Wish-a-licious

Tonight, on my 41^st birthday, I have no cake and candles to blow out, but I can still make a birthday wish. One wish. Hmm. Better make it a good one. Better make it wish-a-licious. What makes it wish-a-licious? It’s ability to satisfy.

What is the most satisfying wish you can think of? Ponder that for a moment while I tell you about my week…

For the past week we have had sub-zero temperatures. That always makes me cranky. I live in an apartment above a carport (which I like because it keeps the snow off my car) but the cold air radiates up through the floor. I placed a thermometer sensor on the floor and it read 37 degrees. I sleep on an air mattress on the floor and I nearly get hypothermia in my own bed. Yesterday temperatures warmed and last night a pipe burst in the floor of my apartment. Water gushed out of the ceiling in the entryway below for two hours before we got someone to turn off the water.

What’s the most satisfying thing I can wish for? There’s no point in wishing for material things because those things won’t make me happy. I could wish for a change in circumstances, but that won’t necessarily make me happy either. Instead, I can wish for a change in me that will help me be more content, despite circumstances. I’d like to wish for a new place to live, but my lease goes through May, so for now I’ll have to wish for a better sense of humor to help me cope with my circumstances. This morning the flood waters had turned to ice. Not many people have an indoor ice rink in their apartment building.

So for my birthday I wish for a sense of humor. Those of you who know me already know that I have a quirky sense of humor, but sometimes I let tough circumstances get under my skin instead of finding the humor in them.

Laughter warms the heart. For my birthday, you can wish me laughter and a warm heart (warm hands and feet are nice, too).

Final Thoughts on NaNoWriMo 2009

I won.

For the past thirty days, I have lived with some elves, fought Leviathan and Kraken, toppled dictators, and destroyed the earth with a nuclear war. It’s been a busy thirty days. I’ve worked long hours dreaming up impossible situations for my characters, and even longer hours trying to get them out of impossible situations.

Writing a novel makes you feel like the god of your own little universe, creating new worlds out of nothing and creating characters to inhabit those worlds, and then watching over those characters day and night until you see them through from beginning to end. And, believe me, novel writing occupies your mind day and night as you work through developing character personalities and plot twists and all the rest.

Better than feeling like god of my own universe is the feeling that I get as I cross the finish line of writing a 50,000-word novel in thirty days. I want to throw my hands in the air and shout “I am invincible!” Then I look around at my family, friends, and co-workers—who really can’t appreciate what incredible feat I have accomplished—and shout “Well, pour the cooler of Gatorade on me! I just won!” Oh well, writers are their own breed and we get used to celebrating our own victories because no one understands us.

Then my family, friends, and co-workers ask, “What did you win?” That get’s even more complicated because I get a cheesy paper certificate to pin on my bulletin board, but that’s not the point. The point of NaNoWriMo is to push yourself to do a little more than you thought you could . . . and that feeling can’t be beat.

And my stats? I logged 104.5 hours of writing time (five hours more than last year), plus countless additional hours brainstorming, plotting, and scheming. I only count writing time because it is impossible to count the time spent thinking about your story at the grocery store, in the shower, or while trying to go to sleep at night. Writing 50,000 words in one hundred hours is an average of 500 words per hour. That’s a pretty average writing pace for me, whether I’m writing fiction or nonfiction. Sometimes the words fly; other times they crawl. On days when the words crawl, I can remind myself that it will all average out. That’s the nature of writing.

Writing is about discipline. It takes discipline to turn off the television, video games, or other favorite distraction and put your seat in the chair and write—for hundreds of hours. I meet a lot of aspiring writers and most of them will remain aspiring writers because they have desire, but lack discipline. If nothing else, NaNoWriMo is a good exercise in discipline. I’m an experienced writer and even I felt like giving up at times.

I hope to carry this writing momentum into some nonfiction projects on my agenda. However, after spending a rather intense month with my new “imaginary friends” (after all, we’ve been through a lot together), I don’t think I can ignore them entirely. I’ll keep tinkering with the story until it becomes something I’d be willing to let my friends and family read. Guess what they get for Christmas.

Third Printing for Devotion Explosion

Devotion Explosion (2007)

This weekend I received notice from Discovery House Publishers that my book, Devotion Explosion: Getting Real with God, has gone into a third printing. I am so thankful for how God has used this book in the lives of so many people. When I wrote the book I was a little nervous about how it would be received in the Christian community because I encourage people to dispense with the duty of having a daily quiet time in favor of spending time with God because you love Him more than anything else: “Devotions are a matter of discipline; devotion is a matter of desire.” When your perspective changes to spending time with God because you want to, it changes your whole perspective on what a relationship with God really means.

The positive response has been so encouraging. I occasionally get letters from people telling me how the book has changed their thinking. After reading the book, many people have tried to track me down on the internet, so I’m making an increased effort to be more accessible this way. I recently started a fan page on Facebook (note: a fan page allows anyone to view the page, even if they are not a Facebook user). In addition, I plan to go online with a website in January, so stay tuned for updates on that.

I might also remind everyone that my follow-up book to Devotion Explosion is tentatively scheduled to release in April 2010, Best Friends with God: Falling in Love with the God Who Loves You. It will go deeper into the concept of developing an interactive relationship with God that affects our entire life.

I’d like to close by thanking everyone who has helped make Devotion Explosion a success–Discovery House Publishers, distributors, book sellers, and especially readers! Thank you so much. I love you all.

Return of the Elves: My NaNoWriMo Novel

November is National Novel Writing Month

For those of you who are curious, my story for the novel writing contest is called “Return of the Elves.” It begins after the onset of a nuclear war and two Navy pilots flying over the Bermuda Triangle see a portal in the ocean and are taken to the underwater world of the elves. Many vessels travel over the Bermuda Triangle without incident, but those who see the portal are taken captive in order to maintain the secrecy of the elves. The elves have been collecting these humans to repopulate the earth because they knew that eventually the human lust for power would cause the race of Adam to destroy the earth by moving beyond the God-given mandate of dominion to domination.

 

The elves are the Nephilim (Genesis 6), who survived the Flood by learning to live underwater. They inhabit the earth at various times, identified as giants such as the Anakim, Rephaim, Emim, and Zamzummin by the Israelites, but they are later identified in literature as elves. The Nephilim, or elves, are both sons of Adam charged with cultivating the land, and sons of angels charged with caring for humankind. This makes them uniquely qualified to intercede after the nuclear war in order to re-vegetate and repopulate the earth.

There are a total of four underwater worlds inhabited by elves: Bermuda, Atlantis, Utopia, and Lofoten. The different tribes of elves have differing views of humans. Some see themselves as caretakers and they make appearances on the earth to heal humans in the aftermath of nuclear devastation. Other elves believe that man’s stewardship of the earth has failed and they look forward to the day when elves will rule the earth–and they are actively trying to achieve this.

There’s more, but I don’t want to give it all away right now. And to be honest, I don’t know exactly how the story will end yet. I’ll have to wait and see how the conflict develops.

I’m at 13,376 words so far, pushing for 15k by tomorrow.

The November Write-A-Thon: NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month

I had trouble deciding whether or not to participate in National Novel Writing Month this year. I’m not much of a fiction writer (fiction is so much more difficult than nonfiction), but I’ve had a story idea in my head for several years. It’s a complex story, so last year I opted for an easier children’s story for my first-ever attempt at writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That’s the goal of the contest that happens every November. On October 31 I was still trying to decide whether or not to participate. My story seemed too difficult and I was ready to opt-out, but my brother discussed some plot ideas with me and I took the plunge or went off the deep end, depending on how you look at it. Even so, I thought I may start it and give up rather quickly because I only have a rough idea of where the story is going. I have a basic conflict, but as of yet I don’t know which way I will resolve it (anyone love a tragedy?).

With this level of ambivalence, I decided to keep it mum so I wouldn’t look bad if I dropped out early, but this morning I knew I was hooked when I woke up at five-thirty with an exciting scene idea that made me want to jump out of bed and start writing. However, given that I had been up writing until one in the morning, I decided that four hours of sleep wouldn’t get me very far through the day so I forced myself to stop thinking about my story so I could go back to sleep for awhile.

That’s what I love about writing. It’s the one thing that will keep me up late and get me out of bed early. I love how it makes me feel so energized, and to be honest, this year has been so difficult with deaths in the family that I haven’t felt this energized in a long time. I need this writing-therapy to rejuvenate my life and get me excited about writing again.

In order to write 50,000 words in 30 days requires writing 1,667 words per day. I’m at roughly 5,000 words right now, which is right on target for day three. Anyone who wishes to see a bar graph of my progress can look at my participant’s page by clicking this link:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/401366

Thanks, Jay, for giving me some plot ideas and encouraging me to go for it. (This post was 418 words.)

A Bowl of Popcorn and the Word of God

The other night I made a bowl of popcorn and put my feet up while I listened to my audio Bible. I wondered how many other people enjoy popcorn and the Bible instead of popcorn and a movie. Perhaps we need to shift our thinking about the Word of God so that it becomes something we enjoy as a means of rest and leisure. When we have a free evening, is our fist instinct to pop in a movie or to take advantage of some extended time in God’s Word?

I gave up television when they instituted the digital conversion a few months ago. Most television seems like a waste of time, but I haven’t shunned it entirely. If there is something I really want to see, I go over to my mom’s house (as I did when the Ken Burns documentary aired recently). Plus, I can still pop a DVD in my computer but I figure that when I’m on my deathbed I won’t say, “I wish I had spent more time watching television” but I might think, “I wish I had spent more time in God’s Word.”

Perhaps a good place to start is with some balance. Consider how much time you spend in God’s Word and how much “screen” time (computer and television) you enjoy each day. Would you like to change that ratio? Or maybe make a committment that you will enjoy God’s Word for a while before you begin your screen time for the day. I don’t know. I’m not trying to be legalistic. I just want to encourage others to learn to enjoy the Word of God instead of pushing it aside in favor of other forms of leisure.

Why not make a bowl of popcorn and sit down with the Word of God for a while?

Take the Challenge – Write a Novel in a Month

Want to write a novel in a month in November?

November is National Novel Writing Month–NaNoWriMo. Every year thousands of people take the challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days during the month of November. Last year, 2008, there were 119,301 participants and 21,683 winners. What do you win? Just the satisfaction of knowing you did something that few attempt (and even fewer succeed)–and a cheezy paper winner’s certificate, if you want to put it on your cubicle at work as I did last year.

So, if there’s no real “prize” why do it? According to the website, NaNoWriMo.org:

Art for art’s sake does wonderful things to you. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you want to take naps and go places wearing funny pants. Doing something just for the [sake] of it is a wonderful antidote to all the chores and “must-dos” of daily life. Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives.

I would have to agree. I have a nonfiction project that I need to work on, but now that we are two weeks away from the crazy, insanity of writing a story just to see what happens, I find myself wanting to do it just for the sake of it. Last year was the first time for me, but I found it fun, in a gruelling sort of way. And the sense of accomplishment was a thrill.

Let me say that I am a nonfiction writer and I have no ambitions of writing a story for publication, but I believe that writers need to write just to hone their skills. Even nonfiction writers can benefit from learning the elements of storytelling, even if it serves to sharpen our ability to share anecdotes with readers. More to the point of NaNoWriMo is that writers write FOR THE FUN OF IT.

Having said all of this, I have not decided for sure if I will participate this year, but I wanted to get the word out in case any of you want to participate and do something crazy that makes you feel like you have conquered the world.

Announcing My New Book: Best Friends with God

Best Friends with God: Falling in Love with the God Who Loves You

I am pleased to announce the title of my next book: Best Friends with God: Falling in Love with the God Who Loves You. Discovery House Publishers granted me the privilege of unveiling the cover image for the first time publicly. Best Friends with God is scheduled to release in April 2010.

For a long time I wondered if God really loved me. I knew that God loved “the world” as in John 3:16, but did He love me? I knew that Christ died for me, but He died for everyone else too, so how could I know that God loved me as an individual? God’s love can seem distant and impersonal, but as we let God love us by letting Him meet our needs, we see God interact with us in our specific circumstances and we know that He cares about us as an individual. As we develop a personal history with God, our love and trust grows until we become best friends with God.

Best Friends with God is a follow-up to my book, Devotion Explosion: Getting Real with God. It follows the same format, with each chapter focused on a character from the Bible and a study guide for individual or group study. In the weeks and months to come, I’ll provide some teasers about the characters that will be covered in this book.

Please pray with me that God will use this book to draw people closer to Him.

Ken Burns: The National Parks

I watched the newest Ken Burns documentary series on PBS this week. The National Parks: America’s Best Idea was both educational and beautiful. I’ve studied the history of Glacier National Park extensively and I’ve grown familiar with some of the history of other national parks, but this presentation tied them together as one chronology, bringing home the point that the parks did not form in isolation. It also showed how people cared about a particular place enough to get involved and do whatever was necessary to preserve it, sometimes at great personal effort or expense.

Ken Burns did a fantastic job of not just telling you about people, but letting you get to know them enough to care about them. Familiar names like John Muir and Stephen Mather now seem like personal friends and I felt slightly sad when each died. In addition to great names of history, Ken Burns came up with the journals of some “ordinary folks” who spent time in the parks. Some of these personal journals were so well written that I could see what they saw and feel what they felt. I want to write like that.

That’s my personal take-away. I feel inspired to try my hand at journaling. I’ve never liked the idea of keeping a diary or journal because a few journaling efforts in the past have been little more than a place for me to work through personal problems and, upon later review, they seemed like depressing reminders of the past so I threw them away. The journal entries I heard in the documentary were beautiful, descriptive writing that evoked a wide range of emotions. I could feel the wonder as John Muir described Yosemite Valley or a petrified tree and I could feel the thrill of a hiker reaching a spectacular vantage point. At a time when people couldn’t easily capture a moment on camera, they had to capture it in words. No wonder they were such descriptive writers. I needed a reminder to practice writing descriptively, using all of the senses. But more than that, maybe I needed a reminder to live in the moment. To capture a moment in words requires me to be fully engaged in life at the most basic level.

God’s Appraisal

Today was my last day of work for the summer season. Before all was said and done for the season, I had my employee review. First, I completed an evaluation form, rating myself on ten characteristics of a good employee. Then, my boss evaluated me on the same ten criteria and we compared notes. In some cases she could see my strengths more clearly than I could and, of course, she could also see my weaknesses more clearly than I could. No matter how much we think we know ourselves, we still have blind spots. It’s humbling to have those blind spots revealed.

This made me think about how my perceptions about myself might differ from God’s perception of me. We might tend to think of our lives and our relationship with God in one way, but God sees us differently. Maybe we are too hard on ourselves, trying to achieve perfection for God. Or, maybe we are too easy on ourselves, not pressing ourselves to grow in our walk with God. From time to time it’s a good idea to spend some time with God, asking for His appraisal of our lives. Let God reassure you how much He loves you. Give Him permission to point out areas of your life that need improvement. Allow Him to evaluate your strengths–the gifts He has given you–and whether you are using them to the fullest potential. Let Him provide some fresh perspective on your life experiences and how they have made you who you are today, not just in terms of making you a better person, but how all of your experiences have prepared you for this moment in your life and how God wants to use them in the future. Take time to get an honest appraisal of your life from God’s perspective.