Copyright, to do or not to do

            I have finally finished writing my second novel, Love without a Limit.  I haven’t really gone thru it and done any rewriting but I have been shopping around for an editor.  I was chatting back and forth with one and told her that I wanted to obtain the copyright for my work before I sent it to her.  She then informed me that I didn’t need to obtain an actual copyright because my work was copyrighted as soon as I created it and to just apply the copyright symbol on any work I send.  I appreciated her advice but was puzzled.

            When I finished my first book, Dimes, Profiles and Wives, I was so happy.  The first thing I did after finishing the writing was to pour myself a glass of wine and celebrate.  The next thing I did was obtain the copyright for the finished work.  I actually went to the post office, with the form filled out from the copyright office and a hard copy of the book, and sent the copy to the Library of Congress with postal insurance. She was my baby and I wanted to make sure she was legally protected.

            After having the chat with the editor I began to wonder if I should follow her advice.  Today the process is much easier to obtain an actual copyright because you can send the work digitally. You can copyright anything that you created from books to movies. However, I wondered if I was just an “old head” that needed to be caught up with the times.   

            My advice is to do both.  I firmly believe that having the actual certificate authenticating your authorship and protection of your product is essential. Especially if there is ever any quarrel over who owned and created the product; it saves you excruciating headaches in the long run.  Yet if you don’t have the funds to pay the fee make sure you apply the copyright symbol on anything that you release to another party if you want to prove and protect your created product. 

What's Going On?

As of today they still have not found the missing airplane from Malaysia.  When I first heard this story I was like, Oh Lord, I missed it, the Rapture. Now I know some of you are laughing your face off but let’s just think about that for a second.  What if that was it, according to Christian beliefs, and the rest of us are left here on earth?  Is that such a bad thing or did the plane just fall into the water somewhere?  More importantly, are you, as a believer, ready for the second coming of Christ?

All of these questions have been running around in my head all week.  It has been especially bittersweet because I just celebrated a birthday.  So now as I ponder these and many other questions I wonder if God is pleased with me.  Like I said in my last post, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory, but the blessing in that is that God forgives all sin.  However, are you living the life that He really has for you?

While listening to some gospel hip hop artists I realized that there was so much more I need to be doing for the body of Christ.  I love writing and have dedicated my gift to His glory but there are still things that need to be done that I have yet to really starting working on.  Faith without works is dead, that is the word and there is still so much work to do.

One of my main characters in the series Dimes, Profiles and Wives© prides herself at being a social worker.  She loves her job but it stresses her to no end almost getting her killed in the first book. Even though she is a social worker her gift is psalms which she uses almost every day. However as I look at her and myself, is that enough?  Should we only work in the gifts that we were truly given or try to work outside of them to help even more in the body of Christ? 

I know that question may seem rhetorical but it is a viable question that I think we all have to ask ourselves.  What would Jesus do?  I hope they find out what really happened to the plane from Malaysia.  The good thing though is it has opened so many questions that I will be working to answer for myself in this lifetime.  To that end I have stepped out on faith and started volunteering as a reading buddy for fourth graders here in my community.  There is still much more work to do though.

Long time coming

Well it’s been almost a year and I have finally come close to finishing my second work.  I know I should be shot for letting this blog go silent for so long.  However now, with a wider focus, I intend to keep this blog updated at least twice a month.  With that being said I want to speak on something that went down over this past year for me.  I got another marriage proposal.  I am still single though.  Although heartbreak followed, I am much happier and healthier since the end of the most tumultuous relationship I’ve ever been in.

Now of course I’m not going to put my business all out there for everyone to gawk at but I will say this.  I learned many valuable lessons but the most important, which seems simplistic to understand but truly is not, has been immeasurable in making me the woman I am today.  That lesson is this: the heart is inherently evil and deceitful, who then can truly trust in it Jeremiah 17:9.  I’ll let that fester with you for a minute and say this.  Understand what love truly is before you confess it to another. That is the last thing I’m going to say about the year 2013.

So it’s 2014 and I’m about done creating another masterpiece. For a while there I thought I was going to throw my laptop out the window but I digress.  The characters in the Dimes, Profiles, and Wives© series have given me so much to write about. The three main characters: Destiny, Sharon and Tracey will show you how life is full of possibilities. You will never know what the day will bring but you must live it, and live it to the fullest.  I try to take you thru their lives as revealing as I can while entertaining your soul.  

My hope is that everyone that reads one of my works gets a glimpse into what being a believer truly means.  It in no way means that one is perfect, nobody can be for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Yet we have a savior, Christ that is the Lamb of God who took on the sins of the world.  He was the sacrifice and rose on the third day with all power in heaven and earth in His hand.  What a mighty King is He. So with that, I wish you would return to read my little blog.  Every new post will be something fresh that will tickle your mind.