WELCOME TO JOURNAL JOTS ARCHIVES!
Here are all the past issues of Journal Jots since I began in October 2010 until July 2011, so browse to your heart's content! Then, don't forget to check out my current Journal Jot blog under the "Journal Jot" tab of this website.
Have a great day!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JULY 29, 2011:
You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
— Bo Diddley
Horse feathers! As much as I respectfully disagree with Mr. Diddley, I just have to say the man knows “diddley” squat about publishing! Not only can you judge a book by its cover, but according to a statistic quoted in Publisher’s Weekly, 12% of people who buy books do so because of the cover. Now 12% may not sound like a lot, but when you figure that 3.13 billion books are sold every year, that’s a LOT of pulp, people!!
First impressions are important, whether valid or not, and the first glimpse of a cover is a first impression to a potential reader. Which is why my covers are so very important to me and why my prayer partners and I have prayed about every single one well in advance.
So while I was cleaning out my files a few weeks ago, I came across the portfolio shot of the model who posed for Collin McGuire on the cover of A Passion Most Pure, and I thought it might be fun for you to hear some of the background on each of my covers because as high maintenance as I can be, each book cover has been a real trip.
Because A Passion Most Pure was my debut model, I had no idea what to expect with the cover process NOR any common sense to know that I was a newbie who needed to keep her mouth shut. Fortunately for me, the artist I work with at my publishing company is one of the sweetest human beings on the planet, and she was kind enough (and patient enough) to work with me to get a cover I would happy with. As an author, initially I send my publisher my character descriptions and personality traits, along with pics of movie stars or models I think they resemble. My publisher actually does two different shoots—the first of the female model, then later another shoot with the male model, which they strip into the first pics for the final cover. So unfortunately for the model who played Faith O’Connor, she never got to meet the male model who played Collin McGuire, which in my opinion is a real shame, as you can see from the portfolio shot of the model who played Collin. Hubba hubba!
Initially, the artist sent me pix of Faith with her hair long and a pretty, lacy top that was a bit off-shoulder and showed a lot of her back and neck. “Oh, no,” said to my artist, “Faith’s hair looks like a prairie romance, and this is 1916 Boston we’re talking about here, so can we put her hair up?” Yes, we could and did, much to my relief. “Can you make the hair a little redder and the eyes a little greener?” I asked. No problem. Then they gave Faith a high-neck dress, which I thought worked a lot better—more chaste and proper for a modest young Bostonian. And FYI, in the pics with Faith, keep in mind they used some guy on the set to stand in for Collin for placement purposes only. So far, so good, right?
And then the tears began. The artist sent me a pic of Collin with a namby-pamby, almost weak smile and I started to cry, telling my husband he looked like a wimp. “Do you have any other shots from the shoot?” I asked the artist. “Only one other,” she said, “but Collin looks mad in it, and nobody thought it would work.” “Can I see it?” I asked, hope springing in my chest. And the rest is history. I took one look at the smoldering, moody face of Collin McGuire, the man who was angry because he couldn’t have the woman he wanted, and I knew we’d struck pay dirt.
On book 2, A Passion Redeemed, it was a real wild ride!! I showed you the pic of the cover model for Mitch a while back, and I am repeating it here for comparison. You can imagine my shock when I received the first cover in which Mitch had slicked-down hair and looked like an English dandy. More waterworks, of course, and I begged my artist to “play” with the cover for me, giving stubborn Mitch Dennehy more of an iron jaw and an angrier look in the eyes (all my heroes tend to be angry for some reason … maybe because they have to deal with me!). “The hair has got to go,” I said, so I searched on the Internet for 30 minutes for just the right head of hair—blond rumpled curls instead of slicked down, and my artist agreed the changes worked. Did I mention before what a saint my publisher artist is??? Here is a before and after to show you what we did.
Suddenly I zeroed in on Charity and noticed that the very buxom, drop-dead gorgeous vixen named Charity O’Connor was not as buxom as I’d hoped and even less than her sister, Faith, who was supposedly unendowed. So, as a final change to the cover, my artist graciously endowed Charity with a bit more charm as you can clearly see in the before and after.
I had given my poor artist so much grief on the first two books, that I made up my mind that I would take the cover for A Passion Denied any way they gave it to me, no complaints. And so, despite my utter shock at the model who looked NOTHING like the Lizzie in my mind, I kept my mouth shut and prayed. And guess what? Right before the cover was finalized, my publisher intervened on her own and said this first model didn’t fit the character image, so she ordered a second shoot and VOILA — L izzie was born, and I never had to say a word!
So no one can te
ll me covers aren’t important, because they are, and I cannot thank my publisher enough for working with me like they do and bending over backwards to address my concerns. I have since found out that most authors do not have the luxury of so much input on their covers, and so I am doubly grateful.
Because you may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you sure in the heck can judge a CDQ by her reaction to it, and let me tell you—it ain’t pretty.
A HEART REVEALED is out in 17 DAYS!!!! If you would like a chance to win a signed copy, please come see me at “Come Meet Ausjenny” blog at http://ausjenny.blogspot.com/2011/07/getting-to-know-you-thursdays-with_28.html
where I have an interview up and will be giving away a signed copy of winner’s choice of any of my books.
Then please check my website calendar at http://www.julielessman.com/julies-calendar/
Because I have a number of blog giveaways coming up. In the past I have given away at least 50 signed books in blog giveaways before the release of my next one, but due to time constraints, I will only be doing ten blog interview/giveaways this year, so don’t miss out, okay?
Have a great weekend, and next week I’ll announce the winners of my RSS feed and MaryLu Tyndall free download contest that ends July 31st. For details, simply scroll down to the end of my Friday, July 22 Journal Jot and may the best women win!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2011:
It is sad to grow old, but nice to ripen.
—Brigette Bardot
Boy, oh boy—ol’ Brigette said a mouthful, didn’t she? I don’t know about you, but this gal will take “ripe” over “old” any day of the week, keeping me forever indebted to those mainstays in my life—things like Loreal or Max Factor … or an artist husband adept at Photoshop! Because let’s face it—as women, we want to present the best image possible, both inside and out. And since I am always working real hard on the inside (or I should say, God is!), I thought it was high time I started working on the outside as well.
Which means I owe every single one of my readers out there a great, BIG apology. Why? Because when I first got published three years ago, I had one—count ‘em, one! —professional photo taken for use on my website, for the back of my book, for blog interviews, for posters, for book signings, you name it. One. Now I don’t know about you, but I got REAL sick and tired of seeing that same old picture, and you know which one I’m talking about. No, it wasn’t a bad picture, that’s true, and yes, it actually made me feel pretty at the time. But sweet tea in the morning, I gotta tell you that I was sorely tempted to burn that black, short-sleeve tank I wore, and TRUST ME … I’ve never worn it again!
So, in honor of my new series coming out in April 2013, The Cousins McClare (because I always have to have a reason to spend money!) and because my husband basically threatened me (“Come on, Julie, part with a buck and get some decent shots!”), I decided to bite the bullet and go for broke … literally.
Actually, I’m joking about the “broke” part because this photographer is not only incredibly reasonable, but downright miraculous in what she can do with a 60-year-old CDQ who has just enough vanity to keep from going gray. Her name is Lisa Nordmann of Nordmann Photography, and for the first time in pictures, I actually feel like I don’t bay at the moon. I mean, seriously. Even my husband is looking at me through new eyes, so that alone is worth every single penny I spent. So if you live anywhere near St. Louis, you’re gonna want to look Lisa up because the woman can make a silk purse like nobody’s business … :)
Since my Journal Jots blog is the perfect place to share my new look, I wanted to give you the first peek at the new me. I hope you like it as much as I do because let’s face it—the clock’s a-tickin’ and I ain’t ever gonna to look like this again! Or at least that’s what I told my publisher when they didn’t put my pic on the back of my first series. I mean, really—why not take advantage and slap that sucker on before the heavy-duty wrinkles arrive, right??
But before I unveil the pics, I want to remind you about MaryLu Tyndall’s HUGE promotion where Barbour Publishing is offering a free e-book of MaryLu’s Surrender the Heart. It will be available on Kindle until July 31st, so you do NOT want to miss this one. It’s wonderful and so is book 2, Surrender the Night, which I actually endorsed. MaryLu is hands-down one of my FAVORITE writers with an edge to her romance, which makes her one of those must-read authors for me and hopefully for you! Here’s the link to download MaryLu's FREE BOOK, so go for it!!! http://t.co/UW4mSHP.
AND … as a bonus … for anybody who DOES download MaryLu’s book and lets me know by contacting me via e-mail, through this website or on Facebook, I will enter you in a contest where three winners will receive a signed copy of MaryLu’s latest, Surrender the Dawn!
THEN DON'T FORGET MY CONTEST!!! I will select three winners to receive a brand-new, top CBA book of their choosing from my very large personal library. If you are interested, all you have to do is click on the "Subscribe to My Journal Jots Blog" link at the top of this page or on the calendar page and then let me know via e-mail, through my website or via Facebook. It's that easy!
FINALLY ... BLOG GIVEAWAY THIS WEEK!! Come see me this week on AusJenny’s blog (July 28 to August 4) where I will be giving away a signed copy of ANY of my books, including my upcoming release, A Heart Revealed. You can find the link for this blog giveaway as well as others on my calendar page at http://www.julielessman.com/julies-calendar/.
Anyway, thanks for sharing the fun and magic of new pics with me, and may your own weekend be just as magical and truly “picture perfect.”
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2011:
He is my high tower;
I shall not be greatly moved.
Psalm 62:2
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair."
You know, call me crazy, but I have this thing about long hair and high towers, which probably explains one of the reasons why Rapunzel was one of my favorite fairy tales growing up.
I truly believe that part of my obsession with long hair stems from the age of eight when my mother marched me and my two youngest sisters up to—are you ready for this? “Hightower” beauty salon to have my long hair cut in a boy cut. Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! I cried for days, maybe months, and vowed never to go short again. Which is why my daughter and I have this running joke about me drafting a contract that requires her to color and maintain my long hair after she puts me in a home. I am determined be the only little, old lady rocking on the front porch of the nursing home with long, dark hair … or my daughter loses her inheritance! :)
Because when it’s done right, long hair can make a woman feel pretty, feminine, sexy … and, most importantly for me, hides the hint of dowager hump behind the neck that comes from years of slouching. In a way, it’s kind of the Samson thing going on—I draw strength (be it a perception of youth or femininity) from my long hair, so much so that I seldom wear it up.
But, with eight older sisters, I have learned through osmosis that older women simply do NOT wear their hair long. Consequently, from the age of fifty on, I have reluctantly cut my hair to shoulder length or shorter even though I didn’t want to. Until … my moment of liberation came about six months ago in a conversation with my daughter:
“You know, I wish I could wear my hair long,” I moaned, “I like my hair long, I want my hair long and for pity’s sake (and yes, I really do talk like my characters! Sad, isn’t it??) I’ve been noticing tons of older celebrities with longer hair too.”
“Well, why don’t you?” my daughter said with a lift of her brow, carefully painting her toe nails on the floor amid a rainbow of perfectly lined bottles of polish.
“Because I’m old,” I complained, “and everybody says older women can’t have long hair.”
“Why not?” Amy asked, clearly perplexed. “As long as it’s cut properly and has a nice shape, you should go for it, Mom.”
I blinked. “Really? I can do that???”
“Yes, mom, you can.”
Ah, sweet liberation! So I’ve thrown caution to the wind and grown my hair out and am loving it, and hopefully you will, too, when I unveil my new professional photos on Journal Jots next week. But … what does Rapunzel or long hair have to do with our Scripture today, you may ask?
Uh, plenty.
You see, my fascination with Rapunzel wasn’t just about the long hair, but about the “high tower” as well. I don’t know, there’s just something about high towers that have always fascinated me, the idea of being lifted high above the fray, protected from the trauma and trials of life—safe. In fact, this perception of a safe tower was SO prominent in my mind as a little girl, that when I became a new Christian at the age of twenty-three, that was the main description of God that immediately drew me in, made me feel safe, secure, whole in Him. When something negative would happen in my life, I’d see myself in my mind’s eye bolting toward that High Tower like a little girl fleeing the boogie man, long hair whipping wildly behind me as I flung myself into the safety of His arms with chest heaving. I can’t explain it, but seeing God as a “High Tower” to which I can run and hide in and be lifted far above my hurts and insecurities ALWAYS gives me peace and hope and comfort.
Especially the last couple of weeks. You see, this was not only the week of the Carol Award announcements, American Christian Fiction Writers top award, in which I was privileged to final in the last two years, but both the Christy Awards (the Oscars for Christian fiction) and the Rita Awards (Oscars for romance writers) just took place as well. Now, let me tell you—there was a time when Keith had to hold me as I sobbed on the couch for a half hour the first year I was published because finaling in the Christys has been such a dream of mine for so long, that I took it hard when I didn’t. What can I say—I was green, not only in the sense of naive, but with envy too. You will be happy to know that I have come a long, LONG way in not letting either the Christys or the Ritas bother me anymore.
Ah … but the Carols, an award that signifies the recognition of one’s peers, is HUGE and quite frankly, I was worried. Worried I wouldn’t final. Worried that it would crush me if I didn’t. And worried that not finaling would sap my strength as a writer, shearing off my hair (my confidence and strength and pride) as surely as Delilah had sheared Samson’s. So I did the only thing I knew to do—I ran to the High Tower, hid myself inside of His strength, His affection, His plan and purpose for me. And you know what? I didn’t final. But ... something amazing did happen! For the VERY first time in my professional career, I wasn’t depressed, jealous or sapped of my strength to write. In the words of our Scripture today, I was not “greatly moved.” Because lo and behold, this week I experienced first hand that God IS my High Tower, holding me high above the fray of pride and envy and self glory, making me feel safe and secure and loved—in Him, not in myself. Shearing away the need to find my significance in myself, and “restyling” me in the true beauty of significance in Him. Only Him. Oh my, what a freedom!
And so, I want to take this time to sincerely and wholeheartedly congratulate each of the VERY deserving Carol Award finalists http://www.acfw.com/carol/2011_carol_awards_finalists especially dear friends Mary Connealy, Liz Curtis Higgs, Melanie Dickerson, Laura Frantz, Irene Hannon, Ruth Logan-Herne, Vickie McDonough and Carrie Turansky. You guys ROCK and I seriously couldn’t be happier for you.
And for myself! Well ... maybe a "little" happier for myself ... :)
Anyway, have a great weekend, and take it from a gal who’s afraid of heights—nothing lifts you higher or has a better view than our High Tower!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2011:
"Now the Lord is the Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom."
2 Corinthians 3:17
HAPPY FREEDAY!!! Which, is what Fridays are to me because I always “feel” more crazy, free, ready to kick up my heels.
And, yes, I suppose I’m a week late (and more than a dollar short!) with a Journal Jot on the subject of “freedom,” but honestly, I haven’t been “free” enough to even think about freedom until this week when I FINALLY sent the ms. for Steven’s story, working title A Trust Restored to my editor, so YAY!!! I went through five Kleenex proofing the last chapter alone because it is an epilogue that wraps up both series and says goodbye to the O’Connors. That is … until I get to write Marcy and Patrick’s prequel, which I hope to fit in while I’m “cranking out” The Cousins McClare. I put apostrophes around “cranking out” because quite frankly, I don’t “crank” anything out. Oh no, being the CDQ I am, I labor and moan and edit and groan and proof and edit until I could have written three books in the space of one. BUT … not anymore!
Nope, that’s all going to change with The Cousins McClare series because at 100-150 pages shorter per book than my last two series and only one subplot per book, I intend to master “cranking out” (as much as my anal personality will allow!) so that I can get to you, my reader friends, more books more frequently. Sound good? It does to me!!
But the kind of freedom I want to talk about today is emotional. I have always loved the “feel” of freedom. For instance, one of my favorite things to do as a kid was to stick my head out of the window of a moving car, you know, kind of like a dog does? Eyes closed, nose in the air, hair flapping behind, feeling the exhilaration of flying free down the highway. Adrenalin would literally course through my veins and every nerve was taut with anticipation while joy bubbled inside until I was almost giddy. When I hit my teens and twenties, it was the same thing with motorcycles—LOVED driving or riding on them with the wind in my face … until I married a man who hates them. Sigh.
I must have a thing for wind because I always felt the same way on a swing, legs and heart pumping while I flew into the sky. In fact, that exhilaration of flying with the wind was so intoxicating to me that I wrote a poem about it in high school that actually was published in The National Anthology of High School Poetry. Here it is:
Francis Park (or any other)
Whenever I’m a swing,
I sail through the air, hair wind-raped and toes touching the clouds.
And I never stop to think that the swing is tied down
or that I can’t go any further than the blue of the sky.
I just feel free … completely free
Whenever I’m on a swing.
"Free, completely free … whenever I’m on a swing." Only, guess what? As an adult, the swing doesn’t quite do it for me anymore, because now the only “high” I’m looking for is a spiritual one where my exhilaration comes from, yes, still flying on the wind … but the “wind” of the Holy Spirit. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom," our Scripture says today and if there is one thing I have learned in this life, it is that that statement, my friends, is the God’s truth!
Obedience (to God’s precepts) = Freedom, pure and simple. Whenever I obey God in a given situation (which is not as frequently as I would like!), I always come away lighter, freer, more confident and happy than before. Free from guilt, failure, self condemnation and God knows what else! Which begs the question—if obedience to God brings freedom, why do we so often choose to rebel?
This week I was stressed, anxious, fretting, complaining, crabby, you name it (yeah, yeah, I know, poor Keith, right? I told you he was a saint!) and just plain unhappy. And yet, God JUST helped me finish my book on deadline, gave me another 3-book contract, an incredible husband, fabulous kids, helped me lose five pounds (smile) and a number of other wonderful things.
That’s when I FORCED myself to go downstairs on my deck and spend time with God instead of the million other things I needed and wanted to do. I pressed in, I told him I was sorry for all the awful things I was giving in to (stress, murmuring, ingratitude, fear, anxiety, etc.), I prayed for Him to help me be the woman, the wife, the mother, the sister, the niece, the aunt, the author … that He wants me to be, and I prayed for anyone I had ill feelings toward. I thanked him for all of His blessings to me and for just flat-out loving me no matter how big a brat I am (and trust me—I am!). And you know what? Thirty minutes later, I was flying high, feet and heart pumping as my spirit soared on the wind of the Holy Spirit! WOW … what a high!! And surprise, surprise … from that moment on, I had the best day I had all week.
So, moment by moment, day by day, when the temptation comes to give in to “Self’’ instead of obeying God’s precepts (i.e. fretting instead of trusting Him and praising Him in the face of the situation, snapping at someone instead of showing them love or patience, etc.), let freedom ring!! Do it HIS way, and experience the exhilaration of emotional freedom. It’s the best “High” I have ever known.
And to sum it all up, I thought I’d give you a clip from Steven’s story, A Trust Restored that touches on the concept of true freedom in Him. It’s a scene between the father Patrick O’Connor and his son Steven, and is actually the final step in Steven’s freedom in Christ which eventually restores Steven’s trust—in God and in himself. I hope you enjoy it! And to help you picture Steven O'Connor, here is the movie star that comes closest to my image of what Steven looks like—Paul Walker—except imagine hair a little darker with almost an auburn glint.
Have a blessed weekend … and PLEASE come see me this week on Wednesday, July 13 in Seekerville at http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/
when my subject is "I've got Rhythm ... Just Not in my Feet" with a book giveaway including my newest release DUE OUT IN APPROXIMATELY 37 DAYS!!! And may you soar high on the true Wind of Freedom!
Hugs, Julie
Patrick eased back in his chair, arms crossed in a mirror pose of his son, noting for the first time how much Steven resembled him as a man. The blue eyes were definitely Marcy’s, a deeper, stormier blue to be sure, serious and intent like his wife’s when something was on her mind. But from there on, he was Patrick to a T at twenty-five—thick dark hair, angular jaw and a stone-fierce continence that hinted at a deep-hidden temper few seldom saw. Like now.
Patrick exhaled slowly, aware his son needed to hear what he had to say whether he wanted to or not. “Hard as it is to believe, Steven, I was a lot like you growing up—diligent, hardworking, focused on schoolwork … and determined to win my father’s approval. You might say I was almost rigid, so intent was I on everything I set my hand to. Then my best friend Sam and I took a turn in high school, and life as we knew it changed, just like it did for you in college. The same passion I poured into everything before I now channeled into having a good time.” Patrick’s smile thinned. “Exploring the wonders of women and alcohol, just like you.”
Steven shook his head, a faint smile edging his lips. “Sean mentioned once you had a jaded past similar to Collin’s, but I have to admit, Pop, I couldn’t see it. You’re such a straight arrow now, it’s hard to believe you ended up just like me.”
“Yes, well, now you understand why I rode you so hard in college.” Patrick scratched the back of his head, remembering with painful accuracy the times he and Steven had come to blows. “My father did the same, I’m afraid, and it ruined our relationship just like it did ours.” Arms crossed, Patrick propped a fist to his mouth while he drifted into a blank stare. “Only I never got the chance to make amends like you, Steven, the chance to restore my father’s trust and approval.” He closed his eyes to ward off the moisture that stung beneath his lids. “And I regret that, I really do. But I was a just a young man when he died, and so I became a tortured soul, riddled with guilt and desperate to prove worth I didn’t feel I had.”
Steven rested arms on the table, the tenderness of his mother’s gaze evident in the slope of his brows and the sheen of moisture in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Pop. Not just about you losing your father, but that you didn’t have the chance—” he paused, a faint heave rippling in his throat. “The chance to make it right, to earn his trust.” He released a frail breath. “That must haunt you.”
Patrick glanced up, sympathy softening his gaze. “Not as much as it haunts you.”
A ridge puckered in Steven’s brow. “What are you talking about, Pop? At least I have the chance to make it right with you, to try and restore your trust.”
“Steven,” Patrick said quietly, “my trust in you was restored the day you broke up with Maggie. I know what she meant to you, how much you cared about her, and yet you did the right thing, you sacrificed that relationship to honor me.” He reached out to grip his arm. “Hear me on this, son, there are few men that I trust … and respect … more than you.”
Steven stared, facial muscles sculpted tight as if he were desperate to maintain control.
Patting his son’s arm, Patrick expended a weary breath, eyes intent as he rested his forearms on the table. “You’ve spent the last three years beating yourself up, convinced you’d broken my trust, your mother’s and Maggie’s. And, I suspect,” he said quietly, “your own.”
“But that’s just it—I did!” Steven fisted a hand on the table, his voice harsh. “I ruined your health and Maggie’s life for my own selfish needs—what kind of man does that?”
“A man like me,” Patrick said softly, tears glazing his eyes. He paused several moments, silently praying that the pain of his past might somehow free Steven from his. “I’ve never told another soul the burden I carried in my heart after my father died, not even your mother.” He closed his eyes then, reliving the pain of the day he’d fought with his father. The awful words spoken that could never be taken back, the blood on his father’s face from his only son’s blow. Patrick’s stomach wrenched at the memory. His mother weeping, neighbors condemning and a father’s heart so broken, Patrick was sure it bled more than the gash in his head. Patrick’s eyelids flickered open to look at his son, chest constricting as it had so long ago. His words were low and rough with emotion. “Two days later, my father died, Steven, from a heart attack, the doctors said, but I’m convinced otherwise. I believe it was from a broken heart caused by his only son who not only defied him at every turn, but administered the blow that hastened his death.”
“Oh, Pop …” Steven reached across the table, touching his father’s arm while a knot shifted in his throat. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I.” He patted his son’s hand and leaned back, fingers limp over the arms of his chair. “But I learned an important lesson through it all, Steven—obedience is a ticket to freedom while rebellion is a ticket to slavery. Not just rebellion towards one’s parents, but rebellion against God.” Patrick sighed, plowing a hand through his hair. “Trust me, I bore the guilt of that rebellion for a long time.” His gaze fused with his son’s. “But I no longer bear it today. Not guilt, not shame and not a broken heart over what I did to my father.”
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29 THROUGH FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2011:
"Friends are God’s way of taking care of us."
~Unknown
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND TO ALL MY FRIENDS!!!
You know, I have to say one of my FAVORITE things about being a writer is the truly amazing people I get to meet along the way, both reader friends and author friends. Sometimes I have to pinch myself because not only do I have the privilege of writing Inspirational Romance for God, BUT I have the incredible honor of being friends with some of the BEST Christian authors in the market today. I know, I know … I’m a spoiled brat!
And one of my favorite author friends (AND one of my favorite authors!) is sweet MaryLu Tyndall, with whom I clicked immediately at ICRS last year, almost like sisters. Uh, except she’s way younger and cuter, darn it.
Anyway, since this IS Fourth of July weekend, I thought it appropriate to highlight a fabulous American Historical book by MaryLu Tyndall. To celebrate MaryLu’s August release of Surrender the Dawn (book 3 in her Surrender to Destiny series), Barbour Publishing is going to offer a free e-book of the first book in the series, Surrender the Heart. It will be available on Kindle from June 1st – July 31st, so you do NOT want to miss this one. It’s wonderful and so is book 2, Surrender the Night, which I actually endorsed. MaryLu is hands-down one of my FAVORITE writers with an edge to her romance, which makes her one of those must-read authors for me … you know, the kind I take on vacation when all I want to do is read for fun? Seriously!
AND ... since I couldn't get the link to work with the picture, here is the link to download MaryLu's FREE BOOK!!! http://t.co/UW4mSHP
As a bonus … for anybody who DOES download MaryLu’s book and lets me know by contacting me through this website at http://www.julielessman.com/contact-julie/ or via Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julie-Lessman/98874268454?ref=sgm, I will enter you in a contest for a signed copy of MaryLu’s latest, Surrender the Dawn!!
AND DON'T FORGET MY CONTEST!!! Come July 31st, I will select three winners to receive a top CBA book of their choosing from my very large library, so if you are interested, simply click on the "Subscribe to My Journal Jots Blog" link at the beginning of this Journal Jot, then e-mail me through my website or Facebook at the links above to let me know, and I will enter you in the contest.
HAPPY READING, GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY FOURTH!!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 2011:
Done is better than perfect.
~Scott Allen
WHOO-HOO … IT IS FINISHED!!
Not just the first week of summer, mind you, but … my final book in the O’Connor saga, A Trust Restored (working title) is finally done and ready for my editor, which, amazingly enough, is a HUGE relief! You see, I didn’t expect to feel quite SO ready to move on to my next project, book 1 in “The Cousins McClare” series, because that meant I had to say goodbye to the O’Connors, a family I’ve lived with for over seven years. And actually, if you want to get real specific, a family I’ve lived with for over forty-eight years since I penned the first 150 pages of A Passion Most Pure at the age of twelve after reading Gone With the Wind.
So when I finished my final edit of the epilogue this week, I expected tears and sadness and a terrible feeling of homesickness once I put the O’Connors to bed. But … much to my surprise, I am ready to move on, probably because I’ve been praying for a year to be able to handle this moment when it came. Besides, the O’Connors live on my shelf and in my mind, so I can always revisit whenever I get the urge. And I will, trust me. Like a lot of my readers have indicated, I always reread each of my books in order right before my next book comes out, just to refresh, usually in mid-July. I always get tickled when I’m reading one of my books before bed and Keith asks me how much later I’m going to be. My answer? “Just a few more pages, babe, because I gotta see how this turns out …”
How does my quote this week fit in? Well, being the anal writer I am, I tend to labor over a book for a looooooong time (i.e. I edited A Passion Most Pure approximately 60 times, before it sold and after!!), so it’s a real relief to finally get to the point where I can edit a book twice and move on because like my hubby used to say, “sometimes done is better than good.” Although, I do think Steven’s story is “good,” the perfectionist in me wanted it to be the big WOW final book, which I don’t think it is. But, I’ll leave that for you, my readers, to decide! The good news is I will be able to put out more books more frequently (my new contract specifies a release date every nine months rather than every twelve months), but the bad news is … my copy editor’s job just got a whole lot harder … :)
Another milestone I enjoyed this week was Aunt Julie turning 93!! We had a birthday party for her with ice cream cake and lots of presents, which she promptly labeled “a wing-ding of a party”! I am happy to report that AJ has never been better—the pneumonia is gone and her good spirits are back, so it looks like I’ll be saying goodbye to the hospice people along with the O’Connors! YAY to the first one, anyway!
YAY!!!! RSS FEED FOR JOURNAL JOTS IS FINALLY HERE!!! A number of you have contacted me to ask when Journal Jots will be on RSS feed, and I am happy to say that the answer is NOW!! To celebrate my miniblog’s move into the 21st century, I am running a contest for those J.J. readers who sign up for RSS feed from now until July 31st. I will select three winners to receive a brand-new top CBA book of their choosing from my VERY large library. So if you are interested, simply click on the “Subscribe to My Journal Jots Blog” link at the beginning of this Journal Jot, then e-mail me through my website or via Facebook via the links below, and I will enter you in the contest. Winners will be announced in my August 5 Journal Jot, so GOOD LUCK!
Via my website at: http://www.julielessman.com/contact-julie/
OR
Via Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julie-Lessman/98874268454?ref=sgm
So remember … when it comes to work, sometimes “done is better than perfect,” but when it comes to weekends, “perfect is better than done”! :)
Have a “perfect” weekend!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2011:
Father!
To God himself we cannot give a holier name.
~William Wordsworth
HAPPY FRIDAY BEFORE FATHER’S DAY!!
Ah … Father’s Day Week! At least that’s what my husband and his cousin would dub the week before Father’s Day whenever we went on a boating vacation together. Poor Karen and I had to put up with two guys who milked it for all it was worth the entire vacation—“But we can’t do dishes ‘cause it’s Father’s Day Week” … or … “Yes, we’re going fishing again … it’s FDW, you know.”
Yes, we knew. And the very thought would shiver our bones each and every year, prompting silent blasphemy of Mother’s Day for occurring in May rather than June. So when author C.J. Darlington asked me to contribute a short blurb (yeah, right) for a special Father’s Day tribute on TitleTrakk.com this week, I hesitated. Not because Karen and I have been irrevocably scarred by FDW, although we have … nor because my husband isn’t one of the most wonderful fathers on the planet, because he is. No, my hesitation came from personal experience with my own father, which wasn’t … well, let’s just come right out and say it … anything to write home about.
"What did your father teach you that you'll never forget?" C. J. asked, and I had to think real hard, but in doing so, I realized that so much of who I am today is because of my father. My mother died when I was sixteen, so my father’s influence was far greater. Consequently, I am dirt practical just like my dad (he was an eye surgeon who was so basic and unpretentious that instead of buying a weather vane, he threw a wad of string over a power line outside his bedroom window to see which way the wind blew). I am suspicious by nature, just like him (he bolted a mirror diagonally to the wall and my mom’s antique hutch with crass, steel braces so he could see anybody who came up behind him when he watched TV). And I am no-nonsense like him (he’d slap you silly if you didn’t give him the hard truth out the gate without all the drama). YIKES … not a good thing for a drama queen like me!!
But … he forged me into a gal who loves the truth, isn’t embarrassed by it and likes to cut to the chase to get it. And then, of course, Daddy did something else I will never, ever forget. He made me feel beautiful.
Oh, not right away, mind you. Nope, Daddy wasn’t big on compliments, which was a shame for a skinny, little girl whose family nicknamed her “bird legs,” “walking nervous breakdown” or “the foul line” (the year I played in softball) and who was made fun of in grade school a la Katie O’Connor in A Hope Undaunted. Like Katie, I had psoriasis that made me an easy target for mean kids and an old nun who asked if I had leprosy in front of the class. I didn’t, but I became a leper all the same, until like Katie, I took the knee socks and sweaters off in 5th grade and became one of the most popular kids in the class when the sun fried my psoriasis away.
With girls, that is. With boys? Not so much. In high school I got told more times than I can count that I was ugly or that I “wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for my teeth,” a situation that I quickly remedied with braces after I got married. So you might say like most of us, I guess, I was a little girl with very poor self-esteem. In one of my favorite books, Captivating by John and Stasi Elredge, it says that every little girl asks the question, “Am I beautiful?” and that ironically, she asks it of her father. The answer that I got when I was little was “no.” The answer that I got after I came to Christ was “yes, you’re the apple of My eye.”
It was seeing myself through God’s eyes that elevated fatherhood to a whole new level. It was through my Heavenly Father that I learned how to forgive and love my earthly father ... and that is the story I tell in the TitleTrakk article I mentioned above. I literally went from hating my father to loving him, both with the love of Christ and the love of a daughter who, yes, he actually made feel beautiful.
It happened at my sister’s wedding shortly before Daddy died. I was the only bridesmaid, so I got to pick out my own dress, which any of you who have been bridesmaids know is a very good thing! I had long hair, big eyes and a face that finally cleaned up well with a little makeup. I remember we took a family picture and I will never forget what Daddy told me later, when we were alone. “You’re the best-looking one in this family,” he’d said in his no-nonsense way. I wasn’t, of course, but it didn’t matter because my daddy thought so and everyone knew the man—honest to a fault—never gave compliments. That was one of the very first times I ever remember feeling beautiful … because my father told me I was. Just like God.
So, Father’s Day is very special to me for a number of reasons, but mostly because of the relationship I forged with my father before he died … and the relationship I have with my Heavenly Father right now. If you’d like to read the TitleTrakk tribute to fathers that includes my brief (it is, for me!) story and those of other authors, mosey on over to http://www.titletrakk.com/author-interviews/fathers-day-authors-2011.htm this weekend and take a look. And the next time you look in the mirror, I pray that each and every one of you see a glimpse of the beauty that God sees. Because for me, that’s what Father’s Day is really all about—honoring our earthly fathers, yes … but especially the One above. A father to Whom we will always be … Daddy’s Girl.
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 2011:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
Phillipians 4:6
OH, AMEN TO THAT!!!
Some of you may not know it, but I happen to be realllllllly BIG on prayer. I mean, I’m talking over-the-top, in-your-face, almost embarrassing prayer—anytime, anywhere, whenever the Spirit moves me.
Why? Because prayer is important. It’s lifeblood to the Christian walk and should become like the air we breathe—natural, constant, life sustaining. And we have to treat it that way. Which is why I have absolutely NO problem praying for anyone who needs it on the spot, be it in a public bathroom, in a store, or in the halls of a workplace. For instance, at my former job at a travel agency, I was a pretty friendly gal who smiled and said hello to everyone, often with the standard comment, “How are you doing?” And most people would just say “fine,” and be done with it, but I couldn’t do that. If I heard even the slightest hesitation in the person’s response, or a downturn in the voice, I’d be on them like a cicada on a windshield. “You okay?” I’d ask in concern, and I could ALWAYS tell when they weren’t. Sometimes they’d tell me why and sometimes they wouldn’t, but being a bold, brassy type when it comes to prayer, I never let that stop me.
Like the time I was hurrying down the hall at work, head in the clouds as usual, focused on some deadline, and I said “hi” to someone in passing, an aquaintance more than a friend. “How are you?” I asked. “Okay,” came the pat response that clearly indicated she wasn’t. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Oh, nothing—just a family problem,” she said, giving me a brief scenario. Nothing, my foot. The woman’s face sagged like she hadn’t slept in days, and the glazed look in her eye told me she was in way over her head. So, I did what I always do in a situation like that—I smiled and said, “Do you mind if we pray about this?” And then, in the next breath, before she could respond, I pray in a matter-of-fact tone, eyes open, as if we are immersed in stimulating conversation.
“Lord,” I said, “Connie is hurting right now real bad, and she needs Your help big time. Please help her to get through this, heal her family and show her that You are in this with her so she knows she’s not alone. Give her rest, peace and wisdom to proceed as You would have her proceed. I ask this in Jesus’ name.” Then I smile and patted her hand. “It’s going to be okay, Connie—He’s involved now.” And there we stood in the middle of the hall of a busy travel company, Connie hugging me with tears in her eyes. “Thank you SO much,” she said, “No one has ever done that for me before.”
Now, you gotta ask yourself, if we are Christians who believe in prayer and God’s ability to move mountains, why is praying on the spot not more commonplace? It should be as important a life-saving tool as SDR—Stop-Drop-& Roll when you catch on fire. I mean, people are burning with a need for God in their lives in every single situation, and yet we walk away, maybe with a promise that we will pray for them, but do we? If your memory is anything like mine, the likelihood of doing that is pretty slim. So I nip that in the bud with prayer on the spot or SPR—Stop-Pray-& Roll. The key is to make it fast, natural and conversational, not giving them a chance to decline, but getting the prayer out there—not only into the heavenly realm, but into the person’s mind so that when God does resolve their problem—and He will—they will remember and just maybe resort to prayer in the future.
I can honestly say that in all the years I have done this, I have NEVER had anyone get upset or decline to pray. And only once have I had a friend (a very good friend, as a matter of fact) who told me she didn’t feel comfortable with me praying out loud for her. But you know what? In every single crisis in this woman’s life, she has called me on the phone to ask me to pray about it. So, you tell me—do people want God’s help? You bet.
Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m not the norm when it comes to prayer. I mean I’m pretty out there with it and pray about EVERYTHING, just like our Scripture today talks about. I have trouble getting up in the morning, so I literally pray about it before my eyelids even open. “God, help me to get out of bed,” I say every morning, and then BOOM—I pop right up! I pray about clothes, haircuts, cleaning the house (God, give me the grace and the right attitude), Journal Jots and my books, etc. People have told me that the prayer in my books seems so natural, and that's why—because it’s second nature for me to incorporate prayer into every aspect of my life. They are not just empty words to make me feel better, they are communion with the God of the Universe, invoking His power and wisdom on our behalf. And trust me, the more you do it, the more it becomes a habit and the more people expect it from you instead of thinking it’s weird. Seriously. Although ... it's no secret that I’d rather be weird and used by God than normal and not. And you know what? That one prayer that you step out to say for someone else may just be the only one they ever get in that situation or EVER. But ... it’s more than enough for God. So, try it—you’ll like it. And trust me—so will they!
Have a GREAT weekend!!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 2011:
Let all things be done decently and in order.
1Cor:14:40
HAPPY FRIDAY!!
Goodness, another week, another book!! Just finished poring over my final manuscript this week (Book 3 of “The Winds of Change” series, Steven’s story, A Trust Restored) for final personal edits, and it seems like Fridays flips by as fast as the pages of a book. Of course I certainly wish I could write that quickly, you know—finish a new ms. every Friday, but God knows even Mary Connealy can’t accomplish that, much less a word hog like me whose books come in at around 500 pages!
But … as our Scripture today so aptly points, there is an order to everything, be it life or books, and I am in the final phase of that order with my final O’Connor book—one more pass to insert chapters, reduce pages and tighten the plot and characters, and I am DONE!! At least until my editor gives me her edits down the road. And, I have to admit, as I read through the book this week, I found myself reflecting on all the spiritual lessons the O’Connors have learned. Or, I should say … all the lessons I have learned since these books are really, first and foremost, what I have discovered through my Christian walk.
For instance, in book 1 of “The Daughters of Boston” series, the key theme of that book was Deuteronomy 30:19—choosing to follow God’s precepts instill of the world’s in order to reap blessing:
“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
Faith O’Connor learned … and relearned … that true blessing and joy comes from obeying God, a lesson I discovered early in life when I went from a 70s wild child who flitted whichever way the wind blew … to a born-again Christian who followed the wind of the Holy Spirit. Believe me, each and every lesson the O’Connor women have learned (such as submission, i.e. respect for husbands, etc.) in a marriage rattled my world first—from total honesty and communication, to the dire need for forgiveness and prayer. And I am not exaggerating here when I say my that my world would be a shambles today if not for the hand of God and His divine order in my life.
But I have to say that one of my favorite lessons I’ve learned is one that Lizzie learns the hard way in A Trust Restored—God’s order in a family. Lizzie, the “perfect mother and wife,” hits a snag in her marriage when she puts the children before Brady. This is a lesson that is near and dear to my heart because someone I love very much ruined their marriage this way, and it’s taken the grace of God to finally heal all the damage that it did between her and her husband.
I’ll never forget the day that God first brought it to my attention. I was just driving around town, doing errands on a Saturday when I had this overwhelming desire to go see this dear friend. “No way,” I muttered to myself, well aware that her husband would be home and frankly, the guy couldn’t stand me, I think because he was jealous of the close relationship his wife and I shared. But the feeling persisted—go see Livvie, go see Livvie, it said, over and over. The next thing I knew, it was as if the car was driving me to her house instead of the other way around. And then, at the stoplight before her street, a thought came. She will be crying. YIKES! Now I really didn’t want to go because I figured she and her husband were probably in a fight … again … and the last thing I wanted to do was to get in the middle. But, being held hostage by my car (and the Holy Spirit!), I pulled into her driveway and went to the door. “Is Livvie here?” I asked when her husband appeared with a scowl. Without a word, he walked away, leaving me standing at the door. Within minutes, Livvie appeared, face mottled and red from crying. “Do you want go for a ride?” I asked with a lump in my throat, and she nodded.
That was the day that I led my dear friend Livvie to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We rode around for a while, then finally parked in a church parking lot, where I proceeded to pour out all that God had done in my life. Throughout the course of the conversation, the Holy Spirit revealed to both of us that my friend’s marriage had been jeopardized by a lack of order—God’s order. You see, this friend was hands-down the best mother I have ever seen. She made me look like a block of ice by comparison because she was so loving and so nurturing and so protective of her children’s needs, that I always teased she was born with the mother gene and I wasn’t. But her marriage? Uh, not so good.
Now how could a marriage that started out so well (they were crazy about each other) end up so bad that their lives consisted of one screaming fit after another? The answer came to us both that very day—my friend put her kids before her husband. She was such a born mother, she almost couldn’t help it, fawning over those kids morning, noon and night, giving them all her energy and love while her husband was starving. As a result, their marriage was fractured and the husband resented the children, damaging his relationship with them as well. The good news is that my friend has been applying God’s precepts in her marriage ever since, and they are finally on the path to having the kind of marriage God wants them to have. But, oh, the loss of years of blessing and joy …
So today, I am devoting this Journal Jot to God’s order in our lives, something we all desperately need to stay afloat in a world that is out of control. I will end today with a clip from a scene between two O’Connor sisters, where a very pregnant and bitter Lizzie finally sees the light through a lesson my own dear friend learned the hard way. Lizzie has been butting heads with Brady over spoiling Molly and sleeping with her at night and learns a lesson from her sister Faith, who learned about God’s divine order the hard way.
Like the O’Connors, may each of us learn the divine order for obtaining a life of joy, peace and love: God first … now and always.
Hugs,
Julie
“He doesn’t agree with you cuddling Molly till she falls asleep?” Faith eased back in the chair, palms flat on the armrest as she studied her sister.
Lizzie couldn’t help it—an edge crept into her tone. “No, apparently his cuddle time is more important than his daughters. I swear, Faith, the man is worse than a child—demanding my attention, no regard for my time and duty as a mother, and suddenly as big a bully as Charity thinks Mitch is.” Head rising from the pillow, she peered at her sister. “Can you believe he actually put his foot down, demanding I no longer sleep and cuddle with Molly at night?” She huffed out a blast of annoyance and flopped back down. “And then he wonders why I have no interest in …” She paused, more warmth braising her cheeks as a lump bounced in her throat. “I’m sorry to be so blunt, Faith, but right now John Brady doesn’t hold a lot of romantic appeal. I mean, how could he? Why, the man acts like he’s jealous of his own daughter.”
Faith's pause was too long. “He is,” Faith said quietly, her voice barely a whisper.
Lizzie gaped at her sister, her disgust shivering her tone. “Oh, that is so low.”
Faith paused. “Actually, Lizzie,” she whispered, “it’s as high as the heavens.”
Air clogged thick in Lizzie’s throat. “What?”
Faith leaned in, chin perched on clasped hands while assessing Lizzie through pensive eyes. “What I mean, Lizzie, is that Brady is your husband. He has a right to your attention.”
Heat swarmed her face. “I take care of his needs, Faith, if that’s what you mean.”
Faith’s gaze was tender. “I don’t doubt that, Lizzie, but do you give yourself to him? And I’m not just talking about making love with the man, although God knows that’s part of it.” Faith ducked her head, peeking up with gentle eyes. “Do you give your heart to him? Does it beat a little faster when he walks through that door? Does he know that he comes before the children … or is your heart too consumed by your duty as a mother?”
Lizzie sat up, stomach twisting at the truth of Faith’s words. “Come on, Faith, you know how it is. When you have young children and you’re pregnant with another? They’re so small, and a new baby is scary to them and suddenly they need you more than ever.
“Brady needs you more than ever, Lizzie,” Faith said, her tone as rock steady as her eyes. She rose to sit beside her, cupping a hand to the back of Lizzie’s waist. “And, yes, I do know how it is—I jeopardized Collin’s love over this very thing and almost ruined my marriage.”
Lizzie gasped, twisting to face her. “What? When?” she whispered, stunned to hear that Collin McGuire—the most romantic man Lizzie knew—could ever grow cold toward her sister.
“After Bella was born,” Faith said softly. Her gaze wandered off into a faraway stare as a gentle smile curved on her lips. “Becoming a mother was the most fulfilling thing that has ever happened to me, Lizzie, just like I suspect it was for you. All I wanted to do was hold that precious little girl, love on her, snuggle with her.” Faith sighed, breaking her reverie. “I did my best to tend to Collin’s needs, of course, but deep down inside, being a mother so fulfilled me, that it was Bella who owned my heart.” She hung her head. “And Collin could sense it.”
“But being a mother is important, Faith—we’re charged by God to meet our children’s needs, aren’t we?”
“Yes,” Faith said quietly, her eyes locked with Lizzie’s, “but in doing so to the exclusion of our husbands, we deny a child’s most basic need.”
Brows dipped in a frown, Lizzie blinked. “What’s that?”
Faith stroked her sister’s cheek, smoothing her hair away from her face. “A loving relationship with their father,” she whispered, “which is God’s gift to us as women, Lizzie, and the greatest blessing we can bestow on our children.”
Lizzie’s head bowed as she stared at the floor. “So Collin was jealous too?”
Faith bumped her shoulder to Lizzie’s, a hint of a tease in her tone. “Are you kidding? His gray eyes were greener than mine.”
Lizzie glanced up. “So, what did you do?”
A heavy sigh drifted from Faith’s lips. “I told Collin I was sorry and adjusted my mindset, praying for God to help me put my husband back on top as my number-one priority.”
“Humph, at least according to Collin, I guess,” Lizzie said with a kink of her lips.
“No, Lizzie,” Faith said quietly, a gentle hand to her arm and understanding deep in her eyes, “according to God.”
Lizzie blinked. “What do you mean?” she whispered, a sour taste coating her tongue.
“I mean that God has ordained a specific order in a marriage so that a man and a woman can experience all the fullness that God intends—and that order is God, husband, wife and children. You’ve heard me mention Colossians 3:18—‘wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as unto the Lord,’ which indicates the husband’s headship over his wife and his family.” Faith dipped her head to capture Lizzie’s attention with a firm gaze. “Not so he can lord it over her, mind you, but so he can cherish, protect and provide for her. The Scripture that follows says ‘husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them, followed by ‘children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.”
Faith shifted to face Lizzie head-on, taking her sister’s hands in hers. “Lizzie, when you put the children before Brady, you step out of God’s order, and consequently, you limit his blessings on your marriage and your family. Not only will it cause your husband to sin through bitterness and jealousy and then guilt over begrudging his own children, but you run the risk of putting a wedge between your children and their father.” She sighed and patted Lizzie’s hand. “Not to mention cutting off the kind of relationship with your spouse that your children need to be secure and happy. The kind of relationship they need as a role model for their own marriages down the road.” Faith’s eyes were gentle with compassion, her gaze as soft as her voice. “You’re the biggest romantic of us all, Lizzie, but I suspect your bitterness toward Brady has stifled that, which is not who you are.”
Tears welled in Lizzie’s eyes and she nodded, prompting Faith to pull her into her arms. “Oh, Lizzie, I went through exactly the same thing, angry at Collin, not interested in his affections anymore and determined to be the best mother I could be, putting my marriage second and expecting Collin to go along. But God showed me the damage I was doing, not only to my marriage, but to those precious children who had stolen my heart.”
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2011:
“Without God, life makes no sense.”
Andrei Bitov, Atheist
“For everything, absolutely everything, above and below,
visible and invisible,everything got started in Him
and finds it’s purpose in Him.”
Colossians 1:16.
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!!!
FREEDOM ... what a wonderful word!! Something worth dying for. Just like Christ did for us. "If therefore the Son shall set you free, ye shall be free indeed."-- John 8:36. And this weekend is the time when we particularly FOCUS on and honor those veterans who have given their lives for our freedom.
FOCUS ... another important word! Focus on our families, focus on our careers, focus on FRIDAYS!! All good, very, very good.
And, I’m happy to say, my “focus” this week has been on several WONDERFUL things!! For instance, it is now official—I am THRILLED to announce that I have another 3-book contract with Revell for “The Cousins McClare” series, the story of a wealthy political family in turn-of-the-century San Francisco that “focuses” on romance and life between the haves of Nob Hill and the have-nots of the Barbary Coast. Book 1 (working title: Dare to Dream) is tentatively scheduled for release May 2013, and the other two books will be released at 9-month intervals instead of annually, which is VERY good!! I want to thank each and every one of you who prayed for me throughout this decision—your prayers were VITAL to me!!
Secondly, I got the rare opportunity to “focus” on a reader friend who has become a very dear personal friend as well, Gabe Smith. You may recognize Gabe’s name as the adorable orphan in A Hope Undaunted, Gabriella Dawn Smith (aka “Gabe”) was named after the real Gabe Smith who I was fortunate enough to spend time with last weekend when she and her sister Marella drove from Oklahoma to St. Louis to visit. It was SO much fun spending time with Gabe and Mel, and I have missed them all week as a result. Here’s a pic of the three of us out on my deck—from left to right, Gabe, me and Mella. I can’t tell you how wonderful it felt editing Steven’s story outside on my deck while Marella read A Hope Undaunted and Gabe got to read A Heart Revealed. And, you will be happy to know that Gabe agrees with my husband that AHR is now her favorite book of all of my books, finally edging out A Passion Most Pure, which she didn’t think could happen. So, that’s good news for me AND for those of you waiting for A Heart Revealed!!
Without question, focus is a wonderful thing. But … TRUE FOCUS? Ah … even better!!
Like so many of us, I am one of those people who have to really, REALLY focus if I’m going to do anything. I’ve learned that when my daughter comes in the room to talk, I automatically shut my laptop to focus on her and her alone. When I work with my husband in our office (a rarity these days as I tend to take my laptop to the hearth room in the winter and down on the deck in the spring/summer/fall), I always have to wear ear plugs to drown out his phone calls, music and finger drumming in order to escape to Boston. :)
And OH MY, when it comes to giving blood (cold chills!), I’ve learned I must ALWAYS focus on what the blood drawer is saying rather than what he/she is doing to get my mind off of the needle. As a result, I’ve gotten in the habit of asking the technician to talk to me during the blood draw, which always seemed to work until that fateful day when I gave the technician my spiel, only to have her blink and point to a sign on the wall that said: I am a deaf mute. That was one of the many days in my life that I learned just how important focus can be.
And this week, I learned just how important TRUE FOCUS can be … again. Focusing on God and His direction instead of my own, because nothing—not family, not romance, not career, not success, nothing—is more important than God in our lives. This is a lesson I learn daily, through my highs and my lows, through my successes and my failures and a lesson that Emma Malloy imparts to Sean O’Connor in my upcoming book, A Heart Revealed. Here is a short scene from that book that gives you a glimpse of just why I think true focus—focus on God—is so important:
The gray eyes softened, her gaze as gentle as a caress. “God told St. Paul in the Bible that “my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Sean’s gaze thinned. “It says that? Really?”
She nodded.
“Huh,” he said absently, the notion somewhat unsettling that his own weakness could empower God. He peered up. “So was it for you? His strength made perfect in weakness?”
Moments passed before she spoke, and when she did, something squeezed in his chest at the pain that flickered across her features. Her gaze trailed beyond him, out the window as if the rain were grace soaking into her very soul. “Yes.”
His jaw tightened. “I have to be honest, Emma—I have trouble understanding that. I have never gone through what you have, to be sure, but to me, it almost seems as if it was God who turned his back on you, causing that pain.”
A ghost of a smile shadowed her lips. “Not caused, Sean—allowed. As a loving Father, God allows us to suffer the consequences of our misguided actions …” She looked away, but not before he saw the depth of sorrow in her eyes. “Our wrong decisions, our sins …”
Sean snatched up a fountain pen from his desk and roughly rubbed the rounded cap, his fingers suddenly as taut as the press of his lips. “I don’t know what sins you think you’ve committed in your past, Emma, but I do know the caliber of woman you are today. And at the risk of sounding blasphemous, I have to tell you—I have a problem with a ‘loving Father’ who would cause—or allow—a woman like you to experience the hurt that you have.”
Leaning forward, Emma laid a small and tapered hand on his desk, her fingers slender and her nails bare of all polish. The intensity in her eyes captured him so completely, that his heart thudded to a slow stop while he awaited her response. His breath stilled in his lungs at the faintest of smiles that curved on her full lips, another reminder that for him, neither scars nor pain would ever mar her beauty. “No one escapes being hurt in this life, Sean, because unfortunately, we live in a fallen world. But please believe me when I say …” Her voice gentled, as soothing and peaceful as the patter of rain on the marble sill. “There’s a great gift in pain.”
He stared, the air in his lungs slowly seeping out along with his frustration at God.
With a gentle sigh, she settled back in her chair, her gaze as calming as the steady thrum on the roof overhead. “It was the pain of my own sin and Rory’s that allowed me to see a great truth that set my heart free. And that is that no matter how much joy or pain we have in this world—and I have experienced both—nothing satisfies the human heart like the love of God.”
His thumb paused against the tip of the pen, strained in its grip. He drew in a halting breath and expelled it, then tossed the pen on the desk. “It would be nice to have that much faith, Emma, really, but I guess I’m just a little too practical.”
She chuckled. “Peace is one of the most practical things one can have.” Smiling, she drew in a deep breath and released it again, a fragile exhale of air that imparted a tranquility he’d come to identify with the woman before him. In natural reflex, he felt his own rib cage expand and release as well, and suddenly he realized hers was a tranquility she never failed to pass on to him. A tranquility similar to the one he prided himself on presenting to the world. Only his was often a façade while Emma’s was real. He studied her now, noting the peaceful smile that lighted on her lips.
Her lashes lifted, offering a glimpse into a soul as sure and steady as the woman who possessed it. “Because you see, Sean, my pain taught me that no one—not those abundantly blessed or those who are not—can ever truly be happy apart from him.”
WHOO-HOO!!! Only 2-1/2 to 3 months to go until Sean and Emma get their chance at love!!!
If you have time, come by and see me at the HELD blog (Hannah’s Ministry) where I talk about what God taught me about infertility in my blog entitled “Clean Heart, Dirty Diapers” at http://hannahsprayerblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/clean-heart-dirty-diapers.html.
ALSO … SIGNED BOOK GIVEAWAY at Giveaway Lady blog at http://giveawaygal.blogspot.com/ (will go up today sometime).
As we head into Memorial Weekend, may we all focus on the true meaning of this important holiday—honoring those who have died to ensure our freedom as a country. And during this weekend and beyond, may we never stop focusing on the One who died to ensure our freedom as precious children of God.
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2011:
You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast,
Because he trusts in You.
~ Isaiah 26:3
FRIDAYS … GOD’S GIFT TO THE WORK WEEK!!! Sigh … one of the things I like best about Fridays is that it is a time of reflection for me, mostly because I write these Journal Jots on that day, so I am usually looking back at the week while I’m poised on the springboard to dive into the next. Although Fridays are mostly celebratory for me, with all that’s been going on in my life lately, I find them to be more reflective and spiritual, which is always a good thing, in my opinion.
Take this week, for instance, when things were hopping so much, that my FOCUS was pulled in a hundred different directions—all good—but still, I found I myself desperate to refocus on HIM over and over for His “perfect peace,” something a roller-coaster DQ gal like me needs BIG TIME, even when things are good. Like finishing Steven’s story, A Trust Restored (working title). WOW, I cannot tell you HOW great it felt to pen that last paragraph of the epilogue—five Kleenexes ‘great,’ to be exact! :) Of course, the bad news is that I still have my own heavy-duty edits to do AND it’s 522 ms. pages (YIKES … talk about a need to edit!), but like the little sign over my cubicle at work used to read, “Sometimes done is better than good,” so I am excited about the prospect of fine-tuning this final installment in the O’Connor saga.
My fingers were still warm on the keys of my MacBook Pro when I dove in to the next project, which was a true labor of love—proofing final galleys for A Heart Revealed. Sigh … what a story! Emma and Sean are SUCH a unique couple with so much goodness in them that I didn’t have to dig very deep to bring the beauty of their characters to the surface—it was already there! So I hope you like them as much as I do (and as much as my hubby and crit partner do, who think this is my best book yet!).
Then, of course, there is the decision phase regarding my career, where today’s Scripture REALLY comes in handy—staying in peace while I FOCUS on trusting in Him, which is the ONLY way to have peace in a situation, good or bad. So your continued prayers are appreciated in this area and God willing, I will know His direction for me soon.
I had to laugh out loud this week over a wonderful e-mail I got from a new reader friend named Brittni Kinney, whose kind words over my books really blessed me AND who goes to Mizzou, a Missouri college—YAY!! Well, it turns out that Brittni’s best friend Laura used to be roommates with the model who posed as Katie O’Connor on the cover of A Hope Undaunted, which is soooo fun to hear!! But the thing that REALLY made me laugh was when she told me what her good friend Matthew said, who apparently likes to tease Brittni and her two other friends, Allison and Brooke, about “obsessing” over Inspy Romance. It seems that Matthew has renamed my books “Hot & Holy” or “Sanctity & Seduction,” which if you think about it, is not too far from the truth because God IS holy and not only is He a PASSIONATE bridegroom to each of us, but anything in which He is in the middle (i.e. romantic relationships) IS hot (i.e. passionate) and holy. As far as “Sanctity & Seduction,” in Song of Solomon, God woos us like a lover, sanctifying us to be His bride, so it’s not too much of a stretch to make that fit too. But, sigh, Matthew, as much as I like these taglines, I’m not sure my publisher will go for them ... :)
And, I’m thrilled to say, Aunt Julie is doing wonderfully well, praise God, so THANK YOU for your prayers. In fact, this week Keith and I laughed over something she did. You see, every time we go see her, we call my cousin in K.C. so AJ can talk to her, and each and every time that I put the cell phone to AJ’s ear and say, “this is Sandy,” AJ says, “Hello, Julie?” Now mind you, this has been going on at least two or three times a week since October when AJ moved to Delmar Gardens. So this week when I put the phone to AJ’s ear and said, “this is Sandy,” lo and behold, both Keith’s jaw and mine dropped a mile when she said, “Hello, Sandy?” for the VERY FIRST TIME!!! And then, when Keith and I were in the middle of a high-five, her next sentence caused us to laugh out loud. “Happy New Year,” she said, and we shook our heads. Win some, lose some, I guess … :)
Finally, this is a very special weekend for me because a PRECIOUS reader friend—Gabriella Dawn Smith, the winner of my “have a character named after you” contest last year for whom the O’Connor’s foster child is named—is driving to St. Louis with her sister Marella from Oklahoma to visit me (I know, I know … it takes a reader friend who apparently is as crazy as me to even consider making that trip!!), but I am SO excited she is and can’t wait to give out real hugs instead of cyber ones.
So you can see why “perfect peace” is something I needed a ton of this week, even when things are good, and the ONLY way to “perfect peace,” as our Scripture above so aptly points out, is through trust in Him. Trust that I will get my final edits done by deadline, trust that I will get the galleys to Revell by Monday, trust that my career will go the direction God wants it to, trust that Aunt Julie is in God’s hands and trust for safety for two precious girls who will be traveling today. All wonderful things made all the more wonderful by His “perfect peace” in the life of very “imperfect” drama queen.
I wish each of you a most BLESSED weekend full of His “perfect peace.”
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2011:
Change your perspective and you change your reality.
~ M. Prophet
HAPPY FRIDAY? OR, HEAVEN HELP ME—I’VE LOST ANOTHER WEEK!!??
Ah, perspective. It’s one of the most important things we need to have in life. That wonderful kaleidoscope mindset where with just a twist of the dial, life shifts from mere shards of glass that can cut and maim … to a vibrant, colorful picture that cheers and soothes the soul.
And eternal perspective? The absolute best and something I was reminded of this week when so many things hung in the balance: Aunt Julie—would she continue to improve or shift back to the pneumonia that convinced the doctors she was dying? My daughter’s law career—would studying ad nauseum give her the wisdom and understanding to succeed in a week of 4-hour exams? My own career—would I make the right decisions necessary to direct my path in the years to come and meet the deadlines for which I’m already behind?
Serious things (to me, anyway) that cause serious anxiety … unless you have the proper perspective. And you know what? Last night I had the startling revelation that I do! As you know, I’ve been working day and night to finish Steven’s story, working title A Trust Restored, and I am happy to say that I will start the final scene today that will wrap up Steven’s story and then after that, the very last scene (i.e. epilogue) that will wrap up the entire O’Connor saga. But in the final scenes of this book, Steven goes through quite a catharsis of emotion and revelation in which he gains eternal perspective that changes his life—that trusting in one’s self leads to failure, deception, anxiety and ultimate unhappiness while trusting in God leads to success, truth, peace and joy. So here I am, this eternal perspective flowing from my fingers like I know what I’m talking about, and all the while I am fretting over the things mentioned above, wondering what will happen in each situation, will they turn out the way that I want?
Then suddenly last night, I stopped dead still in the middle of my bedroom, struck with a profound string of thoughts: God, you have never failed me, not once. You have always pulled me through every, single situation in my life. Your Word says if You are for me, who can be against me and that all things work together for good for those love You and are called according to Your purpose. You have all the answers to my questions above and I trust YOUR wisdom and leading, not mine, in each and every situation of my life.
And here’s where the light bulb went on in my head and tears pricked in my eyes when I realized that every single word of faith I write in my novels is absolutely tried and true. I have it lived it, I believe it, and it flows through my life like it flows through the lives of my characters. My books are fiction, but God is real and so is the truth of His Word and the blessings that follow … no matter how a situation turns out! I could NEVER write the words that I do without Him and I could NEVER write them with the passion I have if I had not lived it first and seen for myself that God is real, prayer is real and eternal perspective is not only real, it's the only way to fly!
In the early days of my Christianity (from 23 years old on), I remember grousing to God a lot that I didn’t understand why I was still single and why everybody in my family of 13 kids was married but me. I mean I had this great job, this great apartment, a crazy personality that guys seemed to like, I loved God with all my heart and although I wasn’t gorgeous, at least I didn’t bay at the moon. “So, what’s up, God?” I’d ask over and over, “why can’t I find a godly guy to love me?” "Trust me," He would say, over and over. And sometimes I did and sometimes I didn’t. Well, one of the times I didn’t, I recall being particularly down about my single status at the time, seeing the years span ahead of my like a barren desert, with no pools of water in sight except those in my eyes. Now, I can’t remember if I read this story somewhere or if God dropped it in to my mind or what, but He told me a story about eternal perspective that I’d like to share with you today.
There was this little girl who had never seen a circus before, but when one came to town, she wanted to go in the worst way but didn’t have the money. All of her friends were going and she was so desperate to go too, that she scoured this tall wooden fence surrounding the circus until she found a peephole. Heart thudding, she peered through the knothole and saw a beautiful woman soaring high on a trapeze, toes taut and hair flying. “Oooooh,” the little girl whispered, pulling away to whirl in delight, “the circus is beautiful!” Returning to peek through the hole, she jolted back with a short cry, pulse racing when she saw a ferocious lion leap toward the fence. “Noooooo," she cried in alarm, "the circus is scary!” Steeling herself, she attempted to look one more time through the hole and immediately a chuckle floated from her lips when she saw a big-footed clown tripping over himself. “Oh, my,” she exclaimed, “the circus is funny!” Suddenly, she heard a voice that said, “Hey, why don’t you climb up here—the view is much better.” Looking up, she spied a little boy in the tree, propped on a limb, eating popcorn. “I think I will,” she said, and immediately scurried up the tree to join her new friend. In one single glance, she saw the circus as a whole and gasped, never believing that so many wonderful dimensions existed within the walls of that fence.
God showed me that day that His perspective is the one we want to trust, not our own, no matter how dire or how wonderful our circumstances may be because He is the only one who has the BIG PICTURE of what He has in mind for us. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. —Jeremiah 29:11.
And you know what? He does! And the “perspective” is grand, just like our God. So whatever decisions, problems, fears and hopes you have today, praise God in the midst of them and trust Him to carry you through, because trust me—you don’t want to do it alone.
Speaking of “alone,” I sure don’t want to be alone on the prayer front, so I could use a quick prayer from each of you regarding a decision I have to make this next week. And please know that I am saying one for each of you reading this RIGHT NOW … that God will bless you and guide you and give you true perspective—HIS!!
Hugs,
Julie
NOTE: For those of you hoping to win a signed copy of A Heart Revealed, you have the chance over at Pepper Basham’s blog today, Words Seasoned With Salt, where you can enter to win by leaving a comment on each day of the week that she reviewed one of my books, ending with today, where she’s posted an excerpt from A Heart Revealed that appeared in my last newsletter. Hope to see you there! Here's the link:
http://pepperbasham.wordpress.com/
HAPPY WEEKEND!!
FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011:
“Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.”
~G.B. Stern
WHOO-HOO, HAPPY FRIDAY!!!
You know, I don’t know if I have ever really thanked each of you for the support and love and prayers you send my way. No, really, I mean it—you guys are SUCH amazing reader friends that I wish I could invite each and every one of you to lunch and serve you at my table. I can’t promise twice-baked potatoes with your initials piped into them, but I would roll out the red carpet for sure because I absolutely LOVE you guys!!
And I know every author has reader friends they are close to, but honestly, you are truly a cut above. Even my editor has acknowledged that I seem to have incredibly devoted reader friends, people who seem as passionate as I am in so many areas of their life. Fortunately for me, your support of me and my books is one of those areas, and I can honestly say that one of the greatest things that has come out of writing books is my friendship with so many of you—God’s truth!!
So … why I am SO very grateful today? Well, the main reason is that Aunt Julie is back home at her skilled nursing facility and doing wonderfully, so thank you for your prayers. Hard to believe that last week the doctors said she was dying, and this week she’s getting her hair done and playing Uno with Keith and me—just another testimony to the power of prayer!
And then, of course, another reason is that I am FOUR scenes (465 pages and counting!!) away from finishing Steven’s story, A Trust Restored (working title), and the final “shocker” scene turned out better than I thought, so YAY!! I have been working morning, noon and night trying to get it done, and to prove it, here's a pic Keith took of me in the dark with my MacBook Pro, working on the fifth last scene.
And then the final reason I am so darn grateful is … drum roll please …
BECAUSE OF YOU, I found out this week that I ranked in five categories of the Family Fiction magazine’s READER’S CHOICE AWARDS as follows:
#1 Romance Fiction Author
#1 Series of the Year for "Winds of Change"
#3 Top Author of the Year
#5 for Top Novel of the Year for A Hope Undaunted
#4 for Top Historical Fiction Author of the Year
HOLY COW!!!!! I could have been hit with a stun gun for all I knew when I found out—same effect!! NO WAY did I ever believe this might happen, which, once again, is a total testimony to the passionate support of friends like YOU, so THANK YOU!!! I gotta tell you, it was SO much fun to see my pic next to Francine Rivers’ and above Karen Kingsbury’s, that I literally kept the PDF of the magazine open for two days on my computer. Kept looking at it from time to time to make sure I didn’t dream it.:) If you would like to see all the top fiction winners from the Family Fiction magazine 2011 Readers' Choice Awards, you can either click on the first link below, or if that doesn’t work, click on the 2nd link to open a PDF of the magazine, the May/June issue. It’s a WONDERFUL Christian fiction magazine, so I encourage you to check it out.
http://www.familyfiction.com/magazines/2011/may-jun/pageflip.aspx
http://www.familyfiction.com/magazines/
Soooooo … to celebrate and say thank you AND because of a request from a sweet reader friend by the name of Sierra AND in honor of Mother’s Day this weekend, I am including an excerpt from A Heart Revealed, my next release which will be out in 3-1/2 MONTHS!!!!
This is the first scene between Marcy and Patrick after Katie and Luke’s wedding—Marcy, ever the "Mother," lamenting that her babies are all gone while Patrick is looking forward to a little empty nesting. I hope you enjoy it!
Happy Weekend, All and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!
Hugs,
Julie
“B-but our b-baby is gone …” Marcy’s voice warbled into a heart-rending sob, and Patrick tucked her close as they sat on the sun porch, staring at an empty backyard where they’d raised six children. He absently stroked his wife’s hair as he thought of his youngest daughter—the “handful” he’d butted heads with since she could walk. Well, she’d be butting heads with Luke now, he thought with a dog-eared smile, blinking to dispel the wetness in his own eyes.
“Why do babies have to grow up and go away?” Marcy lamented, her voice nasal and her tone more than a bit melancholy.
He pressed a kiss to her head. “So we can enjoy that wonderful world of grandparenting, my love, where the expenses and problems of babies belong to our children instead of to us.”
“B-but … I … l-love … b-babies,” she said in a pitiful wail.
A smile curved his lips. “I know you do, darlin’, and no woman born was ever better with babies than you. But each of your daughters have married fine young men, so if you must weep, my love, weep for your two sons. They’re a far cry from ending up as lucky as their father.”
She turned in his arms then, lip quivering and eyes glossy with tears. “Oh, Patrick … we are so blessed …”
She fell against him in renewed weeping, and he grinned outright. Blessed. An appropriate word, indeed, he thought with a gentle squeeze of her waist. God had given him thirty-six years with a woman who still took his breath away, and six children that brought a gleam to his eye. Pulling back, he lifted her chin with the pads of his fingers, and then cupped her face in his hands. “Yes, we are, Mrs. O’Connor, incredibly so.” A rush of emotion overtook him, and he leaned in to feather the corner of her lips with his own, his words warm against her mouth. “I love you, Marceline, in every way humanly possible.” He fondled her blond hair seasoned by silver, reveling in its silky feel as his fingers wove in. “As a wife and a mother…”
Sky-blue eyes blinked back—eyes that still had the power to make his heart race—and gratitude swelled in his chest. He nuzzled the lobe of her ear. “As a friend and a helpmate …” His lips trailed to hers, caressing her mouth with kisses that were slow and deliberate. “And most definitely, Mrs. O’Connor,” he whispered against her skin, “as a woman who holds my heart in the palm of her hand.” He kissed her full on the mouth, his moan merging with hers.
“Aren’t you two a little old for that stuff?”
Marcy jolted in his arms, but Patrick held on tight, eyelids lifting enough to give Gabriella Dawn a withering stare. “What do you want, young lady—we’re busy.”
She folded her arms and pursed her lips. “Too busy to be a foster parent? I’m guessing the Boston Society for the Care of Girls might want to know about that.”
A groan rumbled in Patrick’s chest as he released his wife. “This better be good.”
“Steven won’t let me have a piece of wedding cake.”
Patrick eyed her with a dubious stare. “And how many have you had today?”
“Four,” Steven said as he strolled into the room. “Not counting the top layer you put on ice that I just caught her trying to sneak.”
“Four pieces of cake?” Marcy said, mouth gaping in shock.
Gabe blinked. “Of course—it was wonderful, my first wedding cake ever. Nobody bakes like you, Mrs. O’Connor, you know that.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, young lady,” Patrick said, his romantic mood now “on ice” as well. “No more cake.”
“But what about tomorrow? I can have a piece then, can’t I … please?” Panic paled her cheeks, making her generous spray of freckles all the more noticeable.
“Nope.” Steven plopped in the chair. His blue eyes, a deeper shade than his mother’s, twinkled with a smile that was matter-of-fact. “Sorry, Gabe. All that’s left is Luke and Katie’s top tier in the icebox. Collin, Brady and I polished off the rest … along with you, of course.”
A painful groan erupted from Gabe’s throat as she slumped against the love seat. “But why can’t I have some of the top tier? Luke won’t mind—he loves me.”
“We all love you, darling,” Marcy said in a soothing tone. She tugged Gabe into her lap, giving her a tight squeeze. “But the cake in the icebox is off limits, do you hear? It’s an O’Connor tradition—Luke and Katie will eat it when they get home from the honeymoon, as part of their first meal in their new apartment. Celebration of their new life together as a family—Katie, Luke and Kitty.” A smile flickered on Marcy’s lips. “And any other little ones who happen along …”
Steven grinned. “That’s something I gotta see—Katie Rose having a baby. God help us all. She’s practically all thumbs with little Kit as it is; can’t imagine her with a newborn.”
“Hush, Steven, Katie Rose will make a perfectly wonderful mother. She’s just a little hesitant because it’s been Lizzie who’s watched Kitty since Luke moved back to Boston. But that will all change when Katie gets pregnant and quits the BCAS to stay home fulltime.”
“Katie’s gonna quit all right, but not to stay home.” Gabe leaned back against Marcy’s chest, settling in with a cross of skinny legs on Patrick’s lap.
Patrick hiked a brow. “Comfy?”
She ignored him and propped her hands behind her neck. “She’s gonna be lawyer.”
“Not anymore, dear,” Marcy said. “She’s a married woman now.”
Steven ruffled a hand through his dark auburn hair and put his feet up on the ottoman. “You sure about that, Mother? I think Katie may still have plans for law school.”
Marcy frowned. “Well, I know she’d still like to go, but I just assumed it was out of the question since she’s married now and likely to have a baby of her own.”
“Maybe, but all I know is when I was sorting through the mail a few weeks ago, Katie got a letter from Portia Law School.” Steven stifled a yawn.
Patrick sat up, disrupting Gabe’s feet. “What? Did she tell you what it was?”
“Nope, and when I asked, she just shoved the letter in her pocket and smiled, telling me that some dreams never die. So naturally I assumed she was still planning to go.”
“Oh, she’s going,” Gabe said. She closed her eyes and adjusted her feet on Patrick’s lap.
“Excuse me?” Patrick shifted her legs to a different position. “How do you know that?”
“Because we share a room, remember? Or did. I saw the letter on her dresser, welcoming her to Portia Law School this fall.”
“What?” Patrick straightened in unison with Marcy. He jiggled Gabe’s leg, forcing her to open her eyes. “Does Luke know?”
“Nope.”
Marcy swiveled Gabe’s chin. “How do you know?”
Gabe’s rosebud mouth eased into a smirk. “Because when Katie found me reading the letter, she snatched it away and made me promise not to tell Luke. She said it was a surprise.”
“Oh, it’ll be a surprise all right,” Steven said with a chuckle.
Marcy shook her head, a hand to her brow. “Oh, Katie Rose …”
“Let it go, Marcy,” Patrick said. He slipped an arm around his wife’s shoulder and drew her close. “It’s their problem now, not ours. They’ll work it out.”
“But Katie has to learn you can’t have secrets in a marriage—it can hurt a relationship.”
“Yes, darlin’, I know,” Patrick said with a dry smile. “All too well. But that’s a lesson for her husband to impart, not us. And if ever a man was up to the task, it’s Luke McGee.”
Marcy slumped against Patrick’s shoulder. “I suppose …”
“So, Gabe … up for a Nehi at Robinson’s?” Steven rose, muscled arms stretched high.
Wiry limbs scrambled as Gabe shrieked to her feet. “Honest, Steven, you mean it?”
“Sure, squirt. But you gotta promise to keep your mitts off Katie and Luke’s cake. Deal?”
“Deal! Let’s go.”
“Hold on, young lady,” Marcy said with grip of the sash at the back of Gabe’s pale pink dress. “Not before you change from your good clothes.”
“But I don’t wanna cha—”
The words garbled in her throat when Steven squeezed the nape of her neck, forcing a hunch of Gabe’s shoulders. “No change, no Nehi. It’s that simple, squirt. Why should I buy a soda for a kid who doesn’t respect her foster parents?”
“Okay, okay, but I swear you people are in cahoots.”
Marcy tugged Gabe back to deposit a quick kiss to her cheek. “We don’t swear in this house, Gabriella Dawn, and we are not in cahoots. We are in a family, and that includes you, understood? Now, scoot and have a good time.” Gabe tore out of the sun porch with a whoop and a holler, and Marcy called after her. “And you mind Steven, you hear?”
“Oh, she’ll mind, or else.” Steven said with a smile. He shook his head. “And you always thought Katie was the ‘handful,’ Pop. No wonder you two look so tired.” Steven stood to his feet. “Well, I’m off. You two want anything from Robinson’s?”
Patrick eyed his son. “No, thanks, but I’d like to know why you’re home tonight in the first place. It’s Saturday night, for pity’s sake, and the Fourth of July—I expected you to be out with Joe and your buddies, or at the very least helping Sean coach his baseball team tonight.”
Steven cuffed the back of his neck, suddenly looking more exhausted at twenty-three years of age than Patrick felt at fifty-three. “Yeah, I know, but Joe and the guys are going to Revere Beach for a dance marathon tonight, and I just wasn’t up to it. It’s been a pretty grueling week at work, so I figured I’d just turn in early.”
“You think you’re going to like it—the Prohibition Bureau?” Patrick glanced up, feeling an edge of concern that the son who had burned the candle at both ends during college, was now a nose-to-the-grindstone prohibition agent in bed by nine.
“Yeah, I think so. It’s great, Joe and I being partners and all, although I don’t think he’s as enamored with the job as I am. I guess I like the idea of working for the Department of Justice, you know?” His lips quirked. “Like maybe it exonerates me from my questionable past.”
Patrick felt a twinge in his chest. “Steven, you’ve already been long exonerated. Your exemplary behavior since my heart incident two years ago more than proves that. You’re a hard working and honest man, son, and I’m proud of you.” He hesitated. “But you need to enjoy life too. Why don’t you go with Joe and the others to Revere Beach tonight and have fun. Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet a nice, young woman.”
A wry smile hovered on Steven’s lips. “Nice, young woman? Hanging out with Joe and the others? I don’t think so, Pop. You didn’t take a shine to the women I met hanging out with Joe and the gang before. What makes you think you will now?”
“I’m not talking about women like Maggie. Surely there must be some decent young girls you can meet and get to know?”
“Young?” Steven leaned to kiss his mother’s cheek. “Yep, plenty of those. But decent?” He slapped Patrick on the shoulder. “Trust me, Pop, they’re few and far between. See you later.”
A thunderous clomping rattled down the staircase, followed by a slam of the front screen door, indicating Gabe was more than ready. “Steeeeeeeeeven!! Meet you on the porch swing …”
“One Nehi only, Steven,” Marcy warned. “And don’t let her talk you into chocolate—heaven knows she already has enough sugar to keep her up for days.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Steven said with a wave. “Enjoy the solitude.”
The screen door slammed again, and Patrick eased into the love seat with a sigh. He drew Marcy close. “Solitude,” he whispered. “Heaven help me, I almost don’t recognize it anymore.”
He felt Marcy’s chuckle against his chest. “Don’t get too used to it, Patrick. We have two sons and a very active foster daughter who still call this home.” Her sigh seemed one of pure contentment. “Besides, raising someone as young and vital as Gabe will help keep us young.”
His fingers caressed the back of her neck before tilting her face to meet his. One brow edged high as he studied her with a slant of a smile. “I can think of better ways to stay young, Marceline,” he whispered, allowing his eyes to linger on the fullness of her lips.
She pressed a hand to the scruff of his jaw and smiled while a faint blush colored her cheeks. “And better ways to spend your sweet solitude, I suppose.”
“Mmm …” he whispered, taking her lips with his own. “Sweet solitude, indeed.”
FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011:
Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds.
—Psalm 78:7
HAPPY FRIDAY, ALL!!
To be honest, I didn’t think it would be. It’s been a roller-coaster week, to say the least, and you know how it is on a roller-coaster—you never know if you’ll be sick to your stomach or not by the end of the ride.
Because just like a roller-coaster, this week has had its highs and lows, good things and bad … and then good things again. Over Easter, it became official that Keith and I will be grandparents to a little girl come September, and my heart is joyful and tremulous at the same time. You see, I have never been one of those baby-fawner types, you know the gals in the office who flock around any baby that comes in the door? Yeah, well, I was the one always slinking away because quite frankly, I much preferred the toddler-to-teen part of raising children because I like to actually be able to converse with kids, and you can’t do that with babies.
As emotional as I am, I have never been the touchy-feely type, which probably shocks a lot of people. The truth is, I was a hard-nosed young woman with a heart of stone that Jesus Christ turned in to a heart of flesh. As one of thirteen kids, I didn’t get a lot of love, so I got it where I could—through books and movies that wouldn’t reject or hurt me like my family sometimes did, hardening my heart so much that I thought I would NEVER love anyone. Some of you may remember me saying that I wasn’t sure if even loved my husband when I married him, all I knew is I was happier with him than without him. But through his love, patience and affection, AND GOD’S, I finally learned how, and the love has been growing ever since.
But babies? As a no-nonsense drill-sergeant-type of mom, I wasn’t one for fawning or coddling. If the kids fell down, I’d dust ‘em off and set them back up, telling them they were fine with a quick hug and a kiss. Sure, I was a fun mom, telling spook stories with a candle at slumber parties on the back porch, building elaborate tents with sofa cushions and sheets and even taking the kids flying at high speeds in a car over this special bump in the road whenever we were on field trips. But affectionate? Uh, no.
So you can certainly understand my hesitation about a grandbaby, even though everyone assures me I will fall madly in love with this child. They’re probably right because already I find myself tearing up when I see a baby in a store or on TV, but I am praying nonetheless that I will be the best grandmother I can be. Correction: the best JuJu I can be, a name similar to what my daughter called me when she was a toddler. Because I have to confess to a touch of vanity and say that the name “grandma,” with images of a white-haired granny rocking on the front porch, sends a shiver down my spine. Anyway, here is a picture of how my son and daughter-in-law first announced to friends and family that they were expecting—their two goldens have NO idea what’s in store, do they?
The rest of the week took a tumble. We got back into town Easter night to discover Aunt Julie was in the hospital with pneumonia, and one day she’s breathing like a steam engine and the doctors tell us she is dying and in need of hospice, and then the next, she’s perky and up and her normal self. That went on all week—up and down, up and down—but the good news today is that she is greatly improved and going home, so my prayers are that God will keep her well until He takes her to His home.
I still don’t have a contract yet, which is a wee bit disconcerting and then I ran into a wall with my plot on Steven’s story and can’t seem to resolve it, which unnerves me to NO end, especially since I haven’t had much time to write and am about two months behind on my schedule.
So that brings me to today’s Scripture above. It was one of my Bible readings today, reminding me ONCE AGAIN that God has never failed me in ANY situation, and if I just reflect on His deeds in my life (and they are many!!), I will remember that. Yes, AJ is sick and probably dying, and yes I am a basket case on the book, but if I have learned one thing in my almost forty years of serving the Lord, I have learned that I can trust Him, which, ironically, is the same theme of Steven’s story, A Trust Restored. So that’s what I am doing today—forging ahead with my trust in Him instead of trust in myself or the situation because He has NEVER let me down, and I’m pretty sure He won’t now either.
Thank you for listening, and I covet your prayers for Aunt Julie, my book and my state of mind—that I will keep my focus on Him and trust Him to do what He does SO very well—dust me off and set me on my feet with a hug and a kiss. And letting me know in that spiritual-long-distance way of His that I am so very loved … as are you!
Hugs,
Julie
P.S. JOIN ME FOR A "COLD CALL" INTERVIEW AT Casey Herringshaw's blog, Writing for Christ -- The Audience of One at:
http://enjoyingthewritingcraft.blogspot.com/2011/04/cold-call-friday-with-julie-lessman.html
GOOD FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011:
"Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord.
"Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool."
—Isaiah 1:18
Okay granted, Christmas trees are pretty, and yes, Thanksgiving turkey and dressing are two of my favorite foods, but I gotta tell you—Easter has always held a special place in my heart. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not gaga over eggs or crazy about Peeps or anything, but there's just something so holy and reverent about Easter that literally brings tears to my eyes.
I mean, you know how it feels to be really scrungy dirty, mud caked under your finger nails and streaked on your face and then get a hot shower? Well, for years I used to be a psycho-gardener who couldn’t just have one or two berms in my yard. Oh, no, as a woman with classic MSD (Martha Stewart Disease), I had to have no less than TEN berms in my yard, and we’re not talking dinky plots here, no siree. Major, bona fide gardens with trees in them, every perennial known to man and ground cover. I kid you not, it would take me a solid week of ten-hour days to get things planted, mulched, manicured and fertilized every single spring. At the end of the day, I was unrecognizable with dirt and mulch streaked on my face, in my hair, caked on my skin and embedded under my nails. And although I actually won a gardening contest once and my gardens were really pretty … I definitely wasn’t when I got done in the yard. But, OH MY, the incredible feeling when I stepped into that shower to wash all that dirt and grime away, watching it swirl down the drain to leave me squeaky clean. Sheer heaven!!
Well ... that’s pretty much how Easter is to me. A day that reminds me that no matter how many times I lose my temper behind the wheel of a car, no matter how many times I read People magazine in the bathroom after losing at Dominoes, and no matter how many times I get ugly with my husband (and, yes, as romantic as our marriage is, it does happen … think wicked witch of the West vs. Prince Charming) ... the precious Blood of Jesus washes all the dirt away. WOW!! Talk about “sheer heaven”!!
So this Easter, I not only wish you family and friends, chocolate eggs and Peeps—I wish you the touch of God in your life to “shower” you with His grace and "bathe" you in His love, not only this Easter … but every single day of the year.
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2011:
“Sometimes the best gain is to lose.”
—George Herbert
You know, sometimes it’s really tough being a PDQ (passionate drama queen)—you tend to be super competitive, a driver, you take things too seriously and you’re way too anal for your own good and everybody else’s in just about everything you do.
Take games, for instance. I’m afraid I have a bit of a reputation with my family and friends as being a little over the top when it comes to winning. As a lover of words, I used to take great joy in obliterating everybody I played against in Scrabble … until my son and daughter became so good at it, that they would occasionally beat me, which about killed me. And then when my son married a doctor who was just as cutthroat as I was about the game, well, I saw the handwriting on the wall and picked up my tiles and went home. Haven’t played since.
Then there was one of my all-time favorite games, Spoons—a fast-paced card game where cards are passed around from one player to the next at a breakneck speed until someone gets four of a kind and grabs a spoon from the middle of the table. Now, mind you, if there are six people playing, there are only five spoons, so somebody ends up without a spoon, and then gets an “s”, then a “p” and so on for every time they lose. Please hear me on this—I have never lost at Spoons that I can remember. I’m just too crazed and over the top at flinging those cards and diving for that silverware. In the course of the game, I have drawn blood, broken fingernails and flung myself into a plate-glass window when I grabbed a spoon so hard and fast my chair tipped backwards. Luckily for me, the glass didn’t break and I won. Naturally. In fact, I was so vicious at Spoons that once when we were playing it with some good friends, I went to the restroom and when I came back, they had replaced the spoons with butcher knives. Yeah, we all laughed, but deep down inside? A littttttttle too close to the truth to suit me …
And you would think as a woman who loves God with everything in her and writes Inspirational Romance, I would take defeat in stride, especially in front of my in-laws. Uh, no. For years my husband and I played Pinochle with his parents, and I could only take losing so many times before I would end up in the bathroom, reading the People magazine for so long that my in-laws would think I was sick. And I was—sick of losing! “Where’d she go?” my father-in-law asked my husband the first time it ever happened. “Oh, she’s mad, just ignore her,” Keith would say, explaining that I was a bit of a sore loser, but I usually got over it after 30 or minutes or so in the bathroom. I am ashamed to say that although I have gotten better, when we play Dominoes with Keith’s mom every week, I still visit the bathroom for a loser-induced People break more often than I care to admit.
So, what’s my point with all of this baring of my soul about being a bonafide sore loser? Well, it boils down to several things that happened this week. First of all, I got some disappointing news about my book and as always, it socked me in the gut because as we all now know, I don’t handle losing well. The good news is, however, that I just started a Beth Moore Bible study workbook called Breaking Free that also socked me in the gut, but in a way that has changed my life. I had heard of Beth Moore, of course, but had never read anything by her because I am basically a fiction kind of gal who falls asleep one quarter of the way in any self-help book or nonfiction of any kind. Consequently, the only nonfiction I generally read is the Bible. But … when my daughter, who just went through a somewhat traumatic experience, started this study, she came to me and said, “Mom, I am only on the fourth day, but God has opened my eyes like never before, and this book is changing my life.” Beep, beep, back up the truck, I thought—and gimme that book—now!” So she bought it for me, and all I can say is, WHOA, BABY, what an eye-opener!!
I have always known that God will not allow anything to share the throne with Him in our lives—not family, not friends, not success, not romance, not writing, not money, nothing. But never has it been driven home more clearly than in this study. Some of you who pray for me on a regular basis know that I have struggled for a while now, as all authors do, with the compulsion to succeed, be it contest wins, book sales, great reviews, etc. Many of you have heard me say that I love being a writer, but that I would give anything to lobotomize that part of the writer’s brain that dwells on success. "Anything?" God says. Yes, anything because to me, it’s basically pride jockeying for a position on God’s throne in my life, and I HATE IT!! As Beth Moore so clearly points out in this remarkable study, pride is deadly and a major obstacle in drawing closer to God and reaping His benefits. A captivity in our lives. She makes the statement that, “If we are to recognize and allow God to free us from any areas of captivity, we must recognize pride as more than self-promotion. It is a dangerous lure to captivity.
This morning when I was doing the study for the day, I was almost done and a sadness came over me as I stared out the window, rain dribbling down the pane. I admitted to God that although I trust Him with all of my heart, deep down inside I worry that as a human being—and a competitive one at that—I will always struggle with this pride issue regarding my writing. That somehow I will never be able to take it off the throne, which saddened me deeply. So I said a prayer about it as I always do and then returned to the very last Scripture of today’s study, and guess what it said????
And those who walk in pride he is able to humble. — Daniel 4:37
Yep, I started to cry … AGAIN … knowing deep in my soul that He IS faithful to uproot this obstacle that hinders His blessings and peace in my life … and in yours.
Jesus said, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.”— Matthew 10:39. God certainly knows how much I hate losing, but this week for the very first time I realized that in persisting to place the desires of this world on the throne with God, the greatest thing I lose is my life in Him—a life of joy, contentment and gratitude no matter where He leads me, a place where wins and losses cannot touch me and a place where peace is like a river. And after beginning this incredible study, (of which I am only into one week of an eleven-week study!!), a place where hope in Him assures me that yes, Virginia, there is an intimacy with God available that is even deeper and wider and more passionate than anything I have experienced before. The very thought makes me tremble with anticipation because trust me, my passion for Him is already pretty fierce. But nothing compared to the heights of joy, peace, hope that He wants me to have … and you!!
So I leave you today with a Scripture brimming with promise from a God who is brimming with love for each and every one of us
“ I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you by the way you should go.
Oh, that you (will heed) My commandments!
Then your peace (will be) like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
—Isaiah 48:17-18
Oh, amen and amen!!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2011:
"The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love."
~Hubert H. Humphrey
HAPPY FRIDAY!!! Or, in my case, “HAPPY THERAPY” because that’s what Fridays are for me—a chance to stop the frenetic pace, relax and reflect on the week before. A reprieve in a week of push, push, push and drive, drive, drive. To take a deep breath and release it slowly … giving thanks to God for another week of life with people I love, doing a job I love to do for a God I simply adore.
But it wasn’t always that way … the adoration for God part, that is. Some of you already know that I had a pretty rocky past before Christ. I was hard, tough and agnostic. I touch on a little bit of that in my “Purity Before Marriage” post on Casey Herringshaw’s blog this week at http://enjoyingthewritingcraft.blogspot.com/2011/04/be-inspired-on-your-journey-of-purity.html, where I share my own personal testimony on purity before marriage.
But … to give you a truer picture of the hard, caustic person I was, it occurred to me that it might be fun to post a biographical story of the first lesson God ever taught me as a Christian. It’s a piece I wrote years ago (way before I was writer, so keep that in mind) and I call it “Herb Therapy.” It’s about a man I worked with once and the miracle that God performed in me—a cynical and callous young woman—and in the relationship I had with a coworker. In fact, this event in my life SO impacted me that I would reiterate this story to my kids whenever the need arose over the years, so much so that often I would hear, “Oh no, Mom, not the Herb story again …”
Yes, the Herb story again … only I thought you would be reading it for the first time, but I just discovered I was wrong. Apparently I posted this story in September of last year, so for those of you who already read it, I apologize. Since I was short on time this week, I needed something fast and furious, and this is what I came up with. Unfortunately, my memory needs to be in therapy because I’d forgotten I’d already posted it. Sigh. Well, hopefully you won’t roll your eyes like I would have done when I was a 23-year-old hard-nosed agnostic.
Have a GREAT week, hopefully with lots of therapy in the sun AND the Son.
HERB THERAPY
Wrong or right, I hated his guts.
There I’d be, poised at my desk, eyeliner and lipstick perfectly applied, miniskirt in place and teeth bared, read to take on the workplace. It was 1973. I was 23, long on brass, short on fuse and anxious to tackle anything that came my way.
Until Herb.
Oh, I wanted to tackle him alright. Everyday as he lumbered through those double doors, beer belly protruding and hair as slick as the smirk on his face, I found myself mentally ramming him on the 20-yard line, dropkicking his pigskin head through the goal posts. Touchdown! The crowd went wild. Oh yes … yes. I sorely wanted to touch down on Mr. Herb Miller!
The problem? I was a brand-new Christian. One with an agnostic past who had finally seen the error of her ways. From now on, I planned to do things God’s way. Unfortunately, that meant loving the man who was the bane of my existence. I was a new creature in Christ Jesus, to be sure, but to Mr. Herb Miller, I was the same old Julie—the one who would continue as the butt of his jokes.
Each day as the doors swung wide, he would flash his saccharine smile, cramping my stomach with contempt. “Smile, Julie,” he would jeer, and the speed at which obscenities would travel from my brain to my pursed lips was dangerously close to breaking my own sound barrier. I wanted to tell him just how much I despised him. I wanted to tell him to stick his smile where the sun didn’t shine. I wanted to spew insults until they took him down like quicksand. There was a time when I would have, when nothing would have stopped me from asphyxiating Mr. Herb Miller with the bitter, blue smoke of my acrid tongue. But that was a luxury that was no longer mine. I was a Christian now, not a sailor, and blushing repartee was no longer an option. With a great deal of effort, I shifted my lips past the sneer-gear into a tight smile.
“Good morning, Herb,” I murmured. Don’t fall on your fat face, my thoughts followed in betrayal. With determination gritting my lips, I reached in my purse for my lipstick and mirror, allowing my long hair to shield the hot blush that crept up my face. Clutching my mirror in a near death grip, I applied the soothing balm of Mango Madness. Ohhhhh man, I thought to myself, this Christianity stuff was going to be brutal!
I stared at the girl in the mirror, and her brown eyes blinked back, wide and heavy with a ton of questions and even more Maybelline. “Mirror, mirror, what’s my fate, what do I do with someone I hate?”
Love your neighbor as yourself.
The scripture verse I’d read that morning suddenly blinked on and off in my mind like a neon sign flashing over a cheap motel. Eat at Joe’s … Love your neighbor … Eat at Joe’s … Love your neighbor …
I chucked the mirror back in my purse and slammed the drawer shut. But how? I was only a baby Christian of two months, and this was a full-grown bitterness, which like Herb, seemed to balloon with every swing of the double doors. How do you go from a girl with a salty tongue who strutted the office in miniskirts and platform heels to a sweet, wholesome Christian who quoted Scripture?
“Hate to tell ya this, Julie, but the Bible’s pretty cut and dried about this,” my friend Joy said when I had discussed Herb with her the night before. “Matthew 5:44 says to ‘love your enemies.’”
“But he’s not my enemy,” I argued, “I just can’t stand him.” Flipping my hair over my shoulders, I ransacked my purse for lipstick.
“Why?” Joy asked, lowering her glasses to counter me with a quizzical stare. I could smell her perfume. Heavensent.
I slashed Peach Perfection across my lips and jammed the lid back on the tube. I reached for the lip gloss. “I don’t know,” I said in frustration. “He’s arrogant … he’s a fat slob … he just makes me feel less. He doesn’t give a hoot if I live or die. All he ever says is “Smile, Julie” just to get under my skin … and it, well … it kind of …”
“Hurts?”
I glared, brandishing the lip gloss like a weapon.
Her touch on my arm was gentle. “Julie, the next line of that Scripture says “pray for those who hurt you.”
The silence was deafening as I came crashing down from my high horse. I sat limp in the chair, almost too drained to apply gloss. My lips were chapped – like my mood.
You know, you’re not alone in this,” Joy said as I worked up the energy to apply gloss. “God never requires anything He doesn’t give you the grace to do.”
“So how do I do it, huh?” I challenged, as if the freshly applied gloss had given me the strength of Samson.
“Well for starters, you can try putting on Jesus as often as you put on lipstick.”
She smiled and I gave her a deadpan look. “Okay, just pray for the guy,” she relented.
“Oh yeah, you can bet I’ll pray for him. Dear Lord, please fire his butt!”
“No, I mean pray blessing on him. You know, that good things happen to him. Lord, bless Herb in his job, bless his finances, give him a raise, whatever. Then follow it up with doing nice things for him.”
I stared like a deer caught in headlights, ready to bolt. “You’ve got to be kidding!”
“Afraid not. Romans 12:20 says that if your enemy is hungry, feed him … in doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.”
“Yeah, well coals aren’t a problem. I can heap plenty – the hotter the better!”
“No,” Joy whispered, her voice soft but stern. “The next sentence says ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.’ In Jesus’ day, people used to buy burning coals for cooking and heating purposes and then carry them in containers on their heads. So if you are heaping coals on someone’s head, it means you are heaping blessings on them. Translation? Not only should you pray for Herb’s blessing, but you also have to bless him with your actions.”
“But I can’t love Herb,” I reasoned, standing on my last line of defense. “God can’t expect me to be a hypocrite and love somebody I don’t feel any love for, can He?”
“Sure He can,” she said with an annoying smile. Love is a choice, not a feeling. Nowhere in the Bible does it say to feel love for your neighbor. It is a command, pure and simple. If you obey it, the feeling will follow.
The feeling will follow. I slumped at my desk and stared at Herb’s office, Joy’s words echoing in my brain. Yeah, the feeling will follow, alright. The feeling that I’m making a first-class fool of myself. I huffed out a sigh. “Okay, God, here goes nothing—You’re on! Please help me to love Herb, because it’s pretty much not there. Forgive me for my bitterness towards him, and please, please show me how to love him. Oh, and yeah, I almost forgot – go ahead and bless him. Amen.”
I grabbed my coffee tray, ready for the morning ritual of coffee-fetching for the higher-ups. Office after office, I would collect coffee orders and money, an assignment which resulted in a tray of 20 coffees—one for every person in the department—and two for Herb.
Taking a deep breath, I entered his office. “Hey Herb,” I said, my smile vintage suck-up. “Coffee time!”
He reached in his pocket, pulled out two quarters and threw them on the tray with as much disregard as he had for me. “The usual,” he mumbled, never looking up.
My stomach rolled. What a jerk, I thought and bit my lip. “Sorry God,” I whispered as I turned towards the door. Abruptly, I spun around and smiled, if possible an even bigger smile than before. “Herb,” I said brightly, “There isn’t anybody in this department who likes coffee as much as you. How ‘bout three?”
He blinked. Imagine a freeze frame on his face—pure stun. Slowly, the stun thawed into a tight smile. “Well Little Lady, don’t mind if I do,” he stuttered. He stood up and tossed another 50 cents on the tray. “Here, buy one for yourself, too.”
“Thanks Herb!” I said, surely as stunned as he. I wheeled around before he could see the shock on my face. I don’t remember the walk to the cafeteria or back, or for that matter, much of anything else that day. I just know that the next morning when the double doors flew open, my stomach didn’t constrict quite as much when he appeared. Before he could utter a word, I flashed him a 150-watt smile that could have lit the department. “Morning, Herb!” I said in my perkiest, hide-my-real-feelings voice. “How are you today?”
He stopped and blinked, the stun factor back in play.
“Well fine, little lady. Glad to see a smile on your face,” he said before disappearing into his office.
I could feel my pretend smile relaxing into a real one as I reached for my lipstick, ready to do lip service of another kind. “Okay God. So far, so good. The plan has been implemented. I don’t think my nose has grown, and there are no hives as far as I can see. Now it’s your turn— Go, get him! And God … put a little “feeling” into it, will Ya?”
I can’t really say just how much time passed before I began to notice. Was it days … weeks … months, maybe? A genuine smile. A playful tease. A sympathetic ear. Kind of a sneak attack on two people hell-bent on hating each other. And now the doors were swinging a completely different direction.
“So, how’s Julie today?” Herb would ask, his beaming presence blowing through the double doors like a warm breeze.
“Sweet as ever,” I would reply, genuine affection in my voice as he ambled into his office. No Sweet N Low needed here. The realization of what had transpired began to absorb into my bloodstream, sending a sugar-high to my head and heart. It seems that what Herb and I had on our hands was a bona fide, buckle-my-knees, honest-to-God friendship. Gone were the sneers and scowls, the pretend smiles and too-perky tones, replaced instead by feelings of respect and true affection.
Who would have guessed that when Herb left the department years later, I would have missed him so much? No doubt about it—ours had been an unlikely friendship. One that hadn’t come easily. But it had come, and somehow with it a freedom I never dreamed possible. Freedom from hate and bitterness. Freedom to love the endless parade of “Herbs” in my life, all with the help of a God who is Love Incarnate. True, like all freedom, this one came with a hefty price tag. My way or His. The cost was high. Usually I paid it. But sometimes I didn’t. You might say I’m a work in progress.
Julie's Foot Note (not part of the story): Would you believe that many years later I had lunch with a friend who had run into Herb, and she told me that he had asked about me and said how much he had liked me. "You know," he said to my friend, "when I first met that little girl, I couldn't stand her. I don't know what happened, but one day she just turned around and I'll tell you what -- she ended up being the cutest thing in shoe leather."
Now go ahead -- tell me God's Word doesn't work!! :)
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2011:
Sow a thought, reap an action, sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
T.G.I.F. or T.Y.J.W.H—Thank you, Jesus, the weekend’s here!!
Don’t get me wrong—this week’s been a good one! I’m at 312 pages on Steven’s story (working title A Trust Restored), I have a proposal for a 3-book deal that went to pub board, Aunt Julie is doing very well, my daughter weathered a crisis in a way to make a mother weep with pride, I lost several pounds, and I finished proofing the 1st galleys for A Heart Revealed in a couple of days, which, I am happy to report was a ten-Kleenex read.
You see, I always rate my books by how many Kleenex I go through when reading the galleys, and my personal high has been twelve. When I read galleys, I read it out loud, which can get rather embarrassing at times. Even though I’m in another room, my poor husband hears this low reading mumble punctuated by outbursts of laughter intermingled with the sound of blowing my nose. “You crying again?” he calls from his office, and I sheepishly answer “yes,” and then tell him where I am in the book, which he likes to hear because A Heart Revealed is his all-time favorite of all my books (yes, he actually reads the manuscripts now instead of waiting for the book, which is a good sign!). He adamantly insists that this book will win me awards, but only time will tell, so I’m not holding my breath. All I know is that to date, it is my most spiritual book as well as the least “passionate” in the romantic sense. It is, however, VERY passionate about God, which well it should be because … well … I am!!
But, I have to admit—I had trouble sleeping one night. That always happens when I have too much on my plate and I start to fret I’m not going to get it all done. Both my husband and I worked till midnight (he’s as crazy busy in his own design business as I am in my writing), which is one of the reasons this is a match made in heaven. Uh, maybe. After tossing and turning all night, I can’t help but wonder if he doesn’t need somebody who’s not the workaholic he is so we can actually take more breaks and get a little more rest, which we keep VOWING to do!! But, I digress …
The whole reason I’m writing this is that when I got up in the morning to read my Bible and my Joyce Meyer Hearing From God Each Morning devotional, the above quote was one Joyce Meyer used, and quite frankly, it hit me square between the eyes. Now, just to get things right, today’s quote has been accredited to a number of people (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Seneca, Charles Reade, etc.), but Joyce Meyer coupled it with the following Scripture: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”— Proverbs 4:23.
WOW!! After working till midnight that night, I was tired and overwhelmed, suddenly realizing that not only was I about two months behind on "my" schedule for A Trust Restored, but I’d given my publisher a January 1st deadline for the 1st book in the next series (I’m trying to get books out every 7-9 months rather than once a year), have two blogs to write in the next week, this Journal Jot, a book to read and endorse by 4/15, five books to read for The Carol Awards contest, a speaking engagement to prepare for, a baby shower at my house this weekend, several appointments and two luncheons with friends, one of them a birthday luncheon that I cannot cancel nor want to, several visits to Aunt Julie and three dinners out with couple friends. I brushed my teeth in the mirror like a deer in headlights, feeling the panic begin to spin out of control.
Which brings me to the quote and Scripture above. Because attitude is everything … and it begins with a thought. Yes, my destiny is in God’s hands, BUT … He put His Word into mine. To read, to study, to APPLY. To “take all thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.” —2nd Corinthians 10:5. He tells me over and over again to “fear not,” and that “all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purposes.”—Romans 8:28. He says if I “Trust the Lord completely … in everything I do, and put God first, He will direct me and crown my efforts with success. “—Proverbs 3:5-6.
And you know what? He’s right. Never once has He let me down. I’ve always managed to get things done, meet deadlines and stay in one piece no matter how much of a basket case I am prone to be. And trust me—Longaberger Baskets could name product after me!
So, I don’t care what you and I have on our plates today or how many deadlines we’re staring at or how many problems are rearing their ugly heads. Take a deep breath and FOCUS on HIM, on HIS WORD, on His goodness to us and KNOW He is not only God, but a God who will NEVER leave us nor forsake us. Breathe in … breathe out … and let the breath of the Holy Spirit fill your lungs and rejuvenate your soul! WOW, what a good feeling!
Ironically, in A Heart Revealed our Charity O’Connor encounters a similar situation regarding “taking all thoughts captive,” so to end this Journal Jot today, I’m going to give you a tiny peek at Charity’s dilemma. To set up the scene, Mitch is forced to chair an auction with the Herald’s owner’s spoiled niece every Thursday night, a sexy divorcee flapper known for her indiscretions with men, married or otherwise. May it not only whet your appetite for A Heart Revealed, but your appetite for God’s Word as well … our lifeline in this frail thing we call Life.
AUNT JULIE UPDATE:
WONDERFUL!!!
STEVEN’S STORY UPDATE:
313 pages; only about 187 to go!!!
THE COUSIN’S MC CLARE UPDATE:
GONE TO TO PUB BOARD/NO WORD YET
BLOG GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK:
MONDAY, APRIL 4 through THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2011 — Casey Herringshaw's PURITY OF HEARTS WEEK. Cool things are going on all week, and you have FOUR chances to win signed copies of your choice of my books (including A Heart Revealed on Thursday only) by posting a comment on ANY of the days, one winner drawn per day. My guest-blog day is APRIL 7, where I will be giving my personal testimony about how purity prior to marriage has blessed my own relationship with my husband. So join Casey all week and me on Thursday at:
http://enjoyingthewritingcraft.blogspot.com/
Have a blessed weekend!
Hugs,
Julie
Scene from A Heart Revealed:
Dirty laundry. The perfect activity for a Thursday night when the kids were in bed and she was all alone. Charity scowled as she heaved her wooden laundry basket from the floor of her closet, wondering again why she always saved her least favorite chore for her least favorite day. Her lips kinked. Maybe because she put it off . . . like she did with thoughts of Mitch working with that woman. And then, boom! Suddenly it was Thursday again, and her hampers were full of grimy clothes, and her mind, grimy thoughts.
She sighed and wished it were easier—what Faith had taught her to do. Taking every thought captive—her wild imagination, the jealousy, the fear—and keeping her thoughts pure. And for the most part she had, reining in her doubts and her temper to stay squeaky clean. But come Thursday, it seemed she was always in need of a wash, and then her clothes and her guilt would be scrubbed within an inch of their lives.
Basket on hip, she moved to her bed to strip off the sheets, reflecting on the Scripture Faith insisted she memorize.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations . . . and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
She chewed on her lip. Easier said than done . . . especially for a wife whose “weapons” tended toward “carnal”—that is, except in the bedroom of late, where her husband’s desire seemed as exhausted as his body at the end of a grueling day, compliments of the Herald. Heaving a sigh, she dropped the sheets into her basket and proceeded to flip the mattress, a habit she’d acquired during pregnancy when she’d been afflicted with constant backaches. Apparently it was a surefire way to keep the lumps out for the best support, at least according to her mother. Charity grunted as she heaved the mattress in place. How about a surefire remedy for keeping the lumps out of my marriage? she thought with a wry bent of her lips, wishing application of Faith’s Scripture was as easy and simple as turning a bed.
Especially on Thursday nights.
She remade the bed with fresh sheets and carried the basket to the hamper in her bedroom closet, quoting Faith’s Scripture in her mind.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal . . . She tossed three pairs of Mitch’s underwear into the basket.
But mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds . . . Several pajama bottoms and socks followed.
Casting down imaginations . . . She stopped, noting something peeking from behind the hamper, items that Mitch had obviously carelessly flung. So that’s where his pin-stripe shirt went, she thought with a shake of her head, retrieving the shirt that she loved along with a pair of wrinkled trousers. She dropped the trousers into the basket and then with a rush of longing, she crushed the shirt to her face and breathed in his scent, craving his touch. She closed her eyes and dwelled on him—her gruff and practical husband, tall and strong and dangerously handsome. A man who exuded a quiet strength and passion in everything he touched—whether in his faith, in his family . . . or in his bed.
Fingering the soft, smooth material in her hand, she wondered how late he would be tonight. It seemed every week “the queen” demanded more and more of his time. She sighed and tossed the shirt into the basket, the fabric fluttering in slow motion as her arm froze in the air. Paralysis claimed her mid-blink, and she stared, all breath lost in her throat. With trembling fingers, she bent to retrieve the shirt and gasped.
A streak of scarlet lipstick edged the collar like a bloody gash, bleeding all rational thoughts from her mind. Her body jerked, and she dropped it again, slumping to her knees with a choked sob. No, God—please!
Vile thoughts pelted her mind—perfumed notes, a women’s scent on his clothes, late nights at the office, and then at her house. Charity shivered. And scarlet lipstick on his collar.
The color of sin.
No! She put a hand to her eyes, desperate to fight it. Casting down imaginations, casting down imaginations . . . She drew in more air. Mitch loved her, he did, and he was a good man. But all she saw in her mind was Marjorie Hennessey, the darling of Beacon Hill—wealthy, beautiful . . . and notorious for indiscretions. Temptation in the flesh.
Especially for a man whose wife’s jealousy pushed him away …
FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2011:
I have an idea that the phrase "weaker sex"
was coined by some woman to disarm some man
she was preparing to overwhelm.
~Ogden Nash
HAPPY FRIDAY!! It’s hard to believe that most of this week I was writing with my laptop outside on my lower deck in 70-degree weather until today when I woke up to snow and am working in my cozy hearthroom with a fire blazing, temp in the 30s. And, YIKES, my husband tells me they're predicting 3-5 inches of snow tomorrow!! Of course, this is pretty much St. Louis weather-wise—hot one day, cold the next. Reminds me of menopause. A common saying in St. Louis is if you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes, and I have to admit, this week it was true! It went from the 70s to the 30s in the span of one day, but fortunately for me, I’m good with hot or cold. Writing knows no temperature, as far as I’m concerned, except “warm,” given I’m a romance writer …
So what’s my quote all about this week? Well, I wanted a quote about women because I’ve been laughing at Charity all day long. You see, I received my galleys yesterday for A Heart Revealed, so I spent most of today proofing them and just having a ball reading what I wrote almost a year ago. I gotta tell you that Charity plays a big part in this book because she is Emma Malloy’s best friend, and the woman flat-out makes me laugh in every scene she’s in. I honestly am shocked when I read some of her lines because I have never considered myself “funny,” but the woman is a hoot, which means since I created her, I must be a hoot, something I never fully realized till this book. So to show you what I mean, I am posting a scene from A Heart Revealed at the end of this Journal Jot where Charity is “plotting” to “disarm some man,” mainly her brother, Sean! It’s one of my favorite scenes in the book, so I hope you will like it too.
Anyway, one of the MOST fun things about today was renaming a fairly prominent subordinate character after the winner of my newsletter contest. Casey Miranda Herringshaw (pic on the right) posted 240 reviews, winning her a character named after her in A Heart Revealed, and Michelle Tuller (pic below) came in second with 169 reviews posted, to have a lesser subordinate character named after her. I searched and replaced the original character’s name with Casey’s, so her name appears over 200 times in the book, which makes me SO happy because both Casey and Michelle are two of the sweetest people I know. So, SUPER CONGRATS again to both of these favorite reader friends of mine, and I can’t wait till you see your names in print!
Oh, and Casey is having a "Cold Call Interview" survey on her blog this week where you can vote for me or one of four other authors to see which author she will interview next, so if you're interested in voting, head on over to Casey's WONDERFUL blog, "Writing for Christ -- The Audience of One" at http://enjoyingthewritingcraft.blogspot.com/.
Also, PLEASE say a prayer for me this week because my proposal for The Cousins McClare is going before pub board at Revell next week!! Also, please come see me at Amber Stoke’s blog next week, Wednesday, March 30 through Saturday, April 2 where I will be giving away a signed copy of any of my books including A Heart Revealed! Here’s the link: http://seasonsofhumility.blogspot.com/.
And now, the latest excerpt from A Heart Revealed … This is a scene in Charity’s point of view where she and her sisters are helping Marcy with her sewing on the back porch, plotting to get Sean to take a job at Charity’s store with Emma after losing his job at Kelley’s.
Have a GREAT weekend!
Hugs,
Julie
Marcy smiled. “Oh, boys aren’t so bad, right, Lizzie? Sean, Steven and Teddy should be proof of that.” Marcy stuck a needle in her mouth, assessing the trouser tear with a dubious eye.
“Spoken like a true grandmother,” Lizzie said with a proud smile. “Teddy’s a dream. I’d take ten more just like him.”
In spite of the mugginess of the day, a cold chill shivered the butterfly-sleeve of Charity’s pink wraparound blouse. “Ten more of Henry?” Another shudder followed. “Just shoot me now.”
Marcy smiled. “Charity, he’s just going through a stage—”
“Yes, Mother, I know—birth to college.” She blew a limp strand of hair from her eyes as she snapped a piece of thread with her teeth. “I just hope I can tame him before he marries some poor, unsuspecting girl.” She spit out a sliver of navy thread. “And while we’re on the subject of ‘unsuspecting,’ I think I have a solution to our problem with Sean.”
Three sets of eyes locked on Charity’s face. “Oh, no, what are you cooking up now?” Faith said with a chuckle, her amusement somewhat tempered by a wary scrunch of brows.
Charity eyed the seam she’d just sown, squinting to see if it was straight. “Oh, nothing. Just a surefire way to get our unsuspecting brother back on track until he finds a job.”
Faith leaned in, elbows on the table and lips parted in doubt. “I don’t believe it. How?”
With a lift of her chin, Charity folded the school jumper she’d just mended and placed it on the growing stack in another basket. “It just so happens that Emma needs help at the store—”
“Oh, that would be wonderful!” Lizzie said with hopeful glow.
“What?” Faith’s jaw dropped a full inch. “Are you crazy?” She shooed at a fly. “I can tell you right now he won’t do it.”
Charity stared her down, suddenly remembering all the times she and Faith butted heads growing up, sometimes resulting in a hair-pulling fight. The memory tugged a smile to her lips, filling her with gratitude for the closeness she now shared with her sisters. Her smile eased into a grin. “Oh, yes he will, you mark my words. And of course I’m crazy, as if that’s any surprise.” She winked. “Crazy enough to know it will work.”
“But how?” Marcy asked, her tone as skeptical as Faith’s. “Your father already offered to give his cousin, Thomas, a call. You know, the one who owns the freighter company? But Sean flat-out refused, just like he did with Collin and Brady’s offer to work at the shop.”
“Yeah, how?” Faith repeated, an edge of respect in her tone. “Knowing you, sis, this ought to be good … and probably just devious enough to work.”
“Well, surprisingly, it’s not all that devious,” Charity said with a hint of regret. She leaned to pluck a purple silk blouse from Marcy’s basket, then settled back in her chair. “But I do believe it’ll work. That is, if I can get Sean over to dinner on Saturday night. And trust me, when he sees Emma all ragged and worn from too much work for one person to do—”
“Emma?” Faith’s mouth could have trapped flies. “Don’t tell me you railroaded Emma?”
“Not railroaded exactly,” Charity said slowly. “Think of it more like I engineered a plan and Emma’s all aboard. Frankly, the woman’s working herself to death at the store, and neither Mitch nor I can get her to cut back on her hours or hire more help. But,” Charity said with a smug hike of a brow, “She wants to help Sean, so she’s willing to hire him. And actually, she says with his retail experience, it’s an answer to prayer. So you see, it’s completely perfect—the dear friend I love gets the help that she needs, and my sweet, stubborn brother gets a job.”
“But he’s bound to suspect something,” Lizzie said, violet eyes wide with concern. She chewed on the edge of her lip as she finished the hem. “He never goes to your house for dinner.”
“I know, but I’ve got a plan—or as Emma calls it, a ‘plot’—guaranteed to put Sean O’Connor’s back to the wall, ensuring our success.”
“Our success?” The corner of Faith’s mouth tipped up. “So now we’re accomplices?”
“You’re not gonna force her to cry on demand, are you?” Lizzie asked, regard for Emma obviously foremost in her mind. “You know, like you did with me in our plot against Brady? Crackers in her eyes to make her cry and weaken his defenses?”
“Crackers?” Marcy gaped. “Sweet Mother of Job, Charity, whose daughter are you? I swear you inherited your grandmother’s creative flair for conspiracy as well as her beauty, God rest her soul.” She sighed, a trace of tears in her eyes. “You’re so very like her, you know.”
“I know,” she whispered, squeezing her mother’s hand. “And therein is one of my greatest joys.” She swiped at her eye and turned to grin at Lizzie. “And no, Lizzie, no Saltines are involved, I promise. Only used them twice, you know—once with you to turn Brady’s head and once with Mitch to turn his.” Her nose wrinkled. “Or maybe it was twice with Mitch ...” She waved her hand. “Oh, well, it’s not important. All that matters is that it worked.”
“Oh dear,” Marcy said, her tongue making another quick swipe. “This isn’t going to cost anyone anything, is it? Like someone’s job or Emma’s authority at the store or …” The faintest of smiles shadowed her lips. “Your brother’s ire?”
Charity shook her head, her confidence unshaken. “Nope, only his pride. Not all of it, mind you, because heaven knows I can’t perform miracles … but enough.”
“So, Miss Mata Hari, Queen of Intrigue … how exactly are you planning to bait the trap? Barbecue ribs, perchance? Because Lizzie is right—Sean will sniff a mercy dinner a mile away.”
“Just don’t you worry because I know—”
“Hey, Lizzie ...” Sean pushed through the screen door, the sleeves of his old work shirt rolled up and splotched with telltale paint.
“ … that as far as marriage is concerned,” Charity continued seamlessly, as smooth as the silk blouse in her hand, “Katie will get the lay of the land soon enough, you’ll see. I just wish poor, little Kit wasn’t still under the weather, so Katie and she could be here. I, for one, would like a newlywed update.”
“I think I heard jabbering down the hall, so I suspect Molly may be up from her nap.” Sean wiped his paintbrush with a wet rag obviously saturated in turpentine, prompting Charity to wrinkle her nose. His smile was lackluster at best. “Didn’t want to peek in case she shouldn’t be up yet, you know?”
“Uncle Sean!” Henry called, relief evident in his voice. “Wanna play catch?”
“Sorry, bud, but I’ve got work to do, but maybe later, okay?”
Charity glanced up. “So, Mr. Handyman … I understand you fixed mother’s leak.”
“Dry as dust in the desert,” he quipped, his own tone equally so.
“Really …” she said, giving him her full attention. She propped her chin in her hand and wiggled her brows. “So … what do you think you could do for my kitchen sink?”
“What’s wrong with it?” he asked, slacking a hip as he swiped the sweat on his face.
She tilted her head. “Leaks like a sieve. Mitch has been meaning to look at it, but with the hours he’s pulling at the Herald, I’m lucky to get a grunt and a kiss.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice, chancing a peek at her twins in the backyard. “But between you and me, I just as soon he didn’t get another chance, if you know what I mean. It’s gone downhill since he fixed it the last time, and I’m tired of having water in my best pot.”
A half-smile flickered on Sean’s mouth. “Sure, I’ll look at it. Tomorrow okay?”
“Actually …” she said, her smile dimming somewhat, “tomorrow probably won’t work.” Her nose crinkled in thought before she suddenly looked up, eyes as bright as the idea in her head. “Wait—how about Saturday after your game? We’ll be home all evening.”
His blue eyes squinted in thought. “That could work. My game should be over by six.”
“Perfect! And you may as well stay for dinner …”
He hesitated—prey stilled by the scent of the hunter. “I don’t know, sis …” One side of his mouth lifted a fraction of an inch. “I probably won’t smell too good.”
“But you’re coaching, not playing, right? And you gotta eat anyway …” Charity appeared hopeful as she cast her imaginary line.
Nobody breathed as the lure sailed through the air …
“Look, sis, I’m not the best company lately—”
“I don’t mind if you eat and run, honest.”
He cocked his head and gritted his teeth with a smile, his decision likely edging toward “no,” given the apology in his eyes.
Uh-oh, fish or cut bait. Charity smiled and switched strategies. “That’s okay, really—I understand.” With a nonchalant air, she grabbed a spool of purple thread from the sewing box and gave him a wink. “Just more ribs for us.” She held the thread against the silk blouse and looked up. “Hey, do these colors match?”
“Ribs?” Sean said weakly.
Charity fished in the sewing box again, ignoring his gaze as she fiddled with more spools. “Yes, sir … Mitch’s apple-wood smoked variety, his secret sauce, corn on the cob, my prize popovers and—” She looked up, her face the picture of innocence. “potato salad.”
“Potato salad?” He paused. His voice was the pained whisper of a man used to simpler fare prepared by a frugal mother victimized by the depression. He swallowed hard, as if drool were clogging his throat. “Mustard or mayonnaise?”
She plopped back into her chair and flashed him a bright smile. “Sorry, didn’t catch that. What was the question again?”
“The potato salad—is it the mustard kind or the mayonnaise?” It came out as a croak.
Charity worked the edge of her lip, trying to remember Sean’s favorite. “Uh … mayonnaise, I think.”
The man groaned as if a sharp lure had just pierced the soft flesh of his lip.
Bingo!
She set the hook and reeled him in. “And, of course, my homemade devilled eggs, those barbecue butter beans you’re so fond of and last but not least …”
His mouth hung open like a large-mouth bass.
Victory coursed through her veins with a rush of adrenaline. “Warm peach cobbler in a pool of caramel sauce with cinnamon ice cream on the side … from Robinson’s no less,” she breathed, her tone hushed with respect.
“Oh, man …” His voice was a moan of defeat. He blasted out a sigh that could have ruffled the leaves on the lilac bush at the edge of the porch. “What time again?”
“Six,” she said with a flutter of lashes. “You can fix the drain, and then I’ll feed you at six-thirty.”
His lungs expanded and released, as if he’d given up the ghost. “Okay, sis.” Shoulders slumped in surrender, he glanced at his mother. “Do you know where the mower is? I was hoping to mow the lawn, but it’s not in the shed.”
“I’m afraid your father lent it to Mr. Morris last week when his broke.”
Another sigh that seemed to weigh as much as he did expelled from his lips. “Okay, I guess I’ll pay him a visit.” He turned to go, his heart clearly not in hobnobbing with neighbors.
“See you Saturday …” Charity called after him.
He waved a hand in the air, not even sparing a glance. “Yeah, sure—Saturday.” The screen door squealed open before he turned halfway, a touch of contrition in his eyes. “Sorry, sis, I forgot to ask if there was anything I could bring, like maybe the ice cream?”
“Nope, just your appetite … and your tools.” Her smile was beaming.
He nodded, and the screen slammed behind him.
“Soooo …” Charity said with a smug lift of her chin. She smiled at her mother and sisters, then cocked a brow in Faith’s direction. “He won’t do it, eh? You think you would have learned by now not to underestimate me.”
“He hasn’t shown up yet nor agreed to take the job.” Faith bit off the end of the thread from a shirt she’d just sewn and tied it into a knot. “Besides, you did have to pull the ‘ribs’ card, you know. For a moment there, I thought you were dead in the water.”
“I know,” Charity said, her tone humbling considerably. A sigh of relief wavered from her lips. “But the hard part’s done. Now, all we need is for Emma to come through.”
“You think she can do it?” Lizzie asked.
Charity tilted her head, thinking of the soft spot her brother harbored for Emma Malloy. “I think so. I mean the woman is as honest as the day is long, and I know Sean trusts her.” Her lips twisted. “At least more than he trusts me. So if Emma tells him she needs his help, I think he’ll do it. Because let’s face it, he may be a man, stubborn to a fault, but he’s also a sucker for anyone who needs his help. Which, as we all know, makes him the perfect knight in shining armor to rescue our damsel in distress.” Charity eased a strand of thread through the eye of the needle, then grinned. “See? The perfect plan.”
“No plan is perfect without prayer,” Faith said in wry tone. She tilted her head, giving Charity a mysterious smile. “We are going to pray about this, right?”
“Of course,” Charity said, clearly aghast. “Do you think I’m crazy?”
Faith opened her mouth ...
“Don’t answer that,” Charity warned. She slithered the needle into the silk as she prepared to patch a hole, then slid Faith a half-lidded smile. “Give me a little credit, will you? I may be crazy … but I’m not stupid.”
FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2011:
May your home be filled with laughter
May your pockets be filled with gold
And may you have all the happiness
Your Irish heart can hold.
— Irish Blessing
TOP O’ THE MORNIN’ TO YA AND HAPPY FRIDAY, ALL!!
I hope your St. Pat’s Day was full of some kind of Irish fun, be it corned beef and cabbage or wearing green or just reading an Irish book (hint, hint!). I spent mine with an Irish family with a propensity for drama, so I was certainly in the thick of it with the O’Connors, let me tell you! I am now more than halfway through Steven’s story (266 pages), so to celebrate Friday and St. Pat’s weekend appropriately, I thought it would be fun to give you a tiny taste of A Trust Restored (working title) as well as announce the winner of my San Francisco vs. Savannah locale for my next series. The contest results are at the bottom of this jot, but first, a sneak peek at Steven’s story.
For some reason I thought I had already posted this scene on Journal Jots, but I discovered that I’d posted it on Seekerville instead, so I need to rectify that, don’t you think? This is the first romantic scene of the book, appearing early on between Steven and the heroine Annie Kennedy, a girl that Steven doesn’t know is the sister of his old girlfriend, Maggie (remember the girl Patrick found Steven on the couch with in A Hope Undaunted?? Yep, that girlfriend!). Anyway, Steven is now a reformed by-the-book prohibition agent (with a real gun!!:)) who is drawn to Annie’s innocence and takes on the unlikely role of big brother, hoping to keep her from going down the wrong path like he had in college. This scene takes place after he rescues her from a womanizer named Brubaker at the Ocean Pier Dance Ballroom and then walks her home, trying to convince her to stay away from guys like he used to be—out for one thing. Peggy is Annie’s new friend who is a bit on the wild side, which bothers Steven as well.
He jiggled the knob and huffed out a noisy sigh. “Man alive, I can’t believe you snuck out of the house.” He gripped her elbow and dragged her down the porch and around the back. “How long have you been friends with Peggy anyway?” he snapped, tugging her up the steps of the back porch. He rattled the back knob and shook his head. “Aunt Eleanor left the door open, huh?” He stepped away to survey the house, eyeing a sturdy rose trellis that climbed to just below the second-story windows, then arched a brow. “You climbed down that?”
She chewed her lip and nodded, peeking up at the sag of his jaw.
Exhaling loudly, he gently braced her shoulders with a plea in his tone, the warmth of his hands burning through his suit coat that she still wore. “Annie, please—you’re too special of a kid—don’t stoop to things like this.”
Tears welled. Special? Maybe once, but not anymore. At least not since Daddy died.
Ducking his head, he tucked a finger to her chin. “Promise you’ll stop this—lying, sneaking out, acting loose like Peggy and the others.” His expression became intense as he cupped her face in his hands. “I don’t see girls like you very often, Annie, and I’d hate to see them ruin you too. Promise you’ll stay as special as you are, at least ‘til the right guy puts a ring on your finger.”
She nodded, the lump in her throat coupled with tears in her eyes, wishing that somehow, someday, that man might be someone like him.
He led her over to the brick wall next to the trellis and glanced up. “I don’t guess you need any help,” he said, lips in a slant.
“No,” she whispered, suddenly desperate to prove to Steven O’Connor—and herself—that she was no longer a little girl but a woman with feelings. Warm, wonderful, quivering feelings that now pulsed at the mere touch of his hand, the tilt of his smile, the kindness in his eyes. How could it be that in the span of a few hours, she wanted nothing more than to leave an impression on this man, to touch him in the way he’d touched her? In all of her almost eighteen years, she’d never felt like this before—heart pounding and body humming, and she didn’t want to let it go. To let him go.
Before this, romance had been nothing more than lifeless words on paper, letters from her sister or reams of her own love stories written to pass summers in a small Iowa town. But not anymore. Something deep down inside told her the time had come to live it, not just write it. To convince herself—and Stephen O’Connor—that she was not some naïve, backwoods little girl adrift in the big city, but a passionate woman poised to begin the story of her heart. A story in which the man before her might very well be the first chapter. And not just pen to paper this time, she thought with a hard swallow, but lip to mouth, hopefully to hook Stephen O’Connor so he’d want to read more.
Back pressed to the brick wall, Annie slowly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear while goose bumps skittered her arms. She drew in an unsteady breath and rubbed sweaty palms down the sides of his suit jacket now hanging limp on her frame, realizing one thing for dead sure—when it came to falling in love, it was a lot easier to write it than live it.
She held out a shaky hand, the tips of her fingers the only thing peeking out from the sleeve of his coat. “Thank you for walking me home.”
He delivered that deadly smile that had tumbled her stomach all night, eyes twinkling as he gave her palm a light squeeze. “You’re welcome, kid, it was my pleasure.” He tapped a gentle finger to her nose. “Be good, you hear?”
Oh, I hope so! She eased forward with her heart in her throat.
He held out his hand, eyeing his suit coat. “Uh, aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Yes,” she whispered and with a jerky nod, she gulped and slipped trembling hands to his waist. Before he could blink, she lifted on tiptoe to kiss him full on the mouth, her awkward attempt clearly taking him by surprise.
Time stood still and so did he, stone cold for several seconds while her lips tasted his, and then in a harsh catch of her breath, he pressed her to the wall so abruptly, the shock forced all air from her lungs. He kissed her hard, the dominance of his mouth unleashing a throb of heat that wrenched a soft moan from her throat. Her purse dropped to the ground when he jerked her close, the hard, cold steel of his gun gouging into her side. His lips were urgent and rough, heating her body till she was near limp in his arms. “I never met a girl like you,” he whispered, Billy Brubaker’s words hot and hoarse as he nipped at her ear. His hands slipped inside the suit coat to wander her body while his mouth wandered her neck, and when his palms skimmed up her waist to the sides of her breast, her heart seized in her chest.
“No!” Her rib cage heaved as she pushed him away. Cringing against the wall, her voice was a rasp of shock as tears stung her eyes. “How could you? I’m not that kind of girl.”
He jerked her chin up with a hard grip, the fire in his eyes smoldering while a dangerous tic pulsed in his jaw. “Then don’t act like it,” he hissed, his tone as cold and blunt as the brick gouging her back. And without another word, he strode down the porch steps and disappeared around the corner, apparently too angry to remember she still wore his coat.
A heave shuddered from her throat as she slumped to the wall. Hand to her mouth, she squeezed her eyes shut, shame and hurt forcing tears from her eyes. He’s no different than Brubaker, she thought, and instantly knew it was a lie. Just like the lie she’d told Aunt Eleanor about going to bed early or the promise she’d made Steven to stop acting ‘loose.’ Regret squeezed in her chest. He was as far from Brubaker as she was from being the girl he believed her to be.
“You have something special, kid, something I don’t see in Peggy or Joanie or Irene. Don’t throw it away …”
But she had. She’d forced his hand, offering something he’d neither asked for nor wanted, winning his wrath instead of his heart.
“You’re different than most girls I know …”
Chest quivering, she bent to pick up her purse, her remorse as thick as the shame in her throat. Apparently not, she thought, her heart sick with regret.
At least … not anymore.
So there you have it—Steven’s first encounter with the sister of the woman he had hoped to marry.
And now, I want to THANK all of you who took the time to answer my questions from last week’s Journal Jot, regarding my next series. Out of those who responded, over 2/3 chose San Francisco vs. Savannah and “rich” vs. “upper class,” which, ironically, is exactly how I wrote the proposal, so it looks like we are in sync. And … I JUST found out yesterday that my publisher agrees too, so I am ready to roll!!
Drum roll, please, for the following winner who will receive a signed copy of her choice of my books, including A Heart Revealed …
CHARLOTTE SALTZMAN!!!
Congratulations, Charlotte!! Let me know which book you want, okay? I’m guessing it will be A Heart Revealed??
Okay, guys, it looks like the weather is going to be nice this weekend, at least in St. Loo—77 degrees today (and, yes, I am writing outside with laptop!!) and 60s to 70s over the weekend, so although there is not much “green” outside this time of year (at least in my backyard), celebrate "green" anyway with a WONDERFUL St. Pat’s weekend!!
Irish Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2011:
Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.
— Douglas MacArthur, American General
Wrinkles. We don’t like them in our clothes, our bedspreads, our skin or in our lives, but they’re kind of like age and taxes—there’s no getting away from them. Even Jesus didn’t like them, looking for a glorious Church in Ephesians 5:27 that didn’t have “spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
Ah, if life were only as wrinkle-free, a polyester existence we could toss into the dryer with a fabric softener sheet and it comes out pressed and smelling sweet! As far as clothes and bedspreads, we can alleviate wrinkles easily enough—an iron, a hot dryer—and things don’t look too bad. Even with physical wrinkles, as gravity pulls me kicking and screaming towards old age, I have managed to fight back. Longer layered hair and Loreal Light Golden Brown, a 23-year-old daughter who helps me shop and Neutrogenia Anti-Wrinkle cream that I swear is plastic surgery in a tube.
But life itself? The things that are supposed to go a certain way and don’t? Ah, a wrinkle of a different rumple, I’m afraid. Take this last week, for instance. Please! :) You know how it is when you forget you have a load of clothes in the dryer for a day or two and finally go to fold them and they look like a 110-year-old Shar-Pei at the end of a long day? Yeah, my week last week. A broad mix of tragedy, comedy, frustration and tension. Between a funeral, an emotional trauma in our family, sick sisters, Aunt Julie not liking where she is (this week!), son’s career hinging on his Series 7 test, my problems with Blogger, a normally calm husband stressed to the max with work, minimal sleep AND my agent throwing a monkey wrench into my proposal a wee bit, and I should be a basket case right now. A “laundry basket” case, to be exact, because for me, this week had more wrinkles than that Chinese dog I mentioned above.
But the beauty is, that being the CDQ that I am (caffeinated drama queen) who also has MSD (Martha Stewart Disease, a condition that requires perfection), I have an Anchor, a Stabilizer, a Lifeline to cling to when life gets a bit turbulent, and we ALL know it will. Again and again. So, in the midst of an emotional trauma this week, my daughter and I just looked at each other, glassy-eyed and shaking our heads, wondering what in the name of sanity people do who do not turn to God!!
He is not only our Source (Ephesians 4:14— We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.), our Strength (Psalm 46:1— God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.), our Comfort (2nd Corinthians 1:5—For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.), and our Hope (Romans 15:13— May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit).
He is, hands-down, the greatest Dry Cleaner in the World—lifting the stains from our soul, drying our tears, pressing out the wrinkles of our lives and leaving us with that sweet, clean scent that smells like hope. Oh, my, where would we be without Him???
I’ll tell you what—I’d hate to think where I’d be without Him when it comes to the proposal I put together. My agent loved it and so did I, but she posed some really important questions that I am now posing to you, my dear reader friends. Here is the short overview that I gave my agent, about which I would love your opinion on a few things:
“THE COUSINS MC CLARE” SERIES
From the glitter and glamour of San Francisco’s Nob Hill and Napa wine country, to the seedy dance halls and gambling dens of the Barbary Coast, The Cousins McClare is a study in contrasts between the haves and have-nots, and barriers between rich and poor that only faith can transcend. The story of the McClares, a wealthy political family in 1933 San Francisco, will be told in three 350-400 page novels that not only highlight the struggles of faith and heart of three cousins, but of the matriarch of the family as well. A widow of strong faith and beauty, Caitlyn McClare butts heads and hearts with her handsome brother-in-law Jess McClare, the fiancé who betrayed her before she married his brother. In a breathtaking city where the Irish were predominant in the early 1900s and wielding power in both politics and wealth, “The Cousins McClare” is a glimpse into beauty and degradation, poverty and Prohibition during a riveting time that brought our country to its knees.
1.) First of all, would you like to see the above scenario played out in the wealth and poverty of 1933 San Francisco or with a more Southern feel in 1933 Savannah, Georgia, which also had an Irish contingent?
2.) Does the idea of the extreme wealth of the McClares (i.e. think Dynasty meets Little Women) appeal to you or not? Would you rather see the McClares be an upper-class family who is not so upper-crust but still well off?
I hope to bring the same family warmth of the O’Connors to the McClares, but it’s true that the extreme wealth aspect and a matriarch instead of a loving couple like Marcy and Patrick, no matter how loving the matriarch is, will be received differently, so your opinion is GREATLY appreciated.
If you have the time, please go to my Face Book page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julie-Lessman/98874268454 and give me your feedback on the two questions above WHICH I have posted on my Face Book page. To thank you for your help, I will be drawing a name from those who respond to win a signed copy of any of my books INCLUDING A Heart Revealed in August, winner to be announced in next week’s Journal Jot on Friday.
Also, you still have a chance to win a signed copy of any of my books including A Heart Revealed on my Seeker blog posted this week, up until Saturday night, so here's the link: http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2011/03/digging-deep-unearthing-story-ideas.html. Finally, guest blogger Laurie Alice Eakes has a book giveaway and VERY inspirational post on Seekerville today at http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/, so be sure to check it out too.
Thank you SO much for your help, your support and your precious friendship, each and every one of you! And here’s to a wrinkle-free weekend!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2011:
One person with passion
is better than forty people merely interested.
~ E.M. Forster
HAPPY FRIDAY, AND oh, man, can we please have a great, big AMEN on that quote above??? And a HUGE thank you to my good reader friend, Heather, for sending me this quote -- love ya, girlfriend!!
I gotta tell ya, I am SUCH a sucker for passion!! Whether I’m worshipping God on my treadmill, singing my heart out (or as my daughter likes to say, “wailing” my heart out) to Epic, No Less, Darlene Zschech or David Crowder Band while tears stream my face … OR just writing a love scene that takes me from goose bumps to swoon, I – LOVE – PASSION!! Passion for God, passion for romance, passion for doing the right thing. To me, it’s all good.
Now, I will be the first to admit that when God handed out passion, I must have hit it on a two-for-one day because I tend to be on overload in everything I do. I eat fast, talk fast, walk like my feet are on fire and even brush my teeth with a vengeance, eyes closed and a pained look on my face … or so my daughter tells me! Once, I took a speech class in college and although I got an A, the teacher told me in all the years he’d taught, I was the first person he ever had to tone down rather than ramp up.
Then two years ago at an ACFW Conference, I attended a seminar of about 50-75 authors. At the end of it, the teachers -- Allen Arnold from Thomas Nelson and Karen Ball from B & H Publishing -- invited the authors up to the front to receive a diploma and a pretty cloth bag containing a polished stone with a word engraved on. Each author got to select a bag, stone unseen, and you want to go ahead and guess what my stone said? Yep, you got it—PASSION!! I was so blown away, that I went up and asked Allen Arnold how many stones in the pile contained the word “passion.” “Only one or two,” he said. Coincidence? Yeah, probably ... but I prefer to think of it as a smile from God. :)
So it only stands to reason that when I came to Christ at the age of 23, I didn’t just tiptoe in, I threw myself in full body, applying God’s precepts with a vengeance. Obey, obey, obey became my mantra. If I noticed I was speeding on the highway, the foot came off the pedal until the speedometer came down. If a store undercharged me, I took the receipt and bag back in, even if I noticed it after I got home. I know, I know … completely crazy, driven, and way too letter of the law, but fueled by passion nonetheless.
Once I was at a Fuddruckers with a friend and wanted lemonade in the worst way, but my friend insisted on buying me lunch, so I just got water instead. She wasn’t a believer, and I remember talking to her about Christ, about what He had done for me in my life and how much joy I now had. I got up to refill our drinks, and the craziest thing happened.
You see, the water spigot was a little white tab on the lemonade spigot, but when I pressed my cup underneath with my finger on the white tab, something in my brain said, “Nobody will know if you take lemonade instead.” Mouth watering, I distinctly remember this fierce passion for God rising up in me so strong, that I literally rammed my finger hard against the white tab till I thought it would break. As water flooded into my glass, a rush of what I can only describe as a surge of adrenalin joy flooded my body, racing my pulse and tingling my skin. This is just a glimmer of the joy your obedience brings to me, the thought came, and I swear I was near trembling before my glass was full. WOW … that was the day I learned that obedience can be a rush!!
So, what’s my point? My point is that if you do nothing else with passion on this planet, serve God with a ferocity that takes your breath away because therein lies your confidence, your hope, your joy and your peace. For me, the #1 way to do this is three simple little words: Apply God’s precepts! One of the things that grieves me the most is how so many people in the Body of Christ (myself included) read the Word and study the Word and memorize it cold, but we DON’T APPLY it! Then we wonder why we don’t have peace or victory in our lives. As far as I am concerned, applying God’s Word IS the missing link for victory in Christians’ lives.
It’s really pretty simple. Somebody ticks you off? Pray for God to bless them. Are you jealous of the pretty girl with the great marriage? Pray for God to bless her more. Something bad happens to you at work? Praise God and ask Him to make good from it. I mean, come on! We Christians have the greatest insurance policy in the world—Romans 8:28: And we know that ALL things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose. There is an application of God’s Word for EVERY problem we have, and if we would just “choose life” (God’s way/applying His precepts, which is the Deuteronomy 30 lesson in A Passion Most Pure) instead of death (our way, or sin), we would be in Fat City!!
Case in point—before I was a Christian, I was notorious for losing my temper on the highway, not above hand gestures to "drive" my point home. After I became a Christian, I started blowing kisses instead, hoping to irritate those who made me mad. But God nailed me to the wall, showing me that blowing a kiss was no different than anything worse—my heart was still steeped in anger and bitterness. So I started praying for those who made me mad on the highway, albeit with gritted teeth.
One night after a particularly grueling day at work, somebody cut me off, and I wanted to honk and ride their bumper and blow them a kiss in the worst way. But instead, I took my foot off the accelerator and prayed for God to bless them and bring them to Him. What happened next is nothing short of amazing. This wasn’t a vision, mind you, but suddenly, in my mind’s eye, I saw myself in Heaven with hundreds of people coming up to shake my hand and hug on me. I remember being thoroughly confused, and when I asked God (in the daydream) who these people were and why they were hugging me, He simply said: “These are the people you prayed for on Gravois Road, and they are thanking you for playing a part in bringing them to Me.” WHOA! Are you kidding me?? That night changed my life forever, underscoring something my pastor always used to say: people are attached to our obedience. And that night, God showed me just how much. So, if you have any passion to give, give it to God because HE will put it to good use!
And … speaking of passion, I am happy to say that not only did I finish my proposal this week with three VERY detailed synopses that I LOVE, but I also started back on Steven’s story and am almost at the halfway mark with 225 page, so YAY!! I don’t know if it’s because it’s my last O’Connor book and the passion is flowing or what, but you may have to read this one with a fan … J
DON’T FORGET!!!! Please come see me at Seekerville this week on Wednesday, March 9 when I’ll be giving away winner’s choice of a signed copy of one of my books, including my next release, A Heart Revealed. My blog is entitled, “Digging Deep … or Unearthing Story Ideas From Your own Backyard,” WHICH will have a new scene in it from A Heart Revealed, so don’t miss it, okay? Here's the link for Wednesday:
http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/
Have a GREAT weekend and remember … live it and love it with PASSION!!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2011:
Spend some time this weekend on home improvement;
improve your attitude toward your family.
~ Bo Bennett
Ouch. Unfortunately, this quote hits home this week for me. And THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY because this week has been a little bit like a root canal without Novocain … a birth without an epidural … a CDQ without coffee …
Okay, maybe not THAT bad, but bad enough for an emotionally driven woman with menopausal tendencies and hyperactive tear ducts. Which leaves me with one thing to say: God help my poor husband!!
Remember how excited I was last week about my new proposal to my editor—Where Treasure Lies, which is book 1 from “The Cousins McClare”? Yeah, well the good news is my agent loved it, but the bad news is I hit the wall on the plot/synopsis for book 2, Unfailing Love. Consequently, you can pretty much take all that excitement and turn it upside down into a fuzzy-white-screen scenario where I hemmed, hawed and hyperventilated because I saw nothing, felt nothing, wrote nothing. So I prayed and searched Scripture and then prayed some more … with my husband, with my daughter, with my prayer partners, desperate to come up with an idea that would turn on the pilot light, prime the pump, get me percolating like that cinnamon hazelnut coffee I was pumping into my veins. But all I got was nothing … nada … zero … zilch. Okay, may I’m exaggerating a wee bit, but that’s how it felt, and need I remind you that I am a woman DRIVEN by feelings when it comes to my writing???
Enter the hero … my very own Keith Lessman, scheduled for canonization sometime in 2040. “Read it to me,” he says about synopsis #2. So I blow my nose, dry my tears and read, and nine times out of ten, the man will sit there with jaw slack and brows knit while shaking his head. “I oughta kick your butt, Julie,” he says for the millionth time, “that was absolutely wonderful.” Yeah, his usual reaction … but not THIS time. “Uh, she’s a socialite who works at a dark, dreary soup kitchen in the seamy side of the Barbary Coast during the Great Depression?? With a line of scroungy jobless men right outside the door?” He sucks in air through clenched teeth. “Gee, Julie, cheer me up, why don’t you? And the hero is the guy who killed her fiancé in a car crash four years prior, and the title is called Burdens to Bear (the title before I changed it to Unfailing Love)?” He shakes his head once again. “Gosh, somebody give me a gun, Julie, ‘cause I’m not feeling the joy.”
Ooops … not the right thing to say. I cry, I shake, he comforts, cajoles. After 32 years of sink or swim in dealing with an emotional basket case, the man is a pro, deft and competent at disarming the bombs in my life ... and his. But … it wasn’t always that way.
Like most men, Keith was from Mars and I was from Venus, and the language barrier in the beginning made the Tower of Babel look tame. But application of God’s Word in my marriage paid off like a grace slot machine at the Pearly Gates, and the more I applied James 1:19 (be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry) and especially Ephesians 5:22 (Wives, submit to (Read: RESPECT) your own husbands, as to the Lord), the more Keith would give me the “cherish” part of that Scripture (Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her). It’s actually just like I said in that scene between Faith, Lizzie and Charity in A Passion Denied—it’s cause and effect! But ... don’t just take my word for it, because nobody says it better than Nancy C. Anderson in a Crosswalk.com blog I ran across just the other day at http://www.crosswalk.com/1384728/. Check it out, because it is DEAD ON in my opinion and exactly what worked for me in my marriage.
Anyway, it took me ALL WEEK, praying, editing, fine-tuning synopsis #2, but PRAISE GOD, last night I was ready to read it to Keith again. I changed the dark, depressing soup kitchen with dirty, smelly itinerants to a ramshackle school for the arts with quirky, crazy kids (did you know that tons of public schools closed down during the Depression, arts programs were slashed and over three million kids in the U.S. had no school to attend??) and adjusted the hero’s surprise secret of killing the heroine’s fiancé in a car crash to something MUCH less morbid and actually pretty cool. And so, with baited breath, I read it again … and yes, Keith’s jaw sagged and his brows crimped and he shook his head. “I oughta kick your butt, Julie,” he says. Sigh … what a guy!
Anyway, one of my favorite blogger friends, Renee at Black & Gold Girl’s Book Spot noticed that Revell posted the final cover for A Heart Revealed on their website, so she posted it on hers if you want to see it at http://steelergirl83.blogspot.com/2011/02/waiting-on-wednesday-heart-revealed.html. Emma still looks a wee bit stiff and wary, but heck, you'd be stiff and wary too if you saw what happens to her in A Heart Revealed come September!! My thanks to Revell for giving me some of the best covers in the business and to sweet Renee for her ongoing support and friendship!
Okay ... two synopses down and one to go on my proposal with NO EARTHLY IDEA what it’s going to be, so PRAYERS APPRECIATED PLEASE!!!
Thank you, my dear, sweet friends. Don't know what I'd do without you, God and my husband. Ewww ... cold chills just thinking about it!! Have a great weekend!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011:
Weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance
but disappear when you get up close to them.
~ John Shirley
Yes, weekends do tend to disappear pretty quickly, but for me, not as quickly as the work week! Keith and I always joke that our life seems to be a series of Fridays whooshing by like pages flipping in a calendar. We start out on Monday with lots of time to get things done and WHOOSH … in a blink, it’s Friday and somehow I feel more behind.
WHICH, today, doesn’t affect my celebration of Friday one single bit, I am happy to say! Especially this week! Why? Well, I’m glad you asked because I am just busting at the seams to share something that has me genuinely PUMPED!
True, I only have 209 pages written on Steven’s story A Trust Restored (working title), but that’s because I hit a wall on a particular scene and decided never would I have a better time to work on my proposal for my next 3-book series, which (sniff, sniff), will not have one single O’Connor in it, I am sorry to say. Well, that does make me sad, but the GOOD NEWS is that I have written the first scene of the first book of my new series and am REALLY excited about this new family I hope to introduce you to. I have not pitched it to my publisher yet, but plan to within the month, after I write the first chapter and a detailed synopsis (my requirements, not theirs). Being the type of author who writes by emotion, I have to connect with my characters before I can sell them to someone else, so that is what I did the last two days -- connected!! So … because you all are my buds and take the time to read my Journal Jots in the first place, I decided to give you a glimpse at something no one else has seen except my husband—the very first page of my very next series!!
It’s called “The Cousins McClare” (What can I say—I LOVE Irish heroes and heroines, so blame it on Margaret Mitchell if you want, but rest assured that there will be marked differences between the O’Connors and the McClares). First of all, the setting will be San Francisco in 1930 with a wealthy, political family headed up by matriarch Jillian McClare, the godly widow of a high-ranking politician. Think Little Women meets Dynasty (a TV show from the 70s for all you young ones out there).
Jillian has two daughters and a son who are cousins to the heroine, Cassidy McClare, a spunky and spiritual girl from Philadelphia who arrives in San Francisco for the summer to forget an engagement gone awry. The hero Jamie MacKenna, born on the wrong side of the tracks in the seamy side of the Barbary Coast, has scrimped, saved and scratched his way to a scholarship at Stanford Law where he is in his final year, poised to embark on his quest to marry well. He is a man with a vision, and his vision is to marry into a wealthy, political family and rise to the top, solely to better the lives of his sick mother and sister who still live in the slums of Barbary Coast. He sets his sights on Cassidy McClare, only to be jolted when he discovers the woman he has worked so hard to win and woo and now loves, is the poor cousin McClare, her father having lost his fortune in the Wall Street crash of 1929. Thus begins the roller-coaster tale that will underscore the book’s Scripture theme from Matthew 6:19-21: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The working title of the book? Where Treasures Lie. And so, without further ado, here is the very first page:
San Francisco, May 1930
Sweet thunderation—deliver me from pretty men! Twenty-two-year-old Cassidy McClare peered up beneath the brim of her beige felt cloche, legs and luggage spread-eagle on the dirty platform of Oakland Pier train station. Reining in her temper, she forced a smile at a man in a stylish brown fedora who had just swept her off her feet—literally. A whistle shrieked and the Overland Limited belched a cloud of steam into the warm air, the smell of smoke and coal wrinkling her nose. Jogging along the platform to wave good-bye to the girl he’d just put on the departing train, the “gentleman”— and she used the word loosely—obviously hadn’t seen her. With a deafening screech, the train groaned on its rails, chugging from the station while people milled on the platform, gaping at a girl sprawled in a Schiaparelli suit. A curious sight, indeed … not to mention embarrassing.
The heat of summer asphalt warmed her bottom while the man’s gaze warmed her face, his frank perusal sending off warning bells she’d heard before. And, unfortunately, ignored. She issued a silent grunt. But never again. Struggling to rise, her lips went flat, not unlike the hatbox she’d crushed on her fall from grace. Fooled by a pretty boy once, shame on him. Fooled by a pretty boy twice, shame on me.
“Are you okay?” Nudging the fedora up, he extended a blunt hand attached to a muscled arm that strained beneath a crisp, white cotton shirt. Despite the absence of a tie and an open collar that revealed a hint dark hair above the customary T-shirt, he could have walked off the pages of Gentleman’s Quarterly, the faint shadow of his afternoon beard lending a roguish air that Cassie recognized all too well. A thick strand of dark brown hair that was almost black toppled over his forehead, obviously a stray from the slicked-back style of the day. Brown eyes the color of black coffee assessed her with a crimp of concern wedged between dark brows, reminding her so much of Mark, she cringed. Make that cold, bitter coffee.
“Sorry, miss, but I never even saw you, honest.” Full lips eased into a ready smile that at one time would have generated as much heat as the platform beneath her body, a gleam of white in a chiseled face that sported a California tan. A sparkle warmed his gaze as it slowly trailed from the upturned brim of her hat, past blond curls that fell limp on her shoulders to her white silk blouse, hesitating just long enough to prompt a blush in her cheeks. “Which is pretty hard to believe,” he mumbled, almost to himself, his bold look roaming from silk-stockinged legs to her face as naturally as the dimples that deepened with the lift of his smile. She felt her blush heat several degrees. Flattery will get you nowhere, mister. Though it had certainly gotten Mark’s ring on her finger. A history lesson unto itself.
***
So, there you have it — the very first glimpse at something that’s been rolling around in my brain for a year or two but just landed on paper this week. I hope it excites you as much as it excites me! And because the temps in St. Louis reached 71 degrees yesterday and into the 60s today, I will park myself out on my deck with my feet up and see what I can do about stirring more sparks between Jamie and Cassie. And trust me, I haven’t even gotten started on the sparks to come between the matriarch and her rogue brother-in-law who was the man she loved before she married his deceased brother. Oh, the webs we weave …
Hope your weekend is warm and wonderful!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2011:
There are not enough days in the weekend.
~Rod Schmidt
Sweet Saturday and Sunday, is that quote the truth or what?? I kinda wish the weekend was five days long and the work week only two, but then I guess I wouldn’t appreciate weekends near enough, and there is something SO very nice about appreciating weekends, isn’t there?
Uh, and people, too, come to think of it. Especially those in your life. You see, my husband’s birthday was a few weeks ago, as I mentioned in a prior Journal Jot, and something happened that almost never happens—my son forgot my husband’s birthday. Now, it was no big deal to my husband because he understands my 27-year-old son has a demanding job and is pretty stressed most of the time, like all of us. But he did make the comment jokingly that “Well, my son forgot my birthday,” and joking or not, something wrenched in my heart. Because not only do I love this man with more passion than I put in my books (hard to believe, I know), but he is hands-down, one of the most giving men I know and a phenomenal father. Quite frankly, it hurt me, if not him.
So, being the she-cub I am, I drafted a very kind and nice e-mail to my son unbeknownst to his father, asking him to send his father a card or note, something he had ALWAYS done to perfection before, for years and years, trust me. However, suddenly in the last two years, he’s not only forgotten his father’s birthday this year, but my birthday the last two years, which I always blow off because birthdays are really not a big deal to me, truly. To me, we should be treating the people we love like it’s their birthday every day of the year, not just one.
BUT … something has been happening as I walk the halls of Aunt Julie’s skilled-nursing facility, where lines of lonely people slump in wheelchairs or an ambulance waits at the front door 9 times out of 10 when we arrive, carting somebody away to the hospital or worse. There almost isn’t a time that Keith and I don’t turn to each other and say, “Oh man, babe, I don’t want to get old.” But the truth is we are, every day a little older, a little closer to saying good-bye to those we love.
So I told my son this in the e-mail, pointing out that we should never miss an opportunity to tell those we love how much they mean to us and how empty our lives would be without them. I will never forget how two years before Keith’s dad died, Keith insisted we spend our Sunday nights playing pinochle with his mom and dad. Now, let me preface this by saying that although I loved my in-laws A LOT, I HATED playing pinochle in the beginning and argued with Keith, saying that I thought every other week would be just fine. “No, Julie,” he told me emphatically, "my dad is not going to be around forever, I can feel it, and I want to spend as much time with him as I can. If you only want to go every other week, that’s fine, but I’m going every week.”
All-righty-then. So I did what I ALWAYS do when I’m faced with a dilemma like this—I prayed for God to help me love Pinochle. And you know what? Just like the watch I hated that my husband gave me one year for Christmas that I prayed to like (a prior Journal Jot), I ended up LOVING pinochle. AND, I might add, my husband all the more. Because this man taught me an amazing lesson—that the people we love are more important than our schedules or what we want to do sometimes. Consequently, when Keith’s dad died two years later, Keith was crushed, but had NO REGRETS. I told my son that and explained that seeing Aunt Julie so frail and so old, on the precipice of the Great Divide, reminded me that time is fleeting and his dad and I will not be around forever. We need to honor those we love, be it birthdays, father’s day, whatever, because there will come a time when we cannot. And I don’t know about you, but when that time comes, I don’t want any regrets—how ‘bout you?
I am happy to say that after responding with an e-mail that said, “Wow, Mom, way to lay on the guilt,” my son not only sent my husband a beautiful note, but he showed up at our door (he lives 30 minutes away) with his two golden retrievers just to visit for several hours. I never told my husband what I did (and he doesn’t read my Journal Jots, probably because he’s afraid of what he will find), but suffice it to say that my husband glowed for the next two days, SO blessed that his busy son would just drop in to chat.
So … now every Sunday evening, my husband, my daughter and her boyfriend and I take Keith’s mom dinner or out to dinner before an evening of dominoes, which we all love. It’s our standing date with her and you can really tell how much it means to her. But NOT as much as it means to us. You see, my mother-in-law (pictured below with her three daughters and me) has ALWAYS been a gift of God in my life, but NEVER as much as now. Spending Sunday evenings with her has turned into a highlight of our lives, a respite in our week, and I never thought I could love the woman any more than I did. But I do, and I thank God all the time for this incredible woman—one of God’s greatest blessings to this most undeserving woman.
You know, it’s amazing how when we do something to bless those we love, WE are the ones who reap the richest blessings. Not only from the hand of God, but from a depth of love for those who matter most in our lives. And, I might add, the feeling of peace and pride that when things are all said and done … there are no regrets.
Here’s to a blessed weekend, and may you have no regrets EVER when it comes to the people you love.
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2011:
Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday.
~Author Unknown
HAPPY FRIDAY AND HAPPY WEEKEND—SUPERBOWL WEEKEND, NO LESS!! Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been a fan of football since adorable Curt Warner left the St. Louis Rams, but I DO love the fact that most men love football. I know, weird, right? Most women seem to hate football or at least hate the idea that their husbands are preoccupied by it, but not me. Nope, I actually think it’s kind of attractive, hard as that is to believe.
I mean have you ever watched a man watch football??? They’re mesmerized by it, gaze grafted to the HD screen, and quite frankly the house could fall down around them and they wouldn’t notice anything but the pigskin flying across the field. I particularly get a kick out of watching my husband watch football—this big hulking guy (6’1” and brawny) eyes wide on the screen like he’s in a trance, biting on the edge of his lip, occasionally chewing a thumbnail and as deaf as Aunt Julie without her hearing aids. But contrary to getting on my nerves like it does with a lot of women, believe it or not, it actually makes me smile. Why? Well let me fill you in.
You see, I’m a romance writer who not only happens to LOVE heroes, but I love men. Not let me qualify that by saying I am only IN LOVE with one man, and that’s my husband, but I do love who God made men to be—the perfect complement to women, which is one of the reasons why romance is the dominant book genre in the world today, generating $1.36 billion in sales in 2009 according to Romance Writers of America. There’s just something about men that’s tough, strong and in control, warriors and providers, hunters and protectors. They draw us because guess what? That’s how God it meant it to be. All that warrior/hunter/protector stuff was necessary way back when life was less civilized, but now all of that gritty, driven need to excel and dominate has been relegated to athletics, outdoor sports and shows like Survivor Man and Man vs. Wild.
And football.
I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way in my 32 years of marriage, I started appreciating football, not the game itself, mind you, but what it represented—a glorious, wonderful and totally attractive difference between the sexes that draws me as a woman. Suddenly I started seeing the underwear on the floor next to the hamper as cute rather than annoying, despite YEARS of trying to get the man to open the lid and toss it in. Or actually relishing the sandpaper feel of two days growth of beard when he gives me a quick kiss on his way downstairs to his beloved HD TV. I now adore hearing him rattling around in the pantry at 4:00 PM sharp every day because he knows his wife won’t get dinner on the table till 7:00 PM. And, yes, I even have come to think it’s cute the way he parks his new car two miles away from wherever we’re going. Uh, that could be because he always drops me off at the door first, I suppose. :)
So, what’s my point this Super Bowl Weekend??? My point is that for those of us who are married and those of you who will be married someday, there is a flip side to every annoyance or complaint we may have about our mates. For me, the preoccupation with football translates into the fact that my husband is a very male, masculine man, something that draws me tremendously, so I choose to focus on that rather the mess he makes with seven remotes sprawled all over the coffee table.
One of my favorite stories to illustrate this is one I heard on a Focus on the Family show years ago during one of James Dobson’s call-in shows. This woman called in to say she loved her husband and they had a good marriage, but every night in bed, he’d ask her if she locked the doors. “Yes, I locked all the doors and rechecked them, so you can sleep soundly,” she would say with a heavy sigh. But inevitably, this man would get up and double-check all the doors anyway, which drove his wife up the wall. I will never forget James Dobson’s response, which I like to refer to as “the flip side.” “What does your husband do for a living?” Dr. Dobson asked. “He’s a comptroller for a large corporation,” she replied. Dr. Dobson laughed and then very calmly explained that the very thing that irritated this woman about her husband had a flip side which allowed him to support and take care of her in a very comfortable manner. He was a door-checker by nature, cautious, careful, conservative when it came to things that were important to him, possessing a depth of caring that made him overcompensate and double-check that everything in his life—be it his job or his family—was safe and secure.
That show taught me to look at the flip side of everything whenever possible. Things like my “Katie O’Connor” daughter Amy who has a dry sense of humor and likes to tease and pick on me at family outings because she says I provide her with so much good material. Depending on my hormone level for the day, sometimes I think it’s funny, sometimes not. But the flip side is that Amy makes me laugh A LOT, she’s a riot at family get-togethers and she obviously thinks her mother is a very interesting person or she wouldn’t focus on me so much. So I have learned that the very thing I often would like to change in a person usually has a flip side characteristic that I absolutely love about them too, and wouldn't change for the world. Something to think about when you're picking Doritos out of the couch on Monday, isn't it??? :)
Well, that’s my ramble for today. I’d like to end my jot today with a giant THANK YOU to LaShaunda Hoffman (black suit below) and the ACFW Writers group in the picture below for having me speak at their January meeting. And a big hug to Carol Moncado (green sweater) for driving four hours from Springfield, Missouri to attend AND bringing cookies. You guys ROCK!!
Also, keep your eyes peeled for my next newsletter, which should go out next week, including a sneak peek at the cover for A Heart Revealed and a LONG excerpt (at least according to my husband who puts my newsletter together) in honor of Kayla H., who dropped a not-so-subtle hint that she wanted to see one.
Finally, I have three book giveaways going on this month, so I hope you will come by to see me and leave a comment and maybe win a signed book. Here’s the agenda:
FEBRUARY 9-12, 2011 — Win a signed copy of your choice of my books during my February 9th Seeker blog entitled, “Stupid in Love” at: http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/
FEBRUARYFEBRUARY 14-16, 2011 — Win a signed copy of your choice of my books when I talk about “True Romance” at Sweet Treats and Inspiration Blog at: http://sweettreatsandinspiration.blogspot.com/
FEBRUARY 21-23, 2011 — Win a signed copy of your choice of my books at an interview and book giveaway at MBT Ponderers Blog at: http://mbtponderers.blogspot.com/
Have a SUPER weekend, all!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2011:
A weekend wasted isn't a wasted weekend.
~ Author Unknown
HAPPY FRIDAY to some of my FAVORITE people in the whole, wide world, my Journal Jot readers—I’ve missed you guys!! This has been a busy week of writing, but the progress has been slow, I won’t lie to you. Pages so far on A Trust Restored (working title) are 149, which is not so great ‘cause I was hoping to make 175 in January, and then February’s a short month. Sigh. Could use one or two extra prayers for supernatural productivity in my writing, if you think about it!!
Batten the hatches ‘cause I’m ready to celebrate because TODAY is my FAVORITE Friday of the entire year (next to Good Friday, of course) and you want to know why??? Because today— January 28—is the day the love of my life was born!! So Happy Birthday to Keith Lessman, the man I do NOT deserve and the greatest proof to me that our God DOES answer prayer “abundantly, exceedingly more than we think, hope or pray”!!
UPDATE ON THE COVER FOR A HEART REVEALED: Still up in the air, although my great artist from Revell did lower the chin so Emma doesn’t look so snooty and she was nice enough to keep the rose in. Now we are just waiting for my editor and Marketing Director to approve it, but rumor has it that they don’t like the rose. As mentioned before, I am hoping to have a cover to reveal in my next newsletter, which was supposed to be out end of January/beginning of February, but everything’s on hold till we get the cover. But keep your eyes peeled because the newsletter will also have a sneak peek at an excerpt from A Heart Revealed, compliments of one of my favorite reader friends, Kayla H. who wanted to know when she would be seeing an excerpt from Sean and Emma's story. So thanks, Kayla, for suggesting I include an excerpt -- great idea!!
UPDATE ON AUNT JULIE: I never mentioned it to you, but it’s been a rough couple of months with AJ because she was not happy at Delmar and showing more signs of dementia. But since I came home from the cruise, she has been AMAZING!! More like her old self and using her walker again instead of the wheelchair, something she hasn’t done since we moved her in four months ago. Keith and I were having coffee with her in the dining area this week when I decided I would clean out the pouch tied to the front of her walker, which was loaded with stuff like old pictures, rosaries, Kleenex and … are you ready for this?? Not one, but TWO petrified bananas!! My hand hit something hard, black and squiggly, reminiscent of those black, curvy seed pods that fall off of some trees and I froze, thinking it was a snake at first, no joke. I pulled it out, and it took me and Keith several seconds to realize what it was because it did not even remotely resemble a banana. I’m telling you the truth that you could have hammered nails with it, they were that hard. Keith and I just looked at each other and laughed, and AJ joined in. :)
TRUE STORY!! I got the greatest e-mail from a reader friend named Rebekah today (THANK YOU, REBEKAH!!!), and it tickled me SO much that I thought I’d just go ahead and repeat it here, so I hope Rebekah doesn’t mind. Here’s what she said:
True Story!!! This past summer, my brother got married in Rhode Island. (My husband and I live in northern AL & so I flew out of Nashville to Providence). On my connection flight to ATL, I sat next to a woman about 30 years old with a baby in her arms (I’m 25) and of course I had A Passion Redeemed in my hand to read for my journey. After we got all settled in, she said to me, "That's my brother-in-law on the cover of that book; he's a model and they sent that book to the house." I said, “no way!!!” And she said, “That's him, I've seen that book,” then she pulled out her phone & showed me a pic of him with all of her family. It was him & I was so excited it was the real, live, Mitch Dennehy. I told her about the books, and encouraged her to read them. So, I hope she reads them & then I thought how random. A stranger & her model bro-in-law. Just puts smiles on my face. I’m not sure if she’s a Christian, but maybe I planted a seed that by reading your books maybe she will come to Christ!! Thank you~ Rebekah
Gosh, what are the odds of that happening, huh??? Uh, now if any of you run in to Collin, you best let me know, you here? And what better way to wrap up a Friday than with the model head shot of none other than Mitch Dennehy??? Sigh ... enjoy!!
Happy Weekend and a Blessed Week Ahead!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2011:
Now, I ask you—is there any more bubbly day in the week than Friday??? Yes, yes, Sundays are awesome because I SOOOO LOVE any opportunity to worship God, and Saturdays have that wonderful “I can sleep in” thing going for them, but honestly and truly, for me, nothing beats a Friday. They’re just downright fun, celebratory, anticipatory and effervescent with that bubbly carbonated feel like champagne before it goes flat. And I suspect with a chain of restaurants named TGIF, I’m not the only one that feels that way.
So since I'm reducing my Journals Jots to only one day a week (for reasons given in my Wednesday, January 19 Jot), I thought it would be fun to kick each Friday off with a weekend quote, which I plan to do. But first, let me say THANK YOU to those of you who e-mailed to encourage me about why I am downsizing from three to one Jot a week. I cannot tell you how much your support and kind notes have meant to me, which is just one more reason I love you guys SO much! I swear, I have THE BEST reader friends on the planet!! And now, I give you our very first weekend quote:
Nothing in the world is more expensive than a woman who's free for the weekend.
~ Author Unknown
WHOA … now if that isn’t in the Bible, it should be because truer words have never been spoken, at least in our house!
Okay, go ahead … congratulate me!!! I almost got my Christmas decorations down yesterday AND cleaned the house! Because I’ve been taking every spare moment to write, I told Keith that I would take the decorations down and clean the house before my prayer partners came over this week since I always clean the house before they come anyway. But then God smiled on me (and my teacher prayer partner, apparently) and dumped a boatload of snow on St. Louis, so they had to cancel. I explained very calmly to Keith that this was obviously a sign from God that I needed to finish this difficult scene I was writing in Steven’s story. You see, Patrick has another “attack” during a confrontation with Gabe after Sister Mary Vomit (Gabe’s name for Sister Mary Veronica) blows the whistle on her. Poor Marcy, desperate to broach the subject of adopting Gabe with Patrick and ends up with angina attacking her husband, and guilt and rejection attacking Gabe. Whew … what a tough scene, but I hope I nailed it, ending it neatly with Marcy forging Patrick’s signature on papers (to start the adoption process) that she wanted him to sign. Uh, did I mention this was a book about trust??? Page count so far … 128.
This week I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I have a cover for A Heart Revealed. The bad news is I’m not crazy about it. When my artist sent me the model comp for the girl they wanted to shoot for Emma, I was ecstatic because she is BEAUTIFUL as you can see from her picture here. Unfortunately, this was not her best photo shoot because the pictures looked stilted and to be honest, Emma’s pose is so stiff, it looks like she’s got a rod up her back. On top of that, her jaw is so elevated, she looks hard and almost mean, TOTAL OPPOSITE of Emma.
So I did what I always do: 1.) Prayed and 2.) Cried to Keith. Fortunately for me, I have a WONDERFUL artist at Revell who is so kind and patient that she allowed me to send her Keith’s rendition in which I asked him to lower Emma’s chin, make her hair a bit fuller and put a rose in her hand. The result was shocking as to how much softer and kinder it made her look. We sent both the original cover and Keith’s revised copy up to Revell for a look, but I still haven’t heard anything, so I’m asking you guys to pray for God’s direction on this. A cover is EVERYTHING in this business, and if it doesn’t appeal to the reader, sales WILL suffer. I am hoping to have the final cover in my next newsletter scheduled to go out either end of this month or early next month, so stay tuned!
Hope your weekend is wonderful and full of your favorite things, which in my case will be snow, hearth fires, hazelnut coffee, movies/NCIS with my husband, a dinner out with my family, dominoes and, of course … writing!! See you next Friday ...
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2011:
Has this ever happened to you—where you’re reading something, be it the Bible, a novel (one of mine, hopefully!), a magazine article, what have you—and BOOM! One sentence steals your breath away, immediately stinging your eyes with tears and piercing your heart?
Well, this just happened to me a few days ago, and it was a GLORIOUS experience because being a CDQ (caffeinated drama queen), I like things that make me feel, think, cry and change. Although this occasionally happens when I read a novel, mostly it happens when I read the Bible or a devotional, such as Joyce Meyer’s Hearing From God Each Morning, which I’ve mentioned before. Just a few days ago, the January 15 reading from that devotional, entitled “God Speaks When We Worship,” really spoke to me about worship, confirming my own experience with worshiping God. It said that worship "comes from deep within us” as an “outpouring of our hearts toward the Lord,” representing a “depth of love, gratitude and devotion that we find difficult to put in to words.”
So, here I am moseying along in this devotional, which is excellent as usual, and BAM! Joyce says, “Worship is much more than singing songs. In fact, true worship is first and foremost a condition of the heart and a state of mind.” Now here’s the line that did me in: “We can be worshipping passionately without singing a single note.”
WOW!! Now, I’ve known all of this for a long time (I am 60 years old, after all), which is why worship is SO important to me because it not only draws me closer to God, but closer to myself as HE sees me, which ultimately changes me, boosts my confidence (in Him and through Him), translating into more joy, peace and hope.
BUT … that third line just grabbed me by the throat because it reminds me ONCE AGAIN that we don’t just worship God with our voices and our music, but we can worship Him every minute of every day … by doing that nasty chore without complaining, by praying for that person on the highway that we’d rather cut off and by doing something kind for someone else when we really don’t feel like it. And I don’t know about you, but that blesses the socks off of me, knowing I can bring joy to God’s heart though a simple act of worship that has nothing to do with off-key singing.
Another way we can worship God, which I have gotten particularly good at in almost 33 years of marriage is respecting my husband, the No. 1 reason I attribute for the success of my marriage other than prayer. And not just a “successful” marriage, but a fabulous one, at that! That said, I am compelled to “respect” his wishes once more and do something I really don’t want to do and something I’m guessing that some of you won’t be crazy about either. And that is to cut back on the Journal Jots. I thought it would be possible for me to jot a short note here and there, but keep in mind that I am afflicted with the dreaded MSD (Martha Stewart Disease), a state of anality (and yes, it is a word) where one has to do everything perfect, be it twice-baked potatoes or a Journal Jot. Consequently, my husband sometimes gets upset with me when I stay up late with my laptop in bed writing a Journal Jot rather than watching NCIS with him (yes, you guessed it—after we finished ten seasons of JAG, I bought him the first season of NCIS for Christmas, and here we go again …!). So I hope you will understand when I tell you that there will now only be one Journal Jot a week, and can you guess the day??? You bet—FRIDAYS, because as you all know by now, I LOVE Fridays and look for any reason to celebrate them. And I can’t think of any better way to celebrate than connecting with each of you about what went on with my week and where I am on the book.
So this week is my final 3-Jot week and beginning next week, I will see you every Friday! And actually, this couldn’t come at a better time as I’m not moving along on Steven’s story as quickly as I hoped and I flat-out just need to buckle down and do it. So wish me well and send me some prayers … and maybe I'll give you a juicy sneak peek one of these Fridays.
Hugs and more hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 2011:
Morning by morning, His mercy awakens my soul …
Irresistible by Darlene Zschech
Thank God for God’s mercy! It saves my hide more times than I can count. Like the other day, when I was browsing my prayer journal where I record Scriptures that jump out at me in my Bible reading, then write a prayer based on that Scripture. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I like to play “Scripture Roulette,” you know saying a quick prayer for God to speak to you through the Bible and then letting your fingers flip through the pages until you feel compelled to stop? A little bit like Russian Roulette if you will, only Scriptures. You know, trying to glean a Word from God from the passage your fingers light upon, which is really kind of silly, I guess, because all Scripture inspires no matter what or where it is.
Anyway, for some reason (uh, Holy Spirit leading???), my fingers opened to the date of July 12, 2010 and here’s the Scripture and prayer I had written:
She broke the jar and then poured the perfume on His head. Mark 14:30
Expensive perfume—a year’s salary—poured out for Christ.
Oh, Lord, let me be willing to pour out the things I cling to in order to honor You.
As I pour, Lord, fill me up with fervor for You only so that when I
pour myself out on paper, people see only You.
So, how did God’s mercy use this Scripture to save my life once again? Well, He brought in to true perspective—once again—just why I am writing Inspirational novels, what the purpose of all this effort is. Why I even started in the first place. Believe it or not, it wasn’t to win awards or to make money or to become a bestselling author who speaks and teaches. Nope. It was because I had a burning desire to tell women that yes, Virginia, it IS possible to have a love affair with the God of the Universe. That our relationship with Him should be like breathing, like food to our soul and yes, at times, even like adrenalin coursing through our veins, heart fluttering over the intimacy of His love for us.
You see, when I began writing A Passion Most Pure (then A Chasing After the Wind), I KNEW that kind of relationship was possible because I had it, so I breathed the reality of my relationship with God into Faith O’Connor’s, and I cannot tell you how many letters I have received from young women, telling me that they, too, want a relationship with God like that. OH MY—the joy to my soul when I read a letter like that!! It brings me back to the heart of what this book business is really all about. Because you know what? I forget sometimes. Amidst the clutter of royalty checks and contracts for 3-book deals and contest wins or book sales, I get lost in the shuffle … until God’s mercy “awakens my soul.”
That happened in the last few weeks, not only with the Scripture and prayer above, but when I received a hand-written letter from one of the dearest reader friends I have been privileged to get to know and love, and a young woman who reminds me of Faith O'Connor with her driving passion for God. Her name is Gabriella Dawn Smith, which may sound a wee bit familiar because Gabe is a precious 18-year-old who won my newsletter contest last year to have a character named after her in A Hope Undaunted. So, yes, Luke McGee’s little orphan tomboy, Tillie Dewey, became Gabriella Dawn Smith, aka “Gabe.”
Now in her letter to me, Gabe wrote the following: “On January 1, I prayed this simple prayer for you … Lord, bless Julie and her family greatly. Lord, you know the blessing she has been to me, and I pray You would help her to fall madly in love with You. Break every chain holding her back from complete surrender. Help her writing to flourish and for people to continue to be ministered to by the gift You have given her.
The gift You have given her.
Not my writing. Not my personality. Not awards, sales or contracts. Nope, the highest “gift” He has given me aside from His Son is my passion for Him. And to convey to others that not only does the God of Passion want relationship with them, but He wants a love affair as intimate and heart-pounding as any love story I can write.
Ironically, it was Gabe’s younger sister Marella that the Holy Spirit used to help drive that point home once AGAIN (at my age, one tends to forget and need reminding often!). She is not a reader apparently, and Gabe has been after her to read my books, which she finally did last week. Marella then wrote me a darling note telling me how much she loved A Passion Most Pure, which tickled m e, of course, but it was her following lines that blessed the socks off of me: “I just wanted to let you know your book has helped me in my spiritual life, hoping as I keep reading the rest of your books, God will reveal to me more and more!!”
And that, my dear friends, is why I write Inspirational Romance, and I want to thank Gabe and her sister Marella (in the picture above) for kicking my new year off with that beautiful reminder.
Happy Monday, all, and may our passion for Him always be “pure.”
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 2011:
WHOO-HOO, it’s Friday and I gotta tell ya, I’m craving a “Kiss on the Lips” something fierce, and unfortunately, it’s nothing my husband can supply.
You see, my daughter Amy knows how much I love anything made of peaches so while we were on the cruise last week, she saw this frozen peach smoothie concoction on the menu called "Kiss on the Lips," and she told her friend Clare "my mom would go crazy over this!" And, let me tell you, she was dead-on!! Trust me, I'm not much for tropical drinks, but I have to admit, the name and the peaches reeled me in like a bass on a hula grub, so I tried it and it was moan good, seriously. Pure peach smoothie with a touch of raspberry at the bottom and a name to die for!! There was only one drawback—it was a wee bit embarrassing asking the waiter for a "Kiss on the Lips." :)
Anyhoo, the cruise was AWESOME, great weather (for the most part), great company and great food (a little too great, I think, judging from my bathroom scale!), but I won’t lie to you—I’m glad to be home. I’m basically a homebody who seldom wanders far from my lounger and laptop, although both Keith and I agree we need to start taking more trips. But this trip should hold us for a while now, and after all, we do have our memories AND our pictures, right??
Speaking of which, I promised you a glimpse at the cruise, so here we go!
Here I am in my private cabana overlooking the ocean, TRYING to write some pages on A Trust Restored (working title), which is Steven's story. This is where I had my very first "Kiss on the Lips" -- now THIS is living!! :)
This is Keith and I at dinner one night.
Here's the whole gang on the pier. From left to right: My daughter-in-law Katie, my son Matt, my hubby Keith, me, my daughter's friend, Clare, and then my daughter Amy.
Here's Keith and his "other girl."
The Carnival Dream
This was taken at a wedding two years ago, but it looked like it could have been taken on a cruise, doesn't it??? I liked it so much, I decided to include it because it's one of the few pictures where I don't bay at the moon. :)
So that was our week in paradise, only you know what? I discovered ONCE AGAIN, that as nice as this cruise/family time was, Paradise is NOT in the Caribbean on a cruise ship with more steak and shrimp than you can eat in a lifetime. Nope, I realized that FULL TILT when I got home. My Scripture reading that Monday morning was Psalm 16:2:
I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”
Yes, I love my husband. Yes, I love my kids. And, yes, I love steak and shrimp and lounging in cabanas and snorkeling in St. Thomas, but you know what? NOTHING gives me the joy, peace, hope, PASSION I crave but God. Period. I came home full of priceless memories and rich food and YET … there was an emptiness until I refocused on HIM once again. There is no question I am a blessed woman. I have a marriage to die for, incredible kids, and I get to do for a living (well, maybe a hobby given the paycheck!) what I love to do—glorify God with my writing. But I am telling each and every one of you right now that those things, as wonderful as they are, do NOT satisfy my soul, nor will they truly satisfy anyone’s soul. Only God can do that, and once I refocused on Him, begged Him for more fervor and passion, and recommitted my life and my year to Him, only THEN did my soul rejoice and peace enter in once again ... because like the psalmist above, though I am a wealthy woman in so many ways, “apart from Him I have no good thing.”
Here’s to the hope and prayer that in 2011, each of us comes to the full and powerful realization that He is our All in All, and in Him … and only Him … are all the joys of this world complete.
Have a blessed weekend!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2011:
Whoa, baby, what a week! Last week I’m snorkeling in St. Thomas and lazing in cabanas on the Carnival Dream, and this week I’m wading through e-mails and laundry while my husband shovels snow in 15-degree weather. Ain’t life grand?? Actually it is, because I am one of those rare ducks who actually likes cold weather, but only because I get to settle my butt into a comfy leather lounger with my laptop in front of a toasty fire. And today it was actually snowing outside my big, almost floor-to-ceiling window in my hearth room (where Christmas decorations still twinkle and glow), blanketing the woods behind us with a sparkly cape of snow. Sigh … it just doesn’t get any better than that … unless I could bribe someone to take down my Christmas decorations, that is.
Now I know I promised pictures from the cruise, but I thought I would save those for Friday since Fridays are fun and so was the cruise. Nope, today I want to talk about the aftermath of a vacation, particularly what it does to a writer like me. You see, I am one of those authors who can get totally lost in writing a story, keys smoking as I barrel along, passionately in love with every word on the page. And then life happens, be it a vacation, a dirty house, a week’s worth of e-mails, holidays, Aunt Julie, my family, whatever, and then BOOM!! I skid to a stop faster than a magnetized mule on a mountain of ore. Suddenly I’m staring at the screen for moments at a time … like today … fussing, fidgeting, quite certain that this is the worst thing I have ever written and not a thought in my head as to what I should write next. So I get on the treadmill to listen to worship music and LOOK OUT—the next thing I know I’ve replotted Sean and Emma’s sub story and come up with a great way to reveal that the heroine Steven is reluctantly attracted to is the little sister of the woman he loved and lost (remember Maggie, the girlfriend that Patrick found Steven on the couch with in A Hope Undaunted?? Yep, that girlfriend!). Before you know it, I’m plucking at keys again, slowly, smokelessly, to be sure, but plucking nonetheless, the engine finally starting to rev and the pump beginning to prime. Whew ... thank you, God ... I’m back in the saddle again!!
So, YEAH—now I can forge ahead on Steven's story the rest of the month … well, almost. Tomorrow I am hosting the Seekerville blog, which means I will be busy over there responding to comments, so I invite you to join me for two chances to win a great CD and a signed copy of A Hope Undaunted. The blog is entitled “Learning to Hit the High Notes,” written by my guest blogger Todd Creston Larson, a songwriter and lead singer for the Christian musical group I introduced you to last year called An Epic, No Less. So please stop by to say “hey” and throw your hat in the ring for a free CD and a signed book. Here’s the link:
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2011/01/learning-to-hit-high-notes-cd-book.html
Then this Saturday, I invite you to join me on a “Best of the Archives” on Seekerville, which not only will feature one of my favorite blogs I’ve written entitled “Buckle up … it’s Going to be a Bumpy Ride” (about my first editor pitch at a conference), but will also give you the chance to win a 5-page critique from yours truly, so be sure to stop by, okay? Here's the link: http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/
Cruise pictures on Friday!!! Have a GREAT day!!
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 2011:
Well, the "Love Boat" returns and with it six very tired but very happy Lessmans (including my daughter's best friend Clare who is like a 2nd daughter and an honorary Lessman). It was a wonderful week that we will never forget, although I sure would like to forget the five pounds I put on.
We took lots of pix, of course, but unfortunately Keith and I were too tired to upload them last night, so I will have more pix for you later in the week. For now, the picture above was the standard one the cruise photographer took at dinner one night, so let me introduce you to my family. On the left side of the table is my wonderful 27-year-old son Matt (one of the most sensitive and kindest men you will ever meet -- think a Luke McGee/Sean O'Connor mix) and his incredibly sweet and smart wife Katie (she's an OB/Gyn AND she married my son, so what more can I say???). Next to Katie is my daughter Amy's best friend Clare whose mom also used to be my prayer partner, so Clare is pretty much family and a lot of fun. Across from Clare is my 23-year-old daughter Amy after whom I modeled Katie O'Connor. Amy is in her second year of law school, keeps lots of lists (including one on the type of man she hopes to marry) and is one of the funniest people I know. She has a sharp wit like Katie O'Connor and uses it frequently, especially with her crazy mother who provides her with lots of good material!! As you can see, both Clare and Amy are gorgeous young women, Clare a long-haired brunette and Amy a long-haired blond, so together these two caused quite a stir onboard the Carnival Dream. And next to Amy, of course, is the love of my life Keith Lessman and then me.
Our three ports of call were Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten with three full days at sea, which actually were my favorite part of the trip -- lounging in covered cabanas on deck with my hubby and my laptop -- sheer heaven!!
One of the highlights of the trip was reading Liz Curtis Higgs upcoming book Mine is the Night for endorsement and WOW, what an author that woman is!! She is, hands-down, one of my favorites, so endorsing her is a true honor and privilege. Loosely based on the story of Ruth and Naomi from the Bible, Mine is the Night is the conclusion of the story Liz began in Here Burns My Candle and my only complaint is that the book was SO good that I devoured it the first night of the cruise and I was really sad it was over. But trust me, you will love these books, so I encourage you to begin with Here Burns My Candle and then finish with Mine is the Night when it releases in March 2011.
All in all, it was a wonderful cruise and vacation and I thank God for the opportunity to spend this time with my precious family.
I hope 2011 has kicked off as wonderfully for each of you as it has for me and I pray it finds each of us drawing closer to Him.
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2010:
Bye-bye 2010 and bring it on, 2011!!!
HOLY COW ... can you believe another year has bit the dust??? You think time goes fast now, just wait till you get to be my age -- WHOA, BABY, we're talking years flying by like a 747. But even so, I really like the whole idea of a brand-new year, don't you??? Something fresh and clean and wholesome about starting over, which makes January one of my favorite months. Of course, I usually hit the ground running hard in January as far as my writing goes, so I LOVE that month for that reason alone.
And this year I love January for an extra-special reason -- because I will be sailing the Caribbean with my family, laughing, loving, writing, eating, praying ... did I mention writing??? Without e-mails, Internet or phone calls to distract me from what I really need to be doing ... writing and enjoying my family. I am SOOO stoked!!!
So I won't be posting another Journal Jot until after January 9, but I hope you will check back then to see what tales I have to tell about sailing the high seas. I would have loved to pre-written my Journal Jots and had our house/dog sitters post them for me, but I am taking my laptop with me, so that wasn't going to work.
Anyway, I wish each and every one of you a WONDERFUL New Year's, and here's to a blessings galore in 2011!!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2010:
Cute story. My daughter Amy is dating a pretty sweet and hunky guy named Dale and they're fairly serious. I've met Dale's mom several times now and I like her a lot ... ahem, especially since she reads Christian fiction -- YEAH!!! :)
Anyway, she's read all of my books, apparently, and sent me a nice e-mail saying how much she liked A Passion Most Pure and told Amy she liked the others too, but she's not a gusher like me, so I didn't really think she liked them all that much.
Then a week or so ago, my daughter gets a text from Dale's mom, saying she was at The Breast Center at St. John's Mercy getting a mammogram when the technician looks at the book she was reading (A Passion Redeemed, which she was RE-READING, something that shocked me!). Well, the technician immediately starts raving about my books, telling Dale's mom that she and a lot of the girls in the office just love my books and did she (Dale's mom) know that the author lives in St. Louis and they've met her and she comes to see them at Christmas and has she (Dale's mom) ever met her? "Well, as a matter of fact," Dale's mom says, "my son is dating her daughter."
The next thing Dale's mom knows, the technician gets all excited and calls in a bunch of her coworkers to introduce Dale's mom as the mother of the boy who's dating Julie Lessman's daughter. What a hoot!! Amy and I got SUCH a kick out of that, and apparently Dale's mom did too!
Well, now I would like you to meet two of the ten or so wonderful ladies at The Breast Center who are some of the best reader friends an author can have, beginning with sweet Gerie Usher, the gal who got half of her coworkers reading my books. Gerie is a real doll who has come to several of my book signings, which is where the picture above was taken. The next picture is another sweetheart by the name of Cindy Hrdina, who also came to one of my book signings. I just wanted to thank Gerie and Cindy and all the great gals at The Breast Center, not only for their incredible support, but for their friendship.
Anyway, you ladies ROCK, and the sausage bread was great!! And anybody out there who has been putting off a mammogram, I really encourage you to get up-to-date with it, not only for your own peace of mind and health, but because you can make some pretty cool friends! :)
Have a great day!
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2010:
Oh my, I'm late today with my Jot, but I promise I have a good reason -- YES!!! I broke 100 pages on Steven's story!!!
Would you believe that I fully intended to spend the day cleaning and preparing food for company tonight right after I wrote my Jot this morning? Yeah, well that plan bit the dust the minute I sat down to read the last thing I wrote on Steven's story last week while I sipped on my coffee at 7:00 AM this morning. Uh, next thing I know it's past 3:00 PM and I spent the day writing with company less than four hours away. YIKES!!!
But ... I have learned that when you are on a roll, you have to cut loose and let it go, which being the anal, ducks-in-a-row type of gal who suffers from MSD (Martha Stewart Disease), does NOT happen often, at least for me. In fact, I'd say the last time it happened was when I wrote A Passion Redeemed (almost 500 pages) in two months working part-time at my day job. Wrote like a house afire every spare moment I could, sometimes till 5:00 AM in the morning. Which means one very important thing: Steven's story is one that has me by the throat -- a VERY good thing, I assure you! :)
Anyway, I hope each and every one of you had a WONDERFUL Christmas with lots of laughter and love. I think I ate my weight in food and snacks, which greatly alarms me since I've tipped the scales at about four to five pounds heavier than normal, WHICH prior to a 7-day cruise does NOT bode well for the fit of one's clothes come spring. But the good news is that when I go into hiber-writing, I won't be thinking too much about food and will actually forget to eat if my husband doesn't remind me, so I'm hoping as the pages go up, the pounds will come down.
Well, better run ... there's a bathroom calling my name, NOT to mention floors to be vacuumed and cleaned, cheese and fruit trays to be assembled and cookies to be baked. Whew ... guess it's a good thing I've been in therapy for my MSD and no longer pipe guests' names in icing on their cookies ... :)
Hugs,
Julie
and the cookies and the l
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2010:
WHOO-HOO ... IT'S SNOWING IN ST. LOUIS!!!!
I want to wish you and yours a happy, healthy and holy holiday season!! And in between the egg nog and the cookies and the laughter and love, lets offer a silent prayer of ecstatic thanksgiving for ALL that HE has given us!!
Jesus, we love and adore you ... now, and all the days of our lives!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2010:
Have I mentioned how good it feels to be writing again??? I am trying to break a 100 pages on Steven O'Connor's story A Trust Restored (working title) before the end of the year, and at 85 pages so far, I should make it easily and then some. I find that once I hit the 100-page mark, I seem to fly, so I am looking forward to cranking in both January and February, especially on a family cruise my husband gave me and the kids for Christmas, where I plan to spend at least two to three hours a day writing on our private verandah. Sigh. For me, it just doesn't get any better than that -- seven days floating the Caribbean with my hubby, the kids and the O'Connors!! :)
So since I am trying to crank on the book, I have been writing every night unless my husband guilts me into watching a movie, which he did last night and the night before. Of course, we HAVE to watch White Christmas because it's Keith's favorite and he insists every year. I do enjoy watching it with him although it's not really my favorite. But last night, he pulled me away from the computer to watch a Lifetime movie called Undercover Christmas, which doesn't sound really good, I know, but it was great!! Now, I don't usually like Lifetime movies because sometimes they're kind of hokey and not very moral. BUT ... this was a keeper, let me tell you -- great casting with a gum-slapping cocktail waitress who turns state witness against her crooked boyfriend and a strait-laced and VERY CUTE FBI agent who has to keep her hidden away with his upper-crust family over Christmas until the trial. The only actor I recognized was Tyne Daly, who played the classy mom, and she was GREAT and guess what??? Even though the hero slept on the floor while the cocktail waitress sleeps in his bed (a la "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock), there was NO immorality whatsoever and only one kiss at the end, which usually bothers me because as you know I LOVE kisses. But the romantic tension through most of the movie was pretty thick, which I LOVED!! Both Keith and I agreed that it was one of the best and most well-made Lifetime movies we've ever seen, so if they replay it, you may want to catch it.
I usually write my Journal Jots in bed while Keith watches TV, so he likes to browse the Internet on my laptop while I get ready and brush my teeth, etc. Which can be dangerous at times because tonight he happened on the brief interview I did for C. J. Darlington on TitleTrakk along with 21 other Christian authors, talking about a memorable Christmas. I told the story about the watch Keith gave me the first Christmas we were engaged and how much I hated it, and the poor guy just shakes his head. I'm sure he wonders at times what ever possessed him to marry me! Anyway, there are memorable Christmas memories from tons of great authors like Francine Rivers, Colleen Coble, Maureen Lang, Candace Calvert and lots others including me, so you may want to check it out at: http://www.titletrakk.com/author-interviews/christmas-most-memorable-authors.htm.
YIKES ... only 3 more days till Christmas!! I hope all your gifts are bought, presents are wrapped and chores are done so you can really focus on the reason for the season and have a blessed Christmas week.
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2010:
I just finished crying on the treadmill (yes, I really do cry when I worship God, even on the treadmill because 1.) I am a VERY emotional woman if you haven't yet picked that up from my books and 2.) I am SO incredibly grateful for all He has done for me that worship songs always wring the water right out of my eyes). SO because I am getting a late start on my day (and am DYING to get back in to Steven's story!!), I thought I'd make my jot quick by pulling one of the poems from my past.
As I was going through them, I saw two that reminded me how faithful God is. My heart's desire in my 20s was to find someone to love who would love me too, but there were times when I got SO tired of waiting on God, that I got pretty angry and sinister, as this first poem depicts.
The second, also written in my 20s, depicts a faith that no matter how difficult my life seemed, I knew God would see me through, just like He does for each of us when we keep our eyes on Him in every situation and pray. And trust me, as I stand on the threshold of Christmas week with more blessings in my life than ornaments on the tree, I am reminded that prayer changes things. And if you don't believe me ... just ask the lonely, sinister young woman who wrote these poems as she shares her life with the love of her life and their children!:)
I wish you a blessedly productive day!
Hugs,
Julie
A FAITHLESS MOMENT
I'm hurt.
I'm hurt and I'm starved for the fulfillment of a dream.
By moment a dream which
becomes less a dream
and looms
by moment
an imposing statue of petrified hopes.
Where can I go?
Whose shoulder has been officially designated for my needs?
May I borrow your dream, please?
God seems to have misplaced mine ...
or heaven forbid,
did He forget???
I haven't.
Tears aren't daunted by loss of memory. Whosever.
I must be grateful, however.
I have a pillow. It soft and smells good even if it is tear-stained.
Character -- it has character, they say.
I wonder if they would say that if those tears,
pregnant with character,
had been theirs?
I've given this a lot of thought
and have come to the conclusion
that somebody thinks I'm asking too much.
Give me a break.
Across the neck will be fine.
A FAITHFUL MOMENT
What that I could possibly say
could ever cause any kind of tremor to scurry across
a sea of anxious eyes
like the casual skipping of a stone
across your not so placid lives,
mute circles rippling
out from the corners of my mouth
to encircle you
all of you
instilling a hope
that things can change ...
What kind of promise could I entertain you with?
How many smiles could I possibly issue per person?
Just what in God's name could I hope to ever do for you
if I can't even stop my own tears from spilling?
I wish, I really do.
But I just can't.
So I'll pray. I really will.
Because He can.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2010:
PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE CHOCOLATE—IT’S FRIDAY!! And for me, this is a particularly good Friday. Why, you ask???
Well, for one, I just found out my editor LOVES the revisions I did on A Heart Revealed, which means I am done, finito, put the check in the mail!! And I have ALL of you to thank who prayed me through it—GOD BLESS YOU!! I honestly had NO idea whether my revisions would fly or not because I didn’t do exactly what my editor indicated she wanted, but I explained everything I did do and why, and it turns out she agreed with me and LOVES the book and the revisions I made, calling it “seamless.” Talk about a “merry” Christmas!!
And two, I have 72 pages written on Steven’s story AND my editor OK’d the many subplots I proposed on all the couples, so PLEASE pray I can knit it all together in a cohesive and non-confusing way. Not so much for my die-hard readers like you who know the O’Connors backwards and forwards, but for those 1st-time readers who may pick up A Trust Restored (working title) without ever having read any of the other books.
I wrote a really difficult scene yesterday—the first family scene in the book where all the O’Connor sisters are in the kitchen with Emma and Marcy on Steven’s birthday while all the men and the cousins are outside in the backyard playing horseshoes and Red Rover. What’s difficult about this scene is that I have to introduce the new reader to the O’Connor family, describing each of them in a natural and flowing way within the scene while at the same time conveying things like who they’re married to, their personalities through dialogue and quirks/actions, hint at their upcoming stories and still make it interesting by adding humorous interplay between the sisters, Henry and Gabe (i.e. Henry spits in Gabe’s lemonade, and Charity makes him drink it as punishment) and through it all, STILL focus on Steven, of course, since he is the hero. NOT EASY TO DO!! Took me all day, but I’m hoping I nailed it. We shall see! :)
And then, OH. MY. GOSH. Do you realize that Christmas Eve is one week from today??? What is it about getting older that makes time fly all the faster??? One day I turn 60 and BOOM, my life is flashing before my eyes. But the one thing it has done for me, especially with spending time with Aunt Julie at the nursing home where ambulances and people passing away are a daily occurrence, is make me STOP and appreciate the moment. To realize that at 92, Aunt Julie will not be around forever and when she’s gone, I won’t be able to hug her or kiss her or tell I love her anymore, and that realization always makes me appreciate her so much more.
The same thing happened when my daughter was born and I nursed her. In the hospital when they brought her to me every four hours, she was never hungry, so I thought to myself—hey, I’ll tell them I want to “feed on demand” rather than every four hours so I can get more sleep. UH, NO—BIG MISTAKE!! Turned out that the nurses brought my baby to me every hour and a half because guess what??? The kid was always hungry, so they were feeding her sugar water, which meant when they brought her to me on the four-hour schedule, she wasn’t hungry.
Now I’m not going to lie to you and tell you I was crazy about nursing because to be honest, waking up every hour and a half throughout the night after spending an hour feeding the kid did not leave a lot of sleeping time for mom. But you know how I got through those 1:00 AM, 3:30 AM and 6:00 AM feedings??? I would rock my daughter and sing Amazing Grace, telling myself that this could be the very last times I’d ever have the opportunity to nurse her again because someday soon, the nursing would come to an end. As a result, I ended up appreciating every single moment throughout every single night just because my perspective shifted from something I HAD to do to something I had the privilege of doing for a very short while and then no more.
During this Christmas season and beyond, I want to strive to APPRECIATE the moment and the people in them. To give Aunt Julie an extra kiss or squeeze when I see her, close my laptop when my daughter or husband come into the hearthroom and give them my primary focus, sit with my husband when he wants me to watch football with him or the Mentalist. Because you know what? Right now I am praying for two women who just lost their husbands to freak accidents and sickness in the blink of an eye. My heart breaks for them, especially around the holidays. That could be me. That could be you. So, I don’t know about you, but I want to take advantage of every moment with those I love. Shift the perspective from “he irritates me” to “I’d be lost without him.” Get up from my computer during the middle of a love scene and go kiss my husband, make him some orange spice tea, tell him he is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Over and over. I want to appreciate every moment and thank God for it because tomorrow it—or those we love—may not be there.
And so I pray for a shift in perspective for each of this Christmas, that every single moment will count and be fully appreciated—every cookie, every kiss, every holiday movie, every person we meet and especially every person we love. May we give each of them our all because in doing so, we give our all to Him, the God who holds each of us in the palm of His hand.
God bless and happy weekend!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2010
BOOK UPDATE: WHOO-HOO, I have sixty pages written on Steven's story so far, working title A Trust Restored, and the story is G-R-O-W-I-N-G by the moment!! Not only do I hope to have a brief substory on each O'Connor couple (pending editor approval), but the poor Protestant heroine and her two little sisters live with their wealthy Catholic spinster aunt on Beacon Hill, a la the aunt in Pollyanna. Aunt Eleanor is a beautiful but cold woman who broke it off with a cheating fiance twenty years prior and has been bitter ever since, especially against the children of her dead sister who left the Catholic Church to marry a Protestant minister. I know I have a lot of stories going on, but since this is the final book in the O'Connor saga, I really want it to be the grand finale, you know? So say a prayer I can pull it all together, okay? So far I LOVE it, which is a good sign, but only time will tell. The first 100 pages is usually like pulling teeth for me, and I don't really start cranking till after 100 pages, but for some reason this is moving a little faster, which tells me it could be a good story.
On a different note, it's been a while since I've given you an Aunt Julie update, so I thought I would do that. Sunday, Delmar Gardens where she stays had an absolutely lovely Christmas party with hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, champagne punch and soft drinks, petit fours and cookies and a Christmas performance. They handed out Santa caps, so I put one on to get AJ to wear hers and Keith took our pictures. This facility is really nice, but it's the nurses and staff who make it stellar -- they are some of the kindest, sweetest people I've ever seen, and that blesses me. The one downer to all of this is that AJ imagines things. She's told me twice that the nurses told her I don't want to see her anymore or that I want them to keep her locked up. I gotta tell you that it rips my heart out because I am up there three times a week, more than anyone else in my family, but I suppose this is part of the dementia getting worse. Mostly she's okay when I go see her (like today, when I took her to a nice Italian restaurant for lunch), but there are other times when she imagines things. Anyway, I would appreciate a prayer on her behalf if you think about it, that she will love living at Delmar and not get upset with me for no reason.
Have a blessed day, and I appreciate you guys SO much!
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2010
Well, it's 2:30 AM and I just finished packaging up all my signed books purchased through the online book signing and winners from blogs, so I don't have a lot of time or energy left to come up with a good Jot today. So I hope you don't mind, but I decided to pull a Scripture prayer from my prayer journal that I have been keeping since 2001. What I've done for years on and off when I do my daily Bible reading is ask the Holy Spirit to speak to me through a Scripture, then I just do my regular reading, which is usually a chapter in the Old Testament, a Psalm or Proverb and then a chapter in the New Testament.Then I write a prayer according to that Scripture.
So because it's late and I'm tired, I went to the very first Scripture prayer I ever wrote and decided to post that for you today. What's REALLY eerie about this is that I started these Scripture prayers on October 12, 2001, WHICH happens to be around the time I first started writing A Passion Most Pure. Some of you already know the story of how I was sitting in a beauty parlor at the age of 51 reading a Newsweek cover article while I was waiting to get my hair done. It was a July 2001 cover article about how Christian music, books and movies were on the threshold of exploding and it stated that it was a billion dollar industry that wasn't being met (and, if you remember, Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ came out three years later and proved this article right!). Well, something in my spirit said, "now is the time to finish your book," which I knew to be the book I had started writing at the age of twelve after reading Gone With the Wind. So about a month or two later, I started writing A Passion Most Pure (original title A Chasing After the Wind). What's eerie about this is a line I wrote in that very first Scripture prayer telling God that I "longed to return to Him with "PASSION AND PURPOSE."
OH. MY. GOSH!!! Passion and purpose!! Does that sound familiar to anybody??? PASSION WITH A PURPOSE, maybe??? I never realized this and just saw it tonight, that in the very first Scripture prayer I prayed to God almost ten years ago when I first started writing my book, was the tagline I would coin years later. I don't know about you, but that freaks me out -- in a good way, of course!!
Anyway, here is that very first Scripture prayer I ever wrote in October 2001. Hope it blesses you as much as it has blessed me!
Hugs,
Julie
These are the ones I look on with favor:
those who are humble and contrite in spirit,
and who tremble at my word.
Isaiah 66:2
Dear Lord, this is my prayer for this day ... that your Holy Spirit would teach me to be humble, give me a repentent heart, and sear my soul with a trembling at Your Word. I am so very far from that, Lord, that my stomach is sick at the thought. Where are the days of fervency? Where is the state of my soul? I long to return to you with passion and purpose. Revive me, oh Lord, and send your Holy Spirit to draw us back to You! Amen.
EMERGENCY P.S. I just got an e-mail that one of my dear reader friends is in a coma and on life support because she keeps having seizures and they don't know why. I am asking every person who reads this Jot today to please say a prayer for Sherry Floyd for total healing. And if you would join with me now:
Dear Lord, Your Word says "no weapon formed against us will prosper, this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord," and God, Sherry is your servant and loves you with all of her heart and YOU are Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. So we are joining together in Jesus' name to ask yo to restore and heal Sherry and give the doctors supernatural wisdom and her family supernatural peace. We bind these seizures from Sherry Floyd in Jesus' name and we loose upon her Your healing from Your throne into Sherry's body. Thank You, God, that by Jesus' stripes Sherry is healed. Amen.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2010
WHOO-HOO, it's Friday and even better -- TODAY will be my first full day of writing (I hope!!), and boy, am I chomping at the bit to get into Steven's story!! Not sure if it's because Steven is the dark, smoldering type of hero who wears a gun (he's a Prohibition Agent in the vein of Eliot Ness from the Untouchables, an actual crime fighter from the 20s who had so much integrity, even Al Capone couldn't bribe him) or if I'm just aching to get back with the O'Connors (wait to you see what goes on between Marcy and Patrick NOW!!), but either way, I'm stoked for the first time in three months, and if feels SO good!! And hopefully in future Journal Jots, I will give you tidbits here and there from scenes that I write (I LOVE the opening where Steven rescues the heroine (the little sister of the woman he intended to marry in A Hope Undaunted, Maggie, who Patrick found him on the couch with) from two thugs on the Revere Beach Boardwalk!!). So keep your eyes peeled, okay?
BUT today I was going to just "jot" quickly and go write, but lovely Casey Herringshaw from the Writing for Christ blog at http://enjoyingthewritingcraft.blogspot.com/ (FABULOUS BLOG, so I encourage you to check it out!!) gave me a GREAT idea in the comments section on my Wednesday Seeker blog. By the way, there's a two-book giveaway going on at that blog that you can still get in on till tomorrow, so if that appeals, go leave a comment at http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2010/12/when-it-comes-to-writing.html and you'll also get to read a true story that involves garlic and a cute guy PLUS see some pix my hubby took of me in front of my decorated hearth!
Anyway, I digress. Casey gave me the idea of posting a scene from A Heart Revealed that was actually cut by my editor, so it will never see the light of day, which broke my heart because it's one of my favorite scenes between Mitch and Charity. The original subplot for them in A Heart Revealed was that Charity had had two miscarriages and was petrified to get pregnant, so she was putting Mitch off A LOT. Unfortunately at the same time the Herald's owner's spoiled flapper niece was putting the moves on him. Anyway, my editor did not want me to do the miscarriage angle, so this scene had to come out. BUT ... I thought it would be a fun Friday Jot to let all of you -- and you alone -- read my favorite Mitch and Charity scene that was cut from A Heart Revealed. Sooo ... here it is, hope you enjoy it!!
Hugs and Happy Weekend!
Julie
The Victorian mantle clock struck eight, and Charity’s pulse skipped a beat. She shot a nervous glance at the tall, sturdy frame of her husband stretched out on their cordovan couch with a newspaper in his lap, and said a silent prayer he was in the mood to read. Her gaze softened as it flitted to her nine-year-old twins, all bathed and ready for bed and for once playing quietly on the floor—Henry with his Lincoln Logs, and Hope with her beloved Effanbee doll.
The whir of their rotating fan merged with the summer song of tree frogs and children’s squeals in the glow of a balmy dusk, and Charity couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder and peace. The breeze of the rotating fan rhythmically fluttered the pretty pink bow in her daughter’s hair, then the stubborn blond cowlick on top of her son’s head, and finally the edges of her husband’s Boston Herald. Her heart squeezed in her chest. She was so blessed to have them all, she thought with a sudden sting of tears. She released a quiet sigh laced with melancholy. If only …
She blinked back the moisture and hefted her chin, laying her knitting aside. “Hope, Henry, it’s time for bed,” she said, her tone wistful.
Her daughter’s gentle blue eyes looked up, complemented by a sweet, little yawn as she hopped to her feet. “Okay, Mama.”
Unfortunately, not Henry. “But, I just started! Can’t I have a little more time, please?” His blue eyes pleaded, as fierce as his sister’s were docile.
“Sorry, young man. You’re on borrowed time as it is after the stunt you pulled today. You best pack everything up or I’ll do it for you, and then you may not see them again.”
The blue eyes narrowed. “Why can’t you be like Stu Landon’s mom? She’s never mean.”
Mitch lowered his newspaper, his vibrant blue eyes matching his son’s to a scowl. “Henry, do as your mother says and no backtalk.” The edges of his mouth twitched. “And she is not mean … except maybe to me.” He winked at his wife. “But then, I can handle it.”
Henry groused as he picked up his toys while Hope bent to give Mitch a kiss. “Good night, Daddy.” She pressed the lips of her doll to his mouth as well. “We love you.”
“Love you, too, princess. You sleep well, okay?”
“G’night, Pop.” Henry’s tone was belligerent as he pressed a kiss to his father’s cheek. In a sneak attack, Mitch looped his son’s waist, reeling him in with a tickle of his huge hands. Henry squirmed in laughter, his grumpy mood suddenly forgotten. With lightening speed, Mitch shined the back of his son’s head with the pad of his fist and then followed it with a quick, noisy kiss. “G’night, Henry,” he said in an equally belligerent voice, an exaggerated echo of his son’s.
Henry grinned and made his way up the stairs as Charity stashed knitting needles and yarn in her sewing box. She bent to give Mitch a quick kiss while her lips zagged into a droll smile. “Mean, huh? Well you won’t have to worry about ‘handling’ it tonight, because I’m exhausted. I plan to tuck Hope and Henry in bed and head there myself.” With a ruffle of fingers through blond curls that now sported a bit of silver at the temples, she turned to go.
He grabbed her hand, concern etched in his face. “Another headache?”
She shook her head, wishing she could just say yes. But alas, for the most part, her days of lying had ended at the altar—both when she’d given her heart to God and her wedding pledge to her husband. She chewed on her lip, feeling the tingle of her skin as Mitch’s thumb slowly grazed against the palm of her hand. She recognized the smoky look in his eyes and eased her hand free. “No, just tired, but you stay and read, please. I’m sure I’ll probably nod right off.”
He put the paper aside and started to rise. “No, I’m coming up too.” His palm slid down the side of her arm, his touch lingering and his eyes tender. “I can read upstairs as well as here.”
She faltered back, hand to her chest, and he quickly steadied her arm. “Charity, are you okay? You look flushed. Do you need me to carry you upstairs?”
“No! I mean, no, of course not, Mitch. I’m fine, really, other than being tired.” Hoping to get him to stay, she pressed a firm hand to his chest and immediately regretted it at the touch of hard muscles to palm. Her hand jerked away and fluttered to her eyes. “Besides, I think Hope may want me to snuggle with her before I go to bed, so why don’t you just stay down and read a while, undisturbed. You don’t get the chance to do that very often, you know.”
He stroked a gentle hand along the curve of her jaw. There was a hint of worry in his tone. “All right, little girl. You go take care of Hope, and I’ll be up in a while, okay?” He leaned to nuzzle her mouth with a slow, easy kiss that fluttered her stomach.
“Could be a while,” she whispered, swallowing hard, “so please take your time.”
He smiled and dropped back on the sofa with a soft whoosh of leather. “Don’t you dare fall asleep on me,” he warned, giving her a look once capable of melting all resolve.
She gave him a shaky smile and bolted from the room, desperate to get upstairs and fall fast asleep. Whether her husband suspected it or not, since her recent miscarriage a month and a half ago—the second to devastate her in a little under a year—her resolve had been forged into the hardest of steel. No way would she risk going through that again. Losing a baby was like losing a piece of her soul, over and over. Mitch had understood she needed time and space the first month after. But now, almost two months down the road, the natives were getting restless.
A shudder trembled through her as she raced up the curved staircase, unbuttoning her blue, long-waisted blouse as quickly as her fingers could function. She hurried into her room and stripped off her clothes, donning her nightgown and brushing her teeth in record time. She snatched her robe from the back of the door and thought of the twins, once again fighting the moisture in her eyes. Somehow, she’d always envisioned she and Mitch with a houseful of children, sisters and brothers for Hope and Henry. But it wasn’t to be, evidently. Her jaw hardened. She would not risk another miscarriage by getting pregnant again, amorous husband or no. And because she couldn’t lie, her painful decision had forced her to become more creative in her attempts at avoiding Mitch’s advances. A prickle of heat crept into her cheeks. At least during the times when there was the slightest risk of getting pregnant. Like tonight.
Tying the sash of her robe with a jerk, she quickly padded down the hall, first to Henry’s room, and then to Hope’s, beseeching God to keep her husband downstairs. She tucked them both in and read each a story, grieved to be rushing through this usually precious process. When all prayers were said and she’d finally cuddled with Hope, she heard the sweet sound of her daughter’s even breathing, signaling her release. “Thank you, God,” she muttered, rising as gingerly as possible. Tiptoeing to the door, she slowly pulled it shut with a deep exhale of air.
“Finally asleep? Talk about perfect timing.”
Charity startled and Mitch simply grinned. He pulled her into his arms and pressed her to the wall, no mistaking the look in his eyes now. He bent to nestle his mouth to her neck with a low, aching moan. “Dear Lord, little girl, do you have any idea how long it’s been?”
Heat scorched her body, both from his touch and the humiliation of his question. She caught her breath just as his mouth took hers with a vengeance. He picked her up in his arms and strode into their bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him. “Good,” he said with a dangerous gleam in those deadly blue eyes, “you’re all ready for bed.”
“Mitch, what are you doing?” Her voice was a raspy squeal beneath wandering lips.
He laid her on the bed with a wicked grin, voice husky as he slowly untied the sash to her robe. “Putting you to bed,” he whispered, kicking his shoes off and crawling in beside her.
She warded him off with two strained hands to his chest, frantic to put him off. “Mitch Dennehy, did you even bother to lock the door? What if Hope or Henry were to come in?”
A growl rumbled from his throat as he jumped up and strode to the door. He locked it and turned, searing her with intent as he jerked off his tie, almost ripping it in two. His eyes seemed to cauterize her as he moved toward the bed, fingers fumbling with the buttons of his shirt—
“Mitch! I didn’t lock the back door—did you lock the back door?”
He froze, white oxford shirt half off, revealing muscled arms and a fine-chiseled chest. A pained expression flickered on his face. “For the love of God, Charity, I’ll lock it later.”
She sat up and tugged the sheet high. “No, Mitch, please! I would worry, I just know it, and wouldn’t be able to relax. Please check the doors and hurry back.” She rubbed her jaw with a repentant smile. “And would you mind terribly shaving first? Your beard feels like sandpaper.”
He groaned and unlocked the door.
She sat up in the bed. “Oh, and Hope wanted you to be sure and kiss her good-night.
He turned, lips as tight as his hand on the knob. “I kissed her before she went up.”
“I know, but she made me promise to tell you.” She scrunched her knees to her chest and chewed on her lip. “And, Mitch, I think I forgot to feed Runt—do you mind? I guess it slipped my mind.”
With an unhappy grunt, he heaved the door wide, brandishing a finger in her direction. “Don’t you dare fall asleep, little girl, do you hear?” He stormed out, feet bare and shirt flapping.
Yes, she heard, but it couldn’t be helped. She was too tired, she reasoned, not to mention vulnerable, at least for another week. Dousing the light, she curled in a ball, wondering how she was going to keep putting him off. She willed herself to be calm, quiet, then squeezed her eyes to usher in sleep. Her fatigue was a godsend, weighting her eyelids and numbing her bones.
Mitch’s footsteps entered the room and stopped. “Charity? Are you asleep?”
“Mmmm-no,” she muttered with slumber in her tone, heart lurching despite the heaviness of her body. He disappeared into their bathroom and left the door ajar, a sliver of light slicing across their bed like a blade of guilt. “Mitch, forgive me,” she whispered as tears pricked her eyes. Exhaling, she willed herself to sleep, her mind fading to the sounds of running water.
Suddenly the water stopped, and the light went out. Charity stiffened. She lay completely still, certain he would hear the pounding of her pulse. Forcing her body to relax, she curled on her side, her breathing quiet and even, careful to mimic the rhythm of sleep. The bed shifted as Mitch crawled in and wrapped thick arms around the whole of her waist. He lifted her hair and kissed the back of her neck. “Charity,” he whispered, “are you asleep?”
“Mmm …” She scrunched up, feigning sleep while Bay Rum tormented her senses.
It seemed eons before she heard his heavy sigh followed by a soft kiss on her cheek. “We were so close, little girl,” he whispered. The bedsprings squeaked as he flopped back on the bed, the frustration in his tone as thick as the air in the room.
She waited until his breathing was finally steady and strong, then allowed herself to exhale a quiet release of air fraught with more than a little frustration of her own. Yes, they had been close—too close, she thought with a shiver. But she would make it up soon, she promised, when all conditions were completely safe and sure.
Guilt rose again, butting heads with her fear, and she suddenly wondered which was worse. She thought of making love with the man that she craved, only to create a life that would die in the process. A shudder of agony rippled through her, convincing her once again that she had no choice. She butted close to Mitch’s side, desperate for the security of his body. She closed her eyes and unwillingly allowed the shame to seep in. Because she knew—deep in her soul—that when it came to a choice between guilt or fear, there was simply no contest.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2010
Okay, I'm going on record right now that I am married to a flippin' saint. This man does SO many things for me that most of the time I go around with a sagging jaw. When I ask him why (every day of my life!), he just says, "Because I love you." And I usually respond with something like, "Either that or you're not very bright." "Yeah, stupid in love," he says.
Like yesterday, when I was preparing for my Seeker post that's up today entitled, "When It Comes To Writing ... Sometimes Less is More," I wanted him to take two pictures of me, before and after, showing how less is more. Out comes the tripod and the patience while I run him ragged with poses galore, then I stand over his shoulder while we select just the right photo at his computer. He says I'm worse than any of his clients as I pick at this, pick at that. Can you take some of the red out of my face, I say, crop the picture here, put a green border on it, no red, then back to green, and then for pity's sake, PLEASE nip that double chin just a tad. I'm telling you that there's absolutely no doubt about it -- in Sarah Palin vernacular, the guys a flippin' saint!! And a very talented one, too, because the pic turned out great, so if you wanna see it, you're gonna have to mosey on over to Seekerville to take a peek at http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/. WHICH may not be a bad idea because I'm giving away a signed copy of one of my books AND winner's choice of a top CBA book. Plus, if you are brave enough, I'll even be doing sentence mini-critiques, so come on by, okay?
Oh, and there's only ONE MORE DAY to enter my last blog interview/giveaway of 2010 on AusJenny's blog where you can win a signed book (winner's choice of A Hope Undaunted OR one of The Daughters of Boston books), so hope to see you there. Here's the link:
http://ausjenny.blogspot.com/2010/12/focus-on-christmas-with-julie-lessman.html
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2010
Happy Monday … although to be honest, Mondays have never been my favorite day of the week. That is, until recently when I joined forces with several special prayer partners to pray and fast on Mondays for each other’s special intentions. WOW … I would have never believed it, but I now greet Mondays with an excitement and dedication that I have never had before, knowing that these friends are counting on me to stand in the gap for them as I count on them to do the same for me. And you know what? I can FEEL the strength and power of their prayers … in my focus on God, in my peace and most importantly for me lately—in my writing.
Because you see, I have been struggling for the last three months, not able to write due to so many other commitments. Between edits on A Heart Revealed, being out of town for weeks at a time with a writers workshop, the ACFW conference and vacation, the launch of my series/book including a Facebook Party and over 30 blog interviews, not to mention researching, selecting and moving my Aunt Julie to a skilled nursing facility and dismantling her apartment, I have gotten VERY behind. Consequently, the longer I didn’t get to write, the more worried I became that I would never be ABLE to write a decent book again. My passion for this story (Steven's story) has been flat, which, if you know anything about me at all, is deadly for someone like me who THRIVES on passion. BUT … the moment these two friends and I committed to each other in prayer, it was as if I had been set free from all the fear and worry that I wouldn’t be able to do this again -- write a book that I and my readers would love. But guess what? I have been writing for four days now, and I LOVE it … both the exhilaration of writing AND the story itself, so PRAISE GOD, I am now on a roll!
I want to express my deepest gratitude to my Monday partners in crime and to each of you reading this right now who pray for me on a regular basis or have prayed for me in the past—THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!! In fact, I told my husband that I am so blessed because I have lots of people praying for me. His comment? "They should be praying for me," he said with a smirk ... the little brat! :)
Which brings me to my main point today, and yes, I have one. And that is for the next two months I am going into writing mode hot and heavy (emphasis on “hot”!! :)), and would like to ask for both your prayers and your patience with me as I duck out of sight for a while. I will not be checking e-mail nor Facebook near as much as in the past, and when I do, I will be brief … yeah, even for me! :)
I will continue to post my Journal Jots three days a week, but they will be a lot shorter, hopefully, and more prayers and devotionals pulled from years of devotional notebooks I’ve written for myself in the past, so I hope you will enjoy them.
I covet your prayers for God’s anointing on this, my final O’Connor book, because I would very much like it to be special and a blessing for both my readers and for me. Thank you SO much for your understanding and your prayers.
Holiday hugs,
Julie
P.S. My very last blog interview/giveaway for 2010 (and for the next six to eight months!) is going on now at the "Come Meet AusJenny" blog, so I hope you will come say hello (or good-bye for a while) and maybe win your choice of one of my signed books. Here’s the link:
http://ausjenny.blogspot.com/2010/12/focus-on-christmas-with-julie-lessman.html.
Also, please join me in Seekerville this Wednesday, December 8 for my FINAL Seeker blog of 2010 where you can win a signed book (winner's choice of A Hope Undaunted OR one of The Daughters of Boston books) or a top CBA book at: http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/.
Hope to see you there!
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2010:
HAPPY FRIDAY!!! I’m doing the happy dance because as you know, I LOVE Fridays, which is SO silly since I work at home and every day is pretty much the same as the next. But I digress …
What you REALLY want to know is ... the winner of my Open-Comment-Day giveaway on Wednesday is:
JULIA REFFNER!!!!
SUPER CONGRATS to Julia and THANK YOU to everyone who dropped in to chat—it was a wonderful day!
And now, since it’s December, I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the worst Christmas presents I’ve ever given, and what made me think of it was an e-mail conversation between me and Rel Mollet of Relz Reviews (http://www.relzreviewz.blogspot.com/). She assured me that I would love the movie North and South, which I purchased for my husband for Christmas after lovely Renee Chaw of Black ‘n Gold Girl’s Book Spot (http://steelergirl83.blogspot.com/) recommended it (thank you, Renee!!). Anyway I told Rel that the Amazon pkg. containing North and South was burning a hole in my bottom cabinet because I could NOT wait to watch it, and the temptation to go ahead and give it to him before Christmas was VERY strong. But, being the stubborn gal I am (and you wonder where my characters get it!!), I am determined the man will open this gift for Christmas and not a moment before.
Which … reminds me of a similar Christmas situation when Keith was finishing off our basement with beautiful cherry-wood paneling that he cut and stained himself with thin box molding every so often like they have in plush, expensive home libraries or studies. Day and night, the grind of the hand saw could be heard downstairs while the poor man painstakingly cut every single piece of wood by hand with his old, dilapidated saw, completely oblivious that I had a brand-new circle saw sitting under the tree that had been hidden for two months while he slaved away. Let me tell you, when he opened that present and realized it had been sitting upstairs under the tree the whole time he was killing himself downstairs, it did NOT go over well!
Nor did the toothpaste I gave him a few years prior. Yes, I am ashamed to say, I did give my husband toothpaste for Christmas. Why, you ask? Well because we always competed with the number of presents we gave each other, and I found out that he had 14 for me and I only had 13 for him. So, because our tube of toothpaste was down to the nubs, completely flat and rolled to the cap, I thought it would be cute to give him a new tube. Uh, NOT!!
Then, of course, there was the year that I went off hormones and was severely depressed (some of you may have read my Seeker blog about the contest I entered after I went off hormones … NOT pretty!! It’s a pretty cute story, though, so here’s the link if you want to check it out: http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2007/10/caution-hormone-free-zone.html). Well, anyway, that Christmas the poor guy ended up with something like 13 black and gray shirts and sweaters. Seriously … not one happy, colored shirt in the bunch and the sad thing is I didn’t even realize it! :/
I also tend to get in a rut when it comes to giving presents … like giving my kids gumball machines every single year till they were teenagers and finally had the nerve to tell me they were gummed out. So just be glad that you won’t be exchanging gifts with me, because only God knows what you would end up with.
Have a blessed weekend!!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1ST, 2010:
YEE-HAW!!!! It’s Open-Comment Day on Journal Jots, so let’s chat up a storm!! Today is devoted to YOU … some of my favorite people in the whole, wide world!! So, what do you want to talk about? What questions do you want to ask? Anything is game as long as it’s respectable, and the fun goes on until 6:00 PM tonight when I turn off the comments till the next Open-Comment Day!!
You know what I want to talk about?? Movies!!! The holidays are one of the few times that Keith and I watch more movies than usual, so I am dire need of great suggestions for romantic movies. That said, everybody who states their favorite romantic movie will automatically be entered into the Open-Comment-Day Giveaway—your choice of a signed copy of one of my books or a $15.00 CBD.com, Amazon.com or Starbucks gift card. So dig deep and give me something realllly great to watch with my honey, okay?
And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for—the winner of my website review-posting contest who wins signed copies of each of my books and a $50 gift card to CBD.com or Amazon.com is …
KIM FORD!!!!
SUPER CONGRATS to Kim and MEGA THANKS to each of you who posted incredible reviews for my books on both Amazon.com and CBD.com. Because of the passionate nature of my books, I’ve received some pretty scathing 1- and 2-star reviews. Not many, of course, but enough to wreak havoc with my rating and you have helped to drown out the bad reviews, so YEAH!!! I had almost 200 entries with some reviewers posting the maximum of eight reviews for eight entries, so I cannot express how much it means to have your support.
BUT … I can say “thank you” in another way. I have just decided that each of you who entered this contest will automatically be entered into my newsletter contest to win a signed copy of A Heart Revealed from my personal author copies next August, whether or not you are signed up for my newsletter!!!
BUT … if you would like a chance to win a $50 gift card, a signed copy of A Heart Revealed AND have a character named after you in A Heart Revealed, simply sign up for my newsletter at http://www.julielessman.com/sign-up-for-newsletter/, then post as many reviews of any of my books that you can (reviews can be as short as 1- or 2-lines or more and can be the same review for each book) wherever you can—any online bookseller site (i.e. like Amazon.com, CBD.com, Borders.com, Barnes&Noble.com, etc., PLUS Facebook, Shelfari, Goodreads, etc. and even on your own blog!). Rules are, if you can post it, you can get the points for posting it. Simply e-mail me the links, and the person who posts the most reviews wins, with the next three runners-up receiving a signed copy of A Heart Revealed.
And now … simply click on the Journal Jots Comments link below and let the chatting begin!!
http://www.julielessman.com/jot-comments/post/1322995
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2010:
Happy Cyber Monday! Which, in my opinion, is WAAAAAAYYYY better than Black Friday, something I avoid like the Black Plague. I mean, come on—long lines, short tempers—I’m sorry, but being a Christian is hard enough without flinging myself into the fray where my patience is as minimal as the courtesy you find in overcrowded malls.
Sooooo … since Friday was the kickoff of the BUSIEST shopping season, I thought today would be an appropriate time to share something the Holy Spirit taught me at a Walmart one year, which has stayed with me ever since.
I’m not sure why, but Walmart seems to be the place where God teaches me a lot of spiritual lessons in life. From my irritation at being a Walmart Greeter Greeter (it seems nine times out of ten I greet them before they greet me) to the time I got in a knock-down, drag-out fight with another customer in the sewing department (not that bad, I guess, but close enough for near blows, and I don’t even sew), my Irish-German temper seems to be a magnet for employee and other customer rudeness.
But my biggest complaint came from checkers who would not say squat to me unless I spoke to them first, this one in particular. Of course, having the Walmart Greeter Greeter gene, I would also always greet the checkers first as well, which started to get on my nerves something fierce. After all, I was the customer, wasn’t I? And not even a disgruntled one (yet), but a smiling, pleasant one from whom courtesy oozed out of every pore. Until … the day that I had had enough. Blame it on the fact that I hate to shop or the misfortune of being in a bad mood, whatever, but something told me I was in for trouble as I approached a checker line where two checkers were chatting. I waited for my checker to stop talking and address me or at least smile, but she didn’t. She just continued talking to the other checker over my shoulder the entire time she checked me out, causing my blood to simmer to a slow boil. The smile died on my face as I dug in, determined I would not say one word to the woman until she spoke to me. Which, of course, she never did. Yep, you got it—the woman never said boo to me the entire time!
So, of course I snapped. Leaning in with a stiff smile, I said, “Excuse me, but are you in a bad mood or something?” She blinked and frowned, suddenly mute. “I was just curious,” I continued in my tightest tone, “because you didn’t smile or greet me or even acknowledge me, which I think is pretty rude, especially given I’m the customer, don’t you?” Well, of course she apologized, but it did little to ease my temper as I huffed out of the store. And then the minute I stepped foot in my car, the sledge hammer descended, accusation slamming me with regret and sorrow and guilt so strong, I wanted to drive off a cliff. And you call yourself a Christian, it said. I winced, repenting and praying for that checker all the way home.
And then one day when I was reading Philippians 2:1-8, God leveled a spiritual hammer that literally smashed my "customer" perception to smithereens:
1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Oh. My. Gosh. Yes, I was the customer, and yes, the customer is supposed to always be right, BUT … if Jesus Christ laid down His right to be God to serve us, shouldn’t I lay down my right to be a customer to serve others … even those who were supposed to serve me?
NOoooooooooooo!!!! It wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair!! The Walmart Greeters were supposed to greet ME—that’s what they were getting paid for. The checkers were supposed to smile and say hello first—that was their job. Only as a Christian, I am called to lay down that right for the sake of Christ—NOT an easy thing to do for anyone, much less a short-tempered CDQ (caffeinated drama queen). But you know what? God never calls us to do anything that He doesn’t give us the grace to do. So I memorized that Scripture and I prayed every single time I went into a Walmart after that, and when the greeters and the checkers would ignore me, I’d pull that Scripture up and give those people my biggest smile, serving them just like Jesus Christ, the Son of God served each one of us.
And so, at the onset of this busy Christmas shopping season, I urge each of us to lay down our right to be customers and serve those who are supposed to serve us, no matter what. Because when you do, you get far more than a bagful of groceries or merchandise … you get blessings galore from the hand of a God Who has a BIG smile on His face.
Happy shopping and have a blessed week, and don’t forget that I will be announcing the winner of my website contest (signed copies of all four of my books and a $50 gift card) THIS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1ST, which will also be OPEN-COMMENT DAY on Journal Jots. I invite you to come by and chat and maybe win one of my signed books or a $15 gift card. Hope to see you there!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010:
HAPPY BLACK FRIDAY … although there is NO way this tired body is waking up at 3:00 AM to stand in any line or go to any store, period. Ewww … cold chills!!!
Nope, to me the Friday after Thanksgiving needs to be spent just like this—sleeping in, then parking my derriere in my favorite leather chair in my sun-lit hearth room, computer in my lap and feet up in front of a cozy and crackling fireplace decorated with a wreath, lots of greenery, twinkle lights, a stuffed reindeer family in skates on a sled, Father Christmas and LOTS of candles. Sigh. It just doesn’t get any better this … unless my daughter (parked on the sofa across the way studying for her law exams) would get up to get me a piece of pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream … Yeah, sooooo not going to happen!!
Hey, for you Black-Friday lovers who prefer to shop with your feet up, don’t forget that the Online Book Signing featuring over 75 Christian authors begins TODAY, so if you are looking for signed Christmas gifts, check out the info on my website at: http://www.julielessman.com/signed-books/. Not only can you buy signed books, but there’s a fun mini-interview for each of 75 authors (where I talk about a cute Christmas-gift story/lesson between my hubby and me before we were married!) along with a comment section where you can chat with each of us.
AND … there are still FOUR DAYS LEFT to enter my website contest to win signed copies of all four of my books (great for Christmas presents!!) and a $50 gift card to either CBD.com or Amazon.com for just posting a short review on any of my books on these two sites, up to eight entries in the contest available. If you have already posted reviews for any of my books on these two sites, make sure you let me know so I can credit those reviews as entries in the contest. Winner will be announced on my Journal Jot OPEN-COMMENT DAY next week, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1st.
Well, I gotta go ... there's a piece of pumpkin pie calling with my name on it ...
Have a BLESSED weekend, all!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2010:
HAPPY OVER-THE-HUMP DAY, ALL!!!
YIKES … I have one more day to get ready for 25 people for Thanksgiving dinner and I’m almost there … Christmas decorations are all up, and yes, I go CRAZY … twinkle lights over the fireplace, greenery around the screened-in porch French doors with Christmas cards hanging on it and mistletoe (of course!), reindeer and greenery over my kitchen window, and live greenery on the dining-room table strewn with gold gauzy ribbon, twinkle lights and gold and silver strings of beads. However, I am slipping as I get older because I only put up one tree this year instead of two. Note: MSSD (Martha Steward Syndrome Disease) is not contagious via Internet.
BUT … I still have to bake and clean today and heaven knows THAT doesn’t happen often anymore, so I am going to make this Jot short and sweet. Yeah, right …
First of all, I want to remind anybody who might be interested that the HUGE Christian Author Online Book Signing Bash of which I am a part begins the day after Thanksgiving, so if you are looking for signed Christmas gifts, check out the info on my website under the "Signed Books" tab. Not only can you buy signed books, but there’s a fun mini-interview for each of 75 authors (where I talk about a cute Christmas-gift story/lesson between my hubby and me before we were married!) along with a comment section where you can chat with each of us. AND … to sweeten the pot for anyone buying a copy of one of my signed books, to the first three purchasers who leave a comment mentioning this Jot giveaway, I will also send you your choice of top CBA book and a cute ceramic angel. Here’s the pic of the angel (taken on my foyer table, which is draped in sheer gold lame with gold spiral tree and gold and silver beads … yeah, yeah, I love those beads 'cause I’m a hippie at heart … ) and here are some of the CBA books I’m giving away:
The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen
Redemption by Karen Kingsbury
Washington's Lady by Nancy Moser
The Bride Bargain by Kelly Eileen Hake
Love Finds you In Revenge, Ohio by Lisa Harris
Thunder of Heaven by Ted Dekker
ALSO … don’t forget that I will announce the winner of the $50 gift card and signed copies of ALL of my books on my next Journal Jot OPEN-COMMENT DAY, which will be next WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1ST!!! So be sure to swing by because I will also be giving away winner’s choice of a signed copy of one of my books or a $15 gift card to Starbucks, CBD.com or Amazon.com.
Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I would like to publicly express my deepest gratitude first and foremost to God for His son Jesus Christ and then for my incredible husband for loving me despite the fact that I’m a “handful,” my wonderful kids who love God as much as I do and two amazing families (the Lessmans and the Winterers, my maiden name), both of whom are a total blessing to me. BUT … right along with my gratitude for these wonderful blessings goes my heartfelt thanks to God above for not only allowing me to write for Him, but to experience the amazing friendships I have with reader friends like YOU!! THANK YOU, GOD!!
Finally, I know Thanksgiving is all about counting your blessings and being thankful for them, but I personally plan to take it a step further this year. Yes, I fully plan to thank God for the good things in my life, certainly, but I challenge each of us to also thank (and praise Him) for the not-so-good things too, because even in them, God promises to bless us if we love Him by praising Him in all things (Romans 8:28 —And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good …). So, if you are sick or in financial straits or you have a loved one who is not saved or from whom you are estranged or whatever problems you have, I encourage you to pray like this: “I thank you and praise you, God, for this problem in my life because I KNOW that You will work it out for my good and I trust You with it, in Jesus’ name.”
Go ahead, spit in the devil’s eye by praising God for the bad as well as the good -- I dare you! Then sit back and enjoy Thanksgiving dinner KNOWING that powerful blessings will be coming your way.
Happy Thanksgiving, all, and here’s to a happy and holy holiday season!
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2010:
OMG, IT’S THANKSGIVING WEEK … WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN??!!!
Is it just me or has anybody else noticed how QUICKLY the weeks are flying by, snowballing toward Christmas at the speed of light?? YIKES!! Just two weeks ago I was lounging on a lanai in Florida with nary a care, and this week I’m staring at getting my tree up and house decorated in time for our annual Thanksgiving dinner for 25 people in THREE DAYS!!! BUT … since my edits are done (thank you, God!!), I have to admit that I am looking forward to the holidays for a change and so I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite holiday recipes with you.
First of all, for Thanksgiving, I have a sweet-potato casserole that is SO to die for that people actually moan when they taste it!! Think brown sugar, butter, pecans, etc., and honey, even people who do not like sweet potatoes are prone to like this. Soooo much better than cranberries, although I do make those too.
And no Thanksgiving dinner is complete without my Mom’s famous Bourbon Pumpkin Pie, which is simply Libby’s recipe on the back of the can except with one oz. of any kind of bourbon added for two pies, half oz. for one. OH. MY. GOSH. You would not believe what a difference that makes—bolder, richer, spicier and the tiny bit of alcohol bakes out, so there’s no problem there.
I also usually like to make a chocolate chip pie, too, just for a little something different, especially since it is the EASIEST pie you will EVER make, no joke!! Just zap a piece in the microwave for 15-30 seconds and slap some vanilla ice cream alongside, and trust me, you will LOVE it!!
So … those are some of my favorites and here are the recipes in case you want to give them a try, and here’s to a happy and holy holiday season for one and all!!
Hugs,
Julie
SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE
(Note: I usually double this for over 20 people)
- 1-1/2 cups mashed sweet potatoes, warm (1 can small for this recipe; large can to double)
- ½ cup sugar
- 4 Tbs. butter or margarine
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- ½ cup coconut
- ½ cup milk
- ½ tsp. vanilla
Topping:
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ¼ cup flour
- 4 Tbs. butter or margarine, melted
- dash salt
Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, butter, egg, coconut, milk and vanilla and mix well. Pour into buttered casserole (I use 9 x 12 pan). Mix topping ingredients and pour over top of sweet potato mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.
CHOCOLATE CHIP PIE (makes one pie)
1 cup sugar
½ cup flour
2 beaten eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 stick butter
¾ cup chopped pecans
¾ cup chocolate chips
1 unbaked pie shell
Vanilla ice cream and Magic Shell (optional)
Melt butter, cool in fridge while mixing sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla. Mix in butter, then add nuts and chocolate chips. Mix well.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or longer. Can leave out or refrigerate.
Serve on individual plates and microwave each piece for about 30 seconds or until warm. Serve with vanilla ice cream (I streusel Magic Shell over ice cream and top pie with whipped cream and cherry).
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010:
Okay, I have a confession to make. I haven’t been on the treadmill in over a month. Yep, you heard me—I’ve been an exercise slouch ever since my edits came in because frankly, I didn’t have an extra 45 minutes to spare in the morning. BUT … that all changed this week, once the edits flew the coop and I was set FREE!!! So I marched my sorry, little 60-year-old carcass downstairs to the treadmill with iPod in hand and went CRAZEE with my favorite songs. Holy moley, did that feel good!! And as the music played and my legs pumped, I gotta tell you—something AMAZING happened …
LOVE AFFAIR. From the first note of one of my favorite songs, Hillsong’s Darlene Zschech’s Glory to the King, I was right back in the arms of God again, the Lover of my soul (and sorry carcass) because this is the theme song I played over and over while writing A Passion Most Pure, the book that was my very first love letter to God. All the moods, malaise and trials of the last few months just melted away while tears streamed down my cheeks, the lyrics and music reawakening my soul to “my greatest love in life … the Father to the fatherless … the Answer to my dreams … Comforter to the lonely … and the Lifter of my head” revelations all, that once again made me realize that God is not just the Lover of my soul, but my …
LIFE LINE. I mean honestly, where would any of us be without Him??? More tears fell (yes, I AM as weepy as the O’Connor women … where do you think they get it???) as I listened to Matt Redman’s Blessed Be the Name of the Lord, and once again the lyrics took me away, reminding me of Job’s theme (which is also Emma’s in A Heart Revealed) that “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Trust me, it’s a lesson I learned long ago and one that has served me well—that praising God no matter what … in the good and in the bad ... is the path of peace and blessing. As the lyrics so beautifully point out, I will ALWAYS praise God no matter what … “In the land that is plentiful, where Your streams of abundance flow … when I'm found in the desert place, though I walk through the wilderness, blessed Be Your name. Because the bottom line is that He is …
LORD. Period. No argument. End of story … and the beginning!! Because no matter what is happening in my life—loved ones who are ill, massive edits, making a top-ten list or endorsement requests from top authors—I am reminded that through it all, He is Lord, guiding me, watching over me, loving me. Oh, man … here I go again. Where’s the Kleenex???
So … that’s my state of mind on this HAPPY FRIDAY!! What’s yours? I pray your weekend is AS GOOD or BETTER than my wonderful week and it can be. Because take it from an old gal who knows … praising God NO MATTER WHAT … will unleash blessings galore!!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2010:
WHOA, BABY ... what a day I had yesterday (Tuesday)!!
First of all as mentioned Monday, not only did I FINISH my edits and finally unload them to my editor (they were due Monday, but she gave me an extra day to finish my final read, which I did ... uh, several Kleenex later!!), but I was so moved by A Heart Revealed (and really didn't expect to be) that I cried through most of the last few scenes -- ALWAYS a good sign because it was happy crying and let's face it, emotional connection with God and romance is what I want my books to be all about, right??? :)
AND THEN ... TOTAL SHOCK ... I found out that A Hope Undaunted made Booklist's "Top Ten Inspirational Fiction" list if you can believe that (I didn't!!), nestled in right after Francine Rivers Her Mother's Hope and before Deanne Gist's Maid to Match!!! WHOO-HOO, did THAT perk my day up or what??? And my publisher Revell nabbed three spots on the list as well -- with me, Sarah Sundin's A Memory Between Us and Steven James The Bishop, so THREE CHEERS for Revell too!!
Then, as if the above two blessings weren't enough, I get a Facebook message from my FAVORITE author Liz Curtis Higgs (whom I have never met, mind you!), asking me if I could endorse her new book Mine is the Night, the sequel to Here Burns My Candle, which I LOVED!! OH. MY. GOSH!!!!! To quote Sarah Palin ... Are you "flippin'" kidding me???? This was SUCH a shock to my system that I actually worried it was a mistake and that Liz really meant to contact Julie Klassen instead (people mix us up all the time, believe it or not!), but no, she said although Julie was a "lovely" lady, she had meant to contact me. ME!!! Endorsing LIZ CURTIS HIGGS ... MY FAVORITE AUTHOR!!! I repeat: OH. MY. GOSH!!! I am BEYOND thrilled, not only that I get to read a book I am CHOMPING at the bit to read, but that MY name will be in it!! I mean, honestly, that's like Francine Rivers asking me to endorse her book, no joke!! I mean, am I BLESSED or what???
Finally ... yes, there is more!!! I am part of a wonderful 75-author online book signing extravaganza sponsored by Christian Review of Books (CRoB) that will take place November 26 through December 7 where you can purchase online books signed by any of 75 Christian authors, of which I am one. HOW COOL IS THAT??? So if you are looking for signed books as Christmas gifts, then hop on over to my "Signed Books" tab of this website for all the glorious details as well as the list of authors participating in the online book signing. Here's the link: http://www.julielessman.com/signed-books/.
So that's been my week so far ... kind of afraid the rest of the days won't measure up next to Tuesday, but that's okay ... I'm pretty sure the glow from that wonderful blessing of a day will hang on for a while!!
Thanks for "listening." Here's to a "glowing" week of your own ... :)
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2010:
OMIGOSH ... IT'S D-DAY!!!!!
Yep, TODAY is THE deadline for getting my revisions back to my editor on A Heart Revealed and although I finished most of them in Florida, true to form I have found myself writing SO much additional stuff than I thought I would, including staying up till 1:30 AM last night to write a whole new scene for Emma. I just HAD to!! Not only because my editor said I needed more POV on Emma (I didn't really add any additional scenes before last night, just split Sean's total POV scenes, giving Emma half of the POV), but because I got this great idea in church, which come to think of it, is where I get a LOT of my great ideas. Sounds like I daydream during the service, doesn't it??? But I really don't, it's just that my mind is so pliable to God during worship, that I guess the Holy Spirit can plop things in all the easier! :)
On A Hope Undaunted, my agent originally told me I needed to make Katie more sympathetic, so I pulled a story from my past and gave her psoriasis as a young girl in kindergarten, having the kids make fun of her, which not only made her sympathetic (I hope!), but gave her reason for being a champion for the underdog.
So, when my editor told me to make Emma more interesting and sexy (she likened her to a Buddhist nun :)), I had a lot of fun doing that, but it wasn't until I got the idea in church yesterday that I dipped into my own life ONCE AGAIN to pull a scene from my past. This time, I wanted to show that Emma, who really is content with her life alone, does, upon rare occasion, reflect on herself as a woman who used to know what it was like to be kissed and loved by a man. Although Emma is very soft and feminine, as a woman with scars on her face (and on her soul), she sees herself as a monster, hideous to the eye. When I was a young girl, I saw myself the same way because so many people made fun of me and guys even called me ugly during my teens. Consequently, one of my favorite games was to lock myself in the bathroom (it was my job to clean it) put on my sister's lipstick and pretend I was at a party where guys fought over asking me to dance. :)
Now Emma does NOT lock herself in a bathroom and at thirty-one, she is, of course, WAY older than I was at nine, but the feelings and desires a woman has to be beautiful are much the same, which is what I played upon, giving the reader what I hope is a heart-breaking (and endearing) glimpse into Emma's soul. BUT ... only time (and my editor) will tell if I succeeded ... :)
Happy Monday!!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2010:
HAPPY FRIDAY!!!
It was raining today … not water, mind you, but glorious gold and burnt-orange leaves while I sat out on my deck in 75-DEGREE WEATHER alllll week long!! Now I ask you, who needs Florida with this kind of balmy day in November??? Although the autumn colors in St. Louis were not as vibrant as usual, I still love the swish and sway of the leaves as the drift to and fro into the woods, onto our deck and yes … into my hair. In fact, when I stand up from my chair and ottoman, I am ankle deep in leaves, but I don’t mind. It’s just SO glorious to be writing on my laptop outside in the middle of November!!
But I have to admit … I do miss Florida just a wee bit. Mostly my sister, Kate, of course, who is such a sweetheart to live with, just like when we were little. As many of you know, Kate’s the sister that used to lay on her twin bed across from mine at the age of nine and beg me to read my story (the beginnings of A Passion Most Pure written when I was twelve). Kate is also that incredibly sweet little girl named Katie in my autobiographical story entitled “Windowsill Jesus” that appeared on the Inkwell Inspirations blog recently (http://inkwellinspirations.blogspot.com/2010/09/welcome-revell-author-julie-lessman.html). And I gotta tell you, my sister, Kate, was exactly that kind of angel in the story then and remains so today. I’ve talked about her so much, but suddenly it occurred to me that I failed to post a picture of her, so I thought it would be a fun to post one today. Unfortunately, the only one I have of her and me (she hates to have her picture taken, unlike her drama-queen big sister!), is one taken years ago, but it shows her cute personality, so it’s a favorite of mine.
A more recent picture of Kate and me is one taken with a number of my other sisters and Aunt Julie a few years ago, which is another favorite because it’s hard to get all my sisters together (four of them are missing from this photo).
Finally, when I was staying with Kate in Florida, she showed me some pics she had from our youth, so I thought it would be fun to show you a few. The first is me and my older sister, Ellie, who is actually the inspiration for Charity O’Connor because Ellie was always the vamp, and I was not!! Although, in the last picture below, 
you probably can see just a hint of the vamp-to-be in the “Charity” aspect of my personality! :)
Anyway, I think it's always fun to stroll down someone else's Memory Lane, and I would love to see pics of you, too, so anybody interested in sharing, just send them to my e-mail at gsus(at)charter(dot)net, okay? In the meantime, y’all have a GREAT (warm!!) weekend!
Hugs,
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2010:
HAPPY HUMP DAY!!! And to make it even better, how about a little laughter??? I don't know about you, but I need it right about now because I am no longer sitting on a lanai in Florida sipping coffee with my feet up. I feel like such a slacker since I got home from Florida on Monday, rolling out of bed everyday at 8:00 or 9:00 AM going, "Uh, where's the palm trees, Keith, and I'll take my cappucino on the lanai, please ..." NOT!!! More like 47 degrees, dead leaves on the trees and mountains of laundry ... Oh, man, sometimes reality bites, doesn't it??!! :)
Anyway, if you want to laugh AND win THREE amazing books by a very funny Zondervan author, hop on over to my Seeker blog today where my good friend, Mary Pierce, is guest blogging. You won't be sorry, trust me, because Mary has a knack for mixing humor and holiness in a manner that will bless your socks off!! So here's the link, along with the books you could win, okay? Good luck and God bless!
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2010/11/welcome-mary-pierce-humorist-speak.html
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2010:
WOW ... what a week!! One of the best of my life, spending it with my sister, Kate, at her Florida condo, and today I head home to my hubby and daugther in St. Louis, both of whom I cannot wait to see!!
I did absolutely everything I wanted to do -- worked on the lanai finishing edits for several days, biking, reading both Patti Lacy and MaryLu Tyndall's latest books (soooo good!!!), going to the pool and the beach and dinner out every single night, staying up late watching the Mentalist (season 2, my gift to Kate as a very small thank you ... it's her favorite show!), then sleeping late, coffee and peach oatmeal on the lanai, talking to Kate for an hour or so in the morning, dinner out with other family members and then dinner last night at my other sister's house. What a GREAT way to spend my birthday week, as attested to by this happy pic of me with the cake my sister bought me, which I may as well have just slathered on my hips -- same effect!! :)
And then as if THAT wasn't enough, I had one of the coolest experiences EVER going to dinner at two of my favorite reader friends' house -- Joetta and her daughter Kelsey, along with Joetta's other daughters Emily and Abby, her sweet hubby Todd and her "crazy" sister, Charlene, ALL of whom read my books!!! Well, all except Todd, of course, although Joetta has been known to read my books to him in their camper on road trips ... :) I can HARDLY believe that Joetta drove SIX hours (round trip x 2) to take me to dinner at her house, and I was SO excited to finally "meet" her, that when I opened the door, we both screamed and jumped and hugged like teenagers -- SOOOO much fun!! Thanks again, Joetta, for making my stay in Florida SO much more fun, sweetie -- love you!! Here's Joetta and her daughter Abby when they picked me up -- aren't they cute??? Once Joetta sends me pics that she took (hint, hint), I will post a shot of ALL of these adorable Florida reader friends!!
Kate is taking me to the airport in a few hours, but first she insisted on taking pics of me on her lanai (where I sat on my butt a good part of the week!!) because my sister is a crazy shutterbug!!
Like I said -- what a week!! Sigh. Thank you, God, for soooo many blessings!!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2010:
WHAT'S BETTER THAN A FRIDAY????
That's easy -- a Friday in Florida!! :) Yep, I'm still lazing and grazing in my sister's Florida condo, and man, I could get used to this lifestyle!! Of course, my baby is still back in St. Loo, but we talk twice a day, so I'll muddle through ... :)
And WHOO-HOO, the edits are done!!! They were hard, I won't lie to you, but I did have a LOT of fun adding more "steam" to the book because God knows there is nothing I like better than writing love scenes!! Sigh.
Just finished the BEST book!! I am endorsing my dear friend, Patti Lacy's, upcoming book entitled The Rhythm of Secrets, and WHOA, BABY ... WHAT A STORY!! Of course I will endorse anything Patti writes because she is, hands-down, one of the most talented authors I've ever read, and that's saying something because Patti writes women's fiction and I tend to primarily like romance. But let me tell you, I was up till 2:00 AM last night because I seriously couldn't stop reading, so mark your calendars for January 2011 when The Rhythm of Secrets is released through Kregel Publications.
Next, I get to dive into MaryLu Tyndall's 2nd book in the "Surrender to Destiny" series, Surrender the Night since I will also endorse ANYTHING this woman writes!! MaryLu knows how to write an action-packed romance that curls your toes, so I'm PUMPED to read it. It releases March 2011 and you'll want to be sure to mark your calendars on this one too.
Finally, my sister Kate had pictures she took of Aunt Julie and me at a birthday party I threw for AJ two years ago, so I thought it would be fun to post it here so you can see who you have been praying for! This is at my house on my lower deck that overlooks gorgeous woods where I write six months out of the year, if you recall. Here's my seet Aunt Julie, who, by the way, is doing very well at her new digs. Isn't she cute???
Gotta run ... MaryLu's hot ms. is burning a hole next to me in my bedspread here, so I'm going to turn on the ceiling fan and cool off while I read ... :) Have a great weekend and see you on Monday!
Hugs and more hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2010:
WHOO-WEEE ... it shore is hot in the sunshine state!!! And, girls and boys, I'm NOT just talkin' 'bout the weather!! Nope, between BURNING the candles at both ends (up till 2:00 AM, sleep till 9:00 AM) and turning up the HEAT in book 5, A Heart Revealed with my edits (yes, it's true -- my editor actually asked me to put a little more steam in the book, if you can believe that!!), there are more hot flashes going on here than in a room full of menopausal women!!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all my fabulous reader friends who sent me birthday greetings on Facebook yesterday ... I'll bet I had over 500 greetings, and I appreciated every single one. My birthday was WONDERFUL -- feet propped up on a lanai all day overlooking a golf course at my sister's condo while I finished up edits on AHR, drank coffee and just thanked God for all my blessings. My sister, Kate, and I had dinner at Hemingway's (how appropriate is that for an author!!), sitting outside overlooking a small lake with fountains -- soooo much fun!! The only way it could be better is if Keith could have been here, but this week in Florida is a birthday present from my sis, a girl's week away, wining, dining and gorging ourselves with soooo much good food and great conversation. I am SO blessed!!
Tomorrow we bike ride to the Bay Club for pastries and coffee, then the next day or so we will hit the beach. I hope to make it to the pool as well before my time runs out. And one of the highlights of my week will be going to dinner at the house of two of my FAVORITE reader friends, Joetta and her daughter, Kelsey. I cannot believe they are willing to drive over an hour one way to pick me up and then take me back, but I am sooooo PUMPED to meet them and truly cannot think of a better way to top off a wonderful week!!!
Like I said, I am SO blessed!! I hope and pray that each of you have a blessed week too.
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2010:
OKAY, MARK YOUR CALENDARS ... this will be a first. Yes, a "jot" actually short enough to be a "jot"!!!
I arrived in Bonita Springs/Naples, Florida tonight and had dinner with two of my favorite sisters at a Hawaiian Fusion restaurant -- soooo much fun!!
My edits are almost done and FINALLY coming together. If you can believe it, my editor wanted me to pump up the passion in A Heart Revealed, so go ahead -- ask me if I had fun with THAT!! ;)
Don't forget to vote tomorrow, and I'll talk to you on Wednesday.
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2010:
I'VE GOT GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS ...
The good news is that it's FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOO-HOO, how I LOVE Fridays!!!!!!!!!!
The bad news??? I only have THREE MORE DAYS to finish my edits on A Heart Revealed before I board a plane on Monday to go to FLORIDA with my sister, Kate, to her condo in Naples!!!! That sounds like good news, doesn't it, and it is ... IF I get my edits done. I'm only halfway through the book, so the real bad news is that ... I have NO time to do an open-comment day on November 1st because THAT is the day I leave, and between packing, finishing moving Aunt Julie on Saturday, and edits, I am flat out of time.
BUT ... the good news is that I will have a SUPER-DUPER open-comment day on December 1st when I will announce the winner of my website "post-a-review" contest in which someone will win signed copies of all my books PLUS a $50 CBD.com or Amazon.com gift card. The details are on the "contest tab" of my website at http://www.julielessman.com/contest/, so be sure to check it out, okay? ESPECIALLY if you have EVER posted a review for any of my books on CBD.com or Amazon.com before because those reviews count as entries in the contest.
BUT WAIT ... that's not all!! I also will be awarding a signed copy of one of my books and four top CBA books, one book every three hours from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, so that's SIX chances to win ... one big winner in the review contest and five additional winners throughout the day. So, join me on Journal Jots for OPEN-COMMENT DAY on MONDAY, DECEMBER 1st to chat, ask questions and win books!!!
Also, as many of you know, my giveaways are coming to an end and two of the last ones end today, so if you haven't entered by leaving a comment at one of the following blogs, high-tail it over there before the names are drawn. After this, I only have one more giveaway in November and one in December until next year when A Heart Revealed comes out in September 2011. Here are the links:
Win a signed copy of A Hope Undaunted OR your choice of one of The Daughters of Boston books at Southern Sassy Things blog at:
http://southernsassythings.blogspot.com/2010/10/julie-lessman-interview-and-giveaway.html
HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY TO ASHLEY!!!Win a signed copy of A Hope Undaunted OR your choice of one of The Daughters of Boston books PLUS a top CBA book at After All, Tomorrow is Another Day blog at:
http://anotherdayforhim.blogspot.com/2010/10/gone-with-posts-blogaversary-last-day.html
FINALLY ... I want to congratulate Ariel Wilson who won Casey Herringshaw's A Hope Undaunted cover lookalike contest -- WAY TO GO, ARIEL!! I was particularly impressed that Ariel took great pains to match the dress color, so great job, Ariel!!
Happy Friday to each of you and I will talk to you on Monday from beautiful Naples, Florida!!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2010:
Today I am going to do something a little different. A.) Because I don't have time to write a long, deep jot as I am hot and heavy into massive edits on A Heart Revealed and desperately trying to get them done before I leave for Florida with my sister next Monday and B.) I was rifling through a drawer the other day and came upon the coolest thing -- stacks of typed diary pages of mine from before I was married, including love journals to Keith, poems and yes ... the tattered original 150-single-spaced ms. for A Passion Most Pure that I wrote at the age of 12.
I have to admit that my breath caught in my throat when I found them, causing my life to flash back in time almost fifty years. I immediately poured everything out on my bed and immersed myself in the mind of a 12-year-old drama queen all the way through the point where I became a caffeinated drama queen in my mid-20s.
When I was in college, I wrote tons of poetry and even won the campus poetry contest, so I guess I wasn't too bad. But the poem I want to share with you today is one I wrote BEFORE I was a Christian. I was very bitter at God as some of you already know (yes, I really did want to burn Bibles in hotel rooms!), so in it I used Jesus' name disrespectfully, something I regret today.
However, in rereading it after I came to Christ, I was struck at how what I had intended as disrespect, I believe God heard as a prayer from a suffering soul crying out for His love. Notice the salutation, which as I said, I originally meant as nothing more than an expression, and then the last line, which ends with the word "sun," which could easily be changed to "Son." I truly believe that even when we ignore or turn away from God, our spirits cry out to His, and if enough people are praying for us, God can transform a bitter 23-year-old agnostic into a woman whose books are love letters to God.
Please ... for those of you praying for loved ones ... NEVER underestimate your prayers or the faithfulness of our God!
Hugs,
Julie
A POEM BY JULIE WINTERER
Jesus Christ, I've lost my sun,
Blinked one day and it was gone
Leaving my sky naked
Of the warmth,
The love,
The light
Eagerly, desperately closing me in
For Christ's sake (or mine)
Leaving me alone in silent vacuum
Forcing me,
Begging me,
To find the answer darkness illuminates
Determined for my glorious death
And
In the destroying process
I learned
Struggling drowns
And denial denies
And at the moment of expiration
God ... I felt the sun!
MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2010:
Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze directly before you.
—Proverbs 4:25
Oh, the virtue of tunnel vision!! Yep, you know what I’m talking about—the kind that keeps you staring straight ahead, focused only on God and not on your problems??
Why is it that God often seems to be a last resort rather than the first one?? I mean even for me—one of these gals who likes to pray for people at the drop of a hat. Like this weekend at a book signing where I met a sweet woman by the name of Lori who came to see me because she’s read all my books. Without a second thought, I jumped up and ran around the table to give her a big hug (I mean, wouldn't you?? If you were sitting there twiddling your thumbs and somebody showed up??? :)). Anyway, I prayed with her on the spot in the middle of that busy store when she mentioned someone she knew with a problem because I just can’t stop myself—it’s like breathing for me, to pray about everything, seriously. (Note to reader: So if that embarrasses anybody out there, it's best NOT to tell me your problems if we meet in public!! :) But even someone as stop-drop-and-roll as me when it comes to prayer blows it WAY too often to suit me. I mean, where is my tunnel vision when I need it?
Case in point. Last week I needed to arrange for my Aunt Julie’s senior apartment to be cleaned out, things packed up and given away, furniture and everything moved out by the 31st. So I called Salvation Army and asked them if they could make a pickup, only to find out that the only date they had left this month was Oct. 31. Feeling that was too close for comfort, I thanked them and said I’d get back to them. I then proceeded to call several other charities only to discover (to my horror) that nobody could pick up anything until mid-November. Within five minutes I called Salvation Army back, but sweet mercy of God, that one pickup slot I had so carelessly disregarded was now gone, kaput, bye-bye, and the next pickup was now in November. I called four more charities to no avail and finally stood there in my kitchen, heart racing and hope dwindling, frantic that I would not get this monumental task accomplished in time. Resigned to the fact that we might possibly have to go into the next month’s rent at the senior apartment, I left a message for the manager, asking if they would prorate the $3,000/month rent till I could get everything moved.
What did I do then? Duh … I FINALLY turned it over to God and prayed, telling Him that I couldn’t handle the stress of this situation anymore, especially when I needed to be calm and clear-headed to finish the edits on my book by deadline. I took a deep breath and went into tunnel-vision mode, focusing on God and ONLY God and all the times He’s pulled my feet from the fire. All at once this CDQ (caffeinated drama queen) started breathing more easily and the tic in my eye slowed down. And then you know what happened??? Within the hour, the manager from the senior apartment called back to say “no, they would not prorate the rent … BUT they would be happy to take ALL the furniture and stuff I wanted to give away to the charity of my choice and give me the receipt for tax purposes scot-free.
EXCUSE ME??? That’s right—God worked it out so that I didn’t have to do a thing but pack the apartment up with my sisters because the senior-apartment complex just happened to need the apartment by the 1st and were willing to do anything to get it cleaned out. I can tell you one thing—I hung that phone up grinning ear to ear, thinking to myself: Sweet God in heaven, isn’t tunnel vision a wonderful thing??? :)
Hugs,
Julie
P.S. Don’t forget that one of my favorite blogger buds, Ashley, is celebrating her one-year blogaversary over at http://anotherdayforhim.blogspot.com/2010/10/gone-with-posts-blogaversary-last-day.html, where she is having lots of giveaways, one of which is my giveaway of TWO books to one lucky winner, their choice of one of my signed books AND a top CBA-pick book (The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen, Redemption by Karen Kingsbury, Whirlwind by Cathy Marie Hake, Love Finds you In Revenge, Ohio by Lisa Harris or Thunder of Heaven by Ted Dekker) Or two top CBA-pick books as listed above. So hop on over to wish Ashley Happy Blogaversary, and maybe win some books in the process, okay? Tootles!
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2010:
You gave bread from heaven for their hunger,
You sent water from the rock for their thirst.
You told them to enter and take the land, which you promised to give them.
—Nehemiah 9:15
HAPPY FRIDAY, ONE AND ALL!! And what would Friday be without a party, right??? Trust me, after swimming in edits all week (treading water may be a better analogy) on A Heart Revealed, I definitely need some fun today, don’t you???
But before we get to that, I wanted to share something that struck a chord with me in my morning devotion yesterday. When I read my Bible, I read a selection from the Old Testament, from Psalms/Proverbs, and then finally from the New Testament because I think that gives the Holy Spirit a pretty broad range to impart something specific to me. Uh, not that the H.S. needs a broad range, mind you, but sometimes I do. Anyway, I was tooling along in Nehemiah when the above-captioned Scripture jumped off the page at me, maybe because I referred to Jesus as the “Bread of Life” in my Monday Journal Jot, who knows? Anyway, when I came to this verse, I stopped, reread it several times, and then blinked wide, suddenly realizing that this Scripture is just what I needed for today.
Hunger pains are not fun, as we all know, but emotional hunger pains are the worst, and that’s how I was feeling last night. Emotionally starved and depleted of all confidence, hope and joy. Probably because I did not have a very productive day with my edits yesterday because you see, I write by emotion, and I simply had no emotion (other than frustration and anger) over what my editor wants me to do. I don’t know if any of you ever get like this, but I felt like a caged animal in my mind—pacing, pacing—battling self-pity and anger and just generally being overwhelmed. I could not sleep, so my husband held me and prayed for me and talked me down from the ledge. I repented, prayed for the situation and the people involved and then finally fell asleep alternating between the Lord’s prayer and the 23rd psalm over and over in my mind.
I rose this morning with the Scripture “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” circling in my head and then when I read the Scripture above in my morning devotion, it told me loud and clear that when I am wandering in the desert like the chosen people, mumbling and grumbling and in despair, God has given me His Bread to sustain me and see me through. Jesus—the Bread of Life—my sustenance, my strength, and the shepherd of my soul. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Which means in Him, I have all I need to accomplish this task and scale this mountain. And as if that isn’t glorious enough, He sends “water from the rock for my thirst—the Holy Spirit—to replenish me, hydrate me, invigorate me for the task ahead. WHOO-HOO, what more do I need? Because, I repeat, the Lord IS my Shepherd, I shall not want … for anything!! Look out edits, here I come … J
And now for the fun part of Friday!! Last Friday I announced a three-CD giveaway of an incredibly anointed Christian rock group called An Epic No Less, whose song “Echo of Love” has been made into a video that mesmerizes me every time I see it. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here and prepare to be blessed by this unique new sound:
And now, I am pleased to announce that the winners of that CD giveaway are:
JACKIE SMITH
AMBER STOKES
SARAH WEISS
Thanks, guys, for entering the contest. I will be contacting you this week to get your addresses so I can ship your CDs out next week.
Finally … to celebrate in true Friday style, I have two fun things you may want to do today:
1.) One of my favorite blogger buds, Ashley (that is her on the right with her mom and nephew and her pink hair in honor of the fight against breast cancer -- is she not just the cutest thing???), is celebrating her one-year blogaversary over at:
http://anotherdayforhim.blogspot.com/, where she is having lots of giveaways, one of which is my giveaway for tomorrow (Sat., 10/23 - 28) of TWO books to one lucky winner, their choice of one of my signed books AND a top CBA-pick book (The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen, Redemption by Karen Kingsbury, Whirlwind by Cathy Marie Hake, Love Finds you In Revenge, Ohio by Lisa Harris or Thunder of Heaven by Ted Dekker).
OR
Two top CBA-pick books as listed above. So hop on over to wish Ashley Happy Blogaversary, and maybe win some books in the process, okay?
2.) And secondly, if you would like to get a brand-new sneak peek at Sean and Emma’s story, A Heart Revealed, I have an exclusive excerpt posted at Pepper’s blog “Words Seasoned with Salt” at http://pepperbasham.wordpress.com/, so come on by to say “hey,” okay?
That’s it till Monday, so have a GREAT WEEKEND, ALL!!!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2010
Ezra opened the book.
Every eye was on him, and as he opened the book everyone stood.
Then Ezra praised God, the great God, and all the people responded,
“Oh, YES! YES!, with hands raised high. And then they fell to their knees
in worship of God, their faces to the ground.
— Nehemiah 8:5-6
This Scripture was part of my Bible reading this week, and I gotta tell you, being the passionate person I am, my heart actually leaped in my chest when I read the reaction of God’s people to praising God. Because that is EXACTLY how I feel about Him—hands raised and heart full of gratitude to a God who pulls me out the pits. Every. Single. Time.
And you know what? When it comes to “passion,” I may be a little extreme compared to the norm, but I truly believe that extreme passion for God is not only necessary for the success of our prayer life and witness, but I personally believe it is EXACTLY what God is looking for in His people.
I mean, come on … He only called one person in the Bible “a man after His own heart,” and that lucky stiff was King David. Only David wasn’t “stiff” at all in his love affair with God. Oh, no—he spent time with Him, sang to Him, wrote songs, poems and love letters to Him, and even embarrassed his wife, Michal, when he danced before the Lord without abandon, totally unconcerned about making a fool of himself. Because you know what?? I honestly believe “making a fool” of one’s self for God is one of the highest callings out there, and I embrace it totally, in all my passion for Him.
In fact, I talk about this in one of my favorite scenes I’ve written, which appears in A Passion Denied, a conversation between John Brady and his good friend and spiritual mentor, Father Matthew McHugh:
Father Mac exhaled and sat down beside him. He placed a hand on his shoulder. “He does it all the time. I know a man who committed adultery and then murdered his lover’s husband, but God forgave him.”
Brady looked up with shock in his eyes.
A faint smile shadowed Matt’s lips. “In fact, he called him a man after his own heart.”
“King David?”
Father Mac nodded. He removed his hand from Brady’s shoulder and took a drink of his coffee. He wrinkled his nose. “Cold. Want me to warm it up?”
Father Mac didn’t wait for his answer, but dumped both cups and replaced them with hot. He set them on the table and sat back down. “King David was an unusual character. Loved God with all of his heart, but had this unfortunate flaw.” Father Mac paused to taste his coffee, then quirked his lips. “He was human. For instance, one day he’s dancing before the Lord in a linen ephod, not giving a whit that his wife thinks he’s making a fool of himself. Then down the road a bit, he’s lusting after a married woman he sees taking a bath on the roof of her house. And what does he do, this man who loves God with all of his heart? He takes her to his bed, then has her husband sent to the battlefront to be killed.”
Father Mac leaned in, his gaze intent. “He committed adultery and murder, yet he’s still the only man in the Bible God refers to as ‘a man after His own heart.’ Now why is that, I wonder? I’ll tell you why. Because David was a man who had a love affair with God. Imagine that—emotionally involved with the God of the Universe. Trusted Him, worshiped him, sought after him—and all without restraint. Did he mess up? You bet. Did he repent? With all of his heart, aching inside whenever he offended his God. Why? Because he had a Father-son relationship with him, loved him and wanted to please him.” Father Mac hesitated, slowly tracing his finger along the rim of his cup. He finally raised his eyes to capture Brady with a fixed stare. “Just like you, John.”
***
Oh, the joy of being “emotionally involved with the God of the Universe”!! Trust me, it’s more than heavenly—it’s powerful! Remember the Scripture “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. — James 5:16? Yeah, well for a very long time, I missed one very important word in that sentence that changes EVERYTHING. The “effectual FERVENT prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Definition: showing great intensity of emotion, feeling or zeal
Synonyms: impassioned, zealous, burning, earnest, vehement, ardent
That’s right, LOTS of emotion and feeling in our prayers help make them effective. Why? Because God is a passionate, emotional Being who wants to connect with us on every level, especially in our prayers. I happen to believe this SO much, that when I pray for others, I literally close my eyes and make myself focus hard on what I’m saying, almost feeling their situation in my mind, until I feel my heart connect with God in compassion and love and desire to see change in that person’s life. In fact, if I catch my mind wandering halfway down the page, not even realizing who I have just prayed for, I actually start over, lasering each person once again with my passionate focus.
Friends and family often ask me to pray for them, many times saying “your prayers just seem to work, Julie.” You know what? I’ve noticed that too, and since I know God is “no respecter of persons,” meaning He doesn’t have “favorites,” I can only attribute it to the passion and fervor I put into my relationship with Him and into my prayers, connecting with God just like King David did—from the heart. God’s heart.
And when one’s heart “bleeds” for God, the “righteous” part of that Scripture just comes more naturally, from a heart who truly wants to please their Father with obedience to His Word, doubling the power of one’s prayer to “availeth much.”
For you emotional types out there, this will come easily if you aren’t doing it already. But for you more strait-laced and reserved lovers of God, give it a shot. Get emotional with the God of the Universe in your prayer closet, and then look out—you may just find yourself going a little bit crazy for Him in the passion department too. :)
NOTE: If you missed out on the last-Friday contest for a great CD, just scroll down to read the October 15 Jot because you can win a free video that includes the following song by an amazing new Christian rock group called An Epic No Less. I challenge you to listen to this video just once and see if it doesn't grab you like it grabbed me ... Here's the link, and if you want to enter for one of three CDs I'm giving away, just shoot me an e-mail through my website or contact me via Facebook.
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2010
The good, the bad and the ugly. And, no, I am not talking about a Clint Eastwood movie -- I'm talking about my life ... and yours, no doubt!!
The good? My dear, sweet Aunt Julie is finally settled in her new home at Delmar Gardens skilled nursing facility -- a spacious room with mauve carpeting that matches what furniture she was allowed to bring. She has a tiny, French-Quarter-style patio overlooking bright splashes of purple and yellow mums, just catty-corner from the beauty salon and a mere 20 feet or so from the elegant dining room. Her roommate is a gift from God, like Aunt Julie to me and, just like Aunt Julie, a former teacher of grades 1,2 and 3, a former resident of South St. Louis and a Catholic. The discovery of these vital facts lit my aunt's face with a truly glorious smile that I had not seen in over two months. Go ahead, tell me that's not a God thing!!
The bad? Well, AJ is all settled, but I am not exactly breathing all that easily yet. Why, you ask? Well, my editor sent me 14 pages of revisions on A Heart Revealed on Friday, wanting to pull several of my favorite subplots and add more scenes to Katie and Luke's subplot, which I had worried was too long already. Sigh. And after I worked so hard to "tone down" the romantic passion in this book because I'm trying to do what my husband says and "write for the market," my editor wants more of it, explaining that that is what my readers expect from a Julie Lessman novel. Double Sigh. And this was the book my husband felt my editor would love and in which there would be minimal revisons. Right on point 1, wrong on point 2. She did love it, however, and even said she found herself thinking about it a lot after the reading, even to the point of dreaming about it as a musical, with the O'Connor sisters as a kind of whirling, twirling "Greek chorus." You know, like the Greek chorus in Mama Mia??? All I can say is thank God she's not making me put it to music, because everyone knows I'm tone deaf.
And now, on to the "ugly." You know -- those awful, nasty, demoralizing thoughts that tell me that THIS time, I will not be able to fix the manuscript. That I am not up to it, a thought that seriously threatens as a I waver, completely overwhelmed by the mountain of revisons looming before me. And then slowly ... something happens. I see glorious shafts of sunlight peeking over the jagged peaks of this ominous responsibility as the beauty of God casts its heavenly glow over my problems, transforming everything ugly in my life into His beauty, His peace, His grace. Because I KNOW that "I CAN do all things through Christ" (Philippians 4:13)." I KNOW that "my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer (Psalm 45:1). I KNOW that my God will NOT let "my hopes be dashed" (Psalm 119:116).
On Sunday at church, my pastor taught on The Lord's Prayer, particularly the verse, "Give us this day our daily bread." During the sermon, he told a story about children in an orphanage in a foreign country who had survived a disaster that had left them hungry for days before help finally came in the form of charitable relief. The children were given three nourishing meals a day but night after night, these children could not sleep, wrestling with nightmares and fear. When questioned about their worries, the children told those who were caring for them that they did not want to go to sleep for fear there would be no food in the morning. After much prayer and thought, one of those in charge suggested giving each child a piece of bread to clutch in their hands all night, a kind of security blanket, if you will, that they would not starve. It worked like a charm, apparently, and there was peace once again through the darkest hours of the night.
Like now ... for me. Give us this day our daily bread. For the first time I find myself really thinking about what that means. God does not mince or waste His words -- every single one is true and real and SO full of His power that sometimes we take it for granted. Well, let me tell you -- I am not taking it for granted today, no!! Because today I need His bread -- His peace, His assurance, His grace to scale this mountain, one day at a time. And you know what? Just like those kids with the bread clutched tightly in their hands, I clutch tightly to Jesus, the "Bread" of life because I know that I know that I know ... this is a God who will NEVER let me ... nor any of His children ... ever go hungry. And THAT, my friends, is the real "good" today in the "good, the bad and the ugly" of this crazy roller-coaster we call "life." And may our God transform each and every one of our fears into one of the most thrilling rides of our lives.
Have a blessed day.
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2010
One Word
By An Epic No Less
If I had only one word that I could say
It would be Your name
If I had only one thing that I could see
It would be Your face
And the words of this song I sing could never contain
The greatness and glory of Your name.
Oh, man, aren’t Fridays the absolute best??? Especially when I can kick them off listening to my NEW favorite CD while sitting outside on my deck all bundled up, reveling in “the greatness and glory of His name.”
Those of you who have been reading these Jots for a while know that when it comes to music, I’m a little bit eccentric. Okay, okay … a lot eccentric because even though I have an iPod full of worship music, I tend to listen to a few favorite songs over and over and over … kind of like … well … a broken record!
It’s a little bit like this. Remember when the movie Mama Mia came out with all the Abba songs? Even though Abba is our generation, my husband and I left the movie theatre less than thrilled because we felt the movie was miscast. But then something really strange happened. After a few days, all three of us—me, my husband and my daughter—each started humming a different Abba song ALL WEEK LONG!! Next thing I know, my husband runs out to buy the movie and we start watching it once a week until I bet we watched it over 20 times. Somehow those songs got a hold of us and crept into our brains like “earworms”—you know, those songs, jingles, and tunes that get stuck in your head? Well, for me, that’s how it is with certain worship music—it crawls inside my head, grabs a hold of my heart and won’t let go until the Holy Spirit works His magic.
So, for the last couple of years, some of my select favorites have been David Crowder, Michael W. Smith and Darlene Zschech of Hillsong … spiritual “earworms,” all. BUT … WHOA, BABY ... turn up the volume, my friends, because there are new kids on the block, or the iPod, I should say and I gotta tell ya, they’re blowing me away!! The lyrics, the music, the anointing is SO amazing, that I am compelled to tell you about them. Their name is An Epic No Less, and it is a brand-new group of two guys (yep, you heard me, two!) who have the most unique and addicting sound to capture me in years. It’s new and different with just a touch of electric, and I absolutely LOVE it! And you know what?? I’m betting you will too …
Who are they? Well, let me just say that when my prayer partner asked me to pray for a secret musical project her son and another guy was working on, I was intrigued to say the least. But when she revealed to me that the project was a Christian rock/pop (not sure which term is correct, all I know is I LOVE it!) and sent me a link to a video they did, I was BLOWN AWAY!! God’s hand is ALL over these guys, and trust me, you are going to be hearing their name and their music in the very near future.
Uh … like right now! Here is the link to the video that dropped my jaw and that of my husband and daughter when we heard it for the first time. Their lyrics are inspired and their passion for God truly anointed, so I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. If you do, contact me through my website or Facebook, and I will throw your name in a hat for a drawing of one of three CDs entitled “We Are the Echo of Love,” with eight of the coolest songs I’ve heard in a long, long time. I will draw names Thursday night, 10/21, and announce the winners on next Friday's Journal Jot, okay? I promise you if you listen to it more than once, you will be hooked! Turn your volume up, enjoy, and HAPPY FRIDAY!!
Here’s the link: http://vimeo.com/15182665
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2010
FINALLY ... I got through five days of e-mails last night, two more interviews completed and the Facebook Party and two book signings are over and done, bringing me THAT much closer to getting caught up!! YEAH ... DEEP BREATH!!! Now I have only three more interviews to write and edits from my editor on A heart Revealed expected to come any day now, and then I can get back to writing book 3 A Trust Restored (working title). So THANK YOU for your prayers, my dear friends, and you know who you are!!
UPDATE ON AUNT JULIE: After three calls from the medical service at her senior apartment complex last week alone (including one fall), I have reluctantly arranged for AJ to move to a really lovely skilled-nursing facility this week -- one that a dear nurse friend of mine (and Aunt Julie's) said was one of the best. It is only 10-12 minutes away from me, looks like a Ritz-Carlton, and we knew it was from God when we ran into old friends whose aunt lives there and loves it, claiming the food is "fabulous." If you can believe this, only one room was available for her, and it's PERFECT!! Out of hundreds of rooms, there are only a few that have cute, little patios, which is what AJ is used to, and this room has a patio, plus carpeting that matches what furniture she will bring, it's the closest room to the dining room and the beauty shop AND she will share it with the sweetest, nicest roommate you ever saw (I gave AJ the option of private room or shared, and she actually chose shared!!). So on Saturday, Keith and I will move her there, then all we'll have to do is clean out her apartment/sell/store stuff, and we are good to go. So THANK YOU for your prayers, because this has been a very trying/painful situation.
If you are in the market for a critique or a new book, please stop by Seekerville today where former Harlequin professional reader, Patty Smith Hall, will be talking about "The Call ... the One you DON'T Want to Miss, plus giveaway of Patty's upcoming book or a critique. Here's the link: http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/.
Also, I only have a few blog interview/giveaways left, so if you haven't checked out the two currently running, please do because one only has 31 comments, so the odds are good for a win! Here is the info:
NOW THROUGH TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2010:
Win a signed copy of A Hope Undaunted OR your choice of one of The Daughters of Boston books at A.J. Hawke's blog at:
http://ajhawke.blogspot.com/2010/09/julie-lessman-hope-undaunted-book.html
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8 - THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2010:
Win a signed copy of A Hope Undaunted OR your choice of one of The Daughters of Boston books at A Sequence of Continous Delights blog at:
http://continuousdelights.blogspot.com/2010/10/julie-lessman-interview-giveaway.html
Thanks for coming by, and have a BLESSED day!!
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2010
The leaves are just starting to turn in St. Louis, and I for one can't wait!! I'm ready for this new season, hoping it will be a littttttle bit slower than the last!!
Had two book signings this weekend, and one of the highlights was signing with Kim Cash Tate, author of the Thomas Nelson book Faithful, the story of three women attending a wedding where their lives take a turn for the worse ... or is it for the better?? This book automatically grabbed my attention, not only because I loved meeting Kim and the premise sounds SO good, but because one of my favorite authors, Stasi Eldredge (coauthor of Captivating) endorsed Kim's book. WOW -- that's huge!! Kim is also a "Women of Faith" speaker, a lawyer and a homeschool mom -- she was delightful!!
The second highlight was two ladies coming to see me from The Breast Center in St. Louis, each to a different book signing. One of them, Gerie, started reading my books and passing them around to the gals in the office. She now has about ten of these women in The Breast Center reading my books, so Gerie is VERY special to me, needless to say!! And her coworker, Cindy, also came by, so thank you to both of these wonderful ladies for taking the time to be a highlight of my weekend!!
Another highlight was a good friend and coworker from a long time ago named Sandy, who was the inspiration for a scene in A Hope Undaunted where Faith is trying to talk to Katie about God, but Katie is almost agnostic, not even sure if God exists. The following part of that scene is based on the same conversation I had with Sandy over 30 years ago:
“Katie,” she whispered, “you say God’s not real to you, that you don’t even believe he exists. But right this minute, one of us is right and one of us is wrong ...”
Katie looked into her sister’s face, as if compelled to listen by some strange force that pulled at her with a tentative thread of hope.
Wetness shimmered in Faith’s eyes. “If it’s me who is wrong, then I have lost nothing. Because even if I have believed in a lie or a fairy-tale, then that lie or fairy-tale has given me more joy, more hope and more strength than anything I have ever encountered. But if it is you who is wrong, Katie, I tremble to think that you will have lost everything—his joy, his peace, his hope …” Her voice softened to a bare whisper. “His salvation.” She straightened then, her manner as sure as the conviction in her tone. “I repeat, Katie, one of us is right and one of us is wrong. Do it now, I beg of you—invite him into your heart. Because truly, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
Finally, the last highlight came when a man and his wife walked into the Borders where I was signing, and he didn't even know I was going to be there that day. His story is REALLY fun, because it blew me away the first time it happened. You see, I worked with his wife Mauna at Maritz Travel, and after I left the company, I found out that one of my friends was passing the binder manuscript for A Passion Denied around the company and that there was actually a waiting list for it!! Well, I had heard that Mauna had taken the ms. home, which was fine, but the shock came when I got an e-mail from her husband Todd, telling me that he was the one who read it!! He proceeded to inform me that not only did he love the ms. for A Passion Denied, but he promptly went out and bought the first two books as well, telling me that Nicholas Sparks was his favorite author, and now I was up there on the shelf next to him as a favorite author.
Needless to say, I was STUNNED. Come again??? It seems that Mauna does not read romance, but Todd does, and not only does he love my books, but he came to my last book signing and gave me a hug!! Soooo ... when he and Mauna waltzed into Borders and looked up and saw me, it was SOOOO much fun!! He proceeded to tell me that he had no idea I was there signing, but that they had come in for the express purpose of getting A Hope Undaunted, so how fun is that??? Not only the coincidence of it all, but the fact that he is a guy who has three favorite authors that he automatically buys their books, and I am one!!! VERY cool and very much a blessing!! Thank you, Todd!!
So that was my weekend! Hope yours had some highlights too!!
Don't forget that the SEEKERVILLE BIRTHDAY PARTY is going on all month, with TONS of prizes given away EVERY DAY as well as a grand-prize contest for a KINDLE, so check out the details here http://seekerville.blogspot.com/p/birthday-party.html, then hop on over to Seekerville at http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/, okay?
Have a blessed day!!
Hugs,
Julie
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2010
Hope your weekend is going well so far!! Mine is busy (two book signings today, so if you are in the St. Louis area, PLEASE check my website calendar for times and locations!!), plus my Aunt Julie fell again last night, so I am pretty blue about the fact that I am forced to put her in a skilled nursing facility. Keith and I are going tomorrow after church to check it out one last time (we already chose it out of many we toured because of such high ratings), so prayers would be appreciated.
If you have sent me an e-mail recently, I apologize for any delay in response, but this has been the busiest week of my life, and I told Keith that if I could afford it, I would have a breakdown right now, but I'm too busy, so I will have to schedule it for next week!! :)
Cannot WAIT for life to go back to normal, whatever that is!! :)
Have a GREAT weekend, all! Love ya!!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010
HAPPY FRIDAY, ALL ... AND WHOA, BABY, I don't know about you guys, but I am STILL not recovered from the FaceBook Party last night!!! Was that CRAZY BUSY or what??? Just to show you how deluded I am, I actually thought I would be able to respond to each one of you!! DUH!! With almost 1,000 comments and only one of me -- a non-FB-savvy type of gal who got her hands slapped by FaceBook for responding too quickly to comments prior to the party with the following message:
Warning! You are engaging in behavior that may be considered annoying or abusive by other users.
Facebook's systems determined that you were going too fast when posting on walls. You must significantly slow down. Further misuse of site features may result in a temporary block or your account being permanently disabled. For further information, please visit our FAQ page.
UH ... COME AGAIN????
Well, you can guess how hard it was for me to keep up ... ESPECIALLY since my publicist's computer crashed right before the party, and didn't reboot till seven minutes in!!! She was to call me at 6:40 PM (20 minutes before the party) to calm me down, walk me through it and hold my hand. OH-MY-GOSH!!! You all already know what a caffeinated drama queen I am, so imagine what I was like when the party had already started and no call from Amy!! God love her (and me!), she had both computer and phone problems, but all your prayers and patience saved the day, and we got the show on the road!
So THANK YOU one and all for your incredible support and enthusiasm. Honestly, you guys made ME look half dead the way you were partying and chatting. Sure wish it could have been in person!
The winners are posted on my contest tab at http://www.julielessman.com/contest/ along with a new contest, so be sure to check it out, okay?
In the meantime, there are TONS of comments that I had hoped to respond to, but unfortunately due to a Facebook glitch, I lost almost 900 of them, so if you left a comment or question that I didn't get to or one you wanted to ask, please feel free to post it on my Facebook "Fan" page here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julie-Lessman/98874268454, and I will be happy to respond. In the meantime, here's the link to the party to see what went on AND get a tiny sneak peek at A Heart Revealed.
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=436644772922&id=98874268454
Also, check out a new interview/giveaway just up today at A Sequence of Continuous Delights at http://continuousdelights.blogspot.com/. If you didn't win last night, maybe you will here! :) Hope to see you there!
HUGS!!!
Julie
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2010
YIKES!!!! This is it ... the day of of my ... FACEBOOK PARTY!!!!!!! I would love to see you there because I'll be chatting for a full hour -- with YOU -- answering your questions and giving you a sneak-peek blurb about Sean and Emma's story, A Heart Revealed!!
This is your chance to win a KINDLE or one of the many prizes I will be giving away EVERY TEN MINUTES (i.e. Amazon.com gift cards, Netflix gift cards and Starbucks gift cards, PLUS Bath and Body Works champagne product, pearls and ... LOTS of signed copies of A Hope Undaunted)!! So, hope to see you there and here's everything you need to know ...
FACEBOOK PARTY THURSDAY, OCT. 7 at 7:00 PM (CST)!!!!!!
If you would like to attend the A Hope Undaunted Facebook Party then follow this link! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143920688983543 and click LIKE if you’re not already a ‘fan’ (so you can participate in the party) and click ‘Attend’ to let me know you’re coming to the party. Then come back tomorrow (THURS., OCT. 7) at 5:00 PM PST, 6:00 PM MST, 7:00 PM CST & 8:00 PM EST) to this same link:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143920688983543
Everything you need to know will be right there on the screen in front of you. During the party we’ll chat using the comment feature on Facebook. You can ask me questions and I’ll ask you some. I’ll be sharing a bit about the story behind A Hope Undaunted and giving you a sneak peek at the next book in the series. I’ll also be announcing the winner of the KINDLE. Woot, Woot! Oh. And did you see all the loot I’m giving away? Yep – you’ll have lots of chances to win something great. The link explains it all, so be there or be square!!! :) Here's that link again!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143920688983543
AND DON’T FORGET ABOUT BOOK BOMB DAY TODAY (OCT. 7)!!!! If you participate in the Book Bomb on October 7th you’ll be entered to win a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com. All you need to do to participate is buy a copy of A Hope Undaunted on October 7th and send your receipt (just transaction number from store, store name & date) to amy@litfusegroup.com! Each book purchased equals one entry, buy 10 books get 10 entries!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2010
In the words of Mary Connealy ... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OH, MAN ... going CRAZEEEE today with my Seeker blog and the Facebook Party TOMORROW, so I hope you will drop by to see me at ...
THE TEASE … Great Scene/Chapter Endings to Lead Your Readers On! Head on over to Seekerville today for some fun with scene/chapter endings AND win one of my signed books, a 10-page critique OR a grab bag of three top CBA reads by authors you LOVE!!
PLUS ... IT'S SEEKER BIRTHDAY MONTH ... when we are giving away TONS of... prizes every day and a KINDLE loaded with Seeker books for just leaving a comment on the Seeker blog every day of this month!!!
So, what are you waiting for??? Here's the link:
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2010/10/tease-great-scenechapter-endings-to.html
Hope to see you there!!
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2010
OH, MAN ... it's one of THOSE days when I'm meeting myself coming and going, and each time I have a tic in my eye ... Say one for me, PLEASE!! :)
I have SO many great "jots' to share with you but no time to write them, so instead I'm going to direct you to a short story I wrote about my sad testimony about my mom and me and Windowsill Jesus, Who I wrote about in the acknowledgments at the back of A Passion Most Pure. There's a signed-book giveaway with it, but the contest only lasts till tomorrow, so if you want to enter, go and leave a comment TODAY, okay? Here's the link:
http://inkwellinspirations.blogspot.com/2010/09/welcome-revell-author-julie-lessman.html
Since my schedule is SO CRAZY, I will only "jot" on Monday-Wednesday-Friday of this week, but here's my schedule so you can catch up with me:
MONDAY, 10/4: New interviews going up today and tomorrow and Friday, in addition to three others going on. Check out my website calendar for all the others, but here's the link for the new interview today where I talk about five random things you DIDN'T know about me!
http://someofmyfavoritebooks.blogspot.com/2010/10/interview-giveaway-with-author-of-hope.html
TUESDAY, 10/5: New interview going up where I talk about an unexpected detour that turned out positive ... at http://www.divinedetour.com/
WEDNESDAY, 10/6: My Seeker blog entitled "THE TEASE … Great Scene/Chapter Endings to Lead Your Readers On" where you will not only have a chance to receive mini on-the-spot critique of one of your scene endings, BUT have TWO chances to win your choice of a signed copy of one of my books, a 10-page writer's critique or your choice of a grab-bag of three top CBA books!! PLUS, since it's Seeker Birthday Month, take a look at all the fun stuff going on in Seekerville at the News Flash link at the top of this page! So, I hope to see you there at:
http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/
THURSDAY, 10/7: MY FACEBOOK PARTY at 7:00 PM CST where I will be chatting with readers on my FB page for an hour and giving away prizes every ten minutes (signed books and Amazon.com, Netflix and Starbucks gift cards) PLUS a KINDLE!!! SO MARK YOUR CALENDARS, and here's the link with additional info: http://www.julielessman.com/contest/
FRIDAY, 10/8: Another new interview at:
http://continuousdelights.blogspot.com/
Have a blessed week, and hope to see you on the Net!!
Hugs,
Julie
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2010
Psst ... okay, this is kind of a little sneak "jot" to let those of you know who took the time to come by about a contest for A Hope Undaunted that does not have many comments on it, so the odds are REALLY good!! A good friend of mine is offering a giveaway of A Hope Undaunted, but she did not tell me about it, so I did not advertise it on my blog calendar. It's only up for a few more days, so if you you'd like to win a copy for yourself or as a Christmas gift, this is the blog to head to today!! The link is:
http://carasmusings.blogspot.com/2010/09/hope-undaunted-review-and-giveaway.html
And just to let you know, my anniversary dinner with Keith at Citizen Kane's last night was DEE-LISH!!! Shrimp cocktail and BBQ Cajun Shrimp appetizer, Salad with homemade Mayfair dressing, Beef Medallions with Bearnaise Sauce, creamed spinach and baked potato with butter, sour cream and chives. NO ROOM FOR DESSERT!!!
But the best part was on the way to the restaurant when Keith said that life with me was exciting and that even though I am a "handful," I make his life delightful and give him joy." Sigh ... SO much better than medallions with bearnaise, shrimp cocktail and creamed spinach!! :)
Hugs,
Julie
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2010
Well, it's over ... my first-ever open-comment day is now history. But, OH, what rich history it is!! Not only did you manage to completely bless the socks off of me, BUT ... your spiritual insights were POWERFUL and beautiful and SO anointed. My only regrets are 1.) my husband MADE me pull the plug at about 11:00 PM because he wanted to go to bed because this morning we have to leave in about an hour to help a friend move, so he knew I wouldn't have time to respond to questions left overnight. And 2.) We have a very basic website template that we have not yet figured out how to archive the comments (or the Journal Jots by month), but we hope to in the future so you can read them after the fact if you want.
That said, I did go ahead and copy the last page of comments below for those of you who came late and may not have seen them or my responses.
And now, the most important part of today's Jot is ... TA DA!! The names of the TWO winners (hand-picked by my husband!) of our open-comments drawing for her choice of one of my signed books OR a $15 CBD.com or Amazon.com gift card are ... (drum roll please!) ...
KAREN K and HEATHER (not Busy Mommy Heather, sorry, it's another Heather unless Busy Mommy Heather has two addys!)!!!!
Karen and Heather, SUPER CONGRATS on the win!! Karen, I have your e-mail, so I will contact you direct, sweetie, but Heather, I don't have yours, so you will need to contact me through my website. Then I will send each of you the book/gift card that you want, okay?
My thanks to everyone who participated yesterday and following are the last page of comments for your reading pleasure. Have a blessed weekend, and see you on Monday!!
FROM ELIZABETH:
Hey Julie!!
I'm glad this option to comment is still up cause I think I got confused as to what time your 1st happens here in NZ! I had a lazy morning (2nd) and only got up at 12pm - VERY unheard of for me, what with 2 young children! I have an awesome hubby! :)
I ABSOLUTELY agree with MOLLY and all the others who said things along the same lines. You have SO blessed my life through they way you connect with me....and your words just yesterday encouraged me so much and reminded me that I am precious in God's sight and that I am okay. Lately life has been very hard relationship-wise and from reading your words I realized that I had started again to doubt my worth. So I'm one very grateful reader friend!! You are one-in-a-million for sure, Julie!!
I think it was MOLLY who also says that you outdo Karen Kingsbury! Well, I agree - not that Karen isn't wonderful - but what I love about your books is that they are so unpredictable as well as having awesome God-messages that have great depth to them. I LOVE LOVE the sound of AHU and the message you've woven in there (from someone's comment above) and can't wait to read it - sounds like it would be great for me just now!!
So, again, a big thank you for all you do to make us all feel special, precious, valued and connected. What a gift - what makes it so amazing is that it feels so genuine and that just shows how awesome you are! I am blessed indeed to have come across your books and to be able to learn from someone older and wiser in the Lord and further along the journey of life. :)
Praying that the Lord will continue to abundantly bless and encourage you!!
Heaps of love from 'down-under'!! :o)
Elizabeth
FROM LINDSEY:
Hey Mrs. Lesssman
I'm glad you've had such a great day of comments!:)
Did you say your going to do this once a month?
It's so fun to get to talk to you I always enjoy it, and I know everyone else does to:)
In answer to your question were going to the beach, and we are so ready it fells like we've been waiting forever.
FROM ASHLEY:
I agree with Ms.Borders up there *wink*, Amanda. You are are so sweet! I've seen your comments all over the place, but always wondered who this Amanda person was. From other peoples blogs to Goodreads, and back again, I'm always seeing your name pop up.And this is probably a silly question, but do you have a blog? I'd loved to stop by sometime and check it out, if you do.:)
AMBER~ I actually really loved dyeing my hair, probably too much.;) And my mom thinks it's a hoot to see me walk around with this hot pink streak in my hair. But, I'm glad I got to do it, and hopefully I'll get to run (okay, okay, I'll probably pass out before the race even starts) in the Race For The Cure the Susan G. Komen foundation is hosting here in Warner Robins. I'm super excited to join in that.
Love Ya,
Ashley
JULIE’S RESPONSES:
ASHLEY: You said, “Who would have thought Jell-O would do that to a dog. SEE??? This is why I love you guys so much -- you are all a hoot, no kidding!!! And I am pretty sure that you look really adorable with that pink streak, girl, so you MUST send me a picture if you can, and I will post it on Journal Jots, okay? Do you have a camera phone?? Take a pic and send it to me if you can. If you can't, I understand, but if you can, DO, okay?
WHICH reminds me -- CASEY!! I meant to post the winner of your picture contest too, so I need to send myself an e-mail right now to do that. And, YES, I do send myself e-mails all the time, even though I know my computer has a "To Do" list feature, but I don't want to take the time to learn it. :/
Anyway, ASHLEY, I am very sorry to hear your mom had cancer, but SO happy that she is cured!!! And now I don't feel so bad about the pink bubble wrap I bought at Wal-Mart the other day (I usually buy clear, but they were out!). In fact, I just sent Molly and Charlotte books today in the pink bubble wrap, which I actually didn't like till now. I'm not partial to pink, but I guess there could be worse colors for a romance writer, right???
Oh, HEATHER, AMEN TO THAT!!! That's EXACTLY how I feel too, which is one of my favorite things about writing A Passion Denied -- the scene where Father Mac tells Brady about King David -- WHAT A BLESSING FROM GOD that is, knowing one of the biggest sinners in the Bible was still able to be called by God as a "man after His own heart." And just like I tried to say in the book, it's because God wants intimate, personal, emotional relationship with each of us -- that's how HE is, and that's why I believe He called David "a man after His own heart." A love affair, pure and simple, and as powerful and potent and exciting as any love affair with a man. Sigh. What a God!!
AMANDA ... WOW, your Nana Rosie is a two-time cancer survivor??? How glorious is that??? She sounds WONDERFUL, and I laughed out loud at your description -- "crazy gorgeous." Gosh, I can steal that from you, girl, cause I LOVE it!!
MICHELLE!!! You were 10 when you read GWTW the first time???? WOW, and I thought I started romance early -- I read it at 12! But, OH MY, what a book, eh?? And OH, MY, MY, what a movie!!
And you bought all my books but didn't read them till A Passion Denied came out last week? You mean A Hope Undaunted, right? And you read all 3 (or 4??) in a week??? HOLY COW, that's faster than you read GWTW, which is about 1,000 pages, and all 3 of my books together are about 1,450 pages, and 2,005 with AHU, so I am MAJORLY impressed, girl. Move over, Evelyn Woods (a speed-reading diva who started her own company for you young gals out there!!).
And WHOO-HOO ... another vote for King David. I just bought Jill Eileen Smith's book, Michal, which is about David and his first wife, so I cannot wait to dive into that, not only because I heard Jill is a wonderful writer, but because I LOVE David!!
Oooo-Oooo, ASHLEY, wouldn't that be something if we were on the same boat at the same time???? We are on a 7-day Carnival cruise, I think, the newest boat they have. My daughter booked it for us as a family -- my son and his wife and my daughter and her girlfriend. We are going to St. Thomas, St. Maarten and Nassau, I think. I worked for a travel company for 20 years doing stuff like this, but I am SO not into planning stuff anymore, so Amy gladly took it over.
AMBER ... You are SO dead-on about Amanda. Her "compassionate, caring heart shines through," not only in her comments here, but in every e-mail she has ever sent me. A heart as big as Kansas, I swear. But to be honest with you -- you girls ALL strike me that way, seriously. I know since you all have gotten into blogging, you have all met and formed close relationships, which SO tickles me ... not only because it's fun to see, but because I love you all so much, it's great to see you all bond on your blogs. Tender, caring hearts are my weakness ... they tear me up every single time. :)
Whoops ... better go ... dinner's calling!
Hugs,
Julie
FROM DEV: Hi Julie ~ I just wanted to pop in and say a quick "hi" since comments were turned on. I loved, loved, loved the story you wrote about how you and your husband met. October 2, 2010.
FROM JULES: Thanks so much for posting about our interview at Title Trakk. It gave me a thrill to see it up there. I'm a bit biased but I think CJ and Tracy do a fantastic job with that site :). I just finished MaryLu Tyndall's Surrender the Heart, too and it was fantastic! I didn't know much about sailing and that book was sure a page turner with spiritual nuggets slipped in.
FROM AMANDA: Awww… Amber, thank you so much, my friend. And, it takes a compassionate, caring heart to know one :) Your comments here (or anywhere for that matter) are a blessing and a joy to read! I just love bumping into friends around the blogging world :D Hey, as I’m typing this my parents are in the living room watching Triple D with Guy Fieri! Am smiling because as I’m writing to you I hear,“We’re rollin’ out…” LOL, gotta love that Guy! I think he’s in Kentucky for this one?
And, Ashley, thank you, I’m flattered :) But, no actually, I don’t have a blog. You’re not the first person to wonder who I am, either- I’m starting to get a Harriet Klausner complex here ;) LOL! I have been thinking and praying about making a blog, but I’m waiting on the Lord to direct me with it. I’d want it to glorify Him, so I want to make sure He wants me to do it first, you know? For now, I’m just content with my Goodreads account (which, BTW, thank you for “liking” my review of AHU, that meant a lot to me!). I just feel like I’m always on the computer as it is, that I think if I started a blog I’d have to drag my bed into the office, LOL! Thanks, again! And, see you around ;)
Blessings to you both!!
Amanda Stanley
FROM CYNTHIA:
Hi Julie, Well, I've been trying to post comments from work. I haven't seen my comments show up, so I don't know if it's my internet connection at work. Trying again. :) I love the books that I've read so far--the Daughters of Boston series. When I was reading Lizzie's story, I was already intrigued by Katie and Cluny. It will be interesting to see them all grown up. I can't wait to read their story. It should be full of sparks--in more ways than one. I can't wait to read A Hope Undaunted. Thanks for the wonderful stories that you've written so far.
Cynthia
FROM CHRISTY: What beautiful comments have been left here and what fun ladies have gathered. :o)
Just wanted to say Hi Julie since you had comments open today. It was fun to read the thoughts of the other ladies...and you.
FROM AMANDA: Oh, Julie, I praise the Lord for everyday I have my WONDERFUL Nana :) Surviving breast cancer once is incredible, but TWICE is beyond glorious and more than we could have ever asked for. Her first diagnosis was in 1984, 2 years before I was born, and if it had taken her then I would have never gotten the chance to meet (let alone know) one of the strongest, most "crazy beautiful" people on this planet! Her love has helped to shape me into the person I am today. God is so very, very good. One of the scriptures going into my newsletter this month for BCA is (1Corinthians 2:5) "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." AMEN to THAT!!! Thank you, dear Julie :) And, again, it takes one to know one!!
Tight Hugs :)
Amanda Stanley
FROM JOETTA: I wish I had time to read all these comments! and you wondered if people would comment..lol... I did catch the comment that said your maiden name was "Winterer".. I thot it was funny b/c mine was "Sommers" - I guess we are both seasons! lol..LOVE your website - you are such an encouragement.. thanks for being so open and honest and sharing your life with us... our family went to hear the comedian Jeff Allen tonight - he was hilarious - we have some of his DVD's but, he was even funnier in person - although my girls thot I laughed too loud...haha.. anyways - he had us laughing with his jokes and then he went on to share his struggle with alcohol, how he almost got divorced... searched and searched for meaning in life until he found Jesus - it was such an encouraging story of how God could work in someone's life... thanks again for your stories and encouragements! have a blessed day!
FROM MICHELLE: So true, Julie, the movie version of GWTW is great too. Clark Gable....sigh...
I was fortunate enough to watch the movie after reading the book. No, I meant A Passion Denied. ;) I guess I should have been more clear, but sometimes my fingers go much faster than my brain. It did take me about a week to read A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed, and A Passion Denied. It takes me about 2-3 hours to read most books, when I have the time to sit down and read, lol. I finished A Hope Undaunted in a day. I have Jill Eileen Smith's books sitting on my shelf. Haven't read those yet either. Needless to say, I'm waiting for Bathsheba to come out next year before reading them.
FROM JOETTA: My hubby discovered Nutella several years ago when a crepe recipe called for - crepes with Nutella and bananas....yum! I really think you need to come to FL for a book signing!! and I can't believe people called you ugly... that just breaks my heart! I am so glad that God is able to redeem the years the locusts have eaten! You are beautiful on the outside, but more importantly on the inside! I loved the story of how you met your hubby and the pics...Oct. 17th will be 23 years of wedded bliss for my hubby and me! only God could have brought us together, but more importantly KEPT us together! I am a highly EMOTIONAL person... and thankfully my hubby is "Mr. Steady"... which I used to resent, but a book we are doing a study on in church has made me realize what a blessing that is... like he says...
"if we were both as passionate (or emotional!) as you, we wouldn't get anything done!"
my response is, and what's wrong with that? haha...
JULIE’S RESPONSES:
MOLLY ... WOW, thank you SO much, not only for praying for my Aunt Julie, but for everyone here -- what a TOTAL blessing, my friend!! And right back at ya, girl, because I am praying for you RIGHT NOW too -- for your finances, for your children, for a godly man and just a heap of blessing coming your way!!
What is my family like when I'm writing??? Well, my husband is VERY helpful. For instance, in A Heart Revealed, Sean O'Connor is a sports NUT. He lives and breathes every kind of sport, so when I'd be in the middle of writing a scene and I'd want to use a sports analogy, I'd just look over my shoulder (Keith and I share a TINY office when I am not working outside on the deck and we sit back to back about two feet apart) and say, "Babe ... does this sound right?" Then I'd read a line like this: "Sean's soles lifted off the pavement as he let the ball fly, allowing it to spiral into the net with a satisfying swoosh." Keith would go crazy, saying something like, "NO, no, no! Everybody knows a basketball doesn't spiral, it spins! A football spirals, but not a basketball." Uh, EXCUSE ME!!!! :) So Keith keeps me honest in the sports/male stuff area.
Another good example is from A Passion Denied, which I don't think you've read yet, but Patrick and Marcy go through major problems over something in the past, and I wanted to know if Patrick's hurt response and ultimate rejection would be realistic given the deep love they have for each other. So I asked Keith how he would feel if the same thing happened to us and would he feel like Patrick did (ie. was Patrick's reaction believable?) and Keith confirmed it was. He said he would feel the same way. So Keith helps me TONS, including letting me read pivotal scenes to him after I finish them. He blesses me to no end, because he always has this dumbstruck look on his face after I finish reading it to him as if he can't believe his wife wrote that and sometimes he even has tears in his eyes. I always say, "Do you like it?" And he ALWAYS responds. "I love it -- it's wonderful!!" Hard not to love a guy like that, you know??
Now my daughter??? Uh, no. She's not a reader and quite frankly I think where most daughters might be proud of their moms for writing books, Amy doesn't always act like it. She is, of course, but I think deep down she also has a tiny bit of resentment that my books get so much of my time. So I have been really trying hard to stop everything I'm doing when she walks into the room and face her and talk to her, and it's helped a lot.
ELIZABETH!!! You made it -- I'm SO glad!! I missed you and was looking for your comment. It makes sense that the date/time difference between New Zealand and us would throw you off. It's Saturday, almost Sunday for you, right? And I am THRILLED that I could lift you up, my friend -- that truly blesses me. And we'll have to see what we can do about getting AHU in your hands, so keep those comments coming on the blogs. If you run across one that says U.S. residents only, you e-mail me, okay? I am the one sending the books out, so it's my decision who and where I send them to. I think a lot of U.S. blogs limit it out of courtesy to the author, which is really nice since it is expensive to ship overseas, but it ain't gonna break the bank, kiddo, so I don't mind. To me, this is more of a ministry anyway, because God knows I'm not making any money!! :) I like to joke that I am a "kept woman" because I barely break even after my expenses, but God has blessed my husband with great talent and favor ever since he lost his job a year and a half ago. He now makes more money on his own in 2 or 3 days than he did in 5 at his old job that he had for 30 years!! Now THAT, my friend, especially in this economy, is ALL God!!
And I'm glad my affection "feels genuine" because I give you my word, hand on the Bible, that it is. But truly it is God's grace upon me and flowing through me -- not me, for sure. I sometimes marvel at the affection I have for my reader friends because it's so deep at times. But you see, I was a young woman who didn't know how to love, and the lady who brought me to Christ gave me a prophecy once, a word she felt God wanted to give me. It said, "Julie, until you love others, you can never call yourself mine." I remember thinking at the time, "Well, gee -- there's goes my shot at the kingdom because I didn't feel like I could ever really love anyone. I never even shed a tear when my mom died when I was sixteen nor really loved anybody except my little sister Katie (you read my story "The Plight of Windowsill Jesus" posted on Inkwell Inspirations with a giveaway, which, by the way, has been extended until Tuesday, so anybody looking for another giveaway opportunity, be sure to check out the link on my calendar website). I wasn't even sure I loved Keith when I walked down the aisle -- all I knew was that I was happier with him than not. So when my friend Joy gave that "word" to me, I had NO clue how I was going to accomplish it. But God did, and He poured into me HIS love, which I gratefully pour into you and all of the beautiful women I am privileged to meet through my books. So, yes, my friend -- it is genuine, as God's love always is! :)
Oh, LINDSEY, I am SO jealous!! When interviewers ask me what is my dream vacation, I always say sitting on a beach with a good book. :) I hope you have a blast ... in fact, I'm saying one RIGHT NOW for good weather, health, safely, harmony and fun ... in Jesus' name! And, YES, I hope to do an "open-comment" day once a month on the 1st of each month, God willing!! :)
ASHLEY, I have to smile at your question to AMANDA about whether or not she has a blog. I think she told me that she was praying about starting one, so your question may just be a confirmation for her, who knows! Anyway, all of you gals can give her some pointers -- Renee, Hannah, Amber, Jules, Casey, etc., all of which are pretty new at blogging, right?
So, AMANDA, if you decide to start blogging, I will be happy to give you all the names/blog links of the above blogger friends of mine who just recently or somewhat recently got into the blogging biz, okay? Just e-mail me, sweetie.
Aw, DEV, thanks!! I actually didn't know if you guys would think it was that special since it was kind of low-key, but it does give you a glimpse at what my poor guy has to put up with!! :) Sooo glad you made it by!!
Oh, JULIA ... I LOVED Surrender the Heart (which is why I endorsed it!!). It's MaryLu's best so far, in my opinion, which is saying something because ALL of her books are good -- and more "edgy" like mine. And, WHOA, you're right on saying it was a "page turner"!! In fact, she had so many great scene endings in that book that I am quoting one or two of them in my upcoming Seeker blog next week entitled "THE TEASE … Great Scene/Chapter Endings to Lead Your Readers On." And THANK YOU for giving me such a great interview that caught Title Trakk's eye -- I am SOOO blessed by that because to me, it's such a God thing. I don't C.J. and Tracy, but PLEASE tell them thank you for me, will you?
AMANDA SAID: "I’m starting to get a Harriet Klausner complex here." GRIN ... too cute!! Does anybody realllly know who that woman is ... and does she really read those books or just skim them?? And is she more than one person??? Ah ... the mysteries of Harriett Klausner ... and, uh, Amanda Stanley, apparently! ;)
CYNTHIA!!! Oh, MAJOR BUMMER that your comments didn't come through. I'm glad it's working for you now, though. And thank you for reading my books, my friend. I have to admit, Cluny turned out to be a "God thing," because the poor, little guy was originally only supposed to be a bit part in one paragraph in the beginning of the book when Brady is walking home after he fights with Lizzie. BUT ... the little dickens SO charmed me (and, YES, characters can do that to their authors!!), that I wrote him into the story as a major subordinate character, and OMIGOSH, he SOOO adds to the story and gave me a great foil for Katie and, subsequently, a great first book in my new series. I absolutely LOVE him as a hero, and I am hoping you will too. :)
CHRISTY!!! Thanks for coming by, my friend, and yeah, it's been pretty special here today, ESPECIALLY for me!! It kind of reminds me of something one of my coworkers at Maritz used to joke whenever my job-share partner and I worked on the same days (which wasn't often) and we'd fawned all over each other because we really liked each other. Example: "Oh, Carol Ann -- those shoes are to die for, and your haircut is gorgeous!!" "Well, Julie, I'm crazy about your sweater too, and have you lost weight because you look so skinnyt!!). We'd always laugh when the older gal on the other side of the cube would start acting like she was throwing up, screaming, "Oh, spare me -- it's a royal love fest over there." :)
Well, that's how I feel today, but not in a joking way -- it's a regular love fest where godly women get together and support each other with the love of God and each other. AWESOME!!!
AMANDA ... LOVE that Scripture!!! ""That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." DOUBLE, DOUBLE AMEN to THAT!!! :)
Hugs, Julie,
JOETTA !!! Your name was Sommers??? How funny is that?? We have SOOO much in common, girl!! And can you believe we will be meeting (and hugging!) in about five weeks??? EEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!! I am sooooo excited!!! You won't be able to stand mel! :) And I've not heard of Jeff Allen, but I Googled him, and he looks like a real character, so I bet he was hilarious.
MICHELLE ... you are TOO CUTE ... waiting till you have all three in a series before reading the first one!! :) Are you going to do that with A Hope Undaunted too???
JOETTA ... YOU??? A "highly EMOTIONAL person"???? Grin ... so THAT'S why we click like we do ... :) And thank you for your kind words, my friend, I'm slowly learning to see the beauty God sees in me. And you and Todd are PERFECT for each other ... anybody can see that!! :) Well, Keith is giving me the high sign to go to be, so I gotta wrap it up. BUT ... it's been a blast today, and I will announce the winner tomorrow in my Journal Jots, okay?
(THIS IS WHERE MY HUBBY PULLED HE PLUG, BUT JOETTA SLIPPED TWO MORE IN SOMEHOW! ;)
SEE YOU ON THE NEXT OPEN-COMMENTS DAY ON NOVEMBER 1ST, OKAY???
HUGS, JULIE
FROM KELSEY: I was sitting on the couch today and I saw a Hope Undaunted sitting on the fireplace, so i grabbed it and started reading it again! And, of course, I think I love it even more when I read it again and again :D. My favorite line in the whole entire book is on pg. 336. "He wasn't removed, he suddenly realized, no matter how far he had strayed from his father's love. He was Patrick O'Connor's son, and for the first time in a very long time, that awareness brought him a sense of pride along with more than a little guilt." It's just like us and God; we deny him and reject him so many times but he is always waiting for us when we go running back to him. We should be so proud to call God, the creater of the universe, our father. It's just completely mind-baffling and amazing :D. I love how you can write an amazing love story where the characters are focused on God or come to that point :D. You and your books are so inspiring!
JULIE’S RESPONSE:
KELSEY!!! You must have slipped that comment in as Keith was shutting me down, sweetie, so I apologize, but I am SO glad I got it!! I have to admit that it gives me a thrill when reader friends quote my own lines back to me!! J I love that scene because for the first time, we see inside of Steven and the deep love he has for his father. And, WOW, I love the comparison to God because I honestly didn’t think about that!! For you to have that kind of spiritual insight at your young age is absolutely AMAZING!! I have to admit that I always laugh when reviewers praise me for threading certain deep spiritual truths in my books because there are some I didn’t even realize were there, which just confirms to me that even when I don’t feel it, God’s anointing is on my writing because I always ask Him for it beforehand! Thanks for being such a blessing in my life, Kelsey AND in your mom’s, as evidenced in the following comment from her. J
FROM JOETTA (KELSEY’S MOM): And this is my daughter writing this? only by the power of prayer... I feel so inadequate as a mother and feel like I've let her down so many times.... and then I read something she has written and God reminds me of how faithful HE is! after reading Francine Rivers book about the mother/daughter relationship, I kept asking her... I don't treat you like that do i? and then when I read your story of how your mother favored your sister... I asked her if she felt like I favor any of my girls... I am so blessed to be the mother of 3 beautiful girls and continue to pray that God gives me the strength and wisdom I need for each day - that I can be an example to them.. thanks for your books that point me in the right direction and open the door for me to talk to my girls about important decisions and life choices!
JULIE’S RESPONSE: YES!!! This IS your daughter writing that — and what a total blessing she is to both you and me!! Oh, Joetta, move over when it comes to feeling inadequate as a mom, girlfriend, because I’m right there with you. Someday I will do a Jot on some of the things I deeply regret while I was raising my kids because I have a feeling a lot of moms out there go through so much guilt and head-bashing over mistakes they made. But you are SO right that “God gives (us) the strength and wisdom we need for each day, which causes me to say for the millionth time — HOW BLESSED ARE WE TO HAVE A GOD LIKE HIM???
AND … how blessed am I to have reader FRIENDS (emphasis on “friends”) like ALL of you!! Thank you for making my first open-comment day such a success … and for filling my life with so much joy! Love you! Julie
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2010:
WHOO-HOO!!!! WE HAD OPEN-COMMENT/GIVEAWAY DAY TODAY AND BOY, OH BOY, WAS IT FUN!!! UNFORTUNATELY, MY HUBBY MADE ME TURN THE COMMENTS OFF BECAUSE HE WANTS ME TO COME UP TO BED AND WE ARE LEAVING EARLY IN THE MORNING, SO HE SAYS I WILL HAVE NOT TIME TO RETURN COMMENTS LEFT OVERNIGHT, SO PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!
BUT ... I HAD A BLAST, AND I HOPE YOU DID TOO! TOMORROW MORNING I WILL NOT ONLY POST THE WINNER, BUT THE LAST PAGE OF COMMENTS LEFT IN CASE YOU DIDN'T SEE THEM.
TALK TO YOU TOMORROW!
HUGS,
JULIE
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2010:
MORNIN', ALL!! Quick note that tomorrow is OPEN COMMENT/GIVEAWAY DAY ON JOURNAL JOTS and it only happens once a month, so come by to see me and speak your mind, okay? BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!! :)
Also, today I am over at Inkwell Inspirations with a short story I wrote and a giveaway, so if you get the chance, head on over, okay? Here's the link:
http://inkwellinspirations.blogspot.com/2010/09/welcome-revell-author-julie-lessman.html.
Also, wouldn't a signed book make a great Christmas gift??? I still have lots of giveways going on, but they can't last forever, so check out my website calendar at:
http://www.julielessman.com/julies-calendar/.
Hope to see you here tomorrow and on the Net!!
Hugs,
Juie
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2010:
Ta-da … today … is my anniversary! Yep, thirty-two years with a man I truly don’t deserve. No, really, I’m not joking here. In my acknowledgments at the back of A Hope Undaunted, I wrote, “I’ve said it before, babe, and I’ll say it again—I don’t deserve you.” And I don’t.
I mean, the man is a literal saint—fearless and calm in the face of my highs and lows, my tirades and sob fests, and through it all he comforts, soothes and supports me no matter what. Whenever we go on trips like the ACFW Conference last week or the writer’s workshop at Green Lake last month, he goes along, teasing me that his chief job is “Damage Control.”
Uh, he’s not joking either. You know all that passion and angst and drama you read in my books? Take a quick guess where it comes from. Yep, imagine living with that in a caffeinated-drama-queen body 24/7. Yeah, I knew you’d see the light. The man’s a bona fide saint. Period.
Which may have some of you thinking, then how on earth did she land him??? One way and one way only: prayer. You bet, I prayed for this guy for five long years—from the moment I made Jesus Lord of my life at the age of 23 until I said, “I do” at the age of almost 28. And quite frankly, I had my doubts that it would ever happen! Every single sibling in my family of 13 was married except me, and my prospects were slim to nil, let me tell you. Before I became a Christian I dated bums, and after I became a Christian, guys never seemed to take me out for more than four dates. Of course, I’d always lay out the ground rules on the first date (like Faith did with Mitch), and that would fly until about the fourth date when the guy finally figured out I was serious. Then poof … I’d never see him again. (Which, by the way, I think is God's insurance policy against the wrong guy, because the wrong ones won't stay if they can't get what they want, but the right one will.)
One time, this guy I really liked stopped calling after the fourth date, which upset me because we’d really had a great time and he seemed to like me a lot. So I called to ask why. His answer? “Well, Julie, I do like you a lot and we had fun together, it’s true. But frankly, with other girls I can have a good time and get sex too.”
Well … all righty then. Needless to say, when the fourth date with my husband rolled around, I joked that I had really enjoyed meeting him and wished him well. He stared at me like I was crazy and said, “What are you talking about?” I explained, he stayed around, and the rest is history.
So how exactly did I meet this man of my dreams? Well, this was a question posed to me by a dear reader friend named Michelle in one of the many blog interviews I did this last week, and I thought: Now, wouldn’t that make the perfect anniversary jot? So, here it is.
I was a sassy 27-year-old who moved at the speed of light, buzzing around the communications company where I worked like I was on a mission from God. And I often was—attending the company Bible study during lunch hour or a prayer luncheon at one of my sisters or even just reading my Bible in a park on the company grounds.
Now I was an incredibly friendly gal — I’d smile and say hello to everyone, from the janitor to the CEO without a second thought. So when I passed this hunky new artist that every girl in the company was abuzz about, I smiled at him too, never once considering it as anything more than just being friendly. I mean come on, I was Fanny Brice to this guy's Nick Arnstein— he was drop-dead gorgeous and rumor had it he had just broken off an engagement, so I never even gave it a second thought. Until … that fateful day he stopped me in the hall right in front of the CEO’s secretary’s desk.
“Hey, you drive that little orange Honda, don’t you?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, still shocked he was speaking to me.
“I thought that was you. I always see you tearing out of the parking lot and was just curious where you go.”
I blinked, wondering why on earth he wanted to know.
“Oh, I just bee-bop here and there," I said, (and, yes, I really said that!), "having lunch with my sisters, going to a park, Bible study, whatever.”
“Well,” he said calmly, “I wondered if you’d want to have lunch sometime.”
Both the CEO’s secretary Patti and I stared as if he had just spoken Chinese.
“What?” I asked for both Patti and me.
“Lunch. You do eat, right? I thought we might do it together.”
“Um, sure … when?”
“How ‘bout Friday, noon? I’ll swing by and pick you up at your cube.”
I nodded dumbly, the look on my face a mirror image of Patti’s.”
“Great. See you then,” he said, casually strolling back to his office.
Patti gaped, jaw distended. “Did Keith Lessman just ask you out???”
I nodded, unable to believe it myself. A look of awe settled on both of our faces. (Actually, mine was awe, hers was disbelief.) Because, let’s face it—everybody knew he was gorgeous and I was … well, basically not.
We had lunch at Pasta House and I talked his ear off, and he told me later that he mentioned to his cousin right after that that he just met the kind of girl he wanted to marry. He said he learned more about me in an hour lunch than he knew about his ex-fiancée in a year, and my passion for God and total honesty was a breath of fresh air.
Nine months later, we had just gotten back to my apartment after visiting a newlywed friend of mine who’d bought a darling, little house. I have to admit that I was feeling a little bit jealous because I thought the whole marriage/house thing would never happen for me. So I looked Keith straight in the eye and told him I was tired of waiting. I said that if he wasn’t serious, then there was the door because I wasn’t getting any younger. The poor guy just blinked like a deer in headlights and said, “Well, I was going to wait until we’d been dating a year, but since you’re in an all-fire hurry—will you marry me?”
I stared, unable to believe the words out of his mouth. As a kid I’d always been a fairy-tale dreamer (like Lizzie), but as I’d gotten older, I refused to daydream until something was a reality, so I realized I’d never allowed myself to even think if I wanted to marry Keith or not. So I said the only thing I could. “Can I have two weeks to think about it??” Sweet mother of Job, if he’d been smart, the man would have gotten a clue and bolted right out the door.
So as I celebrate 32 years of wedded bliss with the love of my life, I have only one thing to add. Thank God that brains aren’t required for sainthood. (wink, wink)
Happy Wednesday, all!
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, SEPTEMBERT 27, 2010:
Well, the bloodbath is over … for the most part!! :) As mentioned, 122 blogger/reviewers posted their reviews all last week, and I am happy to report that the news was mostly good to great, which blesses the socks off of me!! Of course, I am writing this sitting outside on my porch in 63-degree weather, so I’m thinkin’ I could use those socks right about now, in addition to the blanket covering my toot-ses (my word for feet). :)
Anyway, when the reviews first started coming in, I got several that were really demoralizing, as you know, and I will go ahead and admit that they brought me down—low! The worst was from a woman who started her review off with the line: “Julie added a whole new layer of baggage to her continuing sage of the O'Conner clan.” Say, what??? How did the woman know that unless she read my other books? And if she read them and thought it was all “baggage,” why in heaven’s name did she read my new one???
This woman then proceeded to slice and dice me until the middle of the review, when she promptly disclosed one of the several surprise endings in A Hope Undaunted. Noooooooooooo!!!! Why in heaven’s name would she do that???? You guys as my reader friends KNOW how much store I put in my surprise endings—I work hard to give them to you, to throw you off, to give you a romance novel that is not entirely predictable, and this woman does this??? Trust me, my skin has gotten pretty tough when it comes to nasty reviews, but I’m sorry, this one staked me through the heart.
But the final blow was the way this person ended her review, judging me like so many Christians have done in the past—to me, to you and to the Body of Christ in general. She said: 505 pages that could have been done in 250, with less baggage, and more focus on cleaning up one's own heart/home first. No one was ready for a serious relationship in this story -- maturity was sadly lacking as was reliance on God.”
Now, I regret to say that I was SO angry that I ranted to my publisher that it was because of Christians like this that I became agnostic in my teens and 20s in the first place. Of course, once I calmed down, we did pray for this woman because as my publisher so wisely pointed out, something in A Hope Undaunted obviously triggered an issue in her life. As human beings, each of are, after all, mine fields waiting to be tripped when we don’t deal with the painful issues in our lives.
Now why am I telling you this? Because I want you to understand just how angry I was at this woman, and I suspect since so many of you have become good friends of mine, you will probably be a little miffed too. BUT … and this is where it gets good … in the middle of my devotion time with God right after I got this review and another one that said, “Julie Lessman may be a good writer, but it certainly doesn’t show in this book, which is disappointingly shallow, dull, and contains cheesy dialogue,” something AMAZING happened. I was out on my deck listening to my favorite worship song of late, Matt Redman’s “Blessed Be Your Name” (check it out if you have never heard of it, because it is GREAT and soooo very anointed!), and God did what He does SO well—nailed my butt to the wall in that gentle but convicting way that only He can, using Matt Redman’s lyrics, some of which go like this:
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Even now, typing those words, tears spring to my eyes because YES, there is pain in the offering at times. Trust me, the VERY last thing I wanted to do was praise God for these reviews and pray for these woman, but either God is to be blessed by everything I say, do and think, or I am not the Christ follower I need to be. Will I blow it—will you? You bet—over and over. But we repent, we praise God in the circumstances and we pray for those who hurt us. Because therein lies the key to God’s blessing and putting a smile on the face of the God who loves us, died for us and simply wants to bless us.
While I sang this Matt Redman song during my devotion time (although my daughter prefers the word “massacred”), God spoke something to my spirit that brought me up short. The thought came that when I focus on the bad reviews and allow them to steal my joy, not only is it a slap in the face of the God whose blessings abound in my life, but it’s a slap in the faces of those who support me—each and every one of you who are reading this jot right now. Because focusing on the bad reviews diminishes the impact of the good ones, implying that the nay-sayers are more important to me and carry more weight than the God who loves me or the reader friends who support me. When I realized the shocking truth of that statement, I repented. And I ask you to forgive me for giving more credence to those who would malign me than those who support me.
Finally, I am asking each of you reading this jot to join me RIGHT NOW in asking God to bless and heal the hurts in these two women’s lives, because just like an infection festers within a physical body, the issue-wounds my book triggered in these women’s lives are obviously still hurting them. And in doing so, we confirm the truth that all things DO work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose—even a bad review. “Good” for those who are hurting and good for those who tend to those hurts, allowing the wounded to be set free and blessed … just like each of us when the prayer is said and done.
And while you're at it, I ask you to say an extra one for my Aunt Julie and me. She is a hair away from having to be moved to a skilled-nursing facility, and I SO do not want to do that. Please pray she remains stable and independant and that God gives me the grace to do what He has called me to do. I hope you will understand if I only write Jots on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays due to a really crazy schedule lately. But bear with me, please. Book launches don’t last forever. :)
Hugs,
Julie
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2010
HAPPY SATURDAY, ALL!!! Can't talk long today (and we all KNOW how long I can talk!!), but just had to say a whopping THANK YOU to all of you have posted reviews for A Hope Undaunted on Amazon.com and CBD.com because they make a HUGE difference in sales, trust me, plus they drown out the naysayers, which I SOOO love to do, don't you??? Not only that, but every good review posted helps bump my sales up so that my publisher might just buy my next 3-book series, so THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
And, WHOA ... so many of you have written me that AHU is like a roller-coaster ride, and I have to laugh because to me it's just NORMAL life!!! I mean, really, can you imagine living inside my body for just one day??? It's not pretty, trust me and about as close to being a wired drama queen on double espressos as you can get -- ALL THE TIME!! We'll pause now to pray for my husband ...
ANYWAY ... you think my books are roller-coasters??? Try living inside my head while all these reviews are coming in for A Hope Undaunted. Dear God, give me grace, because my blog tour just kicked off on Monday with 122 blogger/reviewers praising me, ignoring me or just ripping me to shreds, sending my mood soaring to the heights and then careening down the rails into the pits while my breakfast rises to my throat. Whew ... what a rush!!! :)
I just got several WONDERFUL 5-star reviews on Amazon this morning (THANK YOU, THANK YOU, AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!), so when the last one came in, I turned around to my husband and raised my palm in a high-five (as in five stars!!), and you know what?? He refused to high-five me back, giving me a droll smile instead, his gaze narrow. "You really want to do that, Julie?? Because if we do, sure as our palms touch, somebody's gonna slap a one-star on you, you know."
My hand flinched away as color rose in my cheeks. "Oh, that's right," I said in all sincerity, because when it comes to reviews, trust me, the "roller-coaster" effect is in play. Sure shootin' an author is all rosy over a five-star, and some sweet thing comes along and crashes that coaster car to the bottom with a one-star review faster than you can blink. Sigh. Must be God's tried-and-true method for keeping authors humble, I guess. All I know is, it sure works for me! :)
LOTS of giveaways going on right now (TEN TO BE EXACT ... SEE MY WEBSITE CALENDAR AT http://www.julielessman.com/julies-calendar/, some of which end soon, so don't miss out). If you have all my books, you can always go for signed Christmas gifts, right???? Also, please check out my KINDLE giveaway here http://www.julielessman.com/contest/ with AMAZON, STARBUCKS and NETFLIX gift cards plus much more, culminating with a FACEBOOK PARTY/CHAT with me on Oct. 7, where I will be giving away prizes every ten minutes for a solid hour while we chat. How cool is that???? PLEASE come talk to me so I'm not lonely!!!
Have a blessed weekend, my friends, and I'll see you on Monday!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2010
WHOO-HOO, it's FRIDAY!!! And you ALL know how I love Fridays, right??? So I was going to write a more serious jot today, but quite frankly I needed a lift (and with my schedule lately, a fast and easy jot!), so I'm going to do something a little different today.
I'm going to post my famous Herb story (ask any of my family or friends, and they all know the Herb story, and, in fact, my daughter often reminds me about it if I cop an attitude in a store or at home!!). I wrote this story about ten years ago in a fiction-writing class I took, so it's pretty raw from a writing standpoint, but the message still rings true. I want you to know that even though it is written in a story format, it is COMPLETELY 100% true, a story from my life as a new Christian when I was 23, so I hope you enjoy it. Because let's face it -- every now and then we all need a litte "Herb Therapy"...
Have a blessed weekend and happy reading!
Hugs,
Julie
HERB THERAPY
I hated his guts. There I’d be, poised at my desk, eyeliner and lipstick perfectly applied, miniskirt in place, and teeth bared, ready to take on the workplace. He’d lumber through the office doors, gum wad rolling in those inflated cheeks and hair as slick as the smirk on his face. The scent of his Aqua Velva arrived about a minute before he did, causing the Cheerios to churn in my stomach.
It was 1973. I was 23, long on brass, short on fuse and anxious to tackle anything that came my way. Until Herb. Oh, I wanted to tackle him alright. With every annoying snap of his gum, I found myself mentally ramming him on the 20-yard line, sailing his pigskin head into the end zone. Touchdown! The crowd went wild! Oh, yes ... I sorely wanted to touch down on Mr. Herb Miller.
Major problem: I was a brand-new Christian who was supposed to do things God’s way. Unfortunately, that meant loving the man who was the bane of my existence. On the inside, I was a new creature in Christ Jesus, but on the outside, to Mr. Herb Miller, I was the same old Julie – the one with the blue-streak vocabulary and come-hither look. And, apparently, the one who was to continue as the butt of his sleazy jokes.
“Leaving already? A bit too cold for the streets tonight, ain’t it sweetheart?” The memory of his crude remark at the company picnic suddenly crashed my poor-me party. I could almost smell the booze on his breath as I recalled his glassy stare, fingers fumbling as I buttoned my coat. “I’m going home, Herb, and I suggest you do the same.”
“Home,” he had slurred, “let’s see now, that would be the red-light district, right?”
“Drop dead!” I screamed, slamming my car door in his face. Dear God, how I hated him!
Each morning as the double doors swung wide, he’d flash that saccharine smirk. “Smile, Julie,” he’d jeer, and the speed at which obscenities traveled from my brain to my clenched lips came dangerously close to breaking my own sound barrier. I wanted to tell him how much I despised him. I wanted to tell him to stick his smile where the sun didn’t shine. I wanted to spew obscenities until they took him down like quicksand. There was a time when nothing would have stopped me from asphyxiating Mr. Herb Miller with the acrid, blue smoke of my capably profane tongue. But I was a Christian now, not a sailor, and blushing repartee was no longer an option. With great effort, I shifted my lips past the sneer-gear into a tight smile.
“Mornin', Herb,” I murmured. Don’t fall on your fat face, Herb, my thoughts trailed. Gritting my teeth, I reached for my lipstick and mirror, grateful my long hair hid the blush burning my cheeks. I clutched the mirror in a near-death grip and applied the soothing balm of Mango Madness. Ohhhhh man, I thought, this Christianity stuff is brutal!
The girl in the mirror blinked back, brown eyes wide and heavy with a ton of questions and even more Maybelline. “Mirror, mirror, what’s my fate, what do I do with someone I hate?”
Love your neighbor as yourself.
The scripture verse I’d read that morning suddenly blinked on and off like a neon sign flashing over a cheap motel. Eat at Joe’s … Love your neighbor … Eat at Joe’s … Love your neighbor …
I chucked the mirror in my purse and slammed the drawer. But how? I was a baby Christian … and this was a full-grown bitterness, which like Herb, seemed to balloon with every swing of the double doors. How do you shift from a four-letter-word girl (none of which spelled love, by the way) who strutted the office in tight miniskirts and platform heels, to a sweet, wholesome Christian who spouted Scripture? I sighed. Up until now, a “bird” hadn’t been something that flew in the air, but a favorite hand gesture. Now, the only hand gesture I’d be using would be for prayer, not profanity.
“Hate to tell ya this, Julie, but the Bible’s pretty clear,” my friend Joy said when we’d discussed Herb the night before. “Matthew 5:44 says love your enemies.”
“But he’s not my enemy,” I argued, “I just can’t stand him.” Flipping my hair over my shoulders, I ransacked my purse for lipstick.
“Why?” Joy asked, lowering her glasses to counter with a quizzical stare. I could smell her perfume: Heavensent.
I slashed Peach Perfection across my lips and jammed the lid back on the tube. “I don’t know,” I snarled, “he’s arrogant, he’s a fat slob, and he just makes me feel less. He doesn’t give a hoot if I live or die. All he ever does is mock me, and it …”
“Hurts?”
I glared and snatched up my gloss, brandishing it like a weapon. “No! Kind of … okay, yeah it hurts,” I finished on a whisper.
She touched my hand gently. “Julie, it also says to “pray for those who hurt you.”
The air rushed from my lungs in a groan as I came crashing from my high horse. I slumped in the chair, too drained to apply gloss. My mood was chapped – like my lips.
“You know you’re not alone,” Joy said as I finally smeared gloss on my mouth. “God never requires anything He doesn’t give you the grace to do.”
“Yeah? Well, how do I do it, huh?” I challenged, as if the freshly applied gleam had instilled the strength of Samson.
“Well for starters, you can try putting on Jesus as often as lipstick.”
She smiled as I delivered a deadpan look. “Okay, just pray for the guy,” she said.
“Oh yeah, you can bet I’ll pray for him. ‘Dear Lord, please fire his butt. ’”
“No, I mean pray blessing on him. You know, that good things happen to him. ‘Lord, bless Herb in his job, bless his finances, give him a raise.’ Whatever! Then follow it up by doing nice things for him.”
My eyes dilated wide, a deer caught in headlights, ready to bolt. “You’re not serious!”
“Afraid so. ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him … in doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Romans 12:20.”
“Yeah, well coals aren’t a problem; I can heap plenty – the hotter the better!”
“No, Julie,” Joy whispered. “The next line says ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.’ In Jesus’ day, people bought burning coals for cooking and heating purposes and transported them in containers on their heads. So if you’re heaping coals on someone’s head, it means you’re heaping blessings on them. Translation? Not only should you pray for Herb’s blessing, but you also have to bless him with your actions.”
“But I can’t love Herb,” I whined. “God can’t expect me to be a hypocrite and love somebody I don’t feel love for, can He???”
“Sorry Kiddo, love is a choice, not a feeling. Nowhere in my Bible does it say to feel love for your neighbor; it’s a command, pure and simple. If you obey, the feeling will follow.”
The feeling will follow. Joy’s words echoed in my brain as I slumped at my desk and stared at Herb’s office. Yeah, the feeling will follow, alright. The feeling I’m making a first-class fool of myself. I puffed out a heavy sigh. “Okay God, please help me to love Herb. Forgive my bitterness towards him, and please, please show me how to love him. And yeah, yeah … go ahead and bless him, I guess.”
I grabbed the coffee tray. It was my job to collect money and coffee orders each work day, an assignment resulting in a tray of 20 coffees, one for every person in the office – with two for Herb, of course. Taking a deep breath, I entered the lion’s den. “Hey Herb,” I said, my smile vintage suck-up, “It’s coffee time.”
He pitched two quarters on the tray with the same disregard he had for me. “The usual,” he mumbled, not bothering to look up.
My stomach rolled. What a jerk, I thought and bit my lip. “Sorry God,” I whispered, turning towards the door. And then, abruptly, the impossible happened. I spun around and smiled, if possible an even bigger smile than before. “Hey Herb,” I said too brightly, “there isn’t anybody here who likes coffee as much as you. How ‘bout three?”
He blinked. Imagine a freeze frame on his face – pure stun. Slowly, the stun thawed into a pinched smile. “Well little lady, don’t mind if I do.” He stood and tossed another 50 cents on the tray. “Buy one for yourself, too.”
“Thanks.” I wheeled around before he could see the shock on my face. The next morning I was loaded and cocked, ready to take aim when those double doors flew open. When they did, I flashed a 150-watt smile that could have lit the department. “Mornin', Herb!” I said in my perkiest, hide-my-real-feelings voice. “How are you today?”
He stopped and blinked, the stun factor back in play. “Well fine, little lady. Glad to see a smile on your face,” he managed before ducking into his office.
I felt my pretend smile relax into a real one as I reached for my lipstick, ready to do lip service of another kind. “Okay God, so far, so good. Your plan has been implemented. I don’t think my nose has grown, and there are no hives as far as I can see. Now, it’s Your turn. And God … put a little “feeling” into it, will Ya?”
Was it days … weeks … months, maybe? I can’t really say how much time passed before I began to notice. A genuine smile, a playful tease, a sympathetic ear – kind of God’s sneak attack on two people hell-bent on hating each other. And now the doors were swinging a completely different direction.
“So, how’s Julie today?” Herb would ask, his beaming presence blowing through the doors like a warm breeze.
“Sweet as ever,” I’d reply, real affection warming my voice as he ambled to his office. No Sweet ‘N Low needed here. The realization suddenly struck, absorbing into my bloodstream with a sugar-high to my head and my heart. What Herb and I had on our hands was a bona fide, buckle-my-knees, honest-to-God friendship. Gone were the sneers and scowls, pretend smiles and too-perky tones, replaced instead by feelings of respect and true affection.
Who would have guessed when Herb left the department years later, I would have missed him so much? Ours had been an unlikely friendship, one that hadn’t come easily. But it had come, and with it a freedom I never dreamed possible. Freedom from hate and bitterness. Freedom to love the endless parade of “Herbs” in my life. And all with the help of a God who is Love Incarnate. True therapy, indeed … from the true spiritual Therapist.
Julie's Foot Note (not part of the story): Would you believe that many years later I had lunch with a friend who had run into Herb, and she told me that he had asked about me and said how much he had liked me. "You know," he said to my friend, "when I first met that little girl, I couldn't stand her. I don't know what happened, but one day she just turned around and I'll tell you what -- she ended up being the cutest thing in shoe leather."
Now go ahead -- tell me God's Word doesn't work!! :)
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010
You know, going to the ACFW conference each year is a lot of fun and VERY educational for the aspiring and published writer ... BUT, I have to be honest and say that the thing I love the most is the spiritual mood of this conference. We're talking a gathering of about 630 people, men and women (mostly women, of course!) where every last one of them is in love with Jesus Christ and trying to express that love in their writing and their relationships with each other. No, nobody's perfect and Christian conferences certainly aren't either, but the VAST difference between this conference and the one secular writer's conference I went to years ago is like light years apart as far as kindness and encouragement and an anointing like only the Holy Spirit can apply.
And yet ... each year I end up crying. Now I haven't told this to a lot of people, but for as far back as I can remember, I have wept at every conference or retreat I have EVER gone to, including last year's ACFW conference where I cried every day up until I won the ACFW Debut Author of the year. What do I cry about, you ask? Well, you are ALL going to find this very hard to believe, I know, because even I find it difficult to understand, but whenever I get in a very large group of people like conferences or retreats, I experience terrible feelings of loneliness and rejection. Loneliness and rejection, you say?? With an incredible husband working upstairs in our hotel room who constantly lifts me up, loves on me and prays for me whenever I get this way, which, uh ... did I mention is EVERY SINGLE YEAR??? Afraid so.
Now, I will be the first to tell you that I am one of the most confident people I have ever met, and the reason I know this is because I am not one bit afraid to make a fool of myself or expose the real me to anyone. Why? Because bottom line, I am a bottom-liner and truth seeker and what you see (or read) is what you get. So each year I come to this conference with a husband who loves me, Seeker friends who support me, a lot of online friends who for whatever reason seem to like me (maybe because I'm crazy and loud and out there, who knows?), and YET ... I STILL experience this excruciating feeling where I feel left out and like people don't like me and ... consequently, I cry. Over and over.
So this year I decided to pray about it ahead of time with my prayer partners because for pity's sake, why can't I just go and have a good time and leave the waterworks at home?? Especially when I am a finalist in a very prestigious contest? So when the malaise and loneliness and rejection started easing it's way in AGAIN, I was ticked. I mean come on now, enough is enough, right??
Apparently so for God, who took all my prayers to heart and gave me the greatest blessing at this year's ACFW conference -- He set me free! I didn't realize it at the time, but when my good friend Jennifer Cary asked me to go with her to her prayer appointment with Brandilyn Collins in the prayer room to pray for a mutual friend of ours, God was going to pull a switch on me more effective than the twists and turns I pull in my own books. I have to be honest and tell you that I wasn't real thrilled at the timing of this prayer appointment because it was right during the only seminar I was really excited about -- Michael Hague's plotting class. But I know that the prayer of agreement is realllllly important in interceding for your friends, so I said yes. The next day I show up at the appointed time in the prayer room, where it's just me and Brandilyn waiting on my friend, Jenny. Fifteen minutes went by, and I finally told Brandilyn that maybe we better go ahead and pray for Jenny's and my mutual friend, which we did.
Now I have to tell you here that Brandilyn Collin's is not only an exceptional suspense author, but she has a ministry in prayer that would blow you away. The Holy Spirit has used her to heal people, both emotionally and physically, and the woman flat-out has a gift at it. So when Brandilyn was done praying for my friend, I asked her if she would pray for me too. She agreed, so I asked her to pray for my Aunt Julie and then for me, that I would stop crying at conferences and feeling so lonely.
"Tell me a little about yourself," she said, and I did. I told her that I was from a family of 15 (13 kids, two parents) and that my mother didn't like me and died when I was 16, an event that did not disturb me at all (I was a very hard character by then). My dad used to beat us and my sisters and brothers all made fun of me because I was ... surprise ... a wired drama queen they liked to pick on. The only person I ever remember giving me love growing up was my little sister, Katie, who would lay on the bed at the age of nine, mesmerized when I (at the age of 12) would read my novel to her (the same novel that became my debut novel A Passion Most Pure almost 40 years later!).
The minute I said this to Brandilyn, she plucked two Kleenex out of a box and asked me if I ever read The Scarlet Letter. I told her yes, and she proceeded to tell me that when I was talking to her, in her mind's eye she had seen a big red "R" on my chest in a circle with a line through it. I think she took my hand then and looked me straight in the eye and said something along these lines: "Julie, you've been carrying that spirit of rejection around way too long now. You have experienced so much rejection in your own large family, that whenever you get into a large group, that rejection comes back, making you feel like you are not loved, not wanted, not important to anyone. But you are important to God and He wants you to be free, and we are going to take care of that right now."
She stood and laid her hands on my head, and the minute she did, I started sobbing my heart out, chest heaving like it has never done before. I can't remember if I cried for two minutes or five or ten, all I know is when I stopped, I felt free for the first time in my life.
Why am I telling you this? Because there are many of you out there who have experienced rejection in your lives just like I did, and for some of you, it still has a hold on you. I am asking you now to start praying that God will set you free too. Maybe send you a prayer partner who can lay hands on you or bring your attention to a book by Joyce Meyer called The Root of Rejection: Escape the Bondage of Rejection and Experience the Freedom of God's Acceptance. Whatever the way He chooses to set you free, let Him, please. Because He came to set the captives free, you know, and one of them was me last weekend ... and it can be you too.
Please know that I love you guys and am praying RIGHT NOW for each and every one who is reading this jot right now, that God will shower you with His abundant blessings ... and His amazing freedom.
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2010
I’M BACK … FINALLY!! Sorry it’s been so long since I connected with you all, but I can’t remember EVER being this busy before. ACFW was wonderful, but a 7:00 a.m.-to- midnight-or later-schedule left me little time to see my sweet hubby up in the hotel room, much less tackle e-mails or Journal Jots. I actually started today’s jot on Sunday but was never able to finish. Oh well …
One of the highlights of the conference for me was meeting other Revell authors such as Laura Frantz above (LOVE THIS WOMAN!!! We are like twins separated at birth, I swear, give or take 20 years!!!), Lorna Seilstad (Loved her!!! Her new book "Making Waves" is definitely "making waves"!), and Jill Eileen Smith (Love her too, and am chomping to read "Michal" because I've heard SO many good things about it.). I will post other pix at the end of this jot, so be sure to scroll down!
Have plowed through over 1,000 e-mails and left comments on a number of blog giveaways going on right now (see my website calendar for lots of fun interviews/giveaways, including one where I am answering anything you ever wanted to ask about me, writing or my books, so bring it on)!! For those of you who have been praying for my Aunt Julie, she is home in her own apartment now with homecare nursing for the time being. After a meeting yesterday with a speech therapist, nurse, OT, PT and any other kind of “T” you can think of, we are holding our breath and praying she can continue to be somewhat independent in her own apartment rather than a nursing home. I have been praying for four years now that she NEVER has to be in a nursing home, so I am trusting God. But we did get a scare this morning at 7:00 a.m. when we received a call that she fell again, but was not hurt, thank God. So I’m not sure what is going to happen, but am SO very grateful that my precious aunt in HIS hands, not mine.
But in the midst of all this craziness (including a 122-reviewer blog tour that started Monday along with a Facebook launch party with Kindle giveaway) God was gracious enough to give me a spiritual oasis at ACFW that rejuvenated me once again. I was going to share that with you today, but this jot is already SO long, that I thought I’d post it tomorrow and just show you pics from ICRS today.
So, here we go, and if any of you can make it next year to my hometown in St. Louis, I would love to give you a hug in the lobby bar after 9:00 PM where the Seekers always meet with each other and friends. It’s a blast, so I hope writers out there will consider it next year.
Have a blessed day!
Hugs,
Julie
REVELL AUTHORS LEFT TO RIGHT: Lynnette Barker Eason, Lorna Seilstad, Ann Shorey, Andrea Doering (Revell editor), Dan Walsh, Jill Eileen Smith, Moi, Laura Frantz and Ann H. Gabhart
MERRILEE FERRELL AND ME
FUN LUNCH, left to right: Seeker Audra Harder, Patti Lacy, Moi, Sara Richardson, Laura Frantz and Wendy Paine Miller
Moi and good blogger/reviewer/writer friend, Pepper Basham
Awards banquet with good blogger/reviewer/writer friend, Anita Mae Draper and Seeker bud, Myra Johnson
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2010
OH my, what a conference!! Take one hyper drama-queen personality, infuse it with double expressos and a sugar high, and you a little bit of an idea what it's like coming to ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers Conference) and walking across a lobby jam-packed with some of the brightest stars in Christian fiction as well as tons of like-minded crazy author friends like me! It's a blast, although there are times when I feel I am on emotional overload when every two steps I take I spy yet another familiar face I haven't seen in a year, resulting in screaming, squealing, hugging and emoting until I enter zombie state. Fortunately, my hubby (he brings his computer on our trips and and works in our hotel room), immediately goes into what he calls "damage control" when I enter the room, hugging me, praying with me, dusting me off and sending me back down.
Not that it isn't wonderful seeing everyone and meeting online friends for the first time or connecting with old friends once again, but it's kind of like a 4-day eating binge of the most sinful and richest desserts on the planet ... pretty soon even too much of a good thing can put a glaze in your eye. Which is why the absolute highlight for me so far has been the 30 minutes of worship that Rachel Hauk led before guest speaker Tim Downs' very funny and inspiring message. There was something SO cathartic about lifting my hands before our God, loving Him, crying out to Him, seeking His peace and His calm in the midst of such a high-powered and busy conference. I am such a wired individual that I crave His peace, not only in the midst of the storms of my life, but during the whirlwind of exciting things too. So I worshipped and I cried and I thanked Him for His goodness to me over and over because when all the lunches are done, when all the speakers have spoken and when all the friends have been hugged ... HE is the oasis I return to, the air that I breathe, the calm in my soul, and I would be lost without Him.
Sooo ... here I sit with feet up on my king-sized bed for a few precious moment of down time while my hubby flips the remote beside me. God's peace has returned through the love and prayer of my husband and a God who loves me more than any man ever could, so I am finally recharged and ready to head back down to one of the most exciting and exhilarating weeks of my life. First to Michelle Sutton's chocolate party, then to meet and mingle with The Seekers and friends in the lobby bar. Because friends (after God, of course) are the heart and soul of this conference for me, and no matter how wired I get or how crazy or tired ... I thank God for the incredible opportunity to be here.
Talk to you soon.
Hugs,
Julie
TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14-16, 2010
In his heart, a man plans his course,
but the Lord determines his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
Ever notice how life never goes the way you plan?? For instance, this is a big week for me because I am getting ready to go to the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in Indianapolis on Thursday morning, which is a highlight of my year. Not only do I get to see TONS of great friends I've made in the past, hob-nob with the Seekers every night in the lobby lounge after 9:00 PM, meet with my agent, get to hug reader friends and others I've only met online up to this point, BUT ... TA-DA ... I am also a finalist in the Long Historical Romance category of the Carol Award (formerly the "Book of the Year" contest, in which A Passion Most Pure won Debut Book of the Year award last year). So needless to say, this is a HUGE event for me. And this year, I promised myself there would be no last-minute scrambling to pack, no frantic rushing to get my paperwork in order or no crazed attempt at dashing off that mini-proposal for my next series that Keith wanted me to give to my agent. No, siree ... THIS year, I had wisely planned to be calm, rational, organized and ready to go as much as two days prior.
NOT!!! You see, unbeknownst to me, I just spent the last two days in the hospital with my 92-year-old aunt for whom I am primary caretaker because she was acting goofy, out of sorts and quite frankly, scaring the daylights out of me. And yes, this is the same aunt many of you prayed for over Labor Day when I spent the day in the ER with her over a potential broken hip. That all turned out fine, as this is likely do as well. Apparently Aunt Julie had several TIAs or mini-strokes (they are not that serious in her case, praise be to God), which cause problems with swallowing and eating. But THANK YOU, GOD, they are releasing her tomorrow ... I hope! In the meantime, I am scrambling to arrange around-the-clock care for her at her apartment, talk to her doctors, OTs, PTs, and any other kind of "T" you can think of to make sure all bases are covered. She is going to be fine ... but I'm not all that sure that I will be. How do you enjoy something as wonderful as this conference when you are worried about something at home???
Well, let me go on record right now as saying that if I did not have Jesus Christ in my life ... if I could not RUN to Him when things like this happen, they may as well lock me up and throw away the key, because I would be one sorry emotional wreck.
BUT ... I DO have Him in my life, and so do you!! OMIGOSH ... are we not the luckiest human beings on the planet??? I mean really, would any of us one to take one more breath in this life if we didn't have Him to lean on???
So I apologize I've been scarce on Journal Jots lately, and I apologize that the next five days will probably be WAY too crazy and hectic for me to make it here, but I promise you I will try. In the meantime, say one for me, and I will ... as always ... say one for you! :)
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2010
Look out, fall is in the air ... the nights are getting cooler with that occasional hint of wood smoke and the crickets are crooning their hearts out, not to mention the melancholy call of cooing doves, lamenting the passing of another season.
But, oh, the things in store!! Clean, brisk air, trees aflame in scarlets and golds, and the mouthwatering temptation of candy apples, kettle corn and pumpkin pies. A wonderful time of year, truly.
And what makes it all the more special for me, of course, is that September always means the release of my next book, so this has been a fun month for me, waiting on pins and needles as my reader friends dive into Katie and Cluny's story. Your response has been nothing short of a total blessing, and I thank each and every one of you who have not only contacted me about how much you liked the book, but encouraged me along the way.
And just a heads-up that a new blog interview/giveaway just went up this morning over at Sandra Robbins blog at http://sandrarobb.blogspot.com/2010/09/julie-lessman-interview.html, so if you're in the market to win a signed book, I'd love to see you drop on by to say "hey."
Happy Monday, all!
Hugs,
Julie
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2010
HAPPY WEEKEND, ALL! I'm going shopping with my daughter to find something to wear to the ACFW Awards banquet next week. I'm up against seven amazing ladies (two of which are good buds, Mary Connealy and Laura Frantz) in the Long Historical Romance category of The Carol Awards, so I'm not writing a speech or planning to win, but I am SO grateful to have finaled!
Gotta run (this will definitely be a true "jot" today!), but I wanted to let those of you know who have signed up for my newsletter that it went out on Wednesday, so if you have NOT received it, please contact me through my website, okay? Also, if you have not yet signed up for it, you may want to because I just kicked off a contest to win a $50 Amazon.com or CBD.com gift card, a signed copy of A Heart Revealed next year, PLUS have a character named after you in that book. In A Hope Undaunted, you will see two darling characters by the names of Gabe Smith and Alli Moser, BOTH of whom were winners in my last contest to have a character named after them. Plus they are mentioned in the acknowledgments, so you don't want to miss out on this fun contest, okay?
Have a GREAT weekend!! Talk to you Monday.
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
Sweet ark of Noah -- it's been raining ALL NIGHT LONG, and I woke up with a line from A Passion Denied running through in my mind, no joke! " It was a slow and steady rain, endless weeping from a gray and dismal sky, and Marcy felt a kinship with it."
Only I don't feel "a kinship with it" because today is ... FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And as some of you already know from reading these Jots, Friday is very special to me, very celebratory, very much ... Let's par-tay!!!!!!! So to celebrate, I have a Friday surprise at the end of this Jot, but FIRST, speaking of partying, if you haven't been over to the birthday party Kim Ford is throwing for A Hope Undaunted (http://berlysue.blogspot.com/2010/09/birthday-party-for-julie-lessmans-hope.html), be sure to stop by because there are THREE chances to win your choice of a signed book or a writer's critique before the "party" ends tomorrow. Also, the book giveaway on Casey's blog at http://enjoyingthewritingcraft.blogspot.com/2010/09/special-author-interview-julie-lessman.html is over after today too, so be sure to check them both out if you'd like to win a signed book, okay? Oh, and the signed giveaway on Kaye Dacus's blog ends TODAY (http://kayedacus.com/2010/09/06/writers-window-julie-lessman/), so don't miss out for a chance to win on any of these great blogs!!
THANK YOU to all of you who prayed, listened or commented on Tricia Goyer's radio show yesterday where she interviewed me for ONE HOUR -- I appreciate it SO much!! Hope I didn't sound too dorky, but if you weren't able to listen, you will be able to hear for yourself once I post the interview on my website calendar, which will be sometime in the next week.
And one final housekeeping note, I was blessed to receive a last-minute opportunity to appear TODAY at Suzanne Fisher Woods blog (she writes Amish ... YIKES ... are we the odd couple or what???), an Author Spotlight at http://suzannewoodsfisher.blogspot.com/2010/09/author-spotlight-julie-lessman.html, so if you're looking for another chance to win one of my books, please come by to leave a comment, okay?
AND NOW ... the Friday surprise we have all been waiting for!!! Some of you may remember that the model head shot of the guy they used for Mitch Dennehy's picture on the cover of A Passion Redeemed was SO hot, that when I showed it to all the girls at work, they gasped, as did I!! This guy was EXACTLY what I had envisioned for Mitch, except a little older, which I figured Revell could do easily enough. Unfortunately, I wasn't enamored with the final photo shoot for Mitch on the cover, and some of you may remember that story of how I cried and begged my husband to "fix him."
You see, originally he had slicked down hair, making him look like an English dandy, so my hubby and I combed the Internet (no pun intended) for blond, curly hair that would work, which my husband promptly plopped onto Mitch's head. Revell was gracious enough to go with what we came up with, and voila ... the final picture of Mitch on the cover was SO much better than the original. Even so, to this day, it does not match the Mitch in my mind. BUT ... the head shot of the male model they used does, so without further ado, will the real Mitch Dennehy PLEASE stand up??
Sigh. I gotta go read that book again. But first ... let's part-tay!!!!!!!!!
Happy Friday!!
Hugs,
Julie
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2010
YIKES!! I got a last-minute radio interview TODAY on Tricia Goyer's "Living Inspired" blog, so say one for me, will you?? I've done about four of these already, and although I don't have any problem talking (big surprise there, eh?), I do tend to suffer with the dreaded hoof-in-mouth disease where everything I'm thinking comes out. Sigh. Trust me, I'm a big proponent of honesty, but at times my husband thinks I teeter dangerously close to TMI, especially where he is concerned.
In fact, the problem is so acute in our family gatherings, that my kids now make this nasty buzzer sound whenever I wander into territory that is dangerous to their ears, a sound that is intended to replicate the shock collars on dogs. Trust me, if there was a shock collar for humans, they'd be first in line. I still remember the time I divulged some cute and embarrasing tidbit about my son while conversing with his future in-laws. ZAP ... I could almost see his fingers tensing, itching to press an imaginary remote dog zapper.
Anyway, suffice it to say that prayers would be appreciated, and if any of you are around TODAY at 3:00 PM Central time and want to listen AND win one of my books, here's the info:
To listen to the interview and leave a comment (which you can actually do right now, leave a comment that is, not listen to the interview which doesn't happen till 3:00 PM), click on:
http://toginet.com/shows/livinginspired/articles/916
Just leave a comment anytime and then at 3:00 PM TODAY, just click on the player in the upper right corner of the screen for the interview and hear me make a fool of myself ... AGAIN!!
ALSO ... I got a last-minute interview on Suzanne Fisher Woods blog for TOMORROW, where you can also win one of my books. PLEASE say one for me on that too, because as some of you probably know, Suzanne is a CBD best-selling author who writes ... gulp ... Amish!! Seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it? Me being on her blog??? I need FAVOR with her audience, and since God gave favor to David (when he asked) with his enemies, I figure He can give me favor with a few Amish readers ... right??? Double gulp.
Anyway, here's the link -- I need moral support, so if anybody has the chance to stop by TOMORROW, I would GREATLY appreciate you shoring me up with a comment!!
http://suzannewoodsfisher.blogspot.com/2010/09/author-spotlight-julie-lessman.html
Whew ... this promotion stuff is NOT easy!! And I SO miss writing ... :/
Have a blessed day and hope to see you on the Web!
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Head dropping into hand while tears prick my eyes ...)
JAG is almost over. And so is my life ... or at least my late-night-viewing life, that is. You see, last year my husband got hooked into the old TV series, JAG, which is about a group of military lawyers led by ... be still my heart ... David James Elliott. We will now pause here to show respect for this truly hunk of a man ...
Anyway, every day at 5:00 PM, Keith would get up from his computer and go watch JAG on his HD TV (his first love; I'm his second, sigh), so I thought to myself, "Self, buying him the first season on DVD would be a great Christmas gift," so I did, thinking to myself (I do that a lot) -- "he will NEVER watch it, but hey, it's a great gift nonetheless, right?"
And I was right. He loved it, but never watched it. UNTIL ... one fateful night when there was nothing on TV (he watches TV before he goes to bed while I read) and he suggested we break open the DVD to watch an episode or two. I thought to myself (AGAIN!), "can't hurt, right?"
WRONG!! Ten seasons and 227 episodes later (and almost $300 ... yes, we are SICK!!), we only have ONE EPISODE LEFT!!!! It's the biggie, though, where Mac and Harm FINALLY get together (sheesh, it took as long as one of my books!!), so I may just dress up in my finest pajamas tonight, pop popcorn and snuggle close to Keith as our lives come to an end.
But enough about depressing talk! I currently have FOUR opportunities for you to win a signed book or a critique, so come see me at one of three blog interview giveaways going on right now PLUS my Seeker post today. Just check out my website calendar at http://www.julielessman.com/julies-calendar/ for the links, and GO CRAZY!!!
But first, say a prayer for me, will you ... that my marriage won't suffer now that JAG is over and done. God, help me!! NCIS, anyone???
Hugs,
Julie
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
WHEW!! What a busy, BUSY week!! My newsletter is ALMOST done, so look for it this week, and for you writers out there, I have a number of critique/book giveaways planned, one going on right now over at Window to My World blog as well as on my Seeker blog tomorrow, so be sure to check out my website calendar for the links at http://www.julielessman.com/julies-calendar. And Casey over at Enjoying the Writing Craft blog has a number of giveaways going on as well, including A Hope Undaunted cover contest where readers enter by taking pix of themselves holding AHU in a pose like Katie on the cover. VERY FUN, so be sure to check it out, okay?
A HUGE thank you to everyone who prayed for my Aunt Julie (and me!). She is doing much better and back to her independent lifestyle, which makes us both very happy! :)
The launch of a new book and a new series is SUCH an exciting time for an author, but we all know how stressed we can be with so much on our plates, which totally ruins the joy of the blessing God has given us. One day when I was stressing out like crazy (imagine that!), my husband looked at me and said, "Smile, Julie, you're living the 'dream." I remember blinking at him in shock, thinking, "Omigosh ... he's right, so why does it feel like a nightmare???"
Why? Because I lose my focus. I focus on me and my situation instead of God and His power and His incredible love for each of us. So I took a deep breath and repented for my worry/anxiety and reflected on my history with God. He has NEVER let me down ... not once ... not on deadlines, or ideas for books or solving problems in my life. NEVER. Oh, things didn't always go the way I wanted, sure, but He delivered me nonetheless, always.
So this morning Keith notices the little crimp in my brow when I thinking too hard about all the things I have to do today and He says, "Julie, we need to pray that we enjoy our day, the blessings that God has given us. You have a new book out and I have more work than I can handle, so we are blessed. Let's try to enjoy every minute as a gift from God and not just try to get through it, okay?" Wow ... what a novel idea -- enjoying the blessings of God moment by moment instead of trying to plow through them. Especially since all that plowing and worry adds nothing to our lives but sin in not trusting the Best Friend we have ever had.
God forgive us for not focusing on You, our history together, Your goodness to us and Your unconditional love. We are blessed to call you our God, our Savior, our Friend, and the Lover of our Souls. Guide us this day and bless the work of our hands as we do everything today unto You. Give us a supernaturally productive day, Lord, and a heart of gratitude through it all. In Jesus' name.
Hugs,
Julie
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
GOD IS GOOD!! Spent the day yesterday and part of the night in the ER with my 92-year-old Aunt Julie, for whom I am primary caretaker because we thought she broke her left hip (she broke her right last year). But PRAISE GOD, it was only a hematoma (bulge of blood on her hip) and not a fracture, although she does have a UTI which as some of you may know, makes people act senile. So, thank you to those of you who prayed and if you think about, please shoot another prayer up for healing for the UTI and STABILITY on her feet. Thank you!!
But I have to be honest (something I am to a fault). With tons of deadlines and stacks of paper on my desk, a new book/series just launched, my Seeker blog and newsletter still to be written this week, over 25 winners' books to be signed, packaged and shipped, an unexpected deadline from Revell and tons of e-mails following being out of commission for three weeks due to the writers' workshop I co-taught, this week has been CRAZEEEEE!! Needless to say, spending yesterday in a cold, sterile ER room all day worrying about my aunt on a holiday weekend was NOT how I would have chosen to spend the day. So my old nemesis self-pity tried to worm its way in ALL DAY LONG, and I am ashamed to say that it had me by the throat more than once despite my efforts to rebuke it in Jesus' name and praise God in the face of this problem, trusting that He works all things for good for those who love Him.
And then on the heels of all that self-pity, guilt slithered its way in, telling me what a horrible person I was for A.) feeling sorry for myself and B.) not being thrilled to be there for my aunt whom I love. Trust me, as a Christian, I felt pretty worthless and certainly a disappointment to Godl
And that's when something amazing happened, right in the middle of me TRYING to praise God and begging Him to fill me with His unconditional love so I could give that same love to my aunt. A thought, so foreign to my thinking that I KNEW it was God's, just dropped into the middle of my turbulant mind like the hand of God, calming the still waters. It was a thought about a story in the Bible, where a father asked his two sons to do something for him, and one son said, "yes, I will," but didn't. The other son said, "no, I won't," but did. The minute that thought touched my mind, tears welled in my eyes because here I had been, beating myself up for being selfish and too busy to JOYFULLY tend to my aunt when all along God was saying, "But, Julie, you're actually doing it no matter how much your humanity gets in the way, and your obedience pleases Me.
Now please understand that I am NOT condoning self-pity or selfishness in any way, but sometimes we just need to know that God sees our hearts and God KNOWS we are but flesh. And, really, in the end it's all about our obedience, because to God, OBEDIENCE = LOVE.
So those of you out there that are beating yourself up for not being the Christians you think you should be, lighten up. You love God or you wouldn't be reading this Jot right now -- posted on a Christian author's website. You love God because you DO want to please Him and sometimes you even succeed, trying over and over to apply His precepts no matter HOW much you don't want to at the time. Please know that He loves you and cares for you just as you are, and if you can praise Him and rebuke self-pity and fear in the midst of trial, then that's just the icing on the cake, putting a smile on the face of the God to whom EACH of us are the apple of His eye.
Hugs, Julie
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010
Well, it's 2:00 AM Saturday morning and I have JUST packaged up the last signed copy of A Hope Undaunted to be shipped to contest/newsletter winners who have won so far. I was hoping to get these out 2-3 weeks ago, but regrettably my shipment of author copies was delayed for some reason, so I apologize to all you newsletter winners who thought they would get their copy before the stores had them. That was the case on my other books, but not on this one. Sigh.
Anyway, the last book I packaged up was for a lovely young woman named Heather, and I just thought I would share what she told me since it touched me so much. Here's Heather's note:
I know that anyone would be excited to win your books, but I wanted to share why it means so much to me. Reading is one of my greatest pleasures in life. It is my way of relaxing and a favorite pastime. My husband and I have been going through some difficult stuff the last year or so and to be honest books and "extras" were things that we had to sacrifice ... So, in hopes of maybe getting "lucky" I went to your website and started entering every contest I could. haha I know it may sound silly, but I started praying that whoever won (even if it wasn't me) would be someone who might not be able to just go out and buy the book.
Okay, I don't know about you guys, but that is just plain impressive, wonderful and exactly what we as Christians should be doing -- praying for others -- even those who win the book instead of us. Hats off to Heather AND to God for blessing her and proving once again that He is an amazing God Who "honors those who honor Him."
My deep thanks to Heather for her great attitude and to all the winners who took the time to enter my contests. I wish I could send a book to every single one of you!
Happy Weekend, all!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2010
WHOO-HOO, it’s F-R-I-D-A-Y!!!
Doing the happy dance here because I just LOVE Fridays!! You would think a woman who practically works 18/7 would not even know what day it is, much less if it is a weekend. But I gotta tell you, I have this built-in “celebration” radar whenever Friday rolls around, which I guess stems from all the years I worked outside the home. Rain or shine, on Fridays, I always wake up with a little extra bounce in my step.
So, since this is a fun day, I thought I’d tell you a fun story. A story that is one of my favorite reader-friend stories in the whole wide world. Remember that cute, little gal named Kelsey whose picture graces my Tuesday, August 31st Jot? You know, the one who always signed her e-mails “YOUR TOTALLY OBSESSED FAN”? Well, I also mentioned in that Jot that I had a fun story about her mother Joetta as well, who is now one of my very good friends. But … it wasn’t always that way …
You see, Kelsey and I had been exchanging e-mails for about two weeks or so when one day I get this e-mail from her mother, thanking me for writing a clean romance that her young daughter could read. Kelsey’s mom then proceeds to ask me if I ever thought about writing books that were just a little less passionate, say for a younger crowd. I still remember staring at the e-mail in a daze, thinking, “Why?”
So I carefully explained to Kelsey’s mom Joetta that I felt that God was calling me to write books with a bit more edge in the hopes of reaching young women who believed in God, but didn’t live for Him in their morality. I went on to tell her a funny story how my editor had leaned across a couch at a writer’s conference and asked if I thought I could write Amish. I blinked. Amish??? This from the woman who has to rein me in on a regular basis?? I leaned right back, brows raised and voice low, teasing innocence in every syllable. “I don’t know … is there such a thing as ‘edgy Amish”?
Now everybody who reads Christian fiction KNOWS that the term “edgy Amish” is an oxymoron because let’s face it—those two words go together about as well as bonnets and cleavage. Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny and expected Joetta to think so too. And then came the kicker that clipped me in the heart like the hind leg of an Amish mule: Joetta and her family are Mennonite, a faith that shares historical roots with the Amish. Gulp.
And then in a whoosh of my breath, that nasty donkey let fly with another braying thud to my chest. Not only were Joetta and Kelsey Mennonite, but this Mennonite mama—who had NOT yet read my book—was planning on doing so that very night! Double gulp. I turned around to my husband with a look of sheer terror, heart in my throat. “Babe,” I rasped, sweat beading my brow, “we gotta pray right now or we could be looking at a lawsuit.” That night I had visions of Joetta mortified that I had brainwashed her daughter with the devil’s romance. Sleep did not come easily.
Weeping may endureth for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
And so did my vindication!! Joetta e-mailed to say she’d stayed up late into the night reading A Passion Most Pure and loved it! Not only that, but she then got her sister, Charlene, hooked on my books too! The highlight for me came when all three were anxiously awaiting the release of A Passion Redeemed. It seems Joetta and Charlene were in a little competition to see who could get the book first. I told them I’d seen A Passion Most Pure in my Borders two weeks before its release date, so Joetta started calling bookstores every day about two weeks out, totally unaware Charlene was calling twice as many.
You guessed it—Charlene found the book first. So she bought it and hightailed it home with the book, its cover warm in her hand when she dialed the phone. Apparently Joetta and Kelsey were watching a movie when Charlene called, and I was told the conversation went something like this. “Guess what I have in my hand?” Charlene asked with victory in her tone. Shrieks filled the air. “Where?” Joetta screamed, slamming the phone down when Charlene finally came clean. Within moments, a blue blur shot by Charlene’s window as Joetta’s car tore past her house on the way to the store. Joetta claims she nearly hit somebody in a parking lot and then almost scared the bookstore manager to death, but that woman got her books. And you know what? I got three of the craziest and deares friends I’ve ever met online.
So you see, it’s not just about writing books. It’s about friends like Joetta, Kelsey, Charlene … and each and every one of you who took the time to read this blog today. Thank you All for making my life soooo much better!
Happy Weekend!
Hugs,
Julie
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2010
Over all the earth
You reign on high
Every mountain stream
Every sunset sky
But my one request
Lord my only aim
Is that You’d reign in me again
Lord reign in me
Reign in Your power
Over all my dreams
In my darkest hour
You are the Lord
Of all I am
So won’t You reign in me again
Over every thought
Over every word
May my life reflect
The beauty of my Lord
‘Cause you mean more to me
Than any earthly thing
So won’t You reign in me again
Reign in Me (1998 Vineyard Songs (UK/Eire)
Well, it's half past midnight, and the release date of my new "Winds of Change" series book 1, A Hope Undaunted is officially over. And, oh my, what a wonderful day!
I spent a good part of it with my 92-year-old Aunt Julie, for whom I am primary caretaker, and we had a lot of fun together, topped off by praying with my two best friends and prayer partners, Pat and Karen. As if that wasn't enough, there was a WONDERFUL launch party over at Ashley's blog, "After All, Tomorrow Is Another Day," and I cannot thank Ashley enough for all the hard work she put into making this day so special for me and for so many of you who stopped by -- THANK YOU, ALL! In addition, many of you also sent me incredible notes ... via e-mail, on FaceBook, in Ashley's comment section, etc. that I am truly grateful and blessed. I even had one of my dearest online friends write an entire essay on FaceBook entitled "How I Came to Love Julie Lessman's Books," reducing me to tears (yes, yet AGAIN!) and humbling me at the goodness of God in blessing me with so many wonderful reader friends. Sigh, like I said ... what a day.
But as wonderful as everything was, you know what came to me at the end of the day? Yep, Benton Brown's incredible rendition of "Reign in Me" (1998 Vineyard Songs (UK/Eire), which just happens to be one of my very favorite songs.
Why, you ask? Well, because as a writer I am quite naturally drawn to anything word-related like hononyms -- words that sound the same when you pronounce them, but have different meanings. Such as "reign" in these song lyrics, the hononym of which would be "rain" and "rein." It's funny, but every time I sing this song on my treadmill (rather badly, I might add), my mind has a tendancy to embrace all three meanings of this hononym as a means of worshipping God. Because not only do I want God to "reign" in me as Lord of my life, but I also want Him to "rein" me in when I stray from His will and then also "rain" in me with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, for Whom I see "rain" as a metaphor.
The bottom line is I don't care how wonderful things are on this earth ... with good friends, a great family, a fabulous book launch ... unless Jesus Christ is on the throne, "reigning" over "all my dreams" and meaning more to me than "any earthly thing," true joy and peace will evade me, a truth I have come to know to the core of my being. Because He is the only One Who will ever really satisfy, ever really give us peace and joy. And when He "reigns" in each of us, that peace and joy is then able to ripple through our lives onto others, making the love of family and friends all the sweeter, all the more satisfying.
So as I close out what was for me, a truly exciting day, deep down in my spirit I know that books and family and friends, as incredible as they may be, are not my source of peace and joy. He and only He ... IS. Tonight I lay my head on my pillow knowing full well that the gratitude spilling from my eyes belongs to the One who "reigns, rains, and reins" in my life ... the Lover of each of our souls and the Grantor of the desires of each of our hearts. Now I ask you, are we blessed or what??
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2010
WHOO-HOO ... A HOPE UNDAUNTED DAY!!!!!!
This is it ... the OFFICIAL LAUNCH DAY of my new "Winds of Change" series beginning with book 1, A Hope Undaunted. No more waiting ... you should be able to get it ANYWHERE ... Amazon.com, CBD.com, Borders, Barnes & Noble, LifeWay, Parable stores, Sam's Club or wherever you buy books!!
BUT ... if you would like to get it FREE and SIGNED, hop on over to my website calendar at http://www.julielessman.com/julies-calendar/ to check out all the signed giveaways going on THIS week and next. You can win your choice of A Hope Undaunted or one of "The Daughters of Boston" series OR even a writer's critique!!!
I AM SOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!! So far the reviews have been AWESOME and I have even managed to shift some ladies from Collin's camp to Cluny's, so join me on some of my calendar giveaways so you can win the book and see what all the fuss is about.
PINCH ME!!! THIS IS WAY TOO MUCH FUN!!!!
You all have a GREAT day, okay? I know I will!!
Hugs,
Julie
TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2010
WHOO-HOO ... ONE MORE DAY TILL A HOPE UNDAUNTED IS IN THE STORES!!!!!!
Oh, man ... now I know how my mom felt!! I'm from a family of 13 kids and Momma would slave for hours making huge, wonderful dinners ... which each of us promptly bolted down in five minutes, no joke!! What can I say? We were voracious eaters who devoured rather than savored because the food tasted SO good, we couldn't stop shoveling it in. Which is certainly a compliment to my mom ... but somehow it never felt like it to her.
One of the happiest days of her life, I'm sure, was when my sister Dee Dee married an easy-going guy named Chet who would only be a quarter into his salad when the rest of us were long done and gone. I still can see my mom sitting across our specially made over 20-foot-long Formica table, head propped to her hand, elbow on the table, smiling at Chet as the two of them sat while Chet took his sweet time savoring every single morsel she made. His status quickly rose to favorite son-in-law.
Well in a way, that happened to me last night and although I shrieked with joy at the compliment, there's a tiny shred of something sad that the meal I slaved over has been eaten and gone. You see, I received e-mails from three of my favorite reader friends last night who each bolted down A Hope Undaunted in mere hours. They seemed to love it, of course, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that there's a tiny tinge of sadness that it will be another long 12 months before I have the privilege of serving these friends again.
The first one to call was one of the most darling reader friends in the bunch, Kelsey, who initially signed all of her e-mails to me as "YOUR TOTALLY OBSESSED FAN." Now seeing that signature from most people would cause a bit trepidation, but not from Kels, who was 15 at the time and as cute as a bug's ear. Here's a picture of her reading A Passion Most Pure, which tickled me to no end.
So last night, Kelsey e-mailed me that after she saw in my Jots that AHU was available at Sam's, she immediately begged her mom to go get it and her mom (another dear friend, which is another crazy story in itself that I will save for another day) tried, but it wasn't there. However, Kelsey did not give up the search and finally found it at a Christian bookstore yesterday and promptly "devoured" it from 3:30 to 8:30 PM, stopping only for a brief dinner. And I gotta tell you that this sweet thing blessed the socks off me with her glowing review of the book because bottom line, when my favorite friends love what I do, I cannot help but have a silly grin on my face.
Next, came Pepper Basham (she talks about AHU on her fabulous blog today, so check it out at http://pepperbasham.wordpress.com/), who received AHU on the Revell blog tour yesterday and proceeded to e-mail me every hour or so with page updates and Pepperisms like "I'm dying here, Julie. DYING!!!!!!!!!!!" (page 454) and "Julie, I'm going to quote Luke McGee -- 'you little brat.'" She cracked me up all night till she finished the book (almost as quickly as Kelsey).
Finally, I get the e-mail from Renee Chaw (another great friend AND blog, so please check it out at http://steelergirl83.blogspot.com/), who not only e-mails how much she loved the book, but told me it is her favorite so far AND Cluny McGee is her favorite hero now too (yeah, Renee ... so glad we're on the same page here!!). AND, that sweet thing promptly posted a review on both Amazon.com and CBD.com when she was bone tired, so for her incredible support and encouragement, I am sending her a signed book as a giveaway on her blog (or to keep) and a signed bookplate for her own gently read book too. THANK YOU, RENEE!!
And so, with a full heart this morning, my HEARTFELT thanks go out to Kelsey, Pepper and Renee -- as Katie O'Connor would say in the vernacular of the Roaring 20s, girls ... you guys are the "bee's knees." :)
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2010
The launch of a new series is ALWAYS a really BUSY, CRAZY, FUN time for an author, and since I haven't had a book out in about a year and a half, the release of A Hope Undaunted is especially sweet for me.
But ... you want to know the best part?? Yeah, it's fun seeing my book at Sam's Club stores, and yes, my pulse races knowing 105 blogger/reviewers have the book in their hands as we speak (YIKES!!!), but I gotta tell you the very best part is ... knowing the people I love the most (YOU, my reader friends!!) are just as excited as I am about Katie and Cluny's story.
For instance, I just got an e-mail yesterday from one of my favorite online buds, Ashley, who is a cute, young thing with such a heart for God that it makes my heart ache with joy!! Ashley first contacted me after reading A Passion Most Pure, and we have been good friends ever since. Well, anyway, Ashley received A Hope Undaunted as part of the Revell blog tour and sent me some pics to convey her excitement. She is SUCH a doll and so darn cute, that I just had to share the pics with you too!
Ashley has been having a countdown until the release of A Hope Undaunted on her WONDERFUL blog entitled "After All, Tomorrow Is Another Day" (note the Gone With the Wind connection ... is it any wonder why I LOVE this kid???) and the countdown culminates on Wednesday, where ... and she doesn't know this yet ... but I am going to give away a signed copy of A Hope Undaunted to one of the people who leaves a comment that day, so be sure and stop by, okay? Here's the link: http://anotherdayforhim.blogspot.com/.
Honestly, is it any wonder I love my reader buds??? You guys are SUCH a blessing and an encouragment to me that it frequently brings tears to my eyes. Just knowing that there are people out there who are like me -- passionate about God and romance and not afraid to express it -- somehow makes me feel less alone, less crazy, you know? NOT that I'm calling y'all crazy, but uh ... if the book fits, read it! ;)
Have a blessed day!
Hugs,
Julie
SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2010
OMIGOSH!!!! I AM IN SAM'S CLUB STORES!!!! My Seeker bud, Myra Johnson, told me she saw a stack of A Hope Undaunted at her Sam's in Oklahoma, but I was scared to death it wouldn't be in our St. Louis Sam's. So Keith and I high-tailed it over there after church this morning and OMIGOSH ... I'M IN SAM'S!!! Trust me, I was dancin' in the aisles, praising God and my heart overflowing with gratitude because it is very difficult to get in Sam's or Walmart, so this is HUGE!!! All the biggies are always there, like my good buds, Mary Connealy and Maggie Brendan, but MOI??? NEVER ... till now!!!
And double OMIGOSH ... guess who I am RIGHT next to??? My good friend, MaryLu Tyndall, a sweetheart of a gal I met for the first time at ICRS this year and we bonded INSTANTLY ... almost like sisters, truly. I LOVE that woman and even better ... I LOVE her books!!! So naturally when I saw A Hope Undaunted next to MaryLu's Surrender the Heart, I almost screamed out loud (I did in my mind, of course!) and begged Keith to take a picture of our two books shoulder to shoulder! Trust me, if you have never read MaryLu, please DO!! She is to romantic adventure on the high seas what I am to edgy Boston and Mary Connealy and Maggie Brendan are to Cowboy romance.
Goodness, Keith won't be able to stand me today, I'm SO bouncing off the walls, not only because of Sam's, but because Undaunted will officially release in TWO DAYS!!! And the biggest reason I am so crazed?? Ninety blogger/reviewers JUST got their copy of Undaunted in the last few days and could be reading it AS WE SPEAK. YIKES!! What if I built it up too much by saying it was my favorite book so far??? What if it's TOO romantic? What if the era of the Roaring 20s and The Great Depression is a turnoff?? What if Collin maintains his undisputed status as hunkiest hero in O'Connorland and Cluny is left high and dry? Grin ... not a chance. If I know Cluny ... and I DO ... he alone is capable of wringing a sigh from the most calloused of romantics ... :)
So thank you for allowing me to CROW, BOUNCE, LEAP for joy. Not just because the book is out or because it is in Sam's or because I have incredible reader friends like you who even bother to read this mini-blog, BUT because of one very important truth that we are all privileged to know. When one has a heart for God ... blessings flow!
Happy Hugs,
Julie
SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2010
You're the Father to the fatherless
The answer to my dreams
I see you crowned in righteousness
We cry glory to the King
Comforter to the lonely
The lifter of my head
I see You veiled in majesty
We cry glory,glory
We cry glory to the King
"Glory to the King," Extravagant Worship by Darlene Zschech
Boy, it's good to get back on my treadmill again, I can tell you that, especially after putting on five pounds at the Green Lake Writers Conference! This morning I listened over and over to my favorite song, "Glory to the King," from the Extravagant Worship CD I mentioned a few weeks ago, and this song in particular has a very special history for me. You see, this is the song I played OVER AND OVER during the eight months I was writing A Passion Most Pure. Pepper Basham once said she has a song she thinks of for every book she writes, and I can see why. Everytime I hear this song, I'm not only reminded of the passionate faith of the O'Connors, but how God used this song to stoke my own fervor for Him while writing my first book.
I will NEVER forget the day that I felt God "anointed" me to write this book. I personally feel we can pray for God's anointing for EVERYTHING we do, so of course I'd been praying nonstop for His guidance and anointing while writing A Passion Most Pure. I was still in the early stages of the novel when I went through the drive-thru at a Hardee's to get a coffee and one of their iced cinnamon biscuit two-paks, a weakness of mine back then. I remember parking the car under a tree in the adjoining parking lot, mouth watering at the prospect of devouring the biscuit when Darlene Zschech's "Glory to the King" came on my tape player, from a brand-new Hillsong tape someone had given me.
Oh my.
I had the biscuit poised at my lips when the words to this amazing song hit me SO hard, that tears streamed down my cheeks like the warm icing streaming down my wrist, biscuit frozen in the air. Would you believe that I sat there like that for over 30 minutes while the entire tape played through, weeping over the goodness of God and His love for me ... the same deep, devoted love He has for each of us. To me it was a wake-up call, a startling revelation that we can touch God ... and He can touch and anoint us ... in everything we do, whether writing or reading a book, visiting with a friend or something as simple as eating a biscuit under a tree in a parking lot. All it takes is turning our thoughts to Him over and over throughout our day, praising Him, beseeching Him, loving Him. He is the true Source of our passion and fervor and the more we turn our eyes to Him in the mundane and not so mundane tasks of our life, the more we draw from His strength and power to turn something as simple as eating a biscuit into a feast for the soul. Hungry? Give it a shot ... but don't blame me if someone catches you crying while walking the dog ... :)
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2010
Whew ... I JUST got home from Green Lake, Wisconsin where Patti Lacy and I had a blast teaching a fiction workshop, but I am in a zombie-like state, so it may be a wee bit safer for me to make this a true "jot" in brevity, which is a first, so take advantage!! Once I get a good night's sleep, I hope to fill you in on my wonderful week and share some pics.
Whoo-hoo ... Ann Miller won a signed copy of A Hope Undaunted on Relz Review, so yeah, Ann!! I just LOVE it when favorite reader friends win my books!!
ONLY FOUR DAYS TO GO TILL UNDAUNTED!!!!
Happy Friday!!
Hugs,
Julie
THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2010
Okay, since tomorrow is going to be REALLY busy (writers' showcase where the students read the writing pieces they've been working on all week!), I decided it would be smart for me to post my Thursday post tonight because I HATE when I miss our time together, don't you? (I hope! :))
Anyway, what a day!! First of all, I LOVE writers!!! They are so fun and deep and quirky and most importantly, they LOVE the written word. And Christian writers are the absolute BEST because they love God's written Word even more! I have met so many wonderful people (many of whom are such characters and I LOVE characters, maybe because I am one), that this week has been a total blessing.
Today in our writing workshop, for some strange reason, I ended up giving my testimony, where I mentioned I had been into the occult before I came to Christ. My husband doesn't always like when I broadcast things like that, but I can't help but talk about my past because I want everyone to know just how MUCH God has changed my life for the better! And tonight at the closing festivities, one of our sweet younger students (a fabulous writer!!) came up to thank me for sharing about my involvement in the occult because she has been afraid to admit to anybody that she came out of the occult too. We had an instant bonding, and Patti Lacy and I think this young woman (who writes Medieval Fantasy) just may have a niche in writing Frank Peretti-style fantasy, so we prayed for God to guide and direct her in the path He wants her to go. And to show you just how good she is, here is the first line of her draft, which in my opinion is one of the BEST first lines I have ever heard, if not THE best! Ready?
The worst thing about being a corpse are the flies.
Call me quirky (surprise, surprise!), but I love that line!! Trust me, this girl will go far, mark my words.
Then another lady in the class told Patti and I that before she came to this conference, she had been discouraged about writing fiction and had decided to give it up. BUT, she said, Patti and I had recharged her passion for it and now she was raring to go, so that was a total blessing too.
Finally, one of our adorable and spunky Baby Boomers (I refuse to call her a senior because she's just TOO cute and lively for that!) asked me to consider writing romance where older couples were the heroes and heroines. I told her that Marcy and Patrick are in their early 50s in A Hope Undaunted and that they are STILL very romantic and passionate with each other, which she was glad to hear. But she wants me to write a romance for even older couples, so I told her that I hope to write a series some day on the O'Connor cousins during WWII, and by then Marcy and Patrick will be in their 60s, so would that do? She laughed and said that yes, it would!
Okay, I'm in the lobby of the conference building because this is the only place I can get Internet, and Keith is sitting across from me glaring because he wants me to go up and watch JAG with him, so I have to go, but have a WONDERFUL Thursday, and I'll talk to you soon.
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2010
OMIGOSH ... what a WONDERFUL day!! First of all, I LOVE Patti Lacy to death -- we are like Frick and Frack, but we teach a pretty mean class on Passionate Christian Fiction, let me tell you. Patti is SO calm and together and fluid, that she just calms me down (a very good thing!) and I have learned so much from her, so I know that our students are too.
Secondly, we had a guest speaker tonight named Marshall J. Cook, and I encourage you to check out his website at www.theperspiringwriter.com or www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/extrainnings as he was wonderful! He's written a book called How to Write With the Skill of a Master and the Genius of a Child, and he talked about our "Wild Mind," which is our subconscious, where all of our creativity germinates. Here are seven tips he gave us that he gave me permission to share with you:
1.) Feed your Wild Mind and give it time to digest.
2.) When Wild Mind talks, listen.
3.) Don't wait to be inspired to write. Write to be inspired. (My favorite!!)
4.) It doesn't matter where you start, but only that you start.
5.) There are no mistakes, only possibilities.
6.) If at first you don't succeed, redefine "success."
7.) If you only write the story that you planned, you'll never discover the story you didn't plan.
Okay you writers out there -- get your butts in the chair (myself included!) and just WRITE!!
Gotta run and finish some critiques, so have a GREAT day tomorrow, okay. I know I will!
Hugs,
Julie
TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2010
WOW, I am one busy broad (note the alliteration!), so I apologize for my lack of time to talk to you about TONS of things I have on my mind. In fact, I keep "jotting" down fun things I want to say to you guys, but with me teaching this workshop at the Green Lake Christian Writers Conference this week, I am SHORT on time, which as you know, is not good for someone who is NEVER short on words!!
So bear with me, and if you want to try and win a signed free book, I'm still over at Relz Reviews for another day or so and just started at Lena Nelson Dooley's blog this morning, so I will chat with you there if I'm blessed enough to have you drop by, okay? Check out my website calendar for the links, and hope to see you there!
MAJOR HUGS,
Julie
MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 2010
Green Lake, Wisconsin is BEAUTIFUL!!! And BUSY!!! Of course, it doesn't help that they don't have Wi-Fi in the rooms and there's not a lot of time to trek over to the main lodge to check e-mail or blogs, but I am managing. But talk about WITHDRAWAL!! Patti Lacy and I are teaching "A Week of Passionate Christian Fiction," and imagine my angst when only one person out of our large group wants to write romance. YIKES!! We also have three men in the group, but as I told our students, the principles and tips we are teaching this week are applicable across the board, regardless of genre ... thank God!!!
Just finished reading my author copy of A Hope Undaunted and was depressed when I turned the last page. I told my husband I wasn't sure if it was because I was sad it was over or if it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. He gave me a smirk and said, "you're sad it's over." He was right, I'm afraid. Soooo miss those characters right now, but thank God they have their own substory in the next book so I don't have to say good-bye just yet ... :)
Tonight, each workshop leader gets 15 minutes to read excerpts from their work and give a little insight or object lesson with each. I'm a wee bit nervous because one of the scenes I've chosen to read is a love scene and I'm hoping that the group is not TOO conservative when it comes to Christian romance. You know, like most live in an Amish community??! More prayers appreciated! :)
Have a blessed day and hope to talk to you soon.
Hugs,
Julie
SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2010
JOURNAL JOTS ... my "sweet" daughter (the one I modeled Katie O'Connor after in A Hope Undaunted!) hates the name "Journal Jots." Says it sounds like a medical condition. I told her it's like a little diary to my reader friends and she said, "the name sounds more like diarrhea than diary, mom." Sigh ... that's actually not too far from the truth, I guess, because I can't seem to stop these supposedly "brief" jots once I get started ... I actually thought "Journal Jots" was pretty cute because the writer in me likes alliteration. Oh, well ... I just may have a contest with a signed giveaway in the future to rename Journal Jots, so stay tuned.
PRAYERS NEEDED!! Couldn't get to sleep last night till after 3:00 PM because I am SO wired (in a good way) about the 5-day workshop I am teaching at the Green Lake Christian Writer's Conference this week, so shoot one up to the Big Guy for me, will you? Not sure how much time I will have for Jots, but if I sleep up there like I did last night, there may be a 500-page novel posted everyday, you never know!! :)
Meanwhile, don't forget to come see me at one of THREE signed book giveaways I have going this week and be sure to keep checking my website calendar throughout the next month because I will have a gazillion signed giveaways!! So check it out now at http://www.julielessman.com/julies-calendar/ because it's SO much better to win a book rather than buy one, right??? And I would LOVE to see you there besides.
JOT ALERT: In the upcoming weeks I am going to have an "OPEN JOT" day where I will turn the comments on and run a signed giveaway, so stay tuned because I will advertise it on my website calendar, okay?
Have a WONDERFUL weekend, my friends!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 2010
Okay, so you guys think these Journal Jots are for you?? Uh, no. Hate to break it to you, but they are RAPIDLY becoming a total blessing in my life and more encouragement than I could EVER give out! Since I've started these jots a week or so ago, I have had some of the most encouraging and uplifting letters and FB comments I have ever had, and my heart swells with joy over the fact that I can connect with some of the most amazing and caring and godly people on the planet -- YOU!!
In fact, I've already shed tears just this morning (get used to it ... I'm an emotional gal, if you haven't noticed!), although some people would write that off to hormone deficiency. But I assure you I have been crying for years now, just like the O'Connor women, so they come by it naturally, I promise! :) Anyway, a dear reader friend named Amanda encouraged me SO MUCH with her note that I just had to share some of what she said. She had asked how I was, and I told her I was a tiny bit blue because of my numbers on Amazon and (I didn't tell her this) but also because I got another 1-star review on APMP that said it was like a "bad soap opera" and not a Christian book at all. Usually stuff like this doesn't bother me anymore, but for some reason (maybe because I'm in hyper-mode for this upcoming conference), the devil has been beating me over the head with it.
Anyway, Amanda quoted Corrie Ten Boom to me, and it SO lifted me up, that I thought I would share it with you too, in the hopes that if anyone out there is a bit blue, this will help you as well. Here's the quote: "If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you'll be at rest." Oh, my. I SOOO needed that!! And then Amanda did something else that pulled the waterworks out of my like she was cranking a water pump. Here is her statement:
PLEASE realize how special you, my dear friend!!! We are not defined by numbers, or reviews, or others opinions of us. We are defined by our Saviour Jesus Christ. A wonderful woman once wrote that we Christians are just "human beings with clay feet and a strong God." ;)
I cried, I blew my nose, and then I cried some more. The woman quotes ME back to myself!! Take that, Julie Lessman, and start walking what you write!! :) Thank you SO VERY MUCH, Amanda, for being just the friend I needed today. YOU are a blessing in my life! As are each and every one of you!
To close out today, I have gotten Amanda's permission to include an incredible poem she wrote and then sent to me as an encouragement, and trust me, it was and is.
Have a blessed day and weekend, my dear reader friends, and I pray Amanda's words lift you as much as they have lifted me.
Draw Me Nigh ... by Amanda Stanley
(Psalm 73:23 & 119:10; Romans 6:6 & 7:18-24; Matthew 11:29-30; Psalm 51:4 & 86:11; James 4:8)
Who have I but Thee Lord?
Yet, still I pull away;
Please forgive my wandering heart
That is so easily led astray.
The "old man" is ever present-
Whispering and shouting my name;
Deliver me from this body of sin,
With all its guilt and shame.
Break the heavy chains of fear
That torment me every day;
Replace it with Thy yoke of peace,
And cast my doubts away.
Against Thee only have I sinned,
I cry out now in desperate need;
Unite my heart to fear Thy Name,
And draw me nigh to Thee.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2010
Okay, I have been so slammed today because I am preparing to teach this 5-day workshop, so I wasn't planning on jotting today, BUT ... I got the most AMAZING letter from the most AMAZING young woman named Jennifer, who is a 30-year-old Director of Children's Ministry at a church. She told me a story about dating this new guy and giving him the "ground rules" like Faith gave Mitch in A Passion Most Pure. Well, apparently the guy seemed fine with it at first until the "ground rules" got in the way of his "needs," so she showed him the door. I cannot tell you HOW proud I am of this woman and not just me, but HOW proud God is too! His Word says He honors those who honor him, and trust me, He does -- I know from personal experience. So I am putting Jennifer on my prayer "hit list" for a godly man who will cherish her the way she deserves to be cherished.
Jennifer's story reminded me of me when I became a brand-new, on-fire Christian at the age of 23 (in the free-love era of the 70s, no less!). Back then I told every guy I went out with that I was a Christian and I wanted them to know up front that I didn't put out. Just like the guy Jennifer was dating, all of these guys seemed fine with the "ground rules" until about the fourth date, and then after that, they wouldn't call anymore.
Well, I got pretty sick of that so when this one guy I REALLY liked (and had SO much fun with) didn't call after the fourth date, I decided to call him (I don't advocate that, but I was pretty sick of this pattern and wanted to see why). I asked him why he never asked me out again, saying I didn't understand because we had so much fun together. And do you know what he said? He told me that, yes, he had fun with me too, and he liked me a lot, but the bottom line was that he could find a girl that he liked and had fun with that would give him sex too. WHOA ... talk about the bottom line!! So listen up, girls -- I am fond of saying that there are millions of "wrong" guys out there, but only one "right" guy that God has in mind for us, so it basically boils down to the fact that God's precepts are protection against heartbreak and the WRONG guys!!
My story has a happy ending, however, as I pray Jennifer's does too! When I started dating my husband, I joked with him on our fourth date that I really enjoyed knowing him and hoped he had a wonderful life. "What are you talking about?" he asked, and I told him how guys never took me out past the fourth date because of my "ground rules." That was over 32 years ago, and today I have one of the best marriages on the planet, NO JOKE!! Sometimes I think I am living my own personal romance novel, and you know why? Because God honors those who honor Him, period!!
I hope this encourages you singles out there, because God is FAITHFUL and has a plan for your life that will unfold with the application of His precepts! I don't know if it includes a mate, but I DO know that if we live for HIM, God promises to give us the desires of our heart. Nuff said.
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2010
Good morning!
And I have to say -- nothing makes a morning "good" more than spending time with God. And not just "any old" time, but quality time. Sometimes I am SO distracted (uh, like this week before leaving for a writer's conference where I will teach for the first time AND my first book in a year and half is coming out in less than TWO WEEKS!!!) that I just go through the motions. I mean I try, I really do, to focus on God and tap into my truly deep emotional feelings for Him, but sometimes my prayer/worship time is as dry as the cinnamon toast I had the other day.
So I'm going to start doing something that I began years ago that really seemed to help me tap in to God. It starts with me praying to the Holy Spirit to show me just one line in my morning Scripture reading that will pop out so I can journal it into a prayer. For instance, here's a prayer-journal entry I found that I wrote on June 8, 2006:
Psalms 86:11 -- Give me an undivided heart that I might fear your name.
Oh, Lord my God, this is the cry of my heart -- to focus only on You -- to please You and delight in You. How easily I stray, oh God! Let it not be so, but give me a heart undivided and totally Yours because I love you, Lord, with all of my might.
Now ... not ONLY would "A Heart Divided" make a GREAT book title (I gotta remember that!), but it is a prayer that I have been praying almost daily since I first wrote that journal-prayer in 2006. Why? Because I have learned the hard way that unless He is firmly on the throne of our lives -- not sharing it with book sales or good reviews or family or friends or even romance -- we will NOT be truly happy. So if you have trouble tapping in like I sometimes do, then give this a try. I promise you, He will amaze you with His response.
Hugs,
Julie
TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2010
Oh man, what a fun day!! I spent it with six of my sisters, my brother and his wife and some of my brothers-in-law at a prayer luncheon, which is something I started years ago with my family. We eat and visit, then sit around in a big circle while each us prays out loud, one at a time, for our special intentions. It's very moving and very bonding, so I always come away refreshed and lifted up.
And I discovered the coolest thing when I got home! I got an e-mail through my website from a reader friend who is SO excited about A Hope Undaunted that she put a countdown widget on her blog!!! I laughed out loud when I saw that, so if you have time, go see her at http://angielippard.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment!!
Thanks for stopping by!!
Major Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2010
OH MY!! It is SO much fun to read a book you wrote just like everybody else reads it!! I am a quarter of a way into my personal author copy of A Hope Undaunted, and gosh, I sure hope you guys like it as much as I do!! And I must like it because usually I pick apart various sentences I wished I had written differently, but so far I am so sucked into the story that I can't see anything else, which is a VERY good thing!! Hopefully nobody else will see too many mistakes either, you know?
But I AM chomping to get back into writing book 3, A Trust Restored (working title), which I hope to dive in to today, God willing!!
Also, I have a signed giveaway going on right now over at Relz Reviews. You can find the link on my website calendar, so please check it out because I would LOVE to hear from you AND send you a free signed book!
Have a blessed day!
Hugs,
Julie
SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2010
"SWEET SAINTS IN HEAVEN" ... What a day I had yesterday!!! Didn't get a chance to "jot" because I was gone all day and night, but had a blast shopping with my daughter (my own Katie O'Connor!), who is the "fashion consultant" that keeps me from making a fool of myself. Fashion-wise that is ... she can't do a whole lot about the other. :) My husband and her boyfriend met us for lunch, then we shopped till we dropped. And I actually found jeans that fit, a near impossibility, and not just one pair, but TWO!! Man, what a day and then as if it could get any better ... GUESS WHAT????
To quote a common phrase of my very good friend, Mary Connealy ... AHHHGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got ... I actually got ... A Hope Undaunted yesterday!! The doorbell rang, the UPS truck guy was at the door and AHHGGG!!!!!!!! Now I have my very own printed copy in my hot, little hands (only one copy, mind you, not my box of author copies from which the winners of my newsletter contest will get signed copies)!! WOW, what a feeling!! Get ready for a "gangbuster" of a story as my 92-year-old Aunt Julie likes to say, because Katie and Cluny are coming your way soon and could be ... EVEN NOW ... at your closest bookstore!!
Good news? It's my FAVORITE book of all those I've written. Bad news? Well, that depends on your perspective, I guess, but it's ... gulp ... 505 pages long!! YIKES!! But if you all like Cluny McGee as much as I do, trust me -- you will NOT mind!! I already made a vow to my husband to cut my books down to no more than 400 pages in the NEXT series I do, so it should be interesting to see if I can do it. Wish me luck! :)
And anybody who wants a sneak peek at Katie and Cluny's personalities and what movie stars I think they'd look like, check out my website calendar for a Character Spotlight signed giveaway at Relz Review, as well as several other giveaways going on. Hey ... if you can win a free SIGNED book, why buy it?? Did I really just say that???
Well, HAPPY SATURDAY, all ... I got me a book to read! :)
Hugs,
Julie
THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2010
Morning by morning, Your mercy awakens my soul
I lift up my eyes to see
The wonders of heaven opening over me
Your goodness abounds
You've taken my breath away, with Your irresistible love
The lyrics above are from a Darlene Zschech song called "Irresistible that brought tears to my eyes this morning on the treadmill ... uh, the song, not the treadmill, although the treadmill came in a close second, trust me!
Anyway, my family makes fun of me because you know how passionate I am in my books? Yes, of course you do, or you wouldn't be on my website right now. Well, I am the EXACT same way on the treadmill, eyes closed, head lifted, a pained expression of worship on my face and tears streaking my cheeks. But the worst part?? I sing ... badly ... and apparently my family can hear it one and two floors up EVEN THOUGH I take great pains (appropriate word in all respects) to WHISPER. Sigh. I try to mouth it, really and truly I do, but apparently to no avail. My daughter (a very Katie O'Connor-like dry humor) likes to mimic me at family gatherings, telling everyone that I sound like a drowning cat. Most days I do my worship time outside as well, and my husband is actually worried about the neighbors. "I don't care what the neighbors think," I say. "I know," he responds with a crook of a smile.
But that's not the worst part. Not by a long shot. You see, I have a confession to make. Are you ready? I have listened to the same CD on the treadmill (Hillsong's "Extravagant Worship") for about five years now, nonstop. Oh, I've deviated once or twice to Michael J. Smith once or David Crowder or another Hillsong, but mostly I listen to Darlene's CD OVER AND OVER. Why? Because I like a comfort level with God, you know like when you're worshipping in church to a song you really, really like? It kind of opens up your spirit, doesn't it? Like slipping into a warm and comfortable place with God where He can touch your soul. The more I listen to a song, the more the song becomes my own cry to God, and I enter His presence with tears of joy, discovering something new in the lyrics every time I listen. Just like the Bible. The more we read it, the more comfortable we get with God, the more He can touch our soul. And I don't know about you, but my soul needs touching BIG TIME all the time!
So this morning His "irresistible love" took my breath away (along with the treadmill, of course), and my prayer for each of you is that sometime today, His irresistible love will do the same for you.
Hugs,
Julie
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2010
WHOA, BABY, I've been busy with blog giveaways today, talking with some of my favorite people in the whole world -- my passionate readers!! I just LOVE you guys and the incredible support you give me -- THANK YOU!! Please check out my website calendar because I have three signed giveaways going on this week alone and you could win a book!!
The only sanity I've had in my day today is my quiet time with God, which I do out on my lower back deck every morning before I start my writing day. I promise that I am going to get my hubby to take a picture of it because it's so gorgeous out there, despite the heat. Grin ... I'm used to "heat," remember??
Anyway, I have this great little devotional I read along with my Bible everday called "Hearing From God Each Morning" by Joyce Meyer. Today's message in the "God's Word For You Today" quote at the bottom of the page says: "You have one mouth and two ears, so that means God wants you to listen twice as much as you talk." Oh-oh, I'm in trouble now!! :) Anyway, I soooo needed that today because I do tend to talk so much (even to God) that I don't give myself a chance to listen to Him, you Know? Sit still and know HE is God ... not my family, not my deadline, not my books, not romance ... HIM and only HIM. Man, He has to slap me upside the head more often than not, but I know He loves me ... and YOU ... and because of that LOVE, I have his peace and joy (most of the time!), for which I am eternally grateful.
I encourage you to take one moment out of your busy day to tell Him how special He is to you and then listen when He tells you the same thing ... :)
Hugs,
Julie
TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2010
Boy, my motor is running today because it's one of those days you feel overwhelmed with all you have to do, you know? Today I'll spend the day preparing lesson plans for a writer's conference Patti Lacy and I are teach at Green Lake Conference Center in Green Lake, Wisconsin August 22-27, which should really be fun!! We're teaching on Passionate Christian Fiction, which, as you know, is a favorite subject of mine.
This is the month that all my interviews/blog giveaways are really starting to accumulate, so be sure and check out my website calendar for dates to win a free signed copy of your choice of my books. Just finished a Character Spotlight for Katie and Cluny on Relz Review for August 16-25, and just talking about Katie and Cluny McGee has be SOOO psyched for this book because they are both such great characters to write about. ESPECIALLY Cluny McGee who is SO hubba-hubba that I cannot WAIT to get my mitts on that book again when I receive my author copies! :)
Till next time ...
Hugs,
Julie
MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 2010
Sniff, sniff. I just sent my baby off to my editor (Book 2 of the "Winds of Change" series, A Heart Revealed, which is Sean and Emma's story), and you know that sad feeling you get at the end of a really good book that you don't want to end? Well, I have that right now because keep in mind that I've been living with the people in this story for ten months now, and I'm a little bit sad to seem them go.
I do have 35 pages written of the final book in the series, working title A Trust Restored, which is Steven O'Connor's story, so I guess I will just have to lose myself in that book instead. Can only imagine how sad I will feel when I finish that one since it will be the final book for the O'Connors ... :(
BUT ... I do have a FUN idea for my next series, which I am entitling "The Cousins McClare," so stay tuned about some sneak peeks down the road ...
I'll announce my newsletter contest winner in my next newsletter, which I hope to send out at the end of August, so keep your eyes peeled, okay? And be sure to check my website calendar for links to two giveaways that will be going on this week, one on the Seeker blog on Wednesday, August 11 and the other on Edgy Inspirational Romance blog August 11-15.
Hugs,
Julie
SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 2010
Gosh, I LOVE Saturdays, don't you?! I don't have a day job anymore since I "work" pretty much seven days a week at home, but I STILL love Saturdays (and Sundays!) because weekends are still SO celebratory! 1.) I give myself a break from my treadmill, 2.) I take as long as I want on e-mails and blog browsing and 3.) I allow myself Creme Brulee Coffee Mate instead of skim milk in my hazelnut coffe ALL DAY LONG!! Sigh.
Today I will run spell-check on book 2 of the "Winds of Change" series, A Heart Revealed (Emma and Sean's story), then shoot it off to my editor with a prayer on my lips. Although the book was a struggle to write (I likened it to giving birth with nine months labor) and not my favorite by far, my husband, aunt, sister and crit partner think it's my best yet, so go figure. My aunt actually called it a "gangbuster" and my hubby thinks it will win me awards. Yeah, right. As long as it wins me minimal revisions from my editor, I will be happy!
NAIL-BITING TIME!!! A Hope Undaunted comes out in 24 DAYS and sometimes bookstores get it two weeks early, so be on the lookout. I cannot WAIT to get my author copies because not only will I get to ship them out to all my reader friends who have won them, BUT I get to reread it too!! It is my favorite book I've written so far and I cannot WAIT to sit down with Katie and Cluny McGee once again. Sure hope you all like it as much as I do ...
Just finished reading MaryLu Tyndall's Surrender the Heart and WOW -- I believe this is her best yet!!! That women is such a fav of mine that I devour her books in mere days, which is saying something because I only read on powder-room breaks and in the car when my husband is driving (after my obligatory 10 minutes of chatter first, you understand, so he doesn't feel slighted! :)). I'm telling you right now, drive ... don't walk ... to the nearest bookstore to get your hands on her latest. I will be writing a review when I get a chance because not only is MaryLu one of my favorite authors, but she is one of my favorite people as well.
Also finished Deeanne Gist's Maid to Match, which I believe is Dee's best yet. Absolutely loved it with all the wonderful detail about The Biltmore and a love attraction that shot sparks, which is my favorite kind, of course, and something that both Dee (and MaryLu!) do SO well!
Am just starting Mary Connealy's Petticoat Doctor now and already LOVE it, which is absolutely NO surprise whatsoever. I love everything Mare writes. Then Myra Johnson's Where the Dogwoods Bloom is next, so my TBR list is being VERY good to me. And I'll tell you what, them Seekers can shore write up a storm!
Gotta run ... the great outdoors are calling! Happy weekend, everyone!
Hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 2010
WHOO-HOO!!! Finally got my "Journal Jots" page up, which is something I've been wanting to do for a LONG time now. It's 12:30 PM in St. Louis, MO, where I am sitting outside on my lower deck that runs the length of the house, overlooking a lush, green wooded area that has sunlight dappled across the trees. It's a GORGEOUS 81 degrees today and I have my feet up, cinnamon hazelnut coffee by my side and a fan gently blowing while I sit with my laptop on my ... where else? Lap!!
Usually I write in a tiny office where I work back-to-back with my artist husband (two feet a part, day in and day out, so it's REALLY a good thing we are crazy about each other or sparks would fly!! Actually, sometimes good sparks fly, which provides a wealth of is wonderful inspiration for my books, let me tell you. :)). But I digress ...
This deck has pretty much become my office during the warm months (May through Sept.) and even sometimes during the cool months as long as I am bundled up with jacket and blankets. I am down here from about 9:00 a.m. in the morning till sometimes 8:00 p.m. night, only stopping for coffee breaks, powder-room breaks (where I manage to read up to four books a month, believe it or not!) or to make dinner.
When my husband told me he wanted to build this lower deck the length of the house (it's gorgeous, all cedar with thin, black railing spokes that are easy to see through, all topped by a flat and smooth cedar hand rail), I thought he was CRAZY!! I mean, who's going to use a huge covered deck all the way downstairs?? But, being the dutiful (and smart) wife I am, I offered no resistance or snide remarks about the money it would cost. And you know what? This deck has become the most valuable asset of our house. We had my son's St. Louis wedding reception here (the wedding took place in Omaha) with about 150 people, my daughter's graduation from college, family holidays, etc. AND I spend most of my time down here, too, so once again my husband is the smart one -- a lesson I learned very early on in my marriage, thank God!
Okay, gotta go or this will go from a "Journal Jot" to a Journal Book. Sigh ... why did I ever think I can write anything short???
Hugs,
Julie