You Start With One Bowl.......................

Hi!


What a week!


If you read last week's ramblings, you are aware that I turned 50 last weekend. What you didn't know, because neither did I, was that the lady standing to my right in the top photo, was going to show up as a surprise! She is one of the best humans that I have had the honour to know, and has had the dubious distinction of being my best friend since Amy Poehler was a baby.


Through some covert texting operations, she and my hubby were able to pull it off. I had a great birthday and I completely blame them!


The rest of the week included, working at our awesomely busy shop and taking my very pregnant daughter to what will hopefully be her last prenatal doc appointment. (her hubby couldn't get the time off of work) This was followed by a nice long mall crawl, accompanied by the two goofy adorable faces you see in the next two photos. The ice and the mud we are experiencing in the great outdoors at the moment, doesn't provide much of a background for safe pregnant lady walks.

Then it was time to take a day to write.


Now that I have Flitflee's story and endless illustration notes sitting in the very capable hands of the lovely illustrator Valerie Bouthyette, it frees up my writing time to concentrate on the novel I'm working on. It's simultaneously fun and intimidating. I can easily get lost in it, figuring out what the different characters should do or say, what scenes should look like, where the story should go, and how it should get there. I can just as easily get a bit stuck, and in that stuckness lies the intimidation. A novel?! Really?!

Did you know the average novel is approximately 60,000 - 65,000 words? Too short, it can fall short of being taken seriously as a novel, too long? Well, unless your writing War & Peace, you better make sure it isn't too long. Am I even capable of stringing 60000 some odd words together in a way that makes sense? In a way that will make people want to read it? I write childrens' stories, for cryin' in the sink! Who am I to think I can write a novel!

Breathe.........


Bottom line, I'm just me, telling a story. People might like it, people might not. When it comes right down to it, the only thing I can control are the words I choose to put on the page, what happens after that isn't up to me.

When intimidation rears it's ugly head I try to remind myself...........

Write a story you would like to read. Write what you know. Write what makes you feel....anything, everything and all that may fall in between.  Write what wants to flow from your fingers. Write what touches you, and you can't go wrong. Keep putting words to the page, the ones that are meant to be there will come.


In the words of the great philosopher, Dory.......just keep swimming...just keep swimming.....


Then today.....well, sometimes I like to bake, I enjoy coming up with new recipes. A little of this, a bit of that, even if it's not perfect, it generally doesn't go to waste. So, the can of pumpkin I had in the pantry, the few raisins, and partial bag of cranberries that were living in my freezer, along with some spices, eggs and some other stuff, became some pretty tasty
pumpkin/oatmeal/cranberry/raisin cookies. About 12 dozen of them...what can I say, it was a big can of pumpkin.........you start with one bowl and end up with a much bigger bowl. It happens more often than one would think............  Oh well, they freeze....


As for the next little while..............


Work at the shop will fill most of the week..........

We are on baby watch......could be any time....we are all getting pretty excited to meet this new addition.........


Write, write and write some more...........


That about does it for me for now.....until next time, I'll leave you with this wish......




May you be you, unapologetically so, for your essence need not be explained.
May you in doing so, find contentment, from others' opinions become unchained.

May the contentment become peace, a knowing, that you're living your life as you should.
May the peace evolve into a deep tranquility, surpassing any need to be completely understood.

May the tranquility filter in, no matter what's going on, no matter the chaos life's hardships can bring.
May you be you, unapologetically so, doing what you need to, to make you heart smile and soul sing.



See you next week!!!


Until then.....


www.margyreidbooks.com