Where Has Raising Ubomi Gone?

Friends!

This dear book has been up for preorder twice and been cancelled both times. Highlight of my writing career? I think not … It’s not my fault though, you see Carter Shaw is a ridiculously stubborn main character and he’s been fighting with me every time I try and write the story.

Who am I kidding? Truth is this is a big year for my family. My youngest is in her last year of school, my middle child is moving out of town for the first time to go work in Cape Town and my eldest has some romantic secrets going on that I’m not at liberty to speak about just yet. Next year this time? I’ll be writing to you as an empty-nester. That’s a pretty scary thought.

Anyways. I’m taking this year to be with my kidlets before they all scatter. Inheriting Ubomi is brewing in the back of my mind and at the right time, will come flowing out through my fingertips.

Not fighting the season you’re in is important, right? Many fruit trees rest in the cold winter months. If they don’t, they hardly produce any fruit. I guess I’m the tree in this story.

What season are you in right now? I’d love to hear from you. Are you fighting it, or surrendering? Surrendering is hard, but so so worth it!

Much love to you!

Di

Flowers And Hidden Treasures

I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. Isaiah 45 v 3 (NKJV)

The house we’re renting at the moment needs some TLC. When we first moved in, rain leaked through the light fitting in the kitchen, some of the rooms had naked wire intstead of lights, and we had to shower cold.

Now, the owners don’t have tons of spare cash, so they’ve done basic repairs, but it’s got a long way to go. The garden is a rambling wild thing, full of weeds, that sprawls around the house like some dystopian landscape where nature heals, and takes back the land.

Ideal? Not really. Are we happy? Absolutely!

Treasures of darkness

You see, this wild, untamed, garden keeps producing new flowers. I love flowers. Even in the mess that it is, this garden keeps delighting us with new colors and scents. The pics above are some of the latest ones we’ve found.

Thinking about it this morning, the verse above comes to mind. Treasures of darkness. That’s a strange promise from the God of light and life. Yet, that’s what He does. He takes all the painful things, confusing, uncomfortable, awkward, messy, broken, neglected … and there in the darkness, He gives us treasures.

That treasure might be showing us another side of His character. It might be a breakthrough we’ve been longing for, or miraculous provision. We get to experience how He provides, see His miracles, and experience His protection.

I know what you’re thinking … oh no! Dark times are coming! But here’s the thing … hardship isn’t all that’s in store for us.

Just because flowers

Sometimes God gives us just because flowers. No special occasion, no celebration. He does it simply because He loves watching your face light up. ‘Flowers’ might be a book you’ve been longing to read, making a new friend, or seeing things fall into place for a loved one.

God is a delightful lover, a true gentleman, and a rescuer to the very core of His being. He’s determined to win your heart. He knows just what your weary soul needs.

If you’re in a mess right now, look around. There are treasures waiting in the darkness, planted by God for only you to find. No mess right now? Your just because flowers are coming!

This feels yucky…

Today, I have to do one of the yuckiest things I’ve ever had to do in my author career. But before we get into that, let’s back up a bit.

Imagine you’ve invited friends to come for tea and cake. Not just any cake, but your special grandma’s-secret-recipe-insert-your-favorite-cake. You’ve spent the morning mixing and stirring and it’s finally in the oven. You tidy up, get out the cups and whatnots. Everything is set.

Then the unthinkable happens. The power goes out … while your cake is still in the oven.

What do you do? Dish up half-baked cake in bowls with spoons? Cancel the party? Cry?

Well, my dear friends. My electricity has run out and I have been crying. Honesty coming up, feel free to skip the next few lines if you’d prefer not to know. Simply this – I’ve been working hard earning to clear debt and there hasn’t been much of me left to write books and meet my pre-order deadlines.

My Undertow cake is half-baked. Do I dish up a soggy, thrown together, unbaked book? Do I rush to finish, meet the deadline, but know that it falls so far short of what it should be? NO! You guys deserve only the best.

So instead of uploading a beautifully finished manuscript by the deadline today, I have to cancel the pre-order. To say I feel sick about it is the biggest understatement. But … it is what it is. Life right now is tough for many of us. (I see you.)

Here’s where the cake analogy fails though. We all know a half-baked cake tends to flop and fail. Given extra time and space, our Undertow cake is going to rise and be completely delicious. So what now? If you want to know when I’ve typed The End and the book is available … click on the cover and I’ll keep you in the loop. I’m off to have a little cry now.

Lots of love to you, from me xx

https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/h1r1a6

Being Stretched … Thoughts on Fizzers

I’ve been thinking about Fizzers. See those pink sweeties? That’s them. Fizzers are weird. If you try eat them when they are cold, they are so brittle, they snap and will do their best to take a tooth-or-two with as they break. This is what you get if you bend a cold one. (Bending / eating … both aren’t particularly successful.)

But if you take time to warm a Fizzer before bending it… You can fashion it into any shape you like. (See pic #3.) Life has been pretty odd over the last few years. Hubs was unemployed for the best part of 2017, then he got a job out of town so that we have to live apart. If that wasn’t enough, he suffered a massive aortic dissection in October. (I should have lost him but I didn’t.)

Through that time, my writing time shrunk down to next to nothing. I was working, single-momming, teaching Zumba to try make ends meet. I was so far from being in control of anything, it was crazy. So many things aren’t even close to the ‘ideal’ I’d hoped for in my head. Throw in loadshedding, the drought and Corona… #funtimes.

I found myself spread thin. So thin I might have been see-through if you squint and tilt your head. Weirdly, we did pretty good there in the bizarre land of Not Ideal. Hubster and I managed to stay sweet. The girls and I laughed, danced around the kitchen while we cooked…

How could I be okay with this? I ate a Fizzer and clicked. All the weird things I’d been through warmed me. No, let me rephrase. I’d been held in God’s warm loving hands through it all, and He’s used it all. Every awkward, sore thing that should have snapped me, made me softer in His hands because I was held with love and grace.

I was spread thin, but not snapped.

Now I’m putty in His hands – ready for pretty much anything that comes to me filtered through His love and grace. Big question – do you like Fizzers? Even bigger question – do you ever feel like you are that cold Fizzer about to snap under the pressure of life? Dear friend, stay in His Hands.

Originally posted to FB in 2019. Rephrased here to be current.

Psst! You want to see something gorgeous? (Hint: it starts with ‘cover’ and ends with ‘reveal’!)

Friends!

This is kinda like those 4D scan pics that mommy-to-be’s flash around. You know there are still months to go, but you can’t help squinting at the image hoping not to see signs of Uncle Hubert’s nose.

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No Uncle Hubert from this angle. Honestly though, isn’t it lovely? OH FINE. I’ll show you the whole thing soon, but first allow me to introduce to you Affinity, Spirit Walker series book 1. Ta-daa!

Here’s the blurb:

Kai was born with the ability to see brokenness and to fix it. But when a freak accident leaves him trapped in the spiritual realm, he discovers a sinister side to being gifted- much darker than he’d ever imagined. With Affinity Recruiters hunting him down, Kai has to learn how to stay alive, use his gift to save his friends and stop the flood of evil threatening the world. Can he do it before time runs out?

It feels like I’ve been writing this series forEVER. Imagine my surprise when I Googled myself (it’s not as creepy as it sounds, you should totally do it) and found this beauty up for pre-order, releasing on the 8th of June 2018. We’ve been through an extraordinarily tough few weeks as a family and I’ve been a bit out of touch with normal life. I’ll cover it all here at some point, but not tonight though, because it is time to see the COVER! Are you ready? Here goes:

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Isn’t it breathtaking? It captures what I saw while writing perfectly. It would tickle me pink if you head on over to Amazon and add it to your wishlist, or pre-order it. If you are an Apple fan, it is up for pre-order on iTunes as well.

Closer to release day, I will probably be running giveaways and things so do keep an eye out for those. I’ll be collecting some lovely swag between now and then!

Chat again soon,

Di xx

 

 

 

Humility vs Perfection and the sweet space in between

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Humble is a good place to live, right?

I’ve had an interesting week. Shackles, the first novel that I wrote (over a decade over *cough*) never found an official publishing home. It did get my foot in the door with my current publishing house though, so I’m grateful for that.

A few years back, I read Shackles again and I still loved the characters and the plot. At that point I decided to put it out as a ‘warts-and-all’ freebie to give readers the opportunity of checking out my writing. Bait, if you will. I even wrote a ‘warts-and-all’ disclaimer in the preface because I just wasn’t going to re-edit the whole thing again. (Besides, I’d checked it twenty-trillion-times and had some others look over it for errors too and we were all happy that it was fine.) I knew I’d have to re-edit at some point, but with new books to be written, that never really loomed large on my horizon.

Fast forward a few years to this week.

Out of the blue, four new reviews arrived. Check them out here. All of them positive – some so lovely that I wanted to cry and hug my dog. Considering my allergies, that is quite something.

BUT…

A significant number of these reviews commented on a few grammar and typo issues.

*DIES* but (even bigger BUT…)

Here’s the weird thing, they loved the book anyway.

My immediate reaction was to start re-editing. Sorry kids, make your own supper. But I’m also currently writing to deadline. So what is a girl to do? I feel like I’m parading Amazon in my ancient bikini, the one with the elastic that has given up on life.

It is humbling.

But it’s also beautiful because I know that what they are falling in love with is not my broken ability but they are seeing Jesus through the cracks of what I can produce and are loving Him in the midst of typos and dodgy grammar.

It just doesn’t get better than that.

So I do have a chapter-a-day-only-after-I’ve-met-my-word-count editing plan. But it will take time and in the meantime, I’ll be out there warts and all for the world to read. And strangely, I’m okay with that.

I’d love to hear from you. Perfectionist? Any humbling happening in your life right now? Please tell me I’m not alone in my ancient bikini.

(This blog first appeared on the International Christian Fiction Writers blog.)

 

Giveaway!!! Finding Mia

Finding Mia-6X9-Hardcover-Book-Ereader-COVERVAULT

Hey guys,

Quick one as I’m supposed to be writing. If you want your own paperback copy of Finding Mia, now is your chance.

Toni Shiloh featured FM as her throwback novel and we are giving away one paperback copy to anyone who leaves a comment on the blog. The last time I checked, there was only 1 comment. 1! I kid you not.

The field is way open.

If you’re keen, go here and leave a comment. Ends on the the 7th, so do it now.

Lovies to you all!

 

Di

A Writer’s Life #3 – Of Germs and Catlaps

This week has been trying. Germs ganged up on me and I spent the week fighting the flu. It was also a week of ‘let’s have something extra on every.single.night. shall we?’ 

Well, after all that I’m pooped and decided to stay home from church and catch up with life and my bed and maybe *whispers so life doesn’t hear* write a bit. 

So I get all the kinders busy, plug in my laptop and BAM! Sleepy decides it’s the perfect time for some lap invasion tactics.

Do I fight it or surrender? 

My Top 3 Writing Apps

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We are living in the days of an App for every occasion. I blogged on my top 3 apps for writer over here.

I also read about an awful app that would probably lead to some laptop smashing if I ever tried to use it. You can read about it here.

Your turn. What apps have you found useful?

A Writer’s Life #2 Poolside Plotting

9 yo has been nagging to go swim so today we are doing that. It works for me too as I brought along this…

It’s ugly, but it works. #amplotting now is good for #amwriting just now. 

How’s your Saturday treating you?