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| Jeanette-Marie Mirich |
Does your creativity manifest itself in various artistic ways? Our guest today, Jeanette-Marie Mirich, is a quilter and author who enjoys piecing words together in her fiction. Read on! ~ Annette
We are uniquely made. Our creativity echoes the Master’s, so we each bring to the quilt of life expressions of what we sense in our world of minutia, deadlines, needs, and yearnings.
For me, writing begins in the mornings. I prefer light-filled rooms, quiet, and time with the Lord. Before breakfast I am in a comfortable chair, Bible and notebook in hand, reading through Scripture. I’ve taken Lynn Austin’s advice and have been reading through the Bible rather than a scattered approach of Psalms with books of Scripture. It suits me. I have a daily list of people and ministries to pray for. Scripture is the catalyst for my prayers.
As a kinesthetic learner, I grow by writing things into journals. My stories can wander from the path and need to be corralled. My fictional characters often tell me what comes next. Though I’m a pantster I do outline, aiming toward the ending, and keeping track of pacing as well as where the story needs to go off the rails with excitement.
A tapestry of thoughts is woven into a story. Threads of gold are the underlying truths that characters state or live out. Humor is embroidered through my novels. Laughter lifting hurting hearts and minds is good medicine. I apply the salve liberally. Pulled tightly, the warp and woof of all these elements stabilize and create something useful, comforting, and lasting.
We live in dark times that need illumination from a constant light source. It is my prayer that words fitly chosen will aim His light into the hidden places of the heart.
Writers’ conferences have challenged, encouraged, and enabled me to grow. I belong to Pacific Northwest Writers Association and Oregon Christian Writers.
Currently in my stack of things I’m reading are:
Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan.
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
The Breakout Novelist by Donald Maass.
The Writers Workout by Christina Katz
How to Write Mysteries, edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson
The Irresistible Novel by Jeff Gerke
Gracelaced by Ruth Chou Simons
Devotions for a Deeper Life by Oswald Chambers
Quilting is my second calling. I was doing fine with clearing out the fabric bins until I inherited my aunt’s and mother’s stashes of fabric. Piecing fabric together is tactile storytelling. For me the feel of silk against the skin is as delightful as a “Godiva chocolate” word. The kind of word you savor, roll around your tongue, and want to remember. I am conflicted. My father read Shakespeare at the dinner table. My mother signed me up for 4H. Create with color? Or use words to reveal something not held by hands?
Words come
Drop by drop
Into troubled hearts.
Distilled by grace,
Your balm of love
Heals sin darkened
souls.
How quilting and writing relate at Seriously Write blog today! @MarieMirich
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Coming September 1
The Courtship of Harry's Wife
Delilah Morgan, a woman of honor, is unable to ignore her promise to her husband, Harry, which leads to trouble, with a capital T. The beautiful, unassuming Delilah plans to mourn in private after Harry passed, but he had other ideas—specifically, leaving his wife in good hands and protected from the elite of their small Kentucky town. However, he neglects to include his wife in his plans.
Harry has selected local judge, Lyle Henderson, the heartthrob of most of the women in town, to court his widow. The judge acquiesces to Harry’s wishes until Henderson’s life spins into a maelstrom after the discovery of bodies in his long absent wife’s car. The police and FBI begin to suspect him of murdering his wife and her apparent lover.
Determined to clear the judge of murder, Delilah resolves to hunt down the true story. Their adventure nearly costs them their lives and leads them on what Delilah suspects is a wild-goose chase toward love. In reality, their wanderings reveal what sacrificial love can encompass.
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Have bags will travel should be Jeanette-Marie’s life’s theme. She moved twenty-two times before settling into her first home. An Oregonian by birth, and as someone who graduated with a BS degree in education from Portland State University, Jeanette has swum in the Ligurian Sea, collected shells and sea glass along the Indian, Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean oceans, Straits of Malacca, Gulf of Mexico, and the Andaman Sea. Her peripatetic lifestyle is courtesy of the US Air Force and her husband’s medical training. Passionate about needs in the third world after living in Thailand during her husband’s deployment, she has accompanied her husband on dozens of medical mission trips. Learn more at her website: www.jeanette-mariemirich.com
