GUEST POST FROM MY FRIEND...

who is officially now an author!


Watching Them Grow Up

I can still remember crying the first time my infant daughter outgrew the Newborn-size diapers. And when she moved out of the 0-3 size clothes and into the 3-6 month size… when she stopped nursing.

I feel like I’ve just blinked and she’s nearly two already. Now she insists on feeding herself (using utensils! not even her fingers!), wants to dress herself, and one of her favorite words is “no.” Thank goodness her other favorite word is “mommy.” :)

And I’m a little afraid to blink again for fear she’ll be off to kindergarten if I do. And then college… I know God has great plans for her, but sometimes I wish I could just freeze time for a little while.

It’s inevitable that we have to watch our kids grow up, and as an author I’ve experienced something similar with my main characters. Officially, it’s called a “character arc”—but the real question is “what does my character learn through the events of this book?”

If they remain static or don’t change throughout the story, how can I expect a reader to engage with them? I can’t. If you enjoy reading at all, you know that the best characters are those that bring you right along with them on their journey and make you root for them, make you hope that they’ll find out what they need to before the end of the book.

For the heroine of my debut novel, MARRYING MISS MARSHAL, her character arc includes learning that she has value just as God made her. You see, she’s a town marshal (a hard job for a woman NOW, much less in the Wild West!), but she struggles with how other people view her. The men in town don’t think she can do a good job as marshal. The women think she should give up her badge and find a husband to take care of her. What she has to learn is what God expects of her—and ultimately that is to use her God-given talents to do what she is good at—a good lesson for us all!

If you’d like to read an excerpt of MARRYING MISS MARSHAL, please visit www.marryingmissmarshal.com . You can also find Lacy on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lacywilliamsbooks .

And thank you so much, Robin, for letting me be a guest on your blog!