A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

Meet Sandra Merville Hart I love blogging. It often gives me a chance to meet up with other writers. This week, Sandra Hart's Civil War novella, A Stranger on My Land ,  was released. So great to feature her interview today. Sandra Merville Hart loves to find unusual facts in her historical research to use in her stories. She and her husband enjoy traveling to many of the sites in her books to explore the history. She serves as Assistant Editor for DevoKids.com where she contributes articles about history and holidays. She has written for several publications and websites including  The Secret Place ,  Harpstring ,  Splickety Magazine ,  Pockets Magazine ,   Common Ground, Afictionado, and ChristianDevotions.us. Her inspirational Civil War novella,   A Stranger on My Land , released on August 21, 2014. Q. Where did you start and how did you get published? When I decided to pursue a writing career, I needed to first learn th...

@WatersAuthor Using Twitter, with its 140 characters, assures I make every word count. And those 140 characters include punctuation and hash tags. For a while, I’ve been intrigued with the idea of capturing a story in 140 characters. A complete story. B eginning, M iddle, and E nd.  Why? I think exercises like this can only make us stronger as writers. Of course, if we take this seriously, we have to subtract four characters to accommodate the tag #BME. Here are a few attempts: Crime #BME Ann shivered and cried. Joe smirked. “No money from daddy? You’re done.” A gun. A growl. A leap. Bang! Joe lay still by Spot, her hero. Adventure #BME Jack tied the canvas flap. Where was Al? A storm was coming. “I found it!” Al raced in and threw the bag on the table. “We’re rich!” Romance #BME Ali’s heart flipped when she saw Bo. She slipped on the ice. But it was Evan who rushed to her side. “And that’s how I met your dad.” Mystery #BME “The thief had a b...

He titled the sermon “God’s Word and Our Affliction.” The reference? Psalm 119:92 . Nothing more. I look it up. New International Version: If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I read the whole chapter. Affliction: Pain, misery, trouble, hardship. A talented comedian taking his own life? Affliction. A church leader filing for divorce? Affliction. A man serving time for stealing to support his drug habit? Affliction. A woman diagnosed with stage four cancer? Affliction. Affliction. Tension. The stuff authors pour on their characters to drive the story so they can ultimately offer the reader a satisfying resolution. But these weren’t characters in a story. These were real people. One I watched on the big screen, the others I’ve long held in my heart. And arms. And prayers. The preacher is carefully outlining four areas of hardship. By this time I’m leaning forward. Writing furiously. He speaks of societa...

The only Simon and Garfunkel album I own. “Slow down. You’re movin’ too fast. You gotta make the mornin’ last, Just skippin’ down the cobblestone, Lookin’ for fun and feelin' groovy…” Actually those aren’t the exact words to “The 59 th Street Bridge Song” but it’s the way I sing it. Don’t ask why. I don’t know. I guess I learned it wrong in the beginning. I suppose I prefer skipping to kicking. But it’s close. And for me it has great meaning. Even more so now. One question I’m asked every time I speak about Breathing on Her Own  is this: “When is your next book coming out?” I completed writing a second novel. I have a third and fourth nearly complete and a fifth one outlined. I have two children’s books in the works and continue to do a bit of freelance work. So when is the next book going to be published? I don’t know. I haven’t even pitched it to a publisher yet. + Eddie Jones of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas says it takes six months for...