I turned in my 11th book this week! Can you see me doing the happy dance? Holding a dishtowel and singing in the kitchen? Well, okay, I didn’t actually do those things, but I sure was glad to hit SEND on that book. And I can bet you could hear my sigh of relief, yes?
But now I’m in that space of relief and “now what?” Since many of you are writers, you know what I mean, but for those who wonder what a writer does after she finishes a book, I thought today I would just fill you in on a little bit about me–some things that perhaps you didn’t already know.
First off, I’m in awe of how much God has opened doors for this work that I never thought would see the light of day, and so very grateful for Revell and all of the wonderful people I work with. They are the best!
But now what? I finished a book. And I have two in the contract queue to start on or complete in the first draft. What does an author do with that? I mean, the truth is, my job is like yours in a lot of ways, except that I can pick my hours and maybe some of you can’t. But vacations are things I have to make myself take. And I’ve done that this year because we’ve had so much travel. But Christmas isn’t going to be a time of travel, and not many family celebrations, so I could keep working.
But today I’m washing sheets, cleaning bathrooms, opening windows to air out the house from hubby’s illness, and listening to music louder than normal because hubby went golfing and I can blast it without knocking him out of the house. 🙂
When I’m not writing, I catch up on chores. I like to shop, mostly online, but I also like to get out of the house. I love to walk in the park and if I could move to a place with lots of nature or beaches or palm trees or streams, I would love that. Wildlife holds such beauty and it decreases my penchant for anxiety. Yeah, I struggle with that one. Sometimes I fight depression too – it’s kind of a bane for a lot of creative people. You too?
I don’t enjoy crowds, so you won’t catch me shopping on Black Friday unless it’s from behind my computer. I like easy meals that are healthy but don’t take a lot of work. I hate clutter and sometimes wish I could blink it away! And sometimes I just ask – what do I do with this?
A few weeks ago, clutter, or should I say “keepsakes” that we’ve owned for a long time were almost destroyed. I’m not talking about in a fire or flood or other disaster that would have affected far more than those few knick knacks. This was just a strange discovery, which happened while I dusted. (When I don’t WANT to write, I find more excuses to clean.) Of course, it had been a while since I’d touched that room, but I began dusting a wall unit with glass doors where I kept everything from our ceramic nativity set to a blown glass carousel from Disney World, which we bought on our honeymoon. I had crystal from my grandmother and Precious Moments figurines and more on those glass shelves and they had been fine for years.
Imagine my surprise when I walked over to it and saw that one of the shelves had fallen off it’s peg and had crashed into a glass on the lower shelf. Since we never heard the crash, it probably happened when we weren’t home. Everything on the fallen shelf was now pressed against the glass doors. If I dared open them, they would shatter. Including my nativity set and our 40 year-old carousel.
Perhaps I should have written instead of dusted that day, but eventually we were going to have to open those doors. So together we started on the side with the least amount of keepsakes pressed against it. Some fell to the shelf below, but most stayed put. Slowly, one by one, I removed them and passed them off to hubby. And in the end? The nativity shepherd’s staff broke–now glued back together. The crystal goblet was shattered – it had held up the shelf. Two Precious Moments needed mending. But my carousel has some damage I can’t repair. Amazingly not a lot, but enough that I need to find a professional to fix it.
Why do I share this? Maybe because it happened. Maybe because it reminded me that even the things we cherish are still just things. We can’t take them with us or be buried with them like the ancient Egyptians thought when we die. Like Job said, ““Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.”
Kind of makes me view my possessions with less sentiment, despite my sentimental nature. It’s funny because I don’t come from a heritage of sentimentalists. My heritage is more that of giving things away, especially if you haven’t used it in a year. My in-laws were the opposite and kept pretty much everything. (They lived through the Depression, which kind of changes your thinking.) I guess we fall in between the two.
But back to what I do when I’m not writing – in between books? I read for fun. I’m on my gazillionth read of Two From Galilee and I am still amazed at her ability to turn a phrase. (And I discovered that she was first published by Fleming H. Revell! I would never have dreamed that my favorite book had been published by my publisher years before I dreamed of writing.)
But I digress. I also clean. I find excuses to be lazy. Give me a really good TV series and you might find us binge watching it. And I look for hope and joy and gratitude for all of the good things God has given. There are so many if we just look for them.
And when my few weeks of distraction are over, I will try to finish the first draft of my first non-fiction, and get ready for the launch of A Passionate Hope. If ever we needed hope, it’s now, and Hannah’s life has so much hope woven throughout–not just in my story but in Scripture. Read her song and you will see a glimpse of her character.
So that’s what I do when I’ve completed a deadline. I ramble on my blog too long and I clean my house. And I eat chocolate. No wait. I do that even when I’m writing.
May you be blessed this week as you prepare to celebrate Jesus with those you love.
#deadlinecompleted #amcleaning #sentimentalthoughts #inbetweenbooks
