Writing News
This week I cruelly eliminated more of my glowing prose from chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. There are some sections that cause my sanity to waver and funeral dirges to play in the background of my psyche when I cut them, but this is also a wee bit freeing. I have been trying to improve this piece for a number of years and in doing so have added thousands of experimental words to the story. Did you know that when I wrote the outline for “Overturned” in a writing assignment for my instructor my estimated length was 30,000 words? Well this last month my word count topped out at over 100,000 words! But as I wade through the overgrown field of my story, grim reaper like with sickle in hand, I have managed to trim the afore mentioned chapters down to a stronger, leaner, lovelier form. Not that big isn’t beautiful, but in my story’s case it was getting lethargic and easily winded. But even with so many benefits to cutting and trimming, I would never be able to do it without my “Nineveh Cuts” file. In this file I cut and paste all of those lovely phrases that I worked so studiously to perfect before realizing that they were only Twinkies on the hips of my creative endeavor. Into the “Nineveh Cuts” file they go, where I can peruse them at my leisure and even resurrect them if necessary. A very useful trick indeed.
Breaking News
We got to see more of the hunky hubby this week since the camp is a rental group instead of one that he does everything for. And we even got to try Romanian lasagna! Yes indeed, this camp consisted of a group of Romanian believers who cook real, authentic, Romanian edibles. They kindly allowed us to taste their cheesy sausagey lasagna as well as inviting us for a lunch which consisted of soup, breadsticks, fresh tomatoes with chives, fresh cucumber with chives, pickled pickles, tomatoes, and peppers, and homemade mash potatoes with a kind of chicken alfredo sauce over it. Very very yummy and obviously very filling as well. Oh and there was also a huge bowl of fresh fruit, some mango juice stuff, and other bread.
Harrowing/Heartwarming
Parent Moment of the Week
On several occasions this week I thought that surely the harrowing moment had presented itself. When my 2 ½ year old snuck a drink out of the toilet using a hippo-shaped bathtub animal as a sponge, and then when my 4 ½ year old brought me a poisonous white berry and declared it to be a yogurt covered raisin. But little did I know that the harrowing parent moment of the week was lurking in the shadows still, waiting for the opportune moment to rear its ugly head. I was cooking, an apparently harmless task, and my two big boys wanted to “help”. So I set up a chair by the counter and they stood on it safely and observed for a number of minutes. It seemed like a Parent’s Magazine “Good Mom” activity. That is until my 2 ½ year old took an unexpected header off the chair, flew through the sky, and crashed face first into our bookshelf causing three of his teeth to slice clear through his bottom lip/chin and come out the other side which resulted in a ½ inch gash, some blood, and a good deal of screaming! We called our doctor and stitches were not required, not gaping you know, but we are keeping an eagle eye on it for infection and I don’t know what in the world I’m going to do the next time they want to “help” me cook.
