New Look

I have a new respect for those who design blog templates after two day of trying to do it myself! I found a person who makes easy to use templates. Christine! She has a lot to offer. I wish I had discovered her earlier. I might have had time to write the last two days!

I had fun playing with my digi stuff too while making my new header. What do you think of it? Lie Fhung is an amazing digi artist.

Family news:
Josh is home for a little while this summer. It's been fun having him here. He makes me laugh. He has an interview for a job this week so he cut his hair! He looks like a grown-up now of would if he changed shirts!



Wendell has been up to some more odd behavior . He's decided to spend a lot of time up here. I'm wondering if he's judging me for my lack of time spent on writing!

Faith

Faith is personal but it touches other people through what you do, write and say. This clip was shown at my church on Sunday. It made me cry because it so aptly reflects what I believe. Freewill often brings us to our darkest place. It's a dreadful place to be. I'm thankful to know because of God's love for me I can be rescued.

What High School did you attend?

That's the big question that gets asked when you meet someone new in the St. Louis area. This past weekend I had a few of my friends over for a flashback night, 1970's music, box pizza and chocolate cupcakes oh and bring your yearbooks. My friend Marty, couldn't bring much to the party, she didn't go to school in Missouri! Poor thing. (don't feel to bad for her she had the California coast for a backyard!) My friend, Patty did go to high school in this area. As we flipped through her yearbook we were surprised to find a few secrets, (hush I'm not telling on you) but lets just say now it's understood where that rah rah attitude comes from. The other thing we found in her year book were photos of my cousin! (Hi Terry! )

On April 9 at www.seekerville.blogspot.com another friend wrote about divine connections and mentioned me. I hadn't considered how may of times God has put someone in my life to help along the way. It's like looking back in that yearbook and spotting a photo or a bit of an autograph that fits into my life puzzle.

I had amazing help along my way. In high school Mrs. Ferry believed in me, not only did she trust that I had read every book on the class list already she let me audit another class during her class time as long as I came back for her tests. Then she took it a step farther. She told me I could go to college. I had my doubts about that, we didn't have any money. Not to worry, she took me by the hand and helped me fill out financial aide forms. That still wasn't enough, because of her I was able to be one of the first to graduate high school in January to begin my college career.
Before Mrs. Ferry, Mrs. Rogan had a turn at modeling me into a writer. She also gave me Shakespeare!

Those are just two people, there are many more. Looking back at the blessings brought my way has been fun. Thank you Julie Lessman for giving me a nudge to remember.

Pushing to the limit

How hard to you push yourself?

I watched the movie Facing the Giants last night, good movie. There is a scene where the coach blindfolds a football player after the player says he'll give his all to do what the coach asks. He has to crawl across the football field with another player on his back for 50 yards. (I'm not a football person so I can't remember the exact term for this exercise!) With the coach's encouragement the player made it all the way to the end of the field, way past the 50 yards. It was hard, he wanted to quit but he didn't know how far he'd already gone and he'd promised the coach to give it his all and he still had more to give. Are you with me? I feel like I'm rambling!

I'm that player (not really, you'll never see me crawling on a football field!) but I am not really giving my all to God. I want to change that. I think the blindfold helped because the player wasn't able to see how far he'd come and how far he had to go. A lot of times I think, well I've already written several books isn't that enough? It's so hard to give so much of my time, my imagination and my life to writing a book—and I write short books! I can't imagine being Julie Lessman and writing such a long book, no not one but three or more!

Sorry, back on track… so I am challenging myself and anyone else that wants to try. I'm going to give my all, 100% to my writing. That is a scary statement but I know my God won't let me down, I just pray I don't let Him down.

More on voice

Interesting comments on my 'finding a voice entry.'

Jennifer Tiszai said...

If you want to hear some unusual voices, come up my way. Oh my. We have some interesting people in our town. I never run out of story fodder.

I've been to your state Jen, and I loved it. My brain was alive with stories. I think it's the accent, it makes me hear things differently.

Casey Freeland said...

Ah, the search for a voice. That's a good one. I've found that if I relax, write with real honesty, the voices just come. When I start to construct, to push things around artificially, to over-plot, that's when my voices all sound like a third grade read-aloud.

Have fun on your travels!

I did have fun on my trip, Casey. Thanks. I spent a lot of time in the hotel sleeping though because I was sick. I did get to explore the library there though. Beautiful! It's a Carnegie Library, marble floors and stairs. I wanted to spend the night there. AS for voice, you're right when voices are forced they do begin to sound like a Dick and Jane reader.

Blissful said...

That can be difficult for me, too. Most of my heroes sound or act like my hubby. I also need to work on making them different personalities. :)

Hi Blissful, glad to see your comment on my page. I like that your heroes sound and act like your hubby. My first three books have been modeled on mine as well. I think God he gave me such a great hero to copy. Now that I'm on my 4^th novel though I think it might be time to stretch a bit and find more depth. I'm checking out Daniel in the bible. I'm thinking there's a powerful role model.

Finding a voice

I've started working on my next book. It's hard. Not hard to come up with the idea, characters and plot, it's hard to come up with a voice.
I can see my heroine but I can't hear her yet. She still sounds like my last heroine to me. So how am I planning to fix this problem?
Tennessee. Yep, I'm traveling again. I'll be keeping my ears open for a unique voice one that captures my character. I love this part of writing, eavesdropping in dressing rooms--okay I like shopping too! Then there are restaurants that are unfamiliar to me, but to the locals they're home so they talk about anything and everything. And of course I'll be listening at the local Wal Mart store. I find great voices there, so many people carry on detailed conversations on their cell phones in that store. So wish me the best. I know that voice is out there somewhere just waiting to meet my character.

Deal or No Deal

I'll admit it. I've become addicted to the show. It's a fascinating look into what people are willing to risk on uncertainty.

Last night, a woman could have kissed a frog and doubled her offer, more money than she would probably make in twenty years (guessing from her comments) and yet she turned it down. It is easy to judge from the safety of my couch. I of course would have kissed the frog. He didn't look that bad.

What really amazes me though is the help the contestants bring with them. These 3 people, relatives and best friends encourage them to take huge risks, just two more case, just one more, are the shouts from the sidelines.

We all know about peer pressure. We've experienced it as teenagers at its worst. So why when it comes to a game where a huge amount of money is possible if you just take the deal do these contestants listen to those they love? Is it because they feel they are being offered good advice? Do they not want to disappoint their loved ones? Or is it fear of having to listen to "I told you so," for the rest of their lives.

I'm thinking it's all the above. I don't' think it matters how old you are, peer pressure comes into play often in our daily lives. So what to do about it?

Keep your eyes on God. Read your bible, listen to your heart. Good idea right? So why isn't it easier to do that? I struggle with it every day, choosing to listen to the those who are louder. Maybe that's my answer. I need to let God's voice have more volume, let Him drown out the others shouting at me.

Thanks for letting me ramble today.

A New Month

February is here, it came like this! Almost 8 inches of snow and higher in drifts. This is the first year in a long time I've had winter boots. I had forgotten how much fun it is to stomp around in the snow.

I miss my boys at times like these I wish I could snap my fingers and make them small again. I wish for those days of red noses, wet mittens and damp 'boy' hair smells, hot chocolate and getting warm by the fire. Those days went by so fast! And if I remember right I whined about them. How sad for me. I didn't enjoy them to their full potential. I was more concerned with how often I would have mop up puddles and dry mittens than the fun the boys have.

Brings me to my knees. Most of my days are spent this way. Are yours? Are you living with joy and purpose every day that God gives you? I'm not. I'm going to start trying.