793 - Permission Granted

There was no Monday Memo last week, not because there was nothing to say (my wife says I am never at a loss for words), but because I was redirecting those words to the book projects with which I have been involved as writer, co-writer, or editor. There are so many good ones that will be released through my publishing company, Urban Press, in the near future. In the meantime, here is a synopsis of the personal projects I have been working on.

1. Last week, I re-released the first book I ever wrote, Life is a Gold Mine: Can You Dig It? I did almost a total rewrite except for the last section on faith, which stayed intact. I removed one of the Gold Mine Principles, replaced it with the concept of creativity, updated many of the stories and examples, and of course revised the cover. You can order it through Amazon in paper or Kindle format, or you can get it from me for only $10.
2. Earlier in January, I released the third in my Live the Word Bible Commentary series, this one focusing on the gospel of Mark. I released the Matthew and Acts volumes last year, and hope to have the gospel of John and Paul's prison epistles volumes out in 2017. Mark's commentary is also available in Kindle or paper.
3. I am working to reformat my daily devotional A String of Pearls; Wisdom for Productive People and re-release it as the Life is a Gold Mine Daily Devotional, probably in April 2017.
4. I plan on releasing a Life is a Gold Mine Deluxe Edition later this year. This book will contain a great deal more information on the Gold Mine Principles from other work I have done so that the reader can access it all in one place.
5. I removed the the devotionals related to organization from A String of Pearls and will release all of them in a 60-day organization devotional that will be a supplement the Gold Mine Devotional.
6. I collaborated on a book with my friend Dr. Jim Dittmar entitled A Leader Carol, which is a fable fashioned after the story found in Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The main character is the CEO of a family business who loses his way, but receives some supernatural help to get things back on track. This is my first venture into fiction and it was great fun, but the book also teaches important leadership lessons. This should be out in April.

Right now, I am working on four or five other books as an editor, and we are just now catching up with our Urban Press website to include all the books we published in 2016. I will let you know when that's updated.

When I gave myself permission to admit that I am an author, my creativity and productivity took a quantum leap. What identity are you resisting? What could you do if you admitted that "This (whatever the this may be) is who I am and what I was created to do!" If I can help you make define and make that declaration, please let me know.