Pages From My Journal

I never get anything done quickly. So it’s hard to see anything getting done when life moves so fast. But, Sunday I took over two hours and spent them making grand prix cars with the Supremes.              For the record: “Supremes” is the terminology used in our house to refer to lil’ sis and my nine year old foster brother. They are six months apart, but neither one of them liked “twins.” So, “Supremes” they were.             Our church’s Faith Weaver Friends does a grand prix every year. I loved making cars when I was in AWANA and it is just as fun helping the Supremes. Our family has done ballet shoes, space ships, sports cars, Larry the Cucumber, school buses, Laura Carrot (two veggie tales? I never noticed that : ), fire engines, and many others.  Lil’ sis said that this year she wanted to make a New Life Island canoe. She had gone to camp there ...

                                The thoughts in my head don’t translate into sentences on the page. The hurt in my heart doesn’t come out as words. How can I say what I have been through? Up until now, I could not find a way to share with you my life without bogging you down with a story that started over two and a half years ago. Last night, I found out how to put it:                 Jesus may or may not calm the storm, but he always wants to get into the boat. (John 6:16-21)                 Storms have bombarded me the last couple months and they haven’t ceased as of yet. Some days the only way I got through was by listing all the blessings that I had. If you piled all the hurt...

    I started my last novel in the beginning of this semester, and this time I am writing a dystopian vs. utopian. A different style of writing was calling my name. Bye, bye, Outline.     It was going great! Until I got stuck. I knew where I was and I knew where I needed to end up, but I couldn't connect the dots. I just had one big hole in my plot and I couldn't figure it out sitting at my keyboard. So, I got off my laptop and brainstormed. I found a surprisingly helpful way to fill those holes. Locate the problem: For me, I knew point "A" and I knew point "B," but how to get from one the next was slipping my mind. I started with what I knew.      Athena and Silas needed to escape from Akmal, drawing just enough attention to let the city know that they are on the run.  Puzzle Pieces: There were all these little things that I wanted to put in, or little events that I knew had to happen. I wrote those down. Kastra is the main...