Houston firefighter, Jeff Taylor is a fireman’s fireman. No situation is too dangerous to keep him sidelined if lives are on the line. However, when control freak Lisa Matheson falls for him, she quickly realizes she can’t control Jeff or the death wish he seems to have…   To Protect & Serve The Courage Series, Book 1 To save other’s lives, they will risk their own Buy it on Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Protect-Serve-Courage-Series-ebook/dp/B008391QB2/ref=sr_1_22?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1337091378&sr=1-22 Buy it on Barnes & Noble Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/to-protect-serve-staci-stallings/1110805844?ean=2940014423410 “To Protect and Serve will hold you prisoner to its pages until the final one is turned. Prepare to cry, laugh, wish, love and maybe even cry again as you become enveloped in the hopes and feelings of Lisa and Jeff.” -Cindy Reiger

Don’t freak out. It’s not what you think, but I have to this point on earth lived 34 lives.  Let me explain.  In general, there are two ways to write a novel.

• The first way is to plot everything, to research, outline and plan every plot twist and event from page one to the final page before you ever write the first word.
• The other way is sometimes called Seat of the Pants—meaning you don’t know much about the story, you just start writing and let the book come to life as you write.

I use a lot of both ways, but I tend to think of it as doing what the Holy Spirit wants when He wants it done.  Most of the time I start knowing at least a scene or two of what happens. Sometimes all I know is who the characters are, sometimes I know bits and pieces of the story.  No matter how they start, each and every story has stretched me and forced me to grow.  I see these as Holy Spirit lessons in many ways.

The first way is I’ve learned I have to let go of “how I did it last time.”  However I did it last time is never how I will do it this time—that much I have learned.  This time will always be different.  This time will always have its own lesson to teach me.

The second way these stories have taught me is to give me the chance to live many lives—not just this experience I myself call life.  In some ways my characters are pieces of me.  In some ways I’m pieces of them.  When I write, for that time I “become” them.  I often take on various characteristics of them as I’m writing their story.  I’ve dressed new-age for a time because that’s how one character often dressed.  I’ve worn leather wristbands because that’s what a character wore.  When I’m in character mode, I listen to the world in a different way.  I listen to it the way they would.

I listen for the lessons they need to learn in the way they need to learn it, and in the process, I learn.  It’s a cool way to learn because as heart-wrenching as a circumstance in a book is, I have the option of turning off the computer and processing for awhile.  In real life, you can’t do that.

Through my characters I have experienced poverty and riches far beyond what I will ever have. I have worried about where my next meal will come from and about how to save a youth center from being closed. I have jumped off the edge of sanity into alcoholism and relived a drug addiction.  I have seen the loneliness of getting the dream you thought you wanted but missing the things that are truly important along the way.  And with every experience, I have learned in a way I couldn’t have from my own experience.

To date I have completed 17 novels. (I wrote this in 2005. I have now completed 31 novels, so I’ve now “lived” 62 lives!)  Since I write from the point of view of the hero and that of the heroine in each book, I guess that means I have now lived 34 lives.  This unique life experience—both my life and getting to marinate in others’ souls for a time—has taught me many things about this life that I couldn’t have learned had I only lived my own life experience.

I firmly believe that being able to walk in each of my characters’ shoes for a time has given me knowledge and understanding that I would not have otherwise been privy to gaining in any other way.  It has opened my eyes to how a single situation can be interpreted in radically different ways depending on the particular perspective of the individuals involved.  Because of this, I now understand that no matter how firmly you believe your experience is definitive, the other person is probably as adamant that their interpretation is the only valid one as well.

This knowledge has saved me on more than one occasion from assuming that because my interpretation of events was X that everyone else’s was too.  I am more willing to listen to other perspectives. I am more willing to dig for what’s really going on rather than assuming I know and going on faulty personal interpretation.

It’s a lesson I greatly value, and one I will forever be glad that God allowed me to have.  How else could you live 34 lives and not be counted insane?  Unless of course you were to read other’s experiences… hmm….  There’s an idea.

Copyright Staci Stallings 2005

I’ve published four books, but it’s not just the author-me that’s excited about Platform. As a high school teacher for almost twenty-five years, I wish this book could be required reading for every state superintendent, every school board, every administrator and every educator. Instead of a ripple effect, there would be a tidal wave of change in classrooms.

What impresses me about this book is that, unlike some others I’ve read about striving for success, it’s not Michael Hyatt’s homage to himself. Instead of “look at all the amazing things I’ve accomplished,” this book’s focus is, “watch all the amazing things you’ll accomplish.”

Make an intentional purchase during the book’s official “launch week,” of May 21-25 and be ready for your first WOW experience!

When you buy Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World during that week, you’ll receive seven FREE bonuses (valued at $375.98):
1. Platform Video Jumpstart Series (6 video sessions)
2. Why NOW is the Best Time Ever to be an Author (video)
3. How to Write a Winning Book Proposal
4. Writing a Winning Non-Fiction book Proposal eBook
5. Writing a Winning Fiction Proposal eBook
6. Digital edition of Platform
7. Audio edition of Platform

Complete details are available at http://michaelhyatt.com/platform
If that offer doesn’t rock your world, then you really do need Platform!

1. Write an essay consisting of five paragraphs.

2. Staple this handout to the back of your paper before submitting it.

3. Your essay is due at the end of class.

QUESTIONS TO TEACHER (ME) FROM STUDENTS:

1. Does it really have to be five paragraphs? What if I write only four?

2. Where do I staple this handout?

3. Do you really want this stapled to my essay?

4. Am I supposed to staple this to the back of my essay?

5. I’m out of staples.

6. What if I don’t finish? Can I take this home?

WHAT STUDENTS REALLY WANT TO SAY:

1. If we barrage you with enough questions, we think you’ll eventually back off. We would rather listen to an hour of Frank Sinatra than write even fifty words on a sheet of paper.

2. We know you told us at the beginning of the school year to purchase our own mini-stapler, but we either didn’t purchase one, purchased one and lost it, purchased one and broke it, and/or it ran out of staples five months ago when the kid behind me took it and emptied the staples, one by one, into my hair. I’ve passed any number of places where I could purchase more staples and/or a stapler, but I really didn’t have time to stop because Starbucks was about to open or close, and I needed to be there. Anyway, we don’t understand why you won’t allow us to use your stapler when we know you’re hiding at least two of them in your desk.

3. Is the earth going to stop spinning if I staple the handout to the front instead of the back? Sometimes you seem just a tad bit OCD. We think, perhaps, we might be able to help you overcome that if we don’t always follow directions.

4. We know we could finish before the end of class, but we have homework for Free Enterprise/Civics/Biology/Spanish/French/Geometry that’s due next hour. And, BobbieSue didn’t have time in my other class to finish telling me what happened at Prom because she got all caught up in the fashion disaster that MarthaJo wore and then the bell rang.

WHAT THE TEACHER REALLY WANTS TO SAY (and sometimes MAY say some of the below):

1. Directions are entirely at your discretion. Feel free NOT to follow them; however, feel equally free to stand ready for the consequences.

2. Students in 11th grade honors  should be able to burp five paragraphs in fifty minutes. That’s ten minutes per paragraph. If you think that’s not a long time, think about being poked in the eye with a hot stick for ten minutes.

3. If you write only four paragraphs, that’s one less paragraph I need to read. See #1.

4. Yes, I want the handout stapled to the BACK because I don’t want to read 100+ essays and have to flip the handout out of the way every time. You will need the handout when I return the essay to remind you of the directions. See #1.

5. I told you in August that if you were old enough to sit behind the wheel of a moving vehicle traveling at 50+ miles per hour, you were certainly old enough and responsible enough to purchase, be trusted with, and use a stapler no longer than 2-3 inches.

For the record, I have THREE staplers. I purchased them with MY money. Years ago, I allowed students to use my stapler. Over that period of time, staplers were “lost,” broken, or abused. When it was time to submit papers, the room sounded as if it had been invaded by wildebeests galloping through the Kalahari when 25-30 students would simultaneously flock to my desk. It was uncivilized. And it wasted valuable class time. And it made ME responsible for YOUR paper. And so the entitlement program of free stapling ended.

6. My directions may seem, possibly could be, OCD-ish. Wait until you fill out your first tax return. Ask the IRS if you can switch around the information. Let me know how that works for you.

7. The lesson isn’t limited to the writing. It’s a lesson on being responsible, practicing wise time management, and following directions.

8. Clearly, socialization is an integral part of the high school experience, one which I certainly would not want you to experience the pain of deprivation. So, to accommodate that need, we have scheduled special times for your bonding with friends. We call it before and after school, passing time between classes, and lunch.

I haven’t participated in any product blog tours of late what with that whole book writing thing and then an unexpected, but truly wonderful, move in November to New Orleans, about an hour away from where we already lived. So, it’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, especially one not focused on some aspect of writing or school or family-ing. But, I couldn’t resist this opportunity to participate in Mom Central‘s ZeroWater Blog Tour.

Why, you ask?

While the food in New Orleans is gastronomic nirvana, the water quality…well, not so much.

Hurricanes, boil water advisories, the BP deepwater deluge that dumped 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and our 107-year-old plant that filters 135 million gallons of water daily to over 300,00 all contribute to our purchases of bottled water. My brother-in-law even uses distilled water when he irons (and, yes, he really does iron!).

It’s not so much the taste of the tap water (think heavily diluted bleach); it’s just knowing where it’s been.

I liked the idea of a pitcher filtration system for a number of reasons, but the thought of not having to schelp a heavy case of water bottles up 23 steps was especially appealing.

The 10-cup pitcher-because of the filter-is deceptively heavier than it appears. Even though there’s a pouring spout, it’s much more convenient (and lighter) to use the little button-spicket to dispense the water.

Does it work? You betcha!

I expected the reading of our water to be high when I tested it with the nifty TDS (total dissolved solids) Water Tester. I was shocked, though, that the reading was 229 (the EPA max is 500).

After such a high number, I have to admit I was skeptical that the water from the ZeroWater pitcher could actually read in the zero range. Wrong. Pleasantly wrong! It did, and I tested it more than once.

And, truth be told, I was equally skeptical that I’d find any differences in taste. Wrong again. It not only tasted crisper, it lost that bleach-y scent.

GIVEAWAY!

DRUMROLL…now for the fun part! TWO readers can receive a ZeroWater pitcher as well. Just leave a comment no later than April 27, and two lucky peeps (limited to continental US) will be able to zero out their water!

If you’re not one of the lucky winners, you’re still in luck. When you buy a 10-cup pitcher, use coupon code MC30, and receive a 30% discount.

When you leave a comment, you can share your TDS reading using the free look-up HERE. For more information, visit the ZeroWater site and their Facebook page.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of ZeroWater and received a water pitcher to facilitate my review, two pitchers to giveway, and extra filters to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Please join me and a host of other columnists at Nicole O’Dell’s informative and important site for teens and their parents: Choose NOW Ministries!

My first column is today…read it HERE.