If You Can Just Take God Out...

That was the statement that lit a fire under my sister. I consider my sister to be the kind-hearted one. The who stays objective, focused, cool and calm despite what may be thrown at her. I consider myself the one to protect her and defend her when it seems anyone is trying to rush over her and take her kindness and sereneness for weakness. But on this day, with this statement, I could not even rush in quick enough, I could not get a word in edge-wise. Instead I listened and was so proud of the way Polly handled it.

We were at one of our expos during the 2008 season and we had a woman come up who said she was a teacher at one school or another. She took our book, Sisters Are From Heaven, and begin to read through it. When she got to the end, she looked at us and begin to ask some questions. My sister was taking the lead, as we often would so that neither one of us got tuckered out with all the talk and bustling around from making contacts and sales. The lady said, 'this is a very nice book and I really like it, BUT the God..' and then she made this anguished face...'if you can take the God out I can get a lot of people to buy the book'. At first I do not think Polly truly understood what the woman was saying. Heck we were both tired and it looked as though it took a minute to register. I rose to my feet ready to defend, but then my sister begin to speak. She did not say much except 'Take God out? No way'. The woman tried to defend her point 'well you have to understand that in the school system we have a lot of diversity and different beliefs and some parents don't want to see the word God in the story'. I begin to think we were on Candied Camera or the women was going to say we were being Punked or something. My sister said 'well then they do not have to buy it. We will never take God out of our story, the book is called Sisters Are From Heaven, so it is clear what that means.' I don't think it was so much what Polly said, it was how she said it. It was stated matter of fact and not open for further discussion and the woman understood that. She placed the book back on the pedestal and shrugged and said 'well' and walked off.

I giggled to myself as she and I discussed the nerve of some people to even suggest taking God out of our story after all He has done for us. Nothing seemed more outlandish to us. Has anyone every asked you to take something out or add something to your book or short story that you did not want to do? If so, how did you handle it?

An Ocean Between Us

On Wednesday nights I take a break from mothering and have a little fun at belly dancing class. We're choregraphing a piece together and this week I found out one of my classmates is leaving.

"I'm moving to Belgium," she said. "Belgium?" I gasped, all the while thinking there has to be love involved. "Why Belgium?" I asked. She smiled and said, "My boyfriend's moving for work and asked me to come with him."
"Ahhh...," I said, knowingly. Immediately, my heart went out to her sister who is also in our class. I touched the sister's shoulder lightly. "And are you okay with that?" I asked. "No," she replied in a strong voice. "I am not okay."

Thank goodness neither young lady was upset by the show of emotion. The topic quickly changed to the awesome visits they would have once she had moved. I confided that I once wanted to work in Italy, but couldn't because it was too far away from my family. When I finally did move, I was six hours away from my sister and it nearly killed me. We all laughed. But the truth about siblings, especially those that are bestfriends, is that they love one another enough to support each other's decisions. They don't really want to be separated nor do they ever want to see the other hurt, but they'll let them go if they say it will make them happy.

This bond starts early in life and if nutured by parents and caregivers, blossoms to tremendous proportions. Eventually, it can become so powerful that we have no choice but to go out into the world and sow that same seed. How happy I am that my sister and I can play a part in spreading this message to children everywhere! Do you have a close relationship with your sibling(s)? Tell us about it.

Where Do We Get The Money For Self-Publishing?

Oh it is not easy to find funding when you have a passion to inspire and uplift the world. My sister and I have scrimbed and scrounged and pooled our monies to make this thing happen. I can remember our first meeting when we decided we were going forward with self publishing our first book. We got the numbers together and discussed what we could each contribute. I sold some stocks and she cashed in some assets and we got the money we needed to do this, knowing that it was a gamble, but feeling it was the best gamble we could take, all to the glory of God. I say it was worth every penny.

As we venture on to our next book, we have mixed emotions. We prayed that sales for Sisters Are From Heaven would be enough to fund our next project. Alas, things have not yet taken off as we expected. It is no work like hard work though, so we push forward. Funding or not, we cannot hold off on writing God Is. This book has to be published because it was the vision given to my sister from God. We will make it happen.

So, now we move into finding funding. We begin with the Amber Grant. This is a $500 grant for women owned businesses. We applied and are hoping and praying that we receive the grant. Now the good thing about the Amber Grant is that you can also be the recipient of the grant when you refer other businesses to apply for the loan. So here is our referral link, go and apply for that loan !In this slumping economy we need all the assistance we can get to achieve our dreams.

Can I get a bailout anybody?

God speed ~ Meek

Blog Re-design

My sister and I met for a much needed meeting yesterday to discuss new strategies and design for our blog and website. We've come up with a few new ideas, so keep your eyes on the blog as we try to make it more consumer friendly and appealing to the eye.

~Meek