Inspirational Journeys: Stories that Matter

In today’s episode I give you a few author updates and explain the following formula for developing your story arch:

Someone, your protagonist

Wanted, what does your MC want? What is the character’s goal in your story?

But, the fear or flaw keeping your character from achieving his or her goal

And, in walks the villain to turn your MC’s world upside down in each paradigm shift

So, Your MC must conquer the fear or flaw holding her back and confront the villain to achieve her goal

Or, lose everything, including her life, depending on your genre.

Teresa Guffanti from the Struggling Blessed but not Alone podcast and I were invited to be special guests on the What De Hek podcast, hosted by Danny De Hek. To hear our interview, visit:

https://www.dehek.com/general/podcast/what-de-hek-podcast-12-questions-with-teresa-guffanti-ann-harrison-blind-sighted-ladies/

To register for the WWJ conferences, visit:

https://linktr.ee/wwjs

support this podcast with a monthly donation:

https://anchorlfm/inspirational-journeys/support

or you can give a one-time donation via PayPal at:

https://paypal.me/annHarrisonBarnes?locale.x=en_US

In today’s audio/video episode, My special guest and I talk about books, writing and more. Sit back, relax and eavesdrop on my conversation with M. Michelle Derosier as wee talk about two of our favorite topics,  Jesus and Writing.

Michelle loves Jesus and is fueled by black coffee, espresso, and freshly baked goods. Sadly, she’s not skilled at making any of the three. She writes culturally diverse stories from picture books to novels and shares an assortment of Haitian-American tales that are overlooked in the mainstream.

Michelle’s featured book is entitled Accepting Elijah’s Heart. The information is as follows:

Description:

He’s a former bad boy learning to forgive his past mistakes.

She’s a grieving widow struggling with motherhood.

A life-altering event offers them hope for a better future together.

Elijah Cooper grew up in church but without a relationship with God. Something he didn’t think he needed until he did. When Eli offers Reina support in a crisis, a friendship develops that could blossom

to more. But with his troubled past, he is not interested in a love match or a ready-made family.

After her husband’s untimely death, Reina Blackwell can’t trust the ground she walks on not to crumble beneath her. She’s certainly no longer trusting the God who created it. Not after he shatters her world leaving her alone to mourn and raise her son.

With scars too deep to heal on their own, can Eli and Reina find the faith they need to give and receive love?

Purchase link: https://books2read.com/acceptingelijahsheart

Connect with Michelle at the following links:

Website: https://www.writerderosier.com/

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/writerderosier

Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/writerderosier

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writerderosier

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WriterDerosier/

Bookbub: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18184600.M_Michelle_Derosier

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18184600.M_Michelle_Derosier

Twitter: https://twitter.com/writerderosier

To register for the WWJ conferences, visit:

https://linktr.ee/wwjs

support this podcast with a monthly donation:

https://anchorlfm/inspirational-journeys/support

or you can give a one-time donation via PayPal at:

https://paypal.me/annHarrisonBarnes?locale.x=en_US

Today is the kickoff for Camp NaNoWriMo and April is National Poetry Month. In today’s episode, I talk about both events taking place this month and I have a special treat for you, so stay tuned to the end, because I have a poem to share.

To register for the WWJ conferences, visit:

https://linktr.ee/wwjs

support this podcast with a monthly donation:

https://anchorlfm/inspirational-journeys/support

or you can give a one-time donation via PayPal at:

https://paypal.me/annHarrisonBarnes?locale.x=en_US

Jen Lowry, who has been a guest on inspirational Journeys a number of times, is back to talk about her new Christian romance entitled Love over pizza, and to give us a few author updates. Feel free to eavesdrop on our conversation about  Jesus and writing! The information for Love Over Pizza is as follows:

Pepper Pines is back in Jackson, North Carolina, and settling in after graduating college. Her classroom is just the way she envisioned it, but her social life isn't. Pepper's best friend, Jessie, convinces her that Cupid's Connection, a popular online dating site, might have her Mr. Right. Luca Giovanni is trying his best to run the pizza shop his parents left him and be his sister, Angel's, keeper. Angel signs Luca up to Cupid's Connection without him knowing because she feels he's ready for love but just doesn't take the time away from his business to date. Both find out what really matters, how to let go and lean in, and discover that pizza is better shared with those you love.

Purchase link:

https://www.amazon.com/Love-Over-Pizza-Jen-Lowry-ebook/dp/B08TW5L73F/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=love+over+pizza&qid=1615049283&sr=8-1

Connect with Jen at the following links:

Website: https://jenlowrywrites.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jenlowrywrites

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenlowrywrites/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenlowrywrites/​

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jenlowrywrites/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTsRAMAfWpfL6J6uevztbmw

Subscribe to Jen’s podcast:

https://anchor.fm/jenlowrywrites

To register for the WWJ conferences, visit:

https://linktr.ee/wwjs

support this podcast with a monthly donation:

https://anchorlfm/inspirational-journeys/support

or you can give a one-time donation via PayPal at:

https://paypal.me/annHarrisonBarnes?locale.x=en_US

Randy Ingermanson wants to teach you how to write excellent fiction.

He’s been teaching for more than twenty years, and he’s known around the world as "the Snowflake Guy" in honor of his wildly popular Snowflake Method of writing a novel.

Randy is an award-winning novelist and publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine. He says that "Fiction Writing = Organization + Craft + Marketing," so he focuses on those three topics in his e-zine.

He also blogs when the spirit moves him. He is trying to get the spirit to move him weekly, but the spirit gets touchy about schedules.

Randy lives in the Pacific Northwest and works as a manservant to two surly and demanding cats. Visit Randy at AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Today’s featured book is entitled: How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method

Description

Are you writing a novel, but having trouble getting your first draft written?

Take a look at the wildly popular Snowflake Method—ten battle-tested steps that jump-start your creativity and help you quickly map out your story. All around the world, novelists are using the Snowflake Method right now to ignite their imaginations and get their first drafts down.

The Snowflake Method is a magical key to unlock your creative wizard.

This book is written as a “business parable,” which means it’s a book about a nonfiction topic, but it’s written in story form. The story features a young woman named Goldilocks who desperately wants to write a novel. She goes to a writers conference, and there she takes classes from three bears. Papa Bear teaches outlining, but Goldilocks finds that too rigid. Mama Bear teaches “organic writing,” but Goldilocks finds that too squishy. Baby Bear teaches the Snowflake Method. Will Goldilocks find it to be just right?

Yes, this is a very zany story. That’s the point. The zaniness of the story will help lock the principles deep inside your head. Because story does that. You remember stories longer. Especially zany stories. Have fun!

Purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LWBZ696/

To learn more about the Snowflake Method, visit:

https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com

To register for the WWJ conferences, visit:

https://linktr.ee/wwjs

support this podcast:

https://anchor.fm/inspirational-journeys/support

To make a one-time donation via PayPal, visit: https://paypal.me/annHarrisonBarnes?locale.x=en_US:

DeAnna Quietwater Noriega  is half Apache, and a quarter Chippewa. She is the mother of three, two daughters and an adopted blind son.  She was the eldest of five children in a close-knit American Indian family.  As a result of congenital glaucoma, She became totally blind at the age of eight.  DeAnna Noriega and her husband, Curtis, currently live in Columbia, Missouri.

DeAnna’s latest book entitled Fifty Years of Walking with Friends is In e-book and print from Amazon, Smashwords, and other online sellers. 271 pages in print.

Full details, including cover image, synopsis, author bio, direct buying links, and free text preview:

https://www.dldbooks.com/dqnoriega/

To register for the WWJ conferences, visit:

https://linktr.ee/wwjs

Support this podcast:

https://anchor.fm/inspirational-journeys/support

To make a one-time donation, visit:

https://paypal.me/annHarrisonBarnes?locale.x=en_US

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/annsmusic1

Claire O’Sullivan has been on the show before, to talk about her writing process. Here is her bio in her own words:

I’m a mom and grandmother. When my husband and I married, he already had 2 kids and 2 grandkids, and I already had my son, so I became an instant grandmother as well with the largest family on the face of the earth.

((What was funny at my wedding, I didn’t wear my glasses, well, because, who wants to, right? So we’re walking down the aisle and I see all of these folks crowding one side. I’d met my husband’s family at a Thanksgiving dinner, and there were at least fifty family members and their spouses, so going down the aisle I thought, wow, I knew his family was big but… Well, I’d lost my mom and dad years back, and so my son was with me, but no one else. And when I finally put my glasses on, my entire church had turned out and filled up the pews. It was pretty phenomenal. And funny.))

So I retired officially in 2018 though I’d closed my office quite a bit earlier, got our youngest son and his wife to move into the house while we remodeled and put in a mother-in-law studio, which is quite cozy for us. And we get to see our kids.

Besides writing, reading, and drinking coffee, I love to garden. My husband says I am low maintenance because I am always reading or writing… never grabbing the remote. We live in rural Southern Oregon weathering the changes.

I started writing in 8th grade with the encouragement of a teacher, and she suggested I get into journalism and creative writing in high school, which I did. My folks were old fashioned and they were firm: no writing, no archeology, no wildlife biology. So I became a nurse, and got married, had a son, and life sort of happened. I wrote a novel in 1989 but never got serious about sending it off, and that was a thriller. Then I went off to grad school and became a nurse practitioner, opened my own office, and didn’t start writing until 2012, and that’s when I started Romance Under Wraps.

Claire’s debut novel is entitled, Romance Under Wraps and can be purchased on her website at:

https://www.claireosullivan1.com/

or on Amazon at:

https://www.amazon.com/Romance-Under-Wraps-Claire-OSullivan-ebook/dp/B08MB43BSL/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2IMRWCOCRINH6&dchild=1&keywords=romance+under+wraps+claire+o%27sullivan&qid=1613957359&sprefix=romance+under+wraps%2Caps%2C244&sr=8-2

To Watch the book trailer, visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3mS-lsXv1s

Listen to Claire’s previous interview:

https://anchor.fm/inspirational-journeys/episodes/Special-Guest-interview-with-Claire-OSullivan-e44urm

Connect with Claire at the following links:

Website: https://www.claireosullivan1.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorclaire1

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/ authorclaire1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorclaire1

  USA.life at https://usa.life/claireosullivan

Gab: https://gab.com/authorclaire1

To register for the WWJ conferences, visit:

https://linktr.ee/wwjs

Support this podcast:

https://anchor.fm/inspirational-journeys/support

Today’s episode has four podcast segments and four separate videos to go along with them, if you prefer to watch on YouTube.

In the first segment, I encourage listeners and viewers to get out in the sunshine, weather permitting, and find inspiration to help them get out of their writing slump.

In the second segment, I give listeners and viewers an update on my writing life and continue to encourage them to share their progress with people in their circles.

The third segment is called my March lineup. Before I share the lineup of guests I have coming onto the show in the weeks ahead, I give a special shoutout to Teresa Guffanti for being last week’s special guest. If you’d like to watch her interview, visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaASkcfLkU8&t=617s

And to listen to the podcast episode on the go, visit:

https://anchor.fm/inspirational-journeys/episodes/Special-Guest-Interview-with-Teresa-Guffanti-equ3t1

After listening to her interview on my show, visit her website:

https://teresa-blessings.blog

and listen to her Struggling Blessed BUT not Alone Podcast:

https://anchor.fm/teresa-guffanti

The March lineup is as follows: Claire O’Sullivan on March 9th, Deanna Noriega on March 16, Randy Ingermanson on March 23, and Jen Lowry on March 30.

In my Final segment, I challenge you to join the WWJs in planting Story Seeds. To learn more about this challenge, watched this YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RwSYzDnlmI&t=54s

To register for the WWJ conferences, visit:

https://linktr.ee/wwjs

To subscribe to my newsletter and receive a free short story, and for a chance to win an audiobook code for The Spirit of Creativity: Inspirational Poems for the Creative at Heart, please visit the following link:

http://www.freelists.org/list/inspiredbyann

My poetry book entitled The Spirit of Creativity: Inspirational Poems for the Creative at heart can be purchased in a variety of eBook formats wherever books are sold. Click the link below to purchase your copy today.

https://books2read.com/TheSpiritOfCreativity

Hey authors, are you looking for an editing tool to help you polish your book manuscripts, essays, short stories and more? Look no further than ProWritingAid. ProWritingAid is an editing tool that checks your grammar, style, dialogue, sticky sentences and much more. Visit the link below to save 20% on your ProWritingAid subscription.

https://prowritingaid.com?afid=8740

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/annsmusic1

Teresa Guffanti is a child of the Most High God. Teresa was born and raised in South Florida; however, she now resides in Dallas Texas, where she currently is the Host and Author of Struggling Blessed but Not Alone Podcast and blog.

Theresa’s life has been a struggle in every way and in every decade. No matter the struggles of life. Teresa has a Can-Do Attitude living on the bible verse that states You can do all things with Christ who strengthens you. Philippians 4:13.

At the age of 11 she was diagnosed with a child’s form of Macular degeneration called Stargardt’s. People in her life may not have believed in her but that did not stop her. For she knew God created her for a greater purpose. Therefore, she had determined at a young age She would do great things and make a difference in this world. Teresa may be almost totally blind, but her vision loss does not define her. It has taught her how to reinvent herself as her life changes.

At the age of 14, while attending school, she embarked upon a career path, filling her life with a variety of jobs, from a general worker to having various leadership roles such as Team leader, supervisor, office manager-Store Manager, customer service rep and manager, business owner and partner. She has also found time to engage her life with many community services, holding leadership roles such as president, director, general adviser and committee adviser in these activities. Teresa has always found time to help change the lives of others and support causes she holds dear to her heart. Teresa graduated high school and received her childcare certificate in 1989. She earned her personal training certification in 1998. This path of education was not a straight shot like most people have. Years later, God gave her an Opportunity to go back to school and show the world she is able to do All Things with God on her side. In 2008 she earned her AA degree at Broward Community college with honors, and received her bachelor’s degree in accounting at Florida Atlantic University in 2012.  Throughout her life, she had to find places to help her learn how to navigate her life changing eye disease. She received training in the areas of Cane travel, braille, assistive technology and independent living. Her thirst for knowledge has inspired her to pursue her master’s degree in seminary and motivational speaking, Teresa Has started a Focus Group called Sharing Insights To better help her low vision and blind peers. She is working on writing her life story, showing The WORLD that GOD LIVES IN AND THROUGH HER Romans 8:28.

Quote by Teresa “Having faith in the lord is more powerful than wishing on a star!”

Connect with Teresa at the following links:

Website for her blog

www.Teresa-blessings.blog

focus Group called Sharing Insights.

Email:

All Things Struggling Blessed but Not Alone!

email

Podcast:

https://anchor.fm/teresa-guffanti

Twitter

https://twitter.com/teresa_guffanti

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/Struggling-blessed-but-not-alone-100679255392680

Robin Patchen is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of Christian romantic suspense.

Connect with Robin at the following links:

Website: http://robinpatchen.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobinPatchen/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/robin-patchen

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5187882.Robin_Patchen

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Robin-Patchen/e/B00A289790/

To subscribe to my newsletter and receive a free short story, and for a chance to win an audiobook code for The Spirit of Creativity: Inspirational Poems for the Creative at Heart Please visit the following link:

http://www.freelists.org/list/inspiredbyann

My poetry book entitled The Spirit of Creativity: Inspirational Poems for the Creative at heart can be purchased in a variety of eBook formats wherever books are sold. Click the link below to purchase your copy today.

https://books2read.com/TheSpiritOfCreativity

Now available on Audible at:

https://www.audible.com/pd/B08N5GM948?qid=1605076574&sr=1-22&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_2_2&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=VRNQE1XMPR4PM4WDD59V

Hey authors, are you looking for an editing tool to help you polish your book manuscripts, essays, short stories and more? Look no further than ProWritingAid. ProWritingAid is an editing tool that checks your grammar, style, dialogue, sticky sentences and much more. Visit the link below to save 20% on your ProWritingAid subscription.

https://prowritingaid.com?afid=8740

Support this podcast:

https://anchor.fm/inspirational-journeys/support

Leave feedback and connect with me at the following links:

Email: [email protected]

Website:

https://annwritesinspiration.com

Voice messages from anywhere:

https://anchor.fm/inspirational-journeys/message

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https://www.facebook.com/annwritesinspiration

https://twitter.com/annwrites75

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Subscribe to my YouTube Channel:

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