I got rejected today.  This is nothing new.  In fact, it's getting pretty old.  But getting rejected is what makes me a writer.  Otherwise I'd just be a dreamer.

Anyway, I decided to cheer myself up.  I went in search of chocolate.  And on the way to the store, I looked around and realized that my life could be a lot worse.  I made a list of things I'm glad I don't have to deal with.  Here it is:

1. I'm glad I don't have to wear a sombrero and stand on the corner with a sign advertising a burrito sale.

2. I'm glad I don't have to drive a pink Toyota Tercel.

3. I'm glad I've never had my car stolen with my two-year-old still inside.  (This was a story on the radio, not something I actually witnessed.)

I then used my list to plot a story, of course.  

So if there are any editors out there reading this, and you might be interested in a manuscript about a woman in a sombrero who has her pink Tercel car-jacked while her toddler is still inside, send me an email.  Otherwise, I'll just start Hershey's Kissing my pain away and get back to my work-in-progress. 

When HAZARDOUS DUTY came out in 2006 it was one of my favorite books of the year, so I was completely flattered when an editor compared my writing style to Christy Barrit's.  Anyway, Christy now has a second book out--SUSPICIOUS MINDS--but might not get to finish the series unless her sales numbers increase.  

Here's your chance to help Christy out and possibly win a $50 gift certificate to christianbooks.com.  All you have to do is spread the word about her books, then shoot her an e-mail with the subject line "Help save the squeaky clean mysteries."  Problem solved.

It breaks my heart to think that some women don't dream.  Of course, I spend a little too much time dreaming.  And I'm not only talking about daydreams.  Literally too.  (I thought I just had a creative imagination, but a psychologist told me that with as many dreams as I have, I'm not getting enough REM sleep.)  

Anyway, today I finished a novel about one such non-dreamer.  SWEET CAROLINE by Rachel Hauck was laugh out loud funny, but it also had me crying all the way to my kids' school.  The powerful ending included a message on trusting in God's perfect timing.  For Caroline, that meant daring to dream.  

For me, it means letting go of my dreams.  It means believing that God knows the future and wants what is best for me.  I don't have to make things happen.  And even when things go wrong, there is a reason God allowed them to.  If God answered every one of my prayers with a "yes" I would miss out on so many opportunities for growth.

No matter how big I dream, God's dreams for me are bigger.

In a writer's group we had to write down our top five favorite movies.  Mine are:

The Counte of Monte Cristo

You've Got Mail

Hitch

Ever After

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Then we had to find a common theme.  Do you see it?  (Besides in the title of this post.)  The characters all have a hidden identity.

From there we had to look at our own writing and see if the theme is in our work.  Guess what.  It is!  I'm writing a romantic suspense about a woman whose family went into the witness protection program when she was twelve.  Sixteen years later she ends up working for a man who had been her childhood playmate.

This made me think about how much I've always loved the hidden identity theme.  My absolute favorite book is The Scarlet Pimpernel.  (If you've never read it, you need to pick up a copy.)  My favorite Nora Roberts novel is Sweet Revenge--about a modern day princess who doubles as a Robin Hood type character.  (Another book for you to buy.)  And Pretend You Don't See Her (also about the Witness Protection Program) is my favorite Mary Higgins Clark mystery.

As for Bible stories, I've loved Joseph and Esther since I was little.  I'm reading about Joseph again right now, and it's had me in tears.  I can just feel the inner turmoil.  And I love how he uses a translator when talking to his brothers so they don't know he can speak Hebrew, and they talk right in front of him.  Brilliant!

Anyway, I don't know what this says about me--the whole hidden identity thing.  I just find it kind of interesting.  And it gives me lots more ideas for novels.   

I'm a finalist in the Stiletto Chick Lit contest!  One judge even gave me a perfect score, and she said she's never done that before.  Now I have to revise before a winner is picked by an agent and editor.  

This is so exciting.  Wish me luck!

On a writer's email group somebody just posted the question: What is your favorite thing about writing?

Most people said, "I like sharing God's message," or, "I like to see what the devil intended for bad to be used for good through my ministry."  

Yeah, I love that part, too.  But my favorite thing is embarrassing my characters.  It makes me laugh and gives me great joy.  For example, not only do I have the personal trainer gain weight, but she splits her pants on a date, and then the black lights at the cosmic bowling alley cause her white underwear to glow in the dark.  Of course she eventually finds spiritual value from all this.

One writer responded that she likes me because I'm looney.  Nobody else seemed to appreciate my response.  But hey, I was being honest.

What gives you great joy? 

Years ago when I was telling Tracey (a dynamic woman from my church) about my writing, she suggested that I should try writing monologues.  I forgot all about it.  Then last year she suggested it again.  That night I got up from bed with an idea and couldn't go back to sleep until I wrote one.  Tracey loved it.  Then she told me that she is starting a women's ministry and she wanted me to write a series of Christian monologues similar to "The Vagina Monologues" for her to perform.  I was overwhelmed, but started considering possibilities.

Back in college I took a creative writing class.  It was terrible.  I wanted to write rhyming picture books and the student teacher wanted me to write about stoning, suicide, etc.  To satisfy us both I wrote a short story of seven high school girls who each envied the next one.  The last envies the first to complete the circle of envy.  So, for my monologues I decided to write seven women with different problems who each think the next one's got it made.  When the last envies the first, the first then comes back out and shares the message of hope that God has given her, thus offering hope to each of the women.  

I didn't mean to make it "The Potty Monologues", but the first woman is a young mom on the toilet, alternating between talking to the audience and yelling at her kids outside the bathroom door.  She then breaks into song: "I just can't wait to go pee" to the tune of The Lion King's "I just can't wait to be king!"  (Picture background dancers waving toilet paper as Mommy kicks her legs from the pot.)  From there each new woman shared her toilet trouble--bulimia (barfing in the toilet) to caring for an aging father (the need for adult diapers.)

I just finished the monologues tonight and I'm so excited to see them performed.  Tracey has been asked to take the stage at the Boise State Christian Week this month.  Then in October she'll be performing at the women's conference she's starting.  www.sistersync.com  

I pray that God will use my writing, but this is never what I would have expected.  And I need to thank Jenster for writing the cancer monologue.  I'm sure she'd also agree that God has used her in ways she's never expected.  She's a living example of the hope I want our monologues to offer.  Sometimes life seem to get flushed down the toilet, but if we believe in God there will definitely be beauty from drain.  (Pun intended.)