Category: GKP Writing News

Creating Teaching Units

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 19, 2023

As a teacher, I was always creating teaching units. Each chapter became one as I found or devised notes, work sheets, labs and more.

Once I started writing science books, this changed. The elements stayed the same. However, I could add so much more.

Trivia is interesting. My first science book “The Pumpkin Project” is full of fun facts about pumpkins.

cover of "The Pumpkin Project" by Karen GoatKeeper — This science activity book includes Investigations and Activites from pumpkin seeds to plants to pumpkins. Stories about growing pumpkins, recipes using pumpkins, puzzles about pumpkins, pumpkin trivia and more are in it too.

Telling Stories

The trivia led me on to other interesting things about pumpkins. Since I garden, I buy those little seed packets. This book let me find out how those seeds get into the packets.

Then there are the giant pumpkins. These are not the big Halloween kinds. These are the monsters grown by people around the world that can easily top a hundred pounds with records now over a ton! Who grows these and how? I asked and wrote a story about them.

Creating Puzzles

Teaching classes I often used worksheets. These didn’t seem to fit well in my science book. I put in puzzles instead.

There are sites online to create puzzles. I prefer to make my own. Hidden words, skeletons, tales, deduction and sayings are some of them.

“The City Water Project”

Writing about pumpkins was so interesting I looked over my teaching units and found some about water. There are so many interesting things about water, this substance we depend on, but take for granted.

Using the same model, the book has lots of trivia, stories, puzzles (including coloring pages), investigations and activities. Since this was not for a class lab, I could include some activities like boiling water in a paper boat that I couldn’t use in school.

Creating Teaching Units

Few people were interested in my science books. This was very disappointing to me. Part of it was that few people knew about them. Part of it was how much the books had to cost to cover printing costs.

I loved teaching science. I want others to discover how interesting science is. So I am trying to make my science books more accessible by making them into teaching units.

What I’ve discovered is that I can’t just break up a book into units. As I separate each part, I have to make sure my results and puzzle answers are there. Each has an introduction.

Summer is the time to play with water. Maybe some people will enjoy doing these Investigations, Activities and puzzles this summer and find out science can be fun.

Tags science activity books, science for students, summer science projects

GKP Writing News

Annoying Details

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 12, 2023

Writing a rough draft for a novel is fairly straight forward for me. I start at the beginning and write through to the end ignoring all the little annoying details like facts as I write.

In “The Carduan Chronicles” Ship Eighteen drops out of the worm tunnel somewhere over the solar system. To reach Cardua (Earth), the ship must go toward and over the sun and on out the ecliptic. The time frame is fifteen weeks, their time or ninety days.

Over April the former drafts came together into one piece. The journey of the Arkosans soon to become Carduans after landing, is almost complete. All that remains is to merge the last week into the tale of Ship Nineteen.

This ship dropped out of the worm tunnel into a February ice storm and landed in an Ozark ravine. These nine Carduans have spent the fifteen weeks learning to live on this strange, new world.

Going the Distance

One of those annoying details for Ship Eighteen happens to concern their voyage. How long does it take to get to the sun? Or over the sun? Or on to Cardua?

This meant I needed to know how far apart the planets are from the sun and each other, how big the sun is and the revolution times for the planets. Writing the draft, I guessed.

Thanks to some library books I have more accurate figures now. What I do know for sure is that this is one speedy little ship. It travels a lot faster than any ship we’ve developed so far.

That’s one of the joys of writing science fiction, being able to make some things up. Even so, the ship’s journey must be consistent so those annoying details are important.

Another Draft

Once I have the voyage mapped out timewise, I get to write yet another draft for Ship Eighteen. One advantage is having much of the draft already written, only needing adjustment to the new times.

Ship Nineteen offers a new set of annoying details. I do tend to try to accomplish more in a day than time allows. Unfortunately for the Carduans and my draft, I tend to do the same for them.

The other consideration is the height of the Carduans: four inches. It is a real challenge to see an Ozark ravine from that height.

cover for "Capri Capers" by Karen GoatKeeper — Those annoying details came close to sinking this book. Harriet’s place abuts a national forest. Some of the action takes place on the forest roads. I finally had to devise a map of her place and the forest roads, then rewrite scenes so everything happened where it was supposed to.

Tags editing a novel, novel research

GKP Writing News

You Cannot Go Home

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 21, 2023

Everyone has memories, good and bad, of where they grew up. If the memories are good, it’s tempting to go back. However, you cannot go home again.

Nonsense? Think about it.

“Tell Me Three Things”

“Tell me Three Things” by Julie Buxbaum is my latest reading book. Josie, still grieving the death of her mother, has been uprooted, moved from a middle class Chicago neighborhood and school to Beverly Hills with a new stepmother and stepbrother and a posh private school. Talk about a tough learning curve.

Of course Josie is homesick, wants desperately to go home. After two months, she is given the chance to go home for a weekend. And in two months, everything has changed. Her best friend has a new best friend and a boyfriend. She no longer fits in, isn’t part of things there.

You can find my 5 star rating and a review of this book on my Goodreads page.

You Cannot Go Home Again

I grew up in southern California. People sometimes ask if I would ever want to move back. My answer is that my California doesn’t exist anymore.

I remember open meadows between Los Angeles and San Diego. There were grape vineyards with grapes laid out on paper between the rows during harvest. The beaches were empty of people during week days. A dairy with real cows and a bottling plant was a few miles away from my home.

None of that is there now. Houses and people have replaced all of it. Even my school, when I visited a year after graduating, was an alien place.

“The Carduan Chronicles”

My little Carduans are stranded 6,000 light years or so from their home. They have no means of ever going home.

How would you react if, suddenly, you were cut off from friends, family, home? These 60 Carduans are trying to cope with this while planning and creating a new life in an alien place.

For them the phrase you cannot go home again has taken on a terrible meaning. Yet life goes on. It changes, it takes on new dreams and new relationships.

cover of "Old Promises" Hazel Whitmore #2 by Karen GoatKeeper — “Old Promises” deals with moving to a new place. Hazel Whitmore grew up in New York City. She has been uprooted to the Missouri Ozarks to deal with relatives she has never met before, a rural life style and a new school. There is no going back to her old home. She is forced to create a new home.

You may not be able to go back, but you can create a new home.

Tags "Tell Me Three Things" by Julie Buxbaum, finding home, people change, places change

GKP Writing News

Designing Book Covers

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 14, 2023

There are two things a prospective reader looks at first: title and cover. The title must sound interesting. But designing book covers is a real challenge for me.

My Challenges

Since I do my own covers, the design must be one I can draw. Animals and plants are much easier for me than people.

Photographs are a good source of ideas for me. So I want a design that can be partially photographed.

Cover Considerations

People seem to like seeing people on a cover. Some genres seem to require having people on it. “Hopes, Dreams and Reality” should have Mindy on the cover.

Since I try to put a book out as an eBook as well as a print book, the cover must be easily seen on a mobile screen as well as on a big cover. This is more challenging than you might think.

cover for "Waiting For Fairies" by Karen GoatKeeper — This cover began as photographs of mushrooms and a white deer-footed mouse. This was sketched onto drawing paper for painting with watercolor. This was then uploaded onto a computer and darkened.

Designing Book Covers

Nothing is more irritating about a book cover than when it has little or nothing to do with the book. DVD covers are notorious for this.

Publishing companies have a staff of cover designers. They send over a synopsis of a book. An artist comes up with a cover. The author is stuck with it.

This doesn’t concern me as I self publish. The reasons are many and I might address them another time. It does leave me doing the writing, editing, illustrating and designing book covers, then trying to do marketing so readers will notice my little book among the thousands of other titles published each year.

“Hopes, Dreams and Reality”

As with the title, I had to do a lot of thinking about the cover. It was so tempting to find a cover looking at a sunrise or goats or chickens. Anything but Mindy.

But Mindy needs to be on the cover. She needs to be fighting the storm.

That left me putting on a show out in the yard. Luckily we have no neighbors. I got to set up my camera on delay, press the button and race over to pose holding my umbrella as though fighting wind and rain as the sun lit up the yard.

I needed a rain slicker, but don’t own one. Oh, well.

Maybe I am now ready to take my fast sketch and do a real design. And the watercolors will get used again.

Tags self publishing novels

GKP Writing News

Writing Projects

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date April 7, 2023

How many writing projects in progress at the same time are too many? I’m trying to find out, I guess.

Writing Projects List

At present I have two science projects going. One is rewriting “The City Water Project” as teaching units. The other is writing units for “The Chemistry Project”.

There are also two novels. “Hopes, Dreams and Reality” is being looked over by some friends before I do a final rewrite and edit. In the meantime, I am brainstorming cover ideas.

And I am trying to finish the draft for “The Carduan Chronicles: Arrival” Since I haven’t worked on this one since last October, this entails reading through seventy pages of manuscript trying to not do a total rewrite to get back into the story.

Then there is the idea for a picture book. I have the idea, the setting, possible characters and the perfect candidate for a character model in mind.

This bloodroot flower is one of the first Ozark wildflowers to bloom. Even though the Dent County Flora page is complete, I still enjoy seeing them and can’t resist taking another picture.

Is This Enough?

I don’t think so. It is wildflower season once again. That means the “Dent County Flora” books are again open.

Already I’m trying to get out walking and have even completed pictures for a plant to enter into the “Dent County Blues” book. Another tree, a new one, has bloomed and I only need to get some seed pictures and the tree picture to complete it.

The Virginia bluebells page for the Dent County Flora is done. But I saw this plant in bloom and loved this view showing the side of the flower as well as how the flowers staart out one color and usually turn blue as they open. I have found plants whee the flowers stay pink.

Getting Books Off the Writing Projects List

The only project close to being done is “Hopes, Dreams and Reality”. If I can keep to schedule – and I’ve already overshot it, the book will be published in May.

“The City Water Project” teaching units are supposed to be done in May. I will get them done as it is mostly just adjusting the book into pieces and changing some explanations.

The problem with these units is setting up yet another account, this one with teacherspayteachers, to sell them. Since I am already juggling accounts with Amazon, Smashword, IngramSpark, Goodreads, Pinterest, NaNo (National Novel Writing), iNaturalist and Flickr (also new), my five to six hours a week of internet time is spread very thin.

Justification: I’m not bored.

Tags nonfiction writing, novel writing

GKP Writing News

Finishing Novel Drafts

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date March 31, 2023

“Hopes, Dreams and Reality” is finished. Or is it? Finishing novel drafts is tricky.

The first rough draft is only an outline of a story. It allows the writer to create characters, try out plotlines and subplots and follow the story to an ending. My rough drafts are often a mess and only expand on my novel idea.

Enter the First Draft

That leads to a rewritten draft. This is my first real draft. By now I know my characters fairly well. That means I know how they will react in a given situation which can totally nix a plot.

If the plot won’t work with these characters, I have two choices. I can create new characters for the plot, if I like the plot. Or I can rewrite the plot to suit the characters, if I am happy with them.

One way or the other, I am finishing novel drafts to this point. And this draft may sound really good. Maybe good enough to keep?

Probably not. And the truth is in writing a second draft. This is not a carbon copy of the first draft, although they may be very similar.

My new novel seems to finally have a title:”Hopes, Dreams and Reality”. The draft is done and only needs a final read through. Finishing novel drafts is more a decision to stop tweaking than a lack of things to tweak.

Going For That Second Draft

My method is to make a copy of the first draft. Then I retype this draft one chapter at a time.

As I retype the draft, I think about it. What’s missing? Description? Explanation? A scene?

What doesn’t work? Is there too much description? Does something not make sense?

Does the ending belong? Or is it too over the top? Is all the groundwork laid for it?

Finishing Novel Drafts

How many more drafts will I write? Any after the second one will probably be pretty close to that one. Should I stop?

No matter how many drafts a writer does, there are things to change. A sentence sounds rough. The grammar stinks. These go on and on appearing with each reading.

I am to that point with “Hopes, Dreams and Reality” now. This is a new type of novel for me so I have asked a couple of friends to look it over. Then I will read through it once again.

In the meantime, I am returning to Cardua. Then I can look at this novel with fresh eyes.

Tags novel editing, novel writing

GKP Writing News

Writing Dialogue

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date March 24, 2023

I like using dialogue in my writing. It seems to move the story along well and reveal lots about the characters. But writing dialogue has challenges.

My new novel, tentatively titled “Hopes, Dreams and Reality”, has a couple of dialogue challenges.

Only One Character

The entire novel revolves around Mindy. For much of the novel she is alone. Her phone is dead and she is in a dead zone for cells. That leaves only her cat and the animals to talk to. And they have no answers.

That leaves me floundering. She can remember things others have said. She can make up conversations with absent characters. If all else fails, she can talk to herself. This last can reveal a lot about her attitudes and inner conflicts.

Language

My biggest challenge is language. Cussing and swearing are commonplace in today’s books and media. I do know quite a few of these words.

However, I grew up at a time when such language was not commonly used in public. And I find its ubiquitous use annoying. It robs these words of their impact and language of its richness by reducing the vocabulary used.

When writing dialogue, I avoid using these words.

Should I Use Some?

One of the novel scenes is a big argument. Both characters are upset, furious. I’ve written it without using any cussing or swearing. Does this rob the scene of impact? Would it be more realistic to use some of these words?

The decision is mine. I don’t want to use this language, so I have chosen not to. This is my personal choice due to my background.

Finishing the Novel

As I edit the novel draft, now complete, writing dialogue will be part of that edit. It will be a challenge as this novel has been a challenge.

Will my choices work? I rarely have others read my novels as drafts. This one will be an exception. Their opinions will hopefully answer this question.

Tags novel draft editing, novel wiring

GKP Writing News

Author Website

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date March 17, 2023

When I finished my first book, “Goat Games”, I wanted very much to sell a few to help pay for the time and printing costs. I was assured that the key was to have an author website.

Having tried to play by the rules all my life, I dutifully started an author website. I didn’t know much about having one, wasn’t online at home (still aren’t) and I made lots of mistakes.

As the number of books increased, the number of pages increased. The backlist of blog posts went up. The number of visitors crept up. Book sales didn’t.

cover for "Goat Games" by Karen GoatKeeper — When writing this book, my first one, I traveled in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri to meet goat owners of different breeds to write breed pages. It took months to devise all of the puzzles. And the information pages and trivia had to be researched and added. I queried publishers and was turned down as goats are a niche topic, one that doesn’t make a lot of money. So I published and printed the book myself, something that is expensive to do.

Getting Noticed

It seems I am woefully behind the times as this is most of my online presence. The only social media I’m on are Pinterest and Goodreads. I do have author pages there and on Smashwords and try to update these monthly.

All these various accounts take a lot of time I don’t have. Since I am not online at home, my internet time is about five hours a week at the library. It doesn’t go very far.

So Get Online

That’s not simple here in rural Missouri. My home is surrounded by hills blocking signals. Therefore, the nearest cell service is a quarter mile hike away.

Internet service from the phone company or satellite services is barely above dial up. There’s lots of talk about better service, but every notice I’ve seen indicates it will be expensive for service inadequate for running a website.

My Author Website

Maybe this site will attract some of the visitors I used to have before my last hosting service had so many problems with my site. I am slowly getting the site organized.

I’ve had contact with computers since they ran on stacks of punch cards. That doesn’t mean I know much about them. I don’t. And learning about new things with so little time is difficult.

The new Contact Page is a case in point. Each week I negotiated my way through another step. It has left me with an account for running email campaigns I don’t do, a cloud account I don’t use and spam cluttering up my email. It would help if I could limit my contacts to English.

At least I do have an author website. And I will be adding a new book page soon as my new novel has a complete draft and is in edit.

Tags business of writing

GKP Writing News

Writing Endings

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date March 10, 2023

Sooner or later a writer comes to the end. Writing endings should be easy.

However, a story needs to have the right finale. That isn’t easy.

Different Genres, Different Endings

In a romance, the couple gets together at the end. In a mystery, the problem gets solved. For a thriller the ending is exciting.

Readers of each genre know what type of ending their story should have. If it doesn’t, the reader is disappointed.

Because a reader expects a certain type of ending, doesn’t mean the reader wants to know what the ending is. A story must be very, very good to make a reader not mind having a predictable ending.

How Does a Writer Know When to Stop?

There are two endings in a novel. One is the end of the action. The other is the end of the story.

For the first, the plot builds up to those last exciting moments. Often a dangerous situation rises to a climax. Will the main character survive?

Once the climax passes, all the pieces of the plot must be tied up. How did the detective arrive at the answer? What happens now?

The happy couple embraces. The detective explains. Someone saves the day. And everyone goes back to their lives. This is The End.

cover for "Dora's Story" by Karen GoatKeeper — When I started writing this book, I had an ending in mind. As I wrote it, the ending seemed more and more not the right one. It’s important for a writer to recognize when a story has changed enough to make the best ending different from the one first in mind.

My Novel Is Ending

Writing endings is usually easy for me. I’ve created the story, the plot and know where it leads.

In the first draft the ending rolls onto the page. It doesn’t change much in other drafts because it fits the story.

This novel has problems. The rough draft has an ending. Fine. It sort of fit, but didn’t feel right. It felt contrived.

In this second, maybe third draft I found I had made a major mistake at the beginning of the third part of the story. No problem. I would correct the mistake and blend into the original draft.

There is now a completed new draft. And I am left writing endings for this new draft. And looking for a title.

Tags rewriting novel drafts, writing novels

GKP Writing News

Looking For Her Story

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date March 4, 2023

March is Women’s History month. I’ve been looking for her story. It’s often not in the history (His Story) books.

There are two good places to go looking for her story. I’ve been reading books from each.

One place is historical fiction. “Something Worth Doing” by Jane Kirkpatrick is about the struggle for women’s suffrage in Oregon. One woman, Abigail Dunwithy, led the movement for over forty years trying to convince the men running the state that women, the women they depended on to provide homes, raise children, develop homesteads and businesses, deserved the right to vote. Even her own brother fought to keep women from voting.

Women went to jail and insane asylums trying to earn the right to vote. They wanted to be seen as real people with the right to earn a living and keep their wages, the right to own a business, the right to make decisions concerning their futures.

Telling Her Own Stories

Another good place to look is autobiography and biography. “I Am Malala” tells of the ongoing struggle for women’s rights in Pakistan. Her view of the rise of the Taliban and the present fight for the future of Pakistan explains so much of what we read about in the news. Her fight is for all children, regardless of who they are or where they live, to have the right to an education.

An unlikely book is “The Egg and I” by Betty MacDonald. Embedded in this book is the place of women in the 1930s in Washington state. One woman got married, was taken to a ranch and not been allowed to go even to town for twenty-seven years. Even the author was expected to help her husband achieve his dreams regardless of hardship, health or personal dreams.

After the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his wife Eleanor emerged from his shadow and became a world figure fighting for women’s and human rights and world peace. “Eleanor: The Years Alone” may be about her, but is a history course about the United Nations and post war U.S. politics as she was involved with both.

Personal Story

Even though these were interesting, they were long past. I’ve seen so many changes in my lifetime. I grew up at a time when women had few choices in life. Wife, mother, nurse, teacher, secretary were the acceptable ones. And those with jobs were expected to quit when they got married.

Women wore skirts. At my high school a teacher could make you kneel on the sidewalk to make sure your skirt was the proper length.

When a girl went to college or university, she was expected to get an mrs degree. All I got was a bachelor of arts and my grandma considered me a failure. No counselor or mentor had time for a girl.

Being Challenged

Today so many careers and opportunities have opened up for girls. But these opportunities are being challenged. Go looking for her story, find out where women’s rights came from and decide whether they are worth fighting for. Otherwise you may lose them.

Tags biographies in history, historical fiction, reading