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

  • Doodling . . .

     

    She was no runway model. So it took her exactly two and a quarter hours of intermittent foot travel between her desk and her boss's office to topple off the three inch heel by twisting her ankle as she attempted to gracefully bend at the knees to pick up a dropped file, separating the pencil thin spike from the rest of its shoe. Crimson was not bright enough to describe her complexion as she landed hard on her bottom nearly creating an unintended slit up the side of her straight black skirt, one leg straight in front of her, the other one bent cockeyed at the knee and splayed beside her, the file's contents now spread across the thick grey carpet in front of her, the black spindle just out of reach to her right.

     

    Father, thank you for who you are. I'm desperate for you. Everyday, always. Apart from you I can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

     

     

  • And counting . . .

     

    I know it's pathetic to make a big deal out of the one more day until the computer issues hope to be resolved. However, it has become a big deal in its own way because of the imposed restrictions on just about everything I do on the computer. I haven't been able to read or edit my novels under construction, but, yes, it's a good thing to be totally away from them. My husband's laptop is virtually useless to him without its wireless capabilities, but having checked it out at Best Buy it isn't the computer. Turns out it's the communication between it and the router at home and hopefully it will also be resolved on Tuesday.

    So enough about this nonsense. I'm sick of it too.

    It's Labor Day. You know the day where most of retail works and others don't. Where some companies shut down and others gear up with dynamite sales. Where it's an extra day of horse racing on a normally off day. Where it's the last blast before school starts for some. So . . . have a good one whatever you must do.

     

    Father, you are the focus of my labors. I love you, Lord. Please help me to do what you have for me to do. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • Sunday’s Offerings

     

    Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

    Philippians 4:4-7 (NIV)

  • Of some interest . . .

     

    Please take a moment to learn more about the new attacks on Christians from evolutionist, Richard Dawkins. In his latest round of attacks, Dawkins calls Christians “uneducated fools.” Read my response to his overt hatred for Christians and conservatives. As always, please remember to join the discussion in the Washington Post comments section.

    Jordan Sekulow

    ACLJ Executive Director

     

    Father, you've made the foolish wise and the wise foolish. And given mercy to all. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • Unbelievable . . .

     

    Computers serve a marvelous function, but for non-geeks, for people who will never be tech-savvy, for those who can do just enough to get by on one . . . they can be the pits, the headaches, the blood-pressure raising impetus for family distress. That's a ridiculous state to be in, but it's true.

    I am standing, yes, standing (!) at my husband's laptop to post this. For whatever reason, and I do mean whatever, the wireless ability decided not to connect to the internet yesterday. I won't tell you how long I was on the telephone with someone who gave their all to try and work through every possibility to fix it last night. To. No. Avail.

    AAAAACCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!

    Alright then. Nice post, huh?

    Five days and counting until the new one is set up.

     

    Father, help me keep perspective. This is nothing in the big scheme. Nothing. Dust, Chaff. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • Really . . . Ice Cold

     

    Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen's novels provided the impetus for the TNT series Rizzoli & Isles. Angie Harmon of Law and Order fame and Sasha Alexander formerly in NCIS play the Boston Police Detective Jane Rizzoli and the Medical Examiner Maura Isles respectively. Ms. Gerritsen also writes an occasional post for Gina Holmes' award winning website Novel Rocket, formerly Novel Journey.

    Since Tess comes off as tough, outspoken, and intelligent – the word spunky comes to mind – I decided to pick one of her novels to read. Settling on Ice Cold, I took the trip with Dr. Maura Isles into the chilling mountains of Wyoming.

    In Ice Cold the heroine Maura Isles attends a medical conference in Wyoming while nursing a broken heart over an unrequited love affair with a priest. The pragmatic Dr. Isles decides to do the unpredictable when an old acquaintance talks her into taking an impromptu ski trip with two of his friends. When the weather threatens their safety, an effort to turn around goes horribly awry. The foursome discover a cluster of identical abandoned houses not too far from their incapacitated Suburban, but they soon realize they have no cell phone service and no one knows where they are.

    Although the houses have food, shelter, and wood for the fireplaces, it isn't until they find a vehicle in the garage that they attempt to leave and get back down the mountain. As they're battling the fierce snow, the need for adding chains causes a gruesome accident injuring one of the men. Things go downhill fast from there.

    Meanwhile Maura's lover alerts Jane Rizzoli to his inability to contact Maura. Jane isn't too receptive, thinking she's probably ignoring the priest, but Jane begins to wonder when she can't reach Maura.

    I'm not sure I would've cared for the "real" character Maura Isles if I couldn't hear Sasha Alexander's voice and portrayal in the background of this story. The "real" Maura Isles seems more hardcore, less sympathetic, and only toward the end of this book does she seem to acquire any sustained likability.

    Ice Cold is a story of cultic behaviors, quirky characters, horror, murder, fear, survival, and the determined pursuit of a friend and lover. Since Ms. Gerritsen is a physician, the medical tech-speak works efficiently in her writing.  I could do without the f-bombs dropped by the women in the story and the lumping together of true spirituality with cultish behaviors, but the novel is suspenseful and entertaining.

     

    Ice Cold: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel(Amazon.com)

     

    Father, only you know where Tess is with you. I pray you would continue to bless her life and that she would know that every good and perfect gift comes from you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

     

  • Running off . . .

     

    In horse racing we have a term for when a horse gets the best of a rider and "runs off". Usually this happens in the morning during the hours of training. For various reasons a horse decides to test, ignore, or disregard his exercise rider or jockey and takes off at a dead run or at an uncontrolled run. It's no fun to be on board when this happens because if fear motivates this action, there's no telling where the horse will run. Will he stay on the track? Will he head for the gap? Whatever his choices, the rider keeps working to gain control of the jaws that have gone cold and unresponsive.

    Yesterday Brenda J. brought up characters who "run off" with us as writers. They head directions we never planned to send them. No matter what we thought was right for them, they've set their sights on other ways and means and left us in their dust. While some of the highly organized and plot-driven calculators might find this laughable and absurd, it's a plight we seat-of-the-pantsers contend with on a regular basis when writing our novels.

    Characters insert themselves into stories without so much as an introduction and dominate a place we never pictured for them. They claim their portions of our stories and refuse to exit until they've made their marks. Once they've interacted and intersected with the other characters they dare us to remove them, making a solid case for their necessities to the plot. Obviously it's useless to argue with them.

    Not nearly as frightening as being a passenger on the lighter exercise saddles of a running off Thoroughbred, a writer can still feel a little out of control when his characters stage their own scenes and invite friends we never intended to include on the guest list.

    So much of writing is out of our control . . .

     

    Father, we rest in your ultimate control and thank you for you it. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • Thunder in the Morning Calm by Don Brown

     

    For the CFBA Tour:

     

    Lieutenant Commander 'Gunner' McCormick is assigned as an intelligence officer to Carrier Strike Force 10, being deployed to the Yellow Sea at the invitation of South Korea for joint exercises with the US Navy. During his pre-deployment briefing, he discovers a TOP-SECRET MEMO revealing rumors that the North Koreans may still be holding a handful of elderly Americans from the Korean War in secret prison camps.

    As it happens, Gunner's grandfather, who was a young marine officer in the Korean War, disappeared at Chosin Reservoir over 60 years ago and is still listed as MIA in North Korea. Sworn to silence about what he has read, the top-secret memo eats at him. Gunner decides to spend all his inheritance and break every military regulation in the book to finance his own three-man commando squad on a suicide mission north of the DMZ to search for clues about the fate of his grandfather.
    Risking his career, his fortune, and his life, Gunner will get his answers, or he will die trying.

    Don Brown is building a loyal fan base by writing what he knows best: thrillers with heart. A former Navy JAG officer and action officer in the Pentagon, Brown pens action-packed plots and finely-drawn characters that are credible and compelling. Thunder in the Morning Calm is a novel of bravery, duty, and family love that will keep readers of all ages reading straight through to the last page.

     

     

    (I will post my review of this novel when my new computer is set up. I love Don Brown's writing, and I've read all of his novels. However, this is not my favorite one. I have a review written, but I can't retrieve it as of now, and I'm not writing another one. :)  )

     

    Father, please continue to bless Don's work and writing. Inspire him and speak more stories into his heart. Watch over him and his family. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

  • It can change things . . .

     

    Personally knowing the author of the novel you're reading can change things. That is if you're not a close friend of theirs. You can't help but wonder just how much of them is in the characters with whom you're spending a lot of time. Is that how they think about that subject or is it really the character? Ooohh, that dialogue reminds me a lot of what I heard them say when we were talking . . .

    I don't pretend to exclude myself from my characters. Just how much of me is in each one hopefully shall remain a mystery to all but my most intimate friends and relatives. Those composites of people that make up our lives through the ages mesh and mingle and form into "real" people on the pages of stories along with ourselves. We can't really hide. We're there in some capacity. How much is up to us.

    How much of yourself do you allow people to see and experience in the words of your novels?

     

    Father, you create the stories. We're often just along for the ride. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

     

    Postscript: My computer is down. I'm borrowing my husband's laptop. It will be a strange long ten days or so.

  • Sunday’s Offerings

     

    Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,

    and also madness and folly.

    What more can the king's successor do

    than what has already been done?

    I saw that wisdom is better than folly,

    just as light is better than darkness.

    The wise man has eyes in his head,

    while the fool walks in darkness;

    but I came to realize

    that the same fate overtakes them both.

    Then I thought in my heart,

    "The fate of the fool will overtake me also.

    What then do I gain by being wise?"

    I said in my heart,

    "This too is meaningless."

    For the wise man, like the fool, will not be

    long remembered;

    in days to come both will be forgotten.

    Like the fool, the wise man too must die!

    Ecclesiastes 2:12-16 (NIV)