Author Leah M. Hinton — The Sojourn Sparrow
The Proving Ring by LM Hinton
When media spin destroys her reputation, and blackmail turns her world upside down, Officer Ramsey Dennis fights to clear her name while leading a rogue investigation in search of a runaway girl that puts her on the trail of a madman — down the backroads of Texas. Ramsey is desperate to save the girl, find the truth, and be redeemed in the process.
Happy mail from my editor Susan King at Grace Publishing. Book three in the Short and Sweet anthology series. (Shown here with books one and two, in which I also have stories published.)
These are short works featuring short words. (One syllable words, with few exceptions.)
And I’m happy to say my work has been accepted for book four and I’ve been asked to submit for book five. All proceeds from these works go to charity.
Peace.
Check out this inspirational non-fiction anthology I am proud to be a part of. It is called Short and Sweet: Small Words for Big Thoughts. It is edited by Susan King of the Upper Room and published by Grace Publishing.
What’s so cool about this is the project itself. Susan King asked me to write a piece for this anthology. The rules, it had to be micro-fiction 150 words or less. The words had to be one syllable and it had to be true and inspirational. Whew. I sat down and wrote my contribution in long hand in the back of my journal.
Buy the book here:
Look for Volume 2 coming out soon.
As many of you know, I entered a contest and was selected as one of ten winners who won admission to the Mt. Hermon Christian Writers’ Conference, including room and board.
I spent several fabulous days outside Santa Cruz, California. I communed with other writers, people in the writing industry and just all around good folks. I kayaked in the Pacific. I hiked through a redwood forest. But most of all, I learned a lot about myself and this crazy path I’m on.
1. Having goals is different than having a plan. Sometimes it’s the round-about-meandering path that gets us our goals more so, than the strict itinerary of a plan. It is amazing how free it is to walk into a writing conference with no agenda. Now I can’t claim I did that. My friend did that. But I soon dropped my agenda and decided there was so much more to gain if I would just shut-up for a second. And when I did, things started happening. Very. Good. Things.
2. Guess what? I totally dig kayaking and think I need a kayak. (you know, in case anyone reading this needs a hint for a birthday, mother’s day, or anniversary gift . . .)
3. I’m in a good place, geographically. I have a really great writing group right here in the Dallas area. The literary community is growing and I love LELA.
4. You know what? I have talent. Pashawwwwww. But it’s true. Strangers like my words, ideas and worlds. That’s pretty freaking amazing.
5. I’m super lucky to have the support of Big Tough and the Brood. My family digs my being a writer.
6. My mind was blown. I had this creamy Italian chocolate pot that was enough to write home about. (See the above pic. Amazing, right?) Thank you, MD! It is called Deep Chocolate Indulgence and it includes a half slice of Chocolate Ecstacy Cake, a mini Italian Pot of Chocolate, and a Bittersweet Truffle. Holy cow, Batman. Next time you are in Santa Cruz, Ca., go here, Chocolate on Pacific Ave.
7. And I learned to trust my gut, my heart and my husband. (Whew. Biggest and best for last.) This was exactly where I needed to be at exactly the right time. Big Tough’s words of encouragement have been an important part of my journey.
I’m still in the pinch-me phase and I fully recognize my life is forever changed.
So here is some BIG news. I am delaying The Proving Ring for just a bit (a year at most) while I finish up a couple non-fiction manuscripts that apparently my heart has been aching to write because I got requests for manuscripts of books I have not even started — from major publishing companies, no less. I may have another EPIC surprise on the horizon, too. 🙂
All in all, my little chickadees, don’t be disheartened. Dreams may be a long time in coming, but God knows the true and pure desires of your heart. Keep trying. Keep learning and by all means, don’t ever give up.
Every once in a while I do something crazy. Like yesterday. I shaved nearly 10,000 words off of Act one of the Proving Ring and started rearranging things.
The characters have fleshed themselves out and know better where they need to be in the timeline than they did when I typed the first sentence of this manuscript.
So today I am putting all of the pieces together again. At first I was nervous with an “OMG, WTF did I do?” moment. But with the initial panic over, I see a tighter, leaner, meaner story.
Last fall, I decided to enter my first ever writing competition. To make it more challenging, I decided to write a story for a Flash Fiction Contest. Flash Fiction is a complete story – start to finish – in a thousand words or less.
Some of you might think that I played it safe because I chose a contest requiring a small amount of writing. But you can’t understand Flash Fiction until you’ve tried writing Flash Fiction. You aren’t allowed pages upon pages to establish a character. You have to do that in a mere sentence or two.
Flash fiction is definitely an exercise in brevity and understanding what your story is truly about. There are no bunny trails to wander down.
I won second place in that contest for my submission entitled “Blue.” This February it was published in the online monthly newsletter/journal of the Writers’ Guild Texas.
You can read it here.
