A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

I taught as a professor of teacher education at Cincinnati Christian University for many years. Instructing future teachers in how to plan meaningful lessons and how to assess student learning was a big part of my job. I would tell my students to think about the outcome they wanted to see in the end. “What do you want your pupils to know or be able to do after you teach the lesson?” I would ask. I told them they wouldn’t know how to get there if they didn’t know where they were going. Think about going on a vacation. Let’s say you live in San Diego. You could just get in the car and drive, but most of us pick a vacation destination. For this illustration, let’s send you on a trip to Door County, Wisconsin. (You read a book about the area and a great little coffee shop and now you want to see the place for yourself.) Knowing where you are going helps you plan the trip, the stops you will need to make on the way, and when you have arrived. Although I may tweak it late...

In discussions with other writers I have been asked about my platform. Sometimes they are using the word platform to talk about the launching pad I have in place to publicize my work. Others are asking about my message. Both are legitimate questions in the field of writing. To address the first question I can talk about my Facebook presence or my blog. I can relate information about my sphere of influence as I see it, but I am more interested in the second question. What is my message? What is it I believe and want to share? What is it I feel God has equipped me to do? I believe Christian fiction can positively change the lives of readers. Books I have read have influenced my thinking or offered me insight into the why a person may be acting in a certain way. My characters are flawed. Like me. And the message in the books I write tends to be one of faith, forgiveness, and restoration. Curious…my very favorite book in the world is all about faith, forgiveness and res...

Kringle is a Danish pastry popular in Wisconsin. In fact, Racine, Wisconsin is home to dozens of bakeries specializing in the layered Danish treat. Traditional Kringle takes three days to make and requires the careful rolling out of the dough and butter to create thin, light layers of pastry. The filling is an almond paste or nut filling, although some versions offer a fruit filling. Kringle is delicious. In creating the character, Melissa, the young woman Sonja hired for the summer, I gave her roots in Racine. Her grandmother taught her how to make Kringle and it is now becoming a favorite at Shirley’s Cuppa Joe . So far, so good. If you have read other posts on my blog, you know I can’t let Melissa make Kringle or let Sonja serve it unless I try it out myself. So that is exactly what I did. I attempted to make Kringle. Here are a few lessons I learned along the way: Theirs 1.      If the recipe says “high level proficiency required,” ...

I have what I call a sitcom mentality. Consider the situation comedy. A group of people who share their lives in some way come into our homes via television each week. We watch and we get to know them. Week in and week out we watch as they are presented with a problem. We laugh because they handle the situation in comedic ways. We laugh because we see ourselves in the exaggerated situation. And we laugh because the characters say the outlandish but clever things we wish we had the nerve to say.   The television show’s problem grows until one person sits down with the offending character and with just the right words, puts things back in a proper perspective. (This usually happens in the last three minutes of the program.) The offender looks up and says, “I never thought of it that way,” or changes his or her behavior so that we can turn off the television feeling good about the outcome. Presentation of the problem and having it satisfactorily solved all tak...