Beth K. Vogt's Blog, page 20

Road Trippin’ with Tyndale and DiAnn Mills: Stop # 6

Welcome to Tyndale Fiction’s Road Trip Scavenger Hunt! We’re so happy you are here. To participate, collect the key words through all 13 stops in order, so you can enter to win our grand prize giveaway!

Some details:

The adventure begins on Wednesday, August 1. You’ll have two weeks to make your way through all the stops (giveaways will close on Tuesday, August 14).
While you do not have to start at Stop #1, keep in mind that the grand prize giveaway phrase will begin with the word you collect at that first stop.
To complete your submission for the grand prize giveaway, be sure to collect the key word within each author’s blog post, submitting the final, completed phrase in the form hosted on this page.
Also, be sure to enter the giveaways these authors are hosting on their blogs!

Enjoy the journey—we hope you’ll discover new books along the way as you hear from Tyndale Fiction authors about road trips, the settings of their novels, and more!

Happy road tripping!

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Please welcome award-winning author DiAnn Mills to my blog today — I’ve admired both her writing and her heart for mentoring writers for years! DiAnn is a bestselling author whose novels have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne du Maurier, and Carol Award contests. Her latest romantic-suspense novel is about an assassination plot against a Saudi prince on US soil and the FBI Special Agents who head up a task force to keep the prince safe—and find those responsible in order to avoid an international incident that could have devastating consequences.

With DiAnn you can always expect an adventure! Please welcome DiAnn!

 

 

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The Winding Road That Can Lead to High Treason

Living in Houston allows me to create settings where I can walk the same path as my heroes and heroines. High Treason placed me on a roller-coaster ride. The dramatic events before and during the story challenged me to take readers where they’d never been before in a DiAnn Mills novel.

For those ups, downs, twists, and sharp turns to happen, I scooted into my car on the passenger side armed with my iPad and a vivid imagination. While my husband drove, I kept my eyes glued to the happenings in every direction while hoping my fingers hit the right keys to record details. I’d like to take you on the same adventure. Hold tight!

The story opens with FBI Special Agent Kord Davidson accompanying his good friend Saudi Prince Omar bin Talal in a limo from Houston’s Hobby Airport to the royal family’s home in River Oaks. A favorite stop for ice cream near the family home is in order, but when the head guard steps from the limo to ensure the prince’s safety, he is assassinated. Think about the repercussions of a dignitary’s death on American soil. Not good for foreign relations.

The CIA joins forces with the FBI to not only protect but also find who’s behind the killing and suspected assassination attempt on the prince. CIA operative Monica Alden is assigned to work with Kord. Neither one is happy about working together. The reasons are too many to list, but let’s just say Monica is stepping into a man’s world, and Kord feels responsible for the crime since the prince is his friend.

Setting plays a dynamic role in every one of my stories. The ice cream shop where the shooting occurs is located across the street from a real school near River Oaks where construction is taking place. Just like the story. Sensory perception climbed a construction ladder into my imagination. Even the weather partnered with a ferocious thunderstorm, creating an authentic suspenseful environment.

I’ve never been inside a mansion in River Oaks, only driven by and awed at the splendor. So I looked at a real estate site for the area. The perfect home I needed was listed for sale! No, sadly enough, I didn’t attempt to buy it, but the description and photo tours were vivid. There were more pics on Pinterest. The rooms needed for various scenes were depicted in color and purpose. Those images, as well as food, coffee, quotes, and actors who could play the characters, helped me create my own High Treason Pinterest board.

This story was the most difficult of all I’ve written, which also makes it a favorite. I struggled with research, characterization, and plot, which endeared the story to my heart. I know that sounds strange. Viewing the story through Saudi Arabian eyes challenged me. The process took hours of online research about topics like cultural dress, mannerisms, and food, interviewing those who’d worked with Saudi men and women, and discovering how the Saudis view the world and politics. Every drop of perspiration and frustrated tears brought me closer to entertaining readers with a powerful story.

The climax occurs at a favorite yearly entertainment event, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which lasts three weeks. How grand the book released at the same time. The sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and touches of this mix of yesterday’s and today’s cowboys and cowgirls are unique to Houston and its people.

 

 

 

 

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Here’s the Stop #6 Important Information:

You can purchase DiAnn’s book, High Treason, here. 
Clue to write down: to
Link to Stop #7, the next stop in the scavenger hunt, on DiAnn’s Site!

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Extra Giveaway!

Thanks for being part of our summer road trip. I’m offering visitors a chance to win a hard copy of my “Little Women gone wrong”  novel about the four Thatcher sisters, Things I Never Told You, as well as a canvas hummingbird bag.

Join me over at award-winning author Tessa Afshar’s blog, Stop #5 along the scavenger hunt.

Click here to view this promotion.


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In Others’ Words: What are You Looking For?

My husband frequents the flower display at Costco. 

Most days, there are some sort of flowers displayed in a vase on my kitchen counter or breakfast nook table: lush roses or a mixed variety of blooms or the occasional exuberant collection of sunflowers. On the one hand, there’s nothing fancy about a Costco buy-them-in-bulk bouquet, right? But it’s true that it’s the thought that counts. The arrival of flowers are so expected that when my youngest daughter was a toddler, we would head toward the checkout lane in Costco and she would want to pick a bouquet of flowers for me “like Daddy does” 

My husband’s actions changed our family’s perspective. Those flower on display aren’t just flowers — they are the flowers my husband buys me on a weekly basis because he knows his action makes me feel loved. Now, just strolling by the display during an I-just-need-a-few-things Costco run makes me smile because I think of my husband. 

Perspective — what you are looking for — changes things. It changes you and your relationships.

Sometimes one of the bouquets my husband brings home for me is a dud. It doesn’t bloom, the buds wilting, the petals falling off. But does that change why he gave me flowers? Not at all. I look past the less than perfect flowers and see the giver. The intent. And the bouquet is still beautiful.

In Your Words: How do you look for the good things in life: beauty, kindness, hope? 

In Others' Words: What are You Looking for? http://bit.ly/2viIhJT #quotes #perspective
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'There are always flowers for those who want to see them.' Quote by Henri Matisse http://bit.ly/2viIhJT #flowers #perspective
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In Others’ Words: Don’t Beat Up Your Soul

I don’t know what a person’s soul looks like, but I do believe there is no one-size-fits-all version.

And yet … and yet, there have been times I’ve treated my soul like a ready-to-wear garment found in a store. I like what I have, until I see what someone else has … and I think, “Hmmmm, I like that style a little better than what I have. Maybe I should see if I can exchange this.”

Souls are not exchangeable. 

Souls are invaluable. Eternal.

Measuring my life against someone else’s diminishes my worth — and let’s just be honest here, I’m often over-inflating the value of someone else’s life. I’m too hard on myself and too easy on someone else. I don’t know their reality and my perspective on my life is skewed.

You want to use a yardstick? Measure whether a bookcase fits in your office. Don’t measure life against life. Don’t measure something eternal, like your soul.

In Others’ Words: What helps you see your value — and see the value in someone else?

In Others' Words: Don't Beat Up Your Soul http://bit.ly/2vdrfNp #quote #identity
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'Pick up a yardstick to measure your life against anyone else's, and you've just picked up a stick and beaten up your own soul.' http://bit.ly/2vdrfNp @AnnVoskamp
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In Others’ Words: Time Requirement

 

Each of us is striving toward a different goal, but whatever we want to accomplish requires the same thing: skill, and effort and time. 

Sometimes, more than anything else, the time required to reach our goals trips us up more than anything else.

We feel good about ourselves when we’re learning a skill.

We feel good about effort of any kind. Pursuing a writing dream? Effort looks like attending a writing conference where you network, attend workshops, pitch your work-in-progress (WIP), maybe win an award.

But time? The how long it takes for things to happen? The waiting?

We struggle with the timing of it all. 

Sometimes things happen fast — and that’s it’s own kind of challenge. But believe me, there was waiting involved in the “overnight success” stories, too.

And for those who wait?  Well, waiting can seem like a waste of time. But time is made up of both doing — learning the skills and making the efforts — and waiting. And then repeating that cycle.

All great achievements — the great achievement you are pursuing — takes time. Don’t fight it. Use it to your advantage.

In Your Words: How can you use time — the upcoming hours, days, weeks — to help yourself pursue your dream?

In Others' Words: Time Requirement http://bit.ly/2v0fxpf #quote #success
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'All great achievements take time.' Quote by Maya Angelou http://bit.ly/2v0fxpf #perspective #goals
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In Others’ Words: Finding Rest When You’re More Than Tired

Some days you work hard and go to bed at the end of the day good and tired.

And some days you’re worked over and go to bed at the end of the day more than tired.

You know the difference, right?

The days when you put in the work, hit the mark you were aiming for — or maybe you don’t — but you’ve given it your best effort. You can look back over your shoulder and you don’t see anything chasing you down. You look forward to getting back at it tomorrow.

And then there are the days you drag yourself to bed and lay awake, counting your efforts, and find them not enough. Not enough done and too much to do tomorrow.

You’re soul weary, your emotions flogged by worry, frustration, and yes, resentment that you tried so hard and it wasn’t enough.

What’s a person to do?

Get up and try again tomorrow. Try harder, right?

No.

When you’re tired, you need to rest.

If you’re being worn out by worry, then you need to stop the “what ifs.”  Asking “what if” at the end of the day is a waste of time and emotion.
If you’re being worn out by frustration, then focus on what you can do and let go of what you can’t. Maybe ask someone for help. Now there’s a novel idea: You don’t have to go all Lone Ranger and do it yourself.
If you’re being worn out by resentment, ask yourself where the overload of expectations is coming from: you or someone else. Are they realistic expectations or the unspoken ones that often demand too much of us for nothing in return?

 

In Your Words: How do you find rest when you’re overwhelmed by worry, frustration, or resentment?

 

In Others' Words: Finding Rest When You're More Than Tired http://bit.ly/2LqlWRk #quotes #perspective
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'Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment.' Quote by Dale Carnegie http://bit.ly/2LqlWRk #fatigue #rest
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In Others’ Words: Realistic Boundaries

I love the honesty of this quote. 

Oh, sure, there have been times when I wanted to believe I could do it all. But thinking I was some amazingly talented Superwoman was, at the least, unrealistic. Put it another way, that kind of thinking was just plain ridiculous.

Life became much more livable when I realized my boundaries: what I’m good at and what I’m not good at. 

I’m good with words.

Numbers? Nope. I’m not good with those — especially when your throw in mathematical symbols.

I’m good at seeing the big picture — not so good at seeing the finer details. (Unless I’m editing — then I’m all about the minutiae.)

Life is better now that I know who I am — the boundaries of my “yes, I can’s” and “no, I can’ts” because I know what I’m capable of doing well. It allows me to excel where I’m able, and to applaud others when they step up and do well, displaying their talents and abilities.

Knowing my personal boundaries doesn’t make me less or more than anyone else. It just allows me to more confidently be myself. 

In Your Words: What’s helped you define your personal boundaries? What’s one thing you know you do well? One thing that you bow out and say, “Nope, that’s not my area of expertise”?

In Others' Words: Realistic Boundaries http://bit.ly/2LkBLfS #perspective #quotes
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''I'm very realistic. I know my boundaries - I know what I'm good at and what I'm not good at.' #quote by @victoriabeckham http://bit.ly/2LkBLfS #boundaries
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In Others’ Words: Just Say No

“‘No’ is a complete sentence.”

I read today’s quote and thought, “Huh.”

Author Anne Lamott spoke a whole lot of truth with those five words.

We can say “no” to someone and not feel obligated to offer our reasons for declining an invitation or for stepping away from an opportunity.

We can say “no” and resist someone’s second and third attempts to persuade us to change our minds or to pray about this decision again — as if we hadn’t thought out our “no” well enough the first time. As if we hadn’t prayed over our decision sufficiently to hear God’s voice leading us to a “no,”  not a “yes.”

“No” is a sufficient response. We don’t have to say, “No, and I’m so sorry I can’t (fill in the blank), but I have to (fill in the blank).” We don’t have to say, “No, I won’t be there, but (proceed to list all the reasons why you can’t make the meeting or the get-together or the church activity or the family gathering).”

Just say “no” … and know your simple “N-O” answer is enough. Other people may not like it, but that doesn’t mean you owe them anything more than a polite “no.”

In Your Words: What do you think about “no” being a complete sentence? How does that work for you?

In Others' Words: Just Say No http://bit.ly/2Jgprb4 #quotes #perspective
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'No is a complete sentence.' @AnneLamottQuotes http://bit.ly/2Jgprb4 #boundaries #relationships
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In Others’ Words: Wrong and Right

There will be times when we are wrong.

There will be times when we are right.

It comes down to this: What will we do during the wrong times and the right times? Who will we be?

When we’re wrong, we can pretend our wrong is right. Or we can close our eyes and ignore our wrong. Or point at someone else and declare they’re wrong, thus making us appear right.

None of this alters the fact that we are wrong. Wrong becomes right only when we change our actions. Or our words. Or our attitude.

Now, when we’re right, we’re right. But when our attitude is proud or boastful or “I’m right and you’re not” … well, then there’s something wrong about our being right. We may be right, but, we’re anything but easy to live with.

It’s about being right … and having the right attitude about being right. 

In Your Words: How do you handle yourself when you’re wrong? How do you handle yourself when you’re right? Is one easier than the other?

In Others' Words: Wrong and Right http://bit.ly/2JaOnRp #quotes #perspective
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'Lord, where we are #wrong, make us willing to change; where we are #right, make us easy to live with.' http://bit.ly/2JaOnRp
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In Others’ Words: Make a Wish

Wishes can come true … 

… but only if you stop wishing and do something about them.

How’s that for a practical thought to start your day?

And yes, there’s a certain energy to wishes and dreams … a creative buzz, if you will. Dreaming isn’t a waste of time unless that’s all we ever do. Dreams are meant to become something more … something real …

And that’s where the planning has to happen.

A book, for example, begins with an idea — the “what if,” we authors like to call it. And we dream about that story idea for awhile. Hours. Days. Weeks, even. We toss it around with other writer-friends. But, at some point, we have to take all that dream-energy and turn it into planning-energy. (I won’t say plotting, because not all writers consider themselves plotters. Some just get right down to the business of writing — “the plan” is the writing. No plot needed.)

Wishes are the seeds of dreams . . . and dreams need to be watered and allowed to grow into something real. And that takes planning. Action. We have to go beyond “wish I may, wish I might” and get to the doing of the dream.

In Your Words: What are you wishing for … dreaming of … today? What’s one step you can take — one action you can do — today to move toward your dream? 

In Others' Words: Make a Wish http://bit.ly/2KxZglY #perspective #quotes
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'It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.' http://bit.ly/2KxZglY #quote by Eleanor Roosevelt #choices
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In Others’ Words: A Quote for July 4, 2018

I am proud to be an American.

I am thankful to be an American.

And on Wednesday, July 4, I will celebrate being an American.

America is not perfect — but I don’t think it was ever set up to be so. This country was established on ideals such as courage and freedom and equality, but imperfect people founded this country … and imperfect people lead this country … and imperfect people live in this country.

But America is my country — and I will take it, as is, hoping for better things tomorrow.

 

In Others’ Words: Happy 4th of July! How will you be celebrating the holiday? 

In Others' Words: A Quote for July 4, 2018 http://bit.ly/2IMhcmQ #IndependenceDay #quote
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'America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, imagination and unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.' http://bit.ly/2IMhcmQ #patriotism #quote
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