YA Indie Carnival: Father's Day

Originally I planned to skip this week because my father was MIA most of my life, but then I decided to talk about my heavenly father.  God has been there for me when no one else has.  When someone asks if I believe in God, the question seems so ridiculous to me.  It's like asking a married woman if she believes her husband is real.  Believe is not a strong enough word.  I used to 'believe' in God when I first started my walk down that path, when I was a teen, but now I 'know' Him. 

I've also heard people say stuff like "If He's real He can show me and I'll believe."  But the Bible clearly says you have to believe first.  Then you will see Him.  (I'm talking about seeing in the sense of seeing Him around you and knowing Him, not Him popping up in your living room).  The Bible also says if you draw near to Him, He will draw near to you.  Not the other way around.  Some people get upset over this, puff out their chest and say, "Well, that's not how I want to do it.  He needs to prove to me that He's real."

No, he doesn't.  He's God, our creator and father and He can do whatever He wants. 

Now I will share a little story with you of how He helped me start writing YA.  For years I'd been writing romance novels and mysteries for Harlequin.  But I didn't feel right about it.  So I started praying, asking Him earnestly what I should write.  It finally hit me that He knew what I should write and how to write it.  Before this I hadn't thought much about it, thinking that He didn't care what we did on earth as long as we weren't sinning.  When you ask God a question, you need to listen closely for an answer.  Sometimes He tells you in your spirit.  Sometimes he answers you through people and once in a while He gives you it in a dream.  I was not paying attention.  For a few weeks every time I passed Twilight in the store I had the urge to buy it, but I didn't.  I didn't want to spend the money.

So God started having people talk to me about it.  Several people in one week brought Twilight up.  You have to keep in mind that this was before the movies and all the hype.  I still was not paying attention.  Finally God had my nephew call me.  To understand this you need to know that my nephew NEVER called me unless he was told to.  So he called and the first thing out of his mouth was, "Have you read Twilight?"  Then it hit me.  This was God trying to answer the question of what type of book I should write.  Then my nephew asked if I was ever going to finish the vampire book I had started months earlier and gave up on.  This book turned into Vampires Rule. 

Now you might be asking yourself why God would tell someone to write a paranormal book.  I asked myself that several times.  And I asked Him.  I wasn't sure I had even heard from Him, so I prayed about it.  I said if it was really from Him then I need a heroine for my book.  I asked if I should use Silver, a werewolf hunter from another book I had halfway written or if I should use a Bella type girl who has no idea what's going on.  For a week I did not get an answer.  Then I called a friend in Boston and started to tell her.  Before I got two words out.  She interrupted with, "No, I need to tell you what book to write."

My first thought was Since when do you tell me what to write?

She had had a dream about my book and I hadn't even mentioned it to her before.  It was about a town overrun with werewolves and a girl trying to save them.  She was a Buffy like characeter with a silver bullet necklace.  This was the answer to my question.  I needed to use Silver as the girl in my book.  And my friend said a deep voice from above kept repeating, "Tell Kasi this is the book she should write.:

Isn't that the coolest thing you've ever heard?  I got chills when it happened.  Of course there are people at church who shake their heads at me and think I can't be a Christian and write about things like vampires.  I would love to tell them all to take it up with God.  I am convinced He not only told me to write them but helped me do it.  Before this I had trouble putting together a story.  Sometimes it took me a year.  Now I can write a story in less than a month.  God is great. 

The other carnis will be writing about Father's Day or books with fathers.  Check them out.

.	Laura A. H. Elliott	2.	Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series
3.	Heather Self	4.	T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series
5.	Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga	6.	Cheri Schmidt, author of the Fateful Trilogy
7.	Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog	8.	K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
9.	Patti Larsen, The Hunted series and The Hayle Coven series	10.	Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy
11.	Fisher Amelie, author of The Understorey	12.	Gwenn Wright, author of Filter
13.	Melissa Pearl, Author of The Time Spirit Trilogy	14.	Heather M. White, author of The Destiny Saga
15.	Courtney Cole Writes	16.	Liz Long | Just another writer on the loose.
17.	Ella James	18.	Maureen Murrish
19.	Valerie Sloan	20.	YA Sci Fi Author's Ramblings