Jessica Shook's Blog, page 6
October 16, 2017
Surrender
This word, surrender, it has ricocheted around me for weeks. I’ve been lamenting, crying out for an answer. But the answer has been around me all along. Surrender. I can’t do this life all on my own. But I wasn’t meant to. We were meant to lift our hands to our Creator and let go. And surrender. Our control. Our will. Our desires. Our complacency. Our timeline. Oh that we remember that we are not alone in this world, this life.
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October 3, 2017
Book review: Declutter Your Way to Success by Terri Savelle Foy
Grab a highlighter and journal for lots of notes on this one! With Declutter Your Way to Success, Terri Savelle Foy has put out another practical guide to cheer you on to excellence. Her unique voice is sweet, funny and brutal at the same time, cutting to the core of why we aren’t in the place we want to be, then inspiring us to get there, then giving a clear path as to how we can become our best us. I could hardly get through a chapter without wanting to get up out of my chair and get to wo...
September 15, 2017
Book review: Hungry Heart by Jennifer Weiner
…by page 3, Jennifer Weiner was writing my heart. “We could no more change the kind of work we do – the voice in which we write, the characters that call to us – than we could our own blood type.”
This memoir, Hungry Heart, is just as snarky, sarcastic, meaningful and hilarious as her fiction. I love her quirks and the way she can make the smallest statement raw with emotion. I’m not a fan of her politics, but I can skim over them because I will never agree with everyone.
My favorite part is...
September 8, 2017
Am I Enough?
Ever feel inadequate in your career, relationships, parenting, life? I’ll admit I feel inadequate on a near-daily basis. This morning I was looking back through my journaling and found this entry from early on in writing my second book, Shrapnel. I felt so deeply inadequate to tell the stories of the beautiful characters that I had come to love.
My journaling went something like this, “God, I feel inadequate for this thing you put in front of me. Give me depth to move the reader. And that’s...
May 24, 2017
I needed to make contact with a girl I don’t know well (...
I needed to make contact with a girl I don’t know well (and maybe am a little intimidated by) to ask for her help with a project.
What if she thought my project was stupid or beneath her? What if she thought I was stupid or beneath her?
I started with an email that I deliberated over for hours, edited, bit my nails, then finally pushed send with my eyes closed tight. But she didn’t respond, for days. “Call her,” someone said, but I cringed inside. I sent a follow up email (in one sitting!)....
April 17, 2017
Book Review: The Polygamist’s Daughter by Anna LeBaron
The Polygamist’s Daughter by Anna LeBaron
A gut-wrenching true story of a polygamist cult from the eyes of a child born into it. It is the truest form of beauty from ashes, a child born into and living through trauma finding freedom, both physically and spiritually. I cannot fathom the emotional trauma she must have faced. Moments of the book feel emotionally detached, written very matter-of-factly, which I’m sure was a combination of time passing and emotional necessity, because she describ...
March 13, 2017
Shrapnel Playlist: My Answer to Writer’s Block
What do I do when I get writer’s block? As a writer, that question comes up a lot. Well, I listen to music. Does anyone else get creative when listening to great music? I feel like creativity inspires creativity. At different times, different styles inspire me. But music with beautiful lyrics seep into my creative lobe and draw out some of my best work. Music emotionally charges me. It picks me up and set me right in the middle of a scene, a world yet to be created, a conversation spoken in...
February 28, 2017
Available Today: Shrapnel
Today, y’all!! Today is THE day Shrapnel is available for you to purchase!
Two women form an unlikely bond through the parallels they face: the cold beds they no longer share with their husbands, the facades they construct, and the tragedies rising around them.
Elle Holloway’s husband has walked out on her and left her to divvy up emotions like property in a divorce. Jocelyn Turner is an army wife and mother,...
February 19, 2017
GIVEAWAY TIME!! My new book + Custom Locket by Berlin Boutique
Click Now to enter for your chance to win a SIGNED copy of my new book, Shrapnel, out February 28th, PLUS a custom locket featured on the cover and in the book! Don’t miss out!
By sharing, you can be entered for even more chances to win!
February 14, 2017
That Time I Almost Failed English
Crumpled papers scattered my kitchen table while I helped my fourth grader work on his homework. He had come home with two of the worst grades he’d ever received, plus a notice that he had only turned in a partial assignment for two weeks. It’s a good thing I’ve watched a lot of cop shows on TV, because one lesser known job of a mother is investigator. Trying to get answers out of my fourth grader about what his teacher taught him instantly transforms my kitchen into a poorly lit, dingy, i...
