On the Way to Perfection

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by Joan C. Benson When an author completes a book, s/he wants it perfected before submitting it to an agent or publisher. The author has read and reread the manuscript multiple times and revised and revised it with the best of their expertise. Nothing but the best work should be considered for submission. In my case, my first novel took years to finish. No, it didn’t take years of writing, but years of retrieving it from the bottom of my to-do list. After all, I was paid for contract writing, my proverbial squeaky wheel. Once I finished polishing the manuscript,…

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The Music of Sounds

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THE MUSIC OF SOUNDS  by Jeanne Gowen Dennis Sing to the Lord all the earth. (Ps. 96:1)  Musical Sounds I’ve been thinking lately about the amazing gift of sounds. The songs of birds. The tinkling of water in a stream. The whispers of wind through leaves. The crashing of waves. The music of various instruments. Voices lifted in song. The Human Voice Most of all, I’ve marveled at the human voice. We can hum a tune, belt out a popular song, sing an aria, cheer someone on, shout out a warning, talk in normal tones, or whisper a prayer. So many…

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Getting rid of stress

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Who loves classical music these days? My six-year-old granddaughter does. And Mozart is one of her favorite composers. She plays his music over and over again. The other day, she pulled my hand. “I love it. C’mon, Nana, let’s dance.” Dance? It’s not salsa, I thought. I smiled and shuffled a bit, trying to follow the beat and move with grace. But not my little princess. She twirled, jumped, wiggled, stomped one foot, then the other, and moved from here to there. Then when it was over, she was out of breath but said, “Let’s do it again.”

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A Symphony of Words

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Dianne Neal Matthews here, hoping to share some encouraging words with you on this second Monday of June. When I recently attended a symphony rehearsal, I enjoyed the music—but I also came away with inspiration to apply to the writing life.

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