A Dry Dock Fast for the New Year

by Elva Cobb Martin

Do you do any kind of fast and prayer for the New Year? I always do some kind, whether Daniel's 21-Day prayer and fast of no pleasant bread (sweets) or just one week of fasting sweets, maybe meats, and TV to spend more time seeking God and His plan for us for the New Year.

A prayer and fast is similar to dry docking a ship.

 In my historical research of sailing ships I've learned why ships need to be dry docked after periods of service. According to Tom Hardiman, dry dock occurs when a ship is taken out of its normal surroundings in order to examine what has happened below the water line.


For example, after the USS

 USS Constitution

Constitution had been in commission for about twenty years, this vessel, which had been nimble and easily able to change course, began to slow down. In dry dock ten wagon loads of barnacles were removed from its bottom. Barnacles are living crustaceans with a glue-like substance that attach to bottoms of ships. If not removed, these barnacles grow a hair-like substance that almost looks like a beard. Sailors know this as "Satan's Beard." It's a long trail of stuff that slows the vessel down and, if not removed, the vessel will never return to its original precision.

Dry dock for modern ships is a structured area wherein construction, repairs, changes, and maintenance of merchant vessels and boats are carried out. Do you need some dry docking?

What has attached to you "below the water line" this past busy year? Fear, worry, disappointment, anger, grief, confusion? Satan's Beard, all of them. If these things aren't uprooted from your spirit, they will limit your effectiveness in 2018. They can even abort your having a successful year at all.

So I come aside in my special place, with my Bible and prayer journal, and I have some long talks with Father God at least the first week of each new year. We talk about anything concerning me, my successes, my failures, my time and how to spend it, my writing and marketing, our family finances, and any changes or wisdom needed. I date and write down what He says and confirming scriptures.

And He always also speaks something new into my life. In my year 2000 January fast when I'd been praying about our family finances and whether to make changes in our retirement investment, the Lord said, "If you don't become as concerned about your diet and health as you are with that little nest egg, somebody else will be making decisions about that money." Duh! I got the message. That whole year God began to show us some diet and exercise changes we need to make to our lifestyle if we wanted to live long and healthy. We made big changes and continue them.

Sometimes I didn't act as fast.  I think it was the 1998 January Prayer and Fast, when I was asking the Lord about our investments. He said, "Get totally out of the stock market." We had invested some retirement money in two small mutual funds that were currently earning 16-17%. (Are any of you old enough to remember those good old days?) Who wanted to move money earning good rates like that? I was sure I had misheard. So we did nothing. 

In April I had a vision of an angel in the New York Stock Market.  When I asked the Lord about it, He said, "He's there to hold back the worse losses until more Christians can get their money out." I asked where to rollover our investment, but still received no direction. So, again, I let it slip.

In July on one of my busiest days of year, I was rushing to finish a 21-page prayer booklet that would be distributed to 45 churches in our county who were helping us put a 24 hour prayer cover over our Anderson, S.C. county. God said, "Get your money out of the stock market, NOW." This voice was like a parent's last stern warning to a disobedient child. I called my husband, told him what I'd heard. He agreed, but we still didn't know where to roll the money over to. I called our broker and told him to redeem all our shares and move them into a bank money market at about 2%. He thought we were crazy but he did it that afternoon.

Two weeks later the stock market took its first plunge of 300 points. One friend told us she lost $35,000 in that plunge. Our little nest egg sat safely in a bank money market.

The Lord later showed us to invest in rental properties for retirement income, which are going great. So our "dry dock fasts" have been a realigning, a revealing, and given us wisdom for important decisions over the years.

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment and share this blog on your social media by clicking on the small icons below.

Have a blessed, successful New Year!
Elva Cobb Martin

Elva Cobb Martin is president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers (2014-2017). She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels contracted with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents her. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in Anderson, South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com, her blog http://carolinaromancewithelvamartin.blogspot.com, on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin

Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI

Best Verse in the Bible - Christmas Amplified

by Elva Cobb Martin

"For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He (even) gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal, (everlasting) life."   
                                                                          John 3:16 Amplified Bible

The story of the vision and work on the Amplified Bible, my favorite translation, is a remarkable story of faith, hope, and love. It begins with a woman of vision and intense study of the Bible, Frances Siewert, a non-profit foundation, and, finally, a young, Christian publishing house in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Mrs. Siewert (1881-1967) devoted her life to studying the Bible in the Hebrew and Greek languages. She began work on a Bible translation that would expand, amplify, the text with all the richness of the Hebrew and Greek languages. The Lockman Foundation caught on to her vision of a translation that would add all the color of these two languages to the Bible text and came alongside to assist her. One chapter yet remained to bring the vision into reality. 

Zondervan Publishing House seized the opportunity to participate in this vision they believed would be blessed by God and change lives. They published the Amplified New Testament in 1958 and the full Amplified Bible in 1965.

Merry Christmas and Happy, Blessed New Year!
Elva 

Elva Cobb Martin is president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers (2014-2017). She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels contracted with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents her. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in Anderson, South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com, her blog http://carolinaromancewithelvamartin.blogspot.com, on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin

Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI

Writing with Spiritual Impact - Part 2 Jacob's Stone Legend

By Elva Cobb Martin

In Part 1 we defined "Thin Places" as where heaven and earth seem closer due to the prayer and worship that has taken place in that area. Click here for Part 1 http://bit.ly/2i7YP13  

In my research into "thin places" I found myself studying again the story of Jacob in Genesis 28:11-12. If there ever was a thin place, surely where he slept on a stone as his pillow and dreamed of the ladder between heaven and earth with angels descending, this place would be one.

Remember when Jacob awoke, he was afraid and declared, "How dreadful is this place! It is none other than the house of God,and this is the gate to heaven."

Then he set up the stone and poured oil on it and called the name of that place Bethel, meaning house of God.

Now this is where the "rest of the story" related to that stone gets interesting. 

Did you know there is an unfounded tradition related to it? The legend says this stone was finally brought to Jerusalem, later taken to Spain, then to Ireland and finally, to Scotland. On what is supposed to be that very stone, the kings of Scotland were crowned. Later, Edward I of England had it brought to Westminster and placed under the chair on which kings of England have been crowned for centuries.

Along with this stone tradition is the Anglo-Saxon theory that the British and American people are the ten lost tribes of Israel.

For much more information and research about this topic and where the stone is today, click here: http://bit.ly/2izOpLB

Whether the stone legend or ten lost tribes theory are true or not, thin places we started out discussing continue to intrigue me, especially my own thin place of daily prayer and worship. It is from time spent there that I can write with greater spiritual impact. How about you?

Do you have a "thin place" where you feel closer to God and heaven?

Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment and share this on your social media by clicking on the small icons below.

Blessings,
Elva 

Elva Cobb Martin is president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers (2014-2017). She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels contracted with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents her. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in Anderson, South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com, her blog http://carolinaromancewithelvamartin.blogspot.com, on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin

Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI

Thin Places - Writing with Spiritual Impact Part 1

by Elva Cobb Martin

Iona, Scotland, place of early Christian prayer

My favorite legal thriller author, Robert Whitlow, really snagged my interest in a new term to me, "thin places," in his book Water's Edge. He brought this spiritual principle in by having the heroine describe the hero's deceased, godly, father's law office. The hero Tom had just told the heroine Rose that even though he came to clean out his father's office, he'd actually found himself reading the Bible at his father's old desk more than doing the clean up. 

The heroine glanced around the room,then up at the ceiling and said, "That's because this is a thin place. It's what the ancients called a place where there's less separation between heaven and earth. It allows easier communion between the Lord and His people."

Then she went on to ask if he had heard of Iona or Lindisfarne which are known as thin places in Scotland and northern England where the early Christians established places of prayer and worship.

That prompted me to do some research not only Googling those two famous places people visit every year, but looking in the Bible as well.

Two "thin places" in the Bible that came quickly to my mind were Jacob's dream of the ladder between heaven and earth (Genesis 28:11-22) and New Testament Lydia's place in Philippi Paul discovered down by the river where "prayer was wont to be made." (Acts 16:13)

As Christian writers I believe the best spiritual arcs we can hope to create in our novels will be inspired by time spent in our personal spiritual thin place, our prayer closets. Do you have a "thin place" of your own where you've prayed and worshiped God so regularly, there's less separation between heaven and earth?

In Part 2 I will share something astounding I uncovered in this research into "thin places" that has to do with Jacob's experience and the stone he slept on and anointed with oil.

Thanks for stopping by. Do you know of a special thin place where you feel closer to heaven and inspiration? Please leave a comment, if so, and share this on your social media by clicking on the small icons below.

Blessings,
Elva Cobb Martin

Elva Cobb Martin is president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers (2014-2017). She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels contracted with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents her. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in Anderson, South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com, her blog http://carolinaromancewithelvamartin.blogspot.com, on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin

Link to her romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI

Blackbeard the Pirate - Part 2 Charles Town's Revenge

by Elva Cobb Martin

If you missed Part 1 "Charleston Held Hostage" you can find it in my archive.

After holding Charles Town hostage until his demands were met, Blackbeard sailed away. He had to be gloating over the fact that not only had he taken the most valuable loot of his career, he had, as one writer put it, “reduced to total submission the proud and militant people of South Carolina without firing a single shot.”

What Blackbeard and his cohorts did not count on was that in the South, revenge rides hard on the heels of humiliation.

Once the pirate squadron sailed out of Charleston Harbor and Samuel Wragg and the other hostages had replaced their clothing, if not their dignity, white-hot Southern dander rose to the surface in the Charleston waters.

It was just the stimulus needed for the difficult task of subduing the hitherto fashionable vice known as piracy.

History records the results.

The courts of Charleston, in November of that same year of 1718, tried, convicted and caused to be hanged in the period of one month a total of 49 pirates.

The pride of South Carolina was certainly restored in great measure by these successes against piracy. Blackbeard, however, was not among those executed in Charleston.

He died on November 22, 1718, at the hand of Lt. Robert Maynard. Maynard and his crew, sent by Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood of Virginia, challenged Blackbeard near his Ocracoke, North Carolina, hideout. After being wounded an astounding 25 times, 20 cutlass wounds and five gunshot wounds, Blackbeard succumbed.

Maynard reportedly chopped off Blackbeard’s head and attached it to his mast and sailed home. Legend has it that when they threw the body over board, it swam around the boat seven times before sinking.

So goes the story of Blackbeard, Colonial terrorist.

In England the last pirate of this era was strung up in 1840, and in America the last one was hung in 1862.

Thanks for stopping by. Do you have a favorite pirate story? Please share in the comments and share this on our social media by clicking on the below small icons.

Blessings,
Elva 

Elva Cobb Martin is president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers (2014-2017). She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels contracted with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents her. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in Anderson, South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com, her blog http://carolinaromancewithelvamartin.blogspot.com, on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin

Link to her romance novels, Summer of Deception and In a Pirate's Debt, and a Bible study, Power Over Satan on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI

Blackbeard the Pirate Part 1 - Charleston Held Hostage

by Elva Cobb Martin

November 22, 1718, is the anniversary of Blackbeard's death at the hands of Lt. Robert Maynard. So I decided we'd take another look at this most famous pirate of all.

Pirates had their greatest days in our Atlantic waters in the 1600-1700’s. The success of piracy and its particular form of terrorism in the colonial period were due in part to the laissez-faire attitude of heads of state and some colonial governors. Unpardoned acts of piracy were often condoned by officials as long as the acts were perpetuated against one’s enemies or the loot was shared. England and other nations issued “letters of marque” which gave their own “privateers” as they called these type captains, permission to attack and plunder ships of their enemies.

But piracy became so prevalent at times that honest sea trade almost ground to a halt. Then governments withdrew letters of marque, tracked down the pirates, and hanged them in public.

The history of Charleston, South Carolina, records such a story involving Blackbeard, one the most notorious pirates of all who roamed the Eastern seaboard and the Caribbean.

Blackbeard was more than an adroit leader of men, swashbuckling and fearsome; he was also a skillful navigator and a competent naval tactician. According to Rod Gragg, a University of South Carolina professor of history, Blackbeard once fought and won a naval battle with a 30-gun British man-of-war, becoming perhaps the only pirate in the western hemisphere to defeat the British Royal Navy.

His method of attack was similar to that of terrorists today. He struck quickly, raided, then ran. His favorite place to run was Ocracoke Island on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. His attacks, of course, were always at sea.

In May of 1718, Edward Teach, alias Blackbeard, sailed into Charleston with his fleet of pirate ships. He blockaded the harbor, captured and plundered nine ships and took several hostages including Samuel Wragg, a member of the South Carolina legislature. After interrogating the hostages about the remaining ships in the harbor—their cargoes and destinations—the victims were then thrown half-naked into the dark hold.

In exchange for the prisoners, Blackbeard demanded of Governor Johnson something the pirate did not find on the plundered ships, mainly a large supply of meds used to relieve a pirate’s recurring nightmare—syphilis. Blackbeard warned that if his demands were not met, he would execute all the hostages and raid and sack Charleston. And Charlestonians knew he could do just that.

The Charles Town legislature complied. It seemed that shame, indignation, and revenge were outranked by fear. Actually, it was wisdom that outranked the lot, with revenge simply being reserved.

Thanks for stopping by. Don't miss the Revenge of Charles Town next week! Please leave a comment and share on your social media by clicking on the small icons below.

Blessings,
Elva 

Elva Cobb Martin is president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers (2014-2017). She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels contracted with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents her. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in Anderson, South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com, her blog http://carolinaromancewithelvamartin.blogspot.com, on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin

Link to her romance novels, Summer of Deception and In a Pirate's Debt, and a Bible study, Power Over Satan on Amazon http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI

Tips for Creating A Villain

by Elva Cobb Martin

Villains are important in most  genres, and I've studied quite a lot about how to write about these bad guys (or gals). 

A writer friend, Katherine McDermott, wrote:"In creating romantic suspense the "bad guy" is just as important, if not more important, than the hero and heroine. He must be a "real" person with legitimate motives and his own back story; otherwise, you end up writing a melodrama with stock characters like Dudley Do-right and Snidely Whiplash."

I created a powerful villain by the name of Byron Pitt in my novel, In a Pirate's Debt available at http://amzn.to/2i61Z5P . I gave him a terrible scar on his face that occurred in a sword fight with the hero captain. He was also jealous of the captain and wanted revenge for the scar. I gave him motive and opportunity to seek revenge, increasing the conflict in the story.

In my contemporary romantic suspense novel, Summer of Deception, available at  http://amzn.to/2f0y2SB I wrote in a mercenary, immoral, cowboy villain, Dakota, who had it in for the hero Luke, but I gave this bad guy a piece of a heart. He dropped his girlfriend when she refused to get an abortion, but he also sent money to her regularly and had an account set up to pay for the hospital and doctor for the baby's birth.

In my study I found a great description for a villain written in the Bible. Check out Proverbs 6:12-14, here in the Amplified Bible version. Do you see the body language described?

A worthless person, a wicked man, is he who goes about with a perverse (contrary, wayward) mouth. He winks with his eyes, he speaks by shuffling or tapping with his feet, he makes signs (to mislead and deceive) and teaches with his fingers. Willful and contrary in his heart, he devises trouble, vexation, and evil continually; he lets loose discord and sows it.

Do you have a tip for creating a good villain? Leave a comment.
Thanks for stopping by and please do share this on your social media by clicking on the small icons below.

Blessings,
Elva 

Elva Cobb Martin is president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers (2014-2017). She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels contracted with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents her. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in Anderson, South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com, her blog http://carolinaromancewithelvamartin.blogspot.com, on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin;  and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin

Link to my romance novels and non-fiction works on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI