Meet Agent Ellen Jenkins

 Last Friday’s post introduced you to Emma Thomas, one of the protagonists in my latest novel, “Prior to Now”. Though Emma was born in 1838, the other two main characters in the book get to know her quite well. Today, you get to meet Ellen Jenkins, who was born around 1970. How did she become so close to Emma?

“I don’t believe it.” Michael leaned against the cement wall, arms crossed over his chest.

“I don’t either, but let’s wait for the other two.” Ellen looked towards the east end of the tunnel. They would each come to the meeting place from a different direction. The skills they had learned in training came in handy not only in avoiding detection from the enemy but also from their superiors. They’d been meeting in this abandoned tunnel a few blocks from headquarters for years.  

“So, the Rent-A-Spy-Agency has joined the ranks of fascism,” Sam opened with when he entered the tunnel a few minutes later.

“Apparently.”

“Let’s not start until Kimberly gets here.” Ellen watched the tunnel entrance from the west. The fourth member of their team, Kimberly, was always the last to join them, her route being the most circuitous. If anyone could avoid detection, it was the one on the team who was the most paranoid, the one they worried could crack at any time. But over the years, Kimberly had repeatedly proven that she could grit her teeth and do anything asked of her. Except this, Ellen thought to herself. 

“I don’t think she’s coming. I think this has her so freaked out that she has up and left the agency for good, probably left the country already.”

“Sam, we just left her at the office ten minutes ago.”

“We can’t –” Ellen began, but Michael cut her off.

“Here she comes.”

The shortest member of the team entered the tunnel and marched to where they stood. “Not doin’ it.”

“I think we’ve all agreed on that already.”

(From Chapter 2)

What has their employer asked these four agents to do? What is the real name of the Rent-A-Spy-Agency? Why is Kimberly so troubled? And is Ellen troubled as well? When will she learn about Emma, and what could they possibly have in common?

The e-version of “Prior to Now” is on sale on Amazon.com now. Hopefully, by early next week, the paperback version will be available as well. And by the first of the year, I’ll have copies of it in my hot little hands for you to buy directly from me. I’ll keep you posted.

Have a great weekend. Love, Chris 

I never mention any of the actual locations where this book takes place. But this picture is taken in the city where I imagine the team's headquarters could be. Can you guess where it is? 

Here's the link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Prior-Now-Chris-Loehmer-Kincaid-ebook/dp/B0BN69YYRB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3V5HAAD439N37&keywords=prior+to+now+by+chris+loehmer+kincaid&qid=1671156867&sprefix=prior+to+now%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1

Chapter 1 from Prior to Now

  "Miss Thomas! Miss Thomas!"

Before even looking out the window, Emma knew it was Will and could picture him running across the schoolyard with his gangly stride, making a path in the snow. He was the only fourth grader in her one-room schoolhouse, but mentally he could barely keep up with the first graders. It wasn't unusual for him to be shouting to her from a distance for no obvious reason.

"Fire! Fire!" his already high-pitched voice reached her.

She spun from the blackboard to the pot-belly wood-burning stove sitting to one side of the room. She'd gotten there an hour earlier to start the fire and warm the building before her students arrived. Nothing looked amiss; the heat from the fire innocently wafted to the front of the room.   

"Fire! Fire, Miss Thomas!" other children's voices pealed through the yard.

She grabbed her wool coat from the back of her chair and hurried from the room.

Five of her nineteen students huddled outside, staring at the school's roof. Flames were licking the cedar shingles and spreading out from the chimney. Emma froze in fright, uncertain what to do, how to stop it. The Johnson brothers lived the closest.

"Fred and Richard, run home and tell your folks." They obediently turned and ran back to their parents' farmhouse a quarter mile away.

"What should we do?" Little Ruthie asked, her cheeks pink in the cold morning air.

"I don't know." Emma had never felt so useless.

Suddenly inspired, she dashed back into the building and grabbed the bell from just inside the door. She rang it as hard as her arm allowed as more children gathered, followed by their parents and neighbors. She rang the bell until the roof began to fall into the building, until the windows burst, spreading glass onto the snow, until nearly all of the area residents had gathered, even the aging former headmaster, Mr. Langton.

When he saw what had happened, he gently took the bell from her hand, shaking his head. Mrs. Brown pulled her into her arms, stroking the young teacher's cocoa-colored hair and whispering, "it will be all right, dear, it will be all right."

So begins my latest novel, “Prior to Now”.

What happens to Emma next? Will the town of Prior Gulch rebuild her one-room schoolhouse? Will we hear any more of the Johnson brothers?

Click on the link to download the e-version. I’m still working on formatting the paperback edition; it is always a long, frustrating process. I’m so thankful for my techy son’s help.

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, the picture above is of my grand-grandmother. She was never a school teacher, but I picture Emma looking somewhat like this.

https://www.amazon.com/Prior-Now-Chris-Loehmer-Kincaid-ebook/dp/B0BN69YYRB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=355F19TY8AH4P&keywords=prior+to+now+by+chris+loehmer+kincaid&qid=1670588849&sprefix=prior+to+now+by+chris+loehmer+kincaid%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-1

announcing . . . .

Do you ever read a novel and wonder where the author got all their ideas from? I know that I do. I want to get right inside that writer’s head. Maybe it’s because, as a writer, I feel that will help me come up with ideas, or maybe I’m just nuts.

For some reason, it reminds me of this quote from my sister Pat: Sometimes I wonder how come I turned out so weird, so different from everyone else. Maybe it’s because I’m left-handed and I think out of the other side of my brain. Or maybe I’m an alien and I think out of someone else’s brain. It’s probably from reading too many sci-fi books and eating ice cream and saltines for supper.

Except that I’m not left-handed. But I do use my computer mouse with my left hand, and I’m always a little – what’s the word – psyched when people ask if I’m left-handed. Coz that has always been one of my secret dreams. But I think out of the other side of the brain, the one that says I am indeed simply right-handed.

So never mind all of that. If you have ever completed and published a piece of work, you possibly realize why I am rambling so. This was supposed to be a big MY NOVEL IS PUBLISHED blog post, and I had lots of things I wanted to share with you. But instead, here I am talking like a sausage, as my mother would say.

Quickly, pictures, because they always help me reel it in. (I wonder on which side of the brain pictures reside.) I snapped all of these one Friday afternoon when I drove myself on a tour of multiple places in southeast Wisconsin which held significance to my book.

The Aztalan one-room schoolhouse just east of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, which graces the cover of my novel, “Prior to Now”.

At nearby Aztalan State Park. Looks like an interesting place. I didn’t have much time when I stopped there in September, because I had an appointment at the next place. 

Milton House Museum. Very fascinating and historic place. So glad I booked the tour that day.

Camp Randall Memorial Arch at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

The Confederate Rest graveyard at Forest Hill Cemetery in Wisconsin. Nearly forty years ago, when I attended the UW-Madison for one semester, I drove by this cemetery every day and never knew that this area was there and surely never thought I’d ever write about it.

So, there you have it. Not so much the stories behind the story, but at least the pictures behind the story. All of which were snapped after I finished writing the book. Because, once again, I think out of the alien’s side of my brain.

To wrap up, click on the link below and pre-order the e-version of “Prior to Now”. It will be available to read by December 5. Hopefully, I’ll have the print version available soon.

Thanks, Chris

https://www.amazon.com/Prior-Now-Chris-Loehmer-Kincaid-ebook/dp/B0BN69YYRB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38Y8NM9GUOARA&keywords=chris+loehmer+kincaid&qid=1669946780&sprefix=chris+loehmer+kincaid%2Caps%2C149&sr=8-1

Technology Woes

As you may already know, our home internet, along with our phone line, has been down for nearly a week. We cancelled our satellite TV over a year ago, so have been getting all our TV via the internet as well. Our son gave us an antenna for Christmas last year, but he never got around to installing it on the roof or elsewhere outside, so it is sitting on the bookcase in our living room, where it receives spotty reception. It’s like the good old days, back in the sixties, when you had to manually turn the antenna every time you changed channels. The remote control is the only thing still working in our house.

Which reminds me, only a few days before this millennial black-out at my house, my laptop died. It’s not been a good month.

Last Friday, my daughter graciously gave me her laptop, which she hardly ever used. I’d put most of my files from the old laptop onto USBs over the summer, so haven’t lost a whole lot, and we were able to resurrect the device long enough to capture the most recent files of my current novel.

I had hoped to publish that novel and have a print copy in hand by Thanksgiving. Already a month ago, I pushed that date back to mid-December. Now, it’s simply not going to happen until sometime after the first of the year.

You would think, that with nothing else to do electronically at home, that I would at least have finished editing it, formatting it, and creating the final the cover. Instead, I’m lying on the couch, watching old episodes of Columbo and Bones, the only things of interest on TV via antenna, or the first two seasons of Friends on DVD. I’m looking at that whole shelf of DVD movies, thinking we may just have to start with the A’s and watch our way through them.

Our internet/phone carrier won’t be here until the 29^th to try to find the problem. Thank God for cell phones (albeit with spotty coverage). And that I’m still working part-time at the clinic, where I am posting this via their internet.

But back to my novel. Here are four more samples covers. Last time I asked your opinion, many of you didn’t like the circles with a different color background around the words. So, I got rid of all of that. Some people also thought there should be a blurb of what the book was about. There was also mixed feelings about having a picture of the schoolhouse and questions about what a RASA novel was.

If you don’t remember those other covers, you can check the previous blog post, otherwise, just let me know what you think of these. Also which tagline do you like better – “They won’t rewrite the past, but they can rewrite the now” or “It might take the future to save the past.”

Thanks again for everything. I love you all. Chris

#1

#2

#3

#4 - something totally different

More Covers

Yesterday, I finished another edit of my latest novel, “Prior to Now”. I hope to start formatting the manuscript and finalize the cover this week. My original goal was to be in the process of publishing it by now, but you can’t rush a fine wine, right?

Here are the latest ideas for front covers that I’ve come up with. Let me know which one is your favorite, why, and how it could be improved.

Also, if you’ve forgotten, the book is about three women who are devoted to a one-room schoolhouse. One woman, Emma, is the school’s teacher from 1858 into the twentieth century. The other two women live in the near future, sometime in the mid-2030s, and they are committed to saving the old building from destruction.  

I plan to start sharing snippets of it soon.

Thanks for your ideas and your support. 

#1 

#2

#3

#4

Novel Update

I thought I should post a mid-month update on the progress of my latest novel as well as ask your opinions on the cover. I’m 70% through the first round of edits. My goal is to finish editing the entire book by the end of the month.

Two weeks from today, I leave for another trip to Kenya. This will be my seventh journey there, as hard as that is to believe, and for the first time, it is going to be mostly a pure vacation. We don’t have any volunteer work planned, but we are still open to whatever our hosts ask of us.

When I get back on October 18, I’ll do another edit on the book as well as finalize the cover. Then by the first of November, I hope to start working on publishing it on Amazon.

Uffda, that’s a lot of ground to cover, both literally and figuratively.

As you may recall from my mid-August post, the novel is about three women – one living in the mid-eighteen hundreds and two in the very near future. The future setting – ten years or so from now – is somewhat dystopian, and it’s up to the two heroines living then to initiate the change to bring our country back to normalcy. The one-room schoolhouse in Prior Ridge (formerly Prior Gulch) is the pivotal character in all of this.  Also, the teacher who worked there when the school first opened is an inspiration to the other two women.

Here are some of the cover concepts I’ve come up with based on that premise. Remember, they are just ideas; I’m sure whichever is the closest to the best one still needs some work. I just wonder which concept to move forward with. Or I could scrap them all.

Oh, and last thing. The title went from “Save Our School” to “Rewrite the Now,” but I want to thank one of Hubby’s cousins for sending me the winning title – “Prior to Now.” Thanks, Sherry! 

Thought #1 - mostly about the setting - farm land in the upper Midwest

#2 - focus on the one-room school, but needs a better graphic artist than me so it doesn't looked plopped on the page

#3 - my great-grandmother Anna posing as the school teacher Emma

#4 - great-granma again, but in both 3 and 4, she needs to stop hovering. 

where did august go?

 For all that I had happening in August, I did really well on my goals. Not only did I accomplish three-fifths of them, but I also went camping for a week, hosted a friend from out of town for four days, went to Iowa to visit Hubby’s brother for three days, took my sister to her class reunion, had a dentist appointment AND worked at the clinic for six and a half days!

Wow! I told myself I wouldn’t book a month that full again, and – well – I’ll tell you about that shortly.

Here are my August goals:

1.     Finish writing my novel, “Rewrite the Now.” Yes, the rough draft is finished, as you may already have heard.

2.     Come up with some cover concepts for it. I keep thinking about it but haven’t had any luck coming up with anything specific.  

3.     Keep organizing the photos on my laptop. Hmm? Not really.

4.     Wash half of the windows in my house. Let’s see, I washed 75% of the house’s windows. I so wanted to finish them this week, but I worked those three days at the old job instead.  

5.     Tend to my vegetable garden, freezing what can be frozen and tearing down what is done for the season. Yup, I’ve been freezing cherry tomatoes and zucchini like crazy. Even bought green beans and a head of cabbage at the farmer’s market and froze those. Also, took down half the garden which was done producing.

Here we are in September already. And this month is booked as full as August. I’m going camping with my son one weekend, which coincides with a research trip for my current novel, so I can’t complain about that. I’m also visiting a friend out of state for three days, and Hubby’s nephew and his wife are coming for a weekend. And I leave for my trip to Kenya on October 2, so I probably should plan and pack before then.

In late August, I heard that two of my co-workers were quitting, which is why I worked those extra three days the end of the month. One of those days, the manager asked me into her office to find out if I’d work any days in September. I told her which days I was free, and she put me on the schedule pretty much all of them.

Oh, and I forgot, that as I post this, I am at my daughter’s house, dog sitting for her. Which is actually okay, because I have lots of free time to edit my novel.

Here we go September goals:

1.     Finish the first round of edits on my novel. Oh, and by the way, I changed the name of it to “Prior to Now.” It takes place in a town named Prior Ridge, and the story flips back and forth from the past to the now, so I kinda like the new name. Thanks goes out to the friend who thought of it.

2.     Make the cover for the novel. This has got me stumped, but I will get on it.

3.     Finish washing those last three windows in the house.

4.     Take down my garden for the year. Not much is growing anymore out there, oh, except for those stupid zucchinis!

5.     Finish planning our trip to Kenya. Yeah!

I think that is enough for the month. Come October, I have two weeks to relax in Kenya; not even dragging along my laptop. Then two weeks to finish up the novel. Life is good, albeit busy.      

Wishing you the very best. Chris 

Looking for a much smaller schoolhouse, made of brick, for my novel's cover. Yes, I could find a stock photo, but where is the fun in that? 

Exciting News

 I’m proud to announce that last night I finished writing my latest novel. The story is told from the perspective of three very different women who have one thing in common – a one-room schoolhouse built in 1860.

Emma Thomas, fresh out of high school, becomes the schoolmarm in the small town of Prior Gulch. Not only is she committed to the students that she teaches, but she has also been entrusted with keeping a secret about her schoolhouse.  

Sarah Ford is in her thirties and recently divorced. Decades after the school has closed, she moves into the house next door and soon learns of its secret.

Ellen Jenkins, who is pushing sixty, has been working for the federal government for ten years. She and her team are sent to the school building to destroy it because of its secret, but she will do anything to save it.

What is the secret of this small, brick building? And will these three women, who are committed to it, be able to save it?

When I started writing this book over two years ago, I gave it the working title of “Save Our School.” Pretty lame. At the end of chapter 11, one of Ellen’s partners says, “we can’t rewrite history, but we can rewrite the now.” At that point, I changed the title to “Rewrite the Now.”

Now, however, I’m not so sure that title is as catchy as I first thought. I am racking my brain to think of a new one. So far, the only other thing I’ve come up with is: “Where We Were Prior” (as the town is Prior Gulch and the whole premise is preserving our history);

If you would like to read the rough draft, I’d be happy to email you a copy. Just remember, it still needs a lot of editing, but I’d like to know what people think of the premise, the people, and their problems. And, of course, what you think an appropriate title might be.

Thanks so much. Chris 

Once I have a title, I next need to work on the cover. This picture of my great-grandmother was taken around 1910. A bit later than when Emma was teaching at the school, but I still imagine this is what she might have looked like. Do you think I could incorporate it into the cover? 

Monthly Check-In

 I’ve been posting my monthly goals on the first Sunday of every month. I wanted to post an update sooner than today, as we are a week into August already, but such is life.

I’m not going to lie. I did stupendous on my July goals. Success, or at least close, on every point. I’m lovin’ this retirement gig! Or I had been until I ended up working three and a half days this week. Argh!

My July goals:

1.     Write twelve chapters in “RTN”. Done!

2.     Think about a new title for the novel. “Rewrite the Now” is no longer as catchy as it was when I started. A vague goal. I thought about some but came up with nothing.

3.     Think about a cover and other promotions for it. Another vague goal. And another one which I thought about, a lot, actually. Nothing jumping out at me though.

4.     Start organizing the pictures on my laptop. Yes, I worked on this a lot.  

5.     Clean the cat’s room in the basement. Yes, done!

I have managed to over-book myself for the month of August. Camping for five days, friend from out of state coming for four days, visit to see Hubby’s brother for three days, my sister’s class reunion (a long story of why I have to go). I count money at church every Sunday. I have a dentist’s appointment. Hubby has an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon for his knee. And I even scheduled an appointment to donate blood! In addition to the fact that I already worked three and a half days this month.

It's going to be okay, though. Except that someone at work just turned in their two-week notice, so I’m waiting for the manager to call begging me to work whenever I can. But you know what else, once I get through this month and September, I am off to Kenya for the first two weeks in October. It has been three long years (thank you, Covid) since I’ve been to Africa and I cannot wait to see our friends who live there. We are also hoping to take a trip to the coast of the Indian Ocean, which looks amazing. CANNOT WAIT!

But, I still have to get things done in August:

1.     Finish writing my novel, “Rewrite the Now.” (I only have about five or six more chapters to write.)

2.     Come up with some cover concepts for it.

3.     Keep organizing the photos on my laptop.

4.     Wash half of the windows in my house.

5.     Tend to my vegetable garden, freezing what can be frozen and tearing down what is done for the season.

That should about do it, I think.

Wishing you the very best. Chris 

Our weekly July camping trip to Michigan. Had a wonderful time. And wrote almost every day. 

Monthly Check-In

 Well finally, I have made some progress on my goals. It took actually being done working at the clinic, except for the four days for the month of June when they begged me to work to cover vacations and someone out sick.

My June goals:

1. Reread my work in progress, “Rewrite the Now”, again. Done

2. Write two chapters in “RTN”. Wrote seven chapters!

3. Clean the guest room closet and my linen closet. Really? I got through half of the guest room closet and totally lost focus.

4. Organize my pile of USB drives and start saving stuff from off my computer. Done.

5. Clean up and organize the pictures on my computer. Nope. #4 was enough.

6. Start a new sewing project. Nope, but I bought more fabric!

7. Bonus goal – Hubby and I painted the kitchen and dining room.

Here we are on the fourth of July, and instead of celebrating my country’s independence, I am trying to work on my monthly goals. It will be a busy month, so I need to keep my motivation going. I have two trips planned and company coming one weekend, as well as being scheduled to work at the clinic two days (apparently, I can’t yet say no.).

My July goals:

1.     Write twelve chapters in “RTN”.

2.     Think about a new title for the novel. “Rewrite the Now” is no longer as catchy as it was when I started.  

3.     Think about a cover and other promotions for it.

4.     Start organizing the pictures on my laptop.

5.     Clean the cat’s room in the basement.

That will keep me busy. Plus, it is summer, so I have to take advantage of any nice weather we have. Have to get enough sun to keep me stocked with Vitamin D to get through our miserable winters.

Wishing you an Endless Summer. Chris 

Before and after of our dining room wall. 

Reading, Writing and Retirement

     I’m pleased to announce that, after working as a certified medical assistant for 34 years, I am retired. Sort of. Because the clinic where I’ve worked for the last 22 years is so short-handed (thank you, covid-19), I agreed to fill in a few times a month. Right now that stands at four days in June, two in July, and three in August. We’ll see how that all goes and if I continue to offer my time.

This has been coming since November when I found out that the doctor I’d been working with was leaving his position for something new. I cut back to 24 hours a week the first of March, which was a nice transition.

I’ve got a long list of things to do with all this time on my hands. Everyone is like, “you’ll be so bored, you’ll run out of things to do”. Obviously, they’ve not seen my list.

The number one thing I’ve been wanting to do is to get back at writing.

In 2018, I had a dream (a real dream like you have when you’re sleeping, not when you’re someone like Martin Luther King, Jr.), which inspired me to start my next novel. I got up to chapter 13 when recent news events gave me an idea for another storyline.

I started writing that novel in August of 2020 and four months later came to a standstill. Covid was haunting us all and working in the medical field had become oppressive. I just wanted to spend all my free time reading or binge-watching whatever TV series my husband was into.

Then last November I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I spent six months thinking about opening that file on my laptop and tapping out a new adventure for my protagonists – Ellen, Emma, and Tara.

On June 9, I finally made my commitment – one hour of writing five days a week. I found that if I take my laptop out to our camping trailer, there are fewer distractions. Since starting that routine, I’ve written 3,221 words. Nothing record-breaking, but it’s a start.

If anyone is interested in reading the first twenty-two, unedited chapters, I’d be happy to email it to you. Just let me know.

In the meantime, it’s been two years since I released my last novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”. It’s still available on Amazon, as a paperback or e-book. If you’ve read it already and haven’t had a chance to write a review of it, it’s not too late for that either.

All of us struggling writers need whatever encouragement we can get to keep plucking away on the keyboard. 

Thanks for all of your support. Chris 

June Check In

 When I started this blog, my goal was to post here twice a week. I kept that up for a few years, but then fell back to once a week. Slowly, that target plummeted to once a month. Then I quit altogether for a while. Recently, though, with retirement pending, I got fired back up to commit to this writing blog, but have still been stumbling around with it.

I’m not going to beat myself up over it. I must have written that twenty times here over the years. Oh, well. It’s all I can do.

Here are my goals and accomplishments for the month of May:

1. Write two chapters in “Rewrite the Now”. Nope, still haven’t touched it. 

2. Clean as many closets in the house as I can. A dumb and nonspecific goal. Umm, I maybe cleaned one.

3. Have a rummage sale. Yes, finally! Got rid of some stuff. 

4. Spring clean the camper and go camping one weekend! Yes. Thanks to the stupid snow we had all April, we didn’t bring the camper home until the first of May and went camping the very next weekend, but I got it cleaned and ready in time.

5. Clean up and organize the pictures on my computer. Shoot, I totally forgot about this.

6. Finish my sewing project. Yes, and I love how the little bags turned out which I made for my co-workers.

The June calendar, unfortunately, is just about full. I work (so much for retirement) four days this month, am going “cabining” with my sister for three days, attended a funeral yesterday, and hope to get together with a long-lost cousin the end of the month. I am starting to get settled into a schedule of sorts though, learning how to pace myself and making lists of things to do for each day.

My June goals:

1. Reread my work in progress, “Rewrite the Now”, again.

2. Write two chapters in “RTN”.

3. Clean the guest room closet and my linen closet. (Need to be specific.)  

4. Organize my pile of USB drives and start saving stuff on them. 

5. Clean up and organize the pictures on my computer, which is part of #4.

6. Start a new sewing project. (I have so many in my head!)

Well, that’s about it for now. We’ll see how it goes. Have a good month and God bless, Chris 

The mini bags I made out of my old scrub tops for my co-workers. 

Camping the first weekend in May!

The Rummage Sale 

May 1 Check-In

 Once again, this past month went by way too fast. Except for every morning, when I’d look outside and see snow falling again, and I’d be like – ARGH! Is it ever going to be Spring?!

But here we are, the first of May. There is only one patch of snow left at the end of our driveway. And though it hasn’t snowed in several days, it has been raining. So much yard work to do! But at least the forecast for the next few weeks is more tolerable.

Here’s what I had hoped to do in April:

1.     Write four chapters in “Rewrite the Now”. Ok, I didn’t write that much, but at least I finished a chapter I had left hanging last time I worked on it two years ago.

2.     Read a spy novel. Done.

3.     Clean the closet in my office. Nope.

4.     Clean the spare room in the basement. Nope.

5.     Paint the ceiling and walls in the hallway. YES! YEAH!

6.     Bring the camper out of storage and spring-clean it. We brought the camper home this morning, but thanks to more rain this afternoon, I haven’t done much with it except bring the dishes and some of the bedding in the house to wash.

7.     Clean up and organize the pictures on my computer. I looked at them and moved a few at least.  

8.     Start and finish a sewing project. Yeah, I started one and got about halfway done this afternoon when my iron died on me. How does that happen? Argh.

May is looking pretty busy. I have no idea how I’m going to get much done, but at least I’m in a rhythm with my extra day off during the week and getting stuff done then. We’ll see.

1. Write two chapters in “RTN”. (I gotta start being realistic.)

2. Clean as many closets in the house as I can, in anticipation of:

3. Have a rummage sale. Still not sure we can pull that off, but we keep talking about it.  

4. Spring clean the camper and go camping one weekend! Cannot wait!

5. Clean up and organize the pictures on my computer.

6. Finish my sewing project.  

Not much writing on that list. May 26 is my last day of work, so hopefully after that I will get serious again. Oh, I was at a conference this weekend and was suddenly inspired to write a story. Pulled out a notebook and started writing. The speaker at that moment was an eye doctor, so I wrote a line about “hard to focus on the talk about cataracts.” Think any readers will pick up on that?

God bless, Chris 

Snowing in my backyard on April 15

And again on April 20

But finally able to bring home the camper on May 1!