Need + Passion + Vision = Something Big!

See a need. Discover your passion. Pursue your vision.

When nine-year-old Austin Gutwein sees the heartbreaking need of African orphans, he discovers his passion for basketball can raise money for these children. Over the next few years, Austin pursues his vision to raise money to build a school and a clinic.

The young founder of Hoops of Hope writes about his experiences in Take Your Best Shot (co-written with Todd Hillard). In his book, Austin challenges other kids to discover their own passions to “do something bigger than yourself.”

Each chapter ends with questions to help the reader pursue his or her own vision.

Just think what great things can be accomplished just by following Austin’s example – no matter one’s age!

[Note: I received a copy of this book as a reviewer for Thomas Nelson, Inc.]

BLOG TOUR: Squeezing Good Out of Bad

Sour circumstances left you feeling down? Unemployment, foreclosures, divorce, bankruptcy and cancer don't even begin to peel the skin off all the bad news in our world today. At a time in history when the evening news contains more bad than good, people wonder if sweeter days will ever come. In steps James (Jim) Watkins. With a fresh perspective on life, love and the pursuit of happiness, Watkins serves readers a refreshing cup of encouragement and hope.

Written from his own experiences with cancer, unemployment and other life-puckering crises, Jim prompts readers to look at the cup of suffering with eyes focused on the true thirst quencher--Jesus Christ. Readers will be pleasantly surprised at the balance of readability and deep wisdom offered within the pages of Squeezing Good Out Of Bad. With scripture references, humor-filled lists, and a creative manuscript, Watkins brings the bitterness of hard times and blends it with the sweetness of God's presence. He's been there. His transparency is as refreshing as, you guessed it, a tall, cool glass of lemonade.

(NOTE: I received a complimentary copy of Squeezing Good Out Of Bad via Kathy Carlton Willis Communications, gifted to all participants in this blog tour.)

Blog Tour Interview:

1. You've been in the literary world for a while, give us a quick recap of how you got started to where you are today.
By second grade, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I felt the suspension of disbelief was stretched too thin when the real-live puppet Pinocchio became a real live boy. So I rewrote the ending having the wooden puppet die a painful, prolonged death of Dutch elm disease. (At that point, I'm sure my parents and teachers weren't sure if I'd become a writer or a life-long patient at a psychiatric hospital.) I later went on to become the editor of my high school paper, worked at a Christian publishing house as an editor during college, and then dabbled in writing while holding down a real job. Since 1988 I've been writing and speaking full-time.

2. In Squeezing Good Out Of Bad you give many insightful tips on how to turn around sour circumstances. Share a practical way we can be encouraged during tough times.
My "top ten list" of chapter titles 10-4 provide practical steps for dealing with lemons, but the real secrets are found in chapters 3-1. (Yes, like a true top ten list, the chapters are numbered backward.) Romans 8:28 promises that that God is working all things out for our good to accomplish His purpose in our lives. But we have to read on to verse 29 to find that purpose: "to be conformed to the image of His Son."

3. No life is perfect. Can you give us an example of how you got through a challenging situation and were able to use these principles to see the good in it?

I think it's so important that we take our faith seriously, but I certainly don't want to take my situation or myself too seriously. So I create a mental "top ten" list of what good can come about in this situation. For instance, last year I had radiation for cancer and it totally depleted me physically and mentally. My family dubbed it "radiation retardation." Because of that, I was fired from a wonderful part-time job because I just couldn't do it. So, "Top Ten Great Things about Losing My Job": 10. I'll be paying less taxes next year. 9. I've got twenty hours a week of free time. 8. . . .

Our family is going through something right now that is far worse than cancer, and I can't see a single good thing that can come out of it. So, at those times, you just keep hanging on--with white knuckles--to the fact that God loves you and the Romans 8:28 is still in effect.

4. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Spare time? What's that? I'm a firm believer in "redeeming the time" so I try to keep busy doing things that matter for the Kingdom. But after my little brain is worn out--usually around 7 pm--nothing beats a session of "Freecell."

5. What's the last book you read and why?

Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr. Unfortunately, the only real reading for pleasure is on airline flights. The King book is research for a book I'm proposing as we approach the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

6. What do you hope readers will gain by reading your book?

I wrote the first draft nine years ago, and even though I have a great agent, we just couldn't find a publisher. That was before cancer, family crisis, unemployment. . . . So it's a much more comforting, honest book. And it forced me to not be so flippant and casual about the serious issues people are dealing with. Henri Nouwen talks about "wounded healers." I think, because of the lemons that have piled up in my life, I can more compassionately offer comfort to those buried under a pile of lemons.

An Original Idea

The wisest man who ever lived assures us that there is nothing new under the sun. So how does an author come up with an original idea for a novel?

One technique is to unite two unrelated ideas or questions. It worked for Stephen King (On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft). He writes:

"Two unrelated ideas, adolescent cruelty and telekinesis, came together and I had an idea" (p. 75).

That idea became Carrie, King's breakout novel.

"My novel The Dead Zone," King writes, "arose from two questions: Can a political assassin ever be right? And if he is, could you make him the protagonist of a novel? The good guy?" (p. 192).

After I read On Writing, I wondered if my novel had two unrelated ideas or questions. After thinking about this a bit, I came up with this:

What would motivate a woman to help a German POW escape from a Florida prisoner-of-war camp?

What would motivate a woman to abandon her child and not tell her family what she had done?

Those two motivations came together in my protagonist, though it turned out her child was kidnapped instead of abandoned.

What two unrelated ideas, questions, or motivations are the spark beneath your latest work-in-progress?

Winning NaNo

I typed "The End" sometime yesterday evening and uploaded my novel to the NaNoWriMo validator. Final count: 50,736 words that didn't exist on October 31st.

This is an extra-special NaNoWriMo year for me because my daughters, Bethany and Jill, and my niece Ashley also participated, spending long hours at their laptops, and zooming across the 50,000-word milestone. Early!

Their accomplishments are especially meaningful considering the distractions they had to navigate.

Bethany is the mom of two toddler boys and an integral partner in her husband's youth ministry.

Jill is the mom of a five-month-old baby and her husband is a full-time student and has a full-time job. She actually quit twice, then took up her story again and wrote more than 40,000 words in less than a week.

Ashley is an art restoration graduate student spending the year in Italy (and doing all kinds of intriguing things with ancient stuff).

So here's to three terrific and talented girls. Congrats and love*

NaNo Advice

For the last four days, I've been spending as much time as possible with a faraway friend who was in the area for a girls collegiate volleyball national tournament. We watched the games, browsed an antique store, strolled along the lakefront, and caught up with each other's lives. I wouldn't trade our time together for anything. But now she's back in Missouri and I've got to get back to NaNo-land.

Quick advice from No Plot? No Problem! for this week:

• Get caught up! Make it your goal to have at least 30,000 words by the end of this week.
• "Pick out a character . . . and do something big and reckless with them. . . . in figuring out how to fix the mess you've just made of your story, you'll give your imagination the kind of fertile improvisational environment it needs to thrive."
• "Spend pages describing the perfume your love interest wears, and why it's exactly the wrong thing for her." [In other words, keep writing!]

The Five-Word Game

My pal Karen gave me five words to use in a post: Zone, Ring, Dust, Pineapple, Elephant. Hmm!

As I'm writing this, three-year-old Jeremy is "in the zone" decorating his mommy's couch with poinsettia garlands. These aren't the typical red or white poinsettias, but lovely bronze, cream, golden, and rust petals that shimmer and shine. We first used these garlands and bouquets to decorate the reception hall at Jill's wedding. Jill is Jeremy's aunt.

While I'm writing, Jeremy's mom is getting ready for a Financial Peace University class that's held in her home every Sunday night. We all pitched in to straighten up with the clean-up to-do list. I vacuumed and picked up toys. Bethany has a dust cloth in her hand right now. Husband Justin is corraling Jeremy and little brother Jedidiah. They'll be going off on an adventure of their own while the class is going on. Perhaps they'll see a pineapple-eating elephant at a three-ring circus. Though I doubt it.

Less than fifteen minutes before the FPU class starts. And time for me to close up my laptop.