Communication – Rebekah Lyn Books

What I learned from Rebekah Lyn’s Radio Interview

Rebekah Lyn, Onisha, and Pam have been getting the word out about Rebekah’s new book, Jessie. Yesterday Rebekah Lyn and Onisha came to my house because they wanted to use a land-phone in order to give an interview for Will Wilson’s Indie Book Show.

The three of us sat in the living room each watching our various timepieces and counting down to eleven a. m. when the phone rang. That was when I remembered to get Rebekah Lyn a glass of water. I was very quiet with the ice, and when our cat came in meowing I grabbed her and put her on the porch, so the audience wouldn’t be distracted.

We knew the interview would last about an hour which made us a bit nervous about our cordless phone, not knowing how long it would stay empowered.

Onisha took the first picture when Rebekah Lyn was settling in to the couch with the phone to her ear. She did look a picture with her shining, shoulder length auburn hair and sparkling blue eyes

The experience was a revelation to me, as I am yet to do my first telephone interview. I do have one coming up with another interviewer so I was all eyes and ears. Will Wilson will be also interview Janet Perez Eckles sometime after she returns from her mission trip to Bolivia.

Here’s a one-two-three of what I learned about a successful telephone interview.

You must have a phone with a reliable battery, a glass of water, maybe a friend or two, and a notebook with your previously recorded notes ready to hand.
Your notes will be your mainstay when the interviewer asks for answers to questions that take a bit of remembering – such as who have been some of your favorite authors over the years and why did you like them.
It would be a good idea to go to Will’s website or podcast and listen to some of his fine interviews, so that you will know in advance what types of questions he may ask. He will move on if he asks something you don’t know, but why not be ready for anything like the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America are?

A few days before the interview I received a list of Rebekah’s stops for the blog tour she has been doing. She has written a dozen blogs for various sites. I looked them over with great interest and excitement. I’ve heard her speak several times and she never bogs down or seems to be at a loss for words. There’s always something new, something she hasn’t said before. I asked how she does that when there are so many blogs and interviews and she told me that she does each one as a fresh interview, getting her notes down as early as possible in the process. When she comes to a question she has answered too many times, she simply digs a bit deeper into her own heart and mind to get new insights to share. What a wonderful idea!

Rebekah Lyn listens as well as she speaks,she’s a master at telephone conversations. Even when she agrees wholeheartedly, she doesn’t break in and validate – you hear not a word from her, but in her presence you might see an energetic nod or when waiting for more information a small shrug of the shoulders.Her voice is well-modulated and even, and always gracious,interested and energetic.

When the hour was up, we learned that the power on our cordless phone will last at least that long, which is a good thing to know. Onisha and I only heard Rebekah’s side of the conversation, so we are definitely clicking on Will’s podcast to hear the other side.

Be sure to visit Will Wilson’s Indie Book Show or subscribe to his podcasts .

A few minutes after the interview was over, Rebekah turned on her cell phone and received an email. It was a message from NASA telling her she got a spot and a press card as one of the social-media reporters for the one of the events celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. She will be tweeting live from Kennedy Space Center Follow her tweets on Monday @rebekahlyn1 or #NASAsocial.

To celebrate the release of Jessie, Rebekah is offering an eBook copy at 60% off the regular price.

Jargon, We All Use It

I’m saved? Are you?

What does that mean? A whole raft of people could tell you, but many more could not. Why? Because I’m saved, is jargon. So what is jargon? It’s a code, a language. It’s quick, it’s easy, and everybody in our circle knows what we’re talking about. That’s fine as long as we don’t mind excluding people who aren’t in the know.

What’s up? Are you working hard? How do you like this weather? Those are okay to start a conversation at the beginning of a chance meeting when there’s not much chance of having a real talk, but specific questions and answers are more

. Here’s a couple of examples: “I remember that the last time we talked you were working on a great project. What stage are you in now? For a traveler, you can’t do better than, “When is your next trip and where are you going?” If we’re creative, we’ll hear much better stories, and possibly be inspired with something exciting to write about.

What lines of jargon are we familiar with? We know religious jargon, and writing jargon. Then we have our music specialties and historical references, maybe you speak politics or sports or entertainment or cooking. It might be fun to watch our own statements and ferret out things that others will not understand. I don’t know texting, computer, or game jargon, so I’m not the best at communicating with young people and some of the things I say such as, “You’ve got the cart before the horse,” are incomprehensible and weird to them. They are not only jargon, but they are clichéd, and archaic. I hope to root them out of my vocabulary, someday, but until then perhaps I can be more careful about when and where I use them.

Have you ever been to a doctor that told you precisely what you wanted to know in words that you could easily understand? If you have, you’ve been to a good doctor, who knows how to communicate without using medical jargon. He is especially valuable if he doesn’t take a superior attitude and judge you for not knowing.

So what do I mean when I say, I’m saved? Here’s a short explanation. It means that Jesus died on the cross for me because I was too busy ignoring Him and His Father to bother connecting with them. He had to get my attention. He got it in an act of atonement that will never be forgotten. Then he rose powerfully from death, and now because I asked Him to take over my life I’m being healed and living a freer and more abundant life than I could ever have imagined. Because he cast his cloak of righteousness over me, and He is no longer aware of my self-life, Jesus looks upon me as holy and perfect. Maybe I should just say, I’m saved, but what good would that do? What’s the point of saying anything at all if people can’t understand what I’m talking about? If I’m a Christian, I’m a teacher. If I’m a writer, I’m a teacher. Teachers must, by definition, be able to truly communicate.

#writingtips #faith #communication #writingideas

Journaling

It is a good thing to get things off your chest, journaling or talking to a trusted friend are the best ways. However, if something is ultra private, and secret, the best thing to do is to write it out, rip it out, shred it, and dispose of it. That way you have the benefit of the writing and the insight, which will immediately or eventually come to you, and privacy. You have complete control over what goes into your journal. You may or may not have control over who reads it, or when they read it. Continue reading “Journaling”

Writing Tip by Divoran~Pumpkin Soup

The holidays are on their way. We like to start planning early. This year we’re doing a de-construction menu. What you do is make different dishes from traditional recipes. For instance, you might make a turkey casserole with dressing and cranberries instead of a roasted turkey with stuffing inside. You can find recipes to use or you may make up your own. I think I’ll make pumpkin soup.

It’s the same way with writing. You can take things that have already been written, either your own, or someone else’s, and deconstruct and reconstruct them. Is that cheating. Is it unoriginal? No. The Bible says there’s nothing new under the sun and if anything is true that is! So how do you keep your work fresh and original? You use whatever you have as a launch pad for you’re thinking. I use cookbooks to get ideas for cooking and then change the recipes into something that suits me better. For writing, I use books, magazines, poems, paintings, people, and nature, what else is there…use that too.

Originality is not in saying something that has never been said before. How possible would that be? Originality is saying it the way you see it, understand it, and feel it. Try your best to write well and really communicate and you’ll have all the ideas for creative writing you could ever want.

One thing that’s fun for me is to know what’s supposed to be happening in a certain month. October is National Clock Month, Right Brainers Rule Month, and Dryer Vent Month. What? Dryer Vent, oh yeah, that’s what Jill Badonsky says in The Awe-Manac. Great. I have a story about a critter that got into our dryer vent. See how it works?

Now about the pumpkin soup. I’ve read some recipes and I have eaten about a ton of pumpkin pie in my lifetime, so let’s see, I’ll start with pumpkin. I may have to experiment a bit, toss some mistakes, or eat them in spite of their not being perfect. I’m not sure whether I’ll share the recipe or not. It’s too difficult for other people to follow exactly the way I do things. That’s originality, too.

Happy Writing

Love, DiVoran