How I Became an Author

Happy National Author's Day to all authors 

who battle with words

 so readers can sit on them, 

mull over and understand, 

be encouraged and filled with hope, and

 their world becomes a sweeter place.

My journey as an author is not typical. 

I never gave a thought to writing a story for the public to read.

I did keep journals though, in obedience to 

Psalm 102:18

"Write this down for the next generation 

so people not yet born will praise God."

Hiding my words in a file cabinet,

 I hoped one day they would be discovered by 

my grandchildren and

 their grandchildren and 

people not yet born will

know of my faith in Christ.

One Sunday my husband Dan preached a sermon on the 

Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14:30).

In that parable, 

the master is angry at the lazy servant who buried his talents.

While Dan preached, God spoke to my heart,

  What good are all your writings doing buried in your file cabinet if no one reads them? 

I knew I was to write a book, but 

how do you write a book?

You write! Spiritual thoughts entered my mind and I wrote. Long before blogs or social media, my writing piled up in my file drawer. With no idea where to go from here, I waited on God's direction.

He lead me to Montrose Bible Conference to check out a retreat center for a marriage seminar Dan and I were planning. There on the table I noticed a brochure advertising the Montrose Christian Writer's Conference (MCWC). A writer's conference? Who knew? I didn't! Dan urged me to attend and the following summer I sat as a student at the Montrose Christian Writer's Conference.

Step by step, God unfolded my writing career. I share with you how God took me through stumbles and great strides.  

1.Start writing! You won't be published if you don't write.

2. Attend a writer's conference and learn the writing/publishing/marketing business. Keep attending conferences where you create a network of editors, agents, publishers, other writers who will encourage you on your journey.

3. Read books on writing. My favorites are On Writing Well by William Zinsser and Elements of Style by E. B. White and William Strunk Jr.

4. Publish a magazine article. I brought one of my devotionals to my first writer's conference and showed it to the editor of Salvation Army's War Cry. "I want this. I'll buy it." Her words rang shock and joy in my heart. 

5. Publish in a compilation. Gloria Clover attended Montrose Christian Writer's Conference as a member of the faculty. She published a sweet book titled Penned From the Heart which was a compilation from various authors. I showed her fifteen of my devotionals and she published all fifteen.

6. Write from your heart. I knew I was to write, but I didn't know what I was to write. A faculty member at MCWC said "Write what you are passionate about." I laughed and realized I was passionate about relaxing in my bath and being a good mother.  

7. Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Moms was published a few years later. (Publication with a traditional publication company can take years to produce. Be prepared to wait.) Within months, Splashes of Serenity was in all the Family Christian book stores. 

8. When your first book sells well, publishers want another book. A sequel, Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives, was published. I love this book, but it never got off the ground. Within weeks of publication, the publisher retired and Drained Wives was never promoted. Be prepared for some heartbreak as an author. Drained Wives remains one of my favorite books. I still hear from wives and husbands whose marriages were changed when they read our marriage story in Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives. 

9. People who read Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives urged me to write more on marriage. I thought I was done with writing (after the disappointment of Drained Wives), but  God wasn't done with me. Words, stories, chapter titles filled my head and would not leave. You writers know the feeling. I had to write We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can. Wow! What a book! I had a publisher who worked hard and believed in me and in Idiots. Ha! He could relate! 

 Within days of publication I heard from an International Worker in South America who read  Idiots on her kindle and asked if she could translate it into Spanish.

Soon, International Workers from Bosnia/Herzegovina asked if they could translate We All Married Idiots into Bosnian. What a delight and a surprise seeing this work help marriages around the world. 

10. Leukemia! God gave me another surprise! He continues to fill me with hope, purpose, ministry, and words as I travel with cancer. Praise the Lord and Pass the Chemo: A Hopeful Response to a Hard Reality shares the lessons God taught me on my cancer journey. What joy hearing from other cancer patients the hope and peace they discover within the pages of Praise the Lord and Pass the Chemo.

Will I write another book? Only if the Lord leads. When words begin replacing sleep, and I am miserable until I get the words on paper, then I know God has another book in the works.    

Thank you, dear readers, for your prayers, love, and support. Thank you for writing reviews and for sharing my posts on social media. My only goal is to glorify God, to live a Holy life, to be obedient to His will, and to share Christ with the world. You partner with me in that endeavor and I am thankful for you. 

Happy Reader's Day to you from this Happy Author!

  

Elaine W. Miller Meet and Greet at SE Steuben County Library

I am excited! All are invited! It's been too long since I've seen some of you. Please join me this Saturday and let's enjoy some time together.

Elaine W. Miller 

Meet and Greet and Book Signing

at 

Southeast Steuben Library

300 Nasser Civic Center Plaza

Corning, NY

Saturday, March 23, 2019

1:00 to 3:00 p. m.

What joy for me to meet and greet you this Saturday! Thank you SE Steuben Library for hosting this event. Have you been to a library lately? They are awesome!!!

Buy Two of My Books and Get One Free

Merry Christmas from me to you! The best gift I can give my readers is a free book. So, for the month of December 2014, I am offering a free book for every two books you buy from me personally on my website. There will be no added postage for the third book. You pay for the two and I send the third.

Just order any two books from my website and message me which free book you would like. Any combination of books works. Three of a kind or two of one and one free. Whatever suits your gift-giving fancy.

If you haven't read all three of my books, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Moms and Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives  are beautiful hard cover gift books filled with precious thoughts from my heart to yours. Each page boasts lovely full color photographs that tell their own story.

We All Married Idiots : Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can is a marriage-changing book many couples are re-reading to keep their marriage fresh. I encourage you to bless your marriage or the marriage of a friend with this powerful God-inspired book on marriage.

To order please go to my Book Store on this website.

Merry Christmas, my friends. May all the seasons of your life be bright and filled with splashes of Serenity!

Lessons to Moms and Wives from the Pen of my 8 Year Old Son.

I found this precious essay while emptying file cabinets into boxes as we downsize and move to our retirement home. My little boy's words speak volumes to moms and wives about what our children need.

Be fun! Don't take life so seriously. Your child cherishes laughter and  fun.

Hug! Little ones need to feel your love, not just hear it.

Be nice. Trust me, Sam could have written "She is mean." Thanking God that with all the discipline I enforced every day, he still wrote that I was nice. A gentle reminder to us all  that when upset with our child, we can still be nice.

Date your husband. Little hearts break when mommy and daddy drift apart. Keep love alive by showing affection and dating. Some parents don't want to leave their children home alone, but seeing mom and dad love each other brings joy and security to the family.

Look great!  Eat healthy. Exercise. Care for your physical, emotional, spiritual self. You'll feel better, look better, and have more energy to be fun, hug, be nice, date your sweetie, and look great!

That's my splash of serenity for you on this summer day! Go out and have some fun, hug your family, make nice, arrange a surprise date with your honey, and take some "me" time to care for yourself.

 I return to my packing knowing lots of paper is being thrown out, but I'm keeping this treasure!

Hold On To Your Hat! Don't Let Your Marriage Go!!!

"Hold on to your hat!" a writer said to me last week. Here come the radio interviews. I'm excited for all opportunities to share my thoughts and life as a wife, mother, grandmother, author, and a woman who loves God.

Please listen and enjoy:

Patricia Durgin's 68 minute interview with me on the Tip Tracy Radio Show. We talk about writing and marriage and We All Married Idiots. This interview is packed with some great marriage advice. You can listen at http://tiptracy.com/elaine-w-miller/

Balancing Marriage and Parenting is the topic on The Parents Plate where Brenda Nixon interviewed me today. Brenda wrote afterwards, "Wow! Elaine W. Miller was fun, funny, filled with fabulous fixes for frail marriages and parenting." You can listen at http://www.toginet.com/shows/theparentsplate On the top right corner is a listing of the shows. Mine is on 6/19/12.

Sandra Ardoin featured We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can on her Trailer Tuesday blog. Check it out at http://sandraardoin.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/trailer-tuesday-we-all-married-idiots/

Thank you Patricia, Brenda, and Sandra for promoting my journey to strengthen marriages and families. Thank you to my prayer partners who keep my hat on my head during the ride. Love you all.

Thank you readers and listeners. May God use my words to encourage you to hold on to your hat and not let go of your marriage.

Splashes of Serenity!

Remembering the Day I Became a Mom

My only goal in life was to be a mom. I remember well the day I gave birth and God gave me a precious gift fresh from Heaven. Thanking God for the joys of motherhood, I share a reflection titled "Cheek-to-Cheek" from my book Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Moms.

Words fail the feelings in my heart as I anticipate the arrival of my first-born child. Not as eager to greet me, she enjoys her peace and rest in the solace of my womb. I sing to her, talk to her, and jokingly name her "Hank." She is so loved and wanted in my life.

Her stubbornness showing even in her birth, she lingers too long and fights the muscles miraculously working to bring her from my womb into my arms. Hands strapped to my sides in preparation for an emergency C-section, I am thankful to be kept awake and alert. I don't want to miss any of her life. Her first cry brings big tears of joy and relief to me. Unable to move, I plead to see her and to touch this miracle. My arms ache more from desire to put my child in my arms than from the operating table restraints.

A faceless nurse brings still-crying Joanna to me and places our faces cheek-to-cheek. Our tears melt into one as a final farewell to our oneness. I smile and speak a simple, "I love you, Joanna." Her crying immediately stops as she hears the familiar voice of her mother. We are bonded forever. I long to dance through life with her cheek-to-cheek. To never leave her. To always assure her of my love. To share every tear and celebrate every joy.

God is like this. He desires to go dancing through life with us cheek-to-cheek, our tears meltng with His. He is always eager to say, "I love you, my child." How often we resist Him as we seek every road and piece of advice but His. We don't want to be born into His kingdom. We like it in our worldly womb. All the while, He is calling us to Himself, waiting for us to stop struggling in our own strength and to come to Him. He longs to hold us, comfort us, and help us through life's joys and trials. He is our "Abba"—Daddy, and He wants the first dance.

Oh Lord, I remember the joy of holding my first-born child. Remind me that you experience the same joy when I rest in Your arms. I don't want to dance through life without You. Let us go cheek-to-cheek together and let me always follow your lead.

Autographed copies of Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Moms are available on this website. Thank you.

Blessed Mother's Day! Enjoy the treasure God gave to you when He gave you a child to love,

The Road to Writing a Book. My Journey--Part 4

So continues my great adventure on the road to writing a book. Enjoy!

Leaving Montrose Christian Writer's Conference in 2002 with the goal to write what I was passionate about--my bath and being a mom--I spent much of the next year in the bathtub.

Really, I did. Pen and paper in hand, I was like this man writing much of my manuscript while soaking in the suds and the serenity of a quiet bathroom. I'm glad I never took a picture--I'd be tempted to post it.

I remember one devotional written the night before my youngest went to college. Like most mothers who are saying good-by to their babies, I ran to the bathroom, turned on the faucet and cried my aching heart away. Consoling myself in the water, I wrote "No Room In The Tub for Me."

The next summer I arrived (quite pruney) at Montrose with a finished book proposal and a manuscript for a book I titled, Cleanse My Heart: Bathtime Meditations for Moms (that title won over Pass the Loofah, Lord!). Meeting with four publishers, I again stopped breathing when all four asked me to send them my complete manuscript.

The editor of Salvation Army War Cry Magazine was there as well. We had a God-ordained (in the secular world that's called "chance") meeting. Showing her, "No Room in the Tub for Me" I asked if she had any advice. Her response thrilled me, "I want it. I'll buy it from you right now." For the first time, I received payment for my writing. Not that I was hungry for money, but the realization that someone paid for what I wrote, gave me confidence that I might be a writer afterall.

I left Montrose hopeful, clicking my writing fingers (er, I mean heels). While waiting to receive word from one of those four publishers, I continued building my resume with speaking engagements and another magazine article:

Woo Hoo!!! became Boo Hoo as over the next months, I received my first four rejections. All right with that, perhaps even relieved, I put my proposal and my manuscript for Cleanse My Heart into my files with the thought that someday when I'm dead, my children and grandchildren will read this. It blesses me to think that I wrote a book for them. That must have been God's plan for my writing.

That was the end of my story, but it wasn't the end of God's plan for my writing. In my next post, you'll read how Cleanse My Heart became Splashes of Serenity, my first book.

Today's publishing tip: Build your resume with magazine articles and speaking engagements. Publishers look at your work differently when they hear you have an audience in place. It's one of the first questions they'll ask you.

Have a beautiful Sabbath of Serenity!

Elaine

God Never Says "Oops!"

AT his birth we didn't know if Garrett would survive. Today he is ten! Born with facial and other deformities that doctors didn't understand and could not fix, Garrett's birth has been an adventure we would not have missed. Why? Because Garrett is a treasure that touched our world.

This big 10 year old has taught me more about Jesus, than any other human.
The love in his heart exceeds any other heart I have ever known.
Thank You, God, for this extraordinary gift named Garrett.

I wrote about the day of his birth in, Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Moms.

"What was God doing the day He knit Garrett in his mother's womb? Was He so busy solving other problems that he missed a few stitches? How easy for God to correct such a simple mistake. Perhaps God was preoccupied putting extra stitches in Garrett's beautiful heart....

My grandson was born with a cleft lip and palate. (Later, we learned of other medical concerns.) Everyone was surprised. The ultrasound did not show it; the doctors and nurses even missed it at Garrett's delivery. His mother was the first to notice as she attempted to nurse her son. Her hungry boy could not suck. As she gazed at her precious child, she was assured that God knit him perfectly in her womb. God did not say, 'Oops! I missed a stitch.'"

You can see the peace in Elizabeth's and Joe's faces as they hold their new-born gift. How? Why? Because they knew without a doubt that God was not surprised. God knit Garrett perfectly the way God wanted Garrett knit. He didn't say, "Oops! I missed a stitch."

Today, I thank God for Garrett's life. And I wonder how many Garrett's have been aborted? How many Garrett's are gone because someone thought God made a mistake. No, God never says "Oops!"

May the truth that God never says "Oops!" be a splash of serenity to you today.

Elaine

What Will Your Children Remember on Your 90th Birthday?

What do you give your mother on her 90th birthday? My five siblings and I compiled a book of the lifetime memories that meant the most to us. Looking over the 188 events that were unforgettable, I was surprised at the simple things, the little things, that shaped our lives. Here are a few:

Watching Mom and Dad plant marigolds all around the little side patio.

Sitting on Dad's lap watching TV.

Peeling apples with mom on the back porch.

Aunt Velma's jokes and fried pies.

Hot fudge sundaes after every doctor's appointment.

Sharing a hymnbook with Dad singing, "What A Friend We Have in Jesus."

Lilacs ouside the kitchen window and lily of the valley in front of the porch.

Sunday night Charades.

Mom drying underwear inside the oven.

Combing Dad's and Mom's hair and making them look silly.

Mom scrubbing the dark blue linoleum on her hands and knees.

Getting up early with Dad to have coffee with dunk bread.

Weeding the garden.

Dad frying his home grown egg plant.

Standing on the sofa, looking out the window, waiting for Dad to come home.

Picking bing cherries and selling them.

Tent camping.

Swinging on the Maple Tree swing.

Roller skating in the basement.

Watching Grandma Wolford stoke the wood stove, so she could make Mothers Oats.

Melting Hershey bars for hot fudge sundaes.

Mom delivering pie to Mrs. Snuth.

Riding up and down the dental chair at Grandad Wolford's house.

Cold, snowy nights. The comfort and peace of the house.

Saying bedtime prayers with Mom.

Parents today work hard to give their children the best in life. My parents did too. But the best in life comes from the simple things that splash us with serenity when we don't even realize it. Then 90th birthdays arrive and we remember, and we say, "Thanks, Mom and Dad, for our wonderful life. We were blessed by you."

What's your unforgettable childhood memory? I suspect it came unexpectedly, perhaps unplanned, and it didn't cost a dime.

Keep life simple! That's my Splash of Serenity to you today.

Elaine

Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Moms

This book give away is now closed. And the winner is Mary Jane Russell!!! Congratulations, Mary Jane! Have a SPLASH on Mother's Day!!!

My friend, Diane Estrella reads a reflection from Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Moms.

Please leave a comment on her blog, www.DianeEstrella.com and receive an opportunity for a free book in time for Mother's Day

Have a Splashes of Serenity Day!

Elaine

I Am Not Responsible for What Happens in Your Bathtub!

One of the joys of being an author is hearing from your readers. Often their stories are amusing. Such was the case last week, when I was told of two bath time adventures! Although different circumstances, both suggested my books should come with CAUTIONS!

One woman drew a hot, bubbly bath, immersed herself for some Splashes of Serenity, literally. Enjoying my book in the bathtub, she relaxed to the point of dropping it in the water. WARNING: Although Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections... will give you hours of Bathtime fun, it is not waterproof! I'm happy she loves the book and ordered a replacement, even without the WARNING.

Another woman laughed that she gave her pregnant daughter Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Moms. She reported her daughter didn't make it to the hospital, but gave birth in the bathroom. I'm pleased my book is such a page turner you can't stop reading it, even when in labor. WARNING: If having a baby while reading this book, please stop reading immediately, and get thee to the hospital!

These stories brought a smile to my face. Hope they did to yours as well.

Have a Splash of Serenity today, but take note of all WARNINGS! I can't be held responsible for what happens in your bath tub!

Hugs,

Elaine