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.

Comes an Interview

I've been promising to do an author interview and book giveaway with thriller author Robert Liparulo for some time, but due to time constraints on both our parts, we haven't done one yet. However, stay tuned! In early October, I plan to post the interview, a review of some of his novels, and a chance to win a paperback copy of COMES A HORSEMAN.

October is the perfect time for this. COMES A HORSEMAN is downright terrifying, and establishes Liparulo as one of the premier bestselling thriller authors of this generation.

So stay tuned! Author interview coming soon! In the meantime, if you just can't wait, follow the widget to buy copies of his exciting novels!

Dealing with Distractions

Are you one of those people who can set a goal, lay out the plans, and then forge ahead, keeping on until you finish? Or are your projects something you start with joy and then, due to one thing or another, keep putting aside and never completing? If the latter is true, distractions may be getting the better of you.

I think the fact that my last post was in early June shows where I am: definitely in the distractible camp. To determine where you stand, I’ve made up the following little test.

You May Be Distractible If:

• You’re in the middle of preparing a fancy dinner. The phone rings, you run to answer it, and forget all about dinner until you smell something burning…
  
• You’re on hold with Customer Service when your child runs in carrying a skunk. You shriek, drop the phone, and try to get both child and skunk outdoors without alarming the skunk (unless it’s already too late for that). The first time you remember you were finally about to speak with a live human being on the phone is when you finally make it back to find the phone on the floor making strange noises indicating you should hang up.
  
• You’re in the middle of writing a really great story, when suddenly another story idea pops into your head. You abandon the story you’re writing and start working on the second idea. When (or if) you get back to the first story, you no longer remember where you were going with it, and you’ve lost all your momentum. To quote the old song, “the thrill is gone.”
  

If you’re a writer, you can probably identify with the last, at least. What can you do about the allure of a new idea? Just give in? Keep on without paying it any mind and risk losing it to that vast wasteland of escaped ideas?

• If the idea is quick and ephemeral, write it down before it escapes and then get back to work on your work in progress.
  
• If the idea comes almost completely fleshed out with characters, plotlines, and a sense of urgency, mark your place in the work in progress and make a general outline of where it was headed. Then stop and work on the new idea. (By making notes for the current work, you’ll be able to come back to it later without forgetting where you intended to go next.)
  

There have been times I’ve had to abandon one story for another and neglected to make notes of where I intended to go next. Some I’ve been able to complete, but some are still languishing in the “I’ll finish it later” pile.

Most important suggestion: pray about it. Ask the Lord whether the new idea is a gift from Him, or a distraction to keep you from finishing what He has you writing now. Let His Spirit speak to yours. Then you’ll know what to do!

Little Things

I just discovered something about myself this week: I'm really dependent on the Internet and e-mail. Being able to connect with friends and family is very important to me! I found out because my Internet Service Provider went bankrupt.

Now, if I'd been getting my e-mail through the ISP, I'd have known this in time to prevent an interruption of service. However, since we have another e-mail service we preferred to that one, we never checked it. At all.

My point here is that sometimes we need to check on the things we don't think are important. Sometimes little things can affect us in profound ways. I'm not saying that our life was miserable for the four days we were without access to the 'net and our e-mail. I actually got quite a bit of work done that might otherwise have been neglected. However, like the tithes of cumin and mint, we ought to have done that and not left the other undone...

Is there some little thing in your life that you've been neglecting? Something small you may not think is important? If so, pray about it. Maybe it's something that means the world to someone else.

Yourtown Directory

Whether or not you're planning to write a series, having a phone directory for your characters and the places they shop can be handy for you. Think-about your town's phone book. It will not only have the name and phone number, but also the address, the town (if it covers more than one metropolitan area), and sometimes the zip code. While I don't advocate using something that could be an actual phone number (in case anyone ever gets hold of your directory), the ever-popular prefix 555 can be a substitute that won't get you in hot water with real people.

You may want to divide your character phone directory into categories, just like the real thing: White Pages for home listings, Yellow Pages for businesses, Government Pages for things like City Hall, the Fire Department, Police or Sheriff's Department, etc. You can get as creative as you wish, but you don't have to get elaborate. This is just a guide for you, the writer. I do suggest putting letters in (A, B, C, etc.) for the surnames, and, just like a real phone book, put Surname first, followed by First & Middle names or initials.

I've started one for my small town where I hope to set a series of books. I have all of the above. My "Yellow Pages" aren't yellow, but I did divide the business listings from the personal listings. I scoured my manuscript, and every time I ran across a new name, I listed it in my directory. (That's one neat thing: you don't have to worry about having unlisted characters!) That way, they're there for future reference. I also added surnames for just about every letter in the alphabet, so I have plenty of room to be creative in adding future characters.

While you're in the process of creating your town or city is a great time to start a directory. However, if you already have several books in your series, it isn't too late. It may be a little more time-consuming, adding in the characters and their addresses and phone numbers, but it will help you in the long run.

Happy world-building!