This week's host: Jennifer Slattery
Our month long clash continues. I have been impressed by the quality of writing our unpubb'ed have produced! As is often the case, both competing excerpts were phenomenal, but unfortunately, only one can advance to the final round. Today we reveal our latest runner up. Our winner will remain anonymous and will advance to the next round. On Monday, the finaling excerpts will be posted for the final round.
I know what you're thinking...get on with it already.
The runner up is excerpt F, which belongs to...
Donna Fawcet, writing as Donna Dawson!
Donna Fawcett is a creative writing instructor at a local college in Ontario, Canada and an award winning writer. She writes romance, mystery, suspense and thriller novels. She is also a freelance writer and has been published in national and international magazines. Donna loves to run, garden and bore people with completely useless pieces of information she has gleaned from history books. She is a professional member of The Word Guild, Canada’s largest writing guild for Christians. She is a wife, mother and grandmother and has still kept her sanity. In spite of everyone else’s insistence otherwise.
Wednesday we discussed the perseverance necessary to make it as a writer. I believe you've seen this to be true in your own life, haven't you? How long have you been writing?
Informally, I have been writing stories since I was old enough to write. Formally, for approximately 12 years. Three years ago I began teaching writing at the college level.
Tell us about this story.
This story is a suspense/romance with a purpose. There actually is a solution to the abortion issue. It just hasn't been adapted for human use. This novel has begun to catch the interest of both pro-life and pro-choice advocates and both sides agree that they could live with this as a solution. The story starts with a teen pregnancy--one that is a danger to the life of the teen. She chooses to become the guinea pig for an experimental procedure where her embryo is removed and transplanted into the womb of a woman who can't conceive. Through out the suspense story runs the growing love story between the doctor who discovered the procedure and his assistant who has always believed in him and his work. I worked hard to keep the story from sounding too good to be true while trying to present the embryo transplant solution.
Where did you get the idea?
I was reading an equine magazine 20 years ago and they had an article in it where they talked about taking the embryo from a race horse and planting it into an ordinary brood mare. The procedure was a success and that got me thinking 'why can't we do that in people instead of fighting over abortion?' The more I studied the more I realized it was feasible. The more medical professionals I talked to the more I was assured that while it wasn't being done it could be. I thought if I could incorporate the idea into a novel, I could, perhaps, begin changing people's minds about the issue and nudging them toward a solution that everyone would be good with.
What do you hope your readers will take away from your writing?
I have several things I'd like the readers to embrace. First, the idea that we, if we all work together, can all do something about an issue that has torn our society apart for decades. Second, that it isn't our place to judge one another--that is God's department--we are given the task of loving one another and showing God's love by example. Third, that we don't have to be confined by the status quo--in our decisions in society, in our beliefs nor in our love relationships.
Which character did you most enjoy creating?
Oh that's a hard one. Each character has come alive for me and they all have their special places. I would say the one that was the most fun was Donald Nesbitt, the not-so-upright reporter. The one that has the most depth is Jason Steadman, the specialist who created the procedure. He is sensitive and timid in some ways yet firm and unshakeable in others. He is afraid of the love he feels for his assistant but determined to allow the love to exist in spite of age and race differences.
Do you have a favorite Bible verse?
Definitely! Writers can get discouraged so easily. So I have taped to my desk Isaiah 40:30-31 along with a photo of an eagle. It says: "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (NIV) It's pretty hard to let the challenges that come with writing pull me down when I know that the Lord is right there waiting to show me how to soar.
What an excellent idea! There's nothing like the truth of God's Word to counter negative thinking! Thanks for competing on COTT and many blessings in your future writing career!
Readers, she's got a question for you:
Do you read only for pleasure or do you hope to learn from what you read?
And before I go...the winner of Love, Charleston by Beth Webb Hart is...Dee! I'll be sending you an email shortly. Thanks for playing! And come back Monday for our final round!
Our month long clash continues. I have been impressed by the quality of writing our unpubb'ed have produced! As is often the case, both competing excerpts were phenomenal, but unfortunately, only one can advance to the final round. Today we reveal our latest runner up. Our winner will remain anonymous and will advance to the next round. On Monday, the finaling excerpts will be posted for the final round.
I know what you're thinking...get on with it already.
The runner up is excerpt F, which belongs to...
Donna Fawcet, writing as Donna Dawson!
Donna Fawcett is a creative writing instructor at a local college in Ontario, Canada and an award winning writer. She writes romance, mystery, suspense and thriller novels. She is also a freelance writer and has been published in national and international magazines. Donna loves to run, garden and bore people with completely useless pieces of information she has gleaned from history books. She is a professional member of The Word Guild, Canada’s largest writing guild for Christians. She is a wife, mother and grandmother and has still kept her sanity. In spite of everyone else’s insistence otherwise.Wednesday we discussed the perseverance necessary to make it as a writer. I believe you've seen this to be true in your own life, haven't you? How long have you been writing?
Informally, I have been writing stories since I was old enough to write. Formally, for approximately 12 years. Three years ago I began teaching writing at the college level.
Tell us about this story.
This story is a suspense/romance with a purpose. There actually is a solution to the abortion issue. It just hasn't been adapted for human use. This novel has begun to catch the interest of both pro-life and pro-choice advocates and both sides agree that they could live with this as a solution. The story starts with a teen pregnancy--one that is a danger to the life of the teen. She chooses to become the guinea pig for an experimental procedure where her embryo is removed and transplanted into the womb of a woman who can't conceive. Through out the suspense story runs the growing love story between the doctor who discovered the procedure and his assistant who has always believed in him and his work. I worked hard to keep the story from sounding too good to be true while trying to present the embryo transplant solution.
Where did you get the idea?
I was reading an equine magazine 20 years ago and they had an article in it where they talked about taking the embryo from a race horse and planting it into an ordinary brood mare. The procedure was a success and that got me thinking 'why can't we do that in people instead of fighting over abortion?' The more I studied the more I realized it was feasible. The more medical professionals I talked to the more I was assured that while it wasn't being done it could be. I thought if I could incorporate the idea into a novel, I could, perhaps, begin changing people's minds about the issue and nudging them toward a solution that everyone would be good with.
What do you hope your readers will take away from your writing?
I have several things I'd like the readers to embrace. First, the idea that we, if we all work together, can all do something about an issue that has torn our society apart for decades. Second, that it isn't our place to judge one another--that is God's department--we are given the task of loving one another and showing God's love by example. Third, that we don't have to be confined by the status quo--in our decisions in society, in our beliefs nor in our love relationships.
Which character did you most enjoy creating?
Oh that's a hard one. Each character has come alive for me and they all have their special places. I would say the one that was the most fun was Donald Nesbitt, the not-so-upright reporter. The one that has the most depth is Jason Steadman, the specialist who created the procedure. He is sensitive and timid in some ways yet firm and unshakeable in others. He is afraid of the love he feels for his assistant but determined to allow the love to exist in spite of age and race differences.
Do you have a favorite Bible verse?
Definitely! Writers can get discouraged so easily. So I have taped to my desk Isaiah 40:30-31 along with a photo of an eagle. It says: "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (NIV) It's pretty hard to let the challenges that come with writing pull me down when I know that the Lord is right there waiting to show me how to soar.
What an excellent idea! There's nothing like the truth of God's Word to counter negative thinking! Thanks for competing on COTT and many blessings in your future writing career!
Readers, she's got a question for you:
Do you read only for pleasure or do you hope to learn from what you read?
And before I go...the winner of Love, Charleston by Beth Webb Hart is...Dee! I'll be sending you an email shortly. Thanks for playing! And come back Monday for our final round!
){kind=link}