Scariest Entry Ever - 2.5 for 40

I didn't mean for this first part to be scary, but I guess you can take it that way too. From my Facebook:

Bin Laden was a very bad man and I'm not sorry he's dead. And I can't know the grief of those who lost loved ones. But I think singing "Na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye" may be a bit much.

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; Or the LORD will see it and be displeased, And turn His anger away from him. Proverbs 24:17-18 (thanks, Laurel Shields!)

(And yes, God promises the wicked will get their comeuppance, and I'm thankful for that. I just don't know if partying like we won a sports game is the most Christian reaction.)

So on a completely unrelated note--I actually got these ideas Sunday morning before church!...

I love writing and feel God has given me a gift and/or interest in writing. I don't work on writing as much as I should, even though I think God has some things He would like me to write for whatever reason. I don't spend as much time with God as I should, and I'd also like to get some writing done.

So I got to thinking. I believe in tithing 10% of your income to God (interestingly, that's what my pastor preached on soon after I got this idea!). But as an adult I have never been in a position where I've found tithing my income difficult.

I do NOT believe the Bible says you have to give 10% of your time. Honestly, I'm not sure if many parents or students would even actually be able to do that if they wanted to!

But I'm single. Employed, yes. Tired when I get home from work, often. But my obligations outside my job are really pretty minimal. For pity's sake, I have machines to wash my laundry and my dishes for me!

(Every time I think of complaining about "having to do laundry" I think of my great-great-grandmothers. If they didn't have servants, they could have easily spent something like 2 days EVERY WEEK doing the family laundry. I guess the fact that my great-grandmothers have not given me a solid beating for my laziness is evidence that the dead do not walk the earth among us.)

ANYWAY. I've got a bunch of time I'm squandering. I wonder...could I give 10% of my time towards God and pursuits I believe God would like me to follow, such as writing Christian fiction?

Honestly, I'm kind of scared. But I'm trying it for 40 days. My goal is to spend an average of 2.5 hours each day (just over 1/10 of my time) praying, reading/studying the Bible, at church activities, and/or writing/planning my writing. This is stuff I should be doing anyway. Realistically, the writing/planning is going to take up the majority of this time. Thing is, I am lazy and I am easily distracted. Only by the grace of God will I manage even this meager goal. I realize the idea of calculating this time may be a little crass, but if I just have a fuzzy goal of "more time doing these things"...it just doesn't happen.

The first day was Sunday, May 1, so I got a jump start with church and all. I actually got in 5 total hours before my bedtime Bible reading/prayer time. So RIGHT NOW I'm well ahead. The other 39 days...well, my follow-through is not so good, and again, I'm going to need God to help me here.

Can you see why I claim this is the scariest entry ever? But hopefully an exciting one too.

Winning Wednesday

So winning refers to something that was "luck" (or Providence), not anything to do with writing skills. Be warned!

And for my writing progress report...could be worse. I did finally finish the last full chapter of Endwood (just need to complete the epilogue). I probably should have split the ending into two pieces but I really didn't want the story to continue too terribly far after the climax. I'm SO looking forward to being done with it!

So I joined American Christian Fiction Writers a while back and sometimes people will post about when they have agents or editors on their blogs. So someone at Seekerville posted on ACFW about how they were having a costume party and invited everyone to come. I'm not sure if they mentioned a giveaway or not, but I didn't notice. I just wanted to dress my avatar up!

So the real story is that Tina James, senior editor of Love Inspired Historical and Love Inspired Suspense, was announcing they are printing four Historicals a month instead of two. Since I've never actually wrote historical romance (or any historical fiction without a major speculative element) I'm not sure if that's relevant for me or not, but squee! Historical clothes!

So I posted.

Aside from sewing the ribbon on the hat, this is all items I found at Ross and/or TJ Maxx. I do love making historical and fantasy costumes, but I suppose that's a story for another time. Anyway, I chose to dress in 1920s garb because if I WERE to write an outright historical, I reckon that's when I'd set it. And I love the Coney Island pictures, LOL.

Anyway, long story short, I was just outright SHOCKED to have won a contest that I believe was just a random draw. Really? I don't know how many entrants there were (well over 200 comments but some were from the same people). And I won four books? Shipped from the Senior Editor at the one Love Inspired line I could ever imagine writing for??? I didn't even know there were four books to win!

I used to believe in, if not luck, then things just happening randomly. But after going through Beth Moore's study of Esther, I'm not so sure. It's pretty much impossible for my mind to wrap around how every single little thing (as small as misplacing my keys and taking a minute to find them) could happen for a reason, but it certainly wouldn't be outside the range of God's power.

At any rate, winning four books is a lot bigger deal (and more unusual!) than losing my keys. A little part of me is wondering--maybe I should try a historical romance?

Another historical outfit I made (perhaps the most accurate, and completely made by me) is a 1770s dress. It would take so much work and research, but I believe people were getting into 1770s historical recreation in the 1920s...it seems to me that could be a very fun romance, with characters from a past era trying to recreate an even farther past era. And anything on Coney Island could be interesting (although I'm not so sure that would fly, given that the place used to be nicknamed "Sodom by the Sea"...).

Anyway. For now I reckon I will need to settle down and read them. I'll likely review them here, but I'm both a picky reader AND not much of a reviewer, so we'll see.

Oh right! In the comments from last week, I promised a picture of my phone, too.

If you want your Samsung Comeback to also look a bit like EVE from WALL-E, here's the photo.

I modified a page to print a paper EVE mask (of all things) I saw online, then shrunk it to a 240 height so it looks nice on the inner flip screen (I suggest you set your phone to "Black theme"--Menu, Settings, Display settings, My Theme, Black theme for the Comeback).

So, have you had anything recent happen that might be Providential?