I am feeling lucky this morning. I got 6 hours of sleep last night! That’s a new high for the week. Sleeping with knee pain, back pain, hip pain and any other joints that connect the bones together is not fun. They are messy, irritating and obnoxious partners that cause all sorts of crankiness to come out in me. I get a few breaks, every now and then from there shenanigans, which I thank the Lord for, but then they sneak up on me again when I least expect it. A walk to my car; putting groceries away; brushing my teeth; picking out a book to read in the tub…well you get the picture. I don’t have to be doing something crazy, like pushing my car to the side of the road to change a tire; climbing up a ladder to paint the ceiling in my kitchen; lifting 100 lb bags of beans…Nope. I doubt you would ever catch me doing those things, but my point is…those are things that could hurt my back or knees. Makes sense, right? So I stay away from doing those things. But standing at my sink washing my dishes? How is that disrupting to my joints and bones? Seriously? And then I have days like today. Low pain, able to sit for more than 30 minutes at a time (hence the blogging), beautiful Spring day with cool temps and fresh ground beans for my coffee. Now that’s what I like. So I’m going to focus on the good instead of the irritating today. Yes, things might be different tomorrow, but for now, I’m grateful. Plus tomorrow could be better than today!
My devotion this morning was out of Matthew 6:10…”May your kingdom come and what you want be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.” (not the KJV, but nice none-the-less)
Today, March 9th, Max Lucado’s Grace for the Moment states the following:
“God is not the God of confusion, and wherever he sees sincere seekers with confused hearts, you can bet your sweet December that he will do whatever it takes to help them see his will.”
I love that. I am definitely a “sincere seeker” with a sometimes “confused heart.” I am so fortunate that God is a perfect father that will do whatever it takes to help me see his will. He understands confused hearts. He can work with that. He just wants to know that we are sincere in our searching, our quest, our journey or whatever other names you want to call it.
The dictionary states that the word “sincere” is this:
“free from pretense or deceit. Proceeding from genuine feelings. Not dishonest or hypocritical.”
Webster puts it like this: “Free of dissimulation.” (I had to look that word up…) it means to “hide under a false appearance.” Wow.
Bottom line? “You can bet your sweet December”… that God will help you/me in whatever we need, as long as we have a sincere heart that is seeking or searching.
Moving on:
I sent out one chapter or excerpts of a short story that I wrote last Spring, called “Letters from the Sky” to a literary agent that was interested in reading something I had written. It was unfinished, but just basically the first 5 pages of a fun idea. Well, the agent promptly responded back a rousing, “I love your writing and this chapter made me want more. Please send three more chapters!”
Wow, I was completely surprised, pleased, excited, shocked and a few hundred other adjectives. I think she thinks that I have more pages to this story! But…remember me saying that it was an excerpt of a potential short story? Well, what I sent her, was all I have… so far. She doesn’t know that, and I’m not going to tell her. So guess what I’ve been doing since yesterday afternoon? You guessed it! I need to complete 3 more chapters for her by Monday evening. She loved chapter one, which means chapters 2 and 3 have to be better. After two cups of coffee this morning, I’m still pondering “what comes next?” I have some ideas, but nothing for sure yet. The goal is to have her keep her turning the pages and wanting more.
I did a lot of research yesterday. My protagonist or heroin is a top-notch, best-in-the-country, top-of-her-class, expert in forensic graphology. Now for those who don’t know what “graphology” is, I can help with that.
Graphology alone is simply the study of handwriting. Mostly for the purpose of character analysis, but can also be for much more. Fingerprints, document forging and the aging of documents and even bones. The forensic part means, the scientific analysis of physical evidence (as from a crime scene).
My main character worked with the FBI and local detectives whenever her expertise was needed in a crime. With her degrees in criminology and psychology, she was needed a lot. Since the village circle of graphologists in the country is small, my girl was called on frequently.
After a very hard case, she decided to leave that field and do something else. Since writing was a love of hers, and with her educational background, she now works at the Washington Post in DC as a journalist in their crime division. You guessed it, something happens; she gets ordered to be a part of the team handling an unusual crime scene where her graphology knowledge will be pushed to the limits. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with it, but without going into much detail, ends up going. Her life is never the same again.
So there…you now have a general outline of the beginnings of my story. We’ll see how it goes, and I will keep you all in the loop. You are my number one fans and I love you for your encouragement along this exciting writing road-trip!
Never underestimate the power of a good story.
Just a quick update on my “Sophia” story. I am 50k words into it and hope to figure out a fantastic ending, soon. After that, it’s revisions and drafts, editing and more editing, then off to the actual professional editors, then picking out a cover design (here’s looking at you Rebekah) Take a peek at her creations on Instagram @craftedbyrebekah and http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftedbyRebekah.
After that, its’ off to the publishers to be put into book form and e-book form and into your hands sometime before the actual Sophia is a teen and doesn’t like me as much as she does now. Since the story is based on truth, sprinkled with imagination for what a “future” Sophia would face, I sincerely hope she will like it and give me her blessing. At this point, it would be the blessing of her mom and dad that I need, but I still want it to be something that Sophia would love and appreciate one day. Right now, when we discuss it, she’s just upset that her siblings have to be in the story! That’s a 9-year-old for you.
Honestly, with the story being set for a future Sophia in college, I don’t see the 9-year-old Sophia even being interested in it until she’s about 16. So that gives me some time! Just kidding. I’ll have it done before that.
If you check out my Excerpts category on this site, I will post a chapter of Sophia for you. You can tell me what you think.
So let it be written, so let it be done.
“A book breaks the shackles of time.” Carl Sagan
Pam Torres | Author 