me was ashamed. In this social media generation that we live in, I thought it would be nice to have that many network friends. Who wouldn’t, right?

Quietly, I told him that that most of my friends on Facebook are my mother, brothers, and sisters that I have known and loved all my life. My cousins, aunts, and uncles that even though many miles separate us we are still as close as when we were children laughing and playing together. Friends that I went to middle school with, first loves and high school sweethearts that will always have a special place in my heart.

Pastors, preachers, and men of God I have sat under and served our Lord with are also a part of that list. Their wives and children and my extended church family, I have regular conversations with, still picking on each other from time to time.

Over the years, we have shared so many wonderful events in our lives. Together we shed tears of happiness for one another as we celebrated, cheering each other on and tears of sorrow as we poured out love and prayers in times of heartache.

To my amazement, he stood silent for a moment, then apologized to me. His words were sincere when he said that he could not say the same. “Your Facebook friends are far greater than if I had a hundred thousand.”

We had a good laugh together, then went right into a conversation about who was the better president. You can imagine that went well.

Applesauce: Updating Apple Blossoms

Apple Blossoms is constantly changing as it evolves into the book that will one day be published. Covers, characters, and story lines are only a few examples. Now, stronger plot lines will be added to the list.

After very encouraging words from Nancy Lohr, senior editor of Journey Forth Publications (http://www.bjupress.com/books/journeyforth/), and much needed direction from Andrew Toy, editor and co-owner of Endever Publishing (https://adoptingjames.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/3-ways-endever-will-differ-from-other-publishers/), I believe we are ready for the final rewrite and edit.

Several beta readers have written their reviews and Apple Blossoms is getting high marks all around. I would like to personally thank each of you for your contributions to this youth book series.

Our team here is pushing hard to get this book ready for the Carolina Christians Writers Conference (http://www.fbs.org/ministries/special-events/carolina-christian-writers-conference/) in Spartanburg, South Carolina next month. While we are there, we will sit down with Nancy Lohr and several other publishers for some one-on-one face time. If you have never attended a conference for Christian writers, I highly recommend this one for you.

Please keep us in your prayers as we get closer and closer to publication.

Final editing is done…or at least I think it is?

Apple Blossoms has survived its last major professional edit and I would like to personally thank everyone involved in this project. It has been a long and gruelling road down the editing path and is now near completion.

Cover art has been drawn out and decided on and we are now bouncing around some different ideas for title and book names.

January marked the launch of our Facebook page Apple Blossoms  and I welcome each of you to like the page for more about this book series.

The manuscript is now being tested with select beta readers and in return we are asking for comments and a review. If interested in Beta reading this work please email me Johnny Turner at

nadlor@live.com or johnnyrayturner64@gmail.com

Keep in mind that this is fictional Christian writing targeted to youth between the ages of nine to twelve years old and should not be treated any differently.

 

Where to find an Agent or Publisher

     Going into this weekend as my wife and I packed our over night bags, she asked me if I was nervous. She was accompanying me to the Carolina Christian Writers Conference in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

I hoped to take workshops at the conference that would help me prepare my summary and manuscript enough to consider representing it to an agent for publication. I had already submitted a summary and first chapter for a 15 minute critique with a workshop teacher and expected professional feedback to help aid in this process.

I told her that I was not nervous because I did not know what to expect. I had already planned on this trip to be educational and was really looking forward to the workshops. We finished packing and drove to Spartanburg, enjoying the scenery and our time together.

While I may have expected some things as I had been in many conferences over my lifetime, I was not expecting what I found when I walked through the doors to the conference center. Several tables were set up as hundreds of people were congregated in the large forum outside the auditorium preparing for the conference to start.

My wife and I are not shy people so we made ourselves at home talking to others present in small chat before following the crowd into the auditorium for opening ceremonies. During this time around 25-30 Individuals were introduced as published authors, editors, agents and publishers that would be teaching the workshops and readily available for interviews.

I often wondered when the time came to search out an agent or where to find a publisher, how hard it would be. Contrary to popular belief, because of the declining economy, many publishers have removed in house editors and agents. They solely rely on already published authors and editors to be their agents and many come to the conferences for the sole purpose of finding a good story.

If you want to follow traditional publishing venues and want to find an agent or publisher, know that these writer conferences is where they are. They are looking for their next book to publish and you are looking to publish a book. It was easy to sit down and present Apple Blossoms to three different publishers while I was there. I had prepared my manuscript summary and had several copies on hand.

During the opening ceremony the speaker had told everyone gathered that if an agent or publisher is interested in your story they will let you know and if not, they will let you know why. I sat down with three of the markets biggest Christian publishers: Terry Kelly from Lighthouse of the Carolinas, Nancy Lohr of Journey Forth, and Larry Leech – editor and agent. Two of the three liked what they saw and asked for a full proposal with 3-5 sample chapters. The third liked what they saw but were only looking for YA and children’s picture books at this time.

Project Apple Blossoms has taken the next step on its road to publication and beginning April will be in the hands of Rochelle Deans, an editor from here at Word Press.  Once edited and rewritten, a full proposal will be submitted to two interested  publishers  for their consideration. I hope you will follow along on our progress and remember if you are looking for an agent or publisher…

…THEN SIGN UP FOR A WRITERS CONFERENCE!!!

Hello friend,

I decided to take a break from current projects and do a writing prompt from Ryan Lanz’s sight The writers path. Check out his blog at http://ryanlanz.com/author/theryanlanz/ for helpful insight, inspiration and writing tools.

I hope you enjoy the vey short story.

THE VOLCANO 

  Well you know the old saying, Henry thought to himself as he wiped his sweaty brow with dirty, blood stained hands, ‘they say to never look up twice’. He bent over and coughed roughly spitting a long trail of blood onto the fine white sand. The bright crimson was a startling contrast to the almost pure white granules that hungrily absorbed his life’s precious fluid. Henry strained to steady his shaking arms and buckled legs, trying to make sense of the carnage around him.

Beside him an exercise bike lay smoldering half buried in the sand. Lucky that one didn’t hit me, he thought to himself as he shook his head clearing the small pin pricks of light that swirled around his outer peripheral. As his eyes began to focus, his mind began to make sense of the chaos surrounding him.

Henry looked up the beach. Any other time he would have marveled at the tropical paradise. Twenty foot tall palm trees swayed in the gentle sea side breeze and spotted the white sand beach that led up from the crystal blue ocean waves. Rhythmically the waves crested and reached up the beach quickly then slowly retracted back calmly into the ocean. Henry looked at the dense foliage that led inland and took a shallow breath. He could see another male passenger standing diligent with a samurai sword unmoving, guarding the perimeter as if against some unseen foe. Henry could tell by his tattered clothing and blank, expressionless face that the man was still in shock, his mind lost to the terrifying events that had taken place in the last fifteen minutes.

Slowly Henry turned as others crawled or stumbled forward up the beach. Many men and women unaided cried out for loved ones and collapsed on the beach while others offered comfort or medical attention for those in need. Sobbing children lost, stood searching the faces of passerby’s desperately trying to find a familiar face as tears streamed down their cheeks.

Henry followed the trail of bodies back, some alive or dragged dead up the beach, to the shore line where he could see the pilot. The pilot dreadfully reached out pleading for forgiveness from nearby passengers. He received condolence from some while others cursed him for his actions. As a smoldering, half burnt plane ticket floated by, Henry felt the blood in his veins run cold as he looked upon the mangled remains of the 747 passenger airline twisted and on fire twenty yards out on the coral reef.

Still on his knees, Henry turned back around and faced forward as the ground around him shook and heaved more violently than before. He could see and hear the eruptions from the islands very active volcano as it threw hardened lava rock, fire and smoke into the sky. Henry leaned forward and interlaced his fingers together as he closed his eyes. This time he spoke his words out loud hoping to be heard more clearly.

     “Like I was saying, I know they say you should never look up twice, but I was wondering if you could make an exception this time and save us again?”