Your Heart is Listening by Liz Flaherty

 "Be gentle with your words, your heart is listening.” ― Carol 'CC' Miller

I wrote the bones of this post five years ago this week for another blog. Let me just say that I'm really sorry nothing has changed for me. I'm a little horrified that five years ago I was complaining about writing slow and ... guess what ... I'm even slower now!

The truth of it, what is really the same, is that I need a gentler time. Getting honest about it, I'm a wuss to end all wusses. I want people to be nice to each other, to care about each other, to laugh together until their stomachs hurt. To never lie or propagate other people's lies. (To keep the honesty going, it took me three tries to spell propagate correctly. But I so love words.)

No, I'm not going to talk about politics. I would, and I often do, but not on this blog. But it's politics that have made me long for the gentler time I mentioned above. It's the stream of hatred and name-calling and let's-offend-or-hurt-anyone-we-can that makes what is unarguably a hard time so much harder even than it has to be.

If you are affected--as I obviously am--by the political climate, how is it influencing your reading and writing? I'll tell you about mine, but I'd love to hear about yours, too.

My writing is already godawful slow. That has come with age for me, and I don't like it, but it's better than stopping, so I live with it and it's not getting any faster as I go along. However, I enjoy it in ways I never have before. I don't worry about pleasing an editor, although I hope I do. I don't do it for the money--which is a good thing--so speed isn't an issue. So, yeah, I just write. And enjoy. And find comfort. And gentleness. Not everyone wants comfort and gentleness in the stories they tell, but I do.

Then there's the reading. I still read new stories, but I spend more time on old ones. I just downloaded James Herriot's All Things Wise and Wonderful and have listened to Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Anne of Green Gables on audio while I walk each day. I've re-read some Mary Balogh Christmas stories--my favorites--and some Pamela Morsi historicals. I've re-visited Cheryl Reavis, Cheryl St. John, Kathleen Gilles Seidel, and Kristan Higgins.

2025 - I'm still doing this, although I'm also listening to many new audiobooks. I get attached to certain writers--Sarah Morgan is one--and listen to both their recent releases and their old ones. I also still have auto-buys like Nan Reinhardt, Marta Perry, and several others but admit I am becoming notoriously hard to please. 

Although this time in our lives is anything but gentle, its rendering in books is still a wondrous gift from authors to the readers who need it. I thank them all for it.

I have to admit, though, that it's just me. I realize thrillers and horror and books-with-mean-people are very popular. I'm so glad they're available and that everyone is free to choose what they want to read. They can even do it without having to say how much they hate one genre just because they prefer another one. 

So what are your preferences? Does my quest for gentleness and my nearly year round reading of Christmas books drive you crazy? Do you wish Stephen King and Lee Child could clone themselves? Is the memoir your choice? 

You know, just asking. If you answered five years ago, I won't remember. 😀

Since you're here, I have a Christmas in July special. The Dark Horse is an old favorite, available now for 99 cents. 

In THE DARK HORSE, widowed Chloe Brewton has made a life for herself in Christmas Town, Maine, teaching literature and being the drama coach at the high school. Although she’d loved her husband and their life in the army, she doesn’t really want to start over with someone else, but when she meets Major Row Welcome, in Christmas Town to spend the holiday month with relatives and decide about his future, she feels stirrings of old wishes for happily-ever-after. The attraction is mutual, although the last thing Row wants is to try marriage again, plus he’s about as interested in having a family as…well, he isn’t. But then there’s Connor Michaud and his three younger siblings. Oh, no. What now in Christmas Town? 

https://a.co/d/5vwZd7N

Six Ways To Do Nothing On Your Vacation (Reasons 1-3)

Hurray! You’re finally taking a vacation! If you’re like me, you’ll become the Energizer Bunny and want to see and do everything.

However, if you give yourself permission to take it slow, you’ll end up enjoying your vacation a lot more.

But how?

Today, I'm sharing 3 ways to do nothing on your vacation, and will continue with this series and three more ways next month.

First: Spend the afternoon enjoying the hotel’s pool. Your kids will be thrilled, and it's a perfect excuse to slow down.

Second:  Hang out at the local café and meet the locals. What could be more interesting than spending time with the locals and really learning about the area?

Third: Turn off your social media. Yes, it’s fun, but people are only putting up photos and experiences that are a fragment of what they are actually doing. Shut your mobile devices and soak in your vacation experiences in real time.

You won’t miss out on anything, I promise! It’s more enjoyable to explore local landmarks at your leisure then trying to tour every museum in the city, or famous landmark in the surrounding area.

Do you plan "down" time on your vacation? Please share your comments below.

And be sure to come back next month for 3 more good ways to do nothing on your vacation.

Don’t forget to bring a favorite book on vacation. It’s July, so to celebrate my Christmas in July promotion, grab a copy of my brand new Christian contemporary release: A Christmas ToCherish.

 

 

There’s nothing a Christmas kiss won’t cure. Except perhaps a shattered heart…

When Emmanuelle Sumter steps off the train in Cherish, South Carolina—a town simply glowing with the promise of Christmas—she finds herself praying God will help her find the broken pieces of her life. Shattered, like her beloved harp. Her dreams. And her trust in men.

Her friend Dorothy told her Cherish is a safe haven. But she never expected Dorothy’s brother, Deputy Nicholas Thompson, would relight the one thing she thought she’d lost forever. A spark of hope.

Not long ago, while Nicholas’ sister was in rehab, Emmanuelle’s voice and smile on his Skype screen held him together. After that, she seemed to disappear, an absence he felt keenly when his ex-fiancée left his faith in God dented but not broken.

Now she’s in Cherish, even more stunning in person. Yet she’s holding tight to a private pain she refuses to reveal. Nicholas resolves to be patient, vowing that he’ll never let anyone hurt her again. Even when her past rears its ugly head to destroy what’s left of her heart.

Note: Contains references to verbal and physical abuse.

From USA Today bestselling author Josie Riviera comes a new contemporary Christian Romance series set in the small town of Cherish, South Carolina. These sweet and wholesome stories, where God is at the center, brim with love and laughter.

Are his arms a safe haven sent from God…or a Christmas promise waiting to be broken?

A Christmas To Cherish is available in ebook, paperback and audiobook. Free on Kindle Unlimited!

Josie Riviera is a USA TODAY bestselling author of contemporary, inspirational, and historical sweet romances that read like Hallmark movies. She lives in the Charlotte, NC, area with her wonderfully supportive husband. They share their home with an adorable shih tzu, who constantly needs grooming, and live in an old house forever needing renovations.

Follow Josie on Bookbub and “like” her Author Facebook page.

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