Category Archives: Dreams

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2011 Faith & Fiction Retreat aka Debuting My NEW BOOK!!!

Hello World,

Obviously me and my soror and best-selling author Patricia Haley...

 

My apologies for not sticking to my usual blogging schedule, but you know how busy the summer months can get…Anywho, I’m back y’all and ready to blog it out…(corny, right? 🙂 ) 

Sooo I’m back from Ponte Verda Beach (near Jacksonville), Florida where I attended the 2011 Faith & Fiction Retreat which was held at the luxe Sawgrass Marriott Spa and Resort!  I had a wonderful time hobnobbing with authors, reconnecting with friends, making new friends and – plugging my book!

Yes, you read that right! My new book “After the Altar Call: The Sisters’ Guide to Developing a Personal Relationship With God” will be published next year!!! I am being published by Nevaeh Publishing! And if you have read my blog for a while, you know I’ve been hoping, wishing, praying and working for this dream to come true for a looooooong time!

Apparently, the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa is home to one of the top the PGA golf courses...

Below is my summary of my book…

After the Altar Call: The Sisters’ Guide to Developing a Personal Relationship With God is a fresh, real and relevant how-to manual for African- American Christian women who desire to move past the “church speak” and into an intimate relationship with their Creator. What makes this book unique from other “relationship with God” books is that this book is written from an African-American perspective and spans a variety of issues typically not included in one book – from being thrice-married to leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

As a seasoned journalist, Jacqueline has interviewed black women from diverse backgrounds to discover what having a personal relationship with God is truly about – beyond the initial “come to Jesus” moment typically associated with the altar call experience. She has given you a rare, personal look into the lives of these women, identified the precepts these women used to develop a personal relationship with God given their life experiences, and created a plan for you to craft your own relationship with the Father.

Y’all, I have interviewed some great women for this book! I interviewed Sherri Shepherd from “The View,” Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the first woman elected to Episcopal office in A.M.E. history; Bishop Linda Lee, the first black woman to be elected as a bishop at the North Central Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church;  and Valorie Burton, a certified personal and executive coach and author.

 

I also have interviewed many notable Christian fiction authors including Dwan  Abrams,  who also founded Nevaeh Publishing LLC; Tiffany Warren, who also started the Faith & Fiction Retreat; and LaTonya Mason Summers, who is also a licensed, professional counselor and the founding executive director of LifeSkills Counseling & Consulting.

Faith & Fiction Retreat founder Tiffany Warren & her husband Brent on the beach...

 

I have also interviewed some people who are well-known to us in the A including the Rev. Stephanie Bronner, who along with her husband, the Rev. James Bronner, wrote the book, Bedroom Talk: How to Turn Your Marriage Into a Lifelong Love Affair. Her husband is the youngest son in the legendary Bronner Bros. hair care dynasty. I also interviewed Melissa Summers, who was known as “Atlanta’s Girlfriend” as the former midday personality for V-103 and former host for KISS 104.1.

And y’all, I also interviewed 15 other phenomenal women for the book. I don’t want to give it all away in one blog post, but y’all will not be disappointed…

It was very special for me to tell everyone about my book at this year’s Faith & Fiction Retreat because I actually pitched my book to several publishing companies at last year’s Faith & Fiction Retreat, which was held in the A. Thankfully, Nevaeh Publishing wanted to publish my book. I feel sooo blessed! I signed my book contract in the fall of last year, and since then, I’ve been working on my book and trying to keep it a secret…

 

But now, I’m ready to tell y’all, and I intend to tell you what’s going on each step of the way right through to publication day. Right now, I’m choosing a book cover, and once that’s done, I will post it on the blog…Also, I’m fine-tuning my marketing and promotion plan…If you want to help me or have some great marketing & promotion ideas, don’t be a stranger. Comment and let me know…

Me & my Faith & Fiction roomie and author Leslie J. Sherrod on the way to the All-White Party...

Give Him Praise!!! Because the Lord Did It!!!

Any thoughts?

P.S. Friend me on Facebook (Jackie Holness) where I will be posting more pics from the retreat soon… 🙂

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Halfway There…

Hello World,

Guess what? Today is the first day of the first week complete in June…At this point, you are probably like, yeah and…Well y’all, it means that, believe it or not, 2011 is halfway over! So if at this point, you realized that some of your New Year’s resolutions and or goals have gotten lost in the shuffle of life, it time’s to renew your commitment to realizing your resolutions and or goals for 2011.

Thankfully, I have completed one big goal for 2011, but I still have plenty more that I’m trying to accomplish before the year is over. And I know, through Christ, all things are possible! So move, get out my way, because I’m coming…

If you are experiencing some inertia as you contemplate your resolutions and or goals for this year, I have swiped some helpful tips for achieving them from Dr. Phil’s website!

Seven Steps to Reaching Your Goals

Successfully executing any personal strategic plan for change requires that as you develop your plan,you effectively incorporate these seven steps for attaining each and every goal.

1. Express your goal in terms of specific events or behaviors.
For a dream to become a goal, it has to be specifically defined in terms of operations, meaning what will be done. When a goal is broken down into steps, it can be managed and pursued much more directly. “Being happy,” for example, is neither an event nor a behavior. When you set out to identify a goal, define what you want in clear and specific terms.

2. Express your goal in terms that can be measured.
How else will you be able to determine your level of progress, or even know when you have successfully arrived where you wanted to be? For instance, how much money do you aspire to make?

3. Assign a timeline to your goal.
Once you have determined precisely what it is you want, you must decide on a timeframe for having it. The deadline you’ve created fosters a sense of urgency or purpose, which in turn will serve as an important motivator, and prevent inertia or procrastination.

4. Choose a goal you can control.
Unlike dreams, which allow you to fantasize about events over which you have no control, goals have to do with aspects of your existence that you control and can therefore manipulate. In identifying your goal, strive for what you can create, not for what you can’t.

5. Plan and program a strategy that will get you to your goal.

Pursuing a goal seriously requires that you realistically assess the obstacles and resources involved, and that you create a strategy for navigating that reality. Willpower is unreliable, fickle fuel because it is based on your emotions. Your environment, your schedule and your accountability must be programmed in such a way that all three support you — long after an emotional high is gone. Life is full of temptations and opportunities to fail. Those temptations and opportunities compete with your more constructive and task-oriented behavior. Without programming, you will find it much harder to stay the course.

6. Define your goal in terms of steps.
Major life changes don’t just happen; they happen one step at a time. Steady progress, through well-chosen, realistic, interval steps, produces results in the end. Know what those steps are before you set out.

7. Create accountability for your progress toward your goal.

Without accountability, people are apt to con themselves. If you know precisely what you want, when you want it — and there are real consequences for not doing the assigned work — you are much more likely to continue in your pursuit of your goal. Find someone in your circle of family or friends to whom you can be accountable. Make periodic reports on your progress.

Any thoughts?

P.S. Tonex’s “Make Me Over” is a great song to listen to as you contemplate moving forward with the second half of 2011. Enjoy!

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Random Ramblings # 3

Hey World,

Whenever I don’t have a specific topic that I want to blog about, I opt to collect my thoughts on various issues that have captured my attention in the last few days or so…hopefully, my randon ramblings are enough to capture your attention…

1. First of all, as the world now knows, Harold Camping was wrong….the world did not end yesterday as he predicted…My question is: So are his followers going to church today? And I guess therein lies the problem, Camping should not have followers unless he is on Twitter. As his followers claim Christianity, the word of God should be their ultimate authority…as I said in my post last week about this topic, the Lord has not given us a specific date of the Rapture…That being said, a lot of people were hosting so-called Rapture parties this weekend and joked about looting the homes of people that would be raptured…I get the joke…but on the other hand, I have a feeling that many (not all) of these people make fun of regular Christians anyway, and Camping’s misguided prediction gave them a justifiable reason to unleash their latent and not-so-latent feelings about Christianity…

2. If you are a black woman in the United States, you have probably heard about the controversial posting that was quickly removed from Psychology Today’s website. The title of the posting was, “Why Are Black Women Rated Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women but Black Men Are Rated Better Looking Than Other Men?” Satoshi Kanazawa, the author of this study, attempted to his explain his findings by stating, “The only thing I can think of that might potentially explain the lower average level of physical attractiveness among black women is testosterone.  Africans on average have higher levels of testosterone than other races.” If you want more info, please go to The Root…I mean his statement brings back lonely memories of being the only black girl in my elementary school class…I felt sooo different and somehow “unpretty” as a result…Yesterday, I happened to be the only black woman running with my training group. There are other black women in the group, but they were absent for whatever reason yesterday…Anyway, as we were running in Sandy Springs, a group of white cyclists whizzed by us…Without warning, one of them said to another one, “Baby got back.” Now, if I had been in a black neighborhood, I would have taken it as a compliment. But it didn’t feel like one yesterday…R told me I should I have kicked his bike spokes…I mean what is Kanazawa thinking…Let me back on that…He could not have been thinking about how mean-spirited his words are…Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…everyone knows that…I did not like my shape as a child, but God gave me what many people try to get through surgery…

3. My line sister never let go of her dream of going to medical school although she has had some obstacles and challenges along the way. And today, she is graduating from medical school!!! I’m so proud of her, and later today, my line sisters and I will be there to cheer her on! Go Desert Rain (her line name)!!! You did that!!!

4. After having a conversation with a friend yesterday, I realized that I have taken the strength of single women for granted. And at the same time, I never realized about how good it can feel it to have that mate in your corner to support you…Without mates, my friends and I have managed to accomplish many things including: buying a home, climbing the corporate ladder, starting a business, etc….But I’m starting to take notice of how nice it is to have someone other than your parents to get feedback from about how your life can unfold as you pursue your purpose and dreams…With all that said, my main supporter and cheerleader is the Lord God Almighty! God is my source, and I thank Him for putting certain people in my life as resources…

5. I’m gonna miss Oprah…And I cannot believe I’ve never been to the show…I should have tried harder…Her show has been a true blessings to countless people…And her life has been a testimony to the strength, brilliance, power and beauty of black women…A true Shero among us…(Aside: It would have been nice to have been featured in her book club…)

6. I’ve always joked on St. Patty’s Day saying, “kiss me I’m black Irish!” … When I visited Stratford-upon-Avon (the birthplace of Shakespeare) years ago, I discovered that my last name is actually Scottish. There was a place there where you could look up your roots and what not…So anyway, since  Scottland and Ireland are so close together, I could have distant Irish cousins as well…I know, I know – it’s a long shot…But as it turns out, President Obama is actually “black Irish” as it has been proven that his mother’s side of the family are from there…He will actually be visiting his ancestral home on Monday, according to the BBC News…

7. The world may not have ended yesterday, but if our weird weather is any indication of when the Lord will return, it may not be that much longer…First of all, several months ago, the A was blanketed in snow, and then last week, we had three back-to-back cold days…So glad it’s going to be hot day…

So that’s all….

Any thoughts?