Above All Else -- My New Work In Progress

A writer's journey is filled with many roads one must choose. One of the side roads I often take is Article Avenue. Writing articles for publication goes much faster than writing fiction for publication, and that means money in my pocket. Very welcome when one is on a retirement income! Last week I sold an article! I hesitate to publish the details until I get the contract, but you can imagine my Snoopy dance the day I got the news :-).

For me the main highway I travel is Story Street. I love telling stories. Developing stories and writing them is what truly brings joy to my heart. I love it when the story seems to flow from my fingertips onto the keyboard without any effort. It's like watching a movie. I sometimes stare at the computer screen and ask, "Where did that come from?" Of course, I know the answer. God. He gave me the talent to write and it is to honor Him that I write. God created me, all of me, including my DNA, and he put the desire into my heart to write as well as the ability.

I realized this weekend that much of what drives me to write is in my DNA. I came across copies of letters my dad had typed on an old manual typewriter to various friends in the decade or two before he passed away. He died before email became the norm, but I'm sure if he'd been born ten or twenty years later he'd have taken to it like a duck to water. He loved writing chatty and informative letters, and he loved keeping a copy of them. That may have been all he wrote in his lifetime, but the drive was there. And before him, his mom felt driven to keep a written account of her life during 1899 and 1900. I still have that little journal of hers that documents the time she was courted by my grandfather. Priceless. And before that, my great-grandfather (her father) was a creative man in his own right. An inventor and photographer. And before that, a first cousin of his father. George Bancroft, besides being first Secretary of the Navy was a writer. His American history volumes are actually in my local library! That's George over there on the right. Great beard!


But I digress . . .

I derived the title of my new story from Matthew 6:33:

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Porter Wyatt grew up never knowing if there would be food on the table and wearing second-hand clothing. Never would she live that way as an adult. Newly graduated from law school she's on her way to achieving that goal with a job in a large corporate law firm and a new 401K to assure her financial security. Then her uncle, a country lawyer, calls and everything screeches to a halt. He needs her help.

Graham Sullivan only wants to live a simple life unfettered from the evil his family's wealth has created in his brother. An evil that is growing like a cancer. Cutting ties seems the only way for Sully achieve this goal. He wants nothing to do with the family business or its money. Sully wants only to use the skills God has given him to be a master woodworker and live on what he earns.

What happens when these two polar opposites' lives collide and how does God work through both of them to help the other?

And I'm excited to see the story unfold, and the characters reveal to me who they are. Their likes and dislikes, manners of speaking, their backstories that make them who they are today.

Meanwhile my agent is shopping Murder for Breakfast to publishers, and I'm looking for new article ideas to pitch to magazine in between the birthing of a new story.

A Writer's Journey is never boring! Thank God for that!