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Too Busy Writing to Write!
I’d spend a hunk of time working on blog posts today, but I’ve got some revision that need my attention. My manuscripts must take priority over other writing. So the blog, the articles, and that set of devotions I’ve been pondering, will have to wait.
While I’m slogging through scenes and rewriting others, I’d love to get your opinions. I’d like this blog to reflect some of the issues I write about in my manuscripts.
Sometimes relationships enhance our lives and other times they tear us apart. How can we encourage each other and avoid the temptation to put others down with gossip or unkind words?
Have you ever met someone who, in the midst of serious hardships, still glows with hope and joy? Why are some people crushed, while others are strengthened? Have you experience joy in the storm?
I’ll be back soon! Please leave your answers in the comment section and feel free to share this post on Facebook or Twitter. And don’t miss Mesu Andrews. She’ll be here on Friday.
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Mini Pots of Dirt Pudding!
Here’s the recipe for the yummy dirt pudding we had for Emma’s birthday. This year we made individual cups.
One package of Oreo cookies (16 ounces)
1 cube of softened butter (1/2 cups)
1 package of softened cream cheese (8 ounces)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 – four serving boxes of chocolate fudge instant pudding
3 cups milk
1 tub of Cool Whip (12 ounce)
Gummy Worms
Cream together butter, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Set aside. Combine pudding mix and milk. Fold in Cool Whip. Gently fold together cream cheese mixture and pudding.
In each cup put a layer of crushed Oreos, pudding, then Oreos again. Add half a gummy worm for decoration.
Refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.
Yum!
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Conference Season – Part 7 – Blue Ridge
Jodie Bailey is here just in time to tell us about the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference.
Okay, I admit it. If I had the funds, I would be a conference junky. It’s likely that “conference season” would find me all over this country at every single workshop I could soak up. There’s just something about the air at a good conference, something that gives you a shot of oxygen and gets you excited and pushes you through on those days when it feels like writing is the hardest job in the world.
The first conference I ever attended was the 2009 Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. And I went right by my little lonesome self, making the drive from west-central Georgia to the North Carolina mountains with only God and my iPod for company. The drive itself was amazing, but God started working on me right about the time I hit the NC border.
See, one of the reasons I was going to Blue Ridge was to meet Chip MacGregor, and that scared the fool out of me. I wanted to query him, but first I wanted to meet him. Why waste both of our time querying if I couldn’t even talk to him? From his blog, I knew he pulled no punches, and I knew I needed that. As I was driving and praying and singing, God suddenly said, “Don’t pitch.”
Do WHAT? I just paid all of this money and am driving all of this way NOT to pitch to anybody? Surely, God’s lost His mind, right?
But the further I drove the more I knew, He wanted me to keep my mouth shut. He wanted me to lay aside ever expectation I had and go in there ready for anything, not focused on a goal, just to let Him have all of the control.
So, I did. And I had an amazing week. There was no pressure, no stressing about a sit-down with anybody. There was total freedom to be me, to speak when I wanted, to observe as much as I felt the need… See, I had never sat in a room full of writers before. After the very first hour, I called my husband and yelled, “I have found my people!” There’s something about learning you are not crazy, that other people get dragged out of bed in the middle of the night because their characters won’t pipe down. There are other people who stare at a computer screen all day and talk to imaginary voices. I was in heaven. I met people who were instantly my friends, simply because we “got” each other without even speaking. It was amazing!
And it wasn’t just the people. That conference center is a total retreat. You’re up in the mountains in these beautiful rooms with no TV. And it’s quiet. (They do an Autumn in the Mountains retreat that I want to do, by the way…) It was a beautiful recharge, a stepping out of everything and into the writing life, fully immersed. Talk about charging your batteries!
I did get to sit down at an appointment with Chip at that conference, but I asked questions. I never pitched. My heart was about learning and not about selling. It felt good to have someone who knew what they were doing walk me through the good and bad of my proposal and my premise, to point out what worked and what needed help. (I did manage to throw a pen at his head by accident. Trust me, that could ONLY happen to me…) Many months later, I did land at MacGregor Literary with Sandra Bishop who, like Chip, pulls no punches when it comes to telling me what works and what doesn’t. God knew exactly what He was doing.
If you’re going to your first conference, go with God’s leading. I honestly think one of the best things to do is to just go and be. Enjoy being with people who are just as “alien” as you are. That was the best thing I got out of Blue Ridge, being with “my people.” Oh, the classes knocked my head around they were so awesome, but the people won my heart and are the reason I’ll go back.
Jodie Bailey is an avid reader, a life-long writer, and an aspiring beach bum. She is a stubborn child who resisted God’s calling for two decades until He hit her over the head with a Beth Moore Bible Study book, and she finally figured out He wanted her to be a writer. When not tapping away at the keyboard, she watches NCIS reruns, eats too many chocolate chip cookies, wishes she were at the beach, roughhouses with her daughter, and follows her Army husband around the country. Jodie’s debut novel, Freefall, will be released by Steeple Hill LIS in November 2012Conference Season – Part 2 – Lisa Buffaloe – ACFW
Conference Season – Part 3 – Angela Breidenbach – INCWC
Conference Season – Part 4 – Kimberly Buckner – My Book Therapy retreats
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Up All Night!
This isn’t the blog post I’d planned for today. You’ll have to wait to hear me ramble on about my take on middle school. The reason…I’m tired.
My youngest daughter has two market lambs. It’s time, maybe past time, to wean them from their mothers. Each spring for the last twelve years or so, we’ve gone through this process. Sometimes the ewes put up a fuss, sometimes the lambs, but usually it’s short lived. They can still see each other through the fence.
But this year we have a real drama queen in the field. Not only did this lamb scream, she did so with a voice that pierced my sleep…all night long.
Seriously, I’ve never heard a sheep who could baa louder than this one.
It’s taken me most of the day to write this post. What can I say, I’m really tired.
And the dog broke free of his chain so I had to pick him up at the Humane Society.
And the steers broke through their fence and took a “field trip” down the property.
And…well, you don’t want to know.
But the sun was out, and God is good, and sleep is coming! AMEN!
