Sins of Our Fathers | Author Blog

It was released a while ago, but I finally updated to the newest version of WordPress. I like the new Dashboard. Very nice.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isa 9:6 AV)

On the way home from the annual family party, which was a blast, a series of things took place in the small journey from our friends house to my own. Let’s just say I’m a bit of a klutz and if it’s within twenty feet, day or night, I’ll step in it. And of course I got it on the floorboard of my brother’s clean car. Once home, having used the hose to clean off my shoe, I did something simple and innocuous that resulted the minor scratching of skin off a knuckle and the drawing of blood. After cleaning out the back of my brother’s car I went to turn on the AC in the house because it’s Florida where, in spite of most of the country being in a deep freeze, we hit the 80’s today. Only the AC worked for about five minutes and then said no more.

So why am I telling you all this? Is it because I have an Eeyore complex? Most of my friends probably have their hands up on that one. They’re right. And I know it.

But that’s not why I’m telling you.

It’s because I was reminded by the Lord that blessings abound for me because of His Son sent so many years ago. Further more, there are people in the world, fellow Christians, celebrating the birth of our Savior with little more then a grass hut over their heads. They are faced with malnutrition while I happily munched upon cookies, chocolates, and wonderful pulled pork this evening. I have to much nutrition. Many have sores and wounds from trying to carry water for miles or because of persecution. Just look at this post on my other blog and you’ll see what I mean. In my own country there are people faced with horrible weather conditions which have them locked into their own homes while I can go out in my shorts and T-shirt to enjoy throwing a couple of discs into a basket out back. And I even wear a daily reminder, a bracelet, to pray for a beautiful young woman who is faced with a life threatening illness.

It’s so easy for us to slip into self. So easy to think the world owes us something. So easy to think that when we don’t get things our way or when bad things happen that it’s somehow an universal conspiracy to make us unhappy. The trouble is that the condition of self as the center of our universe ultimately leads to unhappiness, discontent, and disillusionment. Because self can never control the universe. This self couldn’t even keep himself from stepping in dog doo in the dark.

But there is One who controls the universe. Who set it into motion. Who knows the heart of man. And who desires to be the center of man’s universe so much that He would come as the weakest of things, a baby. To live and to die upon a cross at the hands of people He breathed into being. To die for me and my self-centered heart.

It’s to Jesus I go seeking forgiveness, unmerited though it is. He, with grace and mercy, desires to give me forgiveness and love, without condition.

I am so thankful for His love and grace, for Jesus shed blood and obedience to God the Father.

Take time with me and thank God for Jesus. And remember those He has brought into your life who He has asked you to put above your own wants in service like Christ.

Merry Christmas. May you know the joy and peace that is Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Greetings all you reindeer folk and thank you for purchasing one of my little creations on Ken’s Christmas Tree lot.

It’s good to know that the little reindeer are going to good homes.

I am currently working on editing my novel, Sins of Our Fathers, per the suggestions of a well known publishing house who is interested in possibly publishing it in 2010.

Feel free to stop by the lot if your reindeer get lonely and need a companion.

Merry Christmas!

I am pleased to report that I received a very favorable in depth review of Sins of Our Fathers (SOF) from an editor from a well known Christian book publisher.

Out of three manuscripts reviewed in my genre it looks like SOF rose to the top. She presented me with a number of suggested revisions to improve the manuscript.

As I wrote quickly this morning on my other blog, The Great Separation,

“there are some [suggestions] that I don’t agree with – what writer always does We writers tend to have something of an ego, though most would probably say that my ego isn’t all that big (some would say it needs to be bigger), but our work is our baby and ultimately we want our baby to mature and stand on it’s own in the publishing world.”

And making the manuscript shine is the goal. That and getting it on book shelves across the nation then the world (insert world domination laugh here).

So I’m going to put on hold the current writing project I think and return to the world of Jack Grayson, Brooke Simmons, and Maxwell Tyler – characters I love.

It’ll be interesting returning there. Already the gears in the grey matter are spinning, and shifts in story and additional possibilities are going off like little chimes in a mantel clock.

One thing I need to do is break out the flash software and update the news on the main book page. So that goes on the list of things to do along with printing out the manuscript so I can feel the pages under my red pen.

I stepped on the scale this morning for the first time in more than a month and I learned an important lesson about writing.

Not working the writer’s muscle means not fitting into the writer’s clothing.

I’ve been slipping over the last couple of months on my regular walking and exerisie routine. Injury beset me and it has been a slow recovery. But the biggest problem I’ve had to deal with is not the injury, it was the breaking of habit.

Habit is such a strong factor in what we do. Whether we get up every morning and drive the same route to work, or commit the same sin again and again, or take the time each day to spend in God’s Word.

In exercise, habit is a huge factor too, and mine is broke.

If you do a search on how many days it takes to break a habit, you will find a host of sites that say it’s twenty one days. Like this one, 21 Days to A Positive-Attitude Habit.

I tend to think it takes less then that for the good habits but maybe not. It really doesn’t matter. My habit of walking and daily exercise were broken and I got on the scale this Monday morning and found out why my pants were getting tight.

Twelve extra pounds.

So instead of stepping into the shower I dusted off the work out clothing and spent forty five minutes on the torture machine of my exercise bike.

And I was reminded about how this relates to writing. Because like my exercise routines, I’ve gotten out of the habit of daily writing. Though I can not use the excuse of injury. Indeed I could argue that my physical injury should have led to more writing.

That didn’t happen. Nope, I let life crowd in and steal time I normally set aside for writing and then, with a creeping silence, my writing habit ceased.

Which doesn’t lead to pants fitting tight or twelve extra pounds, but it does lead to poor writing, poor editing, and a poor man.

So I now find myself in the position of needing to break two bad habits and replace them with two good habits.

Life is fun that way. It leads to experience, wisdom, and writing fodder.

We do have fun we writing humans.

Do you know what the secret to being a good writer is?

A good publicist? A good software program? How about an education in writing? Oh, maybe it’s a super imagination?

Well all those are great but they are not the secret to becoming a good writer or even better, a master writer.

I’ve listened to writers at conferences and on the web and I’ve talked with other writers one-on-one on this very secret. In the end the concensus from some of the best living writers of our day say that the secret to becoming a master writer is writing.

It’s pretty simple. To become a good writer and then a master writer, one needs to write.

Write with consistence and persistance. Write when you feel like writing and write when you don’t feel like writing. Write during your free moments and by all means be like a Boy Scout and be prepared with a note pad when the ideas for writing burst like bubbles upon your brain.

Writing is a way of life. If you live it you will grow and mature in it.

I’m still waiting on news of my two book submissions to publishing houses. And I will admit that with the waiting I’ve not been as consistent in my writing. That is not a good thing. Writing has become a struggle and fight with other pressing life needs. Discouragement has even played a role in keeping me from the keys and that, given ground will only gain more ground.

But I’m not about to allow that to continue. I’m going to do something to gain back the ground. I’m going to write and I’m going to throw into the mix the value of persistence.

Let the writing begin. And let it start with me…. Okay, that’s just silly. Where else would my writing start.

What is the cost of being a writer?

Everything has a cost. But what is the cost of being a writer?

Isolation? Yeah, at times isolation is a cost. Getting away from people so that one can concentrate on shaping words onto the page.

Loneliness? Yeppers. With isolation can come loneliness. But for the writer that sometimes is a double edged pen. What do I mean? Well, many writers I know, including myself, are loners. We like to be alone with our thoughts, with our prose, with our muse. But we don’t like to stay there. Once those cravings for isolation are filled and the loneliness begins to eat at us instead of we eating at it, we struggle outward looking for companions beyond those that color our pages.

Dollars? Hmm…. Well, so far for me this is definitely a cost. Sacrifice for the ability to craft words has in many ways meant letting go of a bank account that is healthy. Of course there is this hope that shines just over the horizon that my writing will supply that account with some added food.

Hmmm…. All thiese food analogies are reminding me that I need to dig up some lunch.

Those are three that come to my mind.

Can you think of any other costs?

The English Major in me couldn’t help but groan and then laugh at this posting title I saw today while clicking through the want ads:

Three Year Old teacher Needed

Perhaps the class will be on discovering your inner child for forty and fifty somethings

Or on how to color outside the lines and use any surface for your canvas

Or how the loudest scream gets the most attention.

LOL I want to sit in on that class.

I’ve not heard anything since my last post on what the fiction editor who is currently reviewing my novel thinks of the manuscript.

And that’s okay. Such things move slowly. I know this.

But that’s doesn’t make waiting any easier

But that is the way of we humans, isn’t it.

At times I’m okay with waiting to hear anything. In the best of those times I could wait years. But then the seesaw of the human psyche changes and I itch with a need to know something.

Of course it doesn’t help that I am also waiting to hear on several chapters I sent to another editor on my current work in progress, a non-fiction book idea.

So when the seesaw tips it would seem I just can’t win

So the best thing to do is get off the seesaw and do some work and leave it all in God’s more than ample hands.

Well, I’ve got some good news on the path of getting my novel, “Sins of Our Fathers,” to publication.

News came at the first of the week from an editor to whom I sent the complete manuscript. It made it through the inital review for publication!

Now it’s headed for the fiction editor and an in-depth evaluation.

Woo-whoo!