Enjoy this quick quiz. Answers below.

1. Which of the following is the protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye?

* Charles Darnay
* Holden Caufield
* Phillip Pirrip
* Nick Carraway

2. Which surname belongs to a trio of literary sisters?

* Brown
* Burns
* Barrett
* Bronte

3. Which of the following is NOT a work of William Shakespeare?

* Titus Andronicus
* Julius Caesar
* Mourning Becomes Electra
* Love’s Labours Lost

4. In the phrase, “If I were to never see you again…” the speaker is guilty of…

* a split infinitive
* a dangling modifier
* a misplaced modifier
* an unqualified superlative

5. Which of the following authors was NOT primarily a poet?

* Walt Whitman
* T.S. Eliot
* e.e. cummings
* Henry James

6. Which of the following authors was NOT a contemporary of the others?

* Gertrude Stein
* Ernest Hemingway
* John Milton
* F. Scott Fitzgerald

7. Who, once called “The little lady who started a big war,” by Abraham Lincoln, authored Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

* Harriet Beecher Stowe
* Charlotte Bronte
* Emile Zola
* Hilda Doolittle

8. Which woman, author of Mules and Men and Their Eyes were Watching God, was rediscovered by Alice Walker?

* Toni Morrison
* Nadine Gordimer
* Zora Neale Hurston
* Isak Dennison

9. What Dickens’ novel begins, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times?”

* Hard Times
* A Tale of Two Cities
* Nicholas Nickleby
* Great Expectations

10. What word, repeated three times, begins the speech from which William Faulkner took the title for The Sound and The Fury?

*Tomorrow
*Yesterday
*Today
*Someday

~ ~ ~

ANSWERS:
1. Holden Caufield
2. Bronte
3. Mourning Becomes Electra
4. split infinitive
5. Henry James
6. John Milton
7. Harriet Beecher Stowe
8. Zora Neale Hurston
9. Tale of Two Cities
10.Tomorrow

Congratulations to Melissa Marsh! You’ve won an autographed copy of Tricia Goyer’s brand new release, Arms of Deliverance: A Story of Promise. Please email me your snail mail addy and I’ll get it out to you soon!

Indeed, the great paradox of the writer’s life is how much time he spends alone trying to connect with other people. ~ Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers

As a child, I remember being intensely withdrawn at times. I kept diaries, read voraciously, and invented imaginary characters. Through the pages of biographies and novels, I felt released to explore other worlds. My friends became Emily Dickinson, Louise May Alcott, Emily Bronte, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, among others. Their worlds enthralled me, and I yearned to write and connect in similar ways.

But writers spend the bulk of their time alone—struggling to make that all-important connection with the reader. Some give up. It’s hard to work without a certain amount of emotional support and financial backing. In my family of origin, writing was laughed at. And so I studied nursing, but years later returned to my first passion.

It’s like Betsy Lerner says, “But if you can’t give it up, if hearing how impossible the odds are only makes you dig in deeper, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve got natural talent. Your job is to marshal the talent you do have and find people who believe in your vision. What’s important, finally, is that you create, and that those creations define for you what matters most, that which cannot be extinguished even in the face of silence, solitude, and rejection.”

I balance all that with something Ethel Herr, author of An Introduction to Christian Writing has written:

We ought to keep His honor foremost. If His pleasure is our goal, His honor will be our prize. We will gladly accept whatever limitations He puts on our advancement and personal recognition, as long as He can be glorifed.

For me, this is what matters most.

Reminder: Book drawing on July 29th! I’m giving away one autographed copy of Arms of Deliverance by author Tricia Goyer. If you haven’t entered the drawing yet, just post a comment either here or under “Blog Tour: Meet Tricia Goyer.” Be sure to check back on Saturday for the winner!

  

And for you quote collectors, here you go:

“The only writers who sell are the ones who submit.” ~ Lena Nelson Dooley

“Craft can be learned; endurance can’t. Endurance is a function of desire. When the force of our desire exceeds the inertia of our reluctance a book is born.” ~ Alton Gansky

Writing a novel is easy. Writing a good novel is hard. That’s just life. If it were easy, we’d all be writing best-selling, prize-winning fiction.” ~ Randy Ingermanson

While I’m away from the computer a couple days, I leave you with several quotes to enjoy. Hubby has melanoma, so we’re in the middle of consults with the oncologist and plastic surgeon this week. I’ll catch up with you soon!

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

A book ought to be an ice pick to break up the frozen sea within us. ~ Franz Kafka

If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or as it were, fondle them — peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances. ~ Winston Churchill

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all. ~ Voltaire

People who are passionate about reading do not have to be convinced of its benefits… We turn to books when we are lonely or when other people overwhelm us. Books are there for us whether we’re celebrating or in mourning. ~ Elisabeth Ellington/Jane Freimiller

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking. ~ Jerry Seinfeld

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.
~ E. M. Forster

A book is a gift you can open again and again. ~ Garrison Keillor

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. ~ Sir Richard Seele

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. ~ Francis Bacon

A good book, in the language of the book-sellers, is a salable one; in that of the curious, a scarce one; in that of men of sense, a useful and instructive one. ~ Oswald Chambers

The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. ~ Mark Twain

This painful cycle—threatening thought, anxious reaction, and full retreat—is a fundamental cycle in the lives of creative people. Most creators are not aware of the existence of this cycle or that anxiety is a mighty brake preventing them from creating. . . Most creators do not give anxiety its due. ~ Eric Maisel, The Van Gogh Blues

If I weren’t a believer in Christ, the above quote would leave me bewildered. There is, after all, a certain amount of angst involved in the creative process. But I’m come to view my writing as service for God. Therefore, the sheer panic that wells up when facing a difficult project is assuaged by 1 Thessalonians 5:24: “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” If He calls me to write, He will also enable me.

In light of that, hold onto this:

God assumes full responsibility for enabling us to carry out the work He assigns. He will never leave us to accomplish a task by mere human ability. ~ Charles Stanley

The writer, in order best to use the talents he has been given, has to write at his own intellectual level. For him to do anything else is to bury his talents. This doesn’t mean that, within his limitations, he shouldn’t try to reach as many people as possible, but it does mean that he must not lower his standards to do so. ~ Flannery O’ Connor

I want to write, but more than that I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart. ~ Anne Frank

The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say. ~Mark Twain

I have never written a book that didn’t teach me far more than it taught my reader. ~ Isaac Asimov

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ~Vladimir Nabakov

Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space. ~Orson Scott Card

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. ~Hannah Arendt

If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. ~ Robert Southey

Writing is like praying, because you stop all other activities, descend into silence, and listen patiently to the depths of your soul, waiting for the true words to come. When they do, you thank God because you know the words are a gift, and you write them down as honestly and as cleanly as you can. ~ Sister Helen Prejean, Death of Innocents

If I can capture truth in its simplest form, beauty will follow like a sledgehammer. ~ Mark Twain

Publication is the auction of the mind of man. ~ Emily Dickinson

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. ~ G.K. Chesterton

The more you read, the more you will write. The better the stuff you read, the better the stuff you will write. ~ Annie Dillard

There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes. ~ William Thackeray

When a book leaves your hands, it belongs to God. He may use it to save a few souls or to try a few others, but I think that for the writer to worry is to take over God’s business. ~ Flannery O’ Connor

Writing a book is an endurance contest, and a war fought against yourself, because writing is beastly hard work which one would just as soon not do. It’s also a job, and if you want to get paid, you have to work. Life is cruel that way.” ~ Tom Clancy

Stumbled upon today’s timely quote at Tricia Goyer’s WritersQuotes.

Timely for me, since a friend recently remarked ‘how nice it is’ to sit home all day, writing and daydreaming, “while the rest of us are slaving away at work.” Since this friend isn’t a writer, she got only a quiet stare from me. Writers never say that sort of thing to another. Still, most folks think writers hang out at Barnes & Noble with their laptops, pecking a few words out at their leisure while sipping on frothy lattes. I’m not even gonna go there…

To churn out good writing on a consistent basis is tough. Try it sometime. “Beastly hard work,” as Tom Clancey puts it, is exactly right. If you’re a writer, you’ve probably hit the wall a time or two when there was more perspiration than inspiration. Whether we craft thoughtful essays or well-researched articles on deadline, or labor over that daily word-count goal for the work-in-progress, writing doesn’t come easy. A labor of love, yes, but real work.

Or maybe it depends on whether or not we approach our writing as business, or a personal, creative endeavor. Just ask Mary Yerkes, who posted an excellent piece on this topic at The Artist’s Way.

I have worked nonstop for almost three years now, moving from one freelance writing assignment to the next with little breathing room in between. After all, I needed the clips to build my resume. But maintaining my priorities and balancing the demands of living with chronic illness, working my “day job” (as a writer for a trade association), and ministry responsibilities proved exhausting! When, in April 2006, an editor asked me if I would accept an assignment for 24 articles, 4 articles per month for 6 months, I found myself consulting with a few close writer friends and ultimately saying, “No.”

Mary shares that after churning article after article on assignment, she felt at risk of writing by rote and losing her creative edge if she didn’t step back and reconnect with her “writing roots.” And so she asks herself: “Why do I write? What do I want to accomplish through my writing? Important questions.

Mary Yerkes brings balance to the writing picture with five conclusions in the post, The Business vs. Personal, Creative Sides of Writing. Our answers may vary individually, but I agree with Mary. It helps to periodically reassess our motives, and clarify why we labor as we do.

Thanks, Mary, for understanding not only the mechanics of writing, but the heart of the writer.

Establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands. ~ Psalm 90:17

Okay, here’s a pop quiz! Jot your answers down. Answers are posted under the comment section. Have fun!

Question 1:
Many women of the 19th century began writing to…

1. Support themselves and their children.
2. Become rich and famous.
3. Make men mad.
4. Create masterpieces.

Question 2:
How did Jane Austen publish her novel?

1. Under a pseudonym.
2. Anonymously.
3. Posthumously.
4. By Jane Austen.

Question 3:
Who wrote A Jury of Her Peers?

1. Virginia Woolf
2. Susan Glaspell
3. Irene Roach
4. Emily Bronte

Question 4:
Anne of Green Gables is based on the childhood experiences of who?

1. Lucy Maud Montgomery
2. Anne Shirley
3. Marilla Cuthbert
4. Diana Barry

Question 5:
The Harriet Beecher-Stowe novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is about…

1. Romance.
2. The end of the world.
3. Anti-slavery.
4. Going away for the weekend

Question 6:
What woman writer is often considered the “Irish Jane Austen”?

1. Maggie O’ Sullivan
2. Mary O’ Neill
3. Emma Donoghue
4. Maria Edgeworth

Question 7:
How many sisters make up the Bronte family?

2
3
4
5

Question 8:
What novel is Louisa May Alcott most famous for writing?

1. Tom Thumb
2. Moon Over Varga
3. Little Women
4. Little Fingers

Question 9:
What did male authors do in response to the splurge of female writers in the 19th century?

1. They relished the competition.
2. They began to write under feminine pseudonyms.
3. They picketed their publishers
4. They didn’t think it would last

Question 10:
19th Century writing by women authors…

1. Has paved the way for modern day women authors.
2. Stands up to the male authors of the same period.
3. Needs to be studied more in the classrooms.
4. All of the above.

I’m pleased to hear that AWSA (Advanced Writers & Speakers Association) selected Heather Gemmen for this year’s Strength of Choice Award, established by Allison Bottke in 2002.

“The God Allows U-Turns - “Strength of Choice Award” goes to the person who in the previous year best exemplified a consistent determination to rise above difficult circumstances while maintaining a clear focus on the One who not only “allows” U-Turns, but who remains with us on any life journey, no matter how many twists and turns it may bring. The recipient of this award outwardly lives Philippians 4:12-13, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything in Him who gives me strength.”

AWARD CRITERIA:
Selected annually by AWSA Founder, Linda Evans Shepherd, God Allows U-Turns founder, Allison Bottke, and the previous year’s recipient of the AWSA Member of the Year award, the recipient of the God Allows U-Turns - “Strength of Choice Award” can be anyone within the Christian publishing industry who displays the courage to boldly share their faith with the world while experiencing a formidable life challenge.

Heather Gemmen’s book: Startling Beauty: My Journey from Rape to Restoration.

“Startling Beauty is a beautiful portrayal of God’s grace and restoration through the choices and traumas in our lives. Heather Gemmen’s story transports the reader…Her transparency about the extending consequences of rape (the ‘morning after’ pill, abortion, bi-racial children, shame, sexually transmitted diseases, blame, sexuality, etc.) can make a difference in the lives of many struggling victims. Startling Beauty is a rare picture of the truth that abortion isn’t a solution to any situation—even rape.” ~ Sydna Masse, Founder & President, Ramah International, Inc

God bless you, Heather, for sharing your life with us through this book. Your words bring healing to so many lives, and I thank God for you.

If you’d like to drop Heather a note, you can visit her blog