I did it! I moved my blog to WordPress!
Here is my new address.
https://nadinerothblog.wordpress.com/
Please bookmark me at my new home!
~Nadine
P.S. We're no longer Nadine's Notions. Just "Nadine Roth"
:)
Nadine's Notions
Nadine Roth. Writing about writing, books, and life.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
2018: Time for a (blog) Change?
I've been toying with the idea of moving my blog from Blogger to WordPress for a long time now. I'm not happy with how difficult it is for my readers to comment (communicate) with me on Blogger.
If you could, I would like to you ask me a question about reading or writing.
Please click below to jump to my new blog address:
nadinerothblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/02/here-i-come-2018/
Please let me know if you can easily comment to this post on WordPress.
As always,
Until next time,
Be good to yourself.
~Nadine
If you could, I would like to you ask me a question about reading or writing.
Please click below to jump to my new blog address:
nadinerothblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/02/here-i-come-2018/
Please let me know if you can easily comment to this post on WordPress.
As always,
Until next time,
Be good to yourself.
~Nadine
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Hiring an Editor: Take Two
As you may know, I was
ripped off by a so-called editor back in September. I was premature in writing
about hiring her. Once bitten, twice shy, as the saying goes. When I went
looking for a new editor, I didn’t check out her editor web page exclusively,
like I did the first gal. This time, I looked at all of her social media
outlets. Had I done that with my first editor, I would have figured out she was
a crack-pot pretty quickly.
But this post isn’t about
getting burned and learning a lesson, this post is about My Editor. This time, I
hit the jackpot! Five Stars. A+.
The service I hired her for was to
provide an Editorial Letter for my manuscript. This means she reads the story
and tells me what parts work well and what needs work. I was
blown away at the thoroughness of her notations and her understanding of my
story!
The editorial letter is eight pages long. She provided an
overview of the story (spot on), talked about the setting and some things I
could do to make improvements, as well as character POV (point of view), the supernatural
elements in the story, backstory, and she also addressed the flashback scenes.
THEN, she broke it all down,
chapter-by-chapter! She answered questions I had thought of myself and she gave
me a few alternate plot ideas, as well as a load of other thoughtful
considerations.
And the best part? My story doesn’t suck.
This is how I know:My editor said, “This
is an interesting take on time/space travel, incorporating themes of love,
family, loneliness, and belonging, all around the unique setting of tattoo
artistry.”
And this: “Toward the end of the story, in
Chapter 39, there is a lovely echo to Otto’s flashbacks of his childhood, when
he tells Hazel it’s better to be adopted into a loving family than to be raised
by a hateful one.”
One more: “Overall, I think the structure of your story and the
character arcs that you explore work very well. Since the manuscript is on the
light side at 55,000 words, you do have room to explore several scenes more
deeply, to fully flesh out Otto’s and Hazel’s thoughts, and their growing
feelings for one another. It is a beautiful story about finding love and
belonging, and I enjoy the supernatural twist that keeps the mystery going
until the end.”
Remember friends, the editorial
letter is eight pages long. It is chock full of suggestions to make my story
stronger, richer. And I’m going to comb through that document and do everything
I can to make THE INK OF TIME the very best story I can.
In the New Year I envision
another run with this editor, an appointment with my awesome cover designer,
and exploring publication options. Stick with me. It’s getting real now!
Happy New Year!
Until Next Time,
Be good to yourself,
~Nadine
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
On The Fifth Day of Christmas
Image courtesy of Google. |
On the fifth day before
Christmas my true love gave to me, Five Golden Rings….
ZZZZEEERRRRP! (record scratch sound) Wait. What? What kind of rings?
Well if they’re from my true
love at Christmas time they would be these five things, err, rings:
1.
Family. Family is what it’s all about. Family
makes us strong, brave, and compassionate. Family holds our hands through the
good and the bad. Family helps us be better people than we would be without
them. Family equals love. And love is everything because God is Love.
Image courtesy of Google. |
2. Faith. Faith has so many layers. Have faith in yourself that you can achieve
your goals, or at least conquer your biggest hurdles- which in and of itself is
a pretty satisfying goal. Have faith in others, in human-kind. Not all people
are bad, in fact most are good. We just hear more about the bad. (And remember,
those bad people probably have grandmas who are praying for them.) Faith in God
the Father. Without faith in the guidance from a higher power (whatever yours
may be), life would be a bit “pin-bally”/ without direction.
3. Friends:Sometimes, if you're really lucky, you have good friends who become family. We are blessed with fabulous friends!
Photo by Tim. Woodshed built? Check! Logs cut? Check! |
4.
Hard Work: It’s the only satisfying way to get
what you want and what you need. As my
true love would say, “If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it.” And, "If it was easy, anyone could do it." He’s so right. Work hard in your relationships, in your education, in your career, and, of course, to meet your dreams.
Make the world a better place by planting a garden. |
5.
Appreciation of our home: Look around at this
beautiful Earth, be it the blue skies and green fields of Iowa, the turquoise waters
of the Caribbean, or the rugged mountains of Colorado. Take time to appreciate
a violet sunset, stars in the night sky, and the soaring beauty of an Eagle.
Celebrate the plants and animals in your own back yard that go through the cycle of life
every year. Don’t take this home for granted.
Photo by Tim. Okoboji sunset |
Photo by Tim. Sunrise over the lake. |
Photo by Tim. The moon rises over the woods. |
These five things. They’re IT. They’re all we need.
Merry Christmas and Peace to all.
Until next time,
Be Good to Yourself,
~Nadine
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Artemis, by Andy Weir: A Review
Image courtesy of Google |
Did Andy Weir’s creative mojo weaken when he joined the Big
5 Publishing Machine? Is publishing in New York City his kryptonite? For sure, it’s hard
to follow The Martian. It became an
on-line sensation that was noticed by publishers and movie-makers. But still, I
know Mr. Weir has better chops that this.
I had high hopes for this novel. I absolutely loved the map
of the moon colony at the front of the book, it stoked my imagination! Sadly,
this book was lacking in so many ways. Just so you know, I’m going to talk
about that now. Spoiler alert!
Jazz, the main character in this story is a petty outlaw. A
smuggler. She’s estranged from her dad, a renowned welder. She’s promiscuous
and impulsive. But why? We know that she and her boyfriend accidentally burned down her dad’s shop- thus the estrangement- but we never learn why she’s such a
Bad Girl.
Courtesy of Google Images |
She has a pen pal on Earth named Kelvin (clever!). I though her
backstory would develop through the letters they sent back and forth, they
started out that way, but fizzled. Kelvin’s character became mainly her
smuggling/scheming partner. As I’ve talked about before, every story has a
back-story. Our past is what makes us who we are and what we do in the present.
I didn’t know what made Jazz tick, so I
didn’t really care about her. Story death. Big time. (Story Genius by Lisa Cron.)
Other things that bothered me include several characters “pinched
his/her chin…” What’s that all about? I believe in each scene, the character
was thinking, but it’s awkward that at least three different characters did it.
I understand if it’s one character’s tendency, it shows a bit of their personality,
but it’s not o.k. for several characters to “chin pinch.”
Jazz’s friend, Svoboda, talked in exclamation points! Everything
he said ended in an exclamation point! Most writers understand that exclamation
points should be used sparingly! This story read like a young adult or juvenile
story. It was written in first person, like The
Martian was, but it lacked maturity. Every time Jazz talked to me, the reader,
I was pulled out of the story. Again, story death.
Like The Martian,
there was lots of chemical, sciency stuff that went over my head in Artemis. However, in Weir’s first novel,
that stuff was explained better. In that
book, I could see the technology in my mind. I this book, I could not
visualize so many, too many, things.
Overall, the characters were underdeveloped, making me not
really care about them. The premise of the story was all about being
underhanded- by accident they learned their underhandedness was against
organized crime, and in the end Jazz talked herself out of being deported by convincing
the Powers-That-Be that her monopoly and personal ‘community first’ stance in smuggling
was what kept their colony free from drugs, gangs, and crime, and if she was
deported to Earth, who knows what kind of smuggler would take her place? Give
me a break.
Sorry Andy.
Until next time,
Be Good To Yourself.
~Nadine
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
The Greatest Man I Never Knew by Reba McEntire
"The greatest man I never knew lived just down the hall,
and ev'ry day we said hello but never touched at all.
He was in his paper. I was in my room...
and ev'ry day we said hello but never touched at all.
He was in his paper. I was in my room...
The greatest man I never knew came home late ev'ry night,
He never had to much to say. Too much was on his mind.
I never really knew him, oh and now it seems so sad.
Ev'rything he gave to us took all he had.
He never had to much to say. Too much was on his mind.
I never really knew him, oh and now it seems so sad.
Ev'rything he gave to us took all he had.
Then the days turned into years, and the mem'ries to black and white.He grew cold like an old winter wind blowing across my life..."
Friends, mend your fences. Rebuild that burned bridge. Swallow your pride. Bite your lip and kick yourself in the pants.
~Nadine
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Ezra Jack Keats: Visionary
Last week I stopped to get some postage stamps. As always,
the display showed a wide variety of beautiful stamps available for purchase. I’ve
always liked stamps, and in the past couple of years, there have been some
stellar subjects to selection from. Imagine my joy when I saw Peter of The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats,
playing in the snow. A children’s book on stamps? Oh yeah, those were the ones for
me.
I love Ezra Jack Keats books for the same reason I love The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton.
I grew up and learned to read in the Dick and Jane era. In
those books, the world was perfect. The children wore nice, church-type
clothes, even when they were playing outside. They had shiny new toys, and never got into trouble. The grass was manicured and the houses were
perfect. I thought that was the way of the world, except for in my
neighborhood.
A scene from Goggles! by Ezra Jack Keats |
Ezra Jack Keats introduced me to Peter’s neighborhood and it
was worse than mine. Peter lived and played in a run-down part of a big city. Pollution and graffiti were a part of Peter’s world. I loved the stories, because, even though
Peter lived in a less-than-desirable place, he still had friends and adventures
and problems that needed solved. He was kind and thoughtful and I could relate to him.
Now that I'm older, I realize what a visionary E.J. Keats was. His main
character was a boy of color in the turbulent early 1960’s! He also broached subjects that other children’s
authors, at the time, did not.
Louie is mesmerized by Gussie, the green puppet. Image courtesy of Goodreads.com |
In his
book, Louie, a little boy does not
speak. Ever. The other children shy away from him because he's different. But
then something magical happens. When Louie shows his love of a puppet named
Gussie, the other children realize Louie is like them and needs is a friend,too.
In Goggles, Peter and his best friend, Archie, have to outsmart the neighborhood big boys (aka bullies) to get back a prized possession.
Of
course Keats’ stories delight, too. Such is the joy in the peace and beauty of
new-fallen snow, or learning to help out with a new baby sister, or taking your
pet to a pet show and winning a prize, or learning how to whistle for your dog.
Good stuff.
Look who just arrived in the mail! |
Until next time,
Be Good to Yourself.
~Nadine
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