Look For the Stars
It’s been months since I wrote a blog post. This pandemic has thrown me for a loop. Being on lockdown has totally disrupted my schedule. I’m not great at creating schedules and order, anyway, but I need them like air!
All the crazy events of this past year have left me with fractured thoughts and emotions, impacting my ability to keep my life on track the way I want it. The business end of my writing career has suffered, I’m afraid. I’ve succumbed to the temptation of escaping reality far too often.
Although escaping hasn’t helped my writing business, it’s good for the business of writing. Since the pandemic started, I wrote and published a novella (Flight of the Crow), and I’m putting the last touches on a novel I started a while ago. I’m calling it Moon Over Shilshole Bay for now, but that could change. It was a tough one to write and gave me fits! I think I read over that book at least 100 times—I’m not exaggerating. But now I’m just about satisfied with it, and I could use some beta readers for it. If anyone out there is interested, I’ll email you a copy.
Moon Over Shilshole Bay is a story about a couple who meet and fall in love, but a tragic family secret tests their close bond. The threads of love holding a broken extended family together could stretch to breaking with dire consequences if it isn’t brought to light in time. It’s a novel about forgiveness, sacrifice, the importance of family, and the true meaning of love.
The past year has tested everyone, but some more than others. Many have lost loved ones, faced joblessness, suffered with severe depression, increased substance abuse, isolation, etc. When I stop to think about that, it helps me complain less about how my life has changed, and remember the blessings I have. So far, only one member of our family has had COVID-19, and thankfully, she had a mild case. None of our elderly parents have had it, not even my nine-two-year-old mother-in-law.
2020 was difficult, but it wasn’t all bad, in fact, a few pretty wonderful things happened too. My youngest daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter in August, an angel come straight from heaven. A bright light in a dark night.
Speaking of bright lights in the dark, Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” It’s hard to appreciate the full brilliance of something good without a dark background of contrast, isn’t it? 2020 was a sieve, letting the frivolous, meaningless distractions shake out, revealing the nuggets of gold—at least for me.
I’ve spent a lot of time with my sweet husband this year—I mean A LOT of time—and our love has only strengthened from it, even after thirty-five years of marriage. We’ve become so much closer, to the point we’re sharing the same brain. We’re thinking the same thoughts and finishing each other’s sentences so often, pretty soon we won’t even have to talk. How will I function without him when things return to normal?
If 2020 has been full of trial and sadness for you, I hope 2021 brings you a few more nuggets of gold. Maybe it will if we’re more loving, tolerant, and take better care of one another.
Look for the stars.
If you’re interested in reading Moon Over Shilshole Bay, email me at sk@skbrownbooks.com.
