I'm back!
I have seriously neglected my poor blog these past two weeks. Life got in the way and I could not summon the energy necessary to come up with posts. My computer was also in the shop for repairs and the few times I did sit down to post something, our internet was so slow I soon gave up.
But I am back now and I will try to keep up!
So since I have been away from my Internet home for awhile, I will catch you up on some of the happenings around here, writing related or otherwise.
First off, I am in the process of re-publishing the two books in my TCCAS series, Rustlers and the Texas Trail and Hidden Treasure and Wedding Bells. Due to continued issues with my publisher, I am re-publishing on my own through CreateSpace. I hope to have that all wrapped up in the next two-three weeks. After this, I will publish all of my books through CreateSpace. I am very relieved to be working on my own.
Be Still My Soul has slowed somewhat as I did not have much time to devote to my writing the past few weeks, but hopefully that will change. I am still hoping to have it published by December but….we will see. For not that is my tentative release date, but it could get pushed into the new year. For now, my word count is at 37,000. My goal is 40,000.
Thunder is at a standstill. I have promised myself I will not start any new projects until it is complete….that is proving to be a painful promise! But I am determined to stick to it. My designer, Perry Elisabeth, finished designing the cover for Thunder several weeks ago and I am very thrilled with it. This a guess-what-never-mind moment because I don't intend to release the cover until the rough draft is nearly completed. Sorry!
Jacy, the mustang is coming along nicely. She is learning to trust me and I have ridden her once so far. At the bottom of this post is a video of our first ride. She did buck on me once, but it was a buck of fear an insecurity rather than malice, which is very comforting. She is such a sweet, loving horse. I really hate to part with her, but I bought her as a project horse and I am sticking to the plan. Lord willing, she will be sold within the next few weeks.
Smoke injured her shoulder quite severely a few weeks back and has been isolated from the other horses to keep her from reinjuring it as she heals. My farrier thought it could possibly be spring before she was rideable, but she has shown significant improvement and I am hoping that the injury was not as severe as we thought. We may even be able to do a few competitions, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
The other horses, and Rio the mule, are doing great. They are fat and sassy, no worries about their condition as we go into winter.
Mom purchased a goat in milk and her 8 week old son last week. We now have our own milk again. My goat, Sabriyah, is visiting a fellow breeder's buck and hopefully we will have babies sometime in February.
My plate has been full as I continue to work at the auction, work with the mustang, kickstart my eBay store and I just started giving riding lessons to a nine year old girl.  Mom and I spent this past Friday and Saturday in Indiana at the annual Dunkard Brethren Ladies Retreat. This was the third year we have attended and it was a wonderful time of fellowship.
What have you all been up to? Are you enjoying this lovely fall weather?

I have been working on sorting photos from our Alaska trip in my (nonexistent) spare time. We want to be able to share the photos with our friends and family, but we want to make a slideshow, so we don't have to show them all the photos!

Sorting and editing is going slowly, I am on day 12 out of 30. I finally went through my folders and got a final photo count…I took 14,802 photos on the month long trip! I usually take that many in one year!

Even though the trip was only two months ago, sorting the photos is like reliving the entire experience.

I've put together a few photos from the first 12 days of the trip that are some of my favorites. Which one do you like best? If you see one you'd like hanging on your wall, drop me a line! I can ship prints J

I've mentioned our family business a few times, so since that is where I am working today, for a our public preview days, I thought I would share some photos and tell a little of what we do :)

We have been running an auction company as a family since I was about 8 years old. We rented a building in the small town of Mayville when I was eleven and ran live night auctions every other Saturday night for several years.

When I was fourteen, we expanded to a second location in Sandusky, MI and then switched to running one auction at each location per month.

We did that for about a year, then we switched to running online auctions out of our Sandusky location only. Three years ago, we moved to our current building, which is just down the street from our old one. Including the fenced in yard, we have about 15,000 square feet of room here.

While we miss many things about the live auctions (and they are actually less work to put together), financially the online's are the better way to go.

Getting the items broke down and ready for sale is a very time consuming and labor intensive process. On average, each sale has about 2,000 items, and every item is handled 4-5 times per sale. 10-13,000 photos are taken each month.

We do one sale per month, though sometimes it can stretch out 5-6 weeks between auctions.

For our merchandise, we have usually four take in days where the public can bring in their items for us to sell. We also buy estates…full households where we go in with 30 foot trailers and several guys and pack up and haul out everything in the house. We can usually do a full house, including a garage and outbuildings in 1-2 days.

The items are then brought back to the warehouse, where the boxes are all sorted, each item is given a 3x5 card with a description and a consignor number, then they are put on shelves or lined up in rows.

Then we go through and assign each item a lot number and catalog all the 3x5 cards in notebooks. The books then go to a typist, who types all the information into the computer program while me, Seth and Dad photo all 2,000 lots in 5-6 days.

All of the furniture is moved so a white board can be placed behind it to eliminate distraction in the photos and all the items on the shelves are moved to a photo booth.

All the photos then must be edited and uploaded to the program (Mom's job) and the entire auction is gone through at least once before it is live to the public.

The auction runs for five days, from a Saturday to a Thursday evening. On Wednesday and Thursday of that week, we are open for a public preview, where anyone can come in and view the items in person. The auction takes about three hours to end on Thursday night, it starts ending around seven and usually is completely closed around ten, with furious bidding going on through that time.

Friday and Saturday are our pick up days, where all winning bidders are expected to pick up and pay for the items they purchased. We usually have 4-500 people come through the auction facilities on that day.

And then, the process starts all over! The first photo is the outside of our current building (these photos are not recent) and the rest show a little of what product you can expect to see online. When we are asked what kinds of items we sell, our answer is anything from toasters to excavators!

Today I am working at the auction for a public preview. The auction that running right now will end tomorrow night so we have a busy weekend ahead of us!

Here is the link to the auction site if you want to check it out! AuctioneersNow.com

Do you set goals? They are an essential part of life. They help us to stay focused and keep our lives organized.

But have you ever set a goal that you had  no hope of fulfilling?

I have. You set this really high goal, just for fun let's say it was to bake 10,000 cookies in 2015 (I know, that's silly, but you get my point J)

Now, I guess if you work in a bakery, you might bake that many, but if you are just a normal housewife, or daughter, do you really think you'll meet that goal?

It might be fun at first, but you would soon tire of trying to reach such an unrealistic goal. And then because you failed to reach that goal, you won't be motivated to set more goals.

I have found goals to be a huge part of my writing 'program'(if you can call it that!)

But I have to be careful to set goals that I know I can reach. They should stretch your limits a bit, but not be impossible.

For instance, my goal is to have Be Still My Soul, my latest book project, published by December. This means that I have a ton of work to do in the next few months, especially since the rough draft isn't even finished yet.

But it is possible for me to complete this goal. I might have to put in a few late nights and push myself a little harder, but I know I can do it. If I said my goal was to have this book published by October, that is probably an impossible goal judging by how much work I still have to complete.

Goals are great motivators and I like using them, a lot, but if I set too many impossible goals, I get discouraged when I can't meet them.

Don't stop setting goals! Just be sure that they are within reason J

Goals are also a great way to break down a seemingly enormous task into manageable bite size pieces.

Instead of looking at the overwhelming task of writing a whole 50,000 word novel, break it down into daily goals of, say, 500 words. Or weekly goals of something like 3-4,000 words.

I have found this to be a very effective way to keep me motivated. My overall word count goes up faster, thus encouraging me to press on.

What about you…do you find setting goals to be helpful to you? Have you ever set an impossible goal and felt discouraged? What are some way you use goals to help you accomplish things?

Today we visited the Octagon Barn, a historical sight that has been turned into a museum, with multiple out buildings and many different displays, many of which are live displays.
The barn really is an octagon and is quite a unique design. They were holding their annual fish fry, to which they expect 1000 people to attend. Tomorrow and Sunday there will be a flee market, with live demonstrations going on in many of the buildings including bread baking, wheat thrashing and straw baling, sawing lumber and a number of other activities. Many homeschoolers go to this event. I had not been to the grounds in several years, so it was wonderful to go again and dig up some memories.
They do keep a few animals in the barn, but I do not believe they live there year around. I think they just bring them in for events. There were a few goats, sheep, one donkey(a very noisy fella), a pig (who took an instant dislike to me for some unknown reason) a cow, and two miniture horses, the foal took a nibble of Lydia's hand!
Below are some photos of the barn and the old fashioned tractors and steam engines that filled the area.
Also one of the cute little sheep and the last picture makes me laugh. Pwease, will you be my friend? :)

For those of you who read last week's post and are wondering about the fate of Wild Willy, he has returned safe and sound!
I was extremely surprised that he found his way back inside the fence...the likelihood of him finding not one, but two places to squeeze through is a miricle. I really did not expect to find him. I learned today that a man we know who has hunting ground about seven miles away has seen cougers on his trail cam...not sure if it is real or not since I haven't seen the footage, but still...cougers in this area is not a pleasant thought. And even if there aren't really cougers around here, there are coyotes and bobcats...either one would be very happy to catch a young calf...alone and vulnerable.
So Wild Willy is back with his mama and she seems to be taking care of him. I tried to get photos this afternoon, but he is very good at hiding and I couldn't spook him up. Perhaps when he gets a little older and braver he will venture out into the open.
For now, the cow family is all back together :)

One of my goals as far as horses go has been to work with a mustang. I never really thought I would get that chance...it just never seemed feasible.
Well, I have a mustang!

Isn't she beautiful!? She is about 11 years old and has been off the range for 9-10 years. She has been with the same family for most of those years and gave them a mustang foal.

She is white, with a grayish mane and tail and some sable flecks on her neck. She is on the taller side...I have not measured her yet, but I think she is around 15-15.1 HH.

This girl is so sweet and responsive! I will have had her two weeks on Saturday and have been keeping her separate from the other horses so we can bond. She begs me for affection and literally wraps her head around me and pulls me in for a hug. The depth of emotion this horse is letting me see in such a short time is amazing!

Jacy's name was originally Star, but I renamed her Jacy, which is a Native American word for moon, in honor of my Native American heritage. (Ashwin is also a Cherokee Indian word meaning horse. Thanks, Lorna, for a great name suggestion!)
I purchased Jacy as a project horse and intend to re-home her in the next two months. It will be hard, as I am already in love with this girl! She is an amazingly loving animal and I am so eager to see how far we can go in the short time we have together.
Our training starts in earnest tomorrow. I will attempt to join-up with her and judging by the signals she is giving, I do not think it will be very hard. Cannot wait to ride her!
I will try to get a video of our session and hopefully post it on Monday.
What do you think of Jacy? Do you like her name? What do you think of when you hear the word mustang?

I am very excited to able to share with you my video trailer for Whisper, designed by Alicia Willis! Two minutes long, I love the image/music combination :)
What do you all think of it?

This week, as far as photo taking, has not gone as planned. It seemed like every time I thought I could snatch a few minutes to get some pictures it was raining or something else came up.

Therefore, I found myself dashing out before chores to snap a few. I was hoping to get some photos of my brother, Seth's, calves, but that did not happen.

My grandpa has been building a miniature old west town by his house. Last year he and my grandma built a rustic cabin to use for any company, but specifically for my uncle and his family of seven (soon to eight).

This year, Grandpa decided the cabin was lonely with just an outhouse for company (which we really use on occasion).

So he proceeded to build a western style building for his hit and miss engines. Then came a second building for his pedal tractors.

And we all thought that was the end of it. But, lo and behold, he began a third building, to be used a mock general store. He insisted the project would left until next spring….not so. It is almost completed as we speak.

Anyway, my brother wasn't ready to help me with calf photos, so I wander over to Grandpa Town and took some photos of the buildings and Grandpa working.

I also took some of the overloaded apple tree, and the cabin which started this whole thing J

Then, Grandpa left to get his cows up into the pasture for the night. He was having trouble with one cow, so I went to help.

Long story short, we ended up chasing them all over 35 acres. A couple days ago, one of the cows calved. She was a first time mother, and the calf kept getting lost.

He finally disappeared for good and he has been missing for several days. We all thought he was dead. No newborn can survive for four days without milk. And there are coyotes in the woods.

Well, running through the woods to help us, Lydia found him! Alive! Surpise!

But, apparently the mother has been feeding him, but keeping him hidden, which is unusual for cows to do. He was healthy as a horse!

Before I could think to jump on him, he dashed away and disappeared into thin air it seemed.

I walked the fence line and finally found him hiding inside a picker bush, nestled against the fence.

I thought I had him cornered for sure….but he jumped up and of course, found the only hole my grandpa and uncle had missed when fixing fence this spring.

As of right now, he is still loose on our neighbors property. He is a miniature cow (yes, there really is such a thing) so finding him is nearly impossible in the weeds and trees. He barely comes up to my knees.

We left his mother loose in the hope that he will get hungry enough to find her. We will try to find him again tomorrow.

So all that to say, I did not get the pictures I intended to this evening! Below are a few photos of the western town and cabin to tide you over until I can get pictures of Wild Willy, as my grandma appropriately named him!

Which is your favorite? Wouldn't you love to have this town in your backyard?

If you've read The Sparrow Found A House by Jason McIntire (Elisha Press, 2013), you'll already know his style: Real-life situations addressed with equal parts humor and biblical wisdom. It's a combination reviewers find powerful. They've used the words intriguing, believable, captivating, and unique - among many others - to describe his writing. The Sparrow Found A House (which is available as a free Kindle download from Elisha Press) was also endorsed by Exodus Mandate, the prominent homeschooling action group. It tells the story of the Rivera-Sparrows, a newly-blended and newly-homeschooling family facing opposition from without and within.

Today Elisha Press is announcing the release of a sequel to The Sparrow Found A House - and to celebrate, they're giving away signed copies to four randomly-selected winners. You can enter the giveaway here, or go ahead and order the book on Amazon. It's $2.99 for the Kindle version, or $9.99 for the 256-page print edition.

Flight School follows the Rivera kids as they meet new friends, explore careers, and encounter the challenges and choices that come with adult life. As a homeschool graduate himself, Jason knows the things that matter most to homeschoolers, and how to write about those things in a way that will edify, resonate, and entertain.

"If you like Flight School," Jason says, "thank God. If you don't like it, blame me."

Enter the giveaway, or buy a copy now.

I don't remember exactly where I first heard of Jason, but I downloaded his first book, The Sparrow Found a House, about a year ago and really enjoyed it.
I was thrilled to be on the pre-launch team for Flight School and I enjoyed it just as much as the first book.
The characters are well developed, and certainly relatable. I found myself chuckling quite often throughout the book.
I really like how Jason is able to weave lessons and share life difficulties in a teaching manner without breaking the reader away from the story.
Overall, Flight School was just as amazing as The Sparrow Found A House.
My Rating: Five Stars

Adah's world is turned upside down by the sudden death of her fiancée. After years of declaring that she will always be single, David broke down her walls and she fell hopelessly in love.

But just three weeks before their wedding, he is killed in a car accident. A happily-ever-after ending becomes a distant dream. Adah is lost without him and she tries to drown her grief in a crazy social life, but finds no peace.

In desperation, she heads off into the mountains, searching for a cure for  her broken heart.

Her lack of wilderness experience gets her into many predicaments as she attempts to live life as the pioneers did. No running water, no electricity, a rock slide, an uncooperative wood stove and an unexpected late spring blizzard nearly overwhelm her.

As if that wasn't adventure enough, a nearly frozen man appears on her doorstep in the middle of the raging blizzard. Adah is shocked to discover a young child cradled in his arms.  

While the little girl, Sarah, seems unharmed, Adah works desperately to save the man's life. With limited medical knowledge, she does the best she can, but a high fever and other injuries threaten his life. 

 The man, whose name is Ethan, regains consciousness and seems to be recovering just as the storm abates.

But flooding, mud slides and avalanches force the trio to remain in the cabin for the unforeseeable future.

Adah is disturbed by Ethan's talk of God. Raised to be an Atheist, any talk of religion bothers her. But the more Ethan speaks of his God, the more curious Adah becomes. Something about the relationship Ethan has with his God calls to her. It is more than just a religion. Could God be the answer? Can He heal her broken heart?

Join Adah in her search for the truth. Will she finally find the love she has been searching for all her life?

A few weeks ago, my Photo Friday post was about a three week old kitten we were bottle feeding. At the time, we did not have a name for him…but now we do! His name is Pete. He was in the house up until a week ago, when he graduated out to the goat barn.

But of course, the little guy had to have some friends, right?

That's what Grandma Kathy thought, and three new kittens from the dairy farm down the road mysteriously appeared in the barn.

So Pete is having the time of his life with his new buddies, Spanky, Darla and Rose.

The first photo is Spanky. I'm not much of a cat person, but I've always liked the looks of black cats and I like this photo.

Read the captions below each photo for names J

What are your favorites?

Four years.
Wow. It is hard to believe Bannie and I have been together that long. It has been a long road...we didn't get along at all at first, but we persevered and are best buddies today. He still frustrates me...but if horses could talk he would probably tell you the same thing about me :)
This first photo is the first day we met. After a four hour drive, it was love at first sight. I knew this was the horse for me.
Bannie was a rescue horse. At 15 years old, he had seen much in his lifetime. Used as a western pleasure show horse, he had seen his fair share of life's cruelties. He had been starved, among who knows what else.
Our first meeting that day was memorable. I was nervous about riding such a big, intimidating horse, but once in the saddle, I knew we were made for each other.
A few photos of our first ride together:

More photos of us together:

And this is us today, best friends. When people ask me if I have a boyfriend, my answer is yes, my horse is my boyfriend :)

We have been through a lot together, we've even been in the newspaper! I'm so thankful we have had these four years to learn from each other and I hope we have many more.

Good news! I found the camera! It had slid down behind a stack of books out of sight...I couldn't imagine where it had gone so I was relieved to find it safe.
So these pictures are actually from last week. Beautiful Ashwin outlined against the dark sky, my handsome man Rio, hay bales and a dilapidated fence with those pretty, but very nasty pickers. It's no fun stepping on a small one of these with bare feet, something I do frequently as I tend to go bare foot in the pasture. Not the smartest thing to do, but it's worth it :) I don't know how many of these things I've dug out of my feet over the years.
My favorite this week would have to be the fence and pickers. Ashwin comes in second (Sorry, Ashwin). After nearly a year off of riding, I have started working him under saddle again and he is doing well. A bit stubborn, but I like to see him showing some spirit. Rio is recovering well from his procedure and it does seem to have mellowed him out a bit. He's still pretty sassy though, but he wouldn't be our Rio without a little bit of an attitude!
What is your favorite this week?

1. Coffee or tea?

Coffee!!! I do enjoy a good cup of tea every now and then, but coffee is my staple drink.

2. Rainy days or sunny days?

I really love rainy days...the only time I don't like rain is when I had plans that had to be canceled. Other than that, rainy days are the best.

3. What is one food you couldn’t live without?

Rice. My mom's side of the family is middle eastern...I think that is where I get my love of rice from. I nearly always have a container of rice in the fridge and I eat it with a variety of other foods.

4. Give three words that describe you.

Umm...stubborn, creative, impulsive

5. What would you do if you had a free hour and could do anything you wanted to?

Wow, I can think of so many things I'd do with a free hour, but I would probably spend it sitting along the creek bank with my dog and a book.

6. What is your favorite book-to-movie adaption?

I'm not usually a fan of book-to-movie adaptions, but I do like Anne of Green Gables.

7. If there was one location from a book you could go to, where would it be?

I can't think of a specific location from a book, but I have read some great books about England...it would be neat to see some of the places I've read about.

8. If you could meet one character from a book, who would it be?

That's a tough one...I'm not really sure. Anne of Green Gables would be neat I guess. J But then, Frank and Joe Hardy from the Hardy Boys books would be great too!

9. If you could ask one author of the past a question, who would it be? What would you ask?

I would ask Samuel Clemens why he used a pen name.

 10. If you could change one event you didn’t like in a book, what would it be?

I would probably change the ending of It Took A War by Emily Putske. It was a good ending, but very sad.

Okay, so this was supposed to be a great photo post. We had an auction ending last night, so as soon as we got home from work, I dashed out with my camera and took a bunch of photos of the horses. I usually prepare the photo posts ahead of time, but I was watching the auction so I decided to wait and put the post together today in between customers.
When I got up this morning, I went to grab the camera to put it in my bag and it was missing! I searched my entire room and it has simply disappeared. I still have not found it!
So, since most of us are probably sweltering right now, I thought I'd pull some winter photos for you today. I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to winter!
My favorite is the first shot of Abby and #2 would be the old manure spreader.
Do you like the heat or are you waiting for winter? What are your favorites?

I was super excited to get my cover for Be Still My Soul back today. My designer, Perry, did an incredible job and the cover is beautiful! I cannot wait to share it with you, but it will be a few weeks yet so be sure to check back often!
Now that the cover for BSMS is finished, I am working on the cover for Thunder, sequel to Whisper. I still have a ton of work to do on BSMS before I will able to begin seriously working on Thunder, but it never hurts to plan ahead :)
As with Whisper, I will be using my own photos for this book. Whisper is about Ashwin, and Thunder is about Bannie.
Below are three photos of Bannie, focusing on the eye, same as Whisper. I have a favorite picked out, but I want to hear which photo captures your attention.
There are numbers in the lower right corners of the pictures, leave a comment with the number of your favorite!!

Here's a quick snippet from Thunder:

One month later, I was still adamantly refusing to have anything do with horses.

          I was careful to not ask any questions about the horses lest Rachel think I was getting interested again. I wondered about Thunder from time to time and occasionally heard Rachel discussing him with Dad. I often eavesdropped on their conversations, not wanting to admit even to myself that I was curious about Thunder's progress.

          According to what I overheard, Rachel wasn't making any progress with him. He refused to go into the barn and even when she moved him to a paddock with a small shed, he would stand outside in the driving rain rather than go inside. Rachel had tried everything she could think of to help him, but he just wouldn't be helped. Thankfully he was young and healthy. Though it was spring, the nights were still cold. The cold didn't seem to bother him however and he wasn't losing weight.

          Rachel said she had tried, but he wouldn't join-up with her. I thought that was strange and very extreme behavior on his part. I had never seen or heard of a horse that wouldn't join-up.

          From what I knew about his previous experiences, it didn't sound all that bad. Sure, he had been through a lot, but I had known horses that had been through a lot worse and responded a lot better than he was. It seemed that he was over reacting to everything.

          Despite my resolve not to think about him, I couldn't keep my mind off him. I found myself analyzing his behavior and Rachel's observations, trying to come up with a solution.

I really had no idea what to post on today…my mind felt blank. I sat at my keyboard, and looked around my room, hoping for something to jump out at me.

And something did.

This book, Living Virtuously by Erin Harrison, was sitting on my night stand. My mom bought this book for me several months ago. Up until recently, it had been lost in my stack of to-be-read books, but I came across it a week or so ago when I was cleaning.

I haven't read the whole thing yet, it's a rather thick book, but I have read far enough into it to know that is a priceless treasure for both married and unmarried women.

My family and I have known about the Harrison's for several years. We have all of their DVD's and benefited from them greatly.

This book is specifically for women. If you have been following Erin for any length of time, you will have heard something about the struggles she went through as a young married woman.

Before we get any further, here is a synopsis of Erin's book:

Living Virtuously does not mean perfection. Victory and virtue are gifts to those that persevere on their own journey that God has given no matter what life may bring. It is learning contentment, choosing joy, and being teachable. In this book, we will journey together through Proverbs 31 in the Bible, discovering the traits of a Virtuous Woman. I will take you from the spiritual to the practical, giving you a complete, well rounded perspective of what it means to keep your heart and your home.

In this helpful guide you will learn how to…
• face adversity and find joy in your circumstances
• clean and organize your home so that it is a haven of rest
• be frugal and meal planning
• organizing life so you have more time
• teach your children a good work ethic while embracing motherhood
• control your words and actions
• keep your heart pure
• honor your husband
• find balance in all areas of life
• LIVE VIRTUOUSLY!

As I said, I have not read the entire book yet, and I know from reading some of Erin's other writings, on her blog and such, that I do not agree with everything she says, but overall, you need to read this book. (And while it is written for ladies, I've read some reviews by men who were very blessed by it as well.)

It doesn't matter if you have been married for fifty years, one year, or are not married at all, this book is written for you.

Erin teaches you how to live your life to the fullest. She concentrates on the duties of a wife and mother, but most of the things she says can apply to all areas of our life. She includes some humorous stories and a plethora of things she has learned the hard way over the years. If you want to be blessed, uplifted, encouraged, and told like it is with no sugar coating, Living Virtuously is the book for you.

Available as an eBook or a paperback.

I've got my saddle, my horse and my barn, oh, don't forget that soft fluffy baby mane, I'm all set!
After a crazy few weeks of getting a large auction ready, I have a few days of downtime before the rush starts again...so hopefully I'll be able to put together a better post next week :)
My favorite today is my sweet Bannie. He's such a handsome fella in the summer when his coat sparkles. And he loves hugs and kisses.
The saddle is my dad's roping saddle (no, he doesn't rope). I use it when I need to pony another horse because it has the thick roping horn that won't break. My saddle is a performance saddle and has a tall narrow horn for hanging on too. This saddle is a Hereford Textan saddle....an expensive older make.
And I love Rio's soft baby mane. It's starting to come in thicker and longer now that he is maturing.
The barn is our neighbors.
What is your favorite?

Yesterday we had a really nasty storm come through our area. We had been gone to church in Ohio from six in the morning and we got back around six that evening. The storm clouds chased us for the last hour or so of our drive.

We had only been home a short time when things really began to get bad. My aunt called and told us to get to our basement, as there was a tornado on the way.

I never really remember being afraid of storms, even as a child. As a matter of fact, I loved them! I would lie awake at night, in my dark room, watching the lighting flash on the walls. It was deliciously spooky.

If a bad storm came through during the day, I loved to snuggle down by a window, perhaps with a hot drink, watching the rain and lightening and listening to the thunder. My mom used to tell me thunder was the angels bowling J

If I happened to be outside during a storm, I would stand against the wall of our hip roof barn and let the rain sliding down the roof soak me. Hey, it was more fun than taking a shower! I liked sloshing around in water filled boots….saved me the trouble of rinsing them out every once in a while.

There have only been a few times that I have really felt scared about a storm. Once I was riding my horse on the back edge of farm, about a mile from the barn when a storm came up. My horse was a bit spooky and the lightening was crazy! I wasn't thrilled about being out in an open field, on a horse, with lightening all around. I never really enjoyed driving in bad storms, when I could feel the wind pushing the van around, or feel the tires skidding over the wet pavement.

And as I have grown up, my feelings about storms haven't really changed. My most productive times to write are at night, or during a storm. There is just something about storms that get my creative juices flowing. That may not be true for everyone, and there certainly is nothing wrong with being afraid of storms, but to me they are inspiring!

The storm we experienced yesterday was quite interesting. There was a fair amount of lightening…I was disappointed at the lack of thunder, but the swirling green clouds were amazing!

Our house sits in the middle of a cedar swamp and as we stood on the porch, watching the developing storm, we could hear trees crashing down in the swamp. Dad hurriedly moved all our vehicles to a safer location, and we did retreat to the basement for a short time.

The power went out….just as I was in the middle of making a cup of coffee!! Horror of horrors! A bunch of breakers blew….and when Dad tried to turn some of them back on, some of the electrical outlets started exploding, so back off they went J

When we got up this morning, we still had no power, but our old house at the farm did, so we moved all our freezer and refrigerator foods to the freezer and fridge at the farm and Dad hooked up a small generator to run the sump pump so our basement wouldn't flood.

A call to the electric company confirmed our suspicions that we would be out of power for quite some time, along with 31,000 other people. We were moved up on the priority list because there appears to be a wire hanging from one of the poles near the house, so perhaps we will be back on shortly. For now, we are feeling like the Amish….and I still haven't gotten my coffee!

Thankfully the auction hall still has power, so I am able to charge my phone and computer. Dad had to go buy a bigger generator that can run the whole house, so we should be able to cook supper (and make coffee) tonight when we get home.

Were any of you affected by this storm? Do you like storms? What are your favorite things to do while it is storming?

Time has been getting away from me lately and I made a hurried photo trip outside last night so I would have something to post :) The days are flying by and I never feel like I have gotten everything done I was supposed to.
We had a volunteer sunflower come up by our porch steps. The birds flung a lot of seeds around during the winter when we were feeding them and this bright flower is beautiful! My absolute favorite is the first photo, followed in a close second by the boots. This is the pair I do chores in....they were supposed to be retired a few month ago but I just can't bring myself to part with my old comfy boots. I suppose I will have to come winter :)
What are your favorites?

The giveaway for one copy of the audio book version of Whisper ended last night and our winner is.....

A big thank you to all who entered! If you would like your own copy of the Whisper audio book, click here.

In my post last week about the audio's book's release, I stated that first ten people to contact me with links to their review of Whisper would receive a free audio book.

Well, I'm changing it up a bit.

The first ten people to contact me with a link to their review (on a blog, Amazon or Goodreads) of any of my books, will receive a free audio book. So if you've read one of my books, but have not yet reviewed it, go post a review and send me the link: info (at) heritageliterature (dot) com.

I fully intended to have an interesting post ready for you all, but we have been dealing with Rio the Mule's gelding procedure this week and between his regular care, which includes trotting him for twenty minutes twice a day, and a slight complication, I've been burned out....today crept up on me and I realized I had nothing prepared!

So you get to watch a very short video of me chasing Rio on Smoke to get his twenty minutes of trotting in :) He certainly doesn't act like anything is wrong :) This video was taken this morning.

I'll be back on Friday :)

After much thought and research, I was able to put together this post on a subject that has been foremost on my mind for quite some time.

The subject of Science Fiction and Fantasy is something I feel strongly about and I am concerned over the increasing popularity of these genres.

What is even more concerning is the fact that a large number of Christian authors are writing and promoting these genres.

And the number of teens/young adults that are not only reading these books, but becoming addicted to them is alarming.

This is what Wikipedia had to say about Science Fiction:

• A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, or in a historical past that contradicts known facts of history or the archaeological record.
• A spatial setting or scenes in outer space (e.g. spaceflight), on other worlds, or on subterranean earth.[12]
• Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots and other types of characters arising from a future human evolution.
• Futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers.[13]
• Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for example time travel, wormholes, or faster-than-light travel or communication.
• New and different political or social systems, e.g. dystopian, post-scarcity, or post-apocalyptic.[14]
• Paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation.
• Other universes or dimensions and travel between them.

Okay, a lot of strange stuff listed there. Here's what Wikipedia had to say about Fantasy:

The identifying traits of fantasy are the inclusion of fantastic elements in a self-coherent (internally consistent) setting, where inspiration from mythology and folklore remains a consistent theme.[2] Within such a structure, any location of the fantastical element is possible: it may be hidden in, or leak into the apparently real world setting, it may draw the characters into a world with such elements, or it may occur entirely in a fantasy world setting, where such elements are part of the world.[3] Essentially, fantasy follows rules of its own making, allowing magic and other fantastic devices to be used and still be internally cohesive.[4]

You may be asking, what's the problem? Well, maybe nothing. But I'd like to show you why I think these two genres are dangerous, and how they are intertwined very tightly into most people's everyday lives…and how they are affecting our world today.

These genres tie into each other in most instances, so I am going to just write my thoughts on both at the same time.

We live in the age of modern science and technology. While these things have proved beneficial in many, many areas, they have also, in my opinion, been the downfall to our culture.

This nationally representative study found that the average 8-18 year old American spend 13.2 hours every week playing video games.

What does this have to do with Science Fiction and Fantasy?

Most of the video games these children are playing are full of everything the Wikipedia definition of Science Fiction and Fantasy includes.

Have you scrolled through Amazon's bestseller list recently? Nearly every book listed there is either Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror (that is a whole post by itself).

All of these books are also going to be chock full of the things listed on Wikipedia.

What are those items encouraging these children/teens/young adults to do?

The answer is simple—it is encouraging them to live in their imaginations.

Now, having an imagination is good! Encourage your young children to use their imaginations. We writers stretch ours to the limit! It is a good thing.

But living in it isn't.

And that is what most of our society is doing. Movies and videos game are encouraging this as well, but I'm here to talk about the effect of books.

When you create an imaginary world, with imaginary rules, people, customs, environment, you are encouraging your readers to create an imaginary world for themselves. 

God created our Earth as it is and He created the universe, with the stars and other planets, as they are. He did not intend for us to try to create new worlds for ourselves, He placed them there that we might enjoy their beauty, their stunning glory.

I can understand why secular authors are writing these genres. People want an escape and by writing these books, they give the reader a tiny bit of control in an imaginary world.

But why are Christian authors doing it? Why don't they write books that reveal God's glory, that worship His creation, and encourage young people to live in the moment, in His world?

Without even looking at my Kindle, I could list 5-10 Christian authors who are writing Science Fiction and Fantasy books.

And they have a lot of young people reading them. They are influencing hundreds and hundreds of young folks. Is it a good influence?

Now, you might ask, "Aren't you doing the same thing as Sci-fi and Fantasy writers when you write fiction? After all, you are creating a story about people and places that don't exist."

Very true. That is what Fiction writers do. The difference is that our stories are within the bounds of reason and reality. Our stories could actually happen in the world we live in. The exact people and places we reference to may be made up for the benefit of the story, but the things we write about are actually realistically possible. In Sci-fi and Fantasy, the same is not true. The things they write about are not actually possible in the real world.

There is the difference.

When these authors are writing Sci-fi and Fantasy they are, to a point, playing God, creating their own world with its own rules. They can make anything they want happen any way they want. Because they do not have to conform to the rules of humanity, untold violence, murder, immorality and more can take place because they have no rules to follow, they make their own.

We authors who write Fiction are held to a higher standard. By the rules of the genre, the things that happen in our story must be realistically possible.

I have one final question.

Isn't God's world enough?

Isn't the beautiful, wonderful place He created for us to live in enough? Why do we feel the need to create fake worlds that do not exist? Why do we want to put so much of that stuff in our minds that eventually it takes over and we don't even realize it?

I think the answer to those questions is that we want control. In a world where so little is certain, we feel the need to control things. And by creating imaginary worlds where we make the rules, we can accomplish that.

This is dangerous.

Being an author means that I get to talk to a lot of readers. I love that part of being an author! But when young readers start listing the books they are reading, or I see what they have on their bookshelves on Goodreads, I cringe at the popular Sci-fi, Fantasy or Horror novels they are reading.

Parents: Encourage your children to leave those kinds of books behind and find good, clean fiction that encourages them to live in the present, or learn from the past.

Readers of all ages: Recognize the dangers of these genres and steer clear! Even if the book is by a reputable Christian author and has a good moral, it is not worth the subtle influence it will have on your mind. If you can justify one book, you will end up justifying a whole lot more. No matter how strong you think you are, each book you read leaves it's footprints across your mind and the damage is often times irreparable.

This post was not written to badger or judge you for your choice of reading materials, or if you are a writer, the kinds of books you write. Rather, my purpose was to make you aware of things you may have never thought about before. If you have questions about anything that was stated above, feel free to contact me. I would be more than happy to discuss why I believe what I believe on this subject in more detail with you.

As always, I love hearing your thoughts so leave a comment telling me what you think about this subject.

My photo Friday post was looking a bit sparse with only four photos to show for the week. I haven't had much opportunity for picture taking, instead spending my time riding (something I haven't been doing nearly enough of) or working on Be Still My Soul.

I took these four shots a few evenings ago. My brothers have been doing square bales while Grandpa round baled his field…round bales are considerably less work, but it is more profitable to sell square bales and I prefer not to feed round bales to my horses, so we, or rather, the boys, have had their work cut out for them the last few summers J

Anyway, I saw the wagon sitting out in the field with the bales and grabbed my camera for a few shots. It is having some auto focus issues, so I didn't get as many good ones as I wanted.

Instead of just posting those four and calling it good, I decided to turn them black and white and post both versions.

What do you think? I favor the color photos, but I think the close up of the bale looks sharp in black and white too.

I am so excited to announce that an audio book version of Whisper is now available! I have been working on this for several months and after fixing some minor problems, it is now ready for you to enjoy!

I was very fortunate to have Alyson Grauer as my reader. I wrote the book, yet as I listened to the samples she sent me, I found myself getting emotional listening to Whisper's story.
You can find your copy of Whisper's audio book on Amazon.

Click the play button to hear an audio sample!

Enter the giveaway below for a chance win a free audio book version of Whisper! The giveaway ends this coming Tuesday, July 28th at midnight. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, July 29th. One winner will be selected, but for those who will not win or choose not to enter the giveaway, read on to see how you can get a free audio book.

Reviews are important to authors...we depend on them to sell books. I am giving away ten copies of this audio book to reviewers. If you have purchased Whisper, but have not yet reviewed it, post a review on Amazon or Goodreads and send me the link at info (at) heritageliterature (dot) com. I will then send you a code to receive a free audio copy of Whisper. .

The first ten people to contact me with links to their review will receive a code for the free audio book. This is only open to the first ten people who contact me, and they cannot have posted a review on Whisper previously.

Share this giveaway and free audio book opportunity with your friends!