Do you have negative thoughts or destructive dialog in your mind? I imagine some of us, especially if we’ve not sold many books (if any) may embrace destructive dialog or negative thoughts. After all, they seem reasonable because they appeal to our normal human insecurities. 
Let me give you an example. I’m writing a book called “Our War with Lucifer.” While reading an article by Jack Graham, I’m beset by doubt and negative thoughts, destructive deceptions that go something like: My writing is nowhere near as good; No one will want to read what I’ve written; My book is so inadequate; and so goes the litany of doubt and insecurity. And part of me wants to give up and stop writing.
On the other hand, there’s another force at work in my life as well, (I’m a believer in Yeshu’a) so I’ve an angelic force fighting the battle for me between good and evil, negative thought patterns and healthy ones. And whether my book is as good as Jack Graham or anyone else is not the point. The point is, Adonai/God prompted me to write about the spiritual and so, write I will. Maybe I’m not as good a writer as some authors, but one day, if I persist, practice and improve, I may be. 
What makes me think that way? Well, because I trust Adonai who works all things together for the good of those who love him and are obedient when fulfilling the purposes for which He called us. You see, the more we allow negativity or destructive dialog to confuse our minds the more influence the negative has over us.
So, whether you're a writer of nonfiction or fiction or maybe you're pursuing another career, don't permit the negative to gain a foothold in your life. If it's already there, resist, resist, resist. When you resist the devil, he will flee from you.

Years ago, I used IngramSparks to publish my first books, but that was before I discovered Kindle. Now I use Kindle to publish my books and Apple, but there are limits. For instance, I cannot get my books into libraries and such. So, I went back to IngramSparks.
Oh my goodness, what a nightmare. I've formatted my own books for years and like the way they come out - very professional looking - because I've followed the example of professionals! Ingram is not very professional looking, not anymore.
When I upload my books, properly formatted,  most of my Chapters they show are missing, like if I have 23 chapters in my books, An Affair with An Angel, on Ingram, they only show Chapters 1, 4, 16, and 23. The rest are smushed inside those four chapters. WTH. It's so ridiculous it's absurd. Yes, it's a double negative or whatever, but so apropos. 
And, if I sell a book on Amazon Kindle, I also reap greater rewards whereas on IngramSparks, my royalties for eBooks are almost half of what I get on Kindle. A $4.99 books gets me $2.00 on Ingram whereas on Kindle, the same book nets me $3.45. Yikes! Nice difference.
It's no wonder IngramSparks lets you publish the first go around for free because they charge you for any necessary editing, and editing is AlWays necessary with their program. I've read several reviews on IngramSparks and nearly everyone I've read says the same thing; they're worthless for publishing your ebooks and/or print books.
I have several print books I originally published with them back in 2009 and they were excellent. But after reading the reviews, I've learned (and from my recent experience) I'll stick with Amazon Kindle. And there you have it. A short post but I hope an informative one.

I cannot help myself. No sooner did I have the dream and contrived a new story, I also came up with another story, one I'd started some time ago. Echoes of the Past is its new title. Formerly I called it "Heart's Legacy"; it was an AI title, but let's face it, artificial intelligence is nothing like using our own brain or intelligence in coming up with a title for a story. Here's what it's about, in case you didn't listen to the audio on my front page.
Echoes of the Past: A Tale of Love and Loss. Herein you will discover the heart-stopping tale of Sara, a girl grappling with an eerie and deadly lineage. Sara's biological mother was a convicted female serial killer, known as Demon Slayer. She’s infamous for her removing hearts to liberate victims from their demons, unaware of the unholy consequence - their souls' banishment to hell. During her liaison with the lead detective on her case, Frank Jones aka Seraphiel, an angel, she conceives a child before her inevitable capture.
Guilty by reason of insanity, the judge proclaims, she’s placed in a mental institution, and later dies, leaving behind a child destined for a precarious fate. Sara, unaware of her biological father's celestial roots and the dark history of her birth mother, grows up to lose her adoptive mother to a staged accident, after she's been moved to the same institution wherein her mother birthed her, only now it’s changed and is a training facility for those destined to be warriors like her. Her adopted mother's sudden death and life changes, shake the foundation of Sara's already complicated world. 
Echoes of the Past traces Sara's life as she begins to recognize her inherent abilities from her angelic father, Seraphiel. With a throng of vengeful demons hungry for her destruction, Sara's journey through the dangerous minefield of her destiny is led by a captivating guardian, sworn to help her face the darkness and learn to control her latent abilities as they blossom.
As dangers close in, Sara embarks on an epic battle for survival, grappling with questions about her enigmatic past and bracing for a formidable future. A quest to attain heaven's elusive prize awaits, but is Sara prepared for the heart-wrenching sacrifices it may entail? Will love prove stronger than loss in this poignant, gripping tale of supernatural thrills and trials nevermind romance? Prepare to be bewitched by Echoes of the Past.

I was called to another healing; it happens more often than I would've thought possible. Don't get me wrong, I know people get sick or injured physically and emotionally but not to where I'm needed. Last nite, he showed up like always and led me to the place where I needed to be.
The singer was already there, so I took my place by his side. His lady friend or mate was on the other side next to him, on the stairs. She never says a word, just watches and listens. As the singer began to sing, I felt something different well up within me. Usually, when she starts to sing, as I feel led, I'll either hum along or follow along and interpret then sing with her from in the shadows. That's why they call me the shadow singer, I'm always in the shadows. And that's fine with me.
Last night something was different, off a bit, or so it seemed. As she sang and I began to hum along, a deep sadness welled up within me. Often, I'm holding some object. I couldn't tell you what it was, only that it was in my hand. But this time, I had nothing to hold onto. as the feeling came, I reached and took his hand, holding tight. Instead of singing and interpreting what I call the song of angels (it's in a language unknown yet I can interpret it) I began to weep. The sadness and grief came from someplace deep within me, and all I could do was sob in gratitude.
Yes, surprisingly, I felt intense gratitude over events that have taken place over the last several years for having come through the trials. The next thing I knew, I was outside with the man looking back inside through a partially stained glass window at tthe singer. All I could do was marvel at the feelings swelling within me.
I've never met or spoken to her. My guess is she's a celestial, an angel. The man probably is as well. It's that sort of a mystery surrounding the events. How could I interpret her song, words she sang in an unknown language, and I also sang with her? Then he's gone until the next time. Now I understand in part how the author of Amazing Grace felt as he penned those words.

This blog has nothing to do with my novels. I just wanted to write about this topic because I might change the name on one of my books, which led me to think about my name changes.
I've changed my name a couple of times over the years. I'm 82, so that's not a lot. Although, most people have the same name forever. I was named after my dad's two sisters and my name was never pronounced correctly (according to me). And I wanted my own name, now theirs.
I had issues with my dad, so when he died in 1966, I was 24 at the time, I changed my last name to my step-fathers. Several years later, 1983, I changed my first name. Now, because of the damned drivers license needing to be something special. Well, let me share how I went about the name change the other two times. Every year for five years, I filed my taxes under my new name with my birth name in parenthesis. The government didn't object.
Now I almost need to change it again because of the licensing laws, because my birth certificate has my birth name on it, not my new name. Well, it's not new to me but you get the idea. If I go down to the Dept. of Licensing with my current birth certificate will they laugh me out of the building? When I got my driver's license I lived in Oregon and it had my birth name, so there's a record, somewhere, or so I hope. If I can convince them, I won't have to pay $269 for a name change. Ouch!
Changing the title on a book is easier. I create a new cover and put a new title on and voila, it's done. I do have to unpublish the other version of course. I wish my license was that simple. Sigh...
I'm thinking of changing the title on a couple of books because so-called experts say if it's not selling then change the name, or a dozen other things you can do different. I'm tired of it. Leave to the Lord, some say, but when nothing changes, nothing changes. What to do?

 And so, now all my books have been edited hundreds of times and I've come to think they're perfect (it never happens) they'll start to sell. I've spent hours it seems trying to read about marketing the books. Oh, good grief, can anything be more boring! 
I do not understand what they're saying. I did come upon one article for Kindle marketing and, taking it one paragraph at a time and taking notes. (I remember that much from college). Even if you never read your notes again, by writing the words, it helps imprint it. Lord, I hope so. 
Rather than reading the entire article. I know, dumb-dee-dumb-dumb. What I did was take each topic he touched on and what to do with it and went and did it, whatever it was. Will that make a difference? Only time will tell but I could see how it was radically different from what I'd been doing, in my hit-n-miss campaign. Now all I have to do is read and follow the rest of the class instructions. Sigh.
I've sold over 450 books, in the last 90 days, but most of that happened when some of them were advertised for FREE within the first two days. Free is good but there's no way to tell if people actually read the books, because I've had only two reviews (stars only) for one book in Spanish. They left 1 and 3 stars, no words. What the heck!
Why would you not say what you didn't like. All I can assume is because I do not speak or write Spanish, and used Google translate to translate, maybe Google didn't do such a good job. Then again, maybe they simply hated my book. Although, the American version in English got a five star review with comments. Yahoo. 
So, never give up, and I struggle on despite disappointments because, you never know, everything could change tomorrow. It is Christmas and people do buy presents. So, I'll write on. After all, I've got dozens of ideas that need to get onto the page and not all are paranormal. 

This week, my entire series (Children of Adonai) is finished including paperback books. I've decided to create a single book encompassing all seven, An anthology of heaven's drama. What to call the book, the title if you will. I'm not terribly creative when it comes to book titles. And so, I did the unthinkable (for some authors) and went to AI (artificial intelligence, if you're not familiar). Here's what the AI came up with:
​Legacy of Adonai: The Chronicles of the Divine Offspring; ​Echoes of Adonai: Chronicles of the Divine; Progeny of the Divine: A Children of Adonai Anthology or Chronicles of Adonai's Children.
​I'm thinking of keeping it simple like: Chronicles of the Divine or An Anthology of Adonai's Children. The last one or the title of this blog really speaks to what the book will be about. I'm off to putting the seven books together into one. That means I'll edit each one as I'm going through them, which takes a lot of time so, before I begin, I'll clean my stove, sweep and mop my hardwood floors, change and wash my sheets. I've already taken the 'huge' sack of dog poop to the garbage bin. 
Yesterday, I took ten pounds of cheap beef and mixed it with ten pounds of pork I'd ground up, all to make thirty-six packs of meat for the dog food. I made up an equal number of containers of brown rice and garbanzo beans last week, so the dogs won't starve as I'm anthologizing the books.
I tend to get stuck in my laptop when I'm writing so it's best if I prepare. Meanwhile, if you're reading these blogs, that means I may not get back to writing a new blog until after Christmas! So have a very merry and blessed celebration of our Savior's birthday. Although he likely was born in the spring, around April but that's another blog for another time.

Yesterday, I was determined to get on with my 'Schedule' and write a word or two on my novel. However, life gets in the way. You know how that can go!
I had to sweep up dog hair, mop the dog mud off of the hardwood floors then make some chocolate cookies. I cleaned up a few other places that needed it because I get tired of looking at the dust etc. when I spend all my time writing stories. By the time I was finished, it was dinner time, a TV show (Not Grey's Anatomy), then bedtime.
So, 8pm, I"m off to bed to read someone else's story. Falling asleep, I had another one of those nights where I wake up around 2 or 3 am my mind doing double-duty. First it was another dream with a character from Grey's Anatomy, Dr. McSteamy. I don't see him as a steamy guy but a lot of women on the show do, so he showed up in my dream!
I won't go into the details, because truth is, his pseudo name, McSteamy says a lot about my books, which I ruminated on for hours. I've been considering ways to not write about sex. Why you ask?
Because, while my scenes are merely suggestive. I don't go into details that take over an entire chapter, like some writers. Those books I have to skip through those chapters because they take away from 'the story' solely for the sake of gratuitous sex. In my books, the sex has a purpose.
For instance, in one book, Miriam, the angel, arrives on Earth. A witch sets a spell and her memory is gone. Of course, hell's new ruler, Andras contrived the scenario. She's sold into the demon Astaroth's pleasure house as a whore. That starts off with a sex scene to set the stage for the rest of the drama and Astaroth's attraction to this woman he believes is a whore named Honey. When he discovers she is an angel, oh goodness! Yes, there's goodness deep in this demon and now his guilt and shame surfaces and must be dealt with.
You get the idea. Sometimes sex serves a purpose.
Miriam's memory returns, and she's ridden with shame and guilt because in another novel she was taken captive by spider demons and secured by a binding that would not allow her to transport away, as angels can. In that book, she again has sex with a demon incubus. She is trapped and cannot get away so she enjoys the physical pleasures and it takes a while before her guilt and shame push her to escape.
Again, sex served a purpose as did other tortures she endured. Why, you wonder does the Lord of Heaven allow this? Well, it serves a purpose wherein her loss of faith and enjoyment of sensual pleasures strengthens her faith so later on she can help others overcome lust.
Now, I'm sort of accepting there's a reason for writing these stories, and can see myself finishing "Descent into Hell" where three angels on Earth fall prey to temptation. Guess who will step in and help them overcome. Not their mentor who's supposed to train them on Earth. No-o-o. He's busy dealing with his own temptations, especially after one of the angels ends in hell and the other two go into help her escape. When they get caught up in hell's fiery depths, he goes in but is taken captive.
Now I know who I can send in to help retrieve them. After all, Miriam is familiar with Astaroth and Asmodeus (demon of lust) so knows how to get around his temptations and sly manipulations.
Writing this blog helps me to think through my story and what I'm doing, which characters I need to do what and when. I hope to have this story, "Descent into Hell" published by the first of the year. 
Stick around for more of "Tales in the Beyond" musings. 
The stories I reference are in the "Children of Adonai" series on Amazon, which I will write a brief story about to finish up the characters and how they life as gone on. However, I cannot sell it as an add-on on Amazon, but let people know, if they want the free copy they can contact me on my website. If you're interested in the series go to:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1CQ772L
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The first several books I wrote - well, I had no trouble starting them, but after about a dozen, even though I had a title and knew what the book would be about, I slowed down. Came to a standstill........
It's not like I had a brain freeze, more commonly known as writers block. Indeed no. I'm always full of ideas for books. I even have a folder with a list of what could come next. 
Most of the time, at least with my first few books, I wrote by the seat of my pants. They call it pantser. I'm not a plotter, or I wasn't before now. Now, I'm all for plotting because I've become a procrastinator. As I write this, I'm suddenly aware of what my roadblock or tree-that-needs-to-be-removed may be. It's the subject matter.
Anyway, before I share anything about that very hot topic, let me go on with this post. To remain on track, or get back on track, I looked up what other writers do to not procrastinate when a tree is down in the middle of their writers road. They make a plan to follow. At least Stephen King does and one website even gave me a list of what to do.
It's stuff I've always sort of done, but now need to become more serious about it. Are you ready to get organized? Here's a schedule:
1. Find a time of day. 7am onward is me. I organized my files/folders to make sure I had what I might need close at hand.
2. Create your own writing calendar. Oops. Still need to add that one.
3. Prioritize your projects. 
     List of your ideas in order of priority. The novel I'm writing!
    Write an outline or a step-by-step ideas. Did that, and cheated by using AI to outline for me. I hate making outlines. Don't want to learn and why should I if an AI can do it probably better. 
    Create milestones and deadlines. A chapter a day sounds good. I've done that sort of thing before, Wrote a book at my first Na-No-Wri-Mo a few years ago. Nowadays I'm too busy writing to bother with Nano.
4. Have a plan for writer’s block. 
    Daily writing prompts or do stream-of-consciousness freewriting. Either one works for me.
5. Set a daily word count goal. 
    A minimum word count. Usually 3000/chapter and if I write two, then the tally goes up to six or seven thousand.
6. Find a writing space. 
    Set it up so it’s ready for you to write when you sit down. Happy day. My sofa is curved sort-of white leather. I have three Aussies so it's never really white. More like, dog dirty muddy footprints, but they wipe off.
7. Keep your writing files organized. 
    Save in Google Docs [done] or Microsoft Word [yup]
    Keep them in folders labeled with the working title. Will do.
8. Start blogging. 
    Start a blog. I did that, as you can see, if you're reading this.
    Build a following that you’re accountable to. Huh. What the hell. Now I have to learn to use mail-chimp or some such to do the email thing. Yuk.
    Dedicate a portion of your writing sessions to blog entries. Got it.
9. Join a writing community. Find inspiration with other writers. 
    Find a local writer’s group, and writing workshops. Love Meetups. One favorite is in England - 8 hours ahead. The 0730 meeting is 2330 for me, Not going to happen. I'm in bed by 2100 at the latest.

10. Start right now.  [Already done] Now with the blog written, I can get on with my story, Descent into Hell.
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