If the last six months of her life was a dream, then she woke up in a Twilight Zone ish nightmare. Her new boyfriend, who took everything she owned and tried to kill her, was really a cyber pirate wanted by a secret government organization. Would Claire fade like a flower into the background or fight for her life?
Privateers
A single young woman is tricked by modern day pirates losing everything she owned. As she tries to figure out what happened to her belongings, her world crashes around her as government and private agencies treat her as a suspect. Determined to find the man who did this to her, she stumbles onto a government top secret. Finding this modern day pirate turns into a race against lethal forces.
Sandy wanted to slap him, but was afraid he would shoot her. Michael Singh was their leader at the moment. He kept them alive when killers were searching for them. She was attracted to him, but he was very annoying. This adventure was turning out to be more than she could handle.
Connections
She and her best friend found missing relatives, spied on cheating spouses and caught a few bail jumpers. This private investigator never imagined the bad guys would chase her.
Running for her life, Sandy Herrick discovered that God was the only one with her who wasn’t talking smack, trying to kill her or get into her pants. As she and her friends try to figure out who framed them, they all discover that there was more to each other than they thought they knew.
As evil forces closed in on them, they have to determine who they trust and what they believe about each other. Would this be enough to save them?
Kayna and she were foster sisters. They grew up together. They fought like sisters, until now. Kayna had an edge on her that told another story. Someone could get killed messing with Kayna. Sandy didn’t have time to find out why because their current situation was life threatening enough.
Connections
All Sandy wanted to do was make a living. She was a private investigator taking care of her 10-year-old daughter living in the hood with her biological mother, who loved to gamble. She would find missing relatives, spy on cheating spouses and occasionally catch a bail jumper. She knew that private investigation work would put her in some tricky situations, but she never imagined bad guys would chase her. That stuff only happened in movies.
I love that there are months to celebrate African American History and Women’s History. It is the opportunity to tell the stories of people like you and me who accomplished things that moved us further along on life’s journey.
My current photo project is inspired by a group of women who changed life for the people around them. These women taught us about freedom, self worth and beauty. They walked us to freedom through dark woods in the dead of night. They built fortunes washing clothes and combing hair. They leave a legacy that the impossible can be done.
I call them Queens because these women led when it wasn’t easy. Anyone can do it when it is easy, but these women did it when there was nothing in it for them. When all of the odds where against them. They made a difference.
Because of women like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, Betsy Ross we are free. We are not restricted by someone who owns us. Because of women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton we can own property and manage our own lives. We can be lawyers, architects or millionaires. We can be what God created us to be and not limited by what man thinks we should be.
Bessie Smith was raised during a difficult time in our country’s history in 1892. She lived in the segregated South. Her parents died when she was young, so she and her brother would dance and sing on the streets of Chattanooga, Tennessee to earn money. In 1912 she started her career as a dancer traveling with a troupe. She would later get a job as a singer, which would lead to better paying jobs.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Smith was known as the Empress of the Blues. She would headline shows and traveled around in her own custom made rail car. What was more important is she gave voice to a style of music that got its roots in America. Bessie Smith understood the blues, it was her life. She poured everything she had into it until it consumed her.
If we don’t tell these stories who will tell them? Young girls need to know you can climb out of hard times if you have perseverance and a dream.
Sandy was a private investigator trying to make ends meet. She worked with all kinds of people, but only offered a few select services. Photographing cheating spouses was one of those things. She had someone else doing the printing…
Stink was a 35-year-old Latin American man who had a variety of professions. She never questioned him on them, because she was afraid of what he would say. She had never had to post bail for him, so whatever he did he was good at it. She didn’t know his real name; she had met him through an acquaintance.
Stink handed her a manila nine by eleven envelope with stains from his morning coffee on it.
“Your girl was a freak.”
“Stink man, if I see these pictures on the internet I am going to lose my hand gun license the hard way.”
“Sand, would I do that?” He flashed a grin he used on many other women.
“Yeah, and you need to know that I will shoot you,” she said looking him in the eye.
She walked off looking tough, but the only thing she had shot lately was a target at the gun range. She knew to get her bluff in early, a trick she learned in parenting. But now it was time to deliver the bad news.
Connections is the story of a Sandy and her best friend as they find missing relatives, spy on cheating spouses and catch a few bail jumpers. This private investigator never imagined the bad guys would chase her.
Running for her life, Sandy Herrick discovered that God was the only one with her who wasn’t talking smack, trying to kill her or get into her pants. As she and her friends try to figure out who framed them, they all discover that there was more to each other than they thought they knew.
As evil forces closed in on them, they have to determine who they trust and what they believe about each other. Would this be enough to save them?
This mess had turned into a hot mess and she needed time to figure out how to get out of it. Everyday things got worse.
CONNECTIONS, a christian novel
She and her best friend found missing relatives, spied on cheating spouses and caught a few bail jumpers. This private investigator never imagined the bad guys would chase her.
Running for her life, Sandy Herrick discovered that God was the only one with her who wasn’t talking smack, trying to kill her or get into her pants. As she and her friends try to figure out who framed them, they all discover that there was more to each other than they thought they knew.
As evil forces closed in on them, they have to determine who they trust and what they believe about each other. Would this be enough to save them?
In 2015, I spent the least amount of time thinking about this area, but more time doing it. Today’s area is Mental or the things you plan, learn and visualize. It is usually one of my favorite areas until God takes over. At the beginning of each year, I create a plan and goals for the year. I determine the areas I want to learn more about and set out to do it.
I plan safe things, like trips to the museum or to take a class in lighting for still photography. God tosses me in the lake and says “Swim, I got you.” God takes me on trips I never imagined and many of them have to do with the things I fear. He makes me look the thing I fear right in the eye.
What I love about this area is I get to do new stuff. I am seldom bored or lack something to do. God teaches me to think outside the box I have drawn around myself. He is teaching me to see myself as more than a mother or daughter. More than a photographer or writer or filmmaker. As I look back over my life I see I am not staying stagnant. Life is truly an adventure.
Today’s adventure included a trip down culinary lane. For the first time, I cooked chicken fried steak. Yes, I have been a Texan all my life, but this was the first time I ever tried to cook the dish myself. I watched the Pioneer Woman do it this week. I thought it looked a little too complicated for my level of cooking. But at the grocery store today, the only thing I could find was the cubed steak…
As I work out the plan God has for my life, I enjoy watching it come clearly into focus. Make a plan. Set some goals. Yet don’t get upset if God interrupts your plans for His. After all I set off to the store to buy a brisket, but cube steak was in my future. I did a good job and there is a sense of accomplishment.
Be part of helping others grow, not only by being an example, but also by coaching. We should all continue to grow together because iron sharpens iron. If you are not helping someone become better, then you are getting in their way.
It is time to tell Fear goodbye. Walk in the adventure God has placed before you. Your future might seem uncertain, but God is in control. Dive in.
Zo had a life before she came back to Fort Worth. She covered news stories for real newspapers.
Her news story ran in several newspapers across the country under her press name: Z.F. Hughes. She showed her mother the news clippings.
Hattie rubbed the clippings between her fingers and smiles. She was too tired to read them, but she was proud all the same. She laid them on the pillow next to herself.
“You have always been a smart child. Jesus knew what he was doing when he made you.” Then Hattie started humming her favorite hymn, Jesus Loves Me, and fell asleep.
She had heard that there was a black man who was the leader of the Republican Party in Fort Worth, but could hardly believe it.
“He knows how to talk to some white folks. He don’t get off the sidewalk when they walk up. You know he leads the Republican party in these parts. I think they call him the…the wha cha it?
“A delegate?”
“He’s the top dog.”
“A Negro is the top dog in the Republican party here?” she asked in disbelief.
“Chairman!” he said snapping his fingers. “He’s the chairman of the party. He helps people get good jobs after the election.”
Zo looked at Drew as if he had just spoken a foreign language to her.
I know lots of people going through struggles and difficult times right now. What I have learned from my own struggles is that God is using these adversities to strip things from me that keep me from being what He’s created me to be.
As I reflect on many of the struggles I have had this year, I have a new found freedom. It is a blessing. There is nothing like peace that comes from heaven. It will not go away when the heat turns up in your life. People will look at you funny, like why are you not freaking out about this? When you know the One who controls all things, and you spend time with Him daily, you trust Him.
Sometimes God is trying to get you out of situations or away from people that poison your spirit. Many of us fight it because we have grown dependent on those people or situations. God has to wrench these things from us and it hurts because we have been holding on to them so tightly. God is our only source and He wants us to know it.
We will stay with a job until it destroys our health. We will stay with people who destroy our self esteem. We are physically broken, mentally broken, spiritually broken, yet we want God to do something great in our lives. We are not giving Him anything to work with. We continually fight against the good that God has for us because we do not understand it. When He rips these things from us, we are sad and depressed, but it usually for the best.
This week I began looking at the poison people in my life. If you are one of those people hanging on, watching, not adding anything to my life, your days in my life are numbered. If I have asked you for something and you have ignored me, your days in my life are numbered.
As long as we live in peace, you don’t have to like me. Today’s bible verse confirmed it “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24. Some of the folk who are struggling are trying to keep those many companions and wondering why their lives are in ruin. Focus on the one who will stick closer than a brother. Stop worrying about your haters and think on the one who loves you.
One of my morning readings is The Secret of the Vine by Bruce Wilkerson. God is constantly pruning vines in your life to see that you continue to be fruitful. Stop second guessing God’s decisions. If He has ushered some people out of your life, let them go.
Stop allowing people to drain you and not put anything back. When God cuts them off. Let them stay cut off. Test every person in your life for what they are adding. Even God gets rid of branches that don’t produce anything good.
I am not going back to the way I used to be. I am not going to let people poison me by not valuing the vessel God is molding. I am going to trust the God who leads me. He knows what I need.
God is creating something beautiful and I am going to value it.
