GOODBYE 2018, HELLO 2019

2018 comes to an end. 2019 is welcoming us, and life moves on, season after season. Change is inevitable. When a new year draws close, people have the illusion they have control over the year to come. We have no control over what life will toss at us. We have no control over how our goals or plans will go.

However, God does. God knows what we will face, and not only does He know all, He will help us through everything. He’ll be there in 2019, whether to pick us up and help us keep toddling on like clumsy toddlers, or to spin us around in triumphant dances. No matter what the seasons hold, we can trust the LORD to guide us. And love us. 

We have control only over ourselves. We have control over how we react and adapt to change. We have the choice to turn to God every time we face a decision. We have the choice to rejoice in the storm.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. – Proverbs 3:5-6

I’m not a huge fan of recapping-the-year posts, to be honest. Sure, it is fun seeing how much things change and how much I’ve grown as I ponder 2018. 2018, however, held plenty of sorrows, and I feel like a tired runner who doesn’t want to look back for anything. I just want to focus where I am right now. And right now, my life is jumbled full of changes. Still, I’m writing this post speaking from the heart, and share some things that happened during 2018.

~~~

We bid goodbyes to two of our sweet, friendly horses, Ulu and Ziibi, and our old, loyal dog, Rosie.

Ulu’s passing was a very difficult disaster–she broke through the frozen pond, and we spent the next nonstop 24 hours trying to save her. Ulu passed away, despite our prayers and strenuous efforts. She was a fantastic mama horse and taught my whole family how to love, even when it hurts.

Ziibi was a sweet Ojibwe pony who fought to survive over the span of time he was with us. We said goodbye to him, as well, but find peace in the fact he can run, happy and free, up in heaven.

Rosie was the dog who taught me an old dog can learn new tricks! She was sweet and loyal. We’re grateful she went to heaven peacefully in her sleep.

We sold our house.

This is a recent blessing. We sold the home we built from the ground up–seriously. Name something (framework, roofing, flooring, kitchen, plumbing, electric work) and my Dad did it all himself (with help from our Uncle for super hard electric stuff). It’s sad leaving this home, but God is calling us to move, and we look to God for guidance as we pack up and prepare to move into campers. We also must find land to move to. So, yes, when I say I’m facing changes… moving is a big part. 😉

Welcomed Gabby into the world.

Gabby is my youngest niece and she was born in February. She’s grown into quite the sweet (but secretly rotten!) baby!

I earned my blue and purple belts in Wado Ryu karate.

I didn’t get to compete in the USEWF championships in March, because I got really sick, but Kody did and he got second!

Karate grill out.

So. Fun. I’m not one for sports, but watching a bunch of guys play football with only some skills and the risk of little kids running into the game? Entertaining.

^ that’s me (red shirt, duh) and Kody is in the bag (brown shirt)

Got my driver’s permit.

This was a 2018 year goal, but I didn’t get my license, though I’m working on it now, so it’ll happen.

Traveled out of state.

We visited my grandparents in North Carolina for Thanksgiving. During this trip, I also got to meet the super sweet Faith Potts!

Celebrated the little things during Mom’s doctor visit trips in Maryville/Knoxville.

I published Seek.

This was a huge goal for 2018. And guess what? I also published The Thief, the Damsel, And the Dragon, Homeward, and Emmanuel. I had a goal of publishing a novella and succeeded. The short stories, Homeward and Emmanuel, weren’t planned. But Seek is out for all the world to see and I’m so blessed!

I am so grateful for the things I learned as a writer in 2018. I won both Camp NaNos, wrote a ton, and published! I also got plenty of new ideas (big shocker there). A big thanks to my online writing community as well as my family.

I’m manager of Reveries Co.

Reveries Co. is a company dedicated to helping authors succeed without spending an arm and a leg. The company is launching January 1st-5th, and it will be very fun. So be sure to follow Reveries Co. on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).

We went to the fair!

I haven’t been to the fair in FOREVER. And it was a blast! I love fair rides, even if Kody gets green super easy (teacups, anyone?), but it’s still great fun.

Gardened and produced meals with my bro.

The garden was terrifying when the giant caterpillars got to the tomatoes, but we took care of it.

Reached 250+ WordPress followers (and other social media triumphs).

I created a Twitter and a Instagram in 2018. I also created a Facebook author page. I’m no social media wizard, but 2018 was a great start of learning the ropes.

Read my whole Bible.

Not necessarily cover-to-cover, but I’ve officially read the Bible through and through!

Spread Lyme awareness.

May is Lyme disease awareness month, but I worked to spread awareness through the year, too. This was an important 2018 goal for me.

~~~

 

I had more goals for 2018, some I failed, some I did, but that’s enough recapping. I’ll now list some (not all, because, hey, some goals ya gotta keep in your journal, friends) goals for 2019!

• Move into camper, sell house #2, etc. Hah. So, survive life, basically. On that note, I want to not just survive the chaos of moving, I want to be able to rejoice through it all. It has been so hard, but I want to focus on God through the frenzy. I want to listen to music and sing while working in my little camper I’ll share with my brother.
• Earn green belt in Wado Ryu. And make it to championships… I can’t get sick this time, ha!
• Read Bible cover to cover.
• Travel out of state.
• Get driver’s license.
• Put Taloowa in the curly field, work with Sugar Baby, train new foal (who will be born in 2019).
• Write AWAKE, the first book of The Infidel Books. Publish it.
• Give JUMP to alphas, rewrite it, and publish it.

And my biggest goal, as always, is to grow closer to the Lord, grow in wisdom and kindness, and above all other goals, follow God’s will for me.

I learned a lot in 2018. While 2018 was full of trials, pain, and feeling lost, God was always there. I learned so much about the Lord this past year, and I’m grateful for the pain and storms, because I learned how close to Jesus you can get during difficult times. For instance, when my family and I were under (another) tornado watch and were hiding in our closet, we prayed and laughed together. We face extreme weather often, and we always have a strange peace when in that kind of danger… We pray aloud and even sing songs of praise as the storm outside brews. God is there during the dark times and we can find peace in Him despite what’s happening. Again, we only have control over ourselves, not the storm.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33

~~~

Well, y’all, thank the Lord, I did it! I recapped 2018 and listed some 2019 goals. 😉 I shall see you all in 2019 very soon. *jumps in time machine*

God bless,

Angie

 

HOW WAS YOUR 2018? (IF YOU HAVE A RECAP POST, I’D LOVE TO CHECK IT OUT!) WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR GOALS FOR 2019?

July Camp NaNo, Week 3 |Morning Sun

I took this week offline, a hiatus from my laptop. I wrote 47 pages of Jump in my composition notebook. Which, I have yet to add up how much word count it is. Ha. But I am currently copying those pages onto my document.

Writing with a notebook and pencil is pretty cool. My head got on overdrive because I couldn’t write quite as fast as I think (I’m a fast keyboard typer), which got annoying. But it also was a nice break! I didn’t get distracted with Internet. Only… I may have gotten distracted with some other book ideas. Like, the WWII story, I wrote some in that. And the future world war story…. ANYWAY. I wrote about 30 pages in other projects, total. So, 73 pages in a week, not counting some poems I wrote.

 

Morning writing with a yummy protein smoothie!

My amazing Dad and me. 🙂

 

I am very, very happy to announce that on the 21st of this month, Matoska, our curly mare, had her baby!

She is the CUTEST, smallest thing! She has faint stripes on her legs, a curly tail and a curly coat, gray legs, and small white dots on her butt. She has Matoska’s appy eyes, too. 🙂 We named her Pa Mni (pronounced pah mini, basically), which means Bitter water. In the Bible, bitter water was used for healing. We’re going to call her Mini, she’s so small. ;D

So, Jump is going well. I am past 20,000, and am working on copying what I wrote by hand, onto the word doc. I am thinking this book will be novel length. I doubt I will have it finished by the end of this month, but I’m not worried. Excited, more like. Considering how absolutely crazy life has been, reaching my goal of 20,000 is good.

Snippets for Jump:

~~~

***Derek’s POV***

“Sam, let’s go through the papers.” Rene’ said, and Sam stacked the pile of newspapers on the table. Which made our booth look like a newspaper shop, but we had to work with it. We gobbled pizza down as we worked.

  That was how the next hour went. We scanned, searched, ate, and sighed.

We found nothing.

Article after article.

Nothing. No UFOs. No freak monsters. Nada.

  “I’ve never been on a news site this long in my entire life.” I moaned, eyes aching from all the screen scrolling.

“You’ve never been on a news site.” Sam muttered, flipping through the pages of his paper.

“Thus, you prove my point.”
“Maybe someone’s seen somethin’, but won’t publish it.” Rene’ suggested, leaning back.

“We can’t go door to door and ask ‘Good morning, have you seen any demons lately? Also, we’re not in the occult.’.” I said dryly. Rene’ rolled her eyes.

“Shut up.” Sam told me.

~~~

***Isaac’s POV***

The river wasn’t too busy, for such a hot day. A few people were lazily floating down the placid river in inner tubes, and some kids dived and yelled, playing. We parked on the dirt spot, where no one else was, and got our stuff. Ma sat on the bank in a fold-up chair, with Dad, both of them smiling as us kids took off into the cool water. Rene’ stayed with Rose near the bank, splashing at the water, while Rose laughed and splashed right back with glee. Vee and Tim sat onshore with Teddy, who watched the whole river with big, blue eyes.

I took Lynn exploring in the water. Big and little fish, sucker fish, tiger fish, and minnows, all swam and darted near our barefeet. We stood still, letting the fish nip our toes. Lynn shrieked with delight.

It wasn’t long till Rebecca and her family parked. Rebecca and her sister, Anna, got out and hurried down. “Isaac!” Rebecca grinned as she got in the water, her hair pulled in a pony tail. She wore a bright yellow swimsuit.

My ears must’ve turned red, by the knowing smirk Rene’ shot at me.

 

~~~

***Rene’s POV***

The pizza place wasn’t busy. Sam and Derek were at the corner booth, waiting for Isaac and I, with a beef pizza steaming before them. Isaac and I sat down beside them.

“No offense, but what the heck are we doing?” I asked, sipping a soda.

“Sitting.” Derek said blankly.
“Eating.” Isaac added, hiding a smirk.

“Guys. Really. What’s goin’ on?” I eyed Sam expectantly.

“We need to talk.” Sam bit into his pizza.

“About Mr. Fryer?”

“He told us we should leave this alone.” Sam replied, eyes narrow.

~~~

 Anyway, hopefully we don’t melt. It’s 105 degrees today. God bless!

-Angela

Isn’t Mini ADORABLE?! How is your project? What do you think of Jump?

Our Perfect Rain Stormy Star

On April 30th, 2017, our curly mare Ulu surprised us all with her newborn baby! I was going to do Ma’s tinctures, when Dad tore back into the house yelling ‘We have a baby!’. What?! We all rush out and find Ulu and her little foal; Ulu had already done the hard work. Since it was a windy day (and it rained/stormed later on), we rubbed the baby down some, and the baby was on her legs before long! Very wobbly, long legs.  The baby is a big girl, with a star on her forehead, like her Daddy (Rain), and has his tipped ears. She has the stripes on her legs, and the dun stripe on her back. We do believe she is a curly! Her mane and tail are curlier, and her coat is a bit wavy. We think she may be an appy, too… She is beautiful! This baby is our FIRST foal!

TIPPY!

Big happy family.

It didn’t take us long to get Ulu and her baby into the shed and panels, so they could rest up. Roger and Dad helped the baby find Ulu’s milk so she could nurse; the silly girl was sucking at Ulu’s chest! Haha!

Nudge! 😉

Ma, Dad, and the new Daddy, Rain! 

Showing the baby where the milk is.

Two of the BEST Dads ever! I need to get Roger in this pic too.. 

The baby’s first day went well! She nursed (it’s a good thing baby horses don’t have teeth! Ouch…), and Ulu ate, too. It’s hard work to have a big ol’ baby! When it rained (it was pouring….), Rain and Lily stayed close to the shelter, and the baby was just a wagging her curly tail, not bothered at all!

Today, we went out to see the baby again. We fed Uley (Uley is Ulu’s nickname), and then watched, because Ulu was pushing the baby away. This was odd, since Ulu had taken to her well, and was being a good Ma. For some reason, she wouldn’t let the baby nurse. It took us helping the baby back under, but now, Ulu is letting her nurse. We think Ulu was just a bit sore.

The baby did not get named on the first day… we thought and thought, but could not find a name that fit! Today, we all landed on a name for this lass. Her full name is Rain Stormy Star. She was born on a windy, stormy day, and she has a star on her head, and their shed has a star on it! And the baby’s nickname is Tippy! It definitely fits her.

We are all SO grateful and excited! Yahweh was with them both, they are both healthy and happy! The curly bunch are a big happy family now… and so are we! Step By Step Sanctuary is very joyous! God is so faithful and good. Tippy is our first baby horse and we are in love!

God bless you all! Life has been quite busy- I finished Camp NaNo, and my family and I have been SUPER busy putting our house up for sale. Yahweh has blessed us so… Tippy is a SWEET GIFT! 😀

-Angie

 

Do you love Tippy already? Isn’t she the sweetest thing?!

Singing In The Rain

I am writing this at nighttime. It is dark outside. The moon is hidden by a thick blanket of overcast clouds, black and dark shades of blue. Only a few stars blur past the thickness.

Last weekend’s  weather was insanely warm- it got to 74 degrees today. Amazing!  It feels like spring. The daffodils are springing up from the leaves, their perfect little petals tangling free and bursting (that is, until a certain stallion decides to try and eat them… and then steps on them…. ah, Ziibi…). The weather is pretty weird for February, but we’ll take it! 😉 Of course, today, it was rainy and windy again… but I love that, too!

I didn’t get many pictures of this weekend. I’ll start trying to. But it’s hard, since I’m the photographer, and when I do stuff on the ranch…. not many pictures come out in the end. But no worries! 😉

Before I begin, I have an announcement. To clear things up. 🙂 We have renamed the Curly herd. We felt that Yahweh wanted us to change the names of that herd. So! The handsome stud, Ceremony, is now Rain. Ulu is now Luna (which is so sweet. Because my girl’s name is Hashi’ Taloowa… and Hashi’ means ‘moon’ in the Chickasaw language.) And Matoska is now Lily. We’re very happy with their names- and they like them, too. They really fit. ♥

I thought I’d get that out of the way, as not to confuse y’all. And their page is also updated with their names.

Roger worked with Lily some! Lily is a brilliant girl, and she has come such a long way since she first came home to us… Now, we can rub all over her (she especially loves itches, of course). Lily is very interested in youngsters. So, the recent work in the round pen has been a very big leap for her. She is doing well, she is a smart girl and learns fast, but she also isn’t one to easily trust others, and it takes time for her to respect everyone.

 

We rehomed Skip and Rocky this month. Rocky went to a wonderful home, where he’ll be spoiled and given the work and love he so, so deserves. We were really praying about him, and God answered. And Skip went home to our neighbors! So he’s fine.

Papaw, Granny, and Rey. 🙂

Me and my crazy girl, Taloowa! I need to change her halter… the color is awful, haha. 

We moved Sugar Baby into the baby field. We did this because Taloowa is not going to be in Ziibi’s herd. She won’t be in his family, because it will be difficult for Ziibi, who is a smaller pony, to breed with Taloowa. After a lot of praying (because I really wasn’t sure what to do… I love Taloowa, and want her to be with who she belongs….), God showed us that Taloowa belongs with the Curly herd. However, Taloowa is not old enough or big enough just yet to be with the Curlies. And Taloowa cannot stay with Ziibi for much longer. So! Until Taloowa is ready to go into the Curlies, we will put her and Sugar Baby into their own field.

We have also been taking Ziibi out to feed him separately. Poor boy… he hasn’t been doing well. He isn’t eating near enough. We’re not sure what’s up with him…. He must be having a growth spurt or something… Please pray with us that he does well. Ziibi is such a sweet boy, I hope we can help make him feel better and get the minerals he needs.

And yes… if you noticed that piece of flint in the trough, don’t worry, I got it out…. I have NO idea how it got in there, it’s my flint thingie…. weird. o-0

 I do have plans for this spring/summer. Like I said before, I will be getting more time in the saddle with Lucy. I prefer to ride Cosmo, because I just kind of trust him a bit better. Sure, he’s nearly backed us off a cliff. But there’s been times when he could have bolted and left me in the dirt- but he didn’t. But, Lucy can neck rein correctly and knows the good ol’ basics. So I shall be getting more learning time with her. 🙂 And I will be learning how to lunge and such (round pen work) with Sugar Baby! And then, I can take what I learn and do it with Taloowa. And, God willing, God will let me work with Lily some, too.

Migi

My goals with Taloowa are things I have full confidence she, God, and I can do. ;D Taloowa is turning 2 years old this March (at least, I think her birthday is March….). However, the primitive horses do not mature as quickly as, say, Quarter horses and such. I do not plan on riding Taloowa this year. She is not old enough, or big/strong enough. Also, I don’t want to rush into riding with her, until I know she has the basics down pat. 🙂 So! We will be working on ground work, desensitizing, and round pen work. Taloowa is already used to me grooming her all over, and she leads like a beauty. With leading, I do want to have it where she’ll lead right beside me, however. Taloowa also lets me pick up all four legs, so I am also going to work on cleaning her hooves myself. She does not like picking her feet up for getting trimmed- the noise does not scare her. But the gloves the farrier (aka, Roger, haha!) wear, she isn’t used to. So I’ll be working with her on that kind of stuff!

  Taloowa is a brilliant girl. Maybe too smart for her own good. ;D I know there is still so much we have to teach each other- things I will teach her, and things she will show me. God gave me this horse for a big reason- bigger than I could imagine. I am excited to work with her this year, and Lord willing, many years to come! 🙂

 

Well. That was only a slight ramble. But who doesn’t like rambles? I love rambles.    Anyway, that’s some updates on the ranch! 🙂 We’ve all been doing well. The horses are getting along, but I have no doubt they’re excited for warm weather, too. 😉

Also, this post is titled ‘Singing In The Rain’, because though a rainy, cold day may come, but the sun will always shine again. Life may be hard and foggy, but the Light will always shine through. That is what my family and I have been learning this month. We have to remember to sing in the rain!

YHVH bless.

-Angela

Romans 12:12 – Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer….

 Did you enjoy the pictures? Do you have a horse? What are your plans for the spring? Do you ramble?

Goodbye January | 2017

I know I basically fell off the blog the whole month… Heh. Sorry about that. But it won’t happen again! I really want to be consistent with blogging. Why? Because it’s my outlet. And instead of focusing too much on other things, I want to really get in the groove of focusing on constructive things. I want this blog to hold writings and posts that mean something. I want it to be a place where I can regularly share my stuff. So, I have some subjects and things to tackle, and I’ll be working on them from here on out! Unless I get kidnapped by some weird creature who takes me off to Narnia. In which case…. Later, pals. Just kidding.

A new year, a new title for my monthly recap posts. 🙂 Usually, I call these monthly things ‘highlights’, but from now on, it’s going to be different. ANYWAY. I KNOW THIS IS LATE but shh, it’s fine. It’s fine. My excuse? I was sick with a bad virus since Monday. I’m just starting to feel like a functioning human today. So, that’s why this is late. 😦 But hey, I’m alive!

So, onto the monthly recap thingie. This month was kind of rough… but Yahweh was with us.

Lovely Life

My sweet chicken, Nai, died on the 24th. She was going on 3 years this year… During the snow earlier this month, Nai’s feet got bad frostbitten (she couldn’t walk and it was hard for her to move around with her wings). Well, we took her inside because of another frost, and when I went to take her back out to her cage… I found she had passed away. I really miss her. She was a very good chicken. Very sweet, motherly, and she amused Ma and I. I miss not seeing her out our kitchen window. But I’m glad she’s warm in birdie heaven now.

It snowed. Which… is also the only post I did this month, but look at it.

GUESS WHO’S NOW OFFICIALLY A GOLD BELT?! I earned my gold belt! This was a really happy note for me this month. And another reason why I disappeared from blogging, haha. I had been working super hard all month for the belt test. I did great! It went well, and I didn’t get nervous at all! Thank the Lord.

Kody and I are working on our gardens. The raised beds are coming along nice! We found some worms, and Reyna held them, so that was fun, too. And slightly unnerving- one worm was so big, it was sliding over this chunk of dirt, and looked oddly like a snake. Eesh. Lol!

 

Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States of America. My family and I have been praying for this man and his family, along with Mr. Pence and his family… that Yahweh protects them, gives them wisdom and courage, and that Yahweh is with us, the American people. Yahweh is bigger than anything- and we are a Nation under GOD!
I am so happy and glad that Yahweh gave us this chance. We all made a choice. I pray that we can all make America great again! God bless America.

 

I put up the shelf in my closet. I did it all by myself! Dad showed me how. It was a bit trickier than I thought to hold the screw steady, lol, but I got it. 😉

I got sick for a week. Ugh. Since Monday. And now… my whole family is sick. Some of us are feeling a little better but… if you could keep us in your prayers, we’d appreciate it!

We went to a Beekeeper’s Workshop in town (which had like, 80 other folks. So..). Somehow, we got no pictures, but it seriously lasted all day. Oh my gosh. And I won a bee hive box! So, yay! I really love honey, but to be honest with you, bees kinda freak me out… so…

Our neighbor’s forest was on fire. Some idiot was lighting firecrackers on the windiest day imaginable… it was pretty bad. And very scary. The fire was coming towards our house. The neighbor’s were very close, so it was basically our backyard…. we were pretty scared, but we were praying. Praying praying praying. We came home and packed clothes and valuables. There was nothing we could do to get the horses out of there- we knew we would have to set them all lose on the property. Which meant we probably would have lost some of them (the baby mustangs, mostly…)… We were just praying. The local fire department came and was just standing there… then the bull dozers got there. The fire dep. set some controlled fires and bulldozed some paths to stop the fire. They got it under control. In the end, our neighbors home and them came out safe, and so did we. Praise God! Yahweh definitely showed us His hand… and He showed me something else, too. But I’ll write another post on that.

We have a pair of bald eagles near by! This is so crazy and AMAZING! One swooped over us one day and I was calling for Dad. Kody and I knew it wasn’t our hawk, or any buzzard.. it was too big. And had a white head, haha. And then a few days later, we were all out blowing our shofars, and we saw TWO of them! It was soo sweet. I got a picture (though not many good ones. They fly very fast and I can’t zoom in close…)!

 

 Entertainment 

Listened to:

Lord Of Glory, by Twenty One Pilots

Lane Boy, by Twenty One Pilots feat. Mutemath (AHHH. YOO.)

Thief, by Imagine Dragons

AND TWENTY ONE PILOTS DID A MUSIC VIDEO FOR HEAVYDIRTYSOUL AND I AM FLAILING AND DYING. LOOK. A HEAVYDIRTYFREAKINGEXPLOSION.

And the whole ‘Happiness‘ album by the wonderful Hurts. Haha. Help me. ;D (Seriously. Can someone play ‘Confide In Me’ super loud and dance with me? I just like that song. Lots.)  ALSO SKILLET’S NEW ALBUM, UNLEASHED. If you haven’t heard it, LISTEN TO IT. ALL OF IT. It is amazing.

We also watched The Magnificent Seven again! Well, I didn’t finish it the second time because I couldn’t stand the end again… I seriously love this movie. I have not gotten to watch the original but that will happen. I also need to watch Silverado (because we love Kevin Costner). Personally, The Magnificent Seven was like, the only good movie that came from 2016…

Look at them. *teary eyed* This movie was so good.

Bookish Worm

I read 13 books this month! Which is pretty good. I’m glad I read constantly at the beginning of the month, because then I got sick.

Forgive the scribble. That’s a book I read in February 2017. Haha.

Favorite Fiction: Well, Maccabee counts, it is historical/Biblical fiction… Maccabee was amazing. Everyone needs to read it. And The Little Prince about brought me to tears. I really love that little book.

Favorite Nonfiction: Both books of the Bible, of course. 😉 I read Ezekiel and John. Also, the Native American warrior and Black Elk Speaks were both pretty cool.

 

The World Of Writing

The month of January wasn’t a huge writing month. I did start revising Seek again. In Seek, I wrote a little over 3,000 words. Which means I revised and rewrote…  And I stopped printing pages. *sigh* Why? Well, because as the chapters went on, I sort of kept getting pages that looked like this…

So. Haha. That’s not amazing. So, I’ve stopped printing pages, and am taking what I have so far and rewriting on the computer (also, it’s cheaper, of course). It is going pretty well! I’m trying to take it slow. My plan is to take it chapter by chapter, rearrange chapters and make them shorter as I go back, revise, and rewrite. I’ll be revising the whole book, and I think I have a plan for it…. but that’s for another post! 😀 For now, I’m praying and I am ready to work hard. God is with me!

This month, I also started writing a story for my brother Kody. He and I plotted it together! He’s letting me write it, and chapter by chapter, he’ll read it and we’ll work on it. 🙂 It is a wild wist, cowboy story. It’s really fun! I haven’t gotten too far in it, but here’s a snippet!

 

The Illusive Six

René

 

“Ah. Well.” Caleb frowned, glancing at me.The bugger didn’t ask me my name, in fact, he hadn’t spoken to me once since Levy had saved his sorry hide. So, I promptly decided I wasn’t going to acknowledge his existence until he found his manners. If he had any. I watched the bartender pour some whiskey for a customer instead.

 “You cheated!”

A loud, angry voice from a table to my left made me turn in my seat, eyebrows raised. Levy craned his neck to see.

  The voice belonged to a tall young man with short brown hair, who wore a white button up, brown leather vest, and chaps over brown cotton pants. The man slapped his hand of cards down on the old, weathered round table at which he was seated. The table was covered in cards and money, showing me the game was a serious one. Other men sat at the table with the brown haired man. A dark haired man with the start of a beard glanced at him, a small smirk tugging on his lips.

“You cheated!” The brown haired man shouted again, face twisted in anger as he gestured at a Mexican man across from him. The Mexican man was shorter, smaller, but he sat straight with defiance, his dark brown eyes wide.
“I did not cheat!” The Mexican man exclaimed, holding his hands up slightly, his hand of cards facing himself. As soon as he spoke, a card slid out from under his brown leather coat. He stared down at his chest, watching the card waft down to his boots. A brief look of disbelief came to his face.

“Son of a-” The brown haired man shot up from out of his seat, and as he did, he drew a long barreled revolver from his side. The man aimed the wooden butted gun toward the Mexican man, face furious and body tense. Finger on the trigger. The Mexican man jerked up in the same instant, pulling out two identical pistols from his belt.The Mexican man aimed at the brown haired man’s chest, his eyes wide and fingers ready.  

The click of the hammers being pulled back made the whole saloon freeze. The men stood there, unmoving, guns aimed. The saloon was silent. Watching. Waiting.

~~~

Well, that’s a snippet of The Illusive Six. I’m enjoying it, haha. I hope y’all like the snippet- tell me what you think! =D

 

My Nook

I didn’t actually blog all month. Wowzers. But here’s my only little post of January, 2017. Handle it with care. Lol!

Snow Day, 2017!

Also, I will be trying to clean up the blog design. I don’t like the choppy look of the header right now. And the pages all need to be updated and for some reasons, pictures don’t want to load? Is this just me? Can y’all see the pictures on the pages and posts? But I’ll be trying to get what I can squared away, haha.

Be sure to stay tuned to the blog! I’ve got some nice posts coming up. 😀

Fantastic Folks

Well, this section is new, too. xD New is good, though!

Faith wrote this little poem that I thought was neat and pretty cool!

Collin wrote this inspiring post about Yeshua returning and us being ready, which was inspiring and awesome.

Kellyn Roth tells us what we need to do to survive as an author…. and she did a great job. xD

Jesseca wrote an amazing post that I agree very strongly with… and it’s just amazing and what I pray to do. =D

 

~~~

January is over, but 2017 is just begun. January was a rough month, but Yahweh is with us. The darkness can blind us so easily, but Elohim won’t abandon us. We have to look UP… and have faith. It can be hard. But there is so much more than what we see. Yahweh is with us! When our flesh is weak, our hearts are strong. Step by step, we keep going.

 Scripture of the month

… in my ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. -John 16:33

YHVH bless!

-Angela