R.M. Snider's Blog, page 2

It’s Not Them — It’s Us

Dont let the next paragraph deter you from reading this. I wrote this for you, reader behind this screen. This isnt sly propaganda for something else. Its actually about you.

As I read profile after profile on Project Zeros heart gallery of children waiting to be adopted from foster care, something profound stood out to my heart. And its not about the children its about the rest of us.
99 times out of 100, the profile mentions the child(ren) will thrive in a structured, loving, caring,...

Where Midnight Tornadoes Reap

[image error] Photo courtesy Nikolas Noonan @unsplash.com

We are supposed to have some bad storms tonight with possible tornadoes. Does that scare you?

As a child in southwestern Oklahoma, tornadoes were the norm hiding in the hallway under a mattress or in the neighbors storm cellar. There was actually something quite thrilling about it, to be honest. But tornadoes in the dead of night were not a notion back then. No, our Oklahoma twisters came faithfully during daylight hours, usually disrupting my...

To A World Of Adversity

I am not a foreigner to a world of adversity.

I was a child when we entered Desert Storm. The shapes of my letters and numbers were learned by day and, by night, I traced the battle lines on the news live from Kuwait. I fluttered my arms like a butterfly and twirled across the stage in the school play, and laid in my bed at night, my mind a flutter with images of Saddam Insane. I played hand tag at lunch recess and, later, raised a salute at Fort Sill to envoys of fathers, sons, mothers, and...

An Unexpected Story

On July 4th, 2008, I made one wrong move on a bicycle. The result? Stitches, a broken nose, two fractured teeth, and a serious downgrade in my ego. The complications of the broken nose persist even to this day.

But why I really told you this is because something happened at the ER that day that still fascinates me.

As it turns out, when you smack your face on the concrete and, subsequently, can’t remember your date of birth, you are immediately ushered to the front of the ER queue and given...

Exciting Announcement!

So, if you’ve been following me on social media, you know it’s been a little over a year since I published my fourth book. Ever since then (and even before then!) I’ve had people ask me, “So, what are you gonna write next?”

That’s always been a difficult question for me to answer, not because I don’t have ideas for books but because I have too many ideas. From Christian historical fiction to contemporary women’s lit to dystopian fantasy to children’s books, I’ve been spreading my writing...

They’re So Lucky

It happened again a few weeks ago. I was innocently discussing my kids’ adoption with a stranger when, all of a sudden, these words popped out of their mouth.

“They’re so lucky to have you.”

This phrase and others like it have always caught me a little off guard and, once again, this left me asking: How do I educate a total stranger in just a few short seconds about the fact that my kids are, in fact, not lucky to have me?

Well, I decided since I’m a storyteller, I’ll offer up this story for...

The Lessons We Forget

Every year for 3 years now, I go to Branson in October. And I don’t take my husband or kids.

No, I go alone.

[image error]Well, sort of alone – I rode there with these ladies.

But it’s not all fun and games – I go there to meet 100+ other moms who “get it”. We’ve fostered. We’ve adopted. We’ve been in the trenches loving children who’ve experienced trauma (separation from a person’s birth family is the most basic trauma these children have experienced and, for most, it’s been far worse).

This time in Br...

When Life Gives You Power Outages

Some days, you’ve just got to improvise.

Last Sunday, we had one of those evenings where everything was going right. The people were happy and playing together. I got to sneak away and go for a run. I returned with a mission – to cut my boys’ hair.

Then things took a turn for the worst.

In the middle of the first haircut, my trimmers abruptly stopped. Then, I heard several loud pops. The power. It was out and there was no sign of it coming back on.

It was hair cutting time. And dinner time. A...

When Babies Don’t Grow

I had a wonderful, but short, texting conversation with someone recently.

A year ago, I asked my friend’s daughter to design a book cover for me for a book that I had just began working on. I thought, “You know, I just published four books. I should be able to whip out another one by the spring, so I had better get a jump start on the cover.” Except… well, as I told my friend in the text, “I would love, love, love to have it finished ASAP, but I’ve found I can’t make a story happen – I’ve go...

#rescueisthebest

Last week was all about dogs.

To begin with, I had the privilege of formatting a book for a local author. Home Is Where The Hound Is is about– you guessed it– a dog. Be on the lookout for more promotional plugs from me about this southern story with a golden heart.

Besides formatting Home Is Where The Hound Is, I got to help with the book cover’s photo shoot. Who do you think was the model? It was none other than Heidi, a bluetick coonhound. She was a delight, even if she was easily distrac...