Ruth Marlene Friesen: Welcome!

This site is like Ruthe, the heroine of my novel, Ruthe's Secret Roses

Ruthe is. . .
intimate with God,
prays a lot,
a bleeding heart for the hurting,
a big sister,
rescues friends,
has creative ideas,
likes to give surprise gifts,
loyal to friends,
dreams of love and marriage,
dreams of writing a book
goes the extra mile

So this site offers;
a good books to read!
help to become Friends with God,
The One Ideal Real Friend
a cure for loneliness
An Older Sister's Coping Secret
how to pray Panic Prayers,
& regularly/daily
devotionals,
how to grow in faith
Christian mentoring,
how to share your faith
character development
how to become a writer



te-Oh-oh!

To help YOU learn to turn out short stories the way you bake batches of cookies, I am sponsoring a sort of Contest-Exercise-Game. RoseBouquet Subscribers who wish to take part will get various story ingredients given to them, and they must come up with a short story of no more than 300 to 500 words at the very maximum. We'll play a fresh round with each issue of the RoseBouquet inspirational and writing ezine.

You win extra honours if you can tell a great story in 150 words or less!

If it turns out this plan is too easy or too hard, we'll adjust the rules for the following rounds. (Since this is a very new idea, it is sort'a in beta-testing stage).

If you wish to take part, you must first be subscribed to the RoseBouquet. Easy part - do it right here;

Using the the short lists below, choose your Character - character's adjective/trait - Setting - and Complication. the same Plot Problem and the Climax is assigned to all who take part. This provides some unity to the stories, but we will all be amazed at the variety of treatments the different writers bring to the same plot and climax.

When you have written your short story, paste into the entry form at the bottom of this page. (BOOKMARK IT NOW)! Remember, it can only be accepted until the next issue of RoseBouquet comes out. That marks the start of the next round.

Naturally, you will retain your own copyright on the story. You get to decide who can publish it and whether for free or for pay.

I'm sorry to say I can't pay, but if I really like your story, I'll write to ask your permission to put it up on my site, and perhaps even include it in the ebook, which will be available for Christmas gift-giving this December. If you grant such permission, I will consider that a great gift and honour. I promise not to try to make money on it. (Or if an opportunity comes up, you will be consulted first).

If you need more help in how to write a short story, see the article from the Sept/10/03 issue of RoseBouquet, which you'll find here; Make Short Stories Like Cookies.

Not to tell you what to write, but to give you an idea...
Examples:

You could choose a husband who is bashful, and an Undertaker who is feminine. Place them in trout stream, where they struggle against a natural consequence of - (hmm... you can think of something, right?) But one of them has a hallucination. That'll slow them down, eh? But in the end their mad venture succeeds. Can you do all that in 500 words or less? - If you do, you're a good story-teller!

You could write of a villager who is converted in a camp meeting. He or she struggles against a natural consequence - which could be embarassment or ridicule. You know in the end he/she has to have a mad venture succeed despite the complication of - oh, how about a miracle?

Do you see all the possiblities?

Now those are all from just one card from a deck of Deal-A-Plot cards I got with a correspondence course in writing by Benson Barrett, way-y back in the 1960s. If your stories come in well, we can play with another card in the deck, or even shuffle them and keep playing indefinitely.

Once you've written your story (Bookmark this page!), come back here to enter your completed short story in this form.

Note: Your email address will need to match your subscription address, for your story to be considered.

[Please be patient if this form takes a while. It is checking for any known spammer's address. If you are NOT a spammer, and can't get through, there are ways to check and ask to have your IP address removed from the lists.]

Giveaways

Ruthe's Secret Roses available in softcover! Purchase it at BookLocker.com and it will be in the mail to you within 48 hours!


The novel:
Order NOW
Author
Read it Right NOW!

Available at:
BookLocker.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com

Or ASK at any bookstore!