Author: deborahanndykeman

Writing has always been a love of mine. Except for school reports! I didn't cherish those moments. I began with poems in grade school, and short little stories that I illustrated. I created something for each family celebration and probably wore my family out. But I graduated to a longer 'book' by the time I was 18. Following traditional romance novel writing, I pounded out a pretty cheesy story on a Royal typewriter I had found at a garage sale. You didn't worry about your nails when using one of those! When four of our five children were still young, I wrote my first full-length book back in 1998. I followed it with three more in that series. Those are my current WIP, needing many updates and editing. I'm happy to say as of this writing, the third in the Love Defined series is almost ready to be released! Currently, I have eleven published books. My husband and I have been married for forty-one years, and we have five children and nine grandchildren. I've been a homeschooling mom, Sunday school teacher, AWANA director and a pastor's wife. I've worked as a CNA and an Activity Director. A new love of mine is book cover designing! Stayed tuned for more on that. When I'm not busy writing...which I love, BTW, I'm working on home projects, marketing and attending events, where I love to meet you...my readers!
Writing

The Story Is There

deborahanndykeman

Have you ever looked at a picture, and wanted to know the story behind it? It could be an old painting, or a photograph. I’ve seen pictures and I want to jump right into that time, hear the conversation taking place before the camera captured that image. Feel the temperature of the air on my skin, smell the aroma of the room, or the flowers the couple was standing beside.

Yes, I’m probably strange. I’ve been told so before. But it doesn’t really bother me anymore to fit into the little box others think I should be in. Everyone experiences life in different ways, and that is good. So these days, (most of the days since I turned fifty a few years ago), I just float along with some of those thoughts and feelings I have when it comes to creativity. It has helped me to write and publish five books so far!

Pictures say a lot. holding-hands-1772035_1920

This one speaks to me of young love, hope and a future. It is autumn, shown from the colors of the leaves on the trees. I think the sun is setting, but it could be rising. The train tracks lead you to believe there is more, a road to travel, life to experience. This picture makes me feel happy with a touch of melancholy. thunderstorm-2077667_1920

Of course the first thought for this one is something dark and sinister. I love the house, but not the setting, even on a bright, sunny day. It looks flat and somehow wild…and very lonely. The flashes of lightning don’t help the entire feeling of something bad about to happen. But I still love the picture and all the emotions it stirs up. relax-705817_1920

Peace is felt when I look at this one. I think it’s early morning, the mist on the water. It reminds me of an Adirondack lake. I actually saved this one to use for a meme on my third book in the Rubyville series, A Place to Heal. Much time in the book is spent on Lake George in upstate New York. There is a dock with chairs just like these. I could spend a lot of time here with my eyes closed, smelling the clean, fresh air, and listening to the sounds of the water lapping at the boards.

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I love country churches. Especially if they are white or stone. I prefer them nestled in a little valley with trees shading the steeple, but this one is intriguing. Just think of the stories this one could tell! A young couple on their wedding day, the wind whipping the bride’s veil as they climbed into the buggy to begin their future. There is a thought.

But of course, photographs of those we love are the most special of all. This one was taken of our grandchildren on Easter Sunday. They are all below the age of seven, and they each have a story to tell, a future to experience. My mind races with the possibilities of the thoughts in their little heads. There is a story to tell…18090708_10155275580618804_513646526_o

Writing

Thanks to Editors

deborahanndykeman

Editing, a very slow and painful process in my opinion. But it is a very needed one. It gives the writer and the editor a chance to find all those little mistakes and typos. Some that would have been read over by a reader engrossed in the story, or others that would have caused a person to come to a screeching halt.

I appreciate my editor. She is also our oldest daughter, so that is unique in the editor/writer experience. We are able to sit down together, and she reads my book out loud. Those mistakes jump to attention then. We are able to rewrite, correct, and talk about changes immediately. And that is also unique. I have a very good set-up for my writing, but it is still…slow.

And all of the above is the easy part. After we finish going through the book, reading it out loud, Britta Ann will then spend hours going meticulously through each page, checking sentence structure, word usage, and spelling. She will format and make the interior look pretty. Yes, I have the easy part!

Thank you to all editors out there. You are greatly needed by us writers. We appreciate you, even if we think you are a bit crazy with the red pen at times!

So, just a quick note to let you all know that I am here…just a little overwhelmed right now. Have a great evening!

A Quick Thought, Just For Fun!

Killer Uno, for Real!

deborahanndykeman

Yes, it is two in the morning. I could probably sleep, but with the Easter weekend just past, a little more kitchen renovation squeezed in, and book edits this next week, my social media is taking a hit. So I thought, I’ll just take a couple hours to get everything up-to-date and I’ll be snoozing in no time. Wrong answer on that one!

For some reason, the world wide web is taking a break and all traffic is down to a snail’s pace. Not that I have a problem with a snail’s pace at times. Just not when I’m sleep-deprived. My yahoo won’t delete or load, my wordpress won’t save, and I couldn’t leave feedback on Ebay. So, I’ve drummed my fingers, contemplated which pots to put my plants in and sighed…a lot, waiting for this technology to get moving. So this may post, or not.

By the way, if you would like to have a chance to win the first book in the Rubyville series, A Place to Call Home, please go to Goodreads and enter the giveaway right here. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28917938-rubyville?from_search=true I will be giving away three signed copies from a random drawing by Goodreads. The giveaway will last until May 17th. If your name is chosen, you will receive a printed copy with the correct cover. I have had a real struggle to get the cover changed on Goodreads and it’s still showing with the older cover! On May 1st, a giveaway will begin for the second book in the series, A Place of Refuge. This will last for one month as well, same rules. The third and fourth books will also be given away beginning on the 15th and 29th of May. I’m so excited to see how many sign up for the giveaway! As of about an hour ago, eighty people have entered the giveaway that began on Monday!

Now that business is taken care of, back to what I wanted to post about. You’ve all heard of Uno, the rather boring card game. To be fair, it is great for children. They can match numbers and colors, learn how to skip a person and play in reverse. But for an adult, you could be taking a snooze with your chin on the table before you know it. Not too exciting! Last night, our second oldest and her husband taught us how to play Killer Uno. After a few bruises, cuts and scrapes and a very high score for us over-fifty challenged group…and points are not a good thing in this game, I can say it was a lot of fun. Why we began playing it around ten in the evening, I do not know. That was a definite challenge for moi. Colors of cards and numbers were kind of blurring together. After a few ‘draw four’ wild cards piled on my turn while my arthritic fingers sorted them into some kind of order, I just sat cross-eyed. No, I did not win. I think I lost. At least I had the highest score. Yippee! No, that’s another game.

I would like to play Killer Uno sometime again. Sometime when I’m alert, sometime when I can remember my colors and the difference between a six and a nine. That little line means something, right?

Off to bed I go with visions of snails dancing in my head. Well, I assume they dance, at a snail’s pace! I think this one would. He looks pretty adventurous! snail-2084656_1920

And now my internet connection is gone…this is not meant to be!

 

 

Writing

Yecheilyah’s Book Reviews – To Thee I’m Wed by Deborah Dykeman

deborahanndykeman

Thank you, Yecheilyah for such a wonderful review! I just had to share it on here! Pick up a copy of To Thee I’m Wed, and readers, let me know what you think! I love hearing from you!

Yecheilyah's avatarThe PBS Blog

Title: To Thee I’m Wed

Author: Deborah Dykeman

Print Length: 239 pages

Publication Date: December 29, 2015

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Language: English

ASIN: B019YT5NC2

*I received this book as a gift from the author*

When Jason and Kathy Miller marries in June of 1985, they are in total bliss. As any young couple is they are happy and giddy and excited to start their lives together. They are so happy in fact, that even at the beginning I knew things would not be all peaches and cream.

Twenty years and three children later and the fire dies. Once happy-go-lucky Kathy is starting to feel unfulfilled. The life of a Housewife is now just her duty where it had once been so much more. It had once been fun. Now that the children are older, Kathy seeks work to rekindle the excitement in her life but her husband…

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Gardening

Short and Sweet

deborahanndykeman

I love color! Vibrant hues that make you feel cheery on the inside. I especially enjoy them in spring after a long winter. Crocus peeking through the brown grass of winter make me smile. The tulips that follow those little flowers beckon me to my front door almost daily. I purposefully planted these two kinds of bulbs in a little area a few feet from our front door so I could look through the glass and watch spring bloom and grow.

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Aren’t these lovely? My husband, a very talented photographer, as I mentioned before, took a picture of these yesterday so I could share them with you. Pretty good for a phone camera!

The lilacs have bloomed. They smell sweet in that corner of the yard, the honeysuckle shrubs next to them contributing to the aroma. For me these seem like old-fashioned flowers and they make me think of days-gone-by. Just the mention of lilacs sends their enticing fragrance through my head. The hosta and peonies are bigger every day and I sigh as I walk past them. Last autumn’s leaves are still blanketing their bed and soon the hosta will cover them. I’ll try to do better this fall!

I think I’ve heard that one before!

Just a short post to say, “Happy Spring!” I hope you’re enjoying your spring.

 

Gardening

The Yard in Bloom

deborahanndykeman

Periwinkle…what a pretty name for a delicate flower. I love the way it rolls over your tongue and giggles at the end. At least it does that on my tongue. But I’m a writer and I experience things differently than others, I’ve been told.

Yes, I finally made it out to the yard this afternoon. I was greeted by this cheery purplish blue flower that I planted in many areas of our yard. Each year it expands, trailing its vine over the yard, and that’s fine with me. Usually it blocks weeds pretty well, and then we don’t have to mow that area. A great plan! And a much better one than us making our yard into a vast expanse of cement, which I think was my husband’s suggestion. I have strategically planted many items over our ten years at this house. It is very pretty now, with little areas of flowers for each season. But it’s like mowing around land mines. And after a hard day of work, it doesn’t thrill my husband to stroll through my landscaping pushing the mower.

Right now, the daffodils, the grape hyacinths, periwinkle and tulips are displaying their colors. The hosta is uncurling it’s large leaves, and the peonies are poking long stalks through the moist earth. The rose of sharon received a good trimming, much over due. I pulled up the small elm trees that greet me every spring. At one time, I saved them all. Now I am heartless. I know what they become in just a couple of years. Tall lengths of greenery that need a chainsaw to keep them under control. I don’t have the energy anymore and our son-in-law is probably pretty  sick of them as well! Well, I must say I took mercy on three of them and planted them strategically. My husband was thrilled.

I scooped out water from my little pond. No frogs greeted me. A bit sad, but after our cold night last night, he probably thought it was winter again. He’ll be back to sing in a few nights. He loved all the rain. Maybe he’ll bring friends as he did one year. They sunbathed on the limestone surrounding the pond, jumping in when they saw me coming. The goldfish and the frogs seem to enjoy one another’s company.

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I had several of these, displayed just as this picture represents. I love the purple with the white. So did our granddaughters! For now I have none gracing my yard. I tried to show them the beauty of the tiny bells as you see above, but they were more fun to pluck from the green stem. Next year, they will return! (And I hope my grandchildren will as well!)

Yes, I made it out to the yard today. And I remembered why I once spent so many hours out there. I sat at my bistro table and breathed deeply of the cool air, and was very thankful for all the hard work I’ve put in over the years.  For now we have a yard that is welcoming to people, birds, frogs, and grandchildren. It’s tranquil, and in a couple of weeks, the sound of water falling in my pond will add to the delight.

Periwinkle…what a lovely name for a delicate flower. flowers-1265770_1920

Writing

A Wow Moment

deborahanndykeman

This past weekend, my editor, a.k.a. daughter, and I attended a writer’s conference in Pittsburg, Kansas. It’s the Called to Write Conference, held annually at the Lamplighter Inn and Suites. There is always a great turn-out for this event and the speakers are just phenomenal for a conference this size. This year, Kathy Ide http://kathyide.com/ and Twila Belk http://www.gottatellsomebody.com/ were the keynote speakers and they taught the workshops. They were terrific! Probably my favorite time over the few days was the Q&A on Friday night. It was just fun to watch these two women interact and answer questions. I learned so much!

The biggest take-away I had from this conference, was the gift I have been given with my writing. My writing is for a purpose, it sends a message, and I would pray it leads others to seek Christ. And that is a lot of responsibility! But, I couldn’t do anything else. I often wonder how I managed for so many years of my child-rearing days to not write. But our lives have seasons, and those years were not my writing season.

I was privileged to be able to donate A Place to Call Home for a door prize. Because of that donation, I was given the opportunity to share vocally about the book and the series. I think that’s the reason I was sold out of A Place to Call Home! That was very exciting for me! But to top that off, people even asked for me to sign their books. Yes, I know that is expected and a normal practice. But it’s still new enough to me that my jaw kind of drops and I want to ask, “You want me to sign your book?” I probably spelled my name wrong because my heart was pounding so!

During a quiet time, I was sitting in the garden room, looking out over the swimming pool. I was dreaming of my younger years, when the pool was all that mattered at a hotel. It’s been rather cold and rainy here in these parts, so swimming wouldn’t have been an option. Putting on a swim suit would have solved the ‘going swimming’ dilemma if any chance had been left. The woman standing among the trees approached me, apologizing for interrupting me during my retrospection. She asked if I would mind signing her copy of A Place to Call Home. Would I mind? Does chocolate taste good?

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Moments like these make writing so very special!

Yes, writing is a gift I have been given. But over and over, I have been the receiver of so much more in this writing journey. From the joy of working with our eldest daughter on editing, formatting and proofing, to our middle daughters giving their very needed suggestions on content. Our son reading the books has been great encouragement. And our youngest has been able to keep the house from tumbling down as I have sat in my office for hours at a time, glued to my chair. Hearing readers talk about my books, sharing them with others and reading reviews has gone beyond what I ever hoped to accomplish with my writing.

I have readers! Readers have asked me to sign their books! Wow!

Writing

Self-Publishing and Formatting Quick Tips

deborahanndykeman

I have just returned from a fantastic writer’s conference in Pittsburg, Kansas where I had the privilege to be a part of workshops taught by Kathy Ide and Twila Belk, or Twila Belk and Kathy Ide. (Now they each have first billing!) If you’ve been around writing, editing, publishing groups at all, you’ve heard their names. I learned so much! I am very thankful that editors, authors and speakers are willing to teach these workshops. So, when I read this post this morning, I just had to share it. More great information and so many helpful tips. Get out your notepad!

jorobinson176's avatarLit World Interviews

One of the biggest challenges to Indies is getting a professionally published looking book when up against the costs of editing, proofreading, formatting and cover designs. If you can afford these services then foregoing them is not a good idea, but when you really can’t afford them they can mean the death of some really great literature. There are a couple of things that can help though.

Editing or Proofreading Swopsies

Rather than simply asking for Beta readers, offer to swop proofreading services. Writers have a different kind of eyeball when reading. I’ve just finished a Joanna Trollope book, professionally published by one of the big houses, professionally edited and put together, but so far I’ve found a couple of typos and instances of poorly strung together sentences. As far as the cover design is concerned, if it wasn’t for the fact that I was specifically looking for and wanting…

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Our Christian Walk

Dirty Rags

deborahanndykeman

I woke up this morning to a sink full of dishes. That’s a huge one for me. Then the sink was clogged, an ongoing problem in our house in the kitchen area. The rest of the house has new plumbing, just not that section that I use every, single, day, multiple times. So, I plunged it until I worked up a sweat, and then left it. Another big deal for me. A clogged sink and dirty dishes on the counter while I sit here and write. What’s this world coming to? What’s my world coming to?

So I went to YouTube for some happy music. My daughter has been sharing some MercyMe music on Face Book the past several days, so I just typed in their name since nothing else came to mind. I wanted something upbeat and with a message, and boy did I get it with this song! When the video first started I was a bit repulsed, I must admit. There is that O.C.D side of me again! I wanted to take a rag and start wiping all that gunk off those poor guys! How could they sing and play instruments with that covering them?

And that’s where my day turned around.

How can we as people go through our days and our lives covered with our past sins? Our regrets, our mistakes, our I-wish-I hadn’t-done-that-moments? How do we crawl out from all that gunk that follows us through life, dripping over us and making us dreading the next step we need to take? How do we live our lives with physical challenges from birth, or acquired along the way.

What do we do with cancer, loss of a loved one, chronic illness, financial crisis, or just a life that is what it is from bad decisions? Because we’ve all accomplished that last one, probably several times over.

None of us are flawless, none of us are without sin. What redeems us is God’s grace. He sees us as we ought to be, not what we are. Enjoy the song. And keep those dirty rags under the sink where they belong!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjLlLPZderk

 

Gardening

Dreaming…

deborahanndykeman

I’m really dragging my feet today. The Kansas weather is warm again and it’s calling me outside. I should:

  • Rake the yard
  • Trim my bushes
  • Remove dead plants
  • Take the rotten arbors to the dump. (During our tornado warning last week, the one with my beloved grapes blew over!)
  • Clean out the pond
  • Get pots ready to plant

The heavy duty list:

  • The fireplace outside needs more mortar
  • I have several yards of cement that should be laid
  • The house isn’t terrible, but after ten years, a new paint job would be welcome

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I’m so happy we don’t live here!

  • The garage needs cleaning
  • Spring cleaning is here, and you can read my post on that one from last year!

And I’m in the middle of almost two weeks of working everyday with a couple days off here and there. My job is not a sitting one! I love it, but it exhausts me!

Just a few years ago, I would have gone out and got that first list taken care of in a day, maybe two. Then I would have started on the second list. Today, even the bright sunlight isn’t pulling me from my office chair. And I know 4:30 in the morning is going to come quickly when I’m on first shift again. Well, my shift starts at 6, but I like to be early and prepared. So of course I don’t sleep!

Is this the meaning of growing old? Because if it is, maybe I should just skip the house and move in to the assisted living where I work! A huge sigh!

This too shall pass. All those items on my list will still be there when I arrive back from my writer’s conference the first of April. Maybe then the tasks won’t seem so overwhelming. Perhaps the days of corralling five children, painting the house, weeding the garden and making bread in a single bound will return? Now I’m really dreaming!

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I could handle this view for a few days!