Missed my writing goals for the month

I’m disappointed; I didn’t met my writing goals this month. It was partly because of my Mom being in the hospital/rehab, partly because I have not set up a clear writing schedule. I learned a few things. I did some great research on the book of Ezra. One of the things I learned this month is nothing that belongs to God is ever lost. This is encouraging, I will be able to use this research one day. And I was blessed by what I learned.

What books were selling the year you were born?

Based on a recommendations on Kaye Dacus and Steve Laube’s blogs, I checked out the bestsellers the week I was born (Dec 11, 1951). What a great way to understand the world I entered. The number 1 fiction bestseller was The Caine Mutiny by Herman Woulk and the non-fiction number 1 bestseller was by Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us. Over half the books included in the 16 titles for each categories were books and authors I know, such as The Catcher in the Rye, From Here to eternity, A Man Called Peter, Kon-Tiki, and authors Irving Stone, Graham Greene, Thomas Mann and Winston S. Churchill. It was a world trying to heal from World War II through words and stories. It was a world beginning to stretch beyond the ordinary and willing to stand against authority. It was a world that valued a good love story. It was world reaching to understand its resources. It was a world seeking its God. All in all a pretty interesting place in which to be born.

Here is the link. This is for an Australian Company. Be sure you put in the day before the month.
www.biblioz.com/best_sellers.php?a=0&i=43622970

One of my Thin Places

There were many people, events and concepts which impacted me at this year’s conference. However the skies over Ghost Ranch held the greatest impact because of what it represented. The weather was outstanding, just a little colder than last year, but still very doable. Thursday afternoon there were some clouds and a few snow flurries. Otherwise, it was this deep blue color.

Several times between sessions I would pass someone who said how’s it going. I responded “I’m trying to describe this sky.” I walked around all week looking up. It wasn’t just the color, there was a depth to it as though you could almost separate each hue of color. And there was the clarity. Every piece of landscape posed against it was magnified to show each leaf and twig. Over and over I asked, “how do I describe this sky?”

On the way back to the ranch Saturday morning, a phrase from Revelations came to mind, “like a glassy sea.” It makes sense doesn’t it; God’s sea could be our sky? Back at the conference I wrote the following just in time to get it into the conference’s daily newsletter.

The Skies of Ghost Ranch

The door to heaven opened this morning.

And the sky before me was like

a glass sea bringing each detail

of the landscape into crystal clarity,

And the rays of the sun mixed with the glassy sky as fire.

The light covered me, and I know, standing firm, I will stand victorious before your throne surrounded not by reflections, but the true splendor of Your Presence.

Rev 4:16, 15:2

Still, I couldn’t quite let go and thought about it all day Sunday as I drove. Why did the sky grip me this year? After all it was the same sky as last year. I’ve looked at last year’s photos and it is the same sky. The qualities I am writing about can’t be captured in a photo. Then I realized last year I hadn’t read Mary DeMuth’s memoir, Thin Places.

Mary says “Thin places are snatches of holy ground, tucked into the corners of our world, where we might just catch a glimpse of eternity. They are aha moments, the beautiful realizations.”

Being at the ranch this year was a “thin place” for me. From my past experience, I came expecting to find God, and I did. My takeaways were not what I would have imagined. (I tried coming without preconceived notions, knowing this would be true.)

A positive takeaway concerned my home. I’ve been fighting an internal battle over my decision to move to this house a decade ago was on my terms, not God’s. I had a strong confirmation of this property being central to my creative process.

I had not planned on being confronted by my fears, but I was at every turning. My Pathways’ friends will recognize this theme for me. I wish I could tell you I faced them, and they are behind me. During the past few years the Rascal Flatts’ song, I’m moving on, is one I claim. Oh, how I long to be able to claim the first line, “I've dealt with my ghosts and I've faced all my demons.” Let’s say for the moment, I have acknowledged my fears, and the deepest of which is my fear to be who God made me to be.

So, it was in one of the thin places of my life that God’s Spirit revealed these fears to me when He was the closest.

The good news is my skies back at home have a more translucent quality than before for me.

(By the way, Rascal Flatts has a new album out this week.)

The difference light makes

Friday night of the conference I had to come down from the mountain and drive to Albuquerque to attend a Saturday morning BSF leadership meeting. It was one time I could feel some similarity to Moses. I was anxious driving down the mountain and then into Albuquerque in the dark. Not being familiar with the road, I could only know the area my headlights illuminated. It was a relief when I could pop to my brights: my field of vision was expanded sideways, but not much more down the road.

What a difference Saturday morning when I returned in daylight. There was this entire, fascinating world stretching from horizons to horizons where the before I could only see one lane. What a difference light makes on the world.

Tom Davis and Flip Cameras

During the Fiction Track, Tom Davis encouraged us to use flip camera during our research. I felt guilty, since I had never used my flip camera. I took it out of my bag and shot some footage of the beautiful sky. My panning is a little shaky, but maybe the beauty will make up for my inexperience. Do you have a gadget around the house that you've never used?

Tom’s newest book is Priceless. He is CEO/President of the Children’s Hopechest.

The One Thing

During Book Proposal Blitz, Tama Westman reminded us City Slickers was filmed here at the ranch. Jack Palance kept hinting at “The One Things” through the movie driving Billy Crystal crazy because he never finished the sentence.

It set the theme for me through the rest of the conference. I heard speakers use the phrase all week. The one thing you need for good fiction. The one thing you need to be a miracle deliverer.

So what about you? What is “the one thing” you need today?

Tama's site is A Write Start Communications

The 2010 CLASS Christian Writers Conference

The CLASS conference was the reason I was in New Mexico. This was my second year to attend this conference. Each of the writing conferences I have attended offer their own unique flavoring making it difficult to rank them against each other. This conference not only provides high caliber technical sessions and professional opportunities but also challenges your spiritual life. My suite mate summed up the best when I asked her what she was taking home, “I didn’t expect it to be so personal.”

One of the highlights this year was leaving a published author. I think we all politely smiled at the thought and had our several potential submissions under our arms.

We did pull together an anthology of stories, poems, and essays “out of the overflow” and Winepress expects to have it available before Christmas. (I’ll put out more on the book when it is available.)

I highly recommend this conference. It’ll be back at the ranch next November. Click here for information