Backward Thinking

I've been doing a lot of studying the Bible lately for teaching Sunday School and for a retreat I'm speaking at in May, and one of the themes that keeps popping up is the idea of how much we can't trust our own hearts and minds to tell us the truth, and how much the things that seem right and true in this world are really backwards or upside down thinking.


My cousin Katy posted this on Facebook today, and I thought it was such a cool picture of how backward we can have it:



Thanks for sharing, Kate! Love ya!

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Small

Big-
You are Big
Maker of stars so enormous
Earth appears as a speck of dust
Designer of galaxies beyond our reach
Sculptor of mountains too high for me to summit
Big-
You are Big.

But today it is your smallness
That steals my breath
And fills me with awe
And sends me to my knees.


Small-
You are small.
Your signature stamped on the minutest cell
Aware of each hair upon my head,
Your tiny jar
Collecting every,
     individual tear that


f


a


l


l


s


Small enough to know our hearts,
You see
me.

I am not lost on this speck of dust
I am known.
You saw my Micah,
Lost to me before she was big enough to see
But not lost to You who held her in Your hand and ushered her to Your side
The day she flew to be with
You.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?

Small-
You are small.

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My Latest Good Reads

I do love to get lost in a good book, and I've gotten lost in some good ones lately. 

It's interesting how different the types and genres of books I've been reading are from one another.  You'll see from my list that they vary from YA Fantasy to Contemporary Christian Fiction.  None of these were perfect, but all of them were entertaining, and I didn't want to put them down.  

Young Adult Fantasy/ Fairy Tale:

I stumbled on this one at the library and maybe I enjoyed it so much because I didn't know what to expect.  It was such  a pleasant surprise.  It's the first of a trilogy called "The Chanters of Tremaris" and I really enjoyed this fantasy world.  I've already been to the library for Book Two and Book Three in the series so I can keep going. 

This one is a fairy tale and a sequel to Goose Girl. I didn't like it as well as Goose Girl, or her other books like Princess Academy and Book of 1,000 Days, but as always, Shannon Hale is a master with words and I liked being back in Bayern. It has a little bit of a slow start, but by the middle I was hooked again

 

Christian Fiction:

This one caught me from the beginning and had enough adrenaline to keep me reading after the Hunger Games Trilogy ruined me.  My only complaint is it is obviously the first of a series (that hasn't been written yet) and left me hanging at the end, waiting for the next book.  (Did I mention it hasn't been written yet?  Hurry up, Joel!)  : )
 

I have been following Jody Hedlund's writing blog for awhile, so it made this book,her debut novel, extra fun to read.   The Preacher's Bride is the one for you if you are in the mood for some good Christian historical romance. 



Verse Novel:

And of course you all had to know I'd be reading another verse novel.  This one didn't disappoint me.  : )  I'm still in love with the genre and really enjoyed this book:

Question For You:  Do you stick to one genre of books or do you like a variety?  Have you read anything great lately? 

Happy Reading! 

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My Website is Finished!

I'm celebrating today because my website is finished! 

The URL www.BeckyAvella.com has been forwarding to my blog while I waited for the website to be finished, but starting today that address will take you directly to the new website.  Please stop by and check it out  I'd love your feedback.  : )

The next two things on my to do list are a blog makeover- it's long overdo- and getting And Then You Were Gone released on Kindle.   

I hope you all are having a blessed Monday!  

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On Writing: Who Am I?

A Season of Preparation:

Writing fiction has been a lifelong dream, but I am not in a season of my life where I can or should devote the time necessary for full time, professional writing.  Out of necessity, it has to remain a hobby. 

Just for now. 

I hope later that will change, and I will have more time to pursue it like I want to do, and find out if I even have enough talent to write publishable stories.

In the meantime I see this as a season of preparation.  I'm studying the craft of writing, and I write whenever I can, loving every minute of it. 

Who am I?

One of the things I'm trying to do is discover my voice, my audience, and my genre.  I've heard you should write what you love to read, but I love such a wide variety of books, and I have three manuscripts started that couldn't be more different.  One is Contemporary Christian Fiction, one is a verse novel, and one is a fairy tale.  Which one do I commit to finishing? 

Who am I as a writer?  Shannon Hale, one of my favorite authors, said, "I spent eighteen years writing unpublishable stuff, and I now realize it was all in pursuit of my voice." 

That's where I am at.  Do I want to write Contemporary Christian Fiction like my favorites Francine Rivers and Joel Rosenberg?  Do I want to write verse novels like Karen Hesse?  Do I want to write fairy tales like Gail Carson Levine and Shannon Hale?  Do I write for adults or for young adults and middle grade readers?  I'm not sure yet.  And when I settle in to the genre and audience that fits, what does Becky Avella the storyteller sound like? 

I don't know yet, but I'm praying about it, and I believe I can't know unless I just keep writing.  That's where I'll find myself.  Not in the thinking about it, but in the actual act of writing.  Just thinking about writing or talking about writing won't make me a writer.  I need to write.  Even if the progress is slow. 

My Goals:

I'm so thankful for the writing community.  I've been given some wonderful advice like this from my new friend Michelle Massaro at Adventures in Writing:

The next time you decide to pick up your pen, I'd encourage you to put it to one of your half-finished books instead of starting yet another from scratch.

Or this from author, Jody Hedlund:

With 3 uncompleted manuscripts, I'm also inclined to think you might need to push yourself to finish one of them, even if it's just as simple as giving yourself the goal of 300 words a day. (Or giving yourself the goal of finishing one during the summer.)


So those are my goals for now-

1.  I need to know what it feels like to actually cross the finish line instead of starting over. 
2.  I've settle on one of my manuscripts to finish and have dedicated this summer as the summer of a completed rough draft.  
3.  I know I'll have to turn off my self-editor and realize the first draft won't be perfect (or even good) and I'll need to turn off the the but "who am I really" questions and just write to "The End".  That voice will be discovered as I continue to finish manuscripts and in the revisions. 

I'm so excited! 

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Seeing Green

The Corned Beef and Cabbage are all set to go for dinner tonight with Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream for dessert of course. 
Yum, Yum, Yum!!   

And after the fun we had with our Valentine's Hair-Dos, the girls and I decided we needed shamrocks in their hair today-

Oldest Princess

Littlest Princess

Directions for hairstyles are from this site: http://www.cutegirlshairstyles.com/ 

All Ready for a Green Day at School-

No Pinching! 

Hey!!  Did You Forget Someone, Mom! 

 See I'm wearing my green, too- 

My husband's family on his mom side came from Ireland only two generations ago, and although I can't claim as much, there's some Irish blood in me, too.  We have a lot of fun  celebrating our Irishness and St. Patrick, a man credited with bringing the good news of Christianity to Ireland and who was described as being "humble" and "thankful" for that honor.  

Happy St. Patty's Day Everyone! 

Love, 

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Last Year It Was That Mustache...

Last year he grew that THING-

 I think they call it a mustache?  I've repressed it.  : ) 

And now??  That King Charming of mine just can't seem to leave his good looks alone-

But this time I can forgive him because it was for such a great cause: 

Being the hero that he is, he shaved all his hair off to show his support for kids with cancer and to raise money to help find a cure.  

Before: 

After:

My Hero!

Thank you so much to all of you who put up with our constant begging on Facebook, and to those of you who contributed to the almost $500 he raised.  His team took first place with a total of $6,800 and the event here in our city raised over $50,000.  Awesome!

My new hero is the lady he works with who shaved all of her long, beautiful blond hair off in memory of her mom who recently passed away from cancer.   And one of the men raised another $600 or so when he promised to shave the mustache he had been growing since he was 16 years old.  Of course they took care of that on stage.  : ) 

It was a good lesson for our kids.  Prince Charming didn't recognize this new bald version of his daddy, but the girls are now growing their hair out for Locks of Love so they can be like their daddy. 

Hope you all are having a blessed weekend and surviving the Day Light Savings change. 

Love,

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