Friday Favorite: Finished!

Friday FavoritesI finished editing my seventh manuscript at two in the morning and I’m giddy!

I sent it off to one of my critique partners and a couple beta readers and now I’m ready and eager to dive into what’s next!

Hopefully, I’ll get to share what’s next with everyone soon. There are things on the horizon, I promise.

Until then, here’s the back cover blurb of the just-for-fun novel I completed at two in the morning.

To give you fair warning, it’s not at all the genre I typically write, which is why the novel was just for fun–a project to keep my creative juices flowing while I waited to dive into what’s next. I have no idea what I’ll do with it, if I’ll do anything at all. All I know is that I had a blast writing it…

Tess Eckhart has always been different. For as long as she can remember, she’s felt things more deeply, more intensely, than anyone she’s ever met. Then she has an incident involving a Ouija board at a high school party. Her complete freak out and subsequent breakdown lead her family to move across the country, next to a privately owned facility for the mentally ill. Tess’s parents insist she see one of the psychiatrists, worried their daughter might suffer from the same illness that tormented her grandmother.

This time, Tess is determined to fit in at her new school. To be normal. To hide the fact that she is seeing a therapist at the Edward Brooks facility. But for Tess, fitting in has always been difficult. She’s used to whispers and stares. But when it comes to Luka Williams, a reluctantly popular boy at her new school, she’s unused to a stare that intense. And he won’t stop. Neither will her headaches or the visions that haunt her at night. Sometime during the day. As Tess tries all the harder to hide them, she becomes more and more convinced that Luka knows something. That Luka might even be responsible.

But what if she’s wrong? What if Luka Williams is the only thing protecting her from a darkness more terrifying than she could fathom?

Let’s Talk: What’s your Friday Favorite of the week?

Guest Post: The Voices in My Head

carla postI’d be more attractive if I lost fifteen pounds. I’m a terrible wife because my house isn’t always clean like my neighbor’s. I’d be a better mom if I brought homemade treats to the party.

Sound familiar? We all have voices in our head that criticize, complain, and compare. Things that make us feel less important or less accomplished than other people.

Or maybe those voices sound more like this: I’ve done so many things wrong, there’s no hope to get it right. I can’t return to God after what I did. I’m not worthy of love. I’m not worthy of forgiveness.

It can be tempting to believe the lies we hear in our heads. They sound sensible. They sound objective. We might even convince ourselves they’re for our own good, to help us become better people.

When we’re focused on our perceived failures, we’re like hamsters in a wheel, spinning around and going nowhere. Our eyes move away from God as we pursue ways to build ourselves back up: start a diet, crash-clean the house, stay up all night baking. Or maybe it’s deeper. Maybe we do things to prove ourselves to God: go to church three times a week, give to charity, go on missions.

There’s nothing wrong about baking, cleaning, going to church, or doing missionarywork. They are all good things. But simply doing them doesn’t make us better people. They don’t make God love us anymore than He did before.

When we recognize those criticisms in our head as the lies they are, only then can we can hear the truth of God’s promises: I love you. I will care for you. I will never leave you or forsake you. You are my child. Nothing can ever separate you from My love.

The voice of the enemy tears down. The voice of Truth builds up. Which will you choose to listen to today?

Let’s Talk: How do you pick out the voice of Truth among all the noise?

carla

 

Carla Laureano has held many job titles—professional marketer, small business consultant, and martial arts instructor—but writer is by far her favorite. She currently lives in Denver with her patient husband and two rambunctious sons, who know only that Mom’s work involves lots of coffee and talking to imaginary people.

Carla’s debut contemporary romance novel, Five Days in Skye, is available next month from David C Cook. You can connect with her at www.carlalaureano.com.

 

Carla cover