For Real Human Writers

Acheson, Carla. Inspire Me to Get Writing (Writing Fiction). Booklet 1 of the “Inspire Me” series. July 2011.

Written for real human writers, Acheson bases her book on two years of weekly writers’ workshops. She gives “uncomplicated guidance, tips, advice, and inspiration for both the non-fiction and fiction writer” regardless of experience level.

The booklet includes three sections: 1) Why write? (both good and bad reasons) 2) What is a writer? (confidence and mistakes) 3) What is your excuse? (time management, inspiration, getting creative.)

Acheson includes exercises, story starting prompts and tips for creative writing. She approaches writers as friends and colleagues rather than students, saying “If you have the time to read, the will and desire to be impressive, plus a decent/moderate command of the English language, you need no more tools in your tool box than your personal creativity and your brain.”

Informally written, Acheson encourages balance, self-discipline reminds us “nothing we do or know is trivial” and “the only way to inspire yourself is to seek inspiration inside or out.” But don’t wait for the muse for motivation.

Acheson is a full-time free-lance writer from Gibraltar. As a creative writing consultant she guides, advises, and encourages new writers every week.

The booklet often felt like a promotional piece for the booklets to follow rather than a well-focused treatise on inspiration. Her story prompts were weak and her writing of sometimes felt disjointed, as if she had so much to say it was hard to get it all down. But lots of good tips and things to think about.

The Discovery by Dan Walsh. Revell, 2012

At the reading of his grandfather’s will, Michael Warner receives not only a very healthy checking account, and a continuing portion of Gerard’s royalties on his many best-selling suspense thrillers that have sold in the millions, but also his grandparent’s home in Charleston.

Michael begins to settle in to make his grandfather’s study his own, and takes down the wooden box to store his grandfather’s typewriter.Inside the richly carved box, Michael discovers a yellowed unpublished manuscript obviously meant for him to find.

It is a story of Nazi spies who come onto the Florida coast on U-boats trained by the Abwehr to sabotage the American war effort. But, this story is different from Gerard’s other books; it is also a story of a tender, forever kind of love that cannot be.

“As Michael delves deeper into the story he discovers something that has the power to change not only his future but his past as well.” It is a story “that explores the incredible sacrifices that must be made to forge the love of a lifetime.”

Dan Walsh has taken a side-bar of World War II history and created a novel within a novel will make you want to stay up late, and when you have reached its final pages, you will want to read it all over again. It has it all, mystery, intrigue, history, romance, characters whose names and lifetimes will stay with you long after you have passed the novel on to another male or female reader you know will love the book as much as you do.

A member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Dan served as a pastor for 25 years. He is the bestselling and award-winning author of The Unfinished Gift, The Homecoming, The Deepest Waters, and Remembering Christmas. Dan and his wife Cindi have two grown children and live in the Daytona Beach area.

Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, known for their Christian fiction and books on Christian living, self-help, marriage, and family has signed Dan “to write 2 books a year for them through 2014.” The first of three stand-alone novels, The Reunion, will be released in September 2012. Dan Walsh and Gary Smalley, a family counselor and award-winning author of books about family relationships from a Christian perspective, have completed the first of a four-book fiction series. The Dance will be eleased in April 2013.