Endless Summer Days

Have you ever thought about how fast time seems to go? I remember when I was a kid the summer seemed endless. We got out of school the first week in June and didn't go back until the Thursday after Labor Day. It really was three months of long warm days to play and enjoy. Is this perception one of those developmental phenomenons that child psychologists have cited where the child's brain and interpretation of time isn't completely matured...or is it that the child's world view is such that she isn't concerned about time or calendar? Whatever it is, it's one of the joys of childhood that morphs into reality about the time she turns 16 and can legally work in the summer.

Last October I was asked to take early retirement. By month end I was on my own. You'd think without having to get up and go to work each day my life would have taken on that same sense of time I had as a kid, but it didn't. I can't believe it's been six months since I last sat at that desk, yet it has been. Actually, I've been so busy I sometimes wonder when I had time to work.

Writing is my job now. Every day I'm up at dawn and after spending time with the Lord I'm at my desk (which doubles as the dining room table) pounding away on my laptop. Some days are more productive than others, but I've managed to plot and start writing my cozy, write a proposal for that story and send it, write several articles and submit them...the list goes on. And just this week I received the promise of my first "paycheck!" I sold one of my articles. Payday won't come until fall when it is published, but I'm still dancing a jig--very carefully, mind you, as my fractured foot is still healing :-).

This is BIG in my world. An affirmation that I'm on the right track (or is it the write track). I still have a ways to go, but the road on this journey is getting a little smoother. Can't complain about that.

Fractured Feet and Humility

God is keeping me humble. The first full week without my laptop I fell off a curb and fractured my foot! Where was I going? To a friend's to check email. Did that stop me? Not a chance. Truthfully, I didn't realize the foot was fractured. At the time the only thing damaged was my dignity as I lay sprawled on the cement while a man raking the grounds nearby came running over.

When I went to the clinic the next day to have the foot x-rayed, the doctor came into the examining room on crutches and wearing one of those boots that looks more like a ski boot than a walking cast. He also fell off a curb and broke his foot--in two places. Didn't make me feel much better. A few minutes later he told me there was no break in my foot and I went on my way, very slowly. It sure did hurt for only being bruised. So for that and the next day I hobbled around on my heel, either going to my friend's or the nearby library to check email.

Late afternoon on the second day the doc called me to say a radiologist spotted a fracture after all. I couldn't get into the foot doc until two days later when he put me in a boot that looks very much like the one the other doctor was wearing.

So I'm in the boot for at least another week and probably longer. But the good news is the laptop returned home! No more going out to check email.

Today I finished my book proposal for "Murder for Breakfast" and sent it to the publisher. Now it is God's hands. If it is His will they'll ask for the full manuscript. I like the story, my critiquer's like the story, but will the editor's like the story?

God is keeping me humble.

Internet Detox

Well, I've been suriviving quite well without my laptop keyboard by using an external one. However, the time has come for the laptop to be sent away for repair. During the next two weeks or so I will be without direct access to the Internet from my home.

It amazes me how much in the past 10 or 12 years I've become so accustomed to having the Internet at my fingertips. If I need to know something right away to include in my WIP I just Google it and within a few minutes I often have my answer. Amazing.

Then there is the emailing. It's more than just a social outlet for me. I'm constantly writing back and forth with my crit (critique) partners, sending copies of my work for feedback, while they send me theirs. My responsibilities on the ACFW board requires a lot of emailing as well.

For now I'll be running to the library or a friend's to use their computer. I have the use of a loaned laptop but there is no internet connection inside it that will communicate with my wireless router.

God is teaching me something in all this. Hold onto everything loosely. He is the only constant in my life. And that's as it should be. That's how He designed it.

So loosely I will hold and wait for my laptop to be returned. There's no telling how much writing I'll accomplish in the meantime. I may come back and say my entire book is done--at least the first draft :-)

Until later...

Keyboards, Diet Coke, and God

As a writer I have come to depend on my computer almost as much as I depend on the air I breathe. Without it I have no means to submit my work electronically either to editors or my critique partners who live in various parts of the country. And, I am also out of immediate touch with the board of ACFW of which I'm a member. You'd think I would be so aware of this each and every day, but as with most things I've come to take the computer and my Internet connection for granted.
Yesterday was a good day for writing. I spent the entire day working on plotting and just as I got to the the last couple plot points, I got thirsty and opened a can of Diet Coke. With my laptop on the coffee table in front of me, I leaned forward to read an email. As I read I took a swig of pop and several drops dribbled down my chin and onto the laptop keyboard. I don't need to explain what moisture does to electronics. The keyboard went nuts. I am now typing on an auxilary keyboard which is plugged into the USB port. Now I face a situation where if I take the machine in for repair I'm without contact with the outside world and have no computer to use for writing. Do I continue using the "extra" keyboard and live with it, thankful to God I at least have that? Money in this new retirement phase of my life is scrutinized deeply before I spend it. I have come to depend on God so much for so many things in my life. More today than ever before.

Isn't that what He wants of all of us?

Procrastination??? Not Me!

Here it is...a cold Thursday morning in February. Outside the weather is rather frightful. Could be worse for Chicago. A forecast of a mix of snow and freezing rain. A perfect day to write and yet I haven't yet gotten to it. Yesterday I started the first chapter of Murder For Breakfast. I've spent the last month or more fleshing out my story...adding the red herrings...researching the crime. The publisher I'm targeting wants cozies. No blood and guts, keep it "light-hearted," and that, I'm discovering, is not easy when you are dealing with murder. I love reading mysteries, but I'm learning that plotting one out and writing it is another whole thing. And, I'm also doing this in first person. Easy to do I thought. Not! Yesterday I started the first chapter and then after a couple hours of writing trashed the whole thing and started over. This time I think I've gotten it right, but it's far from ready for submission. After all, it's only a first draft. And before I ask my agent to send it off, it will go through the scrutiny of my crit partners and friends who do nothing but read stories.

The best thing I can do right now is pray before I put another word on this computer. God has given me this love of writing and the skill to do it. Without Him as my co-writer I am nothing. Like Paul said a clanging gong. So I'm off to pray...and then to write.