WiP Wednesday

It's time for another WiP-it Wednesday! I have been majorly absent from the blogosphere for quite a while, so it would be nice to be able to say, "I finished my novel!" or "I finished three novels!!!" Unfortunately, all I can say is that I haven't been a whole lot better at writing than I have been at blogging this past year or so.

Fortunately, I can also say that that's all changing now. My youngest is in preschool 3 days a week, which gives me roughly 6 hours a week of Freedom, Sweet Freedom! There are a lot of things I could do with that time, but I'm devoting it to writing. No doctor's appointments. No chatting with friends. No shopping. No reading. No blogging. In fact, I'm even flipping the little WiFi switch on my laptop OFF during my writing time so I won't be interrupted with the little boxes that pop up in the corner of my screen letting me know I have a new email that I just have to read right this very second.


I also joined with Ali and some other bloggers out there who are tracking their writing time this week. (Monday the 27th through Friday the 1st) It'll be interesting to see what comes of it. For myself, I'm hoping to just get a little motivational kick in the pants. So far, I have 165 minutes. Not too bad, right? Right.

Below are links for everyone who's participating in the blogfest. Check 'em out. Cheer 'em on. Keep track of your own writing time and let me know how you're doing, too.

New Blog Name!

In the beginning, I thought the internet was a scary place and that I needed to be anonymous if I was going to be out here in it. In fact, I still think that to a degree, which is why I won't be posting pictures of my kids on this blog or talking about where they go to school and what time their after-school activity lets out.

On the other hand, I'm realizing that I need to get my name out there if I want to sell my books when they get published. And I'm thinking that people are going to have a hard time going into their local Barnes and Noble and asking if they can buy the new book by that "Confessions of a Lifelong Bookworm" lady.

I decided I wanted to have my blog actually be my name, but with a name like Jenn, you can imagine I was a little doubtful that it would be available. Lucky for me, all the other Jenn Wilkses out there have chosen cutesy names like I did, and I was able to snatch it up. And extra lucky for me, I didn't have to create a whole new blog like I thought I would and lose all my awesome followers in the process - I could just choose a new name and here I am. So if you follow me, I'll still show up in your blogroll like always. But if you use a link, you'll need to update it to jennwilks.blogspot.com

I'll be blogging more regularly, so if you want to keep up, go ahead and "follow" me if you don't already - see the little "followers" button on the side there? A little down, a little down . . . There! And while you're at it, leave me a comment and let me know how you feel about internet privacy - Are you anonymous? Do you just put it all out there? Or are you somewhere in the middle, like me?

Book Review: Alma the Younger


Alma the Younger is the newest book in H.B. Moore's Book of Mormon prophets novels, and I do have to say I really enjoyed it. Of course, that's not so surprising given the fact that I've always loved Moore's books. 

Taking three and a half verses from the Book of Mormon (Mosiah 27:8-11) and turning it into 250 or some odd pages of a book has got to be a serious challenge, and all the harder because not everyone is going to be happy with how you portray one of their favorite prophets.

I really enjoyed seeing how Moore developed Alma's character. She didn't make him evil - she made him rebellious, but she gave him motivation. I love how Moore's books always make the characters come to life for me. Even though I know that most of the book is fiction, I also know that Moore does a lot of research into the culture and climate of the time, so it feels real.



Some of these books are based on much larger passages of scripture with many more details than others. In a case like this one, the scriptures only tell us that Alma the Younger was going about seeking to destroy the church of God, basically. All the details of how he went about that needed to come from Moore's imagination. My only caution in reading a book like this is for the reader to take it as a piece of fiction, and to read the chapter notes for fascinating insights into the parts of the story that are, in fact, based on the truth.