Sometimes I Write

The past few weeks have been rough for our family. Our friend and neighbor, Terry, committed suicide two weeks ago.  We spent a week doing our best to hold up his wife, make phone calls for her, and attend memorial services.  It was with sadness that Benny spoke at Terry’s memorial service in the same place he had performed their wedding last April.  Please pray for Nell as she deals with this major loss.  She feels responsible though we keep telling her she’s not.  😦  The one good thing coming from this terrible situation is that we’re getting to know Nell’s son James and his wife Cris, who are our age.  This week our friends and neighbors on the other side of us told us that they are splitting up.  They have 3 little boys ages 4 and under.  Our neighborhood is a mess.  Once again we find ourselves right where we’re supposed to be, but sometimes it’s difficult not to be discouraged. Our family has also dealt with several bouts of illness and dental issues.  Please pray for us too.

We had a group from San Antonio bless our socks off a few weeks ago.  (Which is o.k. They brought us 750 pairs of new ones.)  Read about it on the SEVENS blog when you’re finished browsing here.

I just finished reading the Harry Potter books.  I’ve seen all of the movies up to this point, but reading the books gave me the richness of the tale that I didn’t realize was missing.  As far as children’s and young adult fantasy fiction is concerned, I loved them.  Especially the themes of love, loyalty, courage, and perseverance.  Max has been asking about the movies for quite awhile now, so a few weeks ago we borrowed the DVD’s from the library and watched them.  After each one we had really good discussions about the themes, good vs. evil, who represented which side, how the characters treated each other and the adults in the story, and a whole host of other things.  We also agreed that a “room of requirement” would be quite handy to have in our house. 🙂  I know the Harry Potter series  and other fantasy books can be controversial in Christian circles.  I’m making a statement of opinion and do not wish to debate this with believers who have opposing ideas about these books.  I respectfully ask that if you want to talk about how evil they are, please do it on your own blog. 🙂

I was finally able to order a few extra copies of the anthology book my story was published in.  I’ll be holding a drawing for a chance to win a copy beginning Monday. Be sure to stop back for more details.

Speaking of writing, I attended a one day conference in Colorado Springs last Saturday.  One of the speakers, Donita K. Paul, whom I’ll be blogging about soon, challenged us with homework.  I took a story idea that’s been floating around in my head for months, and actually put the skeleton outline down on paper.  There are other stories in there too, but this one won’t leave me alone.  I guess that means I’ve officially begun writing my first novel.  I find that both exhilarating and terrifying. lol

I’m blogging on yet another blog now.  As a board member of a Colorado Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers, I’m required to post on the last Friday of the month on our blog, The Inkwell.  Please come and check it out.  There are lots of great writing tips, thoughts from Colorado authors, and links to great stuff on there.  Maybe I need to require myself to post here at least once a week.  My writing friend Donna recently kicked my butt when she said if we’re going to call ourselves writers we should act like it.  Writers write.  Novel idea, huh? lol