Monthly Archives: March 2018

Colorado Weather

Posted on by

When I asked myself, what has been fun and interesting this week the first thing that came to mind was Colorado weather.

One thing I love about living here is the weather doesn’t get boring. We’ve had two snowstorms this week and are expecting one more over the weekend. In between the storms, the temperature has reached the upper sixties and low seventies. Checking the thermometer outside my kitchen window at one in the afternoon one day it was 65 degrees. The next day, at the same time, it was 31.

I’ve been more aware of the weather this week because of a new friend. She moved to Colorado from the Northeast part of the United States. When I met her in the store one morning, she talked about being too warm in her heavy coat because even though it was snowing, it was about 30 degrees. Where she came from it was usually snowing for a stretch of several days with a temperature close to or below zero. During our discussion she said she planned to go shopping for a lighter cold weather coat.

A couple hours later, I saw her again in another store. By that time the snow was gone, the sky was bright blue, and the temperature was in the mid-fifties. My friend looked confused when she saw me. She asked if I’d gone home and changed clothes. I replied I hadn’t, but I had taken off one layer of my shirts and switched to a lighter coat I kept in the car. She looked even more confused. I explained layers and being prepared for a rapid change in the weather.

She walked away mumbling to herself. I hope she is talking to me next time we meet.

Write In The Springs

Posted on by

I’m getting ready for two writing conferences. Today I’m talking about the first one, Write in the Springs.

This conference will be Saturday, April 14th at the First Evangelical Free Church (820 N. 30th Street, Colorado Springs) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Colorado Springs Chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) presents this conference. I’m looking forward to this day because I’ve been to several one-day conferences with ACFW Colorado Springs. Everyone I know goes expecting to learn, laugh, reconnect with friends, and have lots of fun.

Margie Lawson, the presenter, loves teaching writers how to make their writing strong. She not only teaches world-wide but has multi-day intensive writing cruises.

Classes during the conference day will include:

  • Deep Editing Techniques
  • Margie’s Top 20 Rhetorical Devices
  • The power of Subtext: Body Language-Dialogue Cues
  • Visceral Responses: Beyond Hammering Hearts

Now, while I’ve loved every ACFWCS Write in the Springs conference I’ve attended, I have to admit I’ve never heard Margie talk. So, I spent some time exploring her website. The classes look great. I talked to people who have taken classes from her. Those people talked and talked and talked in glowing terms about Margie. As I watch the days on the calendar march toward April 14th, I’m getting more excited for this conference. (I’m sure some editors are cringing at the picture of days marching.)

I hope many experienced and budding authors reading this blog will join all the writers at Write in the Springs. I’ll be near the registration table in the morning and be one of the workers making things run smoothly. Please stop and say “Hi.”

For more information on Write in the Springs, click here.

Welcome to Passing The Quill Blog

Posted on by

I’m celebrating today. My website with this blog is finally alive and well.

Just like this picture, this Colorado girl is so excited, I feel I could jump over the mountains outside my window.
So, this was my website journey.

I’ve planned to have this website live and the blog active for a long time. A few months ago, I gave up trying to figure it out with someone else and determined I would do it myself and started studying videos on YouTube.com to do it myself. Not being technically savvy, I finally settled on a video sponsored by WebYoda.com to help me set up my WordPress.org website. It took over three weeks to go through the two-and-a-half-hour video. I finally got the website set up and almost ready to go live. Thinking I would be done in a few days, I announced it would be up in a few days, only to suffer the embarrassment of having to announce I had to delay going live.

There were two parts with which I wasn’t happy. They were the contact page and the blog page. Unhappily, I had to delay going live with my website because I couldn’t get those to work the way I wanted. Along with that, I felt frustrated and attacked by my lack of technical skills. After a couple hours of crying and fighting the desire to throw my computer through the window, I decided to fight.

Taking the basics I learned on the video and doing some research, I found WordPress plugins for both pages, got them installed, and here I am, with my website and blog alive, active, and functioning. I’m still working on some of the details and tweaking the site, but it can be and is being used.

The picture with this blog shows the elation I feel at accomplishing this. I’m part of the generation many say are not able to be competent beyond simple use of a computer. In fact, one of my young Bible students told me her dad is “really, really, really old because he is 53.” She made me feel ancient since I’m sixteen years her father’s senior.

I know my tech knowledge is limited. I did this, and I did it with very little help outside what I could find online. It took a lot of prayer, research, and hard work. It included frustration and tears. However, in the end, this website is up. My thanks to the makers of the tutorials I used and the writers who created the research. It is done. It will continue to improve. I have succeeded in fulfilling this dream. I encourage everyone reading this to pursue and fulfill your dreams. If I can be of help with your dreams, please contact me.

All that to say “Welcome to my website!” I look forward to sharing things that excite me on Fridays. I look forward to sharing writing, editing, and publishing information and opinions on Tuesdays. I will be back with more on Tuesday.