Leap of Faith

Sometimes its hard in this life we live, to put aside our cannot's our won'ts and our couldn't be's. We grow accustomed to doubt. It creeps up on us like a dull toothache, making us feel less lively, less sure of ourselves. I'm familiar with both -the toothache just this week in fact! Ugh. But that's not the point, really.
I could write another book about uncertainty and anxiety and how they can chip away at your faith in something. I'm sure you can all relate only too well. How many times has doubt kept you from going for and ultimately reaching some desired goal?
Martin Luther King said, "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." This latest hop from Kathy at I'm a Reader Not a Writer where we are leaping into books,(see here) http://www.iamareader.com/2012/12/leap-into-book-giveaway-hop-february.html makes me think about the ways we can go about obtaining our desires. We can move gingerly, one tentative foot in front of the other, or we can, well, leap! We can dive in head first and hope for the best. Either way, the thing that matters most is that we try.
Many of the books we read are stories of adventures, be they glorious, suspenseful or otherwise. We love to  slip into these tales and dance around vicariously in somebody else's shoes.
It's important to bear in mind that this life was not meant to be indirectly savored. We must do what we can to shake the doubt-demon from our minds and experience our own joys, our own triumphs and certainly (unfortunately at times) our own let-downs. How else will we know what we are truly capable of?
By all means, I urge you to continue to read all you can, to make new friends with new fictional characters and visit their lives. Yet I also suggest that we simultaneously remain firmly implanted in our own worlds, and strive to complete our own stories, too.
Thanks so much for dropping by and don't forget to enter our Leaping Giveaway below. There's a chance you could win an e-copy of WISHLESS and a $5.00 Amazon e-gift card. Please feel free to share an example of your own leap of faith with us in the comments section.

Some Kind of Wonderful

"I am practicing being kind over being right." Matthew Quick - Silver Linings Playbook

What does it mean, to be a kind person? Does it mean lending a hand to somebody in need? Or donating to a worthwhile charity? Perhaps both. I suspect we all know how to define kindness. Yet, it may not always be so easy for us to enact. We're busy. Our lives take us where we have to go - to work, to the doctor, to school, to the grocery store, the DMV, the gas station, etc... We are led, often times by the arrows of life, directing us along our days, weeks, months and years. And we follow, with our chins tucked down, our feet on auto-pilot. Thanks to Kathy at I'm a Reader Not a Writer, for reminding us that today is National Random Act of Kindness Day. Lots of awesome bloggers are celebrating, too. See here:
http://www.iamareader.com/2012/12/random-acts-of-kindness-giveaway-hop.html

So on this day, I hope that we will each carve out a moment to pass out a compliment, a shoulder, an ear or a smile to someone who might be well-deserving of such a thing. And I hope that it will come back to each of us when we need it most.

Feel free to share what it means to you to be kind. Maybe it was something you witnessed or it happened to you. Tell us your kindness story. And don't forget to enter our Rafflecopter (see more below) for your chance to win an e-copy of WISHLESS as well as a $5.00 B & N e -gift card. Just a little something to you guys for being so cool!

Of Blocks and Chips

As writers we believe that our penchant for toying with words and phrases is bestowed upon us by some mythical Writer Muse, a lovely creature in a flowing ivory gown and gossamer wings who carries around a big book of really good ideas. Something that resembles this right here:

And while she (or he -  because I want mine to look like Zac Ephron) is certainly helpful, the truth is we write because it's in our genes. Most people with the writer-bug can examine their family tree and find that dear old dad or grandma had it too. Maybe they just didn't take it to task. Trust me when I say that sometimes, most times, life gets in the way. Making a living from this creative craft is not always easy. So we supplement our passion with day jobs and other less entertaining modes of occupation. That said, perhaps your mom kept a journal as a way of honoring her passion for the written word, since she was too busy with raising a bunch of kids to become an author. And your father was tied up with earning the money that fed that same crew. It happens. More than you realize.

But, I digress. (Don't I always?) The point isn't really nature versus nurture. It isn't about the starving, poorly compensated artist in us all. It's to acknowledge that no man is a genetic island. We are who we are because we inherited our traits, our eye color, our height, our sense of humor and our talents from our parents, the blocks to our chips.

And if all goes according to plan, the chips we make will take their dynamic DNA and pass it on to their chips and so on and so on.

So what of those Muses, you ask? They stand ready to assist, to adorn the gifts already in place. Bless their hearts.

P.S. - Okay, we have another winner in our YA Hop. But, do not run away. Do not fret. There's another contest running right now on my FB page, where we're playing Desert Island. Join us, won't you? You just might win. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wishless/232063146839096