Last week I was sitting at the dining room table typing away on my laptop when I glanced out the French doors to my right. (Those doors and the view of the creek outside are one of the reasons I love this writing spot.) And there was a cat sitting there. But not just a cat. It was a bobcat […]
To kick off the new year, I’d like to share some fun data about my blog’s activity in 2012. Thanks to everyone who visits, comments and shares! I love having the opportunity to share my writing journey and my myriad thoughts along the way. Here are the top five posts from 2012: 1 God’s timing IS perfect 74 comments, November 2012 2 Christian Novelist Retreat 4 comments, July 2012 3 What’s in a name? (help me pick one, please!) 22 comments, December 2012 4 Let’s Talk About Sex . . . In Christian Fiction 3 comments, October 2011 5 The Great Bacon Scare of 2012 9 comments, September 2012 So. Getting an agent; hot, married sex; and bacon were among my most popular topics. I have to say that seems about right! Click here to see the complete report.
At Tuesday evening Bible study we always begin with prayer requests. And the “rule” is that everyone has a praise and/or concern. Because we always have something we need to be thankful for and something we need to pray about. One evening recently, this time inspired an interesting conversation about asking for what we need and why we often don’t ask for specifics. And what I concluded is that we don’t always ask for what we need because we don’t always take the time to know what it is. Say you’ve been sick. You might request prayer for better health–a good thing to ask for. But is that all you need? Maybe you also need someone to make a big pot of chicken noodle soup so you don’t have to cook. Maybe you need someone to take the kids to a movie so you can rest. Maybe you need someone to listen to you whine a little. But we don’t ask for those things. We might ask for general prayer–anyone can take a few seconds to pray (and honestly, do you pray much longer than that for a single concern?). But to ask someone to help meet your specific needs? Well, that might seem pushy. And you might have to take a minute to think about what would really and truly help in a given situation. And here’s the thing. I think people like specifics. They like being given specific tasks to […]
I’m heading home to WV for Thanksgiving this year. It’s rare that I go home–we usually spend the holiday with my husband’s family a mere 90 minutes away in SC. And I LOVE spending Thanksgiving with his family. But somehow the food isn’t exactly what I grew up with. Oh, it’s delicious. Adding homemade macaroni and cheese to Thanksgiving is […]
My husband knows how to get me. For the past several months he’s been able to procure raw cow’s milk for us. Having grown up on a farm with a milk cow, this is just about the best thing he’s ever done in my opinion. I still don’t like the chemical taste of pasteurized, homogenized milk. It makes me deeply […]
We had a couple of inches of snow from Hurricane Sandy. Nothing compared to what folks further north are contending with, but it was pretty dramatic for Western North Carolina. Now the snow is gone, the sun is shining and . . . it’s still autumn. Oh, plenty of leaves are down, but the oaks are still hanging on with […]
