All posts by Angelique Conger

I have always been a writer, as long as I can remember, I have written! Until recently, my genre was poetry. After a challenge in 2013, I started writing novels, and I find I love to discover the story of the women I have been wondering about for years! I am a wife, mother, and grandmother, once a teacher, always a friend.
Challenges

Everyone Talks about the Weather, But …

Weather.

Amazing how it affects us. Too much sun, or not enough. Rain pours down, drowning us. Or snow buries us. Never the right amount, always overdone. Or, the wind blows, hard. Blowing trees from their foundational roots. Darkening the sky with the dust and dirt picked up as it whooshes past.

We’re “enjoying” monsoon season here in Las Vegas, which means clouds blow up every day, promising rain and bringing lots of humidity. For a desert, 40% humidity is lots! (I know, I know. I’ve lived in Virginia Beach where the humidity was closer to 90%, but this is a desert!) And when the rain finally comes, it floods the valley, or a section of it. Our little section usually gets missed. But other sections get flooded, people are hurt, trees are felled in the wind, water gushes through the streets, and all that beautiful rock people have trucked in to create a “desert landscape” gets washed down the road. Now, if it was grass, it wouldn’t wash away, but … No. I won’t go there today.

Mark Twain said, “Everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.” I suspect we’d do something more than react to it if we could figure out how. I think we could, but that’s an op ed for a newspaper.

Hope you aren’t suffering from the recent tornadoes. How is your weather? Drop me a line and share. Maybe we have a poem we could write.

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Challenges

What Price Happiness?

We watched “Unsinkable Molly Brown” yesterday. John Brown was a genius in the west, with the ability to find gold or silver any time he needed more money. Molly grew up poverty stricken with a desire for more. No matter how much John gave her, she couldn’t find happiness, until after surviving the sinking of the Titanic.

I have friends and family who struggle with happiness and joy. Some cannot be happy with a million dollars and a fancy car. They are always, like Molly, searching for something more. Other friends have little, they live in small houses or apartments on tight budgets and find joy in their families and their friends and their God.

Which are you? Do you always need more or can you find joy in the life you have?

I don’t mean to suggest that because we are happy we don’t want or need to make our lives better. I’m happy with what we have, and it isn’t a mansion or a million dollars. But I’d love for my book business to grow much more rapidly. I wouldn’t turn down additional sales. We all want to make our lives better.

In my next book, Abandoned Hope — that is still awaiting a cover, Daphne is happy to be with her papa as a trader, until he is abducted in Nod. Daphne had to find a way to find her own joy. Not with money, not with things, but inside her.

From Abandoned Hope:

Daphne sorted through the bundles of goods her papa had already prepared to take with them on their return journey to Bashan. The silk fabrics and copper bowls and pans would be welcomed in the small villages and larger towns they passed through on their journey home. However, they were common here in Nod. Certainly not worth a gold.
What was she going to do to rescue Papa? How would she ever come up with fifty golds?
The door to the small barn stood open, allowing warm sunlight to fill the small space. As long as the breeze did not become a wind, she would leave it open. She returned to her sorting, submerged in her fears for her papa.
A shadow blocked the sun, chilling her. Daphne turned expecting to see Joyanna. Instead David entered. His hair stood out across his head and his rumpled clothing looked like he had slept in it.
“Do you have news for me?” she asked.
David crossed the space between them. “No, and yes. Kenji will not take trade goods in exchange for the fifty golds. He is determined to take the coin or the important thing, nothing else.”
“Then Papa is without hope, for we have not fifty coins in our pockets or in our baggage and he cannot have my book.” Daphne glanced at the stack of bundles she had not yet searched through. “Most of what is here will be welcomed in small towns on the way home. But of no use to acquire gold coins.”
“Can you sell it all back in the market? Surely, it will bring you some coins.” David turned to look at the items in the open bundle.
“Perhaps a few. Nothing is so rare or unusual that people here will want it back. They will not give me the fifty gold coins I need to save Papa.” Her hands flew out to flutter toward all the bundles. “And if I could sell them all to set Papa free, how would we get home with nothing to trade along the way? There are still bundles I have not gone through. Perhaps …”
“Let me help. Perhaps I can find something you would otherwise overlook.”
Daphne sighed. “If you wish. I fear for Papa.”
“And you should.” The frown on David’s face sent a chill down her spine.
(Abandoned Hope, to be published soon)

What about you? Where do you find your happiness? What are you working on now to improve your life?

A Short Questionnaire:

1. Are you a reader who loves my books?
2. Are you also a writer, or someone who has thought about writing?
3. Would you be interested in support or help from a published author?

I would love to hear from you.

Happy Reading,

Angelique

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Challenges

Do You See the Beauty?

Today has been a day filled with many emotions.

I learned that a loved brother-in-law returned home to his Heavenly Father this morning. He discovered only three weeks ago that he had a type of cancer. Not feeling ill, he and his wife went with a daughter to New York state, the other side of the country from him, to settle business for his brother. He returned home in time to feel sick. The hospital sent him home to hospice care about three days ago. The family was told he would not recover. This morning, he moved from this life to the next, leaving the rest of us behind.

We live about five hours away and knew his life was near to ending. We planned to head up to visit him one last time after church on Sunday. I had purposely left the Internet closed on my computer this morning to get some editing done on my next book. When I opened it, I discovered this good man had lost the battle.

After calling his sister, and sharing condolences and sorrow with her, my husband needed to do something, go somewhere, so we went for a ride to our local National Conservation Area, Red Rock Canyon. This is a beautiful loop drive, with stops for hikes and overlooks. Today, however, we just drove through, slowly, enjoying the beautiful mountains, rocks, trees, cactus, and plants. I even saw a rabbit run across the road. As we drove through this beautiful area, my phone played music praising God for his wonders through our radio. It filled us with joy.

God, in His majesty, filled us with joy and understanding of His plans for us. Each of us will leave this world at some point in our future. Some, like my brother-in-law, will find that his future no longer includes the pains and sorrows of this earth. Many more of us will continue through this life for many days and years.

Some of us will drive through the beauty of the earth and miss it, swallowed up in our own sorrows and griefs. Others, like my father, will look at the desolate desert and find a flower, the darkening sky and see hope for moisture, or the loss of loved ones and see blessings and hope for that person.

On days like today, when it would be easy to see only the clouds and the sorrows, I am grateful to hear beautiful music and see colorful mountains and growing plants, reminding me that life will continue. What is important is what I do with it.

What will you do with your life? Seek the shadows or look for the shining sun behind the clouds? What sorrows do you face today?

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Mothers

Who Do You Honor This Mothers Day?

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Happy Mothers Day to the women who are reading this.

Some moms are already posting pictures on social media of the flowers their children have given them. My husband bought me a beautiful plant. (I hope I can keep this one alive.) I have also noticed many women who vent their feelings of frustration, anger, and sorrow about the coming Sunday when we celebrate our mothers.

Those who aren’t mothers yet, or who haven’t been able to become mothers, for whatever reason, speak of their embarrassment when wished a Happy Mothers Day. Or sorrow, or grief, or regret, or … The emotions vary as widely as the women who do not (yet) have children and are not (yet) mothers.

Other women feel guilt because they aren’t the perfect mothers you read about in the Mothers Day card section or the songs the children sing. (I always cringed at the “Your happy smiling face”. For some reason, I didn’t alwyas feel like smiling.) Perfection just isn’t possible, but moms feel guilty because they haven’t yet achieved it.

Some women struggle with Mothers Day because their relationships with their own mothers isn’t as good as it could be. Or they feel sad because the relationship with their mom or stepmom ended with the death of their mothers.

Ad infinitum. The grief and sorrow continues with multiple variations of all these excuses and more. Many women struggle to find any joy or honor on the day set apart to honor mothers and women.

Believe it or not, I’ve had all those feelings burn in my heart and soul. Yes, I now have children and grandchildren, but I went through a painful time when I wondered if I would ever be a mother and hear my little ones sing, “Mother dear I love you so.”

I am blessed to still have my mother here with us. She’s now 86, and in general good physical and mental health. Not many women my age can say that. I’m grateful that I can go visit her on Sunday.

This Mothers Day, I am thinking of our first mother, Eve. She struggled with her children and grandchildren who didn’t always listen or do as they were asked. They made choices contrary to those she would have chosen. They caused her hurt feelings and great sorrow. I can only imagine how sad a Mothers Day would have been for her in the years after Cain killed Abel. Such sorrow!

Still, I look to her in gratitude as our first mother and thank her for taking that one step, eating that fruit or whatever it was that caused her to be ejected from the Paradise that was Eden. She did it to give us life, for until she did that, she and Adam were alone in the garden and no new life was created. I am grateful for her willingness to leave that perfect place so we could have life.

So, this mothers day, I honor Eve.

What about you mothers? Who do you honor and remember this year? I’d love to hear your stories if you struggle, if you are sad, or if you are grateful to be with your mom or … I’d love to hear.

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Author, choice and accountability

What Happens When He Throws a Rock?

I am working on the first draft of book three in the Lost Children of the Prophet series. (No. I don’t have a name for it yet. I’m sure I’ll find the name sometime soon.) I wrote a scene I’d like to share with you, but remember this is rough, I’ve done no editing on it yet.

You may wonder the things that helped me write this scene. Many years ago when I was a little girl, my brother had a friend who lived across the street from us in our small town. One day, this friend wanted me to see a rock he thought was particularly pretty. Instead of running it across the street and placing it in my hand, he threw it to me. I, of course, caught it on my head, not in my hands.

In January, we visited our son in Arizona. He took us to a river purposely kept low to save water during the winter. He and his little boy stood for almost an hour throwing rocks into the river. I stood for a long time watching father and son throw rocks into the water. As I watched, I wondered how I could include this in my books.

Here is a part of that scene:

“It may be my fault. When we were still young boys, Father took us out to the horse farm with him while he checked on the horses. Kimnor hit on a great game, or so he thought. We stood across the stream with a stack of smooth rocks, Kimnor stood on one side while I stood on the other.”

David shrugged and pulled his head down into the collar of his cape. “It was Kimnor’s idea. Peter and I were his younger brothers. We always did what he told us to do. Usually, his games were fun. On that day, we were tossing the rocks from one side of the stream to the other, trying to throw them close enough to the other boy that he could catch it.”

“That does not sound safe to me.” Daphne glanced at David, then faced forward to keep her eyes on the road ahead of her.

“Looking back, it wasn’t very safe. We were young boys. What did we know? I threw a rock to him, and he caught it. Then he threw one to me. We stepped back and Kimnor told me to throw the rock to him. It was a flat, little rock, easy for boys to throw. I threw it, he caught it and threw it back, before we stepped back another step. We did this several times.”

“And then he did not catch it?” Daphne asked. She guided the mules around a rock that stood in the center of the road. “Good boy, Jack,” she called out to the mule.

David caught up to her.

“So what happened to Kimnor? Did he miss the rock?”

David grimaced and swallowed. “We had stepped back a distance from the edge of the stream. I had barely managed to throw the rock to him the time before. I worried it would not reach him this time. Kimnor had yelled at me, called me weak. I didn’t want him to call me weak yet again.”

David stared at the ground between the wagon and his horse. He swallowed and cleared his throat. Daphne glanced his way, then stared down the road. She sat in silence, waiting for David to find the words.

David cleared his throat and spoke once more. “I stepped back with one leg and pulled the rock next to my ear. I flung that rock as hard as I could to Kimnor.” David swallowed again. “He didn’t catch it. It moved too fast. He lifted his hands to catch it, but he missed it. It hit him on the head, here.” David pointed to a spot above his eye and dropped his hand.

 

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Eve, First Matriarch

Does it Matter Where Eden Was?

After months of not adding to my blog, it’s time to add to it now. Rather than focus on what is happening in the world, my posts will focus on my books and the world win which they are set.

One of the first complaints I received from a reader is that Eve, First Matriarch had not been set in the Middle East. That is because I don’t agree with current historians on the location of Eden.

Regardless of where it was actually located, the knowledge of Eden’s location would have been lost in Noah’s flood. During that event, when the earth received it’s baptism, the appearance of the land would have changed significantly.

I believe the Ark landed far from the location of Eden and the earliest settlements on the earth. For that reason, I do not include some of the things expected by some. I use the things I believe as a basis for my settings.

Eden could have been any place on this earth. It’s location was on an earth not yet divided into continents and sub-continents. I locate Eden in central United States in my mind.

Does it really matter? Not really. It only matters that it existed while Eve and Adam lived there. After then, it was gone.

Where do you think Eden may have been located? Where do you think God placed it on our earth?

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Challenges, choice and accountability

Is the Problem Guns or God?

The world seems to be falling apart, a city at a time. This last few weeks, there has been hurricanes, fires, shooting in Las Vegas, shootings in other towns and cities, and this Sunday a shooting that killed 1/10 of the population the small town, mostly children.
What is going on?
The pastor from the church shot up on Sunday and a fellow pastor from down the road suggest the problem is a turning away from God. God is not invited into our universities and schools or our courts, and is driven from many of our families.
Governments pray at the beginning of a session, then turn their backs on God while they “grind on the faces of the poor” and take bribes from big corporations. How is God welcome in halls of government? The hypocrisy of these so-called leaders is disgusting.
Once again, the call for increased and tougher gun laws is heard from men and women of government who would not leave their homes without armed guards. The purchase of weapons by some is a problem. Men and women who have violent mental illnesses and those who have violent crimes in their past should not have access to fire arms of any kind. Further, no one needs automatic weapons, or the “bump stock” that turns a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon.
It is common knowledge that criminals don’t go through legal channels to purchase their guns. Most home invasion robbers are seeking legally purchased guns. They don’t go down to the local gun store and have their backgrounds checked, like legal purchasers.
Guns are not the problem. If someone wants to create havoc, they can. Remember Timothy McVea? The problem, as the preachers from the small town in Texas said, is our distance from God.

Eve, First Matriarch is currently available for $0.99. Now would be a good time to check it out. Additionally, I am participating in two book promotions.
The first available for FREE, and you can find other great books about gods and goddesses (my Avenging Angel is one of these). Of course, Avenging Angel includes our God, Jehovah. Other books are mythological or science-fantasy. I know of at least one on that list that is a fun book to read—Redemption by Tora Moon.
These books are available until November 12th and can be found at http://goo.gl/pb8Rnk

Instafreebie Fall Gods Big Square

The second book promotion I am participating in is the Freedom to Read Promotion. All these books are written by women and are about women. Most genres are represented. All these are clean, meaning you won’t be surprised by language. Eve, First Matriarch is among these books. All are available for $0.99. These books are also available until November 12. You can find them at https://rachellechristensen.com/freedomtoreadbooksale/

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Author, choice and accountability

A New Book in a New Month


I have been swamped the past weeks writing, editing, and preparing for the launch of my newest book, Ancient Matriarchs Book Four, Moving into Light: Zehira, Wife of Enoch. Now, it is available on Amazon for Pre-Sale. It would be an understatement to say I am excited!
I’m doing more to share this book than I have the others. Thursday, throughout the day, I’ll be checking in promoting it on a Live Facebook Event, Moving into Light Book Launch Party. I have games and questions, stories to tell, and excerpts to read. I think it’ll take most of the day, so check in when you have time. Everyone who responds with a comment, likes, shares, or participates in a game, will be put into “the hat” for one of the prizes I’m offering. (Watch the event page for the list.)
Go ahead and start sharing now, I’m collecting names of those who do and putting them into my “hat” to be considered for prizes.
I hope you choose to join me sometime during the day.

In other news, I am participating in a Book Funnel Giveaway: October Historical Fiction. Along with other authors, we are sharing a variety of fiction with historical fiction as the connector. Some are romance, others mystery, there are 18 authors and 19 books. See if you can find mine. You can find the Giveaway here.
Happy Reading.

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choice and accountability

Stop the Insanity

Over the past few years, we in the United States have been horrified as ancient historical landmarks were defaced and destroyed by ISIL and the Taliban. We cried out in rage and horror to see these ancient monuments defiled and destroyed. How will we now visit these ancient places?

Does anyone else see the similarities to what is happening in the United States today? Our history is not as ancient, but it is our history. Some complain that they are destroying the remnants of slavery. How do we know those ancient monuments destroyed in the old world were monuments to slavery? Slavery was integral to the lives of many nations in ancient days.

Will the haters destroy this monument to the Massachusetts 54th Brigade, made up of black soldiers in their frenzy?

The monuments in our country are monuments to our history, to people who gave their lives for what they believed. I believed our constitution gave us the right to believe, regardless of the popularity of the belief. Those beliefs are historical, no longer a part of current practice. How can they be offensive to those of us living today?

How far will this go? Will we demand that monuments to religion will be destroyed? If you honor Christ and the cross, will you quietly stand by as images of these are hacked to pieces and torn from their bases? Will you be so intimidated you will not complain? Whether you honor Christ, Buddha, or any other god of any other religion, will you stand by while others’ gods are defaced?

One final thought, the monuments and statues remind us of a past we do not want to replicate. Their very existence reminds us of a time we never want to live through. I suggest these monuments, though they may stand for a terrible time in our history, they also remind us not to repeat that time.

How can you stand by and watch the defamation of our history? It is time for this insanity to end. Find a way to make peace with our history and understand it is history, our history. Desecrating and destroying the monuments will not change the history.

Take a stand against the destruction. Write letters, call your federal and state leaders, demanding protection for all the monuments and statues reminding us of our history. Stand up for the right. Don’t let the world point at us, as they point at the destroyers of the monuments in the middle east, wondering how we could allow this to happen.

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Giveaway and Promotion

2 Ways to Save!

I am participating in a group promotion. You can choose any book you’d like on this page–they’re all fee. Find it at https://mybookcave.com/g/88f4c147/.

You can pick up my free micro-story, Avenging Angel, there, as well. It shares a story of Eve traveling with Adam, until she finds she needs to rescue him. Will she be able to?

If you don’t get it on the promotion, you can find it here.

One last thing, if you’d like to win this free #KindleFire7, I’m holding a giveaway. You will have a better chance to win if you share with all your friends. Go here to enter.  Good Luck!

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