Stop the drama and pass the spinach please

After all the drama of the weekend, I’m super-happy to post some down-to-earth, regular-but-exciting writing news. That last bit sorta rhymes… hmmm. Relax, I’m not about to sprout poetry at you, but I do want to share some progress.

It is time for an update for those of you who cheered me on as I announced my intention to grow up and stop being such a baby (you can read about that here if you missed it). I am 98% done with project number 1! Waiting for review notes to come back, then one quick round of edits and it is FINISHED.

Project number two… is a e-book for ICDF on starting and running a dance group. This is a side of me that you don’t really get to see here on Doodles, but if you are interested, you can have a peep at my group here. Dancing is a passion of mine that has quietly burned throughout the years and has simply never left. It is good for my body, soul and spirit. 🙂

Back to the booklet – I have done a comprehensive content & chapter breakdown and am working my way through writing it, one section at a time. At the moment it still feels like wading through a giant plate of spaghetti, but I know it will become more ordered as I write. I think the key with this one is to just keep writing and sort it all out afterwards.

Aaah! and of course… constantly lurking on the fringes of my mind, like a dancer patiently waiting for her turn in the spotlight – book number 2.

Wow. Who knew that being a grown up and sticking to ones own rules… would be so hard?

Don’t throw rocks into valleys

Today was one of those icky days that I’d rather not repeat. Ever.

I lost my kid. Mercifully, I got her back – but this is what happened.

My 13yo (you can see her hands in the pic above) was keen to do the Surfers Challenge with two of her friends. Unlike the name suggests, it’s a 17km race along the coast of East London, South Africa. It’s a popular event that sees thousands of runners & walkers pit their strength & resolve against paddlers who race alongside through the waves. It has squat to do with surfing.

It’s a stiff walk, but quite manageable. So far so good.

I’d planned to wait for her on the beach at Gonubie – approximately half way, to make sure she was coping. At the same time, my other half is training for a mountain bike race, 360 degrees and had been out since early. As I was about to leave – to check on the kid – he phones to say he’d taken a wrong turn and had ended up too far away to cycle home (he’d already clocked 90-odd km’s) and please could I fetch him. Hmmm. Kid remained unchecked.

I got him home in time to head to the finish line at Nahoon Beach (CRAZY traffic, picture rush hour x10). I checked with the finish line – her friends had come in half an hour ago but she hadn’t. A few phone calls later, I’m told that she quit the race in Gonubie. Where I was supposed to meet her… At this point I felt like dying. I phoned my hubby to go look for her and started back through the hideous traffic to find my car and get to Gonubie, praying for all I’m worth.

For a good hour (read eternity), I had no idea where my kid was. Was she distraught? Injured? Stolen? A lifetime of cursing at the non-budging q of cars, I got a message from a friend to say my daughter had just crossed the finish line.

I blubbed. One of the worst parts of having a writers brain is the myriad of worst-case scenarios that your brain dishes up when something turns sour. A few miscommunications was all it took to haul my insides out and have a herd of fat elephants river-dance on them. She’d wanted to quit at Gonubie and a friend of mine had advised her to ask one of the officials to phone me. He was the one I’d phoned when looking for her – he thought she HAD quit. When she got there though, she didn’t know who to ask… so she decided to carry on. Her second wind kicked in and she managed to finish 6 minutes before the cut off time. She’d also managed to lose her shoes along the way – don’t ask! – but she did it. She is so chuffed and I am so proud I could pop.

The amazing thing is this… My kid – standing on the brink of the maelstrom of teenagehood in all its hormonal glory – now knows that when she is thoroughly ready to quit, she actually still has more than half a race-worth of courage, energy and determination in her. That is something that has been carved into her for life. Another enormous slab of character foundation securely laid – never to be shifted. Wow.

Had it been up to me? I would have rescued her. Without a blink. Not a moment’s hesitation. Yet God saw fit to engineer circumstances beyond my control. And she has grown.

Today was a valley. I could curse it and throw rocks at it, because emotionally it was hell – I won’t lie.

Yet the careful crafting of my beautiful daughter’s character by a Heavenly Father who is lovingly shaping her for His pupose?

How could I possibly throw rocks at that?

Methinks I’m going to save that photo as my desktop background as a reminder.

Your Gifting will make Room for You

I caught the tail-end of a story on the news yesterday. There was a man, a brilliant maths teacher, forced to flee his country because of political unrest. He settled in Jo’burg and tried to find work in his area of expertise. Nobody would hire him as a teacher, but he managed to get a job as a security guard at a school.

So he took the job. He’d set up a chalkboard wherever he was and would teach maths to whoever needed his help. It didn’t take long for the Principal of the school to notice him and his unconventional, but brilliant ways of teaching maths. He has just accepted a post at the school as a maths teacher.

This story gives me goosebumps. Why? Because it is a fact… your gifting will make room for you.

You see it doesn’t matter where you are stuck in life, or how long you’ve been stuck there. Start doing what you’ve been created to do and sooner or later, opportunities are going to come your way. When you start walking in your destiny, operating in what you’ve been built for – breakthrough is unavoidable.

Know that the dream that is nestled in your heart, that thing that makes you come alive – carries with it an in-built capacity to shift your life. You can read more about that here – Dream Seeds.

So Just Do it. It doesn’t matter if you have to start small. Take that first step. If its writing, WRITE! Painting? Buy the brush and your first tub of paint. As you take that step, you will come alive in ways you never imagined possible.

And doors will open for you.

My dream is to write words that come alive inside my readers and make them think differently. Take the plunge… tell me yours!

Watch this baby dance!

These are my baby’s feet from Sunday, painted and printed at children’s church. I call her my baby, but in truth she is 4-going-on-16, designed purely to keep me mentally agile. Wow can that little girl argue! Somewhere out there, is a lawyers cap with her name on. We have so much fun together. And yes, my energy does run out with predictable regularity – but it’s all good.

The reason I’ve popped her little feet at the top of this post though, actually has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with all of us who have it built into our DNA to write. One of my favourite lines in the Bible says something like ‘do not despise the day of small beginnings’. I’ve broadened it in my mind to ‘do not despise daily small progress’. No matter how small. Any movement forward is better than no movement at all. Any number of words added = more words than were there before. Baby steps can get you a finished novel. S’true!

Methinks I should have it tattooed on my forehead.

Just keep writing, just keep writing… what do we do? We write, WRITE, WRITE!

You do realize that just by reading this blog, you have become something like my accountability buddy? Lucky you! *fat grin* So here is my progress since my last post. Watch this baby dance… I have only 2990 words left to go on one of my pre-pudding dinner projects. If this doesn’t make any sense to you, see my previous post On Being Grown Up and Not Getting Swallowed . Once written, I have to add discussion questions – 4 for each of the 12 stories. Then there is a solid round of editing, then… drumroll… DONE.

After that, I’ll tackle ‘project #2’ and then… maybe … just maybe… my book.

I’m taking baby steps daily.

I live in hope! What are you hoping for?

On being grown up and not getting swallowed…

It’s time for me to face facts.

I’m desperately keen to dive in and lose myself in the world of ‘Finding Amy’, (my second novel for those who may not be following my compelling *snigger* saga.) The brutal truth is… I have two other projects that I need to finish first. Its a simple dinner before pud’s equation.

The December holidays lulled me into a false sense of possibility that had me thinking I could keep all these things moving forward at a respectable speed, while maintaining a semblance of order at home / work / family… Surely somehow I could make it all happen through sheer willpower. Reality is sniggering at me even as I type those words. I’m slowly realizing, it simply isn’t possible without losing something or someone along the way.

Time to plot a new course. All this really means is that ‘FA’ goes on hold until my two projects are complete – talk about a tantalizing carrot! If I’m honest, the part that scares me about tackling my writing priorities like this, is that I can’t help wondering if I’ll have another year of going pudding-less. There, I’ve said it. My worst fear. I want to write books more than anything else. BUT I also need to make the most of every opportunity that presents itself. And quite frankly, to be commissioned to write is a privilege that I don’t take lightly.

So – I’m going to finish my two projects, and finish them well. THEN I’m going to trust Him who called me to write, the One who built it into every fibre of my being – to dish up my pudding afterwards.

You see, those crazy kids? They are mine. They need my time and attention. What use would it be if I wrote books that moved the hearts of millions, but lost my own girls in the process?

There’s not much more to be said, is there? 🙂

Sunshine!

A big thank you to my friend Jeannie Leflar of The Writernubbin for spreading some Sunshine on me!

Now I have the fun of Sunshine-Bestowing on some of my favourite bloggers…

Rules Rules Rules–why must there be rules? I will obey…

1. Thank the person(s) that gave you the award. Thank you Jeannie 🙂

2. Write a post about it. You’re reading it…

3. Answer the questions below. You can read them if you like…

4. Pass the award on to 10 bloggers who you think deserve it. Happy to!

Nosy Questions and the Answers

Favorite Colour: Do the sparkles of a diamond count?

Favorite animal: Nothing like a cat

Favorite number: 40 < I’m halfway through being this and it’s simply lovely.

Favorite non-alcoholic drink: berry smoothies

Facebook or Twitter? Facebook is full of familiar friends, Twitter has more strangers. FB!

My passion? Seeing people set free to be everything they are created to be.

Giving or getting presents? Both 🙂 but I do love seeing my kiddies thrilled to the point of squealing.

Favorite pattern: Crochet 😉

Favorite day of the week? Any one on which I can be home.

Favorite flower? Daffodils make me think of my mom. I also love Snap Dragons and Hollyhocks for the same reason. Favourite though… lilies growing wild in shady glades in Stutterheim.

Now for the 10 blogs I’d like to pass along some Sunshine to who have already brightened my days:

Setting fire to rainy pavements

My girls have gone bonkers over Adele. They spend the afternoons belting out her songs at the top of their voices with varying degrees of success. Even the 4yo manages the angst and the volume (!) though the words are a liquidized smoosh of bad-a-baaaaaa, wop wop…

This is all good, I enjoy her music. There is just one itsy-bitsy teeny leetle problem. My brain is notoriously sticky. And boy do these songs stick!

You see, my most fruitful plotting gap, when it comes to my current writing projects, is flat on my back in bed with the lights out. You know that time of day when most sensible people are sleeping? That. Except now, instead of a brain full of my characters and their plights, I have Adele. Singing loud. Full of angst. She. Never. Shuts. Up.

She is one seriously tough woman to push into a corner and ignore. Maybe I need to write her into my book. NOT! *shudders*

So there you have it. My brain is full of rainy pavements and some-poor-soul-like you. Kinda makes me want to hunt down Will Smith and demand he use his MIB flasher thingy on me.

Do you have a recurring mental torture song? (Moms – other than Barney. We all have Barney issues.)

New Beginnings…

Today’s post features a lovely fellow writer, Rebecca Emin – www.rebeccaemin.com.

Rebecca Emin lives in Oxfordshire, with her husband and three small children. Her debut novel, ‘New Beginnings,’ is being published by Grimoire Books today. Isn’t that exciting? Rebecca has finished her second novel ‘When Dreams Come True’ which is also for older children.

Rebecca enjoys writing flash fiction and short stories and has had several flash fiction stories included in fundraising anthologies. ‘A Knowing Look and Other Stories’ is a collection of Rebecca’s short stories which was published in November 2011.

Rebecca is also an author for Ether Books who publish short stories and essays to mobile devices via the Ether app.

Pop in and see what’s happening on her website – there are giveaways and prizes up for grabs.

Rebecca – I wish you every success with your writing!

Of polar bears and other disasters

: The best laid plans of mice and er, polar bears?

This poor bear has had better days, I’m sure.

When I think back on this week – I can sympathize.

This week has been a writing fail of EPIC PROPORTIONS.

And yes, all those capital letters are on purpose. I mean every one.

I had lovely, manageable goals set out for this week – 4 OneHope stories (2400 words altogether), 2 blog posts and 2000 words on Finding Amy. I managed the blog posts and thats about all. I only managed those because I like you lot so much. The others? Nope. Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zero.

It has been back to school for my 3 kids which SHOULD equal oodles of writing time. Reality slapped hard though, with me back to work on 2 of my jobs not to mention those lovely night shifts covering books. I hear you moms groaning out there…

Honestly? Not reaching my goals had me in some emotional quicksand. I feel rather shellshocked. I’m consoling myself with this… If a polar bears icecap melts out from under him, he can always swim to another. So yes – my ice cap melted out from under me this week. Am I sunk? Nope. I’m just temporarily swimming till my feet hit solid ground again.

How do you manage setbacks?

My Writing Theme Song

A few days back Cassie posted on her blog about her favourite background music for writing. http://wp.me/phBnT-L3 It was interesting to see what other writers find their groove to. Alas, silence for me is still worth its weight in wordcount.

So here’s a different angle… What is your writing theme song? This is an easy one for me. Without a doubt, its the song below. (Now… this is the first time I’m attempting to embed a video and I’m hoping it’s as simple as they say. Time will tell. )

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7k0a5hYnSI&w=560&h=315]

It is so beautifully spot on for us writers. Check this out…

I am unwritten, can’t read my mind, I’m undefined
I’m just beginning, the pen’s in my hand, ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun (Son!) illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten….

Nice, hey?

What is your writing theme song?