Nancy LaRonda Johnson's Blog

When I was employed as a deputy probation officer and had to commute to work an average of 45 minutes each way, audio books were the way to go. I constantly had a book either on CD or linked from my phone. Though I dreaded the necessary hardship of commuting, I loved being immersed in the verbal telling of stories, either fiction or nonfiction. It didn't matter.

I had tried, during my dwindling free time, to do an audio of my novel, Anticipation of the Penitent. Not having the right equipment or patience in my limited time frame made it impossible for me to record it! I'd given up on the idea.

What got me thinking again about bringing voice to my characters was when a potential contractor for replacing my windows struck up a conversation with me about his love of reading. I hadn't told him I was a writer, but of course, after that, I surely did! And he was excited, especially when I gave him a quick spiel of the plot.

He took out his phone to look up my book, then said, "Oh. It's not on Audible?"

"No. I said," disappointed to not have a potential fan to my controversial story.

And that got me thinking. If not for audio books, I would not have "read" nearly as many books as I did during my long commute. Why not invest in my first novel and have that extra avenue for telling this story??

And so I did. I used ACX and hired someone who's voice and reading style was suitable for the main character and whose cost was affordable for me.

And now, Anticipation of the Penitent is an audio book and has been on sale since November 19, 2021. What an exciting way to start the holiday season!

The thing I love about Audible is that you can adjust the reading speed. One edit I couldn't seem to get across sufficiently was for the recorder to slow down her reading speed sufficiently. But Audible (and possibly other platforms) allows you to reduce the reading speed. I did that, and by reducing the speed to 90%, it's perfect!

I am so looking forward to reading about others' delights (or stresses) with regard to our chosen dedication to sharing our voices through writing.

You can hear a sample of the audio book and learn more by clinking here or on the picture below.


This is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. Check out below to sign up.

I've been attending Faith Fellowship Church in San Leandro, California since around 2005, other than taking some time to attend a church with my mom. Recently, I've become involved with the women's ministry's, Women of Worth, newsletter, The WOW Factor.

This month, much is going on. There's Fathers Day, and included in this newsletter is a tribute to my father and a prayer to all dads. Also this month, the Sister's Closet Fashion Show is happening, and Juneteenth, celebrating the day that for many African Americans, freedom from slavery actually took effect.

The "In This Edition" column tells you all that's in The WOW Factor. Take a look inside, and maybe you'll want to get involved. You can also connect with the Women's of Worth Facebook group by clicking here.

Here is thought-inspiring, allegory from Útmutató a Léleknek, a Hungarian writer and poet. Does this not explain the wonder and joy of those who believe in Christ?

Happy Good Friday! 💓
Charles Grignion after Jan van Rymsdyk. Twins in utero engraving. From William Smellie, A Sett of Anatomical Tables, with Explanations, and an Abridgement, of the Practice of Midwifery, with a View to Illustrate a Treatise on That Subject, and Collection of Cases (London), pl. DO YOU BELIEVE IN MOTHER?
by Útmutató a Léleknek

In a mother’s womb were two babies.

One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?”

The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”

“Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible, and eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. Because the umbilical cord is so short, life after delivery is logically impossible.”

The second baby insists, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

”The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover, if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery, there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It delivers us nowhere.”

Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”

The first replied, “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then, where is she now?”

The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of her. It is in her that we live. Without her, this world would not and could not exist.”

Said the first: “Well I don’t see her, so it is only logical that she doesn’t exist.”

To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive her presence, and you can hear her loving voice, calling down from above.”

The first holiday we aim to celebrate with loved ones is Valentine's Day.  That is, after Thanksgiving - where we celebrated our blessings with friends and family, as much as we were able during the pandemic; Christmas - where many of us even celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior with co-workers; and New Year’s Day - where we dedicated to celebrate with anyone willing to listen a glorious newness in ourselves. 

Valentine's Day is where our relationship with a particular loved one is celebrated. In pondering this, I asked myself, “What do I know about love? What is true love, and how will I celebrate it?” 

Because of the pandemic, for many of us, relationships have become more strained. We are either spending too much time with our significant others, if we are married, or not able to spend enough time together, if we are not married. The ways we traditionally celebrate our relationships during this special day have become so limited, that it can cause disappointments in how we show our love.

But God doesn’t look to the world in defining and expressing his love. He is, instead the embodiment of love, which he shared with us through the sacrifice of his son. We all know how Jesus showed his love by dying on the cross so that we, the body of Christ, will live eternally with him in his kingdom. That love is unconditional and surpasses all understanding. 

With Jesus choosing to die for our sins so we can be with him and the Father in eternity, he enacted what John the Apostle exclaimed, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1

As children of God, we can relish in his love, knowing he will never leave us or forsake us. He has proved his love to us over and over again, through his own sacrificial choice, and through the daily miracles he performs in our lives. Because of this, we have ownership of his love, which comes with true joy, as paraphrased in John 15:11: “As the Lord’s joy is in us, our joy is complete.” 

Having ownership of God’s love and his joy, we can be open to understanding what love is in the world, how we can demonstrate it and celebrate it. Consider Zephaniah 3:17:

The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.

Such strong and wonderful words that we can use to demonstrate love in our relationships, romantic or otherwise, even when we have moments of dissatisfaction. We can call on Jesus’s joy inside of us, knowing that we are children of God. We can be determined to delight in our relationships, to not rebuke our loved ones, but rejoice over them with a song in our heart. 

And in regard to Valentine’s Day, how loved would you feel if your significant other celebrated by proclaiming words of delight to you, refrained from rebukes and criticisms and rejoiced over you with singing? How loved would your significant other feel if you did the same for him?

In case you've never heard of it, NaNoWriMo is the annual "writers, get your stuff in gear!" event. Technically, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every year, from November 1st to the 30th, writers from all around aim to write EVERY DAY!

Some people have the goal to write a complete novel during that time, others may have the desire to write something every day. That's my goal, to write every day. It would be good to get to the standard goal of 50,000 words written through this month, but realistically, right now, it's unlikely. I've set my unofficial, "wouldn't it be great"  goal to 18,000 words, which comes to about 600 words a day. Some days I may write more, other days less; but I'd feel way accomplished if I reached that number.

When some people start NaNoWriMo on November 1st, they start with a fresh new project. I tried that once but didn't like the "rushed" feel of it and I didn't like most of what I'd written. So this goal of daily writing and hopefully reaching 18,000 words works so much better for me. Also, Chasing Shadows is a project I've already started. But I'm reporting my progress starting from what I've written on November 1, 2020.

What's good about the NaNoWriMo site is that you can log the progress of your writing, connect with other writers across the nation or in your area, and they have Zoom and Google meetups to get introduced to other writers. At the end, after November has passed on, if you've registered to to be a part of NaNoWriMo, you get a digital "NaNoWriMo Winner" certificate, whether or not you've reached your goal. And this is all for free (though they do ask for donations), just to get us solitary, procrastinating, very passionate and ambitious writers to write. How wonderful is that?

You may have heard of my project I'm writing on for NaNoWriMo. It's called Chasing Shadows. The story is summed up in this "working" blurb:
Six-year-old Isalia sits in the back of her father’s black Camaro and decides to never think of her mother again. Lee has kidnapped her to save her from his turbulent marriage. Isalia, afterall, is Daddy’s girl. Effie searches for her daughter and discovers things she never knew about her husband. Was Lee the loafer who became her batterer, or was he the courageous son defending his dying parents against money-hungry siblings? Maybe Isalia wasn’t stolen but left with whom she loved best. Chasing Shadows is one broken family’s odyssey to a final redemption or utter destruction.  
Well, I've got to go now...I haven't done my writing for today yet!

Click here to learn more about National Novel Writing Month.

I've been working on a new novel, and so far, I'm in love with it. It's a dramatic piece, about a broken family where the dad kidnaps his six-year-old daughter to save her from his turbulent marriage. The mother spends years searching for her, learning things about her husband that changes her outlook of their relationship. I've just completed six chapters. And then life happens, and I'm trying not to remain at a standstill in this story.

To me, living is not only about following my dreams and utilizing the gifts God has given me. It's also about improving myself as a human being. Personal growth. In that light, I've been involved with a recovery group called Celebrate Recovery. It's a Christ-based 12-step program for hurts, hangups, and habits...not just for addicts, but for anyone with issues that hamper their growth. Well, of course, that could be all of us!

For the first time, I'm doing my "Inventory", detailing all the people and situations in my life which affected me negatively and from which I need healing. That's a hard one! There are so many situations. I've had counseling off-and-on, from college until about ten or fifteen years ago (that's about a thirty-year span), dealing with many of these issues. But going through the inventory is something totally different. Usually in counseling, you're dealing with anywhere from one to several issues. With the inventory, you go through all of your issues!

Why am I relaying this? Because the inventory is bringing up so many difficult times I've had in my life, times I haven't thought of in many years. But by going through them, I do see how those incidents still impact my life, preventing me from growing in some areas. Today, I feel the weight of all of those incidents weighing on me. I know it will pass and that I will filter through it all and make great progress in my personal growth and healing.

What I'm hoping will not happen, is that this inventory process will slow or even halt my writing. I am a slow writer, anyway. I do not want my personal growth to impede my creative outlet and slow my writing even more. My characters need their stories told just as much as I need my recovery.

I'm praying that God will give me that balance to work on myself and on my book. I need to know where the story is going after this sixth chapter I've completed. I only have a skeletal outline of a couple more chapters and am not feeling so apt right now to write more. Instead, my inner child just wants to scream!

As I said earlier, I believe this will pass. I know I need to be patient and let myself go through the inventory process. Maybe then I will clearly see what challenges my characters need to face and give them enough attention so they can have the ending they deserve.

Pray for me, everyone, as I will pray for us all to follow our dreams, utilize the gifts God has given us and to continue with our personal growth. Indeed, the light ahead is shining bright and directing our way through!

It's been about two and a half years since I've written anything, with the passing of my mom in July 2018 and going through probate. Yeah, I wasn't writing for a while before she passed. But that stress is almost all over, thank you God.

And now, with this COVID-19 thing, there's more time of just me. There's still work from home, yes; but the live, in-person activity I used to be involved with -- Church on Sundays, Bible Study on Wednesdays, Celebrate Recovery groups on Tuesdays and Fridays, outings and gatherings with family and even my boyfriend -- have all become online, text or telephonic experiences.

So, I have no excuse to not write at all...and I've started again! A little bit here and there at first, and then I did a 10-day Daniel "fast" of writing everyday. That's over, and I've got to push myself to keep writing. I am involved with a monthly Zoom writer's group, which helps. It also helps that I'm intrigued with where this piece is going.

The title of the book I'm working on is "Chasing Shadows". Chasing shadows is a Jewish saying that goes something like this: If you focus on light, you'll always have the shadow (money and worldly things). But if you chase the shadows, you'll lose sight of God.

My method of writing is usually to just start writing and follow where the story takes me. I may have a general idea of the storyline or theme, like with the Jewish saying of chasing shadows. But I'm not one to have the whole plot outlined or even thought out. As the writing continues, the plots (main plot and subplots) get shaped and molded and finally develop into a complete novel. It's a very slow process for me, but it works. If I rush it, I end up not liking what I've written and have so much to edit, who knows when I'd have a final product. That happened with the sequel to my first book, Anticipation of the Penitent. The first draft of the sequel is still waiting, with too much that needs to be rewritten.

So, I'm taking my time with Chasing Shadows, while still trying to write consistently. It is inspired by the Jewish saying and a passage from the book of Jeremiah, and so far, I'm very intrigued with it. It's in the early stages, and I don't know where the story is going or will end. But I will keep at it, letting God talk to me through my writing, staying entertained by the characters, and keep developing the plot to an end that will hopefully please God and me, and that will touch others.

Isn't it funny when you come across something you don't remember writing, even though you know you did? Here's a poem I wrote in November last year that's been tucked away in my computer under my "Poetry" tag: 

I want to fall in love right now

I want to fall in love right now,
you know, not just with you,
but with 
writing
going to church
serving people
working the work
not just wasting my time
watching tv
playing the game
dreaming about you
I want to fall in love right now,
you know, not just with you
but with all that’s been 
given to me from 
my God above.
​ 

by Rachael Tonks

The final installment of the Scars Series

When I do wrong…and know it
—like when I decided on my own
that that certain man was the one
or when I, being high and mighty,
had to show that lady I could afford
that unaffordable thing—
it’s like I’m putting God in the back seat
while I drive blindly, perilously,
down a road bombarded with
impassable barriers, inescapable ditches,
and irredeemable calamities.
 
Next time I do wrong and know it,
I’ll see that it’s not God in the back seat,
but me, and I’ll look in the rearview mirror
and tell myself, “Come on up here with God,”
‘cause he’ll always guide me safely along a road
where nothing’s impassable, inescapable, or irredeemable
even when I do wrong…and know it.