11-26-05

Continued thanks for your continued prayers! This is Will and I at my friend Tony's wedding at the beginning of the month. It was the first wedding Will ever officiated at. We did not plan the matching shirt and tie!

I got my sales numbers for some of my books in the mail today and I'm seriously bummed out. The verbal amount I was given months ago was false. I've been selling books to an absolutely miserable amount. I have to wonder why I'm still getting contracts. And then I wonder if God is so obviously not blessing as far as how many books sold (and this isn't a ministry I'm doing here, this is my job, how bread gets put on our table) what is it that's not pleasing Him? And round and round it goes in my head. I haven't been this discouraged in a long time.

On the Quaker Summer front, however, things are going well and your prayers are making a great deal of difference. I'm so thankful for you. By tonight I should reach the 100 page mark! Hoorah! And the outline is holding true so far which is a relief. I was a little worried it would all go south around this point. It's all filling out nicely too, subthemes are arriving, secondary characters stepping in line as needed. God is providing.

On the home front, we decorated for Christmas yesterday. A real tree now stands all sparkly with all of our same ornaments through the years on the tree, right in our entry hall. I like seeing these old friends.

Ty has got her learner's permit and she and Will just left for her to drive out on the road for the first time. Now that's a real prayer need! I got online and made sure our car insurance was all paid up!

Blessings on you for the coming week and thanks again for your prayers!

lisa

11-21-05

Today was a good day. I have one more scene to write to keep up with my scene quota. Instead of a page quota, I've been writing a certain amount of the outline. Four scenes per day. One scene which I started on Saturday ended up being 15 pages (something very rare for me) so I had to work yesterday as well. I'm shocked at how well it's going with the outlining first. Your prayers must be working!

Went to a luncheon in Cincinnati for some cool work to erase poverty in the city. Say a prayer for those guys up there. They have big dreams and I pray they come true.

God is good. My normal depression problems seem to be much easier this winter. Will's getting up early and getting the kids ready for school which allows me to sleep in until I wake up naturally. This has made a huge difference. In bed at a good hour too. I think sleep, and your prayers, are making all the difference. Depression is such an embarassing malady, but we're finally beginning to figure mine out, how I can change my lifestyle in ways that enable me to function.

You all are great and thanks for your prayers.

love, lisa

11-19-05

My Mac came back yesterday and it's working fine! Hooray. I can get my email again! I can't believe they sent it away on Wednesday and it was delivered here on Friday around lunch. Very cool.

Yesterday I wrote 12 pages. I divided up my outline by number of scenes to write each day between now and the end of the year and that should get me done my first draft by Christmas and enable me to take the Christmas/New Year's week off. If I do four scenes a day from the outline (and at the beginning of the process I'll be adding the scenes that contain "painterly touches" in the character development process) it should work out. Should. Pray I can stick to the schedule.

Thanks again for your prayers! Have a wonderful weekend.

lisa

11-17-05

Today is Ty's 16th birthday. Talk about needing prayer. I can't believe I'm that old! :-)

I spoke at Horizon church in Cincinnati Ohio on Tuesday to two women's groups and it went very, very well. Praise God for that. Met some really neat ladies.

Today I begin first drafting Quaker Summer. Have lots of time to make up for due to the beginning of the week. Ideally, I'd like to have written 30 pages by the time Saturday night rolls around. With the outline finished, at least I have a good idea of the direction in which I'm going. This will be interesting to see how working this way pans out.

My laptop crashed and has been sent off to Apple. Pray it's not something unfixable. I'm at Panera right now, working on Jake's, which he's been banished from until he pulls up his Science grade.

I trust you all are doing well. So far, we're surviving here. Our first really cold day, and the drafty old house we live in is trying hard to warm up, but no luck so far. At least downstairs. I can't imagine what our utilities bill is going to look like! Ack!!! That's almost a scarier thought than writing three books in a year. Actually, upon further reflection, it's just as scary!

Thanks so much for supporting me in this way.

lisa

11-10-05

Finished the outline and the critique!

Today I begin working on the first draft of Quaker Summer. I have about 20 pages written already from the proposal stage, so I'll edit for the changes that have occurred during the outlining phase. (I changed from three children to two.)

I found out that my editor from previous projects, love her(!), will be working on the title I just handed in to Waterbrook a couple of weeks ago. I'm so thankful for that.

I leave tomorrow for a weekend in Baltimore where my mother's years of work in the pro-life movement will be recognized. I don't know how I'm going to get through the acceptance of it without bawling. I do miss her.

And next week, I do one of my odd speaking engagements. I rarely am invited to speak anywhere, but I'll be speaking to two women's groups from a church in Cincinnati. They've been reading Club Sandwich. Pray God uses me there to deliver whatever it is he wants these groups to hear.

Thanks for praying!

many thanks

You all are great and I'm so thankful for you!! You have no idea! But then, you probably do. I'm not the first woman in a stressful situation, now am I? I'm not the first woman to put a husband through school, am I? I'm just glad it's not medical school because then he'd leave me for a younger woman afterwards! Ha!

Today I hope to finish my detailed outline. It should only take a couple of hours.

I need to finish up a critique.

And pray that I would be able to begin my mornings with at least a little bible reading.

We're hosting Ryan and Holly Sharp -- Emergent friends -- for the next few days and they are wonderful. I'm thankful for their sweet presence.

I'm also just thankful for the beautiful autumn day. The leaves are so pretty and it feels rather peaceful.

Let's pray for Mary (who agreed to support me in prayer yesterday--relevant girl) in France with all that's going on there right now. She's not in the hot spots, so let's pray it stays that way!

Thanks again!!

thanks for coming by

Well, you're here at this new blog, and I appreciate the time you took to come on over.

So here's the deal. Three books due by this time next year and I can't do it through my own strength. A lot of writers have prayer teams that help them discern the will of God for their careers, direction for their books, and personal strength.

I say, "Amen to that!"

If you're willing to bookmark this blog and visit every week or so and just mutter a little prayer on behalf of one crazy woman in Kentucky with three books due, three kids and a husband in seminary, let me know. And I will thank you for being gracious and giving to this sister.

grace,

lisa