Candice here! I want to first thank you all for continuing with me on this creative journey of faith, art, and fiction. Just this morning we wrapped up ICFTS’ very first Free creative course, Sow the Seeds & Seize the Dream.
If you didn’t get a chance to partake in the creative journey, there is no better time than now to begin! We all have a creative voice and today is the very best day to use it.
With that in mind, I wanted to give you all a heads up on the short break I will be taking form ICFTS. I have some new things that I would like to share in the very near future and in order to do so I need to take time to prepare them. For that reason, the weekly schedule of postings will be on pause until OCTOBER 16th, 2017 at the earliest or OCTOBER 23rd at the latest.
I may drop in here and there to post something random in the meantime, however, so be on the lookout.
Thanks again for all of you who have joined this community, shown your love and support by liking articles and even going as far as to share them. I truly appreciate it all, especially the comments.
Growing creatively is best done within community!
So off I go until Monday, October 16th!…or the 23rd!
When God is your partner, make your plans big!” ~ D.L Moody
Plan BIG!
You’d think that that exhortation would make every person who heard it celebrate with a motivated fire for action when in reality it makes a lot of people shrink back in fear and hide under the heavy blankets of safety and mediocrity.
Dreaming is not so much of an issue for most of us. But dreaming big . . . well, that has the power to not only knock the wind out of many of our sails but sink our boats completely.
Like me, I suppose you are wondering why that is. If we are honest with ourselves we would have to admit that insecurity and the scrutiny of others is what holds us back. The old ‘what will people think?’ phrase acts as the perfect glitch in our plans of action.
The very thought of failing in front of others, especially those who’ve minimalized our former dreams with the constant song of ‘you can’t,’ strikes us immobile. Them witnessing our former failed attempts doesn’t help either.
But is any of that really a reason to shrink our globally-sized visions down to something that only fills a shoebox? Are our past ‘failures’ really messages that we are not able to achieve the impossible?
I dare say NO!
If nothing else our past ‘failures’ are signs that we are indeed able to succeed? Why? Because even when we aimed for the moon and didn’t even leave the atmosphere, we still have the gumption to load up for another shot.
We are indeed meant to plan big, and along with that, we must rest in faith that every seeming malfunction has a glorious function for our good. We learn from every step we take. We are strengthened by every closed door. We can actually become better with ever affront against our determination.
Isaiah 54:2-4 says, “Enlarge the place of your tent, And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, And strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations, And make the desolate cities inhabited.“Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth, And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.”
Dreaming BIG is a gift, a costly gift. It means we will have seasons and moments when we look foolish. It will require us to cast out our nets just one more time in faith even though we’ve been fishing all night and caught nothing. (Luke 5:3-7) But when Yeshua Jesus is directing our casting even when the progress looks minimal the process is optimal and so is the final outcome if we stick with it.
What we must realize is that the God of all Creation has big dreams and plans for each of us. When we trust Him as our Father we are then positioned by faith to prosper. (Jeremiah 29:11) His thoughts for us are all GOOD and PRECIOUS and they outnumber the stars and the sand (Psalm 139:17-18).
But part of seeing these dreams come to pass rest in our willingness to dream big, plan even bigger and allow the Giver of Dreams Himself to guide us on the journey. (John 15:5)“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
There is nothing that is too big for Yeshua Jesus to do and when He is our partner there is NOTHING we cannot do! (Philippians 4:13)But it requires us to believe in and on Him, and take great leaps of faith.
There’s a way to do it better-find it.” Thomas A. Edison
For over a year now I’ve been coming up with plans to reinvent this creative platform in a way that makes my soul sing like it did from the very first moment that I gave birth to it.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post regarding this topic, my creative needs have changed and so have the ebbs and flows of my musings. What was once just a space to journal my creative growth, has morphed into something different and it continues to change even as my vision for my writing future becomes clearer.
This blog was created to harness reawakened creativity and it has certainly met its goal and continues to.
That being said, I am trying a new thing here…again…with how I manage this blog space.
FIRST: SCHEDULE
I have visited this topic several times and have come back to the same place.
3 posts a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday
…That seemed easy enough.
The more difficult part of this was/is determining what to continue here on this platform.
SECOND: BLOGGING TOPICS
Creative Writing
Blog Novel (MORE ON THIS BELOW)
Musings and Creative Inspirations
Faith
Art
If you have been following this blog for a while, you are probably wondering what happened to Wisdom From the Writer’s Journal, where I give writing tips, encouragements, and host interviews or guest posts? If not, then you should be, but I digress.
What I have decided to do, after mulling it over for the last three months, is move WFTWJ to my Author Site. Because this is where I will be highlighting more of my indie Publishing journey and focusing solely on the craft of creative writing, it only makes sense for me to move WFTWJ to that platform.
I will still continue to share writing inspirations and encouragements in more of a conversational way, hence the bullet for musings and creative inspirations.
THIRD: THE INFAMOUS BLOG NOVEL, ASCENSION GRAVEYARD
Our greates weakness lies in giving up. The most certian way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” ~Thomas A. Edison
For going on four years this June, I have been writing and rewriting Ascension Graveyard. I have made it to a good, 90k words, only to turn around and rework the peace. I have shared chapters here three times going all the way up to over 30 chapters at a time.
I have worked hard…and I have found that though my labors have not been in vain, they haven’t yielded the desired fruit.
That being said, a fourth rewrite is in order. By this, I don’t mean just another round of editing and weeding currently existing chapters, but completely rewriting the book at least 85% from scratch.
I will be honest, I have had this idea for over a year and the thought of actually giving it a shot makes me a bit skittish, but I have to trust my creative flow and give it a go.
When will new and hopefully improved chapters of the paranormal science fiction suspense thriller be available? I don’t quite know yet.
I hesitate to make a time commitment as I have done so several times already only to have to push it back.
SO JUST A RECAP:
Blogging Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Creative Writing, Art, Faith, and Encouragements for topics
Thanks for sticking with me this long and continuing on this road with me. Creative is indeed a winding road of its own and the scenery it lends often changes!
Twenty-seventeen has already gotten into full swing for many of us. Like with years past, we have set our goals, put on our workout gear and run ourselves to the gym with the single purpose of being beach ready several warm months from now.
For those of us who are aspiring writers and bloggers, our goals tend to involve a different kind of exercise with a completely different destination in mind.
Success is not one size fits all and therefore requires a unique pattern.
For me, the goals that I have in the crosshairs are goals that I have been striving toward for several years now. But as I set out to take hold of them this year I am doing so while letting ‘peace be my umpire‘. Thank you, Victoria Osteen for that!
Let me digress for just a moment to explain what that means for me. Allowing peace to be my umpire means I am no longer going to allow projects and methodologies of action to rob me of peace. If I feel unsettled or shackled by them I am either:
Taking on something that is outside of its season for me
Need to let certain things go or put them down for a time
using a methodology of execution that is not natural for me
This has nothing to do with ‘comfort,’ for the truth is, any real growth requires a certain level of discomfort. But what I learned in my ‘doing’ in 2016 is that I subconsciously began to do things how other successful people had done them thinking that their way was the only way to gain the desired level of success I was aiming for.
Let peace be your umpire.~Victoria Osteen
That idea for me is no more! Success is not one size fits all and therefore requires a unique pattern.
SO WHAT IS ON THEN ADVENTURE MENU FOR 2017
Author page launch party!: Mark your calendar and join me MONDAY, JANUARY 23rd, 2017 for my author page launch party! You can find the fun by going to www.candicecoates.wordpress.com
I will be sharing the first 2 or 3 chapters of my 365 Day Novel
Giving insight on my plans for publication in 2017
Inviting you to share your favorite quote in the comments as a blessing of sorts for the journey ahead
Letting you in on upcoming projects
Blogging here on ICFTS 2 to 3 times a week: If I’ve learned nothing in my three years about blogging I have learned this, that blogs and blog brands are similar to your favorite t-shirt you wore as a kid. No matter how much you love it, you will eventually outgrow it…or it will shrink whichever perspective you chose to take on it. The point is we have to change our blogging ways with our growth the same way we change our clothing. Making room for my Author Page while getting projects ready for publication calls for this sort of action.
Monthly updates on where things are and where they are headed on ICFTS
Ascension Graveyard will RETURN IN MARCH!: I know, it’s been a long time since we last shared a chapter but other writing schemes have been afoot! If you’ve been reading with me since I began writing this piece, please hang in there with me for a little while longer. But in the meantime please reacquaint yourself with the tale and characters by reading the current chapters that are available by clicking HERE.
So that is it in a nutshell. This is the roadmap for my 2017 adventure. I hope you will journey along with me, continue to lend your advice and share your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:12, NIV) “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace…”
I know what it looks like. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, and have noticed the trickling away of my post, you are probably thinking that I have in someway lost my ‘shine’. That, or my muse has broken up with me. Neither thoughts are further from the truth.
I still love blogging, I’d like to think I still have shine, but when growth takes place we have to be maturer enough to recognize when we need to make hard choices. Are we facing a moment of ‘both and’ or ‘either or?’
Currently, I have been working on 3 different manuscripts; our beloved Ascension Graveyard which looks slightly different from how it currently appears on the blog, a piece called Warden, and another titled Nexus Gate 4037.
All 3 are very different stories and are in different stages of their process which enables me to work on all three at once. Yey!
That being said, for me, this is an ‘either or’ scenario.
EITHER I continue to blog everyday and miss this awesome moment that I have DREAMED about having since I was a girl of 13, to focus on becoming a professional novelist, OR I spend less time on other projects like the blog while nurturing others.
With that being said, the blog has been sorely neglected…I am sorry, but I aim to change that by putting forth some effort for a ‘both and.’
I will BOTH work on my three manuscripts AND blog. The catch is I will only blog 3 days out of a week.
HERE’S THE PLAN:
Day 1: Flash Fiction/ Short story/#Blogbattle
Day 2: Art (Should any have been created) or Random post
Day 3: Quote of Encouragement…I like these
I aim to keep things simple. I aim to keep them true. I aim to keep progressing!
Remember the Novel Progress Planner sheet I created a while back? Well I’ve made lots of progress there, and managed to keep my goals thus far, whilst adding new ones. (The goals are slightly different from what appear on the image, here.) God has blessed me to gain great momentum and drive!
To that end, I am pressing forward with my writing goals, giving my longer bodies of work the attention they need, but I will drop by during the week and say hello as I march forward into new territory. I hope you will go along with me.
“Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” ~Isaiah 43:18-19
The Apostle Paul said in (Philippians 3:13-14) that he had determined to forget what was behind him in order to obtain what was ahead of him, thus he pressed forward towards the goal of the high calling of his life. And if you are familiar with the life of Paul, then you know that he was responsible for many deaths and imprisonments of the first followers of Yeshua Jesus, only to be called into the glorious Light himself.
Could you imagine what life would have been like had Paul allowed his past mistakes, failures and disappointments to determine and even spoil his future? Think of all the humanitarians of the Faith who’ve come forward for good because Paul pressed forward leaving yesterday where it belongs…behind.
With the dawning of a new civil year, we too have the blessing of starting over, but not just the year but through Christ, every single day!
Yeshua Jesus promises that His mercies are new EVERY MORNING! not just ever 365 days (Lamentations 3:22-23.) But there is still something so special about starting fresh for an entire year.
Behold, Yeshua Jesus is doing a NEW THING. That New Thing is available to any and everyone who will call upon His Name and trust in Him and His love for them. That New Thing is ready for all of us this year, should we choose to perceive it, or as Isaiah prophesied, “shall we know it?” The choice is ours to do so or not.
Let us all determine to have a paradigm shift. Let us see through faith and hope and love and victory.
Let’s take hold of the new thing and the new year of life gifted to us. Let’s march forward to greater things!
Happy 2016!
Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”
~Ecclesiastes 3:11
Today is the start of a new season, a new day, a new year! As with most people, many of us are stepping forward into the newness of the unknown while leaving behind so much. Maybe you lost a loved one. Maybe a relationship ended. Maybe you didn’t lose those last 5 lbs that you planned to shed at the start of 2015. The good news is it is okay. Yeshua Jesus-the God of all creation-knows your heart, and he knows the steps you take. If you trust him, no matter how frozen the world around you may seem, soon and very soon you will see and feel the warmth of the Son (sun) breaking through the ice and revealing all the goodness of life that was being cultivated beneath the snow and earth of your yesterday! Trust He has made everything beautiful in its time. He is faithful. dance into 2016 with joyful expectation! Happy New Year!!!
Please welcome the courageous and cutest Candice Coates! Candice is an incredibly artistic person with talent to spare. She’s got a great sense of humor, and it shows through in her comedic western tale! Her story, All Washed Up: A Shenanigans Continuation, has won the “Fallow” #Blogbattle, and I hope you’ll find your way to her blog and read some of her fiction!
Now, without further ado, let’s learn a bit more about our lovely friend.
1) When you publish your books, Candice, do you plan on designing your own covers? Or should I ask, what is your plan for cover design? 🙂
I have a degree in Advertising and Graphic Design, so in theory I am well able to design my own covers though I am a bit rusty with working with programs like Photoshop. I do however intend to better my skills and give forth an…
I don’t know about you, but I, since 2013 have held a great anticipation for this month. Why? Because I since that year have been using this 30 day period as my own NaNoWriMo.
No, I have never participated in November as I find June to be the perfect mid-way mark of a year to focus on such a task as writing a novel in 30 days. Here in the States, June, unlike November has not national holiday, so there is not a single day that must be dedicated to any other celebration besides being creative.
Still now idea about the final cover BUT that will come along as I near my final draft of the novel.
With that in mind, I have to mention that today is the one year anniversary for Ascension Graveyard. Bless that novel, it is a year old and still not finished. That being said, I have decided to not use June to write anything new BUT to correct the errors that I have made within the plot of Ascension Graveyard.
This month (should other plans tarry) shall be used in trimming AG’s fat and cutting out the crap…getting the novel back on track. Gosh it sounds like I am trying to create a poem here.
Anyhow, within the next 30 days I will be setting my heart to making my blog novel everything it is intended to be…for a first/second draft that is. This means that in the coming weeks those of you who have been following the Blog Novel will begin to see old chapters disappear from the blog menu, while new, tighter one’s show themselves in all their glory.
I am pretty excited about this!
What else? Weeeeellllll, I have found a home for the second face of Asaph Timby and it is in the place of a villain for another novel that I came up with years ago called Thief or Blur…still undecided about the title as of yet. I actually spent sometime last night doing a bit of writing for that story line so that is something to be very excited about as well.
Prismacolor Pencil and Acrylic
This is not to mention the two other manuscripts that have begun to speak their pieces into the ears of my imagination and thus my fingertips have been on fire. I have also been living in my head a lot as a result which doesn’t make me a good candidate for a phone conversationalist.
I am okay with that.
I am also seeing flashes for new art that is begging to be created. Asaph #2 is the catalyst for that. Which brings me to my old, neglected Etsy store front page. Five years ago, around the time I opened my Ketubah shop, I opened an original art shop as well.
It was a great idea, just before its season. I really wasn’t in the right place to focus on that kind of creative expression, until now. That being said, my plan is to start making prints of my original art available for purchase by this coming fall.
Here is the link to the page since we are talking about it: www.thecandishop.etsy.com. Asaph #2 will be one of the images made available for purchase as an archival giclee print.
So that is it in a nutshell, a very delicious nutshell at least in my opinion. I am excited for the month of June. I am excited about new art and new adventures. And I am very much excited about writing new novels, whilst getting older ones back on track.
Today is Thursday, folks. One day til Friday, and several days away from the day that I published the post called Ambitious Boots. (Click the title if you haven’t read it.)
For those of you who have been reading along, you know that I set myself to achieve massive goals this week; to finish painting a painting as large as I am, and to finish the first draft of my blog novel, Ascension Graveyard, before weeks end.
I am fiddling with cover ideas…this is my recent attempt.
WELLLLLLL let me tell you!
First, the painting: It looks fantastic! It’s not quite finished…but then its only Thursday. I am very confident in the level of work that I have completed thus far even though I have to say I think it will take a few more days before it is no longer a bleep on my things-to-complete radar.
So verdict: Its not finished, may not be tomorrow, but I am satisfied.
Secondly, the Blog Novel, Ascension Graveyard: I have great news to report! I have written THOUSANDS OF WORDS! Grand words, great tension, beautiful fleshing out of characters. Hooray! Hooray to me! And Hooray to you for believing with me! And Hooray to Yeshua Jesus, from Whom all blessings flow!
I am BEYOND happy…the thing is (Yes there is a “thing”) none of those lovely, awesome, delicious words were written for Ascension Graveyard.
I know what you are probably thinking (actually I don’t, but let’s pretend I do.) “What in the world is that woman doing? I thought you had your “Ambitious Boots” on.
Well, I do. I am still walking, just not in the planned direction.
The thing about these boots is that they can sometimes have a mind of their own. Its like Doctor Who’s Tardis, the Doctor sets a location with the intent of going to a specific place, and somehow he ends up WAAAAAYYY on the other side of the universe and time, in a destination either unknown, or slightly off form his intended target.
Does the Doctor mourn the change in plans? NO! Never!
Actually, he always makes the best of the situation and enjoys the new and unexpected moment that his “straying by chance” has created.
So, that is where I am. That Romance Novel that I mentioned in the other post just shot right out ahead of the race, and took the lead and priority over and above Ascension Graveyard…Sorry, Etta.
I couldn’t let those words and scenes slip away in my attempt to keep to the set path. I have never been a romance reader or writer, really, and this has been a challenge for me to try this genre, so off I go. (It is a Clean read PG, PG-13 at its most novel in the making.)
Anyhow I totally put on those boots, but they walked me in a completely different direction, one that I am super excited about. Lots of work has been done to that end and that brings me much pleasure.
Ain’t it grand?
I currently have no idea when Ascension Graveyard will reach its conclusion, and then slid its way into revisions, BUT I am confident that it will be soon. I can’t begrudge Etta and her story for needing a bit more time. All children are different. Some need more attention than others. That is just the way it is.
I leave you with a scripture, one that I know and love and tend to somehow forget more often than I should:
Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
Basically, make plans, have a destination, but know that God has plotted a course and His way will ultimately win out. And honestly, I am okay with that.
Please welcome the courageous and cutest Candice Coates! Candice is an incredibly artistic person with talent to spare. She’s got a great sense of humor, and it shows through in her comedic western tale! Her story, 
