The Elusive Miss Ellison by Carolyn Miller + GIVEAWAY

by Andrea Renee Cox

When I first saw this book, I was immediately intrigued by the beautiful cover and the back cover copy. The story within was clearly inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, yet it holds its own flavor and style. I particularly enjoyed how circumstances pushed the characters to examine their behavior and make changes to improve themselves. The theme of controlling women losing the people they tried to control came through quite well, and I found this to be a direct reflection of real life.

Prayer Requests

by Andrea Renee Cox

It's late, late, late Sunday night (or way too early Monday morning!)... and I am not yet happy with the article I've been working on for you. So I'm scrapping it for now and will come back to that particular one for another week. For now, though, I leave you with a beautiful verse which has often been a comfort to me.

Camp NaNoWriMo + a Sneak Peek!

by Andrea Renee Cox

Hey y’all! How are you this fine Monday? I am busy as a little bee, working really hard on an outline for the project I’ll be writing for Camp NaNoWriMo in April. (Stay tuned for a fun sneak peek!)

Ever since my friend Hannah invited me to participate in Camp last April, I have loved and looked forward to it. Camp NaNo is a one-month writing session online (CampNaNoWriMo.org) where one may join a cabin of writing buddies. I like Camp better than regular NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) because of the cabin atmosphere and being able to set one’s own goals rather than being mandated to do 50k words. Sometimes I only have time for 20k or so; other times, I fly to 60+ thousand words before the third week of a month. Either way I go, the words build up into something amazing.

My Soul Sings by Kim Vogel Sawyer

by Andrea Renee Cox

Do you believe in jinxes?

I don’t.

But there’s a fictional town that completely does, and a young woman is suffering because of their superstition.

Kim Vogel Sawyer’s My Soul Sings contains an incredible sweetness that I have come to expect and admire in her writing. I especially liked how she wove that in amongst trials such as disability, outcasts, superstitions, hermits, and prejudices. Not only that, but she laces the entire tale with a thread of humor that perfectly balances out the weighty topics. One thing more that I enjoyed was how she’s got such a wonderful ear for nuances of speech. That really comes through well on each page.

Half-Empty? Or Half-Full?

by Andrea Renee Cox

There's a glass sitting on a table. The water inside kisses the midpoint.

Would you consider that half-empty or half-full?

Is the glass half-empty or half-full?

There was a time when I argued with my cousins about this very thing, and I kept insisting that the glass was half-empty.

Half-empty?

Why was I so insistent upon that?

Inspired by Lovely

by Andrea Renee Cox

Hey, y'all! Things are crazy around here right now, which usually happens to me when I'm on the last week of an editing deadline. Dishes are piled up, laundry needs to be washed, but I'm determined to finish these chapters even if my chores get shoved aside for a couple of extra days.

One thing that isn't allowed to get shoved aside, though, is my time in God's Word.

Every morning, I pull out my Precious Moments Bible and the workbook I'm going through and find my quiet spot for the next forty-five minutes. This isn't something I've always done, but it has quickly become my favorite time of day. There's nothing more beautiful than spending time with my heavenly Father.

Control Girl by Shannon Popkin + Prize Pack Giveaway!

by Andrea Renee Cox

A mother raises her voice to get her toddler to stop scuffing his feet when he walks.

Now available!

She sighs heavily when her teenaged daughter won’t put down her phone while they’re out eating lunch.

A woman asks her husband a question that undercuts his authority in front of their friends.

She decides the discipline her husband doled out to the children was too harsh and changes it.

A young lady whispers to her friend all the bad things someone else said about her and claims to be the person’s only real friend.

Sound familiar?

We’ve all known controlling women in our lives. For some it may be their mother or mother-in-law. For others, it may be their “best” friend. Sometimes it’s the people we work with or members of our book clubs. But have we stopped to consider that we may be the controlling ones too?