Meet Jenny Anderson from UNBRIDLED (Book 2 of the Silver Wind Equine Rescue Triology)

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Jenny Anderson, our main character in Unbridled, the second book of the Silver Wind Trilogy.

So who is Jenny Anderson?

Jenny Anderson may be fresh out of college, but she’s not fresh out of faith. Raised in the church, Jenny often helps out with socials and leads the singles Bible study group in her church near Shelbyville, Kentucky.

How does Jenny relate to the character and from Book 1: Forgotten Reins?

Jenny is about three minutes older than her twin brother, Josh, but Josh is still the taller of the two and therefore will always be her big brother.

Jenny and Josh both worked at Kingsley’s Estate the same summer with Sarah, where Jenny and Sarah became best friends, and Josh developed a crush on Sarah.

What’s Jenny’s qualifications to work at the equine clinic?

Jenny went to college and received a degree in accounting that equipped her to step in and take over the secretarial position at Micheal’s clinic. She now handles all the billing and keeping appointments and Micheal’s routes plan for the clinic to run smoothly.

What is Jenny’s favorite kind of music?

She enjoys musical artists such as Francesca Battistelli and Toby Mac.

Out of her physical features does Jenny like best and least of herself?

Jenny has a love and hate relationship with her hair. She loves the style and hates her hair color. If you catch it in the book, her hair will change shades of red from time to time as she’s always trying to find the right shade of red that she looks best in.

Jenny’s favorite Bible verse:

Proverbs 24:14

Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it; there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

Hope For Your Day

One of my favorite poems is by Langston Hughes called Dreams. One of the lines of that poem is, “Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die Life is like a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

You may recall the post a wrote some time ago about dreams, if you haven’t or would like to read it again, you can here.

Everyone has dreams. Not just the kind when you close your eyes and go to sleep, but the kind have you longing for something more, something you’re supposed to be doing. And these dreams lead to hope.

Hope – a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

So often I hear stories concerning young people being told they’ll never amount to anything above where they already are in life. It saddens me that in these stories parents tell their children not to expect to go to college. Never dream to be anything more than what the majority of the population is where they live.

While many of us do what our mothers and father’s did before us, because that is all we know. That is what we are comfortable with, we ignore the gifts and talents that we have been born with in order to do what is expected of us.

Hope is an expectation.

Someday, I hope to see my children graduate college, follow their hearts, and succeed in their dreams. Their dreams. Not mine, not anyone else. Theirs.

Hope is like a wishing well for many of us. It’s lowering ourselves into a place we can’t see and quenching a thirst that feels as if it will never be sated. It’s reaching deep down to where we don’t think we’ll ever touch the one thing we’re after.

But we can. All we need to hold on to our dream. As Langston Hughes poem suggest, without a dream, we can’t fly. We can’t soar, and we can’t accomplish the work we’ve been put here to accomplish. It’s the dream that gives us hope. It’s the dream that leads us to the work that brings us joy.

It’s what helps us press on during those days when nothing goes right when a spark inside us draws us near to something, and motivates us to make it happen.

Almost thirteen years ago, I got a job working at a publishing company. Not as an editor, not as an author, but as the accounting department manager. I wasn’t even thinking about what I could do with all those stories I’d been writing while I was there. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I started writing my first novel.

The burning desire had always been there. Yet, I sat it aside because the expectations others placed on me during my youth didn’t include becoming a writer. Yet, unlike so many, I found my way. I persist and continue to hope and make it happen.

What is it that gives you hope? What is it inside you that you feel you should be doing that your not?

Some may think that time has been wasted. Yet, as I look back I think not.

Sometimes we have to experience situations, have people come into our lives, and gain knowledge before we feel the dampness of the Hope well upon our fingertips. Reaching out is more than a distance, but a time.

Hope cannot read the face of a clock, but grasp it tightly. It is the fuel you need make your dreams happen.

Everyone needs hope. Too often we let go, but when things appear to be the worse and you are disheartened it will help you find your way.

That is why we must always have hope.

And I hope I’ve been able to give you a little of it today.

SDCWC Writer's Retreat 2015

This past week, I escaped my usual routines to journey to Grove City, PA for the annual Saint Davids Christian Writers Conference.

I have had the privilege of serving on the board for the Saint Davids Christian Writers Association for the past six years. I go to serve.

Seven years ago, I attended my first writers' conference at St. Davids. In the evening of the Literary Coffeehouse (now known as ‘Got Talent Night’), I listened to may talented authors reading poems and pieces from their books. At the time all I could think of was one day being able to stand up and do the same.

Seven years is a long time.

While I listened to most starting from the first page of their books, I started from that first moment when Sarah and Michael meet in Forgotten Reins. You know the moment, it’s in Chapter nine. And if you don’t, then I encourage you to read it.

This week, I was also blessed to have been invited to sit on website/ blogging and social media panels with well-known authors such as Bob Hostetler, Cindy Sproles, David Fessends, Tracey Michea’l Lewis Giggets, and Jeanette Windell.

Please believe me when I tell you that when I tell you this is the “happiest conference on earth” it really is.

This week was both exhausting and exhilarating. The friendships I have made over the years and the people I have met have been invaluable to me.

Here I am with fellow critique partners and authors Roberta Brosius and Sue Fairchild.

e again.

May your week be blessed by the people you share it with.