Becky Wade's Blog, page 135

New-to-you writers & a giveaway

While I love writing, I’m a reader first. I love finding new-to-me authors that allow me to binge through their books, so I’m always on the look our for new books to try.

Are you the same way? Do you have your trusted authors that you read everything they write? But let’s face it, authors are slow! Crafting those wonderful story worlds and characters takes time. So you’re looking for new-to-you authors?

In an effort to help readers find new authors, I’ve started a Facebook Live series on Tuesday evenings at 8:30 EST. Can’t make it? No worries! I capture them on Facebook and Instagram TV. So far I’ve chatted with four wonderful authors, and I’ve got a great line-up coming through the end of April including some of the wonderful women in this group. So far, I’m talking with my favorites — y’all, it’s so much fun! You are welcome to join us or catch up by watching them later. Here are the next three weeks lovely authors. See why I’m excited!

You can click on the following links if you want to sign up for an event so you get reminders from Facebook: Rachel Hauck, Sarah Sundin, and Becky Wade. If you’d like to check out the earlier chats, there are links below!

   

Bethany Turner Chat; Toni Shiloh Chat; Rachel McDaniel Chat; Janine Rosche Chat.

I’ve also been up to some spring cleaning. I want to share a bounty of duplicate books with you. You can use the form below to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Beating the Winter Blues

Hi friends,

Happy to be back with you this week. I don’t know about you, but being a summer girl at heart, winters can be hard on me. In Maryland it’s cold and dreary most of the time. We have this grey blanket that covers the sky often. Since I’m a blue sky and sun kind of girl, the lack of sunshine often weighs me down.

I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico for a number of years, and the winters were milder and the sky was big and the sun bright. Ever since we moved back to the east coast twenty-eight years ago, I’ve never adjusted to the low temps. After living in Maryland, the longest of any place I’ve lived, you’d think I’d warm up, but it hasn’t happened yet.

I don’t let it stop me from heading to the beach.

Or hiking near our home. Hiking at night is so much fun!

However, I’ve learned to appreciate more about winter over the last couple years. I’d still pick summer over it any day. With COVID and my weakened immunity due to a variety of autoimmune conditions and the treatment for Lupus in particular, I’ve been extremely limited in venturing out much. I decided, or rather, God has clearly pointed out, there is much for me to be thankful for. Taking the stance of gratitude, I’ve looked for things I enjoy about winter. First and foremost would be snow. I love the majestic beauty of thick, powdery flakes falling to the ground.

But my favorite reason for snow is the joy it brings to my grandsons.

And, of course, our Newfie baby. He views a snowy backyard as his personal playland.

It’s also the time that pictures and videos of my favorite animal show up often.

That’s right. Moose are my favorite animal. I think they are adorable! If you’ve read my Alaskan Courage series, then you’ll recall one of the McKenna siblings who loves moose as much as I do. If you haven’t had a chance to read the McKenna’s adventures now is a great time.

In fact, I’m giving away the first two books in my Alaskan Courage series along with a few of my winter favorites to one lucky winner. How do you enter? Easy. Just comment below with one thing you love about winter, and I’ll randomly pick a winner on Friday.

Best of luck,

Dani

Walking On (Frozen) Water

I know only Jesus (and briefly Peter) walked on water. But here in Minnesota, people regularly walk and even drive on water—frozen water, that is.

Lake Minnetonka, MN (Credit: Isaac Leif, Caters News Service)

If you live in the cold North as I do, you’re probably accustomed to people driving motor vehicles onto lakes. But if you live someone warm like California, Florida, or Australia, you might find this custom strange and surprising. I did. When I moved up to Minnesota from central Illinois, I was not used to seeing people driving their trucks out onto the ice, nor the sight of little villages cropping up in the middle of the lake comprised of cars, trucks, campers, ice-fishing houses, and lawn chairs.

Seasonal town on the lake across the street.

I admit I didn’t think it a very wise or safe practice. Especially when every year, there are reports of vehicles going through the ice. I have timidly stepped a few feet onto the ice now and again over the years, always with a little thrill of fear shooting through me, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

Truck through the ice 2020 (credit: Brown County Sheriff)

Ice fishing is a popular sport here. I read that on large Mille Lacs lake alone, some 5,500 fish houses are set up each winter—some rustic, some outfitted with kitchens, beds and other creature comforts.

Ice-fishing houses on Minnesota’s Mille Lacs lake.

I’m not ready to try that, but with my fitness place closed on and off, I have been trying to keep walking outside even though the temperatures have plummeted. With snow falling and the walking paths not always plowed, I decided to finally brave the lake across our street, where sportsmen keep “roads” plowed around and across it.

Lake “road” with someone’s leftover Christmas tree and snowmobile in distance.

The lake is over 35 feet deep. The thought of falling through it fills me with icy dread. (Note: Don’t try this yourself before checking local warnings or posted signs about thin or melting ice.) Although hesitant at first, I was foolishly proud of myself for braving something I’d feared, for trying something new (to me). Most of the plowed path had enough snow cover that I could maintain the illusion of walking on snowy ground, but here and there the path was clear down to the ice, which gave me the tingling-belly giddy feeling like crossing a precarious glass walkway. I took a deep breath and walked on.

Me, walking on ice (Note: YakTrax on shoes) and ice-fishing holes.

I have walked around the lake a few times now, and never has hitting 10,000 steps been easier! (A warm balaclava for my tends-to-windburn face, long johns, and YakTrax for slippery surfaces make walking safer, while listening to audiobooks makes it more pleasurable.)

Over this last weekend, however, the temperatures dropped to -15 F (-26 C) which is too cold even for me. Now I’m looking for a new way to stay active indoors, and am thinking of trying online tap-dancing lessons. (Don’t laugh. Ok, go ahead. )

What about you? Do you venture out onto the ice where you live? Or participate in any other seasonal activities? How are you staying active these days?

Pressing On

Hey, everyone. Robin here. I’m blogging today in Deborah Raney’s place. She suffered the loss of two loved ones recently. Please keep her in your prayers as she and her husband walk through this time of grief and remembrance.

Deb, we love you so much.

I can’t believe we are already well into the second month of 2021. January went by me in a blur. How about all of you?

I’ve been writing up a storm, and as I write this post, I am within a few days of typing The End on another book (I hope, I hope, I hope). I have loved writing this story and look forward to sharing more about it with you in the future.

On the first of February, I received the first pass pages of Make You Feel My Love. Proofing these pages is the author’s last chance to catch typos and fix other minor mistakes in a book before it goes to print. So I am working my way through the manuscript this one last time so I can get the changes back to my publisher by their deadline.

Coming in July 2021

I read first pass pages on my iPad using a wonderful app called Goodreader. It allows me to mark up the manuscript in various ways (you can do the same thing in other apps like Adobe Acrobat).

Goodreader app

But the beauty of Goodreader is that, with one click, you can export all of the changes into the body of an email, along with page numbers (see examples). Plus it will attach a copy of the annotated PDF to that email.

Corrections on the PDF fileExample of how the email I send to my publisher looks

Okay, I confess. I am a bit of a nerd as well as an app junkie. But when I find an app for my iPad, iPhone, and/or MacBook that makes my life easier or better in some way, I sure am happy about it, and I love to share it with others.

Finally, I am beginning every day listening to the Breathe Bible audiobook of the New Testament (NLT). It’s performed by a number of actors you might recognize, including Kevin Sorbo, Josh Lucas, Ashley Judd, and John Rhys-Davies.

I am loving listening to the Word in those early morning hours, and I do recommend this performance version of the New Testament to you.

And I will leave you with this. Yesterday, as I wrote a key scene, a verse popped into my head, and I knew it was part of the lesson my protagonist needed to learn at that crucial moment.

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 3:13-14, NASB95

As usual, God’s word spoke to me as well as to my protagonist. In a turbulent world, I need to press on toward the upward call of God. And I get to press on with wonderful friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, walking beside me. What a blessing.

Until next time,
~robin

Inspired by Scripture

This Sunday feature is brought to you by ClashVerseoftheDay.com. You may sign up to receive a beautiful photo with Scripture in your inbox each morning or view the verse each day online.

How to Write Prolifically & Productively Anywhere

As a mom who has homeschooled five children, the number one question I’ve been asked is: “How do you find time to write?” A second close question is: “In such a busy household, where do you write most productively?”

I’ve touched on the first question before, but I can’t remember talking much about the second. So today, I thought I’d tackle that question.

Where is the best place for authors to write most productively? Should they have a set place and routine? What about all of the distractions and interruptions (especially for moms with kids at home)?

Let me start by saying that in my entire writing career, I’ve only had an office twice. The first time didn’t last long before the room was taken over for other purposes. After ten plus years of going without, I gained an office again last fall. I’ve had it for five months, but I gave it up when my college daughter was home for close to two months between semesters.

I love my new office (it has an enormous beautiful book shelf on the wall not showing!). But I don’t rely upon a separate, quiet space for my writing time. I never have. I’ve always had the philosophy that all I really need is a chair and a flat surface for my laptop. That means over the years I’ve worked at a wobbly card table in the basement, a battered desk shoved in a corner of my bedroom, the tiny kitchen-counter desk, and the busy dining room table.

In every single place I’ve worked, I’ve always been surrounded by my family coming and going and making lots of noise. None of my work spaces has ever been truly private, where I can sit uninterrupted for hours on end. Even now, my new office has a futon which seems to invite everyone to come sit and talk to me.

Yet, in spite of the chaos, I’m able to write multiple books a year. How is that possible? How can any author write productively and prolifically anywhere?

The KEY is self-discipline.

No matter where I write, no matter the circumstances around me, no matter the number of interruptions, and no matter the chaos, I park my butt in the chair, and I don’t allow myself to quit my work day until I reach my self-imposed daily goal (usually a word count to write or number of chapters to edit).

Of course, I’ve learned a few tricks over the years to help me focus better and drown out the chaos. Most of the time I wear headphones and listen to piano music. I almost always give myself writing sprints where I challenge myself to accomplish a certain number of words in thirty minutes. I went through a phase where I worked on an old laptop that doesn’t have internet (to avoid the additional distraction). And there have been days where I’ve had to tell my family to try not to interrupt so often.

For those writers who think they have to wait until the house is quiet and empty before they can work, I’m living proof that no writer absolutely has to have perfect conditions to write. If I’d waited until I had no distractions or interruptions, I never would have started and certainly never would have sustained a writing career.

Instead, we have to stop making excuses for not writing and start to make the most of the situations and environments we find ourselves in. Even if we write 500 words a day, it’s still something. Over a year’s time that will amount to a completed book.

I’ve learned that life is messy, but it’s often in that messy places that some of the best stories are born.

How about YOU? If you’re a writer, where do you write? And if you’re a reader, how do you handle the messes of life?

Valentines Giveaways

Since I adore romance, both reading it and writing it, the Valentine season is my favorite time of year for book giveaways. And I’m delighted to be part of two GIANT romance giveaways that are going on between now and Valentine’s Day.

The first giveaway features stories of love through the ages. Starting with the biblical era and moving on to present day, this 18-book giveaway has romance in every era by some of your favorite authors. Two winners will receive all of these marvelous reads!

Click Here to Enter

Who wants flowers for Valentine’s Day, when you could have 20 swoon-worthy reads instead? A fun mix of historical and contemporary, these book valentines will keep you sighing and oh-my-ing until Easter. One lucky winner will receive all 20 books in this epic giveaway package.

Click Here to Enter

If you could pick one book pictured above to read on Valentine’s Day,
which book would you choose?

Out of the Writing Desert

For the past five years, I’ve been in a writing desert. I’ve wondered if it was of my own making or if the Lord had removed that part of my life forever. I’ve struggled and prayed and tried. I felt no peace about quitting and yet no desire to continue, either. Still, I forced myself to write. I even self published two novellas. But my heart wasn’t really in it. I did it because I thought I ought to. After all, my other responsibilities as full-time mom had ceased. It should have been the time in my life to write unencumbered.

As time passed, I thought this sudden feeling of not wanting to write was some failure in me. Laziness? Burnout? Flat out rebellion? After all, God had very obviously given me the desire to write stories from an early age. And He had brought about amazing things I hadn’t expected—such as four books published by Bethany House Publishers. I flailed myself often for my weakness. My lack of persistence and fortitude. My tendency to wallow in self-pity over the downturn of my writing career and the upending of my everyday routines by our sudden move to a new city.

Then we left our new city just as abruptly as we’d arrived almost five years earlier, and we returned home. Home to friends. Home to family. Home to a darling house in our dream neighborhood. And after almost 3 years in a tiny one bedroom condo (and a little larger two bedroom apartment before that!), the new house provided me a true workspace. An office upstairs. In the back. Literally a place to hide away from the world and work.

Which both thrilled and terrified me. After all, I hadn’t really wanted to write for the past five years, so why did I think that desire would suddenly return now?

And yet that space beckoned, with its futon sofa and second-hand desk. With its built in bookshelves and armoire repurposed to hold all my book inventory and marketing do-dads. So I climbed the stairs, unsure what I would feel, what I could make happen.

The most interesting part? I didn’t have to make anything happen! I got up there in my ivory tower and the words flowed, just like they used to. Characters clambered for my attention. Stories spun themselves. And once again, I felt wholly alive, doing what I was created to do.

I know the Lord did much work in me during the five year hiatus from loving to write, much of which I imagine will come out in the stories I tell. I have learned to prioritize people. To love them more fully. To guard my time to refresh and refuel. To relish time in the Word and prayer. To embrace community. To love words—again. Not just reading them, but writing them. To appreciate the gift that God has given me to tell stories.

After desert years, the promised land feels even more . . . promising. And lush. And delightful. Now my promised land living is less about publishing and more about writing, though if I’m honest, I desire both. Still, I can be content in this place more so than before, publishing or not, because in the end, the stories I tell through my fingers on the keyboard at the unction of the Holy Spirit change me. And if the Lord choses to use them to encourage others as well? Then to God by the glory.

What has been your desert lately? Is there a gift God gave you that you didn’t fully appreciate until it seemed to have disappeared?

2 absolute must reads: the power of truth to fight lies

Have you ever read a book that you simply couldn’t not tell others about? I’m assuming your answer is likely yes, since we’re part of a blog that focuses on the love for and inspiration behind reading. Specifically fiction.

But today I’m sharing about two non-fiction books, and if I could buy them for you, I would. They’re that good!

They’re very different reads as a quick glance at the covers will tell you. But they’re both powerful reads about speaking the truth and living in Truth.

Live Not By Lies: a Manual for Christian Dissidents
by Rod Dreher

You guys already know I’m serious about studying history, and this book is a very candid, even ominous look at the rise of communism in the former Soviet Union, and specifically in Czechoslovakia. It details the telltale signs of “soft” totalitarianism in that era that mirror, with striking similarity, the severe infringements on civil liberty and religious freedom that are happening in America as we speak. Recently banned on Twitter, anyone?

It’s amazing how telling the truth on social media these days can get you banned. But we must speak truth. Speak it in love, yes. Absolutely. Just as Jesus commanded. But we must speak his truth and not be silent.

Here’s the review I left on Amazon:

More about Live Not By Lies:
“In Live Not By Lies, Dreher amplifies the alarm sounded by the brave men and women who fought totalitarianism. He explains how the totalitarianism facing us today is based less on overt violence and more on psychological manipulation. He tells the stories of modern-day dissidents–clergy, laity, martyrs, and confessors from the Soviet Union and the captive nations of Europe—who offer practical advice for how to identify and resist totalitarianism in our time. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously said that one of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming totalitarianism can’t happen in their country. Many American Christians are making that mistake today, sleepwalking through the erosion of our freedoms. Live Not By Lies will wake them and equip them for the long resistance.”

Start listening to LIVE NOT BY LIES
New Morning Mercies by Paul David TrippOver 500,000 copies sold

Randy Alcorn recommended New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp in a group zoom call last fall—and it’s so good. It’s a daily devotional with insights from God’s Word that really are treasures!

Insightful. Practical. Convicting. Encouraging. Empowering!

I find myself underlining sentences every morning and then thinking about the truth from God’s Word throughout the day.

If you’re looking for a new daily devotional for 2021, I highly recommend New Morning Mercies!

More about New Morning Mercies:
“Mornings can be tough. Sometimes, a hearty breakfast and strong cup of coffee just aren’t enough. Offering more than a rush of caffeine, best-selling author Paul David Tripp wants to energize you with the most potent encouragement imaginable: the gospel. Forget “behavior modification” or feel-good aphorisms. Tripp knows that what we really need is an encounter with the living God. Then we’ll be prepared to trust in God’s goodness, rely on his grace, and live for his glory each and every day.”

“If you’re prone to wander, this book is for you.”
―Matt and Lauren Chandler, Lead Pastor, The Village Church, Dallas, Texas

“Paul’s writing encourages those who have grown weary of the struggle, living under the weight of the world.”
―TobyMac, hip hop recording artist; music producer; songwriter

Start reading NEW MORNING MERCIESNow it’s your turn…

1) Have you read either Live Not By Lies or New Morning Mercies? If yes, I’d love to know your thoughts.

2) Is there a book you’ve read recently that you’d like to recommend to the community at Inspired by Life & Fiction?

Blessings on your Tuesday,
Tammy

Piecing Life Together With Slow Stitching

by Cleo Lampos

My mom seldom had empty hands. When she finished pressing dough into loaves, feeding the chickens, or ironing heavy cotton, her fingers picked up scraps of fabrics left over from the feed sack clothing she designed and stitched for my sister and me. From these bits of cloth, postage stamp quilts emerged. Cozy coverings for an uninsulated home in central Iowa farmland. Frugal living with a needle and thread.

 These images impressed upon my mind at an early age translated into the historical fiction that I have written. In A Mother’s Song, the novel that highlights the orphan train, an entire chapter is dedicated to the history of frontier quilt patterns. One of the characters is buried with her favorite comforter wrapped around her, a custom of many pioneers. The novel binds family, home and second chances with love.

Another historical novel, Riding the Rails to Home: A Newsie Rides the Orphan Train, includes the quilt square that Stephen carries as a reminder of his mother, who dies of cholera. At the end of the book, the Nebraska patchwork of wheat fields yield homesteaders who sew a Hugs and Kisses quilt to welcome this adopted son to the community.

The most personal of the stories based in history is Dust Between the Stitches. After reading my mother’s diary of her early marriage to my father in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, my fascination with Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam with their feed sack creations sparked a story of a Depression era teacher who quilts. At the beginning of each chapter, a typical 1930’s piecing pattern is highlighted. The appendix to the book presents a brief description of each design.

But the most compelling part of quilt making is the quilters themselves. After joining a quilting guild, I found myself talking with the sew-ers more than actually constructing a fabric masterpiece. Their stories intrigued me and spurred my imagination. Eventually, researching every movement in quilting from pioneer stitchers to Gees Bends needle crafters filled many hours. The alliance of Amish and Hmong to produce high quality quilts inspired me. Learning how a therapist who works with anorexia patients has used the soft curves of fabric to heal their souls brought tears to my eyes. These and many more historic and personal accounts encouraged me to share the ways that quilting provides therapy, creativity, functionality and community to so many women. Piecing Fabrics: Mending Livesis the first compilation of narratives about needle work.

This month, the second book brings more stories to inspire and encourage stitchers.  Creating Comfort-ers: The History, Philosophy and Ingenuity of Quilters chronicles the women who used their threads and needles to fight in WWII. Deaf quilters are introduced. Even baking projects with a needle crafter’s touch are explored among the crazy quilt of topics covered within the pages of this nonfiction book. The hopes and despair of real women create the masterpieces that give snuggly comfort.

Slow stitching allows time to meditate. To ponder the thread of creativity that flows like a running stitch through the fabric. To think about the women who find their lives richer from the creations of their hands.

 Hands like my mother’s.

Cleo Lampos is an educator, writer and speaker who desires to equip parents and professionals to maximize the potential in every child. Lampos’ compassion for students who suffer from poverty, broken homes or foster care is based on her own experiences as a child. Her father died when she was three, and her step-father moved the family from state to state. Born in Colorado, but raised in Iowa and Wisconsin, Lampos attended nine schools before beginning high school. Her personal philosophy in life is that “broken lives can be healed when the pieces are given to the Creator.” In all her speaking, teaching and writing, the hope and the grace of the gospel shines through. Learn more about Cleo’s books on her blog http://cleolampos.com