Author Archives: Amy Jane

“Now it can be told.”

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I’ve always loved that “aside” in folktales.  (From Aladdin and the Magic Lamp by Kunstler:)

The magician howled and flew into such a rage the earth shook, and the boulder rolled back into place, sealing Aladdin inside the cave.

Now it can be explained.  This magician was nobody’s uncle at all but merely an evil schemer.  He had selected Aladdin only to help obtain the magic lamp.

~

A smile turned his thin-lipped mouth up at the corners as his bony hand grasped the ancient lamp….  And bidding the princess and her retinue good day he was heard to cackle with strange glee as the massive jade doors were thrown open for his exit.

Now it can be told.  This seemingly selfless peddler was none other the evil magician of Barbary, Africa.

~

It is with relief I may now exhale and say with joy that my family is whole once again.

Jay has been traveling the globe (or, at least the parts of it that lead to Antarctica) for the past four weeks, and I have been dealing with bedbugs, heartsick children, and a sick cat.  Alone.

And yet not alone, because there is always more to do than the emergencies.  What is to follow is the involved saga of the month of single parenting, condensed into a single post in order to spare any faithful readers the agony of being dragged through the content of the past four weeks in real-time.

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I looked into heaven…

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I got a nap this morning, and as I did my children were bathed and dressed and fed.

God’s design (that whole two-parent thing) *so* makes the most sense.

Longer post later.   Not much later, but much longer.

As in, This-is-your-warning-don’t-complain-later-I-didn’t-warn-you longer.

Getting Ever Closer!

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Ahhh!  There’s something so *fresh* about creating whole new scenes.

Put up another 1500 words tonight.  Finished another “pink” section.

~

In case anybody cares, I came up with a new color system before I left Bermuda.  It was there I had another “reorganization” that caused me to shuffle around a bunch of my second half and necessitated creating a half a dozen new scenes.  Creating place-holders, that is.  Scenes that still needed to be written to complete the story properly.

I have the scenes numbered and titled (some with self-amusing or inside-joke sorts of titles) in Excel:

  • The stuff I got done (updated the Version-3.1 storyline) is coded light yellow.
    • Old Friends and… Others
    • Unwilling Rescue
    • The Fitting
    • Awakening
  • The stuff I haven’t yet updated is light green.
    • Second Tokens
    • The Next Battle
  • The scenes that still need to be written are vivid pink.
    • Discovered

It is exciting to watch the overview change to a solid block of color.

Left to-do (before the whole book is at the same level, and I start the “real” revising/proofreading part):

  • 3 pink
  • 6 green

This might sound like a lot, but that is only 9 out of 29 scenes, which emphasizes I’m 2/3 done.  Or caught up, or however you want to say it.

This time I’m only energized.

The last time, you may recall, I choked as I thought I was nearing the end.  It just didn’t feel *right.*  And it wasn’t right.  This time everything seems to fit together ever better as I go along.

It’s a good thing I don’t believe in jinxes, or I wouldn’t dare be so delighted.

Random Randomness

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What’s on my mind:

  • A summary of Barbara Nicolosi’s talk about art and artists.
  • A delicious first-person account of the 14-year-old French girl who literally held the fort, despite the cowardice of the men whose job it truly was.
  • A post of links providing all the elements of an authentic fairy party (of the little-girl variety)
  • The most coherent discussion of branding I have yet found
  • I’m wondering if an AlphaSmart NEO 2 would be a useful (and/or used) tool for my writing.

Art Feeds (other) Art

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At least for me.

Or maybe I’ve just noticed that a sense of competency inspires confidence which energizes another cycle through projects.

It began Sunday with being very popular (not something I’ve experienced often), having to leave one music practice early to get late to a call-back invitation.

At the theater I was one of a collection of ladies who “all have already been cast” (one whispered to me– catching me up).  I heard each one sing, solo, and was delighted by every voice.  It made me feel honored to be one of this group.

Later that evening I had a lively two-hour conversation on a variety of entertaining intellectual and spiritual topics.  I felt very clever– with the comfortable sort of self-delight I experience when a song I sing is pleasing to my ear.

Afterward it was much as though the burner had been thoroughly turned on under my pot o’ words.  So instead of crashing I revised a high-action chapter and gave it to Jay to read the next day.

He kept commenting on how “violent” it was.

“What’s the big deal?” I asked, secretly pleased I could surprise him.  “It’s only snakes.”

“You don’t even watch these kinds of movies!” he said, then paused.  “I guess you did see Lord of the Rings…”

But then my Big Disappointment crashed down on Monday, and I felt all of me curling inward, like a dried out orange peel.  My mom was able to take the kids for a while after nap and I dove back into my novel (something I don’t think I’d have been able to do if I hadn’t been built up the day before) and punched out 1500 words, finishing a new section, editing an old one and beginning a second new section.

Then the next day I was again blessed by delightful, encouraging conversation.

The pregnant woman I spoke of last post actually stopped me so she could get paper to take notes on my random baby advice.  Talk about feeling honored…

Then after getting the kids in bed I returned to the quilts, and the story from last night didn’t have room to include my surprise and delight that I was able to simply put them together by feel (this stage has previously required more measuring and pinning).

The quilts had been lying fallow for some time, because they had progressed beyond the “logical sequential” roots that had prompted me to pick up the project in the first place.  I didn’t have the mental energy to make the shift and wasn’t trying to dig it up.  But talking and writing successfully– feeling competent in these areas– seem to have emboldened me to return to something else challenging.

And here we are: almost done.

~ ~ ~

Maybe this is why the gordian knot has always appealed to me, both the quilt and the story; I feel an affinity to the convoluted but working logic, and the way one thing leads interminably to the next.

And I’m so thankful for the ways God chooses to encourage me.

In my mind thse things are very connected.

Books are Useful

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Today I stood in line an inordinately, unnaturally long time at McDonalds.

The children were climbing through tunnels like contented gerbils and I had a book to read, so I was able to wait more patiently than most.

While waiting (while reading!) my mind wandered to earlier in the afternoon where I left some of my soda bread biscuits with my hostess.  She had glowed about how delicious they were, and while I was surprised at her enthusiasm, I appreciated it enough not to question it.

About this same time, still standing near the counter, I also remembered a random Dooce post I’d read where she glowed about how good food tastes now that she’s pregnant.  The delicious idea of my plain bread being elevated by pregnancy magic struck me so hard I laughed out-loud (she is pregnant– I wasn’t laughing at the possibility).

An older gentleman waiting nearby looked at me questioningly and I smiled and went back to pretending to read my book, still fighting the giggles– this time brought on by imagining how this scene might have looked without the book.

Yes, I’ll admit I’m still riding high on a sleep deficit.

But here’s what I’ve gotten done:

Try Again?

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Don’t know if I should reattempt last-year’s resolution.

I made it four months last year without buying books… for me.  I had said I’d go all year, because I had enough to read that I doubt I’d run out.

I even started a “worth reading” page that linked to the reviews of the books I’d read.

The whole of it became an embarrassment (of sorts).

I found I didn’t really want to write about every book I read or re-read, even when I liked them (Coraline and Sport were two examples in one week), and some books I wanted to read but wondered how it would “look” to admit I had.

This is legitimate, I think, on something like LibraryThing where observers might get the wrong idea of your mind and character (i.e., if you have a book there you bought to dissect rather than to feed you).

The niggling that ate me was slightly less mature.  Especially considering Coraline and Sport were examples of books I wondered on.

The trouble is that, on the whole, I seem to have excellent timing (or else, people are constantly throwing away good books– which is probably true), and when I see a book I’ve seriously considered picking up at full price, it seems silly to pass on it at $2-$7.

I bought nine of  those today.  Nine $2 books.  (Two were even on my Amazon wish list!)

And this I’ve been doing all year.  I have more than enough (unless my consumption pattern dramatically changes) to make it through the next year… but it’s so fun playing treasure hunt it’s hard to tell myself I won’t do it at all…

Dunno yet, but I still have time to think about it.