Merry Christmas

Christmas is only four short days away! Am I excited? You bet!
I don't have a ton of time ahead of me here so I'm gonna have to either type stunningly fast, or keep this short. Chances are, this will be kept short.
As Christmas is approaching, I find myself thinking about Christ's birth. No big shock there, but I'm wondering more about Mary. Did she know that the baby she would bring into the world, the baby she would raise and love, would one die a brutal death? What about Joseph? How did he feel knowing that Jesus was not "really" his son? It was like having an adopted son or worse, a borrowed son. How did Joseph feel when his own son died, rose again, and then was taken to heaven to be with his "True" father. How about Jesus himself? How did He feel? Did He know that Joseph and Mary weren't his parents? What was it like to know that He wasn't where he belonged? That He was meant for so much more and that He Himself was so much more? What about Jesus's brothers and sisters?
I mean, I could go on. We always think of Jesus's bodily pain, but what about his emotional pain? Maybe, he was in anguish over his death, not because of the pain it would cause him, but the pain it would cause his family? Maybe the anguish of leaving them is one of the reason's he was feeling such anguish.
This Christmas, take the time to thank God for such an amazing gift. God watched Jesus's birth and the whole time, knew the course of his son's life. Knew that one day his son would die for us.
The same goes for us. This Christmas, if you are struggling, and if life seems out of control, just remember that God has seen your life from the beginning and knows your future. God is your "true" Father and he will NEVER EVER abandon you.
Merry Christmas to you and don't forget, thank God for all that he gave, is giving, and will give in the future.

Excellence

I told myself that I wouldn't do this. I wasn't going to talk about books every second post. I tried that and I just read too much to keep up. I am an avid reader ( and when I say avid, I mean AVID) and there are so many incredible authors out there with such incredible stories that there is no way I could do them all justice. I have such a deep appreciation for authors and that appreciation has only gone deeper and deeper as I break out with my own writing career. Writing is proving to be such an intense love/hate relationship. One day I'm typing four - five thousand words and the next I write ten. I have never felt such stress and such excitement.
With all that said, there ARE novels that stand out. Novels that go above that bar of excellence and volt over onto the other side. I while back I read an amazing novel by a very talented and gifted author. This author made me want to write and ever since, I have been a reading and writing fanatic. His stories don't just help pass the time, but they engage your brain and make you think of the people and life around you.

I was going to do a whole blurb on the novel and the author but I think the best thing is for you to just go check it out yourself. I want you to go read "One Step Away" by Eric Wilson. Once you have read that book, you will no exactly what I mean. The novel will speak for itself. You don't need someone else telling you how brilliant it is, go see for yourself. I don't have many followers yet but I would love for all three of you to read this novel. Honestly, it's amazing.
Enough said.

Writers Block = One Stressed Out Writer

It's not the first chapter in a novel that is crippling and hard to write. Oh no, it's that final chapter. It's that chapter that ends the journey and leaves you with nothing but a memory and a finished novel.

I have always stuck to that phrase. I was always being told that writing the first chapter was going to be the hardest. When I was writing my first novel I hadn't been thinking and was just writing down whatever was in my head. I wasn't concerned with POV, settings, characters, or prose. I was simply writing because I had a story that NEEDED to get out of my head and out onto paper. I wasn't thinking of it as difficult. It was fun and it was the easiest thing I have ever written.

I find such relief and yet deep sadness at the completion of a novel. My second book was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. It was magical and it was beautiful, but it was hard. Very hard. Would I do it again? In a heart beat. I learnt so much with that book. I started writing and I didn't stop until that last chapter when I suddenly drew a blank. I felt that no matter what I wrote, it wasn't going to be a good enough finish to such a fantastic novel. No matter what I wrote I felt that it wasn't going to do the novel justice. Finally I settled and just finished the thing.

It was my second novel that led me to say the beginning phrase. After that novel, I was sure that the last chapter was the hardest, after all, I blew through the first chapter like it as nothing but sawdust. I knew the story and I knew where I wanted it to start, I knew every detail about the climax it was only that dreaded last chapter that crippled me.

But now, as I start on my third novel (A crazy thought all on it's own) I take back that first statement. On this novel, the first chapter has been nothing short of terrible. I don't know what's worse: being discouraged at the beginning or discouraged in the end. I'm leaning toward the latter. 

For this newest work, I know where I want this story to go, but I have no idea how I'm going to get there. Until about an hour ago. I have finally finished the first chapter and already I can feel myself getting more courageous and more fired up for this ride. 

Writing has become such an amazing journey. I feel such a calling on my life and I can't wait to share what I believe with the world. I feel so empowered and impassioned. 

If you are a writing I encourage you to keep writing. No matter what you need to write. Discouragement is a killer, so don't let it get you down. :)

Blessings

Hannah

Destroy By Love Riot

It began long ago, when the darkness in it's deceit captured the hearts of the sons and daughters of light. We looked for light, but found only darkness. We searched for bright skies, but walked in gloom. We fumbled like the blind along the wall; feeling our way like people without eyes. We were destined to fall. Even in the brightest days, we stumbled in the dark. Among the living, we were like the dead. We looked for justice, but it never came. We looked for rescue, but it was far from us. So He Himself, stepped in to save us with His strong arm and His justice to sustain Him. He put on righteousness His armor, salvation His helmet. He clothed Himself in a robe of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of divine passion. He slipped out of His royal garments, left eternity to enter time, divinity to wrap Himself in humanity. The sea of glass for the ocean of separation. He left peace and for the first time felt pain, because the very hands that held the stars, were now sentenced to wear my scars. It was love that purchased this traitor's heart. It's what the Prophets spoke about when they envisioned light living in man once again. For this reason, I am legend. predestined for greatness, built for the final hour. I was born for this. With weapon in hand, armor in place, I know march to the beat of a different drum. I will break through battle lines that have been drawn by discouragement and despair. What more is left to be said? Time has met it's end. It's now or never. Collision with Me, Myself, and I. You see, my mission today is clear, awake the dead. So let freedom's song rage. You're not abandoned, You're not along. Last day warriors, Arise from yesterday's ash and raise your fist with us. We are the army that's charging against the land. Defeat is no longer an option, in His victory we stand.
We stand up, we rise up, to give our lives up for this. This burden, this passion, to burn a lifetime for You. Savior, send your presence to this dying world. We need it to breathe in so come and release Your fire again.

Words

Do you ever experience days or moments when you wish you had a camera to capture that one instance? That time when the sun shone over the ocean, turning it into a sea of diamonds, or how about when your child made such an unexpected face that your heart beat an extra beat, because at that moment, you had never been more in love with someone? It's so disappointing right? You just wish you could revisit that time and feel that wonderful and exhilarating twist of emotions again. That's how I feel when I forget my notepad. I want to capture that moment, not with a picture that doesn't do the scene justice, but with words.

Words have the ability to bring so much emotion. A picture only captures the image. By looking at the image all those feelings come rushing back. Words on the other hand, can contain feelings, emotions, thoughts, and ideas. It has such presence.

There is nothing that bothers me more than the phrase: A picture is worth a thousand words. Why don't we all just look at picture books then? Because they aren't the same. Words hold so much more power than a photograph. Here is an example:

You have a picture of a little girl holding an empty ice-cream cone while the scoop of chocolate ice-cream melts on the ground. You can see that she's unhappy.

Now, if you were to write about that scene you could say how she's feeling. Her eyes burn as tears beg to be released. Her lip quivers uncontrollably. You can mention what she's thinking. She's thinking that she should have licked faster, should have stayed in the shade so that the sun hadn't melted her ice-cream so fast. She's wishing she had let Daddy lick some of it first just like he said. You can mention what her family is feeling. How her big sister is already moving in to share a scoop of her own ice-cream. You can tell how the Daddy wishes she had let him help. You can tell how the Mom feels her daughter's pain and how her mind is already racing, trying to find ways to make it up to her daughter. All of this can be shown using only the right words.

Do you see what I'm saying. A picture is not even close to being worth a thousand words. I would rather have ten words than I would a picture. I would rather read about the heart than see the person. I want to feel what the girl with the ice-cream is feeling. I don't just want to see the worlds pain, I want to feel it and later on, relieve it. I want to change the world, not through momentary thoughts, but with words that will move others (and myself) to action.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that the words make.

- Truman Capote, McCall's, November 1967.