I’m going to try to share news in a way that doesn’t tell what I’m not at liberty to tell yet. =) Let’s see how I do.

This much I think I can say: In the last two weeks, I’ve gotten two offers for book contracts. One for a three-book deal. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m not going to say what books or what publishers given that the contracts haven’t been settled yet, but yeah. Wow. I have been one EXCITED woman, and have done much calling to family and best friend so I can squeal. =)

The funniest part was that when I told my daughter (who will be 6 on Sunday! Where did the time go??) about the more recent of the two, I said, “Xoe, remember this story I told you about? Well a publisher bought it!” And Xoe’s eyes got really big, she jumped up and down, and said, “Where is it? Let me see!”

LOL. If only it were so quick. 😉

But it’s really neat to see how the Lord worked all this out at once, and both a relief and an excitement to know that my next writing-year is now filled. I work well with direction. =) It’s also a blessing to be working with these publishers and editors who I really admire. I’ve already had a phone call with the second editor, chatting about all the aspects she loved, the gleam that had lit the president’s eye when she described my story to him, and how excited they all are about this project. Music to an author’s ears!

But alas, after the initial jigging comes reality, which in this business means WAITING. And in the case of October, it means a lot of family activities taking my time. So these next few days I’m going to be making a birthday cake with a pirate ship, cutting out the same from a giant cardboard piece for the kids to play in at the party, assembling a variety of homemade games and decorations, and trying to squeeze research and writing in there wherever I can.

Oh, and I just got a Kindle! That, at least, is helping me with my reading. Yesterday it read to me as I packed books into envelopes. =)

Well, there you have my exciting, amazing two weeks. I’ll share the details as soon as I can!

We love to torture our kids. And by torture I mean tickle them, “eat” them up, chase them around, pretend our hand is a monster . . . you know. Torture. The sweet kind. I imagine that’s a fairly universal love of parents the world over, and it’s no great secret why. We do it because we love to hear that belly laugh, hear those delighted shrieks of “No, no! Hey, why’d you stop? Do it again, do it again!” We love to see those huge smiles on their faces.

We love their abandon.

My hubby will tickle me, too, but we often get a good laugh out of how he does the same “gobble” to me he does with the kids, and I just look at him. And usually say, “Um . . . sorry. I’m not as much fun as the kids, am I?” Which yeah, makes us chuckle. But it’s not a belly laugh. Those same simple things don’t result in such instant Joy once we grow up.

Man . . . I sure wish they did!

The abandon of a small child has its ups and downs. It results in those moments of unbridled bliss, and it results in equally unbridled fits. Laughter and tears in equal measures, Joy and frustration, love and rage. I’m sometimes amazed at how my kids can go from total contentment in their game with each other to hitting each other and screaming at the top of their lungs, then straight back to fun.

It’s something we learn to control as we grow up, something we teach those kids to do. Self control is important, especially when it comes to those negatives. And those who never learn it . . . end up with reality shows on TV??? 😉 Seriously, that control is a must, yes.

But what are some of your best moments from adulthood? Are they when you’re sitting there, perfectly controlled? Are they when you don’t react to something? No–our favorite moments are the ones where we regain a moment of childhood abandon and embrace the Joy of life. When we scream our heads off on a roller coaster. When we laugh until we cry. When we let it all go and just live.

Sometimes it’s hard to do that, especially in this stage of my life where I have to keep the Mommy turned on. Oh, I can laugh with my kids. But I’m also trying to make sure knees don’t collide with heads as we wrestle, that things tossed up in Joy come down in one piece. I’m trying to protect and nurture and so can’t give my full attention to the game. I have to do this. I love to do this.

But sometimes I just wish I could let loose a belly laugh and not care.

And that goes for my prayer life too. That should be the one place I can let go completely, but even there I’m usually trying to protect–myself. I find myself praying, “Lord, you know I hope . . . you know I fear . . . I’m trying not to hope too much because then I fear I’ll be disappointed . . . I’m trying not to expect disappointment though because that would be faithless . . . I don’t want to assume your will . . . I don’t want to miss your will . . .”

But there I need to let go of the control. With the Lord, I need to be unafraid of the extremes. I need to show him the highs and the lows. I need to be unafraid of letting that kid inside me out before my Father.

I need to embrace the abandon.

~*~

On a different note, I making another change to my Friday posts and doing a Faith on Fridays theme instead of giveaways, etc. I’ll have occasional faith-themed guest posts, but mostly I’d like to begin an online weekly Bible study. I’ll post the chapter of the week and my thoughts on it, and hopefully we’ll get a discussion going on it. 

So tomorrow we’ll begin with I Corinthians 1. Hope y’all will join in!

Round about five and a half years ago, my family started a church. Why? Because we felt the conviction to worship on the Sabbath, and there were no sabbath-keeping churches around whose doctrines we believed in. So we became a branch church of a Seventh Day Baptist church in Pennsylvania and went about establishing ourselves.

These past years, we’ve rented two different buildings, trusting the Lord to provide one of our own in His time. And the time has come. This last week we stepped into our new old church for the first time as owners and knew beyond doubt we were home.

This might be hard to understand if you’ve never attended a small church bound by the restrictions of the place you’re renting, but wow. It’s so amazing to realize we can now do whatever the Lord asks of us, without having to ask the building’s owners for permission! Book clubs and movie nights, dinners and clothing drives. All sorts of things we’ve been wanting to start but couldn’t.

On Sunday I went over and scrubbed the hardwood in the sanctuary. I got sweaty, sore, and tired, but it was a labor of love. An offering to the Lord. An investment in this home He’s given us. We as a congregation have a lot of hard work ahead of us to make this old country church vibrant again, but it’s work we’re looking forward to.

And I love pausing a moment to look at when things happen. In the life of the church, it came exactly when we needed it to, when we had worked through some issues and were ready to surrender entirely to Him. And personally, it came just as I am (momentarily) between projects. One book is finished, at committee, and ready to be decided on in the next week (pray, please!!). The one due out in December has undergone its final edits, so I have nothing more to do on it right now. And my next project is still awaiting approval from my editor, so there’s no point in diving in if she’s going to ask for major changes to the idea. I’ve got a ton of editing to do for WhiteFire, but that’s all.

So here I am . . . ready and able to give of my time.

It’s a good time, a hopeful time. A time when potential and possibilities are all shimmering on the horizon. No disappointments or frustrations yet. No failures or setbacks. 

In a lot of ways, it’s exactly like where I am with Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland. It’s a pretty blissful time, these months leading up to release, when there are no bad sales numbers to haunt you or negative reviews to upset you. All potential. All hope.

I’m optimistic enough to blindly say that potential will lead to a realization of blessing. I’m realistic enough to know that’s no guarantee. And I’m experienced enough to know that no matter what comes in a month or a year, this time is meant to be savored for exactly what it is–a new beginning, unconstrained by what may come.

I’m going to enjoy it.

Back when I worked in the Admissions Office of my college, I made friends with one of the (non-student) staff who manned the office. Patricia was a total sweetheart, and we had many a laugh together over the four years I worked there. At 6’1″ tall, Patricia towered over me. She was more than a decade older, with a teenage son. But we had a great relationship. 

One of the things that struck me early on about Patricia was that she offered compliments so freely, and so often. Every day when I walked in, she would have something sweet to say. “Oh, your hair looks good like that.” or “I love your shoes.”

Is there any better way to make friends with someone? LOL.

It didn’t take me long to figure that secret out, so I would start finding ways to compliment as well. Sometimes in creative ways, sometimes in those same simple observations. But you know what? Those who give them freely don’t often get them as regularly, and Patricia was often surprised, her thanks startled and genuine. I began saying in response to baffled thanks, “Hey, compliments are easy.”

It became a bit of a joke between us, this genuine complimenting and then laughing response. 

At the ACFW conference last week, I was thinking a lot about Patricia. Not that she was a writer or anything (grins), but because those lessons she taught me about complimenting came back to visit. In a situation where one meets a lot of new people, or people one usually only sees online, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it all, or to feel a little lost in the crowd. But it takes so little to make someone feel comfortable.

“Wow, that’s a great skirt.”

“You have the most perfect hair.”

“Well aren’t you adorable!”

Easy things to say. Simple to come up with. But not so simple to the person hearing them. To the recipient, a compliment can settle, can lift up, can encourage, can edify.

I received a few at ACFW that made me smile. And I tried to give some that would do the same for others. Because compliments are easy. They don’t cost me anything, they don’t take any effort. It’s no sacrifice at all to say something nice to someone. So why don’t I do it all the time?

Because the one thing compliments DO require of us is to look away from ourselves long enough to notice someone else. 

I make a concerted effort to do this, but it took a bit of training. I couldn’t tell you how often I thought nice things but didn’t say them before I learned this lesson from Patricia. Why did I hold my tongue? Couldn’t tell ya. Probably because it was easier not to engage someone at all.

But that’s not who I want to be. I want to be someone who can make you smile, make you laugh. I want to be someone who brightens your day, just as so many of you brighten mine. We can all be a little self-focused now and then, and to a point there’s nothing wrong with that. But I really, really hope I never forget this lesson. That every time someone says something nice to me, it serves as a reminder for me to give even more.

So a big THANK YOU! to all of you who lift me up day after day with your comments and emails, to those who made me grin at the conference with the nice things you said about me. And while I can’t exactly offer individual encouragement to y’all here and now since I have no idea who is reading this (ha ha), I can tell you this: your words make a difference. You’re appreciated and loved. You make my life richer. 

Now, accepting compliments graciously, humbly, but without denying them and thereby calling the giver a liar . . . that’s a whole other post. 😉