Guarding Your Heart by Bob Jones

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)

How would you like to be so influential as a writer that the US space program decides to name a landing place on Mars after you? Octavia Butler was a science fiction writer in the 1970s. In 2021, NASA named the Mars landing site of the Perseverance rover the "Octavia E. Butler Landing" in her honour. Why?

Octavia

First, have you ever heard of Octavia? I hadn’t. But I discovered she held a key to how to guard your heart.

I heard of Octavia in January through a podcast, "Redeeming Babel." The topic was Ray Bradbury's science fiction classic, Fahrenheit 451. How eerily similar the content is to what is unfolding in the US in 2025. But that is a topic for another blog. The speaker championed the science fiction writer, Octavia Butler.

Simple research showed she was acquainted with grief of many kinds but never, ever quit. Her father died when she was seven. Her mom bought her a typewriter when she was ten, even though the cost was steep for a single parent. And what ten-year-old wants a typewriter? Someone who would persist in her writing regardless of how many setbacks she faced.

Octavia grew up believing that she was "ugly and stupid, clumsy, and socially hopeless.” She was painfully shy and suffered from dyslexia which made her a target for bullies. The library became her safe place and reading science fiction, her escape. She persevered in her passion to write science fiction from the time she was a teenager.

"I began writing about power because I had so little."

Decades later, her name became synonymous with patience, practice, and persistence. A literary superstar. She shattered expectations and barriers in becoming the first Black woman to be awarded multiple prizes for science fiction writing. Posthumously, a landing site on Mars was named after her.

Octavia’s secret

She guarded her heart.

When teachers interpreted her reading slowness due to dyslexia as unwillingness, she asked her mom for a library card so she could read out of school.

She carried a big notebook to write down thoughts and stories. At age thirteen she submitted her first story for publication. She was over the moon when it appeared in a science fiction magazine.

Despite a lack of natural talent, rejection, prejudice, social anxiety, and setback, after setback she persisted with an optimism that overcame every obstacle.

Persistence

At the height of her career, Octavia, or Estelle as her family knew her, made these remarkable statements: “Forget talent. If you have it, fine. Use it. If you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter. As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent. Never let pride or laziness prevent you from learning, improving your work, changing its direction when necessary. Persistence is essential to any writer—the persistence to finish your work, to keep writing in spite of rejection, to keep reading, studying, submitting work for sale.”

She protected her emotional well-being by setting limits with people and situations that would drain her energy.

During her 59 short years, she maintained a kind and empathetic attitude towards herself and others.

There is a lesson in her life for how to engage the toxic social, ethical environment we live in and how Christians in general and writers in particular need to guard their heart while being a voice for justice and mercy.

She challenged me. How does Octavia’s story influence you?

Thank you for reading. Empathetic Christian writers have never been needed more than now.

Do You Have Commitment Issues? by Nina Faye Morey

Do you struggle with unfinished writing projects? A survey by a popular writing blog revealed that 72% of writers answered “yes” to this question http://thewritepractice.com/finish-projects/. I can certainly count myself among them. Several unfinished Works in Progress (WIP) patiently wait in my computer files for me to return to them and revive our once loyal and loving relationship.

I start out with the best of intentions when our relationship is fresh and uncomplicated. I make a solemn promise to stick with my current WIP through thick and thin. In spite of my strong commitment, it doesn’t take long before things go wrong. The WIP begins to display its faults and no longer looks as attractive to me as it did when we were first courting. Once our relationship starts to fall apart, I begin to have doubts about whether this WIP is the right one for me.

Before I know it, our relationship has slid further downhill as my WIP grows stubborn and irritating. I find myself becoming more negative and critical towards it with each passing day. Soon I’m easily tempted to stray whenever other appealing ideas whisper seductively in my ear. It becomes increasingly difficult for me to resist the urge to throw myself into these promising new relationships. After all, if I tie myself down to this WIP, I’ll be passing up the chance to take advantage of all these other wonderful opportunities.

However, by now I’ve started to feel rather guilty about breaking up with my current WIP. Perhaps I should shoulder some of the blame. So what do I need to do to avoid this temptation to stray and stay faithful to my current WIP? Well, perhaps I need an attitude adjustment. Maybe it’s my behaviour that needs to change if we are to be successful in sustaining our relationship. So I decided to do some research to discover what was at the root of my commitment problem and develop some strategies to deal with it.

My research helped me recognize that my tendency to flirt with seductive new ideas was the result rather than the cause of my commitment phobia. Two particularly persistent troublemakers were those evil twins, procrastination and perfectionism. Together they conspired to keep me from remaining faithful to my current WIP. Their bullying behaviour was disruptive and dispiriting. It distracted me from my WIP and deterred me from achieving my goals. Fortunately, two of my oldest and dearest friends, patience and persistence, showed up to rescue me from their clutches and set me back on the “write” path.

In addition, I discovered it would take a lot of dedication, determination, and discipline on my part to maintain and nurture my relationship with my current WIP. However, there’s no need for me to struggle with all of these commitment issues on my own. Fortunately, I know that I can pray to God and ask Him for help and direction. If I listen for His voice and trust in Him, He will guide me along the “write” path so I can fulfill my commitment to the WIP He originally chose for me.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left,

your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying,

“This is the way; walk in it.”

~Isaiah 30:21(NIV)

So now when those tempting new ideas come calling, I politely take note of them. However, I keep my promise to stay faithful and ensure that my heart and calendar remain open to fulfill my commitment to my current WIP.

Persisting In Sending Out The Lord’s Message by Melanie Fischer

 

Today we are delighted to welcome InScribe member Melanie Fischer as our Guest Blogger.

A dandelion is immensely more than a pesky weed; it is a grand lesson in persistence. This wildflower possess soft petals and unique beauty in its young flowering state. When it matures though, its sole purpose is to get its message (its seeds) out.

When push comes to shove, the dandelion does not take “no” for an answer. Even when mowed down and raked into a heap of grass and other weeds, the dandelion persists to seed. When a breeze sweeps over the withering plant, the wind grasps the seeds and carries them away. New dandelions then sprout wherever they have found fertile ground.

This reminds me of when Paul was in jail. Even when bound in chains, he did not cease to spread the Lord's message.

“Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” Ephesians 6:19, 20 (NIV).

Paul persistently sent the words out, and because he did, we continue to read those letters today. Even though the messenger Paul eventually perished, the message never did.

Persist in sending out the message that the Lord has placed in your hearts, on your tongues, in your pens and on your computer screens. Press “send”.

Melanie Fischer is fresh out of the published gate, releasing her works into the world. She is a writer - story telling style, blogger and teacher of technologies behind getting the Lord’s message out. You can visit her website at www.hungryforpurpose.com or follow her blog at www.hungryforpurpose.com/blog

Photos source:  Melanie Fischer and Ashley Fischer





 

See you at the top! - Violet Nesdoly

Mount Baker - driving east on the No. 1 toward Abbotsford, B.C.

Mountain Climbing

Story idea is like Mount Baker
tantalizing in all lights
glowing in the distance

Conferences, other writers, books
reveal that I will need
plot, characters, complications
climax, resolution–
the pack, boots, ice axe
screws and ropes of my ascent.

Nearing the mountain
obstacles enlarge and clarify.
In the shadow of its flanks
and face to face, I face
the need to breathe life into characters
create sub-plots, plant red herrings
write true-talk dialogue
then tie all neatly …
I all but lose
my nerve to begin.

The ascent displays
the writer-stuff I’m made of
as day after challenging day
I do what it takes
to make some progress to the top
get up early, stay up late
retrace steps in desperate rewrites
belay into plot ravines
scramble over boulders and up ice fields
toward epiphany and resolution.

And then one day I write the final word
plant first-draft flag
with grateful calloused hands
upon the pinnacle.


I wrote the above in February of 2009, even before I started writing the book I will soon be holding in my hands. (It appears I was rehearsing, in my mind, what the process would feel like.)

But, like any book-writer has discovered, what felt like a pinnacle flag-plant when I had completed my first draft, turned out to be only my arrival at Camp 2. For the ascent has since then continued with many more rock faces scaled, crevices avoided, and nights spent questioning 'what am I doing here?'

I have tried to prepare for the next leg of climbing that faces me now—the publicizing, marketing, and selling of my book. I have read how-to books and articles, watched fellow-climbers, and listened to their advice. Still, I feel nervous, apprehensive, and excited all at once as I anticipate the weeks ahead. Stories of mishaps on Mount Everest, that remind me of how many things can go wrong on a climb, don't help.

More than ever I need a personal Sherpa—a guide who knows the way and will accompany me, no, lead me to my goal. (Personally my goal now is to sell the copies which I contracted to buy. Doesn't sound terribly spiritual, does it? But God and I wrestled out the spiritual aspects of this project ages ago. Now we're down to the physical /monetary realities of the business.)

 As I review the verses handwritten on file cards and tucked into a little folder called "Writing Career"  my faith in God's ability to direct, guide, and give me a hand-up when I need it grows strong.

"Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days" - Ecclesiastes 11:1 (NKJV).

"A man's heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps" - Proverbs 16:9 (NKJV).  

"Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say" -  Exodus 4:12 (NIV).

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight" - Proverbs 3:5,6 (NIV).

"Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left" - Isaiah 30:21 (NKJV). 

"And let the beauty and delightfulness and favour of the Lord our God be upon us: confirm and establish the work of our hands, yes the work of our hands, confirm and establish it" - Psalm 90:17 (Amp).

Again I feel like an adventurer. Courage fellow writers. Keep climbing.  See you all at the top!

*************

Find out about my soon-to-be-released novel here.

"Like" my Author Violet Nesdoly page on Facebook to keep up with my latest writing news. 

Called to Write - Sulo Moorthy

C.S.Lewis once wanted to become a great poet. A ruling passion to achieve acclaim as a poet controlled him at one time. But after he came to Christ, another passion, his passion for Christ, must have over-ruled  his earlier desire, because in one of his letters he openly admitted that his frantic desire to succeed as a great poet became almost an idol to him that God had to put an end to it.

 C.S.Lewis, we have come to know and love through his writings, is well known internationally for his prose writing rather than for his poetry. If the author had clung to his dream of becoming a poet and not yielded to God's guiding, the world might have lost the chance to enjoy the reading of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity.

I chuckle at the thought that even I once wanted to become a great writer. The truth is, until I turned 50 I had no idea what the word freelance writer truly meant. Creative cooking was my passion, not creative writing. Tired of being the guinea pig for my recipes, my husband decided to divert my attention by asking me to write a cookbook. His suggestion sounded splendid in my ears, but what did I know about writing a cookbook?  Luckily, I came across a writers' correspondence course in a magazine and decided to enroll in the hope of writing my cookbook. But by the time I finished my course, I had completely forgotten about writing a cookbook. Instead, I started to write inspirational articles and devotionals for Christian market.

 It's amazing how God's leading takes us to places where we would have never thought of going.  I never intended to become a writer. But, here I am pounding the keys and writing stories or posting blogs. There are days when I want to just want to quit writing. But I don't. The following should give you a clue.

Once I was going through my old journals, when I came across something I had written some years back. It was the Lord’s Prayer I had written for my own understanding. I didn’t intend to share it with anyone or ever thought of submitting to any publication. But something within me nudged me to submit it for publication. I quickly discarded the idea, thinking that no publisher would ever want to publish something  written by a lay person like me on the Lord's Prayer. There's no way I'm going to send it to any publisher, I said to myself and tried to push the thought away. But the nudging kept on going.

 Finally I gave in, and submitted the article to the Edmonton Journal with the least expectation of  getting an acceptance. I was living in Saskatoon at that time and  I had no way of checking whether my article was published or not unless I went to the local library to get the Edmonton Journal. But I didn't bother to do that.  Three Sundays  later I received a phone call from a woman asking me whether I was the person who wrote the article, Let's pray with a clear understanding in the Edmonton Journal. When I said yes, she started thanking me for writing the article and telling me how it had helped her to better understand the Lord's Prayer. I had no idea how she obtained my phone number,  but we spent at least a half an hour talking on the phone that morning. Her phone call surely affirmed me that when I'm called to write, I've to trust and obey.

I could point to the above reason as something that made a significant change in my writing life and keep me going.

My Friends are Getting Published - Janet Sketchley

As well as being a member of InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship, I also belong to The Word Guild and American Christian Fiction Writers (yes, I'm Canadian!). And I’m privileged to be part of an amazing online critique and encouragement group as well as one that's face-to-face. It’s a fine way to meet fellow writers, keep up with news, and stay encouraged.

Lots of writing friends—this is great. We understand and support one another like non-writers can’t. We’ve cheered one another on, we know how hard the journey is, and when one of them gets published, I think it’s almost as exciting as if it were my manuscript being accepted.

I can honestly say my first response is happiness for the new contract. I cheer and punch the air, and send a sincerely gleeful congratulatory email—364 days of the year.

The other 24 hours tend to spread out in small increments across the year. I’m still glad for whoever’s book will now be published and I wouldn’t want to take that away from them, but will it ever be my turn? Why is it happening for everyone else instead?

I had one of “those” hours not long ago and the Lord reminded me of Jesus telling Peter in effect, “If I want John to stay alive until I come back, that’s My business. You tend to yours.”

I had to choose to accept it, and to repeat it to myself regularly for the next while, but the message was clear: He has a plan for each writer, and the only plan that concerns me is mine. If he wants others to be published and not me, that’s His call. He’s the Shepherd, the chief Author.

And I can rest in the knowledge that if He’s preparing me for a publishing contract, it will happen—in His way and time. All I have to do is keep working so I’ll be ready. In the mean time He’s given me lots of friends to enjoy—both real and imaginary :-)

PS I do have a Christmas short story online this month in this month's Christian Fiction Online magazine in Dee Stewart's Multicultural Fiction column. It’s called “Too Much to Ask?” and is written under the pen name of Joanna Mallory.

© Janet Sketchley, 2009
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For devotionals, reviews and conversation, stop by Janet Sketchley's blog, God with Us: Finding Joy.