DEVOTION: Significant Names ~ Shirley Corder

It's crazy the amount of time and effort we authors can spend trying to come up with a suitable name for our Work In Progress, especially when we know it will almost certainly undergo a name change if it is bought by a publisher. 

For example, my book with the working title of Rise and Soar above the Cancer Valley, has as its key Scripture, Isaiah 40:31: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings as eagles. The beautiful cover portrays a woman with her arms outstretched, apparently preparing to rise and soar, and there are a number of meditations that refer to eagles. Yet the publishers changed its name to Strength Renewed, Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer, still based on the same Scripture, but emphasizing a different part of the verse. That’s how it works in the publishing world.

As parents, we agonize over names for our babies when they are still in the womb. In our case, this was before the days of scans where you could learn the baby’s sex (which of course gives away my age) and so we had to be prepared with a boy’s name as well as a girl’s. A number of the young women in my family have given their unborn babies cutsie names, knowing they would change them after the baby’s birth. So we have had a Rosebud, a Sweetie Pie, a Strawberry, and even a Frog. In these cases I was more than a little relieved when their names were changed after birth.

Have you ever gone on a road trip or studied a map, and wondered why towns are named as they are? Here in South Africa, we have a small town in the Northern Cape called Pofadder, the Afrikaans translation of Puff Adder, which is one of our most venomous snakes. Did someone get bitten by a Puff Adder there? Who knows?

Klein Mier Nommer Een is a tiny town, also in the Northern Cape, which translated from Afrikaans means Little Ant Number One. Now where did that come from? It’s hard to believe there were so few little ants in that dusty little town, they started to number them!

On the West Coast, we find Tietiesbaai, which literally translated would be something like Boobies Bay, probably named after the many round smooth boulders dotted on its beautiful beach.

75 km from Cape Town we have a quaint farming town fittingly called Darling. Then in the North West province, some 200 km west of Pretoria, we have a dot on the map with the incredible name of Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein. Translated into English this means Two- buffalo-shot-dead-in-one-shot Spring. Really? 

Traveling through the Small Karoo Desert, you may stop at the little town which is a popular pit-stop for heavy trucks and holiday makers, called Leeu-Gamka. This is obviously so named because this is where the Leeu (Lion) River joins the Gamka River.

Then we have Ogies, which translates into Little Eyes, an old coal mining town in Mpumalanga, This apparently derived its name from a nearby farm, Oogiesfontein, or a fountain with many eyes (or springs).

If we turn to Scripture we see a similar pattern, where places were named after actual events, such as Jehovah-Jirah, meaning Jehovah will provide, the place where God provided Abraham with a ram for sacrifice in the place of his son, Isaac. Then there’s Beth-El, meaning House of God, at the place where Jacob dreamed of angels ascending and descending a ladder to Heaven. There are also places named after emotions such as Esek (meaning contention) and Sitnah (Enmity) where the Philistines fought with Isaac for the use of watering holes.

Dene Ward, in her devotional guide, Flight Paths, asks what we would call our homes. 

It's a good question. Would we name them after an emotion? Or after an event? What would be a good name for your home? Could you call it Beth-El, House of God? Or would it be more aptly called, Esek, because of the emotions that fly throughout the day?

If you were to give the place you live a new name today, what would it be? What title could you hang on the door that would give visitors an idea of what to expect when they entered into your home, whether it is a beautiful mansion or a one-roomed apartment? I dare you to share it as a comment below. Maybe your home already has a name. Please share it with us, and tell us how it got its name.

SHIRLEY CORDER lives on the coast in South Africa with her husband, Rob. Her book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer contains 90 meditations based on her time in the cancer valley.

Sign up here to receive a short devotional message from Shirley in your inbox once a week.

Please visit Shirley through ShirleyCorder.com, where she encourages writers, or at  RiseAndSoar.com, where she encourages those in the cancer valley. You can also meet with her on Twitter or FaceBook.  

DEVOTION: Happy New Year! ~ by Shirley Corder

At the beginning of February, 2014, I saw a post on Facebook that said, HELP! Has anyone seen the first month of the year? I seem to have lost it! At the time, I was busy writing a series of devotions based on some of the kings of ancient Israel.

It was refreshing to read of the godly King Hezekiah who did so much to turn the nation of Judah back to God. However, the king became critically ill and was told by the prophet Isaiah that he was about to die. His reaction was to turn his face to the wall and pray to the Lord. God heard his prayer and granted him an additional 15 years of life. You can read this exciting story in 2 Kings 20.

Over 17 years ago, I received a diagnosis of cancer. My surgeon didn't expect me to live as long as a year. God has given me an additional 16 years to date, and I'm still doing well. Praise the Lord.

During those bonus years I have become a published author with many articles and stories in print and online, as well as my book of 90 devotions for those in the cancer valley, Strength Renewed, Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer. It has been a fruitful time, although I know I could have done more if I'd been better organised.

Unfortunately, Hezekiah did very little with his fifteen years. The one big thing he did do was very stupid. But you can read that for yourself.

Yesterday, we were all given 365 new days with the arrival of the year, 2015. Of course, we do not know if we will all get to spend all those days on earth, but is it the number of days that count? Or is it what we do with them that matter? At the time of posting this message, we've already used up one of them. Maybe by the time you're reading this, you've already used several of them. Have you used yours wisely? Do you wish you could have them back?

I know that a month from now I may well be asking that same question. Where has January gone? I will feel as if I've lost many of those days. I may wish I could start over. But of course, that's impossible.

Guess the question now is, What will we do with the next 364 days?

Oh, and a Happy and Blessed New Year to you all!

OVER TO YOU: What is the one thing you wish to achieve during this year? Share it with us!

 SHIRLEY CORDER lives on the coast in South Africa with her husband, Rob. Her book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer contains 90 meditations based on her time in the cancer valley.

Sign up here to receive a short devotional message from Shirley in your inbox once a week.

Please visit Shirley through ShirleyCorder.com, where she encourages writers, or at  RiseAndSoar.com, where she encourages those in the cancer valley. You can also meet with her on Twitter or FaceBook.  

Shirley's Writing Process--blog tour relay

This post is part of a blog post relay for which I received batons from two different authors. You wouldn't think I was running a relay here as I sat in the sun working on my laptop! Great for inspiration. Not so good for the eyes!

The first baton came from Marion Ueckermann, a South African writer whose debut novelette, Helsinki Sunrise, will be released 22 August 2014 by Pelican Book Group (White Rose Publishing) as part of the Passport to Romance series.

Marion blogs for International Christian Fiction Writers and Beauty for Ashes. She belongs to Christian Writers of South Africa and American Christian Fiction Writers. Marion lives in Pretoria East, South Africa in an empty nest with her husband and their crazy black Scottie, Wally. You can read about herwriting process at the ICFW blog, or visit her at her website, http://apebbleinmypocket.com/

The second baton came from LeAnne Hardy, an author who has lived in six countries on four continents as a writer and missionary librarian. Her plots and settings are inspired by these diverse locations. She currently writes and does freelance editing from a lake in the Northwoods of Wisconsin where she and her husband enjoy visitors, especially grandchildren. You can read about LeAnne's writing process here and you can also visit her at her website, www.leannehardy.net.

Thank you both of you for this fun blog relay!

In order to participate in this blog tour, I have to answer four specific questions, then pass on the baton to a further three writers whom you can read about at the end.

So here goes:

1) WHAT AM I WORKING ON?

I have two works in progress. The working title of the main project is Out of the Shadows: Reflections of Lesser-known Women in the Bible.

What was it like to be the first and only woman? How did it feel to live on a giant boat with every type of living creature? Who was the first Christian evangelist recorded in history, and how thrilled was the old lady? And yes, I said old lady!

Have you ever thought of how it was to be the first woman to ever be pregnant? No other woman to assist you? No diapers? No books to read about dealing with two-year-olds? I am really enjoying the research as I look at the rarely-spoken-of characters behind some well-known names,like Sarai who was later called Sarah. Or Eve. Then there are the women whom we rarely hear mentioned in a sermon, such as Huldah, Jael, Anna and Elizabeth, not to mention the ladies who don’t have a name in Scripture—the Phoenician woman, the prostitute of Luke 7, the woman with the gynaecological problem, and others.

What can we learn about these women and what they went through? And more importantly, what do their lives say to us today? As I studied these ladies who appear in Scripture in the shadow of their famous husbands or other person, I was thrilled to learn how much their lives have to say to women who live today, perhaps under the shadow of an important husband or child, or an abusive relationship. Sometimes the shadow is even caused by the church they attend, or even the very fact that they are women. God created us all in His image, and He has so many exciting lessons for us, even if we think we live in the shadows.

My second project is Naomi's Long Road Home: Living with Heartbreak and Shattered Dreams. There are many books about Ruth. This is the story of Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law. What can we learn from the life of this brave woman of faith that will help us deal with our own times of heartache and shattered dreams? It would appear that this book would have come out of the previous one, but it actually worked the other way round. I had almost finished drafting this book, which I intend to release as an e-book, when I realised there were a whole lot more lesser-known women in Scripture with stories to tell. 

 
2) HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?

I have a problem deciding on my genre. All my published work is non-fiction, although I love writing novels for fun. (Seven times through NaNoWriMo proves that!) So the closest I can get is to say I write to inspire and encourage.

Where most Bible-based inspirational books stick with what is obvious in the Scripture passage, my goal is to enable readers to identify with the character’s emotions and behavior. I use anecdotes from modern situations where applicable, to bring the character to life in the minds of the readers, without departing from the truth as revealed in the Bible. In my current works I include background material taken from historical material and other parts of Scripture.

In Strength Renewed, Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer (Revell/Baker 2012) I take the reader on a typical cancer journey, linking it with true-life anecdotes and relevant Scriptures. My desire is to encourage those facing this life-threatening disease as they see that God is with them all the way, even during the darkest times. This book truly was a miracle in progress all the way along the line. If you are interested in reading more of how it came about, you can follow this link.

I do not want people to see me as a wonderful writer of a true book, but to see a true book about a wonderful God.

3) WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?

I love God’s Word and have a passion for helping others to apply it to their lives. Scripture tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Sometimes it is difficult to associate what we’re going through with the Word of God. I see my writing as an opportunity to help people bring the two together. I also enjoy looking for God at work in every day life, and I love to turn those events into story form. 

4) HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?

I do have a desk in an office which I share with my retired-pastor husband. However, I tend to write in different locations, one of my favourite being outside with my laptop as you can see above, or first thing in the morning before getting up. I do this particularly when I get inspiration for a devotional message during my Quiet Time.

Because I write mainly non-fiction, I start off with an idea of what I want the final work to be like. However, I am very much a seat-of-the-pants writer in that once I know where I’m headed I just go. I am also an inveterate note-taker. I jot down ideas in note-books, on the back of envelopes, on scraps of paper, on the back of important documents (!), and if all else fails on the palm of my hand. When I open my Bible in Church I have to be careful not to scatter pieces of paper in all directions.

Out of the Shadows, came out of my daily Quiet Time with the Lord. I noticed how many women there were in the Bible whom I really knew very little about. For example, Noah had a wife three sons and three daughters-in-law. That’s virtually all I knew about the women. They existed, and they went on a boat trip. A very long boat trip. I started thinking about Noah’s wife and all she must have gone through. I realised how much we could figure out about her from the Scriptures and from what we know about the culture of the time, and I knew I had to write about her. I then drew up a list of just about all the women in the Bible that we didn’t know much about. In some cases, the names were quite well known, but not the personalities.

It was nearly November, and I wanted to enter NaNoWriMo once last time. (This is the third time I've done it for the last time.) So I created two characters, Carey and Ross, and set one of them (Carey) to work to write the book. Ross, a fledgling Christian kept asking questions or disagreeing, which gave Carey opportunity to explain more about the character of the day. So I could honestly say I was writing a novel, although I had no intention of that being the final outcome.

Commencing on November 1, I wrote and researched flat out, completing the initial draft in three weeks. I then left it for two months partly because of Christmas and other deadlines, but also because I felt I needed to step back from it for a period. Where I had originally intended it to be a book of devotions, I realised it had turned out to be more of a book of reflections based on these women. The theme changed to be more of an encouraging meditation on their lives and the encouragement for us to stand tall, out of the shadows, and be the women God ordained us to be.

And so in February with a clearer picture of what the finished book should be like, I started a rewrite of the book. I am feeding the chapters to my critique group as I go, and once I’ve finished the rewrite I will start the editing and polishing process.

Because I live in S.Africa, publication is an even bigger challenge that for many other writers. My last book, Strength Renewed, Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer, was published as a result of contacts made when I attended a Christian Writers Conference in America. I don’t see that happening again, so I’m hoping to find an interested agent.

And so now it gives me great pleasure to pass three batons on to the following gifted writers and cyber friends:

Ray Hawkins is a retired Churches of Christ (Australia) minister. Married to Mary, a multi-published Christian Romance author, their three children and six grandchildren are their pride and joy. Ray still preaches, and he writes themed devotionals printed by Even Before Publishing. He assists at his son’s Seahorse World tourist business in Tasmania. Ray and Mary have been on three short-term mission trips to Africa. You can read about Ray's writing process on his blog on May 19th.


LeAnn Campbell is a retired special education teacher in SW Missouri, wife, mother, and grandmother. She is the author of a four-book Century Farm mystery series for kids (book #5, Secret Wall Mystery, to be released soon), published by OakTara. Book #6, Abandoned Schoolhouse Mystery, is her latest Work-in-Progress. The books are Christian, and she takes them into public and private school classrooms, where the students eagerly contribute ideas for the stories. You can read more about LeAnn's writing process on her blog on May 19th.


Heidi M. Thomas grew up on a working ranch in eastern Montana. She had parents who taught her a love of books and a grandmother who rode bucking stock in rodeos. Describing herself as “born with ink in her veins,” Heidi followed her dream of writing with a journalism degree from the University of Montana and later turned to her first love, fiction, to write her grandmother’s story.

Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, has won an EPIC Award and the USA Book News Best Book Finalist award. Follow the Dream, a WILLA Award winner, is the second book in the “Cowgirl Dreams" series about strong, independent Montana women. Dare to Dream completes the trilogy.

Heidi is a member of Women Writing the West and Professional Writers of Prescott. She is an avid reader of all kinds of books, enjoys the sunshine and hiking in north-central Arizona, where she writes, edits, and teaches memoir and fiction writing classes. Read more about Heidi's writing process on May 19th.

DEVOTION: The Birth of a Baby by Shirley Corder

This meditation is two days late. Yet, perhaps this is good—because today is celebrated throughout the world as Pentecost Sunday, the day we remember the Lord sending His Holy Spirit to dwell among us. By many, this is regarded as the day when The Church was born.

Until the first Pentecost, The Church was a small group of people who had known Jesus during His life time. How small? Well, small enough to be “all together in one place”. (Acts 2:1 NIV) They had been through a turbulent time, climaxing in the crucifixion and then resurrection of their leader. Then, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon them—and they were never the same again. By the end of the day, there were 3,000 of them. The Church was born.

Pentecost Sunday has another significance for me. On this day, 37 years ago, I gave birth to a baby boy. Because of a turbulent pregnancy, it was with much relief that my husband and I looked upon this perfect baby and gave thanks to our Lord for his safe arrival. Our congregation nicknamed him Baby Pentecost, and life for us would never be the same again.

We knew that one day, we would have to let this baby go his own way into the world, but that seemed so far away. For now, he was ours to have and to hold, to nurture and to mould. Over the next years, we did all we could to guide and direct this little chap to becoming what he is today: A mature adult with a faith and family of his own.

The road wasn’t always easy. Parenting isn’t for sissies. But the day came when we knew we had done all we could. It was time for our baby to leave the parental nest and set out on his own.

Writing is like parenting in many ways. We struggle through a pregnancy, where the book or story idea is taking shape. We have good days, when the words and ideas flow. And we have not-so-good days when we battle to write one sensible sentence. But still it grows. One day, that book reaches maturity, and it’s time to make plans for its future. Whether we find an enthusiastic publisher, or whether we opt for self-publishing or any of the other alternatives today, it’s time for our baby to leave home.

My book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer has been just such an experience. It had a long pregnancy—several years. I knew without doubt that one day I would write this book. I even had a working title, Rise and Soar above the Cancer Valley. I wrote the odd devotional article with it in mind. But it wasn’t yet time to give it birth.

Over two years ago, I knew the time had come, and I started to write the book based on my own experiences in the Cancer Valley. Sometimes the thoughts came faster than I could write them. Other times I wondered why on earth I thought I could do this. It seems fitting to this analogy of pregnancy that after 90 short devotional chapters, the book was complete. It was grownup, although it needed a lot of editing and pruning before it would be ready to leave the author nest.

That time has now come. My baby has moved on to a new home, Baker Publishing. I couldn’t take it back now even if I wanted to. Already, it has to fend for itself in the world of printing and final steps to publication. There is nothing more I can change to improve it. In a few short months, Strength Renewed will be out there in full public view. And that’s scary. What if it lets me down? Behaves badly in public? Fails to achieve?

Well, as a parent, I had to stand back and trust that the principals and disciplines we’d instilled in our son would be sufficient to help him become a responsible husband and parent and hold down a good job.

In the same way, I have done my best for my book. It is now time to step back and allow it freedom. But it’s still not easy.

How about you? How easy do you find it to let go of a finished article or book, and send it into the big wide world of readers and critics? Do you have any advice for writers in my situation, as our grown-up baby leaves the nest forever?



SHIRLEY CORDER lives on the coast in South Africa with her husband. Her book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer is available for pre-order at discount price at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble (B&N.com). She is also contributing author to ten books to date. You can contact Shirley through her writing website, her Rise and Soar cancer site, or follow her on Twitter or FaceBook.