Selling Hope & the Wednesday Writers

Three years ago, something wonderful happened. I got stuck in line. Actually I was stuck in line for the ladies’ restroom at a writers’ conference (a common occurrence). I spoke to the woman in front of me and told her I was new to the Nashville area. Her name was Jennifer Lambe. I asked if she might be interested in getting together for coffee and maybe a little manuscript critiquing. She said yes! When we returned to the auditorium, she introduced me to another writer, Kristin O’Donnell Tubb. Kristin said she would be interested in the coffee and the manuscript critiques, too. I met another writer, Hannah Dills, at an RWA chapter meeting and she wasn’t interested in coffee, but she was definitely interested in manuscript critiques. So the Wednesday Writers started meeting for coffee (and tea) and we started critiquing manuscripts.

One of the first manuscripts we critiqued is in bookstores today! It’s Selling Hope by Kristin O’Donnell Tubb. Here’s the blurb:

It’s May 1910, and Halley’s Comet is due to pass thru the Earth’s atmosphere. And thirteen-year-old Hope McDaniels and her father are due to pass through their hometown of Chicago with their ragtag vaudeville troupe. Hope wants out of vaudeville, and longs for a “normal” life—or as normal as life can be without her mother, who died five years before. Hope sees an opportunity: She invents “anti-comet” pills to sell to the working-class customers desperate for protection. Soon, she’s joined by a fellow troupe member, young Buster Keaton, and the two of them start to make good money. And just when Hope thinks she has all the answers, she has to decide: What is family? Where is home?

Congratulations Kristin!

SCBWI Midsouth Conference Blog

I'm blogging with the SCBWI-Midsouth Conference blog team this weekend. Check it out here.

Skip a Starbucks Day for Johanna Faith

I love writing. I enjoy attending writers’ conferences and groups to study the craft of writing. And I like the free book giveaways, too. But the biggest blessing of my writing journey is the friends I’ve made. One of those friends is C.J. Redwine. Today on the blog I’m asking you to join me in helping C.J. bring her adopted daughter home from China. To read more about the Redwine’s adoption story and to help bring Johannah Faith home, please click here today through Wednesday, August 25.

Please leave a comment on this blog before clicking through to donate at C.J.’s site and one of you will win a Percy Jackson Prize Pack! This includes Percy Jackson and the Olympians 3 Volume Boxed Set (paperback edition) and Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief DVD.

Thank you for participating.

RWA Conference

The 30th annual Romance Writers of America conference starts tomorrow in Orlando, Florida. I’ll be there along with 2,000 other romance writers. I look forward to the workshops, seeing old friends, and meeting some new ones in the Young Adult RWA chapter.

I’ll post more info here later. You can also follow along on my twitter feed here.

The Long Players: The Music Version of Fan Fiction

Fan fiction is a story written by a fan about favorite characters created by someone else. Some of the most popular fan fiction on the web expands on the worlds of Harry Potter and Star Trek. I have heard editors at writers’ conferences say they have found authors through fan fiction sites, loved their writing and signed them. But I think most fan fiction writers do it because they love the original characters and want to spend more time with them.

There is a band in Nashville that does something I consider to be a form of fan fiction for the classic rock album. But The Long Players are not newbies starting out. They are extremely talented, successful Nashville musicians who love classic rock. They perform one album (Long Play album) on a semi-monthly basis start to finish, with rotating vocalists stepping up to the mike. At a show, you can hear famous musicians and some you’ve never heard of, but they’re all fantastic.

Last night, I attended The Long Player’s 40^th show where they played U2’s The Joshua Tree album, one of my favorites so far. For history and videos of past shows and info on upcoming dates, visit their site here.

Percy & The Parthenon

I recently finished reading the last book in the Percy Jackson series. I loved this series from book one as I mentioned in an earlier blog. Nashville’s Parthenon was featured in a scene in the Percy Jackson movie, The Lightning Thief (but not in the book).

I hear that the Parthenon’s tourist traffic has increased due to this moment in the spotlight. I visited the Parthenon recently and want to share some fun facts and photos here.

The Parthenon sits in Nashville’s Centennial Park. It is a full-scale replica of the ancient temple of Athena in Athens, Greece that was destroyed in 1687. Nashville’s Parthenon was built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. The building housed an art exhibition that was shown four years before at the Chicago World’s Fair. The Parthenon was built of temporary materials so unfortunately the building began to deteriorate. It was rebuilt in 1920 and opened to the public in 1931.

The ancient Parthenon was converted to a Christian church in the 6^th century A.D. and many of the figures representing gods and goddesses were removed. No one knows for sure how many figures were on the original Parthenon. Figures in the Nashville Parthenon are casts made from the original sculpture fragments of the ancient Parthenon. Those sculpture fragments are located in the British museum.

The Parthenon houses a full-scale replica of Athena standing 41 feet 10 inches tall. Work began on the statue in 1982 and it was unveiled in 1990.

For more info on the Parthenon’s hours and its history, visit the site.

Photos by: John A. Parker

Live from Nashville

Last night I took the family to Music City Roots, a live radio show broadcast weekly from the Loveless Barn. A trip to see and hear Music City Roots live and in person involves some of my favorite things, live music and driving on the Natchez Trace Parkway for a bit (the Loveless Barn is located just off the northern edge of the parkway). We also threw in dinner at the Loveless Café, a Parker ritual after a trip on the Trace.

Last night’s performers were:

Ray Wylie Hubbard

Jessica Stiles

Dana Cooper

Two Man Gentleman Band

Jim Lauderdale

Music City Roots is broadcast on WSM 650 AM, the same station that is home to the weekly Grand Ole Opry radio show. Music City Roots is in its first year of life and I have heard it referred to as the Baby Opry. At $10 for grown-ups and $5 for students, you can’t beat this value for live roots music.

If you are not in the Nashville area, you can listen to Music City Roots each Wednesday at 7:00 pm CST online.

I plan to go to another show, hear more music, and buy the t-shirt.