Meet Our Members - Rita Stella Galieh

1.Who are you & where do you come from?

 My husband would be the best person to answer that as he knows the real me. A Sydneysider, I always wanted to be an artist so I studied art and joined the family ceramics studio and enjoyed etching Australian flora and fauna exclusively for Prouds in Sydney. I met my violinist husband at a YFC meeting and he challenged me to use my gift for God. After our marriage we attended Emmaus Bible College and then joined Dr Gene Jeffries and American evangelist as his music team. We spent two years in America and then answered the call to be involved in missions in Australia. Each year in December, we minister throughout Thailand with a Thai interpreter, Somchai Soothornturasuk. He arranges for us to use our art and music in schools, prisons, orphanages, hospitals and churches where we explain the real meaning of Christmas. During our many years of travelling over countries in SE Asia, I began to write seriously. Though looking back, I used to spin stories with my grandma and I think the seeds were sown then.

 

 2. Tell us about your writing. What do I write?

I love reading historicals. I also love the extensive research involved in writing these. So my chosen genre is Historical Romance. I have had two published by a Sydney publisher. My next was a trilogy: Signed Sealed Delivered, The Tie That Binds, A Parcel of Promises were Indie published.

3. Tell us about your program, what challenges you most and what helps you most?

As I also write and record radio programs with my husband, I'm always challenged to find the time to write my novels.(I wish I had a maid  and a cook like those in my historicals!) However I can tune out even with the TV on, because when I write, I am not in my room, not in my suburb and not in my time. I read my Bible study and notes each morning and ask the Lord to guide me in whatever I write as I want it to honour Him. My Thesaurus helps me most of all when I am searching for just the right word.

4. What are your writing goals?

I am now writing 3 synopses for a Book proposal of another series I have just completed under the series name: Daughters of Resilience: Book 1.  Speechless, Breaking Miss Sophie's Silence, Book 2. Defenseless, Miss Dengate's Deliverance, Book 3. Heartless, Miss Kate's Great Expectations.( I use US spelling.) The setting is the Edwardian Era. So my goal is to find an agent who likes my work and who will find a publisher who in turn will actually snap up my trilogy! Easy? Nooooo. I'd value your prayers about this.

5. How does my faith impact my writing?

To answer this I'll share what I have written in my Book Proposal:

Resilience - a combination of perseverance and hope - is a universal theme in my novels. When facing difficult issues, today’s Christian woman can relate when facing hard decisions between making a God honouring choice or whatever is expedient at the time. 

I truly want to share my faith in a practical way. Just as Jesus used stories to illustrate a spiritual truth, so I really want my readers to gain something that might help them in their own life.

Rita has learned her craft by making every mistake in the book!  But perseverance is the key. Besides reading fiction and nonfiction,  read plenty of books in the genre you write. Then write your heart out. Write all your doubts and struggles into your characters. And have fun creating your nasty antagonists.

If you feel the Lord has called you to write, just keep at it whatever it is articles, scripts, Sunday school lessons, women's devotionals, there's a need for all of these.
And never give up.

UNIQUE YOU

With apologies to Picasso

Yes, that's you.
(Not the 'Picasso'!)                                     

Think what a remarkable, and miraculous thing it isto be you!Of all the people who have come and gone on the earth, since the beginning of time, not ONE of them is like YOU!

No one who has ever lived or is to come has had your combination of abilities, talents, appearance, friends, acquaintances, burdens, sorrows and opportunities. If you did not exist, there would be a gap in history and something missing from God's plan for humankind. Nowhere ever in all of history will the same things be going on in anyone’s mind, soul and spirit like yours.

No one’s fingerprints are like yours. No one prays
about exactly the same concerns as you do. No one is loved by the same combination of people that love you
 – NO ONE!
No one before, no one to come. YOU ARE UNIQUE! You do not have to pretend in order to seem more like someone else. You weren’t meant to be like someone else, you were meant to be different.

No one can reach out to others in the same way as you. No one can speak your words. No one can convey your meanings. No one can comfort with your kind of comfort. No one can bring your kind of understanding to another person.No one can be cheerful in your way. No one can smile your smile. No one else can bring the whole unique impact of your way. No one can smile your smile. No one else can bring the whole unique impact of you to another human being.

This gift of yourself was given you to enjoy and share. YOU ARE UNIQUE! (Original writer Anon)
                                                                                     

BIO: Rita Stella Galieh, has written a trilogy of historical novels, Indie published, and also contributed to several US anthologies. She is now working on a third historical romance series, Resilient Women. 

A member of ICFW, ACFW, CWDU, ACW and Omega Writers,
connect with her on , Twitter, Facebook and her website: www.ritastellapress.com 

Rita studied art at the Sydney National Art School then joined the family ceramics studio. After their marriage, she and her husband attended Emmaus Bible College, and were also involved with Christian Television on Sydney’s Channel Nine. 

Currently she co-presents Vantage Point, an Australia-wide Christian FM radio program. She enjoys giving her fun-filled presentations of ‘Etiquette of the Victorian Era’ in costume.

Writing a great scene

It doesn't matter how long we've been writing, it's always good to go over guidelines you may have forgotten.

So I chose to follow Randy Ingermanson's hints for writing scenes. Basic stuff, yes, but if we don't at least write with some structure then we're going to do some awful rambling.

I have been checking & rewriting my latest manuscript and it has lifted the whole tone.

Goal: A Goal is what your POV character wants at the beginning of the Scene. The Goal must be specific and it must be clearly definable. The reason your POV character must have a Goal is that it makes your character proactive. Your character is not passively waiting for the universe to deal him Great Good. Your character is going after what he wants, just as your reader wishes he could do. It’s a simple fact that any character who wants something desperately is an interesting character. Even if he’s not nice, he’s interesting. And your reader will identify with him. That’s what you want as a writer. (Note he's taken it from the male perspective.)

Conflict: Conflict is the series of obstacles your POV character faces on the way to reaching his Goal. You must have Conflict in your Scene! If your POV character reaches his Goal with no Conflict, then the reader is bored. Your reader wants to struggle! No victory has any value if it comes too easy. So make your POV character struggle and your reader will live out that struggle too.

Disaster: A Disaster is a failure to let your POV character reach his Goal. Don’t give him the Goal! Winning is boring! When a Scene ends in victory, your reader feels no reason to turn the page. If things are going well, your reader might as well go to bed. No! Make something awful happen. Hang your POV character off a cliff and your reader will turn the page to see what happens next.

Now let’s look at Sequels . . .
The Sequel has the three parts Reaction, Dilemma, and Decision. Again, each of these is critical to a successful Sequel. Remove any of them and the Sequel fails to work. Let me add one important point here. The purpose of a Sequel is to follow after a Scene. A Scene ends on a Disaster, and you can’t immediately follow that up with a new Scene, which begins with a Goal. Why? Because when you’ve just been slugged with a serious setback, you can’t just rush out and try something new. You’ve got to recover. That’s basic psychology.

 Feel like you've hit a brick wall yet? Just keep practicing! It'll come second nature in time.

Reaction: A Reaction is the emotional follow-through to a Disaster. When something awful happens, you’re staggering for awhile, off-balance, out of kilter. You can’t help it. So show your POV character reacting viscerally to his Disaster. Show him hurting. Give your reader a chance to hurt with your characters. Eventually, your POV character needs to get a grip. To take stock.
Dilemma: A Dilemma is a situation with no good options. If your Disaster was a real Disaster, there aren’t any good choices. Your POV character must have a real dilemma. This gives your reader a chance to worry, which is good. Your reader must be wondering what can possibly happen next. Let your POV character work through the choices

Decision: A Decision is the act of making a choice among several options. This is important, because it lets your POV character become proactive again. People who never make decisions are boring people. They wait around for somebody else to decide. And nobody wants to read about somebody like that. So make your character decide, and make it a good decision. One your reader can respect

Randy Ingermanson is a theoretical physicist and the award-winning author of six novels. He has taught at numerous writing conferences over the years  He's worth listening to....

Currently Rita co-presents a Christian radio program with her husband, George. This is broadcast Australia-wide on Christian & secular FM stations. She has written five historicals & contributed to several US anthologies. She blogs at  ritastellapress.com & Facebook.

How Do We Answer?

A question most fiction writers are asked: Where do the ideas of your stories come from?

I am still scratching my head about the answer to that.
All I can offer is that it's something like a seed being planted into fertile ground. (And no one can dispute we writers have fertile imaginations.) It's bound to shoot and wiggle its way up until we see the possibilities of a story. That's when it needs watering.

So what is the watering process for you? Do you get to work and begin laying out your ideas until you see the story emerging fresh, original and tempting?

Or do you take an idea ( or many ideas) you've read before and rewrite the plot with a twist - as agents love to encourage us to add in our book proposals?

Or is it something you've been struggling with in your own life and you place this into you main character's personality? This naturally introduces a spiritual dimension. And may help you discover along the way in figuring out your own life's answers.


The possibility exists that all of the above are true. Now is there something I've missed? I am curious about where we writers differ and where we are similar. As a pantser myself, I wish I could see the end from the beginning. But it seems I need to concentrate on understanding my characters and let them make the right choices ... or wrong as the case may be. Actually wrong choices do make them more human. Then it's interesting to find out how they'll extricate themselves from the consequences of their stupid decisions!

Sigh. All the above is a glimmer, but doesn't prove how we come up with our stories. I'd be glad if you could add some ideas of your own to enlighten me. OR do you have a good answer when posed with the question of where your stories originate?


Rita Stella Galieh is a co-presenter on a Christian radio program broadcast Australia-wide. She was a contributor to several US anthologies published by Adams Media. An attendee at several conferences, she has judged for ACFW, contributes to several other writers’ organizations, blogs weekly, and participates daily on Facebook. After several years study at the Sydney National Art School, she joined the family ceramics business before attending Emmaus Bible College. Each year, besides Australia, she travels with her violinist husband throughout Thailand, with permission from the Buddhist Government, to explain the true meaning of Christmas. 

This past year she has enjoyed presenting the amusing Etiquette of the Victorian Era to ladies and seniors fellowships, dinners, coffee evenings and similar functions. Her website is www.ritastellapress.com

HOPE for the NEW YEAR

Can you believe we are almost into 2016? 
A brand new start ... if we choose. And our well-placed   hope in God makes all the difference.

As Christian authors, I’m sure we write stories to give hope. I always add romance as the plot is usually about someone's dreams being fulfilled. Maybe not as they'd visualized but with a wonderful end result. And I always allow my main characters to grow emotionally and spiritually.

There's no doubt hope is what keeps us going...moving forward and never giving up. God has given us that ability. Even so it is still a choice we have to make even when things seem impossible.

Thousands of years ago when God allowed the Jews to be captured by the King Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of the Babylonian kingdom, He gave them hope for their future. Yes, they'd sinned against His Word, by listening to evil prophets and diviners, consequently being caught up with horrible practices. Yet, even after they'd been carried off to a far land he granted them hope. Hope that if they repented of their wrongdoing, He would again bring them back into their own land. In fact He said an amazing thing to them through the prophet Jeremiah. We read:

"I will fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

We may face some limiting circumstances today. We may have lost a dear one, or are facing financial difficulties, or a debilitating illness. Now is the time to seek the Lord Jesus with all your heart. Find your hope in Him for this coming year.

God bless you dear reader