After a couple of weeks away from Supporting Friends Friday, it’s time to honor more of my wonderful, talented friends.  This week, it is my distinct pleasure to recommend the excellent writer Bette Cox.

Bette is a “real-life” friend of mine, as opposed to an Internet-only friend (although many of my Internet friends certainly seem like good friends nonetheless).  We met back when I used to help out with the Florence County (South Carolina) GOP, first as the Third Vice Chair and then as secretary.  That latter position was one that Bette held at various times throughout the history of the FCGOP, and I took on the job immediately after she had returned to it for a brief stint.

During that time and since, she has frequently sent along her advice and perspective on a number of topics:  party politics, local politics, writing, etc.  Bette once urged me to write pieces that are meaningful, rather than just churning out post after post, day after day.  It’s to my discredit that I’ve partially ignored that advice, though I hope I have written some posts of value over the last two years.

When she’s not doling out hard-won wisdom via e-mail, she is writing—a lot.  Bette is a prolific writer, maintaining six separate blogs:  Talk with Bette, Curiosity About Space, S.C. Family Memories, Speaking of Heaven, Esther’s Petition, and Tapister.  Of these, I mostly read Esther’s Petition, which features much of Bette’s religious writing.

Bette is what we in Evangelical circles call a “prayer warrior” (I don’t know if she applies that label to herself, but it fits)—her prayer life is deep and rich, and she has a strong relationship with the Lord.  It also seems that Bette has some gift of prophecy, or at least of discernment—her posts often feature her conversations with the Lord, and make for interesting and encouraging reading.

In researching for this post—which essentially entailed visiting Bette’s home page and skimming through her blogs, I found that she wrote a novella, The Simsville Inheritance, about a woman who inherits the titular town from her late aunt.  What an engaging premise—and such a Southern one, too.  It’s entirely possible something like the premise of this short book has actually happened down here (it would not surprise me at all if Bette got the idea from actual, historical events, as she is a certified oral historian).

I am blessed to have many great writer friends—Audre Myers, Neo, photog, Mogadishu Matt, Jeremy Miles, Dr. Rachel Fulton Brown and the folks at Dragon Common Room—but before any of them, there was Bette.  She has been a mentor and friend to me, even if I haven’t always been the most diligent pupil.

Thank you, Bette, and God Bless!

—TPP