Did You Ever_ _? Well I Did! by Paula Rose Michelson

Posted by Unknown

Did you ever start writing a book knowing that you wrote well but lacked the mechanical skill sets needed to insure a good edit? I did!

Did you ever start writing a book without knowing it? Well I did!

Did you ever find yourself writing a story other than the one you planned? I bet you know by now that I’m going to tell you that I did! And you’re right! I did!

Now to some this sounds like the most harebrained idea one could concoct, and you’re right! That’s why I love telling people that I didn’t make this happen, Messiah did! Don’t you love it when the Lord takes the reins and takes you on a journey you never signed up for?

Oh, that hasn’t happened to you? Well it will if you yield to his leading! You’ve done that and nothings changed. Then let me suggest that you’re still in your comfort zone. You know the place where everything makes sense. It’s that comfortable place where your bills get paid on time, everyone at work is your friend, and the people at the grocery store know you by name. It’s the place where our illusion of doing what the Lord challenged us to do might be pushed off to one side because we don’t want to make waves. Yep, you know what I mean! It’s the place where we never have to “Cast all our cares on him because he cares for us” cause we’re busy caring for ourselves.

Sometimes, especially during these stressful times, it’s easier to hide out instead of calling God our hiding place, a place where we’re protected from the troubles that surrounds us. It seems to me that right now many of us aren’t listening for songs of deliverance, because we don’t know what that is. Or sadder yet, we’re looking for the government, our local officials, or our family to deliverer us. Perhaps we don’t even believe in deliverance or a deliver. So the words found in Proverbs 5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” are just a bunch of gibberish.  

However, I have it on good authority that everything that comes around goes around, meaning you have only one ticket to ride so make it count!

You’re probably thinking I’m a Bible thumper. Well I’m not! What I am is a truthsayer.  Don’t believe me order Casa de Naomi: The House of Blessing at Amazon.com Then visit my Casa de Naomi Reflections Blog at http://CasadeNaomi.blogspot.com and tag along. And no, this not an add. What it is, is an invitation to join something where what you think matters! That’s right! Every time I post I’m hoping you will leave your comments so I can post them. So come on! You’ve nothing to lose! In fact what you have to say, might give site to the blind metaphorically speaking! 
Category: 0 comments

Giving Back from What I was Given, by Paula Rose Michelson

Posted by Unknown

Since it is exactly one month shy of one year from the date my dear friend and author Marlayne Grion helped me get started, I wanted to begin today’s posting by mentioning that over this year, I’ve shared stories, you have told me what books mattered to you and why, and you have read some of the research that birthed the Casa Saga. Whew! Looking back I see what an amazing year it’s been, and just how much your participation has added to the joy of going from writer to published author!


Usually when one looks back after achieving what some thought could never have been done without them, as in a publisher friend of mine said, “You need to learn how to write.” Then offered me a sort of verbal contract, hoping, I assume, that her comment would let her get control of the Casa Saga from A to Z. However, as much as you might wish to read the details of that drama, my posting today hinges on a long over due thank you and a retired teacher that I meet while participating in a weekend event at the church Marlayne attends. 


Unlike Snoopy’s stories or Casa de Naomi: The House of Blessing Book 1, which you can now order at Amazon.com, this story is personal, autobiographical in nature. If you really want to understand all I’m sharing please revisit “My Faulty Education and Writing the Casa Series,” posting or visit Http://www.PaulaWordsmith.com, and read “‘From Why Johnny Can’t Read’ to See Paula Write,” which you’ll find under the heading “Meet The Author.” Good! Now I’m finally able to being!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Giving Back from What I was Given~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


It was an odd set of circumstances that caused a rather tomboyish me to end up spending four days a week with a retired school teacher who lived in a mobile home park. Her place was sort of a studio type. From the outside this never been married teachers place looked like the embodiment of the Long Rangers silver bullet glistening in the sun. On the inside the overly organized cramped quarters felt like a haven to me until the summer heat escalated beyond what most could endure by lunchtime. Yet there the two of us meet four days a week for four hours. By end of each day, we were both sweating profusely. However, discomfort did not stop her from demanding that I learn everything she could pour into me while she sprayed water onto her arms and placed moist clothes on her neck. And, I tried not to look at the good climbing tree that I walk by each time she opened the screen door and invited me in.


That was the summer when I discovered how little our system pays those who they appoint to teach for Miss. (I’ve forgotten her name) had neither a fan nor a trailer with cross ventilation. As the hours advanced, so did the heat, and I am sorry to admit that I never thought about Miss. Teacher except to wonder how she could stand to live there. I don’t even remember what our last day together was like. But I do know that what she gave me that summer made it possible for me to pass a proficiency test so that I could matriculate to the fourth grade. Now I don’t want you to think I wasn’t paying attention when I attended kindergarten through the third grade, because I was! But because my nearsighted condition went undisguised it was understandable why Paula, like Jonny couldn’t read.


By now you’re probably scratching your head and wondering why at 64 this matters to me, so I’ll tell you. During the weekend I spent at Marlayne’s church, I met a retired teacher named Carol. She was very nice. In many ways she reminded me of Miss. Teacher, and the memory of that lady tugged at my heart. I noticed that Carol seemed bored, and discovered that she was because there was a lull in the foot traffic. Having nothing to offer her but my book, I discovered that she liked romantic historic fiction, and handed her a novel.


“What’s this for?” she asked.


“If you’d like to read my book, I’d love to hear what you think.”


“Okay.” She began to read. When it was time to leave she walked over, book in one hand, purse in the other. “I’d like to buy your book.”


“I didn’t give it to you to read so you would feel that you had to buy it.”


She smiled. “I know that! But I want to buy your book.”


I smiled. It was as if Miss. Teacher was standing in front to me. I told Carol about her and asked if I could gift the book to her in memory of the woman who helped me, whose name I did not remember, and who would in all probability be deceased since she would be well over 100 by now. Carol agreed. I left feeling all warm and cozy inside, as if in doing this I had done something my mother taught me which was to giving back from what I was given.


I believe that Carol’s mother must have taught her the same thing because the following morning she shared that she loved the novel, and asked when the next one in the Saga would be published. When I shared that many readers had already purchased that book, she opened her check book. “How much?” she asked as she began to write a check.


“I didn’t give you the book to make you feel that you had to buy one.” I reminded her.


“I know.” She smiled and filled in the sum while I inscribed the first novel for her. She read the inscription. “How, do I say thank you, for this?” she asked with tears in her eyes.


“By letting me give to you what Miss. Teacher gave to me. A sense that I was worth whatever she could impart.” She smiled once more, and I smiled back. And it seemed to  me that both of us had tears in our eyes. 
Category: 0 comments

Casa de Naomi: The House of Blessing was released today! by Paula Rose Michelson

Posted by Unknown


Casa de Naomi: The House of Blessing is on sale! Please help me make this a stellar launch! If you read and loved the book, post a review on Amazon.com, and buy several books to gift.

Each book you buy will allow me to give $1 from the proceeds to The American Cancer Society. So make this season's gift giving choice one that gives back. 

If you wonder why funds are being given to the organization mentioned above, please read the article that I posted below this announcement. And remember that when you purchase Casa de Naomi: The House of Blessing on Amazon, it's a win-win because you and your friends get to meet some wonderful people in its pages, and a portion of the cost of your book helps fund cancer research! 

Category: 0 comments

Paula Contacting The American Cancer Society - Please Pray! by Paula Rose Michelson

Posted by Unknown
I am aware that authors can affect change because of what they write about and what they support. I have been asking the Lord to show me what he wanted me to affiliate with. While preparing to visit the writers group at Shuvah Yisrael that supported my initial writing of the Casa Saga, the Lord reminded me of the article that Marie Oden gave me, which delineated how four oncologists determined that generations of women that lived in Colorado's San Luis Valley, and had experienced early onset breast cancer were of Sephardic heritage. While reviewing the text, I realized that this is a cause that needs support and, more importantly it is one that affects the Sephardic people because when women become ill, or die the family is affected.

Since Casa de Naomi: The House of Blessing Book 1, and all the other novels in the Casa Saga will be bought by people I will never meet, and since cancer is a problem for all people, I will contact The American Cancer Society on Monday. I hope to set up something that will allow one dollar from the sale of each novel to be donated to them. Once they have agreed to my idea, I hope that each novel will carry The American Cancer Society logo, and that the cover of each book will say that one dollar of the purchase price will be donated to the Society. Of course, you know that the first book is set, and I cannot make any changes. However, our God can!

I hope you will lift this endeavor up in prayer, that you will ask your friends to visit this blog and read what I have posted, and follow the blog so they and you can stand united in our course.

To read the article, visit The Smithsonian Magazine, October 2008, on line, and look up the article on the Hidden Jews of the San Luis Valley.
Category: 2 comments