Day 227

Thursday, April 28, 2011. . .

            THE WRITING. . .Spent more time with reader emails and author’s Facebook page. Crossed a few items off the to-do list, but there are still many details to attend to. . .website, an Amazon.com link for me as an author to update. . .  As usual after a book is finished, my ability to sit at the laptop for long periods of time is limited. My eyes and mind have been on overload and are still in recovery mode.

            THE DETAILS. . .Cleared the desk, completely. Even dusted and “polished” the pressed wood.  =)  Reorganized it a bit. Always a fun, satisfying task.

            Home Group was a sweet time with My Guy and two women.  =)  (He enjoys this.)  We sat around a bowl of guacamole (made by one of them; yummy with a hint of cumin), chips and farmers market carrots and talked.  

Day 226

Wednesday, April 27, 2011. . .

            THE WRITING. . .Corresponded with readers via emails. What a blessing these women are to me.  =)  Posted a new discussion question for Desert Gift on the Facebook author page. Replies posted to the last one are beautiful.   http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sally-John-Books/355413061473

           Finished reading a novel, one in a series, criminal suspense genre. I skim the over-the-top violence and zero in on the relationships. Such excellent writing with the recurring characters.  (Writers workshop by osmosis for me.)  At the end of this book the author killed off one of the main characters, the husband of another main person. Not exactly a happy ending but a true ending; given the circumstances it had to happen.

            THE DETAILS. . .This and that. Crossed a few things off the to-do list.

            Biked with My Guy for dinner to the restaurant where we ate several meals in the days following the fire because it’s near the motel where we stayed. We’ve gotten to know a young waitress. Had not been there for perhaps six months. She was pregnant at that time; last night she wasn’t – we saw photos of her baby boy. Nice.

            As we started to bike away, a woman reading the menu posted outside asked us about the food. We learned that she was from New York and her 19-year old in the car wanted steak before he shipped out to Afghanistan. Please pray for Eric and his family.

            The two mama-son stories sort of twist your heart, don’t they?

Day 225

Tuesday, April 26, 2011. . .

            THE WRITING. . .My Guy finished Heart Echoes, so there is talk about it.  Nice.  =)  Other than that and touching base with Agent and Editor, I did not engage. There is work to be done now regarding Desert Gift (it’s coming SOON), but it wasn’t in today’s mindset.  ;)

            THE DETAILS. . .Went back to the To-Do List. Assuming Daughter and S-I-L don’t have time to read this blog, I will say that I got lost in a photo project, a gift for them for their first anniversary.  And then I got my birthday gift mother’s ring sized. Am so happy to be able to wear it on my finger now. 

            The slowed mental pace is goooood.

Day 224

Monday, April 25, 2011. . .

            THE WRITING. . . Played with Discussion Questions in my imagination. As I write, I list possibilities that I might use, topics to pursue.

My Guy is reading the manuscript.  He’s always been one of my first readers. It’s fun to hear his reactions, how the characters come alive for him. Some things he picks up on that I did not know were in the story.  =)

            THE DETAILS. . .The catch-up begins: laundry, wrote the to-do list, framed and hung photos long sitting in a pile, pulled weeds where the sidewalk sections that leads to our house meets the sidewalk that parallels the street, some emails. Ran out of time to get through my list.  ;) 

            The highlight: Granddaughter #2, the 6-year old, called to tell me she did her first by-herself kick-over. Whoa. Okay, I had to ask what it was because I could not recall from when Granddaughter #1 learned how to do it. (Their mom is the gymnast.) It’s kicking over from a backbend into a standing position. As I said, whoa. 

Days 223 - 224

Saturday – Sunday, April 23 – 24, 2011. . .

            Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed.  Alleluia! 

Day 221

Friday, April 22, 2011. . .

            THE WRITING. . .I tightened up that Epilogue, worked on a few other things and then. . .I was done.  Yes, again.  ;)  It was another “finished” episode. This was a Biggie: I emailed it to the editors.  It was time to let it go (no matter that today is Good Friday and no one is going to see the email until after Easter).

            Thanks be to God.
            There is always the post-mortem: What do I think? How do I feel? I feel good about the work. I put forth my best efforts. I miss my characters.

            THE DETAILS. . .The remainder of the day I moved in a fog. How do we writers come out of it, how do we leave a world in which we’ve lived and breathed for months and months? It’s like being born or gaining sight: everything is new. Everything is bright and shiny and a little bit scary.

            I emailed my daughter and asked what they were doing for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving.  In an email. It wasn’t a slip of the tongue. Slip of coherent thought, perhaps.  ;)   

Day 220

Thursday, April 21, 2011. . .

            THE WRITING. . . \O/  I typed THE END.  Woo-hoo!!!!

            There’s finished and there’s finished and then there’s finished. Maybe one or two more.  Last week’s was completing the story, minus Epilogue and my editing/rewriting.  That’s emotional crying time.  Empty and full time.

Today’s finish was: Epilogue written and all the red ink transcribed into the file. I laughed and clapped at my laptop.  =)  Thanks be to God.

I enjoy writing epilogues. For my type of story, it’s a look at what good has come of the previous 200 pages of struggle. There might be some bittersweet. I try not to answer all the dilemmas or be too syrupy sweet.

It should be tight writing and honestly I will most likely rewrite it after my editor gives it back to me because as is, it’s loosey goosey stuff, an emotional unloading as well as a “this is what happened to so and so and that situation and this is where we are and the moral of the story is this in case it wasn’t clear.”

THE DETAILS. . .Maundy Thursday. Our church practices some of the old ways. We had a foot washing, communion, and then in silence the altar was stripped. Even the floral arrangements were carried away. The barrenness speaks to me: what if Jesus never came to reveal God to us?