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Update: Why I haven’t been publishing anything.

Dayo Benson

Dear Highly Valued Reader,

Since I wrapped up my Crystal series back in 2016, I’ve been promising a season 2. Alas, I got side-tracked by other ideas and other series.

But I knew it was time to start writing more Crystal books when snippets of banter between Alejandro and Max kept popping into my mind!!!

To make this happen, I decided to hibernate and focus on finishing the two series that I was midway through (Saints and Sinners & The Lincolns). I’ve been pretty quiet since I released Unholy Ground (Saints and Sinners 3) back in January. That’s because I’ve been doing just that: hibernating and writing NONSTOP.

Need proof? The books I’ve written so far this year are:

  1. Irredeemable (Saints and Sinners 4)
  2. Curveball (Saints and Sinners 5)
  3. Justice (Saints and Sinners 6)
  4. Untitled (The Lincolns 10) – Salem Lincoln (it isn’t really untitled but if I mention the title you’ll all guess what’s wrong with him 😃)
  5. The Magician (The Lincolns 11) – Xy Lincoln
  6. The Televangelist (The Lincolns 12) – Hades Lincoln
  7. The Red Robe (The Lincolns 13) – Jared Lincoln
  8. Prophecy (Crystal 10)
  9. Untitled (Crystal 11)
  10. Untitled (Crystal 12)

Currently writing: Untitled (Crystal 13)

Please note: all titles listed are tentative.

You may be wondering how I’ve managed to write that many books this year. Well, I’ve been writing like I’m on drugs. My husband has been sniffing my breath just to make sure I’m sober, ha ha. But guess what? I’m LOVING this level of productivity.

However, writing so fast is hard work. It means I have to plot books in intricate detail so that writing is mindless and I don’t have to stop to think. I have to have each scene outlined and I have to know exactly where the book is going. It also means that in my spare time I’m reading lots of other books as reading awesome literature keeps me fresh and sparks my own creativity. I’m also watching movies, reading books/listening to podcasts about story-structure and storytelling devices/techniques, and other things that only obsessed storytellers bother with.

It also means trying to edit and publish isn’t realistic 😭😭😭

I’ve been trying to edit ‘Untitled’ (Salem’s book) and I’m about 60% through the first edit (2 more rounds of editing to go) and it’s affecting my writing.

Image result for wonder womanI initially thought I’d be able to edit/publish while writing this fast but I always think I’m Wonder Woman. I’m not.

Besides being an author, I’m also supposed to be a wife and a mother to two kids that I should really spend time with. Also, praying and reading my bible are habits that I just have to keep up. I can’t negotiate on that. I’m waking up at 4am each morning as it is. (5.30am is the absolute latest I can allow) or I won’t get everything done that I need to.

Creativity takes time. But don’t feel sorry for me, guys. I’m enjoying this so much. It’s my calling and it energizes rather than drains me. My goal is to publish 100 books before age 40. I’m in my early thirties and decided in January, when I had my birthday, that I don’t have to let this drag out until I’m forty. I’m a motivational video/personal development junkie and I heard a quote that you should take your 10-year goal and see what you can do to achieve it in 6 months!!! I cannot hit book 100 in 6 months. But I could possibly hit it by this time next year. I’m currently writing my 57th book so 43 left. Woohoo!!! 💃💃💃

I gave myself this ‘100 books by 40’ goal because I currently have 180 books on my ‘to be written’ list. The thought of getting to the end of my life and not writing them all troubles me. But I’ve decided that if I can write 100 of them, that’ll be pretty cool.

Really Sorry…

Image result for pleadingSoo…I’m asking for your forgiveness if you’re one of the people who has emailed me this year to ask when my next book will be out and I told you it’ll be out in the summer. It won’t. At the moment I’m thinking it’ll be next year. But who knows, I could burn out within a few months and decide to stop writing and start editing/publishing, or I might stay focused and make it to book 100 by this time next year (that’s the target).

If you’re thinking that writing that many books in twelve months is crazy. It is. But it’s not as crazy as you think if you consider the fact that I’m dictating the books (not typing. Typing forty-something books before now has pretty much ruined my wrists). I’m also a full-time author so this is my ‘day job’. Also, none of these books will be the finished article by any stretch of the imagination. Each one of them is a very messy first draft that I will need to later mold into something readable, and they will each have to go through three rounds of editing (It’ll probably take me like five years to actually publish them all). I’m literally just blitzing out my first drafts since the mood to do so has taken me.

Stay in Touch

Image result for stay in touchAnyhow, I need your prayers. Also, I invite you to email me whenever you want and keep me accountable, check on my progress, ask me what book I’m currently writing and how it’s going. I will happily tell you.

If you’ve been dying to know what’s wrong with Salem, let me know and I’ll tell you. It isn’t really a spoiler as the book focuses more on how he gets his freedom, rather than on his problem.

If you’re not on my mailing list, whyever not? Sign up here so that you’ll know the minute I publish a new book. I honestly can’t wait to share all these books I’m writing with you!!!

You’re always on my mind as I write.

In closing, here’s a quick encouragement from me: If you have a goal. Go for it. Even if it means single-minded focus for a season. Even if other people don’t get it and think you’re obsessed (#DedicatedNotObsessed). If you have lots of goals and don’t know which one to focus on first, I encourage you to pick out the goal that will make it easier for you to achieve all your other goals and go after it with so much savage tenacity that people think you’re on drugs 😂😂😂

Thanks for listening and for patiently accepting that I won’t be publishing any books this year (😀😀😀). You’re the best.

Dayo xx

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Bible in a Year?/The Dare

Dayo Benson

I’ve been working on my goals for this year. My writing goals, as usual, are pretty unrealistic. I don’t know why I do this to myself but let’s see how close I can get to achieving them 🙂 I won’t bore you with exactly what they are, but they’re all about how many books I want to write and how many words a day I need to be writing in order to achieve that.

Bible in a Year

One of my personal goals is to read through the Bible. The last time I read it through, it took me much longer than a year. I really don’t like the idea of reading through the Bible in a year and have always been pretty resistant to it, but I’ve decided to give it a go. I don’t know if I’m actually going to make it, and it feels like an unrealistic goal for me but I know lots of people do it every year. To be honest, I think that reading the Bible in a year is one of those things that some people decided to do and now it’s become almost like a ‘must do’ for everybody (at least among the Christians that I know).

One of the main reasons I don’t like the idea is because I feel like I’m just rushing. It’s hard to ‘meditate’ on four or five whole chapters. There are just too many lessons to draw from such a large chunk. I’m one of those people who meditate on one verse and write a page of notes on it. Okay, that’s really slow and painstaking, but we’re all different. Anyhow, I’ve decided to give it a try. I’m already three chapters behind, and I’m making a conscious effort not to write notes on every verse, but I am still making notes of things that I just can’t ignore, ha ha.

The Dare

I finished writing The Dare early last year, but put it aside. I should have released it in December, since a significant portion of the book takes place in December, but I decided to release The Runaway instead. I’ve had emails from people who want books without any supernatural stuff in them so this book is for those of my readers who don’t like supernatural thrillers. It’s book one in a trilogy. Here’s the back cover blurb:

A good girl with an edge, a bad boy with a heart, and a devastating secret.

Sloane:
“I dare you to kiss Marshal.”
If I knew what was good for me I would have run a mile when I heard those words. But I didn’t, and now Marshal, the campus bad boy, is stalking me—his version of courting.

Marshal:
I’ll admit to nobody that I’m a sheep in wolf’s clothing. My reputation served me well until Sloane got close enough to peel away the façade.
But our parents have a crazy secret that is tearing Sloane apart. And it might spell doom for our relationship—just when I’ve lost my heart.

Is love enough for Marshal and Sloane, or are there too many obstacles?

The Dare is already available for pre-order, but as usual I’ll send an email alert on release day. Release day is 26 January 🙂

So…what are your new year’s resolutions/2017 goals?

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My Summer Round-Up

Dayo Benson

I can’t believe how quickly this summer has flown by. It’s been very busy for me as I’m sure it has been for you, too. I’m doing some reevaluating as we go into into the last few months of the year, which is so much fun for me as I love introspection and evaluation (typical introvert). And I’m working on a Life Plan. I totally recommend it. It’s great for thinking about where you are and where you want to be 🙂 Anyway, I’ve been a little quiet since publishing Pressure (Pure Passion 4), so here’s a rundown of what I’ve been up to this summer (apart from my regular writing duties of course):

Publishing Pressure

PRESSURE COMPLETEI was a little worried about how Pressure would be received because it was the first thing I published after the Crystal series. I hoped people wouldn’t find it boring since there’s no ‘missions’, danger or supernatural stuff. However, I received some lovely feedback about it. My favourite was an email that said: ‘James (the hero in Pressure) has replaced Juda for me’.

I was like, ‘are you kidding me?’ I put in so much effort to make Juda mysterious and enigmatic and appealing in that dark, dangerous way of his. But it was great to hear that a lot of my readers are happy to move on from the Crystal series and are excited about new characters. I wrote Pressure in 2013 and couldn’t really remember much of what it was about until I dug it out to edit it. I think the way you feel when writing a book sometimes affects how you view the book. I was really unwell back when I wrote it, and I even spent a few days in hospital, so I’ve always thought it’s not a great book. But it’s actually pretty good (if an author is allowed to say that about their own book).

Weddings

20160709_112126.jpgSo many people I know got married. There was a wedding like every weekend in July. This is me at one of them. Some lady tied my head-wrap for me in the toilets because I had no idea how to do it but I really wanted to fit in with all the other women, ha ha. Believe me, the headache I had when I took it off at the end of the day was no joke.

The Olympics

Mobot Christ our Redeemer.jpgCongratulations to the USA for winning, but how awesome were Team GB? I couldn’t believe how well we did. For such a small nation to come second and do so well made me so proud. I’m still in shock. There were so many things I learned from the Olympics. Life Lessons. I won’t bore you with them all, but here are a few.

Lutalo Muhammad – He was about to win a gold for Great Britain in Taekwondo but his opponent somehow managed to kick him in the head in the dying second of the fight. It was heartbreaking to watch Lutalo’s interview after it. He was crying and saying it was a low point in his life. I got on my soap box and preached at my husband for like ten minutes about how we have to be focused and fight until the very end. That interview was so heartbreaking because Lutalo was crying like his whole world was crumbling when everyone back home was so proud of him. A silver medal is pretty awesome. So I changed tack and started preaching at my husband about how we’re so hard on ourselves when we should just take a step back and see how awesome we are and how much we’ve achieved. It was so inspiring to see how much Lutalo wanted that gold. How much it meant to him. True hero.

I wasn’t sure what I thought of Shaunae Miller diving at the finish line in the women’s 400m, but if you want something that badly I guess you just have to go for it. The women’s triathlon was another thing that had me just staring at the TV in awe. Goodness gracious it looked painful. But it was also so inspiring to see their endurance and how they were pushing beyond the pain, pushing themselves past their limits.

Not to mention the ‘greats’: Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps & Mo Farah, who are just dominating in their respective sports. I think it’s awesome that they are older athletes, too. They’re not ‘old’ by any stretch of the imagination, but they are older athletes and they’re still swiping all the golds. It’s just amazing to watch these people. I get the same feeling of awe when I see Serena Williams still winning grand slams. Regardless of these people’s nationalities, pretty much the whole world supports them and likes to see them win. If I can be half as good at writing as Usain, Michael and Mo are at what they do, I’ll be a very happy author. I watched a documentary about Mo Farah, called the Road to Rio. The sacrifices he makes to be the best are astonishing. He couldn’t even speak English properly when he moved to the UK as a child. Imagine the self belief and discipline it took for him to get where he is. It got me thinking about how seriously I approach my writing, how good I am at fending off distractions and having just one focus, and my personal discipline.

“And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 9:25 – KJV).

I like the NLT for this verse: “All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.”

There’s another life lesson right there.

 

I did a 5K

IMG-20160813-WA0013 (2).jpgMy daughters think I’m an Olympian and won gold, ha ha. Let me preface this by saying I have NEVER done anything like this before. It was one of my New Year goals to live a healthier lifestyle, so I got two of my friends on board and we did it together. It was so much fun that we’re signing up to do it again next year. We’re thinking of signing up our husbands for a 10k. I’ve been dropping hints to my husband about it but he’s not taking the bait at all, ha ha.

Church Stuff

ablazelogowip.gifEarlier this month we had our annual youth conference, Ablaze 2016, which was so much fun. My husband made the cool Ablaze gif to the left. The highlights for me were:

– My brother’s talk on salvation. I was wondering how he was going to approach it since it’s been done a zillion times and our youth group has heard it all before, but somehow he managed to make it fresh and inspiring and I really got a lot from the talk.

– The talent show. There’s so much talent out there. God has given it out so liberally. If in just my youth group there are singers who’d give Beyonce a run for her money, rappers who can write their own lyrics, artists who can look at a picture of Jesus and draw it perfectly, guys and girls who can create a whole indie movie, and much more, then how about the rest of the planet??? What are we doing folks? We all need to start using our talents.

I also just got back from a national church conference yesterday, at which I spoke to the young adult section about choosing a career. I used to work in HR and I have now quit my job to focus full-time on writing, so I have a lot to say about careers and success (it’s my second-favourite topic to speak on after purity 🙂 ) It was a lot of fun. Even more flattering was the fact that they all thought I was their age (19 – 21) Until I mentioned my husband and children, then they were all gasping in shock. Great for my ego, ha ha.

Anyway, summer is over now, so it’s back to serious work. I’m hoping to publish six books before the end of this year. I’ll try very hard to do it. I’m praying for God to help me to have more discipline. More about those books in a later post.

So, enough about me. How was your summer?

God bless.

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Coming VERY Soon – Powerful Enemies (Crystal 8)

Dayo Benson

 

Hi Everyone,

I’m so excited, Powerful Enemies is almost here. I am literally going to read through it one last time and then hit publish. But before you get too excited and start doing a happy dance, you should know that I am a very slower reader when I am reading one of my own books. I really want to catch any final issues, and I am quite obsessive about my final read through. I’m starting the read-through tonight. It’ll probably take me a few days, judging by how long it took me with Sleeper, but then Powerful Enemies is a longer book, so we’ll see how it goes.

I can’t wait for you to read this book. Here’s why:

1. Juda confesses to Crystal’s parents

I don’t want to say too much about this just in case people read this and haven’t read books 6 and 7 and don’t know Juda’s secret. But, Juda confesses, and I actually had some tears in my eyes while I wrote that scene. Thankfully, I was alone–nobody to give me strange looks.

2. Jesus is finally an on-screen character

Quite frankly, I’m sick of even typing about the devil and typing his names. It’s necessary when writing from a ‘practitioner’s’ viewpoint, but it quickly began to annoy me. I got to write about Jesus and angels quite a lot in this book and it was truly humbling and awesome for me, ha ha.

3. There’s a Wedding!!!

I’m not telling you who. There are lots of couples in the Crystal series. I know everyone wants to see it happen for Crystal and Juda, but there’s Alejandro and Anabelle, Jamie and Carsten, and even Kyran and Trixie. Trixie could have a miraculous conversion in this book…you never know…

Here’s two random pictures of gorgeous wedding dresses.

      

And a picture of me when I got married six years ago this April, ahhh.

I felt like a total queen, lol. And it was a big wedding. I think we had like 700 people. No way was my church letting me show any ‘back’ or ‘cleavage’, hence the shrug. I love my church. And I love my dad (he’s the pastor; yes, I’m a preacher’s kid 🙂 ).

Anyway…

4. Shola Cardoso is a POV character

In Powerful Enemies you get four viewpoints, Crystal’s, Juda’s, Shola’s and Luke’s. Shola’s POV was fun to write. A new female villain is introduced and it was fun to write about her twisted ‘feminist’ philosophies and how she tries to get Shola to buy into them.

The whole point of the Crystal Series is to remind people that we’re in a battle, and we’re not fighting against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6). It’s easy to forget that life is a journey, a probation, and a battle (as well as a gift and a privilege from God). I just want to get people to think.

By the way, you guys wanted a longer book, and you’ve got one in Powerful Enemies. It’s the longest book of the series, almost double the length of Insurrection and Secrets.

 

From the Back Cover

Love shouldn’t be so hard…

Juda’s secret has the potential to change everything. Crystal knows that whichever choice she makes, it won’t be easy. She must decide whether the pain of his secret is greater than the pain of letting him go. Either way there will be pain.

Freedom should be a right…

But Luke doesn’t think so. As violence, destruction, and death take over the nation, the powers-that-be turn to Crystal and her team for help. But is this battle too big for them?

The past two years have presented challenge after challenge for Crystal. However, she is determined to see things through to the bitter end. Luke is powerful, but there is One more powerful than he. Right now, He is their only hope.

**If you’re not on my mailing list already, sign up HERE so that you’ll get an email alert as soon as Powerful Enemies comes out.**

***On another note, I’m thinking of doing character interviews. Who would you like me to interview first? Alejandro, obviously, wants to be interviewed first, but I told him it would depend on what the audience wants 🙂 Leave a comment or email me (dayo@dayobenson.com) with who should be interviewed first and what questions you like to ask them.***

God bless.

Personal

Thank You!

Dayo Benson

2016So…it’s the last day of 2015, and I am so happy and grateful for all that has happened this year. I achieved most of my goals for 2015 and an almost lifelong dream came true for me–it’s in relation to my writing. I couldn’t have achieved that goal without you guys. Your support has been amazing.

I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to connect with so many of you this year through comments here on my website, on Facebook and Twitter, and also via exchanging emails. That is so precious to me. You have no idea how much. I love you guys, and I pray for you. I mention by name those of you whose names I know. For the rest of you I trust God to reach out and bless you as He knows who you are.

I’m so excited about 2016. I pushed myself hard in terms of productivity this year, but I plan to push myself even harder in 2016. Expect lots of books. By God’s grace they will all be inspired and anointed 🙂

I hope you have a very Happy New Year. May 2016 be a year of growth for us all in every area of our lives. May we experience love, laughter and abundance, and let’s not forget to seek out opportunities to touch other people lives.

With all my love,

Dayo xx

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Thank You/Kids Grow Up Too Fast

Dayo Benson

Thank You

Secrets no.1

So Secrets hung out at number 1 in its category for like five days, making this girl a very happy author. Then it started fluctuating between number 1 and number 3. I checked on it yesterday and it was back to number 1 again. But it dropped off after like an hour. By the way, I’m talking about Amazon UK. I’m actually selling a lot more books on Amazon US, but not hitting the number 1 spot because it’s just more competitive there. So thank you to both my UK and US readers (I still have a problem with the word ‘fans’ ha ha).

Kids Grow Up Too Fast

20150907_114910Last week was special for me for other reasons apart from stalking myself on Amazon 🙂 My daughter started school. I feel slightly tearful as I write this. (I was never an emotional person until I had kids. Now I cry over TV adverts and singers on Britain’s Got Talent, lol)

Rhema’s four (and, yes, she’s as cheeky as she looks). I remember the day she was born. It feels like yesterday, but it also does feel like a long time ago. Anyhow, I can’t believe she’s started school now. She was so excited. She felt so grown up in her school uniform. For some reason she was disappointed that her uniform doesn’t have wings (huh?) but I convinced her that although ‘uniform’ and ‘unicorn’ sound similar they have nothing in common. Uniforms most certainly don’t come with wings.

20150907_122242I was both excited and nervous. Tried not to look nervous so that I wouldn’t rub off on her. I was praying she’d be fine, praying she’d make good friends, praying she wouldn’t come home and tell me she didn’t like it and never wants to go back again. Of course, I was worrying for nothing because she was absolutely fine, and she even wanted to go to school on Saturday.

20150808_175957My other daughter, Esther, only turned two last month. But I’m already thinking about her first day of school now. They grow up too fast, don’t they?

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Putting God First

Dayo Benson

number_1_godBecause writing is such a time consuming thing to do, I do it every spare moment I get. I have tight (self-inflicted) deadlines this year. I wasn’t going to share what I’m trying to do, but I’ve decided to just say. A book a month. That’s what 2015 is about. Whether I publish a book a month or not is another matter, but I just want to write a book a month.

Anyway, with that kind of schedule I have to push a lot of other things out of my life, but I have to be careful not to push out important things. Something that helped me is not writing on Sundays. I didn’t think this would help, but it was just an idea I had a few weeks ago. I decided that having a day to recuperate each week would be helpful. I figured I’d give it a try and see how it goes, so for a few weeks I’ve not written on Sunday. Instead I’ve spent the time that I would have spent writing praying.

You won’t believe how much this has helped me. I’m the kind of person that finds it hard to get back on track if I take a break, but I’ve been totally fine. In fact, after spending Sunday in prayer, including praying about my word count goals for the week, I’ve surpassed my goals.

I don’t want to be a spoiled Christian, so I didn’t go into it saying, ‘God if I give Sundays to You, then You have to do this or do that.’ I guess it would have been fine to do that, but I didn’t want to ask for anything in return. I don’t feel like the time I spend with Him on weekdays is really *quality* time, so I wanted to give Him Sundays out of love, out of wanting to be with Him because He’s awesome. So I went into it saying, “God I want to just spend quality time with You whether it helps or harms my word count.” I didn’t even want to care about my word count. But, guess what? I wrote a book in two weeks when I started setting Sunday aside for God.

I’m sure I will write on some Sundays in future, but I’m in the process of letting God change my plans if He wills. If I write a book a month and stray away from God because I’m not spending time with Him, that will be no good. I’d rather spend time with God and not meet my goal. As a Christian author it’s so important to me that I stay connected to God so that I please Him with my writing, and so that we’re just tight.

Life is so busy these days. When I was in my late teens and early twenties I was busy but my time was mine to spend as I pleased so I could plan my day without having anyone else to consider. I could pray, write, study, and sleep when I wanted. Now, time for morning prayers has to be balanced with the time it takes to get kids dressed and fed. Evening prayers have to be balanced with a husband that wants to tell me about his day. Writing used to come after God. Now it comes after God, the husband, and the kids.

But that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Have you ever struggled with putting God first?

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Passion

Dayo Benson

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life – Steve Jobs.

This morning I finished writing Unrest (Crystal 5). I managed it in two weeks and two days, although I initially gave myself a deadline of 28th February. I have literally been writing early in the morning and at every spare moment. This morning I asked myself why. Seriously, where does this drive come from? People have all kinds of passions. For some people it’s music, or art, or sports, or acting. But where does the passion come from? What compels us to do it?

Nobody has to tell me to write. I’m completely self motivated and I could do it all day, every day. My husband was talking to a friend last week lamenting about how he didn’t get any work done in the house because of our kids. His friend asked how I manage to write with the kids around, and my husband said ‘my wife can write even if there’s a hurricane tearing the house to bits.’ It made me laugh, but it wasn’t far from the truth. I’d probably hold on to my laptop and let the hurricane take the rest of my possessions.

The only explanation I can give for the overwhelming drive that motivates us and pushes us to do the things we love is that God builds it into us. I feel like writing is as much a part of me as anything else in my make up. God wires us all up for something.

When I was younger my parents tried to get me into science so that I could get a good science job ‘when I grow up’. I studied the sciences in school and did molecular biology with genetics at university, but it was a tug of war. Each day was a struggle. I got to a point where I actually became depressed. I felt like I was drifting. I hated it. To cope I would take a notebook to university with me and write stories while everyone else was taking notes about Nucleic Acids and Ribonuclease.

It wasn’t my passion. I was a square peg in a round hole. Just as you are if you’re making yourself do something you don’t want to do. Yes, we need to be responsible and sometimes we have to do things we don’t enjoy. But if all you do is things you don’t enjoy, you’re wasting your time. Like the Steve Jobs quote above says, your time is limited. Don’t waste it. Use it for what God created you to do.

God has given everyone a passion. Dig deep and explore yours. Writing novels takes time. It means I don’t have time to watch TV. I have to weigh up everything I do. I can write 1500 to 2000 words in an hour, so if I have the option of doing activity A for an hour I weigh it. Would I rather do activity A or add 2000 words to my work in progress? It might sound boring, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s what happens when your passion takes over.

God has a unique purpose for each of us. We just need to find it.

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).

P.S. Happy Valentines Day!

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Happy 2015!

Dayo Benson

2015For some reason I’m really excited about 2015. I’m not quite sure why. I just like 2015 and feel like it’s going to be a great year 🙂

I’ve been thinking about my resolutions and what I want to achieve this year, and as usual I have so many things. I’m pretty private about my goals. I know some authors will write about all their goals on their blogs, but just the thought of doing that gives me chills. I will share a few of my goals though. Not just writing related ones.

Prayer

Last year, I didn’t do so well. Because I’ve been going to church for as long as I can remember, and I made my personal decision for God when I was nineteen, a day doesn’t pass when I don’t pray in some form. But I also set time aside to have more focused prayer. Last year I had a rough time in the first quarter of the year, even ending up in hospital in March, and after that I got stuck in a rut where my praying was more daily adhoc prayers rather than dedicated time. I felt horrible about this when I was taking stock a few weeks ago. I have to get back on track this year because prayer really is my sustenance. Occasionally I would set a day apart and tell my husband I’m praying, but still, it wasn’t good enough. I think daily dedicated time is best for me.

God is so faithful. He still inspires me even when I haven’t been faithful to Him or given Him priority in my life.

Writing

I’m the kind of person who likes to set aside large chunks of time to write. On a Monday and a Tuesday I can write for about eight hours each day. On a Saturday I can probably snatch four hours to myself to write while my husband and my eldest daughter go for the evangelism programme at church (I stay home with our youngest). This year, I’m going to try to write for two hours every day. The reason for this is, if something comes up on one of my heavy writing days I lose all that time and my word count for the week suffers. Also, it’s hard to stay in the ‘flow’ if I’m having a writing binge at the beginning of the week, then not writing again until Saturday. If I just write two hours a day, there’s no need for a binge, and I figure I can write almost a full book each month if I stick to two hours a day. (Although I love my eight hour writing sessions).

So, there are two of my goals. I have more spiritual and writing goals, as well as marriage/family goals and workout/diet goals. I’m not trying to lose weight (I just want to make that clear in case my mum or dad read this, ha ha. Mum thinks I’m too skinny). I’m just trying to be healthy because I eat too much junk i.e. sweets. I’m trying to stick to water and healthy snacks this year. I’m trying to be a good example on this for my kids too. I can’t really tell Rhema off for always eating sweets if she knows I keep a stash of mentos, chewits, haribos and lollipops 🙂

I also have a big birthday coming up this month so I’m evaluating my life and where I’m at. A few months ago I was dreading this birthday, but I’ve come to terms with it now and I’m looking forward to it. Partly because the husband and I have some cool plans. I’ll try to get Insurrection (Crystal 3) published this month. I’ll do a cover reveal soon.

What are your goals for 2015?

Dayo xx

Personal

Six months have flown by

Dayo Benson

Well my little Rhema will be six months old tomorrow. Really can’t believe it. I remember taking her to church for the first time when she was six weeks old and seeing another baby girl who was six months old. She looked huge next to Rhema and I was comparing them and thinking ‘how on earth is Rhema ever going to get that big?’ Well she is that big now 🙂 She starts eating solids tomorrow. It’s been so exciting doing all the research about what she can eat and drawing up her menu. Her first meal is going to be mashed up rice, she can’t wait!!!

I really do think Rhema is the best thing that has happened to me, apart from my husband of course. I can’t imagine her not being around and to think that she’s actually only been here since January. What a miracle. Well I’m still loving and enjoying my maternity leave. Not at all bored. I’ve been writing lots and doing all the fun things that I like to do.

Anyway, we got our family portraits on saturday. Rhema is not really a ‘cry-er’ but when we got to the photo studio to take the pictures she must not have liked the woman or the studio or something, because she wouldn’t stop crying. My husband had to try every trick in his book to get her to stop crying and smile. It was so funny. I was a bit worried that there might not be any nice shots of her but I was pleasantly surprised:

Mum and dad also managed to get a shot together:

And then all together:

Now to order some photo frames…