WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH ANNE

Hi Friends,
I just wanted to bring you up to date on some recent happenings in my Book World. My other blog used to be named Christian Fiction Historical Society Blog. I share the blog with 29 other excellent Christian writers. We decided to rename our blog Heroes, Heroines and History. You can access the blog on the 14th day of each month for my post at www.HHHistory.com. I hope you will join me and the other writers there. There are many chances to win books.

My latest Scottish historical, MARRIAGE BY ARRANGEMENT, has finalled in a number of  contests.

 

 

 

 

Marriage By Arrangement has also received a number of Five Star Reviews! Here is just one.

 

MASQUERADE MARRIAGE, the first book in the Scottish Marriage Trilogy, also won awards.

 

 

 

If you like mysteries, try mine.

You can purchase these book on http://www.pelicanbookgroup.com. and http://www.amazon.com.

And finally I just signed a contract with Elk Lake Publishing for a World War II Courageous Women series. The first book, ANGEL WITH STEEL WINGS,, about a woman test pilot will release soon.

I also signed a contract with Elk Lake Publishing for a private investigator series. The first book, HOLLY GARDEN, PI, RED IS FOR ROOKIE, will release in 2015.

So much has happened since I last gave you tips on writing. God has blessed and is blessing.

Looks for my next post on  that most important facet of novels, CHARACTERIZATION, next week. A book without compelling characters is an unpublished book. I have excellent suggestions to make your characters jump off the page and into the reader's heart. 

Leave a comment and tell me what's happening in your Book World for a chance to win an autographed copy of MARRIAGE BY ARRANGEMENT.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ONE EASY WAY TO MAKE UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS

Anne Greene here: 

What will your characters fight to the core for? 

What does your heroine fight for? What does she stand for?

What will she not give up, no matter what happens? 

         Is she showing this?

         What is her motivation for the above? Have you told the reader?

 

 

 

 

What does your hero fight for? What does he stand for?

What will he never give up, no matter what happens?

         Is he showing this?

         What is his motivation for the above? Have you told the reader?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the villain should be real as well. He should believable. He should have a good side.  

What does the Villain fight for? What does he stand for? Why does he not think he is evil?

What will he never give up, no matter what happens?

          Is the villain showing this?

          What is his motivation for the above? Have you told the reader?

Each character must change over the course of the story. They need to discover something about themselves.  

Do all of the above and readers will not be able to forget your real-life-like characters. 

What characters do you remember from the novels you’ve read in the past year? Leave a comment for a chance to win an autographed copy of Anne’s latest release, Marriage By Arrangement.  

 

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about wounded heroes and gutsy heroines. Her second novel, a Scottish historical, Masquerade Marriage, won numerous awards. The sequel Marriage By Arrangement released November, 2013.  A Texas Christmas Mystery also won awards. Anne makes her home in McKinney, Texas. Tim LaHaye led her to the Lord when she was twenty-one and Chuck Swindoll is her Pastor. Anne’s highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to an awesome new world and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Buy Anne’s books at http://www.Amazon.com. Talk with Anne on twitter at @TheAnneGreene. Visit Anne’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/AnneWGreeneAuthor.  

On February 15^th, Anne will write about how to intensify each scene in your manuscript. Come back and visit. Join her followers or add the date to your computer calendar.

 

The Gift

THE GIFT
She lived in a quieter time, a more innocent time—no cell phones, no computers, and no television. It was a time when you talked with friends face-to-face, not by texting. She didn’t even have a telephone party-line like the folks in town enjoyed. She lived five miles east of town, walking distance.

There were few cars. People drove horse and buggy and wagons to the downtown square on Saturday nights to chat with one another. Young men rode prancing horses up and down the brick street to show off for the ladies, dressed in their best, smiling from their wagon seats. Styles were slow to change and the look of the prosperous 1920s was still the fashion.

She loved the small town she visited each Saturday after spending the week working hard on the farm. Before dawn she rose to milk cows by hand, then after a hearty breakfast she took her ten minute turn at the sink to cleanse the barn smell and dress for school. A long bus ride later and she ran up the steps to the school house where her mother taught her class.

Then home to milk cows, store the milk in the ice box, and make biscuits for
supper. The family ate together and discussed the day’s events, then sat together
in the evenings, listening to the radio.

She preferred working outdoors with the animals and bringing in the crops, but she did her part in canning, preserving, and pickling. When harvest time arrived, so did all her relatives—to help bring in the crops. As the oldest girl, she worked in the fields and joked with the men.

She was strong, pretty, took care of her younger siblings, and fell in love with her 5th grade teacher.She had a boyfriend, but in those days a girl could only show interest in one man. She chose her 5th grade teacher. He joined the Marines and she waited four years for him to return. They married.

When I was about eight years old, I read their love letters, and became an incurable romantic. She showed me the cameo pin he gave her. And I clomped around the house in her red, high-heeled shoes. We lived in the small farm town she loved. We had a television and a telephone with our own line. We ate together and worked together and I listened to the stories of her young adulthood. She passed her history onto me.

The gift she gave me was precious—a love of history, of times past when life was different. She passed her heritage on to me. She was my grandmother.

I hope you will love my Scottish historical romance, Masquerade Marriage. You can download an ebook or purchase a print copy at www.whiterosepublishing.com. If you like mysteries, you'll love A Texas Christmas Mystery.