Michelle Bolanger's Blog, page 4
November 30, 2017
2017: The Year In Review
If I still have any followers left who are reading this post – THANK YOU!I am so grateful for the few I know are still here, and I want you to know how much I appreciate your loyalty. When I started this journey to become a self-published author, things fell so smoothly into place. I expected it to stay smooth.**Que hysterical and slightly maniacal laughter**Bottom line, I should have known better. Before you start to think this is going to be a grumbling post about all the things that someho...
October 16, 2017
Abortion Awareness Month
The weather is cooler, and the leaves are finally starting to change. All signs of Fall here in the Mid-West. It's October, and it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Did you also know it is Abortion Awareness month? The first Sunday of October is National Life Chain Sunday, and for the rest of the month, the anti-abortion theme continues.My heart breaks when I see the signs, the memes, and the subtle (or not so subtle) shaming and guilt laying posts. One that makes me equally want to weep and...
August 24, 2017
Be Careful of Books...
"One must always be careful of books and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us." - Tessa Gray, The Infernal Devices, By Cassandra Clare
Lenore Kosinski over at Celebrity Readers posted a list of the top 10 books that have stuck with her over the years and why.I thought that was a great idea. I could list so many more than 10, but these are the ones that immediately came to mind, and how they've impacted me.1) The Bible - I originally had this one at the end of the list bec...
Lenore Kosinski over at Celebrity Readers posted a list of the top 10 books that have stuck with her over the years and why.I thought that was a great idea. I could list so many more than 10, but these are the ones that immediately came to mind, and how they've impacted me.1) The Bible - I originally had this one at the end of the list bec...
July 26, 2017
No Longer Unfinished
I didn’t give up.Oh, how I wanted to. Honestly, I did for over a year.Stewart and Beth's story has been a completed manuscript for longer than I want to admit.Writing it was brutal. The story of a prodigal facing the consequences of his choices is heart wrenching enough, but the entire process nearly killed the series at two books instead of four.While writing “The Light,” I had at least two major data losses that forced me to re-write more than a third of the story twice. After the second, I...
July 21, 2017
Why Tithe?
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!” Malachi 3:10 (NLT)This is one of my favorite verses, but today, inspite of all the times I read it, quoted it, and taught from it, something leaped off the page and forever changed how I read this verse. I hope that...
June 1, 2017
How One Panster Thinks
I am what many call a 'panster.' That means I write by the seat of my pants. I sit down with a general idea for a story and start writing. No outline, no planning, no plotting, I simply let the story go where it will. To some, this is a travesty to the writing community, but in actuality, it is really just a different way to plot and plan.The first draft IS my plotting and planning. The initial draft of my story is nothing anyone really ever sees, at least not in large chunks. Most of it end...
October 11, 2016
The Other Side of The Sign
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but did you also know it is Abortion Awareness month? The first Sunday of October was National Life Chain Sunday, and it looks like for the rest of the month, by default, the anti-abortion theme continues.My heart breaks when I see the signs, the memes, and the subtle (or not so subtle) shaming and guilt laying posts. The one that makes me equally want to weep and scream in anger is, “Having an abortion doesn’t make you less of a mother, it makes you...
October 6, 2016
Still Working
So…last month kinda got away from me. I’m sorry you haven’t heard from me.On the 20th of September, I lost my daddy very suddenly and things kind of fell apart from there. At least online. Out here in real life, I’m doing just fine. Sad and missing my dad, but getting through the process of grieving, helping mom, and being reminded daily that in God there really is a peace that can’t be explained.Keeping up with my life as an author…not so much. Discouragement is a very real battle, and for t...
August 30, 2016
Book Review | Rising by Holly Kelly
Purchase here on AmazonFREE as of this postI’ve been in a horrible book slump for the last couple months due to being busy and pushing hard to get the manuscript for book three done and in the hands of my editor. (Which it is! Yay!) Nothing I tried to read caught my attention, or if it did, didn’t hold it for long.I was cruising through my list looking for something different. Something I’d never read about before. Good luck, right? Well, I realized I’d never read a book about mermaids, and f...
August 23, 2016
Bullet Journaling
[image error]No. Not that kind of bullet. Sorry.A couple times a year, I get the bug to make some changes. Usually because what I am currently doing has gotten so boring I’ve totally lost interest in anything and change is required to get me moving again, or what I’m currently doing just isn’t working. This is a combination of both.I have been doing what is called a ‘smash book’ style of journaling and calendar keeping for the last couple years. I loved it the first two years. This year, it’s just not wor...
