Lord, let me heed the angels you put in my path.

I am called to listen to the sound of my own heart -- to write the story within myself that demands to be told at that particular point in my life. And if I do this faithfully, clothing that idea in the flesh of human experience and setting it in a true place, the sound from my heart will resound in the reader's heart.

What a gift of grace to be able to take the chaos from within and from it create some semblance of order.

I do know that I need solitude, not only to write but to nourish myself (being, like most writers, an introvert) so that I do keep trying to write.

Read for fun, read for information, read in order to understand yourself and other people with quite different ideas. Learn about the world beyond your door. Learn to be compassionate and grow in wisdom. Books can help us in all these ways.

A dream without a plan is just a wish

We book people are always preaching about reading aloud to children, but unless you do, you can't realize how it enriches family life.