Contests and busyness
Life sometimes presses in on us, full of the mundane that must be accomplished before we’re free to roam where we wish. I have so many words longing to find access, but they are pressed into hiding… until someday.
A few days ago I got word that one of my stories had made the cut and was a finalist in a writing contest. In the midst of the busyness here, I’d forgotten all about submitting there, but, as you can imagine, the email thrilled me. (The comments on story number two, which was closer to my heart, were less happy.)
And then yesterday…was it yesterday? I think so…I returned home to find that both of those stories were semi-finalists in another contest. Of course, I’m up against seventeen other writers (or maybe that’s sixteen), many of whom probably write much more to the specs than I do.
So, to me and to all those other finalists and semi-finalists in both contests: May we each glean from this what we ought. May the one who most needs to win do so. May the one most deserving of accolades receive them. And may the rest of us find so much pleasure in the process that nothing else matters.
Please, Lord, make that so for me. Let the doing suffice… and help me grow in the process.
Sorry for the silence
I’ve been storing up memories instead of writing.
My mama and I journeyed to Panama to meet up with my husband and Sea Venture for the canal transit. So much fun. Soon, I will write of that on our sailing blog.
For now, though, I’m catching up on life at home. So, please be patient, those of you who care whether or not words show up here.
Update: Saturday. What’s the next best thing to writing something new? That’s it: tweaking an old story into new life. I’m taking the day to do that and having so much fun!
Sleepy Creek Snow
By morning, the sky had cleared, lending contrast enough for a photograph or two. Here is the snowfall as seen from the porch door. I have not yet ventured forth.
Now, it’s two hours after I took those pictures, and the sunlight sparkles on the crystals, like diamonds winking at us.
I’m glad I was here to see it. What a beautiful gift from the heavens.
New Website, New Blog
I’ve moved my blog and turned pieces of my former website into pages here. I hope you’ll find the navigation easier to perform. You can still link through either www.normandiefischer.com or www.writingonboard.com.
It’s been a hectic week. Fine, a hectic autumn. I’m grateful for busywork like this, because it occupies the brain without requiring the higher function I would need as wordsmith. Which, my friends, is why I’m not going to attempt profundity of any sort and will offer instead merely an explanation of the change. I hope you’ll have patience with me as I slog back into the writer mode. I will say this: I’ve had a great time using my editor’s cap for various other writers…anything to allay the guilt I feel as I stare at the same paragraph and the same chapter in my WIP and long to center my thoughts there.
Soon.
A bit of sailing south. A little time with chartplotters and watch-standing.
And perhaps in the meantime, good news will flow this way. The Lord has graciously answered a number of prayers. Surely, this one, a little encouragement in the waiting game, will flow in my direction.
After The Conference
We’re home again, all 600 of us, recovering from lack of sleep and too much good food. I’d been warned about the food, but thought myself safe. After all, I eat very little in the dessert line. But the posters must have meant the salads and the meat. Wonderful salads, made the way I like them: interesting greens dotted with fruit and nuts, dressed to taste. And a most accommodating chef and wait staff, who made certain that none of those delicious milk products landed on my plate. Well seasoned meat, too much of it, did stare up at me and find its way into a body unused to such gluttony. Friday night’s leftovers provided a sumptuous breakfast in my room.
And then there was the dinner out: Terry Burns, my agent, and I were royally treated to prime rib and other delicacies at Morgan’s, where Peter and another Terry, delightful now-friends, made us laugh — and overeat, oh, my…though I took some back to the hotel for Sunday lunch.
It does seem as if my stomach ruled over the weekend.
And, yet, that’s not the case. How can I describe the pleasure of meeting so many already-friends? I wish all of our client group could have attended the conference–we missed you who couldn’t be there. Terry is a hoot…and, so, of course, is Bonnie. Sherri brought me a back pillow, a little doggie who can travel easily with me on planes and to the boat. Thank you, Sherri. I ran into Roger at the airport, where we visited for quite a while, and now I’m thoroughly enjoying his humorous novel in search of a home. I found time to chat with Pam and Susan and Jennifer and Suzanne and Bill and Donn; others were busy with old friends or making new ones. What a privilege to be among so many fine writers and fine people.
Now it’s back to work on my writing and on the editing that’s come my way. I hope that in the next months, Terry’s blog will have more announcements on his Good News Page, more covers like the one adorning Donn’s book, more contract news. He may not have won Agent of the Year at the conference, but in the mind of all his clients, he deserves the title. We thank you, Terry, for being the man you are, an honorable gentleman with a sense of humor and a desire to serve. I had the privilege of seeing his kindness at work when he gently led nervous supplicants through their appointment. Lord, bless Terry Burns, please, and let the oil of Your Spirit that filters down, as it did from Aaron’s head and beard, spread to all of us who know and work with him.
Jennifer Hudson Taylor, another North Carolina girl (yea, NC!) who writes historical fiction and radiates sweetness, took this picture (she’s in the front row with the white color). If you check out her Facebook page, you can find lots of ACFW pictures.(I’m the one standing directly behind her, enjoying my hiding place.) Several of the group had scattered: Bonnie, Roger, and Sherri are obviously missing.
Conference Time
I sit in my lovely room, looking out at Sleepy Creek and polishing One Sheets to take to the ACFW Conference in Indianapolis. This will be the first writers conference I’ve been able to attend in more than ten years, so you can imagine how excited I am. I’ll be helping my agent work the appointments desk and meeting some of the other clients from Hartline as well as all sorts of other folk who share the same agenda: getting good books with good stories into the hands of readers so we can share the good news.
Check out the website of American Christian Fiction Writers
Sea Venture’s Journey
Busy, busy, busy getting ready for sea. Tomorrow we leave for the Baja. So.
I will probably only be posting on our sailing blog because the rest of my writing time is/will be devoted to a rewrite of my ms. If you’d like to keep up with our journey, make friends with:
New Template
From Raquel, one of Terry’s other clients (http://nitewriter6.blogspot.com/) I learned about Blogger’s free templates. I know, I know: I should have figured these out long ago; I’m a little slower than most.
So, let me know how you like this one. I’ve also changed the template for our sailing blog (http://seaventuresjourney.blogspot.com). We’re back in the States for a while, doing tax work, enjoying fast internet — my husband and I may barely come up for breath, we’re having so much fun.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Writing on Board
Sea Venture is a 50 foot ketch, our home on the water. She’s big enough to allow me to write on one computer in the lower salon, while my husband does his engineering/designing/messing around with his computer in the pilot house.That’s my desk settee in the upper picture and the one below shows the heater blaring in cool weather, such as we’re having mornings here in San Carlos.
I have finished two manuscripts since we moved on board. No problem here wondering what to do with free time. When we’re not making passage somewhere new or managing boat projects, I write.
You can read about our passage on the blog links to the right.
Here are some earlier posts I wrote using my website’s blogging device. I’ve since linked to this blog.
A NEW YEAR 01/04/2010
We still in Bahia San Carlos, preparing the boat to head south, enjoying new friends, and looking forward to the next adventure.
So, if I only come on here once in a blue moon, that’s why.
If you want more, write me and ask for it! I’ll answer. Really.
Sea Venture's Blog
ACFW
Hartline Literary Agency
My Agent's Blog
North Carolina Writers Network
Wayside Press
