I’ve been writing my first fictional book ever. It has been quite the experience. I will tell you writing fiction is so different than writing a college paper. A year ago when I started this journey, let’s just say, I was a little green behind the ears. I was so naïve to the proper rules and etiquette of fiction. Like the dreaded passive verbs (was/were/had) and ‘ly’ words. These are a big no-no in fiction (who would a thunk). I can remember growing up reading romance novels (starting … [Read more...]
Happiness
I’m sometimes amazed at the power of God. He put writing into my life and has blessed me as a result. Something that started out as a way to deal with my grief and share those feelings with my friends and family so they knew where I was at has turned into so much more. I look at Mari’s death in a whole new light. It’ll be four years on July 16 (Really, four years already!). Through my grief journey I’ve been able to find something that brings me pure happiness. I’ve been able to meet new and … [Read more...]
You just never know…
Well, I took a pregnancy test today. Now, before you get excited, it was negative. With today technology age and the Smart Phone, there are so many kewl things you can do. Well, I have the iPhone 4. I started with the 3g. I love my phone other than the keyboard is a touch screen instead of an actually keyboard. I mess up texting more times than I can count because I can’t actually touch the screen. Back to the reason I bring up my phone. As they say, “There’s an app for that.” Yes, there … [Read more...]
Savoring every moment
In life we have a tendency to go full steam ahead as we are all in such a hurry. We microwave our dinner or go to a fast food restaurant because it is quicker. We create our speedy checkout option on a website so we just have one click to checkout and we are done. We have our keyless remotes to get into our cars so we don’t have to pull out our keys to open the car door or pop open the trunk. The bottom line is we try so hard to make things go quicker so we can have what will feel like more time … [Read more...]
It’s kind of amazing…
It kind of amazes me how I started writing. It has taken me a while to even admit that I am writer (out loud). It sounded so foreign to me yet now it is the exact opposite. I am about to write something that for some may come across the wrong way. I need everyone to understand that I truly love my daughter and I would give anything to have her back. She was my pride and joy and that will never change. However, God didn’t plan for her to stay on this earth longer than her eight and half years … [Read more...]
What do we have to be thankful for?
I know that this question is not normally asked at this time year. We always attribute it to Thanksgiving Day. But shouldn’t we always be asking ourselves this? For some it is really easy to answer. To those looking from the outside it looks like they have truly had a blessed life. A life filled with hope and happiness and no terrible tragedy to speak of. People who have died have done so because they have gotten older. But for so many this is not the case. I look at the tornadoes that … [Read more...]
This Year’s Ladies Retreat in Gatlinburg
I write from the ladies retreat I am on from my church this weekend. It is Saturday night right now. I went last year and the experience was exactly what I needed at the time. This was when I was introduced to Angie Smith’s story. It was something unexpected but good. This year on the way to Gatlinburg we ended up being delayed by either a mud slide or rock slide on I-75 located around mile marker 143. We ended up being put on a detour that added about an extra hour or so our drive time. The … [Read more...]
Giving your life over
(I wrote this last Sunday, March 4, 2012 during worship service) I sat here during church service and watched a man become baptized. This is such a special time. The commitment is huge and precious for any person who does it. He walked down into the water. Our pastor briefly told us how that our church had sent over Bibles while the soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan. This man had received one of those very precious Bibles. He started to read it. As a result he decided to give his life to … [Read more...]
Becoming a Writer
What has writing done for me? Well more than I ever thought even possible. I remember sitting in my high school English class and being just a “C” student. It was hard for me. To get into college I couldn’t even test into English 101. I would have had to go three below and start with English 097. I mean, you really can’t much lower. So for years I have always thought of myself as a terrible writer and that my English writing sucked. By the time I was around 22 or 23 years old I was … [Read more...]
A hole in your heart
When someone close to you dies it leaves a hole in your heart. What I tell people is that a hole was left by our daughter. As the years go by it will get smaller and smaller but it will never completely be filled again until we are in heaven seeing each other again someday. For me, I do not look at the hole as something God is supposed to fill. I think we all have little holes for different tragedies, no matter how big or small, that have happened in our lives. If the hole was to be filled by … [Read more...]
