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Author: Lisa R. Howeler

Lisa R. Howeler is a wife and mom from Pennsylvania who also happens to write. She’s been writing for 25 years, fourteen of those for smalltown newspapers in rural Pennsylvania and upstate New York. When she isn’t writing about love, faith, and family life in a small town, she’s taking photographs and homeschooling her two children. She blogs a little bit about a lot of things on her blog Boondock Ramblings at www.lisahoweler.com.

Excerpt of Fully Alive

Today I thought I would share a short excerpt from Fully Alive, a Biblical fiction novel I have been working on off and on for the last three years. It has a long way to go, but here is a snipit.

The busy sounds of people rushing by to complete their daily chores quieted as Jairus pushed the door to the synagogue closed. He leaned against the door and closed his eyes as he tried to quiet his racing thoughts, focusing on the words he had said to Josefa the night after the teacher had healed her. Healed her? Brought her back to life? Is that really what had happened?

Even now it was all too unbelievable to him. Did he really believe what he had told Josefa? That this man, this Yeshua was the Messiah that the prophets had spoken of?

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Writer Tip: Use a thesaurus, but prudentally or you might get submerged in superfluous jargon

This post was originally posted on Lisa R. Howeler’s blog, Boondock Ramblings.

There are two kinds of writers: writers who overuse the thesaurus and writers who are afraid of using a thesaurus.

Okay, fine.

There are actually three types of writers, with the third type being the writer who actually knows the proper way to use the thesaurus, but those writers don’t need my advice today, so I’m pretending they don’t exist (even though I have slowly become one of those writers, but only with a great deal of practice.)

I was once afraid of the thesaurus. Somehow, I thought I should have all the words in the universe in my head already.

Continue reading “Writer Tip: Use a thesaurus, but prudentally or you might get submerged in superfluous jargon”

Remembering to find the good in the purpose God has set for me

It’s happening again. I’m starting to hate what I love — that which provides an escape for me from the depression and the anxiety. It happened once before, about six years ago when the love of photography was beat of me not by others but by myself.

I immersed myself in photography — learning every facet about it, taking my camera everywhere, trying to build it into a business. I also learned about Lightroom and Photoshop, the editing software most commonly used by professional photographers. The business failed and I felt like a failure as a result. I also felt extremely rejected after some former friends and family members rejected the notion I could take photographs for a living.  I set the camera down for a few months and thought about how something I had once loved was now my deepest source of rejection and self-loathing.

Continue reading “Remembering to find the good in the purpose God has set for me”