Short Track

Last winter, when I was trying to decide if I wanted to go to Kenya with my daughter or not, my husband offered me this option. I could either go to Kenya or the Green Lake Christian Writers Conference. It didn't seem like a very reasonable deal, but I could see his point. If I went to Kenya we had to cut corners somewhere and I also had to ration my time off of work.

I decided to go to Africa.

Then two wonderful things happened. The Writers Conference offered what is called a "short-track", for people who couldn't make the full conference, but wanted to attend for two days. These two days would be packed with seminars. The rest of the week would allow for "full-track" attendees to work more in depth with their workshop leaders.

The second thing that helped get me to the Conference this year is that they asked me to speak. Lisa Klarner and I gave a presentation on the pros and cons of different publishing options.

I kind of had to go for at least the short-track after that.

Earlier this afternoon, I returned home from Green Lake, feeling rather melancholy and little cheated. I still had the chance to bond with my writer friends, to gain new insights into my writing career and to get lots of helpful advice.

Also, for me, just soaking up the positive energy of the Conference Center grounds is re-energizing.

Lisa and I getting ready for our presentation.  

Listening to Marshall Cook on Monday evening.  

Two of the new friends I met on my run Monday morning. 

Two years ago I started taking a yearly picture of my feet on the shores of Green Lake. I call the series of photos "Writer's Feet", but I haven't figured out what it means.  

The full moon over Green Lake on Monday night. Not too bad for the basic camera that I have. 

It's all part of God's Plan

“I say this because I know the plans that I have for you.” This message is from the Lord. “I have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future.” Jeremiah 29:11Easy-to-Read Version

Here it is December already. I’ve been thinking of what I was going to blog about on Sundays this month, what Christmas theme I was going to use. So I went back to last year’s December blogs and see that I really out did myself. I wrote about Christmas three times a week for a whole month. And I had a theme for not only Sundays, but for Thursdays too. I can’t keep up with that kind of stuff this year. I have had so much going on the last two months that I am completely brain-dead. I should be in a coma.

But you know, no matter what I write about, it seems that for whatever reason, God blesses it. I don’t want to sound all sure of myself or overconfident. It really is not me. When God decided over seven years ago that He wanted me to go on that mission trip to Kenya, I never imagined it would turn out this way, that He would totally guide me to write a book about my experience and that He would send this fantastic publisher to me and that so much of this book would fall into place.

It is all in His plans, not mine. Just like sending His Son to us on the first Christmas. It is beyond our control, all we can do is follow God’s plan.

Lord, God Heavenly Father, there is no way that I could ever praise You enough. I am nothing without You. You follow me, You guide me, You care for me, You love me unconditionally. You have granted me everything that my heart desires. Amen

The Final Count

So here was the challenge: to write 50,000 words in a month and finish a book. I topped out 7217 words short. But that's ok. My memoir of Kenya is finished for the time being. I will put it a way for a month, maybe print out a few copies for innocent suckers to proofread for me. Then January 1, I will give it a good edit and start sending it out.

In the meantime, well, it is the Christmas season now, like that won't keep me busy enough. But I hope to go back to writing my novel about my little lost boy in Africa. I want to also try to get some smaller pieces, devotions or the like, out to some publications to see if I can get something in print. I mean, something other than my blog!

Thanks for following me this month. It's been a great way for me to get inspired and stay on track. Tomorrow, I am back to a normal blogging schedule and hopefully some TV time with my hubby.

Stay tuned.

Quotation Thursday

What! No star, and you are going out to sea? Marching, and you have no music? Traveling, and you have no book? What! No love, and you are going out to live? (A French Proverb)

The chapter which I worked on today carries the subtitle: "A Time to Love and A Time to Hate", so I thought that this quotation was appropriate. This picture would carry the caption "a time to hate", which might surprise you. I guess you will have to wait until my book is published to find out why I chose this picture for the chapter.

I found some more words today that I hadn't counted before, so find myself cheating again. However I got there, my word count went up by 902 words today. Yes! Finally feeling some progress.

Wimpy Wednesday

Yesterday, I only wrote 144 words on my memoir of Africa, so didn't think that was worth posting. Today I got up to 483. I've actually written the entire story and am now going back through to fill in the holes. I am running out of holes to fill. Does that mean that my book will be too short to ever get published? I don't know. We will have to wait and see.

This is of the river near where we camped at Mosiro. Can you find the baboons in the trees? I couldn't either, but you have to trust me that they are there.

Mark-the-board Monday

Day 7 Writing Marathon

Day 5 Writing Marathon

I am still working on the disease education and prevention seminars which we presented to the Maasai in Kenya. While doing some online research I discovered that a vaccine against malaria is right on the cusp of being available to people across Africa. How exciting. If I get my memoir done in any kind of timely fashion and you are one of the lucky recipients of an advanced copy, you will find out why this is such wonderful news.

In the meantime, I wrote 652 words today. I think. It is hard to keep track coz I am doing a lot of editing as I go, so it is hard to keep track of how many new words there are.

Day 2 Writing Marathon

Today I worked on Chapter 12, the title of which is "A Time to Keep Silent and A Time to Speak."

I wrote about the moving confirmation service we had the privilege to witness, the first Maasai in the area to ever be welcomed into the church of Christ. It was beautiful.

Word count for today - 549.

Want to get in on my book writing?

I just had one of those epiphanies and feel that I need to follow it. I just read on Facebook that November is National Novel Writing Month . I remember that from last year from various blogs I follow and other things I run across in the writing world. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word book in one month. You sign up on the NaNoWriMo website and post every day how many words you write and get inspiration from other writers and such. Last year 200,000 people signed up for this and 30,000 actually met the 50,000 goal.

Now, my calculator tells me that that means 1666 words a day, every day for 30 days straight. Not going to happen in my world.

But, I have a fairly good head start. At last count, I had 31,755 words on the memoir I am writing of my missions trip to Kenya in 2006. My goal the other night when I counted all those words (ok, aren't computers great; they do all the counting), was to finish this thing by the end of the year.

Well, here we go. How bout I finish by the end of November? That's only going to come up to 608 words a day. I could maybe do that. With your help.

I am going to post on my blog every day for the month and let you know my word count for the day. Hold me to my goal and I will print you out a copy of my rough draft for you to critique. (That doesn't sound like much of a deal, does it? Just humor me.)

A drum roll please... number of words for my first day 670. Yes!