Girl Who Reads: Wildflowers 99 Cent Tour

Girl Who Reads: Wildflowers 99 Cent Tour: "This story deals with some strong issues, so it is not for the faint of heart." ~ Christina "What a beautiful and sad...

Home

We’ve all heard the saying that home is where the heart is. Home can be more than the house you live in. There are multitudes of people who move away for a job and reside in another state. While they may refer to their house in that state as their home, you will often hear them say, “I’m coming home for a visit,” when they schedule a trip back to where they are from. Why? Because a piece of their heart is still there, so it is home.

We don’t travel much, but when we do, it always feels good to pass the state line and see the exit sign to our small community. Why? Because our state is our home, and our community is our home, but even better than that is walking in the door of your house, seeing your pets, loving on them, and climbing into your own bed! Ah, the elation of home...where the heart is!

Physical Health and Emotional Health

When I was younger I had no comprehension of the connection between physical health and emotional health. I was extremely thin, so when my doctor kept insisting that I needed to exercise, I kept brushing it off as unimportant. I thought, I'm skinny. People exercise to lose weight. Why do I need to exercise?  I was battling depression, and we couldn’t find any prescription medication that seemed to help. Eventually he found one that helped to a certain degree. After giving birth to my fifth child, I decided that I should start exercising. She was two, and I was still carrying extra weight. I knew that forty was not too far away, and it would be more difficult to get control over my weight at that point. I was not on antidepressants because I had just weaned her. I set my mind to getting in shape, and after about a month, I felt better, not just physically though. I realized that I was no longer depressed. I finally understood what my doctor had been trying to tell me all along. I had thought being thin meant I WAS healthy, but I was far from it. After six months of a regular workout routine, I was able to wear the clothes I wore at 106 pounds, yet I weighed 120. I was finally healthy and no longer required medication for depression. Being physically healthy was the best medication I had tried! Understanding the connection between emotional health and physical health is extremely important to anyone battling depression.

Innocence

The Blog Flash for today is innocence. As I pondered what to say about innocence, I thought of the missionaries to an orphanage in Guatemala who came to speak at our church. The country of Guatemala is only about the size of Tennessee, yet there are over 200,000 innocent children living on the streets.  Some are abandoned by their parents, and some are so severely abused that they flee. Being inspired by the stories I heard, I wrote this poem about innocence.

“Innocence”

Innocence is often wrapped

In a bundle of joy,

Or seen through the smile

Of a child receiving a new toy.

Innocence is the purity

Staring through the eyes

Of the crying newborn

Left in a dumpster to die.

Innocence roams the streets

Not having a clue

Of the evil that surrounds it,

Or what he or she is to do.

Innocence has a heart

That will easily forgive,

The lashings that a mother

Or father can sometimes give.

Innocence sees through eyes

Shining with pure light.

As he or she walks through

The blackest and darkest of nights.

                                                      Schledia Benefield

 

 

 

Technology

Today’s topic for the Blog Flash is technology. Honestly, technology is something I shy away from most of the time. I’m new to much of it and stay away from the majority of it. I get mad when Facebook decides to change its layout because I’ve usually just gotten the hang of the one I have, and then I am forced to have to learn a new version. When I went back to college in 2002, I had to take an introduction to computers class. My hands visibly shook as I placed them on the keys of the computer. I remember clearly the teacher telling me that I wouldn’t break it. My high school was just starting to get computers that students had access to when I was getting out of school, and my children were introduced to computers in kindergarten! Life has definitely changed due to technology. It is something that often frightens me because of my lack of knowledge, but it is something I must learn to accept. Technology is out there for everyday use, and it is only going to increase. I guess that means I should buckle down and apply more of it to my life.

Enter to Win an autographed Copy of Wildflowers

To celebrate the recent release of my novel, Wildflowers, I will be giving away two autographed copies through a Goodreads Giveaway!

Enter to Win!
http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/45795-wildflowers

Have you ever feared what may be hiding deep within you?

Darkness often skulks in the blood of unsuspecting victims, but Aster McGrath is acutely aware of the violence coursing through his veins. After all, he is the son of a murderer, and everyone in the town of Bayville, Mississippi says he will end up just like his father.

When Susan Blackman moves into town, Aster has already embraced his brutal nature, but her gentle spirit draws him in and slowly melts the icy exterior of his heart. Taming his savagery, she professes her love, but will the good within him be able to overcome the evil lurking deep inside? Or will the fiend break free of its fetters and seek blood?

Fans of Nicholas Sparks' A Walk to Remember will fall in love with the young love, tough choices, sacrifice and redemption found within the pages of WILDFLOWERS.

 

Authors' Purposes and Why Readers Read

I know it has been a while since I actually posted anything here, but honestly I’ve been swamped. My YA romance novel, Wildflowers, came out on the 8^th of this month, so I’ve been answering interview questions and writing guest posts. I actually came to the point where my brain said, “I’m out of words!” Wow! That was a big one that my husband had a hard time believing, but I assure you, it didn’t take long before my thoughts started churning again.

One thing that has been bubbling in my thoughts is authors’ purposes for their stories. This goes hand-in-hand with why readers read. My husband, for instance, is not a fiction reader. He likes to read biographies, autobiographies, self-help, and educational books, but not every reader desires to read for that purpose. I have a daughter who reads anything and everything. Seriously, she will actually pull the wrapper off a Coke bottle and read everything it says. She’s read more books in a year than I’ve read in my life. She LOVES to read, and it doesn’t matter what it is to her. Don’t get me wrong, she has her favorite types of books, but if she can find a book lying around, she will pick it up and stick her nose in it.

Writers tell stories to a particular audience. Some writers share with children, some with middle grade, some with young adults, and some with adults, and just like there are different categories and genres authors write in, there are also different purposes for their stories.

Here’s a list of some of those purposes:

1.     To Entertain

2.     To Escape

3.     To Inspire

4.     To inform/educate

5.     To provoke

6.     To move readers deeply

 

It seems the majority of the books published fall into the category of entertainment and escape. I suppose I could be wrong, but considering how difficult it is to find an agent and to be picked up by a publishing house when you write for a different purpose, I think that the mass market is full of readers that read for those reasons. I like to read for entertainment and escape, so I completely understand, but there are readers out there (like my husband) who don’t have a desire to read for those purposes, so there has to be authors who write with other intents.

When it comes to my purpose with writing, I fall into multiple categories. I write in two genres: middle grade fantasy and young adult contemporary.

When I write in the fantasy genre, my writing falls into three categories. My fantasy book, The Called Ones (And the Keys of Sight) is dualistic in nature. First, it is a story of a group of kids who find a portal into another dimension within Earth. For me, it was an escape to another realm with vivid descriptions where your imagination can run wild. I escape to this other realm as I write. I see that world, taste that world, and smell the sweet scents of the unique flowers there. The story is also allegorical. My main focus is on the picture it paints of what I believe to be a truth that exists around us, so its main purpose is to provoke thought. The first book in the series The Called Ones is an introduction to the characters and the other dimension they find, so it may not be as entertaining as some readers desire, but the second book in that series The Keys of Sinew, which I’m presently writing, takes the children on an adventurous quest, so it will entertain readers on top of allowing them to escape to another world and provoke thought.

As much as I enjoy escaping reality and entering other worlds, my heart lies in telling stories that move readers deeply, which is also the main reason I read books. I love picking up a book and having a variety of my emotions tapped into. I want to feel the pain a person experiences. I want my heart to swell with love and compassion. I want to cry when they cry. I want to be angered by those who have harmed them. This is the main purpose of my writing. Of course, I’m aware that there are readers out there that have no desire to feel the attraction as two characters look into each other’s eyes or feel the warmth in their hearts as they gently kiss for the first time, nor do they yearn to feel the shattering of their own heart as they watch the character’s world fall apart before their very eyes. Some readers have no longing to feel the heavy weight of depression as it sinks over the character and enshrouds them with darkness, but I do. I want to experience all of those things as I read a story, so I write what I love. I write from the pain I’ve personally experienced in this life.

Will every reader love my work? No, I’m well aware of that, I always have been, but readers who like to read books that move them deeply and touch their hearts; those are the people I write for.

My first book published, Plain Jane, deals with the downward spiral of depression in a young girl’s life. I want readers to see how a young, intelligent girl can be swallowed by the black abyss and sink into its depths. I want people to understand how depression can take someone with a bright future and bring them to the point of grabbing a bottle of vodka and a bottle of sleeping pills seeking to end their pain. (Don’t worry; I’m not giving anything away there. That scene is in the preface, so readers know up front that the character came to that point, but they are left not knowing if she goes through with it or not. You have to read to find that out)!

I've received phone calls from readers so touched that they've had to share the range of emotions churning through them from the character's plight. I've received cards of thanks for writing such a beautiful story that the reader could relate to and how deeply the story touched them. When I get those phone calls and receive those cards, I know that I've fulfilled my purpose in writing. Will it be a bestseller? I can always hope for that, and I do hope for that, but it's not my purpose.

So, why do you read?

If you're an author, why do you write?