Keep Calm And Write On

Ah, its that time of year again. The time when we all beat ourselves up for the things we didn't accomplish in the past year and impose incredibly impossible resolutions on ourselves for the coming year. Almost exactly a year ago, I decided enough was enough. I didn't make any resolutions last year at all, except for the idea that I wanted to improve  in 2014. I wanted to look back at the year's end and think, I may not have checked off all the boxes, but look how I've grown as a person! And so I did. This year was a seemingly quiet one, full of working, schedules, first-time-tax-filing, and budgets. Lots and lots of budgets. a couple months ago, I stood on the edge of a metaphorical cliff and jumped. I stopped living the shadow of my own fears and maybes  and made a decision. I knocked on a door and asked God to open it only  if he wanted it open. Guess what? He did. (more on that another time.) In the area of Bible reading, I once again didn't make it...

Dear Generation X, In a fashion not unlike the generation Y tale, I overheard a few of you talking one time. You were, as your children's generation was, complaining. About your children. Charming. Once again, I forget the particulars, because I have this thing where I block out negativity. But the gist was this. You had basically given your child a charmed life. Your little darling was born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and has never wanted for anything. You are the parent who buys the newest gadgets at ten, and the new cars at sixteen, and encourages dating at twelve because "isn't that just so cute." Your kid has grown up without rules. they've lived life on daddy's credit cards, never wanting for those ugg boots or fuzzy vests for very long. You dress your darling however she wants. She has expensive tastes, but oh well. It's only money, right? You're the parent who laughs when your kid smacktalks you. Children will be children, y...

As a 7th grader, my all time favorite worship song was "undignified," based on the passage in the bible that features a joyful king David dancing in worship in the streets...in his underwear. Not the done thing for a royal to do. And his wife, Michal, was not pleased.  "But as the Ark of the LORD'S Covenant entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David skipping about and laughing with joy, she was filled with contempt for him" 1 Chronicles 15:29 A life led fully after God is not always a pretty thing. It's a beautiful thing, but oh so messy. And when other people look out from their worlds and see us worshiping our God in a no-holds-barred kind of way, they will sometimes be filled with contempt for us. Anyone who does not have the joy of God inside them will never understand. We look weird to them. Like, really, really, weird. D ancing in the streets in your underwear? Weird. A pologi...

One of my newest obsessions is the wonderful comedic options available on Spotify. If you want the classics, try Bill Cosby. If you're looking for mentally stimulating irony, try Brad Stine. Or my favorite, Tim Hawkins. God has blessed us with wonderful senses of humor, and I'm sure he smiles when we use it. Somedays, I wish I could be a comedian, and stand on a stage every night and tell people jokes, watch their faces as humor transformed them. But instead, I became a cashier, and a writer, dealing with the populace every day and writing them into my novels at night. (mwhahahahaha) What they don't tell you about books is that every great character is a direct result of an author's feelings for humanity and what they experienced that day. Harry Potter happened because the author wanted to experience an adventure. Divergent happened because Veronica Roth wanted to make a utopia and then made it interesting. Insurgent happened because Veronica Roth wanted t...

To kick off Nano wrimo preparedness, here's Four thoughts that you will have next month, if this is your first Nano. :) Caffeine=life Even if you’re one of the unfortunate souls that does not yet know the power of the steaming or iced beverage that infuses inspiration where there is none, You soon will. No one ever got through nanowrimo without resorting to caffeine at least once. Ever. 2.         Sleep? What means this sleep? Even the most sleep conscious of you will spend at least one writing session begging your plot to thicken. You will stare at your manuscript and scream “Just something HAPPEN already!” This will happen at a most inconvenient time, aka, 3 am. No! You're not supposed to die till chapter 10! 3.        Your characters will form lives of their own. Your babies will branch off, rebel against you, and just decide to die at inopportune times. They’re actually a lot like goldfish. This...

Of all of the different stories of the people Jesus healed, perhaps one of the most overlooked is the one found in John 5:1-9. Most of the time, when we read this passage, we focus on what happened in verses 9-15, after the healing took place. Most Bibles give this story a heading of “The Healing At the Pool.” While Jesus was in Jerusalem for a feast, he passed by a pool called Bethesda, and saw a disabled person laying there. In verse three of this passage it mentions that a “great number of disabled persons” used to lay there. This is a noted fact for a reason. If this was a known place to find disabled persons, it would appear that Jesus was seeking out their company. It’s possible that others may have knowingly avoided this area because of this fact. But Jesus, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, made a point to spend time with disabled persons. In verse five, we meet a man who had been an invalid for thirty eight years. “ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned...

 Of all of the books in the bible, I think some of my favorite are the pauline epistles. There is just something pretty cool about a guy who used to persecute Christ followers but now is one of them. Paul is awesome because he never minced his words. He knew what he had to say, and he said it straight out, with no holds barred. Here, he was answering the question of whether or not Christians were obligated to follow the Mosaic law. Galatians 5:1 "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."  If Paul were speaking today, he would likely say something like; "This is the whole reason Christ came, to set us free from sin and to bring a new law of grace! He was the sacrifice for all mankind, so you can stop being legalistic about the Law! We are free in Christ, so stop looking for other things for you to be a slave to."  You see, the early Christians were having trouble understa...

Few things are more exciting, more breathtaking, more terrifying-than typing the words “The End”. If you write novels, the feeling is even more concentrated, because so often, weeks, months and possibly even years of work go into creating our babies, and it feels like such a relief. It’s done at last. But you lucky duck, you, now it’s time for the sequel! And in a very few minutes, the energy that you felt for this story, for these characters so near and dear, fizzles into frustration and anger as the muse skips merrily away once more. Why do we do this to ourselves? Because we writers are an enslaved race. The muse cracks the whip at its timing, not ours, and at time it’s all we can do to eke out a few precious words. Other times, the muse comes and shouts in our ears, and our fingers type so fast we fear they may smoke. The clacking of the keyboard turns into a thundering roar, and through it all we only think, I’m not writing fast enough! Despite having book one com...

Lately, my muse has been missing. I'm not sure when it decided to leave me and dry, but I've been on a search for my muse for a few days now. I am restless and the muse will not be found. For months now, I've been knee deep in edits and rewrites for my second book, Underground, which was originally released last year, but after being a complete and utter flop, I pulled it from the digital shelves and embarked on a harrowing journey of rediscovering who these characters are and what they will accomplish. I have now added 10,000 words to the original story, added and removed characters and done a better job of building the story itself. I know its better than it was, I know it is. So why do I look at my document and think it could be so much better? Answer: I am a human being, and humans seem to do a really good job of doubting themselves, even when they are doing a legitimately good job. We look at our creations and we OCD them to death. Just once, just ONCE, I would ...

Every once in a while at my job as a cashier, I get these awesome customers that make my day every single time. They might crack a joke, or tell a funny story, or maybe they just smile and treat me like a human being. Whatever they do, they remind me of Christ's love, whether they mean to or not. Because whenever someone smiles at me, i cant help but think of the God who created them, and i think to myself, "I bet God loves that they're an encouragement to people." Because God can use anyone, even if they're not a christian, and there is no greater gift on earth than being a blessing to someone. So here's to those interactions with people that brighten our days and lift our spirits. here's to the unsung heroes of the everyday, those who smile at their minimum wage cashiers and compliment us on our work ethic. Here's to grace and blessing in the everyday.