Reflecting is normal
as the year comes to a close. I’m sure we all do it. These past few years I’ve felt like life has accelerated to the rate of hurry up and do what you really want to do, speed. I worry about running out of time.
I started this blog to build a better book. It was intended to get the word out that I was writing a book about the Valley Fire, and to include my friends and community in this journey I’ve been on since the fire happened in Lake County. As we all know, California has since been on a rollercoaster journey of tragedy, loss, rebuilding, restoring, and finding faith and strength where we’ve least expected. At times writing allowed me to vent, in other times though, I lost my ability to express myself entirely. Those of you whom it has hit hardest will understand what I mean.
But the remainder of the country isn’t exempt from their own tragedies. With hurricanes, tornados, shootings, and other acts of terrorism, we live in an uncertain world! It’s come to the point I don’t even want to turn on the news. So how do we move forward without living in fear? What can we do to make things better?
HOPE!
There still is hope! Each day I wake I feel hope for a good day. I believe it starts with me so I try my best to be in a good mood and make the day good for myself, my family, my students, and friends. The ripple effect is real!
This holiday season has continued to bring hope. I decorated less and spent more time helping where I could. I truly enjoyed my friends and family more this year than I have in years past and made time for people I hadn’t in a long while.
In Murphys, California
we have friends we rarely see. They are a good solid 4 hours away and have lives just as busy as ours. We all attended the funeral of a mutual friend earlier this year and asked ourselves WHY we didn’t make more time to see one another. It was agreed that funerals were not going to be the only time we saw each other anymore, so on the first weekend in December, 7 of us drove to their house in Murphys, California, and spent the best time going to the town’s annual Christmas event. The entire town was open for shopping until late in the night, with fire pits lined down the main street of town, and lights on every building. A festive parade started it off, then hot chocolate, mulled cider, food, and wine were around every corner. Children in costumes ran by us as we stopped to talk with strangers around the warming fire, and my husband fell in love with a hound puppy. Christmas magic was all around and we ended the night visiting around a fire back at our friend’s home, reminiscing about old times.
This was the trend for our season, visiting with friends, doing things we never made time for in a long while, and just slowing life down to enjoy the moment. Each weekend was spent with friends and family.
I tried to think of what I’d write about this Christmas. I mean, really what hasn’t already been written about the holidays? The best I came up with was I found that even as I’m nearing 50 years old, (probably why I feel like I’m running out of time), I still feel curious about the world. I don’t feel this milestone birthday will make me depressed or anything, it’s just I am realizing we don’t live forever, and it’s kind of nice that I can still say my curiosity for life is as strong now as when I was a kid!
Moving into the New Year of 2018, I have so much I’m looking forward to! For starters, I’m going with my husband to visit our first born in the Portland, Oregon area soon and I can’t wait to see her. Children have a way of growing up and having their own lives whether you like it or not. But the excitement of a new city will be fun and I look forward to her playing tour guide to her parents. She only just moved there after Thanksgiving, but hearing the joy in her voice each day we talk makes me happy for her to begin her new life.
The time we spend
with our family is always precious. Soon I will have an empty nest, (youngest moving this month), and instead of being sad, I’m finding hope for a future of new experiences. Staying curious!
Since the book is basically done, I am in the dreaded editing phase and it’s my least favorite part of writing! The romance novel taking place in the aftermath of the Valley Fire is finally going to be pitched this February at the San Francisco Writers Conference. Here’s a sample pitch………needs work but here goes:
After losing his fiancé in a terrible car accident, an embittered excavating contractor is sent to a rural town to help clean up after the Valley Fire and not only falls in love with the community, but with a local girl as well.
Synopsis: When Gabriel Hart came to Lake County, California, after the Valley Fire burned over 1,000 homes, all he had in mind was to help rebuild the community, not fall in love. But when his job put him up in a local hotel, he saw the most enchanting woman with green eyes!
Helping the fire victims to clean up their home sites on Cobb Mountain, Gabriel happened upon this woman once again. Sarah McKinney was helping her friend sift through the rubble of her burned home site just yards away from where Gabriel was working. Could it be fate?
With both Gabriel mourning the loss of his fiancé, and Sarah’s untimely loss of her young husband, the two find an unexpected bond that is undeniable and ignites a passion like no other! But will haunting pasts, long distances, and a secret Sarah keeps stand between their true love?
In this story of catastrophic loss, community support, and renewed hope, two souls try to mend their broken hearts while assisting those who lost virtually everything in the fire.
So wish me luck my friends and followers! I hope all my editing between now and then will polish the book so it’s ready to submit.
Many blessings to you all in the New Year of 2018! Stay hopeful, stay curious, spend much time with loved ones, and slow your life down to take care of yourself! Remember to breathe, and always drink the good wine, and read a good book!
* Picture of typewriter & town of Murphys from Google Images. Patti & daughter Fallon taken by me!
