Setting Goals -- Reach for the Stars

The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams. ~ Og Mandino (1923 - 1996)

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it. ~ Arnold Toynbee (1889 - 1975)

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. ~ Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)

To will is to select a goal, determine a course of action that will bring one to that goal, and then hold to that action till the goal is reached. The key is action.
~ Michael Hanson

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them. ~ Denis Watley

Reach high, for the stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal. ~ Pamela Vaull Starr


Debbie Macomber, keynote speaker at the 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers Conference and author with more than 100 million copies of books in print, shared her story as a dyslexic child who barely graduated from high school and later as the mother of four young children who wrote her stories on a rented typewriter. Though she struggled for five years to get published, she never lost sight of her dream.

Today, demand for her books have exceeded her wildest dreams . . . but not her wildest goals. 74 SEASIDE AVENUE, the latest in her Cedar Cove series, scored #1 on the NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and Publishers Weekly, and her books are translated into twenty-three languages.

Through the years, Debbie has recorded her goals in her many journals. As she achieved each goal, she quickly penned another one. At the ACFW conference, she challenged the writers to list their wildest goals imaginable. Isn't it time you made your own list?

A goal without a plan is just a wish. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

~ Roxanne Sherwood

FREE Novel Writing Software

FREE Novel Writing Software

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."—William Somerset Maugham

Even if you don’t know the three rules for writing a great novel, yWriter, a FREE downloadable word processor, helps you organize your novel writing. Developed by an experienced programmer and published author, yWriter breaks your novel into chapters and scenes.

The word count target feature allows you to set a word count goal, plus the date you’d like to reach your word count objective. It tracks your progress, showing how much you’ve written, plus how many words you still need to write.

yWriter’s Features

• Organizes your novel using a 'project'
• Stores all scenes in RTF files, which can be edited with a regular word processor
• Sets font style and size, plus bold, italics and underline
• Adds chapters to the project
• Adds scenes, characters, items, and locations
• Displays the word count for every file in the project, along with a total
• Tracks your progress
• Saves a log file every day, showing words per file and the total
• Saves automatic backups at user-specified intervals
• Allows multiple scenes within chapters
• Viewpoints character, goal, conflict, and outcome fields for each scene
• Storyboard view shows a visual layout of your work
• Re-orders scenes within chapters
• Drags and drops chapters, scenes, characters, items, and locations
• Renumbers chapters automatically.

View a video showing how to use yWriter.

The writing life is a solitary life--Not!

My lifelong friend, Roxanne, and my new friend, Lisa J., at author Susan May Warren's pizza party at the American Christian Fiction Writer's (ACFW)Conference last weekend.


The friendly faces in all these photos are just some of the reasons I disagree with the statement: The writing life is a solitary life.

Oh, sure. I spend lots of time at my computer, alone. As a matter of fact, I'm typing this post at 12:09 AM and I'm the only one up in my house. Yeah, kind of lonely. But it's a productive kind of lonely.





Susie having fun--and her having so much fun with about 75 of her closest friends made me have a lot of fun too! I'm already planning on next year!


Sometimes writing can be so...so serious. It's a business. A calling. A ministry. The weight of the writing world is on your shoulders. Sometimes we just need to get out from underneath the deadlines and have f-u-n!





Gotta' get me a hat!





Me and my friend-who-will-one-day-be-a-bestselling-author, Evangeline, aka "E" or "Da Corruptor." (Don't ask.)


Evangeline likes to give people names. I am "The Evil Editor," which she assures me is a compliment. Yesterday at critique group, that name morphed to Picky Evil Editor, which we realized equaled "PEE." I asked her to go back to "TEE."





Me and Rocky--we had't seen each other in three years. She's the first person I told when I wandered over to the "Dark Side"--meaning, I started writing fiction. I know I would never have lingered this long if it hadn't been for her encouraging me to stay a while.






Me and Paula M. We became friends at a writers conference years ago. Paula and I were "blind date roommates," meaning we were randomly assigned to room together. And Paula brought china tea cups. And a tea pot. And beautiful encouraging Scriptures to place around the room. And I just knew I wanted to be her friend, forever.

The photos and this post will never capture all the fun I had, all the laughter that was shared, in the less than 24 hour period I was at ACFW. But let me leave you with this thought: Along the Writing Road, don't forget to make friends. Lots and lots of friends. It will make the journey all the richer.

National Punctuation Day®

Today, September 24, is the 6th Annual National Punctuation Day®!

Who knew?

I didn't, until I was up way-too late, thanks to an unexpected shot of expresso in my Starbucks pumpkin spice latte. Being a Starbucks novice--I drink ice tea when I go to Starbucks--I did not realize latte = expresso. My more experienced daughters broke the news as I pinged around the kitchen, talking rapidly in an overly-loud voice.

But that is totally beside the point of this blog post.

National Punctuation Day® is, and I quote, "A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis."

So just how do you celebrate National Punctuation Day®? The Web site gives plenty of suggestions, including:

*Participate in the first National Punctuation Day® Baking Contest. (Bake something in the shape of a question mark or a comma or an exclamation point!)
*Share punctuation peeves with NPD founder Jeff Rubin at Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com.
*Send photos of incorrectly punctuated signage to Jeff Rubin at Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com.

The Web site also has links to punctuation products, a "Punctuation Playtime Progam," and punctuation resources.


Note: If there are any punctuation errors in this post, I blame them on the expresso!

Blog Tour: Morning Coffee with James

Morning Coffee with James by Renae Brumbaugh

Need more time to study God's Word? Morning Coffee with James is the perfect solution. With humor and conversational style, this book offers meaty insights that will satisfy the spirit and quench the soul.

Each Morning Coffee devotional includes a verse or two from the book of James, a few paragraphs of study and application, a prayer, and more. Fun coffee facts and recipes are interspersed throughout.

About the Author

Renae Brumbaugh has done it all. She is an author, former English teacher, public speaker, singer/songwriter, pastor's wife, and mother of two. Some of her articles have been printed by In Touch, Brio, Listen, and Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Product Details

Title: Morning Coffee with James

Paperback: 113 pages

Publisher: Chalice Press (September 15, 2009)

ISBN-10: 0827223366

ISBN-13: 978-0827223363

Roxanne's off to ACFW!

Roxanne was blessed with an unexpected trip to the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) annual conference in Denver starting tomorrow (September 17).

I am so excited for her--she's even going to the special session with Donald Maass.

I know she'll have lots to share with us when she gets back.

Until then, I'll leave you with this thought:

"The author who benefits you the most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance." ~ Oswald Chambers, minister

Christa hanging with me at a booksigning for Baby Changes Everything



I am still haunted by a conversation I had one day with my daughter, Christa:

Me: So, what does mom do?
Christa: You sit in front of your computer.
Me: No--what do I for work?
Christa: You sit in front of your computer a lot?

Somehow, Christa had never understood that her mom is a writer--despite the fact that I'm hugging her in my author photo on the back of Baby Changes Everything!

I also edit Connections, the leadership magazine for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International. Last night, as I edited a draft of the magazine, Christa walked into my office.

Here was my chance for my own version of Take Your Child to Work Day!

Christa stood by my desk while I showed her all the wonder and magic of being an editor. Somebody needed to be playing appropriate background music. The only sound I heard was my husband stifling his chuckles.

I showed her what an article looked like in it's rough, pre-edit phase. Then I explained how I put all the articles together and sent them to the graphic designer, Heather. She's the one who really got Christa's attention with her magic skills. Christa was amazed to see my basic black and white text turned into a full-color, photos-included draft of a magazine.

Then I showed Christa the fun of ADOBE ACROBAT and editing tools like highlighting, comment boxes! I won't say she was speechless, but she did pay attention.

All in all, our little at-home Take Your Child to Work Day lasted less than 10 minutes. I think Christa has a better understanding of what I do.

Of course, she immediately walked over to her dad, who was looking at a medical journal, and said, "Cool pictures, Dad! What is all that?"

Ah, well. Maybe her future lies in the medical field, not journalism.