Activity

Hi Natalie,
I just use the free version of WordPress.com for my existing WIP.
I did buy a domain from GoDaddy but am holding that in reserve. This Story Embers site is on WordPress, so it is pretty stable. You are welcome to check out my site at: excavatia.wordpress.com
I have had my site since… (actually yesterday marks 4 years exactly). [Happy Birthday, Excavatia! 🎂😊]

Hey Natalie,
I was able to find your Blog with the “way back machine”. That was very cool. The PodCasts didn’t have the links, so I couldn’t hear any.
I did notice that you had planned to send out a weekly newsletter.
Wow! Boy, that is quite the commitment! I don’t think I could send one out that frequently. I would burn out too soon and run out of things to say. Plus, raising two boys and homeschooling. You gals are amazing with all of the multitasking abilities, but, if I may, can I remind you of something? God doesn’t expect superhumans. You don’t have to do everything just right to get His acceptance. He loves you in brokenness, and that is when He shows His abilities the best.
You are making the right decisions to prioritize your little guys. They grow so fast, so you giving them time is important, but that doesn’t mean you get no time for yourself. Like on an airplane, you have to put your mask on first, before you put it on the children, otherwise you can’t be clear enough to save them. God works that way too. He is our oxygen, quite literally. He Breathes life into our being. The very word “inspire” means to “breathe in”. Breathe in His Presence. Take time to Fellowship with Him, before the kids wake. Let Him speak to and energize you to do the most important things and prioritize the order. Remember He is a good Father, the Perfect One, in fact, and He does not give you talents and gifts to bury or waste or frustrate you with the desire to use them. Too often we see the nobility in giving to others, but we forget that it is also blessed to receive and take in. Let God inspire you, and teach you the expressions of those language tools and creative drives He put into your very design. He has purposed them for His glory, and for your joy and to raise the heads of others to the light you bear through them.
I often like to think of myself as a waterhose used to water God’s garden. Think about it. The waterhose is the first to “get wet” on the inside, before it delivers life sustaining “living water” to the garden. Pace yourself to find those times of gathering and receiving. The world needs Jesus flowing through us. Those are the transformative words that make the difference in writing or speaking or designing inspirational stories.
Remember Jesus’ words to busy Martha.
but few things are needed–or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” [Luke 10:42 NIV]
Sit at Jesus’s feet. Drink Him in. Find your renewal in waiting on Him.
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint. [Isaiah 40:31 KJV]
Then, once you are filled-up and overflowing, go write from the overflow.
That is the well of creativity inside you.
Hold a cup under a faucet of running water. Remove it from the flowing stream and you can only fill another cup to the limit of what was taken in, and then only by emptying the cup of the water it once contained.
BUT, put one cup, under the top cup that is under the flowing faucet, and that lower cup will continue to fill from the overflow of the top cup, and the top cup NEVER runs dry. Jesus is the fount of every blessing. Enter that fountain, with an open cup ready to receive His filling to overflowing.
Notice carefully what Paul writes to the Corinthian church:
Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. [2 Corinthians 1:6 NLT]
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For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you.
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This is the faucet principle in effect.
God never gives talents and creative desires without a purpose. He is not arbitrary in His plans, so claim that confidence knowing His nature with regard to you personally. God purposed you for His glory. To do through you great and mighty things to amaze those in your circles and beyond as He stretches out your borders and influence. His plans are big, and He is up to the challenge if you are willing just to turn over your loaves and fishes.
Your husband Kris is right, “Don’t hide the best of you just because you’re afraid it might be the worst of you.” God spoke to you through Him.
Little is much in God’s Hands. He doesn’t need your toughness. He needs your yeildedness and surrender. Never apologize for a tender heart. A tender heart is sensitive to God’s gentle voice. The world’s advice gets it twisted. They trust in human ability and might alone. But we Christian know true strength is being connected with Him. He fights our battles. He guards our hearts and give us discernment where to judicious invest our efforts and even our vulnerabilities. You are bought and ransomed with His own blood and are precious to Him. He does not take kindly to anyone who would abuse His girl, anymore than you would any person who might threaten or bring harm to your children. Learn to love yourself in the way God does. His Hands soothe and heal. His heart cradles his children when they fall and He binds up their wounds. Receive His comfort, and in the overflow comfort others.
God Bless!

Hi Natalie,
Check out what’s going on under the Audio Cinema Topic under Fantasy Writers. Entries do not have to be of the Fantasy genre, however. I only chose that group because it seemed to have the most active participants. There are several entries, so you can scroll through and see what our fellow members are submitting. We just pop the resulting MP3 file into Google Docs, make it shareable (Anyone with the Link) and put in an entry with the Duration Time, Audio link, A Scene Title, our SE Moniker Tag, and the Text of the scene. Just make it one scene with no explanation of clarification. Let the scene generate “reader” questions and speculations on its own. Then there are a set of questions that those of us who listen will answer for you about the entry (listed in the 2nd post on page 1), and then you can respond with the delightful details and clarifications, if you wish. We know these are extractions from a more complete work, but it gives a sense of the value of something in medias res. It has been great fun, and it is a very complimentary exercise. Avoid self-criticism. You need readers’ perspectives, and you will almost always find they are much kinder than your own harshest critic (namely your internal accuser). Be bold. Fortune favors the brave. Give your stories their voice.