A Tribute

I think I've mentioned this before, but my favorite fictional book is Pride & Prejudice. I love the characters and the story. I read it through at least once a year. And of course, the only movie version worth watching is the five hour BBC version with Colin Firth, because it actually has every single part of the book in it. Anything else has to cut so much out that it's only a shadow of the novel.

Because of my love for this book, I added some tributes to it in my most recent book, Always a Bridesmaid. The obvious one is that Isabelle's two dogs are named Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley. The dogs personalities are reflections of those literary characters, but they're not exact. In the book, Bingley isn't skittish like Isabelle's dog, but he does rely heavily on Darcy's opinion and is more friendly and easygoing. I think Isabelle's dog, Mr. Darcy, is closer to Darcy from the book - he's proud, protective and quiet. It was fun trying to re-imagine these characters as animals and give them a little twist.

A more subtle tribute has also given me some criticism. I've had more than one person tell me that they couldn't stand Isabelle's mom. There's a reason for that. She's based on the character of Mrs. Bennett in Pride & Prejudice, although I think Isabelle's mom is more likable. They're both eager to see their daughters married off, prone to fits of weeping, and say things that really don't need to be said. Both women could be embarrassing for the main character, but I think that Mariana, Isabelle's mom, was more loving than Mrs. Bennett. Every time someone tells me how annoying Mariana was, I have to smile, because she was based on an extremely obnoxious character so it's not surprising that she wasn't the easiest to like.

It was fun to give this wonderful book a few tributes. I know that they are the faintest of shadows of Jane Austen's wonderful characters, but it was interesting to try my hand at something new. If you haven't read my recent book, you can find it by clicking on the link below. Happy Reading!

Always a Bridesmaid

What to Pray?

I just finished a Bible study by Kay Arthur called "Lord, Teach Me to Pray". In it she goes through the Lord's Prayer and shows how each phrase is a topic sentence that shows some aspect of how we ought to pray (ie: worship, petition, confession, etc.)

When we got to the part about making our requests to God I felt challenged to think about how I pray for my books. My first thought was that I really don't pray for my books or sales often. I thought about why that might be. The first reason was that I already feel so blessed. My husband has a job that allows me to stay home. We have all our needs - food, shelter, clothing - abundantly met. Besides our needs we have plenty of wants met as well! How could I ask for more? In some ways it feels selfish to ask for more. But deep down there was something more than just this. I found myself hesitating to ask, because I was afraid He would say no. How could I be disappointed to be denied something I never asked for? I couldn't. So if I didn't ask, then He couldn't say no and I wouldn't be disappointed.

When I realized this rationalization, this passage came to mind:  Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:7-11) God wants to give me good things and He already has. He may not ever give me an actual publisher, but if He doesn't, it isn't because He's stingy or being mean, it's because He has something better. I may never sell amazing quantities of my books, but if not, He has something better than that, too. The bottom line is that He wants me to ask! He may say no, but He wants me to talk with Him about it and share with Him my desires and dreams. 

Which led me to another soul-searching moment. Why do I ask to be published or to have more book sales? Do I crave fame or wealth? Do I want to receive recognition or glory? Or do I want to use it as a way to tell people about Jesus, a way to give God honor and glory? James 4:3 talks about why some prayers are unanswered (or really, that God has said no). It says "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." So I had to ask myself if this was part of my problem. I don't think I want wealth or fame. Like I said, I already feel so blessed, I can't imagine wanting more and honestly if I want fame, I am writing the wrong genre. I'm never going to make the New York Times best seller list writing Christian romance novels. How about recognition? I have to admit that one of my love languages is words of affirmation - I like to hear encouraging words and get "atta girls", but I'm not sure that even in that I want all the glory. I'm well aware that I am a novice in every sense of the word. Any praise I get belongs to God because I know it's not me! However, I'm also aware that this is a dangerous place for me. As I gain knowledge on how to write, it will be easy to accept the praise for myself. This is something I'm going to have to ask myself often as I continue down this path. 

So what do I ask for? I know God wants me to ask. The tense says that He wants me to keep asking. But according to James I want to ask with the right motives. I also want to be in His will. 1 John 5:14 says, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." I want God's will to be done in this. So - I want to ask you to join with me in praying. First, pray that as I write I will have the words that God would have for me. Second, pray that He will get all the honor and glory. Third, pray that God blesses this work in whatever way He knows is best. I appreciate your prayers more than you could know. 

Comparing

I was participating in a Bible study called "Can We Talk?" by Priscilla Shirer this summer and the topic of comparing came up. It must have been something that God wanted me to hear, because it not only stuck with me, but God kept bringing other Scriptures to mind. There are so many ways that people compare themselves to others and it rarely ends well. Either they begin to think that they are better than the other person and vanity and arrogance surface, or they see themselves as inadequate and their self-esteem plummets. The cure is to see ourselves the way that God sees us.

Physical appearance is a huge area of comparison. I'm not as slender as that woman. I'm not as pretty as another. I wish I had her hair. The list can go on and on. If you talk to just about any woman and ask her to list her physical "faults" she could rattle several off in a heartbeat, but if you ask her to tell you how she's beautiful, she may have to think for a while. Why is that?  In Psalm 139:13-16 it talks about how God formed us before we were born. It says:

For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

I was thinking recently that when God formed me, He didn't step back, gasp and say "I made a mistake!" God created me to look exactly the way I do, so why do I wish His design away? We know that God looks at our heart and not our outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7) so shouldn't I be more concerned about what my inward beauty looks like? Have you ever met someone who you thought was beautiful, but you got to know them and they were rude, selfish, arrogant, and mean? One day you look at them and wonder what made you think they were beautiful. On the other hand, you meet someone who is "average" looking, but they're sweet, loyal, and kind and one day you realize how beautiful they really are. Our inner beauty shows through and can alter our outer appearance. Besides that, my looks will change as I age, but I can still be beautiful in God's eyes and that's what I long to be.

Talent is another area of comparison. No matter what I'm good at, I can find someone who does it better. I can complain that I don't sing as well as someone else and refuse to sing, or I can realize that God can still use my voice in a variety of capacities and be willing to serve Him where He leads. My writing is okay. Others write much better, but I keep plugging at it and striving to improve. I need to not be concerned about being "the best" and instead be busy to use what God has given me to His glory.

The one that always gets me is when I hear people comparing spiritual gifts. This has been going on since the early church was formed. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the church as a body with many members. He says in verse 21, "And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”' Sometimes I see people who seem to think that other members are unnecessary, because they have great pride in their own gift and feel they can handle everything. More often, I see the opposite though. Verse 15 says, "If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body." There are those who think that they aren't necessary for the working of the body. They wish they had a different gift, but forget that God chose for them to have that particular gift to perform a specific task, service, or ministry. 

A gall bladder can seem like an insignificant part of the body, but I can tell you from experience that when it doesn't perform it's duty, it hurts the entire body! Unlike our human bodies, there are no surgeries to remove organs from the body of Christ. You may think that your gift isn't important, but when you don't use it, the body of Christ suffers and will continue to suffer, because you are an integral part of the working and cannot be removed. God will not remove you, You cannot remove yourself and no one else can remove you either. If you think about how God gave each one of us a specific gift in a specific place at a specific time to be used in a specific way, it's absolutely phenomenal! What would happen if everyone in the body of Christ used their gift in the way that God intended? I think we would see amazing things happen!

We need to stop looking around and look up. See ourselves the way God sees us. Do what God intended for us to do. Let God work through us and give Him the glory!

Dedication: Always a Bridesmaid

This is one of my closest friends in the world, Meghan James. I met her in youth group and we have a lot of interesting stories from youth trips. But Meg is more than my friend. She's my sister - not by blood or by marriage - but by heart. My kids call her "Tia Meghan" (tia is aunt in Spanish) and she is at any of their events that she can possibly make it to. She's been on family vacations with us and when people ask if it was weird, the answer is no, because she's family, too.

We have so much history together. Not only have we been on youth trips together, but we've taken numerous girls trips together and we have lofty ambitions of many more trips that finances and time have made impossible for now. She was my maid of honor when I got married and sang during our ceremony. She was in the waiting room as I gave birth to my first child and was one of the first to see her. We've watched countless movies together and shared books that the other one "has" to read (she stretches me beyond my comfort zone when it comes to reading). We've run through grass in our bare feet, played in the ocean, watched plays, sang duets (one of them so fantastically awful it was wonderful), ridden amusement park rides, been on long road trips, been to sporting events, helped each other move, cooked wonderfully amazing grilled cheese sandwiches (and other foods as well), and channel our "inner child" together (like when we tuck our arms into our shirts so that only our hands stick out and stomp around like a t-rex).

There's so much more than our shared fun together though. Meghan is the person that I can call at any moment of the day when my world begins to collapse and she will drop everything and come running. We've had deep conversations and we've vented our frustrations to each other and somehow after spending some time in her company everything starts to look better. Meg will text me as soon as she sees something on Facebook that may cause distress in the family and let me know that she's praying for us and that if I even need anything she's there. The thing is, it's not an empty promise either. If I were to call her because I needed to talk, she would sit and talk with me for as long as I needed her. If I needed her with me, she'd be over as soon as she could - probably with a pint of ice cream or some chocolate as well.

On top of that, Meghan is probably one of the smartest people I know. When Elizabeth Ludwig looked over my first book to give me some advice, one of the things she mentioned was how good my grammar was. I credit Meghan with that. Mom and Ashley tend to find my contextual errors and tell me when things aren't clear. Meghan finds where I use commas inappropriately (all the time) and where my wording is wrong. It amazes me how all three of these women can edit the same book and they all find different errors. Beyond her incredible knowledge of grammar and the English language, she is also well versed in literature, has traveled to many different countries, learned other languages, can sing, knows history, art, science, and math.

I feel like I could go on and on about how amazing this woman is! She's such a wonderful friend, and it's just who she is. She's a wonderful friend to me, but there are countless people who will read this and nod their head in agreement, because she's been there for them at the drop of a hat as well. She is just so immensely sweet and always willing to help. I'm so thankful that God brought her into my life and that I get to call her my sister and my friend. Thank you, Meghan, for all of your help and encouragement! I love you dearly, my friend!

The Missing Verse

In my excitement and hurry to get Always a Bridesmaid published, I forgot something. I forgot to put in the Bible verse in the front matter of the book. I always include a verse, something that I feel goes along with the story somehow, but when I was building the front matter for this book, I missed it. The funny thing was that I had a verse all picked out, I just somehow missed putting it in. Since I realized that I had forgotten it, I was able to update the manuscript and get it up on Kindle so anyone who bought the book recently will find it included. If you bought the book the first day or two, here is the verse that is missing. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12)

Each book in the series has a different focus. Best Laid Plans was about how God has plans for our lives and sometimes they're not what we expected. Kate had planned to be with Jeff when she was in high school, but that wasn't the plan for her life. She developed a new plan, only to find out that God had different ideas once again. I know that sometimes it's hard to let go of the plans that I've arranged for my life and let God take control, but after He pries my fingers off my plan, I can usually see how it was better for me to go the way He wanted me to.

Smell the Roses was about slowing down from the busyness of life. I honestly still have trouble with this. My calendar is so packed full it's ridiculous, but we weren't created to be constantly on the go and eventually it catches up with us. God didn't rest on the seventh day after creation because He was worn out. He was giving us an example. Yes, work is good - even in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam work to do - but rest is important, too. You can also see it in the commands that He gave to Israel. We need time to rest and recharge and it's not weakness to need to relax. It's necessary. Georgia had to learn that if you don't slow down on occasion, you're heading for problems.

Dress for Success was about where true beauty lies. Brooke was beautiful on the outside, but it was her internal beauty that made her so attractive. There have certainly been people I've known who I thought were so good looking, but then I got to know them and they were arrogant, rude, mean-spirited, selfish and suddenly I realized that they weren't as good looking as I had thought. Then I've known others who I thought were only average looking, nothing special, but I got to know them and they were so sweet, kind, wonderful, loyal, giving, that one day I looked at them and wondered why I ever thought they were average, because now I thought they were beautiful! Our internal beauty (or lack of it) eventually shows on the exterior.

Finally, Always a Bridesmaid focuses on waiting for God's timing. I don't know how many times I've heard, "I know I need to wait for God's timing, but . . . "  I've certainly said it myself on occasion. Waiting is so hard. For me, I think it's the fear that the answer might not be 'wait', but 'no' that makes it so hard. In this world of instant gratification, I think it's only getting harder to have to wait until the time is right. When that time comes, though, it's a wonderful, beautiful thing!

For the first time, I can post the links to all four books for the KW Consulting series! If you haven't read them all, just click on the link to purchase them through Amazon. 
Best Laid Plans (Book 1)
Smell the Roses (Book 2)
Dress for Success (Book 3)
Always a Bridesmaid (Book 4)

New Book Cover

I love it when I get the new book cover! It's so exciting to see a book getting to the point of being ready for purchase. I think I'll actually have this one out before September!

Ordering a book cover is pretty easy. I've always used killercovers.com and they've done a wonderful job for me and listen to the recommendations I have. I usually get a cover within a week of ordering it and then have an opportunity to ask for changes to be made or sometimes I have to decide between two covers. After that the changes are made pretty quickly and I have my cover back that I can download and use. I only had a couple of changes on this cover and I love the result.

Isabelle's story is called . . .

My mom gave me her final edits this weekend and she says there isn't much. I need to finish those and then format the book to make it ready to publish. Then I'll upload it onto Amazon and it will be available to purchase! I expect it to be available by the end of the week.

If you haven't read the rest of the series, they are also available on Amazon to read on Kindle. (And Kindle has a free app for any smart phone, tablet or even a computer.) You can find the other three books by clicking the links below. I can't wait until I can share Always a Bridesmaid with you, too.

Best Laid Plans (Book 1)
Smell the Roses (Book 2)
Dress for Success (Book 3)

A Mind of Their Own

My mom finished her first read through of book four and we were sitting around talking about it. She was telling me about how frustrating some of the characters were this time. I agreed and said that as I was writing I was thinking, "Oh man! He's going to do that and it's going to be so bad!"

My dad laughed and said, "They're your characters! Can't you control them?"

To which I very honestly replied, "No! They have a mind of their own. I didn't even realize that Isabelle's sisters were twins until halfway through."

My dad found this very amusing. It seems strange that it could come from my mind and yet sometimes I feel like I have very little control over the story, Sometimes as I write I almost gasp and think, "I did not see that coming!" It's very weird.

I don't know if this happens to every author or if I'm just strange. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the latter. The thing is that my characters almost have a life of their own in my head. Sometimes I sit there and shake my head at their actions and sometimes they make me smile. But they always keep me on my toes.

I honestly wasn't sure how I would do writing Isabelle's story. She's probably the character that least resembles me. She's bold and confident and extremely creative! I have to say that I really enjoyed developing her more. I don't know that I have a favorite character - it's sort of like choosing a favorite child - but Isabelle is such a positive person that she was a joy to write about. And I know she's just a make believe character from my imagination, but it's still true. I hope that my readers enjoy getting to know her better.

While Mom and I were talking about the book, my mom said that she was reading about the bridal shower that Isabelle plans for Brooke and she thought, "Isabelle is so creative!" Then she thought for a moment and realized that Isabelle was fictional and really it was out of my imagination that the idea for the shower came! I'm not sure I could have come up with it though, if I hadn't been looking at the world through Isabelle's eyes. That bridal shower has been talked about by all three of my editors who all think it was such a fun idea!

My mom has finished her first read through and I've made the edits she gave me. My sister has finished, but I haven't received her edits yet. I know that Meghan was close to finishing the last I heard from her. She told me that she had been reading before work and hadn't wanted to stop! I'm always happy to hear things like that.

And . . .  I've ordered the book cover! In about a week I should get the first drafts to go through. Sometimes they send me a couple to choose from and sometimes I give them some requests to change their initial design (usually it's slight things, they do such a wonderful job!) As soon as we get the finalized cover, I will share it and the title with you all!

In the meantime, I have been continuing to write the next series. With my kids in school, I am getting some nice, long, uninterrupted segments of writing in and I'm very much enjoying how quickly it's coming along! I can't wait to share Isabelle's story with you and then for you to join me on my next journey! Writing is such a fun adventure!