Perfection

It feels good to have the second edit sent off!  Only one more to go, we trust.  Is a book ever finished?  Can it be perfect with no mistakes?  Will it offend anyone?  Inspire anyone?  Exclude anyone?  I read this quote by Oscar Wilde the other day:  "I have been correcting the proofs of my poems.  In the morning, after hard work, I took a comma out of one sentence.  In the afternoon I put it back again."   Does this sound like us, or what?

Remember I asked you for a suggestion of a book to read?   (I'd run out of good ones for a month or so.)  And you asked if I'd read 84 Charing Cross Road.  I asked if it was true.  I hate true, I'd rather read fiction...makes life seem not so real.   I started reading it anyway, and I love it!  Here's an entry from Helene Hanff, February 9, 1952:  I never can get interested in things that didn't happen to people who never lived.  

So, I guess lots of people will like our book, right?  And I may learn to love non-fiction after all.   Judy

Thanksgiving

"One act of thanksgiving made when things go wrong is worth a thousand
when things go well." John of the Cross

Ordinary into Reality

In the midst of warmy bags and quilts (I, Julie, also have a quilt in process) I have been reading from the Seattle Pacific University Lectio online series. Celeste Cranston offers this prayer that transports me, for just a moment, out of the ordinary into the reality of the (now, but not later!) unseen.

Gracious, powerful, personal God of baffling images, of incongruous melodies, of intimidating intimacy, I pray that you will free, restore, and baptize our imaginations so that we may catch a glimmer of your unlimited truth and grace, so that we may courageously offer both lament and praise, so that we may live into your Yahweh-shaped kingdom where all is good and all is right. In the name and power of Jesus, our prophet, priest, and king. Amen.

Warmy Bags, Wonder Wallets and Quilts

Here we are in the second phase of the editing process and I feel a desperation, a panic, an urgency to accomplish more and more before time runs out!  My time, that is.  Reflecting on the fact that I'll be 70 next year may have something to do with this frenzied tizzy.  That and the fact that I was talking with my beautiful 94 year old friend, Rose, the other day.  Her sight is failing so she can't read much and her fingers don't work to crochet the hundreds of afghans she once did.   She is now the lonely shut-in she used to visit, often praying as the Psalmist did for 'wings like a dove, to fly away and be at rest'.  

So aside from editing days with Julie, I've entered a Christmas craft fair...madly making warmy bags, wonder wallets and quilts.  I'm trying to keep busy, for I know there will come a time when I may feel like Rose.  What courage it takes to age!  My elderly aunt had this written in her Bible:  Yesterday is a memory.  Tomorrow is a dream.  Today is a gift.  That's why it's called the present.  Lots to learn from these old folks.  Guess I'm an old folk, too.  Hope someone learns something from me someday.  A Journey of Letters is a good start.

Chicago Style

Until we received our manuscript back from the editor, I had thought Chicago Style was pizza!  The Chicago Manual of Style?  I had to look it up because I'd never heard of it.  Julie had, of course.  It says it's "essential for writers, editors and publishers".   And here we are in the editing phase of our book and I'm ignorant of such a thing?  Shame on me!  Oh, well, it's never too late to learn.  And learning we are.  

Remember when paper manuscripts used to come back in the mail?  When desired changes were marked in red pencil?  When the editor wrote personal notes ( in my case, rejection notes) in cursive?  Imagine my amazement when we had to send our book via e-mail and back it came the same way!  Marked now in all colors of the rainbow.  Red, grey, blue, green, aqua.  Delete!  Add!  Change!  Save!  I had no idea it would be so confusing and exciting.  It's such a long process, how on earth did there get to be so many books out there?  

Ecclesiastes 12:12 NLT  But, my child, let me give you some further advice:  Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out.  

Ah ha!  But I wouldn't miss this journey for the world!

Spoiled Food?

Judy and I have certain hope that soon, this week in fact, we will receive concrete evidence that someone besides ourselves and friends, someone with the ominous title of editor, will push her metaphysical finger and send us back our baby manuscript.  It will be embroidered (or dirtied?) with red marks and strike-throughs and question marks, requiring our undivided attention.

Again we will be called to weep and to face our other, past, and written selves.  Will we find "our baby" like one finds forgotten spoiled food in the back of the refrigerator, or will our finding result in "ahas," laughter and determination as we work on making this piece of writing the best it can be?

Slowin' Down

Since we found out the copy editing hasn't begun quite yet, I think
we're slowing down even on the blog. Are people going to get tired of
reading our scribbles when nothing much seems to be happening? Let us
assure you, dear reader, progress is being made, so don't give up on
us! Here's what Anne Lamott says: "One of the gifts of being a
writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and
explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at
life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around." Right now, I
(Judy), am looking closely at life as my husband prepares enter the
hospital this afternoon to get blood clots dissolved. The doctor says
he's "lucky to be alive", so life again is put into perspective. But
isn't this exactly what our book is about? Peaks and valleys. Peaks
are fun, but God teaches us more in the valleys. Kind of comforting,
really.