As writers, we need to have emotion and drama on our pages to engage our readers.
Or as Donald Maass stresses in his Writing the Breakout Novel and BONI Intensive Seminars…
Tension on every page.
Check out this video for inspiration on ways to add drama and a little Friday Free Day fun:
Poetry plays a huge part of the romantic journey my husband and I travel, especially the poetry of Elizabeth and Robert Browning. You’ll find the words from the Browning’s poems not only in our pockets but other places too.
Around our garden, on stepping stones.
In framed silhouettes of us done at Montmartre Art Colony in Paris with the words of Rabbi Ben Ezra by Robert Browning between our figures. 
On a special cross-stitched picture which hangs above his dresser. 
In case you can’t read the small print, the first line of Rabbi Ben Ezra says, “Grow old along with me, The Best is Yet to Be.”
My pocket poem today is a love poem Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote to Robert in 1845 that carries extra special meaning for my husband and me.
Listen as I read Sonnet XLIII from Sonnets From the Portuguese to Jerry and you from my porch swing.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Now go find a love poem to put in your pocket and read it to someone special yourself…
On April 26th, schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, and other venues will ring loud with open readings of poems from pockets on PIYP day or Poem in Your Pocket Day. The idea is simple:
• Select a poem you love during National Poetry Month
• Print or write it out
• Carry it with you and share with co-workers, family, and friends
• Or tweet about your selection on Twitter with the hashtag #pocketpoem.
If you can’t think of a poem to carry, you can click here to download one or simply enjoy the funny, the serious, and the unusual choices when you click on one of the pockets pictured on the page.
At estate sales I often find books of poetry or handwritten poems in pockets, in desk drawers, framed and displayed, and any number of other places. My favorite discovery happened closer to home when my mother-in-love passed away. We found this poem glued in her Bible and another copy of the same poem in her husband’s.
Should You Go First
By Albert Kennedy “Rosey” Rowswell
Should you go first and I remain,
To walk the road alone,
I’ll live in memory’s garden, dear,
With happy days we’ve known.
In Spring I’ll wait for roses red,
When fades the lilac blue,
In early Fall when brown leaves call
I’ll catch a glimpse of you.
Should you go first and I remain,
For battles to be fought,
Each thing you’ve touched along the way
Will be a hallowed spot.
I’ll hear your voice, I’ll see your smile,
Though blindly I may grope,
The memory of your helping hand
Will buoy me on with hope.
Should you go first and I remain,
To finish with the scroll,
No length ‘ning shadows shall creep in
To make this life seem droll.
We’ve known so much of happiness,
We’ve had our cup of joy,
And memory is one gift of God
That death cannot destroy.
Should you go first and I remain,
One thing I’d have you do:
Walk slowly down that long, lone path,
For soon I’ll follow you.
I’ll want to know each step you take
That I may walk the same,
For some day down that lonely road
You’ll hear me call your name.
Rosey Rowswell wasn’t a Longfellow or Edgar Allen Poe. In fact, his real job was a broadcaster for the Pittsburgh Pirates for 19 seasons (1936-54), but he did write books of humor and poetry. And, I love this touching poem.
More, I love the romantic sentiment of finding a copy in both Bibles. My husband’s parents were married for fifty-nine years before Otho passed away. I’ll guarantee you when Rose went to glory five years later she called Otho’s name and met him on that path.
Will you join us and share your favorite poem in a comment? We’ll pretend to hear your voice.
Drum roll sounding…
A hushed silence fills the porch in anticipation…
And the winners are …
Catherine Johnson and Ginger Calem
Thanks so much, ladies, for stopping by to visit with Ms Fabbro. She will be contacting you directly.
Enjoy your new books.
Come by the porch again soon.
“I’m late, I’m very late ” to paraphrase the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.
At the end of March, WANA alumni and super blogger Elaine Smothers honored me with the awesome Liebster Love Award.
Then life erupted. Holiday company arrived.
I forgot!
My lovely award sat in my inbox. Lonely and waiting to be shared with others.
No more. Today I’m spreading Liebster Love.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the legend of the Liebster blog award, let me share the definition from another WANA alumni Mike Schulenberg:
“According to legends that come to us from antiquity, the Liebster is meant for blogs that motivate, inspire, and have 200 followers or less. Its apparent purpose is to summon new followers like some sort of mystical talisman, increasing the power of those of us who are just beginning.”
To Elaine, I send a very, belated thank you for this honor.
And I hereby pass the award to the deserving bloggers listed below. So many worthy bloggers it was hard to limit myself to only five.
Kat Jorgensen for her blog, Mystery writer by day. Knitter by night. Lovable screw-up all of the time
Janice Heck for her blog, My Turn
S. M. Nonnemacher for her blog, Sun on My Face, Sand in My Hair
S.J. Driscoll for her blog, Come Sit by My Fire
Rhonda Hopkins for her blog, When Love Leads the Way
I encourage everyone to stop by and visit these blogs. You’ll love them all just as I do.
And bloggger nominees…
All you must do to accept the award and post the logo on your blog is follow these few rules.
1. Thank the person who nominated you on your blog and link back to them
2. Nominate up to 5 other bloggers for the award
3. Notify them by commenting on your blog
4. Post the award on your blog
May the power of the Liebster be with you.
April is NATIONAL POETRY MONTH. I didn’t know. Did you?
Seems back in 1996 the Academy of American Poet established the tradition to highlight American poets and encourage people about the pleasure of reading poetry. It’s all explained on their website.
Though I’m not a poetry writer, I ♥ to read poetry. I’ve memorized many poems by my favorite American poets. I read poems to anyone, willing or not.
To further the observance of poetry month, I’ll be sharing some poems by friends and family. I’ll start with one written by my second oldest grandson.
I may not write poetry, but I am a storyteller so first a little story about how this poem originated.
We were sitting at the kitchen table discussing how he should be doing homework. He’s home schooled, and I promised his parents I’d work with him while he was visiting.
Unfortunately, like father, like son. I remember fighting many a homework battle with his daddy who also hated doing homework. The thought of poetry homework made the task even less appealing, especially when the swimming pool was calling.
He starred outside at the squirrel climbing the pole to the bird feeder. He ate a Pop Tart. He slipped away to play a game of chess with his Pepa.
I marched him back to table and the task at hand. No, I’m not your push-over Nana. Although resisting those big, beautiful brown eyes isn’t always easy!
Then I caught him at the window. Again.
This time he was watching a chameleon on the Maple tree.
I thought he was wasting time and prepared to pull out my mean teacher’s whip! Before I could speak, he pointed to the laptop on the table. “I wrote the poem already.”
And, this is what I read on the screen:
Lizard Poetry
Lazy lizards leap from leaf to leaf
As green as a Sprite can
Lizards like to hide under the weather
Running, hiding, and sneaking around
Crazily, hastily, and hurriedly leaving their tails behind them
The miniature lizards are tiny compared to the big, blue sky
Amazing I think, don’t you agree? How quickly I’d forgotten how little boys multi-task when you think they’re playing.
YOUR TURN: Share one of your favorite poems!
Today I’m on the porch thinking on the idea of brand. 
Probably too long-winded, but then it’s a lovely spring day to sit and chat.
Being a Texan naturally the first image of a brand that pops into my head is a branding iron symbol on the side of a cow.
CREDIT for photo on right: Fleischhauer, Carl, photographer. “Branding Iron [35mm slide].” Date Recorded 79/10. Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982, Library of Congress.
Cows are products like a writer’s novels are products. Cowboys use a different, very specific iron brand symbol for each owner.
Commercial product marketing teaches additional ways to brand products.
Writers and books are different animals than commercial products. Branding irons won’t work. But will any of the other product techniques work to establish our brand with readers?
Books as products lack common distinguishable trademarks unless you count genre. I’m not sure the average reader has any idea what we’re talking about when we say genre. They know the books they like or the author they like.
Plus in this crazy new publishing climate, genre lines have become as crooked as a roller coaster track and about as scary.
Take, James Scott Bell— #1 bestselling author of the writing book Plot & Structure, and thrillers like Deceived, Try Dying, Watch Your Back, One More Lie and many more—has a new series written as K. Bennett. A zombie legal thriller series, which begins with Pay Me in Flesh. Seriously. Paranormal elements combined with a legal thriller. How’s that for blending genres?
Stranger combinations are everywhere. So linking books by genres is not that clear cut anymore.
According to I’m Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro® “You have to become your own number one product. You must be uniquely you.”
While titles and covers can and do link series. Mostly a novel is a stand-alone work and readers connect by the author’s name.
The other commerical product methods aren’t so easily implemented by writers. Smells, tastes, movement, graphics and/or shapes of product marketing to attract readers to a novel seems a bit daunting. There are some very clever writers out there so I’m not giving up on someone coming up with an idea.
Yet.
As an author, I’ve used the spelling of my name as a brand. Every teacher, every college professor, every stranger who reads my nametag stumbles over the pronunciation. But they don’t forget the name or me.
For the full story on how I received the name, check my author website: Judythe Morgan.
Next I’ve used the color green color for my website and Twitter. With a bit of luck, green brings happy thoughts and Irish to mind.
My blog and my FB pages tie together with the front porch. Lots of greenery in those banners too.
Green=happy thoughts. Porch=down home storytelling.
That’s how I write, that’s what I write—stories about ordinary events in ordinary people’s lives that end happily. Emotional stories about journeys of the heart.
Not straight romance, not straight women’s fiction, not simple love stories. A combination of those genres. See Bell’s not the only one who can blend genres.
My taglines also help readers remember me. “Voices and Views from the Front Porch” tag on my blog allows for a variety of blog topics and lets the reader “know” me and my varied interests.
My website tagline of “Weaving Love Stories to Touch Your Heart” identifies the type of fiction I write.
Will these strategies work? I wish I knew.
In Kristen Lamb’s course, we learned that getting our names out there with samples of our writing builds our platform. But I have to admit advertising aka branding/author platform still baffles me.
When I had my antiques shop, I had a GREAT location-busy intersection in an active shopping center. My marketing plan was strong. I offered free cookies, lemonade and coffee to customers. A shop full of great merchandise, free cookies and coffee.The people came. Still…
Most of my customers admitted they came because someone told them about the shop.
So I conclude, a business marketing plan and a writer platform/branding plan are pretty much the same.
Word of mouth
Reputation
Name recognition
Book Industry Study Group’s ongoing Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading survey in February confirmed my conclusion. “e-book buyers cite word-of-mouth as No. 2—just like their print book kin.” Read here.
People read a good book; they share the book with others. So a writer’s primary challenge is first to write the very best story they can and second to make readers recognize their name.
Branding is about communicating. Engaging readers.
I’ve shared what I do. Remember I am not a marketing major. My expertise is chatting on the porch, sharing my views. Don Block, founder of WeGrowMedia.com, is a qualified expert and he offers some other specific ways to maximize your branding here.
YOUR TURN: Are you branding yourself? How?
We LOVE to play Scrabble at our house. Play it all the time. 
My husband and writing partner is the current fifty-point word champion. That’s him with the scorepad and board to prove it!
We’ve played online at the official Scrabble website. If I had an iPhone, I could download a Scrabble APP and play on my phone.
To score fifty points, you have to have the right tiles, the perfect fit to play on the board, and the RIGHT word.
Hooks in chapter breaks are the fifty-point tool of the writer.
Back in the dark ages (1914 to be exact), a silent movie series titled The Perils of Pauline starred Pearl White as Pauline, the damsel in distress menaced by assorted villains, pirates, and Native Americans. In each episode the audience was convinced poor, pitiful Pauline’s situation would surelyresult in her imminent death until at the last minute she was rescued or otherwise escaped the danger. The damsel in distress and cliffhanger endings kept moviegoers returning. 
According to Wikipedia, in 2008, The Perils of Pauline was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Successful writers need compelling characters like Pauline and strong chapter breaks to keep their readers satisfied. How do we write our fifty-point chapter endings to score hits like the screenwriters did with The Perils of Pauline?
I ran across two great blogs with answers to the question. Both bloggers agreed the key to powerful chapter breaks is raising the reader’s curiosity.
K.M. Weiland suggests these ten ways to raise questions in the readers’ minds.
1. Promise of conflict to come.
2. A secret kept.
3. A major decision or vow.
4. An announcement of a shocking event.
5. A moment of high emotion.
6. A reversal or surprise that turns the story upside down.
7. A new idea.
8. An unanswered question.
9. A portentous metaphor.
10. A plot turning point.
Weiland warns “Not every chapter needs to end with a cliffhanger, but they do need to encompass a question powerful enough to make the reader crazy to know the answer.” If you read her blog here, she elaborates on how to use all ten ideas she suggested.
In the other blog, NY Times bestselling author Laura Griffin identifies characteristics of poor chapter hooks —
The sleepy time chapter end – letting your heroine end her action-packed scene by going to bed
Disaster averted – ending the chapter when the crisis is resolved
The threepeat – Using Pauline-in-peril gimmicks repeatedly. Unlike the silent movie success, overused in writing can turn your reader off
Lacking punch words – not ending the last sentence of your chapter with a punch word at the end.
Check out Laura’s blog at Romance University here for fixes to the problems she points out.
Whether you’re a Scrabble player or not, as a writer you play with words. You have to “scrabble” ways that keep the reader hooked into turning the pages.
YOUR TURN: What’s your 50-point strategy for chapter endings?
It appears the Lucky 7 Meme zombie virus for writer-bloggers has arrived on my front porch via Cora Ramos!
I thought I might escape being in lurker mode and all. Not so…Cora found me.
Unfamiliar with The Lucky Meme virus?
These are the rules:
1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they’re written.
4. Tag 7 authors, and let them know.
Game on
My Seven Lines:
Annie bit her lip. Two cots barely fit in the room. The shower looked like an RV bath. Still it had a floor, no dirt, and a door, not a piece of cloth, and there was even plenty of bottled water beneath the bedside table. “Thank you, Mr. Welds.” And, thank you, Aunt Gerry.
“Please. It’s Fred. See you at the house.”
A short time later, they gathered around the table in the tiled dining area. Martha served fried plantains and a vegetable salad with a pitcher of fruit water.
“I’d go easy on the sauce. It takes some getting used to,” Fred warned.
Erin began to cough, grabbed her glass and chug-a-lugged all the liquid. “Ya say?”
The laughter that followed drained some of the tension from Annie’s shoulders. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
Annie’s not talking about playing Lucky 7 Meme, but I have to agree this virus isn’t so bad!
Rule #3 was easy.
Rule #4, a bit harder. I’m hoping they’ll join the fun! Even if they don’t check out their websites.
In case they decline…
YOUR TURN: Join the fun and post a Lucky 7 Meme from your novel/WIP in the comments.
ONE WORD WEDNESDAY and today’s word is PIDDLE. No not what puppies and kittens and small children do. Piddling is spending time in a trifling, or ineffective way according to Dictionary.com
Some call it dawdling. The dictionary defines it as wasteful. I’m not so sure about that wasteful part. I think we all need piddle time.
Southerners are said to have fine-tuned the act of passing time, without waste or regret into a fine art. The whole idea of piddling is to kill time, but without any great effort or much meaning, according to Rick Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. He claims it’s a cause worthy of lifelong study in his February 2012 Southern Living essay column, The Fine Art of Piddling.
Piddling is not a necessity. In fact in most circles, it’s frowned upon. In Western pragmatism, we have to do most of the time. I’m a diehard multi-tasker. I loathe just sitting and doing nothing. Though you will find me stopping to smell the roses, not for long! The one exception–I can easily lose myself in a good book for hours until I come to THE END. Much like Rick Bragg described his wife, I piddle with purpose.
But sometimes, piddling’s a forced condition. My latest piddling was neither planned nor welcomed, an unfortunate necessity. A torn rotator cuff took me down. I’ve had no choice but to kill time waiting to regain full use of my repaired shoulder muscles. Weeks in an immobilizing sling, now Attila the Hun physical therapy.
I’ve whittled away the hours sleeping with my guard dogs at my side.
Or we watched movies. Turner and Hallmark movie channels mostly. I learned a lot about plotting and story development from those so I guess technically it wasn’t wasted time.
We also found some fascinating History channel offerings like Pawn Stars and American Restoration. Toby, Buster and I learned a lot! I really missed my daytime soap operas. Made me mad all over again that CBS canceled Guiding Light and As the World Turns.
Timing was the pits too. Two weeks into Kristen Lamb’s Social Media class. Wore me out typing one handed to get in my tweets, FB, and blog out there.
I’ll be out of the sling soon and up to speed on the keyboard. But I’m thinking I’m gonna miss the piddling. Ironically, it’s been relaxing, refreshing and renewing. I’m thinking I’ll keep at least some piddling a part of every day.
Sentence Game Time: Dictionary.com suggests He wasted the day piddling around.
YOUR TURN: Have a sentence to share? Or a comment about your piddle habits or a time you were forced into piddling?
