Splinter faith and pre-order splendor

Okay so I know that title was kinda cheesy...but I'm headed out the door to visit my granny Veda in the hospital.

God literally breathed life back into her a couple days ago. The extended time we've been given with her is a precious gift and I want to go treasure her. Hold her hand. Hear her voice. Make her laugh with silly stuffed dogs that wiggle and giggle. She also has a little clacker rabbit that bounces across her bedside table and causes her to smile.

For more of that story, visit my personal writing blog here.

In other news, my next release is up for pre-order now. Wahoo! Steadfast Soldier is a June release...my goodness this year is flying by. Here are some links if you're interested.

Christianbook.com

Borders

Or you can Google it.

It will also hit store shelves around May 26-June 1 or so. For those of you who follow the Wings of Refuge Series, this is Chance's story.

I'd love to know what good trait or traits that one or more of your grandparents passed down to you or to one of your siblings or to your children.

I think I have my granny Veda's ornery sense of humor. So does my Aunt Linda, her middle daughter. My niece has her selfless generosity. My mother has her kindness and gentleness and her unconditional understanding. My sister and my aunt Anna (her olded daughter) have her tenacity. My children and some of my cousins, Joey and Jodi have her high cheekbones, courtesy of her American Indian heritage. And by marriage, my dad inherited her fishing skills. Unfortunately I did not. LOL!

And today, we all have her. Just her. Live. In person. Not yet only a memory. I can't begin to explain how overwhelmed with thankfulness I am to have been given more time.

If you've lost your grandparents, you are deep in my prayers today. May God bless you with many happy memories and with the hope of Heaven that Jesus gave us when He made a way for us to reunite with our loved ones. Heaven will be one enormous family reunion, yes, but I'm also glad to treasure time and their essence this side of eternity too.

If you don't live close to your grandparents or your parents, get offline right now and call 'em. LOL! Tell them you love them and languish in the sound of their voice. If they're close in proximity or geographically, get over there and hug them a little tighter and a little longer today. :-)

Thank you for supporting our blog with your readership.

Don't forget to share what good qualities you or your family members inherited from your grandparents. I'd love to hear it in the comment section.

Have a wonderful day.

Cheryl Wyatt

A Snow Day and Strep Throat

Missy Tippens here.

A snow day. And Strep throat??

The two don't go together very well, do they? But that's exactly what happened to my daughter this week. We got 5 inches of snow on Sunday near Atlanta. Five inches!! More than we've seen in probably a decade. And oh, my. Huge, gorgeous flakes made it look like a giant feather pillow had exploded in the sky.

And there sat my poor daughter. Throat raw. Head hurting. Stomach hurting. Dragging from door to door to watch the white stuff pile up. Poor thing. We finally gave her Motrin and she felt okay enough to bundle up and go outside for a while. Then once she came back inside and warmed up with hot chocolate, we watched the TV news for school closings. And sure enough, our county schools closed for Monday. Finally, a snow day! And she ended up spending a good chunk of that day at the doctor's office, drugstore and grocery.

What a bummer for a middle schooler.

Do you ever feel like that--totally bummed? Does your timing ever seem perfectly...not perfect?

It took me what seemed like forever to finally sell my first book (Her Unlikely Family, Feb. 08). But as I looked back right after that first sale, I could see God's hand at work. His timing was perfect. (Again, remember I was seeing this after the fact. I didn't do a very good job of seeing His timing while I was waiting!)

Have you had a time where, in the middle of a situation, it was hard for you to see that God was at work? But afterwards you could see His perfect plan? I hope you'll share your experience with us!

Missy

His Forever Love, June 2009

A Forever Christmas, Nov. 2009

New Mule Hollow book by Debra Clopton! THE COWBOY TAKES A BRIDE

Gail's post a couple of days ago Why Not Me? is such a true example of the angst, the ups and downs and doubts writers go through along the rocky path to publication. I was going to post a comment but because what she talked about is also the bases for my upcoming July book THE COWBOY TAKES A BRIDE I decided to make a blog post instead.

Like most authors I've been on both sides of that entry Gail blogged about. Before I was published I worked so hard and editors were really interested, but then I just couldn't seem to make my revisions meet with their vision of the story. And the sale wouldn't happen. So I began to ask God why? And I felt like I was running a race but was stuck on the track going round and couldn't find the off ramp to publication. Then the doubts started and I began feeling like God was actually asking me to give up my dream! What! No way could I even contemplate such a thing...after all I was almost published. Almost doing what God had called me to do. HOW could He be asking me to give it up?

Because I knew this is such a major struggle for writers I wanted to explore this in situation in my fun new Mule Hollow book THE COWBOY TAKES A BRIDE.

My heroine Sugar Rae Lenox has extremely stong reasons for knowing she is called to be an actress. But, she is always just missing her big break. And she's started feeling like God is asking her to give up her dream! God put a fighting spirit inside of Sugar and she's never given up on anything so surely she is misunderstanding God.

You can read the actual blurb on this website in the upcoming book link.

I believe this is a struggle and a question that each person must work out between you and God. In THE COWBOY TAKES A BRIDE Sugar Ray fights all the way to her answer while at the same time falling in love with cowboy Ross Denton. She, like I did, and like I hope you do to if you are struggling with similar doubts and decisions came to understand God's plan for her life when God's timing was right.

Like I always say, God's timing is worth waiting for because it's always the best timing. I know it was for me. But like my heroine, Sugar Ray, I fought through the doubts and held on and didn't give up in my quest. I'll forever be glad God put that fighting spirit inside of me so that I was able to persever...because if I had given up on my dream during all the years it took me to make my first sale then I would have really missed out on all the fun I'm having writing for Love Inspired!

Have you been to Mule Hollow yet? Come on and join the fun :)

Until next time, live, laugh and seek God with all your heart!

Debra Clopton