Boundaries

Brain and spirit
Soul and mind
Where they intersect
And combine?

Where does
Biochemistry
Fade deep into
Spirituality?

When do I say “Enough!
You’re wrong!”
When give comfort
Blanket with a song?

Cycle after cycle
Generationally blind
Procures one after the other
No healing I find.

Yet the individual
Stands alone
In front of God
And his judgment throne.

Only He can sift
The past from the present
The one from the whole
The wicked memories or pleasant.

But what about me
Bruised and torn?
I watch and wait
Do I leave them forlorn?

Boundaries and walls?
Or abundant mercy?
Trust my own heart?
Or wiser hearsay?

Stuck in the limbo
Where grey and murk reside
Love looks different
On this side.

I wake every day begging
For God to guide.
Each response is unique
Each time I cried.

Don’t cast stones
Deep into another’s bog.
We are all levels of wading
This life’s intense fog.

God give us grace
No way to be perfect.
Not drowning now
Head above the surface.

The Plastic Surgeon or the Mom – What Kind of Author Are You?

In my mind, there are four different kinds of authors in relation to their characters.  There is no right or wrong here, merely different motivations for the stories we write, as well as different personalities at play as we interact with our characters.  Which kind of author are you?  Let me know in the comments!

 

The Plastic Surgeon

This kind of author is up on trends and high on entertainment value.  They’re not writing to get across a moral.  They’re not interested in dissecting their characters’ hearts and making them suffer.  They’re up on all the latest fads and can write to market easily.  They’re business-people, and they write to put bread on the table.  When vampires are in, they’re there.  When angels are in, they’ve switched.  They can assess the latest “beauty trends” and know how to stick their clients’ faces (their characters) up on a screen, pick out the imperfections, and make them look like the hot celebrity of the year.  Then they send the newly sparkling client on their way and write the next novel.

Examples:

New York Times bestselling author Joanna Penn: “I’ll look at some of the trends that I think will be important for authors in 2019 and then outline my own creative goals. I hope you will add your goals in the comments so we can keep each other accountable as the year progresses.”

Bestselling author – with 325 million copies sold – author James Patterson: “My new motto is: ‘Stories at the speed of life.’ People want things faster. They want to binge. These books are like reading movies. It may be a factory, but it’s a hand-tooled factory. I want my obituary to begin, ‘He was slowing down at 101, and had only finished four novels that year.'”

 

The Therapist

This author isn’t as clinical as the plastic surgeon.  They’re up on trends and key lingo for their business, but they aren’t just looking to mimic the latest pretty face.  They want to add some deeper issues, and address bigger concerns in their clients (characters).  They like to dig a little deeper and add a little heart to their novels. But at the end of the day, they still need to make money on their therapy sessions, and they go home at night to their own families.  8 or 12 weeks and the client is still sent on their way, hopefully with a growing and changing heart or attitude.

Examples:

Sara Nash, PhD: “I am a psychotherapist, and I am a writer who loves reading about and reflecting on the therapeutic endeavor. Psychotherapy — often more art than science — is about being human, from which no amount of professional experience exempts me.”

Edgar Award-winning, issue-driven, psychological author Susan Vaught: “I hope my books make people think and make them talk.  Nothing should be construed as medical or psychiatric/ psychological advice or a substitute for mental health treatment. It’s all just my take on the world around me, and a way to talk to my readers and friends.”

 

The Foster Parent

This type of author really isn’t interested as in business or what they can get back from the world.  They’re not writing to market, and they’re doing it out of a ministry mindset.  Their characters have their own lives and are portrayed as realistically relatable as possible.  They are brought into the home to sit at the author’s table, eat their food, are prayed over, nurtured, and counseled.  The process is tough and fraught with difficulty and tears, but a child is rescued and cared for at the end of the day.  No matter how long it takes, the author pours into them as if they were their own, writes down their story that happened before they got there, and then eventually sends them back to their lives when the pieces are all stitched up, leaving them in a much better place than they found them.  The author cares for them like their own children, but realizes these characters have lives apart from the author, and with many hugs and tears, sends them back out into the world as better people.  It’s a very personal ministry, and the author is pleasantly surprised when it happens to benefit other people too.

Examples:

Me!  I frequently think of myself as a journalist and counselor who lets these strangers into my heart and home to raise them for a short time and impart wisdom to them.  I write whatever is laid on my heart at the time and have no interest in writing to market.  I write only Christian fiction to teach a message and process what I’m learning.  I then move on to the next story like I would a next sermon message, hoping it goes back out into the world furthering Christ’s kingdom.  I shed tears over every single book I write.

It has been said of Christian apologetic and well-beloved author C.S. Lewis: “Almost immediately, Lewis set out in a new direction, most demonstrably in his writing. Earlier efforts to become a poet were laid to rest. The new Christian devoted his talent and energy to writing prose that reflected his recently found faith. Lewis was frequently under attack for his decidedly Christian lifestyle. Even close Christian friends like Owen Barfield and J.R.R. Tolkien openly disapproved of Lewis’s evangelistic speaking and writing. In fact, Lewis’s Christian books caused so much disapproval that he was more than once passed over for a professorship at Oxford, with the honors going to men of lesser reputation.” – Christianity Today

 

The Biological Parent

This type of author gives birth to their novel or set of characters under much blood, sweat, and tears.  They are not clients, they’re not foster children, but they’re bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh.  They are intrinsically tied to the heart and soul of the author who sees themselves in that character like a parent would recognize their own nose, eyes, or smile in their child.  They have a relationship with those characters outside of the novel that goes deeper than what the reader will ever see.  “Raising” those characters is often an 18+ year endeavor, just like raising a child, and means draft after draft, revision after revision, often times never seen by another living soul, as they prep that child to finally maybe eventually step out of their home and make it on their own.  The child never leaves their mind, however, and the relationship continues for the author’s whole life as backstories, side stories, and endless sequels pepper the horizon.  This author feels a kinship with their characters that’s hard to explain except to say they gave birth to and raised them their whole life.   Their books may be fewer, but go beyond trends, and often create well-loved classics.

Examples:

It has been said of “the father of modern fantasy” J.R.R. Tolkien: “Tolkien would go through many edits and rewrites over the next twelve years, putting the book down for some time, then working feverishly through chapters at a time.  He wrote in the empty spaces of student exams and charted a Middle Earth lunar cycle on an air raid watch card.  Tolkien was utterly committed to consistency in what he would call his ‘sub-creation’ – what fantasy authors now refer to as ‘world-building.’  As his story grew in both complexity and length, so did his notes and papers.  Finally, in 1949, Tolkien’s manuscript was sent off to his publisher.  He was a master craftsman, though, and never quite satisfied with his work.  Even in final edits, Tolkien would make corrections within the confines of the typesetting.  Due to some waffling about publication, The Fellowship of the Ring was not printed until July 1954, and The Two Towers followed in November.  Tolkien missed his deadline for the third volume, reworking the material in the appendices, and readers had to wait until October 1955 to learn the fate of their beloved Middle Earth. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. The Times ranked him sixth on a list of ‘The 50 greatest British writers since 1945.” – Katie Behrens, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Epic Quest: Writing Lord of the Rings

The Time Traveler’s Wife author, Audrey Niffenegger: “My first novel took me four and a half years to write; the second took seven years, though that was because I fell so in love with the research that I had a hard time stopping so I could finish the book. I once spent fourteen years working on a graphic novel. Why do I let this happen? Because it’s fun. Now that you have created your fictional people and the world they live in, you have probably discovered that they are terrific company and that they are all living in your brain. Suddenly you have a party in your head and it is hard to make that party happen any faster than it wants to happen. And when the party is finally over, you will feel bereft and alone. So why not slow down and have the maximum experience?”

 

Which one are you?  And do you become a different type of author with separate projects?

Did I miss any types?  Any to add?

 

30+10 – I’m a Backwards Person…

I’m late on my ‪#‎30and10‬ post, but we have to start with the first of ten things about me!
I was going to write something mildly controversial, but I don’t feel like that any more, 😛 so maybe I’ll save that for another day.
Okay, so first thing about me is that I talk backwards. I nac klat sdrawkcab yrev tsaf dna neve epyt sdrawkcab 40 sdrow rep etunim.
What good this does me, I’ll never know. But it helped my spelling. I would memorize the words backwards and forwards and I would never forget how to spell them.
If you know me in person, ask me to say a paragraph backwards for you. 🙂
‪#‎synesthesia‬ ‪#‎tickertape‬

Dashwood Avenue, and all my other strange, backward books (Haha!) are available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/…/B00MDY4…/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
and Lulu: https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=595469

A Sociopath Shares All

If you follow me on Facebook, and didn’t see this post, I’m throwing it out there yet again because I love it so much.

This is the story of a fascinating, intellectual, disturbed person.  The ending will surprise you.  If you can stomach a description of murder, you need to watch this.  I am in awe, and was in tears by the end.

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I was nominated by Nikki Noelle at Inevitably Revised.  I’m so honored!  Nikki”s fantastic writing abilities are only succeeded by her masterful editing skills.  She has a way of understanding, dissecting, reviewing, and assessing prose, as well as encouraging good writing to flourish.  She is on my street team of beta readers, and I appreciate her input immensely.  If I could nominate her for this award again (Not sure how this works!), I would!

The Rules

• Post the award on your blog
• Thank your nominator, of course!
• List 7 facts about yourself
• Nominate up to 15 other blogs you are inspired by
• Post the rules so people know them

Seven Facts About Me:

1. I can forget anything I want to on command, and, by exerting effort, “box it up” in my brain. I value innocence above almost anything and have forced myself to forget much junk over the years, to my great advantage.  🙂
2. The anime girl in the above banner is supposed to be me.  I have long blond hair, and I dye the bottom six inches pink.  🙂
3. I never forget a song if I’ve heard it like twice. I can never tune out music either. I taught piano and voice for ten years, all the way up until this year (when I moved across the US).  Before I had kids to pay attention to especially, if you were to take me to a restaurant, we sat there for around an hour and a half, talked, had a good time, etc., then later that evening, I could give you a playlist of what songs played – and in what order. This is why I’m extremely picky about music. I can’t tune it out. Music is an experience, not background noise.
4. I have synesthesia.  This influences my writing.  🙂
5. I never, ever, ever cry in movies. That’s an emotional response I keep switched off when watching TV because I just don’t get crying about fictional people/events.  There are plenty of real life things to cry over.
6. I am 5’6″ and have short, fat feet. They’re a 7 1/2 double wide.
7. I like certain kinds of anime a lot (PG-rated!), but LOVE all things Korean.  K-drams, K-pop, and Korean fashion.  Someone take me to Seoul!

Nominees: 

Bethany A. Jennings at The Simmering Mind – Speculative Fiction, parenting, and Christian living blog.  Bethany has a way with words that will touch your hearts and interest you in new ideas all at once.

Heather L.L. Fitzgerald at The Tethered World – The Pathmaster!  A motherly, yet peer writer.  We all love her.  She’s sweet, encouraging, supportive, and fun.  Her first book is coming out soon!

Abby Jones at A Gentle and Quiet Spirit – ISFJ!  Finding other sensor authors is unique.  I enjoy Abby’s love of the harder topics.  She shares that same interest with me in that way.

Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience – Ann is quite the bestselling authoress now, so, Ann, I don’t know if you’ll see this, but your blog is immensely encouraging.  Your speech is beautiful and your writing deep.  You have been influential in my life!

Tim Hong at TX Father of Seven – Tim is politically savvy, economy-conscious, and an outspoken libertarian.  I’d rather get my news and info through him than anyone else.

Heidi Joelle at Homemade Mythology – Heidi’s savvy thoughts on her faith and on writing speculative fiction is always fun to read.  She just published an (adult) short story!

Rebekah Shafer at Lantern Leaf Press – “Lady Rebekah” is a brand new, spunky blogger and friend.  We hit it off immediately due to being so similar where it counts: we think in sentences, love to be around people, and talk Myers-Briggs personality types.  Seriously, what is better than that?  😉  Check out her first novella.  She’s got another one coming out soon!

Mirtika at Mirtika Writes – Mir’s clever, dry wit and business sense have inspired me immensely.  She’s the reason I’m writing these three modern retellings of fairy tales.  Her ideas are right-on, and she says things few have the guts to talk about.  I look up to her.

Caleb Lawrence at Merely This – Used to be one of my piano students – now has grown into a young man whom I respect.  We share a love of Japanese things, and I have seen him grow in so much wisdom and insight.

Ryan Christoffel at Beholding Christ – On the pastoral staff at my former church back in Texas, Ryan’s thoughts are God-focused and profound.

EXPOSED

Weigh in:

Do you like to be known?  Which types of people do you want to know all of you?  Is there something you still hide? 

(P.S. Christ knows all of you, even sins you haven’t committed or experienced yet, and died for you anyway.  Does that feel trivial to you compared to a flesh and blood human being?)

If you had to move to a new state and, for the first two months, wear a large paper bag over your head that obscured everything but your gender, and only speak in questions, never sharing anything about yourself, how do you think you would do?  Would you worry about the impression you would make on new people?  Do you think they would like you?  Do you think they would then assume you are like them because they don’t know differently?  Would it kill you not to be able to share who you are, your interests, your likes, and your hates?

Do you like to hide?  What do you hide?

Talk to me about knowing and being known.  You can comment anonymously, if you like.  🙂

Your Brain in Heaven

Yep, it’s me again. Back to write about yet another bizarre view I have on life. This time you won’t hate me as much, I promise. *wink*

(Click on links for more info.)

Little known fact: 25% of the world has something funky going on in their brain, known as synesthesia.

It is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.

Simply, synesthesia is literally the crossing of senses.  Research suggests that all babies are born with this ability and that all of the senses in the brain are connected.  Thus, seeing music and hearing color and tasting touch and adding personality to objects and letters, and so on, is present in all infants.  However, within the first year of life, the brain goes through and prunes these connections.  Therefore, the majority of adults don’t have a spatial coordination for music, or feel touch when they see someone else being touched, or see emotion as visible auras in the eyes, or many others.

Synesthesia held much stigma for a time.

Synesthetes” or “synnies” were pronounced crazy, drugged, or nonsensical when they brought up the different ways in which they experienced the world.  But modern research finds the brains of synnies actually lighting up in two or more sections at a time when a normal brain would not.  For instance, someone who sees music as having a color and shape would experience neurological activity in both the music-processing and vision parts of the brain.

My synesthesia is obvious. 

Whomever has actually met me in person and knows of my utterly useless superpower can attest to this.  I can read and speak backwards, on the spot.  Give me a sentence, a phrase, a sign, a word, or a paragraph.  I can tell it to you backwards instantly.

I epyt sdrawkcab ytfif sdrow rep etunim.  *wink*

This is because I have a muted form of “ticker tape” synesthesia, where I can choose to see words that I hear strung out in a line in front of me, and can flip them at will, as if they were dangling on a string and can be turned backwards by a flick of the fingers.  Reading them backwards is a cinch.  I can also do something different: write mirror writing (where the letters themselves are turned like when you look in a mirror) with my left hand and forward with my right hand at the same time.

I have eleven forms of synesthesia – most pretty muted and in the background of my brain.  My husband has two forms.  Two of my siblings have synesthetic gifts, and a few of my friends, as well.  This does not make us better than anyone else.  This just means our brains didn’t quite finish up their job clip-clipping.

However, I have a theory.  We are born with these sensory connections, and no synnie would ever give up the richer world they experience, deeming it a superpower or gift they have been given.  This makes me wonder if all humankind was supposed to be synesthetic.  If the brain wasn’t supposed to prune the connections at all.  But, if, in a sinful, fallen world, it gives us a bit of relief not to have our senses flooded, since there are so many negative things to see, smell, hear, taste, and touch.  The world is not as perfect as it was created to be.  Many wonder if extreme forms of synesthesia are even tied to autism and sensory overload – if autistic children are overloaded because they experience everything ten-fold.

BUT.

In heaven, the world will be perfect.  There will be no more tears, no more pain, and no more sin.  God in all of His glory.  Golden streets.  Beauty beyond compare.

I wonder if, in heaven, our new bodies will have fully synesthetic brains.

I have compiled a list of what I imagine are synesthetic Bible verses.  Just beautiful analogies?  Or a hint of what’s to come?  I think our lives in heaven will be a hundred times richer than anything here on earth, as we will be able to taste and see and smell and touch and feel and hear God in all of His glory.  And how amazing will that be!

“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”  (Psalm 34:8)

“How sweet are thy words unto my taste!  Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103).

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know
the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”  (Ephesians 1:18-19)

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” (1 John 1:1-4)

“After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”  (Revelation 4:1)

“And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints.”  (Revelation 5:8)

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal process in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?”  (2 Corinthians 2:14-17)

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”  (Matthew 6:22-23)

“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire … and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” (Revelation 3:18).

“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7).

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)

“Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: If you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.”  (Proverbs 24:14)

“They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.”  (Psalm 19:10)

“The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.”  (Job 6:7)

^“Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.  While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.”  (Song of Solomon 1:3, 12)

“How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse!  How much better is thy love than wine!  And the smell of thine ointments than all spices  Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: Honey and milk are under thy tongue; And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.”  (Song of Solomon 4:10-11)

“His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: His lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.”  (Song of Solomon 5:13)

“…And the smell of thy nose like apples.”  (Song of Solomon 7:8)

And, all of Job 37 – Click here.

 

Even if my theory isn’t true, although it’s pretty exciting to think it might be, we know this about heaven: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) – And this sure sounds like our five sense are going to get a revamping!

To see a full list of synesthesia types, click here: http://www.daysyn.com/types-of-syn.html

You may need to Google each type to see if it’s something you have.

Do you have any types of synesthesia?  Tell me about it!  Leave a comment!  Are you one of the few rare-brain creatures like me?  *smile*