Into the Fire

Passionate thoughts about the world of writing and the Power of God

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Passionate: right or wrong. Writes love stories with a passion. Raw Romantic Redemptive

  • Sunday’s Offerings

    Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So He bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.

    When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew He was the Christ.

    Luke 4:38-41 (NIV)

  • Sunday’s Offerings

    Her children arise and call her blessed;

    her husband also, and he praises her:

    “Many people do noble things,

    but you surpass them all.”

    Proverbs 31:28-31 (NIV)

  • The romance in my soul . . .

    (This is a re-run of an old post of mine.)

    Hard-wired for it, I can’t remember that thing called romance never being with me. Not in the gushy, girly-girl, over-the-top kind of way. Not that I can fault that. It is what it is. But rather so deep in my soul that it covers everything else. It rises to a three note tune and overwhelms me. The melancholy or the sensuality or the desire to immerse myself in its beauty. It’s integral to who I am even when I don’t know who that is.

    This romance in my soul emerges from the sad, sacred sounds of Chris Botti’s trumpet. It hovers inside me bringing all the insecurity of that first date. First kiss. Lips touching.

    I sense the holiness intended -but corrupted.

    The intensity of sensation that God intended for good. The genesis of romance from God’s heart to the human will. Tainted but salvaged in potential obedience.

    I can’t take the sensuality away from it. Hand in hand they travel. Merging. Right or wrong.

    I capture the essence of romance in my novels. Because I must. If I do nothing else well, I write romance – total immersion. Not demanding it conform to me or anyone else but that it treasure the gift of God to humanity.

    Romance is not about the fluff, it’s about the soul deep stirrings of approaching love. The fear of not attaining it – that it will skitter away without being realized. The tingle and excitement produced by the glance from a certain individual will disappear unrequited. But it’s also about the anxious hesitation and apprehension of the possibility that love will grab you and never let go. Romance is all of that and everything in between. It slips into our pubescent worlds and graduates with intensity in innumerable forms with unlimited imagination. Not always pretty and performed to a preconceived notion or script, romance writes its own tale and concludes with short-lived episodes or uncompromised commitments.

    Real romance is worth a story. If you dare to write it, write it real.

    Thank you, Father, for letting me feel the romance that reigns pure in your Spirit. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • An End

    This is a song that’s never been sung, music that’s never been written, a testimony available to all.

    AN END

    I’ve been down a hard, hard road but I’m comin’ to an end.

    Saw many empty faces but never met a friend.

    I’ve had some laughs and drunk the drink,

    I’ve even smoked the dope,

    But all I found out in the end was there was never any hope.

    Tell me why I traveled down that road,

    I’ve always wondered why.

    But now I know the path is straight

    Because Jesus took me through His gate.

    Doesn’t matter where you’ve been, He said.

    Doesn’t matter who you’ve known.

    The only thing that matters now

    Is the heart for me you’ve shown.

    The heart for me you’ve shown.

    I’ve wandered long and far enough in that life of sin.

    Tried all the schemes but never found a way to finally win.

    Tasted this and sampled that

    And thought I’d had some fun.

    But when I looked a little closer, I discovered I’d had none.

    Tell my why I felt the need to go,

    Why I went that way.

    It still grieves my soul and makes me ache

    Till Jesus tells me He set me straight.

    Doesn’t matter where you’ve been, He says.

    Doesn’t matter who’ve you known.

    The only thing that matters now

    Is the heart for me you’ve shown.

    The heart for me you’ve shown.

    (Lyrics by Nicole Petrino-Salter)

  • Another kind of . . . Fallout

    Fallout by well-known Forensic Artist and novelist Carrie Stuart Parks is a standalone novel.

    Sara Williams is nearly killed in a spectacular crash into her portable classroom of young art students. Sensing the impending danger, she immediately instructs them to “Run!” as she has previously trained them to respond to that command. Instantly they obey, saving all nine of them while the class unit is totaled with Sara finally able to escape before experiencing certain death.

    One thing you will always experience in Carrie’s novels are unique and fascinating characters in equally unique locations and circumstances. In Fallout you will find several of those characters – including Sara – with all kinds of agendas, known and unknown.

    Sara has disguised her traumatic background without knowing the full extent of the mystery surrounding her parents’ deaths. When the details of the crash into her classroom are discovered, Sara inadvertently realizes she better learn who the real target was supposed to be.

    The story centers around a longstanding secret government project involving the Hanford Nuclear Plant in Washington state. What happened and why – and how it could possibly involve Sara – must be determined before more deaths occur.

    If you enjoy intrigue and more suspects who don’t appear to be, Carrie’s novels are guaranteed to challenge your “whodunnit” skills. Fallout is definitely one of those.

    Father, please continue to bless Carrie with her wonderful skills, talents, expertise in all facets of her life. Fill her up with more stories to tell and allow her the time to write them. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • Sunday’s Offerings

    My soul is weary with sorrow;

    strengthen me according to your word.

    Keep me from deceitful ways;

    be gracious to me through your law.

    I have chosen the way of truth;

    I have set my heart on your laws.

    I hold fast to your statutes, O Lord;

    do not let me be put to shame.

    I run in the path of your commands,

    for you have set my heart free.

    Psalm 119:28-32 (NIV)

  • Sunday’s Offerings

    . . . the Lord will watch over your coming and going

    both now and forevermore.

    Psalm 121:8 (NIV)

  • Sunday’s Offerings

    The Lord is good;

    a refuge in times of trouble.

    He cares for those who trust in Him,

    but with an overwhelming flood

    he will make an end to Nineveh;

    He will pursue His foes into darkness.

    Nahum 1:7-8 (NIV)

  • Taking the . . . Switchback

    Switchback is Book 15 in the A Rachel Hatch Novel Series by L.T. Ryan and Brian Shea.

    Rachel Hatch (aka Hatch) arrives back “home” in Hawk’s Landing for her niece’s birthday where she is able to share some “real” time with her nephew too. It’s a brief time of fun activities, but her friend, and now family after marrying her mother, Jed has a private moment with her to mention his nephew, Landon, who lives off the grid in a small town in Wyoming. He’s a former addict (at least Jed hopes it’s a “former” situation), but Jed hasn’t heard from him in quite some time and is worried about him.

    Hatch offers to go find out about him in spite of Jed’s protest, but Hatch is never one to not accept a purpose – especially for family. Coming home for Hatch is never without its own sorrow, always recalling the murder of her father and the death of her sister and she can’t seem to stay very long.

    Arriving in Wyoming, she learns rather quickly how this particular small town operates, focused on the past pursuits of its citizens while assuming those citizens probably haven’t changed. There’s been a recent murder, and Landon is the suspect.

    After rescuing a young female meth junkie at the motel where Hatch is staying, she offers to give the girl a ride home, but the girl is irate because her dealer (Posey) is now unconscious and will be furious when he awakens. Delivering the twitchy girl to her grandpa’s home, Hatch has an informative discussion with the man.

    Hatch is never one to sidestep trouble and knows she’ll be facing Posey again at some point, but her first mission is to find Landon and see how he’s doing. After meeting Landon, she’s convinced he’s clean and not the killer of the new victim with a similar history to a previous unsolved murder of a 10-year-old boy.

    The hunt for the killer takes some unusual trails and Landon is jailed. When Hatch extracts critical information from Posey, it becomes a race to get there before the killer does.

    There is plenty of action in the second half of this story, and Hatch is no slouch when it comes to gut-level action. She’s been there and done that in so much of her life, it’s her first nature to enter life or death situations when true rescue is pending.

    Hatch is my second favorite heroine just behind Sibella Giorello’s Raleigh Harmon. Both haven’t had it easy in the early years of their lives, were born warriors with tender hearts that aren’t always in the forefront due to circumstances that require them to be hard as granite and cold as ice.

    Highly recommend the A Rachel Hatch Novel Series. Good writing, great stories, meaningful characters.

    Father, I ask your blessings to fall on L.T. and Brian. Continue to provide those great stories you have just for them to tell. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • Sunday’s Offerings

    The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters,

    but a man of understanding draws them out.

    Proverbs 20:5 (NIV)