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by Staci Stallings

’m elbow-deep in The Imagination Series—writing Book 8 now.  Book 7 is on preorder.  Book 6 just released. So I’ve been thinking a lot about superpowers.

In the series, there are six main-ish characters. They are friends from high school. Each one has a superpower, and the idea of the series is how they each learn to use the gifts and talents that God gave them–their individual superpowers.

Now, by “superpower,” I don’t mean flying or running fast or being able to flip cars over for fun. What I mean is more mundane “powers” like writing songs and poetry, fixing up cars and doing spreadsheets. I think too many of us don’t give full credence to the things we can do that are truly special.

Sure, other people might be able to do them too. Some people might even be better at “our” thing than we are.  But I think it’s important to recognize and support each other’s best qualities. To champion them. To cheer them. To encourage them.

So it’s interesting to me that what I thought the main idea of The Imagination Series would be—that we should work to use our superpower has really taken a backseat to the theme of learning to support and encourage each other’s superpowers.

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Recently through a crazy turn of events, my niece came to live with us as she started to teach at my son’s school. She’s not teaching any of his classes, but she has some students who are in his class. When she comes home, we often talk about how things are going at the school, things we’ve noticed, or things that we see that need to be fixed. So every day we are discussing how to do the education system better. We also talk about how we can best encourage others and how too often students who have real superpowers are not encouraged in what makes them most special and so they lose that or never develop it.

Add to this that my middle daughter is now a senior in college. She is taking Sports and Exercise Science, which is heavily physical-oriented. She’s done Anatomy & Physiology I and II, Kinesiology and now Bio-Mechanics.  She will come to study a couple of times a week, and she will talk forever about getting adequate sleep or how to do an effective stretch or how to use nutrition to gain optimal health.

Then we have her boyfriend who is also in college learning music production. So he’ll be here playing beats on the midi-board and bending sound in crazy ways.

Of course, my son is the light show king, so he’s always doing some insane project like cutting 300 milk jugs and putting lights in them or reconfiguring Falcon boards to run sets of pixel lights that he’s designing.

You probably already have guessed that one of my superpowers is writing, and my husband does carpentry.

The other day my niece, who is also an artist, said, “I’ve decided I want to live in a house with geniuses. Not necessarily smart people like book smart, but people who are being creative and working together to help each other become even better at what they are good at.”

I was telling my daughter’s boyfriend about that one night, and he said, “That is so cool because that’s what your house is. Everybody comes and works on their stuff and we can go, ‘Hey, listen to this.’ Or ‘what do you think of this’ or ‘how would you say this,’ and we all are interested in what the other ones are doing.”  Then he said, “Hey, you should write a book about that, about how to do that. You could call it…. ‘Become Me.’”  HAHAHHAH!  That’s when I told him the first book in this series is literally called “Becoming Me”!

He was floored.  I thought it was funny.

Maybe life really does mirror art, or is it art mirroring life?

So I’m curious. What is your superpower?  What things do you do really well?  What do you love to do so much that you could just get lost in doing it for hours?

I’m making a list for my life class, and I’d love to include your superpower on it too! Please feel free to share and continue the conversation…

About the Author

A stay-at-home mom with a husband, three kids and a writing addiction on the side, Staci Stallings has numerous titles for readers to choose from. Not content to stay in one genre and write it to death, Staci’s stories run the gamut from young adult to adult, from motivational and inspirational to full-out Christian and back again. Every title is a new adventure! That’s what keeps Staci writing and you reading. Although she lives in Amarillo, Texas and her main career right now is her family, Staci touches the lives of people across the globe with her various Internet and writing endeavors.

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CrossReads Short Takes

Specific Kinds Of Prayer

How To Pray What You Need To Pray To See Answers To Your Prayers

by Dr. Sheldon D. Newton

“The truths taught in this book, when applied consistently in your life, will absolutely revolutionize your prayer life – your communion with your Father, the Creator of the universe!” Minister Deborah Moore

Do you desire to see answers to your prayers? In this timely and impactful guide to effectual prayer, best-selling author and pastor, Dr. Sheldon D. Newton gives clear and practical ways to pray according to God’s Word. You will learn keys to answered prayer and how to pray specifically for various needs or desires. Great details are given to one of the greatest obstacles to answered prayer – unforgiveness – and how to let things go. Most of all, you will learn how to walk closer to the Lord, enjoying His Presence and experiencing answers from Heaven. Praying the right kind of prayer in a given circumstance receives God’s response! Filled with examples of how to pray specifically for various needs and desires and with a question section after each lesson, giving you added encouragement to meditate upon each principle, this prayer guide is perfect for individual and group study. Get your copy today!

The Retreat

A lighthearted and humorous story about a soul searching pastor

by Kees Postma

You’ll laugh, you’ll be challenged, and most of all you’ll be encouraged to find rest in the Lord, and strength to keep going

Case Parker, a worn-out pastor, is shocked by all the good, bad and ugly he has found in ministry so far. Having reached a point of utter exhaustion he decides to go to Ireland for a three day retreat. Case, and the other Dutch shepherds that join him, end up in all kind of interesting, dangerous and hilarious situations.

This story will have you in stitches, will make you feel convicted and hopefully has you changed by the time the story ends.

In his first translated book, Postma offers heartfelt, laugh-out-loud observations on the absurd ways shepherds and sheep alike, try to make themselves look better than they actually are. The Dutch version of the book became a bestseller interweaving humour and spiritual reflection.

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by Staci Stallings

Many, many moons ago on a writing loop I was on at the time, there was a massive discussion about backstory. For those who don’t know, “backstory” refers to a character’s story that happened before the current story starts. Basically, where did this person come from and how did they get here? What are the secrets of their life?

In the discussion, there had been a writing book published that said an author should not give any backstory until at least page 50.  Over the years, I have thought often about this discussion as I’m writing. Not one to ever follow “rules” just because someone said to, I’ve alternately discarded it and noticed it show up in my writing (not strictly page 50, but well into the story).

What I’ve learned is this:  Every character like every person is different. Some characters don’t have a problem sharing who they are and why. Some characters hold all their backstory cards close to the vest and are really unwilling to show them to anyone.

So, I guess, for me, backstory has become kind of a touchstone lesson. If I have a character who is not willing to share their backstory, it tells me something important about that character. Often, their backstory is traumatic and difficult. “Flawed” characters often simply have a difficult backstory. Reticent characters that are “closed” also very often are holding their backstory close to their heart, afraid that anyone will ever find out “what really happened.”

I imagine that’s why I’ve gotten so good at reading real people’s backstories. I was just talking with someone the other day who said I was “safe” because they could tell me what really happened and get it out.  That’s interesting because that’s roughly the same thing I do with my characters.

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For example, right now in the series that I’m working on, there are multiple backstory pieces that although we’ve been with these characters for 7 books now, backstory pieces are starting to come out that explain why the characters have been acting the way they have. And it’s so strange to me because I know even more backstory that hasn’t come out yet. So when my readers get upset or don’t know why a character is how he or she is, I actually do know because I know where the story is going.

I wonder sometimes if this is a little like being God—you know what is happening now, but you also know what happened back then, and you know what will happen in the following “chapters.”

It’s just an interesting perspective to see life from. Kind of like in my newest book, Hopelessly Devoted to You¸ it’s written from the perspective of multiple characters rather than just one or two. I often wonder if that’s the way God see us and why He understands what we don’t. He’s not seeing things linearly nor from only one perspective.  He sees and knows everyone’s story simultaneously—their current story, their backstory, and their future story.

Honestly, sometimes writing is kind of cool in what it can teach you about life!

How about you?  As a reader, would you prefer to know a character’s full story upfront or learn about it as you go?

About the Author:

A stay-at-home mom with a husband, three kids and a writing addiction on the side, Staci Stallings has numerous titles for readers to choose from. Not content to stay in one genre and write it to death, Staci’s stories run the gamut from young adult to adult, from motivational and inspirational to full-out Christian and back again. Every title is a new adventure! That’s what keeps Staci writing and you reading. Although she lives in Amarillo, Texas and her main career right now is her family, Staci touches the lives of people across the globe with her various Internet and writing endeavors.