I’ve come to the decision to publish another book – one that I was inspired to publish after attending the Christian Writers Seminar this past weekend in Castro Valley. It’ll be a collection of some of my favorite flash fiction pieces and poetry called Paraph. Yes, it’s my word from the Save-A-Word blog hop! How wonderful is that?

What’s great is that I can go through CreateSpace again and have the choice of having it in print or just as an eBook on Amazon which would be sold for .99 cents. After having enough critiques I think I’ll go for it. Here’s the title page and the intended preface for the book.

PARAPH

Stories and Poetry depicting the growth of

one child of God

by

Nancy LaRonda Johnson

Why This Book?

Having been blessed with the foundation of going to church in my youth and singing verses like “Jesus loves me this I know, because the Bible tells me so,” I have always had a strong belief that God is in my life. My favorite books at that time – other than reading the dictionary, which my mother swears I did although I remember just loving the pictures, but I guess that included reading it as well – was a 10 volume set of Bible stories. Yet my understanding of how much God was in my life and loved me, even while I yearned to know who he was in my difficult pre-teens and rebellious teens, took years to be realized.

Writing, however, was a good way for me to look into myself and give those confusing emotions a voice. Journaling thoughts, goals, dreams and poetry helped to keep me sane. Story writing came later, along with my interest in reading books that were too adult for my young, impressionable mind, including books by Jacqueline Susan, Mario Puzo, Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon. Still, the creative flame was lit. And I am sure it was a flame that was ignited by God and that is still being stoked by him.

Again, my understanding of God’s will for me as a writer has been long-coming. My endeavors into writing were first depicted by developing the craft, including expounding on emotion, creating a concise storyline, fine-tuning dialogue, and of course, the never-ending journey of grammar and flow. Creating lives in stories was magical and fun.

Then came God’s nudging me to write for his honor. To me, this did not mean I had to write only Christian stories, but stories that would bring people to a greater understanding of his love, of life and of others, especially those who are generally discounted by many Christians. As my writing often has a dark edge to it, I believe God has allowed me to develop that interest to reach those who otherwise would steer clear of Christian theology.

I am still God’s work in progress. This book, with its myriad of short fiction pieces (called flash fiction) and poetry, is a journey of my growth as a storyteller and sometimes poet, me opening my ears to God’s directions, and finally my desire to write about God’s influence in my life. I hope you enjoy this journey.

~ That’s the preface, which would be followed by flash fiction and poetry. Let me know what you think. 

So, would you consider publishing your stories or poems that would otherwise stay tucked away in blog archives, thumb drives or old file cabinets?