Well, it turns out that Goodreads is more useful to me than just for connecting with other bookish-types. And because of that, I made a decision that I was going to restrict my social media outlets to this blog, Twitter, and Goodreads. I still have a Facebook account, but I rarely visit it. So what do I do with Goodreads, other than add books to my “read” shelf? Well, it has become my primary TBR list, so when I go book shopping, I will check my Goodreads “to-read” shelf first to see what’s there. Also, I have within the last few months begun a policy to update Goodreads when I finish a book with a rating and at least a small review. Writing a review helps me remember what I read, and what I thought about the book, while it’s still fresh in my mind. And hopefully, these reviews will be of use to others. If I reviewed the book more fully on this blog, my Goodreads review will contain a link to that review.

If you’re at all interested in what I’m reading, what I’ve read*, or what I thought about a book you might be considering reading, check out my Goodreads page. You can even friend-request me, so you get updates on what I’m reading and what I’ve read. And while we’re on the social media subject, if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can click HERE or click on the little Twitter widget on the side.

And finally…

… to the person who found this blog using the search term “how does the book Insurgent end?” I will tell you. It ends with the word “begins.” If you want to know more, read the book!

Have a great Friday!

* NOTE: My “read” shelf does not contain every book I’ve read… yet. Okay, it probably never will, but I am working on adding books I’ve read over the years. I may have to re-read some, though, to give them a fair rating.

This week’s Road Trip Wednesday question is: What book brings back a memory? There are so many books I could choose that evoke memories. I’ve already shared a book cover that evoked great memories, and as I scan the shelves, I see books that remind me of places, events, people, time periods. But to make things a little more interesting, I’ve chosen a book that, if you know me and my blog, you probably wouldn’t expect.

My choice is…THE OMEN by David Seltzer. What the…? I hear you say. But I thought you weren’t into horror, creepy stuff, etc. Okay, let me ‘splain. No, too long. I sum up. No really–let me explain. It all began a long time ago. I was in my first year at secondary school–the old Cathedral school I’ve mentioned a few times here. Our weekly 90 minutes of charging around a field with a rugby ball had been rained off, so the teacher herded us into the TV room–the one with the VCR (ooo! gasp!!)–and offered to put on a movie of our choice. Of the options given, the one chosen by this roomful of 11 and 12 year old boys was The Omen II. Our teacher warned us that it is a horror movie, so if anyone wanted to opt out and go do something else, they were free to leave. The room was filled with sound of scraping chairs and pre-teen boys heading for the door. NOT! Please. We were men, after all; we could handle it. And so we did. We sat through the boy trapped under the ice, the woman getting her eyes pecked out by ravens, and even the guy being sliced in half with an elevator cable. There are two things that captured my mind as a result of watching this movie. The first was a fascination with the Bible quotes used, and a desire to explore the Book of Revelation and become better acquainted with the Bible (yes–The Omen II played a part in my becoming a Christian). The second was the fact that I knew I was jumping into a story: I hadn’t seen The Omen, and I felt I was missing out on an important part of the whole story arc.

One lunch break some time later, possibly months later, I was in a used bookstore in town. I remember it vivdly. The store was an old building, about the size of the bookstore that Hugh Grant runs in the movie Notting Hill, but with a narrow staircase that led to an upstairs with loads of used paperbacks lining the walls. It was among these that I found the novel (or novelization of) THE OMEN. It wasn’t very expensive either–50p or less–so I bought it. What’s more, it fit snuggly into my left-hand outside blazer pocket, so I could carry it around and read it. And I did. At last, I found out about the seven daggers, the babies switched at birth, the evil nanny, the demonic dog, and the eerie photographs. Now I understood the circumstances surrounding Damien’s living arrangements. Why didn’t I rent the movie? We didn’t have a VCR at that time. In fact, it was years later until I saw the movie The Omen for the first time.

So, that’s the memory that simple cover evokes for me. The smell of the bookstore. The pleasure of discovery, filling in that backstory. Being twelve years old and being quite satisfied with a book as a replacement for a movie.

Okay, your turn. Is there a book that evokes a memory for you? You can share here in my comments, or blog about it and share the link in the YA Highway comments.

I don’t watch a lot of reality TV aside from reality contests–and particularly cooking reality contests. My favorites are Top Chef, and just about any contest on The Food Network. One of TFN’s reality contests is Worst Cooks in America, and I think this would be the perfect venue for an author cook-off. In Worst Cooks, a group of culinary-challenged viewers, selected for their distinct lack of ability, divide into two teams which are each coached by a Food Network celebrity chef. Each week, a contestant from each team is eliminated. The two remaining contestants then have to prove how much they have learned by preparing a dish that is so good, it can pass as being made by their celebrity chef mentor.

I think this would be a particularly good challenge because, while some authors may be great in the kitchen, others might not be so great. And I imagine that even those that are good have their comfort zones, so they may not do as well if challenged to prepare food outside that zone. This challenge would make no assumptions about ability. So, the ten writers I think would be fun to watch compete on Worst Cooks in America are:

• Stephen King

• J.K. Rowling

• Neil Gaiman

• John Green

• Scott Westerfeld

• Maureen Johnson

• Stephen Fry

• Tom Clancy

• John Grisham

• Tahereh Mafi

Let me explain some of my choices. I’m thinking of people who would be entertaining to watch, and while authors are not necessarily given to performance, I think these people would make for fun television. John Green, Scott Westerfeld, and Maureen Johnson are good friends and writing buddies, so there would be plenty of witty banter between them while they cook. I realize there are some Brits in my list–the show is Worst Cooks in America, not Worst American Cooks, so I don’t see why they can’t be a part of it. Stephen Fry is primarily a TV and stage performer, but he has written a couple of novels, so he’s in. Clancy and Grisham are such legendary writers, it would be nice seeing them in this setting, interacting with writers they may never have met. And from the couple of vlogs she has done, Tahereh Mafi seems such a sweet and funny person–and I think she would have a great time with the other writers.

Which author would you like to see showing off their culinary chops on a television reality contest?

¹⁴ What shall we say, then? Surely there is not unrighteousness with God, is there? Certainly not! ¹⁵ For He says to Moses, “I shall have mercy on whomever I have mercy and I shall have compassion on whomever I have compassion. ¹⁶ Therefore, it is not of the one willing, nor of the one running, but of God mercying. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “Unto this very thing I raised you out, that I might demonstrate in you my power and that my name might be proclaimed throughout all the land. ¹⁸ Therefore, whomever He has mercy on whomever He wishes, and He hardens whomever He wishes.

¹⁹ Then you shall say to me, “Why, then, does He yet find fault? For who resists His will?” ²⁰ On the contrary, who are you, O man, answering back to God? Shall that which is molded say to the molder, “Why did you make me this way?” ²¹ Or does not the potter have authority over the clay out of the same lump of clay to make on the one hand to make [it] unto a vessel of honor or one unto dishonor? ²² But [what] if God, wishing to demonstrate wrath and  make known his power endured with much patience vessels of wrath having been prepared for destruction, ²³ and in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand unto glory? ²⁴ Even us whom He called not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.

I’ve provided a translation of verses 14-24 of chapter 9, but this week we jumped straight to 20-23, with some reference back to the other verses. We’ll go back over 14-24–particularly 14-19–next week, but this week, Mike wanted to play with Play-Doh. By way of illustration of 20-23, Mike gave us each a small tub of Play-Doh and told us to make whatever we wanted with it. There was one tub he mushed into an amorphous shape and then left on the floor to do with itself whatever it wanted to do. From this exercise, he drew a couple of important points. As the molders, we had complete freedom to make with our lumps of Play-Doh whatever we wanted, and the Play-Doh had no say in the matter. While some of the group made creative use of their lumps, others of us didn’t fare as well. Indeed, some were glorious vessels, and others were clearly destined for destruction! As for the lump on the floor, as you might expect, it didn’t do anything–it remained in the state it was in to begin with. However, Mike’s mushing of the lump left the mark of his fingers in it, which reminds us that even the “vessels of wrath” are created by God in His image and bear His fingerprints.

The point of these verses is to assert God’s sovereign authority to act as He pleases without any reference to the desires of men. Some commentators believe this passage to be a detour from Paul’s main argument in chapter 9, but we didn’t think this was the case. In this chapter, Paul is answering the question, “What about the Jews–has God forgotten them?” And his response is, “No–but not all Israel is truly Israel.” God hasn’t abandoned His people, but His intention is not to save everyone based on their ethnicity. There are those within Israel who are saved, and those that aren’t–and the deciding factor that determines the saved from the unsaved is God’s sovereign decree of election. Hence, from the same lump (Israel), He can make vessels of honor, and vessels of dishonor; those He will save, and those He won’t save. This same principle holds true not just for Israel, but for the whole of humanity (from the same lump of Adam-clay, he makes the saved and the unsaved). But since Paul is discussing Israel’s situation (and using examples from the Old Testament), it seems natural that this would be his main point.

We also discussed whether or not God actively decreed the condemnation of the non-elect, or whether He just passed over them. Did God just predestine to salvation, or was there a “double predestination,” both to salvation and to damnation? Some, even in Reformed circles, are uncomfortable with the idea of “double predestination” largely because it makes God seem harsh and callous, picking and choosing people to save or to burn. Since we are all guilty before God from birth and deserving of hell, surely God doesn’t need to actively condemn; the mere act of not electing us is sufficient for us to remain in our sin and be justly condemned. However, since God knows the hearts of all people–including the non-elect–He knows every person that enters the fiery pit. How could He not, therefore, have made some kind of active decision? Further, if nothing happens by chance, but God is working all things for the good of His people (Romans 8:28), then God cannot be a passive bystander with regard to anything. If the universe is upheld by His active decree, then even the fate of godless souls are in His hands.

It is important to remember that God’s decision to elect is not the same as His decision to condemn. When God decides to condemn someone, He doesn’t have to do anything to make that person worthy of condemnation–he or she already is. God’s choice to condemn is the same as His choice to leave them to their sinful nature, or, in the language of Romans 1, to hand them over to the lusts of their hearts. However, when God elects to save, He has to do something to that person to bring them to salvation: He changes the heart, gives the gift of faith, and enables repentance so that person may believe and trust in Christ. We must never forget that condemnation is always justly earned, whereas salvation is the gracious gift of God through the merits of Christ that we could never earn.

Next week we’ll explore the rest of this passage in more detail, and perhaps take up any lingering questions from this week. Please feel free to contribute your thoughts and questions in the comments.

For those of us over the age of thirty–and ten or so years beyond that–who are still trying to hunt that elusive agent who loves our work (which sometimes feels like the high school hunt for that one true love), however, it can sometimes be a little discouraging. We see young authors being snapped up by young agents, and we can get to thinking that perhaps we missed the boat. If we were ten, twenty, thirty years younger, perhaps this would be easier.

This is why I am so grateful that “The Intern” posted this article on her (I presume from the picture) blog last week: Publishers Weekly: The Deals You Don’t See. Many of us don’t care about huge advances–we just want to see our work in print. And while you may not often hear about 30, 40, or 50 somethings getting debut book deals, it still happens. So let’s not be discouraged and continue to work on making our novels the best we can. After all, great novels are really what get agents and publishers interested, not the author’s age.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be mercied.

Continuing our series on the Beatitudes, my translation might sound a little odd since “mercy” is not a verb in English. We speak of having mercy, or showing mercy, or being merciful, but we don’t speak of mercying someone. Yet in the Greek it is a verb, and I wanted to bring that out since it helps us to remember that mercy is more than a feeling–it’s something that is apparent in our actions. And as Christians, we have been on the receiving end of God’s merciful acts, and so we should be the first to make mercy a characteristic of our lives.

In Matthew 18, Jesus tells the story of a king who forgave one of his slaves who owed him a lot of money. Although the slave had been forgiven a great debt, nevertheless he went out and had a man thrown in prison who owed him a relative pittance. The king’s retribution against the slave was severe, because the slave was unwilling to show the same kind of mercy he had received. Jesus told the story in answer to Peter’s question, “how many times should we forgive someone?” This is how the kingdom of heaven operates, Jesus is saying: as much as mercy has been shown to you (and, in Christ, we have been shown greater mercy than we can comprehend), you show that mercy to others.

The previous Beatitudes have referred to blessings poured out upon those who are oppressed, weak, and in need of mercy. This Beatitude directs those who might be in a position to help such people to show mercy. I think other Biblical teaching, particularly the example set by the early church in Acts 4, indicates that the Christian’s first object of mercy should be those within the church. Every church has people who are in need of help, whether physical, financial, or spiritual, and the body of Christ should be willing to help those people. Our church has a special “mercy ministry” fund, administered by our deacons, to help primarily the needy in our midst.

But then, the church should also look beyond her own walls to the community, and seek ways to show the love and mercy of Christ to those outside the church. And not simply as a tool to get them to come to church, but as a genuine, compassionate outreach, that God might be pleased to use us to affect people’s lives–that we might be conduits of the Spirit’s blessings to people who desperately need him. We can’t change people’s hearts, but through our actions we can demonstrate the love and mercy of the One who can. It might be that God would use us to draw people to Himself.

Have a great week!

Happy Friday!

(The writing says “Here are three wild things out of our concert.” Before you cringe at the spelling, the words are actually spelled that way deliberately. The school I attended used a phonics-based reading and writing system for the infant classes (ages 5 and 6) called I.T.A. (“Initial Teaching Alphabet”). The system made reading and writing more consistent by using the same symbols to represent each sound. We moved house the following year, which meant I started going to a different school, but I don’t recall having a problem with “real” spelling. In fact, my reading skills were a good few years ahead of my age group.)

Usually, books spend a lot of time on my bookshelf. Normally, when I purchase a book, it gets logged in my database (yes, I keep a database of all my books–author, title, ISBN, cover blurb, etc.), then joins the line of books to read. If it’s on my TBRASAP pile, it will probably sit on my desk since it will be read soon. Once read, it has a home on one of my bookshelves where it will stay until I need to refer to it, I want to re-read it, or until someone else in the family wants to read it.

The only time in recent memory I recall using books for something other than reading was for Janet Reid’s book title poetry competition last September. Inspired by Tahereh Mafi, she asked her readers to submit pictures of a pile of books whose titles form a poem. She permitted the limited use of other words to help join the titles together, but the majority of the words had to be the book titles. I got an honorable mention for only using two extra words. This was my entry:

In case you can’t quite make out all the titles, the poem reads:

A PASSION FOR TRUTH,
a SECOND GLANCE
UNDER THE DOME,
LIKE MANDARIN
IN SEARCH OF DIGNITY,
THE LAST JUROR
was SURPRISED BY JOY

If you’ve never done this before, you should give it a try–it was fun.

What do you do with books other than read them? You can reply in my comments, or better still, reply on your own blog and link to it in the YA Highway comments!

My Blog and the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge

Over the past few years, I’ve discovered how much I enjoy writing challenges. Whether it’s one of Janet Reid‘s “write a story in 100 or fewer words using the words bibble, bobble, dibble, dobble, and doop” competitions, or choosing a picture and using that as inspiration for a 1000-word-or-fewer story, I’m game. I like to be stretched, to push myself outside my literary comfort zone, to see what I’m really capable of doing with words. Sometimes I discover my limitations, but sometimes I find new depths or hidden strengths.

So, the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge was first and foremost a challenge in itself: coming up with somewhat interesting blog articles for each letter–even Q and Z. It stretched my creativity to think of things I would want to blog about (because there’s nothing more boring than reading something on a subject that bores the writer). And then, to make things more interesting, I had the idea of posting a piece of original fiction every Monday using the letter of the day. For some I picked a random word and used that as a theme, or starting point, and for others I solicited words from commenters to include in the story. I really enjoyed the latter, partly because getting input from blog readers makes me feel as if these people care what I write, which is really cool! But also, limiting myself to words suggested by others ramped up the challenge level. I don’t know why I’m such a literary challenge junkie, but it seems I am!

If you missed the stories I wrote for the challenge, here they are:

Bloodstain; Hourglass; Nightmare; Prom; Tortilla; Zoe

Meeting New Friends

The other great aspect of the challenge is the opportunity to find new blogs, and see what other people are doing. I tried to visit as many as I can, as well as keep up with the blogs on my RSS. Thankfully some of my blog friends were also doing the challenge, so I could incorporate their blogs into my daily tour. Of all the blogs I visited, one particularly stood out, and that was Meetings with my Muse, hosted by Kimberly. Hers was the first blog I came across that used alliterations as a theme. Every day, she would post an alliterative sentence using that day’s letter, and challenge her readers to come up with their own alliteration. A challenge! Yes!! She offered Amazon gift cards to the funniest and longest alliterations, but I was already in before I read that. I ended up winning the “longest alliteration that makes sense” award for one that, I must say, I am particularly pleased with:

Severus Snape’s silvery smokey subconscious strands smoothly slithered, silently surrendering some salient suggestions surrounding subplots strenuously suppressed, surprising steadfast series supporters.

But I applaud Kimberly for her creative use of the challenge, and was proud to add her blog to my RSS.

What Did I Least Enjoy?

I was disappointed when bloggers would drop out, or get behind. Not to blame them–I know it’s demanding and people have lives beyond their blogs, but it’s still an “awwww” moment when a blogger you were enjoying decides to stop participating. And it was sad that I didn’t get to as many blogs as I would have liked, due to work and other demands on my time. But there were so many blogs to choose from–and that was the great thing about this challenge: you could visit a couple of new blogs every day and not run out of blogs to visit.

So there are some thoughts of mine on this voyage of discovery that was the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge! What did you think, whether you were a participant, or a visitor?