BK Reeves on Writing

 It's release day for BK Reeves!!!  The Open Face of Heaven,  her second Orphan Train story from The Wild Rose Press, is available today!!!  Leave a comment and you'll be eligible to win a free copy!!!

The Open Face of Heaven
by BK Reeves
Available from The Wild Rose Press
 
Just what the doctor ordered... After losing her parents, Milly Blakely cut her hair and pretended to be younger to get on the Orphan Train. She’s come a long way to find a new family. Her heart hungers for someone to love. When she spies a frail and sick-looking young woman with a frowning, yet handsome man at the Orphan Train’s stop in Addison, Kansas, she knows she can help these people and can’t wait to get started. But can she love these hurting people without getting hurt herself? Rad Powell’s wife, Frances, is dying. He gives in to her wish for a companion and takes in Milly Blakely. Milly is a blessing and so much more than a mere companion during Frances’ last days. After the loss of his wife, he realizes how much this young woman has changed his life and touched his bruised heart. Can he find a second chance at love?
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And now it's my pleasure to welcome  BK back to Just Write!

Writer’s Voice by B.K. Reeves 

I’ve been writing a long time and  have had some truly outstanding  mentors. My parents enrolled me in  school when we moved to Kent  County in October 1938. When my  mother went home, the first grade  teacher, after she discovered I was writing short stories, and writing  cursive at that, promoted me to the  second grade. By the end of the day,  the other students were calling me Smart Kid, and not in a friendly way.  My mother went to school and made it plain to everyone that I  was not, repeat not, to skip grades, explaining that she wanted  me to remain with my own age group.

The school itself was a gigantic red brick building that  housed classes one through eleven. That’s as far as Texas  schools went at the time. Right away, I  volunteered to be  school reporter, and that’s how I became acquainted with the  editor of the local newspaper, a Mr. Johnson. (Not his real  name.) I took him the school news and gave him a piece I’d  written about moving from a small country school in Oklahoma to this large Texas school. He complimented me on my voice and told me, when I asked, that voice was how a writer sounded  coming off the page. He explained that voice has to do with style and the way a writer expresses this style. He was very kind to me, never seeming  too busy to visit.

Mr. Johnson taught me so many things. He said a writer  should write honestly, with the simplest words possible. He told  me to remember my reader and his/her expectations. He explained suspension of disbelief. Meanwhile, he was printing  some of my think pieces in the paper, but only after he stringently edited them, scrawling across one piece he rejected Where‘s your voice here? He encouraged me to read, so I set  out to read every book in the Jayton School Library.

The library was a narrow hall-like apartment directly in  back of the study hall, with a tiny window where students could  come and confer with the librarian. By now, I was officially part-time student librarian (at age eleven), and it wasn’t unusual for  a size-huge football player to amble up to the window and ask  me to recommend a short, easy-to-read book for a book report  he had due. Others did the same, and I became a mentor to anyone approaching that window.

I had many other duties at school but my bliss was complete when I could work in the library, helping students of all  ages. Teaching as I did for many years in the Continuing Education Departments at San Jacinto Central and South, and at Gilruth at NASA, I mentored hundreds of students. I can’t begin to  tell you how much I learned from them. At the same time, I  can’t forget my first mentor, Mr. Johnson. He was great and is  ever green in my memory.    
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Thanks, BK!!!  Congrats on the new release!!!
You can visit BK at www.bkreeves.com