By Shawny Lou Miller
“Where’ve you been?” 
“Did you finish your book?”
“Why’d you stop blogging?”
How can three questions provoke such conflict in my soul?
Author: Shawny Lou
Pushing the Brakes to Excelerate the Story!
By Shawny Lou Miller
Hello Friends,
Curious about where we’ve been lately? Life has been a bit of a whirlwind these days and has prevented me from writing.
But, never fear!
Unsung Lyrics will be written (I’m about 8/10 through it), our beautiful book cover is nearly complete, and we remain confident in God’s divine hand on the story.
That said, Mikie DeLong Pyle and I have concluded that it’s time to push the brakes on our blogging, but only TEMPORARILY!
The intention is to allow me to clear my mind, refocus my heart and soul on Unsung Lyrics, and to finally get the finished manuscript to Mikie so she can adapt it into a God-inspired screenplay.
Basically, we’re pushing the brakes in one area so we can press the gas pedal in another!
With everything else that’s encircled my life recently, our precious story has been unintentionally starved. It’s time to add some fuel to our creative focus, Unsung Lyrics, get the motor running again!
Mikie and I know that we’ve been blessed by this calling and want to honor God through our attentiveness and care of what He’s commissioned us to complete.
Soon, the final words will be penned and a beautiful cover, which is nearly complete, will be ready to cradle the journey of Megan Calloway’s life, death, and afterlife.
We hope you’ll stick around. Wait for us. Wait on the story!
In the near future, we will return to 2 Pen a Picture with new excerpts and a fictional tale of redemption which we pray will touch your lives.
Until then, be blessed and know that we’re thinking of you as we continue to dance through the rain, sing through the pain, and discover our story’s unsung lyrics!
Book Excerpt from UNSUNG LYRICS, Chapter 5 – “Notions of a Moment”
By Shawny Lou
Ready to travel deeper into the story of Unsung Lyrics? 
Collaborating with Mikie DeLong Pyle on this tale of transformation and redemption has been a life-changing challenge for me! I’ve grown in my faith and have discovered an unexpected comfort in what may await us. My hope is that it will offer our readers, those who walk this journey with us, the same inspiration!
Come along as our protagonist, Megan Calloway, discovers how the notion of a moment – in this case, spontaneously deciding to visit a nearby ice-cream vendor, can change everything.
Unsung Lyrics – The Sweet Serenade of a Story
By Shawny Lou Miller
Star Wars has it. So does Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Twilight, and so many more great films.
A musical score that awakens our senses!
It’s no surprise that the music accompanying a movie plays a vital role in the overall experience that an audience takes away from the story.
Creating a novel can require the same melodic inspiration. Some of my favorite scenes in Unsung Lyrics were born when a song or composition tickled my ears.
It was late in 2013 when I’d arrived at Megan Calloway’s death scene. I was stumped. I knew that I wanted to take the audience on a journey they’d never experienced, but how?
How does a writer, who has yet to die, describe the feeling of being transported to the next life?
Is it possible for one, with such limited words, to carry a reader toward an encounter with a never-before-seen angel of death?
Doesn’t my audience deserve to soak in the same emotion that Megan does, as she travels away from her earthly life, up – up – up into the galaxies?
Writing the death scene for Megan, a talented cellist, would require some creative stimulation!
ADAPTING TO THE ADAPTATION
From Prologue to Page One
by Mikie DeLong Pyle
I’m adaptable, right? So I should be adept at adapting to an adaptation, right?
Adapting writer Shawny Lou Miller’s novel, Unsung Lyrics, into a screenplay, that is.
When Shawny Lou and I talked about me writing a Blog post and including the first page of the screenplay to show the transformation of the book’s Prologue into page one of the film, I was excited to begin writing. I mean, it’s only one page, right? Piece of cake, easy-peezey-breezey, no prob.
In Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat book on screenwriting, he says:
“The very first impression of what a movie is – its tone, its mood, the type and scope of the film – are all found in the opening image.”
(No pressure, Blake, thanks.)
Book Excerpt from UNSUNG LYRICS, Chapter 2 – “Spirits and Angels”
By Shawny Lou
Mikie DeLong Pyle and I are excited to share this portion of Unsung Lyrics with you. Of course, your (gentle) thoughts and feedback are invited.
Lead-In to the Scene …
Unsung Lyrics – The Story and Beyond!
By Shawny Lou
We’re back! We went on hiatus from blogging for a short while to focus on our story, the book cover (stay tuned) and of course, life!
Going forward, we are committed to posting an article each week so you can follow along with us as Unsung Lyrics develops in both novel and screenplay form.
What’s Happening with Unsung Lyrics?
I’m happy to announce that we’ve moved the story forward significantly since our last update in March! We’re over three-quarters of the way into the life and death of Megan Calloway and are now approaching the part I’ve been so eager to write, the chapters where she finally begins to turn her life around and, of course, the ending, when she will discover the significance of her existence on earth and how it has affected her future in heaven.
The Plague of a Writer
By Shawny Lou
I penned this several weeks ago after experiencing heaviness over the characters in my novel. It’s amazing how a fictional story can come to life and have such an affect on the writer.
If you read my personal blog, Writing in a Raindrop, it may look familiar. I posted it there soon after writing it.
Enjoy!
* * *
Writing, for me, is a dream come true
To share my imagined worlds with you
I’d hate to return to the nine to five
‘Cuz writing is what makes me feel alive
I take the characters from inside my mind
And put them on paper for you to find
They’re funny and loving and crazy, too
Even I get surprised by the things that they do
I know when I write, it is why I was made
I’m just not complete in a “regular” trade
But sometimes I wonder how I will get through
For writing, it comes with some negatives, too
Savoring the Tasty Morsels of a Teacher
Lauraine Snelling, offering some friendly tips to aspiring authors
By Mikie
“Marketing: suck it up and do it,” exclaims prolific author, Lauraine Snelling.
In last week’s Blog post, Shawny Lou wrote about the helpful tidbits Lauraine fed local artists at a recent meeting of Tehachapi Christian Artists Fellowship that Shawny Lou and I attended.
I’ll add some additional tasty morsels I ingested from Lauraine’s talk.
Want to be a Better Writer? Surround Yourself with Great Writers!
By Shawny Lou
So, you want to be a writer? Then, surround yourself with amazing writers!
There’s talent all around us and I’ve discovered that “artist types” tend to be each other’s best cheerleaders. I can’t adequately stress the importance of sharing your dreams with other Creatives, both up-and-coming and accomplished.
Recently, Mikie DeLong Pyle and I joined a small support group for creative Christians in our area. We’re always looking for opportunities to learn and grow as we collaborate on our story, “Unsung Lyrics”, and the Tehachapi Christian Arts Fellowship (TCAF) seemed like a great group to check out!
We linked up with them just two weeks ago, but we’re already hooked. Now, we proudly call ourselves TCAF members and have already gathered valuable tips and networking relationships from the team!
Lauraine Snelling – Guest Speaker
This past Monday, we had the pleasure of meeting successful author, Lauraine Snelling. To date, she’s published over 75 books, so the woman knows what she’s doing!
Just sitting beside her as she spoke, I was inspired. It was as if her creative energy was emanating through my skin. Amazing!
The stories she shared and the tips she offered were golden and are too good to keep to myself!
2 Pen A Picture 