The Fellowship Cafe

everyone. Catching up on the posts here... Welcome to our new friends. And congratulations to everyone who's made writing progress! I've been doing not much of anything but caring for sick kids lately.

David Poellot said:

If anyone has the secret for more hours in the day, I'm all ears.

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Forget it. If I had more hours in the day I'd just find more to try to cram in.

Yep, that sounds about like what I would do, heyjude.

- Zip from me too.

I get tons of ideas, but I don't do a thing with 'em.

There's news here in Casa Chaos, but it's not timely right now to discuss it. Working on the new (novella? -- probably not -- I can't write short), RHOSYN'S WAY, which seems to tell the tale of a young Welshwoman emigrating to the US in 1905. "Seems to tell" is the truth, since I'm a SOTP writer and usually have little idea what happens next. My heartfelt prayer is that the characters blossom into full and obstinate life, so they tell me what they'll do in the situation into which I've plopped them. I love it when they say, "No, I'd never do that--write me this way instead."

Stay tuned.

*waits*

*checks watch*

*drums fingers on desk*

Compose thy soul in patience, sweet sister (and I mean that in the non-nun fashion). You will learn my news anon.

Aren't I too old to be finding out stuff about myself?

I'm a freelance copyeditor. Had an interview at the C3nter for Inqui4y last week. They pub 2 magazines and hold lots of conferences. I freelanced for their mag the Sk3ptical Inquir3r in the late 90s. Super-nice people, all of them, even tho several of them could stand to eat a bran muffin. If you're not familiar with them, they're one of THE Secular Humanist organizations.

True story from back when I freelanced for them: In a crowded hallway, someone sneezed and I automatically said "Bless you." Every single head in the hallway slewed around to stare at me. Yeah, I was the token Christian.

This job would be perfect for me (and I for it, because of my fammiliarity with the Bible and archaeology, Biblical research and exegesis). Except it pays about half what I'm making now and the benefits both suck and are expensive. So even if they call me back I'm going to have to turn it down.

Anyway... here's what I learned about myself. I firmly believe that there are many paths to the Divine, and we all find our own. Basically, we're all just trying to pay the rent, so let's have a beer and some wings while we're doing it. However: the posters and slogans and culture of the place (separated from the fun and sweet people working there) is rabidly "anti". If you can't touch, see, quantify, or otherwise prove it, it doesn't exist.

And I discovered that just being there gave my own faith got a turbo boost.

Who knew?

That's my anecdote for the weekend, before I go offline to begin massive hand-edits for book 3. The weather has truned from summer-in-March to 40 and rainy and yucky. No temptation to weed the garden, so I'll weed the ms. Happy writing, all!

Calla, may God bless your journey. I'm glad you had this "aha!" moment -- we all need them to refine and redefine our faith. And I'm so there about the beer (well, okay, how about a nice Riesling?) and the wings.

I'm not really a beer person either. Gin & tonic, perhaps? Or, since wings have a red sauce, a pinot noir?

I like Gin and Tonic


Howdy everyone-- haven't stopped by for a while. This morning while standing in the front of the church, a man came in and asked if there was a service today. I nodded and pointed, told him what time it started.

As we moved along I had the strangest thought-- what if he were a shooter picking a random church to open fire in?

Isn't that terrible? 20 years ago I never would have had such a thought.

Inspie, sigh.

callalily61 said:

Inspie, sigh.

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I'm up for the wings. Not a beer fan, though. I like a Captain and Dr. Pepper every now and again.

Inspie, it is unfortunate to think that way, but what can you do in today's world? We moved to Maryland in 2001. That fall, 9/11 hit the Pentagon, and my office building was a mere seven miles away. One odd turn of the steering device, and you never know. The next year, those nasty DC snipers were picking off people in the county I lived in where my boys had to walk to school every day. Because they were looking for a white van at the time (they knew all along what kind of car they were looking for, but they advertised white van to the media), and my wife drove a white minivan to school every day, my wife was stopped one day on the way to work, and her and her teacher friend were approached with rifles pointed at their heads. One slip of the finger on the trigger, and you never know.

Lately, the large company I work for has eliminated over seven hundred positions. I had to eliminate one of the trouble makers on my staff.

Through all that, you think I don't get suspicious of someone slashing my tires, someone bringing a gun into a crowded place because they are a little whacko, or that guy on the plane I'm on wearing the turban?

This is a crazy world, and although I pray every day that nothing like that happens to me or my family, I do not have a strong enough faith to think that it may not happen to me.

When I talk to my teens about Columbine, I tell them that I hope that I raise my kids well enough that they are not the kid with the gun who would shoot another human being, or the bully that could have not bullied to put himself in that situation. But I can't teach them anything about how to avoid a stray bullet because you happen to be a kid sitting in a cafeteria.

This world stinks. I pray and I pray. But it doesn't make me any less suspicious.

David Poellot said:

We moved to Maryland in 2001. That fall, 9/11 hit the Pentagon, and my office building was a mere seven miles away. One odd turn of the steering device, and you never know. The next year, those nasty DC snipers were picking off people in the county I lived in where my boys had to walk to school every day. Because they were looking for a white van at the time
Lately, the large company I work for has eliminated over seven hundred positions. I had to eliminate one of the trouble makers on my staff.

This world stinks. I pray and I pray. But it doesn't make me any less suspicious.

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I'm in Maryland, and remember well driving to a NJ writer's conference with a girlfriend during the height of the sniper case. Stopping on the turnpike for food and watching footage of another shooting. Everyone was on edge.

You're right, this world stinks and we can't help being aware and cautious.

Just to further the story, on that first day with all the shootings in Montgomery County, if you drew a dot on a map of each of the shootings, then connected the dots to form a circle, the school my wife taught at was in the middle of that circle. Luckily for her and the school, the school was in the middle of a subdivision with a bunch of different short roads to get there. The snipers were sticking to the main roads. Still, her school was on lockdown that day, and they had to meet every parent at the door in order to let each kid go.

As funny as it may seem, I remember squatting down between the car and the gas pump and running in zig zag patterns whenever I was in a store's parking lot. Just nuts back then. Thankfully, we survived unscathed.

David Poellot said:

Just to further the story, on that first day with all the shootings in Montgomery County, if you drew a dot on a map of each of the shootings, then connected the dots to form a circle, the school my wife taught at was in the middle of that circle. Luckily for her and the school, the school was in the middle of a subdivision with a bunch of different short roads to get there. The snipers were sticking to the main roads. Still, her school was on lockdown that day, and they had to meet every parent at the door in order to let each kid go.

As funny as it may seem, I remember squatting down between the car and the gas pump and running in zig zag patterns whenever I was in a store's parking lot. Just nuts back then. Thankfully, we survived unscathed.

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That must have been so scary! We were super cautious at the gas pumps too. We were blessed.

"...and there shall be wars and rumors of wars..." All part of the time we've living in. If it's not the End Times, it sure feels like them (whatever that feels like -- no experience). I hate the stuff we have to think about now. We're planning a trip overseas next year and I can't help wondering what all is changed because of the general level of violence in the world.

Deb, we live 20 minutes from the Canadian border and we hardly ever cross it anymore. It's just too much of a pain--everyone is treated with suspicion. It's a sad comment on the state of the world when the biggest problem with the crossing used to be a 20 minute line or so.

Apropos of nothing, Calla, when I first saw your new avatar pic (nice, by the way), I thought that was a squirrel monkey on your left shoulder. Now, upon second look, I think it's a nun puppet.

But I still like the idea of a squirrel monkey better.

It's a Disney princess doll in a nun suit which I made. She's my mascot for signings. People either like her or she freaks them out.

Well, I think she rocks!

Many thanks, Deb.

LOL, Callalily, it does look a bit creepy. It's probably really pretty in person.

Deb Kinnard said:

Well, I think she rocks!

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so do I!!!