Sunday Surprise

This morning, for the first time in a while, my granddaughter came to church with me. Our nursery is for first grade and under, and since she is a second grader this year, it means she has to stay with me during the service. I wondered if she would show signs of boredom during the sermon. We do have “activity bags” for the kids that contain pads of paper, crayons, books, and the like.

Today, our pastor spoke about our country’s Christian heritage and our need for prayer during these troubled times. My granddaughter was giving all of her attention to a pad of paper and a pen. When she showed me what she had written, I had a response all prepared for her “grandma, I really want to go home now” message.

Instead, what I found on that pad of paper, written in the neatest printing she could muster, was, word for word, the Pledge of Allegiance. It showed me that even though she might not understand every word of our pastor’s sermon, she did grasp the concept of the general message and how special our country is.

Do we realize how much we influence our children with all of the things we do and say in our daily lives? Even when they don’t’ seem to be paying attention, their little ears are perked up and their inquisitive brains are working every minute. If we as parents and grandparents encourage those little ones to turn to God and pray for our nation, the United States will stand strong for decades to come.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Struggling Through Nano

I thought I had the next scene in my novel all worked out. All I needed to do was put the words on paper. However, when I sat there with my computer screen in front of me and my keyboard at my fingertips, something very strange happened. A whole new scene emerged.

When I wrote that scene in my head, I didn’t account for all the past experiences this young lady had been through. She was supposed to be thrilled to be reunited with the man she loves, but when she discovers something about him that is most disturbing, she does not manifest her charming, sweet self, forgive him, and go on. She responds with anger and disappointment.

That’s the great thing about Nano. Our characters react with normal human emotions and we don’t have to worry about getting the words down on paper in any organized fashion. The important thing is to get the action and the gut wrenching feelings on paper, then work with sentence structure and proper word choices later.

I have to admit I’m struggling with Nano. My word count isn’t near as high as it should be and my scenes seem to spin around in circles. I don’t know that I’ve made much progress with the story itself, although when it’s all said and done, I suppose I will be able to salvage something out of the effort.

However, I am learning a little bit about keeping that internal editor at bay. It is one of the most difficult lessons in writing, to move on even when something that is down on paper is not good. Okay, downright lousy. The secret is to move ever forward.

Sometimes I feel like Jack Torrance in The Shining, who sequestered himself for hours and hours to work on his novel and came up with pages and pages of the same line. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

Well, I’ve done a little better than that.

I think.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Veterans Day

Today is a special holiday that should mean something to every American, the day we honor those who have served in the armed forces. I have been fortunate over the years in that “war”, per se, has never touched my life in a deeply personal way.

Yes, I watch the newscasts. My heart breaks every time I hear of another fallen soldier. I think about and pray for the families of those soldiers.

My dad served in the army during World War II and my husband served in the Air Force during the Viet Nam War. Still, their service took place long before I became a part of the lives of either of them.

My sister joined the Air Force after high school. She met her husband during her service, and both she and my brother-in-law went on to retire from the armed forces after 20 years. They faced the possibility of deployment during Desert Storm, but were never called. I never had to lie awake nights wondering if my loved ones would be killed in action any day.

Our son filled out his selective service forms when he turned 18, but he and his sister are successful in careers far removed from the military. So, as a parent, I have never had to face the gut-wrenching fear of knowing my child is living in a tent somewhere on the other side of the world surrounded by people who’s main goal is to kill him.

I have a niece and a good friend of my kids who are both in the military at present and have served or are serving in hostile areas of the world. My heart goes out to them and to their families as they wait for their loved ones to return home safely. I pray for strength that the members of our armed forces are guided by competent leaders who seek the wisdom of a powerful God to direct them in the decisions that need to be made against a vengeful enemy.

How many more Veterans’ Days will pass before our country and the world are free of war? Matthew 24:6 tells us that “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”

I don’t know that the world will ever be free of war, but I do know that we as citizens of this great country have an obligation to thank our brave men and women who have fought and now fight for the freedoms we enjoy.

God bless America!

Thanks for reading my blog.

Nanomania

This is the month designated for writers as National Novel Writing Month, where those of us who like to work with words are challenged to create 50,000 of them in 30 days. Known as NaNoWriMo or Nano for short, it is expected that the flurry of sentences that appear on the page will somehow make sense and come together to form a novel.

This is my fourth year as a nano participant. In 2006, I reached 22,016 words and 117 pages. Nano ’07 yielded 22,432 words and 120 pages, but as I look over those documents now, I’m guessing my ’07 effort was merely a rewrite of my previous year’s attempt with a few extra pages added. I made a few feeble stabs at Nano 2008, but not enough to even stand a chance at achieving 50,000 words.

So, now we come to Nano 2009. This year is really fun! First off, in the past, I had a username and password, but never entered any word count into the web site. Didn’t know how to do it and didn’t take the time to learn. This year, I not only enter my daily word count, I have a group of writing buddies whose progress I follow. I’m encouraged when I pull ahead of some, challenged when I lag behind others.

Nano has been difficult for me since I have that touch of obsessive-compulsiveness when I write. The first sentence has to be perfect before I can move on to the second, which means I’ve written the first few chapters of my work in progress (WIP) at least six dozen times. It leads to boredom and frustration.

Nano doesn’t allow time for that. This year, I turned off my internal editor and find myself immersed in the total of joy of just typing ideas onto the computer screen. It isn’t important if all the beats and tags, all the sensory details, all the right verbs are in place at this point. The objective is to let the ideas tumble out, watch the word count rise, and worry about smoothing it out later.

I can’t leave my OCD traits totally behind, so I took the time to devise an excel spreadsheet that helps me keep track of my progress. How am I doing? I should have 11669 words be the end of today. This morning, when I got home from work, I passed the 7500 mark. That puts me about 4100 words down.

That’s all right. At least I write every day. The last half of my WIP that existed only as fragmented scenes in my head now takes form as something tangible on the page. I may not accomplish 50,000 words, but each one I do write is a word I didn’t have yesterday. That’s called progress.

In this season of swine flu and regular flu and colds, could it be that I have caught – Nanomania?

Thanks for reading my blog.

Not Here but Not There

Sorry it has again been a time since I last wrote. I did a few extra shifts a couple of weeks ago and caught a cold or some kind of crud that I can’t seem to shake. No fever or anything, just a very annoying cough, sneezing, and feeling so tired at times.

I even missed Halloween. Not that it made that much difference. We never get trick-or-treaters other than our granddaughter. Since we live outside the city limit, the kids get their fill of candy from the residents of the main streets in town. I came home from work that morning and went right to bed, didn’t wake up until our daughter and granddaughter were knocking on the door at 8:15. Usually I take a drive to town in early evening to see all the little ones on the streets in their costumes, but I totally missed out this year.

I have not attended our adult Sunday school class and church for two weeks in a row because of this crud. I don’t want to be spreading my germs to the rest of our congregation, so I’ve just stayed home. When I go to the grocery store or the post office, I wear a jacket so I can “cough into the elbow”, as they advise. I’m so paranoid about spreading germs around.

I don’t like sickness, but I don’t like this state of semi-health either. I’m too sick to go to church but not sick enough to stay home from work. I’m taking medications, but none of them are prescription. I’d like to see a doctor, but I don’t have enough symptoms to warrant an appointment when there are dozens of others who are “really sick”. So, I drink plenty of water, double my usual dose of Vitamin C, use rest as an excuse not to do the housework, eat canned fruit that contains way too much sugar and ice cream because it soothes my scratchy throat. Maybe next week I’ll be back to normal.

Well, I just finished having another coughing fit…opened my fortieth box of tissues…..washed my hands for the hundred and fiftieth time. Sure am glad it’s just a cold.

Thanks for reading my blog.