It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.....

Mood: Wonderful mood.

Music: Actually I am listening to the DVD of LOTR Fellowship of the Rings while I am blogging.

Rants: I am feeling EXTREMELY overwhelmed. We leave for the weekend in a few days. Then when we get back Monday, I have four days to get us washed and repacked for our vacation. Need someone to watch all five of my cats. My mil is kindly going to feed my birds. :0)
We got a lot of stuff done last Friday. We got rid of those appliances sitting in the driveway taking up the space that we needed for our pop up camper. My poor tired hubby got out there to help the boys and I load all five up. Two dryers, two washers and one stove. (You know when one thing breaks they all go.) Soooo, in one of the washers, my oldest son told my husband there was a wasp nest, and sure enough there was. My husband eradicated it and we got that one to the truck to load up. The bottom of it was sharp and so my hubby looked for something to help him and oldest son lift is while youngest stood in the truck waiting to help heft it back. Hubby looked on the back porch is in stages of repair and saw a piece of material, he grabbed it. My oldest son yelled that there were wasps in there too, but it was too late, my husband had already shook the material loose from the box. What looked like bees flew out and my husband dropped the cloth and then suddenly he trotted down for the garage. I asked him if he'd been stung and he said yeah. We counted five stings later. They weren't wasps, they were yellow jackets and they even followed him in the house. They didn't sting the rest of us, just my husband. (He was the only one glad of that, you know how men are.) That was Friday and the sites are still red and irritated but much better than they looked Sunday night. Thank you Lord.
We took the aluminum to one junk yard and then had to take the appliances to another, where I had to stop and confess to the man at the gate that I had never done this before so he'd have to give me explicit directions. And the amount of money we got, it didn't even seem worth it. But my driveway is clearer....that is until the trailer gets here, lol.
Anyway, we still need to get the broken fridge in for repairs and get it back, and get the trailer here, maybe get a tree cut if we get the job, for money for the conference...and so many other little things. But we will manage to get them done. We always come through. :0)

Conference Prep: Going nuts washing and sorting and packing. What to wear, what to wear. :0) Will I be able to loose a few more pounds? That sort of thing. But it is coming together. What we will need. The car we are taking has been looked over and is in prime condition. I've been taking stock of what I have written and am working on pitches for them.

Trying to find home for the kitties too. Anyone want a cute kitty? :D

Writing progress: I finished redoing chapter one of two of my wips and I am extremely happy with one of them. the other is good, but rough as it is a first draft. I am going over my wip that is finished and tightening it up and making sure it makes sense and all. I want it to be as good as it can be. (Hmmm. Got a Navy or Army tune running through my mind now, anyone else?)

Announcement: Go to my website and sign up for the free books. Just sign the guestbook for now. Next month I have a better way to keep track of who wants to be in the book drawing that has nothing to do with the guestbook. There is one more day left. I will be drawing four names out of the hat at midnight tomorrow night!

My God and I: Mostly I have been thinking about prayer lately. How it avails much. You ask and He answers. Now the answer is not always the one you want, but He never fails to give you attention. No prayers get hung in the cobwebs of life, unless it is on our end. Sometimes to hear what God is saying, we have to hush our Gimme, Gimme, gimme attitudes. Quiet down so we can hear Him speak. I think sometimes we are so afraid of His answer that we insert our own so loudly that we really can't hear Him. Imagine the child plugging her ears and saying "Lalalalala, I can't hear you, lalalala." But I think it is better that we do listen the first time around because it makes it so much easier for us. It goes beyond faith and extends into trust. And that is where we have to give it up and totally free fall. God will catch us. He loves us so and wants to do what is best. But no matter what happens here in this life, the irritants and such, there is a bigger picture and a better life. We just have to perservere.

And the conference seems to be a big deal for me this year. Not only me, but my family. I do not know what, but I feel like things are about to change. And this is a good change.

I don't have any articles. I was going to study plotting and share with you. But someone else started blogging about plotting and she knows MUCH more than I do. You can check her out and her blog at www.forensicsandfaith.blogspot.com Brandilyn Collins.

I just wanted to give you guys an idea what all is going on so if I seem scarce you know why. :0)

I'm going to go enjoy a cup of coffee and piece of rhubarb pie that my mil made me for my birthday. (I'm not real fond of cake, but I love rhubarb pie.) It's not my birthday yet, but I won't be here to celebrate, I will be in Tennessee.

Have a good night y'all.
Blessings.

Fall Cleaning...

My friend reorganized her blog and I want to do the same. I want to gather a sense of order and be more disciplined to blog. Good lessons and practice for me.

I will try to follow a set procedure, and put it by the computer rather than try to remember it each and every time.

My mood: A little dissatisfied, but coming out of it.

Music: Launchcast Praise and Worship

Rants: Well, today it just so happens that I do have one and whether it is my mood or not remains to be seen, but rather I think it has much to do with my mood. I am very unhappy about the way things are going at work. I fractured my foot a while back and the doctor would have given me off, had I indicated that I needed it, but I'm a tough cookie and I said No. But I did notify my boss that I had two fractured bones in my foot. She said Try not to walk on it too much. Uh, my job is mostly walking and although she said that, nothing was done to make it easier on me, nor did anything change. The phone is still a mile away, and so is the computer. Now, one of the men I work with, the man who trained me (wonderful man, btw) went to the grocery store for me for the shop so that I wouldn't overtax my foot. Well despite all that my foot is healing. And I had a complaint (again about the phone being so far away from where my 'station' is). I stand behind a counter all day and I can't even SEE the phone from where I stand. I have asked twice for the phone to be moved. I have used the phone once for a personal call and it was an extremely important issue and I had forgotten my cell phone. So the phone deal is all about business matters. In my weekly report I pointed out three things that needed to be addressed. My boss answered me, the email awaited me on Monday. It said Not all weeks can be good. Too bad. Can you believe that? That told me you are dung under my feet and do not matter in the least. I've been stewing over that all week. If you feel inclined to pray for me, please feel free, I would be most appreciative.

Now on to the good stuff! :0)

Conference Preparations: I have a pitch for one wip. I have a list made and several outfits dancing around in my head for the publicity shots I am having done. I have made and printed out the choices of the Late Night Chats that I still haven't decided on, a list of the CDs for classes I will miss or want to listen to again, and my schedule so that I will be where I am supposed to be WHEN I am supposed to be.

My hubby's grandmother has graciously allowed the use of her car to drive there (and we are visiting family too as most of hubby's family lives there in Tennessee). We have the gas money saved and are working on the money for food and some entertainment. Almost have the musical instrument situation figured out as my men are musicians and my husband is playing lead guitar in the band for the conference. Should be fun!

Writing Progress: Shy of a prologue my second draft of Remnants is done. I am working on getting more chapters in it as I have basically written the suspense and now need to write in the human drama. I have the Christian journeys in there pretty well too. I have a pitch too. And believe it or not I am getting an outline (don't say that too loud or my SOTP self may panic) for my next book, The Least of These. It won't take me long to get it back in the puter and whip it into shape, I don't think. I am learning so much as I go.

My God and I: I don't have much to say on this as God has been leading me down a path or trust and faith. I have alot of faith, but sometimes I am so afraid God will give me what I need rather than what I want. Crazy isn't it? I find that theme running in my books as well. Most of my devotionals have been about trusting, knowing God is there, that He won't leave me, that I need to let Him use me. I am learning to surrender as a friend of mine recently did. I try to be brave and let God mold me into what He needs me to be. I am so blessed. I may not have material things as others do, and I may have to work twice as hard as some people to get the simple things in life, but I sure do have wonderful people in my life. I am especially blessed with my children and my husband. They aren't perfect, but they are perfect for me.

Article: Can you believe I am actually going to put my writing tips here on the blog where I have more room. Please remember these are my opinions and take on stuff I have studied.

Organization is very important to writers. I am NOT organized, borned or otherwise, but my mind has a strange system of keeping track of lots of info. It is not infallable and I do need help.

First things first, you should clean off the heap on your desk. If your desk sparkles or you know where to find all your important things, obviously I am not talking to you. :0) If you have to search through mountains of papers to find that napkin with that interesting name you saw on a waiter's name tag...then I am talking to you. If your heap is more of a landfill...set a timer for fifteen minutes (doesn't sound too scary does it?) and work on filing and flinging stuff. (I learned that lovely and stress free tip from Flylady.)

You do need to keep things for taxes and other things. You don't have to save everything. There are plenty of articles written on tax preparation, I do mine on my on the computer so I will not attempt to give tax advice, lol. Decide how long you want to keep things (seven years is usally recommended) and how often you want to archive. I don't have a business yet so I don't have to do that yet. :0)

Now as far as keeping the info for your wips organized, I am afraid that is a personal thing. I can tell you that I keep 2 notebooks and a basket for each book. One notebook is an at home notebook, it roams around the house but usually doesn't leave unless I go on vacation. The other on is a to go notebook. It goes every where I go just in case inspiration strikes, cause you never know. The basket is for scraps of info that I will later consolidate into my word processing system and red-marked drafts of my wip. They will later go into a folder. I am in the process of putting together a book bulliten board which will contain pics of people who look like my characters the cool plane that one of my characters owns, a time line and other odds and ends that have to do with the particular story that I am working on at the moment.

However, this may not work for you. It may not work for me during the next book. You just keep trying until you find what does work. God is usually very gracious in helping me in this manner.

We all save scraps. It's just a thing that writers seem to do. It's what we do with them that determines if they get used for an idea or sustain a molecular bond with the envelope you stuck it in and spilled pop on. I suggest gathering them in a folder and once a week or a day, you decide, work on filing them or putting them where they need to be. Fifteen minutes at a time will get it done.

Just remember that there is no ONE right way to do it. It will take trial and error and lots of pretty colored items (just joking, I am a color coding freak).
Don't get so caught up in the organizing that you forget to WRITE.

Assignment, should you choose to accept: Organize your writing space.

Reviews: The only thing I have to review right now is the movie Pacifier with Van Deisel (sp?). I love this movie. In many ways it reminded me of my own wip, except mine is not a comedy but a suspense with some humor to lighten the intensity.
I thought it was well plotted although some of it at the beginning was kindof bogus and mainly for eye candy. I let my kids watch it and my younger neice and nephew. I feel that it is family friendly, but as with most movies, you should check it out before you let your children watch them. I want this movie. :0)

Feel free to drop any thoughts or comments.

Don't forget to go to my website and sign the guest book for a chance to win one of four free books. Have a friend sign up and refer you and you get another chance. :0) First drawing will be held August 31, 2005. You will see the link to my website to the right.

Have a great and blessed day. Love to you all.

The Road goes ever on and on.....

The results from the Noble Theme second round came in and I didn't make the cut. It is devestating to me. Shooting me would have been kinder, because now I have to trudge along with a failure like this hanging over my head. If I hadn't entered I wouldn't have been hurt. Ah, but those that do not try, never accomplish anything do they? I really am tired of hearing people say I'm sorry. I am sure most of them are. And I have been told that the judging is subjective and I know it is. Being blunt, I also know it is easy to say these soothing things when you aren't suffering the crushing blow it can cause to be cut....and I haven't even recieved the scoresheets yet.

There has been a silent tug of war going on with God and I. My faith in myself is shaken. I am now sure that every word I ever typed is drivel and every new paragraph that comes from my fingers (not that many have been forthcoming since Friday afternoon) is suspect. I no longer feel my writing is decent, I am sure that it is riddled with holes and unbelievable plots, and any other problem you can name. And to tell you the truth I want to quit. (This is where the tug of war comes in.) Because God won't let me.

While my faith in my self has suffered, my faith in God has not. I still have faith in Him. To be honest if I hadn't already paid, and hadn't already volunteered for things, and volunteered my husband too, lol, I wouldn't go to conference this year. No way, no how. But I am going because I have made commitments. God placed a desire in my heart to serve at Nashville, although I don't understand, so I will be there with my bright shiny face and hopefully equally shiny attitude.

It is this faith in Him that has pulled me through the last few days of heartache. I know that He has my best in mind and He has something good and wonderful planned just for me, something different than the ones that finaled in the second round. I don't know what it is and I don't even know if it is fancy or what, but it is a gift from my Father and I will cherish it.

There are those that will make an impression on the world, usually at great sacrifice to themselves. There are those of us who make quieter less drastic impressions on people at random and those are just as important to God. His own son was born in a manger and was raised as a carpenter's son. Not too fancy or impressive, eh? Yet look what you owe Him now.

In our service today our preacher (he always gives me something I need to hear, although I am not sure he knows that) talked of missionaries going to Russia when the Iron Curtain first came down. Some Christians had a few pages of gospel, since having a Bible was banned, and they cherished and read and re-read those few pages, so happy to have some of the Word of God. The elders that had memorized Scripture when they were younger were passing it down by word of mouth to the next generation (like the Iserealites did). When preachers taught, they were given gifts from people who didn't have much because they were so thankful to hear God's word taught. It got me thinking how spoiled we are. Our very freedom to worship as we please, is the reason we often take that worship for granted. We have whole Bibles and yet often we do not take the time to read them. And when is the last time you sat and spent a long time with your Lord, just praising and worshiping Him?

Some people have to worship underground. Some suffer beatings and repeated mistreatment and they hang in there, worshiping God and praising Him. Praising Him, when they are treated so badly. What do they have that we don't? These people praise God when I am whining about a contest. Because they, even as new Christians, understand something that I did not. It is NOT about me, and it is NOT about this life. The only thing that matters in this life is for me to share what my Savior has done for me so that others may also partake in the gift. I am to provide a shining example of the Lord's grace, mercy and His glory in my life.

I have to work to take nothing that I have been given for granted. So while my gift may not have been the one I asked for....it is a good gift and if it is better than what I wanted, fantastic, if not that is also okay. God doesn't NEED me to write for Him. It is an honor and privilege to be called to do for Him, to serve him. Since He has called me, I am to be the pencil and let God tell the story. I also think it is my job to garner a positive attitude because a dour attitude will beget more of the same. A joyful attitude will also garner more of the same.

I read a quote the other day that our lives are a series of transitions strung together with prayer. I think that is so true. This is a transition and prayer is the only thing holding me together. I guess it is the human part of me that wants to know that one other person thinks I am special in some way, but I should not desire that. I need to cultivate the gumption to withstand, with faith, any trial that gets tossed my way, so that the Lord's glory may shine through. It is often in our pits of despair that His glory shines more clearly to us and to others.

When my father used to discipline me (in my father, I had a wonderful earthly example of a loving father, btw), I would get mad at him and think he was the meanest man on the face of the earth. And how I would pout (um, drama queen here). But in a bit he would ask me come and give him a hug and I was always pleased to do so because he was my world and I needed him more than I was mad at him. It actually seems a little unfair, but he didn't discipline me out of a desire to be mean, but because he loved me and he wanted me to grow.

Our preacher said today that often people didn't like what God was saying, they stopped listening. I am going to be still and listen for the quiet soothing and loving voice of my Lord concerning my calling.

If you feel led to, you can pray for me also. I would appreciate it.

Blessings.