February 2009

My friend, author Deb Raney spotted Michal in a bookstore in Wichita, Kansas! It’s not the first sighting – that happened at a Barnes & Noble in North Carolina. But this is the first picture evidence I’ve been sent. How fun to see it with the other books! Fun and surreal!

The second picture also shows Deb’s book Leaving November on the top shelf. :) Deb has a new book releasing this month as well – the sequel to Leaving November – Yesterday’s Embers. This is a wonderful series!

More news came today from my publisher – Michal will be printed in Dutch! It has also been picked up for a book club edition to come some time in the future. How great it will be to see the book in a different language! I’m thrilled!

Work on Abigail is beginning in house – cover design, titling, etc. Edits will still be a few months off, I think. I can’t wait to see what they come up with for the cover!

In the meantime, besides writing, life has had it’s share of ups and downs. God has been reminding me that forgiveness needs to be granted even where no forgiveness was requested – something I’ve learned before but apparently I needed a refresher course. Such forgiveness isn’t really for the offender. It keeps me from bitterness and allows me to pray for those who mistreat me or speak ill of me or whatever the offense might be. It’s a hard lesson, one I think we spend our lifetime repeating. For what relationship doesn’t involve forgiving one another?

God is also teaching me to be thankful in all circumstances, not just the good, wonderful stuff with the book, but the tough stuff of suffering, sorrow, and loss. Maybe that’s why God allowed, even commanded us to bring Him thank offerings as a sacrifice. To be thankful in all circumstances means we have to sacrifice our hurt, our bitterness, our anger on His altar. We have to surrender it all to Him.

But have you ever given God the sacrifice of thanksgiving in the middle of pain? It’s amazing how good we feel when we do! Tough to do, but SO worth it!

For the most part, it’s been a good two weeks. My author copies of Michal came! How weird and wonderful to open a box with books of your own creation. Now my guys have no excuse not to read it – they each have their own copy! And I got to take a book to my dad, which was a treat for him and me. He may not read it, but I am so grateful he lived to see this day.

But as wonderful as the book is with all of the exiting newness of a debut novel – life has a way of reminding me not to get too attached to any apparent success. Success itself is fleeting, and trouble comes, like it or not. As the old adage reminds us, “into every life a little rain must fall.”

This week has had its share of trouble – stuff I hope not to repeat.

The first came in the unexpected wounds of someone I had considered a friend. I think I understand better now why Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek. If someone offends us, so much of that offense depends on our perspective. What one person intends to say and how it actually comes across can be poles apart. But when we take offense and lash out in anger rather than approach the offender in kindness, we end up intensifying the situation and wounding in return. Where does it stop?

Suffice it to say, I wish my friend had practiced reconciliation and overlooked the matter.

The second came this afternoon. This time I wish I had been the one turning the other cheek. Guess I should have learned from the first example.

I started the day on a good note – had some unexpected company, some friendly phone calls and emails, and I booked a massage – a gift from Randy for my birthday. My muscles were quite grateful, and I came away feeling wonderful! Then I got into my car and waited to pull out onto the main road. I inched forward, looking left and right, but stopped abruptly when an unexpected car whizzed past. The lady behind me thought I was going to keep going and rear-ended me.

So much for a relaxing massage!

If I hadn’t yelled at her…I wish I had stopped, prayed, and listened to the Holy Spirit, letting him calm me down. I was too busy feeling sorry for myself, I guess, because I was afraid the accident would undo the affect of the massage. I didn’t swear at her or call her names (I managed a bit of self-control – and besides, I could never do that) but I was louder than need be when I asked her why she did that. She told me it was my fault for stopping. Um, no. At least in Michigan, in a rear-end collision, the person behind is always the one at fault.

Of course, her car had no damage, and mine did. Which didn’t help my mood. I asked for her insurance information. I was trying to dial Randy on my cell phone while I wrote it down. While I was writing (and trying not to be flustered – I misdialed the first time), she asked for my information too. I said I would get it for her. She wanted it right then so she could copy it while I copied hers. I had to find it. She got impatient and demanded hers back. When I said, “just a minute,” she started grabbing it out of my hand – physically in my face, hands on me.

I asked, “Are you attacking me?” (It felt like the start of such a thing.)

She said, “No, I just want my information back.” I wonder what she would have done if I’d tried to keep it until I finished copying it.

She wanted to leave the scene, but I wanted to call the police to file a report for the insurance. (I learned the hard way not to let a driver leave – not that I could have stopped her!)

To her credit, she called the police herself and we both drove there. (They don’t come for a traffic accident in a parking lot, only on a main road – technically, I wasn’t on the main road yet.) She wouldn’t go back into the salon with me (where it was warm) but she did wait. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that I wrote down her license number before I went into the salon.

I’m not sure my initial yelling warranted her grabbing her info back from me. But if I’d started out assuming she didn’t intend to hit my car and acted more in kindness, maybe things would have been smoother all the way around. I suspect we both over-reacted.

I wish all of the good things of the past two weeks could have continued with nothing to mar the joy – no rain to fall on my parade. (And there is more, but I won’t belabor it here.) I guess this is all a good reminder though that no earthly success is permanent and good or bad success of any kind in work or in relationships, cannot and should not be my focus.

If nothing else, it’s a humbling thought.

Last summer in the midst of editing Michal and writing Abigail, I couldn’t shake the idea for another biblical series that I’ve pondered for quite some time. So I toyed with the thought and mapped out a synopsis for the first book. Then I wrote the first chapter. That’s as far as I got when my editor and I went to lunch last September.

At lunch we talked about the series idea, and she asked to see a proposal. So I wrote a few more sample chapters, polished the proposal, and sent it to Wendy Lawton, my agent, who forwarded it to my editor at Revell.

By Thanksgiving, Wendy called me with the news that they wanted the series, and by Christmas I knew a contract was forthcoming. What a wonderful gift! One more example of God’s great blessing!

Of course, contracts take time to process so I didn’t want to announce it here until the ink was dry. Well, that day has finally come! The signed contract for a new biblical series came in the mail today!

So after the final book in The Wives of King David series is complete, I will have the privilege of writing The Wives of the Patriarchs series! Three books are planned, no titles are yet given, but the featured wives include Sarai, Rebekah, and Rachel. I’m already looking forward to writing Sarai’s story. What a fascinating woman!

A friend told me the other day that she wished she could have shown me two years ago where God planned to bring my career today. I doubt I would have believed her. After 20 years of waiting, discouragement tends to crowd out hope. But I realize now, in Christ, with or without book contracts, there is always hope, and looking back, seeing all that God has done, I wish I’d never doubted that. I wish my faith would have been stronger, more trusting, less despairing.

As I work on these stories of these women of the Old Testament, I pray I can do them justice, can bring them to life in such a way as to inspire those of us who now follow in their footsteps. May we learn from their struggles and not repeat their errors in judgment. Most of all, I hope my readers will come away loving these stories as much as I do.

Shalom~

My webmaster son, Jeff, finished programming my website for The Wives of King David and it is now live! What a fun birthday present!

Check it out and let me know what you think! There will be more updates added as time goes on, but this is it for the time being. There are some freebies there to go along with Michal: A Novel – Book Club questions, Bible study questions, and you can read the first chapter, join the Facebook fan page or pre-order it online. Two weeks until it releases! Fun! I hope you enjoy it!

Now back to my regularly scheduled birthday. :)

Today is my birthday. I wasn’t going to even talk about it this year because I’ve come to the point where they’re just not a big deal. Or maybe I’ve just decided not to make them into a big deal anymore. And for this whole week that thinking has worked quite well. No anticipation, but I’ve been too busy to think much about it anyway.

Then I got to thinking how even when I forget about this day that God allowed me to be born, He doesn’t forget. He has the best way of surprising us, and sometimes I forget how often He uses the little things to bless His children. Maybe I’m overly sentimental, but I figure He deserves the praise for such things anyway, since everything belongs to Him.

Some of those small ways…okay one is pretty big, is getting my copy of Michal this week. What perfect timing! It was even more poignant when I took the book to my dad at the nursing home. In the past, my dad made a habit of taking me out to lunch on my birthday every year, but of course, he can’t do that any more, so I take lunch to him. We ate McDonald’s in the home’s atrium, a nice, glassed in room that makes us feel like we have left the normal building. After we ate, I showed him my book. He wanted to have his own copy and I could tell by the look in his eyes how happy he was for me. Later, I said to him, “This book, it’s all of God.” He said, “It always is.” Even when he can’t remember some things, he never forgets the Lord. I love my dad.

The next day I was supposed to go to lunch with my mom, but she’s been sick. We haven’t had a chance to go shopping in months, which is a bummer and something I hope we can remedy soon! I needed to go shopping anyway, so I went by myself. I picked up a copy of Romantic Times magazine with the review of Michal which was fun! And then I exchanged a Yankee Candle for a better scent – my favorite, Cafe Au Lait. So today I can burn my favorite candle while I write. I wasn’t sure they would make the exchange, but they were quite willing and helpful.

Then last night, Randy brought me a dozen red roses on his way home from work. I won’t go into all the reasons why these things feel like blessings, little surprises from the Lord. But they do. And I get the distinct feeling that the Lord remembers my birthday even when I don’t want to! (Though I wouldn’t have minded if He’d chosen to send 70 degrees and sunshine instead of snow today.) :)

But that’s okay. I’m basking in the delight of knowing Him and am so grateful for friends and family that have a wonderful way of making me feel special.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all~

…holding your very first book in your hands!

My first copy of Michal came today. It’s real. It’s 3-D, not just the cover printed on flat paper from the .pdf file or a digital image as the background on my computer. I’ve looked at the image for so long, that actually holding it, well…where are the words to describe feelings when you need them?

I guess I’m really just in awe of God right now. A little over a year ago, I asked Him to WOW me – to do “exceedingly, abundantly, above all that I could ask or imagine” because I can imagine a LOT. But then I put that request aside. I know He will fulfill that promise to me one day in the future when I behold His dear face. But somehow He has seemed to delight in wowing me here on earth – every day has been a new adventure leading up to the book’s release. (March 1st!)

And now I am holding the final product, this book that has stirred my heart, captured my imagination, and incubated for 20 years, in my hands. Some dreams really do come true!

Definitely better than dark chocolate.

By the way, if you want to enter to win one of five copies of Michal go to Goodreads website and click to enter. I hope you win!