On to Chapter 6 & my new writing space :)

             Well, today I am not sitting in bed writing to you like usual. I actually have my own desk and my very own creative space. The walls around me are painted terra cotta rose (kind of red). I've read that the color red is supposed to raise blood pressure and to energize. So hopefully my quality of writing will be better in this room. I've heard red can also make you angry and hungry.....did I mention that I've been chowing down on snacks while I write....lol I promise not to throw my shoe at you ;)

              I have finished chapter five and I'm about to start chapter 6 of my book. So guess what! I am a quarter of the way  to finishing the first book in my series. Yes, I hope to keep it twenty chapters (which is not too much more than 200 pages). I'm really aiming at preteens and up. So I don't want this to be so long and detailed that people fall asleep in their Corn Flakes. I just finished reading the third book in The Mistmantle Chronicles and each book is a little over 20 chapters. So it is possible to wield a great story in a shorter book. People like quick reads these days....stories that hook you and have you begging for more.

 

              If you haven't read The Mistmantle Chronicles I implore you to check it out. It's a fantasy adventure book about talking animals on the island of Mistmantle. The main character is a squirrel named Urchin. It's perfect for kids. Now you may be thinking that a book about talking rodents is ridiculous but take it from me...a person who hates squirrels and has a great fear of them....these books are good. I think I might start liking squirrels a bit now.....

               The lady who wrote these books ( Margaret I. McAllister) has immense talent. I checked the books out because I wanted to read books in my genre and geared towards the age group I'm writing to. At first I wasn't that excited about reading about evil rodents squirrels. But Mrs. McAllister's writing was so interesting that I began to care about this orphaned squirrel. The first book opens with a very disturbing scene for a kid's book but it's no different than Harry Potter I guess. Sometimes traumatic scenes draw people's interest. I personally don't want to start off with action at the beginning of my book. I like to show the natural world before my characters are catapulted into craziness. But Mrs. McAllister was able to pull it off with style and I am now a huge fan of hers.

              I am excited that my characters are getting into more action scenes and their personalities are really coming out. It's fun getting to know them as I write. LOL Hey, writers are allowed to have little people in their heads!
Books really are like children. My Emmanuel is about to face some major fears and Timothy has learned that good intentions can sometimes cause bad events. Then there's Besem....sweet innocent Besem.....just a little girl...and she's going into the woods of Shazar.....where she might meet a nasty beheymah. But thankfully all of my main characters have courage and hope that the King will make things right in the end. Ok that's all the preview you get for now...until I have a copyright ;)

For Those Who Wait

Well, lately I've been watching the days go by slowly........just waiting for answers from God......waiting to see where my life will go. Wondering if my hopes have no foundation.......

I keep telling myself: Godliness with contentment is great gain.(1 Timothy 6:6)

but contentment is hard when the old life feels claustrophobic...
Another person can relate to me. Albeit she's fictional but she understands my situation well. Her name is "Belle" or "Beauty" from Beauty and the Beast. I had the great thrill of watching the musical last night. The cartoon is amazing but the musical really pointed out some lessons I never noticed before.
You see, Belle feels out of place in her little town. She wants more "than this provincial life". Everyone in the town thinks she's weird for reading books all the time. And they think her father is a nut. Then she has Gaston, the town big head, trying to get Belle to marry him.
Well, Belle gets her wish. She leaves the town to find her father in the woods. You know the story....Belle finds her dad at the Beast's castle in the dungeon. She bravely chooses to take her father's place as the Beast's prisoner. Now she faces a life in a dark depressing castle with a prideful Beast who desperately needs anger management classes. Suddenly her provincial life seems appealing.
Why did she ever complain? But as time goes on we see a change in Belle. Belle decides to make the best of her prison. Soon she learns that things aren't as they seem. The Beast is really a Prince who had a spell cast on him. Belle learns to love the man inside of him and in the end the spell is broken. The Beast magically becomes a Prince again. Beauty and the Beast live happily ever after. Belle has learned that good can come out of the bad. Wow, what a message from a kid's show!

Looking at the word "contentment" in the original Greek we get the idea of "sufficiency". Hmmmm what does that mean. Let's look at the definition of "sufficient".
Sufficient-  enough to meet the needs of a situation or a proposed end. Adequate for the purpose; enough

This makes me think of the song "Enough". It states that God is more than enough.

Also, I think of what Jesus told Paul when he had the thorn in his flesh "My grace is sufficient".  Enough for what? It says enough to meet the needs of a situation. Well, what are our needs? I'm not talking about wants. Seriously do we "need" a candy bar or to see a movie? Do we need the internet or cable?
When we get down to it, our basic physical needs are food, clothes, and shelter. God makes it clear in Matthew 6:25-34 that he takes care of those things:
²⁵Therefore I tell you, stop being ^[v]perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?

    ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?

    ²⁷And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the ^[w]span of his life?^(B)

    ²⁸And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and ^[x]learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.

    ²⁹Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his ^[y]magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these. [I Kings 10:4-7.]

    ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?

    ³¹Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?

    ³²For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.

    ³³But seek (^[z]aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (^[aa]His way of doing and being right), and then all these things ^[ab]taken together will be given you besides.

    ³⁴So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.            

Oh and there's that word again "Sufficient". We have enough trouble for one day. Why borrow trouble by worrying about things that may not happen.

 Moving On: okay what do we need emotionally? We need love. Sometimes people literally die of heart ache. It happens. Well, we are not promised to always have our family. Loved ones die all the time. But God is love (true love). God is sufficient for us. Even if our family abandons us we will still have Jesus. He says he will never leave or forsake us. Nothing can separate us from his love. Ok so our emotional needs are also met by God.
Spiritual needs: Obviously, Christ fulfills those needs too. We are spiritually dead until we are born again by Christ's redemption. His grace is all we need for eternal life. Jesus did it all on the cross. And God's grace is our purpose. We are to share this grace with the world.
  So those are our needs and every one of them is met by God. So I am definitely preaching to the choir. These are things I remind myself of while I'm in this waiting period. I must focus on Christ and live one day....actually one moment at a time. And most importantly I must ask myself are my moments glorifying God. Am I focused on God's kingdom?

SEEK FIRST HIS KINGDOM........Lord, please help me to do this