Becky Wade's Blog, page 49

Happy New Year = Deadline Met!

Are you a list maker? I am. I love the satisfaction of checking things off of my to-do list. So I had a special thrill this week by being able to check off a big item from my 2024 list. I had a book deadline on January 2, and I emailed the manuscript to my publisher on January 1. Boom! Done!

Such a satisfying feeling. Though, things looked dicey for a while. The book refused to be wrapped up in the timely fashion I had expected. Christmas loomed and I still had more story to tell. Yet, the last thing I wanted to do was cheat my readers by rushing the ending. Thankfully, I had time off from the day job, so I was able to hunker down in my home office for a couple weeks and give the story the ending it deserved.

This was the third book in my Texas Ever After series, a mashup of Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty in a western 1800’s setting. A missing heiress, a Pinkerton sent to retrieve her, a wolf, and a figurative dragon made for quite the adventure. By the end of the day, this story ended up with the second largest word count of any of my novels. The total number will likely change after edits, but I imagine it will remain one of my longest books. As such, I thought it might be fun to play a little game.

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Guess the Word Count

Most of my books run between 92,000 – 96,000 words, and until this latest manuscript, I’ve only had one book crack 100,000 words. This became the second book to surpass that milestone.

So, for a chance to win an autographed copy of Fairest of Heart, Book 1 in the Texas Ever After Series, leave a comment with your guess as to what my final word count was for Cloaked in Beauty. Closest number wins.

Contest ends at midnight on Friday 1/5/24. I’ll announce the winner in the comments on Saturday 1/6/24.

Happy guessing!

The Precipice of 2024

I’ve always been a lists and goals girl. My excitement in every “new” start, whether the beginning of summer, a new school year, or a new calendar year, is the movement toward my goals for those segments of time. 

So a few days ago, as I stood on the precipice of 2024 looking ahead, it was a bit unnerving to me to realize that I had no goals for the new year. None. 

Oh, I have ideas. 

I have dreams and desires. 

But I don’t have any concrete goals. 

This concerned me a bit. I asked myself many questions, things like “Have I gotten lazy?” “Am I burned out?” And even “am I depressed?” 

But the more I thought and prayed about this odd turn of events, the more I felt the Lord telling me to rest in it. To trust Him to bring about what He desires in the way He desires it. Because if 2023 taught me anything, it’s that I have no control over things anyway. 

Yes, I can write. And I will. But frankly, I’m ready for a less stressful year which, for me, means a day-by-day obedience to the direction of the Holy Spirit instead of goals I’m charging toward and trying to make happen. I have no energy for the frustration of life getting in the way of those goals.

I think God asks different things from us in different seasons. He’s often asked me to work toward goals, to trust Him to make the time and energy for their pursuit. But this year I sense Him moving me in the opposite direction, asking me to work hard without a concrete goal, to trust Him for the outcome of my discipline and obedience.

A few years ago I read Dallas Willard’s book Life Without Lack. It’s about trusting the truth of Psalm 23:1: the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 

Last year, circumstances forced me to that place of trust. This year, I’d like to willingly embrace it. 

Which season are you in for 2024—setting goals and being disciplined or living each day and trusting Him with the outcome? 

Happy New Year! (So how late did YOU stay up?)

Happy New Year, friends! 

Are you one of those who always stays up after midnight to usher in the New Year? Joe and I actually did this year, but not by design! LOL

We just started visiting with all the Alexander clan (lots of extended family came into town), and we had such fun visiting and catching up with everyone that we didn’t leave until close to midnight (but were still home just before the proverbial ball dropped for the central time zone). But we’re usually in bed by 11ish and just celebrate with the east coast! : )

What about you? Did you stay up partying with family and friends?

Here are some quick pics from our holidays. First from Christmas Day…

Then from our Alexander New Years Eve with friends and family (some aren’t pictured in the group photo because they either had to get babies to bed or attend more festivities)…

Kellie (daughter-in-law), Kelsey (daughter), and Kurt (son)This lovely gal to the left is Brittney Booton, one of several precious neices! And you might remember Leo Kellie, Kels, moi with Leo, Kurt and Joe

During our most recent move last summer, I found a sweatshirt my sweet mom painted years ago to wear when Kelsey and Kurt were little. So I decided to wear it for Leo this Christmas…

There’s just something special about wearing something that belonged to a loved one now gone, isn’t there? Especially when they made it.

So tell us… Do you have anything special you wear or use (like a peice of jewelry, or a Christmas dish, or piece of decor, etc…) that you love using and remembering someone by during the holidays? If yes, please share. I’d love to know.

Much love to all in the 2024 New Year. I pray it’s your best year yet, this side of eternity with Christ…which is the BEST GIFT OF ALL that’s yet to come.

Much love from Nashville,

Tammy

Celebrating a special anniversary!

30 years ago on New Year’s Day 1994, I sat down to begin writing my first novel. I’d known I wanted to write a book since I was 11 years old, but it took me 27 years to actually start writing. I’m showing my age to tell you that after writing my prologue out by hand in red felt tip pen on a steno pad, I carefully transferred my words to paper on my electric typewriter! 

When I was still writing a week later, my sweet husband bought me a second-hand computer (a little Macintosh Plus, which still has a place of honor on a shelf in our family room right there by the stegosaurus ).

I never dreamed I would write more than one book, let alone that I would still be writing 30 years later! But here we are!

And to celebrate, I am giving away 10 books of the winners’ choice to anyone who is part of Deborah Raney Readers Page on Facebook! On January 5, I’ll draw 10 winners (U.S. addresses only, please) who may choose any book from the image above (most of my books are represented in this graphic.)

Hop on over to my FaceBook Readers Page for details on how to enter, and thank you so much for coming along with me for all these years!

I pray that your brand new year is off to a wonderful start and that God has many blessings in store for you in the months ahead.

Inspired by Scripture

We appreciate all of our readers so much! May 2024 be a year of great joy and blessing.

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.

What’s your dream for 2024 + Giveaway

Just a few days ago we were in Nebraska with my family for a quick Christmas trip that was extended a day thanks to the White Christmas we all wanted. That White Christmas shut down the interstate around us and got us an extra day of game playing and fun with cousins. One of the conversations we had several times is that we know we are blessed. Our family enjoys spending time together, and I know the holidays are not that way for everyone. Our kids are each other’s best friends, which is pretty incredible in many ways and makes the ridiculously long drive worth every minute. Just look at those smiling faces!

We played a lot of games. Hours of games. Below is just one of many rounds of Skyjo. At one point we had three different decks running at the same time in different parts of the house. I love Skyjo, but at the end of three days, I think I’m ready to set it aside for a bit. We also played countless rounds of 10 point pitch, 3 up/3 down, Disney Trivia, JackBox, and Mind the Gap. Add in Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza, and we had a lot of fun activity at the tables. Then there was a couple nights at my sister’s gym — one with over an hour and a half of a volleyball game — I’m surprised my arms weren’t sore, and it was such fun just spending time together and being with each other.

I think it was even sweeter for us this year because last year instead of being blizzarded in with family, my small unit was blizarded away from family. We couldn’t get through to Nebraska because of a storm in Iowa and Missouri. It was bittersweet to spend the time at home because Christmas has most often meant the trip to extended family. That is our tradition and without it, Christmas felt off and odd.

Does your family have traditions that might seem strange to others? I know many people think it’s weird that my kids have had maybe three Christmases at their actual home, but that’s the way we liked it. My family is too far away for shorter holidays like Thanksgiving and it’s hard to get back for quick weekends though we try for high school graduations, etc.

Now as I write this we’re in the last miles o our trip home. 600 miles down, and 241 to go. With the car pointed toward home, my thoughts have pivoted toward the next year. Book deadlines. Dreams about what I want to write and propose next. Isn’t that part of the gift of a new year. There’s a brilliance of a blank slate. We get to reimagine what we want to course correct from this year. And at the same time consider what we want to carry forward from this year into the next. There are things I know I need to adjust — but there are other gifts I do want to carry with me. What about you? What do you want to take with you? What’s your dream for 2024? What’s your word for the new year?

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It’s That Time of Year

Hi friends and happy Wednesday!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe Christmas is over. It went so fast. Like a flash. Isn’t it funny how time can do that? It can feel like it’s speeding up or slowing down. Things feel slow as molasses when we’re in the waiting room. And, other times, it feels like we blink, and the day is over. Not just the day, but the year. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we’re just days away from 2023 wrapping up. The end of the year is always a thoughtful time for me. I was looking back at all the ups and downs and how God carried me through both. All the sweet, precious time with loved ones that’s such a gift, and the hard, often painful times that I know only God could get me through. 2023 was a year of both, but I look back and am beyond grateful for God’s provision.

I also look forward. Forward to a new year.  A blank slate, if you will. It’s the time that many of us make goals for the year. Many of us, myself included, buy planners (don’t get my hubby started on how many attempts I’ve made to get organized with just the “right” planner—as if the right planner will suddenly make my chaotic brain organized, but I don’t give up).

We buy goal planners, specifically. My favorite is Cultivates What Matters One-Year Powersheets or Susan May Warren’s My Brilliant Writing Planner. Yes, I own both. Just don’t tell my hubby! Both explore didn’t areas of goals for me—my personal life and my writing life. Writing has a life of its own. But I digress. Making goals is something I do every year and at the end of the year, I look back to see how many I met and often it’s not many. My plans to get in shape, keep my house perfectly tidy, and turn my book in early sometimes happen and sometimes don’t. But I look at my goals and what I’m focused on and this year in particular it hit me. Of all the goals I make, how many center on Christ? Walking a deeper, more dependent walk with Him, spending more time in His Word, cultivating the gift of writing He’s given me, and treating others with the love He calls us to for our neighbors. I sat back and looked at my goals for 2023 and, I’m being brutally transparent here, not one of them involved my walk with or relationship with Christ, I’m very sorry to say. How could I hope for a year of goals and not one of them involving my life with my Savior? The Author of my life. So, this year’s goals are going to look different.

I’ve always admired those who choose a word for the year. I know fellow authors and friends who do. Who often buys a necklace with their word-of-the-year on it, I’ve always thought—how do you focus your entire year on just one word? Maybe they don’t. Maybe it’s part of their list of goals for the year. But I wonder…what if it’s the only goal for the year? What if I chose one word to focus on for the whole year and, if so, what would that be? This year, after prayer, my word is deliverance.

I know, it’s probably an odd word for the year.  But the Lord brought it to mind and I looked up this verse: “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” Why deliverance? Deliverance from what? Myself, most likely. Again, full transparency here, but I think deliverance from relying or attempting to rely on my strength, deliverance from lack of focus—I’m always doing a million things at once so maybe this year God wants me to still and focus on Him and on the gifts He’s blessed me with. This year it’s hard not to make other goals. I’m dying to use my Powersheets and list a bevy of goals, but I’ll trust that one word is enough.

Question for you:

What are some of your goals for the year? If you could pick one word to focus on, what would it be?

As always, thanks for joining me this week

Best,

Dani

Happy Boxing Day!

Today is Boxing Day, a holiday you may or may not be familiar with, depending on where you live. Boxing Day is celebrated on December 26th in Great Britain and in closely-connected countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc.

In Great Britain, Boxing Day is also St. Stephen’s Day, a day to commemorate the first Christian martyr.

The name “Boxing Day” comes from the tradition of giving boxed gifts to servants and the poor on St. Stephen’s Day. Traditionally, servants would work on the 25th, so they would be given the 26th off to visit their own family and friends. They would also be given boxes containing gifts, such as cast-off clothing they could sell or make over (fabric was expensive), food like preserved fruit, and perhaps a few coins.

Also, churches collected money in alms-boxes during the season and distributed it to the needy on this day.

They spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for St. Stephen’s Day, or Boxing Day. The servants would enjoy a rare day off, and Mr. Paley would be opening the church’s alms box and distributing donations given in the preceding months to his poorest parishioners. The Brockwell family had already taken baskets to some villagers, but now they assembled gifts for their own servants and tenants, filling wooden boxes with fabric, gloves, foodstuffs, and always-welcome coins.”

—An Ivy Hill Christmas by Julie Klassen

In the past, Boxing Day was also a traditional day for fox hunting and Christmas Pantomimes. Boxing Day is still observed in Britain, but from what I understand, it is now a day for shopping sales, eating leftovers with friends and family, and watching sports or Christmas movies.

Are you familiar with Boxing Day? How will you spend this December 26th?

Wishing you a merry, blessed Christmas!

Because it’s Christmas today, I’ll keep this short, but just wanted to let you know how very much we appreciate those who read and comment on our blog! Writing is sometimes a solitary pursuit and especially for those of us who are extroverts, we cherish the times we get to interact with our readers!

So, from our house to yours, we pray that you have a beautiful and blessed Christmas with loved ones and that the peace of Christ reigns in your hearts during the holidays and throughout the new year to come!

And I’ll take this one last chance to let you know about a Christmas collection that is out new this year (a new, gorgeous cover designed by my husband, but stories you may have read in other collections of Christmas stories I’ve written.) If you’d like to order a copy, just click HERE, or on the book cover below.

Inspired by Scripture

Wishing the very merriest and blessed of Christmases to all our dear readers.

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.