Compliments

Last night I received such affirmation about the Advent project. When I began writing it, I felt compelled to write each devotion in 200 words or less, without using any "church words." It was an incredibly difficult task, but God was so faithful to lead me in how He wanted this written. The person that commented last night was unaware of the changes in this years study, and this is also her first year to do it with her family. She said it was just right, long enough to get a message across, but not to long or written on a level that her children could not understand. It is such a wonderful thing to know that I was obedient to what God called me to do and relied on Him to help me complete the task.

Happy Advent!

Advent

So much has happened since my last post. First, I received my copies of Daily Devotions for Writers. How exciting to open the box, flip through the pages and see my name in a real book in print. Needless to say, I shamelessly donated one to our local library, and anyone else who was interested in reading it.

We moved over the summer and again I was blessed to write a church camp curriculum for fouth, fifth and sixth graders. Lastly, the Advent devotional guide, The Gift is completed and this year at least three churches are using it. I have beenworking like crazy to get it done in time and to this year I am printing my own. It is a big undertaking, but well worth it.

I'll post more when I can.

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one. ~Baltasar Gracián

Ordered Books

On faith I ordered 20 books from Infinity, the publisher of the Daily Devotions for Writers. I just can't wait to get the box. I am thinking of having a party with some friends for the big unveil!!! Now I have to unload them, or at least some.

Waiting for the books!

Author Visit

The other night our local writer's group went to the library to hear author Bill Crider speak about his new book. He is a mystery writer, who also writes under multiple pen names. What an encouragement to us. Most exciting things I learned were about writing for hire, how publishing houses work, why write under a pen name, and the absolute best advice was to write 2-3 pages a day, starting by rewriting the previous days 2-3 pages. He also explained that when writing fiction you don't need to know the end of the story, it is like when you drive a night. You only need to see to the end of the headlights, because by the time you get their you will see to the end of the headlight beams after that point.

And so in light of that Have begun the process of writing a children's chapter book, at the insistance of my son, who has requested an AR test as well. Like most students if it doesn't have AR points he basically is not interested in reading it. What a shame.

I hope this is an encouragement to other writers out there!

Daily Devotions for Writers

I just received notice that the Daily Devotions for Writers is completed and ready for purchase. That means that I am officially now a published writer. This is a complitation of 366 devotions writen by 200 authors. How exciting!! I will be ordering a few copies for myself and my parents and anyone in my writer's group that may want one. I just can't wait to see it.

On to other writing news. I am working on writing the advent devotional guide for next year, and a camp curriculum for 3-6 graders in June. Please pray that the Lord will inspire me and work out some beastly deadlines.

Happy Writing!!

Complete Projects

So now that the Advent devotional guide is complete and hopefully being used throughout southeast Texas, I am excitedly looking toward other projects. The Writers Daily Devotional will be ready for purchase in Spring 2008, my first contribution to a book with others. Stacey and I are putting together a curriculum geared toward late elementary/Jr. High to teach them to use their bibles. Right now I am writing it in weekly installments and sending it to her to use and she is using it with her 5-12 grade students with awesome success. We just got the church camp theme for the 4-6 grade camp and Stacey and I are beginning to brainstorm and get things ready, if we are blessed with the opportunity to do the curriculum again this year. Unbelievably it will be the 4th year! What a blessing. We are also looking at taking the curriculum from camp a few years ago and putting it into a format for VBS. I don't know exactly where the Lord is taking all of this, but the journey has been an adventure for sure. Somewhere in that I have an idea for a fiction short story. Maybe I'll get to it over Christmas vacation. Isn't writing the best thing ever!

Until next time---

Have I Arrived?

Today I received my first payment from an order of the 2007 Advent Devotional Guide. Funny, I thought that would make me feel like a "real" writer. I really don't feel any different than I did before. Maybe just getting paid isn't what makes it real. Any thoughts?