How to Make Time for the Authentic You?

Friday, Selah and I baked cupcakes for our girlscout troop's surprise party. Today she had her first garage sale. Tomorrow she is attending a girlfriend's birthday party, while I hang out with my best friend, who had a birthday last week. Next week we have meet the teacher, a doctor's appointment, two editing client appointments and Women of Faith Conference. This afternoon I wondered when will I have time for me?

There is a me that loves to create things. Paintings, music(tenor sax,) stories. I love to spend time listening to my girlscout troop. Young girls with free imagination are quite creative. They remind me of who I was before I let bills, past disappointments, and my own self-defeated attitude keep me from living free. My faith--or lack thereof-- also keep me from living authentic.

My daughter needs an authentic parent more than a kiddy chaffeur. Don't you agree?

And I want to be free again.

So this is what I'm doing.

• Reducing my commitments
• Turning my phone off during my peak writing hours.
• Increasing my creative time.
  
• Saying "no" to the next request asked of me. (unless it's God of course.)
• Blogging about things that matter or should matter.
• Pray more
• Sleep more
• Allow my daughter free time(her day doesn't have to be so scheduled)
  

What would yo do? How do you make time to live the authentic you?

2007 Quill Awards Nominees

The Quill Awards nominees are now up. This year I decided to list some books that interest me and may interest you:

1. The Collaborator of Bethlehem, Matt Beynon Rees.(Soho Press) Mystery/Suspense Nominee.
   

I'm interested in this novel, because it explores becase of this quote Rees said during an NPR Interview.

Mr. REES: I began the novel here because it seemed to me to be a great way of focusing on the problems of the Christian population here in Bethlehem. And I wanted to have the novel begin in a place where there was real violence - not just the violence of a murder in a murder mystery, but real violence that would give the political context for everything that's to come later in the novel.

First line excerpt...
Omar Yussef, a teacher of history to the unhappy children of Dehaisha refugee camp, shuffled stiffly up the meandering road, past the gray, stone homes built in the time of the Turks on the edge of Beit Jala.

2. Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?, Phillip Yancey,(Zondervan) Religion Spirituality.

The title alone begs for my attention. I need to increase my prayer life and decrease my writing life. I've been making some careless mistakes lately.

There are other books I want to read. Selah has the first Fancy Nancy book. So I have to get the 2nd. What about you? Which nonimee do you want to win? Are you voting[in September?]

Philly Writers Unite

This summer Writersview had a discussion about writing workshops which to attend, is to worth it, and all that jazz. I wrote an article here about my picks for writers.

Today I received notice of a conference my galpals, Stacy Hawkins Adams and Pam Perry will be a part of.

The Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer's Conference [GPCW] conference, held at Philadelphia Biblical University August 9-11, is open to interested published and not-yet-published writers, and includes 42 workshops, eight continuing session programs, general sessions, worship times and all-important one-on-one meetings between conferees, established writers, editors, publishers and agents.Radio personality Dr. Dan(Moody Publishers) and Rick Marshall(Faithworks), to name a few will be hosting workshops.

"If a writer longs for their words to make a difference in the lives of readers, if it a desire to be encouraged and equipped to write about a God who is real, who is reachable and who changes lives, this is the conference for you," says [Marlene]Bangnull, founder.

For more information on the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference, visit the website at www.writehisanswer.com/Philadelphia, call 610-626-6833 or email Marlene at mbagnull@aol.com to receive an 8-page brochure with full details and a registration form.

If you go, I would love for you to come back here and guest blog about it.Stacy, do you know anything about podcasting? :)

Is anyone going to a conference in the next few months(ACFW, Magnolia& Lace)? Let us know.
I will be hosting a beginning writer's workshop at SORMAG's online writer's workshop this month. Stay tuned for more info.

Dee

Unpretty Christians Bad Idea

My twin brother, David and I both grew up on the back pew of churches running up and down the back roads of Okefonokee Swamp. We've seen exorcisms, feet washing, pulpit pimps, six layer chocolate cake, choir stand romances, and ginormous, but gorgeous First Lady hats. However, we both disagree if we saw Christ chilling in any of those churches. We were lusty, moody highschool teenagers seeking some direction and a first kiss, preferably the latter. Me with a tall, badboy preacher's son and him with the girls on the youth usher board at Pleasant Hill Baptist. :)

He found what he was looking for; I found something else: that Christ, the real Christ had a little bad boy in him and whole lot of grace. Finding him those churches weren't as hard as I thought once I knew where to look.

See. He's not found in easy answers, or perfect, pious people or storybook endings and definitely not my PK crush.He was never lost. We were, especially on stormy nights traveling down red clayed church roads.

Today David and I are unpretty Christians. We depend on each other like a roadmap. I hope you have a friend or sibling that can do that for you.

This month Fiction if Rather Sortakes is please to spotlight a story about Griffin Smith, a highschool graduate taking a road trip to his new college home. He brings alone his best friend, Cole, his father, and Rhonda-his dads young fiancee. I can smell bad idea from a mile away. No wonder the story is titled, Bad Idea: A Novel With CoyotesBad Idea .

Here's a snippet

(Todd & Jedd Hafer,NavPress/Think Books, October, $12.99.)

An excerpt...

“We should totally drive!” Rhonda said, wagging a limp french fry for
emphasis.

I clenched my teeth. I hate it when adults try to talk like teenagers. Rhonda
does it all the time. Her efforts are particularly grating to me because she
does, in fact, employ the teen vernacular, but always, always at least
one season too late.

Thus, my father’s 28-year-old fiancée didn’t say “Congratulations!” when I was
inducted into Quill & Scroll (the National Honor Society for high school
journalists) early in my senior year. She said, “Big ups to you, G!” And when I
was named Honorable Mention All-Area in track and field (small-school division),
she didn’t say “Way to go!” She said, “Big respect, G-Man! You got the mad
wheels, homey!”

If she says, “I’m feelin’ you, dawg,” during one more of our Dad-initiated
dinnertime theological discussions, I’m going to puke on her shoes.

Fortunately for Rhonda, and all of the people at the Big Bear Diner on the
night the road trip was conceived, I didn’t barf when she said, “We should
totally drive!” I raised my eyes to the ceiling and said, “I don’t think we
should totally drive. I don’t even think we should partially drive.”

I looked across the booth to my dad to accept the disapproving glare I knew he
would be offering. I smiled at him. It was my infuriating, smug smile. I
practice it in the bathroom mirror. It’s so irritating that when I see my
reflection doing it, I want to punch myself in the face.

My dad didn’t hit me. That wasn’t his style. He just nibbled his bottom lip for
a while before saying calmly, “I think we should give the idea due consideration
rather than reject it out of hand.”

“Okay,” I said, sipping my bitter iced tea, “let’s hear why we should cram
ourselves into a car and drive for, what, three or four days to Southern
California, stomping on each other’s raw nerves all along the way and probably
breaking down somewhere near the Kansas-Colorado border. Or maybe getting in a
wreck.”

Rhonda looked at my dad, giving him her Wounded Face, all droopy eyes and
puckered chin and poofed-out lower lip. You know the look.

He looked at her, then at me. “Griffin, please . . .”

You in a Bubble

This Saturday I attended my friend, Sherri Lewis' book release party. We shared a very special time. Her family surprised her when her favorite aunts came to town for the party. Her sisters and coworkers shared how they all have had a hand in bringing her debut novel to fruition. Then her family began to tease her about disappearing for days in the name of writing her book.

While listening to all of this humor, I found the answer to a question I often receive from some of my other writing friends and reader's of this blog:

How do I write a book[make a CD, paint, create] without alienating my family and friends?

It's easier than you think. In fact by doing a few of the things I will share with you, you will begin the foundation of taking your inspired art public.

Why is this important, Dee?

As The Master's Artist we do not only exist in this world to help ourselves. We also exist to edify the Body of Christ. Yet creating art is a solitary act. We must draw into ourselves to tap into souls and God's plan for our works. We need to be alone to concentrate, create and conference with God about it. But we can't do this alone. We aren't designed to do this alone. In the Book of Acts we read that Paul did not work alone. He had a team. While in prison[Book of Timothy] Paul was imprisoned, yet his works went forth, because he shared his expression and his teaching with Timothy. So how successful will we be? Like the old proverb if a tree falls n a forest with on one to hear it, then does it make a sound? If you write a novel and no one knows about it, then do you have a book?

You do, if you invite your family and friends to do one or all of these things:

1. To become members of your personal crit group.
2. To become members of your prayer cell.
3. To become a member of your street team.
4. To become a city host.
5. To host a bookclub.
   

Next week I will go into each point in more detail. How do you include your loved ones in your art process?

Mom's Win a Flat Panel LCD HDTV

Yes, you read that correctly - even though I can hardly believe it myself - 5 Minutes for Mom are giving away an Insignia® 37″ Flat-Panel LCD HDTV!!! This incredible prize is valued at $799.99 and is courtesy of Best Buy.

What do you have to do to enter this contest?

Click here

This is not a spam blog entry.Come back here and let me know if you enter.

The Evolution of Christian Fiction Blog

I created Christian Fiction Blog three years ago to post a few book reviews, snippets of my magazine and newspaper articles, and share my joys and frustrations about Christian media industry and parenting my seven-year-old, Selah. Since then this blog and my life have evolved. I've met more people and discovered a movement that I didn't know I was a part of until it found me. Not only are The Master's Artist creating quality, relevant, entertaining, and illuminating literature, but they are producing music, movies, plays, clothes...an urban Christian lifestyle.

What is an urban Christian lifestyle?

A way of living that recognizes that we live in the world, we have a mission to speak truth to that world, yet we haven't negated the world. We don't belong to a Christian counterculture. We don't spend our dollars in only Christian retail stores. We don't just watch Christian TV. We don't just listen to safe music. We don't just worship in a church with just our race. Our bodies and souls were built for praise and worship. We are not afraid of the world. We are not afraid to fight for the souls that exist in it. We are not afraid to live boldly for Christ.

I want to begin talking about this life movement and how it relates your writing, your world and your purpose.

Is that okay with you?

Thanks, Dee