Writing and praying

Hello my friends,

I am trying a new experiment - a bit along the same lines as a 'staycation'.

I am writing a novel that is about two-thirds done and needs another 20,000 words to complete it.  So I've put all other tasks to bed and am taking August to complete the writing, having undertaken to submit the manuscript to my publisher for their approval in September.

I'm pleased with what I've done on it so far, and want to really concentrate on getting this last third of the book right.

I will be so grateful if you have the time to pray for me in the writing of this book.

Most especially, if you are able to pray for me, what I need is the following:

1) Inspiration.  I know where I am going with the book - it's not ideas I need - but inspiration in the divine sense, so that what I write will be a channel of God's grace and goodness, capable of touching people's hearts lightly in a way that turns their lives to blessing.

2) Discernment, both in my writing and in my life choices.  Though I can put in place firm barriers between myself and most of the world, I always stop and pay attention when my family needs me.  Sometimes it is not clear to me when something needs my attention and when it does not.  The books I write are not for entertainment only, they are spiritual and therefore active - live - in terms of Holy Spirit ministry.  This means that I can guarantee that the minute I begin to really focus on writing, some new thing that wasn't even on the horizon before, and that I don't see how I can possibly get out of responding to, will come up and DEMAND my attention.  True to form, this is happening already.  Today is the 31st July.  I had worked as hard and fast as I know how to get everything necessary sorted and seen to by today, so that from August 1st I am absolutely clear to focus on writing.  And guess what?  This evening, something that was not even a whisper on the wind yesterday has cropped up in my family, urgently clamouring for my attention, that will involve me significantly, is requiring a couple of hours out of tomorrow, and will continue to do so for the next few weeks.   The problem is not so much the hours it will take up, as that writing fiction needs total concentration, and these random things that arise shatter my concentration completely, so that I can't write well if at all.  I will be grateful if you can pray for discernment in knowing how to turn down these interruptions without causing hurt and offence, as well as recognising them for what they are, and if you can also pray a forcefield around me to keep them from invading my ability to concentrate.

Thank you so much, friends.  May be in touch through August - if not; see you in September.

If anyone has read my new book The Hardest Thing To Do, I would be so grateful if you could spare the time to review it on Amazon.

xxx Pen