Pages From My Journal

"Hi, everyone! This is Rachel Coker here. My lovely friend Alyson asked if she could share this blog entry from my site for all of you to enjoy today. I'm sure a lot of you are in this same stage of life and I hope this serves as an encouragement to keep learning, growing, and trying new things!" ---   I had a really sobering thought the other day. This is the first August that’s not ending with Back-to-School season for me . Because I’m not going back to school. At least not right now. I’ll be working like crazy–doing everything from writing books to teaching piano to tutoring writing to traveling and doing lots of book signings. But no school. No more history papers, chemistry experiments, or math equations to deal with. No more deep discussions on alliterations and the divine right of kings and America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. School is out. Forever. (Like the Alice Cooper song, ya’ll!) For some reason, instead of exciting me, that really...

As I told you about a few days ago, Elizabeth is here on my blog today! She writes at Exhortations by Elizabeth.   I answered these same questions on her blog a little while ago. You can read them here. Here she is! ---  1. What made you decide to attend the conference? A number of things - partly because it was so specific (I mean, a conference solely for Christian speculative fiction writers? Really?), partly because my friends and my dad urged me to go, partly because I felt it was too big an opportunity to miss. 2. Meet anyone special? Oh, where do I start? I met Kat Heckenbach, whom I had been friends with on Facebook for a few months and was counting down the days to the conference; I met Grace Bridges, who runs Splashdown Books in New Zealand and has a beautiful accent; I met Kathy Tyers, who wrote the Firebird trilogy and two Star Wars novels and is now my honorary third grandmother; and I met Jeff Gerke, the owner of the publishing house I hope ...

First off, today, I turn 16! --- This morning, I hit send for the first time, sending my entire book off to an agent for the first time. --- I also am guest on Meghan Gorecki's blog! I am talking about creating a writing plan when life gets busy. Check it out on her blog, Every Good Word . --- I hope you all enjoyed your summer as much as I did. School is coming on fast, and I am teaching a Creative Writing class to three kids this year as well. ~Alyson

            On July 31 st , I got off from work, came home, and prepared for the next three days which I would spend talking with people, sitting on classes, and pitching my novel, Brick Walls , at the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer's Conference.             I attended the teen write on the first day. Nine different people spoke and I got to interact with fellow teen writers. My first appointment of the weekend went great and the editor asked me to e-mail her my proposal and first three chapters. Later at dinner, a publisher who saw my meeting found me and sat at my table. He wanted to know how my appointment went. That was pretty cool and got me excited for the next day.              I had three appointments the next day, and two of them were back to back time slots. One editor loved my story, but...

     Elizabeth attended a writer's conference the same weekend that I attended the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer's Conference and we will be guest posting on each others blogs. Elizabeth will be on my blog soon, but you can read my post at her blog, Exhortations by Elizabeth right now . --- I hope you all had a great summer! ~Alyson

Step 1: Pull out word document and notes             Substep 1: Get coffee Step 2: Start editing from the beginning Step 3: Get to half way through chapter and get amazing idea             Substep 3a: Go tell someone about said amazing idea             Substep 3b: Go back through story intertwining said idea Step 4: Restart editing and fix all mistakes made while adding idea Step 5: Go to the bathroom because of the coffee Step 6: Continue to edit Step 7: Realize you’re hungry so go find something to eat             Substep 7: Get distracted on the way back to laptop and don’t make it back for another half an hour Step 8: Continue to edit             Substep 8: Contemplate taking a nap,...

I said goodbye to my three year old foster sister a month ago and didn’t know that it would be forever. My heart was broken when I learned that she was gone and would never see her again. We were best friends and she had taught me so many things. She told me she was praying for me, and she reminded me that Jesus holds my heart no matter what. When everything fell apart, I was confused, angry, and sad. I knew God was working in not only my life, but also in lives around me in ways I couldn’t see. But things didn’t make sense.   If my faith was getting stronger, if my heart was closer to God than ever before, if my life was changing, why did there have to be pain too? After a week, the pain had gone away a little, and my thoughts cleared, but I still couldn’t put into words what I felt. As a writer, this was a frustrating thing. A person who loves words cannot come up with the ones that describe what her heart feels. When I heard Beth Moore say that the word “workmanship” in...