Photo Credit: Zsolt Zatrok

Just got word that my short story “Angel in the Mist” will be published in the charity anthology A Community of Writers (Sunbury Press, 2012). Even cooler: All my CPs will also have stories in the book. Joint booksignings, here we come.

Royalties from the sale of the book will be donated to the Fredricksen Library in Camp Hill, PA.

What if you sacrificed your life so others could live? A different kind of ghost story.

I’ve included a synopsis below, but that doesn’t do the book justice. So much of the heart-pounding excitement is left out. And it doesn’t capture the humor or the poignancy. I don’t want to include any spoilers here, but suppose you were a clone who had been isolated in an underground facility and had never experienced life? And what if you escaped for a brief time? Wouldn’t you have a lot of questions? So does Martyr (or J:3:3). And his naïveté leads to many humorous situations.

So often Martyr’s innocent questions leave you torn between wanting to laugh and cry. Williamson is a master at defusing sadness with deft touches of humor. But the humor never detracted from the more serious message: Do clones have souls?

Kudos to Zondervan for being willing to tackle the cloning issue from a totally different point of view. Not whether cloning is right or wrong, but what would happen in the future if cloning humans becomes a reality. Williamson has dealt with this topic in a fun-to-read thriller that raises many thought-provoking questions. Questions that are sure to haunt you–the same way her carefully drawn characters will–long after the book covers are closed.

If you aren’t already a Williamson fan, after reading Replication, dip into her award-winning Blood of Kings trilogy (Marcher Lord Press), which has been compared to Tolkien. She also has stories in the anthologies, Spirited (Leap Books) and Ether Ore (MLP). All well worth reading!

BOOK BLURB

Martyr—otherwise known as Jason 3:3—is one of hundreds of clones kept in a remote facility called Jason Farms. Told that he has been created to save humanity, Martyr has just one wish before he is scheduled to ‘expire’ in less than a month. To see the sky. Abby Goyer may have just moved to Alaska, but she has a feeling something strange is going on at the farm where her father works. But even this smart, confident girl could never have imagined what lies beneath a simple barn. Or what would happen when a mysterious boy shows up at her door, asking about the stars. As the reality of the Jason Experiment comes to light, Martyr is caught between two futures—the one for which he was produced and the one Abby believes God created him to have. Time is running out, and Martyr must decide if a life with Abby is worth leaving everything he’s ever known.

LINK TO SAMPLE CHAPTER

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jill Williamson is a novelist, dreamer, and believer. Growing up in Alaska led to a love of books, and in 2010 her first novel, By Darkness Hid, won the Christy Award. She loves working with teenagers and gives writing workshops at libraries, schools, camps, and churches. Jill lives in Oregon with her husband and two children. Visit Jill online at www.jillwilliamson.com.

Image: Witthaya Phonsawat / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I began January by submitting the beginning of a YA set in the Old West. I love how my projects dovetail with each other and with my life. The first connection is that the heroine falls in love with a boy who was adopted into the Shawnee tribe. So how perfectly does that fit with the project I just finished–the 5 vol. Encyclopedia of Native Tribes?

But the connections don’t stop there. My father bought a house in an Arizona ghost town near the Sonora desert. That mining town is now being rehabbed, but I got to see it before it came back. The heroine lives in on a ranch outside town, so I feel I know the area. Walking with forked sticks while watching for rattlesnakes, the scorching sun, the saguaro pointing like fingers toward the sky, the smell of mesquite rising from an open fire. I even spent time on a nearby reservation learning to make pottery. It’s wonderful how life experiences can filter into fiction to make it come alive.

Can’t wait to sit down and finish this one. So many ideas are running through my head. What projects have you started for the New Year? And how do they dovetail with your life?

As we’re hustling and bustling to get the last of the holiday shopping done, it’s so easy to get annoyed with slowpokes who block our speed-walking through  a store on our lunch hours or with rude people who push ahead of us in line. But recently I heard a suggestion that totally revolutionized how I feel when that happens.

Whatever label you’ve just given that person who’s upsetting you–irritating, pushy, nasty, inconsiderate–put it into this sentence: There I go again, being…

There I go again, being pushy.

There I go again, being rude.

Wait a minute, you might say. I wasn’t the one who was doing that. Ah, but if you believe, like I do, that we’re all interconnected and that what you see is a reflection of what’s in your heart, then it’s easy to see that you made the choice to see rudeness or unkindness. And I find when I say that, it reminds me that I’ve done the same thing at times.

Perhaps that’s what’s meant by: There, but for the grace of God, go I…

Although some people use that to make themselves feel superior, if you think about it for a moment, you’ll realize you’re saying that any differences between you and the other person are because of grace. You are the same, but someone is looking at your actions through forgiving eyes. Now it’s your turn to do the same.

But the wonderful thing about this sentence is that you can use it when you see acts of kindness, generosity, and love.

There I go again, being generous and thoughtful.

There I go again, being helpful and considerate.

So while you’re shopping, which “you” will you see. I hope you have the special joy and privilege of seeing “you” through the eyes of a child, with all the magic and wonder that entails.

Whew! I made my goal of 50,000 words. The word count in Word showed exactly 50,000 words, but when I put it in the validator, it showed less than that, so I had to type in another paragraph. It should feel terrific to reach this goal, but secretly I’d been hoping to complete an 80,000-word novel, so I ended up feeling disappointed. I do wonder if setting such high standards is good or if it only makes it tough on yourself.

I think we need to spend more time on congratulating ourselves for what we’ve accomplished–and that goes for all you NaNo participants who didn’t reach your goals. Think of how much more you have written than you would have without the NaNo push and rejoice. You deserve to pat yourself on the back too!! Congratulations to all.

NaNoWriMo

It’s been a while since I posted last. I haven’t been idle, though. I completed edits on an anthology in October, which was fun, but lots of work. That along with two deadlines in early November–one for nonfiction and one for fiction–kept me super busy.

I have now finished Vol. 5 in the Encyclopedia of North American Tribes, which will be published in 2012. Then I submitted a fiction proposal for an MG action-adventure series, which included the first ten chapters of Book 1.

Since then it seems as if I’ve been writing and writing and writing…this time for NaNo. I’m scribbling away on an adult inspirational romance. I have to say my projects are eclectic enough that I never get bored.

What are you working on?

Not Sally Stuart. In her Guide to Getting Published, she calls them “Pre-Acceptance Letters.” Isn’t that a much nicer way to look at them?

Hope the rest of you enjoyed the day. The one fact I learned is that Aarrgh! means something entirely different than Arrr!

Do you know the difference? I used Aarrgh! correctly above as I slapped my forehead. But Arrr! means yes.

One of my personal favorites in the pirate world is Dragon Lady.

So me hearties, if ye wish to learn more about pirates or sailing the seven seas, you’ve only to pick up Pirates Through the Ages.

Lots of great characters inside…

If I do say so meself.

The opponents lined up facing each other and at a signal from their chiefs, who monitored the battle, they began firing arrows at each other. The battle ended when the first person died. That side was declared the loser, and everyone stopped shooting.

Battle over. Minimal casualties.

If either side felt they hadn’t gotten enough satisfaction, the two chiefs set up another battle in a different location ten day later. Same rules. If during the battle, things got out of hand or too many people were hurt, the chiefs took off their hairnets and waved them in the air. Fighting stopped instantly.

That ten day cooling off period was a terrific idea. I wonder how many fights got called off during that time as ration prevailed over emotion.

I’m thinking we could learn a lot from this. Although I’d love to see a world completely at peace, this might be a solution to the horrible carnage of war. Limit the deaths to one rather than thousands.

The more I read the accounts of European explorers and American settlers, the more I have to wonder about the label, “savages” that the Euro-Americans used for the Native nations. Who really were the savages?

Rather than being an anchor, a drag, holding back the ship, I want to be the sail, harnessing the wind energy and directing the craft. We’ll not only go farther faster, but it’ll take a lot less energy.