THE TIME IS not NOW

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard
Have you noticed that every January an epidemic of posts about how to organize your life and manage your time populates blogs?
I blame calendars.

How can we resist the urge to plan better when faced with a pristine new calendar filled with panoramas of places we’d love to visit, or with scrumptious images of dishes we’d love to try, or adorable pictures that make us smile every time we look at them?

These days…I use calendars for another reason—to plot my characters’ actions.

After all, as much as many of us would appreciate an eight-day week or an early Friday now and again, a writer can only take fiction so far.
By fitting the scenes of my book into corresponding days on a calendar, I ensure I don’t have a dreaded eight-day week or a Friday two days after a Monday.  
Meticulous historical authors working with specific dates will go as far as to note the times of the full moons and new moons, sunrises and sunsets, high tides and low tides. I merely ensure I don’t have two full moons in the same month, although I pay special attention to those sunset times!

The current book I’m plotting features a heroine who is helping her folks with their flower shop, so I’m on the lookout for a floral calendar that will give me added inspiration.


Your Turn: What’s your favorite kind of calendar? Do you use calendars in less-than-usual ways?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard
I don’t know about you, but for me, this past year felt as though it zipped by. Even my youngest thinks so, although my eldest…not so much. 
I guess not having the luxury of sleeping through the night in almost nine months would skew anyone’s perception.

When my children were young, I’d write a little note to my children each night to share something cute they’d done or said, or to tell of some milestone they’d reached, or to journal the special way we’d spent the day. I pasted these notes into scrapbooks with photos and gave them to each of my children on their twelfth birthday.

I believe that the exercise helped me to treasure each day, even when operating on only a few snatched hours of sleep. Through the years since, I’ve journaled off and on. It helps me gain perspective. 

With the feeling that the years are racing away, I think it’s time to resume the habit—a new year’s resolution of sorts.

Your Turn: What about you? Have you made any new year’s resolutions? Do you journal? How has it impacted you?

Christmas Greetings!

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

I couldn’t resist sharing a picture of our very own Canadian (the birthplace of hockey, eh?) shepherd keeping watch over her fields. *grin* 

I pray you all enjoy a blessed Christmas. 

I am taking a break from blogging over the holidays and will be back to my regular Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule beginning January 2nd. Hope to see you then.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a poem by William Ellery Channing entitled My Symphony.

To live content with small means.
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
     and refinement rather than fashion.
To be worthy not respectable,
     and wealthy not rich.
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently,
     act frankly, to listen to stars, birds, babes,
     and sages with open heart, to bear all cheerfully,
     do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.
In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
     grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony. 

Your Turn: The last word is yours! What do you think?

Been thinking about Phases…

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

Do ever go through phases of doing things?

My Christmas decorations are a pictorial record of many of my “craft” phases.

There was the “needlepoint phase”

The cross-stitch phase

The applique phase

The painting phase

Not to mention, the dried flower arranging phase, the knitting phase, the crocheting phase, and probably a few more I’ve long forgotten.

My writing has gone through phases, too. The write-the-story-with-no-understanding-of-story-craft phase, the learning-to-craft-a-publishable-story phase, the edit-like-crazy phase, and on and on.

I’m thrilled to finally be in the writing-for-publication phase. And I plan to persevere so… hopefully, this phase proves to not be a phase at all!

Your Turn: What are some of the phases in your life or hobbies that you have fond memories of, or… are happy to be done?

Deep Cover Extras are Here!!

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

Well…not here on this blog…over at my website.

Think DVD extras, only they’re extras for a book instead of a movie.


I’ve been a busy beaver for the past week and a half, working to get them done in time for a December unveiling. I’d love to hear what you think. 

If you hop on over, you’ll find: 
 ~deleted scenes
 ~bloopers 
 ~on location in Miller’s Bay etc.
as well as some items you may have already seen here, such as the recipe book links and character interviews. 

Still to come is Rick and Ginny’s Christmas story. I’m planning to email an exclusive link to my newsletter subscribers in another week or so…when I get my quarterly newsletter written!! Please sign up if you’d like to read it.


Your Turn: What do you think of the extras? Any suggestions for more I might add?

Early Christmas Present!!!

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

This week I got my first glimpse of the cover of the second book in my Undercover Cops series. It release in March 2012 and appeared on Amazon this week for preorder!

What do you think?

I’m thrilled. Love the colors.

The book centers around a youth detention center called Hope Manor that is surrounded by farmland. I like how the artist has captured the mood.

Now, any writers reading this…if you’d like an early Christmas present…

The final gift package on the fundraiser for Sandi Rog blog goes up today  at noon Mountain Standard Time TODAY. And it’s a doozy. For as little as a $5 donation, you could have a chance to win…

PACKAGE 15: Writing 3 ($125+249=)—Open to international participants!
A free Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild Webinar and a 2500 word critique by a guild member (http://www.christianwritersguild.com/) AND a Fiction Writing Master Course by Janice Thompson. 

This is a gold mine of information! Ten lessons– each presented in video, audio, and print format so you can interact with the material in whichever way suits you best–cover every imaginable facet of fiction writing, from plotting, point of view, and characterization to theme, genre, common mistakes, and what to do with that manuscript once you’ve typed “The End.”


Don’t dilly dally, because it closes Saturday noon.


Your Turn: What do you think of the cover? How does it make you feel? What does it make you think the book will be about?

How to Make the Most of Email Irritations

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

This past weekend, I apparently sent myself an email about a great deal on Rolex watches.

Imagine my surprise!!!

When I’ve gotten this sort of junk mail from a real friend’s email address, I’ve always told them that their email has been hacked. Well, this week I learned that’s not necessarily so.

According to my internet provider, since the email didn’t come from my computer. I don’t have a virus.

I’ve been spoofed.

Now, here’s the scary part. If someone gets such an email from me and blocks the sender because it’s clearly spam…they could be blocking me from ever being able to email them from that address again!

These guys are deviously clever.

Why am I telling you all of this?

Well, first of all, I thought it was intriguing. Something one of my characters should have to deal with at some point. Don’t you think?

Good fiction is all about conflict. Imagine the conflict if the heroine is sending the most important email of her life to her editor or agent or future hero, and doesn’t realize they’ve blocked her address because some creep is tarnishing her good name selling watches or pharmaceuticals or who knows what else?!

Second, I wanted to warn you to be careful about blocking senders when you get spam. If someone you know is listed as the sender, even if you know he or she didn’t really send it, s/he will be the one cut out of your email box, not the real sender.

Third, to protect yourself, discourage your friends from “forwarding” you jokes etc. Or urge them to use BCC, i.e. blind carbon copy so that your email address doesn’t wind up on a bunch of computers of people you don’t know. Eventually, the forwarded email will return to the originator, who is likely a spammer farming email addresses.

Oh, there is definitely a story in this…next book 🙂

Your Turn: What is the most bizarre or irritating or scary email, social media, or computer-related situation you’ve had to deal with?

A Change of Heart

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

Monday we talked about what we’d give up for love.

Because of fear, both Ginny in Deep Cover, and Lindsey in Lakeside Reunion, ask the police officers they love to give up their jobs before they’ll marry them.

Of course, every diehard romance reader longs for the hero to choose love over anything else. But what of the heroine?

She needs a change of heart, too. Right?

Your turn: Can you share an example of how you embraced God instead of clinging to fear? Are you struggling with this very thing, now? How might we pray for you?

GIVEAWAY OF DEEP COVER this week on Noelle Marchand’s new blog Today features an interview of the heroine. 

What would you give up for love?

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

This past week I read the Love Inspired contemporary Lakeside Reunion by Lisa Jordan about a cop who jilted his bride-to-be mere weeks before their wedding after learning that a night of indiscretion three years earlier had led to the birth of his son.

He chose honor over love and married his son’s mother, a woman he scarcely knew and who was battling cancer. The story begins five years later. Stephen has been widowed for a year, and Lindsey, the woman he’d jilted, and never stopped loving, is back in town.

And Stephen will do anything to make her trust in God and take a risk for love–again.

This story has a similar element to one in Deep Cover in that Lindsey’s father died in the line of duty, and she doesn’t think she can risk enduring that kind of loss ever again. But for Stephen being a cop and eventually becoming captain is his ticket to redeeming himself from his past mistakes and proving himself honorable to his family and community.

Stephen’s friend asks Stephen what he’s willing to give up to keep Lindsey.

I won’t give away the ending by telling you what he decides. But I will share an interesting tidbit about the author. Twenty-three years ago, Lisa begged her then Marine husband to give up his dream of becoming a police officer like his dad. She admits that she was terrified of losing him and didn’t trust God enough to protect him.

Lisa’s husband honored her plea.

Your Turn: Have you had to make a sacrifice for someone you loved (spouse, child, parent)? How did you handle it? Has someone made such a sacrifice for you? Thank them, today.

NOVEL MORSELS – My Gift to You

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard
I’m excited to introduce 
Novel Morsels 
 A collaborative recipe Ebook bringing your favorite Christian authors and their favorite foods together. 
Sixty-five Christian fiction authors have come together in this first-of-its-kind e-book, sharing more than 120 recipes that connect to their books or their characters.
The book retails for $2.99, but as my gift to you, my blog readers, newsletter subscribers and Facebook fans may use this special coupon code [ SandraOrchard ] to download the book for free!!
You can purchase Novel Morsels RIGHT HERE. 



Enter my coupon code in the bottom left hand corner and click apply. The book will then show a zero balance owing, and you can proceed to checkout. 

Just so you know what to expect… 
You will be asked for your name, email address and phone number. You can simply put your first name and n/a for phone number, but ensure you type your email address accurately as your receipt and download link will be emailed to you. 

The receipt will appear in your inbox almost immediately, but I found that the email with the download link was delayed by a couple of hours. Rest assured that it will come. You may want to check your spam file if you don’t see it after a few hours. The book itself is a 55.6 MB pdf file so if you’re not on highspeed, it could take a while to download.

Soon, Novel Morsels will be available for Kindle and Nook. I’ll keep you posted.

P.S. Friday we have a special guest visiting in honor of Remembrance Day/Veteran’s Day that you won’t want to miss. 


Your Turn: What’s the most memorable or touching gift you’ve ever received…not counting God’s most precious gift of his son?