WELCOME ANNOUNCEMENT!

(Introduction sent to my entire data base)

NEWS RELEASE!

 I've launched a new

"Space Craft" for my Wordsmithing!

Click below:

leonachoy.com

This website is my total Internet workSpace now!

Hurry over!

Below is what you will see on your computer 

when you arrive there...

While coaching Christian writers to move up to the next level of their potential and witness, I pressed on to do that myself. 

My new author domain and website is professionally designed and up and running at leonachoy.com.

I offer user-friendly information and inspiration for YOU, whatever your niche needs or interests—or that of your friends.

My new website is interactive. It's for YOU and ME to communicate. I welcome your questions and comments.

Whether you are a beginning WRITER or a published author, I'm passionate about working with you toward your goals. Come to leonachoy.com and let's talk about how you can work toward fulfilling your dreams.

There's more! I'm eager to communicate with my READERS.

All of my books in print are pictured, each with a Peek Inside feature in my Bookstore at leonachoy.com. 

The low price of all my books hasn't changed...still $12.99. However, to make ordering super convenient, shipping is already included in the price listed!

I'm telling my readers back-stories of how I came to write each book. And you'll be the first to know about my current writing and publishing projects in process.

Everyone who subscribes to my website automatically receives notification of all my new posts. (To “subscribe” is free and safe and doesn't obligate you for anything.) 

On your first visit to leonachoy.com when you subscribe, please indicate whether you want to receive my additional Butterfly Briefs with WRITING helps and resources.

Hurry over online to my writing studio. Pay me a virtual visit—I'll be at my desk at leonachoy.com waiting for you!

Announcing Leona's NEW WEBSITE!

  The 4th of July!

What a super time to announce
 that my new website is now up and running!

Just click on the link below: 

leonachoy.com

You will instantly be there! 
More quickly than "Beam me up, Scotty!"

Use only this new link from now on.
This blog will continue at my new site.

Tell your friends about the move
 so they can find me.

I'll be waiting for you in my writing studio!

Leona Choy

MOVING! “The whole kit and kaboodle”

THE BOTTOM LINE FIRST:

THIS BLOG IS MOVING TO MY NEW, ENHANCED, EXPANDED AND ALL-INCLUSIVE AUTHOR WEBSITE leonachoy.com. ISN'T THAT EASY TO REMEMBER?

When? Hopefully my new website will be active in a week or so.

Go to leonachoy.com. “Czech” it out. After reading my HOME PAGE, sample all my pull-downs to see what's in store for you as a reader of my books or as an aspiring or already published writer.

Go to my FAQ's. There are several ways to CONTACT me. I'll be waiting for you.

Leave your email address to take advantage of all the forthcoming free PDF's, great resources for writers, and backstories of all my books in print.

Be the first to find out what's next on my writing and publishing schedule. 

Order my books directly from this site.

I'll continue to post my inspirational writings on my new blog at leonachoy.com just as I did on this site. The archives will still be available. Yes, the whole kit and kaboodle/caboodle.

How do I apply that term to my MOVE?

The expression implies the whole nine yards, the whole ball of wax, the bundle, everybody and everything but the kitchen sink...and MORE.

The “kit” part is derived from a soldier's kit of necessaries, the contents of his knapsack. The “caboodle” comes from the word booty or bounty, the property one owns.

For you who are reading this, I apply "kit and kaboodle" to my all-inclusive MOVE from leonachoy.blogspot.com to leonachoy.com.

Tell others about this important announcement. I don't want to lose anyone—my nearly 2,000 views a month represent valued friends of my blog site for the past 10 years.
Introduce your friends to leonachoy.com. I'm excited to make new friends!

JUMP ON THE MOVING VAN. This is a happy move. Don't be left behind. I'll see you soon over at leonachoy.com!

MOUNTAIN MUSINGS

MOUNTAIN MUSINGS

A Dialogue with God

Leona Choy

Lord, would You please deal with this mountain

That is looming so high in my life?

What shall I call the mountain—Impossible?

Perhaps painful or inconvenient or disabling?

It's invisible, only for You and me to see.

But it hinders me. I'd say it really gets to me

Please remove it! You promised

it could be cast into the sea for me.*

How do You plan to get rid of my mountain, Lord?

Will You use a bulldozer and tunnel right through it?

Or will You fly me over it in an angel helicopter?

Or simply wave Your mighty hand

or speak the word and disappear it?

Do you want me to go around it?

Oh, there's a condition?

I must have faith like a grain of mustard seed.

So I offer that to You. Is that all You need?

Are You going to use it like a stick of dynamite

and blow up my mountain? Spectacular!

You want me to stop guessing how You'll remove it?

That's something that You decide? Okay, I get it.

You say I might have misnamed my mountain?

It could be called “cross” or perhaps “thorn”?

The cross is for me to gladly “take up and follow You.”*

Like “sharing in the fellowship of Your sufferings.”*

The thorn is given me for Your special purpose

And, like You answered the apostle Paul,*

You are not going to take it away?

I might have to live with my mountain?

Lord, that wasn't the way I hoped You'd

deal with my unwanted mountain!

Gladly glory in my infirmities

and Your grace will be sufficient for me?*

That's a pretty big order.

But You'll be helping me, right?

Awesome!

^^^^

*Matthew 17:20; Matthew 10:38; Phil. 3:10; 1 Cor. 12:7-10

PRESSING ON REGARDLESS

(Guest Post) What if?

(Used by permission May 26, 2018 by Marlene Bagnull

"This morning the Bible program that is always open on my computer crashed. I could have gone inside to get a Bible, but what if they had all been confiscated by the government because of the “hate language” they contained? What if it was a crime, punishable by death, to share my faith in Jesus Christ?


Sounds far-fetched? Not really unless we’ve buried our head in the sand and refused to recognize the growing hostility toward Christians in our nation. Not unless we’ve chosen to ignore how our brothers and sisters around the world are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ.

I got home at 1:00 am Wednesday morning from directing the Colorado Christian Writers Conference for the 22^nd year. I couldn’t help but wonder if this would be the last year for the conference.

I’m NOT quitting and I’m NOT retiring even though I am 73. 

(Leona's note: I'm 20 years older than Marlene and still PRESSING ON REGARDLESS)

But I can’t assume that next year Christians will be free to gather or that our nation will even exist. When, not if, our economy collapses, we’ll have anarchy on our streets. If an EMT destroys our electrical grid, we’ll be back in the middle ages. Or if enemies intent on destroying America and Israel unleash another 911.

The sad fact for America is that
our sin has made God our enemy.
Because of the rejection of God and His Word
and because we have exchanged
the God of Life for the gods of death
and perversion,
America is already under
the Hand of God’s judgment.

If there is no national confession of sin and if we cannot find a heart of repentance, a Holy God will complete his judgment; either by the complete annihilation or subjugation of what was once a great and godly people or by rendering it completely irrelevant on the world stage.

And so with a growing urgency each year the Colorado and Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference [which Marlene established and still directs] strives to “encourage and equip Christians to write about a God who is real, who is reachable, and who changes lives.” Whether through fiction or nonfiction, articles, poetry, or screenplays, we must “Write His Answer.”

****

(Leona adds:
Neither am I quitting or retiring. I'm taking [as deep a breath as I can with a chronically compromised lung from cancer surgery 28 years ago] to pursue my vision to pass on the writing baton to another generation of Christian writers. I'm going forward regardless of a mountain of "what ifs"--personal or national.

Jesus already warned us that "the night is coming when no man can work." I am a realist but full of hope to keep on "redeeming the time" I have left.)

PRESS THE PAUSE BUTTON

I published an entire book recently on this topic.

"Press the PAUSE button" was the subtitle of my book SELAH REFLECTIONS.

The word SELAH seems to be a mystery word in the Hebrew language. It occurs only in the Old Testament, 71 times in the Psalms. Since its exact meaning is obscure, most versions of the Bible don't even attempt to translate it but let it stand straight from the Hebrew.

Whether it's a musical term, an instruction to singers, indicates a PAUSE to praise God or to linger briefly and meditate on what is being said or written, I have combined all the possible meanings in my book: PAUSE, be silent, calmly think about this, ponder over it, meditate on it in your mind and spirit--then put it into action.

I filled this book with short, personal thought-reflections offering them as my own experiences to share with the reader to SELAH and PAUSE, to glean whatever Christian truth they might reveal. 

I call them sound bites in print, savory word snacks which I first posted as mini-articles on my blog: leonachoy.blogspot.com. I grew a book out of my blog posts and compiled them under the SELAH theme.


All of us need the SELAH PAUSES desperately in our often accelerated lives in the daily fast lane. We seem to have lost our appetite for quiet contemplation or we have never even experienced it.

How I need "the PAUSE that refreshes"! Why does it seem so difficult to program it into my crowded days? I try to find SELAH moments to press the PAUSE button and capture opportunities to laud and applaud God from Whom all blessings flow. Then my "to do" list doesn't seem so ominous.

MEET MY FRIEND LOUISE

Now is never too late and you are never too old to start doing something new! 

Let me tell you about my still-never-met-in-person author friend, Louise. I love to applaud other writers and recommend their books. The book shown above is a page-turner. My cup of tea got cold because I couldn't put this book down. 

I did have a problem. I thought I was reading my own writing--Louise and I are so in sync on topic, writing style, many mutual life experiences, long-term widowhood, a love for the Lord and desire to uplift the attitudes of our fellow calendar-challenged friends.

I'm a lifelong writer, but Louise's writing career began at age seventy-nine. Since then, she has written six outstanding books. Not having read her other books, although I intend to, I recommend this one without reservations.

Louise is not a newbie in life experience, however. She has taught in all levels of education from elementary school through college,    and in the prison system. A widow since the passing of her husband in his fifties, she has raised her family, managed a Christian Retreat Center for fifteen years and served as the Spiritual Director in a psychiatric hospital.

Would you believe? She says her greatest accomplishments have been since her mid-seventies when she started going to China to teach in an underground Bible school! There we are in sync again with our China connection. And certainly in our mutual desire to leave a legacy through our writings and personal witness wherever  the Lord has planted us.

Now in her late eighties, Louise is out there busily speaking to Christian Writer's Conferences, on radio, making YouTube videos with her humor and continuing to live it up--and write more.

MAKE THE REST OF YOUR DAYS THE BEST OF YOUR DAYS is no small book at 233 pages. How user-friendly is it? The ultimate: she has packed each chapter with her own life experience vignettes and those of others--you eagerly await her next illustration and it comes quickly.  Her format is to use bite-sized, usually half-page topics with phrase appetizers to whet your appetite. Ideal for the diminishing attention span of the senior reader.

The subject Louise is exploring is the best real life exposition of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes chapter 12 that I have ever read. Several thousand years ago, the author, King Solomon, gave a poetic but rather dismal description of what happens to an aging body--to any aging person then and now. Louise brings it up-to-date without sparing any punches with her personal, earthy illustrations. If you are anywhere near the AARP age you will relate to her uninhibited examples dished out with spice and humor.

She doesn't leave us dangling in suspense and depression as we face the deterioration of our mortal bodies, as the apostle Paul so well laid it out in 2 Corinthians chapter four, verses 16-18.  Louise shows us, not just tells us, how not to "lose heart" with the downhill slide of our outer person, but to "be renewed day by day."

She demonstrates how a Christian can cultivate a godly, joyful life that radiates from within regardless of what is happening to our "earth suits." (We both use that term in our writing, although we didn't know each other or had ever read one another's writings until  a few weeks ago.)

Louise is so well-grounded in God's Word and so adept at finding just the right verse to season her illustrations that her writing flows seamlessly. I was so sorry that her book ended. At the same time, there was satisfactory closure to the topic. I was left restless and yet recharged to continue applying the principles from the Word even into my own life as a nonagenarian.

My new friend didn't leave me without consolation. With her book came a CD of Scriptures For Encouragement read by Louise in her sweet Southern accent, accompanied by the gentle strains of background flute music of familiar hymns played by one of her granddaughters. I'm on my eighth listen-through since I slid the disk into my Toyota's CD player for my drives into town. The Word of God is  "dwelling in [my ears] richly."

I must tell you where to find my friend Louise. www.louisellooney.com. Go there. Really. And beside this book, see what other book you can order and savor for yourself.