The Wonder of it All

I'm looking at my calendar and feeling a little antsy. Okay, a lot antsy. Husband will be home from Scotland on May 18th and life as I know it will change. No more staying up until midnight blogging, surfing, or writing. I figure I have less than 20 days to finish my novel. That's subtracting busy days when I know I can't write.

Tomorrow, I'm driving a friend to Lafayette to get stitches removed from her foot. Friday evening and all day Saturday, I'll be at the Women's Conference at church. Jennifer Rothchild, Kathy Peel, Marcie Pryor and Roseanne Coleman are speaking. Can't miss that! I'm sure I'll come home inspired.

I've completed 145 pages. About 75 more to go. And then, the rewrites where I layer and flesh it out, and add more pages. :) To me that's the fun part--watching the story really become special because of all the fine-tuning.

I've made my list of problems the characters still need to address, and made notes of questions that have to be answered to tie up loose ends. I've listed things I need to insert in previous chapters. If I can just write The End, then it will only take me a few weeks to get the final product ready to send to the editor. I work better--so much faster--on a completed hard copy.

Thursday evening I meet with Critique Group #2. Since one lady is an attorney, I need to remember to take my tape recorder and pick her brain on some legal aspects of the plot. Mainly, how can a young man stay in jail for almost two years without going to trial? How does one fall through the cracks in the legal system? It happens, but I need to make it read real. Get the correct terminology down. I hope she's in a talkative mood.

I suppose I need to start sending chapters to the online crit group again, but maybe not. After reading the Q&A at http://charisconnection.blogspot.com/ I wonder why any of us participate in crit groups. They're great for the picky stuff, but unless they're reading one chapter right after another, or the entire ms. at once, how can they crit for content?

Two big writing engagements coming up: The ACFW Crit Girls want to get together in San Antonio for a couple of days starting June 7th. They did this last year but I missed it. With Jim coming home May 18th...well, I can just imagine how happy he'll be to lose me for a weekend? :-) Second big event (and an expensive one!) is in September--the ACFW conference. On a good day, I want to do both these fun things. On a bad day, I just want to stay home in my jammies.

Okay, I need to go write, the main thing that will change drastically when Jim comes home. I do most of my writing at night, unlike the first book I sold. I wrote that one at 5:00 am every morning after Jim left for work and before waking daughter for school. I might have to reinvent that schedule.

I get great comfort in knowing that God can bring good to anything we give to Him. And that He can bring good out of the dumb decisions I'm known for making.

Lord, guide me in every decision I make. Help me finish this book, fill me with motivation. Take this book and if I've put anything in it that shouldn't be there, bring it to my attention. I want this book (unlike my other one) to glorify you, Lord.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow - oh! the wonder of it all!