Guest Post-Rebecca Yount

A SUNNY DAY IN LONDON TOWN By Rebecca Yount

Several years ago my husband and I spent New Years in London. Avoiding the boisterous neighborhoods of Covent Garden and Piccadilly, we took a late evening stroll in the quiet Bloomsbury enclave where we were staying. We thought we were the only people out and about in Russell Square that night; that is, until we spotted a couple coming toward us. When they met up with us, the young man paused and whispered into my ear, "Happy New Year, luv." Only in London.

I'm quite serious. I cannot imagine a native of New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Paris, or even Edinburgh doing that. The image of the English as being uptight and impersonal is nonsense. Scratch a Brit and you'll find a warm, witty friend.

Not that they are instantly chummy, mind you. It is best to allow the English to come to you, rather than vice versa. They freely admit to being wary of our premature Yank congeniality, so my husband and I have learned to hold back and wait. Wit is key to establishing friendships, and the English love it when Americans give as good as they get. Once, after a Londoner excoriated our KFCs and McDonalds, I said, "What does that say about a race of people who eat eels?" He almost dropped to the floor laughing.

Since 1990 we have visited London yearly, travelling there during the cheaper off-season (typically late winter or early spring) to enjoy some great plays in the West End. We have seen the likes of Vanessa Redgrave (twice), Diana Rigg (three times), Patrick Stewart (twice), David Suchet (twice), Derek Jacoby (twice), and Peter O'Toole in his final appearance on the stage. For us it's pure Nirvana to jump on the underground, get off at Piccadilly, and weave our way to Shaftesbury Avenue to see these great actors for ticket prices that are, at least by New York standards, steals.

Not that London comes cheap. It doesn't, unless you've done your homework and know where to find the best bargains. Over the years my husband and I have gathered such a wealth of information about this, we could practically teach a seminar on the topic. Hello, London School of Economics? As for popular tourist sites, forget Madame Tussaud's waxworks. The lines to get in are much too long. Do see the Tower of London and Big Ben -- once. Attend the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace -- once -- and hear the Guard's band playing hokey music, like the theme from the film The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (I kid you not). It's the unexpected places, many not even on the guide maps, that make London magical. Take the Old Curiosity Shop on Portsmouth Street, which we just happened to run into. As advertised by Dickens, it was built around 1567, is down-on-its-heels charming, and possibly the oldest still-operating shop in London. One can easily imagine Little Nell inside dusting off the bric-a-brac.

Then there is the old Victorian horse hospital just behind the Russell Square underground station. It is abandoned now, but still standing proud. One can only imagine how busy it must have been in the days when horses were the main source of power and transportation. A vivid reminder of the past, it is worth stopping on your way out of the station to investigate this forgotten place.

One of our favorite sites is the Roman wall at the Elephant and Castle underground station. Believed to be a corruption of "Eleanor of Castile," most beloved queen of King Edward I (who reigned from 1272-1307), this station teems with commuters during rush hour. If you don't keep moving, even polite Brits are likely to run you down. However, it's worth taking that risk. Can you imagine coming out of your local commuter station and facing an original Roman wall? When my husband and I saw it for the first time we stood transfixed, damn the hordes of commuters. Reaching out, I touched the cold stone and shivers actually raced up and down my spine. The English have little notion of what something like that means to an American -- we who live in a country where 1776 is considered ancient history.

Another little known marvel is the Foundling Hospital, now a museum located in Bloomsbury. Founded in 1742 by Thomas Coram, a wealthy entrepreneur, and funded by the likes of composer Geo. Frederick Handel (he of "The Messiah"), the old hospital is a testament to the desperate plight of unwed mothers. Shocked by the site of abandoned children in the streets of London, Coram vowed to dedicate his life to caring for those who were unwanted. The museum is a virtual history of the lives of these orphans -- their care, education and, later, careers.

These are just a few examples of the wonders that await a guest of London. Turn a corner, and you are likely to find something intriguing.

But don't get too caught up in myths about London. For example, Fog: Since the city has converted to clean-burning fuels over the years, the foggy day in London town has long since dissipated. A taxi driver once told me that the most common question he is asked by American tourists is, "Where's the fog?" Rain: Yes, it rains in London, but not constantly as you may be led to believe. London has more than its share of sunny days.
Cockney: Rarely spoken these days. Londoners increasingly seem to be adapting a more "American" accent, perhaps because of the popularity of TV show re-runs, like "Friends" and "Frasier." If you listen closely, Princes William and Harry often infuse their speech with American phrases, and even Her Majesty has toned down her plumy accent.
Pubs: Alive and thriving. However, there is an increase in "gastropubs" that serve healthier cuisine. Still, you can enjoy mouth-watering fish and chips at the more traditional locals.

Flower Girls at Covent Garden: Where's Eliza Doolittle when you need her?

So the bottom line is this: don't assume you know London from public television, tourist guides, or bodice-ripping novels. Expect the unexpected.

And, by the way, the British Museum has not lost its charm.

A Death in C Minor and The Erlking, the first two books in Rebecca Yount's Mick Chandra crime series, are now available in e-book format from all major vendors. You can find her at: RebeccaYount.com.

Jodi Thomas Guest Blog

The question I always fear the most when I'm traveling on book tour is , "Where do your ideas come from?" In truth, I often want to say, "Where did yours go?" because for the most part I don't know where ideas some from. For the most part it's not an idea, but a person who jumps into my mind first. He, or she, walks in, sits down and begins to tell me a story I have to follow. When that happens, as it did in JUST DOWN THE ROAD I grab my computer and start hoping I can hang on to wherever the story takes me. Whenever I begin to plot I like to mix my stories together so that one plot forms out of the life of several people. In JUST DOWN THE ROAD I have the beginnings of young, first time, love and the sweet love of two people who thought they were destined to live their lives alone. In the opening I introduce two people who are running, one from life and the other toward it. One, because of fear, thinks she's never lived and the other feels his life is over. They are not a couple anyone would put together but as they grow to love each other. Tinch and Addison realize they're a perfect match. And, for a man just learning to live again, Tinch has to also realize that there are some things in life worth risking his life for. I'd like to welcome you to step into my town, Harmony, Texas, and get to know the people. The streets of Harmony, the ranches and farms around, the vast open land that molds a special kind of people, all form together in my head as real as a road map. My characters, spurs and all, step into my imagination, "have a set" and tell me their stories. They are as real to me as family and friends and they'll come alive to you also. Who knows, when you finish the book, you might just feel like you have another home town. Remember, always be kind to one another, and enjoy my newest story.

Guest Blog: Marie Spencer

Bio:
Born in North Dakota, as the pioneers were dying off; reared in Iowa, where progress gobbled up farms and education was venerated. Dropped out of college and moved to North Carolina, where I found true love, real life, finished college and grad school, and became the librarian I was always meant to be. Now living in Kentucky, about which I read incessantly when I was growing up in Iowa, and loving it. Avid reader; appreciator of people, film, music, the glories of nature and the role of religion in life. Oh, I should also say my daughter calls me Pollyanna.

Thoughts on Books:
I had a story-telling grandmother, who was an avid reader and who encouraged my mom to read to her children. Living with our grandparents for some time, I benefitted from young uncles who enjoyed sharing the comics with us. The Katzenjammer Kids had us all rolling on the floor and Popeye the Sailor Man actually got us to eat (very unwillingly) spinach. All of us piled around Mom and quietly listened as she read nursery rhymes, fairy tales, legends and poems from the 1953 edition of Childcraft, the best Christmas gift she ever gave us. Despite all this enrichment, I didn't actually begin to read until 1st grade, but once started, I could not stop! I adored phonics lessons: “B says buh, buh, buh”. We were not supposed to take our reading primers home, but I could not leave Dick, Jane and Sally in my desk overnight. I took them home, reading as I walked and finishing the book before bedtime.

As soon as I understood how words were formed, I began reading the newspaper on my own. What power! And, to my mom's delight, I enjoyed reading the comics and Uncle Wiggily installments to my little brothers and sisters. She was able to cook supper in next to no time, with the youngsters gathered around the table, reading. On the flip side, I read things I didn’t understand and that made her very nervous. “What does r-a-p-e mean, Mommy?” I asked after reading a Dear Abby column. I can still see her biting her lip and mulling over how to explain it to 7 year old me.


I asked Marie to answer a few questions so we could get to know a little more about her:

Favorite Book? Pippi Longstocking -- the bravest girl in the world, who opened my eyes to what I could do and be

Favorite Author? Dr. Seuss; Pauli Murray; Kathleen Norris (1947-); Thor Heyerdahl

Describe yourself using only three words. Open-minded; Affectionate; Appreciative

You are on a deserted island, name one person and one book you would take with you.
Mother Teresa
How Does a Poem Mean? ed. by John Ciardi -- thousands of words to celebrate

Favorite tv show? Soap

Favorite food? Bread

Anything you haven’t done in your life that you want to do? Travel to the moon; Skydive; Visit New York City

New Blog Feature

I posted on the blog-many months ago-that I would like to have book lovers write guest posts to appear on my blog. I always like to talk to anyone that loves books to see what they like, dislike, and give me book suggestions on titles that I must read. Sadly, I didn't have one person take me up on that offer. So, I drafted some friends to do one to get this feature started. I would still love to have anyone that would like to write a guest post to either leave a comment here or email me so I can give you the details. Come back to the blog tomorrow to see the first guest post!

Guest Post: Jodi Thomas

THE COMFORTS OF HOME will be hitting the stands on Nov. 1, 2011 and I’m very excited to see my people of Harmony, Texas come alive. In my mind they already are and sometimes I feel like they’re so real that I could pack my bag and go down for a visit any time I liked.With writing it’s always been that way for me. I don’t really feel like I create characters, I feel like I just meet people and get to know them. If I’m lucky they tell me their story. When I meet people who read and love my books I always like to hug them. After all, we have friends in common. In THE COMFORTS OF HOME I wrote about people who probably live all around us but we never take the time to know. One was Ronelle Logan. She’d lived and worked at the post office without anyone noticing her. She solved the funeral home’s crossword puzzles before she handed over the magazines, but no one complained. Tyler Wright, the funeral director, just brought her a huge crossword puzzle book. He was a kind man who tried to help everyone he came across. In the lives of these people now and then, wonder happens, brightening the world around. I love writing and plan to do it as long as stories come. Writing is hard work and I often think the story will never be as bright at it is in my mind. Then I remember that someone asked Mark Twain about his wonderful stories and he said, “You should have seen it in my head.” So, order, or borrow, or download my story, cuddle up in your favorite chair and come along with me on a journey that will make you feel at home in Harmony.
Jodi Thomas
www.jodithomas.com

Guest Blog: Naomi Bulger

Naomi, has written a terrific guest blog post to go along with my review in the previous posting on my blog. Do not forget to read the review and sign up to win a copy of the book. I would like to thank her immensely for taking part on my blog and offering such great insight on the magic realism genre. Enjoy!



Life is a magical realism novel

A guest post by Naomi Bulger, author of Airmail



I remember my first encounter with the literary genre we call ‘magical realism’ and it was… magic.



When the seventh generation of the Buendía family was born with a pig’s tail, the general response was not “what on earth?” as one would expect, but, “we knew it!” The Buendías had feared this eventuality for decades. The Buendías were the central family in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude, and they changed forever the way I not only read, but lived.



Magical realism is not fantasy. It is real magic. Generally, magical realism novels are set in worlds very much like yours or mine. The only difference is that when completely irrational or magic things happen, the inhabitants of such worlds tend to respond with a shrug, rather than a shriek.



“Did you hear? Amaranta’s baby boy has a pig’s tail!” One old lady may say to another at the marketplace. “Goodness. Tut tut,” her neighbour will likely respond, followed by an equally enthusiastic, “What lovely aubergines they have this time of year!”



I spent my childhood reading fantasy: The Hobbit, the Narnia books, The Owl Service and Japanese fable Urashima Taro were stories I revisited with regularity.



But as I grew older, I found my taste for this genre waned. Unlike many in my junior high class, I just couldn’t get into the Clan of the Cave Bear books. Instead, I became infatuated with the classics, big emotional dramas that set my schoolgirl heart a-fluttering, like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and the more reserved but equally appealing Pride and Prejudice.



That was until a friend gave me One Hundred Years of Solitude. I devoured this book, and quickly followed it up with Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, which had been beautifully adapted into a movie that same year. Also at the movies, I watched The Secret of Roan Inish. Then I started reading Isabel Allende, and Jeanette Winterson, and she led me to Virginia Woolfe. Oh my!



These writers introduced me to a whole new literary realm, that of magical realism. I didn’t need vampires, or hobbits, or elves. Instead I had the extraordinary, blended in with the ordinary, at my fingertips.



A woman’s passions were absorbed into the meals she cooked, and created intense emotions in the people who ate them. A baby boy was nurtured by the sea for many years, protected because his ancestor was a selkie (half woman, half seal). A woman had her heart stolen and literally sown into a tapestry. And a poet named Orlando started life in the Middle Ages as one gender, and then traversed through time, love and sex for centuries.



Magic realism changed the way I saw my daily life. No longer did I yearn to live in a land of dragon-slayers or spells. My own world held infinitely more wonder.



At any moment, magic happens around us but, like the characters in a magical realism novel, we are often so caught up in our daily burdens that we miss the wonder.





Have you ever seen the aurora borealis?





Or photographs of a supernova in space? In space, where people actually travel? Sometimes, babies really are born with tails!



And all over the world, there are ancient mysteries that we still cannot explain despite millennia of trying.



Who knows what is around the corner! Magical realism in literature is fantastic, surprising, and beautiful. But the greatest lesson it has taught me is that life can be the same.



My question for you: What is the most magical thing you have witnessed in this world?





Airmail, a new magic realism novella by Naomi Bulger, was published in April 2011, and is available online at Barnes & Noble.



Amazon





And numerous other good bookstores. Naomi maintains a blog about writing, creativity and the absurdities of life at www.naomibulger.com, and she promises to write a personal letter of thanks to everyone who buys a copy of Airmail.

Guest Blog: Jim Devitt

Jim Devitt, author of The Card, has written a great guest post to go along with my review of his book. Please go and check out the previous posting to learn all about the book and Jim. Enjoy!


I want to thank Laura for the opportunity to guest post on The Book Tree. This is a little bit of a scaring proposition. My Young Adult novel certainly sits outside the box of what you might typically find here.

Many people, even close friends, are surprised to find me publishing my debut novel. They wonder where that person came from. “I didn’t know you were a writer?” is a line I have heard hundreds of times in the past month. Thinking back, I have gone through life writing, just not novels.

I entered and won an essay contest during the 1970’s, while in high school. This provided me with a $500 savings bond. I guess I became a professional at an early age. Most would expect to hear a story of how this catapulted me into a life of inspired writing, but alas, I was a high school student. The other winning aspect to the essay contest was the chance to work in professional baseball. Therefore, in a roundabout way, I suppose that this did have a profound impact on my future writing.

After living any kid’s childhood dream, I returned to the real world. I completed a Master’s of Education degree in Exercise Physiology, not exactly the normal path of an aspiring writer. Honestly, writing wasn’t even a thought at the time, because I was so busy … writing! I wrote research abstracts and full-length peer reviewed papers while conducting research in everything from diabetes, to end-stage renal disease, to low-back strength in Professional Basketball players.

After a couple of decades of writing everything from research to advertisement copy to company public relations pieces, I realized that I loved to write. Now it was time to write what I wanted to write.

I struggled with the concept of “wasting time” writing for fun. I produced pieces of the puzzle, threw it out there, and asked those closest to me if I was crazy to try this. My support group was wonderful and gave me the confidence to proceed.

When asked, “Why Young Adult?” I don’t hesitate to answer. This question really has a two-part answer.

First, over the past few years, an explosion of paranormal romance, vampires and other creatures, in the Young Adult marketplace, has occurred. There seemed to be a dearth of mystery/action/adventure in Young Adult novels set in our REAL world. Therefore, my initial reaction was that I could help fill that void.

Secondly, I spent eight years working in a Major League clubhouse. There are stories to tell about what goes on behind-the-scenes in that exclusive club. Naturally, I combined the two concepts to develop the mystery that is set in Seattle, Washington, where the main character works in the Visiting Team Clubhouse.

I brought in some of the habits that I learned throughout my life to develop a writing process. On the other hand, maybe it was more of an idea than a process. I outlined the concept on the front end, and then set out to write. I tried to put in a 2,000-word goal daily, but that seemed to evaporate, as my real job would get in the way. I found that as the story grew, I really wanted to write more and more.

As you know by now, I love research. For me that is the easy part of writing. My story has some scientific basis to it, sort of like a Michael Crichton type of influence (by no means am I comparing myself to him, though) and I studied a lot of the cutting-edge research that is underway at some of the big institutions around the country. I wanted the book to be just ahead of what we might see coming down the road in the world of nanotechnologies and other really cool things. Additionally, the baseball stadium in Seattle, Washington, Safeco Field, plays a big role in the setting of the story and I went behind the scenes there, to places many people don’t venture, so that I could help the reader live that part of the novel.

In the end, I want readers to have fun. The story is a true roller coaster ride. In the beginning, you spend some time getting to know the characters, but then, look out! Beyond the fun, there is a message hidden inside. The growth that the main character undergoes, translates into some big-time life lessons that anyone could benefit from, especially the young adult population.

I am currently working on the next in the series of the Van Stone Novels, due for release in the late fall.

http://jimdevitt.blogspot.com


The Card is available at these online outlets:

Paperback https://www.createspace.com/3585708

Kindle Edition http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004UAVMS0

All other e-book editions http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/50300

Author Feature and Guest Post: Mary Margaret Daughtridge

Mary Margaret Daughtridge, author of SEALed Forever, has written a fantastic guest post for my blog. I am just beside myself on what she wrote as I see elements she talks about in me and my reading/writing life. Enjoy and don't forget to comment as I have two copies to giveaway. The contest is open to US and Canada only and the winners will be chosen on May 18.


People often ask me how my many careers have influenced my writing. I have had a bunch of job descriptions, most of them working intimately with people. What might not be obvious, if I just list careers, is what drove me to constantly explore new avenues and add new skills, until the old job description no longer fit, and I had to go to a new one.



I’m a bit of an odd duck—a truth about myself I treasure now, but which I once tried to hide. After a couple of jobs that I knew weren’t right for me, I asked myself, “Suppose I stopped trying to lop off parts of myself so I could fit a job?”



That thought produced a total shift in my consciousness. I stopped wishing and hoping some perfect job would magically appear, and above all, I stopped trying to change so that I could fit in better.



I sat down with my beloved number two pencil and yellow legal pad and censoring nothing, wrote about what motivated me and what satisfied me. What I would always want to do whether anybody ever paid me or not.



I found myself remembering a time in college when a friend remarked, with a certain amount of awe, “Mary Margret, you actually like to study!”



I do. I have immense curiosity and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. I think it’s strange that people think that’s strange.



I like to know why things and people are the way they are. While I have little patience with chit-chat, I genuinely enjoy listening to people talk about themselves.



I also love to synthesize knowledge. Early on, I realized that, useful as it is, synthesizing was something that other people, even people much smarter than me, couldn’t always do. I saw it as a gift, something I could offer in service to people. But a lifetime of being misunderstood had shown me that some people (bosses especially) were profoundly uncomfortable when I produced “insights” from data they couldn’t even see, much less see the connections between.



I realized I was better off working for myself, and instead of accepting all comers, I needed to carefully screen clients to make sure they actually wanted what I had to offer.



With twenty-twenty hindsight, I can see that by refusing to specialize I was amassing knowledge and skills that would serve me well as a writer.



First of all, there’s all that reading. I don’t think you can read as voraciously as I have all my life and not develop a deep intuition for how stories work.



And then there’s my acquired knowledge about what makes all different kinds of people tick. I’ve learned to respect and honor choices people make, even if I don’t exactly approve. SEALs are not always “nice” and though they have strong ethics, they do things some people would find morally repugnant. Being able to view people with understanding and without judgment helps me create multidimensional characters with real problems.



My career path honed my skill in interviewing—crucial when I’m doing research. I quickly get rapport and I can and will ask anyone almost anything. For SEALed with a Promise, I needed close up, personal details about being a sniper. So I walked into a gun shop and asked.



Turned out, the clerk was a former Army Ranger and could tell me what I needed to know.



And that synthesizing thing? Well, just from the way he talked and reacted to my questions, I could put together the motivations and mind set of a sniper.



In fact, my ideas for SEAL stories come from synthesizing information nuggets—The nuggets are sometimes what’s actually on the page, sometimes what I’m able to read between the lines because I know people.



SEALed Forever came about from three unrelated things I read. In two separate SEAL memoires, I found accounts of a SEAL rescuing a baby or very young child. In one case, the rescue was part of a mission, in the other, the SEAL acted on his own.

What made the story important to each SEAL was that he had never felt so totally true to himself and so true to his SEAL training—and in both cases, not a shot was fired.



Some time later I was surfing the ’Net. I read that the CIA denied owning a small airstrip deep in the North Carolina sticks. The CIA spokesman pointed out that the airstrip was clearly owned by a private corporation. The locals thought, “Yeah. Right.”



It took several years, but eventually my synthesizer put those bits and pieces together will a lot of other bits, and out popped a picture of a SEAL running a black ops airstrip in Podunk NC, aka Sessoms’ Corner, who finds an abandoned baby aboard a spy plane.



Fun, huh?



I don’t think I’m unique. I think women as a whole are better than men at synthesizing and empathizing. I think women are better at following the deeper levels of a story and following what’s really happening rather than what seems to be happening. What do you think?





SEALed FOREVER BY MARY MARGRET DAUGHTRIDGE



He’s got a living, breathing dilemma…

In the midst of running an undercover CIA mission, Navy SEAL Lt. Garth Vale finds an abandoned baby, and his superiors sure don’t want to know about it. The only person who can help him is the beautiful new doctor in town, but she’s got another surprise for him…



She’s got a solution…at a price…

Dr. Bronwyn Whitescarver has left the frantic pace of big city ER medicine for a small town medical practice. Her bags aren’t even unpacked yet when gorgeous, intense Garth Vale shows up on her doorstep in the middle of the night with a sick baby…



But his story somehow doesn’t add up, and Bronwyn isn’t quite sure who she’s saving—the baby, or the man…



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Margret Daughtridge has been a grade school teacher, speech therapist, family educator, biofeedback therapist, and Transpersonal Hypnotherapist. She is a member of the Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Romance Writers of America, and Romancing the Military Soul, and is a sought-after judge in writing contests. She resides in Greensboro, North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.marymargretdaughtridge.com and www.sourcebookscasablanca.com.

Guest Blog: MJ Rose

MJ Rose, author of The Hypnotist, was so gracious to take time out of her busy schedule to write a guest post for the blog.
Check out my posting on her book that was featured last Thursday.


Inspiration is a crazy thing. I don't know where it comes from but I'm thankful it does come.

My characters are very elusive. They arrive like wisps of smoke. My first inkling about a new character comes as a question. A "what if".

"What if" a man was in an accident and woke up with memories that don't belong to him.

Then I start thinking of what kind of man would that be a conflict for. Who would hate that and fight it.

Slowly a person starts to emerge.

Then I work on their names - for a main character it can take me a month to come up with the right name. And all too often I think I have the right name - then start working on the book and realize I have the wrong name. In The Memorist I wrote the whole book with Meer's name being something else and she was wooden on the page. Then I changed her name and she came alive.

My real work with the characters is an evolution. For three months I don't write a word. Rather I do research and work on my main character's scrapbook. The very process of collecting her preferred poems, swatches of her favorite colors, and petals from the flowers she grows gives me time to find her.

I collect the ticket stubs for a performance of the Metropolitan Opera that she went to, a postcard from her mother's first trip to Europe, a piece of the red and white string on the pastry box from her grandmother's apartment: it's all in the scrapbook.

And only when I've found all the knickknacks of her life and I've done a fair amount of procrastinating do I even think about sitting down to write. And by then, I can't wait.

Guest Post: Erica Nelson

Erica Nelson, author of Happiness Quotations, took time out of her super busy schedule to write a guest post today for the blog. I am so thankful that she has done this and it goes along with a feature of her book in the previous post. Be sure to check it out as we can all use more happiness in our lives.

Happiness for Moms
For all the moms, happiness can be elusive. We chose our children so happily, looking at the lovely faces at birth and falling so deeply in love it almost hurt! Then life brings challenges and some days are easy – other days push us to the limit! Here are some happiness steps for you to take to shift you back into your joy.
Happiness is like the oil that turns the wheels in your life. No oil, no juice, your wheels become stuck and your movement is sluggish.

Here are three steps you can take right now to step more deeply into your personal positivity every day.

* Appreciate. Appreciate your children and share this appreciation generously. Remember how they are perfect as spirit, even when the milk spills and they won’t try the new meal you worked so hard to create. Remember their preciousness even when they lash out at a sibling or get into an argument for no real reason. Just look at your child with new eyes of love and appreciation. Express this.
* Forgive your children. Always forgive them. No matter what happens, love the core of their beingness and remember the love you feel. You may also need to forgive your parents. That can be more challenging. Forgive everyone who could not see your beauty.
* Check in with yourself each day and ask yourself the question “do I feel happy? Could I feel more happiness?” Your positive expression of emotions – how you show up each day – will play a huge role in the chemistry of your household.

I’m the mom of three children ages 7, 8 and 9. Each is so very different, and so very precious. I have days where I don’t know where the rainbows went – and days where I am amazed, again and again, when they tell me stories that show me exactly how they think and learn and grow.

Here is a toast to all the moms! Thank you for being you.

Erica Marie Nelson is the author of the book “Happiness Quotations: Gentle Reminders of Your Preciousness” enjoying a big launch party this week at www.HappinessQuotations.com. She began to write professionally in 1984. She lives in California with her three children, husband, two kitties and a Tennessee Walking Horse. You can like her happiness quotations also at Facebook.

Guest Post: The Hippie with Anger Issues

Yesterday I featured and reviewed a book called Snowflake Obsidian, Memoirs of a Cutter, and I hope you will go and read all about it and then pick up a copy. The author has written a fantastic guest post about her writing process and I hope you will enjoy. Thanks Hippie!

Discovering the Story & The Crazy/Beautiful Experience of Writing:

The Hippie’s advice to beginning writers



Remember the old saying “Don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all small stuff”? This is especially true for the process of writing. Can the process be an absolute joy? Yes. Can it also cause sleep deprivation, hair pulling, and feelings of being a complete failure? Absolutely. At some point will it dawn on you that what you’ve written is complete and utter crap? Yes. Is it true? No.



Unless you’re sporting a gigantic ego, at some point you will feel that what you’ve written is garbage. Don’t sweat it. Continue forward focusing on the love you have for your characters and your story. For me, I remember that if something’s not working it can always be rewritten. Writing is a process of discovery, and the first person I write for is always myself, an audience of one.



The best advice I ever received about the process of writing was the idea of multiple drafts. My Creative Writing English professor was the one who introduced me to this concept. Our grade was determined not just by the polished final draft, but also by every rough draft. We had to submit a minimum of eight rough drafts, along with our final that showed significant rewrites in every draft.



The first draft will always be a vomit of words. Some that will work, some that won’t. When a writer gets caught up in a sentence, hemming and hawing over the exact wording, it can inhibit the writer’s ability for discovery and inspiration. When you can’t find the right words, write what comes. You can always fix it later.



I love working with outlines, but often when I write, the story and characters seem to have a mind of their own and will say or do things I never intended. For me, I don’t force the characters to follow the outline. I follow the characters, sometimes not having a clue as to where they’re going as I’m writing. Now obviously this wasn’t the case with my memoir. The characters were limited to doing what had already been done, but how I put the story together, and narrated, was a process of discovery! My advice to writers would be: Don’t inhibit your creativity on the first draft. Always think outside the box.



What happens if you get writers block? Don’t sweat it. When this happens it’s a good indication that you have taken the story in a direction it doesn’t want to go and it is blocking you from moving forward. The best you can do is back up line-by-line, erasing one at a time, or cutting and pasting it to another document, until you get to a point where you see the story going a different direction, and then follow it.



For me, the first draft will always be about discovering the basic elements of the story and it is always going to suck. Really, it will, just accept it. My first drafts are usually for my eyes only. The second draft is where I focus on the heart of the story. Then in later drafts I begin to flush out the characters, dialogue, details, sub-textual imagery, and so on. After that I send it to readers who can think critically about the piece and give me constructive criticism while respecting my writing style. I also want to see if what I’ve written translates to the audience. If not, I need to do what I must to bridge the gap to connect with the reader, even if that means deleting and rewriting elements of the story completely—all the while remembering that there are still opportunities for magic, discovery, and inspiration in every rewrite.



The Hippie is debuting her first novel: Snowflake Obsidian: Memoir of a Cutter. She has written three other unpublished YA novels that she is in the process of rewriting.

Guest Post: Hans Lindor

Hans Lindor, author of I Am Going To Where I Belong, has written a guest post to go along with the feature of his book. You can see the feature in the previous post. I want to give a big thank you to Mr. Lindor for taking the time to write something for me to post and I hope you will all check out his book.


I was once told that being a Negro is a shame and a mortal virus. Sometimes I question my own identity: Is it my fault for being a Negro when my own race mistreats and degrades me, or should I apologize for being a Negro? I was born in Haiti, the first black republic. Sadly, after 201 years of independence, slavery has never really stopped. Our own government is traumatizing the people. A country destroyed by its own cannibals, where lawlessness shines; where innocent children are disregarded and die daily from hunger; where poor women are being raped, beaten to death, and sometimes forced to expose themselves for prostitution. A country where armed Negroes, thugs, thieves, and murderers call themselves and are called by the corrupted government "Freedom Fighters." Perhaps they mean Freedom Killers! Meanwhile, when I dream of my country it's a nightmare. When I think of my country it's a fearful moment. When I talk of my country it's distressing.

I got the taste of freedom when I first came to this country, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, the land of the free and opportunity. Where people are generous. Where dreams do come true if you manage your talent wisely. I was thrilled and enthusiastic because to me I was freed from slavery by fleeing my country. However, it didn't take me long to drown into sadness, when I see that some of my black fellow American brothers continue to betray and kill each other. They are divided while wasting the great opportunity that this precious country offers. Martin Luther King's dream was for blacks and whites to live side by side, for blacks to have the same civil rights as whites, but not for blacks to kill one another and live in poverty. Most of us still have that same dream, where all blacks seize the chance that this valuable country grants to everyone, as we no longer blame the whites for our misery and misfortune.

Being a Negro to me means being a survivor, a visionary, a fortunate human being and moreover, heartbroken. Being a Negro to me also means having an indisputable reputation that foresees the vast intellect of the human race, having seen the light of day and darkness of night. I don't believe in racism. I believe in ignorance. I believe that I am my own antagonist if I can't accomplish my objective. I'm proud to be a Negro or am I?

Hans Lindor

Guest Post: Jeff Bennington

Jeff Bennington is celebration the release of his new book entitled Reunion and you can read all about him and the book in my previous blog post. He was fantastic to work with on this blog tour and has done a great blog post, so keep reading.


The First Line

As an author I’ve learned that the most important part of any book is the first few words, the first line, and of course the first paragraph and chapter. If I can’t bait a reader with my prose and hook their attention from the beginning, I might as well pack up my writing gear and head for the hills. In the world of literature where thousands of books are published every day, readers have an abundance of choices and mine is one of many, like a solitary vapor swirling over Niagara Falls. If I can’t grab a reader from the very beginning and get them excited about my story, I might as well fahgetaboutit.

Once I’m into the story, and parts of speech start flying like trimmed shrubbery, I can install chapters for hours at a time. But when it’s all said and over with, it’s the beginning that I come back to. It’s the first impression. It’s my only opportunity to get a reader interested. It has to be perfect. It has to be compelling and it has to attack with bear-trap-like strength.

In a May 14, 2004 issue of psychology today, Carlin Flora states that, “Our brains form first impressions by creating a composite of all the signals given off by a new experience.” When someone reads my work, they are entering into a new experience, a new world with my name stamped on it. I want their first impression of me to be, “Wow! This is good!”

When Bill and Hillary Clinton discuss how they met at Yale's law library, they tell how after staring and flirting with each other Hillary finally walked up to Bill and said, "Look, if you're going to keep staring at me, and I'm going to keep staring back, we might as well be introduced. I'm Hillary Rodham. What's your name?" It’s said that Bill couldn't remember his name, but that’s another story.

From an artist’s perspective, I want you to remember my name: Jeff Bennington, they guy who writes incredibly engaging thrillers. From a business perspective, I need you to remember my name. And that’s why I work so hard on the first line.

To demonstrate what I’m talking about, I’ll show you a few of my first lines from my novels, lines that I hope will nudge you to the next paragraph and the next chapter.
•••
Reunion:
David Ray stood in front of his mirror, dressed to kill. I look good, he thought, like the real deal, like a real killer. He narrowed his eyes, grit his teeth and unfolded his checklist. Sharp blades of black hair dangled in front of his face, covering the brownish rings that encircled his eyes. He peered at his scribbled writing and read the list as he felt his insides tense with hatred.

Act of Vengeance (Coming late 2011):
Detective Rick Burns raced into the upscale neighborhood, slammed on the brakes, and stepped out of his rusty red Pontiac. He peered into the night as the crowd gathered, took a deep breath, and prayed to God that this murder would not be like the others. The heaviness, the blood, the darkness had finally pricked its sharp edge into his soul. Red and blue lights enveloped his body and danced across the frightened neighbors who had gathered together, shaking and shivering. The car door let out a lingering squeak as he slammed it shut and he hurried toward the crime scene.

Federal Underground (Coming 2012):
My legs strained up the dark and musty mineshaft as I ran from the depths of the federal underground. My left hand scraped the rocky edges, caking my fingernails with dirt and decades of filth. Every step I took injected a cold burn into my lungs; every breath thrust me beyond the point of exhaustion and terror. My red jump suit smelled of the world below and clung to my skin, wet and ragged. I stopped running for a moment, took in a life-giving inhalation and rested my body on the earthen wall. I tried to forget, but the images were too strong, to frightening to escape.
•••
In my opinion, and in the opinion of the authors and editors who have taught me how to weave a harrowing tale, an author must place the reader directly in the heart of the action. Some authors spread out the details of setting and back story like a picnic blanket, the foundation on which the main course will be enjoyed. In the case of thrillers and suspense, however, I prefer action.

My goal as a thriller writer is to throw the reader into a story that screams, “What is going on here? Why is David Ray dressed to kill? What is Detective Burns about to get himself into? What is the federal underground and what did he see there? Questions need answered, and I find that if the first few lines have a compelling character, a reader will want to discover the answers. Besides, if I can’t get you interested in reading beyond page one, why even bother with the rest of the book? The first lines are that important to me.

It isn’t until after you decide to read on, that I’ve earned your trust as an author.
After all, If I’m going ask you to give me money and dedicate hours of your precious time into my words, they better be good, especially the first line.

Thanks for reading. Be sure to follow The Book Tree and then go get your copy of Reunion. Peace. – Jeff Bennington

Guest Post: Ezra Barany

Ezra Barany, author of The Torah Codes, has written a guest post to go along with a book feature of the book that is posted in the previous blog selection.


First of all, I want to thank Laura for having me here today. It’s quite an honor to have the chance to reveal where the inspiration for my book came from. In general, inspiration for a novel can come in many places. Mine came from a course, a person and an event.



A Course: While spending some time in the old city of Jerusalem, I first learned about codes in the book of Genesis through a course at Aish Ha-Torah. The course forced me to face a Truth I wasn’t so keen on facing. I didn’t want to believe that God wrote the Torah. (The Torah is comprised of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). As a result of learning about the codes, I spent a lot of time chatting with guys who were once physics and philosophy majors but traded it all to study Torah.



I asked them questions like, “How do we know God is always right?” and “How do we know God is always good?” My questions were treated with respect and the college-aged religious men around me seemed happy I was asking these kinds of questions. It was bizarre. I thought I’d be considered a heretic or something of that nature for asking such questions. But instead the bearded black coats would shout out, “Hey, Jacob! We got another philosophical thinker here!” “Awesome!”



That was one of my favorite Jewish experiences. I always knew that Judaism held respect for questioning authority, but actually feeling such respect and emotional support was a powerful experience, indeed.



That experience of learning about the codes in Jerusalem inspired my suspense novel, The Torah Codes. I didn’t want it to be religious fiction, though.



The thought of religious fiction always struck me as being something preachy. I’m sure religious fiction isn’t preachy; I’ve never read religious fiction, so I wouldn’t know. But I felt like the story’s protagonist, Nathan Yirmorshy, should be someone who wouldn’t be religious, someone who relied on science to determine what was real and what wasn't.



In a western society such as ours, we tend to trust science over religious belief, so I thought it best if Nathan Yirmorshy felt that way, too. It would be easier for us to relate to him.



A Person: On the other hand, his love interest, Sophia Patai, is a spiritual, but non-religious, woman who makes her living doing tarot readings on the street. My wife was the inspiration for Sophia. My wife reads tarot cards, too.



An Event: Lastly, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) inspired me to actually sit down and write my book. Actually, I took the previous month to plan the book, so that come November 1, I could just write it while I was teaching physics at a high school.



Fast forward 5 years later, and we have The Torah Codes: A reclusive computer programmer, Nathan Yirmorshy, pounds out ones and zeros in the quiet of his home while his landlord secretly watches behind a two-way mirror. When an intercepted note connects the landlord to a secret society, and a detective ends up dead, Nathan must abandon his home and everything familiar to him, open his heart to a tarot reader he has never met, and trust her with his life—just as the ancient scriptures have foretold.

Guest Post: Ciji Ware

A RACE TO SPLENDOR by Ciji Ware


1. Can you tell me about how you became a reader and then a writer?

Well, looking back on the 8 books I’ve had published (2 nonfiction works, and 6 historical novels, including my upcoming A Race to Splendor, official pub date April 5th), I can see that I ended up writing the same sorts of works that I had always loved reading

I come from a literary family—or perhaps, I should say to sound less pretentious--I come from a family many of whose members made their livings as wordsmiths.

My late father, Harlan Ware, was what is now called in English Lit classes a “mid-century American writer of popular fiction”… an author who paid for our college tuitions and his light bill by cranking out fourteen years-worth of radio scripts for an NBC drama called One Man’s Family, set in Sea Cliff, San Francisco. He also wrote ten film scripts in the 1930s and 40s; three novels; and some forty-five short stories for the likes of Colliers magazine and the Saturday Evening Post –publications that featured fiction and that are long out of print.

We were probably the only house in a very modest track of homes on the outskirts of Pasadena—and then, later, Carmel-by-the-Sea—that had an entire room you could actually call a “library” with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that housed the volumes my parents had lovingly collected over the years.

My father and his two brothers grew up in a small town in South Dakota where there was a wonderful librarian. All three boys became voracious readers: Dickens, Trollope, and especially Mark Twain. My mother, whose parents were educators, served on the Library Board where we grew up and as such, got “first pick” of the new books as they arrived. Each member of my family was painfully aware of the ups-and-downs of the writer’s life. Depending on what project our father was working on—a Hollywood screenplay; his long-term radio gig; a short story sold four days before Christmas after a long draught of no sales at all--we were either eating beans out of a can, or reveling in caviar—literally. As my mother once said with a laugh, “Well, darlings…we Wares live from hand-to-mouth in a big way!” But whatever was happening, there were always books to read.

Despite an aura of occasional financial uncertainty, my father instilled in us how lucky we were to be “living the creative life which is, my lovelies, the only life worth living.” He encouraged backyard ballet performances, reading aloud after dinner, storytelling, and entering every essay contest announced in our school. His urged all three of his children to participate in the arts, an exhortation that carried over into my college life and beyond (I still dance in local productions where I live). I realize, looking back, how blessed I was to have a parent who cheered me on, instilling a sense of confidence that I was up to whatever challenge I decided to tackle.

My passion for historical fiction began when I “borrowed” my sister’s racy (to my 11-year-old mind) copy of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind and doing that classic thing: reading it under the covers with a flashlight!

To this day, historical fiction is by far my favorite genre: everything from Jane Austen to Daphne du Maurier, Anya Seton, Rosamund Pilcher, and these days, Phillipa Gregory, Jacqueline Winspear, Tasha Alexander., and Hilary Mantel

And as for my dual career as a writer of nonfiction, my twenty-three years as an electronic and print reporter specializing in health and lifestyle issues for—mostly--ABC in Los Angeles, has prompted me to write “prescriptive nonfiction.” These are books that actually try to help people solve problems. Rightsizing Your Life: Simplifying Your Surroundings While Keeping What Matters Most was fortunate enough to be selected by the Wall Street Journal as one of the “Top 5 Books on Retirement Issues” when it debuted in 2007.

As a spin-off, I recently was hired to write a 9-part series on decluttering tips for AARP The Magazine and AARP online. I was determined to offer practical, step-by-step strategies for getting past the sometimes-depressing notion of “downsizing” to the great feeling of liberation that comes from no longer being burdened by too much “stuff.”

Since I don’t like reading “ain’t it awful?” types of nonfiction, I try to get beyond merely defining a problem by also offering readers various possible solutions.

So, thanks to my ingrained love of reading, and having been encouraged from a very early age to read widely and to “live the creative life,” I have turned my love of reading into both a fiction and nonfiction career. Thanks, Dad…

Nava Atlas Guest Post

Check out the review of Nava Atlas' book in the previous post.

Don't whisper, don't blather! The Literary Ladies on finding your voice
By Nava Atlas

When the movie Dirty Dancing (1987) came out, I was often told that I resembled “Baby,” the lead female character played by Jennifer Grey. If I chose to sit in a corner at a restaurant or at a gathering, friends sometimes delivered the film’s iconic line “Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” thinking that they were being extremely hilarious. But I liked corners, and I still do. They’re cozy, and it’s easy to blend into the woodwork if I’m in the mood to hide. But putting oneself in a corner, either in the real world or when it comes to the printed page, is the equivalent of whispering. Women tend to do that a lot, especially when we’re not sure of our own voices.

When I started working on The Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life, a collection of first-person narratives by classic women authors on their experiences and challenges as writers, I was content to whisper in the margins of the pages of the book. Alongside the musings of twelve authors whose works we know and love (Alcott, Austen, Brontë, Alcott, Wharton, Woolf, and six others), my role was to comment on how their challenges and experiences in times past still resonate with contemporary women who write. Since I myself designed the pages as well, I set my comments in tiny type in whatever corners of the page I could hide them in. That all ended when the book found a publisher, and the editor firmly told me I could no longer whisper in the corner, metaphorically nor literally. My words, he decreed, had to have equal weight as those of my literary foremothers.

At first, raising my voice above a whisper wasn’t easy. All those familiar “Who do you think you are...” demons rushed in to fill the void in my mind where confidence should have been firmly in place. Finding your voice is a writing directive that teeters on being a cliché, it’s so often invoked. Yet, what’s more important than developing a distinctive personality on the printed page? Without a firm grip on voice, you’re left either with whispering shyly, or its flip side, the equally fatal flaw of blathering (the literary equivalent of nervous chatter)—churning out overwrought, florid prose with no self-editing, little self-censoring, and being completely defensive when an editor offers solid suggestions on shaping and refining prose with an objective eye. Even though your words flow out in torrents, your voice doesn’t sound confident or unique, but more like that relative that everyone has—the one who never knows when to stop talking. Here are a few thoughts on finding one’s voice from three of the Literary Ladies:

“I found that newspaper work did a great deal of good for me in working off the purple flurry of my early writing. Every young writer has to work off the ‘fine writing’ stage. It was a painful period in which I overcame my florid, exaggerated, foamy-at-the-mouth, adjective-spree period ... I believe every young writer must write whole books of extravagant language to get it out.” —Willa Cather, from an interview, 1915

“Every dawning talent has to go through a phase of imitation and subjection to influences, and the great object of the young writer should be not to fear those influences, but to seek only the greatest, and to assimilate them so they become [her] stock-in-trade.” — Edith Wharton, from a letter, 1918

“I didn’t have any particular gift in my twenties. I didn’t have any exceptional qualities ... The only reason I finally was able to say exactly what I felt was because, like a pianist practicing, I wrote every day. There was no more than that. There was no studying of writing, there was no literary discipline, there was only the reading and receiving of experience.” —Anais Nïn, from an essay, 1975

I have a theory that most of us have at least a sense of what our literary voice should be, but the missing piece is the courage to use it. Raised to be good girls, many of us are reluctant to sound too strong, too assertive, too unconventional, or too much like the self we know is in there somewhere, clamoring to come out. The best remedy for timid whispering or overwrought blathering, it seems, is simply to do a great deal of very regular writing, peeling back the layers and revealing the true writer’s voice within. As for me, I still like to sit in corners in restaurants and at parties, but on the page—not so much any more.

Visit The Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life at http://www.literaryladiesguide.com

Book Feature and Guest Blog: James Hutchings

In the technological age of facebook and twitter, the books we read are changing. Check out this new book by author James Hutchings, in which he uses the idea of Twitter technology in writing his new book.


Two-Fisted Tweets is a collection of thirty short stories. Each is less than 140 characters (the length of a Twitter tweet).

I've always been more interested in short stories than in novels, both writing and reading. However, if I hadn't discovered the Nanoism and PicFic websites, who publish tweet-length writing, I don't think I ever would've written anything that short.

I've been surprised how much you can get into a tiny number of words. This is especially true in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, where there are common plots that you can suggest by mentioning one or two elements.

I think I'm partly reacting against the tendency towards huge 'doorstop' novels, where every story has to be 1000 pages long and part of a series. It seems to be especially severe in fantasy.

I don't want to write a blurb that's longer than the book, so I'll stop there. If you're interested, the homepage for the book is Here, and my blog is Here.

Guest Post: Kristina McMorris

Kristina McMorris, author of Letters From Home, was great in that she agreed to write a guest post to go along with my review of her book. Enjoy!

THE BLISS OF LITERARY IGNORANCE

Kristina McMorris

Did I always want to be a writer? Nope.

Was I a voracious reader before deciding to pen a book myself? Nuh-uh.

What, then, prompted me to take on a project as ambitious as a novel—and one set during World War II, at that? In two words: blissful ignorance.

If I'd known what I was getting myself into from the beginning, I would have undoubtedly run screaming in the other direction—for the amount of required research alone. Thankfully, by the time I realized how little I knew about the craft, or the crazy publishing business, I'd already completed an entire manuscript. There was no reason to give up quite yet. At least not without a decent try.

You see, I had no idea that World War II novels weren't considered "popular" in women's fiction, nor did I know that romance and 1940s didn't mix. In fact, when I entered RWA's prestigious Golden Heart contest in 2007, the most applicable categories were Short Historical, defined as "before World War I," and Contemporary, described as "after World War II."

After scratching my head at this odd and notable gap, I flipped a coin and went with Short Historical. To my amazement, I became a finalist. When I started sending query letters to agents, I touted this accolade. I also included quotes from a few bestselling authors who were kind enough to endorse my manuscript. (I'm trying not to cringe now at the thought of what those poor gals had to read.) Mind you, I wasn't aware that presenting blurbs for an unpublished novel was a rarity.

And yet, those very quotes helped obtain requests for material, which led to representation, which ultimately led to a publishing contract. If I'd known the "rules" first, if I'd known to steer clear of a World War II setting, if I’d known how little I knew about, well, all of it…I would have recognized the wisdom of opting for another career path. And I would have missed celebrating my official book launch this week.

All thanks to blissful ignorance.

Would you like to be a Guest Blogger?

I have been trying to come up with some ideas to make my blog more interesting and to offer more variety of interests and topics. So, I thought why not let my readers engage more with my blog. I am looking for guest bloggers to share their reading stories. I want to hear what or who started you reading and how that love has developed over the years, books and authors that you love, and general book talk that you would like to share. Send me a guest post to my email at laura.leahj@ gmail dot com. Or email if you have questions on this new feature.

Guest Post: Steve Schaefer

Steve Schaefer provided a great guest post for my blog today. Be sure and check out my review of his book Living In The Overlap.


A few years ago my friends from Ukraine, Lena and Igor, took their family on a vacation to Switzerland. As they were sitting on the plane, waiting for it to take off, their three-year-old son Samuel noticed a button on the back of the seat in front of him. (They don’t remember what the button was for. It probably had something to do with the table tray that folds down.)
If I push that button, what will happen? Samuel wondered. So he pushed the button. And immediately the plane started rolling down the runway.
“I just made the plane move!” he exclaimed.
“No you didn’t,” replied his five-year-old brother Daniel. “There’s a pilot up front who made the plane move.”
“No,” Samuel insisted. “I made the plane move.”
Afterward, Lena remarked, “I wonder how often we assume that our ‘button pushing’ has accomplished certain things that were actually done by our Unseen Pilot.”
I confess it’s sometimes easy for me to overlook the presence—and blessings—of the unseen pilot I’ve entrusted my life to. It’s easy to assume that the roof over my head and the food on my table are the product of my labor, or that my friendships are the product of my irresistible charm. (Okay, maybe that last one is a stretch.) But I need to sometimes remind myself that I am just a branch who receives everything from the vine I’m attached to.
“Apart from me you can do nothing,” Jesus tells us (John 15:5). As C. S. Lewis explains, we are like a child who asks his father for a sixpence so he can buy the father a birthday present. The father is glad to do so, but only an idiot would think he’s gained a sixpence from the transaction.
“Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already,” Lewis says. (Mere Christianity, book 3, chapter 11)
Do you ever struggle with acknowledging your Unseen Pilot? What advice would you give to those who are wrestling with this?