Becky Wade's Blog, page 79

Learning New Things

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I won’t blog here again until after both of those holidays have passed, so wanted to start off with those greetings.

It certainly looks like Christmas around my neighborhood. To prove it, below is a photo from behind my house (backyard and common area). I awakened a few mornings ago to a winter wonderland. Not terribly deep but very pretty. Should I mention how grateful I am that the snow removal guys were out with their plows well before daylight?

A corner of my backyard and the common area

Now to the subject of this post.

As some of you know, I went back to college awhile back and am ever so slowly (and I mean very slowly) working my way toward a degree. You don’t earn a lot of credits when you take only one or two classes each term. And for various reasons, I’ve had to skip a term here and there since I began. Getting a college degree is one of my bucket list items.

For the fall term of 2022, I needed a light schedule because of writing demands. I wasn’t sure what class I would take, but not long before the term began, I learned there was an online beginning piano class.

In about 2004, my aunt gave me her upright player piano. My grandkids, when they were little, loved to pump those pedals and have the scrolls play out many a lively tune. But mostly the piano has sat silent for the past 18+ years.

The old upright piano my aunt gifted to me

Another of my bucket list items is to learn to play that piano. I did take some lessons when I was a kid. Seems a million years ago. But I’m definitely still a beginner.

My aunt, I knew, taught herself to play that beautiful old piano. Why couldn’t I, with a bit of encouragement and practice? So I signed up for that college class. It consisted of watching instruction videos and practice, practice, practice. Then I video recorded myself playing the assigned songs and submitted the results each week. I have loved it.

Last month, I ordered a couple more books from the same company that made my class lesson book. Same level, meaning really easy for beginning adult players. One is sacred music (old hymns) and one is Christmas music. Every day in December thus far, I’ve played Silent Night through several times. It’s really put me in the Christmas spirit.

More songs to learn

My bucket list item didn’t say I had to be proficient, just that I learn to play, so I guess I could put a checkmark beside it. However, checked off or not, I want to keep going, keep improving. Hopefully I’ll do just that.

Learning something new, part deux

Besides my piano playing, I had a second fun learning experience this month. Not a bucket list item but I loved doing it all the same.

I have wanted to release several of my ebook novellas in paperback but have wavered back and forth. Then I heard some other writers talking about putting their novellas out in paper, and I decided to give it a try.

I won’t bother with details, but I decided to design my Christmas novella, A Carol for Christmas, in gift-book size. After creating the cover, I taught myself how to add graphics to each “header page” in the book. That was the most difficult part of the process, revising the image so that it would fit into the place it was allowed. But aren’t those Christmas ornaments a festive addition for this book (see screenshot below)?

A screenshot of the interior of the book

I can hardly express how tickled it made me when that little book, along with a second novella, arrived on my doorstep, and I could hold them in my own hands. I even made a video of it so I could share with readers.

I’ll be learning more new things in the New Year, and God-willing, I hope I’ll just keep on learning (and checking off bucket list items) for many years to come.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas Season. May you be ever more aware of Christ’s glory throughout 2023.

~robin

Karen’s Big Christmas Giveaway

The Christmas season is here, and if you’re anything like me, you’re directly in the middle of all the hustle and bustle. Shopping, baking, decorating the house, wrapping gifts, getting packages in the mail . . . It seems like every time I scratch one thing off the to-do list, three more appear to take its place.

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone sent you a big care package to help you relax and escape the madness? Wouldn’t you love to curl up with a good book, some cozy socks on your feet and a cup of tea in your hand?

Well, call me Mrs. Santa, because I aim to make one book-lover’s secret wish come true this week.

Look at all the goodies you could win!

An autographed copy of Under the Texas Mistletoe which includes the Christy and Carol Award winning novella, A Texas Christmas Carol.An audiobook copy of In Honor’s DefenseA mug made for book-loversA package of literary teaA selection of 6 additional books by some of the top names in Christian fiction (Including 3 from our Inspired by Life & Fiction authors!)Fun bookish socksAn adorable book nerd snowman ornament for your tree

Click Here to Enter Giveaway

Contest runs through 12/19/22. Open to US entries only. Winner will be announced via email.

What are some favorite bookish gifts you’ve received in Christmases past?

Some of my favorite bookish items are socks, t-shirts, and puzzles. How about you?

Reader Resources

Hi friends! Happy Wednesday. I hope your Christmas season is going wonderfully. We’ve got our tree up, the house all decorated, and presents bought. I’m also looking forward to continuing my tradition of taking the last two weeks of the month off social media. Don’t get me wrong I love chatting with readers and sharing with them but taking those two weeks off helps me enjoy the stillness and being more present for Christmas. To focus on our Savior and the blessing of His birth on earth.                                                                             

I’ll have a lovely friend guest posting on December 28th in keeping with that tradition, but she’s fantastic and I know you’ll all enjoy what she shares. 

In the meantime, I’m excited to share about reader resources in today’s post. I often share about writing, but I thought it would be fun today to share online free reader resources. I’m a writer but I’m also an avid reader so I’m going to share the top places online that feed my reader’s heart. 

First up, is my favorite reading blog. Reader and writer resource pioneer, Carrie Schmidt runs the ever-successful and super helpful blog Reading is my Superpower. If you haven’t visited it, you’re not only missing out on book reviews but lots of creative fun for readers. Carrie features First Line Fridays and Top Ten Tuesdays along with giveaways and sharing a big piece of heart for Christian fiction. I hope you’ll check her blog out. You won’t be disappointed. 

Next up, is my favorite Facebook group for readers. Avid Readers is spearheaded by author Tricia Goyer and is a great go-to resource for book recommendations. You just post a question asking for whatever type of book you’re looking for based on genre, topic, by a certain author…and you’ll get lots of helpful replies. They have fun reels, interviews, and lots more. If you’re looking for a place to hang out and discover new books, Avid Readers is the place to be. 

Lastly, no list of reader resources is complete without a bookstagrammer. Mandy of turquoiseavenue is a wife, mama, and booklover. She runs #turqooiseavenuereads 

where she shares reviews and gorgeous pics of clean reads and Christian fiction. Drop by and check out her beautiful page. 

Thanks so much for joining me today! 

Reader Question: What is your favorite reader resource? 

Merry Christmas,

Dani

December with Jane Austen

Since Jane Austen was born in December (December 16, 1775), my local chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North American (Minnesota) celebrates with an annual Christmas party at which we honor Jane’s memory on or near her birthday.

We always have a toast to Jane, with words taken from what her brother Henry wrote after Jane’s death. He describes her as:

[having] the most lively imagination, and the keenest relish for wit.”

“She always sought, in the faults of others, something to excuse, to forgive or forget. She never uttered a hasty, a silly or a severe expression. In short, her temper was as polished as her wit. She became an authoress entirely from taste and inclination. Neither the hope of fame nor profit were mixed with her early motives.”

“She was thoroughly religious and devout; fearful of giving offence to God, and incapable of feeling it towards any fellow creature.”

—Biographical Notice of the Author, by Henry Austen, in the first edition of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, 1817

We honor her annually with not only a toast but also a beautiful birthday cake.

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!Matti(L) makes beautiful historical clothes (mattionline.com), (R) friends Hannah and Anna

At the event, we have a boutique with several people offering Regency-era clothing, accessories, tea, and books (including mine).

This year, the party was held at a beautifully-decorated room at a country club, thanks to the generosity of one of our members. The room and tables were gorgeous and the brunch buffet delicious. I felt quite privileged to be able attend such a festive and delightful event!

On a related note, I kept the Jane Austen theme for December going by also attending an excellent play, MISS BENNET Christmas at Pemberley, with old friends. In this beautiful production, bookish Mary Bennet gets her long-awaited happily-ever-after. If the play is being performed near you, I heartily recommend it.

MISS BENNET: Christmas at Pemberley at Lyric Arts Theater, Anoka, MN

Are you an admirer of Jane Austen, too? How are you making December special?

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Would it shock you to know that I took our Christmas tree down last night? I’ve always been one to take it down on December 26, but BEFORE Christmas? Unheard of! But this is an unusual year for us. The tree went up November 6 because we were going to Michigan for a book signing, but having guests for Thanksgiving just days after we got back and I wanted the house decorated for Thanksgiving.

And since we have a new baby in Missouri and a new baby in Texas this year, the 10-hour drive is too far for either family, so we’re meeting halfway at a lake cabin in Arkansas for an early Christmas later this week. While we’re gone, we’ll have some workers in the house replacing our kitchen floor, and they promised it would be a messy, dusty job.

So Ken helped me take the tree down, and I packed all the other decorations away except for a few we’ll take with us to make the cabin look festive. We actually had fun “undecorating” together and it will be nice to come back from our trip with that job done (even though there will be lots of dusting and cleaning to do.

I’m glad I remembered to take a few photos before it all came down.

Christmas will be over by the next time I post, so I’ll leave you with this favorite photo from Christmases past. My parents’ 12 grandchildren recreated the nativity on the farm where I grew up. My sister’s son Alex was born just in time to play Baby Jesus. Our four kids are Joseph, Mary, the King, and the littlest angel on the top step. This picture of the cousins always makes me smile.

I pray that you and your loved ones have a wonderfully blessed Christmas full of laughter, joy, good food, and a deep appreciation for the Reason for the season—our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Happy birthday, Jesus.

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.

A Wonderful Milestone

In November of 2021, I attended the Christy Awards ceremony virtually. When they announced the winner of the contemporary romance category (!MY BOOK!) I knew that meant I was in for a big honor in November of 2022.

Here’s a little background about the Christy Awards from their website… “The Christys have been a focal point for the writers and publishers in our community, symbolizing the best aspirations and accomplishments of writers who write from a perspective of faith and who create stories with matters of belief at their core.” The awards are judged by members of the Christian fiction community. Booksellers, publishing professionals, bloggers, publicists, and more. I recently met a church librarian in Dallas who proudly told me, “I’m a Christy Award judge!”

The Christy Awards have been such an unexpected blessing and encouragement to me. Over the past five years, four of my books have received a Christy Award for contemporary romance. One of them, True to You, also received the Book of the Year Award.

When an author wins Christy Awards for four separate books, the organizers induct that author into the Christy Award Hall of Fame. [Shout out to our own Tamera Alexander, who was inducted in 2020!] Once you’re placed in the Hall of Fame, they retire your books from future Christy contests, invite you to speak at the next ceremony, and give you a lovely statue to commemorate the occasion.

The moment I learned that they’d be holding the 2022 Christy ceremony in-person in Nashville after two years of holding it virtually, I decided to plan a birthday trip around it, paid for my airfare, and reserved an AirBnB.

A few weeks ago, we kicked off our time in Nashville with a casual reader/writer gathering.

L to R: TI Lowe, Nicole Deese, meL to R: Kristi Ann Hunter, Alysha’s mom, Alysha from ForTheLoveofChristianFiction, Amanda Dykes. Several other authors where present including Julie Klassen, Jaime Jo Wright, Amanda Cox, and more.

The next day began with the Art of Writing conference for authors. Then several of us changed into our “fancy clothes” at a bathroom on-site before attending the Christy Awards sit-down dinner.

I hadn’t expected this lovely acknowledgement in the booklet!

I was eventually called to the stage to say a few words. I began by listing the writing advice I didn’t follow for the books they were displaying on the big screens…

I didn’t follow the advice to write shorter books and publish more often. (My Christy Award books are all over a hundred thousand words long and I publish one a year.)I didn’t follow the advice to write every day. (I believe in weekends off and vacations.)I didn’t follow the advice to write based on word count goals. (I prefer page count or hourly goals.)I didn’t follow the advice to jump on trends. (I go where my own inspiration leads.)I didn’t follow the advice to “write to please your ideal reader”. (I’ve always simply written the books the way I felt led to write them and the way that I loved them.)

More and more over the years I’ve come to understand how crucial it is not to write in a way that works for other people or to pursue someone else’s goal. What’s been better? To figure out the writing process that works for me. To answer for myself…. “What is my goal?”

My goal has been this… to write the very best books I can for the glory of the Lord.

Knowing that has been the thing that has brought me peace, clarity, joy, and protection from burnout.

Such a memorable night. It was fabulous to see the work of so many Christian authors recognized.
Click here for the complete list of winners.My parents and husband

We closed our our time in Nashville with…

Shopping and dinner in quaint Franklin, TNA visit to President Andrew Jackson’s home, The HermitageA stop at the parthenonTime spent with my awesome reader friends Joy, Amy, and CrissyThis honor was such a milestone for me. As hard as my job can be at times, I truly do love it. I’m very grateful that the Lord has seen fit to equip me for this work.
God is good!

Writing, Swimming, and Giveaways, oh my!

Last month I participated in NANOWRIMO, a race to write 50K words in the month of November. It gave me the competitive drive to write 44,000 while also macro and line-editing a novella that will release next year. But the result of writing that fast was a sequence of chapters and scenes that might — or might not — actually mesh together. This fast writing was an important part of the process…but it can leave me with a bit of a mess.

That means I printed off a copy of the document, broken apart by scene, so I could see what I actually have. That’s 200 pages of writing, with two and a half pages of notes scrawled on sheets of paper. I then color coded at the top who the point-of-view character is in the scene and other key details. The goal is that a glance will tell me what’s there so I can see what needs to be added. Maybe it just made me feel productive when I was fighting the fatigue of my end of semester crash — that came two weeks too early. However, this process has helped me see what I have and what is missing. Namely for this book the suspense is going to have to be heavily layered in as I rearrange the pages and scenes. Fortunately, my brainstorming group helped me find some key questions that should aid in identifying ways I can get a few bodies and mayhew laced into the words. Wish me luck!

High school swim season has also started, which has found me on deck with a microphone announcing the events. Tuesday night I announced diving for the first time. That is quite the feat. I certainly don’t want it as a full time job, but it’s a good way to be close to the action without having to become a deck official — doing that for USA Swimming meets is quite enough for me, thank you kindly!

The last thing I wanted to share with you this week, is this wonderful card and encouraging verses. A reader sent these to me a few days ago, and it has been such a blessing. I think we often undermine how much of an impact something like this can make for someone. I love to fill other people’s mailboxes with notes — and was so very blessed when this reader took the time to do the same for me. Writing can be so solitary, so it’s been very fun to build relationships with readers like you. Thank you for all the ways you encourage us!

If you haven’t already, be sure to enter the giveaway below. I can’t wait to send these three books (Toni Shiloh, Robin Lee Hatcher, and Joanna Politano’s latest) to three different readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hello, Dolly! (The puppy, not the musical.)

It’s been a long time coming, but we finally brought our new puppy home the Thursday before Thanksgiving. You might know from some previous mentions here or on social media that this wasn’t my idea. In fact, on social media posts about our puppy, I always include the hashtag #hismidlifecrisis. Because that’s the truth. But he doesn’t ask for much. And he really wanted a dog. And I love him, so I said yes. 

My husband, Jeff, and his puppy. (And yes, he is wearing his Stranger Things Christmas sweater. )

So say, “Hello, Dolly!) our (almost) 11 week old mini-bernedoodle. Although at this point, I’m not sure how “mini” she’ll turn out to be! When we brought her home at 8 weeks, she was just over 12 lbs. She’s now over 15. And her paws look enormous! Minis are typically 25-40 lbs full grown. I’m just hoping we hit instead of exceed that top end at this point! 

Dolly’s been with us almost three weeks now, and while I can admit she is cute, and sometimes sweet, there have definitely been some expectation adjustments for all of us. She is playful and smart and stubborn. So nothing we have’t dealt with before as parents! I’m really thankful puppies grow up more quickly than the children did! Still, it seems like forever when you are potty training, obedience training and sleep training all at the same time, unlike with your kids! 

Dolly meeting the grands for the first time at Thanksgiving.

The hardest part for Jeff has been dealing with the shorter nights. He takes full responsibility for that side of things, but he is also a guy who needs his sleep. For me, the hardest part is daytime—trying to work when she wants to play because she’ll do almost anything to get my attention when I focus on my computer. But I’m figuring out new tricks to try every day, thanks to friends who got puppies over the pandemic while working from home. 

We have to take her out on a leash in our backyard right now due to the fact that she can squeeze through our wrought iron fence, but hopefully that will change in a couple of months. And I’m so thankful we still have some nice enough days that I can take her out back on a long lead and work while she runs some energy off. (Or takes another nap!)

But per my expectation, Jeff is her person. She cries when he leaves the house. Runs after him when he leaves the room. Of course I contend that she loves him for the same reason our children and previous dog did—because he’s not nearly as hard-and-fast with behavioral rules as mom is! But that’s okay. We all came to love each other eventually. And I’m sure it will be the same with Dolly. 

Finally, you might wonder how we chose the name Dolly. Our first dog was named Abigail, in honor of First Lady Abigail Adams. So Dolly comes in honor of First Lady Dolley Madison. (We made the spelling easier.) Such things make our history-loving hearts happy. But we’re also good if you hear Dolly and think Dolly Levi from the musical Hello, Dolly! (Because we love that show!) or even, as my son mentioned, Dolly Parton (because she’s an awesome lady!).

I’m happy with her name. It seems to suit her. But I have to admit that I’m getting really, really tired of repeating it over and over and over again each day! 

Do you have any encouraging or funny puppy stories? Or a dog that has been very special to you? Please share! 

Grieving . . . with hope

This isn’t the post I’d planned to share today. I consider it a blessing that I was able to write stories about Belle Meade Plantation here in Nashville, and today at Belle Meade we’ll be celebrating the life of a man who was very instrumental in me writing those stories.

Alton Kelley, the former President of the Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery, died December 2 after a brief illness at the age of 63 (glioblastoma). Here is Alton’s obiturary that so captures the man—and lover of story and history—that he was. And still is, on the other side of eternity.

As I told Alton’s wife Sheree, I’ve never read an obituary that so wonderfully portrays who that person was in this life on earth. Alton lived a very full life in his 63 years!

Click to read more

I’m so grateful God crossed my path with Alton and Sheree, not only in writing the Belle Meade novels, but just on this earthly journey. And since we’re brother and sisters in Christ, that journey has only begun!

Later today, I’ll return to this post and share some pictures I’ll take from Belle Meade. It always stirs my heart to visit that place, especially the Old Harding Cabin where Uncle Bob, an enslaved man at Belle Meade and a true hero in his own right, lived. Alton was passionate about keeping real history alive and was profoundly instrumental in bringing to light the histories of slaves who lived and worked at Belle Meade, which definitely helped me write the Belle Meade stories with more authenticity.

Learn more about Belle Meade’s real history…

Click for more

Blessings on your day, friends, and please be in prayer for Alton’s wife Sheree and their two grown sons and their families as we gather with them today to celebrate Alton’s life—but far more, to celebrate the great God and Eternal King Jesus who Alton loved and longed for.

Much love from Nashville,

Tammy

Here are some pictures I snapped at Belle Meade as I walked around following the celebration service for Alton, which was beautiful. Sheree his wife spoke with such grace and love. God was glorified at every turn!

Pay it forward . . .

Enter the 2022 Christmas Blessing Giveaway