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

More on Perspective

Yesterday put all my whining (even the whining I didn’t voice!) of late in perspective. No, I haven’t had much writing time. And I sacrificed more if it Wednesday and Thursday to go with my son to the regional track meet almost 4 hours from home. He’s qualified for regionals all four years, every year in a different event, though track is by far his least favorite sport. In fact, he only participated this year out of loyalty to his coaches.

This year he qualified in all three of his events: triple jump, 4 x 200 relay, and 4 x 400 relay. He knew his jumping distance would probably render him in last place at this meet. He ended up 7^th out of 8. The 8^th place finisher scratched on all his jumps! The coaches replaced him in the 4 x 200 relay in hopes of getting that team to state, which happened. And my son, who always puts the good of the team ahead of his own personal glory, was so excited for them. Finally, the last race of the meet: the 4 x 400 relay. My senior son and three sophomores, he being the slowest leg.

He ran a personal best. His team finished 3^rd, qualifying to run again at the state meet.

And I cried.

I cried because it is the most amazing and unexpected way to end his four years of football, basketball and track. And I cried because I got to witness it.

If it takes me a week longer to get my revisions done because I went, then so be it. I’ll still make my official deadline, it’ll just be my pride that gets scuffed in missing my personal one. But I realized yesterday that there are very few things I wouldn’t gladly sacrifice to get to experience these last few events with my son. Next year, he’ll spend more time at college than at home, and I guarantee I won’t look back on these two days in April and wish I’d spent more time on my book.

Righting My Skewed Perspective

Sometimes my perspective gets skewed. It happened this week as I’ve tried to work writing around baseball games that get rained out and moved to fields two hours from town, track meets that require overnight stays, day-long shopping trips that prove unproductive, and a husband clomping around in a boot to hopefully stave off further damage to an Achilles tendon.

I’ve wanted to pull my hair out, to run screaming into the night or even just throw myself on the floor and pitch a fit. After all, writing is what the Lord has called me to do. It is my worship. Instead, I sat down with my journal, ready to delve into the Word of God, knowing my desperation for Him in that moment.

I tend to read through Scripture from beginning to end but on no set schedule, just day to day from where I ended the day before to where I feel satisfied on this day. Sometimes that is a few verses, sometimes a few chapters. So feeling completely overwhelmed, I opened to my place marker. Genesis 22 greeted me at the top of the page—along with a handwritten caption for the chapter: The Lord Will Provide.

I read on with a different perspective than before, seeing Abraham’s long waited for child as my own long waited for book contract. Abraham loved Isaac—the first use of that word in the Bible—yet God sends them out to worship, also the first use of that word, with Isaac as the sacrifice. Maybe Abraham’s perspective got skewed in his joy over the child. Maybe instead of worshipping God because of Isaac, maybe he’d come to regard Isaac as of greater consequence to his heart than God. Whatever the case, Abraham obeyed (also the first use!) and God rewarded him for his obedience.

Abraham set out with all the tools required for him to offer a burnt offering to the Lord: the wood, the fire and the knife—even the sacrifice. Yet he tells Isaac on their journey, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering.” And suddenly it occurred to me that God still proves Himself by providing the “meat” of our worship. That part isn't up to me. In the words of a Matt Redman worship song “We have nothing to give that didn’t first come from Your hand. We have nothing to offer You that You did not provide.”

So today I’m choosing to trust God to provide the “meat” for my worship of Him through my writing. I’ll gather my tools, go on the journey, trust Him to provide when and what He desires. And I’ll believe that whatever ends up on the alter of my heart will be His doing and bring the most glory to His name. I want to love and worship God, not the thing He’s given me to offer up as worship.

Have you noticed your perspective skewed in any area of your life lately? How did God reveal it to you? How did you right it?

To Win Her Heart by Karen Witemeyer

I love it when a novel entertains and engages me as a reader while at the same time impressing me as a writer. Add in a story and characters that ring true and spiritual truth that makes me you think and it equals a book that is very hard to put down!

To Win Her Heart by Karen Witemeyer is just such a book.

Eden Spencer is a librarian who hates violence. As does blacksmith Levi Grant. They have two more things in common as well: their love of God and their love of books. It seems a match made in heaven. But Eden has no idea of Levi’s past. She only knows the changed man he has become. When she learns of his former life, Eden must confront her own hypocrisy.

Karen has an amazing way of weaving deep themes of grace and acceptance, forgiveness and repentance through a lighthearted romance, of making you think while keeping you entertained. As a writer, I greatly admire that skill. It is not easy to accomplish! Her characters seem to live and breathe, their strengths and weaknesses those with which we can all relate. Her cast of secondary characters is just as memorable. And of course I always love the late 19th century Texas setting.

If you are a historical romance fan—or even just a historical novel fan—I encourage you to read this one. It’s characters and its truths will stay with you for years to come.


*I received this book free from the publisher.

He's Alive!

The Hope of Change

It’s amazing how many times we read God’s Word in the same chunks, grouping certain chapters or verses together in the same way. So I love getting out of my box, reading until some new juxtaposition of things strikes my heart. It happened again the other day in Genesis.

First I read of Sarai and how God protected her from the Pharoah of Egypt when Abram claimed her to be his sister instead of his wife. (Genesis 12) And in that moment, Sarai seemed to be a woman I attained to be—a woman who trusted God even when her husband made a wrong choice.

But fast forward 4 short chapters to Genesis 16. Now we see what I imagine to be a frustrated Sarai—probably feeling like a failure because she isn’t pregnant and Abram keeps saying, “But God told me I’d have an heir.” In exasperation, she gives him her maid, Hagar. When Hagar becomes pregnant and her husband says, “Do whatever you think best,” she doesn’t take his words to heart but instead mistreats her servant who had no choice in this matter in the first place! Not a woman I need help emulating here. In fact, she seems more like the shrew I don’t want to be.

Then comes the amazing part. Though we aren’t told of the intervening thirteen years, we assume Sarai made her peace with the having Hagar and Ishmael around. Though she’d started by blaming Abram for the situation, maybe she came to the conclusion that she’d been wrong in the first place. Maybe as the years passed she made her peace not only with her husband, her maid and Ishmael, maybe she made her peace with God, learned to trust Him no matter if His word appeared impossible to accomplish. But whatever happened in those years, we know this: the woman who had been a shrew suddenly becomes a woman blessed by God. He changes her name to Sarah, explaining that she will be the mother of nations and kings. (Genesis 17:15-16)

Does that encourage you in the same way it does me? An imperfect woman, frustrated by the things she can’t control, goes from impatient wife and harsh mistress to a woman God chooses to bless, a woman God holds up much later as an example of a godly wife. (I Peter 3:6) I find great hope in that today.

What Biblical story has given you hope lately?

Springtime of the Spirit by Maureen Lang

I’ve learned that with all good things come not so good things, too. For me, publication curbs what has been the love of my life: reading. It isn’t that I don’t run for a book in every spare moment like I used to, it’s just that those spare moments are harder to find.

That’s the reason it took me way longer than I wanted to finish Maureen Lang’s newest book Springtime of the Spirit. It’s the third book in The Great War series and it took me to a place I’d never been before: post WWI Germany. I learned all kind of fascinating things as I followed Christophe and Annaliese’s journeys to find themselves and each other. I’ll admit I tend to ignore most of the politics of the past. They have just never interested me as much as the social history—the lives of everyday people. But as usual, Maureen sucked me in with great characters and their own personal conflicts. In spite of myself, I learned some political history. (Of course it doesn’t hurt that I truly love this time period!)

This book can definitely be read as a stand alone, but I love that all three of the books in this series tackle a different time period of those war years in Europe. It really helped me put things in perspective as a whole, especially since most of my own study of the decade of 1910-1920 has focused on America, which had a very different experience from Europe. So if you are looking for a good story in a unique time and place, I encourage you to find all the books in this series: Look to the East, Whisper on the Wind, and Springtime of the Spirit. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

A Sunday Psalm

I rejoice in following Your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
I meditate on Your precepts and consider Your ways.
I delight in Your decrees; I will neglect Your word.
     --Psalm 119:14-16

My Testimony in Three Songs

In spite of the fact that I am a writer, I often wish for someone else to put words to my feelings, my experiences. And that’s where music comes in. All my life I have looked to songs to help me articulate my feelings and my experiences.

I remember several years ago when I first heard two songs that encapsulated where the Lord had taken me in my journey with Him. I wept for two reasons: that someone had captured my experience so completely and that someone else had obviously journeyed a similar road. Not long ago I ran across another song that touched me in the same way. However this song spoke to where I had been before the Lord and I got down to real business.

So today I wanted to share with you those three songs that seem to so completely convey my testimony. Maybe they won’t seem so amazing to you—or maybe you’ll identify in part or in whole. Either way, I hope you enjoy each one.

Do you have a song or songs that seems to have captured your feelings at a specific time in your life?

Hollywood Nobody by Lisa Samson

Free Kindle books work as a marketing tool. Why do I know this? Well, several weeks ago I downloaded for free Lisa Samson’s YA title Hollywood Nobody. Now, I love Lisa Samson’s books. And I love YA books. So I figured this would be a great read. And it was. I absolutely loved this book. But here’s the catch: it was the first of a four book series!

When I finished Hollywood Nobody while accompanying my husband on a business trip, I immediately downloaded Finding Hollywood Nobody. By the time we got home, I’d finished it, too. Life intervened, but when I was about to hop a plane for another trip, I thought about what I’d want to read. Yes, my Kindle is full of books (mostly free downloads!), but I wanted to know what happened to Scotty and Charley on their crazy life on the road. So I downloaded book three: Romancing Hollywood Nobody. I finished it in the airport between flights. By now there was no turning back. Good-bye Hollywood Nobody zipped through the air and onto my Kindle.

So there you go. One free book led to my purchase of three more. If you like YA, if you like Lisa Samson—if you like a well-told story full of quirky characters, laugh-out-loud humor and punch-you-in-the-gut spiritual truth, pick up the Hollywood Nobody series. I really think you’ll like it.

Have you ever bought an author’s book after being introduced to that author or that series through a free book (a download or a gift)? Tell us!

A Sunday Psalm

The works of His hands are faithful and just;
all His precepts are trustworthy.
They are steadfast for ever and ever,
done in faithfulness and uprightness.
He provided redemption for His people;
He ordained His covenant forever--
holy and awesome is His name.
    --Psalm 111:7-9

Happy Birthday, Mr. Man!

I knew this baby was special the minute he arrived in the world, with his round face and—gasp!—blond hair. Add the blue eyes and dimples and he was irresistible. He grew into a stocky, serious toddler, then a tall, lanky teenager with a very dry wit. He’s the one who takes care of us all—and the one we all adore.

Today he turns 18. Happy birthday, Mr. Man!

My Cool Twitter Story

Social media. Love or hate it, I think it is here to stay. And in spite of some issues with it, there are some really cool things about it, too. I jumped into Facebook pretty quickly. Fun to reconnect with people I hadn’t seen in years. I especially enjoyed catching up with high school friends before our 25^th reunion. It made the time so much more fun because we could disperse with all those initial questions.

For some reason I was more hesitant with Twitter. But I finally dove in. Not long after, as I began to connect with people, a pastor at a church we attended as young marrieds followed me. I followed him back. At some point he retweeted something of mine. All of a sudden my twitter account showed a new follower. I didn’t recognize the name. Then a direct message popped up, signed with a first and last name, a name I hadn’t seen in years. And I cried.

Long ago, as young mothers, I’d confided in my friend Becky my dream to write historical fiction. She had declared her willingness to help with any research I needed to do. More babies arrived. She moved away. I completely lost touch with my friend as the years passed.

It felt so good to be reconnected with her. We emailed. We even called. But that wasn’t enough. I wanted time to catch up, to hear her journey through the years, to share mine. She mentioned that her offer of research still stood. And in my mind, a plan hatched. A research trip I needed to take would put me close to her house. And it would help to have another set of eyes and ears and hands for note taking. And at meals and at night, we could catch up without any time limits.

So today she is with me on our way to Indianapolis. I’m so grateful for the gift of friendship—for the friends that have been there in the past, the ones I have now, and the ones God has prepared for me in the future. But there is something very sweet in the gift of a friendship rediscovered after so many years. I’m so glad God prepares good gifts for His children!

Have you ever “rediscovered” a friendship from the past? How did you happen to reconnect?

A Sunday Psalm

Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to Your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.
Why do the nations say, "Where is their God?"
Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him.
     --Psalm 115:1-3

Grappling with Control

I know what if feels like to hold myself back from a relationship. I often did it when I knew a friend would be moving away or changing schools or we’d be leaving when summer camp week ended. I’d distance myself, keep the other person at arms length in hopes that I wouldn’t feel the separation so intensely.

For the past decade or so I’ve recognized this tendency and made a conscious effort, by the grace of God, to remain engaged in spite of impending change. But just like so many times when I conquer the foe of self, it rises back up again in a little different form, subtle enough to confuse me into ignoring the root issue.

Last week I realized I’d been shutting off my heart to new characters. I’ve been afraid of them, somehow. Afraid they’ll hurt me by not having a story compelling enough to attract my editor’s attention. Now I know some of you are rolling your eyes and muttering, “But those aren’t real people! Give me a break!” But you see, those characters—and their stories—are the way God has wired me to connect both with Him and with other people. So when I hold myself distant from my characters, I essentially hold myself distant from the Lord. I cut myself off from the creative flow He has designed me to carry. When I don’t let these characters into my heart, I can’t learn from them. Nor can others.

In the eleven months leading up to my first contract, I prayed to hold this journey of publication loosely, to not grasp after it but just to follow as the Lord leads. But refusing to embrace the pain of possible rejection of a character I’ve come to love is just as bad and trying to make something happen in my own power. Both are an assertion of my control versus God’s control. Which brings it all back around to those real people I distanced myself from. I wanted to control the amount of pain I felt at losing their friendship or even just their presence in my life. And once again, that phantom self has to die.

Have you dealt with an issue in your life that came back around in a different form and surprised you?