Debbie Macomber's Blog, page 16

Fresh Starts

I do love fresh starts and there’s none better than the beginning of a new year.  There always seems to be hope and enthusiasm around this time of year.  Such eagerness to dig in and make positive changes in our lives.  I’m right there with you.  I have goal sheets I’m working on (more about those later) and visions of a slim, athletic body.  Well, one can dream.  Wishes are free but changes call for real effort.

For those of you who have followed my career, you know that I’ve written several series featuring small towns.  I loved writing those books and your emails and letters told me you enjoyed reading them.  A couple of years ago, I decided to do something completely different.  It would be a series but these books would evolve around themes instead of a location.  I called it my New Beginning series.  In each of these books, the heroine is getting a fresh start—a new beginning.  The first book in that series was Last One Home (with the theme of reconciliation ) followed by A Girls Guide to Moving On (forgiveness).   Three more books are schedule, two of which will be published this year 2017.  If Not For You (healing) is due to be published in March and then later in August Any Dream Will Do (redemption).  I’m excited to share these next two stories with you and hope you’ll love them as much as I do.

So here’s to a fresh start for us all.  Happy New Year.

The Giving Season

It’s that time of year when the search for the perfect gift begins. I can always tell by the number of catalogs that hit my mailbox. As a mother and grandmother, I have my eye out for something special, a gift that has real meaning behind it. One that will bless my family. Looking back, I don’t remember the first time I saw the catalog from World Vision.  As soon as I started flipping through the pages, I realized if I was looking for a meaningful gift, then it was right in front of me.

A sewing machine for a budding entrepreneur in a developing country.

A goat for a village.

A barnyard of chickens.

Educating a child for a year.

These were gifts that made a tremendous difference in the lives of those who have so much less than us. Rather than choose the gift on their behalf, I let my grandchildren sort through the catalog themselves and choose what they wanted to give.

This has become our tradition now. While my grandchildren will always find wrapped gifts under the tree, the one that means the most is the one they give to another in need.

Thanksgiving

A few years back I happened upon a journal I wrote when our children were young. We were a one income family, struggling to make ends meet. The journal was a spiral bound notebook with the wire half unwound. It was all we could afford. I got chills as I read the first entry.

January 1st, 1975

Since the greatest desire of my life is to . . . somehow. Some way. Become a writer, I’ll start with the pages of this journal.

When I wrote those words, I could never have imagined what God had in store for me. He has done above and beyond anything I could ever have dreamed or imagined. As our family gathers around the table this Thanksgiving, I am reminded again of God’s goodness, of the blessing and the abundance He has brought into my life. My family. My friends. My faith. And you, my wonderful readers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Debbie

Psalm 95:2  Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms.

Kindness Part 2

Acts of kindness don’t need to be planned and are often spontaneous. Nor do they need to be complicated. For example, one thing I often do is return a cart to the store when I go shopping. If I see someone who is about to finish unloading their groceries into the car, I ask if they’d like me to return the cart. It’s a simple, easy thing to do. I’m surprised by how grateful people are and how surprised that someone would think to do that.

Today I met with a wonderful reader and her husband. They are on their honeymoon and as a surprise I joined them for lunch. To say Megan was surprised is an understatement. But as so often happens when I talk about kindness, I feel that I was the one blessed.

Kindness

In my Christmas book titled Twelve Days of Christmas, Julia, my heroine, is blogging about her experiment in kindness. What she doesn’t expect is how kindness changes her.

That’s the punch line.

Kindness has a kickback of sorts. When we are kind to others, we are blessed too.

Let me give you a small example.

This past weekend I attended my class reunion. My dearest friend all through school was a girl named Jane. Unfortunately, Jane has MS and lives in a group home as she is no longer able to live independently.  It has broken my heart to see the progression of this illness over the years as it has affected Jane’s ability to move and walk.

Because of MS, Jane couldn’t attend the reunion. She sent a message for me to read to our classmates but I wanted to do more to show her she was with us in heart and we were thinking of her.

To accomplish this, I bought a few poster boards and another friend, Cherie, marked them up with notes to Jane. During the reunion I took photos of our classmates holding up these posters which I then texted to her daughter to show Jane that we were all thinking of her. Later, I brought the posters to the banquet dinner for everyone to sign. Sometime within the next couple of weeks, I’ll deliver the posters to Jane personally so she can read everyone’s notes to her.

Jane’s daughter told me how much it meant to her mother to see the photos of our classmates holding them up. That one act of kindness touched Jane and made her feel that she is loved and was missed.

The blessing for me came as I took the posters around to be signed. As a result, I was able to chat and talk with several of my classmates that I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to visit.

The blessing was two-fold. Jane was blessed and so was I. That’s the way kindness works. Such a little thing. Such a surprise. Such a blessing.

Visiting the Real Cedar Cove

In the summer, Port Orchard gets visitors who come into town to see the real Cedar Cove and I sometimes have occasion to meet them. Often when they first meet me they are a bit hesitant. I want my readers to know that I’m friendly. If you expect me to look like my publicity photo you might be in for a shock. Okay, on a good day there’s a resemblance. Unfortunately, make-up artists and hairdressers don’t usually follow me around to enhance my look. One of the most frequent comments is, “I thought you’d be taller.”  Trust me, I wish I was, too. One nice thing is that rarely does anyone say, “Oh, I thought you’d be thinner.” Thank you.

Men and Their Dogs

Dogs have always been a part of our family. We’ve had a number of dogs through the years that we treasured and cherished. Now Wayne and his good buddy Norm decided to take their dogs and go in the woods and do whatever it is men do in the woods with their dogs. These are he-men. Alpha males. Both construction workers. Big belly guys, large belt buckles. Men with guns and dogs. You get the picture. Their dogs—Ruffles and Peterkins.

Being a Morning Person

I’m a morning person or, as Wayne would say, a disgustingly happy and bright morning person. I’m up several hours before my dear husband manages to open his eyes and frankly, I need that private time. I sit at the kitchen table with a hot cup of coffee along with my Bible, three or four different journals and reflect on my day. I read. I write. I pray. This time of solitude and reflection has helped shape my life. Not everyone is as spry and happy in the morning as I am. I know because I married a night owl. Whether day or night, noon time or at dusk, take time for yourself. We all need that. I know I do.

My love for Cameos

I’m not sure when or why I became fascinated with cameos.  It could be because they are carved from sea shells and I’ve always loved being close to the ocean.  I purchased my first cameo while in Italy, as a gift for my editor.  Sometime later I saw several at an antique show and was struck by the workmanship and the understated beauty.  I discovered I liked the larger ones and wore them as necklaces.  Over the years I’ve managed to collect about fifty cameos, some antique, some new.  They are my most treasured pieces of jewelry.  

Be an Encourager

“A word of encouragement after failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success” – Anonymous

 

I’d been writing for five years and had four completed manuscripts yet had not sold a single word of fiction.  The rejections came so fast I swear they hit me in the back of the head on the way home from the post office.  I wondered if I’d ever be a good enough writer to sell a book.  After the sale of an article for which I’d received $350 I was able to attend my first writers’ conference.  Because of the conference, I had the opportunity to meet with an editor who had read the first fifty pages of my manuscript.  I loved this story and felt it had all the elements of a wonderful romance.  If this book didn’t sell I didn’t know that anything I wrote would.

To say the editor didn’t like my book is an understatement.  In fact she said the best thing I could do with it was throw it in the garbage.

Devastated, I decided that I should give up trying to sell adult fiction and write children’s books instead.  I attended a workshop for children’s books and the author said something that I’ll never forget.  “Your book has a home.  Your job is to find it.”  That little bit of encouragement is all I needed.  I grabbed hold of it with both hands and clung to it as I submitted the very manuscript that had been so brutally rejected.  That book, Heart Song became my first sale.  Heart Song found a home with Simon & Schuster.  That small encouragement meant everything.  I believe if I had given up, and surrendered to defeat as a writer I would have lost a piece of my soul.

“Be an encourager.  Scatter sunshine.  Who knows whose life you might touch with something as simple as a kind word.” – Debbie Macomber