Journal Jots – Blog

Consider it all joy, my brethren,

when you encounter various trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

And let endurance have its perfect result,

so that you may be perfect and complete,

lacking in nothing.

—James 1:2

Really? Consider it all joy?

The tragedy this week that befell a family member I love deeply?

The trials of cancer a precious friend of mine went through this week?

The heartache of a dear friend whose husband was just diagnosed with Hodgkins?

Hard to believe that God wants to us to consider these things joy, and yet He did say “consider it all,” so that pretty much covers the gambit on the trials and tribulations each of us may have undergone just this week, or this month, or even this year or last.

Ironically, it was the heaviness I bore this week on behalf of those I love that forced me to take a closer look at God’s directive in considering it all joy, and in it, we see that God uses our pain and trials to strengthen us, condition us, bless us. Turning our pain into joy or praise, which He then uses to “work all things together for good to them that love God.” Who would have thought that God would use our tears, our trials, to water our garden of blessings? Kind of waist not, want not, if you will.

Which is why I’ve always been a huge proponent of praising God in all circumstances. Some of you may remember the story I told in one Journal Jot where I was making the bed one day and stubbed my toe on the steel leg. Now I don’t know how many of you have sensitive feet, but I have very touchy toes that are so tender, they even hurt if the blankets are too taut on them when I go to bed at night. So when I actually stub my toe, we’re talking excruciating pain that throbs for 30 minutes or more.

Anyway, when my toe connected with that steel, I wanted to scream bloody murder, and I did. Only instead of employing colorful words that don’t glorify God, I fell on the bed and winced out the following words through gritted teeth, “Praise God, praise God, praise God …” over and over until something remarkable happened. I started laughing. LOUD. And in the midst of this rush of joy I experienced, I had this mind vision of me stomping on the devil’s head with each word uttered, grinding him into the ground by praising God instead of doing what the devil and Job’s wife wanted him to do: Curse God and die.

I know it sounds crazy, but it was a pretty emotional experience (okay, everything with me is pretty “emotional,” granted), but also spiritual because I won the battle in the midst of pain. And the weapon that defeated the devil and the pain was PRAISING GOD no matter what. And guess what? The toe pain left almost immediately, which made me laugh all the more, amazed at how God has blessed those He loves with such a simple remedy in the midst of trials.

Praise.

Oh, I’ll be honest, when we had awful news this week in my family and I prayed with my loved one, I stumbled over the idea of praising God. You see, it’s my habit to always praise Him in every situation, no matter what and ask Him to turn it around for that person’s good. But deep down inside I worried about wounding the person further by praising God for something that was obviously a tragedy, so I tiptoed around it. But the truth is that’s the BEST thing we can do in any trial of our life, because praising God tells Him we trust Him to get us through and bless us on the other side. I have seen that in my own life every single time and you will, too, if you give it a shot.

So I encourage you to water your garden with praise, and if you do, God guarantees a great bounty despite all the weeds, bugs, disease, and critters that may attack, with a harvest—and a mindset—where you lack for nothing.

Hugs and Happy Weekend!

Julie

AUTHOR CHAT & GIVEAWAY!!!

TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2015,  join me at the Transformational Fiction Facebook page to find up what I’m up to these days or just to chat and you’ll have the chance to win your choice of any of my books. Hope to see you there! 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/194936817295573/

NEW RELEASE!!!

COMING SPRING 2015 … Grace Like Rain, a novella about Blake “The Rake McClare” from the Heart of San Francisco series, so check back for when and where.

ON SALE!!

A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW IS ON SALE ON KINDLE FOR ONLY $1.99! My Irish love story, A Light in the Window—winner of three awards—is over 80% off right now, so please take advantage! Here’s the video my hubby did for A Light in the Window with my daughter as the model for both the book and video, so take a peek. ALITW Video.

  SALES ON THE FINAL BOOKS IN O’CONNOR FAMILY SAGA!! HUGE savings on A Heart Revealed & A Love Surrendered, so check them out!!

“You know what I think?”

“Couldn’t be much—it takes brains to think.”

— Bonanza, TV Show, 1959-1973

Dun-Dun-Dun-Dun-Dun-Dun-

BONANZA!

Hey, anybody remember that musical intro to the hit Western TV series back in the day? Probably not, because I’m pretty old, but let me tell you this — it was a staple in our household growing up and not just in ours either. Bonanza is ranked No. 43 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and the 2013 TV Guide included it in its list of The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time. It continues to air in syndication today, and if you’re interested, you’ll find lots of fun facts here, including the famous Ponderosa map that always caught on fire in the opening: Bonanza Fun Facts.

So … why am I talking about a 55-year-old TV show (YIKES … that makes me feel realllly old!)? Well, for one reason and one reason only — a brand-new series I have percolating in this old brain, and talk about catching on fire”! 😉

It’s tentatively called The Silver Lining Ranch Series, and it takes place in Virginia City, Nevada (where Bonanza was set) from 1868 till the 1890s. Absolutely fascinating era during the building of the transcontinental railroad (lots of Irish workers — YAY!) and the discovery of the Comstock Lode silver mine upon which Virginia City was built. 

I plan to kick the series off this summer with a patriotic-themed novella entitled For the Love of Liberty, which will serve as a prequel to the actual series that takes place twenty years later.

In the novella, I’ll introduce you to the heroine Liberty O’Shea, freshly graduated from Vassar College as an educated woman bent on women’s rights, particularly the right of women to vote in Nevada. Throughout her early school years, she’s butt heads with hero Griffin McShane in an ongoing one-upmanship of two headstrong people (think Taming of the Shrew meets Bonanza meets McClintock). When Libby returns home after college, the fighting starts all over again when the two are paired as co-chairs of the Fourth of July Festival, where the stakes are higher than the festival banner flapping over the dusty main street.

Here’s the blurb: 

A Match Made in Heaven?

Or Someplace a Whole Lot Warmer? 

She’s stubborn, educated, and looking

to give women the vote.

He’s bullheaded, successful, and looking

to give her a piece of his mind.

 But when things heat up,they just maygive each other

a piece of their hearts.

Obviously Libby and Griff get together in the end of the novella despite the sparks that fly and her extreme father’s disapproval, but when the series begins twenty years later, we discover their first big fight prompted her father to get the marriage annulled before shipping Libby back East to live with her aunt.

At the age of forty-three, she returns to Virginia City as a suffragette spinster and guardian for  three nieces upon the imminent death of her father. Imagine the shock when she learns during his deathbed confession that she’s not only still married to Griff, but Griff holds the note on her father’s ranch, The Silver Lining. What I hope transpires (or conspires, whatever the case may be) is a crazy-but-fun turn of events which sets the stage for a marriage of convenience that is anything but convenient!

I’m excited, and I hope you are too, so I’d really appreciate any and all prayers for God’s leading and anointing on this new project. And I leave you with this one thought: Go west, young reader, go west!

Hugs and Happy Weekend!

Julie

LET IT RAIN, LET IT RAIN, LET IT RAIN!

WHOO-HOO … Blake “The Rake” McClare gets his day in the sun … er … rain, that is, in my new novella, Grace Like Rain!

To whet your appetite for a fun read, check out a first-chapter excerpt and  celebrity pix for Blake and Patience Peabody in my prior Journal Jot HERE.

I gotta tell you, I’m really excited about this novella, not only because it was reallllly fun to write, but because the WITH THIS KISS HISTORICAL COLLECTION AND the WITH THIS KISS CONTEMPORARY COLLECTION are both a steal of a deal at only $2.99 each for five great novellas by award-winning authors Mary Connealy, Pam Hillman, Cara Lynn James, Sandra Leesmith, Ruth Logan Herne, Tina Radcliffe, Missy Tippens, and moi. So do check them out, okay?

We Have Winners!

Yes, I know I’m a day late on my Friday Journal Jot this week, but I have a good reason, I promise!

You see, I just got home at midnight last night after traveling most of the day from Spokane, Washington where we spent the MOST WONDERFUL WEEK with my son, daughter-in-law and two adorable grandkids! So between spotty email and a very busy schedule, I was a juvenile delinquent, I’m afraid, regarding emails, writing, and blogs.

But it was sooooooooo worth it!! 😉

Which is why I am only going to do two things in today’s Journal Jot, and that is A.) announce the winners to my last contest and B.) show you pictures from my wonderful week.

Ready?

Yes, We Have Winners!

… in the “With This Kiss” Name-a-Character-After-You Contest! The top winner (with the most entries) who wins having a character named after them in my next book, a signed copy, and their choice of any of my books OR a book of any of the authors listed in the “With This Kiss” collections PLUS a top CBA book from my library IS …

Jasmine Augustine

The second-place winner, who will receive her choice of any of my books OR a book of any of the authors listed in the collections PLUS a top CBA book from my library, IS …

Jenny Brown

SUPER CONGRATS TO JASMINE AND JENNY AND MEGA HUGS TO ALL OF YOU!  I really appreciate you taking the time to enter, and I sure wish everybody could win. But there will be more contests in the future, so stay tuned …

And now … our week in Spokane

Here we go … JuJu and PaPa off to Spokane!

For family time with some of our favorite people!

With lots and lots of fun walks!

Lots and lots of great scenery

(hubby and landscape, of course, not me)!

Lots and lots of yummy lunches and dinners out!

Lots and lots and LOTS of playgrounds!

Lots and lots of sightseeing (but no, not in New York)!

AND … lots and LOTS of smiles!

Rory all ready for a “daddy date.”

And a rip-“roarin'” time was had by one and all!

Hugs and Happy Weekend!

Julie