Entertaining Angels

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

                                    Hebrews 13:2

 

Every single day of our lives the Lord is working. He works on us, through us, in us, and around us. He fits us into His plans, molding us as He sees fit to get us where He wants us to be. He takes a little from our lives here, adds a little there. Like a potter molding clay He smooth's out wrinkles on this side and creates something beautiful on that side.

If we climb out of bed in the morning there is a good chance that He will use us in someone’s life and may, quite possibly, use someone else in ours. Sometimes we never know the impact we have on another. The simple act of smiling at someone could change their lives.

But then there are the times when someone comes into our lives and we see the impact. Have you ever stopped to think about the sheer odds of what it takes for you to meet someone new? No matter who they are or what role they play in your life. You had to be there, in that spot, at that moment to meet them. And so did they. In our usually busy lives what does it take for two complete strangers to wind up in the right place at the same moment so that they can touch each other’s lives?

I’ve seen this happen in my writing, among the new friends I have made in the writing world. There is an author that worked closely with me this past winter. We stumbled on each other because I asked the right question, in the right place, at the right time. Through her guidance I learned a lot about what it takes to take my story and make it fit the guidelines set in place by agents and publishers.

Another author showed up in my life because I won several contests where her books were the prize. We exchanged several emails and through her I was encouraged. Later, the same woman judged a contest I entered. Her kind words of praise for my entry lifted my spirits and encouraged me in my writing in a way no one else has.

I’ve seen this same miracle happen in life, many times, but some of those chance encounters have meant so much more than others. The Lord has recently brought one of the most amazing women I’ve ever met into my life. I was drawn to her from the first moment we met. In only a few short months she has captured my heart. We are born into our families, blessed by the people the Lord has chosen to make a part of our lives through family ties, and then there are the ones that are family of the heart. This woman is that for me.

There are more of these people that have worked their way into my life in ways that should have been impossible. A close friend that became that simply because we were drawn to each other online, through conversations that held nothing of a personal nature until we are now more like sisters than friends.

Another friend I met when I was somewhere I did not plan to be, at a time I had no intention of being there, at a time that this friend did not want to be there either. And yet we were. Through a few short words, and a smile, we have become friends in a way that has touched me deeply and changed my life.

Dear reader, I am sure that there are people like these in your life. Friends you didn’t expect, strangers that may have only passed through your day but changed your life. Who are they? How did you meet them? Will you share some of these miracle friendships with us?

Trust In The Lord

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

 

It’s been a little over a year since I, rather reluctantly, sat down at my computer to try my hand at writing that first manuscript. During that time my writing has taken a turn I never could have imagined. On that first day I wrote simply to please my daughter, now I write because I can’t not write. I have discovered that the Lord has given me a gift and it has become a large part of me. During this time I have found very few things interfere with my ability to write, there are many things that keep me too busy to write, but very few make it where I can’t write. About six weeks ago I completed a move to a new house that I didn’t want to make. Moving was something that interfered with my writing, both in time and ability.

It took time to get moved, time to settle in but I also discovered that living in this new house that didn’t feel like home interfered also. It affected the gift that the Lord gave me, kept the words from flowing the way they usually do. But as in all things God worked this out for good (Romans 8:28) and He showed me things that I didn’t know.

I long ago placed my life in the Lord’s hands, giving Him full control of my life, but when it came time to have to make this move…I didn’t want to do it. I struggled through the thought of moving, struggled with having to move. There were times I wanted to question the Lord on what He was doing to me, ask Him why I needed to go through this trial, in a year that had already been filled with them, but in the end I didn’t ask, I just submitted.

When I couldn’t find a house that met our needs I prayed and gave it to the Lord. I told Him that I was placing it all in His hands because I’d exhausted my resources. There was nothing left that I could do. Only a few hours after that I got a call from a man that had a house and he was willing to pull it off the market and hold it for me if I wanted it.

I took that as an answer to prayer and accepted. Over the next couple of weeks he worked with me in ways I could never have dreamed to get us into this house. So, dear reader, if you’re wondering if God answers prayer, I can tell you, without doubt, that He does.

Now, after over a month in this new house, I can see what I couldn’t when I was fighting the need to move. God has moved me to a better place. And now that it is feeling like home, my writing is back and except for those days when life interferes, my word count is back where it was before. In this house I have even managed an all-time high of 15,000 words in a single day.

And I am thanking the Lord for the blessings He sends my way, even when I struggle with the plans He has set in motion.

Book Review of His Mistletoe Family by Ruth Logan Herne

Book Review: His Mistletoe Family (Love Inspired)

Author: Ruth Logan Herne

 

I won this book in a contest and was lucky enough to receive an autographed copy. Thank you, Ruthy. As with your other books, I truly enjoyed this story.

I must admit the length of this books surprised me. Slightly longer than a novella, it left me wishing for more. It’s a sweet story about a woman that becomes guardian of her two orphaned nephews and has no idea how to be a parent. She meets Brett Stanton, a significantly older man, when she takes the boys to a free Thanksgiving dinner at a church. Brett is a former soldier doing his best to forget what his influence did to his only son and his younger brother. When Haley Jennings walks into his life he finds himself wanting to live again instead of hide from life as he has been. The age difference between this couple was written in such a way that I found myself forgetting about it until those moments when it cropped up in the story. Times like when Brett tells Haley he was in the army for twenty five years…and I remember that she’s twenty eight. This was a good, clean book that kept me entertained to the end.

Book Rating: Good

Young Reader Rating: 13 and up

There were no adult scenes in this book. The few kisses were short and sweet and mostly blended into the moment so that only a couple seemed to hold great significance. The hero did father a child out of wedlock and was an absentee dad. And the heroine spends more time at work than with her new family. Although neither of these situations is a problem or treated in any way that comes across as such, I can see where it could influence younger readers.

Book Review of Meant To Be Mine by Becky Wade

Book Review: Meant to Be Mine

Author: Becky Wade

 

This book starts out five years in the past. Celia Park has been in love with Ty Porter since she was fourteen. A reunion with him in Las Vegas lands her in a wedding chapel in the middle of the night, after a whirlwind four day relationship. The next morning Ty informs her he made a mistake; that he was drunk and he’s in love with, and planning to marry, someone else.

Five years later, Celia hasn’t seen or heard from Ty since she walked out of that Vegas hotel room, her heart broken, her dreams shattered. She’s given up her plans for her life to make a secure home for her daughter. When Ty reappears in her life, he gets more than he bargained for when he meets the little girl that has his name and discovers she’s his daughter. Still married, he faces Celia’s anger and hate while he tries to get to know his daughter. The couple struggle through this new situation they find themselves in while dealing with the pull that’s still between them. This book made my keep-it list and has had me rereading favorite scenes.

Rating: Loved it

Young Reader Rating: Very Adult

Adult scenes crop up in this book at the very beginning of chapter two. From there suggestions, comments, and situations keep coming. While the hero and heroine are married, divorce is mentioned multiple times in the book. The hero ends his relationship, and therefore his marriage, with Celia because he wants to be married to someone else. When they meet back up he tells Celia he’s planning to “make my move” on another woman, despite the fact that they’re still married. In another scene, he tells the other woman he’s going to put a ring on her finger and minutes after she leaves his house, he’s on the phone with Celia making suggestive statements to her. In another scene he asks two women (three, if you count his sister-in-law) to run away with him while his wife is in the next room. The hero borders on an addiction to pain pills, admits he was drunk in the first scene, and goes to a bar and gets drunk in another.

Bookaholic Support Group

Books.

Five letters, one word. Basic, simple, easy. Some words have multiple meaning with only one spelling, others have one meaning but several spellings that get us into that area of having to know how many o’s to put behind a t or whether or not to add an e to the end, an i-e, or a y.

But not books. That word is simple and easy to understand. No one questions it. But it’s…um…a code word.

Yes, you read that right. It’s a code word. Those five little letters hide worlds we can only imagine, they hide our best friends, our worst enemies. They stand for the stacks and stacks of books I own, the ones I want to own, and the ones I will own.

That code word opens worlds I never thought possible, not just on the printed pages but in my real life. I discuss authors with strangers at my favorite book store. I trade emails with writers I never thought I’d know. I’ve written manuscripts, entered contests, and tried new things because of books.

Books. Code word for addiction. If you’re a bookaholic, you understand, if you’re not…I’m sorry.

For those of us that suffer from the affliction, there is no cure. Only…more books.

Hello, my name is Crystal. I am addicted to books. I love the feel of them in my hand, the sound of the pages when I flip through them, the way they look all stacked up and waiting for my attention. I am not trying to recover from my addiction. I do not want to give up my temptation. I am me, and they are books, and we are happy together.

Would anyone care to join my support group?

Book Reveiw of Loving the Lawman by Ruth Logan Herne

Book Review: Loving the Lawman (Love Inspired)

Author: Ruth Logan Hearne

 

I won this book in a contest and held off on reading it for a while. I found myself surprised at the length of this book. For someone that generally reads historical books in the 80,000-100,000 word range, this book was small and had me zipping through it in a day. But the story was good, covered a subject lot of women face today, but many consider controversial. Pregnant widow, Gianna Costanza, moves to a small town in New York, looking for a new start. And a place to raise her babies. Deputy Sheriff Seth Campbell’s new tenant catches his attention from the moment she walks through his door. Trouble is, she has less than no interest in another lawman and she doesn’t seem concerned with the fact that she’s depriving the father of her children the right to be a part of their lives. Circumstances and unwanted attraction keep throwing this pair together. Despite their best intentions they find themselves drawn to each other. This is a quick moving, sweet story that hit me in a way most don’t.

Rating: Loved it

Young Reader Rating: 13 and up

This book has some areas that could be seen as inappropriate for younger readers. The heroine is expecting twins conceived using the help of modern medical technology. She is a single mother that made the choice to have a baby after her husband died. The hero is divorced, his former wife is a drug addict that abandons her child on his doorstep. The young girl has had a hard life and there are hints that she may have been through traumas at the hands of her mother’s boyfriends.

Invaders

I was sitting at my computer, working on my latest manuscript when I looked across the room and…

There.

He.

Was.

Warming himself next to my Himalayan salt lamp, making himself comfortable. Big and ugly. Hideous, actually. The stuff nightmares are made of. The kind of thing that makes me want to run screaming out of the house, down the street and anywhere he wasn’t at. In my manuscripts I can let my heroines do that, but in my real life…not an option.

So I sucked in a deep breath, tried to stop the heebie-jeebies that had a firm hold on me, forced my hands steady and dropped an empty glass jar over the ugly monster trying to make my kitchen his home.

We had a short battle. He was determined not to be captured and I am firmly convinced the only good scorpion is a dead one. You’ll never convince me otherwise. And this one wanted to live in my house. So not happening.

I won the battle and got the thing trapped under glass. Only then…how to get him from under the jar to in it. Perseverance. Finally I succeeded and added a lid to this beast's new and final home. War over. Ugly invader facing his just reward for trying to share my home and interrupting my word count.

Yes, I’m certain this creature was a male. It was too ugly to be female. Don’t bother telling me that in the animal kingdom males are often prettier than females. I’m not buying it. This ugly thing was male. Definitely.

I think he is destined to become an outlaw in one of my books. Maybe he’ll show up as the scorpion he is or maybe he’ll show up as a beady eyed man with scrawny arms and a rounded middle determined to kill the heroine, and his name? Scorpion of course.