Getting back to the Land of the Bloggers . . .

I've been so AWOL the past several months - or is it year? Probably ever since my brother got so ill last summer and I spent the next 6 months traveling like crazy to San Diego to visit him and then for his funeral and internment, and then for research and presenting at several conferences . . . I counted up 14 trips in the past 12 months. From New Mexico/Texas/Utah to California to Niagara Falls to Jordan & Israel. Just, wow. I have never traveled that much in such a short space of time before, including international travel to three countries (with nerve-wracking border crossings and delays and questioning!)

Except for posting SPELLBINDERS blog posts every Monday, my personal blog has been exhausted. I mean, *me* - I've been exhausted. Throw in the trauma and emotion, not only of losing my brother, but 14 months of a hundred doctor appts for my oldest son who has been so ill and now has a severe heart murmur which will probably need open heart surgery, and you have an author who never was a great blogger, but who misses it, too.

I do still read many, many blogs on a daily basis and usually post several time a day on Facebook. (Twitter is getting better for me . . . .:-))

One of my favorite blogs is author Beth Kephart's site. Many times I just want to copy and paste her beautiful, heartrending, perfect words right here on my blog (giving her credit, of course!).

Here is Beth's post from Tuesday and it sums up a bit of the writing life . . .

"Here, on my desk, the notes I have made for the final seven scenes in the Florence, Italy, novel. 

"Seven scenes is a large number and I refuse to write fast; there's too much pleasure to be found in writing slow—in taking the time to look around, in stopping to live in the thick stew of it all, in feeling deeply, in walking to the end of that alley."

Go here to read the rest - only two paragraphs, but they are powerful paragraphs. http://beth-kephart.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-writers-life-is-all-here-in-making.html 

Then go read her gorgeous book, SMALL DAMAGES.

Maybe someday I can write just a little bit like that. Perfect word choices, perfect cadence, perfectly beautiful thoughts and wisdom.

xo,
~Kimberley