Gabriella Slade's Blog: The JOY of Writing, page 4

The Christian Girl Boss

Happy Saturday Soul Questers!!

Yep, you read that right. After spending the past couple of weeks revamping my blog/website, I decided I needed to change what days I post.

Why?

Because I’m blogging for teens. Most teens (More like all teens) are at school on Mondays. Including me. It just wasn’t the best idea to keep blogging on one of the busiest days of my week. I could write and schedule posts all day long, but on Monday I would forget to promote them because I was caught up in doing my school.

So we’re joining the Saturday Blogger’s Club.

Today, I want to define what I call The Christian Girl Boss.

Something I’ve been pondering a lot recently is how the world is all about women these days. Now, this isn’t me saying that women are bad or anything, but if you watch commercials, or read books, you’ll probably notice how much men are being downgraded in society. People expect women to be the knights in shining armor in every situation ever.

While I do believe that women are capable of a lot, and I am all cool with girl power and all that jazz, I do think I need to raise the question of Whether or not we can change the standards of today’s girls?

Everyone’s probably freaking out right now. Just please hear me out.

According to today’s culture, a person defines their own success and we’re awesome all on our own. You go on the internet and you get quotes like I deserve the world so I’m going to give it to myself and I like who I am becoming. In my opinion, I think that’s a bit selfish.

I’m a Christian. Now, I have a habit of not talking super consistently about my faith online, which is something I am changing starting today.

A strong girl is someone who doesn’t rely on her own strength–but someone who relies on God’s strength. It’s hard to give up control. We want to be the ones in charge of our own destiny. But that’s not our job. It’s God’s.

Instead of: I Believe in Me–Say: My strength comes from God. (Isaiah 40:31)

Instead of: I am enough–Say: I am nothing without God. (John 15:5)

Instead of: I can control my own happiness–Say: God gives me joy (Romans 15:13)

Getting the idea?

Today, I am introducing to you, The Christian Girl Boss.

The Christian Girl Boss is someone who relies on God to give her happiness and success. She knows that she can’t do it on her own, so she leans on her Father to give her strength.

Girls can be kick butt and strong, but they are who they are because God created them and gave them life. He gave me life just like he gave you life.

Whenever I remind myself that God is in control and he will get me through whatever I may be going through, I find myself with so much more peace. Why should I worry when the Father of the universe is taking care of me?

True strength involves giving up control of your life and handing it over to the Father of lights, the creator of all who knows your outcome. He won’t leave you in a hole to rot. He wants to give you true joy and eternal life only if you let him. It’s so easy to want to be in control. Trust me, I know. I’m a bit of a control freak myself.

But something I’ve learned is that it’s easier when things get hard to trust God to take care of me. He can ease my burden if only I’m willing to lean on Him and trust Him to give me guidance.

Now, if you don’t believe in God or Jesus, please don’t feel either offended by my words or pressured to believe. While I believe that everyone belongs in the Kingdom of God, I don’t want anyone to do it simply because they feel like they must.

So if you’re not Christian, that’s OK. I’m praying You will encounter Him in your life, and I hope that you will continue to read my blog posts. I will be continuing to talk more in the future about how to live a Christian Girl Boss lifestyle.

 

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How I Prepared For Back To School 2018

Happy Monday, Soul Questers!

Today, I want to walk through how I planned for my school year!

 So, I’m homeschool and pretty much have almost complete control of how I set up for my personal schooling. I attend a weekly homeschool co-op as well as complete different assignments at home on my own timing. (If you want me to do a Day In The Life of a Homeschooled Teen or something like that, let me know in the comments below.

When Life Doesn’t Go My Way

Happy Monday, Soul Questers!

Today I actually want to talk about when life doesn’t go our way.

I had a pretty bad week to say the least. I don’t typically like to talk negatively but once or twice it’ll slip out. This week I got very little writing done. As in I wrote less than 5K where as last week I had close to 10K. I don’t know what happened, and why I went backwards. Maybe it has something to do with what else happened this week.

My dog, who is a Great Dane if you didn’t know, got sick Tuesday with some pretty nasty bathroom bug. For three nights in a row, she’d wake me up at least once an hour to go outside. I slept down in my living room for two nights while on the third my sisters graciously helped out so I could catch up on some much needed sleep. 

To top it off, I have knee issues that flare up every now and then, and Wednesday I skipped a step and twisted it the wrong way. I’m currently wearing a brace and it’s still not doing too well. I am a competitive dancer and being injured always sucks because you obviously can’t dance to your full abilities while it heals. 

So in short, I can easily say that this week was not my favorite week in the world. But today I want to use this opportunity to talk about when life doesn’t go our way. I started writing about it in my journal yesterday and was inspired to expand on this thought. I didn’t even outline for this, so I’m just going to go for it.

Here is what I journaled about the topic:

Life isn’t always going to go my way. I can’t expect for everything to always be sunshine and rainbows because when reality crashes down, it’s going to push me down to the ground.

Following that, I took some time to list some things I was grateful for as a way to reawaken my positive attitude. 

I know I’m not the only one who has experienced bad weeks. Maybe you got a low grade in that test you studied super hard for. Maybe you and your best friend got in a really bad fight and the two of you still haven’t spoken to one another since. Maybe you got sick or injured like I did and can’t get anything done because you simply have zero energy.

I don’t know your current situation, but I do know that we have zero control over certain situations that happen in our lives, but we do have complete control of our reaction to said situation.

I can guarantee that I personally could have responded way better to my bad week. I could of walked through with a smile on my face, thanking God for being with me through the good and the bad, but instead I trudged through angry and having meltdowns in the middle of my school assignments. I was so done and ready for this weekend. 

But stop. Just close your eyes and take a deep breath. It’s going to be OK. I promise. Just because your week was not the best and maybe you feel like the world is crumbling beneath your feet. And no, you can’t change what happens to you, but you can shift your thoughts to react in a better way 

Instead of thinking: “I wish I hadn’t gotten such a low grade on this math quiz,” think: “While I’m not proud of this grade, I can use this experience to learn from it so I can do better next time.

Instead of thinking: “I sucked at working on my book this week,” think: “Maybe this week wasn’t the best week for writing for me. What can I do to improve on this?” 

Obviously, it’s important to acknowledge the situation. Denying it is not going to make it go away, but if you actually acknowledge your bad day or your bad week, you can look at it and ask yourself “How can I take this negative situation and learn from it?” 

Do that. Right now. If your week was like mine and you wished it’d gone different, close your eyes and ask yourself what you can learn from it.

For me personally, I know that I didn’t have a great writing week, but maybe I need to cut out some of the social media out of my free time so I can be more inspired to write.

I can’t control the fact that my dog got sick, but maybe next time I’ll take the time to sit and cuddle with her because even though I didn’t like constantly getting up to let her outside, she probably wasn’t feeling very well and also wanted to be asleep at 2 in the morning.

It wasn’t my fault that my knee twisted and popped, but maybe I should be sure to watch out and keep an eye out so next time I might be able to avoid missing a step next time.

How can you learn from your negative experiences?

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5 Things I Do To Make my Day #boss

Happy Monday, Soul Questers!

Today we’re going to talk about 5 things I do every day to make my day the best I can make it!

You have to make the most of today. 

I like to take the time to remember that tomorrow is not promised to us. We only have today. So what are you going to do with what you have? 

I’m a big supporter of productivity. I believe in getting a lot done with the few hours I have. One of my favorite inspirations for this topic is Kristen Martin, who is a YouTuber, author, Writing Coach etc. I’ve actually had the honor to interview Kristen on my blog in the past. You have read it here: 

It made me think: What do I do every day that helps increase my own productivity?

Well, here’s a list:

What I Do To Increase My Productivity.

I Start My Day With God– This is how I get my day off to such a great start. Spending time with Jesus is one of the most important aspects of my life. After I’ve eaten breakfast, gotten dressed and brewed some coffee, I will sit at my desk, plug in some praise and worship music and crack open my Bible. I might go into more detail into my Bible Study routine later on in a different blog post, but obviously, this is the first thing on my list.I Drink Coffee…a lot of coffee– As stated in my previous paragraph, I drink coffee, and I may or may not be a bit addicted. You probably already know this if you follow me on social media. I drink at least two times a day, sometimes more if my parents permit me. It gives me a lot of energy and plus, it just tastes amazing!I Use A Bullet Journal– I think I may or may not have talked about my bullet journal on my blog before. I don’t do anything super fancy. I use a bullet journal, pens/pencils and colored pencils. It doesn’t matter to me what materials are used, but my bullet journal allows me to plan out both my weeks as a whole and each individual days out.
I Journal– This is something I recently started doing once again. Actually, my last blog post was about my journaling journey. You can read it here. But journaling is a way for me to pour out my feelings and write different things like lists and stuff like that. It’s very personal to me. I Make My Bed Every Day– I know this might sound crazy, but making my bed really does affect my mood for the rest of the day. An unmade bed just makes me feel lazy and also makes the rest of my room look dirty.

And that’s what I do to make my days #boss. I honestly could have probably added more to this list but this is what I chose to add. 

What do you do to make have day #boss? Let me know in the comments below!

I Started Journaling Again. Here’s Why.

Happy Monday, Soul Questers!

Have you been enjoying the new style of these blog posts? Let me know in the comments your opinions.

Why I Set Boundries When I Read

Happy Monday, Soul Questers!

Today we’re going to be talking about reading and boundaries. 

Note: This post was inspired by a recent sermon series from my pastor and as he would say, I’m going to give credit where credit is due.

The world puts the most crazy things in books these days. Like seriously.

I walk into a bookstore or a library and immediately I see stands displaying dozens of cheezy romances with unrealistic images of shirtless dudes on the cover. Like really? Is that necessary? My siblings and I will be reading and it seems like more and more we’re reaching for a pen to black out the swear words. And this is considered normal by the outside world?? Why should I have to read a book meant for teens and find S bombs being dropped left and right?

In today’s post, I’m going to talk why I have boundaries in place when it comes to the types of books I read. 

Now obviously a lot of us don’t like boundaries. I know I usually don’t. Maybe we don’t think we need them, or that they are just like walls being built up on all sides of our lives. But, you might not know this, but boundaries are very important as I’ve learned in the past month or so.

For example, if we didn’t buy cages for my pet parakeets and I just let them fly around wherever and whenever they wanted, they wouldn’t last very long. They’d probably fly out an open window or meet an untimely death thanks to my two dogs. That wouldn’t be good. They need that boundary to protect them from the dangers of the outside world.

You may be wondering how this applies to us readers, but you’d be surprised by the similarities. As a Christian girl growing up in a nasty outside world, it’s important to watch what type of media I’m allowing myself to intake. I can say I don’t swear but the book I’m reading has a bunch of not so nice words inside, or maybe is full of graphic descriptions, what is that saying about me? Building those walls can actually protect me in the long run.

I mean, after a while, the books I read can really get to my head. They all have their own message that whispers to me the more I read them. They can be a good or a not so good message. Those messages really need to align with The Word of God because that’s the True Message.

Not to mention, setting these boundaries are impacting my future, even if I can’t see it yet. I have to say ‘no’ sometimes because if the message is wrong or the content is inappropriate, it could affect my thoughts in the long run. 

Trust me. It’s hard sometimes. I’ve been deeply invested in a story or a character, but then I see the wrong message being promoted and I have to make that decision to close that book and protect my heart from the evil this world holds. God has given me free will and I don’t want to take that freedom for granted.

So Yes, maybe I could just keep reading and ignore the 5th swear word in the past two chapters, but that doesn’t mean I should. Because each time I do, the sin inside these books becomes a burden on my back, and the more weight I have and the more lies speak to my head, the more I slow down in my walk with The Lord.

I want to take a second and point out that everyone’s level of boundaries is different. So just because I don’t read a book because of the bloody descriptions doesn’t mean you have to stop. I’m not writing this to tell you what to read and what not to read. I’m just here explaining my own journey and why I’ve chosen to say no to certain books.

In the end, (as my pastor would say,) these boundaries give me so much freedom, which might sound crazy at first, but is actually very true. I find that I enjoy the books with cleaner content usually much more than the ones that don’t. Not to mention, it’s so much easier to walk with Jesus without all the road bumps in the way.

Getting My Life Back On Track

Happy Monday, Soul Questers!

As you can probably already tell, I have not been blogging this past August. If you follow me on Instagram (which you totally should! It’s @authorgabriellaslade

Show Me RELEASE DAY!!!

Happy Friday, Soul Questers!!!!!!!!

And……

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO SHOW ME!!!!!

Oh my goodness, I CANNOT believe this day is finally here!!! You can finally purchase my debut novel, Show Me on Amazon in paperback or E-book!!!! Thank you so much to all of my amazing readers and followers for following me on this amazing journey in writing and editing and now publishing Show Me!!

If and when you DO read Show Me, please, please PLEASE write a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads! Book reviews really help an author’s book get to more people, and they affect their rank on the Amazon lists. And it doesn’t need to be a fancy book report. It can just be a couple of sentences with your HONEST opinion of the book. That’s it.

Sooo…What am I even doing for release day, you might be asking?

Well, I wrote a fun little scene in which I am going out to dinner with the main cast of my book, and we’re celebrating my book coming out!! I hope you enjoy this!

Going Out to Dinner With Kade and His Friends

I pulled the door open and head inside the small independent diner, eyes darting around the tables looking for my group.

“Excuse me, can I help you?”

I turned to acknowledge the petite host smiling at me. She clutched a menu with her claw-like hands–her acrylic nails were way too long for my taste. “Oh, I’m just waiting for some friends of mine,” I said.

“Do you have a reservation?” the host asked, tossing her blond ponytail tipped with purple.

“Um, no,” I said, reaching into my purse as I felt the vibrate of my phone. I looked down, face lighting up at seeing my best friend text me a happy book birthday. I quickly sent a reply and looked back up at the host.

“Well I can get you set up at a table,” she said. “How many people are we expecting?”

I paused to count the number of people coming. “4 more…maybe 5.” 5 if Axel decided he was feeling well enough to show up.

“OK, well if you can please wait here for a moment, I’ll go get a table ready for you guys.”

“Perfect!” I smile.

The hostess scoots off into the heart of the diner while I lower to one of the cushioned benches left for those of us who are waiting for our tables.

“Gabriella, is that you?”

I turn, hearing my name to see Adrian walking towards me, a huge smile painted onto her face. She wraps me into a hug. “Hi!!” I grin, hugging her back. “How are you?”

“I’m great,” she says, pulling away. I scan her outfit: A flowy floral dress, a large floppy hat and a pair of flats. Her large bounce of brown curls greatly resembles my own, which has been pulled back into its usual ponytail.

“If you’re ready,” the hostess interrupts, “I have a table ready for you now.”

“So where are the others?” I ask Adrian as we start walking.

“Oh well, Kade’s late as usual. Ethan says he’s on his way and I have no idea where Argent is.”

“What about Storm?” I ask. “Is she coming?”

Adrian shrugged. “She never RSVP’d. I told you to not bother. She hates Kade anyways.”

“Yes well, she’s still a part of the main cast.”

The two of us sit in seats at our table next to each other and I pick up a menu.

“Hello, my name is Cherry and I’ll be your waitress this evening,” says a girl with a British accent behind me. I turn and smile at her. “Can I start you off with anything to drink?”

“I’ll take a Sprite, please,” I respond.

“Can I just have water, please?” Adrian asks with her winning smile.

“Of course. I’ll be right with you.” Cherry turns, and I open my mouth to speak again, but I am interrupted.

“Hello everyone!”

It was Argent, followed by the other two boys: Ethan, holding his usual bag of hot Cheetos and Kade with his brown curls bouncing with him. He was dressed in a graphic tee that read Me? Sarcastic? Never! I chuckled at the truth behind the quote.

“Hey guys, perfect timing, we haven’t even ordered yet,” I said.

But Adrian stared at Kade. “You’re late.”

Kade held his hands up in self-defense. “Oh no. Not this again.”

But Adrian smiled and waved her own hand dismissively. “I’m just kidding.”

I felt a sigh of relief in the air. I opened my menu. “Does anyone have any idea of what they’re ordering yet?

“We just got here,” Ethan reminded me.

“Right.” I scan the menu with my eyes. They go straight towards the cheeseburgers.

Adrian flipped through her own menu. “Where is the vegetarian section?” she asked in a panic.

I turned the page of my own, not finding one. I shrug. Maybe you can get a salad instead.”

“I guess I’ll have to,” is her response.

I look at Kade, who is sitting across from me, staring blankly at his menu. “So, how does it feel to be the protagonist of a published novel?” I ask him.

In response, he shrugs. “Fine,” he responds.

Argent nudges him in the shoulder. “What’s up with you today?”

“A headache.” No surprise there, unfortunately.

Cherry’s voice calls out from behind me a second time. “Are Y’all ready to order?”

I turn. “Yes, I believe so.”

“OK, what can I get all of you?”

I do a one last scan of the menu. “I think I’m going to get a BBQ Bacon Burger. Please.” Cherry jots down my order on her pad of paper.

“And how do you want your burger cooked?”

“Medium please.”

“Sweet.”

Cherry turns to Adrian, who says, “Can I please have Gardner’s Salad please without the bacon?”

Cherry nods before turning to Ethan. Once everyone had ordered, I turn to all my friends. “Thanks, everyone for agreeing to come out and celebrate with me.”

“Of course,” Argent says, who’s barely spoken since he’d arrived.

“Kade, do you want me to get you some meds for your head? At least you’d be able to enjoy yourself a bit?”

Kade shakes his head. “I took some before we left. They should be kicking in soon.”

“OK.”

We have some interesting conversations while waiting for our food to show up. When it does, I can’t help but notice that Kade and I both ordered the same thing. Of course. We’ve always been a bit alike.

Argent starts eating his fries. “So, did publishing go smoothly for you?” he asks me.

I nod. “There were some issues with the formatting at first, but it somehow still came out on time.”

“That’s good,” Kade smiled.

“Yeah,” I agree biting into my burger.

We’re all quiet for a few minutes as we ate our food. Probably all thinking about this day, that changed all of us. We had just started embarking on a journey that would last years to come.

THE END

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Show Me’s Playlist

Happy Monday, Soul Questers!

We have LESS THAN TWO WEEKS until Show Me is released to the world. Where has the time gone? I’m super excited, but of course nervous as well. If you haven’t yet had the chance to Pre-Order your E-book of Show Me, there’s still time! You can Pre-order here.

Today, I’m sharing with you guys my Show-Me-inspired playlist!!

Before we get started, I’m going to answer the question of whether or not I listen to music when I write. The answer is yes, I do listen to music, but it is not a habit I make use of often. Personally, I would like to implement it more into my writing routine.

This playlist is composed of songs inspired by the aesthetic and characters of the book. I did not per-say listen to these songs when writing or editing the book, but nevertheless, I still find this music to bring the world of Show Me to life in a very modern way.

If you haven’t already, Please do me a favor and subscribe to my monthly newsletters if you’re interested in being updated in any of my upcoming books and whatnot.

Without further ado, here is Show Me’s playlist!

Show Me’s Playlist

Whatever It Takes by Imagine Dragons–This I feel like can easily be labeled as Kade’s theme song throughout the entire book.
Fight Song by Rachel Platten–Show Me’s plot summed up into one song–especially the first section of the book.
Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson–Kade’s inner conflict.
Just Like Fire by Pink— Definitely a perfect description of Jerome.
Bleed The Same by Mandisa–The lyrics sing the message of equality and not racism, which is the message behind Show Me
Perfect by Ed Sheeran–This song reminds me a little bit of Kade’s softer, more romantic side of him, though this isn’t seen much in book one.
Titanium by David Guetta–Another song for Kade
Believer by Imagine Dragons–Show Me’s other theme song

And that is IT!

Can you believe one more blog post left before Show Me is out!

What do YOU want to see on Show Me’s release day? Comment it down below! I’d love to hear from you.

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The Show Me Book Tag

Happy Monday, Soul Questers!!

Also…Happy July!!

Show Me comes out in a less than a month and I cannot believe how fast time has flown.

Everyone’s support has been so tremendous, and I can’t thank you enough for all the love for Kade and my journey in putting his story out there for you guys to read. If you haven’t yet pre-ordered Show Me, please do so because Pre-Orders really help the book reach higher on the sales charts, which can widen its audience. (Pre-Order Here: https://www.amazon.com/Show-Me-Dragon...)

Today is super exciting! I’ve created an original book tag for Show Me, and I’ll be answering the questions here today! Feel free to do this on your own blog or even a YouTube Channel! I’d love to see your own answers to these questions!

Without further ado, let’s just jump right into it!

The Show Me Book Tag
Question 1-Show Me: A book with vivid descriptions

For this, I have to go with The Girl Who Could See by Kara Swanson!

If you know me, Kara is one of my favorite authors, as well as an amazing writing and publishing coach. Her debut novella, The Girl Who Could See is so vivid in all of its descriptions not only of the characters and settings, but also the emotions connected with all the different scenes. If you haven’t, please pick up The Girl Who Could See, but also follow Kara on social media. She has an awesome feed, and is known to give out sneak peeks of her upcoming books!

Question 2-Kade: Your favorite male lead

Now lately there seems to be a major lack of male leads in YA books, which is why I decided for my own MC to be male. It’s taken me a bit of thinking for me to come up with an answer, but I decided on Thomas Fawkes from Fawkes by Nadine Brandes. Fawkes actually releases exactly ten days before Show Me, but I was blessed with an early copy.

I love Thomas because he doesn’t follow along with what other people believe. He makes his own choices, despite what other people might say about it. (I’m trying to not go too deep in order to avoid spoilers) but I think you should really pick it up when it comes out on July 10th!

Question 3-Soul Questers: Your favorite fictional organization

I’m currently reading and loving Erin Forbes’ Fire And Ice series, and really enjoying reading about her gifted society. It’s so cool learning about everyone’s different abilities and the prophecy involved with the first book. Also, the history is so cool and if you can’t already tell, I just want to rant about the books.

But Erin is not only a great author, but a super sweet human being and I love chatting with her. She even wrote an endorsement for Show Me.