M.B. Aznoe's Blog, page 2

Adventures on the Road

Moving is terrible, awful, and just generally hard to do. M and I recently moved back into the state of Montana from the state of Florida. Think driving for four and a half days with only two drivers to drive our van and the 26 ft moving truck. Then add in three pets and five teens, and you have the right picture.

There we were nearing Kansas City, MO. It was a pleasant evening and not yet dark. Traffic was light. So I had my copilot text his dad’s copilot to see if they wanted to just punch it through the city. All agreed this was the best idea. As I was the lead car, I began to look for hotels as soon as I made it through KC. It was a nightmare. All of them were full, wouldn’t allow our pets, or had no room for a 26 ft moving truck. About midnight, we just gave up and caught a few hours sleep at a rest area before resuming our travels.

One of the things I always found fascinating in the Old Testament was that God instructed his people to make the pieces of the tabernacle and ark out of hammered gold. He didn’t want the builders to merely use a mold on His special objects. I believe, this is how God works with His people as well. We would love for our lives to molded gold, poured into a nice cozy cavity and left to take the shape of Jesus. However, the Christian life is not that way. Even as God purifies our life, He also hammers us into the image He wants. It’s a much more painful process and often we fail to see the good that comes out of it.

You see, looking back, I can see how God was moving ahead of us, preparing our way to our new home. Our landlord was able to meet us Wednesday instead of Thursday to give us the key to our new place. In addition, our oldest son, who lives not far from here, only had Wednesday available to swing by and help us unpack the truck. We were able to get in all of our beds by that evening so we could get a good night’s rest, and then we were able to leisurely unpack the rental truck as it was not due back until the following Monday.

What at the time seemed miserable and wearying in the end proved to be exactly what we needed. Even when we can’t see it in the moment, God is always faithful and loving, and He works through hardship to bring us where He wants us to be.

Pasyaltide

One of the the holidays we mentioned in Jyrya was called Pasyaltide. It is the counterpart to Aventye in the Swordflower Saga calendar. As Aventye celebrated the birth of Jesus and was loosely based on Advent, so Pasyaltide celebrates Jesus’ last days on earth and is loosely based on a liturgical holiday known as Paschaltide or Eastertide. It begins on Easter Sunday and culminates in Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given to the Church.

As we began to write Illisya, we realized that the story was going to span over that world’s Pentecost Lumsday. As Samuel Chadwick writes in The Way to Pentecost: “Pentecost is the crowning miracle and abiding mystery of grace.” We didn’t want to miss the opportunity to celebrate such an important event in the Church if we could manage it in the story, so we began to look for a song that might be able to include. However, we quickly realized how few songs have actually been written to celebrate Pentecost. We wanted something that related to the historical event as well as pointing us to the Holy Spirit’s work today. As we began to prayerfully write this part of the book, snippets of a song came to mind, and we took the time to write a rough version of it. The text below may or may not make it into the finished book, but it gives you a taste of what might be.

Opportunities and Interviews

It seems like we’ve been really busy since our last blog post. Illisya is coming along and we are just a few chapter from the end of the first draft! We have had to rearrange our schedule in order to prioritize this book, but we are pushing hard for a March release date.

That being said, we did have a great time at the Hernando Nazarene Church craft fair with our friend and another local author, T. R. Hall. Both of us sold quite a few books, and we were able to talk with the many people who came through about our books. Then our Word Weavers group had a party to celebrate their 100th meeting. We had the opportunity to be on a panel for self-published authors answering questions from people on the lessons we’ve learned over the past 5 years in this field. And finally, we had an interview with another local author, C. Kevin Thompson. Check it out here.

Long Time, No Post

I just realized how long it’s been since I’ve posted an update! Wow, time flies when you are focusing on something, and focused we have been. Well, as much as work, children, and the myriad of other responsibilities will allow. So as you know, we are completing our fifth book. Looking at what needs to still happen, we are estimating that we will have a finished book by March of next year. It could be sooner if things go faster than we anticipate, but we still have to complete the last draft and then there will be a round of editing before we can send off for our cover design. Then we’ll be doing at least one more round of editing while we await our cover.

This weekend, though, we have an opportunity to partner with another local author, T. R. Hall, to sell books at Hernando Church of the Nazarene’s fall craft fair. We’ve gotten to know T. R. through our writer’s group. Check out his work here. Or better yet, come out and see us at the Fall Extravaganza!

Beginnings

This past week marked a milestone in our lives. We celebrated 20 years of marriage and marveled at how God has brought us this far through things we never could have imagined back when we said our vows. It hasn’t all been easy or smooth, but even still, we find ourselves more in love and having more fun together than all those years ago. We look forward to as many years together as God allows and hopefully we’ll have many more books in our future as well.

One of the fun things about writing this series is reminding ourselves what it was like back when our marriage was new. Beginnings should always be full of excitement and mystery. The wondering of where you are going and how God will get you there. Book beginnings should be the same way. We recently changed our opening for that reason. We reread it and realized there was no excitement in it. So we reworked it and infused the whole chapter with more energy. Below are the opening lines. There’s nothing like starting out with a bit of mystery.

Victories and Valleys

So many times we feel like Khomar. For every victory, there is a valley that seems darker than the one before. It is in times like these that we have to remind ourselves of the victories that have come before. God has yet to fail us and He won’t in future either. Even when we don’t understand the why’s and wherefore’s, we can trust in the One who holds the future.

Such was these past few weeks. We had a full week without children and got a ton of writing done only to get sick the following week. Of course, this hampered our writing considerably. Then we had a great vacation visiting with family but again very little writing was done. While this wasn’t a major valley, it was a little depressing to have all the ideas and no time to write them down. We’ve got the bones of the story in our heads, but a lot of work goes into fleshing it out. So, now that we are home again, we are pressing forward, trying to breathe life into the story, working toward the end of the book.

New Places, New Faces

One of our hopes for a while now has been to find a writers group. Montana, while being a great place to live, is not known for having things like writers groups close by since it simply does not have the population to support such things. While we have joined online writers groups, most of them are merely forums where writers can share things. These are helpful, but they cannot compare to a group that meets face-to-face. A few months ago, as we were struggling through our drafts, we came to the realization that we live in Florida where there should be some kind of writers groups around. A post on Twitter by an author led us to the Word Weavers website. Word Weavers is an Christian writers critique group with local chapters scattered around the world. We found a local chapter that fit our schedule and decided to visit to find out what it was like.

To make a long story short, we discovered it was much more than a critique group. It was a group of authors who were encouraging each other on their journey of writing with a focus on Christ. After that first meeting, M. and I were so encouraged by the people there that we came home and joined the parent organization. So we can now say that we are:

Persistence and Perseverance

I think those words about sum out the total of this book. Every time we begin to see light, another set back occurs. There have been many drafts, scenes, and chapters written so far, each striving to make this book as good as we can make it. But each time, there has been something holding it back. We are getting closer and closer to what we feel is the main the plot. The rewrites are getting less and moving more into minor changes. Still every roadblock is discouraging, but we press on.

Persistence and Perseverance also sum up the Christian life as well when you think about it. We strive toward Christ, pressing on with all of our might, but setbacks come. Maybe it’s things not working out as planned or something we thought should happen that didn’t. We know the end and the beginning, but it’s those pesky parts in the middle that catch us off guard and discourage us. Sometimes we catch a glimmer of light only to have doubts crowd in once more. It’s hard to hold on and persevere when this happens, but let me encourage you to do just that. Persist in the faith, hold on to Christ, and press on through the trials. Eventually they will give way to a crown of glory, one that will be worth it all in the end.

Tuesday Check-in But On Friday

Well, it didn’t take too long for me to miss a few Tuesdays, but I figured better late than never right? We’ve been really busy lately with many different end of school year things. I think life is finally settling in to a “summer normal”. The book is coming along but slower than we’d like because of all the craziness. However, we’ve made good headway and are gaining an understanding of the middle points of the book. We’ve known the end since Elvensty and set the beginning of this book a few months ago. It was more about getting from point A to point B.

One thing that has been on my mind a lot lately is this concept of being good enough to speak on something. For example, M. and I early in our marriage were sharing our experiences in married life. Someone looked at us and said “You’ll feel differently in a few years.” A few years have gone by (like 15 now), and we still feel the same as we did then. Or the time I was told that I could not speak for the millennials because I was “different”. I also find it’s almost always when the person doesn’t like what you are saying. They have no argument with which to challenge the truth of what you are saying, so they come up with an excuse to disbelieve. I think this is why Paul tells Timothy not to let anyone look down on him because he was young. He didn’t want someone coming in and bringing the gotcha argument of youth versus the truth God was using him to convey.

There are many different ways these gotcha’s come in. Remember these are all designed to prevent you from speaking into something with an answer someone doesn’t want to hear. It is not to say we should discount any critique, but don’t allow others to simply dismiss your experience, research, or intuition. There is a big difference between someone giving you a well reasoned argument and someone who merely wants you to feel inept. A good way to distinguish these things is to research logic fallacies and their many forms. And always remember 1 Timothy 4:12: “Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in your speech, conduct, love, faithfulness, and purity.”

The Whirlwind

I know I’ve missed a couple of Tuesday check-ins, and there’s a good reason for it. M. and I just spent the last two weeks in the car on a whirlwind trip. We had to pick up our eldest son from college in Montana so we drove all the way from Florida to Montana to get him. While we were there, we decided to drive even further as M.’s parents live about six hours from our son’s college, and we had to see them while we were in the relative vicinity. Along the way, we saw many of our old friends from years past and even met a few new ones. It was an encouraging and refreshing vacation in spite of the crazy, busy schedule we had.

As a result of the trip, however, we didn’t have a ton of time to write. We talked about the plot elements on the drive and even got a few outlines for chapters written down. We also came up with a good twist that we are excited to write as well. Now we just have to get back into the routine after being away. I will leave you with a snippet from Jyrya that I thought of while in the mountain terrain again. It is good to know that no matter where we roam, God holds us in His hands.