Preparations!

Preparations for the writing conference continue in earnest. I spent most of Saturday researching the publishers and agents who will be present. Still trying to decide who I want an appointment with. Meanwhile, the web site got stalled since our hard drive failed. So instead of finishing the web site, David (my husband) had the joy of rebuilding and restoring. Well, I figure, the web site will be up when it gets there.

I have spent today doing more research, redesigning business cards and beginning to contemplate which writing samples I want to pull to discuss/show at the conference. I am tired already and the 16 hour days haven't begun yet! And I need to complete my writing lesson which is due by Thursday. I am really thankful that I don't have much editing work this week!

I realized that I am undergoing a transformation as I am write more. I am thinking more like a writer. The only way I can relate this is that it is like learning a foreign language. You finally reach a point when you start thinking in not just speaking the foreign language. This came to me when I was driving to meet my husband for lunch last week. There I am driving down a road when this whole story comes to me.

What if you were driving down this road and a car going the opposite direction swerves suddenly, causing the semi-dump truck in front of you to jackknife. You turn sharply to the right, only to realize too late there is a school bus just pulling up from your blind spot. The last thing you know is a flash of yellow and the grinding crunch of metal on metal. When you awake in intensive care, there is a stranger sitting there. He grabs you hand and starts crying, "Thank God! Thank God!" You stare at him blankly and wonder who is this guy?? When the nurse comes in, she agrees that it is a miracle that his wife is awake. Wait a minute—wife? Then you realize you have no memory whatsoever. No memory of your name, your life, your husband, your children. How do you go on? How do you rebuild a life when there is no guarantee you memory will ever return?

This all flashed through my mind in a split second while simply driving to lunch. When I shared it with my spouse, I have to say he gave me a little bit of an incredulous look. He thought I was a little odd. That's when it hit me. I am thinking like a writer. I am allowing my imagination to flow more freely. Then I came across this quote from Oswald Chambers.

"The starvation of the imagination is one of the most fruitful sources of exhaustion and sapping in a worker's life. . . .Imagination is the greatest gift God has given us and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. . . .Learn to associate ideas worthy of God with all that happens in Nature—the sunrises and the sunsets, the sun and the stars, the changing seasons, and your imagination will never be at the mercy of your impulses, but will always be at the service of God."

Our God is creative God. And my creativity will flow when I am listening to Him and learning from His incredibly creative world.