Review of Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott by Jeremy D Vance

This bestselling book was a bit of a disappointment for me. The best takeaways I received were two points. First, the bird by bird illustration demonstrated the need to focus on writing one thing at a time, rather than becoming overwhelmed by the thought of a whole book. Second, the advice to ignore the two different voices in your head is spot on as well. On one side, you have the voice tearing down your writing and on the other, the voice that says your writing could never be better. Instead, focus on your writing or these voices will mess you up.

On the disappointing side, I felt Lamott overly focused on her thoughts and feelings to being a distraction from her writing advice. Granted, I’ve read a number of straight writing craft books so being pushed out of the rut could’ve been a little jolting to me as she writes about her life. Yet, perfecting my writing is what I wanted more than learning her particular likes and dislikes.

Also, I had given up on reading more but decided to give Lamott one more chance. Instead, she blindsided me with an offensive illustration. Now I haven’t spoken about it on here, but I am a person of faith and what she quoted just made me throw the book down in disgust. While she also claimed to be a person of faith, I had put up with a number of things to get to this point, but this quote made me put down the book forever.

I don’t recommend this book even though it is a bestseller. Rather, it’s best left alone.

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Transferred to New Site by Jeremy D Vance

Finally! I’m moving to my new website: jeremydvance.com Thank you to Blogger for my time here! I’d recommend this site to use before acquiring your own domain. The interface is pretty easy to use in my opinion. Also thank you to all who came here to read my blogs. I hope you were encouraged and if you still need encouragement, please follow the link to my new website .

When God Derails Your Plans by Jeremy D Vance

All this time, I believed I would be writing speculative fiction. After another period of distraction, I read about the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7. This inspired an idea that morphed from time travel to a contemporary inspirational fiction story. The story just didn’t fit with what I was writing so it became what it is now. God has a way of shifting our life’s plans when we least expect. Instead of being directed towards children or teens, the story is geared towards adults. This looks like it’ll be a permanent move as well. So….the website will be changing soon. God knows what He is doing and He will continue to direct my future as I trust in Him. All glory to Him. Jeremy D Vance

Our Hope In the Midst of Trouble by Jeremy D Vance

Everyday we deal with the world’s trouble. We may experience the loss of loved ones or our savings might dwindle from unexpected bills. We can grieve or be angry for awhile, but do we allow these troubles to lead us to despair? Do we drown in our feelings without any hope whatsoever? When trouble comes to us believers, we are given the opportunity to focus our faith on Jesus. In the above passage, the news of Christ’s imminent death confused and saddened the disciples. Yet Jesus wanted them to know that though trouble exists in the the world, He has in fact overcome it. Though death exists, it has been overcome. Though pain exists, it has been overcome. What an assurance! We don’t need to fear the world’s troubles, because Jesus has overcome them all and the power behind them. Believers, let’s not fear hardships anymore. Let them come for we rest our faith in Jesus.

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