Fall!!!

                I am coming back from my hiatus to say, it’s fall, it’s fall, it’s fall!! My favorite season is finally here and that is a reason to celebrate! So in honor of that, and the fact that my birthday is in only seventeen days, and the fact that I hope to have my first book finished and ready to publish by the end of the year, I am posting a short story! Since I wrote it for my homework for the writing class I am taking, and I got an A on it, I thought you would like to read it. Enjoy!

                                                       Her Wayward Uncle                                                          

                                                         By. Mackenzie Carol

                From her chair in the middle of the library, Amelia clutched the book in her hands, her eyes searching the room. She had been engrossed in the story before her when a sound had jerked her back to the present. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary, the nineteen year old turned back to her book, but she continued to listen for noises. Since she was alone in the large house, the strange and unknown noises scared her more than they usually would. She shook her head. Clearly the book she was reading, a thrilling mystery, was making her imagine things that were not there. She knew there was an old, ornate object cleverly hidden in the room, and that was not helping matters either, but she tried to focus on her story. When she had just reached the scariest part, Amelia heard and detected a person in the room. Hugging her book to her chest, she slipped out of her chair, her jaw dropping at what she beheld.

                Her uncle was swinging on the chandelier! With a gasp, Amelia dropped her book, frightened and wondering what her uncle was doing there. As if reading her mind, her uncle called down, “I was looking for a book on one of the top shelves when I saw a mouse.” Calmly he continued to tell her his absurd story, claiming his ladder, which he was using to grab a book from the top of the shelf, got toppled in his fright, so he jumped to the chandelier to keep from falling. Amelia knew better. A smart girl, she was sure he was looking for the valuable and mysterious object that was somewhere in the room. Her great-great grandmother had cleverly hidden it in the house, and had admonished her children never to search it out, not for the next hundred years. Since it was a story the whole family knew, there was no doubt someone would not follow her wishes. Apparently her uncle, still hanging from the chandelier, had decided he was not going to wait the five years left before the youngest member of the family was given the go ahead to find it.

                Lowering herself back into her chair, Amelia retrieved her book, still on the floor, and placed it back on her lap, never taking her eyes from her uncle. He must have realized she knew why he was really there as he looked like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Quietly he asked Amelia if she would help and put the ladder back against the wall. For a moment, she considered leaving him there, but her good sense won out, and she replaced the fallen ladder. He quickly scrambled down. When Amelia shot him an angry and reproving look, he cowardly sped from the room, slamming the door behind him. Amelia smiled from her chair, wondering if that would finally teach her wayward uncle to follow the rules.

Mysterious Ways

                God works in mysterious ways, doesn’t He? The funny thing is, no matter how mysterious or strange His ways may seem, they always work out better than we could have ever imagined. Every time I turn around, I find that something has changed for the better, or I have changed for the better, all because of something working out exactly the way God wanted it to. Ironically, I find myself praising Him and telling Him how amazing and smart I think he is, even though during the hard time, while He was molding me and shaping me, I was complaining about how much I hated my situation.

                But wait, that’s not even the best part. The best thing is that He keeps on working! He keeps on molding me, all through my complaining and whining, while I roll my eyes and tell Him what a horrible father I think He’s being. He. Still. Keeps. Working. On. Me. My protests don’t halt His hands for even a millisecond. He knows that in the end I’ll realize just how perfectly His plan has been unfolding, and that the hardest parts were when He did His best work.

                He really is the perfect Father, even though sometimes it sure doesn’t seem that way. And I know, no matter how much I hate the situations He puts me in, I know I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Resolutions

                So, I know this is a little late, but I want to talk about resolutions. Not necessarily New Year’s resolutions, but just resolutions in general. Like, resolutions to make this year the best possible. I read something a few months ago that said, ‘this will be my year,’ and I really love the message that sends. The way I look at it, it’s saying that I will make this year the best yet. That’s a great motivation, don’t you think?

                I also love the New Year’s idea I did last year, and am doing this year, which is to write down every good thing that happens to you, even if it’s silly, or everything that changes you for the good on a piece of paper and put it into a jar. By the end of the year, the jar should be getting full, so on New Year’s Eve, you pull it out and read them all, to bring in the New Year on a good note, remembering all the wonderful things that happened.

                So this year, rather than making resolutions to lose so much weight or to do so many things or get certain things, I challenge you to write ‘this will be my year’ on a piece of paper and hang it somewhere you will see it often. Then, find a nice sized jar and a small notepad, and get to writing all the good things that happen. Let me know how it goes. I already have three! It’s an amazing encouragement, and it also helps you to see how you’ve grown. At the beginning you may write something that means a lot to you, but by the end of the year, you could find you couldn’t care less about that event. You never know!

My book: Lives Changed

So, despite the fact that I haven't gotten anywhere near ten comments on my Struggles post, I am going to post a synopsis on the book I'm working on anyway. I'm getting super excited; I'm on my final stages of editing before I publish it as an E-book. I haven't decided on a cover image yet, but I am pretty happy with how the story's turning out.
I don't really know what else to say on the subject, except that I hope you really enjoy the synopsis below, and the book to come!

Six friends. Six lives. Six months. How many trials can one group take? Is God still there in the midst of it all?
Jessica, Austin, Lindsey, Landon, Tia, and Luke are all just figuring out how to love and what being a Christian in this world really means when their lives are turned upside-down. Will they turn to God and each other to get through the pain? Or will things be lost as they find their lives changed?

(Let me know what you think!!)

Favorite Tuesday: Pride and Prejudice

                So, I’ve decided that every Tuesday, I’m going to do a blog post on something that’s my favorite, or that I like a whole lot. Today, that means, Pride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice is my favorite movie of all time in the history of ever. It’s the perfect classic romance, full of everything I love: pretty piano music, anything that has to do with books, history, gorgeous dresses, dances, and romance. Who doesn’t love a movie full of all of that?

                I also just love Jane Austen, I’ve read most of her books. I wish I could say all, but I can’t quite yet. I’m working on it. Anyway, aside from Pride and Prejudice, I think my other favorite so far is Emma. I have to say, Emma is definitely one of my top favorite books of all time (along with Fifteen Minutes). That may be an extremely long list, but the list of books I’ve read in my lifetime is probably three times longer.

                To get back on topic, I prefer the 2005 version over the 1940 one. Keira Knightly makes an absolutely perfect Elizabeth, and I just love Matthew Macfayden as Mr. Darcy. It’s just a really good adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, and I love the fact that it is mostly the same as the book. There’s not many things I can’t stand more than when people make movies based on books that are actually not all that much like the books they say they’re based on.

                I hope this post hasn’t been completely boring; I just post about what I know, and there’s nothing I know more than what I like. I wish I could write a ton of funny, witty posts about things that will blow your mind, but for some reason, I just wasn’t gifted in such a way. Hopefully though, you’ll find something I write slightly interesting.

                (Keep commenting!! I love feedback, and would love to know what you think! What would you like to hear from me? Got any favorites you think I should check out? Questions about the books I’m trying to write? I’m always listening! Or reading.)

Fifteen Minutes

Zack Dylan made a promise to God and his college sweetheart as he left his family's horse farm in Kentucky to compete on the popular reality television show Fifteen Minutes: If he makes it, the fame won't change him.

Overnight, Zack is the nation's most popular contestant, a country singer with the looks and voice of a young Elvis. As his star rises, Zack is asked to compromise and quiet his beliefs, and also something more. Something Zack could never have imagined. Just as America is falling in love with Zack, just as he's on the verge of winning it all, his choices lead him to the brink of personal disaster.

At the same time, Reese Weatherly, a therapeutic horse instructor, is no longer sure about her relationship with Zack, or the wedding they had dreamed about. While Zack advances from one round of the competition to the next, an offer comes to Reese- one that will take her to a home halfway around the world.

Then Chandra Olson- reigning diva pop star and one of the Fifteen Minutes judges- intervenes. Chandra has suffered so much public pain and private agony since her days as a Fifteen Minutes contestant. Now she wants just one thing: meaning.

Can Chandra’s private losses help Zack find his way, or will his fifteen minutes of fame cause him to lose the life he once loved?

I just finished Fifteen Minutes by Karen Kingsbury (the book that goes to the info at the top), and I have to say, it is now on my list of some of the best books I’ve ever read. Of course, I don’t have an actual list, but if I did, it would be quite long, but Fifteen Minutes would definitely be on that list.

I’m not trying to be a commercial; this book was seriously really good. I would recommend it a thousand times over. I love to read Inspirational and Christian fiction, mainly romances, but I also like a good book that makes you realize what’s going on in this world. And I guarantee, if you like any of those things, you will enjoy Fifteen Minutes.

I would rather tell you all about the book rather than just rave about how you should read it, but that would spoil it, and then you wouldn’t need to read it. So, my point is, go read it! Let me know what you think. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

All credit for the above synopsis and the wonderful book goes to Karen Kingsbury

Struggles

                So, this being my first post on this blog, I thought I would say a little about what my goal is before starting. My goal with this blog is to obviously spread God's grace, and to use this blog as something sort of like a journal. To just post whatever I'm feeling or thinking, to talk about books I'm absolutely in love with because I'm a HUGE reader, to try to use it to share my Savior with others, and to hopefully make a few people laugh. Oh, and I write, so there will be plenty of insider bits about my books and such, one of which I will hopefully finish soon so I can put it on Amazon. Exciting, right?

               Anyway, today I want to talk a bit about struggles, particularly my own. I'm not going to go into detail, but I've had a bit of a revelation today that was a long time in coming. It goes a bit like this: No matter who sins against you, no matter how irritating it is, no matter how badly you've been misunderstood, your job isn't to rant, rave, and complain to God about how annoying, hurtful, and disappointing it is. Your job is to think back to how you sinned in those moments, and to work on what you did wrong, whether that feels like the main issue or not.

          Obviously, I’m not just preaching this to you, this is an issue for me, too. Shocker, right? Every time someone irritates me, particularly the people I’m related to, I think about where they went wrong in the situation; how they sinned. And, let me tell you a little secret, that’s the natural human reaction. That’s the way we all automatically react. We don’t normally have an argument with our mothers, then look back and think, ‘Oh, I did this and this wrong, that’s why we argued.’ We, or at least I, think, ‘Well, she did this, and she said this, and that wasn’t Christ-like.’

          Honestly, I don’t want to look back at an argument and pick out all the places where I went wrong. I want to tell myself that I wasn’t really all that wrong, that the person I was arguing with really did most of the sinning. But, truth is, whether she/he, or I, did most of the sinning, my focus still should be on my own sins. It doesn’t matter what she/he did, I still have to answer to God for what I did. I can’t make amends for my sins by turning to God and saying, ‘So-and-so made me mad because she/he said this and did that, so whatever I did wrong was simply because of what she/he did. I have no fault in the matter whatsoever.’ That sound familiar?

          Maybe this time you said something out of anger that shouldn’t have been said, or you used an unforgiving tone, or you had a bad attitude. Whatever the case may be, and no matter what the other person did, I’m sure you played a part in the problem as well. In my opinion, if you can’t honestly say you did exactly what these verses say: ‘Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love… In your anger do not sin. Don not let the sun go down while you are still angry… Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,’-Ephesians 4:2, 26, & 29- you have at least one thing you need to repent.

I’m not trying to guilt-trip anyone, but as Christians, we should help and teach each other. So with these words, I’m hopefully teaching someone what I’ve just learned, and maybe finding someone willing to go into this with me and keep me accountable. It’s not always easy, that I live out day to day, but it will be worth it in the end. Because some day you will be able to stand and say, ‘Even when Satan used others to try to test me, I obeyed my Father and didn’t sin in my anger or frustration.’ That is so worth struggling for.

          (Now, to go along with what I said in the first paragraph, I would love to share a bit of insider information about the book I’m writing, which won’t be my first, but it will be my first on Amazon. So, if you are at all curious what Lives Changed is about, leave a comment. I will write a post with a synopsis of the book as soon as I get TEN comments. I love challenges, so get to it, and expect more in the future!)

Mackenzie