BROWNIES AND TRUST

It’s windy outside and there’s a couple walking past with their dog.  I’m sitting in front of my computer  editing Benk and the Ugly Princess.  I like wind and I like people walking their dogs and I like my story, but it is still hard to be quarantined day after day.  It’s so much of the same thing and stress is in the air. Life is both boring and tense.

At the same time, I’m glad not to be sick.  I’m glad to have my husband with me.  I’m getting a lot done on my story.  We have hot brownies with ice cream every Wednesday and Saturday nights.  I watch movies sometimes and am reading the Emily Windsnap books from the online library. 

Actually, I think life always has sameness and stress; we just notice it more now.  We don’t see the whole picture—only God can do that.  He’s trustworthy—we often don’t, but He’s kind too.  He knows us inside and out. 

So I keep asking for help to trust Him.  And I look forward to tomorrow-it’s Saturday. Hot brownies with ice cream !!

LIGHT AND UPLIFTING

In this time of quarantining, I find that I don’t want to read heavy, even good heavy. Instead I want light, sometimes humorous books that lift my spirit.

It seemed like a good time to reread my own stories, always a dangerous thing for an author to do. You see so many mistakes that it can become discouraging. This time–and I consider it a gift–I just enjoyed them. They hit the exact balance I wanted between real and light–and I confess that I laughed at all my jokes. This is not to say that I didn’t immediately want to rewrite all my earlier stories–it is just to say what kind of stories I offer.

Hopefully, they will uplift you too!!

MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS

Off the top of my head, my lifelong favorite characters from other authors are Peter (Lewis’s Narnia books), Sam (Tolkien’s Ring Trilogy), Anne (Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables), and Rat (Jonell’s Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat). 

I admire and like Peter and Sam.  They are noble characters.  When they do make mistakes, they face up to them.  Anne is delightfully imaginative in both good ways and bad.  She also faces up to mistakes—eventually.  Rat is very likeable and also hilarious.  I love characters who make me laugh out loud.

 My favorite characters from my own books are (duh) Janna and Benk, and I like them because they are real people who love and get angry and grow.  They make me laugh—yes, every time even though I have obviously read the stories more than once.  I also like very much Princess Pearlrope Diamonde Primrose (Rose) from Benk and the Ugly Princess, which will hopefully get published sometime this year.