Hi again Reader !

In my daytime life, I'm a pastor's wife in Izmir, Turkey. We are in the middle of a huge building project where we are designing and renovating a building to create an outreach-ministry center. This week, when I visited its neighborhood, my friends and I discovered another curious project. On the street behind our new ministry center is a row of old Italian homes, from the Ottoman times (above)

According to Turkish law, as historical buildings, this row of houses has to be reconstructed to look as close to the original as possible--with the wood/stone appearance and the bay window upstairs, etc.

This(below) is the building our neighbors are working on. It's going to be a cafe.

If you look closely, you'll see that the original stone side walls remain in place. And around the original, they've placed a steel support frame. The foreman explained that the front will look just like the others on the row.

Making it to be aligned with the vision takes a lot of time and effort. Keeping the heart of the building while ensuring it is pleasant and safe is a time-consuming challenge.

I'm so impressed with the thickness of those steel pillars.

This is an analogy for the growth of a book.

When you signed up for this newsletter, I sent you several emails introducing you to my work. In one, you heard about my sci-fi story--Immortals/Pogland.

This story is my baby. The series that has been such a challenge to write because it is epic and vast. The series is now called The CrossFall Epic.

Much like this renovation project, my revision of the series has taken more time than I expected. I wish it was ready for you today, but I'm sure the final product will be worth the wait.

Please visit the link here ⬇️ to find out more and click NOTIFY to show me you are anxious to see the series.

Have you ever seen an ugly baby? 🧑‍🍼 We always think our baby is the cutest, no matter what. It's a way the species survives.

In a similar way, authors look at their stories in a hopeful-positive light. The hard work of a Beta Reader enables an author to see their book through another person's eyes. I have utmost respect for beta readers because they sometimes discover something mucky and have to push their way through a difficult chapter or poorly written scene in order to enable the author to SEE, then clear away rubble, hoist the support beams, spray down the grime, structure and then do the easy work of designing the front facade of the building.

I'm so grateful for my team of beta readers for the Return to Me series. And if you've been on one of my other beta reading teams--thank you so much.

If you are interested in joining a team in the near future, please click here to update your preferences to join the Beta Reader Team.​

Thought to Ponder:

God be with you. My prayers are with you.

Darlene

Featuring:

Greg Hickey's The Friar's Lantern

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