Second Newsletter: Incubating

Here’s my second email newsletter. One of the perks of signing up for the newsletter is the pictures that originally came with it are actually included! You can sign up here, if you’re so inclined.

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This hen just kept trying.

Even though, as Rosetta would say, it’s too late for getting broody, my little red hen just wouldn’t quit sitting on eggs. I’d collect her clutch when she got off the nest to go eat, but she’d just move to a different nesting box and start over (or else “borrow” someone else’s eggs). Finally she broke me, and under the cover of night two weeks ago, I moved her and the eggs into the safety of the coop and let her go into zen mode. For 14 days, she barely moved off the nest, and now, here she is with the results of her determined incubating:

If only my husband were as happy about the new baby chick surprise. His goal for this year? A chicken enclosure. As pastoral as completely free range chickens are, they’re also rather messy.

All of which is kind of a nice metaphor for the work I’ve been doing.

Just before the New Year, I wrote to you about how I was so close to reaching my goal of a New Novel for the New Year. I managed to do it! So this month I’ve been incubating my little baby novel, letting it sit, undisturbed, while I kept it warm and meditated over it. Come February, I’m going to read it through and see how well my story has hatched. I know it’s messy. There will be lots of work to do–scenes I already know I want to change or add (see below)– but I also hope there will be lots of happy surprises too– lines I read and think, “I wrote that?!”

This coming week there will be more birthdays. On the same day the kid turns four, I Shall Be Near To You turns one (the 28th is an auspicious day). Both the boy and the book are marvels to me. Just the other day, the kid figured out how to take off and put on his own shirt. He looked at me and said, “Mama, I don’t need you any more!” Oh, my heart! But that is the goal, for both him and the book.

Since the book and the boy are getting so grown up, it’s good I get to begin again, then, with the new draft of the new story and new goals. Goal number one? A complete revision by 4/1– there! I wrote it down! (Eep!) Hold me to it!

Another goal? To have photos to share with you, taken with my “new” camera. I never would have guessed when I started this new novel that my research would lead me to purchasing a 100+ year old camera off eBay (for only $8!). I just wanted to find out about the Kodak Brownie camera for this one little scene, but now I’m walking around town with a little black box (it gets all kinds of attention!). I’m having so much fun that I’m thinking the Brownie might need a bigger role in the story. Of course, maybe my opinion will change once I get the photos back. Meanwhile, I’m amazed that this simple, mostly cardboard box just keeps taking pictures.

Whatever your goals are for this New Year (want to share? here’s to keeping on and finding happy surprises, marvels, and amazements along the way.

Happy 2015!
Erin