NaNoWriMo Is Here Again

What's NaNoWriMo? If you're a writer, you probably already know. If you don't know, it's that insane time of year when writers around the world sit down at whatever they use to write, be it desktop, laptop, tablet, all-in-one, typewriter, or good old pen or pencil and paper, and whack out 50,000 words between 12:00 AM November first and Midnight November 30th. Or at least make the attempt.

It's that time of year when you sit down to write and tell your Inner Editor to take a hike! That's right: no editing allowed! Don't stop for misspelled words, awkward sentences, poor construction, better ideas, name changes for characters, or anything else that may tempt you to slow down or stop.

Here's a little ditty set to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It" to sing along and stop your Inner Editor from slowing you down.

If you edit as you go, you stop the flow.

If you edit as you go, you stop the flow.

Tell your brain to keep on going

And the words will keep on flowing.

If you edit as you go, you stop the flow.

I know. It's silly. But if it helps, then my work here is done. 

Which is good, because I still have 49,898 words to go.

Happy NaNoWriMo, everybody!

Setting Writing Goals

Every November, a month of literary madness ensues, in which would-be and actual novelists attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That this is doable has been more than proven by thousands of writers, me included. Some people can write 50,000 words in a week or less. Those who write the required number of words win the coveted NaNoWriMo "Winner" badge to post on their websites, blogs, Facebook, etc. It's a goal with an incentive: bragging rights.

Still, that's just once a year. What about the rest of the months? What do you do when there's no NaNoWriMo to spur you onward? And what if you didn't actually write The End on your November opus?

NaNoWriMo gives you a goal. You aim for 50,000 words in a month. Having that goal is what makes it doable for some people.

What we as writers need to do is set writing goals for ourselves when it isn't November (or if we aren't WriMos). With NaNo, the goal is set for us. If we aren't used to setting goals for ourselves, deciding what to set can be a challenge. Here are a few guidelines to help you in setting your goals.

Javascript Modern Clock by filtre
Courtesy of Open Clip Art Library
openclipart.org

• Your goal should not overwhelm you.
• Don't set something so impossibly high that you'd have to be a superhero to accomplish it. Very few people can write 50,000 words in a day, for example. I know of one prolific author who actually can write 30,000 words a day, and in two or three days, he has another finished novel. He's amazing. Not everyone can do that. If you can, great! Set that goal and stick to it. If not, don't beat yourself up. You are unique!
• Your goal should be challenging enough to keep you interested.
• If you set a ridiculously low goal, you may either write that number of words in a day and then quit (bad when the story is coming together well), or you may think that you can skip several days. Neither is good for you. Set your goal high enough that you can accomplish it, but not so low that you get bored.
• Find a group of like-minded writers and share goals with them.
• Writing groups are a good place to start, either online or in person. Be sure it's not the kind of group that's going to pick you apart. You need to be encouraged, not discouraged. And be sure you encourage the others in the group to reach their goals!
• Decide whether you can write every single day, or if you should write on a five- or six-day schedule.
• Be realistic. Only you know how many hours of writing time you can squeeze into a week. 
• Be sure to make allowances for emergencies. Having a small notebook with paper and a pen can help when you're called away from your computer suddenly. (I've written in hospital waiting rooms this way.) You can always transcribe what you've written into your document later.
• Set a realistic time goal.
• I finally set my mind to write one hour every day. While circumstances sometimes interfere, having this goal makes me sit down and open the work in progress. I've gotten more done since I set the One Hour Goal than at any other time except for NaNoWriMo. Some days I've only managed a few words (generally because I'm rereading to get the feel of where I left off), but other days I've written a couple of thousand words. That's a great feeling!
• If your time is so limited that you can't do one consecutive hour, set a timer for fifteen minutes, or whatever you can squeeze into your schedule.
• Consistency is the key to accomplishing your goals.
• Once you've set them, stick to them. Don't let everyday problems distract you. (Yes, if the kids are trying to tell you something important, make sure they aren't injured, but then get right back to work.) 
• If you're consistent, you'll be writing "The End" before you know it! Then you can start the next work while you put the first one aside to cool. (This is important so that when you reread it, you can do so dispassionately, the way an editor would. Otherwise, you'll either think it's perfect and dare anyone to change a single word, or else you'll think it's horrible and want to delete the file! Don't do it!!!!)
• Remember, back up all your documents. You can e-mail it to yourself at the end of every writing session. That way, you'll be able to retrieve it in case of disaster.

Goals are not the enemy. Used properly, they can be one of your very best friends!

What are your writing goals? Please feel free to share them with me! We'll cheer each other on!

Book Review: DOCTOR TO THE RESCUE by Cheryl Wyatt

New this month in her Eagle Point Emergency series is Cheryl Wyatt's Doctor to the Rescue. Like all her books, this one features engaging characters and an intriguing plot.

Dr. Ian Shupe has returned home from a combat mission to become the head anesthesiologist at Eagle Point Emergency. His new mission: create a safe and loving home for the young daughter who believes he cares nothing for her. Raising Tia as a single dad would be hard enough if she knew and loved him already, but the mother who abandoned her for a boyfriend has kept all Ian's communications from her.

Bri Landis has problems of her own. She has a long repair list and a short time with which to repay a mortgage on Eagle Point's main tourist attraction: a Lodge and cabins set on many pristine lakeside acres. Without the help she is loathe to accept, the loan shark company will repossess the property and turn it into lakeside condos.

Worse yet, Bri and Ian have a tempestuous history. She considers him cold and heartless, while he thinks of her as the pesky sister of his friend Caleb, who is currently deployed overseas.

Cheryl weaves what might be an ordinary tale of love and romance into so much more. She delves deep into Ian and Bri's personalities and shows us why they feel and react the way they do.  Not only that, she gives us insight into Tia's reactions, and makes us love a small girl who hunts for fairies in the garden.

blogopreneurs

Just saw a report on the "Momtrepreneurs," Mommy bloggers who are sharing their insights on products and mom "how to's" and making a living at it. I wonder whether there's a place in the blogosphere for "writerpreneurs..."

Fun With Google Maps

Researching ancient Assyria for a historical novel I'm writing. I had no idea that ancient Nineveh was in the vicinity of the modern city of Mosul, Iraq. Thank you, Google Maps!

More Commonly Confused Words

On my website, I have a page dedicated to Commonly Confused Words. Finding them in novels I read helps me realize just how often writers don't understand what words mean. They may hear a word and, having no idea how it  is spelled, not realize that the wrong spelling totally changes the meaning of the sentence. Whatever they intend to communicate is lost.

A good example is the accolade, shouted as an encouragement, especially in Parliament in days long ago: "Hear, hear!" Written out properly, you can see it means, "Listen, listen!" (Meaning: This person has said something worthwhile with which I agree.) For the past few years, however, I've increasingly seen it written: "Here, here!" as in, "Present, present!" (Pronounced PREZ-ent, not pree-ZENT.) That, as you can see, has quite a different meaning, and renders the encouragement, at least in written form, meaningless. (Implication: The person has said something, and I'm in the same location.)

In a novel I'm currently reading (title and author omitted to protect the innocent, namely me!), I came across a word confusion I hadn't previously encountered. The protagonist discovered flecks of paint in a suspicious place. The author (who writes a very entertaining story, by the way) consistently refers to the flecks of paint as specs. "Specs" is a fairly recent word, being an abbreviation of specifications. The singular is spec, from specification. For writers, on spec is short for on speculation, which means you're writing something hoping an editor will buy it for a magazine. (The opposite of on spec is on assignment.)

What the author meant was that there were specks of paint, tiny little flecks of color that weren't where they were supposed to be. Instead, I thought of the qualities of the paint, not the size.

When we as writers use the wrong word, either through our mistake or (Heaven forbid!) our editor's, we run the risk of losing readers. While this author has not lost me, because the story is in a contemporary setting and it's otherwise so well written, had it been set before the 1960s, I'd have put it aside in a heartbeat. Spec in that case would not only have been a confused word but an anachronism. (See my last post.) Loyal readers are worth their weight in gold, now more than at any other time in history. So many other options are available to potential readers--film, TV, internet, etc.--that we want to do all we can to encourage them to read our stories. Taking the time to find the right word may not seem like much, but words are the tools of our craft. Using them correctly is the mark of a master craftsman.

What are your favorite (or least favorite) confused words?

Tackling Anachronisms

As a reader, I love entering the past. Letting go of the modern world, losing myself in whatever time frame the book is set--what a delight! I can completely forget the complexities and annoyances of the twenty-first century, unless----
-------SCREECH! CRASH!---------
I'm suddenly catapulted out of the past by an anachronism.

What's an anachronism, you ask? From the Greek ana not and chron time, an anachronism is a reference to some word, object, character or the like that doesn't belong in the story's time-frame. It can be something simple, like referring to the hero's cell phone, when the hero is living in 1977, or having a totally fashion-conscious heroine of an 1880 romance wearing a bustle.

Eliminating anachronisms from writing can be tricky. Half the time they sneak in without our even realizing it. Sometimes our proofreaders don't catch them. The editors can miss them. In fact, we may never know we've used one until the first letters from readers arrive. And readers can be really irate!

Some I've run across lately include using the honorific Ms. in historical novels before the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Ms. first came into more common usage. Finding a heroine referred to as Ms. Smith in a book set in the early 1900s throws me right out of the book. That's not to say I won't go back and read it, anyway, especially if I like the characters and the plot, but it makes it harder for me to let go and enjoy it the way I would if the heroine were Miss Smith before her marriage and Mrs. Jones afterward. (Or whatever the surnames are. You get the point.)

Honorifics should be easy. Something a little trickier is wildlife. I'm currently reading a mystery novel in a series set during the American Civil War (AKA the War Between the States). One of the two main protagonists was in a graveyard when she was startled by a flock of starlings. She wasn't as startled as I was! The first mating pair of European Starlings was brought to the United States by some misguided soul in 1891 or thereabouts, some thirty years after the novel was set. Now if the author had had the protagonist startled by a murder of crows, I wouldn't have put the book aside until I recovered from the experience.

Sometimes anachronisms are the result of our forgetfulness. We simply don't think about whether or not something was available or invented by a certain time, and even doing basic research may not reveal it to us. What can we do about it? Read books that were written in the time period, if available. (Obviously, it's harder to get hold of a novel written in Old Norse or ancient Greek.) Check into wildlife books, flora as well as fauna. (I still smile when I think about the American Robin in the 1960s movie "Mary Poppins." That isn't truly an anachronism, but a related faux pas.) If you can find them, read wildlife books from the time frame in which you are interested. Over time, migration patterns and nesting areas can change. Species that are extinct now may have once been prevalent, like the American Passenger Pigeon.

Technology is another bugbear. Yes, there were clocks in the Middle Ages. No, they did not have minute hands. And forget about second hands! Different parts of the world developed at their own pace. You might find steel swords in one part of the world and iron swords in a neighboring kingdom.

Hey, nobody ever said writing historicals was a walk in the park! It's a challenge, but if you're up to it, you may find it a truly rewarding one.

It isn't always easy to research the past on the internet, but it can be your first stop...on your way to the library!

Continuing the gardening analogy...

Yesterday, I posted about how writing is like gardening. Today, I'm comparing it to yard work.

The road where we live is maintained by the county. That includes sending huge mowing tractors out in late spring to cut down all the weeds. For weeds, read wildflowers, small shrubs, and sapling trees. Unless the people living on the property keep the top part of their property clear of grasses and vines, the county will do it for them, in order to keep down fire danger and enhance road visibility. I understand all that. I really do.

Until last year, I had an understanding with the driver of the tractor responsible for our stretch of frontage. After he basically destroyed everything in his path, I went out and asked him not to do that again, because we want our trees. He left it alone after that, and the trees and wildflowers I'd sown in a moment of madness flourished. Then last year, he must have retired, because I was waked early one morning by the sound of trees being chewed by machinery. New driver. Once I'd mourned over the loss of the mulberry and the rest of the trees, he apologized, and asked repeatedly if I didn't want it to look better. The problem was, his idea of looking better and mine were miles apart!

Having spotted the mowing tractors on the edge of town last weekend, I knew that time had come again. This morning, I went out as early as I could (which was already too late in the day for the heat), and used my little string trimmer to whack a goodly portion of the frontage. Goodbye, pussytoes, Queen Anne's lace, grapevines! Hello bare ground and stubble. I'm still not finished, and I hope to get the rest of it done before they make their way down the road. I'm trying to keep the lilies and small trees.

The way this relates to writing concerns self-editing. That's one thing most of us writers hate to do, since we love our prose the way some people love children or pets. The unhappy truth remains, however, that unless we ruthlessly edit ourselves, the editor at the publishing house who buys our work will do it for us. And, instead of just taking out the grasses & poison ivy, the wildflowers and small trees may get cut as well.

How can we tell the difference between the good writing and the bad? What does a poison ivy paragraph look like? To learn that, you need to read omniverously. Especially read in the field where you want to be published, but don't stop there. Read other genres. Read books on writing by authors you trust. Stay informed about changes in grammar and usage by checking into books like the Chicago Manual of Style. The more you polish your skills, the less work an editor will have to do.

Once you've established a good working relationship with an editor, you may think you can slow down on the self-editing. Sadly, editors don't always stay at the same publishing house. You may be handed to a new editor who doesn't understand your style or get your voice. The more work you do yourself, before the editor sees your manuscript, the less you'll have to do later!

Happy Writing! And try to do your yard work before or after the heat of the day!

Growing Ideas

Sometimes we try something new and it doesn't seem to work. That happened when I tried to join Networked Blogs back a while. Tonight, I discovered that a few more steps were involved than I previously thought. I'm in the process of verifying the blog, and, once that's done, it ought to be posting on Facebook every time I come up with an idea to blog.

Writing can be like that. You come up with a wonderful idea, but you can't seem to make it work. That has happened to me many times. I think many writers struggle with this problem. What we have to realize is that an idea is not enough to make a good story. The idea is just the starting point. Without hard work, the idea fizzles out, leaving the writer frustrated.

I like to compare writing to gardening. Ideas are like the seeds we plant, hoping a wonderful story will grow. Before we begin to create the story, however, we should prepare the ground: set the stage with characters, places, plotlines. Then we plant our little idea and water it, watching it grow. If we've properly laid the groundwork, it starts becoming a good story. Unless we're careful, however, weeds can invade our story ground. The pernicious weed of Too Many Subplots can choke our story. Going Off On A Tangent can twist our plot out of recognition. The Secondary Character can take over the story, causing unhealthy growth. Like a good gardener, we must recognize the weeds when we see them and root them out. If we protect the plant from weeds and from outside attacks, we should be able to grow a good story!

Happy Gardening! er, Writing!

God of the Empty Tomb

Sometimes you start a project with few hopes for its success. That's the way it was for me with our church's production of the Easter musical, "God of the Empty Tomb." We listened to the demo CD as I read the score. It seemed less than reverent to us. The singers on the CD all had good voices, but they lacked something, and that made us wonder how we were going to turn this into a production that would please the Lord.

As the choir practiced the songs, I could tell an immediate difference. The CD performers are professionals. We aren't. Despite the general lack of training for most of our choir, we still sound better than the album. As I sought the reasons, one thing became glaringly clear.

We all BELIEVE what we're singing. We've experienced God's love in our lives, even when going through trials and tragedies, and we KNOW He lives. 

I don't know how many of the performers on that demo CD are Christians. Maybe a few. Maybe many. I know the stress of performing in a studio. It can be overwhelming. That could be one contributing factor. I hope they all know Him. I pray for any who don't, to come to know Him, to believe the words written in that pageant.

All I know is this: when you have a group of people praying for the Lord to use them for His glory, He will.

How does this relate to writing? Here are some thoughts.

• Do you believe what you're writing? If you don't, your readers won't, either. 
• Are your characters flesh-and-blood people, or pawns you're shoving around a chessboard of plot? While some stories are designed to be plot-driven without much characterization, you still need to make your readers care about the outcome of the story. If they don't feel something for the inhabitants of the planet Xifantiroc, it won't mean anything to them when you destroy it.
• Is the ending in doubt? Your readers will wonder whether your hero can win if you've given him setback after setback. Otherwise, they're liable to think something like, "So, he saved the day again. Ho hum." Make them truly believe he may utterly fail. It will make his success all the sweeter.
• Is your finished work greater than the sum of the parts? It takes a lot of people to make a successful production. A story's parts must all work together to give reader satisfaction.

Writing a story and putting on a play are a lot alike in many ways. While writing is generally solitary, and a theatrical production just the opposite, the end results are the same. You put in a lot of work, and, if you do it correctly and have the right support, you bring it to a successful conclusion.

Have a blessed Passover and Resurrection Day!

Photo courtesy of and copyright by Kathleen Davis.

Hidden salt

Good Morning America had a segment on hidden sodium in foods. That got me thinking about hiding things in our writing.

Food manufacturers & restaurants add sodium to the things we eat & drink for a couple of different reasons. One is for flavor, to enhance the taste of something that might otherwise be bland and uninteresting. The other is as a preservative. While too much sodium can lead to heart & kidney problems, too much "salt" in our writing can lead to reader indigestion.

What do I mean by salt in writing? It can be anything, really...

• Historical snippets inserted into a novel set back in time to give it a feeling of authenticity
• Describing things as your viewpoint character sees them (easy to overdo)
• Adding in author worldview
• Making note of details, such as what the characters are wearing, driving, reading, etc.

A little salt in writing goes a long way. The salt should never overpower the plot or characterization. It should always be well blended into the story, like a little salt in your muffins. Finding a glob of salt in a muffin is unpleasant. So, too, is an information dump in a story. Stirred in until it's thoroughly mixed, however, where it can't be removed without damaging the story, and your salt will bring out the flavor without harming your reader!

Happy writing!

Spring Cleaning

The other day, I started a post about spring cleaning. Whether I forgot to click the "save" button, or the window closed prematurely, I don't know. It was unfinished. When I came back and found the blog entry gone, it made me think about other things that disappear.

Time. Whether you are paying it any mind or not, every second that goes by will never come again. You can make good use of time by accomplishing the things you need to do, spending it with family or friends, taking it to get better acquainted with God through reading His love letter, the Bible, using it to regenerate energy by proper rest and nutrition. You can waste it by frittering it away on things that don't matter. Whatever you think about time, our lives consist of only so much of it. What are you doing with yours? I know I'm not doing enough with mine!

Money. Without a plan, money often disappears without a trace or anything to show for it. When you have very little to start with, every cent can matter. Some things are nonnegotiable, such as paying bills, buying food, keeping some sort of roof over your head and enough clothes on your body to be decent. Sometimes it can be difficult to generate enough income to cover your "outgo."

Family & Friends. These, too, can disappear. Whether we offend a friend and lose them, or move to a new place, through neglect, or terminal illness or accident, it's too easy to lose people we value. What can we do to stay in touch with those we love? Is it a waste of time or money? Hardly! Having people we value in our lives, being someone of value to them in return, offers wonderful benefits to all concerned. A good friend can keep you from losing yourself.

So, as I look around at the raft of things I need to do, I'll keep these in mind. Lord willing, I'm spring cleaning with a purpose this year. To discern what is important, and keep that...to dispense with what isn't...

Happy Spring Cleaning, everyone.

How Do You Write When You're Sick?

If  you're me, the answer is probably: "Badly." However, if you have the constraints of a deadline (which I currently do not, though I wish I did!), you have to tough through it somehow. How do I think I'll do when I have to push ahead despite feeling dreadful? Will I

• write anyway even though I'm afraid it's complete drivel and hope there's something I can salvage in editing?
• not write and feel guilty, knowing I'll have to work extra hard as the deadline approaches?
• call my agent or editor and explain and hope they can extend the deadline?
• ask for help?

Currently, when I am too sick to work on my main project, I am sometimes still able to work on plotting for an upcoming project. That's what I did today, when the pounding headache & nausea I'd been struggling to believe wasn't the same virus that's been plaguing my mother finally convinced me that it was.

If you're a writer, with or without deadlines, what do you do? Please share your ideas and suggestions with me! Sorry there's no prize for the best post, but I will post a link to your reply on Facebook, so others can share your insight!

Website Update

After a long hiatus during which I've been writing & editing stories, composing & playing music, and in general trying to survive, I revisited my Hope Chastain website to update the Commonly Confused Words page. It seems almost every time I read a book, I discover yet another word that has been used in place of a similar-sounding (and correct) word. This time it was adverse used in the place of averse, as in "I'm not adverse to that idea." Since adverse means inauspicious, what the author really wanted to say was "I'm not averse to that idea," meaning opposed to or against.

I'm always willing to give writers the benefit of the doubt. After all, it's easy to misuse a word through writing too fast. Fingers flying over the keyboard trying to keep up with the thoughts tumbling from a writer's brain can easily add or subtract letters, changing words and meanings. That's where proofreading comes in.

Proofreading is one of the most difficult of all the arts associated with writing. It's so easy to get caught up in what is said on the page and miss typographical or grammatical errors. My hat is off to all proofreaders everywhere.

Editors can't catch all the mistakes. They get caught up in the story, just as we do. So, writers, it's up to us to catch our own mistakes, so they don't have to!

Happy proofreading, everyone!

A blank page. Waiting to be filled with ideas, plans, thoughts… Perhaps with words, or sketches, or musical notation… Perhaps instead, mathematical equations, chemical formulas, architectural renderings…

Babies are kind of like blank pages. So much wonder in those little eyes…

As we grow older, all kinds of things get written on our page. Sometimes we do the writing. Often, however, other people write things into our lives that we never would have planned. They scribble on our page, add things we don't want, subtract things we do want—in short, people can make a mess of our pages.

At times, we don't even need other people to mess up our page. We do a fine job of it on our own. Letting things annoy us to the point of snapping at those we love… Deliberately going our own way when someone else's way would be better. Choosing to do something that we know is wrong, because we want to. Insisting on having our way at the expense of others.

Do you ever wish you could erase what's on your page? Or, just click "Delete" and eliminate what's on there? You can try to do better, but those mistakes just won't go away. No one else may see them, but you know they're there.

The good thing is, even though you can't make your mistakes and deliberate willful disobedience to the laws of man and God go away, God can. I'm not talking about a "Get out of jail free" card. Some things we do have consequences. People whom we've hurt may never forgive us. Broken laws can lead to fines, jail time, or even capital punishment. While your body may not be free, your spirit can be.

God planned you before the beginning of time. He is willing and able to rescue you from bondage to things from which you'd rather be free. Jesus is the editor who can turn your page into something beautiful.

Are you ready to have your page edited? Just ask Him. He will.

Computers

My mother and I were discussing our annual Christmas album this morning. Every year, when we're able, we like to put together an album of public-domain Christmas music for our family and close friends. It's a gift that takes time and thought, not just money. When we first started out, we used recording tape or cassettes, but since I got a recording program for the house computer, we've been using that.

Oddly enough, Wave (.wav) files take up a lot of disk space. MP3 and MP4 files (like the ones playable on an iPod®) are much more compact. Because of the way they compress the sound, however, most digital recording programs don't use them. After a few years of recording Christmas and other sundry music, our hard drive has filled up to the point where I need to delete some files. No deletion, no room for new music (or books, articles, or photos)!

I started going through the files yesterday to see what I could delete. Looking for an empty place to put files I wanted to keep, I couldn't find an available CD-ROM.

When I told Mom about it this morning, it got me to thinking about computers in general. I said something about being glad that God's hard drive never fills up. She suggested that sounded like a blog to her, so here I am!

Just think about it. God has created billions of people over the years, and He knows everything about each one of them from the beginning of time to the end. He has kept track of you from the moment you came into existence. Knows all about the grades you made in school. Knows about your first love...and your second...and your third... Keeps a loving eye on you at all times, even when you're not walking with Him.

God's computer has it all on record. His hard drive never runs out of space. It always has room for more. His computer never crashes. He'll never lose touch with you, even if you deliberately try to lose touch with Him. And why? Because He loves you.

So the next time you're upset because your hard drive is too full, or your computer just crashed, or you can't access a file, remember: God loves you, and He'll help you through it, if you'll let Him.

Book Review: STEADFAST SOLDIER, by Cheryl Wyatt

When I discovered Cheryl Wyatt was doing a promotional tour for her upcoming June release, STEADFAST SOLDIER, I jumped at the chance to be part of it. Why? Because Cheryl always delivers a great romantic read with characters going through true-to-life situations, enhanced with humor and undergirded with faith. This latest book is a worthy addition to her Wings of Refuge series.

For those of you who may not already be familiar with the series, Wings of Refuge is the story of an elite team of Air Force Pararescue Jumpers. Each of these brave heroes has his own journey to faith and love.

Chance Garrison, a hard case, found faith in an earlier novel. Now he’s found purpose: to help troubled youth at his church in addition to his military job. Having lost his mother not long ago, his heart’s desire is to marry and have children while he’s still young enough to enjoy them. Enter Chloe Callett, a feisty Occupational Therapist assigned to help Chance’s father recover the use of his arm after a massive stroke.

Chloe has emotional scars that don’t show on the surface. Her life’s work, rescuing animals and training them as furry therapists, possesses all her thoughts. She’s not about to let some incredibly hunky Airman derail her from her purpose in life. Or is she?

Set in the town of Refuge, Illinois, STEADFAST SOLDIER will warm your heart. Getting to visit with old friends from the series is another perk. There are some interesting surprises in this book. If you’ve never read any of the PJ novels, this will be a great place to start!

Meaningful Easter...

This Good Friday, our church put on its first-ever Easter Pageant (at least since I've been there). It was a gigantic undertaking for a not-huge church, and there were times we wondered whether we would pull it off. We should have known better. With all the prayer we had going for us, it had to be a success, and it was.

Despite thunderstorms, the auditorium was packed, and the audience overflowed into the fellowship hall to watch by closed-circuit TV. According to one attendee, they were transported back to ancient Israel. I know I was.

When our minister of music asked me, a month into rehearsals, to take on the part of Jesus' mother Mary, I was honored that he thought I could handle it. I'd missed the previous practices due to Mom's & my getting sick after Christmas and taking a while to recover. When I went online looking for a similar version to the solo, I saw some impressive talent. "The Day He Wore My Crown" is a beautiful, poignant song. How many times have we known that Jesus was crucified in our place, but never stopped to consider that crown of thorns should have been placed on our heads? It gave me real cause to think.

It also gave me a lot of trouble. Once I put myself in Mary's sandals, I couldn't sing it. During Holy Week, we think of Jesus' passion and suffering, but don't often think of the pain his mother endured. I know I hadn't thought about that aspect. I thought about his disciples, his friends, about the Lord Himself, but not about His mother and how she must have recalled Simeon's telling her "a sword will pierce thine own soul also."

It took me a long time just to be able to sing along with the soundtrack. I'd get so far, and then the enormity of the words would hit me, and I'd break down. At last, I got to where I could sing it with the choir backing me up.

Then we practiced the music for the first time with our Jesus singing with us. We sang "Behold the Lamb" as he stood there fastened to the cross in jeans and a t-shirt. For the first time, he spoke the words uttered so long ago in another language: "Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit. It is finished." My musical cue came. I walked downstage, opened my mouth, and burst into tears.

Despite no one's being in costume, the reality of what we were doing pierced my soul. Jesus was crucified for me. He did wear my crown. And He would have done it if I'd been the only sinner ever born. What we represented really did happen in ancient Judea. Jesus really died. Really was buried. Really rose again in a body like we can't imagine on that Sunday morning. Really is coming again to reign for a thousand years before the earth is made new.

I asked for, and received, prayer, and I got through the song, not only that first proper rehearsal, but all the subsequent ones, and our Good Friday presentation. That's not to say I didn't cry. If I hadn't cried, if that song, meaning what it did, hadn't brought me to tears, if I hadn't been so touched by it, neither would anyone else.

So, as Holy Week draws to a close, ask yourself whether you've ever personalized what Jesus did for you. If you haven't, can you think of a better time than now? After all, the present is all we have.

Photo by Kathleen C. Davis, (c) 2010

One thing about being a writer...

...or a reader...

It gives you an imagination. Or, maybe you have the imagination to start with, and that's why you end up a reader and writer.

Looking out at the snow and ice on our trees, it looked like a famous fictional place. See if you don't agree....

The Ice Storm of 2010

It all started with freezing rain....that turned to sleet......that turned to snow.......
We had three inches as the sun was going down. Now it's at least seven. We'll try to get more pictures tomorrow, DV.