Death stops everything. And I don’t mean just in the person who’s died. It stops normal activity for however long it takes for those involved to recover. It’s especially hard on the creative mind because, like it or not, for those of us who count on imagination to survive, there’s often a high price to pay – like no productivity for months…
Somewhere, tucked away in a cedar chest or closet shelf, my mother still has the “School Days” scrapbooks she compiled for my school years. The small, bound book offers a page to record the details of each school year from kindergarten through high school. A picture of me graces each entry along with notations about who my friends were, what I liked, and what I wanted to grow up to be.
After the third grade on, the same career goal appears – author. At such a young age, I knew what I wanted to do – write stories and books…
Howdy, everybody!
Today’s issue is extremely abbreviated. We are on the road right now, moving from Maine to Florida, and we’re experiencing a few, um, delays. We got separated yesterday and it took a couple of hours to get back together because one of us (okay…me) had driven 50 miles past our campground. We had to stay at another campground that was pretty far off the beaten path.
Last night, I heard a funny noise and discovered the cat halfway out the bathroom window in the RV. Ack! I saved him and nobody has yet confessed to leaving that window open. While leaving that campground this morning on a dirt road, we got a flat tire, but didn’t realize it until we were on the highway and the RV starting jumping around like a bounce house ride, emitting a strong burnt rubber smell. We managed to crawl to a service station for a new tire but then the hydraulic jacks froze up while we were there. That’s where we are right now.
Needless to say, we’re starting to feel like we’re filming The Griswold Family’s Cross Country Move. 🙂
So, we have only a couple of goodies for you today.
As I wrote last week, cleaning out every room and closet in the house, and getting rid of so much stuff, has been incredibly therapeutic. However, I had no idea how good it would feel to watch complete strangers walk away with our old stuff, and have them all hand us money for it to boot!
While we’re busy moving over the next three weeks, Angela will be updating her most popular columns.
Is customer service and fulfillment devouring your writing and marketing time? At BookLocker.com, we are frequently approached by authors who are weary of all the problems they’ve encountered while trying to sell their books themselves. While they started out wanting to write for a living, they now find they’re spending most of their time on website repairs and upgrades, customer service, troubleshooting, fulfillment, and even dealing with credit card fraud and bounced checks.
Letters will return next week.
When I was in high school I took a creative writing class. We were taught there were always to be two spaces after a period. I have noticed that is no longer the case, My blog site even adjusts my two spaces down to one. When did the rules change?
For a few years, I’ve had a really great idea for a children’s book. It was one of those ideas that wouldn’t leave me alone. It kept me awake at night, just begging me to write it. So although I wasn’t a children’s writer, I knew this idea was too good to ignore…
I’m not very popular at the “home office” right now. I told all the kids and Richard that, when we move to Florida, we are NOT moving all that food from the pantry. We are eating it before we leave. That also means no pizza delivery. Each night since then has been “fend for yourself night” at dinnertime and the pantry has gotten so depleted that we actually needed to go to the store yesterday…
Letters will return next week.