Wednesday Warm Thoughts…

It’s mighty cold here in Georgia on this Tuesday morning. As I write this post, the fire is crackling and popping in the fireplace, keeping me toasty warm. Do you enjoy a good fire on a cold morning?

For me, sitting by a warm fire inspires me to write more. Why is that? I love to come down the hall on cold mornings and hear the crackling fire. As soon as I have a cup of coffee in my hands, I stand in front of the fire, letting it warm me to my soul. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Not to mention I’m finishing up the last of my Christmas romance, which comes through easier with a cozy fire. Now just to get up my Christmas tree and decorations. But that will have to wait until after the upcoming busy weekend.

Enjoy every moment… Listen to the crackle of a fire… Give yourself a moment every day to just be…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Letting Characters take over…

OK, so as I often do, today I muse over writing. I spend a lot of my time fighting with my characters. They seem to have minds of their own. If you’re not a writer, you probably think I need the men with the straight jackets. Well, maybe I do need a straight jacket. 😉 But as a writer this is a real fear. If you let them take over, what will happen?

As I’ve told you before, I have another new book coming out in the next week. This one is my New Year’s romance which is the 2nd part to “Tender Flames”. Well, since I was under the weather last week, I got way behind in the manuscript. As I tapped on the keys last night, one of the characters took over the writing process. I had a planned way this book would end, but guess what. As one of the characters evolved in the story, she took over the ending and totally blew it out of the water.

So my question is this, Do we as writers need to let the characters launch a hostile takeover, or do we take back control? Basically if we take over, are we hurting the story? As I sat and let the character take over, I realized maybe she had a point.

Ok, so maybe it’s my brain that does the takeover. Or maybe it’s my heart. As most of you know I love romance and anything about it. Maybe the story didn’t have enough romance or maybe it had too much. But as the story goes, I was pleased with the end results. If all goes well, the story will be ready by the end of the week. Most of the early edits have been completed and the cover is awesome.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you!

Laugh, it’s Friday!

Hello fellow bloggers. It’s Friday. Had you noticed? Did you forget? Well, I woke up and smiled. It’s Friday and the weekend officially starts in a couple of hours.

Have you laughed lately? I’m not talking about that snicker or pretend laugh when someone tells you a stupid joke. I’m talking about a outright, stomach clenching laugh. Well if you haven’t then try it. It helps you feel better. It clears the mind and makes way for positive thinking. Studies show that laughter helps people heal faster. I don’t know much about that, but I do know it helps you feel better.

As a children’s minister I laugh a lot. Children can just bring on laughter just being themselves. Sometimes I get to class on Wednesday or Sunday with a splitting headache and soon I’m feeling better. I contribute it to laughter.

Try to laugh today. Don’t take things so seriously. You only live once and you need to enjoy it. It also helps your writing and during November a lot of people are on a writing marathon. If you don’t have anything to laugh about, go to the internet and find a joke site or youtube video. See if you don’t feel better after you have that healthy side splitting laugh.

Well, as always, good writing, have a good laugh and May God always bless you!

For those in the north that are still having issues from Sandy, try to laugh. I know that you don’t have a lot to laugh about, but it couldn’t hurt to just laugh. It might give you some hope or extra energy. Not to mention it will warm your body against the cold. Praying for all of you!

Three cup Monday!

Have you ever had a day where you just wanted go just climb back in the bed and cover up your head? You know you have, so go ahead and raise your hand. This was one of those days. I dragged myself out of the bed at 6am. And dragged is the best way to describe it. I started with a early cup of coffee, drinking it almost in three gulps.

My son’s bus usually runs at 6:42 on the dot, well not today. She ran at 6:40 and guess who was not out there. Yes, my son. We were opening the garage door as she pulled off from the driveway. I stood there going, “This is not the morning for this to happen.” We walked back into the house, both of us properly upset. My husband of course being a man said, “You should have been out there earlier.” Well after the look me and my son gave him, he did not make any more comments on that.

So, usually after my son gets on the bus I have a leisurely breakfast and then I get on my laptop to blog. Well, this morning I had to get a quick shower and drive my son to school. I’m not a morning person, so sitting in school traffic both ways was not my morning plan.

Well, I walked back in the door and grabbed my coffee cup. I have got to try to get with the program. Oh, and my son has decided to try out for basketball today, which means I have got to get him an appointment for a physical today! Like that’s gonna happen.

Well, hope your day is going better than mine. But I shouldn’t be whining. At least I woke up this morning and was able to get out of bed. SO many people can’t.

Have a great day and May God Bless you.

Stalker! My own personal nightmare…

Stalker! My own personal nightmare….

Stalker! My own personal nightmare…

In my post this morning I was talking about the levels of love. I mentioned obsessive love and touched on my experience with a stalker. I decided it might be helpful to others out there if I told my story. Maybe it will give them the courage to stand up and fight.

It started when I was 16. I met a really nice guy at the local skating rink. Well I thought he was nice. Looks and actions can be very deceiving. Since I went every Friday night we developed a friendship, nothing more or so I thought. He never touched me during those days, only conversation. I enjoyed talking to him. We had a lot in common.

One night I was talking about a Youth party our Church was having. I asked him if he would like to go. I had started to like him and thought it would be alright. He jumped on the chance. Well, he came and had everybody just falling all over themselves to be near him. I have to say he was a very nice looking young man. My parents even liked him. They had met him several times at the skating rink. He asked me that night for an official date. Being I had not been on many dates (I had real over protective parents-not complaining), I told him that sounded great.

We went out for a nice dinner and a movie. At the movie we held hands, but nothing really tipped me off that he was not mentally alright. He gave me a quick kiss goodnight and left after our date. Well, being a 16 year old girl I thought this was great. An older man (he was 19-which seemed older to me at the time) was paying me some attention. We started talking on the phone every night the next week. It was on the fifth night that something seemed different. I had mentioned a friend that was a guy had laughed at a joke I told him. This guy went off the deep end. He started swearing and raising his voice. Well, I told him I was hanging up and that started my nightmare.

He started calling all hours of the day and night. He would rant and rave, then it started getting sexual. He started detailing what he was going to do to me when he got his hands on me. I would hang up and he would call back. He even told my dad the same things. He would tell me what I was wearing when I would go into town. He even a couple of times told me what I wore to school. I was terrified.

My dad called the police and they put a tap on our phone. When the investigator heard this guys conversation, he was mortified. He had my principal at school watching out and I couldn’t go out without an adult. One night we were having a Christmas party and he called repeatedly. He talked awful to anyone who mistakenly answered. I got to the breaking point. I lost weight, I stopped eating. I was scared. He was watching me at a distance, but nobody could catch him.

One day I got home from school and collapsed. Both from exhaustion and complete misery. The investigator ramped up the case. They finally were able to catch him in the act. He was living with his older brother and they played the tapes for him. He called and begged us not to press charges that his brother had a mental disorder. We knew it would be the only way he got help, so we pressed charges. The judge would not allow me in the court room because the guy had implied he would get me there too. My dad went.

The guy was sentenced to two years in prison with mental therapy. He served 18 months and go out for good behavior. Well, guess who was the first person he called. Me! It started again. Well, the investigator was ready and he was put back in prison for 6 more months. After some therapy of my own, I was able to move on with my life.

I’ve not heard back from him. Thank goodness. I want anyone that has had this happen or is having it happen, please get help. People like this are sick and capable of anything.

Levels of Love…

As I write this I ponder the different levels of love I’ve had in my 43 years of life. I am by no means an expert. This is just my outtake on the subject, so take it as you may.

Here goes:

Baby Love: I feel like as a baby you feel love, not positive because I do not remember being a baby, but I do remember how my son was as a baby. He would brighten up when I would walk in the room, so I feel like he was feeling love for me. So…

Child’s love: As a child you have such a reserve for real love. You have not been challenged by the things of the real world so you can be open to love with your whole heart. Children love unconditionally, well most of the time.

First crush love: You know the love I am talking about. Usually you experience it in your early teens or earlier for some. It is that feeling when you look across the aisle in class and lock eyes with a cute boy. You instantly think you are in love and you will just die if he looks back. Yeah, you remember that don’t you. Ok, you can quit laughing now.

Idol love: Well as a teenager usually you develop huge love issues for movie stars, musicians or even someone older in your life. It is the kind of thing that causes you to post pictures all over your walls and spend your whole allowance on anything with their picture on it. Yeah, been there done that…

First young love: Well this is the one that usually hurts and makes you think you will never love again. You are usually dating by the time this one hits and you think that nobody else can ever take their place. Well, you have not quite got to the real love stage, so you soon learn there is more out there. (Was engaged for 4 years to my first young love. Boy am I glad that went away.)

First real love: This is the love that comes and your heart just is taken away. It no longer belongs to you. Sadly, sometimes this is the love that we mistake for some other feeling and we don’t act on it as our heart tells us to. This is usually the love that if you don’t keep, you end up keeping it with you forever in your dreams. If you don’t realize it is real and you let it go, you spend a lot of time later in life thinking about that lost love.

LOVE: Sometimes when we think we feel love we do things that are not in character for us. We may even marry someone thinking that it is love only to find out after the stars are out of our eyes that we were wrong. That is really sad, but it happens everyday. The divorce rate is prime example. A scary percentage of people are in marriages that started with misguided love.

Obsessive love: This is the sick kind of love where one person thinks that they can’t live without the other person who 9 out of ten times does not return their love. (I had a stalker that did that to me. I went out with him one time and Bam! he thought he was madly in love with me. He served 18 months for stalking me. I was only 17 and it was a scary time.)

Forever Love: This is the love we are strive for. It is the kind that when the person walks in the room, you almost swoon from the heart palpitations. Hopefully you all have felt this kind of love. Maybe it is with the person you are married to, hopefully. It is the kind of love that stops everything around you. When you lock eyes you know and it scares you sometimes the depths it can go. Now that is great love.

As I said before, this is just my take. There are so many more levels of love. It is endless. Hope you have Forever Love. It is always a great thing to have. Hopefully it is with your spouse or spouse to be, if you gave up on Forever Love and went in another direction, well try not to dwell on it too much, because it will drive you insane. Just my opinion.

As always, great writing and May God Bless!

Good Wednesday Morning!

Good Wednesday Morning!.

Good Wednesday Morning!

It is a beautiful Georgia morning. The air has a slight crispness to it. As I sit here with the windows open, the cool breeze comes softly across me. I sip my coffee and have my laptop in my lap, just enjoying the morning. I can hear the birds chirping in the trees as if agreeing with me.

Of course I know that I need to get up and get ready for my day, but I just put it to the back of my mind. Life is so short and we run around all willy nilly not stopping to smell the roses or feel the breeze on our face. Why? If we miss life’s precious moments what have we accomplished?

I made a decision the first of the year to start stopping and smelling the roses. Sometimes it gets me behind on projects but I know the fact is I am getting older and missing out on many things. I have spent the last twenty odd years building my accounting practice and working constantly. I have missed out on so much that the sweet side of life has to offer. Well I have been doing more for myself.

One of the main things is publishing my books and writing in my spare time. It has been so refreshing and revealing to me. I did not realize how much I had missed. I actually feel better physically and mentally. It is as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

Well, try it yourself. Just stop and take a deep, cleansing breath. See if you don’t feel a little better. As always good writing and May God Bless You!

A post for Steel Standing By Christa Davis

This post is for my client and friend Christa Davis. She has recently published a book telling the story of her mothers battle with Metal replacement allergies. Hope you will check out this touching and revealing true story on Amazon.

Christa C. Davis – Steel Standing Bio

Patricia Davis Harton had been a vibrant, energetic and independent person all her life, bit in 2009 she was diagnosed with Inflammatory Myopathy. Although she had lived an incredibly healthy life, neurologists said her muscles would continue to weaken over time.

Her daughter, Christa, initiated her own research trying to discover what could have triggered the inflammation. Time was of the essence, since Patricia’s health began deteriorating soon after she was diagnosed. A pivotal clue unearthed the key to the medical mystery, unlocking answers and providing solutions.

Astonishingly, Patricia’s symptoms seemed to be caused by an allergic reaction to the metals used in her hip and knee replacements. It was not the case that the devices were faulty.
Christa’s theory, linking her mother’s muscle problems with her orthopaedic implants, was considered far-fetched and unlikey. At the time, the existence of metal induced allergy was not widely recognized. The facts documented throughout Steel Standing are obtained from highly credible medical sources, with patient case studies including scientific references and the latest published research.

Christa has a Bachelor of Science degree in health and business management and has worked in communications since 1986. With her innate skills, her career advanced through the years in publication, marketing, advertising, and public relations. A large part of her career has been spent working in medical centers together with specialty physicians in clinical and non-clinical settings.