A friend asked me last night who I’d cast in a film version of my novel, Full of Days. I was stumped at the moment, unable to come up with anything. Today I find myself daydreaming about it, carefully running through possibilities for each of the main characters. Honestly, I’d be overwhelmingly happy if someone would just make my book into a book. In the meantime though, this is kind of fun.
Author: Carrie Sue Barnes
Carrie Sue Barnes is a fiction author and blogger who fell in love with creative writing as a grade schooler in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She resides now in Wisconsin with her family, often pulling her love for the Midwest into her writing. Carrie Sue's debut novel, The Hidden Legacy, was released in 2018 by Bold Vision Books to strong reviews. Since then, she has published several short stories and continues to write short fiction and faith-inspired reflections on this site. Carrie Sue loves reading, kayaking, hugging her children and friends, rewatching The Office, and connecting with readers in person and on social media.
Running Late
The Brewers drop two in a row to the Nationals (basically they played the worst team in baseball by acting as if they were the worst team in baseball) and yet I’m in this good of a mood this morning? That can only mean one thing. Since I’m not in love, I must be writing. I’ve been typing up the pages I wrote in the last week and decided to do more of that while I ate breakfast today. As I typed, one moment in the narrative jumped out at me as ideal for a little further character development. The writer in me woke up and all else faded from conciousness. Twenty-five minutes later, the tiny digital clock in the corner of the screen catches my eye and I realize I’m going to be late for work! Oops! It’s hard to scold myself being carried away when I was carried to exactly where I wanted to be… and wanted to stay.
Not-So-Daily Update
The daily reporting of writing progress doesn’t seem to be happening. But I can sum up the last few days for you: chapter five finished. Yessiree, I wrote the latter half of chapter four and all of chapter five over the weekend.
Still no word from Moody Publishing on their decision about Full of Days. “Patience and fortitude conquer all things,” according to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Can you guarantee that for me, Mr. Emerson? Even the chasm between the Land of Dreaming and the Land of Publication?
How Beautiful Is This Song?!
I’m admittedly biased because I love Sean, but really, how beautiful is this song!
The Sweetest Remembrance
Sometimes it just hits me, how much God loves me, how amazing is the gift of salvation. There are moments of grasping comprehension when the joy of it, the thrill of it, sinks in and knocks my inner self off her feet. I do take it for granted most hours of most days. I can’t seem to help it. In some ways it is a good sign, for the taking for granted hasn’t resulted in negligence. I am not leaving the gift by the wayside just because I’m not conciously thinking about carrying it with me. Rather, I’ve settled into the regular pursuit of Heaven, nestled into that lifestyle so that I am at home in it. Occasionally though, I am startled by something – it’s never the same thing twice. A story I’m reading, a song I’m hearing, a smile in someone’s eyes, a glimpse of love between two persons, a horizon of water and sunshine, a flash of hopefulness, or a dozen other things; something occurs in that instant and the awe overwhelms all other matters on my mind and burdens on my heart. For one powerful moment, there is nothing else. Nothing, except the life changing awareness of the gift of my Savior’s love. Saved. Saved. I am always capable of forsaking the gift, of choosing to leave it behind by my sin, and yet it is there. It is offered. It is paid for by His blood and presented to me by His hand. Those are the instances of happiness, when I know without doubt that I belong to Him and whatever else comes, it cannot mean more than His possession of my heart, mind and will. It is that which I must remember even if I forget all else.
Time Will Tell
I wonder what might become of me if I only allowed myself one day off a week from writing. What might be accomplished? What might change? Even if it’s a mere half hour spent with pen in hand, such a difference it would be from my normally episodic intervals of writing anything at all. Two days in, so we’ll see where it goes from here. Perhaps as a matter of accountability, I’ll report to you, ever present blogosphere, each day.
Yesterday: 1.5 hours
Today: 1 hour
O Lord, make me steadfast, my hand ever on the plow.
The Light of Day
Sorry about that ranting blog last night. I was in a mood, and in that particular mood, I probably shouldn’t blog. Then again, it was honest. It isn’t as if I’m trying to paint an unrealistically pretty picture of myself on this blog. It’s just me, thinking out loud.
This morning I did what I should have done last night, which was to pray. I prayed for a spirit of contentment. For even if my life doesn’t squeeze into the custom-cut frame in which I’d like to fit it, it is not meant to be degraded by anger, jealousy or self-pity. God intends for me to be happy; the specifics of the happiness are often not my preferred specifics, but the source and reason for the happiness… well that’s established, lasting, incomparable. I have to rest on that when I’m weary of all the waiting, all the trying for the peripheral good things.
St. Peter’s words that I read this morning come at me like a command: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy.” (1 Peter 1:6-8) I am not only deserving of better than disappointment, jealousy and selfishness, but I have a call to choose better. I am behooved to rejoice, to endure the tests for the edification of my faith and the glory of God. How can it not be so for one who was “ransomed… not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake. Through him you have confidence in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”(1:18-21)
Carrie In Writing 