Tag: Christian fiction

Blushing Bride at 100 Years Old – Touching Story! from untilweflyaway on GodTube.
What can you say after seeing that?
I love it when she says, “Marriage is what you make of it.” 

I’ve been researching pigs this month and found this little movie to share with you.

Vortex Cannon – I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff from fritzpw on GodTube.

A group of Christian writers hang out at Take Flight on Facebook and Patty Wysong suggested we do a progressive interview. Writers love this sort of thing and we hope readers do as well. So the question I asked was, “Would you rather sleep in a hotel, RV or tent?” My answer is at the end.

5th wheel and Doge Truck

 

Yvonne Blake Hmmm… that’s a hard one! (It depends on the weather and the company.) I’ll have to say “tent” – hoping the conditions are all favorable. 

Sharon Clements Srock I love being in the open, I hate sleeping on a cot. Never met a comfortable one. So I’d have to say RV, the comforts of home, but the ability to take it with you.

Joanne Sher I have been in an RV and a tent a total of three times – (the RV once). I love the IDEA of a tent, but I’m gonna have to go with the hotel. It doesn’t have to be the Ritz or anything. No RV, cuz I have NO desire to even try to drive something like that (and hubby can’t drive). And if he’s with me, he’d have a HECK of a time getting up from the ground if we were in a tent. My link?

Sherri Wilson Johnson Grew up with an RV. Can’t wait to own one again one day so me and hubby and the Chihuahua can hit the road!

Valerie Friesen Comer My husband and I tented for years, with numerous camping trips every summer with our kids. Still, eventually, our bones got a little creakier and we switched to a camper. Last year we bought a little camping trailer and absolutely love it. It has all the comforts of home, but we can park it by a creek in the mountains and still enjoy the fresh air, the fishing, the berry picking, and just the peacefulness of nature soothing our souls.

Linda McQuinn Carlblom RV for short one or two night trips. But hotels for anything longer. I’m a wimpy, spoiled brat at heart! LOL. Sharon Hoover RV but I want to say tent. :-/ An RV would allow me to move from place to place with my stuff soooo easily. But a tent is so much more open and relaxing!

When I was a little girl in Maine, my parents had a Shasta. We had such good times in that lil thing! When Dad retired, they were full-time RVers for several years and they had so much fun! They would come visit us, set up in our driveway, and still be home. When they were on the road Mom was the Post Card Queen and we got to travel vicariously through her post cards. So, I’d have to say RV. I like my comfort and the RV would give me comfort and freedom–and for a wimpy free spirit like me, that sounds like a slice of heaven. Where do I sign up?

Tent camping is great, but my youngest, who is autistic, doesn’t do well in a tent. I’m hoping when he’s a bit older we’ll get to try it again. Meanwhile, we have stayed in hotels. The enclosed space of a hotel room is comforting to him.

Hotel, and since I’m wishing, a classy one. In a world without weirdos (wishing again) I’d choose a tent in a campground with trees and lots of water

Oh, good question. I’m an all three kinda gal. I love tent camping if it’s a short stay, and the weather is reasonable. If it’s a longer stay, I’d much prefer an RV especially with kids. Can we say baths? If the weather is just plain miserable, give me a hotel.

Diana Lesire Brandmeyer— I’d go for the RV. We had one once and it’s really nice to take your home with you. Pulling into the campground and knowing your room will be ready in a few minutes, your book is where you left it and there aren’t any suitcases to move is delightful. I’d like to have one now since I must eat gluten free it would be wonderful to travel with my own kitchen.

There are a lot more questions and answers, just click a link and head off to see what others have on their blogs. Leave a comment and tell me your answer: Hotel, RV or Tent?

And the Greatest of These is Love 

All writers know the faith it takes to put words on paper. They’ve seen the faith required to search for the right word, the right phrase, the right nugget of truth that will mark their work as top-notch. Ultimately, they know the gut-wrenching faith it takes to turn their written baby over to someone who might reject it outright.

They know hope too. Even after they’ve been kicked to the curb by an agent who probably didn’t even read the first sentence of a query, hope prevails. After a few days of chocolate and Kleenexes, hope surges again. Maybe the next editor will love it, buy it, publish it, and send it to be included next to John Grisham’s on the front table of every bookstore in the country. Don’t deny it. You know that hope is real. 

One element, however, sometimes gets lost when faith and hope begin to emerge in our writing journey. That element is love. Sure, we love it, or we wouldn’t stress ourselves out to learn how to do it better, to find someone to publish it, and to put ourselves on the chopping block of rejection time and again. It’s almost a given that we love it. 

The problem is we forget that we love it. As a character who loves music in one of my books says, “You know me, I’d play for the squirrels if they’d listen.” 

Too often the longer we write, the less we remember what we love about it. Our focus shifts from writing for love to writing so others will love what we’ve written. 

When we write for the love of it, every frustrating moment is an exhilarating challenge. Shaping the ephemerally picturesque stories in our minds into something coherent and fluid is like no other experience. The very act of putting that last piece of our word puzzle into place has no equal.

Remember the journals you kept, the poems you wrote, the short stories that are still tucked away in some old notebook. You wrote those not to gain love but because they were burning a hole in your soul to be put on paper. 

Then you began writing not for love but to gain love. You became convinced that you had to twist your writing to meet what others believe is marketable or publishable. And so you let your love for writing morph into wanting your writing to be loved… sometimes at all costs. You twisted yourself into a pretzel, learning perfect grammar, point of view, the “correct” way to write a marketable manuscript. 

 Learning and growing in your writing is one thing, but when that gets so tangled in the rules that you forget why you started in the first place, that is something altogether different. Love is the key to writing real. As the Bible says so eloquently: In the end three things shall last, faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. –1 Corinthians 13:13 It’s a lesson every writer should take to heart. Copyright 2005, Staci Stallings

Thank you  for that devotion, Staci.  I needed to read that today, even if you  have a published book it is easy to forget about the love when you start writing the next one.

Staci is giving away her ebook for two days! Don’t miss it. 
 
Staci Stallings Author Bio & Tag Deep in the Heart Staci Stallings, the author of this article, is a Contemporary Christian author and the founder of Grace & Faith Author Connection. Staci has a special surprise for you today and tomorrow only… FREE ON KINDLE TWO DAYS ONLY! April 18 & 19, Staci’s novel:

 Deep in the Heart “This is more than a romance. The author cuts straight to the heart of God–love. God is love. Even through unexpected tragedies. And we can overcome evil with good–by His love.” –Betty Anne Bantz Can Keith defy the most powerful men in Texas to follow his heart? Available as a free download from Amazon!

If you’re a vegetarian I’m sure you won’t like this.

If you love BACON it’s a great video.

Could you give up bacon? Not me.