Summer Unleashed

UPDATE: I have just finished the second draft of Charmed - I'm Sure. It turned out a little differently than I expected, but I like it. It's sort of a picture book for pre-teens. Is such a thing out there? Maybe it's a short story. In just a few minutes I'll post it on my blog here - at least a portion of it - and then I'll ask for takers on what you think the genre is.

Here is the direct link in case you found this post first.

This is my second time sitting in front of this screen today.

The first time, I wasn't sure what I wanted to write. I had multiple reasons why I didn't want to and no ideas.

All it took was a lunch break and time to think over what mattered to me.

Here are some thoughts:

I want to begin a new writing project.

A few years ago - I'm not even sure when the idea came - I was doing an interview for a blog and an idea for a picture book came to me. Fortunately, I wrote all of the ideas down, unfortunately, I lost these ideas until, just last week, I found some time and, in cleaning out my files, I found them again.

I'm not going to tell you a lot about the book other than to say that having a charmed life is not really what any of us want even if we think we do. 

Life isn't about perfection, it's about dirt and muck under our fingernails. It's about secrets that aren't kept and people that don't really like you. It's about people who want to serve but think too highly of themselves. It's about work. It's about doing what you don't like to do and aching muscles that tell you how old you're really getting.

Photo by Meg Jenson on Unsplash

Next, I want to spend some time marketing. I'm not really sure as I'm typing this what sort of marketing I'm going to do, but I'm going to do something, and I'd like that something to be original, especially since I have two books that should be ready for publishing by the end of this year. [I'm giving myself plenty of time because both of these books were supposed to be ready this spring. :)]

I want to do a lot of reading this summer. I want to pay attention to how authors write, how they put words together, and how they get you to feel the story behind the words. 

Do you have some writing goals for this summer? I would love to hear them.

Kathryn

Ready?

 It doesn't take much for me to begin thinking about summer.

Just get rid of the snow and replace it with the sun in one week!

We had our annual Easter get-together. This year we had 14 of us, Jesus (I always take down a picture of Christ and set it in a chair) both grandmothers, my daughter Tiffanie and her family, my daughter Bethany and her family, and Aimee and her family via Zoom in Texas. Of course, we couldn't send the excellent food my husband cooked through the computer screen, but we did manage to have a spiritual feast reading various scriptures about Christ from the prophets.

Jacob, as always, didn't want to eat much but was anxious to get to the "fun" part. Finding eggs on the Easter egg hunt. There were plenty!

I Hope your Easter was just what you wanted it to be this year. 

All my love,

Kathryn

Keeping the Faith

I am a faithful writer. I am also a faith-filled person.

I believe in faith like the water I drink, the feet I stand on, and the hands that reach for me in my distress. 

Life isn't always about what you expect, neither is it easy, as any rock-solid, faithful person will tell you. Life isn't about doing what you want when you want it. Usually, it is about doing what is right, which makes the thing you are doing inconvenient and difficult. 

If the waters of life are God, then the boat we must sit in to travel through life, is faith. Sometimes we have oars, we feel as if we are traveling along swimmingly. We feel as if we can get to shore if need be. But there are times in that boat, when the oars are nowhere to be found, or the oars wouldn't be of use anyway because we are traveling down the rapids to the falls.

Clinging to both sides of my boat, my face so wet that I cannot see, it is all I can do to keep upright. But I need to move forward. I have to. Sitting in my boat I see others in their boats. Some are smiling. Others are crying. Dare I say it? Many, so many that I cannot count them, are traveling down the rapids of life too. 

I want to scream, "You can do it!" "I know it's hard!" "I know the journey is taking everything you have, but you can do it!"

I know the rapids are loud, so loud it feels impossible to hear the still, small voice. But I also know we are NOT the only person sitting in our boat. I know this because I am not the only one sitting in mine.