Making Real Progress

Yes, this morning I am making real progress. The new scene I wrote yesterday fits into the novel like I wanted it to. I'm still rearranging---still trying to get the manuscaript to be as tight as it can be.
Succinct.
So the reader doesn't have time to put the book down. Doesn't lose interest in the relationship forming between Kyla and Ryan.
Because after all, this is a romance.
So the reader wants to feel the connection between these two and wonder why the two don't see it!!
Or maybe the reader sees that Ryan and Kyla get the connection forming but of course they (Ryan and Kyla) aren't acting on it.
The reader keeps reading hoping Ryan and Kyla come to their senses.
It's all about creating emotion. Emotion within the story and that emotional connection to the reader.
With the rough draft I had a sense of story direction. I feel like I had a complete story, a complete puzzle with the pieces scattered across the dining room table waiting for someone to come along and piece it together.



That's what I'm doing. Piecing it all together.
Thank you to anyone who's been praying. I'm praying for you, too.

Revising Revisions

I'm printing pages 61-67 a totally new scene I've written for Dreaming Of You. (further referred to in all posts as DOY.) That's what it feels like sometimes a
DOY!!

Writing brand-new scenes wasn't in my projected revision process. So now, in reviewing the new scene(s) written during the revision process I'm revising the revisions.
Wow.
I guess I can do that. I mean I'm trying.
I'm really praying to God also to keep the desire alive in me. I was so excited about this book.
I started DOY on May 18th. Was about half-way through when I found out the first 25 pages were a finalist in the Maggie Contest. Well that bit of encouragement fueled me on to finish the book. I was extremely excited about revising and the added bonus of getting a request from an agent at the Moonlight and Magnolia's Conference put on by the Georgia Romance Writers fueld me even more. But the more work it's turning out to be the more the fuel is burning out.
If you're inclined to pray, please pray for the excitement to rear it's head again.

Prayer for Jessica

This is Jessica and her husband Jon. Jessica is having a very risky surgery on Tuesday February 10th. Please join me in praying for her. This surgery is to remove a cancerous tumor from her pancreas. There are a lot of factors involved in this surgery.
So please pray. I will post an update Tuesday night.

Halfway Through Abundant Living for the Week....

How's the abundant life coming so far? It's Wednesday. I hope you've been blessed by the things God is working in your life. Because if we look, God is around all the time. Everyday He shows up somewhere. I know there are days I don't see it.....But it's because I'm not looking.

Yesterday was inauguration day. Lots of coverage. History being made. It's truly amazing.

I'll post the other two verses Thursday and Friday.

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

Really. We do. We love having fun. But sometimes there's no time for fun. Sometimes we have too many things going on. Even when we have "fun" things planned, pushing together too many of them results in trying to fit everything in. Then the fun seems to disappear into the pressures of everything else.
Drat!
I think God has been speaking to me lately regarding certain things. I have two engagments I was planning on doing that I have decided to say "no" to. I think it's time to slow down. After all, I do have a wedding to plan this year. I want to enjoy every minute of that process. The wedding and reception are going to be at the same place which simplifies things greatly. My daughter and her fiance just firmed up their honeymoon plans and they are simplifying also.
We have also just started the Lenten season and I know I need to rely on and listen to what God is telling me. I haven't had time to write and that is a big hole in my life right now. I do believe God wants me to write.

Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God;

Prayer Today--Here and on F.A.I.T.H.

Please pray today at 3:30 for Kristy Dykes. Click here to read the whole story.
Please click! It's important!!

Bunches of stuff

Okay, as my cuz pointed out in the comment section I have not been posting regularly this week. It's true--she's right. But--well there are no excuses are there? I've had time to do other things, so I could have jotted something down here and there--one day or another, huh?

I'll preview a little of my post tomorrow. Kristy Dykes husband is asking for world-wide prayer for her at 3:30 Monday afternoon as she goes for her first radiation treatment. I'll have that post tomorrow.

On a lighter note, we have our granddaughter with us today and tomorrow. Such a joy to have around. She's talking up a storm and making us laugh really hard with her cute sayings. She turned two in August and seems to be a very bright, fun, happy little girl.

My cuz's niece (which I'm not sure what Marisa is to me? My second niece once removed twice over and three times under?) Marisa had a baby girl last week. From reading the paragraph above Marisa and Jim are in for a lot of fun in the next couple of years. I know she will be a joy. Here is a very cute picture of Kenzi.


What a better way to end a post than with a cute picture!

Praise and Prayer at F.A.I.T.H.

There are beautiful pics over at the F.A.I.T.H. blog today.

Also prayers for Kristy Dykes and her surgery this morning at 7:30. We are posting prayers over at F.A.I.T.H.

Also, Jennifer is featuring author Molly Noble Bull over on her blog. check it out here

Listening

Are you ever at a loss for words? Words that truly express the way you feel, the way your heart feels?
That's about how I've been this past week. In coversations with my husband and with Kay about God things I keep saying "I don't know."
There are things I do know. God's love-the freedom in God's love-the way God loves us. All that has been brought home to me this week. It's amazing, it's awesome, it's incredible.
What I don't know is what to do with it.
Where to go with it.
I can't sit around and not do anything with His incredible gift of Him to us.
I can't.
I write. That's something. But I need to do more.
If you are reading this, please pray for God's calling to me to be revealed. I think I'm thinking to hard. I've been praying. I'm trying to listen.

Please Pray

This is a post to ask for prayer. Fellow author and speaker Kristy Dykes just found out she has a brain tumor. Please pray for her healing and peace during this time.

Psalm 16:1-3
Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. O my soul, you have said to the Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You. As for the saints who are on the earth, They are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.


We trust in the Lord. He delights in us. Kristy, we are praying.