My Soul to Keep

A Never Give Up-Never Surrender Attitude

Lynette M Burrows

It’s the end of June and time to evaluate progress for the first half of 2021. These have been among the top five most difficult months of my life. I’ve always had a never give up-never surrender attitude. That has kept me moving forward, though at a much slower pace than normal. Intentions Instead of goals or resolutions, I use intentions. You can miss a goal. You probably break most resolutions. But an intention is a focus. When life gets in the way of your plan, take care of that event or disturbance intending to return to your primary plan. Every morning begins with a renewed intention. Making I started working on the second draft of the last half of the book at the end of January. As of today, day 188 of the year 2021, I’ve averaged 2.6 house per day for 125 days working on If I Should Die. The number of words produced are slightly less than half the number I produced the first half of last year. The last half of my first draft is always full of plot holes and snags and snarls. In five months, I’ve rearranged chapters and plugged holes, untangled snarls, and […]

Character Reveal: Beryl Clarke

Lynette M Burrows

The character reveal is a feature on my website. Characters from my books (in print or works-in-progress) answer questions from a standard personality assessment test. Today’s character reveal: Beryl Lucille Clarke Mitchell. Beryl is Miranda’s aunt and mentor, and a protagonist of the Fellowship Dystopia series. Who Beryl had just turned fifty-two when she appeared in the first book of the series, My Soul to Keep. Younger sister to the Fellowship’s premier preacher-politician, Counselor Donald Clarke, Beryl learned to hate him when he betrayed her. She and Miranda escape Redemption in My Soul to Keep. Now, fifty-four at the beginning of If I Should Die, she is the First Mate aboard the Lady Angelfish. She’s sworn to protect her niece, Miranda. And she will, even if she never learns to love the water like Miranda. 1. Who is your role model?  As a kid, I read everything I could find about Annie Oakley. I was thirteen years old when my father took my older brother, Donald, and I to a shooting contest in Pinehurst, North Carolina. I saw Annie Oakley shoot 100 clay targets in a row at sixteen yards. Man, I wanted to shoot like her, to be like her. She was one sharp-eyed sixty-two-year-old. But Pop started […]

Character Reveal: Miranda Clarke

Lynette M Burrows

The character reveal is a feature on my website. Characters from my books (in print or works-in-progress) answer questions from a standard personality assessment test. Today’s character reveal: Miranda Clarke, the protagonist of the My Soul to Keep series. Who Miranda Rose Clarke was about to turn twenty-five when she appeared in the first book, My Soul to Keep. Daughter of the Fellowship’s premier preacher-politician, Counselor Donald Clarke and his wife, Kara Louise Lancaster Clarke. She made a break from her parents and the Fellowship in My Soul to Keep. Now, twenty-seven at the beginning of If I Should Die, she is the captain of the Lady Angelfish and the Freedom Waterway.  1. Who is your role model? When I was in grade school I found and read a banned book about Harriet Tubman. Brave, resourceful—she escaped slavery then went back and saved other slaves. And when the Civil War broke out, she was a nurse, spy, and scout. And she rescued more slaves. I can only hope to be as successful and brave as she was. 2. Who knows you the best? My crew—Aunt Beryl and Wanda. You can’t live 24/7 on a smallish yacht and not know each other.  […]