July Camp NaNo, Week 1 | Step off The Edge

 

The beginning of July has been a huge mess. To put it directly, it’s just been stressful. Soo stressful. But, God has this. He’s got it under control. I know this. We just have to keep fighting. Sometimes, it feels like that’s all we’re ever doing. Fighting. Trudging. Beating our hands against doors that just won’t open. But God has a Way. We have to listen, and be still.

Some of you may know, I was planning on doing a project this month, my first ever nonfiction work. Come Walk With Me was going to be a compilation of stories from people who suffer with Lyme disease. However, when I tried to start get emails together, and try to find folks willing to participate- life got in the way. It was just too much to try and reach out to others, when life was calling too hard. I will still do CWWM, but that isn’t for me right now. Life is to crazy. But I do pray to do that project- it is very important to me to get Lymies’ voices out there!
So. What am I doing? Well, the day I decided I couldn’t do CWWM, God gave me a dream. No lie, folks, God is epic. So, I told my dream to my family- and we were all laughing. It was great. Later, Ma suggests I write a story about that dream. I can make it a comedy, too, she said, since it made everyone laugh.

The book I am writing is called Jump (UPDATE! If I talked to you before the 9th of July, I was calling this book ‘Step Off The Edge’. Well, I changed the name, and it may keep changing, who knows, ha…). That title reflects how I feel at this point in life. I am tweaking a few things in the book vs. the dream… such as, the ages. In my dream, ‘we’ were older. But, I’m sorta ‘adulted’ out in writing for now… I do want to try this book from a teenager’s perspective. Yikes, ha. 😉 But I think it’ll help.

Again, this book is fresh- and I’m still getting ideas together and all. Like, do I want to keep it more ‘crazy’, or tone it down, or smash some other story ideas in with more of the craziness?  With God’s help, I pray this book pulls together and all. So, one week in of Camp, and I’ve been writing Jump for maybe 3 days… and my total word count is about 3,000. Meh.

This 4th of July, we made it to the river. 🙂 Which was awesome.

 

Now, for some tiny little snippets of Jump.. Because I’m generous. 😛

~~~

 

Theo had upped and left, started his own life, and we, the family who actually loved him; we were left behind, like dust in the wind. I had no doubt Theo had forgotten about us. He gave no phone calls, unless it was a birthday or a holiday, and even then, he oftentimes forgot. If he managed to call on time, he usually had an excuse to leave the call short. That’s the way it was. We weren’t first choice for visits or holiday vacations, either.

    We were left behind.

 

~~~

 

“In here!” Sam replied loud enough for us to hear. He was in the kitchen, a big grin on his face, looking up from where he was unpacking a box of kitchen utensils.

  Lynn skipped across the living room, into the kitchen, asking;

“Where’s Ava?”

  Sam nodded to the hallway, across the living room. “She’s in her room.” Sam smiled at Lynn, quirking an eyebrow. “What, I don’t get a hug?”
 Lynn batted her eyelashes, only putting up with Sam, and hugged him quickly. Rosie struggled in my arms.

“Down, down,” Rosie mumbled in a cutesy baby voice. I hefted her higher in my arms, smiling at Sam.

“Alright, you girls go play.” I set Rosie down on the polished hardwood floor. She toddled after Lynn, who took her hand, leading her to Ava’s room. Ava’s happy shrieks and Rosie’s excited yell rose from the room. The girls wasted no time in diving into a game.

 I turned to Sam, who winked at me.

“Those girls sure can scream, can’t they?” He mused, setting a few newspaper wrapped plates on the granite countertop. I grinned, leaning on the counter.

 “Ava must’ve gotten it from her uncle.” I teased. Sam made a face in disgust.

 “Mmm. Good one.”

 

~~~

 

 

That’s all for now, folks! God bless.

-Angela