“The RoseBouquet”

Christian Novelists Reveal the Heart in the Art of Their Writing

by Diane Eble (c) 2002
Published by Bethany House Publishers, Bloomington, MN. 55438
ISBN 0-7394-2556-0My Review:
If you read a lot of Christian fiction the names of most of the forty authors profiled here will be familiar to you. Some of them are bound to be the writers of your favourite books. You will also meet some that you may not even have heard about. For me, some were names I knew I had seen somewhere, but I really didn’t know any background on them.

If you have a passion to be a writer, if you have a story to tell to the nations, even if you don’t recognize any author’s names, this is an important book for you. Why? Because you will begin to comprehend what it takes to become such a writer, the discipline and perserverance required. In fact, I observed that if you become as prolific as Jerry B. Jenkins you can hardly help but have an experience like his, and you are almost bound to find yourself writing a series of best sellers that cross over to both secular and Christian markets. Just a side note.

To tell you the truth, the main take away impression I had was that if you aspire to write good books, and make yourself available to God to write them, He will start moving people and events in your life to make that possible. I was astonished at how many writers reported that once they offered themselves to God for such writing, He seemed to move heaven and earth to make it possible. That’ is a huge encouragement to me, for I’ve become so busy with other had-to-do work, that I was beginning to think nothing more was going to come of my writing goals. I have been enthused to believe again that it is very possible.

Eble has set up this book in sections to point out, via the writers she profiles, at least 10 or 11 points, so that if “Say Yes to God” doesn’t inspire you, perhaps “Dream God’s Dreams” will, or “Redeeming the Past,” or “God’s Stretching Places,” and “God’s Gracious Ways,” will when you see how three authors feel about the effect their writing has on readers.

Just reading about the many years some writers persisted in writing without recognition before it came to them, and how God used those years to polish and perfect them resonated well with me. I too feel God has matured me in the delay periods. But the over-all effect of reading all these profiles is one of hope swelling up that yes, these are my kind of people! I belong in their midst. I can learn from their examples, and be an effective, fulfilled and published writer too.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you are in similar shoes. In that case, by all means get your hands on this book. It will inspire you. Keep it handy to re-read when you lose the big picture of your writing career.

Thank you Diane Eble, for giving us this fine book!

[To Buy this book…]

Read about my novel HERE Or, go directly to the order page

Or, Read sample chapters of my first novel online, starting at the Index

You can order the softcover paperback from Booklocker

Jan/1/2008

Dear Writer,
let’s have a heart-to-heart talk here. This is the first day of a new year. It’s time to evaluate what we have done with our gift and passion for writing, and what kind of fresh start we will make today.

YOU: Well, a lot of life happened in 2007. It was impossible to get to any writing!

You’re not telling me anything new. 2007 was the most eventful year I’ve had since… 1983. Dad died in February, I had a back fracture, I had to find a new home, and clean up Dad’s estate, and prepare for the estate auction. My new home is wee house built in 1926, and it needs to be made all over again. I made it livable this last summer, but there’s still lots to do. On top of that, I registered my home business with the city, and now have registered a commercial business and set up a new office.

I’m sure your life has been busy, but I crammed a lot into mine too.

Although I had started a sequel to my novel in 2006, last year I didn’t get to put in five minutes on it. It’s stalled on my old DOS computer. I can’t even remember if I got half-way finished with it. I tried to keep up with my business writing, such as my RoseBouquet and answering emails.

But you know what, dear Writer? I got a book for Christmas in which Christian novelists reveal their heart in the art of their writing - it’s a good look behind their stories into their real lives, and in this book I’m finding myself challenged to say at the very least, “Lord, if You will open the door to writing, I promise to walk through it.” A number of these well-known authors have prayed along that line, and found that changes came into their lives shortly afterward, which made it possible for them to write. Yes, even when to all appearances it was impossible. Could not happen.

So last night I prayed such a prayer too. That book makes me feel like the Ugly Duckling who has finally found her own kind, and lo, it is among the Swans. I know I am happiest when I’m writing. I do believe God has guided me step by step in this new business and perhaps it will cover my expenses well enough so I can hire others to run it, and return to just writing for hours on end at home. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

I suspect you may be in similar shoes. Do you find yourself brimming with things that need to be said, or better yet, written? The written word is longer lasting and can reach more people. Have you made an effort to mark a certain place and time as your writing time? Would you be willing to do that if God gave you a nudge, and helped other things to fall into place?

Are there things in your life you could give up to make room for writing?

Writing is a joy, but it is also hard work. At least, you need to be prepared to work if you want to be productive on a steady basis, and most particularly if you want to make a living at it.

Think of the things that have happened to you as fodder for articles, stories and books, or web sites. If something makes an emotional, visceral impact on you, it’s bound to do that for someone else too - if you know how to write about it well.

All I’m asking of you, dear Writer, is to pause today to think very seriously, paying attention to the whisper of God’s Spirit in your heart, about your writing and your life, and what do you really want to do about it. If this is not the right time, let it go. Just be willing to be guided, if God has plans for you to write.

Blessings and Best Wishes for your 2008 - May it be Especially Great!

Ruth

So many talk about having depression, that it’s almost a status symbol now. Of course, those who truly suffer this affliction do not enjoy it much. I KNOW there are spiritual answers.

There are however, certain other emotions that often are mistaken for depression. They should not be treated the same, so it’s important to distinguish which you are dealing with.

DISCOURAGEMENT
This is what you feel when you lose hope. You’re unable to do the work God gave you. You get sadder and sadder, and give up - on yourself, on God, on life.

Put a discouraged person with other depressed and sad people, and it will only get worse. This individual needs to be with encouragers who speak with hope and gladness.

SORROW
This is a deep sadness of the soul, yet it is possible to be very sad about one thing, such as an illness, or death in the family, and joyful on another. A sorrowful person can be encouraged by someone weeping with them, and can still have a sense of purpose, and acknowledge that God can use this time to help him or her grow up spiritually.

GRIEF
This is an anguish of the spirit affecting both soul and body. It drains you of all emotional energy, causes sleeplessness, and can distort perspective. Often it involves a total disinterest in food. Grief that drags on and on can become depression.

Medical professionals use the following criteria for depression, the most common mental disorder in America, and twice as common in women as men.

At least two weeks of any four of these symptoms;

- poor appetite and weight loss, or of eating too much, and gaining weight,

- sleeping problems, either too much or not enough,

- no interest or pleasure in usual activities,

- fatigue, no energy,

- excessive or wrong sense of guilt, feeling worthless, and reproaching self,

- unable to think or concentrate,

- thinking of death or suicide a lot.

The medical people refer to categories and special terms. A Neurotic depression is mild, a Psychotic depression is severe.

[Read the rest of this article. The other five articles are in that same area - check the index to the Inspirational articles. You may also download the e-book for free from this e-book page. Help yourself to any of the others on that page too. To my chagrin I see that they are all .exe books, which means you can only open them on a Windows computer. I must fix that!]

Read about my novel Ruthe’s Secret Roses. Or, go directly to the Order page,

Or, Read sample chapters of my first novel online, starting at the index

Order the e-book to download and read on your computer.

You can order the softcover paperback from Booklocker

About the end of November I usually get a Christmas card letter from my friend Katherine. She describes how she has everything ready for Christmas. That means her gifts are all bought wrapped, her menus planned, her housecleaning done, her Christmas cards letters just about all away. Her house decorations are ready to put up on December 1.

Katherine’s letter makes me sigh. Is she too eager for Christmas, or am I just lazy? What’s the matter?

Then I got to thinking. She’s shopping for most of that stuff. I’m doing things the homemade way.

There’s a new rage for homemade Christmases, so I’m starting to lift my head, to share my secrets. The catch is, you have to read this early to make use of many of these ideas. If you follow my example, you’re not likely to be ready early like Katherine, but hey, you’ll have fun you can do this on a shoestring budget.

You can prepare your heart to worship the Christ-child without spending a cent. It does take time to sit quietly focus your thoughts on who the holiday is for, how you will honour Him in your heart.

Many automatically have relatives and dear friends that all come together to celebrate, but if it happens that you don’t know enough people to make a joyous noise in your home, take charge, invite other lonely singles neglected people. They will surprise you with love.

For 24 years now I have not been able to buy cards for all the people I’d like to send greetings to at Christmas time, so I’ve made huge batches of my own, Often people send me their card with a note, hoping they are still on my list so they can see my card.

[Read the rest of this article in my Sharing Library - Too Eager for Christmas ]

(Profile of a character in my novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses)

She was orphaned as a child in Australia. At thirteen she had grown not only withdrawn, but bitter against God and the world when she was raped in a deserted stretch of woods through which she usually walked from school to her foster home.

Afraid to trust anyone, especially men, she had locked herself into a world of books, a safe and private realm where she could have adventure without involvement. Diligent and thorough, she earned degrees in literature and history while still in her twenties, and she wrote very articulate articles raking over anything she heard about God. There was no such thing,… or person– God-forbid! (She cringed internally at her faux pau. But nothing happened).

She had to set new goals to keep busy. She wrote a textbook for elementary schools, and travelled to the States, hoping for fame..

There she went to another university and got degrees in arts, music, and philosophy. Education, journalism and even political science followed. She drove herself on, only stopping to write another textbook or history tome when she ran low on tuition fees and living expense money. She set higher goals and got doctorates. No matter how long or difficult the courses, as long as she did not have to think of relationships, or her lack of them.

A time came when there were no more courses that interested her. Realizing she had some responsibility to pass her knowledge on she decided to come teach in Canada. She chose high school, rather than a professorship, so she could feel superior to her students. They would not notice her short-comings, or so she thought.

Instead she ended up antagonizing the whole student body! Some called her the Fire-Spitting Dragon, and they had no respect for her at all.

Though Phyllis had written complicated theses to prove it was impossible for God to exist, her main argument was that in all her travels and studies she had never met anyone who was the kind of transformed person prescribed in the New Testament. Sometimes she wished she could just have a peek at such a perfect person; the next moment she beat herself up for allowing such a thought into her head.

When Phyllis heard about a student of hers, Darlene Barrett, a promiscuous sixteen year old who has dropped out of school to start a dress designing shop, she decided to get over there to tell this girl off. This very Friday. Not next week!

Yes, this fifty-ish woman, who looked like a model skeleton escaped from the labs, wearing a charcoal crepe dress ordered from an Eaton’s catalogue in the early 40s, with her greying red hair severely knotted into a neck bun, clicked and clattered in her high heeled black tie-up oxfords off on her crusade. She would teach that drop-out the value of an education!

Now, if your imagination is not up to featuring in your mind what a totally transformed Phyllis would be like, then you NEED to read Ruthe’s Secret Roses and find out how I pictured it.

Darlene had been kicked out of her mother’s apartment for becoming a Christian, and with Ruthe Veer’s help, had renovated a little green cottage into a dress-design shop under her new name, Darlin’ Bonne’s Shoppe. Phyllis found a totally transformed teen. Darlin’ looked 21 instead of 16 in her very tailored black velvet suit, and her shiny black hair done up in elegant fashion curls, shaped like a crown. Darlin’ was not giggling and winking at the boys in class now. She had good manners, and when her former teacher lit into her with a harsh lecture about dropping out of school, Darlin’ responded by slipping an arm around the older woman, drawing her to a fur covered vanity stool, and asking, “Would you like to hear how Jesus gave me a total makeover? A brand new person.”

Phyllis stared. “Imposs–!”

But Darlin’ Bonnie ignored her angry words and vibrations and pretended Phyllis really wanted to hear this. Which she did, gulping it down as if she’d been oxygen-deprived.

That very day Phyllis got a spiritual and a physical total body makeover and a brand new look. The gang at Darlin’ Bonne’s Shoppe spent all that evening giving her a new hairdo, a new face, and a new wardrobe. They all worked together in one room, and even worked through all her class subjects at school with Phyllis, and showed her new ways to teach.

I assure you - when she was back in school on Monday, her students did not recognize her. The only thing that convinced them was when she humbly told the story of her own royal treatment at Darlin’ Bonne’s - her total makeover. She was going to keep working at being this new woman until she fully measured up to the description in Matthew chapter 5.

Sure! You can ….
Read more about the book first here, if you like; Introduction Or, go directly to the Order page

Or, Read sample chapters of my first novel online, starting at the Index

Order the e-book to download and read on your computer; Order page

You can order the softcover paperback from Booklocker.com

When Remembrance Day comes around each November, our family has always treated it very low-key. I think it’s because we are rather confused about what to do with it. On the one hand we know that Mennonites are known to be pacifists in their faith. We’ve heard it all our lives, and yet, I don’t recall getting any in-depth teaching about it as I grew up. I learned more from my reading after I was an adult than I learned from my parents or church in my childhood.

But there’s another factor. Our family for three generations has had someone sign up to be a soldier. This seems to have messed up our pacifist thinking in each of those three generations. This is all on my mother’s side of the family. On Dad’s side he had a brother who went to war. Uncle George was conscripted. Uncle Johnny became a Conscientious Objector. I have some photos from his time in the work camps in B.C., but no hard and fast details. Dad was away working on a farm/ranch when the conscription officer came, and escaped having to join or make a decision, for which he was always grateful.

Let me profile the ones on Mom’s side, since I know the most about those stories.

First there was my maternal great-uncle, Peter Kroeker. Gran’pa Kroeker’s younger brother left home and signed up as a Canadian soldier in the second world war. He was stationed in England. Beyond that I know nothing of his service, where, when, etc. But I have seen this letter in 1942, which my grandmother had in her possession. (It may have first come to his parents).

Dear Folks,
I am well and happy and hope this writing finds you all the same. I hope you will all forgive me for not writing sooner. I have received so many letters, cards and parcels, and I am very sorry I have not written before this. and I can’t thank you folks enough for all this kindness and love you have shown me by writing and sending parcels.

And now that I am out of the kitchen I will try and write oftener. I hope you won’t laugh at what I am going to tell you next. Now just take a guess while you turn this page.

_____over________
I got married on the 17th of Jan. 1942 to a Miss Lillian Alice Baker, from London. I won’t describe her now, but I can tell you that I think she is all right and I have not changed my mind yet.

[This article got too long for here. You can read it in full on my family genealogy site; Our Family’s Solders ]

[Today the Craft Party photo story counts as my article ]

I’m astonished that some of my earliest efforts at building a site have become so vague in my memory. My sub-conscience must be trying to forget them. Do you think? But I’m in a mood to review my past efforts and see how far I’ve come.

My very first efforts were with a program called Composer that came with my Netscape browser. It was limited in what I could do with it, but it got me started and convinced me that I could learn to build a site. My first few pages were like a posted resume to introduce myself and my goals to the world. I tried out all kinds of possibilities as I discovered places online where I could download and insert pretty left borders, pulsating red hearts, and many pretty fonts. It was like discovering a new craft skill.

Then I learned that HyperMart was offering free accounts that were the most like paid domain hosting. I went for that, and because I was also subscribing to all kinds of ezines, and learning tips from other web designers, I built a more complicated site called A Journal of God’s Provision. It had a mint green textured background, with very dark green text, and it offered articles about my growing knowledge of doing business online (in my case on a shoestring so short I couldn’t tie it around my finger). I published my first ezine, a weekly Digest of my daily online journal (way before blogs came into being). I had a section where I offered my translation services from German Gothic script to English, and another one that gave peeks into my novel that I hoped to publish.

I loved building web sites, so whenever I came across another site that offered free web space, I would sign up and start another one. There was one on Crosswinds that I called Friendship Garden and it featured my poetry, another one on Netscape was called Bouquet of Enterprises, and that’s where I plastered all my affiliate banners until I learned that was a big mistake.

I tried another poetry site on HostingHelps to show off entries in a contest I had run in Jounal-Digest and have discovered it is still up, although I’m not allowed to login any more. (http://www.hostinghelps.com/RoseBouquet/index.html).

But then in 2000 I won a contest and won a year’s free hosting, including the registration of a domain name. It was worth over $400! I was thrilled. I got to figure out the administrative cPanel, and worked hard to design a professional site about my novel. I pictured it with many different areas like a huge sprawling park.

I had that hosting package for just about six months when the ABC Hosting company went under. Fortunately, they allowed me to get access to my domain registration myself, and to find another hosting service, where I had to pay, but I got professional treatment. The Lord seemed to come up with the money to signup for another year, every year just before my birthday. I believe it was something like $179/year.

This site, Ruthes-SecretRoses.com had some general pages around the main index page, and then sub-folder areas like one for my novel’s sales pages, the Author’s Arbour, where I put pages that are more about myself as an author and a person. My photo stories go in that area, and pages about being a writer. The Sharing Library area has a stash of articles I’ve written and also a large number of book reviews.

The Journal-Digest morphed into the RoseBouquet and it has always had it’s own section on my site, with back issues and articles and profiles of my friends (which I compared to roses). I did a total renovation of that area last year, and now the blog has it’s own sub-domain and the RoseBouquet section is where I put my articles about friendship, one of the themes of my novel.

My affiliate pages were in the Resources section until I got another domain site for my Bouquet of Enterprises. Now I feature my business ideas and plans on that site, and the Resources section on Ruthes-SecretRoses.com has become quite neglected. Currently I’m re-vamping it as a new section for gift ideas and other books I publish.

When I found a much cheaper hosting service for a friend, I decided to put my sites there, and also built a genealogy site. I discovered that domain registration at GoDaddy was under $10/year, and the hosting at Revolution was also under $10/year. It was getting much more affordable to have a circus of sites up.

I started building sites for friends, and have really enjoyed that.

About a year and a half ago, I decided that I could manage a re-seller package. With 5 GB of hosting space, I can put up as many sites as I like, or rent out space, as long as I pay the basic monthly fee. That’s when I took on creating of some sites for missions and ministries which could not afford to hire someone else to do all that.

It has all happened fairly gradually, but my journals are still full of God’s provision and guidance. I am still learning all the time, but I know enough to consider myself a professional and to charge for my services now.

Here are the main lessons I’ve learned;

A free site is like a sandbox - a great place to learn basic skills

To look professional you need a domain name, and good hosting service

Some free hosts may hijack your web pages

It pays to shop around for domain registration and hosting services - they are not all equal

A web site is not built with bricks or one-ton rocks - you CAN re-do and improve it - re-work it when necessary.

There is a lot of room for creativity, but some things are consistent for a professional and technically smart site - learn them.

I’ve shared this review in hopes it helps you when you consider taking on site-building. But you will be happy to know that you don’t have to have a seven or eight year history zig-zagging through this learning maze. SiteBuildIt! will have your web business up and running in just a few months. If you invest the time and bring your own motivation and creativity, you cannot help but succeed within a year. Or less!

Do you need more proof? Right here, Proof!

I was looking at the Lord’s Prayer in my devotional time. It is considered a perfect prototype for how we should pray. It openly asks God for daily bread, a symbol over all time for food. We all need to eat on a daily basis. Some need to eat less than they are, but a bit of food each day keeps us alive. Jesus seems to be indicating here that we ought to ask for even this daily food in our prayers to God.

We often think it is up to us to provide for the basic standard of living in our country, and if we want anything fantastic over and above that, then - yes, we ought to ask God for that miraculous addition. That is not thinking like God.

I suppose the reason people resist asking God for their daily and most common felt needs and wants is because it implies a dependency on Him. They really don’t want to be so beholden to Him for everything.

Have you ever made a list of your true needs vs. your desires? What do you need to survive and what would be nice to have, but is not crucial to your well-being?

I’m about to do this for myself. Maybe you’d like to do your lists at the same time. If so, sit down, we’ll work on this together.

Let’s consider our Needs first. We’ve just had our first one suggested to us; daily food. Not all the treats and junk food most North Americans eat, but just basic food groups, some fruit and vegetables, and bread and water will keep us alive.

As winter draws nearer I am well aware that we need a home, and some basic ways of heating it. (It is possible here in Canada to freeze to death inside a house).

For similar reasons we need warm clothing. This reminds me that it is okay to pray for a parka and good boots here. In other parts of the world they may only need enough cloth to cover themselves for decency’s sake.

For our emotional health we need at least one or two family and friends to love and encourage us. Don’t you agree? Let’s put family and friends on our Needs list.

The Bible says that he who doesn’t provide for his family is an infidel, so if we are in a position of needing to bring in an income for these basics, it should certainly be necessary to have a job, or means of income. So let’s add job/income to that list.

Ah, one need is for our spiritual health! We need to know the gospel, and be taught in the Bible, so in my heart I’m convinced a Bible and a church to attend is vital too.

Can you think of anything else? Let’s look over our list.

Needs
~~~~~~
daily food
home (with heat in some places)
warm clothing
job/income
Bible/church

I’m sure as individuals we could add more items to that list. That is a bare bones list. If I am to refine my list and add another one with things I’d like to have, but don’t have to have, it might look like this;

Needs ~~~~~~ supplements baking ingredients veggies home with furnace water heater back fence/locked gate job/incomeBible/church

Wants ~~~~~ fruits (partial to mangos, pears, grapes, etc.) nuts (peanuts, pecans, almonds; I’d like big sacks of ‘em!) sour cream for dip, and eggs! a water boiler furnace like my parents had! plumbing that works, and a shower a new, custom-built kitchen! and a garage?! a profitable business - for generous giving time freed to write books laptop and new linux distros, usb drive, DVD-RWs precious devotional times more time for Christian friends

Believe me, I could spend more time and add more to these lists, but I’m mainly trying to set a good example, so you can prepare your own lists, and take them to the Lord. From personal experience I can say that you will have some lovely surprises! The important thing is to know whom we really should ask for these things

If you like you can share your lists with me; I might learn from them.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Phil. 4:4).

We need to know that to be joyful or to rejoice, is not intended to be optional. God wants us to rejoice. Not only to bless and please Him, though it will surely do that, but as we shall learn as we go along, it is for our own good, our health, when we are glad.

From personal experience I know that good things, and kindness from others will be attracted to us when we go about cheerful, contented, and singing God’s praises in the midst of whatever is happening to us that day.

Have you read the book, Pollyanna? It’s about an orphaned daughter of missionaries, who was sent to stay with her bitter maiden aunt. Pollyanna had been taught to rejoice and see the positive in every situation. By this attitude she influenced a number of people in that community and eventually her aunt had a change of heart too.

I loved that old classic. So I am always upset when someone says rather sarcastically, “Oh, don’t be so Pollyannish!” As if that’s a bad thing to be. The American Heritage Dictionary says for Pollyanna: n. A person regarded as being foolishly or blindly optimistic.

Hummph!

The Online Etymology Dictionary defines it a bit better; “one who finds cause for gladness in the most difficult situations,” 1921, in allusion to Pollyanna Whittier, child heroine of U.S. novelist Eleanor Hodgman Porter’s “Pollyanna” (1913) and “Pollyanna Grows Up” (1915), noted for keeping her chin up during disasters.

I just learned a lot more about this classic and the sequels that were written, on this helpful page; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollyanna And if you want to sample the book, it is online here; Bibliomania.com/0/0/39/77/frameset.html However, reading the whole thing may become awkward as it is in frames that are too small.

Let me get back on track with my thoughts. I’m convinced that I have great peace and contentment when I keep constantly in mind that God loves me, and is looking after me, and no serious harm can befall me when I’m doing the work He has given me to do. You will always attract more friends and help from strangers when you have a glad or satisfied attitude, and just brighten the corner wherever you are.

Tell me, are you attracted to those who are morose and ready to talk about their troubles in a bitter or resigned way as soon as you appear to have a moment to listen? Don’t you try to escape from them as soon as you can?

My conclusion is that I would rather choose to be glad and win people than to drive them away. I would rather make the mistake of being too cheerful than not enough - at least to the degree I’m able. It will keep me in better health, and surrounded with good friends, and it will please the One who made us in the first place, intending us to shine like sunbeams and stars.

Just as Ruthe in my novel sets an example of someone who enjoys intimacy with God, Pollyanna in Eleanor Porter’s book, set an example of a glad and winsome attitude. Let’s follow both of them. It is so much easier when you can watch someone modeling a lifestyle.

Read sample chapters of my first novel online, starting at the index

Order the e-book to download and read on your computer; Order page

You can order the softcover paperback from Booklocker.com