Adela's Curse Cover Reveal

So, I was invited by a friend of mine to take part in her newest novel's cover reveal! She's a really awesome person and you should definitely check out her blog, The Overactive Imagination (I mean, that's a seriously awesome name. Why wouldn't you want to click the link?)

Without further delay, I present...

cover art by Jocelyn Banschbach

(Isn't it gorgeous? Yes it is. Thank you for agreeing.)

Synopsis 

A witch and her master capture a young faery and command her to kill their enemy. Adela has no choice but to obey. If she does not, they will force the location of her people’s mountain home from her and kill her. To make matters even worse, the person she is to kill is only a man struggling to save his dying land and mend a broken heart. 

Count Stefan is a man simply trying to forget the woman he loves and save a land crippled by drought. When a mysterious woman arrives at his castle claiming to be a seamstress, he knows she is more than she seems. 

Adela enlists the help of Damian, another faery, to try and delay the inevitable. He insists she has a choice. But with the witch controlling her every move, does she?

Author Bio

Claire Banschbach was born and raised in Midland, TX, the fourth of eight children. She was homeschooled through high school and is now a proud member of the Texas A&M University class of 2014. She is currently working on her Doctorate of Physical Therapy at Texas Tech University Health Science Center. She continues to write in her spare time (and often when she doesn’t have spare time). She hopes her strong foundation in God will help to guide her writing.

Contact Info (be sure to check this stuff out!)

Claire on Facebook
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Claire on Goodreads

Adela's Curse on Goodreads

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you all enjoyed it. Don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for the release of this novel...

Coming March 8th, 2016! 

(Belated) New Year's Post

Well, here I am again. First post of the year (and about time, too.)

This starts off as my story. 

I am not a very good or a very nice person. I am extremely weird. I have a pretty low opinion of myself. I have had depression for the last several months, for many different reasons which I'm not really going to go into as I don't even know all the reasons. So anyway, lately I've been talking to an amazing friend of mine. We see many things differently, but she has helped me a lot. I have another really good friend that has also been helping me a ton. Now, both these girls have been on my case. They told me I didn't need to have such a low opinion of myself. And I knew they were right, I just didn't really know what to do about it. But I decided I would try. (Frankly, it's downright exhausting to dislike yourself and beat yourself up all the time.) So I tried to change my view of me. I tried to think better of myself. And I didn't realize it until recently, but this was not working out at all. And while I was so busy trying to change my view of me, I started changing myself, too, and not in a good way.

I had the sudden realization that, surprise, surprise! I wasn't happy with the girl I was becoming. She - that is, me - has been becoming more obnoxious than ever. I've been more prone to babbling to my siblings about useless things and not taking the time to truly listen to them. I've let my near-constant tiredness effect how I respond to others. I've found myself caring less and less about things and people and their problems than I used to. And there's other changes that I can't think of right now, but they weren't good ones. All in all, I like myself even less than I did before I set out to change my view. So my journey of self-discovery or whatever you would call it failed epically. Because I was too focused on me.

I thought I was surrendered to Christ. I really did. I surrendered at camp. I re-surrendered more than once since. But while I said the words and felt good about it and thought I was doing the "right thing", the "Christian thing", I didn't actually move from my place at the helm of my heart. I stayed there. Today, I realized that there was a lot God didn't have a say in. If me trying to live my own life and embrace who I am and so on is only leading to frustration, exhaustion, and hopelessness, maybe it's time for a change.

I don't want 2016 to be a repeat of last year. I learned a lot through my struggles in 2015, and I know God will use those lessons in my life. But I want to move on to a new page and not have to repeat those lessons. Michelle being the captain didn't end so well.

So I'm done. I'm done living for me. I'm done living my story.

I want this to be a year of surrender. 

God, this is Your year to work a miracle in the life of a distraught almost 17-year-old weirdo. This is Your year to make something beautiful out of a huge mess. This is the year I start living Your story, instead of my own. 

This is Your year to have all of me. 

God created butterflies with the ability to pollinate, fly, and be beautiful. But you don't see a butterfly trying to swim in the water because it believes it should be a fish. No. The butterfly knows it's purpose and it glorifies God in fulfilling that purpose. Why should my life be any different? If I live my life believing I should be something I'm not, and ignore what God has given me, am I any different than a butterfly trying to be a fish? I am free to be who God created me to be. I find that a comforting truth.

What Do I "Glory" In?

Galatians 6:14 ~

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (KJV)

I often glory in my own "good works". I think I've done something amazing if I sacrifice what I want to do in order to do something more important, when in reality that's nothing special. 

The God of the universe gave His only Song to die on the cross for my sins! Now that's a real sacrifice. 

So why am I proud of myself for making small sacrifices that really don't mean anything in comparison to the greatest sacrifice in the history of mankind? Christ had to be absolutely selfless to be willing to die on the cross for all humanity. He died for every single person on this planet, past, present, and future. He died for those would would never believe on Hum; even those who reviled and blasphemed His holy name. Even those who desire nothing but the destruction of all true Christianity. He died for them, too. God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9b) That's true love. That's true sacrifice. Who am I to be proud of my own frivolous good deeds? Who am I to glory in my own flesh?

My prayer - and every Christian's prayer - should be to seek His glory above our own. 

Glory in Him. 

Finally Back

So...I know it's been quite some time since I last posted, and I do apologize for that. Every time I've tried to write a new post, it has fizzled out to nothing.

Therefore, I'm going to try doing something different.

I have started using the drafts in my email app on my kindle as a journal. I have different drafts for different areas of my life, and one is for writing out my thoughts on different verses, or sometimes just thoughts on areas of my personal walk with God in which I need improvement. Or whatever I want, really.

So, instead of trying to write out nice long blog posts, I'm going to start posting these 'thoughts'. I'm not sure how often I will post, but hopefully weekly. Knowing myself as I do, that probably won't happen. But maybe I'll at least get monthly posts in. We'll see how it goes.

The purpose of these thoughts are to spur you - and myself - to actually give more than a passing thought to an area of life that may need improvement. And some will be encouraging, others, just food for thought.

I'm really trying to wholly give my blog over to the Lord so that it can accomplish what He desires. I'm hoping that this will help keep my focus right, not only on my blog, but also in my daily life.

Feel free to comment and let me know what you think of this idea, or if you have suggestions for improving my blog, I would appreciated it very much!

Myers & Briggs Personality Test

My view on it

For the longest time, the Myers and Briggs test really bugged me.

The reason for this, primarily, is because I'm a very free-spirited and independent person. I don't want anybody telling me who - or what - I am or should be.

In short, it felt to me like people were letting the test results define them.

And this rubbed me wrong.

Now, I realize that probably seems like a silly assumption to you, the smart person reading this blog post.

But I'm being real here, folks.

People squishing themselves into a mold goes against everything I feel about being your own person.

I can say that, because I've been there. Okay, not squeezing myself into a mold as such; but letting other people define me as a person. Until very recently, I've based almost all my likes and dislikes off other people's opinions. I would try to fit in so that my friends and family would...I don't know, like me more.

Of course, if I hadn't been so concerned about conforming myself to fit with their views on everything, I would have realized that they will love me even if my likes and dislikes don't line up exactly with theirs.

That's what love is: setting aside differences and choosing to get along anyway. I've heard that love is a choice. And that is so, so true.

But I digress. That was not this post's intended topic.

I just got hung up on the whole "Problems only ENFPs will understand", "INTJ problems", etc., etc. I was just like, "Okay people. Okay. Maybe those are problems that people with that personality type experience. But seriously. If I try hard enough, I can understand, too. It doesn't take just someone from that particular type to understand." When someone says or suggests that I can't understand something, it irks me.

Not to mention every time I took the test it got me wrong.

"You are INTJ." No, I'm not. "You are INFP." No, I'm not.

Etcetera.

I got so tired of it, I just gave up.

And then recently my friend took it, and freaked out because the result was so accurate.

So of course, I decided to go and take it again. The first couple times, it was still wrong.

Then I finally hit it....

INFJ.

Boom.

In your face, Michelle.

Of course, there were some things I didn't agree with. But some parts were so accurate, it wasn't even amusing.

So now I can see what I didn't before...not everyone that pinned Myers & Briggs were letting the test define them; rather, they were defining themselves by the test.

I'll use my own experience for example.

One creepily accurate section:

"INFJs indeed share a very unique combination of traits: though soft-spoken, they have very strong opinions and will fight tirelessly for an idea they believe in. They are decisive and strong-willed, but will rarely use that energy for personal gain – INFJs will act with creativity, imagination, conviction and sensitivity not to create advantage, but to create balance." (Source: INFJ Personality)

And it wasn't that the result defined me. It was that the result put into words what I knew and felt, but couldn't express.

And I felt understood.

I was really beginning to think that I was just a total werido, that I was a broken person that no one ever knew exactly how to deal with.

So you can imagine, finding out about this personality type sure helped me. It was lovely to read some of the comments and see that there were others out there who were like me. 

It was, as the good Doctor would say, "Fantastic!" I was so happy to see I wasn't alone.

That being said, there are still aspects of this whole personality test deal that I dislike. But if it can help others like it helped me - well, that's a blessing, then. 


So, be your own person, please. If some test can help you figure out who you are, great. If not, great. Don't let something as frivolous as a test answer guide your life and your interactions with others. You will find it is so much more freeing to live your own life, rather than always trying to copy someone else's. 


Lastly, here's a great Dr. Seuss quote for you:

From Pinterest, cropped by me.

What do you think of the Myers & Briggs test? Feel free to leave a comment below!

Please keep the comments clean as you never know what age group may be visiting this blog. Thank you.

Greetings!

Here's where I tell you a bit about what I would like to accomplish with this blog.

First and foremost, my desire is to honor and glorify my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in every area of my life, which of course includes my blog. I will likely have some posts on what I am learning in my day to day walk with Him.

Also, I will probably generally just post about my life, my views on different matters, and my life goals.

There will likely also be some DIY projects, and recipes when I'm feeling foodish.

Eventually, I hope to do some posts on writing; but right now, I don't feel I know enough about it to give much helpful advice there. 

So, we'll see how long this blog survives. I know I'm pretty excited about it, and I hope you stick around to see some future posts.

Thanks for visiting!