Welcome to Five Fall Favorites! For those who might not know me, I plan to use this post to introduce myself as well as the five books that, in our hostess Kate's words, make me me. I love this idea because it lets me show you the book equivalent to a personal playlist. These are the books that have molded and shaped me over the years. Are you ready to dive in?

From my earliest memories, I've been part of a loving Christian family that placed God first in everything. Did we make mistakes? Oh yeah! But I'm so grateful to have godly parents, siblings, and to be married to a man of godly character. I have to say the number one book that makes me me is the Bible. I've tried to read it daily since I was very young and I try to build my life around Jesus and the truth of His word. In fact, you can often find me in the morning digging into scripture, and when my husband gets off work we read a chapter or two. Currently, I'm using my Maranatha NIV Worship Bible. I love the old NIV and the songs in the margins that help me to worship.

Amazon | Goodreads

When I was young, I loved to read. But about the time I was ten, I found a series that had an impact on my faith and my outlook on life. It was a series that continues to inspire my writing, especially for young people. It also helped continue my love for history. The Sarah's Journey series became an instant favorite of mine. Sarah doesn't always have the best attitude about things, but she learns and grows. Wanda Luttrell showed through the story how Sarah's bad attitudes hurt her and how God changed her over time. Besides, the series was full of historical adventure.

Goodreads | Amazon

One might think I would have a hard time picking a favorite fiction book, but I don't. Christy by Catherine Marshall is hands down my favorite. I read it first when I was fifteen. Some might think that was a bit young to read such a book. Perhaps for some it would have been. God used it in a profound way at that point in my life. It isn't an easy book to read, but it challenged me to make sure my faith was my own, not borrowed from my parents and to seek to reach out to the messy people I met.

 

 

A few days ago, a follower on my Instagram account reached out to me and asked me if I was okay. After all, I had gone silent on all my accounts. I didn't even finish my August Amazingness posts. Even this post, which I started a couple of weeks ago, has sat, waiting for me to finish writing it and actually do something on the blog. So why haven't I?

Truth is, I just felt burnt out.

Usually, I'm good at knowing when I'm getting close to burnt out so I can slow myself down. This time, my writing burnout came on suddenly and I just didn't feel like I could write, promote, or even get on social media. I'm not even sure why. Life is going well. Most of my writing burnouts come because of emotional exhaustion in life. 

As an author, one of the important parts of my job is making meaningful connections with my readers. In my ideal world, this would be through either in-person events or from them just reading my blog. But that isn't always how things happen. Most of my readers are looking to make the connection to me as an author on social media. 

This means I need to keep up with how and where on social media they are connecting.

In the last year, videos on Instagram or TikTok are the big deal. Many of my writer friends have created brilliant videos and some of my readers have been wanting me to do the same. But I'll let you in on a secret: I have no talent when it comes to short videos. I tried. I recorded a lot, tried to make some reels, and tried to get inspired to jump on the trend.

And I burned myself out.

I got so discouraged with it because I was trying to connect with readers, and I couldn't even put something together that I wanted to watch, much less share. It sent me into a spiral of wondering how I was going to keep connected with the readers I cared about as social media continues to change.  I felt so defeated. I felt like a failure.

Over the last few weeks, I've slowly been figuring out what I need to do. I still don't have all the answers. Part of me just wants to pull back from all social media and just post blog posts. Of course, I would miss all my readers I get to connect with, so that isn't going to happen.

I'm looking forward figuring out exactly what I need to do and how to make those meaningful connections with the skills I have. 

What are some of the ways you like to connect with authors? What makes a online connection meaningful to you?

 

Deal of the Day

 

Sidekicks are important. They provide balance in stories, especially for intense personalities. Nathanial provides the balance for John in Brothers and Betrayal. While he is technically John's cousin, they two act more like brothers. Here are my favorite things about his character.

• The awesome banter between him and John
• How he helps bridge the communication gap with John is moody
• His love for his family
• How he is willing to be second to John
• His love for Jesus

Deal of the Day

 

 

Lady Laila is a minor character in Adventures and Adversities, but one my husband recently asked me about.

"Did she ever learn her lesson?"

His question made me wonder about writing her story someday. Honestly, if I didn't have so many stories spinning in my head, I would be happy creating stories about each and every little character in every story. Laila being one of them.

Laila is the selfish and lazy daughter of a noble who wants to have an adventure. She ends up with a lot more than she bargained for. But at the end of the story, it doesn't seem she's learned her lesson. 

One of the things I wanted to convey with this series is ongoing stories. Not every story you see has a perfect ending or is wrapped up. I leave it to the reader to wonder, imagine, and decide for themselves. I leave it to them to discuss and learn from it.

You can read Laila's story in Adventures and Adversities.

Deal of the Day

 Deal of the Day