Trusting God with Her Daughter's Life -- or Death -- plus an Excerpt from Lynette Endicott's New Novel, FINDING HER VOICE

Today I'm celebrating with author Lynette Endicott the release of her brand new novel, Finding Her Voice. She has information about that and an excerpt to follow, but first, she has a life and death testimony of faith to share. Welcome, Lynette! 

 

I saw her grasping at the edge of the health office counter; her eyes rolled back in her head as she fell straight back. Her head hit the floor hard and when I knelt down beside her, Mandee’s gaze was fixed and staring. Then she began to have a seizure, grand mal, which lasted a little over a minute. I called out, “We have a seizure here,” and a couple of the county nurses came toward us, but no one came all the way over to help. When she came out of the seizure she was confused and combative and I knew we needed to get her to the hospital. What had started out as an immunization for the upcoming Mission trip for my 13-year-old daughter rapidly became a nightmare.

I work in the field of disabilities, so I have seen a lot of things, and I knew my daughter wasn’t right. I had to fight to get her a CT; the doctors continued to insist she was scanning normally with their “follow my finger” tests and that I should bring her back if I couldn’t wake her up. 

I was so glad I pushed. As soon as the bleed on her brain showed up in the scan they scrambled and called for the air ambulance to take us from our smaller hospital to Wichita where the neurosurgeon was located. It was almost too late. She stopped breathing en route and had to be intubated. After the surgery they took her down for another CT because she was still non-responsive. They found and evacuated a second bleed. The surgeon’s post-op conversation with me was not encouraging.

I was by myself – there was only room for one parent on the plane so my husband was driving down later. I had lots of time to think, pray, process what was happening.

I came to the conclusion that God would answer my prayers – that he would take care of my daughter – no matter what the outcome. If she came through the surgery fully intact then I would praise Him for his complete protection. If she came out of the surgery with disability – from memory to speak to walking – He would still care for her. If she didn’t survive, then she was fully healed and in His arms. I had no doubt that He would answer my prayers. I didn’t know, however, what the answer would be.

I thought about other people who were close to me who had lost children. My brother and his wife lost their daughter before her first birthday. I had friends who’d lost their son at 17 and others their daughter at 30. Who was I to think my daughter’s life was more important than their children’s? 

In fact, I will never be able to explain why God spared my daughter and took the 30 year old mother of two. 

Somewhere in the midst of conversations about praying for my daughter and being grateful she survived with little long term impact, I realized that my understanding of answered prayer changed when I acknowledged that any answer could be God’s will, and that even death could be his will.

We are all going to die, but sometimes we pretend that isn’t so, that we will live forever without dying. Most of us experience some kind of pain and distress as life here on earth comes to an end. We should not be surprised. 

I am truly grateful that my daughter is still in my life (and even made that mission trip). God taught me, through her brain injury, that we are still in His care, and our prayers are being answered, no matter what is going on in our lives.

Finding Her Voice is Book Three of the Starting Over Series. In Book One, More Than a Job, Paige starts over after she loses the job she loved. In Book Two, The Return of Joy, Joy Huffman and her young daughter find a way to go on after her husband’s death. In Book Three, Jennifer is forced to find a way to keep moving forward after an even more devastating loss.

Each of these books can be read independent from the others. While some of the characters cross over these are not sequential books and each story is uniquely its own.

Finding Her Voice

Jennifer had the perfect life. A loving husband, a beautiful daughter, a flexible job in the family business. When it was all taken from her, Jen struggled to move through her days with the help of friends and family — but they couldn’t understand, and somehow expected her to get over her grief. Even her twin brother, Joshua, was unable to help her heal.

Ollie, her daughter’s rescued dog, was the only one who seemed to share her grief and understand her pain in losing her daughter. When the divorce ended in the sale of their home, she and Ollie set out on a road trip of discovery. She needed time and the care of an old friend, and along the way met others who had lost a child or a marriage or both. None of them expected her to get over it, but they did help her go on living.

Her old friend listened, and with love guided her to an outlet for her feeling through music — and she found comfort through on-line contact with other bereaved parents, including Michael.

Life would never be the same, but maybe she could find the music, find her voice, find her own path to living after her loss. And if she was lucky, find love along the way.

Excerpt

Time to get this show on the road. She typed out a text and sent it in a blast to her whole family.

I’m packed and headed out. Thanks for understanding. I’ll update you from time to time.

Then she gave a little whistle and commanded Ollie to get up. He clambered into the seat where she belted him in.

“Well, boy, here we go. Off on an adventure.”

They called every ride an adventure. He had no idea how long a trip he was in for. Or that he would never come back to the place they’d called home. But then, she wasn’t certain how long it would be either.

Jen went around to the driver’s side, climbed in, and dropped her phone into the sound system so she could take or make phone calls if she wanted.

She started the van and, out of habit, started the tunes saved to her phone.

The song that came up was one she and Trudy sang together, a fun, silly song. She couldn’t bear it. She shut down the music. It was too hard. She couldn’t sing. Not anymore. She took one last look at the house that had been home to her now-destroyed family, then threw the van into reverse and turned so she could steer out of the driveway and onto the road. She didn’t look back. Her goal today was to drive as fast as the law allowed, and as far as her energy would support. She needed distance between her wrecked life and whatever was ahead.

Available July 11 from my publisher, and along with the paperback and epub versions of Books One and Two, on my Amazon Author Page.

Lynette is also writing a series of speculative romance with Tami Dee that follow the journey of a time-traveling enemy as she attempts to thwart love in the lives of the women in a family line who carry the Heartmark, a heart shaped birthmark. The fourth book in the Time After Time Saga, Pioneer Instinct, will be released in the fall. Like the series at www.facebook.com/timeaftertimesaga

Website: www.lynetteendicott.com

Like the author on Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorlynetteendicott

Gotta Love an Anti-Hero Struggling to Change -- Review of Tangled Ashes by Michele Phoenix

I stumbled upon Tangled Ashes by Michele Pheonix a couple weeks ago and devoured it. It's one of those stories you happen upon only once or twice a year -- the kind that should have a cover blurb reading, "I was written with your specific taste in mind." For me, that's women's fiction set in a superbly written historical backdrop and characters combined of both imperfect and compelling qualities.

Amazon

I mean, talk about an anti-hero! I adore a well crafted anti-hero, and it was hard for me to even think I would ever like Becker, the anti-hero in this one. Gosh, but he tries so hard I couldn't help it, even though every one of his failures angered me. And Jade, who started off as so easy going, had quite a few flaws in her own character to bring her to life. But the story that really sung was that of Marie, the young French woman working in the chateau who is trying to protect her friend and rescue her friend's baby.

The story of the Lebensborn (Nazi baby factories) in Nazi Germany -- or in this case, Nazi occupied France -- is ripe with intrigue and danger, and the author did a superb job of tangling up my emotions over the women and babies caught in such a plight.

There's some mystery to the story which is a main thread, but that didn't compel me as much as the characters themselves. I would call this an extremely good character driven story, built around a strong plot, rather than the other way around.

I learned, after completing the reading, that the author spent a good deal of her growing up years around the castle in the story as well as experiencing some other things that were included in the story (no spoilers!) and the authenticity of writing "what she knows" comes through. It's a 5-star novel, and I'm a new fan of Michele Phoenix.

Characters that Reveal the Good vs. Bad Battle in Everyone - Book Review: Wind Over Marshdale

An eerie sensation stole over me in the opening pages of Winds Over Marshdale, which I'm sure was the intent of author Tracy Krauss in this tale of fresh starts and the unseen spiritual forces at work in the lives of a small town community on the Canadian plains. Reading this story from the perspective of one having a Christian world view, it felt all too real, downright creepy even. 

And I couldn't wait to read more.

 Amazon

While not a true suspense, elements of the story are very suspenseful, while being at turns romantic and enlightening. This is one of the first inspirational novels I've read that dealt so genuinely with issues of occult practices found in certain aspects of native cultural traditions here in North America. While exposing the underlying forces at work within them, the author in no way belittled those cultures. In fact, one of the main characters, a Native American man settling in Marshdale with the task of preserving his cultural heritage for future generations, was an especially appealing and sympathetic character with a strong love for the traditions of that heritage. Tracy told her story with a strong sense of what the occult in any form can do from someone who's dabbled in it. (You can read the author's testimony here.)

That's one of the strongest achievements of Tracy's novel. She creates a cast of characters that stands out. These are really, really well-developed characters. They are flesh and blood real, whether for good or for evil, and usually a sharp dichotomy of both -- like us -- and her effort to create them with such depth is one of the main things any writer can try to emulate after a careful reading of the book.

Good and bad live in everyone. (I don't want to give any spoilers, but let's just say, watch out for the church lady in this book!) Even a delightful main protagonist like Rachel Bosworth, a kind and generous kindergarten teacher who wants a fresh start, makes some really ugly, unlikeable choices. In fact, every one of Tracy's characters is a two-sided coin. Readers are given a chance to see them on the outside, and then discover what makes them tick on the inside, sort of like we can see and know ourselves -- or really, how God can see and know the real us. The battles we rage against our inner natures can be a nasty mess, if we'll admit it.

I highly recommend Wind Over Marshdale, and I can clearly see why it won a 2013 Grace Award.