Heartbreak in the East: Hope in the Homeland

This last week has been a hard one for me. Living in the heart of hurricane land, I don't love when a storm comes along, but I don't worry too much.

Florida houses are typically built to withstand a category 3 hurricane (meaning winds as high as 130 mph and crazy rain for days), but the rest of the nation doesn't build to that standard.

As I watched the trajectory of Helene & listened to it being upgraded to a category 4, I knew the results wouldn't be pretty. Although grateful this storm missed us initially, my attitude changed when I heard about Tennessee and North Carolina. Georgia and South Carolina are dealing with the fallout too. I wished the hurricane had turned and hit us more fully because we have the response, the infrastructure, the attitude to face big scary storms and carry on.

Our governor put all the preemptive processes in place -- emergency workers, supply routes, road and electricity line repair -- but he couldn't do that for the other states. 

Especially the ones inland.

The stories... Oh the stories. I was drowning in heartache. (This is why I can't read WWII books, folks.) Two dams were oversaturated and burst, flooding whole towns. Family members lost. Livelihoods swept away. An inability to communicate with loved ones. I went to bed with tears in my eyes and prayers on my lips.

Answers come too. They didn't come from the federal government but from governors of neighboring states, from people whose hearts broke like mine who own helicopters, from good Samaritans who donated cash and goods. Desantis sent aid to the hardest hit areas FROM Florida and I cheered at every new development. Last I heard, he sent a brigade of road workers with bridge materials to help people trapped in the North Carolina mountains.

I still watch and worry and pray, and soon our family will trek out to assist with disaster clean up (as is our way), but it's incumbent on all of us to make the world better -- to find those who are suffering, to lift where we can, to BRING HOPE in place of devastation.

My prayers continue with those who have no electricity, no running water, who are scrambling for food and safety. At the same time, my heart is light knowing good people in the world are responding to the desperation. Lets be those good people, eh?

How is your heart holding up? How have you found peace despite the upheaval in the world? What are you doing to find/bring happiness each day?

3 Responses to Insanity: Which Are You?

What do you do when the world explodes? 

Do you hunker down and hope the storm passes?

Do you strap on your survival gear and explore the changes?

Do you hide behind your window and ignore the pretty, pretty disasters?

Me? I disappear and take up a new hobby. 😆 Apparently. With cheese. 

I don't know if anyone even comes here anymore because I've been so stinkin’ absent. So...

Things I've been up to:

• Teaching. Like literally, in a school setting. (Creating curriculum from scratch.) I taught several writing classes, a music writing class, geography, even preschool. *gasp* (Not full time. Nope. Too busy teaching my own kids the rest of the week.)

• Producing Musicals (and a play). That's right. 4 under my belt, two of which I cast and directed (and designed lights/projection, and so, so much more!). Tuck a talent show in there too (including all production aspects—finding a venue, tech design, all the way down to rehearsals with the talent) and we tally 5 separate shows. In two years.

  

• Running writing contests and playing editor for a couple anthologies.

• Had a son get married.

• Sent a daughter to the other side of the world serving a church mission.

• Graduated a third child.

• Reestablished a Drama Program: from fundraising to tracking down venues to building teams to casting... I've done it all AND wrote the manual for my successors. (Seriously though, 45 pages of best practices.)

• Revised and workshopped MY musical. (Two years and counting, baby!) (“My" is a loose term referring to the Collier team, hubby and myself.)

• Held 2 low-key readings of my musical. (I say low-key, but that included creating rehearsal video for ALL music parts for ALL characters for a TWO HOUR SHOW. 1 to 12 vocal parts per song – let that sink in — and holding rehearsals/coaching sessions for performers. Whew!)

• Mixed 2 hours worth of orchestrations for a live performance. 😶

• Begun casting for a professional staged reading for IMMORTAL THE MUSICAL.

Those are just some of the highlights. 

What have you been up to?

Shameless plug: We’re looking for talent local to the Orlando area (singers/actors/sight readers). Know of someone? Send them my way!

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Are you hunkering down? Taking the world by storm? Kicking the trash out of your goals? Hanging on by your nails?

Do the Dead Hope?

This last week we lost a valuable and optimistic member of our blogging community, Tina Downey. It left me thinking about death. (Imagine that.)

Have you lost someone dear to you? I've lost several. The first one was my great grandmother when I was 16. She encouraged my budding music talents and losing her was like losing my muse. Several years later I lost my father, and hero, to cancer. The next year I lost a brother--the happiest person I've ever known.

Death to me is very personal, and it's also a symbol of hope.

Hope you ask?

Yes, hope. I believe in an afterlife. I believe I will be reunited with my loved ones, and although I miss them frequently, the pain is bearable because I trust in that distant sunrise when I'll see their faces again and hug the stuffing out of them.

Some people might call that hope crazy. How can I believe what I can't see? Well, because I trust what I feel. I believe those we love who've moved on to the other side are watching over us. I've felt them, encouraging me along during the dark corridors of my life, and how can I mistake the love and steady assurances of my father? We are far less alone than we believe.

Death is sad. It's hard to be parted physically, but it is an opportunity to embrace the life-sustaining power of hope.

Enough of deep thoughts, eh? Ready to guess the lie and win a book? 

Last week, Mary Pax shared her RIFTERS series with us, along with two truths and one lie. Those who guessed the lie correctly were entered into a random drawing for the chance to win her ebooks.  

Mary's game: 

1. Mary stood behind Kurt Vonnegut once in line at a newstand. They spoke for hours in the gardens of Dag Hammerskjold smoking Shermans. 
2. She went on a ghost hunt in the Caribbean. On Nevis there’s a tale about a woeful bride who had a fateful wedding day.
3. On the first date with her husband unit, she hit his car. She was pretty sure there’d be no second date. Fooled her! 

And the lie is:

#1. It's true, Mary stood behind Kurt Vonnegut once and she did smoke once upon a time and started smoking the same cigarettes he did, but she was too chicken to talk to him. 

Way to guess those of you who got it right! And the winner is:

...DRUM ROLL...

Lynda R Young!

Congrats Lynda! 

And now to today's feature:

Allison O'Malley's plan is to go to grad school so she can get a good job and take care of her schizophrenic mother. She has carefully closed herself off from everything else, including a relationship with Ethan, who she's been in love with for as long as she can remember.

What is definitely not part of the plan is the return of her long-lost father, who claims he can bring Allison's mother back from the dark place her mind has gone. Allison doesn't trust her father, so why would she believe his fairy tale about a long forgotten Irish people, the Tuatha de Danaan? But truths have a way of revealing themselves. Secrets will eventually surface. And Allison must learn to set aside her plan and work with her father if there is even a small chance it could restore her mother's sanity.

Get your copy HERE.

Laura Howard lives in New Hampshire with her husband and four children. Her obsession with books began at the age of 6 when she got her first library card. Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High and other girly novels were routinely devoured in single sittings. Books took a backseat to diapers when she had her first child. It wasn't until the release of a little novel called Twilight, 8 years later, that she rediscovered her love of fiction. Soon after, her own characters began to make themselves known.

You might stumble across Laura eating gooey cream cheese on an onion bagel in her dining room, although she likes just about any cheese. 

Laura gave me two truths and one lie to test your "lie detector" skills. Those who figure out the lie will go into my magic hat for the chance to win her eBook. How awesome is that?

You have until Tuesday, September 2, at 1 p.m. EDT to guess--and be sure to come back for the answer on September 3rd.

TRUTH OR LIE

1. Laura's favorite number is 9. 
2. She's the mother of two sets of twins.
3. All four of her kids names end with the letter "n."

Which is the lie? What do you believe about death? Have you lost a close loved one? Do you love fairy stories? 

The Other Side of the Line

You never know what's coming right around the bend.

For those of you who are working on a goal you're afraid will never pan out, I hope this strikes home. Today I read a post from an author who just got signed with her literary agent. She spoke about months and months of putting her stuff out there and receiving either no or little feedback--most of it terribly demoralizing. Then, suddenly she got "the email." (Followed by a phone call.) An agent had her manuscript nine months before offering representation.

The author marveled at how close she'd been the entire time and pointed out that the line between endless (nightmarish) querying and success is so thin.

I'm hoping for myself that holds true. Some of you may recall me ranting about Pitch Wars a month ago. Well, it's finally over. I placed second (out of 600 original entries) receiving only 1 less request than the winner. My FULL manuscript was requested by 7 agents--7 DIFFERENT literary agents. The very next day #pitmad took place, and my coach from Pitch Wars was out there tweeting my pitch. (Sharon, you are amazing!) She dragged me out of my hiding place and between the both of us, we landed 3 more requests.

Now the hard part: waiting. I've sent out my manuscript, and while it's burning the inbox or "to read" folder of agents, I'll be penning out the draft of another book.

It only takes one "yes", one to light the world on fire. I'm encouraged by the reminder that the line is so thin. One brave step stands between me and the other side of the line.

What are you working on now? What are your goals and hopes? How are you holding up?

Everybody Scream with Me Now

This first month since going "public" with the secret project has been such a rush; like a blind date. And a roller coaster. Or a blind date on a roller coaster.

"Hi." I extend a hand, battling the g-force. "I'm Crystal."

Teeth rattling, he reaches to shake. "I'm Exposure. Nice to meet you."

For the rest of the whirlwind ride we keep our heads forward, fighting the urge to raise our arms and scream, or puke--which ever comes first.

Of course after stepping off the ride we're reminded that mother earth is actually solid. We stand back to evaluate. Are we ready for another go? Do we have the guts/stomach to face the whip-lashing neck-twisting fury?

Yup. That pretty much sums it up, except this ride doesn't stop. It doesn't slow down either. Here we go, month two, clinging to our centers and wondering when the buzz between our ears will end.

How do you cope with the excitement and hope, the disappointment and setbacks of going "public"?