Still

In another week, 2017 will be half over. It is time for me to get it together. This coming week I am going to come up with a list of goals to accomplish in the next six months and this time I am going to stick to it. It used to work for me, and I don’t know what I was thinking by losing all structure. So, you’ll have to wait for the great reveal next Sunday.

In the meantime, this past week, I did write 1,330 words on the new novel. I also heard back on the poetry contest I entered. I did not win. I don’t know. I know that poetry is not my area, but I think that it is one of those things which we can use for cleansing and letting go.

The theme for this contest was to write a poem about something which was an irritant to you.

“When the Phone Is Still”

Favorite TV show on

Work clothes off

Feet up on the couch

Ring

“Hello, Mom, nothing’s new here.

How about with you?”

Crawling into bed

Thunderstorm clap

Just want to fall asleep to the rain

Ring

“Hello, Mom, I heard the storm warnings.

Yes, we will be safe.”

Ring

“I’m not busy.

But we did just sit down to eat.”

Ring

“What’s up?

I’m gonna be late for work.”

TV show is over.

The phone hasn’t rung.

Dinner is eaten.

The phone hasn’t rung.

Lightning strikes nearby.

Still, the phone hasn’t rung.

Still.

See ya next week, with that list of goals! 

Mom at Christmas in 1984, the year I had moved to Colorado.
I bought her this trivet out there and mailed it to her, along with everyone else's presents. 

Honestly?

Well, so much for being all fired up about getting back to the current novel. Didn’t look at it all week. The only thing I did get done was I wrote a poem and submitted it to a poetry contest.

My back is doing much better. For anyone out there with back problems who has not tried a chiropractor, you really need to make an appointment. Amazing how months and months of back pain are gone after two adjustments. I just need to heed my own advice, though, and go back as soon as the pain starts up again, instead of thinking it will get better on its own.

Other than that I have no idea where the week went again. Umm, nope, I got nothin. I am just lazy.

Hubby and I drove to Milwaukee on Friday, went to a Brewers game and then came home yesterday. Only gone about 28 hours, so that really didn’t cut into my writing time.

This coming week, to be honest, I got a feeling that it will be more of the same. Just being honest. I am thinking about heading to Minnesota on Friday to see my friend there who is having some medical issues. I work late tomorrow. A family friend passed away last night, so I have to squeeze the funeral in whenever that is. 

I will give it my best effort to write at least a little on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Let’s see if I can get that much done. 

(I hadn't been to Miller Park in Milwaukee before. It's pretty cool.) 

Oops, I just remembered two other things. Yesterday, on our way home, we stopped at my favorite used book store and I found two books I've been wanting to read forever. "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed and "On Writing" by Stephen King. As if I have time for reading besides. . .  but I'm gonna try. 

Also, just as my back is doing better, my daughter's went 'out' yesterday. We were going to go to her house for Father's Day for supper, already, but went a few hours earlier so we could help her clean her house. The poor thing walks around just as croaked as I do when my back is 'out'. 

Productive week and a backache

I’m gonna have to make this post short as I am heading to my daughter’s this morning to meet the new grand-puppy.  

My back has been giving me an immense amount of grief all week. One of the perks of that is that I can’t do anything else around the house except lay out in the sun during the day and write on my novel during the night (especially the middle of the night when I can’t get comfortable in bed). Odd how my old, creaky office chair is more comfortable than my bed. The problem is that I can’t easily get out of either one of them. Chiropractor here I come.

With all this office chair time, you’d think I would have gotten more written, but at 2,328 words this week, I won’t complain. That’s the most I’ve written in months.

I also got another potential cover for my novel from my publisher this week. I definitely like this one the best. I think it captures the protagonist’s heart. 

Wish me luck with my back and my writing this week. Maybe now that the writing plug has been uncorked, I can write even when I’m not in pain.

Hoping that you have a productive week as well, while enjoying the summer weather. 

Not Beating Myself Up

Once again I had a totally unproductive week. Sometimes I think I should just take the summer off, and I would, except that I have nothing to show for the last six months, so rewarding myself with a vacation would be rewarding my bad behavior. Oh, I know, I shouldn’t beat myself up over this.

I did have a good day today. Spent, remarkably, with my brother. Because he is 16 years older than me, we’ve just never done much together other than the obligatory family gatherings. Today was a family gathering too, but the two of us drove down to it together, and without Mom there as the buffer, it was just the two of us for most of the day.

He told me some stories from his wild youth that I had never heard. It was a good day. Now, I’m scanning old pictures of him, ones I’m sure he hasn’t seen in forever, and no one has ever seen. Good for me he doesn’t have internet, so that when I post these pictures on my other blog on Tuesday in honor of his birthday, he’ll never know.

The only thing that happened in the writing world is that I got three rough drafts of covers for “Where the Sky meets the Sand”. I attached a rough draft of a potential blurb about the book at the end so you can get a feel for what it’s about.

An American businesswoman with a secret past. An African boy without a home. Two missionaries with more than one mission to accomplish. Will all of their wishes come true where the sky meets the sand on the African plain? 

“Where the Sky Meets the Sand” tells the story of Jenny Neumeyer and Ole, a homeless boy she befriends while she and her husband are on vacation in Kenya. This encounter leads her to confront a secret she has kept buried for 14 years. As she comes to terms with her past, two missionaries to Africa discover Ole and are determined to lead him home. Along the way, they realize that the boy is not the only one who is lost.

Jenny, her husband, and the missionaries all discover that their faith in God is what will see them through. 

I like the third cover the best, but would like to have a picture of the woman Jenny included somewhere. We’ll see what the design team comes up.

And this week in my world? Not going to make any promises at all.