I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to putting a fresh calendar on my wall. This past twelve months came with more challenges than I planned for.
I survived the extremely cold winter with flashbacks that reminded me why I moved away from Michigan.
I had an extremely rude, unexpected visitor on March 3rd who smashed my back door in at 11:00 PM. Fortunately I was able to scared both of them off before they helped themselves to any of my stuff.
The remainder of March was filled with an upper respiratory infection that I’m sure was brought on by my loud-enough-to-wake-the-neighbors yells to ward off the potential crooks.
I had an encouraging double request for proposals from the same publisher in May at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. I sent both of them as soon as I could get them ready. I haven’t heard even cricket chirps about either one of them thus far.
My 14-year-old van, Clifford, barely got me back to Texas from North Carolina. The mechanic said that differential wasn’t going to go much farther. They had to re-do it when it continued to scream at me from the first attempt to fix it. Clifford seems much happier now, especially after the new alternator I installed on my way home from work a few weeks ago. Teenagers can be so insufferable.
During the summer I had a trailer drop off the tractor I was driving because I didn’t secure it properly–a few of the older trailers are a challenge. It fell in the driveway of Con-way’s yard. Another foot farther and I would have been looking for a new employer.
In August I hit an emotional wall of sorts. The two minor accidents will attest to the fact I wasn’t all there mentally. I did pull out of it in September.
My prolonged sleep deprivation did lead to an actual time of unemployment in December. There was a ten day wait to discover my appeal of the termination was upheld. As I type this I’ve applied at a former employer and am awaiting test results and Con-way’s input as to my trustworthiness as a driver. I may be switching careers sooner than I thought I would.
Now you know why I’m looking forward to a new year with blank pages. I hope it doesn’t get any worse than this.
Before I leave you with the impression 2014 was a total disaster, I’ll tell you about the exciting writing development that transpired.
This summer Children’s Book Insider held a webinar with Karen Robertson about making apps out of children’s stories. The more I learned about apps the more excited I became about the poem I wrote based on the story of Noah’s Ark.
I pursued this course of action by setting up a personal online session with Karen who encouraged me to develop this. So far all the doors have opened wide for this endeavor.
I prayed for an illustrator who would catch a vision for this work. God sent someone who always wanted to work on the Noah’s Ark story because that was the Bible story that first introduced her to God in a real way as a girl. Dyann Joyce is a joy to work with and her art is inspiring in itself.
Just because the doors have opened for this app doesn’t mean it’s been smooth sailing making it.
The circumstances around my unemployment still have me shaking my head about how it all happened. Clifford’s alternator went out as I was pulling up to a red light and started to call Dyann on my way home from work.
Dyann and her husband have each taken a boy to get stitches since we started this project. She’s been to two funerals of close friends, and her computer fried the other day to the point of needing an advance on our next app to replace her tower.
Yeah, that’s the other good news. Apple is beginning 2015 with no apps in the Bible story category. The new category will have at least two by this summer if all goes as planned.
If these apps do anywhere near as well as I think they will we’ll see if the publishing crickets are silent by this time next year.
The bright spot of this blight on my work history is the timing couldn’t be better. I didn’t have to ask my employer for Christmas week off to drive back to Michigan to visit my ailing mom. I also swung through Kentucky to visit my illustrator.
Keep smiling. Wade
Wade, what a year you endured! Yet, still you’re optimistic about the things God has in store for you. I wish you the very best and will pray that your 2015 passes more smoothly than this year did 🙂 I think looking back is good for us–we see both the bad that we endured and the good we’ve forgotten or taken for granted. Keep the faith, my friend!
Blessings,
Deb
It’s that spiritual warfare part of life most people neglect to keep in mind. If your life is running smoothly you’re likely not fighting close to the front lines. 2015 could be huge for my writing career.