Life-like Characters

 Ahhhh!  I have to give a shout out to some of our best friends here in Ohio.  Ron and Kayla Carroll were some of the first friends we made when we moved here three years ago.  More recently they have been some of my most devoted and supportive fans while I wrote my book.  To thank them for their shared excitement for me as they read my chapters one by one while I wrote them, I decided to make them part of the story.  I wrote them in as Mr. Darcy's butler and housekeeper in his London townhouse, Darcy House. 

Last night at church, we had trunk or treat.  Guess who came?  Mr. and Mrs. Carroll, butler and housekeeper for the Darcy family in MY BOOK!  I love these guys.  Look how good they looked- I seriously screamed and jumped up and down when I saw them.  They even have the diamond stick-pin for his cravat.  AWESOME!

Mr. and Mrs. Carroll, distinguished butler and housekeeper for Darcy House London

 They decorated their trunk with fine curtains and drapes to be Darcy House front entrance.  It was super exciting.  Love the serving tray, Mr. Carroll!

 One of the other kids at church was dressed up as a soldier and I thought it was just too perfect not to get.  So we made him our Wickham.

Thank you Carrolls!  You guys are beyond awesome- It totally made my night!  It is fun to see my characters LITERALLY come to life.  I always pictured these guys whenever I wrote about their characters and now I will not be able to read my book without picturing them this way.

Thankful Thursday

Halloween! 


Charlotte, our Danish exchange student, dressed up as - what?  A Danish (pastry).  I was the baker.

  


Lyman was our Scottish drummer

 



Andrew was our Scottish piper and Ruby played the distinguished role of being the bagpipe.




So cute, I could eat her.



Corilynn was delicous in her cupcake costume. 

Seeing Red

Editing.

Last week I got my first chapter edits back from the editor for my book.  It looked, at first, that after a brief glance that the biggest change to the chapter was that now most of the font was red.  YIKES!  I was, of course, terrified that the final product would end up not really my book at all if I accepted all of the changes it looked like they wanted to make.  So I did the thing any mature, reasonable adult would do.  I closed the document and refused to look at it for a while. 

When I could not ignore it anymore, I opened it up again and actually looked at the proposed edits.  All the red was misleading because in Microsoft Word - track changes feature - your deletes, insertions and any rearranging of sentences shows both the before and after in red links.  So there was double the red.  Phew.  Sigh of relief.  Then looking through them, I found that most of the edits were not taking away from my voice or the overall feeling I wanted the chapter to portray.  After looking over the document and accepting some changes, and rejecting others...

Taa Daa!  The chapter looks fantastic and after several back and forth versions with my editor - it looks like a real author wrote it.  A real author instead of a Darcy obsessed adult female awake early one Saturday morning after dreaming of the scene in the first chapter.  (Ok, I admit it.  I dream about Darcy and Elizabeth.)  I cannot wait for the rest of the book to be finished - to see the final product.  My editor is fantastic and Meryton Press is a great publisher to work with. 

I am kind excited.  I mean when it is finished and published - I will have written a real book.  I know I wrote it before and nothing changes with publication but the published version will actually merit the paper it is on in my opinion.  WOO.  HOO.

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for all the friends who supported me through the writing process of my first book.  Today seems sort of monumental for me because I finished the last chapter of a second book just as I received an email from my editor with the chapter 1 edits of Falling for Mr. Darcy (the first book).  I have to admit, I feel a bit overwhelmed looking at the edits.  Of course, I do not have to accept changes to it that I do not want but still I think I much prefer the dreamworld state of writing rather than the reality driven world of editing. 

From here though, it should go quickly. As soon as I can finish editing the chapters, I send them back to her and she looks through them again.  She said she would be sending me a chapter a day until we finish the book.  I have a lot of work a head of me.  The high of getting something published has washed away as I face the daunting task of getting it ready for publication.  I am sure when we actually get it close to release I will once again feel excited.  I kind of wish I could just blink and see my name on amazon. 

Oh well, here I go.

Lyman's Birthday

Lyman had his birthday party at the MAPS Air force Museum.  He wanted to have a fighter jet cake.  So, together with Dad, they designed this.

 Corilynn shooting one of the guns.

 Inside the blimp passenger seating area.

 Ruby took her turn 'driving' the jet quite seriously, completely with sound effects.

Child of Mine

Dear Child of Mine,

I remember the moment I first loved you.  I was singing and you jumped inside me.  I felt you move and I knew I loved you.  When you were first placed in my arms, I remember becoming so overwhelmed with feeling for you that all I could do was cry, "My baby, my baby!"  At that moment you ceased your crying and looked up at me.  Your eyes were clear and you recognized me, or at least my voice.  I never loved a child so much until that moment. 

It was through your eyes that once I was comforted.  When you were only a few months old, I was struggling through a very difficult time in my life.  My pain had nothing to do with you but I was anguished and felt trapped in my own sorrows.  I could not speak of my troubles and I was so very lost.  I was holding you, feeding you a bottle and crying.  My tears flowed down my cheeks and I prayed so fervently for some comfort.  When I looked down at you then your eyes were clear and I could see that you understood me.  A babe of only four months, but your eyes held the wisdom of a mature adult, a grown spirit.  Your eyes communicated your love and understanding.  They were not the baby eyes I had seen every time I looked into your eyes before or after that moment.  They were the eyes of a mature spirit, temporarily unhindered by a young body that he was just learning how to use.  I knew at that moment the Lord had allowed me (and you) to see each other as his spirits.  I felt loved and comforted and it was through your eyes.

I remember when years later I was suffering again.  Though of quite a different nature.  I was feeling the burden of another pregnancy.  You were caring beyond your years, always offering to help me or get something for me.  You knew just when to sit still near me and hold my hand.  Your small strength was a blessing to me and I felt loved by you again. 

Today you turned seven.  In your short seven years, I can name more than a few times you have given me more than I could give you as your mother.  Lyman dear, I love you, child of mine.

Happy Birthday,
Love,
Your Mother

The Fun Parent

While Dad left on business this week, it was my job and obligation to make sure the kids were cemented in the opinion that I am the Fun Parent.  So I took them to Pump it Up - a play land with inflatable bounce houses and slides for them to go hog wild on.  I think my efforts were successful.

 Shhhh... if you will keep a secret, Ruby is getting one of these for Christmas.  It is a good thing too, since she loved this thing (whatever it is).

Protesting the Inevitable

Today Ruby crawled out of her crib and onto the dresser next to it. She couldn’t get back into the crib or off the dresser, it being too high for her comfort. So she cried as she laid helplessly on the small surface of the dresser. We thought she was just protesting taking a nap and so we didn’t go in to get her for a little while and discover her there. Pour girl. Poor Mama. I don’t want her to grow up and this is the first time she has climbed out of her crib. It meant we had to take it down and transition her into a big girl twin bed. Her little body looks so little there. She is, of course, ecstatic about it. Mom is, of course, not. When your littlest gets big, it makes you wish you could dig your heels into the earth and with the sheer force of your motherly will, stop the rotation of the earth and let time pause for just a little.
I feel that everyday my kids are growing way faster than they ought to. Lyman will be baptized in one year. BAPTISED! I swear I just had him, little tiny in my arms, just born. Corilynn will go to kindergarten next year too. And me, I will slowly sink back into the oblivion mothers dissolve into when their kids grow up and don’t need them anymore. ::sigh:: I hate big girl beds.

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful to have had this conversation with Corilynn.

I was walking out of preschool with her today and a little boy with his mother was walking behind us.  I heard him say to his mom, "That is Corilynn, she is my girlfriend."

I exchange an amused look with the boy's mother and we go separate ways towards our cars.  At the car I asked Corilynn about it, who at first doesn't seem to know anything about it.  But then she says:

"Yeah he is my boyfriend.  He is my first boyfriend.  I am his first girlfriend too."

Now I know, at least on Corilynn's side, that she has no clue what boyfriend means other than a boy that is her friend.  Until now, she has always considered boys accessories in the room, her friends only being girls.  So I know this boy being her "boyfriend" is really just her first boy that is a friend. 

But the way she said "He is my first boyfriend" just made me laugh because it was so cute and cheekily done.  So I called Andy to tell him about it.

I am thankful to have had this conversation with my husband:

I told him about Corilynn and the would be suitor.  About their maiden venture into boyfriend and girlfriend territory and how funny it sounded when she said she had a boyfriend. 

"So it seems your daughter has a boyfriend." I said.

He laughed for a short while and then said, in all seriousness, "I don't think I like that."