Becky Wade's Blog, page 23

The Things We Do for Love

The old 1970s song “The Things We Do for Love” ran through my head often last week. And while it’s a song about romantic love, my context was the love of parents for children and grandparents for grandchildren. 

You see, we are not beach people. We enjoy looking out at the ocean and hearing the waves crashing while reading a book. We don’t particularly enjoy fighting for a bit of shade in a short seat in the sand. 

We’re not really pool people, either. Unless it’s a  perfect 70-80 degrees with a very slight breeze, in the shade, with a book. 

But we are grandparents. And we love spending time with our grandchildren. And their parents. We’ve been wanting to take them on vacation for a while but hadn’t been able to come up with a time/situation that was good for them and for us. But knowing our southern California-raised daughter-in-law hasn’t had true beach time in several years, we suggested a Thanksgiving week trip to the 30A area of Florida. We settled on Santa Rosa, just a few minutes from the more famous Seaside. We even drove so we could bring Dolly with us. 

I think Jeff and I spent more hours at the beach last week than we have in our adult lives up to that point because the girls loved the beach! One loved the waves, one loved the sand. Our son and daughter-in-law loved the sunshine and seeing their girls enjoy something new. The weather was great—mid-70s for four days—with two windier days and two lovely calm days. They also loved riding in the golf cart to get to the beach!

But don’t imagine we didn’t enjoy ourselves, too, not only the time with our kids and grandkids but also the ice cream shops, coffee shops, and bakeries we frequented! We had an understated Thanksgiving day meal ordered from the grocery store but with my usual homemade pumpkin pie. And the Cowboys even won their game that evening. It was truly a wonderful week. 

All-in-all, we’d do it again and again, even at the beach. Because our granddaughters loved it. And because we love them. 

Is there something you don’t particularly enjoy but you do for the love of someone else in your life? 

P.S. In case you are too young to remember (or have simply forgotten!), here’s the song: https://youtu.be/i-6PnsnBpQE?si=VSSQDC6PJUFszsMz

Snippets from Thanksgiving

Hey friends, today is GRAND TUESDAY meaning we’ve got Leo and Ari today, and Leo is a sick little buddy. So I’m off to snuggle and comfort.

But real quick…

Some snippets from Thanksgiving, thanks to a video my daughter made. (Thanks, babe!)

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A post shared by Kelsey Alexander (@alexanderkelsey)

I hope you all had a wonderful time being grateful with (and for) family and friends, too, and that the depth of blessings in your life took your breath away! The foremost of those blessings being Christ our Lord. Always, always.

If you’re willing, I’d love to know what gifts you’re especially grateful for during this season. If you watched the video, you already know some of mine. But please add yourself to that list!
I’m so grateful we’re on this journey together.

Much love from Nashville,

Tammy

It’s the Most Wonderful Time

When I was young, I loved the month of December because the entire month felt like a celebration. There were Christmas parties at church and school, special Christmas concerts at church and school, plus Christmas, plus my birthday, plus New Year’s celebrations. And the music! Nothing can beat Christmas music for its sheer beauty and variety!

Now that I’m adulting my way through life, there are few, if any, Christmas parties and I’m grateful for that. The birthday has become a thing to shrug about, and my synagogue doesn’t have a Christmas concert. Hubby and I haven’t even exchanged gifts in years because we’d rather give to the kids and grandkids (and as adults, we usually buy what we need when we need it).

But we still have that glorious music, and we still have the reason for the season, and that’s why I still love Christmas and December. Last year I led an online study of my advent devotional STAR OF WONDER, and it was so much fun to see people realize what life was really like in the first century, and to learn where our traditions came from–or didn’t come from.

I pull our decorations out the day after Thanksgiving (usually), and these days I focus more on the outdoor decorations than the indoor decor because we have more people seeing the outside than the inside of our house. I don’t bake nearly as much as I used to, and I can’t remember the last time I bought a Christmas sweater.

But I still love Christmas–and did I mention the music? I’ve created a Spotify List of all my favorite Christmas music, so if you’d like to listen, here’s the link. I hope you enjoy it–and that you have a wonderful Christmas all month long!

What’s your favorite Christmas song? What says “Christmas” to you?

~~Angie

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Once upon a time there was a girl who dreamed of writing books. Books were magic carpets that transported her through time and across space. The only problem was her favorite authors simply did not write books fast enough. What was a voracious reader to do? She already haunted the local Christian bookstore, a feat she did with such regularity she’d walk in and the owner would hand the catalogs to her. She did what all intelligent, confident young teens do.

She decided she would write books.

Not only did she decide to write books, she actually started a couple. She wrote short stories. She wrote authors asking for advice. She corresponded with Janette Oke, Madeline L’Engle, Michael Phillips, Frank Peretti, Sandy Dengler and many more. She sent the short stories to one author, and that author breathed hope into her dream when she could have squashed it like a bug.

After all, what young teen knows enough about living or writing to successfully string sentences together?

Today a scrapbook with those letters sits in the hutch on my writing desk.

I am forever grateful that those authors took the time to respond, sometimes more than once, to letters from this girl who wanted to know how to become a writer. I will always be thankful that Sandy Dengler didn’t ignore or laugh at my short stories — though I’m too embarrassed to go back and read them.

I’m grateful that Colleen Coble breathed fresh wind onto these dreams 15 years later when I met her and the desire to write still flowed through my veins. I’m grateful for Tracey Batemen and Tracie Peterson who handled my first words and ideas with such kindness and encouragment. I’m grateful to Tracie and her husband Jim for thinking the idea I pitched to them was worth considering. I’m grateful they pointed that idea out to JoAnne Simmons, and I’m even more grateful that she gave me my first contract at my second ACFW where Liz Curtis Higgs talked about how I must have run out to call my husband. I had. I’ll never forget the surreal experience the rest of that conference was.

I’m grateful for my husband who has endured many late nights when I had to write like the wind. The tired edges of a wife who was pushing through to a deadline or three on top of an already overloaded life.

I’m grateful for my kids who believe I can do more than I do — their vision has challenged me often. And they’ve endured the mornings I struggle to climb out of bed, the push to get school done, the angst of hours spent driving them all over tarnation when I just want to write. And they love me anyway.

There are all the folks who help me along the journey. The various writing communities including the Inspired by Life & Fiction gals. Each community is one that encourages me in different, important ways. My agent. There are so many editors, so many readers, so many publishers have joined me on this grand adventure. 

Writing is many things, but it is not solitary. And for that I am grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Name the Character Game & Giveaway!

Hi friends, and happy Wednesday! I hope your day is off to a lovely start. 

I don’t know if you read my last post about how we moved from Maryland to Florida and, three weeks later, got slammed by Hurricane Helene. Four feet of water ended up inside and outside our house. We lost 95% of our belongings (they were still in boxes on the floor) and two cars. 

It’s been really rough, as we’re still displaced from our home, and it will probably be through January. However—and this is the key point—we have been immeasurably blessed by writer and reader friends. From the care fund author and sweet friend, Jill Kemerer started to all who are donating to the Amazon wish list friends had me create, I can’t tell you how humbling and fun opening each surprise box is. 

We are blessed beyond measure, so I wanted to do something to say thank you. It’s small, but it’s from the heart. We’re going to play a game, and the first person to get it right wins a fun giveaway. 

The Cozy Winter prizes include: 

An autographed copy of One Wrong Move A warm & cozy scented candleA soft blanket to curl up in and readCozy hot chocolate 

The rules of the game:

Guess which character each picture represents Fill out the Rafflecopter form 

That’s it. The winner will be randomly selected from all the entries with the correct answers and contacted via email. 

Have fun and start guessing. To make it a smidge easier, I’ve chosen one character from each of my series and possibly a novella or two.

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The Cozy Winter Prizes!!!!!

Enter Here!

I hope you all have a great time guessing! 

Blessings, 

Dani

Time to Celebrate…20 Books!

When my first novel, Lady of Milkweed Manor, released nearly 17 years ago, I didn’t think ahead and imagine I’d have twenty books someday, I was just thankful to have one!

I know lots of authors have written many more novels (including several authors here on Inspired by Life and Fiction) but I am still so very thankful. Being a published author is my lifelong dream come true. And being an author of twenty published novels? That calls for a celebration in my book. (Pun intended.)

If you happen to live near Minneapolis-St. Paul, I invite you to join me for the launch of my new novel, The Seaside Homecoming. Since we’ll be celebrating the release of my 20th novel, there will be cake and small gifts!

(Photos from the 2023 Release Party—Don’t worry; no crowns this year.)

I’ll hope to see you there:

Tuesday, December 3, 2024, 7- 8 pm central time

Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 2100 Snelling Ave N, Roseville, MN 55113

My talk starts at 7:00. Come early to grab a chair and visit. Too far to attend? You can watch a livestream on my Facebook page.

Either way, my sincerest appreciation to all of you—fellow writers and loyal readers alike—who have supported and befriended me during my writing journey. And thank you for reading my books!

Giving Thanks . . . and Christmas-ing

Thanksgiving is always the beginning of all the winter holidays for me. Since I used to always take the Christmas decorations down the day after Christmas, I’ve gotten in the habit of putting them up before Thanksgiving. It makes the house look so festive for guests who come for Thanksgiving dinner too.

This year, our daughters and their families are coming for dinner on Wednesday evening. So after finally writing “The End” on a novel last week (finishing final edits, actually), I spent Friday decorating the house for the holidays.

Just like last year, because we now have a piano taking up the space where our Christmas tree used to go, I set up the tree out on our screened porch. A couple of my Facebook friends gave me the idea, and I think it’s brilliant! Not only does the tree fill in for all the plants that had to come inside for the winter, but it adds sparkly lights to a rather dreary winter landscape and we can still see it from the living room. (You may remember that last year after Christmas, I decorated the tree for Valentine’s Day and left it up most of the winter! I’ll probably do that again this year too.)

Except for the tree, we don’t do a ton of decorating, but I do love getting out this Christmas quilt (a $20 Pioneer Woman find at Walmart a few years ago!) for our bed.

When we lived in Kansas (and didn’t have toddlers running around at Christmas!) I made this cute bookish Christmas tree in my office.

Do you have your Christmas decorations up yet, or are you a wait-till-after-Thanksgiving decorator? I’d love to hear what special decorations or traditions your family enjoys during the holidays. You, dear readers, are one of the things I’m most thankful for this year. I pray you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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.

Free to Amazon Prime Members + Rendezvous!

Did you know that Amazon Prime members have access to a selection of free ebooks, magazines, and audiobooks? I’ve been an Amazon Prime member for years. However, the “Prime Reading” part of my membership wasn’t on my radar until Amazon reached out to me and offered to pay me to place Memory Lane in Prime Reading for a limited time. I said yes because I felt it was a worthwhile experiment.

All that to say . . . Amazon Prime members who live in the USA can download Memory Lane’s ebook for free between now and December 1st. I’d be grateful to you if you’d encourage your bookish friends and family members who have Prime to grab the book while its free. This is an ideal time for readers who’ve never read my books to try a “free sample”. (Kind of like when I visit a See’s Chocolate shop and they give me a free chocolate.)

GO HERE to reach Memory Lane’s Amazon page. Once there, ensure the button on the top right that says “Kindle, Read with Prime” is selected. Then click the green button below that says “Read Now”.

GO HERE to go to check out Amazon’s current Prime Reading selection

And now, a subject change!

Our bookish brunch crew! L to R: Natalie Walters, reader friend Joy, Gabrielle Myer, reader friend Amy, Dani Pettrey, Nicole Deese, me, reader friend Crissy

Earlier this week, D’Ann posted about her trip to Chicago for the Christy Awards and the reader Rendezvous. I attended, too! I was honored to give one of the keynote talks at Rendezvous. But best of all was the opportunity to hang out with so many readers and writers. I loved my time there, so had to share just a few photos from my days in Illinois.

Can you tell that I had a blast?I was able to spend a day with the fabulous Katie Ganshert and Courtney Walsh, which was a joy.Do you take advantage of Prime Reading? Did you attend Rendezvous? I wish each and every one of you a wonderful Thanksgiving! May you take time to rest, reflect, and recharge.