Catholic Writers Guild

I was privileged to attend the live conference of the Catholic Writers Guild this year. It is held in tandem with the Catholic Marketing Network and this year was in Lancaster, PA. I am currently working on a memoir of my child -bearing years; over the course of 6 pregnancies I spent 1 1/2 years on bedrest! I also converted to Catholicism, and received 2 medical diagnoses that could have been devastating. The book will tell how we managed and, I hope, be a tool for women put on bedrest in their own pregnancies.

I learned much at the conference. I signed up for a non-fiction critique group July 31, and really scrambled to get 10 pages of my manuscript ready to go. Arriving at the group, the leaders had no idea who I was, and had not received my manuscript! We agreed O could audit the session. It was God's hand! As I listened to the conversation and took notes, I realized, my work is not ready to be critiqued. It needs real reworking. I intend to join the Guild, join the online non-fiction critique group, and submit my manuscript a piece at a time then.

The first day of the conference was informative and interesting. I may have found a niche for myself. I wish we could have stayed longer. We took it as a girl's trip, with my mom, two daughters (we celebrate each girl starting her period by including her on a trip: one more daughter to go), and myself. My eldest daughter and I attended the conference; she is a poet. There was a poetry critique group scheduled, however, my daughter was the only signee. She was rewarded with an hour of one-on-one time with the leader, an established poet. An excellent confidence builder for my girl! But my mom had to be home for another obligation, so we  had to leave the second day of the conference. And, although there is ample opportunity for Mass, we didn't get to attend this time. We had a lovely time anyway.

I am now in a fibromyalgia flare because we drove from IN to PA in one day. I can't get my mom to understand my limitations. We did break up the trip back; after 8 hours we found a motel. We were heading to IL and 12 hours driving was a little more than mom could do. So I am in pain and fatigued. Apparently, the conference has been in Schaumburg, IL in the past. Perhaps it will be moved back. Lancaster was difficult to negotiate, we found. Still, a good time.

Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores

This is a compendium of blurbs about seventy-five of the world's most renowned bookstores by Bob Eckstein. Each report also contains a newsy little bit from that particular bookstore by someone in the know. And each entry has a magical illustration in color of the bookstore. There are two things I dislike about this: Eckstein has included bookstores that are now defunct, and the design of the book itself is unwieldy. The cover opens up, while the book itself opens in the usual manner. And to keep the cover from coming off completely, the reader must hold it up while trying to turn pages.  It is not a relaxing, read-in-bed book simply because of its design. Sad. It does have a foreword by Garrison Keillor going for it.... I checked this out of the New Book Room at the library; the back cover is already coming unglued because of the stress. Sad.

I've been reading everything I can get my hands on about books and bookstores because that's what my husband and I want to do; open our own used bookstore. We are already selling some online until we can afford a brick and mortar store. We hope the children will work with us. This is our dream.

Dream: Wonder Struck

Today's challenge was to take twenty minutes to write my dreams if nothing were in the way. What fun! I set a timer so I wouldn't get carried away.  And I labeled my paper "Divine Dreams" as a little prayer before I started. Oddly enough, this kept my list rational, with little "buy this" on it.

I want to get our finances in order. Get our schedule working well. Get everyone healthy. Continue or expand devotion times. There are some smaller items to help these larger dreams happen. Exercise goals, food budget helps, that kind of thing.

I want to plant, raise, and can the produce of a garden. Buy a chainsaw to process all our wood. Fix raised beds so the gardening would be a little easier.

Things that cost money include a small car and travel. We'd love to see Rome. I very much want to take my children all over the USA in tents as my parents did for me.

The majority of my list consisted of home repairs and redecorating. We badly need to replace the dining room floor. The windows need replaced.  Those are major repairs. Christopher is in a pink bedroom and he would rather it be a different color. John wants our storage room for his bedroom. Some major redecorating there. All in all, I finished this exercise hopeful and energized. There's little chance any of this will happen anytime soon, for money is an object, but dreaming leads to setting goals. That's the wonder of a dream!

Tuscany Press Revisited

So it was exciting to see my words in someone else's social media! The 21 finalists were announced yesterday. Ultimately, ten will be chosen. " The Penance of Living " was not a finalist. However, I learned so much! And I'll try again next year. And there's still my book to work on. Purpose is good; exciting... and scary. Back to it.

Fear and Love

So I'm reading Journaling As A Spiritual Practice: Encountering God Through Attentive Writing by Helen Cepero. I've felt for some time now a nudge from God to write (okay, a brick. A wall thrown brick by brick at me.). And not just journaling, or blogging, but books. But I'm afraid to actually start. 'Cause, what if I fail? What if I succeed? What if ... a thousand other things? In my reading of Ms. Cepero's book I found these gems:

Pat Schneider in Writing Alone and With Others says, "Where there is fear, there is buried treasure. Something important lies hidden - something that matters...." At the intersection of our deepest fear and greatest desire is where God waits for us with the gift of his presence, the hope of grace.The courage required to face our fears will not come to us because we are brave but because we know we are loved. Only by allowing God's love to meet us at the point of our greatest fear will we move from being people of fear to people of faith. When we name our fears and let go, we do not then find courage, but our unclaimed self and God's embrace and love for the very things that caused us such terror in the first place.

In my writing something matters. I KNOW I am loved. I am fearful to begin writing but God is waiting for me there and together we will share His love in my love of writing.

Dismissed Dreams

I found a great quote by Sue Monk Kidd, in an interview with her detailed in her book The Secret Life of Bees (which I just finished reading).

"Ah, but never underestimate the power of a dismissed dream. I think there must be a place inside of us where dreams go and wait their turn."

This quote gives me hope. The things I've put on hold will someday demand an audience. My dreams deferred will become dreams realized. I might just surprise myself and become a writer or a textile artist or a saint. My dreams are just waiting their turn.