November, My Thankful Month

November has always been a thankful month for me. This year is no different. I have so many things to be grateful for I can't count them. (And I won't bore you with all of them.)

The gratitude feelings I want to share today are for my writer and blogger friends. I remember going to a writing workshop a few years ago and hearing the presenter say she had made so many great friends on line. I thought to myself, that may work for others but not for me. I'm older than most of the writers here, and I'm not very good on my computer. And the younger women will make good friends, but there's no one 'more mature' like me out there.

Well, several years later, I have come to find out I was wrong on both counts. I have gotten a lot better on the computer (because my kids and dear friends teach me how to get around in this electronic world.) But more importantly, I have made some wonderful friends—friends I will have for life. 

Some of them work in the temple just like me.

Some of them get discouraged just like me.

Some of them take a break once in a while just like me.

Some of them change genre's just like me.

Some of them are in my weekly critique group, and we will love each other to the end.

Some of them like to go to lunch just like me.

Some of them enjoy book signings just like me.

Some of them are dedicated wonderful bloggers, and I admire them a lot.

Some of them are just ordinary people like me.

In short, all of them are friends, and I will love them to the end. All of you have opened up a new world of friendship and caring that I never expected to find. Thanks for enriching my life and making it better than I ever dreamed it could be.

Happy Thankful November to each of you. Lots of love, Christy

Downtime Decompression

by Marsha Ward

I recently released a novel, one that took me two years to write and publish. Of course I wasn't writing solidly for two years, but with intensive research and several drafts, not to mention the publishing side of the equation, traveling to conferences and workshops, and life in general, it was a long two years.

Now I'm in a sort of downtime lull before I begin another work of long-form fiction. I need time to decompress from the stress and focus of the completed task before I begin another like process.

I've had people ask me what I do between writing novels. The first thing I do is take a couple of weeks to recover. No writing. Plenty of recreational reading. Sleeping in.

But that can't last forever. When I'm tired of being a lazy lout, what do I do?

I write shorter fiction. Much shorter, like six thousand words or fewer. I have three stories in the works right now.

Or I write poetry. It's a totally different discipline of writing.

Or I think. I collect my thoughts. I let ideas swirl around in my mind, mulling over grand "what if's" for a new work.

Or I analyze and plan. What methods of publicity for my works are best? Should I up my quarterly e-newsletter to six times a year? Should I learn more about using Goodreads? Spend less time on Facebook? More?

Since my books typically come out in the last part of calendar years, a new year is right around the bend, so another thing I do is try to figure out my calendar of projects and travel for the following year: How can I juggle writing and production with traveling to events? What conferences will I attend? Should I make a box set of my novels? What awards will I seek? Will I make the deadlines? How can I make my website more useful? What did I leave undone this year that should be put on next year's list of projects? Do I have enough inventory of books? Too much? Should I consider cutting back on travel and/or memberships in writing associations? What is my most effective time of day to write? Why am I not on Wikipedia?

Whoa! Enough with the questions. They could take over my life. It may be time to start writing a new novel.

What do you do with your downtime?

Be Enthusiastic!

by Kari Diane Pike

A couple of years ago, I set a goal to increase my physical health. Our daughter Kati encouraged me to train and participate in her neighborhood 10K as part of my fitness goal. My initial response was "Ummm..NO." Why would a fifty-something, overweight grandma wog, sweat, and crawl for six-and-a-half miles? Not to mention suffer public humiliation. I blogged about my decision to sign up here. Despite my fears, I ran and finished that race standing on both feet and I will never forget the smile on my grandson's face as he cheered,

Yay, Grandma! You did it...and you didn't even come in last!

Last week, my husband and I made a trip to Marana to help tend grandkids while Kati and her husband Chris hosted this year's Gladden Farms 10K and Half Marathon. I missed the start of the race, but I stood at the finish line as the runners started coming in. Memories of my own race flooded back. I remembered the heat, sweat, thirst, fatigue, pain, numbness, despair, hope, and jubilation. I could relate to the effort these runners had put into achieving their goal and I rejoiced for and with them. They inspired me to renew not only my fitness goals, but my life goals. And I wondered - why had I let my enthusiasm for those goals slip away in the first place?

If you spend any time on Facebook, you've seen at least one or two or a half-million video clips of free-spirited little tykes dancing and singing just for the pure joy in it.

Little children love life. They are filled with enthusiasm. Did you know that the Greek and Latin origins of the word enthusiasm mean "Inspired from God," "Having God within," or "Divinely inspired"? Children's hearts are filled with pure love and the way they so freely share  that joy is demonstrated by their guileless expressions. 

Sometime during my growing up years, I let the fear of what others might think crowd out my passions - the things I feel most inspired by and enthusiastic about...the things I love.  I realize now that I've been letting that fear hold me back from writing and sharing the things of my heart.

Yesterday, I came across an essay in LDS Living magazine that tells about the author's experience in a church congregation where one member sang the hymns very loudly - and very badly. While it bothered her at first, the author described how she grew in understanding. The closing lines of her essay read: 

...in time his voice inspired others to sing out. Instead of spending more time worrying that others might hear our less-than-perfect voices, we focused on raising our voices in praise to Him. Thanks to this brother who was unafraid to share his voice, in turn, many others found theirs. ~Erin Hallstrom, LDSLiving, Nov/Dec 2014, pg14

 When someone asks me, "How are you?", I usually respond with "I'm happy." I'm going to change that. Next time, I'm going to say, "I'm enthusiastic!" And I'm going to use that enthusiasm, that inspiration from God, to share my voice and hopefully help others do the same.

What are you enthusiastic about?

hugs~ 

Miracles of Missions

by Cindy R. Williams

We are told share our talents. We seek after things of good report. In an attempt to do both, allow me to share with you two mission miracles.

Four years ago, our oldest son served a mission in Cuiaba Brazil. While he was away, we had a flood on the main floor of our home. Long story short, there was enough money in the insurance settlement to buy enough tile to cover the entire main floor, even though the only about 1/3 of the floor was damaged--that is if we provided all the labor ourselves.

We did, and now have some lovely tile. We have often referred to this as the "Tile Trial" because at the time, the carpet was about 15 years old and in need of replacing, but with the recession, there wasn't a penny to rub together, yet we were blessed with this lovely new tile floor.

Our second son is now serving in the Texas Dallas Mission. About two months ago, the big 100 year storm hit us hard. Oddly enough, the upstairs of our home, the master bedroom in particular, flooded. The insurance settlement this time was enough to install top of the line hardwood flooring not only in the damaged bedroom, but the other two bedrooms, walk-in closets, landing, staircase and even the formal front room. That is if we provided the labor ourselves.

I visited with our oldest son, now attending BYU-Provo, about how interesting it was that we had two floods, one while each boy was out on their missions that has resulted in all new flooring through-out the entire house. He thought we were pretty clever to figure out how to have floods just where we needed new carpet.

Of course,  we could not even have begun to make something like this happen on purpose. But as we talked more about both situations, we came to the realization that with the cost of the flooring, plus what it would have cost to pay for the labor for installation the total for the new flooring each time would have equaled $12,000. The cost to equip and send out a missionary for two years is the same amount.

Our Heavenly Father blessed by giving us back all the money spent on our sons for their missions.

We are so humbled. How our Father knows and loves us.

I wonder what blessings the Lord has in store for us when our third son goes on his mission?