Author J. R. DuBois: Unfiltered

How can you rest in the Lord when all you fear is the day His hand will not protect you? Just yesterday, my own struggles were ripped from my chest in such a visceral way that I had to pull over (I was driving). I hadn’t even cried so hard when I watched Mom die. I saw something that took the culmination of the last two years--of the last five deaths (two grandparents, two cats, and my mother), several illnesses and subsequent relational issues, my fear of losing yet another loved one, and the pain of watching the rightness in this world being made wrong--and ripped it out of me. I know people talk about being torn down, about being brought to their knees and rebuilt, but I don’t think folks who haven’t felt that realize what that means. There are no words to that sort of pain. That level of despair. Of hopelessness. If you'd have asked me to stand, I don't think I could have. People like to approach Christians and expect them to have the answer to the problem of evil, only t...

 Hey conduits. Maybe I shouldn't call you that. Who knows how many conduit-based books I'll write... Conduit of Fire is, after all, written as a stand-alone with an open ending "just in case." So, I'm done with my book for now. Which is amazing! This said... I'm not writing anything at the moment, simply reworking and fine-tuning the existing multi-edited draft, and it's not enough. I need more. But, given that I've legit been working on this story for so long, turning it from a single book to trilogy to duology and back, I'm listless. I've finished the story I began ten years ago. What now. CP Angela suggests I write something different. Get out of that land and play. I think I want to? But I do love it. But also I'm trying to decide WHAT. When I first wrote this story, I was just messing around with it, writing for fun and to fill the time between school and work and life. Then come 2020, I took it seriously and gave it a theme and fleshe...

 Hello conduits! It's been nearly one full year since I've written. My last post was about the grief I've been wrestling with losing two cats and my mother within three months of each other. It's been rough. God and life are still good, though, but the main reason I've been M.I.A. (A.W.O.L.? Both apply.) is that I realized that this journey of writing this story could be altered just slightly to reduce a trilogy/duology into one book. And I did it! The book, and the story I intended to write which I've been avidly working on since 2020, is complete. Done. I have three CPs reading it right now to give me final feedback, and I've signed up for the Virginia Writing Conference next month, and have registered for all services offered. I have, in actuality, entered into the phase of beginning to get my book out there--even if it takes a wee bit longer than intended. So. I recently read the stats. Given the fact that most businesses are overworked and understaffed,...

Hey there, conduits. It's been several months, after which I'd said I didn't want to do to this blog as I had all the others. Well, in this case, there wasn't simply one good reason, but three. If you all have been following me, you know that 2022 was a heck of a year where cat health was a thing. It started in January when my grandfather died on the same day that my eldest cat got diagnosed with IMHA. Throughout that year, my husband and I battled how to help serve our elderly boy without going deep into thousands and thousands of dollars in debt, all while having various issues with the others -- none due to environment; our house was and is fine and healthy to be in. So, Granddad died. Jynx developed IMHA. Ozzy (Oswald) suffered chronic UTIs throughout the entire year, developed stress-related cystitis, which he still has today (just brought him back from the vet for another round of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, but we're figuring it out). Romeo swallowed...

 Hello Conduits. There has been some development in my writing life/the progression of the books. I am all but running head-long into the climax of Book Two when I realized... I want to rework the ending of Book One. Nay, not only do I want to, I must. There are a couple things I realized while writing Book Two, and that is that, at the end of Book One, I made some promises to you readers which will never be fulfilled, given the rest of the story. So I got to scrub some of those. It isn't a big deal, might take me a wee longer than I want it to, but hopefully this back-and-forth gives you some insight into what it really takes to craft a book -- and not just a book, but a well-thought-out, full-fleshed story and characters with a plot and character arcs WHICH MAKE SENSE. So, respect all those books which do just that! Because *that* is the challenge. Anyone can tell a story and hit "publish" on Amazon. But I want to do more; be better. Alright. So, unfortunately, while it...

Heavens to Betsy, is Book Two's progress slowing down because I know I'm getting near the end, getting overwhelmed with all the stuff I need to make happen before the end -- which is fast approaching -- or is it because I want to tweak the end of Book One so Book Two essentially becomes Part Two of Book One, thus making Book 1 and 2 only one book? *grabs head and screams* Yesterday, I was certain that this (the latter) was what I thought I should do. But now... Eeeeuuughhh... As I've tried to plot and draft such a thing, I realize... well. Maybe yes and maybe no. I really could make this thing a trilogy, but I also want to try very hard to make it a duology with trilogy, prequel, and sequel potential, so either way, the stories are connected, but do I finish book two, finesse it as much as I have Book One, and then ram the two together with the neat little sections of "Part One" and "Part Two," and then leave the prologue of Book Two and some of the vill...

  My Backyard Writing Spot. Isn't it gorgeous?! "They" say it takes a village to rear a child, but I say it takes a village to write a book. I cannot tell you the number of times I thought Conduit of Fire was done. Finished. Finito. Fin. I cannot tell you how many times I was wrong. If I wait for this thing to be perfect, I will never publish it. So perfection is off the table. But there is this thing called "author blindness," where the creators of the work quite literally go "blind" to certain issues that arise in the text. These could be simple typos, where we gloss over them because they're minor, and we know what we're trying to say, to larger ones, where we're trying to explain a concept but it doesn't quite come across because we forgot that either a) we didn't talk about that yet, or b) we forgot what we took out that relates to it and we still think it's in there, or c) some combination thereof. Remember, Conduit of Fir...