FEAR FACTOR & WINNER ANNOUNCED

Don't Worry????

Worrying will not make you live longer, and will rob your joy.

Here are some interesting quotes I wanted to share ...

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.  ~Mark Twain

If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.  ~Calvin Coolidge

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.  ~Thomas Jefferson

If I had my life to live over, I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I’d have fewer imaginary ones.  ~Don Herold

Not everyone wants to stop worrying. Well, I'm not one of those people. But it isn't easy to stop worrying.

I was just in that situation last night. Picture this.

It's raining. I'm sitting in the back seat of a truck. I'm texting frantically, trying to make the time pass, trying to think of something else, anything else. My husband sits in the passenger seat answering an email on his phone. He isn't supposed to be doing that! He's supposed to be watching the road. Constantly. My son is driving. My heart is racing. I'm holding on to the door till my knuckles whiten. My muscles tense and my breathing deepens. It'll take twenty minutes to get there. On the highway, he switches back and forth between lanes to allow merging oncoming traffic. My chest is tightening now remembering. 

Why does he have to learn to drive anyway? I don't mind driving him where he needs to go?

No matter how much I worry, it changes nothing. No one can take my life, or my sons, my daughters, my husbands, unless God allows it.

Job 14:5 A person’s days are determined;
    you have decreed the number of his months
    and have set limits he cannot exceed.

Most things we worry about will never happen.  Don't let worry destroy your youthfulness. Instead, let's focus on Him and not be consumed with the things of this world. :)

Lamentations 3: 22-23

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

I have been told multiple times, that you have had trouble leaving comments on my blog posts. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to fix that problem! So, if you leave a comment on Facebook you are always eligible for my drawings as well. And this week the winner of Katelin Maloney's Book, Drowning, is ...

Julia Whitley!

Congratulations, Julia!! Send me a private message with your address and I will forward it to Katelin so she can send you a copy of her book. :)

Thank you so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!

Cindy

Interview & Book Giveaway with Katelin Maloney

I'm so excited to have Katelin Maloney, Domestic Violence Advocate, and Author of Drowning here with me this morning.

 

 Welcome Katelin! Let's start by letting you tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hello Cindy. Thank you for the opportunity to share my novel, Drowning. I really appreciate it!

I am a domestic violence advocate and volunteer at the local domestic violence and sexual assault prevention organization, Betty Griffin House, located in St. Augustine, Florida.

I am happily married to a wonderful and supportive husband and I have two great sons. I am proud to say that my older son is also a volunteer at Betty Griffin House.

Besides spending time with loved ones and writing, I enjoy crafting with friends, touring St. Augustine, and exercising, especially walks on the beach. I have written many scenes in my head while enjoying the calmness the ocean brings. I am very blessed.

Having read your book, I have to know how you came up with the idea for Drowning.

Actually, I dreamed the story one night. The next day I was playing basketball in my driveway with my son and the idea of my character, Anna, came to me.  She is an integral character in the novel. After that day, the story played like a movie in my mind. When I wrote the first draft, I felt like I was just writing down the movie.

I’m currently writing a second book called Deception and unfortunately that has not happened! I have to make it up as I go along. 

If you don't mind me asking, what led you to write a story about domestic violence?

I am a domestic abuse survivor and wanted to give abused women a voice.

  

Throughout the years I’ve known other women who have been in abusive relationships and some people in their surrounding network didn’t understand the dynamics of the relationship. Drowning shows what the victim is living through. Women in abusive relationships will be able to see that the abuse is not their fault and that the abuser is not going to change his behavior.

I have had several women thank me for writing Drowning because of their previous abusive relationships. This feedback has been very rewarding.

I want to include the back cover blurb for Drowning so readers can get insight into the overall story. I hope that's okay.

Drowning, Katelin Maloney

Rebecca has simple dreams. A promotion. Children. A happy marriage. But can she have it with Mitch?

Though she carefully keeps secrets to guard her safety, her marriage to Mitch, a successful doctor, is brutal, and his abuse is escalating. A promotion at the bank could be the answer to her prayers, but Mitch has different plans for her life.

Ultimately, Rebecca must face her own inner demons before she can act. Will she be able to find her former, stronger self before Mitch destroys her completely?

What is the biggest challenge you've faced as a writer?

Learning the craft of creative writing! My background is in Finance and Economics and I have written only non-fiction for the last twenty years. I had no experience in writing fiction before taking on Drowning.

I started going to writer workshops, took classes, and read books on the craft of writing. I joined an online critique group which was very helpful to me. Basically I had to educate myself in a whole new field which didn’t include numbers! J

How do you stay motivated?

A couple of ways. Writing has been a wonderful outlet for my creativity. I’m excited to get up in the morning to start to write.

Even more motivating is the topic that I write about. When I would put Drowning aside for a month or two, I felt the pull to go back and write it because I knew the story would make a difference in people’s lives. I knew in my heart that the story needed to be told and I was the one to tell it.

What do you want your readers to gain from the book?

I’ve been told that Drowning is a ‘page-turner’ by several people, so I hope the reader enjoys the fast pace.

After reading Drowning, people will have a better understanding of abusive relationships and why women stay as long as they do. The reader will ‘walk on eggshells’ and feel that they are in the middle of the storm that the main character, Rebecca, feels she is in.

 Do you have any words of wisdom you'd like to share?

Yes. Has anyone ever noticed a friend or loved one pulling back from your relationship? Saying ‘I’m sorry’ often? Being distant or stopping contact with you? Have you noticed bruises? Does she miss a lot of work? These are all examples of someone who could be in an abusive relationship.

You can reach out to her and just let her know you are there if she needs you. Give her the number to the local domestic violence organization.

Remember, if we can help just one woman, we’ve done our job.

Katelin, thank you for being with us today and giving us a peek into your own personal experience. And readers, be sure to leave a comment to be entered into the drawing and then return next week to see if you're the winner of Katelin's book.

 

You can find Katelin's book ... and follow her here.

Katelinmaloney@yahoo.com

www.katelinmaloney.com

www.facebook.com/katelinmaloneywriter

@KatelinMaloney

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week!

Cindy

SLITHERING UNWANTED GUESTS

I love a good love story. I have a daughter and I want her to have good solid, Christian morals and she should have good reading material to choose from. We can have good solid romance stories without all the nasty. Believe me, I've read many of them. But I also don't want her to inherit this nasty thing that staggered its way into my life at an early age and leaked and swelled in me like a cancer.

My main character of Broken Butterfly deals with issues of trust and insecurity. A writer writes what she knows. This story isn't about me and has nothing to do with my life or my past.

My life story grows like a wild branch of the thorny soil from that ugly word. Insecurity. I've dealt with many side effects and wondered many times, why I had to be born this way?

We can be insecure about all sorts of things, money, our safety, walking across our back yard.

The other day I came across a snake. Inside my fenced in back yard. He wasn't supposed to be there. Inside the fence, y'all. My husband wasn't home. I had locked myself out of the house.

Let me clarify. My keys were in the office. Where I was headed. I had to walk by him to get there. I was stuck. My dog just sat there looking up at me wagging her tail. I'm going to be honest, I was a little upset with her. Why would she let that critter come in my yard?

But she had no idea.

I called my husband and he told me to get a shovel and kill it. I laughed. Hard. Then he said, "Wait outside and watch it to see where it goes until I get home."

How long would it be before he got there?

TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES. Yeah right. That snake disappeared. After only a few minutes. It was hot, my left eye started watering. I can't believe I actually stood in the grass, at least 7 yds away, watching this reptile, completely terrified. He slithered across the grass, stopped, looked around, and started moving again. He repeated this motion several times before I finally lost him. I could finally go back inside the office, where I left, Sadie, my Labrador Retriever along with my biscuit on the desk.

Sadie didn't touch my biscuit. I couldn't believe it. She's a good girl.

I've been planning to do this for a while, but I wasn't looking forward to it. But now seemed like a good time to learn. I shot my first gun. As my husband was telling me everything to do and not to do, the more nervous I became.

"Don't get scared and face it toward us once you fire it."

"Don't hold your finger there."

"Don't hold your arms that way, when it kicks, it'll hurt."

Too many things to remember.

I watched him first. He said, "Are you ready?"

I pressed my fingers in my ears and steadied my gaze on the cup he was aiming at. The cup didn't move.

The next shot came, but this time, I was focused on the end of his gun, just as the fire came out. I wasn't expecting to see a ball of fire. The trembles began as soon as he placed it in my hands.

It took me a few minutes after convincing myself, I was going to do something wrong. But I didn't hurt anything. I missed the cup too. Then I tried again, and missed the cup again. After the third try, I gave it back to him. My daughter stood waiting patiently for her turn.

I'm thankful she doesn't have the same fear of guns that I do. I'm not giving up, I'm going to try again, and again until I get used to it. I may never feel comfortable, but I'll never feel comfortable around a snake either.

Either way, we can fight through this insecurity mess or we can give into it. I've been fighting for a long time now, and taken a step forward, and two back, but through it all, I've had some very good results. Otherwise, I wouldn't be telling you. :)

No one wants to admit to insecurity.

Snakes have a lot in common with insecurity. They slither their way into your life and bring unnecessary fear and worry. And it's definitely unwanted. Sometimes it stays hidden, until suddenly there it is, revealing it's ugly face.

I was worried he'd come back. He did. And two more different snakes joined him. Yep. Two more. Never has this happened in all the years we've been living here. I've only seen one snake in 16 years. Until this year. Not happy about this.

Who's ready for winter?

I love to give my characters this trait, in different  ways of course, my characters can't all be the same, but seeing them pull through it is worth all the conflict they suffer.

Along the way, I've learned some valuable lessons, that I'm looking forward to sharing with you in the weeks to come.

UPDATE: After my procedure last week, my headache is still here, but there is still a lot of tenderness in the area, and my neck is still in some pain. I'm hoping these are contributing to the headache. Thank you so very much for your prayers. You don't know how much I appreciate each and every one of them.

NEXT WEEK... Be sure to come back! I'll have a very special guest. Katelin Maloney, Domestic Violence Advocate, & Author of Drowning, will be here to share her story. I'm really excited. She's also giving away a free paperback copy of her book, so make sure you come back for your chance to win.

Have a wonderful day!

Cindy