Journal Jots – Blog

 “It’s no fun being sick.”

—Big Bird, Nobody Cares About Me, Sesame Street 

I cannot tell you how many times I read Nobody Cares About Me to my kids growing up, and we’d all join in at the end when Big Bird says, “It’s no fun being sick.” 

But you know what? In the back of my head, whenever I said it with them, I would think—but, oh, to have an excuse to stay in bed and sleep and rest and not do anything!! Maybe because I was and am (or was) one of the healthiest people I know, meaning I seldom get sick. Can’t remember the last time I had the flu (I think it was the one time I got a flu shot …) or a cold for longer than a day. Keith admits he has only really seen me sick enough to be in bed twice in our life—once with food poisoning and another time after surgery and a 10-day bout with C-Diff that just about killed me.

So, to me, getting sick enough to be in bed seemed something of an adventure. I now rescind that statement with humble apologies to every poor person who has ever had the flu out there because I’m an idiot. And a sick one, to boot. 

Oh, sure, I secretly gloated as I skated through the holidays, dodging a respiratory crud that took my entire family captive, including my son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, husband, daughter and daughter’s fiancé and his family. Day and night I scurried about my house, sanitizing everything I could with Clorox Cleanup Wipes and going through an entire bottle of Purell. My hands were raw … but my body was germ free. 

Until Tuesday. And heaven help me, I got up three morning in a row, staggered downstairs, choked down a half a bagel and trudged back up to fall in bed. I had no interest in writing, reading, eating, romance, nothing, finally convincing me once and for all that Big Bird was, indeed, correct. It’s no fun to be sick. 

So I’m going to sign off before I infect you, but before I do, I wanted to let you know about some pretty cool things going on right now.

VALENTINE’S SALE!!!

A Light in the Window has been re-edited by moi based on feedback from some of my favorite reader friends and is now almost HALF PRICE at $3.99 for a Valentine’s Day Special that won’t last long, so if you’re interested, you can check it out at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. PLEASE share this on Facebook and Twitter if you are so inclined, okay?

And although I have been shying away from giveaways, I do have a few final ones coming up, so here’s your chance to win Love at Any Cost too!

FEBRUARY 8-22, 2013: 

Join me at “Remain in His Love” blog for an interview and giveaway of choice of my books. Here’s the link and hope to see you there:

http://remaininhislove.com/  

FEBRUARY 13-15, 2013: 

Join me at Sherri Wilson Johnson’s website for an interview and giveaway of choice of my books. Here’s the link and hope to see you there: 

http://sherriwilsonjohnson.com/2013/02/13/julie-lessman/

FEBRUARY 13, 2013:

Join me at Seekerville for my Valentine’s Special, “Stupid in Love,” where you’ll not only get a sneak peek at one of my future books, but have an opportunity to win your choice of my books including my upcoming release, Love at Any Cost. Here’s the link and hope to see you there: 

http://seekerville.blogspot.com 

HUGS AND HAPPY WEEKEND … and STAY HEALTHY!!

Julie

“Set a guard, oh Lord, before my mouth;

keep watch at the door of my lips.”

—Psalm 141:3

Went to the dentist this week and the gal that cleans my teeth always smiles and says, “Goodness, you have such a little mouth!”

YIKES … you couldn’t prove it by me, a woman who has long suffered from hoof-in-mouth disease, blurting out things that would curl hair, toes, and anything else. Awful things like when I was about 14, telling my Aunt Julie in front of her husband’s casket “that she was not to worry because she was so beautiful, she would have a million guys after her—she’d knock ‘em dead.” Or the time at work when somebody was talking to me in front of my desk, blocking my view of my office door where all I could see was the huge stomach of a pregnant lady. “Oh, we have a pregnant lady,” I said in a cheery, welcome voice that was not so welcome to the woman who was not so pregnant or pregnant at all!

Of course, I’ve known for some time now that I’m more lip-to-brain than brain-to-lip, but even so, I honestly believed I had grown and gotten much better over the years, despite having a big mouth, which is clearly evident in this picture with my sweet granddaughter.

So when my prayer partner gave me Joyce Meyer’s new book, Change Your Words, Change Your Life for Christmas, I was thrilled, of course, but a part of me couldn’t help but think—do I really need this?

Uh, yeah. I knew that right off the bat after I’d read the first page, which told the story of a very sharp, kind, and encouraging woman at this company who was on the fast track to the next Vice President job that came up because everybody flat-out loved and respected her. So much so, that her boss asked her to proof a speech he’d written for a very important meeting, in which he used a joke that was out of place. Picking up the phone, the woman promptly left a voice mail that said, “What were you thinking, boss? Don’t you know the CEO will hate that joke? He has no sense of humor.” Only instead of sending it just to her boss, she inadvertently sent it to the entire company including the CEO, shooting any chances for promotion in the proverbial foot. Needless to say, she never got that next promotion or the one after that.

What’s really scary about this story is that not three hours after reading it, I get an e-mail from my daughter, asking me for the e-mail of one of my dear friends who, unfortunately, I don’t see very often. Amy needed my friend’s e-mail address to ask her something, so I simply clicked on reply, then typed my friend’s name in the CC line, copied it and pasted it in the body of the e-mail, forgetting to delete it from the CC line. Unfortunately in that e-mail, Amy also told me she didn’t see this friend on the wedding list and wondered why, asking if I wanted to include her? “Absolutely,” I said without any hesitation, because this friend is a given to both me and Amy. But because Amy and I had been battling back and forth for weeks on who she could cut from the list to stay within budget (including all of my 45 nieces and nephews!!), I added, “consider it an act of love for your mother.”

The moment I hit the send button, every muscle in my body froze when I realized I just sent this same e-mail to this precious friend, who could very well misconstrue that statement to mean it would take an act of love to invite this person at all, which was not the case at all. I was stunned, mortified, and sick to my stomach, immediately running into Keith with tears in my eyes.

“Julie, it’s not that bad, trust me,” he told me, comforting me with a hug on his lap, but I didn’t believe it for a second. Then all at once my thoughts traveled back to that first page of Joyce Meyer’s book, illustrating with painful clarity just how careful we must be with our words. To become aware that we need to ask God to, indeed, “set a guard” before our mouths … or in my case, a German shepherd, electric fence, and an armed Brinks guard.

So I’ve decided I need to dive into this book BIG TIME, and will let you know down the road just what I think of it, but my prayer partner swears I will love it … and knowing me and my big mouth, I’m guessing my family and friends will too …

Hugs and Happy Weekend!!

Julie (Big Mouth) Lessman

“We are our choices.”

― Jean-Paul Sartre

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

And I gotta admit, it’s happier than most because A.) I just found out my official title for book 2 in the Heart of San Francisco series will be Dare to Love Again, which I like a lot (my original title was Dare to Love, so I came closer on this one than any of the others!). B.) I sent the final ms. for Dare to Love Again to my editor on Wednesday, and I have to admit — it turned out better than I thought and Keith liked it so well, he wants to read it again!! Says he misses the characters, which is a very good thing! I think it’s a light and funny romance, so hopefully you will too.

And C.) I get to babysit my precious granddaughter and the granddogs tonight, so looking forward to that!!

So what’s up next in my writing schedule? Well, my next project is to re-edit A Light in the Window to incorporate a scene eluded to in A Passion Denied about Sam kissing Marcy the morning of her wedding. I’ve had a number of readers bemoan the fact that I didn’t include that in the book, so since I planned on doing a few small edits anyway, I thought, why not?

Then next, I dive in to book 3 of The Heart of San Francisco series, Dare to Hope (working title), and I have to be honest — I’m chomping at the bit on this one because ideas are slamming me so hard on the treadmill,  I can barely keep up. Here’s a sneak peek at what it’s about:

1-Line Premise: An ugly duckling who becomes a swan plots romantic vindication on the man who spurned her with the help of the best friend who steals her heart.

Moral Premise: Rejection, insecurity and guilt can skew our choices, resulting in misery and lack of peace, but acceptance, confidence and faith in God can shape our choices, resulting in contentment and peace.

Scripture Theme:

The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook. —Proverbs 18:4

Opening Paragraphs of Synopsis:

San Francisco, Summer 1904

      Close your mouth, Devin Caldwell, you’ll swallow a fly. The very thought twitched the edges of Meghan McClare’s mouth with a smile that tingled all the way to her toes.

      “Now, there’s a thought that’s up to no good,” her friend Bram Hughes said with a lazy grin, hazel eyes twinkling with his trademark tease that never failed to warm her inside and out.

       Tilting her head, she studied the best friend who’d been there for her through thick and thin. Thick before Paris, thin after. Palms damp, she smoothed the slim waist of her House of Worth suit, nibbling the edge of a smile that was no longer painfully shy. No good is right, she thought with a crook of her lips, chin edging up. Eat your heart out, Devin Caldwell.

So, please say one for me as I dive in to this, the last book in the McClare saga!

Now … when I first named my blog Journal Jots, the original intent was a short journel entry that I would “jot” down to my reader friends on a regular basis, but as everyone knows who reads my books, Seeker blogs, or Journal Jots, I don’t do “short” real well. But today, that’s about to change.

Why? Because nothing I can say can compare to the impact of a video I saw this week. My future son-in-law sent me this clip from an Oprah show with Rick Warren and Nick Vujicic that is simply one of the most inspiring — if not THE most inspiring — clip I have ever seen. I leaked countless tears when I watched it because it packs a wallop of a message to each one of us regarding choices we make … choices that become who we are as our quote above so wisely points out. So please do watch the video … at least till the part where Nick Vujicic comes on because I promise you, it will greatly affect your life and your perception of the choices we all make. Here’s the link:

Oprah Clip Entitled: This Is Going To Shut Your Mouth

Happy viewing, Happy Weekend, and Happy Choices!!

Hugs,

Julie