Becky Wade's Blog, page 37

Inspired by Scripture

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The Beauty of Forgiveness

My first book for the Christian market (my 31st published book) was The Forgiving Hour (1999). The lessons I’d learned about forgiveness—mostly the hard way—were poured into my characters in that story. I consider that novel, perhaps more than any other I’ve written, to be proof of Romans 8:28.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Those hard lessons, those hard things, that happened in my life were worked together for good in The Forgiving Hour. God put them to use. I know this because over the past 25 years He has allowed me to pray for heartbroken women, both in person and in response to the letters and emails they have sent to me.

Earlier this week I listened to a video sermon about forgiveness. The pastor said that much of the secular world views the Christian God as a supreme who is angry and vengeful, who is just waiting to smash people who trip up (my paraphrase). But the truth is, the God of the Bible is abounding in love. He is gracious and compassionate. He is slow to anger. He is longing to forgive. All we need do is turn to Him in repentance.

Even followers of Jesus don’t always grasp the extent of God’s forgiveness. We sometimes think our iniquity (a premeditated choice), transgressions (willful disobedience), and sin (anything that misses the mark) have taken us too far to be forgiven or for us to be of use again. We’re like the prodigal son, willing to be just a servant in our father’s house because surely he can’t forgive us for what we’ve done. But our Heavenly Father runs to us and welcomes us home.

We live in such a broken world. Christians don’t get a pass on that. We don’t have to look any further than our neighborhoods, our towns/cities, our countries. It’s a mess out there. It’s a mess in here. Others hurt us. We hurt others. God forgives us, and He calls us to forgive.

I love to see forgiveness at work, and I love to read about it too.

What’s your favorite novel that shows the beauty of forgiveness? Please share. I’d love to know.

~robin

Summertime Recipes

One of my favorite things about summer is all the wonderful salads, fruits, and tasty grilled meats we get to enjoy. I have fond memories of visiting my grandma and eating strawberries straight from the vine in her backyard. I didn’t even wash them first.

These days I don’t cook as much as I used to, but when my daughter came to visit and asked if I would make one of our summertime favorites, I eagerly got busy in the kitchen. Chicken pasta salad is a great option when you want something quick and light. I thought I’d share our simple recipe with you.

Karen’s Chicken Pasta Salad

1 package garden (tri-color) rotini pasta
2-3 cups cooked chicken, cubed (leftover grilled chicken works great)
1 cup raw broccoli, cut into small pieces
Italian salad dressing (Olive Garden dressing is espcially yummy)
Parmesean cheese

Cook and drain pasta. Rinse in cold water to speed cooling process. Add chicken and broccoli to a large bowl. Add pasta. Add generous amount of Italian dressing. (I often end up using about 1/2 of a regular sized bottle.) Stir. Add several generous shakes of parmesean cheese. Stir again. Add more dressing and/or cheese if needed. Chill in refrigerator for an hour or eat immediately.

What are some of your favorite easy summertime recipes?

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Another recipe for summer fun calls for lighthearted reads by the pool or in a backyard hammock. I just happen to have such book on sale this month. I’ve got your virtual summer getaway covered with In Her Sights.

With 700 five-star reviews on Amazon!

Novelettes and Novellas and Novels, Oh My!

Recently I started working on a short story which will soon be a giveaway to my newsletter subscribers. Except I ended up writing a novelette! 

What is a novelette, you ask? And are you suddenly wondering about the definition of a novella or even a short story? 

I’m here to demystify some of the forms of fiction for those of you who are readers and not writers. 

A Short Story is typically defined as a work between 1,000 and 7,500 words. (A few sources even go up to 10,000 words.) To give you some context for this, a 7,500-word story in 12-point font, double-spaced, on an 8 x 11.5 page would run somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 pages, depending on things like lengths of paragraphs. This means a 1,000-word short story would be more in the neighborhood of 5 pages. 

Many authors will include some kind of short story as a giveaway for signing up for their newsletter. It’s a quick read. But beyond that, it feels like the short story form is rare these days. 

A Novelette falls between 7,500 and 17,000 (or 19,000, depending on your source!) words. This kind of work goes beyond a short story but remains shorter than a novella. Because it contains a greater word count range, the story can have a bit more scope or depth than a short story, but the plot and characters will still be relatively straightforward. This is the length in which I’ve found myself in my current story. 

A Novella generally runs between 17,000 and 40,000 words. This length allows for more secondary characters and even a subplot. Often you find novellas as an “extra” story to a series, either as a prequel or an epilogue, or the story of a minor character within a series. You might, like me, read a lot of novellas around Christmas, since many authors will put out a Christmas-themed novella. Below you’ll see examples of novellas from some of the authors on this blog!

Of course, a Novel is considered a full-length work of fiction, but the word count definition of a novel is more nebulous. It’s basically anything over 40,000 words. My novels for Guideposts came in between 60-65,000 words. My Bethany House novels were all around 90,000 words. There are authors on this blog who have topped well over 100,000 words in their books! Fantasy books often exceed even that.

These are just the “accepted” guidelines. Obviously there are books which get labeled differently, but you get the gist. 

As an author, I most enjoy writing novels, but I got my start in short stories. I have indie-published two historical romance novellas and now I can add novelette to my repertoire of literary forms. Some stories don’t need an entire novel to tell. And some can’t be told in anything less. The job of an author is to figure out what form serves the story best.

I hope this breakdown has helped you understand these forms of fiction in a bit more tangible way. 

Do you have a preference—short story, novelette, novella, novel—in your reading? 

Doors, doors, and more doors

When you travel, do you have a specific item you take pictures of? For me? It’s doors.

I love doors. Especially doors in Europe. They seem to have so much more character that the “routine” American entry way.

Here are some pictures from a recent trip Joe and I took. And the last pic holds a teeny weeny clue as to what part of the world we were in. See if you can guess!

Maybe I love doors because they always lead to something. Same for path pictures. I love exploring possibilities. I think that’s why brainstorming a book is always so enjoyable. The possibilities are endless!

I love door knobs, too.

The gospel of John tells us that Jesus said, “The one who enters by the gate is the true shepherd of the sheep”—and that Jesus himself is the gate for the sheep. I thought of that as I took this next pic . . .

Such a beautiful path leading to an 11th century church. Just think of all the people who have walked that path.

“Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

Jesus (John 10:9-10)

Isn’t this just lovely? (My sweet friend Beth took this one on our trip.)

I’ve been threatening to make a collage of door pictures that I’ve captured through the years. Maybe I’ll do that in coming months. But what form should it take, do you think? Little framed pics maybe? Or a larger frame with a cut mat? If you’re one of those creative, artsy people, please share your ideas!

Finally, here’s a clue as to what part of the world we’ve been in for the past ten days. Anyone recognize this place?

HINT: a very popular TV series was filmed on location here

We had a marvelous trip and so as to not totally inundate you with pics, I’ll share more about our trip—with more pics—next time!

So tell me… Is there something specific you love taking pictures of? Perhaps especially when you travel?

Much love from my corner of Nashville,

Living in Florida

Lately I’ve realized that while every state has its idiosyncrasies, Florida might have more than its fair share. Dave Barry has often written about Florida being a crazy state, and he’s right–where else will an alligator come up and knock on your front door? Or barge right through your kitchen window?

Where else can you–like I did yesterday–run into a lovely young rat snake climbing up a trellis and simply say, “Excuse me” as you sidle right past him on your way to feed your chickens? Or rescue another rat snake who’s caught in the snake netting around your coop? Or realize that that SAME snake ate all the baby cardinals you’ve been watching for the past few days? What kind of gratitude is that?

And today, as I sat at my garden window and wistfully looked out at the Eden threatening to gobble up my house, I realized that I long for rainy days just as many northern folks long for snow days. You know that cozy feeling you get when you’re inside, safe and warm, and the snow is falling outside? That’s how I feel when I’m inside and rain is falling. Unless it’s a hurricane, then I’m liable to be sitting in the dark, even at noon, because the windows are boarded up.

Florida is the place where you pay for homeowners insurance–which seems to cost as much as a mortgage these days–and flood insurance if you live within two miles of a beach (and tons of people do), and hurricane insurance, which comes with such a big deductible that the only way it will ever pay out is if your home is totally demolished. Seriously. This year, because we live in an older wooden house on a creek and less than two miles from Tampa Bay, we will pay more in insurance than we did for our first house. It’s killing us, frankly, and it’s another reason why we operate two airbnb units–to help pay for the insurance!

But despite the fact that we’ve reached the spring-into-summer point where I have sweat dripping down my nose if I work outside more than ten minutes, Florida has some lovely advantages. Wildlife, for instance, mostly harmless. We live in the most heavily populated county in Florida, yet we routinely see bunnies, snakes, raccoons, possums, coyotes, and turtles in our yard. One of my guests saw a gator in the creek. And my next door neighbor has seen bobcats.

Six months out of the year–November through April–the weather is lovely. The rest of the time we stay indoors and only come outside after supper. (There’s a reason why Florida remained mostly swamp until air conditioning was invented.)

We have no state income tax–thanks to the tourists who fund things for us.

Florida is so humid, you can grow orchids in trees.

We are a true melting pot–the New York/New England retirees come down I-95 and settle on the east coast; the Ohio/Michigan folks come down I-75 and settle on the west coast. Which is why our state has a split personality during elections.

Native Floridians like me and my kin are pretty rare. I watched a You-tube video the other day–one of those police body-cam vids–where a drunk woman kept insisting she was a “seventh generation Floridian.” I don’t think that’s actually possible.

We have a governor who makes sense. We have Dave Barry, who is hilarious. And we have a Major League Baseball team that can’t fill the stadium because everybody roots for their home team, and nobody who lives here really calls Florida “home.” (Except me and my kinfolk.) Even my husband, who has lived here almost forty years, still roots for all the teams from Ohio.

So come down and share our adventures. Glisten a little. Take pictures of gators. You can even stay in my airbnb.

What are some of the best and worst things about your state?

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.

Tea Time, Friend Time

I recently enjoyed having tea and a delicious meal with members of a favorite book club who have become friends.

Sharing teatime with these gracious, generous ladies has become something of an annual tradition and I was pleased to share this lovely experience with sister-author Erica Vetsch.

Tasty food, rich Earl Grey tea, sweet fellowship, and book chat in a beautiful setting. I’d call that a recipe for an ideal afternoon, wouldn’t you? I think the following pretty card with its quote from Jane Austen’s Emma sums it up well:

Card by Todd & Holland

When was the last time you shared tea with a friend or friends? Do you belong to a book club? Please tell us in the comments. Either way, thanks for stopping by today!

Deb and Dani in the Blue Ridge Mountains

This week, our own Dani Pettrey and I are both teaching at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference in the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains near Black Mountain, NC. It always feels like a family reunion coming to this conference and so fun for a rare chance to hug Dani’s neck.

So wonderful to see dear writer friends and soak in the beauty of this campus. I’ve been teaching at this conference at the Ridgecrest Conference Center since 2005, and it has truly become a place that feels like home. SO much has changed over the 19 years I’ve been coming here, from the second Mountain Laurel hotel being built (where all the faculty, including Ken and I and Dani and her husband are staying) to many new buildings for classrooms and group meetings.

One of the things Ken and I noticed this year is how much the trees and shrubs have grown over the years!

This year, the large cafeteria has been completely updated and remodeled and it is beautiful! Most conferees have arrived and were at dinner last night, and the buzz of excited conversation (and later, the sound of all those people lifting their voices in worship) is truly amazing!

This morning, conference classes begin. As you read this, I’m likely teaching the first hour of a five-hour continuing session on Writing Women’s Fiction, and this afternoon, Dani will be teaching on Molding Story Structure. I know we both feel privileged and honored to encourage new and growing writers. We were once where they are, unsure of how to put two sentences together and wondering where God was leading us on this writing journey. Some days I still feel that way!

This conference has given me so many hours of encouragement and joy. I hope I can give some of that back as I try to impart some of the wisdom others have imparted to me along my writing journey.

Do you enjoy attending conferences? What is a favorite conference or workshop at a conference that you’ve attended?

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.