Saturday Confession: If Only I Could Whistle

Last week I was talking with my mom and she made a comment that it’s obvious watching my husband that he loves what he does. His work requires long and unpredictable hours, consistent deadlines, and this year, international travel. Yet, the man whistles when he gets up.

No lie.

He whistles getting ready.

He whistles coming home.

And that’s a rare thing.

I wish I could whistle like him, but my tune sounds like I’m choking on a bug.

But if I could, I’d create a little song, too.

This year I’ve had the pleasure and honor to sign three writing contracts.

• The first was for FaithWriter anthologies. I had a few stories from their weekly challenges that met the criteria for the anthologies. Things are moving along, so I signed off on those. Yay!
• The second was through Chalfont House, the infertility devotional tentatively titled, A Walk in the Valley. This is a collaborative effort with Heidi Glick, Elizabeth Maddrey, Kym McNabney, Paula Mowery and Donna Winters and my first time with my name on the cover. As exciting as that is, I’m most excited to give hope to women who feel dumped in the forest and forgotten by God. I call hard experiences like infertility the Hosea 2:14 experiences, and I would have given anything to have had a book like this back then. It’s transparent. Our stories are real and we don’t hold back. Our experiences are all different. But through it all, hope shines through. Encouragement is embedded. I’m so proud to be part of this.
• The third was for my Adirondack based contemporary romances. Write Integrity Press offered a contract for Spectacular Falls, Untangled, and To Be Determined.

 

Here’s information on each of these:

Spectacular Falls: A  city-girl plows into an Adirondack village and produces change for the grocer.

 

Untangled: A single mom and former Adirondack sheriff enters beauty school but creates split ends for the men in her life when she doesn’t feel worthy.

 

To Be Determined: Trish Maxwell returns to Speculator Falls with crushed dreams, egg on her face, and the chance to make a new start with the very people and places she used to make fun of.

 

It doesn’t mean the work ends, in fact, it’s just beginning. There’s a lot of marketing work. Untangled is nearly done, and To Be Determined is in first draft form. It’s daunting, scary, exciting, but whistle-worthy.

But there’s more.

We’ve been praying for what we believe will be our last home. We’ve been in the area for a decade and now we know people and places. We no longer have small children. We need room for a new driver. We miss entertaining, opening our home for laughter and encouragement. Last week our offer on a home was accepted and if the process continues, this will be a gift straight from God. Years ago we joked about wanting to take the house we used to have and plunking it down in the place we live now.

This house is as close to that answer as we could get without it being the original home we had in NY.

Even better, it’s newer with extras we didn’t even ask for.

I’ll have peace to write.

The puppy has room to run.

The drivers have places to park.

Friends have space to feel comfortable inside and out.

Like The Chipmunks and their Christmas song about their missing front teeth, I can’t whistle.

But I sure want to.