The First Signs!

Spring is coming!!!

These bleeding heart shoots are a little scary looking. Like little purple hands reaching up out of the thawing earth. Just waiting for someone to get close enough......

Into the Woods

Back in November I participated in National Novel Writing Month(AKA NaNoWriMo) and and through that I wrote a book. Early last month I got an e~mail about a contest on Amazon.com that if won would result in a publishing contract with Penguin books. Needless to say I was super excited and rushed to finish editing my book by the entry deadline. I managed to finish and sent it on it's merry way, now I just have to wait for February 25 to find out if I've made it to round two! The books that make it into the second round are being judged on a pitch that you wrote about your book.

Not only did it have to be something like you would find on the back of a book, but you also had to include why it would appeal to the age group you had written it for. Now, I entered it into the young adult category(ages 12-17) because honestly, not to many people my age read fairy tales any more! Let me tell you, that last paragraph was hard to write!

How would my book appeal and speak to girls today, I really had no idea. I think that I hit on an important issue that is very relevant and is also something that has come up in my own life. I didn't want to pull just any old moral out of my hat so to speak, I wanted it to be something that I had had personal experience with. All that to say, here's the pitch and in the spirit of optimism be looking for my book at your favorite book sellers soon!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have all had fantasies about entering into the book we are reading, and yet, aren't we all a little glad that we can't? Imagine if when things got intense or scary, you were unable to shut the book and walk away. It is in exactly this situation we join our heroine. Her favorite story has always been Beauty and the Beast; and, from the outside, the story seems simple. Beauty shows up, always perfect and lovely, and the hideous Beast falls in love with her. Hannah is an average girl living a normal life, but what happens when she wakes up as Beauty and finds herself in a strange place filled with magic and danger?

The danger can't be banished by the turning of a page. The Beast is real and sitting right in front of her. The enchanted servants expect things of her that she knows she is incapable of accomplishing. How can she - plain, awkward and clumsy Hannah Smith - be expected to take Beauty's place in the story? Join Hannah as she struggles to discover the truth behind fear and love. Will she allow herself to live happily ever after?

In today's world of super models and stick thin actresses girls are bombarded with images of perfection. You are only worthy of love if you are perfect. The story of Beauty and the Beast has always been a favorite of mine but Beauty was well beautiful! Would the spell still get broken if an average girl took Beauty's place? Hannah, through no extraordinary measures, breaks the curse by just being herself. A message sorely needed by girls today. Being perfect and beautiful isn't the only way to find love and your own happily ever after.

(Into the Woods is the tittle of my book!)

The Realm of Fairie

Sometimes as I wend my way down the paths of faerie I wonder, are all the warnings I've gotten about fantasy true? Am I being ungodly and a bad witness by reading faerie tales? Hopefully this post will shed some light on what I've discovered!

I've always loved faerie tales and gotten flack from different people during my life. Fantasy is bad, you're to young, you're to old, it's evil, it will corrupt you. When the magic of the gospel was still hard for me to grasp, faerie tales lead the way. Morals and faith were all learned in part by reading those ridiculous and evil stories!

I often wondered when others had problems and struggled with some of the more mysterious parts of the bible the reason why I seemed to have no problem accepting them. It's not because I'm smarter or some sort of super Christan, I just have faith. Reading the tales of old has given me a firm foundation in the art of accepting things be faith. I know that my Prince and King will always be there with me and watching over me.

I am content in the fact that when I need to know something to forge ahead in the quest, He will give me the tools and knowledge need to conquer whatever dragon I may be facing! In the words of Geordi La Forge (AKA, Levar Burton) you don't have to take my word for it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The gospel does have many of the earmarks of a faerie tale. In faerie tales you have the poor boy who becomes rich, the leaden cabinet which turns out to have the treasure in it, the ugly duckling who turns out to be a swan, the frog who becomes a prince. Then we come to the gospel, where it's the Pharisees, the good ones, who turn out to be the villains. It's the whores and the tax collectors who turn out to be the good ones. Just as in faerie tales, there is the impossible happy ending when Cinderella does marry the prince, and the ugly duckling is transformed into a swan, so Jesus is not, in the end, defeated. He rises again. In all these ways there is a kind of faerie tale quality to the gospel, with the extra ordinary difference, of course, that this is the faerie tale that claims to be true. The difference is that this time it's not just a story being told-it's an event. It did happen! Here's a faerie tale come true.

~Frederich Buechner, interview in The Door

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them faerie tales. If you want the to be more intelligent, read them more faerie tales.

~Albert Einstein

I think what profess to be realistic stories for children are far more likely to deceive them(then fantasy stories). I never expected the real world to like the faerie tales. I Think that I did expect school to be like the school stories. The fantasies did not deceive me: the schools stories did.

~C.S. Lewis

By confining your child to blameless stories of child life in which nothing at all alarming ever happens, you would fail to banish the terrors, and would succeed in banishing all that can ennoble them or make them endurable. For in the faerie tales, side by side with the terrible figures, we find the immemorial comforters and protectors, the radiant ones; and the terrible figures are not merely terrible, but sublime. It would be nice if no little boy in bed, hearing or thinking he hears, a sound, were ever frightened, I think it better he should think of giants and dragons then merely burglars. And I think St George, or any bright champion in armor, is a better comfort then the idea of police.

~C.S. Lewis

The Shack

I read the book The Shack on the recommendation of a bible study group that I'm in. It was a band wagon type book so having the personality that I do, I refused to read it just because everyone one else was. But, as I was listening to everyone talk about it I decided that I should read it. I borrowed it from a friend and read it in one day.

I was warned not to be disturbed by the goriness and by the the way he portrayed God. It is just a book and as a mystery and fantasy fan I've read far more descriptive kidnapping type scenes before so I didn't really have a problem with that part.

I will admit to being one of those people who always pictured God as a Santa Clause type figure, just in a white robe instead of the red suit. So when I got the the black mammy God it made me stop and think. Then slowly a smile spread across my face, as sacrilegious as it seems(especially with my Catholic upbringing! I sill love the Catholics don't get me wrong, but you are taught to respect God and no nonsense is allowed.) I can totally see God as a black mammy, the I know what's best for you and you should do it because I love you and you love me, not because I'm telling you to. So, that part made me smile and chuckle at my inclination to cross myself and say a couple hail Marys! What can I say? Old habits die hard!

I really like how the author portrayed the holy spirit and the soul. There are some major theological flaws, but there are also some parts that I fully agree with. Like any other book, I take what I know to be right and run with it and research and bug the people I know about the things I'm not sure about. Then things I just know are weird, like the psychedelic star chapter(you'll know what I'm talking about it you've read the book!) I just giggle over and move on.

My beef with this book is the same that it is with all band wagon books, everybody takes everything in it as gospel and doesn't dig any deeper when things don't make sense. It's really bad with "Christian" books like The Shack, but happens with secular ones as well. If you are not firmly grounded in your faith books like Harry Potter and Twilight should not be read by you. Even if you don't go out and start looking for hot vampires to hang with, ideas can get planted and unless you are guarding your self against them they'll sneak in there and permeate your way of thinking. Satan doesn't not need to turn you into a Wicca to accomplish his task, most of the time he just distracts rather then full out attacks.

The moral of this little story? Be careful what you read and be on your guard, if something seems revolutionary talk about it with someone and pray that God would open your eyes and help you see what His truths are.

Cross Roads

(Yuck, I haven't written in a while, what's with the horrible new format? When did they change it? =P)

I have an over active imagination, I know this and it does have its draw backs. Like not being able to sleep because you just know that that noise that woke you up is some crazy maniac who just escaped from prison who is looking for a house to sneak into to use the phone to call his crazy buddies to come and pick him up. So, in just a few seconds a face, most likely missing some teeth and with a gnarly scar somewhere is going to pop up out of no where and crawl over your bed(Which you always put right under a window!stupid, stupid, stupid)and collect his buddies and have a crazy man convention right there in your bed room.

Yes, that actually happened, not for real, but I laid awake for 2 hours one night after something banging outside my window woke me up. I wasn't going to turn and look at the window. So, I just laid there with my back to the window coming up with insane scenarios as to what had made the noise. It was the cat by the way, me and the cat have finally come to an agreement. I let her in and out when ever she wants and I get, um I get, well I get woken up multiple times a night by an 10 pound animal who had decided I am her slave..........

But anyway, back to the reason for this post. Of course at the beginning of the year you are thinking about choices and what you would like to see for this next year. I don't make resolutions(those are so last century) I just set goals for myself and promise I will do them. I have always had this picture in my head whenever I come to a cross roads in my life and it helps me sort through the pros and cons. I am finally done with the final edit of my book and it's ready to be sent off into the world and I felt like writing something, so here we go!

The air is warm, almost too warm but then a cool breeze will blessedly come and I am once more happy with the world. The path I am walking along is narrow, it looks like at one point it might have been a road, for every once in awhile a patch of asphalt will show through, but the woods have taken back the land which was once theirs. Wild flowers bloom along the side of the path and ferns crowd the edges of the shade.

I forge ahead not really paying attention to what is going on around the next bend, but when I get there I am forced to pause and think. The path splits off here, one way it looks much like what I've been walking along previously, a narrow forested path meandering it's way through a Sherwood like forest. The other is different and a little scary, it's an old stone bridge, made long ago by people unknown.

On the other side of this bridge the forest changes dramatically, it becomes much drier and the sun appears much stronger. I sit on a conveniently appearing log and ponder my choices. Do I stay with the safe and familiar or do I venture into the unknown? Sometimes the choice is easy, but others times I sit a long time on that log. As I learn more about each direction the landscape changes slightly. Maybe in the familiar direction a stranger steps out of the trees. While over the bridge an old friend appears and waves for me to come on over.

Road signs appear along the sides of the road telling me things about each way, the good and the bad. I venture a little along each path testing the waters but am not ready to commit quite yet. I finally make my choice and as I walk towards my path of choice the other path fades from view and when I look back it is one seamless path again. Sometimes I mourn the loss of the second path, what ifs fill my mind, but there is no turning back, regrets will get you no where. Sometimes things that made the other path seem so delightful will show up along the path I have chosen other times the what if stays in my mind forever.

God has laid out this path for me to walk and has given me the best map anyone could ever ask for. He has fully equipped me for the dangers and pleasures ahead. So, I will forge ahead through the swamps and meadows of life, knowing that God will always be right there with me. It's nice to never be alone, isn't it?=)

New Toy

I found a new toy today! You can gather pics from all over the net and use them to create collages(Old school word I know. I'm sure there is a more modern one out there!) Can you tell I was feeling springy today?

Spring is in the Air(or at least in my mind!) by LadyKatySue on Polyvore.com

The Best Thing I've Ever Eaten....

I was watching the Food Network the other night, yes I not only watch TV but am slightly addicted to the Food Network.=) Well, back to the point, I was watching it and a show called The Best Thing I've Ever Eaten came on. I was intrigued, I'm not sure I could pin down the best thing I've ever eaten. The theme was breakfast and there was a whole slew of different dishes. The traditional like corned beef hash and blueberry pancakes to the not so traditional like hot chocolate and spaghetti with scrambled eggs(That last one actually looked really good, so did the hot chocolate!)

It got me thinking about the best breakfast I've ever had, I've never had it all together but I'm pretty sure I've pinned down the perfect menu!

It would start with tea, yes tea, I don't like drinking coffee with my meals for some reason. Probably a toasted rice green. The green tea is light and sweet and the toasted rice adds a subtle toasted flavor that is the perfect contrast!

Then we would have raspberry cinnamon rolls. My family has found the perfect cinnamon roll recipe and it makes these little sticky not overly sweet gems that just melt in your mouth. I change the recipe up and roll raspberries up with the usual cinnamon sugar filling, of which we triple the amount of! Then right before baking your pour about two tablespoons of heavy cream over the top of each roll and that cream combines with the sugar, butter, and raspberry juice in the bottom of the pan and caramelizes into the most luscious thick sauce. I upended those rolls out of the pan the first time I made them and knew I had found a little bit of heaven on earth!

Just because the perfect breakfast would not be perfect with out a potato somewhere, I also would have hash browns. Now this is one thing I just can not replicate at home. For some reason the brown and crispy on the outside and perfectly soft and creamy on the inside with just a hint of salt and pepper buttery golden brown goodness has eluded me and my culinary skills! So, I would have to go to IHop and get some of theirs!

That dear readers is my best Thing Ive Ever eaten breakfast. If you haven't noticed this so far, I like to describe things. This was lots of fun, so maybe it will become a regular feature! Think about your Best Thing I've Ever Eaten breakfast. What would yours be? Just don't drool on the key board!=)