Fiction

Truth and the Tepawani – Discussion and Activity Guide

December 3, 2019 by Carey Jane Clark

Truth and the Tepawani, the first in the Amazon Adventures series, has been released! The idea for the story began after watching the video “Dinosaurs and Dragon Legends” at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. It began the way every good story begins, with the question, “What if …”

What if someone found a real living dinosaur today? How would the scientific community respond?

I couldn’t let the idea go. It followed me all the way back to Canada, where we’re from, and then to China, where we live.

When I did a little research, I discovered that these kinds of creatures have indeed been spotted in remote areas of the world. I read about missionaries in different countries who had seen these creatures themselves and lived among aboriginals with elaborate stories of their interaction with their people.

To make sure the details of Derek’s story were realistic, I read the blog of a missionary whose family had lived in the Amazon, just like the Haywards. My children and I also read some biographies of people who worked and lived in these kinds of cultures.

This is the first in a series of blog posts with behind-the-scenes information about the book as well as discussion questions and activities parents and kids can engage in together to accompany the novel. If you’re homeschooling your kids and are looking for extra educational experiences to supplement the book or just want to enrich your reading experience, you’ve found the right place.

When the blog series is complete, I’ll be publishing the entire series as an ebook, available for free to subscribers to the Adventure Club Newsletter.

To buy your copy of Truth and the Tepawani, click here.

The Beloved Daughter Audiobook Launch

November 8, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

One of the loveliest things about this journey into authorhood has definitely been all the wonderful friendships I’ve made with fellow authors. I “met” Alana Terry on Twitter. We struck up a friendship because of our mutual interests: writing and homeschooling. (Yes there are a few others out there crazy enough to try to do both at the same time!)

Today I’m hosting Alana as part of the blog tour for The Beloved Daughter audiobook launch! Alana Terry is an award-winning author. Earlier this year, I downloaded The Beloved Daughter for my Kindle, and it quickly became one of my favorite reads of 2013: a poignant story, beautifully told, with descriptions that have you jumping right into the story.

The Beloved Daughter, an inspirational suspense novel, is a story of persecution and triumph set in the oppressive North Korean regime. The audiobook version of Alana’s bestselling debut novel is narrated by Kathy Garver, a four-time Audie award winner and Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the Motion Picture Council. (You might also recognize Kathy as Cissy from the TV show Family Affair.)

Listen to a sample of Kathy reading from The Beloved Daughter.

The Beloved Daughter

Synopsis: In a small North Korean village, a young girl struggles to survive. It is her father’s faith, not the famine of North Hamyong Province, that most threatens Chung-Cha’s well-being. The Beloved Daughter follows Chung-Cha into one of the most notorious prison camps the contemporary free world has known. Her crime? Being the daughter of a Christian.

Join the giveaway

Acclaim:

*Winner, Women of Faith Writing Contest

*1st Place, Book Club Network Book of the Month

*Amazon Bestseller (#5 Christian Suspense)

Reviews:

“…an engaging plot that reads like a story out of today’s headlines…” ~ Women of Faith Writing Contest

“Alana is a master storyteller, and I can’t imagine anyone failing to be
captivated by this harrowing tale. What we have here is a compelling
story, but it’s also one of great importance.” ~ Brad Francis, Author of The Savvy Demon’s Guide to Godly Living

“The Beloved Daughter is a beautifully written story that is…both personal and representative of the challenges that many North Koreans still face today.” ~ Sarah Palmer, Rescue Team Coordinator at Liberty in North Korea

“The author does a phenomenal job… HIGHLY RECOMMENDED – but have tissues handy.” ~ Pauline Creeden, Editor AltWit Press

Order your own copy of The Beloved Daughter.

Awesome Prizes!

You don’t want to miss out on the month-long Beloved Daughter audiobook launch party. See the Alana Terry facebook page to get started. Multiple winners every week … Hundreds of $$$-worth in prizes!

ENTER THE DRAWING: In addition to the Facebook party, you can enter the grand prize drawing below for a chance to win a $100 gift card to either Target or Amazon (you choose!), or one of the awesome prizes from the prize gallery (think Christian T-shirts, jewelry, books, CDs, lotions, and more)!

SEE THE AUDIOBOOK HERE

SEE THE PAPERBACK HERE

SEE THE EBOOK HERE

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The Power of Poetry

October 16, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

When I was a kid, I loved poetry. I still remember a poem that was one of my favorites as a child. It actually features in my work in progress. The main character is reciting it on her way home from school, partly to ward off her fear of walking home alone.

Here is that poem, being recited by the poet himself.

There are a lot of things I feel were substandard about my own education, but the instilling of the love of poetry is not one of them. I was encouraged to keep anthologies of my favorite poems—a part of the curriculum I adored. And somewhere along the line, I fell in love with the poetry of Robert Frost. I can still recite one or two of my favorites.

Not everyone is into poetry, and I get that. But poetry actually has a number of benefits that make the love of it something worth pursuing.

Why Poetry is Important

While memorization has all but fallen by the wayside in educational circles today, there is a reason it formed the basis of education in years past: it worked. It worked and it developed children’s brains in a positive way. I won’t reinvent the wheel here. Andrew Padewa has an excellent audio presentation about the value of learning poetry and how to do it right that I highly recommend.

Here are a few great reasons I believe it’s important to learn poetry:

It neurologically grows the brain – The act of memorizing–anything–creates a neurological framework that helps the brain learn. This is one reason that music and drama students perform higher on tests like the SAT.
Poetry is easy to memorize – If you’re going to memorize something, poetry makes a good candidate because it’s easier to internalize. The rhythms and rhyme make them easier to remember. This is one of the reasons we teach our children nursery rhymes.
It’s engaging for children—of all ages – Children respond naturally to poetry. Like songs, poetry appeals to their sense of fun.
Learning poetry stores a sense of the beauty of language – One thing I’ve been consistently told about my writing is that I write “poetically.” While this comment at first baffled me, I now credit that propensity to the large amounts of poetry I learned as a child, and the love I acquired for it. Most people will recommend that in order to develop an appreciation of literature and an ability to produce it you should read, read, read. I don’t argue with this assertion, but I would add to it the recommendation that you read poetry. Its rhythms and cadence stay with you.
It expands vocabulary – Because poets have to stretch the language in order to accommodate the constricts of rhythm and rhyme, they employ a high proportion of higher-level vocabulary. In a short poem, you are likely to encounter several words your children have never heard before.
Poetry affects the brain like music – This is actually a somewhat common-sense finding, but scientists nevertheless did a study about it. They employed brain scans to observe people’s brains as they read poetry. What they noticed was that the poetry accessed areas of the brain related to numerous different areas: the reading part of the brain was activated, of course, but so were emotional centers, centers for introspection, memory (if the poem had previously been memorized) as well as centers normally responsible for our response to music. In short, poetry is some powerful stuff!

But what if you still don’t “get” poetry?

Mensa Kids’ “A Year of Living Poetically,” has a valuable introduction on how to enjoy and learn a poem. It’s a great place to start.

Do you enjoy poetry? Do you have a favorite poem?

How to Write a Novel in Under Seven Years

September 29, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

After the Snow Falls took me seven years to write.

To be fair to myself, I wrote that story through the toddlerhood of one child, the birth of another, a move to China and all that those stages of our lives entailed. I wrote while being all the things that motherhood means, plus homeschooling my children.

And writing a first novel is a whole different ball game than writing a second. I cut my writing teeth on that novel. Dare I tell you just how little I knew about writing when I began? Okay, I dare: the idea of writing conflict into each and every scene was a revelation to me. I received said revelation at a writer’s conference, several months into the writing and it meant a rewrite right from scratch. The first of a few rewrites.

Fast forward to now, my first published novel under my belt, working on my third novel. While I’m focusing on What the Girl Knew right now, I have another novel in my back pocket that’s almost finished–just needing some revision and beefing up before I’m ready to send it out into the world. It, however, is a novel for children, and I’m determined to release my next adult read first.

That second novel was mostly written during NaNoWriMo last year, and it was part of the next big revelation in my writing career: that a novel can be written in under seven years.

“So, When Will Your Next Book be Released?”

During the release of After the Snow Falls, I received that inevitable question from bloggers and friends who were interested in my future writing goals: when does the next book come out? The next book? I wasn’t even certain there would be a next book. I wanted there to be. I hoped there would be, but that seven year thing just hung over my head, making that dream seem pretty far away.

The Secret to Finishing a Novel

I finally learned the secret every good writer knows and tries to pass on. The key to finishing a novel is to write. Write every day. Write even when you don’t feel like it. Write even when you’re convinced it’s garbage. Write. Every. Day.

When I finally gave up all the excuses I had for not doing what good writers suggested, I decided I needed the tool those good writers recommend: a word count spreadsheet. The good news for you is I’m going to share my spreadsheet with you right here in this blog post. Did you know that by writing 750 words per day with one day off per week, it’s possible to finish a 100,000 word novel in just six months? That’s the goal this spreadsheet is set up for.

So When will YOUR next Novel be Released?

Want to know how long it would take you to finish a novel if you wrote 750 words every day, starting today? Here’s a little math: 100,000 divided by 750 comes to 133.333333333. But that doesn’t give you any days of rest. Adding in one day of rest per week, you have approximately 26 weeks (half a year), or 182 days. Plug in that information to this calculator, and it will tell you the exact day you’ll write the last word of your first draft.

What I’ve learned in this process is that once the writing pump is primed, I just want to keep on writing. Some weeks I’ve been forced to take a day off when I didn’t plan it–when we had guests, for example, and I couldn’t be rude and hole myself up in a room somewhere. And my scheduled days of rest have often become my most productive writing days, perhaps because writing doesn’t feel like work, it feels like fun! Often, I’ll blow right past that 750 word goal.

The Best Time to Write

When do I write, you might ask? I seem to be able to write fiction best first thing in the morning, and non-fiction in the evening. I know. I’m weird. I embrace it.

I do have a tip to pass on. Since I want to be able to just sit down and write “on command” during my writing time, I try to solve any research issues or quandries about which direction I’m going in a scene the day or the night before. If I haven’t been able to do that, I employ my secret writer’s-block-busting strategy the moment I sit down to write. I even plan for it. I leave my computer open to Scrivener (my writing program) and a browser window open to 750words.com, so I’m not tempted to do anything else but write when it’s time to write.

Bust the Writer’s Block Myth

What is that writer’s-block-busting strategy? I mention it in this post.

Writing every day has set me free as a writer. I’m a little behind schedule because I took some time off this week to work on editing something, but I’m still on track for an early-in-the-new-year completion date, with 25% of the story completed at the time of this writing. (For my progress, check the sidebar progress bars.)

So without any further ado, here’s the bonus for you:

Word Count Tracker (Excel format)

A few quick notes: this word count tracker is designed to begin on September 30 (that’s tomorrow), which has you finishing at the end of March, 2014, but change the first date, and the rest of the dates will automatically adjust. Because the tracker is in Excel spreadsheet format, there are formulas in some of the columns. Be careful what you delete, or you may delete the formula that makes that column work. This is NOT true of any of the columns where daily word count is recorded.

Some more notes: There are columns to calculate your weekly total, grand total and percent complete, in case you want to use a word count progress bar like the one in my sidebar, available here. There is also a space for “notes” where you may want to note life events that have an impact on your word goals like a sick child, house guests, holidays, etc. You could also use this space to record experiments with productivity: try listening to music, using a timer or drinking coffee to see if these activities have any effect on your word count goals and record those variables in this space. Or you could use the space to record how long it took you each day to achieve your word count goals to see if you are gaining momentum with your writing.

Enjoy! May you write your novel in under seven years!