M. Jean Pike's Blog, page 14

A beautiful evening, following in His steps

What a beautiful evening. First I met some friends for a delicious dinner at Casa Grande.

I hadn’t been before and the ginormous menu kind of boggled my mind. I finally decided on the Burrito Cancun – Excellent choice!

A couple of weeks ago we got tickets for an Easter event called Following in His Steps.

I really didn’t know what to expect. Just wow. The entire church was set up to recreate the events of Easter week, starting with the Passover Feast in Jerusalem. Once our tickets had been stamped we were given some gold coins to “spend” in the marketplace.

There were potters, weavers, bread makers, and many other tradespeople. All were talking excitedly about the Teacher from Nazareth who had just passed by. Kind of gave me chills!

From there we went to the upper room, where they explained that the Teacher and his disciples had just shared the Passover meal.

We then entered the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus had been arrested, and then to Pilate’s court, where He was tried. We went to the site of His crucifixion, and ended at His empty tomb.

The message of Easter always makes me so emotional.

What a wonderful, worshipful way to head into Easter weekend!

Life with beagles

The spring grass is in, the lawn is dotted with sunshine gold dandelions and mowing season has begun for another year. Unfortunately, this means Miss Emma’s grass allergy is in high gear. Yup, all of the dogs in Ohio and I chose the one that’s allergic to grass. She takes an allergy pill every day, and gets a little foot bath every time she comes in from outside. Still, her paws get itchy. Mostly at night. Last night was particularly bad, so instead of having her cry and lick her feet all night, I had to get out the cone.

As cones go, it’s a nice one. An inflatable center with a velvety soft cover. She hates it.

Here she is in mournful, mid-hound -dog howl.

It seemed like she got a good night’s sleep, but she’s still mad about it today. She knows she is not supposed to sit on the couch pillows like that, but I am letting it go this time. A girl needs to find her solace where she can.

Midnight snack

Yesterday I finally hit on the perfect formula — a warm, sunny day with no rain (at least for most of the day!) AND I had the day off. It seems lately all my days off have been rainy. Nice for reading and writing, but my flower beds are in serious need of some TLC. So yesterday I was up and out early, got Miss Emma down to the park for a couple of laps. With the weather, we haven’t been walking much this month and she was overjoyed. I came back home, put on my gardening clothes and went out to try and get some work done in the yard. Sadly, the deer had visited in the night and made a midnight snack of my tulips. Overnight I went from this:

To this…

I hope they enjoyed the blossoms.

Super Excited!

I got my release date, yay! Looks like Superheroes is set for an August 22 release. I’m so excited to send this story, which has lived in my head for the last two years, out into the world Here’s a short video…

A few thoughts as we head into Easter week…

 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.  The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of  the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:51-54

I can’t fathom being present at Calvary on Good Friday. The three hours when Jesus hung on the cross, and darkness covered the earth (Luke 23:44) The earthquake at the moment of his death. Tombs opening and emptying…

But the thing that hits me most, that has always gone straight to my heart – the veil is torn. There are no more barriers, no more fear. The way to God’s presence is wide open. For me. For you. Forever.

Thank You, Jesus.

A memory of a mother…

My stories are filled with flowers. If you’ve spent any time at all in my fictional worlds, you’ve seen them spilling out of window boxes and pushing up through cracks in sidewalks. I love them. My mother loved them, too.

When I was five or six, we came across some Johnny Jump Ups growing wild. I could not get over their delicate beauty. Their lovely purple-gold faces. The next day we returned, my mother and I, and dug up a small plot to take home and replant so I could have a corner of the garden to call my own. That day marked the beginning of a lifelong love affair with gardening.

My mother went to tend to God’s garden when I was thirty, a mother myself, but still so in need of my own. Years ago now, but my heart still looks for her. Sometimes I catch glimpses of her in fields of wildflowers, in sunny September gardens, in the first soft tulips of spring. In the garden’s ever changing pageant of colors, I find her. And sometimes, like my long ago Johnny Jump Ups, I transplant a memory of a mother into my books.

Because children love what they are taught to love.

And writers must put into words what their hearts cannot forget.

Almost to the finish line…

I don’t know what happened in the world yesterday. Didn’t look at the local news. Didn’t chat with a single friend or watch so much as a minute of my favorite podcasts. I checked in on a few of your blogs (will get to the rest soon!) But mostly I was lost in Redford’s Crossing. My final proof galleys came in on Tuesday evening, and I made a pot of Dunkin’ and planted my bottom in a chair early Wednesday morning and there I sat, going over them line by line, word by word. I forgot how much I love this story! My editor is so amazing. Her eagle eye catches even the smallest discrepancy. She has a magic glitter pen that somehow makes a manuscript sparkle. She has even put an end to my love affair with the comma

In the next few days I will go over Superheroes again and again until I can’t read it even one more time. But I love the editing process. I can’t wait to share this story with the world. I’m so thrilled to be one step closer to the finish line…

Oddballs

“Missy,” my father once said to me.  “Missy, you always manage to surround yourself with the dam-dest collection of oddballs.”

Ahh, but sometimes God’s treasures come giftwrapped in the most wonderfully unusual packages.

Like Vanessa, a giant of the faith. A giant in other ways, too. Her hair was a forest fire, her laughter was an earthquake. She loved me like a child loves a favorite song. Patient as a St. Bernard, she showed me it’s ok to be myself.

Like Tommy. To know him was to love him, for who doesn’t love the court jester? Clownish, carefree, he didn’t have an ounce of sense. With a faith as simple as a rainbow, he cheered for me, my every victory his own. Placid as a sailboat, he let me laugh at him. He taught me how to laugh at myself.

And Lucy, unloved and unlovely, forever searching for a way to belong. With a heart of gold and a faith as fragile as a China doll, she loved me like a daisy loves the rain. Her confidence in me helped me have confidence in me, too.

Odd ducks. These friends I connected myself to. These friends who connected themselves to me.  Debbie the giver and Charli the taker. Zoe the cause seeker and Tess the dream maker. They were Christmas every day, presents gift wrapped by God Himself.

Wierdos. I love them. I am one of them.

In fiction and in life, characters make the world go round. Make this beautiful world go round.

Confetti

The trees threw a dance party this weekend and left behind the most beautiful confetti. I guess sometimes you just have to celebrate the rain…

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

For the love of books!

I woke up to a nice surprise this morning– no rain — so my sister and I headed down to the library for the spring book sale. We would have gone regardless, but the library was packed and we had to park quite a ways away, so it was nicer not to have to slog through puddles to get there

The deal is you fill a bag for a donation. I take my own tote bag and when it gets too heavy to comfortably carry, I know it’s time to quit. There were tables full of books. Using my tried and true formula, I got a nice mix of memoir, romance, thrillers, and women’s fiction. I found books by a couple of my favorites, but most of these are new to me authors. That’s the fun of the book sale. It’s like meeting up with old “friends” and making new.

My formula: Look at the cover. Read the synopsis. Read the first paragraph. If a book passes these tests, I bring it home. I did well today. I love that I can support my beautiful local library and get hours of enjoyment for just a little money in the deal. When I finish a book, unless it earns a rare permanent spot on my book shelf, it will be donated to the Little Free Library. So it’s a win all the way around.

I’m excited about the books I found today. I can’t wait to get started