Reflections on Parenting Selah

In five days my four-year-old daughter will be five. And I am in tears about it.
Five years ago my life travelled down a mind blowing, life altering shame spiral.
I was homeless, living in a battered woman's shelter, pregnant & talking to a priest about it all. I began my walk with the Lord when I was eleven-years-old. But somewhere between 23 and 25 I walked away for no good reason now that I look back over it. I had reached a point in my life when I thought I knew everything I needed to know about God.
Yeah. Young and stupid.
But for whatever reason God stood where I left him all that time, waiting for me to come back and take his hand.
When I had my daughter I drew a line in the sand. She would grow up the right way or I'd die trying. Little did I know that this line almost killed me.
For five years I have lived with two chronic illnesses both developed during and after my pregnancy. I am a lupus survivor and I live with a weakened heart that functions on goood days 40% of a normal heart. So I sit here and cry, because my doctor's told me that I wouldn't get to see Selah turn three. But I'm here and stronger than ever. I work out almost everyday not to lose weight(look at my picture. I'm plump) but because my heart requires it, in order to look normal to everyone else. This time is not just my daughter's birth day, but my rebirth day.
I had to resign from my high paying, total stressed out job to becoming a mommy and part-time writer. I am very thankful to have met all of you, who have dropped by my blog. I am very thankful to my fiancee, who wants to marry me despite of my poverty, health, and parental responsibilites. I am very thankful, for writing. Getting things out releaves the heart. I am very thankful to still be on this Earth, tucking my baby in, and feeling excited about what's in the future. I hope its a novel that I feel confident enough to submit to an editor. I hope its watching my daughter have her own children. Whatever it will be, I will be thankful. I will write about it and treasure it.

Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee

Radio Station seeks Christian Fiction Authors

Popular Northeast radio station looking for Christian Fiction and Inspirational authors to feature their books on gospel radio show. Radio station will feature book, interview the author and have guests call in. At the end of the month the radio station will hold a bookclub meeting for the author and the winners. Book signings will be scheduled with large Christian bookstore. If you are interested please contact Angie at adeeva@adeevapub.com. This is only for CF and inspirational authors.

Click on the title above to direct you to the Adeeva site.

Faith Based Fiction Lover's Weekend Postponed

Faith Based Fiction Lover's Weekend scheduled for June 24-26 2005 this year at HILTON LOS ANGELES AIRPORT, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA has been postponed.

Conference coordinator, and bestelling christian fiction author, Jacquelin Thomas states,

"Hello Everyone:

I am writing to inform you that I've decided to postpone the conference until June 2006 and I would love to have each of you join me at that time. My life has gone through several heavy storms and now I am raising my 3 grandchildren--2 of which are not school age. I can't focus on the conference right now and so I feel putting it off for a year will help me until I find some order in my life once again. The 2006 conference and all others will continue to be held here in the Raleigh-Durham area.

For the authors: those of you, who have sent in your donations for the Impact Movement and/or ordered guest packages--I will be refunding all monies. All registrations will be refunded as well. I am asking for your prayers as well as your understanding.

The hotel has been notified of the cancellation, so please cancel your hotel reservations as well. Again,I truly am sorry to do this, but I have too much on my
plate at the moment. However, I am very committed tothis conference and will be meeting with hotel reps in May to plan for 2006.

Jacquelin

Jacquelin, we have you in our prayers.

And Away I Go

An excerpt from Guns, God & SomeDudeAverageJoeRegularGuy

“Two people died last night in the exact way you described to me three days ago when you dreamt it.” He[Feltus] caught her arm, as she walked toward the foyer. “Those men were ministers just like me. I have no limits.”

I'm writing from a simple outline. I have a crisis, a black moment, a climax, but no end. It's a thriller. I don't want to ruin the ending for myself. Strange, but true. We'll see where it takes me.

I submitted two articles one to GuidePost and one to SpiritLed Writer. Pray for me.

Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee

Wacked Out Character Development

An excerpt from Guns, God & SomeDudeAverageJoeRegularGuy...

“Feltus?“
“Sh…” He placed his finger over his mouth. Took her hand and closed his eyes. “Let’s pray.”
Until then did she realize what a gorgeous face he had. Long, baby doll eyelashes didn’t seem out of place on such a strong man.
He popped his eye open.
She dropped her head.
“Dear Lord-“ he began.


I am writing a short story this week as an exercise to strengthen my ability to build a cohesive story with an interesting plot, strong characters, and godly message. I hope this exercise will help me formulate a strong crisis for a novel that I wish to create in the near future. Since last year, most of my short stories and novel ideas were about these strong women characters dealing with extreme intuition. Be it my character, Arson investigator-Ariel Arrington, my investigative reporter-Tess Cooper, a teeangage exorcist-Stacy, to my first novel heroine, Laurel Baytree, a christian overseas missions crisis negotiator. These characters had to deal with knowing to much about the world that we cannot see, feel or touch, but witness with another sense be it a sixth sense/intuition/the holy spirit. And now I'm dealing with a physic PI. Lord, why? Why? do I keep coming up with these woman? I want a simple, funny, non scary character, but I keep drawing myself to these mystics...

Any answers?

Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee

The Last Word ... And the Word After That

An excerpt from Guns, God & SomeDudeAverageJoeRegularGuy...

"I assume you're here because what I told you last week happened yesterday." Jessie held the cracked front door open with her shoulder. Her Kahr T9 still in hand.

She watched Feltus Morgan observe the Kahr's direction. The way he looked at things-- especially her--kept her on guard.

"If you can really see the future-" He stepped toward her and leaned down to meet her eyes. "Then you would see that I'm not a bad guy. And I would never hurt you."

"Nowadays average Joes like you are the bad guy or..." She put the gun in her waist holster. "Maybe you'll hurt me in the near future and you just don't know it, yet."

While writing to see what the end gon' be, I ran across an interesting article at Christianity Today titled the Passion of Hotel Rwanda, a discussion about why Christian churches didn't flock to the cinema to see this very christian themed movie.

Since I was already a fan of the movie and mentioned how I thought Cheadle was apples to apples with Jamie Foxx in this past Oscars race, it tickled me to read an article that shared my sentiment about the movie and other things. Brian McLaren, the author of that article and of The Last Word and the Word after That : A Tale of Faith, Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianity presents a few great guestions about our mission and how to let brotherly love continue. This past Sunday, I assumed my Sunday school class would discuss this week's past events and also the Recut Passion movie. However, they didn't want to rock the boat with me after last week's discussion.

I'm not the kind of girl who jumps on band wagons(i.e, I belong to a left wing, all white, sunday school class,) but I am going to read this book once it is released[mar 26] and get back with you(from what I've gathered McLaren is a leftie.) You can check out McLaren's website by clicking on the title of this blog.

Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee

Guns, God & SomeDudeAverageJoeRegularGuy

An excerpt from Guns, God & SomeDudeAverageJoeRegularGuy

"What the..." Jessie Toliver slid her hand behind her bedpost, pulled her gun out its holster and observed the three phones ringing on the nightstand by her bed.

Her doorbell rang.

She fumbled with the lamp light. Kicked her bed sheets and The Dog off her legs and grabbed the red phone. "I'm on my way."

Oh, boy! This weekend has been a doozy down here in the Bible Belt.

...America had another crazy shootout
go down this weekend,and no less at a red state church.

Brian Nichols had white America and some blacks on lock down and the rest of us wishing a fool would try to carjack our rides.

I will not tell a lie. I wanted that $60k reward. The fact that he was captured five minutes from my abode made me hotter than a jack rabbit hopping on hot asphalt. Maybe he saw me and knew that I'd beat him down. OK. Let's laugh about that for a second. Maybe God knew that I'd piss in my pants, if the man stumbled on my doorstep.

So when I wake up on Monday prepared to write to see what the end gon' be I can't help, but to watch CNN's "American Morning" and to my suprise see that America had another crazy shootout go do down this weekend. And no less at a red state church by a member of said church. Like my great grandma Mudge used to say--"Great Day in the Morning."

Last week I was struggling with a compelling and timely theme and here one drops in my lap--Guns, God & Some Guy/Regular Joe. These men who appear normal, knows God, but snaps, loses faith, loses their identity. Forgets who they belong to(let's not forget the BTK Killer.)

Now I'm throwing this theme out as a writing exercise for anyone who needs something to jolt their writing juices this week. If you do decide to do this, please email me what you come up with 7500 word maximum and if I like it I'll upload it. I think I will do this writing exercise thing every Monday. What do you think?

Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee