The Benefits of Uprooting

AuthorAppleton on June 29, 2015

Gardening was not my favorite thing when I was growing up, though my mom doggedly persisted in making my siblings and I a large part of it. She was great at teaching us to discipline our time for worthwhile pursuits. One thing about gardening that stuck in my memory: If the conditions for a plant in one location were not ideal, you uproot it to give it its best chance at a healthy life.

Are you willing to give up everything in order to achieve your God-given dreams? Or have you become comfortable, unwilling to uproot even though change may lead to greater things later on? Change is hard but necessary to success.

Being now in the process of uprooting my family from Connecticut to South Carolina, we are somewhat like those plants. Our roots are deep here. Family and friends, places we frequent, connections we’ve made. We grew up in this state. But my wife and I both feel strongly that God wants us to relocate our family into the south. A more conservative environment to raise our family, greater opportunity to connect with active Christian churches, a lower cost of living, and a more centralized geographical location.

Uprooting is hard, and this came about very swiftly. We’ve been planning it for years really, yet nothing is easy about this. I am encouraged in this because the best times are when we step out in faith.

God has always opened the right doors, and slammed shut the others. He has opened every door in its proper time for this event to take place in our lives.

Beside my sadness He fills me with peace
Beside my uncertainty He provides the keys
In place of my fear He builds a mountain of dreams
Before my feet He makes the path a highway.

To grow beyond the present circumstance change is necessary, and I firmly believe that without transplanting God cannot fulfil His dream for us. Providing for my family in a manner that allows me to bless the kids with my experience and be hands-on with their education is something I work on and long to fully explore. To do this my writing and publishing business must grow and in South Carolina is where we are going to grow those roots.

Let nothing stand between you and your dreams. Recognize that staying inside your comfort zone limits you. You must grow, you must strive to achieve, you must listen the voice that speaks to your soul. The heart is deceitful and easily drawn back to the comfort zone, so guide your heart with your God-given dreams.

Q: Are you willing to leave behind everything to accomplish everything?

Chess, my Grandpa, and Creative Thinking

AuthorAppleton on June 22, 2015

“Do you want to play white, or do you want to be black?” My grandfather worked as a draftsman designing submarines. He has a keen understanding of math and strategy. When I was growing up he used to play chess with me all the time… and he would win usually within five moves.

One night (I think it was after one of our small family birthday parties) my grandfather had beat me best out of three games again. He has this great laugh that just made me smile when I lost and left me confounded as to how he always beat me. Being the reader I was I had started reading a biography on a famous chess master. It was a long time ago but I think the chess master was Bobby Fischer, and he had drawn a chess board on his ceiling. He would lie awake at night, strategizing how to improve his game.

That night as I lay awake in bed I could not get out of my mind how easily my grandfather had won those chess games, so I visualized a chess board on my ceiling. The mind is a powerful thing. If creatively utilized in quiet moments it can generate solutions to problems standard problem solving might miss. By visualizing the potential chess strategies and guessing at my grandfather’s counter moves I was able to figure out how he repeatedly won against me.

The next time I played chess… I won! We ended up having so many fun, competitive matches. Some of my best memories. My grandfather picked up a used trophy of a golden horse. Each time we played a chess game the trophy was at stake. We jotted down our matches in a little notebook, each time letting the winner take the trophy home.

Chess, my Grandpa, and creative thinking are all linked in my mind. Chess forced me to be creative. Chess forced me to contemplate the potential outcomes of each move before I made it.

Today I approach writing in much the same way. I sit back and contemplate scenarios, character development, and moral implications. It is important to think strategically. Often we desire to rush a creation when, instead, all that is needed is thoughtful strategy. Maybe instead of immediately attacking with the queen, we move out our knight and bishop to set up the field.

Question: How does strategy play into your creative thinking?

Fear and Your Dreams

AuthorAppleton on June 15, 2015

I have seen many people let fear stand in the way of their dreams, and this troubles me. Fear comes upon all of us when we face something uncertain or unknown. Maybe not all of the time, yet if we admit it fear often keeps us from making potentially positive changes in our lives. This should not be so. Instead recognize your fear and use that as motivation to accomplish your dreams.

Often it is enough to simply acknowledge your enemy and then you can begin to overcome that enemy. The enemy of our dreams is fear. Fear of what others around us will think when we take a “leap of faith.” Fear of failure if things don’t go the way we hope. Fear of how we could let down those we care about and those who rely on us for support. Fear of the unknown.

What does this really boil down to? We are comfortable in the place we exist. We know our routine. We know our job (even if we don’t like it). We know the people around us. Familiarity creates a zone of comfort which we are loathe to risk changing.

But the greatest changes in my life have always been when I stepped outside of my comfort zone by recognizing my fear, determining to overcome it, and used that motivation to make progress toward accomplishing my dreams.

Often I have told people that when my wife and I were first married we hit the road with my first book. We toured eleven states in approximately four months. We relied on meeting new people and forming connections. We had no specific outline for our trip we just knew that God wanted us to do it and that the place we were at was not his best for us. The result? Thousands of books sold, speaking experience and connections established, and my first book contract from a traditional publisher. None of which would have happened if I had remained in my comfort zone.

This year we are making a huge shift, moving from Connecticut to South Carolina. This is going to be a difficult thing but we know that God is in it. We leave a lot behind that we know and love. Family, friends, familiarity with the area, and more… but we look ahead to greater things in store as we follow our dreams. We need to step outside of our comfort zone in order to grow deeper together and with God’s will.

Question: Do you recognize fears in your life that stop you from achieving your God-given dreams?

How I learned Patience building Ships-in-Bottles

AuthorAppleton on June 8, 2015

From Dad’s basement workshop a scrap of pine wood, paints, and plumber’s putty. From Mom’s sewing supplies white or black thread, a needle, and twist ties from the kitchen drawer. Late into the night I used to work on building sailing ships in bottles. The work was delicate, requiring precision and diligence. And many times, just as the project neared completion, my hand would tense and just like that one little mast would snap in two, destroying my delicate miniature ship…

Sailing ships have always fascinated me and I loved building those ships in bottles. The hunt for just the right bottle, the sketching of the ship I designed to go inside of it, the layout of the ocean. I don’t have a workshop anymore so I have not been able to make one since I was a teenager.

My father recently gave me some of the tools that I used to make the ships with, so I will get back to building them soon. Building those little ships disciplined me in one of the most important virtues of art. More specifically, my art, which is writing.

Experience has shown me that most writing projects end up rushed. Often we start off writing with a relaxed enthusiasm that optimizes creative flow. Later we start feeling the timetable is getting away from us, whether it is a deadline with our publisher or the pressure of your fans who eagerly await your new title. Fashioning a ship-in-a-bottle requires an immense level of patience, and writing requires the same. I have found that good writing requires a patient pursuit of the writing craft. Educaton and connection are keys to improvement. From building ships in bottles I gained a greater level of patience than I believe I would have gained otherwise.

Q: What projects have helped you focus and gain patience?

How we create Tomorrowland today

AuthorAppleton on June 1, 2015

While watching the new Disney film Tomorrowland I found myself relating to its overriding theme: Negative thinking steers our world toward a negative outcome. Positive thinking steers us toward positive results. I found myself asking, “What kind of a future world do I want to create?”

Doom and gloom. The news is full of it, and people gobble it up.

I have collected most of the old Disney family films and one I really appreciate is Pollyanna. Based off of the book, this is the tale of an orphan girl who shares her message of positivity with the negative townsfolk. In my favorite scene of the movie she reads to the pastor from the quote on a locket that her father gave to her.

“If you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.” -Abraham Lincoln

In the movie Tomorrowland we explore the future that is created by our negative thinking. But what interested me most was considering the kind of future we can have if we approach things from a positive outlook.

If we look back through history there have been times of great darkness that only ended because a few brave souls stood against it. They chose to think positively and imagine creatively. Christian martyrs did not let intense persecution stifle their message, the message of Christ that created western society as we know it. Inventors like Tesla did not let negativity or adversity stop them in their ingenuity. The founding fathers of the United States did not let a tyrant or the cost of liberty stop them from proudly touting that message of a nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

For my part I want to return to the positive outlook. The world I see is cars flying instead of driving. Solar and wind-powered cities… More than this, let’s look beyond the technology and anticipate a society that fears and worships God. Where the young and the old care for each other. A return to the values that made this country great.

We are living in the Future our American ancestors Envisioned. Dreams become reality.

Q: What future do you envision?

Cover reveal: Daniel and the Sun Sword

AuthorAppleton on May 30, 2015

Introducing debut novels is a great pleasure when I know that the novelists share my passion for great fiction and for the Lord. Nathan Lumbatis hired me a couple years back to do an editorial review of his manuscript and he’s been working hard on it ever since! The story stood out to me for its uniqueness as it pits young protagonists against Peruvian ‘gods.’

Daniel and the Sun Sword CoverThirteen-year-old Daniel is about to be adopted. But when he learns his new family wants him as a slave, he runs away with the help of his new neighbors, the naïve and cowardly Ben, and Raylin, a mysterious girl with a shady past. He begins to second-guess his decision, however, when the cave they hide in transports them to the ruins of Machu Picchu, where they find themselves embroiled in a battle between ancient gods of Life and Death. To top things off, the God of Life draws Daniel into the fray by adopting him as his son and setting him on a quest to complete a broken, mystical sword, a task that will pit him against the god of the underworld.

Now, Daniel and his friends have just one weekend to find the shards before a hoard of supernatural enemies catch up. But that’s not all they face. A trap has been set that even Daniel wouldn’t expect, and he just took the bait. Will the power of his Heavenly Father be enough to save them?

Daniel and the Sun Sword will be published by Ellechor Media in JULY 2015.

Nathan Lumbatis

Nathan Lumbatis grew up in the woods of Alabama, where he spent his time exploring, hiking, and dreaming up stories. Now, as a child/adolescent therapist and author, he’s teaching kids and teens how to redeem their stories using Biblical principles. He counsels at Dothan Behavioral Medicine Clinic and is a member of First Presbyterian Church. He still lives in Alabama, where you will find him with his wife and three kids every chance he gets.

Be sure to check out Nathan Lumbatis on his Website!

The Ghost of A. Chantz and Clever fiction titles

AuthorAppleton on May 25, 2015

If you have read Key of Living Fire you will not be surprised that I enjoy spooky stories. One such story comes from none other than The Dick Van Dyke Show.

I love watching old television shows with my wife and kids. I’m a bit of a return-to-the-old-ways kind of guy. The Andy Griffith Show, Leave it to Beaver, I Love Lucy, and also The Dick Van Dyke Show. These shows are timeless, bringing us back to a simpler time when traditional family values were still pre-eminent in America. There is a lot to be learned on an artistic level by studying these episodes.

This week I wanted to do something different for you. I am going to recommend you watch a particular episode of Dick Van Dyke. If you don’t have the DVDs you can find it on Netflix. If you have already watched this episode please share what you thought of it

This episode was pure genius, showcasing one of the cast’s best performances. The title alone is such a clever play on words. When I am writing I often find the titles of chapters and of the book… come slow. When I see creative titles I study them in order to understand the process so that I can, hopefully, replicate that success in my own work. I want my readers to experience the same curiosity good titles have brought to me.

Dick Van Dyke: season 4 episode 2 “The Ghost of A. Chantz”

Question: What did you think of “The Ghost of A. Chantz”? (-:

A good first draft?

AuthorAppleton on May 18, 2015

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard an editor, a writer, or an agent make this absolute statement: “There is no such thing as a good first draft!” While I understand the point they are trying to make, I disagree with this all-inclusive judgment on all manuscripts we writers write.

When I wrote my first novel Swords of the Six it was far different from the final draft. I wrote the first draft, polished it, sent it to my editor, chopped it in two and rewrote large sections, etc. The process was long and arduous. By the time I was done I had no desire to touch a page of it again. Then, when I wrote my second novel I worked only a few drafts before sending it to my editor.

But when I wrote Key of Living Fire it was my first draft. Ignoring the don’t-send-your-first-draft rule-of-thumb I sent in the manuscript. The edits that came back were simple, occupying a mere couple pages.

What made the difference? I did not rush the writing of that manuscript. I let my creative flow lead me. If an element of the story did not move me emotionally I did not write it. If a plot element did not fire my imagination I paused to consider how to exchange that idea for another. Also, when it came to basic elements such as grammar I did not ignore a correction.

Hammering out the first draft quickly can sound appealing. But writers are artists, stories are the masterpieces. Think of it like a painting and get those brush strokes right the first time! In practice this is not always possible. Often your first draft will not be your last. But by aiming for quality over quantity we improve our first efforts. Do not underestimate what you can create with your first draft.

Question: What do you think of a writer’s first draft?