Declaration of Dependence

One of my major goals as a parent has been to raise children who at some point become independent of me. Not just financially, but in every other respect as well. We expect this of them as they mature. God, on the other hand, doesn’t raise His children to become independent in any way, shape or form—not even those He considers most spiritually “grown up.”

I remember hearing this truth in a Bible study (Maybe a Beth Moore study?) years ago and it shook me to the core. You see, I’d always prized my independence, worn it like a badge of honor. I was always the child who could “do it myself.” I didn’t want help. I didn’t need help. Or so I thought. But that day I suddenly realized that independence was the last thing God desired of me. Instead, He wanted me to live in total dependence on Him. Forever.

Dependence. Not as a weakness, but as the ultimate strength. Dependence. Not by remaining a babe still feeding on the milk of the Word but through continued growth feasting on the meat found in Scripture. A deeper relationship to foster a greater dependence, not a lesser one. As an immature believer that truth sometimes chafed. Now dependence resonates as the sweetest freedom of all. 

She Speaks Conference and P31 Ministries

Hey y’all!

This post is slow in coming because I’ve been at the SheSpeaks conference this weekend. This was my second year to attend, though I use “attend” loosely. I went in my capacity as a freelance editor with The WritingSpa, so I got to sit in on the general sessions but didn’t get to soak up all the other good stuff She Speaks had to offer. However, just knowing the women of Proverbs 31 Ministries who put on this conference each year, I can say with confidence that the sessions are more than worthwhile.

So while I recover from three days of meeting new writers and deepening friendships, I just wanted to encourage those of you who aren’t familiar with P31 Ministries to check them out. I love their “Encouragement for Today” devotional emails that come to my inbox each morning. And I usually read their physical magazine from cover to cover each month. And if you are (or have a desire to be) a writer, a speaker or lead a women’s ministry, I encourage you to pray about registering for next year’s conference. But be warned: they fill up fast and usually have a large waiting list of people that don’t get to attend!

A Sunday Psalm

Praise our God, O peoples,
let the sound of His praise be heard;
He has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping.
For You, O God, tested us; You refined us like silver.
You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs.
You let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but You brought us to a place of abundance.
      ---Psalm 66:8-12

She Makes It Look Easy by Marybeth Whalen

I finished She Makes it Look Easy by Marybeth Whalen a while ago, but I wanted time to process the story before I wrote about. I loved the book. I really did. But not in the “what a fun story” kind of way. More like in the “ouch, that hurt, but it made me think” kind of way.

The story isn’t anything out of the ordinary, really. At least not out of the ordinary in the lives of most women. At its heart, it’s a story of a comparison and contentment—or rather, the search for contentment. Honestly, I could identify with Ariel and Justine. I’ve been both of them, at times ordering my life to mask the discontent that writhed within me, at times desperately searching for acceptance and affirmation, for the serenity that seemed in abundance in every other woman’s life I knew. So as I read, I hurt for their pain, because it had been my own. Yet I also rejoiced, recognizing that God faithfully brought me through to a different place, one that more fully reflects who I am because I am His.

It was a bittersweet read for me, too, because I lived eight years with my friend in my backyard, like they did. Kids running in and out of each other’s houses. But unlike Ariel and Justine, our friendship was genuine, one of those rare relationships where we didn’t allow each other to hide behind facades. Instead, we encouraged each other to seek Jesus, helped each other weather storms of life that came in our circumstances and in our hearts.

She Makes it Look Easy is a book I will not forget for a very long time.

What Wasn't Said

I love this little verse I found the other day. Joshua has just taken over leadership of Israel and the nation has crossed over the Jordan River on dry ground. They have set up a memorial of stones to remind them what God has done for them. Then Joshua says this to the people:

“He [God] did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.” (Joshua 4:24)

Of course I immediately recognized the two reasons God dried up the river for them to pass through: so all in the earth would know God’s hand is powerful and so that Israel would always fear God. But what struck me was what Joshua didn’t say.

He didn’t say God rolled back the waters so the children of Israel wouldn’t have to deal with wet feet. Or damp belongings. It wasn’t so they didn’t get knocked down or swept away by the current. Or so that wouldn’t be tired from wading as opposed to walking. In other words, God didn’t perform this miracle because He wanted them to have it easy. Or to be comfortable. He did it to show His power to those who didn’t know Him. He did it to remind His people that His power is to be respected.

How many times have I looked back on something God has done in my life and thanked Him for making my way easy instead of praising Him for showing His power and reminding me of it? How many times have I rejoiced that my feet weren’t wet instead of glorifying the power of the One who commands the water? Far too many, I fear. But it’s never too late to adjust my focus.

The Secret Garden

I have a tendency, when life feels stressful or out of control, to return to books I know and love. Right now that book is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I remember the first time I heard about this book. I was in the sixth grade. A friend told me about it. Her mother had recommended it to her. I think it was the first “classic” piece of literature I’d ever read, though I didn’t know it at the time. I only knew that Mary and Dickon and Colin and Martha captured my imagination—and probably fueled my love for all things British!

Years have passed since I’ve read through the book, though I can’t count the number of times I lived in its pages growing up. It was the first book I bought for my daughter—the hardcover version with the Tasha Tudor illustrations, as a present on her first Christmas. She was nine months old. She’s twenty now and I don’t think she’s read it yet! Sigh. But it’s still there. Waiting. For her—or for my future granddaughters. Doesn’t matter which. I’ll just enjoy sharing the story and hoping one comes to love it as much as I do.

A Sunday Psalm

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before Him
and prepares the way for His steps.
    --Psalm 85:10-13

The Muir House by Mary DeMuth

Instead of the normal “this is why I liked this book,” I thought you might enjoy a glimpse into the creative process with my friend, Mary DeMuth. I sat down and talked with her about the unique setting she close for her latest novel, The Muir House.

Thanks for spending some time with us, Mary! All your previous novels have been set in fictional towns. Why use a real location this time—and why use the town you live in?

I adore Rockwall. It’s my home. In a few months, it will be the longest place I’ve ever lived. Writing this book was my tribute to it.

What particular challenges did you face in using a real town vs. a fictional one?

Well, I worried that I might make folks mad. I think I wrote something about the police ticketing folks (We have a lot of police here.), so I worry a police officer will read the book and then be angry!

What was your favorite hometown detail that made it into the book?

The restaurants. I adore them! So it blessed me to be able to highlight them.

How did you decide what places to mention and which ones to leave out?

Totally personal preference. I didn’t want the book to read like a Rockwall brochure, so I didn’t include everything. So if you’re from Rockwall and your business has been left out, please don’t be angry with me! :)

Did anything in Rockwall help or hinder your initial ideas for Willa's story?

It’s a pretty contained town with a lake providing a huge boundary. I think folks here in Rockwall feel that boundary in particular, so leaving past the lake seems like a huge excursion. I tried to capture that boundary in the book.

Now that you’ve set Willa in Rockwall, do you ever think you’ll run into her in Target?

Yes, in fact I’m going there right now.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this small glimpse into The Muir House and its creator. Below you can find the book trailer for the story. After that, read it for yourself and see how Willa Muir and Rockwall flow into a seamless story.

Agent Envy

I don’t have an agent. For those of you who aren’t writers, that might not seem strange. But in today’s world, most published authors do. And now that I’ve turned in my second manuscript, the last in my current contract, I’ve found myself battling agent envy. Not that my editor isn’t going to look at new ideas. Or my husband, who reads my contracts, won’t look out for my interests. But it isn’t the same as when I hear of my friends using their agent as a sounding board for ideas or getting advice on mapping out a career plan.

So I whined to the Lord the other day. As I did, the words sounded vaguely familiar in my ears.

“An agent could help me get things I might not get on my own.”

“An agent could protect me if things go wrong.”

The longsuffering Lord whispered patiently to my heart. I’m your agent. I got you the first contract. Can’t you trust me with the rest?

I argued back, knowing His words to be truth, but my flesh wanting something more. “But everyone else has one!”

Suddenly I knew where I’d heard the words before. I Samuel 8:5. The Israelites came to Samuel and said, “now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

Israel dealt with king envy the same way I’ve been dealing with agent envy. All the other nations could see their king. They wanted one, too. God gave them what they wanted, but His response always makes me sad when I read it: “And the Lord told him [Samuel]: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their King.’” How could they do such a thing after all God had done for them?

Ouch. I was rejecting God as my agent when He’d clearly orchestrated things to put Himself in that place. Now don’t get me wrong. Having an agent isn’t bad. But what if you start thinking another person’s agent is better than the one the Lord gave to you? What then? The point is that for me, He chose fill this role in my life by Himself, without the intermediary of an agent. And I rushed headlong into the same trap as Israel—looking around and envying what others have rather than trusting God in the path He set for me.

Unlike Israel, I saw my sin and repented. That doesn’t mean I don’t still battle an occasional bout of agent envy, but now I recognize that thought before it takes root and I run to the One who holds it all in His hands. If someday He chooses to give me an agent, great. If not, I will trust Him to guide my writing path even if I can’t shoot Him an email or pick up the phone and call.

Is there someone in your life right now that you are trying to put into the role that God means to have for Himself?

Shifting Roles

Lest there be any doubt that we have entered a new era with our children, the point was demonstrated in our weekend visit to our daughter who is at summer school in another state. She picked us up from the airport, was there at the right time, in the right place. She knew the way back to her town without her Daddy’s input. When we arrived at her apartment, she’d put fresh sheets on the bed, washed all her towels. In spite of her busy schedule, she’d picked up milk and cereal for breakfast.

The next morning, she got up, ironed her uniform and left for class. (A culinary class where they run a “restaurant.” We’d been earlier in the summer on the day she helped pick the menu and run the kitchen. We were back this time for her day as Maitre D’.)  After our lunch at the bistro, we went back to her apartment (after we’d made a Walmart run and restocked some things we noticed she needed) and amused ourselves until she finished her work. That evening, we all went to dinner (my parents had come as well, though they were staying in a hotel), then our daughter made sure we had all we needed before she left for her midnight to 8am weekend job.

It was strange to be the “guest” of our child, but it was very satisfying to watch her handle her life so efficiently and responsibly. And while I know there will still be many, many times when she comes “home” and we revert back to our old roles of parent and child, this weekend proved a definite shift into the era of dealing with each other as adults.

A Sunday Psalm

The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice.
Clouds and thick darkness surround Him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side.
His lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
    ---Psalm 97:1-4

Rediscovering Moses

Sometimes I tend to gloss over Moses. Do you? I mean compared to other “heroes” of the Old Testament, his story seems pretty tame—at least once he parts the Red Sea. Not just tame, boring actually. Besides lots of commandments and ordinances for the God’s people, he is in constant conflict with the people. But I ran across a verse the other day that made me rethink Moses.

Numbers 12:3 is a parenthetical. It reads: (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)

Humility. Definitely something God prizes, since he also commends Jesus for this very thing. So I started to pay attention as I kept reading through Numbers and Deuteronomy, and here are some things I discovered:

1. When the Israelites grumbled against Moses, he didn’t defend himself. He let God come to his defense.
2. He cared more about the fame of God’s name than his own.
3. He knew who he was in relation to God’s holiness.
4. He didn’t tout his face-to-face relationship with God as something that made him “better than” the others.
5. He didn’t see his position as leader something to be “grasped.” When God poured out His spirit of prophecy on the elders, Joshua got upset. “But Moses said to him [Joshua], ‘Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!’”
6. When God told him that he wouldn’t see the Promised Land, not only didn’t he argue the point, he didn’t “quit.” He did what God asked, namely preparing Joshua to do the very thing Moses longed to do. And he continued with that task and with faithful leading God’s people until the Lord called him home.

At the end of my week of pondering, God saw fit to have Lance Shumake preach at church on the importance of the Old Testament. I nodded along, because I love studying the Old Testament. I find such life-changing truth on every page. But one of Lance’s statements made me pause. He said we tend to see ourselves—or what we should be—in the Old Testament heroes. But we need to remember that God is the main character of the story, not us. And every Old Testament “hero” whispers the name of Jesus.

And then it became crystal clear. Moses’s humility as a foreshadowing of Jesus, who didn’t “grasp” at His position in heaven or His special relationship with the Father. (Phil. 2:5-8) Moses’s intercession for the people of God who grumbled as a picture of Jesus who intercedes for us with the Father. Jesus, who like Moses, explains to us the way God desires for us to live.

Suddenly Moses in the wilderness doesn’t seem as lackluster as before.

ACFW Conference 2011

I rewrote this post five times. Why? Because I had such a hard time deciding what part of the ACFW Conference or my experiences to highlight!

So here’s a run down of some of the reasons I’m excited to head to St. Louis in September:

•   In the past 5 years that I’ve been a member of ACFW, and after having attended the conference 4 of those years, I’ve made so many friends! We have celebrated with each other. Cried with each other. Supported each others’ blogs. Prayed for each other. Going to an ACFW Conference is more than congregating with other writers. It’s a family reunion!

• Volunteer opportunities abound, creating places where an introvert like me can get to know people in a more one-on-one situation and also where I can “give back” to ACFW by helping the various aspects of the conference run smoothly.

•  Times in the prayer room grow me in my relationship with the Lord, whether through time in prayer by myself or with another.

• The Awards banquet is a great time to be the body of Christ by rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep.

• Workshops and Continuing Sessions help me hone my writing skills. There is always something new to learn.

• I glean wisdom from successful writers, and I can encourage newer writers.

• Laughter and chocolate abound!

• Editor and Agent appointments not only provide opportunities to pitch our work, but to meet those professionals as real people.

• I get to put on my “writer” hat full time for 4 or 5 whole days. The biggest perk of that: I don’t have to cook dinner or clean it up!

• When the weekend is over, I have so many new friends! I especially love getting to meet people I’ve come to know through email, blogs, twitter and facebook.

Of course this year’s conference will be especially sweet for me since it coincides with the release of my first novel, Wings of a Dream, which happened as a direct result of my involvement in ACFW. I couldn’t ask for a better way to celebrate than with so many I’ve come to know and love!

Happy Birthday, America!

Celebrate!

A Sunday Psalm

The Lord foils the plans of the nations;
He thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,
the purposes of His heart through all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people He chose for His inheritance.
     --Psalm 33:10-12

Wodehouse's World

My husband is an avid reader of World Magazine. I peruse, on occasion. The exception is the annual “Books” issue. That I read from cover to cover.

Besides all the discussion of the past year’s books, I loved the small spotlight on P.G. Wodehouse. He’s one of my absolute favorite authors. Who doesn’t laugh out loud at Bertie Wooster’s antics and Jeeves’s ingenious rescues? Maybe it is part of the reason I fell very easily into the Pre-WWI era in my writing.

Kenan Minkoff, who penned the short article, ends with this: “Many of the people who had the manners that Wodehouse wrote about died in the war, and in the people who did survive, the manners didn’t. But it is a pleasure to slip into a simple age that has gone by or probably never existed. You can have your Middle Earth and speak Elvish. I want to live at Brinkley Court and speak British.”

I wholeheartedly agree!

Google Books to Kindle

A month or so ago, my friend and fellow writer Laurie AliceEakes posting on Colonial Quills about how to use Google books for research. I’d dabbled in Google books, but her article helped me figure out how to find what was really useful to me.

But I still wasn’t happy. I could read those old research books on my phone or my computer, but I needed to be more flexible and spend less time reading from a backlit screen. If only I could get those books on my kindle, I thought. They would be easy to read and portable, as well as have a highlighting and note-taking feature.

But was there a way to do that? I searched “google books to kindle.” The blog post I clicked on mentioned Calibre.

Way back in February, Rachel in my historical writers email group touted this free program for organizing your ebook library. Cool, I thought. I downloaded it but didn’t really have time to figure out how it worked or why I would need it with my kindle. I kind of forgot about it. Now I pulled it back up, spent some time figuring out how to navigate things and poof! Those ancient research books appeared on my kindle!

Want to know how? Here are the steps.

Download Calibre.

From the Calibre home screen, click on Get Books. Select Stores. Select Google Books.

If you have already found books on Google books and have them in saved in your library, click “my library” to access them. If not, search for the books you need.

Click on the book title. On the right side of the screen, click Read Now.

From the choices, select “Download to my computer.” There will be two options: EPUB and PDF. Some books won’t have the EPUB option, but that’s okay. Calibre’s beauty is it imports, converts, and exports in many different formats! (I did find that a few books didn’t download correctly as EPUB, but for those I just went back and downloaded them as PDFs.)

Once they appear on Calibre, you can edit the meta data for each title. Most of it will download correctly, but one piece of info I wanted that didn’t download automatically was publication date, so I always went in and corrected that.

Now click Convert. I left all the settings as they were, just changing the export format to MOBI.

Attach your kindle to your computer via USB. The Calibre should recognize it. Then click Send to Device and then Main Memory. The PDF files can go to your kindle as they are. (I worried about this because I had tried to read a PDF on my kindle before and hated it because the text lines didn’t fit the screen. But I haven’t had that same trouble with these old titles.) A check mark will appear beside the titles that have gone to your kindle.

I’m so excited to have these old books in a readable and portable format. I don’t have to worry about faded words in front of my eyes or crumbling pages in my hands. And I get to delve into the past in the words of those who lived there. I can’t imagine anything better as I search for new stories to tell.

Twenty-Four Years

We started out young, married while still in college (me) and graduate school (him). By the time he accepted his first post-graduation job, we were expecting our first child. We bought a house and had two more children while mired in student loans and battling our own personal shortcomings. We’ve weathered ups and downs—financially, spiritually, emotionally. We’ve laughed and cried and loved and fought. But most importantly, we’ve grown.

And we’ve lasted.

Today we celebrate 24 years of marriage.

Thank you, Jeff. I love you more than words can say.

A Sunday Psalm

Keep me safe, O God,
for in You I take refuge.
I said to the Lord, "You are my Lord;
apart from You I have no good thing."
    --Psalm 16:1-2

Celebrating "Lasts"

I’ve been celebrating “lasts” ever since my third child was born. The last bottle. The last diaper. The last first day of kindergarten. The last baby tooth.

Lately it has been bigger things. The last day of middle school. The last braces to be removed. The last child to become a licensed driver.

So when our dentist informed me that child number three needed his wisdom teeth out, I threw my arms in the air with a big “Woo-hoo!”

He looked at me kind of funny. “I always celebrate the ‘lasts’,” I told him. He asked if I really celebrated or if I forced myself to celebrate so that I wouldn’t mourn my children growing up. No, I assured him, I truly celebrate.

He thought I was kind of odd. I get that a lot. Especially from mothers who weep with every last thing the last child does. But I can’t make myself go there. These children came to me with a purpose: for me to care for and raise them so that they could go out into the world and be independent and productive adults, hopefully sold out to the kingdom of God and following hard after Him.

Will I miss them? Ten years ago I wouldn’t have imagined it, but yes, I’ll miss them. In fact, I have a feeling that last graduation will be the first really hard “last.” But would I want them back? No. I want them to move forward, to find their place in the world. And because I know the Lord isn’t finished using me when my day-to-day duties as Mom end, I look forward to whatever hovers on the horizon of our empty nest. But there are two more years to go until then.

For today, we celebrate no more wisdom teeth with milkshakes and movies. And we check yet another “last” off our list.  

Learning Not to Hurry

Like most of our society today, I tend to hurry things. I don’t want to wait. I want to push ahead to the next thing. I have a hard time with stillness and rest. I want to work, to accomplish, to move forward.

This is not always a good thing for a writer.

Why? Because very often my first thoughts on a storyline, a scene, a setting, are the most prosaic. They are familiar. They are easy. They’re usually the ones that have been done before, even if not in the exact manner.

My editor has been teaching me to think beyond my first thoughts. To get to the unusual ideas. The ones that surprise. The ones that read fresh. The problem is that getting to those places takes time.

It’s not easy for me to sit back and ponder without guilt, to measure the quiet of those moments as work. Necessary work.  But I’m learning patience. And stillness. The importance of noodling an idea before throwing it down on the page. Who knows? One of these days that unhurriedness might even spill over into other areas of my life. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, either!

What about you? Do you tend to hurry, hurry, hurry or are you deliberately patient about your work?

A Season of Sacrifice

Long ago, when my kids were little, I thought I learned about sacrificial love. I mean I gave up so much during those years—time, money, energy, dreams. Somehow I imagined that would be the pinnacle of the giving up of myself.

But now I see it was only the beginning.

We registered our second child for college this weekend. In fact, it was the second weekend in a row we’d driven to another state to do college stuff with our kids. Two weekends of time and money and energy spent. With much more to spend waiting on the horizon. And just like when my husband started his own business, I see we are about to make a lifestyle change. A season of sacrifice. And it’s much bigger than anything I imagined when my kids were small.

The thing is, all those years ago I struggled with resentment. I felt I didn’t understand before I jumped in what would be expected. I felt imposed upon, less of a sacrifice, more of a punishment. This time it’s different. This time, while sacrifice is uncomfortable, as it always will be, I see meaning in it. I see growth coming for myself, my husband, my kids. And I’m even finding joy. For sacrifice changes us all—the one giving and the one receiving.

I’ve learned enough to realize even this won’t be the last moment of sacrifice in my life. Or even the probably the most painful. It’s simply another facet of the journey up the mountain of faith.

What sacrificial act has meant the most in your life? Was it something sacrificed by you or for you?

A Sunday Psalm

The Lord reigns forever;
He has established His throne for judgment.
He will judge the world in righteousness;
He will govern the peoples with justice.
The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
Those who know Your name will trust in You,
for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You.
     --Psalm 9:7-10

Oops!

This week caught up with me and here I am with nothing to post! But my Sunday psalm will appear and I'll be back with something (probably a book review!) on Monday!

Hope your summer days are lazier than mine!

At Just the Right Moment

I love how the Lord’s fingerprints show up on seemingly insignificant things in my life. Like choosing what book to read. It may seem like a small thing, but it isn’t beyond the realm of His attention!

Here’s kind of how it goes: I know about a book, have generally even heard that it’s a good, or even a great, book. But for some reason, I’m not compelled to pick it up. I have not even a spark of desire. Then later—weeks, months, years later—I think, Wow, I need to read that book. When that happens, I generally whiz through it, marveling all the while at the truth that I wouldn’t have been ready to receive at an earlier date!

My most recent example of this is with a book on the craft of writing. I always try to read one between working on novels. I have a shelf full of titles I read over and over again. But this time I picked up (or rather downloaded!) a book I’d often heard good things about but never read—James Scott Bell’s Plot and Structure. It’s exactly perfect for the stage I find myself in at the moment. In fact, as I am noodling on new storylines and characters, it addresses that very thing I am struggling with!

Of course it isn’t just writing books that expose this phenomenon for me. It occurs with non-fiction books and novels, too. And each time I realize that the title I’d put off reading, or even in some cases shunned, was simply waiting for me to be ready to receive the truth or instruction it had to offer.

Has this ever happened to you? Can you share the title? Maybe it will be the exact one someone else needs to read right now!

The National World War II Museum

We went to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans last weekend. We’d been years ago, when it was new and was called the D-Day Museum. But let me tell you—this is one fabulous place! It’s very interactive and gives a great “big picture” view of WWII. Honestly, by the time we hit the part of the museum about the Pacific Theatre, we were about beat! I’d have liked to do that whole part on a second day.

The movie, Beyond All Boundaries, was an incredibly moving experience. I had to fight to hold back tears as with pictures and video and audio clips we relived the war, from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day. I learned things I didn’t know and was able to understand some parts of the war I hadn’t seen clearly in just learning through lectures and readings in history class.

But I think my favorite part was the personal stories scattered throughout, memories of veterans pertaining to that specific exhibit. It brought it all home, made it real. We sat and listened to (sometimes there were clips to watch) every single one of those personal accounts. They were amusing and sobering. They were enlightening. They made me wish I had asked questions and listened to stories from the older generations.

Even though I don’t write stories set in the WWII era, it is a time that still fascinates me, both the war and the home front. If you ever get a chance to visit this museum—do! You won’t be sorry.

A Sunday Psalm

How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise Him!
The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers
the exiles of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
His understanding has no limit.
     --Psalm 147:1-5

Broken Wings by Carla Stewart

I’ve been on a roll of reading good books lately. And it makes it even more fun that people I know—and often people I consider my friends—have written them!

Here’s the latest one I couldn’t put down:

Broken Wings is Carla Stewart’s second novel and is it wonderful! Of course, I love stories that involve the friendship between generations, and Mitzi and Brooke’s friendship, which begins in the emergency room, does not disappoint. I also loved the “historical” part of the story (Mitzi’s history) woven in on occasion. It was a story that tugged at my heartstrings. I couldn’t keep the tears from falling—mostly because by the end of the book, Mitzi and Brooke and the others truly lived in my imagination. I felt if I ran into them just around the corner, we’d embrace like old friends.

It’s a good one! You should get it!

Summer Thoughts

I always think I’ll catch up on things during the summer, yet I always feel like I’m already running behind. I think it is the abundance of daylight hours that deceives me. Somehow I imagine there to be more hours in the day—hours for work, for errands, for relaxing, for being with my friends and family. But in spite of the presence of the sun, the days are still only 24 hours long. And somehow seem even shorter, given the amount I get accomplished each day!

Ah, summer. The love-hate relationship begins again.

Over the Edge by Brandilyn Collins

I’m not really a suspense reader. In fact, I pretty much avoid it. However, several years ago I read a couple of Brandilyn Collins’s books because I liked her as a person. I even recommended her books to others I knew enjoyed a suspenseful novel. But I haven’t picked one up myself in several years.

This spring, Brandilyn went on a booksigning tour for her new book, Over the Edge, a medical suspense of sorts that deals with the issues surrounding Lyme disease. One stop on her tour brought her close to my home. Since my sister enjoys Brandilyn’s books—and I enjoy Brandilyn—I thought it would be fun for us to go. We did. We loved our visit with her. And, of course, I bought a book—more out of solidarity as an author and knowing that my sister and possibly my husband would enjoy reading it.

Then something happened. It was sitting by my bed on Thursday night. I picked it up to read just the first page, to remind myself what a good writer Brandilyn is, and I got hooked. Totally hooked! Friday and Saturday didn’t allow for much reading time, but by Sunday evening, I’d finished the entire thing. I simply couldn’t put it down! Brandilyn weaves a great story that keeps you guessing all the way to the end. If you are looking for an engaging and fast-paced read that is suspenseful (but not too scary!), Over the Edge is definitely a book you need to find!

A Sunday Psalm

I will sing of the Lord's great love forever;
with my mouth I will make Your faithfulness known
through all generations.
I will declare that Your love stands firm forever,
that You established Your faithfulness in heaven itself.
    --Psalm 89:1-2

Free E-books!

Right now I’m agonizing over the Amazon gift card my kids gave me for Mother’s Day. So many books I want to read. But my funds are limited. How to decide?

That’s one reason I love free books, whether traditional or electronic. In that vein, I thought I’d share with you four free titles I downloaded this week. (They are available on both Kindle and Nook.)

This Fine LIfe by Eva Marie Everson

The Voyage of Promise by Kay Marshall Strom

Journey to the Well by Diana Wallis Taylor

The Swan House by Elizabeth Musser

I’m looking forward to reading each one even while I continue to agonize over what titles to purchase!

The Lady of Bolton Hill by Elizabeth Camden

Last October I was able to take a quick couple of days and visit my publisher, Bethany House, in Minneapolis. Two other authors visited at the same time, and one was a newbie like me. Well, her first novel has just released—and is it a doozy!

Elizabeth Camden’s The Lady of Bolton Hill is a fascinating blend of romance, adventure and history. Late nineteenth century Baltimore. A heroine of high standing making her mark on the world. A hero who has risen from poverty to riches. And a villain that . . . well, I don’t want to tell you too much!

This book literally held me captive from beginning to end. And even at the end, I desperately wanted to know more, especially the fate of one of the characters I never intended to like. In fact, I found myself desperate for a sequel—and I haven’t felt that way about a book in very a long time!

All I can say is “Wow!”

Disclosure: this book was provided free from the publisher.

Thankful for the Detail

I actually think I’ve blogged about this before, but if I have, forgive me.

Last week I read what can often be considered some of the “tedious” chapters of the Old Testament—the details of the tabernacle’s construction. Now I know there is so much to learn from these dense chapters when studying each detail in depth, but last week I found great comfort in this portion of Scripture simply because of the minutiae of detail.

Think about it. God cared about the exact dimensions, the exact construction, the exact materials that went into building His tabernacle. It wasn’t a whim. Or a gaudy showplace. Or something slapped together, ready to collapse at the first blast of wind. He accounted for every contingency, including the weather and the moving of it from one place to another. And so He gave Moses the plan in excruciating detail.

Fast-forward a few thousand years. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 6:19 that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Do you think God cares any less about the details of His living temples than He did of His moveable one in the desert? Or of the one He again detailed when Solomon was ready to build a more permanent structure? No. God is unchanging. If the details of His dwelling place were important to Him then, they are important to Him now.

So that’s where I rest, receiving great comfort from the reading of dimensions and construction materials. He knows the intricate design He has planned for my life. And He won’t let one detail of it fall by the wayside. After all, I am His temple.

A Sunday Psalm

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
they will sing before the Lord, for He comes
He comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His truth.
     --Psalm 96:11-13

The 11 Secrets of Getting Published

Hey, writers! Ever wish you knew what steps to take to move toward publication? Mary DeMuth has compiled a book to help! Based on her many posts at the wildly popular So You Wanna Be Published blog (that we sadly had to quit posting to several months ago due to other projects), The 11 Secrets of Getting Published is available as an e-book!

Kindle

Nook

Shadowed in Silk by Christine LIndsay

I know of the British rule in India mostly from literature—and then often only in snatches. The Secret Garden. A Little Princess. Rudyard Kipling stories. Vague references from the lives of British authors, whether their biographies or their stories from the 19^th and 20^th centuries. So when I realized that Christine Lindsay’s debut novel, Shadowed in Silk, covered some of this history, I knew I’d have to read it.

And I’m so glad I did. Christine made post WWI India come alive, with all its sights and sounds, its political unrest, its clash of cultures and religions. I was captivated by Abby’s story, how it intertwined with the British military presence as well as with the Christians working with “the least of these” in Indian society. If you have a penchant for anything British or anything exotic—or even better, both!—I think you will find something to enjoy in this adventure/romance. I know I did!

Shadowed in Silk is available now as an ebook (Kindle, Nook, etc.) and will be available in print this fall. 

Disclaimer: I received this book at no charge from the publisher.

Two Down, One to Go!

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating our son's graduation from high school. Two more years and we'll do this again for the last time! While I'm busy catching up from the busy weekend, here are a few pictures for you to enjoy! (And yes, for the SECOND time, we have ZERO pictures of my husband and I with our graduate! Argh!)

A Sunday Psalm

O Lord, I call to You; come quickly to me.
Hear my voice when I call to You.
May my prayer be set before You like incense;
may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.
Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;
keep watch over the door of my lips.
Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil,
to take part in wicked deeds with men who are evildoers;
let me not eat of their delicacies.
      --Psalm 140:1-4

Prepping for the Party

I hate throwing parties. I know this about myself. But there are a few times when I know it must be done. (And rarely was it ever for my child’s birthday!) My second child is graduating from high school on Saturday, so this is one of those times.

Not that I get elaborate or anything. In fact, our goal with graduation is just to celebrate with family and a few close friends that are meaningful to our graduate. But this year, that list was more numerous than I imagined—and everyone said yes! So now I am trying to pull things together to make it happen. I’m sure everything will be fine, but because this does not come naturally to me, I get stressed out!

Have you participated in anything lately that is out of your comfort zone but you did it anyway because of your love for another person?

The Dark Places of My Heart

I’ve mentioned what a stressful few weeks it has been for me. Yes, all the things that have been happening are good things. But stress is stress, and for me at least, it often exposes the dark parts of my heart. That’s what has been slowing happening this time. I’m grateful to see those places, because I don’t want them there. But of course they are painful and that pain adds to the overall stress, even in repentance. It’s emotionally draining at a time I am already emotionally drained. The one comfort? These days I am more willing to see those places before they turn completely toxic and spew out over everyone else. I’d much rather confront my sin before everyone else sees it, too!

Anyone else find it emotionally draining to confront the sin in your own heart?

God is so Good

The past eight weeks or so have been crazy around here. Lots of out of town trips for baseball and track. End of school awards and other programs. Throw in a few bridal and baby showers, along with a whole family get together at Easter. All this while having the editorial letter for revision on my second book. Needless to say, all that stirred into one pot didn’t help my stress level! By the first week of May I was in meltdown mode.

But God is so good. Last week my schedule cleared and I made great progress. So even though we’re back to the chaos with graduation week upon us, I’m much more at peace. The writing of book two—the first time to write something from research to completion with a deadline looming—has been a journey of faith from the beginning. I don’t why I expected any less toward the end!

A Sunday Psalm

Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in You?
Show us Your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us Your salvation.
I will listen to what God the Lord will say;
He promises peace to His people, His saints--but let them not return to their folly.
Surely His salvation is near those who fear Him, that his glory may dwell in our land.
    --Psalm 85:6-9

Lifeway Fiction Day

If you are looking for something to do this lovely Saturday, why not check out Lifeway's Fiction Day? Lots of deals on wonderful novels, but also many stores with author appearances. Click here to see if there is a booksigning happening near you!

This is a great way to support Christian bookstores and Christian authors--and maybe find your new favorite book or author in the process!

The Synonym Finder

If you are a word-lover like I am, sometimes you get frustrated in finding one that conveys your exact meaning. I find this especially true in my writing. So many words spill out of my fingers that at some point I’m throwing down the first word that comes to mind, but it often isn’t the right word.

Long ago, in my early writing days, I thought it was cheating to use a thesaurus. I convinced myself that “real” writers discovered the right word in their own heads. Of course, that was before my brain went on overload with three children and all their details—and before I hit that age where remembering didn’t come as easily!

Enter The Synonym Finder. I love this book! It’s a thesaurus on steroids and one of the best investments I made when I finally let go of the pride of being able to say I didn’t consult a thesaurus. Now I can almost always find the right word—or at least the more right word than the one that popped into my mind first! As you can see, my copy is well-loved. 

This is just one of my favorite writing tools. What are some of yours?

Untold History

The other day, I found myself wondering what happened to Esau in those years Jacob was living with Laban. I mean, we see him threatening to kill Jacob for stealing his blessing, then the next time we encounter him in scripture he welcomes Jacob home with no apparent malice.

What changed him? Did he have an encounter with God, like Jacob? One that brought him to a place of acceptance for the path of his life? Perhaps his parents begged him not to rip their family apart by murdering his brother and he loved them enough to forgive his Jacob. Perhaps he simply matured, realized he couldn’t change his situation and decided to accept it, make the best of it. Or maybe he was simply a man whose temper flared hot then cooled quickly, without leaving the smoldering ember of a grudge.

I have no idea what the answer is, but I love considering these types of questions.

What Biblical figure’s untold history captures your imagination?

Happy Mother's Day!

Her children shall rise up and call her blessed.

Proverbs 31:28

Summary of my week

Writing. Dishes. Writing. Laundry. Writing. Senior chapel. Crying. Writing. Meeting. Writing. Cooking. Writing. Reading. –with a dash of twitter, facebook and google reader thrown in.

So what have you been up to lately?

Hopeless Perfectionist or Healthy Work Ethic?

Good. Better. Best.

So many areas of my life I choose good or better, when what I want to choose is best. But sometimes I can’t recognize “best” until I look back. So then was it “best” if I didn’t know it?

I run into this as a writer. I think my writing improves with each book. At least I hope so.  After finishing (writing, rewriting, rewriting and rewriting!) each one, I’ve sat back in satisfaction and declared I’ve done my best. Then I go back and re-read—a week, a month, a year, a lifetime later—and I peg it as good. Or maybe better. Certainly not best.

That’s why revisions are so difficult for me. I go into the manuscript to change one thing and instead change ten—completely rework a scene or move it to a different chapter. By the time I finish, it is very different from where it began. Which is a good thing. I think. But does that mean all of that work took it from better to best? Would it have been the same result with less stress and headache if I’d just gone in and fixed the identified problems?

I wrestle with these questions as I am on week three of revisions and feel like I’ve made about as much progress as a turtle climbing uphill through molasses. And yet I feel good about the changes I’ve made.

Am I just a hopeless perfectionist or is this a healthy work ethic, a striving to do my best as until the Lord (for I can truly say this work is my offering to Him)?

Any thoughts out there in cyberspace? I’d love to hear them!

Oh My, Oh May!

I knew this was coming—and as much as I tried to avoid it, I couldn’t.

Yes, graduation and manuscript revisions are both on top of me in the month of May.

If my blogging gets sporadic, you’ll understand why!

A Sunday Psalm

Remember me, O Lord, when You show favor to Your people,
come to my aid when You save them,
that I may enjoy the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
that I may share in the joy of Your nation
and join Your inheritance in giving praise.
     ---Psalm 106:4-5