Author Elaine Stock joins us today with a message of the importance of rising above our circumstances. She’s also graciously giving away a copy of her award-winning book, Always With You so stick around for your chance to win your choice of print or e-book (in the US), E-book only (outside the US).
A lover of movie musicals, I am a huge admirer of director and choreographer Bob Fosse. The first movie I saw by him was Cabaret, which led me to fangirl over Liza Minnelli. What talent! And that voice . . . wow!
I stumbled across a quote from Ms. Minnelli a little while ago: Reality is something you rise above. But, isn’t reality reality? How can you escape it, let alone rise above it? The more I thought about it, the more I realized I’ve been learning this life lesson ever since I can remember.
Not to play the strings of the pity-party fiddle, but I wasn’t born into the most well off family. Hello low-income housing-project apartment living in East New York, Brooklyn, at least for the first nine years of my life. Yet, without anyone encouraging me I made the most out of it. No pack of Barbies, not a problem. One doll with a busted kneecap led to hours of imaginative playing. Hours of time to myself due to a mentally ill mother led to hours of reading and eventually writing.
When things financially improved due to my father’s hard work, we moved to a suburb north of NYC, but close to the end of the school year when everyone had already made their friends and cliques for the year. What to do? I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, beg others to accept me, so I took many long walks by myself, drew, and wrote stories. (Yes, this was in the pre-computer era.) Not setting out to do so, I rose above my reality.
Eleven years ago when I started my current Day Job, as authors are fond of referring to outside of writing work, a manager taught me how to apply this concept of rising above reality when it came to getting along with co-workers. He saw that I had the ability to rise above the silly needling of my fellow workers and could counter it by behaving more dignified, not by fighting fire with fire. A lesson much needed, one that is applicable to many situations.
And my writing? I’ve been writing forever and a day. Although I’ve been blessed to see my novel Always With You debut a year ago, and it’s gone on to recently win Best Book of the Year by the Christian Small Publisher Association, I’m still a newbie in the publishing arena and many do not, as of yet (like my optimism?), know me.
Am I rising above it? I’m trying my best to by writing more books and getting my work out before publishers eyes, and promoting, promoting, and promoting, and let’s not forget the necessary mingling. Not too bad for an introvert in a chosen extroverted business, right?
Here’s the real bottom line-no, make that foundation because it’s truly a foundation of support to stand firmly on: In reality, day by day, I am learning to stand and to rise above my circumstances with God’s strong and graceful Hands pulling me upright. I look upon Him for the direction and support I need. With Him, I can move forward and unfasten any tether to a reality that threatens to thwart what God wants me to accomplish.
Elaine Stock is the author of Always With You, which released in January 2016 and has won the 2017 Christian Small Publishers Association Book of the Year Award in fiction. Her novels fuse romance, family drama and faith in a clean fiction style. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, and Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and contributes to the international Happy Sis Magazine. In addition to Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, she hangs out on her active six-year-old blog, Everyone’s Story, dedicated to uplifting and encouraging all readers through the power of story and hope.
Elaine’s short story, In His Own Time, won the People’s Choice Award in the Family Fiction Contest and has been published in a printed anthology: The Story: 2014 Anthology. Her short story The Forever Christmas Gift is published in the Amazon bestseller Christmas Treasures: A Collection of Christmas Stories.
Born in Brooklyn, NY, Elaine has now been living in upstate, rural New York with her husband for more years than her stint as a NYC gal. She enjoys long walks down country roads, visiting New England towns, and of course, a good book.
Look for her novella, And You Came Along, releasing first in November as part of the boxed Christmas set, Kisses, Kids and Christmas and then independently in December. This is a story of Jacey and Zander’s rise above difficult situations.
Links:
website/blog: Everyone’s Story http://elainestock.com
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ElaineStock
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AuthorElaineStock
Goodreads http://goodreads.com/ElaineStock
Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/1JYAwNy
Now’s your chance to enter to win a copy of Always With You! Just choose your options below! The more you do, the better your chances of winning!
Enjoyed Elaine’s interview. I loved Always With You
Thanks for stopping by, Ann! God bless!
Ann, I appreciate your support and friendship through the years. I must, must meet you one day!!
I would love thar.
I love this!! Keep rising above reality.
Amen, Joyce. Thanks for stopping by!
Joyce, nice to meet you on Cynthia’s lovely blog. When I first came across Liza Minnelli’s words I too smile because it’s so true! Reality is overrated–LOL!