Sunday, November 1, 2015

Day 1401: Autumn wonders

Another lovely autumn day full of emotion.  More reminders of our good fortune and health.  Penelope, sick friends, funeral home, long walk, out to dinner, talk with Nancy and Evan, Molly purring by my side.

Our friend Doug lost his 80 year old dad yesterday.  He was diagnosed with cancer just three weeks ago.  We all agreed, it wasn't a bad way to go.  Nancy's friend lost her husband this week.  He dropped over from a massive heart attack at 56.  Nancy was reliving her loss of two years ago.  And I'm reminded again of each day's gifts, the wonder of golden leaves, sunlight glinting on a deep blue lake and the treasure of precious loved ones.  

My friends at Penelope were delighted and impressed when I gave a progress report on the book.  I've promised to share my new chapter on partner schools at the meeting in two weeks.  Today I finished editing the expedition behavior chapter.  I'm so delighted with how smoothly it's going.

Valerie is starting an autobiography and I recommended she use NANOWRIMO, like I did back in the fall of 2010.  Write a thousand words a day and don't edit!  It made all the difference for me.  It provided the structure I needed.  I kept a tally of my words on the calendar and was motivated by the increasing totals.  Making a daily commitment and recording my progress was so helpful.  It's the same strategy I used to reach my swimming goal.

I know there is so much more to do once the writing is done, but already new ideas for writing projects are filling my head.  I'm going to resurrect a couple short stories I wrote back in the 1990s, starting with my hubcaps story.  I got such great feedback from two publishers, but I never followed through with revisions and resubmission.  Ahhh, but one thing at a time.  FINISH THE BOOK!



Forest Place


From Risley St.



Our back yard



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