Seeds of Inspiration by Mary Manners

Seeds of Inspiration

by Mary Manners

 

"How much better to get wisdom than gold, to gain insight rather than silver."

 

~ Proverbs 16:16 ~

 

Sometimes it's hard to be still and listen. The world moves at a speed-of-light pace and we as humans tend to mimic the frenzy. It's do or die, sink or swim in today's society. The desire to juggle work, family, friendships and exercise (not to mention the shelves full of books on my to-read list) can do a real number on creativity. I've recently fallen victim to this and as a result my muse has been dry as the desert sand. From where is my next storyline going to come? I longed to breach the dam and have the creativity flowing once again.

 

So, I took a deep breath and made a point to be still and listen, and it wasn't long before a co-worker of mine cured what ailed me when she returned from a recent trip to New York City. She told me of her adventures, which had to do with homemade cannoli she'd bought for her friends and a canceled flight home that blocked the delivery. As she relayed with great animation the lengths she'd gone to in order to get those cannoli (and herself) home safely, I sat fully engrossed while I laughed at every twist and turn. I listened to her hilarious antics, and didn't say a word as she went on and on with her story.

 

Then, as the story wound to a close, a funny thing happened (beside the cannoli squashed in her suitcase). Creativity began to gush as the idea for a story formed. What came was a seed...a teeny-tiny seed, but one that might very well sprout and reach toward the heavens as a mighty oak. All because I put on the brakes for a few minutes in time, and slowed long enough to listen and laugh; laughter is good, too.

 

So, when the world tells you to rev the engines and forge full-steam ahead, fight the urge and take some time to reflect and listen with both ears. You might be surprised and well-please by what will come knocking at your creative door.

 

 

~~~~~

 

 

Heartache and Hope

 

 

Daylin Sullivan has a passion for two things: books and food. Both help her escape from a past riddled by abandonment; she spent her childhood passed from one foster family to the next. Life has mirrored a game of musical chairs until one New Year’s Eve she stumbles upon a Dash for the Dream brochure in the local diner. The team is a faith-based group that runs marathons to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis research.

Patrick Litton is raising his six-year-old daughter Aubree alone. As the leader of Dash for the Dream, the widower works tirelessly to secure funding in search of better treatment for all those afflicted with CF, including Aubree. Patrick has no time for romance—until he meets Daylin at the Dash for the Dream kick-off party.

Daylin and Patrick don't expect to fall in love, but both learn that when it comes to romance, training for a marathon is the easiest part of their journey.



 



~~~~~



Mary Manners is an award-winning romance writer who lives in the beautiful foothills of East Tennessee with her husband Tim and the cherished cats they've rescued from local animal shelters...Neyland and Gus. She loves swimming, running, flavored coffee and Smoky Mountain sunsets.

Mary believes everyone has a story to tell, and she loves to share hers. She writes inspirational romances of all lengths, from short stories to novels—something for everyone.

Visit Mary Manners at her website: www.MaryMannersRomance.com.

 

 

 



A Time for Everything by Wendy Dunham

Wendy Dunham

There are times when our lives may take detours not in our control. But we can trust God to remain faithful. Author Wendy Dunham shares her journey to publication and how God brought writing back into her life. ~ Dawn

A Time for Everything

For me, the calling to write came out of the blue. I remember one night, nearly twenty years ago, waking with my mind bursting with stories. Stories that had to be written. So that’s what I did. I wrote them.

Next, knowing these stories were meant to share, I researched on how and where to submit them. It seemed God opened door after door. Before I knew it, the stories found homes in books, devotionals, periodicals, Sunday school papers, and online sites. I was even fortunate to write a column in a monthly paper. It was amazing to see God use the gift he chose to give me.

Then, in just one day, my life changed. The rug I’d been standing on for years was ripped from beneath me. But unlike a cat, I did not land on my feet. My world seemed upside down. For the next ten years I raised my children alone and worked two jobs. During this season, the stories stopped. I couldn’t write.

After those ten years, I sensed God saying, “It’s time.” That’s when he poured the story, My Name is River, into me. It was such fun. What joy I felt to write again. Although the story came to me all at once, I spent years revising and polishing it.

Next I felt God leading me to attend a Christian Writer’s conference. So off I went. It was there I met my agent. Within a short amount of time, I had a two book contract with Harvest House. The first novel was written, the second was not. I remember hanging up the phone after committing to a second, thinking, “Lord, what have I done?” I was scared to death—I had no idea what the second novel would be about.

Well, the second book, Hope Girl, came to me much differently. It came piece by piece, and very slowly. Since I had just one year to write it, and I also worked a demanding full time job, I had an underlying fear I couldn’t accomplish what I’d committed to. That however put me in a position where I had to trust God—obviously right where he wants us anyway. Gratefully the deadline was met, and Hope Girl was released on February 1, 1016.

If there’s any words I can share to encourage others on this journey we call writing, they are ones written by our Heavenly Father, “For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

Never give up.

My Name is River

My Name is River

Twelve-year-old River Starling worries that her missing parents won’t know where to find her when she and her grandmother move out of state, but it’s been 10 years, and her grandmother is determined to move forward, leaving old memories behind. 

River’s new life quickly proves her grandmother’s sentiment that new things are not necessarily better or worse, just different. River meets Billy, a good-hearted son of a local preacher, who teaches her about love, forgiveness, and kindness all while introducing her to the surprising world of birds. Everything seems idyllic in Birdsong, West Virginia. But when tragedy strikes, River witnesses firsthand what true love and forgiveness look like. River’s calm strength and openness in the face of her difficult life make her a genuine heroine. And her kooky grandmother’s colloquialisms add a dose of humor. River’s story is a genuine portrayal of a young girl following a life of faith in a world marred with tragedy.

(Fiction. 8-12)

Wendy Dunham is the author of two middle grade novels—My Name is River, and its sequel, Hope Girl. She is blessed to be a mother, a mother-in-law, a registered therapist who works with differently-abled children, and in her free time, an inspirational writer with a passion for writing middle grade novels.

You can learn more and connect with Wendy at the following:

website: www.wendydunham.net

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WendyDunhamAuthor/

What We Bring To A Story by Heidi Chiavaroli

Last weekend, after the kids were snuggled in their beds, my husband and I settled down to watch Titanic. I was a sophomore in high school when the movie first came out and I watched it several times as a sixteen-year-old, completely engrossed in Jack and Rose's love story.

Last Saturday night, when I made the suggestion to dear hubby that we watch the movie, I looked forward to reliving the romance and adventure.

But I was in for a surprise. One scene (really a snip of a scene) shook me to the core and had tears pouring down my cheeks. And strangely enough, it had nothing to do with Jack and Rose. In fact, I had barely noticed the scene when watching Titanic as a starry-eyed teenager. So why the emotions? Twelve years later, I am a different person. I brought something different to this story: my experience of motherhood.

The scene that grabbed my thoughts wasn't the one I latched onto years earlier—that of Rose releasing Jack to the cold ocean depths at the end of the movie. I was prepared for that. I knew the inevitable. Rather, the scene that took me by surprise was of an underprivileged mother and her two children. They'd been locked beneath the ship to die. Water pooled around them. The mother leaned over her little ones cuddled on a bottom bunk, stroked their foreheads, and told them a story. Calmly. As if this night were like all the others.

The scene was but five seconds, but it tugged at my heartstrings in a deeply personal way and sent my imagination flying. How would I react in such a circumstance? Could I be so brave? What stories would I tell my children? What sweet words of Jesus would I whisper in their little ears?

And why did the scene barely impact me all those times I'd seen it years earlier? Had my heart been cold? Did I not value children?

I don't think any of these were the case. In fact, it was what I now brought with me to the story. My children are the same age as those in the movie. I could relate to this poor mother's predicament in a way I couldn't as a sophomore in high school.

A good story is one that evokes emotion from a reader. A skilled author creates characters and situations that draw on our own emotional experiences. Love, protection, fear, hopelessness. We all know these feelings. It's a writer's job to tap into them, and it’s a writer’s job to know the audience they are writing for so that they can accomplish this well.

How do you go about relating to your audience in your stories?

Heidi Chiavaroli is a writer, runner, wife, mother, and grace-clinger—not necessarily in that order. Ever since taking her first trip to Plimoth Plantation with her sister, mother, and grandmother at the age of nine, she has been fascinated with history and its significance to today’s people and culture. Heidi is the winner of ACFW’s 2014 Genesis Contest, Historical Category. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, two sons, and Howie, her standard poodle. Learn more about Heidi on her website: www.heidichiavaroli.com.

Heidi will join us on the third Thursday each month.

The Romantic Thriller, A New Subgenre? by H. L. Wegley

As a political thriller writer, H. L. Wegley decided he needed to make sure his books were good reads for women. Today, he tells us how he went about it. -- Sandy

H. L.: 2016 was still a year away and the state of our nation deeply saddened me. The idea of writing a political thriller that exposed some of America's problems consumed me. But was I driven more by anger rather than pure motives? Yes, but I still wanted to write a book, because story has power. In addition, as authors we can illustrate the world’s brokenness, then we get to fix it … at least we can fix it inside our story world.

I tried to shove my anger aside and define my goals. To accomplish them, my book had to be a political thriller. There was no way around that. Many women tend to shy away from thrillers and many do not read politically oriented books. Strike two, before I even started!

What I needed to reach a mixed audience was a romantic thriller, but I feared this story would fall flat on its face unless it was equal parts romance and thriller. Furthermore, neither part could seem forced, or just an add-on, the two threads needed to be synergistic. How does a writer do that?

With a rough plot in mind, and two millennials playing the hero and heroine, I approached Susan May Warren at a writer’s conference and pitched my idea for Voice in the Wilderness. She loved the idea, especially the part where the two young people have a deep childhood friendship that grows into something much more. Our meeting also grew. It grew into coaching sessions, where she helped me splice the romance thread into the thriller plot so tightly that neither could exist without the other. And there it was … a true romantic thriller.

The key for me was to make the two threads, romance and political thriller plot, inseparable by the way the I defined the main characters. Giving the characters a common backstory was important for my book. And relationship must permeate the story. My hero and heroine were childhood soulmates, a relationship ripped apart by an overprotective father, a US Senator who thought the boy wasn’t good enough for his daughter after she became a teenager. I looked for ways to make the relationship between the two be both front and center and serve as a driving force even in the scenes having thriller-level intensity.

That’s the gist of what I did. I would reveal more details, but that would probably result in a big spoiler.

I'm a bit biased, but the resulting story was action-filled and breathtaking. Early reviews confirm that both men and women love the story and the characters. And the political, philosophical, and spiritual aspects and asides have caught and exposed several of the problems causing some of our current national crises.

This story has become a three-book series, being released across the election year, a series designed first to entertain, then to inform. Maybe it will also help to create a new official subgenre, the romantic thriller.

Have you ever sought the advice of a mentor author when writing your book? 

~~~~~~

H. L. Wegley served as an Air Force Intelligence Analyst and a Weather Officer. In civilian life, he worked as a research scientist, publishing in the scientific literature, then developed Boeing computing systems for 20 years before retiring near Seattle. He is a multi-published author with a 4-book inspirational thriller series, 2 nonfiction books, and 4 more novels on the way.

Here's a video interview that gives some background into this new book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQVz7iTaqhs