Colorado

In real life, unlike books, when faced with a major decision - it overtakes all your thoughts. 

In a book when the heroine faces the unknown, she comes up with plans. Usually faulty plans especially at the beginning of the book. By the end her plans come together much better after, of course, discovering something about herself and about a few other people within her close circle of friends.



The problem with life is that one doesn't know when one chapter is starting and the last chapter is finished. It is more of a liquid free-flowing thing than that displayed in the finite pages of the book. 



With the death of so many people that either I or my family are acquainted with, put together with friends that I've known for close to a decade have moving away -- puts me in the oddest mood. Not fearful, not anxious, sad or glad, just in a more reflective state of mind. For the most part, I am not able to change anything which helps. I react but even that seems unimportant. 

Summer is ebbing. Time waits for none of us. It moves on and we with it.  

The pictures above are from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison on a boat tour of the canyon. The one to the right is Eldorado Canyon outside of Boulder. I'm a Colorado native and have never been to either canyon before. If you want to see breathtaking sights  The plains, farmland, rivers and mountains, then Colorado is the place to be. 

Life and Colorado

Today when I took the little girls I watch to school, it was chaotic. It was the 3rd day of the first full week of school and kids were crying everywhere. Kids were screaming "Noooo!" One boy was running. A little girl was  having a breakdown in her Mommy's arms. 

I realized as I stood in the throng of parents making sure their child was in the right line and were intermixed in those lines that life is a series of moments where we are resistant to change. Those around us try to rally us with support, well-wishes and prayers, but we actually have to do the standing in line and wait for the door to open alone. 

I feel like I've waited years for some doors to open and then only minutes for others. Sometimes especially when I was younger I was through the door and embarking on something new without even being aware of it.  

I loved getting married, I loved having kids. Both of those doors have changed me and continue to change me every day. They were good doors that I love.

I didn't really care for the door of being in multiple car accidents that continue to give me pain.

I have enjoyed doors of friendship that have opened and closed. I am sad when death has closed doors that no longer allow me to see good friends.
  
I loved the door my sister opened when she invited me to London last year. I loved walking through that door and I love looking at the pictures and being transported back there.  

I love the door that being born into my family and married into my husband's family that makes being with my parents and siblings feel like I'm home. 

The door so far to publishing my first book has been closed. Maybe forever and firmly or maybe just for a time. It's a hard door because I feel like I've worked so hard on something and it has been for nothing.  I say that but at the same time realize that I will continue to write even if no one but family ever reads my work. 

And so I start again wondering what doors will be opened or closed this week, this month, this year. I know I can trust God through these openings and closings, and so I start today refreshed and renewed amid the ever changing landscapes.     

Writing Contest

I received the scores from the contest I entered last December for my novel "A Series of Scandals." It just makes my disappointment all that much more final. The highest and lowest scores were disqualified. But even with that . . . .it was only the first three chapters. And it seems it is not actually a true contest with only five people reading those chapters. And only three scores counting. 

It's weird because I read fourteen different entries in another category when I was a judge. Even the ones I gave high 8's and 9's to didn't make the semi-finals. Maybe we are all horrible writers and no one wants to read what pours forth onto the pages. Or. . . maybe the judges weren't as objective as they should have been. I've heard of contests where friends read each other's manuscripts and gave high ratings. I hope that was not the case.

I don't know what to think. 
A friend read my book last year in May and said, she couldn't put it down. I had forgotten that I had sent it to her, and she had forgotten that it was in her inbox. Months went by and then she called me up and gave such rave reviews. 

Maybe she wasn't as objective either.      

In my category someone did win. So I guess I'm just ranting. 

Historical Romance	Judge 1	Judge 2	Judge 3	Judge 4	Judge 5
Score	8.00	4.10	7.00	8.00	8.70
Is the love story the main focus of the book?	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Is the resolution of the romance emotionally satisfying and optimistic?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Final Score: 7.666666667

Morrow Dam

It's been hot. At least in the mid 90's all week long. On Monday and Tuesday, I was still in the relaxing feel of vacation even though I was back at work. Wednesday wiped the vacation mindset out of my thoughts, and I began looking forward to the weekend. Now sitting here on Saturday morning, I'm refreshed once again.

On our vacation, we visited the Morrow Point Dam built between two cliffs. It was an awesome sight to see. 
So vast that it is hard to take in. 

As always I am behind on my schedule of writing. I should be on the middle chapters of my 2nd book, but I am still on Chapter Two. It is not right and I keep going through it changing the words and the responses that each character speaks trying to get it to where I want it to be. 

I guess it is like re-arranging furnture in a small room. You have the pieces, you know what you want, but until you physically move each of the pieces to different spots you don't know if it has the right feel. However, when it is right you know it and can walk away.

   

Colorado

Back from vacationing in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It was spectacular. Some of the canyon's cliffs rose from 2303 feet jutting from the earth to the heavens.  We went on a boat tour that brought us further into the canyon.  And then we went on different hikes throughout the canyon that brought us to the "Painted Wall" on the right. In the left hand corner of the picture, you can see the river. The very one that we traveled through on the pontoon boat.   


                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
And then on our second day on our way out of our camp area there in front of us only 30 yards away was a brown bear. He was the size of a very large dog, so we figured he was a cub. But his girth was wider than a dog.  Only the second bear that I've seen in Colorado. The other one ironically was in the area called "Burning Bear". 

During vacation, I was able to write just a little. Cleaned up another section on my first book and re-wrote the first and second chapter of my second book.

And now vacation is over, and this has been my third vacation this year. I am rested, rejuvenated and ready to begin work again.  I think it is only because I have today off that I think the sound of work  - pleasant. I guess I will tell you next week if my thought was true or just vacation euphoria.