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About Roy Hayward
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Blog postI'm sure we have all heard about preparing for the worst. But I'm not sure the attitude that comes with it is a healthy one. Preparing for the worst is to look ahead and visualize all that might go wrong. Sure, you are trying to prepare for it, but what does preparing mean? Are we just gritting our teeth and waiting for it to pass? I feel like this was the response many took and advocated for in the COVID of 2019 pandemic. "Things might be really bad, so let's all hide in our
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Blog postHappy Birthday, Freddy! It's been 9 years and I think of you often.
Just One DayJust one day to hold youAnd tightly clutch your handTell you how I love youIn all the words I can
Just one day to see youGazing on your face Trying to make a memory To hold it fixed in place
Just one day to share youWith family that I lovePassing you from arm to arm Cooing like a dove
Just one day to pray for youAnd plead a heartfelt prayer Asking for more time And more moments t -
Blog postThe book is out and I just got my copy. There are seventeen authors with stories in this anthology. My story, "I stand at the door" is the 5th story in the anthology. I'm super excited about it.
I'm so excited that I recorded a youtube video about it.
If you want to get a copy, It's available on Immortal Works or Amazon.
That's all for now. Follow my youtube channel or subscribe to my newsletter if you want to hear about more thi -
Blog postPicture if you will, a husband and wife in the hospital just after they have had a c-section and are waiting for the baby to come join them from the room where the surgery happened. The nurse is there to help. The husband is trying to do what he can to comfort his wife.
Because of the anesthesia, she is nauseated. The nurse warns them that she needs to keep pressure on the incision if she throws up, so to warn them. This begins to happen.
The husband and nurse hold a pillow a -
Blog postI can still remember Comings through your door Little feet would run to me And I’d sweep you off the floor
Riding on my shoulders Or swinging from my arm Your laughter was infectious Your smile kept me warm
As the years marched onward Into a man you grew. Always making others smile And glad that they knew you.
It feels like an interruption In a conversation just begun I’m still waiting for what you will say For we are far from done.
And I know there -
Blog postThe birth of a child, A twinkle in our eyes. Visions of what’s to come, A future and a prize.
A home and a family, We see in future mists. They call us for advice sometimes, A call we can’t resist.
We hold this moment close And pray with a silent nod, A wish and prayer for happiness, As we have faith in God.
The sweetest smell you ever know, That of a baby’s skin. Then come more visions, Time and time again.
A wedding where we watch them take A spouse forevermore -
Blog postMy heart still remembers A time in the past My heart still remembers What I thought would last
A child so precious So perfect and sweet A soul bright and new With tiny smooth feet
My heart still remembers The wonder and love My heart still remembers Those gifts from above
Days we expected That they’d never end Greeting each child That heaven would send
My heart still remembers Our sorrow and pain My heart still rem -
Blog postWhere do you get ideas for stories? It's a question without an answer. Or the answer is "Everywhere." I get my ideas for stories everywhere and from everyone.
Sometimes I worry a bit as I jot down a phrase or a short story description that someone will read it and recognize who and what was the inspiration and be upset. I work hard so that this will never happen.
I hear people say something. And the writer part of my brain grabs those words and twists them out -
Blog postOnce upon a time, every story that I started writing was a novel. Actually, every story was an epic saga that would span multiple novels and become its own universe of books, movies, and more. And as you can already guess, most of these stories were never completed.
So I changed, my tactic. I know have a folder called short stories. Now every story that I start, starts here. As a short story.
In November 2011, I started writing a story as part of NaNoWriMo. I was excited a -
Blog postBook Two of the Legend of Stars series is out there. Technically it released last December. But I haven't started promoting it. But I am ready to crack the whip and get it going.
For those of you that have been waiting for two years for this book, I hope the wait will be worth it. I am committed to releasing the third book much much sooner. And I believe I am in a good place where I can pull that off.
If you haven't been waiting and are instead asking, &q -
Blog post"Wait, this is romance?"
Yes, I said these words to a writer in my critique group. I immediately regretted it. She was cut by my remark. But in reality, this should have been a compliment.
At least from me.
I don't enjoy romance type fiction very much. I'm not opposed to characters in my books falling for each other. But the core of my stories and the fiction that I seek out is not the personal relationships between the characters.
So -
Blog postSo I was watching a Ted talk the other day where an animator was talking about this short animation exercise that he did. He said something illuminating. At least it was to me. He said that he started out, before making any of the art, deciding that he wouldn't have certain things in his work. In his case, it was circles.
I've been thinking about this for a bit, and I do some of the same things with my writing. At the beginning of a story, I make some decisions about how it is -
Blog postFor people that don't ever want their ideas challenged. And people that want every opinion and thought confirmed to be correct. People that don't feel they need to examine anything about their lives and the way they think. If this describes you, then an echo chamber is for you.
There is a foolproof method to achieve this level of happiness and insolation from the pesky misguided ideas of others. And social media will help you. I know social media is not good for much, but -
Blog postSometimes people ask meWhy I do, just what I doAnd it always takes me back toWhen my family was new.
My wife and I made promises To God, and to each otherWe would love and cherishA family after his pattern.
So we started out with purposeTo build our heaven’s homeFollowing HIs footstepsWhatever was to come.
And part of that promiseWas to love, and take careOf some of heaven’s childrenThat came down to live here.
But what might not be clearOr maybe, unexpectedBut you c -
Blog postI'm participating in NaNoWriMo again!
I'm working on the third in the series in my Legend of Trees series. As I am writing this, only the first book, Arbor Colony is out on Amazon and other online booksellers. The second book, "Seed or Stars" is in editing and will come out before Christmas 2018.
And that leads to why I am writing the third in a series. I hope that isn't too confusing.
I mean, ideally, I would finish and publish all the books in a -
Blog postI just finished reading Too Much Information. I received a promotional copy from the author with no obligation to review. I did review it. It was great.
If I'm going to start reviewing books I should probably post my criteria somewhere. But this book met them all.
First, "Too Much Information" is listed as YA. For me, this should mean that the content should be targeted at youth and adults that are looking for a book that won't have too many adult th -
Blog postIf you live in America, you should be familiar with the term Baseline Budgeting. Basically, this is a method of accounting that no one but the government does. No one does it because it is stupid, and it wouldn't work for anyone else.
But it could work. It should work. And if I were President, there would be a way to make it work correctly.
Current Baseline Budgeting works like this. You take your budget for the year, and you just increase all of the numbers by 8%. -
Blog postThere are times when I find myself feeling defensive about my faith. It seems like there are people that want to treat things of faith as something that can be argued. Something that can be proved or disproved. Or something that is subject to some rigorous empirical inquiry.
If this were possible, faith would cease to be faith. It would be knowledge.
There are some things that may have a correlation that I'd like to explore. Let's find out.
Faith is not an Onion
I like on -
Blog postI remember hearing this story when I was a very young child. And it has stuck with me. When I started doing foster care, I started thinking of this story over and over. Here is how it goes.
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After a storm, a man went down to the beach for a walk. As he walked he could see that the storm had tossed up lots of starfish. The beach was covered with them.
The man rounded a bend and came upon a little boy running up and down the beach. He would pick up -
Blog postOne summer's day when I was a teenager my brother and I were working outside. The sun beat down on us and it was just us. So we were shirtless. It was more comfortable this way.
During this time our neighbor Amy showed up. We often rode horses and did other activities that young teenagers do. Her showing up was not unwelcome or really that unexpected.
My brother and I greeted her and she started talking about going and doing something. I don't remember exactly what -
Blog postLet’s not kid ourselves. Gun laws are not about saving lives. If we wanted to pass laws to save lives we would be banning swimming pools, cigarettes, furniture with sharp corners. But we are not afraid of the swimming pool or the sofa table. We should be afraid of the cigarette, but we aren’t afraid of that either. But a large group of people are afraid of guns. We need to ask why.
Humans are terrible about applying real probabilities to what is dangerous. Our brains see a lightning -
Blog postIn olden days they saw His starand some were nearothers came from afarwise men sought Him then
In later years they saw His lightsome turned in fearothers adopted His sightwise men sought Him then
In our day they feel His lovesome misunderstandothers praise Him abovewise men sought Him then
In your heart, you hear His callspeaking peace and loveothers look to have it allwise men seek Him today
When we turn our hearts to GodHe turns His heart to usall His welcome path to tr -
Blog postSoftly sing the lullaby Stroke the face A last goodby My lovely child
Sigh
Gently place a rose atop Shedding tears That never stop My lovely child
Sigh
Little child dressed in white Best speed now A homeward flight My lovely child
Sigh
I await that blessed day When I hold Your hand and say
My lovely child -Roy Hayward -
Blog postIf you have been around nerds that are fans of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, you will be thinking of a question like, "What is the purpose of life, the universe, and everything?" But as fun as a discussion of this question or the novels would be, this is not really the most important question. The most important question is both much more fundamental and can be applied to so many things.
Most of us don't examine our own beliefs very much or very often. We pick up a
