Category: Life
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Thankful Thursday: Thankful for children’s literature
Today I’m grateful for all the wonderful children’s and middle grade books that made me a reader when I was young and made me want to write books myself. From Little Women to The Babysitters Club, from Nancy Drew to the Boxcar Children, from Narnia to Willy Wonka’s factory, and even including Amelia Bedelia, I…
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How hard work can be its own reward
By temperament, I’m quite risk-averse. I often need to step back and assess what metrics of risk, failure, and success I’m using. As a Christian, I believe I am called to be faithful, not “successful” as the world judges. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” Whatever you believe or don’t believe in terms of…
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300 blog posts! And 200 (okay, 199) subscribers! Thank you! And yes, persistence pays off.
I would lie if I said my relationship to blogging these days is anything other than love/hate. I think the issue is I am comparing this blog to the blog I ran in blogging’s heyday back in 2012-2014, when I got thousands of hits a month. Sigh. But I’ve been running this blog for almost…
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My current binge–exotic animal documentaries
Lately, I cannot get enough of documentaries on Prime about scary, creepy, and deadly animals. I prefer the ones that don’t feature the insane individuals who try to keep such animals as pets, but I’ll watch one of those if it’s all I can find. (No, I never watched Tiger King, and I don’t plan…
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Thankful Thursday: Thankful for family time
As I write this, I’m preparing for a second celebratory (birthday) get-together with my family in one week. So I am grateful for that time with the people I love and who love me. I am thankful that they are in my life. I am thankful that they care about me, and check in on…
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I’m glad I watched the “Lord the Rings” movies before I read the books
I started college in 2003–right before Peter Jackson’s “The Return of the King” came out in theaters. That year, my college friends introduced me to Middle Earth via the first two films before the last one came out. I don’t know how I had never given Tolkien any attention in high school. I should have.…
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Busy times, blessed times, are times of spiritual struggle
I have always found that times of great blessing, success, and fruitfulness are sometimes times of the greatest spiritual struggles. It’s on my mind now, because I have a lot of beautiful milestones coming up in my author career, and I’m not surprised to be feeling the blahs a bit. “Is this all there is?”…
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Thankful Thursday: Author Life Goal MET! Y’all, I want to cry right now (as I write this days in advance of publication)!
Let me set the scene . . . I was out of high school, waiting to start my freshman year of college, reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” for the first time. There’s a scene where a bunch of characters come to take Harry away from the Dursley’s. (Spoiler ahead if you…
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Sing, even if it’s off key. It brings hope.
I firmly believe that music is the cry and the call of the heart. I really love a beautiful song called “Simple Song” by Better than Ezra. It starts like this: Floating off adrift through outer space High above the ruins of a suicidal race When somewhere from below there came a song. And suddenly…
Creative Writing with the Crimson League 