Where Ya Been?

Where Ya Been?

Some of you may be wondering that about me! I knew when I started my blog over the Christmas break that I would not keep up with it as well once school started, but I didn’t anticipate exactly what a lousy job I would do!

In my defense, I started a new job three weeks ago. I had been at my past job for almost nine years (a record for me!) as a founding teacher at a small, charter school. I am now at a much larger school – the one my daughter will be attending next year. It was very, very hard to leave all the wonderful people I had grown to love at my old school, but I am liking my new job a lot. Of course there is a learning curve and I have found myself to be very busy, but I am certain that it was the right decision (even though it was a hard one to make). I am also taking classes to obtain my AIG (Academically and Intellectually Gifted) add-on certification to my teaching licensure, and that has been keeping me busy as well.

In the writing realm, I have not allowed myself to begin working on anything new until I finish two “open” projects. The first one is the historical fiction The Pirate’s Revenge that Heather Frey Blanton has helped me with so much. I am almost done with that and anticipate having it completely in the hands of my editor in less than a week. The other one is the audio version of Chop, Chop. Several years ago I hired the talented Paul Porter Jr. to narrate for me, and we are finally closing in on a finished product!

Once these two piece are completed, I intend to write Taken – another stand-alone companion novel to the Chop, Chop series. Then what I’m really anxious for is to write a new series that begins with the novel The One I Trust. The first four books are in my head and I can’t wait to start writing again and begin sharing these stories with you all. If I allow myself to write now, however, I won’t ever finish my historical novel or the audio book, and I owe it to the people who have helped me on them so much to get them actually completed!!

So that’s what’s been up with me. I have been very busy, but consider myself blessed beyond belief and I thank you for your prayers and love and support. If you have contacted me in any way and I haven't responded appropriately, please don't feel offended, but instead just try again. Things have settled down a bit and I hope I won't let things slip through the cracks this time. Many blessings to each of you!

Which Chop, Chop Character Are You?

Here is a quick and fun (but very unscientific) quiz for you to take to determine which Chop, Chop character you are most like. I'd love to see your comments on who it says you are and whether or not you agree! http://www.quiztron.com/tests/chop_chop_character_quiz_234700.htm

Caillou

My editor remarked recently that she was impressed with the frequency of the posts on my new blog and I assured her that this was getting ready to come to an abrupt end as soon as school started back. Case in point: Tomorrow will be my first day back since break started before Christmas and I'm on a two hour delay, but I'm already taking the easy way out by posting a video instead of writing a post.

The video is from a message I gave at church this past summer and is one that is very important to me. If you don't have time to watch it right now, I hope you will check back when you can. The first 3 minutes are me reading Scripture (it was a longer passage than I'd realized!) and the message starts just after that. I hope you will enjoy it and I also hope you're staying warm. Many blessings! Leeann

And My Answer Is . . .

I recently posted So What Color Is Josette Anyway on my blog and asked you to let me know what color you thought Josette was (with the promise that I would tell you my thoughts after you'd shared).

I also mentioned in a comment to that post that I was planning on writing a story (likely short, but who knows?) from Dorito's wife's point of view. Maria is Caucasian and Dorito is, of course, Latino. Since then, my mind has been whirling and I am enjoying the story that is forming between Dorito and Maria, but I MUST finish my Pirate story first and my audio version for Chop, Chop and the paperback version of What I Want before I allow myself to work on anymore stories!

(As an aside, I'd like to share that I was pleased to get several nice reviews in the last few days on Amazon, including one from Madison who stated that she and her mother give each other Greg's "I Love You" hand signal all the time. That made me happy!)

But anyway, you want to know what color Josette is in my mind, and the answer is: Caucasian. I don't know why, that's just always the way I have always pictured her. I found it very interesting that we all saw her differently!! (Critics will say that's why I should have described her, but you know I disagree!) In this case, it didn't really matter, so that's why it wasn't mentioned. In Maria's case, however, I think that's going to be one of the main issues.

For now, however, I leave you with this short clip from Seinfeld that always makes me laugh. I hope you'll enjoy it too. Many blessings ~ stay warm!

Maybe You Should Be A Little More Pro-Choice Than You Currently Are

Did you know that most women who have abortions do so because they feel as if they don’t have any other choice?

Am I the only one who catches the irony in that?

Most women who have abortions do so because they feel as if they don’t have any other choice.

This actually makes sense . . . after all, are there really any women out there who say, “Gee, I sure do hope I get to have an abortion one day!”?

Not likely.

No woman wants to find themselves in the position of considering an abortion.

But approximately half of all pregnancies are unintentional, and approximately half of those pregnancies end in abortion.

The overwhelming majority (more than 90%) of women who do have abortions do so for personal reasons (in other words, not for medical reasons and not because they’ve been a victim of sexual assault). Those personal reasons most commonly include feeling that they do not have the financial resources to bring up a child, believing that they are not ready for the responsibility of raising a child, feeling that their life would change too dramatically if they had a child (for example they might believe that they would need to give up their education or their career), believing that they are too young or not mature enough to be a mother, or knowing that they already have all the children they want.

Of course you may be thinking to yourself that such concerns could easily be addressed by putting the baby up for adoption, but very often these women feel pressured to have an abortion. Sometimes the pressure is direct—either from her parents or from the father of the baby—and sometimes it is more indirect—such as from the fear of what will happen if others find out that she is pregnant. (The short forward for A Lady in Defiance details the reality of some of those fears and can be read in its entirety for free by following this link to Amazon and simply selecting “Click to Look Inside”.)

What would happen if every woman who found herself in the midst of a crisis pregnancy was able to easily secure all of the financial and emotional support needed to see that pregnancy through?

What can we do to help them choose life?

So What Color is Josette, Anyway?

. . . most of the characters and places were vaguely described. If they decided to make Chop, Chop into a movie--please don’t, Hollywood!--it would be pretty much up to the producers as to the ethnicity, eye color, hair color, height, style of dress, etc., of the characters, because they get little mention. From what I hear, Victor Hugo’s writings--which I haven’t read! I know; what kind of avid reader am I?--are notorious for their long, detailed descriptions; well, this is the polar opposite of that.”

The above is an excerpt from a negative review on Chop, Chop.

Shortly after I wrote Chop, Chop, a friend told me that I needed to include more descriptions—for example how did the lasagna smell when David entered the White’s house? And just this morning, my dear friend Heather Blanton (an author who is so excellent at describing people, places and things that I insisted she help me by adding her genius to my upcoming historical fiction novel, The Pirate’s Revenge) challenged me to do more in the way of imagery in my contemporary works. In part, she said, “You have five senses. Use them, especially when you’re setting a scene. I KNOW you are capable of this. Little things like wrinkles around the eyes, a middle-age paunch hanging over the belt, a song playing in the background, you know what I mean.”

I do know what she means, and I do know that I’m capable.

But despite many suggestions, challenges, and outright criticisms, I have no intention of changing the way I write because my lack of descriptions is very, very intentional.

Sometimes in my books—if looks are important in a character’s mind—that character will describe a person. For example, David describes what Samantha looks like quite a bit—because it’s important to him. But how Laci looks isn’t important to him at all. We know that she’s pretty and that she has brown hair, but that’s about it. What is important to David, is Laci’s heart, which (I hope) is described in vivid detail. (Incidentally, I recently talked to two people who both imagine Laci as a blonde—so obviously describing things doesn’t really change how readers choose to envision them anyway!!)

Interestingly, when David goes to the prison, he describes in great detail every aspect of the process of passing through security upon entering the correctional unit . . . what the lobby looked like . . . even going so far as to tell us the number on one of the prisoner’s uniforms. Why? Because that’s all David could manage. He couldn’t think about what he was getting ready to do.

There are, of course, times when I have had my characters describe other characters. In Not Quickly Broken, for example, Jordan not only tells us what Charlotte looks like, but what he and Tanner look like as well. (On a side note, one of my favorite lines in that book is when Jordan tells us that he looks “just like Tanner, (which – after watching women throw themselves at him for years – I’d learned wasn’t exactly a bad thing).” :)

And Marco, in What I Want, lets us know what Josette looks like as follows:

Just as I still believed that there was someone out there for me, I also still believed that that “someone” would belong on the Island of Misfit Toys like I did. I was certain that there was going to be something majorly wrong with whoever I wound up with . . .

And to put it bluntly, there was nothing wrong with Josette.

Josette was way out of my league. She belonged on the antipode of the Island of Misfit Toys . . . clear on the other side of the world. You can’t live with a woman for almost a year and not notice something like that . . . whether or not they’re attractive.

And Josette most definitely was.

Her eyes, for example. I had actually noticed them the moment I met her in the student union that first day, so long ago. They were a dark, charcoal gray and they were framed by incredibly thick, black lashes and they were beautiful . . . and I had immediately felt guilty for even noticing them.

It wasn’t just her eyes, though.

Everything about Josette was attractive: the soft curve of her lips, the gentle arch of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows, her high cheekbones and long, straight dark hair, the flawless tone of her bronzed skin, her delicate fingers, her . . .

No. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Josette.

But despite all this, Marco—who is Latino—never does address her ethnicity. Is she Caucasian? Latino? African American? The description Marco gives leaves room for any of these possibilities and more. But one of the things I hoped to convey in What I Want is the fact that it doesn’t matter what we look like—even though Marco was so sure it did. And so I purposefully decided to let the reader imagine Josette’s skin color however they want.

I know what I picture Josette’s skin color to be, but I’m curious about what you envision . . . so will you leave me a comment below to let me know? I promise I’ll tell you my thoughts on the matter after you tell me yours!

Today Is The Perfect Day To . . .

On December 12^th, 2006, I was driving home from work, and God gave me a story.

Now I’ve always wanted to be a writer – ever since I was a little girl – and I’ve always dabbled in writing for most of my life. But this was different . . . this was not a story that I made up in my head, this was a story that God put in my head. For two months I wrote in every spare moment that I had – oftentimes writing things without even knowing or understanding why I was writing them, (if you haven’t already, I encourage you to read my first post, The Story Behind the Story). At the end of exactly two months, the book was finished and that experience has been – without a doubt – one of the most significant events in my life, and now I love nothing more than to get other people to read my book. Those who know me best say that I am . . . obsessed.

Obsessed? Well . . . I guess if I were to be honest, I would have to say, “Guilty as charged.”

After several months of trying to get everyone in North America to read my book, I was driving along one day and was listening – no . . . I was half-listening – to a sermon on the radio. I still remember the voice of this older gentleman who had a strong southern drawl; he was talking about the importance of reading the Bible, every day.

I already knew that it was important to read and study the Bible, (but that doesn’t mean I was doing it . . . it just means that I knew it was important). Honestly, at that time in my life, I wasn’t reading or studying the Bible on a regular basis (just like I definitely wasn’t paying all that much attention to the sermon that was on in my car). On both counts, I was probably thinking about my book.

But then . . . then that older southern preacher man said something that I will never forget. He said: “How would you feel, if you wrote a book, and nobody wanted to read it?”

How would you feel, if you wrote a book, and nobody wanted to read it?

Well, I knew how I would feel. I knew exactly how I would feel, and God was letting me know how HE felt about the fact that I wasn’t reading His Word.

Ohhhhh, did I ever feel bad. There’s nothing quite like learning how disappointed God is in you to kick-start you in the right direction. Since that time I’ve been actively reading and studying the Bible and – over the past few years – God has never ceased to amaze me by revealing Himself to me through His Word.

Did you know that the Bible is the only document whose basic message is so straightforward that the simplest of minds can understand it, and yet so complex that the most scholarly of individuals can spend their entire lives trying to unravel its wonderful mysteries?

What better day than the first day of a brand New Year to decide that you’re going to delve into God’s word more fully than you have in the past? Deciding to begin diligently reading the Bible can be somewhat overwhelming, I know, but I really got into it when I started reading one of Beth Moore’s personal reflection series books. Although the book I started with was her book on David, the most powerful one I read (and the one I’m recommending you start with) was the next one I tried: her book entitled John: The Beloved Disciple.

A version with the same information as the personal reflection version is FREE right now on Amazon and on Nook, and if you’re looking for a way to get into God’s word a little deeper, I would highly recommend that you download it. As a matter of fact, there are several of her books that are free right now – so grab them while you can (and – as always – make sure the price is still free when you click!)

John referred to himself as the disciple Jesus loved, and by the time I finished the book, I understood why. He wasn’t bragging or anything, he simply knew (and I think was overwhelmed by the fact) that he was loved by Jesus.

I leave you today with a short music video by Jason Gray that I hope you will take a few minutes to watch, because we are all—like John—loved by Jesus.

We should be overwhelmed by that fact.