Melissa Service's Blog, page 3

The Decision

I took the part time job and it appears that everyone is happy. This option made the most sense to me, but sometimes we have other factors that need to override our senses–I’m just thrilled this wasn’t the case.

I’ve had a great week at the “office” and I’ve been able to get some research and writing done.  I am in love with the way The Shopkeeper’s Secret is forming and coming along.  One of the main things I love about writing is taking a simple idea or thought and watching it grow into something amazingly beautiful.

Another beautiful thing is this guy right here:

Meatloaf is an amazing artist and Marion Raven has a gorgeous voice.  I remember listening to Bat Out of Hell as a kid and I’ve always enjoyed his music (much to my husband’s chagrin).

Happy Tuesday. Do something fabulous!

M

What to do….What to do….

Life sometimes feels like a pop-quiz, and I am woefully unprepared.

I got two offers from my “day” job search and I’m trying to determine which one makes the most the sense. Since I threw the net far and wide, the job types are on opposite sides of the spectrum–which I like, which is me…eclectic as all get-out, but it does make it tough when trying to determine where I’m going to hang my nameplate next week.

I don’t like being defined or labeled.  Why do I have to be this or that? Why do we as a human race like to label people?  Can’t I be the multifaceted, complex person I was born to be?  Why do I have to write from just one genre?  I don’t want to write just one genre of book. I want to write what I want to write. I want to write what I want to read–like history, and fiction, and Bible stories, and Sci-Fi….but I digress.

Back to the dilemma at hand: One job will allow me to get back into the corporate race–full steam ahead. Stress, satisfaction, and money.  The other will allow me to learn a new skill, includes a no stress environment, satisfaction, and less money, but the opportunity to continue writing and perusing my goals and dreams, and the opportunity to be with my kids instead of having someone else hang them.

But… I have kids to feed (they’re preteens…do you know how much food preteens eat????), and we live in an area that requires money…and more of it than in other places we’ve lived.

So, here I sit, writing and wondering what the answer should be–I have until Monday morning to decide.  And since it is Friday, and we all know about my love for all things Keanu Reeves….I leave you with this little piece of YouTube clip happiness. What to do….What to do???

There’s not enough room in my mind today

Creativity had no place in my world today as my mind was overloaded and crowded with the insanity of “forms.” Mini-me has been removed from school until we provide a proper and “official” form for his school immunization records–the doctor’s records we have for his shot records apparently won’t cut it in the State of California.  If it’s not on an official form–it didn’t happen.  So now, in order to get an waiver for personal belief since I’m not having him get the shots again, (because he’s already had them!), I need a doctor’s signature that says my personal belief on the matter is acceptable.  That’s right. You heard me….you need to have a doctor’s signature to approve your personal beliefs in the state of California.  A doctor…because they’re the experts on personal beliefs, right?

Madness. Madness, I say…So here’s a little ditty for you not crazy, but just a little “unwell” thinking personal belief loving type of folks.

Wednesday, Wednesday….though I thought it was Tuesday, Gromit.

Mini-me is home today “sick,” so I am taking advantage of his sick day to catch up on some writing and some blogging.  I’ve been on the “day job” search since, well, really since we arrived in Sunny California, but more so as of late since nothing that I have tried has panned out.  My hubby told me he’s been giving me fodder for the blog since moving here but I’m not using it to my advantage.  He seems to think it’s gold. Maybe it is. Maybe I’ll write about our crazy year here, but until then, enjoy this little ditty for your Tuesday…err….Wednesday.

Friday Night Music

This song resonates with me lately. It’s old, but enjoy.

Happy Friday,

Melissa

The person who inspired Stephanie

I got this review.

And I get it. I really do.

I have often wondered how the majority of the world would view this book, and we’ve even joked in our family that it wouldn’t make it in any worldview because it’s too “Christian” for the non-believer and too “Worldly” for most believers.  And therein lies the quandary of my life–writing realistic fiction that doesn’t fall into anyone’s perfectly marketable categories.
 
To be transparent, I know the reviewer of the above post. She’s a fellow author, friend, and I appreciate what she has to say.  I can even appreciate her being insulted over Stephanie’s transformation.  But the fact is, that part of the story is much more than “fictional,” and I’ve been wanting to shed some light on the “inspired” parts for some time now, so, I guess there’s no time like the present.
 
In 2007, our teenage daughter ran away from home–in the middle of the afternoon–during a blizzard, with no shoes on and no jacket.  Hours before we’d had one of our typical shouting matches that we thought every family went through, but we were wrong.  We were not like every other family out there, and from that day forward, we began a dance.  A dance that culminated into three and a half years of rage episodes, DHS visits, counseling sessions, the police being called to our house 14 times in one year (like in the novel), and our daughter bouncing in and out of several facilities.  As much as people don’t care for Stephanie in the novel, she is tame compared to what our daughter dealt with and dealt out.
 
After two years, we sent her to live with family.  That worked for a while, but she was out of control and fought with them, so they sent her back.  My heart sank.  Not because I was trying to shirk my responsibilities as a parent, but because I knew she wasn’t any better than when we had let her go, and in fact, she might be worse.
[image error] Her friend posted this picture with this caption: This is you… when you’re crazy.
 
She was.
 
And like Stephanie, she jumped from my moving car as I tried to take her downtown to register her for school.  We spent hours at the hospital with the majority of the doctors we saw that night wanting to admit her for a 72-hour mental health hold.  We couldn’t afford another trip through the system–financially or emotionally, so we told them no, and took her home.
 
We began searching out institutions and looking at options for long-term care since we knew she couldn’t live with us, she couldn’t live with family, and we couldn’t continue to keep going on this route.  At about that same time, we were approached by three people (who didn’t know each other) who asked if we thought her situation was a spiritual one instead of a physical one.  We believed in spiritual issues, but they always seemed so far out there, and for someone else.  We started researching the occurrences of spiritual issues in the Bible and decided that it was worth pursuing before we hauled her off to some institution.  We began praying that we would believe, but we asked that God would help our unbelief.
 
Our family prayed and fasted for two days.  We had others praying for us that we didn’t know were praying.  On a Saturday night in March, two days after our prayer and fasting ended, she told us she was going church and she’d be home later.  To be honest, she’d been so horrible and we were so tired of walking on eggshells all the time that we welcomed the few hours of peace and quiet in our home.  Shortly after the service ended, my husband received a phone call from a friend who had told him that they were praying for us and that one of the ladies on the prayer team had heard from God, “It is finished.  Pain may last through the night, but joy would come in the morning.”
 
At the same time as my husband’s call, I was tucking in our younger daughter and she said to me, “Mommy, do you sometimes hear voices in your head?”  I told her cautiously that I had and then she said, “I hear that it’s finished.”  I quizzed her on what she was talking about, but she said she was tired so we dropped it.  Neither one of us heard the phone conversation and when I went upstairs to tell my husband about our funny exchange, he told me about the call.  It seemed too coincidental to be a coincidence, so we hoped. We held our breath. We wanted to believe.  We even said it was confirmation that God had worked, but we would also wait until the morning to see what had happened to be sure.
 
The next morning as my husband and I sat on the couch, our daughter came and did something she hadn’t done in years–she calmly sat between us and asked if she could talk to us.  She told us that God talked to her at church–well, not God audibly, but God through the Pastor and he asked and said things that seemingly only pertained to her.  She said she felt like she was the only one in the room he was talking with–like a big spotlight was on her, and it was a little strange.
 
From that day forward she has been a changed person.  She isn’t perfect by any means, but God has worked a miracle.  And for four years now, we have held on to the hope that miracle brought us as we have a beautiful 22-year old who makes her living flying the friendly skies.  When I told her I was writing this we had a very frank and candid conversation about how it should look.  She said to me, “Mom, you know I’m not perfect and I struggle every single day.  Some days I want to throw in the towel because this life is hard.  I mean, this life–my changed life is much harder than my previous life.  But I don’t because I know that God has a plan for me and I know He changed me for a reason.“ 
 
During our years of struggling we had a difficult time as a family and while we were in it we couldn’t help but feel empty and alone.  We reached out for treatment and help, but received little back in the way of respite.  We had numerous people tell us we were the problem, and if we could “only parent better,” then she’d be fine.  People we thought were friends abandoned us.  We were told by some friends that they couldn’t have our family around their family because our situation was too volatile for their family.  We had some tell us that they were thankful that they weren’t in our shoes.  None of those things were helpful or if we’re honest, we didn’t exactly welcome or appreciate the comments.  We didn’t ask to be in our situation.  Our daughter didn’t ask to deal with the things she struggled with, but we were given them anyway.  We also had to learn how to forgive those who didn’t understand and still don’t.
 
This song was brought into our lives at about the same time our daughter’s life changed.  It’s such a powerful reminder of what we know to be true–and it’s taken from the same Scripture that our friend told us about that night that our lives were changed.  You may not see a difference, but I didn’t write this to be a “Christian” novel.  I wrote it to point to God’s glory.  I wrote it to point to the fact that miracles still happen, and I wrote it to help people who find themselves in a similar situation know they are not alone.  Though there are over 7 billion people on the planet, feeling alone is something that many people of all walks of life struggle with and it shouldn’t be that way.


 
Everyone has a purpose.
Every life matters.
 
Let it be a good One. Life. Lived.  If you or a family member is struggling, reach out to us. You can email us or comment here on this blog.  If you need professional help please contact your local NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) office, your local county crisis outreach office, or contact one of these organization for help and healing.
 
Teen Challenge
Heartlight–Mark Gregson Ministries
Family First Aid 

Praise for Stephanie.

[image error] Reader’s Favorite Award

Reviewed By K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite

Stephanie: One. Life. Lived. is a young adult quick read by Melissa Service. The story explodes into life with wayward teen Stephanie Carlisle mixed up in a world of crime, recreational drugs and the wrong road in life. She is abruptly caught in the act of being a rebellious teen, and processed into a correctional facility, signed off by her mother, to be set straight. After this, she meets the equally troubled Josh Jacobs, and through her own recovery and new beliefs, Stephanie feels that she can help Josh work out his own demons. The results of her efforts present a stark, bleak message that feels true to the shocking stories we often see on the news today.

Melissa Service tells Stephanie’s tragic story from multiple perspectives to give a full family and friends view of the themes of redemption, sacrifice, belief and loss. Stephanie’s recovery sends an empowering message to families of teens who may well have been through the exact same situation that the Carlisle family faces, but it is her final act and the consequences thereafter which really bring the message of choice and consideration for others home. I particularly found Eloise, Stephanie’s mother, to be a deeply engaging and complex character who overcomes incredible challenges in order to spread happiness into the future instead of hate. Adults and older teens will find Stephanie to be a deep and complex short read with a strong moral theme and a basis in heartfelt Christian values of the fragility and value of life.

Reviewed By Kayti Nika Raet for Readers’ Favorite

Stephanie: One. Life. Lived. by Melissa Service is a moving redemption story about Stephanie Carlisle, a musically gifted, but very troubled teen. When we first meet her, she and a group of friends are about to rob a restaurant. At first she seems like a person you would not want to befriend, but as the story progresses, and through faith and the love of those closest to her, Stephanie’s troubled soul slowly starts to mend. After turning away from drugs and alcohol to a more devoted way of life, she soon meets Josh Jacobs, a talented but equally troubled boy, and learns that her trials are not over yet.

Told in multiple points of view, Stephanie by Melissa Service is able to effectively weave a poignant tale of redemption. This is a moving tale and though it’s for young adult audiences, the author is not afraid to delve into the darker experiences of life, all in an effort to showcase the healing power of faith. In the beginning, I didn’t really like Stephanie, but as I read on and learned more about her, I felt a little sad for her and found myself hoping, for her sake as well as her family’s, that she would eventually make the right decision. Every character goes through growth and change, and Melissa Service manages to make each point of veiw relatable. Even though I am lucky to have never experienced what her characters have, I still found myself drawn in by Stephanie and Josh’s story. Melissa Service definitely has a way with words and I’m interested to see what she comes up with next.

 

Reviewed By Karen Walpole for Readers’ Favorite

To say that Stephanie is an out-of-control teen is a profound understatement. In spite of an extraordinary gift for music, her internal demons turn her to drugs and violence. In Stephanie by Melissa Service, Stephanie’s family tries desperately to help her, but their daughter’s behavior is beyond their understanding. Hospital stays and rehabilitation programs and therapists don’t help, and each time Stephanie returns home, she is more violent and uncontrollable than ever. She returns to her druggy friends and is volatile, throwing and breaking anything around her at home, and attacking anyone handy whenever her parents try to set or enforce limits for her. Someone suggests a different, more spiritual, solution and Stephanie’s parents, desperate for answers, decide to try that approach. The book is the story of this last chance attempt to save their daughter and about what events stem from it.

I love how the story is set up in the prologue and comes full circle at the end. I also like how the story’s speaker changes from chapter to chapter. One chapter is written from Stephanie’s point of view and then the next, her mother’s. The family’s love for Stephanie and perseverance in finding a way to help her is inspirational. I also find the integration of how music is inspired by life with how music inspires listeners wonderful. It is obvious that the author has an understanding of the spiritual nature of the composition process and the passions of musicians. The symbols, like the men with tattoos and men with canes, that show up at different points in the story, are inventive. The messages conveyed by Melissa Service’s book, Stephanie, are important ones for today’s teens and their parents.

Stephanie

Stephanie.

Number 1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases List

Thank you so much for your support. Stephanie is now number 1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases list.  I could not be more pleased, and I have a feeling this is going to be a very fun ride!

[image error] Hot New Releases #1

The print version is coming along and should be released within the next two weeks. Stay tuned, and thanks for the love!

While you’re waiting–check out UMPHY and give his music (and his Kick starter campaign) a little love. He’s a fellow indie artist and we indie artists have to stick together.

[image error] Print Version Coming Soon!