My Camp NaNo Project: Little Boy Blue

Several of you gave me some fabulous questions last week, and today I can't wait to answer them! A few of the questions were repetitions, so I just combined those into one.

What's your potential word count goal?

Oh goodness, this is a hard one . . . I would love for this lil' novel (yes! Novel! I hit 50k this morning!!) to get to 70,000. That's the easy part of the question, haha! But 60,000 might be more of a reasonable goal. We'll see what happens!

What is your story about?

Ahhh, the dreaded question! (am I the only one that finds it super hard to answer this question??) I've got my answer for Beloved all planned out ('a suicidal girl's path to redemption'), but poor Little Boy Blue hasn't been graces with a tagline yet. So I'll give it my best shot. (if only I could've written a synopsis . . . )

In a nutshell, it's about a young man who, by circumstances beyond his control, is thrust into a completely different environment than he's used to—living with Judah and EmmaLee Turner. When tragedy strikes, and changes are yet again forced upon him, he must have the courage to do what needs to be done—no matter the consequences. The nursery rhyme Little Boy Blue ties into the plot.

Oh, it's also a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph. ;)

(there's also like 3 explosions and lots of fistfights and gunfire, jsyk)

(and betrayal)

(and sadness)

Can you give us a mini-bio of the MCs?

Haha! Um, okay . . . I just have to decide which MCs (main characters) to use, as there's only one POV for the whole story.

So, first up, Micah Banner, the official MC. Having grown up as the youngest in a family of all boys (his mom died when he was super young), he's naturally under the impression that life is a fight for survival. With shaggy dark hair and green eyes, his brothers often refer to him as 'pretty boy'—among other things. ;) Having been talked over his whole life, Micah tends to be quiet, but he's also got a bit of a snobby side when it comes to dealing with his brothers!

Next character is Judah Turner. Judah is quiet, reserved, and soft-spoken, until it comes to reining in his younger siblings. If you asked him, he'd say that they're all a bunch of nutcase, but he loves them all anyway. His wife, EmmaLee, is the heart and sole of his life, and she definitely knows how to melt his heart—not that it's hard for her to do!

Last but definitely not least, Shane Turner. Dude's got muscles enough to 'benchpress a Buick' but rarely uses them against his fellow man. (curious now, are, ya?) Shane has a super soft heart, though he definitely won't let anyone take advantage of himself or those he loves. Shane also has an incredibly goofy side (though not as bad as his brother Jayden!) that peeks through . . . well . . . most of the time. Shane is practically addicted to Dr. Pepper.

What inspired you to write this story?

Ha. Hahahahah. Um. Are you ready for a long explanation? I think it was back in '17 (soon after I finished Beloved, I believe—but don't quote me on that. It could've been summer of '18 for all I remember) that I got the idea for a story named Codename: Farmer. Sounds cool, right? Of course! Farmers by day, crimefighters by night, all the MCs a carbon copy of my family. Yeah. It was suuuuper cheesy, and I never really could get much written. So I'd quit, take a break from it for awhile, then try again.

Well, I have no idea how long this went on until I decided to completely change the plot, thanks to a Pinterest prompt (yeah, after writing Beloved, I thought all my inspiration would come from Pinterest. Let this be a lesson: inspiration doesn't always come from the same source every time.) So, this story became Hey Diddle Diddle because I thought it'd be a super cool title (it still is, really), and the big family of farming crimefighters (see? I still cringe just thinking about it) became a lil' boy named Autry who found out that his father, Sorren, was a paid assassin. *gasp* the plot thickens!

But, again, it didn't really work. 

So the story changed. Again. To a dude named Jedidiah whose family worked with the police to solve crime and kick all the bad guys to kingdom come. 

And THEN, the story became Little Boy Blue. Hey Diddle Diddle is what really inspired the plot, but I loved the idea of doing a Bible story retelling. Plus, I had a fabulous (albeit heartbreaking) way to tie in the nursery rhyme.

Does that answer your question? ;)

What is the message you want to get across?

I don't know, actually. When I wrote Beloved, I knew exactly the message I wanted to portray from the moment I started the story. Little Boy Blue's message has evaded me from the beginning; I feel like it's a message that God's going to be teaching me right now, and I won't find it in the story until it's over. But one thing I keep coming back to: God is trustworthy. He is who He says He is.

This certainly seems to be the message that Micah is learning, so I'm excited to see how it turns out. :)

Has this been easier or harder to write than Beloved?

Harder, for sure! In addition to all the revisions I mentioned above, I'm having to write a lot of filler scenes to keep my momentum going, whereas in Beloved, the words just flowed as if from an unending fountain. At times, I've had to force my way through Little Boy Blue, just to get to a place where there's smooth sailing. But, as all my writing friends know, sometimes you do have to just force your way through. It's like that famous quote that says that you have to turn a faucet on in order to get water. Or something like that.

Do you have a favorite character? If so, who is it?

Haha, good question! Um, I can't say that I have a favorite favorite that really sticks out in my mind . . . I love Micah. And Shane. And Judah. And EmmaLee. And Claire. And Jayden. And . . . yeah, all of them.

Have you killed any of your characters?

*Gasp* How could you ask such a question?!

Has restarting your book helped it to move forward in a way you're happy with?

Oh, for sure! When I started it last July, I had no idea what I was doing. Trying to write a story from a married man's point of view was . . . awkward, to say the least. (Tell me I'm not the only one with this problem!) So in Nov. I restarted it from Micah's point of view, and I love it so much better!

What genre is it?

I . . . guess suspense/action? I def wouldn't call it a thriller, but it's not a walk in the park, either. ;)

What do you think? Sound interesting? How's Camp NaNo going for you so far??

Book Review: The Whispers God Gives by Ellen Senechal

Hear God whisper as you read!

Have you ever found yourself questioning God’s will for your life? Are you battling things nobody else seems to relate to? What about bitterness after losing a friend? Perhaps you’ve scoured the Internet and came up dry because you couldn’t find anything that spoke directly to your teen or pre-teen heart. 

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, this book is for you.

In The Whispers God Gives, teenaged author Ellen Senechal speaks from her heart and from God’s Word. She longs to share what she couldn’t find no matter how hard she looked – a clean, wholesome Christian devotional that’s short, sweet, and to the point. A book centered around strengthening your relationship with God your Savior, Counselor, and Friend in thirty days.

Let God’s whispers begin!

My rating:

(First of all—isn't that cover the most adorable thing ever?? It just makes me smile!)

When Ms. Senechal approached me about reviewing her debut, I was super excited! Having read her review of my own book, I knew that her writing style was going to be fabulous—and I was right!

Each of the lessons in this 30-day devotional holds an everyday illustration—baby sister + soggy pretzels, food allergies, Band-Aids, rolling office chairs.

The lessons contain life occurrences and just all-around wisdom that every teenager can relate to—the betrayal of a friend, the impact of words, jealousy of others' stronger faith, personal mission fields.

Ms. Senechal's short, sweet, to-the-point devotionals pack a punch for just a few hundred words per day!

The lesson that impacted me the most, though, was when she used the phrase, "You don't have to; you GET to."

Now, these are the words that my father is famous (in our household) for saying...and when these words showed up in this book, I had to do a double-take.

When my dad said it my whole life, I hated it. As a whiny kid, I would say, "Do I have to?!"
Daddy would say, "No, you don't have to." But before I could fully enjoy the relief that I felt, he would amend his statement by saying, "you get to." Oh, that was annoying. We (my siblings and I) always hated it because 1) it was said frequently, and 2) he made it sound like a privilege.

Having abhorred that statement for years, when I read it in Ms. Senechal's book, I was curious where she would go with it.

But y'know what? She had a very interesting thought:
"How about taking that dreadful word 'have' and replacing it with the sweet word 'get'?
'I get to wash these dishes.'
'I get to clean this table.'
'I get to sweep this floor.'
When said this way, the sentences let us know we're given privileges, special gifts God designated for us. And when we shift our perspective in this way, to view our tasks as such gifts, our grumpy moods dissolve into thankfulness."

Somehow, I'd never thought of my father's dreaded words in this way. What I saw as annoying was actually his way of trying to get us to appreciate the fact that we're healthy and able to do the things, even when we hate them. That, as inconvenient and dreadful they may be, they really are privileges.

But, I mean, he loved annoying us, too. (That devious smirk? Mhm, he's famous for that, too.)

There's so many good lessons in this book, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone! Though, being a bit old for the target age audience, I think, I wasn't quite able to relate to all of the lessons, and thus four stars. ;)

All in all—I'm so excited for you, Ellen! Congratulations on your upcoming release!

I was given a free e-copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Learn About My April Camp NaNo Project

I actually wasn't planning on doing Camp this year . . . but scheduling changed slightly, so I decided on April 1st that I'd give it a go!

This year, I'm working on a story titled Little Boy Blue.

Now wait, you might be thinking, isn't this the same story she did for Camp NaNo July '19? (read that post here)

Wellllll, the answer is yes. But I didn't like the way the story was going, so after taking a months-long break from this baby, I completely restarted it for NaNoWriMo (Nov.) '19, making major revisions. But then, I only got about 26,000 words written.

This month, I'm hoping to finish it! That's not to say that I will . . . but there's always hope, right? ;)

So, instead of taking up precious writing time to try to compile all the facts that y'all might be interested in about my lil' story, I decided to open it up for a Q&A!

You can comment any and every question about Little Boy Blue that you have, and I may or may not answer them all in a post next week!

Questions or comments? *Grins* good! Drop 'em below!