dear diary

Do you keep a diary or journal? Have you ever? Recently my mom uncovered a big box of my old diaries she'd found in my granny's attic. They've been gathering dust beneath those old rafters for a very long time. The other day I decided to take a peek and revisit them. I was amazed at how much I talked about writing...

April 20, 1971
Got a diary for my birthday! I LOVE to write!

December 12, 1975
Writing poems. Teacher says I have a remarkable writing style. Remarkably good or remarkably bad? I'd like to publish a book someday. But will God let it happen?

November 8, 1980
Working on another novel. College keeps getting in the way.

July 26, 1986
Characters and coversations keep running round my head. All I want to do is write. Not eat. Not sleep. Not work. Just write, write, write!

Seems like when I wasn't writing about writing I made detailed lists of all that we ate back then. Here's a sample from one of my granny's every day suppers at the height of summer when the garden was in - roast pork, fried crookneck squash, okra, green beans with potatoes, coleslaw, kale, tomatoes, pickled beets, deviled eggs, cornbread. This is one meal, folks. Can you tell we're in Kentucky? And I haven't even gotten to dessert:)

On a more serious note, I always discover a trove of historical treasure by reading old diaries and letters which is of benefit to my books. Though the spelling is irregular and the handwriting a challenge, it's worth every minute. Here are a few of my favorites:

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John and Abigail Adams
Martha Ballard (18th-century New England midwife)
Michael Shiner (19th-century slave who rescued his wife and children from slave traders in Virginia)
William Bulkeley (18th-century Welshman who writes of everything from the weather to his daughter marrying a pirate - I'm still trying to get my hands on this one)
Lucy Maud Montgomery (author of Ann of Green Gables and other novels)

I'd love to hear about any journaling historical figures I've overlooked. I'm sure there are plenty so please name away:)

*Please leave a comment for Lady in the Mist giveaway on Friday!

april 1st

Happy April 1st! I turned the calendar over this morning and was reminded that spring has sprung and April is a busy month with two birthdays, a wedding, baby shower, fiddler's jam, and church retreat down in Oregon. Who has time to write, right? And I just saw an add telling me I can fly to Spain for $192.oo. Temptations abound. But it's raining in Spain and my deadline for book 2 approaches. And we're no further with wireless internet than we were 4 months ago. I think the phone company is digging that promised ditch with a teaspoon:( Maybe we'll have a faster connection by this first book's release. It's on my prayer list. I have a very eclectic prayer list!

So this morning it's a rainy 40 degrees here and I've written a bit on book 3 and now have to go practice violin with Paul. Yesterday we were in town driving around, just the two of us, while Wyatt was getting braces at the orthodontist. Paul turned to me and said, "Mom, I want a dairy." A dairy? "Like, with cows?" I asked. He looked puzzled. "No, the kind you write in." OH! I said. A diary. But my heart was SINGING! He is only nine and he wants to write in a diary!!! It's a moment that makes a mom's heart melt. At least a writer mom's heart. And so when I parked the Jeep to run an errand at this little store, there on a rack was a little book - a diary - with a dog on the front. Only one. Some things you don't even have to pray about - they just appear. So I bought it. Last night he spent a LONG time composing his first entry. And I know you're not supposed to read other people's diaries but I can't resist sharing his attempt:

3/31/09
me, josh, wyatt, and ean were going down to the creek to have fun. we saw fish.

Anyway, I was about 9 when I started my first diary. So maybe Paul will grow up to be a fiddler and a writer. Only God knows.

Here's some Scripture to start the month from The Message Bible:
God's love is meteoric, His loyalty astronomic, His purpose titanic, His verdicts oceanic. Yet in His largeness nothing gets lost; Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks. How exquisite your love, O God!