I write southern historical fiction, local history, and I've written a devotional book. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog started out to follow my journey as a writer and a reader, but in 2025 it has been greatly expanded to include current events and politics in the United States as I see our democracy under attack from within. The political science major in me cannot sit idly by and remain silent.
With the change of seasons to cool mornings, I’m trying to take some of my own advice and follow along in my new devotional book and its companion journal:
I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter
I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison
And
I Need The Light! Companion Journal and Diary.
I Need The Light! Companion Journal and Diary, by Janet Morrison
In case you haven’t purchased your copies yet, here’s a sneak peek at Week 1
The Scripture for Week 1 is Genesis 1:1-5. It’s about God creating the Heavens and the Earth and light. By the power of His word – “Let there be light! – and there was light!
I can’t imagine life without light, which leads me to think that people who have been blind all their lives probably can’t imagine what light is.
Thos of us in the northern hemisphere are entering the time of the year when natural light and the warmth it brings is in short supply. Those of us with Seasonal Affective Disorder and Fibromyalgia are not fond of cold weather. In fact, it is difficult for me to enjoy the beauty of fall because I’m dreading winter.
I need the natural light to help set my circadian clock and combat the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I need Jesus Christ – The Light of the World! – for all aspects of my life. He is my Rock and my Salvation.
Look for my books on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You should also be able to find them at your favorite independent bookstore, such as Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC; Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville, NC; and Highland Books in Brevard, NC.
Some independent bookstores refuse to sell books that are self-published, but I know the three I listed above have ordered copies. Please support them!
Each week in my devotional book includes a recipe for a food that brings me comfort. Week 1 has my mother’s recipe for Drop Biscuits. Yum! I think I need to go to the kitchen right now and make biscuits!
I am thrilled to announce that my book, I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter is now available!
I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison
Even if you love the fall and winter, I think you will benefit from reading this book.
Why I Wrote I Need The Light!
I wrote it from a place of physical challenges in cold weather, so I think people who have such illnesses and conditions as Seasonal Affective Disorder, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis will be able to identify.
I settled on writing 26 weekly devotionals because with the onset of fall, I start dreading winter. Seasonal Affective Disorder affects me half the year.
What Does the Title I Need The Light! Mean?
To help me combat the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder and sleep problems, my former physician’s assistant told me that I needed to get out in the natural light early every morning. I needed natural sunlight.
I’m not a morning person, so I had to force myself out of bed and outdoors in the morning – even in cold weather. As I walked, I repeated in my head the words, “I need the light. I need the light. I need the light. I need the light.” On about the fifth repetition, I had an epiphany: I realized I also needed The Light – Jesus Christ – “The Light of the World.”
I’ve been a Christian all my life, so it wasn’t a new concept for me that I needed Jesus Christ in all aspects of my life, but the sudden connection between “the light” and “The Light” was startling! It was then and there that God planted the idea in my mind and heart to write a book about the light and The Light.
That day, I started looking for all the references to light and The Light in the Bible.
Format of I Need The Light!’
Each week’s devotional follows this basic pattern:
The week’s Scripture reference is stated.
“Setting the Stage” in which I give a little background for that Scripture.
The week’s Scripture is then presented from The Message, The Good News Bible, The Living Bible, The New Oxford Annotated Bible (New Revised Standard Version), and TouchPoint Bible. The second week has the bonus of including the Bible verse from my great-great-grandmother’s 1849 The Psalms of David in Metre.
Insight from a Bible commentary, such as the series by Rev. William Barclay.
“My Thoughts” – Then, I usually share my thoughts about the Scripture.
“Remember” – one sentence of encouragement to ponder.
“Thought Pattern Interrupter” – One sentence to help you put a positive spin on that week.
“Activity Suggestion” – An activity you might choose to do that week to get you out of your own head/situation.
“Comfort Recipe” – A recipe that I consider a fall or winter “comfort food” from my own experience.
How to Use I Need The Light!
Readers are encouraged to read the devotional book as they choose. You don’t have to read it over a 26-week period. And each week, you can read the entire chapter in one sitting, or you can string it out over the week. It’s totally up to you to read the book in the way that best helps you.
Where to Find I Need the Light!
If you think I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter would help you, or if you know someone who might benefit from the book, it can be purchased at your favorite independent bookstore. If you don’t find it there, please ask them to order the book from IngramSpark.
The book is available in paperback and as an e-book.
Click on “Read more” under the photo of the book cover.
At the end of the book’s description there, click on the BookShop.org buy button, which takes you to BookShop.org (a site that supports independent bookstores throughout the U.S.)
Put my book in your basket.
Select the independent bookstore you wish to support.
Place your order and have the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting an independent bookstore!
So far, Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC; Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville, NC; and Highland Books in Brevard, NC have been very supportive of my book so I’ll give them a shout-out.
Available for your cell!
The book is also available on Amazon and from Barnes & Noble.
Here’s a Sneak Peek at I Need The Light!
From Week 12, here’s the “Setting the stage” introduction to that week’s devotional about the Parable of the Lost Coin:
“In Halley’s Bible Handbook, Henry H. Halley describes the fifteenth chapter of Luke as ‘the calm before the storm’ in Luke 14. In the fourteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush as He talks about the price people will pay for following Him. He goes on to explain that He must be first in our lives. We must love Him more than we love anyone else. It’s enough to make a person question the wisdom of following Jesus!
“But then we come to Luke 15. It is a beautiful chapter about the tender, forgiving grace of Jesus. The chapter includes the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and the passage we’re looking at this week: The Parable of the Lost Coin.”
Does this sound like something you or a friend would like to read?
I wrote I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter in a conversational tone as I imagined I was talking one-on-one with a good friend. If this approach to the Bible appeals to you, I hope you will look for my book.
I’m not an “in your face” kind of Christian. I’m a lifelong Presbyterian, so I’m not going to scare you into being a Christian. That’s not the Presbyterian way!
Even if fall and winter are your favorite seasons of the year, I believe you will find something of benefit in my 188-page devotional book.
I invite you to look for it!
If you read it and like it, your rating and/or brief review on such sites as Goodreads.com and Amazon will be greatly appreciated.
I was caught off-guard on June 14 when I read Sarah Johnson’s Reading the Past blog post and learned that the decade of the 1960s is now the hottest thing in historical fiction.
Yikes!
I remember the 1960s well. In fact, I remember some of the 1950s. I admit that I had not thought of the 1960s as fodder for historical fiction yet. Wasn’t it yesterday that I was still reading World War II fiction? Why did we leap right over the 1950s?
Photo by History in HD on Unsplash
Calling books set in the 1960s “historical fiction” just doesn’t seem right. I’m not ready to read it, and I’m certainly not ready to try to write it. I like to write about the 1760s and 1770s, so I must be in a 200-year-old time warp.
When I finish my novel-in-progress, I just hope I’m not the only person out there who likes to read about life in the 1760s.
My blog is all over the place!
The first 11 years or more that I wrote a blog, I concentrated on my life as a struggling writer and a reader. (Make that “struggling reader,” too, in light of my memory problems. Many times I get to the bottom of a page in a book and I have no idea what I just read, but I digress.)
I have also written history pieces, often on the anniversary date of an event. Some of them are well-known dates and events in history, while others were little-known events that I stumbled upon.
Over the years I toyed with how often to blog. I eventually settled on just once-a-week. That seemed to be all I could handle. I settled on posting my blog every Monday. That worked very well for me.
Then came Donald Trump’s reelection, and my comfortable blogging routine went out the window.
After blogging as many as six posts a week since January 20, I think I’m probably “preaching to the choir.” My readers are probably keeping up with politics as much as I am.
Since I don’t want to bore you with our new normal in the United States, I hope to add some variety to my blog posts. I certainly don’t want to write about politics every day! It’s not good for my mental health or yours. I miss writing fiction, and I desperately want to get back to a place emotionally where I can turn off the politics in my head and switch gears to colonial America.
I have written 90,000 words of an historical novel, but I put it on the back burner a couple of years ago when I realized the protagonist’s backstory deserved its own novel. I’ve done a ton of research and I wrote 35,000 words before I let myself get derailed. I think about my protagonist every day and I yearn to finish writing her story.
Her story lets me travel back to The Great Wagon Road in the 1760s to the backcountry of Virginia, North Carolina, and into The Waxhaws in South Carolina. I look forward to sharing her story with you, but first I must get my devotional book published.
I have had success in the past week in turning my attention back to the devotional book I’m writing. I have been doing what I hope will be my read aloud proofread. It is tedious. It is time-consuming. It is 186 pages.
I took a big step yesterday. I have published my other books and two short stories through Kindle Direct Publishing, but I would like for my devotional book to be available for bookstores to sell. I have researched IngramSpark and yesterday I set up an account with that company.
That decision had been weighing on my mind for several weeks. After reading the lengthy agreement and reviewing the company’s User Guide, I settled on IngramSpark and created my account last night.
I will explain in an upcoming blog what the book is about and the double importance of the title: I Need The Light. My goal is to publish it in August.
What happened to the historical short stories I mentioned last year?
Sadly, those stories are exactly where they were the last time I mentioned them in a blog post. They are on paper and in my computer. Some are complete. Some are almost complete. Some are just story titles on a list.
I want to get back to that project!
Here I am.
If you have wondered what happened to all my grandiose writing projects, now you know.
Please don’t give up on me. I have stories to share with you.
Hurricane Helene Update
As of last Friday, June 20, 2025, 59 roads in North Carolina were closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included five US highways, nine state highways, and 45 state roads.
That is an increase of six state highways and four state roads since the report issued on Friday, June 17. I don’t know why the numbers went up. It could be a typographical error in the online table I check every week. It will be interesting to see what the next weekly NCDOT report will indicate.
The North Carolina General Assembly voted unanimously yesterday to allocated another $500 million for Hurricane Helene relief. That brings the state’s total to around $2 billion so far.
Due to a micro-burst rainstorm and flood on June 19, section of I-40 in Tennessee and North Carolina in the remote Pigeon River Gorge had to be closed again. The closure is approximately 50 miles long. It is the same portion of the interstate that was closed for five months after Hurricane Helene… and until Thursday of last week was finally open to one lane in each direction.
Tennessee Department of Transportation reports on Wednesday sounded doubtful but said they are still working toward possibly getting the highway reopened by July 4. Detour information can be found at https://drivenc.gov/.
I’m beginning to think the Pigeon River Gorge does not want an interstate highway. It keeps revolting!
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a good book to read.
If you live in Europe or on the east coast of the United States, I hope you get some relief from the heatwave this weekend. After a week, I have gotten used to the triple-digit heat index numbers, although anything above 105 degrees F. is still a little extreme.
Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.
Janet's Writing Blog 