The Lady of Wetherington Manor

I have a character!  And a possibility of a new story line.  Or variations of many possible story lines, though right now they probably have plot holes big enough to drive a bus through. :D

I've decided to set it in the Edwardian Era for many reasons, mostly to do with the fact that rights for women were beginning to change, so the fact that my female main character has inherited the family estate will be easier to be believable.  Also, the rise of the women's suffragette movement and other social reforms really began to pick up speed at this time, which will prove a good background for change.

As it is, Lady Gerda will have much that she is going to have to prove to her neighbors and her only living family, her father's sister, her wealthy (but title-less) husband and their two obnoxious daughters, whom I still need to name. (Well, I need to name the entire family, really...) 

Add in Gypsies, a large German Shepherd that goes everywhere with Gerda, learning falconry, riding astride and trying her best to get along with and improve the lives of her tenants, Lady Gerda has much on her plate, only complicated by the suitors that her Aunt keeps throwing her way and being ostracized by her social peers.

So I'm doing research on the Edwardian Era, and just found out about a BBC show called Edwardian Farm.  I'm looking forward to watching it to learn more about life of a farmer in the Edwardian Era. A bit excited.  Mom, it's filmed in Devon, so you might enjoy it as well.

I'll keep you all posted as Lady Gerda Wetherington develops.

Lady of Wetherington Manor

  A new story idea has been prompted by two people in response to my background photo.  Which was taken by my lovely Sister-In-Love, Katie Wetherington over Thanksgiving Break outside of Plainview, MN.

 What sort of things could happen to her?  I do not quite know yet, what I do know is that she is a Lady.  And she lives at Wetherington Manor.

What sort of things do you think could happen to her?  What sort of shenanigans could she get into with her great hairy hound, Rory?

Let me know if you have any ideas?
All photos credited to Katie Wetherington

Mid-November doldrums

It is the beginning of Week 3.  NaNoWriMo is sitting there, patiently waiting for me.  Of course, the curse of week two has held off and is hitting me rolling as I move forward into week three.

Also, there are other issues pressing on my mind.

I am come to the difficult portion of my book.  At least the difficult part for me to write.  I must now fully introduce my villain.  My "Big Bad."  I am not good at this.  Partly because I don't like to delve into things that are dark and difficult.  I don't want them hiding there in the back of my mind as so many things are wont to do.

But, in order for my story to move forward, I must write.  I must put fingers to keyboard and plow ahead.  I must make my characters fight, I must have my heroine face a man who is truly insane.  I must make her go through fear and grief, so that she can come out the other side, stronger and more whole.  So that she can move on to what lies ahead for her.  And such wonderful things lie ahead.

And so, while I sit here, while I scrub things at work, while I slice potatoes (though I will be keeping my mind on the knife blade in this scenario) I will consider, I will think, I will plan.  I will persevere.
Because...This year I will win!  This year, I shall write 50,000 words in 30 days.  This year I will revel in the wonder that is imagination and the glory that is the accomplishment of having written.

Also, because this will help to distract my distracted thoughts.  This will give me something to focus on.  This will help me to work through my own personal demons.  This will help me to come out stronger and more whole.  Isn't it funny how that works?

And so, after Awana tonight (since my Girls depend on me to come) I will sit down at my computer.  I will start playing my book's soundtrack, and I will send my two characters on this final leg of their journey.  The one that will bring them face-to-face with their darkest fears.  And I will keep moving ahead.  I must make progress, I must move forward.

This is my battle cry!  Bring me week's three and four!  I can do this!  I can win!  I can write!

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

I started this blog a couple years back, maybe because I felt I had to.  I don't remember anymore.  For a while I used it as a method for expressing myself, and then I quit.  But I do have things to say, things that I hope people need to hear.  Mostly I have things that I want to share with the world, and as I'm tucked away up here in the North Woods, I'll just have to say it this way.

It was November 5th this week and it will end up with November 9th (my birthday).  We remember many things, and this time of year tends to get overwhelmed with Christmas preparations (all ready!  I know!) but I do believe that there is something to be said with not forgetting Thanksgiving.
It isn't just the opening of Deer Season, nor is it the final hurdle before we can openly embrace listening to Christmas Music without feeling slightly guilty.  Thanksgiving is a time when we can all come together, families of all shapes and configurations, and spend time together.  Growing up as I did, I suppose that I do feel that the day has become overcrowded with football and preparations for black Friday, but in my Family we celebrated each other.

I remember the early winter light pouring through the dining room windows as we all sat down together.  The table beautifully set and decorated.  I remember the traditional and annual puzzle.  Dad would pick it out and open it on Thanksgiving Day.  We would then spend the rest of December walking past the table, stopping to put a piece in here or there.  It always had it's own table.  We would take long walks in the golden evening twilight and spend the evening sitting around the glowing fire of the wood stove that sat in the living room.

Now, I know that I cannot go back in time.  Dad is home, and we no longer live at the Farm.  However, we still have each other.  We still can celebrate in all that happens in our lives, the bright as well as the dismal.  And yes that can be a struggle.  But as I have been challenging myself to write 50,000 words in 30 days this month (again) (for the sixth time) I have realized that no matter the distance, we all love each other, and that love transcends time.  It speaks across great distances, even from as far away as Heaven.

So, as we move forward into the cold, snowy, wonderful, delightful time of the year, remember, you are loved.  More than you can ever know.

The Year of Trust

January 2, 2013

The old calendar has been taken down, replaced with its successor.  The days lie before us in a clean chart; 363 of them.  A whole new year.  I know that I have shared with a few of you that I am participating in Ann Voskamp’s “Joy Dare Challenge.”  Instead of making a list of things to accomplish this year, I want to make a list of gifts, of gratitude, of joy, love, hope, faith, family and friends.  I have begun a little early, (December 18^th) because I didn’t want to wait to begin this faithful record.  At the moment I am sitting at number 32.

Ann gives you a dare prompt, giving you on average 3 things to look for each day, but I have found that the more you look the more you find.  So I am not limiting myself to those 3 things.  She also records gifts through her camera, so I shall try to capture some of these things as well, visually, on top of writing them down.

I want to look back over this new year, as it draws to its close in 363 days, with gratitude and thankfulness.

Something else that Ann does is she gives every year a theme, something that she is striving for within the year, something to remind her.  So I have given this year a theme.  And my theme is something that I struggle with, something that I long for, something that I crave, from God and from my friends.

This year is going to be “The Year of Trust” I have also assigned a verse to this year: Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.  Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you a hope and a future.”

It is my prayer going into this year that this verse will empower me to Trust more.  Even in myself.  I must learn to trust, because otherwise that old snake has won.  For he wants us to be distrustful of our Abba, our Heavenly Father, the giver of all good things.

I watched Soul Surfer for the first time today.  The message that came through Bethany Hamilton’s story most strongly to me, as I choked up multiple times, was that Our strength comes from the Lord.  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phillipians 4:13

Also, we cannot know His plans.  They are on such a enormous scale, that we cannot even comprehend the size of them.  But, when the worst comes; when your beloved earthly father is taken Home to Heaven by the painful vehicle of Pancreatic Cancer, when a shark bites off your left arm, when all of the evil and hate that spills out of our own sinful, broken darkness onto a classroom, we still have to believe that HE LOVES US!

He loves us so incredibly much that he sacrificed his own son, his ONLY son, so that he could officially adopt ALL of us as his sons and daughters.  That he could provide for us a heavenly home, one that will be far beyond what any of us can even imagine. Even beyond the descriptions found within the Bible.  He sent his son, who was a intimate part of himself, to torture, and the most incredibly painful death that our dark, sinful, evil minds had thought of at the time.  Death on the Cross.

And maybe it is the fact that I have been reading Ann Voskamp’s blog http://www.aholyexperience.com as often as I can, and she has a way of manipulating words to create these beautiful word images, that reminds me of Him and His love for us.  All I know is that I want this year, “The Year of Trust,” the year of 1,000 Gifts, the year of adventures and cooking, I want this year to be more filled with Him than this previous one was.

I am going to ask my girls in Awanas to help me with this a little.  I am going to have them challenge me to memorize scripture, just as they are memorizing it.  I am going to start with Psalm 121 and then move on to Psalm 139.  They are personal favorites of mine and I want to know them intimately, in my heart, not just sections in my head.

I don’t know where I am going next, once I am finished here at Fort Wilderness next August.  I have ideas of what I would like to do.  Culinary School features in one of those ideas.  Perhaps, in a little over one week, I will have a better idea if that is the direction that I am to pursue. 

I do know that I am going to write.  I am going to dive deeply into my fictitious world and create new characters and possibly even new species!  I am going to get my Novel critiqued and possibly published. I am going to try and share some of the love that I have with others through words and relationships on paper.  I will trust, and try to be open and honest and loving and forgiving, especially when I find that I don’t want to be.  And when I find that I cannot do it in my own power, I pray that I will lean into his grace and love and find there the strength to carry on.

I also know that for the moment, I am living in my own private, personal winter wonderland.  This weekend, I am going to get sized for Cross Country Ski’s and I am going to go skiing and snow shoeing, and I am going to revel in the crisp cold air, and the stillness that always seems to accompany the fall of snow.  I am going to admire snow hanging heavy on pine boughs and our guests ice skating in the evenings on the Ice Skating rink, with the blue and green lights turning it into a wonderland.

And I am going to get dizzy on the Vippa Kalka (spelling?) and get out of breath climbing the stairs back up to the top of the tubing hill.  I am going to walk out onto the center of Spyder Lake and gaze in wonder at the beauty of the stars, Orion showing off and Sirius shining brightly from Canus Major.  I am going to cook good tasting, filling, hot meals for staff and guests and I am going to do this with a spirit of wonder and gratitude.  And

Joy!

And next Tuesday, I will drive roughly 5 hours south, to West Chicago to help celebrate my Sister’s marriage.  John & Anna, January 12, 2013.  It will be beautiful.

So, even though our world is filled with evil, and darkness, sin and selfishness, it is also a world filled with beauty and love and grace and laughter.  And families who love each other and look forward to spending time together and celebrating Love and Marriage.

Overall, the world is a pretty nice place.