Book Three Part One - Don't Turn Them Away

7-4-2013

A few years ago, on July 4th, I drove past the local Post Office and saw police cars and an ambulance. I also saw a lifeless body on the ground--a man dressed in blue jeans and a black t-shirt. He was a veteran. And he killed himself under the United States flag flying overhead. I will never lose that memory of such sadness and desperation. A lonely man I assume. Someone just looking for hope on this earth.

A few weeks ago at church, a visitor and his junior high age son were looking for the youth group. I walked out to the foyer, carefully closing the door as to not disturb the service, and spoke with him. He seemed nervous and his son barely looked up. I could tell they were hurting and new and alone.

The youth group was done for the summer, but I made conversation asking him where they were from and wanted them to feel welcome. Out of the sanctuary comes an older woman. She was abrupt.

"You people can't stand here and be talking. You're disturbing the service. Go outside."

She turned and went back into the sanctuary where everyone was all cozy and settled for the teaching. I gave the gentleman a brief hug and directed him to a seat.

My Italian/New York hate for injustice fumed over and I honestly would have liked to chew out that lady. I knew it was useless and I would appear the offender. How selfish, cruel, and unkind she was. How so "unlike" Jesus she had been.

I hoped the gentleman would come back that next Sunday.

Book three is titled A Heart Like His: Living God's Will for Your Life.

You find his will, understand his will, and then ... you have to live it. Never grow weary in doing good, putting yourself last, and passing out kindness to everyone you encounter.

Don't turn people away--welcome them in any state, any form, any position, and give them the best treatment you can muster up.

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?  James 2:1-4

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Book Three Thoughts

Weds.
6-26-2013

Yes, it has been awhile since I posted. Remember, life takes twisted turns for many of us. And some of us fall out of our seats as we hold on for the ride!

So I'm starting a new series of blog posts. Often, writers will "blog" a book their writing. I'm starting the third book in my non-fiction trilogy, A Heart Like Mine.

The first book is, A Heart Like Mine: Finding God's Will for Your Life.

Book two is, A Heart Like Yours: Understanding God's Will for Your Life.

Now, after recent life events, I'm embarking on the third book in the trilogy, A Heart Like His, Living God's Will for Your Life.

This will be the hardest to write, but after several years of engaging in physical, emotional, and spiritual battles, I'm ready to take the outline and fill in the blanks. This third book completes the journey to actually living God's will. I don't always accomplish this without continued battle of my own will, but I usually try again. Failure leads me to find out what I did wrong in the first place.

This new blog series will be the dumping grounds for book three's content. I hope you learn and feel free to comment. 8^)

Cindy

Visit me at http://www.cindyscinto.com

Lake Superior State University 2013 List of Banished Words

January 30, 2013

I'm late getting these posted, but here they are! This is the list!


FISCAL CLIFF

As one might expect, this phrase received the most nominations this year. If Congress acts to keep the country from tumbling over the cliff, LSSU believes this banishment should get some of the credit.

"(We’ve) lost sight of the metaphor and started to think it's a real place, like with the headline, 'Obama, Boehner meeting on fiscal cliff'." Barry Cochran, Portland, Ore.

KICK THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD

"I'm surprised it wasn't on your 2012 list -- were you just kicking the, um, phrase down the road to 2013?" ~T. Jones, Ann Arbor, Mich.

"I thought that perhaps you weren't ready to deal with it. You just kicked that can down the road." Rebecca Martz, Houston, Tex.

DOUBLE DOWN

"Over-used within the last year or so in politics." ~John Gates, Cumberland, Maine

JOB CREATORS/CREATION

"It implies supernatural powers -- such as the ability to change the weather or levitate. Most new jobs pay less than the lost jobs to ensure stratospheric CEO compensation and nice returns on investments. I respectfully propose a replacement term that is more accurate -- job depleters." ~Mark Dobias, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

PASSION/PASSIONATE

"Diabetes is not just Big Pharma's business, it's their passion! This or that actor is passionate! about some issue somewhere. A DC lobbyist is passionate! about passing (or blocking) some proposed law. My passion! is simple: Banish this phony-baloney word." ~George Alexander, Studio City, Calif.

YOLO

"Stands for 'You Only Live Once' and used by wannabe Twitter philosophers who think they've uncovered a deep secret of life. Also used as an excuse to do really stupid things, such as streaking at a baseball game with YOLO printed on one's chest. I only live once, so I'd prefer to be able to do it without ever seeing YOLO again." ~Brendan Cotter, Grosse Pte. Park, Mich.

"Used by teens everywhere to describe an action that is risky or unconventional, yet acceptable because 'you only live once.' Who lives more than once?" ~P.P., Los Angeles, Calif.

SPOILER ALERT

"Used as an obnoxious way to show one has trivial information and is about to use it, no matter what." ~Joseph Joly, Fremont, Calif.

BUCKET LIST

"The expression makes me cringe every time I hear it -- and we've been hearing it for several years. I'm surprised it isn't already in your master list. Let's emphasize life and what we do during it. It's such a grim way of looking at 'what I want to do,' and often it is in selfish terms." ~Shea Hoffmitz, Hamilton, Ont.

TRENDING

"A trend is something temporary, thank goodness; however, it is not a verb, and I'm tired of news stations telling me what trite 'news' is 'trending.'" ~Kyle Melton, White Lake, Mich.

BONELESS WINGS

"Can we just call them chicken (pieces)?" ~John McNamara, Lansing, Mich.

GURU

"Unless you're teaching transcendental meditation, Hinduism or Buddhism, please don't call yourself a guru just because you think you're an expert at something. It's silly and pretentious. Let other people call you that, if they must." ~Mitch Devine, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.

LSSU accepts nominations for the banished-words list throughout the year. To submit your nomination for the 2014 list, go to http://www.lssu.edu/banished/submit_word.php. Check out the compiled list to make sure your nomination hasn't already been banished!

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Lake Superior State University is Michigan's smallest public university with an enrollment of 3,000 students. It is known for its academic programs such as fisheries and wildlife management, engineering, nursing, criminal justice, fire science and business management. For admissions information, go to LSSU's admissions web site, www.lssu.edu/admissions.


LSSU accepts nominations for the banished-words list throughout the year. To submit your nomination for the 2014 list, go to http://www.lssu.edu/banished/submit_word.php. Check out the compiled list to make sure your nomination hasn't already been banished!


Visit me at http://www.cindyscinto.com

Lake Superior State University 2012 List of Banished Words

Here it is...

The 2012 list of banished words from Lake Superior State University. And this is the ultimate guide people. Ready, set, go!

1. Amazing - Received the most nominations. LSSU was surprised at the number of nominations this year for "amazing" and surprised to find that it hadn't been included on the list in the past. Many nominators mentioned over-use on television when they sent their entries, mentioning "reality" TV, Martha Stewart and Anderson Cooper. It seemed to bother people everywhere, as nominations were sent from around the US and Canada and some from overseas, including Israel, England and Scotland. A Facebook page – "Overuse of the Word Amazing" – threatened to change its title to "Occupy LSSU" if  'amazing' escaped banishment this year
2. Baby Bump - Although nominated by many over the years, this phrase came in as a close second to "amazing" this year.
3. Shared Sacrifice - Usually used by a politician who wants other people to share in the sacrifice so he/she doesn't have to.
4. Occupy - Occupy Wall Street grew to become Occupy insert name of your city here all over the country. It should be banished because of the media overuse and now people use it all the time, i.e. "I guess we will occupy your office and have the meeting there." "We are headed to Grandma's house – Occupy Thanksgiving is under way."
5. Blowback - Sometimes exchanged with "pushback" to mean resistance.
6. Man Cave - Overused by television home design and home buying shows, has trickled down to sitcoms, commercials, and now has to be endured during interactions with real estate people, neighbors and co-workers.
7. The New Normal - The phrase is often used to justify bad trends in society and to convince people that they are powerless to slow or to reverse those trends. This serves to reduce participation in the political process and to foster cynicism about the ability of government to improve people's lives. Sometimes the phrase is applied to the erosion of civil liberties. More often, it is used to describe the sorry state of the U.S. economy. Often hosts on TV news channels use the phrase shortly before introducing some self-help guru who gives glib advice to the unemployed and other people having financial difficulties.
8. Pet Parent - Can a human being truly be a parent to a different species? Do pet 'owners' not love their pets as much pet 'parents' do? Are we equating pet ownership with slave holding? This cloyingly correct term is capable of raising my blood sugar. Lynn Ouellette, Buffalo, New York
9. Win The Future - A political phrase worn wherever you look – to the left (President Obama) or the right (Newt Gingrich).
10. Trickeration - A made-up word used by football analysts to describe a trick play. Sounds unintelligent. Perhaps they've had a few too many concussions in the football world to notice. Carrie Hansen, Grayling, Michigan
11. Ginormous - This combination of gigantic and enormous makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck every time I hear it. Each utterance reminds me of the high school drop-out that first used this offensive word in my presence. Gina Bua, Vancouver, Washington
12. Thank you in Advance - Usually followed by "for your cooperation," this is a condescending and challenging way to say, "Since I already thanked you, you have to do this." Mike Cloran, Cincinnati, Ohio

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Writers Write About Writing

The reading habits of the average evangelical Christian in the United States, as far as I have been able to observe them, are so wretchedly bad as actually to arrest the spiritual development of the individual believer and block the progress of the faith he professes to hold.

So powerful is the effect of the printed page on human character that the reading of good books is not only a privilege but an obligation, and the habitual reading of poor ones a positive tragedy. A.W. Tozer. The Warfare of the Spirit, Chapter 28; The Decline of Good Reading, Christian Publications. 1993, 125.

That said with cutting expression, Tozer makes a point writers must heed. Bad writing makes bad books. Authors, throughout the span since Gutenberg, learned the work and toil required to publish well written books.

Writers must read voluminously. Ernest Hemingway explains his appetite for the written word:

“I'm always reading books—as many as there are. I ration myself on them so that I'll always be in supply." The words are Hemingway's, but friends and relatives have also testified to the extent of his reading.

"He was always reading. When he wasn't working, he was reading. "He read all the time.” "I think Ernest read just about everything. He was a terrific reader." "He read everything. He would have a whole group of books going at one time, eight or ten... He would put one down and pick up another." "Ernest read everything."

Today’s catalog of Hemingway’s personal library lists 7,700 books; 278 he wrote himself.

Writers have to determine to work hard and not let anything stop them. Read how Joni Eareckson Tada has to prepare to write:

There were plenty of times at Joni and Friends when I had to pull away from the computer and simply lie down to give my body a break. It takes a team of people to not only help me research and type, but to get me sitting up comfortably in my wheelchair and moving forward.

This is no time to write a book.

But I have to try.

It won’t be easy. It may not be wise. Nevertheless, if you are reading these words, it has been accomplished, and the book has been published. God be thanked!

… Incessant pain, as those who have lived in its grip can attest, makes it very difficult to think, work, relate, plan, write. Joni Eareckson Tada. A Place of Healing, David C. Cook, 2010

Let me add some light to the quandary:

In Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller dabs colorful paint on a canvas to create the picture most think of when they hear writer used as a profession:

Writers don’t make any money at all. We make about a dollar. It is terrible. But then again we don’t work either. We sit around in our underwear until noon then go downstairs and make coffee, fry some eggs, read the paper, read part of a book, smell the book, wonder if perhaps we ourselves should work on our book, smell the book again, throw the book across the room because we are quite jealous that any other person wrote a book, feel terribly guilty about throwing the schmuck’s book across the room because we secretly wonder if God in heaven noticed our evil jealously, or worse, our laziness. We then lie across the couch face down and mumble to God to forgive us because we envied another man’s stupid words. And for this, as I said before, we are paid a dollar. We are worth so much more. Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003. 187

What does it take to be a writer?

Hard Work
Determination
Lot’s of Reading
A Dose of Humor
Long-suffering

Ready, set, go…

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The Cure for Writer's Block - Really

It took Robert Frost 20 years to get his first poem published.

It took me 38 years to get my first book published. Yep, I was ten years old when I sent in my first manuscript. Weeks later, an envelope addressed to me was in the mail. I tore into it with passion. I was a writer.

It was a rejection letter. They rejected a ten year old, sweet, little girl with a love for all things literary.

"Big deal. I'll write another one." Off to my desk to begin again. I was not thwarted, until I was in my forties and still getting rejection letters. You lose the innocence of childhood after writing and bleeding words for decades.

And one of the worst setbacks, primo to rejection letters, is ... writer's block. The dark, blank pain of no words to write, errrr, I mean type. You know it.

I have a variant on this menacing condition; "typist's block."

A writer is:

• a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., esp. as an occupation or profession; an author or journalist.
• a clerk, scribe, or the like.
• a person who commits his or her thoughts, ideas, etc., to writing: an expert letter writer.
• a person who writes or is able to write: a writer in script.

"writer." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 02 Oct. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/writer>.

A typist is:

• a person who types

"typist." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 02 Oct. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/typist>.

Which person above can have writer's block? What is writer's block? Hmmm, when a writer can't think of what to write? Or when someone can't continue typing? My motto? Just do it!

I found the cure for writer's block. I absolutely, unequivocally decided to admit I am a writer, not a typist. Do you fit the definition for writer above? Then you are a writer. That's it. Say it, "I am a writer, not a typist." When you agree with yourself that you don't have to reach a particular level to be declared a writer, you are then confirmed in your own mind. Writer's block goes away. 

Don't type--write. You are a writer!



PLEASE COMMENT! 8^) Visit me at http://www.cindyscinto.com

Love Your Writer

It took Robert Frost 20 years to finally get published. How long would it take him today? I have been writing seriously for almost 20 years and I remember the day when you could submit a book proposal to a publisher directly. Today, most publishers don’t take a proposal unless it is delivered via an agent. But try to get an agent to look at your proposal—it takes even more perseverance than submitting to publishers did long ago.

Consider the book proposal itself; multi-faceted and directly influenced by each agent or publishing house. Who wants a bio and resume, a one-sheet, a chapter synopsis, several chapters, marketing plan, full manuscript, query letter, references . . . But some want one item, several items, a mixture, a combination, assimilation, mishmash, hodgepodge, or mélange. Some want hard copy mailed to them. Some want the proposal “in” an email. Others want it “attached” to an email. It’s dizzying to keep track of it all. Oh, I use Excel spreadsheets and dutifully do my dandiest to keep it all sanely filed so I can reference it later. But sometimes it creates a landslide carrying me down the gully to despair. Writers have to be disciplined; they have to push through the salmagundi of distractions and pitfalls.

It is hard work to be a writer—hard work to submit and be rejected. It is hard work to submit at all. But when the drive and gift is in you, you must write and write and write. Times have changed for submitting, but times have changed for writing. Writers have to love to write!




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The Top Ten Words of 2008

Taken from http://www.languagemonitor.com/

1. Change – The top political buzzword of the 2008 US Presidential campaign.
2. Bailout – Would have been higher but was not in the media until Mid-September.
3. Obamamania – Describing the worldwide reaction to Barack Obama’s campaign and subsequent victory in the US presidential race.
4. Greenwashing – Repositioning a product to stress its Earth-friendly attributes.
5. Surge – Military and political strategy often cited as reducing violence in Iraq.
6. Derivative – Exotic financial instruments used to cleverly package junk-grade debt.
7. Subprime – Mortgages that were packaged as derivatives.
8. Foreclosure – The end-result of the sub-prime mess.
9. Phelpsian – New word coined to describe the Phelpsian Pheat of winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.
10. Chinglish – The often amusing Chinese/English language hybrid that Beijing tried to stamp out before the Olympics began.

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My favorite is phelpsian. I want to be phelpsianistic about my goals in life! 2009 will be a year of phelpsian strides. Write like you are phelpsian and you will succeed. (I wonder--do we have to capitalize phelpsian?)

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Lake Superior State University 2009 List of Banished Words

All these words and phrases are on Lake Superior State University's annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. The 34th version of the list was released Tuesday, which means, "It's that time of year again."

The school in Michigan's Upper Peninsula selected 15 entries from about 5,000 nominations.

Banned words for 2009:

1. GREEN
2. CARBON FOOTPRINT or CARBON OFFSETTING
3. MAVERICK
4. FIRST DUDE
5. BAILOUT
6. WALL STREET/MAIN STREET
7. MONKEY
8. ICON or ICONIC
9. GAME CHANGER
10. STAYCATION
11. DESPERATE SEARCH
12. NOT SO MUCH
13. WINNER OF FIVE NOMINATIONS
14. IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

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