Sneaking Off to God

by Rachael Phillips 

How dare He?

 Everyone was looking for Jesus, including desperate people with nasty diseases and nastier demons.  

Yet He had the nerve to sneak off.

Jesus’ fans harassed His disciples, his closest friends, for information. They had no clue where He was.

Duh. How embarrassing.

They discussed the possibility of buying Jesus a cell with better coverage, but declared that idea futile. He’d turn it off, anyway.  

When they finally tracked Him down, Jesus heard a mantra far too familiar to mothers, pastors, doctors—and writers: “Where were you?”

Jesus didn’t attempt to justify His time alone with God. He didn’t worry about how his actions would affect contributions or His marketing statistics. He affirmed the direction God had given Him: “Let us go somewhere else … so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

How simple.

How impossible.

As Jesus’ ministry grew, even He, though perfect, found it difficult to spend intimate time with His Father.

C.S. Lewis, who wrote these lines from The Weight of Glory in 1949, echoed that complication: “Even where someone is left physically by himself, the wireless has seen to it that he will be … never less alone than when alone. We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy, and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.”

Why do we, married to our phones, think we should find it easy?

Today I hear the Father’s call. Not an audible one.

More than audible.

I just flushed the afternoon’s to-do list down the toilet.

Unlike Jesus, I don’t always respond to Him with immediacy.

But I feel empty and gooshy as a hollowed-out pumpkin today, a jack-o-lantern smile carved into my face.

My mom has terminal cancer.

I need new direction in my writing.

I must hear from God. I need to touch His hand.

Where can I go?

When a young mother, I sat just inside the open garage doorway where I could keep one eyeball fixed on my toddlers watching Sesame Street. Or I breathed prayers while in the bathroom during the 2.3 seconds before small fists banged on the door and indignant wails shredded my concentration.  

Surely, I can find a place of prayer now. After all, I live near a Christian college with a beautiful prayer chapel that includes small private, glassed-in rooms. I’ve also tucked myself into corners of college libraries, especially during breaks. Lakes, cemeteries, museums, bookstores and nooks in shopping malls during the day can serve as prayer “closets.” One can even pray in a church. (Beware, however, of vacuum-wielding janitors or those who lie in wait in shadowy hallways, recruiting for committees).

Today my destination is a tiny, well-kept though neglected park, with a bench where Jesus and I can sit and hold hands in the fall sunshine.

Where do you sneak off to be with God?        

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Reality Check

A week ago I had the privilege of chatting on the phone with a good friend in our Indiana chapter about my writing and where I want to go with it. She had a lot of good advice and gave me a pep talk. Some of you have agents and your agent will do this, but if you don't have an agent, do you have someone who can get you back into the game? Someone who shrinks your head and gets you back on course? My friend cares about me and prays for me. I'm blessed. And I pray for her and hope I can give her a boost in her writing.

After our talk I tried to come up with some questions to direct my writing goals and the next manuscript. I'm thinking about my mission statement, too.  I'm still working through the questions, but maybe some of them will help you in your own reality check (if you're at this place and not in the middle of a current WIP.) I try to write down a stream of questions to guide my thinking as I move on to my next project.

1. What do you do if you're not writing? What are you thinking about? 

2. What are your favorite stories? What drives you crazy in some stories?

3. Coke or Pepsi? Coffee or tea? Do M & Ms leave a mess on the keyboard?

4. Coffee shop or home in a closet? Where are my index cards?

5. If I were a color...if I were a tree...wait! That's not important. Really. Next. Question.

6. Here is your $25,000.00 advance. What do you spend it on??

7. What book do you wish you had written? Why haven't you?

8. Favorite author? Why? What do you like about that author's stories?

9. You've just been contacted for a reality show. What will they call your show?

10. Why are you still here? Shouldn't you be writing???????

~ Crystal Laine Miller 

The (True!) Joys of Having ADD with Member Blogger Dawn Crandall

Most people aren't very surprised when they find out I have ADD. 

It probably (and hopefully) answers most of their questions as to why I am the way I am. I'm a tad out-going, think differently than almost everyone else I know, I'm a little unfiltered, and a bit talkative.

And do you know what? I thank God everyday that He made me this way. Because of my having ADD, I get to do what I like to do more than anything else in the world. 

WRITE.

I started taking the medication for ADD when I was seventeen years old and a junior in high school. It's true, I needed it pretty badly. I would never would have made it into college, let alone graduate from college, without it. It's rather unfortunate that I didn't learn much in school (like grammar and punctuation--I apologize now for any mistakes you might find in my comma placements!), as I was just scraping by before my junior year, getting my only good grades in the classes or subjects that had anything to do with Art or Creative Writing. But I suppose God had a specific reason for that too. I was also seventeen when I became a Christian, which was the true reason I ended up going to college and majoring in Christian Education.

I stopped taking the medication about thirteen years later. You'd think the medication prescribed to help me pay attention would help me focus on writing a book, right? But alas, no. It did the very opposite. I hadn't thought much about writing at all during those years because I was so entirely focused on everything else. When I did finally stop taking the medication, I realized that it was what had been blocking so much of what any writer needs most! My ability to think outside of what was going on in front of me was literally shut off for all those years. All along, I'd remembered how I had once LOVED writing from as far back as I could remember. It was after reading books like Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell and Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier as a teenager I knew I wanted to create a book someday. 

For the last five and a half years I've been off the medication and spending my time developing my voice and my brand of writing. After figuring out how to hone my "day-dreaming" into actual stories that I wanted to write, it didn't take me very long to figure out that this was what I was made for. I wrote my book and got two agent offers within a week of sending my proposals. I've completed another now, and I am on my third. It's a long waiting game to find out what's going to eventually happen with these books, but I'm happy because I'm writing. And truthfully, I really have never been good at anything else... because drawing doesn't count.  

It's true, I'm a bit scatter-brained. In everyday life, I pretty much need to be told what to do and where to be. But I sure can focus on what interests me... and that is brain-storming plots and writing ultra-complex, involved love stories that teach a multitude of spiritual life-lessons, not only to my main character (which I write in first person point of view), but also the reader.

I'm very much like the kitten (and yes, I love kittens and jump at the chance to use them whenever possible) in this picture, who's, in essence saying, "Who cares what everyone else is looking at or paying attention to? I've already found what I love most... and it's this amazing, green jingle ball!"  

Writing books is my amazing, green jingle ball. There's nothing in the world I would rather be doing than paying attention to the plot of my current Work In Progress.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{About Dawn Crandall}

(Updated since 2012) Dawn Crandall is the author of The Hesitant Heiress (August 2014), The Bound Heart (November 2014) and The Captive Imposter (February 2015), all part of The Everstone Chronicles series from Whitaker House. A graduate of Taylor University with a degree in Christian Education, and a former bookseller at Barnes & Noble, Dawn didn’t begin writing until 2010 when her husband found out about her long-buried dream of writing a book. Without a doubt about someday becoming traditionally published, he encouraged her to quit working in order to focus on writing. It didn’t take her long to realize that writing books was what she was made to do. Dawn is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary.

Apart from writing books, Dawn is also a first-time mom to a precious little boy (born March 2014) and also serves with her husband in a pre-marriage mentor program at their local church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Dawn is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, secretary for the Indiana ACFW Chapter (Hoosier Ink), and associate member of the Great Lakes ACFW Chapter.

The Everstone Chronicles is Dawn’s first series with Whitaker House. All three books composing the series were semifinalists in ACFW’s prestigious Genesis Writing Contest, the third book going on to become a finalist in 2013.

Trust and Open Doors

An actor friend of mine talked recently about how God was opening doors for her, how things were moving fast in her career as she stepped out in faith. What an uplifting testimony.

However, she's not the only one. God is actively opening doors for you, too.Are you stepping through them in faith, trusting that what God has said, He will bring to pass? Perhaps you are standing on the threshold trying to discern what the future will hold before you take a step.

Do you have a chance at a writing opportunity or the thought that you should participate in a blog or go to ACFW conference when you don't see how it will happen? Perhaps you have a storyline to develop or keep thinking you should contact a particular agent about a particular project.

Not every opportunity will be God's choice, therefore there is a need for prayer and discernment, but if you've been praying for God's leading and a door opens, chances are God opened it. Pray, of course, and listen for confirmation, but don't let fear or logic talk you out of taking that step.

God said he would be a light to our path. Do you see it as a road extending into the unknown with streetlamps like a double strand of glittering beads brightly lighting the way? Even when God reveals the end result, the path to that final place is most often revealed more like a flashlight lighting step by single step.

It takes trust and courage to walk that hidden path, to step through the open door. For each of you authors and authors-to-be in this position today, I pray that you will have the courage to boldly go where the God of Open Doors wants to lead.

Trust in the LORD with your entire heart despite fear and don't depend on your understanding or prejudices that God will do something in a particular way; trust him completely despite the circumstances and he will take care of the obstacles. Proverbs 3:5-6 MAPS (Mary's Amplified and Paraphrased Scriptures)

Mary Allen lives in the Midwest with her husband and a German Short Hair Pointer. She loves God's Word which never changes and also enjoys playing with words which can be endlessly changed. She writes women's fiction and was La Porte County Poet Laureate from 2010-2011.

Writing Through Emotional Pain

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Life happens. And sometimes it happens painfully. Professional writers must write even when their hearts are broken, and life is delivering its most powerful punches. 

I’ve lost two dear friends within a few months of one another and have another devastating situation in my family right now. Crying myself to sleep, navigating my days in a vice-like fog and swallowing a constant lump in my throat—these physical reactions to emotional pain challenge my ability, nay, my desire to write. But write I must, because, you see, I’m a writer. And that’s what we do. And the publishing world doesn’t care that I have issues. The publishing world will go right along publishing without me. 

The only way we can write through hard days is to keep our focus. And frankly, the only way we can survive through hard days is to keep our focus. The focus isn’t on the writing. The focus for the Christian writer is on Him.

Psalm 22:5 says, They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed (NIV). 

In Kay Arthur’s book, As Silver Refined: Answers to Life's Disappointments, she writes about how life’s disappointments are really His Appointments. By changing just one letter in the word, we have a whole new perspective because the focus is on Him. 

We can trust Him, even when things don’t make sense.

We can trust Him to give us the words to write even when we’re so broken we can barely move our pen over the page, or our fingers across the keyboard.

We can cry unto God, and not be disappointed.

We will be appointed.

We will write.

"Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later"

(Revelation 1:19, NIV).

 Karla Akins is a pastor's wife, mother of five, grandma to five beautiful little girls and author of O Canada! Her Story. She lives in North Manchester with her husband, twin teenage boys with autism, and three silly dogs. Her favorite color is purple, favorite hobby is book-hoarding, and favorite food group is cupcakes.

Spiritual Gifts And Fiction Writing?

How does one's spiritual gifts impact their writing?

Some of you might be holding your breath. Spiritual gifts can be a controversial subject, especially on if they all are used for today. Well, release that breath. My comments are not at all concerned with the controversy. If you believe that you have at least one spiritual gift, we're on the same page.

Do I hear some people pulling out their pens and paper? Oh, you want to write down the tips I'm giving on. Well, put that pen and paper away. I'm not going to tell you how to use your gifts in the writing; I'm pointing out how you're using them already. You may already be aware of this, or you may not.

First, let me give a little theology breakdown. Many have divided the gifts into three categories: Speaking (teaching, exhortation, word of wisdom, etc.), Service (helps, leadership, giving, etc.) and Sign (tongues, miracles, etc.). For the sake of this blog, I will consider prophecy to be a speaking gift, and consider all the other sign gifts to fall under the realm of Service gifts.

My belief is there are four ways on how your gifts are being used in your writing. I will concede that way #4, “none of the above,” is a possibility. (But I'm not convinced.)

#1 Driver's seat.

In some cases, your spiritual gift is tied in with your purpose for writing and the development of the theme. Let me give an example from myself. I believe teaching is one of my gifts. I started writing my novel because I wanted to teach people about apologetics. Thus, my gift is being actively used in my writing.

Two notes. First, the gifts that are actively involved with writing will tend to be speaking gifts. Your writing might be used to teach, encourage, share wisdom or knowledge, or even share prophesy. One isn't writing, usually, to exercise the gifts of help or leading or giving or showing mercy.

Second, there can be a danger. Your gift can become your main character. In my case, I want my murder mystery to be a mystery, not a lecture on theology. I've read a book by a person who might feel he has a prophetic leaning, and some of his views interrupt the enjoyment of reading the book.

#2 Passenger Seat.

Let me give an exercise. You want to picture that your MC is a good person. Which of these activities would you think of having your character doing?

1. Seeing a problem and taking leadership in solving it.

2. Pulling out a wallet to help someone on the street or contributing to a worthy cause.

3. Buying someone a meal or some other physically compassionate action.

4. Taking the time to assist somebody else accomplish their need.

My hunch is if you have the gift of leadership, giving, mercy, or helps, you would automatically think of having your MC show that gift as a means of having the reader admire him/her. Or you would have the villain do just the opposite. While your writing may not be an active exercise of your gift, it would have an impact on your writing.

#3 Back seat.

There are times where your gift is not present in your writing. Instead, your gift is waiting for you to stop writing. When you're done, then your gift will leap into action.

For example, let's say you have the gift of administration. I don't see much of a use of that gift while you're behind the typewriter, but I bet a writer with that gift has an easier time than some in getting things ready to market. A person with the leadership gift will be dying to form a team to promote the book.

It will show in other ways. A person with the gift of giving will probably be giving away a disproportionate number of books because, well, they have the gift of giving. A person with the gift of teaching will be glad to teach about writing or devise discussion questions based on their book. A person with the gift of encouragement will be excited to talk to young writers and help them press on.

Okay, these are my thoughts. You can go to McDonald's with these opinions and a dollar cents plus change to purchase a small coffee. But I'd like to know what you think. Agree with me? No? Let me know.

"To Be Read?" Or "To Have Said?"

Here's a question for thought. On Oscar night, 1982, who would you rather be? David Putnam, the producer who walked up to the stage to receive the Best Picture trophy for “Chariots of Fire?” Or fellow producer George Lucas whose “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was the big money maker for the same year?

1981 movies too long ago for you to remember? All right, let's set the chronometer forward a quarter of the century and look at two other movies: “The Illusionist” and “The Prestige”. I find it fun looking at the Amazon reviewers argue about which was better. My opinion? “The Prestige” was the better movie but “The Illusionist” was the one I enjoyed watching better.

While both movies dealt with turn-of-the-century illusionists and released the same year, comparing them is like the cliché of apples and oranges. “The Illusionist” was an old fashioned movie, with a clear cut hero, a clear cut heroine, a clear cut villain, and a likeable antagonist. “The Prestige” had two leads that did not fit the nice neat molds. On the other hand, it made you think more. It strove to be a higher form of art.

Yes, you can say I'm dealing with the philosophical debate of making great art or good money. Should we aim to please the people even if we're being imitative rather than innovative? Or should we seek to make the critics notice, doing something that is more creative but may not have mass appeal?

Let's get real for a moment. Any true artist has enough pride in their work to do their best and not produce garbage, but also knows they need to reach enough people for their project to be profitable. However, there will be times when we debate on whether to take a risk that may lessen our audience or not. There's no right across-the-board answer.

But is it really money vs. art? No question about the money side, but let me propose that there is either a conscious or an unconscious message to the art. I recently read Saving Leonardo by Nancy Pearcey which looks at how worldview affects art. She mentions that Gian Carlo Menotti was criticized for his one act opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” because the music was too beautiful.

As Christian novelists, is our goal “To be read” (i.e. getting books off the shelves and into hands) or “To have said” (i.e. having a clear message)? As I said, most of us would answer this question “Yes.” We want both. But, as I also said, we will lean one way or another as we write.

I have written two complete novels, over 20 years apart. The first one was basically written to become a popular adventure movie. I had no real message in the story. What's funny is that while I wrote it as popular fiction, it was probably too Christian for the secular market and too secular for the Christian market.

The reason I wrote the more recent novel was because I had a purpose for it. I thought I could get more people interested in apologetics by writing a novel about a murder mystery at an apologetics conference than I could writing a non-fiction tome. As I wrote it, I had no plans to write a second novel unless I felt led to. And you guessed it: my hunch is that the message novel is more marketable.

This question will affect certain aspects of your story, though. Some of you may have seen a question on the ACFW loop about whether it's appropriate to use a phrase that was considered vulgar when I was younger but has become more common place. Using it would be more realistic, but it might also be offensive to some readers (as well as making agents or editors nervous). On the other hand, I read a novel where the author made some very strong points that represent a theology that not all Christians share.

Let me get practical. In a couple of my works in progress, I've debated dealing with homosexuality and the tension between that lifestyle and conservative Christianity. I came to the conclusion it is not necessary in the story I'm working on now. I'm not as sure about the third installment. I know that this is a risk, but what is more important? To deal with the story and offend some people? Or keep everybody comfortable?

I'd love to get your feedback. This is a great philosophical question, and I don't believe there's a wrong answer.

Things That Made Me A Better Writer

There have been several things I've done in my life. Three out of the four I listed below have aided me in strengthening my writing craft. Which one is the exception?

1. Amazon review writing

2. Editorial letter writing

3. Songwriting

4. Toastmasters

Have you made your selection? Okay, let me eliminate the options one by one.

Of course, Amazon review writing is not the exception. Writing honest reviews first encourages me to read. Then, it motivates me to interact. I'm also being trained to see what works and what doesn't so I can apply the lessons learned. For those interested, I've written 452 reviews at this moment.

Likewise, editorial letter writing is another way to strengthen one's writing. It forces you to get to the point quickly. Additionally, being creative in how you express yourself increases your chances of being published. I've been multi-published in both the Nashville Tennessean and the Indianapolis Star. In fact, I got paid for having a letter selected by the Tennessean for being the three star letter of the day. A check for $4 and a nice fancy dinner.

That leaves songwriting and Toastmasters. Obviously, songwriting is writing. Toastmasters on the other hand focuses on oral communication and leadership skills. So if you selected Toastmasters as being the one that does not belong, you are incorrect.

I will concede that songwriting has not hurt. Writing lyrics is writing poetry and writing poetry helps you write stronger prose. Also, I've learned that to succeed as a professional Christian songwriter (one who writes songs as a living rather than one who sings those songs), the rules for marketability are the same. However, from that point on, they are two different animals. I have written a few hundred songs, none published and most of them forgotten.

How does Toastmasters help my writing? There is more in common between written and oral communication than you would guess. On one hand, the most effective prepared speeches have been well written. On the other hand, the most effective writing has a voice that sounds like someone is speaking it.

A Toastmasters meeting has three parts to it, all of which relate to writing. First, there's the prepared speeches. Some of the projects, especially in the advanced manual, can help with your writing. For example, there are manuals on Interpretive Reading and Storytelling. Also, one speech in the Speeches By Management manual instructs you to write out your speech in a way that it sounds like a spoken speech rather than a written. I did that project once and had that manual lost before I received credit for it, so I did that same project a second time.

The second part is impromptu speaking, termed Tabletopics. The Topicsmaster of the meeting asks the other members questions, and with no prep the member answers with a 1-2 minute speech. This helps you think on your feet, a skill that helps with creative writing. Additionally, this helps with interviews/elevator speeches which the author might have to give.

The third section is evaluations. Though not called critiques, a good critique is not unlike a good Toastmaster evaluation. The evaluator points out what the speaker has done well, and also gives them areas they can improve on.

I have earned my Distinguished Toastmaster Award in 2008, the highest achievement possible with the organization (though some have multiple DTMs). But my benefit has not come only from my active participation in giving speeches and evaluating my peers. It also has come from listening to speeches. You will notice different voices, which aids in writing dialog.

Naturally, you also have a wide variety of speeches. I've observed persuasive, informative, interpretive, and humorous speeches. I've heard speeches on creating corn-starch, the differences between the three types of whiskey, the importance of getting sleep, fair-trade shopping, the Underground Railroad, and the brown recluse spider.

I would without hesitation encourage any writer to write Amazon reviews and editorial letters. How about Toastmasters? I would given the conditions the writer has the resources and time to invest. The cost is affordable; it is comparable to being a member of the ACFW and the Indiana Chapter. I would advise setting aside two hours at least per meeting and more if you're giving a speech (the meeting frequency varies per club). Those two things might be a roadblock, causing the Toastmaster club to be an obstacle to writing rather than an aid. It depends on the person.

Of course, I'm talking about my experience. You may disagree with my choices. Maybe you have found songwriting to be a more profitable exercise than I consider it for novel writing. Maybe your recommended activities for writing include scuba diving, ballet, and moving furniture. That's the thing about writing – no two writers are the same. (Sometimes, no one writer is the same person, but let's leave that for trained psychologists.)

At the Crossroads of Labor and Obsession

I’d been working on a particular manuscript for weeks, making it the primary focus of my writing day. Intended completion was prior to Independence Day and as June drew to a close I became obsessed with it.

Tomato plants that hadn’t quite made it into the ground languished in the garage, dishes towered near the sink, it looked like Hansel and Gretel had been wandering in circles under my kitchen table, and the grandkids visited with the understanding that I couldn’t give undivided attention to them.

Re-write finished, I sent it off, and was immediately caught up in Fourth of July celebrations and an unexpected free day with my husband. Now that the dust has figuratively and literally settled, I’m taking some time to think and sweat in the brilliant 90-degree heat. I wonder, what is the difference between steadfast labor and obsession?

I asked this question over the holiday and God caught my attention with today’s devotional through the words of A.B. Simpson. “If we wholly trust an interest to God, we must keep our hands off it; and He will guard it for us better than we can help Him…. There is nothing so masterly as inactivity in some things, and there is nothing so hurtful as restless working, for God has undertaken to work His sovereign will.”

I had been rather pleased with myself for the “masterly inactivity” of not worrying about the end results of how the manuscript would be received, but I felt a definite ouch to think of harm caused by my “restless working”.

There had been a few days when my spirit was unsettled, I couldn’t be still, yet I couldn’t pinpoint the distraction. What daily purpose did I miss by working restlessly? Whose life did I fail to touch because of my obsession? Maybe it was only a reassurance for myself, or a personal blessing that I lost. Even so, can I afford to snub God’s gifts or brush aside his encouragement? I think not.

As I contemplate my next project it’s easy to think I need to start sooner or be more disciplined. In truth, something else entirely is required. I need to sit at the Master’s feet and listen more. I need to cling on my Beloved’s arm and look into His eyes. I need to “rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” (Psalm 37:7)