The Storyteller | Mary Vee

Today I welcome an author who weaves a garden of life experiences into her stories:  author Anne Elisabeth Stengl Enter to win Anne's   March 2014 release, Shadow Hand Scroll to the end of the post to see how to enter. While chatting with friends on FB, I met Anne. I heard about the fantasy stories she wrote, and having read many wonderful fantasy stories myself, we dialogued about her new release. I asked Anne to share how God has led her on her journey. Wow! What a beautiful story of hope and healing. Here is what she said: The Garden of the Soul Long ago—before I can remember—God planted the seeds of a new world in my head. Those seeds were Curiosity, Wonder, Creativity, and Passion. All the right seeds that must be planted and nurtured in the garden of an artist’s soul if new worlds are going to blossom. These seeds are gifts from God, and I can take no credit for them. They grew by His will, not my own. My only role was to nurture

I had a list of e rrands and wanted to get them done before we left on a trip.  Hubby happened to be off work and went with me.  We drove thirty minutes in the bitter cold to town, did two errands then drove to our local grocery store for errand number three.  The usual parking lot competition for the closest spot was in progress when we arrived. We lost and had to park into one of the farthest slots. Oh well, we needed the exercise. Typically, when doing errands with hubby, I'd open my car door and scoot around to the side he was on and walk with him. This time, though, and I credit God, I stayed on my side of the car and  happened to look at the front tire. "This tire looks low." I looked at the back one and said, "This one looks low, too." Hubby came around to my side of the car and scrunched his lips like guys do when they are thinking about something. "We'll put air in it when we come back out."  We did our shopping and wheeled

Photo Courtesy Last week I saw an interesting news report. The event took place in New York City. Like in many cities across the country, New York City was pelted with a harsh snowstorm.  Schools and businesses remained open despite transportation issues. The reporter stood on a corner of the city and happened upon three female high school students.  "Where are you going?" he asked. The girls struggled to hold their hoods in place. One answered, "We're going to school. The school busses aren't running today." "How are you going to get there?" the reporter asked. "Well we have to take…"  I didn't have a chance to scribble notes about the details, but the girls explained they had to take one bus, transfer to a second bus, and then transfer again to a third bus to reach their school. Piles of snow stood behind the girls and cars slid in the streets. The wind swirled around them carrying snowflakes. While the reporter

Today I welcome a crit partner and a master of words,  author John Faubion.  Enter to win John's   February, 2014 release, Friend Me Scroll to the end of the post to see how to enter. AND Scroll farther to see an added bonus! Our life's journey may take us many places all predesigned by God. In those places God uses those around us to help us accomplish the work He asks us to do. John and I were talking about our families. I asked him to tell you how God has led him on his journey. Here is his story: God Uses Our Daughters to Help Us In 2010 I began paying more attention to what my thirteen year-old daughter was doing after school on Tuesdays. She was a member of a  Creative Writing Workshop.  Every time she came home, she was working on some new short story or something. It really began getting under my skin. No, I wasn't unhappy that she was doing so well -- just the opposite! The fact was, I was bothered that I'd been t

I met "Jay" Faubion at the ACFW conference. I had worked with him online with critiques previously, but this was the first time I met this author.  I was excited to read his debut novel, Friend Me . What a fantastic read. Here is my review of this amazing book: To me a five star rating not only says you liked the book a lot, but it also indicates that one can learn/make life changes as a result of reading the story. For this reason I chose a "five" for Friend Me by John Faubion. Faubion tackles an epic twilight zone subject pointing out it is the seemingly little issues that engages and pulls us into bigger problems. Our true personality comes out to play when we make choices in secret. Will we lie to save our job, click on the site just once, hide this information, and etc? The main character Scott makes these and other difficult choices. Scott convinces himself he is remaining true to his faith and his marriage when experimenting with a new social med

There is a time, after great preparation, study, practice, and drive when we are on center stage. Perhaps we are cooking for our in-laws. Going for the treasured job interview. Taking the Bar exam. Giving birth. Some events take a life time of preparation, others moments.  Late week, Russian skater Evgeni Plushenko made a decision.  He'd skated early in the week as part of the Russian skating team and helped his country earn a gold medal. Plushenko worked through many injuries during the course of his training and endured many surgeries including having a synthetic disk placed in his back. He worked hard during rehabilitation and won the hearts of the audience and judges during the team skating competition. But later in the week, while warming up for the men's single skating program, he did a triple axle, fell, and felt pain surge in his back. He'd fallen several times during the practice each time experiencing the back pain. According to NBC sports, he knew

Today I welcome a kind lady and masterful writer: author Susan Meissner  Enter to win Susan's   February, 2014 release, A Fall of Marigolds AND There's an Added Bonus! Scroll to the end of the post to see how to enter. I met Susan when she visited the Writers Alley where I am one of the team writers. Susan has an exciting story. I asked her to tell you how God has led her on her journey. Here is her story: God Made Me A Writer-Years ago When I was a Kid I’ve loved to write for about as long as I can remember. I penned many once-upon-a-time stories in grade school and a ton of teenage-angst poetry in high school. In my twenties, however, when I was newly married and working fulltime, and then in my thirties raising four kids, I let the creative writing slide because I was afraid to see if I was really any good at it. I became editor of a small town newspaper and did the journalism thing for ten years. But all along there were